To Kill a President

by By Marc james

  “It’s an Anti-Castro group.”

  “If you don’t mind me asking Silvia, how did you come to be involved in that?”

  Silvia grimaced. “My father was involved in the attempts to overthrow the Batista regime. He was close to Castro but disagreed with him on some fundamental issues. Castro had him arrested. My sister and I fled to Dallas and I helped to found the group.”

  “That must have been very hard for you both.” David commented he then sipped his coffee.

  Silvia nodded and followed suit, once she had had finished she continued. “It was. That’s why they came to see me. They wanted to help overthrow Castro. There were three of them, Leopoldo and Angelo are both Cuban’s. They told me they were members of Junta Revolutionaria but I’d never met them before. The other man was introduced to me as Leon Oswald, they told me that he was willing to assassinate Castro. But I told them I didn’t want to be a part of any plot to kill him. Then they left.”

  “What did Oswald say?” David asked.

  “Absolutely nothing, he was quiet he seemed quite uncomfortable.”

  “And that was it?”

  “Well the next day Leopoldo phoned my house. He told me that Leon was unpredictable, that he was a former marine and an excellent marksman. He said that Leon criticized Cuban’s for their lack of guts, that we should have killed Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs fiasco.”

  “Jesus Christ.” David muttered.

  “So what is this all about?”

  “Well Silvia I believe that your visitors may be planning to assassinate the President when he comes to Dallas.”

  Silvia gasped loudly. “I knew it! But why would they come to me?”

  “Well perhaps they wanted your help.” David suggested.

  Silvia considered this for a moment and then replied. “How could I help them though? I’m not an assassin, I’m not even anti-Kennedy.”

  “Well they probably thought you were considering the Bay of Pigs.”

  “But isn’t it strange that Leopoldo called me the following day just to say Leon was an excellent marksman and wanted Kennedy dead. I mean why tell me that when I’d already said no to helping them?”

  David thought before replying he took a sip of his coffee to buy him some time. “Well perhaps they wanted you to believe it was Oswald that committed the assassination. Maybe so you could testify against him?”

  “But why would they give him up?”

  “Possibly so they don’t get the blame.” David replied. “Do you have any way of contacting Leopoldo?”

  “No I would never have wanted to. So what are you going to do? Have you gone to the police?”

  “I’m afraid we have tried everything but we are having difficulty in getting anyone to take us seriously. I guess President’s get a lot of death threats. We are still going to do our best but it is just myself and three friends. We aren’t holding out much hope.”

  “I’ll help you in any way that I can.” Silvia stated.

  “I appreciate that Silvia. Do you have a phone number I could have?” She nodded and grabbed a pen and paper from beside the telephone at the end of the couch she was sat on. She handed it to David with a smile. “Thank you. I will be in touch.” David rose from the couch and Silvia showed him to the door.

  Chapter 55

  As Jane and Faraday took their seats at Jim Garrison’s bedside she could not believe how different he looked. His hair had been slicked back on their previous meeting, it was now spiked up in every direction. His eyes looked hollow and underneath them were black bags. In short he looked terrible.

  As he studied Jane it seemed to take him a minute to recognize her. But when he did his eyes seemed to brighten slightly.

  “How are you feeling Mr Garrison?”

  He seemed to be upset by the question. “I need to get out of here! No one will listen to me! Can you get me out?”

  Faraday knew how he felt. It hadn’t been all that long since he was locked up in a psychiatric ward. It was Jane that responded. “I’m sorry Jim I can’t. I promise we will get Bobby to do what he can after this Kennedy thing has happened. It’s not right you being locked up in here, did they even give you a trial?”

  “No they wanted me silenced, discredited. They didn’t even charge me with anything. Some FBI agent came into the room when I was arrested and told me they were going to transfer me here. He said I was confused and had lost grasp of reality. My wife thinks I’m nuts.”

