Legacy of Secrecy (153 page)

many files whose release is required by law.

The amount of material yet to be declassified is vast, and the following

few examples are just the tiny tip of a huge iceberg of secrecy—more

withheld files are described or indicated in almost every chapter of this

book. The most obvious example is the hundreds of hours of Marcello

tapes recorded in 1985. Other pressing files that need to be released

include the relevant files of all those individuals who have confessed

to JFK’s assassination: Marcello, Trafficante, Rosselli (especially his fall

1963 FBI Florida surveillance reports), David Morales, and John Martino.

The complete 1963 CIA files of E. Howard Hunt, David Atlee Phillips,

Desmond FitzGerald, and George Joannides should also be declassified,

since each withheld crucial information from various government com-

mittees and commissions.

Other crucial JFK assassination files still withheld range from the

CIA’s and FBI’s files on Harry Williams to the operational files of the

multimillion-dollar AMWORLD program, especially those about

Manuel Artime’s work on the CIA-Mafia plots. The files of other Mafia

figures linked to JFK’s murder, like those of Michel Victor Mertz and

Charles Nicoletti, should also be released. Naval Intelligence should

still have a vast quantity of files about its secret JFK investigation and

FBI-assisted surveillance of Oswald. All of the files about the Tampa

and Chicago plots against JFK should be declassified. Framed ex–Secret

Service agent Abraham Bolden is still fighting for a pardon after almost

forty-five years, even as his own CIA file remains secret—as does much

of the CIA file of Richard Cain, the Chicago Mafioso and CIA asset who

may well have framed Bolden.

While the JFK Act covers only the files related to President Kennedy’s

assassination, three participants in that murder—Joseph Milteer, Car-

los Marcello, and Johnny Rosselli—were also involved to some degree

in the murder of Martin Luther King. That means releasing their files

(FBI, CIA, DEA, Secret Service, Justice Department, military intelligence,

etc.), and those of their associates from 1963–1968, should also yield

new information about Dr. King’s slaying. The same principle applies to

Rosselli, Marcello, and David Morales regarding the murder of Robert

F. Kennedy. Because
Legacy of Secrecy
has documented that some of the

individuals who killed JFK remained free to help assassinate Dr. King

and Robert Kennedy, simply enforcing the 1992 JFK Act is the quickest

way to make sure that the most crucial information becomes available

to the public at last.

Photographs and Documents

The following are just a few of the thousands of pages of government files used in writing
Legacy

of Secrecy
, and links to more can be found at legacyofsecrecy.com. CIA and FBI files are from the

National Archives and have been declassified.

Carlos Marcello, for decades the absolute

godfather of Louisiana, whose influence

stretched from Dallas to Memphis (
AP
).

By 1985, Marcello was a federal prisoner because of the FBI BRILAB sting begun in the

wake of Watergate. Marcello made this confession as part of a previously unknown FBI

undercover sting, code-named CAMTEX, revealed here for the first time. Marcello’s con-

fession was suppressed by the FBI for more than a decade, and this book marks the first

disclosure of the uncensored files.

Marcello didn’t realize his cellmate was an FBI informant. The informant was con-

sidered so reliable that a federal judge approved Title III taps on the prison phones and

a bugged transistor radio for Marcello’s cell. The resulting “hundreds of hours” of tapes

of Marcello are still withheld by the FBI.

The FBI informant wrote this account of Marcello’s admission of having “several meetings

with Oswald” prior to JFK’s murder and that Marcello had set Jack Ruby up in business

in Dallas. Not long after making his confession, Marcello threatened the life of the FBI

informant if he ever revealed what Marcello told him. Though fearful, the FBI informant

reported Marcello’s remarks to FBI agents and even offered to take a lie detector test.

Though more than a dozen associates of Carlos Marcello and his men were interviewed by

authorities soon after JFK’s murder, Marcello himself was not interviewed or investigated

by police or the FBI at the time. Marcello’s name does not appear in the Warren Report.

Tampa godfather Santo Trafficante, Marcello’s close

associate, confessed his role in JFK’s murder shortly

before his own death to his trusted attorney, Frank

Ragano.
Legacy of Secrecy
contains new information

indicating that Ragano played a more active role

than he ever admitted in JFK’s assassination (
HSCA
).

Johnny Rosselli, the Chicago Mafia’s point man in Las

Vegas and Hollywood, admitted his “role in plotting

to kill the President” to his attorney Tom Wadden.

Soon after, Rosselli—preparing to testify again about

JFK’s assassination to a Congressional committee—

was the victim of a brutal dismemberment murder,

linked to Trafficante (
HSCA
).