Legacy of Secrecy (165 page)

804

LEGACY OF SECRECY

George Michael Evica, And We Are All Mortal: New Evidence and Analysis in the John F. Kennedy Assas-

sination (West Hartford, CT: Evica, 1978); Sylvia Meagher Accessories After the Fact: The Warren Com-

mission, the Authorities, and the Report (New York: Vintage, 1992).
29.
Anthony Summers, Conspiracy

(New York: Paragon House, 1989), pp. 205-17.
30.
Ibid, p. 214.
31.
Warren Commission, Document #1015

32.
Bernard Fensterwald, Jr., and Michael Ewing, Coincidence or Conspiracy (New York: Zebra Books,

1977), p. 570.
33.
Ibid, p. 571.
34.
Even disassembled, Oswald’s rifle was 35 inches long and weighed ten pounds; see Sylvia Meagher Accessories After the Fact: The Warren Commission, the Authorities, and

the Report (New York: Vintage, 1992).
35.
Joachim Joesten, Oswald: Assassin or Fall Guy? (New York:

Marzani & Munsell, 1964), p. 162.
36.
Dick Russell, The Man Who Knew Too Much (New York: Carroll

& Graf, 2003), pp. 196-207; Anthony Summers, Not In Your Lifetime (New York: Marlowe & Co., 1998),

pp. 124, 161-71, 292, 421, 422.
37.
Ibid Russell, pp. 198-201; the German newspaper report was noted by the Warren Commission.
38.
Ibid Russell, pp. 198-207.
39.
The New York Times, 12-2-63.
40.
There is no evidence that Walker was involved in JFK’s assassination, and he probably saw the April 1963 shooting

as a one-time publicity stunt.
41.
John H. Davis, Mafia Kingfish: Carlos Marcello and the Assassination of John F. Kennedy (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1989), pp. 300-302.
42.
Staff and editors of Newsday, The

Heroin Trail (New York: New American Library, 1974), pp.109-18; 2007 and 2008 phone interviews with

Larry Hancock; Larry Hancock, Someone Would Have Talked (Southlake, TX: JFK Lancer, 2006); HSCA

vol. X, pp. 110-36.
43.
FBI 124-10273-10442.
44.
FBI 124-10273-10448; Tampa mafia article at www.week-lyplanet.com.
45.
FBI 124-10273-10442.
46.
FBI 124-10273-10442; FBI 124-10273-10448.
47.
FBI 62-109060-5099 cited at ajweberman.com; the FBI memo dates the remarks to 4-67, not 12-63 as Ragano says in his

book. While it’s possible Trafficante made similar remarks four years apart, it’s also possible Ragano

didn’t want to disclose the full extent of what he, Trafficante, and Marcello really talked about.
48.
1993

.07.31.08:55:58:710059; Larry Hancock, Someone Would Have Talked (Southlake, TX: JFK Lancer, 2006),

p. 337.
49.
Larry Hancock, Someone Would Have Talked (Southlake, TX: JFK Lancer, 2006), p.141; CIA

104-10215-190316.
50.
Larry Hancock, Someone Would Have Talked (Southlake, TX: JFK Lancer, 2006),

p. 337.
51.
CIA 104-10308-10164.
52.
CIA 157-10005-10186 to McGeorge Bundy, 12-20-63.
53.
In the summer and early fall of 1963, CIA reports about Diaz are rather detailed, but by 12-63, only scattered mentions

of Diaz become common, with references being made to other CIA information about Diaz which has

not been released. Also, FBI files show information about Diaz’s criminal activities in 1964—sometimes

reported on by Jose Aleman—that is not reflected in the CIA files released so far.
54.
Possibly related to the Diaz attempt against Castro was an unusual meeting Trafficante had in Miami around the same time,

with Lewis McWillie, the man Jack Ruby called his “idol.” (see 10-1-76 Trafficante testimony to Church

Committee.) Like Herminio Diaz, McWillie had worked at Trafficante’s Havana casinos. McWillie had

been involved with Ruby and on the fringe of the CIA-Mafia plots in 1959, 1960, and in the spring of 1963.

