One more from the “Secret Lives of Presidents” calendar

I just love these! This is the historical tidbit printed on today’s page:

Jack Kennedy had wit, intelligence, and personal magnetism.  But he was no Washington heavyweight, and he needed all the  help he could get in the 1960 presidential campaign.  According to many historians, that help came from some pretty shady characters.  With the assistance of Frank Sinatra, a close Kennedy pal who rubbed shoulders with the Italian mob, Joe Sr. arranged a meeting in Chicago with Sam Giancana, one of the natioin’s most powerful mafiosi. In the meeting, Giancana pledged to Joe Sr. that the mob-controlled unions would turn out in force to make sure the election went Kennedy’s way.  Giancana believed that a Kennedy administration would take the heat off the Chicago crime outfit in return for the mafia’s help.  In a victory with a margin of less than 120,000 votes nationwide, Giancana’s help proved invaluable.