John F. Kennedy
Alias: "Jack"
THE PREZ
Served as the 35th President of the United States from 1961 to 1963.
JFK presided over the Cold War's most intense and rapid period of escalation after stepping into a White House already racked with anxiety over the spread of communism. On the diplomatic front, he publicly sought to contain The "Red Menace" in Latin America and beyond by establishing the Alliance for Progress and the Peace Corps, which offered foreign aid to troubled and developing nations. But behind the closed doors of the Oval Office, he authorized the use of clandestine paramilitary operations.
Although officially considered a closed case, unanswered questions and dubious details of his assassination in November of 1963 continue to foster much debate and speculation. Responsability has even been attributed to rogue U.S. government agencies, citing everything from Kennedy's softening stance on Vietnam to his threat to blow the whistle on a secret C.I.A. plan to stage a false moon landing on live television.
Dr. Sidney Gottlieb
A.K.A. "The Black Sorcerer"
"Dirty Trickster"
THE MASTERMIND
American military psychiatrist with a Ph.D. in chemistry.
Joined C.I.A. in 1951.
In a concerted effort to beat the Soviets and the Red Chinese in the Cold War's race to master brainwashing and control human behavior, Sidney Gottlieb was appointed to head a top secret CIA Project known as MKULTRA in 1953. His mission was "to modify an individual's behavior by covert means." To that end, Dr. Gottlieb's program to "wipe clean" the personality and "crush the human psyche" surreptitiously involved eighty institutions: universities, colleges, hospitals, prisons and orphanages where test subjects were unwittingly dosed with all manner of drugs and faced isolation therapy, electroshock, radiation, lobotomy and surgical implants. Fascinated with LSD, Gottlieb reportedly took the drug hundreds of times himself and dosed many CIA operatives without their consent at various gatherings. An expert on poisons, Gottlieb enthusiastically invented hundreds of ways to assassinate, sicken and humiliate foreign leaders.
Dr. Gottlieb also had other lifelong passions: folk dancing, raising goats and cultivating Christmas Trees. He retired from CIA in 1972 and went on to volunteer at a Leper colony in India.
Robert Maheu
A.K.A. "Bob"
THE PAWN
During World War II Bob worked counter-intel for the FBI, infiltrating German lines with double-agents to deceive Nazi spies who reported directly to Adolph Hitler. By the 1950's, Bob went undercover for the CIA tasked with "those jobs in which the agency could not officially be involved," including botched assassination attempts on Fidel Castro's life in the early 1960's. Bob also worked privately for Howard Hughes serving as the billionaire recluse's "alter ego." In such capacity, Bob strong-armed extortionists, changed the landscape of Las Vegas by buying the mob out of the casino racket and worked surveillance on such personalities as Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra.
A trusted confidant of both President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Bob was granted immunity to testify during the 1975 Church Commission inquiry into JFK's assassination...
Fidel Alejandro Vittore Castro Ruz
A.K.A. "El Comandante"
THE BEARD
Prime Minister of Cuba
1959 to 1976
President of Cuba
1976 to 2008
Fidel Castro's revolution began with the promise of a return to freedom, honest government and democratic elections in Cuba. His small band of guerilla soldiers soon became an army that marched victoriously into Havana in January of 1959. Fidel Castro said "Power does not interest me, and I will not take it" the very same year he seized control of Cuba from Fulgenico Batista. Nearly five decades later, Comandante Castro remains the unelected leader of a perpetually repressed country. Thousands were sent to 'el paredón' (the wall) to face death by firing squad, while tens of thousands more were imprisoned and left to die for such reasons as disagreeing with Castro or for being homosexual. Although Castro insists his net worth is zero, others estimate he is worth $900 million dollars; while the monthly income of the average Cuban is $16.70.
It has been implicated, but never proven, that the motions of John F. Kennedy's assassination were put into play by Mr. Castro and G2, Cuba's secret service, in retaliation for the multiple attempts on Castro's life. JFK's successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, is quoted as having told an ex-Cuban intelligence agent: "We must simply not allow the American people to believe Fidel Castro could have killed our president."
Marita Lorenz
A.K.A. "Lisa"
THE FEMME FATALE
Executive aid, Translator, and would be assassin to Fidel Castro.
Romaticaly involved with both Fidel Castro and Frank Sturgis of the C.I.A.
Lorenz first encountered Castro in 1959 during a stop in Havana on her way to New York from Germany. Not long afterward, she was set up in the Havana Hilton as his secretary and mistress. It was here that she began an association with Fransisco Fiorini, A.K.A. Frank Sturgis, a Castro confidente and C.I.A. gun-for-hire who saw an oppurtunity to exploit Lorenz after she claimed the relationship had become abusive.
She was secreted away to a Miami safehouse where she was kept drugged and sleep deprived while undergoing her initiation into the shadowy group of assassins known as "Operation-40".
Sturgis returned with her to Havana, smuggling two capsules of a lethal toxin in a jar of cold cream. However, after meeting Fidel in the Hilton suite that had been their home for 7 months, she became emotional and threw the capsules into the bidet.
According to her own account, Castro confronted her about her intentions. When she confessed, he handed her his loaded .45 and said to her, "You can't kill me. Nobody can kill me." She spent the night with him and returned to New York with Sturgis the next day.
Furious with Lorenz, Sturgis is reported as shouting, "Now we have to go to war because of you!" He was to take a leading role in organizing the Bay of Pigs invasion shortly afterward.
In 1977, Lorenz testified before the House Select Committee on Assassinations concerning the Castro plot. She also testified that Operation-40 had been responsible for President Kennedy's assasination, naming Sturgis as one of the gunmen in Dallas.
Artist Aaron Norhanian
A.K.A. "Doc"
and
Writer Jason Ciaccia
A.K.A. "Chach"
THE THING WITH TWO HEADS
Doc
Artist:
"The Sinister Truth: MK-ULTRA"
Norhanian works as a graphic designer and illustrator. This book marks his graphic novel debut. His cartoons have appeared in the New York Press, YAC, and other publications.
Chach
Author:
"The Sinister Truth: MK-ULTRA"
A writer for visual media, Jason brings his experience as a screenwriter and researcher for the film and television industry to The Sinister Truth. This book also marks his graphic novel debut.
