John Meir's Alleged Assassination Discovery

[Peter Whitmey]

On November 22, 1993 THE VANCOUVER SUN published an article I wrote, commemorating the thirtieth anniversary of JFK's assassination [which was republished at my suggestion on November 22, 2003 and is available at http://www.kenrahn.com/JFK/JFK.html - click onto "recent additions on the sidebar and scroll down to title or click onto "the critics" and my name.] A few days later I received a phone call from a very articulate reader, who thought I might be interested in some information he had received back in 1978 while serving time at the former "Okalla" prison in Burnaby, B.C. on a drug-related charge.

The caller, whose first name is Bob, described having met a former assistant to Howard Hughes, John Meier (the subject of AGE OF SECRETS by Gerald Bellett of THE VANCOUVER SUN), at Okalla, who was in the process of being extradicted to the U.S. (Meier has lived in a suburb of Vancouver since the early 1970s). Bob spent a great deal of time talking to Meier about American politics and in particular his involvement with Howard Hughes (who briefly lived at the Bayshore Inn in Vancouver in 1972).

According to Bob, Meier indicated at some point in their conversations that, when he realized he was being replaced as Hughes' right-hand man by several "Mormons from Utah", he quietly travelled to Hughes's "record centre" in both the Bahamas and Los Angeles (on Romaine St.), intent on retrieving any documents that he felt might be used against him. While going through the records in the Bahamas, he allegedly "found evidence of pay orders" related to the assassination of President Kennedy. (Hughes was closely associated with Robert Maheu, who played an important role in the CIA-Mafia plot to kill Castro; Maheu, in turn, was, and still is, a close friend of James Phelan, the former reporter and apparent FBI informant, who wrote an "expose" on the Garrison investigation in May, 1967.)

(I corresponded with Phelan by snail-mail for two years around the time of Oliver Stone's film, until he realized that I was a supporter of Garrison; I was also corresponding with Perry Russo at the same time, as well as writer/researcher Jim DeEugenio in L.A.)

Phelan died a couple of years ago after co-writing a final book on Hughes, and his wife sent me a registered letter warning me not to quote from my correspondence with her late husband, after I had mentioned plans for an article on him at alt.assassination.jfk. Phelan himself had also sent me registered letter earlier, but oddly enough neither one had their lawyer contact me, who was mentioned in their two letters. Phelan's wife seems to believe the letters sent to me are her property, and therefore can't be used without her permission. I never did write the article but still have the dozen or so letters from Jim and copies of my letters to him, plus the registered ones. Jim and I also talked on the phone a few times.)

In my initial conversation with Bob, I learned that he had continued to remain in contact with Meier for some years to come, and that Bob had hoped to write a book on Meier's fascination career after numerous interview sessions. He was even able to provide me with Meier's address in Tsawassen, which is located close to the U.S. border south of Vancouver, next to Pt. Roberts, Washington (where Meier was kidnapped by U.S. authorities back in the late 1970s, while returning from the beach with his family and friends, as described in AGE OF SECRETS). According to his notes of the telephone conversation, he also was aware of research being done by Gerry Bellett, who had previously written for a small newspaper in New Westminster (THE COLUMBIAN).

Earlier this year [1996] I spoke to Bob again by phone at his residence in Vancouver, mentioning Bellett's book to him, which had been favourably reviewed in THE VANCOUVER SUN, and which he was anxious to read. I later contacted him again, after describing Meier's allegations to author Anthony Summers, who is in the midst of writing a biography on Richard Nixon (Bellett's book gives an intriguing explanation for the Watergate break-in.) Bob was quite agreeable to being interviewed about his experience with Meier, and consequently a research assistant for Summers phoned me (as well as Bob) from Portland, Oregon. After attempting to contact Meier himself without success (his phone number, obtained from the publisher, automatically switches to an answering machine), I spoke to Gerry Bellett, and briefly described the allegation to him. Although he was quite skeptical about Hughes being linked to the assassination of JFK, he agreed to mention my conversation with Bob to Meier, and in a later conversation, he indicated that no such comments had been made by Meier to Bob.

However, a tantalizing reference to the assassination is made on pages 252-53 of AGE OF SECRETS (which I had not yet read wh n I phoned Bellett), and I will leave it to the reader to decide if there is any possible

correlation:

"...Shocking as they were..... never to mention the file again." [see pages 252-53 for full quote]

It is possible that Meier has been reluctant to come forward with this information related to Hughes, but nevertheless needed to tell someone what he knew, knowing full well that he could simply deny having made such a statement if it was ever brought to his attention in the distant future. If that was the plan, it has come to pass.

[Pat Speer]

While I think Meir is probably a xxxx (hey, that rhymes), I too suspect Hughes may have been involved. The logic behind it is somewhat circular.

1. The CIA used Maheu as a cut-out for all kinds of jobs, including the assassination of Castro.

2. The mob used Maheu for jobs of their own, including the bugging of Dan Rowan's hotel room.

3. Maheu told Hughes about the attempts on Castro, thereby revealing his real (at least at that time) loyalty.

4. Hughes was a shrewd s.o.b., and would probably realize that this gave him license to kill...all he needed was for Maheu to kill JFK and make it look like the CIA and the mob did it as a joint venture and sit back as EVERYONE in Washington covered their ass. Maheu and his pal Edward Bennett Williams were the ultimate insiders and could have figured out how to pull this off over a couple of drinks. After all, Maheu knew Rosselli and Bannister and just about every suspect out there...outside of Oswald.

