WHO HIT THE HIT MAN?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000300510086-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 20, 2004
• Sequence Number: 86
• Publication Date: June 28, 1975
• Content Type: NSPR

`T'IIE i C0i?OI11SI'
28 J1T' 1_e)75
Approved For Release 2005/01/11 : CIA-RDP88-01315R0003
Who hit the hit man?
ne sense, Mr Sam "Momo" Gia ncana
ryas just hitting the big time: his name was
0ceunung a household word throughout
1 ,r;erica. He had long been well-known in
C.'limago, where he was the heir to Al
Cupone's multi-million dollar empire of
illegal rackets and where he was invariably
under investigation. But only recently. as
:e:_lations about the intelligence com-
rrmunity blossomed, did a wide public learn
.rout the patriotic phaseof N,Ir Gi anc anti's
cr-his recruitment by the Central
l;acili_gence Agency, along with other
mafia ,Wert, in the early 1960s to try to
range the assassination of Mr Fidel
Castro. the Cuban prime minister, by
poisoning or sonic other suitable means.
In exchange for his help, it turned out, the
CIA had bugged the Las Vegas hotel
.x>.n of his girlfriend, Miss Phyllis
sicGuire, the sinter, to determine
whether she was being faithful.
Mr Giancana was due to be called to
'::shine,ton any day to tell the tale of his
C(A1-0/ C'0(hyj [AJ (/I
adventures as a government "hit" matt to
the Senate select committee investigating
the intelligence community. Back from a
gall-bladder operation in Houston, he had
a festive dinner at his horse in the Chi-
cago suburb of Oak Park the other night,
even as policemen patrolled the neigh-
bourhood. Later the same night he was
fixing up a snack of Italian sausage and
spinach ill his basement kitchen when lie
got some of his own treatment-seven
bullets in the face and neck.
According to police, the slaying had
all the signs of a gan gland execution, ex-
cept that the calibre of the bullets was
uncharacteristically small. Mr William
Colby, director of the CIA, took the un-
usual step ofdcclaring that ve had noth-
ing to do with it". But suspicions ran wild.
and there was inevitable spc ul~.tion that
Mr Giancana had been done in by some-
one he was about to expose in connection
with the Castro caper. Besides, some ask,
would Mr Colby necessarily know?
Approved For Release 2005/01/11 : CIA-RDP88-01315R000300510086-2