Enrique Ernesto Pugibet deathbed confession

[Leslie Sharp]

20 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

Only a white supremacist proto-fascist would challenge the authenticity of the Pugibet datebook. 

I have given you proof: on 11/24, Pugibet wrote in datebook that he had encountered a Dallas sheriff and a "municipalité de Dallas gen" on or near the GK, and that he escaped by showing Secret Service credentials. "gen." is short for "gendarme." 

The incident of someone flashing Secret Service credential was not known to the public until much later---proof Pugibet was there. How could Pugibet know of the Secret Service credentials on the GK unless he was there? 

Like a certain other author, I am talking the "take it or leave it" attitude.

I know the Pugibet document is real, by the manner in which it was obtained, and later authentication efforts. 

I would love to show people the document, but I have signed a NDA with filmmakers, for a very high budget production. This will make Stone's film look like a Super-8 home movie.

You can believe me, when I say the high-powered film executives went to extremes to authenticate the document. 

 

Edited November 17, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Leslie Sharp]

4 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

The general level of discourse by several posters on this interesting thread is disappointing to say the least. And I’ll note that major writers like Larry Hancock and Jim DiEugenio have unfortunately stayed out of the fray completely. 
so if I understand what Leslie is saying, the Frenchman Pugibet, the subject of an essay by Alan Kent in Albarelli’s Coup is also the subject of a new French book claiming that he confessed on his deathbed to being the second gunman at Dealey Plaza. 
what I would like to know is who was FBI informer Allen Wright? 

Random notes: As Alan Kent points out in his essay, Chester Zochowski a.k.a. Chester Gray, an associate of FBI informant Allen Wright, shows up in documents that indicate he was also associated with Mitch WerBell in the 1970s; thus far I haven't found anything to confirm they were associated as early as 1962/63 in context of Lafitte's references to WerBell in early '63.

It's also worth emphasizing that Allen Eli Wright had been smuggling diamonds in the late '50s — as had Pierre Lafitte — and was an informant for the government of Dominican Republic prior to Trujillo's assassination. We know that expert sniper Robert Emmett Johnson (a name that appears in the 1963 Lafitte datebook) was based in the DR in the employ of Ulius Amoss, infamous for developing the concept of 'leaderless resistance.'

 

Full text of a document referenced by Alan K. in his Pugibet essay

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT
Memorandum
To: Chief, Contact Division
ATTN: Support Branch

FROM: Chief, Miami Field Office

DATE: 18 December, 1962

SUBJECT: Reported interest of Soviet Diplomat in Defecting

1. On 18 Dec 62 I received a call from Joseph Merola of Miami Beach, notorious racketeer, gun runner, and ex-convict. Merola was released in November after serving 14 months of a five year tern in Federal prison, having been connected with the theft of weapons from a National Guard Armory in Ohio.
2. Merola informed me that a US national, Allen Eli Wright had arrived in town from Mexico, and stated that Julio Couttilenc of the Mexican Secret Service had informed him that the "Number 2 Man" of the Soviet Embassy in Moscow was interested in defecting. I checked with JMWAVE to see of there was any information on Wright and Couttilenc, and both names were listed. I then requested Mercola to set up an appointment with Wright, which he did the same evening.
3. Wright was accompanied by Chester Gray, a well known "con-man" and racketeer, but who knew nothing about the Mexican situation. Wright stated that Julio Couttilenc had been in frequent contact with the Soviet diplomat since 1959, when the Soviet was in a lower post. Wright did not know the Soviet's name, but said that he was about 35, dark complexioned, 5' 10", about 175 pounds and extremely nervous.
4. The Soviet is reported to have told Couttilenc that he wanted US $50 thousand plus complete anonymity in the US for his defection and the information which he would furnish to the US Government. The Soviet also wanted assurances that he would not be turned over to the USSR. In the negotiations he gave no evidence of being interested in anyone except himself. It is not known if he is married.
5. Couttilenc told Wright in July 1962 the Soviet was willing to defect under the described circumstances and Wright said that his last contact with Couttilenc had been in July.
6. Wright stated that Couttilenc had been on the payroll of General Trujillo and also on the payroll of General Somosa as an informer on matters of interest to the Governments involved. Wright said that Couttilenc was willing to do anything for money, and that Couttilenc wanted US $50 thousand for his part in arranging the Soviet's defection.
7. Wright indicated that he likewise expected some assistance from the US Government in return for his services. When I inquired as to what he had in mind, he did not reply directly but indicated that he was in trouble with a branch of the US Government, possibly Secret Service, and that a kind word might not be amiss. He also indicated that renumeration for his expenses would be acceptable.
8. Wright gave me his date and place of birth as 26 Nov 22, Bowles, Arkansas. He apparently has operated as a freelance informer to a variety of governments, including Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic prior to Trujillo's assassination. He stated he had arranaged the theft of some papers from the Cuban Embassy in 1959 on behalf of the US Government, for which he had to pay of $23 thousand which was never funded. He stated he would be in Miami until 22 December when he would return to Laurel, Mississippi, where he is currently living. He will advise me through Merola if he receives any further information from the Soviet.

