David Morales

[Pat Speer]

Was Morales fluent in Spanish? I know he was at least part Native American, but was his father of Mexican heritage? Did Morales grow up speaking Spanish? The reason I ask is because when one reads the various books on the CIA one finds that fluency in foreign languages is one of the top skills that could put a candidate on the fast track. Vernon Walters' career and Robert Maheu's career were both accelerated due to their language skills. (It seems this may have been a factor in Oswald's career as well.) Hunt and Phillips, I believe, were fluent in Spanish long before their stints on the Guatemalan and Cuban operations. On the other hand, it was noted in Lyman Kirkpatrick's IG Report on the Bay of Pigs disaster that Gerry Droller's lack of Spanish skills hurt that operation.

I'm mentioning this as a possible reason for Morales' rapid advancement. After WWII, the U.S. was absolutely terrified of Russian movement into Latin America, and yet we had very few Spanish-speaking and Latin-appearing agents who were American citizens, and whose loyalty was beyond question.

If Morales spoke a Native American language, of course, it could also have been a factor in his recruitment. As publicized by a recent movie, members of the Navaho tribe were recruited during WWII to form a special unit of "code-talkers," under the belief that the Japanese would not be able to grasp the intricacies of the Navaho language before the end of the war. History shows they were right. If you've ever met a "code-talker," you know that, despite the sins of the white man against their people, their patriotism is not to be questioned. These men bled red, white, and blue. I wonder if Morales' recruitment was along these lines.

[Shanet Clark]

A white four door 1962 Impala...would that be the car in the NIX film?

Thanks, Antti, I think the testimony of the Railroad Tower observers is critical to understanding the plot.

[James Richards]

Was Morales fluent in Spanish?  I know he was at least part Native American, but was his father of Mexican heritage?  Did Morales grow up speaking Spanish?  The reason I ask is because when one reads the various books on the CIA one finds that fluency in foreign languages is one of the top skills that could put a candidate on the fast track. Vernon Walters' career and Robert Maheu's career were both accelerated due to their language skills. (It seems this may have been a factor in Oswald's career as well.)  Hunt and Phillips, I believe, were fluent in Spanish long before their stints on the Guatemalan and Cuban operations.  On the other hand, it was noted in Lyman Kirkpatrick's IG Report on the Bay of Pigs disaster that Gerry Droller's lack of Spanish skills hurt that operation.

I'm mentioning this as a possible reason for Morales' rapid advancement.  After WWII, the U.S. was absolutely terrified of Russian movement into Latin America, and yet we had very few Spanish-speaking and Latin-appearing agents who were American citizens, and whose loyalty was beyond question. 

If Morales spoke a Native American language, of course, it could also have been a factor in his recruitment.  As publicized by a recent movie, members of the Navaho tribe were recruited during WWII to form a special unit of "code-talkers," under the belief that the Japanese would not be able to grasp the intricacies of the Navaho language before the end of the war.  History shows they were right.  If you've ever met a "code-talker," you know that, despite the sins of the white man against their people,  their patriotism is not to be questioned.  These men bled red, white, and blue.  I wonder if Morales' recruitment was along these lines.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi Pat.

Morales was of Mexican heritage and fluent in Spanish. As a young child, his parents separated where he lived with his mother for a time but she could not afford him. He then moved in with the Carbajal family and they raised him. Morales became close with brothers Ruben and Paul Carbajal. He was also part of this tight Mexican clique through high school.

There was supposedly some Native American blood in his family but that has not been confirmed.

James

[John Simkin]

James recently posted a lengthy excellent article on Morales.

Can't we redirect this thread to that thread so the information is in one place (because it's al great stuff!).

This is the main reason we started the online seminars section. It would be great if James could do one on Morales. In that way all the information on Morales would be collected in the same place. For example, if you do a search of the forum for “Morales” you get a very large number of links. However, it is not at the moment in a very useable form.

