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  Doug Fleming was general manager of the Rome Daily American during the late 1960s and early ’70s. His time in Rome did not overlap with Harvey’s, but he did know Marajen and Michael Chinigo. “Michael had been a journalist, but he married money, so he didn’t have to work too hard. Once, he tried to take the Daily American over and, when that didn’t work, started a competitor, which didn’t last.” Physically, he was “not a gigolo type. A businessman, not a lady’s man.

  “You never really knew what he was doing. He was always away. I had no feeling that he was CIA. (Hell, everyone thought I was CIA!) I think maybe he bought the title of papal count…. He bought Marajen a ring with a crest.”12

  Michael Chinigo wrote an exposé series for King Features on the Sicilian Mafia in the months before he died. Marajen later told intimates that Michael “had gotten a note” as a result of the series, “saying he had better cool it.”

  Curtis G. (Bill) Pepper, also an alumnus of the Rome Daily American and a former Newsweek correspondent, recalls Michael Chinigo as “a son of a bitch … a chipmunk-face … sleazy … looked like the son of a pizza parlor owner.” Michael got Pepper to ghost pieces on automobile racing, which went out on the Hearst service under Michael’s byline.13

  Other descriptions paint a man who lived on the law’s borderline, not one of the standard expat crowd, nor part of Hollywood on the Tiber, nor one who hung around the storied Rome Press Club, but someone who also did not fit in Champaign. One anonymous observer comments, “Marajen didn’t know shit from Shinola as far as Michael was concerned. He was a flim-flam man. Dapper. A conscious con artist … flamboyant. She just loved the glamour.

  “He never stayed in the United States very much. Always moving back and forth to Italy. He only pretended to run the newspaper.

  “When Michael died, we all thought he had been wasted because he was involved with the wrong people.

  “She went to pieces. She was overcome with guilt, or whatever.

  “But, she never mentioned Rosselli.”

  Years later Marajen Chinigo told the conservator, “I don’t know…. Michael was involved in so many things … I never understood…. OSS? … I’m sure he was Mafia…. Michael made many trips to Sicily … and he always told me, ‘It’s better that you not know about it.’ We were given property by the Mob in Sicily, but I never followed up on it. I didn’t know where it was. I never knew.”

  Michael Chinigo may have been given land, maybe even buildings, deep in Mafia country in return for his role in the liberation of Sicily during World War II. He may also have tried to parlay the Mafia contacts he made during the war to his own advantage, at the very least in art smuggling, maybe also in drug trafficking. Apart from what appeared to be Mafia patronage, he had what must have seemed to be impenetrable cover, as a reporter and as an OSS/CIA asset. But then, maybe he got too greedy, or he thought he was bigger than the Sicilian organization because of his international contacts and he incurred the fatal displeasure of the Sicilians, or of the Camorra.

  Finally, I picked up a further-unsubstantiated rumor from one of Marajen Chinigo’s former employees. “You know Michael was [reputed] to have committed more than thirty murders, don’t you?”

  A HARVEY CONNECTION?

  How did the life and activities of Michael Chinigo intersect with those of Bill Harvey? Oddly, Marajen chose not to recall, when directly questioned on my behalf, that she had ever met Harvey while he was serving in Rome. On another occasion, when the subject was something else, she contradicted herself and remarked casually that Bill and CG Harvey had, as a matter of course, been her guests at the villa in Rome. These recollections, it must be said, came when she was aged and not far from death.

  The Chinigos and the Harveys must have been, at the very least, nodding acquaintances on the 1960s Roman carousel, although, even if operational security had not been a concern, they would hardly have been close friends. But Marajen Chinigo knew Rosselli from the California desert oasis. Johnny, always the gallant, visited Marajen fairly often in Champaign, when she was free and he was not involved in CIA operations or in prison.

  Sometime in the late 1960s or early 1970s, Johnny saw a chance to help his pal, Bill Harvey, who was not prospering as a lawyer and who had experience of Italy. Harvey had already done, and apparently continued to do, some legal work in Europe for Rosselli. From an uncertain date, perhaps not until early 1973, Bill started to advise Marajen on the telephone, and he may also on occasion have visited her in Champaign.

