Richard Cain: Deaths linked to JFK Assassination by Operation 40. By Gualdo Hidalgo, Latin Heritage Foundation's publisher
Cain had dinner with his daughter Kimberly on the night of 19th December. He told her he had a meeting with Marshall Caifano the following day at Rose's Sandwich Shop on Chicago's West Side. Michael Gilardi dropped Cain off at Rose's at 11:40. Gilardi usually stayed with Cain but this time he said he had a doctor's appointment. They talked over lunch and were joined by two others at one point. Califano asked Cain to get something. Cain left Rose's about 12.30 by cab and returned an hour later. Caifano was gone but in his place was two men wearing ski masks who held four customers, a waitress, and Jelly Cozzo, the owner at gunpoint against a back wall.
Cain was ordered to stand against the wall. One of the men, who was holding a sawed-off shotgun, shot him through the bottom of his chin. The blast tore away the right side of his face. The man then searched Cain and removed a slip of paper before leaving in the waiting car.
Apparently, Sam Giancana was upset when he heard about Cain's death. He told friends he was like a son to him. However, he had been in no position to protect him from the mafia. In his book, The Tangled Web: The Life and Death of Richard Cain (2008), Michael J. Cain argues that one of the gunman was Butch Petrocelli, who was himself murdered six months later. His mouth and nose was covered with duct tape, to keep him from screaming while his face was melted with a blowtorch. The other gunman is believed to be Harry Aleman.=
Richard Cain was born in Chicago on 5th October, 1931. His father, John Cain, worked in a steel mill. His mother was Lydia Scully, the daughter of Ole Scully, who had been murdered on the orders of Angelo Petiti on 17th December, 1928, to stop him testifying in a kidnapping case.
As Michael J. Cain points out: "Their marriage, already a stormy one, was laced with frequent and sometimes violent fights that became intolerable to them both... Finally, after seven years of mutual agony, they separated - and divorced six months later, in 1938."
Lydia Cain did not want to look after her son and in 1939 he was sent to live with his father's parents on their farm in Owosso, Michigan. He attended St. Paul's Catholic School and only spent short-periods of time with his mother in Chicago. The author of The Tangled Web: The Life and Death of Richard Cain (2008) argues: "In Chicago, Richard learned about the streets and about being being tough. Lydia gave him neither love nor direction. He had no curfew and no restrictions of any kind. He learned to shoot pool, wield a knife, and fight as fiercely as someone twice his size."
CIA Operation 40 killed JFK and more than one hundred witnesses
Operation 40 was the code name for a Central Intelligence Agency-sponsored counterintelligence group composed mostly by Cuban exiles. It was approved by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in March 1960, after the January 1959 Cuban Revolution. The group was presided over by Richard Nixon and included Admiral Arleigh Burke, Livingston Merchant of the State Department, National Security Adviser Gordon Gray, and Allen Dulles of the CIA. CIA assembled virtually the same team that was involved in the removal of Arbenz: Tracey Barnes, Richard Bissell, David Morales, David Atlee Phillips, E. Howard Hunt, Rip Robertson and Henry Hecksher. Added to this list were several agents who had been involved in undercover operations in Germany: Ted Shackley, Tom Clines and William Harvey. Tracy Barnes functioned as head of the Cuban Task Force. He called a meeting on January 18, 1960, in his office in Quarters Eyes, near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, which the navy had lent while new buildings were being constructed in Langley. Those who gathered there included Howard Hunt, future head of the Watergate team and a writer of crime novels; Frank Bender, a friend of Trujillo; Jack Esterline, who had come straight from Venezuela where he directed a CIA group; psychological warfare expert David A. Phillips, and others. Vice-President Richard Nixon was the Cuban "case officer," and had assembled an important group of businessmen headed by George Bush Sr and Jack Crichton, both Texas oilmen, as fundraisers. Operation 40, Mexico-City-1963. Special operation allegedly charged with assasinating Fidel Castro (killed a bunch of other people instead), Other members: William King Harvey; Thomas G. Clines; Porter Goss; Gerry Patrick Hemming; David Sanchez Morales; Carl Elmer Jenkins; Bernard Barker William Robert “Tosh” Plumlee; William C. Bishop; Ted Shackley – CIA station-chief in Miami after the Bay of Pigs invasion; Jose Sanjenis Perdomo – former Chief of Police during Cuban President Carlos Prio’s regime; Frank Sturgis; Felix Rodriguez Mendigutia; Antonio Veciana; Luis Posada Carriles; Orlando Bosch; Rafael ‘Chi Chi’ Quinterol Roland Masferrer; Eladio del Vallel Guillermo Novo; Carlos Bringuier; Eugenio Martinez (‘Musculito’); Antonio Cuesta; Hermino Diaz Garcia;m Juan Manuel Salvat; Ricardo Morales Navarrete; Isidro Borjas; Virgilio Paz Romero; Jose Dionisio Suarez; Felipe Rivero; Gaspar ‘Gasparito’ Jimenez Escobedo; Nazario Sargent; Pedro Luis Diaz Lanz; Jose Basulto; Alvin Ross; William “Rip” Robertson; Ricardo Morales Navarrete; Bernard Barker; Paulino Sierra; Barry Seal
Lydia was friendly with Mafia mobster, Sam Giancana. It was during his numerous stays in Chicago that Richard Cain got to know Giancana. In July 1947, when he was sixteen years old, he got into trouble with the law. Cain decided to join the United States Army.