  Faraday spoke for the first time. “I know how you feel Jim. I’ve been in one of these places too. It is horrible. No matter what you do they just think you’re crazy because you’re in here.”

  Jim nodded. “Who are you?”

  “This is my fiancé James Faraday.”

  “Are you from the future too?”

  Faraday nodded.

  “What happened to your eye?”

  “They tried to shut me up too.” Faraday stated.

  “Bastards. Can you stop them?” Jim asked.

  “We’re trying Jim but we are struggling. We still don’t know who exactly is involved. We know the mob and the CIA are in on it, but we don’t know names. That’s why we’re here we thought you could tell us what happened with Guy Bannister?”

  “I didn’t shoot anyone!” He announced.

  “I know that Jim, who did?” Jane asked.

  “It was that bastard Ferrie! He burst in and shot Jack and Guy! He must have known what was going on, I have no idea how he found out but he shot Guy right in the throat. Probably to shut him up.”

  “Could the office have been bugged?” Faraday asked.

  “Probably that would make sense. They must have known Guy was talking and decided to shut him up. Is he still alive?”

  “As far as I know.” Jane replied.

  “Mark my words it won’t be long. They wanted him dead, Ferrie probably thought he’d done it. Anyone that knows anything will be silenced, that’s why he shot Jack too.”

  “Do you think they’ll come after you?” Jane asked.

  “No they’ve already silenced me. Who would believe anything I say now?”

  “Well after Friday they’ll believe you if we can’t stop them.” Faraday answered.

  “So what did you find out?” Jane asked.

  “Well quite a bit actually.”

  “How did you get him to talk?”

  “I managed to procure some truth serum from a friend in the CIA. They’ve been using it for years during interrogations.”

  “Who’s your friend? Does he know about this?”

  “He was there! He was in his car across the street, I told him everything he was going to help us. But then Ferrie killed Jack and shot Bannister. I haven’t seen him since.”

  “So who is he?” Jane repeated.

  “I don’t want to give you his name. If they find out they’ll kill him too. They won’t leave any loose ends. You should both be careful, if they attacked you once they’ll finish the job if you keep going.”

  “The thought had occurred to me.” Faraday responded.

  “And you’re both going to keep at this?”

  “We have to.” Jane answered, Faraday was silent.

  “And you’re sure?”

  “To be honest I think we are already in too deep. I doubt it would make a difference if we stopped now. They’d probably still come after us.” Faraday stated.

  “Very well. As I said I found out quite a lot it’s hard to know where to begin. I’ll start with Lee Harvey Oswald. They’re setting him up to take the fall. He’s a Naval Intelligence Officer and a CIA Agent he thinks he has infiltrated the plot to kill Kennedy and that the CIA are trying to stop it. Bannister’s role was to ensure that Oswald looks like a lone nut. That’s why they staged the fight in the street between Carlos Bringuier and Oswald. It was so he would seem like a Castro fanatic this providing a motive. That’s probably the only reason they brought him back from Russia.

  They’ve been using this CIA agent Gerry Hemming...”
>
  “That’s one of the guys that attacked me!” Faraday stated.

  “Well apparently they’ve been using him to leave a false trail for Oswald. He visited Mexico City in September and using Oswald’s name tried to get a visa to visit both Cuba and Russia. He and Oswald are also in possession of a fake selective service card under the name Alek James Hidell. Gerry has used the name to order a rifle by mail order that they will plant at the School Book Depository. Oswald was instructed to purchase a pistol by mail order and have it delivered to a PO Box under the Hidell name. That way he is linked to the rifle that he never bought. If the assassination is not stopped Oswald is to meet with his CIA handler Billy Beane at the Dallas Theatre.”

  “That must be Derrick! Sorry Jim please go on I didn’t mean to interrupt.” Faraday said.

  “Okay so from what Bannister told me the assassination seems to be a three way thing between the CIA, Mafia and Cuban exiles. All of the men involved seem to have been involved in a CIA plot to kill Castro called Operation Mongoose. Apparently the CIA and the Mafia were working on ways of killing Castro discretely by using Cuban exiles.”

