Not in Your Lifetime: The Defining Book on the J.F.K. Assassination (66 page)

There are other discrepancies between the version of events as told by Van Laningham and by the FBI agents involved. Kimmel’s memory was the bug in the Texarkana operation against
Marcello functioned for three thirty-day periods (the periods covered by three separate court authorizations for electronic surveillance). Van Laningham said the operation lasted for more than a year. Agent Kimmel said the operation was terminated once agents concluded that Marcello was not running his criminal empire from jail and, moreover, that his mental state was such that a court would have deemed anything he said unreliable. Van Laningham claimed Marcello did indeed run his crime network from inside the prison. Attempts by the author to reach a third FBI agent involved, who went by the name “Tom Kirk” during contacts with Van Laningham, established that name was a pseudonym, The agent in question, who is retired, declined to be interviewed. (“That Kennedy”: Kaiser,
op. cit.
, p. 411, Waldron and Hartmann,
Legacy of Secrecy
,
op. cit.
, p. 761, Noel Twyman,
Bloody Treason
, Rancho Santa Fe, CA: Laurel, 1997, p. 298, citing FBI, Minneapolis to Director & Dallas, 3/3/89; “senility”: Bugliosi,
op. cit.
, Endnotes, p. 658-, citing multiple FBI reports available at NARA,
op. cit;
“sharp” in 1985: Waldron & Hartmann,
Legacy of Secrecy
,
op. cit.
, pp. 761, 899, citing Van Laningham letter to FBI agent Carl Podsiadly, 6-88 (more accurately identified as NARA 124-10193-10468); discrepancies: ints. Thomas Kimmel, Jr., Raymond Hult, Ronald Sievert, Jack Van Laningham.

429
     Martino: ints. Florence Martino, Edward Martino, 1994.

Martino background: ints.
ibid
. & Stephanie Martino, Bill Kelly int. Frances Martino, 1994; HSCA X.161; Scott,
Deep Politics
,
op. cit.
, p. 115–.; Kaiser,
op. cit.
,
refs.; (imprisoned)
Philadelphia Evening Bulletin
, December 16, 18 & 19, 1959; October 8, 1962; January 23, 1963; July 10, 1963.

Note 5
: Martino became well known as a speaker, and published a 1963 book about his incarceration. One of his public appearances, at an anti-Castro meeting in September 1963 in Dallas—one of two visits he made to the city that month—has especially interested researchers. He mentioned during his address that he knew
Amador Odio, the father of Silvia Odio—whose encounter with a man identified as “Oswald” is thought by man to be evidence of an attempt to frame the alleged assassin. (Dallas visits: Kaiser,
op. cit.
, pp. 3, 341, 348;
re
Amador Odio: XI.380, XXVI.738; book: John Martino with Nathaniel Wehl,
I Was Castro’s Prisoner
,
New York: Devin-Adair, 1963)

430
“close friend”: FBI document July 31, 1959, file no. 64-44828;
Miami Herald
, July 9, 1959.

Roselli/plots: HSCA notes of tapes of Loran Hall, 1977;
Village Voice
, October 3, 1977;
Human Events
(Martino article), December 1, 1963.

Robertson: int. Florence Martino, David Corn,
Blond Ghost
, Boston: Little, Brown, 1994, p. 75; Warren Hinckle and William Turner,
Deadly Secrets
, New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1992), pp. 67–, 84–, 107, 193.

Note 6
: The operation, which became known as the Bayo-Pawley Affair, aimed to “prove” a claim that the Soviet Union still had missiles in Cuba. The raiders put ashore supposedly had the mission of bringing out two Soviet officers who had supposedly been captured by anti-Castro insurgents. A study by the historian David Kaiser, however, suggests that the operation was in fact, rather, another Castro assassination attempt. The fighters put ashore never returned, and were presumed killed. The party had motored to the Cuban coast aboard a launch owned by William Pawley, an American millionaire, who was much involved with the CIA and had previously owned the Havana bus system and an airline. He was himself on board during the ill-fated raid. For fuller coverage of the operation, see the 1998 edition of this book and the sources that follow this note. (Bayo-Pawley:
Soldier of Fortune
, Spring 1976;
The Continuing Inquiry
, June 22, 1977; (Dulles) HSCA X.83; ints. John Cummings, Ed Martino, and see Hinckle and Turner,
op. cit.
, p. 193; CIA memo for the record, May 22, 1963, released 1993—there was CIA involvement, and the CIA
name for the mission was Operation TILT; see also refs. in Corn,
op. cit.
, and UPI on Bayo-Pawley, January 8, 1976; Kaiser,
op. cit.
, p. 163–).

