Legacy of Secrecy (37 page)

ing. News reports from Parkland talked about JFK’s throat wound

being an entrance wound, indicating a shooter from the front. This was

repeated by CBS reporter Dan Rather on KRLD-TV in Dallas, who said

that “we are told that the gunshot wound, the fatal wound, inflicted on

the President of the United States entered at the base of the throat and

came out the base of the neck, on the back side.”17 But by the following

day, Rather had so accepted the FBI’s official lone-assassin story that—as

he later acknowledged in his autobiography—he did not clearly relate

what the Zapruder film actually depicted.

It’s important to note the media’s reporting of the overwhelmingly sym-

pathetic reaction of most Americans, and much of the world, to JFK’s

assassination. This is something a racist in the Deep South, like Marcello,

might not have anticipated, given JFK’s razor-thin margin of victory in

1960 and his loss of support since that time among conservative Demo-

crats, due to JFK’s increasing concern over civil rights. However, 1963

was a very different era from today, when President George W. Bush’s

approval rating has hovered near 30 percent for more than a year. In con-

trast, JFK’s popularity never dipped below 56 percent, despite problems

like the Bay of Pigs. His highest disapproval rating was only 30 percent,

which is very good by historical standards. No other president in recent

history has been as popular; even if people disagreed with JFK politi-

cally, many still liked and admired him personally. Hence, by Friday

evening and over the weekend, newspapers throughout the country

noted only a few officials or people who made it clear that they weren’t

sad to see JFK gone; the vast majority of those cited were shocked and

saddened by the President’s death.

The reaction was similar throughout much of what was then called

the “free world”: Countries like England, France, Ireland, and Germany

in particular showed tremendous concern from both officials and the

general populace. Perhaps more surprising in light of the low status

of the US presidency among the people of Latin America in the 21st

century, in 1963 those countries were mostly sympathetic toward the

slain US president.

That’s because JFK had courted, and managed to win over, many

in Latin America, and that effort had an impact on his coup plan with

Almeida. Because JFK had managed to reverse the mostly negative,

heavy-handed image of the United States that grew under Vice President

Richard Nixon in the 1950s, JFK hadn’t wanted to simply invade Cuba to

remove Castro. That’s why JFK had wanted US forces to be “invited in”

after a coup, and for the Organization of American States to be involved

in the immediate aftermath and transition to democracy. It’s ironic that

JFK was set to make remarks about his Latin American progress in

Austin, Texas, on the evening of November 22. JFK had planned to say,

“I can testify from my trips to Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, and Costa

Rica that American officials are no longer booed and spat upon south of

the border”18—a reference to Nixon’s treatment in Latin America.

As for Richard Nixon, the former vice president was one of the few

people who had trouble remembering exactly what he was doing on

November 22, 1963, when he heard that JFK had been assassinated—

which is ironic, since that day’s events eventually played a role in forc-

ing him to step down as president. Nixon told three different stories

over the years about where he was when he heard JFK had been killed.

Once, he even lied to the FBI about it, claiming he had been in Dallas

only “two days prior to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.”

However, as noted earlier, it was no secret that Nixon had been in Dallas

attending a soft-drink convention; it is well established that he flew out

of Dallas about three hours prior to JFK’s assassination; and there is no

credible evidence to support the tales of Nixon, J. Edgar Hoover, and

wealthy Texas oilmen plotting in secret the night before JFK’s murder.19

While Nixon had no role in JFK’s death (it certainly would have been

uncharacteristically foolish for him to be in Dallas if he had anything

to do with it), his associates knew people who were on the fringes of

the plot—including former Cuban president Carlos Prio, the Trafficante

associate who was trying to infiltrate the JFK-Almeida coup plan.

In a CIA memo based on information obtained shortly before JFK’s

death, Prio is reported as talking about various aspects of the coup plan,

then mentioning two exile associates who were part of Prio’s operation

“and have become associated [with] Richard Nixon in accordance with

[the] Republican Party plan [to] bring up the Cuban case before elec-

tions.”20 Ties like these help to explain why Prio would have a little-

known role in the plots surrounding Watergate, as would Artime, while

other veterans of the 1963 anti-Castro operations—like E. Howard

Hunt—would become infamous for their Watergate exploits.

In New Orleans, Carlos Marcello was suddenly consumed with two

problems that threatened to tie David Ferrie, and thus Marcello, to JFK’s

assassination. By Friday evening, a third problem would surface, setting

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off a chain of events that would cause Ferrie to hastily flee New Orleans

on Friday, have authorities looking for him by Saturday, and have him

under arrest by Monday.

The first problem for Marcello was that Oswald, his former “runner”

who had been introduced to him by Ferrie, was still alive. According to

an FBI report, Marcello’s second problem was word from his lawyer, G.

Wray Gill, that “Lee Oswald, when he was picked up, had been carrying

a library card with David Ferrie’s name on it.” Both of these problems

had an immediate impact on Marcello, who realized they could unravel

his entire carefully planned scheme. Marcello biographer John Davis

wrote that Marcello had initially celebrated after his bribe-induced

acquittal, “embracing his attorneys and receiving congratulations from

his family, friends, and supporters.” But Marcello decided to skip “a

family celebration [and instead] went to his office in the Town and Coun-

try Motel.” A source Davis interviewed said that Marcello looked “as if

he had something urgent on his mind.”21

Ferrie was apparently frantic about the news. Congressional investi-

gators wrote that “Oswald’s former landlady in New Orleans . . . told the

Committee she recalled that Ferrie visited her home on the night of the

assassination and asked about Oswald’s library card.” The investigators

also found that a former New Orleans “neighbor of Oswald’s [said] that

Ferrie had come by her house after the assassination, inquiring if [her

husband] had any information regarding Oswald’s library card.”22 In a

few days, the Secret Service would ask if Ferrie had loaned Oswald his

library card. But before that, Ferrie took an unusual late-night weekend

trip to Texas, apparently in response to the news from Dallas.