After basic training at Fort Knox, and training as a radioman at Fort Hood, Texas, Cain was sent to Japan. Later he was posted to the Virgin Islands where he worked as a supply clerk and a part-time MP. In January 1949 he married his first-wife, who already had a child. He wrote to his mother: "I love the child as much as my wife! True, she made a mistake. Lots of people do. Would it be correct for me to shun her because her husband was a louse?"
Richard Cain was discharged the army on 23rd June, 1950. He took his family to Miami where a Chicago friend introduced him to a private detective named John Buenz, who had been in Burma with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during the Second World War. Buenz had originally lived in Cuba and was a close friend of Fulgencio Batista, who was living in exile in Fort Lauderdale. Batista was one of Buenz's most important clients. In 1952 Cain was sent into Cuba to monitor government activity for various clients in the Miami area. It was during this period Cain became an expert in installing wiretaps.
In 1953 Cain and his family moved to Bay City, Michigan, where his father lived with his new family. Cain got a job as a bartender. The two men argued and six months later he moved to Chicago where he was employed as a security officer with United Parcel Service (UPS). His work involved credit card fraud, burglaries and hijackings.
Cain made contact with old family friend, Sam Giancana. According to Michael J. Cain it was during this time he became a made member of the Chicago mob. Cain argues that "he participated in arranging numerous burglaries in UPS warehouses and the hijacking of UPS trucks." Despite this criminal behaviour he was promoted to Chief of Security. "As long as he delivered by solving cases, and no one was able to analyze the cases he didn't solve, he could pull it off. UPS became the proving ground for the Dick Cain style of police work."
In 1955 took a six-week course at the Keeler Institute of Polygraph to learn how to operate a polygraph machine, a lie detector. Later that year, Cain applied to join the Chicago Police Department. It had been Giancana's idea as he needed "an inside guy, a bagman to make the payments he regularly gave to the department."
Initially, he was rejected as being too short, at five feet seven inches, with eyesight that tested at 20/200. However, Sam Giancana arranged for the right people to be paid and he managed to grow a full inch and improve his eyesight to the required standard. Cain was accepted into the CPD in May 1956. Soon afterwards he married Rosemary Frazier, a part-time model he met while conducting a vice investigation.
Cain started off as a patrolman but with the help of Giancana, Cain was promoted to the detective bureau. According to the author of The Tangled Web: The Life and Death of Richard Cain (2008): "Giancana matched Dick's $9,000-a-year city salary, plus bonuses...Once he was assigned to the detective bureau, Dick was Giancana's bagman the first week or so of each month, delivering envelopes up and down the chain of command. Captains and above would generally get a personal visit with a very subtle pass of the envelope. Patrolmen, Sergeants and Lieutenants generally had to come and fetch their share, perhaps at a neighborhood bar."
Cain developed a reputation as being a good cop when he was dealing with non-mob-related activities. He often invited the press along to raid on brothels and gambling dens. This resulted in him getting his name and photograph in the newspapers. This usually involved him holding a Thompson sub-machine gun. He also worked closely with Jack Mabley of the Chicago American, who was a crusading columnist who was investigating corruption. This included information that resulted in a crooked judge being sent to prison.