P.S. As of 1500 hours on 18 Dec a phone call from Julio Couttilenc to Wright indicates that the individual is still available and interested. Wright's full address is: 105 Central, Laurel, Mississippi

EN

 

original doc. https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=40590#relPageId=2&search=couttilen

[Leslie Sharp]

 

Edited November 17, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Benjamin Cole]

7 hours ago, Leslie Sharp said:

Stay with this, Benjamin. A few more comments and you have the bones of a dissertation that would qualify at Tucker's School of Journalism (campuses currently under consideration in  Madrid, Warsaw and Budapest).  Who knows? You might land the first diploma.  But, I do recommend you first run this past The Ratfxcker. He'll recognize immediately your clever blend of fact and fiction but it may require some tweaking before it hits the pages of Truth Social.  I think he has connections over at The War Room as well.  Think of it. An awardwinning podcast in the making, Benjamin, and you'll have me to thank.

Why the antagonism? Let's coordinate!

I have the Pugibet datebook, and you have the Lafitte datebook. The power is squared! 

We can crosscheck references---and I can assure you, what Pugibet did makes Lafitte look like a small sideshow character, a cameo appearance. 

 

 

 

[Leslie Sharp]

6 minutes ago, Benjamin Cole said:

Why the antagonism? Let's coordinate!

I have the Pugibet datebook, and you have the Lafitte datebook. The power is squared! 

We can crosscheck references---and I can assure you, what Pugibet did makes Lafitte look like a small sideshow character, a cameo appearance. 

 

 

 

Post away, Benjamin.  I look forward to seeing your datebook.

And presumably, you'll be alble to meet the high bar set by Albarelli in his public testament as to provenance and authenticity of the Pierre Lafitte datebook. 

 

' . . . . Before I completed my book on Frank Olson’s murder, I had the opportunity to meet the one person who was quite close to Lafitte, his wife. I had been informed by a highly respected journalist for the New York Times, John Crewdson, that Lafitte had been living in a small town in New England for at least twelve years. By chance, I had relatives in a nearby town, and I turned to them for help in locating Lafitte. As it turned out, he was living openly with his wife. Understandably, I traveled as quickly as possible to the place where they resided, which was quite easy because I was still living in Vermont where I’d gone to write the Olson book. Of course, I shared the location and address with the DA’s office in Manhattan, but ventured there on my own. 

I was too late to find Pierre. He had passed away before my arrival. But, as said, I had the opportunity to meet his wife Rene. Our meeting was a cautious one, but I felt that by being honest about my interests and objectives an initial bond of friendship was formed. That bond grew steadily stronger through the time that Rene relocated to the Miami, Florida area. As far as I know, nobody from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office ever made the same trip I did. 

Through additional meetings with Rene, I became aware that Pierre, like George White, had kept datebooks within which he would jot down certain things, often specific to matters he was working on at the time. It was a practice that was expressly forbidden by the CIA, but Pierre and George were notorious for bending and breaking the rules. Said Rene, “He would sometimes emulate George, mainly for financial reasons, not out of any admiration or the like.”

As I’m sure you can imagine, I was especially interested in viewing and reading Lafitte’s personal writings. I respectfully made my interest known to Rene. She had agreed after thinking about it for what seemed a painfully long time. About two weeks later, she called again and said that she had become concerned about certain findings in Pierre’s materials and that she now wanted to talk with “her family’s attorney” about her concerns and liability issues. Oh, Lord, I thought, an attorney: that will surely mess everything up. But, perhaps thanks to the alignment of the stars, Rene called about a week later with good news. 

I had learned through my Olson research that Pierre and his family lived in New Orleans during the 1960s and that Pierre had been briefly employed by the William Reily Coffee Company where alleged JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald had also briefly worked in May and June 1963. I had been warned several times by writer Peter Janney, and other close friends who were also writers, to stay clear of the Kennedy assassination. “It’s a black hole that draws you in deeper and deeper, until you cannot extract yourself,” said Janney. He was right. But that’s another story that can be discussed at another time. 

