Carlos Marcello, The New Orleans Mobster With A Grudge Against The Kennedys
Bettmann/Getty ImagesSome believe that mobster Carlos Marcello was one of the real JFK assassins who targeted the president.
If the CIA didn’t kill Kennedy, then who did? Many believe it was the mob. To be specific, a New Orleans boss named Carlos Marcello who had a well-documented grudge against John F. Kennedy and his brother, Bobby.
As NBC News reports, the Kennedy brothers started an unprecedented crackdown on organized crime in the 1960s. And Bobby, as attorney general, put special focus on Marcello and his operation in New Orleans.
Because Marcello was not a U.S. citizen — he had been born in Tunisia to Italian parents — Bobby succeeded in having Marcello deported to Guatemala in April 1961. Marcello had phony Guatemalan citizenship but, of course, was not actually from there. NBC News reports that the seething mobster was forced to trudge through the jungle in his Gucci shoes. From that point on, he had only one thing on his mind: vengeance.
Marcello allegedly promised to seek revenge in September 1962, stating: “Don’t worry about that little Bobby son-of-a-bitch. He’s going to be taken care of.” He also purportedly told associates that he would not only “take care” of Bobby Kennedy but also find a “nut” to kill John F. Kennedy.
Public DomainBobby Kennedy testifying about organized crime in September 1963, two months before his brother was assassinated.
Then there’s the fact of Marcello’s associates. The mobster happened to know David Ferrie and the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) determined in 1979 that there existed “credible associations relating both Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby to figures having a relationship, albeit tenuous, with Marcello’s crime family or organization.”
The HSCA also acknowledged that “Marcello had the motive, means and opportunity to have President John F. Kennedy assassinated,” though it was unable to find evidence of his role in the assassination.
So were mobsters really the ones who killed JFK? Marcello allegedly admitted to orchestrating the president’s murder. In the book The Hidden History of the JFK Assassination, author Lamar Waldron claimed that Marcello confessed as much to a cellmate and FBI informant while he was serving a stint in federal prison in the 1980s.
“Yeah, I had the son of a bitch killed,” Marcello allegedly said. “I’m glad I did. I’m sorry I couldn’t have done it myself.”