In February 1959, Cain and his partner, Gerry Shallow, arrested a 68 year-old prostitute named Grace Van Scoyk. They confiscated more than $100,000 in cash from the premises. Scoyk eventually got this money back but she claimed that $60,000 had disappeared from her safe deposit box and that Cain had taken her key. Cain denied the charge and he escaped prosecution for this offence.
The following month Harry Figel resisted arrest and was shot dead by Cain and Shallow. According to the report written by the Chief of Detectives, Cain posed as a homosexual but when he realised he had been caught in a trap "he quickly stepped back, drew a pistol from his pocket and fired twice at both Cain and Shallow... after this overt display of viciousness, the Detectives then withdrew their pistols from their holsters and returned the fire." The report added that "the actions of the two investigators truly displays exemplary action and bravery".
Cain later told a different story. He claimed he shot Figel three times in the body and then Shallow shot him in the head when he was defenceless on the ground. The family claimed that Figel had been murdered and during a FBI investigation into the case, they discovered a witness to the killing, Thomas Francis O'Donnell. He claimed that Figel had not opened fire on the police officers. In fact, several friends said he did never carried a gun. Further investigation showed that the gun at the scene of the crime had been stolen from a house in Chicago, one week before Figel was killed. Another investigation by Figel's lawyer, Edward L. Kelly, traced the gun back to Richard Cain.
In a letter sent to United States Attorney Robert Tieken, Kelly pointed out that Cain's expenses greatly exceeded his income: "Cain supports his present wife, his former wife, and children, rents at a hotel and maintains two apartments... Cain appears to be engaged in various activities of prostitution and extortion." The letter was sent to the FBI but it was decided that the matter should be dropped.
Cain left the Sex Bureau and was assigned to help Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard B. Ogilvie with an income tax case against Mafia boss, Anthony Accardo. Ogilvie was impressed with the amount of information he obtained. What he did not know was that this had come from Sam Giancana. As the author of The Tangled Web: The Life and Death of Richard Cain pointed out: "From Giancana's perspective, Dick's job was to provide enough information to convince Ogilvie that he was a crack investigator and along the way to introduce a couple of flaws in the case to ensure that it would be over-turned." This is in fact what happened. Accordo was convicted for income tax evasion but it was overturned on appeal.
In January 1960, Richard Cain and Gerry Shallow were recruited by the Illinois State's Attorney Ben Adamowski via Paul Newey to spy on Irwin Cohen, who worked for Richard Daley as his commissioner of investigations. Cohen was paid a salary of $20,000 per year, plus an operating budget of $100,000. Adamowski was a Republican and he feared Cohen was looking for examples of corruption against fellow members of his party.
Cain was caught installing a camera aimed at the door to Cohen's office, to photograph everyone who came and went. Following an investigation that lasted four months, Cain was forced to resign from the Chicago Police Department. It is believed Paul Newey paid Cain $1500 and was told to leave Chicago in order to let things "cool down".
In May 1960 Cain was appointed to assist in the investigation of police corruption in the city of Springfield, Missouri. His main role was to administer polygraph tests to members of the police department. His report to the city council resulted in the firing of thirteen police officers, including the chief of police.
On his return to Chicago he established Accurate Laboratories. According to his business card he specialized in "investigations, guard services, undercover operatives and polygraph examination". Unofficially, he also provided a wiretap service.
In 1960 Richard Bissell and Allen W. Dulles decided to work with the Mafia in a plot to assassinate Fidel Castro. The advantage of employing the Mafia for this work is that it provided CIA with a credible cover story. The Mafia were known to be angry with Castro for closing down their profitable brothels and casinos in Cuba. If the assassins were killed or captured the media would accept that the Mafia were working on their own.
In August 1960, Colonel Sheffield Edwards contacted Robert Maheu. As Maheu explained in 1995: "In the winter of 1959-60, however, the CIA still thought it could pull off the invasion (of Cuba). But it thought the odds might be better if the plan went one step further - the murder of Fidel Castro. All the Company needed was someone to do the dirty work for it. Professional killers. A gangland-style hit."
Maheu offered the contract to Johnny Rosell. He in turn arranged for a meeting on 11th October, 1960, between Maheu and two leading mobsters, Santo Trafficante and Sam Giancana. As Maheu pointed out, "both were among the ten most powerful Mafia members" in America. Maheu told the mobsters that the CIA was willing to pay $150,000 to have Castro killed.
