Statement by Mr. Hemming regarding Arturo Espaillat

[Paul Brancato]

I'm posting this mostly to get Ron's Ecker's attention, thinking he might not have seen a private message I sent to him regarding a post he made several years ago about a statement Mr. Hemming made at a Dallas Symposium. Ron says that Mr. Hemming claimed that Arturo Espaillat had raised funds while in Montreal to be used for the hiring of a French assassin for Nov 22. Can anyone confirm this allegation, or shed any light on this?

Edited October 10, 2017 by Paul Brancato

[Paz Marverde]

Hi, Paul. Yes, I am very interested too. We found a big one, about this, because Hemming also said, during an interview he made, that Ramfis Trujillo was a sponsor for the Assassination, and gave money to finance it. Well, it emerges that, just very few time before, Trujillo gave money to an Italian bank named Credito Commerciale e Industriale. Head of that bank was an Italian fascist, deeply connected with James Angleton: Valerio Borghese. The name of a relative of Borghese was inside a Clay Shaw's address book Jim Garrison found at Shaw's home

[Paz Marverde]

Hi, Paul. Yes, I am very interested too. We found a big one, about this, because Hemming also said, during an interview he made, that Ramfis Trujillo was a sponsor for the Assassination, and gave money to finance it. Well, it emerges that, just very few time before, Trujillo gave money to an Italian bank named Credito Commerciale e Industriale. Head of that bank was an Italian fascist, deeply connected with James Angleton: Valerio Borghese. The name of a relative of Borghese was inside a Clay Shaw's address book Jim Garrison found at Shaw's home

[Ron Ecker]

Paul,

I was not aware of your private message till now, so I'll reply to it here. I don't recall posting on the subject and don't know what the source would have been. I did a forum search on Arturo Espaillat, and found several old posts referring to him, including by Hemming, but nothing by me. I also checked Twyman's Bloody Treason, since Twyman interviewed Hemming extensively, but nothing there on Espaillat.

 

 

[Paz Marverde]

26 minutes ago, Ron Ecker said:

Paul,

I was not aware of your private message till now, so I'll reply to it here. I don't recall posting on the subject and don't know what the source would have been. I did a forum search on Arturo Espaillat, and found several old posts referring to him, including by Hemming, but nothing by me. I also checked Twyman's Bloody Treason, since Twyman interviewed Hemming extensively, but nothing there on Espaillat.

 

 

Ron, your statement was in a thread named A Trujillo sponsored Assassination, and for what you said there, it seems you were present at the 1996 Lancer conference. Can you please confirm you were there?

Edited October 11, 2017 by Paz Marverde
Mistyped

[Paz Marverde]

25 minutes ago, Ron Ecker said:

Paul,

I was not aware of your private message till now, so I'll reply to it here. I don't recall posting on the subject and don't know what the source would have been. I did a forum search on Arturo Espaillat, and found several old posts referring to him, including by Hemming, but nothing by me. I also checked Twyman's Bloody Treason, since Twyman interviewed Hemming extensively, but nothing there on Espaillat.

 

 

 

[Paz Marverde]

As you can see here, you said: 

"In his 1975 Argosy interview with Dick Russell, Hemming identified Arturo Espaillat as Trujillo's chief of intelligence. In his HSCA deposition Hemming stated that Espaillat, based in Montreal in 1963, was in Dallas at the time of the assassination. And Hemming told the 1996 November in Dallas Conference that Espaillat in Montreal had gathered funds from Canada and Europe and sent them to Dallas to fund a French team. 

So what is the relationship between Espaillat and Abbes Garcia, both said by Hemming to be Rafael Trujillo chiefs of intelligence contributing funds for the JFK hit?

Ron"

Edited October 11, 2017 by Paz Marverde
More complete information

[Ron Ecker]

2 hours ago, Paz Marverde said:

As you can see here, you said: 

"In his 1975 Argosy interview with Dick Russell, Hemming identified Arturo Espaillat as Trujillo's chief of intelligence. In his HSCA deposition Hemming stated that Espaillat, based in Montreal in 1963, was in Dallas at the time of the assassination. And Hemming told the 1996 November in Dallas Conference that Espaillat in Montreal had gathered funds from Canada and Europe and sent them to Dallas to fund a French team. 

So what is the relationship between Espaillat and Abbes Garcia, both said by Hemming to be Rafael Trujillo chiefs of intelligence contributing funds for the JFK hit?

Ron"

Paz,

Thanks for finding my old post. Although I wish that you hadn't. To answer your earlier question, no I was not at the 1996 Dallas Conference. So I assume the source for my statement was someone's coverage of the conference, but I don't know whose. I'm also puzzled by my own reference to a 1975 Argosy interview. There is an Argosy interview of Hemming reprinted in Russell's book On the Trail of JFK Assassins, but it's dated 1976, and I see no mention in it of Espaillat. Were there two Argosy interviews, one in 1975? I'm sorry to say I don't know. All I can say is I did some lousy posting 12 years ago.

