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At the time, Chicago mafia boss Sam Giancana, who shared a mistress with Kennedy, bragged that Kennedy "wouldn't even be in the White House" without the use of intimidation at the polls in Illinois.
Dewey Defeats Truman!
Perhaps the most famous upset in American politics came in 1948, when every pundit expected Republican Thomas Dewey to sweep the Democrats' White House incumbent, Harry Truman, out of power.Dewey had staged a campaign carefully tuned to offend no section of the electorate and reaped the rewards in the opinion polls. President Truman's hold on power appeared tenuous - his party were divided and votes were leaking to a third party candidate, Henry Wallace.
As the results came in, Truman retired to bed, perhaps the only person in the country convinced his last-minute populist campaigning would confound the polls. Truman lost both New York and Pennsylvania - the state with the second largest electoral college - prompting many to hail Dewey the victor.
In the days of the metal press, it was up to newspaper editors to decide whether to fudge the result on their morning frontpages - or go for broke. The Chicago Tribune took this seemingly safe gamble and declared: "Dewey Defeats Truman". Unfortunately for the Tribune, Truman hammered his rival when all the votes were counted. He won 303 electoral college votes, to Dewey's 189.
Funny things in Chicago
In 1960 John F Kennedy beat Vice-President Richard Nixon by just 0.2% of the popular vote or 118,574 votes. The result was so close it remained uncertain the day after polling. But Kennedy went on to win the electoral college by 84 votes - 302 to Nixon's 219.
Nixon (pictured right) admitted defeat - but he always believed he had been robbed of victory. Thanks to connections with the FBI director J Edgar Hoover, Nixon's team got hold of several files on Kennedy's sex life. Though it was not released at the time, they got hold of a rumour that Kennedy had had a secret first marriage. It would have highly damaging to Kennedy, a Catholic. The most controversial aspect of the campaign continues to puzzle investigators - the role of organised crime. At the time, Chicago mafia boss Sam Giancana, who shared a mistress with Kennedy, bragged that Kennedy "wouldn't even be in the White House" without the use of intimidation at the polls in Illinois.
John F. Kennedy
Chicago mayor Richard Daley famously told Kennedy late on election day: "With a little bit of luck, and the help of a few close friends, you're going to carry Illinois." The turnout in Chicago (Illinois) was a staggering 89% - compared to the national figure of 62.8%.
Richard Nixon (Republican) eventually became President but had to resign because of a scandal. John F. Kennedy (Democrat) was assassinated in his first term of his Presidency. In 1968 his brother, Bobby Kennedy, was a Presidential candidate. Tragically, he was also assassinated.
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