Handsome Johnny: the life and death of Johnny Rosselli: gentleman gangster, Hollywood producer, CIA assassin

Golden-age Hollywood, modern Las Vegas, JFK-era scandal and international intrigue from Lee Server, the New York Times bestselling author of Ava Gardner: Love is Nothing…

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 Twenties as 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. Alluring and glamorous, 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 while enjoying the Rat Pack nightlife with 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 on years of research, written with compelling style and vivid detail, Handsome Johnny is the great telling of an amazing tale.