Soviets began: Dallas Times-Herald, March 22, 1963; JFK press conference, JFK Public Papers (1963) April 3, 1963.
210 Nixon speeches: to American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 20, 1963; Dallas Morning News, April 21, 1963; HSCA X.13.
Cuban Revolutionary Council funds cut: Schlesinger, Robert F. Kennedy, p. 540; Albert Newman, op. cit., p. 333; HSCA X.13.
Sapp memo: to Assistant Chief of Police Anderson, April 4, 1963; int. Sapp, 1978.
Handbill: Manchester, op. cit., p. 53.
211 Fontainebleau meeting/CIA-Mafia collaboration: int. Joe Shimon, 1978; also Sen. Int. Cttee. Assassination Plots, 1975; HSCA X.151–; HSCA IV.126; HSCA Report, p. 114–. References hereafter to CIA-Mafia plots are from those sources unless otherwise indicated.
212 ONI and OSS & Mafia: Thomas Sciacca, Luciano, New York: Pinnacle Books, 1975; , Richard H. Smith, OSS: The Secret History of America’s First Central Intelligence Agency, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1972; ed. Anthony Cave Brown, The Secret War Report of the OSS, New York: Berkeley Publishing Corp., 1976.
213 Lansky, Trafficante, and Cuba: “The Hughes-Nixon-Lansky Connection,” Rolling Stone, May 20, 1976; Ed Reid, op cit.
215 Initial Mob plotting: HSCA X.175–, 194n213.
Dulles: HSCA XI.66.
Maheu background: Sen. Int. Cttee. Assassination Plots, p. 74n4.
Giancana and Cuba: Hougan, op. cit., pp. 335, 337.
216 Trafficante background: Reid, op. cit; Sen. Int. Cttee. Assassination Plots; Hearings of McClellan Committee, 1959, pp. 124–132; Alfred McCoy, Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia, New York: Harper Colophon Books, 1972, pp. 27, 55; Hank Messick, Lansky, New York: Berkley Medallion Books, 1971, pp. 195, 215; HSCA V. 419–.
Trafficante as “Pecora”: HSCA V.257.
De Varona: Dan Moldea, The Hoffa Wars, New York: Paddington Press, 1978, p. 133.
217 HSCA speculation: HSCA Report, p. 114.
Szulc: “Cuba on Our Mind,” Esquire, February 1974.
Smathers: “Were Trujillo, Diem, CIA Targets Too?” by Jack Anderson, UFS syndicated article, Miami Herald, January 19, 1971; conv. 1978; and int. by D. M. Wilson for JFK Oral History Program, March 31, 1964.
RFK, Giancana, and plots: Sen. Int. Cttee. Assassination Plots, p. 129–; HSCA X.187.
218 RFK “stops” plot: New York Times, March 10, 1975; also int. of Frank Mankiewicz, October 29, 1969 for RFK Oral History Program.
CIA officials’ refrained: e.g. in Thomas Powers, op. cit., Chapter 9.
Helms recalled: Helms with Hood, op. cit., p. 188.
219 Bissell: VF, December 1994 (drawing on interviews of Bissell by Jan Weininger). For another reading of Bissell on this subject, see Evan Thomas, The Very Best Men, Four Who Dared: The Early Years of the CIA, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.
Harvey told I. G.: ibid., pp. 132, 137.
Former officer: int. Jan Weininger, citing her int. of case officer, 1994.
Smathers: int. by Robbyn Swan, 1994.
Note 2: Judith Campbell is frequently named as Judith “Exner,” her later married name. Judith Campbell was her name during the Kennedy administration.
Campbell: Sen. Int. Cttee. Assassination Plots, p. 129; Judith Campbell as told to Ovid Demaris, My Story, New York: Grove, 1977; “Jack, Judy, Sam and Johnny,” New Times, January 23, 1976; New York Post, December 22, 1975; author’s articles, New York Daily News, October 6, 7, 8, 1991; ints. Exner, 1990–1992; int. Evelyn Lincoln, 1991.
220 Halpern: Evan Thomas, op. cit., p. 403, American Heritage magazine, November 1995, p. 60, and int. Mark Allen, 1995.
Giancana on wiretap: Robert Blakey & Richard Billings, The Plot to Kill the President, New York: Times Books, 1981, p. 383.
14. The Mob Loses Patience
221 Trafficante quote: int. José Alemán,1978; originally quoted in the Washington Post, May 16, 1976 (explained later in this chapter).
RFK on organizer: Schlesinger, Robert F. Kennedy, op. cit., p. 8.
222 “shooting fish”: ibid. p. 62.
223 Hoffa on RFK: (“bastard”) James R. Hoffa, as told to Oscar Fraley, Hoffa: The Real Story, New York: Stein and Day, 1975, pp. 107–115; (“monster”) Ralph and Estelle James, Hoffa and the Teamsters, New York: Van Nostrand, 1965); (“brat”) BBC int. of Hoffa, 1975.
