Richard McGarrah Helms (March 30, 1913 – October 22, 2002) was the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) from 1966 to 1973. He was the only director to have been convicted of lying to the United States Congress over Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) undercover activities. In 1977, he was sentenced to the maximum fine and received a suspended two-year prison sentence. Professionally he was described as a "good soldier", one who may protest a policy under discussion, but once made would support a decision loyally. Throughout his career he favored intelligence gathering and secrecy, but was often a critic of covert operations.

Helms was born in St. Davids, Pennsylvania in 1913 to Marion Helms and Herman Helms, an executive for Alcoa. He grew up in South Orange, New Jersey and began high school there. He then spent two of his high school years at the prestigious Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland where he learned to speak French and later Realgymnasium in Freiburg, where he became fluent in German.

William King "Bill" Harvey (September 13, 1915 in Danville, Indiana - June 1976) was a Central Intelligence Agency officer, best known for his role in Operation Mongoose. He was known as "America's James Bond."

Harvey was the son of Sara King Harvey, professor at Indiana State Teachers College in Terre Haute, now Indiana State University. He graduated from Wiley High School in Terre Haute in 1931, eventually enrolling at Indiana University, then graduating from Indiana University School of Law - Bloomington. He married the daughter of a lawyer from Maysville, Kentucky but, after that marriage ended in divorce, joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation in December 1940. He resigned from the FBI in July 1947 after breaking an FBI regulation and refusing a resulting re-assignment to Indianapolis. Peter Wright of MI5 writes in his book Spycatcher that Harvey was sacked by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover for drunkenness. He joined the CIA shortly thereafter where his FBI knowledge proved to be invaluable. Along with James Angleton, he became one of the foremost operatives in the secret war against the KGB during the Cold War.

Clay Laverne Shaw (March 17, 1913 – August 15, 1974) was a businessman in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was the only person prosecuted in connection with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and was found not guilty.

Shaw was honorably discharged from the United States Army as a major in 1946. He served as secretary to the General Staff and was decorated by three nations: the United States with the Legion of Merit and Bronze Star, by France with the Croix de Guerre and named Chevalier de l'Ordre du Merite, and by Belgium named Chevalier of the Order of the Crown of Belgium.

After World War II Shaw helped start the International Trade Mart in New Orleans which facilitated the sales of both domestic and imported goods. He was known locally for his efforts to preserve buildings in New Orleans' historic French Quarter.

New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison prosecuted Clay Shaw on the charge that Shaw and a group of right-wing activists, including David Ferrie and Guy Banister, were involved in a conspiracy with elements of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the John F. Kennedy assassination. Garrison arrested Shaw on March 1, 1967. Garrison believed that Clay Shaw was the man named as "Clay Bertrand" in the Warren Commission Report. Garrison said that Shaw used the alias "Clay Bertrand" among New Orleans' gay society.