Roselli Chronology File - RIF 157-10014-10236

Rosselli Chronology

Significant JFK Record 157-10014-10236

BK Notes: This record is significant for a number of reasons, although it should be read with a transcript of Rosselli's Church Committee testimony (That I haven't seen yet). 

The official documents spell the name as both Rosselli and Roselli, sometimes in the same document, I use the version in the document, but when writing my analysis I will resort to the version Jack Anderson used, as he apparently got it directly from Roselli. 

Without having read the Church Committee transcript yet, this record documents the chronology of Roselli's association with the CIA, beginning during "Eisenhower administration when Richard Nixon was vice president and Allen Dulles head of the CIA." 

While the early CIA-Mafia plots to kill Castro have received the most publicity - my analysis will focus on the post Bay of Pigs - April 1961 era after William Harvey, just back from the Berlin Tunnel operation, took over the Cuban project - Task Force W and Harvey replaced James O'Donnell as Roselli's case officer. That is also the time when the planning for Castro's assassination switched from poisoning him to blowing him up and shooting him with high powered rifles. 

As this record documents in the Chronology, Roselli utilized the alias of "John Rawlston," also known as "Colonel Rawlston" or Colonel Roselli at the Florida JMWAVE training base where Roselli acknowledges to Jack Anderson that he supported a number of anti-Castro Cuban commando teams that operated two high speed boats, infiltrating Cuba with high powered rifles. Roselli himself paid for the gas and on one occasion had his boat shot out from under him. Roselli told Anderson he did not know what became of the anti-Castro Cubans he sent ashore, but none of them returned or reported back. 

Besides Roselli, two other rich Americans - William Pawley and Clare Booth Luce financially assisted their own teams of anti-Castro maritime commandos, and both became entwined in the assassination story in their own ways.

U.S. Army Ranger Bradley Ayers, who was cross posted to the CIA from the Army with another Army officer - Captain Roderick, were assigned by General Brut Krulak to train the Cubans in small arms, small boat maneuvering, and general operational procedures. Ayers said that Roderick trained Roselli's team in sniper tactics at the remote Point Mary off Key Largo, Florida. 

After the Oct.  1962 Cuban Missile crisis when Desmond Fitzgerald replaced William Harvey as head of Task Force W - Covert Cuban projects run out of the basement of the CIA HQ, Harvey's biography ("Flawed Patriot" written by a former CIA agent who died before the book was pyblished) says that Fitzgerald did not know about some of Harvey's covert ops that did continue outside of Fitzgerald's control, possibly including contact with Roselli. Harvey and Roselli formed a close personal bond, and remained friends, clearly outside of agency protocol until Roselle was killed. 

Since Ayers was a US Army officer who was assigned to the CIA, he never signed a CIA security oath and was permitted to publish his memoirs without prior CIA approval, as Victor Marchetti had to run his manuscript past CIA censors before it was published. Like they are doing with the JFK documents,  they redacted large portions of Marchetti`s book, redactions that have since been filed in. 

Ayers' first book The War That Never Was, was published by Bobs-Merrell, an Indiana publisher who maintained a fourth floor office at the Texas School Book Depository and hired William Harvey as their attorney for legal matters. Harvey ensured that certain items were edited out of the first hard cover edition. 

There is an on-going FOIA suit requesting William Harvey's official travel dates while he was posted as CIA Chief of Station in Rome at the time of the assassination. There is also an FOIA request for Roselle`s CIA operational file, not included under the JFK Act. 

In addition, former CIA pilot Tosh Plumbly testified to the Church Committee that he flew Roselli to Dallas' Red Bird airport from Florida on the day before the assassination. I know this because I wrote the history of Somers Point, N.J. and corresponded with former Somers Point mayor John McCann, Jr., who died in federal prison of cancer after being convicted of cocaine trafficking. McCann had also hired CIA pilots to fly cocaine from Columbia via Panama, personally paying off Panamanian dictator Noreaga for the right to refuel without drug sniffing dogs pestering him. I believe McCann when he testified that Noreaga had his - McCann's CIA file he must have obtained from sources in the CIA. And I believe Plumbly when he testified he flew Roselli to Dallas from Florida in November 1963. Both McCann and Plumbly testified before the Church committee. 

