Hit List: An In-Depth Investigation Into the Mysterious Deaths of Witnesses to the JFK Assassination
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1. Nobody told the Government that Pitzer was suicidal—that was literally an invention on their part1:
As stated in the Informal Board of Investigation’s Report:
“Mrs. Pitzer could offer no explanation as to why Subject would take his own life and although appearing somewhat resigned to this fact, she still exhibited doubt that suicide was the true cause of death.”2
He was looking forward to his upcoming retirement, which was only days away, and was excited about transitioning into a creative and high-paying job where he could utilize his expertise:
He was going to teach educational television. . . . He was quite enthused about it.3
Pitzer’s family and friends believed that he had been murdered, that he had no reason to commit suicide, and had been badly frightened by repeated threats because of what he knew.4
2. Government agencies searched high and low for anything that could imply that Pitzer was depressed. All they could come up with was an old letter and some vague notes. The letter stated that he was having “trouble at home,” but that was apparently in reference to his rocky marriage and he was handling that, not suicidal over it.5
3. If we view all of Lieutenant Commander Pitzer’s actions on his final day as a “timeline” to discern his frame of mind, they are dramatically opposite to a troubled person contemplating suicide. Quite to the contrary, in fact, his final day was typical, even mundane. He was described as “very cheerful.”6 He made breakfast, raked leaves, got a haircut, stopped at the store, checked things at the office7—and was then shot in the head.
1 Ibid.
2 Eaglesham & Palmer, “The Untimely Death of Lieutenant Commander William B. Pitzer
3 Heiner, Without Smoking Gun,
4 Heiner, Without Smoking Gun, 92.
5 Heiner, Without Smoking Gun
6 Heiner, Without Smoking Gun, 32.
7 Heiner, Without Smoking Gun
FURTHER RESEARCH
Without Smoking Gun, Kent Heiner, TrineDay, 2004.
Expendable Elite: One Soldier’s Journey into Covert Warfare, Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Marvin, US Army Special Forces (Retired), TrineDay, 2005.
“The Unconventional Warrior Archives: Part Three—Orders to Kill,” August 23, 2002, Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Marvin, US Army Special Forces (Retired): http://www
.expendableelite.com/UW_archives/UW_archive.0003b.html
“Bits & Pieces: A Green Beret on the Periphery of the JFK Assassination,” Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Marvin, US Army Special Forces (Retired), May 1995 The Fourth Decade.
The Men Who Killed Kennedy – Episode VI. The Truth Shall Set You Free (Documentary), produced by Nigel Turner, A&E History Channel, 1995.
JFK Assassination: 13 Version (TV documentary accessible online), 2003: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWiMEQYt1n8
Victims
Manuel Rodriguez Quesada and Gilberto Rodriguez Hernandez
Cause of Deaths
Gunshots
Official Verdict
Unsolved Murders
Actual Circumstances
Rodriguez Quesada and Rodriguez Hernandez were both heavily involved in gun-running operations, as well as high-level anti-Castro operations.
Inconsistencies
None—and we mean that in a bad way (the case is, unfortunately, very clear)
Manuel Rodriguez Quesada was a bodyguard for Rolando Masferrer (an upcoming chapter), who was an exile leader in one of the most powerful of the anti-Castro Cuban groups. Rodriguez Quesada apparently smuggled weapons and performed other activities for these groups, as well.
Gilberto Rodriguez Hernandez was Military Coordinator to the same Cuban government-in-exile groups. Many of the entries in this book—Carlos Prío Socarrás, Rolando Masferrer, and Eladio del Valle—are all linked inexorably to the violent anti-Castro groups active at that time.
It should be remembered that Eladio del Valle was an associate of David Ferrie and Guy Banister, and was murdered within hours of Ferrie’s own death.1
1 Roberts & Armstrong, The Dead Witnesses, 97.
27–28
Manuel Rodriguez Quesada, October, 1964
Gilberto Rodriguez
Hernandez,
September, 1964
It doesn’t get much clearer than this one:
• Manuel Rodriguez Quesada and Gilberto Rodriguez Hernandez both had inside information on the setting up of the JFK killing in Dallas;
• Both were assassinated;
• Professional U.S. intelligence assassin, John O’Hare, admitted to performing both assassinations.
We find it very interesting that almost nobody even knows who they are—let alone what happened to them.
We even know the “who did it” on this one:
John O’Hare, according to Cuban exile sources and those who worked with him during the heady days of anti-Castro activity in south Florida, was one of the most dangerous men alive.1
Robert Morrow was a veteran CIA contract agent and, later, an author. He knew his way around the anti-Castro intelligence terrain quite well:
O’Hare, described as a “CIA mercenary and assassin” by Robert Morrow in First Hand Knowledge, admitted to Morrow that he killed both Quesada and Hernandez. These two were supposedly eliminated as a result of Eladio del Valle’s fear that they would expose the identities of those responsible to the authorities.2
Conclusion
Both were assassinated, as a direct result of their knowledge of setting up the JFK assassination.
