JFK The Enduring Secret

Even though I am technically in the middle of the Noss Gold Treasure epiodes, I felt the need to go on a  "wander"  and produce a new episode for our core journey here at JFK The Enduring Secret. In Episode 323, we begin to explore one of the most intense backdrops of the Kennedy administration: the Cuba Project. Following the disastrous and public failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961, President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, did not choose to retreat. Instead, they doubled down, concluding that the next attempt to topple Fidel Castro needed to be smarter, tighter, more deniable, and relentless.
This commitment birthed Operation Mongoose, a massive covert program led by counterinsurgency specialist Brigadier General Edward Lansdale and strictly overseen by the White House. To wage this secret war, the CIA established JM WAVE in the suburbs of Miami—a massive intelligence station that functioned as a "small spy city". Under the leadership of Ted Shackley, this operation directed thousands of Cuban exile operatives, commanded an enormous budget, and conducted hundreds of "pinprick" sabotage raids against Cuban infrastructure.
However, beneath the official campaign lay a much darker shadow war. This episode delves into the deeply secretive "Operation 40," a targeted killing and counterintelligence unit originally intended to purge communist officials. We also explore "ZR RIFLE," the CIA's executive action program that astonishingly partnered with the Mafia to orchestrate assassination plots against Castro, and the chilling "Operation Northwoods," a declassified proposal by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to stage fake terrorist attacks on American soil as a pretext for a full-scale invasion of Cuba.
Ultimately, the Cuba Project failed in its primary objective: Castro survived, and the secret war was effectively swallowed by the Cuban Missile Crisis. Yet, its true legacy was the creation of a vast, unaccountable paramilitary network. The operatives trained participants in the Florida swamps—including men like E. Howard Hunt and Frank Sturgis—and would later surface in some of the darkest chapters of American history, from the hunt for Che Guevara to the Watergate scandal. Tune in to explore how a secret machine built to kill a revolution ended up haunting the United States for the rest of the century.
APPENDIX — A Chronology of the Secret War
March 1960 — President Eisenhower approves the original CIA covert-action program against Castro that Kennedy will inherit.
January 3, 1961 — Eisenhower reportedly suggests to General Lemnitzer that the U.S. "could think of manufacturing something" to justify intervention in Cuba.
January 1961 — Kennedy is inaugurated; the U.S. and Cuba sever diplomatic relations.
Early 1961 — Richard Bissell directs William Harvey to build a "stand-by" assassination capability; the ZR/RIFLE Executive Action project takes shape.
April 17–19, 1961 — Brigade 2506 lands at the Bay of Pigs and is destroyed within three days.
April 22, 1961 — Kennedy appoints the Taylor–Kennedy Board of Inquiry (Cuba Study Group).
June 13, 1961 — The board reports: "no long-term living with Castro as a neighbor."
October 5, 1961 — NSAM 100 directs post-Castro and military-contingency planning.
November 3, 1961 — Kennedy authorizes the covert program that becomes Operation Mongoose.
November 30, 1961 — Kennedy's memorandum formally establishes Mongoose; Lansdale named Chief of Operations.
December 1, 1961 — RFK tells the Special Group Cuba is now top priority; Castro declares, "I am a Marxist-Leninist."
January 18–19, 1962 — Lansdale assigns 32 planning tasks; RFK calls Cuba "top priority — all else is secondary." The Special Group (Augmented) is established.
February 1962 — Shackley brought to JMWAVE; soon made station chief. JMWAVE relocates to NAS Richmond under the Zenith Technical Enterprises front.
February 20, 1962 — Lansdale submits the six-phase Basic Action Plan aiming at revolt by October 1962. (John Glenn's orbital flight occurs the same day — later a Northwoods pretext target.)
February 26, 1962 — RFK orders Lansdale to stand down to intelligence-gathering for three months; the Joint Chiefs' frustration hardens.
March 1962 — SGA approves Phase I (intelligence only). The JCS draft Operation Northwoods.
March 13, 1962 — Lemnitzer signs the Northwoods memo ("Justification for US Military Intervention in Cuba") to McNamara.
March 16, 1962 — Kennedy flatly rejects Northwoods and any overt U.S. military force in Cuba.
April 1962 — Harvey reactivates the Roselli/Mafia plots under ZR/RIFLE; arms and poison pills delivered in Miami.
August 23, 1962 — NSAM 181 orders Mongoose "Plan B plus" developed with all speed amid the Soviet buildup.
August 30, 1962 — SGA authorizes the Matahambre copper-mine sabotage; the raid fails.
October 1962 — U-2 flights discover Soviet missiles; the Cuban Missile Crisis erupts.
October 30, 1962 — The SGA orders a halt to all sabotage; Mongoose effectively ends.
1963 — Mongoose disbanded; the SGA abolished; the regular Special Group resumes control.
June 19, 1963 — A new externally based sabotage program against the Cuban economy is approved.
Fall 1963 — The CIA passes AM/LASH (Rolando Cubela) a poison pen while the administration explores a UN back-channel to Castro.
October 24, 1963 — The Special Group approves thirteen major sabotage operations.
November 22, 1963 — President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas; both the AM/LASH plot and the Cuban back-channel are cut short.