  During March and April 1974, Marajen Chinigo, smarting from being tossed aside for a younger woman, increased her attention to Rosselli, now out of federal prison. She had a portrait painted of herself and sent it to Rosselli at his more-or-less permanent perch in California. Toward the end of April Johnny had a rough week with the Senate committee in Washington, and he discussed “a CIA meeting” with Marajen.

  Marajen told Johnny she had thrown Michael out of the house because of his despicable behavior with that “cleaning woman” at the News-Gazette. She seems also to have told Rosselli she had learned, from sources unspecified, that Michael had put out a contract on her life. Johnny might well have agreed this kind of unseemly, adulterous behavior was to be deprecated. Be it noted that Marajen Chinigo was capable of dreaming up such dramatic allegations with little compunction, if they drew attention to her, or served her purposes.

  It can be hypothesized that Rosselli turned the problem of Michael Chinigo over to Harvey, who had contacts in Europe and who, above all, knew the Roman scene. According to Mahoney quoting Joe Shimon, Harvey said he would handle the matter.

  In April 1974 Harvey was getting by in the Bobbs-Merrill job in Indianapolis. Rosselli, newly released from prison, went to Washington and then came to Indianapolis. After a night, maybe two, as the Harveys’ houseguest, the Harveys and Johnny bundled into the family car and drove to Champaign. On this occasion, when Sally was with them, the Harveys didn’t stay long in Illinois, but on another occasion, Bill and CG were Marajen’s guests for a lavish dinner at the Champaign Country Club. Whatever the nature of the professional relationship, there is no doubt that the Harveys joined the outer circle of the Marajen Chinigo court.

  When drawn into discussion about Harvey in 2002, Marajen said, disarmingly and ingenuously, “He knew some interesting characters…. Bill was a very charming person. At a party or reception, he lit up the room. Of course he drank a lot, but he was always the same. Always had his sense of humor.” Someone who was close to Marajen notes, “She really liked Bill Harvey. Of course he had problems with the bottle, but she never saw him out of control.”

  In May 1974 Marajen and Harvey had long talks, presumably about her legal affairs, and Marajen nearly went to Italy. Apparently, Michael had made a move to take control of the Sorrento villa and then reconsidered, perhaps under pressure. Marajen was relieved that she would not have to make forcible entry into what she considered to be her property.

  Mrs. Chinigo’s discussions with Harvey and Rosselli continued through June, during what appear to have been complicated negotiations with Michael, who had returned to the United States, and lawyers for both sides. Harvey does not seem to have taken part in the talks, yet it would be logical that the connection broadened, as Marajen came to know Bill better and to trust him more. The connection may, indeed, have led to Bill’s “work in Europe,” so elusively mentioned by Sally earlier.

  Among the open questions are whether, how often, and why Harvey traveled to Europe during this period. We have Sally’s recollection that he made trips. On whose behalf? Could he take time off from Bobbs-Merrill for freelance work? Was he acting as Rosselli’s legal adviser? Had he, finally, accepted Johnny’s offer of legal commissions abroad—the offer that Harvey had told the CIA he had initially rejected? Beginning in about 1973, did one of those legal commissions include work for Marajen Chinigo? Did any or all of it have to do with the Sicilian Mafia, with whom he had maintained official liaison when he was stationed in Rome a de
cade earlier?

  MICHAEL AND BILL

  It is almost a given that Michael Chinigo would have been, at the very least, a cleared contact of the CIA’s Rome office. And it is conceivable that Harvey ran Michael Chinigo personally, perhaps as the Agency’s primary conduit to the Sicilian Mafia. If this were the case, Harvey would have decreed that there be only passing social contact between the two as, for instance, at a diplomatic reception. CG Harvey might have been aware of this arrangement. Marajen almost certainly would not have been.

  Then there are matters of timing. Michael Chinigo tried forcibly to reenter the marital house in Champaign on March 31, 1974. A Cook County investigator questioned Marajen about Sam Giancana on April 21, 1974. Giancana was murdered on June 19, 1974. Rosselli said, “Everyone knew the date.” On the same day Michael Chinigo made a new will in the United States. He returned to Rome in mid-July. Bill and CG were in Champaign for the weekend of July 26, 1974. Shortly thereafter, Harvey talked with Marajen’s Roman lawyer.