What is important here is that I eventually gained conditional access to several of Lafitte’s datebooks and a precious handful of his letters. I would guess that you can imagine my surprise when I was able to make out Lee Harvey Oswald’s name in the 1963 datebook. Over a short period, I found other names connected to Oswald’s. Some identified only by initials: “O,” “OS,” “JA” and “T.” To make a long and convoluted story short, I was able to study Lafitte’s 1963 datebook. And as expected, although for entirely different reasons than my initial expectations, it was remarkable for its contents. Perhaps “remarkable” is not a strong enough word. 

There, in a worn, but well-preserved, leather-bound datebook, was a stunning parade of names: Angleton, Oswald, Joannides, Labadie, Martin—some under aliases, some coded, some not, some as bold as day, others scribbled in a hurried or tired hand, some of which I had no idea about, or even a clue as to who they were. Occasionally, I depended on expert assassination researchers like Steve Rosen, Malcolm Blunt, Dick Russell, and Stuart Wexler, and my cowriters Leslie Sharp and Alan Kent, to identify but a handful and for making sense of certain entries. At the start, I was near completely unfamiliar with the names R. G. Storey, Charles Willoughby, and Ilse Skorzeny. Through the datebook, the story of Lafitte’s involvement in the events of 1963 rolled out page by page. As hopefully will become clear to readers of this book, Lafitte played what, no doubt, was a crucial role in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. 

One thing, however, should be made clear: I, as the author of this book, do not own any of Lafitte’s datebooks or letters. Fortunately, I have been granted the right to reproduce certain selections from the 1963 datebook. But, there are contents in those datebooks that the Lafitte family do not want published. Rene Lafitte was adamant about this and would not agree to anything else. It took considerable effort to convince her and others that I be allowed to reproduce her insightful comment about JFK’s death recorded in a November 23, 1963 entry: “Rene says, coup de grâce.” . . . —H. P. Albarelli Jr. 

 

[Benjamin Cole]

30 minutes ago, Leslie Sharp said:

Post away, Benjamin.  I look forward to seeing your datebook.

And presumably, you'll be alble to meet the high bar set by Albarelli in his public testament as to provenance and authenticity of the Pierre Lafitte datebook. 

 

' . . . . Before I completed my book on Frank Olson’s murder, I had the opportunity to meet the one person who was quite close to Lafitte, his wife. I had been informed by a highly respected journalist for the New York Times, John Crewdson, that Lafitte had been living in a small town in New England for at least twelve years. By chance, I had relatives in a nearby town, and I turned to them for help in locating Lafitte. As it turned out, he was living openly with his wife. Understandably, I traveled as quickly as possible to the place where they resided, which was quite easy because I was still living in Vermont where I’d gone to write the Olson book. Of course, I shared the location and address with the DA’s office in Manhattan, but ventured there on my own. 

I was too late to find Pierre. He had passed away before my arrival. But, as said, I had the opportunity to meet his wife Rene. Our meeting was a cautious one, but I felt that by being honest about my interests and objectives an initial bond of friendship was formed. That bond grew steadily stronger through the time that Rene relocated to the Miami, Florida area. As far as I know, nobody from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office ever made the same trip I did. 

Through additional meetings with Rene, I became aware that Pierre, like George White, had kept datebooks within which he would jot down certain things, often specific to matters he was working on at the time. It was a practice that was expressly forbidden by the CIA, but Pierre and George were notorious for bending and breaking the rules. Said Rene, “He would sometimes emulate George, mainly for financial reasons, not out of any admiration or the like.”

As I’m sure you can imagine, I was especially interested in viewing and reading Lafitte’s personal writings. I respectfully made my interest known to Rene. She had agreed after thinking about it for what seemed a painfully long time. About two weeks later, she called again and said that she had become concerned about certain findings in Pierre’s materials and that she now wanted to talk with “her family’s attorney” about her concerns and liability issues. Oh, Lord, I thought, an attorney: that will surely mess everything up. But, perhaps thanks to the alignment of the stars, Rene called about a week later with good news. 

I had learned through my Olson research that Pierre and his family lived in New Orleans during the 1960s and that Pierre had been briefly employed by the William Reily Coffee Company where alleged JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald had also briefly worked in May and June 1963. I had been warned several times by writer Peter Janney, and other close friends who were also writers, to stay clear of the Kennedy assassination. “It’s a black hole that draws you in deeper and deeper, until you cannot extract yourself,” said Janney. He was right. But that’s another story that can be discussed at another time. 

What is important here is that I eventually gained conditional access to several of Lafitte’s datebooks and a precious handful of his letters. I would guess that you can imagine my surprise when I was able to make out Lee Harvey Oswald’s name in the 1963 datebook. Over a short period, I found other names connected to Oswald’s. Some identified only by initials: “O,” “OS,” “JA” and “T.” To make a long and convoluted story short, I was able to study Lafitte’s 1963 datebook. And as expected, although for entirely different reasons than my initial expectations, it was remarkable for its contents. Perhaps “remarkable” is not a strong enough word. 

