NOTES ON PEOPLE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01601R001100210001-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 6, 2000
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: February 23, 1972
• Content Type: NSPR

NEW YORK TIMES
Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601 RO
2 3 FEB 1972
Notes on People
Herbert It n, the informer-
who gathered evidence that
helped convict several or-
ganized crime and political
figures in New York while
working with the Federal Bu-
reau of Investigation, has
been named by a former
British Secret Service official
as a toiler in the vineyards
of the Central Intelligence
Agency as well. In The Daily
Telegraph of London, E. H.
Cookridge said that Itkin,
known under the code name
"Portio," was sent to London
by the C.I.A. in 1966, follow-
ing the escape from a British
prison of George Blake, a
Soviet spy. Itkin was said to
be part of a crack C.I.A.
team whose mission was to
determine just how serious
a breach in British security
the escape of Blake repre-
sented, according to Mr.
Cookridge.
Philip C. Habib, Ambassa-
dor to South Korea, left Seoul
for Washington, where he
will undergo medical observa-
tion and treatment at Walter
Reed Hospital for what is be-
lieved to be anigina pectoris.
Mr. Habib, who was the sec-
ond-ranking negotiator at the
Paris peace talks before he
was sent to Seoul, was admit-
ted to the U. S. Eighth Army
Hospital in Seoul on Feb. 9,
suffering from chest pains.
STATINTL
Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601 R001100210001-9
 SIAIIN IL
.Approved For Release 2001./OVCftlEi'CiA-RDP80-01601M
MIAMI SUN!)
By HENRY L ER,
Former City Water Commissioner James Ti. Marcus,
onetime glamor boy of the Lindsay administration who
served two prison terms ? for taking kickbacks, admitt-C(l
yesterday that he had agreed to a 5,%% payoff f rain? t i)
Broadway Maintenance Co. I ?_..._ .____._.__._.___..___.___.___.---__
Marcus testified as a govern.
went witness in the Federal Court
perjury trial of Milton I,ip}tins,
hroaciw ay Maintenance vice pro t.
ident; iviio is charged with lying
before a grand jury..
According to the prosecution
Liplnns denied having taf.;ed
with government informer Har-
bert Itlcin about Marcus or
Ilroach`: gay Maintenance's anncol
contract with the city.
Part of the Raise
Marcus asserted that Itlcin toll
him the firm had agreed "to pa;:
v??c of the coverage"---tire differ-
enca between the 15GG-67 and
1907-63 contracts. Mtar?cus said
he had responded that that wag
''fine."
Marcus' Clepal'titU_`nt was rr.-
sp tsihle for street. lights and
for sevcinl years )roadway
Maintenance has built and se.v-
iccd tliieui in ManliatIan and tuc
Ilion ?
Diet a itrotlicr.
sInrcus said he gave Itlcin the
cgniract estimate for 1907.65,
and "Itlcin showed it to Lipkins.
Itlcin_ had, testified earlier that
I,il?hii; was 'delighted?' over the
contract, which was pp $00,5000
over the previous year.
Marcus, now out of prison and
worsting as a salesman here, Tes-
tified also that Itkin asked hits
to meet L:pkins' brother, Sidney,
president of ]lroacb?ay Mainten-
anee. They Met once, he said, but.
payments were not discussed,
Itkiir had told the court that
he got $25,000 in checks fror-?
the company in July and .- ugust
1967 as l ayinent of the 5re-
perjury trial in Federal Court senCin '?yey evidcnec for the
here. prosecution, Were identified in
The testimony cable from court by ]\h. Itkin, who testi-
Herbert Itkin, a Government in-i fied for eight hours over a
former, who quoted a 13road three-day period.