Someone else must think these Church Committee testimonies are significant because many of the tapes have disappeared or been erased. 

From these SSCIA Church committee  records, we find direct associations between the CIA-Mafua plans to kill Castro and the assassination. 

We also now have the knowledge that Roselli also pushed the story that one of his commando teams that infiltrated Cuba had been captured by Castro, tortured and sent back to Dallas to kill JFK. This fits quite clearly into the Phase One - Castro Cuban Commie cover-story that was built into the original plan to kill Castro that was redirected to JFK at Dealey Plaza.

Rather than a Castro plot,  more likely it was one of the CIA-Mafia plans to shoot Castro with a high powered rifle that was redirected to JFK. And the first class Army Ranger trained  snipers supported by Roselli, trained by Capt. Roderick at Point Mary,  are primary suspects,  and their names are listed among the CIA JMWAVE records released or redacted under the JFK Act. 

Roselli was also associated with John Martino, the Atlantic City gambler and electronic casino security expert who worked for Traficanti at his casino in Havana and expressed foreknowledge of the assassination. Roselli and Martino had shared an apartment in Florida together, and Martino's foreknoweldge of the Dealey Plaza operation possibly stemmed from Martino. 

Going forward, the legally unresolved and cold case murders of Sam Giancana, John Roselli and Eugene M. Carrafa are among the cold cases related to the assassination of President Kennedy that, if reopened and investigated properly today, could help resolve the murder of JFK.

According to this document, Eugene M. Carrafa, a Maryland associate of Giancana, disappeared on the same day (July 28) as Roselli, and was later found floating in New York harbor, strangled and chained to  two anchors, much like Roselli was killed.

Official local and federal investigators, armed with these newly released records, should reopen all three of these cases.

Released under the John F. Kennedy Assassinations Records Collection Act of 1992
(144 USC 2107)

Case #NW 53244
Date: 06-14-2017

RIF: 157-10014-10236

RECORD SERIES: MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS OF THE CHURCH COMMITTEE

AGENCY NUMBER: 07-M-141

http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/2017/10/rosselli-chronology-significant-jfk.html

http://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/jfk/NARA-July2017/JFK-July_2017_Release-Formerly_released_in_part/DOCID-32423624.PDF

ORIGINATOR: SSCIA - Church Committee

DATE: 1976

PAGES: 46

SUBJECTS:

ANTI-CASTRO ACTIVITIES,

SANTO TRAFFICANTE,

JOHN ROSSELLI,

ORGANIZED CRIME

DOCUMENT TYPE: REPORT

CLASSIFICATIONS: Unclassified

RESTRICTIONS: 1B; 1C

CURRENT STATUS: POSTONED IN FULL  -  Released Redact(ed)

DATE OF LAST REVIEW: 03/21/2000

ROSSELLI: CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS

MEMORANDUM

To: Mike Madigan

From: Ed Greissing

Date: Sept. 16, 1976

Subject: Review of CIA documents presented the SCI by Jack Anderson

The documents recently received by this Committee, from Jack Anderson, had previously been reviewed by the Church Committee staff. The documents appear to be a few of those requested for FOIA review by David Belin. It is my understanding, after these documents were declassified, David Belin furnished copies to both David Martin (AP) and Jack Anderson.

 - BK Notes: Former WC and Church Committee attorney David Belin requested CIA records on Castro plots in order to make a case for Castro retaliation, not to determine the truth. -

The Church Committee was permitted to review the entire Oswald 201 file, the AMLASH file, Garrison files and selected Office of Security files, Garrison files and selected Office of Security files. The Committee primarily concerned itself with the early period of the investigation (November 1963 – October 1964), as it believed the information to be received from this time period to be more relevant in evaluating the performance of the intelligence agencies with respect to their investigation.

