Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, America's Invisible Government, and the Hidden History of the Last Fifty Years
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38. “Memo on the Oswald Case,” M. D. Stevens of the CIA to Chief/Research Branch/SRS/OS, December30, 1963, based on Stevens’s review of files, including State Department cables (NARA record number: 1993.08.17.09:41:50:590064). In the HSCA Segregated CIA Collection, available through the Mary Ferrell Foundation. The State Department maintained an interest in Marina Oswald, who was a Soviet alien seeking U.S. citizenship.
39. Testimony of George A. Bouhe, Warren Commission Hearings, Vol. 8, p. 371.
40. House Select Committee on Assassinations, FBI file on George de Mohrenschildt, document,section 8, 100-32965-251, pp. 23–25. Found by researcher Bruce Campbell Adamson.
41. Letter from George de Mohrenschildt to John F. Kennedy, February 16, 1963. Found by researcher Bruce Campbell Adamson at John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, Massachusetts.
42. The club’s members at that time included David Rockefeller and John Hay Whitney, publisher of the New York Herald Tribune.
43. Multiple government debriefing documents available through the Mary Ferrell Foundation. See NARA records 104-10436-10014 and 104-10070-10076.
44. HSCA Segregated CIA Collection, box 14, “Contact Report WUBRINY Haitian Operations” (NARA record number 104-10070-10076). Available through the Mary Ferrell Foundation.
45. Though Devine is not identified by name in this document, he is in another CIA document: “Memorandum: MESSRS. George Bush and Thomas J. Devine,” January 30, 1968 (NARA record number 104-10310-10271). Available through Mary Ferrell Foundation. That document identifies Devine specifically as working in operation BRINY and claims that he began working in this capacity that June. No documents have surfaced showing anyone else being part of the very small operation WUBRINY. Indeed, all the available evidence indicates that Devine was the main or even only member of WUBRINY, and therefore the person code-named WUBRINY/1, the designated top dog of the operation. If, in fact, Devine and WUBRINY/1 were synonymous, then the CIA memo noting that Devine joined WUBRINY in June was in itself an attempt to hide the involvement of Poppy’s business associate in the April meetings with de Mohrenschildt.
46. Author interview with Thomas Devine, September 4, 2008; author interview with Gale Allen,September 15, 2008.
47. When George de Mohrenschildt came to Washington, he was accompanied by his wife Jeanne. LBJ’s private secretary at the time of their visit was Marie Fehmer. According to Marie Fehmer’s oral history, she was recruited to be Vice President Johnson’s secretary in 1962, directly from her college sorority. She claimed not to have known him, to be surprised by the offer, and to be somewhat reluctant to accept it (see Marie Fehmer oral history interview, August 16, 1972, Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum, Austin, Texas). But she was not unconnected herself. Her father, Ray, worked for D. Harold Byrd’s military contracting firm LTV. And her mother, Olga, worked at Nardis Sportswear with Jeanne de Mohrenschildt and Abraham Zapruder. After working for LBJ, Marie Fehmer joined the CIA, where she became one of the top female supervisors; see William Marvin Watson with Sherwin Markman, Chief of Staff: Lyndon Johnson and His Presidency (New York: Macmillan, 2004), p. 39.
48. Correspondence from Walter Jenkins to George de Mohrenschildt, April 18, 1963, De Mohrenschildt file, Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum, Austin, Texas.
49. Pete Brewton, The Mafia, CIA & George Bush (New York: S.P.I., 1992), p. 194.
50. Matlack had been a longtime aide to General Edward Landsdale, a top counterinsurgency figureand intelligence officer deeply involved in anti-Castro operations. (See chapter 16 for more on Lansdale.)
51. Russell, The Man Who Knew Too Much, p. 305.
52. Seymour Hersh, “Hunt Tells of Early Work for a CIA Domestic Unit,” New York Times, December 31, 1974.
53. Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 9, p. 25. Available through the Mary Ferrell Foundation.
