Not in Your Lifetime: The Defining Book on the J.F.K. Assassination (53 page)

183
     “Periodic”: HSCA XII.54–.

Oswald “delightful”: from “Three Witnesses,” article by Dick Russell,
New Times
, June 24, 1979.

184
     “Whatever”: IX.96, Gary Taylor testimony; author’s interview, 1978.

Note 5
: It may be significant that Oswald, for all his apparent poverty, had just finished
repaying the $200 his brother had lent him to help with the travel from New York. ($200 repaid to brother: Report, pp. 741–).

185
     YMCA and post-office box: Report, pp. 719–720. Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall: Report, p. 719 and related sources.

Ofstein: X.202, Dennis Ofstein testimony.

186
Note 6
: There is controversy as to whether there was in fact a Minox, and some claim that an evidence photograph shows only an
empty
Minox camera case and a Minox light meter. Months after the assassination, the FBI would claim there was no Minox camera. The police, however, declined to change the manifest. Assistant District Attorney Bill Alexander, who himself owned a Minox, said there was a camera and that he personally worked its mechanism. Warren De Brueys, the FBI agent who took Oswald’s possessions to Washington, DC, said in retirement that he did not remember a Minox. He added, however, that there were “limitations as to what I can say… . I have signed the secrecy agreement before leaving the Bureau.” An Assassinations Committee lawyer said a Minox camera had indeed been seized. (Minox: HSCA XII.390 and 373,
Dallas Morning News
, Earl Golz article, August 7, 1978, (controversy) “Missing Minox or Major Mistakes?” http://jfkassassination.net; (Alexander) int. 1978).

“Micro dots”: XVI.53.

Note 7
: Oswald may have used equipment available at Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall to forge the “Hidell” draft card he carried. An FBI expert has said that the forgery involved a very accurate camera “such as are found in photographic laboratory and printing plants.” (IV.388).

187
     New Year greeting and reading material: Report, p. 722; (
Time
) CD 1231; XXII.270.

Suggestion Marina return to USSR: I.35, Marina Oswald testimony.

Wrote to Soviet Embassy: I.35; XVI.10.

Buying guns: Report, pp. 119, 174, 723, and Chapter 5,
supra
.

188
     Reports on
Walker shooting: Report, p. 20 and HSCA Report, p. 61.

189
     Oswald’s conversations on Walker: IX.256.

De Mohrenschildt testimony & HSCA XII.201; FBI int. withVolkmar Schmidt, NARA (unrecorded), Epstein,
Legend
,
op. cit.
, p. 205.

Photographs: Report, p. 185.

190
     Marina on Oswald and rifle: Report, p. 723–, XXII.763, 785; XXIII.393, 402; XXII.778; I.14; XXII.197, 785; V.397–399; HSCA II229, 231 & see IX.249, 316.

Photograph with guns and newspapers: Report, pp. 125–128.

Oswald stopped working: Report, p. 724; CD 7.128; CD 6; CD8; XXIII.696; XIII.529; XXII.278.

Walker incident: Report, pp. 183–187.

191
     Walker ballistics: Report, p. 186; HSCA VII.370, I.472, HSCA I.502; (police report) HSCA Report, p. 98n4; XXIV.39. (press reports)
Dallas Morning News
, April 11 & 12, 1963,
New York Times
, April 12, 1963.

Note 8
: Major General Walker added his own note of confusion on the question of the bullet. After seeing the exhibit shown in the Assassinations Committee hearings, the General said it was not the bullet he recovered in his house in 1963. He said the original projectile was so battered it was hardly recognizable as a bullet at all—far less so than the bullet shown in the Committee hearings. While the General was an irascible eccentric on political matters, he was an experienced soldier and he was talking about the bullet that nearly killed him. No check was apparently made of the chain of possession of the bullet. (ints. Walker, 1978; and see photograph of bullet, HSCA VII.390.)

192
     “Something truly remarkable”: Report, p. 724;

De Mohrenschildt version: Report, p. 282;

Marina version: XXII.777; HSCA II.234, & see analysis of “gun in closet” incident, Meagher,
op. cit.
, p. 127.

Previous year: HSCA XII.52.

1967 photograph find: ints. Jeanne de
Mohrenschildt; George de Mohrenschildt letter April 17, 1967, cited at McMillan,
op. cit.
, p. 489n9; back of photograph is shown HSCA VI.151; (Oswald’s handwriting) HSCA II.396; (translation) HSCA II.388; (rewritten in pencil) HSCA II.386, 388 & see HSCA II.295–, 243, 306, 315, HSCA XII.336.