Dan Niescher, the Church Committee contact at the CIA, was the individual responsible for the declassification of documents relating to the assassination of President Kennedy. 

During this declassification process, Dan Niescher consulted the Committee staff to make sure that we were aware of certain documents. In addition, Mr. Kaleras had given the staff unlimited access to all files believed necessary to conduct our investigation.

- BK: KEY PARAGRAPH -

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.

PAGE 5-6: Portions of unnamed testimony.

PAGE 7:

Miami Herald, December 24, (1976)

Trafficante Made Secret Appearance At Senate Investigation, Sources Say

By Ron LaBrecque

Florida’s reputed organized crime boss, Santos Trafficante of Tampa and Miami, made a secret, four-hour October appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee to answer questions about his role in a CIA assassinations plot, investigation sources have disclosed.

Trafficante, 62, had not previously been questioned by the committee or its staff in the two-year-old investigation of CIA activities.

Of the three Mafia figures involved in the early 1960s plot to kill Cuban Premier Fidel Castro, only Trafficante is still alive. Both Sam Giancana and John Rosselli were murdered within the last `6 months. The murders are unsolved.

Investigators also said that Trafficante had dinner with Rosselli at The Landings, a Fort Lauderdale restaurant, in mid-July, less than two weeks before Rosselli disappeared. Rosselli’s body, stuffed in an oil drum, floated to the surface of Dumfounding Bay the first week of August…….

PAGE 8 – 9 – Repeated PAGES 10-13

Rosselli Probe

By RON LaBRECQUE – Miami Hearld

Sen. Gary Hart (D. Col.) made an unannounced trip to Miami Friday for a private meeting with homicide detectives to underscore the strong interest of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee in the John Rosselli murder investigation and to insure that federal agencies cooperated with local police.

The FBI was ordered into the case last week by Attorney General Edward Levi after pressure from the Senate committee.

“We’re not here to solve the crime,” Hart said, “we want to find out if there is any connection between (Rosselli’s) death and his testimony before our committee.”

[NOTE: They investigated the possible connections between Rosselli’s murder and the similar murder on the same day (July 28) of Eugene M. Carrafa, 37, of Rockville, Md., whose body was found in New York harbor, Carrafa having been strangled and weighted down by anchors, much like Rosselli. Carrafa was an associate of Sam Gancana.]

PAGE 14 - 15

MEMORANDUM

To: Rick Inderfurth

From: Mike Madigan

Date: August 13, 1976

Re: Miami Interview

Hart interviews in Miami on Rosselli matter and subpoena for Santos Trafficante, signed by Sen. Baker….need approval of majority of committee….

Detective Wolf and Zatrepallek – Dade County Sheriff’s Office, 305-547-7456 (are the detectives investigating the Rosselli murder for the locals)

PAGE 16 – Repeated – 18 -22

MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD MEMO

– Senate investigator said Rosselli feared for his life because of his testimony.

Michael Madigan

August 13, 1976

……my recollections of the pre-testimony interviews with Mr. John Rosselli prior to Rosselli’s testifying under oath in June of 1975…..Rosselli and his attorneys expressed on numerous occasions fear for the well-being of Rosselli….He was worried about retaliation and particularly worried about his relatives with whom he was living in Florida…..he declined to testify about Giancana (until after Giancana’s death), refused to identify any of the Cubans who were involved in assassination plots, and was reluctant to mention Santo Trafficante by name….Rosselli told the Senator (Baker) he was concerned for his safety and his life and that he was risking his well-being by testifying before the committee….Throughout his testimony Rosselli declined to give his exact address in Florida for reasons of safety. It is also my recollection that Rosselli’s demeanor was visibly affected whenever testimony or interview focused or attempted to focus on Santos Trafficante.

