There's New Evidence That Oswald's Killer Was Involved with Some of America's Most Powerful Mobsters—The Same Ones Used By

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There's new evidence that Oswald's killer was involved with some of America's most powerful mobsters—the same ones used by the CIA in several attempts to kill Fidel Castro By William Scott Malone W I 1 I • THE SECRET LIFE OF V A

William Scott Malone, a Washington-based the same ones used by the CIA in sever- free-lance writer, has worked forC the Canadi- al unsuccessful attempts to kill Cuban an BroadcastingA Coloration's Fifth Es- Premier Fidel Castro. tate, a TV news show. In researching this The House Select Committee on As- article over the last 18 months, Malone sassinations has discovered new evi- logged thousands of miles conducting 50 dence about Jack Ruby's activities, por- hours of taped interviews and examining the tions of which have been made available records of various court cases across the to New Times. This evidence, together country. He also spent hundreds of hours at with a review of thousands of pages of the National Archives, reviewing FBI and FBI, CIA arid federal court documents, CIA documents on the IFK assassination. and interviews with law-enforcement officials and others, also indicates: January 1967 Jack Ruby, the ▪ That Ruby met secretly with Johnny man who killed Lee Harvey Os- Roselli in Miami two months before wald. sat in a Dallas jail cell, dying President Kennedy was killed. Roselli of cancer. But he was less troubled was a powerful gangster and had been a by his circumstances than by one major participant in the CIA plots to kill -consuming fear: that people Castro; would find out about him, because *That Ruby was involved in smug- there was still much to learn. He gling guns to Castro before the Cuban 'mid a visitor, "They're going to find out Revolution; about my trips to Cuba . . and the • That Ruby helped secure the release guns and everything." That's what wor- of a top American mobster imprisoned ried Jack Ruby most in the months be- by Castro, offering Cuba money and fore he died: that they would find out. jeeps in exchange for a pardon; In the decade since his death, the se- • That in 1959, at the same time he was crets Ruby guarded have remained well arranging shady deals in Cuba, Ruby kept. But now it is possible to piece some was an FBI informant providing the Bu- of them together. And what emerges is reau with useless information ; an unavoidable conclusion: contrary to Up from Anonymity • That Ruby may have made secret the findings of the Warren Commission, Jack Ruby (inset) makes his tape recordings of his dealings with Jack Ruby was involved with some of the television debut members of the mob (See box on page most prominent mobsters in America. 49),

M NEW TIMES taws Although the FBI has just released geles in 1933 and began selling handi- for all things Cuban. That was where 40,000 pages of its Kennedy assassina- capper's tip sheets at Santa Anita race- the money was and that was where the tion file—with another 40,000 pages to track. Johnny Roselli testified to the Ke- Mafia was. It was through his Cuban in- came the middle of this month—officials fauver Crime Committee in 1951 that trigues that Ruby's trail crossed those of say that more than 10 percent of the file he, too, had moved from Chicago to Los some of the most powerful organized- will still be withheld from the public. Angeles in 1933—to oversee gambling crime bosses in America. Cuba was the But the most pertinent FBI documents at Santa Anita for the Chicago mob. connecting thread. uncovered by New Times were not in the By 1939. Ruby was back in Chicago as assassination file and were not provided a secretary to the waste handlers union. Cuba and the Mob to the Warren Commission. Much of the He was once arrested in connection with During the late 1950s. the Mafia fol- new evidence about Ruby is to be found the murder of the secretary-treasurer of lowed a curious strategy in Cuba. The in the FBI's files on Cuba and on organ- the local, although he was released for same American mobsters who would lat- ized crime. lack of evidence. That murder enabled er join with the CIA in a conspiracy to This new evidence does not reveal the mob, and eventually the Teamsters. kill Castro were actually supplying his whether Ruby or his mobster friends to take over the union. (Robert Ken- rebel army with guns. It wasn't that the played a role in the Kennedy assassina- nedy. in his book The