국제투기자본과 존 F. 케네디 암살: 누가 케네디를 죽였는가? (feat. 버트런트 러셀, Mark Lane, Ralph Schoenman, Richard Case Nagell, Jim Garrison )

"The official version of the assassination of President Kennedy has been so riddled with contradictions that it has been abandoned and rewritten no less than three times. Blatant fabrications have received very widespread coverage by the mass media, but denials of these same lies have gone unpublished. Photographs, evidence, and affidavits have been doctored out of recognition."

- Bertrand Russell's "Sixteen Questions on the Assassination."

국제유태자본론의 인드라는 케네디 암살을 빅터 로스차일드가 했다고 주장했고, 아로 역시 그 주장에 혹했으나, 관련 자료들을 면밀하게 검토해본 결과, 인드라의 주장이 어설프다는 결론을 내리게 되었다. 빅터 로스차일드나 MI6까지는 몰라도 케네디 암살은 최소한 록펠러 가문과 CIA가 직접적으로 개입해서 실행하고, 은폐한 정황이 매우 확실하다.

1. 존 F. 케네디는 데이비드 록펠러의 하버드대 동창이었다. 케네디 대통령의 아버지이자 전 영국 대사를 지낸 조지프 케네디는 나치 독일 시절 독일에 투자해 큰 돈을 번 사람이다. 뿐만 아니라 그는 록펠러 가문 소유인 베들레헴스틸 중역 출신이다. 케네디는 유태인들(로스차일드 가문)과 록펠러 가문의 도움으로 대통령이 된 사람이다.

2. 케네디 암살 2주 전에 전직 CIA요원 Richard Case Nagell은 FBI의 에드거 후버에게 케네디 암살이 일어날 것이라고 경고하는 편지를 보낸다. 그는 쿠바에서 카스트로 암살과 관련한 작전을 펼치던 CIA요원들이 케네디를 암살하려는 계획을 갖고 있었다고 폭로했다. (나중에 FBI도 한통속인 걸 알게되고, 케네디 암살범으로 자신이 희생양이 될까 두려웠던 Nagell은 은행에서 총을 발사해서 스스로 경찰에 잡혀간다.) (미국 정부의 Richard Case Nagell 관련 문서를 보면, 그를 미치광이쯤으로 취급하고 있다. 과연 진실은?)

쿠바는 미국의 매킨리 대통령 재임기간 (1897-1901) 때부터 이미 록펠러 가문의 영지였다. 데이비드 록펠러의 딸은 피델 카스트로의 열혈 팬이었고, 록펠러 본인 역시 카스트로와 몇 번 만나기도 했다.

3. 케네디 암살범 리 하비 오즈왈드는 소련에 망명하고자 했던 미국인이고 (이 때문에 미국 언론에서도 몇 차례 보도될 정도였다), 케네디 암살 2달 전에도 KGB와 접촉한 흔적이 있다고 2017년 밝혀졌다. 당시 미국 CIA가 희생양으로 삼기에는 최적의 인물이었을 것이다.

4. 케네디 암살 당일날 급작스러운 카퍼레이드 동선 변경

5. 오즈왈드의 변호사를 맡았고, 버트런트 러셀에게 미국 정부가 케네디 암살사건에 관여했다는 것을 설득하여, 러셀로 하여금 케네디 암살 진상규명에 동참하게 움직였던 변호사 Mark Lane은 1963-1964년 워런위원회에서 당시 현장에 있던 경찰관이 한 증언을 소개한다. 경찰관은 케네디 암살범으로 의심되는 남성에게 총을 겨누었는데, 그 사람이 미국 정보기관 ID (아마도 CIA의 ID)를 보여주었다고 한다. 그러나 후일 미국 정보기관에서는 이 같은 사실을 부인했다.

6. 오즈왈드를 죽인 잭 루비는 마피아들과 관련이 있었고, 미국 정보기관과도 관련이 있었다.

7. 잭 루비를 치료했던 병원 리포트 기록 (1974년): "잭 루비가 대통령 암살을 위한 역할을 맡았다고 말했다. 쿠바에서도 역할이 있었다고 말했다." 루비는 FBI의 하수인이었다. 에드가 후버에게 직접 쓴 편지도 있다.

케네디는 임기 도중 후버의 사퇴를 고려했으며, 후버는 케네디의 암살을 밝히는데 매우 소극적이었다. 록펠러계 존슨 정권 들어서자, 존슨은 후버를 위해 FBI 국장 정년을 70세로 연장시켜줬고, 후버의 오른팔이자 동성애 연인 Tolson에게 대통령상을 수여했다. 후버 사후인 1973년 워싱턴 DC에 있는 FBI 빌딩은 '후버 FBI 빌딩'으로 개칭된다.

8. 케네디 암살에 대한 조사를 맡은 워런위원회(1963-1964)의 멤버 6명 중 2명은 록펠러 가문 및 CIA와 직접적으로 연결되어 있는 사람이었다.

- 앨런 덜레스는 CIA 초대국장을 지낸 사람으로, 데이비드 록펠러의 친구였다.
- 존 C. 맥클로이는 데이비드 록펠러가 경영하던 체이스맨해튼의 회장을 역임했고, 록펠러재단 이사장을 오랫동안 맡은 사람이다. 뿐만 아니라 그는 데이비드 록펠러가 CFR의장을 하기 전에 먼저 의장을 맡기도 했다.

6명 중 FBI와 관련이 있는 사람이 있었는데, 그가 바로 훗날 미국 대통령이 되는 제럴드 포드.

버트런트 러셀은 워런위원회 멤버들 모두가 어째서 다 정부와 밀접한 관련이 있는 인물들인지 (특히 록펠러계) 의구심을 강하게 내비쳤다. 케네디 암살을 수사했던 뉴올리언주의 검사 Jim Garrision 역시 워런위원회의 발표에 매우 회의적이었다. 워런위원회는 말 그대로 고양이에게 생선을 맡긴 격이었다.

9. 취미로 사진을 찍는 일반인 Abraham Zapruder가 우연히 암살현장에서 촬영한 케네디 암살영상 카피본을 FBI가 입수했고, Life지도 $150,000불을 지급하고 원본을 구매한다. 케네디 암살에 관한 가장 결정적이고 중요한 자료임에도 FBI는 대중에게 공개를 거부한다. 이 영상은 사건 발생 12여년이 흐른 1975년이나 되어서야 한 TV프로그램에 의해 일반 대중들에게 공개된다.

10. Zapruder Film은 여러 차례 훼손의 과정을 거친다. 그 과정이 고의적이었는지 아닌지는 생각해볼 문제다.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapruder_film

In October 1964, the U.S. Government Printing Office released 26 volumes of testimony and evidence compiled by the Warren Commission. Volume 18 of the commission's hearings reproduced 158 frames from the Zapruder film in black and white. However, frames 208–211 were missing, a splice was visible in frames 207 and 212, frames 314 and 315 were switched around, and frame 284 was a repeat of 283.^[16] In response to an inquiry, then-FBI director J. Edgar Hoover wrote in 1965 that frames 314 and 315 had been swapped due to a printing error, and that that error did not exist in the original Warren Commission exhibits. In early 1967, Life released a statement saying that four frames of the original (frames 208–211) were accidentally destroyed, and the adjacent frames damaged, by a Life photo lab technician on November 23, 1963. Life released those missing frames from the first-generation copy it had received from the film's original version;^[17] the Zapruder frames outside the section used in the commission's exhibits, frames 155–157 and 341, were also damaged and were spliced out of the original rendition of the film, but are present in the first-generation copies.^[18]

11. 록펠러계 언론사 CBS는 CIA와 관련이 깊고, 사진분석, 카메라 시스템, 그리고 첩보위성에 특화된 록펠러계 회사 ITEK (* 록펠러 3세가 만든 회사다)에 케네디 암살 영상에 대한 분석을 의뢰한다. 24페이지에 달하는 Life-Itek Kennedy Assassination Film Analysis (1967)에 따르면, 케네디는 정면에서 총을 맞은 것이 아니라 뒤에서 총을 맞은 것이다. 헌데, 나중에 대중 일반에 공개된 Zapruder 영상을 보면, 케네디는 명백히 앞에서 총을 맞고 두뇌가 뒤로 후진했다. 오즈왈드가 케네디 뒤에 있었기 때문에 자료를 짜맞추기 위해, ITEK이 대놓고 조작 행위를 벌인 것.

재미있는 사실 두 개.
1) ITEK의 스파이 인공위성 이름은 CORONA, 즉 코로나였다.

2) ITEK은 1965년 이후 CIA와의 수의계약에서 제외되길 요청했고, 그 후 급속도로 사세가 기울었는데, 왜 ITEK 수뇌부가 이런 결정을 내렸는지는 명쾌하게 알려진 바가 없다. ITEK을 운영하던 록펠러 3세에 대한 넬슨 록펠러나 데이비드 록펠러의 견제 때문이었을까?

12. CBS의 아나운서 Dan Rather는 Zapruder film이 나중에 대중들에게 공개될 줄 모르고, Life지로부터 얻은 해당 영상의 복사본을 보면서 TV의 청중들에게 케네디 두뇌의 파편들이 앞으로 이동 (forwarded)했다고 3차례나 반복해서 말했다. (사실은 뒤로 (backwarded) 이동했다.)

나중에 Dan은 자신이 말실수를 했다고 인정했으며, 대통령의 몸이 뒤로 움직인건 재클린 케네디 때문이라고 정정했다. 물론 0.75초만에 재클린 케네디가 존 F. 케네디의 몸을 뒤로 움직였을 리는 없다.

비단 방송국 뿐 아니라 회사에서는 이렇게 상부의 지시를 충실히 따르는 간신배같은 놈들이 출세한다.

