'Family jewels' detail Castro, Mafia plot

WASHINGTON, June 26 (UPI) -- The CIA contracted a Mafia leader in 1960 to assassinate Fidel Castro, but the effort failed.

The tale of how Johnny Roselli became an ineffectual CIA freelancer and later exposed the operation is one of eight operations detailed in the just released, 30-year-old archive known as the "family jewels."

Newspaper columnist Jack Anderson of the Washington Post was later put under CIA surveillance after he obtained information on the plot from the gangster.

The document says the CIA contacted a "trusted operational" source, Robert Maheu, to make contact with Roselli, whom he knew socially from visits to Las Vegas.

Maheu told Roselli his clients -- identified as international business firms whose interests were suffering under Castro's regime -- were offering $150,000 for the death of Castro.

Maheu specifically said the U.S. government was not aware and should not become aware of the operation.

Roselli initially resisted but ultimately introduced Maheu to two men who would carry out the hit -- Chicago Mafia leaders, both of whom were on the 10 Most Wanted list.

"Sam Gold," identified as the successor to Al Capone, decided to poison Castro with pills provided by the CIA through Maheu. Several failed attempts were made, and the project was canceled after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, another CIA-led attempt to oust Castro.

In the meantime, Sam asked Maheu to bug his girlfriend's room to determine if she was cheating on him. Maheu arranged it, but the technician was caught by police. Maheu and the technician were both brought up on charges by the Justice Department until the CIA intervened with Attorney General Robert Kennedy.

Roughly five years later, Roselli was convicted on five illegal immigration charges and then was convicted of defrauding the Friars Club of $400,000 in a fixed game of gin rummy. He faced deportation and appealed.

By 1970 his final appeal had failed, and Roselli's attorney contacted Maheu to say if the CIA didn't intervene, he would reveal his activities. The CIA refused, and Roselli or his associates released the Castro plot details to Anderson.