Enemy Within, American gangsters wanted Castro to tion. But that possibility so intrigued the called this episode a key step in the overthrow Fulgencio Batista's govern- House committee that last March it mob's rise to domination over the ment. (The corrupt Batista was a good called mob leader Santos Trafficante to Teamsters.) friend of the mob.) They were merely Washington for public testimony. He Luis Kutner, a Chicago lawyer who buying themselves some insurance. If was the mobster whose freedom from a they helped Castro, they reasoned, he Cuban jail had 'apparently been ar- would protect their considerable inter- ranged by Ruby. The committee's ques- ests should he ever come to power. tioning of Trafficante was pointed: Jack Ruby's story, as it One of the major participants in the "Mr. Trafficante, did you ever discuss is now emerging, is the syndicate's attempt to hedge its bets in with any individuals plans to assassinate the explosive Cuban political situation President Kennedy prior to his assassi- story of a man who tried was Norman "Roughhouse" Rothman. nation?" all his life to ingratiate Beginning in 1958, Rothman, a strap- "Prior to November 22, 1963, did you ping Havana-based mobster and one of know Jack Ruby?" himself to powerful Santos Trafficante's closest associates, "While you were in prison in Cuba. coordinated the smuggling of arms to were you visited by Jack Ruby?" mobsters—and who, to Castro. (Simultaneously, Rothman was The grandfatherly Trafficante, splitting his take from Cuba's slot ma- accompanied by his lawyer, had only some extent, eventually chines with Batista's brother-in-law.) one response to everything he was succeeded The available evidence indicates that asked: "I respectfully refuse to answer Ruby helped in Rothman's gun smug- that question pursuant to my constitu- gling. After Ruby captured national at- tional rights under the First, Fourth, worked with the Kefauver Committee, tention in 1963, two women came for- Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments." says Ruby hobnobbed with Chicago mob ward to identify him to the FBI as a man boss Sam Ciancana and his crowd dur- they had met in June 1958, in the Flori- Jack Ruby's story, as it is now emerging this period. Then, after a brief stint da Keys. They were introduced to Ruby ing, is the story of a man who tried all in the army, Ruby moved to Texas in by the brother of one of the women, his life to ingratiate himself tomen like 1947 as part of a Chicago mob move a confirmed Cuban gunrunner. The Santos Trafficante—and who, to some into the lucrative Dallas rackets. women were told that "Jack" was going extent, succeeded. Ruby bore absolutely At that time, Ruby was investigated by to "run some guns to Cuba." One of no resemblince to the picture of a patri- the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, after them told the FBI that "Jack had a otic nightclub owner painted by the several friends who had accompanied trunk full of guns," and that she was Warren Commission. He was born and him from Chicago were arrested with 40 told that "more guns were hidden in the raised on Chicago's tough West Side, pounds of opium. Ruby, though, marshes which would be sold to the Cu- where he became known to police as a learned fast—from his first days in Dal- bans." The other woman recalled that brawler, a seller of hot merchandise and las. he was careful to become friendly she was led to believe that "Jack." who a general troublemaker.. As a teenager with the local police. Later he became owned a nightclub in Dallas, was a mem- he ran numbers for Al Capone. The known as "the pay-off man for the Dal- ber of the "syndicate." Warren Commission knew this about las Police Department," and a man who Ruby was connected even more di- jack Ruby, but thought it little more "had the fix with the county authori- rectly to Rothman's operation by a Mi- than an adolescent flirtation. The com- ties." according to FBI documents quot- ami FBI informant named Blaney Mack mission knew, as well, that Ruby con- ing members of the Dallas underworld. Johnson. Johnson told the FBI that tinued to associate with criminals, but By 1956, a Federal Bureau of Narcot- Ruby was "active in arranging illegal believed that these associations were ics informant had named Ruby as the flights of weapons from Miami to Castro with low-level gamblers. "Based on its contact for a "large narcotics set-up op- forces in Cuba," and that he was report- evaluation of the record," said the War- erating between Mexico, Texas