Legacy of Secrecy (63 page)

Attorney General Kennedy the same day.5

An FBI memo to Hoover states that “trespass was made to install” the

bugs “on [the] night of 2/28/64, prior to subject moving to this house.”

After the FBI agents broke in, three bugs were “installed in the attic of

subject’s resident, in spaces above [the] ceiling light fixtures in [the]

dining-living room area, in [the] kitchen, and in subject’s bedroom.”

According to the FBI, “physical surveillance covering Marina” began

four days prior to the break-in, utilizing “eight Agents . . . in cars.” The

phone taps began on February 29, while the secret bugs started pick-

ing up information on March 2, 1964, after Marina and her children

had moved in. The electronic surveillance required an additional eight

agents daily.6

Hoover wrote that he decided to end the Marina operation because

the “coverage has embraced Marina Oswald’s dealings with her attor-

ney, [and] from a legal standpoint this is undesirable.” However, Hoover

told Rankin that “Marina Oswald’s attorney . . . had indicated that he

would keep the Dallas Office of the FBI fully informed of all information

that would be of interest.” Hoover also assured Rankin that he would

“advise the President’s Commission of any unusual activities on the

part of Mrs. Oswald,” meaning an FBI agent would continue to keep

a close eye on Marina. The eight-man physical surveillance ended on

March 9, 1964, while the phone tap and bugs were removed on March

12, probably after another FBI break-in.7

Agents prepared a full report containing all of the “take” from the

phone tap and bugs, including “personal information concerning

Marina Oswald’s sexual desires and her sexual attraction” to one of her

associates. (An FBI agent involved testified that the Bureau nicknamed

Marina “hot pants.”) However, Hoover didn’t share the full report with

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the Warren Commission—he gave them only “pertinent information”

by letter. The full report probably wound up in Hoover’s “official and

confidential” files, where he kept his most sensitive and scandalous

information.8

In at least two other cases (probably more), the FBI tapped the

phones of those involved in the JFK assassination investigation. One

case involved a couple who were casual associates of Gilberto Policarpo

Lopez, the Tampa suspect who went to Texas, Mexico City, then Cuba in

late November 1963. If even casual associates of Lopez had their phones

tapped, much closer associates of Lopez and Oswald were also likely

being tapped.

In Marina’s case, the FBI released memos about arranging the phone

taps, but no transcripts; in contrast, transcripts of the Tampa couple

were declassified, but not the memos about arranging the taps (or any

authorization from Attorney General Kennedy). The Tampa transcripts

were carbon copies that the Tampa FBI office transferred to the National

Archives after the 1992 JFK Act, with the original transcripts going to

FBI headquarters.9

In the interest of privacy, we won’t name the couple involved. In gen-

eral, the transcripts show the conversations of an intelligent left-wing

couple and their friends about primarily mundane personal matters,

but also about politics and the aftermath of JFK’s death. They discuss

how US officials had “pinned [JFK’s death] on the Fair Play [for Cuba

Committee] and communists, when they had no right to do so, and why

didn’t [US officials] say [Oswald] was a CIA man in the first place?” The

FBI transcriber writes that “conversation continued re: Oswald being

employed by the CIA.”10

The FBI phone-tap transcripts start on December 5, 1963, and end on

December 20, 1963. There is no indication that the FBI told the Warren

Commission about them, since the Tampa threat had been withheld

completely from the Commission. A stamp on the transcripts confirms

CIA approval of their release and indicates that the CIA originally

received copies, though the Agency never released or acknowledged

any of those files.11

As for the CIA, it withheld from the Warren Commission, and prob-

ably from the FBI, its own bugging of the American safe houses near

Washington, D.C., occupied by Cuban exiles such as Manuel Artime.

Keeping in mind Artime’s calls to and from Bobby Kennedy, it’s likely

that the CIA had phone taps on conversations involving the Attorney

General—surveillance that was not only illegal, but also certain to end

Helms’s career if Bobby or other US officials ever found out about it.12

The Warren Commission’s investigative problems and failings have

been amply documented over the years, most recently in Gerald D.

McKnight’s
Breach of Trust
,
so we will focus on only a few important

examples, involving organized crime, Bobby Kennedy, and the “magic

bullet” theory.

Most writers have long assumed that Warren Commission coun-

sel (now senator) Arlen Specter came up with the magic bullet theory,

which holds that JFK’s back wound, neck wound, and all of Gover-

nor Connally’s injuries were caused by a single bullet that emerged in

almost pristine condition, with very little visible damage, after shatter-

ing Connally’s wrist bones and rib. However, Congressional investiga-

tors found that it was the main autopsy physician, Dr. Humes, who first

“suggested both men could have been shot by one bullet.”13 Specter

quickly embraced this theory because he needed it to account for all the

wounds and avoid a conclusion of conspiracy. Since the Warren Com-

mission claimed that Oswald fired only three shots, and one hit JFK in

the head and one missed the limo entirely, either one “magic bullet”

created all of the other wounds in JFK and Connally, or there had to

have been more than one shooter.

Dr. Humes made his suggestion to Specter in early March 1964, and

witnesses who clearly saw and heard shots from the grassy knoll were

soon being pressured to change their testimony. We heard about that

firsthand from JFK aide David Powers, who saw the shots from the

knoll with fellow aide Kenneth O’Donnell, from their vantage point

in the limo immediately behind JFK’s. Both men told former Speaker

of the House Tip O’Neill the same thing, as O’Neill recounted in his

autobiography. O’Donnell, who was with Powers at the time, stated to

O’Neill that he “told the FBI what I had heard, but they said it couldn’t

have happened that way and that I must have been imagining things.