Hoffa to Teamsters on RFK: International Teamster, February 1959.
JFK replied: “The Mafia, the CIA, and the Kennedy Assassination,” Washingtonian, November 1975.
RFK on gangsters: Schlesinger, Robert F. Kennedy, op. cit., p. 240.
224 RFK on Hoffa associates/syndicate: Schlesinger, Robert F. Kennedy, op. cit., p. 75.
RFK on Baker: Schlesinger, Robert F. Kennedy, op. cit., p. 60.
RFK on “private government”: Robert Kennedy to Sen. Govt. Operations Cttee., September 25, 1963.
Hoffa prime target: Walter Sheridan, The Fall and Rise of Jimmy Hoffa, New York: Saturday Review Press, 1972, p. 193.
225 Hoffa’s “seamy” information on Kennedys: cited Jim Hougan, op. cit., p. 119.
Note 1: The author’s book Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe (New York: Open Road Integrated Media, 2013, and London: Orion, 2012) is a full-scale biography that includes the star’s relationships with the Kennedy brothers.
“Fuck Hoover!” int. William Roemer, 1988; William Roemer, Man Against the Mob, New York: Donald Fine, 1989, pp. 118, 214; int. Neil Welch, 1988.
Giancana & RFK: McClellan Committee hearing June 9, 1959, 86th Cong., 1 Sess., 18672–.
226 Giancana crime career: New Times, January 23, 1976; and Robert Blakey to author, 1979.
Kennedy prosecution record: Department of Justice figures, HSCA V.435; Congressional Record, March 11, 1969, S2642; research of Katherine Kinsella for author, 1978; HSCA V.434–.
Salerno: quoted in JILE, Indiana Police Association journal, Spring 1979.
Weisburg/Bruno wiretap: HSCA V.443, 458.
227 Fithian: JILE, Indiana Police Association journal, Spring 1979.
HSCA assessment: HSCA Report, p. 161.
228 Partin episode: ints. Judge Hawk Daniels, 1978; int. Edward Partin, 1978; “An Insider’s Chilling Story of Hoffa’s Savage Kingdom,” Life magazine, May 15, 1964; HSCA Report, p. 176–.
229 JFK told Bradlee: Benjamin Bradlee, Conversations with Kennedy, New York: W. W. Norton, 1976, p. 125–.
Trafficante & Kennedys: McClellan Committee Hearings, 1959 (p. 12432).
Alemán episode: int. José Alemán, 1978; originally reported by George Crile in the Washington Post, May 16, 1976. Alemán testimony, HSCA V.301 (incorporating staff reports); HSCA Chief Counsel, HSCA V.345; HSCA Report, p. 172–; Moldea, op. cit., p. 427n46.
Note 2: The date of the alleged Alemán-Trafficante conversation is unclear. It was first reported (Washington Post, May 16, 1976) as September 1962. Alemán himself was unsure because he had at least three meetings with Trafficante during that general period. In his testimony to the Assassinations Committee he spoke of June–July 1963 (HSCA V.303).
230 Hoffa millionaire: Playboy, December 1975.
231 Note 3: The Bureau denied this allegation by Alemán.
Marcello: (Ed Reid quoting Aaron Kohn) Reid, op. cit., p. 156; (syndicate income) HSCA IX.65; (elusive) ibid., p. 154; (Cuban involvement) Jim Hougan, op. cit., p. 335 (quoting FBI); (link to Hoffa)int. Judge Daniels, 1978; (Marcello, Hoffa and Nixon contribution) Moldea, op. cit., p. 108; (bribe in Hoffa case) Reid, op. cit., pp. 159–60; (birth and deportation)Reid, op. cit., p. 151–; (influence) HSCA IX.52, 88n52; and Aaron Kohn, quoted by Fensterwald/Ewing, op. cit., p. 307.
233 Note 4: One report said Marcello was picked up by two CIA agents posing as Justice Department officers (Hougan, op. cit., p. 113). The Assassinations Co
mmittee staff report, however, specified that they were Immigration Service officers (HSCA IX.71).
234 Marcello “threat”: ints. Edward Becker, 1978, 1992; originally revealed by Ed Reid, op. cit., p. 161–; Becker int. by Earl Golz, Dallas Morning News, December 1978; HSCA Report, p. 171–; HSCA IX.75; int. Julian Blodgett, 1992; and see Anthony Summers, Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover, New York: Putnam, 1993, p. 327–.
235 Note 5: Ed Reid, who first reported the alleged Marcello threat in his book The Grim Reapers (see Bibliography), was the winner of many journalism awards, including a Pulitzer Prize in 1951. He became an acknowledged specialist on organized-crime operations for that period.
