vault backup: 2026-09-21 18:07:25

20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Wackenhut Corporation.md

@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ summary: "Florida security company founded in 1954 by former FBI agents, which g
 start: 1954-01-01
 location: "Coral Gables, Florida"
 ---
-Wackenhut Corporation is a security and investigative firm founded in 1954 by [[George R. Wackenhut]] and three other former [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] Special Agents. Initially named Special Agent Investigators, it expanded to physical security and was renamed Wackenhut Corporation in 1958. Headquartered in [[Coral Gables]], [[Florida]], Wackenhut grew to become one of the world's largest security and investigative firms, with operations across the United States and internationally. The [[San Francisco]] Chronicle described it as being "led by former officials of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], the Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Security Agency, Defense Department and federal law enforcement."[^1][^2]
+Wackenhut Corporation is a security and investigative firm founded in 1954 by [[George R. Wackenhut]] and three other former [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] Special Agents. Initially named [[Special Agent Investigators]], it expanded to physical security and was renamed Wackenhut Corporation in 1958. Headquartered in [[Coral Gables]], [[Florida]], Wackenhut grew to become one of the world's largest security and investigative firms, with operations across the United States and internationally. The [[San Francisco]] Chronicle described it as being "led by former officials of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], the Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Security Agency, Defense Department and federal law enforcement."[^1][^2]
 
 ### Operations and Services
 
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ The [[Philadelphia]] filmmaker [[R.C. Horsch]] said in a recorded interview that
 
 On January 13, 1967, FBI headquarters instructed its Florida offices to give Kirk's investigators nothing: "The Bureau does not recognize the Wackenhut Corporation as a properly constituted law enforcement agency." The order was repeated by telephone on April 3, after Kirk had seen the attorney general. [[Hank Messick]], the [[Miami Herald]] crime reporter whose articles had led to the indictment of two county sheriffs in 1966, and to whom the bureau had itself been passing leads, joined Wackenhut that December and left after six weeks. "I quit the Wackenhut Corp. because I have reluctantly concluded a cruel hoax is being perpetrated upon the people of Florida," he said. He objected that the company kept as a private client Sir [[Stafford Sands]], the former Bahamian minister with gambling interests, while it was supposed to be pursuing [[Meyer Lansky]]. Wackenhut replied: "I do not find it necessary to dignify Mr. Messick's remarks with a reply." A former Wackenhut detective, [[Norman Casper]], later worked as an informant for the [[Internal Revenue Service]] against the [[Castle Bank and Trust|Castle Bank]] in the [[Bahamas]].[^11]
 
-In the course of Governor Kirk's campaign Wackenhut told the legislature that "overlord of the whole state's criminal syndicates" was [[Santo Trafficante Jr.|Santo Trafficante]], "longtime [[Trafficante crime family|Tampa Mafia]] boss, now living in Miami." The clippings are in the FBI's Miami file on the company. Trafficante's casino manager in [[Havana]], [[Lewis McWillie]], had been visited there in 1959 by his friend [[Jack Ruby]], and a CIA memorandum in the [[Warren Commission]]'s files reported that Trafficante, while held by [[Fidel Castro]]'s government that year, was "frequently visited" by "an American gangster" named "Ruby." McWillie told the House committee in 1978 that he had twice visited the detention camp and seen Trafficante there, and was not clear whether Ruby had gone with him. The FBI's four files on the company contain no reference to Ruby, to McWillie, or to a Wackenhut office in [[Texas]] before 1968.[^11][^12][^13]
+In the course of Governor Kirk's campaign Wackenhut told the legislature that "overlord of the whole state's criminal syndicates" was [[Santos Trafficante, Jr.|Santo Trafficante]], "longtime [[Trafficante crime family|Tampa Mafia]] boss, now living in Miami." The clippings are in the FBI's Miami file on the company. Trafficante's casino manager in [[Havana]], [[Lewis McWillie]], had been visited there in 1959 by his friend [[Jack Ruby]], and a CIA memorandum in the [[Warren Commission]]'s files reported that Trafficante, while held by [[Fidel Castro]]'s government that year, was "frequently visited" by "an American gangster" named "Ruby." McWillie told the House committee in 1978 that he had twice visited the detention camp and seen Trafficante there, and was not clear whether Ruby had gone with him. The FBI's four files on the company contain no reference to Ruby, to McWillie, or to a Wackenhut office in [[Texas]] before 1968.[^11][^12][^13]
 
 ### The Assassinations Committee
 
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ The New Orleans office of Southern Research was run by [[Joseph Oster]], a forme
 
 On April 14, 1967, the FBI's [[FBI Domestic Intelligence Division|Domestic Intelligence Division]] recorded that [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]] [[Ramsey Clark]] had told reporters the bureau had investigated Shaw and cleared him. "This is not true and we so informed the Attorney General." The New Orleans office, it went on, had told "[[Charles R. Carson (Wackenhut)|Charles R. Carson]], a Wackenhut Corporation investigator, and [[Dean Andrews]]" only that it had no comment, and the bureau "has no intention of telling these or any other individuals that the Attorney General's statement is incorrect." A witness told the review board at a public hearing that the former FBI employee [[William Walter]] had said to Garrison in 1973 "that the FBI through Wackenhut, the [[Metropolitan Crime Commission]] and [[Aaron Kohn]], had wire tapped his office." On May 3, 1967, [[George Walker (Wackenhut)|George Walker]] of the company's [[Coral Gables, Florida|Coral Gables]] headquarters gave the FBI in Miami a letter from a man who said that before the assassination a Cuban in his boarding house, known as "Cash," had remarked that to kill Kennedy one had only to excite a Cuban with a high-powered rifle.[^17]
 
