Charles Siragusa

[Ron Bulman]

11 minutes ago, Cliff Varnell said:

That’s it!  MKNAOMI.  Blood soluble rounds.

”Not a TSD problem.”  What could that have meant?

Technical Services Division, headed by Sidney Gottlieb.  Not a problem, for them, right up their alley.

[Cliff Varnell]

Two soft tissue entrance wounds, no exits, no bullets.

The Magic Button was pushed on Kennedy.

[Ron Bulman]

4 hours ago, Cliff Varnell said:

 

https://ratical.org/ratville/JFK/MKULTRA/19790410-IviewCharlesSiragusa.pdf

<quote on>

Siragusa knew George White well. Had visited the West Coast pad once or twice but remembered little of it. He stated that he had the reputation of a "straight guy" in the office; hence George and others would not have taken him into their confidence if any illicit activities had been going on. </q>

So Siragusa had a “straight guy” rep at the FBN.  As opposed to all the “crooked guys”?

How much illicit activity did Siragusa turn a blind eye to?

Siragusa resigned from the FBN in November ‘63.  I’d speculate he may have helped recruit the JFKA shooter team without knowing the target.

I think his self described reputation as a straight guy is blowing smoke.  He was right in the middle of a bunch of stuff from before WWII, to the JFKA if he resigned the FBN in November 1963, which I did not know.  This is all from A Terrible Mistake.  White and Garland Williams trained Siragusa at the FBN NYC facility in the late 1930's.  This first one, George Hunter White is running an experiment using drugs in interrogation in 1943 for the OSS.

"Also observing the effectiveness of these interrogation-drug sessions were OSS officers Charles Siragusa and Ulias C. Amos.  [As readers shall learn more about, Siragusa and Amos had come to New York for a meeting regarding what White referred to as the "Mafia Plan", an OSS assassination program.]  Pg. 219.

If we skip further towards the end of the book (it's 826 pages).  "Readers should note that FBN agent Charles Siragusa was very knowledgeable about them and was involved in many of the MKULTRA experiments, especially those conducted in New York City, Kentucky, and Atlanta.  In 1999, Dr. Sideny Gottlieb said, "We learned a lot from the Atlanta experiments.  The Agency learned that a persons psyche could be very disturbed by those means.  From earlie pre-Agency tests we found out that violence was relatively easy to draw out."  Pg. 449.

Skipping back.  Siragusa, a Sicilian-American who grew up in New York's notorious Lower East Side, fondly recalled OSS training in "jiu jitsu, dirty fighting, the handling of plastic explosives, and the use of other tools of sabotage."  Pg. 401.

It's also noted that in 1951 with the creation of the Kefauver Commission, the Senator's close friend FBN director Anslinger appointed two of his to agents, George Hunter White and Charles Siragusa as their (Only) investigators.  Pg. 401.  On another page I failed to note, they interviewed Jack Ruby.

Lastly.  Regarding your last sentence Cliff.  From a reproduction of Harvey's detailed handwritten notes.

3)  Maxim security: (highest not secure enough) & within KUBARK [CIA] only (e.g. how much does [Charles] Siragusa need to know?)  Pg. 326.

[Cliff Varnell]

Ron, you and Paul have posted terrific info. Thanks!

[Ron Bulman]

On 12/20/2023 at 6:19 PM, Paul Brancato said:

in responding to 7 pages of Arnold Silver notes discussing the creation of ZRRIFLE Harvey responded with two pages of his own. The words ‘The Magic Button’ appear at the top of the first page. Right below it Harvey drew a schematic that the author (she shows a picture of this) says looks to her like ‘a pistol-like contraption with a triggering mechanism shooting something forward’. ‘When the Church Committee asked Harvey what the Magic Button was, he said it was probably a euphemism for technology he had discussed with [Technical Services Division Chief] Sidney Gottlieb the day before.

Is Harvey's response to Silver available somewhere in the public domain?  I'd like to see his drawing of the 'Magic Button'.  I've never read of this, and my initial thought was along the lines of what Cliff first alluded to (I think), the FBN was the magic button itself.  Agents with deniability to the Company.

