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Chicago Outfit boss Sam Giancana killed 50 years ago

June 30, 2025

Late in the evening of June 19, 1975,  Sam “Momo” Giancana was cooking in his basement apartment, presumably for a guest. Before the late-night meal could be served, Giancana was shot in the back of the head. The murder of the former Chicago Outfit boss remains one of the most debated unsolved homicides in organized crime history. His tumultuous final years fuel several theories about his demise. Over the course of his long career filled with violence and political maneuvering, Giancana provided motives to rivals and allies alike. From infamy to fame Born Salvatore Giancana on June 15, 1908, in Chicago to Sicilian ...

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In 1961, Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal was subpoenaed to testify before a Senate Rackets Subcommittee after Oregon football player Mickey Bruce told the panel about Rosenthal attempting to bribe him to throw a game the year before. Rosenthal refused to answer any questions. Corbis

Lefty Rosenthal’s alleged sports-fixing past recalled in national sports story

In the 1970s, Mickey Bruce, a former University of Oregon football player, was called to Nevada to testify against Mob…

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Las Vegas casino pioneer a footnote in Southern California slaying

A high-profile murder in 1950s Southern California at the former home of a Las Vegas casino operator led to the…

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After the four-casino blitz of 1955, Life magazine speculated about the sustainability of the boom. The new casinos had to keep up with the big budgets of successful casinos such as the Desert Inn, which paid British musician Noël Coward, pictured here, $40,000 a week. The Mob Museum Collection

Casino boom added four new properties to Las Vegas 70 years ago

Seventy years ago, in April and May of 1955, Las Vegas welcomed four new hotel-casinos in a six-week period. This…

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The Alto Knights, starring Robert De Niro as both Frank Costello and Vito Genovese, premiered to lukewarm reviews last month. The Alto Knight is among the first of many Mob movies debuting this year. Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

New Mob movies point to continued demand

While some question whether Mob movies have run their course, a recent slate of gangster films indicates public interest remains…

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Charles Binaggio and Charles Gargotta were found murdered at the First Democratic Club in Kansas City on April 6, 1950. Gargotta’s body is seen here near a portrait of President Harry Truman. The Kansas City Star

Mobbed-up power broker Charles Binaggio gunned down in Kansas City 75 years ago

Mobbed-up power broker Charles Binaggio gunned down in Kansas City 75 years ago

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Las Vegas entertainer Al Martino, second from left in front, became a household name after his casting as singer Johnny Fontane in the 1972 film The Godfather. Francis Ford Coppola, second from right, paid a visit to the Desert Inn to help get Martino out of his contract. Alison Martino

Alison Martino recalls her father’s Las Vegas

When singer Al Martino was a showroom headliner performing on the Las Vegas Strip years ago, the mobsters who ran…

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Before John Gotti bricked over the façade, the Ravenite Social Club had a much more welcoming exterior. Crime family boss Carlo Gambino and his underboss Aniello Dellacroce made the Ravenite their headquarters. Getty Images

New film ‘The Alto Knights’ named for one of Mob’s many social clubs

The Alto Knights, the film written by Nicholas Pileggi and directed by Barry Levinson, is named for a once-prominent Manhattan social…

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