way Maintenance official, Mill Lx-Secretary Testifies
toil Lipkins, as having said that, The second witness was LI-1
"they had been fixing. their) seen Karlin, a fornrer secretary;
1)ic]s" for many years to (1S\'IC1CI fUl' A 1I-. Iikln, who took the
city Stand for only a few minutes'
stye contracts for maintaining,, to? ?t?estify that she had typed
street lights. , 'the bills in the fall of 1567 and
"Instead of being compete- had backdaled them at Mr. It-
tive," M.r. ltkin quoted ?,1r. Lip- kin's direction to indicate that
kins as telling him, ('it was they had been submitted earlier.
to Broadway Maintenance.
fixed," Under cross-examination by
A spokesman for Broadway kT,ilton S. Gould, the defense
Maintenance said last night ti'lat lavier, Miss Karlin said that
he "absolutely denied" the bid- she' rememhered._the bills be-
rit ging accusations against the cause it was unusual for her
two companies, which retain to be told to )backdate some-
thing.
street-lighting contracts with Olre of the perjury counts
the, city, against Mr. Lipkins, whose
Mr. Lipkins, assistant vice.brother Sidney serves as presi-
president of Broadway Mainte-dent of Broadway ti7aintenance,
Hance,. is on trial on charges cited the defenclant's denial
L,Irg s that the bills had been back-
chat he lied to a Federal dated and thaC t e cr ck had
jury that vies investigating been paid earlier.
alleged payoffs to increase the Mr. Itl:in maintained in his
company's contract in 1967, testimony that the checks had
When James L. Marcus was been a payoff and that the
Water Commissioner. bills had been a later effort to
disguise the payo"fi as payments
The 56-year-old defendant, for work done in the Domini-
who lives at 35 Sutton Place can 1:epublic.
South, was indicted July 1 on During six hours of cross
perjury charges for denrying examination, Mr. l.tkin said re
Do-
under oath that he had dis- peatedly that Itrilicps hatod the been a
cussed city contracts with Mr? minican I.epub coverup and thIt the checks
Itkin. - had been a contract payoff, not
Testifying as the opening a work payment.
the de-
said in the trial, which be- The fendmil.. had. witness stoldid thhiatm about
gall Monday, Mr. Itkin said that bid_rirtili * arrangements when
Mr. Lipkins gave him five z g L
c they were discusslnb the pay-
thee}
s
as part of a o?.5,000 off deal for Marcus in 19G'l.
payoff for favorable treatment Mr. Itkin, who has testified
(In 1967, in eight previous trials since he
The witness testified that he'surfaced as an informer in 1968,
had acted as an intermediary admitted under cross-examina-
in the deal and that the $2u,- tion that he had brol.:en many
000 was a. payoff for Marcus Jaws, but hs'said it had all been
to grant a 5500,000. "Incre se done in the role of an under-
in a, Broadway Maintenance. cover agent.
contract with t]ue -Dep'rrtment
of Water Supply, Cas and Elec-
tricity, which handled street
tlil;hting. -__ _ - - ,
Approved For Release 200.1/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601 R001100210001-9
 Approved For Release ZQ 1W3l 4 iA-RDP80-01601 R
-_.IMSG1171
ITf:? 11 SAYS P v
t 9 ~fll Pi\
Testifies Against Official of
Broadway Maintenance .
By ARNOLD D. 7 U ASCII
Herbert Itkin, repeating his
role as a witness for the prose-;
cutiou, eestined at a perjury
trial yesterday that an official,
of the Broadway Maintenance
Corporation gave, hirn five
checks as part of a Payoff.
Mr. Itkin remained on the
witness stand all day at the
trial of the Broadway Mainte-
tiance official, Milton Lipkins,
who was charged with lying
to a grand jury about alleged
payoffs to increase the corn-
pany':: street:-lighting contract
with the city.
ml- fi?il of m1?. LloliinS in
Federal Court here marks t11--1 dis^uise the payoff checks that
ninth time that MI. Itkill is he said he received in 1967.
oras a Government ill-
f ile
appearing Pe it in = to questions by f
former and key witness who ,roses itoi Walter M. Phillips
remains under protective sus- Tr., the witness said that he
tody for fear of his life. had also disguised Consolidated
Edison with Mr. Lip' .;ins 'and
Defendant Talcs Notes
Mr. Lipkins, assistant vice
president of Broadway Mainte-
nance, took notes on a long yel-
lowy legal pad while Mr. Ithin
Identified the checks that were
described as Bart of a 525,000
payoff by the company in 1967
to gain favorable treatment
.from the Water Department
when James I,. Marcus was
Commissioner.
