by Jim Marrs
Topping this list was former number-three man in the FBI William C. Sullivan, who had already had a preliminary meeting with 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 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 of Sullivan’s death.
Louis Nicholas 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’s 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.
During the House committee investigation into the JFK assassination, the news media reported the deaths of other key assassination witnesses, such as George DeMohrenschildt and former Cuban president Carlos Prio Socarras, who died within weeks of each other in 1977, just as they, too, were being sought by the House committee.
The ranks of both organized crime and US intelligence agencies were thinned by deaths beginning in 1975, the time of the Senate Intelligence Hearings, and 1978, the closing months of the House committee.
Charles Nicoletti, a mobster connected with the CIA-Mafia assassination plots, was murdered in Chicago, while William Pawley, a former diplomat connected with both organized-crime and CIA figures, reportedly committed suicide. Other deaths during this time included Lou Staples, a Dallas radio talk show host who told friends he would break the assassination case; Air Force One chief steward Joseph C. Ayres; and U-2 pilot Francis G. Powers.
Adding to rumors that “hit teams” may have been at work, a Time magazine article reported that federal agents had initiated a nationwide investigation into more than twenty gangland assassinations constituting what agents believed was an “open underworld challenge to governmental infiltration of Mafia activities.”
A New York News story concerning this official fear of roving assassination squads specifically mentioned the death of Sam Giancana, killed one day before he was to testify about mob-CIA connections and despite being under government protection.
The shooting death of Mary Pinchot Meyer may provide insights into the machinations of top government officials. She was the former wife of Cord Meyer, since 1962 the head of the CIA’s Directorate of Plans Covert Action Staff. The scion of a wealthy, socially prominent, and politically connected family, a WWII combat hero and honors graduate of Yale, Cord Meyer was probably the closest rival to JFK in position, intelligence, and opportunity. This story of wealth and prominence mixed with intrigue and murder was made public in the brilliant 2012 book Mary’s Mosaic by Peter Janney, who was friends with Mary’s children and was the son of CIA official Wistar Janney.
In early 1945, while attending Yale Law School, Meyer met and wed a beautiful socialite named Mary Pinchot. Their marriage became a partnership of idealistic equals as they crusaded for world peace. Cord Meyer caught the attention of United Nations higher-ups by writing a paper advocating a federation of nations and on May 2, he became an aide to Harold Stassen, who helped establish the United Nations.
With his new bride, Meyer accompanied Stassen to a conference on the United Nations later that month. Mary was reporting for United Press International. There she became reacquainted with John F. Kennedy, who was reporting on the conference for the Chicago Herald-American. But when Kennedy attempted to interview Cord, he was snubbed. Reportedly this was a rebuke he never forgot, later ignoring Cord’s request for an ambassadorship.
Later that same month, Cord Meyer’s outlook on life changed when his fraternal twin brother, Quintin, was killed in action on Okinawa. He slowly became more and more distant from Mary. His focus turned inward and he became a chain-smoker and alcoholic. In 1951, he left the United World Federalists, which he had helped fund, and joined the CIA at the invitation of Allen Dulles.
According to author Janney:
Somewhere in the bowels of the Washington E Street offices of the newly formed CIA, Cord Meyer transformed all his poetic, insightful visionary and wisdom into perfecting schemes and strategies for America’s greater power and control, the often subtle but effective attempts at world domination—no matter what the cost. [He was a] Cold Warrior by day, increasingly frustrated and intoxicated at night.
The Meyer marriage broke up in 1956 and, following the death of her son Michael, who was hit by a car, Mary moved to Massachusetts, where she socialized in the same circles as JFK. Kennedy reportedly was unhappy with Jackie and wanted out of this marriage but knew it would be political suicide. He began to visit Mary at her rented home, which was within an hour of the Kennedy compound. Their relationship grew and matured. Janney wrote, “She was one of the few women he really respected, maybe the only one.”
This liaison continued through 1963, with Mary introducing Jack to a broader view of the world, the benefits of peace, and even drugs such as LSD and marijuana. Communicating with Harvard psychologist and drug culture guru Timothy Leary, Mary devised a plan to give careful amounts of LSD to ranking government officials so as to reprogram them to build a more peaceful society.
Theologian James W. Douglass wrote, “Although Kennedy was a Cold Warrior who had taken the world to the very brink of nuclear war, there was a more peaceful element in his character from which God could create something new. What was the seed of his transformation? . . . What was the seed of his change from the president of a national security state into a leader with a more universal humanity, which . . . would then mark him out for assassination?” Janney came to believe the seed was his relationship with Mary Meyer, an intellectual, self-assured woman who bridled at playing the meek Washington socialite.
Following the JFK assassination and despite warnings from her friends, Mary could not stop talking about it in the capital’s social circles, raising questions and pointing out inconsistencies in the official version.