1 Roberts & Armstrong, The Dead Witnesses, 98.
2 Roberts & Armstrong, The Dead Witnesses, 98
Victim
Cuban Resistance Leader
Cause of Death
Gunshot to heart; numerous machete wounds to head
Official Verdict
Unsolved murder
Actual Circumstances
Killed the same day that David Ferrie died, at the exact time that both were sought as key witnesses in the new Jim Garrison investigation of the JFK assassination.
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Eladio del Valle,
February 22, 1967
On the exact same day that David Ferrie died—in fact, apparently even at the same hour—another key witness was also murdered in broad daylight, preventing his testimony from ever taking place. So here’s some assassination “homework” for you: Ask yourself, realistically, what are the odds of this happening?
On the day—at the same hour—that David Ferrie “committed suicide,” one of Ferrie’s closest friends and highly visible anti-Castro Cuban connections was murdered in Miami. Eladio del Valle, who was being sought by the Garrison investigation team, was found dead, his head split open with a machete and his body shot through the heart.1
Eladio del Valle was involved simultaneously with the anti-Castro movement, the CIA and organized crime, and one of the most important people linked to the JFK assassination. He was considered a leader of the anti-Castro groups. As we described in the preceding chapter, it was del Valle who apparently ordered the assassinations of Gilberto Rodriguez Hernandez and Manuel Rodriguez Quesada:
These victims, Gilberto Rodriguez Hernandez and Manuel Rodriguez Quesada (killed September and October, 1964), were allegedly killed by O’Hare as part of a monumental government conspiracy invoked to provide a smokescreen to shield the real assassins.2
A couple years later, the tracks to these killers must have been getting clearer because, by the time of the Jim Garrison investigation, someone above del Valle made the same decision about him and sent the same professional assassin to do the job, as John O’Hare later admitted to author Robert Morrow:
When del Valle became a liability later, due to the exposure of David Ferrie to the press in New Orleans and Garrison’s interest in him, he was “neutralized.”3
Eladio del Valle was a friend and associate of David Ferrie.4 They were both sought for questioning by District Attorney Jim Garrison and they both died the same day. Ferri
e had been questioned once and del Valle was killed before Garrison got to him, so it’s all just way too coincidental:
As early as 1960, del Valle was reportedly working with a New Orleans pilot, David Ferrie, in flying clandestine missions over Cuba. In January 1961, shortly before the Bay of Pigs invasion, del Valle told the New York Daily News that he had a fighting force of “8,500 men in Cuba and a skeleton force of about 200 working in Miami and Central America.” By 1963, he was also a leader of the Committee to Free Cuba, or “Cuba Libre.”5
1 Roberts & Armstrong, The Dead Witnesses, 44.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Michael Benson, Who’s Who in the JFK Assassination: An A to Z Encyclopedia (Citadel: 2003), 109.
5 Russell, The Man Who Knew Too Much, 182.
An investigator for the U.S. Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, who looked into the Cuban connections, had this to say about Eladio del Valle:
Now there was a gun for hire. Anything that had to do with smuggling or gun-running, del Valle was with it. Both a bagman and a hitman; mainly involved with people from the Batista regime.
Tony Cuesta, another primary leader of the anti-Castro Cuban groups in Florida who admitted his own participation in the JFK assassination, also admitted that Eladio del Valle played a role in the conspiracy.1 A friend of del Valle’s also indicated that connection:
Diego Gonzales Tendera, a close friend, later claimed that del Valle was murdered because of his involvement in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.2
Here’s another intelligence source who named del Valle as a key player in the conspiracy to kill JFK:
According to “Harry Dean” (the “war name” of a man who claims to be a former CIA agent), as quoted by W. B. Morris and R. B. Cutler in Alias Oswald, the assassins were anti-Castro activists Hall and del Valle, who were hired by the John Birch Society.3
Author Anthony Summers also cites the fact that del Valle was the leader of Florida’s Free Cuba Committee and, at the same time, had links to Florida Godfather, Santo Trafficante, who was also a key suspect in the JFK assassination.4
And it’s also very interesting to note that del Valle was rumored to have been reporter Dorothy Kilgallen’s source of information regarding David Ferrie, linking Ferrie to a key role in the whole conspiracy.
Conclusion
Assassination: Clearly related to Garrison’s investigation of the JFK assassination. John O’Hare, the same professional assassin who admitted killing the above two “soldiers” at the instruction of del Valle, also admitted to then assassinating del Valle himself, when he became a “liability”—which was when District Attorney Jim Garrison publicly named David Ferrie as a prime suspect in the JFK assassination.5 As we shall see in the next chapter and saw in the preceding two, these cases are much related—Ferrie told Garrison that he had just handed him a death sentence by naming him publicly and Ferrie was indeed dead a very short time later.
1 Russell, The Man Who Knew Too Much
2 Reference Center for Marxist Studies, “Eladio del Valle: Biography,” accessed 27 Nov. 2012: http://marxistlibrary.org/eladio-del-valle-biography/
3 Benson, Who’s Who in the JFK Assassination, 109.
4 Anthony Summers, Not in Your Lifetime (Marlowe & Co.: 1998), 319, 491.
5 Ibid.
Victim
David Ferrie, anti-Castro covert operative, associate of New Orleans, Godfather Carlos Marcello
Cause of Death
Brain aneurysm
Official Verdict
Natural Causes
Actual Circumstances
Victim had just been named as a defendant in District Attorney Jim Garrison’s case for conspiracy in the JFK assassination; Ferrie told Garrison he had just signed Ferrie’s death warrant and he was dead just a short time later.
