Word: mafia
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Abomination. To find out more about the assassination plots, particularly who authorized them, Church will devote the rest of this month to closed-door hearings on the subject. Not only does Church plan to recall Colby and other CIA officials, past and present, but he will call the Mafia's John Roselli, who reportedly was signed up by the CIA to direct some of the schemes to assassinate Castro. Church also plans to question Robert Maheu, the onetime FBI agent and aide to Howard Hughes, who is said to have recruited Roselli...
...story of the CIA'S efforts to enlist Mafia aid in assassinating Cuba's Fidel Castro continues to unfold. In 1960, during the waning months of Dwight Eisenhower's presidency, TIME has learned that the agency went to Momo Salvatore ("Sam") Giancana, a high-ranking Mafia don who ruled Chicago's gangland with a bloody hand. The mission: kill Castro. For help, Giancana turned to one of the most nimble and conniving figures in the Mafia: Richard Cain, who had been the Mafia's agent in the enemy camp: a detective on Chicago...
Exactly what the Mafia rangers accomplished against Cuba is still unclear. Some intelligence officials doubt that a single guerrilla from Chicago ever set foot on the island. For his part, Cain later was to boast how he had led hit-and-run raids on Cuban power stations...
...sources say that the CIA spent more than $100,000 on the operation, while Giancana laid out $90,000 of the Mob's own funds for Cain's expenses. When some Mafia officials objected to the payments, Giancana contended that the funds should be considered as "ice" (protection money...
...Mafia trio had good reason to encourage the invasion: if Castro fell, they had a chance not only to retrieve what was left of the $450,000 but possibly to return to their lucrative business in Havana. In addition, Plumeri and Granello had secretly left behind another $300,000, which they had got by short-changing the mob on the take from the gambling casino. The money was buried in a field outside Havana...