V/ITH DAILY EVENING EDITION 115th Year. No. 57. WASHINGTON,' D. C., FEBRUARY 26, 1967 the other, on the Lafayette % Street side, was the headquar- ters for Guy Banister Associates, Inc., a private detective agency. In the days before and after Ihe–Bily of Pigs in April, 1961, the Cubans met often in Banis- ter's office. And there, two people are reliably reported to have informed Dist. Atty. Jim Garrison, Lee Harvey Oswald was seen with the Cubans and the group around Banister. 3 in Group Named That group included three of 1011e 'arsons whose names have surfaced since Garrison's inves- Plot tigation of President John F. Kennedy's assassination became public a week ago Friday. They are: Jack S. Martin, David Le • avid William Martin and Lewis were em- New Kennedy ployed by Banister's firm, Martin as an investigator and Lewis as a messenger and office man. Ferrie, who died last Investigation week, had been working closely with Banister in anti-Castro activities and also had retained Banister's firm to help him in a Is Examined morals case with which he had By HAYNES JOHNSON been charged. Star Staff Writer One of the Cubans who used to 1867. The Washington Star go to Banister's office told this NEW ORLEANS—Off Lafay- reporter, in the course of a ette Square, across the street seven-hour conversation ending from the magnolia trees, 'the early yesterday morning, that . azalea bushes, the statue of Garrison had questioned him a Benjamin Franklin,' and the number of times in the past newspaper plant of the Times- month. Garrison told him, the Picayune and States-Item, are Cuban said, that witnesses have two vacant offices which now stated they saw him there with carry "For Rent" signs. Oswald and the others. One office, on the Camp Street The Cuban flatly denies it, and side, once housed Cuban exiles says he has offered to take a lie involved in anti-Castro activities detector test and truth serum if after the Bay of Pigs invasion; necessary to substantiate his position. He has not been asked ant. Huey Long ruled the state. to take such tests, he says. on the New Orleans Bank of Grows Ever Bolder Commerce in New Orleans in rea Met Oswald in 1963 the summer of 1963, used to help In the face of criticism and That same Cuban, who wants"' pay the way back to Miami for worldwide attention and specu- two of the Cubans from that to remain anonymous, in fact lation, Garrison has grown ever did meet Oswald at Oswald's bolder in his public statements. 4 camp. apartment on Magazine Street • The departure of other Finally, on Friday, he said flatly nthsms from New Orleans to in August 1963. He had gone he had "solved the case" of the there in an attempt to learn Kennedy death "beyond the 4 Miami, and one to Dallas. about Oswald's pro-Castro deal- shadow of a doubt." 4 • Documents frOm an anti- ings in New Orleans and about He says he knows the 'key Castro organization which Oswald's supposed Fair Play for individuals, the cities involved, operated briefly in New Orleans Cuba Committee organization in and promises arrests. But when in 1962 and then was disbanded. the area. pressed to be more specific, he • A photograpkAote0swald They talked for about half an remains enigmatic, and poses a distributing pro-Castro litera- hour, and Oswald gave him parable for the public: ts owsw s n Canal Street here that some literature as they left, he "The key to the whole case is sh a man supposedly later said. Then the Cuban promptly ' through the looking glass,", he photographed behind a sign in reported his contact with Oswald told reporters. "Black is white; Dealey Plaza in Dallas on Nov. to the New Orleans Police white is black: I don't want to be 22, 1963. Department. cryptic, but that's the way it is." These are among the scraps After President Kennedy's Emerging from an attempt to that Garrison is known to be assassination on Nov. 22, 1963, unravel some of that riddle, and considering. On the surface, the Cuban repeated his account to place Garrison's investigation they seem to fall into much of in perspective, is a tangled web the speculative character of the of meeting with Oswald to the host of sensational books written Continued on Page A-14, Col. 1 of plot, counter-plot, and coun- ter-counter plot; of rumors and about the assassination. Their wild talk; of some fact; some value remains undetermined. fiction, and, in the end, a tantal- Beyond this, everything is izing question mark. shrouded in conjecture. Continued From Page A-1 Secret Service. The Warren The Thread Is Cuba A Link Is Needed Commisson was fully aware of Out of all the smoke, one thing The thread that winds