Under cross-examination by
Milton S. Gould, the defense
lawyer, Mr, itkin was asked if
he had ever been involved in
the bribing of public officials.
"Once I started with Marcus,
h ^'tnes 3 replied calmly,
A Protected Rome Site
Mr. ltkin said that lie now
lived with his children, on a
military reservation in a rent-
free house and that. the Gov-
ernment provided $9 a day for
hint as well as $3 a day for
each of his four children.
"They feel I have to be pro-
tected," lie said of the Gov-
ernment, "because there arc.
threats against my life."
Federal marshals accompany
him when he travels through
the city, according to Mr. IVT
a 4,i-year-old lawyer who
emerged as an informer and
witness during the Marcus
scandal in 1968.
n In addition to testifying
against riarcus, he was a v-+it-
ness against Carmine G. Be
Sapio, the former Democratic
party chairman in Manhattan,
and several others who were
also convicted.
Mr. Itkin testified yesterday
that ivlr. Lipkins had arranged
with him to backdate several
that the defendant had sug-
;estccl that "the way to make
a real bundle was through Con
Ed."
The alleged suggestion was
that Marcus could hold up aP.
proval of Consolidated Edison
contracts until the company
paid kickbacks, which might
involve millions of dollars.
The trial of the 56-year-old
defendant, who lives at 35 Sut-
ton Place South, was adjourned
by Judge Dudley 13. Bonsai tm-
til today at 10 A.M. . ....
L, e V.
"that's what we did all day:.
long.
Mr. Itkin conceded .that lie
had violated numerous laves in
the past, but he stressed that
he had been acting as an un-
dercover agent for the Govern-
ment to infiltrate organze of a
crime under the guise
crooked lawer.
"I was a- hoodlum lawyer,"
he observed. "I committed all
sorts of clinics whets I was
under covert'.'...
STATINTL
Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601 R001100210001-9
 Approved For Release 20 17`Q1CIA-RDP80-01601
Informer Tells British.
e- Lived Off C me Profits
London, July 8 ('Reuter)--A
.man said to be an FBI under-
cover agent told a high court
:jury here today he had lived on
the proceeds of crime in the
manner of a high-ranking Amer-
icab crimhtal.
Herbert Itkin, a 44-year-old
New York attorney, explained
that he had been assigned -to
:infiltrate American criminal cir-
cles. He said he lived as one of
therii; but used the proceeds of
crime to further his infiltration.
He had never been a party to
crime solely for his own benefit,
he said.
Mr. Itkin was giving evidence
for the defense on the 13th day
of a libel action against Asso-
':ciated Newspapers, publishers
of the Daily Mail.
The action had been brought;
by Associated Leisure, Ltd.,
Britain's largest dealer in
.amusement and vending ma-
chines, and its eight directors. It
stems from an article published
in the Daily Mail-in December,
1968, which the company claims;
suggested it was controlled by,
the Mafia.
The defendants deny the
words complained of referred to
Associated Leisure. They also
contend that if the words did
refer to the firm, they were true
and fair comment on a matter
of public importance.
Mr. Itkin said earlier that as
an undercover agent he attend-
ed meetings between directors
of the company and Mafia asso-
ciates. _
Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601 R001100210001-9__
 Approved For Release 20n~} r/:CIA-RD t
+ ? pp t ? xT.y ?y ?
