JFK and Watergate

[John Simkin]

I am working on a major piece of work showing the links between the Assassination of JFK and the Watergate Scandal.

The work is based on published documents and information received from people who do not want to be identified. It involves some speculation on my part. When it is finished it will be fully referenced except for some of my sources who wish to remain anonymous. I offer this for peer group review. I therefore welcome members to correct any mistakes that I have made in my analysis of these two events. I also hope members will provide me with any information that backs up my theory.

In 1963 a small group of men made a decision to assassinate JFK. These men were members of the Suite 8F Group. The names of these people will always remain a secret. I believe they are all dead. So is the man who they paid to organize the assassination.

There were a variety of reasons why they needed JFK to die in 1963. They had not been concerned by JFK’s election in 1960. He had made the necessary promises before he had become the Democratic candidate. He had been fully committed to fighting the Cold War. He had agreed not to try to introduce effective civil rights legislation. He had also promised not to do anything about the oil deprecation allowance and other tax benefits members of this group enjoyed. To confirm his commitment to the power enjoyed by the Suite 8F Group, JFK even agreed to make a senior member of this group, Lyndon Baines Johnson, as his running-mate.

The Suite 8F Group first began to have worries about JFK over the Bay of Pigs fiasco. However, it was events in 1962 that really began to bother them. The Cuban Missile Crisis seemed to change JFK. The shock of nearly starting a nuclear war turned JFK into a idealistic politician who was determined to bring an end to the Cold War. It is not too difficult for those in power to “turn” young idealistic men and women into corrupt politicians. It is much more difficult to deal with a machine politician who becomes converted to idealism. This problem was made far worse by his relationship with Mary Pinchot Meyer. A lifelong pacifist, Meyer was having a profound impact on JFK’s ideology.

Evidence also began to emerge that JFK was unwilling to let the Suite 8F Group continue to fleece the American taxpayer. One of their members, Fred Korth, had been forced to resign as Navy Secretary during the TFX scandal. LBJ was being investigated by the Senate Rules Committee and rumours were circulating that JFK would not protect him any longer and that he would be impeached for his role in the TFX scandal.

JFK not only had to die, he had to be removed before the Senate Rules Committee made public what they knew about LBJ and the Suite 8F Group.

It was decided to employ David Morales to organize the assassination. He brought in Rip Robertson and E. Howard Hunt to help him with this difficult task.

Morales was told to make sure that the assassination could not be traced back to the Suite 8F Group. Some of its members, especially LBJ, would become prime suspects. Therefore it would be necessary to provide a convincing “patsy” to take the blame.

Morales and his team came up with the perfect solution to the problem. They would make it look like that JFK had been killed by a team working on the orders of Fidel Castro. This would then give the opportunity for LBJ, the new president, to order an invasion of Cuba.

Therefore the conspirators had to identify two men (it had been decided that JFK would be assassinated in a crossfire operation) who could take the blame for the killing. The two men they chose for this was Lee Harvey Oswald and Gilberto Policarpo Lopez. Oswald had worked as an undercover agent for both the FBI and the CIA. As a result he had the “legend” of someone who appeared to be pro-Castro. As he was a FBI and CIA agent it was assumed that both these organizations would have to go along with this plot. If it was revealed that he was actually working as an undercover agent, serious questions would have been asked about the CIA and FBI role in the assassination.

Gilberto Policarpo Lopez was a double agent working for both Castro and the CIA. Like Oswald he did not know anything about the JFK assassination plot. The important thing was that both men would both be in Dallas on the day JFK was assassinated.

The actual assassination was to be carried out by a team of men recruited via Interpen. Most of the men involved in the assassination were Cubans who had been involved in the struggle to remove Castro. They were told that the assassination would trigger off a full-scale invasion of Cuba.

The plan was to kill Oswald while attempting to flee Dallas. This was the job of J. D. Tippit. This part of the plan failed and it was Tippit who was killed.

There was never any intention to kill Gilberto Policarpo Lopez. He was allowed to flee to Cuba therefore reinforcing his guilt. (Lopez was probably tipped off that he was a suspect guaranteeing that he would get back to Cuba as fast as possible).

