BY GAETON FONZI House Assassinations Committee That Was Supposed to Tell the American People What Really Happened on November 22, 1963

Home , Antonio Veciana, Gaeton Fonzi

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No More Lies, No More Cover-Ups- NOVEMBER 1980 S1.75 This Is the True Story of My Search for O KII J FD

A Top US Government Investigator, Fed Up with Bureaucratic Charades, Breaks His Oath of Silence to Reveal What Insiders Know About the Murder of John F. Kennedy. His Story Starts with a Cuban Terrorist, The Trail Leads to II II II II II II • II ■I u 111 • • II Washington, an Ippwripp, - - II II II II II Elusive Spymaster Becomes the Key, But Then the Government Stops the Investigation. What Will It Take, He Asks, to Find Out What Really Happened 0 on November 22, 1963?

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There Were Two Conspiracies in the Kennedy Assassination: The First Was to Murder the President. The Second Was to Pretend There Was a Full and Complete Investigation. This Is the Story of Government Investigator Gaeton Fonzi • and His Three-Year Search for the Truth, His Efforts to Track Down a Mysterious American Spymaster Seen in Dallas with Lee Harvey Oswald in September 1963, His Work for the BY GAETON FONZI House Assassinations Committee That Was Supposed to Tell the American People What Really Happened on November 22, 1963. Fed Up with the Politicizing of This Last Investigation, He Breaks His Oath of Silence to Tell What the Insiders Know About the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. It Is a Suspenseful Spy Story, It Is a Clear-Eyed Account of How Washington Handles Serious Issues, and It Is History.

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very hot day in Dallas in the Here, in an explosively horrible and for the House Select Committee on As- summer of 1978. I could see bloody moment, a man's life ended. That sassinations for more than a year and a the city's 106-degree fever realization—a man was killed here—had half. Now I was one of the few inves- Ashimmering from the gray been oddly removed from the whirlwind tigators remaining on the staff. The rest macadam. 1 waited on the south curb of of activity in which I had been involved. had been fired after less than six months Elm Street for a break in the traffic and A man was killed here, and what had of a formal investigation. And now I was then walked out into the center lane. The been going on in Washington—all the standing in Dealey Plaza, on the spot street is not as wide as it appears in pho- officious meetings and the political pos- where President John F. Kennedy was tographs. Right about , . . here. I looked turing, all the time and attention devoted killed on November 22, 1963, and won- over at the grassy knoll. There was only to administrative procedures and organ- dering what the hell had gone wrong. a stillness there now, a breezeless se- izational processes and forms and re- I stood in Dealey Plaza on that hot renity. On my right was the familiar red ports, and now all the scurrying about day in 1978 and could not help thinking brick building. flat, hard-edged. its rows in a thousand directions in the mad rush that the powers that controlled the As- of sooty windows now dull. In my mind, to produce a final report—all of that sassinations Committee would have I dropped into a well of time and fell seemed detached from the reality of a searched much harder for the truth if they against that instant of history. single fact: A man was killed here. had remembered that instant of time when A man was killed here. I had been working as an investigator a man's life ended here. a `Old . I The Historical Imperatives

Years ago, in reviewing a book about When the House Assassinations Com- chairman of the House Select Committee the Warren Commission, author and critic mittee expired more than two years later, on Assassinations. Ohio Democrat Louis Sylvia Meagher wrote: "There are no it issued a report that appeared to have Stokes. called a press conference to re- heroes in this piece, only men who col- mote substance and depth than the War- lease the Committee's final report. laborated actively or passively—will- ren Commission's report. The resulting front-page headline in fully or self-deludedly—in dirty work But, like the Warren Commission, what the Washington Post was MOBSTERS that does violence to the elementary con- the House Assassinations Committee did LINKED TO JFK DEATH. cept of justice and affronts normal not do was "conduct a full and complete The Committee's chief counsel and intelligence." investigation." staff director, G. Robert Blakey, wanted It didn't take long for most of those What the House Assassinationscom- to be certain that the reporters at the press who examined the 1964 report of the mittee did do about that murder.' of a conference would accurately interpret the Warren Commission and its volumes of young President in Dallas was play po- report's interlinear message, "I am now published evidence to conclude that its litical games, Washington-style. firmly of the opinion that the Mob did investigation of the assassination of it," he told them. "It is a historical President John F. Kennedy was defi- On Tuesday morning, July 17, 1979, the truth." Then—to use an expression pop- cient. Considering the Commission's resources and the opportunity it had at the time to do a thorough investigation, its failure was, indeed, a "violence to the elementary concept of justice." With its strained case for a lone-nut assassin, the Warren Commission report became hard for most Americans to swallow. By the early '70s, polls showed that only a small percentage of people still believed it. Its legacy was a nagging, burning scar on the psyche of America. Finally, on September 17, 1976, the US House of Representatives passed House Resolution 222, which established a Select Committee to "conduct a full and complete investigation and study of the circumstances surrounding the assassination and death of President John F. Kennedy. . . . " The politicians may have given it legal status, but the mandate came from deep within the conscience of a nation fed up with the deceptions and confusions and Before a horrified national television audience. Jack Ruby kills Lee Harvey crazy theories spawned in the wake of Oswald and silences the man, who could best have answered the still- the assassination of a President. unresolved questions about the Kennedy assassination. 158 Tim WashingtoniciniNovember 1980

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I 1, My area of investigation threatened to open more doors than the Committee cared to open. It dealt with a mysterious CIA spymaster linked to Lee Harvey Oswald.

among Committee staffers, "covering his ass"—he quickly added: "This Committee report does not say the Mob did it. / said it. I think the Mob did it." I don't know if the Mob did it, but I doubt it. From my experience as a .11.10. Committee investigator, I do know this: Dealey Plaza in Dallas: The white arrow points to the Texas School Book The Committee's investigation was not Depository, where Oswald reputedly fired the fatal shots on November 22, adequate enough or honest enough to 1963. Circled is the grassy knoll from which a second gunman may have produce any firm conclusions about the fired the shot that blew Kennedy's head a tT. a-- nature of the conspiracy to kill President Kennedy. To give the impression that Washington kind of deception. seemed obvious. G. Robert Blakey was it was is a deception, a particularly There were areas of the Committee's a 41-year-old criminal-law professor and investigation that, if pursued, could have head of Cornell University's Organized Ten months after the 1963 negated "the Mob did it" implications Crime Institute when he was asked to assassination, the Warren of the Committee's final report. My area take the reins of the Assassinations Com- Commission produced its report and of investigation threatened to open more mittee. Blakey was one of the top or- 26 accompanying volumes of doors than the Committee cared to open. ganized-crime experts in the country, testimony and exhibits, much of It dealt with a mysterious CIA spymaster was regularly called to testify as an which contradicted the linked to Lee Harvey Oswald. "expert witness" in that area, and was Commission's conclusion that a Fixture at the organized-crime seminars Oswald had acted alone. When the Committee's report was re- held by law-enforcement agencies. leased in the summer of 1979,'' it was As soon as he was appointed, Blakey long overdue. After spending more than drew upon his contacts in that organized- $5.4 million over a two-year period, the crime-fighting fraternity to select key Committee had legally ceased to exist senior counsels for the Committee. The in December 1978. At that time, how- lawyer he picked to head the Kennedy ever, Chief Counsel Blakey wasn't sat- investigation task force. was a Texan isfied with the report. He felt it; had to named Gary Cornwell. As chief of the be rewritten. So he had himself and a Federal Strike Force in Kansas City, few staff members temporarily attached Cornwell had achieved notable trial vic- to the office of the Speaker of the House tories against key Mafia figures in the for administrative and pay purposes. It Midwest. When Blakey was finished took them almost seven months to re- hiring, the House Assassinations Com- construct a new final report. mittee was stacked to find an organized- That reconstruction was necessary crime conspiracy in the John F. Kennedy because of evidence that emerged in the assassination. last days of the Committee's life. Acous- Chief Counsel Blakey also knew how tics experts, analyzing a tape recording Washington operates. He had worked of the sounds in Dealey Plaza when not only at the Department of Justice but Kennedy was shot, concluded that more also with previous congressional com- than one rifle had been fired. mittees. He knew what the priorities of The presence of more than one gun- his job were by Washington standards. man meant there must have been a con- The first priority, he announced in his spiracy; yet the Committee had not nailed inaugural address to the staff, was to down the character of that conspiracy. produce a report. The second priority That wasn't good enough for Blakey. He was to produce a report that looked good. bad earlier determined he was going to one that appeared to be definitive and produce an impressive document. "This, substantial. I can assure you, will be the absolutely The final report-686 pages thick, with final report on the Kennedy assassina- thirteen volumes of appendixes—ap- tion," he had told the staff. "This will pears to have substance. And yet it makes be the last investigation. After us, there few definitive statements. Used in abun- ain't gonna be no more." dance are such terms as "on the basis Thus, he felt he had to restructure and of evidence available to it" and "the weight the report toward a conspiracy Committee believes" and "available theory. The question then became: Who evidence does not preclude the possi- to blame? bility" and such words as "probably," In retrospect, the answer should have "most likely," "possibly," and "may hlawinher 19801Thr Washingtonian 159

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The Warren Commission was made up of the cream of the American establishment: from left: former CIA chief Allen Dulles, Representative Hale Boggs (Democrat from Louisiana), Senator John Sherman Cooper (Republican from Kentucky), Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, Senator Richard Russell (Georgian Democrat), New York lawyer John J. McCloy, and Representative Gerald Ford (Republican From Michigan).

have been." work in this area. truthful . well. Salandria was crazy. The point is that the Committee report After an inadequate investigation, After the Warren Commission report does not say that organized crime was Blakey swept aside the objections of his was released in September 1964, Sal- involved in the conspiracy to kill Pres- staff and insisted that the Committee andria had written a critique of it for the ident Kennedy. The report says this: conclude that Oswald killed Kennedy Legal Intelligencer, Philadelphia's legal "The Committee believes, on the basis because of left-wing motivations. newspaper. Salandria was then a 38-year- of evidence available to it, that the na- Then, when a conspiracy explanation old Penn Law graduate and ACLU con- tional syndicate of Organized Crime, as was needed, Blakey contended that Os- sultant. His critique was a detailed anal- a group, was not involved in the assas- wald had been a tool of organized crime. ysis of the Warren report's findings on sination of President Kennedy, but that Thus the largest number of pages in the the trajectories and ballistics of the bul- the available evidence does not preclude Committee's final report was devoted to lets that killed President Kennedy. The the possibility that individual members building a conspiracy case against the First time 1 read Salandria's article, I may have been involved." Mob. didn't understand it. It was complex and The latter part of that conclusion re- But in order to create the impression technical. But I did grasp Salandria's ferred to two key Mob bosses: Carlos that organized crime was involved, the contention that the Warren Commission Marcello of New Orleans and Santos Committee had to contradict its own report might be wrong. Trafficante of Florida. (Lee Harvey Os- staff's findings concerning the Central wrote an article for Philadelphia wald's uncle, the Committee discov- Intelligence Agency. magazine about this oddball young at- ered, was a numbers runner for the Mar- I spent a large pan of three years delv- torney who was saying these crazy things cello organization, and Jack Ruby may ing into that area of evidence. For his- about our government. Salandria said his have had some contact with Trafficante tory's sake, the questions raised by the interest in the Warren Commission had in Cuba.) evidence deserve to be fully defined and begun long before its report was issued. However, after making that allegation honestly explained. "If this had happened in Smolensk or in its "Summary of Findings and Rec- Minsk or Moscow," he said, "no ommendations." the report in its body I can still hear the sound of Vincent Sal- American would have believed the story says "it is unlikely" that either Marcello andria's voice, with its low, velvet in- that was evolving about a single assas- or Trafficante was involved in the as- tensity. He was leaning back in his chair, sin, with all its built-in contradictions. sassination of the President. his hands clasped behind his head, But because it happened in Dallas, too That is an example of the contradic- speaking slowly. We were in the paneled many Americans were accepting it." tions in the report. Another of the re- basement office of his home in Phila- Salandria began a watch of the Warren port's key conflicts came from Blakey's delphia. It was late in 1964, and what Commission's activities. He spent his insistence that the Committee come to Vincent Salandria was telling me was vacations in Dallas to familiarize himself some conclusion about Oswald's moti- that the Warren Commission report was with the murder scene. He ordered the vation. But like the Warren Commis- not the truth. Commission's report and its accompa- sion, the Committee never did define 1 thought he was crazy. You have to nying 26 volumes of evidence as soon who Oswald really was, what he really remember what a discordant thing it was as they were issued and plunged into a believed, the nature of his relationships in 1964 to hear that an official govern- page-by-page study. with an odd assortment of people, the ment report might be wrong—especially "My initial feeling," Salandria said, reasons for some of the mysterious things a weighty one issued by a panel of men "was that if this were a simple assas- he did, or why there are no traces of his of public stature. People then believed sination, as the Warren Commission actions over certain periods of time. The what government leaders said. If a guy claimed, the facts would come together Committee, because of its limited in- like Salandria came along and suggested very neatly. If there were more than one vestigative plan, did very little original that this kind of government report wasn't assassin, the details would not fit." 160 The Washhtgrunian1Nomember 1980

'...0%.,-,,WF,_r.i4wromplesatentteNIgli"MALVKA140..W.OPM-1146042%Wssvg,m1WM-Q,A.W.,%TkiizeinWVX*.1‘'`M. Salandria said the details did not fit. now transcend national boundaries and assumption about the validity of the There were, he contended, contradic- national priorities. Warren Commission report. It was par- tions between the Commission's conclu- "We must not waste any more time ticularly upsetting to Schweiker when sions and the details of the evidence in micro-analyzing the evidence. That's he discovered that CIA Director Allen the 26 volumes. Salandria gave me a exactly what they want us to do. They Dulles had been aware of CIA assassi- copy of the Warren report and the 26 have kept us busy for so long. And I will nation plots against Cuban Premier Fidel volumes and suggested I take the time bet that is what will happen to you. They'll Castro and yet had withheld that infor- to study them carefully. I did, and was keep you very, very busy and eventually mation from hia fellow members on the surprised to discover he was right. they'll wear you down." Warren Commission. Salandria became one of the pioneers It had been almost ten years since the While the Senate and the Church in the burgeoning number of Warren time I first interviewed Salandria. Flying Committee took their summer vacations, Commission critics. He was one of the back home to Miami that evening, I sat Schweiker spent most of his time sifting few who never commercialized his rein the dark plane and brooded. As when through the volumes of evidence and the search. And, over the years, as he con- I first spoke with him, I didn't quite available agency documents relating to tinued analyzing new evidence, he went grasp what he was talking about, but had the murder of John F. Kennedy. Then, beyond criticism and began to reach the uneasy feeling he was advancing some in September, he issued a public state- theoretical conclusions about the nature awesomely frightening theories. It crossed ment calling for a reopening of the Ken- the assassination itself. He was the my mind that this-time for sure Salandria nedy assassination investigation. first to suggest that details of the evi- was crazy. Schweiker felt the Church Committee dence indicated not only a conspiracy could, in keeping within its mandate, but also the pattern of an intelligence That was late November of 1975. A few focus initially on the role of US.intel- operation. That's when a young col- weeks earlier, I had received a call at lige= agencies in investigating the as- umnist named Joe McGinniss wrote about my home in Miami from Senator Richard sassination. "We don't know what hap- Salandria in the Philadelphia Inquirer. S. Schweiker of Pennsylvania. I had never pened," Schweiker concluded from his McGinniss thought Salandria was crazy. met Schweitzer, but I had spoken with study of the case, "but we do know his administrative assistant, Dave New- Oswald had intelligence connections. I left Philadelphia in 1972 to live in Flom- hall, a few times. Newhall, a former Everywhere you look with him, there newspaper reporter. was familiar with my early interest in the Kennedy assassination and thought I might help "All the critics were Schweiker check out some leads in "We don't know what Miami's Cuban exile community. happened," Schweiker misled very early. We At the time, Schweiker was a member of the Select Committee to Study Gov- concluded from his spent too much time ernmental Operations with Respect to analyzing the details of Intelligence Activities, headed by Idaho study of the Kennedy Senator Frank Church. The Church case, "but we do know the assassination when Committee, as it became known, had been making headlines since early 1975 that Oswald had all the time it was by revealing how the FBI abused its power by harassing dissident political groups intelligence connections. obvious that and conducting illegal investigations; how it was a conspiracy." the CIA, Army intelligence, and the Everywhere you look National Security Agency were involved with him there are the in domestic snooping; and how. the intelligence agencies had planned assas- fingerprints ida and, by late 1975, when I began sination attempts on foreign leaders. For working as a government investigator on Schweiker, despite his tong service in of intelligence." the Kennedy assassination, I had not both houses of Congress, these were rev- spoken with Vince Salandria for years. elations. "I've learned more about the He had faded into the background among inner workings of government in the past are the fingerprints of intelligence." Warren Commission critics. nine months than in my fifteen previous The Church Committee was one of the returned to Philadelphia because I years in Congress," he said. larger select committees formed by the 4'q wanted to draw upon Salandria's knowl- Schweiker had never been moved to Senate. It employed more than 100 full- edge of the evidence and get his opinion take a special interest in the details of time staffers, mostly attorneys. Its man- on fruitful areas of investigation. Sal- the Kennedy assassination. He had as- date, however, was broad. It was to in- andria was cordial. said he would be glad sumed, as did most Americans, that the vestigate all illegal domestic intelligence to help, and we spent a long winter Sun- Warren Commission report reflected a and counterintelligence activities on the day talking. Yet in his attitude I sensed comprehensive, objective investigation. part of the CIA, the FBI, and the military a feeling of disappointment in what I He had never been inclined to question intelligence agencies. was about to begin. Eventually, he ex- the report because that inclination would The Church Committee had been plained it and why he was no longer have had to include the assumption that formed in January 1975, and its report pursuing an investigation of the assas- government officials and agencies could was scheduled for release by that Sep- sination. have been involved in—at the very least— tember. That meant that the report had "I'm afraid we were misled," Sal- a cover-up. Schweiker did not want to to be, considering the Committee's broad andria said. "All the critics. myself in- believe that. However, when the Church mandate, a predetermined exercise in cluded, were misled very early. I see Committee discovered that United States superficiality. To Chairman Frank that now. We spent too much time and government officials—specifically CIA Church, it was important that the Com- effort analyzing the details of the assas- agents—had made alliances with the mittee finish its work quickly. He had sination when all the time it was ob- Mafia and other members of organized already told intimates that he was going vious, it was blatantly obvious, that it crime in planning assassinations, to run for the presidency but said he was a conspiracy. Schweiker was shaken. "That was so would announce it only after the Com- The tyranny of power is here. We repugnant and shocking to me that I did mittee finished its final report. are controlled by multinational fames. a backflip on any number of things," Despite the pressure from Church to I suggest to you, my friend, that the he recalled. finish in September, the Committee staff interests of those who killed Kennedy One of the backflips included his old got its deadline extended to March 5, November 19801The Washmronian 161

ineMniiRlMitaeSinatt‘el. setting up private clubs and restaurants. 1976. Then Schweiker came up with his Castro Cubans. So while his subcom- Then, beginning on January 1, 1959, proposal to throw the Kennedy assas- mince staff was heading down one road, came the deluge. The seizure of power sination into the investigative pot. That Schweiker wanted the opposite one also upset Church. He knew that looking into checked out. by Fidel Castro wrought as profound a the Kennedy assassination, even from Finally, there was this factor: Al- change in Miami as it did in Cuba. At the focus of its relationship to the intel- though Kennedy was murdered in Dal- first the flow of exiles into the city was ligence agencies, could extend the Com- las, a vast amount of information about a slow stream moving through Miami's mittee's work for months and months. the case relates to a city 1,300 miles International Airport; then, as it became barbudo was Church. however, did not want to op- away. Within hours of the assassination, apparent that the ranting pose the suggestion publicly, so he came a rash of leads and tips related to Miami taking his country toward Communism. up with a compromise. He said he would popped up. Schweiker decided that if the stream became a torrent. permit Schweiker and a Democratic there was a relationship between the "They were new types of refugees," counterpart, Colorado Senator Gary Hart. Kennedy assassination and Castro ele- wrote reporter Haynes Johnson in a book to set up a two-man Kennedy assassi- ments—either pro-Castro or anti-Cas- nation subcommittee, provided that it, tro—or if one of the intelligence agen- too, would wrap up its work when the cies was involved, Miami was the place S,2mmittee finished in March. to look for clues. He decided he could Within a year after chweiker wasn't happy with the lim- use a man on the street in Miami's Little Castro took power, itations but decided to take what he could Havana. get. He figured that if he could develop I was in the right place. Cuban exiles were enough solid information or stumble upon a new revelation, the Committee as a Knowing something about Miami is im- arriving in Florida at a whole could then be pressured into tack- portant in attempting to understand John rate of 1,700 a week. ling the Kennedy assassination, regard- F. Kennedy's murder. less of deadlines. Schweiker jumped in Miami Beach is an unrelated island And as the Cuban exile with both feet. Because Church said he strip of high-rise condominiums, kitschly „could spare only two members of the elegant hotels, expensive restaurants, and population grew, so did Committee staff for Schweiker's sub- peacock tourists. But Miami—just across the presence of committee—he would get more later as Biscayne Bay—is something else. the Committee wound up its individual Like other big cities during the '50s, the CIA. projects—Schweiker geared up his own Miami felt the effects of urban sprawl as the white middle-class took off for the suburbs. And although area population was booming, Miami itself was on the Bay of Pigs. "Instead of a home, relatively old and few newcomers to south they were seeking temporary asylum. Although Kennedy was Florida wanted to move back into an They found it along the sandy beaches murdered in Dallas, a urban environment—despite the fact that and curving coastline of Florida. They Miami really had a small-town feeling arrived by the thousands, in small fish- rash of leads and tips about it. Never blighted with high-rise ing boats, in planes, chartered or stolen, tenements, Miami was a city of streets and crowded into Miami. Along the bou- relating to Miami lined with modest old homes of white levards, under the palms, and in hotel popped up within hours clapboard. cinderblock, or coral rock, lobbies, they gathered and plotted their rear "Florida moms," and front porches. counterrevolution. Miami began to take of the assassination. With the middle-class exodus and the on the air of a Cuban city. Even its voice deterioration of its traditional neighbor- was changing. Stores and cafes began hoods, the city of Miami began'more advertising in Spanish and English. New and more looking like a neglected waif. signs went up on the toll roads slicing personal staff for a Kennedy inquiry. Its downtown began going downhill and through the city, giving instructions in Schweiker had his operation going for its poor black sections like Overtown both languages. Everyone talked of home about a month before he called me. Al- and Liberty City began oozing their blight only 100 miles away. And everyone talked though he himself never detailed all of through the rest of the city. Despite the about the great liberation army being them, I later learned there were several tropical clime, Miami's future wasn't formed in the secret camps somewhere reasons that he felt he needed an outside sunny. far away." staff investigator who would report di- Until the Cubans came. And with the exiles and their passion rectly to him and not to the Committee. The first small flock came in the early for a counterrevolution came the Central He wanted someone who knew some- '50s, the arai-Batisdanos, those who Intelligence Agency. Well before the US thing about the Kennedy case. and he opposed the military dictatorship of Embassy in Cuba closed down in Jan- wanted to do some original probing, not General Fulgencio Batista. A young law- uary 1961, the CIA had stepped up its just work with the FBI and CIA. yer named Fidel Castro was among them. Cuban activities. It had not only in- Another reason Schweiker decided to He stayed briefly and gave fiery speeches creased the personnel operating out of hire his own investigator was this: Al- at an old movie theater on Flagler Street. the embassy in Havana. but also placed though he was struck by the newly dis- Another was the wealthy former presi- covert operatives as businessmen, ranch- covered evidence that Kennedy's murder dent, Carlos Prio, who ensconced him- ers, engineers, and journalists—among might have been an act of retaliation by self in an elegant home on Miami Beach other covers—in order to recruit and Castro for the CIA assassination plots and dispensed millions in setting up arms establish liaison with anti-Castro dissi- against him, Schweiker wasn't ready to and supply lines to the rebels while stay- dents. As counterrevolutionary groups rule out other possibilities. The subcom- ing close to the American racketeers who began to form within Cuba, the CIA mittee staff was obviously concentrating were running the Havana gambling ca- began supplying arms and communica- on the retaliation theory because, from sinos. Then, when it appeared that the tions equipment and, for those threat- the pragmatic viewpoint of its paper in- end of the Batista reign was inevitable, ened with exposure, help in escaping. vestigation, it was the easiest one to came the Baasdanos themselves and the Within a year after Castro took power, structure into a report within the time nonpolitical wealthy who got out with more than 100,000 Cuban exiles had limitations. Yet Schweiker was struck their nest eggs. That's when Miami first settled in and others were arriving at a by what he termed "the fingerprints of began to feel the tone of Cuban culture rate of 1,700 a week. As the Cuban exile intelligence" on Oswald's activities, as and social activity as the monied class population of Miami grew, so did the well as Oswald's associations with anti- began moving into the business world, presence of the CIA. Although eighteen 162 rhr WELshtegtonianiNcivember 1980 40144,...... ,,,,,,A..,■;motea4meSSSAWNSIWV.I:MgMM'Srtn..-759MOSAMMANMMIM.TMM§MMW,TONWAMMIWW...4.*** cial units were prepared within the United States by both military and CIA personnel. That was minor compared with the dimensions to which the CIA's presence in Miami grew. The Agency's officers, contract agents, informants, and contacts reached into almost every area of the community. The Bay of Pigs invasion gave birth to a special relationship between CIA operatives and the Cuban exiles. That relationship would intensify into a mutuality of interests that tran- scended presidential directives and official United States policy. One of the factors that led the CIA to believe it could topple Castro was the success it had enjoyed In Guatemala in 1954. Using a force of only 150 exiles and a handful of World War II P-47 fighters flown by American contract pilots, the CIA brought down the Com- munist-leaning Guatemalan government in less than a week, firing hardly a shot, and installed the CIA's hand-picked leader, Castillo Armas. When covert- operations boss Richard Bissell was se- -row 2 lecting Agency personnel to run the Bay Richard Bissell (right), head of CIA covert operations, confers with Senator of Pigs, he told them that the plan was Frank Church, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence based on "the Guatemala scenario." Activities. Bissell was revealed during Senate hearings as a key man in the Because of the success of that sce- Bay of Pigs invasion and secret plots to assassinate Fidel Castro. nario, Bissell picked its veterans for the Cuban operation. Named as the Agency's government agencies dealt with exile ment in exile, a "powerful propaganda political-liaison chief and given the job reception. the CIA had its contacts in offensive," and a large paramilitary force. of bringing together Miami's Cuban ex- every one, including the mother agency, The White House project officer was ile groups into a united political front the Cuban Refugee Center. It also used Vice President Richard Nixon. was a pipe-smoking author of spy thrill- the Immigration and Naturalization Ser- Years later the Senate Intelligence ers, E. Howard Hunt. vice to set up and maintain a debriefing Committee was to discover, from files Among Agency personnel, Hunt had— facility at the Opa-Locka air base in voluntarily given to it by the CIA, that and still has—a curious reputation. To northern Dade County. More important. a few of the Agency's top officers—in- some he is the caricature of the Holly- the Agency began assigning case agents cluding Richard Bissell—had in that wood spy—Hunt did serve a stint as a and keeping tabs on the many anti-Castro spring of 1960 begun setting in motion, Hollywood scriptwriter—given to over- groups that had begun spreading through as an adjunct to the Bay of Pigs opera- playing the cloak-and-dagger role. One the exile community like mangrove roots. tion. plans to assassinate Castro. The At one point, the Agency had a list of CIA told the committee that it had been almost 700 such groups, some of which involved in nine Castro-assassination plots had begun active military operations with in all, including those with the Mafia. CIA support. One veteran recalls that Castro himself later produced a list of the boat traffic on Biscayne Bay got so 24 CIA plots against his life. heavy "you needed a traffic cop." It As soon as John F. Kennedy was confused the US Coast Guard, which elected President in November 1960, CIA didn't always know whether it was chas- Director Allen Dulles and his covert-plans ing a "sponsored operation" financed deputy, Bissell, flew to the Kennedy by the CIA or just "crazy Cubans.' ' estate in Palm Beach and sold their new President on the Cuban operation. They The invasion of Cuba's Bahia de Coch- did not tell him that the plans had re- inos—die Bay of Pigs—occurred in April cently been upgraded within the Agency 1961. It was the brainchild not of the to include an even larger paramilitary Cuban exiles but of the CIA. It was force and air strikes by US Navy planes. spawned at a meeting of the Agency's In his recent book, Bay of Pigs: The top brass in January 1960. Originally. Untold Story, Peter Wyden wrote: it was not going to be a massive oper- "If the CIA, acting out of control and ation. No more than thirty Cuban exiles independently, had not escalated its plans were to be trained in Panama to serve against Fidel Castro from a modest guer- as a cadre for bands of guerrillas re- rilla operation into a full-fledged inva- cruited within or infiltrated into Cuba. sion, President Kennedy would have suf- However, by the time the plan had moved fered no humiliating, almost grotesque through the Agency's bureaucracy and defeat." A shadowy presence in CIA was adopted and nurtured by its covert Yet despite the defeat, what the Bay clandestine operations in the 1960s operations chief—a lanky, stooped- of Pigs plan provided was the historic was long-time CIA operative and shouldered Groton-Yale man named opportunity for the CIA to begin do- Watergate conspirator E. Howard Richard Bissell—it had grown into a mestic field operations on an unprece- Hunt. Hunt coordinated the major project. The plan President Dwight dented scale. For instance, although the activities of Cuban exiles in Miami Eisenhower approved in March 1960 main Cuban exile brigade was trained prior to the 1961 Bay of Pigs called for a "unified" Cuban govern- at a secret base in Guatemala, other spe- Invasion. Voember 19801The Waslungtoman 163 of the more earnest of the Agency profes- sionals liked to say that Hunt was consistent in his judgment: "Always wrong." Yet down through the years and right up through Watergate. Hunt was chosen to be on the front lines of dirty-trick operations. Despite the many failures among those operations, Hunt's star rose. He remained close to the shrewdest and most coldly professional of all CIA heads: Richard Helms. It didn't take long for Hunt to inject himself into Cuban exile politics in Miami. With his faithful sidekick (and later Watergate conspirator) Bernard Barker, Hunt set up a series of "safe" houses for clandestine meetings, moved Jitatiagh the shadows of Little Havana, and doled out packets of money. (Hunt carried as much as $115,000 in his briefcase.) Although Hunt attempted to keep a separate identity—"Iust call me 'Ed- uardo,' " he told the Cubans—and tried to keep the source of the funds a mystery. the exiles began referring to their ben- efactor as • 'Uncle Sam." It was Hunt's job to form La Frente, alse Coalition of Cuban exile groups that would serve as the political umbrella for the military invasion. It was early apparent. however, that Hunt's own right- wing views colored his handling of the "We are honorable men. You will simply have to trust us," declared exile groups, and he and Barker, wheel- Richard Helms in explaining the CIA's refusal to cooperate during ing and dealing among the politicians, congressional investigations. As deputy director of the CIA in 1961, Helms started as many squabbles as they me- was intimately Involved in the Bay of Pigs and Castro-assassination plots. diated. Immediately before the invasion, Later he was convicted of lying to Congress about the CIA's role in the Hunt was removed—he says he quit— overthrow of the Chilean government. as the Agency's political liaison because he wouldn't go along with including in ingly diffident counterintelligence ex- the exile coalition a democratic socialist pert named David Atlee Phillips. Phil- named Menai° Ray. Hunt called Ray a lips was a former actor and news- Communist. paperman. It was Phillips's job to set up Hunt's principal contribution to the a propaganda shop, to blend the rantings Bay of Pigs invasion was his selection of the exile groups into an effective sym- of the military brigade's political leader, phony, to set up broadcast stations that a fiery physician-turned-politician named would rally guerrillas within Cuba to Manuel Artime. Artime helped stop a join the invaders, and to establish com- political insurrection at the exile training munication links that would trigger the camp. Years later he would become actual invasion. Most of all it was Phil- wealthy as a business partner of former lips's job to create the worldwide Nicaraguan dictator Luis Somoza. His impression that the invasion was a spon- relationship with Hunt would grow into taneous action by anti-Castro forces and close friendship. They bought homes that neither the US nor the CIA had any- across the street from each other in Miami thing to do with it. Shores and Hunt was the godfather of one of Artime's children. (In 1975, an What went wrong at the Bay of Pigs is informant called the office of Senator history. President Kennedy told the world Schweiker and said that a friend of Ar- that he assumed "sole responsibility" time in Mexico City claimed that Artime for the debacle. Privately, he turned to had "guilty knowledge" of the Kennedy his special counsel. Theodore Sorensen, assassination. Artime, moving in and and asked: "How could I have been so out of the country on business, could not stupid to let them go ahead?" But many be interrogated before Schweiker's man- top CIA people involved in the Bay of date expired. Later, as an investigator Pigs felt strongly that Kennedy was re- for the House Assassinations Commit- sponsible for its failure. There would tee, I contacted Artime to take his sworn have been no slaughter of the exiles, no statement. Before I could. Artime went 1,200 brave men captured, if Kennedy into the hospital and was told he had had not at the last moment rejected mas- David Atlee Phillips, about 1960: cancer. Two weeks later. Artime died. sive air support. That was the word that He was recruited by E. Howard He was 45.) filtered down to the CIA field operatives, Hunt to be propaganda chief of the Another contribution Hunt made to the Cuban exile community. and the Bay of Pigs operation, responsible the Bay of Pigs operation was his help remnants of the invasion brigade. It pro- for creating the false impression that in selecting an old friend from the Gua- duced bitterness at every level. the invasion was spontaneous and temala scenario for an important Agency Agency operatives who had led the not a CIA covert operation. When role. Pulled from his post as a covert exiles were inconsolable. E. Howard the Invasion failed, Phillips got operative in Havana was a tall, charm- Hunt, monitoring the defeat at CIA head- drunk and wept for two hours. 164 The licirkingronianiMmrnber 1980

9KW$PF4,5,^',..PMEnee.i■iW,WSWWW,WFMIWSPVAOSA/Ratt,M9A1W8..4.42k•V.IMSWFS:L,IMAMMWn e wooded tract that was part of the Uni- versity of Miami's South Campus. the Agency set up a front corporation called Zenith Technological Services. Its code name was JM/WAVE and it soon became the largest CIA installation anywhere in the world, with the exception of the Agency's Langley headquarters. At the height of its activities, the JM/ WAVE station had a staff of more than 300 Americans, mostly case officers in charge of supervising and monitoring Cuban exile groups. Each case officer S employed as many as 10 Cuban "principal agents. - Each principal agent, in turn, would be responsible for as many as 30 regular agents. The Agency funded I front operations throughout the area— print shops, real estate firms, travel agencies, coffee shops, boat-repair yards, detective agencies, gun shops, neigh- borhood newspapers—to provide employment for the thousands of case officers and agents operating outside .1144/ WAVE headquarters. It was said that if Dr. Manuel Artime, the fiery physician-leader of the anti-Castro forces in any Cuban exile wanted to open his own Miami, stands with John and Jackie Kennedy in the Orange Bowl after the business, he had but to ask the CIA for ''—'1961 Bay of Pigs fiasco. The President promised continued support for the start-up money. The CIA became one exiled Cubans against Castro but withdrew the support after the 1962 of the largest employers in south Florida. Cuban missile crisis, angering anti-Castro guerrillas and their CIA controls. The JM/WAVE station was a logis- tical giant within itself. It leased more quarters until the end, later noted: "I tric interest in pushing the plan. The than 100 staff cars and maintained its was sick of lying and deception, heart- President called for the resignation of own gas depot. It kept warehouses loaded sick over political compromise and mil- CIA Director Allen Dulles and covert- with everything from machine guns to itary defeat. . . . That night. laced plans boss Richard Bissell, and, accord- caskets. It had its own airplanes and what through my broken sleep, were the words ing to one aide, threatened to "splinter" a former CIA officer called "the third- Sir Winston Churchill had spoken to a the Agency into "a thousand pieces and largest navy in the Western Hemi- British Minister of Defense: 'I am not scatter them to the winds." sphere," including hundreds of small sure I should have dared to start; but I That was misleading. Kennedy was, boats and yachts donated by friendly c.1 am sure I should not have dared to stop.' indeed, mad at the CIA—not fdr plan- millionaires. There were hundreds of . . I saw in his words a warning for ning the Bay of Pigs but for botching it. pieces of real estate, from dives to water- those Americans who had faltered at the And he was mad at Castro who, in end- front mansions, used as safe houses or Bay of Pigs." less harangues and broadcast reviews of assembly points for operations. In ad- David Phillips would also reveal, years the battle, kept rubbing the young Pres- dition. there were paramilitary training later, the emotional impact of the defeat. ident's nose in the humiliating .defeat. camps scattered throughout the Florida In his memoirs, The Night Watch, he. Kennedy's initial reaction was reflexive: Keys and deep in the Everglades. (One too, detailed the end: Don't get mad, get even. Appointing his of the more active sites was a small. "I went home. I peeled off my socks brother Robert to oversee the Agency's remote island north of Key West called like dirty layers of skin—I realized I covert operations. Kennedy did not No Name Key. One of the groups using hadn't changed them for a week. . . . splinter the CIA but infused it with new it was called the International Anti-Com- I bathed. then fell into bed to sleep for life. The toughening up of policy toward munist Brigade, a collection of soldiers several hours. On awakening I tried to Cuba and the infusion of money to the of fortune, mostly Americans, headed eat again. but couldn't. Outside. the day CIA's anti-Castro front groups became by a giant ex-Marine. Gerry Patrick was sheer spring beauty. I carried a por- known as "the Kennedy vendetta." Hemming. Like another ex-Marine. Lee table radio to the yard at the rear of the Between the Bay of Pigs in April 1961 Harvey Oswald, Hemming was trained house and listened to the gloomy news- and the Cuban missile crisis in October as a radar operator in California. Hem- casts about Cuba as I sat on the ground. 1962, a secret war was launched against ming would later claim that Oswald once my back against a tree. Castro. Kennedy's war, which made the tried to join his lAB group. Co-founder "Helen came out from the house and preparations for the Bay of Pigs pale by of the 1AB with Hemming was Frank handed me a martini, a large one. I was comparison, slowly began altering the Sturgis, a soldier of fortune who once half drunk when I finished. . . . Sud- attitudes of the anti-Castro militants and worked in Cuba with Castro and later denly my stomach churned. I was sick. the CIA operatives in the field, and al- would become one of Howard Hunt's My body heaved. though a good measure of bitterness and Watergate burglars. "Then I began to cry. . . . cynicism lingered, a more positive im- Those were heady times for anti-Cas- "I wept for two hours. I was 'sick age of the President began taking shape. tro groups in Miami. With the CIA pro- again, then drunk again. . . . Kennedy did his best to reinforce that viding lessons in sabotage, explosives, "Oh shit! Shit!" image. "Cuba must not be abandoned weapons, survival, ambushes, and com- to the Communists," he said in a speech munications, the missions to Cuba began Following the Bay of Pigs, word went shortly after the Bay of Pigs, and he escalating in frequency and scale. Ini- out from the White House that Kennedy spoke of a "new and deeper struggle.•• tially intent on infiltrating small guerrilla was disillusioned with the CIA, that he That was a euphemism for a campaign bands onto the island, the Agency was was angry at his CIA advisers for push- that eventually employed several thou- soon supervising raids aimed at blowing ing a scheme on him devised during the sand CIA operatives and cost more than up oil refineries and sugar mills. Eisenhower administration, that he had $100 million a year. The JM/WAVE station in Miami be- been ill-informed and misled and pres- Again Miami was the focus of the came the international coordinating cen- sured by CIA brass who had an egocen- effort. On a large, secluded, heavily ter for the secret war. Every CIA station

November 1980IThe Washingtonian 165

,•• •, , • atikaaggial§ORMTRIMMEngf, 410§E*VIMMISIMMOMEMPAVe ,"4116% , PMEIMR9. VOMASM41174M,M,',74.1k-§Ms,":11.11-. in the world had at least one case officer assigned to Cuban operations and reporting to the Miami station. The station also controlled an international economic strategy, pressuring US allies to embargo all trade with Cuba and supervising a worldwide sabotage program against goods being shipped to and from Cuba. The operational level of the Agency was also—without Kennedy's knowledge. it now appears. and even without the knowledge of his newly appointed director. John McCone—continuing its program of assassination attempts against Castro. In giving the CIA a new life, funding. and the power and influence to Conduct large-scale secret operations. i‘cianedy had created a force over which, as he himself would discover, he could not maintain total control. That realization came with the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962.

