Forgotten or hidden? There is nothing about the mafia in the opened archives about the Kennedy assassination

Sergey Baimukhametov

Back in 1983, the son of one of the "godfathers" of the American mafia published a book in which he announced that President John F. Kennedy was killed not by Lee Harvey Oswald, but by Chicago gangster Johnny Roselli. He named the organizers, accomplices, including the secret services, the highest spheres of power and business.

Last December, the entire world press, including Novye Izvestia, reported on declassified documents related to the investigation into the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy. However, in them - not a word about the "godfather" Joseph Bonanno.

Perhaps the information will appear in the second part of the documents, which are expected to be published in December 2022. In general, the media note that there is nothing special, previously unknown, in the current documents.

There are dozens of versions of the most high-profile American murder. Up to an accidental shot from a bodyguard's rifle.

Among them, one cannot but pay attention to the revelations of the mafia prince - Bill Bonanno. He is the son of Joseph Bonanno, one of the biggest bosses of the American mafia. Joseph is the prototype of Don Corleone in The Godfather by Mario Puzo. Bill, respectively, is the prototype of Michael Corleone.

Bill Bonanno's book was published in Russia in 2004 under the title United by Honor. Mafioso history. In the original language - Bound by Honor: Mafioso's Story.

Joseph Kennedy, father of US President John F. Kennedy, and mafia "godfather" Joseph Bonanno had a business relationship. Joseph Kennedy visited Joseph Bonanno three times. (The book contains a photograph from their joint walk.) The head of the Kennedy clan asked to support the candidacy of his son John in the presidential election. For what it was necessary to persuade the leaders of all "families" to this. Bonanno, with his authority, succeeded. Provided that the future president takes Lyndon Johnson as vice president, overthrows the pro-communist regime in Cuba (the mafia had big interests there) and removes his brother Robert from the Justice Department, who has already become famous for fighting organized crime.

As you know, the intervention in Cuba failed. Lyndon Johnson became Vice President. But over him, over his counterparts from the mafia and over his sponsors - the Texas oil barons - Robert Kennedy hung like a black cloud, not only not removed from the political field, but also became the Minister of Justice and the Attorney General.

And then the mafia, with the support of Lyndon Johnson, decided to "remove" the president.

In 2003, a book by American investigative journalist William Raymond, JFK, The Last Witness, was published in Paris. He names Saul Estes, a Texas billionaire, one of the sponsors of Lyndon Johnson, as the last witness. According to Estes, Robert Kennedy sought Johnson's resignation by threatening charges of corruption and exposing his ties to the Mafia. Robert allegedly invited Estes to testify against Johnson, promising relief in control of his business. "I wouldn't have lived a minute if I had agreed," Estes says in the book. On the other hand, the Texas oil barons already hated President Kennedy for his bill to raise taxes on the oil business.

Some details of the murder itself are already in Bill Bonanno's book United by Honor. Mafioso history. And they were revealed to him by the prominent Chicago mobster Johnny Roselli, who directly carried out the “action” under the leadership of its organizer, Chicago boss Sam Giancano. Roselli, in a conversation with Bill Bonanno, boasted that it was he who "made the main shot." From the drain hatch on the street, right in the direction of the presidential motorcade.

According to safety rules, all windows and manholes of sewers and drains must be closed during the President's journey. In Dallas, some were open. Including the window of the book depository on the sixth floor, from where, according to the official investigation, Lee Harvey Oswald shot, and the hatch of the drain, where Roselli hid. So, everything was prepared with the participation of people from the special services.

Kennedy was hit by two bullets. From shots from behind and in front. Shot from behind, possibly taken from the sixth floor of the book depository where Lee Harvey Oswald hid. Well-known footage taken by film buff Abraham Zapruder shows Kennedy's head jerking back and up before he begins to tumble forward and sideways. Such a reaction of the body is possible only when fired from the front. So it was a bullet ("main shot") Johnny Roselli - from the hatch. Or James Files - from the grassy hill. James Files is a CIA agent who sold out to the mob. In 1994, he confirmed his participation and Roselli's participation in the Kennedy assassination. (By that time, the Tseraushnik was serving a 50-year sentence for other crimes, he had nothing to lose. He was released on parole in 2016.) Files confirmed the common participation, joint training. But not Roselli's shot. Everyone had their own position, and Files could only talk about himself, that he was shooting from a grassy hill. And he left a shell casing there (found in 1987).

Chicago mob boss Sam Giancano was gunned down in his home before being called to the Senate in 1975. Roselli's body was discovered in 1976.

Bill Bonanno's book was published in 1983.

Eight years later, in 1991, actress Judith Exner, in an interview with the correspondent of the English edition of the Sunday Times Magazine, said that she was not only the mistress of John F. Kennedy and Sam Giancano at the same time (this has long been known from her memoirs), but also a liaison between them. Again, there is no evidence, only the words of a woman with cancer: “I had the closest relationship with Jack (as my relatives called the president - S. B.) ... In the midst of the election campaign at the end of 1960, when Kennedy fought for the presidency, he somewhat once asked me to hand over the money to Giancano.”

However, neither Bill Bonanno's book, nor an interview with Judith Exner, nor other evidence (for example, the widow of the famous mafia boss Meyer Lansky) about the meetings and negotiations of John F. Kennedy himself with the leaders of the underworld, shocked public opinion in the United States. The press, as far as possible, did not spread these messages widely throughout the country. And the Americans ignored them. Apparently, such is the posthumous reputation of John F. Kennedy that people dismiss all accusations, do not want to hear them. He was and remains an American idol.

It is surprising that the Soviet people knew little about the connections of John F. Kennedy and his family with the mafia. For some reason, our propaganda did not convey this fact to everyone and everyone. Here, they say, their vaunted democracy! Here they are, "grimaces of the free world!" Probably, in 1983 and after, there was no time for the revelations of Bill Bonanno and his book Bound by Honor - a series of deaths of the general secretaries of the CPSU Central Committee began. Then came the turbulent years of perestroika and glasnost. American sensations are not up to the mark when such things were revealed about our Soviet life that, as Mikhail Zhvanetsky said, "reading is more interesting than living." And in October 1991 (the release of the Sunday Times Magazine and other publications) - no time for the shocking confessions of Judith Exner. Russia then seethed after the August coup and the overthrow of the communist government, and relations with America were the warmest in the entire existence of the two countries.

Judith Exner died in 1999 at 65, Joseph Bonanno in 2002 at 97, Bill Bonanno in 2008 at 76, and Saul Estes in 2013 at 88.

In 2002, at his father's funeral, Bill Bonanno said: "He is the last of the era that created the history of this country."

Neither more nor less - "epochs ...created the history of this country..."

By writing the history of the "Family", Bill Bonanno violated the main law of the mafia - omerta. The law of silence. Although he himself put a meaningful phrase in the epigraph: “Who knows, he doesn’t say. Who says - does not know. He wrote that an American, in case of offense, goes to court. Sicilian - he takes revenge on the offender.

His book can be seen as revenge. Not only the American power that destroyed the world of the mafia, but also revenge on American society as a whole. Since you consider us "dirty Italians", and think you are clean, then know and get it! Know that your vaunted democracy and your power were tied to us, they are no better, and in the matter of honor they are much worse than any ordinary guy from our Sicilian "family"!

Only Bill Bonanno was sincerely mistaken or deliberately distorted: the connection of power with the mafia is always criminal and unconditionally condemned by society. But in his world, a predatory, gangster lifestyle is the norm of morality. And here no masks of alleged honor, supposedly social justice and pseudo-noble robbery can save. But more about that another time.