 

 

[Paz Marverde]

47 minutes ago, Ron Ecker said:

Paz,

Thanks for finding my old post. Although I wish that you hadn't. To answer your earlier question, no I was not at the 1996 Dallas Conference. So I assume the source for my statement was someone's coverage of the conference, but I don't know whose. I'm also puzzled by my own reference to a 1975 Argosy interview. There is an Argosy interview of Hemming reprinted in Russell's book On the Trail of JFK Assassins, but it's dated 1976, and I see no mention in it of Espaillat. Were there two Argosy interviews, one in 1975? I'm sorry to say I don't know. All I can say is I did some lousy posting 12 years ago.

 

 

I do thank you for your kind and sincere answer, Ron. Nice to meet you

[Ron Ecker]

Paz,

I have found the Argosy interview reference to Espaillat online. For some reason Russell deleted it from the reprint in his book.

Here is the pertinent passage and link:

ARGOSY: This connection between people in government and Cuban exiles or other Latin American operatives is amazing. Can you think of anything else along those lines?

HEMMING: The Trujillo thing in the Dominican Republic, back in '61 and before that. There was an American, an ex-Marine, who worked for Arturo Espaillat, Trujillo's chief of intelligence. He got involved in some of the Trujillo operations-the Galindez kidnapping, an attempted assassination of [Romulo] Betancourt of Venezuela, and some antiCastro and anti-Haiti things. All through this, Trujillo was kicking some money in the right direction-to Congressman Cooley, Senator [George] Smathers, and some others. A whole gang of congressmen got real friendly with those people. And this American ex-Marine was the bagman; he could get entree to those people. He did all the English publications that Trujillo sent up to congressmen and wrote pro-Trujillo articles for the Indianapolis Star, which Trujillo also kicked money into. But he knew it was only a matter of time before Trujillo's end. [The CIA helped ensure Trujillo's assassination in 1961.] Espaillat knew the whole scheme, and suggested to his American aide that it looked like Washington was gonna "go all the way," so why not just watch what happened? Esp;iillat tried to take over after the hit went down. He died in an accident in Lisbon a few years ago. His American friend went to work for a private CIA operation in Baltimore called International Services of Information.

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/belligerence/argosy-hemming.htm

And I have found the info on the 1996 Dallas Conference, by Googling "Hemming Arturo Espaillat." The source on Hemming at the conference was Charles Drago. In November 2007, Steve Thomas wrote the following on the alt.conspiracy.jfk forum (oddly he quotes me as citing the source - good for me - unlike my post that we found earlier):

 

From Ron Ecker in the Education Forum 12/06/04:

Could there have been a Canadian connection to the French/OAS plots?

Gerry Patrick Hemming was at the 1996 Dallas in November conference.
In his summary of what Hemming had to say while in Dallas, Charles
Drago wrote, "In Montreal, Arturo Espaillat gathered funds from Canada
and Europe and sent them to Dallas in order to fund a French team"
("Hemming Does Dallas," Kennedy Assn Chronicles, Winter 1996-97, p.
47).

In his HSCA deposition, Hemming said, "I had been in touch in Ottawa
with Arturo Espaillat, who at one time had been part of the
triumvirate that took over when Trujillo was assassinated. One of my
people, (Ed) Kolby, had been in Canada with Espaillat . . . Kolby had
disappeared, let us say, from the Miami scene and busied himself up in
New York and Canada . . . And, now, I had gotten the information that
Espaillat and this American had traveled to Dallas and were in Dallas
that week (of the assassination). Now, this perturbed me considerably
that behind my back everybody I knew was going to meet the Texans" (p.
171-172). (What Hemming was supposedly perturbed about was that all
these people - he named Cuesta, Hall, Sturgis, Vidal, Espaillat, and
Aguilar - were going to Dallas to "burn" his financial contacts, "the
Texans" such as Lester Logue; but he also said he tried to find Vidal
in Miami on 11/21 to warn him "to stay the hell out of Dallas while
the president was there") (p. 167).

Hemming identified "the American" who traveled with Espaillat from
Canada to Dallas as Robert Johnson, who Hemming believed (according to
Noel Twyman) was "Raoul" in the MLK assassination (Hancock, Someone
Would Have Talked, p. 277). Hemming told Dick Russell in a 1975 Argosy
interview, "There was an American, an ex-Marine, who worked for Arturo
Espaillat, Trujillo's chief of intelligence . . . Espaillat tried to
take over after the (Trujillo) hit went down. He died in an accident
in Lisbon a few years ago. His American friend (Johnson) went to work
for a private CIA operation in Baltimore called International Services
of Information."

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.conspiracy.jfk/zSCF6wtuLLs

 

[Paz Marverde]

25 minutes ago, Ron Ecker said:

Paz,

I have found the Argosy interview reference to Espaillat online. For some reason Russell deleted it from the reprint in his book.

Here is the pertinent passage and link:

ARGOSY: This connection between people in government and Cuban exiles or other Latin American operatives is amazing. Can you think of anything else along those lines?

