The Ghost

by Jefferson Morley

  54.  From Director, CIA, to Mexico City, “Cable Stating that Lee Oswald Who Called SovEmb 1 Oct Probably Identical to Lee Henry Oswald,” October 1, 1963 NARA CIA JFK RIF 104-10015-10048.

  55.  Author’s and John Newman’s interview with Jane Roman, November 2, 1994. A tape of this interview is part of the JFK Assassination Records Collection at the National Archives, Washington, D.C.

  56.  Author’s interview with William J. Hood, February 5, 2007.

  57.  The time stamp reads “22:29Z,” the letter Z referring to Greenwich mean time, which is five hours ahead of eastern standard time. So the cable was sent at 17:29 local time.

  58.  “Kennedy Sees Banda and Adoula,” Washington Post, October 11, 1963.

  59.  Mexico desk chief John Whitten said that “the main thrust of the station’s effort was to recruit Russians, Cubans and satellite people.” See deposition of “John Scelso” (aka John Whitten), May 16, 1978, 64–65, NARA JFK HSCA RIF 180-1013-10330.

  60.  “Excerpts from History: Western Hemisphere Division 1946–1965,” 252, NARA JFK CIA RIF 104-10301-10001.

  61.  From Chief, WH Division, to COS, Mexico City, “Dispatch: LIFIRE/5-LCFLUTTER Interview,” NARA JFK CIA RIF 104-10098-10146; available at https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=30640.

  62.  To Director from MEXI, “LIEMBRACE Security (LCFLUTTER Exams),” November 7, 1963, NARA JFK CIA RIF 104-10098-10222.

  63.  Whether CIA employees were questioned about Oswald is unknown. The Agency’s records have been tampered with. Each of the CIA’s reports on the twenty-one employees came with an attachment that reported the substance of the interrogation. When the reports were declassified in 2007, eighteen of the twenty-one attachments had been removed. See Bill Simpich, State Secret: Wiretapping in Mexico City, Double Agents, and the Framing of Lee Oswald, chapter 5; available at www.maryferrell.org/pages/State_Secret.html.

  64.  “Dispatch: LIFIRE/5-LCFLUTTER Interview.”

  65.  This and subsequent Newman quotes are from the author’s interview with Bill Newman, November 21, 2005.

  66.  Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 23, 913. Commission exhibit 1974, “FBI Report Dated August 11, 1964, at Dallas, Tex., of Transcripts of Dallas Police Radio Transmissions”; available at http://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1139#relPageId=945.

  67.  Testimony of Jesse Edward Curry, Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 4, 161.

  68.  Gary Mack, “The Man Who Named the Grassy Knoll”; available at http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/gk_name.htm.

  69.  “21 Cops Who Heard a Grassy Knoll Shot,” JFK Facts, July 4, 2016; available at http://jfkfacts.org/21-jfk-cops-who-heard-a-grassy-knoll-shot/.

  70.  Schlesinger, Robert F. Kennedy and His Times, 616.

  71.  Angleton House Select Committee on Assassinations testimony, October 5, 1978, 79–80, HSCA/Security Classified Testimony, NARA JFK HSCA RIF 180-10110-10006.

  72.  MFF, Hartman House Select Committee on Assassinations testimony, 47.

  73.  CBS News correspondent Richard Schlesinger’s interview with Richard Helms, February 1992; available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3nDUEgh05o.

  74.  MFF, Whitten House Select Committee on Assassinations testimony, May 16, 1978, 111. In 1954, when Helms was running European operations, Whitten had unlocked the baffling case of Otto John, the head of West German intelligence, who defected to East Germany and then returned a year later. Helms “had known me for years as a polygraph operator and as a man who had successfully investigated a number of very, very big operations and security problems,” Whitten testified.

  75.  Ibid., 114.

  76.  Brian Galindo, “16 Photos That Capture People’s Reactions to the News of JFK’s Assassination,” Buzzfeed, November 21, 2013; https://www.buzzfeed.com/briangalindo/16-photos-that-capture-peoples-reaction-to-the-news-of-jfks.

  77.  “Reaction to JFK’s Death Varied Across the U.S.” See Web site of TV10, Columbus, Mississippi, at http://www.10tv.com/article/reaction-jfks-death-varied-across-us.

