Legacy of Secrecy (156 page)

These excerpts from a long Justice Department memo, which the FBI withheld from Con-

gressional investigators, supports other information showing that Marcello brokered the

assassination of Dr. King for a small group of white racists. Milteer turned to Marcello

after previous attempts to recruit a hitman failed.

Much information shows that small-time career criminal and prison escapee James Earl Ray became

a low-level drug runner for Carlos Marcello’s drug network. From his prison escape in April 1967,

until his capture in England in June 1968, Ray would travel thousands of miles across the US,

Canada, and Mexico, in addition to flying to England and Portugal.

From November 19, 1967, to March 17, 1968, Ray stayed in Los Angeles, except for a drug

run to New Orleans and a brief trip to Las Vegas. Johnny Rosselli also lived in Los Angeles

at that time, at the Glen Towers Apartments, where many FBI files (example above) show

he was constantly monitored by the Bureau. After Dr. King’s murder, the FBI found a map

belonging to Ray that had Rosselli’s apartment building marked on it, but no mention of

that connection was made to the public or to Congressional investigators.

After Dr. King’s murder in Memphis on April 4, 1968, James Earl Ray fled to Canada—

but not before taking a 400-plus mile detour south to Atlanta.
Legacy of Secrecy
reveals for the
first time that when Ray arrived in Atlanta on the morning of April 5, 1968, he called Joseph Milteer’s partner, Hugh R. Spake, to get help and money from Milteer. Ray was soon in Canada, and

from there he would fly to England, then Portugal, and back to England. His two-month sojourn

as the world’s most wanted fugitive embarrassed J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI.

Before Ray was captured, Robert Kennedy was shot in Los Angeles, early on the morning of

June 5, 1968, after winning the California primary in his quest for the presidency. Questions

remain about whether Sirhan Sirhan was the only shooter in the pantry/kitchen area of the Ambas-

sador Hotel, and about Sirhan’s criminal associates, in light of reports of a contract on Robert

Kennedy tied to the Mafia.

Sirhan’s revolver held only eight bullets; all were accounted for by the Los Angeles Police

Department, which claims there were no bullet holes in any of the pantry door frames—

otherwise, there had to be more than one shooter. However, photos of the crime scene

show extra bullet holes that cannot be accounted for by Sirhan’s bullets. Los Angeles

Coroner Thomas Noguchi measures two bullet holes in a pantry doorframe (left).

Close-up of the bullet holes, circled by and with the initials of an Los Angeles Sheriff’s

Deputy (right) (
Mary Ferrell Foundation
).

The above 1962 CIA document, about a plan to assassinate Fidel Castro at a restaurant, by

hiding a pistol-wielding assassin in the pantry, is shown here for the first time. Miami

CIA Operations Chief David Morales would have been involved in the plan, which was

abandoned in 1964. David Morales later confessed having a role in Robert Kennedy’s assassi-

nation. Morales’s friend, Johnny Rosselli, was being prosecuted in Los Angeles at the time of

RFK’s assassination—and one of the members of the defense team became Sirhan Sirhan’s

main attorney.

Watergate involved twelve veterans of the JFK-Almeida coup plan, and shown above is

a page from the document that one of the burglars—Trafficante bagman Frank Fiorini,

a.k.a. Frank Sturgis—said they were really after. The long Cuban memo described many

CIA attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro, starting in 1960 when Richard Nixon was Vice

President. That year Nixon, President Eisenhower’s point man on Cuba, hoped to use

Castro’s assassination by the Mafia as the original October Surprise, to propel him past

JFK in the November 1960 election.

The Watergate investigation eventually encompassed JFK’s assassination, and Johnny

Rosselli testified to the Watergate Committee in a private session. More commissions and

committees followed, but five witnesses were murdered, among them (clockwise from

top left) Trafficante drug associate Rolando Masferrer; Jimmy Hoffa; Rosselli’s old Mafia

boss Sam Giancana; Chicago hit man Charles Nicoletti; and Johnny Rosselli. There were

four more sudden deaths of witnesses before they could testify, including those of Manuel

Artime and David Morales (
Richards/Spartacus/HSCA/NARA
).