by Gus Russo
99 Fonzi, 302.
100 Admiral Stansfield Turner, interview by author, 10 October 1991.
101 For an excellent summary of this subject, see Posner, 237-243; see also the appendix to Savage, by Sheriff Jim Bowles.
102 Howard Osborne, CIA Memo for the Record, 19 December 1967.
103 Jack Anderson, Report to President George Bush: Who Murdered John F. Kennedy? (1988)
104 Hubbell, 282.
Chapter Twenty (The Final Chapter)
1 “We All had a Finger on that Trigger,” I.F. Stone’s Weekly, December 1963.
2 George McGovern, interviewed on Jack Anderson’s TV special, “Who Shot JFK?” in 1988.
3 Alexander Cockburn, “Propaganda of the Deed,” The New Statesman, 19 November 1993.
4 Earl Golz, Dallas Morning News, 10 May 1979.
5 Quoted in numerous sources, including the New York Times, 17 October 1953. Castro biographer Robert Quirk has pointed out “the remarkable resemblance” to Adolf Hitler’s famous declaration at one of his early trials: “The eternal court of History will smile and tear up the indictment of the prosecutor and the verdict of the judges. She will acquit us!”
6 Demaris, The Last Mafioso, 235.
7 Nilo Messer, interview by author, 20 May 1998.
8 George McGovern, interviewed on Jack Anderson’s TV special, “Who Shot JFK?” in 1988.
9 Davison, 184.
10 Quirk, 356.
11 Constantine “Gus” Kangles, interview by author, 12 August 1996.
12 Jack Hawkins, interview by author, 7 April 1998.
13 Al Haig, interview by author, 26 February 1998.
14 Paterson, 260.
15 Hunt, Give Us This Day, 14-15.
16 Washington Post, National Weekly Edition, 5-11 July 1993.
17 RFK Memo, 7 November 1961; cited in Andrew, 275; and Beschloss, The Crisis Years, 375.
18 Quoted in Max Holland, “After Thirty Years: Making Sense of the Assassination,” Reviews in American History #22, June 1994, 202.
19 Clifford, 303.
20 The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, 18 February 1998.
21 Matthew 26:52.
Appendix A (Oswald’s Shooting of the President)
1 Vincent Scalice, interview by author, 25 November 1993.
2 Quoted in Savage, 173.
An ongoing mystery has surrounded one identifiable fingerprint that was nonetheless never identified. For years, speculation about the identity of this print (a possible co-conspirator) has been rife. The main candidate, according to some researchers, was a violent Cuban exile named Manuel Rodriguez. Rodriguez was known to have been acquainted with a Dallas gun dealer named John Thomas Masen, who sold Mannlicher Carcano ammunition. Masen told the author in 1992 that he never sold this type of ammunition to the Cubans. Ironically, John Masen was a dead ringer for Lee Harvey Oswald, and some felt that he may have been the Oswald-looking character rumored to have gotten into a fistfight with Jack Ruby in his night club. Masen told the author that he had been in Ruby’s club only once (with his wife), and he never met or fought with Jack Ruby. (John Thomas Masen, interview by author, 28 April 1993.)
An FBI source told the author that, in the years after the assassination, the Bureau solved the mystery of an unidentified fingerprint on several of the ixth floor boxes—it belonged to Dallas Police homicide chief, Captain Will Fritz, who in 1964 couldn’t be bothered having his own fingerprints made for comparison purposes (the other law enforcement officials permitted the comparison prints). Just prior to his death in 1984, Fritz relented and let the FBI do the comparison print, resolving the mystery. (Dallas FBI official, interview by author, 10 May 1993.)
3 Warren Report, 561-562.
4 WC Report, 192.
5 Ibid.
6 Twenty years later, this same unschooled critic was the only person the O.J. Simpson defense team could unearth to opine that the photos showing Simpson wearing the murderer’s shoes were also faked. The same critic has at times claimed that the Zapruder film is forged as well.
7 Mike Howard, interview by author, 7 December 1993.
8 Frank Ellsworth, interview by author, 16 February 1994.
9 Robert Gemberling, interview by author, 30 July 1993.
10 Marilyn Sitzman, interview by author, 25 October 1992.
11 Marilyn Sitzman, interview by Josiah Thompson, 29 November 1966, 3-5, transcript on file at the Assassination Archives and Research Center, Washington, D.C.
