LOYALTY AND BETRAYAL

Most of the Outfit’s members like Daddono easily adjusted in the prison type of environment obviously because most of them already spent some time during their criminal careers, but for Cain the situation was different and quite difficult since this was his first time in prison and on top of that, everybody knew that he was a cop. Story goes that Cain had a problem with one black inmate, and one day when they visited the prison yard, the inmate approached Cain and tried to provoke him but suddenly Daddono showed up and the inmate backed off and never tried to bother Cain ever again. No matter what was going on within the Outfit, when a third party tried to provoke another member, the other members’ job was to protect their “brother”. Besides that, Daddano and Cain knew each other for years and were both completely loyal to Giancana. While in jail, Cain was introduced to one member from the Chicago Heights group known as Guido Fidanzi, a connection which will later allegedly end Cain’s downfall in a very tragic way.


In October 1971, both Cain and Fidanzi were paroled and later released from prison, and I don’t know about Fidanzi, but it seems that Cain wasn’t welcomed with open arms by some of the bosses, especially his superiors Alex and Marcy, since everyone in Chicago knew that he was a criminal and member of the Outfit. Even though he was probably mad at them for previously not giving him a proper mob lawyer and also left him in prison, still Cain had to follow his bosses’ orders. I believe that at first Cain was left on his own, meaning he was probably told to take a low profile and stay away from the rackets and other members, at least for some time until the smoke clears. Cain allegedly saw this as second “slap in the face” from his bosses, or in other words he felt betrayed for the second time.


Cain early 1970’s

So, by being the cunning individual that he was, some sources say that Cain allegedly decided to talk to the FBI and became one of their most important confidential informants. It was quite easy for Cain to cross the line whenever he wanted to, obviously because he was more of a professional government agent rather than Mafia criminal. Cain served in the army and was involved in all types of post-war operations, and after that entered Chicago’s police force and later became chief detective for the sheriff’s office, and above all he was recruited by the CIA, among other mobsters, which means, if true, there was nothing out of the ordinary for he becoming a CI. After making such a dangerous move, Cain also decided not to obey his bosses’ orders by trying to stay in the rackets, but being out of their sight at the same time.

Sources say that Cain together with Fidanzi planned to get involved in the narcotics business with the help of the car theft out-of-state transportation business. At the start of the 1970’s, the car theft racket was one of the Outfit’s biggest illegal activities that stretched in and out the country. At same time, Cain’s old pal and former boss Sam Giancana was still stationed in Mexico, and controlled a huge narcotics route which went all across the southern border. The plan was for Giancana to be their prime source for the product, and with the help of their “transportation” business, they were going sell the drugs on the city’s streets through various types of street dealers.

BORN STUBBORN

Cain again joined his old boss down to Mexico in 1972, who in turn gave his old associate an overseas job as his main representative in London, England; and also in Madrid, Spain; and additionally gave him the financials to open up a “front”, something like a casino, for their dope peddling and prostitution rackets. Besides his international operations and travels, Cain was no longer part of the old “Combine” which was under Giancana, Alex and also one Hyman Larner, but instead he was Giancana’s “side project”. On top of that, Cain's daughter married the son of the U.S. embassy ambassador in Madrid at the time. That same year, Giancana’s original Taylor Street boss and former protector Paul Ricca died of natural causes, meaning Giancana and his some of his friends from the old neighborhood were on their own.

The biggest problem was that during that same decade some of the Outfit’s traditional rackets were on the downfall and on top of that, the new leadership banned all illegal activities that involved narcotics, which they saw as a threat of their own security and freedom. Bosses such as Alex, Joey Aiuppa and Tony Accardo held the whole organization by its “throat” and also had their own sources regarding the activities of their members in and out of the country, including Giancana’s “side projects”. So, they sent him and Cain a “message” in August 1972, by shooting to death Cain’s business partner Guido Fidanzi in front of his Chicago Heights gas station. In addition, the narcotics deal with Cain wasn’t the only reason behind Fidanzi’s demise, because he also already had problems with his own Chicago Heights bosses, especially with Jimmy Catuara.


