15. According to the 1992 book Double Cross by Giancana’s brother Chuck and his nephew (and godson) Sam, Giancana said words to this effect in late October 1960, at Meo’s Norwood House restaurant in Chicago. Double Cross attracted justified criticism for its claims about the Kennedy assassination, but an interview with Sam Giancana (the nephew and coauthor) encouraged the author’s feeling that core parts of the book reflect the authentic memories of Chuck Giancana. (Ints. Sam Giancana.)
16. Michael Ewing, longtime staff assistant to Senator Harold Hughes of Iowa, interviewed Partin in 1977 on the recommendation of Walter Sheridan. Partin’s account remained consistent with what he had told Sheridan in the sixties, with the exception that Sheridan quoted him as originally having named a figure less than five hundred thousand dollars. Also present at the meeting when the money was handed over, according to Partin, was Washington lobbyist Irving Davidson. Davidson, who later denied that Marcello even knew Hoffa, had arranged the meetings between Hoffa and Oakley Hunter (see p. 214); Sheridan said he later located information confirming the Marcello donation while working in the Kennedy Justice Department. (Int., corr. Michael Ewing: Moldea, Hoffa Wars, op. cit., pp. 108, 260.)
17. The accountant, Phillip Reiner, had been chosen in 1957 as the front man behind whose name the true origin of the loan could be concealed. Then, he had shared office space with the Hughes law firm of James Arditto and Frank Waters. By 1960 the Arditto-Waters partnership had been dissolved, and Reiner and Arditto were at loggerheads. In August 1960, according to Reiner, full documentation of the loan to Don Nixon was delivered to his home with other files he had left behind in the Arditto office. Arditto, for his part, told the police that his office had been burglarized. His widow speculated in 1996 that Reiner had purloined the material to sell it to the Kennedy team. (Reporter, Aug. 16, 1962; int. Clare Arditto.)
18. Nixon’s concession was expressed in a wire to Kennedy the next morning. (Nixon, Six Crises, op. cit., p. 398.)
19. For the best analysis of the figures, see Appendix A in Theodore White’s The Making of the President: 1960.
20. There were also allegations of vote fraud in Texas. A shift of a mere 4,491 votes in Missouri, or minor changes in the count in New Mexico, Hawaii, and Nevada, could also have changed the result. For a study of the possible permutations, see Wicker, op. cit., p. 251–.
Chapter 19
1. St. Johns had known Nixon from childhood. In 1962 he described her as having been a “close friend and adviser” since 1947. (See p. 151, and Nixon, Six Crises, op. cit., p. xi.)
2. The CIA’s Cuban exile force gathered by April 1961 for the infantry-style Bay of Pigs landing numbered only fourteen hundred men—this to confront Castro’s army of thirty-two thousand plus a two hundred-thousand-man militia. In mid-December 1960 it numbered only about five hundred. The decision to switch from guerrilla training to an infantry invasion had been made only a month earlier. (Exile strength Apr. 1961: Kornbluh, ed., Bay of Pigs, op. cit., p. 277; Castro forces: Trumbull Higgins, The Perfect Failure, New York: Norton, 1987, p. 70; mid-December 1960: Wyden, op. cit., p. 55; decision to switch: Kornbluh, ed., Bay of Pigs, op. cit., p. 277.)
3. In a 1998 chronology, based on the latest official releases, U.S.-backed action against Cuba developed as follows in the latter part of 1960. Talk of shifting from guerrilla warfare plans to a possible amphibious operation began in late summer, as did the first documented CIA-Mafia plots to kill Castro. A cable from CIA headquarters to the field first described a plan for a fifteen-hundred-man invasion on October 31. Four days later this was followed by an order to change training operations in line with the new concept. The change was relayed to Eisenhower’s Special Group on November 8–9, coincident with election day. As president-elect Kennedy was briefed by CIA Director Dulles and Deputy Director Bissell on November 18 and by outgoing President Eisenhower on December 6. Training and recruitment for the proposed invasion were stepped up in January 1961, in the weeks before Kennedy’s inauguration.