Deflei1j clvs' 7~? t ~ gi LO to y\t Ax
By DY101:i:IS KAPLAN
A Long Island lawyer whol mails in offering stock sales
is awaiting trial on charges 1of Precision Metals Inc., a
Eof dotting the murder of Her Miami concern, according to
Bert Itkin, a Government in-I,. ssistant United States At-
`former, was convicted of stock;tornev Peter R. Schlam.
fraud conspiracy yesterday mi (hose manipulations alleged-
Adjudged Court in Brooklyn. i
Adjudged guilty after a two-!ly resulted from an earlier
week nonjury trial before 1 scheme ? that involved a S300,-
Judge John F. Dooling Jr., Rob-1000 stock offering of Triamgle
/ ert Schwartz was continued inInstrument Company of Syos-
his. own custody pending s,-n'(
tence on May 6. The 46 year-; set, L. L, at S a s tare. The
csld defendant faces a maxi- underwriting was handled by
munl of five years in prisonL&rn,stron, & Co., then at 15
and a $10,000 fine, or both. William Street, a defunct bro-
Schwartz, who was arrested kerage house in which
by the Federal Bureau of In. Schwartz was a principal
vestigntion in January, 1968,! During the underwriting an
has pleaded not guilty in the! arrangement was made with
murder plot and is free on S73,-Sterling Factors Corporation,
000 bail set in Federal CourL529 Fifth Avenue, pledging the
In, Manhattan. The. GoF ernmen.tsold but .undelivered Triangle
has'charged that Schwartz con-stock as collateral for a loan
'tracted with a former convict,;of S115,000. The Government!
Robert H. Roden of Uniondale.;charged that the deal consti-
L.I., to arrange the murder of;tuted fraud.
Itkin. I In debt to Sterling Factors''
fihe fatter appeared as a key( for $115,000, Armstrong & Co.
Government witness againstlsought to bail out by under-
former City Water Commis-(writing the Precision issue, u,~-
sioner James L. Marcus, w?holing the proceeds to pay cjli
went to prison for receiving al Sterling. The Government:
$40,000 kickback for a reser-(proved that money was div :r.
voir cleaning job. ed, that Schwartz profited
Schwartz, who lives in Bay the scheme. The cost to invet.;
Shore, L. I., was found guilty ors was estimated at S250,1-J!.).
of conspiring to pledge stock Robert B. Edens, former
that he knew had been boughtiident of Armstrong, pleacled
and paid for as collateral forlguilty to conspiracy and testi-
a loan to a brokerage house he fled for the Government. The
controlled. others pleaded,guilty to fraud
Among 10 Indicted in '66 sand are awaiting sentencing.
He and nine others were in-
dicted in 1966 on 18 counts
of stock fraud and conspiracy
after separate investigations by
the Securities and Exchange.
Commission and a Federal'
.:grand jury.
Between October, 1961, and.
'February, 1962, they made;
false statements in using the
STATINTL'
Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601 R001100210001-9
 ? ed For, t ase 2001103/04 CIA
: -RDP80-0'160
[ E' k of U", C[`f' (l
I J r
g -p E
A PERCENTAGE OF THE TAKE
by WALTER GOODMAN
((Farrar, Straus e Giroux) $6.95,
`[ 11le corruption that seems. endemic
(1?in the soul of,. man and gnaws
away at the American system of gov-
ernment has produced at last the per-
fect vignette--a cast of characters
swept up from the gutters of the un-
derworld, from the luxurious execu-
tive suites of business, arid from the
supposedly austere levels of Mayor
John V. Lindsay's reform administra-
tionIn New York. The result is farce
=the kind of farce the irreverent Sam
uel Johnson might have relished; the
kind that bites deep and poses the un-
thinkable questions: Who is the more
admirable, the ruthless ,Mafia chief-
tain or the "honorable" political
fixer? The distinguished official who
-cannot resist temptation or the pillar
of-the-community businessman who
cannot resist the temptation to bribe
him?
