Latell cites a claim by a defector named Florentino Aspillaga about an order he said he had received on November 22, about three hours before Kennedy was shot. Aspillaga, who in 1963 was a sixteen-year-old working on intercepts of covert CIA communications, said he was told to abandon routine work and listen to “all conversations” for “any small detail from Texas.” “They knew,” said Aspillaga, referring to his superiors, “Kennedy would be killed.”
Latell draws the same inference, and that seems a stretch. So close is Cuba to Florida that far easier than tasking signal intercept operators—had Castro’s people known in advance of an assassination attempt—would have been to listen to ordinary radio broadcasts. A high-level Cuban interest in Texas, moreover, could have reflected not so much foreknowledge of the assassination but an interest—following Kennedy’s loaded “signal” speech of November 18 in Miami—in what the President might say in Dallas, the next stop on his known schedule.
Latell also took seriously the first public emanation of supposed Castro foreknowledge of an Oswald threat against Kennedy in Mexico City—a story that was long ago exposed as fraudulent. In a 1967 National Enquirer article, a British reporter named Comer Clarke claimed to have visited Havana and secured an impromptu interview with Castro. According to Clarke, Castro told him that, “Lee Oswald came to the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City twice. The first time, I was told, he wanted to work for us. He was asked to explain, but he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t go into details. The second time he said something like: ‘Someone ought to shoot that President Kennedy.’ Then Oswald said—and this was exactly how it was reported to me—‘Maybe I’ll try to do it.’ This was less than two months before the U.S. President was assassinated… . Yes, I heard of Lee Harvey Oswald’s plan to kill President Kennedy. It’s possible I could have saved him. I might have been able to—but I didn’t. I never believed the plan would be put into effect.”
Castro told the Assassinations Committee that he gave no such interview. Clarke had been an inveterate purveyor of sensational and sometimes dubious stories—headlines included “British Girls as Nazi Sex Slaves” and “German Plans to Kidnap the Royal Family.” Clarke’s widow said in an interview that her late husband never mentioned having interviewed Castro, an event any reporter would have considered a scoop. Clarke’s former assistant Nina Gadd, moreover, said she generated the story—without going anywhere near Cuba—drawing on claims made by a “Latin American foreign minister.” (Childs: SAC, New York to Director, June 12, 1964, FBI 100-HQ-428091, Pt. 63, p. 58–; Latell used to suggest: Latell, op. cit., pp. 140–, 225, 231; Garro et al.: HSCA Report, p. 124, HSCA III.285; Newman, Oswald and the CIA, op. cit., p. 377–, & June Cobb refs. Robbyn Swan ints. Manuel Calvillo and Deba Galvan Debaki Garro, 1993; Rodríguez: Latell, op. cit., p. 128–, Rodríguez calling card, with cover ident as AMMUG 1, NARA 104-10185-10260, Notes re debriefing of Cuban source on Oswald Case, May 1, 5 & 6, 1964, & Dooley to Rocca, June 19, 1964, NARA 1993.06.12.08.26.02.650000, Swenson to Rocca, May 8, 1964, NARA 104-10054-10412, Swenson to WH, May 14, 1964, NARA 104-10225-10072; Mirabal: HSCA III.176, April 1964 debriefing of Rodríguez, NARA 104-10183-10284; Aspillaga: Latell, op. cit., pp. 103, 8-3; Latell took seriously: ibid. p. 145–; Clarke: National Enquirer, October 15, 1967, referring to a July interview; HSCA III.283; HSCA Report, p. 122–, ints. Mrs. Clarke and Nina Gadd by Stephen Dorril. Reporter Comer Clarke’s name is often rendered as “Clark.” The author has used “Clarke,” the spelling used on the jacket of the reporter’s book England Under Hitler: The Shocking Plans for Britain Under Nazi Rule, London: New English Library, 1972.)
Kohly Jr.: int. Mario García Kohly Jr.
397 Attwood: Attwood, op. cit., p. 144; int. Attwood, 1978.
Rankin remark: Epstein, Inquest, op. cit., p. 105.