Nixon had been enraged when less than a month before the election Kennedy repeatedly attacked the Republican administration for giving insufficient aid to the anti-Castro exiles. Nixon later charged that Kennedy had deliberately put him at a disadvantage, making an unfounded allegation when he well knew from secret briefings that plans were in place to overthrow Castro and knew too that Nixon could not rebut the charge without breaching national security. Instead, in his final television debate with Kennedy, Nixon told the American public Kennedy’s proposals for toppling Castro were “most dangerously irresponsible” and would risk a dangerous confrontation with the Soviet Union. Even allowing for electioneering license, this was a real liberty with the truth since operations to overthrow Castro were precisely what were under way. In Six Crises Nixon defended this strategy as a necessary step to protect the government’s secret plans. In a later interview he said it was the “only political position that was salvageable. . . .” At the time, press aide Herb Klein revealed in 1995, Kennedy’s charges on Cuba made Nixon “so angry it was difficult to prepare him for the debate.” He was still fulminating on the subject in private as president eleven years later, the White House tapes reveal. Just what Kennedy knew about in advance of the plans to topple Castro, and from whom, remains the subject of debate. Nixon’s accusation that the CIA debriefed Kennedy on the Cuba plot may, ironically, have been misplaced. There is evidence he got his knowledge from another source. In any case, the CIA’s plans were hopelessly insecure. (1998 chronology: Kornbluh, ed., Bay of Pigs, op. cit., p. 275–; RN rage: Nixon, Six Crises, op. cit., p. 353– [paperback version]; MEM, p. 220; Nixon article, Reader’s Digest, Nov. 1964, and see Wicker, op. cit., p. 232; Klein, op. cit., p. 94; “only political”: Washington Star, Apr. 26, 1978; “so angry”: San Diego Union-Tribune, Dec. 19, 1995; still fulminating: June 23, 1972, WHT (retranscribed for author by Robert Lamb), and see July 5, 1971, WHT, AOP, p. 23; what JFK knew: Strober, eds., Kennedy, op. cit., p. 325; Hersh, Camelot, op. cit., p. 175–; Weber, op. cit., p. 17; Grose, op. cit., p. 507, San Diego Union, March 25, 1962.)
4. Nixon never got over his preoccupation with Cuba. On becoming president in 1969, he promptly ordered the CIA to step up covert action against Castro at a time it was being wound down. He sought legislation to prevent Americans from helping the Cuban economy. In 1970, when U.S. reconnaissance detected the apparent construction of a Soviet naval base in Cuba, a genuine concern, Nixon demanded an immediate CIA briefing on “any kind of action which will irritate Castro.” In 1971 the CIA supplied a consignment of African swine fever virus to anti-Castro operatives, who then smuggled it into Cuba. An outbreak of the disease followed six weeks later, requiring the slaughter of half a million pigs to avert an epidemic. The same year Nixon posed for photographs with the family of a Cuban exile whose ship had been attacked and captured by a Castro gunboat. Testimony suggests that, also in 1971, the CIA was involved in a plot to assassinate Castro during a visit to Chile and that Howard Hunt, former CIA agent turned White House Watergate conspirator, told associates another “assassination team” was being readied in Spain. Fellow Watergate burglar Bernard Barker said Hunt “mentioned something about planning for the second phase of the Bay of Pigs around the beginning of Nixon’s second term.” (RN, step up: Raymond Garthoff, Detente & Confrontation, Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1985, p. 88, n. 37; legislation: Ehrlichman, op. cit., p. 142; “any kind of action”: Kissinger, White House Years, op. cit., p. 142; swine fever: Newsday, Jan. 9, 1977; Nation, March 9, 1998; Fidel Castro speech to 68th Inter-Parliamentary Conference, Sept. 15, 1981 [Cuban government release]; RN posted: Fonzi, op. cit., p. 137; Hunt on “team”: notes of int. Howard Liebengood and Frank Saunders, Jim Hougan papers, provided to author; Hunt “mentioned”: memo re: Barker int., Sept. 13, 1973, Box 99, WSPF, NA; ints. Bernard Barker and Howard Hunt [the latter a denial].)
5. The Nixons’ accounts of this family discussion are not entirely consistent one with another.
&
nbsp; 6. See chapter 6. The Nixon-Cohen story was leaked to the columnist Drew Pearson in 1962, but he did not use it until 1968.
7. The author has been in touch with this source for nearly twenty years. Cross-checks have confirmed his background and expertise, and the author has come to believe he is a man of integrity. Professional concerns aside, he shuns publicity.
8. Referring to taps conducted by the FBI (as distinct from freelance eavesdroppers), Nixon told Kissinger in 1973: “Bobby Kennedy was the greatest tapper of all. . . . Hoover told me . . . ‘Bobby Kennedy had me tapping everybody.’ I think, incidentally, I’m on that list.” This is one of many such references to Democratic bugging, including Nixon’s insistence—again citing J. Edgar Hoover—that his campaign plane had been bugged in 1968. (“greatest tapper”: June 1, 1973, entry, AOP, p. 561, and see ibid., p. 92; 1968 campaign plane: e.g., ibid., p. 198.)