and the edly part-owner of two planes used to ren Report, "the commission believes East." FBI reports contained in the make the flights. that the evidence does not establish a Warren Commission files also indicate Johnson named Eddie Browder as a significant link between Ruby and or- that Ruby was heavily involved in vari- gunrunning pilot involved with Ruby in ganized crime." ous gambling operations in the area. By the operation. Browder, a flamboyant To reach that conclusion, the commis- almost all accounts, whether it was nar- Miami arms dealer, was Rothman's sion had to ignore memoranda from its cotics, gambling, prostitution or bribery, main operative in the gun smuggling, staff, which knew about some of Ruby's Jack Ruby was the man to see in Dallas. according to various federal court docu- illicit activities; and the staff was, in turn, Yet Ruby didn't limit himself to Dal- ments. Browder's FBI file, which has kept in the dark by the FBI and CIA. las. By the late 1950s, according to his not been released by the Bureau, is which knew even more. own Warren Commission testimony, more than a thousand pages thick. Yet Ruby moved from Chicago to Los An- Ruby had developed a particular affinity the FBI turned over only three innocu-

1123116 NEW TIMES 47 The Line-Up: (Left to right) Santos Trafficante respectfully refusing to answer questions Norman "Roughhouse" Roth- man at his 1960 gun smuggling trial; Castro hit-squad organizer Johnny Roselli, whose body turned up in a Miami bay two months after he testified before the Senate; and his boss, Sam Giancana, who took seven bullets in the face a week before his scheduled testimony ous reports to the Warren Commission. the State Department in a 1963 file Meyer Lansky, left quickly for Miami. One of the more interesting names search, is inexplicably missing from the Lansky, described by knowledgeable that pops up in Browder's FBI file is files today. And a 1959 Army Intelli- crime reporters as the chairman of the that of Frank Sturgis, better known as gence report on U.S. arms dealers list- board of the national crime syndicate, a one of the Watergate burglers. Sturgis ing a "Jack Rubenstein" also cannot be loose confederation of America's top or- was then a swashbuckling soldier of for- ganized-crime families, was forced to tune, a gunrunner for Castro and, ac- flee because of his conspicuous friend- cording to several sources, a close associ- It was through his Cuban ship with Batista. He left behind his ate of Normie Rothman. Another of good friend Trafficante to make sure Browder's colleagues in the Rothman intrigues that Ruby's that business continued as usual. arms-smuggling operation, as revealed But Fidel Castro was determined to in the FBI file, was Efren Pichardo, a trail crossed those of rid Cuba of the American Mafia. Shortly long-time friend of Sturgis. some of the most after taking power, he announced to a The gun smuggling began in mid- small group of his advisers that he in- May 1958. and continued full-throttle powerful organized-crime . tended to nationalize the casinos and that summer, with Browder, Sturgis, Pi- other American business interests. chardo and others traveling up to Alex- bosses in America. One of those who attended that meet- andria, Virginia, to buy rifles and ma- ing in the Havana Hilton, Castro's tem- chine guns from the International Ar- Cuba was the porary headquarters. was Frank Sturgis, mament Corporation (then a CIA pro- connecting thread by then a trusted aide. Sturgis quotes prietary) with crisp hundred-dollar bills. Castro as saying. "l'm going to run all They transported the arms in station these fascist mobsters, all these Ameri- wagons and small trucks to secret drop- located, although it, too, Army Intelli- can gangsters, out of Cuba. I'm going to off points in the Florida Keys. There, gence clerks found, was around in 1963. nationalize everything. Cuba for Cu- the guns were stored until they could be Exactly how much Ruby's efforts may bans." picked up and smuggled into Cuba. have contributed to the success of the . Sturgis, whom Castro put in charge of When questioned, Pichardo confirms gunrunning operation is not clear— • Cuba's casinos, says he had actually been that the arms were hidden in the mar- probably little. Although Ruby's in- working undercover for the CIA all shes of the Florida Keys (where Ruby volvement in the gunrunning was mi- along; and. after the meeting, he says he was seen by the two women in June nor, he later told his psychiatrist and informed