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Maheu on Harvey


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Here is Harvey making the connection to Maheu and confirming that they were in the same class at the FBI Academy. It's interesting that they both left the FBI in 1947 and both began their careers at CIA the same year. As far as the meeting discussed in the document and as to whether Maheu attended, I'd tend to believe O'Connell (who didn't trust Harvey at all).

 

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=107516&relPageId=47

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Great work Chris!  To some extent they seem to have similar personalities including being not that great a fit inside the FBI - or is that just my impression?

I have to say the meeting thing is very confusing to me, we know O'connell helped arrange the deal to bring Roselli into Phase 1 of the project in 1960 and having Meheau involved as a broker makes sense to me.  Harvey at that meeting makes no sense based on what we think we know.   On the other hand, a meeting with Harvey, Roselli and O'connell when Harvey takes over Mongoose and starts Phase 2 makes great sense but I'm missing any obvious reason for involving Meheau again.  Maybe I'm just getting lost and mixing up meetings?

 

Edited by Larry Hancock
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As I remember it, Larry, Maheu was the cut-out for phase one. His involvement was designed to gave the CIA plausible deniability--so that the mafia could never say the CIA hired them to kill Castro, and at best could say Maheu hired them on behalf a client--who could presumably have been Howard Hughes. This was the reason given, moreover, for Maheu's telling Hughes about the plots. (Note: this turned out to be nonsense. Maheu would later admit he told the mafia up front he was working for the CIA and not Hughes.)

In any event, when O'Connell bowed out, and turned the license to kill over to Harvey, the CIA could very well have still thought their cover was intact--or at the very least that they should go on pretending their cover was intact. Thus, Maheu's presence at the meeting.

Harvey, of course, said the heck with it and became bosom buds with Roselli.

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Pat I follow you, although I don't so much see Meheu acting as a cut out or cover throughout all of Phase I.  Once the initial  contact had been made, with Roselli on board and actually operational he was was meeting and working with CIA guys directly in Miami throughout Phase I without Meheu. 

So why introduce him when it restarts, especially since Harvey very clearly wanted to separate Roselli from everyone who had been involved previously.  Now if Roselli was gun shy and hesitant about going on, maybe Meheu had to be used to make the personal introduction and assure Roselli that Harvey was trustworthy, old school chum, salt of the earth, carries two guns, trusts nobody, lots better than the CIA wimps you were dealing with before, this time its really serious?  

Here is an interesting point though, we now know that Roselli was actually paid a substantial sum to participate in Phase I, it was not just expense money.  I don't know that money has ever been discussed for Phase 2, however we do know that Helms funded ZR/RIFLE and I suspect that funding went for Castro assassination operations, with some to Roselli; it would be interesting to know how much.

In any event, the more I think about it Meheu does make some sense in the first meeting with Harvey, primarily as a reference and giving a personal endorsement on Harvey's character.  As we know, with Roselli it was all personal trust.

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I'm confused by this memo from the Director of Security to the CIA IG concerning a tape recorded of Maheu and O'Connell in 1967. I know Maheu was being bugged by the FBI so the fact that there is a tape and transcript isn't the confusing part. Look at Section 4, is the CIA Director of Security asking the IG about the missing parts of Maheu's file?

 

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=110929#relPageId=2&tab=page

 

Edited by Chris Newton
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This memo from CIA Dir. of Security to FBI Director states that Roselli called Maheu, during a meeting at a hotel, trying to contact Edwards or O'Connell (who coincidentally were the only other two people attending that meeting).

This is the entire " A Team" that handled Roselli in Phase 1 before Harvey took over. Raises a lot of questions...

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=110969#relPageId=2&tab=page

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Chris, doing this from memory but this was during the 1966 period when the FBI had determined that Roselli had entered the country illegally and was trying to pressure him into becoming an informant. At this point in time the FBI was communicating with the CIA trying to get info on him and possibly testing the waters to see if the CIA would in any way endorse or support him - which they did not.  In turn Roselli was putting out his own feelers in regard to any possible CIA support.

This all happened before Roselli dived off the deep end at the end of 1966 and began his bombshell effort to take a Castro blowback story to Washington (in a preemptive strike against the Garrison inquiry).

So some of this correspondence may have to do with both agencies trying to get their stories and files straight on Roselli as the FBI was deciding whether he would cave in and become a crime informant or they would need to move to bring charges and deport him. It was certainly a confusing period since the CIA wanted nothing to do with it  yet the FBI knew all the details of the Phase I plots (maybe not Phase 2), of Meheu's involvement etc.  Basically there was a lot of probing, testing of the waters and dancing around by all parties concerned - with Roselli still  under intense FBI surveillance and even harassment.