McWillie was linked by the FBI to two 1959 gun-running associates of Jack Ruby and had been involved

in Cuban deals with Ruby in 1959 and 1960, when Ruby went to Havana to see Trafficante during the

initial CIA-Mafia plots. In May 1963, Ruby had shipped a pistol to McWillie while Rosselli was working

on the CIA-Mafia plots. By December 1963, McWillie was working at a Nevada casino, when he suddenly

traveled across the country to meet with Trafficante in Miami. See also 1993.07.31.08:55:58:710059); Larry

Hancock, Someone Would Have Talked (Southlake, TX: JFK Lancer, 2006), p. 337.

CHAPTER TWENTY

1.
Anthony Summers, Conspiracy (New York: Paragon House, 1989), pp. 415-419, 518; John Newman,

Oswald and the CIA (New York: Carroll & Graf, 1995) many passages; Robert Sam Anson, “They’ve

Killed the President!”: The Search for the Murderers of John F. Kennedy (New York: Bantam, 1975), p. 256;

Warren Commission Document #1084.
2.
HSCA 180-10142-10340.
3.
Anthony Summers, Not In Your

Lifetime (New York: Marlowe & Co., 1998), pp. 442, 443.
4.
Anthony Summers, Conspiracy (New York:

Paragon House, 1989), p. 600.
5.
Joseph J. Trento, The Secret History of the CIA (Roseville, CA: Prima, 2001), pp. 226, 227.
6.
Warren Commission Document #205; Church Committee Report, vol. V, pp. 30, 61-63; Skip Johnson and Tony Durr, “Ex-Tampan in JFK Plot?,” Tampa Tribune, 9-5-76.
7.
FBI teletype from

SAC Dallas, declassified 2-17-93.
8.
Richard D. Mahoney, Sons & Brothers: The Days of Jack and Bobby Kennedy (New York: Arcade, 1999), p. 418.
9.
CIA F82-0272/1, 82-1625 (4); CIA F82-0272/2; 1-64 cable to CIA Director from (censored); CIA memo declassified 8-16-93, still partially censored; CIA F82-0278 (the

document number is hard to read, and might be F82-02781).
10.
Joseph Franco with Richard Hammer,

Hoffa’s Man: The Rise and Fall of Jimmy Hoffa as Witnessed by His Strongest Arm (NewYork: Prentice

Hall, 1987), p. 198.
11.
CIA 104-10018-10052.
12.
CIA 104-10215-190316.
13.
Almost half of those casualties would come after presidential candidate Richard Nixon sabotaged LBJ’s peace talks with North Vietnam

in 10-68.
14.
John McCone “Memorandum for the Record,” 11-25-63, CIA 104-10306-10018; David E.

Scheim, Contract on America: The Mafia Murder of President John F. Kennedy (New York: Zebra, 1989),

pp. 305, 306.
15.
JCS 202-10002-10175.
16.
Anthony Summers, Conspiracy (New York: McGraw-Hill,

Notes

805

1980), p. 453.
17.
CIA 104-10306-10018 (McCone-LBJ meetings); Richard D. Mahoney, Sons & Brothers: The Days of Jack and Bobby Kennedy (New York: Arcade, 1999), p. 303; Michael R. Beschloss, Taking

Charge (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997), pp. 55-57.
18.
CIA 104-10306-10018.
19.
Joseph A. Califano, Jr., The Triumph & Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson: The White House Years (New York: Simon & Schuster,

1991), p. 295.
20.
Confidential Kennedy Foreign Policy source, 3-6-95.
21.
CIA 104-10306-10018.
22.
John Newman, “Oswald, the CIA, and Mexico City” at pbs.org.
23.
Ibid; Michael R. Beschloss, Taking Charge

