John J. McCloy—of whom Harold Ickes once said, “He is more or less inclined to be a Fascist”136—later picked by Johnson to serve on the Warren Commission, was a longtime close friend and associate of H. L. Hunt, Clint Murchison, and Sid Richardson.137 The link between H. L. Hunt, who thought his wealth and power would protect him against anything, and Lyndon Johnson would be reflected—hours after JFK’s assassination—in his decision, at the urging of someone high up in the FBI, to come to Washington and his subsequent statement that he was going there “to help Lyndon.”
Hunt was also connected directly to both Jack Ruby and Lee Harvey Oswald: A mysterious note signed by Oswald (and authenticated by three handwriting experts) addressed to “Mr. Hunt” and asking for information “concerding [sic] my position” surfaced in 1975, copies of which were sent anonymously to three separate researchers, from someone in Mexico.138 It is noteworthy to observe that Hunt had a big hacienda in a remote area of northern Mexico, near Atilano de la Garza, where he spent considerable time, including the period after his return from Washington in December 1963. The provenance of this mysterious note, if it could be established with certainty, might itself be a Rosetta stone to solving the Kennedy assassination: Could it have been someone from Hunt’s own family—considering that he was married three times, simultaneously since he had never divorced, and fathered fourteen children, perhaps someone who felt shortchanged by his will—or a longtime servant or other associate, who discovered this note after his death, and then sent copies of it anonymously to three researchers on August 18, 1975? (Hunt had died nine months earlier on November 29, 1974.) According to a statement made by Johnson’s longtime mistress, Madeleine Brown, there was also a direct link between Jack Ruby and Oswald, whom she had seen at the Carousel Club. Furthermore, she stated in her book that “John Curington, H. L. Hunt’s assistant, has admitted to me that he saw Ruby, Oswald, George De Mohrenschildt and H. L. Hunt together on various occasions.”139 There have been other reports of sightings of H. L. Hunt together with Ruby, including one the day before the assassination.140
As the story unfolds in subsequent chapters, other linkages between men involved in the conspiracy and specific actions that were clearly related to it will become apparent. As an example, a direct and obviously sinister connection will be shown between the aforementioned Major General Charles Willoughby (retired)—through one of the rabid anti-Communist organizations he supported (the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations—the ABN)—and a man by the name of Spas T. Raikin. Raikin was the peculiar representative of the Traveler’s Aid Society who greeted the Oswalds when they returned to the United States in June 1962; he also happened to be a ranking officer (secretary general) of the ABN.141 Likewise, shortly after the Oswalds arrived in Fort Worth, they would become friends with a number of people involved in the White Russian community, who generally shared the extreme anti-Communist ideology. One in particular, George De Mohrenschildt, would become a friend and benefactor of Oswald, a relationship that would otherwise have been unlikely to have developed without some external guidance. Interestingly, when Oswald left Texas for New Orleans, he immediately became involved—not with left-wing radicals, as one might assume from his faux background formulated immediately after the assassination—with a host of people and organizations having the same, extreme right-wing, anti-Communist agenda. It is this complex mix of characters, and their interrelationships to each other, that led to the perfect storm of people and elements that were the prerequisites of a widely based conspiracy. In the chapters that follow, traces of this tangled web of relationships will emerge that will compound and further define how the core group was organized, financed, and deployed to assassinate John F. Kennedy.
Notes
1. Lincoln, pp. 149–151.
2. Morrow, pp. 125, 145.
3. O’Donnell, Kenneth: Life magazine, August 7, 1970, p. 47; Johnny … , p. 254.
4. Ibid.; Johnny … , p. 7.
5. Ibid.
6. From The Arlington National Cemetery website: http://arlingtoncemetery.net/fgwisner.htm
7. Davis, Deborah, p. 146.
8. From The Arlington National Cemetery website http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/fgwisner.htm
9. Ibid.
10. Davis, Deborah, p. 139.
11. The Arlington National Cemetery website. [op. cit.]
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Summers, Official and Confidential, pp. 339–348.