through is certain: To prove any conspir- his meeting, although his name the story involves one of the does not appear in the report. acy Garrison must be able to ' central problems of John F. link Oswald with others. That is After investigating that one inci- Kennedy's two years, 10 months dent and a host of other rumors where the relationship between and two days inthe White house Guy Banister's detective agency involving Cubans—both for and - —the problem of Cuba. against Castro—the commission and the Cubans becomes cru- It is Garrison's obvious con- cial. concluded that Oswald had acted tention that Cubans were some- alone in killing the President. ' But more important; initially, • how-iniolved in the President'S is what the Warren Commission the commission concluded that death. From what can be Oswald had acted alone in has determined about Oswald in learned at this time, his case New Orleans. killing the President. appears to rest on one theory Although the FBI is maintain- New Orleans first appears in about the assassination: the Oswald story on Sept. 20, ing a strict "hands-off" position That Oswald was working with 1959. On that date, nine days in connection with Garrison's an anti-Castro right-wing organi- after his release from the Ma- highly publicized investigation zation and actually intended to rine Corps, Oswald took a ship and will not discuss the case, kill Fidel; that Oswald's public- from New Orleans to LeHavre, it is clear that the government ly pro-Communist activities in France, as the first step of his places little credence in what 3 New Orleans and his attempt to journey to Russia. has been turned up so far. enter Mexico and secure a Three years later, after his Cuban visa were a ruse to Motives Questioned return to the U.S., Oswald came enable him to carry out that back to New Orleans in late In the view of some who have Castro assassination objective; April 1963, seeking a job. The been closely acquainted with the that when Oswald was denied next month, his wife and daugh- case, Garrison's material is a entrance to Cuba, the plot ter joined him here. rehash of old information, with shifted, and Kennedy, accused From then until the third week some new elements added. The of letting down the anti-Castro in September, the Oswalds lived district attorney's motives are Cubans at the Bay of Pigs, on Magazine Street in the city, being questioned; there is became the target. This theory but after his family went back to increasing talk that he wants to has been examined at length in Texas, Oswald traveled to use his inquiry as a political the past and has been discarded. Mexico seeking a Cuban visa. springboard, that he intends to To these basic ingredients, On Oct. 4, he joined his family in run for lieutenant governor this Garrison seems to have added Texas. year, and higher office later. new factors. These are among Oswald tried to organize a "He has a long list of fraudu- them: Fair Play for Cuba Committee, lent issues," said one highly • The existence of a training a pro-Castro group, in New placed official here, referring to camp for Cubans in St. Tamma- Orleans. He passed out litera- Garrison. "But he's as quick as ny Parish (County) across Lake ture on the streets, and engaged a cat and he always lands on his Pontchartrain in the summer of in broadcast debates about feet." 1963 where, supposedly, Oswald Cuba. From these activities That same official, he was not went for the purpose of partici- grew a number of conspiratiori- willing to be quoted by name, pating in the plot to kill Castro. al theories about his supposed also said that Garrison might • The later movement of an connection, with Cuban groups, well be the shrewdest politican American, who reportedly again both pro and anti-Castro. in Louisiana since the flamboy- organized that camp, from New The Warren Commission Orleans to Houston. concluded that: • Two canceled checks drawn "Without exception, the ru- mors and allegations of a con- spiratorial contact were shown to be without any factual basis, in some cases the product of mistaken investigation." Nothing that Garrison has made public yet in any way alters those findings. His case, therefore, • must dispute those conclusions by showing that Oswald had sinister relation- ships with others. There, the trail comes back to Banister's remembers Banister coming office. ...- into a downtown hotel with a What follows is an account of gun strapped to his leg. Drawing each of the principal links in the pistol, he slammed it on the that part of the story, based on ' table and said; "This is power." interviews and other sources.