[Pat Speer]

From reading about the Guatemalan operation of 54 I've come across the name Vincent C. Pivall, which may have been a pseudonym for Morales. Despite most book's attempts to portray him as a clown, records released in the last decade indicate that William "Rip" Robertson was the CPM of the Guatemalan operation--which one would have to assume means Chief of Para-military Operations. He wrote a review of the campaign with much praise for one Vincent C. Pivall, who was stationed in Honduras, working with Castillo-Armas' army. Since "El Indio" in Phillips' book is presented as the sidekick to the head of the Paramilitary ops, one might wager that "Pivall," which is acknowledged as a pseudonym, was in fact Morales.

Intriguingly, Pivall was the one who reported a security lapse by Seekford, who'd left behind some documents in his apartment while traveling. Since Seekford was the one who was co-ordinating the political angle of the operation, buttering up neighboring dictators to support Castillo-Armas, it's reasonable to asume this was Howard Hunt, as this matches his description of his role. Since Hunt acknowledges in his book Under Cover that he wasn't around for the actual operation, and since Government documents released in the last decade indicate Seekford was asked to leave the operation two months before "D-day," as his cover had been blown, it would seem that this was indeed Hunt. (The apartment manager had made copies of the documents and had sent them on to Somoza, the dictator of Nicaragua.)

In his report on the lapse, Pivall at one point says that (redacted name) is completely unreliable, both personally and professionally. If he's talking about Hunt, then this certainly cuts into the possibility of the two of them ever working together again, as many assume with the JFK assassination.

It seems I've read of Pivall and Seekford being Morales and Hunt somwehere else. If anyone knows where, please let me know, so I can refresh my understanding of this situation.

[James Richards]

It seems I've read of Pivall and Seekford being Morales and Hunt somwehere else. If anyone knows where, please let me know, so I can refresh my understanding of this situation. (Pat Speer)

Hi Pat,

I have always wondered that myself if Pivall was indeed Morales. Below is the section of the Rip Robertson report which speaks glowingly of Pivall.

BTW, E. Howard Hunt used the name Walter C. Twicker in Guatemala. Jacob R. Seekford's identity was not declassified which of course means Hunt may have used it also.

James

******************************

Recommendations for all field personnel considered as having performed in an efficient manner are being presented in separate reports. I wish at this time, however, to place in the body of this report my personal opinion that the key man to the success of this project is Vincent C. Pivall.

Pivall's firm adherence to orders enabled LINCOLN to rely on the fact that plans were being carried out within the realm of possibility and that Principal Agent attempts to alter those plans were minimized. The preservation of KUBARK interests was considered a solemn duty by Pivall and it showed up in the results of his work.

His professional knowledge and direct manner of dealing with the indigenous personnel gained him, and KUBARK, their respect and spirit of camarade necessary to good guidance on operations of this type.

In addition, Pivall's analytical and objective thinking and reporting spotted for LINCOLN many defects in the old Calligeris organization, useful in planning the operation.

It is recommended that his services would be valuable in a KUHOOK staff position within WHD if he is to remain in WHD. If released from WHD, it is recommended that KUHOOK staff consider him for training assignments or a field project assignment after completing a KUHOOK training course at [place not declassified].

It would be a serious KUBARK/KUHOOK loss to lose this man through disinterest on the part of KUBARK or through allowing him to become de-motivated.

William Robertson/2/

CPM/PBSUCCESS

Edited February 16, 2005 by James Richards

[Antti Hynonen]

Steve Thomas Posted Feb 14 2005, 03:07 PM

  Antti,

QUOTE(Antti Hynonen @ Feb 14 2005, 02:41 PM)

Golwater sticker, out-of-state license plate and sticker of scenic attraction. Could the state be Arizona and the sticker a Grand Canyon sticker?

FWIW, I once contacted the Automobile License Plate Collectors Association of America and asked them what state had that particular configuration - six black numbers, no letters, on a white background in 1963.

