Exonerating The Black Nine

[Gerry Down]

On a separate thread David Boylan gave some background relating to the Black Nine which people reading this thread might find useful. David Boylan stated: 

The Joanne was docked in Baltimore harbor for exfiltration use for The Black Nine (per CIA). This was a group of anti-Castro Cubans that were black exfiltrated to Nicaragua and Costa Rica post assassination. 

The Joanne finally gets under way 12/1/63

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=40912#relPageId=2

They were kept below decks. Doc is from Richard Beal and signed by Henry Hecksher 11/27. AMJAVA-4 is Rafael Quintero. Collins radios, silenced weapons.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=40912#relPageId=2

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=62358#relPageId=104

One of the more interesting dispatches sent on 11/22/63. This was from Jake Esterline, COS, Panama City asking about the boat. This was for Zamka true name of David Morales. You'd think that at 20:30 hours (8:30 pm), just hours after the President was assassinated, Esterline, JMWAVE and Morales would have other issues to deal with??

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=31773#relPageId=2&search=zamka

LINK TO EDUCATION FORUM THREAD: https://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/29550-the-time-has-come/

The exfiltration of these individuals after the assassination has given rise to suspicion that they were involved in the JFK assassination.

But is this suspicion justified?

Maybe not.

First off, this Dec 1^st 1963 exfiltration on the Joanne ship was part of a regular pattern of ferrying cubans out of the U.S. (at Baltimore) to Nicaragua (at Bluefields) for use in the AMWORLD operation. After the Joanne had left Baltimore on Dec 1^st 1963 and arrived in Nicaragua a few days later, this document shows that on Dec 14^th the Joanne had left Nicaragua heading back to Baltimore again:

LINK: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=21334#relPageId=3&search=AKL

The reason it was heading back to Baltimore was because the next batch of cuban exiles were due to be exfiltrated out of Baltimore on Dec 22^nd:

LINK: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=40912#relPageId=2

So the Black Nine exfiltration was part of a wider exfiltration operation as part of AMWORLD.

So if there was nothing unusual about the Black Nine, then why were Morales and Esterline so interested in the Black Nines ship (the Joanne) on the evening of Nov 22^nd 1963 when all hell was breaking lose about the JFK assassination?

Could the reason have something to do with U.S. customs?

According to these two documents, Manual Artimes AMWORLD boats were met by U.S. customs anytime they would come back into the US. And customs would give them hassle:

LINK: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=155000#relPageId=204

LINK: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=155000#relPageId=203

I wonder if customs also had the authority to examine ships as they were leaving the U.S.? If so this might explain Morales and Esterlines interest in the Joanne on the evening of Nov 22^nd 1963.

The very fact the Black Nine were hidden in the hull of the Joanne ship might be an indication that there was something wrong with the papers of these cuban exiles. Perhaps some of them were illegals. Considering this, the interest by Morales and Esterline in the Joanne on the evening of Nov 22^nd 1963 might simply be their fear that because of the JFK assassination, customs might tighten their controls at the ports and inspect the Joanne and mess up their operation of sending these nine cuban exiles down to Nicaragua as part of AMWORLD.

This therefore could provide a benign reason for Morales and Esterlines interest in the Joanne on the evening of Nov 22nd 1963. 

[Larry Hancock]

What was  unusual about all these AMWORLD exfiltrations is that in the pursuit of total deniability all the Cuban exiles were being given brand new covers - specifically out of US covers.  As your document notes Joanne was also equipped with a special below deck compartment that could be  used to transport people but also a fairly considerable stash of weapons and special operations type gear.   Certainly all agencies moved into a higher level of security after the assassination and since the Joanne was the only  transport in hand at the moment if it has been thoroughly searched it could have undercut the whole project.

Of course a related questions is that we now know WAVE was ordered to conduct a focused inquiry into Cubans and Cuban exiles who might have been involved in the assassination; not sure we know exactly when that directive was issued but perhaps someone did not want the Joanne to surface during that inquiry - compromising the compartmentalization of AMWORLD.