(On a personal note, Maheu was good friends with an oilman named Johnny Mitchell, presented in Maheu's autobiography as a Texas oilman. What isn't stated is that Mitchell had ties to the Maceo mafia family of Galveston, Houston and Dallas going way back. I looked into a bit myself--Mitchell was my dad's boss when I was a kid.)

In conclusion, Maheu COULD have done it, but there is little evidence he did--it's silly to think Maheu would put any of the assassins on Hughes' payroll, as that would defeat the purpose of using him as a cut-out and creating the illusion it was the CIA or the mob...

Edited December 1, 2004 by Pat Speer

[Robert Howard]

While I think Meir is probably a xxxx (hey, that rhymes), I too suspect Hughes may have been involved. The logic behind it is somewhat circular.

1. The CIA used Maheu as a cut-out for all kinds of jobs, including the assassination of Castro.

2. The mob used Maheu for jobs of their own, including the bugging of Dan Rowan's hotel room.

3. Maheu told Hughes about the attempts on Castro, thereby revealing his real (at least at that time) loyalty.

4. Hughes was a shrewd s.o.b., and would probably realize that this gave him license to kill...all he needed was for Maheu to kill JFK and make it look like the CIA and the mob did it as a joint venture and sit back as EVERYONE in Washington covered their ass. Maheu and his pal Edward Bennett Williams were the ultimate insiders and could have figured out how to pull this off over a couple of drinks. After all, Maheu knew Rosselli and Bannister and just about every suspect out there...outside of Oswald.

(On a personal note, Maheu was good friends with an oilman named Johnny Mitchell, presented in Maheu's autobiography as a Texas oilman. What isn't stated is that Mitchell had ties to the Maceo mafia family of Galveston, Houston and Dallas going way back. I looked into a bit myself--Mitchell was my dad's boss when I was a kid.)

In conclusion, Maheu COULD have done it, but there is little evidence he did--it's silly to think Maheu would put any of the assassins on Hughes' payroll, as that would defeat the purpose of using him as a cut-out and creating the illusion it was the CIA or the mob...

There are at least 10 documents at NARA re Meier, below is an excerpt from one of them

JOHN HERBERT MEIER [10 Hits]

http://www.nara.gov/cgi-bin/starfinder/14817/jfksnew.txt

Home/Archive/Documents/JFK Assassination Documents/JFK Documents - Central Intelligence Agency/HSCA Segregated CIA Collection/HSCA Segregated CIA Collection, Box 44/

NARA Record Number: 104-10122-10274

MEETING WITH SCOTT ARMSTRONG, 5 OCTOBER 1973. [MAHEU'S CONTACTS WITH CIA]

FROM: Miller Lyle L. ALC/OGC, CIA

TO: Memo For the Record

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/....do?docId=31048

3. Robert Maheu - I asked [scott] Armstrong to be more specific concerning Robert Maheu, since I was sure he was not on a fishing expeditionand we didn't want to report sensitive information of no interest to the present inquiry. Armstrong appreciated the situation and said the interests involved: (A) Information on Maheu's connection with Cubans,

particularly those in the Miami community, either at our behest, or information that had come to our attention. Armstrong said there was evidence of a previous Agency association

with Cuban's through Maheu, attributing the information to Maheu, but not indicating whether he had obtained it directly or not. In an attempt to get more specific, I asked if information we had on relationships between Maheu and the four Cubans caught in the Watergate break-in would suffice. Armstrong said that was too limited as there is a deeper involvement within the Miami/Cuban community, but he did not seem interested in going as far back as the previous association which he had mentioned.

Intimating that there agency cover relationships with the Hughes company through Maheu providing Agency officers access, any information on John Meier (a former employee of Hughes) and F. Donald Nixon concerning involvement with activities in the Dominican Republic.

He referred to evidence that Nixon may have misrepresented himself as a United States Government emissary in this connection and that the Agency.....may have information on such matters, which he assumed would be its responsibility to report.

Home/Archive/Documents/JFK Assassination Documents/JFK Documents - Central Intelligence Agency/HSCA Segregated CIA Collection/HSCA Segregated CIA Collection, Box 44/

NARA Record Number: 104-10122-10280

UNRELATED SUBJECTS: MEMOS RE ED MULLIN, JOHN MEIER, ROBERT F. BENNET, AND HUGHES TOOL

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/....do?docId=53705

The second URL is not a document per se, but references other documents........

It would be nice to be aware of the most salient passages from John Meier the subject of the book Age Of Secrets by Gerald Bellett of The Vancouver Sun......

There are other aspects of Maheu's life and times that can lead to some pondering. According to Deadly Secrets authors Hinckle and Turner, Maheu had an encounter with Hjalmar Schacht and Ari Onassis, when Schacht bribed King Saud to give Onassis exclusive rights to transport oil from Saudi territory. This placed Maheu in the same camp as Richard Nixon, who probably despised the idea of Onassis moving in on exclusive Western-oil transport profits as he did seeing Castro, march into Havana. Maheu even had a role in relation to the Icardi Case which took place in 1944, when a Major William Holohan was murdered after parachuting into Nazi German-held mountains near Milan with a reputed $100 million in gold, to distribute among the feuding Italian partisans in order to end the war against Germany ahead of schedule, when Holohan was murdered the gold disappeared. Maheu provided legal representation to OSS Lt. Aldo Icardi, who was accused of being the culprit in the killing, and later cleared Icardi, turning the tables on his accusers, by countering that the Red Garibaldini were the real culprits, who murdered Holohan, took the gold and sought to bloody the nose of the OSS by implicating an American spy [icardi] and an Italian to boot.

See Deadly Secrets pages 326-327.

Edited May 20, 2010 by Robert Howard