several American casino own- 1958), and he recalls running guns with lawyers that he feared his role would be ers, as well as the American.Embassy, of Browder and Sturgis—but his memory revealed and he would be considered Castro's intentions. grows vague when asked about Ruby or unpatriotic, even communistic. Ruby Sturgis says he specifically warned Rothman. Sturgis' memory, too, seems was not alone. Of all the Americans who Trafficante. known to- American au- quickly m fade at the mention of Ruby helped Castro before the revolution, thorities as the kingpin of narcotics in and 'Rothman, and documents relating very few talk openly of their involve- the Caribbean, of Castro's plans. But to Ruby's gun trafficking have mysteri- ment. Most simply deny it. Trafficante did not heed the warning, ously disappeared from federal govern- The reason, of course, is that their telling Sturgis, "Not in this world; you ment files. A 1958 letter from a Jack Ru- efforts were enormously successful. think he's going to close up a hundred benstein (Ruby's real name, which he of- American guns made the revolution million dollars' worth of businesses that ten used in connection with his Cuban succeed. They started arriving in the we got? We generate over ten thousand activities) to the State Department's summer of 1958, and a few months lat- people working. He's going to put all Office of Munitions Controls, "request- er, on New Year's Day, 1959, Fidel Cas- these Cubans out of work? He'll never ing permission to negotiate the pur- tro marched into Havana. Batista was do it." chase of firearms and ammunition from overthrown and fled to the Dominican But Santos Trafficante was soon to an Italian firm." though discovered by Republic,and his patron, mob chieftain learn otherwise. Sturgis, on Castro's or-

41 NEW TI1.4ES 1/23/70 den, closed down the gambling casinos the CIA supplying the necessary money for ten days as a warning of what was in and weapons. As the plotting pro- store. The Mafia began to get the mes- Ruby told the Warren gressed, Roselli quickly realized he sage. And, while Castro reopened the Commission he made would need the assistance of Traffi- casinos on a limited basis in March cante, who still had many of his under- 1959. the underworld knew that it was only one trip to Cuba - world henchmen in Havana. Roselli in for rough times in Cuba. The crown- contacted Giantana, his boss in Chicago, ing blow came in April, when Castro a pleasure trip in 1959. to arrange a meeting with Trafficante, had Trafficante, the undisputed boss of But he may have who promptly put several of his lieuten- the Havana underworld, arrested and ants—including Rothman—at Roselli's thrown in prison. traveled to Havana six disposal. Trafficante and his men would Soon afterward, according to FBI become the main operatives in the CIA- sources, at a meeting of the national times or more—on mob- Mafia assassination attempts. crime syndicate, Meyer Lansky placed a connected errands It was around this time that Jack Ruby $1 million contract on the life of Fidel apparently became a frequent visitor to Castro. Present at the meeting was the Cuba, developing connections to several rotund gangland boss of Chicago, Sam Rothman's efforts continued but they of Trafficante's lieutenants, as well as to Giancana, who was to become a central now had the official sanction of the Trafficante himself. figure in the CIA plots against Castro. United States Central Intelligence The Warren Report, though, merely Sturgis says that in 1959 several Agency. According to two newly uncov- reiterated Ruby's story that he made prominent gangsters offerred him be- ered FBI reports, Rothman was one of only one trip to Cuba—a pleasure trip in tween $100.000 and $1 million to elimi- the original liaisons between the CIA 1959. But. FBI reports indicate that nate Castro. One of them was Normie and the Mafia. He was soon joined by Ruby may have traveled to Havana six Rothman, who sent an emissary to others. or more times. It wasn't hard to visit Sturgis with an assassination plan. The Senate Intelligence Committee, Cuba secretly in those days, leaving be- Sturgis says that he refused the offers which investigated the CIA-Mafia con- hind no records of the journey. The but relayed the mob's interest in assas- nections, reported that Johnny Roselli, only document required to enter Cuba sinating Castro to his CIA contact in Ha- the ambassador to Las Vegas for the was a $2.50 "tourist card" that could be vana. The CIA-Mafia plots were initiat- Chicago mob, was chosen to actually or- filled in with any name one chose. ed shortly thereafter. ganize the assassination of Castro—with Indeed. Ruby knew more about Cuba

