<Archive Obituaries> Johnny Roselli (August 8th 1976)
Bill Schenley
Photo: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKroselli2.jpg
FROM: The New York Times (August 8th 1976) ~
By The Associated Press
The body of John Roselli, a key figure with Sam Giancan, the
slain Chicago mobster, in a Central Intelligence Agency plan
to assassinate Premier Fidel Castro of Cuba, hs been found
in a chain-wrapped 55-gallon drum floating in Biscayne Bay.
Mr. Roselli, 70 years old, was found yesterday by two
fishermen. He had been missing since he left his sister's
home on July 28, to play golf.
"These guys went ot an incredible amount of trouble trying
to make sure the body was never found," Dr. Ronal Wright,
deputy chief medical examiner, said. "The lengths to which
they went to insure the body would not be found clearly
earmarks this as a true gangland-style killing."
The Dade County authorities said that Mr. Roselli had been
asphyxiated. Earlier reports indicated that Mr. Roselli had
been shot. Dr. Wright would only confirm that there was "a
circular wound on the lower abdomen."
Mr. Roselli testified last year before the Senate Select
Committee on Intelligence Activities that he and Mr.
Giancana had been recruited in 1961 by the CIA as part of a
plot to poison Mr. Castro. Mr. Roselli said that he had
turned down the offer, for which he and Mr. Giancana were
reportedly to have been paid $100,000. According to the
Senate report on the plan, Mr. Roselli was the liaison
between Mr. Giancana and Cuban dissidents who were to carry
out the assassination.
Giancana Murdered
Mr. Giancana was also supposed to testify before the Senate
Committee, but on July 19, 1975, several days before his
scheduled appearance, someone fired seven .22 caliber
bullets into him in what the authorities said was a gangland
killing. That murder has never been solved.
The Intelligence Committee learned that Robert A. Maheu,
a former top aide to the late Howard R. Hughes, was the
liaison between the C.I.A. and the mobsters. Mr. Maheu,
who has partly acknowledged his role in the assassination
plan, split with Mr. Hughes long before the billionaire's death
earlier this year.
Two fishermen found the oil drum floating in the
Dumbfoundling Bay, an arm of the Biscayne Bay between
North Miami and Miami Beach. The police said that because
of the currents, it was not known where the drum had been
thrown into the bay.
Dr. Wright said that the holes had been chopped in the
barrel to make it sink and that the chains had been wrapped
around it to weight it down. Gases formed by the
decomposition and trapped inside the body tissue and the
barrel itself had brought it to the surface he said.
Car Was Found
Mr . Roselli had been reported missing on July 28 by his
sister, with whom he had been living recently in Plantation,
north of Miami. His car was found a few days later at Miami
International Airport. His golf bags were still in the trunk.
Mr. Roselli was associated for many years with Mr.
Giancana, who became the head of the Chicago rackets in
the late 1930's and early 1940's.
Mr. Roselli was sent to Las Vegas, Nev., in the 1950's to
operate the organized crime interests there but stayed under
the control of the Chicago organization.
He went to Los Angeles in the early 1960's and was based
there when Mr. Castro took over Cuba. Until then, organized
crime had controlled gambling in Cuba.
Mr. Maheu has said that he recruited Mr. Roselli and Mr.
Giancana to kill Mr. Castro at the request of the CIA. He
said that the two men had been chosen because of contacts
they had made in Cuba in the pre-Castro years.
Mr. Maheu said that the plot was timed to coincide with the
Bay of Piggs invasion in April 1961 and was "always subject
to a 'go' signal which, to my knowledge, never came."
Mr. Roselli told the Senate committee that he had made
several trips to Cuba in high-powered boats furnished by the
CIA. He said that the plan had included various methods for
killing Mr. Castro, including sniper fire, explosives and
poison capsules.
Mr. Roselli and Giancana were also linked with Judith
Campbell Exner, who has said that she had "a relationship"
with President John F. Kennedy. The names of Mr. Roselli
and Mr. Giancana appear in FBI reports released at Mrs.
Exner's request for help in writing her memoirs.
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Photos:
http://www.crimelibrary.com/graphics/photos/gangsters_outlaws/cops_others/frank_sinatra/4b_150.jpg
(Sam Giancana)
http://www.crimelibrary.com/graphics/photos/gangsters_outlaws/mob_bosses/women/4-6-Judith-Campbell-Exner.jpg
(Judith Campbell Exner)
http://wwwimage.cbsnews.com/images/2005/02/25/image676623x.jpg
(Robert Maheu)
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Mafia; CIA canaries
FROM: The Economist (August 21st 1976) ~
Mr. John Roselli was the second of two underworld
figures linked with the CIA to meet a violent death. His
body was found in an oil drum wrapped in chains floating
off Miami in Dumbfoundling Bay 10 days ago.
Mr. Roselli had given evidence before the senate's
committee on intelligence activities about a CIA plan to
assassinate Mr. Fidel Castro for which he had been hired
to play a principal role. Another crime boss, Mr. Sam
"Momo" Giancana, was found shot to death at his
Chicago home in June, 1975, shortly before he was to
testify.
Neither death has been explained. A common attitude
among police investigators towards "gangland" killings
is that they are better left alone: mobsters may settle
scores against mobsters so long as innocent
bystanders are not involved. Mr. Roselli's death had the
stamp of a gangster killing, and the initial reaction of the
local Florida police and the FBI was not to pursue the
matter too deeply. Mr. Clarence Kelley, the director of the
FBI, said the FBI's writ did not run to investigating
murder, a state crime.
Under pressure, however, from members of the senate's
intelligence committee, Mr. Edward Levi, the attorney
general, reversed this decision. On August 13th he
ordered the FBI to take charge of the investigation. The
suggestion of a link between the testimony of Mr.
Roselli and his murder was too strong to ignore. It is a
federal crime to interfere with the proceedings of a
congressional committee.
Members of congress were not being
conspiratorial-minded; the connections Messrs Giancana
and Roselli had with the administration ran beyond the
CIA. At the time in 1961 when they were hatching their
failed plan to kill Mr. Castro, they were close to Mrs.
Judith Campbell Exner, who in turn was linked,
"romantically", she says, with President Kennedy. There
is not a shred of solid evidence to suggest that Messrs
Giancana and Roselli had anything to do with the murder
of President Kennedy. Still the wise assumption must be
that they knew something their killers did not want widely
known. So even if the final result is to lay to rest the wider
speculation, congress was right to prod the FBI into
investigating who killed Mr. Roselli and why.
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Photo: http://www.erbzine.com/mag8/roselli.jpg