Mob Hired by CIA to Kill Castro

Friends of ours: Johnny Rosselli, Sam Giancana, Santo Trafficante

The CIA recruited a former FBI agent to approach two of America's most-wanted mobsters and gave them poison pills meant for Fidel Castro during his first year in power, according to newly declassified papers released Tuesday.

Contained amid hundreds of pages of CIA internal reports collectively known as ''the family jewels,'' the official confirmation of the 1960 plot against Castro was certain to be welcomed by communist authorities as more proof of their longstanding claims that the United States wants Castro dead.

Communist officials say there have been more than 600 documented attempts to kill Castro over the decades. Now 80, Castro has not been seen in public since handing power to his younger brother Raul while recovering from intestinal surgery last July. But in a letter published on Monday, the elder Castro claimed without providing details that U.S. President George W. Bush had ''authorized and ordered'' his killing. And while Cuban government press officials didn't return a call seeking reaction Tuesday, the pending release of the newly declassified CIA documents had already been noted in state media.

''Upon the orders of the White House, the Central Intelligence Agency tried to assassinate President Fidel Castro and other former personalities and leaders,'' the Communist Party newspaper Granma said Saturday. ``What was already presumed and denounced will be corroborated.''

Other aborted U.S. attempts to kill Castro have been noted in other declassified documents.

The papers released Tuesday were part of a report prepared at the request of CIA Director James Schlesinger in 1973, who ordered senior agency officials to tell him of any current or past actions that could potentially violate the agency's charter.

Some details of the 1960 plot first surfaced in investigative reporter Jack Anderson's newspaper column in 1971.

The documents show that in August 1960, the CIA recruited ex-FBI agent Robert Maheu, then a top aide to Howard Hughes in Las Vegas, to approach mobster Johnny Roselli and pass himself off as the representative of international corporations that wanted Castro killed because of their lost gambling operations.

At the time, the bearded rebels had just outlawed gambling and destroyed the world-famous casinos American mobsters had operated in Havana. The Sopranos: 50 Count Cigar Humidor

Roselli introduced Maheu to ''Sam Gold'' and ''Joe.'' Both were mobsters on the U.S. government's 10-most wanted list: Momo Giancana, Al Capone's successor in Chicago; and Santos Trafficante, one of the most powerful mobsters in Batista's Cuba. The agency gave the reputed mobsters six poison pills, and they tried unsuccessfully for several months to have several people put them in Castro's food.

This particular assassination attempt was dropped after the failed CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in April 1961. The CIA was able to retrieve all the poison pills, records show.

Thanks to Anita Snow

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America's Most Wanted and The Chicago Syndicate for 6-30-07

America's Most Wanted and The Chicago Syndicate have partnered on AMW's upcoming episodes for Fox.

Lyle Baade: In September of 1993, 59-year-old heart patient Lyle Baade got a new lease on life. A tragic twist of fate gave him the transplant he needed to survive—Lyle received the heart of a 16-year-old murder victim by the name of Benny Zweigle. Seven years later, alive and well in Arizona , Baade was attending a homeowner’s meeting. Suddenly, a disgruntled neighbor by the name of Richard Glassel burst into the room--opening fire on the homeowner’s committee. Witnesses say Baade sprang into action. It was almost as if Benny, the 16-year-old heart donor was acting from beyond the grave.

Vicki Ragins Hero: In December of 2004, Shahidah Harley, her five children, and her sister Sheba were headed home to Atlanta after Thanksgiving. Shahidah lost control of her car and swerved into a water-filled canal. At the same time, 57-year-old Vicki Ragins was on her way to her son’s for breakfast. She saw Shahidah sitting on the side of the road in shock that while most of her family escaped the canal, her 13-month-old was still trapped in the car. Vicki’s terrified of water, but that didn’t stop her from diving in and saving the child’s life.

Michel Barrera: Police say Michel Barrera is responsible for the armed robbery of two Florida banks, and the attempted murder of Miami-Dade police officers in 1998. Now, seven years later, there’s still no trace of Barrera—and police are looking to AMW to track him down.

