Description
Mafia Spies: The Inside Story of the CIA, Gangsters, JFK and Castro
From bestselling author Thomas Maier comes a true story of espionage and mobsters, based on the infamous “JFK files.” From Vegas to Miami to Havana, the shocking connections between the CIA, the mob and Sinatra’s Rat Pack—with new revelations and details. Mafia Spies is the definitive account of America’s most remarkable espionage plots ever—with CIA agents, mob hitmen, blackmail, presidential indiscretion and James Bond-like killing devices together in a top-secret mystery full of surprise twists and deadly intrigue.
In the early 1960s, two top gangsters—Johnny Roselli and Sam Giancana—were hired by the CIA to kill Cuba’s communist leader Fidel Castro, only to wind up murdered themselves amidst Congressional hearings and a national debate about the John F. Kennedy assassination.
Mafia Spies revolves around the outlaw friendship of these two mob buddies and their fascinating world of CIA spies, fellow Mafioso in Chicago, Cuban exile commandos in Miami, beautiful Hollywood women, famous entertainers like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford and Sammy Davis Jr. in Las Vegas, Castro’s own spies in Havana and his double agents hidden in Florida, J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI snooping, and the Kennedy administration’s “Get Castro” obsession in Washington.
Thomas Maier is among the first to take full advantage of the 2017-2018 release by the National Archives of the long-suppressed JFK files, many of which deal with the CIA’s top-secret anti-Castro operation in Florida and Cuba. With new investigative findings, Mafia Spies is a spy exposé, murder mystery and shocking true story that recounts America’s foray into the foreign assassination business—a tale with profound impact for today’s Trump era. Who killed Roselli and Giancana—and why wasn’t Castro assassinated despite the CIA’s many clandestine efforts? Find out in this real-life spy thriller that helps explain how the CIA and the Mob worked together to knock out “unwanted” national leaders and give U.S. intelligence “culpable deniability” for these brutal murders.
Sottcover, 432 pages, #861