HEMMING: The Trujillo thing in the Dominican Republic, back in '61 and before that. There was an American, an ex-Marine, who worked for Arturo Espaillat, Trujillo's chief of intelligence. He got involved in some of the Trujillo operations-the Galindez kidnapping, an attempted assassination of [Romulo] Betancourt of Venezuela, and some antiCastro and anti-Haiti things. All through this, Trujillo was kicking some money in the right direction-to Congressman Cooley, Senator [George] Smathers, and some others. A whole gang of congressmen got real friendly with those people. And this American ex-Marine was the bagman; he could get entree to those people. He did all the English publications that Trujillo sent up to congressmen and wrote pro-Trujillo articles for the Indianapolis Star, which Trujillo also kicked money into. But he knew it was only a matter of time before Trujillo's end. [The CIA helped ensure Trujillo's assassination in 1961.] Espaillat knew the whole scheme, and suggested to his American aide that it looked like Washington was gonna "go all the way," so why not just watch what happened? Esp;iillat tried to take over after the hit went down. He died in an accident in Lisbon a few years ago. His American friend went to work for a private CIA operation in Baltimore called International Services of Information.

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/belligerence/argosy-hemming.htm

And I have found the info on the 1996 Dallas Conference, by Googling "Hemming Arturo Espaillat." The source on Hemming at the conference was Charles Drago. In November 2007, Steve Thomas wrote the following on the alt.conspiracy.jfk forum (oddly he quotes me as citing the source - good for me - unlike my post that we found earlier):

 

From Ron Ecker in the Education Forum 12/06/04:

Could there have been a Canadian connection to the French/OAS plots?

Gerry Patrick Hemming was at the 1996 Dallas in November conference.
In his summary of what Hemming had to say while in Dallas, Charles
Drago wrote, "In Montreal, Arturo Espaillat gathered funds from Canada
and Europe and sent them to Dallas in order to fund a French team"
("Hemming Does Dallas," Kennedy Assn Chronicles, Winter 1996-97, p.
47).

In his HSCA deposition, Hemming said, "I had been in touch in Ottawa
with Arturo Espaillat, who at one time had been part of the
triumvirate that took over when Trujillo was assassinated. One of my
people, (Ed) Kolby, had been in Canada with Espaillat . . . Kolby had
disappeared, let us say, from the Miami scene and busied himself up in
New York and Canada . . . And, now, I had gotten the information that
Espaillat and this American had traveled to Dallas and were in Dallas
that week (of the assassination). Now, this perturbed me considerably
that behind my back everybody I knew was going to meet the Texans" (p.
171-172). (What Hemming was supposedly perturbed about was that all
these people - he named Cuesta, Hall, Sturgis, Vidal, Espaillat, and
Aguilar - were going to Dallas to "burn" his financial contacts, "the
Texans" such as Lester Logue; but he also said he tried to find Vidal
in Miami on 11/21 to warn him "to stay the hell out of Dallas while
the president was there") (p. 167).

Hemming identified "the American" who traveled with Espaillat from
Canada to Dallas as Robert Johnson, who Hemming believed (according to
Noel Twyman) was "Raoul" in the MLK assassination (Hancock, Someone
Would Have Talked, p. 277). Hemming told Dick Russell in a 1975 Argosy
interview, "There was an American, an ex-Marine, who worked for Arturo
Espaillat, Trujillo's chief of intelligence . . . Espaillat tried to
take over after the (Trujillo) hit went down. He died in an accident
in Lisbon a few years ago. His American friend (Johnson) went to work
for a private CIA operation in Baltimore called International Services
of Information."

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.conspiracy.jfk/zSCF6wtuLLs

 

Ron, I can not express how much grateful I am for your message. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

As explained before, this is really important because Metta found a connection with an Italian Bank, named Credito Commerciale e Industriale, headed by a fascist, Valerio Borghese. To that CCI, Trujillo gave an enorous amount of money that, thanks to a nesting box system, disappeared just very few time before his presence in Haiti. Trujillo – it's exactly Hemming who said it, in an interview he made ( SOLARES HILL: J. Timothy Gratz and Mark Howell, The ‘Kill Castro’ business. From No Name Key to Death in Dallas, March 11, 2005 ) – was there in order to financially contribute to the Assassination of JFK:

«Hemming revealed who he believed were two of the “sponsors” of the assassination. Two men met in Haiti in February of 1963 and contributed funds for the Kennedy assassination. Both were from the Dominican Republic. One, Ramfis Trujillo, and international playboy who dated Hollywood starlets, was the son of long-term Dominican Republican dictator Rafael Trujillo, who was assassinated in May of 1961. The second man was Johnny Abbes Garcia, former intelligence director for General Rafael Trujillo. It was not the first time Garcia had financed an assassination. In 1959, Garcia hired American adventurer Alexander Rorke to smuggle eight men into Cuba on one of the first missions to kill Castro.»

 

Please, consider that, after Shaw's arrest, Garrison found at Shaw's home an address book. In that address book there was the name of a Princess Borghese, who was a relative of Valerio Borghese!

 

Edited October 12, 2017 by Paz Marverde
Corrected some grammar

[Paz Marverde]

Here Metta's article about Credito Commerciale e Industriale