George Smathers

[Thomas H. Purvis]

Nixon is commonly supposed to have been introduced to Bebe Rebozo by Richard Danner, the courier and connecter who left the FBI to become city manager of Miami Beach at. a time when it was under the all-but-open control of the Mob. Danner first met Nixon at a party thrown in Washington in 1947 by another newly elected congressman, George Smathers. Smathers was by that time already an intimate friend and business partner of Rebozo and a friend of Batista. When Nixon vacationed in Havana after his 1952 election to the vice-presidency, Syndicate-wise Danner used his clout with Lansky's man Norman "Roughhouse" Rothman to get gambling credit at the Sans Souci for Nixon's traveling companion, Dana Smith. We recall Dana , Smith as the manager of the secret slush fund set up to finance Pat Nixon's cloth coats, the exposure of which led to the famous Checkers TV speech during the 1952 campaign. Smith dropped a bundle at the Sans Souci and left Cuba: without paying it back. Safe in the States, he repudiated the debt. That infuriated Rothman. Nixon was forced to ask the State Department to intervene in Smith's behalf.

It is poetically satisfying to imagine Nixon and Rebozo meeting through Danner. When Danner reenters in the next to last act of Watergate with the $100,000 from Hughes which only he seems to have been able to deliver, we may sense a wheel coming full circle. But there is the possibility also that Rebozo and Nixon actually connected in Miami in 1942, and it is almost certain that they knew of each other then, as will emerge.

Here are the fragments with which we reconstruct Rebozo: (1) he is associated with the anti-Castro Cuban exile community in Florida; (2) an all-Cuban shopping center in Miami is constructed for him by Polizzi Construction Co., headed by Cleveland Mafioso Al "The Owl" Polizzi, listed by the McClellan crime committee as one of "the most influential members of the underworld in. the United States"; (3) his Key Biscayne Bank was involved in the E. F. Hutton stock theft, in which the Mafia fenced stolen securities through his bank.

Rebozo's will to power appears to have developed during the war, when he made it big in the "used-tire" and "retread'' business. Used-tire distributors all over the country; of course, were willingly and unwillingly turned into fences of Mafia black market tires during the war. Rebozo could have been used and still not know it.

He was born in 1912 in Florida to a family of poor Cuban immigrants, was ambitious, and by 1935 had his first gas station. By the time the war was over, his lucrative retread business had turned him into a capitalist and he was buying up Florida land. Before long he was buying vast amounts of it in partnership with Smathers and spreading thence into the small-loans business, sometimes called loan-sharking. From lending he went to insuring. He and Smathers insured each other's business operations. His successes soon carried him to the sphere of principalities and powers the likes of W. Clement Stone of Chicago and the aerosol king Robert Abplanalp, both of whom met Nixon through him. Also during the war, Rebozo was navigator in a part-time Military Air Transport Command crew that flew military transports to Europe full and back empty, which some find a Minderbinderesque detail.

During the first year of the war, before going into the Navy, Nixon worked in the interpretations unit of the legal section of the tire-rationing branch of the Office of Price Administration. Investigator Jeff Gerth has discovered that three weeks after Nixon began this job, his close friend-to¬-be, George Smathers, came to federal court for the defendant in this case, United States vs. Standard Oil of Kansas. U.S. Customs had confiscated a load of American-made tires reentering the country through Cuba in an "attempt to circumvent national tire rationing," i.e., bootleg tires. Smathers wanted to speed up the case for his client, and so wrote to the OPA for a ruling. His letter must have come to Nixon, who, OPA records show, was responsible for all correspondence on tire rationing questions. It was therefore Nixon's business to answer Smathers. Especially since this was the first knock on the door, it would be nice to know what Nixon said and how the matter was disposed of. "Unfortunately," reports Gerth, "most OPA records were destroyed after the war. The court file for this case is supposed to be in the Atlanta Records Center, but a written request submitted to the clerk of the civil court on July 6, 1972, has not been honored, despite the usual one week response time. Written questions submitted to President Nixon and Bebe Robozo have also gone unanswered. Among the relevant questions is whether Miami was one of the regional offices Nixon set up.

Was this the bending of the twig? And if Rebozo and Nixon actually did meet then, even if only through bureaucratic transactions around the flow of tires, then they met within the sphere of intense Syndicate activity at a time when Roosevelt's Operation Underworld had conferred immense prestige and freedom of movement on Syndicate activities. Could the Nixon-Rebozo relationship escape being affected by FDR's truce between law arid crime?

Let us spell out this theory of Nixon's beginnings in A-B-C simplicity.

Prohibition: Organized crime takes over the distilleries industry.