15. The Arlington National Cemetery website. [op. cit.]
16. Summers, Official and Confidential, pp. 179, 182.
17. Time, December 22, 1975 (See http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,879566-4,00.html#ixzz0XrzvF5NB)
18. North, p. 190.
19. Ibid., p. 271 (ref. New York Times, May 19, 1962).
20. Wolfe, p. 358.
21. Ibid.; Hersh, Burton, p. 219.
22. Summers, Official and Confidential, p. 223.
23. Hersh, Burton, p. 219.
24. Summers, Official and Confidential, p. 254–255.
25. Summers, Official and Confidential, p. 242.
26. Ibid., p. 244.
27. Ibid., p. 254.
28. Ibid., p. 12.
29. Ibid., p. 336.
30. Ibid., p. 336.
31. Ibid., p. 337.
32. Guthman, p. 134.
33. Sullivan, pp. 55–56
34. Russell, p. 587 (ref. James Hepburn, Farewell America, pp. 234–238).
35. Hack, Puppetmaster—The secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover, p. 285.
36. Davis, Mafia Kingfish, pp. 128–140.
37. Summers, Official … p. 232.
* Ferrie’s involvement in setting up Oswald is detailed in chapter 6.
38. Russell, p. 574.
39. Mahoney, p. 384, 388.
40. Roemer, p. 218.
41. Davis, Mafia Kingfish, p. 139.
42. Ibid., p. 273.
43. Ibid., p. 144.
44. Scott, p. 227.
45. Waldron, pp. 82–91.
46. Ibid. (ref. Califano, Joseph A., Inside, New York: Public Affairs, 2004, pp. 118, 122).
47. Ibid., p. 84 (ref. Haig, Alexander M. Jr., Inner Circles: How America Changed the World: A Memoir. New York: Warner Books, 1991, p. 111).
48. Ibid. (ref. Army document, 7-19063, Memo from Alexander Haig to Captain Zum-walt, Califano Papers, Record no. 198-10004-10005, declassified October 7, 1997).
49. Ibid., p. 83 (ref. Califano, Inside, pp. 118–122).
50. Ibid., p. 85.
51. Twyman, pp. 355–356.
52. Ibid., p. 386.
53. Ibid., p. 257.
54. Ibid., p. 772.
55. Scott, p. 227.
56. Kessler, In the President’s … , p. 13.
57. Hersh, Seymour M, The Dark Side, pp. 236–238.
58. Wolfe, p. 447.
59. Burleigh (unless otherwise noted, all material on the background of Mary Meyer was summarized from this book in its entirety).
60. Trento, p. 280.
61. Davis, Deborah, p. 165.
62. Ibid., p. 171.
63. Wolfe, pp. 454–464.
64. Ibid., pp. 346–347.
65. Pegues, p. 119.
66. Davis, pp. 242–243.
67. Ibid.
68. Hersh, Seymour M, The Dark Side … , pp. 294–325.
69. Ibid., pp. 306–314.
70. Ibid., pp. 317–318.
71. Ibid., p. 323.
72. Ibid., p. 391.
73. Summers, Official and Confidential, p. 307.
74. Scott, pp. 228–229.
75. Ibid.
76. North, p. 193.
77. Ibid., p. 389.
78. Life, November 22, 1963, p. 92.
79. U.S. Senate Committee on rules and Administration. Construction of the District of Columbia Stadium and Matters Related Thereto. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1965, pt. 12, p. 1101.
80. Ibid. (also see pt. 4, p. 55
0).
81. Ibid.
82. North., pp. 398–399.
83. Ibid., pp. 404–406.
84. Ibid., p. 409.
85. Ibid., pp. 403–404.
86. Hersh, Seymour, p. 238.
87. Ibid., pp. 229–230, 237.
88. Kessler, The Sins of the Father, p. 264.
89. Douglass, pp. 14–15.
90. Morley, Our Man in Mexico, pp. 65–72.
91. Ibid., p. 164.
92. Lane, Plausible Denial, p. 164.
93. Scott, p. 195 (ref. McCoy, “Politics of Heroin,” pp. 59, 62; Saturday Evening Post, May 20, 1967).
94. Ibid.
95. Brugioni, pp. 68–69.
96. Kessler, The CIA… pp. 54–56.
97. Scott, pp. 313–386.
98. Twyman, p. 285.
99. http://www.jfkmurdersolved.com/phillips.htm
100. Fonzi, The Last Investigation, p. 390.
101. DiEugenio, Destiny Betrayed, p. 236.
102. Ibid., p. 237.
103. Ibid.
104. Morley, Our Man … , pp. 170–171.
*Among internet sites following it are the Mary Ferrell website and the Future of Free-dom website.
