Free Interference by Dan E. Moldea Page A

down Nationwide and took over his father’s publishing empire, which included The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Daily Racing Form , which the elder Annenberg had bought in 1922. 4
    Among those sent by the Chicago mob to work for the elder Annenberg on his wire service had been Johnny Rosselli. After the collapse of Nationwide, Rosselli went to Hollywood to work for the Motion Picture Producers Association. Within three years, he and six other Chicago mobsters—who had taken over the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the largest union in Hollywood—were indicted and convicted for selling labor peace to the major movie studios. 5
    While the Mafia was busy shaking down Hollywood, Nationwide’s Chicago manager, Tom Kelly, persuaded his brother-in-law, Mickey McBride, to create Continental in November 1939, in the wake of Nationwide’s collapse, with a mere $20,000 investment. McBride was also encouraged to do so by James Ragen, who was indicted with Annenberg for his role in the Nationwide scheme and pleaded guilty.
    The intent of the wire service had been to provide every bookmaker in the country with needed information on all aspects of sports gambling, particularly horse racing. Sports results were transmitted over both the telephone and telegraph to twenty-four large “distributors” throughout the United States. The gambling information was then printed and delivered to subscribers to the service.
    Former Chicago FBI agent Aaron Kohn, who investigated the wire service, told me, “One of the mob’s major sources of income was their operation of the wire service systems and thelayoff network for gambling on football. Among the clever devices they used for reaching out to the largest possible mass of consumers were football-betting parlay cards. By the 1950s, they were widespread.
    â€œThe mob had to do everything they could to control the outcome of these games in order to control the level of their profits. You found them manipulating and corrupting in football, as they sometimes did in basketball. They would corrupt players and move into ownership control of teams whenever they could. Once the mob found the market for illegal gambling, corruption became an inseparable part of their operation.”
    Within two years of creating Continental, McBride sold it to Ragen, with whom he had been involved in some real estate deals after the newspaper wars. Because Ragen needed McBride’s contacts, he asked the Cleveland businessman to stay on and become his minority partner. McBride agreed and kept a one-third interest in the wire service—but he placed his investment in the name of his son Edward McBride who was away at college at the time of the purchase.
    The Chicago Mafia viewed Continental as potentially a multimillion-dollar business and a vehicle through which it could control sports bookmaking in the United States. In 1946, Chicago Mafia boss Tony Accardo, the Chicago mob’s political fixer Jake “Greasy Thumb” Guzik, and syndicate member Murray “the Camel” Humphreys offered to buy Continental from Ragen. Despite the underworld’s promise to keep Ragen as a partner, Ragen refused because he foresaw the obvious problem: Sooner or later, he would lose his independence.
    When the Chicago mobsters refused to relent, Ragen went to the FBI and signed a ninety-eight-page affidavit informing the bureau that Accardo, Guzik, and Humphreys were trying to take over his business. He also told the bureau that his own wire service had paid out over $600,000 to numerous unnamed politicians throughout the country for protection.
    The Chicago Mafia responded by setting up a rival wire service, Trans-American Press Service. Accardo-hired leg breakers attempted to muscle Continental’s subscribers to cancel their contracts. When that ploy failed, Ragen, although supposedly under police protection, was ambushed and shot while driving in rush hour on a