Repeal: Bootlegging goes legit, the Syndicate thereby expanding into the sphere of "legal" operations. This is the first big foothold of organized crime in the operations of the state.

Cuba/Batista: Lansky goes to Cuba in 1934 in search of a molasses source, meets and courts the newly ascendant strongman Batista, stays three weeks and lays plans for developing Havana into the major off-shore freezone of State-side organized crime, Cuba playing the role in the Caribbean of Sicily and Corsica in the Mediterranean.

World War II: In despair of otherwise securing the physical security of the docks against sabotage which may or may not have been Fascist-inspired, Roosevelt accepts a secret arrangement with organized crime. He comforts Luciano in prison and agrees to release him to exile at the end of the war. He generates an atmosphere of coalition with crime for the duration. In that atmosphere, Syndicate projects prosper. But one of the smugglers, Kansas Standard, gets too brazen and is caught, perhaps, by naive customs officials. Smathers takes the case for the defendant and thus comes into contact with Nixon.

Noting Gerth's discovery that the records of this case have inexplicably disappeared from the files, noting Rebozo's involvement in the tire business and his rapid enrichment during World War II, and noting Smathers's well-known affection for Cuban associations, we generalize to the straight-forward hypothesis that Nixon may have been fused to the Syndicate already in 1942. Was his 1944 stint in the Navy a sheep-dipping? Look at this rise: 1946: Nixon for Congress; 1948: Nixon for Congress (II); 1950: Nixon for Senate; 1952: a heartbeat away.

So it is another Dr. Frankenstein story. The Yankees beget in sheer expediency and offhandedness the forces that will later grow strong enough to challenge them for leadership. Operation Underworld was the supreme pioneering joint effort of crime and the state, the first major direct step taken toward their ultimate covert integration in the Dallas-Watergate decade.

Carl;

A lot of time was expended in this response (completely lost the first time around), therefore it is hoped that you find it worthwhile.

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Prohibition: Organized crime takes over the distilleries industry.

Repeal: Bootlegging goes legit, the Syndicate thereby expanding into the sphere of "legal" operations. This is the first big foothold of organized crime in the operations of the state.

Cuba/Batista: Lansky goes to Cuba in 1934 in search of a molasses source

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One could, if completely unknowledgeable in this area, assume that Lansky went to Cuba merely to insure that he would always have syrup for his morning pancakes and waffles.

However, us ole southern boys who are somewhat familiar with moonshine production would probably think otherwise.

For those who are unaware, molasses happens to be the third step (depending on where one begins counting) in the production of sugar.

1. Gathering of the cane sugar.

2. Grinding of the cane juices out of the cane.

3. Boiling the cane juices down to the highly thickened molasses stage.

Thereafter, the molasses is normally delivered to a sugar refinery for the final stages of sugar production.

And, sugar happens to be one of those EEI's (essential elements of ingredients) in the fermenting and production of liquor.

And, it takes a whole lot of it to ferment that good stuff.

For those few remaining of us who have limited knowledge of the moonshine industry, we are quite familiar with how the government progressively gained control and ultimately drove this "private enterprise" out of business.

All who sold sugar were required to report sugar purchases which exceeded the normal household needs, such as the 5-pound bag which was bought at the local grocery store.

Sugar for distillation/liquor production was purchased in HUGE quantities, and the little local moonshiner usually acquired this in 50-pound bags and lots of them.

Thus, a large "black market" evolved in the sugar business for those who were utilizing it to produce unregulated alcoholic beverages.

In fact, many of the "last" of the shine-makers down here in South MS, frequently wanted a part of their payment for product made in sugar.

That way, there was absolutely no record of their having acquired the sugar for manufacture, and they could fly below the radar screen that was watching.

Eventually, the legalized liquor industry as well as the black market price of sugar drove out of business all of the independent moonshine makers.

Thus, the government got it's "cut"/taxes on all that was made.

Now, as a tidbit of added information, should you find this information worthwhile, you may want to review that topic of "SUGAR" as long ago posted here, as well as the "Dunbar" family legacy.

And, the following information may be of particular interest to those who are not off chasing mythological creatures.

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http://www.nutrias.org/~nopl/inv/synopsis/a.htm

New Orleans (La.) Archives Department

Synopsis of Ordinances, 1841-1937

Asylums Almhouses Widow/Orphans/Aged/Destitute Touro-Shakespeare Home: (Judah Touro) 13840 CCS 1932 Authorizing purchase of all improvements made by the Dunbar Molasses Co. on ground owned by the Touro-Shakespeare Home in square bounded by Chartres, Piety, N. Peters and Desire Streets, and adjoining square, and leasing to the Dunbar Molasses Co. for three years.