  “So you said you got the names of some people that were involved?”

  “Yeah, I don’t know exactly what their roles are but from the CIA we have Howard Hunt. From what I can tell he seems to be the one orchestrating the CIA involvement. Like I said we have Gerry Hemming. We also have Tosh Plumlee, Frank Sturgis, Bernard Barker, William Harvey and Billy Beane.”

  “Frank Sturgis, Howard Hunt and Bernard Barker were involved in Watergate as well.” Faraday stated.

  “Jesus this country is corrupt.” Jane stated.

  “What is Watergate?” Jim asked again.

  “It happens in the future it was a scandal involving Richard Nixon who was the President at the time. Burglaries and bugging of the Democratic Party head quarters. He ends up being the only President to ever resign from office.”

  “I always knew that guy was corrupt.” Jim replied.

  “So did you find out what their roles are?”

  “No I’m afraid not. I know what David Ferrie’s role is. He’s a getaway pilot. Apparently the assassins are to make their way to Houston where he will meet them and get them away from Texas.”

  “Is that everything?” Jane asked.

  “I know the position of the shooters.”

  “Excellent!” Jane said. “Is it the grassy knoll?”

  “No it’s the Dal-Tex building. It’s on the opposite side of Houston Street from the School Book Depository. Apparently a shooter on the second floor of this building would have a much clearer shot than a shooter from the School Book Depository as there are no trees blocking the shot.”

  “Did he mention any other positions?” Faraday asked.

  “No that was it.” Jim stated.

  “Okay thanks Jim. We had better head back to Dallas.” Jim’s eyes showed the pain he felt at being left in the hospital, Faraday was first to take notice.

  “Don’t worry Jim we won’t leave you here. As soon as we can we will start working on getting you home. I promise.”

  “Thank you. If Kennedy is gunned down they will surely know I was telling the truth, they’ll have to let me go.” Jim said hopefully.

  “Well hopefully we can stop them and still get you out Jim. We will see you next week at the latest okay?” Jane added.

  “Okay, good luck.”

  Once Faraday and Jane had left the room Jim was left alone with his thoughts. How could two kids and a crippled lawyer stop this assassination? There’s no chance surely I’ll get out of here on Friday. After a few moments Jim focused his attention on the view from his window. The rain was pounding against the glass and the sky was as dark a shade of gray as he had ever seen it. What he would give to be able to walk in the rain, instead of being locked up in this place. His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on his door. A nurse entered the room and told him. “The doctor would like to see you now Jim.”

  Chapter 56

  As Bobby listened to Jane, Faraday and David explain their findings he was as confused as ever. How could they use this information to stop the assassination? There were four of them and between them they had one gun, what were they hoping to achieve? They were sat around the table by the window watching the rain pouring down. The television was blaring in the background.

  “Okay so we know now for sure that Oswald is a patsy, but what can we do to stop it?” Bobby asked.

  “The only option we have is to go to Oswald and warn him.” David suggested.

  “I don’t think we can do that David. It’s too risky, they’d kill us and even if we could stop Oswald from going in to work that wouldn’t save Kennedy.” Bobby replied.

  “Anyone got a better idea?” David asked sceptically.

  “I don’t think we can stop this. I think our best chance is to try and stop Oswald getting the blame. If we can get Polaroid cameras we might be able to photograph the assassins.” Jane suggested.

  Bobby considered this for a moment. “That’s not a bad idea. Maybe we should try and workout where each of us should position ourselves during the assassination.”

  “So what we are just letting him die?” David asked, clearly infuriated.

  “Well how can we stop it David?” Bobby asked.

  “We buy guns, we can stop them ourselves.”

  Bobby shook his head. “No, I agree that we should probably buy guns. One between four of us will not work, but getting into a shootout with the CIA and the Mafia would be insanity. We would all die and if we somehow survived we would be arrested.”

