A Second Assassination Time (And She, in Fact, Denies She Was)
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1 V . If 1/4- ri5- 7? I.* t0f I 1.14 /21 (tti Z‘i lit ir — 2/12/r/i, A Second Assassination time (and she, in fact, denies she was). Cusack, a man passing him forged doc- But to trust the mobsters' party girl uments about Marilyn Monroe, has The Dark Side of Camelot the implausibility of his tale? Why, if with incriminating money, as she only to read this book to wonder what by Seymour M. Hersh. Kennedy had tong ties with the mob, claims he did, would be out of charac- he would not fall for if it fit his pur- Little, Brown, 498 pp., 526.95 would he have to go to Judge Tuohy ter for Kennedy, in ways that Hersh pose. He even believes Campbell when for an introduction to Giancana? If he himself has pointed out in another Garry Wills she adds more people who trusted her did not know Giancana by this time, connection. Various women told Hersh with incriminating materials. She made surely he would know somebody who that Kennedy had a low regard for trips taking things to killer Johnny I am ready to believe nine bad things did know him. Yet Hersh relies on women, treating them as mere sex ob- Rosselli as well as to Giancana. She ar- about John Kennedy before breakfast bluff to decide the matter: "Robert jects. One of the more intelligent for- ranged two meetings with Giancana —until Mr. Hersh adds a tenth, and McDonnell's firsthand testimony is suer lovers quoted by Hersh strikes the after Kennedy became president that makes me begin wondering about compelling...." Just in case we are not recurring note: "There was a compart- When she became pregnant with the first nine. The more charges he convinced by now, Hersh adds con- ment for girls, and-once you were in Kennedy's child, she and the President adds to the score, the more I feel 1 firming testimony that is actually the sex compartment, you weren't a decided she must have an abortion. should be subtracting from it He tells contradictory. • person anymore. I got declassed and Where did Kennedy turn for that? By us so many unbelievable things he says 2- Tina Sinatra told Hersh that her depersonalized." we never knew that we begin to doubt now you expect it: "Would Sam help father Frank was the go-between who Ms. Exner, who naively says that the us?" The President wants to incur a all the things we thought we knew. If set up a meeting with Giancana on a President loved her, now has a motive debt that gives precious knowledge of Hersh will just write two more books golf course, to discuss mob help with for saying that he trusted serious mat- about Kennedy, I could end up as a scandal to the Mafia boss. Sounds starry-eyed about the man as any believable to Hersh. Sorensen or Schlesinger. Hersh has only one thing to confirm Exner's suspect new "memories"—at least he thinks it a confirmation. Since The Giancana Connection Exner was under FBI surveillance Take the whole long saga of mob (though no money satchels were re- leader Sam Giancana. The Church ported by the agents), I. Edgar Committee established in 1975 that Hoover's men observed a break-in at the CIA tried to use Giancana's mob- her house conducted by the twin sons sters to assassinate Fidel Castro. (The of an ex-Fig man who was acting as chief of security at General Dynam- mob had lost gambling interests to Castro's government) But Hersh says ics Corporation. Since General Dy- that the Kennedys had an earlier and namics later won a defense contract continuing tie with Giancana, who from the Kennedy administration, stole the Illinois vote for Kennedy in Hersh asks, "Was Jack Kennedy black- 1960. The foundation for a Kennedy- palled by a desperate corporation?" Even if that hypothesis were yawed. Giancana alliance was laid in Prohibi- it would still not add an ounce of cred- tion days, when Joseph Kennedy was ibility to Earner's claims that —Hersh maintains—engaged with she was a courier taking money and documents gangsters in rum -running. Many have from the White House into gangland. believed this of Joseph Kennedy over Even if the break-in artists knew of the years, but Hersh adds no solid evi- these, did they expect her to keep copies dence for that belief. He quotes X say- after she gave them to Giancana? ing that gangster •Y, years afterward, What were the intruders after? Love talked of working with Kennedy. He letters? Were they placing a recording tells us that anyone who owned the device? In any case. Hersh is sure it Merchandise Mart in Chicago had to had to do with Kennedy and with know what the gangsters were up to. It General Dynamics. He assuma what is not an implausible theory, though needs proving when he says: "I tried it remains a theory, since Hersh lacks unsuccessfully to find out how Gen- documentary proof, here, of the sort eral Dynamics learned of Judith Ex- h brings to but air Keseetly'§ ner's ties to Jack Kennedy.tlbattien-.