Not in Your Lifetime: The Defining Book on the J.F.K. Assassination

by Anthony Summers

  Note 12: De Varona stayed on November 15 at the New Orleans home of Agustín Guitart, the uncle of Silvia Odio, whose account of an encounter with a man identified as “Leon Oswald,” in the company of men who said they were anti-Castro fighters, is the subject of the pages that follow. De Varona was in New Orleans to attend a meeting of the Cuban Revolutionary Council. (HSCA X.62)

  Odio: interviews with author, 1978, 1979, 1993, 1994; HSCA Report, p. 137– and HSCA X.19–; also Warren XI.327, 386; XXVI.362, 472; see especially study in Meagher, op. cit., p. 376–; XVI.834; CD 1553; “Dallas: The Cuban Connection,” article in Saturday Evening Post, March 1976.

  358Note 13: Silvia Odio has explained that she suffered from blackouts at various periods of her life. The cause has been diagnosed medically since 1963. Her apparent shock on the day of the assassination does not, against that background, seem far-fetched. There were many, perhaps thousands, who wept openly when they heard the traumatic news of the President’s assassination. With Odio’s recent visitation and disturbing phone call about “Oswald,” her reaction seems understandable enough. There is no doubt she did pass out, and she was hospitalized. The way the Odio incident emerged is highly complex and the result of a series of conversations for which her sister Sarita was originally responsible. In the event, the FBI became interested because of information about Jack Ruby, not Odio. (For full exposition, see HSCA X.24.) The person with whom Silvia Odio discussed the incident before the assassination was Dr. Burton Einspruch, her psychiatrist. There is no suggestion that Odio’s reliability was diminished because she was visiting a psychiatrist. Dr. Einspruch explains that Odio was a young woman of wealthy birth, transferred abruptly from affluence in Cuba to hard times as an exile. She had been deserted by her husband and left with young children to raise and other family members to help. She came to him, as would so many in America, to talk out her problems. Dr. Einspruch has said, from the start, that he has “great faith in Mrs. Odio’s story of having met Lee Harvey Oswald.” (ints. Silvia Odio, and HSCA X.29.)

  359 Letter to father: XX.690–. (Odio’s own letter, sent to her father on October 27, 1963, did not survive. She clearly did write one because we have her father’s reply, written at Christmas.)

  Slawson “has been checked”: HSCA. XI.165.

  Liebeler: HSCA XI.237.

  360 Slawson “the most significant”: Saturday Evening Post, March 1976.

  Rankin: XXVI.834.

  Hoover information on Hall: XXVI.834; collapse of Hall story: CD.1553; HSCA XI.600; Sylvia Meagher, op. cit., p. 386.

  Odio first conversation: CD 205.644.

  361 Kaiser suggested: Kaiser, op. cit., p. 257–, & corr. David Kaiser.

  Oswald arriving back: Report, p. 736.

  Hotel records: int. of Hilda Giser, October 8, 1964, re Lawnview Motel registration cards, FBI DL 100-10461, in Oswald HQ file, 105-82555, Section 222, courtesy of Jerry Shinley.

  Press reported: Dallas Morning News, September 26, 1963.

  Hall: 1967 interview for article in National Enquirer, September 1, 1968; Hall & HSCA: Washington Post, May 21, 1977; (immunized testimony) cited at HSCA X.22 and HSCA staff notes, and notes from tapes, released 1993.

  362 “fabrication”: HSCA Report, p. 138.

  Hall career: HSCA refs. cited supra; Jaffe interview of Hall in author’s collection, July 23, 1975; The Village Voice, October 3, 1977; Dick Russell, The Man Who Knew Too Much, New York: Carroll & Graf, 1992, pp. 480–, 777.

  Intelligence training: Jaffe interview, supra.

  Exile training: memo of researcher Scott Malone to HSCA chief investigator C. Fenton, June 3, 1977.

  Trafficante: HSCA sources supra; Hall int. by Harold Weisberg, p. 92; HSCA X.22; & Weisberg, op. cit., pp. 161, 273–; Malone memo supra; and memo by researcher Mark Allen to HSCA staffer Donovan Gay, June 2, 1977.

  CIA “debriefing”: FBI file no. 81-0351D0647, memo for Chief of Security Analysis, September 10, 1975.

  Hall’s son: Dallas Morning News, September 13, 1989.

  HSCA conclusion: HSCA Report, p. 139.

  “a situation that indicates”: HSCA X.32.