13. 케네디 암살 사건에 대한 미국 언론사의 광범위한 조작들

“a member of the Commission” had told the press that Robert Oswald had just testified that he believed that his brother was an agent of the Soviet Union. Robert Oswald was outraged by this, and he said that he could not remain silent while lies were told about his testimony. He had never said this and he had never believed it. All that he had told the Commission was that he believed his brother was innocent and was in no way involved in the assassination.

Why did the authorities follow many persons as potential assassins and fail to observe Oswald’s entry into the book depository building while allegedly carrying a rifle over three feet long?

...

Several photographs have been published of the alleged murder weapon. On February 21, Life magazine carried on its cover a picture of “Lee Oswald with the weapons he used to kill President Kennedy and Officer Tippitt [sic].” On page 80, Life explained that the photograph was taken during March or April of 1963. According to the F.B.I., Oswald purchased his pistol in September 1963. The New York Times carried a picture of the alleged murder weapon being taken by police into the Dallas police station. The rifle is quite different. Experts have stated that no rifle resembling the one in the Life picture has even been manufactured. The New York Times also carried the same photograph as Life, but left out the telescopic sights. On March 2, Newsweek used the same photograph but painted in an entirely new rifle. Then on April 13 the Latin American edition of Life carried the same picture on its cover as the U.S. edition had on February 21, but in the same issue on page 18 it had the same picture with the rifle altered. How is it that millions of people have been misled by complete forgeries in the press?
...
Another falsehood concerning the shooting was a story circulated by the Associated Press on November 23 from Los Angeles. This reported Oswald’s former superior officer in the Marine Corps as saying that Oswald was a crack shot and a hot–head. The story was published widely. Three hours later AP sent out a correction deleting the entire story from Los Angeles. The officer had checked his records and it had turned out that he was talking about another man. He had never known Oswald. To my knowledge the correction has yet to be published by a single major publication.
...

We view the problem with the utmost seriousness. U.S. Embassies have long ago reported to Washington world–wide disbelief in the official charges against Oswald, but this has scarcely been reflected by the American press. No U.S. television program or mass circulation newspaper has challenged the permanent basis of all the allegations — that Oswald was the assassin, and that he acted alone. It is a task which is left to the American people.

14. FBI, 달라스 경찰, 달라스 카운티 검사의 광범위한 자료 조작
The F.B.I. held a series of background briefing sessions for Life magazine, which in its issue of December 6 explained that the President had turned completely round just at the time he was shot. This too, was soon shown to be entirely false.
...

The Dallas police took a paraffin test on Oswald’s face and hands to try to establish that he had fired a weapon on November 22. The Chief of the Dallas Police, Jesse Curry, announced on November 23 that the result of the test “proves Oswald is the assassin.” The Director of the F.B.I. in the Dallas–Fort Worth area in charge of the investigation stated: “I have seen the paraffin test. The paraffin test proves that Oswald had nitrates and gunpowder on his hands and face. It proves he fired a rifle on November 22.” Not only does this unreliable test not prove any such thing, it was later discovered that the test on Oswald’s face was in fact negative, suggesting that it was unlikely he fired a rifle that day. Why was the result of the paraffin test altered before being announced by the authorities?

...
The affidavit by Police Office Weitzman, who entered the book depository building, stated that he found the alleged murder rifle on the sixth floor. (It was first announced that the rifle had been found on the fifth floor, but this was soon altered.) It was a German 7.65 mm. Mauser. Late the following day, the F.B.I. issued its first proclamation. Oswald had purchased in March 1963 an Italian 6.5 mm. Mannlicher–Carcano. D.A. Wade immediately altered the nationality and size of the weapon to conform to the F.B.I. statement.

...

After Ruby had killed Oswald, D.A. Wade made a statement about Oswald’s movements following the assassination. He explained that Oswald had taken a bus, but he described the point at which Oswald had entered the vehicle as seven blocks away from the point located by the bus driver in his affidavit. Oswald, Wade continued, then took a taxi driven by a Daryll Click, who had signed an affidavit. An inquiry at the City Transportation Company revealed that no such taxi driver had ever existed in Dallas. Presented with this evidence, Wade altered the driver’s name to William Whaley. The driver’s log book showed that a man answering Oswald’s description had been picked up at 12:30. The President was shot at 12:31. D.A. Wade made no mention of this. Wade has been D.A. in Dallas for 14 years and before that was an F.B.I. agent. How does a District Attorney of Wade’s great experience account for all the extraordinary changes in evidence and testimony which he has announced during the Oswald case?

...

Oswald, it will be recalled, was originally arrested and charged with the murder of Patrolman Tippitt. Tippitt was killed at 1:06 p.m. on November 22 by a man who first engaged him in conversation, then caused him to get out of the stationary police car in which he was sitting and shot him with a pistol. Miss Helen L. Markham, who states that she is the sole eye–witness to this crime, gave the Dallas police a description of the assailant. After signing her affidavit, she was instructed by the F.B.I., the Secret Service and many police officers that she was not permitted to discuss the case with anyone. The affidavit’s only description of the killer was that he was a “young white man.” Miss Markham later revealed that the killer had run right up to her and past her, brandishing the pistol, and she repeated the description of the murderer which she had given to the police. He was, she said, “short, a little heavy, and had somewhat bushy hair.” (The police description of Oswald was that he was of average height, or a little taller, was slim and had receding fair hair.) Miss Markham’s affidavit is the entire case against Oswald for the murder of Patrolman Tippitt, yet District Attorney Wade asserted: “We have more evidence to prove Oswald killed Tippit than we have to show he killed the President.” The case against Oswald for the murder of Tippitt, he continued, was an absolutely strong case. Why was the only description of Tippitt’s killer deliberately omitted by the police from the affidavit of the sole eye–witness?

15. CIA의 병원 부검자료 조작

In order to retain the basis of all official thinking, that Oswald was the lone assassin, it now became necessary to construct a third theory with the medical evidence altered to fit it. For the first month no Secret Service agent had ever spoken to the three doctors who had tried to save Kennedy’s life in the Parkland Memorial Hospital. Now two agents spent three hours with the doctors and persuaded them that they were all misinformed: the entrance wound in the President’s throat had been an exit wound, and the bullet had not ranged down towards the lungs. Asked by the press how they could have been so mistaken, Dr. McClelland advanced two reasons:

they had not seen the autopsy report
and they had not known that Oswald was behind the President!

The autopsy report, they had been told by the Secret Service, showed that Kennedy had been shot from behind. The agents, however, had refused to show the report to the doctors, who were entirely dependent on the word of the Secret Service for this suggestion. The doctors made it clear that they were not permitted to discuss the case. The third theory, with the medical evidence rewritten, remains the basis of the case against Oswald at this moment. Why has the medical evidence concerning the President’s death been altered out of recognition?

16. FBI와 CIA의 오즈왈드 부인에 대한 불법구금과 회유

Another witness to receive extraordinary treatment in the Oswald case was his wife, Marina. She was taken to the jail while her husband was still alive and shown a rifle by Chief of Police Jesse Curry. Asked if it were Oswald’s, she replied that she believed Oswald had a rifle but that it didn’t look like that. She and her mother–in–law were in great danger following the assassination because of the threat of public revenge on them. At this time they were unable to obtain a single police officer to protect them. Immediately after Oswald was killed, however, the Secret service illegally held both women against their will. After three days they were separated and Marina has never again been accessible to the public. Held in custody for nine weeks and questioned almost daily by the F.B.I. and Secret Service, she finally testified to the Warren Commission and, according to Earl Warren, said that she believed her husband was the assassin. The Chief Justice added that the next day they intended to show Mrs. Oswald the murder weapon and the Commission was fairly confident that she would identify it as her husband’s. The following day it was announced that this had indeed happened. Mrs. Oswald, we are informed, is still in the custody of the Secret Service. To isolate a witness for nine weeks and to subject her to repeated questioning by the Secret Service in this manner is reminiscent of police behavior in other countries, where it is called brainwashing. The only witness produced to show that Oswald carried a rifle before the assassination stated that he saw a brown paper parcel about two feet long in the back seat of Oswald’s car. The rifle which the police “produced” was almost 3½ feet long. How was it possible for Earl Warren to forecast that Marina Oswald’s evidence would be exactly the reverse of what she had previously testified?

17. 뉴올리언주의 검사 Jim Garrision의 수사결과: CIA가 개입해서 대통령 암살했다
Jim Garrison eventually became convinced that a group of right-wing activists, including Ferrie, Guy Banister, Carlos Bringuier, Eladio del Valle and Clay Shaw were involved in a conspiracy with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to kill John F. Kennedy. Garrison claimed this was in retaliation for his attempts to obtain a peace settlement in both Cuba and Vietnam.

18. 지난 2014년, CIA는 케네디 암살 당시 CIA 국장이었던 John McCone이 고의적으로 케네디 사건을 은폐하려 했음을 시인한 바 있으며, 2017년 미국 정부가 추가로 밝힌 케네디 암살 문건에서는 케네디 암살이 일어났던 당시 달러스 지부의 CIA 국장이었던 J. Walton Moore와 관련된 338 페이지는 공개되지 않았다. 여전히 미국 정부는 관련 자료 상당수를 은폐하고 있다.

19. 록펠러계 존슨의 증언

...

그렇다면 케네디가 록펠러 같은 미국 사회의 최고위층에게 암살당한 이유는 뭘까?

가능성은 크게 두 가지다.

첫째, 케네디는 1961년 처음으로 백악관에 입성한 뒤부터 베트남전 군사 개입 확대에 반대함에 따라 합동참모본부 및 미국외교협회(CFR) 회원인 딘 러스크, 로버트 맥나마라, 맥조지 번디 및 윌리엄 번디 등 자신의 행정부 내 고위 인사들과 맞서게 되었다.