Stepha Henry: Friends and family of Stepha Henry say it would be very unlike for her to run away. The 22-year-old law school hopeful from New York disappeared last month while vacationing in Florida . Hopefully this week, AMW viewers can re-unite her with her family.

New York/Florida Serial Rapist: In August of 2005, a 68-year-old homeless woman was raped in Westside Manhattan. Police say that they may have found the man responsible, and that he could be behind brutal rapes in Florida and New York . This week we’ll feature interviews with Jacqueline, the courageous 68-year-old New York determined to fight back.

Israel Corral: Cops say Israel Corral was responsible for distributing guns and drugs all over the city of Detroit . He’s made big bucks in the process. This week, police are hoping that AMW tipsters can help track him down.

Cyril Byrd: While attending a New Year’s party in 1998, police say Byrd opened fire on a crowd of people—striking and killing one man. Now, nine years later, Byrd is still on the run. Cops if he’s not still in Ohio , he could be in California.

Joseph Fontana: Cops say Joseph Fontana seemed like a good guy. But upon moving to Fort Walton Beach , Florida —his true identity was revealed. Fontana allegedly made a new friend with her two young sons. What his new friend didn’t know is that Fontana was sexually molesting the boys for years.

Duane Bedford: Duane Bedford was a Philadelphia man who police say has a hot temper. And on May 28, 2006, after a neighbor accused him of breaking a window—witnesses say that Bedford exploded, shooting and killing his long time acquaintance. A year later, we’re making it our job to track Bedford down.

Jason Brown: Jason Brown has been an “AMW Dirty Dozen” member for quite a while now. He earned his spot by allegedly killing a Dunbar armored car driver in front of a Phoenix , Ariz. Multiplex in 2005. Cops say Brown is a one of the worst of the worst, but AMW viewers have already provided some great tips that have this fugitive feeling the heat.

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Porn Dealer Says Street Tax Paid for Mob Protection

William "Red" Wemette, dressed like a prosperous small-town banker, told jurors Monday how reputed top mobster Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo shook him down for thousands of dollars so Wemette could keep his pornography shop open.

When Wemette threatened to stop paying the "street tax" of $250 a week, a collector told him, in a congenial way, that he "could have an accident," Wemette testified in the federal trial of five alleged mob figures. "My building could be burned down. Anything could happen," Wemette said he was told.

While Lombardo allegedly required the payments, Wemette said he never put any money in Lombardo's hands -- only those of underlings, including reputed hitman Frank "The German" Schweihs, who would visit Wemette at his porn shop in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood.

Schweihs is too sick to stand trial, but Wemette identified Lombardo, both in court and from a photograph taken decades ago. "He looked a lot better then than he does now," Wemette said Monday. A wry smile spread across Lombardo's face.

Earlier in the day, an attorney for another man on trial, Anthony "Twan" Doyle, a retired Chicago police officer, punctuated the end of his opening statement by dismissively throwing the indictment in the case into an old-fashioned street sweeper's pushcart that the attorney had rolled into the courtroom.

The lawyer, Ralph Meczyk, said his client was a street sweeper not a street thug. Later on, Doyle got a job with the police department.

Doyle had a fierce loyalty to his badge and to his old friend, Frank Calabrese Sr., one of the five defendants, but never to the mob, Meczyk told the jury.

Prosecutors are expected to play secret tape recordings the FBI made of Doyle when he visited Calabrese Sr. in prison.

Calabrese Sr.'s brother Nicholas Calabrese, an admitted mob hitman, came under attack again Monday in the opening statement by the attorney for Paul Schiro. Schiro is accused of taking part in a mob hit on his close friend Emil Vaci, who allegedly was killed because mobsters worried he was testifying against them.

Schiro's attorney, Paul Wagner, said the only man linking his client to the slaying was Nick Calabrese, who will be the government's star witness. Wagner said it was Nick Calabrese who killed Vaci.

Thanks to Steve Warmbir

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