  363 HSCA speculated: HSCA Report, p. 140.

  Note 14: A rider to that theory is that this was a deliberate ploy to link JURE, a left-wing exile group, with the assassination. Odio’s visitors posed as JURE members, and the Odio family supported its aims. In prison in Cuba, Silvia Odio’s father responded in alarm on receiving a letter from his daughter about the visit from “Leopoldo.” “Tell me who this is who says he is my friend,” he wrote back, “Be careful. I do not have any friend who might be here, through Dallas, so reject his friendship until you give me his name.” Later, at liberty following his long imprisonment in Cuba, Señor Odio said he was sure the visitors had had no real connection to him. JURE leaders in the United States were also nonplussed. It was a fact, though, that rightist exiles thought JURE supporters little better than Communists—they were potentially targets of a setup.

  Warren Commission attorneys Slawson and Coleman, who focused on possible foreign conspiracy, mulled the thought that anti-Castro Cubans “encouraged” Oswald to assassinate Kennedy, perhaps tricked him in some way. The author Jean Davison made the point that—even if the “leftist” Oswald was blamed for the assassination—his presence at the Odios’ home with “Leopoldo” and “Angelo” would still leave the anti-Castro side vulnerable to suspicion. The author Vincent Bugliosi has offered a lengthy summary of possible explanations of the Odio episode. Interestingly, though usually a fierce opponent of anything that smacks of conspiracy theory, even he conceded that the Odio episode holds water evidentially and must be taken seriously. (JURE: XXVI.839; HSCA X.31; Father’s letter: XX.690; HSCA X.29).

  Coleman/Slawson: Coleman & Slawson to WC, June 1964, “Oswald’s Foreign Activities, Summary of Evidence Which May Be Said to Show Foreign Involvement in the Assassination of President Kennedy,” www.history-matters.com.

  Davison: Jean Davison, Oswald’s Game, New York: Norton, 1988, p. 192–; Bugliosi: , p.1309

  “As it stands”: HSCA notes supra, and note donated to Assassination Archives and Research Center by William Scott Malone, citing A. J. Weberman int. of Hall, 1977.

  21. Countdown

  364 Attwood episode: ints. William Attwood, 1978–1979 (with access to diary), Mrs. Attwood, 1994, Arthur Schlesinger, 1978; William Attwood, The Reds and the Blacks, New York: Harper & Row, 1967, p. 142–, William Attwood, The Twilight Struggle: Tales of the Cold War, New York: Harper & Row, 1987, p. 257–, Schlesinger, Robert F. Kennedy, op. cit., p. 550–; Sen. Int. Cttee. Assassination Plots, p. 173-; HSCA Report, p. 127, Richard Tomlinson (London Weekend TV) corr. & memo of Attwood conv., January 29, 1986; “Kennedy Sought Dialogue with Cuba,” National Security Archive paper & linked Attwood and White House memoranda & November 5, 1963 White House tape recording, www.gwu.edu.

  365 “go-ahead”: Schlesinger, Robert F. Kennedy, op. cit., p. 552.

  Note 1: U.S. intelligence files indicate that Lechuga had in the recent past been the lover of Sylvia Durán, the aide who in late September 1963 dealt with the Oswald visa request in Mexico City. Durán herself confirmed to the author that there had been an affair. There is no evidence in the context of the assassination story, however, that the relationship was more than a coincidence, a quirk of history. (John Newman, op. cit., p. 279–, int. Durán, 1994)

  Vietnam withdrawal: Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, op. cit., p. 908; JFK Public Papers, 1963, p. 760 (for detailed study of Kennedy policy on Vietnam, see Schlesinger, Robert F. Kennedy, op. cit., p. 712–).

  CIA: Peter Dale Scott in The Pentagon Papers (Senator Gravel, ed.; Boston: 1971), vol. 5, p. 215–; John Newman, JFK and Vietnam, New York: Warner Books, 1992; New Republic, December 11, 1965, article by Harry Rowe Ransom.

  Howard & Castro: int. Gore Vida
l, 1994; unpublished 1995 ms. by William E. Kelly; Attwood memo, November 8, 1963, www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk.

  366 Daniel: int. William Attwood, 1978; L’Express (Paris), December 6, 1963; New Republic, December 7 & 14, 1963.

  367 November 5 Recording: Guardian [UK], November 26, 2003, citing Peter Kornbluh of the National Security Archive.

  Note 2: See supra, end Chapter 13.

  Cubela meetings/weapons: Sen. Int. Cttee., Performance of Intelligence Agencies, p. 16–; Sen. Int. Cttee., Assassination Plots, pp. 86–, 174-; HSCA Report, p. 112-; HSCA X.157–, 162–, Lattell, op. cit., pp. 171–, 193–.

