General Discussion

JFK had ordered CIA to stop trying to kill Castro. They didn't and the same crew appear to be the ones who turned around and assassinated President Kennedy. Details...



Howard Hughes' "fixer," Robert Maheu, served as the go-between. The scheme was launched when Dwight Eisenhower was president and VP Richard Nixon was the CIA White House Action Officer.

CIA hired the Mafia to assassinate Fidel Castro.

The CIA’s director of security, Howard J. Osborn, sends a detailed summary to the deputy director on the CIA-Mafia collaboration to assassinate Castro before the Bay of Pigs invasion. The history starts with the authorization from the deputy director for plans, Richard Bissell, for “a sensitive mission requiring gangster-type action. The mission target was the liquidation of Fidel Castro.” The report describes how Robert Maheu was used as a CIA “cutout” to approach mobsters Johnny Roselli and Sam Gold. It also describes how the CIA’s Technical Services Division “developed a pill that had the elements of rapid solubility, high lethal content, and little or no traceability” as an assassination device. Six pills were produced and passed initially to a Cuban official with mafia ties, Juan Orta. When he got “cold feet,” the pills were passed to a member of the Cuba Exile Junta, Anthony Verona, to pass to operatives in Havana. But, the report states, “Verona’s potential was never fully exploited as the project was cancelled shortly after the Bay of Pigs episode.”

From the memo:

7. The pitch was made to Roselli on 14 September 1960 at the Hilton Plaza Hotel, New York City. His initial reaction was to avoid getting involved but, through Maheu's persuasion, he agreed to introduce him to a friend, Sam Gold, who knew the "Cuban crowd." Roselli made it clear he did not want any money for his part and believed Sam would feel the same way. Neither of these individuals were ever paid out of Agency funds.

Read the mostly unredacted memo at GWU National Security Archives:

https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/20836-6

Mr. Roselli and Mr. Giancana could appear when the House Select Committee on Assassinations subpoenaed them in the late 1970s. Roselli's body was discovered cut into pieces and stuffed into an oil drum floating near Miami. "Sam Gold" referenced in the CIA memo was actually Sam Giancana. Mr. Giancana died in his home in Oak Park, Illinois, where he was shot to death in the back of the head and then six times around the mouth.

The photo above depicting Robert Maheu is from Chicago magazine: How the CIA Enlisted the Chicago Mob to Put a Hit on Castro