There, in a worn, but well-preserved, leather-bound datebook, was a stunning parade of names: Angleton, Oswald, Joannides, Labadie, Martin—some under aliases, some coded, some not, some as bold as day, others scribbled in a hurried or tired hand, some of which I had no idea about, or even a clue as to who they were. Occasionally, I depended on expert assassination researchers like Steve Rosen, Malcolm Blunt, Dick Russell, and Stuart Wexler, and my cowriters Leslie Sharp and Alan Kent, to identify but a handful and for making sense of certain entries. At the start, I was near completely unfamiliar with the names R. G. Storey, Charles Willoughby, and Ilse Skorzeny. Through the datebook, the story of Lafitte’s involvement in the events of 1963 rolled out page by page. As hopefully will become clear to readers of this book, Lafitte played what, no doubt, was a crucial role in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. 

One thing, however, should be made clear: I, as the author of this book, do not own any of Lafitte’s datebooks or letters. Fortunately, I have been granted the right to reproduce certain selections from the 1963 datebook. But, there are contents in those datebooks that the Lafitte family do not want published. Rene Lafitte was adamant about this and would not agree to anything else. It took considerable effort to convince her and others that I be allowed to reproduce her insightful comment about JFK’s death recorded in a November 23, 1963 entry: “Rene says, coup de grâce.” . . . —H. P. Albarelli Jr. 

 

That's amazing!

The same thing happened to me!

I do not own the Puginet datebook, and I have signed an NDA that prevents anyone from authenticating the document. 

But!---I have been allowed to see key passages in the datebook that confirm its authenticity beyond all doubt. 

We are in the same boat! 

Exactly the same boat! 

[Leslie Sharp]

2 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

That's amazing!

The same thing happened to me!

I do not own the Puginet datebook, and I have signed an NDA that prevents anyone from authenticating the document. 

But!---I have been allowed to see key passages in the datebook that confirm its authenticity beyond all doubt. 

We are in the same boat! 

Exactly the same boat! 

 

Edited November 17, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Leslie Sharp]

On 11/16/2023 at 8:57 AM, Bill Fite said:

French article in Le Point today - w mention of a poster here. @David Von Pein

Makes mention of the purchasing of the 'confession' - I'm not sure what that means at all.

Translation in RED via google translate except for a better translation of voila in ()!

Exclusif. Du nouveau sur l’assassinat de Kennedy

Exclusif. Deux passionnants ouvrages – Le Deuxième Tireur de Cédric Meletta et L’Inconnue de Dallas de Mary Haverstick – rouvrent l’enquête.

• Le Point
• 16 Nov 2023
• PAR FRANÇOIS-GUILLAUME LORRAIN

Impact. Parmi les suspects du meurtre de JFK, la femme à l’imper (à droite) qui tiendrait une caméra-fusil.

Sur les traces du tireur français

Le meurtre de John Fiztgerald Kennedy à Dallas est une histoire sans fin. Enquêtes, films, documentaires s’empilent depuis soixante ans. En 2024, une grosse production, avec Al Pacino et Viggo Mortensen, fera cette fois porter le chapeau à la mafia de Chicago… Il y a des obsédés, plus ou moins complotistes, du 22 novembre 1963. Ils fréquentent sur YouTube la chaîne consacrée à JFK, David Von Pein’s JFK Channel, écument le site de la Fondation Mary-Ferrell, qui stocke tous les documents fédéraux sur les suspects. Durant toutes ces années, les rapports se sont accumulés. En 1964, la commission Warren affirma la culpabilité de Lee Harvey Oswald, tireur unique ; plus grand monde ne semble accorder de crédit à cette thèse. Dès 1966, le procureur de La Nouvelle-Orléans, Jim Garrison, qui n’y croyait déjà pas, rouvrit le dossier, mais fit chou blanc en accusant à tort des anticastristes, dont l’un, David Ferrie, ancien de la CIA, est tout de même mort mystérieusement après avoir été auditionné par Garrison.

