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@ -8,12 +8,26 @@ summary: "Arthur Koestler was a Hungarian-born British novelist, journalist, and
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born: 1905-09-05
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died: 1983-03-01
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location: "Budapest, Hungary"
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relations:
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- type: funded
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with: "[[University of Edinburgh]]"
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start: 1985
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role: "bequest endowing the Koestler Chair of Parapsychology"
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fn: 2
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---
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Arthur Koestler was a Hungarian-born British novelist, journalist, and critic. He was known for his writings on science, parapsychology, and political philosophy. His 1972 book, *The Roots of Coincidence*, explored the concept of synchronicity and other parapsychological phenomena.[^1]
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Koestler's work, particularly *The Roots of Coincidence*, played a role in influencing key figures in the U.S. government's psychic research programs. Major General [[Edmund Thompson]], the Army's assistant chief of staff for intelligence, developed a considerable enthusiasm for psychic spying after reading Koestler's pro-paranormal book. This personal interest contributed to Thompson's approval and support for the [[Stargate Project|Gondola Wish]] program.[^1]
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### Koestler Chair of Parapsychology
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Koestler's bequest endowed a chair in parapsychology at the [[University of Edinburgh]]. The Koestler Parapsychology Unit, in the university's psychology department, gives 1985 as its year of establishment, and [[Robert L. Morris]] was appointed the first holder of the Koestler Chair of Parapsychology in 1985.[^2][^3] A paper reproduced in the 1994 DIA peer review plan gives Morris as holding the chair in the Department of Psychology at Edinburgh.[^4] [[James E. Alcock]] described the chair in 1987 as "endowed by a bequest from the late Arthur Koestler, a long-time supporter of parapsychology."[^5]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.
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[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.
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[^2]: Koestler Parapsychology Unit, University of Edinburgh, home page ("Established in 1985"). https://koestlerunit.wordpress.com/
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[^3]: "Robert Morris," Psi Encyclopedia, Society for Psychical Research ("In 1985, Morris was appointed the first holder of the Koestler Chair of Parapsychology"). https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/robert-morris/
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[^4]: Defense Intelligence Agency, *Project STAR GATE Research and Peer Review Plan,* June 1994, CIA-RDP96-00789R002700010001-1. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00789r002700010001-1
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[^5]: Alcock, James E. "Parapsychology: Science of the Anomalous or Search for the Soul?" *Behavioral and Brain Sciences* (1987), CIA-RDP96-00789R002200120001-4. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00789r002200120001-4
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@ -11,8 +11,8 @@ tags:
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- MaterialSupport
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- TerrorismCharge
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created: 2026-05-21
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updated: 2026-05-22
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summary: "Baron Cain Martin, alias 'Convict,' is the first person in the United States charged under a federal terrorism statute as an alleged 764 Network member, with DOJ using 18 U.S.C. § 2339A anchored to an 18 U.S.C. § 956(a) conspiracy to kill or maim a victim located overseas."
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updated: 2026-10-09
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summary: "Baron Cain Martin, alias 'Convict,' is the first person in the United States charged under a federal terrorism statute as an alleged 764 Network member, under 18 U.S.C. § 2339A and a § 956(a) conspiracy."
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born: 2004
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location: "Tucson, Arizona"
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---
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@ -23,13 +23,13 @@ location: "Tucson, Arizona"
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According to prosecutors, Martin joined 764 in approximately 2019, when he was around 14 or 15 years old, and over the following years rose to a position of leadership and administration within the network's chatrooms. By the time of his arrest he was operating as an administrator of 764 spaces and had authored a detailed grooming guide that he posted online, advising other 764 members on how to identify, groom, and extort vulnerable juveniles. The guide specifically recommended targeting victims who were already struggling with mental health issues, on the ground that psychological vulnerability made targets easier to coerce.[^1]
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Martin operated across [[Discord]], [[Telegram]], and other platforms under the "Convict" alias and additional handles. Named co-conspirators in the indictment include [[Leonidas Varagiannis]], [[Prasan Nepal]], and [[Tony Christopher Long]], all separately prosecuted in federal cases arising from the same investigative period.
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Martin operated across [[Discord]], [[Telegram]], and other platforms under the "Convict" alias and additional handles. The superseding indictment, filed October 29, 2025 in a version redacted for public disclosure, refers to Martin's co-conspirators as "conspirators," "coconspirators," "Conspirator 1" and "others, known and unknown."[^2] [[Leonidas Varagiannis]], [[Prasan Nepal]] and [[Tony Christopher Long]] were each separately prosecuted in federal cases arising from the same period.
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### Case Record
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The case is docketed as [[United States v. Martin (4-25-cr-00190)|United States v. Martin]], 4:25-cr-00190-TUC-AMM(BGM), before [[Angela M. Martinez|U.S. District Judge Angela M. Martinez]], with [[Bruce G. Macdonald]] serving as the assigned magistrate.[^2] The original arrest charges were filed under magistrate case 4:24-mj-11950 following Martin's arrest on December 11, 2024. A superseding grand jury indictment on 29 counts was returned and unsealed on October 31, 2025; Martin was arraigned on the superseding indictment on November 21, 2025 and entered a not-guilty plea on all counts.
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The case is docketed as [[United States v. Martin (4-25-cr-00190)|United States v. Martin]], 4:25-cr-00190-TUC-AMM(BGM), before [[Angela M. Martinez|U.S. District Judge Angela M. Martinez]], with [[Bruce G. Macdonald]] serving as the assigned magistrate.[^3] The original arrest charges were filed under magistrate case 4:24-mj-11950 following Martin's arrest on December 11, 2024. A superseding grand jury indictment on 29 counts was returned and unsealed on October 31, 2025; Martin was arraigned on the superseding indictment on November 21, 2025 and entered a not-guilty plea on all counts.
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The case was designated complex by the court. An original trial date of March 24, 2026 was vacated; a status conference before Magistrate Macdonald was scheduled for May 19, 2026. The current jury trial date is June 30, 2026, with a plea deadline of June 19, 2026.[^3]
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The case was designated complex by the court. An original trial date of March 24, 2026 was vacated; a status conference before Magistrate Macdonald was scheduled for May 19, 2026. The current jury trial date is June 30, 2026, with a plea deadline of June 19, 2026.[^4]
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The prosecution is led by [[Justin Sher]], Trial Attorney in the [[U.S. Department of Justice]] National Security Division's [[Counterterrorism Section]], and [[James Donnelly]], who serves as DOJ's designated domestic terrorism coordinator for [[Nihilistic Violent Extremism]] cases. The indictment was filed by [[Timothy Courchaine]], U.S. Attorney for the [[District of Arizona]], who was appointed to that position by [[Attorney General]] [[Pamela Bondi]] on February 28, 2025.[^1]
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@ -57,41 +57,41 @@ The superseding indictment alleges that Martin victimized at least nine individu
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The designation of the material support to terrorism count against Martin represents the first time in the United States that a 764 network member has been charged with a federal terrorism offense. The case was cited by [[Pamela Bondi|Attorney General Pamela Bondi]] and [[Kash Patel|FBI Director Kash Patel]] at the time of its announcement as evidence of the government's willingness to apply terrorism statutes to what had previously been charged primarily as child exploitation crimes.[^1]
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DOJ Trial Attorney [[Justin Sher]] (National Security Division) and DOJ career officials subsequently offered public assessments of 764 as a terrorism threat equal in seriousness to foreign-directed networks. The Martin case is the legal vehicle through which the DOJ is testing the proposition that 764's violence is terrorism rather than merely criminal exploitation.[^4]
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DOJ Trial Attorney [[Justin Sher]] (National Security Division) and DOJ career officials subsequently offered public assessments of 764 as a terrorism threat equal in seriousness to foreign-directed networks. The Martin case is the legal vehicle through which the DOJ is testing the proposition that 764's violence is terrorism rather than merely criminal exploitation.[^5]
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### The Terrorism Charge: Statutory Theory
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The terrorism count in the indictment is a conspiracy charge under [[18 U.S.C. § 2339A]]: conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. This is not a charge under 18 U.S.C. § 2339B (providing material support to a designated [[Foreign Terrorist Organization]]). The distinction is legally critical: 764 is not a State Department-designated FTO, so 2339B was unavailable.
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Section 2339A instead requires only that the defendant knowingly provide material support, defined broadly to include property, services, expert advice or assistance, personnel (including oneself), and training, knowing or intending that the support will be used in preparation for, or to carry out, a listed predicate offense. The predicate offense named in the Martin indictment is a violation of [[18 U.S.C. § 956|18 U.S.C. § 956(a)]]: conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim, or injure persons in a foreign country, requiring an overt act within U.S. jurisdiction.[^5]
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Section 2339A instead requires only that the defendant knowingly provide material support, defined broadly to include property, services, expert advice or assistance, personnel (including oneself), and training, knowing or intending that the support will be used in preparation for, or to carry out, a listed predicate offense. The predicate offense named in the Martin indictment is a violation of [[18 U.S.C. § 956|18 U.S.C. § 956(a)]]: conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim, or injure persons in a foreign country, requiring an overt act within U.S. jurisdiction.[^6]
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The statutory mechanics: DOJ charged Martin with conspiring to provide material support (under 2339A) in furtherance of a conspiracy to kill or maim an overseas victim (under 956(a)). The two conspiracy layers do not create an impermissible "conspiracy to conspire" problem because 2339A contains its own conspiracy provision, meaning no separate overt act is required once the agreement is formed.[^6]
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The statutory mechanics: DOJ charged Martin with conspiring to provide material support (under 2339A) in furtherance of a conspiracy to kill or maim an overseas victim (under 956(a)). The two conspiracy layers do not create an impermissible "conspiracy to conspire" problem because 2339A contains its own conspiracy provision, meaning no separate overt act is required once the agreement is formed.[^7]
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The penalty for the 2339A conspiracy count is up to 15 years per count. The 956(a) conspiracy to kill, if it results in death, carries life imprisonment; conspiracy to maim carries up to 35 years.
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### Specific Facts Underlying the Terrorism Count
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The terrorism count rests on a September 2022 conspiracy in which Martin and unnamed co-conspirators directed a victim identified only as "Victim 7," located outside the United States, to self-harm, self-maim, and die by suicide. The government's theory is that coercing an overseas victim to commit violence against themselves constitutes a conspiracy to kill or maim a person in a foreign country under 956(a), and that Martin's actions in furtherance of that conspiracy, specifically his authorship and circulation of the "[[Grooming/Manipulation Egirls Guide]]" and his operational direction of 764 members, constituted "expert advice or assistance" and "services" and "personnel" within the meaning of 2339A.[^5]
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The terrorism count rests on a September 2022 conspiracy in which Martin and unnamed co-conspirators directed a victim identified only as "Victim 7," located outside the United States, to self-harm, self-maim, and die by suicide. The government's theory is that coercing an overseas victim to commit violence against themselves constitutes a conspiracy to kill or maim a person in a foreign country under 956(a), and that Martin's actions in furtherance of that conspiracy, specifically his authorship and circulation of the "[[Grooming/Manipulation Egirls Guide]]" and his operational direction of 764 members, constituted "expert advice or assistance" and "services" and "personnel" within the meaning of 2339A.[^6]
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According to analysis published by researchers at the [[GWU Program on Extremism]], the government will likely rely on overlapping evidence to prove both the 956(a) conspiracy and the 2339A conspiracy, since the same conduct (coercing Victim 7) forms the core of both counts.[^6]
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According to analysis published by researchers at the [[GWU Program on Extremism]], the government will likely rely on overlapping evidence to prove both the 956(a) conspiracy and the 2339A conspiracy, since the same conduct (coercing Victim 7) forms the core of both counts.[^7]
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U.S. Attorney Courchaine described the ideological component at a press conference: the conduct was not motivated by financial gain but by "the glory and for the ideology of bringing down just generally the system," and that ideological motive, 764's stated accelerationist goal of destabilizing U.S. society and the world order, is what supports the terrorism framing under the statute. He stated: "It's terrorism because it was an ideology that specifically motivated violent actions."[^7]
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U.S. Attorney Courchaine described the ideological component at a press conference: the conduct was not motivated by financial gain but by "the glory and for the ideology of bringing down just generally the system," and that ideological motive, 764's stated accelerationist goal of destabilizing U.S. society and the world order, is what supports the terrorism framing under the statute. He stated: "It's terrorism because it was an ideology that specifically motivated violent actions."[^8]
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### The Grooming Guide as Material Support
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The indictment identifies Martin as the author and distributor of the "Grooming/Manipulation Egirls Guide," which provided detailed instructions to 764 members on how to identify, target, and coerce vulnerable minors into producing CSAM and self-harm content. The government classifies the guide's authorship and distribution as both a "service" to 764 members and "expert advice or assistance" within the statutory definition of material support under 2339A. This theory, that a written manual of criminal tradecraft constitutes "expert advice or assistance" under the terrorism material support statute, is a significant extension of how 2339A has traditionally been applied and could face First Amendment challenge if Martin moves to dismiss.[^6]
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The indictment identifies Martin as the author and distributor of the "Grooming/Manipulation Egirls Guide," which provided detailed instructions to 764 members on how to identify, target, and coerce vulnerable minors into producing CSAM and self-harm content. The government classifies the guide's authorship and distribution as both a "service" to 764 members and "expert advice or assistance" within the statutory definition of material support under 2339A. This theory, that a written manual of criminal tradecraft constitutes "expert advice or assistance" under the terrorism material support statute, is a significant extension of how 2339A has traditionally been applied and could face First Amendment challenge if Martin moves to dismiss.[^7]
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### Why Martin and Not Earlier 764 Defendants
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The 2339A/956 theory was not applied in earlier 764 prosecutions for a structural reason. The 956(a) predicate requires a conspiracy to kill or maim a person located in a foreign country. Earlier cases, including the founding prosecution of [[Bradley Chance Cadenhead]] (Texas state court, CSAM charges only), and the federal prosecutions of [[Leonidas Varagiannis]] and [[Prasan Nepal]] (D.D.C., case 1:25-cr-00304, child exploitation enterprise and related charges but no terrorism count), either did not involve an identified overseas victim of directed lethal violence, or prosecutors chose not to deploy the terrorism theory at that stage.[^8]
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The 2339A/956 theory was not applied in earlier 764 prosecutions for a structural reason. The 956(a) predicate requires a conspiracy to kill or maim a person located in a foreign country. Earlier cases, including the founding prosecution of [[Bradley Chance Cadenhead]] (Texas state court, CSAM charges only), and the federal prosecutions of [[Leonidas Varagiannis]] and [[Prasan Nepal]] (D.D.C., case 1:25-cr-00304, child exploitation enterprise and related charges but no terrorism count), either did not involve an identified overseas victim of directed lethal violence, or prosecutors chose not to deploy the terrorism theory at that stage.[^9]
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The Martin indictment is the first case where DOJ identified a specific overseas victim who was directed to commit lethal self-harm, providing the 956(a) predicate anchor that makes 2339A available without any FTO designation. The Baumgartner/Jonas analysis frames this as DOJ using 2339A as "connective tissue linking online radicalization to real-world harm" and as a signal that the government now views NVE networks as terrorist enterprises rather than merely criminal exploitation schemes.[^6]
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The Martin indictment is the first case where DOJ identified a specific overseas victim who was directed to commit lethal self-harm, providing the 956(a) predicate anchor that makes 2339A available without any FTO designation. The Baumgartner/Jonas analysis frames this as DOJ using 2339A as "connective tissue linking online radicalization to real-world harm" and as a signal that the government now views NVE networks as terrorist enterprises rather than merely criminal exploitation schemes.[^7]
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An additional factor is the explicit accelerationist ideology element. The Chavez prosecution ([[San Antonio]], RICO guilty plea December 2025) and the Varagiannis/Nepal prosecution both used NVE framing in press releases but charged under RICO and child exploitation statutes. Martin's case is distinguished by the combination of: (1) a specifically identified overseas victim, (2) documented ideological goal statements from Martin himself about societal destabilization, and (3) the existence of the grooming guide as a distributable "expert advice" artifact.
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An additional factor is the explicit accelerationist ideology element. The Chavez prosecution ([[San Antonio]], RICO guilty plea December 2025) and the Varagiannis/Nepal prosecution both used NVE framing in press releases while the Varagiannis and Nepal indictment charges a child exploitation enterprise under 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(g), not RICO.[^10] Martin's case is distinguished by the combination of: (1) a specifically identified overseas victim, (2) documented ideological goal statements from Martin himself about societal destabilization, and (3) the existence of the grooming guide as a distributable "expert advice" artifact.
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### Murder-for-Hire Allegation
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The indictment also contains a discrete episode from 2022 in which, after becoming involved in a dispute with a 13-year-old girl, Martin allegedly offered to pay $3,000 to have the girl's grandmother killed. He allegedly provided the grandmother's home address and shared both the girl's and her grandmother's phone numbers in a separate Discord chat alongside a solicitation for someone to carry out the attack. This episode is cited in the conspiracy to kill, kidnap or maim persons in a foreign country count and by U.S. Attorney Courchaine as additional support for the terrorism framing, a murder-for-hire offer directed at a family member of a coercion victim, undertaken as network discipline.[^7]
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The indictment also contains a discrete episode from 2022 in which, after becoming involved in a dispute with a 13-year-old girl, Martin allegedly offered to pay $3,000 to have the girl's grandmother killed. He allegedly provided the grandmother's home address and shared both the girl's and her grandmother's phone numbers in a separate Discord chat alongside a solicitation for someone to carry out the attack. This episode is cited in the conspiracy to kill, kidnap or maim persons in a foreign country count and by U.S. Attorney Courchaine as additional support for the terrorism framing, a murder-for-hire offer directed at a family member of a coercion victim, undertaken as network discipline.[^8]
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### Potential Sentence
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@ -99,17 +99,17 @@ If convicted, Martin faces a maximum penalty of life in prison on each count of
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### FBI Classification and Congressional Oversight
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The FBI's internal classification of 764 as a "Tier One" investigative matter, the highest threat category, preceded the Martin terrorism charge and provided the institutional framework within which DOJ National Security Division attorneys were able to bring a terrorism count. FBI Director [[Kash Patel]] testified to Congress in September 2025 that 764 represents "the new form of what I refer to as modern-day terrorism in America."[^9]
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The FBI's internal classification of 764 as a "Tier One" investigative matter, the highest threat category, preceded the Martin terrorism charge and provided the institutional framework within which DOJ National Security Division attorneys were able to bring a terrorism count. FBI Director [[Kash Patel]] testified to Congress in September 2025 that 764 represents "the new form of what I refer to as modern-day terrorism in America."[^11]
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On February 17, 2026, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman [[James Comer]] and Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement Chairman [[Clay Higgins]] sent a formal letter to Patel requesting a classified staff briefing on the FBI's 764 investigations and apprehensions, noting that the Bureau had more than 250 open 764 investigations.[^10]
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On February 17, 2026, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman [[James Comer]] and Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement Chairman [[Clay Higgins]] sent a formal letter to Patel requesting a classified staff briefing on the FBI's 764 investigations and apprehensions, noting that the Bureau had more than 250 open 764 investigations.[^12]
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[[Steve Grocki]], Chief of DOJ's [[Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section]], acknowledged the charging challenge in a December 2025 public panel hosted by the GWU Program on Extremism: "Coercing a minor to engage in self-harm or to harm another is not necessarily criminalized in an easy way." The Martin 2339A theory represents DOJ's resolution of that charging gap, sidestepping the absence of a specific federal statute criminalizing directed self-harm by instead treating the coercive campaign as a terrorism conspiracy.[^4]
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[[Steve Grocki]], Chief of DOJ's [[Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section]], acknowledged the charging challenge in a December 2025 public panel hosted by the GWU Program on Extremism: "Coercing a minor to engage in self-harm or to harm another is not necessarily criminalized in an easy way." The Martin 2339A theory represents DOJ's resolution of that charging gap, sidestepping the absence of a specific federal statute criminalizing directed self-harm by instead treating the coercive campaign as a terrorism conspiracy.[^5]
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At the same panel, Sher described 764's stated objective as "to cause the downfall of society, cause the downfall of the U.S. government," and Donnelly called the threat "as serious a threat as you can imagine."[^4]
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At the same panel, Sher described 764's stated objective as "to cause the downfall of society, cause the downfall of the U.S. government," and Donnelly called the threat "as serious a threat as you can imagine."[^5]
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### Pre-Trial Record
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As of May 2026, no defense motions challenging the terrorism count have been reported in public sources or accessible docket summaries. The case was designated complex, which typically signals that both parties anticipate substantial pre-trial litigation. Any motion to dismiss or constitutional challenge to the terrorism charge would likely target either (a) the First Amendment implications of treating the grooming guide as "expert advice or assistance" under 2339A, or (b) whether directing a victim to harm herself satisfies the "kill, kidnap, or maim" element of 956(a) when the perpetrator is directing self-inflicted harm rather than acting directly. The PACER docket (4:25-cr-00190) should be checked closer to the June 30, 2026 trial date for any newly filed motions.[^3]
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As of May 2026, no defense motions challenging the terrorism count have been reported in public sources or accessible docket summaries. The case was designated complex, which typically signals that both parties anticipate substantial pre-trial litigation. Any motion to dismiss or constitutional challenge to the terrorism charge would likely target either (a) the First Amendment implications of treating the grooming guide as "expert advice or assistance" under 2339A, or (b) whether directing a victim to harm herself satisfies the "kill, kidnap, or maim" element of 956(a) when the perpetrator is directing self-inflicted harm rather than acting directly. The PACER docket (4:25-cr-00190) should be checked closer to the June 30, 2026 trial date for any newly filed motions.[^4]
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Martin has been held in federal pretrial detention since his initial arrest on December 11, 2024.
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The Martin prosecution is occurring alongside a wave of international cases against 764 and Com network members in which the question of terrorism prosecution is being actively contested in multiple jurisdictions.
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In the [[Netherlands]], the founder of [[No Lives Matter]], identified only as Justin B., 25, of [[Eindhoven]], faces charges under Article 140a of the Dutch Criminal Code, membership in a terrorist organization, as well as CSAM, animal crushing, and distribution of violent content charges. The Dutch [[Openbaar Ministerie]] (OM) formally classified No Lives Matter as a terrorist organization, making this the first known terrorism prosecution of a Com network member in the EU. Justin B. was held in the high-security terrorist wing of [[Vught Prison]] and appeared in the high-security courtroom in [[Rotterdam]] in October 2025 at his first public hearing.[^11]
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In the [[Netherlands]], the founder of [[No Lives Matter]], identified only as Justin B., 25, of [[Eindhoven]], faces charges under Article 140a of the Dutch Criminal Code, membership in a terrorist organization, as well as CSAM, animal crushing, and distribution of violent content charges. The Dutch [[Openbaar Ministerie]] (OM) formally classified No Lives Matter as a terrorist organization, making this the first known terrorism prosecution of a Com network member in the EU. Justin B. was held in the high-security terrorist wing of [[Vught Prison]] and appeared in the high-security courtroom in [[Rotterdam]] in October 2025 at his first public hearing.[^13]
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In [[Germany]], [[Shahriar J.]], a 21-year-old dual German-Iranian national known by the alias "White Tiger," faces 204 criminal charges in [[Hamburg]] state court, including one count of murder and five counts of attempted murder as an indirect perpetrator. Shahriar J. was arrested on June 17, 2025 following an FBI tip on child pornography; police found 85,000 files and more than 600 videos. Prosecutors allege he drove a 13-year-old American boy to suicide in January 2022 via livestream by using a Finnish minor as an intermediary. Trial began in Hamburg on January 9, 2026 with 82 days of hearings scheduled through December 17. Germany is prosecuting under murder and CSAM statutes, not terrorism statutes, making the Hamburg case a direct contrast to the U.S. 2339A approach.[^12]
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In [[Germany]], [[Shahriar J.]], a 21-year-old dual German-Iranian national known by the alias "White Tiger," faces 204 criminal charges in [[Hamburg]] state court, including one count of murder and five counts of attempted murder as an indirect perpetrator. Shahriar J. was arrested on June 17, 2025 following an FBI tip on child pornography; police found 85,000 files and more than 600 videos. Prosecutors allege he drove a 13-year-old American boy to suicide in January 2022 via livestream by using a Finnish minor as an intermediary. Trial began in Hamburg on January 9, 2026 with 82 days of hearings scheduled through December 17. Germany is prosecuting under murder and CSAM statutes, not terrorism statutes, making the Hamburg case a direct contrast to the U.S. 2339A approach.[^14]
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In [[Canada]], the government listed 764 as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code on December 10, 2025, becoming the first country to formally designate the network. The listing criminalizes participation in and support for 764, and freezes all Canadian-held 764 property. Canada had already conducted multiple terrorism prosecutions of Com/764-adjacent individuals: the [[RCMP]] arrested an Edmonton-area 15-year-old in May 2025 and again in October 2025 for terrorism offenses linked to the Com/764 network, charging the youth with participation in a terrorist group, facilitating terrorist activity, willful promotion of hatred, uttering threats, and CSAM possession.[^13]
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In [[Canada]], the government listed 764 as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code on December 10, 2025, becoming the first country to formally designate the network. The listing criminalizes participation in and support for 764, and freezes all Canadian-held 764 property. Canada had already conducted multiple terrorism prosecutions of Com/764-adjacent individuals: the [[RCMP]] arrested an Edmonton-area 15-year-old in May 2025 and again in October 2025 for terrorism offenses linked to the Com/764 network, charging the youth with participation in a terrorist group, facilitating terrorist activity, willful promotion of hatred, uttering threats, and CSAM possession.[^15]
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### Analytical Significance
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The 2339A/956 theory, as deployed in the Martin case, resolves what had been the central obstacle to terrorism prosecution of domestic online networks that are not designated FTOs: it requires only an overseas victim, a knowing conspiracy to cause lethal or serious physical harm to that victim, and defendant conduct classifiable as material support. No State Department designation, no ideological alignment with a recognized foreign movement, and no connection to a foreign government or organization is required. The theory travels wherever 764 goes, which is transnational by design.
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|
||||
[[Tanya Mehra]] and [[Menso Hartgers]] of the [[International Centre for Counter-Terrorism]] (ICCT), in their October 2025 policy brief "Fury and Void: Legal Pathways to Counter 764," noted the challenge of applying traditional terrorism legal frameworks to 764 given the network's stated nihilism rather than a coherent political ideology, arguing that nihilism as such may not satisfy some national terrorism threshold definitions. The U.S. government's approach sidesteps this problem entirely: by anchoring the 2339A charge to 956(a)'s foreign-country violence predicate, DOJ avoids having to prove ideological terrorism intent under any federal domestic terrorism definition. The act of conspiring to cause lethal harm to an overseas victim is sufficient, regardless of ideology.[^14]
|
||||
[[Tanya Mehra]] and [[Menso Hartgers]] of the [[International Centre for Counter-Terrorism]] (ICCT), in their October 2025 policy brief "Fury and Void: Legal Pathways to Counter 764," noted the challenge of applying traditional terrorism legal frameworks to 764 given the network's stated nihilism rather than a coherent political ideology, arguing that nihilism as such may not satisfy some national terrorism threshold definitions. The U.S. government's approach sidesteps this problem entirely: by anchoring the 2339A charge to 956(a)'s foreign-country violence predicate, DOJ avoids having to prove ideological terrorism intent under any federal domestic terrorism definition. The act of conspiring to cause lethal harm to an overseas victim is sufficient, regardless of ideology.[^16]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: U.S. Department of Justice, OPA. "Arizona Leader of Violent Extremist Network '764' Charged with Running a Child Exploitation Enterprise, Supporting Terrorists, Producing and Distributing Child Pornography, and Other Crimes." Press Release, October 31, 2025. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/arizona-leader-violent-extremist-network-764-charged-running-child-exploitation-enterprise; CyberScoop. "Alleged 764 leader arrested in Arizona, faces life in prison." https://cyberscoop.com/baron-cain-martin-764-leader-arrested-charged/
|
||||
|
||||
[^2]: CourtListener, United States v. Martin, 4:25-cr-00190-TUC-AMM(BGM), D. Ariz. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69535068/united-states-v-martin/
|
||||
|
||||
[^3]: PacerMonitor, USA v. Martin, 4:25-cr-00190, Arizona District Court. https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/56789960/USA_v_Martin
|
||||
|
||||
[^4]: ABC News. "In rare public comments, career DOJ officials offer chilling warnings about online network 764." 2026. https://abcnews.com/US/rare-public-comments-career-doj-officials-offer-chilling/story?id=128526657; GWU Program on Extremism. "Holding 764 Accountable." Panel, December 18, 2025. https://extremism.gwu.edu/holding-764-accountable
|
||||
|
||||
[^5]: 18 U.S.C. § 2339A (material support to terrorists); 18 U.S.C. § 956(a) (conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim, or injure persons in a foreign country). Cornell LII: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2339A; https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/956
|
||||
|
||||
[^6]: Baumgartner, Luke, and Barry Jonas. "How the DOJ is Prosecuting Nihilistic Violent Extremism as Domestic Terrorism." *Just Security,* December 9, 2025. https://www.justsecurity.org/126226/prosecuting-nihilistic-violent-extremism-domestic-terrorism/
|
||||
|
||||
[^7]: AZFamily. "Tucson case first in nation to pursue federal terrorism charges against member of 764." April 3, 2026. https://www.azfamily.com/2026/04/03/tucson-case-first-nation-pursue-federal-terrorism-charges-against-member-764/
|
||||
|
||||
[^8]: U.S. Department of Justice, USAO-DC. "Leaders of 764 Arrested and Charged for Operating Global Child Exploitation Enterprise." April 30, 2025. https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/leaders-764-arrested-and-charged-operating-global-child-exploitation-enterprise
|
||||
|
||||
[^9]: Patel, Kash. Opening Statement, Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Federal Bureau of Investigation Oversight Hearing, September 16, 2025. https://www.fbi.gov/news/speeches-and-testimony/director-patel-opening-statement-to-the-senate-committee-on-the-judiciary-091625
|
||||
|
||||
[^10]: U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Letter to FBI Director Kash Patel re: 764 Network, February 17, 2026. https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Letter-to-FBI-764-Group-.pdf
|
||||
|
||||
[^11]: NL Times. "Eindhoven suspect says he left sadistic online 'Com' shortly before his arrest." October 28, 2025. https://nltimes.nl/2025/10/28/eindhoven-suspect-says-left-sadistic-online-com-shortly-arrest
|
||||
|
||||
[^12]: Euronews. "German court begins trial of 'White Tiger' online predator." January 9, 2026. https://www.euronews.com/2026/01/09/german-court-begins-trial-of-white-tiger-online-predator; CBS News. "Man dubbed 'White Tiger' charged with murder over U.S. teen's livestreamed suicide." https://www.cbsnews.com/news/man-charged-murder-germany-us-teen-suicide-764-network/
|
||||
|
||||
[^13]: Government of Canada. "Government of Canada lists four new terrorist entities." December 10, 2025. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/news/2025/12/government-of-canada-lists-four-new-terrorist-entities0.html; RCMP. "Alberta youth arrested for terrorism and child pornography offences." October 2, 2025. https://rcmp.ca/en/news/2025/10/alberta-youth-arrested-terrorism-and-child-pornography-offences
|
||||
|
||||
[^14]: Mehra, Tanya, and Menso Hartgers. "Fury and Void: Legal Pathways to Counter 764." International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT), October 2025. https://icct.nl/publication/fury-and-void-legal-pathways-counter-764
|
||||
[^2]: Superseding Indictment (Redacted for Public Disclosure), United States v. Martin, No. 4:25-cr-00190 (D. Ariz.), Doc. 53, filed October 29, 2025. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.azd.1421217/gov.uscourts.azd.1421217.53.0_1.pdf
|
||||
[^3]: CourtListener, United States v. Martin, 4:25-cr-00190-TUC-AMM(BGM), D. Ariz. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69535068/united-states-v-martin/
|
||||
[^4]: PacerMonitor, USA v. Martin, 4:25-cr-00190, Arizona District Court. https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/56789960/USA_v_Martin
|
||||
[^5]: ABC News. "In rare public comments, career DOJ officials offer chilling warnings about online network 764." 2026. https://abcnews.com/US/rare-public-comments-career-doj-officials-offer-chilling/story?id=128526657; GWU Program on Extremism. "Holding 764 Accountable." Panel, December 18, 2025. https://extremism.gwu.edu/holding-764-accountable
|
||||
[^6]: 18 U.S.C. § 2339A (material support to terrorists); 18 U.S.C. § 956(a) (conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim, or injure persons in a foreign country). Cornell LII: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2339A; https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/956
|
||||
[^7]: Baumgartner, Luke, and Barry Jonas. "How the DOJ is Prosecuting Nihilistic Violent Extremism as Domestic Terrorism." *Just Security,* December 9, 2025. https://www.justsecurity.org/126226/prosecuting-nihilistic-violent-extremism-domestic-terrorism/
|
||||
[^8]: AZFamily. "Tucson case first in nation to pursue federal terrorism charges against member of 764." April 3, 2026. https://www.azfamily.com/2026/04/03/tucson-case-first-nation-pursue-federal-terrorism-charges-against-member-764/
|
||||
[^9]: U.S. Department of Justice, USAO-DC. "Leaders of 764 Arrested and Charged for Operating Global Child Exploitation Enterprise." April 30, 2025. https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/leaders-764-arrested-and-charged-operating-global-child-exploitation-enterprise
|
||||
[^10]: Indictment, United States v. Prasan Nepal and Leonidas Varagiannis, No. 1:25-cr-00304-RBW (D.D.C.), Doc. 19, filed September 26, 2025, Count One. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.285418/gov.uscourts.dcd.285418.19.0.pdf
|
||||
[^11]: Patel, Kash. Opening Statement, Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Federal Bureau of Investigation Oversight Hearing, September 16, 2025. https://www.fbi.gov/news/speeches-and-testimony/director-patel-opening-statement-to-the-senate-committee-on-the-judiciary-091625
|
||||
[^12]: U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Letter to FBI Director Kash Patel re: 764 Network, February 17, 2026. https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Letter-to-FBI-764-Group-.pdf
|
||||
[^13]: NL Times. "Eindhoven suspect says he left sadistic online 'Com' shortly before his arrest." October 28, 2025. https://nltimes.nl/2025/10/28/eindhoven-suspect-says-left-sadistic-online-com-shortly-arrest
|
||||
[^14]: Euronews. "German court begins trial of 'White Tiger' online predator." January 9, 2026. https://www.euronews.com/2026/01/09/german-court-begins-trial-of-white-tiger-online-predator; CBS News. "Man dubbed 'White Tiger' charged with murder over U.S. teen's livestreamed suicide." https://www.cbsnews.com/news/man-charged-murder-germany-us-teen-suicide-764-network/
|
||||
[^15]: Government of Canada. "Government of Canada lists four new terrorist entities." December 10, 2025. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/news/2025/12/government-of-canada-lists-four-new-terrorist-entities0.html; RCMP. "Alberta youth arrested for terrorism and child pornography offences." October 2, 2025. https://rcmp.ca/en/news/2025/10/alberta-youth-arrested-terrorism-and-child-pornography-offences
|
||||
[^16]: Mehra, Tanya, and Menso Hartgers. "Fury and Void: Legal Pathways to Counter 764." International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT), October 2025. https://icct.nl/publication/fury-and-void-legal-pathways-counter-764
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -14,13 +14,13 @@ tags:
|
|||
- CIA
|
||||
- 1960s
|
||||
category: "Organized Crime"
|
||||
summary: "Carlos Marcello was the boss of the New Orleans crime family who was identified by the HSCA as having both the motive and means to arrange President Kennedy's assassination - he had threatened Kennedy according to FBI informants, was deported to Guatemala by Robert Kennedy in 1961, returned illegally, and was eventually convicted on racketeering charges in the FBI's BRILAB sting in 1981."
