The Tangled Web: The Life and Death of Richard Cain - Chicago Cop and Mafia Hitman by Michael J. Cain

Author:Michael J. Cain [Cain, Michael J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Criminals & Outlaws, Law Enforcement, True Crime, Organized Crime
ISBN: 9781602393417
Google: IndK5I3GRvwC
Amazon: B004ULLN2Y
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2007-01-01T11:00:00+00:00

Dick lived in Marina City. Twin circular towers situated on the Chicago River, it was an exclusive place to live and not one he could afford on a cop’s salary. One of Dick’s neighbors was Murray Humphreys, an old time Chicago mobster whose participation reached back to the days of Al Capone.

In November 1963, an incident took shape involving an alleged wiretap on the phone of Chicago Attorney David Bradshaw. Bradshaw was chairman of the subcommittee of the Illinois State Crime Commission that was in the process of screening applicants for the position of executive director, for which Dick was a candidate. When the tap was detected, Bradshaw notified the Cook County Sheriff’s Department of his concern. Richard Cain responded to conduct the investigation personally.

The next day, the FBI overheard the following conversation between Pat Marcy and Anthony Tisci, Sam Giancana’s son-in-law:

Marcy said, “Now, let’s talk about the Redhead. He wants to kill this Siragusa thing.” Siragusa was Dick’s competition for the job.

“Do you think he’ll be able to?”

“I think he’s got it made. He took the shot that will make him anyway. He will be here any fucking day. I told him, ‘Now listen, you’re sticking your neck a mile out and you’re going to get the fucking jacket.’ He said, ‘No I won’t.’ I said, ‘Listen to what I tell you.’ He wanted to cripple this guy.”

“You know,” continued Marcy, “Cain was the investigator on the complaint from Bradshaw about his fucking wiretap.”

“You’re kidding me!” roared Tisci. He laughed uncontrollably for several minutes.

On November 6, 1963, Chicago Tribune reporter Sandy Smith told Marlin Johnson, the special agent in charge (SAC) of the Chicago office of the FBI, that he was absolutely convinced Cain was responsible for the wiretap.

Agents visited Dick at the sheriff’s department to ask him about it. He, of course, denied any involvement. The bureau asked him to keep their conversation confidential, which was the red flag that sent Dick to his reporter friends to tell them the FBI was conducting an investigation.

Charles Siragusa was the leading candidate and eventually got the job, but Dick had thrown his hat in the ring, with the blessing of Sheriff Ogilvie, and thought he had a shot at the job, but only if he could get Siragusa out of the race. Formerly director of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Siragusa was the clear front-runner.

Apparently, on November 1, a number of Chicago-area reporters, including Sandy Smith and Jack Mabley, found audiotapes on their desks, which contained a recorded telephone conversation of David Bradshaw, the crime commission lawyer, that was unflattering to Siragusa. The existence of the tapes constituted incontrovertible proof that a wiretap had been in place and clearly contained recorded telephone conversations, so the question was how and by whom?

Bradshaw contacted Sheriff Ogilvie who immediately assigned his chief of investigations to look into the matter. Dick went immediately to the offices of David Bradshaw at 30 North LaSalle Street to see what he could see. He met with Bradshaw and quizzed him at some length about the reasons someone might want to tap his phone.

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