It is not known whether Castro requested the installation of offensive missiles in Did Fidel Castro invite the Russians to install missiles in Cuba—thus Cuba or whether he accepted them at the provoking the 1962 Cuban missile crisis—because of the CIA secret suggestion of the Russians. There are activities against him? Many Cuban exiles in Miami believed this—and were 'Tfraiiy Cuban exiles in Miami who knew elated at the prospects of a Kennedy-Castro showdown. Castro well, who went to school with him, and who fought beside him in the back tables of luncheonettes in Miami's for conspiring to counterfeit Cuban cur- mountains during the early days of the Little Havana, in the CIA safe houses rency earmarked for rebel forces inside 26th of July Movement, and they believe in Coconut Grove, in the training camps Cuba—a plan that had all the hallmarks Castro was driven to obtaining the mis- in the Keys and the Everglades, wher- of a CIA operation. siles by the effectiveness of the secret ever the exiles and their control agents Against this pattern of crackdown by CIA war against him. They think the gathered, the word "traitor" would be federal enforcement agencies, there unrelenting infiltration and sabotage op- spoken. emerged a counter-grain of incidents rel- erations created pressures that drove And yet the anger at Kennedy for evant to the Kennedy assassination. These Castro to consider doing something bold. making the missile settlement was shal- incidents involve a series of raids by The more fervent of the Cuban exiles low compared with the reaction of the anti-Castro groups that took place. de- were initially elated by the possibility exiles and their CIA controls when it spite the crackdown, between the time that the missile crisis might provoke a became apparent what the President's of the missile crisis in October 1962 and showdown with Castro. President Ken- "no invasion" policy actually meant. the assassination of President Kennedy nedy himself boosted such hopes with Suddenly the United States government in November 1963. At the height of the hard-line reponses to the buildup of the began cracking down on the very train- missile crisis--the most politically in- Soviet presence in Cuba. In September ing camps and guerrilla bases its own opportune moment for Kennedy—one 1962, Kennedy declared that the US agencies had established. Regular infil- of the largest and most militant of the would use "whatever means may be tration raids into Cuba by the exiles, Cuban groups, Alpha 66, launched a necessary" to prevent Cuba from ex- which automatically had been getting the strike at a major port in Cuba, killing porting aggression "by force or threat government's "green light." were dis- at least twenty defenders, including some of force." In Miami, the anti-Castro exiles avowed and condemned. The Cuban Russians. A week later the same group and their CIA bosses appreciated such Revolutionary Council, a united front of sunk a Cuban patrol boat. On October tough talk and looked forward to real exile groups established by the CIA, had 31, the day after Kennedy lifted his action. its subsidy cut off. blockade of Cuba as a sign of peaceful By October. Kennedy and Khrush- The crackdown continued over the next intentions, Alpha 66 struck again. Then, chev were eyeball to eyeball. And then, several months to the confusion and an- after the crisis ended in November, Al- suddenly, they started negotiating. The ger of the exiles. On the one hand they pha 66 pledged further raids. crisis ended on November 20, 1962. were being encouraged and supported There were at least a dozen other ac- Kennedy announced that all IL-28 by the US government—wasn't the CIA tions that, despite the President's orders, bombers were being withdrawn by the the US govemment?—and on the other indicated that some Cuban exile groups Soviets and that progress was being made hand they were being handcuffed and were continuing the secret war. The CIA on the withdrawal of offensive missiles. arrested. It was crazy. denied it had any association with these In return. Kennedy said he gave the So- The Coast Guard announced it was continuing actions. viets and the Cubans a "no-invasion" throwing more planes, ships, and men There were indications that Kennedy pledge. into policing the Florida straits. The was confused. At a press conference in Those fighting the secret war against Customs Service raided the secret camp May 1963, in response to a question Castro were shocked by the "no inva- at No Name Key and arrested the anti- about whether the US was giving aid to sion" settlement. To the men who had Castro force in training there. The FBI the exiles, the President stumbled: "We been risking their lives in a guerrilla war seized a major cache of explosives at an may well be . well, none that 1 am against Communism in the Caribbean, exile camp outside New Orleans. Then familiar with. , . . I don't think as of it was astounding that Kennedy should the Federal Aviation Administration is- today that we are." It was recently dis- make a deal with Khrushchev. If the sued "strong warnings" to six American covered that the CIA had been support- President's actions at the Bay of Pigs civilian pilots—including soldier-of-for- ing at least one exile group under what had raised doubts about his determina- tune Frank Sturgis and a few who had the Agency termed an "autonomous option to bring down Castro. his handling worked directly with the CIA—who had erations" concept. of the missile crisis more than confirmed been flying raids over Cuba. The Secret Few understood the significance of those doubts. Over raft cubano at the Service arrested a prominent exile leader what was happening at the time, but one 166 The WuhingioniartINovember 1980 atPaigaexamsepa4seka -eaxamarssamtmx.5trs".,-KnIArsz:A•IttWtalMISMAM,talMbSr.fXstt4,%t!-IARN:Wagin.Mr -VR..--A0M*.s.4. who did was a Democratic congressman ker would have suspected of leading him from Florida, Paul Rogers. Citing "se- on a wild-goose chase. rious kinks in our intelligence system," The chase began almost immediately Rogers called for a joint congressional after Schweiker announced the forma- v. committee to oversee the CIA. "And tion of the Kennedy assassination sub- what proof have we,' asked Rogers, committee. He was visited by Washing- "that this Agency, which in many re- ton reporter Vera Glaser, who told him spects has the power to preempt foreign she had just interviewed Clam Boothe policy, is not actually exercising this Luce and that Luce had given her in- power through practices which are con- formation relating to the assassination. tradictory to the established policy ob- Schweiker called Luce, who confirmed jectives of this government?" the story she had told Glaser. That was in February 1963. That Luce claimed that in the early '60s she month, in Dallas, a czarist Russian had financially supported an anti-Castro Emigre, world traveler, and former French Cuban group running guerrilla raids into intelligence operative named George de Cuba from Miami. On the evening of Mohrenschildt decided to give a dinner the Kennedy assassination, she received -1"""party, He invited a young couple, Lee a call from one of the members of the and Marina Oswald, who had returned group, who told her that Oswald had from Russia the previous summer. tried to penetrate his organization and had offered his services as a potential Twelve years later, with the call from Castro assassin. He said that his group Senator Schweiker, I began an odyssey distrusted Oswald. kept watch on him, into the Kennedy assassination that would and eventually penetrated a Communist be far more revealing that I ever antic- cell where Oswald was tape-recorded ipated. It was a journey into a maze that bragging about being, as Luce reported had grown, over the years, to bewilder- it. "the greatest shot in the world with Did Clare Boothe Luce throw red ing proportions. Yet what emerged were a telescopic rifle." herrings in the path of accassination similar images along many of the path- Luce said she told her caller—whose investigators? Luce had strong ties ways, an indication—often only gossa- name, she told Schweiker, was "some- to the CIA, and many fruitless mer—of a concealed thread emanating thing like" Julio Fernandez—to tell the hours were consumed tracking down from a common spool. FBI about the incident. However, when leads she had given to the For instance, one of the first leads Schweiker checked the FBI files, he found Investigative staff. Schweiker asked me to check out came no report of any such incident. There from a source he considered impeccable: was a record of Oswald having ap- ker thought, was worth checking out. Clare Boothe Luce. One of the wealthi- proached an anti-Castro leader in New I spent weeks—in Miami, New Or- est women in the world, widow of the Orleans and then subsequently getting leans, and even Pennsylvania and New founder of the Time Inc. publishing em- into a street squabble with him when the York—attempting to locate this "Julio pire, a former congresswoman. and US leader saw him distributing pro-Castro Fernandez." To no avail. Later, with ambassador to Italy, Clare Boothe Luce leaflets, but Luce's story was embroi- broader access to information as an in- was the last person in the world Schwei- dered with different details and, Schwei- vestigator for the House Select Com- mittee on Assassinations. I discovered why I could not find the right Julio Fer- nandez: The name, as Luce told then- CIA Director William Colby, with whom she was in touch at the time, was a con- coction she had made up for Schweiker. Later, I interviewed Luce at her pent- house apartment at the Watergate and told her that her story reminded me of an Oswald incident in New Orleans in which he showed up at the store of an anti-Castro leader and volunteered his services. Luce said: "Why, yes, that's the same type of thing that happened to my boys." When I walked out of the Watergate late that afternoon. I knew only one thing for sure: An awful lot of time had been spent checking out Luce's story and, in the end, it led nowhere. The last time I saw Luce was shortly after my interview with her. I attended a luncheon meeting of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers. Luce / was the guest speaker. Her speech was O a vigorous defense of the intelligence • establishment and a review of its successes. Clare Boothe Luce, besides being a guest speaker at that meeting, is on the board of directors of the Association of Although the Cuban missile crisis resulted in a backdown by the Soviet Former Intelligence Officers. That or- Union and a withdrawal of their missiles from Cuba, the negotiations ganization was founded in 1975 by David stunned the Cuban exiles. Kennedy pledged that the US would not invade Atlee Phillips. Cuba, and after being encouraged, financed, and trained by the CIA, the anti.Castro fighters suddenly were targets of a US crackdown. Time and again during the Kennedy as- Nocernber 1980/The Washingroniun 167

v. V3WWWMAWAIMStSsMMsesagtsktstwma=ssrastesikamksomemmimc,- si ti1/4, 'W; sassination investigation, the thread of personally, was "one of the best friends Harvey Oswald, a tall, thin Negro with an association with intelligence-agency the United States ever had." reddish hair, and a Cuban from the con- actitivity would appear and reappear. When I asked him about the recon- sulate. Alvarado said he saw the Cuban For instance, there was a man who naissance camera, he said he had flown give the Negro a large sum of money called Schweiker's office with the in- a number of aerial photographic mis- and then heard the Negro tell Oswald, formation that he had seen Lee Harvey sions and proudly explained that he had "I want to kill the man." According to Oswald and Jack Ruby together at the designed a special device to permit him Alvarado, Oswald replied, "You're not Key West airport prior to the Kennedy to trigger the camera, installed in the man enough; I can do it," and the Negro assassination. They were with a group belly of his plane, from the cockpit. He then gave Oswald $6,500 in large-de- of young people, he said, going to Cuba said he had taken shots of the Russian nomination American bills. to cut sugarcane for Castro. Yes, he said. missiles in Cuba long before Kennedy Alvarado, it was later discovered, was he had reported the information to the announced they existed. an agent of the Nicaraguan intelligence FBI after Kennedy was killed. Again, For whom, I asked, was he working? service, Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Schweiker could find no record of it. "1 was told." he said, smiling, "I was Somoza was a strong anti-Castroite and But the man was a respected member of working for the United States Informa- a cooperative ally of the CIA, having the community, a successful business- tion Agency." I asked if he thought it permitted the Agency to use his country possible that he was really working for as a training camp and assembly area for the CIA? "Yes,"- !'l would the Bay of Pigs invasion. At the time of think so." the Kennedy assassination, Manuel Ar- One man with a history I asked who had paid for all his so- time, dubbed by his fellow anti-Castro of muddying the phisticated photo and electronic equip- leaders as the CIA's "golden boy." still ment. He looked at me as if 1 were play- had two training bases in Nicaragua and Kennedy assassination ing a game with him and didn't answer a huge arsenal of equipment. directly. Finally he gave me a wide grin The Alvarado fabrication strikes some waters showed up early and said, "No comment." researchers as having the hallmarks of in the investigations: Could there be a pattern of misinfor- a counterintelligence scenario, another mation to the tips that Schweiker was stone thrown in to muddy the already Frank Sturgis, one of being fed? The long ride from Key West murky waters. to Miami along the Overseas Highway E. Howard Hunt's is one of scenic splendor, the sky blue One man with a history of muddying the accomplices in the 1972 and endless, the ocean a vista of white- Kennedy-assassination waters showed caps. the bay a glistening expanse of up early in the Schweiker investigation: Watergate burglary. crystal serenity. The beauty escaped me Frank Sturgis. one of E. Howard Hunt's as t drove home that evening. I kept accomplices in the Watergate burglary. thinking of Vince Salandria telling me The names of both E. Howard Hunt man and, when I talked with him, very how busy I would be kept. and Frank Sturgis had been in the news credible. in connection with the Kennedy assas- I spent days in Key West attempting Many of the early tips that Schweiker sination long before I joined Senator to verify the man's story. I questioned received contained elements similar to Schweiker's staff. A group of assassi- everyone I could find who had worked reports that sprung up immediately fol- nation researchers had contended that at the Key West airport in the early '60s. lowing the assassination of President two of the three men in photographs A few people remembered that a group Kennedy. These reports all indicated that taken in Dallas's Dealey Plaza on No- did go through Key West to Cuba to help Lee Harvey Oswald was tied to pro-Cas- vember 22, 1963, bore "striking resem- Castro cut sugarcane. A Cuban plane did tro elements or was a Castro agent. blances" to Hunt and Sturgis. The men regularly fly into Key West at one time, I've coma to believe that a few of were reportedly derelicts—or "tramps," but not during the period the man said those early reports may have sonic re- as the press came to call them—who he recalled Oswald, Ruby, and the group lationship to what I later uncovered. Take were discovered in a boxcar in the rail- waiting for it in the airport terminal. I the reports linked to Mexico City. Clare road yard behind the grassy knoll. Taken checked every record, file, and news- Boothe Luce maintained that she had to police headquarters, the tramps were paper clip available and came close to received the telephone call from one of escorted across Dealey Plaza, where news confirming bits and pieces of the man's her young Cubans on the evening of photographers took photos of them. The story, but I could not pin down even one Kennedy's assassination. She remem- tramps were questioned and released, factor. Yet the man insisted his recol- bered that she had been watching tele- without a record of their identities being lection was accurate. He took me to the vision with her husband in her New York kept. exact spots where he said he had seen apartment when the call came through. The Sturgis-Hunt contention was ex- Oswald and Ruby in the airport terminal. The caller told her, she said, about Os- amined in early 1975 by the Rockefeller In checking out his story, I spent doz- wald and how he had left New Orleans Commission, which was appointed by ens of hours with this fellow. We got to go to Mexico City before returning President Gerald Ford to probe illegal friendly. I met his family and was invited to Dallas. Yet, on the evening of No- CIA activities in the United States. Re- to dinner. One day he happened to show vember 22. Oswald's visit to Mexico lying on comparative photo analysis per- me the photo lab he had at the rear of City was known by a very few people. formed by the same FBI expert who did his business. I was amazed at the col- perhaps Marina Oswald and a handful all the Warren Commission's analyses, lection of photographic and electronic of CIA officials—most notably, a few the Rockefeller Commission concluded gear stocked there_ I was doubly amazed in the Agency's Mexico City station. that the men in the tramps photographs when I noticed sitting on the floor in a Another attempt to link Oswald to were not Sturgis and Hunt. corner what appeared to be the housing Castro came out of Mexico City im- About the time Schweiker began his of an aerial reconnaissance camera, mediately after Oswald was murdered investigation, a new book again raised I began probing him about his use of by Jack Ruby. A young Nicaraguan the Sturgis-Hunt story. Tided Coup dErat such equipment. Well, he said, he had named Gilberto Alvarado walked into in America, it was written by Michael made a number of trips into Cuba after the American Embassy and insisted he Canfield and Alan I. Weberman, with Castro took over, in order to find out a had a story to tell the American ambas- a foreword by Texas Congressman Henry few things. He told about once being sador, Thomas Mann. Alvarado claimed B. Gonzalez. The book incorporated a suspected of spying by Castro's police that he had gone to the Cuban embassy novel device: It came with film-positive and how he was retained and beaten. He in September and while waiting to con- photos of Sturgis and Hunt designed to spoke of bow he hated Castro and how duct business had seen three persons be overlayed on photographs of the he thought Batista, whom he had known talking on a patio a few feet away: Lee tramps. Superimposed, the images did 168 The WashingionianiNavembo 1980

0416ese%SesslieSeistkeSeMakeMerAeRt..ESeeteleSteentlat .%-lmiztmoovRnmmwm-wtz:4,(4'A The FBI found Sturgis at home in Miami. They said, "Frank, if there's anybody capable of killing the President of the United States, you're the guy."

concluded that the average deviation between the tramp's features and Stur- gis's features was "low enough to make it impossible to rule out Sturgis on the basis of metric traits alone." However, the panel said, it was the morphological differences that indicated that Sturgis was not the tramp. In other words, Sturgis just didn't look like the tramp. The House Committee's staff in charge of the photo panel's work was an attorney named Jane Downey. One day she came to me and asked me to help gather some of the photographs that would be sent to the panel members for analysis. I recall asking her at the time to find out whether or not the experts would take into consideration the possibility that the tramps might be wearing sophisticated disguises. That had to be the case if they were not just real drifters in the wrong place at the wrong time. (As a member of Nixon's White House plumbers, E. Howard Hunt had obtained disguises from the CIA's Technical Services Division and used them on more than one job.) Downey promised she would ask the photo analysts about the use of disguises. Sevt ral days later Jane Downey told me she had checked with the photo analysts. "I'm told that there is no way they can tell if disguises were used." she said. "In other words," I said, "if the tramps were in disguise there would be no way the analysts could tell who they really are?" Frank Sturgis: trusted Castro confidant in the early days of the Cuban "That's what I'm told," revolution, militant and-Castroite and CIA operator in Miami. finally a "Then why do a photo comparison Watergate burglar. at all?" I asked. Downey shrugged her shoulders. "Well," I said, "I hope that bear striking similarities. Chrisman was on November 22, 1963. point is mentioned in the final report." I would later discover that photo com- (Chrisman had since died.) They came "I'm sure it will be," said Downey. parison and analysis is an exceptionally back with official records and eyewit- It wasn't. nonconclusive technique. The House ness affidavits that Chrisman was teach- Assassinations Committee spent ing school in the state of Washington the My initial interest in both Frank Sturgis 583.154 on it. Among the photographs day Kennedy was assassinated. So much and E. Howard Hunt was not predicated we submitted to a panel of experts for for the conclusiveness of photo analysis. on whether they were the Dealey Plaza analysis and comparison were not only What was interesting, however, was tramps. When the Rockefeller Commis- those of Sturgis and Hunt but also those the panel's conclusions in its comparison sion concluded that Sturgis and Hunt had of other individuals who resembled the of photos of Frank Sturgis with those of not been in Dallas on November 22, tramps. The panel concluded that Sturgis the tramps. It used two comparative 1963, it raised more questions than it and Hunt were not the tramps in the pho- techniques. One it termed "metric traits" resolved. Although the Commission re- tographs. It did conclude that one of the and the other "morphological differ- port claimed that Sturgis and Hunt had tramps—the one who resembled Hunt— ences." One was a comparison of the alibis for their whereabouts on Novem- was most likely a man named Fred Lee measurements of six facial features and ber 22, 1963, it concluded: "It cannot Chrisman, a right-wing activist. When their metric relationships; the other was be determined with certainty where Hunt those results came in, Committee inves- simply whether or not various facial fea- and Sturgis actually were on the day of tigators were sent out to find out where tures were shaped the same. The panel the assassination." 17"

November 19801The Washingtonian 169

MkiV;i4,7eaSII:AWSWV,70%.5,1M4MWFAM7'....dgg. It can be determined where Frank Sturgis—according to St. George— Sturgis was on the day after the Kennedy blurted out the real story behind Water- assassination. The FBI found him at home What struck me about gate. A few months later, St. George in Miami. "I had FBI agents all over visited Sturgis in the Washington, DC, my house," he has said. "They told me that initial interview jail. "I will never leave this jail alive." 1 was one person they felt had the ca- he says Sturgis told him, "if what we pabilities to do it. They said, 'Frank, if with Sturgis was his discussed about Watergate does not re- there's anybody capable of killing the Archie Bunker-like main a secret between us. If you attempt President of the United States, you're to publish what I've told you, I am a the guy who can do it.' " directness. He said he dead man." Now in his fifties and putting on weight, In August 1974, St. George published Sturgis has led a thousand lives, maybe thought the Kennedy his interview with Sturgis in True mag- more. He was born Frank Angelo Fiorini azine. In it, he quotes Sturgis as saying: in Norfolk. Virginia. His parents sepa- assassination was "The Bay of Pigs—hey, that was one rated when he was an infant and he grew definitely a conspiracy sweet mess. I met Howard Hunt that up with his mother's family in Phila- year; he was the political officer of the delphia's Germantown. (He would later and that Oswald was exile brigade. Bernard Barker was Hunt's change his name to his stepfather's, Frank right-hand man, his confidential clerk— RMhony Sturgis. when his mother re- a patsy. his body servant, really." married.) Sturgis today denies he ever said that Frank Sturgis turned seventeen two and curses St. George. days after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Today, Sturgis is not hesitant to admit and he dropped out of Germantown High into mountain airstrips. He became his disgust with Kennedy after the Pres- to join the Marines. Sturgis was shipped friendly with another daredevil pilot, ident made the Cuban-missile arrange- to the Pacific jungles, where he volun- Pedro Diaz-Lanz, and when, after the ment with the Russians. Sturgis was one teered for the toughest unit in the Ma- revolution, Castro appointed Diaz-Lanz of the six pilots specially warned by the rines, the First Raider Battalion, the leg- chief of the Rebel Air Force, Sturgis was Federal Aviation Administration for endary Edson's Raiders. He was taught named the Air Force's director of se- making raids over Cuba at the time Ken- lOw to kill with his bare hands, infil- curity. Nine months after Castro took nedy was negotiating the delicate deal. trated into enemy encampments, air- power, Diaz-Lanz and Sturgis publicly Sturgis was also the co-founder of the dropped on commando raids. He saw condemned Castro's Communism and International Anti-Communist Brigade. Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, three fled to Miami. A month later, they were some of whom were arrested at their serious combat wounds, malaria, jaun- dropping propaganda leaflets over training site on No Name Key after the dice, and, in the end, he was diagnosed Havana. missile crisis. as having "exhaustion and possible psy- Frank Sturgis says he was never an My first interview with Frank Sturgis choneurosis." He had a stay at the Sun official, paid agent of the Central Intel- came not long after he was released from Valley Naval Medical Center before his ligence Agency. The CIA has confirmed his Watergate sentence. For many months discharge in 1945. this. Yet, before the Bay of Pigs and he remained a low-profile figure in Miami, After World War II, Sturgis was a afterwards, during the height of the JM/ not moving around much, not getting his plainclothes cop in Norfolk, went to WAVE's secret war against Castro, name in the newspaper, not yet back in school part-time at William and Mary Sturgis used equipment, flew planes, and action. That night he talked effusively, College. managed a few bars, trained as directed assault craft that were supported chain-smoking and drinking Coke. a radio gunner in the Naval Reserves. by the CIA. He has admitted that the B- (Sturgis is a heavy smoker, but never crewed as a merchant seaman, did a two- 25 he flew on his first leaflet-drop was touches alcohol.) year stint with the US Army in Germany maintained with $10,000 from E. How- What struck me about that initial in- where he served with the Armed Forces ard Hunt. terview with Sturgis was his Archie Security Agency, was married, wid- Bunker-like directness. He said he thought owed, remarried, divorced, and married In terms of the Kennedy assassination, the Kennedy assassination was defi- again. it was Sturgis's relationship with Hunt nitely a conspiracy, that Oswald was a Sturgis says he got involved in Cuban that drew my attention. Both testified patsy, and that the government agen- activities in the early '50s when he went under oath to the Rockefeller Commis- cies—the FBI, the Secret Service, and to Miami to visit an uncle who was mar- sion that they first met just prior to the the CIA—were all involved in a cover- ried to a Cuban. That's how he got friendly Watergate burglary—Hunt said in 1972, up. He spoke of the possible motivations with exiled former Cuban President Car- Sturgis said in late 1971 or early 1972. of the anti-Castro groups and their dis- los Prio, he says. Prio, close to the That seemed strange in view of their like for Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs. American mob who ran Havana's gam- active involvement in Miami's anti-Cas- ("I even hated him, too," he said.) He bling casinos, was funding Castro's tro activities in the early '60s. Sturgis said he once refused to join the CIA even guerrilla war against General Batista. claims that although he knew of "Ed- though it gave him an application be- (Prio would later be convicted of arms uardo" at the time, all his contacts with cause he thought it was infiltrated at its smuggling with a Texan, Robert Mc- him and the funds that came from him highest ranks with double agents— Keown. After the Kennedy assassina- were through Hunt's assistant, Bernard "possibly the same people who con- tion, McKeown told the FBI that he was Barker. spired to kill Kennedy." He said his the- approached by Jack Ruby about a deal In October 1972, writer Andrew St. ory was that the Kennedy assassination to sell military equipment to Castro. In George interviewed Frank Sturgis in his was a conspiracy involving intelligence 1977, a week before he was scheduled home in Miami while Sturgis was await- agents in Russia's KGB, Cuba's intel- to interview Prio, he went to the side of ing his Watergate sentence. It was before ligence service, and the CIA. Actually, his Miami Beach home, sat on a chaise the tramp photos were publicized, before as Sturgis rambled on. there wasn't a outside the garage, and shot himself in cries for another Kennedy-assassination conspiracy theory he didn't espouse. the heart. He reportedly had financial investigation began to peak. before the Several months later, Frank Sturgis problems.) Rockefeller Commission was formed. made that initial interview more inter- It was through Prio. Sturgis says, that St. George was an old friend of Sturgis esting. The Schweiker report had just he infiltrated Cuba to join Castro in the from their days with Castro in the moun- been released. The Church Intelligence mountains. Soon he was a trusted Castro tains. Sturgis was glad to see the gre- Committee staff had built it on the blocks aide, an emissary on arms deals all over garious St. George and. stung by his of Castro-assassination plots that the the United States and Latin America, a arrest at Watergate and the headlines that Warren Commission had not been told daring pilot who flew loads of weapons made him appear a bungling burglar. about, thus making the Castro retaliation 170 The likuhingtonianINovember 1980 erlay to what was happening. ing into the assassination, you know, the There were other moments that made assassination of John F. Kennedy." me think I was taking Frank Sturgis too "Oh," Paul said, "you mean the guy seriously. One evening I was chatting you killed." with him on the telephone. At the time Sturgis's face froze. The smile was I was checking into a fellow called "El gone. Then he shook his head and smiled Mono"—the Monkey—who had been again. "Oh, yeah, sure," he said. Paul described to me as "one of the CIA's laughed at catching Sturgis off guard. best-trained Cuban operatives." Sturgis 1 started laughing, too. He was right. talked about him for a while and then Paul was a funny guy. said he had a friend who could tell me a lot more about El Mono. The friend, During the first few months I worked for whom I'll call Paul, was an American Senator Schweiker, I spent a lot of time who had spent seven years in Castro thrashing about in murky waters. Then, prisons. He was charged with plotting one afternoon early in January 1976, I to blow up a building housing Russian received a call from Dave Marston in agents. Paul had operated a small bar in Schweiker's office. Marston was Havana as a front, was married to a Schweiker's staff coordinator on the Cuban who worked for the CIA, and was Kennedy investigation. "You can give deeply involved in Miami's anti-Castro up on Silvia Odio," he said. "The guys Cuban activity. Sturgis said he would over on committee staff told me they got make arrangements for me to meet Paul. word she's in Puerto Rico. They're get- but he didn't want to tell Paul that he ting ready to track her down." Senator Richard Schweiker headed was setting him up. He said he would "Do we have to tell them, Dave?" the Senate Intelligence Committee's be having breakfast with Paul the next "Tell them what?" investigation into the assassination Saturday morning at the Westward Ho "I was talking with Silvia Odio this of John F. Kennedy and urged a restaurant in Little Havana and that I morning in Miami." ,--complete re-investigation. should just stroll in. "He don't know The Senate Committee staff had de- you're gonna be there, so when you get cided that their final report on the Ken- theory its strong theme. there I'll just put him on a little bit," nedy assassination could be written from The evening after the report was re- said Sturgis. "We're old friends; I've documents given them by the FBI and leased. Sturgis telephoned. He said he known him for years. It'll be funny. We CIA. The staffers figured they didn't had just run across an old friend, a "guy kid with each other a lot. He's a funny have time for any investigation in the with the Company,'• who "revived" his guy." field. But the "Odio incident" bothered mind about something he had completely I spotted Sturgis and his friend in a them, just as it had bothered the Warren forgotten to tell me. He now recalled back booth when I walked into the West- Commission. that he had heard about a meeting in ward Ho. Sturgis had his back to the If the Warren Commission had found Havana about two months before the door. I strolled up and slapped him on that Silvia Odio was telling the truth, its Kennedy assassination. At the meeting the shoulder. "Hey, Frank!" I greeted final conclusion that Oswald was not were a number of high-ranking men, in- him. "Howya been? What've you been part of a conspiracy would have been cluding Castro. his brother Raul, Ramiro doing? Haven't seen you around lately." undermined. Odio claimed that Oswald Valdez. the chief of Cuban intelligence, Sturgis looked up with a surprised yet was one of three men who came to the Chi Guevara and his secretary. Tanya, blank expression. "Hey, I know you," door of her apartment in Dallas one eve- another Cuban officer, an American he said. "Sure you do!" I said, sitting ning in the last week of September 1963. known as "El Mexicano," and—oh, down beside him. "Where do I know The Commission dismissed Odio's tes- yeah—Jack Ruby. And the meeting dealt you from?" he wondered aloud...":"Frank, timony because, it said, it had "consid- with plotting the assassination of John how can you forget?" I said. "Now wait erable evidence" that Oswald had not F. Kennedy. a minute, don't tell me," said•. Sturgis, been in Dallas at all that September. That's what Sturgis had "completely "I'll think of it." He cupped his chin It had nothing of the sort. The Warren forgot" to tell me. Just a bit of infor- in his hand and thought hard. He was Commission's problem was that if Os- mation, with names. a very bad actor and I couldn't keep a wald had gone to Dallas on his way from Suddenly Sturgis was pushing Castro- grin from crossing my face. Paul just New Orleans to Mexico City, he would did-it stories again. stared at us. wondering what was going have had to have private transportation on. and, because he did not have a car and Immediately after the Kennedy assassi- Sturgis kept the act up for about five could not drive, that meant that others nation. Sturgis was involved in other minutes, pounding his forehead and tak- were involved with him. And the Warren stories that proved to be without foun- ing shots at different names. "Oh, I know Commission did not want to have to deal dation. According to FBI documents, I know I know," he would say in mock with that. one involved a reporter named James frustration, "but I'm drawing a blank My discovery of Silvia Odio in Miami Buchanan who had written an article for wall!" I couldn't help laughing, more was important because in investigating the Pompano Sun Sentinel that quoted at his display at over-dramatics than at her story I would open a new area of Sturgis as saying that Oswald visited Paul's puzzlement. Finally. I reached evidence with explosive potential. Silvia Miami in November 1962 to contact across the table and introduced myself Odio's background is relevant. She was Miami-based supporters of Fidel Castro by name to Paul. He shook my hand and the oldest of ten children spirited out of and that, while in Miami, was in tele- then turned to Sturgis. "Well, now do Cuba when their parents became active phone contact with Castro's intelligence you remember who he is?" Paul asked in anti-Castro activity. Her father. service. him. Sturgis was feigning a mild con- Amador Odio, was among Cuba's weal- I was intrigued by why Fmk Sturgis vulsion. "Oh, sure, sure," he admitted, thiest men, owner of the country's larg- would inject himself into the Kennedy- "I really know who he is. I was just est trucking business and once described assassination investigation. I was also puttin' you on!" by Time as the "transport tycoon" of intrigued by the character of the infor- "Oh," Paul said, not getting the point Latin America. But both he and his wife. mation he circulated, imbued as it was of the charade. Sarah, were idealists and had fought with just the right amount of detail and "Gaeton here," Sturgis said, still against dictators from the time of Gen- tenuous relation to some sort of docu- laughing, "is a friend of mine who is eral Machado in the '30s. They were mentary evidence. l wondered if here, with the, uh, whattaya callit, you know, among Castro's early supporters and too, there was a counterintelligence ov- the government committee that's look- among the first to turn against him when November I980/The %shingle:1mila 171 according to Connell, "reality got too painful to bear." Connell said she wit- nessed Silvia suffer these attacks when The third visitor, the she first arrived in Dallas. but with psy- American, was chiatric help they ended—until the Ken- nedy assassination. introduced to her as Silvia Odio had moved to Dallas in March 1963. She wanted to lead a quiet "Leon Oswald." She life, but her desire to do something to said the three men help get her parents out of prison led her and her sisters to maintain contact with appeared tired, Cuban exiles who were politically active and to join the anti-Castro group called unkempt, and JURE, which was founded by her father's old friend, Manolo Ray. (This was the unshaven, as if they same Manolo Ray who clashed with E. had just come from a Howard Hunt before the Bay of Pigs.) By September 1963, Silvia Odio was long trip; established in Dallas's Cuban-exile community. She had a decent job, had her emotional problems under control, and been "Angelo"—but she described him was planning to move into an apartment as her sister did, "looking more Mexican more comfortable than the rental unit in than anything else." The third visitor, which she and her four children were the American, was introduced to her as squeezed. Moving day was set for Mon- "Leon Oswald." She said "Leon Os- day. October 1, 1963. The week before wald" acknowledged the introduction she was scheduled to move, her sister with a very brief reply, perhaps in idi- Annie, then seventeen, came to the omatic Spanish. but she later decided he apartment to help her pack and to baby- could not understand Spanish because sit. When the doorbell rang early one of his lack of reaction to her Spanish Silvia Odio swore to the Warren evening in that last week of September. conversation with "Leopoldo," Commission that she met Lee Annie went to the door to answer it. There is no doubt in Silvia Odio's Harvey Oswald in the company of Later I would talk with Annie °dirt, mind that this visitor was Lee Harvey two Cubans in Dallas in September who is now also living in Miami. She Oswald: She was with the men more than 1963. If she could he believed, that is married to an architect and has two twenty minutes and, although she did would mean a probable conspiracy. children. She remembered the evening not permit them in her apartment, she She was not believed. at Silvia's apartment in Dallas. One of was less than three feet from them as the men asked to speak to Suite. He they stood in the well-lit vestibule. She "Fidel betrayed the Revolution," as initially spoke English, but when Annie said Oswald and the other two men ap- Amador Odio would later say. With lib- answered him in Spanish he spoke Span- peared tired, unkempt, and unshaven, eral leader Manolo Ray, they helped to ish. Annie told him that Sarita didn't live as if they had just come from a long trip. form one of the first anti-Castro groups there. "He then said something—I don't "Leopoldo" told Silvia Odio that the within Cuba. recall exactly what, something about her reason they had come to her was to get Amador and Sarah Odio were arrested being married—which made me think her help in soliciting funds, in the name by Castro in October 1961 at their coun- that they really wanted my sister Silvia. of JURE, from local businessmen. "He try estate outside Havana. (The Odios I recall putting the chain on the _door told me," she recalled, "that he would had once been hosts at the wedding of while I went to get Silvia." like for me to write them, in English, one of Castro's sisters on that estate.) Annie told me that two of the men very nice letters and perhaps we could Later Castro would turn it into a national were Latin-looking and that one was get some funds." women's prison and Sarah Odio would shorter than the other and heavyset, had Silvia was suspicious of the strangers spend eight years incarcerated there. dark, shiny hair, and "looked Mexi- and avoided any commitment, and the When her parents were arrested, Sil- can." She said the third man was an conversation ended with "Leopoldo" via Odio was 24 years old, living in American. giving her the impression he would con- Puerto Rico with her husband and four Annie Odio recalled that Silvia was tact her again. After the men left, Silvia young children. She had attended law initially reluctant to talk with the visitors locked her door and went to the window school in Cuba for a while. After her because she was getting dressed to go to watch them. She saw them pull away parents were arrested, her husband was out, but she remembers Silvia coming in a red car that had been parked in front sent to Germany by the firm for which out of the bedroom in her bathrobe to of the apartment. he was working and subsequently de- go to the door. The following day or the day after— serted her and their. children. Destitute, Silvia Odio had told me she had been Silvia was never certain about that—she she began having emotional problems. getting dressed to go out when the three received a call from "Leopoldo." She By that time, Silvia's younger sisters. men came to the door. The men were is relatively certain about the gist of what Annie and Santa, were settled in Dallas. standing in the vestibule just inside the "Leopoldo" told her in that telephone Sarita, a university student, had become small front porch. Both the porch and conversation. and it is consistent with friendly with a Dallas clubwoman named the vestibule had bright overhead lights. her testimony to the Warren Commis- Lucille Connell, who was active in both Silvia said the men told her they were sion. She said that "Leopoldo" told her the Cuban Refugee Center there and the members of JURE and spoke as if they that "the gringo" had been a Marine, Mental Health Association. When Santa knew both Manolo Ray and her father. that he was an expert marksman, and told Connell of Silvia's plight, Connell Her conversation, she said, was exclu- that he was "kind of loco." She recalled: made arrangements to have Silvia and sively with the taller Latin. who iden- "He said that the Cubans, we did not her children move to Dallas and for Sil- tified himself as "Leopoldo," although have any guts because we should have via to receive psychiatric treatment. he admitted he was giving her an alias assassinated Kennedy after the Bay of Lucille Connell became Silvia's clos- or a "war name," the use of which was Pigs." est confidante. Connell would later tell common among anti-Castro activists at me that Silvia's emotional problems re- the time. She said she was less certain On the day President Kennedy was as- sulted in attacks of sudden fainting when, of the other Latin's name—it might have sassinated, both Silvia and Annie re- 172 The iltultingtonianNouensbee 1980

.WQ:14M,,W.MalMenaMPIEVOMPRWORator-,'W,T,WWWWWWWWAVV ,SV&W membered the visit of the three men. with so many brothers and sisters and of fortune named Loran Eugene Hall on Before she saw a photograph of Oswald our mother and father in prison. We were September 26, 1964. Hall claimed he or knew that he was involved, the news so afraid, not knowing what was hap- had been in Dallas in September 1963 of the President's death brought back to pening. We made a vow to each other trying to raise anti-Castro funds with two Silvia's mind what "Leopoldo" had said not to tell anyone." companions, one of whom might have about assassinating Kennedy. She had They did not tell anyone they did not looked like Oswald. The Warren Com- just returned to work 'from lunch, was know and trust. But their sister Suite mission, grasping at a straw, cited the told that everyone was being sent home, told Lucille Connell, and Connell told Hall interview in its final report, giving suddenly felt frightened, and, while a trusted friend, and soon FBI agents the impression that Hall and his com- walking to her car, fainted. She remem- were knocking on Silvia Odio's door. panions were Odio's visitors. It then A bers waking up in the hospital. She says it was the last thing in the world concluded: "Lee Harvey Oswald was Across town, Annie Odio was watch- she wanted to do but that when they not at Mrs. Odio's apartment in Septem- ing television at a friend's house. She came she felt she had to tell the truth. ber 1953," and some friends had gone to see the Even before I met Silvia and Annie The Warren Commission did not men- President's motorcade pass several miles Odio and could evaluate their credibil- tion that Loran Eugene Hall was one of before it reached Dealey Plaza. "When the anti-Castro guerrillas arrested at No I first saw Oswald on television," she Name Key after Kennedy's Cuban-mis- told me, "my first thought was, 'My sile crackdown and also was a member 'God, I know this guy and I don't know What I recall best of the International Anti-Communist from where!' I kept thinking. 'Where Brigade, whose members and leaders have 1 seen this guy?' Then, I remember, about meeting Silvia had fed a series of phony stories to Ken- my sister Suite called me and told me nedy-assassination investigators: Nei- that Silvia had fainted at work and that Odio in Miami was the ther did the Warren Commission note she was sending her boyfriend to take in its final report—even though it knew— me to the hospital. When I walked into fear. It was still with that the subsequent FBI interviews re- the room Silvia started crying and crying. her after all vealed that Hall's two companions de- I think I told her. 'You know this guy nied having been in Dallas, that neither - on TV who shot President Kennedy? these years. looked like Oswald, that Silvia Odio, think I know him.' And she said, 'You shown their photographs, did not rec- don't remember where you know him ognize them, and that Loran Eugene Hall, from?' 1 said, 'No. I cannot recall, but when requestioned, admitted he had fab- I know I've seen him before.' And then ity, I was intrigued by two aspects of the ricated the story. she told me, 'Do you remember those FBI documents and the Warren Com- three guys who carne to the house?' " mission records of the Odio incident. What I recall best about meeting Silvia That's when, Annie said, she knew she First, they seemed to contain the poten- Odio in Miami was the fear. It was still had seen Lee Harvey Oswald before. tial of something of keystone signifi- with her after all those years. She was Based on background and character, cance in any attempt to grasp the truth Silvia and Annie Odic were highly cred- about Lee Harvey Oswald and the Ken- For J. Lee Rankin, chief counsel to ible. The subsequent checking I did of nedy assassination. If the incident did the Warren Commission, Silvia their story absolutely convinced me they occur as Odio contended, then any plau- Odio's story posed problems, for it were telling the truth. One of the major sible theory of the assassination would cast in doubt the ultimate finding factors was that Silvia Odio had told have to account for it, Second, this was that there had been no conspiracy. more than one person of the incident the very point the Warren Commission "We are supposed to be closing before the Kennedy assassination. itself quickly recognized. The Commis- doors, not opening them," he said She wrote to her father, Amador, in sion was therefore forced, by its own in refusing to credit her testimony. prison and told him of the visit of the conclusions, to pummel the facts about three strangers. The Warren Commis- the incident into conforming lies. sion obtained a copy of his reply, which The Warren Commission was ham- warned her to be careful because he did pered, of course, by the FBI's initial not know them. I spoke to Amador Odio. bungling in investigating the incident. He and his wife were released from Cu- Silvia Odio had provided good physical ban prison a few years ago and are also descriptions of her visitors and details living in Miami now. No longer about their car. The FBI did not vigor- wealthy—he works at night for an air- ously pursue those leads but instead spent line—he confirmed receiving the letter most of its time questioning people about from Silvia and his reply. Silvia's credibility and her emotional Another confirmation came from Dr. problems. The Bureau's first interview Burton Einspruch, the psychiatrist coun- with Silvia Odio was on December 12, seling Silvia at the time. He recalled that 1963. On August 23, t 964, with the first she had told him prior to the assassi- drafts of the Warren Commission report nation of the visit of the two Latins and being written, Chief Counsel J. Lee Ran- the American, and he remembered call- kin wrote to J. Edgar Hoover: "It is a ing her on the day of the assassination. matter of some importance to the Com- He said she mentioned "Leon" and, in mission that Mrs. Odio's allegations either "a sort of histrionic way," connected be proved or disproved." A month later, the visit of "Leon" to the Kennedy as- with the report in galley form, the Odio sassination. incident was still a concern to some staf- Also of relevance. I thought, was the fers. In a memo to his boss, staff counsel fact that the FBI found out about the visit Wesley Liebeler wrote: "There are prob- only inadvertently. Both Silvia and An- lems. Odio may well be right. The Com- nie had immediately decided, in the hos- mission will look bad if it turns out that pital, not to say anything to anyone about she is. There is no need to look foolish what they knew. "We were so fright- by grasping at straws to avoid admitting ened, we were absolutely terrified," Silvia that there is a problem." remembered. "We were both very young The FBI did attempt to alleviate that and yet we had so much responsibility, "problem" when it interviewed a soldier

November 19801The Washingtonian 173

, MRMIIMEZ4 -Esokstsassasesswer.szst-ssmksTMSSAL working as an assistant in the legal de- the Cuban-exile groups. partment of a large firm, but she had The article pointed out that Alpha 66 remained home that morning so we could "It's a queer thing to had chapters all over the country, that talk. Her husband, Mauricio, who is in- Veciana made frequent fund-raising trips volved in Spanish-language publishing, hear the chief Senate to these chapters, and that one of the 3 had also remained home until he saw investigator talking as chapters he visited was in Dallas at 3126 that his wife felt comfortable. Silvia, Hollandale. in the mounds of Wan-en then in her late thirties, still youthful and if he and the CIA were Commission documents, Hoch found a attractive, was nervous but bright and report by a Dallas deputy sheriff saying morning-fresh when we began talking. partners in the search that an informant had told him that a After several hours of discussing the infor the truth. person resembling Oswald had been seen cident and her experiences with the associating with Cubans at "3128 Har- Warren Commission, she looked older. It does not seem to have lendale." Silvia Odio had been reluctant to talk The article concluded: "Like the two at all. She kept asking. "Why? Why are occurred to him that Cubans who, with 'Leon Oswald,' vis- they bringing it all up again? What good ited Silvia Odin in September. 1963, will it do? I told them the truth but they the CIA is in the Antonio Veciana was: 1) an anti-Castro did not want to hear it. Why do they business of deception." activist, 2) engaged in raising funds for Tarn to keep playing games with me? the commandos, and 3) acquainted with Why?" Her voice had a nervous edge Silvia Odio's father. While this falls short but she was articulate and rational. "Why of proving it, a real possibility exists that didn't the FBI investigate immediately? have opened a door marked CIA. Veciana was one of the two Cubahs Why did they wait so long after first But all that was to come long after my who visited Silvia Odic), or that he at talking with me before they came back? first talk with Silvia Odio. And although least can shed some light on the Odio Do you think they really want to know I sensed her story was important to un- incident." what the answer to the Kennedy assas- derstanding the truth behind the Ken- I was intrigued by another possibility, sination is?" nedy assassination, I didn't realize how which Paul Hoch raised in a separate She admitted that she had become significant the pursuit of it would be in memorandum to Schweiker. In analyz- disillusioned with the US government my own investigation. ing one of the early Church Committee because of the way the FBI and the staff reports on assassination plots against of the Warren Commission treated her About the time I found Silvia Odio in foreign leaders, Hoch wondered why the and because, in the end, she was offi- Miami, an independent researcher named 1961 Veciana attempt against Castro was cially termed a liar. Paul Hoch sent Senator Schweiker a copy not mentioned. Hoch was contending, "It gets me so mad that I was just of an article that was going to appear a in effect, that because the Veciana plot used," she told me. I gave her my as- few weeks later in the Saturday Evening did not appear in the Church report, it surances that this time it would be dif- Post. He had written it with George was one the CIA was trying to hide. ferent. I told her that I believed that it O'Toole. a former CIA computer spe- At about that time there appeared in was necessary for Americans to learn the cialist and the author of The Assassi- Esquire a column by its Washington truth about the Kennedy assassination. nation Tapes, which revealed that psy- watcher, Timothy Crouse, who sug- 1 told her I believed that Senator Schwei- chological-stress analysis of Oswald's gested that the CIA, in revealing such ker was an honorable man and would voice indicated he was telling the truth flashy "secrets" as its deadly shellfish not be involved in anything but an honest when he denied killing President Ken- toxin and toxic dart gun, was taking the investigation. We spoke on the tele- nedy. Hoch, a physicist at the University Church Committee through a primrose phone several times before Silvia Odin of California at Berkeley. was a Warren maze. Crouse was disturbed because the finally agreed to visit with me. Even- Commission critic known for his plod- committee's chief counsel, F.A.O. tually she came to trust me. ding, analytical research of government Schwarz Jr. ("He has the innocent look In the end the House Committee on documents. of one of the trolls they sell at the toy Assassinations was forced to conclude The article was titled "Dallas: The store his great-grandfather founded"), that Silvia Odio was telling the truth— Cuban Connection" and it dealt with the was accepting at face value the CIA's reluctantly, in its final report: '`The com- Odio incident. "The Saturday Evening own enumeration of its misdeeds. "It's mittee was inclined to believe Silvia Post has learned," said the article, "of pretty unusual," Schwarz admitted to Odio." a link between the Odio incident and one Crouse, "to fund that the defendant has Waffling as that admission is, it meant of the many attempts on the life of Cuban developed large parts of the case. It's that Silvia Odio, in the Committee's Premier Fidel Castro carried out by the very helpful." opinion, was telling the truth. As if once Central Intelligence Agency and Cuban Wrote Crouse: "It's a queer thing to that was acknowledged, it could be put Emigres in the early 1960s." hear the chief Senate investigator talking aside—a curtsy to truth—and the dance In his research, Hoch had discovered as if he and the CIA were partners in the could go on. that Silvia Odio's parents had been ar- search for the truth. . . It does not Yet the Odio admission hammers rested by Castro because they had har- seem to have occurred to Schwarz that cracks in the foundation of the House bored a fugitive named Reinaldo Gon- the CIA was, is, and always will be in Committee's conclusions that elements zalez, who was wanted for plotting to the business of deception." of organized crime were the probable kill Castro in October 1961. The plotters conspirators in the Kennedy assassina- had planned to use a bazooka, which I found Antonio Veciana listed in the tion. The report was forced to cross the would have been fired from an apartment Miami telephone directory. When I called bounds of rationality: "It is possible," near the presidential palace when Castro I spoke to his wife. Sire, and there was it noted, "despite his alleged remark was making one of his marathon speeches. a nervous edge to her voice when she about killing Kennedy, that Oswald had The apartment was rented by the mother- told me her husband wasn't home. I said not yet contemplated the President's as- in-law of the principal plotter, Antonio I was working with Senator Schweiker sassination at the time of the Odic) in- Veciana. The plot failed: The bazooka and asked the best time to reach her hus- cident, or if he did, that his assassination never was fired, the potential killers were band. She said I should talk to her son plan bad no relation to his anti-Castro arrested, and Gonzalez was later picked Tony. A college student and the oldest contacts, and that he was associating up on the Odio estate. However, Ve- of Veciana's five children, Tony told me with anti-Castro activists for some other ciana, the organizer of the plot, escaped his father was in Atlanta. I asked when unrelated reason." to Miami, where he founded Alpha 66. he would return. Tony had a muffled The Committee did not speculate on which came to be one of the largest, conversation with his mother. "Well, that "other unrelated reason." That would best-financed, and most aggressive of he's in Atlanta and he won't be home 174 The l'huhiagronitueNovember1980