Within hours of JFK’s assassination, Hoover had told LBJ that the assassination had been carried out by Oswald and Lopez and had been paid for by Fidel Castro. Everything was in place for an invasion of Cuba. However, LBJ, who had not been told of the plans to kill JFK, knew that there was a major problem with the conspiracy as outlined by Hoover. LBJ realised that this was not true. He knew that JFK had been involved in secret negotiations with Castro during the months leading up to his death. Others, including several people close to JFK and senior officials in the CIA, also knew about these negotiations. Castro had no motive to kill JFK. In fact, he had every reason to want to keep him alive.

LBJ knew that he was in a position to launch an attack to overthrow Castro. However, he also knew it would only be a matter of time before this conspiracy would be unmasked. LBJ suspected that the assassination had been paid for by members of the Suite 8F Group. If this was discovered, LBJ would be blamed as the instigator of this plot.

LBJ, for ever the master politician, came up with a solution to this problem. He told Hoover to arrange the evidence to give the impression that JFK had been killed by a lone gunman. As Oswald was now dead this would help to cut off the investigation. This did mean that he could not invade Cuba. However, he would give the Suite 8 Group its much needed Vietnam War.

By this time the FBI (William Sullivan) and the CIA (John Whitten) were involved in a joint investigation of the JFK assassination. (Richard Helms soon replaced Whitten with James Angleton). Sullivan and Angleton never discovered the full story but they were now aware that Oswald had been an undercover agent for both the CIA and FBI. It is also possible that they had found evidence that linked the assassination to Morales, Robertson and Hunt.

It was not in the interest of the CIA or FBI to reveal this to the American public. Therefore both men joined LBJ and Hoover to cover up the assassination. Sullivan and Angleton rewrote their report and gave it to Hoover who passed it onto Earl Warren. This was, with a few changes, to become the Warren Report. The problem for the Warren Commission was that the evidence showed that JFK had been killed by at least two men. Therefore, they had to get involved with putting forward things such as the “magic bullet” theory.

The only way this was possible was by the CIA and FBI being able to control media reactions to the JFK assassination. This is why Operation Mockingbird plays such an important role in the cover-up. If America really did have a free and independent media, the cover-up would have been impossible.

Morales had the massive problem of cleaning-up after the assassination. It would not have been a major problem if LBJ had gone along with the Castro did it conspiracy. He now had a lot of unhappy Cubans who knew various things about the assassination (Morales was probably the only one with a complete overall picture of what had happened). Those who could not be trusted had to be eliminated. So also did people like Grant Stockdale and Mary Pinchot Meyer who knew important details of the plot. Over the next few years, others had to die as well. Journalists like Dorothy Kilgallen were a real problem and had to be persuaded to “commit suicide”.

Jim Garrison also caused major problems for Morales. Garrison discovered that anti-Castro Cubans and CIA freelance assets had been involved in the assassination. It was now decided that the public would no longer accept the lone gunman theory. Instead, Plan B, came into operation. JFK had been killed by the Mob. When Garrison refused to go along with these leaks (providing by CIA assets, Dick Billings and Bernardo de Torres) he was smeared with stories about being under the control of the Mob. It was to be several years before he could clear his name.

By 1970 those conspirators left alive felt fairly confident that the truth would never emerge about who really ordered and carried out the assassination of JFK. However, there was one man who wanted to use his knowledge of the assassination to make himself a large amount of money. That man was E. Howard Hunt.

In 1970 he had just retired from the CIA. He was desperately short of money. His novels had never sold well and he had saved nothing from his work with the CIA. However, he did have a lot of information that was worth a lot of money. Hunt knew that if he threatened the CIA with exposure he would not live long enough to collect his money. Only a novelist like Hunt could have come up with the plan that would make him into a multimillionaire.

The first thing Hunt did was to get himself a job in the White House. He used his CIA contacts to get a meeting with Charles Colson. As a result of this meeting, on 7th July, 1971, John Ehrlichman appointed Hunt to the White House staff. Working under Egil Krogh and Gordon Liddy, Hunt became a member of the Special Investigations Group (SIG). The group was (informally known as "the Plumbers" because their job was to stop leaks from Nixon's administration).

It was not long before Hunt was able to persuade Liddy to propose Operation Gemstone. Hunt then told Liddy that Larry O’Brien had documents in his office that could destroy Nixon’s chances of being re-elected. The story convinced Nixon and Hunt was instructed to organize the Watergate break-in. Hunt then recruited four men who were all involved in the assassination of JFK (Frank Sturgis, Virgilio Gonzalez, Eugenio Martinez and Bernard L. Barker). The whole thing was a set-up. Hunt arranged for the men to be arrested. He knew that the men would have in their hotel rooms evidence that they were linked to Hunt and the White House.

