The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Castro plots, CIA rumors and strippers
Newly released JFK documents reopen world of espionage.
President Donald Trump ordered the release of more than 2,800 records related to the John F. Kennedy assassination on Thursday, but bowed to pressure from the CIA, FBI and other agencies to delay disclosing some of the most sensitive documents for another six months. Even so, the thousands of pages that were published online by the National Archives on Thursday evening describe decades of spies and surveillance, informants and assassination plots.
More than a dozen reporters and editors for The Washington Post combed through the documents Thursday night. Here are some of the wildest things they found, some of which have been reported about before and some new.
$100K to kill Castro
A 1964 FBI memo describes a meeting in which Cuban exiles tried to set a price on the heads of Fidel Castro, Raul Castro and Ernesto “Che” Guevara. “It was felt that the $150,000.00 to assassinate FIDEL CASTRO plus $5,000 expense money was too high,” the memo noted. At a subsequent meeting, they settled on more modest sums: $100,000 for Fidel, $20,000 for Raul and $20,000 for Che.
Or maybe just 2 cents
Another document describes the well-known CIA scheme called Operation Bounty that sought to overthrow Cuba’s government, and established a system of financial rewards for Cubans for “killing or delivering alive known Communists.” The CIA would let Cubans know of the plan by dropping leaflets in the air, but there were rules: A reward would be paid to an individual upon presentation of a leaflet, with “conclusive” proof of death and dead person’s party/revolutionary membership card. Cubans who played along would get a certain dollar amount based on the title of the Communist who they had killed. They’d get up to $100,000 for government officials and $57,500 for “department heads.” Castro, perhaps for symbolic reasons, would earn a Cuban only 2 cents.
Call girl won’t dish
A 1960 FBI memo described a “high-priced Hollywood call girl” who was approached by Fred Otash, a well-known Los Angeles private investigator, seeking information about sex parties involving then-Sen. John F. Kennedy, his brother-in-law actor Peter Lawford, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. “She told the agents that she was unaware of any indiscretions,” the memo said.
Looking for ‘Kitty’
An FBI file contains information on the bureau’s attempt to locate a stripper named “Kitty,” last name unknown. According to the file, another stripper named Candy Cane said Kitty had been an associate of Jack Ruby, the Dallas nightclub owner who killed Oswald on Nov. 24, 1963. Leon Cornman, business agent with the American Guild of Variety Artists in New Orleans, told the FBI that “the only stripper he knew by the name of Kitty who worked in New Orleans was Kitty Raville.”
“He advised (that) Raville committed suicide in New Orleans in August or September 1963,” the report states.
KKK: LBJ had joined
In an internal FBI report from May 1964, an informant told the FBI that the Ku Klux Klan said it “had documented proof that President Johnson was formerly a member of the Klan in Texas during the early days of his political career.” The “documented proof ” was not provided.
A bribe for Batista
An internal FBI memo dated Jan. 22, 1960, discusses an alleged plot to bribe a U.S. congressman and bring deposed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista to the United States. The memo, citing information provided by a Miami arms dealer, says that in exchange for securing entry into the United States for Batista, $150,000 would be split between U.S. Rep. Abraham Multer of New York, a Miami Beach attorney, and two Batista “adherents” in Miami. The FBI took the alleged plot seriously enough to investigate but Batista himself “turned down the proposition.”.
An exploding seashell
Some of the papers recounted the agency’s well-chronicled schemes to kill Castro. One document, a summary of the CIA’s plans to assassinate foreign leaders, recounted how the CIA tried to use James B. Donovan, the American lawyer and negotiator recently made famous by the movie “Bridge of Spies,” for one plot. He would give Castro a contaminated skin-diving suit while the two negotiated for the release of the Bay of Pigs prisoners.
“It was known that Fidel Castro liked to skindive. The CIA plan was to dust the inside of the suit with a fungus producing madera foot, a disabling and chronic skin disease, and also contaminating the suit with tuberculosis bacilli in the breathing apparatus,” the paper said. Donovan didn’t go through it.
Another outlandish plot described talks of prepping a “booby-trap spectacular seashell” that would be submerged in an area Castro enjoyed diving. The seashell would be loaded with explosives that would go off once lifted. “After investigation, it was determined that there was no shell in the Caribbean area large enough to hold a sufficient amount of explosive which was spectacular enough to attract the attention of Castro.”
The CIA theory
The records also reveal a deposition given before the presidential Commission on CIA Activities in 1975 by Richard Helms, who had served as the agency’s director. David Belin, an attorney for the commission, asked whether the CIA was involved in Kennedy’s killing.
“Well, now, the final area of my investigation relates to charges that the CIA was in some way conspiratorially involved with the assassination of President Kennedy. During the time of the Warren Commission, you were Deputy Director of Plans, is that correct?” Belin asked.
After Helms replied that he was, Belin then asked: “Is there any information involved with the assassination of President Kennedy which in any way shows that Lee Harvey Oswald was in some way a CIA agent or agent...”
Then, suddenly, the document cuts off.