ITKIN'S STORY: A CONTRADICTORY WEB

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000100050003-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 1, 1998
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: December 15, 1969
• Content Type: NSPR

INEW YOth' TltlljS,
Itk'iny S tined - Appro% d For Ref Qe k A-RDP75-0000
CPYRGHT ctory VVeb
i Herbert Itkin,
; Government
'informer, so far has brought
down two very big men, ;
James L. Marcus, former city
commissioner and one-time;
confidant of Mayor Lindsay,.
,and Carmine G. Do Sapio,
once one of the most power.
,ful political leaders in the'
nation.
So when he thinks back
over the bizarre and some.,
times fancy-woven fabric of,
his life, it is with the satis.
faction of seeing himself,.
above all as "a patriot."
i Slight, hollow-eyed and
sallow, living in fear of his
life in protective custody at
an undisclosed military in
t
Street. In
were sentenced to bounty hunters
stallation base here, Mr. It- prison and those days the area was middle-
tence. that the Federal prosecutors , although the Itkins were
went to court with Mr. Itkin's. not., Mr. Itkin's father, Arthur,
double-dealing world of the a?a
.?1 .? l
rm
d
worked for the Central In- additional ao cases involving cases really proved.
ttelligence Agency. This is labor racketeering, gambling, Mr. Morgenthau's office, on'
true. He has sworn that he bribery, Income tax evasion the other hand, says that the
was an informer for the Fed- and a wide range of other' District Attorney did not move
felonies, authorities say. fast enough, and that is why
,eral Bureau of In . ationo Berating and bragging has em- Mr. Hogan's office is trying to
,,and this, too, is true. :discredit Mr. Itkin. Moreover,
In the shadows and thick- barrassed the C.I.A. Federal attorneys add, Mr. Ho-
His theatrical attempts to gan routinely grants immunity
ets in which the government 'force the agency to help to his own informers.
police and intelligence agen-
ties work, Herbert Itkin, the straighten out his domestic' Federal athorities, perhaps
43- problems almost blew the cover because Mr. Itkin is their man,
obscure money-grabbin
,
g
year-old lawyer, was known ,Qf one of the C.LA.'s most im- p anse himerfor 'histure. "Lir
?
by the C.I.A. code name';portant operatives in New
irking his neck almost every
"Portio" and by the, F.B.I. York City, the lawyer who was,tjay" and for his "reckless
as "Mr. Jerry." Itkin's C.I.A. "control." , patriotism" which, the' Insist,
. For the C.I.A. he was a He also had a tendency to
t voluntary supplier of politi- embark on wild and illegal
cal information, particularly schemes that were beyond
about Haiti, the Dominican ,, his activities as an Informer.
Republic and Indonesia. Evidence of such activity In
His value to the F.B.I. was which Mr. Itkin kept for him-
summed up by an agent who !self large sums of money from
!,,.said: "He- is probably the 'bribes, kickbacks and -swindles,
various shopkeeping ventures.
weak," a boyhood friend - of,
Herbert's remembered, but his
mother, Edith, was the opposite.
She was overreaching by living
in the neighborhood, but (like
the mother of James Marcus,
the man her son was to befriend
and betray) she was strong-
willed, talkative, Inventive and
ambitious.
"The Itkins were Jewish like
most 'of, the other people
around them," the boyhood
to across-the-board immunity.
In Mr. Hogan's office, he is
referred to as "the germ."
"I have lived years of deceit
and lies and danger for my
country," said Mr. Itkin in the
Interview. Striving in his sin-
gular way for status, he bragged
of his undercover work despite
the .obvious risks.
"Herbie told just about every-
body about the C.I.A. and F.B.I.
He told some fellows he oom-
religious. At Christmastime they
had a tree, the only one on the
block.""
Herbert is remembered as a
reasonably good student at
New Utretch High School,
where he was on the swimming
team.
