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JFK Characters

As you start reading about the JFK John Abt assassination, you quickly realize that there are thousands of people involved John Abt was a lawyer for the Communist party. in one way or another. Keeping track of When LHO was arrested in Dallas, he asked for Abt who’s who gets to be a challenge. to represent him. LHO wasn’t a communist or That’s why I created this list of some of marxist, but he pretended to be as part of his CIA the major (and minor) players in the undercover assignment. Asking to have Abt as his complex story. It is designed to give lawyer was intended to be a signal to his you a quick idea of the most relevant intelligence handlers that his cover was still intact facts about each of the characters and that he was still playing along. He wanted his listed, and it is intended as a quick handlers to know that they could count on his reference tool. (However, just reading silence. down the list of characters is one way to get a lot of information about the events of November 22, 1963, in Juan Adames Dallas, Texas.) Juan Adames provided information to HSCA It is by no means complete, as that is (House Select Committee on Investigations) beyond my scope. But I do plan to keep investigator Gaeton Fonzi, working in Miami. adding characters as I learn more Adames told Fonzi about Bernardo Gonzales de about the death of JFK. Torres Alvarez (de Torres), who had been working for CIA since 1962. De Torres was also an FBI informant, and a player in the JFK murder conspiracy. Adames denied working for CIA, but admitted knowing LHO and other people involved in the conspiracy. He also admitted working with de Torres to forge documents for hit teams who met in Cuban hangouts throughout Florida. Adames also stated that de Torres had in his possession photographs taken during the JFK assassination.

AEJUMP AEJUMP was a CIA program for finding and recruiting people (like recent Russian, Polish, Hungarian, and Ukrainian immigrants) who would be willing to be dropped into the Soviet Union as CIA commandos. (It was an unsuccessful program. All recruits died, some murdered. Some turned out to be double agents.)

AESTORAGE AESTORAGE was the CIA cryptonym for its practice of concealing certain documents from anyone not involved in its clandestine operations. In other words, even other components of CIA itself Page 2

were not allowed access to those sensitive district attorney from New Orleans is going to be documents. The Rockefeller Commission asked able to do about it. He knew Garrison was CIA to clarify its list of cryptonyms, and CIA claimed passionate about this cause, and he figured that some of them were so old that they themselves Garrison would fire him on the spot. However, the no longer knew what they meant. Like virtually DA laughed at Alford’s outburst, and added: everything else CIA says, it was a lie. They didn’t There’s probably nothing a chicken shit District really expect anyone to believe them, but they Attorney is going to be able to do about it either. expected the Commission to understand that CIA didn’t care whether anyone believed them or not. CIA could do and say anything they wanted, and Alpha 66 there was nothing anybody could do about it. The JFK assassination had proven that. Alpha 66 was a violent paramilitary group formed by David Atlee Philips (CIA agent, aka Maurice Bishop), Antonio Veciana (CIA contractor, Cuban AID exile), and Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo (Castro opponent). Alpha 66 commandos led serious raids AID is the acronym for Agency for International against Cuba. Development, a CIA clone or proprietary.

AMCARBON Adrian Alba AMCARBON was the CIA’s cryptonym for the Adrian Alba operated the Crescent City Garage in Agency’s “operational relationship” with editors and New Orleans, next door to Reily Coffee Company, reporters working for the Miami Herald. Specific where LHO and Judy Vary Baker worked during the individuals were identified with a numeric suffix, summer of 1963. such as AMCARBON-1 for Al Burt, Latin American editor at the Herald. That position was later

occupied by AMCARBON-3, Donald Bohning. James Alcock The AM stood for Cuba, and the CARBON referred Jimmy Alcock was one of Jim Garrison’s assistants. to writer assets, who funneled information to The In Oliver Stone’s movie JFK, Garrison tried the Company. case against Clay Shaw in New Orleans. But in reality, it was James Alcock and Al Oser who tried the case. (Garrison had been widely perceived as Dean Andrews being motivated by a desire for publicity, and he Dean Andrews was a rotund attorney in New didn’t want to lend his support to that image.) Orleans. His clients were mostly small-time Garrison did present opening arguments, however. criminals and the mafia. He once applied for Alcock handled closing arguments, with a final employment with the FBI, but they turned him down closing statement by Garrison. because he was considered unstable and he talked After the Shaw trial, Alcock became Garrison’s too much. chief assistant. He received a call from Clay Bertrand the day after the JFK murder. Bertrand had instructed Andrews to go to Dallas and represent LHO. That was the William Alford subject of discussion during Andrews’ lunch with William Alford was one of Jim Garrison’s assistants. Jim Garrison in October, 1966. Andrews had One day Alford’s exhaustion got the better of him, already told the FBI, the Secret Service, and the and he said to his boss: Jim, if the CIA killed the Warren Commission about that call, and now president, there’s nothing a chicken shit assistant Garrison had another question about it. Page 3

When Andrews was supposed to leave New to anyone who challenged his right-wing world Orleans for Dallas on Sunday morning, he was too view. sick to make the trip, so he called Monk Zelden to He was also very skilled at collecting information go instead. Before Zelden could hit the road, using stealth, such as planting bugs. That ability however, LHO had been killed. Andrews told a TV endeared him to CIA Directors Allen Dulles (1953- station and the Secret Service that he had seen 1961) and Richard Helms (1966-1973). Angleton LHO on three occasions. He was interviewed by had been friends with both Dulles and Helms since the FBI six times, and by the Secret Service three his OSS days. He also garnered their favor by times. By then, the FBI was in full cover-up mode, ignoring the chain of command and presenting his however, so they told Andrews that he had made intelligence tidbits directly to the Director. Not up the whole Bertrand call thing, or that he had surprisingly, Angleton’s rise to the top echelons of imagined it, having been heavily sedated at the CIA was fast. time. Andrews said they could spin the story any way they wanted to. The FBI publicly claimed In 1954 he was appointed (by Dwight Eisenhower) Andrews had imagined the incident, even though to the position of chief of counterintelligence. That they were searching frantically for Clay Bertrand, was arguably the most important position in the and they had been doing so even before they heard entire intelligence world. Especially with Angleton at Andrews’ story. the helm, because both Dulles and Helms gave him almost unlimited autonomy and unsupervised By then Andrews was terrified, and his lunch with freedom to act as he saw fit. Garrison did nothing to allay his fears. Garrison demanded to know the true identity of Clay This is an example of how dangerous that situation Bertrand. (He already knew it was an alias used by was. In 1963 Angleton climbed a wall and broke well-known Clay Shaw, but he needed someone to into the French Embassy in Washington. It was, in verify that fact on the record.) Andrews refused, not part, an attempt to help identify moles, but it was budging even when Garrison threatened to haul also a response to JFK’s secret attempt to enlist him before a grand jury and charge him with the help of Charles de Gaulle in negotiating a perjury. That didn’t frighten Andrews. Getting a peace agreement with North Vietnam, which was bullet in his head was what frightened him, and he strongly opposed by Angleton and virtually all his told Garrison so. The DA was forced to try to right-wing associates. JFK was bypassing CIA, identify Clay Bertrand as Clay Shaw another way. which Kennedy had vowed to destroy after the Bay of Pigs. In a very real sense, the White House was Later, Garrison did in fact indict Andrews for at war with CIA, so The Agency was conducting perjury. Andrews was convicted and received a jail covert operations against the Kennedy sentence of eighteen months. He continued to lie administration as well as against foreign threats to about Clay Shaw under oath, and he was again the US. It was in this hostile environment that the indicted for perjury because of his false testimony conspiracy to murder JFK was developed and in the Shaw trial. He never publicly admitted that carried out. Clay Bertrand was Clay Shaw.

James Angleton Jacobo Arbenz Guzman Jacobo Arbenz was the President of Guatemala James Angleton became a fervent anti-communist until he was overthrown by CIA in 1954. That during his college days. He worked for the OSS unauthorized CIA action demonstrated to then (Office of Strategic Services, which evolved into the President Eisenhower that The Agency was out of CIA) before launching his career as a spy known control and dangerous. It prompted him to establish for his superior skills in designing unusual covert the President’s Board of Consultants on Foreign operations and maintaining complete secrecy. He Intelligence Activities. That panel concluded that was supremely confident, paranoid, and dangerous CIA was acting in direct conflict with Eisenhower’s Page 4

State Department. CIA’s covert operations were cannot be defended on national security concerns, operating for the most part on an autonomous and since plenty of time has elapsed to diminish the free-wheeling basis in highly critical areas. In sensitive nature of their secrets. The problem is response, CIA’s covert operations, then under the that they probably still protect certain federal control of Richard Bissell, sabotaged the U-2 flight officials or groups from public embarrassment and of Francis Gary Powers over Russia on May 1, possible legal, ethical, moral, or political damage. 1960.

So, JFK’s war with CIA was just the continuation of a war that began under the previous administration. Manuel Artime The U-2 incident was to Eisenhower what the Bay By 1963, RFK had formed a small group of loyal of Pigs was to JFK, and CIA was responsible for Cubans who were tasked with developing a plan to both. The Agency was implementing its own foreign kill Castro and helping protect JFK from the wrath policy. of a hostile Cuban refugee bent on killing the President in revenge for his Bay of Pigs betrayal. Among that group were Manuel Artime, Angelo ARRB Murgado, and Manolo Reboso. By 1992, many American citizens were still not This group had LHO under constant surveillance. convinced they had been told the entire true story RFK knew all about LHO before November 22, of JFK’s murder in Dallas, TX, on November 22, 1963. That’s why RFK was desperate to shut down 1963. They weren’t satisfied with the conclusions of Jim Garrison’s investigation. If the public were to the Warren Commission, 1964, or the House Select find out about the RFK / LHO connection, Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), 1978-1979. Americans would most likely conclude that Bobby Doubts and questions flourished in large part was somehow partly responsible for his brother’s because of Oliver Stone’s movie JFK. Congress death, and that RFK was no better than CIA. responded by passing the President John F

Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, commonly referred to as the JFK Act. William Attwood That legislation provided for an independent body William Attwood was a school friend of JFKs. The known as the Assassination Records Review Board President sent Attwood on a mission to try to open (ARRB). Its five members were trained in the areas a dialogue with Fidel Castro. JFK was pursuing of law, history, and archives. They were not diplomacy at the same time he was supporting government employees, but they had the power to assassination plots against the Cuban dictator. decide what documents should be declassified and made available to the public. Their decision could be overruled only by the president. The JFK Act Hugh Aynesworth also provided for a staff, without which the Board’s success was impossible. Hugh Aynesworth, working at the Dallas Morning News, served as one of CIA’s (and FBI’s) media They finished their work on September 30, 1998. assets. He later posed as a Newsweek reporter. In By then, thousands of previously secret documents 1963 he tried to get a job with CIA. The FBI had had been released and placed in the National several files on him. Archives, available to the public. The Board members fully admitted that there were still plenty He bragged about having several informants within of records that they hadn’t been able to release, so the Jim Garrison investigation. He lied liberally the job was not done, although their part of it was. about Garrison in an effort to discredit him. He Even today, thousands of relevant documents are reported that Garrison was losing his sanity, for being concealed from the public, and there is no example. certainty that they will ever be released. That Page 5

An incident being investigated by Garrison was the partner in crime. They were in contact daily during day in 1963 when Clay Shaw was seen in Clinton, LBJ’s tenure in the Senate and well into his VP Louisiana, in the presence of LHO, among others. years. Baker learned from LBJ the arts of politics Garrison’s best corroborating witness was John and moving money around. Manchester, a law enforcement officer who Baker, together with his friend Fred Black, started a approached the black Cadillac that day and talked business venture called Serv-U Corporation in late with the driver, who identified himself as Clay 1961. It was a vending machine business in the Shaw. Shaw presented his driver license and told Washington area. One of his competitors, Ralph the officer that he worked for the International Hill, president of Capitol Vending, charged that Trade Mart. Baker paid for his new machines by helping people Aynesworth stole the Manchester file from a locked obtain defense contracts. That led to other file cabinet in the office of Lou Ivon, working for allegations, forcing Baker to resign his post as Garrison. Shaw’s defense team dispatched secretary of the US Senate majority. LBJ would Aynesworth to Clinton, thinking it would be easy to have nothing more to do with Baker, and he bribe or intimidate those country bumpkins refused to comment publicly about the investigation inhabiting the small Louisiana town. Manchester into Baker’s business practices. Another allegation was Aynesworth’s first and most important target. was that Baker, using federal phone lines, arranged The officer was offered a nice job working in for politicians to be entertained by prostitutes at a Mexico for CIA if he would just leave Louisiana nearby social club. immediately and never testify against Shaw. The unwanted national focus on Baker came at a Manchester cordially invited Aynesworth to very unfortunate time for LBJ, because in late 1962 skedaddle if he didn’t particularly want to be the the Billy Sol Estes scandal had finally been owner of a brand new asshole. Manchester told resolved. In the October trial, Estes was found Garrison about the episode, and Aynesworth, of guilty, he was sent to jail, and it appeared that course, denied it. But when Manchester passed a justice had been done. LBJ had escaped the ordeal polygraph test and an interview under sodium unscathed, and then the Cuban Missile Crisis pentathol, Aynesworth was exposed as a liar. meant that nobody was thinking about Estes any Garrison subpoenaed him before a grand jury and more. LBJ finally seemed to be able to relax a bit. charged him with attempted bribery of a police But that didn’t last long. The Baker scandal quickly officer. Aynesworth refused to appear, even when replaced Estes as the LBJ crisis du jour. offered immunity. By the time JFK went to Dallas, the Baker CIA was aware that Aynesworth was there at investigation was focusing its attention on LBJ. Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963, and then a People were beginning to wonder how Johnson, little later in the day was present at the murder site who had started his Senate career with no money, of Dallas Police officer J D Tippet. (The Agency had grown obscenely wealthy on his government was probably the reason Aynesworth was there.) salary. Don Reynolds (associate of Bobby Baker) Aynesworth was also a pallbearer for Jack Ruby. shed some light on that question on the morning of November 22, 1963, in testimony before the Senate Rules Committee. He told how Baker had Bobby Baker suggested that in order to sell an insurance policy When LBJ’s Senate career began in 1950, he to Johnson, Reynolds should buy $1200 of recruited Bobby “Little Lyndon” Baker, who had advertising on Johnson’s radio and TV stations, worked in the Senate for six years and knew his and that he offer the Johnsons a gift of a $500 way around. Baker’s knowledge of the workings of stereo. Reynolds also testified that he had seen the Senate and the secrets of Senators Baker with a suitcase containing $100,000 in cash complemented Johnson’s ambition and drive. LBJ for LBJ, compensation for securing a federal at times referred to Baker as my son. He was contract for General Dynamics. Johnson’s errand boy, protégé, factotum, and Page 6

Baker was too loyal to LBJ to turn on his friend and Naval Intelligence). His work for CIA began in mentor. LBJ, however, was unencumbered by any August, 1960, when he was recruited by Clay Shaw such sense of loyalty to anyone. Johnson had no as part of CIA’s QKENCHANT program. communication with Baker from the time of his After his FBI career, he became a private resignation to the fall of 1972, although Lady Bird investigator with an office at 531 Lafayette Street in called Baker to tell him they still loved him. New Orleans. Both David Ferrie and LHO were Bobby Kennedy figured out what was going on, and often seen there. In 1963, Banister (and David he was behind a story in Life magazine exposing Ferrie) worked for G Wray Gill (Carlos Marcello’s LBJ’s corruption on a scale which would have lawyer). ended LBJ’s political career and probably landed Banister actually did very little detective work. He LBJ behind bars for the rest of his life. The story operated more as a spy, keeping files on everybody was not published because Life shifted its focus to who was anybody in New Orleans. In fact, he had the Zapruder film right after the murder in Dallas. an entire secret room full of file cabinets storing Johnson went to the White House and Baker went information about important people, including Hale to the Big House. Boggs. (His file on LHO, however, was kept isolated.) The most important files received a designation of 1013, with the 10 meaning Judyth Vary Baker communism and the 13 meaning New Orleans. Judy Vary Baker worked on the secret project Jack Martin worked as private investigator for devoted to developing a super virus that quickly Banister. According to Martin, both Banister and caused cancer and death, allowing covert David Ferrie were part of the JFK conspiracy. intelligence operatives to murder a person and Ferrie’s job (one of them) was to fly the assassin(s) make it appear a natural death. out of Texas. Ferrie and LHO knew each other from She met LHO in the spring of 1963 in New Orleans the time they were both involved in the New and fell in love with him by summer. They worked Orleans chapter of the Civil Air Patrol. There, Ferrie throughout the summer months with David Ferrie, had taught LHO how to use a rifle with a telescope. Dr Mary Sherman, and Dr Alton Ochsner, among Martin also told FBI agents he believed that Ferrie others, on a program they hoped would save JFK’s had hypnotized LHO and programmed him to kill life by killing Castro with the super cancer virus. JFK. Martin claimed that Ferrie and LHO were both seen frequently in Banister’s office. However, Martin refused to tell Jim Garrison exactly what was going on in Banister’s office, because doing so Sam Ballen would have brought the federal government down Sam Ballen was a geologist who owned a small on them. natural gas company in the Texas panhandle. Delphine Roberts was Banister’s secretary (and Ballen turned to Ed Clark for assistance, which led lover). She stated that LHO worked for Banister in to a connection between Mac Wallace and LHO. the summer of 1963. She heard Banister Wallace, at the time, was searching for a patsy for encourage LHO to open a local chapter of the Fair the JFK murder conspiracy. Play for Cuba Committee. That claim was backed up by her daughter, who also met LHO. Guy Banister Banister died of an apparent heart attack on June 6, 1964, before Garrison had a chance to interview Guy Banister was fervently anti-communist and him. His office was ransacked and his extensive anti-Castro. He was the former head of FBI's files were taken, apparently by unidentified federal Chicago field office, and former special assistant to agents. Still, Banister’s death by itself would not J Edgar Hoover. He also had intelligence appear terribly suspicious. What isn’t so easily connections, including CIA and ONI (Office of dismissed is the fact that so many others Page 7

connected to him and LHO died at around the Thomas Edward Beckham same time: Hugh Ward, Deslesseps Morrison, Maurice Gatlin, David Ferrie, Carlos Bringuier, and Tommy Beckham was illiterate, but intelligent, Clay Shaw. attractive (with a Pat Boone look), and musically talented. He was a casual acquaintance of LHO, a protégé of Jack Martin, and a runner for Guy Banister. Banister asked Beckham to keep an eye C Tracy Barnes on Martin for him, but Beckham’s loyalty was to Tracy Barnes was in charge of CIA’s Domestic Martin, who soon heard about the conversation. Operations Division, tasked with handling all The However, later Beckham admitted to Banister that Agency’s domestic activity. The problem with this Martin had taken a file from Banister’s office, which slice of CIA is that, according to its charter, CIA led to Guy pistol-whipping Jack. was not authorized to have any domestic “activity”. In late spring or early summer of 1963 Beckham underwent four weeks of CIA training at “The Farm” (Camp Peary near Williamsburg, Virginia). When Alvin Beaubouef he emerged, Beckham became the backup patsy in case LHO didn’t work out for some reason. Tommy Alvin Beaubouef was one of David Ferrie’s closest was the product of cooperation between CIA, the friends. He was one of two friends (Melvin Coffey Army, and military intelligence. Which proves that was the other) who accompanied Ferrie on his trip the plot to assassinate JFK was well known by (from New Orleans) to Galveston and Houston the those groups months before the murder took place. weekend after the JFK murder. Beaubouef confirmed to Jim Garrison’s investigators that the Tommy’s last assignment led him to the law office trip had been planned at least a week in advance, of G Wray Gill. Clay Shaw, David Ferrie, Jack not on the spur of the moment as Ferrie had Martin, and Layton Martens were also there. claimed. Beckham was told (for $200 plus expenses) to deliver an envelope to a man at the Executive Inn Ferrie had told Garrison that the purpose of the trip in Dallas. Tommy saw the contents before they was to go goose hunting, but there were no guns in were scooped up and placed in the envelope: B&W the car, and Ferrie told Beaubouef to say the same 8X10 photos, maps, charts, diagrams, sketches, thing. However, it was a lie as both Ferrie and and drawings. Gill warned the talkative Tommy to Beaubouef would later admit. There were, in fact, keep his mouth shut on the plane to Dallas. guns in the car, but Ferrie was afraid they would be confiscated if he admitted it. When the taxi arrived at the Executive Inn, Beckham didn’t even have to enter the building. When Ferrie was found dead in his apartment, When he handed over the envelope, Lawrence there were two apparent suicide notes, one of Howard scanned through the contents and accused which was addressed to Beaubouef, who kept Tommy of stealing part of its contents, which he some of Ferrie’s things, but threw his library into the strongly denied. It was only much later that city dump. Beckham realized what he had delivered: information vital to the shooting of JFK at Dealey Plaza. Raymond L Beck After JFK’s murder, Beckham hit the road, terrified Ray Beck was a disgraced former FBI agent placed and broke. He drifted from town to town, living on in Jim Garrison’s investigation as a spy for the FBI. the streets. He began calling himself Mark Evans, He was later fired by Garrison and replaced by Lou sometimes singing at clubs on weekends. He Ivon. teamed up with Fred Lee Crisman and Bob Lavender, trying all sorts of schemes to make money.

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After proving to be one of Garrison’s most elusive He was one of several top FBI officials and one of witnesses, Beckham finally returned to New several other witnesses who died (in August, 1977) Orleans to face a grand jury. With his handler, A in the six-month period prior to their scheduled Roswell (Rozzy) Thompson, waiting in the hallway, testimony before the HSCA (House Select Beckham walked into the jury room on February 15, Committee on Assassinations) or House Select 1968. His testimony was a steady stream of lies Committee on Intelligence Activities (HSCIA, or with an occasional trace of truth, which is how self- Church Committee) in 1977. Belmont died of respecting liars do it. A decade later, he changed natural causes after a long illness, and there was his answer to virtually every question, and he no evidence of foul play. passed a polygraph exam.

Beckham eventually confirmed, among many other things, that Garrison had been right about Domingo Benavides Operation Mongoose (the CIA program dedicated Domingo Benavides (aka Dom) witnessed the to killing Castro) having evolved into the (chiefly) escape of the man who shot and killed Dallas CIA program to kill JFK. police officer J D Tippet. Dom got a good look at the shooter, and Dom testified that it was not LHO. Dom was a very credible witness, intelligent, David I Belisle articulate, and quite specific in his description of the shooter. Dom was then threatened by police, and David Belisle was a National Security operative, a he was warned not to talk about what he had seen. friend of Walter Sheridan, a Robert Kennedy His brother, Edward, was killed in a bar fight, and loyalist, and Otto Otepka’s immediate supervisor. Dom believed whoever killed his look-alike brother He was one of four RFK loyalists sent by the was really trying to kill him to prevent him from ever Attorney General to spy on Otepka in the State publicly talking about what he had witnessed on Department. November 22, 1963 in Dallas. Not surprisingly, One night at 10:00, Belisle broke into Otepka’s Dom changed his story, identifying LHO as Tippet’s office and was surprised to find him still working at killer. The death threats stopped. his desk. On another occasion, Belisle (along with It isn’t certain that Edward’s death was a case of John Francis Reilly) broke into Otepka’s office and mistaken identity, but it is clear that Dom was burgled his safe, stealing the file on Lee Harvey subjected to intimidation by people involved in the Oswald. Belisle helped spy on Otepka in his office cover-up of JFK’s murder. (See Warren Reynolds, and at his home, using, among other devices and who was subjected to similar intimidation.) techniques, illegal wiretaps authorized (ordered) by RFK. Belisle was never punished for his crimes, thanks to the intervention of RFK, who sent Belisle off on a new assignment at the US Embassy in Richard Bissell Bonn rather than to jail (which is where Bobby Richard Bissell was the head of CIA’s clandestine himself belonged). services (Deputy Director for Plans) under Dwight D Eisenhower and John F Kennedy. Eisenhower was scheduled to meet on May 16, 1960, with Alan Belmont world leaders Khrushchev (Russia), de Gaul (France), and Macmillan (England). Eisenhower Alan Belmont was the number three man in the wanted to forge a less hostile relationship between FBI’s hierarchy. He was one of Hoover’s special the US and Russia, which would allow the US to assistants. He was assigned to promote the “lone shift spending from defense to domestic programs. assassin” scenario and to cover up the JFK Eisenhower ordered that U2 flights over Russia end conspiracy. by May 1. He wanted to end them earlier, but reluctantly went along with CIA wishes. CIA had Page 9

assured him that U2 flights closer to the time of the CIA’s mission had been accomplished. They, not summit were urgently needed. (CIA arrogantly the President of the United States, had decided referred to the U2 program as RBAF (Richard foreign policy. To add an exclamation point to their Bissell’s Air Force), because Bissell developed it). victory, somebody at the Pentagon put the US military on alert for ten hours. Eisenhower’s famous We now know that there was indeed an urgent departing speech warning us about the dangers of need for one last U2 flight over Russia. CIA wanted the military-industrial complex was no doubt no part of better relations with Russia, and they inspired by this episode. were determined to sabotage Eisenhower’s May 16 summit. To sabotage the summit, Bissell sabotaged A similar episode would play out three years later the May 1 U2 flight. with the Bay of Pigs debacle and JFK’s attempt to bring peace instead of war, especially in Vietnam. o The jet did not have enough of the proper fuel, CIA desperately wanted war in Vietnam and in or it couldn’t be properly delivered to the engine. Cuba, and they almost got their invasion of Cuba o In violation of standard procedure, pilot Gary by lying to JFK about the Bay of Pigs operation, just Powers had on him, among other forms of ID, a as they had lied to Eisenhower about the U2 flights. Department of Defense ID card. Once again, CIA would prove that they were running the show, at least in terms of US foreign o In violation of a National Security Council edict, policy. this U2 had identifying marks. But that usurpation of power had started years o Pilot Gary Powers was deliberately routed close earlier when CIA had overthrown Guatemala’s to Soviet missiles which could shoot him down, president, Arbenz Guzman. Eisenhower realized especially if he was flying too low. then that CIA was out of control, and he established o The top secret camera had been removed, the President’s Board of Consultants on Foreign suggesting someone knew this jet wasn’t going to Intelligence Activities. They concluded that CIA was be returning to the US. far too autonomous and free-wheeling, directly conflicting with the State Department. They The idea was to make it obvious to the Russians recommended that Eisenhower fire Allen Dulles. that this was a US spy plane and a US spy pilot. Eisenhower did not do that. His failure to fire Dulles Khrushchev challenged Eisenhower to announce and Bissell allowed Eisenhower’s U2 disaster and publicly that he had no pre-knowledge of the flight, JFK’s Bay of Pigs disaster. It also allowed CIA to and he demanded that Eisenhower fire Bissell and murder JFK, RFK, and many others. CIA director Dulles. Eisenhower, valuing honesty more highly than most politicians, couldn’t say he To get a better view of how Bissell fit into CIA’s didn’t know about the flight ahead of time. Nor hierarchy: would it have done any good to say (honestly) that  Level 1: Allen Dulles (director), Gen Charles P he didn’t so much approve of the flight as he had Cabell, USAF (deputy director), Richard Bissell failed to effectively veto it. That would have meant (chief of clandestine services) (Deputy Director for little to the Russians or Americans. There would be Plans in CIA lingo). no improvement in US / Russian relations in May, 1960, and Eisenhower would soon leave office  Level 2: Richard Helms (under Bissell) and having failed in what he hoped would be the high associates: James Angleton, William Harvey, David point of his time in office. Atlee Phillips, E Howard Hunt. (Bissell was utterly dependent on Helms and his associates, who were We know these things today in large part thanks to pretty much left to their own devices.) L Fletcher Prouty, Colonel, USAF. (He is also the guy who helped Jim Garrison understand a lot of Together, these men headed up a government what was going on in his investigation of the JFK within a government. Men like Bissell felt they didn’t murder.) have to answer to anybody. Often, their immediate boss didn’t know what they were up to at any given Page 10

time. Eisenhower’s and JFK’s failure to deal behaving oddly enough to intentionally draw immediately and decisively with this cabal has attention to himself and create a lasting memory in resulted in a shadow government that has never the minds of the people who saw and heard him at been more powerful. JFK threatened to annihilate the dealership. It made enough of an impression on CIA, but he was forced to deal with other priorities. Bogard for him to write down the name Lee Oswald Meanwhile, his brother was both denouncing CIA on a business card. and working with The Company to murder Castro. It When he heard about Lee Oswald on the news, he was that Kennedy split personality (evident also in was sure it was the same man he had encountered, the Kennedys’ approach to the mafia) that and he threw the business card with his name on it contributed to getting both brothers killed. in the trash. FBI agents heard about the discarded Men like Bissell come and go in CIA. But The card and took a strange interest in finding it. They Company is still in control of our foreign policy, and searched through dumpsters, but never found the they have now made great inroads into US card. So they focused a great deal of curious domestic policy as well. Anyone who dares attention on Bogard. Curious because it isn’t readily challenge CIA is likely to be killed or crushed. They apparent why the FBI would be so obsessed with drove Richard Nixon out of office because he finding the card. pressed hard for information the Agency did not Here’s why. Lee Harvey Oswald was not at the want to share with the president. No president Downtown Lincoln-Mercury dealership on the since then has had the balls to call out CIA. They afternoon of November 9. It is well documented that wear the pants in this country. They avoid the he was at another location, and so whoever Bogard spotlight, but they are running the show. What are talked with that day was a LHO imposter. That in you going to do about it? Nothing if you’ve grown itself was not a problem, because conspirators fond of living. reckoned that if the issue ever arose, it would be easy enough to dismiss anyone as simply being mistaken. However, the fact that Bogard had G Robert Blakey written down the name created a problem, because G Robert Blakey was chief counsel for HSCA that would be considered tangible evidence that (House Select Committee on Assassinations). Bogard had indeed seen someone at that time who Blakey caved to virtually every CIA demand, claimed to be LHO, disclosing that he was an essentially placing HSCA under CIA control and imposter, and ruining the whole purpose of the guaranteeing that it would not conduct any real impersonation. And what was that? To create what investigation into the murder of JFK. federal agents call a legend. Conspirators were trying to establish that LHO was preoccupied with Russia and that he expected to come into a great deal of money. That fit right into the LHO role as Guy Bogard patsy. Al “Guy” Bogard was a car salesman in Dallas at FBI agents hounded Bogard relentlessly, and they the Downtown Lincoln-Mercury dealership. On the did their best to discredit his character and afternoon of November 9, 1963, he encountered a marginalize his claim of having seen “LHO”. They potential customer who identified himself as Lee did such a good job of intimidation and harassment Oswald. Oswald admitted up front that he didn’t that Bogard, depressed, weary, paranoid, and tired have the money to buy the car he test-drove, but he of being beaten and bullied, killed himself on claimed he would have the cash in a few days. This February 15, 1966. His fate was similar to that of strange customer stood out in Bogard’s mind for other witnesses in the JFK murder (including several reasons. During the test-drive, Oswald Earlene Roberts). It is but one more example of an drove at inappropriately high speeds; he remarked FBI determined to suppress the truth rather than that he might have to go back to Russia to get a find and expose it. car; he was obviously talking loudly enough and Page 11

