by Gus Russo
23 Francis X. O’Neill, Jr., HSCA interview by Andy Purdy, 10 January 1978.
24 JAMA, 7 October 1992, 1737.
25 JAMA, 7 October 1992, 1737
26 Ibid, 1752.
27 JAMA, 27 May 1992, 2803.
28 Herbst Clinical Notes, 1950-1963, Medical File, MS 83-38, Kennedy Library; also Hamilton, 808-809; and Reeves, 668, fn. 42.
29 Pierre Finck, testimony, State of Louisiana v. Clay Shaw, 24-25 February 1969.
30 Travell, Memo for the file, 6 December 1963, WHCSF Box 104, JFK Library.
31 Posner, 300, fn. *.
32 JAMA, 27 May 1992, 2799.
33 JAMA, 7 October 1992, 1748.
34 In 1975, Janos testified to a Senate investigator, and said that he was told the story by the wife of a high-ranking Johnson aide. Janos would not divulge the woman’s name directly, but hinted strongly that it was the wife of LBJ Chief of Staff Bob Hardesty. Janos also interviewed Johnson in retirement. When contacted by the same Senate investigator, Hardesty claimed no knowledge of the file. (Leo Janos, Church Committee interview by Rhett Dawson, 14 October 1975; SSCI Box 337, folder 2.) Also: Leo Janos, interview by Seymour Hersh, 17 April 1994.
35 Merle Miller, Lyndon, 324.
36 Layton Martens, interview by author, 10 September 1994.
37 Al Beaubeouf, interview by author, 13 September 1994.
Garrison also made much of the fact that Ferrie later said that they intended to go “duck hunting” on the trip, but took no rifles with them. Beaubeouf says, “While we were on the road, I suggested we go deer hunting, not duck hunting, in Alexandria, Louisiana. I had plenty of relatives in the area from whom we could borrow rifles if we needed them. We ended up not hunting after all.” (Al Beaubeouf, interview by author, 13 September 1994.)
38 Results in author’s possession; Mutual Protective Association, Inc., 10 May 1967.
39 Layton Martens, interview by author, 3 February 1994.
Stories abound in New Orleans regarding Garrison’s alleged bisexuality. There was indeed an incident on the roof of the Men’s Athletic Club where Garrison was accused of indecency with another male. The incident was not resolved. Garrison’s later persecution of homosexual businessman Clay Shaw is perceived by some as a vendetta for a long-standing sexual feud. The story goes that Shaw and Garrison attended college together and both had vied for the affections of the same older man. Shaw allegedly prevailed and Garrison subsequently held it against Shaw.
Nick Caridas owns the concessions at Lakefront Airport where Banister aide and pilot Dave Ferrie often ate. Caridas also went to law school and knew Garrison well. His comments are fairly typical of those heard in New Orleans. “We used to hear rumors that Jim’s wife took a boyfriend because Jim was more interested in his male friends,” says Caridas. (Nick Caridas, interview by author, 7 February 1994.)
At to why Garrison associated David Ferrie with the Kennedy assassination, many of Banister’s employees agree this was pure revenge for Ferrie’s role in helping Banister assemble “the bomb” on Garrison.
40 Layton Martens, interview by author, 10 September 1994.
41 Morris Brownlee, interview by author, 10 September 1994.
42 Ibid.
43 Cited in Mailer, 291.
44 Interview of Jim Leavelle, 19 June 1993 (FL).
45 Posner, 344, fn. *.
46 Interview of Jim Leavelle, 19 June 1993 (FL).
47 Interview of Frank Ellsworth, 29 April 1993 (FL).
48 Elmo Cunningham, interview by author, 8 December 1993.
49 Interview of Jim Hosty, 22 June 1993 (FL).
50 A Warren Commission memo notes that Dallas Deputy Sheriff Raymond “Buddy” Walthers reported finding a set of metal file cabinets at Ruth Paine’s Irving house (where Oswald stored his things) that appeared to contain the “names and activities of Cuban sympathizers.” Walthers turned the cabinets over to the Secret Service. They have not surfaced since. (Arthur Marmor to Norman Redlich, Memo, 22 July 1964).
51 Ibid.
52 Bill Alexander, interview by Gerald Posner, 6 March 1992, cited in Posner, 348, fn.*.
53 WC Exhibits 1414, 3119.
54 Guy Banister, interview by Ernest Wall, FBI Report of interview, 25 November 1963.
55 David and David, 223.
56 Manchester, The Death of a President, 435.
57 Ibid, 443.
58 Oppenheimer, 264.
59 Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy and His Times, 659.