  78.  “Translation of Tape re Lee Harvey Oswald,” January 21, 1964, NARA CIA JFK RIF 104-10020-10009.

  79.  James Angleton to D/FBI J. E. Hoover, “Hunter Report #10815 re Fair Play for Cuba Committee,” November 26, 1963, NARA JFK CIA RIF 104-10054-10190.

  80.  See “Lee Harvey Oswald ‘I’m just a patsy’”; available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUTnzfmCJY4.

  81.  MFF, Angleton Church Committee testimony, June 19, 1975, 66.

  82.  Jean Daniel, “When Castro Heard the News,” New Republic, December 7, 1963, 79.

  83.  Castro’s speech was published in the December 1, 1963, issue of Politica, a Mexican weekly, under the title “Cuba Ante el Asesinato de Kennedy.” An English version appears in E. Martin Schotz, History Will Not Absolve Us: Orwellian Control, Public Denial, and the Murder of President Kennedy (Brookline, MA: Kurtz, Ulmer, and DeLucia, 1996), 53–86.

  84.  Letter from Richard Helms to Robert Kennedy, November 23, 1963, Papers of Robert F. Kennedy, Attorney General Papers, Correspondence, Condolences 1963–1964, box 132, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.

  85.  Aleksandr Fursenko and Timothy Naftali, “One Hell of a Gamble”: Khrushchev, Castro, and Kennedy, 1958–1964 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1999), 344–45.

  86.  RFK responded to Helms’s note with equal politesse. On a printed thank-you card sent to Helms, he added a handwritten postscript: “Dear Dick, My thanks to you. Bob.” See Richard Helms Papers, Part 1, box 2, folder 27, Georgetown University.

  87.  Angleton told Hoover he saw no evidence that Kostikov was part of Department Thirteen. See Simpich, State Secret, 3.

  88.  Thomas, Very Best Men, 306.

  89.  Ibid., 300–6.

  90.  Ibid., 307.

  91.  Ibid., 308.

  92.  MFF, Angleton Church Committee testimony, February 6, 1976, 32.

  93.  Talbot, Devil’s Chessboard, 567.

  94.  MFF, Whitten House Select Committee on Assassinations testimony, 131.

  95.  Ibid., 115–16

  96.  Ibid., 62

  97.  William McKeen, Outlaw Journalist: The Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson (New York: W. W. Norton, 2008), 85.

  98.  Warren Commission report, 777.

  99.  Confidential memorandum from George J. Kalaris, chief, CI Staff, executive assistant to the DDO, re Lee Harvey Oswald.

  100.  NARA JFK CIA RIF 1993.06.24.14.59:13:840170 Memo, from “Rock” [Ray Rocca, CIA] CIA to “Dick” [Richard Helms, CIA] Re Response to Rankin W/C, March 5, 1964; available at http://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=98075.

  101.  Howard Willens, Journal, March 12, 1964; available at HowardWillens.com.

  102.  E-mail from Howard Willens to author, 2015; available at http://jfkfacts.org/qa-with-howard-willens-warren-commission-defender/.

  103.  Brian Latell, Castro’s Secrets (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2013), 107.

  104.  Swenson described and quoted from his 1964 and 1965 memos in an affidavit for the House Select Committee on Assassinations, September 14, 1978. Swenson’s original memo was turned over to the House Select Committee on Assassinations. See From Office of Legislative Counsel to CIA Security Officer, HSCA, “Volume II/Support Documents for the Helms Hearing at HSCA,” September 9. 1978, NARA JFK CIA, Russ Holmes Work File, RIF 104-10406-10113.

  105.  Tim Weiner asserts the same in Legacy of Ashes, 265.

  106.  Mangold, Cold Warrior, 154.

  107.  Niccolo Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009), 218.

  108.  Ashley, CIA Spymaster, 273.

  109.  Ibid., 274.

  110.  Ibid., 275.

  111.  Wise, Molehunt, 136.

  112.  Memorandum To: File from Deputy Chief Security Research Staff, “Subject: BERTOTAL
LY, Bruce, A,” February 18 1970, NARA JFK CIA RIF 104-10106-10081. This memo, declassified by the CIA in 1999, reports on the Agency’s resettlement of Nosenko and includes some history of Nosenko’s case. The memo states that Helms approved the funds for Nosenko on January 30, 1964, five days before Nosenko said he wanted to defect. Either that date is incorrect or Helms approved of the idea of paying Nosenko in advance.