..1M1MATIMAV. :\ ''.•:,"IFM,r,a7M)x.• r4M1,,,MV,PMIMOS*VM IOVSMTS5M+1...WM`, for a while," he said. I asked if I could reach his father in Atlanta. Another muffled conversation with his mother. He asked why I wanted to talk with his father. I said I was a staff investigator for Sen- ator Schweiker and that Schweiker was II a member of the Church Intelligence Committee and that I wanted to learn the relationship between federal agencies and anti-Castro Cubans during the early The Secret Agent 1960s. There was another muffled conversation with his mother. "Well, you see." he said, "he's in Atlanta." The third time Tony told me his father was in Atlanta it struck me that there was a That morning thirteen years later the in- swer my questions, there was an initial federal penitentiary there. Was he trying congruity of it struck me as I approached defensiveness. "I will tell you what you a-a..to tell me his father was in prison? That, this cozy green home on a quiet street want to know," he said., "but I am wor- it turned out, was exactly what he was in Little Havana—to see the man who ried about certain things that Call be used trying to tell me. had been at the vortex of such interna- against me." He said he had gone to Tony would not tell me why his father tional turmoil. prison on a drug-conspiracy charge. He was in prison. "I think there are some He was now 46, but the only image said he would talk with me only if I people who want him in there," he said, I had of the man was from an old news- could assure him that anything he told "but I would rather you get the details paper clipping: much younger, the anti- me would not be used against him. from him." He said if I could identify Castro terrorist, his face contorted as he That puzzled me, but I assumed he myself officially he would write to his declared his defiance. was concerned about United States laws father and ask him to have me put on The man who opened the door ap- he may have broken during the course a-- the visitor list. peared as little like a menacing terrorist of his anti-Castro activity. 1 assured him A few days later 1 went to show Tony as one can imagine. He was a soft-look- our talk would be confidential and would my official identification. The Veciana ing man, fairly tall, with a smooth, full not be made public. I felt I could trust home was small and modest, with a green face, wavy black hair, and dark eyes. Schweiker to back me and keep that stucco facade. It was on a quiet street He was not at all muscular but had a promise. and be did. But I didn't realize on the northern edge of Miami's Little certain heft and a paunch. He was cas- then that anything sent to Washington Havana. In the front yard was a small, ually but neatly groomed, with pressed went into files and might be used for white statue of the Madonna and Child. dark trousers and a fresh white guaya- somebody's political ends. It would be another month before I bera—nondescript attire in Little Ha- I asked Veciana how he had gotten could talk with Antonio Veciana. Shortly vana. What struck me most when I first involved in anti-Castro activity. He said after he put me on the prison's visitor met Veciana—something particularly that as president of the association of list, he was told that he would be getting striking in Miami—was his pallor. It was certified public accountants in Cuba he an early parole, so I decided to wait until very much a prison pallor—something had been interested in politics. He had he came home. I was in no hurry. be- that comes from more than just not being been among the leaders of a group of cause I didn't think the interview was in the sun, something that has to do with professional association presidents who of pressing importance. the spirit. The prison was still in Ve- had secretly worked on Castro's behalf While I was waiting to see Veciana. ciana's eyes. during Batista's dictatorship. As a re- 1 tried to do what checking I could into We sat in the small front living room. sult, when Castro took over he was asked him and Alpha 66. There was not much There were two Spanish Provincial to join the government as a finance min- in the newspaper files about Veciana's couches, one red and one green, fitted ister. He turned down the offer, he said, early years, but I learned that he was an with clear plastic covers, large photo- because he had a good position in Cuba's accounting graduate of the University of graphs of each child adorning one wall, major bank, but he did know and worked Havana and that in his early twenties he a coffee table with a formal family por- closely with high-ranking officials in the had been considered the boy wonder of trait propped in the center, crocheted Castro government. Cuban banking and rose to become the doilies on the end tables. It was his knowledge of what was right-hand man of Cuban's major banker, As soon as I saw Veciana, I decided going on within the government, Ve- Julio Lobo. the millionaire known as the he could not have been one of Silvia clans said, that gave him an early in- "Sugar King" of Cuba. Veciana was 31 Odio's visitors, as Paul Hoch had spec- dication that Castro was not an idealistic when Castro took control of the country ulated in his Saturday Everting Port ar- reformer but a Communist. Veciana's in 1959. ticle. Veciana has a large and noticeable disillusionment grew, and soon be was Alpha 66 emerged early in 1962, with mole or birthmark above his mouth, too talking with close friends about working Veciana its founder and chief spokes- prominent to go unnoted by anyone trying against Castro. Then, he said, people man. It seemed to receive more press to identify him. When I asked Veciana came to him and started talking about attention than other militant exile groups about the Odio visitors, he said he knew eliminating Castro. because it appeared better organized, Amador and Silvia Odio but knew noth- For some reason, the way Veciana put better equipped, and more successful in ing about the incident. that made me think of the letter Paul its guerrilla operations. I told Veciana what I had told his Hoch had sent to Schweiker raising the Alpha 66 seemed to taunt President son—that I wanted to talk with him in possibility that the CIA may have been Kennedy. Not content to limit its as- general about the relationship of US in- involved in the planned bazooka attempt saults to Cuba and Castro's forces, it telligence agencies and and-Castro Cu- on Castro's life, which Veciana planned. attacked any foreign ships supplying ban groups. I said nothing of my interest I asked him if any of the people who Castro and conducted assassination raids in the Kennedy assassination and, be- spoke about eliminating Castro were rep- against Russian troops in Cuba. cause Schweiker had gotten relatively resentatives of the US government. Well, At the height of the missile crisis, little press in Miami compared to the said Veciana, that was something he had when Kennedy was conducting delicate headlines then being made by the Church never spoken about before, but there was negotiations with Khrushchev, Alpha 66 Committee, there was little reason for an American he had dealt with who had continued its raids into Cuba and assaults Veciana to assume I was working on very strong connections with the US on Castro's patrol boats. "We will attack Kennedy. government. again and again," Veciana vowed. Although Veciana said he would an- For the next hour and a half, I ques- Maember MO/ Mc. Kisishingtonian 175

ViVZMCs'M,'"'TtTlttisMV..tqt itvAW.t_ea'M:S!gkWS,kStdVgaSMX- EWa.ASeerAM..aei!eagWWetn.VVPSt*V'WFWSS 5,tit'W- et,'''F.,tikStltl honed Veciana about this American, who eventually became the secret supervisor and director of all Veciana's anti-Castro activities. He said the American, who went by the name of Maurice Bishop, directed not only the Castro assassination attempt in Cuba in October 1961 but also a plan to kill Castro in Chile in 1971. Bishop, said Veciana, was the person who suggested the founding of Alpha 66 and guided its overall strategy. Bishop was the person who pulled the strings in the US government when financial and other support was needed and who involved Veciana not only in anti-Castro activity but in anti-Communist activity i.A.latin America as well. Veciana said he worked with Bishop for thirteen years—until 1973. I realized I had stumbled onto something important a US intelligence-agency connection—a direct connection—with an anti-Castro group. The CIA had always denied—and still does—a super- visory role in the activities of anti-Castro groups after the Bay of Pigs. The Agency Alaimed it only "monitored" such activity. Here was Veciana, the key leader of the largest and most militant anti-Cas- tro group, revealing much more than just Cuban exile leader Antonio Veciana (left) with fellow anti-Castro leader a monitoring interest on the Agency's Cecilia J. Vazquez during the height of CIA-inspired commando raids part—revealing, in fact, an involvement against Cuba in the early 1960s. Veciana's report of seeing a CIA operative in two Castro-assassination attempts the named Maurice Bishop with Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas two months CIA had not admitted to the Church before the assassination was a major breakthrough in the investigation. Committee. I wondered how the Com- mittee would handle this one—if they said he had just read the article the day retary at the Banco Financiero in Havana gave a damn at all, now that they were before. handed him a business card from a man frantically trying to wrap up their final "No," he was saying, "I never saw waiting to see him. The name on the report. Oswald at that place where we hel& the card was Maurice Bishop. Veciana does It was all fascinating but not especially meetings . . ." not remember the name of the business relevant to the Kennedy assassination. I was jotting that down in my note- imprinted on the card but now believes I could see no connection between Ve- book and was not looking at him, but it may have been a construction firm ciana's activities in Miami and what had I heard him continue. headquartered in Belgium. Veciana's first happened in Dallas. although Veciana " . . . but I remember once meeting thought was that his caller was, a possible did say his meetings with Bishop took Lee Harvey Oswald." customer for his bank. place over the years in cities besides I did not look up, and tried not to The man who said he was Maurice Miami, including Dallas, Las Vegas, and react. "Oh, really?" I said in a forced Bishop did not lead Veciana to think Washington, and in Puerto Rico and Latin monotone. "Flow did you meet him? otherwise initially. Although he spoke America. When Veciana started talking Where? When?" excellent Spanish, Bishop said he was about chapters of Alpha 66 he had set Veciana said he met Oswald with an American and wanted to talk with up across the country. it gave me the Maurice Bishop in Dallas sometime near Veciana about the state of the Cuban opportunity, without making reference the beginning of September 1963. economy and where it appeared to be to the Kennedy assassination, to ask him There, in a modest green house in going. They talked awhile, and around about the one in Dallas. He told me he Little Havana. almost thirteen years after noon Bishop suggested they continue had spoken at some fund-raising meet- the assassination of John F. Kennedy, over lunch. Bishop took Veciana to an ings at the home of the Alpha 66 delegate the reality of what 1 was involved in expensive restaurant, the Floridita. once there. struck me. The killing of a President was one of Ernest Hemingway's favorites. I asked him if he knew a "Jorge Sal- no longer a series of lingering TV im- During their conversation at the res- azar." That was the name mentioned in ages, bold black headlines, thick stacks taurant, Veciana recalls. Bishop began the Dallas deputy sheriff's report about of documents, books and files. It was to express concern about the Cuban gov- the gathering of Alpha 66 members at something that had actually happened. ernment's leaning toward Communism "3126 Hollandale." But I did not men- and there were living people with direct and let it be known that he was aware tion this or that Lee Harvey Oswald had strings through time to that moment. As of Veciana's feelings toward Castro. That reportedly been seen there. much as the substance of the information surprised Veciana because he had told "No," said Veciana, "I do not know itself, it was the absolutely coincidental only a few close friends about his dis- the Salazar that is mentioned in the mag- way it came up that stunned me. First illusionment with Castro's government. azine article on Dallas. And I never saw impressions are inherently circumstan- (Among those he told, however, were Oswald at that home where we met." tial, but I had no doubt then—and have two who, it later became known, had I was taken aback that Veciana should none now—that Veciana was telling the direct contact with the CIA. One was his mention Oswald, but then I realized, as truth. boss, Julio Lobo, who later in exile was Veciana himself would point out to me The details are what make the case. designated to set up an "independent" after he went to his bedroom and re- front committee to raise $20 million for turned with the magazine, that the Hoch One morning in the late summer of the return of Bay of Pigs prisioners, and and O'Toole article had been published 1960—about a year and a half after Cas- the other was Rufo Ldpez-Fresquet, who, in the Saturday Evening Post. Veciana tro took power—Antonio Veciana's sec- for the first fourteen months of the ev- 176 The WishingtonsaniNaember 1980 gaR -vP. ...)0sYrtetvw.Ktt9te ^mwt;ysa ,, ,iFtkt atitt..k..tv.T.N.mtmenstm-swk"m.wvv tot,‘.MT . "W olution, was Castro's Minister of the rency and public distrust in its value. during a scheduled public appearance on Treasury and the CIA's liaison with the At Bishop's direction, Veciana began the balcony of the presidential palace in new government.) taking a more active role in the organized early October 1961. Veciana had his As their conversation continued, it underground movement. "Bishop al- mother-in-law rent an apartment on the became obvious to Veciana that Bishop ways wanted to be kept informed about eighth floor of a building within range knew a good deal about him personally. what was going on with the various of the balcony and then made arrange- It also became obvious that Bishop was groups," Veciana told me. With his su- ments for her escape to the US by boat not interested in Veciana's banking ser- pervisory training and technical exper- the day before the assassination attempt. vices but, rather, in recruiting him as a tise. Veciana soon became chief of sab- (He had flown his wife and children to participant in the growing movement otage for one of the largest underground Spain as a precaution as soon as he began against the Castro government. "He tried groups, the Movirnento Revolucionario plotting.) He then recruited the men to to impress on me the seriousness of the del Pueblo, which was formed by Man- do the actual shooting and obtained the situation." Veciana recalls. olo Ray and was the predecessor of JURE. weapons. (Availability of weapons was Veciana was ripe for recruitment. Like others in the underground move- not a major problem to the anti-Castro Through contacts high in government. ment, Veciana used "war names." One underground as a result of the supply air- he had come to the conclusion that Cas- he used frequently was "Carlos." dropped by the US prior to the Bay of tro, by moving toward tighter control Although Maurice Bishop refused to Pigs.) The apartment was stocked with ...t,lattri even Batista, had betrayed the rev- acknowledge to Veciana any connection automatic rifles, grenade. launchers, and olution- Veciana had come to despise a bazooka. A massive attack was planned him. He told Bishop that he was willing so that all the key Castro aides on the to work with him. Bishop offered to pay balcony would also be killed. him for his services. Veciana told him Although he was given Shortly before the scheduled attempt. that he did not need payment to fight Veciana learned that he was considered against Castro but they could settle ac- technical training in the suspicious by Castro's intelligence counts when the job was over, if Bishop use of explosives and agency, the 02. His cousin, Guillermo insisted. in the summer of 1960 Veciana Ruiz, a high-ranking G2 officer, asked did not think it would take long to topple sabotage, Veciana's him why he had been visiting the Amer- a.–Castro. ican Embassy. Veciana said it was only There were several more meetings. lessons dealt mainly to see about obtaining passports for some and Veciana and Bishop got to know friends. Ruiz said if that was the case. each other better. Finally. Bishop told with propaganda and he had been using the wrong entrance. Veciana that he would like him to take psychological warfare. Veciana took this as a warning that he a "training program" to prepare him for was still being watched. Bishop also told the work ahead. This turned out to be Veciana that Castro's intelligence agents a series of nightly lectures and instruc- suspected Veciana of subversive activity tion in the nondescript office of a build- with the US government, he was familiar and that he should consider leaving Cuba. ing that Veciana recalls as being on El with personnel in the American Embassy The assassination attempt never came Vedado, a commercial strip. He remem- in Havana. Before the embassy was closed off because the triggermen, fearing that bers seeing the name of a mining com- in January 1961, Bishop suggested that the G2 had learned of the plot, fled the pany in the building and, on the ground Veciana contact specific individuals there apartment. (The G2 did know that some- floor, a branch of the Berlitz school of to get direct assistance and supplies for thing was going to happen, but it was languages. the anti-Castro movement. Bishop. how- only later that it found the apartment and Although he was given technical train- ever, asked Veciana not to mention his seized the weapons.) The night before ing in the use of explosives and sabotage name or the fact that Veciana had been the planned attack, when Veciana was techniques, Veciana's lessons dealt sent by an American. Nor did Bishop to have put his mother-in-law aboard the mainly with propaganda and psycholog- indicate whether these individuals were escape boat, it was discoVered that the ical warfare. "Bishop told me several intelligence agents. landing site was under surveillance and times," Veciana recalls. "that psycho- One of the American Embassy per- the boat could not dock. Because his logical warfare could help more than sonnel Bishop suggested Veciana con- mother-in-law couldn't swim, Veciana hundreds of soldiers. thousands of sol- tact was a "Colonel Keil." Keil, who said later, he had to push her into the diers." Veciana was also trained in tech- was in the Army, told Veciana the US water and swim out to the boat with her. niques of counterintelligence, surveil- government could not directly support At that point, he decided that it was too lance, and communications. The thrust him in any way. But Kail said that he dangerous to return to shore and that he of his training was to make him profi- could assist with the issuance of pass- would go with her to Miami. cient not as a guerrilla operative but as ports and visas for plotters who wanted Shortly after Veciana arrived in Miami, a higher-echelon planner. As Veciana to escape. The American Embassy closed Maurice Bishop was back in touch with put it, "The main purpose was to train down shortly after Veciana last talked him. Soon they were meeting regularly me to be an organizer, so 1 was supposed with Kail. and planning strategy to continue the al to initiate a type of action and other peo- According to Veciana. Bishop left Cuba fight against Castro. The result was the ple would be the ones who would really before the Bay of Pigs invasion of April founding of Alpha 66—which, accord- carry it out." 1961. He says he had not met with Bishop ing to Veciana, was Bishop's brainchild. The training sessions lasted only a few for some months prior to the invasion. The name Was a collaboration: Alpha weeks. By that time Bishop and Veciana However, after the Bay of Pigs, Bishop was meant to symbolize the beginning were concocting schemes to undermine returned to Cuba (probably, Veciana of the end of Castro and 66 represented Castro's regime. With Veciana's con- learned, with a Belgian passport). Ve- the number of fellow accountants Ve- tacts in the Cuban government, several ciana recalls that he and Bishop had long ciana recruited at the start of his anti- plots were evolved to discredit key Com- discussions about what had happened Castro activities. munists and funnel the government's own during the invasion. He says Bishop told While Veciana established himself as money into the hands of anti-Castro him that Kennedy's failure to provide Alpha 66's chief executive officer and guerrillas. In one instance, Veciana suc- air support was the key to the failure of fund-raiser, he recruited as military leader cessfully schemed to get Castro's top the operation. Bishop felt a frustration a former Rebel Army officer, Major Eloy aide, Che Guevara. to sign a $200,000 about that because, according to Ve- Gutierrez Menoyo. A daring soldier, check, which, unknown to him, went to ciana, "at that time Bishop decided that Menoyo had the reputation among Cu- the underground. Veciana also set in the only thing left to be done was to ban exiles of being a Socialist. Veciana motion a propaganda program that re- make an attempt on Castro's life." says Bishop expressed some doubts about sulted in destabilization of Cuban cur- It was decided to have Castro killed his loyalty, but Veciana convinced Bishop November Wine Washingtonian 177 abawmatatvaimemtit he could be trusted. sumed that Bishop flew in for these contract was a space for a salary figure, With strong management, clever meetings because often Bishop would which was left blank. Veciana now be- propaganda, influence with the media, meet him in a rented car. Over the years, lieves the incident was a "commitment" skill in fund-raising, and expertise in meetings with Bishop took place also in ceremony. "It was a pledge of my loy- locating weapon caches and planning Washington, Las Vegas. and Dallas and, alty, a secret pledge," he says. "1 think military operations, Alpha 66 soon was during a period when Veciana had a job they wanted to impress on me my rein the forefront of the anti-Castro exile in South America, in Caracas, Lima, and sponsibility and my commitment to the groups. Veciana was all over the place, La Paz. cause." buying guns and boats, recruiting and During the most active period of Al- organizing training sites, making pha 66's operations, Veciana was con- Veciana had considered the possibility speeches, issuing public communiqués stantly on the move and, for security that Bishop worked for an intelligence claiming successful raids into Cuba. At reasons, not very visible. At that time, agency other than the CIA. Among the one point Veciana announced he had a Veciana told me, he made arrangements most active US organizations monitoring war chest of $100.000 and that all the whereby Bishop could find out where anti-Castro activity was Army Intelli- major exile organizations were backing he was at any moment. A third party, gence. Veciana recalls being contacted Alpha 66's efforts. Except for one minor someone Veciana trusted, was desig- in 1962, in Puerto Rico, by an American slip, which no one paid any attention to nated as the link. who called himself Patrick Harris. After at the time. Veciana gave not a hint to It took me three years to learn her several long conversations with him, 'A'l'pha 66 associates that there was an identity and location, but when I did, Veciana came to the conclusion that he American guiding his strategy. At a press the House Assassinations Committee did was in Army Intelligence. Harris told conference recorded in the New York not permit me to interview her. Even- Veciana that he might be able to provide Times on September 14. 1962, Veciana tually, a journalist did and confirmed some support for Veciana's anti-Castro announced a series of forthcoming Alpha what Veciana had said. activities but first wanted to inspect Al- 66 attacks and, in passing, added that pha 66's operational base in the Baha- the planning was being done by those Shortly after Veciana left Cuba, he had mas. Veciana came to trust Harris and "I don't even know." a revealing meeting with Maurice Bishop. provided him and several associates a According to Veciana, the headaches They met on a downtown Miami street tour of the base, over military chief that Alpha 66 created for President Ken- corner. Bishop spoke about how the fight Menoyo's objections. Harris never came '"iiedy before and during the Cuban mis- through with any aid. "I told Bishop sile crisis were planned by Maurice about that," Veciana now says, "and Bishop. The timing of the raids on Cuba he told me not to bother with them, that at the height of the missile crisis, when The arrangement they they could not help me. He was right." Kennedy was negotiating with Khrush- had for meetings was In 1968 Maurice Bishop helped Ve- chev, was Bishop's idea. So was a press ciana get a job with the US Agency for conference in Washington after the crisis right out of a covert- International Development (AID) in La when Veciana announced that Alpha 66 Paz, Bolivia. as an adviser to Bolivia's had just attacked a Russian ship in a operations manual. Central Bank. The job paid well, and his Cuban harbor and engaged in a firelight Every meeting was checks came directly from the Treasury with Russian troops. The conference was Department in Washington. "I was very planned at the time Kennedy was in Costa instigated by Bishop. He surprised I was hired, because I was a Rica trying to gain support for his new known terrorist," Veciana says today. Cuban policy. "The purpose was to em- would call Veciana and "The State Department, which hired me, barrass Kennedy publicly and force him once ordered me confined to Dade County to move against Castro," Veciana now set the time and place— because of my anti-Castro activity. Then admits. on a corner or in a in La Paz they put my office in the Although Maurice Bishop often sug- American Embassy. For sure. Bishop gested specific tactical moves, he was park—and they would had very good connections." more concerned with the overall strategy Veciana worked for AID for four years, of Alpha 66 and Veciana's anti-Castro walk and talk. receiving more than $31,000 a year to activity. He was not in constant contact provide advice to Bolivia's banking in- with Veciana. In fact. Veciana never saw dustry. (It has since been learned that him more than a dozen or so times in against Castro might be more difficult the CIA has used AID as a front in other any one year. and last longer than they had envisioned, instances, once getting one of its own The understanding between them— how he and Veciana would have to work proprietary companies a multimillion- arrived at early in their relationship- together closely. and how they must de- dollar AID contract to train Thailand's - and the arrangement they had for meet- velop mutual trust and loyalty. Veciana border police.) Veciana says he did very ings were right out of a covert-operations agreed. Would Veciana, Bishop asked, little financial advising during the four manual. Although an unspoken trust be willing to sign a contract to that ef- years. Instead, he spent almost all his developed, there was no true personal fect? Of course, said Veciana. Bishop time in anti-Castro and anti-Communist relationship between Bishop and Ve- then led .Veciana to the Pan American activities directed by Bishop. ciana: no matters were discussed that did Bank Building, a five-story office struc- Bishop was interested in more than not bear upon their mutual anti-Castro ture in the heart of Miami's business assassinating Castro. With Bishop's mission. district. Veciana recalls that they took blessing and financial support, Veciana Every meeting was instigated by an elevator and that Bishop had the key traveled around Latin America, involv- Bishop. Bishop would call and set the to an unmarked office door. The office ing himself in propaganda ploys aimed time and place. Usually it was in a public was spartanly furnished with a desk and at the character assassination of leading place, on a comer or in a park, and they a few chairs, and an American flag stood Communist politicians and weakening would walk and talk. Veciana remem- in one corner. the financial stability of left-leaning gov- bers meetings in Havana. however, that There was no one in the office when ernments. (Once, when I was question- took place at a country club and, once, Bishop and Veciana entered. Bishop went ing Veciana about Bishop's apparent in- in an apartment across the street from through another door and returned with competence based on the latter's failures the American Embassy. Later, if Ve- two men and some documents, which to assassinate Castro, Veciana simply ciana was in another city. Bishop would he asked Veciana to read and sign. Ve- smiled and said, "No, we did not kill come to his hotel. The majority of his ciana believes the documents he signed Castro, but there were many other plans. meetings with Bishop over the years were were contracts and loyalty oaths. He was many other plots that did work." He in Miami and Puerto Rico. Veciana as- not given copies. He recalls that in the would not elaborate.) 178 The MnishingrortianiNovember 1980

:PaMi§1W•sgss,""'a,str International Telephone & Telegraph. a photograph showing what appeared to At one point the CIA set up a secret task be one of the gunmen leaning into a car force to work with Chilean military brass window and talking with one of the Rus- A who opposed Allende. The chief of the sian agents. Actually. the photo was of task force was David Atlee Phillips. another Cuban who resembled the gunman. Without being told the reason for The attempt to assassinate Castro in Chile it, this Cuban had been instructed to stop failed because at the last moment the two the Russian agent's car as he left his gunmen decided they would never get home in the morning, lean in. and ask out of the conference room alive; they him for a match. A telephoto shot was did not believe that Veciana had made taken of this encounter. arrangements for their capture. Veciana More than two years after failure of could not tell them of Bishop or how the the plot to assassinate Castro. Maurice arrangements had been made. Bishop learned of the subplot. He was Other anti-Castro Cubans whom Ve- furious, Veciana says. He accused Ve- ciana had recruited in Caracas as part of ciana of taking part in the planning of the assassination plot had also not be- it or, at the very least, knowing about lieved that Veciana had arranged an es- it and keeping it a secret,. from him. Ve- 7, cape for the shooters and had developed ciana insisted then, as he does now, that a subplot, without Veciana's knowl- he had been unaware of the secondary edge. The subplot was based on the as- scheme. He says Bishop later said that sumption that the gunmen would them- he believed Veciana but that in any fu- selves be killed immediately after ture operations the scar of his early sus- assassinating Castro. When the exist- picion would linger. Considering the type Salvador Allende, Marxist President ence of this subplot carne to light. Ve- of operations in which they were in- of Chile, was overthrown by a secret ciana says, it produced the crack that volved, Bishop said, a relationship that task force from the CIA headed by eventually led to the end of his relation- was less than totally trustworthy would J.—David Atlee Phillips. ship with Maurice Bishop, in 1973. be no good. He suggested that they sever Among the associates Veciana says Early in 1971 Bishop told Veciana that he recruited in Caracas were two vet- Castro would probably be making a state erans of the war against Castro—Lucilo visit to Chile late that year. He suggested Pena and Luis Posada. Both have back- The overthrow of that Veciana begin planning another as- grounds as men of action. sassination attempt. "He told me." Ve- Pena, the general director of a major Salvador Allende was ciana says. "that it was an opportunity chemical firm, had once been involved supported and largely to make it appear that anti-Castro Cubans in Alpha 66's "Plan Omega," a plot to killed Castro without US involvement." invade Cuba from a base in the Domin- financed by the CIA and Veciana set up his planning head- ican Republic. When I interviewed Po- quarters in Caracas, where the Vene- sada in 1978, he was in jail in Caracas— several American zuelan bureaucracy is deeply infiltrated having been arrested, with a well:known multinational by both anti-Castro Cubans and the CIA exile terrorist, Dr. Orlando Bosch, for and where Veciana knew an experienced blowing up a Cubana Airlines plane and corporations, chiefly group of terrorists. Among them were killing 73 persons, including many Rus- two gunmen willing to do the killing. sians. He was a veteran of the Bay of International Telephone Pigs, a member of JURE, a former lieu- u; On its surface, the plan was relatively & Telegraph. simple. It had become known that to- tenant in the US Army (where he was ward the end of his visit to Chile. Castro trained in intelligence), a former agent would hold a press conference attended for the CIA, and, until his arrest, the by as many as 400 journalists. Press cre- owner of a successful private-detective their relationship. dentials for the two gunmen would be agency in Caracas. In 1971, when Ve- At the time, Veciana was insisting on obtained from a Venezuelan TV station clans was working with him, he was further terrorist action—he may already and, although there would be tight se- chief of security and counterintelligence have instituted some himself—and call- curity, their weapons would be smug- in the Venezuelan secret police. ing for more dangerous assassination gled into the conference room inside a According to Veciana, It was Pena attempts. Perhaps Bishop feared that television camera. and Posada who provided the necessary Veciana was getting out of hand. Then, Maurice Bishop had a major role in credentials and documents that enabled in December 1973, Veciana was sent to '41t'41‘ setting up the operation, according to the two gunmen to establish false iden- prison, and at the time Veciana believed Veciana: Bishop•provided the weapons tities and get into place in Chile in 1971. that Bishop had had something to do and made arrangements with officers in What they also did—without telling him, with it. the Chilean military—which would be says Veciana—was plant phony docu- At the time of my first interview with providing Castro security at the confer- ments so that the trail of the two men Veciana, he had just spent 27 months ence—for the assassins to be grabbed who were going to assassinate Castro in a federal prison on a charge of con- after killing Castro and arrested by Chil- would lead, if they were caught and killed, spiracy to import narcotics. He was con- ean soldiers before the Cuban premier's to Russian agents in Caracas. victed in a New York federal court. largely bodyguards could kill them. According Lengthy false surveillance reports were on the testimony of a former partner with to Veciana. Bishop said he would ar- slipped into the files of the Venezuelan whom he had been in the sporting-goods range the assassins' escape from Chile secret police, indicating that the Cubans business in Puerto Rico, The former later. had been seen meeting Russian agents, partner, arrested with ten kilos of co- At that time the head of the Chilean one of whom was a correspondent for caine, implicated Veciana. In doing so, government was leftist President Sal- lzvestia and another a professor at the he avoided a long jail term himself. He vador Allende. Two years later, in Sep- University of Central Venezuela. Also was the only witness against Veciana, tember 1973. Allende would be over- in the file were manufactured passports, who maintains his innocence. thrown in a coup d'etat. The overthrow diaries, and notes allegedly found in one There is no indication from any source, of Allende was supported and largely gunman's hotel room, confirming his including the confidential records of sev- financed by the CIA and several Amer- contact with Russian agents. Intended eral law-enforcement agencies, that Ve- ican multinational corporations, chiefly to be the most damaging evidence was ciana had any association with narcotics November 1980tThe Viathingtornan 179

.70.nt.kO•Ov7.'SF;Mt,i•NX.A.,\"^.."AMa-,, St`MtvISSMStiaMM.‘MT•SE.71.•FAS. ':44-:•P -A‘kzoSAM•StSTA. prior to his arrest. In the bitterly com- petitive world of Cuban exile politics, Veciana's reputation is unspotted. At the time of the first interview, Veciana was defensive in his attitude and somewhat confused. He hinted that what had happened to him was' directly connected with his relationship with Maur- ice Bishop. He suggested the possibility that his final disagreements with him might have caused Bishop to take steps to put him out of action. That's why, he said, he wanted to find Bishop and confront him with that possibility. Then he would know. Over the months following that interview I watched Veciana change. Soon the tentativeness, the cautious wariness, 'tre'prison gray in his eyes began to fade as he resumed his patriarchal confidence, began moving in his old circles, and got back into anti-Castro activity. As he did, his feeling about Bishop's involvement in his going to prison began to change. One day he told me he was sure he had been set up by Castro's agents. He still wanted to find Bishop, he said, ,Itut- now for a different reason: Bishop could again be of some help to him. When Bishop told Veciana he would Lee Harvey Oswald was flamboyantly conspicuous in New Orleans during like to sever their relationship, he also the summer of 1963, advocating a pro-Castro stance for the US through his said he thought that Veciana deserved "Fair Play for Cuba Committee." compensation for working with him through the years. Because Veciana had ning on television newscasts. On August ployment documents. Of the seventeen initially rejected the idea of being paid 25, Oswald had a radio debate with Brin- firms where he reported he had applied to fight Castro, Bishop had only pro- guier arranged by New Orleans broad- for work, thirteen denied it and four did vided him with expense money. Now caster William Stuckey, a self-styled not exist. Even if one trusts such records. Bishop insisted that Veciana be com- "Latin-American-affairs expert." De- there is one span of time, between Sep- pensated for the thirteen years he had spite the fact that Oswald seemingly went tember 6 and September 9, when his worked with him. out of his way to court such public at- whereabouts are not known. It was July 26. 1973. Veciana recalls tention as a Castro supporter, as soon commenting to his wife that day on the as he got it he immediately dropped. out Initially. Antonio Veciana recalled that irony of the date and its association with of sight. Between August 25 and Sep- it was late in August or early September Castro's own movement. Bishop had tember 17. there is no validated indi- of 1963 when Bishop asked to meet him called and asked Veciana to meet him cation of Oswald's whereabouts. in Dallas. Later, after reflection, he said in the parking lot of the Flagler Dog Aside from a visit to the home of his it was probably in early September, per- Track. not far from Veciana's home. The aunt and uncle on Labor Day, Marina haps towards the end of the first week parking lot was crowded. Veciana spot- Oswald said her husband spent this time of the month. ted Bishop waiting in a car at the des- reading books and practicing with his It was not the first time that Bishop ignated spot. Bishop got out of the car rifle. Through the years, Marina Os- had asked Veciana to meet him in Dallas. with a briefcase. With him were two wald's testimony has been inconsistent. He had met him there a number of times clean-cut young men in dark suits. The contradictory, and sometimes false. The previously. Partially because of that, men stood out of earshot while Bishop House Assassinations Committee found Veciana had come to suspect that Bishop and Veciana spoke. Bishop said that he several credible witnesses who saw Os- was from Dallas or had family there. regretted that their relationship had to wald during this period in Clinton. Lou- Moreover, he recalled the time in Ha- end but that it would be best for both isiana, about 130 miles from New Or- vana when Bishop sent him to talk to a of them in the long run. He shook Ve- leans, during a black voter-registration Colonel Sam Kail at the American Em- ciana's hand and wished him luck. Then drive. With him were David Ferrie, who bassy. The last time Veciana saw Kail he handed him the briefcase. In it, he had been involved in anti-Castro activ- was prior to Christmas in 1960, when said, was the compensation that was due ity, and New Orleans businessman Clay Kail said he would consider Veciana's Veciana. When Veciana got home he Shaw, who had intelligence-agency con- request for support but would like to opened the briefcase. It was filled with nections. The Committee could not de- discuss it further with him when he re- cash. Exactly $253,000. says Veciana. termine what Oswald had been doing in turned from his Christmas leave. Kail That, says Veciana, was the last time Clinton, but there was no doubt he had told Veciana he was going home to Dal- he saw or spoke with Maurice Bishop. been there. las for Christmas. When Veciana re- The Warren Commission had found ported back to Bishop. he got the impres- It is not generally known but there is a records that it said accounted for some sion that Bishop knew Kail. or at least period of Lee Harvey Oswald's stay in of Oswald's activity during this period his background. and that they had some- New Orleans that is largely undocu- of late August and September. None of thing in common. In my very first in- mented. On August 9. 1963, Oswald these records could be later authenticated terview with Veciana, he said. "I think was arrested after distributing pro-Castro and some were discovered to be false. that maybe Bishop is from Texas." leaflets and scuffling with anti-Castro He reportedly visited the unemployment The meeting that Veciana recalls with activist Carlos Bringuier. On August 16, office. cashed some unemployment Bishop early in September of 1963 took Oswald was seen again, passing out leaf- checks. and withdrew a number of li- place in the busy lobby of a large down- lets in front of the New Orleans Trade brary books. The FBI could not authen- town office building. From Veciana's Mart; his activity was shown that eve- ticate Oswald's signature on the unem- description of its distinctive blue-tile fa- 180 The NtishingronlaniNovember 1980 3. ,

cade, it probably was the Southland Cen- ter. a 42-story office complex. Veciana says that when he arrived, he saw Bishop in a corner of the lobby talking with a THE young man whom Veciana remembers as pale, slight, and soft-featured. He does not recall if Bishop introduced him by WIZARD OF name but does recall that Bishop continued his conversation with the young man only briefly after Veciana arrived. AHHHS. Together Bishop and the young man walked out of the lobby and stopped Enter the world of Benlhona. Then the main course: outside, behind Veciana, for a moment. Feel the warmth of rhe Your choice of entrees. Like Bishop and the young man had a few graceful oriental decor rhe soft, tender boneless breasts of words there, and then the latter gestured relaxing samisen music. And. chicken. Specially selected a farewell and walked away. Bishop then ger ready for on oriental steaks. Plump lobster. Plus mosrerpiece. Ahhh. turned to Veciana and they discussed the fresh bean sprouts. Suddenly your chef >-...current activities of Alpha 66 as they Mushrooms. Zucchini. appears and rhe feast And onions. Sliced and walked to a nearby coffee shop. Bishop begins Prepared on o never spoke to Veciana about the young diced into slender mouth- hibachi grill right before watering slivers. And rice. man, and Veciana didn't ask. a. your eyes. And piping hot green On the day that Kennedy was assas- For openers. there's rea Ahhh. sinated, Veciana recognized the news onion soup, Japanese Its o complete dinner- photographs and television images of Lee style. Next, crisp, green -t all included in a mag- Harvey Oswald as that of the young man salad. Sizzling. succulent ical experience you'll he had seen with Maurice Bishop in shrimp. Ahhh. never forger. Ahhh. Dallas; there was no doubt in his mind. When I asked him if the man could have been someone who resembled Oswald. Veciana said: "Well, you know, Bishop BEnmonn of TOKYO (-3 himself taught me how to remember faces. HIBACHI STEAK HOUSE how to remember characteristics. I am 7315 Wisconsin Ave.. Bethesda. (Air Rights Building) 652-5391 Free Parking. Phone for information on group functions. On the day that Kennedy was assassinated, Veciana recognized the news photographs of Lee Harvey Oswald as the gift8 far* young man he had seen r,„ with Maurice Bishop the `Discerning nioker9 in Dallas. Purveyors of the world's finest tobaccos, pipes, cigars and lighters, with an experienced sure it was Oswald. If it wasn't Oswald, it was someone who looked exactly like staff to help you select the right gift. Three him. Exacta. exacta." convenient locations to serve you. To anyone unfamiliar with the relationships among those who work in intelligence. government security, or some areas of law enforcement, it would seem incredible that Veciana did not ask or even mention Oswald to Bishop after the Kennedy assassination. Yet to those familiar with such relationships, it would Main Store and Catalog sales: seem peculiar if he had. One of the car- (202) 338-5100 dinal principles of security operations 3144 M St. N.W. is that information is passed on or sought Washington, D.C. 20007 after only on a "need-to-know" basis. Many employees at Langley who have Other locations known each other for years, go to lunch together daily, and have become close Tysons Corner personal friends may not know what the Center other actually does there—and would McLean, VA never ask. That's the way it is. Veciana 893-3366 did not ask Bishop about Oswald. V‘'.:!;41 '1 was not going to make the mistake Montgomery Mall of getting myself involved in something Bethesda, MD • 469-6161 that did not concern me," he says. He

November 1980/The Washingtonian 181

%M....'-utatTAMA:51,MX‘1,4)ftAlitA ilEtiit .-m•kviii,,sm;."Amvssws&-tewortmit.•. sti..),F,4 recalls, however, feeling very uneasy at and his wife who had met with Oswald. the time. "That was a very difficult sit- Veciana took it as a ploy that might For your child's uation because 1 was afraid." work because, as he puts it, "Ruiz was successful summer What increased Veciana's fear of his someone who always liked money." possibly becoming involved in the Ken- Bishop, he says, did not specify how nedy assassination was a visit to his home much Ruiz should be offered, only that Camp by Cesar Diosdato within a few days of it should be "a huge amount." Veciana, the murder, Diosdato ostensibly worked however, was never able to present the for the US Customs Service in Key West. offer to his cousin because Ruiz had been New He was a well-known figure among the transferred back to Havana and Veciana anti-Castro activists in Miami because, could not find a safe way to contact him. Hori technically, it was in the Custom's Ser- A couple of months later, when he men- vice jurisdiction to prevent violations of p(7). Box 461 / Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004 the Neutrality Act, which occurred every (215) 549-5005 time an anti-Castro raiding party took off from Miami or the Keys. With a Bishop asked Veciana to radio-equipped patrol car, the pistol- packing Diosdato, a beefy, mustachioed try to get in touch with Mexican-American, roamed the Keys like The camp for a traffic cop, monitoring the launching Ruiz and offer him a socially & emotionally sites of the exile raiding groups. He didn't large amount of money to youngsters stop them all, and the word among anti- maladjusted Castro raiders active during JMAVAVE's say that it was he and his Cut secret war was that no group could launch an attack from the Florida Keys without wife who had met permission from Diosdato. "He gave us with Oswald. the green light, " one former group leader told me. "Without word from him, we • 145 scenic. Pocono acres, convenient couldn't go." As a result, most of the to N.Y.. Phila.. Wash, D.C. Cubans thought Diosdato was really tioned his difficulties to Bishop. Veciana working for the CIA. says that Bishop told him to forget it. • Expert staff, trained to encourage Veciana did. That's why he was ap- "He told me it was no longer neces- positive living experiences prehensive when Diosdato asked him if sary," Veciana recalls. That was the last he knew anything about the Kennedy reference he and Bishop ever made to • Two 4-week sessions / One 3-week assassination or Lee Harvey Oswald. the Kennedy assassination, session / Ages 6 to 17 Veciana says he recognized him because he had frequently gone to Key West to In May 1964, John A. McCone, then get clearance from Diosdato. It was not director of the Central Intelligence an "official" visit, Diosdato now told Agency, provided an affidavit to the Veciana. "He said he had been in- Warren Commission in which he swore structed to ask a few of the exiles if they that, based on his personal knowledge Great names Apt knew anything, that's all," Veciana re- and on "detailed inquiries he caused to calls. be made" within the CIA, Lee Harvey together for the Veciana did not ask himself why a US Oswald was not an agent, employee, or Customs agent would be investigating informant of the CIA. In .addition, the Kennedy assassination among Miami McCone swore: "Lee Harvey Oswald Cubans and come from Key West to do was never associated or connected, di- NOL IDA it. It crossed Veciana's mind that he was rectly or indirectly, in any way what- being tested. In any event, he decided soever with the Agency." he was not going to tell Diosdato any- On March 12, 1964, Richard Helms, thing. then deputy director for plans (DDP) of Several weeks later Bishop called the CIA, met with Warren Commission Veciana to arrange a meeting in Miami. General Counsel J. Lee Rankin. Helms At that meeting Bishop never mentioned was in charge of the Agency's covert Oswald or the encounter in Dallas. They operations. The minutes of that meeting did speak about the Kennedy assassi- show that Helms told Rankin that "the nation, but their discussion was confined Commission would have to take his word to the event's impact on the world and for the fact that Oswald had not been an ROLEX on their anti-Castro activities. Bishop, agent" of the CIA. PRESIDENT says Veciana, appeared saddened by the More than ten years later, in Novem- DAY DATE assassination. Yet he said something that ber 1975, the Senate Select Committee WOO on Intelligence issued a report which laK Taw. Geld suggested a strange sort of involvement. Others Irmo $1365 The way Veciana recalls it is this: At concluded that Helms had deliberately the time, newspapers were carrying sto- kept secret from his boss, McCone, the ries about Oswald's having met with a existence of certain covert operations. Cuban couple in Mexico City. Veciana In that light, the implications of what recalls that the stories reported that the Antonio Veciana revealed on March 2, wife spoke excellent English. Bishop said 1976, had historic relevance: That an L he knew Veciana had a cousin, Guil- individual—Maurice Bishop—appar- lermo Ruiz, who was in Castro's intel- ently associated with the CIA. was in UTICUJ ligence service and was stationed in contact with Lee Harvey Oswald prior Mexico City. Ruiz's wife spoke excel- to the assassination of President Ken- 1250 WISCONSIN AVE, lent English. Bishop asked Veciana if nedy. And that this CIA operative was (Georgetown) Washington, D.C. he would attempt to get in touch with involved in Castro-assassination at- [202) 338-0172 Ruiz and offer him a large amount of tempts in which, for some reason, the money if Ruiz would say that it was he Agency was not admitting participation. 182 The WashingtonianfAloyember 1980

tsswasvFee,tt6SsratiLvttMSSVC-MtNak.MSXftl , iz,,tsPM.%tg.SM.:'kretZKNZr.gtMVZ..W■PlkM.tM,Va'.S 9'MSZIM 401 In Search of Maurice Bishop

