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The Tangled Web: The Life and Death of Richard Cain - Chicago Cop and Mafia Hitman
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The Tangled Web: The Life and Death of Richard Cain - Chicago Cop and Mafia Hitman
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by Michael J. Cain
Sales Rank : 119087
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Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing April 2007
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1602390444
ISBN-13: 978-1602390447
Product Dimensions:
9 x 5.9 x 1 inches
Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
From Publishers Weekly
Richard Cain (1931–1973), shot to death in a Chicago sandwich shop, was most probably murdered by members of the Chicago Mafia. The author, Cain's half-brother, presents in numbing and amateurishly written detail the life of a "made" man who joined the Chicago Police Department to be mobster Sam Giancana's man on the inside. Cain achieved some fame for being an aggressive vice cop, as well as notoriety in the killing of an alleged child molester, although he was cleared of any charges. Through Giancana, Cain became involved in a CIA plot to kill Fidel Castro (though the author found no evidence to support rumors that Cain was connected to the JFK assassination). And thanks to political connections, Cain was eventually appointed chief of the Special Investigations Unit of the Cook County Sheriff's Department. Cain continued to work both sides of the law, was convicted on several charges and spent several years in prison. Despite the author's painstaking research, the descriptions of his subject as an intelligent and handsome man with savoir faire, who dazzled women with his charm and his risk taking, are less convincing than the story of a hardened criminal without a conscience. Photos. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Now a footnote in the history of organized crime, Richard Cain embodied the symbiotic relationship of Chicago's legendary Outfit and the political machine that ran the city. An old friend of perceived Outfit kingpin Sam Giancana, Cain joined the Chicago Police Department in 1956 and quickly rose to vice-squad detective. Simultaneously, he climbed the Outfit's organizational ladder to trusted hit man and errand runner. Cain's half-brother Michael tells his duplicitous story, that of a pragmatic killer whose own demise in a 1973 Mob hit was anything but unexpected, adding valuably to organized-crime annals and Chicago history by matter-of-factly describing the everyday operations of the Outfit's soldiers rather than its capos. Cain remained involved with Giancana right up to the latter's execution-style murder but apparently didn't rank high enough to discern whether Giancana was really in charge or a front for Tony Accardo and Paul Ricca, as recent researchers have posited. Great stuff for a look at the reality of life in the Mob and a window on how the "city that works" really worked. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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