Life of Hollywood gangster detailed
Johnny Rosselli was one of those people who navigated the world by charming everyone in his path, including gangsters such as Al Capone and Frank Nitti, Hollywood censor Joseph Breen, union boss Willie Bioff, Columbia Pictures President Harry Cohn, actor and singer Frank Sinatra and President John F. Kennedy.
The wealth of stories in the Lee Server biography “Handsome Johnny: The Life and Death of Johnny Rosselli, Gentleman Gangster, Hollywood Producer, CIA Assassin” is undoubtedly worth the price of admission.
Rosselli was born Filippo Sacco in 1905, and he and his family moved from Italy to Massachusetts when he was a boy.
Like other immigrant kids who fell into criminal activity, the boy sought refuge from an unstable home on the streets of Boston. Quickly landing too close to a murder investigation, he fled to Chicago and changed his name.
In the Windy City, Rosselli solidified his dapper demeanor, eventually earning the nickname “Handsome Johnny.” He also met Capone.
Rosselli didn’t know Capone well but would stay in contact with him after moving to Los Angeles. Rosselli’s rise in the criminal underworld paralleled the rise of moviemaking in Hollywood. The City of Angels was largely off the mob’s radar — which is partly why movie moguls set up shop there.
When Rosselli arrived, bootlegging was the top game in town, and he thrived by negotiating with law enforcement, buddying up with politicians and schmoozing as necessary.
In L.A., Rosselli connected with mob boss Jack Dragna, who would later authorize the hit on the notorious Bugsy Siegel.
Rosselli worked briefly as a producer for a small production company, Eagle Lion Films. He helped produce the 1948 prison-break film “Canon City” and later “He Walked by Night,” based on the true story of William Erwin Walker, who committed various crimes in Los Angeles, including the murder of a police officer.
As Rosselli continued to work in and around Hollywood, he eventually got to know Sinatra and Kennedy, who would soon become president.
In the most fascinating section of the engrossing book, Server details how Rosselli was recruited for a secret plot to assassinate Fidel Castro in Cuba. After failed attempts, Castro eventually learned that the plots came from Kennedy; some people believe the president’s assassination was retaliation.
Rosselli’s life of crime eventually caught up to him in 1976, when he was found in a 55-gallon drum off the coast of Florida.
Server’s biography not only provides a window into Rosselli’s life but also contextualizes it at a time when Hollywood, politics and organized crime were inextricably linked.