The discovery of Antonio Veciana could sinate Castro in Cuba and again in Chile in his own subcommittee's report. The not have come at a worse time for Sen- was not confronted. Veciana was not report revealed that the Warren Com- .,gtor Church and the Committee staff. asked about them. mission had not been told of the Castro Church had told the staff, which had To my frustration and that of his other assassination plots by the CIA, and sug- already gone beyond its deadline more staff members, Schweiker was scrupu- gested that it was possible that Castro than once, it was getting its absolutely lous about keeping from us the details killed Kennedy in retaliation for those final extension, another month to finish of the Committee's work. Nevertheless plots. The Veciana lead ran counter to up the Schweiker report. Church was I could deduce what the Committee's the Castro-retaliation theory. Rather, it anxious to get into the 1976 presidential efforts to follow up the Veciana testi- linked Oswald to US intelligence. sweepstakes. The Church Committee had mony were producing. What I considered a factor in judging gotten attention with its reports on as- For instance, the CIA told the Com- Veciana's credibility was his own feel- sassination plots against foreign leaders mittee it had no employee named Maur- ings about the Kennedy assassination. , and illegal intelligence-agency snoop- ice Bishop and no record of any agent I had spoken to a number of anti-Castro ing, and now he had other priorities. ever using that alias. I also deduced, exile leaders, most still dedicated and Senator Schweiker had recognized the from a discussion with an Army Intel- many fanatically determined to get rid significance of Veciana's story both in ligence "asset" I had been sent to in- of the Cuban dictator. None, I have come relation to the Kennedy assassination and, terview in New Orleans, that the CIA to believe, were more deeply committed as Paul Hoch had suggested, to whether told the Committee that Veciana and than Veciana. Yet almost to a man these or not the CIA had been honest with the Alpha 66 had been monitored not by the exile leaders touted the same theory about Committee about all its Castro plots. Agency but by Army Intelligence. I the Kennedy assassination: Castro did Schweiker thought the new information thought this was a misdirection. I pointed it. They knew little of the evidence or was explosive enough to reopen hear- out that Veciana had been aware of his the facts: they knew only that Castro did ings. On that, he ran into a stone wall contacts with Army Intelligence, that they it. with both Church and the staff leaders. covered only a limited period of his anti- Except Veciana. Down through the Schweiker was upset. In a letter to Castro activities, and that they were dis- years, I have discussed various theories subcommittee co-chairman Gary Hart, tinct from his relationship with Maurice about the Kennedy assassination with but obviously directed at Church, Bishop. After the CIA denied an interest him and he has been consistent in his Schweiker wrote: "I feel strongly Ve- in Veciana, the Committee pursued the reaction: "I don't think Castro did it," ciana should be called to testify under Army Intelligence angle until the end. he says. "I know Castro. He is crazy. oath, to evaluate his credibility, create Schweiker could see what was hap- Once, when he was down to his last •45 an official record of his allegations, and pening. It became apparent that if we twelve men in the mountains, he said, examine them. . . . I recognize that this left it to the Committee to pursue the 'Now there is no way we can loser He involves some difficulty at this stage of Veciana lead it would die. Dave is crazy, but he did not kill Kennedy. our proceeding, but in view of Veciana's Newhall, Schweiker's administrative That would have been much too crazy. direct link to intelligence-community assistant and a former investigative re- I think it was a plan, sure." By "a plan" activities subject to the Select Commit- porter himself, called me. "We just don't Veciana means a conspiracy. tee's jursidiction, I do not believe we seem to be able to get through to the can responsibly refuse to evaluate his Committee staff about the significance The office of a US senator carries, in allegations.• • of this," he said. "They're good Wall itself, a certain amount of clout. But a That put the Committee on the spot. Street-type lawyers but they don't have senator does not have subpoena power, I called Dave Marston in Schweiker's street smarts and they don't have enough a punitive force, or the right to demand office to ask him what was going to hap- background in this case. Besides, most answers from anyone. Nevertheless, in pen. "Well. I think they'll do some- of them are packing their bags and look- terms of substantive investigation re- thing," he said. "I think what they'll ing around for other jobs by now. I think sults, Schweiker's staff would accom- do is screw it up. I think they'll go the we'd better start moving on our own." plish more in the Veciana area in a few most direct way—that is, make an of- It was the first indication I had that months than the House Assassinations ficial inquiry. So then there will be an Schweiker was willing to pursue the Committee would in two years. official inquiry and if there is anything Kennedy-assassination investigation be- The question from the beginning: Was there, it'll be gone." yond the life of the Select Committee Veciana telling the truth? There were That's what the Committee staff did. and his own subcommittee. To his credit parts of his story that would be difficult, I was asked to bring Veciana to Wash- and against the grain of senatorial pro- if not impossible. to corroborate. There ington, where he was swam in at a closed tocol, Schweiker chased the Veciana lead were many other parts that could be eas- hearing and questioned by a staff attor- for months beyond his subcommittee's ily checked. Confirmation of these would ney for less than an hour. Only the barest demise and even beyond the issuance of be an indication of his credibility. details of his story got on the record. A its final report. It was only after Reagan His background checked out, as did transcript of the hearing would go into strategists lured him into a sacrificial role his professional standing and his posi- restricted-security files. Not a word about as a vice-presidential candidate that he tion in the Havana banking system. An it would be mentioned in any of the In- decided to drop it. official Cuban government newspaper telligence Committee's reports. The Also to Schweiker's credit in pursuing detailed his role in the 1961 Castro as- question of whether the CIA was in- the Veciana lead was the fact that it di- sassination attempt and confirmed the volved in Veciana's attempts to assas- rectly contradicted the thesis being pushed details as Veciana had reported. His November 1980(The Washingtonian i83

. „ n,. sm'i,"...;sAs6M11ftwa•WesgtASSSWV.Msamtms4,iss4-wissvmttgat.1wwfsmswawastsztsktesammtrostgw,.. F.tszstS.. founding of Alpha 66 and his anti-Castro activities were part of the records from that period. There were a few pieces of special significance. One of the points that Ve- ciana himself made about the influence of Maurice Bishop and his obvious connection with the US government was the fact that Bishop had gotten him a position with the US Agency for Interna- tional Development despite Veciana's documented record as an anti-Castro terrorist. During this time, the Bishop plan to assassinate Castro in Chile was developed in Caracas. Schweiker asked the US State Department to check its files. The State Department wired its confir- piAlion from La Paz: Veciana did work as a "commercial banking expert" for Bolivia's Central Bank, the telegram reported. His contracts were financed by AID. They were for the salary and for the time period Veciana said they were. During this period he claimed a legal residence in Caracas. The State Department telegram also contained, in passing. an unusual reve- Richard Schwelker's aide David Marston, later a controversial appointee of lation. Veciana's application for federal Jimmy Carter to be US attorney for Philadelphia, predicted what the employment, it noted, had an unexplain- Church Committee would do with Antonio Veciana's startling testimony: able omission: It was unsigned. "They'll screw it up." There were many other aspects of Veciana's story that, as I checked into Castro took over. I asked Bethel if he description Veciana had given. Sorry he them, added to his credibility. For in- recalled a fellow named Kail at the couldn't be of any help, said Kail. stance, a confidential source, a veteran American Embassy. "Sure," said Be- of the US Customs office in Miami, told thel. "I knew Sam well. Military at- During the remaining months of Schwei- me that Cesar Diosdado, the Customs tache. I believe he's retired now, prob- ker's investigation, I showed Veciana agent who had questioned Veciana briefly ably back home in Dallas." more than a dozen photographs of people about the Kennedy assassination, was Sam Kail was listed in the Dallas tele- who came close to fitting his description indeed working for the CIA in Key West, phone directory. When I told Veciana of Maurice Bishop. Some were sent by as Veciana had suspected. Customs was I had found him, Veciana said, "You the staff of the Select Committee and, reportedly reimbursed for his salary by know. I would like to call him. Perhaps I assumed, were mostly Army Intelli- the CIA. This was confirmed by another he remembers Bishop." He suggested gence operatives. Most of the ones I dug source, who was close to the former head I listen to the call. "Do you remember up were people who, at some point or of the local Customs office. (Diosdado me?" Veciana asked Kail after he had other—and usually at not more than one is now with the Drug Enforcement introduced himself. Kail seemed hesitant point—had been in the right place at the Administration in California.) and cautious. "Well, I'm not sure, he right time and had some association with Another key factor in Veciana's story said. the CIA or Oswald or investigations of is his statement that he was given "Remember," coaxed Veciana, "the the Kennedy assassination. $253,000 in cash by Bishop at the ter- last time I saw you, in December 1960, Part of the problem initially was that mination of their relationship. When I you were going home for Christmas." it was hard to get from Veciana a handle asked if he could prove he had the money Kail said, "Yes. I did come home that on Bishop's physical characteristics. or what he did with it, he said that he Christmas.'' Veciana had known and been in contact could show how he disbursed it through ""Then you remember me?" with Bishop over a period of thirteen several channels but that Senator No, Kail said, he couldn't remember. years. The man had obviously changed Schweiker would first have to guarantee "At any rate," Veciana went on, and Veciana's current mental image of him immunity from action by the Inter- "I am trying to find a friend, the Amer- him was an amalgam of those changes. nal Revenue Service. Schweiker could ican who sent me to you. He was a big It had occurred to me in listening to not do that. As a result, when Veciana's help to me in fighting Castro. Now I Veciana describe Bishop as he appeared sworn testimony was taken before the need to find him. Do you remember at the many meetings through the years Senate Select Committee, at Veciana's Maurice Bishop?" that perhaps Bishop used small dis- request that area of questioning was Kail was silent for a moment. guises, which changed his appearance omitted. (He would later also refuse to "Bishop?" he asked. More silence. only slightly but were enough to raise show the House Assassinations Com- "Bishop," he said again. Finally, Kail doubts about his identity in the mind of mittee proof of his disbursement of the said that off the top of his head he didn't anyone who happened to see him with money without being given immunity recall the name, but he would like to Veciana. from IRS action.) give it more thought. He said he would Although Veciana's general descrip- Another point I thought could be read- think about it for a day or two and then tion of Bishop may appear to have been ily checked was the existence of specific call Veciana back. a bit blurred. he did provide discrimi- individuals at the American Embassy in Kail never called Veciana. A couple nating details that made Bishop a spe- Havana—the individuals Bishop had sent of weeks later I suggested to Veciana cific character. He said, for instance, Veciana to sec. that he call Kail again. He did and Keil that Bishop was always a meticulous I was talking with the late Paul Bethel said he had given some thought to the dresser, neat and well-groomed. In his in Coconut Grove one day. Bethel was name of the American that Veciana had later years, he wore glasses more often, a right-winger, once a congressional asked him about, but he couldn't recall but took them off to ruminate, putting candidate, an author, and the head of the knowing anyone named Maurice Bishop, the stem to his lips. He was usually tanned kror'4 US Information Agency in Havana when or anyone named Bishop who fit the and under his eyes there was a blotchi- 134 The 1412shotgionsaniNownther 1980

'"*.M4Kr.r."'"A'NW%M7MAN:,ik'VMPalk"S'AVFMCAIMOWZOWSW41.1,7 .9(EV ,Vi+151..,7M..ir• ness, a spotty darkness, as if from being in the sun too long. He had brown hair, later given to some gray. He was a good- looking man. At our initial meeting. Veciana seemed sincere enough when he said he wanted to find Maurice Bishop. He seemed determined then to find out if the reason for his being in prison was a result of his relationship with Bishop. Veciana said that as soon as he was settled down and out from under the restrictions of parole and free to travel again, he was going to have an artist make a sketch of Bishop from a description he would provide. That, he said, might help him in looking for Bishop. I didn't think much about that idea until I had shown Veciana a score of photographs and gotten negative results so abruptly. Then I realized that although each of the suspects had at least one characteristic that fit Veciana's description of Bishop. a comprehensive image would have eliminated the suspects immediately. Veciana agreed. A professionally drawn composite sketch of Ow' Maurice Bishop would help narrow the focus. Security was one of my main concerns from the beginning. Cuban-exile politics in Miami has its share of fanatics as well as professional assassins, as the pattern of bombings and ambushes in Little Havana through the years shows. A few months before I first spoke with Ve- ciana, an exile leader named Rolando Masferrer, known as El Tigre when he headed Batista's secret police, condoned the rash of bombings in a local magazine article. "You do not beg for freedom," he wrote, "you conquer it . . . In the meantime, dynamite can speak in a uniquely eloquent manner." A week later, half of Masferrer was found in what remained of his car when he tried to start it. A uniquely eloquent retort. Veciana agreed that it would be pru- dent to have the composite sketch of Maurice Bishop done outside the Miami area. Through a contact in a police department in another city. I arranged for Veciana to spend most of a day with its best composite artist. I had given the police artist a rough description of Bishop by telephone before we arrived so that he had been able to make some prelim- inary sketches to use as a base. Veciana then spent a couple of hours going through ` IT;•'1" about 300 police mug shots and picking out individual features from those that came closest to resembling Bishop's. "The problem," Veciana sighed as he flipped through the mug shots, "is all these individuals look like criminals. Bishop. he was a gentleman. He looked like a gentleman." when city eastern turns country western (and back again!) , Veciana's session with the police artist caused him to focus much more intensely on Bishop's specific features. He described, for instance, a distinctive lower BOONE 4r SONS, INC. lip, a nose straight but not sharp, a face longer than it was round, and—again, WASHINGTON, DC . P1 I CHEVY CHASE, MD perhaps the most striking feature—a 1730 K Street. Northwest 5530 Wisconsin Avenue darkened area under the eyes. Veciana 785-4653 6572144 said that all of Bishop's face appeared November 1980/The Washingumian 185 gailliMMUMIfigMte*MITMA4001MMitMCVMMMmitWrsi.Fmr.MwiiMoWM4M9s.MWRAMMMIMM'sw;m•swastm .,^W a bit suntanned most of the time, but that ceases. We showed him the sketch. He ered that there had been secret operations the area under his eyes looked almost looked at the photograph. "Fine," he and ultra-sensitive missions conducted leathery. said. "That's fine." He gave no indi- outside the CIA's normal chain of com- It was late in the afternoon when the cation that the sketch reminded him of mand. Given that, Bishop may have been police artist finished a sketch that Ve- anyone in particular. He took a copy of among a select group within the Agency ciana proclaimed was "Pretty good." it and, I assume, stuck it in the Com- and, as such, trusted enough to be given The artist had warned that composite mittee's classified files. an "unofficial" Castro-assassination sketches aren't meant to be exact resem- mission. Because Veciana's activities in blances of individuals. They arc de- That night I flew back to Miami. It was the late '60s began to broaden beyond signed to elicit a chain of recall in wit- a Friday early in April, about a month Cuban affairs and encompass other anti- nesses and spark recollection of images after my first interview with Veciana. Communist operations in Latin Amer- I that lead to some suspects and eliminate During that interval I had spoken with ica, it also appeared likely that Bishop others. Veciana said the sketch of Bishop him more than a dozen times. I had two had moved up the Agency's executive was not really what Bishop looked like, ladder. but he appeared to be satisfied that it was At the time of the Kennedy assassi- "close." nation, Bishop appeared to be particu- Veciana returned to Miami, and the "The problem," larly knowledgeable about intelligence next morning I took the Bishop sketch operations in Mexico City. He not only and copies of it to Schweiker's office in Veciana sighed as he was aware of Oswald's activities there Washington. Dave Newhall looked at but also knew that Veciana's cousin was the sketch with a new fascination. "You flipped through the a Castro intelligence officer in the Cuban know, it looks exactly like I thought it mug shots, "is that all Embassy in Mexico City. would from the description we were By the early '70s, Bishop had broad- working on," he said. "I think the boss these individuals look ened his interests and contacts through- will want to see this right away." out Latin America. Bishop's role in the Schweiker was attending a hearing of like criminals. Bishop, 1971 Castro-assassination attempt in .the•Senate health subcommittee, one of he was a gentleman. Chile, his ability to reach key military his permanent posts. We got word to personnel there, indicated he had a spe- him and, during a break in the hearing. He looked like cial relationship in that country. The week we huddled in a corner of the anteroom before we constructed the composite of the chamber. The health subcommit- a gentleman." sketch of Bishop. I wrote a memo to tee chairman, Senator Edward Kennedy Schweiker indicating what I initially glanced quizzically at the three of us thought would be primary areas of in- hunched over the sketch as he hurried more interviews with him during which vestigation. The memo noted: "Veciana through the anteroom. (Schweiker. as I tried to extract every possible detail he strongly believes that Bishop had some- a courtesy. had written a note to Ken- could recall about Maurice Bishop. More thing to do with the downfall of Allende nedy prior to calling on the Church Com- important, we began to establish a rein Chile." mittee to establish a special subcom- lationship. I would drop in at his home Fmally, another indication of Bishop's mittee to investigate President Kennedy's and call him on the telephone frequently position in more recent years derived murder. Senator Kennedy's reaction was just to ask a question or two about a from the large amount of money that not negative, which Schweiker inter- minor detail. We also got to know each Veciana said Bishop paid him at the end preted as a signal to go ahead.) other better as we traveled back and forth of their relationship in 1973. Bishop had Schweiker looked at the sketch. At to Washington and around Miami to the to be in a position to have access to such first he mumbled, "That's pretty good," sites where he recalled meeting Bishop. funds and, perhaps, also have the power as if commenting on the quality of the From those interviews and discussions, to cover them—or be in association with artwork. Then he said, "I've seen that I began to accumulate not only a struc- someone who did. face before." tured image of Maurice Bishop-as an Newhall and I laughed. For an instant intelligence operative—the hard data of On Sunday evening the weekend I re- we both thought he was being kiddingly his character and activities—but also a turned from Washington after the com- glib. But Schweiker was serious. "That's sense of the man himself as Veciana saw posite sketch was drawn, I received a a very familiar face," he said, staring him. call from Dave Newhall. He said he had at the sketch. "Perhaps . . . maybe it At that point, this is what I knew about just gotten a call from Schweiker in was someone from State who briefed me Maurice Bishop: Pennsylvania. "The boss was driving on something recently. We've been get- He was in Havana in the summer of home when he suddenly remembered who ting a lot of those." He paused and 1960 when Veciana first met him. He the guy in the sketch reminded him of," thought a bit. "No, maybe not." He was working undercover, probably using Newhall said. "He stopped the car and kept staring at the sketch. "He's very some business association or firm as a called me from a phone booth." familiar," he said. front. He may have had a relationship The sketch of Maurice Bishop re- "Does it look like Harvey?" asked with some business in the building where minded Senator Schweiker of David Mice Newhall. William Harvey had been cited Veciana was given his training instruc- Phillips. by the Church Committee as the CIA's tion, maybe with the American mining coordinator in its Castro assassination company or the Berlitz language school. David Phillips had come before the Sen- plots with the Mafia. Bishop was familiar with personnel at ate Intelligence Committee on more than "No. its not Harvey," Schweiker said. the American Embassy. He appeared to one occasion. The Committee was in- Finally he sighed. "I've got to get back be a specialist in propaganda, psycho- terested especially in two phases of Phil- to the hearing," he said. "Why don't logical warfare, and counterintelligence. lips's career: One was as head of the you take a copy down to the Committee Considering the character of his Span- CIA's task force to prevent the election staff? I'll give it more thought later." ish, he probably had been formally of Salvador Allende in Chile; the other .4,0:611 The Intelligence Committee staff schooled in the language and even before was his role as chief of the Agency's worked out of a sprawling arrangement arriving in Havana he probably had spent unit in Mexico City responsible for send- of cubicles on the ground floor of the time in a Spanish-speaking country. He ing to the Warren Commission photo- old Dirksen Office Building. Newhall was very intelligent, very literate. very graphs of a man erroneously identified and I signed in at the security desk and articulate. He was, as Veciana put it, a as Lee Harvey Oswald. a staff attorney who had been working gentleman, perhaps from the South, more Phillips had announced his retirement. with Schweiker on the Kennedy sub- likely from Texas. after 25 years of service with the CIA, committee emerged from the inner re- The Church Committee had discov- in the spring of 1975. At the time, the 1116 The Washiregroriiarillievember 1980

ftztivh..-m.tznizmmtk\w g The Church Committee discovered that there had been ultra-sensitive missions conducted outside the CIA's normal chain of command. Given that, Bishop may have been given an "unofficial" Castro- assassination mission.

nation was being stirred by a barrage of press revelations about the illegal activities of the intelligence agencies. Ve- ciana was still in prison and not yet up ...for parole. Phillips called a press conference at his retirement and announced he would lead an association of retired intelligence officers in defense of the CIA. According to Phillips, one of the major factors that led to his retirement was "the rash of sensational headlines in the world press that leave the impression the CIA is an organization of unprincipled people who capriciously interfere in the lives of US citizens at home and abroad." He said he wanted to "straighten out the record . Newhall is usually a laconic man, but there was an edge in his voice that evening he called to tell me about Schweiker homing in on David Phillips. "The boss thinks the resemblance is pretty damn close," he said. He asked if I could dig The composite sketch of Maurice Bishop, the elusive American spymaster. up an old newspaper clip of Phillips's Senator Schweiker was the first to say whom he thought the sketch press conference and show the photo in resembled: David Atlee Phillips. it to Veciana. The next morning I checked the date with Veciana, I glanced at the story that and that the association he was forming of the press conference, picked up a back appeared in the Herald when Phillips was really a CIA operation. "It is nor," issue of the Miami Herald, and went to announced his retirement. There were he declared. The facts would later in- Veciana's place. He wasn't home. His scant details about his background. It dicate he was wrong on at least two out wife said she didn't expect him back noted that he had once been a profes- of those three contentions. until evening and didn't know how to sional actor, had been recruited by the When I contacted Veciana that eve- reach him. I returned home to another CIA when he edited an English-language ning he said he did not know the name call from Newhall. newspaper in Chile in the early 1950s, "David Phillips" or remember seeing "We've found a good photo of Phil- had been assigned posts in Mexico and photographs of the man. He said he would lips in the June 23 issue of People mag- Venezuela, and had been working un- come to the public library with me the azine," he said. "It did a feature about dercover in Cuba when Castro took over. next morning. "1 will call Dr. Abella his forming that retired-intelligence- Later he was CIA propaganda chief for and ask him to come with us also." he agents group. Do you think you can pick the Bay of Pigs invasion. said. "Then we can do two things." up a copy?" I said I would try because Phillips retired before the Church In talking with Veciana over the pre- the Herald photo, a wire-service repro- Committee was formed and before the vious weeks about the Kennedy assas- duction, was a poor one. However, after CIA admitted to some of the activities sination, it appeared that for the first trying several sources, I couldn't locate that would later get the Committee its time he was becoming interested in some that back issue of People. The public headlines. In defending the Agency at of the details. One day he told me he library had already put it into a bound his press conference, Phillips vigorously had been talking with a close friend, Dr. volume. Because it appeared that denied charges about the CIA that were Manuel Abella. about the assassination. wouldn't be able to get a reproduction around at the time. The CIA did not He said Abella mentioned having seen of the article until the next day, I decided financially support the strikes that led a photograph of the crowd in Dealey I would call Veciana and ask him to join to Allende's overthrow, he declared. Plaza just prior to the assassination. He me at the public library the next morn- Also, he said, the CIA never plotted the thought the photo was in Life or Look; ing. We could look at the magazine in assassination of Fidel Castro. Phillips's he wasn't sure. Abella said that in the the bound volume together. final point He said he assumed that many crowd he recognized a man he knew That evening, while waiting to talk would claim his retirement was phony from Cuba as a Castro agent. I had spo- 190 The Washingronion1Noveniber 1980

■ ,teuvorAs tonsIwn..-zaamera,-gsw5L,Tcrma mcemo,..-At401,,MWTeSSMSDPSMfiWOMAINVAMVANOMMAMM,PMMA,..-1S,1 -WMV him?" I asked again. Almost half a minute had passed and the suspense was pressing on me. Without taking his eyes from the photo, he said: "It is close." I wanted to shout at him: It is close? What the hell do you mean, it is close! Is it him or isn't it him? I leaned closer and asked again softly: "Is it him?" C I A Veciana did not take his eyes off the photo. "Does he have a brother?" he asked. The question took me aback. "I don't know," 1 said, "but is he Bishop?" Veciana finally shook his head. "lt is close, but it is not him." I felt NEXT RIGHT relief at the end of the suspense. "Are you sure it's not him?" I asked. "No, it's not him," Veciana said again. Well, 1 thought, that sounds pretty definite, and turned to the volumes that Dr. Abella was waiting to look through. Then Ve- ciana, still looking at the photo. added: "But I would like to talk with him." "You would like to talk with Phil- lips?" 1 asked, not getting his point. "Do you think Phillips is Bishop?" "No, he is not Bishop," Veciana said, "but he is CIA and maybe he could help." Maybe he could, I thought. and turned to help Abella, who was leafing through , the other volumes looking for the crowd shot with the Castro agent. Abella had O described the photo precisely, but it was in neither Life nor Look, Then Abella said that maybe it was in Argosy or True, because he remembered articles about the Kennedy assassination in those magazines. So I went to get the bound volumes of those publications and we began looking through them. Again we had no luck. Veciana, meanwhile, remained seated at the table staring at the photo of David Phillips.

Before the Schweiker investigation came Antonio Veciana intently studied this People magazine photograph of David to a close, more than a dozen individuals Alice Phillips to determine whether he was Maurice Bishop. He finally had been considered, however fleet- spoke: "It is close, but it is not him." ingly, as being the man who called himself Maurice Bishop. Most of them came ken with Abella and checked back issues them to an empty table at one end of the to our attention because of their involve- of the magazines he suggested, but didn't room. Veciana sat down and put on his ment in anti-Castro activity. The staff find the crowd shot he described. Ve- glasses. I stood beside him and found of the Senate Intelligence Committee ciana had said that someday he would the article about Phillips in People. There continued to look for Bishop mostly in take Abella to the library and help him was a half-page black-and-white photo the area of' Army Intelligence, despite search for the magazine. Now Veciana of him standing under a highway sign. my trying to make clear to them that saw our visit to the library as an oppor- near Langley. The sign said: CIA NEXT Veciana very much doubted that Bishop tunity to do that also. RIGHT. Phillips was depicted almost full- was with the military. The next morning Dr. Abella, a cigar- figure, casually dressed in a guayabera, I continued to show Veciana photo- chomping, pudgy little man, was wait- standing with his hands in his pockets. graphs of individuals sent to me by the ing with Veciana at his home. We drove The resemblance to the Bishop sketch Committee staff and others I dug up downtown to the Dade County Public was clear: The square jaw, the distinctive myself. Some bore a closer resemblance Library in Bayfront Park, the site of the lower lip, the straight nose, the forehead, to the sketch than others, but none came ever-burning Torch of Freedom donated and, yes, the darkened area under the as close as David Phillips. Occasionally, by Miami's Cuban exile community. That eyes. Only the hair was different. Veciana would mention that. Sometimes morning there was a demonstration in Veciana looked at the photo. And he would add, "Well, you know, maybe progress at the Torch. A shouting group looked at the photo. I watched his face it would help if I could talk with him." of masked Iranian students was calling for some reaction, but there was none. We began considering the possibility for the ouster of the Shah. Veciana looked He kept staring at the photo. "Is it him?" of bringing Veciana together with Phil- at them, smiled slightly, and shook his I asked. Veciana didn't answer. His face lips in a direct confrontation. The Com- head. He was used to more forceful was totally expressionless, but his eyes mittee staff, however, had decided not expressions of dissent. were intensely focused on the photo. to call Phillips back for additional ques- At the periodical desk I asked for the Finally, he turned the page of the mag- tioning under oath, so whatever we did bound volume of People with the Phil- azine. There were two more photos of we had to do on our own and unoffi- lips article and for the volumes of Life Phillips, both smaller and both showing cially. and Look with issues that might have Phillips's face less directly. Veciana We did not have the opportunity to crowd photos of Dealey Plaza. We took turned back to the larger photo. "Is it have Veciana confront Phillips until Sep- Noventber I9801The Wrtshingtonian 191

IsMsIsaysM*Mis%W.-41WIMMAM.i t■-4semmmIssastanalsomcismaitmmrsist-lisalltsttVlstakiMeMBM the Warren Commission?" the region—Gustayson was taking over "Because," said Schweiker, "they as the Kennedy liaison.) "I imagine As the Church took the position that they had no rela- you've seen the papers," he said. "Were Committee was winding tionship with Oswald. And there were you flabbergasted?" That was a good no documents in their files, they said, word. "We all were," he said. "Only down, it became clear which revealed that there was. We pressed Schweiker and Newhall knew about it them on that several times and each time since Tuesday. Schweiker was on va- that only a sensational they said they had nothing. We hit a cation in New Jersey when he got the new revelation could force blind alley. I don't disagree with you. call from Reagan's campaign manager, but considering the type of probe the who said he wanted to meet him in it to reopen a full- Committee was conducting and the lim- Washington. The Senator and Newhall ited access to the intelligence agencies' kicked it around and decided it was the scale investigation. files, there was not much we could do last chance for the moderate wing of the about it." party. Schweiker's really psyched up Despite the direction that the Schwei- about it." ker report had taken and the public at- tember, just before Schweiker decided I wondered what it meant in terms of tention it had received, Schweiker wanted Schweiker continuing a Kennedy-assas- ,'115.Close down his investigation. Between me to keep quietly pursuing the Veciana my first interview with Veciana and Sep- sination investigation. "I don't know." lead. He said he didn't know how long Gustayson said. "I haven't had a chance tember, 1 felt I was on a fast-moving he could continue such an unofficial in- train trying to spot a smoking gun in the to discuss it with him. I know he really vestigation, but he felt there were still has a sincere passion for it, but I think blur of passing woods. As the Church many things we could do, even on our Committee was winding down, it be- a lot will depend on whether Reagan and own, before we gave up. he get the nomination. I think he's going came clear that only a sensational new Late in July, 1 wrapped up a trip to revelation, simple and obvious enough to question the propriety of continuing Puerto Rico and flew back to Miami, I it because it's automatically politicized for the public to grasp its significance came back with sonic new information, as soon as he becomes a candidate." instantly, could force the Committee to found a few of the witnesses t had been reopen a full-scale Kennedy investiga- We decided we should continue with looking for, and had a long and fruitful the investigation until Schweiker him- tion. The Veciana lead was a crack in conversation with Manolo Ray, the head self called us off. the door, but it would take time and re- of the anti-Castro organization Veciana sources to develop it. I pursued it as best By early September. however, there had originally joined in Cuba and, later, were indications that Schweiker's at- I could. Over the months. I tried to locate the founder of JURE, to which Silvia tempt to conduct a one-man investi- and talk with everyone Veciana had Odio had belonged. I was tired and drag- gation into the assassination had gone named. We had limited resources, be- ging my way through Miami Airport when about as far as it could. Reagan had not cause Schweiker's staff budget didn't I noticed the headlines on the newsstand. received the Republican nomination in include travel and expenses for a Ken- The Republicans were holding their Kansas City, and Schweiker returned to nedy-assassination investigation and he presidential convention in Kansas City. Washington very depressed. 1 believe it could not use Committee funds. And Ronald Reagan. though not yet the led him to reevaluate his role in public party's nominee, had chosen Richard life. Then, too, partially as a result of At the end of June 1976, the Senate Se- Schweiker as his vice presidential run- the Schweiker report, the ground swell lect Committee issued its "final report": ning mate. for a new investigation into the Kennedy Book V—The Investigation of the As- The next morning I was on the line assassination was beginning to build in sassination of President John F. Ken- with Troy Gustayson, then Schweiker's the House of Representatives. If the House nedy: Performance of the Intelligence press secretary. (With Marston getting wanted to investigate the Kennedy as- Agencies. The press called it the ready to move to Philadelphia--Schwei- sassination, Schweiker had decided, he Schweiker report. Dave Marston had air- ker had him selected as US attoniey for would end his efforts. expressed an advance copy to me the night before Schweiker was scheduled to release it at a press conference. 1 thought the report had historical significance as the first official confirmation of the in- validity of the Warren Commission report. I objected, however. to its over- emphasizing the possibility of the Ken- nedy killing being a Castro retaliation simply on the basis of the Warren Com- mission not having been informed of the CIA's Castro-assassination plots. 1 was discussing that with Marston on the telephone the next afternoon when Schweik- er returned from his press conference. Marston asked Schweiker to pick up the line. "We've got one of your standard skeptics here, Senator," he said. "I thought all our skeptics were at the news conference!" Schweiker said in mock anguish. I congratulated him on the report but told him I thought that critics of the Warren Commission were going to have a legitimate objection. "How could the Committee have failed to pursue the possible relationship of Oswald to the in- When Ronald Reagan tapped Richard Schweiker to be his vice-presidential telligence agencies," I asked, "when running mate in a desperate attempt to secure the 1976 Republican the Committee discovered the intelli- presidential nomination, Schweiker abandoned his one-man investigative gence agencies admitted a cover-up with efforts to unravel the Kennedy assassination. 192 The titahingionianiNmember 1980

19S. St7eMtt=Wik,\f,'!■,,IS..3:,AeMreMt` .lerss..5t;eNStiXR.MVeAV.P.Mi$MM:rMtiblr,4 M- ''"teW, IV Confrontation in Reston

One morning toward the end of Septem- the Sheraton Inn where the conference Veciana's left, Sarah Lewis on his right. ber 1976 I received a call from Sarah was being held, and we arrived late. Between Phillips and me were his wife, Aseiwis of Schweiker's office. Lewis, an There appeared to be-no former spies Gina, a pleasant woman 'Who, I later assistant to Gustayson, had been han- lurking around the lobby. A bulletin board learned, was a former secretary at the dling a lot of the Washington research, directed us to the meeting room down CIA. (Phillips and his first wife. Helen, She called to tell me she had learned that the center hallway. were divorced in 1967: he remarried _in the Retired Intelligence Officers Asso- The room was noisy with chatter and 1969). Sitting on her right, a United ciation was going to have a two-day con- the rattle of tableware. It was a large Press International reporter, a bluff, red- ference in Reston, Virginia, in the mid- crowd in a large room. We made our faced fellow just back in the US after dle of the month. That was the way toward Phillips's table, situated in 21 years as a foreign correspondent. organization founded by David Phillips a corner of the room farthest from the As soon as Veciana sat down, he about a year before. It had been a success door. I was walking ahead of Sarah Lewis reached into his breast pocket, pulled out =zeid, within months, claimed a few hun- and Veciana. I recognized Phillips, sit- his glasses, put them on, folded his arms dred members. (It would later change ting with his back toward us. I wanted across his chest, and began studying its name to Association of Former In- to be in a position to see his face and David Phillips. Subtle he wasn't. For telligence Officers.) David Phillips almost the entire luncheon, Veciana re- would, we assumed, be a visible figure mained in the same position: leaning back at the conference in Reston. It would in his chair, arms folded across his chest, provide an opportunity for Antonio Ve- I recognized Phillips, staring at Phillips. Occasionally he picked ciana to tell us, for sure, whether Phillips up his fork and dabbled at the food in was Maurice Bishop. - sitting with his back front of him, then he would lean back David Phillips knew we were coming. toward us. I wanted to again, fold his arms, and look at Phillips. At least he knew I was coming. Sarah It made Phillips nervous. His hands were Lewis had called and made arrangements be in a position to see shaking noticeably. He avoided Ve- for three of us to attend the luncheon on ciana's stare and remained in animated the last day of the conference. his face and to look at conversation with both his wife and the That morning. I met Veciana at Wash- fellow to his left, a retired Navy officer. ington National Airport. He and his wife his eyes when he first The table was large and the room noisy, had driven his daughter to Tampa, where saw Veciana. Phillips and so at one point when Phillips leaned she was starting college, and he had flown over the two people between. us and said from there. I missed the opportunity of jumped up and - something to me, it was difficult to hear traveling with Veciana, which I always him. I thought he asked, again, about enjoyed. It gave me the chance to chat turned around. what interest Senator Schweiker might with him casually, and I never failed to have in a conference of retired intelli- get additional insight into the man. I gence officers. I said that, really, it just guess I enjoyed also knowing that this to look at his eyes when he first saw gave me the opportunity to meet him and soft-faced, pear-shaped middle-aged man Veciana. The fellow leading us tapped that we were working on something we leaning comfortably back in the window- Phillips on the back. Phillips jumped up, thought he might be able to help us with. seat reading the real estate section of the turned around, looked directly at me and, I said that after the luncheon, perhaps, paper and looking like a well-dressed, smiling, extended his hand as he intro- we could talk about it. He nodded his mild-mannered business executive was duced himself. I watched his eyes as I head and smiled, but because of the din actually one of the most dedicated anti- shook his hand, told him my name, and I wasn't sure he had caught everything Castro terrorists. said that I was with Senator Schweiker's I had said. He turned back to chatting office. His eyes never left my face. with the fellow on his left. Veciana kept Sarah Lewis picked us up at the airport I turned and said, "I'd like you to staring at him. in her red Volkswagen. She was a tall meet Sarah Lewis." Phillips smiled a I kept glancing at Veciana, trying to woman with short blond hair and a pleas- greeting and shook her hand. "And this," get his attention. I didn't want to be ant smile. Her research abilities had been I said, "is Antonio Veciana." Phillips obvious by engaging him in a whispered very useful in the Kennedy-assassination smiled a quick greeting at Veciana, shook conversation, but the suspense got to me probe. "Phillips is expecting us," she his hand, and immediately turned back and I leaned toward him and whispered, said, "although I guess he was puzzled to me. "I'm glad you could come," he "What do you think?" Veciana looked by Senator Schweiker's interest in the said, "and I'm delighted that Senator at me, shrugged his shoulders, and turned conference." Veciana smiled. Schweiker is showing an interest, but I back to staring at Phillips. Reston had been born as a model com- must admit I don't quite understand why I surveyed the crowd. Perhaps. I munity for the Washington suburbs, an you're here." He said it with a smile, thought, I might stumble on someone escape from the blight of the urban core. then added: "But, of course, you're most who resembled the Maurice Bishop sketch Times change. Downtown Washington welcome." He gestured to the three empty even more closely than Phillips. I don't is now the classy, expensive place to live chairs across the table. There was no know what I expected a gathering of and Reston is a suburb with problems hint that he recognized Veciana. spies would look like, but this group of its own. But it's still neat, pretty, and We sat down opposite Phillips at the looked like a crowd of college profes- well manicured.It took us a while to find three places reserved for us. I sat on sors. A lot of pipe-puffers. And more 194 The lilathinvonianNoveraber 1980

v4.17....,74-;.-VIt.... -RVIkWM.VEMAT3M1.38§WPRIAZSM,ttg1010.M. . 71,71‘.9.wm-st-TOwt,."'"7-11 women than I had expected. I guessed Spanish: Yes, he had. not come to any conclusions about what that most of them were, or had been. Did he know Julio Lobo? Veciana had just happened until we had mulled intelligence analysts. That, in fact, is asked. Phillips said he remembered the it over. What I recall most clearly now what most CIA employees are. name. is a moment when we were walking back When the guest speaker was intro- Did he know Rufo Lopez-Fresquet? to Sarah's car in the motel parking lot duced, I turned in my chair and put my Phillips said yes, then asked Veciana, immediately after leaving Phillips. It was back to Phillips. Veciana moved only "What was your name again?" a beautiful day, very bright. Veciana sideways and kept glancing back at him. "Antonio Veciana." didn't say a word. His face was expres- The guest speaker was then Major Gen- "Veciana?" Phillips repeated. sionless. eral Samuel V. Wilson, newly appointed "Don't you know my name?" "He's not Bishop?" I asked again. head of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Phillips shook his head slowly and Veciana continued looking straight A handsome, broad-shouldered soldier said, "No." Then he turned to me and ahead as we walked. "No. he's not him." with wavy hair and a ruddy complexion. asked, in English: "Is he with Schwei- A long silence. "But he knows." he wore a chestful of ribbons topped with ker's staff'?" He knows? "What do you mean, he the blue combat-infantryman's badge. "No," I said. "Mr. Veciana has been knows?" I asked. Polished, articulate, smoothly dra- helping us with our investigation." "He knows," Veciana repeated. matic, General Wilson was out of the "What investigation?" As we were waiting for Sarah to un- "''"Patton school of military speakers. His "The Kennedy assassination," I said lock the door of the car; Veciana turned speech, a model for the occasion, was again. "That's why I thought if we could to me and said, "It is strange he didn't an aggressive defense against the attacks talk—I mean nothing official, just off know my name. I was very well known." being launched against the intelligence the record if you prefer—you could be I was thinking the same thing. _ community. of some help. I thought . . " When General Wilson finished, the He interrupted me with a forced smile: For the next three months I thought about audience gave him a standing ovation. "I'll be glad to talk with any congress- what happened that day. I saw Veciana I stood and clapped. It was one hell of man, or any representative of Congress only once or twice during that period a speech. Veciana stood but didn't clap, . . . in Congress." His hands were and talked occasionally with him on the probably because the general didn't say shaking. Unintentionally, with the push telephone. He seemed not to want to °"-- anything about killing Castro. of the crowd behind me, I had forced discuss the incident in detail. Once, when During the ovation, I took the oppor- him up against the wall. "Well, there's I did bring up David Phillips's name, he tunity to lean over to Veciana and ask, an area I thought you might help us with." said again. "He knows." When I asked. "Is he Bishop?" Veciana removed his "You mean he knows who Maurice glasses and put them back in his pocket . Bishop is?" Veciana nodded his head. "No," he said slowly, shaking his head. "He knows," he said. "I would like to "it is not him." He paused for a mo- Veciana didn't say a talk with him more." I assumed then he ment, then added: "Well, you know, I meant that if he could talk with Phillips would like to talk with him." word. His face was at length he would be able to elicit some But by the time I turned around Phil- expressionless. "He's clue from him about the real Maurice lips had already gone out the back door. Bishop. I knew, from Phillips's reaction, Then I realized that as president of the not Bishop?" I asked. that this was impossible. association, he probably wanted to thank his guest speaker and had run ahead so Veciana looked straight In October, Schweiker concluded that he wouldn't get caught in the crowd at ahead as we walked. he could no longer justify being involved the rear of the room. I ran toward the as a lone senator in an investigation of rear door, beckoning Veciana and Lewis "No, he's not him." A the Kennedy assassination. First, he was to follow me. very disappointed at having been polit- The hallway was already jammed, but long silence. "But ically maneuvered out of an appointment I could see Phillips talking with General he knows." to the new Senate Permanent Committee Wilson at the front door. I began trying on Intelligence, the formation of which to push my way against the flow of the came out of the recommendation of the crowd until I noticed that Phillips, hav- Select Committee. There were two other ing shaken the general's hand, was mov- I began, thinking I could push a little. factors. One was the announcement by ing back down the hall toward me. As His smile was frozen. "I told you, I'll Senator Daniel Inouye, the new chair- he chatted with another member. I said. be glad to talk with any congressman. man, that the Permanent Committee "Excuse me, Mr. Phillips. I'd like you or any representative of Congress . would continue the investigation of the to meet Antonio Veciana." I turned, but in Congress," he repeated. Then he turned Kennedy assassination begun by the Se- Veciana wasn't there. I had thought that testy. "I'm sorry," he said, moving to- lect Committee. Schweiker didn't be- he and Lewis were directly behind me, ward an opening in the crowd, "you've lieve that it actually would, but because but they had gotten caught in the crowd. caught me at a very inopportune mo- Inouye had made the public announce- It was now obvious to Phillips that I ment. As you can see, this is all very ment, it left Schweiker without reason wanted to bring him and Veciana to- hectic here and I'm quite busy, so if to continue. (Schweiker was right; the gether. "Well, as you know," I said, you'll excuse me. . . " He kept the new committee made a few moves, then turning back to Phillips. "I'm with Sen- smile on his face. dropped the subject.) ator Schweiker and I thought you might "No," I said, "I didn't mean I wanted The other factor was the indication be able to help us with what we've been to talk with you now, but perhaps if I that the House was finally being pres- working on." can give you a call. . . sured into conducting its own Kennedy- "What about?" asked Phillips. This time the smile was gone. With assassination investigation. The inde- "The Kennedy assassination," I said. a sigh of exasperation he repeated again. pendent researchers had been pushing Phillips smiled. "I'll be glad to talk now slowly, "I'll be glad to talk with for it for years and were later joined by with any congressman, or with any rep- any congressman, or any representative those who thought the Martin Luther resentative of Congress . . . in Con- of Congress . . in Congress. Now, if King Jr. assassination required a thor- gress. " you'll excuse me . . ." ough investigation. They were getting Veciana suddenly appeared at our side, On the ride from Reston to drop Ve- nowhere until Coretta King, the widow with Sarah Lewis behind him. "This is ciana off for his flight back to Miami- of the slain civil-rights leader, went di- Mr. Veciana," I said again. Veciana ! was not returning there directly—he rectly to the Speaker of the House and asked Phillips in Spanish if he had been remained silent, and so did Sarah and said, "I would like to know what really in Havana in 1960. Phillips answered in I. Perhaps we were stunned and dared happened to Martin." Gir" November 1980,71se Warhingtonian 195

OiftlaW*4.. MMT. V The Last Investigation

The Select Committee on Assassinations both cases as if they were homicide in- was born out of House politics. Early vestigations. ilee1975. two congressmen each intro- It was a novel approach. 'Judging from duced bills to reopen the Kennedy as- the reaction of many members of Con- sassination. A fiery Texan named Henry gress, it was too radical an approach. B, Gonzalez, who had been a passenger Sprague said he needed a staff of at least in the Dallas motorcade. included in his 200 and an initial annual budget of 56.5 bill probes into the murders of Robert million—and then refused to guarantee Kennedy and King. A respected Virginia that would do the job. Sprague had not lawmaker, Thomas N. Downing, intro- yet settled into his shabby office in the duced his bill when he developed doubts rat-infested former FBI Records Build- about the Warren Commission report. ing when the attacks against him began. 'Roth bills were stuck in the Rules Com- In December, Sprague called and asked mittee for more than a year, until the me to come to Washington to talk. When Black Caucus put pressure on the House I arrived I found that he had turned over leadership. The bills were then merged the material Schweiker had given him and the resolution passed. to Deputy Counsel Bob Tannenbaum, Seeds of dissension were sown early. a veteran homicide attorney Sprague had Traditionally, the author of a resolution recruited from the New York District establishing a select committee is named Attorney's Office. Tannenbaum re- chairman of the committee. Downing. viewed the material and suggested that however, was a lame-duck congress. Sprague ask me to join the staff. I told man—he was not seeking reelection in Sprague I would if I could pursue those 1976. His term would expire three months areas in which I had the most background after the new committee was formed. and had the most potential, especially Gonzalez was a barroom-brawling Mex- Representative Henry Gonzalez, intelligence-agency involvement with the ican-American not especially respected Democrat from Texas, rode in the anti-Castro exiles in Miami. He said I by House powerbrokers. Thus, despite fatal motorcade on November 22, could. Downing's lame-duck status, House 1963. He briefly headed the House I had lunch with Sprague and several Speaker Tip O'Neill named him chair- Assassinations Committee until be of his staffers that day in Washington. man of the Select Committee. That burned dramatically quit during internal I talked about some of the things )1 had Gonzalez. political battling. worked on with Schweiker and what I The Committee immediately mired thought needed to be done. But Sprague, itself in internal squabbling. Downing's Early in November 1976. Sprague had first choice as the Committee's chief lunch with Senator Schweiker in Wash- Representative Thomas N. Downing counsel and staff director was Wash- ington. He knew of the work of Schwei- of Virginia developed doubts about ington attorney Bernard Fensterwald, an ker's Senate Intelligence Subcommittee, the Warren Commission's lone- early Warren Commission critic who had but Schweiker also filled him in on the gunman theory and introduced a hill established a research clearinghouse and files his personal staff had compiled. In to reopen the Kennedy investigation. lobbying operation called the Committee those files was a fat stack of informally a to Investigate Assassinations. After written memos reporting what I had dug Gonzalez objected to him, Fensterwald up over the past year. Included were withdrew from consideration. Then a story rough notes on Antonio Veciana and appeared in the Washington Star head- Maurice Bishop. To help Sprague, lined: is FENSTERWALD A CIA PLANT? AS. Schweiker arranged to turn over some sessrea-noe INQUIRY STUMBLING. It was of these personal staff files. In a letter later learned the story had been leaked to Sprague accompanying them, from Gonzalez's office. Schweiker noted: "Because of my concern for the personal safety of some of Downing and Gonzalez finally got to- the individuals who came forth to my gether in October 1976 and settled on staff, neither my staff nor I have publicly Philadelphia's Richard Sprague as chief divulged their names. I strongly urge that counsel. Sprague had come to national this confidentiality continue to be re- attention with his successful prosecution spected. . . . " of United Mine Workers President Tony When he took the job, Sprague stip- Boyle for the murder of UMW reformer ulated that he have complete authority Joseph Yablonski In Philadelphia. where to hire his own staff and run the inves- as first assistant district attorney he had tigation as he saw fit. He proposed set- run up 69 homicide convictions out of ting up two separate investigations, one 70 prosecutions. Sprague was known as for John F. Kennedy and one for Martin tough, tenacious, and independent. Luther King Jr. He insisted on handling 196 The Ithrhingtoniareelevember 1980

