'61 MEMO IS CITED ON CIA-MAFIA TIE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000300510130-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 20, 2004
• Sequence Number: 130
• Publication Date: May 30, 1975
• Content Type: NSPR

NEW YORK TIMES
CK NeC 4 ,
Approved For Release 2005M11IT :S lk5RDP88-01315R000300 1 1
7.x2- Fez
Hoover Is Said to Have Told
Robert Kennedy of Link
to 2 Racket Figures
d
r u
e
ceived a full C.I.A. brietir said that a memo was written' added.
VIAL. MA IA TIE, ;about _the agency's deali^s two days 4latert,_ by rr Mr. a McNama-1 Another Capitol Hill source,`'
at> +tn_
sa
t , went on to note tha*_.
quoted two other sources who tance to national security , he
the F B I
l
d
No Word on Assassination One source told the A.P. that
the matter was "immediately by a slapdash treatment involy-~
The memorandur, one so.~-ce dismissed " but the wire service ing a matter of such imoor-
'V MEMO IS CI 1 E~~
General, ordered or approved
By NICHOLAS M. HORROCK
Sped Iat to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, May 29-
Robert F. Kennedy knew as
early as May ?1, 1961, that the
Central Intelligence Agency
was secretly dealing with :the
Mafia, according to a Federal
Bureau of Investigation memo-
randum now- in the hands of
the Rockefeller commission
and the Senate Select Commit.
tee on Intelligence.
The discovery of ' this new
memorandum increases the
mystery of whether senior
members of the administration
,of President Kennedy, includ-
ing his brother the Attorney
ing ven that during an investigation i who said the Rockefeller corn- on to point
out that the panel felt that
mission had obtained fl- m
`
Cuban Premier Fidel Castro, i morandum that was kept in ,dum bore the handwritten ini-a
It is part of a growing pat-! F.B.I. files and was known only tials "RFK."AL The hand
tern of indications, mentioned to select members of the to? written note
in press had apparently
echelon of bureau for many. been retyped
reports over the last years. by someone in;
two weeks, that a plan to as- Concern on Blackmail I the same period as the memo.
sassinate Mr. Castro was dis. , author:' was written, the source said.
cussed at the highest levels of .tative TBat sources - memorandum, last: apparently to make the note
the Government in the early week, is also in the hands clear to readers. But there is.
or nineteen sixties and that, with of the rockefeller commission, no evidence et
without approval, the intelli. Y public that;
genie agency recruited two which is looking into inter- it was "followed up vigorously"I
men with organized crime con, ligence operations. It reported- or what action was taken, if
nections to attempt one such ly contained Mr. Hoover's con any.
operation. corn that Mr. Giancana could A spokesman for the Senate
According to sources fami- "blackmail" the Uetidn States committee declined to comment
iar with the investigation. J. Government., ion whether the committee had
Edgar Hoover, the director of The Associated Press report- any specific evidence.
the F.B.I., wrote a detailed se- ed last week what appears to this has been the cot niitt-ee's
comet memorandum et Robert be another piece of this puzzle.
general response. But the
Kennedy in May. 7961 assert-' It quoted authoritative sources sookesrngn t
an alleged C.I.A. plot to kill' and Mr. Hoover wrote a me- *ousry, and that the memoran
ancana and John Roselli, agents
had turned up an apparen*
connection with the C.I.A.
Roselli. The memorandum. this Pare LUn LULgt:11 y P4a[15 LW 111t:
source . , said, never mentioned "elimination" of Mr. Castro.
the words "assassination" or Several highly placed sources;
"eliminate," a eupheiism for within the C.I.A. and other in- David 1V. Belin, counsel for;
assassination often used in spy telligence circles of the early he Rockefeller commission;
circles. But the source said nineteen-sixties have said that also declined to comment.
after the Ba
of Pi
s invasion
M
y
g
r. Hoover characteid Vs
rzete reported C.I.A. activities with failed, in April, 1961, there was
Roselli a major effort to get rid of
Mr. Giancana and Mr
.
? as "dirty business." Mr. Castro. For instance, News-
The memorandum is dated week magazine reported that
almost a year before Robert a source described this as an
Kennedy was given a briefing "effort of the Kennedy Admi-
by the intelligence agency on nistration." ? 1
this same subiect. Authority Unclear
In that briefing, covered in
testimony before the Rockefel-
ler commission and in do-
cuments, according to reliable.
Most intelligence sources of
the period appear to be anxious
to stress that no plan for either
---.y ' j ; coup d'etat would have been
appeared to learn of the Z C.I.A. s brought to an operational level
dealings with the Mafia for without the authority of the
tha first time Ant ? n qmn",.$- i
For instance, one source said.
wanted to deal with organized
crime that the top of the May, 1961,
it should come to him memorandum disclosed this
As first. a result of .this May week, a note had been jottedi
,
1962, briefing, the Attorney G in what he said was brt-
e-
neral gave Mr. Hoover furthe . Kennedy's handwriting saying,
Rusk, John A. McCone. then a p o aga~nsuf IvIr. Castro,
Director of Central Intelligence, should be investigated carefully
and thoroughly.
and McGeorge Bundy, President and
partial analysis of
Kennedy's adviser for national , evidence is dangerous and
security affairs. The meeting. -harmful," he saig TNe com-
the A.P. report said, included mittees" investigation will not'
a Castro. of killing sir. Put "reputations in jeopardy;
these leaks are outrageous"
notes of a meeting on '- Aug. -'
and that the question of whe-
10, 1962,
ensetteRobert nded S. Secretary - .them there was a national policy'
ra, Secretary of State Dean to assassinate foreign leaders,;
or 1 t
that would be "embarrassing
ct