---
alias:
- Raymond G. Rocca
- Ray Rocca
born: 1917
category: Intelligence & Government
created: 2026-09-21
died: 1993-11-11
location: Falls Church, Virginia
summary: Research chief on Angleton's counterintelligence staff who handled the CIA's
  side of the Warren Commission and wrote its papers on Jim Garrison in 1967, proposing
  to brief Hoover and McCone and line up press channels.
tags:
- Person
- RaymondRocca
- CIA
- CIACounterintelligenceStaff
- JamesAngleton
- GarrisonGroup
- WarrenCommission
updated: 2026-09-21
---

Raymond G. Rocca "began his intelligence career during World War II. It included service in [Rome](/places/rome/), where he went in 1944 with the [Office of Strategic Services](/organizations/office-of-strategic-services/) and later with the Central Intelligence Group and then the newly established [CIA](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/)." He was chief of research and analysis on the Counterintelligence Staff under [James Jesus Angleton](/people/james-jesus-angleton/) and retired in 1975 "as acting chief of counterintelligence."[^1]

### Garrison

[Richard Helms](/people/richard-helms/) assigned him the New Orleans matter in 1967. On April 26 he wrote that it would be "unwise to dismiss as trivial any attempts by Garrison to link the Agency to his plot." On May 12 he drafted for the general counsel the agency's account of the Mexico City photograph, "based on a file review as well as my recollections of the event." At the first meeting of the [Garrison Group](/programs/garrison-group/) on September 20 "Rocca felt that Garrison would indeed obtain a conviction of Shaw for conspiring to assassinate President Kennedy." On September 26 he circulated "a survey of possible courses of action": charges of impersonation against Gordon Novel and Donald P. Norton; an effort "to block or head off any attempts to put the Playboy article into the Congressional Record"; briefings of [Clark Clifford](/people/clark-clifford/) and [John McCone](/people/john-mccone/), who "is in a position to exert extensive influence in Catholic and Republican Party circles"; "Mr. [J. Edgar Hoover](/people/j-edgar-hoover/) is probably the single most important person to be considered in reacting to Garrison's false charges"; "carefully selected channels of communication lined up in advance" in the press; and "materials for covert exploitation" presenting the investigation as "wittingly or unwittingly designed to cover, exonerate or exculpate the Soviets in the Oswald case." He was to "work up a graphic of the organization as conceived by Garrison." In March 1968 he wrote that Garrison's charge of a plot by the agency and the military-industrial complex "is by and large a rehash."[^2][^3][^4]

### Later

The [Church Committee](/events/church-committee/) took his deposition on November 25, 1975, on the doctrine of counterespionage. The [House Select Committee on Assassinations](/events/hsca/) took his testimony on July 17, 1978. He died at Arlington Hospital of a stroke on November 11, 1993, aged 76.[^1][^5]

[^1]: "Raymond G. Rocca, CIA Official, Dies," *Washington Post,* November 13, 1993.
[^2]: Holland, Max. "The Lie That Linked CIA to the Kennedy Assassination," *Studies in Intelligence,* vol. 45, no. 5, 2001.
[^3]: Janney, F.W.M. Memoranda for the record, Garrison Group meetings no. 1 and 2, September 20 and 26, 1967, JFK records 104-10428-10023 and 104-10428-10022.
[^4]: Rocca, Raymond G. Memorandum, "This is a survey of possible courses of action," September 26, 1967, JFK record 104-10435-10022; draft memorandum to Lawrence Houston, "Garrison Allegations Re CIA Photograph in Warren Commission Report," May 12, 1967, JFK record 104-10005-10374.
[^5]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities. *Final Report, Book I*. S. Rept. 94-755, 1976, p. 167.; House Select Committee on Assassinations, security classified testimony of Raymond Rocca, July 17, 1978.