They Killed Our President

by Jesse Ventura, Dick Russell, David Wayne

  Dinkin intercepted two messages, in mid-October and on November 2, 1963, announcing the assassination of John F. Kennedy. On the basis of the cable traffic he intercepted and was able to interpret, Dinkin mailed a letter to Robert Kennedy on October 22, 1963, stating that:

  An attempt will be made to assassinate President Kennedy on November 28, 1963, and its blame will be placed on a Communist or Negro, who will be designated as the President’s assassin.578

  Dinkin clearly believed that a conspiracy to kill President Kennedy was being engineered but was unable to gain the attention of anyone in command. After breaking the code and interpreting the second message and having not heard anything from Robert Kennedy, Dinkin was so concerned that he then went AWOL from his base and visited the U.S. Embassy in Bonn, Germany, repeating his highly specific warning to an official there.

  On November 13, Dinkin was “hospitalized” in a closed psychiatric ward. On December 5, 1963, after the assassination of President Kennedy, Dinkin was transferred to Walter Reed Army Hospital where he was given “therapy” to help him understand that his warning of the assassination had been “coincidental” and represented a projection of his hostility toward authority figures. Left with no other realistic option to secure his freedom, Dinkin eventually “accepted” their diagnosis, was released, and given a medical discharge from the Army.579

  Journalist Hugh Turley also covered the story:

  On October 16, 1963, when Dinkin was stationed in Metz, France, he wrote a letter to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy warning that the president would be assassinated on or about November 28, and requesting an interview by the Justice Department. Dinkin sent the letter registered mail, and to prevent it from being intercepted, used the return address of an Army friend, Pfc. Dennis De Witt. He did not receive an answer.

  Dinkin later changed the predicted assassination date to November 22, and said it would happen in Texas. He believed the military was involved in the plot and that a Communist would be blamed. The day after the murder, the Washington Evening Star reported that the alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was a ‘pro-Castro Marxist.’580

  It was also later learned that a French assassin from the Corsican Mafia and associated with the French OAS, Michel Mertz, was in Dallas on November 22, 1963, using the alias “Jean Souetre” and was arrested and deported shortly after the assassination.581 Was Dinkin’s code-breaking linked to a “French connection”?

  Now, also recall what Bill Harvey, the “assassin manager” at the CIA’s ZR/RIFLE program said about his preference for Corsicans because they’re less likely to lead to the Mafia; and suddenly that all seems very important.

  So how did they “handle” Eugene Dinkin?

  Dinkin was treated with strong drugs, psychological reconditioning, and threatened with electric shock treatments if he didn’t respond to the “therapy.” Nice, huh?582

  Tosh Plumlee confirmed he believes it was Dinkin’s message that was the intelligence actually responsible for sending the Military intelligence abort team mission into Dallas on November 22:

  It was because of Dinkin’s info on November 8, 1963, that the Military Intelligence Abort Team was sent to Dallas to abort the hit.583

  Jim Southwood, Military Intelligence

  After Jim Southwood’s thirty-year secrecy agreement (which he signed with the U.S. Military upon his retirement) finally expired, he contacted Dick Russell, author of the saga on Richard Case Nagell, The Man Who Knew Too Much. While in the military, Southwood had a top-secret clearance in Military intelligence.

  In September of 1962, Southwood received what he was told was “a very important assignment” at the 502nd Military Intelligence Battalion in South Korea. The order came from the 112th MIG (Military Intelligence Group) in San Antonio, Texas—the same 112th from which Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Jones, the afternoon of the same day as the assassination of JFK, immediately provided files on Lee Harvey Oswald/Alek Hidell.

  The request given to Southwood from the 112th MIG was specific: for any and all information in the files on “Lee Harvey Oswald,” a.k.a. “Harvey Lee Oswald” and “Alek James Hidell.” Note that the request from the 112th MIG came over two months prior to the assassination. The request also sought any and all information on Jeanne and George de Mohrenschildt and anything the files had on Polish fighter pilots in World War II and the Teutonic Knights. Southwood stated the following for the historical record:

  All the information I had about Oswald had been given to the 112th by George de Mohrenschildt. It was basically that Oswald was a peculiar guy, that he had strange sexual practices, that he was constantly in trouble with his wife, and that he should be watched closely. The request from the 112th said that de Mohrenschildt talked about being a member of this Teutonic Knights organization, and so was Oswald.584

  There was not much in the files on Oswald’s activities in Korea.