En 1967, Josiah Thompson publia Six Seconds in Dallas (non traduit), le premier ouvrage qui remettait en cause la théorie de la balle unique. On se mit dès lors à parler de plusieurs tireurs. Cette position fut reprise à la fin des années 1970 par le House Select Committee on Assassinations, une commission d’enquête créée par la Chambre des représentants – il y aurait eu plus de trois balles tirées –, qui relança une enquête. En 1976, l’un de ses experts, Richard E. Sprague, rédigea un ouvrage, The Taking of America 1-2-3 (non traduit), dans lequel il était le premier à mentionner un tireur français…

Cette thèse est accréditée et précisée par Cédric Meletta dans son nouveau livre, Le Deuxième Tireur. Depuis l’ouvrage de Sprague, les identités du « Frenchy » qui «tira le coup fatal, à travers les arbres, depuis sa position derrière la palissade » ont varié. Un ancien de l’OAS fut notamment évoqué. La piste de Melettaest plus sérieuse, aussi sérieuse et honnête que son investigation. Celle-ci repose sur une coïncidence troublante : un pedigree chargé, une rencontre décisive et un aveu tardif.

This thesis is accredited and clarified by Cédric Meletta in his new book, The Second Shooter. Since Sprague's work, the identities of the "Frenchy" who "fired the fatal shot, through the trees, from his position behind the palisade" have varied. In particular, a former member of the OAS was mentioned. Meletta's trail is more serious, as serious and honest as her investigation. It is based on an unsettling coincidence: a loaded pedigree, a decisive encounter and a belated confession.

Avant de mourir, les criminels sont souvent pris d’un besoin de soulager leur conscience. Ce fut le cas, visiblement, de Henry-Ernest Pugibet, en septembre 1992, dans un hôpital miteux de Mexico. Avant de rendre l’âme, il fit venir son petit-cousin préféré, Santiago Pugibet, afin de lui raconter par le menu une opération spéciale à laquelle il avait participé le 22 novembre 1963 à Dallas, où il était allé chercher une arme dans le coffre déverrouillé d’une voiture dans un parking. Voilà pour l’aveu.

Before dying, criminals are often seized with a need to ease their conscience. This was the case, apparently, of Henry-Ernest Pugibet, in September 1992, in a seedy hospital in Mexico City. Before passing away, he called his favorite cousin, Santiago Pugibet, to tell him about a special operation he had participated in on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, where he had gone to retrieve a gun from the unlocked trunk of a car in a parking lot. So (there it is) the confession.

Après Vichy, HenryErnest Pugibet fut récupéré par Allen Dulles, patron de la CIA.

« Un faisceau d’indices ». En 2013, Santiago, le récipiendaire de l’aveu, s’en délesta lors d’un deal d’archives du sculpteur Bartholdi, membre de sa famille. Son acheteur était un intrigant personnage, Fabrice Fourmanoir, bourlingueur commercial, qui trouva son chemin de Damas en traquant urbi et orbi les faux tableaux de Gauguin. C’est lors de cet accord que Fourmanoir, installé au Mexique, reçoit les confidences de Santiago Pugibet sur Henry-Ernest, très fine gâchette. En 2018, Meletta, le futur auteur de l’ouvrage, est contacté par Fourmanoir qui l’a entendu parler de son ouvrage sur Porfirio Rubirosa, gendre du dictateur de Saint-Domingue, Trujillo, dont il fut l’un des hommes à tout faire. Or Henry-Ernest Pugibet, qui avait rencontré Rubirosa à Vichy en 1942, avait également beaucoup oeuvré auprès de Trujillo après guerre: voilà pour la rencontre décisive. Familier de la « planète Rubirosa », Meletta a décidé d’enquêter sur cette nouvelle piste.

"A bundle of clues." In 2013, Santiago, the recipient of the confession, relinquished it in an archival deal with the sculptor Bartholdi, a member of his family. Its buyer was an intriguing character, Fabrice Fourmanoir, a commercial traveller, who found his way to Damascus by tracking down Gauguin's fake paintings urbi et orbi. It was during this agreement that Fourmanoir, who had settled in Mexico, received Santiago Pugibet's confidences about Henry-Ernest, who was very trigger-happy. In 2018, Meletta, the future author of the book, was contacted by Fourmanoir who had heard him talk about his book on Porfirio Rubirosa, son-in-law of the dictator of Santo Domingo, Trujillo, of whom he was one of the handymen. Henry-Ernest Pugibet, who had met Rubirosa in Vichy in 1942, had also worked extensively with Trujillo after the war: (there it is!) the decisive meeting. Familiar with the "planet Rubirosa", Meletta decided to investigate this new lead.

