1. From Apalachin to Dallas: The mob and the JFK assassination
By Silvio Laccetti
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
November 15, 2013, 10:15 a.m.
With the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination approaching, I decided to share a few items of my own
research on the matter. These items could change our thinking about the nexus of mob leaders,
rogue CIA agents, and anti-Castro Cuban exiles at the center of most assassination scenarios. My
information suggests it was the thwarting of the mob's vision to create a parallel governmental entity in
America that propelled the plot.
The big piece of evidence is a reinterpretation of the November 1957 Apalachin, N.Y., gathering of
national leaders of organized crime, at Joe Barbara's estate, when the mob was outed to America.
This revision is based on the statements of two impeccable police sources whose inside knowledge has
never been part of the traditional story surrounding the event. Their statements cast a different light on
what Apalachin was all about, and how it could relate to the JFK assassination.
Sgt.Joe Benenati and George Karalus were both New York State Police troopers. Benenati, a highly
decorated war veteran, was part of police operations at Apalachin and signed the official report of the
incident.
Karalus was specially trained in intelligence operations. He served 1964-72 in a top-secret New York State
Police Special Investigations Unit. The unit wiretapped and monitored the operations of Buffalo mob chief

2. Stefano Maggadino, who organized the Apalachin meeting. I interviewed George three times, intensively,
during the last six years. Karalus met Benenati when he interviewed him extensively on three occasions
for work on a book, "The Teflon Don," written with Matt Gryta.
According to Karalus and Benenati, traditional accounts explaining the purpose of the Apalachin meeting
are incomplete. The conference was not called simply to address problems with the drug trade or to settle
blood feuds relating to the murder of Albert Anastasia. Instead, Item One on the agenda was expanding
the political power of the mob in national life.
Perhaps the Mafia hoped to become a para-governmental entity in America _ as it had been for centuries
in Southern Italy and, more recently, in many urban neighborhoods in America. Among the areas to be
exploited: national control of unions, the textile industry, the trucking industry, the sugar trade, urban
political machines and even the prison system.
Benenati knew about the agenda through his friendship with Melvin John Blossom.
Before the police activity began, Blossom, the caretaker of the Barbara estate, was in the same room with
early arrivals, Joe Profaci, (Brooklyn); Stefano Maggadino, (Buffalo); and Tommy Lucchese, (New York
City). Blossom heard their pointed conversation, led by Lucchese, who wanted to expand the mob's
national political power.
Considered the most intelligent of the mob bosses, Lucchese was fascinated by politics, It has been
reported (e.g., by Bill Bonanno in his book, "Bound by Honor," that Lucchese was the diplomat who
engineered the coup that made Lyndon Johnson JFK's vice-presidential running mate.
During the 1960 election, mob bosses were critical in lining up union support behind Kennedy; and, as the
story goes, Sam Giancana's Chicago outfit provided the votes that put Kennedy over the top. The national
political star of the mob was clearly ascending.
However, when Robert F. Kennedy became U.S. attorney general, he vastly intensified his investigations
and fierce attacks on the mob and Jimmy Hoffa, their close ally. The momentum toward Dallas continued
to build. Each of the three crime heads closely associated with plot theories (The Triumvirate), Giancana
(present at Apalachin), Tampa's Santo Trafficante (attended Apalachin ) and New Orleans' Carlos
Marcello (represented at Apalachin) are reported as wanting either RFK or JFK, or both, killed.
The mob triumvirate had personal as well as business reasons to want to eliminate either or both of the
Kennedys. For example, RFK was responsible for kidnapping Carlos Marcello (an illegal alien), eventually
dumping him in a remote jungle in Honduras to fend for himself. JFK "stole" Giancana's mistress. RFK
tried to pin the Anastasia murder on Trafficante, who fled to Cuba for a time.
How much more would the princes of a parallel government take? Mob men had been working with CIA
operatives to kill Fidel Castro. On their own initiative, the mob put out a $5 million hit on Castro, who had
destroyed their business and gambling empires in Cuba. Why wouldn't they take the lead in acting against
the Kennedys?
Investigative writers such as Dan Moldea and David Kaiser spell out the plot nexus of mob, rogue CIA
operatives and Cuban exiles. Authors Waldron and Hartman discuss how the mob hijacked the
assassination conspiracy. In 2009 the Discovery Channel aired a two part series, "Did the Mob Kill
Kennedy?" More work on the Mafia's leadership role needs to be done. Sealed government documents
must be opened.
However, when we connect the political ambitions of organized crime, as developed by the time of
Apalachin, to their thwarting by Castro and their attempted eradication by RFK, we might reasonably
conclude the mob led the conspiracy against JFK.
The triumvirate of mob princes had business, personal and political motives, along with the contacts and
ability to do so.
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