How did David Mamet get involved with this?

[James DiEugenio]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11019271/New-film-relative-Mafia-boss-sheds-fresh-light-Presidents-assassination-60-years-on.html

Just from this story:

1.) Oswald did not fire at Kennedy

2.) Roselli was on the GK?  (I think Larry Hancock would have something to say about this.)

3.) Kennedy did not authorize those plots to kill Castro.

Are they using the name Pepe for Sam?  Because there was no deal about the elections in Chicago.  Mike Binder proved that.

 

[Benjamin Cole]

2 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11019271/New-film-relative-Mafia-boss-sheds-fresh-light-Presidents-assassination-60-years-on.html

Just from this story:

1.) Oswald did not fire at Kennedy

2.) Roselli was on the GK?  (I think Larry Hancock would have something to say about this.)

3.) Kennedy did not authorize those plots to kill Castro.

Are they using the name Pepe for Sam?  Because there was no deal about the elections in Chicago.  Mike Binder proved that.

 

Seems like another planted misdirection story. 

LHO's backstory...his military service at Atsugi, his defection to Russia, his return without consequence, his numerous associations in New Orleans with intel assets, his trip to embassies in Mexico City and his impersonation there...all way beyond the ken of the Mob. LHO sure looks like an intel asset. 

The creation of the LHO backstory and legend, and the immediate media post-JFKA embrace thereof, is way, way beyond anything the Mob could do. 

Could the CIA have used a couple Mob gunsels as cutouts in the JFKA? Yes, that is possible. A Mob gunsel gunned down LHO. 

But, to quote Mickey Spillane, "It is not who pulled the trigger, but who paid for the bullet." 

Edited April 10, 2023 by Benjamin Cole

[James DiEugenio]

Yes, that would be a logical deduction.

But man to go with this kind of pile of rubbish? In this day and age, after the ARRB?

BTW, Larry Hancock told me that the FBI had good surveillance on Roselli.  Which I did not know.

So in other words, the FBI had surveillance on both Giancana and Roselli.  And this was due to RFK of course.

What sense then does this story make?

[W. Niederhut]

Just now, James DiEugenio said:

Yes, that would be a logical deduction.

But man to go with this kind of pile of rubbish? In this day and age, after the ARRB?

BTW, Larry Hancock told me that the FBI had good surveillance on Roselli.  Which I did not know.

So in other words, the FBI had surveillance on both Giancana and Roselli.  And this was due to RFK of course.

What sense then does this story make?

And why is this Mamet screenplay getting major M$M coverage as "the true story, at last," after JFK Revisited (the actual true story, at last) was either ignored or misrepresented by the M$M?

[James DiEugenio]

That is another problem with this story.

The story is almost like a cheap PR ploy to drum up interest in what is going to be a pile of crap on delivery. 

One that will be exposed pretty fast as being phony.

[Bob Ness]

5 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

That is another problem with this story.

The story is almost like a cheap PR ploy to drum up interest in what is going to be a pile of crap on delivery. 

One that will be exposed pretty fast as being phony.

I thought Roselli and Harvey were tight. And Giancana had ties to the OSS/Dulles. If that is true it doesn't exactly eliminate the CIA (or rogue actors with the Gov't) as possibly behind it. The flash removed on Oswald by the FBI, the letter by the CIA about the reformed Oswald plus the SS stand down makes it seem entirely plausible to me. Maybe these ideas have been debunked but links between Marcello and Oswald seem with the realm also.

Who could possibly take out Nicoletti, Giancana and Roselli? Rivals perhaps. Or people eliminating witnesses who have standing above those three, such as the CIA.

Edited April 11, 2023 by Bob Ness

[James DiEugenio]

Roselli and Harvey were working together on the plots to kill Castro.

According to Larry, and he can chime in if he wants, if you read the two main biographies of Roselli, he was not in Dallas that day.  I mean that would be utterly stupid anyway if he was under surveillance. 

Giancana was not in with the OSS, that was Luciano.

I cannot wait to see how they somehow compromise this with the other efforts in this regard. This producer did a documentary on Giancana back in the nineties,  And of course there is that pile of junk Double Cross.  So this will be the third go round.

[Bob Ness]

20 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said:

Roselli and Harvey were working together on the plots to kill Castro.

Doesn't mean they couldn't have some madcap ideas about JFK. It seems to me they were a lot tighter than a working relationship based on Cuba. Harvey's wife was enamored with him apparently. Neither one is above it. Harvey's travel itinerary would be interesting.

23 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said:

I mean that would be utterly stupid anyway if he was under surveillance. 

True. I doubt he would commit anything to paper in a biography. Whatever. It reeks plausible to someone not completely familiar with the attending information.

I see the writer of the article is trying to reanimate James Files. Sums it up I suppose.

[Larry Hancock]

I've  written about this extensively so I won't repeat all that, there is a whole chapter on Roselli in SWHT.   Yes Harvey and Roselli were personally very tight and as I wrote most recently in Tipping Point Roselli did play a role in the attack in Dallas, putting together the connections to bring in Ruby as a support role.  However Harvey had warned off Roselli from any contact with Giancana et al when he brought Roselli into Mongoose and reactivated the Castro assassination project - adamantly telling him no further contact with them was to happen, and Roselli complied.

If you really dig into Roselli you find that his contacts with the godfathers were all peripheral, just part of his "consulting" and financial placement business, he was a broker for skim investments.  But his real mentor was and had always been Lansky, very much an outsider and often in competition with the others, especially in the Casino years in Havana. Anyone who does not have that history really does not understand what was going on circa 63 or how much it was different from only a few years earlier in 60/61 when Roselli was first contacted for the Castro assassination plot.