Hale Boggs appeared to be talking into a microphone or telephone as he drove slowly through the lot. The Hale Boggs was a US Representative from third car was extremely muddy, it had out-of-state Louisiana. He is the one who nurtured Jim plates, and it seemed to be scoping out the entire Garrison’s doubts about the Warren Commission parking lot. It paused just above the assassination Report and inspired him to investigate the JFK site, according to Bowers’ testimony, which murder. Garrison insisted later that it was Senator included detailed descriptions of the cars and Russell Long, but it wasn’t. Garrison was protecting drivers. Boggs from the people he had once worked with. He also saw two unfamiliar men about 15 feet apart Boggs served on the Warren Commission. On at the top of the Grassy Knoll by the parking lot. November 23, 1963 (the day after JFK was The first man was middle-aged, heavy-set, wearing murdered), the FBI went to New Orleans Public a white shirt and dark trousers. The second man Library and took all of LHO’s book-borrowing was in his mid-twenties, wearing a plaid shirt, coat, records. By the time Jim Garrison began his or jacket. They were looking toward the corner of investigation into the JFK assassination, the FBI Elm and Houston, where the motorcade would slow had already scrubbed all traces of LHO in New almost to a stop in order to negotiate a very sharp Orleans. They continued destroying records into turn. the 1990s. They also went to Tulane Library and confiscated all of Boggs’ notes and papers related Bower’s eyewitness account did not square with the to his work on the Warren Commission. official version of events. He was one of 65 known witnesses who claimed shots were fired from the Grassy Knoll area. The FBI and the Warren Lee Bowers Commission rejected that evidence and accepted only the evidence that supported their pre-drawn Lee Bowers worked for Union Terminal Co. On conclusions. Bowers started receiving death threats November 22, 1963, he was on the job, perched 14 after appearing before the Warren Commission. feet above ground level in the tower that stood According to Walter Rischel (a friend of Lee’s), behind the infamous Grassy Knoll at Dealey Plaza Bowers had been afraid to tell the Warren by (just west of) the even more infamous School Commission everything he knew about the murder, Book Depository building in Dallas, Texas. To his including some very specific details. right was the railroad overpass, often referred to as the triple underpass, which was in front of the Bowers was on his way to Cleburne, Texas on president’s motorcade on Elm as JFK was August 9, 1966, when his car went off the road completing his open-air limousine tour through (highway 67) and crashed in Midlothian. He died downtown Dallas. In front of Bowers was a parking four hours later. He told emergency responders that lot, a wooden fence, and a row of trees. He could he thought he had been drugged when he stopped see all that and the Grassy Knoll, which sloped for coffee in the small town. The physician who was down to Elm Street where the presidential with Bowers in the ambulance said the patient was motorcade passed on its way to the site of JFK’s in a peculiar, unusual state of shock. According to speech which he expected to give at the end of the Charles Good, former Texas Highway Patrol officer, motorcade’s route. eyewitness testimony confirmed that a car had forced Bowers’ car off the road and into the Bowers was in an excellent position to see what concrete abutment. was going on around the murder scene. Since police had blocked off the area to traffic, any Lee’s brother, Monty, explained that he and his activity in the parking lot stood out. Bowers saw brother suffered from allergies and often three unfamiliar vehicles in the parking lot in the experienced a fit of sneezing. The antihistamines minutes prior to JFK’s arrival in front of the they took for allergy relief provided little. It is depository. The first two cars didn’t stay very long possible that Lee’s crash was caused by a sneeze before moving on. The driver of the second car attack or by drowsiness from the antihistamines. Page 12

However, that doesn’t explain testimony that his car Edgar Eugene Bradley was forced off the road. It doesn’t explain why Bowers would think he had been drugged, when he Gene Bradley was an unfortunate man of the cloth was certainly familiar with the side effects of who got caught up in the Jim Garrison investigation antihistamines and could have told the difference. It in New Orleans. While building its case against doesn’t explain his strange symptoms of shock in Clay Shaw as one of the conspirators in the murder the ambulance. of JFK in Dallas on November 22, 1963, the DA’s office was never allowed to operate without interference, disruption, and obstruction by people determined to derail the investigation while posing Bill Boxley as Garrison supporters and helpers. Bill Boxley’s real name is William C Wood. Why did Two such “helpers” were William Turner and Jim Garrison choose the nickname Bill Boxley? I William C Wood, who Garrison nicknamed Bill don’t know. Garrison had a habit of coming up with Boxley. Turner happened upon a piece of paper (usually humorous) nicknames for people who with information about Eugene Bradley, a lead worked for him in his investigation of JFK’s murder. which had been considered worthless and tucked Boxley, however, was not a source of humor for away deep within Garrison’s “crank” file. Turner and Garrison. Boxley was a former CIA employee who Boxley, eager to steer the investigation away from joined the Garrison investigation in April, 1967, for CIA, pursued the Bradley “lead” energetically, the sole purpose of obstructing Garrison. He did manufacturing a case against Bradley as a man everything in his power to divert attention away who had tried to hire people to kill JFK. from CIA. He never stopped trying to blame the FBI Bradley had nothing to do with Clay Shaw, the for the conspiracy and to exonerate CIA. (The FBI focus of the investigation, and whatever Bradley did play a role, but their contribution was mostly may have done, he didn’t do it in New Orleans. related to the cover-up. CIA masterminded and Garrison’s true supporters (Alcock, Sciambra, and choreographed the murder conspiracy.) Burnes) wanted nothing to do with indicting Garrison was not a good judge of character. People Bradley, and they refused to sign the Bill of on his team were, and they had expressed serious Information. Garrison threatened to fire them all, reservations about bringing in Boxley. But Garrison and they reluctantly signed it. They were relieved to overruled them, and he paid a steep price for it. hear that Bradley’s attorney vowed to vigorously Boxley failed polygraph exams twice, but Garrison fight extradition, so probably nothing would come of still hired him. Garrison made many mistakes in his it. choice of helpers, and Boxley was one of the Allowing himself to be tricked by Turner and Boxley biggest. The New Orleans DA should have known showed very poor judgment on Garrison’s part. It better. was hardly the only time, but it was probably the Garrison’s staff was suspicious when Boxley was worst. Bradley had done nothing wrong. gone for weeks at a time. They were right to be. California did refuse to extradite Bradley to New Boxley was in frequent communication with CIA Orleans. After the Shaw trial, Garrison wrote to during his time at Tulane and Broad (DA’s office). Bradley, and his response showed that he was not He had applied in February for re-employment by angry or bitter. He had come to the conclusion that The Agency, and then again in March. Even after Garrison had been set up to fail, and it wasn’t really rejection, Boxley passed on what he learned about his fault. Garrison publicly exonerated Bradley on the investigation to The Agency who didn’t want March 30, 1974. The two men met for lunch in New him. Orleans in 1991, and they liked each other, in spite of the fact that Bradley had paid a huge price, including enormous attorney fees over the years and loss of his job. Page 13

Carlos Bringuier Raymond Broshears Carlos Bringuier managed a clothing store in New Rev Raymond Broshears of the Universal Life Orleans. More importantly, he was the New Church was a friend of David Ferrie. Like Ferrie, Orleans representative of DRE (Directorio Broshears was gay, as most of Ferrie’s friends Revolucionario Estudiantil), a militant anti-Castro were. It was to Broshears that Ferrie turned for group funded by CIA. LHO, needing to establish his comfort when Jim Garrison began pursuing Ferrie reputation as a pro-Castro marxist, approached as a likely suspect in the JFK murder conspiracy. Bringuier and offered to join DRE. A few days later, Ferrie was afraid that he was about to be killed, and LHO staged a phony scuffle with Bringuier (and two he had good reason to be. Broshears ended up in a of his followers) as LHO was handing out FPCC mental hospital. (Fair Play for Cuba Committee) fliers on Canal

Street. Planning of the publicity stunt was largely the work of George Joannides, who was an Brown & Root (See: Suite 8F) experienced CIA operative, an expert in psychological warfare and propaganda, and, in the Brothers George and Herman Brown were the summer of 1963, head of DRE in Miami. owners of Brown & Root, a defense contractor that made a fortune as a result of its work for the US LHO wrote a letter to V T Lee of FPCC describing military, especially the Navy, during the Vietnam the incident. It was postmarked five days before the War. Brown & Root had construction projects stunt took place. Then LHO engaged Bringuier in a throughout Vietnam, which is the primary reason staged radio debate moderated by CIA media the company’s earnings increased from $630 asset, Bill Stuckey. million in 1965 to$1.6 billion in 1967. Brown & Root Bringuier was also an informant for both FBI and had become a Halliburton subsidiary in 1962. CIA. The FBI already had in its possession a copy Both Brown brothers were agents of CIA and close of LHO’s FPCC fliers before the stunt happened, on friends of LBJ. But then, CIA was cozy with a lot of August 9, 1963. And CIA had already infiltrated Texas businessmen and defense contractors, and FPCC by then. In addition to establishing LHO’s they all loved LBJ for lighting a fire under the reputation as a pro-Castro marxist, CIA was trying smoldering Vietnam war. We know about that to destroy FPCC. The idea was to infiltrate the relationship because of a CIA document release to group, then do things that would publicly discredit the National Archives. From it we also learn that the and embarrass the group, hopefully resulting in Brown brothers were at times heavily involved in their going out of business. foreign relations matters that should have been left Another key figure in the operation to penetrate and up to the president and State Department. destroy FPCC was David Atlee Phillips, Joannides’ A wide range of CIA operatives had a complex immediate supervisor and one of LHO’s handlers. network of working relationships with other Brown & Phillips was CIA’s expert in disinformation, and his Root employees in addition to brothers George and boss was Richard Helms, CIA Deputy Director of Herman, and with the Brown Foundation. According Plans. to CIA documents, the following Brown & Root Both Bringuier and LHO were arrested, but that executives had been cleared for work with CIA: was exactly what LHO had expected and wanted. o Ross White, March 11, 1950 Spending the night in jail made it newsworthy, and it was all about the publicity. LHO had planned it all o Isaac Newton Towne (VP in Charge of Foreign very carefully, arranging ahead of time for his bail Operations), December 11, 1952 to be paid. o Merritt Allen Warner (Chief Project Accountant), January 31, 1957 and April 11, 1957 o Thomas Kenneth Montgomery, February 15, 1957 and May 8 1957 Page 14

o Louis Dell Bradberry, October 4, 1957 Madeleine Duncan Brown o Bobby Joe Williams, July 14, 1965 Madeleine Brown described herself as an advertising executive. But, she confessed, that was o Richard Andrew Wagner (Civil Engineer), just her day job. At night she was a call girl. In 1948 August 3, 1965 she began a long relationship with LBJ, meeting o Elmer Ray Remkes, August 6, 1965 him for brief pelvic encounters, and travelling with him at times. She knew how to keep a secret, at o John Gilman Mackin Jr, July 19, 1966 least until the late 1980s. She told LBJ in April 1950 that she was pregnant. She and her son, Steven Brown, lived comfortably in a house, with a maid The Brown Foundation and credit cards. LBJ supported her for years, but he never admitted he was Steven’s father. Before The Brown Foundation (established in Houston by his mysterious death in 1990, Steven had sued for George and Herman Brown) was used, like many part of LBJ’s estate. other similar organizations, by CIA as cover for The Company’s illegal domestic operations. Those Brown claimed that LBJ was responsible for the organizations, most of them in Texas, allowed CIA JFK assassination and other murders. Her book on to pass money through them and on to CIA the subject hasn’t received much attention. She proprietary interests. died on June 22, 2002.

George Brown Robert Buras George Brown, along with his brother Herman, Robert Buras was a New Orleans police owned defense contracting company Brown & intelligence officer who, together with homicide Root. George served as Executive Vice President, detective J Delsa, formed Team #3 to investigate and he retired on June 2, 1967. Louisiana leads for HSCA (House Select Committee on Assassinations). Both officers were According to CIA documents: He received from CIA incorruptible and independent. However, so many a Covert Security Clearance on October 23, 1953, restrictions were placed on them (by Blakey and a Provisional Covert Security Approval on April 22, CIA) that they quickly realized they were being paid 1965, rendered on June 18, 1964. His CIA not to investigate. There were weeks when Delsa clearance ended on June 2, 1967, the same day he and Buras were given no assignments. In spite of retired from Brown & Root. the restrictions, however, these two officers were able to develop a very important witness, Thomas Edward Beckham. Herman Brown

Herman Brown, along with his brother George, owned defense contracting company Brown & Richard V Burnes Root. Herman died in 1962. Richard Burnes was Jim Garrison’s fiercest Like his brother, Herman did work for CIA. His assistant. Burnes was an honest, ethical, relentless Covert Security Approval was granted on lawyer with a master’s degree, and he was a December 13, 1953, and it was canceled on shrewd interrogator who tended to corner suspects February 15, 1966, according to CIA documents. and wilt liars. As a stark demonstration of how unreliable CIA documents can be, The Agency has Herman’s service to CIA ending several years after his death.

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Edward Butler work out a suitable arrangement with Caifano. Since Cain was a made man, the hit had to have Ed Butler was head of INCA (Information Council of been approved at the top. the Americas), and he was a CIA asset.

Clifton Carter D H Byrd Clifton Carter was LBJ’s man at the Democratic D H Byrd was owner of the building which housed National Committee and an old army buddy of Ed the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas, which Clark. played a prominent role in the JFK assassination conspiracy. Fidel Castro James Cadigan Castro was the communist dictator who seized control of Cuba in 1959. James Cadigan was one of J Edgar Hoover’s special assistants. He was a document expert who dealt with the JFK murder. He was one of several CIA top FBI officials (as well as several mafia and CIA operatives) who died (in August, 1977) in the six- CIA’s charter did not authorize The Company to month period prior to their scheduled testimony operate domestically. But it had been doing just before the HSCA in 1977. He died from a fall in his that from the beginning, admitted James Angleton home. (chief of counterintelligence) in 1975. In fact, CIA had stood up its Domestic Operations Division, with

offices all across the US. Its leader was C Tracy Richard Cain Barnes. Richard Cain was both a top Chicago cop and a Early on, CIA established itself as a shadow made man in the Sam Giancana organization. He government, essentially an independent, became Chief Investigator for the Cook County autonomous government in and of itself. It Sheriff’s Department, while at the same time considered itself subordinate to no one, including reporting directly to Giancana. (He was the model the President of the US. It quickly became so for Frank Neri, a character in Mario Puzo’s The powerful that no administration could control it, and Godfather.) According to members of the Giancana so secretive that at times even CIA’s own Director family, Cain was one of the shooters in the JFK didn’t know what was going on inside his agency. murder, and he was heavily involved in mafia / CIA CIA wasted no time showing JFK who was in efforts to eliminate Castro. He was also an FBI charge. Director Allen Dulles, Richard Bissell informant (although his fellow mobsters didn’t find (Deputy Director of Plans), Richard Helms, Frank out about it until after his death). Wisner, Kim Roosevelt, and Lawrence Houston Like many mobsters, Cain was killed execution- were running this state within a state. James style by the mafia he had served so well. The hit, Angleton was also a key player. orchestrated by Marshall Caifano, took place at CIA had not bothered to inform JFK that The Rosie’s Sandwich Shop in Chicago on December Company and the mafia were working together to 20, 1973. It wasn’t because of his knowledge of the assassinate Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Richard JFK murder or his ties to the FBI. It resulted from Bissell was in charge of that project, and he favored Cain’s efforts to take over gambling operations on biological contamination as the most promising the South Side, and possibly the entire Chicago means: something like liquid bacteria in Castro’s Family. Another factor was a dispute concerning a coffee or tea. But Castro was not CIA’s only target robbery, and then there was Cain’s unwillingness to Page 16

for assassination. Those plots were usually not CIA don’t know who other agents are or what they officially approved or even known by the White do. That made it fairly easy for key conspirators to House or Congress. As far as The Company was manipulate agents into performing parts of the plot concerned, they didn’t need anybody’s approval, without ever having any idea that they were part of and they didn’t owe anybody any explanation for the conspiracy. anything they chose to do. Everything CIA does is hidden to a certain extent. That placed CIA and JFK on a collision course. JFK They are experts at disseminating disinformation. was determined to destroy CIA, and he refused to They are experts at deceiving and misleading. submit to their illicit power. But, CIA destroyed JFK Every CIA agent must necessarily be or become a on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, TX, and in professional liar and a good actor. Nothing they say concert with FBI, LBJ, the mafia, the Dallas police, can be taken at face value. There can be no doubt and the Warren Commission, they covered up their that they do some very good things for the nation. crime. But there can also be no doubt that they do a lot of things that would infuriate most Americans if we Since then, The Company has grown ever more knew about it. So, The Company makes sure we powerful and impossible to control. No POTUS never find out. Who’s going to stop them? Who’s since JFK has dared to seriously challenge CIA. going to challenge them? JFK tried, and he was For the most part, the American taxpayers have no killed. Jim Garrison tried, and CIA stopped him. idea what CIA is doing. Neither do most members of Congress. Nor does the president, unless CIA Testifying before Congress, CIA counterintelligence chooses to tell him. chief James Angleton said: Anyone who gets in the way of CIA gets run over. It is inconceivable that a secret intelligence arm of They will discredit, marginalize, smear, bribe, or the government has to comply with all the overt otherwise neutralize anyone they don’t like. That’s orders of the government. what they did to Jim Garrison and many others. If You do not want to inform him [POTUS] in the first that doesn’t work, they will place a person in a place, because he might say no. mental hospital and portray him as mentally ill to a gullible press and public. If all else fails, they will kill The Agency, unlike the Soviets, does not have an anyone who they perceive as a threat, or even assassination department. possibly a potential threat, and they will make it look like an accident, a natural death, or murder at Well, yes, the Agency most certainly did have an the hands of someone who is groomed by CIA to assassination department. Would Angleton dare lie take the blame. That’s what they did to JFK, RFK, to Congress? and many, many others, in the US and elsewhere Sometimes a lie is more important than the truth. in the world. Sometimes the victim of CIA is one of Sometimes? their own. LHO, for example.

Incredibly, some people even today reject the idea of a conspiracy in the JFK murder because they Centro Mondiale Commerciale simply do not believe that so many people could possibly keep a secret for so long. They don’t The International Trade Mart in New Orleans was a understand that CIA thrives on secrecy. The JFK CIA front. The Centro Mondiale Commerciale conspiracy, driven primarily by CIA, did not involve (CMC) was its counterpart in Rome. CMC’s parent the entire agency. Only a few key CIA figures were company was PERMINDEX (Permanent Industrial aware of the overall plot and pulled the strings. CIA Exhibition) in Switzerland. CMC channeled money is deliberately organized in such a way that makes to political parties and right-wing movements, it extremely difficult for anyone to understand how it including OAS (Organisation Armee Secrete) in works, even with intense scrutiny. It is so France. OAS was a fascist paramilitary group using compartmentalized that most people working for terrorism in its opposition to Algerian Page 17

independence. Among OAS’s supporters were Guy street, where she was struck by a car on Highway Banister and L P Davis in New Orleans. 190, near Eunice. She sustained only minor injuries, but serious enough to need hospital PERMINDEX had been created to help CIA treatment. Frank Odom, the driver of the car that influence European elections, politics, and struck her, dropped her off at Moosa Memorial democratic processes. However, it had come under Hospital in Eunice, Louisiana. Louise Guillory considerable criticism by the Swiss, so CIA (Hospital Administrator) called Louisiana State established CMC to develop Italian trade and Trooper Lt Francis Fruge (who already knew industry. However, it did nothing to facilitate any Cheramie) and told him about the accident victim in commercial activity. That was simply its CIA cover. her waiting room who seemed to be under the In 1962 CMC was kicked out of Italy for shady influence of drugs. Fruge found Rose in the waiting business dealings. That was the story, at least. The room just outside the emergency ward, and he real reason was CMC’s espionage activity and decided to take her to jail, since Moosa was a meddling in Italy’s affairs. private hospital, and Rose didn’t have any money. Frank then went to the Police Ball, and while there he was notified that Rose was experiencing Rose Cheramie withdrawal. A doctor was called (Dr F J Derouin, from the Coroner’s Office), who gave Rose a shot Her real name may have been Melba Christine of sedative. He suggested the patient be taken to Marcades, but everybody knew her as Rose the state mental hospital in Jackson (East Cheramie. She was a 28-year-old heroin addict and Louisiana State Hospital), where Cheramie had a prostitute who hung out at Jack Ruby’s club in once been confined under the name Melba Dallas and worked for him as a stripper. She had Christine Youngblood Marcades. There, seen LHO and Jack Ruby together many times. On arrangements were made for an ambulance to one occasion, she overheard men state that JFK transport her to Charity Hospital in Lafayette. would be killed in Dallas and that LHO would be Lt Fruge rode with her in the ambulance, and he killed by Jack Ruby. listened as Rose began to talk. She was calm and She got caught up in a scheme cooked up by Ruby lucid, capable of speaking and answering and others in which she was to travel from Miami questions. She told him about the drug scheme, with a couple of Latin men to Dallas. There they summing up the plot this way: pick up some money, would pick up $8000 in cash and her son. (Ruby pick up her baby, and kill Kennedy. However, she had arranged for some of his mob associates to herself was not to take part in the JFK kidnap her son and hold him to assure Rose would assassination. complete her role in the drug-smuggling ring.) She At the hospital, on November 22, she and several would then check into the Rice Hotel in Houston nurses were watching television. The Dallas trip (under a false name, of course) and pay for heroin, was not covered on national television, but local which was coming in through the port of Galveston. stations in the area did show brief updates from From there, they would apparently return to Dallas time to time. As the JFK motorcade progressed to deliver the drugs. Her male traveling companions through downtown Dallas, Rose pointed to the were, apparently, to then play a role in the screen and said that this is when it would happen. assassination of JFK. All three would then go to Somebody’s got to do something! They’re going to Mexico. kill the president! Watch! This is when it’s going to The plan began to unravel on November 20, 1963, happen! They’re going to get him at the underpass! when Rose and the two men stopped for drinks at a Nobody was paying much attention to her. Seconds watering hole called the Silver Slipper Lounge, later, JFK was shot. where Cheramie once worked. For unknown Whether that’s exactly how it played out and reasons, her traveling companions and the bar precisely what she said is not certain, but clearly manager (Mac Manuel) threw her out onto the Cheramie knew ahead of time what was about to Page 18

happen. Word of her prediction spread through the Perhaps Fritz had a point. After all, Cheramie was a hospital. She also predicted that someone named known drug addict and prostitute – hardly the ideal Jack Rubenstein was involved in the assassination credible witness. Also, there are a number of plot. Like Fruge earlier, nobody at the hospital took aspects of her story that don’t seem to make much her Rubenstein remark very seriously before Jack sense. For one thing, why did Rose need to go to Ruby killed LHO on live national television. Miami? She was already in Dallas, so why didn’t she simply meet up with the two Latino men there? Rose talked all weekend (November 23 and 24). Also, why did she allow things to get out of control JFK had been killed because of Mexican border on the way to Dallas? Yes, the two guys were drug traffic. Rose herself was part of a drug probably not very likable, and she no doubt was syndicate, a drug runner, as well as one of Jack under the influence of drugs (probably heroin), but Ruby’s strippers. She had seen LHO at Ruby’s she had a very strong motive to get to Dallas safely Carousel Club. and get her baby back. She didn’t seem to be too Sometime that weekend, Francis Fruge called the upset about her son while she was in the hospital in FBI in Lafayette, Louisiana. They weren’t Louisiana, and it seems unlikely that the mobsters interested. They already had their man, case would have released her son to her in Dallas before closed. Fruge then called the State Police, and Col she went to Houston to complete the deal. Maybe Thomas Burbank told him to get her the hell out of there are perfectly logical explanations for all of Louisiana. I don’t want her here. Fruge’s boss these issues. We’ll never know for sure. contacted Capt Will Fritz of the Dallas Police Parts of Rose’s scenario were clearly wrong. One Department, but he was disappointed to hear that thing does seem extremely credible, though. Fritz had no interest at all in Cheramie’s story. Cheramie knew about the JFK and LHO murders On November 25, Fruge returned to talk with Rose before they happened. Cheramie may not be very and conduct a more thorough interview. He also credible, but the nurses, doctors, and law had her story checked, and many of her details enforcement officer who heard her prediction were. were confirmed. For example, state troopers and Capt Fritz should have investigated Cheramie for Customs agents verified the identity of the seaman that reason. Many of the details of her story, after who took the drugs into Galveston; they identified all, had been verified. the man who held the money and her son in Dallas; Like so many witnesses and potential witnesses and they confirmed that she had made reservations related to the JFK murder, Cheramie’s death was a at the Rice Hotel in Houston. mysterious one. Her head was run over in a(nother) On or about November 26 (28th?), Fruge and traffic accident, but she also had a bullet wound in Cheramie flew on a Sesna 180 from Louisiana to her head. To me, that doesn’t seem that mysterious Houston. Rose chuckled when she glanced at a given her lifestyle and friends. Many of the newspaper story stating that investigators had been mysterious deaths of witnesses seem to scream unable to find a connection between Jack Ruby and cover-up. But I’m not convinced this is one of them. Lee Harvey Oswald. Rose stated something to the She apparently had no more interest in pursuing effect that the two queers had been shacking up for her story further with official investigators, so she years. She kept talking. She had been a stripper at didn’t seem to pose a threat to the conspirators. another club owned by Ruby, The Pink Door. Still, she may very well have been just one of the Ruby’s nickname was Pinky. many loose ends they felt had to be taken care of. It’s one of many unanswered questions in the JFK In Houston, Fruge was unsuccessful in learning conspiracy. anything about the drug ring Rose had said she worked for, so he returned to Louisiana. Soon Rose Whether or not she was killed to shut her up, her herself decided she didn’t want to get further death presented Jim Garrison with one more involved, so her testimony wasn’t used in the witness he couldn’t get to. However, Fruge did official investigations. uncover some important information in his effort to prove that Cheramie did in fact know about the JFK Page 19