  But there were numerous references and copies of files that came out of Japan on Oswald, as well as references and some copies of ONI [Office of Naval Intelligence] reports. This guy was under constant surveillance by both ONI and army intelligence when he was stationed in Japan. Also by the Japanese National Police. Sometimes he’d been known to frequent homosexual bars. One of the reports was that he was suspected of being involved in a homosexual relationship with a Soviet colonel. When I read the name ‘Eroshkin’ in your book, it came back to me: That was the colonel. There were also reports about his having defected to Russia.585

  Southwood collected the information in the files and gave it to his Commanding Officer, Major Dominic Riley, who asked him if he knew who General Carter was. Southwood responded that he did not. His Commanding Officer then told him that General Carter was a friend of his, was Deputy Director of the CIA, and “This is going to him personally. They have an intense interest in this guy Oswald.”586

  General Marshall S. Carter was Deputy Director, CIA from April 3, 1962 to April 28, 1965 and went on to become Director of NSA. 587

  When asked his opinion on the matter by his Commanding Officer, Southwood stated:

  SOUTHWOOD: Major, all I know is that this is a very unusual person. It would seem to me that he’s involved in some kind of intelligence operation.

  MAJOR RILEY: Why do you think that?

  SOUTHWOOD: Well, this guy’s eighteen years old, involved with a Russian colonel, goes into the Soviet Union, and comes back out.588

  Dick Russell was fascinated by Southwood’s recollections:

  Here, unprompted, were further details substantiating Oswald’s murky relationships with intelligence operations in the Far East. An unusual file check apparently places Oswald in liaison with Colonel Nikolai Eroshkin. Could this have been Oswald’s alleged role in the aborted Eroshkin defection plan? To somehow ply himself as homosexual “bait” in an effort to blackmail and coerce the Soviet colonel?589

  Southwood saw the name Oswald yet again:

  It was some weeks afterwards when I saw Oswald’s name again. It also came out of the 112th. They wanted any background we had on Richard Case Nagell . . . I’m certain that the code name “Laredo” was in that file. Because I remember asking an Army buddy of mine, ‘What’s that refrain, Streets of Laredo.’ It stuck in my mind. At the time I just figured, ‘Well, they’re watching Oswald like a hawk. And this guy Nagell is the guy who’s doing it.’590

  “Laredo” happened to be a code name Nagell told author Russell he’d used in 1963. The moment that Southwood learned of the assassination of President Kennedy, it all came quickly together in his mind:

  I was in downtown Boston on November 22. When I heard Oswald’s name, I came right out of my chair.591

  So Southwood was certain that Oswald was an intelligence operative for the U.S. government and was specifically of special interest to the 112th Military Intelligence Group in Texas.

  General Ed Landsdale

  Colonel Fletcher Prouty has confirmed that—after intensive study of the photographic evidence—General Ed Land
sdale was present in Dealey Plaza during the assassination.

  That confirmation was also made by others in the military who were familiar with Landsdale and studied the photographs. For example, U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant General Victor Krulak knew both Landsdale and Prouty very well. In his response to Colonel Prouty, who had sent him the photo, General Krulak wrote back, as follows:

  That is indeed a picture of Ed Landsdale. The haircut, the stoop, the twisted left hand, the large class ring. It’s Landsdale. What in the world was he doing there?592

  The following is from the website of Colonel Prouty and Len Osanic:

  • Col. Fletcher Prouty and Gen. Victor Krulak both worked with Gen. Ed Landsdale in the Pentagon.

  • Both men identify him being in Dealey Plaza, November 22, 1963.

  • Gen. Landsdale specialized in political-psychological warfare operations and manipulation of governments.

  • He worked for Allen Dulles, the Director of Central Intelligence. Although his cover story title was always Colonel and later General, he was always working for the CIA.

  • The photo of him reveals deep involvement with certain members of the CIA in the planning, removal, cover story and cover-up of the assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963.

  • Planning and cover story for such manipulation of government personnel was Landsdale’s forte.

