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Sam Giancana'He kept up his property'By KATHY CATRAMBONEFuneral services were held Monday on Chicago’s southwest side for a man known differently to different people.To law officials, Sam Giancana was a crime syndicate boss who recently was linked to a CIA plot to kill Cuban Premier Fidel Castro. To his Oak Park neighbors, he was a quiet man who kept to himself.Giancana was shot late Thursday night in the basement of his sprawling 1% story home, 1147 Wenonah Av. He was felled by seven bullets from a .22 caliber gun, one in the back of his head, the other six in his mouth and throat.According to neighbors, Giancana never bothered anyone in the approximately 30 years he lived in the corner house atWenonah and Fillmore. “He kept up his property. What more could you ask for?” said a woman, who lived across the street for 27 years. No many people though of him as a gangster, she said. Years ago, he would use his snowplow to clear the block’s sidewalks.The property is well cared for. A yard along the west side of the house resembles a putting green, the result of hard work by caretaker Joseph DiPersio. Neighbors say they sometimes would see Giancana hitting golf balls in the yard.The house, meticulosly trimmed with evergreens and flowers, and thesurrounding houses, belie the stereotype of south Oak Park. A ranchstyle home on the next block recently sold for $50,000. The homes are large and the previously stableneighborhood has seen an influx of young families with children in the last three years. The first black family recently moved in.Oak Park police are conducting the investigation into Giancana’s death with the assistance of The Illinois Bureau of Investigation, the Chicago Police Dept, and the FBI. Local authorities received a call at 11:53 p.m. Thursday from DiPersio who found Giancana lying face up on the basement floor. DiPersio and his wifewere upstairs in the home watching television and running an air conditioner at the time of the shooting, he told police.Investigates believe Giancana, who had made several appearances recently before a federal grand jury investigating mob operations, may have known his slayer.
Newspaper Details
Oak Park Oak Leaves
Oak Park, Illinois, US
Wed, Jun 25, 1975
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Ja M.
NA, 24 Apr 2021
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