CIA’s Castro Plots: Hudkins, Hunt And The Dallas Underworld By J. Garry Shaw and Larry R. Harris

              VOLUME 2 NUMBER 6 JANUARY 22, 1978
THE CIA'S CASTRO PLOTS: HUDKINS, HUNT AND THE DALLAS UNDERWORLD
By J. Gary Shaw and Larry R. Harris
One of the more shocking and ominous revelations concerning activities of the
Central Intelligence Agenpy to come to light in recent years is that in seeking to
assassinate Cuban Premier Fidel Castro, the Agency entered into a partnership with
organized crime figures. In August, 1960, according to the Church Committee (In­terim
Report, 11-20-75), the CIA took steps to enlist members of the criminal un­derworld
with gambling syndicate contacts to aid in assassinating Castro; that
effort involved contacts and contracts with Mafia chieftans Sam Giancana and John
Roselli. A new disclosure by columnist Jack Anderson suggests that the plots
against Castro may have been but one phase of a large, ambitious program planned
by the Agency in 1960. That year, Anderson^reported earlier this month, the CIA
wanted to create its own branch of Murder, Inc.— a killer squad created to ass­assinate
"undesirable" foreign leaders at $1 million a head (Ft. Worth Star Tele­gram,
1-4-78). (Editor's Note: We will have more to say on this subject in a future
issue) .
Other recent disclosures suggest that in seeking to recruit operatives to
participate in killing foreign leaders (particularly Castro), the CIA's contacts
may have reached the Dallas underworld— including close associates of Jack Ruby
and, possibly, right-wing oil baron H.L. Hunt.
These disclosures appear in a postscript to the recently-released paperback
edition of George O'Toole's The Assassination Tapes (Zebra Books) . O'Toole, a
former CIA technologist, relates new and interesting information about the act­ivities
of Alonzo (Lonnie) Hudkins, a name long familiar to students of the John
Kennedy assassination. A reporter for the Houston Post in 1963, Hudkins has been
the subject of much controversy, particularly in regard to rumors and allegations
that accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald might have been an informer for the Fed­eral
Bureau of Investigation. (See the lead article of TCI, Vol. 1, #8).
O'Toole writes of an interview he and writer Ron Rosenbaum had with Hudkins
two years ago, in which Hudkins disclosed that in addition to his reportorial
duties, he has in the past also dabbled in two other fields: petroleum engineering
and assassination plots. (He admitted, too, to being involved in trying to
smuggle a large shipment of arms into Cuba shortly before the ill-fated 1961 Bay of
Pigs invasion). Hudkins told O'Toole and Rosenbaum that he sometimes worked in
engineering positions for oil companies, and that while in the employ of the
Dallas-based H.L. Hunt Oil Company, he was recruited as a member of a CIA contract
assassination team assigned to kill Castro and Cheddi Jagan of Guiana.
However, like his various explanations for the origin of the Oswald/FBI rumor,
Hudkins has told several contradictory versions of his purported involvement in
the assassination plots. For example, Hudkins indicated to O'Toole and Rosenbaum
that the CIA recruited him while he was employed as an engineer for Hunt Oil. But
in 1967 he told Warren Report critic Shirley Martin of Oklahoma that while he was
employed as a public relations man for the oil company. Hunt himself personally
approached him about going to Mexico to help kill either Castro or Jagan. Then
last month in a lengthy telephone interview with Larry Harris, Hudkins said the