23. The Good Ole Boy
398 “Good Ole Boy” chapter title: This phrase is used in the South to refer to a local “character.” Detective Billy Combest of the Dallas police, whom the author interviewed in 1978, described Ruby thus.
“The pattern”: HSCA Report, p. 156.
Note 1: The most valuable book on the Ruby case remains Who Was Jack Ruby? (New York: Everest House, 1978) by the late Washington correspondent Seth Kantor. Kantor was in Dallas on the day of the assassination and met Ruby, whom he knew from past journalism in Dallas, at Parkland Hospital. Goaded by the fact that the Warren Commission said he was wrong about seeing Ruby, Kantor spent years researching the Ruby case. The author is indebted to him for his advice.
Ruby testified: IV.196; V.181–.
399 Hubert-Griffin: memorandum to Willens and
Rankin, May 14, 1964.
Griffin comment: Kantor, op. cit., p. 159.
Hubert resignation: Kantor, op. cit., p. 2.
400 Ruby request to go to Washington: V.194–.
Warren characterized: Report, p. 373.
HSCA: HSCA Report, p. 147–.
Warren: (on Ruby & organized crime) Report, p. 801; (on Cuba) Report, p. 369.
401 Ruby youth: Report, p. 786–; Kantor, op. cit., p. 96.
Capone: XXIII.423.
Chicago union episode: Report, p. 695; XXIII.433; Kantor, op. cit., p. 99–.
Ruby on leaving union: V.200; (stays on) Kantor, op. cit., p. 100.
402Ignored FBI interview: CD 1306 (FBI int. of Paul Roland Jones, June 26, 1964).
Miller: int. Miller, 1978; also XXII.476 and CD 105.120, FBI report, December 17, 1963.
Kutner: Moldea, op. cit., p. 167.
Jones bribe attempt: Third Interim Report, Kefauver Senate Committee, 82nd Congress, 1st Session; cited by Gus Taylor, Organized Crime in America, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1973, p. 337–; Report, p. 793; (Guthrie) XXII.360; (Butler) Report, p. 793; (first Butler report) XXVI.342; (records missing) XXV.514–; HSCA Report, p. 149; HSCA IX.513; (Butler) HSCA IX.153, 158; (HSCA on Jones) HSCA IX.513; (Jones and Ruby family) see supra and Report, p. 793; XXII.375; XXIII.203, 374; (first Dallas club—Silver Spur) XXII.302.
Note 2: The HSCA Report dates the Jones bribery scheme as 1947. It actually took place at the end of 1946 (HSCA Report, p. 149; HSCA IX.516).
Labriola & Weinberg: XXII.300; (killed) Ovid Demaris, Captive City, New York: Lyle Stuart, 1969, pp. 5, 17, 169–.
Nightspots: Report, p. 794–.
Escaped trouble: Report, p. 800; Kantor p. 109; XXIII.78; XXV.290; HSCA IX.128; HSCA Report, p. 156.
“Payoff man”: “The Mafia, the CIA and the Kennedy Assassination” by Milton Viorst, in Washingtonian magazine, November 1975.
403 “Man with fix”: XXIII.372.
Drug smuggling: XXIII.369.
Beard: Dallas Morning News, August 18, 1978; FBI document 602-982-243, June 10, 1976 & see XXVI.634—report of interview with Blaney Mack Johnson, December 1, 1963; article, “The Secret Life of Jack Ruby,” by William Scott Malone, New Times, January 23, 1978.
McKeown: XXIII.158–; interview with author, 1978; HSCA Report, p. 152; HSCA IX.587; New Times, June 24, 1977; Warren Commission memo by Hubert and Griffin, March 20, 1964; (date of McKeown-Ruby encounters) ibid., and notes of interview of McKeown by Sen. Int. Cttee. investigator, 1975.