  • Documents shown here are available at prouty.org.593

  The above conclusion has led to speculation that Ed Landsdale may have been “C-Cube” for the assassination operation: Command, Control and Communications. General Landsdale also happened to be the man who sent Colonel Prouty on a military expedition to Antarctica, which coincided with the JFK assassination. Prouty found it highly suspicious that he and many other experienced Washington veterans had been sent out of town at that time for a variety of low priority reasons.

  I prefer to see professional forensic confirmation, like in the case of Lois Gibson confirming the “three tramps’” identities. But for whatever it’s worth, Colonel Prouty and General Krulak were certain in their confirmations—and were also well aware of the gravity of the implications.

  568 Peter Dale Scott, Deep Politics and the Death of JFK (University of California Press: 1996), 258.

  569 Ibid.

  570 Ibid.

  571 James P. Hosty Jr. & Thomas Hosty, Assignment Oswald: From the FBI agent assigned to investigate Lee Harvey Oswald prior to the JFK assassination (Arcade Publishing: 1997).

  572 Scott, Deep Politics and the Death of JFK, 258.

  573 Chris Matthews, Hardball with Chris Matthews, May 29, 2007, NBC News: nbcnews.com/id/18941406/ns/msnbc-hardball_with_chris_matthews/t/hardball-chris-matthews-may/#.UaLfjEDVCyA

  574 Palamara, Survivor’s Guilt.

  575 Belzer & Wayne, Hit List, 290.

  576 Russell, The Man Who Knew Too Much, 552–557.

  577 Ibid.

  578 Ibid.

  579 Ibid.

  580 Hugh Turley, “Assassination Enablers?,” May 2013, Hyattsville Life & Times: dcdave.com/article5/Dinkin1.pdf

  581 Waldron & Hartmann, Ultimate Sacrifice.

  582 Russell, The Man Who Knew Too Much, 352.

  583 Robert Plumlee, Email to author, May 18, 2013.

  584 Ibid.

  585 Ibid, emphasis in original.

  586 Ibid.

  587 Grace Vale, “Clifton C. Carter: Intelligence Agent,” March 1975, Computers and People: groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.conspiracy.jfk/Gvy06-KgkHA and Central Intelligence Agency, “Marshall Sylvester Carter, Lieutenant General, US Army,” retrieved 27 July 2013: cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/directors-and-deputy-directors-of-central-intelligence/carter.html

  588 Ibid.

  589 Ibid.

  590 Ibid.

  591 Ibid.

  592 Lieutenant General Victor H. Krulak, “Letter to Colonel Fletcher Prouty,” March 15, 1985: ratical.com/ratville/JFK/USO/appD.html

  593 “Col. L. Fletcher Prouty on Ed Landsadle being in Dealey Plaza on Nov.22,” retrieved 23 May 2013: federaljack.com/col-l-fletcher-prouty-on-ed-lansdale-being-in-dealey-plaza-on- nov-22-1963/

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  Complicity of the Mafia

  Johnny Roselli and John Martino confessed to their involvement in setting up the JFK assassination through the anti-Castro intelligence operations in South Florida. If you want to see their specific statements on it, look back at the entry on mobsters in the witness section of this book. Roselli in particular figured prominently in the whole assassination plot, evidenced by the fact that the rescue team that was rushed into Dallas from military intelligence brought Roselli in with them, apparently for the purpose of calling it off with his co-conspirators.594

  Links to three Mafia godfathers have also been well-established:

  GODFATHER: MAFIA FAMILY

  Sam Giancana Chicago (plus major strength in Nevada, Miami Beach, Hollywood)

  Carlos Marcello New Orleans (plus major strength in Texas, Cuba)

  Santo Trafficante Florida (plus major strength in Cuba) 595

  Chauncey Holt’s testimony revealed how a fourth Mafia family was involved in the assassination—the Detroit family of Peter Licavoli also provided substantial support in the set-up operations of the assassination plot.596

  Holt also detailed how professional assassin Chuck Nicoletti was brought into Dallas. Nicoletti himself verified his whereabouts that day, too; in his assassination “work book” for November 22, 1963, he wrote the following entry: “Dallas-JFK.”597