Note 9
: There is an example of such fallibility in the work of the HSCA’s
handwriting panel. It concluded that two Oswald signatures differed in many details from other Oswald signatures (HSCA VIII.235). The two signatures in question are on receipts for wages at Oswald’s Dallas place of work—surely most likely to have indeed been signed by Oswald.

Another point on the same lines arises from a further inscription on the back of the photograph, presumably written since 1967. It reads “copyright G. de M.” The HSCA experts did not think it had been written by de Mohrenschildt (HSCA II.385). De Mohrenschildt’s lawyer, however, has said that de Mohrenschildt told him—as indeed seems most probable—that he did write the notation (letter of Patrick Russell to author, June 18, 1979). Handwriting evidence should always be weighed in the light of other available evidence.

194
     Oswald finances/repayments: Report, Appendix XIV; XVII.646; XVIII.277, 316; XIX.252; XXII.86, 122; XXI.163; V.316; HSCA XII.338.

Oswald earnings in seven-week period: XXII.227, XXII.380.

Note 10
: The State Department mailed Oswald a receipt showing that his debt was cleared on March 9.

Money order for rifle: Report, p. 119.

Note 11
: While the postal money order was purchased early in the morning—and the post office did not open until 8:00 a.m. (VII.295). Oswald’s work time sheet shows that he had clocked in by 8:00 a.m. that day (XXII.605). How he managed to get to the post office has been debated, along with the possibility that someone else sent off the order on his behalf. It was suggested (McMillan,
op. cit.
, p.485n8), that
Oswald actually went to work only after visiting the post office, and filled in a false time on his time sheet to make it appear he had started work promptly at 8:00 a.m. A check of Oswald’s time sheets (XXIII.538), however, revealed an instruction to employees that “time shown heron must agree with
clock
register
.” If Oswald had to abide by a mechanical clocking device, it would perhaps have been difficult to falsify his arrival time at work.

Coleman: HSCA Report, p. 98n4; see also XXVI.437, 753.

195
     Oswald’s driving capability: Report, p. 321.

Surrey: V.446; HSCA Report, p. 98n4.

Claunch: interview with Gary Shaw, independent researcher.

Note 12
:
The author drew on the Assassinations Committee summary of Walter Coleman’s evidence, because it was the most up-to-date account. However, there are minor discrepancies between this and relevant documents in the Warren Commission volumes. In those reports, the Ford was “white or beige” and older. One of the Warren versions refers to the Ford leaving at speed, while the other does not (XXVI.437–; XVI.753; HSCA Report, pp. 61n5, 98n4).

HSCA on Walker shooting: HSCA Report, pp. 61n5, 98n.

196
     November 22 police call
re
Chevrolet: XXIII.888.

Walker & Cuba: int., 1979.

Walker arouses exiles: XXVI.738, statement of Mrs. Connell.

197
     Surrey and leaflet: Report, p. 298; XVIII.646.

Seven Days in May
and
JFK: The Celluloid Muse
by Higham and Greenberg, p. 92; Schelsinger,
The
Imperial
Presidency
, pp. 198, 417, Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey,
Seven Days in May
, New York: Harper and Row, 1962.

De Mohrenschildt in Haiti: HSCA XII.55–(including CIA document 431-154B); (Kail) HSCA XII.57 and HSCA X.42; (plot) Herbert Atkin, quoted in “Three Witnesses,” Dick Russell article,
New Times
, June 24, 1977.

Postcard: int., Jeanne de Mohrenschildt, 1978.

Anikeeff: Newman,
op. cit.
, p. 278–; and int. Newman, 1995.

Rocca: Rocca to OGC, 7D01, September 28, 1964, JFK 104-10105-10196, www.maryferrell.org.

III. CONSPIRACIES: Cuba and the Mob

13. The Company and the Crooks

201
     Assassinations Committee staff report: HSCA X.3.

202
     Hunt forms CRC: Hunt,
op. cit.
, pp. 40–50, 182–189.

Hunt recommendation:
ibid
., p. 38.

Nixon: “Cuba, Castro and John F. Kennedy” by R. M. Nixon,
Reader’s Digest
, November 1964.

203
     Nixon tape: Nixon to H. R. Haldeman, July 23, 1972.

204
     
Hunt: Hunt quotes are from author’s int. Hunt, 1978, unless
otherwise indicated.