In this special update episode of JFK The Enduring Secret,  Andrew Isler and Mark Adamczyk and myself  recap our recent trip to Washington, D.C., for a highly anticipated meeting with Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna. After a chaotic day of travel, we secured nearly an hour with the Congresswoman and her staff to discuss the ongoing issues and lack of compliance surrounding the 1992 JFK Records Act.
The conversation highlights how we made the case for shifting the focus  from requesting specific, isolated documents to addressing the broader, systemic issues regarding the National Archives (NARA) and their compliance with the JFK Records Act.  We were delighted at Representative Luna's bias toward action on the topic; she eagerly reviewed Andrew and Mark's  prepared briefs and material that we also delivered to her on behalf of Doug Horne, highlighted critical points, and demonstrated a serious commitment to the JFK task force's transparency mission.
Listeners will get an inside look at the team's key recommendations to Congress, which include requesting a Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit of the JFK records collection to establish a true, accurate inventory of what the National Archives holds. We also discuss a push for  the release of Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby's heavily guarded tax returns, and the urgent need to track down 27,000 missing legal orders previously issued by the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB). Congresswoman Luna was so receptive to the GAO audit, that she instructed her staff to draft a letter to the agency right there in the meeting.  Andrew provided them with a pre-drafted request letter to make it even easier to do. Imagine that. Thank you Andrew!
Finally, our episode wraps up on a lighter note, as we share our  post-meeting sightseeing adventures around D.C., including a hike up the famous Exorcist stairs in Georgetown, a celebratory dinner at the Watergate Hotel, and a reflective nighttime visit to the Lincoln Memorial. Tune in to hear the full breakdown of this monumental step forward, and learn how you can contact the Congresswoman's office to support the push for complete transparency.  In order to get all the details of what we were asking  here is a link where Andrew posted some of these documents on the Chokeholds website. And for additional kicks, here is the link to the Rand Paul comment on his inability to gain access to Church Committee records. 
Rand Paul Clip:
https://x.com/jfkchokeholds/status/2067263368507871334?s=46
Chokeholds-Where you can find our recommendations
https://jfkchokeholds.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/2026.06.09-Brief-for-Meeting-with-Representative-Luna.pdf

Episode 9 plunges into the darkest chapter of the Victoria Peak saga, a chilling period between 1955 and 1963 when the United States military transformed from guardian to thief. Based entirely on the exhaustive, decades-long research of investigative author John Clarence (the pen name of Jack Staley), this episode details the heartbreaking aftermath of Ova Noss’s forcible eviction from the Hembrillo Basin. With the claim site now officially a restricted military zone, the Army's actions turned vicious—Ova's beloved horses were left to die in their corral, and her rock house camp was shot to pieces. The family was effectively exiled, but the mountain’s secrets could not be contained.
The narrative takes a staggering turn in February 1958 when active-duty Air Force personnel, Captain Leonard Fiege and Airman Thomas Berlette, accidentally rediscovered the exact treasure chambers Doc Noss had found 20 years prior. Crawling into a hidden cavern, they were met with stacks of crude gold bars piled like cordwood, ancient artifacts, and the remains of numerous human skeletons. Their astonishing find was later validated when both men easily passed formal military polygraph examinations. However, their attempts to secure a legal claim through official channels only alerted corrupt military brass to the exact location of the unimaginable fortune.
With the treasure exposed, the vault guards officially became the robbers. Under the command of Major General John G. Shinkle, the military orchestrated massive, top-secret extractions in the early 1960s, pulling bullion out under the cover of night using chain-gang style operations. To conceal these brazen thefts, the Army sponsored a sham, tightly controlled civilian excavation in 1963, only to deliberately censor the archaeologists' final report. Military officials wiped out all seismic evidence of the caverns and eyewitness accounts of prior military digs, creating a fraudulent public document to support their narrative that the gold was entirely a myth.
The episode concludes with a chilling cascade of violence and a heartbreaking missed opportunity. On November 22, 1963, Ova Noss was waiting in a Denver hotel for a scheduled meeting with President John F. Kennedy, who intended to finally resolve her legal ownership of the gold—a meeting that was tragically canceled by his assassination in Dallas. What followed was a grim era of relentless surveillance, death threats, and a string of brutal murders linked to the stolen gold. Tune in to hear how patriotism became a cover for unchecked greed. And remember, if you want to read the definitive account of this incredible saga, you can secure a rare, signed copy of John Clarence's Gold House trilogy by contacting Jeff Crudele directly at podcastjfk@gmail.com