.:"...1e)e,KS'eeteeketleVft tions, the use of warrants, and prosecutions for perjury. We would have sophisticated investigative resources and, more important, the authority to use them. Lyj The Kennedy assassination would finally get the investigation it deserved. There would be no more bullshit. IF YOU WERE A Little did I know. DUKE ZEIBERT What Sprague discovered when he ar- OR PAUL YOUNG'S rived in Washington was that his first order of business was not to set up an "REGULAR" investigation but simply to keep the Committee alive. The Committee had been officially established in September. All congressional committees expire at Come the end of each congressional year and then, if they have been mandated to con- on home to tinue by their originating resolutions, the new Congress reconstitutes them as a matter of course. Mel As soon as Sprague hit Washington and it became obvious he meant to conduct a real investigation, the flak began. Krupin's Helped by some of the press. including the New York Times, talk began circu- Richard Sprague. the first chief lating that the reconstitution of the As- newly '---counsel to the House Assassinations sassinations Committee might not be Committee, was tough, tenacious, "automatic." The attacks increased when and independent. He wanted to Sprague announced his staff plan and opened handle the John Kennedy and budget. He did not pull either figure out Martin Luther King assassinations of the air, but analyzed the resources that as homicide investigations. the Warren Commission had available restaurant from its own staff, plus from the FBI, despite having been on the job for more Secret Service, CIA. and Justice and at the Paul Young's location State Departments. Sprague figured that than two months, seemed still less oc- 1120 CONNECTICUT AVE. cupied with the substance of the case the nature of a truly independent inves- than he did with other problems. He had tigation would preclude the use of the been blasted by a few congressmen after investigative forces of other government word got around that the Committee agencies, especially because some would would probably use such investigative be under investigation themselves. With devices as lie-detector tests. voice-stress a staff of 170 and a yearly budget of evaluators, and concealed tape re- $6.5 million, the Assassinations Com- corders. Some lawmakers, including a mittee would not have many more re- few conservatives, expressed their con- sources than the Warren Commission. cern and said Sprague was threatening (The Warren Commission employed 83 to trample on the civil rights of people people but used 150 full-time agents from he would investigate. At lunch that day, the FBI plus other federal personnel.) I commented to Sprague about the heat he was taking. Sprague shook his head. You know, I don't understand it. I've never been in a situation like this before where I'm getting criticized for things I might do. It's nonsense. I don't know why it's v. happening." It was arranged that I would officially join the Committee as a staff investigator on January I. 1977. I returned to Miami and got to work renewing the contacts and sources I had let lapse. I had ac- cumulated file cases of documents and background material which I used to begin structuring an investigative plan. After talking with Sprague, I was now certain vie1 Krupirt's he planned to conduct a strong investigation, and I had never been more op- cRestaufant timistic in my life. The investigation 1120 Connecticut Avenue would include a major effort in Miami. 331-7000 with teams of investigators digging into all those unexplored corners the Warren Commission had ignored or shied away Heading the Kennedy part of the from. They would be working with squads House Assassinations Committee's of attorneys to put legal pressure on to investigations was Robert squeeze the truth from recalcitrant wit- Tannenbaum, a quick-thinking, fast- nesses. There would be sworn deposi- talking New York prosecutor. November 1980ITheWashowoman 197

ARAWWW4m745m*.miAwm.,14.w.ro mms.wiRek,-,wwwwslipvii.weemt,'"Amtwmt-p4m...mwslmtk-", -ZA,-7 The budget became the focal point for About a week after the Committee was payroll on January 1, 1977. I was in that attacks on Sprague. He was accused of temporarily born again, I received a call group. Gonzalez, however, had been being disrespectful of congressional pro- from Bob Tannenbaum. mistaken about the Committee's budget. tocol. Sprague, they said, had made a "Well," he sighed, "World War DI The rules actually permitted it only "mistake" in coming on so strong. has started in Washington. It's Gonzalez $84,000 a month in expenses while it r 40 "Several people around here who are vs. Sprague. You wouldn't believe it. awaited reconstitution. When Gonzalez familiar with the bureaucratic game told Gonzalez is taking back his stationery!' was called on the budget carpet by the me to first present a smaller budget," His what? Rules Committee, he said that Sprague Sprague admitted. "They assured me "Let me read you a letter. It's dated had hired the new staffers without his that I could always go back later and February 9, 1977. 'Dear Dick: Until the knowledge or permission. plead for more. That's the way they do Select Committee is properly organized things in Washington. I was told. Well. At a meeting of the members of the and its rules established, a number of Assassinations Committee on February I won't play that game." steps are necessary. Accordingly, I here- On January 2. 1977. the day before 8, Gonzalez repeated his charges against by request and direct that you provide Sprague and ordered Sprague to fire the the convening of the 95th Congress, there me at the earliest practical time, but no people he had put on the staff on January appeared in the New York Times a story later than noon Friday, February 11. your 1. Sprague refused to fire anyone and headlined COUNSEL tN ASSASSINATION IN- written assurance as given verbally to denied he had not told Gonzalez about AWRY OFTEN TARGET OF CRITICISM. It re- the Committee yesterday that, failing to the hirings. The other Committee mem- viewed Sprague's seventeen-year career recommend necessary reductions in force, bers backed Sprague. Gonzalez fumed. as a Philadelphia prosecutor strictly in you guarantee compliance with the fi- The next day he wrote the letter cutting terms of the controversies he had pro- nancial limits imposed on the Commit- off the staff's resources and demanding voked. Sprague's record has points wor- tee. . . . Owing to an evident inability the return of his stationery. thy of criticism, but the Times story left of the Committee in past times to ade- "And we just got another note from out the grays and painted Sprague a heavy quately control the use of its letterhead Gonzalez today," Tannenbaum said, black. and franked materials, and in the absence "Listen to this: 'Dear Mr. Sprague: You The article had the effect of a well- of any present controls on such mate- called me at 10:10 yesterday morning. placed torpedo. It almost sank the As- rials, you are directed to return to me osassinations Committee. On January 4, I was out. I returned the call at 11:30. immediately any and all letterhead ma- You were not in. You were at a staff an attempt to reconstitute the Committee terials bearing my name. . . . meeting. Your secretary said she would by a unanimous-consent voice vote failed. get you if it were important. I said, "I This meant the resolution would have don't know if it's important. I'm return- to go through a bureaucratic labyrinth. ing his call." 1 hung up. I then met the including passage through the Rules The New York Times President of the United States. I am the Committee and a budget-review exer- chairman. You are my employee. Do not cise, before the Committee could offi- story left out the grays forget that.' " cially be reconstituted. That would take The next day, I received my own letter weeks. and painted Sprague a from Chairman Gonzalez. It was a form In Miami, I was eager to get rolling. heavy black. It had the letter to all staffers: I kept calling Bob Tannenbaum. the boss "This is to convey to you my proof the Kennedy side of the investigation. effect of a well-placed found regret regarding the circumstances "Bob, I think it's initially important to which surround your present employ- coordinate my area with what the rest torpedo. It almost sank ment. . . . of the staff is doing," I said. I suggested the Committee. "It is highly deplorable that the person travel to Washington to get a better most responsible for your employment idea of staff organization. Tannenbaum did not advise you of the possible dif- agreed. He was a man in his early thir- ficulty in getting the Committee recon- ties, very big and beefy but fit—a former Because all congressional committees stituted. . . . Columbia University basketball star and use the postal-franking privileges:of its "No one likes a reduction in person- student radical who. rising quickly in the chairman, and because every expense nel, but . . I hope that as soon as New York DA's office, became the voucher, travel order, and most direc- possible I will be able to convey to you epitome of the quick-thinking, fast-talk- tives and requests to other government what the future status of personnel will ing prosecutor. Tannenbaum didn't want agencies are made under the chairman's be with the Select Committee." me to know how chaotic things were in signature, what Gonzalez was doing, in Gonzalez kept on swinging. He went Washington. "Let me work things out effect, was stopping the operation of the to the Attorney General and demanded on this end." be kept saying, "and we'll Committee. that Committee staff members, who while plan on getting together. Stay loose." Gonzalez had been furious at not being waiting for the investigation to get struc- On February 3, 1977, the House voted named chairman when the Committee tured had begun researching the FBI files, to reconstitute the Assassinations Com- was originally formed. He automatically be denied access to those files. Next. mittee. Temporarily. Still under attack stepped into the post, however, when Gonzalez cut off the long-distance tele- by several conservative lawmakers sud- Downing retired and the new Congress phone calls, thereby isolating the only denly turned civil libertarians, the Com- convened in January. (It was of some- investigator—me—the Committee had mittee was, as the Washington Star put thing of a Catch-22 position because the in the field at the time. it, "given less than two months to justify Committee, not yet reconstituted, was Sprague later said: "Gonzalez went its existence under conditions that officially nonexistent.) Gonzalez wanted berserk.' . . make it almost impossible to de- more than just the title. He wanted con- Gonzalez finally threw his Sunday velop new evidence." The House, in trol and the power to staff the investi- punch: He fired Sprague. In a hand-de- keeping the Committee alive, provided gation with his own people. Sprague livered letter, Gonzalez charged that only a maintenance budget, just barely wasn't going to give him that. Sprague "has engaged in a course of enough to cover the reduced salaries of In December, Gonzalez had told conduct that is wholly intolerable for any its then 72-member staff. (Everyone had Sprague that, under the formula in the employee of the House," and ordered taken a 40-percent pay cut while await- Congressional Rules, the Committee him to vacate his office by 5 ing reconstitution.) PM that day. could operate with a monthly budget of Gonzalez had Capitol Police officers go In Miami, I kept busy, but without $150,000 until it was officially recon- to the staff offices with orders to evict the guidance of an investigative plan all stituted. On that basis, Sprague began Sprague physically if he wasn't out. But I could do was continue a scatter-gun beefing up his original start-up staff with within a couple of hours after Gonzalez approach to the leads. additions, all of whom were put on the sent the letter, the Committee's eleven 200 The KizsiungtontaniNavember 1980

11v:Itg:911, lltMVivV411;%1K,':,Kat,AY-',Nl.1.9,Mg-:.‘St:MMYMehi7r3M:iWP.").9%111‘,76-NtYSMISN.W.MVX4t1',ISNWMAKRIRSiZWA.M.MIA).'tiMT..t.15:11, other House members sent their own order King Jr. That's what Congress expected directing Sprague to ignore Gonzalez. the Committee to be doing while it kept What was supposed to be an investi- it in a financial armlock and permitted gation into one of the most tragic events the Committee's own chairman to saw in this country's history had turned into. away at its legs. as George Lardner of the Washington Early on, even House Speaker O'Neill Post put it, "an opera bouffe." said he thought the Committee would Then Gonzalez took one step too far. have to produce "something of a sen- Al an open meeting of the Committee, sational nature" to survive. he attacked the second-ranking Demo- Too quickly, the lesson of the Warren crat, Congressman Richardson Preyer, Commission had been lost. There could head of the Kennedy Subcommittee. be no real investigation of the Kennedy Judge Preyer, a gray-haired. soft-spo- assassination without an objective, ken, North Carolinian known for his fair- structured approach unencumbered by ness and intellect. was one of the House's political pressures or financial problems. most respected members. When Gon- But all Sprague and Tannenbaum and zalez began flying off the handle, Preyer the other staff directors could do in the ssssuggested the Committee adjourn until first six months was concern themselves some of the problems were ironed out. with political pressures and survival. A Gonzalez exploded. 'Tm the chairman! structured approach to the investigation 1 know you want to be chairman and could not be formulated. What was needed you're trying to get rid of me!" he yelled was the appearance of an investigition. at Preyer. The Committee had to look good. The According to Bob Tannenbaum, who Representative Richardson Preyer Committee had to look as if it were mak- was there, "Preyer's head actually jerked from North Carolina helped ing progress. The Committee had to look back. It looked like a shot from the front, engineer Henry Gonzalez's removal as if it were digging up new and sen- but it was really a neurophysical reac- as chairman of the House sational revelations. If it didn't, there don. It was really an embarrassing mo- Assassinations Committee. were members of Congress ready to kill ment for the old guy.** it for not performing. Preyer recovered and said quietly, he claimed you've never been to Wash- Under such conditions, Committee staff "I do not seek the chairmanship, nor do ington," Hopkins said. "He said he didn't problems began to arise. I want it. I have a motion that we ad- know what you did in Miami and Tannenbaum became paranoid. He took journ." The Committee backed him and Sprague wouldn't tell him." a few staff members into his confidence the members hurried away—except for Hopkins also told me that Gonzalez and distrusted everyone else. His para- Gonzalez, who held an impromptu press claimed that he had been forced out of noia was reinforced when one Commit- conference at which he called Sprague the investigation by "vast and powerful tee employee was revealed to be feeding "a rattlesnake." forces, including the country's most so- Gonzalez reports of Sprague's confiden- The next day I received a call from phisticated criminal element. - tial talks to the staff. Tannenbaum. "Preyer and the other "By the way," Hopkins asked, "do Isolated in Miami. without authori- members of the Committee are going to you have any connections with orga- zation or funds to go to Washington to House Speaker O'Neill to ask him to nized crime?" find out what was really going on, I was remove Gonzalez from the chairman- What? able to function a bit on my own, put ship," he told me. "We're down to the In that interview," Hopkins said, up a good front with the people I was final act. If Gonzalez is not removed. "Gonzalez claimed you are supposed to talking with, and chip away at the moun- we're leaving. There's no way we can have underworld connections." tain of work to be done. In Washington go on with this man." I had never met Gonzalez. Btit he did the investigators were mostly spinning Confronted with committee members know my name from the list of new staf- their wheels. All they could do was han- rebelling against their own chairman, fers whom Sprague had hired. Gonzalez dle what came through the transom. Tip O'Neill waffled. Appearing on a apparently was making assumptions on Cliff Fenton, the chief investigator, Face the Nation telecast, the House the basis of my name. That night. if was a former top New York homicide Speaker said he lacked the power to re- Gonzalez had lived in Miami, I would detective brought in by Tannenbaum. move a select-committee chairman. He have had his car blown up. Like all the other former detectives from also said that the Assassinations Com- New York City on the Committee, Fen- mittee's problems would probably be It was nearing the end of March 1977. ton was a sharp dresser. A hefty. easy- worked out, and he said he believed it Again the Assassinations Committee was moving man, Fenton gave the appear- would stay in business beyond its March due to die unless the House granted it ance of being a mellow, rambling type, 3t deadline. a continuance and approved a budget for and he spoke with a contagious chuckle. "They tell us that Gonzalez is going it. The resignation of Gonzalez and the I often envisioned him back in Manhat- to go," Tannenbaum reported to me, appointment of a new chairman. Louis tan shuffling easily into the lock-up with "But I think the bastards are lying to us. Stokes, a big, balding, low-key black a killer in tow, the guy chuckling right I think what they're really angling for Democrat from Ohio, gave the Com- along with Fenton as he was led to his is a trade-off. If Gonzalez goes, then mittee and its staff a chance to concen- cell. Sprague will have to go." trate on the problem of survival. From But Fenton was a shrewd, street-wise Gonzalez resigned from his chair- its birth, the Committee had faced the cop, and he knew only one way to handle manship—and the Assassinations Com- possibility of premature termination. It an investigation: by putting men out to mittee—the first week of March. He then was established in September 1976 with investigate. Before Gonzalez cut off au- flew home to San Antonio and gave a a token budget and life only until the thorization to travel, Fenton had sent a long, raging interview to hometown end of the year. Subsequent attacks de- few men to Dallas to follow up leads. newsman Paul Thompson of the Ex- layed its being reconstituted for a month. They returned with enough to convince press-News. and then it was given another token budget Fenton that, if he had his way, there The next day I received a call in Miami and the right to live for two more months. would be an investigation heavy with from Associated Press reporter John At each resuscitation, there was a new field work. Fenton never got his way. Hopkins. "Have you ever been in Wash- survival deadline. The internal feuding In the beginning, he had a rough time ington?" be asked. I said sure I've been naturally exacerbated the situation. keeping his men busy in Washington. to Washington. why? "Because Gon- The investigation of the assassinations Accustomed to being on the street, they zalez gave an interview in Texas in which of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther got itchy staying inside. But because Nowinher19801Thritiashingtonian igkiMLIMsom mtlmmaksvw.lossrmstimoimsmwskiNtn- ron,k-vAmmsignm-mtkumeImmmytmRksea--wwmtntr ", renschildt received a doctorate in com- merce from the University of Liege in Belgium. He came to the United States in 1938 and worked for Shumaker & Company, an exporting firm. He was also, he would later admit, connected with the French intelligence service. In 1945 he went to Texas and got a master's degree in petroleum engineering. He then began traveling around the world as a consultant for various Texas oil companies. In 1961, he showed up at a Gua- temalan camp being used by Cuban exiles for the Bay of Pigs invasion. At the time, he and his fourth wife were sup- posedly on a walking tour of South America. De Mohrenschildt also worked for a time in Yugoslavia as a consultant for the International Co-Operation Administration. His salary was paid by the US State Department under an arrangement similar to the one Antonio Veciana had as a banking consultant in ty, Bolivia. De Mohrenschildt moved in high so- The House Committee's chief investigator, former New York homicide ciety. His first wife was Palm Beach detective Cliff Fenton, knew that intensive fieldwork was necessary for a resident Dorothy Pierson. His second ',proper Investigation. He never got his way. was the daughter of a high State De- partment official. His third was Phila- only one or two were familiar with the he went to Washington to tell his story delphia Main Line socialite Wynne Shar- background of the Kennedy case, Fenton to the Committee. He had interviewed pies. In 1959 he took a fourth wife, suggested they spend their time reading Oswald's former friend George de Moh- Jeanne LeGon, in Dallas. Her father had the shelves of assassination books, most renschildt and claimed that de Mohren- been director of the Far Eastern Railroad written by Warren Commission critics. schildt had confessed that he had been in Manchuria. It was, however, a case of the blind lead- part of the "Dallas conspiracy" of oil- Given his background, it seemed ing the blind. men and Cuban exiles with "a blood strange that de Mohrenschildt would have Although the Committee had been in debt to settle." De Mohrenschildt be- befriended an apparent working-class existence for six months, it was not an friended the Oswalds when they returned drifter like Lee Harvey Oswald. When effective investigative body, and I didn't from Russia and settled in Dallas. Gary Taylor, who had been married to fully realize that until the last days in He admitted, Oltmans said, that Os- de Mohrenschildt's daughter Alexandra, March 1977, just before the question of wald had "acted at his guidance and was asked by a Warren Commission its survival would come up again on the instructions." counsel if he thought de Mohrenschildt floor of the House. De Mohrenschildt reportedly had suf- had any influence over Oswald, Taylor fered a nervous breakdown during the replied: "Yes, there seemed to be a great Late Monday afternoon on March 28, time he was talking with Oltmans. but deal of influence there." At the end of I received a call from Bob Tannenbaum. he left a hospital in Dallas to travel; with his questioning, Taylor was asked if he The House was scheduled to vote that Oltmans to Europe to negotiate book and had any further comments that might Wednesday on the Assassinations Corn- magazine rights to his story. However, help the Commission. "Well," he said, mittee's future. Members of the Com- in Brussels, Oltmans claimed, de Moh- "the only thing that occurred to me was mittee and staff counsel had been spend- renschildt disappeared. that—uh—and I guess it was from the ing most of their time lobbying individual Now Tannenbaum told me that Olt- beginning—that if there was any assis- lawmakers for support. Some lawmakers mans had called him from California. tance or plotters in the assassination that resented Sprague—viewed by one con- Oltmans said that in tracking de Moh- it was, in my opinion, most probably the gressman as "just a clerk"—for beating renschildt he had just found that de Moh- de Mohrenschildts." The Warren Gonzalez in a head-to-head confronta- renschildt could be reached at a tele- Commission did little to explore that tion. That day, Gonzalez had been on phone number in Florida. Tannenbaum contention. the floor of the House talking again about gave me the number. On the morning of March 29, 1977, the chief counsel's "insubordination." That afternoon I checked out the num- I went looking for George de Moh- He had distributed a "Dear Colleague" ber. It belonged to a Mrs. C.E. Tilton renschildt in Manalapan. I found the letter to every House member urging that III of Manalapan. a wealthy strip of a Tilton home on the edge of the ocean the Committee be put out of business. town on the ocean south of Palm Beach. highway behind a barrier of high hedges. He was thirsting for revenge. (I would later learn that Mrs. Tilton was The large, two-story structure of dark I asked Tannenbaum how it looked. the sister of one of de Mohrenschildt's cedar shingles and green trim looked as "It depends on who you talk to at former wives.) I decided to contact de if it belonged more in New England than what time of the day." He did not sound Mohrenschildt in person rather than by Florida. To the rear was a series of ga- optimistic. "Anyway. Wednesday is the telephone. I planned on driving up to rages with a carriage house above them. day. We'll know one way or the other." Manalapan the next morning. I was ex- I drove into the wide yard beside the Then I started to tell Tannenbaum what cited about the opportunity to talk with house. As I got out of the car, there I had been doing while waiting for the him and thought it fortuitous that he appeared from behind the garage a tall, investigation to get organized. should turn up in south Florida. striking woman. She had smooth olive "By the way," Tannenbaum inter- George de Mohrenschildt was one of skin, dark eyes, and long black hair. She rupted, "I just got a call from this Dutch the most fascinating characters in the was wearing a black leotard, carrying journalist, Willem Oltmans. He's the guy original Warren Commission investiga- a small towel, and glowed with a sheen I was telling you about." tion. Born in Russia in 1911. the son of of perspiration. She must have been ex- I knew about Oltmans. He had re- a czarist official who later became a ercising. ceived national television coverage when wealthy landowner in Poland, de Moh- The woman was de Mohrenschildt's 202 TheftshengroniaNNovember 1980

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"This is crazy up here. just plain crazy," he said with his characteristic chuckle. "I have never seen anything like this place." About 6:30 that evening I received a call from a friend, a television reporter in Dallas. "Funny thing happened," he said. "We just aired a story that came over the wire about a Dutch journalist saying the Assassinations Committee has finally located de Mohrenschildt in south Florida. Now de Mohrenschildt's attor- Al l . r. "•,..-.. ney. a guy named Pat Russell—he calls • —••••• and says de Mohrenschildt committed , al ... - A: • ;ra`N 6 ■1 64 suicide this afternoon. Is that true?" . 14,; ill.' , • , i .44 • .51, . . I " ,,..• A . 4. ii . t My card was found in George de Moh- . . "Vie06' TV:k , r: • ....1 renschildt's shirt pocket..He had re- tut .„-',1'. Pt 1„„1 ."; .11 turned to the Tilton home in Manalapan "la i - • AIL '"•"6,,, , about four hours after I left it that morn- ■ • 1 111 ANN : t a . ing. Alexandra told him of my visit and , . 4 . • - - - '16 f4 . gave him my card. He put the card in • ' ' e•ie : o'er.; his pocket and, according to Alexandra, -1 h:VICr • ii„; did not seem upset. Shortly afterwards The mysterious George de he said he was going upstairs to rest. De 'tt: Al tilliPito' -AV Mohrenschildt, a Russian émigré Mohrenschildt apparently took a .20- ....ri . , r . and friend of Lee Harvey Oswald. gauge shotgun that Mrs. Tilton kept be- Ws The night before de Mohrenschildt side her bed for protection, sat down on .1. 6., was scheduled to give an interview a soft chair, put the stock of the shotgun s. to the author, as part of the House on the floor and the end of the barrel in De Mohrenschildt's daughter Assassinations Committee his mouth, leaned forward, and pulled Alexandra had helped set up the investigation, he placed a .20-gauge the trigger. interview between her father and shotgun in his mouth and pulled the As soon as I had confirmed de Mob- Gaeton Fonzi. trigger. renschildt's death, I called Sprague in Washington. It was about 7 PM. Sprague had indicated that the House might not daughter Alexandra. After 1 introduced suggested I get to the scene immediately approve continuing the assassinations myself, she told me that her father was while he attempted to get staff members probe. As one of the old guard told Com- in Palm Beach and that she didn't know together and contacted Committee mem- mittee member Bob Edgar, "You guys how to reach him. She said, however, bers to prepare subpoenas. dumped Gonzalez. I don't know Sprague that she was certain he would be in that Sprague, 1 later learned, wait unable at all, but if you don't dump him too. evening and that I could reach him if I to do anything and never did get back you guys are dead in the water." Sensing phoned about 8 o'clock. She gave me in touch with me. The inability of the that, Sprague had offered to resign if it the telephone number I already had. The Assassinations Committee to react to the meant keeping the Committee alive. only business identification I carried at death of a key witness revealed that it Chairman Stokes assured him that re- the time was a card that identified me was still—six months after it was signing would not be necessary. Then, as a staff investigator for Senator formed—incapable of functioning as an in the last hours of the evening before Schweiker's office. I crossed out investigative body. It reflected how suc- the House vote, Stokes called Sprague Schweiker's name and wrote "House cessful its opponents had been in keep- to his office. Repeatedly, Stokes re- Select Committee on Assassinations" ing it distracted and off balance. viewed the situation and each time painted above it and gave her the card. She said No subpoenas were ever issued, no it in gloomier terms. Finally, near mid- she would tell her father to expect my witnesses ever called to testify. no in- night, Sprague realized the ground was call. dependent investigation ever made of being shoveled out from beneath him. I would later learn that as I was talking George de Morhenschildt's death. "Do you want me now to resign?" with Alexandra de Mohrenschildt her Later that evening, as I rushed around Sprague asked. Stokes put his head down father was in a hotel room in Palm Beach Palm Beach County to learn the details and remained silent. Bristling. Sprague being interviewed by Edward J. Epstein, of de Mohrenschildt's death. I attempted stood up. "Congressmen," he said, the author of Inquest, one of the first to contact Sprague or Tannenbaum or "it's clear it's in everyone's best interest books critical of the Warren Commis- Fenton or someone who knew what was if I resign." He then called his secretary sion. Epstein. who had good CIA con- going on in Washington. I was trying and dictated a two-sentence letter of nections, was then working under a con- to coordinate the Committee's handling resignation. tract from Reader's Digest to write a of the case with Palm Beach State At- Sprague drove home to Philadelphia book about Lee Harvey Oswald's con- torney Dave Bludworth, who was co- at 2 Am, about the time I was driving nections with Russia's intelligence ser- operative but increasingly confused about back to Miami from the state attorney's vice, the KGB. the obvious lack of coordination. The office in Palm Beach. By 8 the next The drive from Man..4apan to Miami only person I was able to reach at the morning, while I was again trying to took me about an hour and a half. That Committee's offices was a junior staffer contact someone at the Committee of- afternoon I called Cliff Fenton, the chief who knew only that Sprague and the top fices in Washington, Sprague was on a investigator, and told him what had echelon had been urgently called to plane to Acapulco. happened. 1 said I would call de Mob- Chairman Stokes's office. That day, after four hours of stormy renschildt that evening and set up an The next morning the newspaper debate, the House voted to continue the appointment to see him the next morn- headlines told what had happened in Assassinations Committee at a budget ing. "Fine, fine," Fenton said. "Well, Washington that night as I was scurrying pared to $2.5 million for the year. The you just keep on it." He was obviously around Palm Beach: Sprague had quit. resignation of Richard Sprague and the more occupied with the frantic efforts Although the Committee finally had death of George de Mohrenschildt were to keep the Committee alive when it become unified as a result of the depar- the key factors in the House vote to let came up for a House vote the next day. ture of Gonzalez, an early straw count the Committee live. 53"' November 1980/The Washingroman 203

-1Tratei,„"Pmems.wm•bitshimsmtsms\sme.v"mm•lammisvp.mwmilt,,mt . subpoena the CIA's records. Shortly afterward, the first attempt to INFORMALLY E L E G ANT get the Assassinations Committee reconstituted was blocked. One of its critics was Representative Robert Michel of Illinois. who objected to the scope of the Committee's mandate. "With the proposed mandate," Michel said, "that Committee could begin a whole new investigation of the Central Intelligence Agency!" That, says Sprague. is exactly what he intended to do. And that, he now contends, was the beginning of his end.

Richard Sprague resigned as chief counsel of the House Select Committee on -•••*Aiisassinations on March 30, 1977—six and a half months after its formation. The new chief counsel. Professor G. Robert Blakey of Cornell University, was not appointed until June 20. 1977—more than nine months after the committee was formed. During that reorganization period, the Committee staff—contrary to its reports to Congress indicating the "progress" of its investigation---was going around in circles. Whenever the politics and finances permitted, Chief Investigator Cliff Fenton would send men into Dallas to check out a lead. Even 3108 M STREET NORTHWEST with such a slap shot approach, they WASHINGTON 0 C more often than not returned with evidence that hadn't previously been known A FULL SERVICE SALON or information from a witness who hadn't FOR MEN AND WOMEN previously been interviewed, indicating that the Kennedy case was still, despite 965-6555 the years, ripe for a street-level investigation. But without a structured approach, without an apparatus to analyze and chart the raw data and indicate the next step, the Committee was running in place. Consequently, I had long ago decided to move out on my own. I sent regular memos detailing developments in the various areas I was investigating. Any day now, I kept telling myself, the investigation would begin and my raw data would be structured into the big picture to produce new action and direction. Eventually, as the file copies of my memos grew thicker and the response from Washington grew thinner, I began getting the feeling I was being a pain in the ass. I would later learn that both Tannenbaum and Fenton were secreting most of my memos away in the back of their file drawers, fearful of information in them leaking out. Each privately doubted that any real investigation would ever start. Finally, in mid-April 1977, I was au- thorized to take my first trip to Wash- ington since I had officially joined the Committee. The staff was in sorry shape. Morale was horrendous. Many of the junior lawyers complained to me that Tannenbaum treated them like children. Tannenbaum complained to me that many of them were children. "They can't figure out a thing for themselves." he moaned. The wheel-spinning had gotten to everyone. For many, the frustration peaked when Tannenbaum ordered the staff to outline Nowinber 1980/ he Washingtonian 285

m.r.stmtwomuctxmwalevemammaimmemosossswitawninzmakk,--1,..§:i. AP' NOUNCONG the 26 volumes of Warren Commission evidence and testimony—an exercise in euialke redundancy. 0 After Sprague departed and it eventually became apparent that he wouldn't HELGA'S be the new chief counsel, Tannenbaum's phi .00" attitude deteriorated. He hung on until ,,,,,,,,,,,, Blakey settled in and then left Washing- GI AND OPEHING ton for private practice in California. But before he left, Tannenbaum installed A Totally New Concept: another investigator to work with me in —Manly personalized brunches and dinners —Cooking Sono in your own home to ensure Miami. finest duality The Miami branch of the Assassina- —All cleaning and party preparations Included —Groups of 10 to 50 tions Committee became a two-man op- —Featuring authentic German, Hungarian and eration when AI Gonzalez moved down Other SPecleiltiee from New York in August. A former For Information Call: cohort of Chief Investigator Fenton in a • (703) 698-7387 the New York police department, Gon- zalez had retired as a top detective and then worked for the New York state com- A CLASS BY ITSELF r, mission investigating the Attica prison Obtaining Gaeton Fonzi's secret riot. When Castro made his first visit to investigative notes, columnist Jack the United Nations in the early '60s, Anderson broke the story of Antonio lite it, Oka) Gonzalez was picked to be his special Veciana and Maurice Bishop, Did French Cuisine bodyguard. Al was a native New Yorker the House Assassinations Committee 4 522-4553 and not of Cuban heritage, but Castro leak the story to justify its A Where atmosphe,,t , took a liking to him, insisted he remain existence? at his side, put his arm around him, and ,:,roce & obality is 4.1 invited him to be his personal guest in had been blown," he said. "The whole , -t.il by conntysseurs Cuba. Castro called him El Grande. Al story is going to be in Jack Anderson's vet inexpensive was 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighed 270 column next Wednesday." pounds. I felt more secure in Little Ha- Gustayson told me he had just gotten Mon-1 ti I iitich t 1 10-7:30 vana after Al arrived. Mon.Sat Dinner s:?0-t l 00 a call from reporter George Lardner at the Washington Post. Lardner had seen I had kept in touch with Antonio Veciana the advance copies of two Jack Anderson after the closing of Schweiker's inves- columns that the Post was scheduled to 1111 N. 10th St. tigation, and on New Year's Day, 1977, run the following Wednesday and Thurs- I called him as soon as I had officially day. Although Veciana's name was not joined the House Select Committee on mentioned—Anderson called him Assassinations. I told him that Scliwei- "mysterious witness Mr. X"—the col- ker's office had turned my files over to umns detailed his entire relationship with the House Committee and that I was now a Morris Bishop. "Morris" was the way P A ILA CI E working for it. I told him the new'House Na STAure ANT I had spelled Maurice Bishop's first name Committee would be more effective than on my initial rough notes of my inter- the old Senate Committee because it (.74‘41e.itiC TO& 04 9" /Se views with Veciana. Anderson ob- would have more resources and be in- viously had copies of those notes. CtA isi+st r dependent. I was furious at the leak and at An- Serving the Area for 21 Yrs. We chatted a bit and then Veciana derson. My old journalistic appreciation With the Largest Menu asked if I knew that he had been called of a news scoop went out the window. On the East Coast back to Washington to appear before the Didn't Anderson have any regard for "Olashiki" for Parties new Senate Permanent Committee on Veciana's life? Lardner, who had cov- Luncheon n Tue.-Fri Intelligence. I hadn't known. "I was ered the Kennedy assassination and the Clinnar 5-11 Tue.-Fr! 3.11 Sal., Sun three days in Washington," Veciana said. intelligence community for years, had 7926 GEORGIA AVE. SILVER SPRING "They asked me a lot of questions. There immediately recognized "Mr. X" as 5111-7070 were different people there now and I being Veciana. Anderson had pinpointed * Washingtonian Award Winner * think some were with the FBI. They him as the founder of Alpha 66 and the asked me only a little about the Kennedy organizer of the Castro-assassination at- ipit assassination, mostly about the Cuban tempts in 1961 and 1971. Every Cuban cause here in Miami. about the bombing We know Euigi's is still exile in Miami could easily identify Ve- here and what was going on." ciana as that person. Now Anderson was &MOUS the best pizza in town. I asked whether he had been ques- marking him as a tool of the CIA and tioned again about Maurice Bishop. "Yes, 12uigi's also knows 230 a man who, in turn. had secretly used L a little." he said. "They showed me his fellow exiles as tools of a government ways to make pasta! some more pictures, but they were not that, in the end, had betrayed them. Bishop. • • We chatted a bit more and then U Ownel 1:n .1ne Bombs had gone off in Little Havana for ..iske 14'13 I said 1 would be back in touch shortly, less reason than that. as soon as the Committee !DI 19th Street NAV . got organized. If Anderson had copies of my original Washington, D.C. "Well. if l can help you, don't hesitate rough interview notes. they could have rel. 331-7574 to call." he said. From his initial leer- come from one of four sources: from me. G 4919 Fairmont Avenue iness, Veciana'sfeeling about me ap- from Schweiker's office, from the Sen- Bethesda. Maryland parently had grown to one of a little trust. Tel. 656-5882 ate Intelligence Committee, or from the Two weeks later that trust was almost House Assassinations Committee. I sus- 15; 6723 Richmond Highway shattered. Almandria, Virginia pected the latter. The House Committee Tel. 765-5000 The call came late on a Friday after- had just failed to be automatically re- noon from Troy Gustayson in Senator SE ca o, v Mc constituted and it was scheduled to clear Schweiker's office. "Veciana's cover its first key hurdle, the House Rules 206 Thel4hshingtonianNovember 1980

tiae.1:kz.5L%Vin.hhw■cmio;v;'$Mh',MksMZI.K*4;.lg\MW.tvA\',■ .t,Mh'N,'ReV,W'*,'Wi'aMMIA%'k.'"ie.ls7.M.2e;'S'A'Kq;NWi'tZtlP§.VK%t.'t§'ZWAW.YWMM.,%.Wcq Committee. the following week, Con- gressmen were asking for evidence of its effectiveness. Anderson's column If you don't want your holiday meal to be a turkey, about the coup of "congressional investigators" uncovering a "Mr. X" who try our roast suckling pig, corn fed geese, pheasant, had met with Oswald could be the kind of publicity boost that might push the quail, venison, dover sole, octopus, milk fed veal rib Rules Committee into positive action. roast, rack of lamb or chateaubriand. I called Tannenbaum. He swore that the leak had not come from him or from Great holiday meals start with an Sprague. In fact. he said. Sprague was lected for Washington Beef Wild tur- at that moment meeting with Schweiker outstanding entree from the keys & barbeque turkeys, too. Please and probably hearing about the Ander- Washington Beef Company store. place your orders by November I3th son columns for the first time from the From prime aged beef to exotic senator himself. "I really think this is to insure delivery for Thanksgiving. an attempt to sabotage us," Tannen- game, you'll find beautiful meals for Call 547-8271. Delivery service baum said. "We had already gotten word holiday entertaining. Including, of ''That certain senators are trying to zing available. Or visit the company store, us, and the Senate Committee is not being course, the Thanks-giving turkey. just east of the intersection of cooperative at all." Delicious, plump birds, specially se- New York & Florida (on 4th St., N.E.) in the end, I could not prove where /At \ Plenty of parking. Anderson had gotten copies of my rough ink)...6100.> notes. I knew that they hadn't come from Open Sundays. me or from Schweiker's office. In speak- .41 ing with the staff counsel on the Senate At • Intelligence Committee who had inter- \ viewed Veciana, I was assured that they itibb ir.00-011 '—'hadn't come from him either. "It's ex- 4-41/ tremely damaging here," he said. "and I think it blows any chance of ever get- .1 ting to the bottom of the thing. Also you know we're not going to be able to deal with the Miami Cuban community at all now. Once you blow your sources down there, you're cooked." That I was well aware of. There was no assessing the damage the leak could cause to my effectiveness as an investigator. Why would any of my sources trust me now? Why should Veciana believe he could tell me anything confi- dentially? Why should he continue to cooperate at all? I had to set up a meeting with Veciana to tell him about the Anderson column. He could accuse me of betraying him and I could not prove to him that I hadn't. -01's When I told him. Veciana's reaction sr-i; was not directed at me. An expression of concern crossed his face and it became obvious as we started to talk about it that he was extremely worried about the reaction in the anti-Castro movement_ I got the impression that he once again had become active and that his effectiveness was based on their long trust in him. "it is very bad for me," he said. I questioned Tannenbaum further. He Danker's West offers fine food and cocktails admitted he had briefed at least six of moderately priced in the same tradition of the the twelve members of the Assassination "Original Danker's". A lunch menu complete with Committee on the details of the Veciana story and that copies of the rough notes beef and seafood dishes, fresh fish and luncheon had been put into the file system. That specials daily. Dine in the casual atmosphere at meant the entire staff could have had Danker's West and make the curtain call at Arena access to them. Tannenbaum, however, Stage. Open Monday-Friday I l am-9 pm. Free expressed the feeling that perhaps it was the CIA itself that engineered the leak Dinner parking. in order to damage the Committee's ability to develop new confidential sources. Well, if so, it was damn successful," I said. MAJOR CREDIT CARDS HONORED Months later Bob Tannenbaum, after he submitted his resignation, gave us this Danker's West 525 School St.. S.W. 554.7856+ Danker's 1 advice: "The thing you have to remem- 200 E Si.. N.W. 628-2330 ber about this town is to stick together and watch your ass."