  Rosselli went to Indianapolis to visit Bill and CG in mid-August. On August 14 or 15, 1974, a day or two after the attack on Michael Chinigo, described below, Rosselli and the Harveys drove to Champaign.

  THE DEATH OF MICHAEL CHINIGO

  Was Marajen Chinigo vindictive (or paranoid) enough to mention, apparently casually, to Rosselli that her about-to-be-ex-husband, Michael Chinigo, had put a contract on her life, even though she appeared to have no firm evidence of such a plot? Or, was there more to the death of Michael Chinigo than simply Marajen’s revenge for philandering?

  Would Rosselli, a man of considerable experience in matters of the street and of the heart, have taken the wistful plaint as a moral obligation to rid the world of Chinigo? Or would Rosselli have seized upon (perhaps even inspired) Marajen’s contract to provide excellent cover for the disposal of an unwanted thorn in the Mafia’s side?

  Did any cell of the Mafia want revenge on Michael for some sin, for knowing too much, being too unreliable, being too flamboyant and/or too greedy?

  If Chinigo was hit at the behest of organized crime, did Harvey play a role in arranging the murder? Would Rosselli have delegated Michael’s termination to Harvey because he knew the scene in Rome and wasn’t an obvious target of suspicion? Remember the words of Sam Papich: “Harvey had little or no experience working in the organized crime field while in the Bureau. What he may have learned [was] from research, but … I can say he was entering a completely new atmosphere with Johnny.”14

  Or are there other plausible explanations for the death of Michael Chinigo?

  Why did the Rome police fudge the investigation in Chinigo’s death and come to an implausible conclusion? Why did the U.S. State Department and the FBI legal attaché in Rome show no inclination to dig further into the matter? Why does the CIA adamantly contend that its files contain no information on Michael Chinigo?

  After Michael Chinigo’s death under mysterious circumstances, Marajen populated the bedrooms in her various residences with pictures of Michael in happier days. Why?

  To answer these questions, I got in touch with a distinguished American lawyer who for decades had practiced in Rome. We corresponded cordially by e-mail, and he said he would contact a woman who had handled the Chinigo case and who knew far more than he did. I never heard from the lawyer again, despite several attempts. Why did he suddenly halt his helpful support without explanation?

  THE ATTACK ON MICHAEL CHINIGO

  Michael Chinigo was attacked on a Rome street at midnight on August 13, 1974. He was accompanied by a man named Giarizzo, who was allegedly left lying in the street in a coma, when an ambulance took Michael to the San Giovanni Hospital. A Rome police report identified the .38 pistol that shot Chinigo as Giarizzo’s registered property. No further details have ever emerged about Michael’s companion of that night.

  According to the police report, Chinigo reached into his companion’s pocket, grabbed a .38 pistol that happened to be there, shot himself in the left temple with the gun in his right hand, and survived. The Roman police ruled Chinigo’s later death, somewhat incredibly, a suicide.

  Michael spent two months in a Rome hospital. During that time he was alert and asked for a typewriter, but not once did he communicate to anyone any other version of the incident. On October 3, Michael had surgery to remove bone splinters from his brain. It was supposed to be an easy operation, not life threatening, but Michael died a few days later. No one seemed to think his death untoward.

  Doug Fleming, of the Rome Daily American: Michael “was not the suicidal type. The guy who was with him was carrying a gun. Those were the days of the Red Brigades. Everyone was getting lots of threats.

  “I went to the legal officer at the embassy, knowing he was FBI. [He was] a friend of mine. It was very friendly, casual. He simply said, ‘Don’t bother yourself. The Italian police are satisfied it was suicide.’”15

  If the August attack was a Mob hit gone wrong, why didn’t the Mafia send someone into the hospital to finish the job? Were they confident Michael was so incapacitated he would never again talk or write? Or did someone try to smother him in the hospital, as Marajen at one point contended?