So I testified they way they wanted me to.”14

When we interviewed Powers, he was head of the JFK Presidential

Library, and said, “The Warren Commission was handed this theory

on a [silver] platter, and anything that didn’t conform with it, they just

didn’t take.” Powers talked about how frustrated he was, trying to tell

the truth while someone with the Warren Commission constantly inter-

rupted him. Powers and O’Donnell were both interviewed on the same

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LEGACY OF SECRECY

day, May 18, 1964, but while O’Donnell’s testimony is printed in the

usual transcript format, Powers’ is represented only by a brief, tortu-

ously worded affidavit. However, before they conformed to the official

story, both Powers and O’Donnell did manage to get in brief indications

of a shot from the knoll in front of them.15

As printed in the Warren Commission volumes, Powers’s affidavit is

unsigned by any witness and does not even bear the name of the official

who oversaw its preparation. But the National Archives was able to

locate the original copy for us, which shows that Arlen Specter prepared

Powers’s affidavit. Powers and O’Donnell’s story leaked briefly in June

1975, when the
Chicago Tribune
reported that the two men were told

they had to change their story “for the good of the country and global

tranquillity.”16

As for the magic bullet theory, many experts consider it physically

impossible. A bullet from the Depository would have been coming down

at a very steep angle, striking JFK’s back almost six inches below the

top of his collar. However, it exited from the hollow of JFK’s throat, just

below his Adam’s apple, a higher position. For a bullet hitting JFK in

the back to exit that high, JFK would had to have been leaning very far

forward, at a thirty-degree angle, but films and photos clearly show that

he hadn’t leaned forward more than eleven degrees.

In addition, Connally’s jump seat was actually lower than JFK’s, so

even if the bullet somehow managed to hit JFK’s spine or some other

bone (a scenario for which there is no evidence) and was deflected

upward and out JFK’s throat, it had to have magically changed course

in midair and then dove down to hit Connally. That clearly didn’t hap-

pen, since Connally can be seen in the Zapruder film holding his Stetson

hat well after JFK has already been hit in the throat; Connally’s wrist

would have been shattered at that point if both men were hit by the

same bullet.

The only way the “magic bullet” theory could be made palatable

was if the back wound were changed into a back-of-the-neck wound.

According to Josiah Thompson, the Warren Commission “staff let the

autopsy doctor instruct a medical illustrator to raise the back wound

from the back to the neck. Commission member US Rep. Gerald Ford

then corrected a final draft of the panel’s report to read ‘neck wound’

rather than ‘back wound.’”17

Several Warren Commission staff members tried to do a thorough

investigation, including delving into Jack Ruby’s Mafia ties and Cuban

gunrunning, but were stymied. As we mentioned earlier, the FBI

intimidated several witnesses who tried to talk about Ruby’s gunrun-

ning, while FBI agents relied on Ruby’s mob associates to say that Ruby

had no mob associates. After the two Commission staffers investigating

Ruby wrote a long memo to Rankin, outlining numerous problems and

stonewalling by the FBI and by Richard Helms, they were barred from

interviewing Ruby in Dallas.18 The resulting interview by Earl Warren

and Gerald Ford was marked by Ruby’s saying, “Unless you get me to

Washington, you can’t get a fair shake out of me.” Anthony Summers

writes that “repeatedly, eight times in all, [Ruby] begged the Chief Jus-

tice of the US to arrange his transfer to Washington for further question-

ing and lie-detector tests.” Warren and Ford refused, even when Ruby

pleaded with them, saying, “Gentlemen, my life is in danger.” Given

Sheriff Decker’s mob ties and Marcello’s control of Dallas, Ruby’s con-

cerns were all too real.

The Warren Commission staff lost another important source of infor-

mation when mob associates of Rosselli and Trafficante framed Chicago

Secret Service agent Abraham Bolden. Based on information provided

by two criminals he’d put in jail, Bolden was arrested on the day he went

to Washington to tell Commission staff about the Secret Service’s laxity,

as well as the Chicago and Tampa attempts. One of Bolden’s accusers

worked for Sam DeStefano, a notorious associate of Richard Cain, the

number-two man in the Cook County/Chicago sheriff’s office. Richard

Cain’s brother, Michael, who detailed the declassified files on Richard

in his book
Tangled Web
, says that Richard Cain had the “motive, means,

and opportunity” to frame Bolden. Richard Cain was part of the Chi-

cago Mafia, had worked with Rosselli and Trafficante on the CIA-Mafia

plots, was an active CIA informant, and files show that he had infiltrated

AMWORLD.

Abraham Bolden was sentenced to six years in prison, even though

his main accuser later admitted to committing perjury in his testimony

against Bolden. In addition, Bolden’s judge was clearly biased against

him, having told the jury that Bolden was guilty before their delibera-

tions began. Even after that misconduct resulted in a mistrial, the same

judge was allowed to conduct Bolden’s second trial, which resulted in a

conviction. Bolden has been fighting to clear his name ever since.

A Kennedy aide familiar with the JFK-Almeida coup plan told us

that Bobby was aware of Bolden’s plight, but couldn’t do anything

about it. The implication was that any interference by Bobby would

have resulted in the exposure of the Chicago and Tampa attempts that

he had kept secret. The resulting national uproar would have disclosed

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the reason for the secrecy—the JFK-Almeida coup plan—and put Com-

mander Almeida at risk, potentially triggering a crisis with Cuba or

Russia. Being unable to help Bolden no doubt only added to Bobby’s

pain and frustration.19

Bobby Kennedy, like so many others, also withheld important infor-

mation from the Warren Commission. He avoided testifying by agree-

ing to provide a statement, which he agonized over for almost two

months. It finally said that he “knew of no credible evidence to support