‘Mafia Spies’ Creators Explain the Real Reason for JFK’s Cold War Threesome in Havana, Castro Assassination Attempts and the CIA’s Mob Ties

Addie Morfoot Contributor Paramount+’s “Mafia Spies” unravels a hidden conspiracy between the CIA, the Chicago mob and Frank Sinatra’s Rat Pack to assassinate Cuba’s Communist leader Fidel Castro at a critical time in the Cold War. It’s a timely — and action packed — six-part docseries that examines what it means for geopolitics when high ranking American politicians are driven by personal demons. The series is adapted from Thomas Maier’s “Mafia Spies: The Inside Story of the CIA, Gangsters, JFK and Castro” book, which drew upon material contained within declassified files about the 1963 assassination of President John F.

Kennedy, released in batches by the National Archives in 2017-2018. Executive produced by Tom Donahue and Ilan Arboleda, “Mafia Spies” deals with politics, power, sex and violence. Castro managed to survive myriad assassination attempts that included two poison pills, which dissolved into the cold cream in which they were smuggled, an exploding cigar, a drug-soaked microphone, and bazookas.

The docseries relies heavily on the declassified National Archive documents as well as numerous expert talking heads and cinematic recreations to chart a Cold War game of cat and mouse from Vegas to Miami to Havana that pitted Washington figures against the 20th century’s most notorious gangsters. For the stranger than fiction series, which debuted on Paramount+ July 16, Donahue interviewed historians and notable journalists, including Maier (who previously authored “Masters of Sex,” adapted into a Showtime series starring Lizzy Caplan), Gerald Posner, Tim Weiner, Geoff Schumacher, Stephen Kinzer, Peter Kornbluh, J. Michael Niotta, as well as professor Boris Nerey Obregon.

The series also features mobster Sam Giancana‘s daughter Antoinette, entertainer Betsy Duncan and actor Robert Davi. Variety spoke with “Mafia Spies” showrunners Donahue and Arboleda. Tom, you said that the series was made to “inspire viewers to reflect on the importance of protecting our democracy and holding those in power accountable.” Can you elaborate? Donahue: If you go back to World War II, we never had an intelligence agency because the government didn’t believe that in a