The_Info_Web/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Johnny Roselli.md

created	updated	title	aliases	tags	category	summary	born	died	location
2026-05-15	2026-10-09	Johnny Roselli	Filippo Sacco John Roselli Johnny Rosselli	Person OrganizedCrime CIA AntiCastro JFKAssassination LasCosas PROMIS	Organized Crime	Chicago Outfit man in Las Vegas and Hollywood recruited by the CIA through Robert Maheu in 1960 against Castro, who testified to the Church Committee and was found in an oil drum off Miami.	1905-07-04	1976-08-09	Los Angeles, California / Las Vegas, Nevada

Johnny Roselli (born Filippo Sacco, July 4, 1905, Esperia, Caserta, Italy - died approximately August 9, 1976, Dumfoundling Bay, Florida) was a senior figure in organized crime affiliated with the La Cosa Nostra who became the primary underworld contact for the Central Intelligence Agency's covert plots to assassinate Fidel Castro of Cuba. His murder in August 1976, occurring shortly after his second appearance before the Church Committee, remained officially unsolved.¹

Organized Crime Career

Roselli entered organized crime in Chicago in the 1920s, working within the Capone organization. By the 1930s he had moved to Los Angeles and become the Chicago Outfit's principal representative on the West Coast, overseeing gambling operations and cultivating connections to Hollywood studios and labor unions. He subsequently became the Outfit's primary presence in Las Vegas, managing interests in the Stardust and other casinos and coordinating with other organized crime families sharing Nevada gambling operations.¹

Roselli was meticulous about maintaining a legitimate surface appearance. He socialized extensively with Hollywood figures, lawyers, and businessmen, and cultivated a persona more polished than many organized crime contemporaries. This social facility was precisely what the CIA sought when approaching organized crime for anti-Castro operations.

CIA-Mafia Anti-Castro Plots

In September 1960, Robert Maheu, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent and private investigator whom the CIA used as a cutout for sensitive operations, approached Roselli, whom he had known since the late 1950s, and proposed that organized crime figures help the CIA assassinate Castro. The rationale offered was that organized crime figures with pre-revolutionary Cuban casino interests had their own reasons to want Castro removed and had existing contacts with Cuban exile networks.

Roselli agreed to participate and introduced Maheu to Sam Giancana, the Chicago Outfit boss, and Santos Trafficante, Jr., the Tampa mob boss who had operated Cuba casinos before Castro nationalized them. The CIA provided operational direction, including poison pills developed by its Technical Services Division intended for Castro's food or drink. Multiple plots were attempted through 1960-1963 without result.¹

On November 16, 1961, Richard Bissell asked William Harvey to take over the gambling-syndicate operation from Sheffield Edwards. The contact was reactivated in early April 1962, when Harvey, acting on what he testified were explicit orders from Richard Helms, asked Edwards to put him in touch with Roselli.² A 1976 CIA memorandum dates Harvey's taking over as case officer to May 1962.³ Roselli worked directly with Harvey from that point, as the plots continued under Operation Mongoose auspices.² Harvey and Roselli maintained a personal relationship unusual in CIA-organized crime interactions; they met regularly in Washington, Las Vegas, and Miami and communicated through intermediaries. In April 1962 Harvey told Roselli to stop dealing with Maheu and Giancana, whom Harvey had decided were "untrustworthy" and "surplus."²

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, and the second three-man team never left for Cuba, the reason given being that "conditions" in Cuba were not right. The operation was terminated in mid-February 1963 at a meeting with Roselli in Los Angeles.² The 1976 CIA memorandum gives the same February 1963 end date.³ 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 1963.⁴ 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 1970.³ Roselli maintained relationships with exile Cubans and anti-Castro networks independently.¹

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 J. Edgar Hoover would be informed. Harvey told Helms of the incident, and Helms agreed that John McCone need not be briefed unless a call from Hoover was expected.⁵ The House Select Committee on Assassinations 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 1967.⁶

In 1967 Roselli was arrested for fraudulent gambling at the Friars Club in Beverly Hills, California. 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.⁷

Church Committee Testimony

When the Church Committee investigated CIA assassination plots in 1975, Roselli was subpoenaed to testify. He appeared before the committee in June 1975 and again in April 1976. His testimony was taken in closed session.

During his second appearance, Roselli elaborated on a theory he had been advancing since 1967 through journalist Jack Anderson - that the CIA-organized crime anti-Castro network had been "turned around" by Cuban or pro-Castro operatives and used to kill President John F. Kennedy in November 1963. This theory was not corroborated by physical evidence but attracted attention because of Roselli's direct participation in the anti-Castro infrastructure.

Shortly after his April 1976 Church Committee appearance, Roselli disappeared. His body was found on August 9, 1976, stuffed inside a 55-gallon oil drum in Dumfoundling Bay, off Miami. He had been strangled; his legs had been sawn off to fit the drum. The murder was never solved. Federal investigators suspected organized crime figures who feared his continued Senate cooperation, but no charges were brought.¹ On August 11, 1976 George H. W. 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 Attorney General Edward Levi to bring the FBI into the case.⁸

Legacy

The CIA-Roselli relationship was among the most extensively documented findings of the Church Committee and became a paradigm case for critics of CIA operations outside normal legal constraints. The involvement of organized crime figures as CIA assets - men the FBI was simultaneously investigating for criminal activity - illustrated the operational conflicts created by using criminal networks for covert operations, and established that the CIA had kept this relationship secret from the Warren Commission.

Roselli's murder, coming immediately after his Senate testimony, reinforced the narrative that witnesses to the deepest level of CIA-organized crime cooperation did not survive to tell the full story.⁹

Maheu

Johnny Rosselli was an organized-crime leader who was contacted by Robert Maheu in 1960 as part of CIA operations to assassinate Fidel Castro. Rosselli, along with Sam Giancana and Santos Trafficante, Jr., was enlisted to assist in these efforts, which involved Cuban exiles.¹⁰

Footnotes

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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. Rappleye, Charles, and Ed Becker. All American Mafioso: The Johnny Roselli Story. Doubleday, 1991. ↩︎

2. Church Committee, Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders: An Interim Report, S. Rept. 94-465, November 20, 1975, pp. 83-85. https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit ↩︎

3. Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum "Johnny Roselli," August 9, 1976. Reading room document 00508811, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-00508811 ↩︎

4. 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 ↩︎

5. Church Committee, Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders, S. Rept. 94-465, p. 105, citing Inspector General's report p. 54. https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit ↩︎

6. House Select Committee on Assassinations, Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations, H. Rept. 95-1828, 1979, p. 117. https://archive.org/details/reportofselectco1979unit ↩︎

7. Church Committee, Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders, S. Rept. 94-465, pp. 86-87 (Osborn memorandum for the record, December 11, 1967). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit ↩︎

8. Bush, George, memorandum "The Death of Roselli," August 11, 1976. Reading room document 00508811, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-00508811 ↩︎

9. Thomas, Evan. The Very Best Men: Four Who Dared: The Early Years of the CIA. Simon & Schuster, 1995. ↩︎

10. Seymour, Cheri. The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010. ↩︎