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http://michaelguth.com/attorney/contractsiioutline.htm

(a) Risk of nonperformance foreseeable. DUNBAR MOLASSES

The Dunbar Molasses/Canadian Alcohol case regarding the non-delivery of molasses/non-performance of contract, is still a reference case.

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http://www.lectlaw.com/files/lws49.htm

1. Canadian Industrial Alcohol Co. v. Dunbar Molasses Co., (1932).

2. Facts: The P. made an express contract with the D. to buy 1.5 million

gallons of molasses. The D. was a middleman who bought molasses from the

National Refinery, and resold them. During the time for performance, the

National Refinery reduced production such that the D. was unable to make

the full deliveries to the P. according to the conractual timeline. At

no time did the D. make a contract with the National Refinery to assure

the continued supply of any molasses.

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Name: DUNBAR MOLASSES COMPANY

Type Entity: Business Corporation

Mailing Address: ', NEW ORLEANS, LA 70150

Domicile Address: ', NEW ORLEANS, LA 70150

File Date: 11/15/1911

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http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-his...ny-History.html

Company History:

Based in Montreal, Corby Distilleries Limited markets a full range of domestically produced distilled spirits and liqueurs as well as imported cognac, scotch, gin, and a variety of wines. Leading brands marketed and distributed by Corby include Lamb's, Wiser's, and Canadian Club. The company boasts a legacy of success dating back to the 1870s.

In 1918 Canadian Industrial Alcohol Company Limited, a holding company, purchased H. Corby Distillery Company Limited. Canadian Industrial made subsequent acquisitions as well and emerged as a major player in the alcoholic beverages and industrial alcohol industries. One of the most important of these purchases was Robert McNish & Company Limited of Glasgow, Scotland, the bottler of the renowned Scotch whiskey Grand McNish. Canadian Industrial also acquired J.M. Douglas & Company Limited, a major import company, and Wiser's De Luxe Whiskey. For about 30 years Corby operated under the umbrella of its parent, Canadian Industrial. During that period Corby flourished as a leading manufacturer and distributor of Corby whiskeys and other beverages.

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[Gil Jesus]

Two years ago I posted something on George Smathers in JFK Lancer. I would like to share it with this forum.

Sen. George Smathers

by Gil Jesus (2005)

It is interesting to note that George Smathers ran for President as a favorite-son candidate, and got all of Florida's 29 delegates in the 1960 Democratic Primary. He could have supported the candidacy of his good friend JFK, but instead decided to run himself. (Kennedy, Sorenson, p.159) This decision, to run as a "favorite-son" candidate was an option exercised by both Senators and Governors of several states in an attempt to stop JFK from getting the nomination on the first ballot.

Some friend, huh ?

As Senator, George Smathers did not always support his good friend President Kennedy. In fact, he didn't support him before he was elected. In a special session of Congress that took place while Kennedy was running against Nixon, Smathers had voted against EVERY one of JFK's pet projects. (The Man and the Myth, Victor Lasky, pg. 434)

In 1961, for example, he only supported the President's bills 47 percent of the time. (The Man and the Myth, Pg. 102) A close personal friend and usher at Senator Kennedy's wedding, Smathers did not support JFK's attempts to pass Medicaid. Theodore Sorenson writes that Smathers "was aware of the influence of the AMA in Florida". And he goes on to relate that a White House colleague commented that, "Smathers hasn't stood up for Jack Kennedy since the wedding". (Kennedy, P.344)

In addition, Sorenson tells of a conversation he had with JFK himself, in which the President commented that he had received a series of poor recommendations from Smathers in regard to the Dominican Republic, adding, "And now he's trying to tell me what to do about Cuba." (P. 391n)

Those poor recommendations may have been as a result of Smathers visit, at JFK's request, to the Domincan Republic in the spring of 1961 to convince the dictator Rafael Trujillo to "relinquish power and move out", as Smathers testified to the Church Committee in 1975. It was an effort in which Smathers failed and resulted in Trujillo's assassination in May 1961.

The fact that Kennedy tried to intervene indicates his reluctance to support assassination as a tool of state.

Michael Beschloss writes in The Crisis Years, that Smathers lobbied Kennedy hard against Castro. Smathers himself admitted that, "Kennedy always identified me with pushing, pushing, pushing.(p.101) It was probably because he was. According to Gus Russo, (Live by the Sword, pg. 233) Smathers was one of those Democrats who broke party ranks and demanded military action during the Missile Crisis. The other was the right-wing Democrat, Strom Thurmond (S.C.).