Martino prime source: CD 1020, Secret Service Report CO234030; FBI document 105-82555-2704; CD 691.2.

Flown secretly: Branigan to Sullivan, February 27, 1964, attached to Director to SAC, New York, February 26, 1964, FBI 1-64-44828 (Martino).

Ortiz: FBI memo, “Lee Harvey Oswald, Internal

Security Cuba,” June 1, 1964, NARA 1993.06.12.10:35:57:500000.

Cummings: ints. Cummings & Martino tapes in Cummings collection.

431
Note 7
: As reported in the previous edition of this book, O’Connor said in an interview with the author that, though Martino’s name “rang a bell,” he never met Oswald at any time. The author Vincent Bugliosi, however, located a CIA document showing that Martino indeed talked with O’Connor—saying that Oswald had pro-Castro leaflets printed in Miami, and had telephoned Cuban Intelligence in Cuba. (int. James J. O’Connor by Robbyn Swan, 1994; CIA document 104-10004-10145, June 4, 1964, cited in Bugliosi,
op. cit.
, Endnotes, p. 748fn.)

Note 8
: Claasen made contact with the House Assassinations Committee in 1977, stating that Martino’s widow was knowledgeable (as she turned out to be when contacted by the author). Claasen at first offered his information only anonymously, but eventually spoke openly with both
Dallas
Morning News
reporter Earl Golz, whose report is cited here, and with this author. (Claasen int.by Earl Golz of
Dallas Morning News
, 1978; int. Claasen, 1994; HSCA memo, Fonzi to Fenton, October 4, 1977; original draft of article by Earl Golz, 1978; HSCA memo, Lawson to Klein, August 28, 1977; & see Fonzi,
op. cit.
, p. 324).

432
Note 9
: In her interview with the author, Mrs. Martino recalled that a young Cuban had visited their house some two months before the
assassination. He had been accompanied, she said, by a tall, well-dressed man who—she thought—had been some sort of official. Reminding her of the visit after the assassination, she continued, her husband told her the Cuban had been “one of them”—meaning one of those involved in the assassination.

As of the writing of the previous edition of this book, several pages referring to Martino had been withdrawn from the National Archives at the insistence of the CIA and the FBI. As recently as 2008, according to the historian David Kaiser, the CIA had released no 201 file on Martino. (withdrawn: information supplied by attorney Daniel Alcorn; no 201: Kaiser,
op. cit.
, p. 404).

432
     Martínez: (ints.) September 4, October 27 (with Robert Blakey) & October 28, 2007.

433
Note 10
: The murdered former police chief was Rogelio Hernández Vega. The Costa Rican leader was José Figuéres. (Vega: Daniels to Walker, U.S. Dept. of State, August 6, 1948, attaching AP, July 30, 1948; Figuéres: Kaiser,
op. cit.
, p. 301 )

Díaz: (CIA records) NARA 104-10169-10006 & see NARA 104-10215-10321, NARA 1993.07.31.08:55:58:710059. NARA 104-10308-10164, 104-10169-10090, 104-10102-10087 & see e.g. NARA 124-10291-10330, NARA 124-90094-10088,
et al
.; (Ruby at Trescornia)
re
Ruby at camp, see Chapter 23,
supra
; (press coverage)
Miami News
,
Granma
[Cuba], May 31, 1966.

434
     Cuesta:
Miami New
s, March 16 & May 31, 1966,
New York Times
, December 4, 1992, HSCA X.100–.

436
     Escalante: “Transcript of Proceedings Between Cuban Officials and JFK Historians,” December 7–9, 1995, attended by author, http://cuban-exile.com/doc_026-050/doc0027-4.html,
High Times
,
March 1996; Escalante,
op. cit.
, p. 165–)

Note 11
: According to Escalante, Cuesta named not only Díaz but also an exile named Eladio del Valle—who had also been linked to Trafficante—as having been involved in the assassination. Rumors about del
Valle’s supposed participation have circulated since publication of a
National
Enquirer
story that followed his own violent death in 1967. The author has seen no good evidence, however, to support the story. Unlike Herminio Díaz, the author is unaware of him having had a track record as an assassin. (Trafficante: FBI document 105-95677, citing
Diario Las Americas
, February 25, 1967; Publication:
National Enquirer
, April 27, 1967, reprinting
El Tiempo
(New York), February 1967; & see Kaiser,
op. cit.
, p. 400–)

