Why the Cover-up?

[Tim Gratz]

John has suggested (and I concur) that the “cover-up” may have been implemented by people unrelated to the conspirators. As an illustration, consider the following:

As most of you probably know, shortly after Ruby killed LHO, a British journalist approached either the FBI and stated that he had been in prison in Cuba in 1959 and he believed he had seen Ruby visiting an American gangster named “Santos”. The journalist requested photographs of Ruby so he could verify his recollection.

The FBI sent an urgent cable to London requesting that the London FBI cease this line of inquiry. The FBI cable stated: “Prior information available at Bureau that Ruby in Havana, Cuba in 1959. Bureau desires no further investigation re Wilson.” The FBI never informed the WC of this possible connection between Jack Ruby and Santo Trafficante, Jr.

In “Deep Politics and the Death of JFK”, Peter Dale Scott argues that the urgent intervention by FBI HQ may have been motivated by the FBI’s knowledge that “Santos” had worked with the CIA to attempt to kill Castro. About the last thing our government wanted to be publicly revealed was that it had plotted the murder of Fidel Castro with the assistance of the underworld.

I have not read all of “The Assassination Tapes” but I do not believe that Hoover ever mentioned this to LBJ either. The record seems to indicate that LBJ first found out about the CIA/Mafia plots in 1967 and when he first heard about them he did not believe them because the idea seemed so preposterous to him.

The connections of Ruby to Trafficante merit further comment and I will have a post on that tomorrow.

[John Ritchson]

John has suggested (and I concur) that the “cover-up” may have been implemented by people unrelated to the conspirators.  As an illustration, consider the following:   

As most of you probably know, shortly after Ruby killed LHO, a British journalist approached either the FBI and stated that he had been in prison in Cuba in 1959 and he believed he had seen Ruby visiting an American gangster named “Santos”.  The journalist requested photographs of Ruby so he could verify his recollection.

The FBI sent an urgent cable to London requesting that the London FBI cease this line of inquiry.  The FBI cable stated:  “Prior information available at Bureau that Ruby in Havana, Cuba in 1959.  Bureau desires no further investigation re Wilson.”  The FBI never informed the WC of this possible connection between Jack Ruby and Santo Trafficante, Jr.

In “Deep Politics and the Death of JFK”, Peter Dale Scott argues that the urgent intervention by FBI HQ may have been motivated by the FBI’s knowledge that “Santos” had worked with the CIA to attempt to kill Castro.  About the last thing our government wanted to be publicly revealed was that it had plotted the murder of Fidel Castro with the assistance of the underworld.

I have not read all of  “The Assassination Tapes” but I do not believe that Hoover ever mentioned this to LBJ either.  The record seems to indicate that LBJ first found out about the CIA/Mafia plots in 1967 and when he first heard about them he did not believe them because the idea seemed so preposterous to him.

The connections of Ruby to Trafficante merit further comment and I will have a post on that tomorrow.

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Greetings Tim:

I think you and John Are raising a good point here.

While I don't believe the FBI had any part of the actual assassination it was certainly to their interests not to pursue the conspiracy trail as it were. Also, Since almost from the very beginning they had physical control of the physical evidence and were basically the only people who were in a position to effect the massive evidence tampering that I am convinced occured.

Respectfully:

[Tim Gratz]

And of course RFK had reasons of his own to want to limit the investigation, including possible exposure of JFK's involvement with Judith Campbell and Ellen Rometsch.

Obviously, finding his brother's killers would not bring his brother back to life but the investigation to find the killers might very well expose some of the "dark secrets of Camelot". Far better to protect his brother's reputation.

Ironically, the details of JFK's serial adulteries came out anyway and we may not necessarily be closer to solving the case.

Although I was not a Kennedy supporter (although I loved his wit and intelligence and watched all of his press conferences even as a pre-teen) , I regret that all of these details have been revealed. I would far rather remember him as the father of two young children than someone engaged in adultery in the WH with a married woman with possible connections to East German intelligence!

So the irony is that while RFK's acquiesence in, and even participation in, the cover-up may have prevented the apprehension of the conspirators, in the long run it did not protect his brother's reputation.

[Shanet Clark]

For all the sloppy, reprehensible and obstructive work

the FBI did in the investigation and liasson with the

Warren Commission, I also fail to see direct FBI sponsorship

of the assassination itself.

I believe Hoover's surprise and anger about being kept

in the dark about Oswald was real.

Although they came together in a united front to properly

cover the whole thing up along LN lines,

the fact is that the FBI was a legitimate domestic law enforcement

organ that was sidestepped regularly by the civilian and joint

paramilitary programs operating on domestic soil.