54. The motorcade route was designed by Secret Service agents Winston G. Lawson and Forrest V. Sorrels. On November 22, 1963, the Dallas Morning News detailed the president’s route on its front page, reporting that “the motorcade will move slowly so that crowds can ‘get a good view’ of President Kennedy and his wife.”
55. Warren Commission Executive Session, January 27, 1964, p. 185. Available through the Mary Ferrell Foundation.
56. “17 of Dallas Will Direct CF Chapter,” Dallas Morning News, September 9, 1962.
57. David Harold Byrd, I’m an Endangered Species (Houston: Pacesetter, 1978), pp. 101–2.
58. Testimony of Linnie Mae Randle, Warren Commission, vol. 2, p. 245.
59. Orleans Parish grand jury testimony of Marina Oswald Porter, February 8, 1968. Available through the Mary Ferrell Foundation.
60. Analysis based on cross section of articles and interviews with officials of the Texas School Book Depository company, in which they describe how their operations occupied nearly all of the floors of the building.
61. The Warren Commission Report fails to answer the basic question of who owned the building that the shots were allegedly fired from. See page 664 for a “speculation and finding” where they merely assert that “the TSBD is a private corporation.”
62. U.S. Senate, Final Report of the Select Committee to Study Government Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, S.R. No. 94-755, 94th Congress, 2nd session (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1976).
63. James T. Carter, “Books and Things” Victoria Advocate, March 24, 1963.
64. Michael E. Young, “Perch of JFK Sniper Offered up on eBay,” Dallas Morning News, February 8, 2007.
65. HSCA Segregated CIA Collection, reel 5, folder M–George de Mohrenschildt, p. 425 (NARArecord number: 1994.04.25.14:02:25:940005). Available through the Mary Ferrell Foundation.
66. Review by Maurice Dolbier of New York–based HTNS wire service, as published in Valley Independent, October 25, 1963.
67. Kent Biffle, “Allen Dulles Looks Behind Red Moves,” Dallas Morning News, October 28, 1963.
68. Hunt’s presence is disputed. He claimed that he was at home with his family, but his son St. John Hunt told Rolling Stone that not only was his father not home on November 22, but his mother also claimed he was on a business trip to Dallas. (Hedegaard, “The Last Confessions of E. Howard Hunt,” Rolling Stone, April 5, 2007.)
69. George L. Lumpkin obituary, Dallas Morning News, July 18, 1994.
70. HSCA staff interview of George L. Lumpkin, November 3, 1977, p. 1.
71. Neely Tucker, “Nov. 22, 1963,” Washington Post, July 24, 2008.
72. Max Holland, “Private Sources of U.S. Foreign Policy: William Pawley and the 1954 Coupd’ Etat in Guatemala,” Journal of Cold War Studies, Fall 2005, pp. 69–70.
73. Jim Marrs, Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy (New York: Carroll & Graf, 1989), pp. 30–31.
74. Witt worked as an insurance salesman for Rio Grande National Life Insurance in its seventeen-story building on the corner of Elm and Field Streets in downtown Dallas. This building housed the Office of Immigration and Naturalization, with which Oswald communicated about his wife’s citizenship status, as well as the offices of the Secret Service. Rio Grande did significant business with the U.S. government, writing insurance policies for the military.
75. Hearings before the Subcommittee on the Assassination of John F. Kennedy of the Select Committeeon Assassinations, House of Representatives, vol. 4, p. 431.
76. However, some HSCA members suggested a highly complicated scenario in which the umbrella gesture signaled displea sure with Kennedy’s policies. JFK’s father, Joseph Kennedy, had served as U.S. ambassador to Britain at the same time that Neville Chamberlain was Britain’s prime minister. Chamberlain, who always carried an umbrella, was widely considered to have appeased Hitler, and some wondered whether the umbrella stunt could have been a way of expressing the notion that JFK was appeasing the Communists. If so, it would have been a remarkably oblique way to send a message. See Robert J. Groden’s The Killing of a President: The Complete Photographic Record of th
e JFK Assassination, the Conspiracy and the Cover-up (New York: Viking Studio, 1993), for more information on the matter.
