While JFK did not order the programme, Deane says he was 'aware' of it President John F. Kennedy secretly endorsed the release of hardened criminals to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro to curb the Communist threat, a new book has claimed. At the height of tensions between America and neighbouring Communist Cuba in the early 1960s, JFK was implicit in the freeing of rapists, drug dealers, and Mafia hitmen through CIA in a bid to recruit 'untraceable' spies willing to risk their lives on dangerous missions rather than go back to jail, a new book sensationally claims. Desperate to remove Castro from power, the president resorted to using dangerous criminals as operatives - rather than CIA agents - to 'do America's dirty work' as they couldn't be linked back to his administration, it is claimed.
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Revelations made by journalist Bill Deane in new book 'Smooth Criminal'
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It tells story of alleged CIA spy and 'one-man crime wave' Dave Riley
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Claims criminals allowed on 'crime sprees' in US when not working for CIA
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Deane: 'Riley was typical recruit: Intelligent, ambitious and without morals'
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While JFK did not order the programme, Deane says he was 'aware' of it
In one failed plot, an ex con was smuggled into Cuba in 1962 to pose as a waiter in @placeholder's favourite restaurant where he would drop poison tablets into the revolutionary leader's soup.