by Lisa Pease
Perhaps because the LAPD recognized someone might eventually listen to this tape and still have questions about a connection between Wayne and Gilbert, two months after the polygraph session, Sergeant Gutierrez interviewed Wayne again. He handed Wayne a copy of Keith Gilbert’s card and let him examine it.
After “carefully viewing Gilbert’s card,” Gutierezz wrote in his report, Wayne denied having seen the card or knowing anyone by that name. “He did, however, admit going to a ‘Nazi’ shop in Glendale with a friend, Robert J. Soto, late in the summer of 1968, after the Kennedy assassination,” Gutierrez noted.476 Wayne didn’t remember anyone taking a card from his wallet at any point.
Gutierrez doggedly pursued the issue. The same day he interviewed Michael Wayne for the last time, he also interviewed a man who went by the name Michael Wayne Belcher, but whose real name was Michael Wayne Marousek, who apparently sometimes went by the name Michael Wayne. Gutierrez showed Belcher a “business card bearing the name ‘Michael Wayne – Promoter,’ which had been found in Keith Gilbert’s apartment. Although Gutierrez’s report notes that “copies of Mr. Belcher’s old cards, which was [sic] the subject of this investigation and his new business card” were attached to the report, it appears only the new card, which clearly lists his name as Michael Wayne Belcher, is shown in the LAPD files. Perhaps the original “Michael Wayne – Promoter” card, which I have never seen, ended up in the “Kassab Investigation” folder, for Gutierrez had typed at the bottom of Michael Wayne Belcher’s LAPD cardfile card, “FOR COMPLETE STORY SEE KASSAB INVESTIGATION.”
Throughout the files, there are cryptic references to the “Kassab file” or “the Kassab investigation.” This appears to relate to a suggestion to the LAPD from Peter Noyes that Sirhan had been involved with his investigator Michael McCowan in a conspiracy that involved an Arab family by the name of Kassab that had run a massive land scam deal in the San Fernando Valley in the 1960s.
No evidence has ever surfaced that Sirhan or McCowan knew each other at any point before the shooting. I have come to suspect that the LAPD kept “double books” on their investigation into the Kennedy assassination, putting only evidence that had already been made public, evidence that other agencies were aware of, and nonconspiratorial evidence into the files that were eventually made public, and hiding evidence that indicated a conspiracy in “the Kassab investigation” files. Perhaps if such a file were located, we could finally see the missing “Michael Wayne – Promoter” card, instead of the “Michael Wayne Belcher” card that is readily available. Maybe we would also find the missing APB for the man in the gold sweater as well as the girl in the polka dot dress that was quoted in Commander Houghton’s book but does not appear to be in the files the LAPD provided to the California State Archives as well as a number of the other clearly missing interview summaries and audio tapes.
SUS disbanded a month after Gutierrez’s interviews of the two Michael Waynes. “It was said,” Bill Turner and John Christian wrote in a footnote in their book on the case, that Gutierrez “had privately voiced doubts” about the LAPD’s conclusions about the assassination. Three years later, at the young age of 40, the “physical fitness buff,” as Turner and Christian described him, died from a heart attack.477
John Khoury
WAYNE WASN’T THE ONLY EXTREME RIGHT-WINGER WHO DREW suspicion at the hotel that night. One of the more interesting characters was the man who was or wasn’t there: John Antoine Khoury.
Two people who knew John Khoury reported seeing him at the hotel that night, and one saw him in a group by the lobby fountain while Kennedy was speaking. This was the same fountain where George Clayton had seen a group that included Sirhan and a girl in a polka dot dress talking to Wayne and two other men. Khoury, however, insisted the witnesses couldn’t have seen him and had records to prove it. But as with so much of this case, those records don’t appear to tell the full story.
Charles Winner, the same man who had brought Michael Wayne to the LAPD’s attention, worked for a PR firm named Cerrell Winner & Associates inside the Ambassador Hotel. Two of Winner’s employees, Judy Groves and Fred Droz, believed they saw Khoury at the Ambassador Hotel the night of the assassination. Khoury worked in an office in the hotel. He was an auditor, having been promoted from his initial kitchen accountant role when he began employment there in December 1967.