In addition, Smathers was a great hater of Fidel Castro. (High Treason, Groden and Livingstone, Pg.325)

The subject of assassination as a tool of state (in regard to Cuba) was discussed by JFK and Smathers. Smathers could not remember whether he brought it up or JFK did, but Smathers suggested, according to Warren Hinkle and William Turner (Deadly Secrets-The CIA/Mafia War against Castro and the Assassination of JFK, pg. 73) , that any assassination attempt be coupled with a staged incident at the Guantanamo Naval Base that would provide a pretext for intervention by American Forces.

Smathers' suggestion about using Guantanamo as an excuse to invade Cuba was similar to the plan suggested by Richard Nixon in his post-invasion visit to the White House when he suggested finding "legal cover" such as "defending our base at Guantanamo" as an excuse for "going in ".

Shortly thereafter, Kennedy learned enough of Smathers' right-wing associations to make him wary.

According to Hank Messick (Lansky, pg. 169), a Smathers watcher, Kennedy ordered Smathers never to bring up the topic of Cuba again. But Smathers pushed one more time. At a White House supper, Smathers table-talk of assassination angered the President so much that Kennedy slammed his fork against his plate and broke it. (Deadly Secrets, pgs. 73-74)

After that, Smathers gave up.

One of Smathers right-wing connections was the man who Kennedy "stole" the election from .

Smathers was friendly with Richard Nixon and was a member of Clint Murchison's "DelCharro Set", which included J. Edgar Hoover. (Deep Politics and the Death of JFK, Peter Dale Scott, pg. 208)

In fact, two of Batista's biggest supporters were Senator George Smathers and Vice-President Richard Nixon. Smathers had a natural inclination toward Havana and the shower of wealth that it rained over Southern Florida. Nixon looked at Cuba with promised-land awe. (Deadly Secrets, pg. 345-46)

Richard Nixon was told by John McCone, Kennedy's CIA director, that Kennedy knew about the secret training of the Cuban exiles BEFORE the election of 1960, despite Allen Dulles' assurances that he did not tell JFK and Kennedy's denial that he knew. The man who confirmed for McCone that JFK knew about it before the election was George Smathers. (Crisis Years, Pg. 29n)

It was Smathers who told Nixon and Eisenhower that Kennedy was considering recognizing "Red China" and maintaining a "two-China" policy, something that both Republicans advised against in their meetings with JFK before his inauguration. (The Man and the Myth, pg. 19)

Besides the fact that he was leaking information on JFK to Nixon through McCone, Smathers was forced to concede that his own conservative politics and those politics of JFK differed: "Sometimes we argue and he gives me hell. But we understand each other.", he said.

Smathers was good friends with Nixon, having introduced Nixon to his future friend Bebe Rebozo in 1951. Nixon's house in Key Biscayne, Florida was purchased from Smathers in December 1968.

Smathers had purchased it the year before. (High Treason, Pg. 322) Victor Lasky tells of a speech given by Smathers in 1950 burning Senator Claude Pepper, who was then under bitter attack as "Stalin's mouthpiece in the Senate". Smathers right-wing colors showed through as he hit hard on Pepper's affinity to Left-wing causes including his friendship with Stalin, who he visited at the end of the Second World War. (The Man and the Myth pg. 102) Lasky describes Smathers as being "popular with the chieftains of darkest Dixie". (The Man and the Myth Pg. 184)

Lasky comments that Smathers spoke highly of Kennedy's "leadership", even when disregarding it. (The Man and the Myth pg. 434)

Another of Smathers' friends was the man who gained the most from the assassination of JFK, Lyndon B. Johnson. According to Anthony Summers, (Official and Confidential--the Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover, .p 347) some time between the assassination and the 1964 election, Johnson received a dossier on Barry Goldwater from Hoover and read excepts aloud over the phone to Senator Smathers. In addition, Johnson also received a dossier on Smathers and proceeded to read it to Smathers.(Official and Confidential, Pg. 203)

In addition, Gus Russo tells us of a connection between Smathers and Michael McLaney, the man whose brother's summer cottage (which he rented) full of explosives were raided by the FBI near Lake Ponchartrain in July, 1963. McLaney told investigators that he had discussed his operational ideas to bomb Cuban refineries with Smathers. (Live by the Sword, pg. 67)

This was the same camp that Lee Harvey Oswald had visited on July 24th in the company of David Ferrie and was raided seven days later by the FBI.