[Gerry Down]

I have a vague recollection of seeing a document years ago which stated the border (roads etc) going in to Mexico being closed in the hours after the assassination in order to stop any potential fleeing assassins. 

If such a document exits it could be used as proof that security at the U.S. borders was being beefed up in the hours after the assassination which could have caused JMWAVE to go into a little panic about the Joanne that it could be searched and blow their AMWORLD operation.

I presume customs could be the ones to conduct such a search. Maybe INS or the FBI too. I don't know. I don't recall ever seeing any reports of airports being shut down after the JFK assassination like there was in the hours after 9/11. In hindsight one would think airports should have been locked down to prevent any fleeing assassins.

[Gerry Down]

7 hours ago, Larry Hancock said:

Certainly all agencies moved into a higher level of security after the assassination and since the Joanne was the only  transport in hand at the moment if it has been thoroughly searched it could have undercut the whole project.

I hadn't realised the Joanne was the only transport in hand. I would have thought such an assessment would be difficult to make as the CIA had several motherships such as the Rex and the Leda. Maybe all of these were out at sea and in other places. I'm not familiar with the CIAs motherships and other large boats in late 1963 which were in dock and ready to leave the U.S. on Nov 22nd 1963.

[Larry Hancock]

The Rex and Leda had nothing to do with the AMWORLD project, they were mother ships largely involved in supporting Commandos Mambises and by the fall of 63 had become increasingly visible, with even their docking locations  under press scrutiny.  For a reasonably detailed list of what assets were being procured for AMWORLD in terms of when, where and how I'm going to refer  you back to Shadow Warfare.  It was supposed to be a totally deniable, off shore operation and while WAVE did provide some support via training, but AMWORLD activities and staff were independent of WAVE. The obstacles involved in setting up a totally deniable, covert, quasi-military, even modest maritime military operation based entirely off shore were immense, which is why it took some 9-10 months before even the first minor mission was carried out in the spring of 64.  Like the Cuba Project it was another lesson in overreach.

[David Boylan]

As John Newman reminded us, the CIA usually hid a black op inside a legitimate op. I also tend to have a suspicious mind. The President of the US has just been assassinated some 6-7 hours previously by a suspected commie with links to Russia and Castro which might precipitate a world war (well, with what was known at that time) and Morales and Esterline are asking about a boat? They had nothing better to do? Why would Esterline ask Morales about this? He wasn't involved in the AMWORLD logistics. Henry Hecksher, Dick Beal, Raul and Bobbie Hernandez, Karl Roher and later Carl Jenkins were involved. They worked for SAS/SO (Special Affairs Staff/ Special Operations). Jake Esterline was sent to Panama City as Chief of Station after the BOP. He had nothing to do with AMWORLD. 

Now if I was to speculate, burying a "person of interest" with the legitimate AMWORLD recruits inside the Joanne might be the way to go.

Other AMWORLD recruits would travel to Bluefields, Nicaragua and "Camp Guillot" in Costa Rica by shrimp boats from New Orleans and by charter plane in the coming months.

Here's a list of Black-Exfiltrees that the CIA was trying to get back into the US in 1965 after AMWORLD shutdown.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=13079#relPageId=2

 

[Larry Hancock]

David makes a good point  that the people in the communications related to the ship were not involved with AMWORLD,  so the question is a good one. Perhaps it was like, "who me", hey I was at my desk, working hard, paying attention to my day job....certainly not off at loose ends trying to figure which of my buddies had just done what we had talked about over drinks or working on my own alibi....see, there are even memos...,

[Gerry Down]

On 9/6/2023 at 2:30 PM, Larry Hancock said:

The Rex and Leda had nothing to do with the AMWORLD project, they were mother ships largely involved in supporting Commandos Mambises and by the fall of 63 had become increasingly visible, with even their docking locations  under press scrutiny.  

Do you know if the Rex and the Leda continued to be used after Nov 1st 1963 and into 1964?