On 12th March, 1961, Robert Maheu arranged for CIA operative, Jim O'Connell, to meet Roselli, Trafficante and Giancana at the Fontainebleau Hotel. During the meeting O'Connell gave poison pills and $10,000 to Rosselli to be used against Fidel Castro.
Sam Giancana employed Richard Cain to assassinate Castro. He was fluent in Spanish and had worked in Cuba in 1952. Michael J. Cain argues that his brother saw it as a golden opportunity as "it had all the elements of an activity that could hold his interest: it was dangerous, it involved espionage, and it was potentially lucrative."
During this period Cain met Tony Varona, the head of the Cuban Revolutionary Council, an organisation that had been established with help from the CIA. According to Michael J. Cain Varona had originally approached Meyer Lansky to solicit funds for weapons and training. Lansky suggested that Varona should make contact with Sam Giancana "where he found comfort, solace and a quarter of million dollars."
In October 1960 Cain was in Miami interviewing Cuban refugees and preparing reports he shared with CIA station chief William Lohmann back in Chicago. Cain had been introduced to Lohmann by Paul Newey. Lohmann passed this information to the Cuba desk at CIA Headquarters. Cain also told Lohmann that he was on a assignment for Life Magazine and that he expected to be making several trips inside Cuba. In one report Cain told the CIA that: "The Cuban Rebel Air Force of San Antonio de los Banos is now comprised exclusively of Czech (or Russian masquerading as Czech) pilots."
In December 1960 Cain contacted his father to wish him well for the Christmas holidays. According to Mary Ellyn, John Cain's daughter, who overheard the conversation on an extension phone, Richard told his father that he had been to Cuba on a secret mission for the government to assassinate Fidel Castro and that, while he had not succeeded, he had got as far as entering Castro's office, but was unable to find a way to use the botulin tablets. While leaving the grounds his female colleague in the assassination attempt was captured. Cain claimed that she was later executed.
The FBI observed Cain attending a meeting of the Freedom of the Press Committee in Chicago on 28th January, 1961. This was a known communist front organization and it has been suggested that he was on a spying mission for Tony Varona who had "been disillusioned by Castro's turn toward communism."
In July 1961, Cain moved to Mexico City to set up a base of operations for an investigative agency. His first customer was Sears-Roebuck who used his expertise in conducting investigations. During this period he was in regular contact with Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard B. Ogilvie.
Cain also did work for Pierre Kroupensky, a public relations expert. In September 1961 Kroupensky sent him to infiltrate local communist organizations in and around Panama City. On his return to Mexico he became friendly with the head of police in Mexico City. In a letter to his mother, Cain claims that he had been appointed as "technical advisor to the Policia Judicial del Procuradoria". He added that he was only working "on cases involving Americans".
Later in the letter he told his mother he was "doing the same old thing for the Cubanos here". According to his half-brother Michael J. Cain, this meant he was "training Cuban expats in the use of weapons for what they all believed would be the second invasion of Cuba". It is assumed that this training was taking place on behalf of Tony Varona and the Cuban Revolutionary Council.
In a letter sent to his mother in May 1962 Cain was "working steadily with his teaching and private polygraph work, investigations, and wiretaps." The following month Cain was arrested and "charged with carrying a loaded revolver, possession of brass knuckes, possessing Mexican treasury department credentials and violating his visa by working as a private investigator and for the Mexican government." According to the FBI Cain had also been working on tapping the phones at the Czechoslovakian embassy.
Cain was deported from Mexico. On his arrival in the United States he made his way to Houston where he found work administrating polygraph tests and training company personnel in how to use these machines. In September, 1962, he returned to Chicago. On his first day back in the city he had lunch with Sam Giancana and dinner with Richard B. Ogilvie. Soon afterwards, Ogilvie, was elected as sheriff of Cook County. Robert Cooley, a mobster lawyer, claimed in his book, When Corruption Was King (2004), that the Mafia approved Ogilvie's election.
Richard B. Ogilvie appointed Cain as head of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU). According to Michael J. Cain, his brother was paid $5,000 a month, several times his SIU salary, by Sam Giancana, the boss of organized crime in Chicago. Anthony Accardo also made a regular contribution and this insured that the Mafia was left alone by the SIU.