Hunt now unveiled his blackmail plan. Dorothy Hunt contacted Colson and told him that her husband was willing to keep quiet about White House involvement in the break-in. However, it was going to cost him a lot of money. Nixon also had to arrange it that Hunt did not go to prison. Hunt also told Colson/Nixon that the Republican Party should not be the only ones paying for Hunt’s silence. Hunt would also agree to keep quiet in court about the CIA and the Watergate break-in. He would also keep quiet about other CIA covert operations he had been involved in, including those that related to the assassination of JFK.

On 28th June, 1972, Vernon Walters told John Dean that the CIA was unwilling to provide financial assistance to Hunt and his men. The CIA knew that if Hunt was paid he would come back for more later. The CIA also knew that Hunt had taken part in the assassination of JFK for ideological reasons. Even though he would threaten disclosure, it was highly unlikely that he would go public with this information.

Nixon was unwilling to take the chance of Hunt talking. Hunt therefore got two initial payments of $40,000 and $53,000. On 14th November Hunt demanded more money. On 1st December John Mitchell tells John Dean to give Hunt a large proportion of the $350,000 that has been raised. One assumes that Hunt got this money soon afterwards.

How was the CIA reacting during this period? It is difficult to say. Maybe they did give him money. If they did, it would have come with a warning. Not that Hunt’s life was threatened. They knew that he would have arranged for details of the JFK assassination and cover-up to have been placed with lawyers with the instructions that they would be published in event of his unexpected death. No, the CIA would have used the same methods as they always used to keep people quiet. They would have told him that they would arrange for those closest to him to have accidents. This always worked. On 8th December, Hunt’s wife died in an air crash (after taking out $250,000 life insurance for the flight).

Understandably, at his trial, Hunt and the other burglars remained silent. Hunt had been dealt with but there was still one other person who was trying to expose the people behind the JFK assassination and the Watergate burglary. That was Deep Throat. This was a man who knew a great deal about both events. Along with James Angleton, he knew more about the conspiracy to kill JFK than anyone other than Morales and Hunt (Robertson had died in 1970). Deep Throat was William Sullivan. He had been willing to go along with the cover-up in 1963 for the sake of the FBI and his career. It was always a difficult decision to make. Like JFK he was a Roman Catholic. He was also a member of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party.

Sullivan’s attitude changed when Hoover sacked him on 28th August, 1971. Not that he was out of work for long. He was immediately given a job by Richard Nixon. On the surface this was a shrewd move by Nixon. After all, Sullivan knew most of Hoover’s secrets. Information was power. Sullivan also knew a great deal about Nixon. He was determined to use his new position to expose CIA involvement in the JFK assassination as well as removing the reactionary Nixon.

Sullivan got some of his information about Watergate from his CIA buddies, Richard Helms, Cord Meyer and Richard Ober. Not that they were aware that Sullivan was Deep Throat. If they had been they would have told him not to use the Washington Post to get the story out. Sullivan did not know they were part of Operation Mockingbird. Therefore, the story about Nixon and Watergate came out, the story about the JFK assassination was suppressed.

Would Sullivan have told the House Select Committee on Assassinations about what he knew about the death of JFK. Probably. But we will never know. He was shot dead on 9th November, 1977. An inquest decided that he had been shot accidentally by hunter, Robert Daniels, who was fined $500 and lost his hunting license for 10 years.

[Shanet Clark]

John,

Thank you for the distilled version of your theory.

It is logical and consistent with the facts.

However, I believe it does not go quite far enough.

You mention Suite 8F and Fred Korth, former Secretary of the Navy.

Another Suite 8F member, Robert Anderson, was also Secretary of the Navy.

Because of Sgt. Dinkin's prior knowledge of the assassination (learned while listening to international signals intelligence and wiretaps), I believe the intelligence agencies of the US Defense Department were involved.

This would explain the nuclear "football" being shut off during the ambush.

This would explain the fact that the telephones in Washington DC went out at the same time.

This would explain the forged X-Rays, Autopsy Photos and Autopsy conclusions.

This would explain the use of Mannlicher Carcanos taken from Rome by the US military in 1943.

This would explain General Edwin Walker's claim of an Oswald murder attempt on him.

This would explain the failure of the Secret Service to behave normally in Dealey Plaza.

It may be that executives in the Suite 8F group co-ordinated the ambush, but they were acting with the witting knowledge of executives inside the government.