Walter Goodman's tale tells how
Water Commissioner James L. Mar-
cus, married to a Lodge, fell from vir-
tue tike an overacquicscent girl. His
inability to say "No"-in fact, his
frantic compulsion to cry "Yes, yes"
-soon lured to the contract-heaped,
bribe-laden dinner table this contend-
ing set of jackals:
>. Herbert Itkin, the racket lawyer
who considered himself "almost a
Mafioso," informer for those secret
holies, the Central Intelligence Agen-
cy and the Federal Bureau of Inves-
tigation,, a conniver who attempted
every crooked deal in the book while
passing on to his protectors only tid-
bits of information.
p Antonio ("Tony Ducks") Corallo,
the Mafia bigwig, an aging muscle-
manwlipse sensitive nostrils told him
that in Marcus he had a society pi-
geon ripe for plucking.
I>. Carmine De Sapio, tlhe former puis-
sant leader of Tammany I-Tall, a man
who surfaced in the plot when finesse
was needed to' shake down Conso!i-
dated. Edison, the mighty utility-
whose executive. echelons contained
men not averse to giving, or taking, a
STATINTL
the kind'of arrangements necesSary to into the clutches of Corallo. We are
get things done, left with some vivid, unforgettable
A host of lesser characters, whose scenes: Commissioner Marcus in his
sense of ethics was expressed felici- chauffeur-driven limousine arriving
tously by Herbert Itkin: "Everybody for a shady conference and being
screws everybody in these cases;" treated like an office boy, told by Co-
It is a New York story,'. but as ? rallo to wait on the sttcet until Coral-
Goodman comments, "No week lo was ready for him; Commissioner
passes without confirmation from Marcus, fretting in the men's room
some part of the country that thieves waiting'for the final payoff and Coral-
patrol the corridors of our public lo sweeping the money into his own
buildings and their accomplices occu- pocket, claiming he'd had "expenses"
py the inner offices." -and finally dealing the commission-
In this contest Marcus-Itkin were- er a measly 5200; itkin, informing on
the greedy innocents in the political. everyone :in the end, delivering his
jungle; they simply did not know how . "friend" Marcus to the FBI as his
to collect, and it is Goodman's thesis own meal ticket-and calling himself
that they might have been. going on a hero who is"stitnding up" to the
their merry way yet if they had. Good- Mafia and the forces of corruption.
man tells the story with flashes of mor- It is a- picture of our times, com-
dant wit that light virtually every plete lvith the corrupt official, the cor--
page. Marcus is the handsome social . rupting businessman, the Mafia
butterfly without ability or substance.. strang-arms-and, perhaps the low-
who turns to Itkin for succor after en- est, the undercover government in-
meshing himself in. stock market former who has to be protected be-.
debts. Goodman comments, "One is cause without him there wouldbe no
properly offended to learn that a case. It is a combination rampant in
young think has fallen into the clutch- the land, and while it lasts it seems a1-,
es of a piiihp, yet the question often re- most sophomoric to speak of such ar
mains: if it had not been this,pimp,' cliaic concepts as ethics and honor.
would it not have been another?"t i, erC
. ". Lill
Itkin, the hustler, was the man who
h
-
eople and powers:... If Jim Mr?. Cook is the author of the for t
"knew
p
was t[heproperly brought-up boy with coating The Nightmare Decade:
Walter Goodman
naughty inclinations, then IIerbie' was _
the street urchin who knew all the
whorehouses in town."
This street-urchin knohiwledge led It-
/p4ccl(;1A:'01i3d1 R001100210001-9
Aptpnb Re1fe&2001/
_
D Henry Fried, a mi':'ionaire contrac- shake a kickback out of ent'y rle .
tor, accustomed by Nast experience to -and so delivered him and Marcus
 r r~ fI ~? ii'i 1)
Approved For" MOO
i(~,04 : -RDP80-01
STATI NTL
IL ~l r ~r i ..t/ ~ C_~/tom/fJ, ~~~r~~~I ,?- ?l'i
u ---g c F 'fir"s1 3s. By elier Ceai!;nail.
Farrar, Straps & Giroux. 226 tip. $6.95.
