By sunrise, a fisherman would discover something in the water that would force the FBI to reopen questions about Hollywood, Havana, and a plot that went all the way to the White House. If you want real history documented, unsanitized, and told exactly as it happened, hit subscribe now. Miami, Florida. The 9th of August, 1976, 6:42 a.m.
A fisherman casts his line into Dumfoundling Bay. The water is calm. The morning light hits the surface. Something large floats near the shore. A 55-gallon steel fuel drum, sealed, heavy. The fisherman calls the police. Metro-Dade officers arrive. They pull the drum from the water. The metal is rusted.
Chains wrap around it. They cut through. Inside, a body, decomposed, bent at unnatural angles. The legs are sawed off at the knees. The arms are folded against the chest. The medical examiner arrives. He confirms asphyxiation. The victim suffocated before being placed in the drum. By noon, fingerprints identify the body.
Jon Roselli, age 71, known to federal authorities for five decades. Roselli disappeared 11 days earlier. The 28th of July, 1976, Plantation, Florida. He left his sister’s home at 5220 Southwest 10th Court. His sister, Edith Daigle, watched him drive away in her car. He told her he was meeting someone for lunch.
He never returned. Roselli was born Filippo Sacco, the 4th of July, 1905, Esperia, Italy. His father, Vincenzo Sacco, moved to the United States in 1909. Filippo followed in 1911 with his mother, Mariantonia. They settled in Boston, Massachusetts. Vincenzo died in 1918. Filippo was 13. The 14th of September, 1922, Boston police arrest Filippo Sacco on narcotics charges. He flees to New York.
3 months later, he moves to Chicago. He changes his name to John Roselli. Chicago, 1924. Roselli moves to Los Angeles. He pleads guilty to bootlegging. He works for Tony Cornero, a small-time bootlegger running liquor from offshore ships. Roselli becomes Cornero’s top truck driver. He bribes Orange County officials.
He opens their ports for smuggling operations. In 1926, Cornero flees to Canada to avoid prison. The gang dissolves. Roselli goes independent. September 1927. Roselli travels to Chicago for the Jack Dempsey-Gene Tunney boxing match. Al Capone holds a party at the Metropole Hotel. Roselli meets Capone. He meets the Chicago Outfit’s inner circle. Capone remembers him.
Capone summons Roselli to Chicago. He offers him a position. Roselli accepts. Capone sends him back to Los Angeles as the Chicago Outfit’s representative. His job, monitor Capone’s investments. Facilitate cooperation between the Los Angeles crime family and Chicago. Roselli works directly with Jack Dragna, underboss to Los Angeles Mafia boss Joseph Ardizzone.
Roselli takes control of offshore gambling operations. He leads a hostile takeover of the gambling ship, Monfalcone. He builds connections in Los Angeles. He befriends film producer Bryan Foy. Foy brings Roselli into the movie business. Roselli becomes a producer at Eagle Lion Studios. His name appears in credits on several gangster films.
He becomes close friends with Harry Cohn, co-founder of Columbia Pictures. July 1933. Frank L. Shaw becomes mayor of Los Angeles. Shaw establishes a corrupt administration. The city’s underworld pays bribes directly to City Hall. Roselli becomes the liaison between the mayor’s office and the criminal organizations. He collects payoffs.
He distributes them. This position makes Jack Dragna’s organization the most powerful criminal group in Los Angeles. At the time, no one at Columbia Pictures knew Roselli’s real employers. The Chicago Outfit expands into Hollywood labor unions. Frank Nitti, Capone’s successor, plans a large-scale extortion operation.
The target, major film studios. The method, control the unions. Nitti sends Willie Bioff and George Brown to Hollywood. Roselli assists them. They take over the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. IATSE controls projectionists, stagehands, and theater workers across the country. The extortion begins.
Large studios pay $50,000. Smaller studios pay $25,000. The operation generates millions. Roselli collects his share. The studios pay rather than face union strikes that would shut down production nationwide. Federal investigators uncover the scheme. Willie Bioff is arrested. George Brown is arrested. 1942. Roselli is indicted on federal labor racketeering charges.
The same year, he enlists in the United States Army. He serves for 3 years, and in 1943, while in service, Roselli is convicted of extortion. He receives a 10-year sentence. Roselli is released from prison. He returns to Los Angeles. His parole requires legitimate employment. He works as a producer at Monogram Studios.