|
||||
summary: "New Orleans crime family boss whom the HSCA found had the motive, means and opportunity to arrange President Kennedy's assassination; deported by Robert Kennedy in 1961, convicted in the 1981 BRILAB sting."
|
||||
born: 1910-02-06
|
||||
died: 1993-03-02
|
||||
location: "New Orleans, Louisiana"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Carlos Marcello (born Calogero Minacori, February 6, 1910, Tunis, Tunisia - died March 2, 1993, New Orleans, Louisiana) was the boss of the [[La Cosa Nostra|New Orleans crime family]] from the late 1940s until his 1981 conviction, exercising informal control over organized crime in Louisiana and portions of Texas. He was identified by the [[HSCA|House Select Committee on Assassinations]] as having both the motive and the means to organize the assassination of President [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] and was the subject of multiple FBI informant reports documenting specific threats against the president.[^1]
|
||||
Carlos Marcello (born Calogero Minacori, February 6, 1910, Tunis, Tunisia - died March 2, 1993, New Orleans, Louisiana) was the boss of the [[La Cosa Nostra|New Orleans crime family]] from the late 1940s until his 1981 conviction, exercising informal control over organized crime in Louisiana and portions of Texas. He was identified by the [[HSCA|House Select Committee on Assassinations]] as having the motive, means and opportunity to have President [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] assassinated and was the subject of multiple FBI informant reports documenting specific threats against the president.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Criminal Career
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -34,18 +34,20 @@ In 1961, Attorney General [[Robert Kennedy]]'s aggressive pursuit of organized c
|
|||
|
||||
FBI informant Edward Becker reported to the FBI in September 1962 that Marcello had made an explicit threat against President Kennedy at a meeting at Churchill Farms, his estate outside New Orleans. According to Becker, Marcello invoked a Sicilian proverb - "Take the stone out of your shoe" - to describe his intention to deal with Robert Kennedy through the president, and stated that any hit man used for the assassination would be a "nut" without apparent organized crime connections.
|
||||
|
||||
The Becker report was not transmitted by the FBI to the Warren Commission. The HSCA later found the Becker meeting credible based on corroborating evidence and Becker's documented reliability as an informant.[^1]
|
||||
The Becker report was not transmitted by the FBI to the Warren Commission. The House Select Committee on Assassinations examined the published account that Marcello threatened the President at a meeting at Churchill Farms in September 1962. It identified the informant who claimed to have been present, learned that the FBI knew of his allegations for a year and a half before they were published in 1969 and possessed information indicating he may have met Marcello in the fall of 1962, and found that no substantive investigation was ever conducted. Director J. Edgar Hoover and other senior FBI officials knew that agents were acting to "discredit" the informant without a significant investigation of his allegations. The committee also found that the informant had a questionable reputation for honesty.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### HSCA Investigation
|
||||
|
||||
The House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded in 1979 that Marcello had "the motive, means, and opportunity" to organize Kennedy's assassination. The committee found:
|
||||
The House Select Committee on Assassinations reported in January 1979 that Marcello had the "motive, means and opportunity to have President John F. Kennedy assassinated," and that it was "unable to establish direct evidence."[^3] The committee found:
|
||||
|
||||
- Marcello had a documented, intense personal motive arising from the Kennedy administration's deportation and continuing prosecution
|
||||
- Marcello had the organizational resources to arrange an assassination using individuals without apparent organized crime connections
|
||||
- [[Jack Ruby]]'s connections to Marcello's New Orleans organization were documented
|
||||
- [[Lee Harvey Oswald]] had connections to New Orleans - his uncle and surrogate father Dutz Murret was a Marcello associate and bookie
|
||||
|
||||
The committee could not prove that Marcello organized the assassination but found that the circumstantial evidence was "not inconsistent" with his involvement and that the FBI's failure to pursue organized crime leads had left the question unresolved.[^2]
|
||||
The committee named Marcello and Santos Trafficante, Jr. as the family bosses most likely to have been involved.[^4] Among the associations it found linking Oswald to Marcello's organization were Oswald's uncle Charles "Dutz" Murret, a minor underworld gambling figure who was an associate of organized crime figures affiliated with the Marcello organization; acquaintances of Oswald's mother, one of whom reportedly served at one time as a personal aide or driver to Marcello; and the person who arranged Oswald's bail in August 1963, an associate of two of Marcello's deputies, one of them [[Nofio Pecora]], who received a telephone call from Ruby on October 30, 1963.[^3] It described the existence of credible associations linking Oswald and Ruby to Marcello's organization as the critical evidentiary element, and stated that the FBI never maintained electronic surveillance of Marcello despite two attempts.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
The report concludes that "it may be said that it is unlikely that Marcello was in fact, involved in the assassination of the President," and adds that his motive and links to Oswald and Ruby, coupled with the failure of the 1963-64 investigation, "precluded a judgment by the committee that Marcello and his associates were not involved."[^3] The report also says that Marcello's organized crime career "has been based to a large extent on a policy of prudence; he is not reckless."[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### BRILAB Conviction
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -56,4 +58,6 @@ In 1985, while incarcerated, FBI informant Joseph Hauser reported that Marcello
|
|||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: House Select Committee on Assassinations. *Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives.* Government Printing Office, 1979. Davis, John H. *Mafia Kingfish: Carlos Marcello and the Assassination of John F. Kennedy.* McGraw-Hill, 1989.
|
||||
[^2]: Blakey, G. Robert, and Richard N. Billings. *Fatal Hour: The Assassination of President Kennedy by Organized Crime.* Berkley, 1992. Ragano, Frank, and Selwyn Raab. *Mob Lawyer.* Scribner, 1994.
|
||||
[^2]: House Select Committee on Assassinations, *Report,* H. Rept. 95-1828, pp. 171-172 (Churchill Farms account, the FBI's handling, and the informant). https://archive.org/details/reportofselectco1979unit
|
||||
[^3]: House Select Committee on Assassinations, *Report,* H. Rept. 95-1828, 95th Cong., 2d sess. (1979), pp. 169-172 (Marcello; "unable to establish direct evidence" at p. 169; "unlikely" and "precluded a judgment" at p. 172). https://archive.org/details/reportofselectco1979unit
|
||||
[^4]: House Select Committee on Assassinations, *Report,* H. Rept. 95-1828, p. 169 (Marcello and Trafficante as the most likely family bosses). https://archive.org/details/reportofselectco1979unit
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ No record of formal OSS or CIA employment for Marsh has been identified in acces
|
|||
|
||||
### Connection to Marion Pettie
|
||||
|
||||
An unsigned three-page investigative memo of unknown provenance, circulated among researchers studying [[The Finders]] in the mid-1990s, claims that Marsh introduced [[Marion Pettie]] to CIA-adjacent networks at the [[National Press Club]] after World War II and arranged funding for Virginia farmland purchases on Pettie's behalf, as part of a larger arrangement in which Colonel [[Leonard N. Weigner]] directed Pettie to embed within counterculture movements as an intelligence asset. The memo further claims Marsh arranged counterintelligence training for Pettie, citing Marsh's established Washington intelligence connections; a 1998 Steamshovel Press account adds that Marsh facilitated Pettie's tie to [[William Yandell Elliott]], a [[Harvard University|Harvard]] professor on the [[National Security Council]] planning board and a [[Radio Liberty]] trustee.[^3][^4]
|
||||
An unsigned three-page investigative memo of unknown provenance, circulated among researchers studying [[The Finders]] in the mid-1990s, claims that Marsh introduced [[Marion Pettie]] to CIA-adjacent networks at the [[National Press Club]] after World War II and arranged funding for Virginia farmland purchases on Pettie's behalf, as part of a larger arrangement in which Colonel [[Leonard N. Weigner]] directed Pettie to embed within counterculture movements as an intelligence asset. The memo further claims Marsh arranged counterintelligence training for Pettie, citing Marsh's established Washington intelligence connections; a 1998 Steamshovel Press account adds that Marsh facilitated Pettie's tie to [[William Yandell Elliott]], a [[Harvard University|Harvard]] professor on the [[National Security Council]] planning board and a [[Radio Liberty]] trustee.[^3][^4] The Foreign Relations of the United States list of persons identifies William Y. Elliott as Assistant Director of the Office of Defense Mobilization, 1952 to 1953, and ODM representative on the NSC Planning Board, 1953 to 1954.[^5] The Harvard Crimson reported in 1959 that the Director of the Harvard Summer School had served on the National Security Council planning board since 1953.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -38,3 +38,5 @@ An unsigned three-page investigative memo of unknown provenance, circulated amon
|
|||
[^2]: Conant, Jennet. *The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington*. Simon and Schuster, 2008.
|
||||
[^3]: Minnick, Wendell L. "The Finders: The CIA and the Cult of Marion David Pettie." Unclassified, No. 35, Winter 1995. Unsigned "Investigative Leads" memo, no author or date, mid-1990s circulation.
|
||||
[^4]: Kenn Thomas and Len Bracken, "The Finders' Keeper," Steamshovel Press #16, 1998 (conspiracy-press source; claim uncorroborated by primary documents).
|
||||
[^5]: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952-1954, vol. II, part 1, list of persons, entry "Elliott, William Y." https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1952-54v02p1
|
||||
[^6]: "Elliott Flies to Moscow With Nixon's Mission," *The Harvard Crimson,* July 23, 1959. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1959/7/23/elliott-flies-to-moscow-with-nixons/
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -4,13 +4,18 @@ tags:
|
|||
- Person
|
||||
- Journalist
|
||||
- Author
|
||||
summary: "In *Dark Victory*, Moldea famously labeled MCA as 'The Octopus' due to its extensive and often illicit connections."
|
||||
summary: "Author of Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob (1986), which used 'The Octopus' for MCA, a nickname he traced to a 1946 federal judge's statement."
|
||||
born: 1950-02-27
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
[[Dan Moldea]] is an American author known for his investigative work into organized crime and political corruption. He is the author of the 1986 book, *Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob*.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
In *Dark Victory*, Moldea famously labeled [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]] as "[[The Octopus]]" due to its extensive and often illicit connections. Investigative journalist [[Danny Casolaro]] likely derived his own term "[[The Octopus]]" for the complex network he was investigating from Moldea's earlier work. However, the text notes that even Moldea, at the time of his book's publication in 1986, could not have known the full extent of this "creature's" reach, specifically its tentacles within the [[National Security Council|NSC]].[1]
|
||||
In *Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob* (Viking, 1986), Moldea used "[[The Octopus]]" for [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]], a nickname he traced to Judge [[Paul J. McCormick]]'s statement in the 1946 Finley antitrust case against the company.[^2] Investigative journalist [[Danny Casolaro]] likely derived his own term "The Octopus" for the complex network he was investigating from Moldea's earlier work. However, the text notes that even Moldea, at the time of his book's publication in 1986, could not have known the full extent of this "creature's" reach, specifically its tentacles within the [[National Security Council|NSC]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
In June 1988 Moldea published "MCA Music & the Mafia" in *Regardie's*, reporting that [[Sal Pisello|Salvatore Pisello]] had attended a March 1984 record-industry convention in Hollywood, Florida, as a representative of MCA Records. He wrote that in December 1987 the strike force's chief, [[David Margolis]], and his deputy, [[Michael DeFeo]], told [[Marvin Rudnick]] he could pursue a tax case against Pisello but could not call several MCA executives as witnesses.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.
|
||||
[^2]: Moldea, Dan E. *Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob*. New York: Viking, 1986. https://archive.org/details/dark-victory-ronald-reagan-mca-and-the-mob
|
||||
[^3]: Moldea, Dan E. "MCA Music & the Mafia: Did the Justice Department cut Reagan's Hollywood pals a break?" *Regardie's*, June 1988. https://www.moldea.com/MCAMusic.html
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -1,28 +1,167 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "Military"
|
||||
category: "Scientists & Researchers"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Astronaut
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
- Psi
|
||||
- SRI
|
||||
- Stargate
|
||||
summary: "Edgar Mitchell was an American astronaut, best known as the lunar module pilot for Apollo 14, making him the sixth person to walk on the Moon."
|
||||
- Apollo14
|
||||
- IONS
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- Edgar Mitchell
|
||||
- Edgar D. Mitchell
|
||||
- Edgar Dean Mitchell
|
||||
- Ed Mitchell
|
||||
- Edgar D. Mitchell Jr.
|
||||
summary: "Edgar Mitchell was a Navy captain and Apollo 14 lunar module pilot who ran a telepathy test during the flight and later founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences."
|
||||
born: 1930-09-17
|
||||
died: 2016-02-04
|
||||
location: "Hereford, Texas"
|
||||
created: 2026-10-09
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-09
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[NASA]]"
|
||||
start: 1966
|
||||
end: 1972
|
||||
role: "astronaut, NASA Group 5"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: participant_in
|
||||
with: "[[Apollo 14]]"
|
||||
start: 1971-01-31
|
||||
end: 1971-02-09
|
||||
role: "lunar module pilot"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: founded
|
||||
with: "[[Institute of Noetic Science]]"
|
||||
start: 1973
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[EDMA Corporation]]"
|
||||
start: 1971
|
||||
role: "chief operating officer"
|
||||
fn: 14
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[Uri Geller]]"
|
||||
start: 1972
|
||||
role: "original funding source for SRI tests of Geller"
|
||||
fn: 16
|
||||
- type: participant_in
|
||||
with: "[[Stanford Research Institute]]"
|
||||
start: 1972
|
||||
end: 1973
|
||||
role: "co-experimenter on Geller tests"
|
||||
fn: 16
|
||||
- type: member_of
|
||||
with: "[[National Institute for Discovery Science]]"
|
||||
start: 2000
|
||||
role: "Science Advisory Board"
|
||||
fn: 25
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Edgar Mitchell was an American astronaut, best known as the lunar module pilot for Apollo 14, making him the sixth person to walk on the Moon. Following his NASA career, Mitchell became a prominent advocate for psychic research and consciousness studies, founding the [[Institute of Noetic Sciences]] (IONS).[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Mitchell was a strong believer in psi phenomena and was involved in the early stages of the U.S. government's psychic research programs. He was present during some of [[Uri Geller]]'s tests at [[Stanford Research Institute]] (SRI), even driving Geller while blindfolded in a demonstration of Geller's alleged abilities.[^1]
|
||||
Edgar Dean Mitchell (1930 to 2016) was a [[United States Navy]] captain and [[NASA]] astronaut. He flew as lunar module pilot on [[Apollo 14]], which launched on January 31, 1971 and ended on February 9, 1971, and he became the sixth man to walk on the Moon.[^1] After leaving government service he founded the [[Institute of Noetic Science|Institute of Noetic Sciences]] (IONS) and worked as a public advocate for psychic research.
|
||||
|
||||
He also funded [[Andrija Puharich]]'s efforts to bring Geller to the United States through a grant from his Institute of Noetic Sciences. Mitchell also suggested that [[Ingo Swann]] look for [[Patty Hearst]] using remote viewing, though Swann was ultimately unsuccessful.[^1]
|
||||
### Navy and NASA service
|
||||
|
||||
### Advocacy for UAP Disclosure
|
||||
Mitchell was born in [[Hereford, Texas]] on September 17, 1930. He received a bachelor's degree in industrial management from [[Carnegie Mellon University]] in 1952, a bachelor's degree in aeronautics from the [[Naval Postgraduate School]] in 1961, and a doctorate of science in aeronautics and astronautics from the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] in 1964. He was commissioned an ensign in the Navy in May 1953.[^1] He flew A3 aircraft with Heavy Attack Squadron Two from 1957 to 1958 and was a research project pilot with Air Development Squadron Five until 1959. From 1964 to 1965 he was chief of the project management division of the Navy field office for the [[Manned Orbiting Laboratory]]. He attended the [[U.S. Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School]] in 1965 and 1966, and in April 1966 he was selected for astronaut training as a member of NASA Group 5.[^1] He served on the astronaut support crew for [[Apollo 9]], was backup lunar module pilot for [[Apollo 10]], and was later designated backup lunar module pilot for Apollo 16.[^1] His NASA biography gives [[Artesia, New Mexico]] as his hometown.[^1] [[Luis Elizondo]] places Mitchell's childhood in the Roswell area of [[New Mexico]] and traces his interest in the [[Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena|UAP]] topic to those years.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
Dr. Mitchell's interest in the [[Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena|UAP]] topic stemmed from his childhood growing up in the Roswell, [[New Mexico]], area. He claimed that his family was among those who were threatened by the FBI after the [[Roswell Incident]] in 1947, and that this experience convinced him that the government was covering up the truth about UAP. As an astronaut, he became a prominent and credible voice in the UAP disclosure movement, using his platform to call for greater transparency from the government.[^2]
|
||||
On the Moon, Mitchell and [[Alan Shepard]] landed in the [[Fra Mauro]] highlands, and the crew's lunar surface EVA lasted 9 hours and 17 minutes. Mitchell logged 216 hours and 42 minutes in space on the flight. He retired from NASA and the Navy in 1972.[^1] In a 1997 interview for the NASA Johnson Space Center oral history project he said he had decided in 1957, when Sputnik was launched, to orient his career toward spaceflight.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
Dr. Mitchell was a close friend and confidant of [[Hal Puthoff]] and [[Eric Davis]]. They gave him a copy of the [[Wilson-Davis Memo]], a document that detailed a conversation with Vice Admiral Thomas R. Wilson about a secret UAP reverse-engineering program. After Dr. Mitchell's death, the memo was discovered in his files and was leaked to the public. The leak of this document has been a significant event in the UAP disclosure movement, providing a detailed account of the alleged "Legacy Program."[^2]
|
||||
### Apollo 14 telepathy test
|
||||
|
||||
Mitchell conducted an unofficial telepathy test during the flight. A proposal for a direct brain action research program, prepared by [[Andrija Puharich]] and submitted by Mitchell, describes the test as one in which Mitchell concentrated on five standard ESP symbols in space while four earth-based persons tried to guess the order in which the symbols appeared. The proposal says the outcome was statistically significant and names Mitchell to the program's research committee.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
Mitchell's report, "An ESP Test from Apollo 14," appeared in the [[Journal of Parapsychology]] in 1971, volume 35, number 2, pages 89 to 107.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
In an interview published in [[Cabinet Magazine|Cabinet magazine]] in winter 2001 to 2002, Mitchell said that about three weeks before the mission he met research physicists he named as Drs. Boyle and Maxie, who "gathered and coordinated everything," and that the Earth-side group consisted of the two physicists, "a reputable psychic that they knew, and Olof Jonsson, who was a well-known public psychic in Chicago." He described four transmission sessions during rest periods programmed into the flight. Using four tables of 25 random numbers drawn from the digits 1 to 5, each number assigned a [[Zener Cards|Zener]] symbol, he thought of the symbol for each number for 15 seconds, each transmission taking about six minutes, before sleeping. He said the liftoff was forty minutes late and the Earth-side group could not be coordinated to an exact time. He said NASA management largely ignored the work, though [[Wernher von Braun]] was supportive and later spoke at an Institute fundraising dinner.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
In the 1997 oral history Mitchell said that six experiments were planned, "three out and three coming back," that he had time for four, and that "the a priori results were that chance could have produced our results one out of 3,000 experiments," with a post hoc analysis giving "one out of 13,000 experiments." He described the results as showing psi-missing, and said that matching his four sessions to the six Earth-side sessions in sequence, not by clock time, produced the strong result. He said that the press misread the data before it was analyzed and that the write-up in the Journal of Parapsychology "set the record very straight." Of Shepard's reaction after the flight he said that Shepard, laughing, asked "Ed, what's this all about?"[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
An article in the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]'s STARGATE files describes a pre-flight test that Mitchell arranged two weeks before launch with a Chicago drafting engineer named Olof Johnson, using 25 colored ESP cards. Mitchell looked at each card for 15 seconds at [[Cape Kennedy]] while Johnson in Chicago guessed which of five symbols it was. The article gives ten sessions and 250 guesses, reports that Johnson got about half, or 125, of the 250 correct against an expected 50, calculates a deviation of 75 and "odds of ten million to one against chance," and states of the six lunar sessions of 25 guesses each, 150 guesses in all, that "it is not reported how many Johnson got correct."[^7] A 1972 study prepared for the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] by Captain John D. LaMothe of the Army Medical Intelligence Office describes 150 separate attempts by Mitchell to project his thoughts from inside the capsule to an individual on Earth, and refers readers to the Journal of Parapsychology for the results. The same study closes its parapsychology section with Mitchell's remarks on [[The David Frost Show]] of March 16, 1971: "Extrasensory perception is not a matter of belief."[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Olaf Johnson|Olof Jonsson]], the Earth-side receiver Mitchell named, was a Swedish-born American citizen. He died in Las Vegas on May 11, 1998 at the age of 79, after living there for 18 years, and the [[Las Vegas Sun]] described him as a former psychic adviser to [[Ferdinand Marcos]] who had taken part in the Apollo 14 experiment.[^9] The [[Chicago Tribune]] reported that he worked for nearly two decades as an engineer with the Chicago architectural firm of Schmidt, Garden and Erikson, remained in Chicago until 1980, and "named the cards in the correct order about half the time" in the Apollo 14 experiment.[^10] [[Annie Jacobsen]] names Olaf Johnson as the receiver on Earth and writes that Mitchell was inspired to run his telepathy experiments by the work of [[Sir Hubert Wilkins]], whose book *Thoughts Through Space* describes his own experiments in mind-to-mind telepathy.[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
A STARGATE-file document, CIA-RDP96-00792R000400290002-1, is a translated Chinese-language article attributed to [[Qian Xuesen]]. The passage on the Apollo 14 flight states that spatial remote viewing experiments were also conducted on the flight, that "Astronaut Mitchell conducted this experiment," and that he "has worked closely with Stanford."[^12]
|
||||
|
||||
### Institute of Noetic Sciences and EDMA
|
||||
|
||||
In 1971 Mitchell launched EDMA (Edgar D. Mitchell and Associates) Corporation to research psychic phenomena and to market related inventions and products. A 1971 issue of [[READ Magazine]] carried a feature on the company and its plans to study [[Uri Geller]].[^13] A survey of parapsychology organizations in [[New Psychic Frontiers]] describes EDMA as a business enterprise organized by Mitchell and states that Mitchell had stepped down as its chief operating officer to take up responsibilities in the Institute of Noetic Sciences.[^14]
|
||||
|
||||
NASA's biography states that Mitchell founded the Institute in 1973, one year after retiring from government service, as a foundation to sponsor research into the nature of consciousness.[^1] The Internal Revenue Service tax exemption of the California Institute of Noetic Sciences was issued in June 1973.[^15] A New Scientist report of October 1974 states that Mitchell "two years ago set up his Institute of Noetic Sciences in Palo Alto" and names [[John White]] as his assistant at the Institute there.[^16] In 1997 Mitchell said that he had started the Institute after the flight to understand what the experience of the trip home meant, and that the Institute was looking at biofeedback, psychic phenomena and Uri Geller.[^3] On August 11, 1994 C. B. Scott Jones wrote to [[John Gibbons|John H. Gibbons]] that Mitchell, the Institute's founder, would be glad to meet Gibbons on the subject the two of them had been discussing, and [[Claiborne Pell]] sat on the Institute's board at the time.[^17]
|
||||
|
||||
In 1974 Putnam published [[Psychic Exploration]], a 708-page volume titled *Psychic Exploration: A Challenge for Science*, edited by John White and credited to Mitchell and others.[^18] Mitchell's NASA biography lists the book as his own, together with *The Way of the Explorer* (Putnam, 1996).[^1] *Time* reported in March 1974 that [[William Targ]], an executive at Putnam, had contracted to publish the book and said at the signing that "the real race now between the Russians and us is in the area of sciences like ESP."[^19]
|
||||
|
||||
### Government contacts
|
||||
|
||||
In 1976, according to an Air War College research report by Dolan M. McKelvy citing Ronald McRae's *Mind Wars* (1984), CIA director [[George H. W. Bush|George Bush]] enthusiastically gave Mitchell "permission to organize high-level seminars at the CIA to discuss possible intelligence applications" of parapsychology. The report says that interest waned in 1977 when [[Stansfield Turner]] replaced Bush.[^20]
|
||||
|
||||
### Uri Geller, SRI and the funding trail
|
||||
|
||||
A January 24, 1973 memorandum of the CIA Office of Research and Development, numbered ORD-413-73, records that [[Russell Targ]] and [[Hal Puthoff]] of [[Stanford Research Institute]] had shown a film of their recent experiments with Geller on January 23, and states: "The SRI work with Geller has been supported by Edgar Mitchell's foundation, by something with a name like Mind Science Institute of Los Angeles, and by TSD."[^21] The Nature paper by Targ and Puthoff published on October 18, 1974 thanks Judith Skutch and Mitchell, identified as of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, for support.[^22]
|
||||
|
||||
New Scientist reported in October 1974 that Mitchell was Geller's original funding source and a co-experimenter on Geller at SRI, who had fallen out with Geller the year before. The report says that Geller visited SRI over an 18-month period beginning in November 1972, that Mitchell and [[Wilbur Franklin]] assisted in the first series of tests, and that funding came mainly from Skutch and Mitchell.[^16]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Jim Schnabel]] wrote that Mitchell was present during some of Geller's tests at SRI and drove Geller while blindfolded in a demonstration of Geller's alleged abilities. Schnabel also wrote that the Institute provided a grant that funded Puharich's efforts to bring Geller to America in 1972, and that Mitchell suggested [[Ingo Swann]] look for [[Patty Hearst]] using remote viewing, an effort Swann did not succeed in.[^23] The Internal Revenue Service exemption of the Institute is dated June 1973, the ORD memorandum of January 1973 speaks of "Edgar Mitchell's foundation," and the New Scientist report of 1974 dates the founding to about 1972.[^15][^21][^16]
|
||||
|
||||
An unsigned CIA fact sheet on James Randi's *The Magic of Uri Geller* quotes Randi's text in which Mitchell says "I was there virtually all the time. I am a co-investigator on all that work." The fact sheet answers that "Captain Mitchell was not at SRI for any of the experimentation reported in Nature, but rather only during early efforts to find whether it was possible to introduce strict protocols as was finally done successfully."[^24] In 1997 Mitchell said of Geller: "He's a pretty powerful guy, very real."[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
The National Institute for Discovery Science website, as captured on December 6, 2000, listed Mitchell on its Science Advisory Board, chaired by [[Warren Burggren]].[^25]
|
||||
|
||||
### UFO statements
|
||||
|
||||
In July 2008 [[NBC News]] reported Mitchell's remarks to Kerrang Radio host Nick Margerrison: "I happen to be privileged enough to be in on the fact that we have been visited on this planet, and the UFO phenomenon is real, although it's been covered up by governments for quite a long time." The same report says that in follow-up interviews Mitchell stated that his views rested on unofficial talks with witnesses to the 1947 [[Roswell Incident]] and other sightings and on the experience of a Navy admiral who tried to follow up on the witnesses' claims, and that on the July 4, 2008 broadcast of [[Larry King Live]] he said "we would be gone by now" if the visitors had been hostile.[^26]
|
||||
|
||||
Elizondo writes in his 2024 book that Mitchell claimed his family was among those threatened by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] after the Roswell Incident of 1947.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Wilson meetings
|
||||
|
||||
Two sets of records concern [[Thomas R. Wilson|Vice Admiral Thomas R. Wilson]], then the Joint Staff's Vice Director for Intelligence (J2) and later Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and Mitchell's name appears in both.
|
||||
|
||||
The first is a Pentagon briefing in 1997. [[Steven Greer]] said in a lecture at Portland, Oregon on September 12, 2001 that "This admiral, Tom Wilson, who was the J2 position, the head of intelligence Joint Staff and I, met along with one of the Apollo astronauts and a couple of these military witnesses."[^27] In his 2006 book *Hidden Truth: Forbidden Knowledge* Greer wrote that it "was a stand-up briefing" and that the meeting ended when "Ed Mitchell had to get up to New York for a TV interview."[^28] [[Jacques Vallee]]'s journal entry of 3 October 2003 gives the meeting with Greer, Ed Mitchell and Commander Miller as 4 April 1997 and says that Miller met Wilson at a Pentagon briefing organized by Greer. The same entry says Wilson was unimpressed by Greer and found Miller flaky, and that Wilson, reportedly influenced by a second officer, agreed to look into the existence of a secret project involving UFO hardware.[^29] The Loose Threads report, by Daniel Elizondo and The Hermetic Penetrator, gives the date as April 10, 1997, citing the researcher Giuliano Marinkovic, and lists the attendees as Mitchell, Commander Willard Miller, Greer, Stephen Lovekin and Shari Adamiak. It writes that Wilson confirmed taking a meeting about UFOs with Mitchell and others in 1997.[^28] Wilson told [[Billy Cox]] in 2020: "I don't remember the details, but they [Mitchell was accompanied by UFO researcher Steven Greer] said there would be evidence in black programs, and would I be interested in chasing it down. I told them I had far too many things to do."[^27] In August 2008 Cox reported that Wilson answered "Never" when asked whether he had ever been barred from retrieving classified material.[^27]
|
||||
|
||||
Mitchell gave his own account on Larry King Live in 2008, as transcribed in the Loose Threads report: he went to the Pentagon with another naval officer, "we told our story," and the Vice Admiral said "Well, I don't know about that, but I'm going to find out," then called some weeks later and said he had found the source of the black budget funding for the project, and that he was then told he did not have a need to know.[^28]
|
||||
|
||||
The second is a set of notes by [[Eric Davis]] of a meeting with Wilson, which The Black Vault dates to 2002 and the Loose Threads report to October 2002. In the notes Wilson describes his attempt in 1997 to enter a contractor program.[^27][^28] The Anomaly Archives essay on the memo states that Wilson met Davis in 2002 and shared details of his efforts in 1997.[^30] Vallee's journal entry of 2 October 2003 states that the details are written down in a transcript of an interview Wilson gave to an Air Force officer, identifies him as Davis, and says they met in April 1997 in the parking lot of [[EG&G]] in Las Vegas.[^29] Wilson told Cox in 2020: "It's all fiction. I wouldn't know Eric Davis if he walked in right now," and "I haven't been to Las Vegas since 1979, 80."[^27] Asked on The Basement Office about the notes, Davis said: "They were leaked out of Ed Mitchell's estate. There's nothing I can say about them."[^28]
|
||||
|
||||
Elizondo describes Mitchell as a close friend and confidant of Puthoff and Davis, writes that they gave him a copy of the [[Wilson-Davis Memo]], and writes that the memo was found in Mitchell's files after his death and leaked.[^2] Vallee's journal entry of 3 October 2003 lists who might know the truth and states: "Ed Mitchell has no details."[^29]
|
||||
|
||||
### Death
|
||||
|
||||
Mitchell died on February 4, 2016, at a hospice in West Palm Beach, Florida, after a short illness, according to his daughter Kimberly Mitchell as quoted by the [[Associated Press]] in an obituary of February 5, 2016.[^31] NASA Administrator [[Charles Bolden]] issued a statement on February 5, 2016 that described Mitchell as "one of only 12 men to walk on the moon."[^32] Mitchell had lived in Palm Beach County, Florida, since 1975.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.