PAGE 24 –

Newspaper Report

Rosselli’s Body Found in Floating Drum

8/9/76

UNINTELLIGABLE – Ink Runs

PAGE 25

The Washington Merry-Go-Round  THE WASHINGTON POST –Monday, Jan. 18, 1971

By Jack Anderson

6 Attepts to Kill Castro Laid to CIA

Locked in the darkest recesses of the Central Intelligence Agency is the story of six assassination attempts against Cuba’s Fidel Castro.

For 10 years only a few key people have known the terrible secret. They have sworn never to talk. Yet we have learned the details from sources whose credentials are beyond question.

We spoke to John McCone, who headed the CIA at the time of the assassination attempts. He acknowledged the idea had been discussed inside the CIA but insisted it had been “rejected immediately.” He vigorously denied that the CIA had ever participated in any plot on Castro’s life. Asked whether the attempts could have been made with his knowledge, he replied: “It could not have happened.”

We have complete confidence, however, in our sources.

The plot to knock off Castro had been part of the Bay of Pigs operation. The intent was to eliminate the Cuban dictator before the motley invaders landed on the island. Their arrival was expected to touch off a general uprising, which the Communist militia would have had more trouble putting down without the charismatic Castro to lead them.

After the first attempt failed, five more assassination teams were sent to Cuba. The last team reportedly made it to a rooftop within shooting distance of Castro before they were apprehended. This happened around the last of February or first of March, 1963.

Nine months later, President Kennedy was gunned down in Dallas by Lee Harvey Oswald, a fanatic who previously agitated for Castro in New Orleans and had made a mysterious trip to the Cuban embassy in Mexico City.

Among those privy to the CIA conspiracy, there is still a nagging suspicion – unsupported by the Warren Commission findings – that Castro became aware of the U.S. plot upon his life and somehow recruited Oswald to retaliate against President Kennedy.

To set up the Castro assassination, the CIA enlisted Robert Maheu, a former FBI agent with shadowy contacts, who had handled other undercover assignments for the CIA out of his Washington public relations office. He later moved to Las Vegas to head up billionaire Howard Hughes’ Nevada operations.

Maheu recruited John Rosselli, a ruggedly handsome gambler with contacts in both the American and Cuban underworlds, to arrange the assassination. The dapper, hawk-faced Rosselli, formerly married to movie actress June Lang, was a power in the movie industry until his conviction with racketeer Willie Bioff in a million-dollar Hollywood labor shakedown. The CIA assigned two of its most trusted operatives, William Harvey and James (Big Jim) O’Connell, to the hush-hush murder mission. Using phony names, they accompanied Roselli on trips to Miami to line up the assassination teams.

The full story reads like the script of a James Bond movie, complete with secret trysts at glittering Miami Beach hotels and midnight powerboat dashes to secret landing spots on the Cuban coast. Once, Roselli’s boat was shot out from under him.

For the first try, the CIA furnished Roselli with special poison capsules to slip into Castro’s food. The poison was supposed to take three days to act. By the time Castro died, his system would throw off all traces of the poison, so he would appear to be the victim of a natural if mysterious ailment.

Roselli arranged with a Cuban, related to one of Castro’s chefs, to plant the deadly pellets in the dictator’s food. On March 13, 1961, Roselli delivered the capsuls to his contact at Miami Beach’s glamorous Fontainebleau Hotel.

A couple of weeks later, just about the right time for the plot have been carried out, a report came out of Havana that said Castro was ill. But he recovered before the Bay of Pigs invasion on April 17, 1961.

Four more attempts were made on Castro’s life.

Bell-McClure Syndicate

PAGE 26

The Washington Merry-Go-Round THE WASHINGTON POST -  Tuesday, Feb, 19XX

By Jack Anderson

The mystery man whom the Central Intelligence Agency recruited to assassinate Cuba’s Fidel Castro has been laid up in the sick ward of the Los Angeles County jail.

