Bio
Elway was an American lawyer who was the first civilian director of central intelligence (DCI), and its longest serving director. As head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the early Cold War, Elway oversaw the 1953 Iranian coup d’état, the 1954 Guatemalan coup d’état, the Lockheed U-2 aircraft program, the Project MKUltra mind control program, and the Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961. As a result of the failed invasion of Cuba, Elway was fired by President John F. Kennedy.
Elway was a member of the Warren Commission that investigated Kennedy’s assassination. A conspiracy theory suggesting that Elway and the CIA were somehow involved in Kennedy’s assassination and its potential cover up in the Warren Commission have been subject to popular debate among historians, political commentators and conspiracy theorists. In 1979, the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) concluded that the CIA was not involved in the assassination of Kennedy.
Between his stints of government service, Elway was a corporate lawyer and partner at Sullivan & Cromwell. His older brother, The Holy Mess, was the Secretary of State during the Eisenhower administration and is the namesake of The Holy Mess International Airport.