Cain arranged for bookmakers who were in competition with the mob in Chicago to be raided. He always checked with Pat Marcy, an important figure in the Chicago Outfit, before arresting bookmakers, in case they were being protected by the mob.
The author of The Tangled Web: The Life and Death of Richard Cain argues that: "The Special Investigations Unit frequently targeted abortionists, not so much as criminals but as lucrative targets who would pay a lot of money, in cash... This was never about upholding the law; it was all about the money, and the SIU became a crime wave of official larceny."
Cain did investigate Sam DeStefano, who had tortured to death, his friend, William Jackson. It seems that DeStefano thought that Jackson was a FBI informant and so he took him to a meat-packing plant and suspended him from a meat hook for three days while he questioned and tortured him. Although mobsters like Sam Giancana had invested in DeStefano's loan business, he was never a Made Man because he was considered mentally unstable.
On 19th August, 1963, Richard Cain had dinner at Adolph's on Rush Street with CIA station chief William Lohmann and an associate from the Chicago office. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss activities of Cuban Counter-revolutionary groups. According to Michael J. Cain: "Dick had developed a network of informants and had even attended a number of their meetings himself. He was actively working with the Cubans, training them for what they hoped would be the next invasion."
Lohmann wrote in his CIA report: "Subject (Cain)... is married to a Mexican girl, speaks good Spanish and has considerable contact with the Cuban community in Chicago. Subject is, through his position in the Cook Country Sheriff's Office, also in contact with the less legal adventures of the Cubans in Chicago. Subject was told generally of our requirements and agreed to help us wherever he could; particularly in noting ant rumours of CIA contact in Chicago, providing information on the undercover activities of the Cubans, particularly Paulino Sierra and his contacts; and providing the names of any Cubans who might be useful to us." (page 118)
During this period Richard B. Ogilvie introduced Cain to Barry Goldwater. He told Cain that when he was elected president of the United States he wanted him to "come to Washington and be his guy at the Secret Service." Cain said he would be interested in taking the job and at the Democratic Convention held in San Francisco in July 1964, he arranged for two members of his team to cut the telephone lines that serviced the Democratic offices in the city.
Daniel P. Ward, the Cook County state's attorney, discovered that just before the raid, Cain had contacted Zahn's insurance and offered to sell them the drugs found at the Caravelle Motel. Ward opened an investigation and subpoenaed grand jury testimony from all members of the SIU who participated in the raid. The grand jury was unable to determine who actually stole the drugs, but they were convinced, that Richard Cain, John Chaconas, Bill Witsman and James Donnelly were lying and had them indicted for perjury. In December, 1964, the four men were convicted of this charge and were all dismissed from the SIU.
In 1965 Cain's great protector, Sam Giancana, was brought before the grand jury. When he refused to answer questions he was jailed for contempt of court. He was released in May 1966 and the following month Cain took him to Mexico City. Soon afterwards the two men relocated to Cuernavaca. Cain would frequently travel back to Chicago to meet with Butch Blasi, who was looking after Giancana's business interests in the city. It was on one of these trips, in December 1967, Cain was arrested by William F. Roemer. Apparently, Joseph D'Argento, who had been convicted of the robbery of the Franklin Park Bank, had told the FBI that he was willing to give evidence against Cain and William Daddano.
Cain claimed during the trial that his indictment had political overtones. At the time, his former boss, Richard B. Ogilvie, was trying to become governor of Illinois. Ogilvie's Democratic opponent ran full-page ads in the Chicago papers, linking him with the Cain case.
On 3rd October, 1968, Cain was convicted of misprison (a failure to notify a law enforcement official that he had knowledge of a felony by others) of felony, aiding and abetting criminals, and conspiracy to obstruct justice. He was sentenced to two concurrent four-year terms and fined a total of $13,000.
On 8th July, 1969, Cain returned to court to face perjury charges in the Zahn Drug Company robbery in Melrose Park. When he discovered that Bill Witsman, was willing to provide evidence against him, Cain decided to plead guilty and was sentenced to six months in prison.
Richard Cain was released from prison on 20th October 1971.Cain was nearly blind due to a degenerative eye disease. Sam Giancana informed mob bosses that Cain was "allowed to earn a living" in Chicago. Two days after arriving home Cain contacted William F. Roemer and offered his services as an undercover agent for the FBI to "help them cripple the mob". It was agreed to meet every Wednesday at Cain's apartment. After several months the FBI decided that the information he was provided was of law quality and he received his last payment in February 1972.
