Castro's head worth 150,000 dollars: CIA files Show Chicago Mob Ties

AFP reports:

The CIA offered 150,000 dollars to members of the US mafia to kill Cuban President Fidel Castro with poison pills, according to classified documents released Tuesday.

"The mission target was Fidel Castro," said the 1973 document.

According to the documents, the man chosen for the "sensitive mission requiring gangster-type action" was Johnny Roselli, who found a second man for the mission, Sam Gold, whom the CIA discovered was actually Salvatore "Momo" Giancana, head of the Chicago mob and "successor to Al Capone."

Also recruited with Giancana was Santos Trafficant, and both were on the US attorney general's ten most-wanted fugitives list, according to the documents.

"It was to be made clear to Roselli that the United States Government was not, and should not, become aware of this operation," the document said.

The mafiosi recommended against the use of firearms to kill Castro, the document said, and suggested instead "some type of potent pill that could be placed in Castro's food or drink."

"Sam indicated that he had a prospective nominee in the person of Juan Orta, a Cuban official who had been receiving kick-back payments from the gambling interests, who still had access to Castro, and was in a financial bind," the memo said.

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