• father-in-law. John F. Fitzgerald, who tence assumes (a) that Ittle.i-ions-did stole his election to the House of Rep- nothing but at the behest of their fa- resentatives in 1918. ther, (b) that Hale did nothing but at But if one believes, as Hersh says he the behest of Genera/ Dynamics, and does, in Joseph Kennedy's close ties (c) that the only reason i9 be inter- — with the mob, how can one go on to ested in Eerier was Kennedy. But believe three other things he alleges? Exner had fainiore public. ties, with - -• 1. Joseph Kennedy, aware ahead of the 1960 election. Well, which is it to ten to her, even though it means she . Frank Sinatra. and Sam Giancana than • - time that the 1960 election would have be? If Kennedy was already in contact has to contradict what she told the with Kennedy.: Hale.isorts may have to be stolen in Illinois, asked a friend with Giancana through Sinatra. why did Church Committee back in 1975 and bad an age-lila..of their own. Hale, as of his, Judge William Tuohy, to ar- he need to begin all over again with a what she wrote in her as-told-to book an ex-agent with security skills. for range a meeting with Giancana. Since judge who did not even know the man? of 1977, My Story. Then she said she sale, may have had 'other clients, or • - the judge did not know Giancana, he Hersh does not address the chronologi- passed no communications at all be- freelance interests;-Why would Gen- asked a lawyer for the mob, Robert cal problem with clarity; he fudges the tween the two men. But now the sixty- era! Dynamics, on the improbable by- McDonnell, to set up the meeting—a issue of priority, saying the meeting in three-year-old Eimer, debilitated by a pothesis that it knew of the Kennedy- meeting the judge was imprudent Tuohy's office was sometime "in the long Struggle with cancer, assures the Exner connection (which Hersh him- enough to hold in his own office. The winter of 1959-60" and the golf course eagerly listening Hersh that the mm- self calls a closely kept secret), have judge is dead now, and McDonnell meeting followed Sinatra's summons to sages she carried to Giancana proved commissioned an illegal act making the was seventy-one years old when Hersh Hyannis Port "late in 1959." Kennedy's love for hey "He was corporation subject to blaCkmail from interviewed him. McDonnell, a dis- 3. Finally, the Kennedys, who seemed bringing me into his life, and that was Hale, on the off chance of finding barred ex-alcoholic, was convicted in to have extraordinary difficulty get- very important to me.... He had to something with which the corporation 1966 of using forged money orders and ting access to Giancana, settled on the have great trust and faith in me." could corrupt the whole procurement in 1983 of attempted bribery. McDon- least probable intermediary of all, Ju- process? (Hersh, as usual, writes gaff nell's one claim to fame was his mar- dith Campbell (now Campbell Eerier), Of course Ms. Exner has, like all of Kennedy acted entirely free of govern- riage to Giancana's daughter, "Toni." who was having an affair with John us, read about the CIA's attempt to use ment machinery, defiant of other tares!. , Hersh has only McDonnell's word for Kennedy while she was moving in mob Giancana to assassinate Castro, so— sums from powerful players.) . the meeting of Joseph Kennedy with circles. "Jack asked, would I set up a sure enough—Kennedy relied on her So there you have it. On the flimsy Giancana. And even McDonnell says meeting with Sam Giancana...." For to send messages and documents to word of three peripheral people—Mc- Giancana did not steal anything for what reason? "I assumed it was for the Giancana dealing with this explosive Donnell, Sinatra filk, and Exner—all Kennedy, he just got union members campaign." Is there anyone in Amer- matter. What documents? Hersh might . boosting their own importance, the to campaign bard for him—which is ica the Kennedys did nor go to in 1960 have asked himself at this moment whole Giancana tale is fabricated. short of the allegation of vote stealing asking for a way to meet with Gian- Maps of Havana, formulas for poison Each was privy to a crucial contact bei•••• that Hersh quotes, with apparent cana? It was certainly reckless for pills? But that would spoil the good tween Giancana and Kennedy.