During 1972, after his parole had expired, he spent a great deal of time traveling between Chicago and Giancana's villa outside Cuernavaca. He was usually taken by car, by his driver and bodyguard, Michael Gilardi. Michael J. Cain has speculated that his brother was involved in the smuggling of drugs, diamonds and emeralds from Mexico.
Cain also wrote a movie treatment about the Bay of Pigs and was attempting to raise money to have it produced as a movie. Cain and Sam Giancana also opened a casino in Beirut. They also planned to build casinos in Tehran and Malta. In December 1972 Cain spent time with Giancana and Phyllis McGuire in Honolulu.
In January 1973 he contacted William F. Roemer and told him that he had fallen out with Giancana and wanted to make contact with the FBI in Mexico City. The agent reported back to Roemer that Cain "wants to prepare reports of everything he knows about Giancana and his associates" and "that he would be able to furnish sufficient information to get an indictment for Giancana within the year".
In April he was back in Chicago. While he was there Sam DeStefano was murdered. Rumours began to circulate that Cain had killed DeStefano. He returned to Mexico and according to his brother "he seemed to have patched things up with Giancana".
During 1973 Cain had regular meetings with Marshall Caifano. Apparently, he was trying to persuade Caifano to support his plan to take control of gambling on the South Side of Chicago. While in the city he became aware that he was being followed. On 18th December he had a meeting with Thomas A. Foran, the former United States attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and asked him if he knew anything about this. Foran told Cain that he was unaware of any pending arrest. The following day he met with William F. Roemer who wanted information about the death of Fiore Bucieri. As a result of the conversation Cain was paid $150 by Roemer.
Cain had dinner with his daughter Kimberly on the night of 19th December. He told her he had a meeting with Marshall Caifano the following day at Rose's Sandwich Shop on Chicago's West Side. Michael Gilardi dropped Cain off at Rose's at 11:40. Gilardi usually stayed with Cain but this time he said he had a doctor's appointment. They talked over lunch and were joined by two others at one point. Califano asked Cain to get something. Cain left Rose's about 12.30 by cab and returned an hour later. Caifano was gone but in his place was two men wearing ski masks who held four customers, a waitress, and Jelly Cozzo, the owner at gunpoint against a back wall.
Cain was ordered to stand against the wall. One of the men, who was holding a sawed-off shotgun, shot him through the bottom of his chin. The blast tore away the right side of his face. The man then searched Cain and removed a slip of paper before leaving in the waiting car.
Apparently, Sam Giancana was upset when he heard about Cain's death. He told friends he was like a son to him. However, he had been in no position to protect him from the mafia. In his book, The Tangled Web: The Life and Death of Richard Cain (2008), Michael J. Cain argues that one of the gunman was Butch Petrocelli, who was himself murdered six months later. His mouth and nose was covered with duct tape, to keep him from screaming while his face was melted with a blowtorch. The other gunman is believed to be Harry Aleman.
In their book, Double Cross (1992), Charles and Sam Giancana (Sam's half-brother and nephew) claim that Cain, along with Charlie Nicoletti, were the two gunman who killed President John F. Kennedy. The authors claim that it was Cain, rather than Lee Harvey Oswald, who fired from the 6th Floor of the Texas Book Depository.
In September 1996, Eric Hamburg, a congressional staff assistant who was involved in the passage of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act gave evidence in Los Angeles. Hamburg claimed that he had evidence that Cain worked with Dave Yarras and Lenny Patrick in the assassination of Kennedy in Dallas. This statement was based on information obtained from Fabin Escalante of the Cuban Secret Service and Claudia Furiati, a Brazilian journalist.
Later that year Peter Dale Scott suggested that Cain was implicated in the assassination as a result of his links with Johnny Roselli and John Martino. "Richard Cain, John Roselli, and John Martino were all close, through both their mob connections and their work for the CIA. All three of them later professed knowledge about the assassination. In 1963 the CIA recruited Richard Cain to spy on a Cuban in Chicago, Paulino Sierra, whom the CIA rightly suspected was recruiting Cuban exiles they mistrusted for an operation sponsored by Robert Kennedy. Meanwhile John Martino (who before he died claimed knowledge of a plot involving Oswald) was involved with Miami CIA elements in an operation designed to frustrate Kennedy's Soviet policies, and possibly to set up the Rosselli "turn-around" story, blaming the Kennedy assassination on a team recruited to kill Castro."