Note 6: Neither Roppolo nor Liverde (which should perhaps be rendered “Livaudais”), the other associate who allegedly attended the meeting, was interviewed by the Assassinations Committee. They should have been. (“Liverde,” Becker has said, may have been a member of the Liberto family, one of whose members was suspected of conspiring with Marcello to murder Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.).
236 Note 7: Apparent corroboration of the Hoffa/Trafficante/Marcello involvement in President Kennedy’s death appeared in 1994, in Mob Lawyer by Frank Ragano, the longtime attorney for all three. Ragano wrote that Hoffa had sent him to see Marcello and Trafficante in July 1963, to ask them to have the President killed. After the assassination, Ragano claimed, Hoffa exclaimed, “I told you they could do it,” while Marcello said, “Tell [Jimmy] he owes me big.” Ragano also claimed that, days before his death in 1987, Trafficante effectively confessed to the crime—saying: “Goddamn Bobby. Carlos [Marcello] fucked up. We shouldn’t have killed John. We should have killed Bobby.” While some have expressed belief in Ragano’s account, this author finds the Trafficante “confession” story dubious. The author looked into whether Trafficante was where Ragano said he was on the day Ragano said he met with him, and decided it was unlikely, if not impossible. Exposing Ragano as a liar, however, would not dispose of the “Mob dunnit” theory—nor of the notion that Trafficante and Marcello played some part in Kennedy’s murder. For more detail on the author’s probe of the Ragano story, see VF, December 1994.
Blakey on Mob guilt: Newsweek, July 30, 1979.
15. Six Options for History
238 Johnson predicts visit: Dallas Times-Herald, April 24, 1963 (reporting Johnson speech previous evening).
April 24 departure: II.459, Ruth Paine testimony.
Murrets and Oswald call: VIII.135, 164.
Uncle’s Mafia link: HSCA Report, p. 170; HSCA IX.95.
239 HSCA on Soviets: HSCA Report, p. 103.
Oswald lone gunman: Report, p. 423.
240 Note 1: The thesis postulating Soviet involvement in the assassination was expounded—fatuously—by the British writer Michael Eddowes in his book The Oswald File (see Bibliography). Eddowes suggested that the real Oswald never returned to the United States. Eddowes based his theory mostly on discrepancies in the heights recorded for Oswald on official documents, which seem to show that the Oswald who returned from Russia was considerably shorter than the Oswald who served in the Marine Corps. Eddowes suggested that the fake Oswald killed President Kennedy on orders from Soviet leader Khrushchev. The monstrous political implications aside, this theory founders on the fact that the fingerprints of Marine Oswald are identical with those of the Oswald who died in Dallas. To accept Eddowes’ theory one would also have to believe that Oswald’s mother was fooled by the fake Oswald on his arrival from Russia. Nevertheless, Eddowes succeeded in persuading Texas courts to order the exhumation of Oswald’s body for tests to determine whether the corpse was really his. On exhumation, according to the authorities, the body was declared to be what it was buried as in 1963—that of the authentic Oswald.
Johnson swung: see Anthony Summers, Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover, New York: Putnam, 1993, p. 330 and sources.
Note 2: Long after the Warren inquiry, when the existence of the CIA plots to kill Castro was revealed, some former Commission members were outraged, saying the CIA had kept them in the dark. According to Earl Warren’s son, however, the Chief Justice did learn about the plots. (VF, December 1994; ints. Warren’s son Earl Warren Jr., and his grandson, Jeff Warren, 1994; outrage of some Commission members: e.g., author’s ints. Burt Griffin, for BBC, January 1977.)
Coleman: int. 1994.
Warren & HSCA on Cuban role: Report, p. 21, HSCA Report, p. 129.
241 Note 3: The author first referred to was Gus Russo, who in 1998 wrote Live by the Sword: The Secret War Against Castro and the Death of JFK (Baltimore, MD, 1998). The passage cited is at p. 459. The former CIA analyst, Brian Latell, wrote Castro’s Secrets: The CIA and Cuba’s Intelligence Machine (New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). The author’s thesis is summarized at p. 247.
Note 4: See Chapter 22, “Casting the First Stone.”
HSCA on top mobsters: Report, p. 1.
242 Note 5: Robert Blakey, a former special prosecutor in the Kennedy Justice Department, spent the greater part of his career as professor of law at Notre Dame University, and director of the university’s Institute on Organized Crime. The quotation is taken from p. xiv of his book The Plot to Kill the President (New York, Times Books, 1981) coauthored with Richard Billings, who had been editorial director of the House Committee.
Note 6: The book is The Road to Dallas: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy, by David Kaiser (Cambridge, MA, Belknap, 2008). Kaiser’s view, in essence, is that the assassination was the result of “a conspiracy of mobsters and misfits.” (See his book, pp. 8, 414.)
