Johnny Roselli

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 Chicago Outfit who became the primary underworld contact for the CIA'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, CIA officer Robert Maheu - a former FBI agent who served as a CIA cutout for sensitive operations - approached Roselli through a Las Vegas intermediary 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 Santo 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

When William Harvey replaced Maheu as the CIA's primary handler for the mob plots in 1961, Roselli worked directly with Harvey as the plots continued under Operation Mongoose auspices. 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. Harvey's termination from operational command of anti-Castro activities in late 1962 reduced CIA-Roselli contact, but Roselli maintained relationships with exile Cubans and anti-Castro networks independently.¹

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 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

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.²