|
||||
[^2]: Elizondo, Luis. *Imminent*. William Morrow, 2024.
|
||||
[^1]: NASA, "Edgar Dean Mitchell (Captain, USN, Ret.), NASA Astronaut (Former)," Biographical Data, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, September 2007. https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/mitchell_edgar.pdf
|
||||
[^2]: Luis Elizondo, *Imminent* (William Morrow, 2024).
|
||||
[^3]: Edgar D. Mitchell, oral history interview by Sheree Scarborough, assisted by Paul Rollins, Houston, September 3, 1997, NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project, pp. 12-1, 12-32 to 12-34, 12-35, 12-40 to 12-42. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/nasa/EDM_9-3-97.pdf
|
||||
[^4]: Andrija Puharich, editor, direct brain action research proposal, submitted by Captain Edgar D. Mitchell, USN, undated, research committee list. CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP96-00787R000100190001-2. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000100190001-2
|
||||
[^5]: Edgar D. Mitchell, "An ESP Test from Apollo 14," *Journal of Parapsychology*, vol. 35, no. 2 (1971), pp. 89-107. Volume index: https://archive.org/details/sim_journal-of-parapsychology_1971_35_index. Issue record: https://archive.org/details/sim_journal-of-parapsychology_1971-06_35_2
|
||||
[^6]: Fia Backstrom, "Private Lunar ESP: An Interview with Edgar Mitchell," *Cabinet*, issue 5 (Winter 2001-2002). https://cabinetmagazine.org/issues/5/backstrom_mitchell.php
|
||||
[^7]: Article, CIA Reading Room STARGATE files, CIA-RDP96-00787R000400040001-5. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000400040001-5
|
||||
[^8]: John D. LaMothe, "Controlled Offensive Behavior: USSR," ST-CS-01-169-72, Defense Intelligence Agency task T72-01-14, prepared by the Medical Intelligence Office, Office of the Surgeon General, Department of the Army, July 1972, parapsychology section, quoting E. D. Mitchell, Jr., The David Frost Show, March 16, 1971. CIA-RDP96-00788R001300010001-7. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001300010001-7
|
||||
[^9]: "Prominent Swedish-born psychic Jonsson dies at 79," *Las Vegas Sun*, May 21, 1998. https://lasvegassun.com/news/1998/may/21/prominent-swedish-born-psychic-jonsson-dies-at-79/
|
||||
[^10]: "Olof Jonsson, Engineer, Psychic," *Chicago Tribune*, May 24, 1998. https://www.chicagotribune.com/1998/05/24/olof-jonsson-engineer-psychic/
|
||||
[^11]: Annie Jacobsen, *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis* (Little, Brown, 2017).
|
||||
[^12]: Qian Xuesen, "Some Knowledge of the Study of Somatic Science," translated article in the *Chinese Journal of Somatic Science*, CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP96-00792R000400290002-1. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00792r000400290002-1
|
||||
[^13]: "Another World," READ Magazine, 1971, feature on EDMA Corporation. CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP96-00787R000400100022-5. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000400100022-5
|
||||
[^14]: "Research, Investigation and Teaching: A Survey of the International Scene," *New Psychic Frontiers*, p. 208. CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230018-6. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001200230018-6
|
||||
[^15]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, "California Institute of Noetic Sciences" (EIN 23-7236986), tax exemption issued June 1973. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/237236986
|
||||
[^16]: Joseph Hanlon, report on Uri Geller and the Targ and Puthoff paper, *New Scientist*, vol. 64, no. 919, October 17, 1974, reprinted in CIA-RDP96-00787R000200090024-7. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000200090024-7
|
||||
[^17]: C. B. Scott Jones to John H. Gibbons, August 11, 1994, pp. 1-2. https://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-8-11-94.htm
|
||||
[^18]: Edgar D. Mitchell et al., *Psychic Exploration: A Challenge for Science*, ed. John White (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1974), 708 pp., ISBN 0399113428, LCCN 73093737. Internet Archive record: https://archive.org/details/psychicexplorati0000unse
|
||||
[^19]: "Boom Times on the Psychic Frontier," *Time*, March 4, 1974, CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP96-00787R000700030001-3. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp96-00787r000700030001
|
||||
[^20]: Dolan M. McKelvy, *Psychic Warfare: Exploring the Mind Frontier*, Air War College research report, Air University, CIA-RDP96-00789R001001420001-3, citing Ronald M. McRae, *Mind Wars* (1984), p. 103. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00789r001001420001-3
|
||||
[^21]: CIA Office of Research and Development memorandum ORD-413-73, January 24, 1973, CIA-RDP96-00787R000400070029-2. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000400070029-2
|
||||
[^22]: R. Targ and H. Puthoff, "Information transmission under conditions of sensory shielding," *Nature*, vol. 251, October 18, 1974, pp. 602-607, acknowledgments. CIA Reading Room copy, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200090024-7. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000200090024-7
|
||||
[^23]: Jim Schnabel, *Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America's Psychic Spies* (Dell, 1997).
|
||||
[^24]: Unsigned CIA fact sheet on James Randi, *The Magic of Uri Geller* (1975), quoting Randi, p. 55, CIA-RDP96-00787R000500240021-0. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000500240021-0
|
||||
[^25]: National Institute for Discovery Science, "Personnel," capture of December 6, 2000. https://web.archive.org/web/20001206032200/http://www.nidsci.org/personnel.html
|
||||
[^26]: Alan Boyle, "Moonwalker reopens UFO files," NBC News, July 28, 2008. https://www.nbcnews.com/science/cosmic-log/moonwalker-reopens-ufo-files-flna6c10405026
|
||||
[^27]: John Greenewald, "The Admiral Wilson Leak: An Analysis," The Black Vault, quoting Steven Greer's Portland lecture transcript (September 12, 2001) and Billy Cox's reports of August 2008 and June 2020. https://www.theblackvault.com/casefiles/the-admiral-wilson-leak-an-analysis/
|
||||
[^28]: Daniel Elizondo and The Hermetic Penetrator, *Loose Threads*, pp. 6-10, 23 (quoting Greer, *Hidden Truth: Forbidden Knowledge*, 2006, Mitchell on Larry King Live, 2008, and Davis on The Basement Office). https://anomalyarchives.org/wp-content/uploads/PDF-Loose-Threads.pdf
|
||||
[^29]: Jacques Vallee, *Forbidden Science*, vol. 5, journal entries of 2 and 3 October 2003, pp. 202-205. https://anomalyarchives.org/wp-content/uploads/vallee-fs-journals-vol5-pgs-200-205.pdf
|
||||
[^30]: Anomaly Archives, "The Wilson Memo." https://anomalyarchives.org/collections/file/wilson-memo
|
||||
[^31]: Curt Anderson, "Astronaut Edgar Mitchell, 6th man on moon, dies in Florida," Associated Press, February 5, 2016. https://phys.org/news/2016-02-astronaut-edgar-mitchell-6th-moon.html
|
||||
[^32]: NASA, "NASA Administrator Remembers Apollo-Era Astronaut Edgar Mitchell," release 16-014, February 5, 2016. https://www.nasa.gov/?p=51976
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ relations:
|
|||
with: "[[Robert R. Mullen Company]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "Washington public relations under Robert Bennett"
|
||||
fn: 25
|
||||
fn: 26
|
||||
- type: contractor_to
|
||||
with: "[[Intertel]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
|
|
@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ relations:
|
|||
with: "[[Project Azorian]]"
|
||||
role: "Hughes Tool Company named as owner of the Hughes Glomar Explorer"
|
||||
start: 1971-04
|
||||
fn: 30
|
||||
fn: 31
|
||||
- type: relative_of
|
||||
with: "[[Annette Gano Lummis]]"
|
||||
role: "nephew"
|
||||
|
|
@ -143,43 +143,49 @@ The May 1971 CIA memorandum recorded that Hughes Tool had engaged Intertel "to c
|
|||
|
||||
[[Jim Hougan]] wrote that Maheu sent a task force of private detectives to the Bahamas to bug Hughes's suite and to enable him to leave, and that Intertel agents discovered the eavesdropping and had the intruders deported.[^23] In late 1971 a publisher announced an "autobiography" of Hughes based on interviews by [[Clifford Irving]]. On January 7, 1972 Hughes spoke by telephone from Paradise Island to reporters assembled in Los Angeles; asked why Maheu had been fired, he said: "Because he's a no-good, dishonest son-of-a-bitch, and he stole me blind." Maheu sued Hughes Tool for defamation in *[[Maheu v. Hughes Tool Co.]]*. Hughes "had totally withdrawn from direct contact with the outside world. He would not appear in any court; he would not give depositions." The jury awarded Maheu more than 2.8 million dollars in compensatory damages and Summa about 48,000 dollars on its counterclaims; on one of them, Maheu had held about 74,000 dollars sent to him to pay the rent on a hangar leased from the [[Tucson Airport Authority]] and was about nine months behind. The Ninth Circuit reversed in part and remanded for a new trial.[^3] Hougan wrote that Peloquin, called by Maheu's lawyer, acknowledged that Intertel agents had filed more than five hundred written reports on Maheu and found no evidence of theft. He also wrote that Hughes moved to [[Managua]] in February 1972, where the American ambassador, [[Turner Shelton]], formerly consul general in the Bahamas, acted as liaison between [[Anastasio Somoza]] and Hughes.[^23] In February 1977 Intertel still controlled the security for much of the Hughes empire.[^24]
|
||||
|
||||
### Maheu v. Hughes Tool Co.
|
||||
|
||||
Summa Corporation, the successor to Hughes Tool Company, admitted that the January 7, 1972 statement about Maheu was Hughes's, assumed responsibility for it, and relied on the defense of truth.[^25] The trial court entered judgment for Maheu of about 2.8 million dollars and for Summa of about 470,000 dollars with accrued interest.[^25]
|
||||
|
||||
Judge Duniway, writing for the Ninth Circuit in an opinion decided December 27, 1977 and modified January 12, 1978, held that the damages were "based on inadmissible speculative evidence" and called Maheu's projection of lost earning capacity "sheer fantasy, nothing more." The court reversed the liability verdict and the damages and remanded: "We reverse in part and remand for a new trial." The opinion states that "Much of the crucial testimony in the case is Maheu's recital of telephone conversations with Hughes to which no one else was a party."[^25]
|
||||
|
||||
### White House Memoranda, 1971
|
||||
|
||||
White House memoranda of January and February 1971 on Hughes were printed as exhibits to the testimony of [[Lawrence Higby]], an aide to [[H. R. Haldeman]]. On January 15, 1971 [[Charles Colson]] wrote that [[Robert Bennett]], son of Senator [[Wallace Bennett]], had left the Department of Transportation to take over the [[Robert R. Mullen Company]], that one of his new clients was Howard Hughes, and that "[[Larry O'Brien]] has been the principal Hughes man in Washington." He added: "The important thing from our standpoint is to enhance Bennett's position with Hughes because Bennett gives us real access to a source of power that can be valuable."[^25]
|
||||
White House memoranda of January and February 1971 on Hughes were printed as exhibits to the testimony of [[Lawrence Higby]], an aide to [[H. R. Haldeman]]. On January 15, 1971 [[Charles Colson]] wrote that [[Robert Bennett]], son of Senator [[Wallace Bennett]], had left the Department of Transportation to take over the [[Robert R. Mullen Company]], that one of his new clients was Howard Hughes, and that "[[Larry O'Brien]] has been the principal Hughes man in Washington." He added: "The important thing from our standpoint is to enhance Bennett's position with Hughes because Bennett gives us real access to a source of power that can be valuable."[^26]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Jack Caulfield]] wrote to [[John Dean]] on January 22 and 25 that O'Brien and "Mayhew" were longtime associates from [[Boston]]; that "serious negotiations" had taken place in 1969 for O'Brien's firm to represent the Hughes interests in Washington, with "knowledgeable sources" putting the fee at 100,000 dollars; that Maheu's "tentacles touch many extremely sensitive areas of government"; that "Mayhew apparently forwarded Hughes' political contributions, personally, to both parties over the last ten years," dealing with a Nixon fund-raiser, Vic Johnson; that the former congressman [[Patrick Hillings|Pat Hillings]], close to [[Murray Chotiner]], had been retained by Maheu for years; that Danner was close to Smathers and professed friendship with Rebozo; that the law firm of [[Clark Clifford]] had for years represented the Hughes legal interests in Washington; and that Maheu had been a close associate of the former FBI agent [[John Frank]], "generally believed to have engineered the assassination of [[Jesús de Galíndez|Jesus de Galindez]]" in 1956 on behalf of [[Rafael Trujillo]]. He proposed "an in depth analysis of all (CIA, F.B.I., IRS) information available for White House perusal."[^25]
|
||||
[[Jack Caulfield]] wrote to [[John Dean]] on January 22 and 25 that O'Brien and "Mayhew" were longtime associates from [[Boston]]; that "serious negotiations" had taken place in 1969 for O'Brien's firm to represent the Hughes interests in Washington, with "knowledgeable sources" putting the fee at 100,000 dollars; that Maheu's "tentacles touch many extremely sensitive areas of government"; that "Mayhew apparently forwarded Hughes' political contributions, personally, to both parties over the last ten years," dealing with a Nixon fund-raiser, Vic Johnson; that the former congressman [[Patrick Hillings|Pat Hillings]], close to [[Murray Chotiner]], had been retained by Maheu for years; that Danner was close to Smathers and professed friendship with Rebozo; that the law firm of [[Clark Clifford]] had for years represented the Hughes legal interests in Washington; and that Maheu had been a close associate of the former FBI agent [[John Frank]], "generally believed to have engineered the assassination of [[Jesús de Galíndez|Jesus de Galindez]]" in 1956 on behalf of [[Rafael Trujillo]]. He proposed "an in depth analysis of all (CIA, F.B.I., IRS) information available for White House perusal."[^26]
|
||||
|
||||
Dean reported to Haldeman on January 26 that Rebozo said his information on the O'Brien retainer had come from Maheu "at a time when Maheu was professing considerable friendliness towards the Administration," and that Rebozo "also requested that if any action be taken with regard to Hughes that he be notified because of his familiarity with the delicacy of the relationships as a result of his own dealings with the Hughes people." Bennett told Dean there was "no doubt" that O'Brien had been retained by Hughes and that the contract was still in existence, and that he was going to the West Coast to discuss his Hughes relationship with Gay. Haldeman replied on January 28 that Colson should "come up with a way to leak the appropriate information," that "Frankly, I can't see any way to handle this without involving Hughes," and that "we should keep Bob Bennett and Bebe out of it at all costs."[^25]
|
||||
Dean reported to Haldeman on January 26 that Rebozo said his information on the O'Brien retainer had come from Maheu "at a time when Maheu was professing considerable friendliness towards the Administration," and that Rebozo "also requested that if any action be taken with regard to Hughes that he be notified because of his familiarity with the delicacy of the relationships as a result of his own dealings with the Hughes people." Bennett told Dean there was "no doubt" that O'Brien had been retained by Hughes and that the contract was still in existence, and that he was going to the West Coast to discuss his Hughes relationship with Gay. Haldeman replied on January 28 that Colson should "come up with a way to leak the appropriate information," that "Frankly, I can't see any way to handle this without involving Hughes," and that "we should keep Bob Bennett and Bebe out of it at all costs."[^26]
|
||||
|
||||
On February 1 Caulfield wrote that the retainer could be documented only indirectly, payment having been made "via the Mahew-Claude De Sautels route"; that "Don Nixon visited the [[Dominican Republic]] with a group of wheeler dealers in September 1969," who, he wrote, "assertedly were connected with" Maheu's forces in Nevada; and that "Mahew's covert activities from his Washington association with CIA in the early sixties to his Nevada involvment on behalf of Hughes are only generally known here, at this time." On February 3 he drew Dean's attention to a *[[60 Minutes]]* broadcast with an interview of Maheu and "an indication of Intertel's activity in Nevada." An unsigned memorandum in the same exhibits alleged that Maheu had established "close and ominous relationships" with Mafia figures, that huge profits were being skimmed from the casinos, and that Maheu's representatives might have paid hotel and bar bills for the presidential advance party for an October 31 visit to Las Vegas.[^25] Asked in December 1973 whether Intertel had investigated the O'Brien-Maheu relationship, Davis answered that he knew of Intertel's work only under his own direction for litigation, and added: "insofar as I am concerned, there doesn't remain any question in my mind about payments made to and received by Mr. O'Brien."[^18]
|
||||
On February 1 Caulfield wrote that the retainer could be documented only indirectly, payment having been made "via the Mahew-Claude De Sautels route"; that "Don Nixon visited the [[Dominican Republic]] with a group of wheeler dealers in September 1969," who, he wrote, "assertedly were connected with" Maheu's forces in Nevada; and that "Mahew's covert activities from his Washington association with CIA in the early sixties to his Nevada involvment on behalf of Hughes are only generally known here, at this time." On February 3 he drew Dean's attention to a *[[60 Minutes]]* broadcast with an interview of Maheu and "an indication of Intertel's activity in Nevada." An unsigned memorandum in the same exhibits alleged that Maheu had established "close and ominous relationships" with Mafia figures, that huge profits were being skimmed from the casinos, and that Maheu's representatives might have paid hotel and bar bills for the presidential advance party for an October 31 visit to Las Vegas.[^26] Asked in December 1973 whether Intertel had investigated the O'Brien-Maheu relationship, Davis answered that he knew of Intertel's work only under his own direction for litigation, and added: "insofar as I am concerned, there doesn't remain any question in my mind about payments made to and received by Mr. O'Brien."[^18]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Senate Investigation
|
||||
|
||||
[[William E. Griffin]], a lawyer whom Rebozo consulted in April or May 1973, testified that Rebozo told him he held 100,000 dollars in cash in a safe-deposit box at Key Biscayne, in the identical bills he had received, and that a government agency, he thought the IRS, or the Maheu case had prompted inquiry; that Rebozo then had difficulty getting Danner to take the money back, once reaching him on a golf course; and that the money was returned to Danner against a receipt.[^26] *Time* reported in October 1973, citing committee sources, that Rebozo said the second installment was paid on July 3, 1970 at Nixon's house at [[San Clemente, California|San Clemente]], the date on which Rebozo and [[Robert Abplanalp]] were closing the purchase from Nixon of 2.9 acres of the San Clemente property for, according to the same sources, 100,000 dollars; Rebozo denied that any Hughes money was used. Maheu had mentioned the contribution in a deposition in his 17 million dollar suit against Hughes in the spring of 1973.[^19]
|
||||
[[William E. Griffin]], a lawyer whom Rebozo consulted in April or May 1973, testified that Rebozo told him he held 100,000 dollars in cash in a safe-deposit box at Key Biscayne, in the identical bills he had received, and that a government agency, he thought the IRS, or the Maheu case had prompted inquiry; that Rebozo then had difficulty getting Danner to take the money back, once reaching him on a golf course; and that the money was returned to Danner against a receipt.[^27] *Time* reported in October 1973, citing committee sources, that Rebozo said the second installment was paid on July 3, 1970 at Nixon's house at [[San Clemente, California|San Clemente]], the date on which Rebozo and [[Robert Abplanalp]] were closing the purchase from Nixon of 2.9 acres of the San Clemente property for, according to the same sources, 100,000 dollars; Rebozo denied that any Hughes money was used. Maheu had mentioned the contribution in a deposition in his 17 million dollar suit against Hughes in the spring of 1973.[^19]
|
||||
|
||||
Rebozo returned 100,100 dollars in 1,001 Federal Reserve notes. The committee traced their serial numbers through the [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]] and found that, for every combination of delivery dates but one, the notes included bills not released for circulation until after a delivery date; on the combination that Danner and Rebozo described, 35 of the bills identified as the second delivery were not available until after August 20, 1970, the latest released on October 1, 1970.[^15] [[Herbert Kalmbach]] testified that on April 30, 1973 Rebozo told him he had spent some of the Hughes money on F. Donald Nixon, [[Edward Nixon]], [[Rose Mary Woods]] and others. Hughes also contributed some 150,000 dollars directly to the 1972 Nixon campaign.[^14][^17]
|
||||
|
||||
The committee requested Hughes's appearance by letter, which was never answered; a subpoena was approved but could not be served because Hughes remained outside the country throughout the investigation. Rebozo refused to produce records of the Key Biscayne Bank and, when Chairman [[Sam Ervin]] sought his response in June 1974, left the country and became unavailable for service of a subpoena.[^9] By the spring of 1974 Danner had been examined twice by the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]], once by a federal grand jury and twice by the IRS, and Winte had been interviewed twice by the FBI.[^16]
|
||||
|
||||
The committee's questions extended to Resorts International. Kalmbach testified that Rebozo suggested he see [[James Crosby]], the head of Resorts, and that Crosby's pledge to the 1970 senatorial campaign program fell from 25,000 dollars to 5,000 dollars. Griffin testified that around 1969 or 1970 he had one conversation in Washington with Crosby and [[Jack Davis]] of Resorts, whom he had first met at the 1969 inauguration, about options Resorts held on [[Pan American World Airways]] stock, that he thought Peloquin and Abplanalp were also present, and that he advised them to see the senators sponsoring restrictive legislation. Asked whether the IRS had cases involving Resorts International, the commissioner, [[Johnnie Walters]], answered: "Not to my knowledge ... I do not even know whether there were cases."[^27] The May 1971 CIA memorandum recorded that in January 1969 Resorts had moved to take control of Pan Am by buying a 9.7 percent interest, and that the Civil Aeronautics Board had intervened.[^7]
|
||||
The committee's questions extended to Resorts International. Kalmbach testified that Rebozo suggested he see [[James Crosby]], the head of Resorts, and that Crosby's pledge to the 1970 senatorial campaign program fell from 25,000 dollars to 5,000 dollars. Griffin testified that around 1969 or 1970 he had one conversation in Washington with Crosby and [[Jack Davis]] of Resorts, whom he had first met at the 1969 inauguration, about options Resorts held on [[Pan American World Airways]] stock, that he thought Peloquin and Abplanalp were also present, and that he advised them to see the senators sponsoring restrictive legislation. Asked whether the IRS had cases involving Resorts International, the commissioner, [[Johnnie Walters]], answered: "Not to my knowledge ... I do not even know whether there were cases."[^28] The May 1971 CIA memorandum recorded that in January 1969 Resorts had moved to take control of Pan Am by buying a 9.7 percent interest, and that the Civil Aeronautics Board had intervened.[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
In *[[The Village Voice]]* of January 31, 1974, [[Lucian K. Truscott IV]] wrote that a person close to the committee staff told him the staff had been instructed, "apparently by Ervin and Baker," to "stay away from" any possible quid pro quo for the donation, the Paradise Island casino, Rebozo's bank, "F. Donald Nixon's involvement" and "the whole area of the President's finances," and that Smathers and Danner were in Washington.[^28]
|
||||
In *[[The Village Voice]]* of January 31, 1974, [[Lucian K. Truscott IV]] wrote that a person close to the committee staff told him the staff had been instructed, "apparently by Ervin and Baker," to "stay away from" any possible quid pro quo for the donation, the Paradise Island casino, Rebozo's bank, "F. Donald Nixon's involvement" and "the whole area of the President's finances," and that Smathers and Danner were in Washington.[^29]
|
||||
|
||||
The Senate Select Committee's final report records that [[Jeb Stuart Magruder]] testified that John Mitchell suggested as additional targets for the 1972 plan the [[Democratic National Committee]] chairman, Larry O'Brien, and the Las Vegas publisher Greenspun, whom Magruder described as allegedly holding explosive material damaging to [[Edmund Muskie|Senator Muskie]] in his office safe.[^29] The report also states that Robert Bennett suggested that Greenspun's safe contained information of interest to both Hughes and the Committee for the Re-election of the President.[^29] Greenspun had sold KLAS-TV to Hughes in 1968.[^10]
|
||||
The Senate Select Committee's final report records that [[Jeb Stuart Magruder]] testified that John Mitchell suggested as additional targets for the 1972 plan the [[Democratic National Committee]] chairman, Larry O'Brien, and the Las Vegas publisher Greenspun, whom Magruder described as allegedly holding explosive material damaging to [[Edmund Muskie|Senator Muskie]] in his office safe.[^30] The report also states that Robert Bennett suggested that Greenspun's safe contained information of interest to both Hughes and the Committee for the Re-election of the President.[^30] Greenspun had sold KLAS-TV to Hughes in 1968.[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
### Project Azorian
|
||||
|
||||
In April 1971 the chairman of [[Global Marine]], Robert F. Bauer, announced that the company would build a 600-foot mining ship for the Hughes Tool Company. The Hughes Glomar Explorer was launched on November 4, 1972, with speeches by Bauer and by Paul Reeve, general manager of the Ocean Mining Division of Hughes Tool. The government later acknowledged in court CIA sponsorship of the [[Project Azorian]] recovery of the Soviet submarine [[K-129]] "for intelligence collection purposes," and the participation of Hughes Tool, Summa and Global Marine.[^30]
|
||||
In April 1971 the chairman of [[Global Marine]], Robert F. Bauer, announced that the company would build a 600-foot mining ship for the Hughes Tool Company. The Hughes Glomar Explorer was launched on November 4, 1972, with speeches by Bauer and by Paul Reeve, general manager of the Ocean Mining Division of Hughes Tool. The government later acknowledged in court CIA sponsorship of the [[Project Azorian]] recovery of the Soviet submarine [[K-129]] "for intelligence collection purposes," and the participation of Hughes Tool, Summa and Global Marine.[^31]
|
||||
|
||||
The CIA's history of the project attributes the leak behind the press accounts of 1975 to "an improbable series of events following a break-in and robbery in June 1974 at Summa Corporation headquarters in Los Angeles," and records the belief that the stolen documents might include "a memorandum from a senior Hughes official to Howard Hughes describing a proposed CIA attempt to recover a sunken Soviet submarine and requesting Hughes' approval for Hughes Company participation." Several persons in the investigation were briefed, and the source of the leak was never identified.[^30] On February 7, 1975 CIA Director [[William Colby]] told President [[Gerald Ford]] that the *[[Los Angeles Times]]* had asked whether the agency had raised a piece of a Soviet submarine: "We have called Frank Murphy to try to kill it."[^31]
|
||||
The CIA's history of the project attributes the leak behind the press accounts of 1975 to "an improbable series of events following a break-in and robbery in June 1974 at Summa Corporation headquarters in Los Angeles," and records the belief that the stolen documents might include "a memorandum from a senior Hughes official to Howard Hughes describing a proposed CIA attempt to recover a sunken Soviet submarine and requesting Hughes' approval for Hughes Company participation." Several persons in the investigation were briefed, and the source of the leak was never identified.[^31] On February 7, 1975 CIA Director [[William Colby]] told President [[Gerald Ford]] that the *[[Los Angeles Times]]* had asked whether the agency had raised a piece of a Soviet submarine: "We have called Frank Murphy to try to kill it."[^32]
|
||||
|
||||
### Death and Estate
|
||||
|
||||
On April 14, 1976 Hughes's aunt and closest living relative, Annette Gano Lummis, and her son [[William R. Lummis]] were granted temporary letters of administration in Probate Court No. 2 of [[Harris County, Texas|Harris County]].[^1][^32] The Howard Hughes Medical Institute claimed on February 24, 1977 that Hughes had executed a will leaving it his entire estate; a jury found on a trial begun December 6, 1977 that Hughes was domiciled in Texas. The probate court granted summary judgment that the alleged will was not valid; on January 23, 1980 the Court of Civil Appeals at Houston reversed that judgment as an impermissible advisory opinion and refused to disqualify Lummis's lawyers, [[Andrews Kurth|Andrews, Kurth, Campbell and Jones]], who had served as the institute's counsel for more than twenty years and had helped obtain its tax exemption.[^32] In each state that sought death taxes, the estate's personal representative contended that Hughes died domiciled in Nevada, "the only State in the Union without death taxes." [[California]] and [[Texas]] each claimed him; the bulk of the estate consisted of shares in a single holding company, and California alleged that its judgment would be uncollectible to the extent of about 21 million dollars. On June 22, 1978 the Supreme Court denied California leave to file a bill of complaint against Texas in *[[California v. Texas]]*, 437 U.S. 601.[^33]
|
||||
On April 14, 1976 Hughes's aunt and closest living relative, Annette Gano Lummis, and her son [[William R. Lummis]] were granted temporary letters of administration in Probate Court No. 2 of [[Harris County, Texas|Harris County]].[^1][^33] The Howard Hughes Medical Institute claimed on February 24, 1977 that Hughes had executed a will leaving it his entire estate; a jury found on a trial begun December 6, 1977 that Hughes was domiciled in Texas. The probate court granted summary judgment that the alleged will was not valid; on January 23, 1980 the Court of Civil Appeals at Houston reversed that judgment as an impermissible advisory opinion and refused to disqualify Lummis's lawyers, [[Andrews Kurth|Andrews, Kurth, Campbell and Jones]], who had served as the institute's counsel for more than twenty years and had helped obtain its tax exemption.[^33] In each state that sought death taxes, the estate's personal representative contended that Hughes died domiciled in Nevada, "the only State in the Union without death taxes." [[California]] and [[Texas]] each claimed him; the bulk of the estate consisted of shares in a single holding company, and California alleged that its judgment would be uncollectible to the extent of about 21 million dollars. On June 22, 1978 the Supreme Court denied California leave to file a bill of complaint against Texas in *[[California v. Texas]]*, 437 U.S. 601.[^34]
|
||||
|
||||
Hughes died without naming a successor trustee of the medical institute, and the Delaware complaint alleged that the institute had since been controlled by Gay and Davis as majority members of its executive committee, which on July 10, 1978 purported to amend the charter to abolish the office of trustee. The attorney general of Delaware and William Lummis, as Delaware ancillary administrator, sued in the [[Delaware Court of Chancery]] to have a trustee appointed.[^4][^5] A claim by the actress [[Terry Moore]] that she had married Hughes at sea in 1949 was dismissed on judicial estoppel; the opinion affirming the dismissal was written by Justice [[Paul Pressler]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
The station that Hughes bought in 1968 passed through his estate after his death in 1976. Broadcasting reported in February 1978 that KLAS-TV was sold by Summa Corporation to [[Landmark Communications]] for a price said to be in excess of $8 million, and a March 1978 FCC filing gave the price as $9,587,500 and stated that the estate had been divesting broadcast interests since Hughes's death and that KLAS-TV was its only broadcast station.[^34][^35] The FCC approved the estate's sale on May 15, 1978.[^11]
|
||||
The station that Hughes bought in 1968 passed through his estate after his death in 1976. Broadcasting reported in February 1978 that KLAS-TV was sold by Summa Corporation to [[Landmark Communications]] for a price said to be in excess of $8 million, and a March 1978 FCC filing gave the price as $9,587,500 and stated that the estate had been divesting broadcast interests since Hughes's death and that KLAS-TV was its only broadcast station.[^35][^36] The FCC approved the estate's sale on May 15, 1978.[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -207,14 +213,15 @@ The station that Hughes bought in 1968 passed through his estate after his death
|
|||
[^22]: Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, *Book 21* (GPO, 1974), "Operation Sandwedge," Tab 31, pp. 9899-9902. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob21/pdf/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob21.pdf
|
||||
[^23]: Jim Hougan, *Spooks: The Haunting of America: The Private Use of Secret Agents* (William Morrow, 1978), pp. 262-263, 384-385. https://archive.org/details/hougan-jim-spooks
|
||||
[^24]: Tom Zito, "Peloquin of Intertel: Intelligence, Security, 'Targets of Opportunity,'" *The Washington Post*, February 20, 1977, pp. L1, L12 (page images in the Weisberg Subject Index Files, Hood College). http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/I%20Disk/Intertel%20on%20Assassination%20Samples%20of/Item%2001.pdf
|
||||
[^25]: Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, *Book 23: The Hughes-Rebozo Investigation and Related Matters* (GPO, 1974), Higby Exhibits 5-A to 5-I, pp. 11123-11135: Colson memorandum of January 15, 1971; Caulfield to Dean, January 22, January 25, February 1 and February 3, 1971; Dean to Haldeman, January 26, 1971; Haldeman to Dean, January 28, 1971; Dean to Caulfield, February 5, 1971; unsigned memorandum, Exhibit 5-I. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob23/pdf/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob23.pdf