Mr. Kennedy had lost his security clearance, was considered to have "incapacity" and was removed from office in a bloody government coup............

[Norman T. Field]

According to Robert Caro and other, JFK had no intention of nominating LBJ for VP until the day after JFK was nominated. That's when LBJ and Carl Rayburn met to 'discuss' the blackmail dirt they had received from Hoover that would go public unless LBJ was the VP candidate.

Also, Nixon was apparently wanted to re-organize the CIA and threatened to use his private info about the Kennedy hit to force CIA cooperation (see both Erlichman and Haldeman's books, also Silent Coup). Watergate was thus born as a CIA response to RN. Or so the theory goes.

[Ron Ecker]

Sgt. Dinkin's prior knowledge of the assassination

Pfc. Dinkin.

I believe the intelligence agencies of the US Defense Department were involved.

I agree that the military can't be ignored in this. It jumped in with both boots on the cover-up, as soon as the body, already altered (either by the SS or military), was delivered to it for a sham autopsy.

That shell game with caskets at Bethesda, and Larry, Curly, and Moe searching in vain for a bullet and exit wound, was not done without the military running the show there, including a lot of big-brass morgue pressure on the stooges.

Ron

[Mark Stapleton]

Fascinating post, John. I agree with Shanet that there must also have been some help from the top echelons of the U.S. Military and sections of the Executive in order to explain--- A. The Military's hijacking of the body to perform a crooked autopsy and B. The removal of adequate Secret Service protection and protocols, this being the domain of the Treasury Secretary. This, however, doesn't mean the Suite 8F group weren't the original plotters--it just means that they may have had sufficient influence to persuade the other parties to come on board.

The LHO/JDT scenario makes sense and is reinforced by Acquilla Clemon's statement that she saw two men talking to Tippett before the shots. Concerning the involvement of Sturgis, Gonzalez, Martinez and Barker, I always assumed that the principals in the shooting of JFK would have been murdered shortly thereafter, but I suppose you can't murder everyone who assisted in the plot--only those considered a risk of talking.

The main attraction of your scenario, IMO, is that it provides a possible explanation for the decades old mystery of why the Watergate scandal was exposed in all it's murky detail and the JFK assassination investigation ended with the lamest of official explanations, namely "er.... we believe it was probably a conspiracy......er.....probably....maybe.....er.......we dunno".

[Chris Cox]

Very interesting research, John.

Where does Cubela in Paris and RFK and his promises to his select Cubans fit in here? What was Ste F net gain really from war that ended during Nixon, cutting off gravy train?

If RFK is working on his own thing with "his Cubans" (VP Nixon had this role first) why screw it up in Texas? Why not wait and see the outcome? Were there parallel missions and conflicting leadership of two camps mistrusting the others' resolve to end this -Castro not JFK- once and for all? Were they both represented in Dallas, unbeknownst to the other? Handy for hanging after the crime?

Why would two individuals who speak Spanish but not la causa be trusted so close to a Cuban operation when there were Cubans with the Atty General? I'm thinking of Morales and Diosdado. The latter working to foil the efforts even as Bobby makes supposed trips to camps in Florida cking in on ops, visible to extent.

And why use Interpen when there were other available groups with Cuban leadership similar resolve AND better cover, quieter and more Cuban as JFK wanted with BOP? CIA has already established relationships. JMWave was cooking and the administration wasn't out of that loop. Operations were moving forward.

Easy to say in hindsight most were cutouts a convenient grab of "suspects" after all went to hell in TX. Some recount they were surprised at the carnage as if they realised a dupe? Could it be said that JFK would have continued his brothers against brothers fight if not for Dallas that effectively ended any real attempts to fell communism in Caribbean?

Looking forward to next installment.

[Tim Gratz]

From the speech JFK was scheduled to deliver at the Trade Mart on November 22, 1963:

In less than 3 years, we have increased by 50 percent the number of Polaris submarines scheduled to be in force by the next fiscal year, increased by more than 70 percent our total Polaris purchase program, increased by more than 75 percent our Minuteman purchase program, increased by 50 percent the portion of our strategic bombers on 15-minute alert, and increased by too percent the total number of nuclear weapons available in our strategic alert forces.

I believe the historical record will indicate that "militarial-industrial" spending (including spending on the space program) increased dramatically in the JFK Administration. Some Forum members may be old enough to recall that JFK campaigned against Nixon by arguing that a dangerous "missile gap" had developed under Eisenhower-Nixon.