1963년 10월 11일, 케네디는 국가안전보장행동각서 264호를 승인하는데, 이 각서는 1965년 말까지 미국이 베트남 문제에서 손을 뗄 가능성을 승인하는 내용으로 1963년 말까지 일부 병력의 조용한 철수를 지시하는 내용도 포함하고 있었다. 라오스에 그랬던 것처럼 베트남에서도 지상군을 파병해야 한다는 권고가 이어졌지만 케네디는 계속 거부했다. 이 문서를 서명하고 약 한달 뒤인 11월 22일, 케네디는 백주대낮에 보란듯이 암살당한다. 베트남 전쟁은 케네디 정부의 후임인 존슨 정부 때부터 대대적으로 확대된다.

케네디 암살을 실행한 CIA작전조가 쿠바에서 카스트로 제거임무를 맡았던 작전조와 동일한 인물들로 추정되는만큼, 케네디가 쿠바와 베트남에서의 냉전을 완화하려는 데탕트 외교를 펼치려고 하자, 록펠러 가문의 지시 하에 암살을 당했으리라 추정된다.

1967년, 록펠러 일가는 사이러스 이튼과 손잡고 소비에트 연방에 알루미늄과 고무 공장을 건설하는 데 필요한 자금을 조성하는데, 이 역시 냉전 확대를 위한 수순이었다고 볼 수 있다. 이튼은 <퍼레이드>지가 "공산주의자의 가장 절친한 자본가 친구"라고 부른 인물이다. 전도사를 지망했던 이튼은 존 D. 록펠러의 설득으로 기업 세계로 들어섰고 이후 리퍼블릭 스틸을 창립했다.

(* 본래 베트남 전쟁을 지지하던 데이비드 록펠러와 CFR은 1968년에 가서야 베트남 전쟁을 반대하고, 본래의 입장을 철회한다.)

둘째, 케네디가 로스차일드/록펠러 재벌 소유의 미국 연준을 (점진적인 행정 과정을 거쳐) 미국 재무부 소속으로 옮기려고 했기 때문이다. 케네디는 대통령이 되자, 미국 정부 고유 권한으로 은화폐를 찍어내고자 하였다. 또한 미 연준(FED)을 미국 재무부 밑으로 두려고 하였다.

이것을 케네디에 의한 '행정명령 11110' (executive order 1110) 이라고 한다. 이 문서는 1963년 6월 4일에 서명되었다. 케네디 암살 5개월 전이다.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

참고자료

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEz9Lr-dxK4

KMYR's The Public Affair: Ralph Schoenman, a Kennedy assassination critic February 24-28, 1975 Albuquerque Museum, gift of Zane Blaney PA2019.068.010

This is a four-part series of interviews with Ralph Schoenman, a Kennedy assassination critic. The series is taken from an interview Schoenman did on KUNM.

Keywords and topics: assassination, John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., conspiracy theory, Ralph Shoenman, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Central Intelligence Agency, Jack Ruby, Lee Harvey Oswald, Dr. Werner Tuteur, Earl Warren, Leon Jaworski, Gerald Ford, Malcolm X, underworld, Jimmy Hoffa, “Red” Dorfman, Mike Wallace, Dan Rather,
Abraham Zapruder, Harry Moses, Harriet Rubin, ITEK Corporation, CBS television, Robert Clayton Buick, KUNM

팀스터: 로버트 케네디 암살 논의

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ruby

Jack Leon Ruby (born Jacob Leon Rubenstein; (c.^[1]^[2] April 25, 1911 – January 3, 1967) was an American nightclub owner and alleged associate of the Chicago Outfit. He murdered Lee Harvey Oswald on November 24, 1963, two days after Oswald was accused of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. A Dallas jury found Ruby guilty and sentenced him to death. Ruby's conviction was later appealed, and he was to be granted a new trial; however, he became ill in prison, was diagnosed with cancer, and died of a pulmonary embolism on January 3, 1967.

In September 1964, the Warren Commission concluded that Ruby acted alone in killing Oswald, shooting him on impulse and out of grief over Kennedy's assassination. These findings were challenged by various critics who suggested that Ruby was involved with major figures in organized crime and that he was acting as part of an assassination plot against Kennedy.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1npsk8

What happens when the world of venture capital collides with the world of espionage? To find the answer, Jonathan E. Lewis takes us inside the executive suite at Itek Corporation during the Cold War years from 1957 to 1965. Itek was manufacturing the world's most sophisticated satellite reconnaissance cameras, and the information these cameras provided about Soviet missiles and military activity was critical to U.S. security. So was Itek. This intriguing book examines in unprecedented detail the challenges Itek faced not only as a contractor for the most important national security program of the time-the CIA's Project CORONA spy satellite-but also as a start-up company competing with established industrial giants. In telling the story of Itek Corporation, Lewis fills important gaps in the history of American intelligence, business history, and management studies. In addition, he addresses a variety of important themes such as the compatibility of secrecy and capitalism, the struggle between profits and patriotism, and the workings of power and connections in America. Lewis explores how Itek executives contended with myriad business problems that were compounded by the need to raise capital without revealing the complete truth about the company's highly secret business. He also presents for the first time information about Laurance Rockefeller's venture capital operations and his role in financing Itek, based on the financier's private Itek papers. The book is both a remarkable case study of a company at the heart of the American intelligence-industrial complex during the Cold War and a thought-provoking examination of the impact of the CIA on the capitalist system it was created to defend.

New management, led by former OSS commando Frank Lindsay, got Itek past this troubled phase, but the firm soon got caught in the middle of a battle royal between the CIA, the NRO, and elements of the Air Force over which agency would control satellite reconnaissance. In early 1965, Lindsay stunned CIA managers by suddenly announcing that Itek was withdrawing from its Agency contract. He claimed that the post-CORONA camera design that the CIA insisted on would not work, and that Itek would get blamed when it failed. Director of Central Intelligence John McCone and Deputy Director for Science and Technology “Bud” Wheelon suspected, however, that the Agency’s rivals at the NRO and the Air Force had offered Itek a lucrative deal if it stopped working with the CIA. With so much of Itek’s income deriving from Agency work, they believed, the company could not have backed out unless it had guarantees of other contracts. No definitive evidence to support that allegation has surfaced, and the fact that the pullout damaged Itek irreparably sugests that McCone, et. al., were wrong. Whatever the truth may be, Lewis relies too much on NRO and Itek information and does not include enough material from CIA sources to give a full account. After this episode, Itek kept building CORONA cameras until the program ended in 1972, but it never won an Agency contract for any follow-on systems. Ultimately, its technical judgment in 1964-1965 proved wrong—a rival firm, Perkin-Elmer, built the post-CORONA camera that the CIA wanted, and it worked superbly. Itek enjoyed a brief resurgence in 1966-1967. It made some gadgets for the space program and its stock climbed back to $172 a share. But then it fell into a steady decline. Ironically, soon after the signing of the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty in 1972, the company had to fire many of the scientists and engineers whose work had made monitoring the agreement d engin oring th g possible. By the mid-1970s, Itek stock traded for just $7 a share. Litton Industries bought the firm at a bargain price in the early 1980s, ending its life as an independent company. Lewis correctly concludes that Itek deserves a more upbeat bottom line than its end sugests—afterall, he points out, “Itek delivered its cameras, and America was safer.” Despite the company’s ruination, progress in US satellite reconnaissance continued steadily, providing American leaders with what many have regarded as the most persuasive form of intelligence. Notwithstanding deception and denial, pictures from space provide special clarity for decisionmakers in today’s informationoverloaded world.

Spy Capitalism: ITEK and the CIA

Jonathan E. Lewis

Published by: Yale University Press

Pages: 336

https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1npsk8

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https://www.nytimes.com/1975/11/26/archives/film-analysis-backs-warren-report.html

LEXINGTON, Mass., Nov. 25 (AP) —An analysis of films showing President Kennedy's assassination indicates for the first time that some of his erratic movements after being shot may have been caused by his wife, photo specialists said today.

Analysts for the Itek Corporation, specialists in photo analysis, optics and photo systems, said the new look at the films generally supported the conclusions of the Warren Commission, which investigated the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination.

Working with slides from film of the shooting taken in Dallas by Abraham Zapruder, an amateur photographer, clear copy of the entire film and films taken by others, the analysts concluded:

¶There was no Indication indication that President Kennedy was shot from the front, throwing more doubt on the theory of a second assassin on a nearby grassy knoll.

¶There is evidence of “something” moving in a sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository, from where Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly shot President Kennedy. No other movement was seen on that floor.

¶Jacqueline Kennedy's movements at the instant of the fatal shot may have contributed to a violent backward motion, which Warren Commission critics say indicates the President was hit from the front.

(Wormer Texas Gov. John’ Connally, seated in front of Kennedy in the limousine, ap‐1 pears to react to being shot more quickly than he later testified. The analysts say this increases the likelihood of the Warren Commission's conclu‐1 sion that Mr. Connally was injured by the same bullet that, passed through the President's neck.

The films were analyzed at the request of the CBS television network, which is using the conclusions in reports on the assassination this week.

Francis Corbett, a senior photographic scientist at Itek who did much of the analysis, said the films were examined using new computer and optical techniques.

“We do not see any evidence of an external force hitting him from the front,” Mr. Corbett said. “The only other moving object near him was her [Mrs. Kennedy].

Mr. Corbett said the films showed that both of Mrs. Kennedy's hands were in front of the President at the time of the fatal shot. She was to his left and facing him when the bullet I hit.

