Legacy of Secrecy (154 page)

Marcello, Trafficante, and Rosselli got away with murdering JFK because a dozen of their men

had infiltrated John and Robert Kennedy’s top-secret plan to overthrow Fidel Castro on December

1, 1963. The following is just a small sample of the files and operatives discussed in
Legacy of

Secrecy
.

The roots of JFK’s coup plan began in 1961, before the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion.

More than a month before the debacle, this February 20, 1961, CIA memo shows that

Cuban Army Commander Juan Almeida offered to defect and help the US. The CIA didn’t

take Almeida up on his offer, because they were using Rosselli and Trafficante in a plot

to assassinate Fidel Castro.

In December 1962, JFK welcomed home the Bay of Pigs prisoners, thanks to the efforts of

Robert Kennedy and Cuban exile Enrique “Harry” Ruiz-Williams. JFK is seen here greet-

ing Manuel Artime (far left), the leader of the Cuban exile prisoners (
JFK Library
).

By May 1963, Almeida—still Commander of the Cuban Army—was secretly working with

Harry Williams (far right), Robert Kennedy, and JFK to stage what would appear to be a

“palace coup” against Castro. Artime (far left) joined the coup plan, with major support

from the CIA and his best friend, E. Howard Hunt (
AP, detail
).

The JFK-Almeida coup was eventually set for December 1, 1963, to be followed by an

invited US invasion, to help keep order and prevent a Soviet takeover. The above detail is

from a CIA memo sent by Director John McCone on the morning of November 22, 1963.

Richard Helms (left), CIA’s Deputy Director for Plans in 1963, was the key official over-

seeing covert operations. In addition to supporting the JFK-Almeida coup plan, Helms

continued to use Rosselli in the CIA-Mafia plots to assassinate Castro—but without tell-

ing his own CIA Director, JFK, or Robert Kennedy. CIA officer E. Howard Hunt (top

right), Helms’s protégé, was heavily involved in the JFK-Almeida coup plan. Hunt’s

friend, CIA officer David Atlee Phillips (bottom right), assisted Artime in the coup plan

(
AP/HSCA-CIA/Fonzi
).

In case Fidel Castro found out about the coup plan and tried to retaliate, Robert Kennedy

had a secret committee make plans in the fall of 1963 for what to do about the possible

“assassination of American officials.” Both Marcello and Trafficante told trusted associ-

ates that JFK had to be killed in order to end Attorney General Robert Kennedy’s intense

prosecution of them. The Kennedys had barred the Mafia from the coup plan, or from

reopening their casinos in Cuba after the coup, but a dozen associates of Marcello, Traf-

ficante, and Rosselli infiltrated the coup plan.

David Morales was the CIA’s Operations Chief

at its huge Miami Station, working on both the

coup plan and with his friend, Johnny Rosselli.

Morales would later confess his role in JFK’s

murder (and that of Robert Kennedy) (
Fonzi
).

John Martino was a lower level CIA asset, who had no role in the JFK-Almeida coup

plan. But Martino worked with Trafficante and Rosselli, and the above FBI file shows that

Marino had learned about JFK’s plan to invade Cuba. Years later, Martino confessed his

role in JFK’s murder to trusted associates shortly before his death.