Judy Groves told the police she saw Khoury, whom she had known at California State College at Fullerton, a few times at the hotel that night. She correctly identified Khoury from a photo the police provided. She was with her ex-husband Sanford Groves, who had also been a student at Fullerton.
The first time Groves saw Khoury was inside the Embassy Room sometime between 9 P.M. and 9:30 P.M. At the time, he was just standing there, alone, possibly watching television, as televisions had been set up inside the Embassy Room.
She later saw Khoury around 10:30 P.M. with a group of four or five men who seemed to look about the same—all had suit coats on, all had dark hair, all were of a similar size and shape. They were all “of an uncommon descent—not something that you see commonly.” She thought they looked like they “could have been Mediterranean.” Khoury seemed to be the one doing the talking. “They were grouped around enough to make me feel that they were talking as a group,” Judy told the LAPD. “They seemed to be discussing something. I mean, there was talking going on. They weren’t just standing around. They weren’t looking around.” She saw other people grouped around each other, standing and talking, “but there were gaps between them.” With Khoury’s group, Groves saw no gaps. “There was no doubt that they were standing as a group, in my mind.”478
She saw Khoury for the last time at about 11 P.M. talking to a tall, thin man who was about six-foot-two; with sandy, curly hair; about 40 years old; and wearing glasses. They were leaning against a pillar or planter near the fountain in the lobby. She had remembered this sandy-haired man in particular because she had seen him alone several times earlier that night, leaning against the wall, arms folded, observing rather than participating, all over the hotel that night, and suddenly there he was, talking to Khoury. She said he didn’t seem to be there celebrating. She didn’t think he was a journalist because he didn’t have a pad. But he had pulled her attention multiple times that night because he was always alone and seemed to be observing, “just sort of watching over” the events as they unfolded.479
Her ex-husband Sanford had also taken political science from Professor Joel Fisher. Sanford told the police he didn’t know Khoury well, but at 1 A.M. that night, Sanford called Fisher to tell him Khoury had been at the hotel that night, knowing that Fisher knew Khoury.480 Did Sanford see Khoury himself? Or had he learned of this from Judy Groves or Fred Droz?
Fred Droz also knew Khoury from their time together at Cal State Fullerton. Droz remembered Khoury particularly from his political science class taught by Professor Fisher. Droz had seen Khoury several times at the Ambassador Hotel before the shooting, as Khoury was employed there, but they were only acquaintances, not friends, and Droz had never spoken to Khoury there. Both had worked at the hotel for the past six months.
Droz felt certain he had seen John Khoury by the fountain in the lobby outside the Embassy Room when Kennedy was giving his speech. There were a lot of people around so Droz couldn’t tell if Khoury was with anyone or alone. Droz thought Khoury had been wearing a dark suit, possibly black or navy blue. “Droz states there is no doubt the person he saw was John Khoury,” Sergeant Dudley Varney wrote in his interview summary.481 Droz hadn’t given Khoury’s appearance at the hotel any thought until Professor Fisher called him the next morning, alarmed.482
Professor Fisher remembered seeing Khoury at the Ambassador Hotel when he had visited Droz there a couple of weeks prior to the assassination. Knowing that Khoury was a rabid anti-Kennedy right winger, and having learned that the shooter was a Palestinian, Fisher told Droz that Khoury was also Palestinian and had wanted to go back there during the Six-Day War to help
in some way.
Fisher knew Khoury pretty well, as Khoury had been in three of his classes and the two had worked together during a 1966 election as members of the Republican Party.483
Fisher told Droz that Khoury had tried to bribe a few teachers to change his grades. Khoury had even tried to bribe Fisher with a new Cadillac to give him a better grade, but Fisher refused. Fisher also received mail from Khoury from all over the world—Paris, Beirut, other places—and that kind of travel has never been cheap. Fisher said Khoury was always “flashing money around” and had a father who “seemed to be fantastically rich,” so it made no sense that he’d be working at the Ambassador Hotel.