Note 3: The credibility of McKeown was queried by the Assassinations Committee, due not least to his demeanor at interview. He also claimed in later years to have been visited by Lee Oswald, and that did not seem likely. His original statements about Ruby, however, are to an extent corroborated by other evidence, in particular, that of a police officer who helped a man who may have been Ruby to contact McKeown. The author found him credible on the Ruby matter.
Ruby on Cuba trip: V.200–; Report, pp. 801, 812, 370.
404 McWillie: (“closest friend”) XXIII.166; V.201; (“manager”) HSCA V.3; (syndicate connections) CD 689D; Ramparts, November 1973; (on Ruby visit) XXIII.37, 170; HSCA V
.2–.
Note 4: McWillie said that he arranged to bring over to Cuba Jack Ruby and a columnist called Tony Zoppi. His hope was that Zoppi would write useful publicity for the Tropicana, and Ruby’s role was to persuade Zoppi to come. In the event Zoppi could not, but Ruby, McWillie said, came anyway. As evidence to support this explanation of the Ruby trip, McWillie showed the Assassinations Committee a letter on the subject apparently written by Zoppi in 1976. Zoppi himself gave an interview to Assassinations Committee staff that threw doubt on McWillie’s story. Zoppi confirmed there was a plan to go to Cuba with Ruby, but it was planned for the winter, not the summer. His statement suggests that Ruby’s actual travel to Cuba was quite separate from the planned joint excursion (arranged: HSCA V.10, 26–, 167; letter: HSCA V.26; Zoppi interview: HSCA V.171; separate: HSCA IX.164, 167).
Travel record: (Havana arrival August 8) HSCA V.196–; (full month) HSCA Report, p. 151 & see HSCA IX.159–; (Labor Day) HSCA V.191, Report, p. 802; (postcard) HSCA V.195; (exit card, September 11) HSCA V.197; (return to Cuba) HSCA V.197; (Mynier) CD 84.215–; (“numerous”) CD 302.159; (in Dallas August 10) XXIII.10 (following week); HSCA V.204; (August 31) CD 302.159; HSCA V.218; (HSCA conclusion) HSCA Report, p. 151; (“courier”) HSCA IX.177 and HSCA Report, p. 152.
405Note 5: In 1959, the year he visited Cuba, Ruby had some dealings with the FBI. Between March and October, Agent Charles Flynn of the Dallas office had nine meetings with Ruby as a PCI, a Potential Criminal Informant. According to the Bureau, its interest was confined to information Ruby might pick up as a nightclub owner. It may be relevant, though, that Ruby went on an electronic shopping spree following the first FBI contact, purchasing a wristwatch with a built-in microphone, a phone bug, a wire tie-clip, and a bugged attaché case. Was the contact with the FBI somehow related to the spate of travel to Havana? Ruby’s acquaintance at the New Orleans airport listened as Ruby—talking on the phone—instructed an employee not to disclose his whereabouts “unless it were to the police or some other official agency.”( dealings: HSCA Report, p. 151; HSCA V.218; CD 732; electronic purchases: “Rubygate,” by William Scott Malone, New Times, January 23, 1978, citing Secret Service and FBI reports; acquaintance listened: CD 302.159).
Note 6: In one of Ruby’s notebooks, seized after he shot Oswald, police found the entry “October 29, 1963—John Wilson bond.” (XIX.59, Armstrong Exhibit 5305Q). The note remains unexplained.