McLaney wasn't the only one of these people whose names crop up in the assassination story and are connected with Smathers. Frank Fiorini, alias Frank Sturgis, got his U.S. citizenship thanks to the efforts of Senator George Smathers. (High Treason, Pg. 323) When Sturgis accepted a plan to hijack a Soviet Freighter off of Cuba and his boat was smashed on a reef iin British Honduras, he and his men ended up jailed in Belize. When he made his distress call, it was to Senator George Smathers. According to Sturgis, Smathers said, "Why didn't you invite me along ?"

They were quickly released. (Deadly Secrets, pg.407-408)

On JFK's trip to Florida on November 18th, Kennedy and Smathers argued some, with the President complaining to the senator about Smathers regular votes against administration bills. "Goddamnit George," the President said, " you're just knocking my jock off on civil rights. Can't you take it a little easy ?" (President Kennedy-Profile of Power, Richard Reeves, pgs. 658-659)

During the flight back to Washington from Florida, on which Smathers was a passenger, JFK said to him, "God, I wish you could think of some way to get me out of going to Texas....couldn't we have an emergency?" But instead, Smathers lobbied for the trip, telling the President how much Lyndon Johnson looked forward to entertaining the Kennedys at the LBJ Ranch. "Even if you declared war", he said, "Johnson would never forgive you if you didn't go." (The Crisis Years, pg. 666)

[John Simkin]

Two years ago I posted something on George Smathers in JFK Lancer. I would like to share it with this forum.

Sen. George Smathers

by Gil Jesus (2005)

It is interesting to note that George Smathers ran for President as a favorite-son candidate, and got all of Florida's 29 delegates in the 1960 Democratic Primary. He could have supported the candidacy of his good friend JFK, but instead decided to run himself. (Kennedy, Sorenson, p.159) This decision, to run as a "favorite-son" candidate was an option exercised by both Senators and Governors of several states in an attempt to stop JFK from getting the nomination on the first ballot.

Some friend, huh ?

As Senator, George Smathers did not always support his good friend President Kennedy. In fact, he didn't support him before he was elected. In a special session of Congress that took place while Kennedy was running against Nixon, Smathers had voted against EVERY one of JFK's pet projects. (The Man and the Myth, Victor Lasky, pg. 434)

In 1961, for example, he only supported the President's bills 47 percent of the time. (The Man and the Myth, Pg. 102) A close personal friend and usher at Senator Kennedy's wedding, Smathers did not support JFK's attempts to pass Medicaid. Theodore Sorenson writes that Smathers "was aware of the influence of the AMA in Florida". And he goes on to relate that a White House colleague commented that, "Smathers hasn't stood up for Jack Kennedy since the wedding". (Kennedy, P.344)

In addition, Sorenson tells of a conversation he had with JFK himself, in which the President commented that he had received a series of poor recommendations from Smathers in regard to the Dominican Republic, adding, "And now he's trying to tell me what to do about Cuba." (P. 391n)

Those poor recommendations may have been as a result of Smathers visit, at JFK's request, to the Domincan Republic in the spring of 1961 to convince the dictator Rafael Trujillo to "relinquish power and move out", as Smathers testified to the Church Committee in 1975. It was an effort in which Smathers failed and resulted in Trujillo's assassination in May 1961.

The fact that Kennedy tried to intervene indicates his reluctance to support assassination as a tool of state.

Michael Beschloss writes in The Crisis Years, that Smathers lobbied Kennedy hard against Castro. Smathers himself admitted that, "Kennedy always identified me with pushing, pushing, pushing.(p.101) It was probably because he was. According to Gus Russo, (Live by the Sword, pg. 233) Smathers was one of those Democrats who broke party ranks and demanded military action during the Missile Crisis. The other was the right-wing Democrat, Strom Thurmond (S.C.).

In addition, Smathers was a great hater of Fidel Castro. (High Treason, Groden and Livingstone, Pg.325)

The subject of assassination as a tool of state (in regard to Cuba) was discussed by JFK and Smathers. Smathers could not remember whether he brought it up or JFK did, but Smathers suggested, according to Warren Hinkle and William Turner (Deadly Secrets-The CIA/Mafia War against Castro and the Assassination of JFK, pg. 73) , that any assassination attempt be coupled with a staged incident at the Guantanamo Naval Base that would provide a pretext for intervention by American Forces.

Smathers' suggestion about using Guantanamo as an excuse to invade Cuba was similar to the plan suggested by Richard Nixon in his post-invasion visit to the White House when he suggested finding "legal cover" such as "defending our base at Guantanamo" as an excuse for "going in ".

Shortly thereafter, Kennedy learned enough of Smathers' right-wing associations to make him wary.