Marcello acknowledged: Lamar Waldron with Thom Hartmann, Ultimate Sacrifice: John and Robert Kennedy, the Plan for a Coup in Cuba and the Murder of JFK, New York: Carroll & Graf, 2005, pp. 12, 818.
Edwards: Fensterwald, op. cit., p. 148.
243 Hart: Denver Post, May 2, 1976.
244 Fonzi: see Bibliography.
Note 7: The late Gaeton Fonzi’s 1993 book was The Last Investigation (New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press). The references cited are on pp. 404, 409.
Note 8: The former analyst, who is also a trained historian, is John Newman, whose 1995 book was Oswald and the CIA (New York: Carroll & Graf). He contributed a postscript to the previous edition of this book.
245 Note 9: The former Washington Post journalist, Jefferson Morley, is the author Our Man in Mexico: Winston Scott and the Hidden History of the CIA, Kansas, MO: Univ. Press of Kansas, 2008. For the references used, see that book, p. 238, and Morley’s article “What Can We Do About JFK’s Murder?” (The Atlantic, December 21, 2012)
Road map: Robert Blakey, in introduction to The Final Assassinations Report (see Report of the Select Committee in Bibliography).
16. Viva Fidel?
246 Liebeler: Hearings, XI.414.
Delgado: VIII.241.
Oswald spring letter: XX.511, Oswald undated letter date is best fixed between March 23 and April 2, see Albert Newman, op. cit., p. 328; also XXII.796; reports of policemen Harkness and Finigan, who observed “unidentified white male” with pro-Castro placard.
247 FBI reading FPCC mail: XVII.773, report by FBI agent Hosty, referring to information supplied by informant on April 21, 1963.
1962 envelope: FBI exhibit 413 in National Archives, envelope from FPCC to Oswald, postmarked “1962,” found among Oswald’s effects after the assassination. The address on the envelope narrows the date down to the period August 4 and October 8, 1962.
Late May letter to FPCC: XX.512.
FPCC reply: XX.514—letter is dated May 29.
248 Printing: (Jones) Report, pp. 407, 728; XX.771; XXII.797; XXV.587, 773; (Mailer’s) XXII.800; XXV.770–.
Note 1: When interviewed by the FBI after the assassination, however, neither Jones employee questioned thought that the man who ordered the le
aflets—using the name “Osborne”—looked like the FBI photograph of Oswald. An employee at a company that printed other material, however—and who said his customer used the name “Osborne”—did identify Oswald from a photo. (Kaiser, op. cit., p. 212, citing FBI documents).
“Hidell”: Report, pp. 578, 615; (Marina signs) Report, p. 578; (handwriting experts) HSCA VIII.238; see also Chapter 5, supra.
Note 2: Only one person has acknowledged familiarity with Oswald’s use of the name Hidell in advance of the assassination. That is Oswald’s wife, Marina, who eventually said Oswald persuaded her to sign the name in the space for “President” on his New Orleans Fair Play for Cuba Committee card. Handwriting analysis indicated she did indeed do this.
Worker letter: XX.257.
Port demonstration: XXII.806 (report of Patrolman Girod Ray).
249 Library visits: New Orleans FBI report dated November 27, 1963, FBI 105-82555, Section 12, www.maryferrell.org.
Seminary visit: XXV.926–; (with Murret) HSCA IX.95.
Corr. Soviet Embassy: I.35; XVI.10–20; XVIII.506.
250 Bringuier visit: XIX.240; XXV.773; (next day) X.37; XXVI.768.
Oswald-Bringuier incident: XI.358; XXV.90, 773; XXVI.348, 578, 768; CD 6.223. int. Bringuier, 1978; Bringuier, op. cit., p. 25–.
251 Martello/Austin: James/Wardlaw, op. cit., p. 12.
Oswald/editor: XXI.626.
Long John Nebel call: “If Ruby had Missed, They Would have Listened,” Bob Consadine column, New York Journal American, February 28, 1964[?] in FBI 105-82555-A.
August 16 incident: X.41, 61, 68; XVI.342; XXV.771; CD 206.216–; CD 114.629; CD 75.69–.
Radio interview: X.49; XI.160–.
252 Debate: X.42; XI.171; XVII.763.
Warren Commission rationale: Report, p. 412.
253 August 1 letter: Oswald to Lee, August 1, 1963, FBI 105-38431, www.maryferrell.org.
254 Bringuier call to supporters: XIX.175.
255 CIA , FBI & Army Intelligence clandestine ops.: Sen. Int. Cttee., Performance of Intelligence Agencies, p. 66; HSCA Report p. 224; int. John Marks, author of CIA and the Cult of Intelligence (see Bibliography), quoted in Anson, op. cit., p. 284.