Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy (71 page)

Researcher Gary Mack already had noticed the resemblance of Harrelson
to the youngest tramp. His search led to a review of the strange story of
three "tramps" arrested near Dealey Plaza.

Harrelson was forty-seven years old in 1985, making him twenty-five at
the time of the assassination. This corresponds with the age of the youngest "tramp," who was thought to have been between twenty-five and
thirty years old.

In June 1981, Harrelson was interviewed by Chuck Cook, then a reporter for the Dallas Morning News. In a telephone interview with this
author, Cook recalled:

Because of his statements during his arrest, I felt obligated to ask him
about that. I asked about the Kennedy assassination and he got this sly
grin on his face. Harrelson is very intelligent and has a way of not
answering when it suits him.

Cook said at a later interview he again brought the subject up and that
Harrelson became very serious. Cook quoted Harrelson as saying: "Listen,
if and when I get out of here and feel free to talk, I will have something
that will be the biggest story you ever had."

Cook said when he asked what that story would be, Harrelson would
only reply: "November 22, 1963. You remember that!"

Intrigued with the possibilities, Cook said he later showed photographs
of the three "tramps" to Harrelson's wife, Jo Ann Harrelson, who "was
amazed at the similarities." Cook added:

Then I gave the photos to one of Harrelson's attorneys and he was
supposed to show them to Harrelson. But that's the last I heard of it. He
didn't want to talk about it because he felt his jail cell was bugged, and
rightly so.

It was later revealed that Harrelson's jail conversations were indeed being
monitored.

In an interview with Dallas TV newsman Quin Mathews, Harrelson
offered further comments on the Kennedy assassination. "You said you'd
killed President Kennedy?" commented Matthews. Harrelson replied:

At the same time I said I killed the judge, I said I had killed Kennedy,
which might give you an idea as to the state of my mind at the time .. .
It was an effort to elongate my life . . . Well, do you believe Lee
Harvey Oswald killed President Kennedy alone, without any aid from a
rogue agency of the U.S. Government or at least a portion of that
agency? I believe you are very naive if you do.

Fort Worth graphics expert Jack White, who testified before the House
Select Committee on Assassinations, is convinced that Harrelson is the
youngest of the three "tramps." White told this author: "I have done
various photographic comparison tests and everything matches . . . the
hair, the nose, the ear, the profile. It's Harrelson."

But over and above the comparisons of Harrelson's photograph with that
of the younger "tramp," further evidence indicates Harrelson very well
may have played a role in the assassination.

When arrested, Harrelson was carrying the business card of R. D. Matthews. In subsequent interviews, Harrelson admitted to being a close
friend of Matthews. In fact, Harrelson said he looked up to Matthews as a
father.

Russell Douglas Matthews, a former Dallas underworld character, is
mentioned in the Warren Report, as a "passing acquaintance" of Jack
Ruby and is obliquely connected there with a Ruby-backed jeep sale to
Cuba in 1959.

The House Select Committee on Assassinations indicated Matthews'
relationship with Ruby was more than "passing" and described Matthews
as a man "actively engaged in criminal activity since the 1940s." The
Committee also documented Matthews's connections to Dallas gamblers
Lewis McWillie (close friend to the Kirkwoods of Fort Worth-and
Benny Binion-all closely acquainted with Ruby. The Committee further
developed evidence that Matthews was in contact with associates of Florida crime chieftain Santos Trafficante and was linked to Texas underworld
characters such as Hollis de Lois Green, Jettie Bass, Nick Cascio, and
James Todd, all acquaintances of Harrelson's.

In a strange sidelight, Matthews was best man at the wedding of a
Dallas underworld character named George McGann to Beverly Oliver.
Oliver, a friend to both Ruby and several of his employees, was in Dealey
Plaza filming the Kennedy motorcade at the time of the assassination and
became known to researchers as the "babushka lady".

The former chief counsel of the House Committee, G. Robert Blakey, in
his book The Plot to Kill the President, reiterated the Committee's findings
that Kennedy was assassinated as the result of a conspiracy and that more
than one gunman was involved. Then Blakey went even further, stating
that evidence compiled by the Committee indicated that organized crime
played a major part in that conspiracy.

If organized crime in Dallas was involved-and Ruby's role would seem
to justify that conclusion-then the entire spectrum of the Dallas underworld becomes suspect. And we come back to young Charles Harrelson.

But there is evidence that Harrelson's contacts went far beyond Dallas
police characters. Indicted along with Harrelson in the plot to kill Judge
Wood was the brother of reputed New Orleans crime boss Carlos Marcello,
another of the organized-crime figures named by the House Select Committee on Assassinations as possibly involved in the Kennedy assassination
conspiracy.

And then came the revelation of Harrelson's involvement with criminals
connected to intelligence agencies and even the military.

In April 1982, Harrelson was identified by Florida law-enforcement
officials as being a member of a shadowy group of hired gunmen, mercenaries, and drug smugglers known as "The Company."

The Company, which according to lawmen took its name from the CIA,
involved more than three hundred persons, many ex-police or ex-military
men. During one criminal trial involving members of the group, federal prosecutors claimed The Company owned more than $30 million in assets
such as planes, ships, and real estate.

Federal drug agents said the group imported billions of dollars' worth of
narcotics from Central and South America as well as conducting gunrunning and mercenary operations.

Florida lawmen investigating this group claimed Harrelson was a member and that Jimmy Chagra, the man who allegedly hired Harrelson to kill
the judge, also once hired The Company for protection.