murder plot before it happened. Fruge took as payment for his legal services. But those three photographs (provided by Jim Garrison) to the wells did much more for Clark than that. Years Silver Slipper. Its manager, Hadley Manuel, later, they would be used to help Clark secure the identified two of the photos as men he had seen additional payment he felt he was due as with Cheramie: Sergio Arcacha Smith and Richard compensation for his central role in planning and Case Nagell. Arcacha Smith, a Cuban exile, executing the JFK murder. worked for CIA, FBI, and Customs. Nagell was also The need for the murder conspiracy had been a CIA asset. Fruge learned from Will Fritz (Dallas made clear to Clark by LBJ. But LBJ wasn’t directly police captain) that diagrams of the Dealey Plaza involved in most of the planning and execution of it. sewer system were found in Arcacha Smith’s He didn’t need to be. He knew he could rely on apartment in Dallas. Clark to do whatever needed to be done. Clark, in Garrison in New Orleans found that Cheramie had turn, found no shortage of willing accomplices. He quite a rap sheet and some 20 aliases. But there worked on the plot throughout 1962, and by the end can be little doubt that Rose Cheramie, or whatever of that year the foundations of the plan were in her name was, knew about the JFK murder plot place. It had taken on a life of its own. By before it happened. December, 1962, the conspiracy had become the only solution to LBJ’s legal and political problems,

and it was unstoppable. There was still a lot of Edward Clark detailed planning to do, and Clark would devote the next 11 months to those details. Ed Clark was LBJ’s friend and partner in crime from the very beginning of their careers. Clark became Once Clark had successfully managed the JFK the chief architect of the JFK assassination assassination and the cover-up, his attention turned conspiracy, on LBJ’s orders. to the matter of his own compensation for all his hard work, and for the results he had produced. His East Texas was the site of a huge oil reservoir. associates in the oil industry were grateful and Men who bought property there early became willing to pay, which they agreed to do over a wealthy oil tycoons. But they faced a chronic period of years. Specifically, Clark received their problem: people drilling illegally and stealing oil generous retainers for work that had already been from the legal property owners. Some of the more done, and they all anticipated that to continue resourceful oil thieves based their illegal wells off throughout LBJ’s administration. The problem came the property itself, but they managed to drill at an on March 31, 1968, when LBJ announced that he angle that allowed them to tap into the vast would not seek reelection in November. That meant reservoir. When these slant wells were discovered, Clark’s compensation from many of his clients the Texas Railroad Commission, the government would end four years sooner than expected, and entity in charge of regulating Texas oil, did nothing that was unacceptable. He had made a lot of to stop them. So the oil men appealed to the money for his clients and associates, and he federal government, and they secured the help they wanted more for himself. needed from Bobby Kennedy’s Justice Department. When indictments were handed down, the oil In fact, he needed more money to keep his firm thieves turned to Ed Clark for advice and operational. When clients stopped paying their assistance. The suggested solution was to pour monthly retainers, Clark was forced to reduce his cement into the wells so that it would be impossible investment account, and that meant he lost control for federal investigators to determine the angle of and ownership of the firm. While LBJ was in office, the wells. That would end their illegal profits, but it some funds flowed directly to Clark instead of going would also keep them out of prison. Some men into the firm’s accounts. Sometimes he would keep took the advice, and others did not. Harry Lewis, the money for himself and at other times he would owner of L&G Oil, plugged most of his thirty-one deposit it into the firm’s accounts, depending on the illegal wells, but three were allowed to continue financial and tax circumstances of both. But now, production. Those three were turned over to Clark Page 20

all that discretionary revenue stayed in Clark’s During the course of this assignment, Clark insisted pockets. But it still wasn’t enough. that McClellan function as Clark’s personal attorney, not just a member of the firm. As such, He prepared a bonus application a few months McClellan was pulled deeper into the inner circle of after LBJ returned to Texas. The logic was that a law firm whose business was committing crimes Clark and LBJ had protected the oil depletion and helping their clients commit crimes. allowance. After LBJ’s term, that allowance was Accomplices were the firm’s lawyers, which reduced, but others made up the difference, with a afforded them the protection of lawyer-client net gain to the oil industry of about $100 million. privilege. McClellan was now a partner in that firm, And that was just a part of what Clark and LBJ had and he achieved the status of highest acclaim done for his Big Oil friends. Clark’s leverage in the among attorneys worldwide. He learned more and federal government had ended, but he still had a more of the firm’s and its clients’ dirty secrets. great deal of power in the state of Texas. He met with his Big Oil associates in Dallas, and negotiated Clark’s quest for a bonus dragged on for years, but an agreement, primarily with Clint Murchison. But the superlawyer was finally able to figure out a way Murchison died (June 20, 1969) before the to get part of what he wanted. It involved a payments had a chance to get started. fraudulent scheme so convoluted and clever that even McClellan, who was deeply involved, didn’t The Big Oil men who owned land in east Texas and understand what was really going on until it was lived in Dallas agreed to give Clark 100 oil wells. over. Essentially, Clark had arranged for Exxon to Clark was to apply for them, and those men would get a court ruling in its favor, involving millions of sign off on the deal. However, they couldn’t speak dollars, but in such a way that they were forced to for the giants like Exxon and Texaco. Clark would drop their opposition to Clark’s bonus scheme. It have to apply and hope for the best. That meant helped that the judge was owned by Clark. Clark had to have a tract of land on the oil field before he could apply for drilling rights. That would Eventually, McClellan learned that the whole thing not be easy. had been about the JFK assassination. Clark’s central role in the JFK murder conspiracy is what The vast east Texas oil field was regulated by the made him believe he was entitled to more money, Texas Railroad Commission. But Exxon, the major and this is how he got it. He had started out trying producer, along with other major oil companies, to get 100 wells. He didn’t get that, but he got $2 hired private enforcers to get rid of the illegal wells million of tax-free income. McClellan also learned and bring both production and political stability to that Mac Wallace, who had been part of the the oil reserve. The few exceptions included Clark’s opposition to Clark in the deal, was killed. LBJ’s lease, L&G Oil. There were no more legal leases assassin had been assassinated. Later, McClellan available. At least not without some fancy legal learned that Leon Jaworski had played a key role in footwork – the kind Clark excelled at. He tried to helping Clark cover up the JFK conspiracy. A few gain control of a small tract, and he succeeded. months later, McClellan left the firm. However, he had claimed the same tract more than 30 years ago, and that claim had been rejected. Ed Clark died on September 16, 1992. Barr There was no legal justification for making the McClellan went on to write a book about his same claim again. Clark had put Barr McClellan in experience: Blood, Money, & Power: How LBJ charge of the project, and he managed to succeed killed JFK. In it, McClellan claims that he is no in the opening round of the procedures. Exxon was longer bound by attorney-client privilege, and he the primary obstacle, but they were unable to ask details his first-hand knowledge of LBJ’s role (and questions in the hearing because McClellan didn’t Ed Clark’s role) in the JFK murder conspiracy. have any witnesses. Next, he prepared a legal brief which had no legitimate legal leg to stand on, so he baffled them with bullshit. Legal obfuscation with no meaning whatsoever.

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Pete Coffield common with Clay Shaw. They also shared the same political philosophy. Crisman was the first Pete Coffield was Ed Clark’s myrmidon on the person Shaw called after being arrested by New Texas prison board. Coffield helped Clark find a Orleans DA Jim Garrison. second sniper to work with Mac Wallace in the JFK murder plot. Al Crouch John Connally Al Crouch was the owner and operator of Saturn Aviation in New Orleans. One of his customers was John Connally, Governor of Texas, and his wife David Ferrie, who rented planes from Crouch. rode in the limousine with John and Jackie Ferrie also worked for Saturn Aviation until Crouch Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963. fired him. After JFK’s murder, Crouch was Gov and Mrs Connally reported that there had been contacted by both FBI and CIA, so he knew he two separate shots – one that struck the governor, needed to secure Ferrie’s log books. When Saturn a separate shot that hit JFK. The Connallys refused was burglarized, Ferrie’s logbooks were well hidden to change their story throughout the investigation. in a floor safe. But it was clear to Crouch that he However, John Connally did not believe there had had to get the logbooks out of his facility, so he been a conspiracy, in spite of the fact that his called Jim Garrison’s office. Two men arrived, claims about the shots proved there had to be more brothers William and Leonard Gurvich, and picked than one sniper. up the logbooks to deliver them to Garrison. However, they did not take them to Garrison, and the logbooks disappeared forever. Later Crouch got a phone call threatening to harm his three-year-old Fred Lee Crisman daughter. From that point on, Crouch’s lips were Fred Lee Crisman worked for CIA. He took on the sealed. It was just one of the many examples of task of mentoring Tommy Beckham, teaching him, obstruction of justice that plagued Garrison’s among other things, to improve his grammar and investigation into the JFK murder conspiracy. improve his vocabulary. Crisman helped promote

Beckham’s singing career, and the two were partners in various business ventures in Olympia, Jesse Curry Washington. When Beckham returned to New Orleans to face the grand jury regarding Jim Jesse Curry was the Dallas police chief. Garrison’s Clay Shaw investigation (part of his JFK He initially agreed with the Warren Commission, murder investigation), Crisman threatened to kill but later believed the JFK murder involved a Beckham if he said anything that got Crisman conspiracy. He wrote a book, but only a few copies subpoenaed. were distributed before it was withdrawn. Crisman also appeared before the Grand Jury and lied about everything, including his CIA affiliation. (CIA also later lied about any knowledge of Warren de Brueys Crisman.) Beckham had lied as well, because he Warren de Brueys was the most intelligent and was more afraid of Crisman than Garrison. What trusted FBI agent in New Orleans (but he was not the Grand Jury and Jim Garrison didn’t find out is the agent in charge). He knew LHO in 1963 before that Beckham’s handlers, Fred Lee Crisman and the JFK murder. In fact, de Brueys was LHO’s FBI Jack Martin, were grooming Tommy to be the patsy handler. When LHO was arrested after passing out in the JFK murder, a backup for LHO, just in case Marxist flyers on Canal Street, which erupted in a Oswald didn’t work out for some reason. minor (and staged) scuffle, it was de Brueys that Crisman described himself as being sadistic in LHO requested to speak with in jail. (de Brueys sexual practice preferences, which he had in Page 22

didn’t go, using the excuse that he had to go to a Hugh Huggins was a CIA agent who worked closely barbeque.) with the Kennedys. Bobby dispatched him to visit de Mohrenschildt right after the JFK murder. Jim Garrison subpoenaed de Brueys for his trial Huggins’ close friend, William Oltmans said that de against Clay Shaw, but, like most other potential Mohrenschildt had spoken to him in detail about witnesses, de Brueys had no difficulty eluding having been the liaison between Texas oil barons, Garrison’s grasp. disgruntled CIA agents, some FBI agents, anti- Castro Cubans, and LHO. He also claimed that there was a recording of the JFK assassination. George de Mohrenschildt Huggins himself claimed that he knew de Mohrenschildt to be a veteran contract agent for De Mohrenschildt was a Russian émigré, CIA; that he had broken two of de Mohrenschildts’ descended from Russian royalty; a capable fingers as part of his interrogation; that de businessman; a friend of Jackie Kennedy; an Mohrenschildt and David Ferrie had done most of acquaintance of George Herbert Walker Bush; and the planning and organization in the JFK murder a CIA asset. Jackie called him Uncle George. De plot; that de Mohrenschildt was in Dallas on Mohrenschildt was also well acquainted with LHO. November 22, 1963, in spite of his alibi; and that de George was one of LHO’s CIA handlers, in Ft Mohrenschildt was murdered, in spite of the official Worth and Dallas. (De Mohrenschildt’s handler was ruling of suicide. J Walton Moore.) De Mohrenschildt suffered from chronic bronchitis, HSCA (House Select Committee on and a particularly bad bout of it struck him in the Assassinations) Special Investigator Gaeton Fonzi spring of 1976, prompting him to visit Dr Charles found the elder Bush’s name (Bush, HW “Poppy”) Mendoza in Dallas. George’s behavior began to in de Mohrenschildt’s address book. It also had an change dramatically at that time. He became entry for Zapata Petroleum, Midland, Texas. Zapata paranoid and delusional, far from his typical suave passed information to CIA to help their anti-Castro and sophisticated demeanor. He had what is often intelligence operations. Bush was a founder of called a nervous breakdown. Dr Mendoza was Zapata. Bush used Zapata as cover for his direct giving George some sort of special injections, but involvement with anti-Castro Cuban groups in his wife Jeanne was kept in the dark about what Miami before and after the Bay of Pigs. De exactly Dr Mendoza was doing to her husband. Mohrenschildt and Bush both gained wealth from George was eventually placed in a mental hospital the oil industry, they both had wealthy Big Oil and subjected to electroshock therapy. friends, and they both worked for CIA. Bush later became Director of CIA before being elected Mendoza first registered to work in Dallas in April President. When Bush became Vice President, 1976, just about the time HSCA was starting to be records of his activities at Zapata were destroyed. funded. He left Dallas shortly after Jeanne refused to allow him to treat her husband any further. His De Mohrenschildt also passed information to the forwarding address did not exist. Very little is 112th Military Intelligence Group (MIG) in San known about him. What is clear is that he left Antonio. A member of the 112th was Colonel behind a broken man who had once been strong, Robert Jones, who provided information about LHO confident, and sophisticated. George and Jeanne immediately after JFK was shot. Two months prior were harassed by federal agents, prompting de to that murder, James Southwood, a top MIG Mohrenschildt to write to George HW Bush asking veteran, received an important request for any and him to intervene. Bush said he didn’t know what de all documentation / information on LHO and on Mohrenschildt was talking about. George de Mohrenschildt. However, all the information he had had been supplied by de Robert Tanenbaum, Committee Counsel to HSCA, Mohrenschildt at the 112th. dispatched Special Investigator Gaeton Fonzi to interview de Mohrenschildt at a villa near Palm Beach, Florida. De Mohrenschildt’s daughter had Page 23

been living there, and her father had been staying Although he gladly worked only for expenses, de with her for a while. The daughter informed Fonzi Torres’ “expenses” turned out to be half the total that her dad wouldn’t be back until that evening. expenses of the entire investigation up to that point. She left for work after asking a maid to record a TV By March 2, de Torres had been fired by Garrison soap opera for her to listen to later. George had and was providing his last report to CIA. been interviewed by journalist Edward Jay Epstein Several witnesses claimed that de Torres was at a hotel in Palm Beach. De Mohrenschildt left involved in the JFK murder, including Juan Adames there at 1:00, and drove back to the villa. He was and Rolando Otero. Angelo Kennedy claimed that dead by 2:21, and we have a few clues about what he, LHO, and de Torres together had been the happened because of the audio recording of the mysterious visitors to Cuban exile, Sylvia Odio. soap opera. The beeping sound of the security system is heard on the recording, followed by the However, HSCA got nothing from de Torres when sound of a shotgun blast. Obviously, the recording he testified before the committee. HSCA had, by indicates that someone entered the villa and shot then, come under the control of CIA and FBI, and de Mohrenschildt. However, that information was the committee was not allowed to ask any suppressed and the death was ruled a suicide. The questions of de Torres that a genuine investigator preposterous nature of that ruling is accented by would have put to him under oath. the fact that George would never have chosen a shotgun as a method of suicide, and he never At one point, de Torres insisted that the Secret would have chosen to leave a bloody mess for his Service had been warned ahead of time that JFK’s daughter to find when she returned home. life was in danger, but the Secret Service (of course) denied it. De Mohrenschildt knew LHO did not act alone, and George’s wife and daughter knew he did not De Torres disappeared, and it was widely believed commit suicide. Clearly he was murdered to that he was hiding out somewhere in Latin America. prevent his testimony before HSCA. However, in 2007 he was seen and photographed at a supermarket in Miami, wearing glasses and a Chicago White Sox baseball cap. He made it clear that if anyone cared to interview him, he would Bernardo Gonzales de Torres Alvarez have to be paid for it first. De Torres was a veteran of the Bay of Pigs. At the time of Jim Garrison’s investigation, de Torres was working in Miami at a detective agency. Although Eladio del Valle Garrison didn’t know it, de Torres had been working for CIA since December, 1962. He was also an FBI Eladio del Valle was a leader in anti-Castro groups, informant, yet he was welcomed to the Garrison the leader of the Free Cuba Committee in Florida, a team. He contributed nothing of value to the hitman, a bagman, and an acquaintance of Santo investigation. In fact, he fed the Garrison team a Trafficante (Florida mafia boss). Del Valle was steady stream of disinformation. Garrison grew heavily involved with smuggling and gun-running. suspicious and, by January 7, 1967, he ordered his He worked with both CIA and the mafia. He may staff to not provide any information to de Torres. also have been Dorothy Kilgallen’s source, which she planned to expose in her upcoming blockbuster De Torres, for the three months he was with the book just shortly before she woke up dead. Garrison team, told CIA everything that was going on in the investigation, and CIA shared that With associates like that, it should be no surprise information with the FBI. De Torres was also that del Valle’s life ended violently in Miami. He was reporting to someone else: none other than Robert shot in the heart, and his head was split open with Kennedy. Why? Because RFK was at least as the blade of a machete. This just happened to determined as CIA to stop Garrison’s investigation. occur on the same day, at the same hour, that his friend and associate David Ferrie was dying. While Ferrie’s assassin took care to make it appear like Page 24

suicide, del Valle’s killer eschewed subtlety. Like progress of the Warren Commission. Dugger came Ferrie, del Valle was of particular interest to Jim to believe that LBJ was fully capable of murder and Garrison’s investigation. Somebody was always assassination. one step ahead of Garrison.

Not that we should shed any tears for del Valle. He had killed a few people himself, including Manuel Allen Dulles Quesada and Gilberto Hernandez. Actually, del Allen Dulles was Director of CIA when JFK became Valle just ordered the hits. They were carried out by president. When the Bay of Pigs embarrassed John O’Hare. Then, in another strange twist, Kennedy, he fired Dulles. The two men blamed O’Hare killed del Valle (which O’Hare admitted to each other for the Bay of Pigs disaster, so Dulles author Robert Morrow). Why? Because del Valle had plenty of motive to help take down the had participated in the JFK murder plot. He knew president. Dulles continued his work for CIA, even too much, and with Garrison closing in, the after being fired. He worked hard to get on the conspirators couldn’t risk the possibility that del Warren Commission, and once there, he acted as Valle might talk. One of his close friends, Diego CIA’s secret agent. Dulles never missed a meeting, Gonzales Tendera, confirmed del Valle’s role in the and he was so active that it was suggested that the JFK murder. Tony Cuesta, another leader in the Warren Commission would more aptly be named Florida anti-Castro community, confessed to his the Dulles Commission. His function was to protect own role in the murder plot, and claimed that del CIA. He made it clear to each Commission member Valle had taken part in the conspiracy. at the first executive meeting that LHO was a CIA pawn, and that any Oswald / CIA connections had to be nipped in the bud in order to preserve the Cartha DeLoach lone-nut public portrait of LHO. Cartha (Deke) DeLoach was a high-level FBI agent Fortunately for Dulles, he had a solid ally in FBI who figured prominently in the obstruction of Jim Director J Edgar Hoover, and another in President Garrison’s investigation into the murder of JFK. Lyndon Baines Johnson, both determined to sell the public on the lie that LHO was the sole

assassin. L J Delsa At the end of March, 1965, Jim Garrison met with Delsa was a homicide detective with the New Louisiana Representative Hale Boggs in Orleans Police department who worked as one of Washington, DC. Garrison told Boggs of his strong Jim Garrison’s investigators. When he asked the doubts about the Warren Commission, on which Dallas Police department to see the notes made Boggs had served. The congressman confided to during LHO’s interrogation, he was told there were Jim that on January 22, 1964, at the Commission no notes. It was a staggering admission of gross meeting, members had examined documents incompetence or a demonstration of blatant proving that LHO had been employed and paid by corruption. Or, perhaps, a lie. In any case, it was the FBI. Boggs had said to Earl Warren and Allen part of the JFK murder conspiracy cover-up. And Dulles: I would hope none of these records are the cover-up continued, as Delsa and his partner circulated to anybody. He was preaching to the (Robert Buras) were prevented by HSCA personnel choir. (It was Hale Boggs who encouraged from conducting a real investigation, leaving Delsa Garrison’s doubts about the conclusions of the embittered over HSCA’s obstruction of justice. Warren Commission. Garrison claimed it was Senator Russell Long in order to protect Boggs.)

ulles was part of a shadow government, a Ronnie Dugger government within a government, that was determined to go far beyond its commission as an Ronnie Dugger was editor of the news weekly intelligence gathering and analyzing tool for the Texas Observer, which reported regularly on the Page 25

president to an independent, largely autonomous Solvents, for $555,000, but they were willing to power that made policy and did whatever was invest even more, providing another $125,000 necessary to make that policy reality. Other worth of ammonia. In addition, they loaned him members of the cabal were Richard Bissell, $225,000 to start a new business venture: grain Richard Helms, Frank Wisner, Kim Roosevelt, storage. It was a scam that involved selling non- Lawrence Houston, and James Angleton, all existent anhydrous ammonia storage facilities in sharing a hatred for JFK. CIA also ignored West Texas, netting him $30 million. In 1958 Estes geographic restrictions and operated freely within began obtaining subsidies from the federal the US as well as overseas. CIA and FBI had an government in another scam. He gave LBJ money agreement that each would look the other way as (personal and political; all cash), and LBJ secured they both far exceeded their authority. for him bogus cotton allotments. JFK was determined to destroy CIA, and Dulles By 1960, Estes faced tightening regulations and an was determined to stop him. If JFK thought firing investigation by the Agriculture Department, led by Dulles was a step in that direction, he had Henry Marshall, a USDA inspector. A B Foster miscalculated badly. It only helped fan the flames of (manager of Billy Sol Enterprises) reached out to hatred for JFK coming from CIA and Cubans Cliff Carter (chief aide to the new VP, LBJ), asking (among others), both feeling betrayed by JFK at the for help getting the investigation stopped. LBJ was Bay of Pigs. obliged to quash the investigation before it led to his role in the scam, and possibly to other When Garrison subpoenaed Richard Helms, a corruption as well. Two days before JFK’s judge ruled that New Orleans had no jurisdiction. inauguration, LBJ, Cliff Carter, and Billy Sol Estes Garrison then subpoenaed Allen Dulles. The met at Johnson’s house in Washington to discuss subpoena was returned undelivered. Dulles said on how to handle the problem. television that he had no objection to meeting with Garrison in New Orleans, but he hadn’t been On June 3, 1961, Henry Marshall was found dead served. The CIA that could defy (and murder) a on his farm. He was lying in the grass beside his sitting president did not feel threatened or pickup truck, with 5 shots from a .22 rifle in his intimidated by Garrison. chest and abdomen and carbon monoxide in his body. Police didn’t look for fingerprints on the truck

or rifle. They didn’t take a blood sample from the J M English victim. To Texas law enforcement officers on the scene, this was a clear case of suicide, even J M English was the former head of the FBI though carbon monoxide was LBJ’s calling card, Forensic Sciences Laboratory (where LHO’s rifle and even though Marshall couldn't very well have and handgun were tested). English was an expert survived the first four shots. on the particular rifle purportedly used by LHO to shoot JFK. English was one of several top FBI In May, 1962, Marshall’s body was exhumed and officials (as well as several mafia and CIA examined. The autopsy results were taken to a operatives) who died (in October, 1977) in the six- grand jury, and the death was ruled a homicide. In month period prior to their scheduled testimony a profound morsel of understatement, Dr Joseph A before the HSCA in 1977. Jachimczyk observed that it would have been the most unusual case of suicide he had encountered in his 15,000-corpse experience. Billy Sol Estes Nolan Griffin (a gas station attendant) gave police a description of a man who had stopped and asked In addition to Bobby Baker, Billy Sol Estes was for directions at about the time of the murder. That another LBJ associate that became a huge problem led to an artist’s sketch, which was circulated in the for him. In the 1950s, Estes started selling national media. Police detained a man they felt fit anhydrous ammonia to farmers, who used it for the description, and they gave him a polygraph test, fertilizer. He was into his supplier, Commercial Page 26

which he passed. They claimed Griffin had missions over Cuba as part of the supply line for positively identified the man, but Griffin denied that. weapons and explosives that stretched from Dallas He said police had simply put a piece of paper in to New Orleans to Miami. front of him, told him to sign it, and Griffin did, not Ferrie’s worst nightmare began when he came to knowing what he was signing. The trick nullified the attention of Jim Garrison, shortly after the JFK Griffin as a reliable witness. murder. Jack Martin (an investigator in New Estes testified, but he invoked his 5th Amendment Orleans with deep connections to the intelligence right, which meant the case went cold for a decade. community) called one of Garrison’s assistants and However, a certain Texas Ranger, Clint Peoples suggested they question Ferrie. Garrison did just never gave up on solving the case, even into his that and learned that Ferrie was a central figure in retirement. the JFK murder conspiracy. Garrison’s investigation into the JFK murder soon painted a picture of a hub Estes was indicted by a federal grand jury in April, of right-wing extremists, mafia bosses, and certain 1962. He faced 57 counts of fraud. Bobby Kennedy CIA operatives that formed the nucleus of the assigned 76 FBI agents to investigate Estes’ conspiracy to kill JFK and then cover it up. Ferrie business dealings, including possible bribes of was a key player, because he could easily operate USDA and other federal government officials. in both the world of organized crime and in Although LBJ was somewhat insulated, he grew intelligence and military circles. It was in this motley worried that the investigation would turn up mix of shadowy figures that LHO was chosen and Johnson’s partnership with Estes, including cash he prepared for the role of patsy in the JFK murder. received from Estes and a cut of some of his profits. LBJ’s interests were protected by attorney Garrison had this to say in an interview: John Cofer, who made sure Estes never testified in I have solid evidence indicating that Ruby, Ferrie, court. Estes was convicted. Oswald, and others involved in this case were all Estes turned down an offer of his freedom in paid by the CIA to perform certain functions: Ruby exchange for ratting out LBJ. He knew that to smuggle arms for Cuban exile groups, Ferrie to betraying LBJ would be a fatal mistake, even train them and to fly counterrevolutionary secret though Johnson did nothing to help Estes. Peoples missions to Cuba, and Oswald to establish himself relentlessly pursued Estes, however. In 1984, so convincingly as a Marxist that he would win the Estes told a grand jury that LBJ and Cliff Carter trust of American left-wing groups and also have were key players in the murder of Henry Marshall, freedom to travel as a spy in Communist countries, and that LBJ had given the order for the hit. The particularly Cuba. testimony was disallowed because too many of the * * * * * accused were dead and unable to defend themselves, but it did put LBJ’s hitman, Malcolm We have evidence linking Ruby not only to anti- “Mac” Wallace into the spotlight. Castro exile activities but, as with almost everyone else involved in this case, to CIA itself. Never forget

that the CIA maintains a great variety of curious David Ferrie alliances it feels serve its purposes. It may be hard to imagine Ruby in a trench coat, but he seems to David Ferrie knew and worked with LHO, Jack have been as good an employee of the CIA as he Ruby, Guy Banister, Clay Shaw, Carlos Marcello, was a pimp for the Dallas cops. Dr Mary Sherman, and Judyth Vary Baker. He was a leader in the Civil Air Patrol, where he met LHO. When Garrison publicly accused Ferrie of being a He was a homosexual, he worked for CIA, he conspirator in the JFK murder, Ferrie said: You worked as a pilot and investigator for Carlos know what this news story does to me, don’t you? Marcello, and he was a self-taught hypnotist. He I’m a dead man. From here on, believe me, I’m a was a key player in the anti-Castro clandestine dead man. operations based in south Florida. He flew covert Page 27

