From the Bestselling Author and Television Producer of MASTERS OF SEX, a True Story of Espionage and Mobsters, Based on the Never-Before-Released JFK Files, and Optioned by Warner Bros. Mafia Spies is the definitive account of America’s most remarkable espionage plots ever—with CIA agents, mob hitmen, “kompromat” sex, presidential indiscretion, and James Bond-like killing devices together in a top-secret mystery full of surprise twists and deadly intrigue. In the early 1960s, two top gangsters, Johnny Roselli and Sam Giancana, were hired by the CIA to kill Cuba’s Communist leader, Fidel Castro, only to wind up murdered themselves amidst Congressional hearings and a national debate about the JFK assassination. Mafia Spies revolves around the outlaw friendship of these two mob buddies and their fascinating world of CIA spies, fellow Mafioso in Chicago, Cuban exile commandos in Miami, beautiful Hollywood women, famous entertainers like Frank Sinatra’s Rat Pack in Las Vegas, Castro’s own spies in Havana and his double agents hidden in Florida, J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI snooping, and the Kennedy administration’s “Get Castro” obsession in Washington. Thomas Maier is among the first to take full advantage of the National Archives’ 2017–18 release of the long-suppressed JFK files, many of which deal with the CIA’s top secret anti-Castro operation in Florida and Cuba. With several new investigative findings, Mafia Spies is a spy exposé, murder mystery, and shocking true story that recounts America’s first foray into the assassination business, a tale with profound impact for today’s Trump era. Who killed Johnny and Sam—and why wasn’t Castro assassinated despite the CIA’s many clandestine efforts?
Drawing on seventeen years of research, thousands of recently declassified files, and dozens of interviews, Ultimate Sacrifice re-creates and, in many ways, rewrites the crucial period of our history leading up to November 22 1923. In the process, this groundbreaking account provides the missing pieces to the greatest tragic puzzle of post-war America: the true circumstances behind the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. · Ultimate Sacrifice details a previously unknown “Plan for a Coup in Cuba” authorized by President John Kennedy, run by Attorney General Robert Kennedy and set for December 1, 1963. · The Kennedy plan, unique and different from ant previously disclosed operation, was – as detailed in a Joint Chiefs of Staff memo – to have included a “palace coup”, a provisional Cuban government and, if necessary, a “full-scale invasion” by “invited” US military forces. · The CIA’s code name for their part of the operation, AMWORLD, has never previously surfaced in any government investigation, nor in any book or article, making it one of the most covert operations in United States history. · Ultimate Sacrifice will detail how the Kennedy plan was penetrated by three mafia godfathers – Carlos Marcello, Santo Trafficante, and Johnny Roselli – being vigorously pursued by Attorney General Robert Kennedy, along with a dozen of their associates, six of whom were also working on the Coup plan. · The crime bosses then used parts of the Coup Plan/AMWORLD to arrange JFK’s assassination in a way that would prevent a truly thorough government investigation in order to protect the Coup Plan, its participants, and national security. · By using the secrecy surrounding the Plan, the mob bosses would target JFK not only in Dallas but in two earlier attempts, one in Chicago on November 1 and them one in Tampa on November 18, which Ultimate Sacrifice reveals for the first time in any book. · Ultimate Sacrifice has finally pieced together the whole story by building on the work of the seven governmental committees that have investigated aspects of the assassination, on the work of former government investigators, and on the four million documents that were declassified in the 1990s, in addition to exclusive interviews with dozens of witnesses and participants including Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Press Secretary Pierre Salinger, and the Kennedys’ closest Cuban exile aide, Harry “Ruiz” Williams.
"[T]he Teamsters, the largest A.F.L. affiliate... has been understudied... Russell's motives in seeking to redress this imbalance are certainly commendable." ?Maurice Isserman, The New York Times Book Review"[A] well-researched study of the longtime Teamsters leader...[that] could put Hoffa back on the historical map for a new generation of students of labor history." ?Publishers Weekly "An unexpectedly enthralling account of Jimmy Hoffa's tactics and aspirations... Russell's history of the Teamsters under Hoffa illustrates the vibrancy of the labor movement?for better or worse?during the middle 50 years of the 20th century." ?Kirkus Reviews "In this gripping biography of Jimmy Hoffa... Thaddeus Russell launches a vigorous attack on the reigning orthodoxy in labor history." ?David L. Chappell, Newsday "Russell bravely challenges the received wisdom of the left, the right, and the morally earnest center. If you want to get serious about the real meaning of class in the last century, read this gracefully yet powerfully argued book." ?Nelson Lichtenstein "Out of the Jungle delivers a much-needed and more nuanced understanding of a tumultuous period in the history of...the nation." ?John Gallagher, Detroit News/Free Press "...strongly recommended reading." ?The Midwest Book Review's Bookwatch
This volume examines patterns of growth, government organization, and cultural representation that created a new region across the nation's southern rim following World War II. Essays explain how ideology and political economy restructured space within the Sunbelt, making the landscape and lives of its inhabitants more uniformly metropolitan.
What should we make of the outsized role organized crime plays in conflict and crisis, from drug wars in Mexico to human smuggling in North Africa, from the struggle in Crimea to scandals in Kabul? How can we deal with the convergence of politics and crime in so-called 'mafia states' such as Guinea-Bissau, North Korea or, as some argue, Russia? Drawing on unpublished government documents and mafia memoirs, James Cockayne discovers the strategic logic of organized crime, hidden in a century of forgotten political--criminal collaboration in New York, Sicily and the Caribbean. He reveals states and mafias competing - and collaborating -- in a competition for governmental power. He discovers mafias influencing elections, changing constitutions, organizing domestic insurgencies and transnational terrorism, negotiating peace deals, and forming governmental joint ventures with ruling groups. And he sees mafias working with the US government to spy on American citizens, catch Nazis, try to assassinate Fidel Castro, invade and govern Sicily, and playing unappreciated roles in the Bay of Pigs fiasco and the Cuban Missile Crisis.