Keepin the FBI and "clean" police well away from the plot, the team and the

patsy was the function of the illegal paramilitary joint force in Dallas and Miami.

"The Left Hand doesn't know what the Right Hand is doing."

Sam Giancana, circa 1963.

[Jim Root]

I also tend to believe that the FBI did not have anything to do with the assassination. I believe that is why they were tasked with developing leads and not the CIA!

For myself the Warren Report is a trail that I enjoy following in search of errors or OMISSIONS that has led to many interesting discoveries (for example a $111.90 aiplane flight from London to Helsinki while not providing information about which flight).

Why a coverup? It is my opinion that Oswald had been "used" by US intelligence and may well have been "used" by Soviet intelligence and may have been used to participate in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. To many people in to many high places would have very good reasons to facilitate the "cover-up" weather they were involved or not.

This is perhaps the most intriguing part. Because so many people may have had so many reasons to participate in a cover-up and we can then find so many potential conspirators that we lose site of the forrest because of the trees that block our view.

To me "the Big Fish" must be one who would have knowledge of all the pieces but most importantly would know that a cover-up would occur to protect his/their actions.

Jim Root

[Shanet Clark]

Central elements of the government authorized cover up:

1. JFK's Brain, Brain Xray and Autopsy Photos of the Head.

2. Murder of Oswald

3. Suppression of Ballistics evidence

4. Evidence of multiple rifles

5. Evidence of Film Tampering

[blood spray and Blob in zapruder]

6. Re-direction of testimony, leading the witnesses

7. Murder of subpoenaed and well informed witnesses and participants

I agree with Jim Root that all this came from Oswald's murky

intelligence and counter intelligence aspects, which were immediately

obvious because he was a counter defector and looked like one of ours or one

of theirs, but either way he was too hot to handle, and was turned into the lone nut.

[Shanet Clark]

...either way he was too hot to handle, and was turned into the lone nut.

Double Post,

Server has been down recently...

1/24/05 Z1900

Edited January 23, 2005 by Shanet Clark

[Tim Gratz]

According to sources cited in Holland's "The Assassination Tapes" LBJ at first desired only a Texas Court of Inquiry into the assassination and vigorously resisted congressional and editorial support for a national commission. LBJ determined to select Earl Warren as Chairman and LBJ selected the congressional members. He consulted with RFK re who else to put on the WC. One of RFK's suggestions was--Allen Dulles.

Edited January 24, 2005 by Tim Gratz

[Chris Cox]

Have to jump in here, Tim. My two cents on Wilson is that he was no meager source of info. He was a darn good one that may have slipped away, no thanks to our FBI. The FBI wasn't ignorant of the implications I believe. It's hard to believe with so much manpower this could occur in the investigation of murder of US Pres.

Wilson was in detention after being busted with my father, Joe Bardor, Efren Picardo and John Spiritto in 1959. Spiritto a very interesting intelligence contact and Wilson were working together. They are cross-refed in NARA with the event they were jailed for. A bit more on who Wilson is can be found at NARA.

From a conversation with Hemming I recently had, Lucayo was behind a mission to invade Nicaragua. It was planned at the house in Havana where I lived with my father briefly in 1959. There's some circumstantial stuff that indicates it could have been a intelligence ploy to show Castro was exporting his Communist regime. This would occur in the heat of a growing counterrev in Cuba, esp. in the capital. Gerry offered me compelling information on this event I have yet to research. The other possibility is that it was hatched fully in the Nicaragua camp but there was US influence.

All that aside, I'm illustrating just one incident among many that seems to vanish- slip between the cracks of any decent investigation. Cuban operations cannot be ignored in the study of JFK, of course but this source would have put Ruby in Havana, where he surely had been. Ruby was dealing stuff to Castro and wanted Morgan to help him do this, along with many other opportunists of the time, according to another conversation I had with Gerry. Perhaps he can post on this.

Anything you can add to the mysterious Wilson much appreciated.

[Dawn Meredith]

...either way he was too hot to handle, and was turned into the lone nut.

Double Post,

Server has been down recently...

1/24/05  Z1900

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I have always suspected they MUST have had something on Warren to force him to do head this commission/. Ya, I know the whole nuclear war story, but...I don't buy that one. The WC is the major cover up of the century. He was a very liberal Supreme Court Justice. I know very little about his past but having read many of his decisions, (in law school, and since) it just struck me as odd. Too contradictory, but he may have been one way on social and other areas of the law, but as a pol. totally corrupt. ???

Dawn