(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997), pp. 66-72.
24.
HSCA 180-10142-10036, Church Report, Book V,

pp. 58-59; Michael L. Kurtz, The JFK Assassination Debates (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas,

2006), p. 173; HSCA 180-10142-10036, Church Report, Book V, pp. 58-59.
25.
Anthony and Robbyn Sum-

mers, “The Ghosts of November,” Vanity Fair, Dec. 1994; Gus Russo, Live by the Sword: The Secret War

against Castro and the Death of JFK (Baltimore: Bancroft Press, 1998), pp. 373, 374, citing comments to

the BBC.
26.
Michael R. Beschloss, Taking Charge (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997), pp. 64, 65.
27.
FBI report, DeLoach to Mohr, 12-17-63.
28.
Interviews with confidential Kennedy aide source, 3-17-92; G. Robert Blakey and Richard N. Billings, The Plot to Kill the President (New York: Times Books, 1981), pp. 76-

77.
29.
“A Sad and Solemn Duty,” Time Magazine, 12-13-63.
30.
Michael L. Kurtz, The JFK Assassination Debates (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2006), p. 21.
31.
The Murder of JFK: A Revisionist History, MPI DVD, 2006.
32.
Anthony and Robbyn Summers, “The Ghosts of November,” Vanity Fair,

12-94.
33.
CIA 104-10075-10256.
34.
CIA cable to Director, 12-10-63, CIA 104-10076-10252, declassified 8-95; David Corn, Blond Ghost: Ted Shackley and the CIA’s Crusades (New York: Simon & Schuster,

1994), p. 110.
35.
Jorge G. Castaneda, Compaêro: The Life and Death of Che Guevara (New York: Vin-

tage, 1998), pp. 250-54.
36.
Memorandum to National Security Council Staff, 11-63; Memorandum from

William Attwood to Gordon Chase, in Foreign Relations of the United States #379.
37.
CIA 104-10400-

10200, declassified 10-31-98, p. 39 citing information from 12-3-63.
38.
CIA report of their monitoring of Cuban news media, report dated 12-9-63.
39.
David Corn, Blond Ghost (New York: Simon & Schuster,

1994), pp. 110, 433; CIA Record #104-10076-10252, dated 12-10-63.
40.
JCS 202-10001-10073, declassified 4-9-98.
41.
JFK 1994.04.26.11:46:50:000007.
42.
In addition to reviewing the declassified meeting notes of participants, we interviewed one of the officials who attended.
43.
Don Bohning, The Castro Obsession: US Cover Operations Against Cuba, 1959-1965 (Washington: Potomac Books, 2005), p. 242.
44.
CIA

104-10306-10018.
45.
Army document 12-19-63, Califano Papers, Record Number 198-10004-10013,

declassified 10-7-97; Foreign Relations of the United States, vol. XI, Department of State, #388, 12-19-63.

46.
Evan Thomas, Robert Kennedy: His Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), pp. 282, 283.
47.
Ibid.

48.
David Talbot, Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years (New York: Free Press, 2007),

p. 266.
49.
Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Inside: A Public and Private Life (New York: Public Affairs, 2004), p. 126.

50.
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Robert Kennedy and His Times (New York: Ballantine, 1979), p. 664.
51.
www.

spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk citing C. David Heymann, RFK: A Candid Biography of Robert F. Kennedy

(1998).
52.
David Talbot, Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years (New York: Free Press, 2007), p. 87.
53.
Anthony and Robbyn Summers, “The Ghosts of November,” Vanity Fair, 12-94.
54.
Richard D. Mahoney, Sons & Brothers: The Days of Jack and Bobby Kennedy (New York: Arcade, 1999), p. 304.