|
||||
[^26]: Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, *Book 22: The Hughes-Rebozo Investigation and Related Matters* (GPO, 1974), testimony of William E. Griffin, pp. 10429-10431, 10446-10448. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob22/pdf/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob22.pdf
|
||||
[^27]: Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, *Book 21* (GPO, 1974), testimony of Herbert W. Kalmbach, p. 10183; *Book 23*, testimony of William E. Griffin, pp. 10792-10793; *Book 24*, testimony of Johnnie M. Walters, p. 11623. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob21/pdf/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob21.pdf
|
||||
[^28]: Lucian K. Truscott IV, "Watergate, the Bahamas & Howard Hughes," *The Village Voice*, January 31, 1974. https://villagevoice.com/1974/01/31/watergate-the-bahamas-howard-hughes
|
||||
[^29]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, Final Report, S. Rept. 93-981 (June 1974), testimony of Jeb Stuart Magruder on the Liddy intelligence plan with footnotes 61 to 63 for the February 1972 meeting, and the section on Robert Bennett's suggestion regarding Greenspun's safe. https://archive.org/details/FinalReportOfTheSenateSelectCommitteeOnPresidentialCampaignActivities
|
||||
[^30]: Central Intelligence Agency, "Project AZORIAN: The Story of the Hughes Glomar Explorer," released January 2010, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 305, document 1. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/nukevault/ebb305/doc01.pdf
|
||||
[^31]: Memorandum of conversation, President Ford, Henry Kissinger, James Schlesinger, William Colby, David Jones and Donald Rumsfeld, Oval Office, February 7, 1975, Gerald R. Ford Library, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 305, document 2. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/nukevault/ebb305/doc02.pdf
|
||||
[^32]: *Howard Hughes Medical Institute v. Lummis*, 596 S.W.2d 171 (Tex. Civ. App., Houston [14th Dist.] 1980), No. A2176, decided January 23, 1980 (Brown, C.J.). https://static.case.law/sw2d/596/cases/0171-01.json
|
||||
[^33]: *California v. Texas*, 437 U.S. 601 (1978) (per curiam, June 22, 1978), with concurring and dissenting opinions. https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/437/601
|
||||
[^34]: "KLAS-TV Las Vegas: Sold by Summa Corp. to Landmark Communications Inc. for price said to be in excess of $8 million," Broadcasting, February 13, 1978. https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1978/1978-02-13-BC.pdf
|
||||
[^35]: "KLAS-TV Las Vegas (ch. 8) Seeks assignment of license from Summa Corp. to KLAS Inc. for $9,587,500," Broadcasting, March 27, 1978. https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1978/1978-03-27-BC.pdf
|
||||
[^25]: *Maheu v. Hughes Tool Co.*, 569 F.2d 459 (9th Cir. 1977), decided December 27, 1977, modified January 12, 1978, Nos. 75-1306 and 75-2353 (Duniway, J.). https://static.case.law/f2d/569/cases/0459-01.json
|
||||
[^26]: Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, *Book 23: The Hughes-Rebozo Investigation and Related Matters* (GPO, 1974), Higby Exhibits 5-A to 5-I, pp. 11123-11135: Colson memorandum of January 15, 1971; Caulfield to Dean, January 22, January 25, February 1 and February 3, 1971; Dean to Haldeman, January 26, 1971; Haldeman to Dean, January 28, 1971; Dean to Caulfield, February 5, 1971; unsigned memorandum, Exhibit 5-I. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob23/pdf/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob23.pdf
|
||||
[^27]: Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, *Book 22: The Hughes-Rebozo Investigation and Related Matters* (GPO, 1974), testimony of William E. Griffin, pp. 10429-10431, 10446-10448. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob22/pdf/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob22.pdf
|
||||
[^28]: Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, *Book 21* (GPO, 1974), testimony of Herbert W. Kalmbach, p. 10183; *Book 23*, testimony of William E. Griffin, pp. 10792-10793; *Book 24*, testimony of Johnnie M. Walters, p. 11623. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob21/pdf/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob21.pdf
|
||||
[^29]: Lucian K. Truscott IV, "Watergate, the Bahamas & Howard Hughes," *The Village Voice*, January 31, 1974. https://villagevoice.com/1974/01/31/watergate-the-bahamas-howard-hughes
|
||||
[^30]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, Final Report, S. Rept. 93-981 (June 1974), testimony of Jeb Stuart Magruder on the Liddy intelligence plan with footnotes 61 to 63 for the February 1972 meeting, and the section on Robert Bennett's suggestion regarding Greenspun's safe. https://archive.org/details/FinalReportOfTheSenateSelectCommitteeOnPresidentialCampaignActivities
|
||||
[^31]: Central Intelligence Agency, "Project AZORIAN: The Story of the Hughes Glomar Explorer," released January 2010, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 305, document 1. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/nukevault/ebb305/doc01.pdf
|
||||
[^32]: Memorandum of conversation, President Ford, Henry Kissinger, James Schlesinger, William Colby, David Jones and Donald Rumsfeld, Oval Office, February 7, 1975, Gerald R. Ford Library, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 305, document 2. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/nukevault/ebb305/doc02.pdf
|
||||
[^33]: *Howard Hughes Medical Institute v. Lummis*, 596 S.W.2d 171 (Tex. Civ. App., Houston [14th Dist.] 1980), No. A2176, decided January 23, 1980 (Brown, C.J.). https://static.case.law/sw2d/596/cases/0171-01.json
|
||||
[^34]: *California v. Texas*, 437 U.S. 601 (1978) (per curiam, June 22, 1978), with concurring and dissenting opinions. https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/437/601
|
||||
[^35]: "KLAS-TV Las Vegas: Sold by Summa Corp. to Landmark Communications Inc. for price said to be in excess of $8 million," Broadcasting, February 13, 1978. https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1978/1978-02-13-BC.pdf
|
||||
[^36]: "KLAS-TV Las Vegas (ch. 8) Seeks assignment of license from Summa Corp. to KLAS Inc. for $9,587,500," Broadcasting, March 27, 1978. https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1978/1978-03-27-BC.pdf
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ relations:
|
|||
role: "consultant, nature of work unknown"
|
||||
start: 1970-04
|
||||
end: 1974
|
||||
fn: 21
|
||||
fn: 23
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Ohio State University]]"
|
||||
role: "instructor to professor of astronomy"
|
||||
|
|
@ -128,11 +128,11 @@ Hynek investigated reports from [[Dexter, Michigan|Dexter]] and [[Hillsdale, Mic
|
|||
|
||||
On 28 March 1966 Representative [[Gerald Ford]], [[House Minority Leader]], wrote to the chairmen of the [[House Committee on Armed Services]] and the [[House Committee on Science and Astronautics]] that Hynek "dismissed all of them as the product of college student pranks or swamp gas or an impression created by the rising crescent moon and the planet Venus," and the accompanying news release described Hynek's explanation as "flippant." Ford enclosed a column by [[Roscoe Drummond]] and articles by [[Bulkley Griffin]] of the [[Griffin-Larrabee News Bureau]].[^15]
|
||||
|
||||
At the Armed Services Committee hearing of 5 April 1966, chaired by [[L. Mendel Rivers]], Hynek testified with Secretary of the Air Force [[Harold Brown]]. His opening statement said that "the body of data accumulated since 1948 through the Air Force investigations deserves close scrutiny by a civilian panel of physical and social scientists." Asked by Representative [[William H. Bates]] of [[Massachusetts]] the question put to Brown, whether anyone of scientific knowledge had concluded that the phenomena came from extraterrestrial sources, he answered that he knew "of no competent scientist who would say that these objects come from outer space," and to Representative [[L. N. Nedzi]] of Michigan he said "the possibility should be kept open as a possible hypothesis."[^5]
|
||||
At the Armed Services Committee hearing of 5 April 1966, chaired by [[L. Mendel Rivers]], Hynek testified with Secretary of the Air Force [[Harold Brown]]. His opening statement said that "the body of data accumulated since 1948 through the Air Force investigations deserves close scrutiny by a civilian panel of physical and social scientists." Asked by Representative [[William H. Bates]] of [[Massachusetts]] the question put to Brown, whether anyone of scientific knowledge had concluded that the phenomena came from extraterrestrial sources, he answered that he knew "of no competent scientist who would say that these objects come from outer space," and to Representative [[L. N. Nedzi]] of Michigan he said "the possibility should be kept open as a possible hypothesis."[^5] Chairman Rivers opened the UFO portion of the session by saying, "Mr. Ford has come out, he has a pretty good size stature in the Congress," and later asked that Ford's letter and Secretary Brown's response be put into the record. The printed transcript reproduces the March 28 letter, addressed there to Rivers alone, in full. The news release that accompanied the letter described the "swamp gas" explanation given by Hynek as "flippant."[^16][^17]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Condon Committee
|
||||
|
||||
Hynek briefed the University of Colorado's [[Condon Committee]] in its preliminary study; Hynek, [[Jacques Vallee]] and [[William Powers]] of the Dearborn Observatory are thanked in its acknowledgments for consultation "voluntarily supplied."[^16] The report records that "Prof. Hynek strongly believes that the teams should have four or more members" and recommends "giving each report what he calls the 'FBI treatment,'" meaning thorough interviewing and "an active quest in the neighborhood where the sighting occurred to try to discover additional witnesses."[^17] [[Philip J. Klass]], quoting a book by the Condon staff member [[David Saunders]], wrote that Hynek attended a secret meeting in [[Denver]] on 12 December 1967 with Saunders, [[Norman Levine]], [[Mary Lou Armstrong]] and [[James E. McDonald]], where, in Saunders's account, "Hynek wanted to create a visible group of qualified individuals who took the UFO problem seriously, so that in the event of a Congressional hearing, there would exist an organization to which the Congress could turn," and left early with a cold before McDonald raised the Low memorandum.[^18] Hynek's own log records attending a Denver meeting "unofficially, and at my own expense" on 13 December.[^12]
|
||||
Hynek briefed the University of Colorado's [[Condon Committee]] in its preliminary study; Hynek, [[Jacques Vallee]] and [[William Powers]] of the Dearborn Observatory are thanked in its acknowledgments for consultation "voluntarily supplied."[^18] The report records that "Prof. Hynek strongly believes that the teams should have four or more members" and recommends "giving each report what he calls the 'FBI treatment,'" meaning thorough interviewing and "an active quest in the neighborhood where the sighting occurred to try to discover additional witnesses."[^19] [[Philip J. Klass]], quoting a book by the Condon staff member [[David Saunders]], wrote that Hynek attended a secret meeting in [[Denver]] on 12 December 1967 with Saunders, [[Norman Levine]], [[Mary Lou Armstrong]] and [[James E. McDonald]], where, in Saunders's account, "Hynek wanted to create a visible group of qualified individuals who took the UFO problem seriously, so that in the event of a Congressional hearing, there would exist an organization to which the Congress could turn," and left early with a cold before McDonald raised the Low memorandum.[^20] Hynek's own log records attending a Denver meeting "unofficially, and at my own expense" on 13 December.[^12]
|
||||
|
||||
Zeidman wrote that within a few months of the start of the Colorado project Hynek told her he knew it had been decided that the findings would be negative, and that for years he "had understood that he was being kept out of the inner circle, that even with his high security clearances it was judged that he had no need to know what was really going on."[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -142,11 +142,11 @@ Representative [[Donald Rumsfeld]] introduced Hynek to the House Committee on Sc
|
|||
|
||||
### End of the consultancy and the Center for UFO Studies
|
||||
|
||||
An Air Force memorandum of 20 October 1969, with the signature block of Brigadier General [[C. H. Bolender]], states that Hynek "served as a scientific consultant until 1 July 1969" and recommends "not renewing the consultant contract."[^19] On 3 March 1969 Hynek, signing as director of the Lindheimer Astronomical Research Center, had written to Colonel [[George R. Weinbrenner]], commander of the [[Foreign Technology Division]] at Wright-Patterson, enclosing a "Preliminary Proposal for Subject Investigation," dated 14 March 1969, for a pilot study of reports of cars losing ignition and lights near luminous objects. The proposal cites "the potential military* and scientific value of this electrical damping phenomenon," with an asterisked note quoting an [[Associated Press]] report of 9 November 1957 that "a device capable of disrupting the operation of motor vehicles" was something the armed forces would like developed, while the chief engineer of the [[National Inventors Council]] said he knew of no research aimed at producing one. It states that Hynek had compiled "well over one hundred such reports," that a second phase "will and must" be entered into as a major effort "calling for the deployment of the best scientific facilities of the Air Force and its contractors," and that if the phenomenon is real "it is obviously in the national interest to gain an understanding of the phenomenon and its practical application before other nations, in which this phenomenon is also reported to occur, gain an advantage." It asks for "full and complete personal access by the Principal Investigator to Blue Book data of all degrees of classification," includes a consulting fee for the principal investigator, and states that the project should be "entirely apart from Project Blue Book."[^20]
|
||||
An Air Force memorandum of 20 October 1969, with the signature block of Brigadier General [[C. H. Bolender]], states that Hynek "served as a scientific consultant until 1 July 1969" and recommends "not renewing the consultant contract."[^21] On 3 March 1969 Hynek, signing as director of the Lindheimer Astronomical Research Center, had written to Colonel [[George R. Weinbrenner]], commander of the [[Foreign Technology Division]] at Wright-Patterson, enclosing a "Preliminary Proposal for Subject Investigation," dated 14 March 1969, for a pilot study of reports of cars losing ignition and lights near luminous objects. The proposal cites "the potential military* and scientific value of this electrical damping phenomenon," with an asterisked note quoting an [[Associated Press]] report of 9 November 1957 that "a device capable of disrupting the operation of motor vehicles" was something the armed forces would like developed, while the chief engineer of the [[National Inventors Council]] said he knew of no research aimed at producing one. It states that Hynek had compiled "well over one hundred such reports," that a second phase "will and must" be entered into as a major effort "calling for the deployment of the best scientific facilities of the Air Force and its contractors," and that if the phenomenon is real "it is obviously in the national interest to gain an understanding of the phenomenon and its practical application before other nations, in which this phenomenon is also reported to occur, gain an advantage." It asks for "full and complete personal access by the Principal Investigator to Blue Book data of all degrees of classification," includes a consulting fee for the principal investigator, and states that the project should be "entirely apart from Project Blue Book."[^22]
|
||||
|
||||
Zeidman wrote in 1991 that the researcher Brian Parks had obtained, through the [[Freedom of Information Act]], Hynek's record of employment as a Foreign Technology Division consultant from 1970 to 1974, "an executive appointment, beginning in April 1970, less than six months after Blue Book's official closure," working "only a few days each year," and that it was not known whether the work related to UFOs.[^21] She wrote that in October 1973 she drove Hynek from a small building at Wright-Patterson to Columbus, that he introduced her to a man in dress uniform who "may have been a major," that he "would not tell me anything about what he was doing at Wright-Patterson," and that on 26 December 1976 in his Evanston home he said: "It's very definitely connected with intelligence somewhere."[^21]
|
||||
Zeidman wrote in 1991 that the researcher Brian Parks had obtained, through the [[Freedom of Information Act]], Hynek's record of employment as a Foreign Technology Division consultant from 1970 to 1974, "an executive appointment, beginning in April 1970, less than six months after Blue Book's official closure," working "only a few days each year," and that it was not known whether the work related to UFOs.[^23] She wrote that in October 1973 she drove Hynek from a small building at Wright-Patterson to Columbus, that he introduced her to a man in dress uniform who "may have been a major," that he "would not tell me anything about what he was doing at Wright-Patterson," and that on 26 December 1976 in his Evanston home he said: "It's very definitely connected with intelligence somewhere."[^23]
|
||||
|
||||
His book [[The UFO Experience|The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry]] appeared in 1972, and in 1973 he started the Center for UFO Studies, serving as scientific director until his death in 1986 and naming [[Mark Rodeghier]] as his successor.[^2] Project 1947 states that the Center received most of the National Investigations Committee's files, that Hynek held a copy of the Blue Book microfilm, and that some reports he forwarded under his contract do not appear in the Blue Book files.[^4] Hynek appeared in a cameo in the 1977 film [[Close Encounters of the Third Kind]], on which he was a consultant, and questionnaires of the Center were available in theater lobbies.[^4][^22]
|
||||
His book [[The UFO Experience|The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry]] appeared in 1972, and in 1973 he started the Center for UFO Studies, serving as scientific director until his death in 1986 and naming [[Mark Rodeghier]] as his successor.[^2] Project 1947 states that the Center received most of the National Investigations Committee's files, that Hynek held a copy of the Blue Book microfilm, and that some reports he forwarded under his contract do not appear in the Blue Book files.[^4] Hynek appeared in a cameo in the 1977 film [[Close Encounters of the Third Kind]], on which he was a consultant, and questionnaires of the Center were available in theater lobbies.[^4][^24]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -165,10 +165,12 @@ His book [[The UFO Experience|The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry]] appeare
|
|||
[^13]: "Comments by Air Force Consultant, J. A. Hynek on Keyhoe's Article, January 1966 Issue of True Magazine," http://www.project1947.com/hynek/jah_dek_66true.htm.
|
||||
[^14]: Condon, Section V, chapter 2, pp. 898-899, quoting the Air Force press release on the Dexter and Hillsdale investigation.
|
||||
[^15]: Gerald R. Ford to Representatives George P. Miller and L. Mendel Rivers, 28 March 1966, with news release, Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers, Press Secretary and Speech File, Box D9, folder "Ford Press Releases - UFO, 1966," Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/sites/default/files/pdf_documents/library/document/0054/4525586.pdf.
|
||||
[^16]: Condon, Section II, p. 21, and Appendix W, "Acknowledgments," http://files.ncas.org/condon/text/sec-ii.htm and http://files.ncas.org/condon/text/appndx-w.htm.
|
||||
[^17]: Condon, Section II, "Summary of the Study," p. 24, http://files.ncas.org/condon/text/sec-ii.htm.
|
||||
[^18]: Philip J. Klass, "The Condon UFO Study: A Trick or a Conspiracy?" The Skeptical Inquirer 10 (Summer 1986), quoting David R. Saunders and R. Roger Harkins, UFOs? Yes! Where the Condon Committee Went Wrong (Signet, 1968), https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/1986/07/22165324/p42.pdf.
|
||||
[^19]: Air Force action memorandum, 20 October 1969, paragraphs 1 and 5, http://www.nicap.org/Bolender_Memo.htm.
|
||||
[^20]: J. Allen Hynek to Colonel George R. Weinbrenner, 3 March 1969, and "Preliminary Proposal for Subject Investigation," 14 March 1969, as hosted at http://www.project1947.com/hynek/jah_af_prop69.htm.
|
||||
[^21]: Zeidman, "I Remember Blue Book," final sections.
|
||||
[^22]: Siemons, "Time Capsule: A look at J. Allen Hynek," The Daily Northwestern, 7 March 2023.
|
||||
[^16]: U.S. House Committee on Armed Services, *Unidentified Flying Objects: Hearing,* No. 85, 89th Cong., 2d sess., April 5, 1966 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1966). https://archive.org/details/ufo_1966_1
|
||||
[^17]: Ford, Gerald R., letter and news release of March 28, 1966, Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers, Press Secretary and Speech File, Box D9, folder "Ford Press Releases - UFO, 1966," Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library. https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/sites/default/files/pdf_documents/library/document/0054/4525586.pdf
|
||||
[^18]: Condon, Section II, p. 21, and Appendix W, "Acknowledgments," http://files.ncas.org/condon/text/sec-ii.htm and http://files.ncas.org/condon/text/appndx-w.htm.
|
||||
[^19]: Condon, Section II, "Summary of the Study," p. 24, http://files.ncas.org/condon/text/sec-ii.htm.
|
||||
[^20]: Philip J. Klass, "The Condon UFO Study: A Trick or a Conspiracy?" The Skeptical Inquirer 10 (Summer 1986), quoting David R. Saunders and R. Roger Harkins, UFOs? Yes! Where the Condon Committee Went Wrong (Signet, 1968), https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/1986/07/22165324/p42.pdf.
|
||||
[^21]: Air Force action memorandum, 20 October 1969, paragraphs 1 and 5, http://www.nicap.org/Bolender_Memo.htm.
|
||||
[^22]: J. Allen Hynek to Colonel George R. Weinbrenner, 3 March 1969, and "Preliminary Proposal for Subject Investigation," 14 March 1969, as hosted at http://www.project1947.com/hynek/jah_af_prop69.htm.
|
||||
[^23]: Zeidman, "I Remember Blue Book," final sections.
|
||||
[^24]: Siemons, "Time Capsule: A look at J. Allen Hynek," The Daily Northwestern, 7 March 2023.
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ died: 1968-04-04
|
|||
location: "Atlanta, Georgia / Memphis, Tennessee"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
[[Martin Luther King Jr.]] (January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968) was a Baptist minister and civil rights leader who led the organized nonviolent campaign to dismantle legal racial segregation and secure political and economic rights for Black Americans. He is most identified with the [[Montgomery Bus Boycott]] of 1955-1956, the [[Birmingham Campaign]] of 1963, and the [[March on Washington]] of August 28, 1963, at which he delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. His assassination at the [[Lorraine Motel]] in [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]] on April 4, 1968 remains disputed: convicted assassin [[James Earl Ray]] recanted his guilty plea within days, and the [[HSCA|House Select Committee on Assassinations]] concluded that a probable conspiracy existed.[^1]
|
||||
[[Martin Luther King Jr.]] (January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968) was a Baptist minister and civil rights leader who led the organized nonviolent campaign to dismantle legal racial segregation and secure political and economic rights for Black Americans. He is most identified with the [[Montgomery Bus Boycott]] of 1955-1956, the [[Birmingham Campaign]] of 1963, and the [[March on Washington]] of August 28, 1963, at which he delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. His assassination at the [[Lorraine Motel]] in [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]] on April 4, 1968 remains disputed: convicted assassin [[James Earl Ray]] recanted his guilty plea within days, and the [[HSCA|House Select Committee on Assassinations]] found a likelihood of conspiracy in the assassination of Dr. King.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Civil Rights Leadership
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ The Birmingham Campaign of spring 1963 was the turning point of the civil rights
|
|||
|
||||
The March on Washington on August 28, 1963 drew approximately 250,000 people to the National Mall. King's address, improvising past his prepared remarks into the "I Have a Dream" sequence, became one of the defining speeches in American political history.
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]] and the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]], signed by President [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Lyndon Johnson]], represented the legislative achievement of the movement's core demands - though King continued organizing for economic justice, fair housing, and against [[Vietnam War|Vietnam War]] escalation in the remaining years of his life.[^1]
|
||||
The [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]] and the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]], signed by President [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Lyndon Johnson]], represented the legislative achievement of the movement's core demands - though King continued organizing for economic justice, fair housing, and against [[Vietnam War|Vietnam War]] escalation in the remaining years of his life.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### FBI Surveillance and COINTELPRO
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -48,25 +48,28 @@ Under [[COINTELPRO]] - the FBI's Counterintelligence Program - the bureau pursue
|
|||
- Providing derogatory intelligence to foreign governments when King traveled abroad
|
||||
- Attempting to replace King's leadership with more accommodating figures
|
||||
|
||||
King received the anonymous suicide letter and recognized its origin. He continued organizing. The [[Church Committee]] in 1975 found the FBI's targeting of King to be among the most extreme examples of COINTELPRO abuse and concluded that no criminal justification existed for the surveillance program's scale or its political targeting.[^1]
|
||||
King received the anonymous suicide letter and recognized its origin. He continued organizing. The [[Church Committee]] in 1975 found the FBI's targeting of King to be among the most extreme examples of COINTELPRO abuse and concluded that no criminal justification existed for the surveillance program's scale or its political targeting.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Vietnam and the Poor People's Campaign
|
||||
|
||||
King's public opposition to the Vietnam War, which he articulated comprehensively in his "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" speech at [[Riverside Church]] on April 4, 1967 - exactly one year before his assassination - deepened the conflict with the [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Johnson]] administration and with mainstream civil rights organizations that feared alienating the president. King framed Vietnam as inseparable from the struggle for economic justice at home, arguing that the war consumed resources needed for the antipoverty programs of the Great Society while disproportionately drafting Black men to fight.
|
||||
|
||||
In 1968, King was organizing the Poor People's Campaign - a planned encampment of impoverished Americans in [[Washington, D.C.]] demanding economic legislation - when he traveled to Memphis to support a strike by Black sanitation workers against the city government. He had spoken in Memphis on March 18 and returned on April 3. His April 3 speech at the Mason Temple, in which he said "I've been to the mountaintop," was delivered under threat of assassination; King was aware of specific threats against his life.[^1]
|
||||
In 1968, King was organizing the Poor People's Campaign - a planned encampment of impoverished Americans in [[Washington, D.C.]] demanding economic legislation - when he traveled to Memphis to support a strike by Black sanitation workers against the city government. He had spoken in Memphis on March 18 and returned on April 3. His April 3 speech at the Mason Temple, in which he said "I've been to the mountaintop," was delivered under threat of assassination; King was aware of specific threats against his life.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Assassination
|
||||
|
||||
On April 4, 1968, at 6:01 PM, King was shot while standing on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel. A single rifle shot struck him in the jaw and severed his spinal cord. He was declared dead at St. Joseph's Hospital at 7:05 PM.
|
||||
|
||||
James Earl Ray, a career criminal who had escaped from the [[Missouri State Penitentiary]] in June 1967, was arrested on June 8, 1968, at [[Heathrow Airport]] in London. A .30-06 Remington rifle, traced to Ray through purchase records, was found near a rooming house window above and across from the motel with a sight line to the balcony. Ray pleaded guilty on March 10, 1969, and was sentenced to ninety-nine years. He recanted the plea three days later and spent the rest of his life claiming he was a patsy in a conspiracy organized by a man named "Raul."[^2]
|
||||
James Earl Ray, a career criminal who had escaped from the [[Missouri State Penitentiary]] in June 1967, was arrested on June 8, 1968, at [[Heathrow Airport]] in London. A .30-06 Remington rifle, traced to Ray through purchase records, was found near a rooming house window above and across from the motel with a sight line to the balcony. Ray pleaded guilty on March 10, 1969, and was sentenced to ninety-nine years. He recanted the plea three days later and spent the rest of his life claiming he was a patsy in a conspiracy organized by a man named "Raul."[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
The [[HSCA]] (1979) concluded that Ray had fired the shot but that he "was not acting alone" and that his brothers John and Jerry Ray "may have assisted" in the planning. The committee found no evidence of FBI, state government, or foreign government involvement in a conspiracy, though it noted the FBI's COINTELPRO campaign documented a context of official hostility.
|
||||
The HSCA (1979) found that James Earl Ray fired the shot and "acted with full knowledge of what he was doing in the murder of Dr. King," and that his "Raoul" account was "not worthy of belief."[^1] It concluded that "there was a likelihood of conspiracy in the assassination of Dr. King."[^4] The committee found "substantial evidence to establish the existence of a St. Louis-based conspiracy to finance the assassination of Dr. King," and found it "highly likely that John and James robbed the Bank of Alton in Alton, Ill., on July 13, 1967," with [[Jerry Ray]] assisting in distributing the proceeds.[^4] It found that "no Federal, State or local government agency was involved" in King's death, and that "no private organizations or individuals, other than those discussed under section B" were involved.[^1] It found that the Department of Justice and the FBI "performed with varying degrees of competency and legality."[^1] It described the FBI's COINTELPRO campaign against King as, in the words of the 1975 Justice Department task force, "ultra vires" and "very probably" felonious, and the FBI's electronic surveillance of King from 1963 to 1966 as conducted "in a particularly abusive fashion."[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
In 1999, the King family brought a civil wrongful death suit against Memphis cafe owner Lloyd Jowers, who had claimed in a 1993 television interview to have been paid to arrange the assassination. The Memphis jury found for the King family, concluding that a conspiracy involving Jowers and "others, including government agencies" was responsible for King's death. The verdict - in a civil proceeding without criminal defendants - was disputed by the Department of Justice, which conducted its own review and found insufficient evidence of a conspiracy beyond Ray.
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Garrow, David. *Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.* William Morrow, 1986. Branch, Taylor. *Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963.* Simon & Schuster, 1988. Church Committee (U.S. Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities). *Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans.* Book II, Senate Report No. 94-755, 1976.
|
||||
[^2]: Sides, Hampton. *Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin.* Doubleday, 2010. House Select Committee on Assassinations. *Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives.* Government Printing Office, 1979.
|
||||
[^1]: House Select Committee on Assassinations, *Report,* H. Rept. 95-1828, 95th Cong., 2d sess. (1979), summary Findings II.A to II.E (p. 5). https://archive.org/details/reportofselectco1979unit
|
||||
[^2]: Garrow, David. *Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.* William Morrow, 1986. Branch, Taylor. *Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963.* Simon & Schuster, 1988. Church Committee (U.S. Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities). *Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans.* Book II, Senate Report No. 94-755, 1976.
|
||||
[^3]: Sides, Hampton. *Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin.* Doubleday, 2010. House Select Committee on Assassinations. *Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives.* Government Printing Office, 1979.
|
||||
[^4]: House Select Committee on Assassinations, *Report,* H. Rept. 95-1828, "Conclusion," pp. 371-373; Alton robbery, pp. 342-344. https://archive.org/details/reportofselectco1979unit
|
||||
[^5]: House Select Committee on Assassinations, *Report,* H. Rept. 95-1828, p. 405 (Task Force) and p. 436 (electronic surveillance, October 24, 1963 to June 21, 1966). https://archive.org/details/reportofselectco1979unit
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -1,16 +1,35 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- Olaf Johnson
|
||||
- Olof Jonsson
|
||||
- Olof Taga Jonsson
|
||||
category: "Psychics & Remote Viewers"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Psi
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
- RemoteViewer
|
||||
summary: "Swedish-born psychic who served as the receiver in Edgar Mitchell's mind-to-mind telepathy experiment during the Apollo 14 mission."
