The six-episode docuseries Mafia Spies focuses on the clandestine partnership between the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and members of the U.S. branch of the Mafia to plot the assassination of Fidel Castro. It’s a tale that wends its way between Washington, D.C., Cuba, Las Vegas, Chicago—and Palm Springs.
Shortly after the revolution was complete on Jan. 1, 1959, with the departure of dictator and mob partner Fulgencio Batista from Cuba, Castro began to forcibly push the Mafia off of his island nation, shuttering the Mafia-backed casinos and sex-trade establishments. This alienated some of the most powerful mob leaders of the time, like Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano, Bugsy Siegel and Chicago crime boss Sam Giancana. Meanwhile, CIA Director Allen Dulles was fuming that Castro refused to support American interests—and he was uneasy about the political alliances Castro was entertaining with other revolutionary movements, and with the Soviet Union.
Created by showrunner Tom Donahue (who also co-wrote and co-directed some of the episodes) and Ilan Arboleda, Mafia Spies was released on Paramount+ on July 16, with episodes airing on Showtime starting July 22. In a recent interview, the Independent asked Donahue what motivated him to produce this study of an anxiety-ridden timeframe for U.S. citizens—who awoke each day mindful of a possible nuclear strike orchestrated by the Soviet Union.
“I think you just answered your own question,” Donahue said. “It’s like the stakes can’t get higher than the apocalypse as the stakes.”
The series is based on the book of the same title written by Thomas Maier; Donahue was instantly hooked when he first read it.
“It was right up our alley,” Donahue said. “I grew up on James Bond. I grew up on mob movies like Goodfellas and The Godfather. It combined several of my favorite genres all in one—not to mention Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack. It was a convergence of all these worlds. It was also a time in American history when pop culture and entertainment fused with politics. The Kennedy administration understood how to embrace pop culture, and to use it in their administration. It’s fun to watch how Frank Sinatra and Sam Giancana and John Kennedy all interact across these six episodes.”
The docuseries blends archival footage with dramatic re-creations and original live interviews to lead the viewer through this twisted tale of high-risk political maneuvering and international brinksmanship. Donahue said he started developing the series by creating an outline from Maier’s book.
“From that outline, (we filled) it in with these great expert interviews. From there, I storyboarded areas where I didn’t want to just rely on ’60s archival (footage). We’ve all seen so much of that archival before, so I wanted to limit the use of what you’ve seen before, and create premium cinematic re-creations that leaned into certain cinematic tropes. … It was really fun. Here you have a really serious history that you’re telling with stakes that reach the apocalypse, and at the same time, it’s a mob movie. It’s a spy movie.”
While the series depicts incidents in Havana and various U.S. cities, all of the scenes were shot at various locations in Los Angeles.
“We got to shoot on the legendary Paramount backlot, so in one morning, I filmed in five cities: Havana, Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York,” Donahue said.
The action shifts to Palm Springs when Frank Sinatra becomes a player in the plots being hatched.
“It’s really featured heavily in Episode 4,” Donahue said. “It begins with Desi Arnaz creating a hit show called The Untouchables, about Al Capone versus FBI agent Eliot Ness. So the mob is really upset about the depiction of Italian-American characters in that show. They deputized Frank Sinatra to talk to Desi and get Desi to tone down his stereotyping of Italian Americans. They’re so upset about it that they even put a hit out on Desi, and this mortifies Frank—Frank is friends with Desi. So Frank meets up with Desi in Palm Springs, and they argue. At one point, Desi is, like, incredulous. He’s like, ‘Frank, what do you want me to do? Make them Jews? They’re Italians.’ Ultimately, though, Frank explains, ‘There’s a hit on you, and if you’re not careful, things can happen.’ Desi relents, and he softens the image of the Italian Americans in the show after that.
“When Sam Giancana realizes Frank was successful at this, he’s like, ‘Let’s get Frank to get Bobby Kennedy to back off on harassing the mob.’ So Frank goes to a dinner party, and … in very coded language tries to get Bobby to back off, and Bobby refuses. (Mobster) Johnny Roselli drives down to the compound in Palm Springs to talk to Frank and see if he was able to talk to Bobby. Frank explains what happened, and Roselli leaves in a huff. He tells Giancana, and this makes Giancana very upset, so Sam puts a hit out on Frank Sinatra. … Now I won’t tell you what happens—except you know Frank dies of natural causes in 1998.”
Donahue felt strongly that the story required inclusion of the Cuban perspective to provide historical balance, so the production travelled to Cuba on more than one occasion to obtain input from a variety of people.
“We didn’t want to just tell this from the American side,” Donahue said. “In so many of the tellings of these Cold War stories, you get only the American side. So we went to Havana, first on kind of a research mission. We met up with some former intelligence operatives, some child soldiers of the Bay of Pigs—and even a showgirl. Then we went back and did the interviews with them. I think that’s an exciting aspect of the series, that we have their point of view. We unravel the story of the Bay of Pigs; we hear from the child soldiers from the other side, and you understand their love for Castro and their love for the revolution. We try not to immediately demonize the revolution, until we see Castro kind of slide more into an authoritarian posture. He’s not initially like that. I would even argue that the U.S. drives him toward that posture… because instead of trying to co-opt him, we immediately demonized him, which became a fatal flaw.”
Donahue said the subject matter of the docuseries should resonate strongly with today’s viewing audience, even though the story is 60-70 years in the past.
“What you’re seeing here is the seeds were planted for a lot of the distrust Americans feel toward the United States government,” he said. “Part of that is having, and allowing, secret institutions to run amok without accountability. In a democracy, I think that’s anathema. (President Harry) Truman, when he created the CIA, he didn’t want to do it. He dismantled the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) after World War II, which was the precursor to the CIA, and he thought a democracy should not have a secret organization working within it. But because of the Cold War and the Soviet Union, there was pressure to create one—and it’s had bad consequences throughout the history of United States.”