I was told that only one state had that configuration in 1963 - Virginia.

Steve Thomas

Steve, Thanks for that information. I have done some research of my own. I found that both the North Dakota and the Maine license plates of that era also consisted of (6) black numbers on white plates. What is worth noting is the fact that in 1963 TX license plates had the same configuration, except that also letters were included. I wonder how Lee Bowers Jr. was able to make that distinction between TX and out-of state plates. I suppose other characteristics were apparent. Also the Mississippi plates were similar, but with Blue numbers. Nebraska was also close to what Lee said, but with 5 digits. Arizona is blue on a white background, he could have been mistaken about the color (black vs. blue), but since AZ typically had letters as well, I suppose that doesn't quite fit in.

[John Simkin]

Namebase entry for David Morales:

http://www.namebase.org/main1/David-Sanchez-Morales.html

Corn,D. Blond Ghost. 1994 (85, 118, 138, 230)

Denton,S. Morris,R. The Money and the Power. 2001 (206)

Escalante,F. The Secret War. 1995 (68-9)

Fonzi,G. The Last Investigation. 1993 (366-90)

Smith,J. List of CIA Agents. 1985

State Dept. Biographic Register. 1969

Summers,A. The Arrogance of Power. 2000 (336)

Trento,J. The Secret History of the CIA. 2001 (344)

Vankin,J. Whalen,J. The 60 Greatest Conspiracies. 1998 (380)

Warner,R. Back Fire. 1995 (189)

Has anyone seen this page?:

http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com...Sanchez_Morales

I get the impression I am being watched.

[John Simkin]

I have just received a fresh batch of documents on Bradley Ayers. It includes a memorandum written by Jeremy Gunn of the Assassination Records Review Board (18th May, 1995). After an interview with Bradley Ayers he reports: “Ayers claims to have found in the course of his private investigative work, a credible witness who can put David Morales inside the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on the night of June 5, 1968 (RFK’s assassination). Ayers offered to put me (and the Board) in touch with the unnamed person, who he feels would be willing to work with the Board."

[Shanet Clark]

John -

Demopedia is down - here is the cached text on MORALES

David Sanchez Morales

From Demopedia

Categories: Spook | John F. Kennedy assassination

David Sanchez Morales was born on 26th August, 1925. He spent his early life in Phoenix, Arizona. A Mexican-American, Morales was later to be nicknamed El Indio because of his dark skin and Indian features. As a boy his best friend was Ruben Carbajal. After his mother divorced his father he was virtually adopted by Carbajal's parents.

Table of contents

1 CIA

2 David Morales at the Texas School Book Depository

3 John Simkin speculation

4 See also

5 External links

[edit]

CIA

(...) In 1951 became a employee of the Central Intelligence Agency while retaining his army cover. The following year he joined the Directorate of Plans, an organization instructed to conduct covert anti-Communist operations around the world. (...) Morales became involved in CIA's Black Operations. This involved a policy that was later to become known as Executive Action (a plan to remove unfriendly foreign leaders from power). This including a coup d'état that overthrew the Guatemalan government of Jacobo Arbenz in 1954 after he introduced land reforms and nationalized the United Fruit Company. After the removal of Arbenz he joined the staff of the US embassy in Caracas (1955-58). During this time he became known as the CIA's top assassin in Latin America.

Morales moved to Cuba in 1958 and helped to support the government of Fulgencio Batista. Later Morales worked behind the scenes with people like David Atlee Phillips, Tracy Barnes, William Pawley, Johnny Roselli and John Martino in an attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro.

