Pseudonym: Fiscalini, Charles
104-10303-10001: FILE ON FORD, CHARLES/RFK-MAFIA
Re 1961-63: 08/28/75, Memorandum from The Review Staff, Walter Elder to CIA Task Force: "Mike Madigan, SSC staff, reports that Mr. Helms and Mr. Halpern have testified that in response to a request by Attorney-General Robert Kennedy, the Agency assigned an office to establish contacts with the underworld to look for possible assets for use against Castro. Sam Halpern says the officer was Charles Ford who used the name, Rocky Siscalini. Madigan wants any information we have on this and would like to interview the Agency officer."
104-10310-10196: MEMORANDUM: SENATE SELECT COMMITTEE REQUEST (CHARLES FORD)
Re: 1961-63: 09/04/75, Memorandum from Robert Gambino, Director of Security to The Review Staff: "1. Reference is made to a 28 August 1975 memorandum from the Review Staff (75/2723), which contains a request from Mr. Mike Madigan, Senate Select Committee Staff, for information concerning the possible use by the Agency of one Charles Ford to establish contacts with the underworld for possible use against Fidel Castro. Referenced request indicated that Charles Ford was an Agency officer, who was utilizing the name 'Rocky Siscalini.' 2. A review of the Office of Security indices disclosed both an overt and covert file on one Charles D. Ford (SF #38 497), a current Agency employee serving with the Office of Training/Deputy Directorate for Administration. Cited files disclosed that circa 1962-1963, Charles D. Ford was issued official alias documentation under the name 'Charles D. Fiscalini.' 3. Charles D. Ford has been an Agency staff employee since 1952. The Office of Security files relating to Mr. Ford do not contain any information which would indicate he had been used to contact underworld figures for possible use against Fidel Castro. However, in November 1961 Ford was assigned to the Deputy Directorate for Operations, Western Hemisphere Division as an Operations Officer. A memorandum contained in his files, dated 30 March 1962, indicates that Mr. Ford was issued alias documentation under the name of 'Charles D. Fiscalini.' Cited memorandum further indicates that Mr. Ford was then assigned to 'Task Force W,' and was to travel to New York on 31 March 1962 to meet with an unidentified attorney who had contacted Mr. Robert Kennedy, the then Attorney General, concerning assistance for Cuban prisoners...On 10 July 1963, cited alias documentation was returned to Headquarters, noting that Mr. Ford was being reassigned within the Agency and would no longer require the use of the alias documentation..."
104-10303-10001: FILE ON FORD, CHARLES/RFK-MAFIA
Re 1961: 09/19/75, Memorandum for the record from Charles D. Ford, Chief, Training Services Staff, OTR: Subject: Interview by Senate Committee Investigators: "1. On Thursday, 18 September 1975, I was interviewed for the second time by investigators from the Senate Committee. The interview lasted from approximately 11:20 a.m. until 1:15 p.m. My testimony was recorded and will be transcribed. When the transcription is ready I will be required to read it and swear to the truthfulness of the statements I made...4. The investigators were interested in when I was assigned the code name Fiscalini; the circumstances under which the name was assigned, and who had assigned it. I told them I had seen a Xerox copy of the memorandum (I saw this during a meeting with Bill Sturbitts last Friday in Bill's office) which requested that identification in the name of Fiscalini be assigned to me...Mr. Robert Kelly was clearly interested in pursuing the matter of who assigned my 'Code Name.' I indicated that the documentation that I received came from the Office of Security but that I did not know whether that Office selected the name or not... "...we spent a great deal of time going over my meetings with the Attorney General and his interest in his small group of Cubans who claimed to have supporters in Cuba ready to create an uprising in Santiago province. This is the case described in paragraph 3 of my earlier memorandum..." (CONTINUED BELOW)
157-10002-10387: TESTIMONY OF JOHN ROSELLI, 22 SEP 1975
