Mafia Spies

The Inside Story of the CIA, Gangsters, JFK, and Castro

By: Thomas Maier

Narrated by: Fred Stella

From the bestselling author and television producer of Masters of Sex, a true story of espionage and mobsters, based on the never-before-released JFK Files, and optioned by Warner Bros.

Mafia Spies is the definitive account of America’s most remarkable espionage plots ever - with CIA agents, mob hitmen, “kompromat” sex, 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 JFK 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’s Rat Pack 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 National Archives’ 2017-18 release of the long-suppressed JFK files, many of which deal with the CIA’s top secret anti-Castro operation in Florida and Cuba.

With several new investigative findings, Mafia Spies is a spy exposé, murder mystery, and shocking true story that recounts America’s first foray into the assassination business, a tale with profound impact for today’s Trump era. Who killed Johnny and Sam - and why wasn’t Castro assassinated despite the CIA’s many clandestine efforts?

©2019 by Thomas Maier. (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Engaging story, a bit disorganized

Overall a pleasant listening experience. As other reviewers have pointed out, there are more than a few mistakes or oversights. Mostly these are fairly innocuous, but at times, as with tangential mentions of MK Ultra and other CIA operations essentially co-signing the "official" accounts , it makes one wonder how deeply it was truly researched. If everything in it is true, it's a fascinating account, if it isn't, it's still an entertaining listen.

Great book and true tory.

Corrupt CIA, mobsters, entertainers, murder and government secrecy. And it's all true. If you are a boomer you will ft right into this time period and not believe what was going on concerning Cuba and the USA.

incredible...mind blowing

Loved it
Our goverment
The Mafia
Hollywood
Conspiracy .. FACTS
In bed together ...no surprise there..

Multiple characters, perspectives, & interesting bullet points

Worth the read but LOTS of players. I was able to pick up many new tidbits for future research but not get bogged down with one storyline. JFK aas not necessarily the focus but just one player. Frank Sinatra on the other hand was likely mentioned more than anyone!

The evil that abounds in the earth

This book held some interesting information but it was hard for me to stay connected to it. I know it is non-fiction, but there was no sense of a story line and that made it hard to follow. The cast of characters was so numerous and of such diverse backgrounds that it took me a long time to figure out who everyone was, which added to the feeling of swimming around in the details. Add to that the fact that there was no real resolution to the problem, but I should have guessed there would not be a resolution going in. Maybe I hoped that some detail or other would be revealed about the Kennedys’ deaths proving they were both victims of plots much larger than some lone gunman taking a crack shot to kill them. I lived through that time, and even as young as I was, I knew, and still know, that the information fed to the public about the murders was a lie. I don’t suppose we will ever really know, but at least this book put a lot of people on a track of thinking there was a whole lot more to the story.

Wanna know who killed JFK? information inside!

Mafia, CIA, Politics this book has it all! I couldn't stop listening to it. love it

Recommended

Listened all the way through. Intriguing history and excellent narration. History that has been neglected in the mainstream news.

Enjoyed

Narrator very good. Interesting part of history. I've never thought or read much of Cuba.

So-So

This book is a mixed bag. The story itself is great. Many people are unaware of the conspiracy and collusion between the CIA and the Mafia to assassinate Fidel Castro in the early 1960's. However, the author frequently lists wrong dates or individuals and sometimes information that contradicts previously mentioned items. For example, he lists Frank Sinatra as dying in 1988 when it was actually 1998. The book is also very redundant. He repeats previously mentioned information several times throughout the book yet it isn't so much as referenced, but is presented in detail (again) as if it were the first time. An annoying habit, is often repeating a person's title each time the individual is referenced.

For example, "FBI Director" or "FBI Chief" when mentioning J.Edgar Hoover. By the time the reader has listened to several chapters, they definitely KNOW what position J.Edgar Hoover held. He does this as well with "Master Spy" Allen Dulles. The author mentions "The FBI"s Witness Protection Program" as being available for "informers" in the early 1960's when it had not been yet been implemented and the DOJ agency overseeing WITSEC is actually the U.S. Marshals Service.

The narrator has a fine voice and articulation, but is just mediocre in his pronunciation. For example, he always pronounces Antoinette Giancana's first name as "An-TON-ette" and often has multiple pronunciations for the same Italian surnames e.g. Spil-O-Tro vs. Spil-Ot-Tro. Additionally, he alternates between saying "Fontainbleau" and "Fountainbleau" when mentioning the famous Miami Beach hotel. In other words, his pronunciation of identical words/names is inconsistent.

Overall, it was an okay book. Not poor, but not great...........................just okay.

Allen Dulles, the CIA Chief Cheifan...

It wasn't bad. But it sounds like a series of bad newspaper articles barely connected together. Did you know Allen Dulles, the CIAs Cheif was in fact its Cheif Cheiftan? I did 15 minutes in and it repeatedly redid this fact over and over and over and over again. It's a nice overview, but its terrible in longer than 15 min chunks.