Shouldn't JFK have been made an honorary member of Suite 8F for all of his contributions to the defense budget?

Edited May 24, 2005 by Tim Gratz

[Tim Gratz]

John wrote:

The work is based on published documents and information received from people who do not want to be identified. It involves some speculation on my part.

John, let's refer to "published documents and information" as "PUB"; unidentified informants as "UNIDENT" and speculation as "SPEC". Can you at least intially advise us regarding the following, most salient assertions are referenced to "PUB", "UNIDENT" or are "SPEC".

In 1963 a small group of men made a decision to assassinate JFK. These men were members of the Suite 8F Group:

PUB, UNIDENT, or SPEC?

The names of these people will always remain a secret. I believe they are all dead. So is the man who they paid to organize the assassination.

What do you mean they will "always remain a secret"? Do you know their names? Does anyone?

[JFK] had agreed not to try to introduce effective civil rights legislation. He had also promised not to do anything about the oil deprecation allowance and other tax benefits members of this group enjoyed.

Your source for these alleged JFK "promises" is ---?

Evidence also began to emerge that JFK was unwilling to let the Suite 8F Group continue to fleece the American taxpayer.

PUB, UNIDEN, ot SPEC?

MORE LATER!

Edited May 24, 2005 by Tim Gratz

[Tim Gratz]

John wrote:

The actual assassination was to be carried out by a team of men recruited via Interpen.

John, I am sure Gerry (as well as the rest of us) would be interested to learn who was the Interpen recruiting agent, and whether this assertion is based on an unidentified source or is mere speculation. Is the recruitment agent still living?

There is certainly no basis for the assertion in any published documents.

If you have a source that is "unidentified" can you at least tell us whether he claims first hand knowledge or is merely reporting what he has heard from others. If the latter, has he told you who told him what?

Thanks!

Edited May 24, 2005 by Tim Gratz

[Tim Gratz]

John wrote:

Gilberto Policarpo Lopez was a double agent working for both Castro and the CIA. Like Oswald he did not know anything about the JFK assassination plot. The important thing was that both men would both be in Dallas on the day JFK was assassinated.

It is of course interesting for Mark and I to contemplate that whoever planned the assassination, Lopez, who spent several years in Key West, was probably a participant.

A double agent means, of course, an intelligence agent who claims allegiance to one side but whose true allegiance is instead to the other side.

First, John, on what basis do you assert that Lopez was a "double agent"? Is it an unnamed informant, or mere speculation?

Second, in the case of a double agent it is presumably important to determine the agent's true allegiance. Since Lopez returned to Havana it can be presumed his true allegiance was to Castro. I assume you would have to agree with this.

So I am not certain that I understand your theory. Lopez was a CIA agent whose true allegiance was to Castro, so the CIA lured him to Dallas, not planning on killing him, as was the plan for Oswald, but expecting him to flee to Cuba when he realized he was being set up?

If Lopez was a CIA agent, whether doubled or not, who was his control?

And I gather it is your theory that the plotters publicly executed JFK to show who was in control, but nevertheless, in one of his first acts as president, Johnson bucked the plan of the "contol group" (whoever that might be) by deciding to squelch any implication of foreign involvement. Therefore, the planners scotched the plan to make Lopez a second patsy?

If it is your contention that Lopez' actual allegiance was to the CIA, did he then flee to Cuba and embrace Castro after he realized the CIA had tried to set him up in Dallas? If so, why has Escalante not paraded him out?

It seems to me that once you concede Lopez's presence in Dallas, together with his sunsequent flight to Cuba, you have a bit of explaining to avoid the obvious implication of a Cuban connection. And if, as Win Scott claimed, Fabian Escalante was in Dealey Plaza, then you really have a heap of explaining to do. And the possible answer that all the reports of Castro agents in Dealey Plaza were all part of an elaborate scheme to frame Castro that fell apart when LBJ refused to go along with it takes quite a bit of suspension of disbelief, in my opinion.

Seems a bit convoluted to me.

Edited May 24, 2005 by Tim Gratz

[Greg Wagner]

I am working on a major piece of work showing the links between the Assassination of JFK and the Watergate Scandal.

The work is based on published documents and information received from people who do not want to be identified. It involves some speculation on my part. When it is finished it will be fully referenced except for some of my sources who wish to remain anonymous. I offer this for peer group review. I therefore welcome members to correct any mistakes that I have made in my analysis of these two events. I also hope members will provide me with any information that backs up my theory.