Enlisted In Army
In 1944, he enlisted In a
special United States Army
training .program for high
school students and after V-J
2 `knew the younger up-and- De Saplo was found guilty of
l'coming characters in the conspiracy 'to bribe Marcus
n urouu/t;1 VU uIC Scif11 v[ , - _..___ _ __.__... And when he ran out of pee- with a poia Hospital unit. Later,
' United States Attorney Rob- William A. Verlcker, an le to bra to, when his life as he said that he was a para-
F.II.I.. ag, ent was who asked work It ed it was with p g trooper attached to Army het M. therproseau who Mr Itkin an informer did not conform to y in-osec .
helped in the
ukion of the policy of the bureau "to his fantasy, he turned to writ- te11igante.
~. a1._ -? _ __.__ .. .. 1.... fi
ti
Q?- .e
tories were. Retltrnine, home in 1fI46
are
s
c
on
s
,
th
- - - -
d
i
l
stn,.. .4
me.
e II ost va
uable leU1111 LIM procee
s VI 14r
; -In informer the F.B.I. has ever Mr. Vericket answered: "No, Itkin tale s i wadie hero. ih Herbert svallg luncheonette,0inn Brook-'
had outside the, espionage it is not the policy of our gyp's Bush Terminal. I Herbert
office. In Itkin's case he often. A'Spy Thriller ,
field He never lied tb us and his parents lapped to
-r.
His Information was always :"most of the time----told me' In one such story, written in work together and make a ?uc~.
about these deals after that' July 1068 'and entitled "no Isle- ,cess of the place,
accurate."
Thad been completed and he' gals: (Missile Espionage--Ma- One Saturday evening Mr
.
Behind his role as a wit- said he disbursed. the pro fia)," Brat Is the hero who, Mr. Itkin recalls, his father did not
d
. "
see
s
ness in court is a labyrinthine Itkin said, is himself. The
~ come home from the late shift
Federal officials, . while de- character, David Emanuel, a
and sometimes fa
i
t th
l
t
ld
l
h
H
t
h
rc
ca
unc
a
e
eonet
e
e
sto
as
o
. fj It has been pieced together . :dining to elaborate on how lawyer, Is Bre~t'a . C.I.A. chief, at least two versions to friends
tri
during the last fr the ad to restrain Mr. It? One portion reads: and -associates of what hap-;
_0.IM_ It
him
~
B1
:
-1 WVrgdu01000500U%)_V
court?L>~pcords"an?
~
Mf
r
j !! at
According to one account, he.
th ti
r
de
h
bec
me
rh
k
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o
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a
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e
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FOIAb3b
Pit
ington, Europe and theCarib- dreds of thousands of dollars. nixed and understood the moll
bean, with Mr. Itkin, his ~ Mr. Itkin's operations also vation. It was not he, Emanuei
caused a serious rupture in the as a person, but he, as a syym
friends, enemies, relatives, relationship between the offices bol of the authority of their
business associates and Fed. of United States Attorney Mor- country that Bret revered. -
eral and local officials. eenthau and Manhattan Dis- 'when a man Is a true
..14,1, V, .,, .- -- _ count
testimony supplied by Mr. would love to get me on a country, he then only has those
In authority to relate to as his
.+ w u1c , me arid all my work," he said
and conviction of Antonio In an interview. Ile'
le has four
(Tony Ducks) Corailo, a other cases pending against him
Mafia chief; HenryFried, a by the Manhattan District At,
millionaire contractor, and torney.
Daniel J. Motto, a' Queens ' A member of Mr. Hogan's
bakery union president. staff asked: "How could the
He has been the principal Federal officials allow an in-
witness in a pension fund former to take 'that kind of
money, which was admittedly
k
kb
basis of honor and Integrity.
To Bret, then, David Emanuel
represented the symbol of the
absolute National Authority,"
How did Herbert Itkin miss
becoming Bret, the professional
secret agent of his dreams? Or
did he miss entirely?
The answer begins in the
Borough Park section of Brook-
.
ic
ack case involving the , made from criminal deals, and! lyn, where he and a sister spent
International Brotherhood of keep it? What do they think their childhood and early adult
Teamsters, In which two'men informers are? Some sort of years in a, neat, two-family
?" house at 1748 48
h