Robert A. Maheu | CIA operative in plot, 90

Robert A. Maheu, 90, a former Howard Hughes confidant and CIA operative involved in a failed plot to poison Fidel Castro, has died in a Las Vegas hospital.

Mr. Maheu died Monday evening of congestive heart failure at Desert Springs Hospital, according to his son, Peter Maheu.

Mr. Maheu was the public face of Hughes' massive corporate empire in the 1960s, a period in which the troubled aviator and onetime Hollywood playboy was reclusive and dogged by phobias.

In 1960, Mr. Maheu was enlisted by the CIA to recruit a mobster for a "sensitive mission requiring gangster-type action," according to a recently released CIA dossier known as "the family jewels."

"Fidel Casto is the mission target," the document said.

Mr. Maheu approached reputed gangster Johnny Roselli and represented himself as an agent for international corporations wanting the Cuban leader dead, according to the document.

Roselli introduced Mr. Maheu to two wanted mobsters, Momo Giancana, Al Capone's successor in Chicago, and Santos Trafficante. The CIA gave them six poison pills, and they tried unsuccessfully for several months to have several people put them in Castro's food.

The plot was dropped after the failed CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, the document said.

- AP