12 See photo by Phil Willis.
13 Groden, 125.
14 The Guinn articles are: “NAA of Bullet Lead Evidence Specimens in Criminal Cases,” The Journal of Radioanalytical Chemistry, vol. 72, no. 1-2, 1982; and Samuel M. Gerber ed., “The Elemental Comparison of Bullet Lead Evidence Specimens.” The Chemistry of Crime, Washington, D.C, 1983.
15 Massad Ayoob, “The JFK Assassination: A Shooter’s Eye View,” The American Handgunner, March/April, 1993, 102.
16 Dr. Martin Fackler, testimony, American Bar Association mock trial of Lee Harvey Oswald, 10 August 1992.
17 Dr. John Lattimer, “Experimental Duplication of the Important Physical Evidence,” Journal of the American College of Surgeons, May 1994, vol. 178.
18 Dr. Dennis Ford, “Assassination Research and the Pathology of Knowledge,” The Third Decade, vol. VIII, no. 5, July 1992; also, Tom Filsinger, “Groupthink and JFK Assassination Research,” The Third Decade, vol. VIII, no. 6, September 1992.
Appendix B (Eyewitnesses)
1 Posner, 236.
Posner, a distinguished New York attorney, was quite familiar with the pitfalls in eyewitness testimony. He cited as an example the story of the Titanic. When the 900 foot-long liner sank in 1912, the seven hundred survivors were split over whether the ship went down in one or two pieces.
2 Livingstone, 126.
Appendix C (Jack Ruby)
1 For details and specific citations, see Posner, 350-365.
2 Barry Boesch, “Jack Ruby: Obsessions and Contradictions,” Dallas Morning News, JFK Memorial edition, 1983.
3 CE 1288.
4 Earl Ruby and Bill Roemer, interviews by Gerald Posner (1992), cited in Posner, 352.
5 Barry Boesch, “Jack Ruby: Obsessions and Contradictions,” Dallas Morning News, JFK Memorial edition, 1983.
6 Joe Cody, interview by author, 12 June 1993.
7 Wally Weston, interview by author, 12 June 1993.
8 Ibid.
9 Wills and Demaris, 6.
10 CD 87.
11 Al Maddox, interview by author, 12 June 1993.
12 Barry Boesch, “Jack Ruby: Obsessions and Contradictions,” Dallas Morning News, JFK Memorial edition, 1983.
13 Eva Grant, testimony, WC, vol. XIV, 469, 484.
14 Wills and Demaris, “You all know me! I’m Jack Ruby!” Esquire, May 1967.
15 Wills and Demaris, 218.
16 An excellent compilation of Ruby’s acquaintances’ testimony can be found in Posner, 374-379.
17 Barry Boesch, “Jack Ruby: Obsessions and Contradictions,” Dallas Morning News, JFK Memorial edition, 1983.
18 Jack Ruby to “Bill,” letter from jail, 4 December 1963. Copy of letter in author’s possession.
19 Jim Leavelle, interview by author, 19 June 1993.
20 T. George Harris, interview by author, 8 March 1993.
21 Lonnie Hudkins, interview by author, 19 June 1993.
22 Ruby to Dallas police, statement, CE 1253.
23 Frank Ellsworth, interview by author, February 16, 1994.
24 Cited in Kaplan and Waltz, 66.
25 Kaplan and Waltz, 143.
26 Ibid, 150.
27 Kaplan and Waltz, 143.
28 Jim Leavelle, interview by author, 19 June 1993.
29 Joe Campisi, HSCA testimony.
30 Wills and Demaris, 72-72.
31 Wally Weston, interview by author, 6 June 1993.
32 Elmo Cunningham, interview by author, 8 December 1993.
33 Wills and Demaris,
72.
34 Ibid, 73.
35 One day soon after the crime, Howard sat in Ruby’s Carousel Club trying to think of a convincing defense. “In those days,” reporter Lonnie Hudkins would recall, “defense attorneys trusted reporters enough to tell them their plans.” Hudkins listened while Howard “threw out possible defenses, and tried to figure out how they sounded. He’s the one who came up with the possible defense that Ruby just could not stand the thought of the First Lady having to come to Dallas and testify—that’s why he shot Oswald. George Harris, a senior editor of Look magazine, was with me. We just sat there in amazement.”
