Hit List: An In-Depth Investigation Into the Mysterious Deaths of Witnesses to the JFK Assassination

by Richard Belzer

  Then the same “massive death of witnesses” syndrome apparently struck the CIA:

  Several important figures in the Central Intelligence Agency died

  before they could give evidence to the House Select Committee on

  Assassinations.2

  Lo and behold, they too were specifically linked to the Agency’s anti-Castro operations. Among them were Sheffield Edwards, “Wild Bill” Harvey, William Pawley, Dave Morales, Thomas Karamessines, Win Scott, and John Paisley. When researchers noticed the “coincidences” piling up, they were called ridiculous “conspiracy buffs.” To convey an idea of the truly ridiculous, merely consider this: As we reveal in the future chapter on his death, Spy-chief John Paisley was shot in the head, diving weights affixed to his body, and sunk in the ocean—and they still said that he committed suicide! Things were getting very strange indeed.

  Then the same odd “bug” seemed to hit over at the FBI:

  William Sullivan, the main figure in the FBI involved in the Executive

  Action program (the assassination program targeting Castro), was shot

  1 Ibid.

  2 Ibid.

  572 John Simkin, “Deaths of Witnesses Connected to the Assassination of John F. Kennedy,” Spartacus Educational, accessed 9 Nov 2012: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKdeaths.htm

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  dead near his home in Sugar Hill, New Hampshire, on November 9, 1977. Sullivan had been scheduled to testify before the House Select Committee on Assassinations.1

  My, my, my—yet another incredibly uncommon coincidence. And you can then multiply that one by a factor of six.

  Sullivan was one of six top FBI officials who died in a six-month period in 1977. Others who were due to appear before the committee who died included Louis Nichols, special assistant to J. Edgar Hoover and his liaison with the Warren Commission; Alan H. Belmont, special assistant to Hoover; James Cadigan, document expert with access to documents that related to death of John F. Kennedy; J.M. English, former head of FBI Forensic Sciences Laboratory where Oswald’s rifle and pistol were tested, and Donald Kaylor, FBI fingerprint chemist who examined prints found at the assassination scene.2

  Actually, most of the above men were even more related to events surrounding the assassination than the above info indicates. For example, Donald Kaylor was directly tied to the apparently falsely obtained palm print of Lee Harvey Oswald on the rifle that was supposedly used to kill Kennedy. The FBI went to the funeral home and the undertaker testified that they apparently obtained prints there from the dead Lee Harvey Oswald.3 Alan Belmont played a particularly crucial role in the orchestration of the obvious government cover-up, forcing the ridiculous “lone assassin” scenario:

  The review of the facts that follows shows that Alan Belmont, the number-

  three man in the formal hierarchy of the FBI, was the primary official in charge of the FBI activities following the assassination. It is Belmont, not Hoover, who ran the FBI cover-up.4

  Authors Jim Marrs and Ralph Schuster summed up the incredible series of “coincidences” like this:

  The year 1977 produced a bumper crop of candidates for listing under convenient deaths connected to the JFK assassination, including the deaths of six top FBI officials; all of whom were scheduled to testify before the House Select Committee on Assassinations.

  Topping this list was former number-three man in the FBI, William C. ­Sullivan, who had already had a preliminary meeting with the investigators for the House Committee. Sullivan was shot with a high-powered rifle near his New Hampshire home by a man who claimed to have mistaken

  1 Ibid.

  2 Ibid.

  3 See testimony of mortician Paul Groody of Miller Funeral Home: “‘Agents’ fingerprinted Oswald corpse”; accessed 10 Nov 2012: http://youtu.be/P2W_-ID8RMI

  4 Donald Gibson, The Kennedy Assassination Cover-Up (Nova Biomedical: 2000). http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKbelmontA.htm

  | Hit List

  him for a deer. The man was charged with a misdemeanor—“shooting a human being by accident”—and released into the custody of his father, a state policeman. There was no further investigation into Sullivan’s death.

  Louis Nichols was a special assistant to J. Edgar Hoover as well as Hoover’s liaison with the Warren Commission. Alan H. Belmont also was a special assistant to Hoover. James Cadigan was a document expert with access to many classified assassination documents, while J. M. English headed the FBI laboratory where Oswald rifle and pistol were tested. Donald Kaylor was the FBI fingerprint expert who examined prints found at the assassination scene. None of these six Bureau officials lived to tell what they knew to the House Committee.

  Other key assassination witnesses, such as George de Mohrenschildt and former Cuban President Carlos Prío Socarrás —who died within weeks of each other in 1977—were also being sought by the House Committee.1

  But no death was more dramatic than that of the head of Domestic Intelligence at the FBI, William Sullivan, who had almost come to blows with FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover. He was forced to resign, was highly knowledgeable and privy to very confidential material regarding the assassinations of the 1960s and the freshly-brewing Watergate scandal of President Nixon, and was scheduled to testify the following week before the United States Congress. Now that’s a convenient death.