60 Interview of Paul Bentley, 30 July 1993 (FL).
This detail was corroborated for the author by the FBI’s Robert Gemberling and Homicide detective Jim Leavelle. There are a few cops who hint that Oswald’s civil rights were in fact abused while in custody. Two Dallas policemen, requesting anonymity, told the author that this happened, but would only hint at the details: the abuse was mental, not physical. When pressed, one of the policemen said, “I’ll take that to my grave.” For an indication of how touchy a subject this was for the Dallas police, note the different photos taken of Oswald on the day he was shot. At the time of his shooting, pictures of his face show only a minor scrape over his right eye. But in autopsy pictures taken only a few hours later, he has a severe black eye. Dallas police officials have admitted that they put makeup on his face so that he would appear unmarked when the press viewed his transfer (Oswald autopsy photos in CIA “201” file on Oswald, box 24, National Archives).
After Oswald’s death, the FBI ordered an investigation of the Dallas police to determine if any abuses had occurred. The investigation was headed by agent Vincent Drain. When asked if he was aware of these allegations, Drain responded, “I just wouldn’t want to comment on that.” (Vincent Drain, interview by author, 18 October 1993.)
61 Interview of Jim Leavelle, 19 June 1993 (FL).
62 Kaplan and Waltz, 143-150.
63 Quoted in Posner, 397.
64 Interview of Jim Leavelle, 19 June 1993 (FL).
65 Malcolm Kilduff, interview by author, 18 September 1996.
66 McMillan, 547-548.
67 Ibid, 557.
68 Mike Howard, interview by author, 7 December 1993.
69 Mike Cochran, “No Answers. . .”, Houston Post, 15 November 1993.
70 Ibid.
71 Scott Malone, interview by author, 10 October 1993.
72 CCR, Book V, 26.
73 Evan Thomas, “The Real JFK Coverup,” Newsweek Magazine, 22 November 1993.
74 CCR, Book V, 78.
75 CCR, Book V, 27.
76 Dino Brugioni, interview by author, 27 January 1998.
77 Hal Hendrix, “U.S. Seeks link To Cuba in Kennedy Slaying,” Scripps-Howard, 24 November 1963.
78 This CIA-Cuba chronology is summarized in CCR, Book V, 103-104.
79 Haig, 116.
80 After his retirement, Ryan learned that he himself had been on Castro’s “hit list.” After the Cold War ended, when Ryan happened to meet his Cuban intelligence counterpart, he told his former adversary: “I hope you know now it wasn’t me pushing to get Castro killed. So why the hell did you put me on that hit list?” The Castro agent replied, “Oh, we took you off that list in 1979.” (Former CIA Station Chief, interview by author, 10 January 1998.)
81 JMWAVE to CIA Director, Memo, 4 February 1964; CIA Segregated file, JFK Collection.
82 Confidential interview by author, 18 March 1998.
83 David Slawson For the Record, Memo, “Trip to Mexico City,” WC, 22 April 1964.
84 For a complete chronology of this activity, see CCR, Book V, especially Appendix C.
85 James Johnston, interview in Riebling, 202.
86 “Willard C. Curtis” (Win Scott) to HQ, CIA cable, 27 November 1963.
87 Interview of Thomas Mann, 12 May 1993 (FL).
88 Russell, 453.
89 The Miami News (from the Chicago Sun Times), 24 June 1976.
90 Cited in “Retired FBI Agent. . .”, Wall Street Journal, 18 October 1993, A18.
91 Interview of Jim Hosty, 22 June
1993 (FL).
DeGuire passed away in the early 1990’s.
92 “Schweiker Report,” CCFR, Book V, 25.
93 Richard Helms to Warren Commission Senior Attorney J. Lee Rankin, Memo, “Translation of Interrogation Reports of Sylvia Duran,” 21 February 1964; in CIA Segregated File in the National Archives JFK Collection.
94 “Mexico City Report,” HSCA, 213.
95 HSCA Hearings, vol. III, 304.
96 Ibid, 228.
97 Mexico City to McGeorge Bundy, White House, CIA Teletype, 27 November 1963.
98 LEGAT MEXICO CITY to DIRECTOR, FBI cable, 26 November 1963.
99 CIA Cable from Mexico City, 28 November 1963.
100 LEGAT MEXICO CITY TO DIRECTOR, FBI Memo, 6 March 1964. Also, CD’s 564, 566.3, 663.4, and 896.3.
101 The Church Committee later pointed out that the CIA “reported other information from a sensitive and reliable source which tended to confirm Alvarado’s story that Oswald may have been paid by the Cubans to assassinate President Kennedy. This report has never been satisfactorily explained, although it was made available to the Warren Commission.” (CCR, Book V, 28)
102 Mexico Station to McGeorge Bundy, CIA Teletype, 27 November 1963.
103 Alvaro Proenza, interview by Gaeton Fonzi, HSCA Memo, 14 April 1978.
104 [Source deleted] to Director, CIA Teletype, 7 December 1963.