According to Hank Messick (Lansky, pg. 169), a Smathers watcher, Kennedy ordered Smathers never to bring up the topic of Cuba again. But Smathers pushed one more time. At a White House supper, Smathers table-talk of assassination angered the President so much that Kennedy slammed his fork against his plate and broke it. (Deadly Secrets, pgs. 73-74)

After that, Smathers gave up.

One of Smathers right-wing connections was the man who Kennedy "stole" the election from .

Smathers was friendly with Richard Nixon and was a member of Clint Murchison's "DelCharro Set", which included J. Edgar Hoover. (Deep Politics and the Death of JFK, Peter Dale Scott, pg. 208)

In fact, two of Batista's biggest supporters were Senator George Smathers and Vice-President Richard Nixon. Smathers had a natural inclination toward Havana and the shower of wealth that it rained over Southern Florida. Nixon looked at Cuba with promised-land awe. (Deadly Secrets, pg. 345-46)

Richard Nixon was told by John McCone, Kennedy's CIA director, that Kennedy knew about the secret training of the Cuban exiles BEFORE the election of 1960, despite Allen Dulles' assurances that he did not tell JFK and Kennedy's denial that he knew. The man who confirmed for McCone that JFK knew about it before the election was George Smathers. (Crisis Years, Pg. 29n)

It was Smathers who told Nixon and Eisenhower that Kennedy was considering recognizing "Red China" and maintaining a "two-China" policy, something that both Republicans advised against in their meetings with JFK before his inauguration. (The Man and the Myth, pg. 19)

Besides the fact that he was leaking information on JFK to Nixon through McCone, Smathers was forced to concede that his own conservative politics and those politics of JFK differed: "Sometimes we argue and he gives me hell. But we understand each other.", he said.

Smathers was good friends with Nixon, having introduced Nixon to his future friend Bebe Rebozo in 1951. Nixon's house in Key Biscayne, Florida was purchased from Smathers in December 1968.

Smathers had purchased it the year before. (High Treason, Pg. 322) Victor Lasky tells of a speech given by Smathers in 1950 burning Senator Claude Pepper, who was then under bitter attack as "Stalin's mouthpiece in the Senate". Smathers right-wing colors showed through as he hit hard on Pepper's affinity to Left-wing causes including his friendship with Stalin, who he visited at the end of the Second World War. (The Man and the Myth pg. 102) Lasky describes Smathers as being "popular with the chieftains of darkest Dixie". (The Man and the Myth Pg. 184)

Lasky comments that Smathers spoke highly of Kennedy's "leadership", even when disregarding it. (The Man and the Myth pg. 434)

Another of Smathers' friends was the man who gained the most from the assassination of JFK, Lyndon B. Johnson. According to Anthony Summers, (Official and Confidential--the Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover, .p 347) some time between the assassination and the 1964 election, Johnson received a dossier on Barry Goldwater from Hoover and read excepts aloud over the phone to Senator Smathers. In addition, Johnson also received a dossier on Smathers and proceeded to read it to Smathers.(Official and Confidential, Pg. 203)

In addition, Gus Russo tells us of a connection between Smathers and Michael McLaney, the man whose brother's summer cottage (which he rented) full of explosives were raided by the FBI near Lake Ponchartrain in July, 1963. McLaney told investigators that he had discussed his operational ideas to bomb Cuban refineries with Smathers. (Live by the Sword, pg. 67)

This was the same camp that Lee Harvey Oswald had visited on July 24th in the company of David Ferrie and was raided seven days later by the FBI.

McLaney wasn't the only one of these people whose names crop up in the assassination story and are connected with Smathers. Frank Fiorini, alias Frank Sturgis, got his U.S. citizenship thanks to the efforts of Senator George Smathers. (High Treason, Pg. 323) When Sturgis accepted a plan to hijack a Soviet Freighter off of Cuba and his boat was smashed on a reef iin British Honduras, he and his men ended up jailed in Belize. When he made his distress call, it was to Senator George Smathers. According to Sturgis, Smathers said, "Why didn't you invite me along ?"

They were quickly released. (Deadly Secrets, pg.407-408)

On JFK's trip to Florida on November 18th, Kennedy and Smathers argued some, with the President complaining to the senator about Smathers regular votes against administration bills. "Goddamnit George," the President said, " you're just knocking my jock off on civil rights. Can't you take it a little easy ?" (President Kennedy-Profile of Power, Richard Reeves, pgs. 658-659)

During the flight back to Washington from Florida, on which Smathers was a passenger, JFK said to him, "God, I wish you could think of some way to get me out of going to Texas....couldn't we have an emergency?" But instead, Smathers lobbied for the trip, telling the President how much Lyndon Johnson looked forward to entertaining the Kennedys at the LBJ Ranch. "Even if you declared war", he said, "Johnson would never forgive you if you didn't go." (The Crisis Years, pg. 666)

Interesting post. It seems that their friendship was based on getting women rather than on politics. Smathers was always a right-wing conservative whereas JFK tended to hold more liberal views after 1961.