  The New York Times reported the story in a manner suggesting that Sullivan was actually out hunting in the middle of nowhere, although the wording was rather vague:

  William C. Sullivan, former head of the Federal Bureau of Investigations Intelligence Operations, who broke in dramatic fashion with the late

  J. Edgar Hoover, was killed early yesterday in a shooting accident near his home in Sugar Hill, New Hampshire. He was sixty-five years old.

  Major Mason J. Butterfield, law enforcement director of the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, said that Mr. Sullivan, who had been on the way to meet two hunting companions shortly after daybreak, had been shot and instantly killed by another hunter, Robert Daniels, Jr., twenty-two, who had mistaken Mr. Sullivan for a deer.2

  Mr. Daniels was fined $500 and also lost his hunting license for ten years; events which, quite fortunately, precluded him from conveniently shooting any other witnesses prior to their scheduled testimony. And besides, William Sullivan looked nothing like a deer. . . .

  But seriously, folks—Mr. Daniels, as we shall see below, was actually quite a serious young man and a very experienced and cautious hunter. The chances of his mistaking William Sullivan for a deer are explored below, and they are extremely remote.

  Author Richard Cibrano investigated the details and obviously suggests that

  Mr. Sullivan was murdered. After quoting the specific info in the very same New York

  1 Jim Marrs & Ralph Schuster, “A Look at the Deaths of Those Involved,” 2002: http://www.assassinationresearch

  .com/v1n2/deaths.html

  2 New York Times, “William C. Sullivan, Ex-FBI Aide, 65, Is Killed In Hunting Accident,” 10 Nov. 1977

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  Times article above, the author considers the unlikelihood of a very experienced hunter making very sophomoric mistakes:

  He met Bill Sullivan back in the 1950s when they were both working counterintelligence—Bill with the FBI and he with the CIA. He liked Bill from the start, believed him to be an honorable gentleman endeavoring mightily to keep a wayward FBI on course, despite the incessant raving of a self-motivated, dysfunctional director. Although an adversarial state of affairs dictated otherwise, the two men quietly advocated a policy of cooperation between the two agencies while maintaining an open line of communication with each other. With the passing years, their careers following dissimilar paths, they still managed to keep in touch, if with nothing more than a congenial note or an occasional phone call. . . .

  The very idea that Bill was mistaken for a deer and gunned do
wn in cold blood is utterly preposterous. He was an experienced hunter who went strictly by the book. Bill would never take risks—never expose himself to the carelessness of rank amateurs. So profound was his concern, he placed himself in the minds of these “Elmer Fudds” and followed the necessary precautions. Rule number one: He would never hunt in the predawn hours. The article did note that the shooting occurred after daybreak, thereby eliminating darkness as an excuse. Finally, with

  a growing sense of indignation, the man arrives at the unavoidable

  conclusion.1

  Veteran CIA officer, Leutrell Osborne, also investigated the matter.

  Leutrell “Mike” Osborne, twenty-six-year veteran CIA Case Officer and Counter Intelligence expert like many African-Americans are somewhat familiar with the now deceased Director of Domestic Intelligence for the FBI, William Sullivan. Most of those who know of him also know that he was killed a week before he was to testify before the House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1977. . . .

  William Sullivan’s goal was to testify before the public HSCA hearings and lay his cards on the table, so to speak. He was going to give the committee and the American people the truth about J. Edgar Hoover’s hatred of Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as his hatred for John F. Kennedy and Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy.2

  Gary Revel was a Special Investigator commissioned for the official investigation into the Martin Luther King Jr. assassination:

  Mr. Revel says he is still trying to unravel the bizarre happenings of that year. His brother, his cousin’s husband, William Sullivan, and five other FBI or former FBI officials, who could have been valuable to his ­investigation

  1 Richard Cibrano, Dead Reckoning (Xlibris: 2009).

  2 “Deadly Business of a King’s Murder,” 28 Feb. 2006: http://www.leutrellosborne.50megs.com/whats_new.html

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  died mysteriously or were simply killed during that year. Sullivan and the other five were scheduled to testify before the committee. Donald Kaylor was a fingerprint expert who had worked on the JFK assassination evidence. Alan Belmont and Louis Nichols were both special assistants to

  J. Edgar Hoover. JFK assassination document examiner and expert James Cadigan was another. J. M. English, an expert on the rifle that supposedly killed President John F. Kennedy and was head of the FBI Forensic Sciences Laboratory, was also dispatched. Those who travel to a place beyond reason and continue to try to defend the official stories of lone assassins and thorough investigations simply haven’t gotten it yet. When there are so many coincidences, any reasonable person will just know that something is amiss.1

  Special Investigator Revel warned that the series of deaths were even more sinister than they initially appeared:

  Revel said deaths of these FBI SAs (Special Agents) could be more significant than what many realized because all six of these FBI SAs were identified to Revel as being important witnesses for the HSCA. “Is it likely that the stress of the planned testimony really brought on heart attacks to three of these people?” questioned Revel.