He is handsome, hawk-faced John Roselli, once a dashing figure around Hollywood and Las Vegas, now a gray, 66-year-old inmate with a respiratory ailment.

Confidential FBI files indentify him as “a top Mafia figure” who watched over “the concealed interests in Las Vegas casinos of the Chicago underworld.”

Roselli has admitted to friends that he was a rum runner during the Roaring Twenties. Operating along the East Coast, he learned how to evade Coast Guard cutters and police patrols.

His name later became linked with the biggest names in the Chicago and Los Angeles underworlds. He also developed contacts in the Cuban underworld before Castro took over the Havana gambling casinos.

He had the right background for a hush-hush mission that the CIA was planning in 1961. As part of the Bay of Pigs invasion, the CIA had hoped to knock off Castro and leave Cuba leaderless.

RISKS NECK

Roselli was recruited for the job by Robert Maheu, a former FBI agent, who admitted to us that he had handled uncover assignments for the CIA. He refused, however, to discuss the details. His is the same Maheu, incidently, who is now involved in a legal battle over phantom billionaire Howard Hughes’ Nevada operations.

Roselli was so flattered over being asked to perform a secret mission for the U.S. government that he paid all his expenses out of his own pocket and risked his neck to land the assassination teams on the Cuban coast.

In James Bond fashion, he whispered meetings in Miami Beach hotels with Cubans willing to make an attempt on Castro’s life. Once, he called on Chicago racket boss Sam Giancana to line up a contact. The confidential files report that Giancana had “gambling interests and an interest in the shrimp business in Cuba.” However, the Chicago gangster took no direct part in the assassination plot.

Roselli made midnight dashes to Cuba with his hired assassins in twin powerboats. Once a Cuban patrol ship turned its guns on his darkened boat, tore a hole in the bottom and sank the boat. Roselli was flushed out of the water by the other boat, which escaped into the shadows.

In earlier columns, we reported how the CIA furnished Roselli with deadly poison capsules which he tried through a relative of Castro’s chef to plant in the dictator’s food. Later, marksmen armed with high powered Belgian rifles attempted to infiltrate close enough to gun Castro down.

All told, six assassination attempts were made, the last in the spring of 1963. Through-out this period, Roselli worked under the direct supervision of two secret CIA agents, William Harvey and James (Big Jim) O’Connell.

ROSELLI’S REWARD

The FBI which got wind of the assassination plot, has tried to pump Roselli for information. But he was sworn to silence by the CIA, and up to this moment, he hasn’t broken it.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department, as part of its crackdown on organized crime, tried to nail Roselli. The FBI discovered that his Chicago birth records had been forged, that his name was really Filippo Sacco and that he had come to this country from Italy as a child. He was convicted for failing to register as an alien.

He was also convicted for conspiracy to rig card games at Los Angeles’ exclusive Friar’s Club.

Of Roselli’s own CIA associates, Harvey has now retired to Indianapolis and O’Connell is still on the CIA payroll. Both admitted to us a friendship with Roselli but refused to discuss their CIA activities. Harvey said he had a “high regard” for Roselli and called the Friar’s Club indictment a phony. Roselli’s lawyers are now trying to get clemency for their client, citing our stories about his secret CIA service.

FIREARMS FIASCO

Under pressure from the firearms lobby, the Treasury has failed to enforce a vital section of the 1968 federal firearms act.

The law was passed after the murders of Sen. Robert Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King. It authorizes the Treasury Secretary to require full reports of all firearms and ammunition sales…….

PAGE 27

1975 Jack Anderson Press Release (handwritten)

Typewritten:

Four and a half years ago, I broke a story that is now belatedly rocking Washington. I reported that the Central Intelligence Agency had recruited two Mafia figures, John Roselli 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 CIA contacts whose identities the Senate already knew.

