To add to your info on Joe Kennedy. Joe solicited the mafia to help with the union vote. It was instrumental in the W VA primary, usually not a significant one. JFK beat Humphrey, who was the favorite up to that point.
When Bobby Kennedy went after the mafia, Joe was paid a visit to ask him to remind the boys that they were slapping the hand that fed them. Joe told them he would talk to them when the family got together for x-mas. Joe stroked out before then.
It is reputed that Joe and the mafia split the entire traffic in Scotch during prohibition and most of the 30s.
Joe was FDR's ambassador to, I think, England. He was soft and blind to Hitler. This lead to his recall and the end of his personal political career.
They buying of mob help in several states was done with $250,000 bags of cash in small bills direct from JFK with girlfriend Judith Campbill being used as a courier. Discussions of it were picked up on FBI iretap tapes and mention of the tales was made in, I believe, a fall 1998 Time Magazine piece quoting a retired federal agen with knowledge of the matter.