[Sample B: Approval/Signature Sheet] - George Mason University

Scheim placed the Kennedy assassination in the context of other mafia murders of
politicians, labor leaders, witnesses, and anyone else who got in their way. The author
notes a theory that Giuseppe Zangara’s attempt to assassination President-elect Franklin
Roosevelt in Miami, Florida in 1933 was really the use of a deranged individual to cover
up the assassination of the real target: anti-mob Chicago mayor Anton Cermak. As noted
earlier, the Warren Commission used Zangara’s assassination attempt as an example of a
deranged individual trying to kill an American president or president-elect. Scheim,
however, stated that before he died after being mortally wounded in the Miami incident,
Cermak himself thought the mob was responsible. In this plot, the real assassin – hired
by Al Capone’s gang – shot Cermak while Zangara fired wildly, diverting attention.
Scheim speculated that the mob may have a hand in later assassinations in the 1960’s,
including mob nemesis and presidential candidate Bobby Kennedy. Scheim also alleged
that the Mafia may have killed Malcolm X and the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
became they were fighting organized crime in the ghetto. Scheim listed some of the
cases of journalists or key witnesses in the JFK assassination who died under mysterious
circumstances. According to Scheim, the deaths “are singularly characteristic” of the
mob, which he wrote “routinely kills and intimidates witnesses to cover its crimes” 453
Scheim detailed the evidence of the most likely mobsters responsible for the assassination
– Jimmy Hoffa, Carlos Marcello, and Santos Trafficante. The other parts of the plot
include familiar suspects, including David Ferrie, Guy Bannister, and Jack Ruby. Scheim
also outlined the case for Oswald’s innocence: “His marksmanship was marginal, and he
453 Scheim, 38.
202