In November, 1961, William Harvey arranged for Morales to be posted to JM/WAVE, the CIA station in Miami. Morales was operations chief for the CIA's covert operation to train and infiltrate teams into Cuba to destabilize the Castro government. Morales reported directly to veteran Agency covert operator Ted Shackley, who was the Agency’s Miami bureau chief. In May, 1962, Morales was seconded to ZR/RIFLE, the plot to assassinate Castro. According to fellow CIA agent, Robert Wall: "He (Morales) was a rough-neck. He was a bully, a hard-drinker and big enough to get away with a lot of stuff other people couldn't get away with.”

Some researchers such as (...) John Simkin believe that Morales was involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. (See #John Simkin speculation )

(...)

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

[edit]

David Morales at the Texas School Book Depository

(...) Cuban State security officials speculate that Morales was the "dark complexed man" as seen by several witnesses in the 6th floor window of the Texas School Book Depository. Just after telling friends he was afraid of his "own people", and just before he was scheduled to testify for the House Select Committee of Assassinations, Morales died in 1977 a sudden heart attack under mysterious circumstances.

Under influence of alcohol, he had hinted to close friends that he had been involved in the Kennedy assassination (We took care of that bastard, didn't we?"). Morales was a big muscular man of very dark complexion, nicknamed "el Indio". Several witnesses on Dealey Plaza, most of whom were not called to testify before the Warren Commission, described a man fitting Morales. These witnesses saw such a man in the windows of the sixth floor of the Texas School Book depository shortly before Kennedy's motorcade passed by, as well as minutes after the shooting, fleeing from the back of the building with two other men in a station wagon.

http://www.jfkmurdersolved.com/bush2.htm

[edit]

John Simkin speculation

John Simkin

Vote and speculate on who killed JFK

(pure speculation and can never be proved)

(...) Morales was put in charge of the assassination. He employed people he had been working with in Miami to undermine the government of Cuba. This included figures in the ant-Castro Cuban community. It also involved American military advisers to groups like Alpha 66. The Cubans believed that the reason for this plot was that after the assassination of JFK, LBJ would order the invasion of Cuba. In fact, this was never the objective. It was part of the overall conspiracy to keep Castro in power. The presence of a communist state so close to the United States helped to reinforce the communist threat and the need for massive arms spending.

The Cubans would obviously feel betrayed when they realised Castro would not be toppled. Those Cubans who knew anything about the assassination had to be got rid of. Soon after the assassination most of this group were sent on a mission to kill Castro and create a reason for the United States to invade Cuba. This group was betrayed to the Cuban Secret Service. As a result they were executed in Cuba. A few Cubans remained. Some of these were the victims of hit men (who had no idea why they were killing them).

(...)

In Reply to Wim Dankbaar

(...)

It is definitely true that the CIA worked closely with the Mafia in the various Executive Action programmes (something that JFK tried to stop). The CIA also definitely funded anti-Castro organizations and the FBI worked closely with extreme right-wing political groups. However, I do not believe these organizations were linked together in planning the assassinations. David Morales planned the assassination. He was a CIA agent but this was not a CIA operation. Morales in turn recruited men who had worked for the Mafia (Herminio Diaz Garcia, John Martino) but it was not a Mafia operation. He also employed members of the anti-Castro Cuban community (Antonio Veciana, Eladio del Valle) but it was not a Alpha 66 operation. Although we can speculate, we will never know the name of the organization behind the assassination. Morales was the cut-out. Once he died in 1978 this became impossible to know.

(...)

My information is that James Files might well have been involved in the cover up of the assassination of JFK. We also know that the conspirators successfully implicated his close friend, Charlie Nicoletti, in the assassination. However, I am told that Files was not recruited by David Morales to take part in the actual assassination. That involved Herminio Diaz Garcia (and others I am not allowed to mention). When it come down to it, you will believe your informants, and I will believe mine. However, my informants are not attempting to seek fame and money from their exploits. Nor are they in prison. These are some of the many reasons why I find their information more believable than of others so keen to confess their role in the assassination of JFK.

(...)