|
||||
location: "Sweden"
|
||||
location: "Chicago, Illinois"
|
||||
created: 2026-10-09
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-09
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: participant_in
|
||||
with: "[[Apollo 14]]"
|
||||
start: 1971-01-31
|
||||
end: 1971-02-09
|
||||
role: "Earth-side receiver in the Mitchell telepathy test"
|
||||
fn: 4
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
[[Olaf Johnson]] was a Swedish-born psychic who participated in [[Edgar Mitchell]]'s secret [[Mind-to-Mind Telepathy|mind-to-mind telepathy]] experiment during the Apollo 14 mission. Johnson served as the receiver on Earth, attempting to perceive the Zener cards that Mitchell was concentrating on from space.[^1]
|
||||
Olof Jonsson (also spelled Olaf Johnson; full name Olof Taga Jonsson) was a Swedish-born American citizen and psychic who was [[Edgar Mitchell]]'s Earth-side receiver in the [[Mind-to-Mind Telepathy|mind-to-mind telepathy]] test during the Apollo 14 mission, attempting to perceive the Zener cards that Mitchell was concentrating on from space.[^1] He died in [[Las Vegas]] on May 11, 1998 at the age of 79, a Las Vegas resident of 18 years, and the [[Las Vegas Sun]] described him as a former psychic adviser to [[Ferdinand Marcos]].[^2] The [[Chicago Tribune]] reported that he worked for nearly two decades as an engineer with the Chicago architectural firm of Schmidt, Garden and Erikson and remained in Chicago until 1980, that in the Apollo 14 experiment he "named the cards in the correct order about half the time," and that as a young man in Sweden he gave police a detailed vision of a series of murders.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
An article in the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] STARGATE files describes a pre-flight test that Mitchell arranged two weeks before launch with a Chicago drafting engineer named Olof Johnson: ten sessions of 25 cards, 250 guesses, about half or 125 reported correct. The article states that results for the six lunar sessions (150 guesses) were not yet reported.[^4] Mitchell told [[Cabinet Magazine|Cabinet magazine]] that the Earth-side group included "Olof Jonsson, who was a well-known public psychic in Chicago," and that Jonsson "told the press before we ever had a chance to look at the data."[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
|
||||
[^2]: "Prominent Swedish-born psychic Jonsson dies at 79," *Las Vegas Sun*, May 21, 1998. https://lasvegassun.com/news/1998/may/21/prominent-swedish-born-psychic-jonsson-dies-at-79/
|
||||
[^3]: "Olof Jonsson, Engineer, Psychic," *Chicago Tribune*, May 24, 1998. https://www.chicagotribune.com/1998/05/24/olof-jonsson-engineer-psychic/
|
||||
[^4]: Article, CIA Reading Room STARGATE files, CIA-RDP96-00787R000400040001-5. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000400040001-5
|
||||
[^5]: Fia Backstrom, "Private Lunar ESP: An Interview with Edgar Mitchell," *Cabinet*, issue 5 (Winter 2001-2002). https://cabinetmagazine.org/issues/5/backstrom_mitchell.php
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -37,23 +37,29 @@ President [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Lyndon Johnson]] appointed Helms as DCI in 1966, t
|
|||
|
||||
### The Warren Commission and ZR/RIFLE
|
||||
|
||||
When the Warren Commission was established in November 1963 to investigate Kennedy's assassination, Helms as DDP was the CIA officer most directly responsible for the ZR/RIFLE program - the CIA's ongoing assassination plots against Castro using organized crime intermediaries [[Johnny Roselli]], [[Sam Giancana]], and [[Santos Trafficante, Jr.|Santo Trafficante Jr.]] He did not disclose the existence of these plots to Commission investigators, despite their obvious relevance to the question of whether Castro-linked parties had a motive to kill Kennedy. The [[Church Committee]] found in 1975 that the CIA had withheld the assassination plots from the Warren Commission, and that this withholding had prevented the Commission from fully investigating a potential motive for retaliation.[^2]
|
||||
When the Warren Commission was established in November 1963 to investigate Kennedy's assassination, Helms as DDP was the CIA officer most directly responsible for the ZR/RIFLE program - the CIA's ongoing assassination plots against Castro using organized crime intermediaries [[Johnny Roselli]], [[Sam Giancana]], and [[Santos Trafficante, Jr.|Santo Trafficante Jr.]] Helms did not disclose the existence of these plots to the Commission. The [[Church Committee]]'s final report states that neither the CIA nor the FBI told the Commission about the CIA attempts to assassinate Castro, and that none of the testimony or documents the Commission received mentioned them.[^2] [[David Belin]], the Commission's counsel, wrote in 1975 that "[a]t no time did the CIA disclose to the Warren Commission any facts which pertained to alleged assassination plans to kill Fidel Castro."[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
The Church Committee's 1975 interim report states that Helms "failed to inform the Warren Commission of the plots because the precise question was not asked."[^4] Helms testified to the committee in July 1975. Asked by Senator Morgan whether he was charged with furnishing the Commission information from the CIA that he thought was relevant, he answered: "No sir. I was instructed to reply to inquiries from the Warren Commission for information from the Agency. I was not asked to initiate any particular thing." To Morgan's statement "if you weren't asked for it, you didn't give it," he answered: "That's right, sir." He said he did not recall being instructed, or deciding on his own, to cover the precise details of the Agency's operations with the Commission, and that his recollection at the time was that it was public knowledge the United States was trying to get rid of Castro.[^5] He said that [[Allen Dulles]] "was sitting right there" in the Commission's deliberations and "knew about this," and that he did not know what Dulles had said to the Commission about the plots.[^5] Book V records that Helms was the only CIA official who was both in contact with the Commission and knowledgeable of the AMLASH operation, although he would not characterize that operation as an assassination plot.[^5][^6]
|
||||
|
||||
The Church Committee's final report of 1976 states that why senior FBI and CIA officials permitted the Commission to reach its conclusion without all relevant information "is still unclear," and that "the possibility exists that senior officials in both agencies made conscious decisions not to disclose potentially important information."[^7] The House Select Committee on Assassinations reported that Helms indicated he did not inform the Commission of the anti-Castro plots because he was never asked to testify before it about operations, and stated in a note that it considered this an unacceptable explanation, since the Commission was unaware of the plots and could not make a specific request about them. The same committee stated that only Helms would have been in a position to have both the knowledge and the power to cover up the plots, and that it was satisfied, on the basis of its investigation, that it was highly unlikely he did.[^8][^9]
|
||||
|
||||
The CIA Inspector General's report of May 23, 1967 on plots to assassinate Castro, which according to its covering memorandum had been read only by Helms, the Inspector General and two of its authors, records that according to [[Desmond FitzGerald]], he discussed the planned October 29, 1963 meeting with the Cuban official code-named AMLASH with Helms, who decided it was not necessary to seek [[Robert Kennedy]]'s approval for FitzGerald to speak in his name.[^10] It states that "it is likely that at the very moment President Kennedy was shot a CIA officer was meeting with a Cuban agent in Paris and giving him an assassination device for use against Castro," and that "The AMLASH project was probably about as widely known within the Clandestine Services as any other project of a similar nature."[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
### Operation CHAOS Authorization and Records Destruction
|
||||
|
||||
In August 1967, Helms received President Johnson's instruction to determine whether foreign powers were directing the American antiwar movement. He tasked [[James Jesus Angleton|James Angleton]]'s Counterintelligence Staff with establishing the Special Operations Group that became MHCHAOS. He subsequently expanded the program under President Nixon's administration, approving Project MERRIMAC (domestic infiltration of antiwar organizations) and [[Project RESISTANCE]] (coordination with campus administrators and local police to compile dossiers on student organizations).
|
||||
|
||||
In December 1972, knowing that Watergate-related congressional investigations were expanding, Helms ordered the operational records of MHCHAOS destroyed. A partial cache of budget and administrative documents survived only because it had been misfiled in a different location. The records of MKULTRA, the CIA's two-decade human experimentation program using LSD and other substances on unwitting subjects, were destroyed in January 1973. Technical Services Division personnel destroyed them on the verbal orders of [[Sidney Gottlieb]]. Gottlieb testified that he was carrying out a verbal order from Helms in doing so, and Helms confirmed that the order was his.[^3] The Church Committee found that these records destructions had permanently deprived investigators of a complete documentary record of both programs.[^1]
|
||||
In December 1972, knowing that Watergate-related congressional investigations were expanding, Helms ordered the operational records of MHCHAOS destroyed. A partial cache of budget and administrative documents survived only because it had been misfiled in a different location. The records of MKULTRA, the CIA's two-decade human experimentation program using LSD and other substances on unwitting subjects, were destroyed in January 1973. Technical Services Division personnel destroyed them on the verbal orders of [[Sidney Gottlieb]]. Gottlieb testified that he was carrying out a verbal order from Helms in doing so, and Helms confirmed that the order was his.[^12] The Church Committee found that these records destructions had permanently deprived investigators of a complete documentary record of both programs.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Proposing and Protecting MKULTRA
|
||||
|
||||
Helms was the program's originator as much as its protector. On April 3, 1953 he formally proposed to Director [[Allen Dulles]] a program under Sidney Gottlieb for the "covert use of biological and chemical materials," arguing that "the development of a comprehensive capability in this field gives us a thorough knowledge of the enemy's theoretical potential" against "a foe who might not be as restrained ... as we are"; Dulles approved it as MKULTRA ten days later. Helms nurtured Gottlieb as his personal specialist and, bypassing the layers of command between them, dealt with him directly, embodying the conviction he later voiced in Senate testimony, that a clandestine operator "can't count on the honesty of your agent ... unless you own him body and soul." When the program needed a new charter in 1964 he agreed to rename it [[MKSEARCH]] on the condition that its substance remain the same.[^4]
|
||||
Helms was the program's originator as much as its protector. On April 3, 1953 he formally proposed to Director Allen Dulles a program under Sidney Gottlieb for the "covert use of biological and chemical materials," arguing that "the development of a comprehensive capability in this field gives us a thorough knowledge of the enemy's theoretical potential" against "a foe who might not be as restrained ... as we are"; Dulles approved it as MKULTRA ten days later. Helms nurtured Gottlieb as his personal specialist and, bypassing the layers of command between them, dealt with him directly, embodying the conviction he later voiced in Senate testimony, that a clandestine operator "can't count on the honesty of your agent ... unless you own him body and soul." When the program needed a new charter in 1964 he agreed to rename it [[MKSEARCH]] on the condition that its substance remain the same.[^13]
|
||||
|
||||
### MKULTRA Continuation and Psychic Research
|
||||
|
||||
Helms had approved continuation of MKULTRA through his DDP years and as DCI. He was aware of the program's scope, including the experiments conducted on unconsenting patients at Canadian psychiatric facilities under the direction of Dr. [[D. Ewen Cameron]] at McGill University's [[Allan Memorial Institute]] (Subproject 68), and the experiments using unwitting American subjects in safe houses operated through the Sexual Freedom Project in [[San Francisco]] and [[New York]].
|
||||
|
||||
Separately, Helms authorized and expanded the CIA's psychic research program based in part on assessments of Soviet parapsychology research. He approved testing of [[Uri Geller]] at [[Stanford Research Institute|SRI]] and the broader program that evolved into [[Project Stargate]]. His authorization reflected a characteristically pragmatic judgment: if the Soviets were investing in the capability, the CIA needed to assess whether it was real.[^2]
|
||||
Separately, Helms authorized and expanded the CIA's psychic research program based in part on assessments of Soviet parapsychology research. He approved testing of [[Uri Geller]] at [[Stanford Research Institute|SRI]] and the broader program that evolved into [[Project Stargate]]. His authorization reflected a characteristically pragmatic judgment: if the Soviets were investing in the capability, the CIA needed to assess whether it was real.[^14]
|
||||
|
||||
### Chile: Covert Action and Congressional Perjury
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -65,19 +71,19 @@ In February 1973, when Helms testified before the [[Senate Foreign Relations Com
|
|||
|
||||
### The Israeli estimate and the June 1967 warning
|
||||
|
||||
On May 25, 1967, Helms had the [[Office of National Estimates]] appraise an Israeli intelligence estimate within five hours. The appraisal stated: "We do not believe that the Israeli appreciation . . . was a serious estimate of the sort they would submit to their own high officials. We think it is probably a gambit intended to influence the US to do one or more of the following: (a) provide military supplies, (b) make more public commitments to Israel, (c) approve Israeli military initiatives, and (d) put more pressure on Nasser." [[David S. Robarge]], the CIA's chief historian, describes the Israeli paper as a [[Mossad]] estimate and writes that the Israelis may have been exploiting their special relationship with James Jesus Angleton.[^5][^6]
|
||||
On May 25, 1967, Helms had the [[Office of National Estimates]] appraise an Israeli intelligence estimate within five hours. The appraisal stated: "We do not believe that the Israeli appreciation . . . was a serious estimate of the sort they would submit to their own high officials. We think it is probably a gambit intended to influence the US to do one or more of the following: (a) provide military supplies, (b) make more public commitments to Israel, (c) approve Israeli military initiatives, and (d) put more pressure on Nasser." [[David S. Robarge]], the CIA's chief historian, describes the Israeli paper as a [[Mossad]] estimate and writes that the Israelis may have been exploiting their special relationship with James Jesus Angleton.[^15][^16]
|
||||
|
||||
On June 1, 1967, Helms's deputy, Vice Admiral [[Rufus Taylor]], wrote the memorandum of the conversation between Major General [[Meir Amit]] and Secretary of Defense [[Robert S. McNamara]], captioned "Personal and Eyes Only for the Secretary of Defense and the Director of Central Intelligence."[^7] Robarge writes that Helms met a senior Israeli official on June 1 who hinted that Israel could no longer avoid a decision, that the official left the United States on June 2, and that that morning Helms wrote an "Eyes Only" letter to President Johnson forewarning that Israel probably would start a war within a few days.[^8] Helms was awakened at 3:00 a.m. on June 5 by a call from the CIA Operations Center. He recalled that "in the midst of one meeting" during the war Johnson asked how accurate his intelligence on the progress of the war was, and that he answered: "It's accurate just as long as the Israelis are winning."[^6]
|
||||
On June 1, 1967, Helms's deputy, Vice Admiral [[Rufus Taylor]], wrote the memorandum of the conversation between Major General [[Meir Amit]] and Secretary of Defense [[Robert S. McNamara]], captioned "Personal and Eyes Only for the Secretary of Defense and the Director of Central Intelligence."[^17] Robarge writes that Helms met a senior Israeli official on June 1 who hinted that Israel could no longer avoid a decision, that the official left the United States on June 2, and that that morning Helms wrote an "Eyes Only" letter to President Johnson forewarning that Israel probably would start a war within a few days.[^18] Helms was awakened at 3:00 a.m. on June 5 by a call from the CIA Operations Center. He recalled that "in the midst of one meeting" during the war Johnson asked how accurate his intelligence on the progress of the war was, and that he answered: "It's accurate just as long as the Israelis are winning."[^16]
|
||||
|
||||
### NUMEC letter, April 1968
|
||||
|
||||
On April 2, 1968, Helms wrote to Attorney General [[Ramsey Clark]] asking that the FBI "initiate a discreet intelligence investigation of an all source nature of Dr. Shapiro in order to establish the nature and extent of his relationship with the Government of Israel," and asked that the letter be returned to him once the Attorney General had acted, because the subject matter was "so sensitive for obvious reasons." A twelve-line passage before the request remains redacted.[^9] The subject was [[Zalman Mordecai Shapiro]] of the [[Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation]].
|
||||
On April 2, 1968, Helms wrote to Attorney General [[Ramsey Clark]] asking that the FBI "initiate a discreet intelligence investigation of an all source nature of Dr. Shapiro in order to establish the nature and extent of his relationship with the Government of Israel," and asked that the letter be returned to him once the Attorney General had acted, because the subject matter was "so sensitive for obvious reasons." A twelve-line passage before the request remains redacted.[^19] The subject was [[Zalman Mordecai Shapiro]] of the [[Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation]].
|
||||
|
||||
### Israel: The "Open Pipeline" Assessment
|
||||
|
||||
Helms developed a personal conviction, disclosed to his deputies, that Israel was providing American satellite intelligence to the [[Soviet Union]] as part of an undisclosed intelligence exchange - characterizing Israel as "an open pipeline for pumping intelligence to Moscow." He never officially reported this assessment or commissioned a formal investigation, and he took no documented action on it. His reluctance reflected both the sensitivity of accusing an ally and the particular weight of any assessment that ran against the interests managed by Angleton's [[KK MOUNTAIN]] Israeli liaison program.
|
||||
|
||||
When President Johnson sought an intelligence assessment of whether Israel had manufactured nuclear weapons, Helms provided the estimate (four warheads) and then obeyed Johnson's instruction that the finding be buried rather than formally reported. Johnson did not want intelligence conclusions that would require him to act on them politically. Helms's willingness to suppress an accurate intelligence product at presidential direction exemplified the institutional failure the Church Committee later documented.[^10]
|
||||
When President Johnson sought an intelligence assessment of whether Israel had manufactured nuclear weapons, Helms provided the estimate (four warheads) and then obeyed Johnson's instruction that the finding be buried rather than formally reported. Johnson did not want intelligence conclusions that would require him to act on them politically. Helms's willingness to suppress an accurate intelligence product at presidential direction exemplified the institutional failure the Church Committee later documented.[^20]
|
||||
|
||||
### Iran, Retirement, and Memoirs
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -88,12 +94,22 @@ He published his memoirs, *A Look Over My Shoulder: A Life in the Central Intell
|
|||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Powers, Thomas. *The Man Who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA.* Knopf, 1979 (the essential biography, based on extensive interviews). Church Committee (Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities). Final Report, S. Rept. 94-755, April 26, 1976.
|
||||
[^2]: Church Committee. "Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders." Senate Report No. 94-465, 1975 (documents ZR/RIFLE and the failure to disclose to Warren Commission). Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis.* Little, Brown, 2017.
|
||||
[^3]: Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Final Report*, Book I, S. Rept. 94-755, April 26, 1976, p. 389 (MKULTRA records destroyed January 1973 on Gottlieb's verbal orders; Gottlieb testifying that he carried out Helms's verbal order; Helms confirming).
|
||||
[^4]: John D. Marks, *The Search for the Manchurian Candidate*. Times Books, 1979, Chapters 1, 4, 12.
|
||||
[^5]: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, vol. XIX, Document 61, Memorandum from Rostow to President Johnson, May 25, 1967, with attached CIA appraisal. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v19/d61
|
||||
[^6]: Robarge, David S. "Getting it Right: CIA Analysis of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War." *Studies in Intelligence* 49, no. 1 (March 2005). https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/static/CIA-Analysis-1967-War.pdf
|
||||
[^7]: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, vol. XIX, Document 124, Memorandum for the Record by Vice Admiral Rufus Taylor, June 1, 1967 (prepared June 2). https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v19/d124
|
||||
[^8]: Robarge, David S. "Getting it Right: CIA Analysis of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War." *Studies in Intelligence* 49, no. 1 (March 2005). https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/static/CIA-Analysis-1967-War.pdf For the June 1 to 2 meeting Robarge relies on published accounts, among them Michael B. Oren's, which rest on Amit's interviews and writings.
|
||||
[^9]: National Security Archive, "The NUMEC Affair: Did Highly Enriched Uranium from the U.S. Aid Israel's Nuclear Weapons Program?" (November 2, 2016), Document 8, Letter from Richard Helms to Ramsey Clark, April 2, 1968 (ISCAP Appeal No. 2013-062). https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/nuclear-vault/2016-11-02/numec-affair-did-highly-enriched-uranium-us-aid-israels-nuclear-weapons-program
|
||||
[^10]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy.* Random House, 1991. Chapters 11, 14, 16.
|
||||
[^2]: U.S. Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *The Investigation of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy: Performance of the Intelligence Agencies*, Book V, Final Report, April 23, 1976, p. 5. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94755_V.pdf
|
||||
[^3]: Book V, p. 73 (Belin memorandum to the Rockefeller Commission, May 20, 1975, p. 1). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94755_V.pdf
|
||||
[^4]: U.S. Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders: An Interim Report*, Senate Report No. 94-465, 1975, p. 269 and note 1. https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
|
||||
[^5]: Book V, pp. 70-72 (Helms testimony of July 17 and 18, 1975; testimony of 7/17/75, pp. 118-119, and 7/18/75, pp. 36-37). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94755_V.pdf
|
||||
[^6]: Book V, p. 69. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94755_V.pdf
|
||||
[^7]: Book V, p. 7. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94755_V.pdf
|
||||
[^8]: U.S. House of Representatives, Select Committee on Assassinations, *Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations*, 1979, Part I-D, p. 253 and note 8. https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/select-committee-report/part-1d.html
|
||||
[^9]: Same report, Part I-C, p. 128. https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/select-committee-report/part-1c.html
|
||||
[^10]: Central Intelligence Agency, Inspector General (J. S. Earman), "Report on Plots to Assassinate Fidel Castro," May 23, 1967, covering memorandum and pp. 88-89 (JFK record 104-10213-10101). https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/104-10213-10101.pdf
|
||||
[^11]: Same report, p. 94. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/104-10213-10101.pdf
|
||||
[^12]: Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Final Report*, Book I, S. Rept. 94-755, April 26, 1976, p. 389 (MKULTRA records destroyed January 1973 on Gottlieb's verbal orders; Gottlieb testifying that he carried out Helms's verbal order; Helms confirming).
|
||||
[^13]: John D. Marks, *The Search for the Manchurian Candidate*. Times Books, 1979, Chapters 1, 4, 12.
|
||||
[^14]: Church Committee. "Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders." Senate Report No. 94-465, 1975 (documents ZR/RIFLE). Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis.* Little, Brown, 2017.
|
||||
[^15]: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, vol. XIX, Document 61, Memorandum from Rostow to President Johnson, May 25, 1967, with attached CIA appraisal. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v19/d61
|
||||
[^16]: Robarge, David S. "Getting it Right: CIA Analysis of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War." *Studies in Intelligence* 49, no. 1 (March 2005). https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/static/CIA-Analysis-1967-War.pdf
|
||||
[^17]: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, vol. XIX, Document 124, Memorandum for the Record by Vice Admiral Rufus Taylor, June 1, 1967 (prepared June 2). https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v19/d124
|
||||
[^18]: Robarge, David S. "Getting it Right: CIA Analysis of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War." *Studies in Intelligence* 49, no. 1 (March 2005). https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/static/CIA-Analysis-1967-War.pdf For the June 1 to 2 meeting Robarge relies on published accounts, among them Michael B. Oren's, which rest on Amit's interviews and writings.
|
||||
[^19]: National Security Archive, "The NUMEC Affair: Did Highly Enriched Uranium from the U.S. Aid Israel's Nuclear Weapons Program?" (November 2, 2016), Document 8, Letter from Richard Helms to Ramsey Clark, April 2, 1968 (ISCAP Appeal No. 2013-062). https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/nuclear-vault/2016-11-02/numec-affair-did-highly-enriched-uranium-us-aid-israels-nuclear-weapons-program
|
||||
[^20]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy.* Random House, 1991. Chapters 11, 14, 16.
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -1,71 +1,235 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
created: 2026-05-17
|
||||
updated: 2026-05-17
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-09
|
||||
title: Robert Maheu
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- Robert Maheu
|
||||
- Robert A. Maheu
|
||||
- Robert Aime Maheu
|
||||
- Bob Maheu
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
- CIA
|
||||
- FBI
|
||||
- HowardHughes
|
||||
- HughesToolCompany
|
||||
- SummaCorporation
|
||||
- AntiCastro
|
||||
- OrganizedCrime
|
||||
- ColdWar
|
||||
- ChurchCommittee
|
||||
- Wiretapping
|
||||
- Watergate
|
||||
- HughesRebozo
|
||||
- Onassis
|
||||
- Sukarno
|
||||
- 1950s
|
||||
- 1960s
|
||||
- 1970s
|
||||
category: "Intelligence & Government"
|
||||
summary: "Robert Maheu was a former FBI agent who became the CIA's primary cutout for sensitive operations requiring criminal networks, recruited Sam Giancana, Johnny Roselli, and Santo Trafficante Jr. into the CIA's anti-Castro assassination program in 1960, and simultaneously served as Howard Hughes's most trusted executive managing his Nevada operations from 1966 to 1970."
|
||||
summary: "Former FBI agent who served as the CIA's cutout from 1954, approached Johnny Roselli for the 1960 Castro plots, and ran Howard Hughes's Nevada operations until his discharge in December 1970."
|
||||
born: 1917-10-30
|
||||
died: 2008-08-04
|
||||
location: "Waterville, Maine / Las Vegas, Nevada"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]"
|
||||
start: 1940-12-09
|
||||
end: 1947-07-24
|
||||
role: "special agent; resident agent at Waterville, Maine at resignation"
|
||||
fn: 7
|
||||
- type: contractor_to
|
||||
with: "[[Central Intelligence Agency]]"
|
||||
start: 1954-03
|
||||
role: "cutout recruited by the Office of Security on a $500 monthly retainer"
|
||||
fn: 8
|
||||
- type: represented
|
||||
with: "[[Stavros Niarchos]]"
|
||||
start: 1954
|
||||
role: "investigator and agent against the Onassis Saudi Arabian tanker agreement"
|
||||
fn: 16
|
||||
- type: reported_to
|
||||
with: "[[Sheffield Edwards]]"
|
||||
start: 1960-08
|
||||
end: 1961-05
|
||||
role: "approached Johnny Roselli at the request of the Office of Security for the Castro operation"
|
||||
fn: 27
|
||||
- type: participant_in
|
||||
with: "[[ZR RIFLE]]"
|
||||
start: 1960-08
|
||||
end: 1961-05
|
||||
role: "first-stage intermediary to Roselli, Giancana and Trafficante in the gambling-syndicate plot against Castro"
|
||||
fn: 30
|
||||
- type: represented
|
||||
with: "[[Howard Hughes]]"
|
||||
start: 1955
|
||||
end: 1970-12-05
|
||||
role: "alter ego and personal representative; managed the Nevada hotels, casinos and real estate from November 1966"
|
||||
fn: 38
|
||||
- type: contractor_to
|
||||
with: "[[Hughes Tool Company]]"
|
||||
start: 1966-11
|
||||
end: 1970-12-05
|
||||
role: "management services through Robert A. Maheu Associates"
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
- type: director_of
|
||||
with: "[[First Intercontinental Development Corporation]]"
|
||||
start: 1983-01-11
|
||||
role: "vice president and director, as listed by Cheri Seymour and in a 2016 FOIA request"
|
||||
fn: 52
|
||||
- type: investigated
|
||||
with: "[[Church Committee]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 1975-07-29
|
||||
end: 1975-09-23
|
||||
role: "testified July 29-30 and September 23, 1975, under a grant of limited immunity"
|
||||
fn: 50
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Robert Aime Maheu (October 30, 1917 - August 4, 2008) was a former [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] agent who became the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]'s principal cutout for operations requiring criminal network access and plausible deniability, most critically his 1960 recruitment of [[Sam Giancana]], [[Johnny Roselli]], and [[Santos Trafficante, Jr.|Santo Trafficante Jr.]] into the CIA's covert program to assassinate [[Fidel Castro]]. He simultaneously built one of the most unusual private intelligence and investigative operations of the Cold War era, serving as the personal operative of [[Howard Hughes]] and eventually running Hughes's Nevada casino and real estate empire as his alter ego from 1966 until Hughes's organization dismissed him in 1970.[^1]
|
||||
Robert Aime Maheu (born October 30, 1917, in [[Waterville]], [[Maine]]; died August 4, 2008, in [[Las Vegas]]) was a [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] special agent from 1940 to 1947 who, from 1954, ran a private investigation firm that the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] Office of Security used as a cutout for operations that could not be traced to the agency.[^1] In September 1960 he approached [[Johnny Roselli]] on the agency's behalf, and Roselli brought in [[Sam Giancana]] and [[Santos Trafficante, Jr.|Santo Trafficante Jr.]] for the CIA's plots against [[Fidel Castro]].[^2] From November 1966 to December 1970 he managed the hotels, casinos and real estate that [[Howard Hughes]] acquired in [[Nevada]], and the company that discharged him, [[Hughes Tool Company]], was the defendant in his libel action.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### FBI and Early Career
|
||||
### FBI service
|
||||
|
||||
Maheu was born in Waterville, [[Maine]], educated at Holy Cross College, and joined the FBI during [[World War II]]. He served as a special agent for several years before leaving the Bureau. He subsequently established a private investigation and consulting firm in [[Washington, D.C.]], Robert A. Maheu Associates, which he operated beginning in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
|
||||
Maheu was born in Waterville, graduated from the Waterville high school in 1936, and studied at [[Holy Cross College]] from 1936 to 1940, receiving a B.S. in economics. In September 1940 he entered [[Georgetown Law School]]. His Bureau applicant file records endorsements from [[Richard C. Durham]], assistant secretary of the [[Democratic National Committee]], and from F. Harold Dubord of Waterville.[^4] He entered on duty as a special agent trainee on December 9, 1940, a year before the United States entered [[World War II]].[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
His FBI background gave him established relationships with Bureau personnel and with the private intelligence and security network that former federal agents maintained in the postwar period. These connections made him valuable to entities - government agencies and private clients - that needed sensitive investigative and operational services conducted at arm's length from official structures.[^1]
|
||||
A loyalty form that Maheu later filed lists "April, 1942 to 1944, under cover assignment out of New York Office, FBI."[^6] He resigned as a special agent, effective at the close of business on July 24, 1947, while stationed as Resident Agent at Waterville. The Bureau's efficiency report notes a discussion of a change of his headquarters shortly before the resignation.[^7] The loyalty form gave November 1947 as the separation date; the Bureau's personnel file gave July 1947. In 1949 the Bureau recommended him for employment with the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, and in November 1951 he corresponded with the Bureau about future recommendations.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### CIA Cutout Operations
|
||||
The [[CIA Office of Security]] memorandum on Maheu records that after leaving the Bureau he formed a business, "Dairy Dream Products," that went bankrupt in 1952; that he then joined the Small Business Administration in [[Washington, D.C.]] as Special Assistant to the Administrator with the duty of Director of Security; and that he was forced to resign in February 1954 "because of political reasons," which the memorandum describes as backing the wrong political party in the election. He then set up Robert A. Maheu Associates.[^8] In January 1952 the Civil Service Commission had asked the Bureau to expedite his loyalty form for the post of Security and Compliance Officer at the Small Defense Plants Administration.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
The CIA used Maheu as a cutout for operations that required either criminal networks or plausible deniability that a CIA officer could not provide. Maheu's private firm status meant that CIA-directed operations could be conducted without a documented CIA connection; his organized crime and underworld contacts, developed through investigative work, gave him access to networks the CIA needed but could not approach directly.
|
||||
### Recruitment by the Office of Security
|
||||
|
||||
Before the Castro assassination operation, Maheu had conducted several sensitive operations for the CIA including bugging operations against foreign officials and investigations into individuals of intelligence interest. He had also conducted operations for other intelligence-connected clients, including the [[National Security Agency]]. His dual status - private investigator with documented government relationships - made him operationally flexible in ways that career intelligence officers were not.[^1]
|
||||
The Office of Security recruited Maheu in March 1954 through [[Robert H. Cunningham]], then chief of its Special Security Division, who knew him from their common FBI service and saw in him "a covert asset" for extremely sensitive cases. With the approval of the Director of Security, Maheu was offered $500 a month on the condition that he move into his own office and be on call. He rented desk space in a suite occupied by [[Carmine Bellino]], a former FBI agent and accountant.[^8] The [[Church Committee]] wrote that Maheu was "an ex-FBI agent who had entered into a career as a private investigator in 1954," that a former FBI associate of his in the Office of Security had arranged for the agency to use him in several sensitive covert operations, and that the purpose was that "he didn't want to have an Agency person or a government person get caught."[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### CIA-Mafia Anti-Castro Operation
|
||||
The Church Committee recorded the $500 retainer as ending after his detective agency became more lucrative, and recorded that the Office of Security's operational support chief had been Maheu's case officer since the agency first used him and that the two were close personal friends by 1960.[^9] Covert security clearances were granted to Maheu on August 16, 1954 for use in the Near East and on August 30, 1954 for use in the United States.[^10] The CIA [[Inspector General]]'s 1967 report, signed by [[John S. Earman]], records the same $500 monthly retainer and Maheu's later move of his personal headquarters to [[Los Angeles]].[^11] His clients in this period also included the [[National Security Agency]].
|
||||
|
||||
In August 1960, [[Sheffield Edwards]], the CIA's Director of Security, and his deputy [[James O'Connell]] briefed Maheu on the CIA's desire to recruit organized crime figures for an operation to assassinate Castro. Edwards and O'Connell's rationale for approaching Maheu was explicit: they needed someone with organized crime connections who could make an approach that would not be traceable to the CIA.
|
||||
### The Onassis contract, 1954
|
||||
|
||||
Maheu approached [[Johnny Roselli]], whom he had known through [[Las Vegas]] gambling circles, in September 1960. Roselli agreed to participate and arranged a meeting with [[Sam Giancana]] and [[Santos Trafficante, Jr.|Santo Trafficante Jr.]] Maheu handled the initial negotiations, communicating the CIA's operational requirements and providing the poison pills developed by the CIA's [[Technical Services Division]] for introduction into Castro's food or drink.
|
||||
In January 1954 [[Aristotle Onassis]] concluded an agreement with the Saudi Arabian government under which oil shipped by the concession companies would be carried in tankers of the "Saudi Arabian Maritime Company," a company controlling Onassis-owned tankers. The American ambassador reported on February 6, 1954 that [[Aramco]] and Pacific Western Oil had received letters quoting Article 4 of the agreement on January 31.[^12] On March 16, 1954 Robert L. L. McCormick, representing the Greek shipowner [[Stavros Niarchos]], met State Department officers, proposed that the Department suggest to National City Bank and the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company that they cancel their financing arrangements with Onassis, and asked that the Department of Justice be informed.[^13]
|
||||
|
||||
Maheu's role was that of a first-stage intermediary. Once the CIA-organized crime relationship was established, [[William Harvey]] replaced him as the agency's primary handler, working directly with Roselli rather than through Maheu. Maheu retained awareness of the program and some ongoing relationship with its participants but was no longer the operational manager after 1961.
|
||||
The Office of Security memorandum records that in July 1954 Maheu was engaged by "British shipping interests" to check on Onassis's activities in the United States, including technical coverage of Onassis's New York office, and that the principal was later learned to be Niarchos. Maheu conditioned his acceptance on doing nothing inimical to the United States and on passing any information of interest to the appropriate agency. His staff prepared a paper on the dangers of the Onassis arrangement to American trade; through contacts in the Foreign Operations Administration [[Harold Stassen]] read it at the [[National Security Council]] on June 22, 1954; Maheu briefed [[Scott McLeod]], Assistant Secretary of State for Security and Consular Affairs, who offered State communications and pouch facilities subject to [[John Foster Dulles]]'s approval; and Maheu briefed [[J. Edgar Hoover]] and Vice President [[Richard M. Nixon]]. The agency's Near East Division furnished him a communications channel, a pouch system and operational guidance from August 1954.[^14]
|
||||
|
||||
The Church Committee's 1975 investigation disclosed and documented Maheu's role in detail. He testified before the committee, confirming the CIA approach, the organized crime recruitment, and the poison pill operations. His testimony provided important corroboration of the program's structure and his role in initiating it.[^1]
|
||||
On September 24, 1954 Paul Gerrity of Maheu Associates called on McLeod and the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State [[John Jernegan]] with a file containing a statement attributed to Cotopadis on the negotiation of the Onassis agreement. Gerrity said that Niarchos had purchased the statement and photostats, that a second copy was held by the CIA in Washington and a third by Maheu, then in [[Beirut]], and that the papers should reach King Saud through [[Karl Twitchell]], who was in Jidda. Jernegan said the CIA should remain the channel.[^15]
|
||||
|
||||
### Howard Hughes
|
||||
A memorandum for the Director of the FBI dated October 14, 1954, records a telephone call from "former Special Agent" Maheu. He described Niarchos's effort to have Saudi officials abrogate the agreements with Onassis, who had been charged in a sealed indictment on October 13, 1953, said that Niarchos had bought documents from [[Spiros Catapoudis]] and the former agent [[Leo Turrou]] for $280,000 in cash, $50,000 of it Turrou's share, and that he had gone to [[Athens]] for his client, collected the documents and delivered them to Saudi officials. The memorandum states: "Maheu stated the United States Government is also interested in seeing that these agreements are abrogated."[^16]
|
||||
|
||||
By the early 1960s, Maheu had become [[Howard Hughes]]'s personal agent for sensitive operations. Hughes, who had been increasingly reclusive since the late 1950s and would become almost completely withdrawn from direct contact with the outside world by the mid-1960s, required a trusted intermediary for negotiations, investigations, and relationships that he would not conduct himself.