  We also know from Holt’s verified testimony, as well as from the photographic evidence and professional determinations from forensic artist Lois Gibson, that two other assassins were with Chauncey Holt in Dealey Plaza— Charles Harrelson and Charles Rogers (also known as Richard Montoya).598

  The testimony of James Files also ties together the actions of Nicoletti, Roselli, and others in Dallas. Files’ credibility is supported by several former FBI agents who investigated his claims. He cross-confirms the movements of Nicoletti and Roselli.599 The testimony of military intelligence veteran Tosh Plumlee cross-confirms the actions of Roselli as well.600

  Jack Ruby also played a key “supporting role” in the operation and had established links to many mobsters.601 Mobster Jim Braden (also known as Eugene Hale Brading) was in Dallas, apparently in a support role.602 Frank Sturgis of Watergate fame is also frequently named as having apparently had a support role.603

  Many recent books—mobster’s memoirs, you could call them—have documented the mob’s participation in the JFK assassination. In fact, that participation is now so taken for granted within organized crime that, at this point, it has become widely accepted folklore.604

  594 Belzer & Wayne, Dead Wrong, 111–153.

  595 Waldron & Hartmann, Legacy of Secrecy, Waldron & Hartmann, Ultimate Sacrifice.

  596 Holt, Self-Portrait of a Scoundrel

  597 Wim Dankbaar, Files on JFK (TrineDay: 2008); Zack Shelton, Interview with author, 2006.

  598 Holt, Self-Portrait of a Scoundrel

  599 Dankbaar, Files on JFK.

  600 Belzer & Wayne, Dead Wrong, 111–114.

  601 Garrison, On the Trail of the Assassins.

  602 Eagelsham, Allan “Familiar Faces in Dealey Plaza,” November 21, 2004, The Education Forum: educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=2313.

  603 Hunt, Bond of Secrecy.

  604 Bill Bonanno, Bound by Honor: A Mafioso’s Story (St. Martin’s: 2000); Brandt, I Heard You Paint Houses; Giancana & Giancana, Double Cross; Giancana, Hughes, DM OXON, MD, Ph.D.& Jobe, MD, JFK and Sam.

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  Complicity of Anti-Castro Cubans

  Manuel Rodriguez Quesada and Gilberto Rodriguez Hernandez

  Rodriguez Quesada was a bodyguard of a major exile leader, Rolando “El Tigre” Masferrer, a man with an army—Los Tigres—that was ready and willing to fight Castro.

  Rodriguez
Hernandez was a military coordinator for the Cuban government-in-exile groups.

  A professional assassin used by U.S. intelligence—John O’Hare—reportedly said that he was ordered to kill both Rodriguez Quesada and Rodriguez Hernandez because of exile leader Eladio del Valle’s fear that they would expose the identities of those responsible for the JFK assassination.

  O’Hare reportedly killed them both.605

  Angel and Leopoldo

  Richard Case Nagell, the military intelligence spy who was tracking Lee Harvey Oswald’s movements before the assassination, figured out that Oswald was being deceived into believing he was working in an intelligence operation with pro-Castro agents. In reality, Nagell learned, they were involved in anti-Castro intelligence operations, but Oswald refused to believe it when confronted with the information by Nagell.

  Nagell knew the two Cuban agents only by their “war names” (false names for intelligence operations)—which were “Angel” and “Leopoldo”— but it is believed they may have been two dangerous commandos from the aggressively anti-Castro exile group, Alpha 66.

  Cuban exiles using those same “war names” showed up on the Dallas doorstep of Silvia Odio in late September of 1963. They were accompanied by a quiet young American who they introduced as “Leon Oswald.” Fortyeight hours later, “Leopoldo” telephoned Odio and asked what she thought of “Leon.” She remembered “Leopoldo” saying:

  He’s kind of loco kind of nuts. He could go either way. He could do anything—like getting underground in Cuba, like killing Castro. The American says we Cubans don’t have any guts. He says we should have shot President Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs. He says we should do something like that.

  But Silvia Odio’s testimony before the Warren Commission was dismissed because the commission had already concluded Oswald was on his way to Mexico City at the time he supposedly showed up at her door.606 Well, Oswald’s “double” was either at Odio’s door to set him up, or in Mexico City visiting the Soviet/Cuban embassies, also to set him up.