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=1037

[edit]

See also

* Executive Action

* Fidel Castro

* JFK Assassination

* William Harvey

* Operation 40

* Operation PBSUCCESS

* ZR/RIFLE

[edit]

External links

* http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKmorales.htm

* http://www.jfkmurdersolved.com/bush2.htm

* http://www.jfkmurdersolved.com/truthout.htm

* http://www.theconspiracy.us/cati2/0069.html

Retrieved from "http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/index.php/David_Sanchez_Morales"

This page has been accessed 568 times. This page was last modified 20:08, 7 Jul 2005.

Edit this page | Discuss this page | Page history | What links here | Related changes

Main Page | About Demopedia | Recent changes |

This page has been accessed 568 times. This page was last modified 20:08, 7 Jul 2005.

Edited May 24, 2006 by Shanet Clark

[John Simkin]

Christopher Barger, memorandum to Jeremy Gunn (18th May, 1995)

I interviewed former US Army captain and CIA employee Bradley Ayers on May 12, 1995, at Ayers' home in Woodbury, Minnesota. The interview lasted from 10.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m. The following is a summary and report of the interview...

Q. Did Morales ever try and pass himself off as Cuban?

A. Not to Ayers' knowledge, but "he could easily pass for Cuban." Morales was allegedly a very good actor, and "could pull off lots of roles." Here the conversation drifted into a discussion of David Morales and his emotional makeup. Ayers charged that Morales was a "mean" man who "paraded around the station like a tyrant." Everyone was apparently afraid of him. Morales hung with what Ayers called the "circle" - Morales, Roselli, Tony Sforza, Manuel Artime and Rip Robertson. The four were drinking buddies and of like mind on politics. Ayers said they were vicious, too. "If anyone put together a sniper team to hit the President, Morales, Rip, Rosselli and Sforza would have done it." Ayers noted that Artime, Robertson, Rosselli and Sforza all died just as the HSCA began investigating. He suggests checking for Morales' whereabouts during the late seventies, especially on the times these men were killed.

Ayers is right that these men all died in the 1970s: Rip Robertson (1970), John Roselli (July 1976), Manuel Artime (November, 1977) and Tony Sforza (December, 1978). However, David Morales could not have killed all these men as he himself died six months before Tony Sforza (May, 1978).

[John Simkin]

On BBC television tonight it will be reported that CIA agents, David Morales and Gordon Campbell, were involved in the assassination of Robert Kennedy. The film was made by Shane O'Sullivan. He has been in contact with me for some time. He had read about Morales, Campbell and Ayers on my website. He was especially keen to get a photograph of Campbell. I am not sure one exists in the public domain (I am sure the CIA have a photograph of him). Shane has therefore had to rely on Ayers to identify Campbell in the film.

On my page on Campbell I said:

Bradley E. Ayers was interviewed by Jeremy Gunn of the Assassination Records Review Board in May, 1995. According to Gunn: “Ayers claims to have found in the course of his private investigative work, a credible witness who can put David Morales inside the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on the night of June 5, 1968 (RFK’s assassination)." Another source suggests that Gordon Campbell was with David Morales at the Ambassador Hotel on the night that Robert Kennedy was murdered.

My source was in fact Shane O'Sullivan but I was asked not to reveal this until the film was shown.

Just another example of how this forum is helping to solve the assassinations of JFK and RFK.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1952393,00.html

[John Simkin]

I thought it might be worth posting Gaeton Fonzi's account of the Morales confession that appeared in The Last Investigation (1993) (pages 388-396)

It was while sitting in the El Molino one night, that Ruben Carbajal told Bob Dorff and me about the times he and Bob Walton had gone to Washington to meet Morales and about the trip on which they met other high-ranking CIA officials. To obtain more details about those meetings, I suggested we talk to Walton. The next morning, a Saturday, Carbajal called him and Walton agreed to drive down from his home in Scottsdale to meet the three of us at the Holiday Inn.