105 “Debriefing of AMMUG-1, May 5, 1964,” CIA Counterintelligence Memo.
106 The CIA, ever loyal to Kennedy, performed one last function on his behalf. Because there were no large printing facilities available on such short notice, the CIA utilized its extensive printing facilities at its Langley headquarters to print the mass cards and programs for JFK’s memorial service (Manchester, Death of A President, 549).
107 Manchester, Death of a President, 568.
108 McMillan, 557.
109 Interview of Jerry Herald, 14 June 1993 (FL).
Years later, after coming under the influence of the local assassination “buffs,” and a British journalist with a bizarre body-switching scenario, Marina would question whether Lee was buried that day, having possibly been replaced by a decoy. However, as first documented by William Manchester (in The Death of A President, 568), Oswald’s casket was opened before being put in the ground. Manchester wrote: “The lid was raised. Forty reporters peered over the officers’ shoulders. Marina, who had been following TV and was learning about images, kissed her husband and put her ring on his finger.” Robert Oswald also spoke of this detail in the Dallas Morning News (11 September 1981). Jerry Herald was one of those doing the peering, and he adds another detail: “After the casket was placed on the rack at the burial site, the Secret Service or FBI opened the casket and asked Marina to identify the body. She did. They closed it, had their little church service. There was a priest or a minister of some type there. Said the little prayer, and dropped him into the ground—very few people there, only the three family members and the two children.” A security man assigned to the Oswalds, Miles Lankford, added that Lee’s mother and brother also identified the body. In spite of this, Marina would gain permission in 1981 to have the body exhumed for the purposes of identification. Just as Marina, Robert and Marguerite had done in 1963, the team of forensics experts again identified the body as Lee Oswald’s. (New York Post, 5 October 1981)
110 Mike Howard, interview by author, 7 December 1993.
111 RFK to J. Edgar Hoover, Memo of approval, 24 February 1964.
Soon, according to FBI agent Thomas Trettis, who monitored the eavesdropping, Marina’s activities would resurrect her Russian reputation for “loose” behavior. Trettis and other agents gave Marina the nickname “hot pants.” (Thomas Trettis, Church Committee interview, 17 January 1976.) During their stay in protective custody, Agent Mike Howard introduced Marina to the manager of the Inn, Jim Martin. Within days, Marina had moved into Martin’s home. She also traveled with him to Washington in February 1964, when she testified before the Warren Commission. Marina’s reputation was further sullied by this liaison, and by her admission of having sex with Martin during the Washington stay. (Vada [Mrs. Robert] Oswald, FBI Statement, 24 February 1964; see also HSCA, Box 15, Section 86 at National Archives.)
Chapter Sixteeen (The Investigations)
1 Interview of Laurence Keenan, 1993 (FL).
2 FBI Internal Memo, in Associated Press, 8 December 1977.
3 John Scelso, HSCA testimony, [undated].
As likely candidates for true Scelso identity, pundits have proposed John Whitten, William Broe, or Walter Kaufmann.
4 CCR, bk. V, 58-59 (emphasis added).
5 Boris Tarassoff, HSCA testimony, 12 April 1978.
6 HSCA Mexico City Report, 125.
7 CIA Internal Memo 256, 12 March 1964, 4.
8 David Helms, interview by John M. Newman, 23 August 1994, in Newman, Oswald and the CIA, 418.
9 The Memo is entitled “Progress Report on Defection and Recruitment Activity in Latin America.” The document not only states, “Since around January 1960 Station Mexico has been involved in 11 defections and recruitments of Cuban officials, mostly from the Cuban Embassy,” but actually names them. (CIA Document, rec. #104-10102, file 80T01357A).
