Johnny Roselli

John "Handsome Johnny" Roselli (born Filippo Sacco; July 4, 1905 – August 7, 1976), sometimes spelled Rosselli, was a mobster for the Chicago Outfit who helped that organization exert influence over Hollywood and the Las Vegas Strip.

Roselli was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in a plot to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Roselli was born Filippo Sacco on July 4, 1905, in Esperia, Lazio, Italy.

His father, Vincenzo Sacco, had moved to the United States first, followed by Filippo at the age of six, who had immigrated with his mother, Mariantonia Pascale Sacco, to Boston, Massachusetts.

His father died in 1918.

In 1922, Sacco was arrested on narcotics charges in Massachusetts.

He first fled to New York for three months, before moving on to Chicago, where he changed his name from Filippo Sacco to John Roselli.

Roselli moved to Los Angeles in 1924, pleading guilty to bootlegging that same year.

Roselli began his California criminal career working for small-time bootleggers, becoming the top truck driver for Tony Cornero.

Eventually, Roselli was promoted to working closely with the Cornero brothers in securing the liquor imports into Southern California.

He was especially important in bribing and securing the loyalty of Orange County officials, opening up their ports for the gang's use.

In 1926, Tony Cornero fled to Canada, escaping a two-year bootlegging sentence.

As a result of the gang's dissolution, Roselli went independent.

He became further involved in several LA area vice rackets, especially prostitution and gambling.

Roselli first met Al Capone in 1927, on a trip to Chicago to attend the Jack Dempsey-Gene Tunney Boxing match.

Capone was holding a party that night at his headquarters, Metropole Hotel, where Johnny was able to briefly meet him and the Chicago Outfit's inner circle.

Roselli next met with Capone at the Biltmore Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles.

In 1928, Capone invited Roselli to Chicago, this time offering him a role in his organization.

Roselli was tasked with working with the Los Angeles crime family, to keep an eye on Capone's investments and facilitate cooperation between the LA and Chicago organizations.

The LA branch of the mafia was at the time under the leadership of Joseph Ardizzone, and Roselli worked closely with Ardizonne's underboss Jack Dragna.

During this time, Roselli was involved with Los Angeles' offshore gambling racket.

He led the mob's hostile takeover of the gambling ship Monfalcone.

Roselli's underworld activities sometimes had to be put on hold while he dealt with long bouts of tuberculosis.

Roselli became close friends with film producer Bryan Foy, who brought Roselli into the movie business as a producer with Foy's small production company, Eagle Lion Studios, where Roselli is credited on a number of early gangster movies as a producer.

Roselli was also close friends with Columbia Pictures co-founder Harry Cohn.

In 1931, LA Mafia boss Joseph Ardizzone survived two assassination attempts and declared he would retire.

Instead, he disappeared in October 1931 and Jack Dragna took his place as Don.

In July 1933, Frank L. Shaw began his term as the Los Angeles mayor.

He put in place a heinously corrupt administration where the city's underworld paid regular bribes directly to city hall.

Roselli was able to use his position in LA's mafia and deep knowledge of the city's underworld to make himself the liaison between the mayor's office and the various gangs and individuals who sent regular payoffs to city hall.

This favored position with the city government helped to position Jack Dragna's organization as the preeminent criminal organization in Los Angeles under the Shaw administration.

In 1942, Roselli was indicted on federal labor racketeering charges, along with George Brown, former president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees union, and Willie Bioff, labor racketeer and former pimp.

Later in 1942, Roselli enlisted in the United States Army, where he served for three years before receiving an undesirable discharge.

It was while in the service that Roselli was convicted of the extortion scheme to extort money from Hollywood figures, in 1943, serving a prison sentence until his release in 1947.

In the mid-1950s, Roselli shifted his focus away from Hollywood and toward the fast-growing and highly profitable gambling mecca, Las Vegas, Nevada.

During this period, Roselli's lawyer was Frank DeSimone; secretly a mob member, DeSimone became the L.A. mob boss when Jack Dragna died in 1956.

By 1956, Roselli had become the Chicago and Los Angeles mob's chief representative in Las Vegas.

His job was to ensure that the Chicago mob bosses received their share of the burgeoning casino revenues through "skimming".

However, according to the Los Angeles office of the FBI, Roselli was employed as a movie producer at Monogram Studios.

After the Cuban Revolution in January 1959, Fidel Castro closed down the casinos that the Mob operated in Cuba, and attempted to drive the mobsters out of the country.