Upon investigation, the LAPD found Khoury had financial backing from François K. Fakhoury of Beirut, Lebanon.484 The LAPD also noted that the man who had provided Khoury with essentially a letter of credit in 1962 for his educational expenses had since died.485
An associate of Khoury’s and a former student of Fisher’s named Farid Massouh, who was then attending graduate school in the Political Science department of the University of Chicago, said Khoury was a phony, that he put on a big show of having money that he didn’t have. While Massouh and Khoury himself said Khoury liked President John F. Kennedy, Professor Fisher told the LAPD Khoury had made anti-Kennedy remarks during the Arab-Israeli War in June 1967, presumably referring to Senator Robert Kennedy and his support of arms sales to Israel, the very reason given by the defense for Sirhan’s acts.486
Khoury had been accepted at Hastings Law School and had even been assigned a roommate there, Ralph Johnson. But Khoury never showed up at Hastings. Khoury started classes at Southwestern Law School on a part-time basis instead. Fisher told his interviewer, Sergeant Varney, that Ralph knew a lot about Khoury and would be happy to talk to the police about him,
After Fisher contacted the District Attorney’s office and told them about Khoury and the fact that Khoury had been seen at the hotel by Fred Droz, the D.A.’s office asked Khoury in for an interview on June 10, 1968. At that time, Khoury denied being at the hotel and claimed he had been home studying for school until after midnight, when he went to the airport to pick his wife up on an inbound flight from Beirut, Lebanon. His wife was a flight attendant. The part about picking up his wife was true. But he lied about being home at the time.
A few days after Khoury learned someone had reported him being at the hotel that night, Khoury dropped by Droz’s office at the Ambassador Hotel, but Droz was out of town. Droz told the police he thought that was weird, as he and Khoury had only ever been acquaintances, not friends.487 Had Khoury seen Droz at the hotel that night? Did he suspect Droz had identified him to the District Attorney? At that point, Droz hadn’t been interviewed, but Fisher had mentioned his name to the District Attorney’s office when Fisher was interviewed on June 7, 1968. Had someone inside the D.A.’s office tipped off Khoury?
When the LAPD started looking into Khoury, they found much to be disturbed about. For example, how was Khoury slipping in and out of the country undetected? How could he have sent postcards to Fisher from various places around the world when there were no legal records of his having left or returned to the United States?
Fisher told the LAPD he had received at least two postcards from Khoury during the spring of 1967, one of which was from Mexico. In the spring of 1966 and 1967, Fisher said he’d gotten other cards from Khoury from the Caribbean, Mexico, Paris and Lebanon.488 Fred Droz remembered that Fisher got cards from Khoury in the summer of 1967 from Cairo, Beirut and Paris.489 A letter dated “8 July 1968” from Khoury himself to a woman named “Bea,” who, from the context of the letter, may have worked for Professor Fisher, states:
I am leaving tomorrow for Tokyo, Japan on my way to Beirut, Lebanon. I shall stay there very shortly and upon seeing the family shall be going to France and England on some official business.490
Whose “official business” was Khoury conducting? Fakhoury’s? In the letter, Khoury asked Bea to have Fisher contact him via a post office box in Vancouver, Canada, care of “Joseph Khoury.” For someone who never had any money, that was an extraordinary itinerary, and one that disturbed the LAPD. The LAPD’s report on Khoury stated:
Reports that Khoury traveled to the mid-east, extensively, in 1967, have not been verified. Immigration Dept. Records show his last trip out of the country to have been in December, 1966. An agency in Beirut can find no record of Khoury traveling to that country.491
Was the “agency in Beirut” the CIA?
On January 9, 1968, less than a month after Khoury had begun his employment at the Ambassador Hotel, Khoury was arrested on the charge of Grand Theft Auto.492 Although the details in a County report found in Khoury’s LAPD files are sketchy, it appears that after Khoury wrecked his 1967 Cadillac El Dorado, Mrs. Elizabeth Maloof had agreed to lend him her 1966 Cadillac and have his El Dorado repaired and returned to him in exchange for a note for $3,500, to be paid in installments of $115 a month.