So here is Roselli’s own account of a real-life “Mission Impossible” - - the attempt to kill Castro. It is 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 Roselli, 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 Rosselli 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 Cuban plotters. Roselli swore he never took any money from the CIA, except some 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 afterward, 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.

Roselli said he also picked up intelligence, which he submitted to the CIA both during the Bay of Pigs planning and 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 into Cuba with high-powered rifles. The last assassination squad, Roselli said, 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 took 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, Rosellli made no apology for his CIA role. U.S. authorities call him a mobster. He regards himself as a patriot.

Page 30 – 34

THE WASHINTON POST – Sunday, September 12, 1976

The Calculated Rise And Abrupt Descent Of Johnny Roselli

By Rudy Maxa

Until last month, Johnny Roselli lived comfortably with his sister and brother-in-law in a Miami suburb. A friend estimated he earned about $25,000 annually from a gift shop he owned in the lobby of Las Vegas’ Frontier Hotel.

He shrugged last year when his attorney suggested he hire a bodyguard, after the murder of Chicago mobster Sam Giancana, his partner in CIA plots to kill Castro. If anybody wants to kill me at my age, the 71-year-old Roselli said, what difference does it make? So he played golf several times a week, sipped white wine with dinner, and – until somebody decidied Johnny Roselli should wind up in an oil barrel in Miami’s Dumfoundling Bay – considered employment in the new gambling casinos beginning to open in the oil-rich Middle East……

PAGE 35 – REPEAT OF August 13, 1976 Rick Inderfurth – Mike Madigan – memo re: Miami Interviews with Gary Hart.

PAGE 36 -

THE WASHINGTON POST – THURSDAY AUGUST 12, 1976

Who Killed John Roselli? – Editorial

PAGE 37

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……

2^ND meeting, L.A., discuss further details, no discussion of specifics techniques. Plan to meet in N.Y. for verification.

Sept. 14, 1960. First meeting in N.Y. at old Plaza Hotel. Rosselli introduced by Maheu to O’Connell. Rosselli “knew” O’Connell worked for the CIA. Rosselli agrees to work on Cuban project.

Sept. 25, 1960. Maheu and Rosselli travel to Miami to begin making contact with Cubans to be recruited for mission.

(Between Sept. 25 and the Bay of Pigs [April 17], a series of recruitments, meetings and arrangements were made. The following is an outline of events that is not necessarily in chronological order.)

--- Meeting where Maheu is introduced to Trafficanti. Meeting where Maheu is introduced to Giancana. Giancana was, according to Rosselli, to only be a “back up man.” Rosselli states Giancana had nothing to do with the actual operation. Trafficanti was used, according to Rosselli, as a translator.

--- Meeting with O’Connell, Maheu, Rosselli, [note, “and two Admirals to” is crossed out] discuss the Cuban project.

--- Rosselli, in his contact with the Cubans, “invents” the cover story that he represents some Wall Street business interests who want to see Castro eliminated. Rosselli trusts Cubans he has recruited beause they are part of the Bay of Pigs operation.

--- 1^st attempt at assassination involved the use of pills. Maheu and Rosselli met with Cuban #1 and #2 (?). Maheu opened up his briefcase and gave pills with instructions for their use to Cuban #1. Maheu also had $10,000 he gave the Cubans for doing the project. Rosselli did not know of the money. Rosselli states he received no remuneration for his work on the project, in fact, he paid out $800 for gas for a speed boat to deliver two or three man parties for guerrilla raids into Cuba.

--- Prior to the Bay of Pigs there was no discussion of using guns to assassinate Castro.

---Rosselli’s cover name was “John Ralston.”

--- At different times, Cuban #1, #2, or #3 would propose different projects. These would range from using plastic explosives to booby trapping Castro’s desk. Rosselli would relay these on to Maheu, who, in turn, would contact the CIA. Most projects were vetoed, but the CIA did supply short wave radio to the Cubans in Florida, to try and make contact with their people in Havana.