Inconsistencies
Two typed notes were left behind “indicating suicide” and making it appear a rather odd coincidence that he died at the same time from natural causes; indicative of possible suicide staging.
30
David Ferrie,
February 22, 1967
Somebody was silencing key witnesses a lot quicker than New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison could get to them and ask them uncomfortable questions.
Eladio del Valle, Miami:
On the night of February 22, 1967, del Valle’s body was discovered by
Miami Police, sprawled across the floor of his flaming-red Cadillac. He had been brutally beaten, shot above the heart, and his head chopped open. He was being sought for questioning at the time by Jim Garrison’s investigative staff.1
It was a busy day on February 22nd.
David Ferrie, New Orleans:
The same night del Valle died, so did his old friend, Ferrie. He had already been questioned once by Garrison about his possible knowledge of the assassination. Ferrie’s body was found in his New Orleans apartment, alongside two typed notes, suggesting suicide. The coroner’s ruling said ‘”natural causes,” though Garrison suspected he had been poisoned.2
1 Russell, The Man Who Knew Too Much, 182.
2 Ibid.
Ferrie was sought as a key witness because he seemed to be the man to whom all roads led:
• Ferrie knew Lee Harvey Oswald 1;
• He had worked closely with Jack Ruby 2;
• Ferrie and Oswald were frequent visitors to Guy Banister’s office,3
• He had also worked closely with Clay Shaw 4;
• He was employed by Godfather Carlos Marcello as both his personal pilot and private investigator 5;
1 Russell, On the Trail of the JFK Assassins, 254-255, 268-269.
2 Ibid, 106.
3 Jim Garrison, On the Trail of the Assassins
4 Ibid, 106.
5 Ibid, 98, 221.
David Ferrie (second from left) was a leader in the Civilian Air Patrol for Lee Harvey Oswald (far right) when he was a young man.
• He was reportedly slated as the pilot who was supposed to fly one of the assassins out of Dallas after the JFK assassination1;
• Ferrie had clear links to the CIA, especially in its covert anti-Cuban operations2;
• Ferrie was an expert hypnotist who extensively studied the limits of posthypnotic suggestion and had practiced his hypnosis skills on the boys in the Civil Air Patrol, one of whom was Lee Harvey Oswald3;
• Ferrie had worked closely with Dr. Mary Sherman on a secret intelligence project developing cancer-causing super viruses and there were many strange circumstances surrounding
Dr. Sherman’s murder4;
• Ferrie also knew Judyth Baker, who had also worked closely on the secret cancer project.
Almost immediately following President Kennedy’s assassination, one of Garrison’s assistants received a suggestion from Jack Martin, a local private detective with intelligence ties, to pick up and question a certain David Ferrie. Ferrie, a homosexual rumored to have CIA ties, was then employed as a private investigator and, probably, personal pilot by New Orleans reputed Godfather Carlos Marcello. At the moment of the assassination, he had been in a federal courtroom watching Marcello be acquitted of deportation proceedings that John and Robert Kennedy had instigated two years earlier.5
1 Ibid, 98.
2 Ibid, 85, 92, 98, 106-107.
3 Ibid,, 254-255, 268-269.
4 Haslam, Dr. Mary’s Monkey, 64-65.
5 Russell, On the Trail of the JFK Assassins, 98-99.
It has been established that Ferrie was working big-time in anti-Castro covert military operations:
As early as 1960, del Valle was reportedly working with a New Orleans pilot, David Ferrie, in flying clandestine missions over Cuba.1
As Jim Garrison wrote:
The Banister apparatus . . . was part of a supply line that ran along the Dallas-New Orleans-Miami corridor. These supplies consisted of arms and explosives for use against Castro’s Cuba.2
In addition to his proximity to del Vall
e and the other exiled Cubans working against Castro, Ferrie had also worked closely with both Jack Ruby and Clay Shaw, the CIA asset who was eventually indicted for the murder of President Kennedy.3 Ferrie also knew Lee Harvey Oswald very well, going all the way back to Oswald’s youth in the Civilian Air Patrol, and seems to have been closely involved in the process of setting up Oswald.4 In fact, the links to the killers of President Kennedy seem to be deeply enmeshed in that same group of men—those who traveled back and forth seamlessly between organized crime and U.S. Intelligence; especially Ferrie, Ruby, and Roselli, who were deeply involved in the CIA’s covert anti-Castro operations. It is from those same anti-Castro ops, based in South Florida, from which the process to set up Oswald was hatched.
To sum up the operational conclusions of Jim Garrison’s investigative team at the New Orleans District Attorney’s Office:
As Garrison continued his investigation, he became convinced that a group of right-wing extremists, including Ferrie, Banister, and Clay Shaw were involved in a conspiracy with elements of the CIA to kill John