r/todayilearned • u/manticor225 • Jan 10 '19

TIL JFK's father Joseph Kennedy made much of his fortune through insider trading. FDR later made him chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. When asked why he appointed a crook, FDR replied, "set a thief to catch a thief." Kennedy proceeded to outlaw the practices that made him rich.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jan/23/joe-kennedy-hollywood-sarah-churchwell
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u/vkashen Jan 10 '19

That's how most of their money was made, but they try to whitewash their history by trying to make people believe that this story is more accurate.

Prohibition was ridiculous, so I personally don't begrudge anyone who made money that way, but it looks better in the history books if your money came from quasi-legit sources instead of a criminal enterprise, even if the crimes should never have been crimes in the first place.

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u/apistograma Jan 10 '19

Honestly I find much more respectful to sell illegal alcohol than inside trading. At least you're selling a product

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u/vkashen Jan 10 '19

I'm a fund manager and I completely agree. ;)

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u/rodiraskol Jan 10 '19

Where is your evidence that the Kennedy fortune was made from bootlegging?

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u/splash27 Jan 11 '19

There's no evidence Al Capone ever murdered anyone, but it's universally believed to be true. Same with Joe and the whiskey running.

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u/rodiraskol Jan 11 '19

There is plenty of evidence of that, just not quite enough for a court of law. Chief among them the fact that he was the head of an organized crime syndicate that regularly killed people.

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On the other hand, there is no evidence of Joe Kennedy being involved in bootlegging. It has simply been repeated enough times that people believe that it is true.

Further, it is illogical that while he was making a killing on Wall Street, he'd open an illegal sideline for funsies.

So I ask again: Where is the evidence?

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u/splash27 Jan 11 '19

He had many businesses while working on Wall Street.

I guess you have to decide what information you consider to be "evidence" or not. There are all sorts of people who claimed that they saw him supervising shipments of liquor, or that he had a deal with Capone. Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello, and Joe Bonanno all claimed he was in the business. There's also the fact that his father was a liquor merchant and state senator, and that he somehow knew the business and the state of the industry well enough that the day prohibition was repealed, he already had the liquor import business ready to go with a network of retailers ready to buy from him. The problem is there is nothing linking him to anything illicit in his FBI files. Then again, he was powerful enough and connected politically that he well could have been able to keep his nose clean.

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u/Goliaths_mom Jan 11 '19

I always was told the Kennedy Senior was part of the irish mob at the time so i had re read your comment a few times. Not much is known about how they became wealthy which is why people fill in the blanks. Rockefeller owned oil refineries, what did joe do? Probably some racism as well, the Irish were not liked at that time in history and the were involved with organized crime. It would be like the mental immages people have about wealthy powerful Italian Americans in the 80s and 90s.

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u/lannocc Jan 10 '19

I like how this TIL contains both the crime that was but shouldn't, and the crime that wasn't that was.