Customer Reviews

The Tangled Web: The Life and Death of Richard Cain - Chicago Cop and Mafia Hitman

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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

You have to keep telling yourself that yes, this is a true story. For a leading character that came from such humble, mundane background, Dick Cain let a most extraordinary life. The book does an excellent job of tracking his life, from a pseudo-inside perspective. It adds to the appeal of the book that the author has a vested interest in the subject, but not involved enough to have a stake beyond discovery of the truth. No over the top dramatics but a very straight forward, well told story.

The book leaves you wanting more, which is a good measure of its success. Dick Cain did great things, terrible things, but great. You read his story and he seems to be just a run of the mill tough guy, but by the end of the book you realize just how many adventures he had and just home much of this era's history he saw. It was hard to put down and was told in a very personal, well pace manner.

This is a great view of organized crime from the inside. Not from someone who made it big in a financial sense or a power sense, but from a person who actually survived as long as he did without achieving either of those measures of success. Not a stooge but not a star, which makes it, in my experience, a unique and fascinating book.

One of the most esteemed JFK assassination researchers, Dr. Peter Dale Scott has long been intrigued by the life and times of Richard Cain.
As both a respected cop and a ruthless murderer, Cain personified Scott's assertion that "deep politics," the shady nexus of elected power-brokers and underworld forces, determined the course of history in the 20th century.

As a made member of the Chicago Outfit who also rose to the position of Chief of Special Investigations for the Cook County Sheriff's Police, Cain clearly operated as a deep political player.

This new biography of Cain reveals that he was also an international operator whose travels took him to Mexico, Japan, Colombia and Cuba.
Although he has occasionally been named as a possible shooter and/or conspirator in the JFK hit, Cain is apparently exonerated by this new bio.

The book, with the wordy title "The Tangled Web: The Life and Death of Richard Cain - Chicago Cop and Mafia Hitman," was written by Cain's half-brother, Michael J. Cain. It includes eight pages of photos.
As a relative of his biographical subject, the author offers many personal observations of Cain as an aspiring Chicago PD cop along with plenty of family history. One amusing anecdote has Cain and his police partner attempting to stab a dead wino's body so they could call in the homicide cops to take the stiff off their hands.

Before Dick Cain rose through the CPD ranks and, in the 1950s, became a bag man for the Outfit delivering payoffs to fellow police officers while guarding the interests of his best friend, Sam Giancana.
As his focus grew national, Cain mastered the operation of the polygraph machine and also became an adept wiretapper, two talents that well-served both his upperworld and his underworld bosses. Cain taught those skills to Mexican authorities and also had considerable contact with CIA operatives whom he hoped to impress with his investigative capabilities.

In a chapter barely more than four pages long, the author deals with the JFK allegations by claiming that on the afternoon of Nov. 22, 1963 Dick Cain was waiting to testify to a grand jury in Chicago. But since he has turned up only one witness to that scenario, Michael Cain's mind remains open. "I welcome any new evidence," he wrote.

Anti-Outfit politicians and Judge Julius Hoffmann (famous for his role in the Chicago Eight trial) sent Dick Cain in prison during the late-1960s, but by 1973 he was back on the street and still scuffling between the Outfit and the Feds. Giancana had been exiled to Mexico, so Cain took up with a burglary crew led by Marshall Caifano, who may have eventually engineered Cain's murder in December '73, at Rose's Sandwich Shop, about a mile from The Loop.

"Corrupt cops lead complicated lives," the author writes, and later, "Dick Cain was a complicated guy, to say the least."
Even though "The Tangled Web" makes few direct contributions to our knowledge of what occurred in Dallas, it paints a vivid portrait of the deep political corruption that was epidemic in major metropolitan centers during the 1950s and '60s.

For that alone, the book sheds important light on a world previously cloaked in darkness, a world in which the killing of a president and the cover-up of his murder was no longer unthinkable but actually inevitable.

Imagine having a half brother who was both a highly decorated police detective and a "made" soldier in Chicago's Giancana crime family. That is the story that unfolds as Michael Cain describes the double life of his half-brother Richard. Richard Cain was rumored to be involved in the CIA plots to assassinate Fidel Castro and he was also named as one of the mob hit men supposedly involved in the assassination of JFK. He was appointed Chief Investigator for the Cook County Sheriff's Department at the same time he was on the payroll of mob boss Sam Giancana. What is amazing is that Richard Cain's corruption was widely suspected yet it did not prevent him from moving up the ranks of law enforcement. Along the way he also found time to bug foreign embassies, pass himself off as a psychologist and become and informant for the FBI. The book is mesmerizing read and covers many aspects of organized crime in Chicago from the 1950's to the early 1970's.

I was lucky enough to obtain a copy of this book right after its release. This is one of the few "can't put down" books that I have read in ages. The narrative written by Michael Cain flows natuarally and made this book very easy to follow and read. How the author was able to find out some of the stories related is incredible. If one wishes to read not only about how the "system" worked in law enforcment decades ago as well as follow the rise and eventual demise of one of its key players-don't pass this excellent book.