Affirme-t-il de manière certaine qu’il a identifié le meurtrier de Kennedy ? Non. « Un faisceau d’indices », préfère-t-il évoquer : en l’occurrence, la présence attestée à Dallas le jour fatidique de ce Pugibet pourvu d’un CV long comme le bras qui fait de lui un client possible pour prendre place derrière le fusil. Pour suivre le raisonnement de l’auteur, il faut aussi accepter la thèse privilégiée depuis quelques décennies: le commanditaire ne serait autre qu’Allen Dulles, légendaire patron de la CIA, débarqué par Kennedy après le fiasco, en 1961, de la baie des Cochons, la tentative américaine pour renverser Castro. Thèse jamais formellement établie, à laquelle Charles de Gaulle semblait croire quand on se remémore ses propos sur Dallas tenus à Alain Peyrefitte : « On ne saura jamais la vérité. Elle est trop terrible, trop explosive… Toutes les polices du monde se ressemblent quand elles font de basses besognes. »

Does he say with certainty that he identified Kennedy's murderer? No. "A bundle of clues," he prefers to mention: in this case, the attested presence in Dallas on the fateful day of this Pugibet with a CV as long as his arm, which makes him a possible client to take his place behind the gun. To follow the author's reasoning, we must also accept the thesis favoured in recent decades: the sponsor would be none other than Allen Dulles, legendary head of the CIA, landed by Kennedy after the fiasco in 1961 of the Bay of Pigs, the American attempt to overthrow Castro. A thesis that has never been formally established, and which Charles de Gaulle seemed to believe in when we recall his remarks about Dallas to Alain Peyrefitte: "We will never know the truth. It's too terrible, too explosive... All the police forces in the world look the same when they do dirty work. »

La mort de JFK est le résultat de la rencontre entre deux trajectoires, celles des balles mortelles et de la voiture qui avançait au ralenti lors de son défilé. Meletta émet un postulat équivalent : la présence le jour J à l’endroit clé, « derrière la palissade », d’un individu aux identités multiples – il n’aura cessé de modifier les lettres de son nom – passé jusque-là sous les radars, qu’il parvient à exhumer, dans une quête obsessionnelle, pour en dresser l’étonnante biographie. Au-delà du rôle éventuel joué par ce monsieur X le 22 novembre 1963, son ouvrage est surtout le portrait d’un agent trouble de l’Histoire, un «caméléon» franco-mexicain qui aura réussi l’exploit de travailler pour Vichy, la CIA, et Trujillo. Beaucoup pour un seul homme.

JFK's death is the result of the meeting of two trajectories, those of the fatal bullets and the car that was moving in slow motion during its parade. Meletta puts forward a similar postulate: the presence on D-Day at the key place, "behind the fence", of an individual with multiple identities – he never stopped changing the letters of his name – who had gone under the radar until then, whom he managed to exhume, in an obsessive quest, to draw up an astonishing biography. Beyond the possible role played by this Mr. X on November 22, 1963, his book is above all the portrait of a troubled agent of History, a Franco-Mexican "chameleon" who managed the feat of working for Vichy, the CIA, and Trujillo. A lot for one man.

Héritier de Français de l’Ubaye et du Pays basque partis construire des empires industriels au Mexique, ce Pugibet, fou d’aviation, fut d’abord un jeune homme embarqué dans la mission pétainiste de reconstruire la France en 1940. Dirigeantfondateur de la Jeunesse de France et d’Outre-Mer, Jeunesses hitlériennes à la française qui comptèrent près de 20 000 membres, instructeur d’un centre de tir à Carcassonne proche des services secrets vichystes de l’armée de l’air, il finira par être arrêté le 19 octobre 1944 pour avoir été speaker à Radio-Paris, la radio des collaborateurs. Sa vie bascule dans la grande machine à laver de l’immédiat après-guerre. Malgré sa détention à Fresnes, il se retrouve en 1945 – Meletta en a trouvé trace dans les Archives fédérales – sur les listes de l’opération américaine Paperclip, dans la catégorie « récupération intellectuelle ». Après Vichy, Pugibet fut donc récupéré par Allen Dulles. « À l’origine de l’OSS, l’ancêtre de la CIA, Dulles voulait les meilleurs. Il avait une conception aristocratique de l’espionnage. » Voilà Pugibet Ernesto qui renaît au Mexique, où Meletta le débusque en patron de deux sociétés-écrans de la CIA, spécialisé dans l’épandage aérien de pesticides. Les avions et les hélicoptères, fournis par les États-Unis, servent aussi à surveiller le territoire mexicain: sans pouvoir en apporter la preuve formelle, l’auteur place à ce moment la rencontre professionnelle entre Pugibet et Dulles.