--- Eventually, Rosselli felt the project had failed. There was no specific point when it was announced. But, at sometime Rosselli assumed the project, for whatever reason, had not succeeded.

C H R O N O L O G Y

(ALLEGATIONS AND REPORTS OF ANY U.S. INVOLVEMENT IN ASSASSIANTIONS)

DATE                   EVENT OR ITEM                           SOURCE (Where Necessary)

1959                 Richard Bissell becomes DDP  (head of Plans Directorate)

October  1960

Tap on Dan Rowan phone in Las Vegas (allegedly: (a) favor to Giancana, and (b) done by Rosselli)   SOURCE: Date and Rosselli role from Government Oposition paper to Rosselli motion for reduction in sentence, 1971.

1961 Feb.  Lumumba mysteriously killed during Congolese strife.   - Wash. Post & Star contemporaneous accounts. News reports of CIA consideration of Lumumba plot, but claim it was done by others, e.g. Belgians?  Wash. Post 2/6/75 story by Lardener and Greider Tab A

Early 1961     Attempts to kill Castro before Bay of Pigs landing by Rosselli team.-  Jack Anderson 1967, 1971 and 1975 columns; Watergate Helms memcon

April 1961    Bay of Pigs Landing

May 31, 1961  Trujillo assassinated; charge of U.S. involvement – Jack Anderson column (1/19/71) on Smathers conversation with JFK. Agee book (obviously suspect in some respects)

Rest of 1961 and 1962 -  Possibly ongoing efforts to kill Castro by Rosselli team  - last attempt by Rosselli team in 1963, infra.

Sometime in early 1960’s   - RFK quashes prosecution of Giancana for Rowan Las Vegas tap – Watergate memcons on Keeney and Wilson interviews

October 1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis – (date for background reference )

Early 1963  - Rosselli training a team in Miami area -  Wash. Post Greider/ Lardener story, supra., states Army Ranger Capt Ayers saw him.

March 1963 – Rosselli’s last effort to kill Castro – J. Anderson 1971 column

November 1963 – Diem killed in Saigon coup JFK told Smathers later he thought CIA involved – J. Anderson, 1/19/71 column

Colby head of DDP Far East Division at the time. – articles on Colby.

Early 1964 – Howard Hunt and others from Bay of Pigs effort begin plot on another Castro assassination – reported by Tad Szulc in book on Howard Hunt (1974)

PAGE 41

(more on Hunt Castro project)

Assassination alleged to have been planned as part of a smaller invasion effort and preparations were allegedly made in Costa Rica – Szulc, supra

May 1965  - Hunt Castro scheme “aborted when Dominican Republic strife broke out (scheme also allegedly involved McCord, Barker and Sturgis) – Szulc

May 1965 (or later)  As Katzenbach/Helms/LBJ meeting on Dominican Republic ended, LBJ asked Helms if CIA had ever been involved in assassination (of a leader) and Helms said “no.”

1966= CIA poisoning plot against Haitian Pres. Duvalier; bombing place in ’68.  – Anderson col.,. 4/7/75

1967- Rosselli indicted for alien law and interstate gambling crimes (Friars Club card game rigging) – Government Opposition to sentence reduction, suprs.

March 3 1967 – First Anderson column on Rosselli – We don’t have, but Anderson referred to in Hersh NY Times story 3/10/75

In response to Anderson story RFK tells Walinsky and Edelman he shut it off;  - Hersh story, supra.

1968

Rosselli sentenced to 5 years – Government Opposition,

Early 1969 - Asst. Atty Gen Wilson asks for Justice Dept. Rosselli file – Keeney Watergate memcon

1970 - Rosselli goes before grand jury under immunity re: Giancana – Government Opposition, supa

1971- Jan. 18 – First of three Anderson columns.