  David was silent now, he couldn’t really argue with Bobby’s logic. “So perhaps we should get cameras to catch the assassins and guns that are only to be used if we need to protect ourselves. But where do we position ourselves?”

  “Well someone needs to be at the Dal-Tex building.” David stated.

  “Do you want to do that?” Bobby replied.

  “I could. I think it might be an idea to ask Silvia Odio to come with me, she might be able to identify the men who visited her.”

  “Would she do that?” Faraday asked.

  “She said she would help us and she gave me her number. It could work.”

  “Okay well let’s give that a try. Will you be going to the hospital after the shooting?” Bobby asked.

  “It would make sense. I could try and gain access to Kennedy’s body. The actual autopsy was carried out at Bathesda Naval Hospital in Washington. Apparently the Secret Service removed the body from Dallas whilst they had their guns pointed at the Pathologist attempting to carry out an autopsy here.”

  “Okay so that’s pretty much you occupied for the day David. I think someone needs to be with Oswald, I would like to do it. That way I can gain his trust before he is arrested and he will approve of me being his lawyer.”

  “So what do we do?” Faraday asked.

  “Well we need someone near the grassy knoll. I would suggest someone should be stationed on the grass between Elm Street and Main Street. That way they will have a view of both the knoll and the motorcade.

  Lastly I think we need someone at the intersection of East 10th Street and Patton Avenue.”

  “Why?” Jane asked.

  “That’s where Officer Tippit was shot.” Faraday stated. “I’ll go there, Jane you can try to get a picture of the motorcade and the grassy knoll. You’ll be much safer there.”

  “I agree.” David stated.

  “Great!” Bobby said. “Well as I said I’ll stay with Oswald, when he is arrested I’ll go to Dallas Police Head Quarters and get access to him as quickly as possible. David will be at the hospital, if you two could just find out as much as you can after the assassination you can come to see me at the police station and give me what you’ve got.”

  The room was silent for a moment. Everyone seemed to be pleased that after so long they finally had a plan. Their joy was short lived however as the voice of the Dan Rather reported news from t
he black and white television.

  “You will remember that we broke the news recently that New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison had been hospitalized following the murder and attempted murder of Jack Martin and Guy Bannister respectively, he was hospitalised due to fears over his sanity. Tonight we must report that Mr Garrison has died during a routine Electric Shock procedure.

  The procedure is used in cases of severe depression and its use has attracted some controversy due to side effects such as memory loss or brain damage. Reports from the hospital tonight suggest that Mr Garrison had requested the procedure earlier this week.

  Coincidentally this comes just hours after Guy Bannister was found dead after committing suicide. He was found in his office after being released from hospital yesterday.”

  “What the fuck?” Faraday shouted.

  “Jesus, they’re cleaning house already.” Bobby said. Everyone in the room was stunned by the latest developments.

  “He didn’t mention anything about electric shock treatment, he just wanted out. He would never have requested that there was nothing wrong with him.” Jane said clearly getting emotional. Faraday pulled her towards him and put his arms around her. They were interrupted by the telephone ringing. Bobby struggled to his feet using his new walking stick and went into the hallway to take the call.

  “Hello.”

  A man with a deep voice responded. “Hello I’m looking for Bobby Stinson?”

  “That’s me can I help?”

  “Well I hope so. I’m a friend of Jim Garrison’s I don’t know if you heard the news?” The man spoke with urgency, he sounded incredibly nervous.

  “I just heard it just now, it’s terrible.”

  “We both know what happened Bobby. They wanted to shut him up, same with Bannister.”

  “I would agree. So who are you?”

  “Firstly I must ask you a question. Are you intending to stop the assassination?”

  Bobby was not sure whether to go with the truth or not. In the end he decided to. “I was but I don’t think that’s possible, I am planning to expose the people behind it.”

  There was silence on the line for a moment. “Well in that case you need my help.”