  113.  Ashley, CIA Spymaster, 279.

  114.  Robarge, John McCone, 382.

  115.  Angleton SSCIA testimony, February 6, 1976, NARA JFK SSCIA RIF 157-10014-10003; available at http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=1434&relPageId=1.

  116.  “Chronology of Soviet Defector’s Handling,” February 6, 1975, NARA JFK CIA RIF 104-10312-10275.

  117.  Wise, Molehunt, 144.

  118.  Ibid., 143.

  119.  Memorandum to W. C. Sullivan from W. A. Branigan, “SAMMY-ESPIONAGE,” July, 16, 1964, NARA FBI HQ RIF 124-10333-10009. Attached to the memo are transcripts of seven tape recordings made on June 29, 1964, each paginated individually. Hereafter, CIA Golitsyn transcripts. “He is a provocateur” quote from Golitsyn transcript no. 2, 2.

  120.  CIA Golitsyn transcript no. 3, 19.

  121.  CIA Golitsyn transcript no. 5, 1.

  122.  Riebling, Wedge, 217.

  123.  From: Chief of Station Rome, To Chief, WE, “Italian Press Coverage—Warren Commission Report on President’s Assassination,” October 11, 1964, NARA JFK CIA RIF 104-10007-10034.

  124.  Bayard Stockton, Flawed Patriot: The Rise and Fall of CIA Legend Bill Harvey (Washington, D.C: Potomac Books, 2006).

  125.  See deposition of “John Scelso” (aka John Whitten), May 16, 1978, 147 NARA JFK HSCA RIF 180-1013-10330.

  126.  Memo, To: Mr. W.C. Sullivan From: Mr. D.J. Brennan Jr, Subject: Kennedy assassination film, October 12, 1964. I have no direct evidence that Angleton watched Zapruder’s film in October 1964, only inference. Is it possible that the FBI did not share the film or that Angleton chose not to watch it? Both seem unlikely.

  127.  Warren Commission report, 50–51.

  128.  Burleigh, Very Private Woman, 244.

  129.  Philip Nobile and Ron Rosenbaum, “The Mysterious Murder of JFK’s Mistress,” New Times, October 1976, n.p.

  130.  Ibid.

  131.  Ibid.

  132.  Burleigh, Very Private Woman, 273.

  133.  Nobile and Rosenbaum, “Mysterious Murder.”

  134.  Ben Bradlee, A Good Life: Newspapering and Other Adventures (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995), 267–68.

  135.  Ibid., 268.

  136.  Cicely d’Autremont Angleton and Anne Truitt, “In Angleton’s Custody,” letter to the editor, New York Times Book Review, November 5, 1995.

  137.  Timothy Leary, Flashbacks: An Autobiography (Los Angeles: J. P. Tarcher, 1983), 128–29.

  138.  Peter Janney, Mary’s Mosaic: The CIA Conspiracy to Murder John F. Kennedy, Mary Pinchot Meyer, and Their Vision of World Peace (New York: Skyhorse, 2012), 3.

  139.  Burleigh, Very Private Woman, 220.

  140.  George Eagle, “Grand Jury to Hear Evidence Today in Mary P. Meyer Death,” Washington Post, October 15, 1964.

  141.  Burleigh, Very Private Woman, 212.

  142.  Trento, Secret History of the CIA, 281–82.

  143.  U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, “Fixation on Moles,” 45.

  144.  Robarge, John McCone, 382.

  145.  Ibid., 382–83.

  146.  Burleigh, Very Private Woman, 257.

  147.  Cicely Angleton made these comments in an appearance at the Library of Congress. See “The Poet and the Poem” Audio podcasts, part 1, available at https://www.loc.gov/poetry/media/poetpoem.html.

  148.  Letter from Cord Meyer to Ruth Pinchot, August 5, 1964, Cord Meyer Papers, box 1, folder 8, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. See also Burleigh, Very Private Woman, 276.

  149.  Letter from Cord Meyer to Ruth Pinchot, August 5, 1964.

  150.  “Memorandum for Mr. Angleton, Subject: Minutiae of Possible Interest,” September 7, 1965, Ted Jessup Collection.