_April of that year: The- saleswoman what he does remember and the. re- who waited on Ruby told Secret Serv- ports he filed with the Bureau.) Flynn RUBYGATE ice agents after Kennedy's assassina- denies any knowledge of Ruby's safe tion that Ruby had bought "a wrist- deposit box, his expensive spy equip- In a letter to the Warren Commission watch which held a microphone for ment, his trips to 'Cuba, or his associa- only declassified in 1975, J. Edgar - the equipment, and also an instrument tion with•Trafficante and McWillie. Hoover disclosed that on March 11, to bug a telephone," as well as a "tie Ruby certainly was not trying to hide 1959, as Jack Ruby was about to em- clip and attache case." Professional spy his Cuban trips from the FBI. Before bark on his most audacious Cuban ex- equipment. •embarking on one of his jaunts in ploit—the attempt io secure the re- An FBI agent interviewed the sales- .1959, Ruby.was overheard by an air- lease -of -Mobster Samos Trafficante woman immediately after the Secret line ticket agent aalking to one of his from jail—he was contacted by special --Service did but he filed a meager two- employees on the phone. Ruby told agent Charles W. Flynn of the Dallas paragraph report, leaving out most of the employee not to tell anyone of his office. Flynn asked if Ruby would be- the important details. -whereabouts except for the Dallas po- come an informant for the • Bureau. . In any event, on April 27, 1959, the lice .or any ...other "law enforcement According to „Hoover's letter. Ruby day .before he was to meet with agent official" who might be interested. And ',expressed a willingness to furnish in- .Flynn, Ruby rented . -a _safe ,deposit Flynn told a reporter several years ago formation.".(Ruby .had long been an box,..perhaps as 2 repository - for the - that Ruby did tell him of at least one of informer for the Dallas Police Depart- capes..he intended to snake. Before and . his Cuban excursions.. • • .;., • ment—the police. in return, would after every trip to Cuba, Ruby would - If Flynn and the Bureau are'telling then stay out of his way. But his status -enter his safe deposit box .and then the truth, it -makes-Hoover's FBI look was relatively loW-) visit his FBI contact. • • . like -modern-day, Keystone -Cops. If Flynn says he hoped Ruby would In total, the FBI dealt with Ruby on - Flynn and the Bureau are lying, it is know something about crime in Dallas ,nine occasions between March 11 and one of the more significant coverups in (burglaries, .bank robberies and the October 2, 1959, during the. height of , the FBI's history. . like). In fact, Ruby knew very little his Cuban activities. The FBI main- After Ruby was arrested for mur- about such activities at the time, be- tains it received absolutely no useful dering Oswald, his safe deposit box cause he was up to his neck in Cuban information from Ruby, but several was opened by the Dallas police. Ac- intrigue with some 'of America's top present and former FBI agents, in- cording -to an FBI report, "when mobsters—a potential gold mine of including Representative Don Edwards -opened,- this box was completely emp- telligence infomation for the FBI. But (D–Calif..). say the, Bureau neverinter-1 ty." The last time it had been entered Flynn says 'he didn't know about views an informant nine times if he is was August 20, 1962, over a year ear- Ruby's Cuban connection. providing worthless information. lier. The FBI report noted that "the .After their initial contact in March, Special agent Flynn. who retiredin identity of the person opening the box Ruby .and Flynn's next substantive 1962, says he was new at the job in at this time is not reflected." Yet it is meeting was to be April 28, 1959. Ap- 1959, and that his .inexperience ex--- 'impossible to--enter - a safe deposit parently in preparation for this meet- • -plains the repeated contacts with an -box without being the authorized rent- ing and his subsequent work for the :unproductive informant. Flynn also er, showing proper identification and - Bureau, Ruby purchased over five insists that he can remember nothing signing a name card. Unless, of course, hundred dollars' worth of miniature of substance about his dealings with you happen to be a federal law- tape-recording equipment in March or Ruby. (But there are conflicts between enforcement official. •—W. S. M.