Si Meletta parvient à tirer le fil à partir de cet entrepreneur aux multiples identités, passe-muraille et tout-terrain, c’est qu’il a été repéré par le FBI dès 1949, à la suite de ses nombreux déplacements aux États-Unis. Son dossier fait de lui aussi le directeur des services spéciaux du dictateur Trujillo à Saint-Domingue – la connexion Rubirosa remontant à Vichy où ce bel hidalgo, époux de Danielle Darrieux, était consul –, autrement dit un redoutable tueur, chef d’orchestre d’assassinats ciblés, membre parailleurs d’une officine au Mexique qui fut « les yeux et les oreilles de Dulles sur le territoire aztèque ». À Saint-Domingue, envisagé un temps comme base de repli pour les mafieux américains après la prise de pouvoir castriste à Cuba, Pugibet prend du recul en 1961 aux Pays-Bas, date à laquelle Trujillo est renversé. C’est en explorant la base de données de la Fondation Mary-Ferrell que Meletta est retombé sur le nom de Pugibet. Celui-ci est mentionné en 1969 par un escroc qui tentait de monnayer sa sortie de prison contre des révélations sur le meurtre de Kennedy. Des confidences, passées inaperçues, qu’il avait faites à un expert membre d’un comité d’enquête sur l’assassinat. Que découvre-t-on ? Le nom de l’hôtel où Pugibet était descendu à Dallas du… 19 au 22 novembre 1963. Coïncidence troublante que Meletta, fort des informations apportées par Fourmanoir, fort aussi des résultats de sa propre enquête, met en relation avec cet aveu tardif d’un tireur couché sur son lit de mort. CQFD

Le Deuxième Tireur, de Cédric Meletta (Éditions Bouquins, 220 p., 20 ¤).

@Bill Fite thank you so much for this translation.  I'm passing it on to Alan Kent who has been in hot pursuit of Pugibet.

I too was concerned by the suggestion the confession was paid for.  I wondered if there was something lost in translation.

[Paul Brancato]

12 minutes ago, Leslie Sharp said:

@Bill Fite thank you so much for this translation.  I'm passing it on to Alan Kent who has been in hot pursuit of Pugibet.

I too was concerned by the suggestion the confession was paid for.  I wondered if there was something lost in translation.

If the confession was given orally, and the receiver of that confession later tried to sell it without being able to authenticate it that’s a problem. 

[Leslie Sharp]

15 minutes ago, Paul Brancato said:

If the confession was given orally, and the receiver of that confession later tried to sell it without being able to authenticate it that’s a problem. 

Exactly, which is why we're treating this with such caution.  And, obviously, until we get our hands on the book and translation, this is pure speculation.  I would make the note that Meletta has a number of interesting titles under his belt.

(Also, I didn't catch that this review includes Mary Haverstick's new book on June Cobb.) 

[Leslie Sharp]

24 minutes ago, Paul Brancato said:

If the confession was given orally, and the receiver of that confession later tried to sell it without being able to authenticate it that’s a problem. 

(moving this to the Pugibet thread, Paul)

   15 minutes ago,  Paul Brancato said: 

Are there pics of Puglibet? 

 

Leslie responds,

I have a photo taken much later, but I've filled attachment allotment on EF.

(a personal anecdote: I emailed the photo to a Dallas researcher who encountered a man posing as a cattle rancher at The Mansion on Turtle Creek in the early 1980s; when she read about Pugibet we both considered the possibility. She didn't recognize the photo in question, but said "it was a late night at the bar when he tried to pick her up."

[Benjamin Cole]

From my copy of a selected page of the Pugibet datebook:

 

"Ma conscience me hante. Avant de mourir, je l'avouerai."

 

 

[Leslie Sharp]

2 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

From my copy of a selected page of the Pugibet datebook:

 

"Ma conscience me hante. Avant de mourir, je l'avouerai."

 

 

This is a bit like putting a toddler down for his nap and just when you think he's drifted off ...

[Benjamin Cole]

2 hours ago, Leslie Sharp said:

This is a bit like putting a toddler down for his nap and just when you think he's drifted off ...

The Pugibet datebook is of equal authenticity to the Lafitte datebook. Are not you putting on airs? 

[Leslie Sharp]

. . Jean Pierre Lafitte, author of the documents central to our story, enters the following in his loosely constructed day by day account of what was going on in his world in November 1963: 

Lamy coming 

—hotel

—Souetre

Wednesday, November 13, 1963

 

Lamy -Filiol at hotel 

Call Storey. Du valle

DeM

—rifle into bulding

yes/ok/DPD

(Duum)
Wednesday, November 20, 1963

 

One of La Cagoule’s most notorious assassins who often dealt with [French monarchist Henri] d'Astier was Jean Paul Robert Filliol, spelled consistently with a single “l” by Lafitte. With the Vichy government formed in France, Filliol became the Cagoule’s chief and most trusted assassin, an infamous killer known throughout Europe. Filliol, a tall, athletic man with classic features and intense dark eyes — who, during the 1940s, sported a Hitler-like mustache and always wore a black glove on his near-useless right hand — was born into a working-class family in Bergerac, France. Filliol served briefly during World War I, and then worked as a salesman for the newspaper and publishing company, Hachette. Around 1935, he opened a bookstore and had the time to cofound the Cagoule alongside Eugene Deloncle. Like Deloncle, Jean Paul was a virulent racist and anti-Semite, who could spout noxious rants on demand. Filliol was also a man of sharp contradictions, who faithfully attended Roman Catholic Mass weekly and claimed to love his brothers and sisters as God intended, provided they weren’t non-white or Jewish. He was said to enjoy good food and wine and had a foul mouth and violent nature that often teetered into blood lust.    