36 Bill Alexander, interview by Gerald Posner, 1992, in Posner, 400.
37 Miller, Lyndon, 348.
38 Wills and Demaris, 255.
39 Warren Report, 5 Hearings, 181 ff.
40 Wills and Demaris, “You all know me! I’m Jack Ruby!” Esquire, May 1967.
41 Wills and Demaris, 262.
42 Barry Boesch, “Jack Ruby: Obsessions and Contradictions,” Dallas Morning News, JFK Memorial edition, 1983.
43 Wally Weston, interview by author, 12 June 1993.
44 Al Maddox, interview by author, 12 June 1993.
45 There is also a question of whether the “Dallas city fathers” desired Oswald’s death as a way of atoning for Kennedy’s murder. It is known that Ruby attempted to make contact all weekend with Gordon McLendon, one of his icons. McLendon was the Walter Cronkite of Dallas at station WLIF, and a powerful city figure. One informed source claims that Ruby did see McLendon, who gave him the idea to kill Oswald—but if this is true, it was probably simply by saying something like, “That son of a bitch ought to be killed.” Ruby employees at the Carousel Club told Ruby the same thing. (Lonnie Hudkins, interview by author, 20 August 1993.)
46 Joe Cody, interview by author, 12 June 1993.
47 Jim Leavelle, interview by author, 20 October 1994.
48 Frank Ellsworth, interview by author, 16 February 1994.
49 Elmo Cunningham, interview by author, 8 December 1993.
50 A tape of the conversation was recorded by Ruby’s rabbi, a copy of which is in the author’s possession.
INDEX
This index does not cover all of the “Endnotes.”
Readers with a special interest are strongly encouraged to read them.
A | B | C | D | E
F | G | H | I | J
K | L | M | N | O
P | Q | R | S | T
U | V | W | Y | Z
A
A-1 (Cuban Intelligence defector), 224–26
Adolphus Hotel, Dallas, 267
Adzhubei, Aleksei, 77–78
Agee, Phillip, 212, 421
Air Force One, 279, 304–5, 321
air support, Bay of Pigs, 19–20
Alba, Adrian, 193
Alberu, Luis, 552–53 n 38
Aleman, Jose, 230, 245
Alexander, Bill, 316, 331, 333, 498, 499
Alexyev, Alexander, 6
Alright Parking Garage, Dallas, 266–67
Alsop, Joseph, 359
Alvarado, Gilberto, 345
Alvarez, Luis, 470
AM-LASH (AM-LASH-1)
Castro intelligence infiltration of, 226
FitzGerald’s fears regarding, 338–39
insecurity of, 242–45
lack of secrecy regarding, 195–96
LBJ shuts down, 390–91
Mexico City operations, 220–21
Phase Three assassination attempts and, 63
post-JFK assassination investigation and, 340–41
revival of, 238–41 See also Cubela Secades, Rolando
AM/MUG-1, see A-1
AM/TRUNK, 179–82
lack of secrecy regarding, 195–96
Leonardo Plan and, 179–80
Mexico City operations, 220–21
monitoring Voice of America broadcasts and, 272
Rabel Nunes (Jose “Ricardo”) and, 181
Amaro, Ruben, 4
American Communist Party. See Communist Party USA
American Fact-Finding Committee, 287
American public fear of Castro, 11
on JFK presidency, 232–33
U.S. government, distrust of, JFK assassination and, 451, 458
Amigos de Roberto, Los, 164, 289
Anderson, Andy, 122–23
Anderson, Clark, 219, 357
Anderson, Eugene D., 465
Anderson, Jack, 69, 242, 394–95, 403, 445–46
Andrews, Dean, 205
Angelo (RFK exile bodyguard), 67
Angleton, James, 352, 354, 364, 419
Arbenz, Jacabo, 8, 19
Arcadia Smith, Sergio, 141–44
Banister and, 141
on Castro’s agents’ infiltration, 142–43
condolences to RFK, 382
Ferrie and, 145
on FODC, 137–38
Garrison investigation of, 408–10
Houma weapons transfer and, 152
HSCA investigation and, 443
Louisiana para-military training camps and, 185
meets RFK, 409–10
on Oswald and Newman Building address, 197
polygraph test, 410
Santa Ana mission and, 14
on talkative nature of Cubans, 195
Archer, D. R., 498
Armstrong, Andrew, 498