November 1980/The Washingtonian 207

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I did not meet G. Robert Blakey, the 1963. He was running late for a luncheon new staff director of the House Asses- appointment and had to hurry off. He Ni?rations Committee, until just before said we'd finish up when he -returned. Bob Tannenbaum resigned in July. Be- He never returned. At lunch he got word tween Sprague's departure and Blakey's of his brother's death in Dallas." arrival, Tannenbaum tried to structure Despite his soft-spe-en, casual, and the investigation. Special projects—such sometimes whimsical demeanor (he once as drawing up a list of Dealey Plaza invaded the home of staff researchers on witnesses, arranging autopsy and ballis- Halloween Eve dressed as Count Drac- tic studies, preparing photo analyses, and ula), Blakey turned out to be a cunning beginning file research—were begin- strategist who took pride in his ability ning to keep the staff busy. to manipulate people and situations. His a.-- Late in June. I received a call from foil was Gary Cornwell, the man he Tannenbaum. "I'm going to give you brought in to replace Tannenbaum as an investigative plan," he said. "I'm deputy chief counsel in charge of the getting it together now." I said good but Kennedy "task force." Cornwell, a 32- suggested that, first, the staff be divided year-old Justice Department prosecutor into teams and the investigative areas out of the Kansas City Organized Crime defined. "Yeah, that's what I'm going Strike Force, was a brashly pragmatic to do." Tannenbaum said, "Blakey starts Texan. He talked fast, loud, and Texan, officially on Friday and I want you to smoked pipes and big cigars, drove a Justice Department prosecutor Gary come up next week to meet him. Mean- Datsun 280Z, wore cowboy boots, and Cornwell replaced Robert while, I tried to talk to him about it but appreciated hard rock and Willie Nelson. Tannenbaum as deputy counsel to instead he gave me this little book he I liked him. the House Committee. Brash and wrote called Techniques in the Investi- But, contrasts that they were, 'both loud, he nevertheless accepted the gation and Prosecution of Organized Blakey and Cornwell viewed their roles role of hired hand. Cornwell: "Our Crime. He told me, `When I talk about as staff directors of the Committee in the ultimate goal is to get a report an investigative plan, I want you to know same limited perspective: They were the written." my lingo.' Then he hands me this cock- hired hands of the congressional com- amamy book." mittee members, and the priorities of limit and people who are being inves- The next week I was In Washington their job were governed by the desires tigated know that, they can stall you for sitting in Tannenbaum's office when of those members, that length of time and defeat the inves- Blakey stuck his head in the door. "Come By the time Bob Blakey was offered tigation." in, Bob," Tannenbaum called. "We're the position as chief counsel (former Sprague's fear of delaying tactics was just getting a briefing on the Miami sit- Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox and- based on historical precedent. That's uation." Actually, Tannenbaum had been former Supreme Court Justice Arthur exactly what the CIA did to the Warren telling me about a job interview he had Goldberg had reportedly refused it), the Commission. When the Commission was that afternoon at the Justice Department. tumult the Committee had endured had pressing the Agency for information about Blakey came in. introduced himself, took convinced most congressional members its Mexico City operations, an internal a seat, leaned hack, and put his scruffy that they were trapped in a no-way-to- memorandum written to then-Deputy brown loafers up on Tannenbaum's desk. win situation. They couldn't get out of Director Richard Helms noted: "Unless Damned if he didn't look like a real it without losing political face, but they you feel otherwise, Jim [Angleton] would Ivy League professor. He wore a baggy could get it over with as soon as possible. prefer to wait out the Commission on gray pin-stripped suit, blue button-down When Chairman Stokes offered Blakey the matter. ." (Angleton was the Oxford shirt, and an ancient green slim- the job, Stokes told him that he wanted longtime chief of the CIA's Counter-In- jim tie. He wasn't a big man, and his the Committee's business wrapped up telligence Division, the unit handling the slight paunch, soft pale face, and reced- within its two-year life span and a final Agency's dealings with the Warren ing hairline made him look older than report done by the end of the 1978 Commission.) his 4l years. Under heavy, gray-flecked congressional year. At his first general staff meeting late brows, he had clear blue eyes. He was The two-year limitation was an arbi- in August 1977, the new chief counsel casually self-confident, and, as I told trary one that became written in stone. announced that when he took the job he him about what we were doing in Miami, Richard Sprague admitted to some of the had to promise Chairman Stokes that the he expressed keen interest. He asked blame. "When I first came to Washing- staff would finish its investigation and particularly about Santos Trafficante and ton," he later told Gallery magazine produce a report by December 31,1978. his involvement in the areas I was in- writer Jerry Policoff, "I was asked how There would be no possibility. Blakey vestigating. He then began talking about long it would take. My response was, said, that the Committee would be ex- his days with the Organized Crime and to properly investigate murder you can tended beyond that time. Racketeering Section of the Justice De- never put a time limit on it. If you ask partment. "You want to hear something me what I think ought to be the time to That pronouncement was an insight into ironic?" he said. "My last meeting with get the job done, my estimate would be Bob Blakey's character. It also indicated Bobby Kennedy was on November 22, two years. But if you've got an outside bow he viewed the importance of John 208 The NisrhingtaniantNevember 1980

7gIMMS75S5MS -'2.0MFM.. WMAZAVIMP,"!iMUN1RegS'AUVS.4Sr4R-WEIMAWSMWMIeWMIMMU,90. . ttMt-W.f F. Kennedy's assassination in the larger. historical context. He saw nothing in- congruous about accepting a basic and crucial limitation in conducting "a full and complete investigation" of one of the most important events in this country's history. It was also at that first staff meeting that Blakey established what he considered the limits of the Committee's operations. In carefully defined terms rem- iniscent of a freshman political-science lecture, he explained the differences between the functions of a legislative body and the goals of a law-enforcement agency. Our primary duty, he said, was not to conduct a criminal investigation; --we.were limited by the powers and privileges granted to Congress by the Con- stitution. Our investigative powers were merely an auxiliary of the legislative function. We were not out to produce

Our primary duty, —Blakey said, was not to conduct a criminal investigation. We were not out to produce indictments. Our goals were to gather evidence to be presented at public hearings and to produce a final report. The Original Internationally Famous . . . indictments. We had no legal sanction to arrest or imprison anyone. Our goals were to gather evidence to be presented at public hearings and, after that, to produce a final report. There was no doubt that Blakey knew JAPANESE what he was doing. Not only was it apparent now that the staff would finally get organized. but organization itself stEAK would be the essence of its being. That became more obvious when I was called back to Washington a few weeks later for another general staff meeting. By that Dui time every staff member bad received --wombat'— newly arrived Deputy Counsel Corn- well's first memorandum. It said, in full: "Attached hereto is copy of House Res- olution 222. Please familiarize yourself with this document." That was the res- FEATURING TEPPANYAKI AND HIBACHI COOKING TEMPURA • STEAK • SHRIMP • CHICKEN • 8EEP olution that created the Committee al- Plarly Room, Mawr C‘rdif Garda most one year before. Cornwell was tak- Ava.lawe LUNCHEON: MONDAY THRU FRIDAY Hononnf ing the first step toward what both he DINNER: 7 NITES PER WEEK (Sal. 5:30 - 11 p.m.. Sun. 4-9 p.m.) and Blakey took to be their goal: To build a record. That was the spirit of the BETHESDA. MD. ROSSLYN-ARLINGTON. VA. second staff meeting. It dealt with in- 7845 WISCONSIN AVENUE 1701 N FT. MYER DRIVE formational processing and staff procedures, rules and regulations, the stan- dardization of operations, and paperwork. 656-1344 528-1333 I remember returning from Washing- Fm Ar•ervallans Fro Pesr...ons ton after that meeting feeling as if I had been smothered in regulations and procedures. My concern was magnified be- November 19R0/The Washeigtoman 209

.775Mtil'Ai. ■ILAIMMIWPSW:Mth.""1&,SL. cause, just prior to the staff meeting, cedures. cranking up the record-building X-rays were authentic, yet one of its own Cornwell had called me into his office machinery, and formulating "working photo consultants, Robert Groden, is now and told me he wanted to talk to me relationships" with other government claiming to have found signs of forgery about the nature of my reports. agencies. At an early staff meeting he in this evidence. Another question of When I started investigating the Ken- outlined his immediate goals and direc- authenticity involves the bullet frag- nedy assassination with Senator Schwei- tion. For the first few months, he said, ments subjected to neutron-activation ker. he was not concerned with formal each team would review its areas of in- analysis and whether they were the same reporting procedures. He was interested vestigation thoroughly. He called it fragments tested in 1964. Those are only in my developing information that might "foraging." The second phase, he said, a few of the questions critics are now help to resolve the case. I was in almost would entail defining the priority "is- asking. There will be more, each putting daily telephone contact with other staf- sues"—that is, deciding the crucial another crack in Blakey's theory of sci- fers in his office who were working on questions in each area. ("Issue" is the entific evidence having the "greatest the case. 1 also regularly sent informally favorite word. I discovered, of Wash- reliability." written reports detailing and analyzing ington lawyers. They use it to replace My own impression was that Blakey's the information I was coming up with. "question.") The third phase would be emphasis on scientific analysis was partly Although not required, I felt such reports the concentrated investigation of those the result of his lack of confidence in the were necessary to give Schweiker a basis key questions. Then would come the investigative staff. Although Blakey was ,.(ry evaluating the information and to public hearings and the final report. eventually able to stack the staff-counsel rc, provide a perspective for discussing where It appeared that a real investigation positions with people he hired himself, we were going. Facts can be misleading. was getting under way. However, when most of the investigative staff had al- They are, as writer Dwight MacDonald Blakey finally began to get himself into ready been hired by the time he arrived. said, like marbles, which take on dif- the substance of the case, his attitude And because former chief-coun-sel ferent hues and tones according to the toward the various methods of investi- Sprague had viewed the Kennedy assas- light in which they are viewed. In my gation became clear. He had the aca- sination as a homicide case, almost all written reports, 1 attempted to use my demician's view of scientific evidence the investigators were from the ranks of knowledge of the Kennedy case to give police homicide squads, the largest num- Schweiker some perspective. When I ber from New York. The bulk of Blakey's ...joined the House Committee, I thought past associations, as a Justice Depart- such analytical reports would be espe- ment attorney and an important figure cially useful because there was no other The bulk of Blakey's past in the anti-organized-crime fraternity, had investigator with my experience on the associations had been been with law-enforcement personnel of Case. more sophisticated breeding, mostly FBI Cornwell told me to stop them. "I with law-enforcement agents and Internal Revenue specialists. want your reports to be strictly factual," Now here he was on the Committee with he said. "Just give us the information. personnel of more a bunch of street cops. I don't want any of your analysis going sophisticated breeding. In Miami, still pretty much on our into the record." That, I said, would own, Al Gonzales and I were making require ignoring the validity of the sources Now here he was on the progress in seeking links between what of the information. In Miami, where I we considered the hottest leads, those was dealing with so many Cubans and Committee with a bunch involving the association of anti-Castro soldiers of fortune who were notorious of street cops. activists with intelligence operatives. disseminators of misforrnation, to report Then from Washington came a ripple their words as gospel would produce a that forewarned of a new strategy from misleading record. "All right," Corn- Blakey. It came with a call from Eddie well said, "if you want to analyze the having what he called the "greatest re- Lopez, one of the young researchers on information, put it on separate yellow liability." That's why so much time and Team 3, the anti-Castro unit. Lopez, a paper and I'll tell the mail room not to money was spent on such things as neu- bright guy attacking his new job with log it in." I came to refer to the pro- tron-activation analysis, acoustics stud- youthful fervor, was one of the small cedure as the "Yellow Paper Ploy." ies, ballistic and trajectory analysis, and group of law-school students Blakey had On the plane flying back to Miami, other scientific studies. But science, like brought from Cornell. Born in New I recorded my feelings: "For the first statistics, can lie, and two scientists often York's Puerto Rican barrio, Lopez was time. I'm beginning to understand what ad the same results in opposite ways. a free spirit who wore long curly locks. it's really like to work in Washington. Blakey also dismissed the fact that an infectious smile, baggy jeans, and Blakey obviously knows what's impor- some of the evidence being scientifically flip-flops. He was 21 but looked 16. tant here. And what's important is not evaluated couldn't be authenticated as Lopez told me that Team 3 had had a what you do, but how what you do looks being the original evidence. The chain major meeting with Deputy Chief Corn- while you're doing it, how it looks after of custody could never be proven in any well that morning. "I think we may have you did it, and how it will eventually court. In fact, the shabby state of security some problems." Lopez said. "In our look in relation to how everything else in which some of the evidence was kept discussion with him, Gary craftily ma- you did looks. was illustrated in 1972 when it was dis- nipulated the conversation around to covered that President Kennedy's brain Miami. Then he asked, 'What the hell By the end of its first year, the Assas- and a set of microscope tissue slides that are those guys doing down there? Some- sinations Committee was beginning to might have shown conclusively which one call Fonzi and ask him to answer roll slowly forward. With the exception direction the fatal bullet had come from that question in twenty words or less.' of personnel in the administrative, legal, were missing from the National Archives So I raised my hand and said that I could and document-handling sections, the staff security area. Although hints have come answer that question in five words: was divided into five "teams." Each from the Kennedy family that Robert 'Trying to solve the case.' Then he said, team had two or three attorneys, plus Kennedy wanted the brain in order to 'Well, those guys are running around researchers and investigators. In Miami, bury his brother's body properly, that down there and they're never going to Al Gonzales and I worked mostly with doesn't explain the missing tissue slides. come up with anything we can resolve Team 2, which had the organized-crime And stored in the same security area in time. I've got to bring them into our and Jack Ruby areas, and with Team 3, were other crucial pieces of physical framework. — Lopez, a little fellow with which had anti-Castro Cubans and New evidence, including the photos and X- a soft whisper of a voice, sounded con- Orleans. rays that the Committee used to corro- cerned. "To tell you the truth," he said, Blakey spent his first few months on borate the single-bullet theory. The "that really shocked me. I couldn't be- the job establishing processes and pro- Committee concluded that the photos and lieve he didn't know what you guys are 210 The Mshingtonianligovernber 1980

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Firesidefrom FIREPLACE Chat CHARLIE Whom I Support. And Why. Several months ago, you may recall, get involved in the politics of it, then the there was a 'Draft Charlie' movement. In System must be altered. But why do I the best mercantile tradition, I find the candidates so unworthy of my declined...stating that it was better to Cornell law students Mark Flanagan support...and yours? Folks, The Oily mind the stores than The Houses. (front) and Eddie Lopez Alliance is no advertising fiction created were among the corps of researchers Fnends, after closely examining the by Fireplace Charlie's to hype sales. positions of those who are running Spend a week in one of my stores and recruited by the House Assassinations Committee. instead, I know I made a mistake. you will discover the frustration, anger Another mistake is adhering to the and - most of all - fear caused Americans doing down there. • • axiom that when it comes to public by the greed and bald power exercised I couldn't believe it either, and didn't. expressions on matters political, a against them by The Alliance. They merchant should be a rnurrichant a couldn't care less whether you freeze in Cornwell had to be aware of what we Were doing if he read the reports—both mutant in the dynamics of the political the winter or lose your job because of formal and on yellow paper—flowing process. But when he reaches the lack of gas to get to it (or keep it going). across his desk. I also didn't believe he conclusion, as I have done, that he really Their manipulation of media, politicians wasn't aware of the importance of Miami. is neutral, he is assaulted by commercials and our economic system intertwine What the critics have come to call "the on the half-hour demanding that he do awesomely. But they also intertwine Cubanization of Oswald" is one of the his duty and vote. In other words, act on destructively. And which of the major mysteries of the Kennedy case. the periphery, but don't dare react at the candidates has had the courage to tackle Although he assumed a pro-Castro pub- core of the process. And the logic is the damage done by The Oily Alliance? lic posture, Oswald's contacts were absurd that in our democracy one must Which one has a program that will free us mostly with anti-Castro activists. Miami vote - even if there's no one he supports - from the Alliance's threat in the future was the heart of anti-Castro activism and to prove the soundness of the system. In and restore our standard of living to the the headquarters of the groups with which Communist countries, every citizen is level we deserve? None of them. I don't Oswald had been in contact, Cornwell forced to exercise the franchise, but he expect them to stand up on the platform knew that and knew the specifics of what has no power at all. He cannot do and urge you - as I do - to 'Heat with we were pursuing. I wondered what he anything but vote; he has no choice in the wood...and stick it to 'em good'. 1 do meant when he talked about bringing the people for whom he must vote. In this expect them to act in the best interests of Miami investigators "into our framework." country, thank goodness, everyone of us the nation. And if that means offending a Shortly afterwards, Al Gonzales and can be involved from start to finish. In powerful enemy, it must be done. The I were called back to Washington for fact, the real urgency in a Democracy is Oily Alliance can never be appeased, it that when one finds the choices totally can only be pleased by a leadership another meeting. Eddie Lopez met us at the airport with a dour expression instead unexciting (as I do this Fall), he must which is not determined to destroy it. So, of his usual grin. "No one is very happy accept the responsibility of taking an I intend to sit this one out on November around here," he said. "There has been active part - from the start - in the next 4. But I do more than ever give my a new operating procedure directive. Cliff contest. If a corollary of the Free support to someone(s) who suffer most Fenton has had to call all his investi- Enterprise System is that those who from lack of meaningful policy aimed at gators back from Dallas and they have participate and profit from the destroying The Oily Alliance. I support been hanging around the office now for economics of the system mustn't dare you. more than two weeks. Blakey and Corn- well have told us that everything will stop until we develop what they call the HOURS 'key issues.' By that they mean ques- Mon..Wed_ 10-6 tions which can be resolved by June. By Thur &Fri. 10-9 Sat 10-6 then. they said, the investigation must Sun 12.5 be over, because we have to prepare for • Open 7 Days • the public hearings and then the final report." I couldn't grasp what Lopez was say- 5700 Genl. Washington Dr. ing. Either I didn't want to believe it or in Shirley Industrial Park I could see the incongruity of developing 11748 Parklawn Dr Springfield, Va. "key issues" resolvable by June. Lopez Came meet Charlie.- Rockville, Md. (Next door to Marto's) said that the general staff meeting was The chap whose prices light (301) 881-0808 (703) 3.54-2754 year fire. scheduled for the next afternoon, but I Rt. 30 & Malin Rd. 1000C Greentree Rd. was too anxious to wait. With a few (In Lincoln Center) (In Industrial Campus) members from Team 3 and Chief In- Frazer, Pa. Marlton, N.J. vestigator Fenton, we arranged a meet- 2157 Greenspring Dr. (215) 647-0426 (609) 596-0371 ing with Cornwell that morning. Timonium, Md. dust past Malvern... Just North of Rt. 73... The Assassinations Committee staff (301) 561-0212 1/2 Mi. west of Rt. 29 Near Marlton Cir. worked out of what is now called House November 191101The Washingtonian 211

M..•99iirk).a..V4~te,VR&VittftintriliMiamsysitittaiss..twmnstiiiiVaikiniVaiShiWVM1S.M19itaMikiRk93tinitatainnsVtiatar..41ta:MWM91:14.97a.ta-at ittStMita. Annex Number 2, the former FBI Rec- "Are you telling us that we won't be noon meeting was held in one of the ords Building, just southwest of the Cap- able to pursue any questions in this case, large conference rooms on the fourth itol. (It was undergoing renovation for regardless of how important we think floor, above the staff offices, yet it felt the two years of the Committee's life, they are, unless we !maw we can thor- crowded with a few dozen people jammed iii and rats scurrying from office to office oughly investigate them in a few into it. Cornwell sat at the head of a long became such a frequent sight that staffers months?" conference table, a big cigar in his mouth, took to yelling at them for not wearing "I am serious," said Cornwell. "And looking tweedy in a brown patch jacket. security identification cards.) Cornwell I'm not being flip when I say reality is His chair was tilted back and his boots had a corner office with leather chairs irrelevant here. 1 told you, this is not the were characteristically on the edge of the and couches and a long conference table real world we're dealing with this is the table. Blakey, in an uncharacteristic yel- in front of his desk. One set of windows legislative world." low corduroy suit, stationed himself had a bleak view of a grimy stone viaduct Investigator L.I. Delsa had come from against the wall behind Cornwell. that carried the Amtrak lines around the New Orleans. With shiny, tassled loaf- The room grew still when Cornwell southern edge of DC. The other set of- ers, dapper three-piece suit, mod mus- called for attention. "A////right," he feted the grandeur of the three main House tache, and styled haircut. Delsa looked drawled. "I understand there's been a office buildings set on the incline of In- like the TV version of a detective. He lot of bitching about the procedures we've dependence Avenue and, looming above, hid his intelligence under the veil of a instituted, so we'll let anyone who has 'the- golden dome of the Capitol. down-home accent: "Well now, down any critical comments to make speak Cornwell said he thought we had for- in New Orl'ns," he said. "we got some up." He puffed on his cigar, grinned, aged enough. "I have the feeling." he issues that need a good lookin' into." and slowly looked around the room. There said, that if we go on the way we are He began detailing what he considered was silence. Finally. Cornwell, with mock we would have a great deal more infor- a crucial area. Cornwell interrupted him. disappointment in his voice, said: "Gee, mation but, come time to write the re- "No, no, no," he said, shaking his head. I thought someone would raise the big port, we'd be no further along than we issue." are now in terms of reaching conclu- "All right," John Hornbeck said from sions. You have to remember that our the back of the room, "I'll raise the big ultimate goal is to get a report written." issue." Hornbeck was the leader of Team What he and Blakey did not want, "It may not be the real 2, the organized-crime unit. Sandy-haired Cornwell said, was a report that would world," Cornwell said, and ruddy-faced, with a Doonesbuty style, cause the public to say, "You mean we he had impressive credentials as an or- spent $5 million on that?" They did not "but it's the world in ganized-crime prosecutor in Denver. want a report that would have the Com- "The big issue," Hornbeck said, "is mittee concluding, in effect, that if it which we have to live." whether this investigation is going to be had so much more time and so much conducted in terms of restricted issues, more money it might come up with some in terms of getting out a report, or is it definite answers. going to be a true wide-ranging inves- Therefore, Cornwell said, in order for "You won't have time to do that. Like tigation?" the report to reach some definite con- I said, that's the real world. That's ir- That summed it up. Cornwell replied clusions, the character of the investi- relevant. This is the legislative world." by repeating what he had told the indi- gation would now change. The inves- sat there staring over Cornwell's head vidual teams. Then Blakey spoke up. tigation would now be structured around and out the window at the Capitol dome. "Listen," he said. "I've laid this all out what he called "linchpin" issues. Those I felt the strange sensation of my mental to you from the beginning. We've reached issues, he said, would have to be selected viewpoint leaving me, rising and float- the paint where we must start moving with specific criteria in mind. There would ing above the scene I was a part of. on the report. Our main priority is the be no broad, encompassing questions to Beyond that window, people were work- report. Now you may say Fm trying to which we probably wouldn't find the ing in those government buildinge: and cover my ass, but you don't have to answers—or knew we would not find thousands more were in other buildings worry about me covering my ass because the answers—within the limits of our all over Washington, and millions of I know how a report should be written. time and resources. others were going about their business I know how to make a report look good. That was the key. We had so much all over the country, and I wondered But I want more than that. I also want time and so much money remaining be- what they would think if they could see the report to be good. I just don't see fore we had to get out a report, So, Corn- us sitting here in this office making de- a conflict in getting the investigation well said, we were not going to come cisions about something that was to be- now boiled down to certain basic issues up with any issues we couldn't handle come a part of their history. and in attempting to solve the case." given these limitations. We must re- I remember thinking that I should be That was that. member, Cornwell said, that Congress feeling a special pride in being there, I looked toward Cliff Fenton, sitting gave us a job to do and dictated the time having a role in something as historically in a corner. He was leaning forward, his and resources in which to do it. "That's significant as the Kennedy-assassination hands clasped between his knees, his the legislative world," Cornwell said. investigation. eyes staring down at the floor, his head "It may not be the real world, but it's I didn't feel that. I felt uneasiness— slowly moving back and forth. He was the world in which we have to live." as if I were a part of' something a bit in a tough spot. His investigators would With his hint of a Texas drawl and his shady. I'm not sure what those people not be able to get back into the field until ability to articulate his thoughts quickly. out there in America expected, but it each team developed its key issues and Cornwell had a prosecutor's ability to crossed my mind that what we were doing got them approved by Cornwell and exude confidence regardless of what he in this office in Washington was plan- Blakey. Then a specific "investigative was saying. I remember sitting slouched ning to deceive them. Those people out plan"—detailing who would be inter- in that big leather couch, scribbling some there thought we were investigating the viewed and when—had to be drawn up notes and waiting for what he had just assassination of President Kennedy. What from the issues and approved. It would said to sink in. Then I said: ''Realisti- we were really doing was planning to be weeks before the investigators could catty, that doesn't make any sense!" I get out a report. get back on the case. almost yelled, as if it had just dawned Confined to Washington, with the leads on me. By the next afternoon at the general staff they had been developing in Dallas left Cornwell let out a loud whoop. "Real- meeting, all the teams in the JFK task dangling, the investigators began to go ity is irrelevant!" he yelled back with force had gotten word of the new in- stir-crazy. Fenton tried to maintain their a big grin. vestigative approach; Cornwell had held morale, but he was seething. One day "Come on, Gary, I'm serious." I said. conferences with each team. The after- he burst into Blakey's office: "What are 212 The teirthirrgrottiarilNaseraber 1980

-ineke.;...swyseczseinewasseesamssmasserm°.saletsSaWe:tWa. 74.SMSWSSFAMMelalLattniMitaMe.,..--W,t'..WW • you doing to me?" he demanded. "Those zalez. At a Friday-evening office gath- are professional people out there! This ering shortly after the "issues approach" is damn embarrassing to me." Blakey meeting, the members of the anti-Castro calmed him, but the attitude of the in- team all showed up in identical white T- vestigators degenerated to the point where shirts. In small letters on the left shoul- Fenton was forced to call a meeting. der was the identification TEAM NO 3, In He sat at the head of the table with blue letters across the front were the a smile on his face. ''All right, all right." words REALM( IS IRRELEVANT. he said in his chuckling way, "I've got to admit that I've never seen an inves- One tends to search for analogies to pro- tigation conducted like this. But that don't vide a full understanding of what hap- mean it won't work." In response, there pened. Was the Assassination Commit- was a general snort. "All I'm saying," tee a circus with many rings, some out Fenton continued, "is that we got to give front and some behind the grandstand, it a chance. I don't want anyone around all spinning in a virtuoso display of raz- here starting to feel they are just working zle-dazzle before it folded its tent and for the money. Just because we've never left behind an empty field of grass matted 0,....seen it done this way before, that don't in patterns ever undecipherable? Or was mean it won't work." it a politically inspired drama of the Catch- "The way it looks to me," said Clar- 22 genre, the story of a hapless group ence Day, a homicide veteran from whose investigative mission got tangled Washington, "is that this investigation in the demand to maintain a detailed log, is over." There was a murmur of affir- to write an acceptable report? mation. At this point in the investigation, we "Well, I've got to admit," Fenton had mixed feelings about what was hap- chuckled, "I'm sort of flabbergasted. In The T-shirt reads "Reality Is pening. At least something was happen- fact, I'm totally flabbergasted. But be- Irrelevant"—it was the unofficial ing. Those of us who had been aboard e--- tween us, I can tell you now we've been motto of House Assassinations the Committee when its sails flapped promised something. We've been prom- Committee investigators who were almost uselessly for a year felt enor- ised that as soon as we're done with this frustrated at the restraints placed on mously grateful that we were at last issues business at the end of May, while their work by superiors. moving in some direction. Blakey had everyone else is busy with the public sailed us into smoother waters, hearings and getting the report done, that continuing investigation would lead Besides, Bob Blakey was a nice guy. we'll be able to continue the investiga- only to answers rather than to more ques- A Notre Dame grad and family man with tion and cover it in any way we want. tions. In that, Blakey and Cornwell were seven children, he had always been on We got a promise on that. So that if right. Yet, if such questions were rele- the right side in the war against the bad anyone comes up with something that vant to the solving of the Kennedy as- guys. Intellectually, his brilliance jus- doesn't fit into the issues, just let me sassination, how could they be ignored? tified his hint of arrogance. He was easy know and I'll make sure we get to it That was the circle we kept going in as to talk with, had a sense of humor, and when we start moving the way we should the team attempted to develop acceptable knew when to listen. be. Okay?" issues. But as staff discontent grew, leaks to That seemed to lift the gloom that had The first question I tried to get ap- the press about Blakey's methods in- hung over the group when the meeting proved: Was there an intelligence-agency creased. An article in New Times mag- started, although it did end with an ex- connection through anti-Castro Cubans azine blasted Blakey for his Machiavel- temporaneous chorus of a popular song and Oswald to the Kennedy assassina- lian scheming in handling his staff and of the time: "Take This Job and Shove tion? That question, I knew, would never critics. It also charged him with being It." pass muster because of the investigative cozy with the CIA and making agree- effort it would require. By the nature of ments with the Agency that severely re- I remained in Washington to help the its operations, an intelligence agency stricted the investigative staffs use of anti-Castro team formulate its issues. It doesn't leave authentic tracks. One has intelligence information. became obvious that each team had to to look for patterns. The issue I wanted Shortly after the New Times article limit nor only the type of question it to pursue involved the patterns of veri- appeared, a rumor about Blakey sud- could investigate but also the number of fied misinformation almost all linking denly burst into the open. It was trig- questions. Because time was slipping Oswald to Castro—that were born in gered by what became known as "the away, the "full and complete" inves- Miami immediately after the assassina- Ortiz manuscript flap." tigation of the assassination of President tion. That. I figured, would also give About six months previously, Al Gon- Kennedy would have to boil down to a me the opening to pursue the Veciana zalez and I had interviewed a Miami five-month effort. story, because Bishop had asked him to attorney who represented a Puerto Rican For the next few weeks, the staff help develop a phony story through his calling himself Antulio Remirez Ortiz. worked late into the night to develop cousin in Castro's intelligence service. Ortiz was in a federal prison for having issues that contained priority questions Cornwell [ejected the issue. I was back hijacked a plane to Cuba in 1961. Castro and still fit Blakey's criteria. Some teams in Miami when Eddie Lopez told me. had released him from Cuba in 1975, could do that easier than others. The "Cornwell said that issue wouldn't prove and Ortiz surrendered to the FBI when teams handling the ballistics and autopsy anything," Lopez said. "He said all it he returned to the United States. projects, for instance, knew the ques- would do is raise the question of whether While being held in Cuba, Ortiz said, tions they were going to ask their panels or not an intelligence agency was mon- he was assigned to work in the vicinity of experts. itoring Oswald for one reason or other of the headquarters of the Cuban 0-2, The anti-Castro area was one of the and, after the assassination, was trying its intelligence service. He claimed to toughtest in which to develop questions to disassociate from him. So 1 said to have had the opportunity to check sur- that could be fully explored in limited Gary, 'But don't you see how much closer reptitiously the files on himself. In time. Yet Oswald's association with anti- we'd be if we could prove that?' And searching for them, he came across an- Castro Cubans was one of the key mys- he said, 'Closer is not good enough. We other file, marked OSWALDOiKENNEDY. teries of the Kennedy assassination. The can't put closer into a report." Ortiz said this file revealed that President progress we had been making in Miami After the formulation of the "issues Kennedy had been killed by a "hit team" was opening more doors, many of them approach," staff morale took the deepest from Moscow. marked CIA, and there was no assurance plunge since the days of Chairman Gon- While in prison in the United States, November Moine Washingtomair 213

ItatfaiNVAMMiWP,IMS13.M.,...Vms,imealmsommnmimmees.aycklagml----stswa Ortiz produced a manuscript of his ad- Blakey's rationalization of it because of cuts." ventures, including the discovery of the two factors: First, as restrictive as the Fenton was on target. At a special Kennedy file. His Miami attorney had approach was, it still permitted the staff staff meeting, Blakey went into a long a copy of that manuscript, written in investigators to get out in the field and explanation of what had happened. He Spanish, which he was in the process of do some digging. Second, as the chief and Tom Howarth, the Committee's trying to market through a New York investigator had told us, Blakey had budget officer, had spent days going over literary agent. With the permission of promised that once the issues part of the the books and they were astounded at Ortiz, who was in a prison on the West investigation was wrapped up in June, what they discovered. The budget pro- Coast, the attorney gave us a copy of the the investigators would be free to delve jections they had made were way off manuscript. into the evidence they were most inter- base. There was no way that the final "Bullshit." said Gonzalez after he ested in. phases of the Committee's work—the read it. public hearings and the report writing— I agreed and, after checking further By early in June, it was becoming ap- could be completed without major budget on Ortiz's background, thought it pos- parent that the selected issues were so cuts. Some staff would have to be let sible he may have had some association narrow that, in most areas, even if the go. with American intelligence. (He served investigative plan could not be fully Al Gonzalez and I couldn't get back in the US Army, went to Cuba to help completed, it didn't really matter. Con- to Washington until after the massacre. IMUsgle arms to Castro before the rev- clusions could be drawn. about.what the The weeks between Blakey's announc- olution, and once worked for a defense whole road was like from a quick trip ing the staff cuts and the naming of those contractor in California.) On our next down one section of it. fired saw morale and production plum- trip to Washington, Gonzalez turned the Whether that was a factor in what met to near zero. manuscript over to Blakey and sug- happened next, probably only Blakey Some jokesters had taken to posting- gested that he give it to researcher Eddie knows. The only thing the staff knew on the bulletin board obviously phony Lopez for a word-for-word translation at first was that there was a rumor of a memos from Blakey when things reached before we made any decision on whether big change in the wind. the edge of absurdity. The announced to check Ortiz's story further. (Gonzalez Al Gonzalez and I were in Caracas. staff cuts had produced the latest post- thought Lopez would have a better grasp ing, a parody of Blakey's passion for ad-43rtiz's Puerto Rican idiom.) scientific analysis. The memo an- Some time later, when I asked Eddie nounced that a decision had been made Lopez about the Ortiz manuscript, he The fake memo on the individuals to be let go. The de- didn't know what I was talking about. cision was made, the memo said, on the He said he had never received a manu- concluded: "All Leos, basis of careful consultation with experts script from Blakey to translate. I made Cancers, Pisces, and who had established the proper scientific a mental note to check with Blakey about postulates for the decision. The memo it later. Tauruses are hereby concluded: "All Leos, Cancers, Pisces, I didn't have to. Late one Sunday eve- and Tauruses are hereby dismissed." ning, I received a telephone call from dismissed." But when When the firings did come, no one Blakey. There was a nervous edge to his the firings did come, no was laughing. Of the 25 staffers given voice. "Talk to me," he said. "Tell me their walking papers, the majority were everything you know about how we came one was laughing.- investigators. in contact with the Ortiz manuscript." Chief Investigator Fenton took the It was not fresh in my memory, but massacre of his staff with bitterness: I pieced together the details. "All right," We were there primarily to talk with a "They really bagged me. They kept he said, "I just wanted to refresh my witness who could not be omitted from promising me that we would be able to own recollection about it. I'll tell you the investigative plan: Dr. Orlando Bosch, swing the way we wanted after we fin- why I asked." He said that on Friday the best known and the most violent of ished the work plan at the end of June. afternoon one of columnist Jack Ander- anti-Castro terrorists. Bosch was being That's why I kept telling everybody son's legmen had called him to check held by the Venezuelan government for whenever they started bitching that this out a rumor. The rumor, Blakey said, blowing up a Cubans Airlines plane, wasn't a real investigation: 'All right, was that he had sold out to the CIA in killing 73 persons. The "issue" ques- just finish the work plans, just finish the return for a high Justice Department post. tion we were to ask Bosch was whether work plans.' But if they had told me the An example of the sellout, he said, was Lee Harvey Oswald had had any asso- whole investigation was going to be over that he had turned the Ortiz manuscript ciation with him or his group. Both Gon- in June, well, we would've cried some over to the CIA. zalez and I felt we were just going through slippin' and slidin' and tried to get a few Blakey asked if I heard any such al- the motions: Bosch was not under oath things done. Now suddenly everything's legation. I told him I had not. "Well, and had no motivation to tell the truth. off. They checkmated me. It was like anyway," he said. "if you hear it. it Without the time or resources to check they anticipated every move I was going ain't true." He laughed. on what he said, we felt we were con- to make." What Blakey didn't acknowledge to veyors of whatever lies or propaganda me that evening was that he actually had he wanted to get into the record. If there had been an air of unreality to turned over the Ortiz manuscript to the Sitting in our Caracas hotel room one the Assassinations Committee's opera- CIA. He did admit it subsequently when evening near the end of our stay, Gon- tions until then, after the decimation of someone on his staff asked him directly. zalez called Washington to tell Cliff Fen- its investigative staff there were periods He claimed that he had done so because ton of our "progress." When he hung that seemed almost hallucinatory. I still the CIA had linguists who could do a up, Al didn't look happy. remember a meeting in Cornwell's office more expert translation of the Ortiz id- "It's hitting the fan up there again," shortly after Dick Billings joined the iom than Lopez could. I thought it was he said. "Cliff said that Blakey just dis- Committee. a dumb thing to have done. covered that there was some miscalcu- Billings was bearded, lean, and di- Nevertheless, because I thought the lation in the way they were keeping the sheveled. He was hired by Blakey to be Ortiz manuscript was worthless, the fact financial records and that the Committee the Committee scribe. Billings was a that Blakey had given it to the Agency is running way the hell over our budget." pro's pro. He had spent years as an editor didn't bother me much. I was more con- "What's that mean?" I asked. "That and writer for Life cerned with the valid aspects of the in- magazine, then be- they can't afford to bring us home?" came executive editor of vestigation and Blakey's concern with Congressional "No such luck," said Gonzalez. "Cliff Quarterly and also worked at them. The restricted-issues approach was US News thinks that maybe Blakey is going to use & World Report. disturbing, but I was ready to accept that as an excuse to make some staff By and-June—as the Committee's five- 214 The 1452shengroniani November 1980

'''',Tre,terswee::ev xreirrim,r•wetsv^te,taz raewenWerreeaOts7e...iareAtoCemeRettra•- lilrkeV.W.WMICA T.Mr,RtirSMWSMir.ti l'AMWRMMV. in June and the officially scheduled de- ingful? What new evidence could we mise of the Committee in December, present? We didn't want to trot out the Blakey directed his attention mostly to old Warren Commission stuff. Then, in two things: the public hearings and the July, I guess, Blakey and Cornwell and writing of the report. I were all handed an outline of exactly From his first briefing, Blakey em- what the hearings would contain." phasized the public hearings. I had al- The original outline of the public hear- ways thought that congressional public ings indicated that anti-Castro Cuban hearings were for the public. I assumed, activities would get a decent public ex- in the case of the Assassinations Com- posure. "Under that area are listed Odio mittee. that our public hearings would and Veciana," McDonald told me at the be an opportunity to present to the time, "but I'm wondering if that's going American people the first objective over- to be misleading. I'm afraid their ap- view of the Kennedy assassination. It pearance may give the impression that would be a presentation that cut through the Committee is trying to link anti-Cas- the years of crazy theories and confusion tro Cubans to the assassination. There's and misinformation. We would lay out no evidence for that." all the evidence as we discovered it and I agreed. I pointed out'that the Veciana ask the most troubling questions, whether incident indicated that Oswald's asso- Veteran magazine editor and writer or not we had the answers. if the hearings ciation was not with anti-Castro Cubans Richard Billings had the unenviable had a political purpose, as I saw it, it but with the intelligence community. task of writing the Committee's final would be to arouse the public to demand From the outline, that seemed to be report. The message in a Chinese answers and to support the government's a sensitive area. The possibility of Os- fortune cookie accurately described efforts to come to a final conclusion about wald's association with the CIA was going his predicament. one of the most tragic and significant to be handled in a circuitous way, as a events in our country's history. The pub- part of the presentation concerning the month "investigative plan" was being lic hearings would have to do with response of federal agencies to the Ken- folded up—Billings had produced his knowledge and truth and the basis of the first proposed outline of the Committee's democratic system of government. All final report. It was disjointed and con- those platitudes they teach in civics class. fused. There was no way Billings could Washington teaches its own civics les- have pulled together a comprehensive sons. 1 learned that congressional public overview of the Kennedy assassination hearings are not for the public but for from the grab bag of questions the staff Congress. They are designed to provide was working on. A meeting was held in committee members with as much ex- Cornwell's office to discuss the outline. posure as possible, to give the impres- It quickly became apparent that there sion that they are serious about what were significant gaps in the investigative they're doing and the impression that plan, even in the selective issues. But they have not been squandering the tax- the investigative effort had produced some payers' money. They are designed to be new leads and questions that appeared politically rewarding. to have significant potential. Suddenly there was enthusiastic talk of following The public hearings on the Kennedy as- up hot open leads. sassination were scheduled for Septem- I sat there increasingly bewildered. ber 1978. Chief Counsel Blakey had Was I going crazy? Is everyone sitting begun preparing for them almost im- here talking about investigating the Ken- mediately after joining the Committee nedy assassination now that the Com- more than a year before. Memoranda on Jim McDonald, senior staff member mittee no longer has a goddamn inves- staff procedure for the hearings poured or the House Assassinations tigative staff? Maybe it's me, I thought. forth as early as November 1977. Blakey Committee, helped engineer the Maybe reality is irrelevant. knew what he was doing in Washington, public hearings. Wary of linking That night, a small group of staffers, My impression several weeks before Oswald to the anti-Castro exiles in including Billings, went to the Sze- the hearings was that no hard decisions Miami. he nevertheless concluded chuan, a Chinese restaurant on H Street. had been made about which witnesses that Silvia Odio would make a for dinner. Billings not only had to write would be called. I discussed that recently credible witness. But she never the final report, he had to script the sce- with a senior-counsel staffer, Jim Mc- appeared. narios for the upcoming public hearings Donald. A former organized-crime con- and produce all the other interim reports sultant to Florida Governor Reubin As- nedy assassination. for Congress, At dinner, we talked about kew, McDonald had just joined a top But I was happy with the proposed the job ahead and what seemed the im- Miami law firm. Blakey convinced him structure of the hearings as far as my possible task of creating a good report to delay taking his new job for a tem- area was concerned because it allowed from the crazy-quilt of selected issues. porary stint with the Committee. Blakey for an introductory background narra- Billings shook his head, shrugged his promised him he could leave shortly after tive, to be read by Blakey prior to the shoulders, and wondered how we had the public hearings. McDonald, a former calling of the witnesses. I arranged with gotten into such a position. The waiter FBI agent, was a Clean-cut, boyish-ap- McDonald that I be the one to write the brought us fortune cookies with tea after pearing, articulate trial attorney. He would narrative that would introduce the anti- the meal. The little green slip inside mine look good on television. Castro Cuban area of the investigation. said TOIL IS THE SIGN OF FAME. Billings "When I got to Washington," Mc- People would be able to grasp the sig- cracked his cookie, read the fortune. Donald recalled, ''none of the staffers nificance of Odio's and Veciana's tes- closed his eyes, slapped his forehead, had a focus on what the hearings were timony in its proper context. and let out a groan. He handed me the going to be about. And as the summer McDonald and I worked closely to little green slip. It said: THE GODS WHO dragged on we began to realize that we prepare this part of the public hearings. WERE SMILING WHEN YOU WERE BORN ARE didn't have a heck of a lot to present at We felt we had only one major problem: NOW LAUGHING. a public hearing. I remember that was to convince Silvia Odio to testify pub- the big topic of discussion in each team: licly. After talking with her, McDonald Between the investigative-staff firings What are we going to put on that's mean- had concluded that she would make an November 19801ThelMiskingtonian 215

RICTRAPAWIMVAR0.974t, . impressively credible witness. Mc- Donald himself had developed a witness in Dallas, Dr. Burton Einspruch, who corroborated that Odio had told him. prior to the Kennedy assassination, of the visit by Oswald and his two companions. That's the kind of evidence a trial attorney appreciated. Silvia Odio had never been an eager witness. The FBI had discovered her only coincidentally and her subsequent handling by the Warren Commission had left her distrustful. Through the years she had hidden from Kennedy-assassination researchers, refused to cooperate with the few who found her, and turned down large sums of money from check- book journalists. Remarried now and with ateenage children, she feared that any publicity connecting her with the Ken- nedy assassination would disrupt the sta- ble life she had struggled so hard to achieve. And she was terrified for her safety. It took time to get Silvia Odio's trust. When I first met her, I was an investigator for Senator Schweiker and could ,,Ipmestly promise her confidentiality and sincerity of purpose. Now I was no longer in control. 1 knew the last thing in the world she wanted was public exposure. She was an educated and intelligent woman and, because of her Cuban experience. she had a deeper belief in the Robert Blakey, chief counsel to the House Assassinations Committee: His democratic system than most natural-born personal conclusion was that organized crime was responsible for the Americans. I thought I could convince murder of John F. Kennedy. her that now, with the direction I saw the Committee heading, it was more meets. I cannot change my sworn state- "But only because I trust you and agree important than ever that she testify ments. So what good is it for me to go it's important for the people to know publicly. to Washington again? I am not going to what happened. I must be crazy letting "I have been dreading that you would change my sworn statements." you two talk me into this, but I believe call," she said when I telephoned. News I assured Veciana we did not want him in you." of the Committee's hearings had been to change his sworn statements and that Arrangements were made that would in the media. "Please don't let them call his appearance before the Committee bring Silvia Odio and Antonio Veciana me for public hearings. I'm not ready would indicate that his testimony was to Washington for their public testi- for it to upset my whole life again." being given credibility. At any .rate, mony. Veciana was tending to some Well, I said, Jim McDonald was coming Veciana knew he couldn't avoid the business and had to do a little schedule down the next week and perhaps we Committee's command. juggling. Odio received permission to could have lunch together and talk about But Silvia Odio was something else. take a leave from her job, and she and it. She had met McDonald and liked him. "Jim, I think we're going to have prob- her husband, who was going to accom- "But why do I have to do it?" she asked. lems with her," I told McDonald. "It's pany her at his own expense, made res- "You have my sworn statements and going to take all your persuasive abilities ervations at a Washington hotel. I got you and Jim spent four hours taking my as a trial attorney to convince her." busy finishing up the narratives that deposition. Why must I have to be brought "Leave it to ol' Jim," said Mc- Blakey would read as an introduction to before the TV cameras? I have a family Donald. never short of confidence. the anti-Castro Cuban area of the Com- and I'm frightened for them. If the con- The Miamarina, where we had lunch mittee's investigation, then prepared to gressmen want to see me privately. with Silvia °dig,, is in Bayfront Park leave for Washington to attend the last be glad to see them privately. Tell me, near downtown Miami. It is a port of week of the hearings—scheduled to deal please, please tell me why I have to go call for yachts from around the world. with the possibility of a conspiracy in through it all over again? Why?" A large circular restaurant sits at the base the Kennedy assassination. But it was I understood her fears and had a hard of its finger piers and from its elevated obvious where the accent would be: One time giving good answers to her ques- patio, against a backdrop of palms and day was supposed to be devoted to what tions. She eventually agreed to have lunch blue sky, luncheon diners can survey the Blakey termed "flaky" theories, such with McDonald and me the next week. rows of sailing craft rolling on their lines. as the contention that Kennedy was shot As a matter of formality. McDonald was It was a lousy spot to try to convince by an "umbrella man" wielding an as- bringing subpoenas for both her and someone to go to Washington. Jim sassination device hidden in an um- Veciana, but the last thing I wanted was McDonald and I spent several hours tell- brella; one day was scheduled for the to force Silvia Odio to testify. If I couldn't ing Silvia Odio why we thought her pub- anti-Castro Cuban area; and three days convince her to come to Washington lic appearance before the Assassinations were to be devoted to possible orga- voluntarily, I didn't want to be a part of Committee was so important. McDonald nized-crime connections. any legal coercion. did most of the talking. We finally con- Chief Investigator Cliff Fenton came When I approached Antonio Veciana, vinced her the American people had the into Miami on the morning of the day he also was reluctant to make a public right to hear her story as she presented Iwas scheduled to leave for Washington. appearance. "Well, of course, I will go it. not as the Warren Commission had He brought with him a subpoena for because I must go," Veciana said. "But distorted it. organized-crime figure Santos Traffi- I have already given my sworn state- "All right, I'll go," she finally said. cante, who lived in north Miami. Al- 218 The MshirtgronianiNoventberI980

4,','6,,Veweeemersteiersismemiseeetsstap.-.,AM.WW,,7:.,Vaberrrge,Wn'T...MPX,`,5. -Sreqle.eSeR,S70MYSW.W.,°*".tVAM.V.OMMI•,AW,MALMMtt•.. . -•-lk'• though his link to the assassination was tenuous, the appearance of Trafficante would give the Committee's last week of hearings a final shot of media "sex appeal." What Fenton brought, to Miami with THE him, however, was not only Traffi- cante's subpoena but also bad news for me. There would be no witnesses called in the anti-Castro area. That day was AMANA being lopped off the last week of hearings and the presentation of the organized-crime area was being allotted more time. I was to tell Silvia Odio and An- tonio Veciana to cancel their trips to WAY Washington. Faster than ever. Better than ever. Not to worry, I was told, because al- The Amana' Radarange: r,'-though no witnesses would be called, there would still be a public presentation of the anti-Castro Cuban area and Blakey would still read the narrative detailing the stories of Odio and Veciana. I was told I could even revise the narrative and add details when I got to Washington. When I informed Veciana of the change in plans, he was confused. "Why did they make me a subpoena and now they 'say they don't want me?" He was a man trained to look for hidden motives and Now with the exclustve Ratawave" Cook mg System mirror images, and his suspicions were Rotawave rotates microwaves down into the Food In on even pattern. For more even cooking. For falter fine-tuned. I told him what I had been cooking. And it cooks watt 700 watts of power told: The Committee had run out of time. Fat the name of your nearest Amana dealer, call- but his story would still be presented in Amana Refrigeration Baltimore Washington narration. Extra time was needed to pre- 621.5448 sent the organized-crime aspect of the investigation. He found my explanation IF IT DOESN'T SAYAnana. IT'S NOT A7fRcustia/r42,77-r/e inadequate. think there is more to it than that," he said. Silvia Odio did not take the news so calmly. After McDonald and I had convinced her that her testimony was needed, after all the talk of ideals and principles. WASH WITH BOB DUCKMAN she had been trying to prepare herself to face public exposure for the first time. "My God, this is incredible," she 10AM-1P 7.1 FM said when I told her. "After all the hell AM PM Scuarda I've been putting myself through." She paused, unable to express the depth of her reaction. "I feel a tremendous anger," she said. "Well, this is the end for me. I don't want to have anything to do with any more investigations or anything that has to do with the government at all. Of course. I'm glad in a way that I don't have to go through the public exposure, but now I really know that they don't want to know. They don't really want to know because they don't have any answers for the American public. They should never have started this charade in the first place."

