The Sinatra Files (35 page)

RECOMMENDATION:

None. For information.

*Subsequently nominated on first ballot.

DETAILS

The purpose of this memorandum is to briefly summarize high lights of pertinent available information concerning Senator John F. Kennedy and his favorable attitude toward the Bureau in connection with the strong probability that he will be nominated as the Democrat candidate for the Presidency.

FRIENDLY RELATIONS WITH BUREAU:

The Bureau and the Director have enjoyed friendly relations with Senator Kennedy and his family for a number of years. The Senator’s father, Joseph Patrick Kennedy, is an SAC contact of the Boston Office. He has expressed deep admiration for the Director. Joseph Kennedy is an outstanding financier and industrialist. Known to the Director as “Dear Joe,” he was U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain at the time World War II broke out. In June, 1939, the “Foreign Observer” quoted remarks from a London publication which stated
that the British were bewildered as to why Ambassador Kennedy was allowed to remain in his post considering his record as an appeaser and apologist for Chamberlain.

In 1957, the Director sent autographed copies of “The FBI Story” to Joseph Kennedy, John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy. In 1958, the Director sent autographed copies of “Masters of Deceit” to these three prominent members of the Kennedy family.

In January, 1953, SA David J. Murphy, Jr. (Washington Field Office, now in GS-13), called Mr. Holloman in the Director’s Office and advised that he was a personal friend of Senator Kennedy; that the Senator had expressed to him (Murphy) a desire to tour the Bureau and meet the Director later in January. Mr. Holloman telephoned Senator Kennedy’s Administrative Assistant whom Holloman had known for some time. Holloman mentioned the matter of Kennedy’s visiting the Bureau, and Reardon said that as soon as things quieted down on the Hill, he and Kennedy would come over for a tour.

In September, 1953, SA William H. Carpenter (Resident Agent at Hyannis, Massachusetts, now in GS-13) attended the wedding of Senator Kennedy and the wedding reception. SA Carpenter is well-known to the Kennedy family. SA Carpenter stated that Senator Kennedy was very complimentary of the Director and the Bureau and stated he was anxious and willing at all times to support Mr. Hoover and the FBI. This statement was made to SA Carpenter in the presence of Senators Saltonstall, Green and Smathers, as well as the Reverend John Cavanaugh of Notre Dame and Joseph Kennedy.

In October, 1953, SAC James Kelly (then at Boston, currently at Baltimore) met Senator Kennedy at Joseph Kennedy’s home. According to SAC Kelly, the Senator said he felt the FBI to be the only real Government agency worthy of its salt and expressed admiration for the Director’s accomplishments. He said that upon returning to Washington in January, 1954, he would enjoy meeting the Director at the Bureau. The Director wrote Senator Kennedy about the remarks he made to SAC Kelly and told him to visit the Bureau any time it was convenient.

In the Fall of 1954, Senator Kennedy underwent a painful
operation to correct the crippling effects of the PT boat crash he had been involved in during World War II. In November, 1954, the Director wrote both Joseph Kennedy and Senator Kennedy to wish the Senator speedy and complete recovery.

In October, 1956, the Director wrote Senator Kennedy to congratulate him upon his being selected to receive the Cardinal Gibbons Medal for 1956. (The Director also has received this Medal, presented by the Catholic University Alumni Association.)

In November, 1958, the Director wrote John Kennedy to congratulate him upon his re-election to the Senate, and Senator Kennedy sent the Director a friendly reply stating “if I or my office can be of any help to you, do not hesitate to call upon me.”

With regard to Senator Kennedy’s staff members, it is noted that at the suggestion of Joseph Kennedy, the Director sent a copy of “Communist Illusion and Democratic Reality” to the Senator’s Legislative Assistant, Theodore Sorensen, in November, 1959.

In July, 1959, Uniform Crime Reports material and other data containing crime statistics were sent Pierre Salinger, Assistant Chief Investigator for the McClellan (Labor-Management) Committee, following receipt of a call from Salinger advising that Senator Kennedy desired FBI data concerning crime—possibly for use in speeches.