Bringing up Roselli in regard to the conspiracy makes sense in my view, but it has to be done in a realistic way and in an accurate context - which is not one that involves him on the ground in Dallas (just plain silly) and certainly not as a shooter. 

 

[Joseph Backes]

16 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

Because there was no deal about the elections in Chicago.  Mike Binder proved that.

Jim, could you elaborate on this? Who is Mike Bender? Did he write a book, an article on this? If so, what book or article?

Thanks,

Joe

[Lawrence Schnapf]

The FBI did not have good surveillance on Marcello. If the mob had a role in the assassination, it would have been through Marcello.

[Joe Bauer]

Jim Di;

You sat down to lunch with Mamet and Oliver Stone not too long ago.

In Beverly Hills was it?

I know you only had 1 to 2 hours but per chance did Mamet's JFK "who done it" thriller film project "Black Bird" ever come up?

12 or more years ago I believe it was seriously gaining steam and even had Cate Blanchett okayed for the starring role, and then it fell apart?

The basic story line was something about an Australian woman ( Blanchett ) innocently being called to Los Angeles to settle her late uncle's estate where upon she discovers he may have been involved in some way to the JFKA through his work as one of the top special effects men in the film industry?

Great plot line for such a thriller imo. Wish it had been made.

I read where Mamet himself decided he didn't want to do it. He had become more aligned with the "lone gunman" point of view regards the JFKA?

Whoever did Giancana and Roselli had authority from much higher levels than themselves.

Either other top bosses or agencies.

Watched a documentary on Albert Anastasia ( The Mad Hatter ) mob killer last night. This guy was perhaps the most prolific hit man in mob history.

He and his New York City based hand picked death squad crew ( known as "Murder Incorporated" ) may have taken out up to 2,000 men. 

Anastasia himself was shot to death in his favorite barbershop on orders from the "NYC five family Commission" greatly in part because he violated one the Mob's most sacred rules.

Anastasia murdered another Mob boss. Without authorization.

So, whoever took out Giancana and Roselli...had to have had authority to do so from the highest rungs of mob power...or even higher?

The interview of Bill Harvey's widow in her rest home days was simply astounding.

It is incredibly one of the most revealing "first hand" accounts of Harvey's true nefarious alliances and inclinations, and his deep hatred of the Kennedy's, especially RFK.

Mrs. Harvey ( herself employed by the agency) tells of her and her husband's love and respect for Mafiosi Johnny Roselli whom she declared was a "True Patriot" versus her and her husband's opposite feelings toward JFK, RFK and even Jackie Kennedy..."they were real scum." 

Mrs. Harvey's revelations are so disturbingly shocking in their clear twisted loss of respect and loyalty toward their own president versus love and respect for an organized crime figure.

We now know through Mrs. Harvey's statements that Bill Harvey certainly had the deep Kennedy hatred motivation regards any possible connection to the JFKA or in the least knowledge of it's planning and execution.

When highest members of our agencies top covert teams ( Harvey was CIA station chief in Rome on 11,22,1963 ) are provenly too close to organized crime figures and at the same time despising of their own president, who is then murdered...one cannot help but ponder the possibility that they cannot be totally ruled out regards suspicion in that affair.

Imo anyways.

Every now and then I pull up the interview of Mrs. Bill Harvey...just to refresh it's ominously disturbing message in my JFKA suspicion thought bank.

Edited April 14, 2023 by Joe Bauer

[James DiEugenio]

3 hours ago, Joseph Backes said:

Jim, could you elaborate on this? Who is Mike Bender? Did he write a book, an article on this? If so, what book or article?

Thanks,

Joe

Mike Binder did an elaborate evaluation of what the turnout was in Chicago in 1960.

He then compared the wards in which Giancana had his most influence historically.

He discovered that in those wards the vote for JFK in 1960 was actually lower than it was in the previous presidential elections.

Which is the opposite of what it should be if Double Cross is to hold water.

[James DiEugenio]

Joe:

That lunch with Mamet and Oliver was in Brentwood.

Mamet actually brought the script for Black Bird with him.  

I liked the script as a  neat entertainment film about the alteration of Zapruder. You have the plot down fairly well.  And you are correct, he had Cate Blanchett all signed up. He said that, on something like the day before production was to start, the backing fell apart. Take that as you will.

He never said anything about this Giancana stuff.  I don't think this came to him until after.

 Mamet is not aligned with the lone gunman side.  That lunch originated with him e mailing Oliver after he saw JFK Revisited. He said he used to be part of a pistol shooting team and if CE 399 did everything the Commission said it did then he was a monkey's uncle. He has nothing but scorn for the Warren Report.

[James DiEugenio]

The deaths of Giancana and Roselli are interesting because of the timing around the Church Committee.

But in the case of Giancana, I just wonder if it holds water.

See, RFK never stopped pursuing Giancana. And Sam did go to jail in 1965 for a year.  When he got out, knowing they were still after him, he fled to Mexico.

And he stayed there a long time.  But when he got back, the word is he still wanted to be the main man in Chicago.  But that did not fly.

Whoever shot him knew him since Sam let the guy in and was cooking sausages when he was killed.

The odd thing was there was a surveillance car outside and across the street.  Therefore the gun used was likely a silencer.

But did the guys in the car take no pictures?