Arrizurieta, Luis, 186
Arthur, Ed, 69–70
Artime Buesa, Manuel
Central American camps, Castro knowledge of, 242–43
commando leaders embarked from Norfolk, 271
CRC and, 13, 141
Cuban exile training camps and, 172
disbanding camps of, 391
on Hernandez as Castro assassin, 13
Hunt and, 165
MDC and, 186
meets with JFK, 12, 170
meets with RFK, 11/22/63, 289
RFK and, 164
on RFK reaction to JFK assassination, 384
Second Naval Guerrilla training and, 238
Artwohl, Robert, 300
Arvad Fejos, Inga, 32–33
Ashman, Charles, 219
Aspin, Les, 434
assassination, JFK, 294–305
agents on grassy knoll and, 472–73
analysis/research into, 461–86
bullet trajectory studies of, 470–71, 477–81
Chicago attempt avoided, 275
crowd on grassy knoll and, 472
Cubans in Miami and, 275
doctors’ head wound description vs. autopsy, 301, 468–69
downwind shooting strategy and, 295
first quick shot, 296, 483
grassy knoll gunman, smoke problem, 471–72
gunfire source and, 467–75
lessons from, 459–60
Oswald’s ammunition and, 466–67
Oswald’s culpability, evidence of, 461–63
Oswald’s marksmanship and, 465
Oswald’s rifle, nitric powder residue tests and, 463–64
Oswald’s rifle capability and, 465–67
Parkland Memorial Hospital, 300–301
pronounced dead, last rites, 301
questions on Oswald acting alone and, 347
recovered bullet studies, 481–83
RFK/JFK inexperience/self-assurance and, 450
second shot, 297
Secret Service reacts, 297–98
shooting mechanics and, 475–77
sight lines, grassy knoll, 473–75
third bullet, jet effect and, 298, 470
Tippit murder and, 314–16
two-shooter evidence, 464
witnesses, 298–300
Zapruder film of, 339, 469–70 See also conspiracy theory, JFK assassination; Dallas Police Department
assassinations/attempts, foreign leader, 49–84
Castro (Phase One), 50–57
Castro (Phase Two), 63, 77–80
Castro (Phase Three, 1963), 63
Castro’s knowledge of, 83–84
Congressional testimony on, 52–53
Cuban Missile Crisis and, 80–83, 528 n 124
Harvey and, 61–64
Hussein (Saddam), 460
Jagan (Guyana), 74
Kennedy unofficial anti-Castro campaign, 64–67
Lumumba, 9, 62, 365, 425, 523 n 1
Mafia and, 50–52
McLaney and, 67–71
permanent facility for, 60–61
post-Bay of Pigs plots, 57–60
priority for, 73–77
RFK coverup of, 71–73
Torrijos (Panama), 166
Assassinations Record Review Board, 326 See also JFK Review Board
Attwood, William, 234, 235, 263
“autonomous operations” (espionage/sabotage), 161–64, 251
autopsy, JFK, 327–28, 444
Bethesda Naval vs. Walter Reed as site for, 323–24
competence of Hume/Boswell and, 327–28
conspiracy theorists and, 463
coverup on JFK health status and, 326
doctors’ head wound description vs., 301, 468–69
JFK brain and, 328
RFK and Jackie influence over, 324–25
type, forensic vs. hospital and, 328, 468–69
Ayers, Bradley, 48, 162, 237–38
Aynesworth, Hugh, 261
Ayoob, Massad, 482
Azcue, Eusebio, 213, 214, 215, 218–19, 225
B
Baden, Michael, 328
Bailey, F. Lee, 58, 60
Bailey, John, 282, 285
Bakatin, Vadim, 105
Baker, Bobby, 281–82, 283, 284, 289, 395, 563 n 49
Balbuena, Luis, 59, 524 n 35
Ball, George, 30, 47, 156, 355
Banister, Guy, 139–41, 541 nn 22, 23, 26
arms shipments to Cuban exiles and, 544 n 85
FBI asks about 544 Camp St., 334
Ferrie, Garrison “bomb” and, 330
Ferrie and, 143, 144
JFK assassination conspiracy theory and, 196
Letter-Marque, Houma weapons transfer and, 151
physical resemblance to Shaw, 411–12 See also Guy Banister and Associates
Banister, Ross, 197
Barker, Bernard “Macho,” 165, 169, 171
Barnes, Tracy, 31, 60–61
Barron, John, 421
Bartes, Frank, 201
Batista, Fulgencio, 3–4, 5, 50–51, 58, 141
Batista Falla, Laureano, 185, 187, 188