1173178 • FEW 71MES 40 and its politics than the average Dallas said that while in jail he "knew a gam- nightclub owner might have been ex- bling-gangster type named Santos" who, pected to know. At a news conference he said, "was visited frequently by hours after Kennedy was killed, Dallas another American gangster-type named District Attorney Henry Wade errone- Ruby." ously told the assembled press that Os- A further indication that Ruby visited wald was a member of the Free Cuba Cuba frequently comes from an FBI re- Committee, a violently anti-Castro or- port. The report says a Ruby employee ganization with CIA ties. A voice arose "managed Ruby's Vegas club during the from the back of the press room, polite- three summer months, during which peri- ly informing Wade that Oswald was a od Ruby vacationed in Cuba." (Empha- member of the pro-Castro Fair Play for sis added.) Ruby's frantic activity actual- Cuba Committee, and that "there is a ly began in May, when, after meeting great difference" between the two, The with McKeown, Ruby passed a message voice belonged to Jack Ruby. of some sort—in code—to McWillie in Ruby told the Warren Commission Havana. The woman who carried the that his "one" trip to Cuba was purely a message could remember only one word social visit at the invitation of his best of it when questioned four years later by Friend, Lewis J. McWillie. As Ruby the FBI. The word was "arriving." testified, he "idolized" McWillie—and By June, according to Gerry Patrick Hemming, a hulking, six-foot-six sol- McWillie, in turn, told the FBI that he Don't light that cigar!: Fidel Castro dier of fortune who was a member of treated Ruby as "one would a brother." chuckles about something he read in Castro's rebel army, Ruby was in Cuba the afternoon paper Enter McWillie attending a meeting at the home of re- To understand Ruby's Cuban in- and death matter," Jack Ruby tracked bel Captain William Morgan. Morgan, trigues it is necessary to understand the down Robert McKeown, a convicted an American, was a hero of the revolu- tangled affairs of his friend McWillie. A gun smuggler and an intimate of Fidel tion and a man with considerable pull in former girlfriend described McWillie to Castro. According to FBI interviews, Cuba, He was also an acquaintance of the FBI as "a big-time gambler, who has Ruby told McKeown that he was at- Lewis McWillie. Hemming says he does always been in the big money and oper- tempting to get three people out of a not know the purpose or outcome of ated top gambling establishments in the Cuban prison. He said that if McKeown Ruby's meeting with Morgan, but it was United States and Cuba. He always had could facilitate their release, he would apparently in connection with the effort a 'torpedo' [bodyguard) living with him be paid $5,000 per person, adding that to secure Trafficante's release from jail. for protection." someone in Las Vegas would finance (Hemming's testimony has not always According to FBI reports, McWillie the operation. proved reliable, but this account has had run several illegal gambling houses In mid to late May 1959, a man whom been partially confirmed by several in the Dallas area before moving to McKeown later identified to the FBI as sources, including federal court docu- Cuba in the summer of 1958—about the Jack Ruby appeared at McKeown's ments.) same time Ruby was seen in the Florida store in Houston, and the two men ad- Ruby was seen again in Havana dur- Keys with his trunk full of guns. Arriv- journed to a back room to discuss de- ing the Labor Day weekend (September ing in Havana, McWillie was promptly tails. Ruby's plan was simpler make a 5-7) at McWillie's Tropicana, by two hired by Rothman as a pitboss in Traf- trade with Castro. He told McKeown Chicago lawyers and an architect. Flight ficante's Sans Souci casino. In Sep- that he had an option on some jeeps in manifests reveal that Ruby was in Miami tember 1958, McWillie moved to the Louisiana that he could use in the ex- after Labor Day, and flew to Havana on Tropicana casino, described at the time change. Ruby said he was willing to do September 12. He returned to the main- as "the largest nightclub in the world." almost anything to get these people out land the next day. It was in Havana that McWillie became a of Cuba; and to secure the deal, Ruby Trafficante was ordelied deported in close associate of what were, according offered McKeown $25,000 for a letter July, but was actually ..released in Sep- to the FBI, some of the most prominent of introduction to Fidel Castro which tember, and was still in Havana, accord- gambling hoodlums in the U. S. would "clearly indicate that the bearer ing to news dispatches, on September Among them were Santos Trafficante was responsible and reliable." 13. By early September. FBI reports and the Lansky brothers, Meyer and A short time later, Ruby visited say, Normie Rothman was also making Jake. During the course of several inter- McWillie in Cuba. And on July 8. 