What do you make of this extract from Seymour Hersh's The Dark Side of Camelot (1997):

His (Grant Stockdale) reward was to be appointed in 1961 as ambassador to Ireland. The post had obvious sentimental value for Kennedy, and Stockdale was flattered. Once in Ireland, he went all out to represent the new administration and lavishly spent his personal money on embassy entertaining. Eighteen months later, he told Kennedy he was broke and had to go back to his real estate business in Miami.

The president understood. Stockdale appealed to Kennedy, perhaps, because he was all the things Kennedy was not: a self-made man who was precisely what he seemed to be. He had been a football star in college before serving in the war as a marine intelligence officer in the Pacific. "His life was an open book," Stockdale's son, also named Grant, told me in a 1996 interview. "When he got back to Miami, he told his friends he was broke. He was happy to have served, but happy to get back to his business."

Stockdale also knew how to keep his mouth shut. He had joined Kennedy in 1962 at one of his private parties in the Carlyle Hotel in New York, and later told his son that "there were women, beautiful women there." It was a world, Grant said of his father, "that was too fast for him. He was completely out of his league." He did not go back.

But now it was November 1963 and Stockdale was in the Oval Office. Grant told me the story his mother, Adie, had told him. Kennedy said, "I need you to raise some dough - fifty thousand dollars: "Why me?" "Because I need it and I can count on you to keep it quiet."What's it for?"It's for personal use."'

The president's request made his father very uneasy, Grant said. "He raised money," Grant told me. "That's what he did for the Democratic National Committee. But not for personal use. Stockdale asked the president, his son said, "How are you going to acknowledge this money [to donors]?" Kennedy said, 'It's never going to be acknowledged." His father returned to Miami and did what Kennedy asked - he raised $50,000 in cash, telling contributors that the money was for Jack Kennedy. "He hated it," Grant told me, "but he felt, xxxx, it's the president: He was very distressed about being asked to raise cash for the president's personal use when he's got his own money problems. The clincher was the part about no acknowledgment. There was something wrong with the whole thing. He knew he was being used, and my mother knew he was being used. She really resented it. 'It's the craziest thing I've ever heard,' she said. `Don't do it. Turn it down.' But he felt he couldn't."

"So," Grant continued, "my father went around and collected money. I think he did it not believing that Kennedy wouldn't acknowledge it (as a loan or contribution) in some way. He couldn't believe it was so underhanded." There was no secret in Miami about Stockdale's money needs. "All of his buddies knew he was broke," Grant said, "because he was open about it: "Hey guys, I'm broke." He had trouble raising the $50,000 in cash, Grant told me. "Some of the people he approached were as incredulous as my mother was. They were simply disbelieving, and turned down the request:" Word began spreading in Miami, Grant added, that Stockdale was really raising the money for himself - that there was no Kennedy connection. "My father was devastated when he heard that story," Grant told me. "It got to his core. My father was still trying to figure out how he could get Kennedy to acknowledge the contributors when November twenty-second came."

A family friend had gone with his father, Grant said, to the Kennedy compound to deliver the money. "Kennedy said, Thank you, opened a nearby closet door, and threw the briefcase in there," Grant was told. "The closet was full of briefcases."

Kennedy's assassination devastated the Stockdale family, and left Stockdale with a serious problem, his son recalled. "He told everyone that the money he had collected was for Kennedy, but now he had no proof." Grant said that his father "was very worried about Bobby Baker. Why would my father be worried about Bobby Baker?"

Edward Grant Stockdale committed suicide by jumping from his office window in downtown Miami ten days after the president's murder. He was forty-eight years old. His son still wants to know why Kennedy needed the money.

Grant Stockdale was George Smather's business partner. Their company, Automatic Vending, was involved in providing vending machines to government institutions. In March, 1961, JFK appointed Stockdale as Ambassador to Ireland. Later that year Automatic Vending was sued for improper actions in getting a contract at Aerodex but the suit was eventually dismissed.

Stockdale resigned as ambassador in July, 1962. He returned to Miami where he became consultant to another vending machine company which had contracts at Cape Canaveral.

