William King Harvey

William King "Bill" Harvey (September 13, 1915 in Danville, Indiana - June 1976) was a CIA officer, best known for his role in Operation Mongoose.

Harvey was the son of a lawyer and graduated from Indiana University School of Law - Bloomington and then opened a one person law firm in Kentucky. He joined the FBI in December 1940. He resigned from the FBI in July 1947 after breaking a FBI regulation and refusing a resulting re-assignment to Indianapolis, Indiana. He joined the CIA shortly thereafter.

Operation Mongoose was a CIA operation from Miami, Florida, that enlisted the help of the Mafia to plot an assassination attempt against Fidel Castro, the Cuban president. Harvey was one of case officers who dealt with John Roselli. [cite news | author = Jack Anderson | title = 6 Attempts to Kill Castro Laid to CIA | publisher = The Washington Post | date = 1971-01-18]

Harvey was also posted to Berlin, Germany as station chief in the 1950s, where he led the operation that built an underground tunnel to the Russian sector, to spy on Russian communication channels. This operation was called PBJOINTLY.

Harvey died in 1976 from a heart attack. The previous year he testified before the Church Committee on the some of the CIA's past operations.

Further reading

Biography

*cite book | author = Bayard Stockton | title = Flawed Patriot: The Rise and Fall of CIA Legend Bill Harvey | year = 2006 | publisher = Potomac Books | location = Dulles

In fiction

*cite book | author = Norman Mailer | title = Harlot's Ghost: A Novel | year = 1992 | publisher = Random House | location = New York

In Robert Littell (author)'s novel "The Company", the character Harvey Torritti (portrayed by Alfred Molina in the 2007 miniseries adaptation) bears a number of resemblences to the real-life Bill Harvey. Torriti served at the FBI before joining CIA, after being fired by J. Edgar Hoover for wearing a loosened tie at FBI headquarters. Torriti also serves as the station chief in Berlin in the early 1950s, as a mentor to the major character Jack McAullife. During this part of the novel, Harvey Torriti has an antagonistic relationship with real life CIA counterintelligence chief, James Angleton over his suspicion that Kim Philby, a wartime friend of Angleton, was a Soviet mole. Further in the novel Harvey Torriti acts as the cutout between the CIA and Mafia for the latter to assassinate Fidel Castro, on behalf of the former.

References

* [http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKharvey.htm Spartacus Educational - William King Harvey]

External links

* [http://codshit.blogspot.com/2004/01/william-king-harvey-cias-ultimate.html Codshit - William King Harvey]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE2DF1F3AF935A1575AC0A967958260 "New York Times" Review of "Harlot's Ghost"]