“Our hypothesis is that she had both hands on him at the impact of the bullet and she felt the full impact,” he said. “There is an indication she was imparting a force somewhere and the only place we can see is through her hands.”

Measures of minute changes of motions in the bodies of both persons indicates that Mrs. Kennedy appeared to push away from her husband at the instant of impact, he said.

This shoving away, either alone or in conjunction with some kind of neurological reaction could have forced Mr, Kennedy down into the car seat, Mr. Corbett said.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Case_Nagell

Richard Case Nagell (August 5, 1930 – November 1, 1995) was a United States Army veteran and former CIA double agent.^[1] Nagell was arrested on September 20, 1963 after he entered the State National Bank in El Paso, Texas and fired two shots into the ceiling of the bank. Nagel walked out of the bank after firing his weapon and sat down and waited for the police to arrive. ^[2] Dick Russell's biography of Nagell claims that Nagell had foreknowledge of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.^[3] According to Russell, Nagell also claimed to have gotten himself arrested in the El Paso bank shooting in late September 1963 to avoid becoming a patsy.^[4] Nagell met with New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, who at the time was investigating Clay Shaw's possible complicity in the assassination.^[5]

Death[edit]

Nagell died from a heart attack on November 1, 1995, in Los Angeles, California, despite no history of heart problems.^{[citation needed]} His death occurred one day after the Assassination Records Review Board had sent him a letter for information.^[3]^[1] He was 65 years old at the time of his death and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.^[1]^[6]

^{https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/104-10123-10029.pdf}

^{https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKnagell.htm}

Richard Case Nagell

Richard Case Nagell was born in Greenwich, New York, on 5th August, 1930. Educated in Albany, Nagell, joined the United States Army at Albany in 1948. During the Korean War he was awarded the Bronze Star, and the Purple Heart and at the age of twenty became one of the youngest men in history to receive a field promotion to the rank of Captain.

In November, 1954, Nagell suffered severe injuries in an air crash. After recovering he was transferred to Army Counter Intelligence Corp. He served as a CIC officer in both Korea and Japan. In March, 1958, Nagell married a local woman. The couple had two children but the marriage ended in divorce.

Nagell reached the rank of Second Lieutenant by the time he left the army in October, 1959. As a result of his accident he was judged to be 50% disabled and was placed on a disability pension. In December, 1959, Nagell found work as an investigator with the Department of Employment in Los Angeles. In March, 1961, Nagell did a similar job with the California Beverage Control Board. He held the job until being sacked in June, 1962. The following month he was admitted to the Wadsworth Veterans Hospital in Los Angeles, California in what was alleged to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the chest.

According to Nagell, when he recovered he began working for theCentral Intelligence Agency as a double agent. This involved becoming an activist in the American Communist Party. This included distributing Marxist propaganda in Mexico.

Nagell also claimed he was involved in monitoring a group of Cuban exiles plotting against Fidel Castro. In 1963 Nagell discovered that this group was planning to assassinating John F. Kennedy while making it appear that it had been ordered by Castro. When he told the KGB they ordered him to warn Lee Harvey Oswald about what was happening. Nagell also claimed he warned the FBI and CIA about the plot.

Assassination of John F. Kennedy Encyclopedia

In September, 1963, Nagell walked into a bank in El Paso, Texas, and fired two shots into the ceiling and then waited to be arrested. Nagell claimed he did this to isolate himself from the assassination plot. This was successful and Nagell was charged with armed robbery and ended up spending the next five years in prison.

On his release Nagell told Jim Garrison about his knowledge of the assassination of John F. Kennedy . He claimed that David Ferrie, Guy Banister, and Clay Shaw were involved in this plot with Lee Harvey Oswald. However, Garrison decided against using him as a witness in the court-case against Shaw.

Dick Russell wrote about Nagell in his book, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1992). Nagell claimed the initial plan to assassinate President John F. Kennedy was financed by Haroldson L. Hunt and other individuals. The operation was to be performed by a anti-Castro group. According to Nagell the conspirators believed that if they set-up Lee Harvey Oswald, a well-known supporter of Fidel Castro with links to the Soviet Union, the assassination would result in a full-scale war against Cuba.

Richard Case Nagell was found dead on 1st November, 1995. A spokesman for the Los Angeles Coroner's Office said Nagell had a history of heart disease, and that his body was discovered on the floor of the bathroom at his home in Rampart, Los Angeles.

^{https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKhuntHL.htm}

Haroldson L. Hunt

Haroldson Lafayette Hunt was born in Fayette County, Illinois, on 17th February, 1889. After a brief formal education he went travelling. In 1912 he settled in Arkansas, where he ran a cotton plantation.

In 1921 Hunt moved to El Dorado where he became a lease broker. He eventually discovered oil and by 1925 was extremely wealthy. He suffered some business reverses but in 1930 he obtained his own pipeline, the Panola, to run oil from the East Texas field. Two years later Hunt Production Company had 900 wells in East Texas.

Hunt established the Placid Oil Company in 1935. The following year he acquired the Excelsior Refining Company in Rusk County and changed the name to Parade Refining Company. He also established his headquarters in Dallas, Texas. In 1948 a newspaper reported that Hunt was the richest man in the United States. It estimated the value of his oil properties at $263 million and the daily production of crude from his wells at 65,000 barrels.

Hunt developed extreme conservative political opinions. In 1951 he launched the Douglas MacArthur for President campaign. Along with two of his sons, Nelson Bunker Hunt and Lamar Hunt, he set-up a right-wing intelligence network, the International Committee for the Defence of Christian Culture.

Hunt also funded two right-wing radio shows, Facts Forum and Life Line. He used these radio stations to support the anti-communist campaign of Joseph McCarthy. He also helped to finance the political career of Lyndon B. Johnson. A member of the John Birch Society, Hunt was a close friend of Edwin Walker.

A strong opponent of Fidel Castro, Hunt helped to fund the Cuban Revolutionary Council, a group that worked with the Mafia and the Central Intelligence Agency in an effort to remove Castro from power.

President John F. Kennedy became concerned about people like Hunt who used tax exemptions to spread right-wing propaganda. According to Joachim Joesten Hunt had an annual income of $30,000,000 but paid little in income tax. In 1963 Kennedy talked about plans to submit to Congress a tax reform plan designed to produce about $185,000,000 in additional revenues by changes in the favourable tax treatment until then accorded the gas-oil industry.

Some conspiracy theorists believe that Hunt was involved in the death of President John F. Kennedy. It was claimed that the day before the assassination, Jim Brading visited Hunt in his office in Dallas. Brading had links to Carlos Marcello, another figure suspected of being involved in the killing. Brading was arrested in the Dal-Tex building in the Dealey Plaza soon after the assassination took place, but was released soon afterwards.

Madeleine Brown later gave an interview on the television show, A Current Affair where she claimed that on the 21st November, 1963, she was at the home of Clint Murchison. Others at the meeting included Hunt, J. Edgar Hoover, Clyde Tolson, John J. McCloy and Richard Nixon. At the end of the evening Lyndon B. Johnson arrived. Brown said in this interview: "Tension filled the room upon his arrival. The group immediately went behind closed doors. A short time later Lyndon, anxious and red-faced, reappeared. I knew how secretly Lyndon operated. Therefore I said nothing... not even that I was happy to see him. Squeezing my hand so hard, it felt crushed from the pressure, he spoke with a grating whisper, a quiet growl, into my ear, not a love message, but one I'll always remember: "After tomorrow those goddamn Kennedys will never embarrass me again - that's no threat - that's a promise."

Brown's account was supported by former CIA agent Robert D. Morrow who wrote in the book, First Hand Knowledge: How I participated in the CIA-Murder of President Kennedy, "On the eve of the assassination, Hoover and Nixon attended a meeting together at the Dallas home of oil baron Clint Murchison. Among the subjects discussed at this meeting were the political futures of Hoover and Nixon in the event President Kennedy was assassinated."

Haroldson Lafayette Hunt, who was married three times and fathered 14 children, died on November 29, 1974.

In 1976 Antonio Veciana was interviewed by Gaeton Fonzi of the House Select Committee on Assassinations. The founder of the anti-Castro organization, Alpha 66, he told the committee about his relationship with his Central Intelligence Agency contact, Maurice Bishop. He claimed that in August, 1963, he saw Bishop and Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas. Veciana admitted that Bishop had organized and funded the Alpha 66 attacks on the Soviet ships docked in Cuba in 1963.

Veciana explained the policy: "It was my case officer, Maurice Bishop, who had the idea to attack the Soviet ships. The intention was to cause trouble between Kennedy and Russia. Bishop believed that Kennedy and Khrushchev had made a secret agreement that the USA would do nothing more to help in the fight against Castro. Bishop felt - he told me many times - that President Kennedy was a man without experience surrounded by a group of young men who were also inexperienced with mistaken ideas on how to manage this country. He said you had to put Kennedy against the wall in order to force him to make decisions that would remove Castro's regime."

https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKgarrison.htm

Jim Garrison

James Garrison was born in Knoxville, Iowa, on 20th November, 1921. His family moved to Chicago and after Pearl Harbor Garrison joined the U.S. Army. In 1942 he took part in the fighting in Europe.

After the war Garrison attended Tulare Law School in New Orleans. He then joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and served as a special agent in Seattle and Tacoma. In 1954 Garrison returned to New Orleans where he became assistant district attorney.

In 1961, Garrison was elected as the city's district attorney. He developed a good reputation and in his first two years he never lost a case. According to Joan Mellen, the author of A Farewell to Justice (2005): "He hired the first woman assistant attorney in New Orleans history, Louise Korns, who had been first in her class at Tulane, and entrusted most of the research to her... Garrison's was the first office to employ full-time police investigators, among them Louis Ivon... Garrison dressed nattily in three-piece suits and he was not corrupt, rejecting the Napoleonic premise that political office was a form of private property."

