There was something from Jay Gatsby about Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Patriarch of the Clan, father of Jack and Bobby, and grandfather of the new American health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.
Because, just like the literary fantasm of F Scott Fitzgerald had feet of clay, the money, the glamor and the influence of the Kennedys is rooted in slightly secretions and nasty than most of them to admit.
As readers of Fitzgerald's masterpiece from 1925 eventually discover, Gatsby's enchanting wealth does not come from the American virtues of hard work and optimism, but from the sale of fraudulent bonds and boat laying from the prohibition time.
And so it was with Joe Kennedy who, born in 1888, would have been an almost contemporary of his fictional counterpart and who, like Gatsby, was in competition with the crowd – a relationship that I explore in my new book, Borgata: Clash of Titans: A History of the American Mafia.
As a young man, Joe made a fortune trade shares and raw materials, where we perfectly mention what we would mention today as 'pump and dump' schemes in which shares are artificially inflated and then sold at their height.
Kennedy was sure to sell before the big crash of 1929 and, according to a biographer, showed an almost creepy talent for being in the right stock – short or long – at exactly the right time '. Many suspected insider trade.
During the prohibition, which ran from 1920 to 1933, Joe gained drink from overseas distilleries and called on the help of the Mafia to spread it across the United States.
Frank Costello, the boss of Luciano Crime Family in New York (later known as the Genovese), confirmed that he had been a partner with Joe in the drinking company both before and after the ban.
The Kennedy family spends Thanksgiving in Hyannisport, Massachusetts, 1948. From the left: John F. Kennedy, Jean Ann Smith, Rose Kennedy, Joseph Kennedy Sr., Patricia Lawford, Robert F. Kennedy, Eunice Kennedy (Squate).
As a young man, Joe (depicted here with son, John F Kennedy) made a fortune trade and raw materials, perfect what we would mention today as 'pump and dump' schemes in which shares are artificially blown up and then sold at their height.
During the prohibition, which ran from 1920 to 1933, Joe gained drink from overseas distilleries and called on the help of the Mafia to spread it across the United States. (Depicted John F Kennedy kissed the head of his father Joe Kennedy in 1963).
Author Gore Vidal, who was related to the Kennedys by the marriage, wrote in his memoirs that ''[Joe] belonged in prison, together with his good friend Frank Costello. In fact, once a week … the boss of the crowd and the president [JFK] Father had eaten together in the apartment of the Central Park South Kennedy … Of course Joe made no secret of his underworld connections, inevitable for a man who had driven the Scotch Whiskey market in the corner. '
Crime boss Meyer Lansky and New York Gangster Owney 'The Killer' Madden also claimed that they worked with Kennedy.
Joe Bonanno, the gangster, sometimes known as Joe Bananas, once told his son that “Kennedy was no different than the rest of us, except that his whiskey mainly went to society.”
The Bonannos, father and son, reserved a special contempt for Kennedy after hearing how one of his boats, heavy with a load of bootleg whiskey and illegal alien beings, was seen by the coast guard and, in an attempt to tackle speed, the Aliens dumped overboard. The alcohol was more valuable.
Author Seymour Hersh, who wrote a book about the dark side of the Kennedy family, concluded that, 'In scores of interviews for this book for four years, former high-level government officials at the 1950s and 1960s, including public prosecutors, Cia-agents and Fbin-agents wished for that. Was during forbidding. “
Hersh interviewed Abraham Marovitz, a lawyer in Chicago who represented top mobsters and one day would be appointed as the federal bank by President John F Kennedy (the second son of Joe Kennedy – his eldest, Joseph JR, was killed in the war).
Marovitz said about the old man, “Kennedy was a boat laying … he had mob connections. Kennedy could not have worked as he did without the approval of the crowd. They had also picked him up. '
Joe wanted to benefit from the end of the prohibition, traveled to London and concluded contracts and was so he was the exclusive American distributor of Gordon's Gin and two Premium Scotch Whiskeys via his new company, Somerset Imports Ltd.
Even today, Kennedy's apologists deny his involvement in the Mafia, but they have difficulty explaining why Joe sold this company to a Jewish gangster, Abner 'Longie' Zwillman, an employee of Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky in 1946.
Before Kennedy started pushing his children into politics, he had his own ambitions to become president and wise to tune into the brilliant but Sly Franklin Roosevelt.
Kennedy's support for President Roosevelt was repaid in 1934 when he became the chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – the body that is supposed to protect investors against financial misconduct. Giving Kennedy the sec track was like naming Lucky Luciano head of the Anti-Mafia team.
In March 1938, with his star in the Ascendant, Kennedy was appointed ambassador at the Hof van St James in London. The post was one of them, if not the most, prestigious ambassadorial writings in the world and was generally recognized as a stepping stone for the US presidency.
The British, who welcomed Kennedy to London, were quickly shocked.
Joe wanted to benefit from the end of the ban, traveled to London and concluded contracts and made him the exclusive American distributor of Gordon's Gin and two Premium Scotch Whiskeys through his new company, Somerset Imports Ltd. (Photo: JFK and Joe Board An Air France plane on Croydon Airport).
Before Kennedy started pushing his children into politics, he had his own ambitions to become president and wise to tune into the brilliant but Slylin Roosevelt (photo).
Joseph Kennedy – nominated ambassador in London – is depicted who takes the oath in the presence of Franklin Roosevelt in 1937.
By March 1938, with his star in the Ascendant, Joe Kennedy was appointed ambassador at the Hof van St James in London. (Shown: Joe and daughter Rosemary in London).
Sir Robert Vansittart, beathing secretary at the British Ministry of Foreign Affairs, called Kennedy “a very error sample of double crosser.”
It was an opinion shared by the brilliant consigliere of the Chicago Mob, Murray 'The Camel' Humphreys, who had illegal business transactions with Kennedy and called him a 'four-flus and a double crosser'.
Kennedy was also a war profit and used his influence as an ambassador to secure precious cargo space on transatlantic journeys.
“The use of his name and prestige of the embassy … I was able to get the shipping space for maximum, I think, about 200,000 cases whiskey at a time when the shipping space was very scarce,” said an employee of Kennedy.
As an ambassador, Kennedy also used insider information about world events to act on Wall Street.
Every hope that Kennedy had to become president, however, was interrupted in November 1940.
At a time when Great -Britain was standing alone against Nazi Germany, Kennedy insisted on 'an economic cooperation' with Germany and the as powers and made it clear that he 'did not believe in continuing democracy' in the United States -a strange point of view for a presidential hopefully in the leading democracy in the world.
Kennedy exposed his thoughts during a long, careless, interview in the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Boston, in which he told reporters that “democracy is all ready,” which means that he did not want America to enter the war under all circumstances.
Kennedy also insinuated that British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was a drunk, that the king was a more stutter and the queen looked like a Shlumpy housewife. No matter where these observations have been, Kennedy was forced to resign.
But the determined one -time boat layer, maritime smuggler and Stock Swindler was certainly not done.
Kennedy easily transferred his ambitions to the younger generation – further, as it turned out, with his own restless connections with organized crime.
For JFK, disappointing the crowd would eventually be politically disastrous and personally fatal.
As I left elsewhere in my book, the 'friends' of his father in the Mafia were not only connected – as has been speculated for a long time – with the bloody events in Dallas of November 1963. They were excellent movers.
Borgata, Clash of Titans, the second part of Louis Ferrante's History of the American Mafia is published by Pegasus in the US, price $ 29.95 and Weidenfeld & Nicolson in the UK, Price £ 25.