Hours later, Ferrie was indeed dead. He died in his Vary, Ferrie, Lee) for an entirely different New Orleans apartment on February 22, 1967. The perspective. Based on that narrative, I don't think official cause of death was a brain aneurism (a Ferrie was really part of the murder itself, but he stroke). However, beside his body were found two probably was deeply involved in helping the notes characterized as suicide notes. They were assassins escape. not suicide notes, but that doesn’t necessarily In the weeks following the Bay of Pigs, David Ferrie confirm that he died of natural causes. CIA was one of the thieves who stole ordnance from the operatives knew how to murder a person by Schlumberger ammunition dump at Houma. The triggering a stroke. Could the stress of knowing he operation was organized by Guy Banister and was about to die have triggered the stroke? Maybe. David Atlee Phillips, both CIA. But it was another amazing coincidence that he just happened to die of natural causes just before he would be testifying under oath about the JFK murder. Gerald Ford RFK himself called New Orleans coroner Nicholas Before becoming POTUS when Richard Nixon Chetta to ask about Ferrie’s cause of death. Why resigned in disgrace, Gerald Ford served on the was RFK so personally interested in David Ferrie? Warren Commission. He was the eyes and ears of He wasn’t. RFK was interested in LHO, and Ferrie J Edgar Hoover inside the Commission, allowing was LHO’s closest associate. the FBI to control the Commission’s activities and conclusions. Was Ferrie really part of the effort to kill JFK? It’s hard to know for sure. Like any good CIA spook, Ferrie was a good actor. He effortlessly assumed Alberto Fowler the colors of his environment, and he moved about in extremely different environments. He was part of Alberto Fowler was a Cuban born in New Orleans. a team that was trying to save JFK’s life, and in that He went to Cuba to support Fidel Castro, who group, it was understood that anything Ferrie might demanded that Fowler prove his loyalty by say about hating JFK or wanting him dead was just murdering a Batista follower. Fowler did so, but part of his cover. It allowed him to penetrate groups soon came to the conclusion that, while the who were definitely out to destroy JFK, and with movement was valid, Castro himself was a mistake, them he played the part of a JFK hater, all in an and that there was no room for Fowler in Cuba. So effort to stop them. So, which role reflected his true he went to Miami, then returned to New Orleans, convictions and intentions? where he became the city’s Director of International Relations. This episode comes from Benton and John Wilson, friends of Ferrie who often met him at the Old As a veteran of the Bay of Pigs, and having spent Loyalty Bar in New Orleans. One day in the third time in a Cuban prison, Fowler attracted attention in week of November, 1963 (just before JFK was New Orleans. He declined offers to join INCA and killed) Ferrie walked into the bar wearing a the Cuban Revolutionary Council. Jim Garrison camouflage hunting outfit. Of course the Wilson asked Fowler to join his investigation, sparking brothers wondered why he was dressed like that, to Fowler to quip: Jim, I didn’t kill him, but I wish I had. which Ferrie replied: We’re going on a hunting trip Fowler joined Garrison’s small team, and he to Dallas. What was he hunting for, they asked. Big remained loyal to the DA, in spite of threats to game! Big game! A few days after the JFK himself and his family. assassination, John ran into Ferrie, who was still wearing the same outfit. Did you get any big game? John asked, jokingly. Damn right. You know it. Francis Fruge Dave was laughing. That certainly seems to prove Ferrie was indeed part of the murder conspiracy. Frank Fruge was a Louisiana State Trooper from But read the story of Judyth Vary Baker (Mary, Basile. He was well acquainted with Rose Page 28

Cheramie, who worked at the Silver Slipper Lounge together in the nearby town of Jackson shortly after there (a brothel once owned by Jack Ruby). That’s that. why he is the officer who got the call from a doctor Garrison’s JFK murder investigation had been a at a hospital about Cheramie, who had been secret until early 1967. That leak to the press beaten and thrown from a car on Highway 190. She resulted in the suspicious death of David Ferrie had already been booked as a suspected drug days later. A month later, Garrison arrested Clay addict, but she had a story she desperately wanted Shaw and charged him with conspiracy to murder to tell someone – anybody who would listen and JFK. Garrison came under fierce attack, and he take her seriously. responded by appearing on national TV, claiming Fruge and fellow trooper Donald White listened. that CIA was behind what had been essentially an (See Rose Cheramie for her story.) Fruge came to American coup d’etat. Garrison’s court case was knew firsthand that Cheramie had known about the severely hampered because more than 50 requests assassination before it happened. He notified the to extradite witnesses from other states were FBI in Lafayette, Louisiana, but they weren’t denied. interested. They already had their man, and they Shaw was acquitted on March 1, 1969. Members of considered the case closed. Fruge told Captain the jury explained later that Garrison had convinced Ben Morgan, his superior in the State Police, and them that there had been a conspiracy to murder Colonel Thomas Burbank. Burbank’s response JFK, but they weren’t convinced that Clay Shaw was: Francis, get her the hell out of Louisiana. I was a participant. All Garrison had proven to them don’t want her here. Fruge became one of Jim was that some guy calling himself Clay Bertrand Garrison’s investigators. The result was a had been heard plotting against JFK, not that Clay distraught Fruge who had lost all respect for the Bertrand was Clay Shaw. Garrison had a jail card federal government. proving that Shaw had used the Bertrand alias, but the judge refused to admit it into evidence. In other words, Garrison was the victim of the same Jim Garrison obstruction of justice that has squelched every Earling Garrison (Nov 20, 1921 – Oct 21, 1992) serious attempt to investigate the JFK murder changed his name to Jim in the early 1960s. He conspiracy since November 22, 1963. was the Orleans Parish (New Orleans, Louisiana) Assistant District Attorney James Alcock said in his District Attorney (1962-1973) who conducted an closing arguments that he dearly wished he had investigation into the assassination of JFK. He was been able to identify the young woman seen with the subject of the 1991 Oliver Stone movie JFK. LHO in Jackson, Louisiana, and present her According to Garrison, his investigation began in testimony during the trial. Garrison died never 1966, when Louisiana’s US Senator Russell Long learning who that young woman was or what she requested that Garrison look into Lee Harvey was doing with LHO in Jackson that day. He knew Oswald’s (LHO) activities in New Orleans in 1963. only that she was not Marina, LHO’s wife. That led Garrison to 544 Camp Street, which was Today, we know exactly who she was and what she the location of the building that housed Guy was doing there. You can read the whole story in Banister’s office. It was also ground zero for New this series: Mary, Vary, Ferrie, and Lee. There, you Orleans’ anti-Castro activities, and it just happened will also learn a great deal about other key players, to be in the center of New Orleans’ US intelligence including LHO himself, David Ferrie, Guy Banister, community. In addition to Guy Banister, Garrison Dr Alton Ochsner, and Dr Mary Sherman. There focused on David Ferrie, Dr Alton Ochsner, Dr are a number of fascinating characters and events, Mary Sherman, Clay Shaw, Jack Martin, and David all intricately woven into the JFK murder story. You Lewis. Garrison learned that LHO, Ferrie, and will learn a great deal about the conspiracy, who Shaw had been seen together in the summer of was involved, who was not, and why these 1963 in Clinton, Louisiana, and that several characters did what they did in the summer and fall witnesses had seen LHO and a young woman Page 29

of 1963 in New Orleans. It’s vastly more Richard Gerstein entertaining than any fiction, even though it is entirely true (or, maybe I should say, because it is Richard Gerstein was the Miami/Dade State’s entirely true). District Attorney to whom Jim Garrison turned for help in locating the Miami suspects in his JFK investigation. Gerstein was the only district attorney in the US who was willing to help Garrison. Maurice Gatlin Gerstein’s chief investigator was placed at the Maurice Gatlin was an attorney with an office at disposal of Garrison’s investigators. 544 Camp St, New Orleans (also home base to Gerstein also arranged for a $25,000 contribution Guy Banister). Gatlin was linked to Carlos Marcello (by Louis Wolfson, 1978 Triple Crown winner) to (mafia boss based in New Orleans) and E Howard Garrison’s investigation, which had almost run out Hunt (CIA agent). Gatlin served as legal counsel to of funds. Wolfson paid $5000 increments through the Minutemen, a right-wing group being Gerstein, who stole about half the money instead of investigated by Jim Garrison as part of the JFK passing it along to Garrison. Even after stealing conspiracy. Furthermore, Gatlin was a bag man (or and then lying about it, Garrison still lied to protect transporter) for Guy Banister, Clay Shaw, and CIA. Gerstein’s reputation. Garrison received only $9500 (He carried $100K in cash in a suitcase to Paris as of the $25,000 promised, but Garrison was so part of a plot to assassinate French President disinterested in money that he hardly noticed, or Charles de Gaul.) cared. Later, when someone mentioned the long Gatlin apparently suffered a heart attack, causing delay in getting the money, Garrison responded: him to fall over a sixth-floor balcony in San Juan, What money? Puerto Rico on May 28, 1965. That just happened to be right before he would have been contacted by Warren Commission investigators. Just one of Pershing Gervais many serendipitous (for JFK conspirators) deaths of people who knew too much and thus presented a Pershing Gervais and Jim Garrison had known potential threat to the cover-up. each other since their Army days. Gervais had become an FBI informant and disgraced police officer while Garrison had become District Attorney of Orleans Parish (New Orleans, Louisiana). Yet Wiliam Gaudet Garrison hired Gervais as his chief investigator. William Gaudet was an agent for both CIA and FBI. Gervais was known as one of New Orleans’ best He was editor of Latin American Reports, operating safe-crackers, and he had no use for the law. He from an office in the International Trade Mart. The was clever, witty, violent, and morally bankrupt. He journal was controlled by CIA and funded by Dr was heavyset, with a belly hanging over his belt Alton Ochsner. and a cigarette in his mouth just below his bulbous nose. Nobody at Tulane and Broad liked him, but Gaudet was a rare CIA agent who didn’t mind everybody feared him. defying The Agency. For example, CIA had a habit of providing wildly inaccurate dates of end service Why would Garrison hire someone like that? for its agents and assets. Unwilling to confirm a Without him, I would be a square on Bourbon false end-date for him of 1961 or 1969, Gaudet Street was Garrison’s response. Somebody like stated that he had never ended his CIA Gervais was much more likely to get information at relationship. the local bars. (It takes a thief to catch a thief.) Garrison thought he could control Gervais, but he Neither CIA nor FBI would allow Gaudet to testify couldn’t. In fact, it may have been Gervais who before the Warren Commission. He testified at controlled Garrison. I lead Garrison around by the HSCA hearings, but CIA controlled what questions nose, he bragged. were allowed to be asked of him. Page 30

When Malcom O’Hara challenged Garrison’s had lied to the Warren Commission to cover up the reelection in 1965, Gervais was a major issue in the JFK murder conspiracy. No intelligent, serious, campaign. Gervais was forced to resign his post as rational person had any faith in the Warren chief investigator. But he wasn’t finished causing Commission after that, although, astonishingly, problems for Garrison. He hovered around Tulane there are a few “lone nuts” who still cling to the and Broad in an unofficial capacity, always in thoroughly debunked and discredited Warren search of ways to destroy or discredit Garrison. Commission sham. When Gervais owed $8000 to IRS, he was offered It is now widely accepted that Joe Kennedy an opportunity to wipe the slate clean by helping reached out to the mafia generally, and Sam IRS agents take down Garrison. He reluctantly Giancana in particular, for help in securing the 1960 admitted that if there were any problems with election for JFK. It is well known that Giancana took Garrison’s tax records, it was due to carelessness, part in voting fraud which delivered Cook County not greed. for JFK, which decided the election. It is also widely When IRS pit bulls couldn’t find any legitimate tax understood that the mafia played a prominent role problems with which to harass Garrison, they came in the JFK murder conspiracy, because mobsters up with lies. Gervais and others continued their like Giancana felt betrayed by Bobby’s relentless relentless campaign to frame Garrison for . . . campaign against the mafia. Sam believed that he something. None of it worked, but it did, over the had reached an understanding with Joe that in years, take its toll on Garrison. exchange for election help, the mafia would be left alone by the Kennedy brothers. They probably did,

in fact, have such an agreement (brokered by Sam “The Man” Giancana Frank Sinatra). The problem was that when Joe suffered a massive stroke, neutralizing his influence Mafia kingpin Sam Giancana was based in on John and Bobby, the Joe / Sam agreement was Chicago, with interests in Nevada; Miami Beach, also neutralized. That was unacceptable to the Florida; Hollywood, California; and Latin America. mafia, and they responded by helping kill JFK. They felt that the death of John would take Bobby In 1970, Congress enacted legislation which denied out of the game forever. When RFK won the mobsters (and others) the ability to refuse to testify Democrat primary in California in the 1968 election, under oath using their Fifth Amendment right to however, the mob couldn’t take the chance that avoid self-incrimination. It could be done by Bobby would become president and once again granting the witness immunity, which meant there pose a formidable threat against the mafia. So, they was no self-incrimination to protect against. That took him out as well, or they at least helped. meant that Sam Giancana would be forced to answer questions before the Church Committee (or Giancana must have known that immunity, forcing face contempt charges), which was investigating him to answer questions before the Church the activities of CIA. committee, meant he was a dead man walking. Nobody understood better than he did that he could That committee, chaired by Senator Frank Church, never be allowed to testify, and there was only one revealed for the first time that CIA and mafia had sure way to prevent it. His home was described as conspired to kill Castro. A plot known as AM/LASH a fortress or a bunker because of its elaborate had not been reported to the Warren Commission security system, so he probably felt fairly safe by FBI, CIA, or Robert Kennedy. The committee there. But he couldn’t stay there forever, and then also found that Judith Campbell had affairs with he would be vulnerable. However, it turns out he both JFK and Sam Giancana, that JFK was aware was vulnerable even in his fortress. On June 19, of the AM/LASH plot, and that, in fact, both John 1975, just before his scheduled appearance before and Bobby had approved the covert operation. The Congress, he was killed in the basement kitchen of Church Committee led to a subcommittee his Chicago home while he was frying sausages. investigation into FBI and CIA involvement in the The shooter (using a .22 handgun) must have been JFK murder. It became clear that both FBI and CIA a trusted friend, because nobody else would have Page 31

been allowed inside the residence. Nobody was was driven to the airport, told to remove all his ever arrested for the murder. jewelry, and warned to resist his natural inclination to talk a lot. In Dallas, Tommy didn’t need to go up Soon, Giancana associates who had also been to the room, because there to meet him outside the involved in CIA / mafia plots against Castro began hotel was Lawrence Howard, who took the to die. They included Johnny Roselli (a top package. It is clear now that the envelope lieutenant of Giancana) and Chuck Nicoletti (a contained detailed plans for the impending JFK notorious hit man). Roselli met with congressional murder. One of those maps showed up later in investigators in Washington, DC, and he agreed to LHO’s room. provide testimony about mafia involvement in the JFK murder. He was prepared to implicate Santo So, clearly, Gill was heavily involved in the Trafficante (Florida mob boss). Roselli was killed conspiracy, which is no surprise since his client, ten days after meeting with Trafficante for the last Carlos Marcello, was one of the key players in the time. murder plot. The string of deaths, which also included George de Mohrenschildt (CIA and mob adviser) and William Harvey (CIA official in charge of CIA / mafia William Gurvich plots against Castro) prompted the formation of William Gurvich was a private detective working another congressional committee in September primarily in security at the Port of New Orleans. His 1976: House Select Committee on Assassinations, family had a terrible reputation in New Orleans, and tasked with reinvestigating the JFK and MLK he was no friend of Jim Garrison or his murders in particular. investigation of the JFK murder. However, Garrison naively took Gurvich in to help with the investigation, because Gurvich volunteered to work G Wray Gill for a token $1 per year, and he gave the office a color TV set. Other people in the office did not trust G Ray Gill was a lawyer, whose clients included Gurvich and told Garrison he was making a big Carlos Marcello and David Ferrie. Gill represented mistake by giving him access to the files. A Ferrie when he was fired by Eastern Airlines, and skeptical Lou Ivon gave Gurvich access to only the Ferrie paid Gill by helping Marcello with his fight least sensitive files, but that was enough for him to against Bobby Kennedy. When RFK had Marcello provide the local FBI office with copies of letters kidnapped and flown to Guatemala, Ferrie flew to from potential witnesses sent to Garrison. Gurvich Guatemala and secured a new passport for also passed along information about the Marcello, then flew him back to New Orleans. investigation to CIA. When Bobby continued his relentless campaign to have Marcello deported, Ferrie was Marcello’s Gurvich helped sabotage the investigation in other assistant and pilot. ways. For example, a Dallas cab driver, Raymond Cummings, told Garrison he had picked up LHO Gill’s office (at the Pere Marquette building, 150 from the Irving Continental Bus Station in 1963. A Baronne Street, New Orleans) was the site of a week later he had driven LHO, David Ferrie, and meeting, shortly before the JFK murder, between another man to Jack Ruby’s club. (It was important, himself, Tommy Beckham, Clay Shaw, David, in part, because Ferrie had denied being in Dallas Ferrie, Jack Martin, and Layton Martens. Spread in 1963.) Gurvich, in charge of Cummings’ out on a table were detailed sketches, 8 X 10 black- polygraph, labeled the witness a liar, and he was and-white photos, charts, diagrams, and maps. sent back to Dallas. Only later did Garrison finally They were put into a large envelope and handed to realize that it was Gurvich, not Cummings, who had Beckham, along with cash, directions, and a been the liar. Another valuable witness was lost. magazine to hide the envelope. Tommy was instructed to deliver the package to the designated room number at the Executive Inn in Dallas. He Page 32

Richard Helms part of Bobby’s get-Castro squad, Hemming understood that this effort involved some of the Richard Helms served as Director of CIA (DCI). same players involved in the get-JFK squad. He Before that he had been Deputy Director, Plans believed that the murder was the result of one or (DDP), which means he was in charge of The more of Bobby’s boys gone bad. While Jim Agency’s covert services. He was sometimes Garrison couldn’t understand why RFK fought him referred to as Dirty Dick in the Dirty Tricks division tooth and nail, Hemming understood perfectly. of CIA. There are a number of credible people in and around CIA who said that Helms was the key When Hemming appeared on Garrison’s radar, he figure behind the JFK murder. (Or at least the key appeared at Tulane and Broad in a preemptive CIA figure.) strike. He is being framed, he declared. He claimed as his alibi that he was at the office of the Miami That was possible because Helms, Allen Dulles, News on November 22, 1963. Like so many others, Richard Bissell, Frank Wisner, James Angleton, Hemming did the best he could to deflect Lawrence Houston, and Kim Roosevelt, were Garrison’s investigation away from CIA. He offered running a shadow government, a government to work with Garrison, and for a while he was part within a government. It was so secretive that when of the investigative team. But nobody trusted him JFK replaced Dulles (fired by JFK because of the much, especially Lou Ivon. Garrison said, when Bay of Pigs) with John McCone, Helms didn’t Hemming left after that first encounter, that he bother telling his new boss that he was working suspected Hemming was still working with CIA. with mafia figure Johnny Rossselli in plots to kill Hemming was, in fact, providing information to The Castro. (He was afraid that McCone, a devout Agency (and they were keeping a close eye on Catholic, would tell him to stop it. Better to provide him), but he was not on CIA’s payroll. (He had tried the new DCI with plausible deniability, Helms a couple times, but he was turned down.) rationalized.) Later, Hemming admitted to an HSCA investigator Not surprisingly, CIA also withheld a great deal of (Gaeton Fonzi) that he had lied to Garrison, important information from JFK, who knew he throwing out a lot of names of possible suspects wasn’t getting the full story. JFK, by the start of that he knew would be a waste of time for the 1962, ordered a complete reorganization of CIA Garrison investigators. Unfortunately, some of the and a redefinition of the role of DCI. The Agency investigators, against Garrison’s orders, did waste had grown too independent and too powerful, JFK considerable time and resources investigating realized, especially since it was aligned with the those false leads. military. JFK resolved to destroy CIA completely, but The Agency destroyed JFK first. Hemming was one of several competent witnesses who swore that Richard Helms was behind the entire operation to kill JFK. He also commented Gerald Patrick Hemming that JFK was the last President to believe he could take power. Gerald Hemming was a freelance soldier of fortune in No Name Key, Florida, who went to Louisiana in search of suitable camp sites for training in anti- Gilberto Hernandez Castro activities. He was a former Marine, and he was at one time a CIA asset, always remaining Gilberto Hernandez was heavily involved in gun- loyal to James Angleton. One of the things CIA running operations and high-level anti-Castro liked most about him was that he appeared to be activities. little influenced by deep beliefs in democratic principles.

When RFK decided to deal with Castro without CIA, General Edward Lansdale turned to Hemming. As Page 33

Jimmy Hoffa that that’s what they would also conclude based on his “investigation”. He did an amazing job of Jimmy Hoffa was president of the Teamsters controlling the evidence and the narrative. He Union. He was involved in the JFK conspiracy plot, worked closely with his friend LBJ, the two of them but he was killed by the mafia because he refused working as a team to make sure all evidence of a to abandon his quest to regain control of the conspiracy was suppressed, whatever it took to do Teamsters Union. that. One thing it took was a number of lives. Dozens of J Edgar Hoover people were murdered to prevent them from testifying about what they knew, because their It is well known today that J Edgar Hoover kept testimony could either contradict the official version secret files on virtually all of Washington’s movers of events, or it could at least raise unwanted and shakers. He used the threat of blackmail suspicions and questions about the official line. against them to assure his control of the FBI for 48 When murder wasn’t necessary or feasible, Hoover years, and, no doubt, to force others to do whatever used another technique liberally: he would convince it was he wanted them to do. JFK wanted to fire the public that a witness (who posed a potential Hoover (by forcing him to retire), but the nation’s threat to the official lies) was mentally ill or morally top cop knew all about JFK’s extramarital affairs. bankrupt and, therefore, an unreliable witness. Hoover had plenty of other dirt on the Kennedy brothers, as well, and even though Bobby hated the It may have been Hoover’s penchant for blackmail director, he couldn’t afford to fire him. (or the threat of it) that ended his life. He died on May 2, 1972, of an apparent heart attack. Hoover’s Hoover’s resentment of Bobby, especially, home was burglarized twice. The purpose was to intensified when the Kennedy brothers became his retrieve documents that Hoover had in his home boss, so he may have had motive to join in the JFK safe that could be used against the White House. It murder conspiracy. But there’s no evidence that he is believed by some that during the second break-in played any major role in the murder. There is one thyonphosphate genre was left on Hoover’s very apparent reason for that: Hoover didn’t need to toothpaste (or some other toiletries) that, when do much of anything except stay out of the way and touched, caused heart seizures. In other words, it coordinate FBI agents in Dallas on November 22, caused a heart attack, and it could be detected only 1963, with conspirators. The director knew what by autopsy. No autopsy was performed, and the was going on. He talked frequently, for example, body was cremated very quickly. with Guy Banister, the former head of the FBI Chicago field office and a key player in the JFK It probably had nothing to do with the JFK murder conspiracy. But Hoover’s primary conspiracy (although Hoover knew all about that), contribution in the conspiracy began after the because he had already done a remarkable job of murder: the cover-up. He did a superb job of hiding the truth, and he had no reason to expose suppressing, discrediting, and hiding evidence. He any of it now. But he did have plenty of dirt on and LBJ, for example, immediately dispatched Nixon, and that is most likely who ordered Hoover Justice Department lawyer Herbert J Miller Jr (close killed. to CIA) to Texas to nip in the bud any investigation by Dallas police. Whenever necessary, Hoover would simply lie, and so would many of his agents. Lawrence Houston Hoover prevented his agents from conducting any Lawrence Houston served as CIA General real investigation, and they were ordered to have Counsel. He, along with Allen Dulles, Richard no contact with Jim Garrison or his investigators Bissell, Richard Helms, Kim Roosevelt, James without prior FBI (Hoover) approval. Hoover almost Angleton, and Frank Wisner, ran a CIA shadow immediately officially concluded that LHO had government within a government. This cabal played acted alone, and he told the Warren Commission a key role in both the assassination of JFK and the Page 34

cover-up. When Jim Garrison arrested Clay Shaw as the reporter was sitting at his desk in the press as a conspirator in the JFK murder, Dick Helms room of the police station. Hunter died instantly. ordered Houston to cooperate fully with the Shaw Was it just another of many coincidences? Or did defense team. One of the ways Houston did so was something happen at Ruby’s apartment that made to cleanse or sanitize CIA records and intimidate Hunter and Koethe targets of the JFK conspirators? witnesses to provide favorable (to CIA) testimony or At what point do a staggering number of mysterious no testimony at all. He also directed CIA agents deaths surrounding the JFK murder become more and assets to plead the Fifth when questioned than coincidences? Another person present in the under oath in the Garrison investigation. apartment with Koethe and Hunter was George Senator, Jack Ruby’s roommate. Senator lied to the Warren Commission when he testified that he didn’t E Howard Hunt remember being at the apartment. E Howard Hunt was a CIA operative. Among his deeds: fabricating State Department cables to implicate JFK in CIA’s murder of South Vietnam INCA president Ngo Dinh Diem on November 2, 1963 INformation Councel of the Americas was an anti- (less than a month before JFK was murdered). He communist propaganda group managed by Edward was involved in the JFK murder conspiracy, and in Butler and financed by Dr Alton Ochsner. Butler, a CIA’s QKENCHANT program. Later, he was one of CIA asset, also received funds from International the Watergate burglars. Trade Mart.