According to William Torbitt (Nonmenclature of an Assassination Cabal), Stockdale was involved with Bobby Baker, Fred Black, George Smathers and mobsters Ed Levenson and Benny Sigelbaum in a company called Serve-U-Corporation. Established in 1962, the company provided vending machines for companies working on federally granted programs. The machines were manufactured by a company secretly owned by Sam Giancana and other mobsters based in Chicago.

Stockdale's name does not appear on Serve-U-Corporation official papers. However, a close business associate of Stockdale's named Eugene Hancock was president of the company. This passage comes from the Miami Herald:

"Grant Stockdale was 48 years old when he died. Funeral Services were held on Wednesday, December 4, 1963, at St. Stephens Episcopal Church with 200 people attending. The blue-and-gold Ambassadors' flag was draped over the coffin. Pall-bearers were Senator George Smathers, Attorney Williiam C. Gaither, former State Senator R.B. Gautier, Jr., former U. of Miami football star and team leader Eddie Dunn, Stockdale's business associate Eugene Hancock, and Realtor Walter Etling. Burial was arranged with the Van Orsdel Coral Gables Mortuary at Woodlawn Park Cemetery."

On 26th November, Grant Stockdale flew to Washington and talked with Robert Kennedy and Edward Kennedy. On his return Stockdale told several of his friends that "the world was closing in." On 1st December, he spoke to his attorney, William Frates who later recalled: "He started talking. It didn't make much sense. He said something about 'those guys' trying to get him. Then about the assassination."

Edward Grant Stockdale died on 2nd December, 1963 when he fell (or was pushed) from his office on the thirteenth story of the Dupont Building in Miami. Stockdale did not leave a suicide note but his friend, George Smathers, claimed that he had become depressed as a result of the death of John F. Kennedy.

Was Stockdale killed because of what he knew about the blackmail plot or because he knew who killed JFK? We know that Smathers played an important role in covering up Stockdale's murder.

Anne Stockdale, email to Adele Edisen on the death of her father (16th June, 2004)

Yes I guess that is factual, except I thought that when he came home from Ireland, that he no longer had any $ interest in Vending Machines. One thing I do know is that Kennedy asked Daddy to go to the Air Force Base South of Miami to see if (against Kennedy's orders) bombs were being loaded on the planes. Bombs were being loaded on the planes!! I believe one of the reasons Daddy was killed was because he knew that the Government was being run by the Military Complex.

The Military Complex didn't want the American People to realize (and still don't ) that they were calling the shots. Daddy knew he was being followed... & he told Mom that they were going to get him... and they did. There was an attempt on my life also several days after Daddy's funeral . I realize now that this was a scare tactic to silence my Mother... i.e. if you speak about anything, Your kids are dead. It worked!!

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKstockdale.htm

[John Simkin]

Telephone conversation between Lyndon B. Johnson and George Smathers (2.10 pm, 23rd November, 1963)

Lyndon B. Johnson: Tell me, what is the situation on the tax bill? I am going to meet with the Cabinet at two-thirty and...

George Smathers: ... I made a deal, just confidentially . . . that Ribicoff and Long and myself and Fulbright would vote against any motion to take the bill away from the Chairman... He would agree to... close the hearing... Now, I asked them the other day what Byrd was really trying to accomplish. It's to hold up the tax bill until he could prove that Kennedy was going to have the budget... over $100 billion. So he could then argue, you know, that we are financing these tax amendments with debt. So I... told him that... if we, the President would come out and tell him now in December what he thought his budget was going to be, would Byrd cooperate and help them to get the clearance in the Executive Session over with?... He said, "I don't have any problem." . . . Now at the last legislative breakfast - you were not there - I very strongly said that I thought we had enough votes on the floor to pass the tax bill this year. But.. we were going to have to go around Harry Byrd in the committee... I don't know if you want to do it or not, but the smart thing to do, in light of developments, would be for you to get the appropriation bill through real quick and then just...

Lyndon B. Johnson: No, no, I can't do that. That would destroy the party and destroy the election, and destroy everything. We've got to carry on. We can't abandon this fellow's program, because he is a national hero and there are going to be those people want his program passed and we've got to keep this Kennedy aura around us through this election.

George Smathers: Yeah. Well, in that connection... I had a most interesting visit with Hubert last night, after we met with you. He invited me over to his office to have a drin... Hubert and I think that the new President has just got to have a liberal running with him as VP candidate and - I am just speaking for myself - I think, my God, that most of the Southerners would be for Hubert... He was not at .all averse to the idea... He jumps for it... I says, "Can you hold Joe an... Paul and can you keep them lined up?" And he said, "I'm sure I can. This is going to be the problem.... They are going to try to make the new President look immediately like he is an old Texas oilman and... he is now the President of everybody."