Walton is in his mid-fifties, a pleasant, ruddy-faced fellow with Irish good looks and an easy, straightforward manner. He remembers their first trip to Washington as being in the spring of 1973. "I had had a coronary in November of 1972 and Rocky and I started talking about getting into business shortly after that. When you're from a dry climate like Arizona and you go back there in the summer you're just sweating like a pig. But I don't remember being uncomfortable, so I think it was early in the spring of 1973."

Walton corroborates the reason for the trip and the meeting with Morales: "We felt, or at least Rocky felt, that he could give us an inside track on who were the people who were for real and who were not. That was a big concern of mine because I had already been on one wild goose chase, spent an expensive week in Nassau waiting for a transaction to close and it never did."

Their evening with Morales, Walton remembers, was both very pleasant and, in more than one way, especially memorable. "We all went out for dinner, which was very nice. It was Rocky and his wife, me and my wife and Rocky's mother and father."

Morales, not someone who trusted strangers or even associates easily, obviously was impressed by Walton's character and, although their commodities business never took hold, he later called on Walton to represent him on a few matters back in Phoenix. It was something Morales said at one of those subsequent encounters in Phoenix that makes Walton put what had happened in Washington in a very special perspective.

"Morales was building a big, new house out near Willcox," Walton says. "Actually, it was in a little town called El Frita, which is about half-way between Willcox and the Mexican border. It's a remote area, I've only driven that road once in my life. It's an agricultural area, they grow the famous jalapenos peppers there. I never got to see the house, but he had just finished it and was describing it to me when he mentioned that he put in it the best security system in the United States. And I remember asking him, thinking he was worried about burglars or being robbed, 'What do you need so much security for? You're still thirty miles from the Mexican border.' And he said, 'I'm not worried about those people, I'm worried about my own.' "

That struck Walton as curious. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"I know too much," Morales said, then quickly dropped it.

Remembering that now, Walton views his first meeting with Morales in Washington as being far more significant than he realized. After dinner, the whole party went back to the Dupont Plaza Hotel. It was late and Carbajal's parents and his wife returned to their rooms and Ruben and Morales returned to the Waltons' room with them. "Didi ended up staying all night," Walton recalls. "My wife went to sleep somewhere around two in the morning and Rocky and I and Didi drank and talked from when we got back from dinner - maybe that was about eleven o'clock at night - until about six in the morning. "

The drinking got heavy. "We had consumed quite a bit of alcohol," remembers Walton. "At one point, between the three of us we had gone through a fifth of Scotch and we had to re-order. It was a real contest." He pauses and smiles. "Ah, my younger days, my misspent youth!" And as the night and the drinking go on, defenses come down and candid truths emerge. "You know," says Walton, "you get in a kind of position where you say, 'All right, I told you everything about me, what are you all about?' "

Morales began with his war stories. Walton remembers him talking about the killing in Vietnam and Laos, about being involved in the capture of Che Guevara in Bolivia, of hits in Paraguay and Uruguay and Venezuela. ("He said his wife was [in the country] with him and they had real trouble getting him out of town. They almost bought the farm on that one.")

The drinking and the talking continued. At one point, Morales began probing Walton for a bit of his own background. Walton had gone to Amherst College in Massachusetts and, as part of his developing interest in political science and politics, he had done some volunteer work for Jack Kennedy's Senatorial campaign. Later, at Harvard Law, Walton was head of a student group which invited then Senator Kennedy to speak at Cambridge.

Walton never got to explain the details of that association. At the first mention of Kennedy's name, he recalls, Morales literally almost hit the ceiling.

"He flew off the bed on that one," says Walton. "I remember he was lying down and he jumped up screaming, 'That no good son of a bitch motherf*****!' He started yelling about what a wimp Kennedy was and talking about how he had worked on the Bay of Pigs and how he had to watch all the men he had recruited and trained get wiped out because of Kennedy."

