1. In August 1960, Mr. Richard M. Bissell approached Colonel Sheffield Edwards to determine if the Office of Security had assets that may assist him in a sensitive mission requiring gangster-type action. The mission target was Fidel Castro…
4. Mr. [Robert A.] Maheu advised that he had met one Johnny Roselli on several occasions while visiting Las Vegas. He only knew him casually through clients, but was given to understand that he was a high-ranking member of the “syndicate” and controlled all of the ice-making machines on the Strip. Maheu reasoned that, if Roselli was in fact a member of the clan, he undoubtedly had connections leading into the Cuban gambling interests…
7. During the week of 25 September, Maheu was introduced to Sam [”Gold”] who was staying at the Fontainebleu Hotel, Miami Beach. It was several weeks after his meeting with Sam and Joe, who was identified to him as a courier operating between Havana and Miami, that he saw photographs of both of these individuals in the Sunday supplemental “Parade.” They were identified as Momo Salvatore Giancana and Santos Trafficant, respectively. Both were on the list of the Attorney General’s ten most-wanted men. 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…
8. In discussing the possible methods of accomplishing this mission, Sam suggested that they not resort to firearms but, if he could be furnished some type of potent pill, that could be placed in Castro’s food or drink, it would be a much more effective operation…
[After two or three people get cold feet and back out, the operation is cancelled after the Bay of Pigs, however…]
At the height of the project negotiations, Sam expressed concern about his girlfriend, Phyllis McGuire, who he learned was getting much attention from Dan Rowan while both were booked at a Las Vegas night club. Sam asked Maheu to put a bug in Rowan’s room to determine the extent of his intimacy with Miss McGuire. The technician involved in the assignment was discovered in the process, arrested, and taken to the Sheriff’s office for questioning. He called Maheu and informed him that he had been detained by the police. This call was made in the presence of the Sheriff’s personnel.
Subsequently, the Department of Justice announced its intention to prosecute Maheu along with the technician. On 7 February 1962, the Director of Security briefed the Attorney General, Robert Kennedy, on the circumstances leading up to Maheu’s involvement in the wiretap. At our request, prosecution was dropped…
17. On 2 December 1968, Roselli, along with four other individuals, was convicted of conspiracy to cheat members of the Friars Club of $400,000 in a rigged gin rummy game…
19. …Maheu…received a call from Thomas Waddin, Roselli’s lawyer, who stated that all avenues of appeal had been exhausted, and his client now faces deportation. Waddin indicated that, if someone did not intercede on Roselli’s behalf, he would make a complete expose of his activities with the Agency.
Which he did, but it’s great to see the CIA’s official version. This stuff is gold.
11 Responses to “I love the FOIA”
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If we wait another 40-years from now will we find out what went on during the years of the Bush/Cheney crime syndicate? (the Cheney Republican Advocacy Project - CRAP…)
Seriously, who didn’t know this was happening?
Is there going to be a wait for:
“Oswald, in fact, patsy”
“Roswell crash not weather balloon”
“FDR had polio, was crippled”
“Tammany Hall quite corrupt”
The FOIA is kind of running behind the conspiracy theorists.
“rigged gin rummy game”
Also, the CIA cheats at shuffleboard.
[…] Unfortunately, this only documents the CIA’s illegal and immoral activities up to 1973—good luck finding out what they’re up to now. And the online archive is a pinnacle of bad design: The documents themselves are scanned in, and there’s no way to search them for something specific. If you want to find the bit about Castro and the Exploding Conch Shell of Death, you have to scroll through pages and pages about Russian spies and wiretapping hippies. (Auguste has one nice excerpt here. Who knew ice-making machines could be used for such nasty purposes?) […]
It *is* good to know who’s in charge of the ice.
“Also, the CIA cheats at shuffleboard.”
That’s not with the Friar’s club though, that’s with the Milwaukee Rotary Club.
“…sensitive mission requiring gangster-type action.”
Now I know why bill casey was so fond of pin stripe suits!
Anyone ever read American Tabloid by James Ellroy?
Sounds like he was more on point than we might have thought.
Wow, it’s like an Abbott and Costello movie.
Good story. What they left out was that the wire tapper guy was caught because he decided to sneak out for some food and left the door unlocked. The maid came in to clean the room, saw all the bugging equipment, freaked and called the police.
Giancana reputedly fell out of his chair laughing when he heard the full story..
my doctoral advisor got a copy of his FBI file. He was active in the Civil Rights Movement (CORE), was one of the organizers of the first anti-war teach-in at UMich, and worked with several of the early organizers of SDS. He laughed as he recounted how many errors there were in the thing.
So were Phyllis McGuire and Dan Rowan having a “laugh-in?”
You bet your bippy!