55.
Interviews with Harry Williams 2-24-92, 4-92, 2-21-95.
56.
Ibid, 2-24-92.
57.
Erneido Oliva, “The End of Kennedy’s Final Plan to Overthrow the Castro Regime,” at camcocuba.org.
58.
Ibid, Oliva.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

1.
Evan Thomas,
Robert Kennedy: His Life
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), p. 100.
2.
Ibid Thomas, pp. 100-103.
3.
Mark Lane and Dick Gregory,
Code Name “Zorro”
(New York: Pocket Books, 1978), p. 18.

4.
Evan Thomas,
Robert Kennedy: His Life
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), pp. 100-104.
5.
Anthony Summers,
Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover
(New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1993), p. 59.
6.
HSCA vol. VI, pp. 91-129.
7.
Gerald Posner,
Killing the Dream
(New York: Random House, 1998), p. 49.
8.
Nick Kotz,
Judgment Days
(New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2005), p. 3.
9.
Evan Thomas,
Robert
Kennedy: His Life
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), p. 282.
10
. Harris Wofford,
Making Sense of the Sixties
(Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992), p. 6.
11
.
The
New York Times,
2-5-64.
12
. Walter Sheridan,
The Fall and Rise of Jimmy Hoffa
(New York: Saturday Review Press, 1972), p. 327.
13
. Ibid, p. 35.

14
. Seth Kantor,
The Ruby Cover-Up
(New York: Zebra Books, 1992), pp. 292, 293.
15
.
Life
magazine, 5-15-64;
Look
magazine 5-19-64; Dick Russell,
The Man Who Knew Too Much
(New York: Carroll & Graf, 2003), pp. 336, 337;
The New York Times
, 4-12-64.
16
.
The Nation
, 4-27-64.
17
. Ibid; David Talbot,
Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years
(New York: Free Press, 2007), pp. 263, 264; Gus Russo,
Live by the Sword:
The Secret War against Castro and the Death of JFK
(Baltimore: Bancroft Press, 1998), p. 575.
18
. Ibid Talbot, p. 272.
19
. Interviews with Harry Williams, 2-24-92, 4-92.
20
. Erneido A. Oliva,
Why Did the Assault Brigade
2506 give its flag to President Kennedy for Safekeeping?
and
History of the Cuban Unit Organized During the
Cuban Missile Crisis
, both at www.camcocuba.org.
21
. CIA 104-10241-10065, provided by Larry Hancock.

22
. Richard Schlesinger interview of Richard Helms,
48 Hours
, CBS, 1992.
23
. Tom Tripodi,
Crusade: Under-806

LEGACY OF SECRECY

cover Against the Mafia and KGB
(Washington, DC, Brassey’s, 1993), p. 4.
24
. Ann Louise Bardach,
Cuba
Confidential
(New York: Random House, 2002), many passages; “Venezuelans in Florida Bolster Expatriate Support for Luis Posada,”
Sun-Sentine
l, 9-1-08.
25
. HSCA Chronology 180-10142-10036; Gaeton Fonzi,
The
Last Investigation
(New York: Thunder’s Mouth, 1994), pp. 136-39, many others; CIA JMWAVE to Director cables, 12-63.
26.
Tad Szulc,
Fidel: A Critical Portrait
(New York: Morrow, 1986), p. 600.
27.
Fensterwald affidavit for the Justice Department, 7-7-82.
28.
HSCA Chronology 180-10142-10036.
29.
HSCA Chronology 180-10142-10036.
30.
Church Committee vol. V, p. 72.
31.
HSCA Chronology 180-10142-10036.
32.
Warren Commission Executive Session transcript, 1-27-64, p. 144.
33.
See Warren Commission Executive Session transcripts and article at maryferrell.org.
34.
CIA 104-10018-10052; HSCA vol. XI, p. 64.
35.
CIA 104-10419-10021.
36.
CIA 1993.06.26.09:00:44:900550.
37.
The McCord family website says when McCord was a “Senior CIA Security Officer in Europe he headed a team which secretly whisked out of Europe and