By L. T..Davis
' James L. Marcus was the kind of sucker that every
crook in the world dreams about: a naive weakling with
a desperate hunger for honey and no particular s~,ruples
about how he got it, who also happened to be the water
ccrnmi :;toner of I,,',-,IV York City. In .?bcrt, a plum. You
can scarcely dig a Iiole in New York. without the water
Conxlrlissionc 's permission. ;",Moreover, lie holds many
r nrr
lucrative contracts in ills gilt, and in the spring of lX66
there were some very big things afoot. A private corn-
tractor had to be found to drain and clean the huge
Jerome Park Itrservoir in the Bronx, and the progress
of Consolidated 1Jdison s even more i:umensc under-
taking at Storm King Mountain was heavily dependent
.
on the. commissioner's continued good will. Properly,
handled by the right sort of people, James L. Marcus
wets in a good position to help his friends a IS.
The kind of handling Marcus. actually received was
seldom proper, occasionally rough and often insanely
inept; when the conspiracy. that surrounded him was
finally brought to liglit, it resembled less a nest of Vipers
:L, 1 J)oi)iS l T'k_PS JTcqu tt1y O%I n~E72CJ hDTi ~i0r (Lf S. .-.,.
.than a can. of worms. ? J hey were a curiously assorted
lot that, at one time or another, included figures as di-
,
verse RS .a parvenu mnil1i maire, a Banister v,-ho e nit c-
name was Tony Ducks, at least one vice president of
Consolidated Edison, no less a personage than Carmine
Do Sapio himself, and the bizarre Herbert Ilkin, who
fouled many nests and wore many hats: lawyer, em-
bezzler, contact man, swindler, CIA agent and FBI spy,
who was aIdo*,ed to keep everything he stole because he
squealed on all of his friends. Considering; the magni-
tude of their opportunity they (lid astonishingly little
damage, except to each other. They were so busy double-
Crossing each other that they had almost no time left
over to swindle the city in any meaningful or s.?;r;nificant
way. There is such a thing as being, too croor.ed for your
on good
Very few of the people who appsai in Walter Good-
man's study of the-affair emerge with any credit; on the
evidence of these pages it is almost possible to believe
that the world is populated by crooks and fools, with
only the president of Consolidated Edison, like Caesar's
wife, above reproach. It is a curious attitude and. one
that suffers from a kind of built-in tunnel vision. One
would like to know, for example, what the police conl-
n'dssioncr and the c':is,t iet attorney were doing all this
time, or what the mayor thought about it all, or how a
city department really xso1l:s, or `vhat Marcus was doing
with his time when he wasn't being either duped or
fleeced. It would also be helpful to kno,: how, exactly,
the conspiracy was finally. uncovered and by whom,
what the cllarg,?s were, and who was sentenced for v;:rat
Crilz] s.'Goadr:iall tells us nine of this. His world is a
narrow and. corrupt one. It is also Vlore than a l'tile.
confusing. ?
Stories do not tell themselves, not even true ones.
Material must he sorted and organized in'some fashion,
1'C1CVa1it and L Rr'!?iili`.tr3?~ fact must he included #a. Ole,
proper time, and it is neither fair nor useful to assume
that the reader is an ez per:t on the author's subject, or
even remotely familiar with it. Gaodloan has not only
omitted dutch that we need. to know, but the information
he chooses to include is often cliaotie and unclear; there
are many times, in a blizzard of names and treacheries,
when it is simply impossible to figiire out what the hell
is going on. Goodman occasionally inches some sharp
points and his boot: contains much useful, if undigested,
information. It seems to rue, however, that one has not
really accomplished much by stating- amidst great con
fusion-that some politicians are corrupt and certain
,bxl llr:;ai:Iiieui crooked. Evcryonc.knows that, arid it is a
mistake to think that one is proving anything by saying,
it again.
STATINTL
Approved For Release"'2001 /03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601 ROO1100210001-9