  151.  Cicely d’Autremont Angleton, Cave of Overwhelming, 5.

  152.  Angleton House Select Committee on Assassinations testimony, October 5, 1978, 66, HSCA/Security Classified Testimony, NARA JFK HSCA RIF 180-10110-10006.

  153.  Unless otherwise noted this and subsequent Halevy quotes are from the author’s interview with Efraim Halevy, December 15, 2015.

  154.  Kevin Conley Ruffner, Draft Working Paper, “Eagle and Swastika: CIA and Nazi War Criminals and Collaborators,” chapters 11–21; see in particular chapter 14, 9 NARA CREST: document no. 519697e8993294098d50c295.

  155.  Efraim Halevy, A Man in the Shadows: Inside the Middle East Crisis with a Man Who Led the Mossad (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2006), Kindle location 1221.

  156.  Daniel Raviv and Yossi Melman, Every Spy a Prince: The Complete History of Israel’s Intelligence Community (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991), 125.

  157.  Hersh, Sampson Option, Kindle location 81.

  158.  Author’s interview with Peter Sichel, December 2, 2015.

  159.  John Hadden, Conversations with a Masked Man (New York: Arcade, 2015), 20. There are two sources for John Hadden’s comments. One is Conversations with a Masked Man; the other is a transcript of comments by John Hadden, Sr., on his life in the CIA, on which the book was based (hereafter, Hadden transcript). The transcript includes material that John Hadden, Sr., did not want included in his son’s book. John Hadden, Jr., generously shared the transcript with me. Whenever possible, I cite the book version.

  160.  Hadden transcript.

  161.  Hadden, Conversations with a Masked Man, 22.

  162.  Roger J. Mattson, Stealing the Atom Bomb: How Denial and Deception Armed Israel (self-published, 2016), 239–43.

  163.  Ibid., 22.

  164.  Author’s interview with Efraim Halevy.

  165.  Hersh, Sampson Option, Kindle location 2480.

  166.  Ruffner, “Eagle and Swastika,” chapter 11.

  167.  Ibid.

  168.  Shimon Peres, Battling for Peace (New York: Random House, 1995), 119.

  169.  Author’s interview with Avner Cohen, August 4, 2015.

  170.  “David Lowenthal: Innovative Industrialist Who Helped Jews Settle in Israel,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 10, 2006. Citing Lowenthal’s FBI file, Grant Smith says Lowenthal traveled to Israel once a month for Zionist functions in the 1950s. See Grant F. Smith, Divert! NUMEC, Zalman Shapiro and the Diversion of U.S. Weapons Grade Uranium into the Israeli Nuclear Weapons Program (Washington, D.C.: Institute for Research, 2012), Kindle location 2096.

  171.  Ibid., Kindle location 549.

  172.  Ibid., Kindle location 2173.

  173.  Ibid., Kindle location 480.

  174.  Mattson, Stealing the Atom Bomb, 83.

  175.  Smith, Divert!, Kindle location 551.

  176.  Victor Gilinsky and Roger J. Mattson, “Revisiting the NUMEC Affair,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, March–April 2010, 62.

  177.  Mattson, Stealing the Atom Bomb, 77.

  178.  National Security Archive at George Washington University; “The NUMEC Affair,” From SAC Pittsburgh to Director FBI and Criminal Investigative Division, Terrorism Section, March 25, 1980, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/dc.html?doc=3149997-41-FBI-Internal-Report-of-Interviews-DIVERT-from.

  179.  Mattson, Stealing the Atom Bomb, 9. According to Mattson, the FBI liaison was on the distribution list for most of the Bureau’s correspondence concerning NUMEC. It was Papich’s job to coordinate with the CIA, and it was Angleton’s job to respond. The fact that the CIA distribution of the FBI’s NUMEC reports is still classified in 2016 suggests counterintelligence components were i
nvolved.

  180.  Ibid., 255.

  181.  Hadden, Conversations with a Masked Man, 142.

  182.  Hadden transcript.

  183.  Author’s interview with Tom Hughes, August 29, 2015.

  184.  Harriet Dashiell Schwar, ed., Foreign Relations of the United States 1964–1968, vol. 18, Arab-Israeli Dispute, 1964–1967 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 2000), “Summary.”