Those two ships were outed in a Nov 1st 1963 edition of the New York Times. I'm sure you've seen that article before but i will post the relevent bits of it here for anyone who isn't familiar with it:

THE NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE - November 1, 1963

CASTRO SAYS C.I.A. USES RAIDER SHIP

He Asserts Cuba Captured Small Boats From Vessel –
Miami Owner Denies It

By The Associated Press

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., Oct. 31 – Premier Fidel Castro charged last night that the Central Intelligence Agency was operating a raider ship called the Rex, and that shehad been used in a sabotage mission against Cuba. He said two small boats from the Rex and several C.I.A. agents had been captured.

Primer Castro described the Rex as a 150-foot diesel vessel flying the Nicaraguan flag. He said she was based in West Palm Beach.

A vessel called the Rex, 174 feet long, returned to Palm Beach Monday and was tied up today at the Port of Palm Beach. She flies the Nicaraguan flag and carries large search lights, radar and a crane on the stern. Two motor launches were missing from their davits.

……….

J. A. Belcher, a Miami oil company executive, told The Miami Herald that the Rex belonged to him, but denied that it had participated in raids against Cuba.

………..

There are two other mysterious vessels of Nicaraguan registry operating out of ports of Florida’s southeast coast. One sometimes changes color.

The Leda is tied up at Port Everglades and the Port of Fort Lauderdale, 45 miles south of Palm Beach. She is registered from Greytown, Nicaragua, which is now known as San Juan del Norte.

A Miami man who knew a crewman on the Villaro said today, “She was a funny ship. She changed colors all the time. Sometimes the hull would be blue with a green deck. Other times it was gray with an orange deck. My friend said she was working in oil exploration.”

Coast Guard headquarters in Miami said it had no listing for any of the ships or their companies.

I had been assuming that the Rex and the Leda were retired after this as their cover had been blown. But that was just an assumption on my part. According to the below CIA document there were 3 motherships in use by JMWAVE in 1963:

LINK (Page 12): https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/104-10096-10145.pdf 

I presume the 3 motherships they are referring to are the Rex, the Leda and one other ship. According to this article by William Kelly:

LINK: https://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/2012/04/rex-blows-collins-radio-cia-cover.html

there was another ship called the Explorer II which was owned by Explorations, Inc. of Miami Shores. I presume this was the third mothership which made up the 3 motherships mentioned in the above CIA document? That article by William Kelly mentions another ship called the "Villaro" but i don't know if this was a mothership or not. Maybe its one of the "six smaller vessels" mentioned in the above CIA document. I don't know.

What do you think?

[Larry Hancock]

I wrote about their being outed and even reported by the press at their docking locations in Florida.  However my impression was that they might have continued to support Commando Mambises and approved sabotage missions though the end of the  year if not longer....David B may know but I didn't follow the mother ships past their initial exposure myself.

[Gerry Down]

On 9/19/2023 at 1:52 AM, Larry Hancock said:

I wrote about their being outed and even reported by the press at their docking locations in Florida.  However my impression was that they might have continued to support Commando Mambises and approved sabotage missions though the end of the  year if not longer....David B may know but I didn't follow the mother ships past their initial exposure myself.

The two motherships the Rex and the Leda were outed in that November 1st 1963 New York Times article. For the CIA however, the process of trying to acquire new ships, with covers etc, would be both complex and costly. One would imagine that the CIA had no choice but to keep using these same ships in future missions. Perhaps they could have changed the names of the ships and painted them different colors. @David Boylan and @Mervyn Hagger discuss how motherships often had their names changed on the below previous thread: 

But I don't recall ever hearing the Rex or Leda had their names changed.

I guess the Explorer II managed to escape the detection of The New York Times and therefore was able to continue operating with its cover intact after the Nov 1st 1963 New York Times article. 

[David Boylan]

The Rex and Leda were used briefly in the end of 1963 for exfiltration and caching weapons including Rolando Cubela's (AMLASH-1) cache to be used for assassinating Castro.

LBJ shutdown all JMWAVE maritime ops (See Brad Ayers) after 1/1/64. Only Autonomous Operations were allowed to run maritime ops (AMWORLD and JURE). The Joanne and The Donna (later named the Santa Maria?) ran ops for AMWORLD. Most of the Commandos Mambises (AMGLOSSY and AMBANTY) were rolled up into AMWORLD.