Ferrie must have been alarmed. The fact that Oswald was still alive,

and hadn’t been killed soon after the assassination by Ruby or one of his

policemen, was bad enough, but the library card would tie him directly

to Oswald. To have something that small slip by after all the months

of careful planning, and the long weekends going over every detail

with Marcello, must have been devastating. Something as simple as a

library card could now unravel the whole plot. And Ferrie had worked

with Marcello long enough to know that the godfather wouldn’t hesi-

tate to have him killed if Ferrie couldn’t figure some way out of the

problem.

Ferrie did not flee to Texas on Friday night to avoid Marcello, since he

went to cities that were under Marcello’s firm control; instead, Ferrie’s

trip was part of his attempt at damage control. Ferrie didn’t panic, and

tried to give the sudden trip at least the veneer of plausibility, though

most investigators are skeptical. Ferrie seems to have suddenly decided

to drive more than 350 miles to go ice skating, taking two teenage boys

with him as companions.

The many unusual aspects of Ferrie’s trip have been chronicled in

many books and articles. Ferrie didn’t leave until after nine o’clock on

the night of November 22, and later admitted the trip was connected

to his work with Marcello attorney Gill.23 The first leg of Ferrie’s trip

must have taken at least five hours, probably more. Anthony Summers

wrote that Ferrie drove to a Houston ice-skating rink, where in the late

hours he would “spend a great deal of time at a pay telephone, making

and receiving calls.” Ferrie then checked into a Marcello-owned hotel,

from which Congressional investigators found he called “the Town and

Country Motel, Marcello’s New Orleans headquarters.” He then went to

Galveston and checked into a motel there, while he was still registered

at Marcello’s motel in Houston.24

Jack Ruby made several calls to Galveston just before Ferrie’s arrival.

Also, associates of Ruby had left Dallas and traveled to Houston and

Galveston just before Ferrie’s arrival in each city. We think it’s possible

Ferrie went to Texas to retrieve his library card. Perhaps one of the cor-

rupt members of the Dallas police, close to Marcello’s Dallas boss, Joe

Civello, or to Ruby, had taken possession of the card. The lawman could

have simply been bribed or told by someone like the CIA’s Morales

or Banister that the card involved a sensitive national-security matter

(which was technically true, given Ferrie’s CIA-sanctioned anti-Castro

activities). The bottom line is that by Monday, Ferrie would be able to

produce his library card when FBI agents confronted him about it.25

In the meantime, Carlos Marcello had a third major problem, this one

involving Guy Banister as well as David Ferrie. As detailed by Congres-

sional investigators, one of Banister’s employees, Jack Martin, had an

altercation with Banister on the evening of JFK’s death. Banister pistol-

whipped Martin, causing Martin to call an assistant District Attorney

and accuse Banister of being involved in JFK’s assassination. Martin

later said that Ferrie had gone to Texas “to serve as the getaway pilot

for the men involved in the assassination.”26 One of Bobby Kennedy’s

Mafia prosecutors in New Orleans told us that he had heard that “Ferrie

was supposed to have flown some conspirators out of Texas,” though

it wasn’t anything he could confirm or had firsthand knowledge of.27 In

any event, authorities issued a lookout for Ferrie on Saturday, and by

Monday would have him under arrest.

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One of Banister’s associates was unaware of those difficulties and

thought the plan was still on track, even with Oswald alive for a while

longer. White supremacist Joseph Milteer told Miami police informant

William Somersett that “Oswald hasn’t said anything and he will not

say anything.” Milteer also made it clear that, despite the initial reports

of Oswald’s stay in Russia and his seeming public support of Fidel

Castro, “Oswald was not connected with Moscow, or any big communist

leaders.”28

Two vastly different women, each with connections to JFK’s assassina-

tion, were in the hospital on the evening of November 22. At East Louisi-

ana State Hospital, the self-described “dope runner” for Jack Ruby, Rose

Cheramie, was still suffering the effects of withdrawal from her heroin

addiction. After JFK’s murder, Louisiana State Police Lieutenant Frances

Fruge recalled the comments Cheramie had made to him about the

impending assassination of JFK. He immediately called the hospital and

ordered them to hold Cheramie so that he could question her further.

But Cheramie was too ill to be questioned at that time, though Lt. Fruge

was assured she would be held until he could interview her.29

In Dallas, the second hospitalized woman was the beautiful, sophis-

ticated Cuban exile Silvia Odio. Earlier that day, she had been listen-

ing to the radio, as she returned to work from lunch, when she first

heard of JFK’s assassination. As mentioned previously, Odio was part

of Manolo Ray’s JURE exile group, though her father was in prison in

Cuba because of a Castro assassination attempt by Alpha 66’s Antonio

Veciana. On November 22, it had been just two months since Silvia Odio

had been visited by two Cuban exiles and an American introduced to

her as Leon Oswald. The following day, one of the exiles had called

her to say that Oswald was a former Marine, an expert marksman who

had said the exiles “should have assassinated Kennedy after the Bay of

Pigs.”30

Odio later told Congressional investigator Gaeton Fonzi that upon

hearing of JFK’s death on the radio, “she immediately thought of the

visit of the three men to her apartment. . . . It produced a tremendous

amount of fear in her.” When she reached work, everyone was being