Looking back at that last week of the Assassinations Committee's public hearings and the emphasis on the possibility of organized crime being involved in the murder of President Kennedy. one smells a setup. The findings of the acoustic tests—dictating the conclusion of a conspiracy as a result of more than three shots having been fired—were known prior to the public hearings. Blakey had to pin the conspiracy somewhere. Most members of the Committee's organized-crime team never bought Blakey's theory. "I remember that as

November 19801The Washtngrorrum 219

S.StittattitgaMPOSESSOSSEOWEn.MMIOSMAWYEttit-Itt9ilkeMONThltIMSZO.MtEtYWk,'"OIMOVSFCkY4707: being a constant battle at our meetings," former team leader Jim McDonald recalls. "Most of us on the team felt we never made the link. But at our meetings it was obvious that Blakey wanted that. He wanted to make that link more than anything else." Blakey seemed to have made the link well before the acoustics results dictated the need for a conspiracy explanation. "When Blakey sold me on joining the Committee," McDonald remembers, "we had a long discussion over the phone. This was in late February. He was in- timating he had some new evidence and he finally asked. 'Well, who do you think killed Kennedy?' I said I didn't )(now. And he said, 'Think. Think about it.' And I guessed, 'Castro? Cuban exiles? I really don't know.' Thinkr he said. 'What's so obvious!' By that time was just confused. Finally he blurted out. 'Organized crime killed Kennedy!"' Another significant characteristic of the hearings: Although they purported to cover the area—it was so declared in From right: Chief Counsel Robert Blakey, Chairman Louis Stokes the press releases—the hearings never (Democrat from Ohio), and administrative aide Charlie Matthews. When 'really delved into most of the evidence one witness strayed from his original statement, Matthews exploded: "He of a possible connection between Lee didn't testify to what we paid him to testify to!" Harvey Oswald and the CIA. Blakey acknowledged a reason for that—it had Odio and Veciana not there, I was more his AID job was a cover for the work to do with the arrangement he had made intent than ever that their stories be told. he was doing for Maurice Bishop. with the CIA in order to gain access to I wrapped up the narrative and put it I went into Blakey's office and asked its files. One of the stipulations was that into the system. The night before it was him why that part of the narrative had all information the Committee obtained to be presented. I wanted to check the been eliminated. Blakey said it was be- from the CIA and wanted to release in final typed draft. Neither Cornwell nor cause he didn't want to get into a hassle its final report would be reviewed by the Blakey had indicated they had any points with the CIA at this point. I told Blakey CIA prior to its release. At that time, they wanted to discuss. In checking. I that the edited-out information did not Blakey contended, the Committee could found that a significant fact had been cut come from the CIA, that it was devel- argue its case on a point-by-point basis. from the Vcciana narrative. oped when I worked for Senator Schwei- Blakey admitted he didn't want to pre- What had been edited out was that the ker. It was not even information that sent any information in the public hear- State Department confirmed Veciana's came through the Senate Intelligence ings that might lead to a "premature" employment by the US government when Committee. And it was not classified in skirmish with the Agency. he was working for the Agency for In- any way. My own experience indicated that ternational Development as a banking Blakey seemed to miss- my point. Blakey leaned over backwards to be cau- consultant in La Paz, Bolivia, and that "Well, in any case," he said, "we've tious. When I finally got to Washington his application for the job had been ac- just got too much to do to get into a during the last week of the public hear- cepted and approved without his sig- hassle with the Agency at this point." ings, I set about expanding the details nature—which indicated that someone He dismissed me and turned to other in the anti-Castro-area narrative Blakey had pulled some strings for him and added staffers waiting to see him. was scheduled to present. Now, with credibility to Veciana's contention that The next day, when it came time to present the anti-Castro Cuban narrative Former President Gerald Ford testifying before the House Assassinations and the stories of Silvia Odio and An- Committee. He maintained his support of the Warren Commission findings, tonio Veciana, Blakey turned to Con- In which he had played a major role. gressman Stokes and said: "Mr. Chairman, in light of the time pressures the Committee is operating under today. I would like to ask permission that the narration on the anti- Castro Cubans be inserted in the record as if read."

At the conclusion of its public hearings. the House Select Committee on Assas- sinations had been in existence for more than two years. Officially, it had three more months of life. During that time, its dwindling staff, humbly determined to finish its job, worked on the area sum- maries for the final report. In those last months. Blakey's preoccupation was with the results of the acoustics tests. A police radio tape of the sounds in Dealey Plaza when Kennedy was shot had been analyzed by an expert. In a conference with Blakey and Cornwell the evening before 2211 The WashingrwitaniNoventber 1980

-K1/4-moge-mg----v.tkogAgbinvmsls,:mt.simwow$4,17e-scAsNA.-,sttp...1mL.ar.slklAtzft•Isk,v,w,wmmsts-,‘ v ,1;,..*.z.,,m,m.sommtooft"3.5.4Mcs-"MigMIM" ;ix his scheduled appearance at the public es pi,„of h whisky. CasJ.Hed. blended and bottled In &Wand. Impcdied lay Moment Henn Wines. Ltd:. White Plmns, N.Y. hearings, Dr. James E. Barger had held the opinion that there were at least four shots recorded on the tape. That meant a conspiracy. Blakey was ecstatic that the hearings would finally have big news. The next day, however, put under pressure in the public spotlight and feeling alone as the only witness testifying on the matter, Dr. Barger toned down his conclusions to a "fifty-fifty chance" of a fourth shot. Cornwell stomped back to the offices cursing a blue streak and yelling as if he had been personally betrayed. Blakey's administrative aide. Charlie Mathews, threw his arms in the air and shouted, "He didn't testify to •-•••what we paid him to testify to!" There was no doubt that the tape recording, as analyzed, indicated that at least four shots were fired, probably more than four. Blakey finally had the hook on which to hang his organized-crime conspiracy theory and he wasn't about to let it slip away. With the hiring of auxiliary experts and additional field tests in Dallas, the Assassinations Committee Jr."' 'was able to conclude that there was a "95-percent probability" that a fourth shot was fired from the grassy knoll. Try BELL'S... Ignoring the fact that such a conclusion contradicted all the earlier scientific the best-selling Scotch findings, the Assassinations Committee published a final report that quiveringly in Scotland. declared: "President John F. Kennedy was probably assassinated as the result of a conspiracy." Thus spake Congress. G. Robert Blakey, pre-arranged pub- lisher's advance in hand, went back to Cornell to write a book about it. WASH WITH JORIBODNAR That is not the whole story. That, in broad brush strokes, is why and how the Assassinations Committee went the way 4PM-8P1V4 1.; 7.1FM Saairday, 4-9PM etromedia Radio it did. That is what was happening while a critical area of evidence was being given token consideration: A credible witness. Antonio Veciana, had alleged that an intelligence operative who used the name of Maurice Bishop was with Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas two months before President Kennedy was assassinated. It was not hard evidence and it was not corroborated, but it was, nevertheless. evidence. It was evidence that, by any standard of evaluation, screamed for the Committee's attention. It never got that attention. The early political and organizational chaos, the establishment of priorities not related to the substance of the case, the subsequent restrictions imposed on the selection of key issues, the diffusion and then decimation of investigative resources, the predisposition to concentrate on organized crime—all dictated the Assassi- nations Committee's handling of, and its conclusions about, the revelations of • Antonio vec i ana. And so. because it did not honor its mandate to conduct "a full and complete" investigation in this important area. the Committee had to distort the facts in its final report in order to justify its conclusions—and cover its ass.

November 1980177w Washingtonian 221

, sttSRMSSAMMSSW.LsISMISMRSWZMINCZMMAIMEMASititvarPrIT.ISSAISSSADAMIPM SWAIBUSIMASTIM6.-hlr,*,ISPAP3001Sr.n tWO.stat . "rik,7z..kShVtrMr,71:- The Gompany Man

On September 20, 1976. I wrote to Sen- and shadow characters. And David Phil- ator Richard Schweiker detailing what lips does have a reputation among his huppened when Antonio Veciana, Sarah peers of being an expert in what-he does. Lewis, and I met David Adze Phillips His book, however, does provide certain at the Association of Retired Intelligence benchmarks. Officers meeting in Reston. David Atlee Phillips was born on Hal- That memo became Document Num- loween, October 31, 1922 in Fort Worth. ber 013455 in the files of the House His father died when he was five, leaving Select Committee on Assassinations. his family a portfolio of oil stocks, a It begins: "Instead of finally resolving lifetime membership in the country club anything, the confrontation between he founded, and a house on the fourth Vecianaand Phillips on Friday in Reston green. The stocks collapsed in '29, but David Atlee Phillips loved to act and 13fily raised a lot more questions in my David's mother went to work and sent took part in amateur theater groups mind. . Now. for the first time. I have him off to college at William and Mary during his CIA assignments in doubts about Veciana's credibility when in Virginia. Phillips paints himself as a Chile, Cuba, Mexico, and the it comes to Phillips.. . ." bit of a Fitzgeraldian party boy who, in Dominican Republic. When he The memo notes that Veciana's atti- less than a year, was back in Fort Worth retired from the CIA in 1975, he tude appeared to have changed from when plodding through Texas Christian Uni- was head of the Agency's Latin I first met him six months previously, versity and then selling cemetery lots. American operations. largely as a result of his getting deeply More than anything else, David Phil- involved again with Miami's and-Castro lips wanted to be an actor. He spent sev- to a brownstone in the East Seventies. movement. It then speculates: "Veciana eral years bumming around New York It was a CIA safe house for training may now feel that it won't pay to identify in the effort, but his road to fame was overseas personnel who were under cover, Bishop and, in fact, if Bishop knows he detoured by World War II, a stint in a or anyone whose job was so sensitive can do it at any moment, he might find German prison camp, and a daring es- that he was not allowed to visit Wash- that an incentive to want to get back into cape. He tried acting again after the war ington or the Agency training retreat in action with Veciana to keep him from with more success, joining a touring road nearby Virginia. There were other agents doing so. They may both feel that they show. During his Agency career, in in the safe house, but I never saw them. can wait for all this to blow over, even whatever city he was stationed, Phillips When 1 went to the john my instructor if it's a year or two. . . ." would invariably start or join a little- would check first to be sure it was not Veciana himself would eventually tell theater group. occupied by another student." me that he did indeed hope that Bishop In 1948, Phillips married an airline Phillips's three-week training session would get back in touch with him. stewardess and, with a $200-a-nionth appears to have been similar to the one As for David Atlee Phillips, it was stipend from a producer's option on a that Maurice Bishop gave Antonio Ve- striking to me how well the pieces of his play he had written but that was never ciana in Havana. Phillips was taught basic character and career seemed to fit into produced, he and his bride decided to tradecraft—how to conduct surveil- the puzzle named Maurice Bishop. As go to Chile to live cheaply. lances and countersurveillances. set up first noted by Senator Schweiker, the Life in Chile was made easier. Phillips clandestine meetings, employ deception composite sketch of Bishop was a very says, because both he and his wife could techniques, and run "dark alley" op- close likeness of Phillips. In addition, speak the language. He had studied erations. He was then told he had the details revealed by Veciana long before Spanish casually in college and seriously qualifications the Agency looked for in the name of David Phillips popped up while visiting Mexico. One of the rea- a propaganda specialist and his training left an impression on me. One was the sons he was recruited by the CIA, he thereafter concentrated on techniques of physical characteristic that both Bishop notes, was that he spoke fluent Spanish. propaganda and political action. and Phillips shared—the dark, weath- At first, Phillips tried playwriting, David Mice Phillips thus began his ered ellipses under their eyes. The other attended classes at the University of Chile, journey up the ladder of the CIA bu- was Veciana's assumption that Bishop and joined a local theater group. Then reaucracy to the highest operational ech- was a Texan. David Phillips grew up came the opportunity to buy a small elons. His known successes, some of and still has family living in Fort Worth. newspaper, the South Pacific Mail, and which are detailed in his book and some Early in 1977. Phillips's autobiogra- some secondhand presses for commer- only brushed against, were mainly in phy appeared: The Night Watch-25 Years cial printing. It was the purchase of the propaganda, psychological warfare, and of Peculiar Service. It was, of course, presses by an American, Phillips says, counterintelligence. in production long before it was known that attracted the interest of the CIA's From being a part-time recruit in Chile, that Antonio Veciana had revealed the chief-of-station in Santiago. Phillips was Phillips was selected by the Agency to existence of Maurice Bishop. It would recruited to be a "part-time" agent at play an important role in overthrowing be misleading to characterize any pub- $50 a month. His salary was deposited the leftist regime of Jacobo Arbenz in lished work by a smart intelligence agent in a Texas bank after going through a Guatemala. He helped to set up a clan- as "revealing," especially one written financial cover company in New York. destine radio station in Mexico—the by an expert in counterintelligence and Phillips was sent by the Agency to "Voice of Liberation"—which pre- propaganda, one whose life work was New York for special training. He re- tended to be broadcasting from within to create mirror images, false postures, calls: "My training officer . . . took me Guatemala and orchestrated false reports 222 The WashingionianiNenember 1960 .0 iti fi,,..-waraistiwssavenrwtmesewrisessamassiearasosinwssat-leksisesisealimwMat aul.istaMWa. .Vattraq'SSMOMMMM ,7 about legions of rebels who didn't exist chief counsel, Richard Sprague, had run is not addressed in the Committee's final and major battles that never took place. into a dead end when he tried to probe report. In fact, David Phillips is not Under such a propaganda barrage, the what David Phillips had done in moni- mentioned in the final report. Arbenz government fled the country be- toring Lee Harvey Oswald's actions in fore real bullets could fly. Mexico City. After G. Robert Blakey In the search for the true identity of it was during the Guatemala operation became chief counsel, an arrangement Maurice Bishop, the more I learned about that Phillips made associations that would was made with the Agency to give Com- David Atlee Phillips, the more the pieces endure throughout his Agency career. mittee staffers who signed the CIA se- fit. Aside from his physical similarity Among them was one with E. Howard crecy agreement access to previously to Bishop, Phillips's interests and job Hunt. whom Phillips describes as being restricted files. The Agency then would assignments were relevant to almost "friendly, anxious to help me, and con- have to approve any information ob- everything Antonio Veciana had told me siderate." Phillips would work closely tained from the files prior to publication about Bishop. Phillips was in Havana with Hunt during the planning of the Bay in the Committee's report. The Com- as a covert operative, he was involved of Pigs invasion and in other less visible mittee was interested in questions related with the anti-Castro Cuban groups in operations. to Phillips's activities in Mexico City: Miami both before and after the Bay of Phillips moved up the CIA ladder, but Why was CIA headquarters not notified Pigs, he was assigned to propaganda and spent most of his career in the field. Even immediately when the Agency's Mexico counterintelligence activities in Mexico .'..when headquartered in Washington as City station learned of Oswald's contacts City when Lee Harvey,Oswald visited propaganda chief of the Bay of Pigs op- with the Cuban and Russian embassies? there—could all this be coincidental? erations, Phillips regularly flew into Was there a tape of Oswald's telephone Perhaps. But other aspects of Phil- Miami, where his subordinates super- conversations with Russian personnel— lips's career tended to make the fit tight- vised the activities of various front groups. of a conversation in which Oswald, as er. In 1968, for instance, at the sugges- He played a major role in the Agency's tion and with the help of Bishop. Ve- actions in the Dominican Republic. Aside ciana got a US government salaried job from a year and a half in Lebanon, Phil- with the Agency for International De- lips's entire career was spent fighting Veciana knows—he velopment as a banking consultant in Communist infiltration in the Caribbean Bolivia. It was at this time, said Veciana, 0.-- and Latin America. Most of the time his says there is no that his activities with Bishop broadened sights were on the one man who repre- doubt—that Bishop was to include not only schemes directed sented the greatest Communist threat the against Castro but also strategies aimed hemisphere had known: Fidel Castro. involved in the plan to at countering Communism throughout Aspects of Phillips's career attracted Latin America. my attention. In a now-yellowing copy dispose of Allende Late in 1967, David Phillips returned of the 1960 edition of the Anglo-Amer- in Chile. to Washington to take on a new assign- ican Directory of Cuba, there is listed ment as chief of the Cuban Operations on page 92: "PHILLIPS. David Atlee Group of the CIA's Western Hemisphere (Amer.); . . Public Relations Counsel- division. "Although I would report to or, David A. Phillips Associates. . . ." Phillips had declared, offered informa- the head of the Latin American affairs," At the time, Phillips was a deep-cover tion to the Russians? Did Phillips lie he notes in his autobiography. "my re- operative in Havana posing as a public- when he denied having listened-to such sponsibilities were worldwide: to keep relations consultant, hobnobbing with a tape? Did Phillips lie when he said the tabs on Cuban preoccupations in Europe. media executives and newspaper re- tape had been routinely destroyed? Why Africa, Asia, and the Middle East and porters, lunching with Havana busi- didn't the CIA have a photograph of in more than twenty countries in Latin nessmen, ostensibly pitching stories or Oswald entering the Cuban or Russian America and the Caribbean, as well as clients. "My favorite luncheon place," Embassy? Who was the man in the pho- to manage CIA espionage operations in he writes in his book, "was the Floridita tographs the Agency told the,..Warren Cuba. Professionally, it was a presti- restaurant in colonial Havana." Once he Commission were of Oswald? Did Phil- gious but demanding assignment." saw Hemingway there. lips set himself up as the patsy in mis- In my own mind, the most significant The book mentions little about what explaining the Agency's handling of the associations in David Phillips's career he actually did in Havana as a covert tapes and photographs? had to do with Chile. This from the notes operator but does say that he "put in a The Assassinations Committee does made from a tape-recorded interview with full day for CIA" and that he "handled" not answer those questions in its final Antonio Veciana on March 16, 1976, agents. report. Most of its published conclusions before the name of David Phillips sur- Another interesting aspect of Phil- are masterpieces of definitive statements faced: "Although all of Bishop's plans lips's career was his tour of duty in Mexico with waffling qualifiers. For instance: against Castro failed, there were other City. In terms of the Kennedy assassi- "Despite the unanswered questions, the plans, against other people that didn't nation, Mexico City was significant, not weight of the evidence supported the fail. He knows—he says there is no only because of Oswald's visit to the conclusion that Oswald was the individ- doubt—that Bishop was involved in the Cuban and Russian embassies there but ual who visited the Soviet Embassy and plan to dispose of Allende in Chile. That also because of the number of false re- Cuban Consulate." It dismisses the was one of his jobs. He knows that by ports that flowed from there immediately Agency's handling of the Oswald case the contacts in Chile that Bishop had. =a, following the assassination. prior to the assassination as simply 'All the connections I had in Chile were From 1961 through the fall of 1963, "deficient," yet admits that "the Com- given to me by Bishop. — Phillips was chief of covert action in mittee was unable to determine whether Part of the plot to assassinate Castro Mexico City. Just prior to the Kennedy the CIA did in fact come into possession in Chile in 1971, said Veciana, called assassination, he was made chief of Cu- of a photograph of Oswald taken during for Chilean military bodyguards to cap- ban operations. In those jobs his main his visits to the Soviet Embassy and Cuban ture the assassins before Castro's people activities were in propaganda, dirty nicks, Consulate in Mexico City, or whether could kill them. Bishop, said Veciana, and counterintelligence. His focus was Oswald had any associates in Mexico made the arrangements for this. on maintaining a watch on Castro's in- City." In December 1975, the Church Senate telligence agents. Phillips had to know, "Unable to determine." That admis- Select Committee on Intelligence Activ- for instance, that one of Castro's ranking sion reveals more about the Committee's ities issued a staff report titled Covert intelligence officers stationed in the em- investigation and its relationship to the Action in Chile: 1963-1973. It noted: bassy in Mexico City was Guillermo Ruiz, CIA than do its pages of exposition and "Was the United States directly in- the cousin of Antonio Veciana. conclusions. volved, covertly, in the 1973 coup in The Assassinations Committee's first The accuracy of Phillips's testimony Chile? The Committee has found no evi- November 19801The ftrhingtonion 223

4064174M5WW,WarFAVAR.41;in`P.NR/CMStAftr iAMM.WWWY,T.MVPRAM:riIt%171WST".., fInWIWIMM91t . 71%!11.1WS-WW014CW,T406%1MRMAWSZAtZSMit* dence that it was. However, the United talking with a small group just outside States sought in 1970 to foment a mil- the door. He glanced up, saw Veciana, itary coup in Chile: after 1970 it adopted glanced at me, and turned back to his a policy, both overt and covert. of op- conversation. Veciana saw Phillips, position to Allende: and it remained in leaned over to me, and said with a half- intelligence contact with the Chilean smile, "There's David Phillips." military, including officers who were That day, Veciana again testified un- participating in coup plotting . " der oath that David Phillips was not the One area uncovered in the Senate In- person he had known as Maurice Bishop. telligence Committee report was the huge He did say that there was a "physical amount of money available to the CIA similarity." operatives for covert action in Chile. Of I returned to the hearing room to listen the total $13 million the CIA spent in to Phillips testify after I had escorted Chile. more than $8 million was used Veciana out of the building. Most of the between the 1970 election and the mil- questioning concerned his knowledge of itary coup that toppled Allende in 1973. a Oswald's activities in Mexico City and Most of the $8 million was spent an the validity of his previous testimony. jropaganda and media operations, in- (The Committee staff report that deals crating the purchase of radio stations with this area remains classified.) Fi- and newspapers. nally, the questioning came around to The Senate report also noted that the Veciana and Bishop. CIA did not consult its congressional David Atlee Phillips received the David Phillips said he never used the oversight committees. as it was required Distinguished Intelligence Medal name Maurice Bishop, nor did he know by law to do, on most of its Chilean after a long CIA career. He then of anyone in the CIA who used the name. coven-action projects. Although most founded the Association of Retired When asked if he knew Antonio Ve- were approved by President Nixon's ex- Intelligence Officers; he lives in ciana, Phillips answered with a forced ecutive oversight group, called the 40 Bethesda. restraint, as if he were sick and tired of ,Committee. the Senate report said: having to put up with such nonsense. He "Congressional oversight committees various stories and reports which made said he had seen Veciana only twice in were not consulted about projects which it appear much larger and more impor- his life, the second time that morning were not reviewed by the full 40 Com- tant an organization than it in fact was." as Vcciana was emerging from the hear- mittee. One of these was the Track 11 Another point perhaps relevant in David ing room. The first time he met Veciana. attempt to foment a military coup." Phillips's autobiography was his han- Phillips said, was at a meeting of the The chief of the Track II project was dling of his involvement in or knowledge Association of Former Intelligence Of- David Atlec Phillips. of assassination plots against Castro. ficers in Reston. During the time of the plots on Cas- 1 was facing Phillips's right side while When The Night Watch was published, tro's life, David Phillips was one of the sitting at a staff table on a level below looked for clues or hints pointing to key figures in the CIA's operations against the U-shaped congressional dais. Ken- the possibility of David Phillips's being Castro. Yet, in his autobiography, Phil- nedy Subcommittee Chairman Richard- Maurice Bishop. Although the book was lips says he was not aware of any as- son Preyer was presiding. As I listened constructed to be as uninformative as sassination plans. He relegates the point I was struck by the credibility in Phil- possible about the details of his covert to a footnote: "I have often been asked lips's voice as he began to speak about actions, it may contain just one mirror how it was possible that I did not know an incident with which I was familiar. too many. of the Castro assassination schemes. The Phillips said that Veciana was brought For instance. Phillips portrays himself question is usually predicated on the to the Reston meeting by an investigator as a moderate liberal. He proclaims that assumption that when I became Chief from Senator Schweiker's office but that he voted for George McGovern and for of Cuban Operations and then head of he was not introduced to Veciana by Hubert Humphrey when they were pres- all Latin American affairs someone would name. Veciana, he said. was introduced idential candidates. He also makes the have told me, or I would have read about to him only as "the driver." He said point that he is a man who agonized the endeavors in documents in my safe. that Veciana asked him some questions much over the ethical and legal impli- The fact is that those few CIA officers in Spanish and that he had the feeling cations of his covert operations. Yet he involved did not discuss their partici- Veciana did that in order to hear his ac- reports that his career has been full of pation even with senior officers not in cent. He did not say what questions Agency honors and rewards for his re- the chain of command at the time of the Veciana asked him. At the time, he said, peated successes as a dirty-tricks expert, plots. And highly sensitive papers are he did not know who Veciana was or and he details how he helped to dislodge not retained in a division chiefs office." why Schweiker's office had sent him to even governments democratically elected. The last two sentences would have the meeting. Later, he said, he read about as in Chile. Moreover, the real David special significance for me, although not Veciana in Jack Anderson's column. Phillips often associated with top figures in the way Phillips intended them. I wanted to jump up and shout, "That's in the military-industrial complex and not true!" I had introduced Veciana to the nation's right wing. Because his testimony was already on Phillips twice at that luncheon in Reston, Also provocative is his relationship record with the Senate Intelligence Com- once at the table and once in the hallway. with Clare Boothe Luce, which extends mittee, because he did fit into the House Phillips himself had asked Veciana, to her board position on the Phillips- Committee's issue plan in an oblique "What was your name again?" and founded Association of Retired Intelli- way, and because it was an area I kept Veciana had told him. And when Ve- gence Officers. As those who worked pushing, Antonio Veciana was brought ciana asked Phillips if he remembered for the Time Inc. communications em- to Washington on April 25. 1978. to him, Phillips said no. I was there. Ve- pire can verify, the wife of the late board testify in private before the House Select ciana was there. Sarah Lewis was there. chairman Henry Luce was very influ- Committee on Assassinations. David Later, I mentioned my reaction to Chief ential. I recall talking with former Life Phillips was scheduled to testify im- Counsel Blakey. "You know." I said. correspondent Andrew St. George early mediately after him. Although it was not "David Phillips lied in his testimony." in 1976, before I had ever heard of David deliberately stage-directed, we recog- Blakey raised his brows. "Oh, really," Phillips. St. George told me that one of nized the possibility that Veciana and he said. "What about?" I told him the the many instances in which Life co- Phillips might encounter each other. details. He Listened carefully, thought operated with the CIA was in the boost- They did. As I walked out of the hear- silently for a moment, shrugged, and ing of Alpha 66. "We would run these ing room at Veciana's side, Phillips was walked away. 224 The WashirteronianiNowmber 1980

*.castes--ww,tss-scs•es,.,)S•MS:&is,kkifits..""St,s7r.S;WS‘,M,h73;:,est.....7.,SsFss":3:7"'"`..n.,..'- ltASStgiS,SS' 7o.mymk,...--swgivzommr,,,ttsmwmmkmimmsszss:74,75,ZWMI, one of the subjects of the Committee's investigation. The Committee's arrangement with the Agency for access to its files evolved over several months, most of the steps negotiated personally by Blakey and CIA Director Stansfield Turner. It ultimately gave every Committee staff member who signed the CIA secrecy agreement access to the Agency's classified files. No other The Final Pieces congressional committee had ever reviewed CIA files without the Agency first deleting what it called its "sensitive sources and methods," which identified how the information had been obtained. Shortly after the Bay of Pigs, President Yet, in the end, Blakey was suckered. John F. Kennedy confided to an adviser, Or, more accurately. he suckered him- Arthur Schlesinger. that he should not self. Although he pictured himself in have retained Allen Dulles as CIA di- periodic reports to the staff as aggres- rector. "I can't estimate his meaning sively sniping at the Agency at every when he tells me things," said Kennedy. instance of evasiveness or recalcitrance, When he was appointed to the Warren he was, in fact, on the Agency's turf. Commission to investigate Kennedy's And being there meant he accepted two assassination, Dulles told columnist assumptions: first, that access to CIA Murray Kempton that he was confident files would provide the Committee with the Commission would find no evidence the comprehensive information neces- of a conspiracy. sary for definitive conclusions; and, sec- • At an early meeting of the Warren ond, that the CIA files themselves re- Commission, the transcript of which was flected a complete and accurate record marked "Top Secret" until 1911 the of whether the Agency or any of its per- members discussed what Chief ounsel sonnel had been involved in any way J. Lee Rankin called "this dirty rumor" with Oswald or in the Kennedy assas- that Oswald may have been an FBI in- sination. Those assumptions are re- formant. flected in the Committee's final report. "This is a terribly hard thing to dis- Blakey's reverence for the CIA as an prove, you know," said Allen Dulles. institution permitted the Agency to im- "How do you disprove a fellow was not pose its priorities on the Committee. And your agent? How do you disprove it?" Although a member of the Warren the CIA's priorities did not have any- The late congressman from Louisiana, Commission, former CIA head Allen thing to do with getting the facts of Pres- Hale Boggs, then asked: "You could Dulles failed to reveal any CIA' ident Kennedy's assassination. The disprove it, couldn't you?" involvement in other assassination Committee's relationship with the CIA— "No," said Dulles. plots. Or was he ever told especially in terms of its pursuit of Maur- "Did you have agents about whom about them? ice Bishop—ignored the insights pro- you had no record whatsoever'?" asked vided by Allen Dulles's admission to the Boggs. Blakey responded. "I've been working Warren Commission. . "The record might not be on paper," with those people for twenty years." I recall an informal discussion I had, said Dulles. Of all the factors that dictated the before the Committee's investigation got Boggs then asked about an agent who Assassinations Committee's handling of under way, with a former high-ranking did not have a contract but had been the revelations of Antonio Veciana and CIA officer who, after he retired to Flor- recruited by someone from the CIA. its conclusions about Maurice Bishop, ida, slowly began viewing the Agency "The man who recruited him would there was one of pivotal influence: the in different light. He said that the CIA's know, wouldn't he?" asked Boggs. Committee's relationship with the CIA. response to the Committee would be "Yes, but he wouldn't tell." said At one of his first general staff meet- "predictable." It would react the way Dulles. ings. Blakey revealed what our general it has always reacted to every crisis or The commission's chairman, Chief strategy would be in dealing with the investigation: A "task force" would be Justice Earl Warren, appeared taken aback CIA. It was going to be "realistic." he formed to "handle and contain" the in- by that. "Wouldn't tell it under oath?" said. He was in the delicate process of quiry. He said the "clandestine mental- asked Warren. negotiating a "working arrangement" ity" that is drilled into CIA operatives "I wouldn't think he would tell it under with the Agency, one that would give until it is instinctual would permit most oath, no." answered Dulles. us unprecedented access to its files. of them to commit perjury because, in It was a revealing insight into a loyal Meanwhile, he said, we have to accept their view, their secrecy oath was more CIA officer's perspective. It was the same several factors: First, we are a temporary important than any congressional-wit- perspective held by former CIA director congressional investigative entity. We ness oath. He said he doubted that the Richard Helms when he called his con- have a limited time to do our job and CIA would be candid with the Com- viction of perjury before Congress a then we will disappear. The CIA will be mittee despite its congressional author- "badge of honor." around long after we're gone. ity. "You represent the United States At the time when House Assassina- "The thing to do now," said Blakey, Congress," he said, "but what the hell tions Committee Chief Counsel Bob "is be nice to the Agency. Ask for things is that to the CIA?" Blakey was making arrangements with in a nice way. If you have difficulty, I think of that when I recall what oc- the CIA for access to its files, one staff deal with them in a nice way, don't buck curred in the pursuit of Veciana's rev- member raised the question of whether. them head-on at this point. That may elations, and I think of the admission in the absence of access to the file system result in the battle being lost on the buried in the Committee's final report: itself, we could tell if the Agency was beaches." ". . . the Agency's strict compart- being honest with us in response to re- Unlike his predecessor, Richard mentalization and the complexity of its quests for all the files on a subject. •`You Sprague, Blakey saw no problem in enormous filing system . . . have the don't think they'd lie to me, do you?" seeking a "working arrangement" with . . effect of making congressional in- Norrmber 198491The Washingtonian 225

‘MtkiMetht9PMIn il,7VC.RMAPSe ""WSAMMM. V.6.4,7,!,.77:10.1•ZIAM:eM.3%."ItARPOAMIRAMM.inMtrt,Wle."i SMIOR:95,15S%1SMMAW,IN'itRVAK,11:"K%,"%1SCAVT:7 quiry difficult. For example, CIA per- FBI discovered that Jack Ruby had once coholics Anonymous. "I want you to sonnel testified to the Committee that a contacted McKeown to ask him for a know that," he said, "in case someone review of Agency files would not always letter of introduction to Castro. Mc- happens to remark, 'Oh, I know that old indicate whether an individual was af- Keown has since given a variety of rea- drunk.' Well, once a time ago I was an filiated with the Agency in any capacity. sons to explain why Ruby wanted the old drunk." Both he and his wife said Nor was there always an independent introduction. He has said that Ruby the stress of intelligence work had caused means of verifying that all materials re- wanted to sell Castro a shipment of jeeps. the problem. quested from the Agency had, in fact. He has said that Ruby was interested in Cross was a gold mine of information. been provided." obtaining the release of some friends He provided us not only with details Castro had imprisoned. And, in an in- about the operations of the group he had In July 1977, two months after he wrote terview I had with him while I was work- handled, but also with insights into the his first column about "Mr. X" and ing for Senator Schweiker, McKeown structure and activities of the JNI/WAVE "Morris" Bishop, Jack Anderson brought said that Ruby had access to a load of station, including the duties and rela- the subject up again. Wrote Anderson: slot machines hidden in the mountains tionships of the station's top personnel. "The Central Intelligence Agency had He mentioned that E. Howard Hunt had no comment last May when we quoted occasionally come by the headquarters. from House investigative files that the "He would come in, puff on his pipe, 61A was in contact with Lee Harvey Stumbling upon Cross, and look down his nose at the case Oswald in Dallas on the eve of the John officers." F. Kennedy assassination. . . . The CIA, we both quickly realized, Both Gonzalez and I stopped short of though maintaining official silence, re- asking him certain questions for fear-of acted to our story in an internal memo. was dumb luck. He was a revealing what we knew. Stumbling upon We have obtained a copy of the memo: man who had been in Cross, we both quickly realized, was "This memo . . . is addressed to the dumb luck. In terms of our main areas CIA's Deputy Director for Operations. the right place at the of interest, he was a man who had been It states: 'The Jack Anderson column of in the right place at the right time. But 6 May 1977 alluded to "the CIA man. right time. we wanted to check him out more before ,'Morris Bishop," in Dallas. . . The CIA we opened up with questions that could did not have contact in Dallas with Lee provide the basis of misinformation Harvey Oswald. . . . We have run ex- feedback. Trusting souls we weren't. haustive traces to identify Morris Bishop of New Mexico. McKeown is now an But we did ask him about David Phil- without success. The name Morris Bishop old man, sickly and in need of money. lips. Sure, Cross said, he knew Phillips. has never been used as a registered alias The last time I saw him he said attorney He said Phillips, working through the or pseudonym nor has anyone with that Mark Lane was going to get him a big JM/WAVE case officers, coordinated the name ever been employed by the CIA.' " book contract. propaganda operations of all the Cuban- A 1. It was not until March 2, 1978, that I met my journalist friend for lunch exile groups the Agency was running. the House Committee asked the CIA to one day on Lincoln Road to find out if Phillips, he said, worked mostly out of check its files and index references for Robert McKeown had revealed anything Washington at that time but flew in and a Maurice Bishop. On March 31, 1978, to him. He hadn't. After lunch, he ca- out of Miami frequently. On a daily ba- the CIA informed the Committee that its sually mentioned that McKeown had told sis, Cross said, the case officers worked Office of the Inspector General. its Of- him he had met a fellow at his bridge with Phillips's direct subordinate at the fice of the General Counsel, its Office club who used to be involved in anti- station, a man called Doug Gupton. of Personnel, and the Deputy Directorate Castro activities in the early '60s. My Over the next few weeks, Gonzalez of Operations had no record of a Maurice friend thought the fellow might be of and I were in frequent touch with Cross Bishop. some help to me and gave me his name. as we tried to check out the information A search of David Phillips's files did This occurred prior to the cutting of he gave us and the man himself. He ap- not indicate that he had ever registered the investigative staff, so Al Gonzalez peared to be truthful. We then decided the alias of Maurice Bishop. was still working with me in Miami. to test him in an area of major interest. Gonzalez tracked McKeown's friend to One day Gonzalez called him and told I was the only staff investigator on the a small apartment in Coral Gables, and him we were working on something that House Select Committee on Assassina- one morning when we were in the neigh- required confirmation of the pseud- tions with a journalistic background. As borhood we dropped in on him. onyms or aliases used by CIA officers such. 1 was mindful of Blakey's early The CIA would later demand that the who had worked out of the JNI/WAVE directive that all the activities of the Committee not use the man's real name. station. He threw three names at Cross: Committee, classified or not, be kept The Committee called him Ron Cross. One was "Bishop," another was confidential. Some of my friends were Cross, we discovered, had worked as a "Knight," and the third was the true journalists and I was in touch with them. case officer out of the CIA's .1M/WAVE name of an officer who had worked out Some of them had been doing research station during the heyday of its anti-Cas- of the Havana station. into the Kennedy assassination and were tro activities in Miami. He had handled Off the top of his head, Cross said, good sources of information. For that Cuban exile labor units and helped in he believed "Bishop" was the name used reason, I didn't restrict my contacts with organizing a militant group that, al- by David Phillips, "Knight" a name that them. Blakey knew that, and I knew that though not nearly as large and effective E. Howard Hunt occasionally used. He he knew that, so 1 was careful not to leak as Alpha 66, was very active. Early in said we must be mistaken about the third any Committee information. his career, posing as an American busi- name because that was the true name of One of the journalists with whom I nessman with financial connections, Cross a fellow he had known in Havana. was in regular contact wound up in Miami had infiltrated Castro's mountain strong- Cross said that within the next few one day to interview Robert McKeown. hold before the big barbudo seized power. days he would be talking with some of In the mid-'50s. McKeown had a suc- There Cross ran into writer Andrew St. the Cuban exile agents he had worked cessful business in Cuba. He was forced George and gunrunner Frank Sturgis. with and, in chatting with them about out by Batista and was eventually ar- Cross, retired from the Agency since the old days. perhaps his memory would rested in Texas with a house full of arms 1964, was thin, tanned, and soft-spoken. be refreshed. and munitions he had been planning Although we had spoken to other co- Several days later, Gonzalez dropped to smuggle to Fidel Castro. Actually, operative former CIA officers, he sur- in for a chat with Cross to see if his McKeown was a front man for former prised me with his candor. At the end memory had been refreshed. Well, Cross Cuban President Carlos Prio. of our first meeting with him, he vol- said, it had been a bit. He said now he After the Kennedy assassination, the unteered that he was a member of Al- was "almost certain" that David Phil- 226 The WsuhinefonianNosember 1980 gisscscsessasstssersestseasessamstssassesteastrassessatamm. . . .. . . , .....,sz -vae,MX:a.kMt. .;',.z:Z,NoMlitst,Thvivtmlamkactz.s$FtsW-,,Ak •St,.`c,..---.1

lips had used the name of "Maurice special field and agent problems with ,e,\\)... 505SOn * '9E Bishop," but he still was not definite Gupton and Gupton at times saying, 4 about whether Hunt had used the "Well, I guess Mr. Bishop will have to /6„:4 "Knight" alias. He was sure, however, talk with him." Cross said. "And, of e of that the third name was a true name. course, I knew he was referring to his Washingtonian's His answer surprised us. We had not boss. Dave Phillips." "Best Buys" given Cross the first name of Bishop. Something else interesting in what If Al Gonzalez and I had known that Ron a bargain hunter's dream" Cross revealed: In his memoir, Give Us Cross had been a retired CIA employee, This Day, E. Howard Hunt anoints the we would not have been able to interview "propaganda chief" of the CIA's anti- him for weeks, perhaps months. As part Castro operations—"an officer who had of Blakey's "working arrangement" with worked for me brilliantly on the Gua- the Agency, it was agreed that the As- temala Project"—with the pseudonym sassinations Committee staff would per- of "Knight." In his own autobiography, mit the CIA to clear and arrange all in- David Phillips admits that Hunt is re- uJ terviews with both its present and former cc ferring to him and, flipping the mirror employees. That permitted the Agency linens in spread/ YrIew times, he adds: "Bestowing the to keep track of where- the Committee's ut name of Knight was the ultimate acco- investigation was going. lade—people who have worked in CIA It was more than six months after the will recall that pseudonym belonged to Ron Cross interviews that the Assassi- DISCOUNTS one of the Agency's most senior officers, nations Committee talked with the man z * Home of the Stars * a man Howard idolized." who called himself Doug Gupton. Al- 4 "where the price Is right every day" In Thomas Powers's biography of though Gupton was retired from the Richard Helms, The Man Who Kept the Agency, the interview was arranged at CC save 20% to 60% Secrets, the "man Howard idolized" is CIA headquarters. Gupton acknowl- revealed to be his boss, former CIA edged that he had worked at the Miami CA on designer & famous brand 'Director Helms. Those who know E. IM/WAVE station and that his imme- LLI home fashions CC Howard Hunt don't doubt that he himself diate superior had been David Phillips. Special would have occasionally donned the He also acknowledged that he had worked _J Savings with Ron Cross on a daily basis. 0 Always Explaining his working relationship 4lf [Plus service with a smile with David Phillips, Gupton said he was t- in contact with him regularly in Wash- cf) DESIGNER & FAMOUS BRAND SHEETS w (outstanding selection Those who know E. ington by telephone and by cable. Phil- Cc Howard Hunt don't doubt lips also visited Miami "quite often." to choose horn) Gupton said Phillips was actually in 0 OVER 1000 BEDSPREADS that he himself would charge of two sets of operations. Gup- & COMFORTERS I (Largest Selection in Metro Area) ton's set of operations was run out of U. M have occasionally donned Miami, he said, and he kept Phillips in- THOUSANDS OF TOWELS IN STOW(

formed of them. Phillips ran another set (Huge Selection of Famous Brand U the pseudonym of his of operations personally out of Wash- to & Designer Towels)

M idol. Such are the games ington and, Gupton said, Phillips did not -Shop * Compare * Save- keep him briefed about those, so he didn't spooks play. C/3 know anything about their specifics or 0 what contacts Phillips used. Gupton did custom draperies blankets * 0 believe, however, that Phillips used many C-E mattress pads * bed pillows m of his old contacts from Havana in his 0. * decorative pillows * custom pseudonym of his idol. Such are the games personal operations. If) mint-blInds * shades * spooks play. When asked if he knew whether either shutters * woven woods * I Over the next few weeks, we contin- E. Howard Hunt or David Phillips ever LU bath accessores * shower 2 curtains r- ued to check Cross. We spoke with Cu- used the cover name "Knight," Gupton uJ * ban exiles who had worked with him and said he did not know. When asked if others who had known him. We found David Phillips ever used the cover name There is only one >- C no discrepancies in anything he had told "Maurice Bishop," Gupton said, "I don't UJ us. I felt, however, that I should again recall." When told that Ron Cross said CC linens 'n spreads r confirm his recollection about Maurice LL that he specifically remembered Gupton LL 0 Bishop. One day, after a lengthy con- referring to David Phillips as "Mr. O 6230 ROLLING ROAD. SPRINGFIELD versation about other areas of the 1M/ Bishop," Gupton remained silent for a w VIRGINIA 22152 (703) 569-0566 0 WAVE operation, I said offhandedly: 0 moment, looked down at his lap, and HAS. Mon & Thum 10.9. Tons. Wed FBI. 1S-1, "By the way, we're still checking into 9.1 10-6 telom14 Sunl said "Well, maybe I did. I don't re- Sal 10-6 (closed Sun V * some of the cover names that were used member." N to at the time. Do you recall Al Gonzalez Gupton was then shown the composite C asking you about 'Knight' and 'Bishop'?" sketch of Maurice Bishop. No, he said, Yes, Cross said, as a matter of fact, it didn't look like anyone he knew. he had been giving it more thought. He CC The House Select Committee on As- X 3:3 said he was fairly sure now that Hunt sassinations issued 542 subpoenas for 0 did use the Knight alias. He also said individuals to appear before it or provide 37 he was now "almost positive" that David material evidence. It took sworn testi- Phillips used the name Bishop. The rea- mony in depositions, at public hearings, m son he was sure about that, he said, was or in executive session from 335 wit- z because he had been thinking about the nesses. The Committee never questioned z period when he worked with Phillips's Ron Cross or Doug Gupton under oath. N C") assistant at the 1144/WAVE station, that West Springfield Ctr to young fellow named Doug Gupton. Cross Near the end of his testimony before the m said he now recalled often discussing Assassinations Committee in April 1978. PERFECT FIT * KIRSCH * .Thiymber ISMO(The Slinhargrotrum 227