105. Ibid.
106. Ibid.
107. Morley, Jefferson, The George Joannides Coverup (JFKLancer.com).
108. Ibid.
109. Ibid.
110. Newman, p. 27.
111. Newman, p. 3 (ref. Rusk memo to JFK from first week of Feb., 1961, JFK Li-brary).
112. Ibid., p. 27 (ref. author’s interview with Air Force Colonel Fletcher Prouty, June 26, 1991).
113. Ibid.
114. Ibid., p. 34.
115. Burleigh, p. 48.
116. Ibid.
117. Russo, p. 432.
118. Ibid., pp. 393–394 (ref. The Church Committee Report, p. 182).
119. Ibid., pp. 432–433.
120. Ibid., pp. 387–427.
121. Russo, pp. 62; 525 [fn #52] (Ref. Church Committee Interim Report, 46).
122. Ibid. p. 62.
* It was General LeMay who was satirized on the big screen in 1964, caricaturized as General Jack D. Ripper in the classic movie Dr. Strangelove, about a general who became enamored with the concept of first strike nuclear bombing capability, which then morphed into an inevitability before, by logical extension, an essential necessity, “sooner rather than later,” when it would become too late for practical use. The concept evolves, during the movie, to its ultimate manifestation, reflected in the second part of the movie’s title: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Another character, Major TJ “King” Kong (played by Slim Pick-ens), in forcing the bomb bay doors of a B-52 open, releases one of the nuclear bombs; Kong is mounted on top of it like a rodeo cowboy and rides it into oblivion, whooping and hollering as the bomb falls out at fifty thousand feet, into a climactic explosion. Although not overtly sexual, the innuendo abounds.
123. Brugioni, Dino A., Eyeball to eyeball, p. 262.
124. Ibid.
125. Talbot, pp. 67–68.
126. Scott, p. 199.
*Henry’s son Lester Crown, now eighty-four, lost $1 billion (20 percent of his net worth) in the crashing economy of 2008–09; the family fortune is now down to $4 billion (Forbes magazine: The Forbes 400, October 19, 2009) p. 124.
127. Ibid., p. 179.
128. Pearson, Diaries, p. 470.
129. Twyman, pp. 570–572 (ref. Bruce Cumings, The Origins of the Korean War, Vol. II—The Roaring of the Cataract, 1947–1950 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990, p. 104).
130. See The Education Forum: http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=9198
131. Twyman, pp. 570–572 (ref. Cumings, op. cit.).
132. Ibid., pp. 573–574.
133. Ibid., p. 769.
134. Hancock, pp. 208–311.
135. Baker, p. 170.
136. DiEugenio, “A Comprehensive Review of Reclaiming His-tory”(Part 8) on the CTKA website: http://www.ctka.net/2008/bugliosi_8_review.html
137. Brown, M., p. 186.
138. Summers, The Kennedy Conspiracy, p. 465.
139. Brown, M., p. 96.
140. Twyman, p. 273.
141. Ibid., p. 570.
Chapter 4
UNSOLVED MURDERS AND
OTHER LINGERING
LBJ SCANDALS
Every time I came into John Kennedy’s presence, I felt like a goddamn raven hovering over his shoulder. Away from the Oval Office, it was even worse. The Vice-Presidency is filled with trips around the world, chauffeurs, men saluting, people clapping, chairmanships of councils, but in the end, it is nothing. I detested every minute of it.1
—LYNDON B. JOHNSON
Guilty by His Associations
As early as 1950, Lyndon Johnson had begun populating the different federal agencies with men whom he could control; he did so by appointing men who would be beholden to him and who would understand implicitly the terms of their service: they worked first for Lyndon Johnson and secondarily to the department or agency upon whose payroll their names appeared. The Labor Department, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Department of Agriculture were his favorite spots to plant his own men, the most notable being one Malcolm Wallace, who would become one of his most trusted personal aides despite being a convicted murderer and sexual abuser of his own daughter. Wallace, had been placed in a decision-making position as an economist at the Department of Agriculture through Johnson,2 but his more important function was working behind the scenes as a facilitator for Johnson and anyone else Johnson designated for special treatment.