  One FBI Special Agent, Alan Belmont, died of an illness. People do die of illnesses, but the prolific coincidences of 1977 make even that death start to look bizarre. . . . James Cadigan died from an accidental fall in his home. Normally, this would not be suspect. However, for Revel, there were too many accidental deaths that year.2

  The definitive investigation of the actual circumstances surrounding William Sullivan’s supposed accidental death is the Special Report: The Death of “Crazy Billy” Sullivan, by Jeff Goldberg and Harvey Yazijian. That study determined that, upon closer examination, the substance of the case for it being an accident was completely unsubstantiated:

  The official version of the accident rest on two conclusions:

  Daniels’ view of Sullivan was obscured and fleeting. Sullivan’s clothing, in a sense, made him look like a deer. These are the basics of the case. But on closer examination, neither can be judged now as certain.3

  The above story then goes on to detail specifically why those two points are not true; they are too long to fully convey here, but we recommend you access the full article, as it’s very well-written and illuminating.4

  1 Ibid.

  2 “Leutrell Osborne Finds Disturbing New Details Investigating Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination,” 22 March 2006: http://www.leutrellosborne.50megs.com/whats_new.html

  3 Jeff Goldberg & Harvey Yazijian, “Special Report: The Death of ‘Crazy Billy’ Sullivan,” New Times, 24 July 1978:

  4 Goldberg & Yazijian, “The Death of ‘Crazy Billy’ Sullivan”: https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/alt.conspiracy.jfk/Rx4o-wYym18

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  The incident occurred right after daybreak, so there was sufficient light and alcohol was not a factor. Note Mr. Daniels’ experience and rationality, from his own statements:

  “During the year before the accident, I saw about fifteen or twenty deer,” he said. “I didn’t shoot at any of them because I didn’t think it was the right shooting time. I consider myself a sportsman, not a person who goes out to kill as many deer as he can.”1

  The larger point, as other residents observed, is that hunters know what they know—and they don’t forget it—under any normal circumstances. Put simply, they learn cautious, and they remain cautious.

  In fact, it was the first fatal hunting accident to occur in that area in over twenty years.2 That’s the basis of the very well-earned reputation they had as serious hunters.

  “I’m really suspicious of the hunting accident,” one Lisbon resident said, “not just because Sullivan was involved, but because this guy (Daniels) knows how to hunt, and I don’t care what they say, he knows how to hunt. Local hunters don’t make mistakes like that.”3

  Now, add to all that, the fact that William Sullivan, a highly intelligent man, specifically and precisely predicted his own death. And it was not a vague reference, or some general statement that anyone might have made. He specifically stated to a friend that he would be murdered, that it would be made to look like an accident, and to not believe it. He told his friend, Robert Novak, something that Novak was never able to forget:

  Someday you will read that I have been killed in an accident, but don’t believe it; I’ve been murdered.4

  Historian John Simkin, a long-time investigator of contemporary events in general, and the death of William Sullivan in particular, concluded that it was actually a case of murder:

  On the surface it seemed to be an accident. However, I believe it was ­murder.5

  So that’s the story of the death of William Sullivan. Much less is known about the specific circumstances of the deaths of the other five senior FBI officials. However, as the odds of probability prove out—if even one of those deaths is suspicious, then they all should be. Because it is mathematically impossible for six senior FBI officials to die naturally in one six-month period, precisely at the time they are being scheduled to give

  1 Ibid.

  2 Ibid.

  3 Ibid.

  4 John Hawkins, “Right Wing News,” 20 Aug 2007. Robert D. Novak, The Prince of Darkness: 50 Years Reporting in Washington (Crown Forum: 2007).

  5 John Simkin, “Was William Sullivan Murdered?” 19 April 2005: http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=3694&st=0

  testimony on their specific knowledge regarding the JFK assassination. The odds that the moon is actually made of green cheese are higher than the aforementioned. Find a mathematician and examine the laws of probability in great detail. He or she will conclude the same.

  Conclusion

  It did not happen naturally.

  Victim

  Richard Cain, high-ranking Chicago police official; well-connected to Chicago mob; worked directly with Sam Giancana

  Cause of Death

  Gunshot; one blast from a sawed-off shotgun, under chin.

  Official Verdict

  Gangland murder<
br />
  Actual Circumstances

  Cain reportedly played a role in the JFK assassination (that’s direct from the Giancana Family) and he was also involved in covert anti-Castro operations.

  Inconsistencies

  None Apparent

  40

  Richard Cain,

  December 20, 1973

  Richard Cain was what’s known as a “dirty cop,” and he was exceedingly good at it. He made it all the way up to Chief Investigator for the Cook County Sheriff’s Department (which covered Chicago) and was on the payroll of Sam “The Man” Giancana, leader of the Chicago Mob the whole time . . . the very people Cain was supposed to be going after.

  Cain was so “good” at his job that he became a “made member” of the Chicago Outfit—an untouchable member of the strongest crime family in the country. For the book The Godfather by Mario Puzo, Cain was actually the model used for the character of Frank Neri—a vicious Mafia contract killer with a police badge.

  The Giancana family implicated Cain as one of the shooters of JFK and there are many links between Cain and efforts to assassinate Castro on behalf of the CIA. The

  Overview

  The Murder of Richard Cain

  High-level police official in Chicago who was actually a member of the Chicago Outfit. He reported directly to Chicago mob boss Sam “The Man” Giancana.