Roselli Probe
By RON LEBRECQUE
Staff Writer
Sen. Gary Hart (D., Colo.) made an unannounced trip to Miami Friday for a private meeting with homicide detectives to underscore the strong interest of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee in the John Roselli murder investigation and to insure that federal agencies cooperate with local police.
The FBI was ordered into the case last week by Attorney General Edward Levi after pressure from the Senate committee.
"We're not here to solve the crime," Hart said. "We want to find out if there is any connection between (Roselli's) death and his testimony before the committee."
HART SAID he also hoped to meet with local officials of the FBI and Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Roselli, 71, appeared three times before the Senate Intelligence Committee in the past year about his recruitment by the CIA in a plot to kill Fidel Castro, was found dead two weeks ago, stuffed in an oil drum, floating in Dumfoundling Bay.
Hart made it clear that the Intelligence Committee is concerned about the possibility that Roselli's death is connected to his testimony, although he did say there was no evidence indicating Roselli might have been killed to prevent him from talking about other CIA-sponsored crime plots.
"I know of no evidence whatsoever to have him come back," Hart said. "What that means to say we would have called him back if some new facts arose."
But he added, "I know he had a lot of inside information he had not yet testified about, evidence important to us." Hart said.
THE MURDER OF Roselli, who last testified in April, renewed the Intelligence Committee interest in the death of Chicago crime organizer Theodore Sam (Momo) Giancana, Roselli's associate, shot to death in his home in June of 1975, just as the Senate Intelligence Committee investigators were tracking him down.
According to Hart Friday was Michael Madden, a committee attorney who, in June of 1975, was preparing to interview Giancana about his involvement with Roselli in the Castro plot.
Giancana and Tampa organized crime figure Santo Trafficante, played "supporting roles" in the CIA-inspired Castro assassination plot, according to Hart and other committee members.
"I am not aware of any evidence linking Trafficante to the case," investigators said. Trafficante was never called because the committee considered Roselli's testimony the most important.
CHICAGO-AREA investigators speculated that Giancana's death was part of an inter-gangland struggle.
Nevertheless, Hart told The Herald Friday that while Roselli's death brought questions about Giancana's murder linger. The coincidence is "going to raise questions together," said the 1972 presidential campaign manager for George McGovern.
Asked if he was aware of any connections of investigations that Giancana's death was connected to his potential testimony before the committee, Hart said: "But in the absence of supportive evidence which previous...