Kenneth O’Donnell (who managed Kennedy’s last Senatorial campaign, was Administrative Assistant of the McClellan Committee on labor-management racketeering, and is very close to Senator Kennedy and his brother Robert Kennedy) is well-known to Inspector Courtney Evans of the Investigative Division. In March, 1959, O’Donnell spoke to Inspector Evans regarding Senator Kennedy’s suspicion that there might be a tap on one of his telephones. O’Donnell inquired whether it would be possible for the FBI to check Kennedy’s phones; however, within a matter of minutes, he again called Inspector Evans to request that the Bureau forget the entire matter since he, O’Donnell, could make arrangements to handle the matter himself. Additionally, in March, 1959, O’Donnell discussed with Inspector Evans the publicity being
given remarks made by Robert Kennedy concerning alleged offers of political support for Senator John Kennedy if Robert Kennedy would “go easy” on certain witnesses before the McClellan Committee. O’Donnell advised that Robert Kennedy stated the press had unduly enlarged on his remarks, and O’Donnell said he did not believe the Kennedys have the facts necessary to back up Robert Kennedy’s reported statements.

Kenneth O’Donnell also advised Inspector Evans in March, 1959, that he had been informed that Cardinal Cushing was extremely displeased at the reaction of some Catholic Church publications to statements made by Senator Kennedy regarding the separation of church and state. O’Donnell said that Senator Kennedy’s position that no public tax money should be used for parochial schools was the position of the Church and that Cardinal Cushing felt the critical remarks of the Church publications regarding Kennedy’s statements were unwarranted.

John Kennedy is acquainted with former SA J. Philip O’Brien, whose resignation
was accepted at Oklahoma City in May, 1960, following
In this regard, O’Brien wrote the Director in June, 1960, to request reinstatement and/or acceptance of his resignation without
In his letter to the Director, O’Brien stated that Senator Kennedy had written him (O’Brien) as recently as 11-2-59 to state, “Dear Phil… I am certainly glad to hear that you are doing so well in Oklahoma…. ”

ROBERT KENNEDY: ADVOCATE OF FEDERAL CRIME COMMISSION:

Robert Kennedy, the Senator’s 34-year-old brother, has seen the Director on a number of occasions in recent years. In September, 1959, he called upon the Director to advise that he was resigning as Chief Counsel of the McClellan Committee and to express appreciation for the excellent cooperation which the Bureau had extended him. He specifically mentioned the help of Inspector Courtney Evans. The Director addresses him as “Dear Bob.”

Early this year, Robert Kennedy published a book, “The Enemy
Within,” dealing with graft, corruption and criminal influences in the labor movement—particularly James Hoffa’s Teamsters Union. In this book, Kennedy makes special mention of the advice and assistance given him by the Director.

Although he has displayed a very friendly attitude toward the Bureau, Robert Kennedy has been an outspoken advocate of the establishment of a Federal Crime Commission. He has stated, “In my opinion our first and most urgent need is for a national crime commission. This commission would serve as a central intelligence agency, a clearinghouse to which each of the seventy-odd Federal agencies and the more than ten thousand local law enforcement agencies throughout the country would constantly feed information on the leading gangsters. The commission would pool and correlate all its information on underworld figures and disseminate it to the proper authorities.”

WEST VIRGINIA PRIMARY ELECTIONS:

In connection with the recent hotly contested primary elections in West Virginia, several charges of improper actions were made to the Bureau, including allegations that votes were bought, that a polling place in Logan County was moved to prevent qualified West Virginians from voting, and that voting officials in Logan County pulled voting machine levers for local citizens. With regard to Senator Kennedy’s religion, improperly labeled anti-Catholic literature was distributed by a nonexistent organization called the “Protestant Information Center.”

POLITICAL VIEWS:

In a syndicated column datelined Washington, D. C., 1-14-57, Fulton Lewis, Jr., described Kennedy as “conscientious and sincere” in his Senate duties and stated, “Kennedy tempers his political liberalism with enough realistic conservatism that the Walter Reuther-Americans for Democratic Action leftists mistrust his independence. That was the real reason they threw the No. 2 (Vice
Presidential) nomination to Kefauver in Chicago (at the Democratic National Convention) last August.”

The 3-11-59 issue of “Human Events” made reference to the “wrist-slapping labor-reform bill” which Senator Kennedy had placed before the Senate. “Human Events” stated that Kennedy claimed the bill would “virtually put (James) Hoffa and his associates out of business;” whereas Utah Senator Wallace Bennett exposed the falseness of this assertion. Senator Bennett stated that far from putting Hoffa out of business, the Kennedy bill “would fall far short of correcting the evils brought out by the McClellan committee.”…