1959. plans to slip back into Havana. views conducted over the last year, Castro ordered the deportation of three His campaign to free Santos Traffi- McWillie admitted to knowing Roth- prisoners: Loran Hall, Henry Saavedra cante placed Ruby in some fast compa- man, who, he said, "had something to and Samos Trafficante. ny. Others who wanted Trafficante re- do with the slot machines" at the Tropi- According to information obtained by leased included Johnny Roselli and his cana, but he denied knowing Traf- congressional investigators and outlined boss, Sam Ciancana—both of whom, ficante or the Lansky brothers. in a confidential House Assassinations says a House Assassinations Committee However, an FBI document that in- Committee briefing memorandum, "Le- memorandum, visited Trafficante in jail trigued the Senate Intelligence Commit- wis J. McWillie, a close friend of Ruby in 1959. A close friend of both Roselli tee reports that "McWillie solidified his and a man with many contacts among and Ciancana, who testified before the syndicate connections through his as- organized-crime figures, indicates that Senate Intelligence Committee, says sociations in Havana, Cuba, with Santos in 1959 Jack Ruby traveled to Cuba and Roselli told him, "Ruby was hooked Trafficante, well-known syndicate visited Santos Trafficante in jail." And a up with Trafficante in the rackets in member from Tampa, Florida; Meyer recently declassified CIA cable, dated Havana." and Jake Laruki (sic); Dino Cellini and November 27. 1963, reports that a Brit- McWillie was still working in one of others who were members or associates ish journalist told the American Trafficante's Havana casinos when the of 'the syndicate.— Embassy in London that he had been in CIA-Mafia plots were initiated. In 1960. McWillie's boss, Trafficante, was ar- Cuba in 1959, and that he was briefly McWillie left his job as manager of the rested in Havana in April 1959. In late jailed by Castro before being deported. Tropicana casino to become a pitboss at April or early May, saying it was a "life The journalist, John Wilson-Hudson, the Capri casino. The Capri was then

• S NEW IIMES 121178 being run for Trafficante by Charlie the two months preceding the Kennedy crack-down on the Mafia. So Jack Ruby "The Blade" Touritte, whose mistress assassination on November 22, 1963. was ordered to eliminate Oswald . . . ." confirms that she was assisting Frank Beginning in the summer of 1963, Ruby's own version of events seems to Sturgis in an attempt to slip Castro some and continuing into November, Roselli coincide with Roselli's. While in jail in CIA poison. The poison plot was appar- was under FBI surveillance. An FBI 1965, Ruby told his psychiatrist, Dr. ently the mob's first CIA-sanctioned as- agent familiar with the case says that Ro- Warner Teuter, that he had been part sassination attempt. Giancana was over- selli was indeed in Miami when the of a conspiracy to kill Kennedy that in- heard discussing the plans, bragging meetings with Ruby arc supposed to volved "high government agencies." Al- that lie had met with the "assassin," have occurred. The FBI's surveillance though Ruby told others the same thing, Sturgis, who had been making the ar- of Roselli explains how investigators Dr. Touter doubted the truth of the sto- rangements, according to a 1960 FBI were able to identify the exact motel ry; Ruby often followed such admissions memo. rooms 14 years later. with fits of ranting and raving. After the poisoning failed late in Columnist Jack Anderson says that Ruby had always feared his role in 196n, McWillie continued to work at the Roselli admitted knowing Ruby. "One running guns to Castro, if it ever be- Capri through December, until he was of our boys" is how Roselli described came known, would be seen as unpatri- finally forced to flee on January 2, 1961, him to Anderson. And a Roselli friend otic. He told Dr. Teuter that he was to avoid arrest. According to Jack Ruby says that in the course of various conver- blackmailed into shooting Oswald by and others, McWillie was one of the last sations over the years. Roselli often re- people who threatened to reveal his gun American gangsters to leave Cuba. ferred to Ruby as "the crazy Jew." running. "They got what they wanted Ruby was in constant contact by Yet it is still not clear what relation- on me," Ruby said. phone with McWillie after he fled Cuba. ship, if any, exists between Ruby's in- In looking for poisible connections This was during the height of the Castro volvement with the likes of Johnny Ro- between the mob and Kennedy's assassi- assassination plotting, when Roselli, selli and Santos Trafficante, and his nation, it is worth remembering that Giancana. Trafficante and the CIA were one of Sam Giancana's major obsessions meeting in Miami. McWillie was also in was the Kennedy assault on organized Miami, where