H L Hunt International Trade Mart H L Hunt was a wealthy Texas oil man (nicknamed The International Trade Mart (ITM) in New Orleans Harry Blue by Jim Garrison). Garrison received was a CIA operation. Its public relations director evidence that H L Hunt was linked to the JFK was David G Baldwin, a CIA operative. His murder conspiracy, but the Orleans Parish DA, replacement, Jesse Core, was a CIA operative. understaffed and overwhelmed, was unable to ITM’s managing director was Clay Shaw, a CIA develop the lead. operative. ITM donated money to INCA, run by Ed Butler, a CIA operative. Several consulates were located in the ITM building, and they were all Bill Hunter bugged. Bill Hunter was a newspaper reporter working for Shaw kept The Agency informed about the people Long Beach Independent Press Telegram. He was ITM did business with, and he helped portray The in Dallas covering the JFK murder, and, like his Agency as being dedicated only to gathering friend Jim Koethe, he was present in Jack Ruby’s intelligence, not making policy. It was, of course, a apartment shortly after Ruby shot and killed LHO. lie. Shaw was deeply involved in covert projects. Since the police had already searched the For example, he was part of the QKENCHANT apartment, it seems unlikely that Koethe or Hunter program, and as such he recruited Guy Banister, found anything of significant evidentiary value among others. As managing director of ITM, Shaw there. It also seems odd that Hunter, like Koethe, also was heavily involved in corporate spying for was murdered shortly after their search. Hunter, CIA. back in California, was shot by a policeman in the Long Beach police station. The official story was that the officer was just horsing around with another officer (playing quick draw) when his .38 accidentally fired a bullet directly into Hunter’s heart Page 35

Lou Ivon Jim Garrison was the first Orleans Parish DA to hire LBJ full-time police investigators. One of them was his Lyndon Baines Johnson became the 36th POTUS chief investigator, Lou Ivon. Until the day Garrison when JFK was murdered in Dallas. LBJ was died he called Ivon Buck, and Ivon called Garrison involved in the planning and execution of the boss. (This DA had a nickname for just about murder plot, but indirectly for the most part. His everybody.) Lou was tough, quiet, and fair. most important role in the conspiracy was covering He was also one of Garrison’s most trusted, up the crime. One way he (along with J Edgar reliable, and loyal assistants in the JFK murder Hoover) did that was to immediately dispatch investigation. At one point, Ivon quit, because Herbert J Miller Jr (a lawyer in the Justice Garrison continued to defend a man Ivon knew to Department, close to CIA) to Dallas to make sure be disloyal to the DA. However, once he cooled police there did not investigate the JFK murder. down, Garrison admitted he was wrong and asked LBJ may also have provided liberal funds to the Ivon to come back, which he did (after taking a few campaign of Malcom O’Hara, who tried to replace days off to get rested up). When Garrison ran for a DA Jim Garrison in 1965. FBI had as many as 15 seat on the Louisiana Court of Appeal in 1978, Ivon agents assigned to keeping close tabs on was there to help him get elected. Garrison’s investigation, and Hoover provided daily reports to LBJ. The JFK Act Garrison publicly criticized LBJ for withholding the Zapruder film. That became an issue when The JFK Act mandated the release of all records Garrison hosted the National Convention of District related to the murder of JFK. To this day, many Attorneys. Hubert Humphrey, LBJ’s VP, was records have not been released. scheduled to speak at the Saturday night awards banquet, but he cancelled after hearing about Garrison’s criticism. Jim threatened to investigate George Joannides LBJ for concealing vital evidence in the JFK murder investigation. George Joannides was a CIA operative who ran the Miami chapter of DRE (Directorio Revolucionario Only the premature death of JFK saved LBJ from Estudiantil), a militant anti-Castro group funded by criminal charges of corruption that would have CIA. Joannides, a skilled propagandist, helped LHO ended his political career and would almost establish his reputation as a pro-castro marxist. certainly have resulted in a lengthy prison term for Joannides reported to David Atlee Phillips, who him. was also LHO’s senior handler.

Nicholas Katzenbach Josefa Johnson Nicholas Katzenbach was an advisor to Robert LBJ’s younger sister, Josefa Johnson, died Kennedy. In a memo, he described the true December 24, 1961, after attending a party at the purpose of the Warren Commission: LBJ ranch. The cause of death was listed as cerebral hemorrhage, but no autopsy was The public must be satisfied that Oswald was the performed, in spite of being required by Texas state assassin; that he did not have confederates who law. Years later, Billy Sol Estes claimed that Josefa are still at large; and that the evidence was such was murdered by Mac Wallace, LBJ’s hitman. that he would have been convicted at a trial. The only other step would be the appointment of a LBJ murdered his sister because she was a presidential commission of unimpeachable political embarrassment to him. personnel to review and examine the evidence and Page 36

announce its conclusions. We need something to By the summer of 1963, LHO had become part of head off public speculation or congressional the group, and Angelo, along with the others, kept a hearings of the wrong sort. very close eye on LHO, reporting to RFK on LHO’s every move and every contact. So, even though In other words, the Warren Commission would be RFK may have never met face-to-face with LHO, tasked with confirming the FBI’s (J Edgar Hoover’s) Bobby knew all about him (and he had at least pre-formed conclusions, and shutting down all seen his picture). The Cubans thought they knew legitimate investigations into the JFK murder. LHO, but they were wrong. They knew LHO worked Hoover had already shut down any serious for FBI, and RFK’s group figured he must be okay, investigation by the FBI. The Warren Commission then. But they didn’t consider what other agencies did not exist to investigate the JFK murder, but to he might be working for. They thought about killing secure the cover-up and protect the conspirators. LHO as a way to get back at Hoover, but they decided against it, because LHO was too insignificant to matter. Donald Kaylor RFK would meet with the group and read to them Donald Kaylor was an FBI fingerprint chemist who from intelligence reports, then tear them up to leave examined prints from the JFK murder. According to no paper trail. This Cuban group was to remain the undertaker at the funeral home to which LHO invisible to the rest of the world. They sensed that was taken, the FBI took prints from the LHO body. something big was in the works in New Orleans in Kaylor was the agent who was responsible for 1963, but they didn’t know what, so they had no LHO’s palm print “found” on the rifle which idea how to deal with it. purportedly was used to kill JFK. Angelo was one of the men who had paid Sylvia He was one of several top FBI officials and one of Odio a visit in Dallas. He drove there from New several other witnesses who died (in October, Orleans with Bernardo de Torres. Although Odio 1977) in the six-month period prior to their eventually identified LHO as the third visitor that scheduled testimony before the HSCA. day, she never named the other two. Since LHO was close to Angelo, and Angelo was close to RFK, LHO was close to RFK. Bobby could Angelo Murgado Kennedy not afford to let the public know about that Angelo Murgado was born in Havana, moved to relationship, because it would have destroyed his New York at age 9, and at the time of Jim political career. That meant that he could not go Garrison’s investigation lived in the Miami house public with his knowledge that LHO was not the his parents had once lived in. He admitted to being assassin, because that would also have exposed an assassin, and his target was Fidel Castro. He himself, giving the appearance that RFK was partly was a CIA asset who once worked closely with responsible for his brother’s murder. That meant RFK, a man Murgado still loved. He admired RFK that RFK had to protect CIA’s role in the so much, in fact, that he changed his name from conspiracy, and that meant that Bobby had to do Murgado to Kennedy after RFK was murdered. everything in his power to derail Jim Garrison’s investigation. Placing RFK in that predicament was Murgado had been part of a small group of Cubans exactly how CIA had planned it all along as a chosen by RFK to help him dispose of Castro. guarantee of their own preservation. (Other members included Manuel Artime and Manolo Reboso.) They were also tasked with Late in his life, Angelo said he hated everything he helping protect JFK against some hotheaded had done, and publicity was the last thing he Cuban(s) who felt betrayed by the president in the wanted. Like so many others ensnared by the Bay of Pigs disaster. Angelo himself was a Bay of conspiracy, Angelo had not been aware that he had Pigs veteran. become a pawn in the murder plot against JFK. He Page 37

had been trying to protect the president, not kill Bobby Kennedy him. (The same is true for LHO.) Robert Francis Kennedy was John Kennedy’s brother, campaign manager, and Attorney General. Jackie Kennedy By 1963, RFK had formed a small group of loyal Cubans. Their instructions were to perform two Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was John Kennedy’s valuable services for the president’s brother: (a) wife and widow. She never believed the come up with a viable plan to kill Castro; (b) detect conclusions of the Warren Commission, and she is anyone among the Cuban exile communities who believed to have asked the French secret service to might resent JFK’s Bay of Pigs betrayal to the point conduct its own investigation. It will be years yet (if of trying to kill JFK. They were an unofficial and ever) before records are released that may reveal invisible part of the JFK security team. Among the their conclusions. members close to Bobby were Manuel Artime, Manolo Reboso, and Angelo Murgado. JFK LHO became part of the group, also, and he eventually became its leader of sorts. It is unlikely John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the 35th POTUS that RFK ever met LHO, but Bobby was well aware (1961-1963). He was gunned down in Dallas, of who he was and what he was doing although not Texas on November 22, 1963 in a conspiracy that all of it, obviously. Part of what LHO was doing was involved CIA, the FBI, anti-castro Cuban refugees helping in a plot to kill Castro, but he was also in Miami and New Orleans, the mafia, Texas oil working to protect JFK by detecting any plots to tycoons, and military intelligence. LBJ was also one assassinate the president. Any communication from of the conspirators. He played an indirect role in the RFK intended specifically for LHO would have gone murder and a key role in the cover-up. through an intermediary, like Guy Banister. Bobby knew LHO worked for the FBI, but he didn’t know he also worked for CIA. The Agency did not Joe Kennedy want RFK to know LHO was one of their assets, Joseph Kennedy was JFK’s father. Joe arranged because part of their plan for killing JFK was to for the mafia’s help in getting JFK elected in 1960. leave RFK so compromised that he would not be The mafia thought they had an agreement that in able to expose CIA’s role in the conspiracy. It exchange for their assistance, JFK and brother worked beautifully. Bobby quickly figured out that Bobby would allow the mafia to operate unmolested CIA had masterminded and choreographed the during the Kennedy presidency. That agreement murder, but he couldn’t say so publicly. Doing so was brokered by Frank Sinatra, who made such would have exposed the fact that RFK had been promise to mafia kingpins prematurely. Although using LHO, and that that Bobby had been actively Joe would have forced Jack and Bobby to leave the pursuing plots to kill Castro. Public knowledge of mafia alone, the Kennedy patriarch was taken out those facts would have abruptly ended RFK’s of the picture by a stroke, leaving RFK to launch an political career. That left Bobby with one option: he all-out assault on organized crime. The mafia, would have to become POTUS himself, and then naturally, felt betrayed, and they ultimately got their he could destroy CIA. That left CIA with one option: revenge by playing a key role in the murder of JFK, stop RFK from being elected president. They and then the slaying of RFK. That, however, was accomplished that mission in LA right after Bobby hardly their only (or maybe even the primary) won the California primary in 1968. reason for wanting the Kennedy brothers dead. But, getting back to 1963, LHO and the Cubans knew something was up, and that JFK’s life was possibly being threatened, but they didn’t yet know who was behind it or what to do about it. They knew something was brewing right there in New Page 38

Orleans, but they had no idea how to stop it. It is encouraged her readers to question everything. hard to say exactly when LHO discovered or The exclusive Ruby interview had given her what realized that it was CIA who was gunning for JFK, she needed to expose the whitewash. Although she but he was becoming painfully aware of it during revealed tantalizing bits of information in her the summer of 1963. However, he couldn’t tell columns, she was saving most of it for her book, anyone about it without getting himself and the Murder One, which she was confident would be a people he cared about killed. He did finally (just best-seller and provide her with much-needed days before the murder) alert the FBI that JFK was income. She didn’t get the chance. Whoever killed about to be assassinated, but it was too late. her took her interview notes. Her friend Flo died the Conspirators within the FBI (J Edgar Hoover chief following day, and her copy of Kilgallen’s interview among them) made sure no action was taken notes disappeared as well. based on LHO’s warning. (LHO also knew well in Following the standard MO for murders related to advance that he was being set up as the patsy in the JFK conspiracy, Kilgallen’s death was staged to the death of JFK, but he was powerless to stop look like a suicide. She lived with her husband in an that, as well.) apartment just off Park Avenue in Manhattan. She was found on the third floor, in bed, propped up, hair neatly in place, still wearing her makeup and Dorothy Kilgallen false eyelashes, with a book lying on the bed. Dorothy Kilgallen was a famous newspaper According to the Medical Examiner, Kilgallen died reporter and a regular on the popular TV program from acute ethanol and barbiturate intoxication. The What’s My Line? Her articles were read by millions official version was that she had committed suicide, of people every day, and virtually all celebrities overdosing on pills and alcohol, dying as she read wanted to be mentioned in her columns. She had a a book in bed, or that the overdose had been bold style with a gossipy flavor. She had an accidental. extensive network of sources, she seemed to know There are a lot of reasons to reject that version of everything about everybody, and she was keenly her death. According to her friends, she never went tuned in to what Americans wanted to know about. to bed still wearing makeup and eyelashes. She She broke the story of the romance between never would have gone to bed wearing the blue Marilyn Monroe and John Kennedy. The next day, bed jacket she was found wearing. She never slept Monroe was murdered. in the bed she was found in. That master suite was Kilgallen was present throughout the trial of Jack never used at all except for show. It was kept in Ruby, and the two of them frequently had pristine condition to give the appearance to house conversations in the courtroom. She had gained his guests that she and her husband still slept together. trust and respect. Therefore, it should be no Although she regularly used reading glasses, no surprise that she was the only reporter granted an reading glasses were found anywhere around her. exclusive private interview with Ruby in his Dallas The book was upside down, and it was a book she jail cell. He is apparently the one who requested it. had already read. The air conditioning was still She took copious notes during the interview, and running when the body was found, but Kilgallen she kept them on her person at all times. She also always turned it off before turning in, because gave a copy of them to her close friend and fellow nights in New York were plenty cold. Lividity journalist, Florence Pritchett Smith. She told friends markings on her neck and face showed that she did that she would, in a few days, blow the JFK murder not die sitting propped up in bed as discovered. case wide open. She had been moved after death, and the scene had been staged. She was in the process of writing a book when she was murdered sometime between 2:20am and Her blood alcohol level was 0.15, which was not 4:00am on November 8, 1965, at age 52. She had enough to make her too drunk to function. That was been openly challenging the official story and a fairly normal BAC (blood alcohol concentration) cover-up of the JFK murder, and she had for her late at night, given her lifestyle. The autopsy Page 39

also showed a drug cocktail of: amabarbital Her book was eventually published, but it did not (Tuinal), pentobarbital (Nembutal), and secobarbital include the blockbuster information about the JFK (Seconal). Any of those drugs taken alone and in assassination. sufficient quantity would have rendered her unconscious within 15 minutes, and it would have killed her in less than an hour. Taken together, they Hank Killam were even more lethal. Combined with alcohol, even more so. Hank Killam was a big man at more than 6 feet tall and 200 pounds. He was known to be a pretty She had taken the equivalent of about 5 pills each, tough guy, as well – not one to back down from a or 15-20 pills altogether, although she didn’t fight. He painted houses in Dallas for a living, and necessarily ingest them in pill form. It was strange his wife (Wanda Joyce) worked for Jack Ruby as because it was barely enough to kill her. Had she an exotic dancer. Hank’s troubles began the day been trying to kill herself, she undoubtedly would JFK’s troubles ended. Hank was white as a sheet have taken more pills to make sure they had the when he went home that night, obviously deeply desired effect. There were plenty of pills in the troubled about something. He was glued to TV apartment. Furthermore, overdosing on pills usually coverage of the president’s assassination, and in results in vomiting and thrashing about before the following days he collected newspaper stories death. There was no evidence of anything like that about the murder. at the death scene. Seconal was apparently a drug which Kilgallen regularly used. Her husband had a What was he so afraid of? He knew too much, and prescription for Tuinal, and he did have some on he knew he knew too much. And he knew he had hand, but it isn’t something Dorothy used. just become one of those loose ends that bad guys Nembutal was not kept in the apartment, but it was do not tolerate. He knew about the connections the only drug found in the drinking glass located between LHO and Jack Ruby, and Hank had near the body. It is unknown how the other drugs connections to both of them. In addition to the fact entered her body. that Jack Ruby was his wife’s boss, Hank knew and occasionally worked with John Carter, who lived in All of which points to murder. Suicide is unlikely, a rooming house at 1206 N Beckley, Dallas, Texas. because she was excited about her book, and she Lee Harvey Oswald also lived there. Killam was didn’t take a large enough quantity of drugs to also connected to Jim Garrison (New Orleans assure they would kill her. She had appeared on District Attorney who conducted his own live TV that evening and that had gone well. She investigation into the JFK murder). Killam made had not appeared depressed to her many friends; several trips to New Orleans during September she had been socializing as normal. She had made through November, 1963. a phone call at 2:20am to arrange for Western Union to pick up her column and deliver it to her Men started showing up and asking Killam newspaper. It was a regular transaction, and on questions. His wife thought they were federal that morning, Dorothy had sounded lucid and agents. Hank realized they represented the JFK cordial as always. (She was murdered sometime conspirators. They were looking for assurances that before 4:00am.) Accidental overdose is most Killam would keep his mouth shut about what he unlikely, because she would have had to go out of knew. They obviously weren’t satisfied with her way to take Tuinal, and she had no Nembutal whatever Hank told them, and they kept showing available. She did not die of natural causes, up, asking questions. His brother, Earl, noticed because the autopsy showed that she was very (shortly before Hank’s death) a man disguised as a healthy before that fateful early morning in her New priest hanging around his mother’s home where York apartment. Her killer was a professional who Hank was staying. Hank told both his brother and did not know Dorothy well at all, and that’s why he his Baptist minister that he would be killed because made so many mistakes that were obvious to of what he knew about the JFK and LHO murders. friends and family. He warned his minister that his life might be in danger, as well, just for having talked with Killam. Page 40

Hank had tried running, but that didn’t work. Killam Jim Koethe moved to Florida, hoping to leave his tormenters behind. He worked as a used car salesman there, Jim Koethe was a newspaper reporter, working for but the men shadowing him found him by the Dallas Times Herald. He gained access to Jack badgering his wife, who had remained in Dallas. Ruby’s apartment shortly after Ruby killed LHO. They chased him from one job to another, from Koethe was also working on a book about the JFK Pensacola to Tampa and back to Pensacola. Hank murder. He was killed as he stepped out of the knew he was a dead man, and he finally realized shower by a burglar who delivered a fatal karate that running was futile. Suicide would certainly have chop to his neck. (Karyn Kupcinet was killed just made sense for a man in that position. But if his after emerging from her shower as well, and she death was suicide, it was definitely one of the most also died of a broken neck.) Koethe’s notes on the bizarre suicides in history. JFK assassination were taken in the burglary and never found. The end began at 4:00am, March 17, 1964. He was asleep in his mother’s (Mary) home in Florida (316 W Romano St) when he got a phone call, after Karyn Kupcinet which he got dressed and left. His mother heard a car door slam, even though Hank didn’t own a car. Karyn Kupcinet was a fairly successful Hollywood A few hours later, Killam was found dead on a actress. It is believed that she was a victim of the street, his throat cut, having bled out from a JFK murder cover-up conspiracy. If so, her case severed jugular. Broken glass was nearby, and the was more about her father, though, than about the broken window from whence it came appeared to beautiful actress. have been shattered by Killam’s body as it was Irv Kupcinet was a very famous, successful, hurled through the plate-glass department store beloved newspaper columnist in Chicago. He was window. known nationwide, in fact, through his nationally According to Pensacola Police, it was suicide. televised talk show. What people liked so much According to the coroner, it was an accidental about him was his fearless pursuit of any story, no death. It is perfectly obvious to almost everybody matter where it led. That came to an abrupt halt else that both those conclusions were when his daughter, Karyn, was found dead in her preposterous. Nobody tries to commit suicide by Hollywood apartment on November 30, 1963. She jumping through a ground-floor window, hoping it had apparently died on the 28th, lying face down, will slit his throat, allowing him to bleed out before nude, on her couch in the living room. The cause of he can reach the hospital. Even if that were death was determined to be manual strangulation, remotely plausible, it would not result in blood based on the fact that her hyoid bone was broken. reaching several feet into the store and the body The primary suspect in the murder investigation landing 50 feet from the storefront. Especially when was her boyfriend, Andrew Prine, also a popular his body would have had to fly above a two-foot Hollywood actor. The two had talked on the phone brick wall at the base of the window. Killam needed at midnight, 30 minutes before the murder. They lots of help for that, and he obviously got it. But only had been having problems stemming from her after the killers slit his throat at 4:30am. There were desire for a more serious relationship than he was no other bruises or marks on Killam’s body. He willing to commit to. A secondary suspect was her would not have bled out if not for the severed neighbor, David Lange. There were two sets of jugular. So, why would experts call it suicide or an fingerprints other than Karyn’s, but they didn’t accident? Because they didn’t want any serious match either suspect. They were never identified, investigation. Why didn’t they want a serious and the case was never closed. investigation? Because powerful members of the JFK conspiracy told them they did not want an There were a number of disturbing and puzzling investigation. pieces of evidence uncovered in the investigation. Karyn was anorexic. She used amphetamines

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regularly to control her weight, and that was also alarmed at the prospect of Kup tackling the encouraged by her controlling, critical mother. Ruby story in his usual take-no-prisoners style. Karyn was believed to be suicidal, obsessive in her When that conversation took place, Dorfman was in relationship with Prine. She was known to cut Palm Springs. Karyn also happened to be in Palm words out of magazines, then use them to compose Springs that weekend. Perhaps Dorfman saw threatening letters, which she mailed to him. Karyn there, triggering an idea in his mind. Killing Even more disturbing was the fact that the medical Kup would have been too obvious, but killing his examiner who performed the autopsy had a habit of daughter might have the same desired effect more assaulting the bodies placed in his care. He liked to obliquely. Whether the mafia was responsible for break their necks, for example, if the neck wasn’t Karyn’s death or not, it certainly did have two already broken. That would produce a broken hyoid effects which helped the mob immensely. First, Kup bone, just as in Karyn’s case, raising the obvious lost his zeal for getting at the facts, no matter what. question of whether her death had been suicide Second, national attention was redirected away after all. However, there were a number of other from the LHO shooting to the Karyn Kupcinet factors that supported the conclusion of murder and death. discounted suicide. For example: although she had a large amount of drugs in her body, and 100 pills were missing, there was no glass of water nearby Melba Christine Marcades (See: Rose for taking pills (or any other liquid except a cup of Cheramie) coffee on the other side of the room), and there was no vomit; her apartment was ransacked, but robbery was not the motive; women who commit suicide do not usually do so in the nude, especially Carlos Marcello given that she carefully laid out her robe and brush, Calogero Minacore was born in Tunisia in 1910. He which she didn’t use after her recent shower; it adopted the name Carlos Marcello when his seems unlikely that the medical examiner would Sicilian parents moved to Materie, Louisiana. He have risked destroying his career by breaking served 5 years in prison for assault and robbery, Karyn’s neck, because it was such a high-profile being released at age 25. He served another 10 case. months on drug charges in New York. So, murder seems more likely than suicide. But, After getting out of prison, he associated with Frank who killed her and why? Perhaps it was an effective Costello, the New York mafia leader. By the late way of reigning in Irv Kupcinet, known 1940s Marcello controlled gambling in Louisiana. affectionately as “Kup”. Maybe cover-up He joined forces with Meyer Lansky, bought some conspirators were concerned that Kup’s pit-bull of the biggest casinos in New Orleans, and approach to journalism posed a threat to them if he established himself as the undisputed mafia leader were unleashed on them. Why might they think in the Big Easy for 30 years. that? Because Kup knew Jack Ruby. They grew up in the same rough streets of Chicago. Kup was also In March of 1959, Marcello faced both John and well acquainted with Paul Dorfman (aka Red), a Robert Kennedy in their Senate Committee’s mobster with national connections. In fact, Kup was investigation of organized crime. JFK was a friends with all the Chicago mafia leaders, and he member of the committee and Bobby was its chief socialized with them. When Kup saw the LHO counsel. In spite of their best efforts, they got no murder on television, he tracked down Dorfman to information from Marcello, who pleaded the Fifth ask him about the shooting. Dorfman hadn’t even Amendment to all questions. However, the heard about the shooting yet, and he was skeptical Kennedy brothers retaliated after the 1960 election about what Kup was saying. It seemed highly by having Marcello kidnapped and flown to unlikely that Sparky (Jack Ruby’s mafia nickname) Guatemala, where he and his attorney were would do such a thing. But Dorfman was probably dumped in the middle of nowhere and left to struggle for their survival. Page 42

They miraculously did survive, and Marcello was Ferrie / LHO connection. Why would he do that, able to sneak back into New Orleans. (It was David since it was not in the best interest of CIA or Martin Ferrie who got Marcello a fake passport in himself? Guatemala, and it was Ferrie who flew him back to He had a habit of doing irrational things and stirring New Orleans.) Marcello went on to play a up trouble, often apparently just for the hell of it. He prominent role in the JFK murder conspiracy. At the seemed to have no trouble betraying the people he moment JFK was being shot in Dallas, Marcello was associated with. Once, Martin had attended a was in a New Orleans courtroom with David Ferrie party hosted by Ferrie, who threw him out of his waiting to hear the verdict in RFK’s latest attempt to apartment because he was harassing guests. have Marcello permanently deported. Moments Martin then called the police, who ordered Ferrie to after the murder of JFK was announced, Marcello shut down the party because they were too noisy. was acquitted, and he spent the evening Yet, Martin was also a very capable CIA operative. celebrating both victories. Martin described himself as a con man who barely Hoover’s FBI investigated Marcello and determined managed to operate within the law. He was in his that he was a tomato salesman and real estate forties, 5 feet 9 inches tall, 150 pounds, an investor, not a significant mafia figure. The Warren alcoholic, a chain smoker, and a private eye Commission concluded that there was no link working for Guy Banister, who actually had very between Marcello and Jack Ruby. However, in little investigative work for him to do. Yet Martin, in spite of those spectacular demonstrations of his gray suit and black porkpie hat, was always incompetence, Marcello was finally brought to hanging around Banister’s office, quietly watching justice. In 1966, he was again arrested in New all the strange people who came through there. His York, charged with assault, and eventually served a business card in November 1963 said: Martin, whopping six months in prison. Crime doesn’t pay? Newbrough & Dalzell, Private Investigations. In January 1992, the New York Post claimed that Newbrough and Dalzell were CIA assets. Martin Carlos Marcello, Santo Trafficante, and Jimmy had unusual access to police records, and he sold Hoffa were all involved in the JFK murder. The Post the information harvested from them. was absolutely correct. Meanwhile, Martin was assigned as a handler to Thomas Edward Beckham (while Ferrie was similarly assigned as a handler to LHO). According Henry Marshall (See: Billy Sol Estes, Mac to Beckham, Martin had a number of police Wallace.) credentials, and he often pretended to be a police officer. However, Martin’s primary focus was spying on other police officers. Jack Martin Martin seemed to be always drinking bad black Jack Martin (his real name was Edward Stewart coffee and talking on the telephone. He had a habit Suggs) was a CIA asset who provided Jim Garrison of calling up CIA and just rambling for extended with the tip that led to David Ferrie, who had known periods, leading Agency officials to the conclusion LHO and was the man responsible for flying the that Martin was of unsound mind. Or, that may assassins out of Dallas right after the JFK murder have been part of the FBI’s image projected to the on November 22, 1963. public to discredit and marginalize a competent man. When Martin began talking to Jim Garrison, Martin was a curious figure. He was extremely CIA needed to distance themselves from their often intelligent, like David Ferrie, and often in legal erratic asset. They issued a memo stating that this trouble, also like Ferrie. Both men seemed to have particular Jack Martin was not the same Jack a knack for making legal problems disappear. Both Martin they were familiar with. Then they said they were religious zealots, and belonged to the same were aware of several characters known by some church. Both were CIA operatives. Yet, it was variation of Jack Martin, which they used as a Martin who blabbed all over New Orleans about the Page 43

generic name. Jack Martin was CIA’s version of earned him the nickname The Tiger (El Tigre), John Doe. That allowed The Agency to declare, referring back to Los Tigres in Cuba. when they chose to, that any particular Jack Martin Masferrer was prominent in Alpha 66 (a violent anti- was not the same man they had as an agent or Castro movement). He had ties to Jimmy Hoffa and used as an asset. to Florida mob boss Santo Trafficante. Like many Martin was well aware that David Ferrie and Dr other anti-Castro group leaders based in south Mary Sherman had been close associates in 1963 Florida, Masferrer was furious with JFK because of New Orleans. Those two could hardly have been his less than aggressive approach to the Castro more different, and any connection between them regime. It was that hatred for both JFK and Castro seems, at first, to be most unlikely. However, they that formed an effective incubator for JFK were both (along with LHO, Judyth Vary Baker, and conspirators and a pool of talented and motivated Dr Alton Ochsner, among others) working on participants in plots to kill Castro (choreographed developing a super strain of cancer virus capable of by CIA and facilitated by the mafia). killing a human being within days or weeks after So, Masferrer knew a great deal about those covert injection. Very few people were aware of that assassination attempts against Castro and CIA’s project. The purpose was to come up with a bio- participation in them. Masferrer had knowledge weapon that could result very quickly in what would about the JFK murder. And, as if he needed a appear to be a natural death. The plan was to larger target on his back, Masferrer had a smuggle it into Cuba and have it injected into Fidel reputation for helping himself to some of the cash Castro. The virus was indeed developed, but not in while performing his bag-man duties. We don’t time to kill Castro and save the life of JFK. It was, know exactly who placed the dynamite in his car however, used to kill Jack Ruby. No doubt the bio- and blew up Masferrer on October 5, 1975, but weapon is in the control of CIA today. there is no shortage of suspects. It wasn’t suicide. Garrison didn’t know it, but Martin was pistol- whipped by Guy Banister right after the JFK murder. Banister accused Martin of stealing files Barr McClellan from his office. Martin vehemently denied it to Garrison, but he had, in fact, stolen a file from Bar McClellan was an attorney who worked for the Banister. Martin reported the assault to Major law firm that handled most of LBJ’s legal and Presley J Trosclair Jr, a police intelligence officer political problems. McClellan was in position to who certainly did not handle that sort of case know a great deal about what went on behind the unless the complaint happened to come from scenes, and he spills the beans in his 2011 book: someone with intelligence connections. Martin did Blood, Money, & Power: How LBJ Killed JFK. not press charges.