77. Hearings before the Subcommittee on the Assassination of John F. Kennedy of the Select Committeeon Assassinations, House of Representatives, vol. 4, p. 453.
78. Ruby was a neighbor of de Mohrenschildt’s White Russian friend George Bouhe, the first personto squire Oswald in Texas. (Adamson, Oswald’s Closest Friend, vol. 1, p. 108.)
79. To watch Ruby making this statement, go to http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-177236594543303.
7: AFTER CAMELOT
1. For a detailed examination of this issue, see Peter Dale Scott, Deep Politics and the Death of JFK (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993).
2. Corporate filings of Dorchester Gas Producing Co., Texas Secretary of State.
3. Paul Harvey, “Dallas’ Program Model for Civil Defense Effort,” Dallas Morning News, September 29, 1960.
4. The first interagency planning meeting for Dallas Civil Defense came in December 1952,shortly after Eisenhower was elected and just as his team, including the Dulles brothers, was preparing to take over (see Dallas Morning News, December 10, 1952). The head of Dallas Civil Defense was B. F. McLain, a prominent local furniture dealer who sat on the board of Republic National Bank, and with Neil Mallon and other Republic bank figures, on the board of the Communities Foundation of Texas—whose projects included the Dallas Police Memorial. McLain had long-standing ties to Jack Cason, president of the Texas School Book Depository Company. After World War II, McLain, then president of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce, worked closely with Cason, then head of an important American Legion post in Dallas, to forge a powerful local political force from the ranks of returning veterans (see Dallas Morning News, February 1, 1946).
5. Dallas Times Herald, March 27, 1962.
6. Larry Hancock, “Mysteries of the 112th Intelligence Corps,” Kennedy Assassination Chronicles (Winter 2001): 20–27. See also Scott, Deep Politics, p. 275.
7. Jack Crichton interview, July 6, 2001, Oral History Collection, Sixth Floor Museum, Dallas.
8. Richard Harwood, “CIA Reported Ending Aid to Some Groups,” Washington Post, February 22, 1967.
9. Jack Crichton interview, July 6, 2001.
10. Warren Commission, p. x.
11. Meeting of Warren Commission, December 16, 1963.
12. Warren Commission executive session, December 16, 1963, p. 39.
13. Richard Harwood, “Business Leaders Are Tied to CIA’s Covert Operations,” Washington Post, February 18, 1967.
14. Willem Oltmans interview with George de Mohrenschildt, 1969.
15. Tape recording of de Mohrenschildt reading his memoirs to Willem Oltmans, 1969.
16. “Mr. Jenner: Mr. De Mohrenschildt, we have had some discussions off the record, and I hadlunch with you a couple of times. Is there anything that we discussed during the course of any off-the-record discussions which I have not already brought out on the record that you think is pertinent and should be brought out?” (De Mohrenschildt said that there was not.) Transcript of the testimony of George S. and Jeanne de Mohrenschildt to Warren Commission, vol. 9, p. 284.
17. Ibid., pp. 166–331.
18. “I’ll Be the Boss,” Time, February 2, 1962.
19. William Proxmire, Report from Wasteland: America’s Military-Industrial Complex (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1970).
20. Barbara Gamarekian, “Social Scene: For Bushes, Coziness Is in and the Jellybean Out,” New York Times, November 24, 1988.
21. Peter Paul Gregory was a consulting petroleum engineer who taught Russian part-time. Oswald had purportedly been referred to Gregory as someone who could certify his Russian-language skills.
