The Buchanan-hating Bronfman family are the "godfathers" behind the organized crime empire in Arizona that spawned the political career of "reformer" John McCain.
By Michael Collins Piper
In 1976 a crusading Phoenix reporter, Don Bolles, was
murdered by a car-bomb after writing a series of stories exposing the
organized crime connections of well-known figures in Arizona, including
one Jim Hensley.
Five years later "Honest John" McCain arrived
in Arizona as the new husband of Hensley's daughter, Cindy. "From the
moment McCain landed in Phoenix," according to Charles Lewis of the
Center for Public Integrity, "the Hensleys were key sponsors of his
political career."
The fact is, the people ultimately behind the Hensley
fortune are even more interesting and controversial
While it is well-known McCain's father-in-law is owner
of the biggest Anheuser-Busch beer distributor in Arizona—one of the
largest beer distributors in the nation—the media has had nothing to say
about the origins of the Hensley fortune that financed McCain's rise to
power.
The Hensley fortune, in fact, is a regional offshoot of
the big time bootlegging and rackets empire of the Bronfman dynasty of
Canada, founded by Sam Bronfman, an early partner of Meyer Lansky,
longtime "chairman of the board" of the international crime
syndicate. (The Bronfmans cover all bases. Sam's son, Edgar, today—at
least publicly—supports George W. Bush.)
McCain's father-in-law got his start as a top henchman
of one Kemper Marley who, for some forty years until his death in 1990 at
age 84, was the undisputed behind-the-scenes political boss of Arizona.
But Marley was much more: he was also the protege of Lansky's longtime
lieutenant, Phoenix gambler Gus Greenbaum.
In 1941 Greenbaum had set up the Transamerica
Publishing and News Ser vice, which operated a national wire service for
bookmakers. In 1946 Green baum turned over the day-to-day operations to
Marley while Greenbaum focused on building up Lansky-run casinos in Las
Vegas, commuting there from his home in Phoe nix. Greenbaum, in fact, was
so integral to the Lansky empire that he was the one who took command of
Lansky's Las Vegas interests in 1947 after Lansky ordered the execution of
his own longtime friend, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, for skimming
profits from the new Flamingo Casino.
Greenbaum and his wife were murdered in a mob
"hit" in 1948, their throats cut. The murder set off a series of
gangland wars in Phoenix, but Marley survived and prospered
During this time Marley was building up a liquor
distribution monopoly in Arizona. The truth is that it was the Bronfman
family that set Marley up in business. However, in 1948, some 52 of
Marley's employees (including Jim Hensley) went to jail on federal liquor
violations—but not Marley.
The story in Arizona is that Hensley took the fall for
Marley. Upon Hensley's release from prison, Marley paid Hensley back by
setting him up in the beer business. That company today, said to be worth
$200 million, financed McCain's career. And without Marley's political
support McCain could have never even gotten elected dogcatcher.
But there's more. McCain's father-in-law had also
dabbled in the dog racing business and he expanded his family fortune
further by selling his dog racing track to an individual connected to the
the Buffalo-based Jacobs family.
The Jacobs were the leading distributors for Bronfman
liquor into the United States during Prohibition into the hands of local
gangs that were part of the Lansky syndicate. Expanding over the years,
the family's enterprises were once described as being "probably the
biggest quasi-legitimate cover for organized crime's money-laundering in
the United States."
While John McCain himself can not be held personally
responsible for the sins of his father-in-law, the fact is that this
"reformer" owes his political and financial fortunes to the good
graces of the biggest names in organized crime.
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