Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years (No Series)
Page 64
319
“Those fellows on the Warren Commission were dead wrong”: Quoted in Jim Garrison, 13.
320
“For me…that was the end of innocence”: Playboy interview, October 1967.
320
“I’m not sure about going to New Orleans”: Hale Boggs oral history, LBJ Library.
320
“President Kennedy was killed for one reason”: Playboy, ibid.
320
“our government is the CIA and the Pentagon”: Ibid.
321
Ferrie was…“swept up in the gales of history”: Ibid.
322
“Yeah, and I’m the Lone Ranger”: Quoted in Russo, Live by the Sword, 403.
323
“if it weren’t so deadly serious”: Jerry Cohen memo to Guthman, August 18, 1967, Edwin Guthman papers, JFK Library.
323
“I sent some of our best people down there”: Author interview with Guthman.
323
[Kennedy] had “assigned different aspects of the…case”: Author interview with Newfield.
325
When Sheridan dug up evidence…that Jack Ruby had received a “bundle of money”: FBI memo, November 24, 1963, NARA record number 124-10072-10228.
325
Sheridan knew how to “swim underwater”: Author interview with John Cassidy.
325
“secrets were safe with Walter”: Senator Edward M. Kennedy eulogy, January 17,1995, Sheridan papers, JFK Library.
325
“They continued working on the case”: Author interview with Nancy Sheridan.
326
“I want to hit people between the eyes”: Quoted in Newsweek, October 23, 1967.
327
Gurvich…worried that [Kennedy] would think “there actually was something in New Orleans”: Quoted in Patricia Lambert, False Witness: The Real Story of Jim Garrison’s Investigation and Oliver Stone’s Film JFK, 117.
327
Campisi…was the first person to visit Jack Ruby in jail: Blakey and Billings, 360.
327
Garrison gave Carlos Marcello a pass: Ibid., xxxi. According to Zachary Sklar, co-writer of JFK, Oliver Stone’s glorification of Jim Garrison, even Stone was initially suspicious of Garrison’s benign view of Marcello. “Before he made the final decision to make the movie,” Sklar informed me in a March 2005 e-mail, “[Stone] had a researcher compile every nasty story about Marcello she could find, and Oliver threw every allegation at Jim. At the end, he said to Oliver: ‘Are you finished?’ Oliver said yes. Jim said, ‘Then I suggest you take your cameras up the river about ten miles where Carlos Marcello is in jail, and you go make a movie about Carlos Marcello.’ Oliver was astonished. ‘Are you serious?’ ‘Dead serious,’ said Jim. Oliver left, and called back the next day: ‘You mean you’d give up a movie about yourself?’ ‘Well, you seem more interested in Carlos Marcello than me, so just go make a movie about him. That’s fine.’ Oliver never asked another question about Carlos Marcello.”
328
Sheridan…took the extraordinary step of approaching the CIA: CIA security file on Walter Sheridan, NARA record number 104-10305-10003.
329
[Helms] repeatedly asked his top deputies whether “we are giving [the Shaw defense team] all the help they need: Quoted in Garrison, 234.
329
“his personal ties to President Kennedy, as well as his own integrity”: Statement of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Sheridan papers, JFK Library.
329
“He was telling Carson that Garrison was full of crap”: Author interview with Jeff Greenfield.
330
“Politics became a noble profession again”: Sheridan dedication speech, John F. Kennedy Junior High School, December 1, 1965, Sheridan papers, JFK Library.
330
“I felt cut off from the world”: Quoted in Newsweek, October 23, 1967.
330
“They didn’t trust it”: Author interview with Nancy Sheridan.
332
“The conversation was so innocuous”: Sahl, Heartland, 148.
333
the message from Bobby was always the same: Ibid, 149.
334
“What are we going to do—listen to…a nightclub comedian”: Author interview with Sahl.
334
Bobby didn’t want the “real assassins” caught: Quoted in Lambert, 124.
334
“what kind of friends did those guys have?”: Author interview with Sahl.
335
“He was the keeper of confidences”: Newfield, Somebody’s Gotta Tell It, 161.
335
he conceded there might be something to Moldea’s suspicions: Author interview with Dan Moldea.
335
“there was something else going on in Dallas”: Author interview with Walter Sheridan Jr.
336
Newfield…used the word “suicidal”: Author interview with Newfield.
336
“He did not have the mandate”: Author interview with Nancy Sheridan
8: THE PASSION OF ROBERT KENNEDY
337
“This scared the bejesus out of Siegel and his wife”: Author interview with Nolan.
338
would not allow the senator’s trip to be “transformed into a publicity stunt”: Quoted in Schlesinger, 744.
339
“What does it mean to be against communism”: Look, August 23, 1966.
339
“suppose God is black”: Ibid.
339
he joined them in singing…“We Shall Overcome”: Schlesinger, 746.
339
Kennedy called “a dreary concentration camp”: Ibid.
339
“If we stayed another two days”: Ibid., 748.
340
Kennedy thought the U.S. invasion was an “outrage”: Ibid, 691.
340
“anybody can get guns”: Walinsky oral history, JFK Library.
