How the CIA Turned to Mobsters in an Effort to Kill Fidel Castro
The most dramatic memo among some 700 pages of once supersecret documents is the CIA's account—in typically dry, bureaucratese—of the attempt to hire a mobster to arrange the assassination of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. The incident entered CIA lore long ago, but the internal account reads like a bad made-for-TV movie.
The planning began back in 1960 for what the memo describes in detail what is referred to as a "gangster-type action" against Castro:
Robert Maheu, a "cleared" CIA contact working as a private investigator, got in touch with Johnny Roselli, whom the CIA describes as "a high-ranking member of the 'syndicate' and [who] controlled all of the ice-making machines on the [Las Vegas] Strip." On Sept. 14, 1960, a CIA official was present when Roselli was offered $150,000 for facilitating the "removal" of Castro. Soon, Roselli arranged a meeting with another associate, Sam Gold, at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach. Another man, identified as a courier operating between Havana and Miami named Joe, was also present.
Weeks later, the memo says, Maheu noticed photographs of the two men in Parade magazine and identified them as Momo Salvatore Giancana and Santos Trafficant. "Both were on the list of the Attorney General's ten most-wanted men," the memo says. "The former was described as the Chicago chieftain of the Cosa Nostra and successor to Al Capone, and the latter, the Cosa Nostra boss of Cuban operations."
This revelation apparently did not stop the operation. In a discussion of how to assassinate Castro, the memo says, Gold recommended against using firearms but suggested "some type of potent pill, that could be placed in Castro's food or drink." Sam suggested that one of his contacts, a Cuban official in financial trouble, was a good candidate for the operation.
The CIA delivered six "pills of highly lethal content," the memo says. (Other reports have identified the poison as botulinum toxin.) The pills were delivered to the Cuban official, who "apparently got cold feet and asked out of the assignment." Another candidate made several unsuccessful attempts. Eventually, the entire operation was canceled after the botched Bay of Pigs operation, and the pills were retrieved.
There are two interesting footnotes in the CIA memo. One describes how Gold, "at the height of the project negotiations," was concerned that his girlfriend was cheating on him. He asked Maheu to put a bugging device in a room at a Las Vegas nightclub. Maheu's technician was caught and arrested. After the Justice Department said it was going to prosecute Maheu and the technician, the CIA's Office of Security intervened and persuaded Attorney General Robert Kennedy to drop the prosecution.
The other involves Roselli, who was convicted in 1968 of a conspiracy scheme to rig a gin rummy game at the Friars Club. Facing deportation, Roselli threatened to reveal the CIA plot against Castro. CIA Director Richard Helms was briefed and "it was decided that the Agency would not in any way assist Roselli," the memo says. The whole story was soon leaked to columnist Jack Anderson.
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