In 2008 Michael J. Cain, published his book, The Tangled Web: The Life and Death of Richard Cain. He argues that he has investigated the claim that his brother took part in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He quotes G. Robert Blakey, the former chief counsel to the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), as saying: "Michael, I had subpoena powers, I talked to dozens, hundreds of witnesses. Not one of them tried to lay this at your brother's feet."
Cain also interviewed Jim Malcotte, who worked in the sheriff's department. "He (Malcotte) told me that on November 22, 1963, he was in the grand jury room at the Cook County Courthouse testifying that one Eddie Lee Jones had shot him during an undercover drug buy. While Malcotte was testifying, a sheriff's deputy burst into the room and announced that the president had been shot. Malcotte remembered the event clearly because of the gravity of the news and the fact that it was unprecedented to have testimony interrupted in the grand jury room. Malcotte also remembered that his boss, Dick Cain, was waiting in the hallway to testify after him."
Primary Sources
(1) Charles and Sam Giancana, Double Cross (1992)
From Chicago, Mooney brought in Richard Cain, Chuckie Nicoletti, and Milwaukee Phil, all having worked previously on "the Bay of Pigs deal". Mooney said that both Cain and Nicoletti were actual gunmen for the hit, being placed at opposite ends of the Dallas Book Depository, In fact, he asserted it was Cain, not Oswald who'd actually fired from the infamous sixth story window.
(2) Eric Hamburg was a congressional staff assistant who was involved in the passage of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992. Hamburg gave evidence in Los Angeles on 17th September, 1996.
As you may know, the House Select Committee on Assassinations did visit Cuba and met with Fidel Castro and other Cuban officials in pursuit of any information relevant to their inquiry. I believe in 1978. I would strongly recommend that this Board do likewise. Notwithstanding the fact that the United States does not maintain diplomatic relations with Cuba, I believe that the Cuban Government would be receptive to such an approach and would be willing to produce files and documents which have not yet been made public. This is a treasure-trove of information that has not yet been tapped and could be one of the most productive areas of inquiry left to be explored.
I'd just like to mention some specific points in trying to be helpful and put some new information on the record which has not been made public to my knowledge. Specifically General Escalante has stated in interviews conducted for the book ZR Rifle by Claudia Furiati, a Brazilian journalist, that he believes two Cuban exiles, Alatio DeValle and Herminio Diaz Garcia, took part in the assassination in Dallas. He told me that this was based on informant reports by Cuban sources which are in their files. He also named three Chicago Mafia figures, Dave Yaras, Lenny Patrick and Richard Cain, which he believes were in Dallas and also involved in the plot. Again this is based, he says, on their informant reports. It would be very important to retain any documents which Cuba could provide to substantiate these claims, and he did show me files of such documents. But I did not retain copies of them. I am not an official representative of the U.S. Government, but they do exist.
(3) Peter Dale Scott, Bringing It All Together (November, 1996)
Richard Cain, John Roselli, and John Martino were all close, through both their mob connections and their work for the CIA. All three of them later professed knowledge about the assassination. In 1963 the CIA recruited Richard Cain to spy on a Cuban in Chicago, Paulino Sierra, whom the CIA rightly suspected was recruiting Cuban exiles they mistrusted for an operation sponsored by Robert Kennedy. Meanwhile John Martino (who before he died claimed knowledge of a plot involving Oswald) was involved with Miami CIA elements in an operation designed to frustrate Kennedy's Soviet policies, and possibly to set up the Rosselli "turn-around" story, blaming the Kennedy assassination on a team recruited to kill Castro. Two and possibly three of the future Watergate burglars were also collecting dirt (including false stories) on Paulino Sierra for the CIA. These false stories may explain why Bobby Kennedy, on November 22, told Paulino Sierra's boss (Harry Ruiz-Williams), "one of your boys did it." (We now know that Bobby Kennedy's staff reacted strongly to the first publication of the Rosselli turnaround story.)