Oddly enough, the very day that Harrelson was formally charged with
the Judge Wood assassination-April 16, 1982-a Dallas news reporter
and a JFK assassination researcher were scheduled to meet with Harrelson
to discuss his role in the Kennedy murder. Although Harrelson had been
jailed for more than a year and a half, when the formal charges were filed,
all visits to him were canceled. JFK researcher and author J. Gary Shaw
claimed: "I feel this was done at that particular time to prevent Harrelson
from revealing what he knows."

During Harrelson's trial, Joe Chagra, brother of Jimmy, testified that
Harrelson got the Wood contract after telling his brother that he had
participated in the JFK assassination. (Researchers find it most revealing
that a man reputed to be a high-ranking mobster by government agents
should hire Harrelson on this claim rather than boot him out of his
office-since everyone had been told the assassination was caused by only
a lone nut.)

Harrelson, now serving a life sentence after being convicted of the
Wood assassination, has not been interviewed recently about his role in
Dallas, so researchers are left only with his cryptic reminder: "November
22, 1963. You remember that!"

The "three tramps" were not the only persons arrested on the day of the
assassination. More than a dozen people were taken into custody, and it
will forever remain puzzling that few records were kept on any of them. It
seems that once Oswald was captured, the authorities totally lost interest in
anyone else.

A Catholic priest told this author of observing the arrest of a young man
wearing a three-piece suit and gloves who was then escorted from the
Texas School Book Depository to the Dallas Sheriff's Office. He said he
overheard the arresting officers say, "Well, we got one of them." There is
no record of such an arrest.

Assassination witness Phil Willis told researchers that shortly after the
shooting, police escorted a man in a black leather jacket and black gloves
from the Dal-Tex Building-which lies directly east of the Depository and
the building several researchers believe shots may have come from. Again
there is no record of such an arrest. This man may have been Larry Florer,
who was arrested in the Dal-Tex Building. In a statement to authorities, Florer said he tried to use a telephone in the Dal-Tex Building but found they
were all busy. He was taken into custody as he tried to leave the building.

Another man arrested in the Dal-Tex Building was a Mafia-connected
police character with a record of more than thirty arrests.

Moments after the assassination, an elevator operator in the Dal-Tex
Building noticed a man he did not recognize. The operator summoned
Deputy Sheriff C. L. "Lummie" Lewis, who arrested the man. He
identified himself as Jim Braden.

Taken to the Sheriff's Office for questioning, Braden said he was
visiting Dallas on oil business and was staying at the Cabana Motel (a
motor inn built with Teamster money) on Stemmons Expressway. He said
he had entered the Dal-Tex Building to use the telephone when he was
taken into custody.

With no information to the contrary, authorities released Braden three
hours later. It was an unfortunate decision. What is now known is that
Braden had recently legally changed his name from Eugene Hale Brading.
If the authorities had obtained that name on November 22, 1963, there
perhaps would have been more interest in the man. Braden/Brading was a
man with a police record stretching back to 1934 for such crimes as
burglary, embezzlement, mail fraud, and conspiracy, including several
arrests in Dallas.

Braden's story, which had been pieced together over the years by a
variety of researchers and newsmen, indicates this man may have been
more deeply involved in the assassination than was first suspected. On
parole for mail fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property,
Braden had informed his parole officer that he would be in Dallas from
November 21 to 25, 1963. He said on November 21, 1963, he visited the
offices of Texas oilman H. L. Hunt to meet with Hunt's son, Lamar.
Interestingly, Jack Ruby also was at the Hunt offices about that same time,
ostensibly to help a young woman get a job. (Both Braden and Ruby
denied these visits although they have been verified by more than one
office worker.)

And Braden, along with ex-convict Morgan Brown, was staying at the
Cabana Motel, the same motel visited by Ruby the night of November 21.

Furthermore, in a book entitled Legacy of Doubt, CBS newsman Peter
Noyes documented Braden's connections to a number of underworld figures, including Meyer Lansky. Apparently Braden was known as a Mafia
courier.

Most sinister of all, Braden may have been in contact with the New
Orleans Mafia-CIA man, David Ferrie, Lee Harvey Oswald's former Civil
Air Patrol leader.

Noyes found that in the weeks immediately preceding the assassination,
Braden was in and out of Room 1701 of the Pere Marquette Building in
New Orleans, just down the hall from Room 1707, where Ferrie was
working for an attorney of Mafia boss Carlos Marcello.

Another fascinating connection between Braden and the assassination
concerns two New York businessmen, Lawrence and Edward Meyers.
Lawrence Meyers was a personal friend of Jack Ruby. On November
20-21, 1963, Meyers also was staying at the Cabana Motel in Dallas.
While in Dallas, Meyers told the FBI he was with Jean West, a "rather
dumb, but accommodating broad." Edward Meyers was in Dallas to
attend the bottlers convention-the same convention attended by Richard
Nixon. Both brothers were visited by Jack Ruby briefly at the Cabana
Motel on the night of November 21-the same night Braden was at the
same motel.

While no direct connections between this group and Ferrie in New
Orleans can be made at this time, it is fascinating to note that when New
Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison began looking at long-distance
telephone calls for David Ferrie he discovered something-the same day
Oswald left New Orleans for his reported trip to Mexico City, Ferrie called
a number in Chicago that belonged to Jean Aase West, Meyer's friend.

In Warren Commission Exhibit 2350-a listing of telephone calls made
by Lawrence Meyers in November 1963-it was found that that same day
he, too, called the Chicago number of Jean West, the woman who accompanied him to Dallas. While not conclusive, these documents, suggest
possible connections between Jack Ruby and David Ferrie via Meyers/
West and Braden.

Meyers also told the Warren Commission that his friend Ruby had
called him the night before shooting Oswald. The next day, upon hearing
the news that Ruby shot Oswald, Meyers decided not to contact Dallas
police because "in light of the apparent hectic activities then ensuing at the
police station, it would be better if he did not do so."