OPINION:
Aside from tales and speculation on the subject related to the John F. Kennedy era, Americans haven’t paid much attention to the influence of organized crime on presidential politics. The subject occasionally comes up in a movie or novel, but not much in real life. But such ties are real — and boy, are the tales fascinating.
Washington communications executive turned author Eric Dezenhall tells some of them in his latest book, “Wiseguys and the White House: Gangsters, Presidents and the Deals They Made.” Unsurprisingly, it is riveting.
Mr. Dezenhall and I have some history, so I called him to learn more about what he’s up to this time around.
It seems to me that people cannot get enough books about presidents or mobsters. Cool idea to weave the two together.
Eric Dezenhall: Both are very American fantasies. The presidency is the symbol of having made it to the top. The mob is all about getting away with things, being unrestrained — the ultimate freedom and a colorful way to make it to the bottom.
One thing I particularly appreciate about “Wiseguys and the White House” is how, in addition to being a fascinating bunch of stories, it’s also a primer on what the mob is and what it is not. La Cosa Nostra 101, so to speak. You know this stuff!
I grew up around it. These guys were everywhere. Everybody had a neighbor, a relative, a family friend that was attached to the rackets somehow. Al Martino, who played Johnny Fontane in “The Godfather,” lived down the street. The actual Gambinos lived in the neighborhood. There’s a difference between being in a world and being of that world. I lived in that community but wasn’t a criminal. Why was everybody so scared of these guys that were always nice to me and other kids?
Of course, underworld intrigue and the world of politics are recurring themes throughout your oeuvre, both fiction and nonfiction, due to your experience with both. Does this one represent some sort of culmination for you? Was there some particular inspiration?
I was shocked when my boss in the White House said something about how the mob runs the country. I thought, “They do?” I’ve spent decades looking for the answer. I am amazed by the power our culture assigns to gangsters, spies, lawyers and spin doctors, which is why I write about all this. And no, the mob doesn’t run the country, but at times they had a lot of power and were very useful to powerful people. “Wiseguys” nails down those details.
One of the chapters here deals with Franklin D. Roosevelt’s enlistment of leading mobsters of the era to combat an intense wave of Hitler’s U-boat attacks in waters off the East Coast of the U.S. in 1942 — which was a core subject of one of your historical novels, 2011’s “The Devil Himself” — did researching and writing that inspire broader research into the subject which became “Wiseguys and the White House”?
I had known members of Meyer Lansky’s family since forever and had access to his private records. Meyer very much wanted to tell his side of the story of his life — how he considered himself a patriot — but I couldn’t find a way into it.
After 9/11, I became interested in what Americans would be willing to do to deal with terrorists. I decided to tell what Meyer and his partner Charles “Lucky” Luciano did with the Navy to keep the New York docks safe from sabotage, harass Nazi assets and help find resources overseas to help with the invasion of Sicily. I get into details about the Roosevelt-sanctioned operation in “Wiseguys,” as we now know a great deal more about this program — which the government denied for 40 years.
I was surprised to learn that John F. Kennedy was not the president the mob had the most influence on. It was, in fact —
Harry Truman. He came from a mafia-controlled machine. And by mafia, I mean Cosa Nostra. While there is no evidence Truman ever took a bribe, he owed his career to the Italian American mafia and he paid them back along the way. He wasn’t happy about it, though. There’s a lot in the book on Kennedy, but I worked hard to distinguish between who did what in the 1960 election and in the conspiracy to kill [Fidel] Castro.
We tend to think mob stuff is all “back in the day” business, but as you point out, there are organized crime links to modern-day presidents like Biden and Trump.
Donald Trump infuriates people when he’s accused of doing something naughty and responds by saying, “That just means I’m smart.” He may be right. He openly admits to having dealt with mobsters, and when you break down how he did it, it’s not provably illegal. It has to do with concrete. And while President Biden’s dealings with the mob weren’t as extensive, he had some help from labor racketeers during his first Senate campaign.
Other surprises readers might find particularly interesting?
When civil rights workers were killed during the Johnson administration, Lyndon Johnson demanded that the FBI did whatever it took to find the bodies and catch the killers. The FBI recruited a New York mobster to torture Ku Klux Klan operatives to solve the crimes. In recent years, people in federal law enforcement have been more forthcoming in acknowledging that this really happened. I also got a little more color on what motivated the murder of Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel — and it’s not the version the movies portray.
Great stuff, all of it. This is book number 12. Got any more in you?
Absolutely. As long as a publisher will have me. Got a problem with that?
“Wiseguys and the White House: Gangsters, Presidents and the Deals They Made” will be released on Jan. 14. It is available for preorder wherever books are sold.
• Christian Josi is a veteran public affairs and media relations professional as well as a globe-trotting singer. He writes often for a variety of publications.
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Wiseguys and the White House: Gangsters, Presidents and the Deals They Made
By Eric Dezenhall
HarperCollins, Jan. 14, 2025
368 pages, $32
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