Episode 7 picks up in the immediate, chaotic aftermath of Milton "Doc" Noss’s tragic murder on March 5, 1949. Based entirely on the exhaustive, decades-long research of investigative author John Clarence (the pen name of Jack Staley), this episode shifts the focus to his steadfast wife, Ova Noss, who is left to face a bitter, multi-front war for the Victoria Peak treasure. While Doc’s double-crossing killer managed to walk free despite the testimony of five eyewitnesses, Ova soon found herself staring down an even more formidable nemesis: the United States government.
Before she could even properly grieve, Ova was plunged into a vicious probate battle. The legal proceedings revealed a shocking secret: Doc had covertly annulled their marriage in an Arkansas court in 1945 and married another woman named Violet. Navigating this heartbreaking personal betrayal, Ova made a brilliant legal pivot on the advice of her attorneys, asserting her rights not merely as a widow, but as the legal co-discoverer of the 1937 treasure. Meanwhile, the probate inventory exposed the terrifying reach of federal authorities, listing seized maps, documents, and dozens of gold bars that had already been confiscated by the Secret Service and the Denver Mint.
Refusing to surrender her claim, Ova doubled down on the physical extraction of the gold. She hired contractors to carve a drivable road up the rugged mountain and engineered a new "lower Noss shaft" to bypass the catastrophic 1939 cave-in. But as she inched closer to regaining access to the fabled treasure rooms, the U.S. Army's presence at the White Sands Proving Ground morphed into a hostile occupation. Under the command of Brigadier General George Eddy, the military initiated condemnation proceedings, dismissed Ova's valid state permits, and explicitly threatened Ova and her daughter that they would be "shot on sight" if they returned to the peak.
Surrounded by treacherous former partners conspiring to steal her lease and a military apparatus determined to lock her out of her own fortune, Ova stood as a lone David against an impossible Goliath. Tune in to hear how this resilient woman fought to keep her family's massive discovery alive in the face of insurmountable corruption. And remember, if you want to read the definitive account of this incredible saga, you can secure a rare, signed copy of John Clarence's Gold House trilogy by contacting Jeff Crudele directly at podcastjfk@gmail.com.

Episode 4 propels us into a chaotic twelve-year period from 1937 to 1949, where the Noss family's dream of extracting the Victoria Peak treasure begins to violently unravel. Based entirely on the exhaustive, decades-long research of investigative author John Clarence (the pen name of Jack Staley), this episode details how the formidable obstacles of World War II, a sprawling military expansion, and Milton "Doc" Noss's own personal demons collided to seal the mountain's riches tighter than a government vault.
Desperate for capital following the devastating 1939 shaft collapse, Doc formed the Cheyenne Mining Company, unknowingly appointing a venomous Secret Service informant named Merl Horesman to his inner circle. Matters worsened in November 1940 when a second reckless dynamite charge triggered a massive landslide, completely entombing the gold. As the Noss workforce marched off to fight in WWII, the U.S. Army swallowed up the desolate Hembrillo Basin to create the White Sands Proving Ground. In a truly surreal moment of history, Doc and Ova Noss found themselves barred from their own claim by soldiers just in time to witness the Trinity atomic blast on July 16, 1945—literally standing as spectators at the dawn of the nuclear age while their treasure slipped into military hands.
Fearing imminent government confiscation, a deeply paranoid Doc scattered 110 gold bars—weighing roughly 4,000 pounds—across over a dozen secret desert caches. Drifting and desperate, he partnered with a Texas businessman named Charlie Ryan in late 1948. Together, they concocted an elaborate scheme to smuggle the bullion into Old Mexico aboard a surplus DC-3 aircraft, even clearing a secret runway under the guise of a lead and silver mining operation. But the joint venture quickly turned lethal when Doc overheard Ryan plotting to double-cross him and fly the fortune out alone.
Tune in to hear how this treacherous web of betrayal set the stage for a frantic, midnight race to dig up and re-hide the gold, leading Doc directly toward a deadly confrontation. And remember, if you want to read the definitive account of this incredible saga, you can secure a rare, signed copy of John Clarence's Gold House trilogy by contacting Jeff Crudele directly at podcastjfk@gmail.com.