-In November 1967 [[William Harvey]], the former head of the CIA's [[Task Force W]], who was planning a law practice, asked the FBI's liaison officer, [[Sam Papich]], about "reputable private investigators that might be willing to use Harvey's services to establish contacts and investigative coverage on the Continent." The CIA's director of security, [[Howard Osborn]], recorded the answer: "Mr. Papich suggested Wackenhut Corporation or the [[Fidelifax|Fidelifax Company]] as having a good reputation in the trade." The same memorandum reports two telephone calls in October from [[John Roselli]] asking Harvey to act as his lawyer.[^18]
+In November 1967 [[William Harvey]], the former head of the CIA's [[Task Force W]], who was planning a law practice, asked the FBI's liaison officer, [[Sam Papich]], about "reputable private investigators that might be willing to use Harvey's services to establish contacts and investigative coverage on the Continent." The CIA's director of security, [[Howard Osborn]], recorded the answer: "Mr. Papich suggested Wackenhut Corporation or the [[Fidelifax|Fidelifax Company]] as having a good reputation in the trade." The same memorandum reports two telephone calls in October from [[Johnny Roselli|John Roselli]] asking Harvey to act as his lawyer.[^18]
 
 ### Controversies and Allegations
 
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ Despite its public profile as a security firm, Wackenhut Corporation has been as
 
 ### Political Leanings and Dossier Collection
 
-George R. Wackenhut, the company's founder, was characterized as a "hard-line right-winger" whose political values were reflected in the company's operations. Wackenhut actively built dossiers on suspected dissidents and sold this information to interested parties. By 1965, Wackenhut claimed to maintain files on 2.5 million suspected dissidents. This number grew to over 4 million by 1966, following the acquisition of the private files of [[Karl Barslaag]], a former staff member of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. The company's monthly publication, the "Wackenhut Security Review," consistently criticized protest movements of the 1960s, earning accolades from right-wing organizations such as the John Birch Society and the All-American Conference to Combat Communism.[^1]
+George R. Wackenhut, the company's founder, was characterized as a "hard-line right-winger" whose political values were reflected in the company's operations. Wackenhut actively built dossiers on suspected dissidents and sold this information to interested parties. By 1965, Wackenhut claimed to maintain files on 2.5 million suspected dissidents. This number grew to over 4 million by 1966, following the acquisition of the private files of [[Karl Barslaag]], a former staff member of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. The company's monthly publication, the "[[Wackenhut Security Review]]," consistently criticized protest movements of the 1960s, earning accolades from right-wing organizations such as the John Birch Society and the All-American Conference to Combat Communism.[^1]
 
 ### Allegations of CIA Front Operations
 
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ Wackenhut was very active in [[El Salvador]] during the Contra war, providing em
 
 ### The Cabazon Joint Venture
 
-A particularly controversial aspect of Wackenhut's operations was its joint venture with the [[Cabazon Indian Reservation|Cabazon Indian tribe]] in Indio, California. Formalized on April 1, 1981, this partnership aimed to leverage the sovereign nation status of the Indian reservation to bypass federal jurisdiction and congressional prohibitions on arms exports. The venture, known as "Cabazon Arms," sought to establish a production facility for high-tech armaments and explosives for export to third-world countries, including the [[Contras]] in Nicaragua and nations in the Middle East. The firm was using the Cabazon reservation's tax-exempt status and its freedom from federal oversight to gain a competitive advantage in soliciting federal weapons projects.[^1][^2]
+A particularly controversial aspect of Wackenhut's operations was its joint venture with the [[Cabazon Indian Reservation|Cabazon Indian tribe]] in Indio, California. Formalized on April 1, 1981, this partnership aimed to leverage the sovereign nation status of the Indian reservation to bypass federal jurisdiction and congressional prohibitions on arms exports. The venture, known as "Cabazon Arms," sought to establish a production facility for high-tech armaments and explosives for export to third-world countries, including the [[Contras]] in Nicaragua and nations in the [[Middle East]]. The firm was using the Cabazon reservation's tax-exempt status and its freedom from federal oversight to gain a competitive advantage in soliciting federal weapons projects.[^1][^2]
 
 [[Dr. John Nichols]], the Cabazon tribal administrator and a former CIA agent who claimed experience going back to the Chilean destabilization program in the 1970s, secured a [[Department of Defense]] secret facility clearance for the reservation. He then proposed to Wackenhut the manufacture of various weapons systems, including 120mm combustible cartridge cases, 9mm machine pistols, laser-sighted assault weapons, sniper rifles, and portable rocket systems. The venture also explored the development of biological weapons. [[Michael Riconosciuto]] served as the Director of Research for this joint venture, and was involved in meetings with figures like [[Robert Frye]] (Wackenhut VP), [[John P. Nichols]], and [[Peter Zokosky]], and [[Dr. Harry Fair]] of the U.S. Army's Railgun Project at Picatinny Arsenal, where Riconosciuto's scientific expertise was noted.[^1]