|
||||
The Church Committee recorded Maheu's testimony that, after consulting the agency, he arranged for a listening device to be placed in the room of the contract holder and that he publicized the contract's terms in a [[Rome]] newspaper he said he had purchased with CIA funds.[^17] [[Jim Hougan]] wrote in a [[Playboy]] article, summarized by the [[Washington Post]] in 1978, that the Niarchos operation had the knowledge and approval of the CIA and of Nixon. Maheu confirmed the basic elements to the Post. He said he "wouldn't take the assignment [from Niarchos] until I cleared it with the outfit," meaning the CIA, that he was then on a $500-a-month retainer from the agency, that the operation included an "unproductive" wiretap on Onassis's New York office, and that the agency helped his operatives in Rome. He called Hougan's allegation of an international conspiracy "a crock."[^18] Maheu's son Peter said in 2008 that his father had played a major role in scuttling the deal. [[Peter Evans]] wrote in *Nemesis* (1986) that after a meeting with Maheu, Vice President Nixon said: "And just remember, if it turns out we have to kill the bastard don't do it on American soil."[^19]
|
||||
|
||||
Maheu conducted investigations for Hughes, handled sensitive political negotiations, managed relationships with government officials, and eventually became the primary executive running Hughes's Nevada operations. When Hughes moved to Las Vegas in November 1966 and began his extraordinary acquisition of Nevada casinos and real estate, Maheu was the person who negotiated the purchases, managed the properties, and interacted with Nevada state government, the Nevada Gaming Control Board, and other officials. He served, effectively, as Hughes's alter ego - the public face of a man who had become entirely invisible.
|
||||
### Sukarno, the Happy Days film and other cutout assignments
|
||||
|
||||
The Hughes-Maheu relationship gave Maheu extraordinary operational range. Hughes's resources financed investigations and operations that Maheu conducted on Hughes's behalf, some of which had intelligence dimensions. Hughes himself had CIA-adjacent relationships extending back decades, and Maheu's work for Hughes brought him into contact with political figures, foreign officials, and business networks that overlapped with the intelligence world he had inhabited since his FBI career.
|
||||
In November 1957 a cable from Ciudad Trujillo alleged that Maheu had violated the Mann Act by procuring and transporting prostitutes for President [[Sukarno]] of [[Indonesia]] during Sukarno's 1956 state visit. Maheu told the Office of Security the allegations were without foundation, and Dominican officials retracted the charges; [[Edward Bennett Williams]] acted as his lawyer.[^20] A Bureau memorandum of April 10, 1964 records that Maheu had advised the Bureau on October 25, 1957 that the Dominican Republic was trying to blackmail the United States into dropping charges against John Joseph Frank by alleging that Maheu had furnished girls to Sukarno, and that Maheu and Frank had earlier been business associates.[^21] Hougan quoted [[Joseph Shimon]], a friend of Maheu's, that the agency "would call him up when Sukarno or Hussein was coming to town, and ask him to get some girls."[^22]
|
||||
|
||||
Maheu was terminated by Hughes's organization in December 1970, in a corporate restructuring that Hughes (or, critics argued, Hughes's increasingly isolated handlers) directed. The termination was acrimonious; Maheu sued Hughes and Hughes's organization over his dismissal and severance and obtained a substantial settlement. He claimed never to have spoken with Hughes directly during the years he ran the Nevada empire, conducting all communication through intermediaries.[^2]
|
||||
The Office of Security memorandum records that in fall 1956 Sukarno was reported to have had an affair with a Soviet woman in the [[Kremlin]] during a visit to [[Moscow]], that the Soviets were reported to have filmed it and sent a copy to the Indonesian Communist Party, and that in June 1957 [[Alfred Ulmer]] and [[Samuel Halpern]] of the CIA's Far East Division asked the Director of Security for a film simulating the affair, with clips to be inserted in a leaflet distributed through Southeast Asia suggesting that Sukarno was compromised by the Soviets. In July 1957 Maheu was given the assignment. He used a male employee of his organization (since deceased) and the man's fiancee, applied their make-up himself after an intensive make-up course, hired a studio where he was instructed in the use of lights and camera, and was alone with the two participants when the film was taken. The project, known as "Happy Days," was never completed and the film was not distributed.[^23]
|
||||
|
||||
### Later Career and Memoir
|
||||
The Church Committee wrote that at the CIA's request Maheu had arranged the production in [[Hollywood]] of a film purporting to depict "a foreign leader" with a woman in the Soviet Union, that the agency planned to circulate it as a Soviet production, and that the film was never used; Maheu testified that he located an actor resembling the leader.[^17] Hougan wrote that the film showed a communist leader "said to have been Yugoslavia's Marshal Tito" with a woman made to resemble a KGB agent, and that it was never released.[^24]
|
||||
|
||||
After his departure from Hughes's employ, Maheu remained in Las Vegas and continued private investigations and consulting. He cooperated with various historical investigations into the CIA-organized crime period and gave testimony before congressional committees.
|
||||
In 1958 the Far East Division enlisted Maheu in a second operation directed at Sukarno, which the memorandum calls HARPSTAR, to locate a female candidate for the purpose; Maheu and [[James O'Connell]] met an intermediary in New York in September 1958, and the memorandum records that the candidate met Sukarno but that the purpose of the mission was not fulfilled. In April 1959, during the state visit of King [[Hussein of Jordan]], the Office of Security asked Maheu on April 3 to arrange a party for the king in Los Angeles, which he did through an intermediary, and the office afterward rented a house on Long Island for the king's use in New York.[^25]
|
||||
|
||||
He published his memoirs, *Next to Hughes*, with journalist Richard Hack in 1992. The memoir provided his account of the Hughes years and his version of the CIA-organized crime anti-Castro operation, defending his conduct while acknowledging the program's extraordinary nature. He maintained until his death that the CIA-organized crime plots were legitimate operations conducted in response to genuine national security threats.
|
||||
### The 1960 Castro plots
|
||||
|
||||
He died in Las Vegas on August 4, 2008, at age 90 - outliving Giancana (murdered 1975), Roselli (murdered 1976), Harvey (died 1976), and [[William Harvey|Harvey]]'s CIA colleague [[Desmond FitzGerald]] (died 1967). He was among the last surviving witnesses to the original CIA-organized crime anti-Castro collaboration.[^1]
|
||||
In August 1960 [[Richard Bissell]] asked [[Sheffield Edwards]], then director of the Office of Security, whether the office had assets for a sensitive mission requiring gangster-type action against Castro. Edwards assigned the mission to the chief of the Operational Support Division, and the two decided to rely on Maheu "to recruit someone 'tough enough' to handle the job."[^1] The Office of Security's own account states that Maheu was briefed generally, was told that Roselli, whom he had met on several occasions in Las Vegas, was a high-ranking member of the "Syndicate," and was to present himself to Roselli as having been engaged by a client who represented international business firms suffering losses in Cuba.[^26]
|
||||
|
||||
The operational support chief testified that Maheu was at first reluctant because the operation might interfere with his relationship with his new client Howard Hughes, and that he agreed because he felt he owed the agency a commitment. The Inspector General's report states that Edwards and Maheu agreed that Maheu would approach Roselli "as the representative of businessmen with interests in Cuba who saw the elimination of Castro as the first essential step to the recovery of their investments," and that he "was authorized to tell Rosselli that his 'clients' were willing to pay $150,000 for Castro's removal." Rosselli said the cover story was developed after he had been contacted. The Church Committee noted that the evidence varies on the amount offered. Rosselli testified that he and Maheu met at the [[Brown Derby]] in [[Beverly Hills]] in early September 1960 and that Maheu told him that "high government officials" needed his cooperation; Maheu recalled saying that he had been asked by his government to solicit his cooperation. The Inspector General placed a meeting of Maheu, Rosselli and the support chief at the [[Plaza Hotel]] in New York on September 14, 1960. The support chief and Maheu each said that the other had raised Roselli's name, and Maheu had known Roselli since the late 1950s.[^27]
|
||||
|
||||
Maheu told the committee that Hughes telephoned him in Miami shortly before the November 1960 election and asked him to return to the West Coast, and that, not wanting to lose Hughes as a client, he "definitely told him that the project was on behalf of the United States Government." Maheu also testified that he was told the plan was one phase of a larger project to invade Cuba.[^28]
|
||||
|
||||
During the week of September 24, 1960 the support chief, Maheu and Roselli met in Miami. Roselli used the cover name "John Rawlston," and Maheu handled the details of setting up the operation and kept the support chief informed. Roselli introduced Maheu to "Sam Gold" and "Joe," who were later identified, from a Parade supplement that Maheu told the support chief to examine, as Giancana and Trafficante. Maheu recalled meeting Giancana after November 1960; other evidence, including FBI records of Maheu and Roselli's registration at the Kennilworth Hotel from October 11 to 30, indicates an earlier date. The Inspector General's report places Maheu and O'Connell at separate hotels in Miami during these weeks.[^11][^29] The Office of Security memorandum records that Maheu telephoned the office immediately on learning the two men's identities.[^26]
|
||||
|
||||
Edwards's memorandum of May 14, 1962, prepared after a complete oral briefing for Attorney General [[Robert Kennedy]], describes Maheu as "a private investigator of the firm of Maheu and King" and states that knowledge of the project was kept to a total of six persons. It records that Maheu and Rosselli proceeded to Miami toward the end of September 1960, that Maheu was introduced to Giancana, who arranged a meeting with a courier going back and forth to [[Havana]], that Maheu was paid part of his expense money during the periods in Miami, and that after the failure of the invasion of Cuba word was sent through Maheu to Rosselli to call off the operation.[^30]
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Technical Services Division]] prepared poison pills. Rosselli testified that at the Fountainebleau Hotel in Miami Maheu "opened his briefcase and dumped a whole lot of money on his lap" and produced the capsules. Maheu denied that this occurred and did not recall being present when the pills were passed, but recalled that the support chief showed him the pills in an envelope and told him they would be given to a Cuban; he described them as "five or six gelatin capsules filled with a liquid." Shimon testified that on a weekend in March 1961 Maheu said he had a "contract" to assassinate Castro and a "liquid" from the CIA, and later telephoned him to say "Castro's ill"; Giancana, according to Shimon, said that "Maheu's conning the hell out of the CIA." Maheu testified that the pills were delivered but that "the go signal" never came and that he had no involvement after the Bay of Pigs.[^31]
|
||||
|
||||
[[William Harvey]], whom Richard Bissell asked in November 1961 to take over the gambling-syndicate operation from Edwards, was introduced to Roselli in Miami in April 1962 and told him not to deal with Maheu or Giancana, whom Harvey testified he had decided were "untrustworthy" and "surplus."[^32]
|
||||
|
||||
### The 1960 Las Vegas wiretap
|
||||
|
||||
In late October 1960 Maheu arranged through the Florida investigator [[Edward DuBois]] for an electronic listening device to be placed in a room in Las Vegas. DuBois's employee, [[Arthur James Balletti]], installed a telephone tap instead. On October 31, 1960 a maid discovered the equipment, the sheriff arrested Balletti, and Balletti called Maheu in Miami, "tying Maheu into this thing up to his ear" in the words of the support chief, who called the episode a "Keystone Comedy act." Rosselli paid Balletti's bail.[^33]
|
||||
|
||||
The Church Committee found conflicting evidence on whether the agency was consulted. The support chief testified that Edwards had cleared a "bug" before the tap was installed, and that the CIA indirectly paid for it out of Maheu's retainer. Edwards's memorandum states that "neither the Agency nor the undersigned knew of the proposed technical installation," and the Inspector General accepted that the agency was "first unwitting and then a reluctant accessory after the fact." The support chief testified that Maheu told him a girlfriend of Giancana's was having an affair with the target and that Giancana threatened to fly to Las Vegas unless the room was bugged; Maheu substantially confirmed this. Shimon testified that Giancana told him he paid Maheu $5,000 for the tap, that the CIA had not known in advance, and that Maheu later used his CIA connection to avoid prosecution; Maheu testified that he did not recall being paid.[^34]
|
||||
|
||||
Edwards's memorandum records that Maheu reported Giancana had asked him to put a listening device in the room of Phyllis McGuire, reported to be Giancana's mistress, that Maheu passed the matter to Edward Du Boise, and that Maheu said Giancana "thought that Phyllis McGuire might know of the proposed operation and might pass on the information to one Dan Rowan, another friend of McGuire's." The Church Committee's version omits the names.[^30] A Hoover memorandum to the DCI of October 18, 1960 relayed, from "a source whose reliability has not been tested," that Giancana had said that Castro would be killed in November by a girl who would drop a "pill" in his food or drink. Rosselli testified that Maheu gave him two explanations for the tap: that Giancana suspected his girlfriend of an affair, and that Maheu wished to learn whether she was spreading word of the plot; Maheu gave the second explanation to the FBI.[^35]
|
||||
|
||||
On April 18, 1961 Maheu told the FBI that the tap involved the CIA and suggested that Edwards be contacted. A memorandum of April 24, 1962 from [[Herbert J. Miller]], Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, advised that the "national interest" would preclude prosecution, and after a CIA briefing of the attorney general the decision was made not to prosecute. The Office of Security memorandum states that the Department of Justice announced its intention to prosecute Maheu and that prosecution was dropped at the agency's request.[^35][^36]
|
||||
|
||||
Maheu later drew on this connection to avoid testifying before the Senate subcommittee chaired by [[Edward Long]] in 1966. The Inspector General recorded that Maheu "applied pressure on the Agency in a variety of ways, suggesting that publicity might expose his past sensitive work for the CIA"; the agency's general counsel [[Lawrence Houston]] met Maheu and his attorney [[Edward P. Morgan]] and informed Long that Maheu had been involved in CIA operations, and the committee did not call Maheu.[^35] The Office of Security memorandum states that Long was told the agency had used Maheu on a number of occasions but had never asked him to wiretap.[^37]
|
||||
|
||||
### Howard Hughes and the Nevada operations
|
||||
|
||||
The Ninth Circuit, describing the relationship from Maheu's testimony, wrote that Hughes first retained Maheu in 1954 or 1955, that Hughes "several times expressed his intention that Maheu would become his 'alter ego,'" that from 1961 through 1965 Maheu functioned as Hughes's personal representative at all levels of government, and that "Maheu had never had a face-to-face conversation with his employer. All communication was by telephone or written memoranda."[^38] The [[Los Angeles Times]] reported that Maheu caught glimpses of Hughes twice but never met him face to face.[^39] A CIA memorandum for the record of May 20, 1971 by a former agency employee states that Maheu did subcontract investigative work for Hughes during the early 1950s hearings involving Senator [[Owen Brewster]]; that "some time in the early 1960's Maheu closed his D. C. office, picked up Hughes as a sole client and moved to Los Angeles"; and that in 1962 to 1964 the author was working out "a nonofficial cover arrangement" with the Aircraft Division of the Hughes Tool Company in Culver City, in which [[Rhea Hopper]] was "the principle cleared witting official," and Maheu "was cut in as a pickup for insurance."[^40]
|
||||
|
||||
Hughes moved to Las Vegas in November 1966. Maheu contracted through his own company to provide management services for the hotels, casinos and other holdings that Hughes acquired, and he stated that he was to report on these matters directly to Hughes rather than to the executives of Hughes Tool Company. He testified that he was consulted on which political leaders should receive contributions and that Hughes knew of and approved all of them; by 1969 the cash contributions came from the [[Silver Slipper]] casino, which Hughes owned as a sole proprietorship. A Hughes memorandum to Maheu in the committee's files reads in part: "Bob, as soon as this predicament is settled, I want you to go see Nixon as my special confidential emissary."[^3] The [[Las Vegas Sun]] listed the purchases Maheu made for Hughes as the [[Desert Inn]], the [[Sands Hotel|Sands]], the Castaways, the Frontier, the Silver Slipper and the Landmark.[^19]
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities|Senate Watergate committee]] recorded that Maheu's telephone messages show a call on November 22, 1968 from Stephen Craig of President-elect Nixon's office concerning a campaign deficit, and that Maheu recalled being instructed by Hughes to arrange, through Governor [[Paul Laxalt]], the promised $50,000 cash contribution. [[Nadine Henley]] recalled that in early December 1968 Maheu requested $50,000 in cash from her for a contribution to Nixon, and on December 5, 1968 Maheu received $50,000 in $100 bills from the cage at the Sands. Maheu recalled flying to [[Palm Springs]] with Laxalt, waiting in a car at the home where Nixon was staying while Laxalt went in, and being told that Nixon's schedule prohibited a meeting; Laxalt recalled that Maheu contacted him about a campaign pledge made through [[Robert Finch]] and that he planned no Maheu-Nixon meeting.[^41] The committee found that "the evidence reflects that Maheu did receive $100,000 on December 5 and 6, 1968 (from the Sands and from Henley), the disposition of which has never been conclusively determined," and that Maheu, [[Richard Danner]], [[Peter Maheu]] and [[Charles G. Rebozo]] gave accounts of the two later $50,000 deliveries to Rebozo that did not agree.[^42] Rebozo testified that after Hughes left Nevada in November 1970 "and fired Maheu," he became apprehensive about the contribution; he returned $100,100 after the [[Internal Revenue Service]] contacted him in 1973.[^43]
|
||||
|
||||
### Discharge and the libel action
|
||||
|
||||
Hughes left the Desert Inn on Thanksgiving Eve, November 25, 1970, and flew to the [[Bahamas]]. The Las Vegas Sun reported that Hughes Tool Company executives then arrived in Las Vegas and announced the firing of Maheu, that Maheu claimed a lifetime verbal contract, that a Nevada judge ruled the tool company's proxy valid and its right to fire him, and that Maheu then filed a $50 million damage suit.[^44] Hougan titled his account of the departure the "Thanksgiving Coup."[^45] The Ninth Circuit gives December 5, 1970 as the date on which Hughes discharged Maheu, "thus ending a 14-year relationship"; the Washington Post's obituary stated that Hughes "had two other aides fire him in December 1970."[^46][^47] A CIA memorandum of May 1971 states that Maheu's contract with Hughes Tool was reported at $525,000 a year and that Maheu's suit sought $50 million for cancellation of his "lifetime contract"; it also records the account of an Intertel staff member that Maheu had instigated a recent [[Jack Anderson]] column on his Cuban role through his son Peter.[^40] In January 1971, in light of the suit between executives of the Hughes company and Maheu, the Director of Security recommended terminating all existing clearances with Maheu and Associates, and the DCI concurred.[^37]
|
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|
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On January 7, 1972 Hughes held a telephone news conference from [[Paradise Island]] to dispute the [[Clifford Irving]] manuscript. Asked whether Maheu had been fired on his orders and why, Hughes answered: "Because he's a no-good, dishonest son-of-a-bitch, and he stole me blind."[^46] Maheu sued for defamation; the Sun reported a libel claim of $17.3 million, and Hougan a claim of $50,000,000.[^44] Summa Corporation, successor to Hughes Tool, admitted that the statement was Hughes's and relied on the defense of truth, arguing that Maheu had taken money from a [[Tucson]] airport hangar lease, from the Silver Slipper and from Hughes's personal account.[^48]
|
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|
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In the bifurcated trial in the [[United States District Court for the Central District of California]] the jury found for Maheu on liability and awarded compensatory damages of over $2.8 million; Summa received about $48,000 on its counterclaims, and the court entered judgment for Summa of about $470,000 with accrued interest. The Ninth Circuit, in an opinion by Judge Duniway decided December 27, 1977 and modified January 12, 1978, held that the damages award was "based on inadmissible speculative evidence," called the projection of Maheu's lost earning capacity "sheer fantasy, nothing more," and found that the trial court's "one-sided characterization of Maheu came close to directing a verdict in his favor, thus denying Summa a fair trial." It reversed the liability verdict and damages and remanded: "We reverse in part and remand for a new trial." The court wrote of the case: "Much of the crucial testimony in the case is Maheu's recital of telephone conversations with Hughes to which no one else was a party, and of which no contemporaneous record was made."[^48] Judge Choy, concurring and dissenting, would have directed judgment for Summa, writing that Maheu "had taken over $74,000" intended for the Tucson lease payments.[^49] The Washington Post's obituary stated that Maheu "initially won a $2.8 million settlement from Hughes, but the decision was overturned."[^47]
|
||||
|
||||
### Church Committee testimony
|
||||
|
||||
The Church Committee took Maheu's testimony on July 29 and 30 and September 23, 1975. He invoked the Fifth Amendment when first subpoenaed and then testified under a grant of limited immunity.[^50] A dispatch of July 30, 1975 reported that he declared publicly that he had taken part in a CIA plot to poison Castro but that "the plan was always subject to a 'go signal.'"[^51] The Las Vegas Sun reported that he defended the scheme as an act of patriotism, saying the United States "was involved in a just war."[^19] The committee's report cites his testimony on the Saudi contract, the Hollywood film, the approach to Rosselli, Hughes's call, the wiretap, the pills and the end of his involvement after the Bay of Pigs.[^17]
|
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|
||||
### Later life
|
||||
|
||||
After the discharge Maheu remained in Las Vegas and established a new company, Robert A. Maheu and Associates.[^19] The Los Angeles Times reported that he became a real estate investor.[^39] [[Cheri Seymour]] wrote that he was vice president and a director of the [[First Intercontinental Development Corporation|FIDCO]], on a board roster dated January 11, 1983 that surfaced in a 2016 FOIA release.[^52] He published his memoir *Next to Hughes* with [[Richard Hack]] in 1992, in which, as the Times quoted it, he wrote of the Castro plots: "If anything went wrong, I was the fall guy, caught between protecting the government and protecting the mob, two armed camps that could crush me like a bug."[^39][^53]
|
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|
||||
He died in Las Vegas on August 4, 2008, at age 90, of congestive heart failure according to his son Peter; the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times gave Desert Springs Hospital as the place of death and the Las Vegas Sun gave Kindred Hospital.[^19][^47] Giancana had been murdered in June 1975,[^29] Roselli in 1976, Harvey had died in June 1976 and [[Desmond FitzGerald]] in 1967.
|
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|
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### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Church Committee (U.S. Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities). *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders.* Senate Report No. 94-465, 1975 (primary documentation of Maheu's CIA cutout role). Rappleye, Charles, and Ed Becker. *All American Mafioso: The Johnny Roselli Story.* Doubleday, 1991. Maheu, Robert, and Richard Hack. *Next to Hughes.* HarperCollins, 1992 (Maheu's memoir).
|
||||
[^2]: Drosnin, Michael. *Citizen Hughes.* Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1985 (based on Hughes's own memoranda, which Maheu's opponents obtained during litigation).
|
||||
[^1]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders: An Interim Report*, S. Rept. 94-465 (November 20, 1975), p. 74 (Maheu as "an ex-FBI agent who had entered into a career as a private investigator in 1954"; the former FBI associate in the Office of Security who arranged the agency's use of Maheu; "he didn't want to have an Agency person or a government person get caught"; operational support chief testimony, May 30, 1975, pp. 8, 158). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
|
||||
[^2]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders: An Interim Report*, S. Rept. 94-465 (November 20, 1975), pp. 75-77 (Maheu's approach to John Rosselli and Rosselli's introduction of Sam Giancana and Santos Trafficante). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
|
||||
[^3]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, *Final Report*, S. Rept. 93-981 (June 1974), ch. 8, "The Hughes-Rebozo Investigation and Related Matters", sec. I, p. 934 and n. 7 (Hughes's move to Las Vegas in November 1966; Maheu's contract through his own company; reporting directly to Hughes rather than to Hughes Tool Company executives; Hughes's approval of political contributions; Silver Slipper cash as the source of the cash contributions). https://archive.org/details/WatergateErvinCommitteeReport
|
||||
[^4]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, file on Robert A. Maheu, FOI/PA no. 1342370-0, applicant investigation, 1940 (born Waterville, Maine, October 30, 1917; high school graduation 1936; Holy Cross B.S. in economics; entered Georgetown Law School in September 1940; endorsements by Richard C. Durham and F. Harold Dubord). https://archive.org/details/RobertMaheu
|
||||
[^5]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, file on Robert A. Maheu, FOI/PA no. 1342370-0, personnel memorandum, "Entered on Duty - December 9, 1940," special agent trainee. https://archive.org/details/RobertMaheu
|
||||
[^6]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, file on Robert A. Maheu, FOI/PA no. 1342370-0, part 4, memorandum of January 3, 1952 (Civil Service Commission request to expedite a loyalty form for the position of Security and Compliance Officer, Small Defense Plants Administration; personnel file: special agent from December 1940 until July 1947, voluntary resignation; loyalty form: "April, 1942 to 1944, under cover assignment out of New York Office, FBI" and separation in November 1947; Bureau recommendation of Maheu to the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in 1949; correspondence of November 1951). https://archive.org/details/RobertMaheu
|
||||
[^7]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, file on Robert A. Maheu, FOI/PA no. 1342370-0, part 4, Boston field office, "Special Efficiency Report," July 24, 1947 (resignation effective at the close of business July 24, 1947; stationed as Resident Agent at Waterville, Maine; a discussion of a change of headquarters shortly before the resignation) and transmittal of June 25, 1947. https://archive.org/details/RobertMaheu
|
||||
[^8]: Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Security, memorandum, "Subject: Robert A. Maheu," undated, with Attachments A to C, NARA JFK Assassination Records record 104-10122-10141 (released March 18, 2025), p. 1 (FBI service from 1940 to 1947; "Dairy Dream Products" bankrupt in 1952; Small Business Administration; forced to resign in February 1954; Robert A. Maheu Associates; recruited by the Office of Security in March 1954 through Robert H. Cunningham; $500 per month; desk space in a suite occupied by Carmine S. Bellino). https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2025/0318/104-10122-10141.pdf
|
||||
[^9]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders: An Interim Report*, S. Rept. 94-465 (November 20, 1975), p. 75 (monthly CIA retainer of $500, terminated after his detective agency became more lucrative; the operational support chief as Maheu's case officer since the agency first used him; close personal friends by 1960; Maheu testimony, July 30, 1975, p. 6). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
|
||||
[^10]: Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Security, memorandum, "Subject: Robert A. Maheu," undated, with Attachments A to C, NARA JFK Assassination Records record 104-10122-10141 (released March 18, 2025), p. 2 (covert security clearances of August 16, 1954 for use in the Near East and August 30, 1954 for use in the United States). https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2025/0318/104-10122-10141.pdf
|
||||
[^11]: CIA Inspector General John S. Earman, "Report on Plots to Assassinate Fidel Castro," May 23, 1967 (Maheu's $500 monthly retainer; his move of personal headquarters to Los Angeles; Maheu and O'Connell at separate hotels in Miami; the Long committee), National Security Archive copy, https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/33578 ; original record 104-10213-10101, https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/104-10213-10101.pdf
|
||||
[^12]: U.S. Department of State, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952-1954*, vol. IX, *The Near and Middle East*, part 1, doc. 329, telegram from the Ambassador in Saudi Arabia (Wadsworth), February 6, 1954, pp. 786-787 (letters of January 31 quoting Article 4 of the agreement between the Saudi government and the Onassis company; the "Saudi Arabian Maritime Company"; Aramco's objection; the king's account of the royalty, training and flag provisions). https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1952-54v09p1/d329
|
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[^13]: U.S. Department of State, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952-1954*, vol. IX, *The Near and Middle East*, part 1, doc. 335, memorandum of conversation by Dorsey, March 16, 1954, pp. 795-796 (Robert L. L. McCormick for Stavros Niarchos; proposal that the Department approach National City Bank and Metropolitan Life Insurance Company; request that the Department of Justice be informed). https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1952-54v09p1/d335
|
||||
[^14]: Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Security, memorandum, "Subject: Robert A. Maheu," undated, with Attachments A to C, NARA JFK Assassination Records record 104-10122-10141 (released March 18, 2025), pp. 1-2 (July 1954 engagement by "British shipping interests"; technical coverage of Onassis's New York office; Niarchos as the principal; Maheu's condition that he do nothing inimical to the United States; paper read by Harold Stassen at the National Security Council on June 22, 1954; briefings of Scott McLeod, J. Edgar Hoover and Vice President Nixon; McLeod's offer of State communications and pouch facilities subject to John Foster Dulles's approval; Near East Division channel and guidance from August 1954; the agency identified in the Niarchos litigation). https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2025/0318/104-10122-10141.pdf
|
||||
[^15]: U.S. Department of State, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952-1954*, vol. IX, *The Near and Middle East*, part 1, doc. 367, memorandum of conversation by Jernegan, September 24, 1954, pp. 856-858 (Paul Gerrity of Maheu Associates; statement attributed to Cotopadis purchased by Niarchos; second copy with the CIA, third with Maheu in Beirut; proposed delivery to King Saud through Karl Twitchell; Jernegan's view that the CIA should remain the channel). https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1952-54v09p1/d367
|
||||
[^16]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, file on Robert A. Maheu, FOI/PA no. 1342370-0, part 4, memorandum for the Director (F. C. Holloman), October 14, 1954 (Niarchos as Maheu's client; Onassis's sealed indictment of October 13, 1953; Leo Turrou and Spiros Catapoudis; documents bought for $280,000 in cash, $50,000 of it Turrou's share; Maheu's trip to Athens; "Maheu stated the United States Government is also interested in seeing that these agreements are abrogated"). https://archive.org/details/RobertMaheu
|
||||
[^17]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders: An Interim Report*, S. Rept. 94-465 (November 20, 1975), p. 74 n. 4 (1954-1955 Saudi Arabian shipping contract; listening device placed in the room of the contract holder; Rome newspaper purchased with CIA funds; Maheu testimony, July 30, 1975, pp. 14-25; the film produced in Hollywood, operational support chief testimony, May 30, 1975, pp. 159, 162-163, and Maheu testimony, July 30, 1975, pp. 39-42). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
|
||||
[^18]: Charles R. Babcock, "Maheu Admits '54 Anti-Onassis Drive; CIA Reportedly Approved Anti-Onassis Campaign," *Washington Post* (1978), reporting Jim Hougan's article in the September issue of *Playboy*; CIA reading room copy, CIA-RDP81M00980R000600060037-0. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP81M00980R000600060037-0
|
||||
[^19]: Ed Koch, "His was the influence that backed Hughes' cash," *Las Vegas Sun*, August 6, 2008 (Peter Maheu on the Onassis contract; Peter Evans, *Nemesis*, 1986, as quoted; Maheu's testimony of 1975; *Next to Hughes*; the Desert Inn, Sands, Castaways, Frontier, Silver Slipper and Landmark purchases). https://lasvegassun.com/news/2008/aug/06/his-was-influence-backed-hughes-cash/
|
||||
[^20]: Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Security, memorandum, "Subject: Robert A. Maheu," undated, with Attachments A to C, NARA JFK Assassination Records record 104-10122-10141 (released March 18, 2025), p. 2 (cable from Ciudad Trujillo, November 1957, alleging a Mann Act violation in procuring prostitutes for President Sukarno during his 1956 state visit; Maheu's denial; retraction by Dominican officials; Edward Bennett Williams as Maheu's lawyer). https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2025/0318/104-10122-10141.pdf
|
||||
[^21]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, file on Robert A. Maheu, FOI/PA no. 1342370-0, part 5, memorandum, D. J. Brennan, Jr., to W. C. Sullivan, "Achmed Sukarno, President of Indonesia, White Slave Traffic Act," April 10, 1964 (Maheu's advice to the Bureau of October 25, 1957; John Joseph Frank; State Department inquiry; Ambassador Wilson C. Flake; "Maheu was in Bureau from 1940 to 1947 and resigned voluntarily"). https://archive.org/details/RobertMaheu
|
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[^22]: Jim Hougan, *Spooks: The Haunting of America: The Private Use of Secret Agents* (William Morrow, 1978), p. 278 (Joseph Shimon on agency requests when Sukarno or King Hussein visited) and p. 315 (a 1956 assignment of Maheu's associate Frank to obtain women for Sukarno's visit). https://archive.org/details/jim-hougan-spooks-the-haunting-of-america-the-private-use-of-secret-agents-1978-
|
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[^23]: Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Security, memorandum, "Subject: Robert A. Maheu," undated, with Attachments A to C, NARA JFK Assassination Records record 104-10122-10141 (released March 18, 2025), pp. 2-3 (information of 1957 on Sukarno's visit to Moscow in the fall of 1956; June 1957 request by Al Ulmer and Samuel Halpern of the Far East Division; July 1957 assignment; the male employee and his fiancee; make-up course; studio; "Happy Days" never completed, film not distributed). https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2025/0318/104-10122-10141.pdf