Three days after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Garrison brought in David Ferrie for questioning. He had been informed by Jack Martin, a part-time private investigator, that Ferrie had known Lee Harvey Oswald and might have been involved in the assassination. Ferrie told Garrison that on the day of the assassination he had driven to Houston in order to go ice-skating. Garrison thought he was lying and handed him over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. However, after a brief interview he was released.

In 1965 Garrison was told by Hale Bloggs, a Congressman from Louisiana and a former member of the Warren Commission, that he had serious doubts that Oswald was a lone-gunman. This encouraged Garrison to read the Warren Report and books on the assassination by Mark Lane, Edward Jay Epstein and Harold Weisberg.

Garrison recruited Tom Bethell to investigate the case. He interviewed Vince Salandria who claimed that the conspirators were the CIA and military leaders who wanted to stop President Kennedy's effort to end the Cold War. He also contacted Sylvia Meagher and Mary Ferrell.

In November 1966 Garrison told a journalist, David Chandler, that he had important information on the case. Chandler told Richard Billings and in January 1967, the Life Magazine reporter arranged a meeting with Garrison. Billings told Garrison that the top management at Life had concluded that Kennedy's assassination had been a conspiracy and that "his investigation was moving in the right direction". Billings suggested that he worked closely with Garrison. According to Garrison "The magazine would be able to provide me with technical assistance, and we could develop a mutual exchange of information".

Garrison agreed to this deal and Richard Billings was introduced to staff member, Tom Bethell. In his diary Bethal reported: "In general, I feel that Billings and I share a similar position about the Warren Report. He does not believe that there was a conspiracy on the part of the government, the Warren Commission or the FBI to conceal the truth, but that a probability exists that they simply did not uncover the whole truth."

Garrison also recruited Bernardo de Torres, who had good connections with anti-Castro figures. William Turner, the author of Rearview Mirror: Looking Back at the FBI, the CIA and Other Tails (2001) has argued: "A veteran of the Bay of Pigs, De Torres showed up on Garrison's doorstep early in the probe, saying he was a private detective from Miami who wanted to help, and dropping the name of Miami DA Richard Gerstein, a friend of Garrison's, as an opener. In retrospect, Garrison remembered that every lead De Torres developed ended up in a box canyon." One of the jobs Garrison gave him was to find Eladio del Valle.

Garrison became suspicious of his motives and on 7th January, 1967, he ordered his staff "under no circumstances" to offer any information to De Torres. Four days later he wrote at the top of one of De Torres' memos: "His reliability is not established." Garrison was right to be suspicious as he later discovered he was working for the CIA. According to Gaeton Fonzi, de Torres's CIA handler was Paul Bethel. Another researcher, Larry Hancock, has argued that "It certainly appears that De Torres’ role in the Garrison investigation is suspicious, and it supports Otero’s remarks to HSCA investigators that De Torres had ‘penetrated’ Garrison’s investigation. It also shows that De Torres had an agenda of his own in addition to getting intelligence about Garrison’s investigation and investigators. That agenda involved once again shifting attention to Fidel Castro and a Cuban hit team rather than the activities of the Cuban exiles."

Garrison eventually became convinced that a group of right-wing activists, including Guy Banister, David Ferrie, Carlos Bringuier, Eladio del Valle and Clay Shaw were involved in a conspiracy with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to kill John F. Kennedy. Garrison claimed this was in retaliation for his attempts to obtain a peace settlement in both Cuba and Vietnam.

On 17th February, 1967, The New Orleans States-Item reported that Garrison was investigating the assassination of Kennedy. It also said that one of the suspects was David Ferrie. Five days later Ferrie's body was found in his New Orleans apartment. Although two suicide notes were found, the coroner did not immediately classify the death as a suicide, noting there were indications Ferrie may have suffered a brain hemorrhage.

Garrison immediately announced that Ferrie had been a part of the Kennedy conspiracy. "The apparent suicide of David Ferrie ends the life of a man who in my judgment was one of history's most important individuals. Evidence developed by our office had long since confirmed that he was involved in events culminating in the assassination of President Kennedy... We have not mentioned his name publicly up to this point. The unique nature of this case now leaves me no other course of action." Garrison added that he was making preparations to arrest Ferrie when they heard of his death. "Apparently, we waited too long."

Another suspect, Eladio del Valle, was found dead in a Miami parking lot twelve hours after Ferrie's was discovered in New Orleans. Police reported that de Valle had been tortured, shot in the heart at point-blank range, and his skull split open with an axe. His murder has never been solved. Diego Gonzales Tendera, a close friend, later claimed de Valle was murdered because of his involvement in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. A senior member of the Cuban Secret Service, Fabian Escalante, agreed: "In 1962 Eladio Del Valle tried to infiltrate Cuba with a commando group of 22 men but their boat had an English key - a little island. In the middle of 1962. Of course, we knew this. I tell you about this, because one of our agents who was one of the people helping to bring this group to Cuba, was a man of very little education. They talked English on many occasions on this little island with Eladio Del Valle told this person, on many occasions, that Kennedy must be killed to solve the Cuban problem. After that we had another piece of information on Eladio Del Valle. This was offered to us by Tony Cuesta. He told us that Eladio Del Valle was one of the people involved in the assassination plot against Kennedy."

A week after the death of David Ferrie Garrison announced the arrest of Clay Shaw. He was 54 years old and a retired businessman. John J. McCloy, a former member of the Warren Commission, was asked by a journalist what he thought about the Garrison investigation. He replied that the Warren Commission had always known that new evidence in the case might turn up. "We did not say that Oswald acted alone. We said we could find no credible evidence that he acted with anyone else."

Ramsay Clark, the new Attorney General stated that the FBI had already investigated and cleared Shaw "in November and December of 1963" of "any part in the assassination". As Garrison pointed out: "However, the statement that Shaw, whose name appears nowhere in the 26 volumes of the Warren Commission, had been investigated by the federal government was intriguing. If Shaw had no connection to the assassination, I wondered, why had he been investigated?" Within a few days of this statement Clark had to admit that he had published inaccurate information and that no investigation of Shaw had taken place.

As part of Garrison's attempt to prove the existence of a conspiracy, he subpoenaed the Zapruder Film from Time-Life Corporation. The company refused and they fought this subpoena all the way to the Supreme Court, which finally ruled that the corporation had to hand over the film. As Jim Marrs has pointed out: "Time-Life grudgingly turned over to Garrison a somewhat blurry copy of the film - but that was enough. Soon, thanks to the copying efforts of Garrison's staff, bootleg Zapruder films were in the hands of several assassination researchers."

In May, 1967 Hugh Aynesworth published a critical article of Garrison in Newsweek: "Garrison's tactics have been even more questionable than his case. I have evidence that one of the strapping D.A.'s investigators offered an unwilling "witness" $3,000 and a job with an airline - if only he would "fill in the facts" of the alleged meeting to plot the death of the President. I also know that when the D.A.'s office learned that this entire bribery attempt had been tape-recorded, two of Garrison's men returned to the "witness" and, he says, threatened him with physical harm."

Garrison later responded to Aynesworth's claims: "As for the $3,000 bribe, by the time I came across Aynesworth's revelation, the witness our office had supposedly offered it to, Alvin Babeouf, had admitted to us that it never happened. Aynesworth, of course, never explained what he did with the "evidence" allegedly in his possession. And the so-called bribery tape recording had not, in fact, ever existed."

In September, 1967, Richard Billings told Garrison that Life Magazine was no longer willing to work with him in the investigation. Billings claimed that this was because he had come to the conclusion that he had links to organized crime. Soon afterwards, Life began a smear campaign against Garrison. It was reported that Garrison had been given money by an unnamed "New Orleans mobster".

In Shaw's trial Perry Russo claimed that in September, 1963, he overheard Clay Shaw and David Ferrie discussing the proposed assassination of John F. Kennedy. It was suggested that the crime could be blamed on Fidel Castro. Russo's testimony was discredited by the revelation that he underwent hypnosis and had been administered sodium pentathol, or "truth serum," at the request of the prosecution. It claimed that Russo only came up with a link between Shaw, Ferrie and Oswald after these treatments. Shaw was eventually found not guilty of conspiring to assassinate Kennedy.

In 1973 Garrison lost the office to Harry Connick. After leaving his post as district attorney Garrison wrote a book about his investigations of the Kennedy assassination, On the Trail of the Assassins (1988). Carl Oglesby summarized Garrison's theory as follows:

(a) Rabidly anti-Communist elements of the C.I.A.'s operations division, often moving through extra-governmental channels, were deeply involved at the top of the assassination planning and management process and appear to have been the makers of the decision to kill the President.

(b) The conspiracy was politically motivated. Its purpose was to stop J.F.K.'s movement toward détente in the Cold War, and it succeeded in doing that. It must therefore be regarded as a palace coup d'etat.

Several researchers were highly critical of the methods that Garrison used in his investigation. Sylvia Meagher wrote: "As the Garrison investigation continued to unfold, I had increasingly serious misgivings about the validity of his evidence, and the scrupulousness of his methods." Anthony Summers was surprised that Oliver Stone decided to base his film JFK on Garrison's work: "From a vast array of scholarship, he picked a book by Jim Garrison, former District Attorney of New Orleans, as his main source work. Garrison, many will recall, is a strange figure - considered crazy by some, and crooked by others."

Jim Garrison died on 21st October, 1992.