Dulles encouraged: Schlesinger,
Robert F. Kennedy
, p. 452.

CIA intelligence reports on uprising: int. Hunt , 1978.

“Treason”: RFK int. for JFK Oral History program, March 1, 1964.

“Splinter CIA”: e.g.
New Times
, April 25, 1966.

205
     Harvey: Sen. Int. Cttee.
Assassination Plots
, p. 66.

Pepe San Román: int. for “The CIA’s Secret Army,” CBS, June 10, 1977; HSCA X.9; Haynes Johnson,
op. cit.
, p. 17.

206
     Kohly: int., 1978.

“No long-term”: Cuba Study Group, Recommendation 6, June 13, 1961, Schlesinger Papers.

RFK enthusiasm:
Sen. Int. Cttee. Assassination Plots
, p. 141.

207
     JM/WAVE: HSCA X.ll; (statistics: Thomas Powers,
op. cit.
, pp. 136, 139nl6).

Kennedys and captured exiles: Schlesinger,
Robert F. Kennedy
, Chapter 21.

Miami speech:
JFK Public Papers
(1962), pp. 911–912.

208
     U.S. assurances: Schlesinger,
Robert F. Kennedy
, p. 257.

JFK on Republicans: Arthur Schlesinger journal, October 30, 1962.

209
Note 1
: In his book
We
Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), Professor John Gaddis concluded that the missiles were removed. The view that they may not have been remains dubious speculation.

Clamp down: Sen. Int. Cttee.,
Performance of Intelligence Agencies
, p. 11–; raid March 17–18, 1963 and State Department reaction:
Dallas Times-Herald
, March 19, 1963; JFK acted:
Dallas Times-Herald
, March 22, 1963; March 26 raid: Albert Newman,
op. cit.
, p. 326; “Cuba protests”:
Dallas Times-Herald
, March 28, 29, 30, 1963; U.S. action:
Dallas Times-Herald
, March 31, 1963; boat seizures:
Dallas Times-Herald
, April 1, 1963.

Soviets began:
Dallas Times-Herald
, March 22, 1963; JFK press conference,
JFK Public Papers
(1963) April 3, 1963.

210
     Nixon speeches: to American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 20, 1963;
Dallas Morning News
, April 21, 1963; HSCA X.13.

Cuban Revolutionary Council funds cut: Schlesinger,
Robert F. Kennedy
, p. 540; Albert Newman,
op. cit.
, p. 333; HSCA X.13.

Sapp memo: to Assistant Chief of Police Anderson, April 4, 1963; int. Sapp, 1978.

Handbill: Manchester,
op. cit.
, p. 53.

211
     Fontainebleau meeting/CIA-Mafia collaboration: int. Joe Shimon, 1978; also
Sen. Int. Cttee. Assassination Plots
, 1975; HSCA X.151–; HSCA IV.126; HSCA Report, p. 114–. References hereafter to CIA-Mafia plots are from those sources unless otherwise indicated.

212
     ONI and OSS & Mafia: Thomas Sciacca,
Luciano
, New York: Pinnacle Books, 1975; , Richard H. Smith,
OSS: The Secret History of America’s First Central Intelligence Agency
, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1972; ed. Anthony Cave Brown,
The Secret War Report of the OSS
, New York: Berkeley Publishing Corp., 1976.

213
     Lansky, Trafficante, and Cuba: “The Hughes-Nixon-Lansky Connection,”
Rolling Stone
, May 20, 1976; Ed Reid
, op cit.

215
     Initial Mob plotting: HSCA X.175–, 194n213.

Dulles: HSCA XI.66.

Maheu
background:
Sen. Int. Cttee. Assassination Plots
, p. 74n4.

Giancana and Cuba: Hougan,
op. cit.
, pp. 335, 337.

216
     Trafficante background: Reid,
op. cit;
Sen. Int. Cttee. Assassination Plots
; Hearings of McClellan Committee, 1959, pp. 124–132; Alfred McCoy,
Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia
, New York: Harper Colophon Books, 1972, pp. 27, 55; Hank Messick,
Lansky
, New York: Berkley Medallion Books, 1971, pp. 195, 215; HSCA V. 419–.

Trafficante as “Pecora”: HSCA V.257.

De Varona: Dan Moldea,
The Hoffa Wars
, New York: Paddington Press, 1978, p. 133.