|
||||
[^24]: Jim Hougan, *Spooks: The Haunting of America: The Private Use of Secret Agents* (William Morrow, 1978), p. 279 (the film said to have shown "Yugoslavia's Marshal Tito"; "never released"). https://archive.org/details/jim-hougan-spooks-the-haunting-of-america-the-private-use-of-secret-agents-1978-
|
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[^25]: Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Security, memorandum, "Subject: Robert A. Maheu," undated, with Attachments A to C, NARA JFK Assassination Records record 104-10122-10141 (released March 18, 2025), pp. 3-4 (1958 Far East Division project directed at Sukarno; Maheu's meetings with James O'Connell in New York in September 1958; request of June 1959 and covert security approval of October 7, 1959) and Attachment A, pp. 6-7 (April 1959 party for King Hussein in Los Angeles; a Long Island house rented in April 1959). https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2025/0318/104-10122-10141.pdf
|
||||
[^26]: Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Security, memorandum, "Subject: Robert A. Maheu," undated, with Attachments A to C, NARA JFK Assassination Records record 104-10122-10141 (released March 18, 2025), Attachment B, pp. 8-9 (Bissell's approach to Edwards in August 1960; Maheu briefed and asked to find an entree among gangster elements; Roselli's introduction of "Sam Gold"; Maheu's call to the Office of Security on learning the identities from the Parade supplement; six pills; Orta; Varona; $10,000). https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2025/0318/104-10122-10141.pdf
|
||||
[^27]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders: An Interim Report*, S. Rept. 94-465 (November 20, 1975), pp. 75-76 and nn. (Maheu's reluctance because of his new client Hughes; the Inspector General's cover story, I.G. Report p. 16; $150,000, I.G. Report p. 16; Rosselli testimony, June 24, 1975, pp. 8-10, 16-17; Brown Derby meeting; "high government officials"; Maheu testimony, July 29, 1975, pp. 6-10, 58-60; the Plaza Hotel meeting placed on September 14, 1960 by the Inspector General). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
|
||||
[^28]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders: An Interim Report*, S. Rept. 94-465 (November 20, 1975), p. 75 nn. 1-2 (Maheu's testimony of July 29, 1975, pp. 7, 13, 22-23, 47: the plan as one phase of a larger project to invade Cuba; Hughes's telephone call shortly before the November 1960 election; "definitely told him that the project was on behalf of the United States Government"). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
|
||||
[^29]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders: An Interim Report*, S. Rept. 94-465 (November 20, 1975), pp. 76-77 and nn. (Miami meetings in the week of September 24, 1960; Rosselli's cover name "John Rawlston"; Maheu's handling of the details; Rosselli's introduction of Maheu to "Sam Gold" and "Joe"; the Parade supplement; the Kennilworth Hotel registrations of October 11-30, 1960; Maheu's recollection of meeting Giancana after November 1960; Giancana murdered June 20, 1975, p. 77 n. 2). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
|
||||
[^30]: U.S. Department of State, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. X, *Cuba, January 1961-September 1962*, doc. 337, memorandum for the record by Sheffield Edwards, May 14, 1962, pp. 808-809 ("a private investigator of the firm of Maheu and King"; knowledge kept to a total of six persons; Rosselli; Giancana and the "courier"; $150,000; the listening device in the room of Phyllis McGuire; Edward Du Boise; Balletti; Dan Rowan; Maheu under FBI surveillance; $10,000 for expenses; word sent through Maheu to call off the operation). https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d337
|
||||
[^31]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders: An Interim Report*, S. Rept. 94-465 (November 20, 1975), pp. 81-82 and nn. (Rosselli's account of Maheu opening a briefcase at the Fountainebleau Hotel, Rosselli testimony, June 24, 1975, p. 21; Maheu's denial and his recollection of being shown the pills in an envelope, Maheu testimony, July 29, 1975, pp. 40-41; Joseph Shimon testimony, September 20, 1975, pp. 6-12, on the March 12, 1961 fight weekend; Rosselli testimony, September 22, 1975, p. 5; Maheu testimony, September 23, 1975, pp. 14-15, 35-36, 42-45, 50: "five or six gelatin capsules filled with a liquid," the "go signal," no involvement after the Bay of Pigs). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
|
||||
[^32]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders: An Interim Report*, S. Rept. 94-465 (November 20, 1975), pp. 83-84 (Harvey's notes of November 16, 1961; early April 1962 introduction to Rosselli in Miami; "not to deal with Maheu or Giancana," "untrustworthy" and "surplus," Harvey testimony, June 25, 1975, p. 65; operational support chief testimony, May 30, 1975, p. 50). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
|
||||
[^33]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders: An Interim Report*, S. Rept. 94-465 (November 20, 1975), p. 77 and nn. 3-4 (DuBois; Balletti's arrest on October 31, 1960; "Keystone Comedy act"; "tying Maheu into this thing up to his ear"; Balletti's bail paid by Rosselli; operational support chief testimony, May 30, 1975, pp. 36-37, 67-68). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
|
||||
[^34]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders: An Interim Report*, S. Rept. 94-465 (November 20, 1975), p. 78 and nn. 1-3 (conflicting evidence on whether the agency was consulted; Maheu testimony, July 29, 1975, pp. 25-30, 37; Edwards's memorandum of May 14, 1962; the Inspector General's finding of an agency "first unwitting and then a reluctant accessory after the fact," I.G. Report p. 67; DuBois's $1,000 retainer; Hoover memorandum of May 10, 1962; Joseph Shimon testimony, September 20, 1975, pp. 21-23; Maheu testimony, September 23, 1975, p. 7). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
|
||||
[^35]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders: An Interim Report*, S. Rept. 94-465 (November 20, 1975), p. 79 and nn. 1-3 (Hoover memorandum to the DCI, attention DDP, October 18, 1960; Rosselli's two explanations of the tap, Rosselli testimony, June 24, 1975, pp. 47-48; FBI record of April 18, 1961; Edwards's advice to Maheu; Herbert J. Miller memorandum of April 24, 1962, "national interest"; Long committee, I.G. Report pp. 73-74; Lawrence Houston testimony, June 2, 1975, pp. 58-60). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
|
||||
[^36]: Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Security, memorandum, "Subject: Robert A. Maheu," undated, with Attachments A to C, NARA JFK Assassination Records record 104-10122-10141 (released March 18, 2025), Attachment B, p. 10 (technician arrested and taken to the sheriff's office; Department of Justice intention to prosecute Maheu; briefing of Attorney General Robert Kennedy; prosecution dropped at the agency's request). https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2025/0318/104-10122-10141.pdf
|
||||
[^37]: Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Security, memorandum, "Subject: Robert A. Maheu," undated, with Attachments A to C, NARA JFK Assassination Records record 104-10122-10141 (released March 18, 2025), pp. 4-5 (1966 inquiry of the Senate Administrative Practices Subcommittee under Edward V. Long; Long told that the agency had used Maheu on a number of occasions but had never asked him to wiretap; January 1971 recommendation of the Director of Security, concurred in by the DCI, that all existing clearances with Maheu and Associates be terminated in light of the suit between Hughes Company executives and Maheu). https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2025/0318/104-10122-10141.pdf
|
||||
[^38]: *Maheu v. Hughes Tool Co.*, 569 F.2d 459 (9th Cir. Dec. 27, 1977), as modified Jan. 12, 1978, Nos. 75-1306 and 75-2353 (Duniway, J.; Choy, J., concurring and dissenting; Wallace, J.), part I.B (Maheu first retained by Hughes in 1954 or 1955; "alter ego"; personal representative at all levels of government from 1961 through 1965; "Maheu had never had a face-to-face conversation with his employer. All communication was by telephone or written memoranda"; the Tucson hangar lease, the Silver Slipper incident). https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F2/569/569.F2d.459.75-2353.75-1306.html ; https://static.case.law/f2d/569/cases/0459-01.json
|
||||
[^39]: "Robert Maheu, Hughes confidant," *Los Angeles Times*, August 6, 2008 (as reprinted in the *Press Democrat*) (Hughes's public face from 1955 to 1970; opened an investigations firm in 1954; "caught glimpses of his enigmatic boss twice"; "I was the fall guy"; died Monday at Desert Springs Hospital, congestive heart failure, per his son Peter; later a real estate investor). https://develop.pressdemocrat.com/2008/08/06/robert-maheu-hughes-confidant
|
||||
[^40]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum for the record, "Robert D. Peloquin, President, International Intelligence, Inc. (INTERTEL)," May 20, 1971, signed John G. Southard, pp. 1-6, NARA JFK Assassination Records record 104-10122-10288 (released March 18, 2025) (Maheu's contract with Hughes Tool at $525,000 per year; suit for $50 million over a "lifetime contract"; early 1950s subcontract work in the Hughes-Brewster hearings; the early 1960s move to Los Angeles with Hughes as sole client; the nonofficial cover arrangement with the Hughes Aircraft Division, 1962-1964; Rhea Hopper; Edward P. Morgan; Jack Anderson and Peter Maheu). https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2025/0318/104-10122-10288.pdf
|
||||
[^41]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, *Final Report*, S. Rept. 93-981 (June 1974), ch. 8, "The Hughes-Rebozo Investigation and Related Matters", sec. III, pp. 939-941 (Stephen Craig's call of November 22, 1968; Maheu's recollection of Hughes's instruction and of Paul Laxalt; Laxalt's contrary recollection; Henley's recollection of the request; $50,000 in $100 bills from the Sands cage on December 5, 1968; the Palm Springs trip of December 6, 1968). https://archive.org/details/WatergateErvinCommitteeReport
|
||||
[^42]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, *Final Report*, S. Rept. 93-981 (June 1974), ch. 8, "The Hughes-Rebozo Investigation and Related Matters", sec. V, p. 960 ("the evidence reflects that Maheu did receive $100,000 on December 5 and 6, 1968 (from the Sands and from Henley), the disposition of which has never been conclusively determined"). https://archive.org/details/WatergateErvinCommitteeReport
|
||||
[^43]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, *Final Report*, S. Rept. 93-981 (June 1974), ch. 8, "The Hughes-Rebozo Investigation and Related Matters", sec. VIII, p. 1006 (Rebozo: "after Hughes left Nevada in November 1970, and fired Maheu"; return of the money in 1973). https://archive.org/details/WatergateErvinCommitteeReport
|
||||
[^44]: Tom Kinsey, "Hughes Vs. Maheu: Big Buying Spree Led To Battles," *Las Vegas Sun*, April 6, 1976 (Hughes's "abrupt and mysterious departure from Nevada on Thanksgiving Eve 1970"; arrival of Hughes Tool executives and announcement of Maheu's firing; Maheu's claim of a lifetime verbal contract; the proxy; the Nevada ruling for the tool company; Maheu's $50 million damage suit; the $17.3 million libel suit). https://lasvegassun.com/news/1976/apr/06/hughes-vs-maheu/
|
||||
[^45]: Jim Hougan, *Spooks: The Haunting of America: The Private Use of Secret Agents* (William Morrow, 1978), pp. 262-263 and 272 (the 1970 "Thanksgiving Coup"; Hughes's departure on Thanksgiving Eve; Maheu's "recapture" efforts; the January 1972 press conference; Maheu's $50,000,000 suit). https://archive.org/details/jim-hougan-spooks-the-haunting-of-america-the-private-use-of-secret-agents-1978-
|
||||
[^46]: *Maheu v. Hughes Tool Co.*, 569 F.2d 459 (9th Cir. Dec. 27, 1977), as modified Jan. 12, 1978, Nos. 75-1306 and 75-2353 (Duniway, J.; Choy, J., concurring and dissenting; Wallace, J.), parts I.B and II.A ("On December 5, 1970, Howard Hughes discharged Robert A. Maheu, thus ending a 14-year relationship"; Maheu's suit in Nevada state court to retain his position; Clifford Irving book; the January 7, 1972 telephonic news conference; Summa's admission that the statement was Hughes's; defense of truth). https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F2/569/569.F2d.459.75-2353.75-1306.html ; https://static.case.law/f2d/569/cases/0459-01.json
|
||||
[^47]: Matt Schudel, "Ex-CIA spy Robert Maheu was aide to Howard Hughes," *Washington Post*, August 2008 (as published in the *Bulletin*, Bend, Oregon, August 6, 2008, https://bendbulletin.com/?p=305462) (died August 4 at Desert Springs Hospital, Las Vegas; "never met the eccentric mogul face to face"; Hughes "had two other aides fire him in December 1970"; the Rebozo payment; "initially won a $2.8 million settlement from Hughes, but the decision was overturned"), and as reprinted by Kennedys and King, August 6, 2008, https://www.kennedysandking.com/obituaries/435
|
||||
[^48]: *Maheu v. Hughes Tool Co.*, 569 F.2d 459 (9th Cir. Dec. 27, 1977), as modified Jan. 12, 1978, Nos. 75-1306 and 75-2353 (Duniway, J.; Choy, J., concurring and dissenting; Wallace, J.), part II.A and part III (bifurcated trial; verdict on liability for Maheu; compensatory damages of over $2.8 million; Summa's $48,000 on its counterclaims; judgment for Summa of about $470,000 with accrued interest; "based on inadmissible speculative evidence"; "sheer fantasy, nothing more"; the trial court's "one-sided characterization of Maheu"; "We reverse in part and remand for a new trial"; the judgments filed December 23, 1974; reversal of the denial of punitive damages). https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F2/569/569.F2d.459.75-2353.75-1306.html ; https://static.case.law/f2d/569/cases/0459-01.json
|
||||
[^49]: *Maheu v. Hughes Tool Co.*, 569 F.2d 459 (9th Cir. Dec. 27, 1977), as modified Jan. 12, 1978, Nos. 75-1306 and 75-2353 (Duniway, J.; Choy, J., concurring and dissenting; Wallace, J.), Choy, J., concurring and dissenting ("Maheu had taken over $74,000" of the Tucson lease money; would direct judgment notwithstanding the verdict for Summa). https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F2/569/569.F2d.459.75-2353.75-1306.html ; https://static.case.law/f2d/569/cases/0459-01.json
|
||||
[^50]: Associated Press, July 1975 (Maheu "invoked the 5th Amendment when first subpoenaed" and testifies "under a grant of limited immunity"; two hours before the committee on July 29), CIA reading room copy, CIA-RDP88-01315R000300510069-1. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01315r000300510069-1
|
||||
[^51]: Joseph Volz, dispatch of July 30, 1975, CIA reading room copy, CIA-RDP88-01315R000300510064-6 ("the plan was always subject to a 'go signal'"). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01315r000300510064-6
|
||||
[^52]: Cheri Seymour, *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal* (TrineDay, 2010), on the board of the First Intercontinental Development Corporation; board listing of January 11, 1983 in a 2016 FOIA request to the FBI by Emma Best.
|
||||
[^53]: Robert Maheu and Richard Hack, *Next to Hughes: Behind the Power and Tragic Downfall of Howard Hughes by His Closest Advisor* (HarperCollins, 1992). Charles Rappleye and Ed Becker, *All American Mafioso: The Johnny Roselli Story* (Doubleday, 1991).
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -47,14 +47,14 @@ relations:
|
|||
start: 1984
|
||||
end: 1986-11
|
||||
role: "organized third-country Contra funding, an early advocate of the Iran arms sales, and led the May 1986 mission to Tehran"
|
||||
fn: 6
|
||||
fn: 7
|
||||
- type: prosecuted
|
||||
with: "[[Lawrence Walsh]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 1988-03-11
|
||||
end: 1992-12-24
|
||||
role: "pleaded guilty March 11, 1988 to four misdemeanor counts of withholding information from Congress; sentenced March 3, 1989; pardoned December 24, 1992"
|
||||
fn: 8
|
||||
fn: 9
|
||||
---
|
||||
Robert C. "Bud" McFarlane was a [[United States Naval Academy|Naval Academy]] graduate and Marine Corps officer who served as President [[Ronald Reagan]]'s national security adviser from October 1983 to December 1985. Before that he had been deputy to his predecessor [[William Clark]], counselor to Secretary of State [[Alexander Haig]], a staff member of the [[United States Senate Committee on Armed Services|Senate Armed Services Committee]], and military aide to [[Henry Kissinger]] when Kissinger was national security adviser to [[Richard Nixon]]. He commanded the first U.S. Marine battery to land in the Republic of [[Vietnam]], completed two tours, received a Bronze Star, and resigned from the [[United States Marine Corps]] as a lieutenant colonel.[^1] [[Lawrence Walsh]]'s Final Report records that under Reagan the [[National Security Council]] staff "at times became operational, taking on primary responsibility for the execution of the [[Iran]] and contra covert operations," and that McFarlane "did not shrink from the operational tasks that were of high personal interest to the President," delegating some of them to his deputy director of political-military affairs, [[Oliver North]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ On September 5, 1985 McFarlane wrote Hamilton that "at no time did I or any memb
|
|||
|
||||
### The Iran initiative, 1985 to 1986
|
||||
|
||||
McFarlane and Casey were, in Walsh's words, "the chief advocates of weapons sales to Iran in exchange for the release of American hostages." In spring 1985 McFarlane sent the NSC consultant [[Michael Ledeen]] to Israel; Ledeen testified they had "an understanding that neither of us would keep anything in writing." Ledeen met Prime Minister [[Shimon Peres]] on May 3, 1985. On June 17, 1985 McFarlane circulated a draft National Security Decision Directive recommending the sale of military equipment to Iran; Shultz and Secretary of Defense [[Caspar Weinberger]] opposed it and Casey endorsed it. The Final Report's overall conclusions state that the Iran operations were carried out with the knowledge of Reagan, Bush, Shultz, Weinberger, Casey, McFarlane and Poindexter, of whom only Weinberger and Shultz dissented.[^6][^1][^5]
|
||||
McFarlane and Casey were, in Walsh's words, "the chief advocates of weapons sales to Iran in exchange for the release of American hostages." Walsh wrote that McFarlane "apparently played no role in approving or implementing the Iran/contra diversion."[^6] In spring 1985 McFarlane sent the NSC consultant [[Michael Ledeen]] to Israel; Ledeen testified they had "an understanding that neither of us would keep anything in writing." Ledeen met Prime Minister [[Shimon Peres]] on May 3, 1985. On June 17, 1985 McFarlane circulated a draft National Security Decision Directive recommending the sale of military equipment to Iran; Shultz and Secretary of Defense [[Caspar Weinberger]] opposed it and Casey endorsed it. The Final Report's overall conclusions state that the Iran operations were carried out with the knowledge of Reagan, Bush, Shultz, Weinberger, Casey, McFarlane and Poindexter, of whom only Weinberger and Shultz dissented.[^1][^5][^7]
|
||||
|
||||
On July 3, 1985 [[David Kimche]], director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, met McFarlane in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]]. McFarlane's recollection was that there was no request for arms and no linkage to the hostages, though Kimche mentioned that arms might be raised later, and that Reagan then approved a political dialogue. On August 2, 1985 Kimche asked, "What if Israel were to deliver the TOWs, not the United States, would that be different?" McFarlane testified that Reagan "decided that he would approve Israel's delivery of ... TOW missiles, and that if Israel came to us to purchase replacements they could do that." Israel shipped 96 TOW missiles on August 20, 1985 and 408 on September 14, 1985, the day the Reverend Benjamin Weir was released.[^1][^5] Walsh found that McFarlane "stood alone" in insisting that Reagan had approved the earliest sales and the replenishment, and that "it was only after contemporary notes recording the events in question were discovered late in Independent Counsel's investigation" (notes of [[Charles Hill]], Weinberger and Chief of Staff [[Donald Regan]] obtained in 1990, 1991 and 1992) that much of what he said could be verified.[^1] Weinberger's notes of a December 7, 1985 White House meeting record his objection that the U.S. embargo made such a sale illegal even through Israel.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -84,19 +84,21 @@ McFarlane resigned on December 4, 1985; Reagan told reporters he would be "calli
|
|||
|
||||
### Exposure, plea and pardon
|
||||
|
||||
After the Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa published the story on November 3, 1986, McFarlane publicly called the reports "fanciful" on November 6. On November 8, 1986 he sent North a PROFs message with the subject "Audit trail": "I hope to daylights that someone has been purging the [intelligence] files on this episode."[^1] In February 1987 he was taken to a hospital after an overdose of Valium the day before he was due to testify to the [[Tower Commission]]; Walsh records that he attempted suicide in February 1987 and that the Independent Counsel weighed it when deciding on a plea.[^1][^7]
|
||||
After the Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa published the story on November 3, 1986, McFarlane publicly called the reports "fanciful" on November 6. On November 8, 1986 he sent North a PROFs message with the subject "Audit trail": "I hope to daylights that someone has been purging the [intelligence] files on this episode."[^1] In February 1987 he was taken to a hospital after an overdose of Valium the day before he was due to testify to the [[Tower Commission]]; Walsh records that he attempted suicide in February 1987 and that the Independent Counsel weighed it when deciding on a plea.[^1][^8]
|
||||
|
||||
On March 11, 1988 McFarlane pleaded guilty to four misdemeanors of unlawfully withholding information from Congress: his September 5, 1985 reply to Hamilton, his September 12, 1985 reply to Barnes, his October 7, 1985 response to Hamilton's questions, and his December 8, 1986 testimony to the [[House Committee on Foreign Affairs|House Foreign Affairs Committee]] that third-country financing was "beyond my ken." He agreed to cooperate, was named an unindicted co-conspirator in Count One of the March 1988 indictment of Poindexter, North, [[Richard Secord]] and [[Albert Hakim]], and on March 3, 1989 was sentenced to two years' probation, 200 hours of community service and a $20,000 fine. The Independent Counsel gave up felony charges of conspiracy, false statements and obstruction in the plea, and wrote that the prosecution of North and Poindexter "would be seriously hampered by the jury's realization that McFarlane, their superior, had been permitted to plead guilty to crimes less severe than those for which his subordinates were on trial."[^1][^8] After he testified in 1991 that his trial testimony had been "colored" by North's immunized testimony, the Independent Counsel consented to the dismissal of the remaining charges against North.[^9] President George H.W. Bush pardoned McFarlane on December 24, 1992, with Caspar Weinberger, [[Elliott Abrams]], [[Duane Clarridge]], [[Clair George]] and [[Alan Fiers]].[^8]
|
||||
On March 11, 1988 McFarlane pleaded guilty to four misdemeanors of unlawfully withholding information from Congress: his September 5, 1985 reply to Hamilton, his September 12, 1985 reply to Barnes, his October 7, 1985 response to Hamilton's questions, and his December 8, 1986 testimony to the [[House Committee on Foreign Affairs|House Foreign Affairs Committee]] that third-country financing was "beyond my ken." He agreed to cooperate, was named an unindicted co-conspirator in Count One of the March 1988 indictment of Poindexter, North, [[Richard Secord]] and [[Albert Hakim]], and on March 3, 1989 was sentenced to two years' probation, 200 hours of community service and a $20,000 fine. The Independent Counsel gave up felony charges of conspiracy, false statements and obstruction in the plea, and wrote that the prosecution of North and Poindexter "would be seriously hampered by the jury's realization that McFarlane, their superior, had been permitted to plead guilty to crimes less severe than those for which his subordinates were on trial."[^1][^9] After he testified in 1991 that his trial testimony had been "colored" by North's immunized testimony, the Independent Counsel consented to the dismissal of the remaining charges against North.[^10] President George H.W. Bush pardoned McFarlane on December 24, 1992, with Caspar Weinberger, [[Elliott Abrams]], [[Duane Clarridge]], [[Clair George]] and [[Alan Fiers]].[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
McFarlane died on May 12, 2022, at a hospital in Lansing, Michigan, aged 84; his son Scott McFarlane said the cause was an exacerbation of a lung condition.[^7]
|
||||
McFarlane died on May 12, 2022, at a hospital in Lansing, Michigan, aged 84; his son Scott McFarlane said the cause was an exacerbation of a lung condition.[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Walsh, Lawrence E. *Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters*, vol. I (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Division for the Purpose of Appointing Independent Counsels, August 4, 1993), ch. 1, "United States v. Robert C. McFarlane" (citing McFarlane, North trial testimony, March 10 to 16, 1989; Select Committees testimony, May 11 to 13, 1987; SSCI testimony, December 7, 1986; NSPG minutes, June 25, 1984; Hill, Weinberger and Regan notes). https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_01.htm
|
||||
[^2]: Brinkley, Joel, and Stephen Engelberg, eds. *Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, with the Minority Views*, abridged edition (New York: Times Books/Random House, 1988), "Iran-Contra Chronology," entry for February 21, 1984. https://archive.org/details/reportofcongres00unit
|
||||
[^3]: Walsh, *Final Report*, vol. I, Part I, "The Funding Cut-Off," quoting the Boland Amendment of October 1984. https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/part_i.htm
|
||||
[^4]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998, ch. 10, "Teach a man a craft and he's liable to practice it."
|
||||
[^5]: Brinkley and Engelberg, eds., *Report of the Congressional Committees*, "Iran-Contra Chronology," entries for February 1985, May 3, June 17, July to September 1985, December 4 to 8, 1985. https://archive.org/details/reportofcongres00unit
|
||||
[^6]: Walsh, *Final Report*, vol. I, Executive Summary, "Overall Conclusions." https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/execsum.htm
|
||||
[^7]: "Robert 'Bud' McFarlane, Reagan national security adviser, dies at 84." Associated Press, May 13, 2022. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/05/13/nation/robert-bud-mcfarlane-reagan-national-security-adviser-dies-84
|
||||
[^8]: Walsh, *Final Report*, vol. I, "Summary of Prosecutions" and ch. 1, section "The Guilty Plea." https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/summpros.htm
|
||||
[^9]: Walsh, *Final Report*, vol. I, ch. 2, "United States v. Oliver L. North," section on the dismissal of September 16, 1991. https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_02.htm
|
||||
[^6]: Walsh, *Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters,* vol. I, part II. https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/part_ii.htm
|
||||
[^7]: Walsh, *Final Report*, vol. I, Executive Summary, "Overall Conclusions." https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/execsum.htm
|
||||
[^8]: "Robert 'Bud' McFarlane, Reagan national security adviser, dies at 84." Associated Press, May 13, 2022. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/05/13/nation/robert-bud-mcfarlane-reagan-national-security-adviser-dies-84
|
||||
[^9]: Walsh, *Final Report*, vol. I, "Summary of Prosecutions" and ch. 1, section "The Guilty Plea." https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/summpros.htm
|
||||
[^10]: Walsh, *Final Report*, vol. I, ch. 2, "United States v. Oliver L. North," section on the dismissal of September 16, 1991. https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_02.htm
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -1,63 +1,237 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
created: 2026-05-15
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-21
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-09
|
||||
title: William Harvey
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- Bill Harvey
|
||||
- William Harvey
|
||||
- William King Harvey
|
||||
- William K. Harvey
|
||||
- Harvey
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
- CIA
|
||||
- ColdWar
|
||||
- BerlinBase
|
||||
- BerlinTunnel
|
||||
- Assassination
|
||||
- ZRRIFLE
|
||||
- AntiCastro
|
||||
- OperationMongoose
|
||||
- ChurchCommittee
|
||||
category: "Intelligence & Government"
|
||||
summary: "CIA chief of Berlin base who built the Berlin tunnel, then ran Staff D and ZR/RIFLE, took over Johnny Roselli and the Castro plots in 1962, and was sent to Rome by Robert Kennedy."
|
||||
summary: "CIA Berlin base chief who helped build the Berlin tunnel, then ran ZR/RIFLE, Task Force W and the Roselli contact in the Castro plots before taking the Rome station in 1963."
|
||||
born: 1915-09-13
|
||||
died: 1976-06-09
|
||||
location: "Washington, D.C. / Berlin / Rome"
|
||||
location: "Danville, Indiana / Washington, D.C. / Berlin / Rome / Indianapolis"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]"
|
||||
start: 1940
|
||||
end: 1947
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Central Intelligence Agency]]"
|
||||
start: 1947
|
||||
end: 1967
|
||||
role: "officer; retired in 1967"
|
||||
fn: 4
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Berlin Operating Base]]"
|
||||
role: "chief, CIA Berlin Operating Base"
|
||||
start: 1952
|
||||
end: 1958
|
||||
fn: 7
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Task Force W]]"
|
||||
role: "chief of the CIA component of Operation Mongoose"
|
||||
start: 1962
|
||||
end: 1963
|
||||
fn: 18
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[CIA Rome Station]]"
|
||||
role: "chief of station"
|
||||
start: 1963
|
||||
fn: 35
|
||||
- type: participant_in
|
||||
with: "[[Operation Gold]]"
|
||||
role: "Berlin base chief running the tunnel with MI6"
|
||||
start: 1953
|
||||
end: 1956
|
||||
fn: 7
|
||||
- type: participant_in
|
||||
with: "[[ZR RIFLE]]"
|
||||
role: "supervised the executive action capability"
|
||||
start: 1961
|
||||
fn: 15
|
||||
- type: participant_in
|
||||
with: "[[Operation Mongoose]]"
|
||||
role: "CIA project officer and representative"
|
||||
start: 1962
|
||||
fn: 22
|
||||
- type: reported_to
|
||||
with: "[[Richard Bissell]]"
|
||||
start: 1961
|
||||
end: 1962
|
||||
fn: 15
|
||||
- type: reported_to
|
||||
with: "[[Richard Helms]]"
|
||||
start: 1962
|
||||
fn: 24
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Bobbs-Merrill]]"
|
||||
role: "law editor"
|
||||
end: 1976
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
- type: investigated
|
||||
with: "[[Church Committee]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 1975
|
||||
fn: 15
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
William King Harvey (September 13, 1915 - June 9, 1976) was one of the most operationally significant officers of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]'s early decades, responsible for the Berlin Tunnel (Operation Gold), the CIA's assassination planning infrastructure (ZR/RIFLE), and the joint CIA-mafia anti-Castro operations of the early 1960s. He was characterized by contemporaries as a physically imposing, chronically intemperate operator who represented a particular strain of early CIA culture - aggressive, technically skilled, contemptuous of political oversight, and ultimately self-destructive.[^1]
|
||||
William King Harvey (born September 13, 1915; died June 9, 1976) was a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] officer who ran the agency's [[Berlin]] base during the construction and operation of the [[Operation Gold|Berlin tunnel]], supervised the executive action planning program known as [[ZR RIFLE|ZR/RIFLE]], and then commanded the CIA's part of the anti-[[Fidel Castro|Castro]] campaign under [[Operation Mongoose]]. [[Evan Thomas]] described him as a physically imposing, chronically intemperate operator who represented an aggressive, technically skilled strain of early CIA culture.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### FBI and Early CIA Career
|
||||
### FBI Service and Early CIA Career
|
||||
|
||||
Harvey began his intelligence career at the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] but was fired by [[J. Edgar Hoover]] in 1947 following a drunk driving incident. He joined the nascent CIA, where his counterintelligence skills were quickly recognized. His most significant early achievement was developing the theory - subsequently confirmed - that British intelligence officer [[Kim Philby]] was a Soviet agent. Harvey presented his analysis to CIA counterintelligence leadership in 1950-1951, before the full extent of Philby's penetration was known, making him effectively the first American intelligence officer to identify Philby correctly.[^1]
|
||||
Harvey's father was the most prominent attorney in [[Danville, Indiana]], and his grandfather had founded the local newspaper. While a student at [[Indiana University]] law school, Harvey ran for prosecuting attorney of [[Hendricks County, Indiana|Hendricks County]] in 1936 as a Democrat in a staunchly Republican county and lost by 880 votes.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
This reputation for penetrating Soviet deception shaped the rest of Harvey's career. It gave him standing within the CIA's counterintelligence culture and a degree of protection from bureaucratic oversight.
|
||||
Harvey worked for the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] from 1940 to 1947.[^3] On October 23, 1947 the CIA wrote to the FBI's personnel officer that the personnel folder it had requested on Harvey on September 30 had arrived without a transcript of his leave record, and asked for the transcript.[^4] Thomas wrote that [[J. Edgar Hoover]] fired Harvey in 1947 after a drunk driving incident.[^1] [[David C. Martin]] wrote in The Washington Post in 1976 that the incident followed a party, that Harvey had pulled over to the side of the road and gone to sleep, that he arrived at work late, that he was ordered transferred from his supervisor's post to that of a field agent, and that he resigned instead.[^5] In his 1980 account in [[Playboy]], Martin placed the incident in the summer of 1947: Harvey's car stalled in a rainstorm, he slept in it until about ten the next morning, and an FBI summary prepared for Hoover recorded Harvey's statement that he "had about two cans of beer." Hoover approved a memorandum recommending that Special Agent Supervisor William K. Harvey of the Security Division be transferred to Indianapolis on general assignment, and Harvey resigned "with deepest regret."[^2] Martin wrote that [[Elizabeth Bentley]], the courier who reeled off the names of more than 100 people linked to the Soviet underground, would "consume the next two years of his life."[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
Harvey was in the [[Office of Special Operations]] by March 1949, when a personnel order of March 31, 1949 appointed him to that office's promotion board.[^6] Thomas wrote that Harvey's analysis, presented to the agency's counterintelligence leadership in 1950 and 1951, identified [[Kim Philby]] as an agent of the [[Soviet Union]] before the extent of Philby's penetration was known, which made Harvey effectively the first American officer to identify Philby correctly.[^1] Martin wrote in Playboy that after [[Guy Burgess]] and [[Donald Maclean]] disappeared in May 1951 the director of central intelligence, [[Walter Bedell Smith]], directed every officer who had known Burgess to write down what he knew, and that Smith forwarded Harvey's memo to [[MI6]] in London with a cover letter stating that Philby was no longer welcome as the British liaison officer in Washington.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Berlin Base and Operation Gold
|
||||
|
||||
Harvey was appointed chief of the CIA's [[Berlin]] Base in 1952. Berlin was the central arena of Cold War intelligence operations - both the primary point of Western intelligence collection on the Soviet Bloc and the most active venue for Soviet and East German intelligence operations against NATO. Harvey transformed the Berlin Base into one of the CIA's most operationally active stations.