9. The late Jack Tobin, whom the author knew, was a skilled investigative reporter, working throughout that period, with colleague Gene Blake, on a Times-Mirror probe of Teamsters Union leader Hoffa’s West Coast activities, in particular Hoffa’s abuse of the union pension fund. Nixon’s home purchase had been the lead to the Times story of May 17, 1962. The very sight of Tobin, when they met again years later at an airport, triggered another outburst of shouting and swearing by Pat.
10. The information was omitted from The Final Days, probably because the reporters had insufficient sources on the matter at that time. Scott Armstrong, who worked both as a staffer on the Ervin Committee and on research for The Final Days, said in a 1980 interview that he too had been told that “Nixon beat Pat up.” (Ints. Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein, and David Obst, and notes of int. Scott Armstrong by FB, FBP.)
11. Sears did not get along with Attorney General John Mitchell, who apparently believed he leaked information to the press. He decided to leave the White House after only nine months, in October 1969. It later emerged that Sears was wiretapped and surveilled during that period, probably because of Mitchell’s suspicions. (Ehrlichman, op. cit., p. 27, n; Wise, American Police State, op. cit., p. 56–.)
12. The contributor was Francis Kellogg, a mining magnate. Washington lobbyist Robert Winter-Berger recalled accompanying Taylor to Kellogg’s office and collecting sixty-five thousand dollars in cash; Taylor said forty-five thousand dollars of it was going directly to Nixon. Kellogg wanted an ambassadorship in Africa but made do with a post as special assistant to the secretary of state for refugee and migration affairs, which reportedly carried an ambassadorial title. (Winter-Berger, op. cit., p. 249–.)
13. In The Final Days, Woodward and Bernstein reported that Pat had wanted to divorce Nixon after the 1962 defeat and wrote of her “rejection of his advances since then.” (Woodward and Bernstein, The Final Days, op. cit., p. 173.)
Chapter 20
1. Prior to the sixties only two “clubs” were allowed to operate casinos, and those only during the high tourist season. One, the Bahamian Club, was on the outskirts of Nassau; the other was on Cat Cay. Nixon showed interest in visiting Cat Cay in 1959, and Bebe Rebozo was to buy the island in 1983. Nixon subsequently vacationed there. (Only two: Mahon, op. cit., p. 60; RN 1959: RN to Elmer Bobst, Dec. 18, 1959, corr. files, Series 320, Box 90, VP; Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Operation of the Business of Casinos in Freeport and Nassau, Nassau, Bahamas: 1967, p. 65; Rebozo: Miami Herald, May 14, 1984; int. Jake Jernigan; RN vacationed: Nassau Tribune, Jan. 28, 1986.)
2. The Development Board chairman, Sir Stafford Sands, a leading white Bahamian, testified to the 1967 commission of inquiry into Bahamas gambling operations that Lansky visited him in 1960 or 1961, offering a certified check for two million dollars if Sir Stafford could get for him a casino permit. Sir Stafford said he turned Lansky down. He later had meetings with Lansky associates involved in the management of the mob-run casino that did open in 1962 with his approval—and to his great profit in legal fees (see text). Sir Stafford liquidated his Bahamian holdings and moved to Spain after the casino business and his role came under investigation. (Nassau Tribune, Aug. 25, 1967; Hank Messick, Syndicate Abroad, London: Macmillan, 1969, p. 224.)
3. The company Crosby headed when he bought into Paradise Island was Mary Carter Paint Inc. He sold it in 1968 and founded Resorts International. Resorts later sued Rolling Stone magazine for libel over an article by Howard Kohn titled “Strange Bedfellows—The Hughes-Nixon-Lansky Connection: The Secret Alliance of the CIA from World War II to Watergate.” Rolling Stone eventually later published a retraction, stating that “Based on the evidence now available,” the magazine was “satisfied that Resorts was not a front for either Meyer Lansky, organized crime or the CIA, and did not permit gaming revenues to be skimmed by underworld operatives, and did not funnel money to Cuban counterrevolutionaries or otherwise launder funds for covert operations.” None of the substantive information used in this chapter is drawn from the Rolling Stone article.