And in 1967 it even got more intense with Jack Anderson's "Political H Bomb" story and Roselli and his representatives floating stories in DC and Johnson asking the CIA for briefings on the Castro assassination and everybody running around in a frenzy after the Garrison investigation became public.

Edited by Larry Hancock
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2 hours ago, Larry Hancock said:

Chris, doing this from memory but this was during the 1966 period when the FBI had determined that Roselli had entered the country illegally and was trying to pressure him into becoming an informant. At this point in time the FBI was communicating with the CIA trying to get info on him and possibly testing the waters to see if the CIA would in any way endorse or support him - which they did not.  In turn Roselli was putting out his own feelers in regard to any possible CIA support.

Hey Larry. Yes, I knew about the above in general and I knew about the operational split between O'Connell's handling of Roselli and Harvey's taking it over.

This (the meeting above) is all taking place at about the same time CIA was letting Harvey go, so I can't believe it's a coincidence that Roselli is calling Maheu and asking to talk to Edwards or O'Connell at the instant they are all having a "meeting".

I'm looking at Joe Shimon's testimony now. I get the impression that Harvey was furious at Maheu and even mentioned to Roselli that he, (Maheu) should be killed in front of Shimon.

links coming soon after I review and process ...

 

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"This (the meeting above) is all taking place at about the same time CIA was letting Harvey go, so I can't believe it's a coincidence that Roselli is calling Maheu and asking to talk to Edwards or O'Connell at the instant they are all having a "meeting".I'm looking at Joe Shimon's testimony now. I get the impression that Harvey was furious at Maheu and even mentioned to Roselli that he, (Maheu) should be killed in front of Shimon.

Chris, just to be straight on the timing, this meeting is occurring as Harvey is being separated from the CIA.  Of course that is the same time that everybody is trying to step away from Roselli over the FBI probes and pressure.  I don't see it as hard to believe that Roselli would be asking for help over the FBI pressure from Harvey, but of course he was in no position to help him. Roselli's only other point of appeal would be via Maheu and O'Connell - but Maheu had no real leverage no matter what he might have claimed earlier and why would O'Connell even care.  The only card Roselli held was the Castro assassination story, which he began to float in Washington in December, 66.  Maheu himself was irate about how Roselli was being treated and but he is also on record as being angry about all the folks who began to appear to give Roselli advice on how to respond at that time...possibly encouraging him to use the Castro story. He talks about how much they were hanging out Roselli after using him.

So, you have Maheu and Harvey both as close personal friends of Roselli and Roselli in grave trouble with the FBI and the FBI irritating the CIA again over the Castro plots.  I see no particular reason why these folks would not be talking to and about each other at that point in time.  What I don't see is why Harvey would be so mad at Meheau  - even talking about killing him.  Did he blame Meheu for starting the whole thing?  Was Meheu giving Roselli some advice Harvey didn't like?  So he's talking about killing Meheu in front of Roselli....is that just to cover up loose ends.  I see no sign that Roselli himself hated Meheu or ever really broke off with him...what's Harvey's real problem here?  The only thing I can figure is that Meheu had made a lot of promises which he had no power to really keep when it hit the fan. And of course the FBI knows all about these people and about Phase I from the bugging incident connected to Meheu...its not like anything knew could come into play other than Roselli himself going public with the story...which of course he did within a few months, but in a very controlled fashion, keeping his name out of the papers but known to all the real players. 

 

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Larry, I think you have set a record for how many wrong ways to spell Maheu's name.

 

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Yep, and I'm trying to break it....disclaimer....if anyone expects me to worry about spelling on forum posts...do not read further, life is too short.  I worry about it some when I write for publication but that's what editors are for...Jim, when you reach my age you begin parsing your concerns...grin

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 11/10/2016 at 0:40 PM, Chris Newton said:

Here is Harvey making the connection to Maheu and confirming that they were in the same class at the FBI Academy. It's interesting that they both left the FBI in 1947 and both began their careers at CIA the same year. As far as the meeting discussed in the document and as to whether Maheu attended, I'd tend to believe O'Connell (who didn't trust Harvey at all).

 

I don't see anything sinister about a couple of FBI agents joining the CIA in '47.  That's when the CIA was created and plenty of government agents from all over the federal executive org chart made the move.

 

 

 

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38 minutes ago, Tony Rose said:

I don't see anything sinister about a couple of FBI agents joining the CIA in '47.  That's when the CIA was created and plenty of government agents from all over the federal executive org chart made the move.

I would agree, there were many that did exactly as you suggest.

But here, in this thread, we're not discussing two random FBI Agents with no operational interests. There are more possible connections that I've been developing.

You take Maheu's word, under oath, that he may have met Harvey but doesn't recall if he did?

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