Note 7: Press accounts confirmed that Wilson, a sometime journalist and political activist, had indeed been detained in Cuba. In 1963, when he produced his information about Ruby and “Santos,” he could not have known from public sources that Ruby had been in Cuba in 1959. Details in Wilson’s account suggest that the “Santos” mentioned was indeed Santo Trafficante. The former superintendent of the detention camp was to tell the Assassinations Committee that he remembered the “English journalist” having been held in the same area as Trafficante. Two witnesses, one of them the superintendent, said Trafficante and his companions did receive special meals brought in from a Havana hotel. During his stay in Havana, Ruby stayed at the Capri Hotel, in which Trafficante had a major financial interest. (John Wilson: CIA document 206-83, November 16, 1963; FBI document 44-24016-255, November 16, 1963; CIA document 385-736, December 12, 1963; HSCA Report, p, 153, HSCA IX.175; Kantor, op. cit., p. 132; (press accounts) New York Times, July 1, 1959; (detained with Wilson) Captain Paul Hughes, ibid., and FBI document 87-8756, October 23,1959; (superintendent) HSCA V.333; (Wilson on food) FBI document 44-24016-255; (two witnesses) Loran Hall in Village Voice, October 3, 1977, & superintendent HSCA V.338; (Ruby at Capri) HSCA V.196; (Trafficante and Capri) Time, March 2, 1959).
Trafficante on meeting Ruby: HSCA V.371
HSCA on Ruby-Trafficante meeting: HSCA Report, pp. 153, 173.
Ruby-Trafficante associates:(Matthews) HSCA IX.524 and Report, p. 173; Dallas Morning News, April 6, 1978; CD 86.198; HSCA IX.532; int. of Harris by Alonzo Hudkins, January 3, 1978; HSCA IX.532; FBI document DL44-1639, December 13, 1963; Miami Herald, July 9, 1959; (own lawyer) Frank Wright, int. by researcher Larry Harris, December 28, 1977; (Dolan) HSCA Report, pp. 156, 173; HSCA IX.418–; (Todd) HSCA Report, p. 173; HSCA IX.989.
406 Ruby fearful: HSCA IX.162; and New York Daily News, July 18, 1976, int. Wally Weston.
Psychiatrist: “Examination of Jack Ruby,” reported by Werner Tuteur, M.D.
“Temporary insanity”: Milwaukee Sentinel, November 16, 1963.
407 Phone records: HSCA Report, p. 154; HSCA IX.188–; HSCA IV.496, 562; (HSCA finding on calls) HSCA Report, p. 156; (Matthews’ wife) HSCA IX.528 and 193; (Weiner) HSCA IX.1042, 1054, 1062, 1057, and Moldea, op. cit., p. 155; (Baker) HSCA Report, p. 155 and see HSCA IX.274–; XXV.247; HSCA IV.566; (“violence”) Robert Kennedy, op. cit., p. 60; (Miller) HSCA Report, p. 155 and HSCA IV.499 and HSCA IX.195; (Baker call) XXV.244; V.200; HSCA IV.566; HSCA Report, p. 155 and see IX.274.
Note 8: Ruby reportedly also spoke, in summer 1963 or later, with Lenny Patrick, identified by the Assassinations Committee as one of two “executioners for the Chicago Mob.” The other was David Yaras, and both Patrick and Yaras had known Ruby since their youth in Chicago. Yaras was reportedly a hit man for Sam Giancana, the Chicago Mob leader prominent in CIA-Mafia plots against Castro, and had himself been involved in Havana gambling operations before the Castro revolution. Yaras, who was also close to Jimmy Hoffa, was targeted for investigation by Robert Kennedy’s Justice Department team. On the eve of the assassination Yaras, like Ruby a week or so earlier, would talk by phone with the feared Barney Baker, Hoffa’s aide. (See also HSCA Report, p. 150; HSCA IX.942; XIV.443–; CD 1299; Newsweek, October 9, 1950; Demaris, Captive City, op. cit., p. 130; Moldea, op. cit., p. 124; & Hoffa: see refs in Moldea, op. cit., and Kantor, op. cit., p. 31; call on eve of assassination: HSCA IV.567.)
Note 9: Then again, in testimony to the Assassinations Committee, Weiner reversed himself and said he had lied to the journalist and that he and Ruby had indeed discussed the union problem.