A CIA document released in 1998, on the subject of Resorts International Inc. and dated August 18, 1976, states: “Resorts International Inc. was of interest to Cover and Commercial Staff, DO, in 1972 and 1973.” It also notes that Wallace Groves, initially a partner with Mary Carter Paint in the purchase of Paradise Island, was “the Subject of OS file 473 865” and “of interest to the Office of the General Counsel for the utilization of Groves as an advisor or possible officer of one of the Project WUMUTUAL entities. Additional information in this file would suggest that Groves was connected with Meyer Lansky.” Other CIA documents show that a “Covert Security Approval” was applied for in respect to Groves in December 1965, shortly before the Mary Carter and Groves purchase of Paradise Island. It was approved and not canceled until April 1972. (Mary Carter became Resorts: Resorts International Stockholders Report, undated [1969?], Block Collection, and see Mahon op. cit., p. 77; suit and retraction: Rolling Stone, Apr. 28, 1983, referring to article, ibid., May 20, 1976; Mahon, op. cit., p. 42; CIA document 1998: Jerry G. Brown, deputy chief, Security Analysis Group, to chief, Security Analysis Group, Aug. 18, 1976, CIA Record No. 104-10408-10212, JFK series, released under FOIA; other CIA documents on Groves: CI/Operational Approval & Support Division, Office of Security documents, “Subject: Wallace Groves,” Dec. 30, 1965, Jan. 26, Apr. 8, 1966, Apr. 12, 1972, Block Collection; Groves and Mary Carter Paint: NYT Jan. 17, 1979.)
4. The real estate scheme, which eventually collapsed, involved a plan to build condominiums on Paradise Island. The “Lansky man” involved in the project was Lou Chesler, a Canadian associate of Groves. Chesler’s involvement with gangsters dated back to the early forties, and he met with Lansky to plan Bahamas casino operations. See also chapter 11, Note 12. (Real estate: Mahon, op. cit., p. 208; “Lansky man”: Block, op. cit., p. 43–; Messick, Syndicate Abroad, op. cit., p. 130; met Lansky: Nassau Tribune, Apr. 18, 1967.)
5. Professor Block has been an adviser to the New York Senate Select Committee on Crime and editor in chief of a criminology journal. He has written nine books on organized crime, including Masters of Paradise: Organized Crime and the Internal Revenue Service in the Bahamas, New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction, 1991. He was interviewed for this book and made his files available to the author.
6. James Crosby’s brother Peter was an officer of the company listed in courthouse records as the holding company for James Crosby’s Mary Carter Paint. Peter Crosby, who had mob associates, was convicted and jailed in 1960 on charges of mail fraud, securities fraud, and the sale of unregistered securities. Similar cases followed in 1969 and 1971, when he was again convicted, this time of conspiracy to violate the Small Business Corporation Act. He vanished while free on appeal bond and was listed as a fugitive. He was living in New Jersey at the time of his brother James’ death in 1986. Mob stock swindler Louis Mastriana testified in 1973 that he and John Lombardozzi, brother of a New York Mafia boss of that name, had met with Peter Crosby in the Bahamas to discuss one of the frauds for which Crosby was indicted. As reported in chapter 11
, Mastriana was one of those who said he had dealings with Nixon’s friend Rebozo. Doubts about Rebozo’s integrity were raised because of his handling of stolen stocks. In that case Rebozo named James Crosby as one of the people he consulted about the stocks. The other was Donald Nixon. (Holding company: Miami Beach Sun, Jan. 29, 1970; offenses: Jonathan Kwitny, The Fountain Pen Conspiracy, New York: Knopf, 1973, pp. 98, 294; and Manhattan Inc., Feb. 1987; Mastriana testified: Hearings, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Committee on Government Operations, (Organized Crime: Securities, Thefts, and Frauds), U.S. Senate, 93d Congress, 1st Session, Pt. 2, Sept. 18, 1973, p. 146–; and see also Patsy Lepara testimony in Pt. 3, pp. 454, 472; Rebozo consulted James Crosby: WP, Oct. 25, 1973)
7. While a Resorts official tried to brand Teresa a liar, government counsel Edward Harrington, later U.S. attorney in Boston, declared him a credible witness. Twenty defendants were convicted on the basis of Teresa’s testimony. (Mahon, op. cit., p. 233.)
8. One such friend, New York promoter Richard Pistell, donated seventeen thousand dollars. Pistell, who helped form Crosby’s casino operation, was later sued for fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the early seventies he was first to interest the financier Robert Vesco in buying Paradise Island. (Donation: NACLA Latin America & Empire Report, Oct. 1972; helped form: Wall Street Journal, Oct. (?) 5, 1972; sued: Robert Hutchison, op. cit., p. 260; Block, op. cit., p. 55; Vesco: Hutchison, op. cit., p. 264.)
9. Henry Kissinger visited Paradise Island, as did press aide Ron Ziegler. Crosby traveled with Kissinger to meet with Nixon on Grand Cay, owned by the president’s friend Robert Abplanalp. Abplanalp frequented the Paradise casino and reportedly lost large sums on the gaming tables there. (Kissinger: NYT, Jan. 21, 1974; undated memo, Warren Adams to John Sablich, Fidelifacts report, supra, p. 545, citing Paradise Enterprises PR director Ed Woodruff; Ziegler: ibid.; Crosby, Grand Cay, Abplanalp: NYT, Jan. 21, 1974.)