Jim Garrison eventually became convinced that a group of right-wing activists, including Ferrie, Guy Banister, Carlos Bringuier, Eladio del Valle and Clay Shaw were involved in a conspiracy with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to kill John F. Kennedy. Garrison claimed this was in retaliation for his attempts to obtain a peace settlement in both Cuba and Vietnam.

Title: "Warrant Report: The Philosophical Analysis of 'The Warrant Report' by Bertrand Russell, Josiah Thompson, and Richard Popkin."

Abstract:

"The official version of the assassination of President Kennedy has been so riddled with contradictions that it has been abandoned and rewritten no less than three times. Blatant fabrications have received very widespread coverage by the mass media, but denials of these same lies have gone unpublished. Photographs, evidence, and affidavits have been doctored out of recognition." (From Bertrand Russell's "Sixteen Questions on the Assassination.")

It is a remarkable fact that three of the earliest and most influential critics of the Warren Commission's Report on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy were professional philosophers. Bertrand Russell, in early 1964, organized the "Who Killed Kennedy Committee", and befriended Mark Lane, author of the first serious critique of the Warrant Report, Rush to Judgment; Josiah Thompson, an assistant professor of philosophy at Haverford College, in 1965 wrote Seven Seconds in Dallas, which postulated the existence of a second gunman in the Dealey Plaza in Dallas; and Richard Popkin, the foremost authority on philosophical skepticism, in 1966 wrote The Second Oswald, which showed, using only the Warren Report itself as evidence, that there must have been at least two Lee Harvey Oswalds if all the various stories told by witnesses were to somehow make sense.

These three philosophers, because of their reputable standing, played a significant role in causing the American public to doubt the findings of the Warren Report, but they also experienced their own strange tales due to their advocacy. Russell became intimately involved with the controversial Lane, whose accusations against the U.S. Government became shriller and stranger as the years went on; Thompson ended up abandoning academic philosophy altogether and became a private detective, applying his Wittgensteinian training to become a philosophical investigator of cheating spouses; and Popkin suffered a nervous breakdown after becoming convinced that he had discovered the true assassins of JFK zombies trained to kill by the Central Intelligence Agency.

The influence of these three men came together in the Oliver Stone film JFK, which attempted to make a coherent story out of their disparate (and mutually exclusive) hypotheses as to who killed Kennedy. In this paper, I will describe the philosophical analyses each made of the Warren Report, and compare them to the defense of the Report as given in Gerald Posner's book Case Closed. Forty years after the tragic event of November 22, 1963, the controversy sparked by these philosophical investigations seems no closer to being solved to everyone's satisfaction.

https://lehman.edu/faculty/rcarey/brs_am/abstracts2003.html

http://22november1963.org.uk/bertrand-russell-16-questions-on-the-assassination

16 Questions on the Assassination

By Bertrand Russell

[Originally published in: The Minority of One, 6 September 1964, pp.6–8.]

The official version of the assassination of President Kennedy has been so riddled with contradictions that it is been abandoned and rewritten no less than three times. Blatant fabrications have received very widespread coverage by the mass media, but denials of these same lies have gone unpublished. Photographs, evidence and affidavits have been doctored out of recognition. Some of the most important aspects of the case against Lee Harvey Oswald have been completely blacked out. Meanwhile, the F.B.I., the police and the Secret Service have tried to silence key witnesses or instruct them what evidence to give. Others involved have disappeared or died in extraordinary circumstances.

It is facts such as these that demand attention, and which the Warren Commission should have regarded as vital. Although I am writing before the publication of the Warren Commission’s report, leaks to the press have made much of its contents predictable. Because of the high office of its members and the fact of its establishment by President Johnson, the Commission has been widely regarded as a body of holy men appointed to pronounce the truth. An impartial examination of the composition and conduct of the Commission suggests quite otherwise.

1: Membership of the Warren Commission

The Warren Commission has been utterly unrepresentative of the American people. It consisted of:

two Democrats, Senator Russell of Georgia and Congressman Boggs of Louisiana, both of whose racist views have brought shame on the United States;
two Republicans, Senator Cooper of Kentucky and Congressman Gerald R. Ford of Michigan, the latter of whom is a leader of his local Goldwater movement and an associate of the F.B.I.;
Allen Dulles, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency,
and Mr. McCloy, who has been referred to as the spokesman for the business community.

Leadership of the filibuster in the Senate against the Civil Rights Bill prevented Senator Russell from attending hearings during the period. The Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, Earl Warren, who rightly commands respect, was finally persuaded, much against his will, to preside over the Commission, and it was his involvement above all else that helped lend the Commission an aura of legality and authority. Yet many of its members were also members of those very groups which have done so much to distort and suppress the facts about the assassination. Because of their connection with the Government, not one member would have been permitted under U.S. law to serve on a jury had Oswald faced trial. It is small wonder that the Chief Justice himself remarked that the release of some of the Commission’s information “might not be in your lifetime.” Here, then, is my first question: Why were all the members of the Warren Commission closely connected with the U.S. Government?

2 and 3: Conduct and Official Secrecy

If the composition of the Commission was suspect, its conduct confirmed one’s worst fears. No counsel was permitted to act for Oswald, so that cross–examination was barred. Later, under pressure, the Commission appointed the President of the American Bar Association, Walter Craig, one of the supporters of the Goldwater movement in Arizona, to represent Oswald. To my knowledge, he did not attend hearings, but satisfied himself with representation by observers.

In the name of national security, the Commission’s hearings were held in secret, thereby continuing the policy which has marked the entire course of the case. This prompts my second question: If, as we are told, Oswald was the lone assassin, where is the issue of national security? Indeed, precisely the same question must be put here as was posed in France during the Dreyfus case: If the Government is so certain of its case, why has it conducted all its inquiries in the strictest secrecy?

4: The Crucial Question Was Not Asked

At the outset the Commission appointed six panels through which it would conduct its enquiry. They considered:

What did Oswald do on November 22, 1963?
What was Oswald’s background?
What did Oswald do in the U.S. Marine Corps, and in the Soviet Union?
How did Ruby kill Oswald?
What is Ruby’s background?
What efforts were taken to protect the President on November 22?

This raises my fourth question: Why did the Warren Commission not establish a panel to deal with the question of who killed President Kennedy?

5: Challenging the Commission

All the evidence given to the Commission has been classified “Top Secret,” including even a request that hearings be held in public. Despite this the Commission itself leaked much of the evidence to the press, though only if the evidence tended to prove Oswald the lone assassin. Thus, Chief Justice Warren held a press conference after Oswald’s wife, Marina, had testified. He said that she believed her husband was the assassin. Before Oswald’s brother Robert testified, he gained the Commission’s agreement not to comment on what he said. After he had testified for two days, the newspapers were full of stories that “a member of the Commission” had told the press that Robert Oswald had just testified that he believed that his brother was an agent of the Soviet Union. Robert Oswald was outraged by this, and he said that he could not remain silent while lies were told about his testimony. He had never said this and he had never believed it. All that he had told the Commission was that he believed his brother was innocent and was in no way involved in the assassination.

The methods adopted by the Commission have indeed been deplorable, but it is important to challenge the entire role of the Warren Commission. It stated that it would not conduct its own investigation, but rely instead on the existing governmental agencies — the F.B.I., the Secret Service and the Dallas police. Confidence in the Warren Commission thus presupposes confidence in these three institutions. Why have so many liberals abandoned their own responsibility to a Commission whose circumstances they refuse to examine?

6: Oswald the Subversive

It is known that the strictest and most elaborate security precautions ever taken for a President of the United States were ordered for November 22 in Dallas. The city had a reputation for violence and was the home of some of the most extreme right–wing fanatics in America. Mr. and Mrs. Lyndon Johnson had been assailed there in 1960 when he was a candidate for the Vice–Presidency. Adlai Stevenson had been physically attacked when he spoke in the city only a month before Kennedy’s visit. On the morning of November 22, the Dallas Morning News carried a full–page advertisement associating the President with Communism. The city was covered with posters showing the President’s picture and headed “Wanted for Treason.” The Dallas list of subversives comprised 23 names, of which Oswald’s was the first. All of them were followed that day, except Oswald. Why did the authorities follow many persons as potential assassins and fail to observe Oswald’s entry into the book depository building while allegedly carrying a rifle over three feet long?

7: The Route of the Motorcade

The President’s route for his drive through Dallas was widely known and was printed in the Dallas Morning News on November 22. At the last minute the Secret Service changed a small part of their plans so that the President left Main Street and turned into Houston and Elm Streets. This alteration took the President past the book depository building from which it is alleged that Oswald shot him. How Oswald is supposed to have known of this change has never been explained. Why was the President’s route changed at the last minute to take him past Oswald’s place of work?

8: Changing the Evidence

After the assassination and Oswald’s arrest, judgment was pronounced swiftly: Oswald was the assassin, and he had acted alone. No attempt was made to arrest others, no road blocks were set up round the area, and every piece of evidence which tended to incriminate Oswald was announced to the press by the Dallas District Attorney, Mr. Wade. In such a way millions of people were prejudiced against Oswald before there was any opportunity for him to be brought to trial. The first theory announced by the authorities was that the President’s car was in Houston Street, approaching the book depository building, when Oswald opened fire. When available photographs and eyewitnesses had shown this to be quite untrue, the theory was abandoned and a new one formulated which placed the vehicle in its correct position. Meanwhile, however, D.A. Wade had announced that three days after Oswald’s room in Dallas had been searched, a map had been found there on which the book depository building had been circled and dotted lines drawn from the building to a vehicle on Houston Street, showing the alleged bullet trajectory had been planned in advance. After the first theory was proved false, the Associated Press put out the following story on November 27: “Dallas authorities announced today that there never was a map.”