Page 10: ..."Mr. Postal: Mr. Roselli, do you know a man, or did you ever meet a man by the name of Fiscalini? Mr. Roselli: The name does not mean anything to me at all..."09/22/75, SSCIA testimony of John Roselli:
104-10324-10000: INTERVIEW WITH SAM HALPERN BY BRIAN LATELL AND MICHAEL WARNER
Re 1961-62: 04/07/98, CIA History Staff interview: Page 17: ...(SH): "Bill Harvey's office here (motions with his hands). Bruce Cheever's office here. Mine over here, and the secretaries out in what we called the bullpen. There was a big section in here where we had a bunch of special assistants, and Charley Ford was one of those who sat in here. There were about four or five guys in there doing all kinds of different things. Charley never, as far as I know, never spoke. I know he never spoke to me about who he saw - what they talked about - and I never never saw any intelligence information to disseminate, and as far as I know Charley never had any intelligence information to disseminate...Sy was the one who found, in doing his researches, he found, as a result of the Kennedy Assassination Records Review Board...Angie Novella, in her log - her appointment and telephone log for 1962 - puts down General Carter, Charles Ford (Fiscalini), for a date, for a meeting with Bobby Kennedy..." Page 18: ..."Chuck (Briggs) now tells me that not only did I testify - and he's looking at my transcript of my testimony - but he also has Charley Ford's testimony...That he actually was assigned to Bobby and did what Bobby had asked him to do. Which is to go meet Mafia types...People have said that, as a result of this, that Charley and Bobby must have been working on using the Mafia in some kind of assassination plots..." Page 20: ...(SH)..."Sy once called me when he was still doing his research on the book...He called me on the phone one morning..'How does Fiscalini strike you?' I said, 'where in the goddamned hell did you ever get that name?'...Well because it's got Ford and Fiscalini but it could be Ford. He gave me Fiscalini. There were only two guys in the world that I knew of that had that name. We never told Harvey, we never told Bruce Cheever....When Sy said 'Fiscalini', I said 'You got me hands down.' I said 'It's the only time I ever lied to you.' It was true..."
104-10303-10001: FILE ON FORD, CHARLES/RFK-MAFIA
Re: 1962-1963: 09/19/75, Memorandum for the record from Charles D. Ford, Chief, Training Services Staff, OTR: Subject: Interview by Senate Committee Investigators: Page 7: ...7. Messrs. Postal and Rhea again brought up the subject of assassination and asked whether I had engaged in or I had heard mention of, in Task Force W or SAS, discussions on the subject of assassination either in general or specifically with respect to Castro. I told the investigators that the subject came up repeatedly when we were speaking with Cubans, many of whom, having been forced to flee Cuba, sincerely wished for Castro's immediate demise. I said that I had never heard of or engaged in conversations with Agency officers about any plan the direct and only aspect of which was the assassination of Fidel Castro. I pointed out that on a number of occasions I dealt with Cubans who wanted to kill Castro, but that my job was simply to attempt to extract from the contacts the names of people in Cuba who might be of potential use to us in intelligence operations. I said that I had never engaged in plotting with Cubans regarding assassination but that I had many conversations with Cubans regarding their desire to conduct paramilitary activities, which, as a by-product, might well result in Castro's death. I pointed out emphatically that the Agency's policy prohibits political assassination...13. I was asked whether I used the name Fiscalini in circumstances other than those described. I said that I frequently carried identification in that name and used it on several occasions. I described one occasion which was an amusing one-time contact with no bearing on any item of interest to the committee. The investigator asked whether I had ever contacted Cubans in Miami and I replied in the negative..."