On October 12, 1964, she was shot in the head while walking on the C&O Chesapeake Canal towpath near her home. When the shot failed to kill her, a second shot angled just beneath her right shoulder blade severed her aorta, killing her instantly. The precision of the shots indicated the work of a professional assassin. However, police found an unfortunate black man, Raymond Crump Jr., drunk and sleeping in the area and charged him with the crime. Despite oddities in the evidence and testimony (one key witness was found to have a fraudulent identity and disappeared), it seemed Crump’s guilt was a foregone conclusion.
However, a determined young attorney named Dovey J. Roundtree fought a tenacious defense, fully detailed in Mary’s Mosaic. Roundtree was able to show there was no hard evidence to link Crump to the murder and that he likely was set up to take the blame. Crump was found not guilty and released.
Before the news of Mary’s murder even was made public, a small group of people gathered at her Georgetown home, apparently searching for her diary, in which she had made copious notes. Cord Meyer and another ranking CIA official were there along with James J. Angleton, head of the CIA’s counterintelligence division, and his wife, Cicely, a close friend of Mary’s. Also present were Tony Bradlee, Mary’s sister and the wife of Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee. There were conflicting accounts as to whether the group had broken into her home. Later it was revealed that Angleton admitted he had found the diary and related papers and burned them.
All this interconnection between members of Washington’s elite must be noted when taking into account the deathbed confession of CIA operative and Watergate burglar E. Howard Hunt.
Following Hunt’s death in 2007, his sons St. John Hunt and David Hunt said their father had told them who was involved in the conspiracy to assassinate JFK. Toppin
g Hunt’s list was Lyndon B. Johnson, followed by CIA officers Cord Meyer, William Harvey, and David Atlee Phillips. He also named CIA operative David Morales and a “French gunman on the Grassy Knoll,” thought by his son St. John to be Lucien Sarti.
Could these names have been found in Mary Meyer’s diary? Regardless, her murder may well have played an intricate part in the higher levels of the conspiracy to kill Kennedy. After all, his relationship with Mary Meyer may have been the catalyst for Kennedy to attempt to construct a more peaceful and just world. This could not have set well with the war machine that America had become. As Mary once described Kennedy to Timothy Leary, “They couldn’t control him anymore.”
Near the end of his life, Cord Meyer himself may have indicated some intimate knowledge of the assassination. According to author C. David Heymann, once when Meyer was asked who killed Mary, he bitterly replied, “The same sons of bitches that killed John F. Kennedy.”
PART IV
CONCLUSIONS
Since November 22, 1963, a massive amount of information has become available concerning the assassination of president John F. Kennedy. Some of it was made public immediately, but most of this information leaked out only after many years had passed. Much has proven erroneous, incomplete, and misleading in light of later developments.
What does the information available today tell us about Kennedy’s assassination? What conclusions may be drawn from the existing record? Based on all currently available information, most researchers have concluded:
1.Lee Harvey Oswald was involved in intelligence activities. He was—or at least he believed he was—working on behalf of the United States.
2.It is entirely possible that Lee Harvey Oswald did not fire a gun on November 22, 1963, thus making him innocent in the deaths of both President Kennedy and police officer J. D. Tippit.
3.If Lee Harvey Oswald did participate in the assassination—and much evidence indicates he did not—he certainly did not act alone.
4.An abundance of evidence indicates that Lee Harvey Oswald was framed for the assassination of President Kennedy. The evidence for someone posing as Oswald in the months leading up to the assassination is more than compelling.
5.This framing of Oswald coupled with evidence of attempts to cover up vital evidence in the case proves the existence of a conspiracy to kill Kennedy.
6.Because this cover-up went far beyond simple face-saving and was conducted at the federal level, it is apparent that persons within the US government were both involved in and aware of such a conspiracy. If there had been a legitimate reason for such activities, it would have been revealed long before now.
7.The two most powerful men in the federal government in 1963—next to the president and his brother—were vice president Lyndon B. Johnson and his close friend FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. Both men were facing the end of their careers if Kennedy was reelected in 1964. Johnson may have even faced prison time due to his involvement in the TFX, Bobby Baker, and Billie Sol Estes scandals.
8.Both Johnson and Hoover could have been convicted—if not for orchestrating the assassination itself—certainly for participating in the demonstrable cover-up that took place in its aftermath. Under the law, both men were accessories after the fact and subject to criminal penalties.
Even if Oswald—real or impersonator—was recruited as a Soviet agent, he was playing double, acting under orders from persons he believed to be in US intelligence. Despite his pro-Castro posturing, his contacts with Guy Banister and David Ferrie in New Orleans and George DeMohrenschildt in Dallas and assorted FBI agents proved that in the months just prior to the assassination, Oswald was in contact with persons connected to US intelligence.
Once it is understood that Oswald was—or believed he was—working as an intelligence operative, assassination evidence takes on a new perspective.
It is apparent to many researchers that while Oswald most probably did obtain a rifle and a pistol and may have made some sort of trip to Mexico, he likely was following orders from persons he considered to be his intelligence superiors.