he remained for the first crime. Attorney General Robert Ken- six months of 1961, until shortly after Ruby said he would do nedy is reported to have placed Clan- the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion almost anything to get cana at the top of his "hit list" of those and the first two CIA-Mafia assassina- slated for special prosecutorial atten- tion attempts against Castro. He then these people out of jail. tion, right below Jimmy Hoffa. took a job as floor manager at Lake The Washington Post recently report- Tahoe's Cal-Neva Lodge. lb secure the deal, he ed a chilling conversation between San- According to Gerry Hemming, by tos Trafficante and a loung Cuban ex- then the leader of an anti-Castro Cuban offered $25,000 for a ile, Jose Aleman, that allegedly occurred exile group, "Roselli was using McWillie letter of introduction to in September 1962. Aleman says it just prior to the Bay of Pigs, on the hit started as a business discussion, but job [against Castro] and some other in- Fidel Castro when it turned to the subject of John telligence stuff . . . related to some Kennedy, Trafficante's relaxed mood high officials in Castro's government quickly changed. with heavy mob connections." Murder of Lee Harvey Oswald on No- "Have you seen how his brother is hit- vember 24, 1963. What is known is that ting Hoffa, a man who is a worker, who Re-enter Ruby • in the month before the assassination, is not a millionaire, a friend of the blue In 1962, the CIA renewed its Castro Ruby, according to the Warren Com- collars?" Trafficante said. "He doesn't assassination plotting with its Mafia mission, was in close contact with a num- know this kind of encounter is very deli- friends, particularly Trafficante. In ber of highly interesting "friends": cate. Mark my words, this man Kennedy April, while Traffic-ante was meeting Dusty Miller, head of the Teamsters is in trouble, and he will get what is com- with the CIA in Florida. Ruby showed Union's Southern Conference; Paul ing to him." Aleman argued that Ken- up there, allegedly to recruit strippers. "Red" Dorfman, a Hoffa intimate, boss nedy would get re-elected, whereupon, He visited several bars in Tampa—the of the Teamsters' mob-riddled Central he says, Trafficante told him, "No, Jose, same ones frequented by Trafficante. States Pension Fund, and one of the he is going to be hit." Aleman says he The CIA and the Mafia decided to have most powerful organized-crime figures told the FBI about Trafficantes little in- another go. in the country; Irwin S. Weiner. a senior discretion before Kennedy was gunned But like the earlier efforts, this assassi- .Teamster bondsman with close ties to down in Dallas. The FBI has yet to com- nation attempt was thwarted by Castro's the Chicago mob, who was acquitted of ment on the matter. security officials. And after the Cuban allegedly defrauding the Teamster pen- But House Assassinations Committee missile crisis in October 1962', the Ken- sion fund of $1.4 million, after the gov- investigators say Aleman is sticking to nedy Administration lost enthusiasm ernment's star witness was shotgunned his story. And Santos Trafficante is not for the CIA's ill-fated attempts to liber- to death; and Barney Baker, described taking it very well. House investigators ate' Cuba. The last CIA-Mafia plot ap- by Robert Kennedy as "Hoffa's roving say that when they arrived to serve parently came to an end in early March organizer and ambassador of violence." Trafficante with his subpoena last 1963, when one of Roselli's hit squads, Baker, in turn, called another of Ruby's March, he was actually trembling. And equipped with high-powered rifles and friends, Dave Yaras, a Cuban gun run- with good reason. In June 1975, Sam walkie-talkies. was picked up on a Hava- ner and member of the Chicago meb, Giancana was killed by seven bullets in na rooftop. on the eve of the assassination. the face one week before he was slated In late 1963, there was an intriguing And Roselli's version of the Kennedy to testify before the Senate Intelligence development for which there is still no assassination, as told to jack Anderson, Committee. Then, in April 1976, John- explanation. Federal sources close to the is worth noting: "When Oswald was ny Roselli testified secretly before the Florida investigation of Johnny Roselli's picked up, Roselli suggested, the under- Senate Intelligence subcommittee inves- murder say that two Miami motel rooms world conspirators feared he would tigating the Kennedy assassination. Two have been identified as the locations of crack and disclose information that months later, his mutilated body was two meetings between Roselli and Jack might lead to them.This almost certain- found floating in Miami's Dumfoun- Ruby. The meetings occurred during ly would have brought a massive U.S. dling Bay, stuffed in an oil drum. •

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