The FBI monitors him. His lawyer, Frank DeSimone, is secretly a mob member. DeSimone becomes the Los Angeles mob boss when Jack Dragna dies in 1956. Mid-1950s, Roselli shifts his focus to Las Vegas. The city is growing. Casinos generate massive revenue. By 1956, Roselli is the Chicago Outfit’s chief representative in Las Vegas.
His job, ensure Chicago receives its share through skimming. He monitors casino counting rooms. He coordinates cash transfers. He reports directly to Sam Giancana, who now controls the Chicago Outfit. Fidel Castro takes power in Cuba. He closes the casinos. He drives out the American mobsters.
Roselli loses his stake in Havana gambling operations. So does Giancana. So does Santo Trafficante, the Tampa Mafia boss who controlled Cuban operations. September 1960, a man named Robert Maheu approaches Roselli in Los Angeles. Maheu is an ex-FBI agent. He works for Howard Hughes in Las Vegas. Maheu tells Roselli he represents International Corporations.
He says these corporations want Fidel Castro dead. They want their Cuban gambling interests back. He asks if Roselli can help. Roselli agrees. He introduces Maheu to Sam Giancana. He introduces him to Santo Trafficante. The three mobsters begin planning what Maheu does not tell Roselli at first.
Maheu works for the Central Intelligence Agency. October 1960. Roselli meets with Maheu again. This time, Maheu admits the truth. The CIA wants Castro assassinated. Roselli is not surprised. He agrees to continue. He has his own reasons. Castro destroyed his business in Cuba. He encouraged others to join the Bay of Pigs invasion.
He feels responsible for its failure. The CIA delivers six poison pills, small capsules designed to dissolve in liquid, lethal within minutes. The plan: Get the pills into Castro’s food or drink. Giancana and Trafficante coordinate with contacts still in Cuba. They identify a chef who works at a restaurant Castro frequents.
The chef agrees to place the pills in Castro’s drink. The chef receives the pills. He places them in a freezer for safekeeping. The pills freeze solid. They become unusable. The plot fails. April 1961. The Bay of Pigs invasion begins. CIA officials cancel further assassination attempts during the operation. The invasion fails within 3 days.
Roselli receives a call from Bill Harvey, a CIA officer. Harvey wants to revive the poison plot. Roselli suggests using Tony Verona, a Cuban exile leader. Verona will forward the pills to another chef in Havana. The CIA agrees. Verona receives the pills. This plot also fails. Castro never visits the restaurant.
Roselli develops a friendship with Harvey. Harvey’s daughter calls him Uncle Johnny. Roselli attends dinners at Harvey’s home. He never discusses his criminal activities with the CIA officer. Frank Sinatra sponsors Roselli for membership in the Los Angeles Friars Club. The Friars Club is exclusive. Members include actors, producers, and millionaires. Roselli is accepted.
He plays cards regularly. Soon after joining, Roselli discovers an elaborate card cheating operation. One of his Las Vegas associates, Maurice Friedman, runs the scheme. Friedman drills peepholes into the ceiling above the card room. An observer watches through the holes. He signals the players below using a radio transmitter.
The players wear hidden receivers. They know every card their opponents hold. Wealthy members lose millions. Roselli demands his cut. Friedman agrees. The operation continues for 5 years, from 1962 to 1967. FBI agents tailing Roselli discover the cheating scheme. Federal investigators build a case. Victims include millionaire Harry Karl, husband of actress Debbie Reynolds.
Zeppo Marx, the youngest Marx brother, loses significant sums. Grant B. Cooper represents Roselli and the other defendants. The trial begins. During proceedings, secret grand jury transcripts appear on the defense attorney’s table. Cooper eventually pleads guilty to contempt for possessing the documents.
Roselli is convicted. He is fined $55,000. The Friars Club scandal makes national news. The 1960s, Immigration and Naturalization Service attempts to deport Roselli. Investigators discover his real name, Filippo Sacco. They prove he entered the country as an immigrant. They argue his criminal convictions make him deportable. The efforts fail.
Roselli remains in the United States. The 19th of June, 1975, Roselli is called to testify before the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Senator Frank Church leads the committee. The committee investigates CIA abuses. Roselli testifies in closed session about the Castro assassination plots.
He describes his recruitment by Robert Maheu. He identifies Sam Giancana and Santo Trafficante as co-conspirators. He details the poison pill operations. He explains the connection between Howard Hughes, the CIA, and the mob. Five days before Roselli’s testimony, someone shoots Sam Giancana the 19th of June, 1975.