Robert McClelland Rolando Masferrer Dr Robert McClelland stood at the head of the When Batista was in control of Cuba, prior to the gurney that held the body of JFK at Parkland Castro regime, Rolando Masferrer was a senator Hospital in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Dr and newspaper publisher on the island-nation just McClelland looked down directly at the head, the 90 miles off the coast of Florida. He formed a back of which had been blown out. Based on that private army (in support of Batista) called The observation, he believed that the fatal shot came Tigers (Los Tigres). Later he fled to the US with from behind the picket fence on the grassy knoll, $10 million in cash and became a leader in the anti- and he was willing to testify to that in Jim Garrison’s Castro groups in Florida. Those groups were trial of Clay Shaw. notoriously ruthless and violent, and Masferrer was However, he was never called as a witness by one of its most powerful and ruthless leaders. That Garrison. That’s because one of his assistants, Page 44

during a telephone conversation with the doctor, with the gentleman . . . accused of killing JFK . . . I misunderstood what the doctor was trying to tell can definitely confirm the fact that she and LHO him, and the assistant ended the call abruptly were companions back in 1963. He added, without ever hearing what Dr McClelland was eager speaking to Judy: I have been involved with to say publicly. The doctor would have been situations with the Marcello family, the Marinos, a Garrison’s star witness, but it was one of many number of high-ranking officials, and you’re playing blunders by Garrison’s tiny, overworked staff, and with fire. by Garrison himself.

Mary Meyer John McCone Mary Meyer was beautiful, intelligent, artistic, and After the Bay of Pigs disaster, JFK set about married (in 1945) to a very successful CIA agent, dismantling CIA. First, he fired its top officers, Allen Cord Meyer, Jr. Cord worked in a covert program Dulles and General Charles Cabell. John McCone called Operation Mockingbird, which used major was Dulles’ replacement. McCone was a devout media outlets to influence public opinion. The Catholic, so his agent in charge of assassinations, Meyers were friends with Ben Bradlee, who worked William Harvey, didn’t tell McCone anything about for Newsweek (Washington bureau chief) and then the ongoing attempts to kill Castro. McCone might the Washington Post (editor). Ben Bradlee was be upset by that and order Harvey to stop. Harvey married to Mary Meyer’s sister, Toni. The Meyers couldn’t take that chance. were also friends with James Angleton and his wife. James was in charge of CIA’s counterintelligence CIA top officers also didn’t tell JFK a lot about what operations. The Agency was up to. JFK sensed that, and he blamed McCone. McCone demanded that JFK take Mary was also close to JFK. By close, I mean in steps to improve CIA’s public image, which JFK love and a confidant. She was at the top of the had no intention of doing. Other CIA principals had most elite group of Washington insiders, privy to a their own ideas about how to deal with JFK. After great deal of inside information through her CIA the murder, RFK asked McCone point blank if CIA husband and friends, their media friends, and JFK, had killed his brother. McCone didn’t know it, but who trusted her completely and didn’t hesitate to the honest answer was a resounding yes. share whatever was on his mind. He loved that she was so intelligent and capable of engaging him in

stimulating conversation on so many subjects. It Mac McCullough was her unique position at the peak of power that allowed her to figure out what had happened in McCullough was the only mafia associate who was Dallas on November 22, 1963, and what was willing to publicly acknowledge that he saw LHO happening to cover it up. And it was her ability to and Judy Baker together several times, including at put the pieces together that made her a liability to the French Quarter, Palmer Park, and the the JFK conspirators. Fountainbleu Motel. On August 9, 1963, Mac witnessed LHO handing out flyers while Guy But her problems started earlier than that. She had Bannister made video recordings of everyone who filed for divorce in 1958, primarily because she accepted a flyer. couldn’t handle her husband’s drift toward the right in his politics. She was certain she was being In 1999, McCullough saw Judy at Mel’s Diner in followed after she left Cord, and she was pretty Lafayette, Louisiana. He had this to say about that sure that James Angleton was behind the chance encounter: surveillance on behalf of Cord. Her apartment had been broken into several times, and she was . . . There’s a park [Palmer Park] in New Orleans . . frightened, especially since she was well aware of . I was a frequent visitor of the park . . . I told the the power wielded by her CIA ex-husband and his lady [Judy Baker] that I had seen her at this park friends. Page 45

On October 12, 1964, she went out for her usual innocent black man. With an LBJ myrmidon morning jog. She was shot and killed by two .38 wielding the gavel in the trial, the poor guy was bullets at point-blank range – one in the head, and convicted long before the judge entered the one in the heart. Ray Crump, who happened to be courtroom. nearby, was arrested for the murder, even though there was no forensic evidence linking him to the crime. The murder weapon was never found. There Herbert J Miller Jr were reports that the incident was an attempted rape or robbery, but there was little or no evidence Herbert Miller Jr was a Justice Department lawyer supporting either claim. Cord Meyer agreed with with ties to CIA. Under Attorney General RFK, the police investigation conclusion that Mary was Miller served as chief of the Justice Department’s the victim of a rapist who killed her when she fought criminal division. Shortly after JFK was murdered, back. Cord Meyer didn’t need evidence to control LBJ and J Edgar Hoover sent Miller to Texas to nip public opinion. He couldn’t very well point the finger any investigation by the Dallas Police Department at his own CIA, even though it looked exactly like in the bud. The cover-up was already going strong. their handiwork. (The second bullet went through Miller went on to participate in the illegal conviction her right lung and severed the aorta, killing her of Jimmy Hoffa and the obstruction of Jim instantly. That level of precision shooting wasn’t Garrison’s investigation in New Orleans of the JFK done in an attempted rape or robbery.) murder. In obstructing Garrison’s investigation, Miller was also working for RFK, even after he was Crump’s trial was just for show. CIA had found (or no longer Attorney General. planted) some poor black guy in the area to use as the scapegoat. The judge was one of LBJ’s political allies. Information about Mary’s private life, her CIA Bill Monaghan connections, her relationship with JFK – none of that was allowed to be mentioned in the courtroom. Bill Monaghan served as FBI Special Agent #005074 from 1942-1945. He then returned to New All Mary’s friends knew she kept a diary, and Orleans and became head of security for Standard everyone wanted to be the first to get their hands Fruit Company, a shipping company that imported on it. When Ben and Toni Bradlee went to Mary’s bananas from Central America. place to find it, they found James Angleton instead. Whoever got to it first destroyed the diary. In 1961, he co-founded (along with Dr Alton Ochsner and Ed Butler) INCA, a political action Could it have been Cord’s way of getting revenge organization that was dedicated to fighting for his wife’s affair with JFK? That probably made it communism in the Americas. INCA core members easier for him to approve or accept the hit, but he included Clay Shaw (General Manager of could have killed her any time. Why then? Because International Trade Mart), Edgar Stern (owner of the Warren Commission report had just been WDSU television and radio stations in New released, and Mary Meyer was furious. She knew Orleans), Robert Rainold (President of Former very well that it was bullshit, and she was going to Special Agents of the FBI), and Eustis Reilly (of the make sure everyone else knew, too. The Reilly Coffee Company). conspirators couldn’t allow her to speak freely. CIA turned to one of their agents, William L Mitchell (an In 1963, Monaghan became VP of Finance for alias), known as a cleaner. They didn’t need to get Reilly Coffee Company and Manager of their creative. A professional killer learned Mary’s Standard Coffee Division. It was in that capacity routine, killed her at a very predictable time in a that he became the boss of Lee Harvey Oswald very public place, and tried to make it look like and Judyth Vary Baker during the months leading somebody else had done it for their own very up to the murder of JFK in Dallas. different reasons. It wasn’t hard for anyone to see what had really happened, but CIA didn’t care, After leaving Reilly, Monaghan became Executive because they had the machinery to pin it on an Director of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, a Page 46

private civic organization dedicated to monitoring publishing, and oil. An investor in Murchison oil crime levels in New Orleans. He served on the interests was J Edgar Hoover, also a close friend of MCC board for several years, and became the Murchison family. Clint Murchison was also Chairman of the Board in 1997. Among MCC’s connected with well-known mafia figures, including leaders were Dr Alton Ochsner, Eustis Reilly, and Vito Genovese and Carlos Marcello. Robert Rainold, Monaghan’s INCA buddies. Another close friend of Murchison was Dr Alton Another MCC leader was Warren C de Brueys, an Ochsner. Murchison was generous in his support of FBI agent associated with LHO. Ochsner’s new hospital in New Orleans. He also In 1967, Monaghan was cordially invited to appear gave the doctor a new Cadillac each year. Ochsner before an Orleans Parish Grand Jury to explain a was a frequent visitor at Murchison ranches in letter from MCC to the Louisiana State Attorney Texas and Mexico. General criticizing the actions of Jim Garrison, Murchison was an extreme right-winger. He joined Orleans Parish District Attorney, in Garrison’s the John Birch Society. He funded the campaign of investigation into the murder of JFK. Joe McCarthy.

He was closely associated with LBJ, an alliance David Sanchez Morales that played an important role in the JFK murder. On November 21, 1963 (the day before JFK was David Sanchez Morales was a CIA asset involved killed), Murchison hosted a party attended by with David Atlee Phillips in overthrowing Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, J Edgar Hoover, Guatemala’s president, Arbenz. Morales was also Clyde Tolson, John J McCloy, and H L Hunt. There, known as El Indio, among other aliases. final details were taken care of in arrangements for the JFK hit in Dallas. Deslesseps Morrison In 1985, the once uber wealthy oil tycoon filed for bankruptcy. Morrison was Mayor of New Orleans. For more information, see Hugh Ward. Angelo Murgado (See: Angelo Murgado Kennedy) Bill Moyers

Bill Moyers (LBJ aide) gave the order to remove the top of the president’s limousine, probably at LBJ’s Richard Case Nagell direction, although Moyers didn’t necessarily Richard Nagell was a CIA operative who heard, in understand why. That made it easier for assassins the summer of 1963, that JFK would be to complete their mission as the JFK motorcade assassinated along with other highly placed snaked its way through Dallas on November 22, government officials. He learned that in the process 1963. of providing CIA surveillance of LHO in New Later Moyers led an attack on the History Channel Orleans in 1963. In fact, Nagell had been assigned because they had aired a program (The Guilty as one of LHO’s handlers. Nagell, a former officer Men) which pointed the finger at LBJ as the primary in military intelligence, had first met LHO in Japan. player in the assassination plot. Now, in New Orleans, Nagell knew about the domestic plot to kill JFK, and he warned LHO that that’s what he had become involved in. LHO was Clint Murchison, Jr visibly shaken and upset, but it was too late for him to walk away from the plot and plotters. Doing so Clint Murchison (1923-1987) inherited a fortune would have endangered his own life, the lives of his derived from real estate, construction, railroads, Page 47

family, and the lives of everyone he had come to before the House Select Committee on care about in New Orleans. Assassinations (HSCA), 1977. Obviously, Nagell was considered a potential gold mine of information by Jim Garrison, but not by the Warren Commission. Nagell was never called to Chuck Nicoletti testify before the Commission, and his name is There is nothing mysterious or surprising about the barely mentioned at all in its multi-volume report. It death of Chuck Nicoletti. He was scheduled to simply mentions that Nagell’s only contact with or testify before the HSCA (House Select Committee interest in LHO had been purely social. As it turned on Assassinations), but like so many others, he out, Nagell was of no use to Garrison, either, even was killed before he could speak. Like so many though the DA considered him his most important others, he knew too much. In fact, he was one of witness, and nothing Nagell had told him had the shooters in the JFK murder. And that wasn’t the turned out to be untrue. only reason he took three .38 slugs to the back of The problem was that Nagell refused, under oath, the head on March 29, 1977. He had also been to identify CIA as his employer. He was afraid he expressing his displeasure about the assassination would become another CIA victim, and he was of Sam Giancana. So, the same people who took undoubtedly absolutely right. In fact, Nagell was so out Sam had to take out Chuck. They wanted afraid that CIA was about to set him up as a patsy everyone to believe it was strictly a revenge hit, but that he intentionally got himself arrested so that he the most compelling reason was to prevent his would be in prison on November 22, 1963. testimony before HSCA. Garrison knew that the Shaw defense team would In 1963 Nicolette had been the Chicago mob’s best be able to easily nullify any benefit Nagell might be hitman, reporting directly to Giancana. On to the prosecution. Nagel could have identified November 22, 1963 he was in Dallas. He was in Shaw as CIA, but he would have had to identify Dealey Plaza. We even know who drove him to himself as CIA as well, and he refused to do so. Dallas and how the driver got Nicoletti into and out Nagell may not have been a CIA employee with a of Dealey Plaza. Chuck’s work log entry for that day CIA salary, but he was one of many CIA assets was: Dallas—JFK. who worked closely with The Agency and were paid (George de Mohrenschildt was killed the same day by it. and for the same reason.) Nagell identified Richard Helms as the CIA official most directly responsible for the JFK murder. Nagell understood that CIA intensely despised JFK OAS for his determination to reign in the intelligence OAS (Organisation Armee Secrete) was a fascist community in general and CIA in particular. paramilitary group in France that used terrorism in Nagell often joked that CIA stood for caught in the its opposition to Algerian independence. It was act. Unfortunately, they rarely were. funded in part through Centro Mondiale Commerciale, a CIA front group based in Rome. CIA operative Guy Banister was an OAS supporter. Louis Nichols OAS tried to assassinate French leader Charles de Gaulle in 1962. The same core group within CIA Louis Nichols was a special assistant to J Edgar later took aim at JFK, and that operation was a Hoover, acting as liaison between Hoover and the success. Warren Commission. He was one of several top FBI officials (as well as several mafia and CIA operatives) who died (in June, 1977) in the six- month period prior to their scheduled testimony

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Sylvia Odio (Office of Naval Intelligence) operation, and LHO was one of the operatives sent to Russia. His role Cuban exile Sylvia Odio found herself ensnared in was confirmed by Senator Richard Schweiker the JFK conspiracy. In late September, 1963, three (Republican from Pennsylvania), co-chairman of men appeared at her door in Dallas. Two were the US Senate Subcommittee which investigated Latins, one speaking with what sounded to Sylvia the JFK murder in 1975. However, the KGB didn’t like a Mexican accent, and the other with what she fall for the ruse, so LHO’s career as a defector to took for a Cuban accent. They called themselves Russia was very brief and unsuccessful. But that Angelo and Leopoldo. (They were eventually made LHO an ideal candidate for another identified as Angelo Murgado and Bernardo de intelligence role: patsy. Torres.) The third man was an American identified as Leon Oswald. They told her they had just come The KGB took advantage of the US’s failure and from New Orleans to raise funds for JURE, an turned it into a Russian success by arranging the organization run by Sylvia’s father. hasty marriage of LHO to Marina Prusakova, a Russian teenager. The newlyweds were welcomed Leopoldo called her a day or two later and began back into the US without any trouble, which was telling her about Leon. He was a former Marine, astounding for a Russian defector at the height of and he wanted to help the Cuban underground. the Cold War. Events in both countries don’t make Leon felt that JFK should have been killed by sense unless the roles of ONI and KGB are Cubans after the Bay of Pigs. That information had understood. CIA assigned George de been unsolicited, just as their strange visit had Mohrenschildt (Russian émigré) to befriend the been. Oswalds and keep an eye on Marina, suspected of When news stories showed LHO on TV the being a KGB spy. weekend after the JFK murder, Sylvia and her LHO arrived in Fort Worth on June 17, 1962. He sister Annie immediately recognized him as the was just returning from Russia with his wife and Leon who had been in her home a few weeks child. He soon met George de Mohrenschildt, and earlier. The visit was orchestrated by CIA as proof that friendship led to Sam Ballen, who needed help that LHO was (to be) JFK’s killer. But it also from Ed Clark regarding Ballen’s natural gas suggested that the assassination had been the company in the Texas panhandle. That, in turn, led product of a conspiracy, and J Edgar Hoover was Oswald to Mac Wallace, who just happened to be having none of that. His reaction was a favorite: looking for a patsy in the JFK murder. portray the witness (Sylvia Odio in this case) as mentally disturbed and therefore unreliable as a Wallace chose LHO for the patsy role, although witness. Wallace considered Oswald unreliable. LHO ordered both a pistol (for protection) and a rifle (6.5 However, she seemed like a very credible witness mm Mannlicher-Carcano) by mail, and he received to Jim Garrison. He sent an assistant to Puerto both in March 1963. LHO embraced his new role as Rico to interview her. But, by that time, Sylvia had assassin, no doubt having been convinced by been mistreated by both the FBI and the Warren Wallace that it was for a noble cause. The next step Commission, so she wanted nothing to do with was a test to find out how well the patsy could Garrison’s investigation. shoot, and to determine how committed LHO was to the cause. Wallace instructed Oswald to assassinate Edwin Walker (former army major Lee Harvey Oswald (LHO) general, and US-hating marxist). If LHO succeeded without being caught, the crime would bind Oswald LHO joined the Marines in 1956, and was sent to to the team. It would also demonstrate later that Nags Head, North Carolina, which was the base of JFK had been killed by a left-winger, not a right- operations for special intelligence training of false wing friend of LBJ’s. Oswald’s shot into Walker’s defectors, according to Victor Marchetti (CIA house apparently was deflected off target by a agent). The False Defector Program was an ONI window frame. Both LHO and Wallace were Page 49

disappointed to say the least. Oswald went to New shot himself in the head (behind the left ear) before Orleans, and Wallace was happy to have him out of he hit the water, using his left hand, even though he his hair for a while. was right-handed. Nobody who believes that official version of events should be allowed to vote. Or Every American who is aware of the JFK murder have children. knows that LHO was shot and killed on live national television by a single bullet from the gun of Jack So, what did happen to Paisley, and why? The boat Ruby. It happened in the Dallas Police Department was found by the Coast Guard, and they found no as LHO was being transferred from city to county weapon or spent cartridge. There was no blood or jail. Even though LHO was the most important human tissue. There was nothing at all aboard the suspect in the country, allegedly involved in the boat to suggest that any weapon had been fired most spectacular crime in American history, and there. Obviously, Paisley was killed someplace else even though there were police officers all around and his body was dumped in the ocean. When it the suspect, still Ruby had no problem walking right was found, he had a gunshot wound to the head. up to Oswald and killing him. Virtually every person So, who put it there? It wasn’t Paisley. It may have who saw it realized instantly and instinctively that been someone working for the KGB, or it might there was much more going on than they were have been a CIA operative. We don’t know for sure. aware of at the time. Still, they somehow managed Both organizations had good reason to kill him. to allow themselves to become convinced that Why? Ruby acted entirely on his own, killing LHO to spare Paisley was Deputy Director for the Office of the president’s widow of a trial. Strategic Research. He had access to a lot of secrets. But, so did a lot of other people. And one (or more) of them was passing those secrets to the Otto F Otepka Russians. CIA had been frantically searching for In 1953, Otto Otepka began working for the Office the mole for years. Paisley was right in the middle of Security in the State Department. His job was to of the search, and so was James Angleton, Chief of keep an eye on State Department appointees, Counterintelligence. Angleton was obsessed with detecting any criminal acts or communist finding the mole, and it was driving him crazy that sympathies. He was a deeply principled man, he had not been successful in spite of years of methodical, scrupulous, and fair. He never let trying. Finding moles was his job, after all, and he ideology interfere with integrity. didn’t seem to be doing his job very well. However, Robert F Kennedy, US Attorney General, Turns out the mole was right in front of Angleton’s set out to destroy Otepka's career. So he made a nose the whole time. And he was right behind career of finding out why. To his surprise, it was all Paisley’s nose the whole time. Paisley himself was about Lee Harvey Oswald. the traitor, and that was obviously reason aplenty for both CIA and the KGB to put a bullet in his head Otto Otepka retired in 1972, and he died on March at the earliest opportunity. However, my money is 20, 2010 at the age of 94. He died an honest and on CIA. That’s because Paisley was about to honorable man. The same cannot be said of Bobby appear as a witness before the HSCA (House Kennedy. Select Committee on Assassinations), and he was about to spill the beans about the JFK murder. I

could be wrong, but it seems to me that the KGB John Paisley would have been inclined to wait until that happened before plugging their spy in chief, and If you recognize that the magic bullet theory is a CIA would have been even more determined to joke, wait ‘til you hear this thigh-slapper of a suicide make damned sure Paisley never had a chance to theory. John Paisley went out on his boat (on testify. September 24, 1978), attached two 19-pound diver’s weights to his body, jumped into the air, and Page 50

Furthermore, Paisley had been working for CIA for included nazis, terrorists, and mafia figures. many years, undetected. Thanks to him, the Although PERMINDEX was ostensibly a trade Soviets knew all our secrets, and our spies had to organization, there were no industrial exhibits and assume that every single shred of American there was no promotion of trade. Its purpose was to intelligence had been compromised. Revenge and channel money to political parties and embarrassment alone would have driven CIA to organizations favored by CIA. Both France and Italy dispatch a hitman to kill the dirty rat. Stat. The US were well aware that it was merely a CIA operation figured it out first, obviously, because the KGB designed for espionage in Europe. PERMINDEX motive was that he had been discovered. and CMC, its Roman satellite, were used in 1963 to funnel money from New Orleans to various money- That’s enough to place Paisley on the list of people laundering affiliates, including the Vatican Bank. murdered to prevent their testimony before Congress, especially the HSCA. It just so happens When PERMINDEX came under fire in Italy for in this case that there were a number of other shady business practices, CIA established its compelling reasons to shut him up for good. subsidiary in Rome, CMC (Centro Mondiale Commerciale). But, of course, it did nothing to

foster trade or industry as its name implied. Edward Grady Partin Through these front groups, CIA supported OAS, a Edward Partin was a vicious Louisiana criminal who French right-wing movement that used terrorism in worked with Justice Department lawyer Walter its opposition to Algerian independence. OAS tried Sheridan to secure a conviction of Jimmy Hoffa, to assassinate French President Charles de Gaulle using whatever means (legal or illegal) were in 1962. deemed necessary by these men, both of whom In Italy, CIA had Operation GLADIO to funnel $10 reported to Herbert J Miller Jr. They used million to Christian Democrats in their struggle to wiretapping, blackmail, and threats of violence. The defeat socialists and communists. case against Hoffa went to the US Supreme Court, and Sheridan pressured Ramsey Clark to persuade CIA’s Deputy Director of Plans was Frank Wisner, his father, Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark, to not and his long-time asset, Ferenc Nagy, was the vote to overturn Hoffa’s conviction. SCOTUS president of PERMINDEX. Brothers Giorgio and upheld the conviction. Enrico Mantello also were part of its senior leadership. Enrico was PERMINDEX’s vice Lou Merhige was, for a time, Ed Partin’s attorney. president. Giorgio used the alias Georges Mandel. When they parted ways, Partin still owed Merhige Nagy recruited Clay Shaw for PERMINDEX’s board $10K. Partin made him an offer he apparently didn’t of directors. refuse: if Merhige didn’t sue Partin, he wouldn’t have Merhige killed. After CMC was kicked out of Italy, PERMINDEX decided to set up shop in apartheid South Africa.

Clint Peoples James Phelan Clint Peoples was the Texas Ranger who spent more than two decades in pursuit of LBJ’s hitman, James Phelan was a media asset for both CIA and Mac Wallace. FBI. He downplayed Clay Shaw’s affiliation with CIA as nothing remarkable: He had merely been one of the many that had been routinely debriefed . PERMINDEX . . Shaw had provided information to CIA regarding people he did business with worldwide as the head PERMINDEX (Permanent Industrial Exhibit) was a of International Trade Mart. That’s what Phelan CIA front established in Switzerland to allow CIA to wanted everyone to believe. It was a lie. influence European elections, politics, and policy. It Page 51

Garrison made the mistake of trusting Phelan before his death) to his brother and father that he because of a favorable article that had appeared had been in Dealey Plaza that day. earlier in the Saturday Evening Post. While on R&R in Las Vegas, Garrison handed Phelan a copy of Sciambra’s two memos regarding his interview of William Pitzer Perry Russo. Phelan promptly put the information into the hands of a hostile media and the FBI, Lieutenant Commander William Bruce Pitzer, USN, reaching all the way up to Hoover. was shot and killed in 1966. He died in his office at the National Naval Medical Center. Was it murder That launched Phelan’s campaign to discredit or suicide? Who would have wanted him dead, and Garrison and destroy his investigation. That meant, who had the resources to kill him? Lieutenant among other things, discrediting Perry Russo and Colonel Dan Marvin, a retired Green Beret, claims preventing his powerful testimony against Clay he was approached by a CIA agent who asked Shaw. Phelan intimidated, threatened, and Marvin to kill Pitzer, because he was guilty of attempted to bribe Russo and other witnesses in a espionage and treason. Marvin refused to perform blatant demonstration of obstruction of justice. the hit, but he thinks he knows who accepted the assignment. Marvin learned later that Pitzer had been in possession of films and photographs that David Atlee Phillips proved JFK had been killed by gunfire from the front, not the rear as the American public was being Shortly before the JFK murder, LHO finally figured told. Marvin believes that’s the reason Pitzer was out the true identity of his senior CIA handler. He assassinated by CIA, not because he was guilty of had used various aliases, including Benton, espionage or treason. Marvin’s story is laid out by Benson, Bishop, and Michael Choaden (his alias in Kent Heiner in his book: Without Smoking Gun. Cuba). He was David Atlee Phillips. In one of their last phone conversations, Lee told Judy Vary Baker Pitzer had played a key role in documenting to remember that name: David Atlee Phillips, records from JFK’s autopsy, and he had planned to because he was one of the traitors behind the JFK expose the problems he was aware of, including murder conspiracy. the facts that JFK was hit in the head with more than one bullet, and that authorities were not being Phillips began his CIA career in 1950, and he rose honest about the direction of the projectiles. Pitzer to the rank of Chief of Operations for the Western was silenced just a few days before his retirement. Hemisphere. He was working in Mexico City when There is evidence that he was killed to prevent him LHO went there in November, 1963. He was, from going public with what he knew (just as among other things, a disinformation specialist, and dozens of others were killed by JFK murder there was no one better at manipulating the press. conspirators). Phillips hated JFK.

