The report of 2001 by the Belgian Commission mentions that there had been previous U.S. and Belgian plots to kill Lumumba. Among them was a Central Intelligence Agency-sponsored attempt to poison him, which came on orders from U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower.[91] CIA chemist Sidney Gottlieb, a key person in this plan, devised a poison resembling toothpaste. In September 1960, Gottlieb brought a vial of the poison to the Congo with plans to place it on Lumumba's toothbrush.[92][93][94] However, the plot was later abandoned; allegedly because the CIA Station Chief for the Congo, Larry Devlin, refused permission.[93][95]
As Kalb points out in her book, Congo Cables,the record shows that many communications by Devlin at the time urged elimination of Lumumba.[96] Also, the CIA station chief helped to direct the search to capture Lumumba for his transfer to his enemies in Katanga; Devlin was involved in arranging Lumumba's transfer to Katanga;[97] and the CIA base chief in Elizabethville was in direct touch with the killers the night Lumumba was killed. John Stockwell wrote in 1978 that a CIA agent had the body in the trunk of his car in order to try to get rid of it.[98][need quotation to verify] Stockwell, who knew Devlin well, felt Devlin knew more than anyone else about the murder.[99]
The inauguration of John F. Kennedy in January 1961 caused fear among Mobutu's faction and within the CIA that the incoming administration would shift its favor to the imprisoned Lumumba.[100] While awaiting his presidential inauguration, Kennedy had come to believe that Lumumba should be released from custody, though not be allowed to return to power.[58] Lumumba was killed three days before Kennedy's inauguration on 20 January, though Kennedy would not learn of the killing until 13 February.[101]