408Note 10: Ruby did know a person who lived on the Pecora property, a manager in the Marcello fiefdom named Harold Tannenbaum. Tannenbaum was in regular contact with Ruby during the summer of 1963, and called Ruby an hour after the call to the Pecora number. The director of the Metropolitan New Orleans Crime Commission, Aaron Kohn, said Ruby “had girls working down on [New Orleans] Bourbon Street… . Marcello’s brother, Peter Marcello, ran one of the bigger places… . Two other men close to the Marcello organization ran five of the biggest money-making strip joints on Bourbon Street. And Ruby would know these men, and Harold Tannenbaum managed for these men.”(HSCA Report, p. 155–, HSCA IX.192, 194; & see Clandestine America, III.2, p. 7.)
Ruby’s finances: Report, p. 797–; Kantor, op. cit., p. 18; HSCA Report, p. 156; XXIII.117; (IRS) XXIII.303, 383; (safe) Kantor, op. cit., p. 24; (tax lawyer) Kantor, op. cit., p. 24; (bank visit) Dallas Morning News, October 12, 1978.
409Note 11: When arrested for the murder of Oswald, Ruby would be carrying $3,000 (HSCA IX.2-).
HSCA/“knowledge”: HSCA Report, p. 156.
Paul dinner: Report p. 334; HSCA IX.978–.
Campisi: HSCA Report, p. 171n9, HSCA IX.335–.
Civello: HSCA Report, p. 171; Clandestine America, III.2, p. 7.
Ruby morning November 22: Report, p. 334; Kantor, op. cit., p. 38–; for Ruby’s movements see generally HSCA IX.1080, 1101.
410 Aynesworth: FBI document DL 44-1639, report of November 25, 1963.
Ruby at hospital: Kantor, op. cit., p. 41; and see HSCA V.179, Report, p. 158.
Note 12: Ruby himself denied visiting Parkland Hospital, and the Warren Commission chose to take his word for it rather than believe Kantor’s statement that he saw Ruby there. Following Kantor’s researches, however, the Assassinations Committee and former Warren Commission counsel Burt Griffin decided Kantor’s version was more l
ikely to be correct. Kantor, a respected correspondent, knew Ruby quite well from his working days in Dallas and had no reason to make up the story. The significance of the incident today is that Ruby denied the hospital encounter with Kantor. Why would he lie about this apparently minor detail? And what would that imply about his veracity on other points concerning his activities in those vital days? (denied: HSCA V.179; Warren took his word: Report, p. 335–; Kantor correct?: HSCA Report p. 159 and Griffin letter to Kantor, May 2, 1977, cited by Kantor, op. cit., p. 202).
411 Broken up, etc.: Report, p. 337–.
Police station sightings: Report, p. 340–; analyzed by Kantor, op. cit., p. 45, and by Meagher, op. cit., Chapter 25.
Synagogue: Report, p. 340.
Ruby on Fair Play for Cuba Committee: Report, p. 342.
412Note 13: The admission that he had had his gun with him on the Friday night made it look as though the murder of Oswald was premeditated, and Ruby later withdrew it. (CD 1252.9; HSCA V.179.)
At radio station: Report, p. 343:
Olsen: Report, p. 343.
Note 14: It may be that Ruby met with Olsen for much more than an hour. They talked in a garage, and the garage attendant’s statement—coupled with the fact that Ruby omitted the episode in answers given to the FBI—may suggest that this was not a casual encounter. On the afternoon of the assassination, Olsen would be not far from the site of Officer Tippit’s murder—a fact that he explained by saying he had been moonlighting, doing guard duty at a vacant estate. He could not, however, recall exactly where the estate was. Ruby was at radio station KLIF at 2:00 a.m. and at the Dallas Times-Herald around 4:00 a.m. (met Olsen: XV.254, 483, 532; XXIV.126, 162; XXV.228; XV.557, 566; XXVI.238; XXV.232; CD 105.325; CD 360.132; Olsen at time of Tippit shooting: XIV.264; could not recall: XXV.521, CD 1252.10, CD 1253.4 & re Olsen see also Shaw-Harris, op. cit., p. 102; Jones, op. cit., vol. I.92–; Report, p. 363)
Not in Your Lifetime: The Defining Book on the J.F.K. Assassination Page 55