Giancana is in the basement of his home in Oak Park, Illinois. He is cooking sausages. An unknown assailant enters. Seven shots are fired. One in the back of the head, six more in a circle around the mouth. Giancana dies instantly. He was scheduled to testify before the Church Committee the following week. Roselli hears about Giancana’s murder.
He leaves Los Angeles permanently. He leaves Las Vegas. He moves to Florida. He lives with his sister, Edith Daigle, in Plantation, a suburb west of Fort Lauderdale. Neighbors describe him as quiet. He plays golf. He attends dinners at local restaurants. The 22nd of September, 1975, Roselli testifies before the Church Committee a second time.
He provides additional details about CIA operations. He answers questions for 3 hours. The 23rd of April, 1976, the committee recalls Roselli. This time, the subject is President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Roselli testifies about theories connecting Castro to Kennedy’s death. He tells the committee that underworld assassins sent to kill Castro may have been turned by Cuban intelligence.
He suggests Castro, believing Kennedy responsible for the assassination plots, sent these assassins back to kill Kennedy. He says Lee Harvey Oswald was framed. The committee takes notes. Roselli leaves. Three months pass. The 28th of July, 1976, Plantation, Florida, 12:50 p.m. Roselli tells his sister he is meeting someone for lunch. He does not say who.
Edith Daigle watches him drive away. She expects him back by evening. By nightfall, he has not returned. Edith calls friends. No one has seen him. She waits through the night. The 29th of July, 1976, morning, Edith reports her brother missing. Local police take a report. They note Roselli’s age.
They note his criminal history. They begin investigating. The 3rd of August, 1976, Tennessee Senator Howard Baker, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, requests FBI assistance. Baker asks the FBI to investigate whether Roselli’s disappearance is connected to his testimony. The FBI opens a case. The 7th of August, 1976, 10 days after Roselli disappeared, someone seals his body inside a 55 gallon steel fuel drum.
His legs are sawed off at the knees to fit the body inside. His arms are folded across his chest. Heavy chains are wrapped around the drum. The drum is driven to a boat. The boat travels to Dumfoundling Bay, an arm of Biscayne Bay between North Miami and Miami Beach. The drum is pushed overboard. It sinks. Gases from decomposition cause it to resurface 2 days later, the 9th of August, 1976.
6:42 a.m. A fisherman sees the drum. He calls police. The medical examiner determines cause of death, asphyxiation. Roselli suffocated before his body was placed in the drum. What happened next would be studied by investigators for decades. The 10th of August, 1976. Attorney General Edward H. Levi instructs the FBI to determine if Roselli’s murder is connected to his Senate testimony.
FBI agents in Miami begin interviewing associates. They review phone records. They track Roselli’s movements during his final days. Agents discover Roselli maintained contact with several Chicago Outfit members. Phone records show calls to Los Angeles, calls to Las Vegas, calls to Chicago. Witnesses report seeing Roselli with unknown men in the weeks before his disappearance.
Federal investigators develop theories. The first, Roselli was killed because he talked to the Senate. His testimony exposed CIA mafia connections. His statements about Castro and Kennedy embarrassed powerful people. Someone wanted him silent. The second theory, Roselli was killed over money. Las Vegas casino skimming operations continued through the 1970s.
Roselli controlled a portion of the profits. Chicago bosses suspected he was keeping more than his share. Greed, not politics, motivated the murder. The third theory, Roselli became a liability. His Senate testimony made him a public figure. Newspapers published his name. His face appeared on television.
The Cosa Nostra does not tolerate public attention. Roselli violated the code of silence. He had to be eliminated. The 6th of March, 1978. The FBI concludes the contract was sanctioned by Tony Accardo, consigliere of the Chicago Outfit. The reason, Roselli was becoming a public source of embarrassment to La Cosa Nostra. No arrests are made.
The evidence is circumstantial. Witnesses refuse to cooperate. The case remains officially unsolved. Federal authorities examine Roselli’s broader impact. His testimony before the Church Committee exposed covert CIA operations. It revealed the agency’s willingness to partner with organized crime. It documented assassination plots against foreign leaders.
These revelations led to reforms. New oversight committees were established. Accardo never faced charges. Schweihs was never arrested for Roselli’s murder. Inserro was never arrested. The unnamed suspects were never identified publicly. The case file was closed. The evidence was filed away. Dumbfounding Bay returned to normal. Fishermen returned.
Boats passed through. The water held no trace of what had happened. The drum was removed. The body was taken to the morgue. The medical examiner completed his report. Roselli’s sister, Edith Daigle, identified the remains. She arranged for burial. She returned to Plantation. She lived there until her death.