104-10310-10061: SSC/HSC REQUEST AND RESPONSE
Memo from C. S. Gikas to Chief, SD/2, Subject: Charles D. Ford, #38497 - "On 30 March 1962 Jerry Mullane, WH Security Officer verbally requested security approval for an alias CIA documentation card for the captioned subject. The alias to be used is Charles D. Fiscalini. Mullane explained that the subject is assigned to Task Force W and is scheduled to travel to New York on 31 March 1962 to contact an attorney in that city. The New York attorney reportedly contacted Mr. Robert Kennedy, Attorney General, and offered his services to help some of the Cuban prisoners who are currently scheduled for trial in Cuba. Mullane advised that the Attorney General referred the matter to the Agency with instructions to follow through. I gave a verbal Security approval to CIA Cover Employee REDACTED CS Badge Office for the issuance of the CIA ID Card #3429...I called Dottie Turner, Office of Personnel, and furnished her the Subject's alias for backstopping purposes so that she would be in a position to acknowledge the Subject under that alias in response to any legitimate inquiries." Page 12: 7/30/62: Ford is defined as Special Assistant of the Chief of TFW.
104-10332-10023: ARRB-CIA ISSUES: COMPLIANCE WITH JFK ACT-PERSONAL DECLARATIONS
Re 3/31/62: 06/09/97, Memorandum from Withheld, Office: OPS/CD/IMB to Becky L. Rant and Frieda P. Omasta: Subject: Record Search, Charles D. Ford, AIN 0038497: ..."30 Mar 62 - MFR, Subject was provided with an alias (Fiscalini) for Task Force 'W' to travel to New York on 31 Mar 62 to contact an attorney in that city. Attorney General, Robert Kennedy, offered his services to help some of the Cuban prisoners scheduled for trial in Cuba. Subject received verbal approval for his alias..."
Joan Mellen, The Kennedy Assassination and the Current Political Moment (01/28/2007)
Circa 1962: "I located a document from the CIA’s own Secret History, in which the CIA’s History Staff is interviewing a CIA officer named Sam Halpern. Halpern reveals his own incredulity that Bobby Kennedy should be working with the Mafia in attempts on the life of Castro at the very same time that he was trying to send other Mafia figures to jail. A CIA operative named Charley Ford, alias Charley Fiscalini, was assigned by Bobby Kennedy to make contact with Mafia types in this country and Canada for the purpose of murdering Castro. To all this, Charley Ford testified under oath before the Church Committee. That Bobby Kennedy repeatedly attempted to enlist anti-Castro Cubans for these assassination attempts against Castro I learned first-hand from Isidro Borja (AMHINT-5), of the DRE. “I know Bobby Kennedy was behind it,” he told me indignantly, “because his people approached ME!” Borja told me Bobby’s people did succeed in recruiting his good friend Rafael Quintero Ibaria, also known as “Chi Chi.” - See more at: http://joanmellen.com/wordpress/speeches/the-kennedy-assassination-and-the-current-political-moment/#sthash.yVfrd0ji.dpuf
Re 1962-1964: 10/16/75, Memorandum from Withheld, Chief, Latin American Division (signed by Raymond A. Warren) to The Review Staff: "1. The Latin American Division has interviewed Mr. Charles Ford regarding the use of the alias documentation issued to him under the name 'Charles D. Fiscalini' to determine if Ford could recall specific individuals he contacted under this alias. In addition, we have reviewed pertinent files in an effort to reconstruct Ford's use of this alias. 2. In 1962 Mr. Ford met with sponsors of Mario Oscar Garcia Antiga aka Mario Garcia Kohly, Sr., (and on one occasion with Kohly) in which he used the alias 'Rocky Fiscalini.' Kohly was a Cuban exile and has been characterized as a gifted charlatan and confidence man who was talented in impressing people with access to high level USG circles. Some of Kohly's associates had dubious reputations and others were solid, well-meaning U.S. citizens who desired to assist Kohly in his efforts to overthrow Fidel Castro. In October 1963 Kohly was arrested by the United States Secret Service on charges of counterfeiting Cuban currency. Subsequently, Kohly was indicted, convicted and sentenced to one year's imprisonment on 16 July 1964. This Agency had no operational relationship with Kohly. 3. We have been unable to document that Mr. Ford used the alias 'Rocky Fiscalini' to establish contacts with the underworld for possible use against Fidel Castro."