340
“There has been all this romanticism”: Author interview with Walinsky.
340
Kennedy…called Guevara “a revolutionary hero”: Schlesinger, 801.
341
Tom Mann was the type of “colonialist”: Goodwin, 245.
341
“I never believed we should compete with the revolutionaries”: Mann oral history, JFK Library.
342
“The responsibility of our time is nothing less than a revolution”: Quoted in New York Times, November 13, 1965.
342
“we can’t get a water tank for these people because of an oil dispute?”: New York Times, November 27, 1965.
342
“you’re making way for your own destruction”: Ibid.
342
“It’s a sight I’ll never forget”: Walinsky oral history, JFK Library.
344
“I’m the guy who saved his life”: Quoted in Goodwin, 189.
344
“they’re going to have to improve their aim”: Quoted in Schlesinger, 696.
344
he clambered on top of a police car and sang: New York Times, November 17, 1965.
344
he was given a standing ovation: New York Times, November 21, 1965.
344
It had to do…with “that whole history of the Kennedys”: Walinsky oral history, JFK Library.
345
“Yet it was not because of him that they were shouting”: Goodwin, 435.
345
“Stay in school”: Quoted in New York Times, November 22, 1965.
345
“Sooner or later”: Quoted in Schlesinger, 698.
346
“you doves will all be dead in six months”: Quoted in Joseph A. Palermo, In His Own Right: The Political Odyssey of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, 42.
346
“That marvelous human being who is president
of the United States”: Quoted in Thomas, Robert Kennedy, 333.
346
“he looks at me like he’s going to look a hole through me”: Ibid, 295.
346
Kennedy was little more than a Communist dupe: Palermo, 44.
347
“Lyndon Johnson was so insane”: Ibid., 46.
347
“It makes the rug grow better”: Quoted in Newfield, RFK: A Memoir, 135.
348
Edelman…called it “mushy”: Quoted in Palermo, 45.
348
Nixon said Kennedy’s speech: Schlesinger, 774.
348
Goldwater charged that Kennedy was out of control: New York Times, March 3,1967.
348
Bobby was proposing a “dishonorable settlement”: Quoted in Schlesinger, 774.
350
Edelman thought his boss even urged the once mighty defense czar: Peter Edelman oral history, JFK Library.
350
“Many in this room believe Lyndon Johnson is crude”: McNamara, 317.
350
“You think to challenge me”: “Caesar’s Meat,” Walinsky papers, JFK Library.
351
“history was going to show he is to blame”: Mandelkorn letter, The Hook (Charlottesville, VA), April 8, 2004.
351
“You are the one that makes the difference for all of us”: RFK letter, March 13, 1964, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy papers, JFK Library.
351
“I wasn’t stupid”: Author interview with McNamara.
352
“Do you know what I think will happen to Bobby?”: Quoted in Schlesinger, 857.
353
“Something bad is going to come of this”: Quoted in John Ehrlichman, Witness to Power: The Nixon Years, 24.
353
“I hope that someone shoots and kills the son of a bitch”: Quoted in Sullivan, 56.
353
“Which of these brave young men dying in the rice paddies”: Quoted in Jules Witcover, 85 Days: The Last Campaign of Robert F. Kennedy, 112.
354
the crowd “suddenly became a live and dangerous thing”: Ibid, 113.
354
“I loved him intensely as a human being”: Ibid, 114.
354
“I was amazed at what I saw, no security at all”: Author interview with Guthman.
355
the Kennedy campaign was being targeted by the same…FBI dirty tactics: Palermo, 179.
356
the teenager put one of his favorite songs on the living room stereo: Author interview with Stephen Salinger.
357
“He was prepared to handle it”: Croft interview with Rick Tuttle.
358
“I remember that I was stunned by the answer”: Author interview with Mankiewicz.
359
Richard Lubic…later made notes: Robbyn Swan interview with Lubic, courtesy of Swan and Anthony Summers.
359
“We can’t have these cowboys wandering around”: Author interview with Pete Hamill.
359
Kennedy thought the agency “was out of control”: Author interview with Dutton.
360
[Helms and McCarthy] “lunched occasionally”: Helms, 247.
361
“I touched him!”: Quoted in Hamill, Irrational Ravings, 264.
362
Kennedy had come to the farm workers’ aid: Quoted in Palermo, 226.
362
“His face looked like an old man’s”: Newfield, RFK, 283.
362
“He felt he had to ride in a convertible”: Ibid., 286.
363
“You had a little trouble with some words that time”: Ibid., 287.
363
Frankenheimer even got Bobby to talk about his suspicions: Author interview with Evans Frankenheimer.
364
“you can’t make it without that good old bitch, luck”: Quoted in Salinger, P.S., 186.
364
“I suppose none of us will ever get over John Kennedy”: Goodwin, 535.
365
“Bobby and I exchanged a look”: Salinger, 196.
365
“He had arrived”: Quoted in Witcover, 257.
365
Newfield jotted down the word “liberated”: Newfield, Somebody’s Gotta Tell It, 205.
