FBI PROBES DEATH IN SPYMASTER CASE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404000018-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 1, 2010
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: July 30, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/01 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000404000018-6
ARTICLE APPEARED CHICAGO TRIBUNE
O PAGE _ 30 July 1981
C cage TA"x+a Pm.. sarviw
NEW 'YORK - It was around
Easter-time that Dennis McNell took-his 16-year-:
old son into an upstairs.bedroom and gave
him several thousand dollars: in?"emer-
gency money" = just in -case.':
Six weeks later -McNell, `41, returned
home from togging in crippling pain. He
was hospitalized but died 10 hours later
from massive internal bleeding. No exact
cause of death was given, and, oddly, no
autopsy. was performed.
When he died June i, Dennis McNeil
was an obscure, not prosperous New
York businessman. No New York news-
..paper carried his obituary.
By this week, the mystery of McNeIl's
!death had .become a factor in the unfold
ing story surrounding Max Hugel, the;
CIA's former chief spymaster and top
~aide.to CIA Director: William Casey.
AN FBI SPOKESMAN said Tuesday
that FBI Director William Webster was
,getting regular reports .on the bureau's
probe of.McNell's death. The Senate In-
telligence Committee, which is looking
into Casey's affairs, was known to have
beard that McNeil died violently.
McNeil's widow, Jean, told. The Trib-
!une that her husband had been acting
!strangely in the six months before his
death. Twelve hours after that interview,
the FBI contacted Mrs. McNeil, and she
abruptly canceled a follow-up interview.
The reason for the posthumous interest
in McNell is his link to Hugel, the flam-
boyant sewing machine importer whom
Casey appointed to be chief of the CIA's
clandestine -service.'
-
McNeil's suddeh death June I came
one week after his two brothers, Samuel
and Thomas, first contacted the Washing-
ton Post to accuse Hugel of joining them
in an illegal stock manipulation deal in
-
1974.
THE ACCUSATIONS, when published
two weeks ago, led to Hugel's -immediate
resignation. He denied the charges, how-
ever, and said the McNells were trying to
'blackmail him.
The two surviving McNeil brothers
vanished two weeks ago. Directors of
Triad Energy Corp., a New York firm
controlled by the brothers, said about $3.3
million was missing from Triad and a
second firm they ran.
One of? the .Triad directors; a` Chicago
businessman named Stanley 'Kielmar,
then told the FBI that. Dennis. McNeil,
who also worked. for. Triad, was "ab-
ducted. and beaten"..twice this year, once
in April or May and a second time just
before his death.. `
Kielmar,. ip bi4?'statement to-the FBI,
'laid he "assumed" the alleged beatings
were connected.to the brothers' dealings
with. Hugel, and he interpreted them as
l"a warning for the McNells to cool it with
-gel. ,f_n?
Kielmsr, in an interview with The Trib-
ne, said he had beard from someone in
New York of the two beatings of Dennis
McNeil but was unable to give his source.
As far as is known, there are no police or
hospital records to corroborate his story.
nor is there any independent evidence
linking the death to Hugel. .
HOWEVER, WILEY THOMPSON, an
FBI spokesman, said the FBI's probe of
the Hugel-McNell case had been broad-
ened in the last five days to include the
death of Dennis McNeil.
- Thompson said the scrutiny of Dennis
McNeil's death was still in the -prelimi-
nary stages," but that the overall investi-
gation of the McNeil brothers was "going
to be _ very, detailed."
Mrs. McNeil told The Tribune that her
husband had never indicated to her that -
he had been beaten, -even on the night he
died, but she said she noticed changes in
her busband's behavior about six months
ago.
"All during our marriage, my husband
would confide in -me," she said, -"but
during the last six,months, he just sort of
clammed up.-Whenever I asked him what
was wrong, he would say everything was
OK,-not to worry.'!' ; ;.-.. ,
Mrs. McNell said she always had paid
household bills- out of a joint checking
account, but then her husband . started
paying the bills himself, otfen using
money orders.
"HE REALLY seemed to care a lot
that everything be paid up," she said. "It
was like he wanted to wipe everything
clean."
She said that near East~i~time, her hus-
band took their son upstairs for an unusu-
al talk
nothingvto worry about;'.Mrs. McNeil
said'...
cy money" and told him' to give it to his
;:After Dennis'-death; the son gave the
--envelope to her, she-said. She said it held
THE FAMILY LAST ate a meal ?d-
gether the evening of May 31 in tb,:_r'
modest home in the'Queens borough of
New -York City. -After dinner,. Mrs:
ging,-a frequent recreation. ,
years from diabetes but had the disease
rently felt fine, -but within an hour, he
returned home violently ill. He collapsed
on his bed, then was seized with the "d:yf
heaves" and excruciating abdominal-
pains.'
She said he .insisted that she not call a
doctor or ambulance. After a half hour;.
however, she called his brother Tom at
her husband's request, and the brother
told her to call an ambulance.
.When the.ambulance and paramedics'
arrived, Dennis protested loudly that he
did not want to go to a hospital, she said,
but the paramedics :found he had - ex-
tremely low blood pressure, apparently
from internal bleeding, and he was
rushed to the City Hospital Center, a
large.. and, modern city-owned hospital a
mile away. :._
Doctors worked through the `night -on
him. About 4:30 a.m. on the morning :of
June 1, Mrs. McNeil said, the doctors tokt'
her that they thought her husband had a'
.ruptured spleen. -They had her sign a'
form authorizing surgery.
:AS HE WAS BEING prepared for
surgery, he died, at 6:15 a.m. With Mrs.
McNeil at the hospital were the two'
brothers.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/01 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000404000018-6