CIA tried to get mafia to kill Castro-documents

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A treasure trove of CIA documents released on Tuesday shed light on the spy agency's efforts to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro in the 1960s by getting the mafia to kill him in a "gangster-type action."

The CIA declassified hundreds of pages of long-secret records that detail some of the agency's worst illegal abuses during about 25 years of overseas assassination attempts, domestic spying and kidnapping.

The documents are known in the CIA as the "Family Jewels," and some describe the agency's efforts to persuade Johnny Roselli, believed to be a mobster, to help plot the assassination of Castro.

A CIA official at the time, Richard Bissell, in August 1960 approached Col. Sheffield Edwards of the Office of Security to determine if Edwards "had assets that may assist in a sensitive mission requiring gangster-type action," according to the documents.

"The mission target was Fidel Castro," one memo said.