  Note 3: When interviewed by the author in jail in 1978, Cubela insisted it had all along been the CIA—not he—who proposed assassination.Cubela was to be arrested in 1966, tried on charges of plotting against Castro, and sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted to a jail term within days, however—and the author and others were permitted access to Cubela toward the end of his imprisonment. Far from being harshly treated, the supposed traitor was allowed special privileges and released in 1979. The mild conditions of his confinement play to the credibility of the theory that Cubela was all along a double agent reporting all the CIA’s approaches to Castro. (int. Cubela, Havana, 1978; Latell, p.198, Miami News, December 13, 1979)

  368Note 4: Richard Helms told the Senate Intelligence Committee that he believed he had such authority to deal with Cubela regarding a “change in government.” He found it “so central to the whole theme of everything we had been trying to do, that [I found] it totally unnecessary to ask Robert Kennedy at that point [whether] we should go ahead with this. This is obviously what he had been pushing.” In his 2012 book, which covers the Cubela case extensively, former CIA analyst Brian Latell notes that Robert Kennedy and Desmond FitzGerald spoke on the phone on October 11. Case officer Sanchez has testified that he “assumed” Kennedy had been informed of progress with Cubela. (believed: Sen. Int. Cttee., Assassination Plots, p. 174–; spoke on phone/“assumed”: Latell, op. cit., p. 184)

  Note 5: The information on plans for a coup using another supposed traitor has appeared in books published by authors Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartmann since 2005. Documents aside, the books drew on interviews with former U.S. officials including Secretary of State Dean Rusk and Press Secretary Pierre Salinger. It relied—most notably—on interviews with Enrique “Harry” Ruiz-Williams, a Cuban exile whom Robert Kennedy had taken into his confidence. The Waldron-Hartmann account suggests that the putative coup would have taken place on December 1, 1963. According to the coauthors, the spring 1963 clamp-down on “freelance raids was designed to placate the Soviet Union in the short term and rein in exile extremists, while planning how to replace the Castro regime with an American-style democratic form of government.” The coup was to have been led by a senior army commander in Castro’s inner circle, Juan Almeida Bosque. In spite of his name being published in this context in 2006, however, it is noteworthy that the Cuban regime continued to treat Almeida as an honored revolutionary hero until his death in 2009. Author Waldron has reasoned that—in the wake of Fidel Castro’s own grave illness and handover of power—it was seen as pointless to pursue another national hero, the octogenarian Almeida, for alleged treachery. It is also conceivable that Almeida’s status as a high-flying member of the black minority may have precluded action against him or his reputation.

  In connection with this episode, this author himself interviewed Alexander Butterfield, McGeorge Bundy, William Geoghegan, Roswell Gilpatrick, Richard Goodwin, Walt Rostow, and Haynes Johnson.

  The Waldron/Hartmann thesis has been faulted by other authors on the case. It “valuably fleshes out [the] portrait of RFK’s secret campaign to oust Castro,” wrote Jefferson Morley, but “their theory about how that ties into the assassination itself is conjectural.” Gus Russo said the language of the documents cited in the Waldron/Hartmann books refers to “strikes” in Cuba, not a coup. “While their thesis is provocative,” wrote David Talbot, “it is not convincing … there is no compelling evidence that the coup/invasion plan was as imminent as the authors contend.” (coup reporting: Lamar Waldron & Thom Hartmann, Ultimate Sacrifice, New York: Carroll & Graf, 2005 & 2006, Lamar Waldron & Thomas Hartmann, Legacy of Secrecy, New York: Counterpoint, 2009, Liz Smith columns, New York Post, September 22, 2006 & January 6, 2009, Daily Telegraph (UK), September 18, 2009, Lamar Waldron int. for “Unredacted—Ultimate Sacrifice, Almeida and the Kennedys, www.maryferrell.org, author’s conversations with Waldron and Hartmann & author’s reporting in VF, December 1994; Morley: WP, November 27 2005; Russo: email January 5, 2006 cited at Bugliosi, op. cit., Endnotes, p. 760; Talbot: cited in “Enrique Ruiz-Williams,” www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk).

  Rusk: int. Dean Rusk, 1994.

  November 5 call: Guardian[UK], November 26, 1963, citing Peter Kornbluth of the National Security Archive.

  Howard discussed: www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk; CIA debriefing of Howard, May 1, 1963.

  369Note 6: Former CIA officers and other sources confirmed to the author that calls to Cuba were monitored, along with other communications systems. (See also Sen. Int. Cttee. Supp. Detailed Staff Reports on Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans, Report, 94-755, Book III.145).

  370 Farmers Branch meeting: copy of sound tape obtained by author in 1978 from retired Dallas Police Lieutenant George Butler; HSCA Report, pp. 132, 613n39; copy of tape held in files of researcher Mary Ferrell; Dallas Morning News, August 14, 1978.