Phillips, working with Guy Banister, organized a Florence Pritchett (See: Florence Pritchett burglary of the Schlumberger ammunition dump at Smith) Houma, Louisiana. Among the burglars were David Ferrie and his friend Layton Martens. The stolen goods went to the Belle Chasse training camp, which was entirely a CIA operation, where CIA QKENCHANT employees trained anti-Castro Cubans. Phillips QKENCHANT was CIA’s cryptonym for an began keeping an eye on Jim Garrison by 1967, operational program that allowed trusted CIA fearing that the Orleans Parish DA would find out agents to use civilians (people not officially about the CIA training camp. associated with The Company) in various projects, Although Phillips had established a plausible alibi activities, and relationships. Such civilians were for November 22, 1963, he confessed (shortly typically given limited information about the details Page 52

of the project they were working on, or the people in securing the conviction of Jimmy Hoffa, and he who were running it. Agents authorized under found that the Attorney General frequently broke QKENCHANT were able to plan and coordinate the law and disregarded Hoffa’s constitutional rights CIA activities and to initiate relationships with non- during the investigation. For example, RFK made CIA persons or institutions. liberal use of wiretaps (against Hoffa and against Otepka himself, both at work and at home). One such CIA agent was Clay Shaw, who was in Wiretaps were illegal at the time. charge of the International Trade Mart in New Orleans. (Another such agent was E Howard Hunt, later to star in the Watergate scandal that took down Richard Nixon.) One of Shaw’s recruits was Warren Reynolds (in 1960) Guy Banister, former FBI agent in charge Warren Reynolds worked at a car lot a block away of the Chicago field office. In 1963, Banister’s cover from the place where Dallas police officer Tippit was a detective service, but since he did little if any was shot and killed shortly after the JFK murder. detective work, he had plenty of time to help Clay Reynolds chased the guy who shot Tippit for at Shaw and others kill JFK. least a block, and he got a good look at the shooter. Reynolds told the FBI on January 21, 1964, that LHO was not the man he saw leaving Manuel Quesada the scene of the Tippit murder. On January 23, Reynolds was shot in the head in the basement of Manuel Quesada was heavily involved in gun- his office. He survived that wound, however, and running operations and high-level anti-Castro stubbornly resisted changing his story to conform to activities. what the FBI wanted to hear. Three weeks after he got out of the hospital, his 10-year-old daughter barely escaped a kidnapping attempt. He and his John Francis Reilly family were threatened, and Reynolds finally caved to the relentless pressure. John Francis Reilly was a Justice Department lawyer and a long-time Kennedy loyalist. RFK Parenthetically, the man suspected of shooting appointed Reilly chief of the State Department Reynolds, Darrell Wayne Garner, was released Office of Security in April, 1962, even though he from police custody when his girlfriend, Betty had no experience in security work or evaluation of McDonald, provided Garner with an alibi. McDonald personnel. This odd appointment was part of RFK’s (aka Nancy Jane Mooney) worked as a stripper at vendetta against former head of the Office of Jack Ruby’s nightclub (the Carousel Club). Several Security, Otto Otepka. days later, McDonald was arrested for disturbing the peace. She had been fighting with her Otepka had incurred RFK’s wrath simply because roommate, who was not arrested. After only a Otepka was doing his job, which included couple of hours in her jail cell, she was dead. She investigating LHO. RFK couldn’t allow him to was found hanging, with her own trousers around complete that investigation, because RFK worked her neck. It was ruled a suicide, and there is no with LHO (indirectly) in a plot to kill Fidel Castro, evidence that it was not suicide. It just seems and the Attorney General could not afford to let that strange that so many people related, even information go public. tangentially, to the JFK murder were struck by an Reilly’s job at the State Department was to help epidemic of premature death, often by purported RFK destroy the career of Otepka. They did that, suicide. not by firing him, but by isolating him and giving him no meaningful work to do. Ironically, Otepka used all that spare time at work to investigate LHO, the very thing RFK was so ruthlessly trying to prevent. Furthermore, Otepka investigated RFK’s methods Page 53

Delphine Roberts public) to hound and harass Earlene relentlessly. They visited her often -- during the daytime, during Delphine Roberts was Guy Banister’s secretary and the nighttime, and whenever they felt the need to mistress. As such, she saw her boss and LHO abuse their power. When she stepped outside the together many times during the summer of 1963 in house, somebody was there taking pictures of her. New Orleans. Cops talked with her housecleaning customers and explained that she was LHO’s landlady. She lost several clients, and she was in a constant state of Earlene Roberts apprehension. She said: . . . they had me scared to death. Yes, they did. She died of a heart attack on Is it possible to be literally worried to death? January 9, 1966. She had complained to relatives Earlene Roberts probably was. for 18 months that she felt worried to death by She was a nurse, but that career ended when she Dallas police officers. It can’t be considered became diabetic. Then she began to rent out rooms murder, but it wasn’t strictly death from natural in her house in Dallas, Texas, and she also cleaned causes, either. houses for additional income. Her problems began But what was it about her testimony that prompted when she rented a room to O H Lee (an alias used cops to harass her so mercilessly? Dallas police by Lee Harvey Oswald) on October 14, 1963. claimed they had no cruisers in that area on that She got a call from a friend at about 1:00pm on day at or around that time. Also, since she saw November 22, prompting her to turn on her TV for Oswald at the bus stop at that time, it would have news about the shooting of JFK. At about the same been very difficult or impossible for him to have time, her tenant LHO entered the house and went traveled more than a mile in just a few minutes to quickly to his room. Then her attention was drawn kill Tippit. That just added to other problems to the honking of a police vehicle parked in front of investigators had encountered regarding Tippit’s her house in the Oak Cliff section of the city. She murder. looked out the window, expecting it to be car number 170. Some of her housecleaning clients were police officers, and they sometimes stopped Johnny Roselli by to fill Earlene in on developments their wives wanted their friend Earlene to know about. But it Johnny Roselli got his mob career started with Al was a different, unfamiliar car this time: vehicle Capone, who sent him to Hollywood in 1924 to 106. So, she didn’t spend any more time trying to kick-start Chicago’s gambling, extortion, and vice figure out who was in the car or what they wanted. activities there. Roselli had charm, looks, and After all, the president had just been shot and her sunglasses. The upstart was soon tight with Meyer tenant had just come home unexpectedly, and she Lansky, Sam Giancana, Santo Trafficante, and was wondering what was going on. Then LHO left Howard Hughes. “Handsome Johnny” quickly the house and went directly to the nearby bus stop. assumed the role of Chicago’s go-to guy in Las Vegas, Hollywood, and Miami Beach. He was All that was part of her testimony in April, 1964. involved with money laundering, weapons, hitmen, She was a very intelligent woman who was very extortion of Hollywood movie studios, and clear about what she had seen and heard, and skimming from Vegas casinos. investigators did not like what they heard from her. That’s because they had already decided what had Roselli became the liaison between Hughes, the happened on November 22, and Mrs Roberts was mafia (Giancana, Marcello, and Trafficante), and not corroborating their premature conclusions. JFK CIA. CIA turned to Roselli for mafia assistance in conspirators encountered a great deal of that, and dealing with Castro. Johnny cleared with Giancana, they always found it irritating, annoying, and then approached Trafficante for help, because he inconvenient. So, Dallas police officers considered had the needed Cuban connections. On March 12, it their duty (part of protecting and serving the 1961, Bill Harvey (CIA) arranged for Jim O’Connell (CIA) to meet with Giancana, Trafficante, Roselli, Page 54

and Robert Maheu (representing Howard Hughes) arrested for assault, his mother was admitted to a in Miami Beach (at the Fontainebleau Hotel). mental hospital, and Sparky himself underwent Roselli received poison pills and $10,000 to be psychiatric treatment at age eleven. He was sent to used in a Castro assassination plot. The plot failed a foster home, then left school in 1927. (as did all the others) to kill Castro, but it was He worked for Al Capone in Chicago for a while. He successful in another of Roselli’s goals: to leave a went to Los Angeles and San Francisco, then back trail of evidence linking CIA to the plot. That would to Chicago, where he worked for the Scrap Iron and allow the mafia to threaten the feds with blackmail Junk Handlers Union. He served in the US Army Air in case CIA later tried to pin it all on the mafia. That Force during 1943 to 1946, rising to the lowly rank meant CIA was forced to cover up the mafia’s role of private first-class. In 1947 he moved to Dallas in the JFK murder to prevent exposure of their own and managed a night club for his sister. He also dark secrets by mobsters like Roselli. started working for Richard Nixon. He then Johnny had dinner with Trafficante at The Landings changed his name to Jack Ruby. He owned several in Fort Lauderdale in late July 1976. Two days night clubs in Dallas, some of which failed. By later, Johnny disappeared. Roselli was 1963, Ruby was associated with Carlos Marcello assassinated in August 1976 with the mafia’s and Santo Trafficante. distinctive flair for gruesome overkill. He was Jim Garrison found a wealth of proof that Ruby and garroted, stabbed, and shot. His legs were sawed LHO had known each other well and were often off and stuffed, along with the rest of his body, into seen together. an empty 55-gallon oil drum. Air holes were punched into the sealed drum, and it was weighted Ruby is best known as the guy who shot and killed with heavy chains before being dumped into the LHO at Dallas police headquarters in Dallas on live ocean off the coast of Florida. In spite of the air national TV. How did Jack manage to get into the holes and chains, the drum floated to the surface building in spite of all the security that was in place because of gases from the decaying body. to protect LHO as he was being transferred to Trafficante was most likely responsible for the hit, another facility? No problem. He walked in with a primarily because he was the last man standing. CIA conspirator who said he’s with me. The other two prominent mafia participants in the Furthermore, Dallas police had been informed that CIA / mafia partnership, Giancana and Roselli, had Ruby was going to kill the bastard and that they been killed before they could testify before (officers) would be patriotic to turn the other way. Congress. (That’s what David Ferrie had told a friend (Raymond Broshears).) It certainly isn’t difficult to understand why Roselli could not, under any circumstances, be allowed to After shooting and killing LHO, Ruby spent the rest testify. He wasn’t just involved in one Castro of his life in jail. There he died of cancer, which assassination plot. Roselli was so extensively would seem to be a cause of death that couldn’t involved in intelligence operations that some reasonably raise suspicion. After all, people die intelligence operatives thought Roselli was part of from cancer all over the world every day. Ruby military intelligence, and they called him The claimed frequently in jail that he had been injected Colonel. Roselli claimed that a team of CIA hitmen with cancer cells, but then who can seriously who had been sent to Cuba later was dispatched to consider the rantings of a madman who had killed a kill JFK. man on live national television? Well, lots of people when we take into consideration all the relevant

information. Jack Ruby Ruby’s cancer was acute, not chronic. The US Jacob Rubenstein was born in Chicago in 1911 into intelligence community had been developing a type a large family of recent Polish immigrants. He was of super-cancer which could be used against Fidel a troublemaker in school, and he got the nickname Castro. Unlike normal cancer cells, this strain acted Sparky because of his quick temper. His father was very rapidly, which was consistent with Ruby’s Page 55

case. Ruby was aware of the development of this brain. Prior to December 9, Ruby had shown no weapon, because he was acquainted with people in signs of illness. He seemed to be in excellent the intelligence community. Ruby was heavily health. He died on January 3, 1967. involved in gun-running operations to Cuba in These are the words of Johnny Roselli (key mafia support of anti-Castro forces. He was heavily figure) to Jack Anderson (famous reporter for the involved in CIA covert operations against Castro. Washington Post): He knew virtually all the Dallas police officers, because he was the mafia’s connection to the DPD. When Oswald was picked up, the underworld He knew LHO. He was associated with the Chicago conspirators feared he would crack and disclose and New Orleans mafia, and he was deeply information that might lead to them. This almost involved in mafia gambling operations. In particular certainly would have brought a massive US he was linked to Santo Trafficante, Sam Giancana, crackdown on the mafia. So Jack Ruby was and Carlos Marcello. All three were mafia bosses ordered to eliminate Oswald. linked to the JFK murder. Ruby was an FBI informant, which was eventually admitted by the Shortly before his death, Ruby wrote a note FBI. claiming that LBJ was responsible for the JFK assassination and the LHO hit. Why did it fall to Ruby to kill LHO? Because his mafia controllers had assigned him the task of Also, consider the following: making sure Oswald was killed by Dallas police . . . Ruby’s shooting of Oswald was not a officers. It was hoped that LHO would decide not to spontaneous act; it involved at least some flee the depository immediately after the shooting, premeditation. Similarly, the committee believed it but stay and shoot it out with officers in the building. was less likely that Ruby entered the police When that didn’t happen, it seems likely that officer basement without assistance, even though the Tippit was supposed to act as plan B, intercepting assistance may have been provided with no and killing LHO if / when he left the depository. knowledge of Ruby’s intentions. . . . The committee When that failed, key conspirators pushed the was troubled by the apparently unlocked doors panic button. They simply could not allow Oswald along the stairway route and the removal of security to start talking, even though he probably didn’t guards from the area of the garage nearest the know many of the details. He knew enough to get stairway shortly before the shooting. . . . There is investigators focused in the right direction. It then also evidence that the Dallas Police Department became Ruby’s obligation to clean up his own withheld relevant information from the Warren mess, and immediately. Failure to do so meant the Commission concerning Ruby’s entry to the scene sudden inevitable death of Ruby and anyone close of the Oswald transfer. That is from the Final to him. Report of the House Select Committee on Ruby was granted a new trial, which would have Assassinations in 1979. allowed him to present evidence that a lot of people did not want anyone to know about. His conviction was overturned on October 5, 1966, because the Perry Raymond Russo appeals court ruled that Ruby should have been granted a change of venue by the trial court. It was Perry Raymond Russo was an insurance salesman around this time that he was visited in jail by a in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. When he saw the known expert in a top-secret CIA program called newspaper report of David Ferrie’s death, he wrote MKULTRA. Ruby likely was injected with the rapid- a letter to Jim Garrison, but the DA didn’t receive it. onset cancer cells by that person. On December 8 Russo was afraid he might be arrested, so he he learned that his new trial was scheduled to contacted the sheriff’s office, who told him to call a begin in February, 1967, in Wichita Falls, Texas. newspaper. Perry told the Baton Rouge State- On December 9 he was taken to Parkland Hospital Times that he had once heard Ferrie say: we will and treated for pneumonia. The following day he get him and it won’t be long. (Him referred to JFK.) was diagnosed with cancer in his liver, lungs, and That story made the headlines, which prompted Page 56

one of Jim Garrison’s investigators, Moo Moo certain that Russo was being truthful. Russo had Sciambra, to drive from New Orleans to Baton seen Shaw, Ferrie, and LHO on many other Rouge to talk with Russo. occasions as well. Russo told Sciambra about the time he attended At the Preliminary Hearing, Russo stated under one of Ferrie’s frequent parties. Right away, Ferrie oath the details of the conversation he had heard at introduced him to a guy he called Leon, who Russo Ferrie’s party. The conspirators had talked about believed was Ferrie’s roommate. (He was not.) He diversionary tactics and a triangulation of cross fire. also met a man calling himself Clem Bertrand, a There would be a scapegoat, and there would be tall, thin, white-haired homosexual. When Sciambra an escape flight, possibly to Mexico or Brazil, or showed Russo pictures, he was able to identify maybe even Cuba, although Shaw had pointed out Clem Bertrand as Clay Shaw, and Leon as LHO. that they would never get out of Cuba alive. Ferrie Later that night (after the party), Russo had heard a had talked about the importance of each person discussion about killing JFK. Bertrand (Shaw) said being very visible on the day of the assassination, his alibi would be a trip to California. On the day of establishing a solid alibi. Also, Leon (LHO) had the murder, Ferrie would be in Hammond at complained (to Ferrie) about his wife being angry Southeastern Louisiana College. Russo shared the with him, and Ferrie promised to take care of it. general feeling among the group that JFK’s death Then Garrison requested that Russo identify the would be cause for celebration. (LHO did not share man using the name Clem Bertrand at the party. that feeling, but he pretended to be a JFK hater as Russo left the witness stand, stood behind Clay part of his undercover CIA assignment. LHO Shaw, and placed his open palm just above Shaw’s worked closely with Ferrie in the summer of 1963 in head. Russo proved to be a strong witness. New Orleans, and LHO thought Ferrie was just At the Grand Jury hearing, Shaw was charged with playing a role as well, but Ferrie really may have conspiring to murder JFK, along with David Ferrie, been a key player in the JFK murder conspiracy.) LHO, and others not specifically identified. Shaw’s Russo described Clem Bertrand to a police sketch defense team tried to discredit Russo’s statements artist, and the resulting composite looked just like by claiming that his description of the conversation Clay Shaw. To be absolutely certain, though, at Ferrie’s party was all concocted by Garrison in Sciambra drove Russo to 1313 Dauphine Street. his quest to frame Clay Shaw. Russo’s testimony When Russo knocked on the door, it was answered all derived from the sodium pentothal and hypnosis, by Clay Shaw, the same man who had called James Phelan argued, and he pointed to himself Clem Bertrand at Ferrie’s party. Sciambra’s notes as proof. The investigator had Russo was a key witness for Garrison. The DA made the mistake of writing in his notes first about could now prove that Shaw had lied about a the session with Dr Chetta, and then later the notes number of things. Shaw had claimed that he: did about his initial interview with Russo, before the not know David Ferrie; did not know LHO; had not sodium pentothal, giving the appearance that the used the aliases Clay Bertrand, Clem Bertrand, and session with Dr Chetta had happened first, before others. He had denied calling attorney Dean Russo had said anything about the party. Andrews (about representing LHO when he was (Garrison’s investigation was full of such self- arrested in Dallas). He had denied that he had inflicted wounds.) been talking about the JFK murder three months Phelan requested to interview Russo. Garrison before it happened. agreed, but he secretly had Russo wired. When To try to help Russo remember more details about Phelan couldn’t shake Russo’s testimony, Phelan the discussion at Ferrie’s party, Russo agreed to threatened and tried to intimidate him. Garrison undergo hypnosis and to be placed under sodium assistant Lou Ivon remarked that the recording pentothal, administered by Dr Nicholas Chetta. proved a classic case of obstruction of justice by Questions came from Sciambra, who was careful the Shaw defense lawyer. The Shaw team not to suggest anything that Russo had not already continued to put tremendous pressure on Russo to talked about in the initial interview. Dr Chetta was change his story. They threatened to destroy his Page 57

reputation if he didn’t cooperate. They promised to murder conspiracy. He told longtime acquaintance move him to LA, California and give him a check George Dureau (painter and photographer): every month for five years if he did cooperate. You know, I wasn’t guilty of what Garrison charged. Instead, Russo signed an affidavit documenting the But Garrison had the right idea. He was almost misconduct of Phelan and two other men (Sheridan right. Someone like me, with a background in army and Townley). He also, again, affirmed his intelligence and with postwar intelligence testimony about the conversation he had heard at connections, very well might have been asked to Ferrie’s party. Sheridan was responsible for a Time meet with someone like Oswald or Ferrie, to give magazine article (in October 1968) that stated them a package or some money or whatever, and I Russo was a known drug addict. Russo sued the would have faithfully done it without ever asking magazine, and won a $15,000 judgment. what I was doing it for. The smear campaign continued. But they could not Such modesty. Shaw knew exactly what he was stop Russo’s testimony at Shaw’s trial, where Perry doing. And Garrison had learned most of it, in spite repeated the same information he had sworn to all of the crushing weight of the entire federal along. government opposing him. Garrison knew, for example, that Shaw, using the name Clay Bertrand, called lawyer Dean Andrews and instructed him to Frank Scofield go to Dallas and defend LHO, who had just been Frank Scofield was an attorney and accountant for arrested for the murder of JFK (and officer J D LBJ’s radio station. He was appointed by LBJ Tippet). Andrews would never admit that Clay attorney Clark to the position of IRS district director. Bertrand was Clay Shaw, but Garrison knew it was Clark thought he had an understanding with true. Proving it in court was another matter. Scofield that he was responsible for making sure Part of proving that Clay Shaw was one of the LBJ had no problems with IRS. However, Scofield conspirators in the JFK murder was proving that turned out to be independent and honest, always Clay Shaw knew David Ferrie. Shaw consistently irritating, annoying, and inconvenient to LBJ and his denied having ever met Ferrie, but it was obviously legal team. (to Garrison) another lie. One bit of proof was a loan document. Ferrie, in the days leading up to the JFK murder, needed to rent an airplane to fly from Clay Shaw New Orleans to Dallas, almost certainly to help finalize arrangements for November 22, 1963. The Clay Shaw (aka Clay Bertrand) was General problem was that, as usual, Ferrie had no money, Manager of International Trade Mart in New and he was forced to find someone to cosign for a Orleans. He worked closely with Dr Alton Ochsner, $400 loan to rent the plane. The person Ferrie and with Guy Bannister. He also provided a great turned to was Clay Shaw, which shows that the two deal of information to CIA regarding his contacts were well acquainted and they both were aware of and dealings abroad. events unfolding in Dallas. But Garrison never On March 1, 1967, Shaw was arrested by New learned about the loan document with Shaw’s Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison and charged signature as cosigner of Ferrie’s loan. with conspiracy in the JFK assassination. Although Also, just days before the JFK hit, a small group he denied knowing Lee Harvey Oswald, he was gathered at the law offices of G Wray Gill at 150 seen with LHO in the months before the JFK Baronne Street (the Pierre Marquette building) in murder. He was acquitted on March 1, 1969. New Orleans. Clay Shaw was there, along with While Shaw lay near death from lung cancer in a David Ferrie, Jack Martin, Layton Martens, Tommy hospital bed in the Ochsner Foundation hospital, he Beckham, and (of course) G Wray Gill. Ferrie came close to confessing his role in the JFK asked Beckham if he wanted to earn $200 (a rhetorical question). Spread out on a table were Page 58

diagrams, charts, sketches, drawings, maps, and Shaw’s maid confirmed suspicions, however. There 8X10 black-and-white photos. They are placed in had been a mysterious death in the house, and the an envelope which Beckham was to personally coroner came to pick up the body, but there had deliver to the specified room at the Executive Inn in been no police investigation. It was also discovered Dallas. Beckham, when he arrived, didn’t need to that two weeks before his arrest, police were called go up to the room, because Lawrence Howard was to the Shaw residence and found him and two other waiting for him outside the hotel. The envelope males on the patio, naked, using wine bottles on undoubtedly contained details of the JFK murder each other. plan, which was carried out just a few days later. One of Shaw’s sexual partners, David Logan, was Jim Garrison didn’t know about any of this. taken up to the bedroom (the one with the hooks Shaw owned several properties in the French attached to the ceiling beams). Shaw told Logan to Quarter, and he hired Woodrow H Hardy to beat him with a whip, and to shit in his mouth and supervise renovation projects on the properties. By pee in his mouth and all over him. Logan’s story 1963, Hardy had worked for Shaw many years, and appeared to be credible, because he knew that he had his own key to Shaw’s residence. One day Shaw had only one nipple, also independently at around noon, when Shaw was not usually home, stated by other of Shaw’s partners. However, none Hardy let himself in and found Shaw in a serious of that was of interest to Garrison, and Shaw’s conversation with LHO and David Ferrie. Usually, homosexuality was never mentioned by the DA in Shaw would stop what he was doing to have a any public proceedings. It was uncovered only as conversation with Hardy about construction issues, part of Garrison’s effort to obtain proof that Clay but this time Shaw quickly ushered Hardy out of the Shaw was Clay Bertrand. At the same time, CIA house, explaining that he was engaged in a was just as determined to make sure Garrison was conference. After the JFK murder, Hardy was afraid not successful. for his life, because he recognized LHO as one of In the end, Shaw, after remaining so loyal to CIA, the men with Shaw. So Hardy refused to talk with was sacrificed by The Agency (as it often did to its anyone but his lawyer. Garrison received an loyal operatives). By the end of the HSCA probe, a anonymous letter mentioning Hardy, but the number of witnesses had proven that CIA and FBI understaffed DA investigation team was unable to had concealed vital evidence from the Warren follow up. Commission. Acoustic evidence provided to HSCA Shaw had assembled his legal team even before proved that there had been more than three shots he was arrested by Jim Garrison on March 1, 1967, fired at Dealey Plaza, proving a conspiracy. So, the for conspiracy to kill JFK. This felony was Committee decided that Shaw may very well have committed, according to the charge, from April 24, been one of the senior planners in the JFK murder 1963 (when LHO arrived in New Orleans) to conspiracy. CIA had abandoned Shaw, leaving him November 22, 1963 (the day JFK was killed). to take care of himself. He died of cancer in 1974, impoverished and humiliated. When Shaw’s house was searched, investigators found in the master bedroom, above the bed, Yet, still today, there are those who refuse to attached to the beams in the ceiling, large hooks accept the fact that LHO was not the lone assassin. (large enough to hang a human body) with chains It is now clear that he was not even an assassin. and wrist straps. There were many bloody palm LHO did not kill JFK or participate willingly in the prints on the ceiling. Five whips had blood on them. murder. He was merely the patsy, just as he stated. A cat-o’-nine-tails was in the closet. A black gown And he wasn’t the only patsy. Others had been had whip marks on it. There were marble phalluses groomed and were ready to step in if LHO hadn’t among the boxes of items removed. Investigators worked out for some reason. considered dusting the bloody prints on the ceiling, Jim Garrison was definitely on the right track in his but decided against it, because Garrison was indictment and trial of Clay Shaw. What the DA adamant about keeping Shaw’s sexual orientation couldn’t prove then, but CIA has since proven for and practices out of the investigation. Page 59

us, is that Shaw was a very well-paid CIA asset, wasn’t enough to simply discredit the New Orleans and that he did commit perjury in and around the District Attorney. Kennedy and CIA wanted to trial. But that proof wasn’t made available until destroy him. 1992. Against all odds, Garrison had managed to That’s why Sheridan was sent to New Orleans as identify a group of CIA operatives involved in the soon as they discovered that Garrison was conspiracy, including David Ferrie, Jack Martin, investigating CIA’s role in the JFK murder Thomas Edward Beckham, and Fred Lee Crisman. conspiracy. Why Sheridan? He had worked with an What’s significant about Garrison is not that Shaw array of intelligence communities, including CIA, was acquitted, but that he was indicted and tried. FBI, and NSA (National Security Agency). More Garrison is the only law enforcement officer to have importantly, Sheridan had proven himself to Bobby accomplished that much, and his work sparked by relentlessly pursuing Jimmy Hoffa, culminating further interest in and investigation of the JFK in Hoffa’s conviction. Sheridan’s use of blackmail, murder conspiracy. (Thanks in large part to Oliver intimidation, and a criminal (named Edward Grady Stone’s film, JFK, an excellent movie.) Partin) did nothing to diminish Sheridan’s stature in the eyes of RFK. Walter Sheridan Now, in New Orleans, Sheridan embarked on a four-year campaign to discredit Jim Garrison. Walter Sheridan worked in the criminal division of Sheridan had all the CIA resources he wanted. He the Justice Department. His boss, Robert Kennedy also enlisted the help of IRS to put Garrison behind (US Attorney General), sent him to Dallas on the bars (although IRS couldn't find anything to charge very day JFK was assassinated (November 22, Garrison with). He sold himself as a producer of 1963). Sheridan, one of RFK’s personal operatives, documentaries for NBC. Garrison didn’t buy the reported to Bobby that the mafia had not been journalist impersonation. He knew Sheridan was involved in the murder of his brother. RFK then working on behalf of Robert Kennedy, and the DA dispatched Chicago lawyer Julius Draznin (a liason couldn’t figure out why. Why wouldn’t Bobby, like between organized crime and the FBI) to the Windy any brother, want to find the person(s) behind the City, and Draznin also reported to Bobby (and murder and hold them accountable? Garrison had Sheridan) that the murder had not been organized deeply admired and respected JFK, and he felt by the mafia. Next, RFK turned to Daniel Patrick pretty much the same way about Bobby. So why Moynihan to find out if Jimmy Hoffa (on behalf of was RFK out to destroy him? Finding the answer to the mafia) had bribed the Secret Service. Moynihan that would have pretty much solved the mystery of confirmed that there was no evidence that the mob JFK’s murder, and Garrison was getting too close had masterminded JFK’s murder. for (Bobby's) comfort. That placed RFK in a bit of a pickle. He knew by Posing as a journalist, Sheridan pretended to be now that CIA had masterminded and investigating the murder, but he was interested only choreographed the assassination. He very much in destroying Jim Garrison. Sheridan reported to wanted to expose CIA’s prominent role in the death Herbert J Miller Jr, who reported to CIA and shared of his brother. However, Bobby had been using everything he discovered about Garrison with LHO in an effort to kill Castro. If it were publicly Richard H Lansdale, who turned it over to known that RFK had been associated with LHO in Lawrence Houston. Both Sheridan and Miller any way, or that Bobby was waist-deep in plots to preferred to have Sheridan report directly to CIA, murder Castro, that would have ended RFK’s but The Agency wanted to keep a layer between political career. So, in order to protect himself, Sheridan and RFK. Bobby was forced to also protect CIA. (That had been part of CIA’s plan.) In other words, young Miller protected Sheridan into the 1990s. Miller Kennedy had to become part of the cover-up, and refused to respond to questions from the ARRB. that meant he had to do everything in his When the federal government moved to transfer considerable power to stop Jim Garrison. But it Sheridan’s files from the Kennedy Library to the Page 60