  Michael died on October 11. On October 20, 1974, Rosselli was at Torre di Civita. He or someone else made a final entry in the villa’s guest book of that era, “New page, new life … affectionately John” and then printed across bottom of page “FINITO.” Some pages were ripped from the book.

  MARAJEN LEARNS

  Marajen first learned of the attack in a phone call from a friend in Rome on August 14. Marajen’s friend noted that Michael had lost thirty pounds over the previous three weeks; his friends suspected he had a massive tumor. The hospital doctors were not confident of his ability to survive the head wound, yet in a day or two, he was out of bed and receiving visitors.

  On about August 15, Johnny Rosselli, Bill, CG, and Sally Harvey arrived in Champaign at midday from Indianapolis. Mrs. Chinigo professed to be mystified by what had transpired. For whatever reason, Rosselli decided not to tarry and flew on almost immediately to Los Angeles. The Harveys returned to Indianapolis.

  As the news trickled in, a depressed and apprehensive Marajen worried that a recovered Michael might return to Champaign and harm her. Mrs. Chinigo inquired through a Champaign lawyer about the safety of her Rome premises and the villa. Mr. Bruno Bacci (further unidentified) “assured us everything had been arranged.”

  Eight days after the attack, by August 22, Michael was apparently well enough to sit up in bed, write letters, and make phone calls. He specifically wanted to talk to Marajen. As far as can be determined, he never leveled an accusation of attempted murder at his wife or anyone else. He did threaten to talk with the Internal Revenue Service about some jewelry Marajen had illegally imported, unless she came to visit him in Italy. He was apparently able to talk, or communicate in some way, when he chose to.

  Doug Fleming went to see Michael in the hospital. “He was walking around. He smiled. But he didn’t talk, he just touched the bandage wrapped around his head. Never said a word.”

  After Michael’s death, Marajen cut her social contacts almost completely for a while. A six-man team provided round-the-clock security for her and her premises in Champaign. Despite all the obvious inconsistencies in the manner of Michael’s death, no one apparently thought or wanted to ask any pointed questions.

  THE HARVEY FACTOR

  Had Harvey, at the behest of Rosselli, undertaken to arrange the killing of Michael Chinigo on a street in Rome during a night in August 1974? In November, not long after Chinigo’s demise, Marajen had another meeting with Harvey.

  Perhaps Marajen Chinigo’s distaste for her husband’s extramarital affair provided the American and Sicilian mafias with beautiful cover for what was actually a Mob hit. In that case, someone may have conveniently put the fix in with the Rome authorities so that they came up with an innocuous verdict on the affair. Italian organized crime knew the cops. And Harvey certainly knew some
of the top brass, even eight years after his tour of duty in Rome ended abruptly. Still, it’s hard to think that Harvey would have been complicit in a murder, even if it were an offshore contract.

  Mrs. Chinigo remained singularly, vaguely forgetful on the key question: Did she hint to Rosselli that it would be nice if Michael were no longer a nuisance to her, sure that Rosselli would make the necessary arrangements?

  Marajen later proved, in the ruination of her top executive, that bygones were not bygones. She at least thought about having that executive hit by a Mafia assassin.

  In the case of Michael Chinigo, Marajen may have benefited from the doctrine of plausible deniability. Or maybe she was, indeed, used as cover for a more nefarious plot.

  QUESTIONING THE CONTESSA

  Confronted with blatant evidence of Michael’s infidelity, Marajen must have been mortified. In a “theatrical panic” Marajen called Rosselli, who said, “We’ll take care of it.” The source for this interpretation of the hit is Joe Shimon, in conversation with Richard Mahoney.

  Marajen’s conservator muses, “I can’t imagine that she would have said outright, ‘I want him killed!’ I think she’d be too naïve. She would have had dark pangs of conscience!”

  Would Rosselli, Marajen’s gallant, have passed what amounted to a contract on Michael Chinigo to Harvey? Would Bill have agreed to handle the matter as a heartlander who didn’t like the idea of a slick Mediterranean wastrel, even one who had been OSS and a CIA contract agent, cheating on an upstanding American woman? Or because Rosselli now had Harvey under some form of control?