  371 Chicago and Miami threats: HSCA Report, p. 230– and notes; (Chicago) “The Plot to Kill JFK in Chicago,” Chicago Independent, November 1975; Warren XXVI.441; Fensterwald/Ewing, op. cit., p. 56; ints. retired Miami Police Intelligence Captain Charles Sapp and former Lieutenant Everett Kay (who preserved original surveillance tape of Milteer), 1978; article in Miami News by Bill Barry, February 2, 1967; “JFK, King: The Dade County Links,” Miami magazine, September 1976; int. member of presidential party in Miami; CD 1347 p. 119- (which omits mention of tape-recording); (earlier Sapp warning) Sapp memo to Asst. Chief of Police Anderson, April 4, 1963; and HSCA sources as for Miami threat supra.

  Note 7: The claim of a second Chicago plot was made by former Secret Service Agent Abraham Bolden. Although another agent has also recalled such a threat, the Assassinations Committee found no corroboration in the record. Bolden left the Secret Service under a cloud, and served time in prison for offenses allegedly committed during his government service. He said the charges were trumped up. See Abraham Bolden, The Echo from Dealey Plaza, New York: Broadway, 2009, which the author has not.

  Note 8: See Chapter 20, supra.

  373Tampa alert: Miami Herald, November 23 & 24, 1963.

  Miami speech: JFK Public Papers, 1963, p. 875–;

  374 FitzGerald helped etc.: Sen. Int. Cttee., Performance of Intelligence Agencies, p. 19–.

  Note 9: According to Kennedy historian Arthur Schlesinger, the speech was intended, rather, to buttress what William Attwood was saying in his conversations with the Cubans—that normal relations could be possible could Cuba break its ties to the Soviet bloc. The speech does not, however, read like an encouraging message to Castro. If that was what was intended, it was clumsy indeed—and unnecessary, as he was already receiving credible messages through the Attwood channel. (Schlesinger, Robert F. Kennedy, op. cit., p. 554n, & int. Schlesinger, 1978)

  Note 10: President Kennedy left Miami at 9:13 p.m., according to Dave Powers, the curator of the John F. Kennedy Library. The information in Attwood’s two relevant books, and interviews with Attwood—who consulted his diary—suggests that the conversation with Havana described here occurred very late on November 18 and in the early hours of November 19. (Powers letter to author, 1979, Attwood, The Reds and the Blacks, p. 144, Attwood, The Twilight Struggle, p. 262, & ints. Attwood.)

  375 Daniel: New Republic, November 7 & 14, 1963.

 
376 Echevarria: HSCA Report, pp. 134, 236; CD 87.

  CIA meeting, November 22/Ruiz-Williams: See VF, December 1994, drawing on research of Lamar Waldron. Author also saw relevant interviews; Warren Hinckle & William Turner, Deadly Secrets: The CIA-Mafia War Against Castro and the Assassination of JFK, New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1992, p. 251; int. William Turner, 1994; (in RFK’s confidence) see other cites in Deadly Secrets; Talbot, pp. 11–, 178, 183.

  FitzGerald in 1964: Joseph Burkholder Smith, Portrait of a Cold Warrior, New York: Putnam, 1976, p. 143; int. Joe Smith, 1994.

  Sanchez: CIA document 201-252234, April 13, 1966, CIA box 36, folder 29, NARA.

  377Note 11: Accounts differ as to whether Cubela accepted the device, rejected it outright, or took it but later threw it into the River Seine. (HSCA Report, p. 112–; Sen. Int. Cttee., Performance of Intelligence Agencies, p. 16–; Latell, op. cit., pp. 203–, citing int. by House Assassinations Committee)

  never revealed etc: Evan Thomas, The Very Best Men: Four Who Dared, the Early Years of the CIA, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995, p. 307–; Dick Russell, op. cit., p. 535.

  Note 12: Howard died of an overdose of sleeping pills, reportedly having been depressed following a miscarriage. The evidence indicated that she committed suicide. (New York Times, Dallas Morning News, July 5, 1965)

  Note 13: There has been debate as to whether Kennedy said this to Johnson or Ruiz-Williams, who then repeated it to Johnson. (Haynes Johnson in Washington Post, April 17, 1981, November 20, 1983; int. Johnson, 1988; Talbot, op. cit., pp. 10, 412n10; Deadly Secrets, cited supra, p. 273; & Richard Sprague notes of int. Johnson, 1973; VF, December 1994.)

  378 McCone: Walter Sheridan Oral History, cited in Schlesinger, Robert F. Kennedy, op. cit., p. 616.

  McCone out of loop: Sen. Int. Cttee. Assassination Plots, p. 92; Talbot, op. cit., p. 7.

  “I asked him” Arthur Schlesinger, Journals, 1952–2000, London: Atlantic, 2008, p. 214.