            Shortly after the Cagoule was founded, Filliol began moving about Paris with “his own assassination team, which included twenty-seven-year-old Fernand Jakubiez and twenty-eight-year-old Andre Tenaille, both of whom shared Filliol’s penchant for action but lacked his intelligence. Weapons and violence obsessed Filliol, who was a risk-taker by nature and always inclined toward overkill. He seems to have been a true terrorist in outlook, who sought to use violence to make a terrifying statement to those who witnessed the crime scenes he left behind.” 

            Within months of La Cagoule’s formation, Filliol became head of the group’s Section Terroriste, and many of his fledgling assassins were in their late teens or early twenties. Beyond debate, Filliol was a pathological, homicidal assassin who appeared perfectly suited to the job of murder and was dissatisfied if he wasn’t either killing someone or planning a lethal attack on targeted victims, regardless of their age or sex. Filliol was notorious for kneeling over his dead victims and asking: “Lord, must we cut all their throats?” In his vicious escapades, he was often accompanied by his beautiful, mysterious mistress, and eventual wife, Alice Lamy, who, by all accounts, shared his maniacal ways. . . .

            . . . With his letter to Dir. J. Edgar Hoover, [self-acknowledged amateur detective Paul] Gluc then living outside Paris, has provided us independent corroboration that Filiol, Lamy and Litt were known associates and that they were in Dallas, and as noted, he did so as early as March 1964. We also see, perhaps for the first time outside of cryptic reports that revealed a smattering of facts, that the FBI was made aware of the possibility that known assassin Jean Souetre had been in Dallas. Yes, Gluc could have simply picked up on the obscure rumors about Souetre being expelled from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, but there was no known trail in the public domain of the presence of Filiol, Lamy and/or Litt in Dallas that would tie the three to Jean Souetre, nor was it known that the Stoneleigh Hotel housed them in the lead up to November 22.

11:30 meet Warsaw (+hotel) with T.   

Hjalmar / Ilse - Get $

—Thursday, November 7, 1963

 

In 1963, the Stoneleigh Hotel was within walking distance of one of Dallas’ most respected old-world European style restaurants, the Old Warsaw. 

            The reader is reminded that not only did Leo Corrigan Properties own the buildings that housed Jack Ruby’s clubs, it owned the Stoneleigh Hotel described by Lafitte’s daughter as the family’s preferred accommodation in Dallas. 

            Corrigan’s father had also purchased The Adolphus and maintained family ownership of the famed hotel under the banner of the Dallas Hotel Co. His board (and no doubt investors) included Robert G. Storey, Jr. and R. L. Thornton, Jr., of Lakewood State Bank and Mercantile National Bank respectively. . . . 

 and full circle to Alan Kent's essay on Enrique Ernesto Pugibet, the subject of this EF thread:

. . . Before departing the Stoneleigh — and although the project manager for the Dallas operation makes no mention of him by name — there is reason to conclude that Enrique Ernesto Pugibet, a former member of the French resistance and gunman for hire posing as a cattle rancher, checked into the same hotel at the same time, not by chance but by design. According to attorney Bernard Fensterwald, whose investigations unearthed facts few had ever pursued in earnest, he had the opportunity to talk with then FBI informant Allen Wright and to document the essence of what Wright had tried to tell New Orleans DA Jim Garrison. Fensterwald’s notes were summarized by researcher Mary Ferrell whose collection served as the “mother ship” of assassination files for decades. 

            According to Wright, Ernesto Puijet [sic] checked into the Stoneleigh Hotel in Dallas on November 19, 1963. Wright further alleged that the hired gunman was still in Dallas on November 22, 1963. The individual in question was Enrique Ernesto Pugibet, who according to FBI informant NY T-1, was a prized and protected FBI source at the time and involved directly in a political assassination. Wright says that Pugibet had killed Jose Almoina Mateos, former secretary to Trujillo, in Mexico, in May 1960, and upon his return to the Dominican Republic, Pugibet was given a new automobile with a driver, allowed to carry a pistol, provided a home in Ciudad Trujillo, and assumed a very high position in “Radio Caribe.”