10 HSCA Mexico City Report, 49.
11 David Philips to Deputy Director of Operations, recommedation, 21 June 1973.
12 Mexico City Station to Headquarters, classified message, 20 July 1963.
13 T. Jeremy Gunn, investigator for the Assassination Records Review Board, interview by author, 5 May 1995.
14 CIA document, “Information Developed by CIA on the Activity of Lee Harvey Oswald in Mexico City,” 31 January 1964.
15 Shackley Outside Contact Report with HSCA Counsel Blakey and Fonzi, [undated], in Fonzi, 360.
16 Raymond Rocca, Church Committee interview by Dan Dwyer and Ed Greissing, 15 March 1976.
17 James Angleton, HSCA interview by Surell Brady, 15 June 1978.
18 Nicholas Katzenbach to Bill Moyers, Memorandum, 25 November 1963.
19 The Washington Post, 14 November 1993, 1.
20 Ibid.
21 Alan Belmont to Sullivan, Memorandum, 26 November 1963.
22 Nicholas Katzenbach, “CBS Reports: Who Killed JFK,” 19 November 1993.
23 Summers, Official and Confidential, 317.
24 CCR, bk. V, 36.
25 Ibid, 37.
26 Sullivan, 51.
27 CCR, 37.
28 Laurence Keenan, interview by author, 11 April 1995.
29 CCR, bk. V, 42-43.
30 Laurence Keenan, interview by author, 11 April 1995.
31 For a thorough discussion of this rivalry, and its terrible consequences through the years, see Mark Reibling’s The Wedge.
32 Interview of Laurence Keenan, 1993 (FL).
33 Interview of Laurence Keenan, 1993 (FL).
34 Laurence Keenan, interview by author, 11 April 1995.
35 “The President’s Commission on Obscenity and Pornography,” Minority Report, 583.
36 George Lardner, “The Assassination Files,” Washington Post, 14 November 1993.
37 This conclusion was uttered in the wake of the missile crisis; cited in numerous books, e.g. Sorensen, Kennedy, 321, and Pollard, Truman to Johnson, 100-105.
38 LBJ with Joseph Alsop, conversation, 25 November 1963, in LBJ Tapes, National Archives.
39 LBJ to Abe Fortas, 16 December 1966, Oval Office tape, K66.01, Side B, LBJ Library.
RFK’s affection for Dulles is underscored by an event that took place in June 1964. Days earlier, three student civil rights volunteers had disappeared in Meridian, Mississippi, and were feared murdered (a fear later realized). The country galvanized against Southern extremists, and more violence was feared. At this point, Lyndon Johnson called Dulles and asked him to go to Mississippi to try to diffuse the situation. Before hanging up the phone, Johnson said, “Now hold the line a minute.” Johnson handed the phone to Bobby Kennedy, who may have suggested the use
of Dulles. Kennedy then told Dulles to meet him at his [Kennedy’s] office. The next morning, before leaving for Mississippi, Dulles had a private briefing in the Attorney General’s office (Grose, 556-557).
40 George Lardner, “The Assassination Files,” Washington Post, 14 November 1993.
41 Cray, 427 and 429.
42 Fensterwald and Ewing, 72.
43 Jeffrey Warren, interview by author, 3 October 1994.
44 G. Edward White, 203.
45 Cray, 413.
46 Ibid, 414.
47 “Eulogies to the Late President,” 24 November 1963, Senate Document #46, 89th Congress, 1st Session.
48 Ibid, 194 and 197.
49 Among these back channels, according to Jeffrey Warren, would have been the attorney famed for defending individuals associated with organized crime. “Edward Bennett Williams was my grandfather’s best friend in the whole world. You can be sure that he was asked if Oswald had any ties to organized crime” (Jeffrey Warren, interview by author, 3 October 1994).
50 Connally, 186.
51 LBJ with Richard Russell, conversation, 29 November 1963, LBJ Tapes, National Archives.
52 General Wheeler, Memo For the Record, “Meeting With the President on Cuba,” 19 December 1993.
53 Lyndon Johnson, 48.
54 Burt Griffin, interview by Gerald Posner, 23 January 1992, in Posner, 409.
55 Weidenfeld, 350.
56 Bird, 18.
57 Ibid, 543-544.
58 Anthony Summers and Robbyn Summers, “The Ghost of November,” Vanity Fair, December 1994, 90.
59 Burt Griffin to Mrs. Martin Parker, letter, 30 July 1976.
60 David Belin to Rockefeller Commission, Memorandum, 20 May 1975; also CCR, bk. V, 73.
61 J. Lee Rankin, HSCA testimony, undated.
62 Loch Johnson, A Season of Inquiry, 6-7.
63 WC Executive Session, 27 January 1964, in Weisberg, Whitewash IV, 60-63.
64 Ibid.
65 Allen Dulles Oral History, 5 December 1964, JFK Library.
66 Thomas Powers, 305.
67 Fonzi, 210.
68 David Belin, interview, Face the Nation, CBS, 23 November 1975.
69 Demaris, The Last Maftoso, 239.
70 CCIR, 13-70.
71 CCIR, 55.
72 Robert Johnson, interview by author, 9 February 1996.