Walton says Morales's tirade about Kennedy, fueled by righteous anger and high-proof booze, went on for minutes while he stomped around the room. Suddenly he stopped, sat back down on the bed and remained silent for a moment. Then, as if saying it only to himself, he added:

"Well, we took care of that son of a bitch, didn't we?"

I looked at Ruben Carbajal, who had remained silent while Walton was telling me this. Carbajal looked at me and nodded his head. Yes, he was there, it was true. But, in all the long hours we had spent together and all the candid revelations he had provided, it was a remembrance he couldn't bring himself to tell me about his friend Didi.

[John Simkin]

John, in your post on the blog you stated outright that Morales was murdered. I don't remember seeing any evidence for this. If I remember correctly he died of a heart attack. Since Sullivan, Artime, Prio, DeMohrenschildt, Giancana, Rosselli, and Hoffa all died in this same 2-3 year window, I at first found Morales' death suspicious. I think Fonzi looked into this, however, and found that Morales had had a history of heart disease. If I'm remembering incorrectly, or if there's evidence for foul play in Morales' death, I'd appreciate a reminder.

The problem with David Sanchez Morales was that he was indiscrete when drunk. In 1960 Wayne Smith was a State Department officer in the American Embassy in Havana whereas was stationed there as an undercover CIA agent. Wayne tells the story of being in a bar in Havana with Morales. After a heavy drinking session Morales began talking about the CIA’s secret operations that involved frog men operating out of Guantanamo Bay.

Another example of Morales indiscretion was allowing his photograph to be taken by Kevin Schofield at the El Molino restaurant on 4th August, 1973. The picture appeared in the Arizona Republic with the following text: “Feted by friends at a fiesta Saturday was former American counsul to Cuba, David Sanchez, left, who was in that country when Castro took over… In government service for 28 years, Sanchez is now consultant in the office of deputy director for Operations Counter-insurgency and Special Activities in Washington.”

This was the greatest crime any CIA agent can commit and as a result he was forced to resign from the agency. However, he continued to make regular trips to Washington. When asked about this by his friend Ruben Carbajal, Morales replied: “Oh, they run into some problems, I have to go up there and take care of them. These people never let go of you.”

Morales built a new house at El Frita, which is about half-way between Willcox and the Mexican border. Morales told another friend, Bob Walton, that he had put in the best security system in the United States. Walton said, “What do you need so much security for? You're still thirty miles from the Mexican border.” Morales replied, “I'm not worried about those people, I'm worried about my own."

Gaeton Fonzi, staff investigator for the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HUCA) found out about Morales from CIA asset, Paul Bethel, who was one of David Phillips contract workers. It was suggested that Morales might have been the “Latin-looking” man seen with Lee Harvey Oswald in New Orleans during the summer of 1963.

Fonzi had also read David Phillips’s autobiography, ‘The Night Watch’. It includes a reference to a CIA agent who used the code-name Hector (Rip Robertson) and his “sidekick ‘El Indio’, a massive American of Mexican and Indian extraction I had seen only briefly during the revolt (the CIA-stage 1954 Guatemala coup) but was to work with in other operations over the years.” El Indio was of course Morales.

When Fonzi interviewed Phillips on behalf of the HSCA he asked him about Morales. Phillips said that Morales was an unimportant figure in the CIA and suggested that he might have died as a result of his heavy drinking. At this stage Morales was still alive. What is more, Morales was far from being an important figure, he had in fact been Chief of Operations at JM/WAVE in 1963 and at the centre of the operation to kill Fidel Castro. The operation that was later turned to kill John F. Kennedy. Fonzi also discovered that Morales had worked very closely with John Rosselli, who also played a key role in the plots against Castro. Rosselli was to be one of the first people to be interviewed by the HSCA but went missing in July 1976. His body was later discovered in the Intracoastal Waterway in North Miami. He had been cut up and stuffed into a 55-gallon steel drum.