The second theory correctly placed the President’s car on Elm Street, 50 to 75 yards past the book depository, but had to contend with the difficulty that the President was shot from the front, in the throat. How did Oswald manage to shoot the President in the front from behind? The F.B.I. held a series of background briefing sessions for Life magazine, which in its issue of December 6 explained that the President had turned completely round just at the time he was shot. This too, was soon shown to be entirely false. It was denied by several witnesses and films, and the previous issue of Life itself had shown the President looking forward as he was hit. Theory number two was abandoned.

In order to retain the basis of all official thinking, that Oswald was the lone assassin, it now became necessary to construct a third theory with the medical evidence altered to fit it. For the first month no Secret Service agent had ever spoken to the three doctors who had tried to save Kennedy’s life in the Parkland Memorial Hospital. Now two agents spent three hours with the doctors and persuaded them that they were all misinformed: the entrance wound in the President’s throat had been an exit wound, and the bullet had not ranged down towards the lungs. Asked by the press how they could have been so mistaken, Dr. McClelland advanced two reasons:

they had not seen the autopsy report
and they had not known that Oswald was behind the President!

The autopsy report, they had been told by the Secret Service, showed that Kennedy had been shot from behind. The agents, however, had refused to show the report to the doctors, who were entirely dependent on the word of the Secret Service for this suggestion. The doctors made it clear that they were not permitted to discuss the case. The third theory, with the medical evidence rewritten, remains the basis of the case against Oswald at this moment. Why has the medical evidence concerning the President’s death been altered out of recognition?

9: Shots From the Front and Behind

Although Oswald is alleged to have shot the President from behind, there are many witnesses who are confident that the shots came from the front. Among them are two reporters from the Forth Worth Star Telegram, four from the Dallas Morning News, and two people who were standing in front of the book depository building itself, the director of the book depository and the vice–president of the firm. It appears that only two people immediately entered the building: the director, Mr. Roy S. Truly, and a Dallas police officer, Seymour Weitzman. Both thought that the shots had come from in front of the President’s vehicle. On first running in that direction, Weitzman was informed by “someone” that he thought the shots had come from the building, so he rushed back there. Truly entered with him in order to assist with his knowledge of the building. Mr. Jesse Curry, the Chief of Police in Dallas, has stated that he was immediately convinced that the shots came from the building. If anyone else believes this, he has been reluctant to say so to date. It is also known that the first bulletin to go out on Dallas police radios stated that “the shots came from a triple overpass in front of the presidential automobile.” In addition, there is the consideration that after the first shot the vehicle was brought almost to a halt by the trained Secret Service driver, an unlikely response if the shots had indeed come from behind. Certainly Mr. Roy Kellerman, who was in charge of the Secret Service operation in Dallas that day, and travelled in the presidential car, looked to the front as the shots were fired. The Secret Service has had all the evidence removed from the car, so it is no longer possible to examine it. What is the evidence to substantiate the allegation that the President was shot from behind?

10: Withholding Photographs

Photographs taken at the scene of the crime could be most helpful. One young lady standing just to the left of the presidential car as the shots were fired took photographs of the vehicle just before and during the shooting, and was thus able to get into her picture the entire front of the book depository building. Two F.B.I. agents immediately took the film which she took. Why has the F.B.I. refused to publish what could be the most reliable piece of evidence in the whole case?

11: Fraudulent Evidence

In this connection it is noteworthy also that it is impossible to obtain the originals of photographs bearing upon the case. When Time magazine published a photograph of Oswald’s arrest —the only one ever seen — the entire background was blacked out for reasons which have never been explained. It is difficult to recall an occasion for so much falsification of photographs as has happened in the Oswald case.

The affidavit by Police Office Weitzman, who entered the book depository building, stated that he found the alleged murder rifle on the sixth floor. (It was first announced that the rifle had been found on the fifth floor, but this was soon altered.) It was a German 7.65 mm. Mauser. Late the following day, the F.B.I. issued its first proclamation. Oswald had purchased in March 1963 an Italian 6.5 mm. Mannlicher–Carcano. D.A. Wade immediately altered the nationality and size of the weapon to conform to the F.B.I. statement.

Several photographs have been published of the alleged murder weapon. On February 21, Life magazine carried on its cover a picture of “Lee Oswald with the weapons he used to kill President Kennedy and Officer Tippitt [sic].” On page 80, Life explained that the photograph was taken during March or April of 1963. According to the F.B.I., Oswald purchased his pistol in September 1963. The New York Times carried a picture of the alleged murder weapon being taken by police into the Dallas police station. The rifle is quite different. Experts have stated that no rifle resembling the one in the Life picture has even been manufactured. The New York Times also carried the same photograph as Life, but left out the telescopic sights. On March 2, Newsweek used the same photograph but painted in an entirely new rifle. Then on April 13 the Latin American edition of Life carried the same picture on its cover as the U.S. edition had on February 21, but in the same issue on page 18 it had the same picture with the rifle altered. How is it that millions of people have been misled by complete forgeries in the press?

The authorities interrogated Oswald for nearly 48 hours without allowing him to contact a lawyer, despite his repeated requests to do so. The director of the F.B.I. in Dallas was a man with considerable experience. American Civil Liberties Union lawyers were in Dallas requesting to see Oswald and were not allowed to do so. By interrogating Oswald for 48 hours without access to lawyers, the F.B.I. created conditions which made a trial of Oswald more difficult. A confession or evidence obtained from a man held 48 hours in custody is likely to be inadmissible in a U.S. court of law. The F.B.I. director conducted his interrogation in a manner which made the use of material secured in such a fashion worthless to him. This raises the question of whether he expected the trial to take place.

Another falsehood concerning the shooting was a story circulated by the Associated Press on November 23 from Los Angeles. This reported Oswald’s former superior officer in the Marine Corps as saying that Oswald was a crack shot and a hot–head. The story was published widely. Three hours later AP sent out a correction deleting the entire story from Los Angeles. The officer had checked his records and it had turned out that he was talking about another man. He had never known Oswald. To my knowledge the correction has yet to be published by a single major publication.

12: Distorting the Scientific Evidence

The Dallas police took a paraffin test on Oswald’s face and hands to try to establish that he had fired a weapon on November 22. The Chief of the Dallas Police, Jesse Curry, announced on November 23 that the result of the test “proves Oswald is the assassin.” The Director of the F.B.I. in the Dallas–Fort Worth area in charge of the investigation stated: “I have seen the paraffin test. The paraffin test proves that Oswald had nitrates and gunpowder on his hands and face. It proves he fired a rifle on November 22.” Not only does this unreliable test not prove any such thing, it was later discovered that the test on Oswald’s face was in fact negative, suggesting that it was unlikely he fired a rifle that day. Why was the result of the paraffin test altered before being announced by the authorities?

13: Description of Tippit’s Killer

Oswald, it will be recalled, was originally arrested and charged with the murder of Patrolman Tippitt. Tippitt was killed at 1:06 p.m. on November 22 by a man who first engaged him in conversation, then caused him to get out of the stationary police car in which he was sitting and shot him with a pistol. Miss Helen L. Markham, who states that she is the sole eye–witness to this crime, gave the Dallas police a description of the assailant. After signing her affidavit, she was instructed by the F.B.I., the Secret Service and many police officers that she was not permitted to discuss the case with anyone. The affidavit’s only description of the killer was that he was a “young white man.” Miss Markham later revealed that the killer had run right up to her and past her, brandishing the pistol, and she repeated the description of the murderer which she had given to the police. He was, she said, “short, a little heavy, and had somewhat bushy hair.” (The police description of Oswald was that he was of average height, or a little taller, was slim and had receding fair hair.) Miss Markham’s affidavit is the entire case against Oswald for the murder of Patrolman Tippitt, yet District Attorney Wade asserted: “We have more evidence to prove Oswald killed Tippit than we have to show he killed the President.” The case against Oswald for the murder of Tippitt, he continued, was an absolutely strong case. Why was the only description of Tippitt’s killer deliberately omitted by the police from the affidavit of the sole eye–witness?

14: Timing of the Police Broadcast

Oswald’s description was broadcast by the Dallas police only 12 minutes after the President was shot. This raises one of the most extraordinary questions ever posed in a murder case: Why was Oswald’s description in connection with the murder of Patrolman Tippitt broadcast over Dallas police radio at 12:43 p.m. on November 22, when Tippitt was not shot until 1:06 p.m.?

15: Treatment of Witnesses

According to Mr. Bob Considine, writing in the New York Journal American, there had been another person who had heard the shots that were fired at Tippitt. Warren Reynolds had heard shooting in the street from a nearby room and had rushed to the window to see the murderer run off. Reynolds himself was later shot through the head by a rifleman. A man was arrested for this crime but produced an alibi. His girl–friend, Betty Mooney McDonald, told the police she had been with him at the time Reynolds was shot, according to Mr. Considine. The Dallas police immediately dropped the charges, even before Reynolds had time to recover consciousness, and attempt to identify his assailant. The man at once disappeared, and two days later the police arrested Betty Mooney McDonald on a minor charge and it was announced that she had hanged herself in the police cell. She had been a striptease artist in Jack Ruby’s nightclub, according to Mr. Considine.