National Archives, Miller intervened to place those An August 14, 2012 Boston Globe editorial called papers in the care and keeping of the Sheridan for the release of all the documents sequestered in family, never to be seen publicly. Once in the the Robert Kennedy Archive at the John F Kennedy National Archives, Sheridan’s papers would have Memorial Library and Museum. One Kennedy been available for scholars to read and write about. family concern may be that the files could blemish After all, those were official documents, and they the reputation of the former attorney general, who did belong to the public. But those involved in the was allegedly involved with the administration’s cover-up were not about to allow public scrutiny. schemes to kill Cuban leader Fidel Castro. (Ya think?) Sheridan’s method of destroying Garrison was the production of an NBC White Paper. CIA, who had Garrison was not the only man RFK and Sheridan long controlled NBC, also controlled Sheridan’s tried to destroy to keep Bobby’s secrets safe and White Paper. The documentary was a hatchet job, his presidential aspirations alive. See: Otto Otepka. a smear piece, and nothing else. When he couldn’t dig up any dirt on Garrison, Sheridan and his myrmidons made it up. The Sheridan team, in Dr Mary Sherman concert with the Clay Shaw defense, had plenty of plants, spies, bugs, and informants to make sure Mary Sherman was an orthopedic surgeon and they were at all times well aware of everything that oncologist. She entered medicine in the 1940s, and happened at Tulane and Broad (DA’s office). They she moved from University of Chicago to New intimidated and bribed (or tried to) Garrison’s key Orleans in 1952. There, she joined the staff at the witnesses. Some of them stood their ground and hospital built by Dr Alton Ochsner. refused to be part of Sheridan’s charade. Some Dr Sherman worked on the secret project devoted were relocated to other states. Part of Sheridan’s to developing a super virus that quickly caused job was to make sure no governor would extradite cancer and death, allowing covert intelligence any Garrison witness for testimony in the Shaw operatives to murder a person (like Castro) and trial. make it appear as a natural death. She was willing The White Paper aired on June 19, 1967. to work on that project (a) to try to find a cure for Garrison’s reaction was this: What do you expect cancer, and (b) to try to save JFK's life by killing from a pig but a grunt? Castro. On July 27, Garrison charged Sheridan with public Her premature death was violent and mysterious. bribery, intimidation of a witness (Marlene

Mancuso), and conspiracy to commit burglary (of a photograph). But Sheridan would never face Frank Sinatra justice. He escaped to Detroit, and eventually the US Supreme Court made the charges go away. Frank Sinatra was close with both the Kennedys Then Bobby Kennedy went on public record in and the mafia. That made him a perfect go- defense of his minion: It is not possible that Mr between when Joseph Kennedy wanted to secure Sheridan would do anything that would in the mafia support for John’s 1960 presidential bid. Joe slightest degree compromise the truth in regard to couldn’t approach mob figures directly, but Frank the investigation in New Orleans. I have the utmost could. It wasn’t an easy sell because the mobsters confidence in his integrity, both personal and didn’t like or trust Bobby. But most of the major professional. Jack Kennedy would have been so mafia figures made large contributions to the JFK proud of his little brother. campaign. For example, the New York Bonannos gave more than a million dollars and promised that When Sheridan died in 1995, Edward Kennedy their enforcers would deliver the vote. They stuffed praised him in his eulogy: He was an extraordinary the ballot box with nonexistent voters, denied human being with a heart as large as his ability, registered voters the right to cast their ballot, and and his courage and dedication to justice. otherwise manipulated the count. Voters were paid, Page 61

intimidated, threatened, and injured. The mafia after Kilgallen. Even more perplexing is the fact that stole the election for JFK, even though they also investigators found no trace of the copy of made generous donations to the Nixon campaign. Kilgallen’s notes her friend had given her as a backup copy. (Kilgallen’s notes vanished as well.) JFK terminated all contact with Sinatra on August 3, 1962. President Carlos Prio Socarras Arcacha Smith Prio Socarras was the elected president of Cuba, serving from 1948-1952, when he was ousted by Arcacha Smith was born in Havana and educated General Fulgencia Batista, who himself was ousted in Texas. He served as Cuban consul in Bombay, by Castro. Socarras got elected by promising to India, then became assistant manager at a hotel in kick the mafia out of Cuba, but instead he focused Caracas, Venezuela from 1954-1957. He spent on making a lot of money for himself, probably with several years in New York City and Miami, then the help of the mafia. When things went south for returned to Cuba after Fidel Castro assumed him in Cuba, he went 90 miles west to Florida, control of the island nation. His stay was brief, then taking his enormous wealth with him. The last he went into exile in 1960. He lived primarily in New elected president of Cuba was also its most corrupt Orleans, where he was active in anti-Castro leader; at least a lot of people think so. Socarras groups. He was granted political asylum in 1962, was even worse than Cuba’s dictators, which then moved to Texas in 1963. There he became doesn’t say much for democracy, does it? friends with right-wingers, including H L Hunt and Edwin Walker. Not surprisingly, he associated with the mafia in Florida. He was linked to Jack Ruby, for example. Arcacha Smith worked for CIA, FBI, and Customs. Socarras was also involved with CIA and its Bay of He knew LHO (although he never admitted it) and Pigs disaster. Of course, HSCA was eager to get was connected with RFK’s group of Cubans plotting his testimony, and of course, a whole lot of people to kill Castro. Smith participated in the robbery of were even more eager to make sure that never the Schlumberger ammunition dump, and he was happened. Guess who won that contest. Here’s a paid by David Ferrie. Arcacha also was in charge of clue. It’s the guys who were world-class experts at New Orleans Cuban Revolutionary Council, a CIA making murder look like suicide, especially just group which met at Guy Banister’s office. days before a scheduled appearance before a When Jim Garrison tried to question Smith, he congressional investigating body. On April 5, 1977, accepted an invitation by Texas governor Connally Prio was shot in his home in another official suicide. to visit the Lone Star State. Connally refused to What an amazing coincidence. Who could have extradite Smith back to Louisiana to face Garrison, seen that coming? so the DA never got to question him.

Grant Stockdale Florence Pritchett Smith Grant Stockdale was one of JFK’s close friends; he Flo Pritchett was a close friend of Dorothy Kilgallen. had served as Ambassador to Ireland; he ran the Flo was an even closer friend of John Kennedy. JFK election campaign in Florida, and after the Their torrid affair lasted many years, beginning nomination, he served as JFK’s campaign finance before JFK’s inauguration and well into his chairman in the Southeast; he was known as a administration. She died of leukemia on November hard-nosed business man and a tough politician, 9, 1965, the day after Kilgallen was murdered. well connected, and influential in the Democrat There is no evidence that Pritchett’s death was Party; he had access to a great deal of Washington anything other than natural, although it does seem insider information, and he was fully capable of to be quite a coincidence that she died so soon figuring out what was really going on there; he was Page 62

connected to two major scandals that threatened to from the death of JFK. Another regular at those end LBJ’s political career (one of which was the meetings was LBJ’s mistress, Madeleine Brown. Bobby Baker scandal). He told his daughter, Ann She described them as the great, white fathers of Stockdale, that he was being followed, and that Texas. Primarily, it was your oil people, your high they were out to get him. They, apparently, were rollers. members of the military-industrial complex, who, Another familiar face in the Suite 8F group was J Grant discovered, were conducting certain Edgar Hoover. He accepted free vacations from his operations behind JFK’s back. long-time friend, Clint Murchison. Hoover stayed at Stockdale’s office was on the 13th floor of an office Murchison’s Hotel del Charro and frequented building in Miami, Florida. On December 2, 1963, Murchison’s Del Mar racetrack. Murchison and Sid 10:00 am, he arrived at work, in good spirits by all Richardson also provided Hoover with oil stock tips accounts. His secretary (LaVerne Weingartner) and complimentary stock. In return, Hoover usually arrived early and had the office unlocked provided inside information to Murchison and Sid before Stockdale arrived, but she had a dental Richardson. This gave Hoover the opportunity to appointment that morning which would delay her rub elbows with key players in Big Oil, the mafia, arrival until 10:30. He went to the law office across and CIA. the hall, talked with Mary Ruth Hauser, who According to Madeleine Brown (no relation to arranged for the building manager to send brothers Herman and George Brown, co-owners of someone to open the door for Stockdale. He was Brown and Root, along with Dan Root), she saw having a pleasant conversation with Mrs Hauser the Suite 8F group meet the night before JFK’s until she left him to answer her phone. A few murder. In attendance at Murchison’s mansion in minutes later, she heard a thud, which turned out to Dallas that night were Richard Nixon and J Edgar be the body of Stockdale. It is not known whether Hoover. LBJ was also there. he jumped or was pushed out his 13th-floor window. Brown & Root was a small construction company that was struggling at the onset of the Great He had suffered bouts of depression because of Depression. They turned to Alvin J Wirtz for help in the death of his friend, JFK, but there are no landing the contract for the construction of Marshall indications that he was feeling suicidal on that Ford Dam in the Austin area. Wirtz was a Texas particular morning. He left no suicide note. The state senator, and later he was a member of the official ruling of suicide was probably not the real Suite 8F group. He did secure the dam project for cause of death. Brown & Root, even though they had never built a dam before. Brown & Root became ever more connected with government, and they were often The Suite 8F Group awarded contracts when other companies were Herman Brown was co-owner of Brown and Root, a more qualified. Thus they were given opportunities company that played a major role in LBJ’s election to learn more and more about various kinds of campaigns, in return for LBJ’s support in the form construction projects, positioning them well to pick of contracts and legislation. Brown kept a hotel up even more government contracts. room, suite 8F, at the Houston Lamar Hotel. A As it turned out, the dam was being built on land group of Texas politicians and businessmen met that the federal government did not own, making there on a regular basis to discuss strategies for construction there illegal. Wirtz then turned to LBJ, promoting their interests. Included in the Suite 8F who needed support for his election campaign to group were Clint Murchison (oil baron), H L Hunt the US House. LBJ appealed to Franklin Roosevelt (oil baron), Ed Clark (LBJ’s attorney), and David for permission to continue construction of the dam. Harold Byrd (owner of the building that included the LBJ’s enthusiasm for FDR’s New Deal was enough Texas Book Depository). And of course, LBJ to persuade the president. That was the beginning himself. In this group were key players in LBJ’s of a long and mutually prosperous relationship business and political deals, and they all benefitted Page 63

between Brown & Root, Wirtz, and LBJ. The operation called Executive Action, which was Browns took care of the construction, Wirtz took devoted to killing Castro. care of the legal matters, and LBJ handled political Sullivan was killed in an apparent hunting accident affairs. on November 9, 1977, near his home in Sugar Hill, In 1947, Brown & Root bought two pipelines which New Hampshire, just days before his scheduled together carried oil from Texas to the US Northeast. testimony at the HSCA. He had already had a Their new venture, named Texas Eastern preliminary meeting with House investigators. He Transmission, had many investors among the Suite planned to testify truthfully about Hoover’s hatred of 8F group. Once in the Senate, LBJ managed to John and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, deregulate the oil industry, which meant huge Jr. profits for Texas Eastern and its investors. That Sullivan was shot with a high-powered rifle by a cemented the relationship between LBJ and big oil. hunter who claimed to have mistaken him for a Those oil connections helped LBJ get elected to the deer. Sullivan was an experienced and cautious Senate in 1948, and once there, Johnson worked hunter, and so was the shooter, Daniels. The with Sam Rayburn (Speaker of the House) to incident occurred after daybreak, so there was secure the oil-depletion allowance, which was a sufficient light. Alcohol was not a factor. The huge tax break for LBJ’s big-oil buddies. shooter was charged with a misdemeanor, then The oil-depletion allowance was not threatened by released to the custody of his father, who was a JFK in 1960. Kennedy knew that he couldn’t win state policeman. The investigation into Sullivan’s the South without LBJ, and the oil-depletion death ended there. (It is unclear whether the allowance was part of the package. Furthermore, medical examiner found antlers growing out of Joe Kennedy had long supported and benefitted Sullivan’s head during an autopsy, but people who from big oil. However, once in office, JFK pivoted to knew him swore he did not look like a deer.) become a foe of the allowance, apparently seeing Sullivan had said this to his friend, Robert Novak: massive oil profits as a potential threat. Thus, JFK Someday you will read that I have been killed in an made even more political enemies. LBJ remained accident, but don’t believe it; I’ve been murdered. loyal to those who helped him. Sullivan was one of several witnesses who died in Brown & Root was about to reap another windfall, the six-month period prior to their scheduled thanks to LBJ. JFK, at the time of his death, had testimony before the HSCA in 1977. already taken steps to withdraw most of America’s troops from Vietnam. However, LBJ quickly changed course. While JFK realistically saw Vietnam as a war only Vietnamese could win, with Don Thomas US support and advisers, LBJ saw an opportunity Don Thomas was a member of Ed Clark’s law firm, to help his friends and donors. Brown & Root, now and he was, therefore, one of LBJ’s lawyers. a Halliburton subsidiary, was positioned to become one of the three construction companies that Thomas went to see LBJ shortly before he died. together controlled 90% of the construction projects Thomas had been summoned to LBJ’s home on a in Vietnam, which totaled over $1 billion. matter of some urgency, according to Johnson. LBJ was really hoping to see Ed Clark, but Thomas

would do. The urgent matter was secrets LBJ had William Sullivan revealed to his psychiatrist. Much to Thomas’ surprise and alarm, LBJ had even confessed that William Sullivan was the number two man in the he and Clark had been behind the JFK FBI. He wrote a book: The Bureau: My thirty Years assassination. in Hoover’s FBI, that revealed Gerald Ford’s role as the FBI’s inside man in the Warren Commission. LBJ had felt compelled to bare his soul in an Sullivan was the FBI’s main man in the covert attempt to find relief from the heavy burden of guilt Page 64

he had been carrying, especially since he left the When LHO passed out pro-Castro leaflets in New White House. Guilt had cast Johnson into the Orleans in the summer of 1963 to try to establish a depths of despair and depression. Getting it all off pro-Castro reputation (to help pave the way for his chest had apparently worked, at least to some LHO to travel to Cuba later), those fliers had been extent, at least for a while. Johnson did feel better. ordered at the Jones Printing Company. J Edgar Hoover informed the Warren Commission that it LBJ, ever a bundle of contradictions, was of two was LHO himself who ordered the fliers and picked minds regarding how to handle those revelations to them up. However, owner Douglas Jones told the his psychiatrist. The attorneys had put their heads FBI that he didn’t think LHO was the man who together and concluded that there was nothing ordered or picked them up. One of Garrison’s legally preventing the doctor from telling the world investigators (Harold Weisberg) talked with Jones about what Johnson had confessed to him. There and showed him an array of photographs. Among was nothing comparable to attorney-client privilege dozens of photos, both Jones and his assistant in play. The risk was great, and the consequences (Myra Silver) picked out four photos as the man would be earth-shattering. The solution was a who picked up and ordered the fliers. All four familiar one. Set up a trust fund which would photos were of Kerry Thornley (the only pictures of provide a generous monthly payment to the doctor Thornley in the group). One of them had been as long as he kept his mouth shut about the LBJ retouched to show what Thornley would have revelations. There was no written agreement. There looked like with a beard, just in case Thornley had wasn’t even an oral discussion of specific worn a beard at that time. provisions or expectations. It was expressed by attorneys in general, vague terms, but the Garrison had a number of witnesses who saw psychiatrist understood perfectly. Thornley and LHO together in New Orleans during summer, 1963. However, Thornley denied having LBJ agreed that it was the right solution. But at the seen LHO at that time period, or even knowing same time, he instructed Thomas to spill the beans LHO was in New Orleans. That lie prompted on everything! The psychiatric sessions had Garrison to send an extradition request to Tampa, produced in him an apparent desire to get all the Florida so Thornley could make an appearance facts of his horrible crimes before the public and let before an Orleans Parish grand jury. Thornley the chips fall where they may. Of course, LBJ knew repeated his lies to the grand jury. he was close to death, so at that stage of his life, he had little to worry about. But his attorneys did. Thomas agreed with LBJ, but he never had any intention of revealing anything. J D Tippet Thomas died on November 11, 1994. Thomas J D Tippet was a Dallas police officer whose role in didn’t comply with LBJ’s instructions to reveal the the JFK murder conspiracy is not clear. He was truth about his crimes, but one of his law associates shot and killed shortly after the assassination of did. (See: Barr McClellan). JFK, and it was reported that he had been murdered by LHO just before he fled to the movie theater where he was arrested. However, LHO probably did not murder Tippet. The real killer and Kerry Thornley his motive are not known. Among all of LHO’s Marine Corps acquaintances, It seems likely that the JFK murder conspiracy plan Kerry Thornley was the only one who believed LHO provided that LHO would remain in the Texas Book was a marxist. None of the others described LHO Depository and die in a shootout with Dallas police as a marxist, communist, or socialist. Thornley was officers. Plan B was for officer Tippet to kill LHO if a CIA asset, like LHO. Unlike LHO, Thornley was a he left the book depository. When that failed also, homosexual. Both men were slender, about the LHO was able to make it to the movie theater, same height, only a year apart in age, pale, with probably a pre-arranged meeting site. Plan C was brown hair and receding hairline. for police officers to intercept LHO at the theater. Page 65

That meant that Jack Ruby, who had been who they are. That’s the problem. They know I assigned the task of making sure LHO died right know. after the JFK murder, was obligated to finally get the job done in the Dallas police station, with a little help from his CIA and DPD contacts. John Volz My theory is this. Once Tippitt learned that LHO John Volz was a favorite assistant to Jim Garrison, had left the book depository and his location was and he ran Garrison’s office for several years. He unknown, the officer knew he was in trouble later became chief of narcotics, and eventually because he was failing to get his job done. He had served as US Attorney General. As AG, he to find LHO as soon as possible, and that's why he successfully prosecuted Carlos Marcello. He also was in that area instead of his normal beat. He served as one of the pall bearers at Garrison’s pulled up in front of LHO's boarding house and funeral. honked, hoping LHO would look out the window and confirm he was there. That failed, so Tippet continued driving around, trying to catch a glimpse Malcom “Mac” Wallace of LHO. He was intercepted by someone (a conspirator) who had orders to kill Tippet because Mac Wallace, an ex-Marine, wanted a career in he had failed in his assignment, and because he politics. His political career never materialized, but knew too much. He was just one of many loose he played a key role in LBJ’s career. Madeleine ends to be eliminated by the conspirators. Once Brown referred to Wallace as a hatchet man. He Dallas police and FBI learned that LHO had been in was indeed connected to several murders on behalf the area, they tried to pin Tippet's murder on the of LBJ. Douglas Caddy (Billy Sol Estes’ attorney) presumed JFK assassin. sent this letter to Stephen S Trott at the Justice Department:

My client, Mr Estes, has authorized me to make this Santo Trafficante reply to your letter of May 29, 1984. The House Select Committee on Assassinations Mr Estes was a member of a four-member group, concluded in 1979 that JFK was probably headed by Lyndon Johnson, which committed assassinated as a result of a conspiracy and that criminal acts in Texas in the 1960s. The other two, mafia godfathers Carlos Marcello and Santo besides Mr Estes and LBJ, were Cliff Carter and Trafficante had the motive, means, and opportunity Mack Wallace. to assassinate President Kennedy. Two other closely associated mafia figures were Johnny Mr Estes is willing to disclose his knowledge Rosselli and John Martino. All four had been CIA concerning the following criminal offenses; Murders assets in the early 1960s, working at the direction 1 The killing of Henry Marshall of (then VP) Richard Nixon to kill Castro. (CIA / mafia plots to murder Castro continued into 1963.) 2 The killing of George Krutilek All four mafia figures made credible confessions to 3 The killing of Ike Rogers and his secretary participating in the JFK murder conspiracy. 4 The killing of Coleman Wade

5 The killing of Josefa Johnson Gary Underhill 6 The killing of John Kinser Gary Underhill was a veteran CIA agent who was murdered shortly after predicting his own murder. 7 The killing of President J F Kennedy He fled Washington in fear shortly after the JFK hit In February, 1952, Wallace was convicted of because he had already put the pieces of the murder, but his five-year prison sentence was conspiracy together. He told a close friend: I know suspended, unlike any previous murder conviction Page 66

in Texas. Three months later, Wallace began monoxide had been his favorite technique as LBJ’s working as an economic consultant for Temco (later prolific hit man. known as TLV), owned by D H Byrd (Suite 8F member; defense contractor; owner of the building that housed the Texas School Book Depository; Marilyn “Delilah” Walle LBJ contributor and fundraiser). At about the same time, Temco landed a large defense contract from Delilah Walle had numerous aliases, including LBJ’s Department of Defense. Five years later, Miranda, Marilyn Moon, Marilyn Magyar, and April Wallace’s record was cleansed. Welle. She worked as an exotic dancer at Jack Ruby’s Carousel Club in Dallas, Texas. Like many An awful lot of people died prematurely and other employees and regulars at the club, Walle mysteriously, thanks to LBJ and his hitman, Mac saw LHO there many times, and knew that Oswald Wallace. Early on, Ed Clark had chosen Mac and Ruby knew each other. Wallace as his sniper for the JFK murder. In the summer of 1962, however, Clark decided that On August 30, 1966, she was shot and killed by her Wallace might have to be replaced because too husband. Unlike so many other deaths, her demise much attention had been focused on him. Or, was just what it seemed to be: a domestic dispute. perhaps Clark just needed a second sniper to work with Wallace. Plans were still fairly flexible at the stage. Clark turned to Leon Jaworski for Charles Ward suggestions, without saying anything specific about what the assignment would be. (Jaworski had Charlie Ward was Jim Garrison’s chief assistant. become friends with Clark when Jaworski arranged Ward took over the routine duties of the DA’s office for legislation that allowed Johnson to run for US when Garrison turned his full-time attention to his Senate from Texas and US Vice President JFK murder investigation, although Ward helped simultaneously.) Clark also contacted his friend with the JFK investigation also. He resigned when Hubert Hardison Coffield, Clark’s myrmidon on the Garrison failed to keep his promise to support him Texas prison board. Convicts who were either on to fill the next vacancy on the Criminal Court. Ward probation or parole made excellent candidates for then ran against (and lost to) Garrison in his bid for the sniper role, because they were familiar with the reelection to DA. Ward did eventually become a underworld, and they knew they had to do as they judge. were told or go back to prison. Clark considered recommendations from both men, made his selection, and introduced him to Wallace. The Hugh Ward snipers got along well, primarily because they both New Orleans played a key role in the JFK murder were eager to help bring down the US government. conspiracy. It served as the staging area for events The snipers then set about trying to find a suitable in Dallas, and it was home base for Guy Banister, patsy. David Ferrie, Clay Shaw, LHO, et al. It was also Wallace’s role in the JFK assassination was home to mafia kingpin Carlos Marcello, District confirmed years later when a fingerprint found on a Attorney Jim Garrison, and Mayor Deslesseps book carton on the sixth floor of the depository, Morrison. Hugh Ward was a private eye working for unidentified for years, was finally matched to Guy Banister and David Ferrie. Wallace. The assassin toward the end of his life When Garrison began investigating LHO, he made the fatal mistake of opposing Ed Clark. wanted to question Bannister, but it was too late. Wallace, approaching Pittsburg, Texas, on January Bannister was already dead. Next on Garrison’s list 7, 1971, fell asleep behind the wheel, went off the was Hugh Ward, but he had recently died as well. road, and died of massive head injuries. His Ward and Morrison died together when their Piper exhaust had been tampered with, diverting some of Aztec (chartered by Morrison, flown by Ward) the carbon monoxide flow into the car. Carbon crashed near Ciudad Victoria, Mexico on May 22, Page 67

1964. Ward was a very capable pilot, and they had Benton Wilson plenty of fuel, but both engines failed simultaneously. Benton Wilson was a friend of David Ferrie. Wilson thought of Ferrie as articulate, strong, and widely There is no known evidence that it was anything admired. There was no doubt in Wilson’s mind that other than an accident. However, it was part of a David was murdered by CIA to make sure he didn’t staggering number of coincidental deaths reveal any secrets to Jim Garrison. Ferrie would surrounding investigations into the JFK murder. CIA never kill himself -- Wilson was certain of that. covert operatives are experts at making murders look like accidents, suicides, or natural deaths. Just He was also pretty sure CIA would come looking for sayin’. him, as well, and he would end up dead also at the hands of The Agency. So, he disappeared into a remote Louisiana town where he could easily spot any strangers before they spotted him. He figured Earl Warren out who the local CIA assets were, including one Earl Warren was the Chief Justice of the Supreme who worked as a reporter for a local newspaper. Court chosen by LBJ to take charge of what Wilson always had a 9 mm handgun tucked in his became known as the Warren Commission. Warren belt, and he had multiple guns hidden throughout strongly resisted that role, having no desire to get his house. He insisted that both his sons carry involved and thinking that it was not an appropriate weapons as well. Once when Wilson visited New assignment for a SCOTUS chief justice. However, Orleans, he was approached by cops. He quickly LBJ was a man who had made a career of refusing got his sons into the car and sped away down back to take no for an answer. LBJ needed Warren to roads all the way to Texas. He was one of the few head the commission because his name who got away from CIA, and one of the many who immediately gave it credibility. Warren immediately Garrison couldn’t reach. halted any serious investigation by the Commission into JFK’s murder. LBJ knew Warren could be controlled and manipulated into drawing the William C Wood (See: Bill Boxley) conclusion that LHO had acted alone.

With the top-level meetings conducted in complete secrecy, J Edgar Hoover needed someone on the Jack Zangetty inside to keep him informed of all Commission Jack Zangetty managed The Red Lobster, a activities and discussions. His inside man was popular casino in Oklahoma. Like The Carousel Gerald Ford. With his inside information, Hoover Club (a strip club owned by Jack Ruby, in Dallas), was able to completely control the Commission and and The Cal-Neva Lodge (a casino-hotel owned by prevent any of its staff members from doing any Frank Sinatra, in Nevada), Zangetty’s casino was a serious investigation. The lone-nut conclusion was front for the mafia. It was often the meeting place inevitable, because that’s what LBJ, Hoover, and all for high-level wise guys from all across the US. the other conspirators needed. That was the Warren Commission’s raison d'être. On November 23, 1963 (the day after JFK was killed), Zangetty told friends that LHO would be killed by Jack Ruby and that Frank Sinatra’s son Edward F Wegmann would be kidnapped. Both came true, although the kidnapping was faked, apparently nothing more Edward Wegmann was Clay Shaw’s attorney. than an attempt to divert public attention away from Wegmann worked with CIA to defeat Jim Garrison’s the JFK murder. Zangetty also told friends that JFK charge that Shaw was a JFK murder conspirator. was killed by three men, none of which was LHO. Zangetty died from an acute case of loose lips. He was found floating in a swimming pool, with multiple

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gunshots to the chest. He had been there for at least a week, maybe two.

Jeb Zapruder Jeb Zapruder was the guy filming the JFK motorcade as it passed through Dealy Plaza. His short 8mm video recording, known as the Zapruder Film, provided the best view of the JFK murder as it happened, clearly proving that the skull-shattering shot came from a gunman positioned in front of the motorcade. Americans didn’t have a chance to see that film for years, however, because Zapruder sold it to Life magazine, who refused to show it publicly. Its first public screening came during Jim Garrison’s trial of Clay Shaw. It was shown to the jury six times in two days. Jeb Zapruder testified in the trial that he had personally witnessed the motorcade and saw JFK’s head explode from a shot originating in front of the president, sending the president’s brain splashing out the back of his head. That was Garrison’s proof of a conspiracy, and the jury was convinced of that. (They weren’t convinced, however, that Clay Shaw was one of the conspirators.)