Khoury never held title to either vehicle. But Khoury suspected the Maloofs were trying to rip him off, so he “had secretly taken a recording of the conversation with the Maloofs in which they acknowledged his ownership of the vehicle in question.” He had already written them two checks and had evidently given Elizabeth Maloof the next check dated January 8, 1968, but she had refused it and told Khoury not to take the car from her premises.
While Sergeant Patrick O’Neil was talking to Mrs. Maloof to see if this really was a theft or not, Mrs. Maloof received a call “and stated that the person calling was the American Embassy from Lebanon requesting her not to sign a complaint.”
So although Khoury was a citizen of Lebanon, not the U.S., someone from the American Embassy in Lebanon called to intercede on his behalf. It would have made sense for someone from the Lebanese Embassy in the U.S. to intercede, but it made no sense for the American Embassy in Lebanon to intercede unless they had a special interest in Khoury, which they would have if he were secretly working for the CIA.
If Khoury were a CIA asset, suddenly everything about his story makes sense. That would explain why he had so much money despite no visible means of support. That would explain how easily he was able to get into and out of the country without leaving a paper trail. That would explain why he felt it was okay to lie to the FBI, a federal crime, which he did on June 27, 1968, when he told the Special Agents who interviewed him that he had gone straight home after he left the Ambassador Hotel.
It would also explain why the LAPD turned to “Goliath” for more information on Khoury. “Goliath” was a code name for the CIA.493 The CIA responded to several LAPD requests, such as for background information on Sirhan’s family from their time in Palestine and any possible traumatic injuries to Sirhan. But to my knowledge, Goliath was only consulted about one possible suspect: John Khoury.
After interviewing Professor Fisher, Fred Droz, Judy Groves, Sanford Groves and Charles Winner, the LAPD asked Khoury back for a second interview on July 15, 1968. At this interview, the LAPD’s investigators “explained that his relationship with the shooting was becoming suspicious and that he should provide information that would alleviate that suspicion.”494 In other words, they were asking Khoury essentially for a better alibi.
At Khoury’s next interview, he provided new information. Khoury now claimed he had been working the night shift for Globe Security, Inc. at the RCA building in Hollywood from about 6:30 P.M. to midnight on June 4, 1968. Khoury said he hadn’t mentioned this before because he didn’t want either of his employers to know about the other. Globe Security did not know he worked at the Ambassador Hotel, and the hotel did not know he worked for the security firm.
The SUS Final Report indicates that “Julius Levin, the Chief of Security and Khoury’s supervisor” confirmed Khoury’s presence at the RCA building, adding that “he recalled that Khoury was at the building at 11:45 P.M.”495 That was odd, because in Khoury’s taped interview from July 15, 1968, Khoury mentioned that Levin had left at about 11:30 P.M.
, begging the question of how he could have verified Khoury’s presence any later than that. In addition, on the tape of Khoury’s interview, he refers to Levin several times as his “friend” and says the police should call him. But Khoury also said he wrote his own reports, and that he only made rounds at 6 P.M. and 9 P.M. and that other guards made the rounds at 7 P.M. and 8 P.M. (and presumably then at 10 P.M. and 11 P.M. as well). Khoury’s shift ended at midnight. Is it possible Khoury checked in for his 9 P.M. rounds and then just left? Levin’s incongruous statement and a record written by Khoury himself were the only verifications that he didn’t leave the RCA building until midnight.
Perhaps because so many security firms in the United States are owned, founded by or staffed with intelligence officers as a means of cover, the very next day, Captain Brown of the LAPD met “Goliath,” i.e., the CIA, and “received background information on John Khoury and associates.”496 (What associates?) That same day, Lieutenant Higbie reported, “John Khoury has been eliminated as a possible suspect in the Kennedy case.”497 Did the CIA meeting have any influence on the LAPD’s decision to accept the word of the man Khoury first introduced as his “friend”498 as opposed to his boss?
Is it possible that people who knew Khoury well were mistaken? Anything is possible, and people do have lookalikes. But Fred Droz had seen Khoury during his employment at the hotel, so he had seen him fairly recently, and since Judy Groves saw Khoury multiple times that night, it’s hard to imagine she got it wrong each time.