437
     DRE: (“conceived”) NARA 104-10170-10127; ($51,000) CIA memo for Cottrell, State Department, April 1963, JFK Library, supplied to author by Jefferson Morley, Moley,
op. cit.
, p. 324n; (bag) conv. Jefferson Morley, citing int. DRE’s Jose Lanusa; (problem) e.g. Kaiser,
op. cit.
, p.149, Morley,
op. cit.
, p. 129–; (new case officer) Fitness Report, George Joannides, July 31, 1963, supplied to author by Jefferson Morley, Kaiser,
op. cit.
, p. 150; (blitz of calls) see Chapter 16,
supra
.
& HSCA X.83–,
Miami New Times
, April 12, 2001, draft for
New York Times Magazine
, and Morley email, February 10, 2013—citing numerous newspapers that carried story.

438
Note 12
: The DRE man who posed as a fellow supporter of Castro was Carlos Quiroga. See reference in Chapter 16.

Note 13
: Some of the DRE’s members gave testimony (Carlos Bringuier) or spoke with the FBI (Bringuier and Manuel Salvat) as witnesses with information on Oswald or Ruby. (X.32–, CD 441) “inability to find”: Fonzi,
op. cit.
, p. 298. ints.

Dan Hardway and Edwin Lopez.

Joannides in contact/flew New Orleans: Jefferson Morley summary from record for author, January 16, 2013.

“he could not”: Robert Blakey Declaration in Morley v. U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, Civil Action 03-2545, June 2006.

Note 14
: The case officer who dealt specifically with the DRE’s military leader, Manuel Salvat, was as of 1962 David Morales, the covert operations chief at the CIA’s secret base for anti-
Castro activity in Florida. In retirement in 1973, during a drinking session in which President Kennedy was discussed, Morales said—according to his attorney, Robert Walton: “We took care of that sonofabitch, didn’t we?” Some have inferred that he may have been involved in the assassination. Morales, who was not interviewed by the Assassinations Committee, died in 1978. (Salvat/Morales: NARA 104-10171-10041, (ZAMKA was the code name for Morales and AMHINT-2 the code for Salvat), corr. Jefferson Morley; operations chief: David Corn,
Blond Ghost
, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994, p. 85; remark: ints. Robert Dorff, & see Fonzi,
op. cit.
, p. 366 & Noel Twyman,
op. cit.
, p. 450–)

Note 15
: Joannides’s role as DRE case officer became known in late 1998, when—following questions posed by reporter Jefferson Morley—the Assassination Records Review Board obtained some of his personnel records. Morley broke the story in
Miami
New
Times
in April 2001.

Outrage: (“criminal”/ “willful”)
Salon
, December 17, 2003; (“The Agency”)
Washington Post
, November 21, 2005; (“I no longer”) int. of Robert Blakey for “Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald,” Frontline, www.pbs.org; (“destroyed the integrity”) Nelson cited in Jim Lesar to U.S. Archivist David Ferreiro, January 20, 2012; (“The CIA wasn’t”)
Miami New Times
, April 12, 2001, and see
New York Times
, October 16, 2009.

439
     Fighting in courts: Morley articles, February 13, 18, & 26, 2013, www.jfkfacts.org, “JFK’s Murder Secrets Test CIA, Court Procedures,” www.justice-integrity.org.

No monthly reports: Morley,
op. cit.
, pp. 177, 324n.

Phillips documents remain closed:
Salon
, November 22, 2011.

Phillips background: see Chapters 16 & 19,
supra
., (& DRE) Morley,
op. cit.
, pp. 128, 314n, & see Phillips,
op. cit.
, pp. 64, 78, 93 & see also coverage of Phillips in the Paragon paperback edition of this book, published as
Conspiracy
, (1991) and Fonzi,
op. cit.

440
     “retired officer” footnote: HSCA Report, pp. 136, 136n23; HSCA X.46.

Note 16
: In a book Hunt wrote about the Bay of Pigs, he referred to his “propaganda chief” colleague—evidently Phillips—as “
Knight.” According to Phillips himself, in his published memoir, “Knight” had been a name used by another senior officer—evidently Richard Helms. (Crozier: referred to by HSCA as “Ron Cross,” HSCA X.46– & see HSCA Report, p. 136n23; “Knight”: Howard Hunt,
Give Us This Day
, cited in Phillips,
op. cit.
, p. 88fn, Thomas Powers,
The Man Who Kept the Secrets
, New York: Pocket, 1979, p. 423)