In the last five years, Gus Russo has written two Pulitzer Prize-nominated books–one on the Kennedy assassination and one called “The Outfit: The Role of Chicago’s Underworld in the Shaping of Modern America.”
He says the two are linked, perhaps most significantly through Frank Sinatra. It was Russo’s research on the Kennedy book, titled “Live by the Sword: The Secret War against Castro and the Death of JFK,” which led him repeatedly to Chicago to interview members of the Mafia and those who knew them.
And it was his work on both books, along with his involvement in various television documentaries, including a new two-hour special on the Kennedy assassination to air on PBS next month, that led him to some fascinating technology-based research tools.
Early in his career, the University of Maryland political science graduate became known for his ability to obtain research documents that others couldn’t get their hands on.
“There’s an art to prying documents loose,” Russo said, “and I had that knowledge from college. So people started coming to me for it.”
Today, Russo uses a series of tech tools to gain access to documents previously available only in the FBI reading room at the organization’s Washington, D.C., headquarters.
He’s a frequent visitor to the FBI’s electronic reading room (http://foia.fbi.gov/room.htm), where hundreds of thousands of pages of once-classified FBI files are cataloged and displayed in PDF format.
“They put their most popular files there. There’s a whole gangster section,” said Russo.
Indeed, there are 2,399 pages in Al Capone’s file (Russo believes it is the complete Capone file) and 107 pages on Chicago’s St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.
But the files take a long time to download due to their size and volume, so Russo turns to a Beverly Hills company called BAC Marketing (www.paperlessarchives.com), which scans and catalogs a wide variety of FBI files.
For about $200, he received a stack of 29 CD-ROMs containing more than a quarter-million of such files.
“It cost me a couple hundred dollars for a stack of CD-ROMs. For all those files, it would have cost me more than $20,000 if I would have copied them page by page.”
This week, Russo is starting on a new book project detailing the life and times of Sidney Korshak, a Chicago labor attorney said to have advised a variety of Mafia bigwigs.
The process begins with nearly 50 letters to various agencies requesting classified documentation under the Freedom of Information Act. The person must be deceased for any information to be released on him or her.
But you can request to see your own file at any time.
“If you did anything interesting in the ’60s or ’70s, you probably have a file with the FBI,” Russo said with a laugh.
Has he had a look at his own information?
“I haven’t requested my own file yet. I’m waiting until they get a nice thick one on me, and then I’m going to ask them to let me have it.”
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