The shoddy research(if it can even be called such)by author Michael Cain on the known facts regarding such individuals as Al Capone and Al Smith cast enormous doubt on the obscure material pertaining to the author's brother,the subject of this book...In chapter one ALONE author Michael Cain claims that Al Capone arranged for his mentor,Johnny Torrio to be arrested at the Seiben Brewery and was the author of an of an assassination attempt on Torrio's life..WRONG on both counts..All historical records and all reliable biographers of Capone blame these incidents on Dion O'Bannion,then boss of the rival north side gang..One need only google up the names Al Capone and Dion O'banion to find these facts..One need not actually read any of the many mob books on Capone,O'Bannion or the so-called"St.Valentine's Day massacre" to find this information..So I can only wonder why Cain couldn't find it?
Then there is his description of former new york state govenor and failed presidential candidate Al Smith as being a "prosecutor" SAY WHAT?Smith was a longtime New York state senator,Tammany Hall official,and later,after he lost the 1928 presidential race to Herbert Hoover,he became the frontman for a cabal of builders who erected the empire state building..There are several reliable biographies of Smith currently available,NONE of which mention anything regarding any role Smith ever played as a"prosecutor".
This said I can only wonder about all of the other stuff that Cain includes in his book,material that cannot be so easily shown to be the result of slipshod research..
As far as I am concerned,if Cain can't even get the more widely known historical facts straight then I must assume that most and perhaps even all of the rest of his book is equally badly researched(if it has even been researched at all)..It reads like fiction for the most part,and as Cain's mentions regarding both Al Smith and Al Capone ARE fiction I would guess that much of the rest of his book is fiction too.

Compelling! The Tangled Web is my first ever "mob book". The pace certainly propelled me though it fighting off sleep to do so. The author's use of crime terminology brought realism to the page. His desciptive narrative brought color to the black and white of the time period.
I am a fan of murder mysteries which this was not. At times I thought the story was influenced by the fact that the author was also his brother and was "easy" on this corrupt man. Possibly he has been "too easy" on this character, Dick Cain, I thought but the last chapter changed my thinking. Dick Cain was clearly a sociopath from my perspective and they often have ingratiating personalities thus the portrayal.
Michael Cain writes brilliantly particularly noting his extensively poignant vocabulary. I do hope he continues to express himself with his writing talent.
The plan is to send this off to a friend who is anxious to read the book in Detriot. Linda Jean

This book represents the culmination of many years of research both inside my family and inside the government agencies that were a part of Richard's life. I'm proud of the work I've done and encouraged by the feedback from people who have read it.

In the true sense of the old Chinese curse, Richard was a man who led an interesting life. I'm not proud of my brother, but I made a decision that his story was worth telling for all its fascinating twists and double dealing. When I was approached by the FBI and told (with implied threats) that I should not pursue the research, I knew that I was onto something that was worth my efforts. I hope you'll agree, and please feel free to send your comments to michaeljcain@gmail.com

While some people live double lives, Richard Cain led triple lives, and this book fills in many of the blank spots in the lives of this dark, but fascinating mob and CIA figure.

This book had a familiar ring to it, and it was because it seemed to mirror the story line in the Oscar winning movie "The Departed". Here the story was set in Chicago, not Boston, but it plays out along similar lines.

Richard Cain was a protege of legendary Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana. He got a commission on the Chicago Police Department as a detective, but was somewhat choosy about which crimes he decided to really pursue. Those that were Mob related, he backed off on. He catches the eye of then up and comer Richard Ogilvie, who would later become Governor of Illinois, (and setting an unpopular precedent for his successors, would not be indicted), and gets promoted high within the Department.

The problem is, his hands are very dirty.

This book, in an unusual twist, was written by Richard Cain's younger half-brother, who claims he researched the subject to set the record straight.

The depth of Cain's corruption is hard to fathom. At one point, the author quells a rumor the Cain was actually the shooter on the grassy knoll in Dallas in November of 1963.

What is clear is that Cain was dirty. He lived a life on the edge of the law, and at some point, slid way off that edge. The title claims that Cain was a mafia hitman, but there is little direct evidence in this book that Cain went to these extremes. (I have little doubt that he did, but the book does little to back this up.)

Cain's half brother is not a professional writer, and this book is not the most clearly written. However, Richard Cain seems like a worthy subject, and I would like to learn more about his time on the Chicago police force, and his ties to the mob of that time.

Just finished reading this book and have found the writer to be somewhat green in his stroy telling. Very interesting book if your into true crime, as he was someone who had very powerful friends. I'm sure he lived quite a colorful life which is hard to get from this book. The writer should have had a little help in telling this story as i'm sure with the right writer this would have been one of those books you just can't put down.