MURDERED CHICAGO MOBSTER WAS 'RECRUITED BY CIA'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000300510099-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 20, 2004
• Sequence Number: 99
• Publication Date: June 21, 1975
• Content Type: NSPR

TIlE 1,N1.i'ICi[ESTE1), GU 2DIAIN1
21 JUNE 1975
For ReleMjq.2005/01/11 !IA-R 81013 R000300510099-8
The unsavoury exposure of CIA involvement in political assassinations received
a new twist today with the murder of Sam Giancano, a Chicago mobster whom the
CIA is alleged to have recruited for atternpfs to poison Fidel Castro, his younger I
brother,. and Che Guevara, in' 1961.
Giancano,' wiho was 65, is generally assumed to have been the leader of the
Chicago crime syndicate. He had returned to Chicago recently after a self-imposed;
had a home and other
business interests.
He was shot six times in the
head, and investigators are con-
vinced that it was a "profes
sional job." The normal
assumption would be that his
shooting was a gangland execu-
tion. Giancano himself is known
to have ordered scores of- kill-
ings during 17 years of pro-
minence in the Chicago Mafia.
However, Giancano has also
during the last few days been
at the centre of reports about
intelligence activities: Mr
Roseli, who has been asked to
testify next week, will also
plead the fifth amendment. But
both men are to be given:
immunity from criminal pro-
secution, and (,rill then testify.
In addition to all the talk of
CIA assassination, a new and
possibly even more unsavoury
element has entered the debate
over the role played by the
CIA. It has long been known
that thet. intelligence agency
tolerated,'and indeed actively
Giancarlo has extensive gam-
bl,ing interests un Cuba, and he
lost a lot of money there when
they were closed down 'wben
Castro came to power. Accord-
ing to recent reports which
have been partially confirmed
by sources with access to the
Rockefeller investigation Into
the CIA as well as to the
Senate hearings, Giancarlo,
together with another under-
world figure, John Roseli, were
recruited in 1960 to organise
the assassination of the three
Cuban leaders. The assassina-
tion-s were intended to coincide
with the Bay of Pigs invasion
of Cuba in April 1961, with the
object of minimising political
confusion on the, island.
One of Howard Hughes's
aides, Robert 111aheu, a former
CIA agent, was reportedly
recruited to act as middleman
between the CIA and the actual
plotters,. It was Mr Iilahe'u who
.is alleged to have 'chosen Mr
Roseli and Mr Giancarlo to
organise the assassination
attempts. The three moved to
Miami Beach to supervise the
plot. Three separate attempts
are said to have been con-
ceived, but evidently none
proved successful.
ram, as part of a policy of ral-
lying local pupport for the US.
Now, it seems that the CIA
turn a blind eye when its
agents smuggle opium in to the:
US for conversion into heroin.
One of the CIA agents, a Thai,
was caught in 1974 trying to
smuggle 1.00 lb of raw opium
into the US. The .CIA stepped
in and persuaded the Depart-,
meat of Justice to drop charges
on the grounds that the situa-
tion proved embarrassing. The,
man in question was allowed
to return to Thailand. Without
CIA protection he would have.
faced several years in prison.
It is, (however, the CIA's
involvement in assassinations
that has become the centre of
an increasingly acid political
controversy with.charges going
backwards and forwards over'
the ' involvement of the Ken-
nedy brothers as well as, of
President Eisenhower. Vice-Pre-
sident Rockefeller has implied
that the Konnedys were
involved at least by knowled