By the time Johnson became vice president, he had succeeded installing people in select positions throughout the USDA bureaucracy, to ensure that his influence was as wide and deep as possible. According to Gerry Patrick Hemming (a CIA contract agent deeply involved in Operation Mongoose, among other things), the USDA was a repository for CIA agents around the world,3 because of the perfect cover it provided for its agents to embed themselves into offices and operations under the guise of being agricultural workers, agronomy scientists, or weather specialists; whatever masquerade might be necessary to suit the need was readily accommodated. Johnson had placed Wallace in the Department of Agriculture as early as 1950. He resigned after his arrest in 1952, as requested by Johnson, to keep his name from being associated with Johnson. As we will review shortly, Wallace was then on trial for first-degree murder. Billie Sol Estes would eventually testify that a number of other people were later murdered by this same Mac Wallace.
Lyndon Johnson and Robert Kennedy hated each other with a passion. J. Edgar Hoover also hated Robert Kennedy, possibly even more than Johnson did, and Kennedy reciprocated at the same level.4 To ease the tension between his “best and brightest” men and Johnson, and to get him out of town and out of the way, JFK sent Johnson on numerous missions abroad, visiting twenty-six countries in all. He had no interest whatsoever in other cultures, but he did receive his due adulation when he traveled abroad, until, at least, he learned that Robert Kennedy had told the Scandinavian heads of state that “Johnson did not speak for the government” when he visited their country.Johnson commiserated often with John Connally about his situation; the two of them had been close since the early 1940s and had been associated with Forth Worth gamblers, who in turn were colleagues of Jack Ruby. W. C. Kirkwood—the father of Pat Kirkwood, in whose nightclub the Secret Service men had been entertained the night before and into the early-morning hours on the day of the assassination—was well connected to oilmen, including Sid Richardson, H. L. Hunt, and Clint Murchison, all of whom he would often entertain at his sprawling complex named the Four Deuces in Fort Worth, many times with Lyndon Johnson as the guest of honor.5 Connally was also Sid Richardson’s attorney and a lobbyist for the oil industry. As the new secretary of the navy, he had the power to issue lucrative contracts to Texas oil companies. When he resigned to become governor of Texas, he was replaced by another one
of Johnson’s Texan friends, Fred Korth, until his forced resignation in October 1963 as a result of another Johnson-backed corruption scandal—the award of the TFX contract to General Dynamics. Other associates of the Dallas, Houston, and Fort Worth oilmen and club owners included Charles and Earl Cabell; Charles went on to become the deputy director of the CIA, before eventually being fired by Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs, and Earl was the mayor of Dallas at the time of the Kennedy assassination.
Clint Murchison and Lyndon Johnson had been feeding off each other for many years, Murchison providing practically unlimited financial support and Johnson providing practically unlimited political influence and legislative favors. Johnson’s rapid rise in power, especially after he was in the Senate, was directly related to his ability to raise money and dole it out to other politicians, who would thereafter be in his debt. Early on, wealthy Texans realized that, through Johnson, they could increase their leverage in the Senate beyond that which would come from only the two senators they were allotted. Murchison considered Lyndon Johnson his personal agent in Washington, knowing that he was in a position of enormous influence for the Senate at large, and the entire Capitol for that matter. His primary interest, and that of the other Texas oilmen, was in Johnson’s ability to protect their 27.5 percent oil depletion allowance, a direct tax credit that allowed them to continue saving hundreds of millions of dollars from their federal taxes—revenue lost from the government coffers that would have to be made up for by other taxpayers.
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