No wonder that Morales was worried about his own health during the HSCA investigations. Rip Robertson had died in 1970 and could not be interviewed. William Pawley had committed suicide in 1977. The other key figure, Carl E. Jenkins, had remained deeply undercover and was not being investigated by the HSCA.

Morales made his last trip to Washington in early May, 1978. Ruben Carbajal had a drink with Morales a few days later. Carbajal told him he looked unwell. He replied: “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Ever since I left Washington I haven’t been feeling very comfortable”. That night he was taken to hospital. Carbajal went to visit him the next morning. As Carbajal later recalled: “They wouldn’t let no one in, they had his room surrounded by sheriff’s deputies.” Later that day (8th May) the decision was taken to withdraw life support. Morales’s wife, Joanne, requested that there should not be an autopsy. The CIA took good care of her and she moved to a fine house in Boston and according to Fonzi spent her time “pursuing her studies in Chinese antiquities”.

Fonzi never got the chance to interview Morales. Unlike, the recent case of Alexander Litvinenko, the poisoning of Morales received no publicity. After all, it is only the Russians who kill people who pose a threat to the stability of the state.

[John Simkin]

Congrats to O'Sullivan for stirring the pot with this provocative story!

However, I submit that this is at best "case reopened;" we still have a long way to go before we pronounce this -- as Shane does in the BBC News version that I saw -- "case closed."

For the sake of argument, let's stipulate that he has verifiably placed at least 3 key former JM/WAVE types at the Ambassador that evening back in 1968 -- my high school prom night, BTW.

To be sure, these three were certainly no run-of-the-mill covert operators, much less ballroom spectators. They were hard-core anti-Comms, professionally-trained assassins, psy ops specialists, and at least in Morales' case, a close acquaintance of John Roselli & Co. So you've got our attention.

Where do we go from here?

(1) There are obviously scads of detailed defense attorney-type questions about how this crew actually pulled it off -- whether they were at all connected to Sirhan, or to anyone else in the fatal kitchen (like the security guard who was supposedly standing behind Bobby and later reportedly lied about when he sold off his .22.) We're a long way from filling in those missing links....

(2) Why would these three "old hands" -- at least two of whom were still employed by the Agency (not sure about G. Campbell) risk showing up and hanging around together at a mass event where some of their former collegues were bound to recognize them -- as a couple apparently did? Was that just agency hubris?

(3) There are lots of interesting questions that pertain to motives. As noted, Joannides and Morales were both still working for Shackley (in SE Asia) at the time, so that suggests there may have been Agency condonation. However, Morales, at least, was also notoriously hostile to the Kennedys on a personal level, and may have detested the idea of an RFK presidency for strictly private reasons.

Third, as Shane suggested, anyone involved in JFK would have worried that RFK would have reopened the WC investigation. Again, Morales is the most prominently-mentioned of the three in that regard.

However, for my money, the key factor was not so much the speculative possibility that the WC would be reopened, and reach a different conclusion, but the NEAR CERTAINTY that an RFK presidency would have ushered in a new round of tough anti-Mafia prosecutions -- which the Nixon Administration (with Helliwell/ CBT/Hoffa, etc) most assuredly did not.

This suggests there is an "agency-led/condoned" version of the story and a "hired moonlighter/ mob-led" version. Of course there could be overlaps, but the "well-paid moonlighter" version has firmer economic foundations.

If so, it is unlikely that these three "bureaucrats" would have been willing to do this for nothing. So someone needs to look at what happened to these 3 agents' finances during this period. One might have thought that our extraordinarily-well-managed intelligence agencies would be monitoring their own agents' finances/ income tax records/ estate valuations -- but does anyone know if they do/ did so during this period?

I agree we should look closely at the people that Shackley might have been working for in 1963-1968. I have yet to find any clear links between these operatives and the mob. What we do know is that Shackley was closely connected with businessmen involved in the oil and arms industries. This includes George H. W. Bush.