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User:Usernamekiran/sandbox/Collaborations between Central Intelligence Agency and American Mafia

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Note: This draft doesnt qualify for an article. Yet I have decided to keep working on it, in case new material becomes available; and also for practice. —usernamekiran(talk)

Lead

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  • No lead section yet.
  • Repeated content that needs to be worked on, is in italics.
  • Find something after 80s
    • Most of the disclosed collaboration dates before 80s.

1960s

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In August 1960, Colonel Sheffield Edwards, director of the Office of Security of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), proposed the assassination of Cuban head of state Fidel Castro by Mafia assassins. Between August 1960 and April 1961, the CIA, with the help of the Mafia, pursued a series of plots to poison or shoot Castro.[1] Those allegedly involved included Sam Giancana, Carlos Marcello, Santo Trafficante, Jr., and John Roselli.[2]

In the summer of 1960, the CIA recruited Maheu to approach the West Coast representative of the Chicago mob, Johnny Roselli. When Maheu contacted Roselli, Maheu hid the fact that he was sent by the CIA, instead portraying himself an advocate for international corporations. He offered to pay to have Castro killed, but Roselli declined any pay. Roselli introduced Maheu to two men he referred to as "Sam Gold" and "Joe." "Sam Gold" was Sam Giancana; "Joe" was Santo Trafficante, Jr., the Tampa, Florida boss and one of the most powerful mobsters in pre-revolution Cuba.[3][4] Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post explained: "After Fidel Castro led a revolution that toppled a friendly government in 1959, the CIA was desperate to eliminate him. So the agency sought out a partner equally worried about Castro—the Mafia, which had lucrative investments in Cuban casinos."[5]

According to the CIA documents, the so-called Family Jewels that were declassified in 2007, one assassination attempt on Fidel Castro prior to the Bay of Pigs invasion involved noted American mobsters Johnny Roselli, Salvatore Giancana and Santo Trafficante.[6]

In September 1960, Momo Salvatore Giancana, a successor of Al Capone's in the Chicago Outfit, and Miami Syndicate leader Santo Trafficante, who were both on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list at that time, were indirectly contacted by the CIA about the possibility of Fidel Castro's assassination. Johnny Roselli, a member of the Las Vegas Syndicate, was used to get access to Mafia bosses. The go-between from the CIA was Robert Maheu, who introduced himself as a representative of several international businesses in Cuba that were expropriated by Castro. On September 14, 1960, Maheu met with Roselli in a New York City hotel and offered him to pay money for the "removal" of Castro. James O'Connell, who identified himself as Maheu's associate but who actually was the chief of the CIA's operational support division, was present during the meeting.[7] The declassified documents did not reveal if Roselli, Giancana or Trafficante accepted a down payment for the job. According to the CIA files, it was Giancana who suggested poison pills as a means to doctor Castro's food or drinks. Such pills, manufactured by the CIA's Technical Services Division, were given to Giancana's nominee named Juan Orta.[8] Giancana recommended Orta as being an official in the Cuban government, who had access to Castro.[9][10][11]

Operation Mongoose

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The CIA operation was based at the Caribbean Admission Center at Opa-Locka, Florida.[12] and among its other aspects enlisted the aid of the Mafia (who were eager to regain their Cuban casino operations) to plot an assassination attempt against Castro; William Harvey was one of the CIA case officers who directly dealt with mafioso John Roselli.[13] Based on an article from the CIA archives, the mafioso John Roselli was introduced to the CIA by former FBI Agent Robert Mahue. Mahue, knew Roselli since the 1950s and was aware of his connection to the gambling syndicate. Under the alias "John Rawlson", Roselli was tasked with recruiting Cubans from Florida to help in the assassination of Castro.[14]

In March 1961, CIA officer Richard M. Bissel had contacted a member of the mafia to assassinate Castro. Bissel tapped Tony Varona to carry out the assassination. Varona was given thousands of dollars and poison pills. Varona had managed to hand off a vial of poison to a restaurant worker in Havana, who was to slip it into Castro's ice cream cone. Cuban Intelligence officers later found the vial frozen to the coils in a freezer.[15]

Connected guys

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Judith Exner claimed to be the mistress of both Giancana and JFK and that she delivered communications between the two regarding Fidel Castro.[17] However, Giancana's daughter, Antoinette, has stated her belief that her father was running a scam in order to pocket millions of dollars in CIA funding.[18]

  • Handsome Johnny: this dude might have worked unwittingly. <brief content>
  • Santo Trafficante Jr: After Fidel Castro's revolutionary government seized the assets of Trafficante's Cuban businesses and expelled him from the country as an "undesirable alien," Trafficante came into contact with various U.S. intelligence operatives, and was involved in several unsuccessful plans to assassinate Castro. In 1975, the CIA declassified a report stating that Trafficante had been persuaded to poison Castro.[19] He denied the allegation stating that he was only an interpreter for the CIA.[19] Allusions to these historic connections were confirmed by the Central Intelligence Agency's 2007 declassification of the "Family Jewels" documents.
  • Carlos Marcello: first boss of New Orleans crime family. Need RS to establish his connection with th agency.
  • Robert Maheu: agency's guy. <brief content>
  • suspect: <brief content>

References

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  1. ^ Michael Evans. "Bay of Pigs Chronology, The National Security Archive (at The George Washington University)". Gwu.edu. Archived from the original on 8 February 2011. Retrieved 2011-01-26.
  2. ^ Ambrose & Immerman Ike's Spies, p. 303, 1999 ISBN 978-1-57806-207-2
  3. ^ Memorandum for the Director of Central Intelligence, Subject: Roselli, Johnny, November 19, 1970.
  4. ^ Douglass, James. JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters, (New York: Orbis Books, 2008), p. 34. ISBN 978-1-57075-755-6
  5. ^ Kessler, Glenn (June 27, 2007). "Trying to Kill Fidel Castro". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C. Retrieved May 23, 2013.
  6. ^ Snow, Anita (June 27, 2007). "CIA Plot to Kill Castro Detailed". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C. AP. Retrieved November 22, 2014.
  7. ^ Trying to Kill Fidel Castro. The Washington Post, June 27, 2007.
  8. ^ Juan Orta, historyofcuba.com, accessed on October 29, 2013.
  9. ^ Holland, Steve and Sullivan, Andy (June 27, 2007) CIA tried to get mafia to kill Castro: documents. Reuters.
  10. ^ "Family Jewels". CIA Archive, pp. 12–19
  11. ^ Johnson, Alex (June 26, 2007). "CIA opens the book on a shady past." MSNBC,
  12. ^ Lansdale, Brig. General (26 February 2017). "Memorandum for the special group" (PDF). Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  13. ^ Jack Anderson (1971-01-18). "6 Attempts to Kill Castro Laid to CIA". The Washington Post.
  14. ^ https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP83-01042R000200090002-0.pdf
  15. ^ Weiner, Tim (2007). A Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA. New York: Doubleday. pp. 199–200.
  16. ^ Giancana 1992, p.215.
  17. ^ Michael O'Brien (1999-12-01). "The Exner File. (Judith Campbell Exner, John F. Kennedy's mistress)". Washington Monthly. Archived from the original on March 11, 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-11.
  18. ^ Television documentary Mafia Women, Discovery Channel.
  19. ^ a b "With Santo Trafficante, an era is ending". St. Petersburg Independent. St. Petersburg, Florida. August 1, 1983. p. 5-A. Retrieved April 12, 2015.
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