22. Edward Hooker would explain to FBI agents in 1964, “de Mohrenschildt was a very popular guest in that he was an excellent conversationalist, played fine tennis, and was an expert horse-man.”
23. Letter provided by Mrs. Auchincloss to the Warren Commission.
24. George de Mohrenschildt, I Am a Patsy! I Am a Patsy! (unpublished), p. 226; House Select Committee on Assassinations, vol. II appendix. De Mohrenschildt was in discussions with a Dutch publisher about a possible book deal at the time of his death.
25. Peter Evans, Nemesis (New York: Harper Collins, 2004), p. 137. This book, which focuses on the relationship between Aristotle Onassis and the Kennedys, features cameos by many characters from the assassination saga.
26. De Mohrenschildt, I Am a Patsy! pp. 225–28; HSCA vol. II appendix.
27. Bush’s original lawyer was Patrick Holloway, member of a law firm in the Republic National Bank Building with its offices on the same floor as George de Mohrenschildt’s. Holloway’s wife Linda would later divorce him and end up marrying Bush’s friend and political lieutenant Jimmy Allison. She and Jimmy would end up effectively babysitting George W. Bush in Alabama in 1972 when he got in trouble with his Guard unit.
28. By 1968, that transformation would already be in process, as Richard Nixon only narrowly lost Texas's big chunk of electoral votes to Hubert Humphrey.
29. In compliance with 1964’s Wesberry v. Sanders, Houston was divided into the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Texas Congressional Districts. Bush v. Martin, 224 F. Supp. 499 (S.D. Tex. 1963), affirmed, 376 U.S. 222 (1964).
30. “Vietnam—Representative Visit Itinerary and Correspondence, 1967–1968.” George bush presidential Library, College Station, Texas.
31. “Memorandum: MESSRS. George Bush and Thomas J. Devine,” CIA document, January 30,1968. Available through the Mary Ferrell Foundation (NARA record number 104-10310-10271).
32. Author interview with Pat Holloway, March 11, 2008. Halliburton had merged with Brown and Root in 1962.
33. “Telephone Conversation Between the President and J. Edgar Hoover, 23 Nov 1963.” Transcript available through Mary Ferrell Foundation.
34. Produced under Freedom of Information Act request to in de pendent researcher Bruce Campbell Adamson.
35. J. Gilberto Quezada, Border Boss: Manuel B. Bravo and Zapata County (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1999).
36. Mary Kahl, Ballot Box 13: How Lyndon Johnson Won His 1948 Senate Race by 87 Contested Votes (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1983).
8: WINGS FOR W.
1. Jacob Weisberg, The Bush Tragedy (New York: Random House, 2008), p. 13.
2. Todd S. Purdum, “43+ 41 = 84,” Vanity Fair, September 2006.
3. Alan Bernstein, “Bush: The Houston Years,” Houston Chronicle, April 11, 1999.
4. Kitty Kelley, The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty (New York: Doubleday, 2004), p. 262.
5. She married a fellow CIA employee and later divorced him; though in 1967 she went by Wolf-man,it is no longer her surname.
6. Author interview with Cathryn Wolfman, November 21, 2006. Wolfman recalled that W. rarely displayed any interest in politics. “I thought he’d be a stockbroker,” she said. Had the two discussed politics, they might have broken up sooner: Wolfman says she was against the Vietnam War; in 2004 she donated to John Kerry’s bid to unseat W.
7. Tina’s uncle Igor was prosecuted in this period on tax charges by the crusading attorney general Bobby Kennedy a few months before the JFK assassination—one of numerous Bush family friends to face investigation by the Kennedy White House—and would later write in a book how he planned to “tear the robe of respectability” off RFK. See Igor Cassini, Pay the Price (New York: Kensington, 1983).
8. Bill Minutaglio, First Son: George W. Bush and the Bush Family Dynasty (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1999), pp. 124–125. This book, published before the 2000 election, provides the most comprehensive study of W.’s rise to power in Texas.