157-10014-10236
SSCIA - Church Committee
ROSSELLI: CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS
“The Church Committee was permitted to review the
entire Oswald 201 file, the AMLASH file, Garrison files and selected Office of
Security files…..Yet, the possibility still remains that the staff was not
shown everything. The CIA has maintained throughout that the Oswald 201 file
was a complete compilation of the material related to the assassination of
President Kennedy. However, information relating to who Lee Harvey Oswald was,
and what he was doing are not included in their files. The Oswald 201 does not
attempt to question Oswald’s connection to both pro-Castro and anti-Castro
groups or any of the AMLASH information. The most notable subject missing was
information relating to CIA/US Government attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro.
“
Jack Anderson – 1975
“Four and a half years ago, I broke a story that now
is belatedly rocking Washington. I reported that the Central Intelligence
Agency had recruited two Mafia figures, John Rosselli and Sam Giancana, to
assassinate Cuban Premier Fidel Castro.”
“I tracked down Roselli and questioned him about the
story. He had nothing to say. He promised me, however, that he would give me
his exclusive story if he should ever be free to talk.”
“Yesterday, John Roselli told his story – first to
the Senate Intelligence Committee in secret session, then to me as he had
promised four and a half years ago.”
“Roselli is a dapper, hawk-faced man with a thatch
of white hair. He has been disciplined all his life to keep his mouth shut. His
Mafia partner, Sam Giancana, was slain before Senate investigators could serve
him with a subpoena.”
“So it was obviously painful for Roselli to talk. I
promised I would make clear that he revealed no names, except for the CIA
contacts whose identities the Senate already knew.”
“So here is Rosellli’s own account of a real-life ‘Mission
Impossible’ - - the attempt to kill Castro. It’s a story of cash payments,
poison pellets, high-powered rifles and powerboat dashes to Cuba.”
“The plot against Castro, Roselli said, began in
1960 – when Dwight Eisenhower was President, Richard Nixon was Vice President
and Allen Dulles was the CIA chief.”
“Roselli was recruited in Los Angeles, he said, by
Robert Maheu, then an aide to billionaire Howard Hughes. Previously, Maheu had
operated a CIA front in Washington. “
“According to Rosellli, the murdered mobster, Sam
Giancana, never became involved in the assassination plot. He knew about it; he
may even have suggested a Cuban contact; nothing more."
“Roselli identified the CIA project officer, in
charge of the Castro assassination, as “Big Jim” O’Connell. Maheu put Roselli
in contact with O’Connell, as Roselli remembers it, in New York City on
September 14, 1960.”
“Thereafter, Roselli flew to Miami and recruited the
assassination squads. At first, they plotted to poison Castro. Poison pellets
were supplied by the CIA. They were delivered to the plotters in a Miami hotel
room, according to Roselli, by Maheu. He dramatically opened his briefcase,
revealing $10,000 in cash and the fatal pellets.”
“The money was distributed to the plotters. Roselli
swore he never took any money from the CIA, except for incidental expenses. He
paid the big expenses, he said, out of his own pocket.”
“The poison pills were supposed to take three days
to work. Supposedly, this would give the poison time to work its way out of
Castro’s system before he died, and his death would be attributed to natural causes.”
“Roselli never found out what happened to the
plotters or the pellets. But they tried again later with a stronger dose of
poison. Not long afterwards, reports reached them that Castro was desperately
ill. Roselli doesn’t know whether the illness was caused by the poison or a
virus. But Castro survived, and the plotters apparently did not.”
“Toselli (sic) said he also picked up intelligence,
which he submitted to the CIA both during the Bay of Pigs planning and the
later Cuban missile crisis. After the Bay of Pigs, Roselli said, Maheu was cut
out of the plot. Thereafter, Roselli reported to a CIA agent named William
Harvey.”
“There were four more assassination attempts, the
plotters were smuggled into Cuba with high-powered rifles. The last
assassination squad, Roselli heard, made it to a Havana rooftop before they
were caught.”
“This was around March 1, 1963. Then the project was
abandoned. Roselli saw Harvey for the last time in June, 1963. Five months
later, Lee Harvey Oswald gunned down President Kennedy in Dallas. Oswald had
been active in the pro-Castro movement. Shortly before that dreadful day in
Dallas, Oswald had made a mysterious trip to Mexico where he visited the Cuban
embassy. The Warren Commission found no evidence, however, that Oswald was in
the hire of Havana.”
“Yesterday, Roselli made no apology for his CIA
role. U.S. authorities call him a mobster. He regards himself as a patriot.”
ROSSELLI CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS
1955 - Meets Maheu at insurance friend’s home.
1960 – Late July / early August. Maheu calls. Working
for government. Recruit Rosselli only. Meet Brown Derby, L.A. for lunch. Long
talk about project in Cuba. Rosselli wants verification……
Early 1961 – Attempts to kill Castro before Bay of
Pigs landing by Rosselli team.
April 1961 – Bay of Pigs Landing
Rest of 1961 and 1962 – Possibly ongoing efforts to
Kill Castro by Rosselli team. Last attempt
by Rosselli team in 1963, infra.
Early 1963 – Rosselli training a team in Miami area.
Wash. Post Greider/Lardener story, supra., states Army Ranger Capt. Ayres saw
him.
March 1963 – Rosselli’s last effort to kill Castro.
Sometime in 1963 – RFK stopped further efforts.
August 9 1976 - Rosselli’s body discovered in oil drum in
Dumfounding Bay, Florida.
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