Thus, many of Oswald’s activities in the weeks prior to the assassination were carefully calculated to both incriminate him and link him with foreign governments.
While it is probable that Oswald was in some way connected with persons involved in a plot against Kennedy, he may have felt secure in the belief that he was reporting on that plot to the US government—most likely through the FBI.
While it cannot be stated with absolute assurance that Oswald never fired a weapon on November 22, 1963, there is an abundance of supporting evidence that he did not. The Dallas police paraffin test showed no gunpowder on Oswald’s hands or cheek, evidence that he had not fired a rifle, particularly the loose-bolted Italian Carcano. Oswald maintained he was in the Depository lunchroom at the time of the shooting and accurately named two coworkers who indeed ate in the lunchroom that day. Testimony of other employees indicates that Oswald was seen on lower floors both minutes before and after the assassination.
All this, together with the fact that less than ninety seconds after the shots were fired Depository superintendent Roy Truly and Dallas policeman Marion Baker encountered a calm and collected Oswald standing in a downstairs lunchroom with a soft drink in his hand, tends to support Oswald’s alibi.
Whoever fired from the Depository did not act alone. This fact was supported in 1979 by the House Select Committee on Assassinations’ scientific study of acoustical material indicating that at least one shot came from the Grassy Knoll. These acoustical studies are supported by many witnesses as well as the photographic enlargement of Mary Moorman’s snapshot depicting the “badgeman” figure.
Today it is obvious to many researchers that multiple gunmen were shooting at Kennedy and that the three shots fired in Dealey Plaza were actually three volleys fired simultaneously—probably coordinated by radio.
The presence of Secret Service agents in Dealey Plaza at a time when all official agents were accounted for elsewhere is a particularly pertinent piece of evidence. Either these men were bogus agents carrying identification good enough to fool Dallas policemen or they were real agents carrying out some undocumented and unexplained activity.
The medical and ballistic evidence, most of which can be called into question, bears all the earmarks of tampering and indicates Kennedy was struck by at least three shots—one in the back below the shoulder blades, which did not penetrate his body, one in the throat, and one in the head (although there is some evidence to suggest that two shots may have struck his head almost simultaneously).
Most probably, at least two shots struck Governor Connally—one penetrating his chest and lung while a separate bullet shattered his right wrist and entered his left thigh.
At least one shot definitely missed the limousine altogether, striking the curb near the Triple Underpass, slightly wounding bystander James Tague. Furthermore, there is evidence of three additional shots—one bullet struck the grass on the south side of Elm Street, another hit in the street near the presidential limousine, and yet another struck the Stemmons Freeway sign.
This count would mean at least six shots were fired in Dealey Plaza—perhaps as many as nine. It is significant to note that acoustical experts testified before the House Select Committee on Assassinations that they had discovered as many as nine sound signals that they could not rule out as gunshots, but only four were confirmed since only two sites for comparison tests were used.
It is apparent to most researchers that the assassination was the result of a well-executed military-style ambush utilizing multiple gunmen firing from hidden positions—perhaps using fragmenting or “sabot” bullets and even silencers.
To attempt to pinpoint each gunman’s location and calculate the number and effect of each shot is an exercise in futility since actions were taken immediately to eliminate evidence and confuse investigators. Even the Zapruder film is now under question as evidence.
Since there would have been effor
ts to eliminate any evidence of foreknowledge of the assassination, it is not surprising that the proof of the framing of Oswald is meager and largely circumstantial. However, it should be noted that circumstances cannot be altered and thus may prove to be better evidence than physical evidence, which can be falsified or planted.
What is obvious and demonstrable is the cover-up perpetrated after the assassination.
Herein lies the real key to understanding the truth of Kennedy’s death.
While anyone could have engineered the assassination—Castro agents, KGB assassins, mob hit men, anti-Castro Cuban exiles, dissident CIA or FBI agents, even the infamous “lone nut”—who had the power to subvert and misdirect any meaningful investigation after the assassination had occurred? Only ranking officials of the federal government of the United States.
Consider that in the wake of the assassination there has been:
—A continuing and consistent pattern of suppression of evidence, destruction of evidence, and intimidation of witnesses on the part of federal authorities, especially the FBI and the Warren Commission.
—A continued unwillingness by the Justice Department—of which the FBI is a part—to pursue and prosecute assassination leads, even after being urged to do so by Congress.
—Revelations concerning the presence of Secret Service agents encountered in Dealey Plaza at the time of the shooting, when no agents were present according to official records.
—The questionable activities of the CIA in providing false evidence to the Warren Commission while suppressing other vital evidence, such as the existence of assassination plots involving the agency and organized-crime members.
—The disconcerting pattern of communications blackouts occurring at the time of the assassination that involved the Texas School Book Depository, the Dallas police radio channel dedicated to presidential security, the missing code book in the airplane carrying Kennedy’s cabinet, and the virtual shutdown of the Washington, DC, telephone system at a time when most Americans were only just becoming aware that something had happened in Dallas.