Another witness to receive extraordinary treatment in the Oswald case was his wife, Marina. She was taken to the jail while her husband was still alive and shown a rifle by Chief of Police Jesse Curry. Asked if it were Oswald’s, she replied that she believed Oswald had a rifle but that it didn’t look like that. She and her mother–in–law were in great danger following the assassination because of the threat of public revenge on them. At this time they were unable to obtain a single police officer to protect them. Immediately after Oswald was killed, however, the Secret service illegally held both women against their will. After three days they were separated and Marina has never again been accessible to the public. Held in custody for nine weeks and questioned almost daily by the F.B.I. and Secret Service, she finally testified to the Warren Commission and, according to Earl Warren, said that she believed her husband was the assassin. The Chief Justice added that the next day they intended to show Mrs. Oswald the murder weapon and the Commission was fairly confident that she would identify it as her husband’s. The following day it was announced that this had indeed happened. Mrs. Oswald, we are informed, is still in the custody of the Secret Service. To isolate a witness for nine weeks and to subject her to repeated questioning by the Secret Service in this manner is reminiscent of police behavior in other countries, where it is called brainwashing. The only witness produced to show that Oswald carried a rifle before the assassination stated that he saw a brown paper parcel about two feet long in the back seat of Oswald’s car. The rifle which the police “produced” was almost 3½ feet long. How was it possible for Earl Warren to forecast that Marina Oswald’s evidence would be exactly the reverse of what she had previously testified?

16: Altering the Evidence

After Ruby had killed Oswald, D.A. Wade made a statement about Oswald’s movements following the assassination. He explained that Oswald had taken a bus, but he described the point at which Oswald had entered the vehicle as seven blocks away from the point located by the bus driver in his affidavit. Oswald, Wade continued, then took a taxi driven by a Daryll Click, who had signed an affidavit. An inquiry at the City Transportation Company revealed that no such taxi driver had ever existed in Dallas. Presented with this evidence, Wade altered the driver’s name to William Whaley. The driver’s log book showed that a man answering Oswald’s description had been picked up at 12:30. The President was shot at 12:31. D.A. Wade made no mention of this. Wade has been D.A. in Dallas for 14 years and before that was an F.B.I. agent. How does a District Attorney of Wade’s great experience account for all the extraordinary changes in evidence and testimony which he has announced during the Oswald case?

These are only a few of the questions raised by the official versions of the assassination and by the way in which the entire case against Oswald has been conducted. Sixteen questions are no substitute for a full examination of all the factors in this case, but I hope that they indicate the importance of such an investigation. I am indebted to Mr. Mark Lane, the New York criminal lawyer who was appointed counsel for Oswald by his mother, for much of the information in this article. Mr. Lane’s enquiries, which are continuing, deserve widespread support. A Citizen’s Committee of Inquiry has been established in New York, at Room 422, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York. N.Y. (telephone YU9-6850) for such a purpose, and comparable committees are being set up in Europe.

In Britain, I invited people eminent in the intellectual life of the country to join a “Who Killed Kennedy Committee,” which at the moment of writing consists of the following people:

Mr. John Arden, playwright;
Mrs. Carolyn Wedgwood Benn, from Cincinnati, wife of Anthony Wedgwood Benn, M.P.;
Lord Boyd–Orr, former director–general of the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization and a Nobel Peace Prize winner;
Mr. John Calder, publisher;
Professor William Empson, Professor of English Literature at Sheffield University;
Mr. Victor Golancz, publisher;
Mr. Michael Foot, Member of Parliament;
Mr. Kingsley Martin, former editor of the New Statesman;
Sir Compton Mackenzie, writer;
Mr. J.B. Priestley, playwright and author;
Sir Herbert Read, art critic;
Mr. Tony Richardson, film director;
Dr. Mervyn Stockwood, Bishop of Southwark;
Professor Hugh Trevor-Roper, Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford University;
Mr. Kenneth Tynan, Literary Manager of the National Theatre;
and myself.

We view the problem with the utmost seriousness. U.S. Embassies have long ago reported to Washington world–wide disbelief in the official charges against Oswald, but this has scarcely been reflected by the American press. No U.S. television program or mass circulation newspaper has challenged the permanent basis of all the allegations — that Oswald was the assassin, and that he acted alone. It is a task which is left to the American people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Lane_(author)

Last Word My Indictment of the CIA in the Murder of JFK

After the Kennedy murder, Lane devoted much of the next three decades to its investigation. Almost immediately he began the Citizens’ Committee of Inquiry, interviewed witnesses, collected evidence and delivered speeches on the assassination in the United States and in Europe, where he befriended Bertrand Russell, the British philosopher, and one of his early supporters.

By the time President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination, Lane had emerged as one of its important independent experts. He testified to the commission in 1964 and served as a legal counsel to Marguerite Oswald, the suspect’s mother.

In August 1966, Lane published the results of his inquiry in ‘‘Rush to Judgment,’’ his first book, which dominated best-seller lists for two years. With a trial lawyer’s capacity to amass facts, and a storyteller’s skill in distilling them into a coherent narrative, Lane asserted that the Warren Commission’s conclusion that Oswald was the lone gunman was incomplete, reckless at times, and implausible.

He coined the term ‘‘grassy knoll’’ to describe a green expanse of Dealey Plaza in Dallas that Lane argued was the source of several of the shots fired at the president.

The book raised doubts about Oswald’s marksmanship and the expertise of police agencies. And he sought to ridicule the Warren Commission’s conclusion that one ‘‘magic bullet’’ could strike and grievously injure Kennedy and Gov. John Connally and still emerge essentially intact.

...

Now, New York Times best-selling author Mark Lane tells all in this explosive new book-with exclusive new interviews, sworn testimony, and meticulous new research (including interviews with Oliver Stone, Dallas Police deputy sheriffs, Robert K. Tanenbaum, and Abraham Bolden) Lane finds out first hand exactly what went on the day JFK was assassinated. Lane includes sworn statements given to the Warren Commission by a police officer who confronted a man who he thought was the assassin. The officer testified that he drew his gun and pointed it at the suspect who showed Secret Service ID. Yet, the Secret Service later reported that there were no Secret Service agents on foot in Dealey Plaza.

The Last Word proves that the CIA, operating through a secret small group, prepared all credentials for Secret Service agents in Dallas for the two days that Kennedy was going to be there-conclusive evidence of the CIA’s involvement in the assassination.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Giancana

According to some sources, Giancana and the Mafia were involved in John F. Kennedy's victory in the 1960 presidential election. During the 1960s, he was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in a plot to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Conspiracy theorists consider Giancana, along with Mafia leaders Santo Trafficante Jr. and Carlos Marcello, to be associated with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. In 1965, Giancana was convicted of contempt of court, serving one year in prison. After his release from prison, Giancana fled to Cuernavaca, Mexico. In 1974, he was deported to the United States, returning to Chicago. Giancana was murdered on June 19, 1975, in Oak Park, Illinois, shortly before he was scheduled to appear before the Church Committee.

Alleged CIA connections

It is widely reputed and was partially corroborated by the Church Committee hearings that during the Kennedy administration, the CIA recruited Giancana and other mobsters to assassinate Fidel Castro. Giancana reportedly said that CIA and the Cosa Nostra were "different sides of the same coin".^[21]

Judith Exner claimed to be the mistress of both Giancana and JFK, and that she delivered communications between them about Castro.^[22] Giancana's daughter Antoinette has stated that her father was performing a scam to pocket millions of CIA dollars.^[23]

Documents released in 1997 revealed that some Mafiosi worked with CIA on assassination attempts against Castro.^[24] CIA documents released in 2007 confirmed that in September 1960, the CIA recruited ex-FBI agent Robert Maheu to meet with the West Coast representative of the Chicago mob, Johnny Roselli. When Maheu contacted Roselli, Maheu hid that he was sent by the CIA, instead portraying himself as an advocate for international corporations. He offered $150,000 to have Castro killed, but Roselli refused any pay. Roselli introduced Maheu to two men he called Sam Gold and Joe. "Sam Gold" was Giancana; "Joe" was Santo Trafficante Jr., the Tampa syndicate boss and one of the most powerful mobsters in prerevolution Cuba.^[25] Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post explained: "After Fidel Castro led a revolution that toppled the government of Fulgencio Batista in 1959, CIA was desperate to eliminate Castro. So, the agency sought out a partner equally worried about Castro—the Mafia, which had lucrative investments in Cuban casinos."^[26]

According to the declassified CIA "Family Jewels" documents, Giancana and Trafficante were contacted in September 1960 about the possibility of an assassination attempt by Maheu after Maheu had contacted Roselli, a Mafia member in Las Vegas and Giancana's number-two man. Maheu had presented himself as a representative of numerous international businesses in Cuba that Castro was expropriating. He offered $150,000 for the "removal" of Castro through this operation, though the documents suggest that neither Roselli, Giancana, nor Trafficante accepted any payment for the job. Giancana suggested using poison pills to dose Castro's food and drink. CIA gave these pills to Giancana's nominee, Juan Orta, whom Giancana presented as a corrupt official in the new Cuban government and who had access to Castro. After six attempts to introduce the poison into Castro's food, Orta abruptly demanded to be relieved of his role in the mission, giving the job to another, unnamed participant. Later, Giancana and Trafficante made a second attempt using Anthony Verona, the commander of the Cuban Exile Junta, who had, according to Trafficante, become "disaffected with the apparent ineffectual progress of the Junta." Verona requested $10,000 in expenses and $1,000 worth of communications equipment. How much work was performed for the second attempt is unknown, as the program was canceled soon after due to the Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961.^[27]^[28]^[29]

According to the "Family Jewels", Giancana asked Maheu to wire the room of his then mistress Phyllis McGuire, singer of the McGuire Sisters, whom he suspected of having an affair with comedian Dan Rowan. Although documents suggest Maheu acquiesced, the device was not planted because the agent who had been given the task of planting it was arrested. According to the documents, Robert F. Kennedy prohibited the prosecution of the agent and Maheu, who was soon linked to the wire attempt, at the CIA's request.^[29] Giancana and McGuire, who had a long-lasting affair, were originally introduced by Frank Sinatra.^[30] According to Antoinette Giancana, during part of the affair, McGuire had a concurrent affair with President Kennedy.^[31]

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