365
He asked Schulberg about the Watts Writers Workshop: Author interview with Newfield.
365
Dutton had decided that Kennedy should exit the back way: Author interview with Dutton.
366
“But we lost him that night”: Author interview with Joe Dolan.
366
a “long grubby area”: Hamill, 284.
366
“I’m not just a busboy”: Quoted in Los Angeles Times, June 1, 2003.
367
His face “had a kind of sweet acceptance to it”: Hamill, 285.
367
“an ironic smile as if he had been expecting this”: Author interview with Hamill.
367
Bobby’s last words…were “Jack, Jack”: Goodwin, 538.
368
“There’s a literary phrase—‘the room heaved’”: Croft interview with Tuttle.
368
“we both knew that he was dead”: Author interview with Goodwin.
368
Frankenheimer and his wife, Evans, were waiting in their Rolls-Royce: Author interview with Evans Frankenheimer.
369
“I have never seen as agonized a look”: Author interview with Mankiewicz.
370
The first autopsy photos…were rushed to the FBI chief: Summers, Official and Confidential, 424.
370
The gruesome, color autopsy pictures also found their way into the safe of James Angleton: CIA document, “Extracts from CIA History,” NARA record number 104-10301-10011.
370
“Maybe there’s no way, no way, to change this country”: Ellsberg, Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers, 220.
370
“After Bobby was shot, the lights went out for me”: Author interview with Dutton.
371
“why the unabashedly liberal Mr. Dutton…later agreed to represent the conservative Saudi Arabian government”: Los Angeles Times, June 28, 2005.
371
“Dick went kind of nuts”: Author interview with Newfield.
371
“I had to get away”: Author interview with Goodwin.
371
Jacqueline Kennedy…threw herself on his coffin: Author interview with Bill Rosendahl.
371
“I went through sheer hell”: Quoted in New York Times, July 7, 2002.
371
“He would have had no tolerance”: Author interview with Walinsky.
372
“It was The Manchurian Candidate”: Quoted in People, May 16, 1988.
372
“because we didn’t know anything about Palestinians”: Author interview with Hamill.
373
the autopsy indicated that the fatal shot was fired directly behind his head: Dr. Thomas T. Noguchi, Coroner, 103.
373
“I don’t believe that Sirhan’s gun got within a couple of inches of Kennedy’s head”: Author interview with Frank Burns.
373
it “all seemed to indicate there may have been a second gunman”: Noguchi, 108.
374
the Kennedys had “sold the country down the road”: Quoted in Melanson, 120.
374
“It’s none of your business”: Author interview with Lubic.
374
“Unruh talked to Kenny O’Donnell”: Author interview with Burns.
375
“There is no curse upon the Kennedys”: Tribute to Senator Robert F. Kennedy, June 7, 1968, RFK papers, JFK Library.
/> 375
“We’ve been on an endless cycle of retreat”: Author interview with Goodwin.
376
“I was at one of those memorial events once”: Author interview with Walinksy.
9: TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION
379
“we never produced any evidence that Castro was involved: Author interview with Dave Marston.
379
“we do know that Oswald had intelligence connections”: Quoted in Fonzi, 31.
379
“He was a blowtorch”: Author interview with Gary Hart.
380
“My opinion of the CIA has greatly diminished through the years”: Author interview with Richard Schweiker.
381
“I think what happened to me in 1987 was a pure setup”: Author interview with Hart.
383
“every capillary in my body went into electrified shock”: Author interview with Robert Tanenbaum.
385
A New York Times article clawed through Sprague’s past: New York Times, January 2, 1977.
385
“My daughter, when I was in Washington, was three years old”: Tanenbaum testimony, Assassination Archives Review Board, September 17, 1996.
386
“the committee ultimately obtained from the CIA every single document”: Quoted in Fonzi, 303.
386
“We were not popular in Langley”: Author interview with Dan Hardway.
388
“I think the mob did it”: Quoted in New York Times, June 3, 1979.
388
“I don’t know how many times since 1978 that Bob and I have had this conversation”: Blakeyseems willing to concede that someone “low-level” in the CIA like William Harvey might have been involved, or at least been aware, of the JFK plot. But, in his mind, this still does not implicate the agency itself. “If Harvey is involved in the conspiracy, you can’t really attribute that to the agency itself—it’s a rogue agent,” he told me. But, if by “rogue agent,” Blakey means someone in the lower rungs of the CIA who was operating on his own, this point is debatable. Bill Harvey was a CIA legend who had been entrusted with two of the agency’s most sensitive operations—the Berlin station, at the front lines of the Cold War, and Task Force W, the heavily funded anti-Castro project. Harvey reported directly to Helms and could count on his bureaucratic protection. In his testimony before the Church Committee, Harvey insisted—and there is reason to believe him—that he never did anything that was “unauthorized, freewheeling or in any way outside the [agency] framework.” It is more likely that Harvey was a convenient agency fall guy than an out-of-control agent. The “rogue agent” scenario where that assassination researchers like Blakey—who recoil at the idea that the plot came from within the government itself, but nonetheless must contend with compelling evidence it did—often find a safe refuge.