Italian born Filippo Sacco came to the US when he was six years old. Eventually he changed his name to Giovanni Roselli because that was the name on a painting he liked. However he became known as “Handsome Johnny".

He met Al Capone in the late 20s and moved in the big leagues of crime. He became connected with Meyer Lansky and moved on to Las Vegas where he kept an eye on mobs interests. His flamboyant lifestyle fit in with the glamor and gitz of the oasis in the desert.  With the proximity to Los Angeles, Roselli began to be an influence in film production – as producer to two examples of film noir: Canon City and He Walked By Night. This was primarily because he had the funding. During that time he convinced studio heads of things they should do by making them offers they literally could not refuse.

By the mid 50's Roselli was the mobs head guy in both Las Vegas and Los Angeles making sure the got an honest count from the casinos, etc. Fidel Castro's shutting down of Havana's casinos put him into contact with Chicago's Sam Giancana and Tampa's Santo Trafficante. They need to do something about this.

At the time, the CIA had the same ideas about Castro – that something had to be done. They contacted the mob to work about their mutual enemy, the communist Castro. This may have been Roselli's first contact with the CIA. The came up with all kinds of hair-brain schemes that didn't work to eliminate Castro.

Then, a new enemy emerged, the new president who wanted normal relations with the nation that recently revealed itself as a communist paradise that confiscated American interests, both legal and illegal. This common enemy also declared war on the organized crime bosses the CIA was courting.

So the interests of the mob, the CIA and Cuban exiles merged as they sought to rid Cuba of the bearded communist. Roselli said he was in Dallas on November 22, 1963. He even claimed he was one of the shooters who was down in the storm drain. Some investigator checked this out and getting in the storm drain would be very awkward and the angle of the shot would not have been optimal, so that may be open for discussion.

In September of 1965 Roselli testified before the Church Committee. A short time later, he was scheduled to testify again, however he was unable to as he was found asphyxiated and stuffed in a barrel floating in the waters near Miami.

Handsome Johnny: The Life and Death of Johnny Rosselli: Gentleman Gangster, Hollywood Producer, CIA Assassin
by Lee Server

A singular figure in the annals of the American underworld, Johnny Rosselli’s career flourished for an extraordinary fifty years, from the bloody years of bootlegging in the Roaring Twenties—the last protégé of Al Capone—to the modern era of organized crime as a dominant corporate power. The Mob’s “Man in Hollywood,” Johnny Rosselli introduced big-time crime to the movie industry, corrupting unions and robbing moguls in the biggest extortion plot in history. A man of great allure and glamour, Rosselli befriended many of the biggest names in the movie capital—including studio boss Harry Cohn, helping him to fund Columbia Pictures—and seduced some of its greatest female stars, including Jean Harlow and Marilyn Monroe. In a remarkable turn of events, Johnny himself would become a Hollywood filmmaker—producing two of the best film noirs of the 1940s.

Following years in federal prison, Rosselli began a new venture, overseeing the birth and heyday of Las Vegas. Working for new Chicago boss Sam Giancana, he became the gambling mecca’s behind-the-scenes boss, running the town from his suites and poolside tables at the Tropicana and Desert Inn, enjoying the Rat Pack nightlife with pals Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. In the 1960s, in the most unexpected chapter in an extraordinary life, Rosselli became the central figure in a bizarre plot involving the Kennedy White House, the CIA, and an attempt to assassinate Fidel Castro. Based upon years of research, written with compelling style and vivid detail, Handsome Johnny is the great telling of an amazing tale.

All American Mafioso: The Johnny Rosseli Story
by Charles Rappleye, Ed Becker

When the CIA decided to assassinate Fidel Castro, they called upon a classy, well-spoken, and totally ruthless Mafioso named Johnny Rosselli. In response to the government's offer of several hundred thousand dollars for the hit, Rosselli stood up, saluted and declared he would perform the task for the love of America. Johnny Rosselli was a smooth Mafia man who moved with amazing ease between the worlds of Hollywood, Las Vegas and Washington. He was the mob point man for several covert operations involving the Mafia and the U.S. Government. His career reveals the tangled links between Al Capone's Chicago, Harry Cohn's Hollywood, Howard Hughes, Las Vegas, and JFK's Washington. Johnny Rosselli was a Mafia powerhouse whose mob career spanned five decades, and whose friends included movie mogul Harry Cohn, Howard Hughes, Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe and John F, Kennedy.