'MtSttetWI'.*PAWR•?S VA4 P;4t,"rite"..."•tstettstaisae-prmim,-4;s4)twme..-4,4wea:-.,vsg.x. st.v mwit,-se,-4e4,-,...zybst,.-rrAtosrm: ',W.'.': David Phillips had been shown the com- count on the Committee's record.) I told posite sketch of Maurice Bishop. Be- Leslie Wizelman I was going. "Oh, cause I had not been able to show it to good," she said, "you can drop in on him at Reston, I assumed it was the first Edwin Phillips and ask him if be has time he had seen the sketch. Phillips put those Crime Commission files ready for on his glasses and studied it for a mo- me yet. He was supposed to have them ment. Slowly he nodded his head. "It by the end of June, but every time I call does look like me," he said. He paused he tells me they're not quite complete for a moment and, with a smile, added; yet. You can pick them up for me if "Actually, it looks more like my they're ready. Besides, you'll enjoy brother." When asked, he said his brother meeting him. He's really friendly." was a lawyer in Texas. I spent a few days in Dallas helping About a month later i. received a call Jim McDonald with witness depositions, from Leslie Wizelman, a researcher on most of which had to do with Jack Ruby. the organized-crime team. She was one There was so much to do in such a short of the bright young Cornell law students time that I didn't think I would be able Blakey had brought to Washington with to meet Edwin Phillips. At the last mo- "I have a neat story to tell you," ment, an urgent call froth Washington she said. "I'm going down to Texas next for an interview-report of a witness took week, so today I called the Tarrant County me to Fort Worth. Crime Commission in Fort Worth just It was late in the afternoon when I to see if they had any files that might called Edwin Phillips's office. His sec- be helpful. I wanted to speak to the di- 5 retary suggested coming over because rector, and asked the secretary what his a she knew he would be free shortly. His name was. She said Mr. Edwin Phillips. unpretentious office was in downtown Well, it immediately struck me that it Fort Worth, in the old Electric Service might just be David Phillips's brother. Building. I chatted with his secretary, 'Fie wasn't there but he called me back a friendly matronly woman in the ante- later. He was real friendly. While I was room to Phillips's office while I waited asking him if he had files on the specific for him to finish a telephone conversa- individuals we were interested in, I kept tion. Another secretary, a younger wondering how I could ask him if he Edwin Phillips, brother of David woman, smiled a greeting as she passed. was David Philips's brother. He was very Atlee Phillips. Shown the composite Leslie was right; this was a friendly place. nice and he thought he had some files drawing of Maurice Bishop, Edwin Edwin Phillips greeted me effusively that might help us and he'd be more than Phillips proclaimed: "Ah am as he emerged from his office. "Well, happy to cooperate. Then he said, astonished!" well, it sure is a pleasure to see you." think I should tell you that I'm David he said. "You come right on in now." Phillips's brother, someone your Com- the place. But then came the mass fir- He was obviously older than David Phil- mittee has spoken with.' He asked if I ings. and in the end there were only four lips, shorter, paunchier, and more jowly. knew [hat. I admitted I was wondering investigators left. There was no doubt that they were broth- about it. Then he said that he makes it By the end of July 1978, with the ers, but Edwin Phillips's resemblance a point to keep up with what the Com- investigative staff cut back, junior and to the Maurice Bishop sketch was in no mittee is doing and that his brother David, senior counsels and researchers were flit- way as close as his brother's. after he testified, asked him to search ting around the country trying to fill most in his high-backed black leather chair, his Crime Commission files to see if he of the obvious gaps in the investigative surrounded by old-fashioned scrolled- had anything on CIA activities in Dallas plan. The idea was to get a contact, a mahogany furniture, attired in a con- or on a Maurice Bishop. He said he did sworn deposition, or an interview on servative dark suit and vest, Edwin Phil- and, of course, he didn't find anything. record. The quality of the interview or lips reminded me of a down-home Texas Now that's some kind of a coincidence, the substantive potential of the infor- politician: fast-talking, drawling, back- isn't it?" mation solicited didn't matter. The in- slapping, friendly—and sharp as an old That was some kind of coincidence. vestigation was over. So if someone was hoot owl. I didn't get a chance to do I could not forget that much of David going to California, for instance, to in- much explaining. I said I happened to Phillips's career was involved with the terview a witness for one team's issue. be in the area and had dropped by be- dissemination of misinformation and that, he or she was also asked to interview cause Leslie Wizelman had asked me to because he still was an expert at it, his other witnesses for other teams' issues, check on the files. comment about his brother looking more whether familiar with that area of the Phillips said well. yessir, he had got- like Maurice Bishop than he did in- investigation or not. Usually, he or she ten together the files and they were right trigued me. Most investigative bodies wasn't. There are a number of interview here somewhere. He began rummaging would have checked that out immedi- reports from this period, now locked in through the piles of papers on his desk. ately, if only just for the record. But this the National Archives, that indicate that He said he hadn't had a chance to or- was the Assassinations Committee and the interviewer really didn't know what ganize them yet and he wasn't about to I knew no one would do it if I didn't. the questions meant and couldn't follow give them to Leslie in the mess they were Although there were witnesses in Dal- up a significant answer. in, no sir, but he was gonna get to them las I wanted to interview because of their "This is ridiculous." staff counsel Jim right soon now and he'd have them ready Miami connections, my requests for travel McDonald told me one day. "They've for her in another week or two for sure. authorization to Texas kept getting bogged got me taking depositions and interview- "Now that Leslie, she is a mighty fine down in the bureaucracy. In addition, ing all these people in Dallas and you're little gal," he said. "Ah admire her, ah other priorities in the organized-crime the guy with the background on a lot of do. And ah respect her, and ah respect area were pressed upon me, including them. You've got to go to Dallas with the work she's dolt'', but ah told her as searching for old-time mob figures who me. I'm going to insist on it." soon as she walked in here, ah told her, might die before we could officially in- So in the final months of the life of you know, ah'm David Phillips's brother, terview them. Chief Investigator Cliff the Assassinations Committee, the only and you people have been talkie' to David Fenton kept saying he eventually wanted remaining investigator who had not yet and, well, David's my younger brother all his investigators to go to Dallas. just officially been on the scene of the crime and ah always kinda looked after for the record. When the issues plan was got to visit it. (I had been to Dallas before David. . . " wrapped up, he said, we would flood I joined the Committee, but that didn't Edwin Phillips said that David had 228 The IMishinglontardNrAvenber 1980

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called him and told him about his testimony before the Committee, told him what had happened and how the Com- mittee had gotten him mixed up with Maurice Bishop. He said David told him that he was shown a sketch of this Maur- ice Bishop and when he saw it his mouth just dropped, he was so surprised at how much of a resemblance there was. "But David told me," said Edwin Phillips. "that he said the sketch looked more like me than him." He laughed. "Ah told David that eh resented his taking advantage of our fiduciary and fraternal relationship." He laughed again. "You know, ah always kinda looked after David." ''"".Well, I said, that was the other reason I came by. I thought he might get a kick out of taking a look at the sketch himself. Phillips seemed delighted. "Well, that's mighty nice of you," he said. "Ah do appreciate your thoughtful- ness." I handed him the sketch. He leaned forward in his chair and looked at it closely. "Ah am astonished!" He almost shouted. "Al, am astonished! Why that is amazin'! That certainly does look like David. — He kept studying the sketch and shaking his head in amazement. "Well, now," he said, "alt am gonna kid David about that. That does look a lot more like David than it does me. don't it now?" Well, I admitted, there was a resemblance. Edwin Phillips couldn't get over it. He went on about how David had told him about this Cuban fellow who said he had seen this Maurice Bishop with Oswald and how the Committee had asked David all about it. Edwin Phillips thanked me again for dropping by, said it was mighty nice of me to go out of my way. He was laughing and chatting as he escorted me out of his office and then, as we passed the ma- Go anywhere in active styles from The Gap. tronly secretary. began telling her the story and why I had come by. "Would Gap.... 18 CONVENIENT LOCATIONS TO SERVE YOU: you mind showing my secretary the me Fall into • Connecticut Avenue. Washington • Landmark Center sketch?" he asked. I pulled it out of my • Lake Forest Mall • Columbia Mall briefcase again. • Iverson Mall • Eastpoint Mall The secretary put on her glasses and • Montgomery Mall • York Road. Baltimcre studied the sketch. "Ah was just tellin' the • Prince Georges Plaza • Security Square this gentleman how astonished ah was," • Wisconsin Avenue. Chevy Chase • Westview Mall • Landover Mall • Reisterstown Road Ptata said Edwin Phillips. The secretary just • Tyson's Comer Center • Governor Plaza shook her head in amazement. "That's • Springfield Mall • Laurel Cenler David." she said. "That's David." "Come take a look at this," Phillips called to the younger secretary at the other desk. "This is my daugher Beth," aarazre he said. "Let's see what she thinks. Does ,t; _ x Serbian Crown that look more like David or more like on4Head ;4 Restaurant me?" She moved behind her father to RESTAURANT 4529 Wisconsin Aye.. NW get a better look at the sketch. "Why Washington. D.C. that's Uncle David," she said. "That is Uncle David." They were all shaking The Ultimate in Dining Russian/Serbian Cuisine 1,4w peni.1.011•Cor•Tinand avow mt. awl Ns a••• their heads and laughing now at the co- larneml•Ux•chrla nit UsITMOdilise• in par hronda• Open for dinner incidence that the sketch should so much TAM. tomer our naramalic Sumbal • LUNCH & DINNER DAILY 7 nights per week • resemble David Phillips. It struck them as mighty funny. It struck me as funny. • • LATE SUPPER • SUNDAY BUFFET Three separate rooms • EXOTIC DRINKS • BANQUETS too. to accommodate large parties Cal•rit, • Slpen T Cum David Phillips has always been a man • Frm• Piffillm. • Miklar Crime C•wel• 28 varieties of imported vodka of action. In The Night Watch he details 0,' OrIly 6900 Wisconsin A.M. free parkins In rear how much he regretted being tied to a desk as he moved up the Agency's ranks. 656.THA 966-6787 966.6788 i;;/" November 1980/The Washingtonian 229 He loved being on the operational end Henry couldn't describe Bishop's Bart Henry, a young senior counsel, Bob of the dirty-tricks business, playing the physical characteristics. He said he had Genzman, happened to be on the West covert-action games. spinning hidden seen him only "two or three times" in Coast taking a deposition from former wheels to orchestrate a series of "co- the "hallway or cafeteria" at CIA head- CIA Director John A. McCone. A wealthy incidences" that would bring about a quarters in Langley. The times he saw shipbuilder and former deputy Secretary counterintelligence objective. Bishop, Henry said, were between 1960 of Defense. McCone had been appointed Until I dropped in to visit his brother and 1964 when he himself was in Cuban by President Kennedy in 1961 and was Edwin in Forth Worth, David Phillips operations. He didn't know if Bishop in the post when Kennedy was killed. could have assumed that the Assassi- also worked in that area. Henry said he Genzman's team was not working the nations Committee had ceased its efforts thought that Bishop worked in the West- anti-Castro area, and he was not inti- to identify Maurice Bishop. He had been ern Hemisphere division and that he had mately familiar with the Veciana reve- questioned under oath, Antonio Veciana a position "higher than me." When lations about Maurice Bishop. but he had been questioned under oath, and the pushed for further detail, Henry could knew enough, in running down a list of CIA had checked its files and declared not be more specific. names for McCone to respond to as a that no agent or officer had ever offi- matter of record, to include Bishop's. cially used the name of Maurice Bishop . Here's how Genzman's questions and ,,x visit to his brother signaled Phillips McCone's answers were recorded: Lthaf the Committee had not dismissed Bart Henry -said he had Q: Do you know or did you know the possibility that he was the person Maurice Bishop? Veciana claimed he saw with Lee Harvey been a CIA agent for A: Yes. Oswald in Dallas in September of 1963. Q: Was he an Agency employee? - Shortly after I returned from Texas, almost twenty years A: I believe so. I went to Washington for a series of and had worked closely Q: Do you know what his duties were meetings on the final Committee report. in 1963? A researcher, Dan Hardway, greeted me with David Phillips. A: No. as I walked into the office. Hardway was Q: For instance, do you know whether .,,aeother of the young Cornell law stu- When Henry was asked Maurice Bishop worked in the Western dents who, to Blakey's distress, had if he knew Maurice Hemisphere Division or whether he evolved into the staff's Young Turks. worked in some other division of the He and Ed Lopez were working on what Bishop, he shocked his CIA? would eventually be a revealing 300-page A: I do not know. I do not recall. 1 report that would be relegated in the interviewers by saying knew at the time, but I do not recall. Committee's final volumes to a footnote: that he did. I found it difficult at first to fit "classified staff study. Lee Harvey Os- McCone's recollection of the name wald, the CIA and Mexico City." "Maurice Bishop"—that was all he really "Hey," Hardway now called, "we remembered—into the model of the ev- got an interview coming up at the Agency If he did not know Maurice Bishop. identiary structure that seemed to be you 'might be interested in." Hardway Henry was asked, how did he know that emerging. Then, as I dug deeper, the said that in the course of his file research the person he saw at CIA headquarters role of John McCone appeared to pro- he had dug up an operative he thought was Bishop? His answer: "Someone vide a perspective.. he would like to talk with. The man might have said, 'That is Maurice David Phillips obviously didn't ap- turned out to have worked under such Bishop.' and it was different from Dave preciate the appointment of McCone as deep cover and been involved in such Phillips or . . , guys that I know." CIA director. In his book he describes sensitive operations that the CIA was The interview went on into other areas McCone as an "outsider" without ex- reluctant to let the Committee interview and then, just before it ended, Henry perience in clandestine operations. "In him. Pushed a bit, the Agency relented, was shown the composite sketch of Bishop his first appearances at Langley," Phil- but insisted on special security measures without being told who it was. No, he lips wrote, "he left an impression of for the interview. said, it didn't remind him of anyone. austerity, remoteness, and implaca- "Turns out this fellow worked with I reviewed the transcript of the inter- bility." Dave Phillips quite a bit," Hardway said, view with Bart Henry. First of all, given Although McCone was director of the "and probably was a good friend of his. the rigid security procedures at Langley, CIA, the old-boy fraternity of opera- Got any questions you want me to ask it is doubtful that Maurice Bishop would tional insiders kept him in the dark about him?" have been so casually pointed out by some of the Agency's activities. Richard Yeah, I did. The man—who will here name, especially not in the Agency caf- Helms, McCone's deputy director of be named Bart Henry—turned out to be eteria reserved for covert operatives. The plans, the "dirty tricks" department. has a closer friend of Phillips than Hardway contention rubbed against the Agency's since admitted he never told McCone had suspected. "need-to-know" secrecy rule. David about the Agency's working relationship Bart Henry said he had been a CIA Phillips himself reveals in his autobiog- with the Mafia to kill Castro. Helms agent for almost twenty years and that raphy how for years he assumed that the knew that McCone, a devout Catholic, he had worked closely with David Phil- then-chief of counterintelligence, lames abhorred assassination plots. lips—on a "day-to-day" basis—on Cu- Angleton, was a person once pointed out Could it have been that McCone was ban operations between 1960 and 1964. to him in the hallway at headquarters told of a Maurice Bishop without being He said he thought of Phillips as one of and then, when he was assigned to work told the specific nature of his operations? the best agents the CIA ever had, char- for Angleton, was surprised to be intro- Having gotten the confirmation of the acterized him as "an excellent intelli- duced to someone else. existence of a Maurice Bishop from both gence officer," and said he was "a per- In further review of Bart Henry's tran- John McCone and Bart Henry, the As- sonal friend." script. I was struck by something much sassinations Committee asked the CIA When Henry was asked if he knew more fascinating: In answering questions once again to search its files for any anyone named Maurice Bishop, he about Maurice Bishop, he repeatedly references to a Maurice Bishop. Chief shocked his interviewers by saying that mentioned David Phillips's name in the Counsel Blakey said he also wanted a he did. When asked to explain his re- same sentence. Henry wanted us to know written reply from the Agency indicating lationship with Bishop, Henry said: that, yes, he knew Maurice Bishop and whether a person using either the true "Again, Mr. Bishop was in the organ- he knew David Phillips and they were name or pseudonym of Maurice Bishop ization, but 1 had no personal day-to-day two different individuals. had ever been associated, in any capa- open relationship with him. Phillips, yes; city, with the CIA. Bishop. no. I knew them both." About a week after the interview with Less than two weeks later, the Com- 230 The WashingwmanINovember 1980

vaa,awasarararatianasnsoa arsia,-,-Rla ar".t.AMISS.WAttaa.. "..b.Mt1SIWWVANVGWInatV.a:Ma_AM.Q.MITASMN.TaM, N 'WW, ' mince received a reply from the Agency. The results of its file search fora Maurice Bishop, it said, were again negative. "No person with such a name has a connection with the CIA," said the reply. "Quite frankly," it added, "it is our belief—from our earlier check, reinforced by this one—that such a man did not exist, so far as CIA connections are concerned." It was later revealed that the CIA went beyond just another check of its files. It, too, was puzzled by the responses the Committee had received from its two former employees, John McCone and Bart Henry. On October 19, 1978, Chief Counsel Blakey received a letter from jack frost o'At.he Agency's chief liaison with the mountain to Committee: Box 37-A-1 BOULDEREgg "This is to advise you that 1 have White Haven, PA 18661 interviewed Mr. McCone and a retired RESORT Lake Harmony, PA 18624 717/443-8425 employee (Bart Henry] concerning their 7171722-0101 recollections about an alleged CIA employee reportedly using the name of LEARN-TO-SKI PACKAGES Maurice Bishop. "We assembled photographs of the 2 DAY/2 NIGHT 3 DAY/3 NIGHT persons with the surname of Bishop who employment relationships of some WEEKEND MIDWEEK type with the CIA during the 1960s. to only $144.00* only $149.50* see if either Mr. McCone or the em- per person. two to a room ployee would recognize one of them. • Accommodations, double occupancy • All-day lift ticket (day or twilight ticket) good at either area • Breakfast in Treetops Restaurant and Dinner in Molly Maguire's Copper Kettle each nights stay In answering questions • Three 1 -1/2 hour professional ski school lessons about Maurice Bishop, he • Two days of complete rental equipment • Transportation to and from ski slopes repeatedly mentioned • Hot Wine and Fondue Party each evening David Phillips's name in • Indoor pool, sauna, nightly entertainment in Mountainview Lounge • Free Hershey bar at check-in the same sentence. ':axes and graNares extra

Advanced ski packages also available "Mr. McCone did not feel it neces- Whata wonderful way to learn to skil Aspecial all-inclusive sary to review those photographs, stating get-away weekend package that I should inform you that he had been that lets you stay at the luxurious Pocono Hershey Resort and ski at two of the Pocono's finest facilities with expert ski in error. . instructors. Arrive on Friday—stay til Sunday. Or take a "The employee continues to recall a special 3-day midweek vacation, either way it's an unbeatable bargain. Come on up to person—who was known as Maurice the Pocono& Were Close to You. Bishop. He cannot state the organiza- For reservations call 1717) 443-8411 or call toll free from eastern U.S. I-800-233-6000 tional connection or responsibilities of • from eastern. PA 1-800-582-6331 the individual, not knowing him per- Interstate sonally. and feels that the person in ques- B3 to Rt. 81 North to 1-80. 1-130 East to Exit 42 tion was pointed out to him by someone, A subsidiary of Hershey Entertainment & Resort Company perhaps a secretary. He is unable, however, to recognize any of the photo graphs mentioned above. . Serving Washingtonians Since 1942 "It should be noted that the employee's statements to the effect that it is usual for employees to use aliases at $111 L-STAURANT,, Headquarters is in error. . . . "In summary. Mr. McCone with- Specializing in fine foods draws his statements on this point. The employee continues to recall such a name, at reasonable prices in an but the nature of his recollection is not atmosphere of the Greek Isles very clear or precise. . . . " That, to me, was a revealing letter. Entertainment Nightly: The Agency had gone to John McCone Belly Dancing and told him that there was no official to the accompaniment of record of a Maurice Bishop in its files, John Patassopoulos and McCone simply said, in effect: Okay. I guess I was wrong. Bart Henry couldn't JAPAN INN very well back down. He had a personal a I71S WISCONSIN AVE N W 337 MOO friend to consider. 111;3' November 19801The Washingtonian 231

•tiMIStkVitkte, WatisVgISINicakWeVSCOMMVASTi..V.-NSciVzkaik"""k,".e.ittige'Itt. Loose Ends

What should have been just getting started me not to contact her directly without was ending. What should have triggered his clearing it first. I thought you ought amiatensive investigative effort was sim- to know." ply allowed to become part of the record. Summers said because of his book Dozens of witnesses who could have deadline he didn't have the time to check been called, people who were in the right out the woman himself, but thought the place at the right time. were not; pres- Committee would want to. I thanked sures that could have been applied, the Summers and told him I would. polygraph and stress tests that could have Although Summers had not gotten the been used, the operational files and woman's current location in Puerto Rico, vouchers that could have been analyzed, he had gotten enough for me to track her were not; the full resources and powers down. Still, I was sensitive about my *nu a congressional committee could have relationship with Veciana and did not brought to bear on an area of significant want to go behind his back. I called him evidence were not. and asked about his progress with the I was taken out of Miami as a staff woman. "She is very afraid," he said. investigator, assigned to Washington as "She feels she was not involved in any- a team leader, and told to coordinate the thing and she is afraid there would be writing of the anti-Castro team's part of a lot of publicity that would hurt her the final report: There were only three family and cause her trouble in her job. months left in the official life of the I told her then, well, if she will just talk Assassinations Committee and, as Blakey to you and if you can guarantee her there himself said, parroting the Warren Com- will be no publicity and she will not have mission's chief counsel near the end of Anthony Summers, author of the to come to Washington, would she do that investigation, "This is no time to book Conspiracy, which conjectures that? She said okay. She will just talk be opening doors." that David Phillips might be to you if you can guarantee that. Do you I kept trying. Before I left for Wash- Maurice Bishop. Phillips publicly want to talk with her?" ington. I had a long discussion with accused Summers of character I had wanted to talk with her, but I Antonio Veciana. His attitude toward assassination. was not going to lie to Veciana. I had the Committee had turned very negative learned my lesson about making prom- but he remained cooperative with me. to give me the name of the intermediary ises that the Committee would ignore. My belief in Veciana's story had grown so that I could talk with her. I told Veciana that 1 couldn't give him stronger. Although there were key points He was reluctant. She lived in Puerto or her any guarantees, but I would check not corroborated, the accumulation of Rico, he said. She had a family and a with my superiors. details that checked out was now. I felt, good job now, and he was afraid that I remember walking into Deputy Chief confirmation. But there was one detail she might get a lot of publicity she didn't Counsel Gary Comwell's office. "I think not yet checked out. I had not given it need. I told him I would consider it a I can locate the intermediary who can priority because it did not relate to the personal favor, that it was important to confirm the existence of Maurice question of Maurice Bishop's identity. me to know who she was. Well, he said. Bishop," I said. "All I need is a couple just his existence. It concerned the woman in that case, he would have to ask her. of days in Puerto Rico and a promise who Veciana said had served as an in- Shortly afterward, in Washington, I that she won't get any publicity or be termediary when Bishop wanted to con- received a call from Anthony Summers. called to Washington." tact him and couldn't locate him in Miami. An Englishman, Summers had been in- Cornwell looked at me initially with Veciana said he had always let this woman volved in the production of a BBC-pro- some surprise and then, at the latter part know how to reach him when he went duced television special on the Kennedy of my proposal, burst into a loud guffaw: out of town. He had instructed Bishop assassination. He had discovered Ve- "No way!" he shouted. Then he turned to contact her for his location. ciana through the Jack Anderson column serious. "Besides," he said, "it's too I considered the fact that Veciana had and, having gotten a book contract from late. We don't have the time or the money. mentioned the existence of an interme- McGraw-Hill, had begun to spend time How far along are you on the report?" diary a positive point in assessing his with Veciana. An excellent investigator, credibility. He initially told me he did he struck it off well with Veciana. Another effort in those last months of not want to reveal her identity because "I think I have some information that the Committee's life involved another he did not want to get her involved in might be of some help to you," Sum- person to whom, Veciana said, Bishop the investigation, because she had never iV mers told me when he called. "I have had referred him at the American em- met Bishop and could not identify him. managed to goad Veciana into revealing bassy in Havana. His name was Smith, Now, in the last month of the Com- the name of his intermediary. He didn't and initially Veciana recalled his first mittee's life, I saw the direction it was want to, of course, but I began telling name as "something like Ewing." I was going. It appeared to me that an effort him that I thought the information he puzzled when I spoke with people who might be made to dismiss Veciana's story was providing was balderdash. He's very had been connected with the US Em- entirely. I thought, just to toss another sensitive, you know, about his credibil- bassy and found that no one remembered log on the pile, I could convince Veciana ity, so he told me her name and asked a Ewing Smith. Then one day a photo- 232 The Washingrortion1November 1980

"k1=Mietk.rStr,4Satel • `lT graph appeared in the newspaper of a erately misleading. uisite for believing Veciana, that there State Department official who President To claim that Veciana "waited" more should have been witnesses to his meet- Carter had named as the new director of than ten years ignores the circumstances ings with Bishop is stupid. One would Cuban affairs. His name was Wayne of his initial telling of the story. He did have to conclude that the Committee Smith. It occurred to me that the Spanish not approach me. I approached him. He acquired absolutely no knowledge of basic intelligence operations during the two Ed visualization of the pronunciation of insisted on absolute confidentiality. Un- Wayne may have led Veciana to remem- til 1973 he had no desire to jeopardize years of its existence. (Conversely, to ber it incorrectly. I was right. When I his relationship with Maurice Bishop, ignore the intelligence patterns in Lee showed Veciana the photograph, he re- who for years had been a loyal and pow- Harvey Oswald's activities—including membered Wayne Smith as one of the erful ally. His revelations came as a re- the discovery of a subminiature Minos individuals Bishop had suggested he talk sult of his fears at that time and in an camera and photos of military installa- with at the embassy about aid for his effort to create defenses against what he tions among his effects—makes the anti-Castro activities. then felt would be future actions against Committee's expectations regarding Ve- Wayne Smith, I discovered, was a him. His prison sentence had given sub- ciana's meeting with Bishop more ridic- vice consul and third secretary at the US stance to those fears. Immediately after ulous and its report's conclusions re- Embassy in Havana at the time Veciana the Kennedy assassination, when he had garding organized-crime involvement claimed he met him there. (He is cur- the opportunity to reveal the story to a more bizarre.) ,...gently back in Havana as chief of the US US Customs agent he suspected of being Finally, the claim that Veciana did Interest Section.) Educated in Mexico with the CIA, he felt his CIA loyalties little to help the Committee identify City, Smith has spent most of his career were being tested. "That was a very Bishop implies a lack of cooperation that on assignment in Latin America. difficult situation, because I was afraid," is simply not true. Although at one point I thought it was important to interview Veciana explained. (The Committee never Veciana announced he would no longer Wayne Smith, to take a sworn deposition interviewed the Customs agent.) cooperate with a government that was for the record, but I was again told that Veciana did, initially, refuse to supply dealing with Castro, later reports attest the Committee's investigation had ended proof of the 5253.000 payment from to the point that he did. In fact, he was and it was time to get out the report. I Bishop when asked in his formal hearing ready to testify at a public hearing before was disappointed because I had discov- before the congressional members of the the Committee pushed him aside. A.--ered that Wayne Smith, when he was Committee. He did claim fear of the In- In addition, the Committee's conclu- stationed in Havana in 1960, had be- ternal Revenue Service. Thai's why, sions are tainted by its ability to dismiss longed to a little theater group composed before he agreed to speak with me two pieces of contradictory evidence. For mostly of Americans living in Cuba at years before, he requested assurances instance, it noted that the CIA "insisted the time. Among the amateur thespians that nothing he told me would be held that it did not at any time assign a case was David Atlee Phillips. against him. The Committee refused to officer to Veciana." grant him immunity from the IRS. When The Committee wanted to avoid The final volume of the report of the pushed under oath, Veciana told the chewing on the CIA. The result was House Select Committee on Assassina- Committee that he would tell me what evasiveness: "The Committee found it tions, the one entitled "Findings and he had done with the money. The Com- probable that some agency of the United Recommendations," was written after mittee refused that arrangement. The States assigned a case officer to Veciana, the official demise of the Committee and Committee's report ignored the fact that because he was the dominant figure in after all but a few of the staff had de- he initially told about the payment vol- an extremely active anti-Castro organi- parted. It was written under the direction untarily and that he was a professional zation. The Committee established that of Chief Counsel G. Robert Blakey. The accountant who could have kept it well the CIA assigned case officers to Cuban volume contains 686 pages. Less than hidden if he had wanted to. revolutionaries of less importance than two and a quarter pages are devoted to For the Committee to expect, as a req- Veciana, though it could not draw from Antonio Veciana and Maurice Bishop. that alone an inference of CIA deception David Atlee Phillips is not mentioned. The final report of the House of the Committee concerning The conclusions in the Committee's Assassinations Committee concluded Veciana. . " final volume stand in contrast to the find- that the Kennedy assassination was Nothing attests more vividly to the ings in the staff report I had written be- "probably the result of a incongruity of the Committee's conclu- fore I left Washington. That report said conspiracy." sions than the fact that in the end it was that although "no evidence was found forced to impeach the testimony of both to discredit Veciana's testimony" and Antonio Veciana and David Phillips. that although "there was some evidence This, too, it relegated to a footnote: to support it," nevertheless "no definite "The Committee suspected that Veciana conclusions could be drawn as to the was lying when he denied that the re- identity or affiliations" of Maurice tired CIA officer was Bishop. The Com- Bishop. W ILMA UN. N. INS WYO.= ••=111, MO IC NONNO-.. •• mittee recognized that Veciana had an

The Committee's final report dis- . 0 NI/YAM .11,01 17•711417 ■m• • 0.101110.- 1/1 interest in renewing his anti-Castro op-

misses Veciana's allegations com- • r. rmil•./1 ma... Liana.- v._ 4 erations that might have led him to pro- pletely. It said the Committee found tect the officer from exposure as Bishop ■ ■ ■ "several reasons to believe that Veciana malts.. IN 1.•• • • •••awo 1.• 1, JINN*, so they could work together again. For had been less than candid," and then his part, the retired officer aroused the listed four of those reasons: Committee's suspicion when he told the "First. Veciana waited more than 10 Committee he did not recognize Veciana years after the assassination to reveal his .11,1117 as the founder of Alpha 66, especially story. since the officer had once been deeply I 44 m nakoc,.. 0 • • "Second, Veciana would not supply involved in Agency anti-Castro proof of the $253,000 payment from operations." Bishop. claiming fear of the Internal Revenue Service. With the official expiration of the Com- "Third, Veciana could not point to mittee in December l978, I returned to a single witness to his meetings with Miami. Blakey had asked me to stay on Bishop, much less with Oswald. but I didn't want to. I didn't know what "Fourth. Veciana did little to help the was going to happen to the staff reports committee identify Bishop." that were produced on Antonio Veciana, Every one of those reasons is delib- Silvia Odic), and the other areas of anti- NoIrrnber 19801The Washingonian 233 Castro activity, and 1 didn't much care. ike I kept thinking what Vincent Salandria had told me in Philadelphia more than three years before: "They'll keep you very, very busy, and eventually they'll wear you down." Just before 1 left Washington, the remnants of the anti- Castro team had given me a farewell gift with a note attached saying it would be useful if I ever decided to write about my Committee experiences. It was a whitewash brush.

I remained in touch with both Antonio Veciana and Silvia Odio. Although I had first approached them as an official investigator. I maintained a personal rap- omit with them after I left the Committee. They were both interested in what the Committee's final report would say about their testimony. Several weeks after the Committee's report was released, in July 1979, I got a copy of its concluding volume. Mean- while. I had obtained a copy of the staff reports 1 had written in both the Veciana and Odio areas of the investigation. Be- erinrse I felt an obligation to let both Antonio Veciana (far left) and his family. Shortly after the House Veciana and Odio know what my con- Assassinations Committee report appeared, someone shot Veciana in the clusions were after dealing with them for head. He survived, and his family today say they accept living with danger more than three years, I gave them each but refuse to live with fear. copies of my staff report and promised that I would also get them copies of the "I fear that we may have forgotten front windshield. Committee's final report. why we are here. Veciana showed me the bullet holes One evening several days later, the "I fear that we have grown compla- with a sense of amused wonder. I stood telephone rang. A friend in Little Havana cent and smug. there in the shadows of the street lamp was calling. He said Veciana had just "I fear the satisfaction that comes from and looked at the size of the holes the been shot in the head. Veciana had been having three cars in the driveway and .45-caliber slugs had made in the truck. driving home from work when someone a chicken in every pot, and knowing we The first shot had gone completely ambushed him, fired four shots at him. can say what we damn well please Sigh- through the outside rearview mirror, pro- Veciana was not dead, the friend said, out valuing that freedom. ducing as it emerged an ugly flower of but that was all he knew. "That's what I fear." jagged metal. I placed a flurry of calls to find out I asked him who he thought was trying what happened. Yes, someone had tried A week after Veciana was shot. I re- to kill him. "It was a Castro agent," he to assassinate Veciana. He was in the ceived a call from him. He was out of said with certainty. hospital, but he was all right. The hit the hospital and walking about. It was "Have you ever considered," I asked, man had been a bad shot, but a piece of only a slight wound near the left temple. "that it could be anyone else?" He looked one ricocheting bullet had caught Ve- "My wife said if it was higher, I might at me and smiled. "No," he said. "It ciana in the side of the head. Later in have to wear a toupee," he laughed. The is Castro. I am sure." the evening I reached one of his daugh- reason he called, he said, was he had Our talk eventually turned to the staff ters who had just returned from the hos- read the staff report and he wanted to report I had left with him. Yes, he said. pital. He was lucky, she said; it was not talk with me and show me some papers. he had read it and that's why he wanted a serious wound. The next evening. I drove down to see to talk with me. There are things in it. Ana Veciana, the oldest daughter, had Veciana. He had a small bandage on the he said, that question his credibility. His recently graduated from college and was side of his head and another on his right credibility is very important to him be- working as a reporter for the Miami News. side. He was pale but appeared in good cause he is still gathering evidence to A few days after her father was shot, she spirits. He showed me the bullet holes overturn his narcotics conviction, even wrote a story about it. Her family, she in the pickup truck he was driving when though he has served the sentence. said, has come to accept the fact that he was shot. He was coming home late, What bothered him, Veciana said, was they must live with danger, but they have he said. When he made a left-hand turn the denial, in Caracas, by Lucilo Pena refused to live with fear. Fear is the mind into a street, he saw a brown station- and Luis Posada that they were involved killer. Her family, she said, has chosen wagon parked on the corner facing him. with him in the Castro assassination at- to live with pride. "My American friends He noticed a figure sitting in it. Then tempt in Chile in 1971. "Sure they were never understood the politics or the vio- he heard a loud noise and felt a sharp with me," Veciana said. "They are not lence that comes with Latin politics,•' blow on the side of his head. The front telling the truth." He said he had asked she wrote. "To this day l have not been vent window exploded when the second a friend who had just come from Caracas able to explain. but only to describe, the shot was fired. "Then I knew that it was to bring papers that would prove it. He passion Cubans feel for the freedom that's an attempt on my life," Veciana said would also give me the name of a person taken for granted in this country." She matter-of-factly. The third shot ripped in Miami who could corroborate it. was very proud of her father's anti-Cas- through the door at his ribs, was de- We talked for a few hours in detail troism. she said, and had come to accept flected by the door's interior mecha- about other points in that staff report. "the aberrations from normal life." nism, passed in front of his stomach. and I slowly began to realize that Ve- "But fear?" she wrote. "Never. The burned across his right arm, and tore out ciana was not going to bring up the one fear we know, if it can rightly be called the other side of the truck and into an key doubt I had expressed about his cred- that, is the fear many others are not for- open field. The fourth shot produced a ibility. In the report, I said specifically tunate enough to experience. spiderweb of cracks as it skimmed the that I had doubted his credibility when 134 The WishingweianiNotreber 1980 he told me that David Phillips was not Maurice Bishop. In our discussion now. This Christmas Give Someone Special Veciana was letting that pass. We had come to the point of a close Something Special but odd relationship, Veciana and I. I had told him I understood his position, and he said he appreciated that. "You know," he said. "I have given sworn statements." I knew what he meant. But that evening as we talked 1 was moved to take advantage of the camaraderie that had developed between us. "Tony," I said, "I am not going to put you on the spot, but I would like to ask you just one question, and I would like to you be totally honest with me because the answer that you give me is very impor- r.,..aant to me." His face got serious and his dark eyes Give an elegant girt stared at me without expression. of lasting value. "I know that you feel you have a 10 karat gold filed pert or mission in life," I said. "and I want you Pencil 520 each. Set $40. Engraved free of charge. to know that 1 respect that and all the things you must do to be faithful to that Other fine Cross writing mission. Believe me, I do not want to CROSS instruments priced from $9 to $60. interfere with it." He nodded his head. "I understand," o'--he said softly. "You know that I believe what you have told me," I went on. "I believe you about everything. Except when you told me that David Phillips is not Maur- ice Bishop." MAIL OR PHONE ORDERS FILLED 953 7470 His eyes never moved, his expression 1101 F. Street, N.W. never changed. Prince Georges Plaza "Now," I said, "1 would like you to Laketorest • Iverson Mali • Tysons Corner tell me this one time very truthfully: Laurel Centre • Wheaton Plaza • Springfield Mall Would you have told me if I had found Maurice Bishop?" A slow smile crossed Veciana's face as he let out his breath. He put his head down and scratched his forehead, taking time to think carefully. Then he looked up with a half-smile still on his face. "Well, you know," he said, "I would like to talk with him first." I looked at him for a moment, then laughed. Veciana laughed with me. BIJIROLARSI

More recently, several developments have produced a series of responses from David Atlee Phillips. HUH The catalyst was the publication by McGraw-Hill this July of Anthony Sum- mers's book, Conspiracy. Summers's Quick, what did I lose? work was a synthesis of his own investigation and the Committee's findings. Now you'll know. He was astute enough to dig beyond the Exactly and immediately. Committee's final report and into its volumes of appendixes. There he dis- Personal Inventory Associates, a copy of your inventory is instantly covered the staff report I had written national network of retired military available. Nbur data are also stored detailing the Committee's interest in officers. inventories the entire con- in our computer, your film in our David Phillips. He incorporated a brief tents of your home in print and on fireproof vault. Both are right here summary of it into Conspiracy. movie film. Our Associate in your in Washington...and you pay no (On his own, Summers recently took area is thoroughly trained for most storage fee for 20 years. the investigation further in a series of effective work in this highly special- When you go for full recovery of articles for the London Observer. He ized field. His professional back- losses, go with a professional in- revealed finding the woman Veciana ground assures you of leak-proof ventory of possessions in print and claimed had been an intermediary in some confidentiality. pictures. For full facts without obli- of Bishop's contacts with him. Summers When you must come up with the gation. call (202) 362.2627 week- learned she had been Veciana's personal loss documentation that insurance days 9 to 5. Just as soon as you secretary at the Havana bank and, after and tax people expect fast, a printed want to be fully prepared. having later gotten involved in anti-Cas- tro activity in Puerto Rico, was re-contacted by Veciana when he was organ- Personal Inventory Associates izing Alpha 66. Veciana asked her again Washington, D.C. (202) 362-2627 November 19801The Washerwoman 235

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article the congressional investigator agents to maintain their security. to provide secretarial services and to act P as his answering service when he trav- "described himself as paranoid on the When interviewed by Leigh. all three eled. She agreed, and in the months and subject of the Kennedy assassination." individuals repeated, in essense, the years that followed she became familiar On the TV shows, Summers pointed statements they had given to the Com- with the name of a man who called from out that the article. written in Philadel- mittee: Crozier maintained that David the mainland. His name., she recalled. phia magazine, was an obvious tongue- Phillips had used the name of Bishop; was Bishop.) in-cheek piece entitled "My Paranoia Gupton said he didn't recall referring to Prior to the publication of Summers's and Me" and that it detailed the pieces his former boss as Bishop: and Bart Henry book, Phillips planned an aggressive re- of the puzzle a decade ago that indicated insisted that he had seen a Maurice Bishop action against it. Learning of Summers's that the truth about the Kennedy assas- at CIA headquarters and that the man scheduled television appearance on sination had not yet been told, wasn't his "personal friend" David NBC's Today show, Phillips approached It crossed my mind that Phillips was. Phillips. (There were discrepancies bean NBC executive in Washington to ar- uncharacteristically, being a bit panicky. tween Bart Henry's statements to Leigh range a confrontation with Summers. although I can't avoid the tendency to and what he told the Committee regard- Phillips came on strong. Turning toward look for mirror images. That initial ing the number of times he had seen Summers, he dramatically proclaimed: thought then was reinforced in a sub- Bishop and when he saw him.) "Welcome to America. Mr. Summers. sequent development. On his television appearance with 1..,,accuse you of assassination! . . . In his offensive -against Summers's Anthony Summers. Phillips spoke as if Character assassination!" He attacked book, Phillips had approached the Wash- he didn't know who Ross Crozier was. Summers for involving him in the Ken- ington Posr's executive editor. Ben "I certainly would like to have an op- nedy assassination—which Summers had Bradlee. Bradlee assigned an English portunity to talk to that gentleman. His scrupulously avoided doing in his book— exchange reporter, David Leigh, to look name is not given in the book.. ." and then personally named me as being into the story. As of this writing, Leigh However, in attempting to guide Post singly responsible for linking him with has not produced a story for the Post, reporter Leigh through the story, Phillips Maurice Bishop. but Phillips spent a lot of time with him not only gave him Crozier's real name It was a melodramatic performance attempting to guide him through some and address, but he also pointed out that for a man whose career specialized in of the information. Some of the points Crozier had been a heavy drinker and ...the-subtlest of tradecraft. he made to Leigh contradict his state- implied that he often got his facts wrong. Although Summers, an experienced ments to the Assassinations Committee. Phillips also revealed to Leigh the real BBC television veteran, fended off Phil- He told Leigh that he may very well have names of Doug Gupton and former deep- lips's attack in a cool and articulate man- been in Texas, visiting his family in Fort cover operative Ban Henry. ner, Phillips repeated the confrontation Worth, during the period Veciana claims It raises the question of whether Phil- on Channel 5's Panorama program. In he saw Bishop with Oswald. lips, in his determination to take an ag- neither appearance did Phillips provide In pursuing the piece. Leigh also in- gressive stance against the possibility of any evidence contrary to the information terviewed a number of other people. his being identified as Oswald-associate in the Committee's report. Among them were three who were de- Maurice Bishop, violated his CIA Se- However, in approaching the media liberately given pseudonyms in my staff crecy Agreement. prior to his appearance, Phillips had is- report: "Ross Crozier," "Doug Gup- sued a two-page document titled "A ton" and "Bart Henry." Under its A critique of the Assassinations Com- Statement." In it. he attempted to attack agreement with the Committee. theCIA mittee's final report was written by Carl me by noting that in a 1971 magazine changed the real names of those former Oglesby in Clandestine America, the Accused Assassin Anti-Castro Leader American Spymaster Lee Harvey Owswald Antonio Veciana Maurice Bishop

Were these three men together in Dallas two months before the assassination of John F. Kennedy? Veciana says they were. If so, does this provide a crucial link of Oswald, anti-Castro Cuban exiles, and a US intelligence agent? And what is the true identity of Maurice Bishop? The answers to these questions could unravel the mystery of who killed John F. Kennedy.

ne The WashingfrynianINnvemher 1980

lt,-Thrlm.mclitm.^.7ma.AcP.:77sww.tk.wistralss-"Mim*FrsizMWRMWS ,WW1f,....Q0: President John Kennedy's widow Jacqueline, flanked by his two brothers, Robert and Edward, in the funeral cortege on November 25, 1963.

Washington newsletter of the indepen- as important as the assassination of a we would just have to accept the Fact dent Assassination Information Bureau: President. an investigation unbound by that we were going to leave loose ends. To sum up. This report has serious political, financial, or time restrictions? "Life has loose ends," he would say. shortcomings. It pulls its punches. It in- Yet this was the last investigation. After the treatment she received at the sinuates much about the Mob and JFK's Chief Counsel Bob Blakey hiniself said hands of the Assassinations Committee. death which it then says it doesn't really it at his first staff meeting. He is a very Silvia Odio, whose testimony stands as mean. It is alternately confused and dog- meticulous lawyer. His allegiance is to the strongest witness to a conspiracy, matic on the subject of Oswald's motive. the standing institutions of government. finally permitted English journalist An- It tells us it could not see all the way Again and again, he emphasized the re- thony Summers, then producing a tele- into the heart of CIA or FBI darkness. straints inherent in a congressional probe. vision documentary about the Kennedy yet assures us that we are secure. Its He never considered a higher mandate. assassination, to film an interview in treatment of the technical evidence in He never considered the Kennedy as- silhouette, As he relates in his book, the crucial areas of shot sequencing and sassination an extraordinary event or a Conspiracy, Summers asked her why the medical evidence is shallow and un- possible manifestation of internal cor- she was now prepared to talk, after re- convincing. ruption within the institutions he was so fusing press approaches for so long. Odio "Yet stilt we say that this report, over- bent on protecting. He never considered was silent for a long moment. Then the all, is strongly positive. It has moved using his position to demonstrate a loy- said: "I guess it is a feeling of frustration the Dealey Plaza conspiracy question out alty to principles higher than those in- after so many years. I feel outraged that of the shadows. It has boldly nailed the stitutions. He never considered his man- we have not discovered the truth for his- thesis of conspiracy to the churchdoor date to conduct a "full and complete" tory's sake. for all of us. I think it is of orthodox political opinion." investigation as coming from the Amer- because very angry about it all—the Oglesby is right. But this was the last ican people. forces I cannot understand and the fact investigation and, somehow, I expected Blakey recently showed. in a radio that there is nothing I can do against more. I am not alone. There is not one interview in New York. the limitations them. That is why I am here." investigator—nor one—who served on of his perspective. "What the public Bob Blakey never felt what Silvia Odio the Kennedy task force of the Assassi- wants," he said, "and what the public feels. He never felt the frustration and nations Committee who honestly feels can get are two different things. The anger that lives within her, the outrage he took part in an adequate investigation, notion that somehow people outside of that the truth has not been discovered let alone a "full and complete" one. Washington can come into Washington after so many years. l'II always remem- So after all these years and all those and do great and noble things in Wash- ber what she told me when the Com- spent resources—after the last investi- ington without understanding the place mittee had changed its mind about per- gation—what the Kennedy assassination is just nonsense." mitting her to tell her story to the American still needs is an investigation guided sim- Bob Blakey was fond of telling the people. Her words echo in my mind. ply. unswervingly by the priority of truth. staff, when anyone would start pushing "We lost." she said. "We all lost." Is it unrealistic to desire, for something beyond the limitations he imposed. that

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