|
||||
Harvey was chief of the [[Berlin Operating Base]] from 1952 to 1958.[^7] The project, codenamed PBJOINTLY and known as Operation Gold, rested on Soviet landline targets identified through technical collection. MI6 offered to share a tap from tunnels it had dug in [[Vienna]], and exploratory talks took place in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] in mid-1951. The Director of Central Intelligence, [[Allen Dulles]], approved the terms of reference for formal negotiations with the British in December 1953.[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
His signature achievement in Berlin was [[Operation Gold]] - the construction of a 1,476-foot tunnel from the American sector into the Soviet zone, connecting to and tapping the Soviet Army's main telephone cables in East Berlin. Planning for the tunnel began in 1953 in collaboration with British [[MI6]]; construction was completed in 1955; the tap ran for eleven months before Soviet forces "discovered" it on April 22, 1956.
|
||||
The tunnel was 1,476 feet long, running from a warehouse in the American sector into the Soviet zone of [[East Germany]]. Martin wrote that Harvey placed a sign at the point where the tunnel crossed from West into East Berlin, reading "You Are Entering the American Sector," and that Allen Dulles later called the tunnel "one of the most valuable and daring projects ever undertaken."[^5] It was completed on February 28, 1955, and by March 28, 1955 the tap chamber was built and its three target cables exposed.[^7] The discovery came on April 21, 1956, after eleven months and eleven days of operation, and Soviet work crews found the top of the tap chamber at about 0200 hours on April 22.[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
The Soviet discovery was stage-managed. [[George Blake]], an MI6 officer who attended the joint Anglo-American planning conference in 1951-1952 at which the tunnel was discussed, was simultaneously a [[KGB]] agent; he had informed Moscow of the plan before construction began. The KGB allowed the tunnel to operate for eleven months rather than immediately disclosing it, calculating that a premature exposure would reveal Blake as a source. The tunnel produced enormous intelligence before its exposure - but had been compromised from the moment it was conceived. Harvey was not informed of Blake's identity until Blake's 1961 arrest in London; the revelation that the Soviet penetration had burned his signature operation permanently embittered him toward British intelligence.[^1]
|
||||
The CIA's 1967 history gives as the conclusion of a memorandum of August 15, 1956 that the loss of the source "was purely the result of unfortunate circumstances beyond our control," a combination of a cable in very poor physical condition and a long period of unusually heavy rainfall.[^8] The same history states that in April 1956 MI6 discovered that George Blake, a case officer in British service, had been recruited by the Soviets while a prisoner in [[North Korea]] in 1952.[^7] The same history says that Blake had told his Soviet contact about the planned tunnel in the latter part of 1953.[^7] Blake was arrested in [[London]] in 1961.[^1] Thomas wrote that Harvey did not learn Blake's identity until that arrest, and that the penetration embittered him toward British intelligence.[^1] Murphy, Kondrashev and Bailey wrote that the [[KGB]] let the tunnel run for eleven months to protect Blake, and that the Soviet discovery was staged.[^9] Many theories have been advanced for the Soviet decision to let the tunnel operate for nearly a year.[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
### ZR/RIFLE and Assassination Planning
|
||||
A memorandum of June 14, 1956 from the Chief, Eastern European Division, transmitted a commendation of Harvey dated June 1, 1956 for his leadership in an operation whose details were withheld from his personnel folder for security reasons, and quoted its statement that "Harvey's display of these attributes was outstanding."[^10] The CIA's history of the tunnel lists Harvey among those awarded the Distinguished Intelligence Medal for contributions to the project.[^8] Thomas wrote that the CIA did not publicly acknowledge Harvey's role in Operation Gold until considerably later.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
After leaving Berlin in 1959, Harvey was assigned to head Staff D, the CIA's communications intelligence section, and was subsequently assigned to develop what became [[ZR RIFLE|ZR/RIFLE]] - the CIA's covert executive action (assassination) planning unit. ZR/RIFLE was intended to develop a capability to assassinate foreign leaders. Harvey developed contacts with organized crime figures, specifically [[Johnny Roselli]] and [[Sam Giancana]], as potential assets for operations against [[Fidel Castro]] of Cuba.[^1]
|
||||
In December 1953, while Harvey was at the Berlin base, a CIA memorandum on LSD reported that Germany held none, "although Mr. William Harvey recently expressed interest in the subject."[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
The CIA-mafia anti-Castro plots that Harvey managed represented one of the most controversial programs in CIA history. Harvey met with Roselli beginning in early 1961, providing operational guidance and resources for assassination attempts against Castro. The collaboration produced no results against Castro but drew Harvey into relationships with organized crime figures that complicated his career and remained classified for years.
|
||||
Harvey was appointed branch chief in the FI Staff on October 12, 1959.[^12] The Inspector General's 1967 report describes him as "Chief of FI/D" when he was briefed in February 1961, by authority of [[Richard Bissell]], on the gambling-syndicate operation.[^13] Thomas placed Harvey at the head of Staff D, the agency's communications intelligence section.[^1] Martin wrote that by 1961 Harvey was head of Staff D, "a small agency component responsible for communications intercepts," and that KUTUBE/D was the agency's cryptonym for Staff D.[^2] A dispatch of June 8, 1961 from "Chief, KUTUBE/D" to the Chief of Station in [[Rome]], captioned ZRRIFLE, concerns the tracing in U.S. and Italian files of potential agents for "this KUTUBE/D purpose."[^14]
|
||||
|
||||
Harvey's role in ZR/RIFLE became significant to later investigators of the Kennedy assassination. Harvey had operational control of the anti-Castro assassination network in late 1963, and his documented hostility to Robert Kennedy (who was overseeing anti-Castro operations as part of Operation Mongoose) created an evidentiary trail that conspiracy theorists later explored extensively. Harvey was stationed in Rome from late 1963 onward - after being exiled there by Robert Kennedy - and was not in the United States during the assassination.[^1]
|
||||
### ZR/RIFLE and the Executive Action Capability
|
||||
|
||||
### Operation Mongoose and Conflict with Robert Kennedy
|
||||
In early 1961 Richard Bissell assigned Harvey to establish a general capability within the CIA for disabling foreign leaders, with assassination as a last resort. The capability was called [[Executive Action]] and was later covered by the cryptonym ZR/RIFLE.[^15] Harvey testified that he was "almost certain" he met [[Joseph Scheider]] and a CIA recruiting officer on January 25 and 26, 1961 to discuss the capability.[^15]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Operation Mongoose]] was the post-Bay of Pigs [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] administration program to undermine or overthrow Castro, coordinated by Attorney General [[Robert Kennedy]] and run operationally by Brigadier General [[Edward Lansdale]]. Harvey's ZR/RIFLE assets were incorporated into Mongoose planning.
|
||||
His cryptic handwritten notes of those meetings, preserved at the CIA, contain phrases that suggest a discussion of assassination: "last resort beyond last resort and a confession of weakness," "the magic button," and "never mention word assassination." Harvey confirmed this interpretation.[^15] Harvey testified that the capability was intended to include assassination. Bissell described ZR/RIFLE as "internal and purely preparatory."[^15]
|
||||
|
||||
Harvey's relationship with Robert Kennedy was openly hostile. Harvey believed Kennedy's micromanagement of Mongoose operations was both incompetent and dangerous - that Kennedy's involvement increased the risk of exposing operational details and assets. Kennedy regarded Harvey as insubordinate and unreliable. Harvey unilaterally sent teams into Cuba during the October 1962 missile crisis without authorization, in direct defiance of the administration's policy of non-escalation during the crisis. Kennedy demanded his removal.
|
||||
A single agent, given the cryptonym QJ/WIN, was placed under Harvey's supervision. Harvey testified that during the whole project "no agent was recruited for the purpose of assassination."[^15] The Inspector General's 1967 report, as quoted by the [[Church Committee|Senate committee]], found "no indication in the file that the Executive Action capability of ZR/RIFLE-QJ/WIN was ever used," and said that "after Harvey took over the Castro operation, he ran it as one aspect of ZR/RIFLE."[^15]
|
||||
|
||||
Harvey was transferred to Rome station in December 1963, effectively ending his operational career. He continued in CIA service until 1966 but never recovered significant operational responsibilities.[^2]
|
||||
Harvey testified that Bissell had told him that "the White House" had twice urged the creation of such a capability. The Inspector General's report quoted Harvey's notes, which are no longer in existence, as recording Bissell saying, "The White House has twice urged me to create such a capability."[^13][^15] The same report states that Harvey fixed the date of his briefing as February 1961 only after reviewing the events before and after it, and that he later said it might have been as early as late January or as late as March 1961.[^13] Bissell said in June 1975 that he had "no reason to believe that Harvey's quote is wrong," but his account changed across his appearances. In July 1975 he said there had been no White House urging for the project, though tacit approval by [[McGeorge Bundy]] was probably given after it was established.[^15]
|
||||
|
||||
### Post-CIA Career and Legacy
|
||||
A memorandum for the record of May 23, 1967 by the Inspector General states that the Director of Central Intelligence returned his copy of the report on May 22, 1967 with instructions to retain it in personal, eyes-only safekeeping, to destroy the one burn copy, and to "Destroy all notes and other source materials originated by those participating in the writing of the report," and records that the burn copy, all notes and all derived source materials were destroyed on May 23, 1967. The memorandum lists memoranda concerning Harvey among the items filed with the report.[^13] The [[Assassination Records Review Board]] later reported that [[Richard Helms]] had directed the notes and source material for the report to be destroyed, that the CIA searched its Directorate of Operations records for the "operational diaries" a researcher asked about and located no records belonging to Harvey, and that the Board's own inquiries found no diaries.[^16]
|
||||
|
||||
Harvey retired from the CIA in 1966, his career effectively destroyed by alcoholism and the Mongoose conflicts. He practiced law briefly in Indianapolis before his health deteriorated. He died on June 9, 1976, before much of the classified record about his operations was disclosed.
|
||||
Harvey was the immediate superior of [[Michael Mulroney]] when Mulroney was asked in 1960 to go to the [[Congo]]. In his affidavit of September 14, 1975 Harvey said he recalled that QJ/WIN might have been sent to an African country other than the Congo, and that he was "almost certain that this was not connected in any way to an assassination mission."[^17]
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Church Committee]] (1975-1976) began declassifying material about ZR/RIFLE and the CIA-mafia plots, but Harvey was too ill to testify fully. His role in Operation Gold was not publicly acknowledged by the CIA until considerably later. Evan Thomas's 1995 account *The Very Best Men* reconstructed Harvey's career from declassified documents and former colleagues' recollections.[^1]
|
||||
### Task Force W and Operation Mongoose
|
||||
|
||||
Early in 1962 Harvey was appointed chief of [[Task Force W]], the CIA component of the campaign against the government of [[Cuba]].[^18] Thomas wrote that Harvey's ZR/RIFLE assets were incorporated into Mongoose planning.[^1] A memorandum he sent to [[John McCone]] on April 10, 1962 appraised the effectiveness of the Mongoose operational plan.[^19] He attended meetings of the [[Special Group (Augmented)]] for the CIA. At the May 3, 1962 meeting he reported that three agent teams had been infiltrated and that 72 actual or potential reporting sources were in place.[^18]
|
||||
|
||||
In a memorandum of July 24, 1962 written as the CIA operations officer for Mongoose to supply comments for [[Edward Lansdale]]'s report on the end of Phase I, Harvey stated that "As of 23 July, 477 CIA staff personnel are devoting full time to this effort."[^20] On August 6, 1962 he sent Lansdale a memorandum describing a CIA campaign to popularize "Gusano Libre" as the symbol of Cuban resistance, to be announced during the next "Voice of Free Cuba" submarine operation planned for mid-August.[^21] A plan he wrote on August 7, 1962 identifies him as the "CIA Representative for Operation Mongoose." Its mission was "Exert all possible diplomatic, economic, psychological, and other pressures to overthrow the Castro-Communist regime without overt U.S. military commitment."[^22]
|
||||
|
||||
On October 8, 1962, Harvey, as CIA project officer for Mongoose, asked Edward Lansdale to put before the Special Group a request for policy approval to sabotage Cuban-owned vessels "wherever and whenever secure access to them can be attained," normally in non-Bloc ports, as "targets of opportunity."[^23]
|
||||
|
||||
Martin wrote that Lansdale told the Senate committee that [[John F. Kennedy]] had remarked to him that he was the American James Bond, that Lansdale suggested the real 007 was Harvey, and that Harvey and Lansdale then waited outside the Oval Office; Harvey testified that the conversation with the President was brief and contained no mention of assassination.[^5] At the August 10, 1962 meeting of the Special Group, Harvey recalled that [[Robert McNamara]] had raised the question of assassination, and that "the consensus of the Group was to sweep that particular proposal or suggestion or question or consideration off the record and under the rug as rapidly as possible."[^24]
|
||||
|
||||
On August 13, 1962 Lansdale directed Harvey to include an option for the "liquidation of leaders" in a proposed Phase II plan for Mongoose.[^24] Harvey's memorandum of August 14 to Richard Helms attached Lansdale's memorandum with the words excised, and stated that the Special Group (Augmented) "is not expecting any written comments or study on this point."[^24] McCone said that McNamara agreed Lansdale's memorandum should be withdrawn.[^24] Harvey's August 14 memorandum to Helms recorded: "It was the obvious consensus at that meeting, in answer to a comment by Mr. Ed Murrow, that this is not a subject which has been made a matter of official record." McCone's April 14, 1967 memorandum to Helms states that McCone took immediate exception to a suggestion to liquidate top people in the Castro regime, including Castro.[^25] [[Walter Elder]], McCone's executive assistant, testified that he had personally told Helms of McCone's opposition to assassination after the August 10 meeting.[^26]
|
||||
|
||||
### Roselli and the Poison Pills
|
||||
|
||||
On November 16, 1961, Bissell asked Harvey to take over the gambling-syndicate operation from [[Sheffield Edwards]], and they discussed the "application of ZR/RIFLE program to Cuba."[^27] Bissell testified that the operation was not reactivated until after he left the agency in February 1962.[^27]
|
||||
|
||||
In early April 1962 Harvey, who testified that he was acting on "explicit orders" from Helms, asked Edwards to put him in touch with [[Johnny Roselli]]. A 1976 CIA memorandum dates Harvey's taking over as case officer to May 1962.[^28] Harvey told Roselli to stop dealing with [[Robert Maheu]] and [[Sam Giancana]], whom Harvey had decided were "untrustworthy" and "surplus."[^27]
|
||||
|
||||
Four poison pills were given to the support chief on April 18, 1962. Harvey arrived in [[Miami]] on April 21 and gave them to Roselli, who was already in touch with the same Cuban who had been involved in the pill passage before the [[Bay of Pigs invasion|Bay of Pigs]].[^27] Harvey procured explosives, detonators, rifles, handguns, radios and boat radar costing about $5,000. Harvey and the chief of the JM/WAVE station rented a truck under an assumed name and delivered the equipment to a parking lot, where the keys were given to Roselli.[^27]
|
||||
|
||||
Harvey met Roselli in Miami on September 7 and 11, 1962. Harvey testified that by then he had grave doubts that the operation would take place. In early January 1963 he paid Roselli $2,700 to defray the Cuban's expenses. The second three-man team never left for Cuba, the reason given being that "conditions" in Cuba were not right.[^27] Harvey ended the operation in mid-February 1963 at a meeting with Roselli in [[Los Angeles]].[^27]
|
||||
|
||||
In early 1963 Harvey told his underworld contacts that the CIA was no longer interested in assassinating Castro. The FBI learned of this in June 1963.[^29]
|
||||
|
||||
Harvey's operations involving Roselli began in early 1962 and ended in February 1963. Harvey, and to a lesser extent [[James O'Connell]], remained in contact with Roselli from 1964 to about 1970.[^28]
|
||||
|
||||
In June 1963, before Harvey went on another assignment, he and Roselli had a farewell dinner. The FBI observed the meeting, and [[Sam Papich]], the FBI liaison with the CIA, told Harvey that Hoover would be informed. Harvey told Helms of the incident, and Helms agreed that McCone need not be briefed unless a call from Hoover was expected.[^30]
|
||||
|
||||
The [[House Select Committee on Assassinations]], which described Harvey in June 1963 as "chief of the CIA's Cuban Task Force," found it "unable to accept" the conclusion that the CIA-Mafia plots were irrelevant because they ended in February 1963, and reported that CIA files show Roselli continued to maintain direct contact with Harvey at least until 1967.[^31]
|
||||
|
||||
In 1967 Roselli was arrested for fraudulent gambling at the [[Friars Club]] in [[Beverly Hills, California|Beverly Hills]]. He asked Harvey, who had left the agency, to represent him. Harvey contacted the agency and suggested that it prevent the prosecution, according to a December 11, 1967 memorandum by [[Howard Osborn]].[^32]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Clash with Robert Kennedy and the Missile Crisis
|
||||
|
||||
Harvey and [[Robert Kennedy]] were openly at odds over Mongoose. Thomas wrote that Harvey regarded Kennedy's micromanagement of the operations as incompetent and dangerous, and that Kennedy regarded Harvey as insubordinate and unreliable.[^1] Harvey testified that during the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] he gave an order sending agent teams into Cuba to support any conventional U.S. military operation that might occur. He said that Robert Kennedy "took a great deal of exception" to the order, and that McCone then ordered the agent operations stopped.[^33] Walter Elder, McCone's assistant at the time, described the episode as Harvey having "earned another black mark as not being fully under control," and said that Harvey had attempted to get guidance from top officials during the crisis.[^33]
|
||||
|
||||
Martin wrote that Kennedy tied off a series of questions to Harvey with "and I've got 10 minutes to hear the answer," and that when Harvey exceeded his time limit Kennedy walked out and Harvey kept talking.[^5] Martin quoted McCone: "When you take a plant supervisor and make him president of the company, it doesn't always work out," and wrote that Dulles is said to have remarked, "That fellow Harvey is a conspiratorial cop."[^5] Thomas wrote that Robert Kennedy demanded Harvey's removal.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Rome and the End of Task Force W
|
||||
|
||||
[[Desmond FitzGerald]] replaced Harvey as chief of Task Force W in January 1963.[^34] It is unclear whether Harvey or FitzGerald conceived the plan to present Fidel Castro with a contaminated diving suit.[^34]
|
||||
|
||||
Harvey was appointed chief of station at Rome, effective on or about June 30, 1963, to replace [[Francis I. G. Coleman]], who was scheduled to attend the [[National War College]].[^35] He took up the Rome post before the November 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy. Thomas wrote that Robert Kennedy had exiled Harvey to Rome.[^1] Martin wrote in The Washington Post that some attributed the appointment to a wish to keep Harvey out of the country and others to the Rome station's need of a shakeup, that Harvey was hospitalized, that Desmond FitzGerald cabled a report to Helms, that Helms ordered Harvey relieved, that an aide sent to carry out the order sat seven hours across from Harvey, who held a loaded revolver in his lap, and that Harvey was then placed in a unit studying countermeasures against electronic surveillance.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### Testimony Before the Senate
|
||||
|
||||
Harvey testified before the Church Committee in executive session on June 25, 1975 and again on July 11, 1975. He signed an affidavit dated September 14, 1975.[^27] He told the committee that he had acted on explicit orders from Helms, and that he believed the 1962 assassination activity carried over from the period when Allen Dulles was Director, a belief he based on what Bissell had told him.[^18]
|
||||
|
||||
Harvey said he had not informed the Special Group, or anyone outside the agency, that he had given the poison pills to Roselli. He said he did not brief McCone on the pills because he did not believe it was necessary.[^18]
|
||||
|
||||
### Retirement, Death and Aftermath
|
||||
|
||||
In April 1967 Harvey was to be transferred from the [[European Division]] to the Office of Personnel, where he would be carried in casual status until his final retirement, and his sick leave required a physician's monthly certification.[^36] By October 30, 1967 he had not yet set a retirement date, and retirement was expected on November 30.[^37] He retired from the agency in 1967.[^28]
|
||||
|
||||
In November 1967, while leaving the agency to practice law, Harvey asked Sam Papich for reputable private investigators. Papich suggested [[Wackenhut Corporation]] or the [[Fidelifax]] Company, as Howard Osborn recorded in a memorandum of November 8, 1967.[^38]
|
||||
|
||||
Roselli died in August 1976. On August 11, 1976 [[George H. W. Bush|George Bush]], then Director of Central Intelligence, wrote that calls to Senators had suggested that the CIA was involved in the murder, and that he had asked [[Edward Levi]] to bring the FBI into the case.[^39]
|
||||
|
||||
According to the 1976 obituary, Harvey moved to [[Indianapolis, Indiana|Indianapolis]] in 1969 after leaving the agency, and was law editor for [[Bobbs-Merrill]] at the time of his death.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
Harvey died of a heart attack at an Indianapolis hospital on June 9, 1976, at the age of 60. He was buried at South Cemetery in Danville, Indiana, and was survived by his wife, Clara Grace, a daughter and a son.[^3] A CIA memorandum of August 9, 1976 gives the same date, "9 June 1976."[^28] Martin wrote that surgeons had worked four hours to implant an artificial valve and that Harvey died, holding his wife's hand, at ten minutes past two in the afternoon of June 9.[^2] A June 1976 press report named Harvey among ten agents whose identities the Senate committee had disclosed, and said that [[William Colby]] had argued that disclosure endangered agents.[^3] A CIA routing memorandum of June 16, 1976 records that the agency's information on his death came from the press reports.[^40] Martin wrote that Harvey's wife told him reporters were trying to link his death to Roselli's murder, that there had been two attempted break-ins, and that people were "after his papers," to which she said she had "burned everything."[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
In June 1977 Martin, an [[Associated Press]] correspondent, asked a retired agency employee for cooperation with a book about Harvey. The employee was irritated and believed that a retired CIA officer had given Martin his name.[^41]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Thomas, Evan. *The Very Best Men: Four Who Dared: The Early Years of the CIA.* Simon & Schuster, 1995. Murphy, David E., Sergei A. Kondrashev, and George Bailey. *Battleground Berlin: CIA vs KGB in the Cold War.* Yale University Press, 1997.
|
||||
[^2]: Church Committee (U.S. Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities). *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders.* Senate Report No. 94-465, 1975. Available at archives.gov.
|
||||
[^1]: Thomas, Evan. *The Very Best Men: Four Who Dared: The Early Years of the CIA.* Simon & Schuster, 1995.
|
||||
[^2]: Martin, David C. "The American James Bond: A True Story," Playboy, April 1980, beginning p. 132 (an excerpt from Martin's *Wilderness of Mirrors*, Harper & Row, 1980). CIA reading room copies, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00552r000303090019-8 and https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00552r000303190040-3; full article in the Weisberg Subject Index Files, Hood College JFK collection, "CIA Harvey William King," Item 04, http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/C%20Disk/CIA%20Harvey%20William%20King/Item%2004.pdf (the Danville background, the 1936 prosecutor race, the Bentley questioning, the 1947 FBI incident and transfer memorandum, the 1951 Philby memo and cover letter, Staff D and KUTUBE/D, the death and funeral).
|
||||
[^3]: "W. Harvey, C.I.A. Aide, Dead; Linked to Anti-Castro Plotting," June 1976 press report, CIA reading room copy, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp79-00498a000600020001-2 (FBI service 1940 to 1947; the move to Indianapolis in 1969; the law editorship at Bobbs-Merrill; the death, burial and survivors; the ten names disclosed by the Senate committee; the Colby argument).
|
||||
[^4]: Central Intelligence Agency, letter to H. L. Edwards, Personnel Officer, Federal Bureau of Investigation, October 23, 1947, on the personnel folder requested September 30 and the missing transcript of leave record. Reading room document 0001229028, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0001229028
|
||||
[^5]: Martin, David C. "The CIA's 'Loaded Gun': The Life and Hard Times of 'America's James Bond,' William King Harvey," The Washington Post, Outlook section, October 10, 1976, pp. C1-C2. Copy in the Weisberg Subject Index Files, Hood College JFK collection, "CIA Harvey William King," Item 02, http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/C%20Disk/CIA%20Harvey%20William%20King/Item%2002.pdf (the 1947 FBI incident, the tunnel sign, the Dulles and McCone remarks, the Kennedy meeting, the Rome relief, the death and Harvey's wife).
|
||||
[^6]: Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Special Operations Personnel Order No. 26/1, March 31, 1949, appointing Harvey to the OSO Promotion Board. Reading room document 0001228540, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0001228540
|
||||
[^7]: Central Intelligence Agency, Clandestine Services Historical Paper No. 150, "The Berlin Tunnel Operation 1952-1956," prepared August 25, 1967, published June 24, 1968. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp07x00001r000100010001-9 (preface for the 1952 to 1958 Berlin tenure; pp. 2-6 for the 1951 and 1953 planning; pp. 18-19 for construction, the 1,476-foot length and the March 1955 tap chamber; pp. 22-24 for the termination, the discovery dates and the Blake passage).
|
||||
[^8]: Central Intelligence Agency, Clandestine Services Historical Paper No. 150, "The Berlin Tunnel Operation 1952-1956," pp. 22-23 (the August 15, 1956 memorandum and its conclusion) and p. 29 (the awards for contributions to Project PBJOINTLY). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp07x00001r000100010001-9
|
||||
[^9]: Murphy, David E., Sergei A. Kondrashev, and George Bailey. *Battleground Berlin: CIA vs KGB in the Cold War.* Yale University Press, 1997.
|
||||
[^10]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum "Commendation for Mr. William K. Harvey," June 14, 1956. Reading room document 0001228677, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0001228677 (the June 1, 1956 commendation and the quoted extract)
|
||||
[^11]: Chief, Inspection and Review, Memorandum for Inspector General, "Use of LSD," December 1, 1953, 2 pp., Center for National Security Studies FOIA, National Security Archive. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/1953-12-01a%20CNSS-ocr.pdf
|
||||
[^12]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum "Appointment of Mr. William K. Harvey as Branch Chief, FI Staff," October 12, 1959. Reading room document 0001228748, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0001228748
|
||||
[^13]: Central Intelligence Agency, Office of the Inspector General, "Report on Plots to Assassinate Fidel Castro," May 23, 1967, sanitized release of 1997: memorandum for the record of May 23, 1967 (first page); "Gambling Syndicate - Phase 2," p. 37 (Harvey as Chief of FI/D; briefing in February 1961; the "twice urged" notes; the date range). JFK Assassination Records Collection, National Archives, record 104-10213-10101, https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/104-10213-10101.pdf
|
||||
[^14]: Central Intelligence Agency, dispatch OIRW 18590, Chief, KUTUBE/D, to Chief of Station, Rome, "ZRRIFLE/Subject of OIRA 27542," June 8, 1961. JFK Assassination Records Collection, National Archives, record 104-10185-10046, https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/104-10185-10046.pdf
|
||||
[^15]: Church Committee (U.S. Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities), *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders: An Interim Report*, S. Rept. 94-465, November 20, 1975, pp. 182-185 (the ZR/RIFLE definition; QJ/WIN; the Inspector General's findings; the January 25 and 26, 1961 notes; the White House question; Bissell's testimony of June 9 and July 17, 1975), citing Harvey testimony of June 25, 1975, pp. 35-37, and July 11, 1975, p. 59. https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
|
||||
[^16]: Assassination Records Review Board. *Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board,* September 1998, section "William Harvey" (p. 96 in the contents). https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/review-board/report/arrb-final-report.txt
|
||||
[^17]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, pp. 41, 44-45 (Harvey as Mulroney's immediate superior; the Congo memoranda; Harvey affidavit of September 14, 1975). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
|
||||
[^18]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, pp. 153-155 (the Task Force W appointment in early 1962; the Special Group meetings; the May 3, 1962 report of three teams and 72 sources; Harvey testimony of July 11, 1975, pp. 15-18, and June 25, 1975, p. 85). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
|
||||
[^19]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. X, doc. 323, Memorandum From the Chief of Task Force W (Harvey) to Director of Central Intelligence McCone, April 10, 1962. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d323
|
||||
[^20]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. X, doc. 359, Memorandum From the Central Intelligence Agency Operations Officer for Operation Mongoose (Harvey) to the Chief of Operations, Operation Mongoose (Lansdale), July 24, 1962, "Operation Mongoose, End of Phase I." https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d359
|
||||
[^21]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. X, doc. 365, Memorandum From the Central Intelligence Agency Operations Officer for Operation Mongoose (Harvey) to the Chief of Operations, Operation Mongoose (Lansdale), August 6, 1962, "Gusano Libre, Symbol of Cuban Resistance." https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d365
|
||||
[^22]: National Security Archive, document 14, William K. Harvey, "Covert Activities," CIA memorandum, August 7, 1962. https://archive.org/details/6434690-National-Security-Archive-Doc-14-CIA-William
|
||||
[^23]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. XI, doc. 10, Memorandum From the Central Intelligence Agency Project Officer for Operation Mongoose (Harvey) to the Chief of Operations, Operation Mongoose (Lansdale), October 8, 1962, "Sabotage of Cuban-Owned Ship." https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v11/d10
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[^24]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, pp. 161-167 (the August 10, 1962 meeting; Lansdale memorandum of August 13; Harvey memorandum to Helms of August 14; McCone's account of McNamara; Elder's recollection of the meeting), and pp. 165-166 for Harvey's recollection of the meeting, citing Harvey testimony of July 11, 1975, p. 30. https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
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[^25]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. X, doc. 371, Editorial Note on the August 10, 1962 meeting of the Special Group (Augmented), quoting Harvey's memorandum of August 14, 1962 and McCone's memorandum of April 14, 1967. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d371
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[^26]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, p. 107 (Walter Elder, McCone's Executive Assistant, on telling Helms of McCone's opposition after the August 10 meeting). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
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[^27]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, pp. 83-85 (the 1961 assignment and the November 16, 1961 notes; the April 1962 reactivation and "explicit orders"; the poison pills of April 18 and 21, 1962; the $5,000 equipment and the rented truck; the September 1962 meetings; the $2,700 payment; the second team; the February 1963 termination), citing Harvey testimony of June 25 and July 11, 1975, and the affidavit of September 14, 1975. https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
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[^28]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum "Johnny Roselli," August 9, 1976. Reading room document 00508811, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-00508811 (Harvey's operations from early 1962 to February 1963; Harvey as case officer from May 1962; Harvey and O'Connell in contact from 1964 to about 1970; Harvey retired in 1967).
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[^29]: Church Committee, *The Investigation of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy: Performance of the Intelligence Agencies*, Final Report Book V, S. Rept. 94-755, April 23, 1976, pp. 69, 72. https://archive.org/details/ChurchCommittee
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[^30]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, p. 105, citing Inspector General's report p. 54 (the June 1963 farewell dinner; FBI observation; Papich's notice to Harvey; Harvey's report to Helms). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
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[^31]: House Select Committee on Assassinations, *Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations*, H. Rept. 95-1828, 1979, p. 117 (the committee's finding that the plots were not shown to be irrelevant; CIA files on contact with Harvey until 1967). https://archive.org/details/reportofselectco1979unit
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[^32]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, pp. 86-87 (Osborn memorandum for the record, December 11, 1967). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
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[^33]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, p. 149 n. 1, citing Harvey testimony of July 11, 1975, pp. 80-81, and Walter Elder testimony of August 13, 1975, pp. 34-35. https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
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[^34]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, pp. 86-87 (FitzGerald replacing Harvey in January 1963; the diving-suit plan), citing Inspector General's report p. 75. https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
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[^35]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum "Appointment of Mr. William K. Harvey Chief of Station, Rome, Italy," June 12, 1963. Reading room document 01228805, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-01228805
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[^36]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum for the record "William K. Harvey," April 5, 1967. Reading room document 0001228917, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0001228917
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[^37]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum for the record "William K. Harvey," October 30, 1967. Reading room document 0001228965, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0001228965
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[^38]: Osborn, Howard J. Memorandum for the record, November 8, 1967, JFK record 104-10133-10076. National Archives, JFK Assassination Records Collection.
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[^39]: Bush, George, memorandum "The Death of Roselli," August 11, 1976. Reading room document 00508811, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-00508811
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[^40]: Central Intelligence Agency, routing and record memorandum, June 16, 1976, filed with the reading room copy of the June 1976 press report, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp79-00498a000600020001-2
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[^41]: Central Intelligence Agency, routing and record sheet, "Mr. David Martin, Associated Press Correspondent's Interest in Writing a Book About Mr. William King Harvey," June 27, 1977. Reading room document 0001229025, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0001229025
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