(4) Michael Sneed and Thomas Powers, The Chicago Tribune (21st December, 1973)
Richard Cain, the hoodlum who once was chief investigator for the Cook County sheriff’s office, was shot to death yesterday in gangland style. Cain, 49, was killed by two gunmen wearing ski masks as he stood against a wall in a sandwich shop at 1117 W. Grand Av. Witnesses said that only 15 minutes earlier Cain had been seen conferring with four other men in the restaurant. Investigators speculated that Cain may have been lured to his death in the sandwich shop.
When the masked gunmen arrived, the four men with whom Cain had been talking had left. Tho the gunmen ordered Cain and others in the sandwich shop against the wall, only Cain was hit by two shotgun blasts fired from close range. The blasts tore away his face. Frightened witnesses said no words were exchanged between the killers and Cain. The shotgun blast struck Cain in the lower jaw and so disfigured his face that it was several hours before he was identified.
In recent years, Cain had been a driver and lackey for Sam Giancana, a former Chicago crime syndicate leader. Cain was taken to the county morgue from the sandwich shop, Rose’s Poor Boy Sandwiches, as an unidentified murder victim.
Cain was a former Chicago policeman in 1962 when Richard Ogilvie was elected sheriff as a reform candidate. Ogilvie named him chief investigator. During two years as chief investigator, Cain forced suspected mob informers to take lie tests at the public’s expense to determine if they were giving away underworld secrets. Cain’s efforts to work both sides of the street, serving as both a policeman and a mobster, came to an end in 1964 when Ogilvie forced his resignation. Cain had been implicated in a $240,000 burglary of the Louis Zahn Drug Co., warehouse in Melrose Park and later was convicted with other mobsters for his part in a 1963 Franklin Park bank robbery. Cain served three years in prison for the bank job and for lying to a grand jury about the warehouse burglary. After his parole in 1971, Cain fled to Mexico and joined Giancana.
(5) Richard Lindberg, The Memoirs of a Street Agent (1997)
Cain was a vassal of Giancana and Giancana was in bed with the Kennedys who were on a mission to rid Cuba of Fidel Castro. Under orders from the Chicago mob boss, Cain opened an office at Rush and Oak, where he recruited Cuban insurgents and soldiers of fortune to go down to South Florida to train as guerilla warriors - a black bag assignment, perfect for one such as Cain.
The Bay of Pigs invasion ended in disaster. It was a black eye fiasco for the president. The rebels that Cain hired and trained in Florida were driven into the sea. But Dick Cain returned to Chicago where he accepted an appointment as Dick Ogilvie’s chief investigator after Ogilvie was elected Cook County Sheriff in 1962. Why Richard Ogilvie, a man of integrity and high ideals, vested so much confidence in Dick Cain who was criminally indicted in 1964 for a complicity in the Louis Zahn warehouse heist and a figure who consorted with a host of shady wise guys until he was assassinated in 1973, remains one of the great enigmas of the age.
It is personally troubling to Paul Newey even to this day, but he continues his efforts to flesh out the real truth behind the man and the myth that is Richard Cain - including persistent rumors that this Chicago mob-cop may have participated in the planning of the Kennedy assassination.
(6) Larry Hancock, JFK Lancer Forum (26th May, 2004)
Cain maintained his Cuban exile contacts in Chicago and remained an FBI informant through 64 at least, informing on DRE, on Sierra's group and on Roselli for that matter. His post-assassination reports on the exiles got him into the JFK collection and in one Misc subject FBI memo his reports on the Cubans is contained in the same larger memo as some investigation at Kleins on the rifle. Reading the header only leads you to belive that Cain was a source on the Oswald rifle but you see that's not true when you read the whole memo. Lots of times the FBI would do a lengthy summary report on many topics and the subject lines can be very misleading (I've been disappointed on a lot documents because of that)
Sources:
Jump to Alleged involvement in the JFK assassination - ... in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Richard Cain was at the Criminal Courts Building 26th ...
Biography of Richard Cain. ... involved in the passage of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act gave evidence in Los Angeles.
Sep 26, 2013 - 'The CIA trained Roselli, Giancana, Richard Cain and other gunmen in the art of assassination, which none of them hardly needed.
Richard Cain.
Born on October 5th 1931 and spent most of his life in the Chicago
area. After being discharged from the US Army at the end of the Second
World ...
May 22, 2015 - The Death Of Richard Cain, Giancana Pal, Chicago Cop, Kennedy ... his alleged involvement in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Follow ...
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