Fidel Castro had taken over Cuba, ousting Batista. The mob winced. With his regime came the end of their gambling and whoring concessions in that country, and something had to be done about that. The Central Intelligence Agency, better known as the CIA, agreed. America didn’t need an anti-democratic dictatorship hovering over its southwestern shoreline. As it had done many times before, and would do many times in the future, the CIA married the mob for convenience. Their undercover and elimination experts seemed to be the perfect bed partners.

For the Cuban enterprise, the CIA would pull it all together, get Momo within shooting range of their man, pay him $150,000 for the hit, then, for their maneuvering, accept a percentage of the revitalized rackets.

Summarizing the fantastic roulette, John Morgan’s Prince of Crime adds, "Sam Giancana, always active in Cuba and Central America, seems to have been persuaded by rogue elements in the CIA that he could play a heroic role: saving his investments by his exertions and the nation by his example."

President Kennedy knew of the conspiracy and sanctioned it; so did FBI Chief  J. Edgar Hoover. Mob soldiers and southwest-based mob bosses like Santo Trafficante played their various roles -- inciting Batista loyalists to move against Castro while delivering both arms and propaganda to Cuba from off the Florida coast. One of the gun runners was a man named Jack Ruby, a Texas strip show operator who would perform a much more obtrusive part in climaxing the Kennedy era three years later.

In the meantime, more directly domestic events reawakened Momo’s doubts about the family Kennedy. Bobby was up to his old tricks. Named the new Attorney General, he resumed his attacks on the mobs, more vehemently than ever. It all became clear to Momo; he told his Outfit, "The Kennedys are still out to erase all obligation to us."

Two incidences then occurred to support his theory.

First, Bobby Kennedy’s commission handed to the press their list of the top 30 mobsters in America. The name Sam Giancana headed the list.

A second thunderbolt struck over the Castro affair. The plot was about to be hatched. Because the dictator had proven himself unreachable, the CIA spearheaded an invasion of Cuba’s coastline by 1,500 exiles; the success of the thrust hinged on the air support that the President had promised. When the initial ground attack at the Bay of Pigs failed, Kennedy reneged, skittish about possible repercussions. The insurgents. nevertheless, regrouped. Huddled against the bay, they suddenly found themselves seriously outnumbered by Castro’s regulars. Pleading for Kennedy to reconsider, the CIA was again denied.

The event became world news and Kennedy was embarrassed. He blamed the CIA for letting things get out of hand and vowed to crush its main players for humiliating his administration. It had been a clumsy episode in American history.

The CIA fumed, but not as violently as Momo. He too looked foolish, for he had bit the bullet, ensuring the CIA of Kennedy’s devotion. Author John Morgan notes that Momo had regarded the Bay of Pigs plan "as a serious effort by the Kennedys to repay their debt to the Outfit that had supported their election to power...Giancana’s opinion was that the Kennedys had let him down."

Without giving time for this incident to cool, Bobby ordered FBI surveillance on Momo. He spotted the agents everywhere (for Momo knew a government agent when he saw one). They were behind him at the bank, they were around him at the ballpark, they trailed him when he drove his car. And when he traveled and partied with his new girl friend, Patty McGuire, of the singing McGuire Sisters, they were there, too, at the airports, the restaurants, the hotels.

The usually tight-lipped Momo who never revealed what he thought -- about anything -- lost his calm one afternoon. In front of a crowd at a busy airport, he approached one of the bloodhounds and, with a threatening finger in the man’s chest, shouted, "Screw your boss Hoover and his boss, Kennedy! I have the lowdown on all the damn Kennedys and one day I’ll tell everything. Then the whole world will know what hypocritical bastards they really are!"