New book claims John F Kennedy released US criminals from prison to curb the Communist threat

Explosive claims seem designed to cause controversy

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President Kennedy on the telephone in White House, Oval Office

Photo by Abbie Rowe, National Park Service

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Many claims have been made about President John F. Kennedy over the years, with increasingly salacious stories grabbing the headlines as the years go by. But the latest explosive claims by journalist Bill Deane set a new high bar in dramatic claims about the assassinated former president.

According to Deane, Kennedy endorsed freeing rapists, drug dealers and even Mafia hitmen from prison so they could attempt to murder Communist leader Fidel Castro.

According to the Business Insider, in Deane's book Smooth Criminal the author claims that although JFK didn't explicitly order the convict assassin program, he was aware of an operation that allowed an ex-con to pretend to be a waiter at Castro's favorite restaurant in Cuba in order to slip the Communist leader poison tablets.

From examples like these Deane sets out his case.

'Criminals were ideal operatives as they were ruthless and willing to risk their lives during missions rather than be sent back to prison,' Deane told Daily Mail. 'They also couldn't be officially connected with the CIA so it didn't matter if they were captured - there was no risk of America's shady policies being exposed.'

In Smooth Criminal Deane focuses on the story of Dave Riley, an ex-con he calls a 'one-man American crime wave.'

'Riley was a typical recruit. Highly intelligent, ambitious and with no morals. The CIA sent him on many missions abroad, including to Cuba to assassinate Castro,' Deane said. 'Between missions he was allowed to do what he liked - which generally consisted of embezzlement, fraud, gunrunning and drug dealing - without fear of being arrested or prosecuted.'

JFK was allegedly aware of the CIA's bid to recruit 'untraceable' spies willing to risk their lives on dangerous missions rather than go back to jail, Deane's book claims. Willing to do America's 'dirty work,' they couldn't be linked back to his administration, Deane says.

Deane, the former assignment editor at American news networks ABC and CBS, says he uncovered the program, which he believes is still in operation today, after following what he calls the 'trail of destruction' left by one such operative.

JFK did not order the the top secret program, Deane explains, but as president Kennedy must have have been 'aware' of it.

'For over 50 years, the CIA and American government has been systematically releasing dangerous criminals back into society to work for them on secret missions overseas,' Deane said.

'The program started during the Kennedy administration at the start of the 1960s as a clandestine means of dealing with the Communist threat of Castro, and was given the seal of approval by JFK - who was still smarting following the political embarrassment of the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba in 1961.

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