Jan. 19 – Maheau (scheduled to go before grand jury on Las Vegas skimming) calls AG John Mitchell. – Lenzner memo to Sen. Ervin on Rosselli (and phone )

Same day: Haldeman asks Dean to inquirer into Hughes/O’Brien/Maheu ties

Jan. 27 – Maheu interviewed by Wilson and Peterson on Rosselli matter.

Feb. 1 – Caulfield to Dean memo that Maheu was involved in covert activity for CIA in early 1960’s.

Rosselli files motion for reduction in sentence, citing Anderson stories and presenting memorandum to Court

PAGE 43 REPEAT OF PREVIOUS CHRONOLOGY

PAGE 44

1961   After the Bay of Pigs (April 1961)

Rosselli felt “sorry for the poor bastards left on the beach.” [Crossed out: Rosselli felt indirectly responsible for their deaths since he had encouraged many of them to participate in the invasion.] Two or three weeks after the invasion, Rosselli was contacted in Los Angeles by O’Connnell, a meeting was arranged for at the airport hotel in Miami. Rosselli went there and was introduced to Harvey. O’Connell said Harvey was now in charge of the Cuban project. Harvey told Rosselli he was to cease all contact with Maheu and Giancana. Further, Harvey stated that the government was still interested in using Rosselli for intelligence-gathering operations. Rosselli would report information from the Cubans to Harvey about personalities and events in Cuba. Rosselli would also relay on to his Cuban contacts requests for specific information from the CIA.

Sometimes between the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis [October 1962] Harvey gave Rosselli six poison capsules. Rosselli, in turn, gave them to his Cuban contacts who were to take them to Cuba, where another Cuban or Cubans would use them to assassinate Castro. Rosselli never learned the details of what happened, but the project obviously failed. At one point, Rosselli remembers hearing over the radio hat Castro was very ill. A short time later, he recovered.

Sometime before the Cuban missile crisis, Rosselli arranged, pursuant to Cuban #1 request, for a van loaded with rifles and ammunition to be delivered to Florida. O’Connell and Rosselli watched the Cuban contact pick up the van and return it empty. Rosselli assumed that these guns were going to be used by the two or three-man raiding parties in Cuba to assassinate Castro and overthrow the government.

During the Cuban missile crisis, Rosselli was in Chicago. He contacted Harvey at Harvey’s mother’s home in Indianapolis and left his number in Chicago. Harvey then called him, told him to go to Washington D.C. From Washington, D.C., Rosselli traveled to Florida where he stayed for the duration of the Cuban missile crisis. He, at times, would, through his Cuban contacts, attempt to verify the location of the Russian missiles in Cuba. Rosselli claimed that this had been successful. After the Cuban missile crisis, Harvey called Rosselli and told him to stop all contacts with any and all persons involved in past Cuban missions. Harvey never stated why the missions were being called off.

Rowan Tap

Rosselli said that he understood that Giancana had asked Maheu for a  tap on Dan Rowan. Maheu gave Rosselli two stories. The first was that he was doing Giancana a favor and the second was that there was a real intelligence value in that Maheu was afraid that Giancana or Rowan might be giving out intelligence information that would be of value to enemies of the United States. Rosselli had not heard of the names Dubois or Belotti or Fred Harrison. He admitted that Harvey had discussed the tap with him, but both Harvey and Rosselli were mad that the operation had gone on. Giancana obvioiusly knew about the tap. Maheu did ask Rosselli to get bail money for the two tappers who were caught and thrown in jail. Maheu suggested that Rosselli could get a hotel to turn over the bail money. Finally, Rosselli arranged to have a man with a green carnation in his lapel meet and transfer the bail money. He never received any of this money back. Rosselli claims that he did not know what type of tap went on. He admitted that he had been questioned by the FBI but he gave no answers. Rosselli knew that Mahu had been questioned by the FBI.

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.