Guido Fidanzi

With Fidanzi out of the way, Cain’s narcotics operation failed and so he quickly turned to some of the Outfit’s international gambling operations such as casino boats. The excursion boats travelled from New York to Florida and into the Caribbean and were operated by one of Giancana’s and Larner’s lieutenants known as James Tortorielo. Cain’s plan was to recruit all of the best gambling operators and biggest high rollers from the Chicago area, and to assure them about the arrest-free conditions on the same cruise ships, but Larner allegedly thought otherwise and informed the bosses back in Chicago regarding the situation. The bosses obviously said “no” and that was that, meaning Cain was again “banned” from some of their most lucrative rackets. Even Giancana allegedly started seeing the “writing on the wall” and began protecting his own skin.

With nothing else to do, by October 1973, Cain was back home in Chicago and again, quickly became involved in the burglary business with the help of one small burglary crew, which means that Cain was one quite stubborn criminal who was simply “asking for it”. Story goes that shortly after that the feds allegedly contacted Cain and decided to pay him a visit. During their meeting, Cain allegedly informed on the burglary gang and in no time, many of his associates were arrested. Besides being spared because of his mistakes numerous times in the past, and also for disobeying the bosses’ orders, Cain reached the “peak” of his problems in December 1973, when he was personally visited by Alex himself. During that period Alex was a very elusive and paranoid individual who successfully avoided most of the government’s surveillances, and for him to appear in a public place with a nationally known criminal such as Cain, while knowingly being monitored by the feds, it meant only one thing, last warning. According to the feds, the two were involved in a violent argument in which Cain wanted to receive interests in the international gambling business, while Alex objected Cain’s plan to drain money from their scheme, and in the end Cain, in a very disrespectful manner, allegedly gave Alex his last answer.


Gus Alex

That same month or December 21st, Cain was sitting at the Rose’s Restaurant on 1117 W Grand Avenue, which I think was owned by the Cozzo family and again, Cain had a meeting but with four unknown individuals, with one of them having sun tan and flashy dressing, allegedly being Alex himself, again. When they finished talking, the four men left, and shortly after two masked hitmen with walkie-talkies entered the joint and forced Cain to stand against the wall, while placing a sawed-off shotgun under his chin. One of the hitmen pulled the trigger, thus blowing more than half of Cain’s face and also shot him a second time, just so they can be sure their target was dead. The two hitmen were allegedly Joey Lombardo and Frank Schweihs, members of the so-called Grand Avenue crew under Chuck Nicoletti at the time, who in turn was also one Cain’s former old neighborhood friends, and it is quite possible that after the Cain hit, Lombardo was elevated as the new capo or captain for that same crew. This might be another evidence that the late Richard Cain was probably a former made member of the Chicago Mafia, mainly because often members received higher positions after the killing of another made individual.


Cain’s dead body being carried out of Rose’s restaurant

EPILOGUE

The main reason behind Cain’s murder somehow remains a mystery even today, because even though he stubbornly wanted to remain in the rackets and was also informant for the feds behind the Outfit’s back, during those days the U.S. government was very much interested in the CIA-Chicago Outfit plots and Cain was also on their list for questioning. I personally think that if Cain took the stand during a senate hearing, he would’ve probably talked and the Outfit’s bosses were quite aware about that, obviously because he was also a known “loud-mouth”. Some investigators speculated that even Giancana himself allegedly gave the “ok” for Cain’s murder, which in reality was the biggest and last betrayal during Cain’s life and criminal career. In fact, after Cain’s murder, Giancana, Roselli and Nicoletti all were also murdered on the orders of the Outfit’s leadership, which means that all of the previous loyalties and betrayals were for nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Same as the other mobsters who previously had ties to the CIA and also received special training and skills, Cain’s legacy was also shrouded in mystery, followed by many conspiracy theories and myths. Decades later after his murder or in 1992, Cain’s name was again mentioned in a book that was written by Giancana’s brother Charles and his son Sam Jr., and in it they claimed that Richard Cain and Charles Nicoletti were the two gunman or second shooters who allegedly killed President John F. Kennedy back during the early 1960’s. Shortly after that or in 1994, one individual known as James Earl Files a.k.a. James Sutton, who served 50 years prison term at the Danville Correctional Center in Danville, Illinois; for the attempted murder of two police officers, stated in an interview that allegedly he and Nicoletti were the shooters in the assassination of Kennedy. None of the previous statements were ever proved to be true but still, Cain’s legend grew by the day and it can be felt even today. Cain was buried as Richard Skully Cain at the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois; in a family mausoleum that bores the name “Skully” even today. This means that even in his grave, Cain remained close to his mother’s name, the same name that brought him a lot of trouble while he was still alive.


The Skully mausoleum

Cheers