Since Robert is a believer in the "Mafia did it" theory of the assassination, I have a few questions for other, more informed people in the thread. This post is mostly directed at BStrong since he has experience in police work, but anyone else that has information is more than welcome to jump in.
My understanding has always been that the American Mafia, especially at that time, had very strict rules when dealing with the authorities.
My understanding is that the mafia had very few rules, beyond the one that said the last man standing is in charge.
Do you have documentation to confirm that such rules existed?
I had always heard that to even kill off a beat cop or a low level judge was something that had to be approved at the highest levels of their organization, since something like that could easily bring down a world of hurt on them, that the authorities would be all over them in order to avenge "one of their own". So why would they jump immediately from "we have to be really careful about taking out a beat cop that won't play ball with us" to "let's kill the President of the United States"? Has anyone else ever heard this line of thought?
So, your source is what you "had always heard"?
My source is Carlos Marcello. I think that trumps your source.
Seriously, given Oswald's well known instabilities and anti-social tendencies, how could Carlos Marcello know that Oswald wouldn't crack like an egg once taken into custody and immediately declare who put him up to it and throw himself to the mercy of the authorities by telling them everything he knew?
True enough. In fact, Marcello told Laningham that Oswald was crazy. But they didn't want him for his shooting skills. They wanted him for his communist/Castro legend. There is nothing the mob wanted more than to regain the lucrative casino business in Cuba, which Castro took from them.
If they could put the blame on Oswald, then they hoped the US would retaliate by taking Castro out of power. I believe the mistake that many of my fellow conspiracy advocates make is in thinking Oswald was an innocent patsy. He was a patsy, but he wasn't innocent.
The other question I had was in regard to American Mafia tactics. Was it really their style to make a hit in a very public venue in front of hundreds of witnesses?
It is not a matter of "style". Marcello's primary motivation was hate and his desire for vengence. Killing JFK in such a public manner was a way of humiliating Bobby and flaunting his power over them.
After Bobby quite literally kidnapped Marcello and dumped him in the jungles of Guatemala, there was probably no one on the planet who hated the Kennedys more than him. He swore he would get revenge and he said he would do it by killing JFK rather than Bobby.
He later confessed (unwittingly) to an FBI informant that he did exactly that. He also told mafia attorney, Frank Ragano essentially the same thing.