[Ron Bulman]

6 hours ago, Cliff Varnell said:

Ron, you and Paul have posted terrific info. Thanks!

For my part, your welcome and thanks for starting the thread.  Siragusa is somewhat incidental but supportive of what made me notice him.  Which is George Hunter White.

I discovered him personally in Stephen Kinzer's Poisoner in Chief about Dr. Sideny Gottlieb when it came out in 2019.  Then I found A Terrible Mistake by Hank from 2009 a few months ago.   Much of same info in both, some distinguishing info in both.  He really deserves his own thread.  Newly hired TSS Director Gottlieb hired George as a contract agent for the CIA, while still working for the FBN in 1953.  To develop and run the Beford St./Greenwich Village NYC safehouse for LSD experiments.

When things got too hot there with the neighbors/NYPD/press George went to Frisco and set up a new pad on what is it Telegraph Hill or Telegraph Road?  This time observing the effects of LSD, among other drugs combined with sex.  Much more to George than that.

[Paul Brancato]

8 hours ago, Ron Bulman said:

Is Harvey's response to Silver available somewhere in the public domain?  I'd like to see his drawing of the 'Magic Button'.  I've never read of this, and my initial thought was along the lines of what Cliff first alluded to (I think), the FBN was the magic button itself.  Agents with deniability to the Company.

I have no idea where Mary Haverstick dug up the document, but her book A Woman I Know has a long section on it, including the schematic drawn by Harvey. 

[Cliff Varnell]

I’ve got A Woman I Know and A Terrible Mistake on order.  The “Magic Button” and “How much does Siragusa need to know?” are highly intriguing.

[Ron Bulman]

I've not yet read ATM fully.  I ordered it in part because of Olson.  I'd seen Wormwood, read a little here and there about the story, but this was from Hank, who I respected from reading A Secret Order and I've read at least a couple of other researchers I respect also respected him, and I read the former is based in part on his work.  I also ordered it because I read a review commenting on the sub-chapter on George Hunter White.  Lastly, I did finally actually order it because I had just finished reading Coup in Dallas and ATM also has a sub-chapter on Pierre Laffite.  Who is also highly intriguing.

In ATM Hank mentions his forthcoming book on GHW.  I really wish he could have finished that.  It would be interesting even in an unfinished form imo.

One thing that piqued my interest in GHW.  In 1942 with the creation of the OSS, Henry Anslinger, head of the FBN had his NYC supervisor Garland Williams have GHW and Siragusa enrolled in the very first operations training class at (this is from memory) what was first called Camp X then Fort Peary not too far over the border in Canada.  After graduating George was made a trainer there.  One of his first classes included James Jesus Angleton, Richard Helms and Frank Wisner.

Which led to, about a dozen years later, White having drinks laced with acid with JJA in his home, before they went out to eat.  They got to laughing so hard they never ate a bite.

Reading the last reference to Siragusa took me to near the end of the book and I got interested in.  Which has a surprising ending compared to Wormwood.  Which I won't spoil here.  

[Ron Bulman]

3 hours ago, Ron Bulman said:

Which led to, about a dozen years later, White having drinks laced with acid with JJA in his home, before they went out to eat.  They got to laughing so hard they never ate a bite.

This was pretty hard for me to fathom initially.  Trippin with JJA in the mid 1950's?  I guess White "Saw it with his own two eyes"?

https://youtu.be/OJBQwOIMzDQ

 

[Denny Zartman]

On 12/23/2023 at 1:29 AM, Ron Bulman said:

Is Harvey's response to Silver available somewhere in the public domain?  I'd like to see his drawing of the 'Magic Button'.  I've never read of this, and my initial thought was along the lines of what Cliff first alluded to (I think), the FBN was the magic button itself.  Agents with deniability to the Company.

 

[Paul Brancato]

3 hours ago, Denny Zartman said:

 

Thanks Denny. 

[Ron Bulman]

9 minutes ago, Paul Brancato said:

Thanks Denny. 

Ditto.

[Cliff Varnell]

7 hours ago, Denny Zartman said:

 

Thanks Denny.  Your input is always appreciated.

[Denny Zartman]

My pleasure, I try to contribute what I can, though it isn't much. Thanks everyone for all your hard work and continuing research.