In 1963 a small group of men made a decision to assassinate JFK. These men were members of the Suite 8F Group. The names of these people will always remain a secret. I believe they are all dead. So is the man who they paid to organize the assassination.

There were a variety of reasons why they needed JFK to die in 1963. They had not been concerned by JFK’s election in 1960. He had made the necessary promises before he had become the Democratic candidate. He had been fully committed to fighting the Cold War. He had agreed not to try to introduce effective civil rights legislation. He had also promised not to do anything about the oil deprecation allowance and other tax benefits members of this group enjoyed.  To confirm his commitment to the power enjoyed by the Suite 8F Group, JFK even agreed to make a senior member of this group, Lyndon Baines Johnson, as his running-mate.

The Suite 8F Group first began to have worries about JFK over the Bay of Pigs fiasco. However, it was events in 1962 that really began to bother them. The Cuban Missile Crisis seemed to change JFK. The shock of nearly starting a nuclear war turned JFK into a idealistic politician who was determined to bring an end to the Cold War. It is not too difficult for those in power to “turn” young idealistic men and women into corrupt politicians. It is much more difficult to deal with a machine politician who becomes converted to idealism. This problem was made far worse by his relationship with Mary Pinchot Meyer. A lifelong pacifist, Meyer was having a profound impact on JFK’s ideology.

Evidence also began to emerge that JFK was unwilling to let the Suite 8F Group continue to fleece the American taxpayer. One of their members, Fred Korth, had been forced to resign as Navy Secretary during the TFX scandal. LBJ was being investigated by the Senate Rules Committee and rumours were circulating that JFK would not protect him any longer and that he would be impeached for his role in the TFX scandal.

JFK not only had to die, he had to be removed before the Senate Rules Committee made public what they knew about LBJ and the Suite 8F Group.

It was decided to employ David Morales to organize the assassination. He brought in Rip Robertson and E. Howard Hunt to help him with this difficult task.

Morales was told to make sure that the assassination could not be traced back to the Suite 8F Group. Some of its members, especially LBJ, would become prime suspects. Therefore it would be necessary to provide a convincing “patsy” to take the blame.

Morales and his team came up with the perfect solution to the problem. They would make it look like that JFK had been killed by a team working on the orders of Fidel Castro. This would then give the opportunity for LBJ, the new president, to order an invasion of Cuba.

Therefore the conspirators had to identify two men (it had been decided that JFK would be assassinated in a crossfire operation) who could take the blame for the killing. The two men they chose for this was Lee Harvey Oswald and Gilberto Policarpo Lopez. Oswald had worked as an undercover agent for both the FBI and the CIA. As a result he had the “legend” of someone who appeared to be pro-Castro. As he was a FBI and CIA agent it was assumed that both these organizations would have to go along with this plot. If it was revealed that he was actually working as an undercover agent, serious questions would have been asked about the CIA and FBI role in the assassination.

Gilberto Policarpo Lopez was a double agent working for both Castro and the CIA. Like Oswald he did not know anything about the JFK assassination plot. The important thing was that both men would both be in Dallas on the day JFK was assassinated.

The actual assassination was to be carried out by a team of men recruited via Interpen. Most of the men involved in the assassination were Cubans who had been involved in the struggle to remove Castro. They were told that the assassination would trigger off a full-scale invasion of Cuba.

The plan was to kill Oswald while attempting to flee Dallas. This was the job of J. D. Tippit. This part of the plan failed and it was Tippit who was killed.

There was never any intention to kill Gilberto Policarpo Lopez. He was allowed to flee to Cuba therefore reinforcing his guilt. (Lopez was probably tipped off that he was a suspect guaranteeing that he would get back to Cuba as fast as possible).

Within hours of JFK’s assassination, Hoover had told LBJ that the assassination had been carried out by Oswald and Lopez and had been paid for by Fidel Castro. Everything was in place for an invasion of Cuba. However, LBJ, who had not been told of the plans to kill JFK, knew that there was a major problem with the conspiracy as outlined by Hoover. LBJ realised that this was not true. He knew that JFK had been involved in secret negotiations with Castro during the months leading up to his death. Others, including several people close to JFK and senior officials in the CIA, also knew about these negotiations. Castro had no motive to kill JFK. In fact, he had every reason to want to keep him alive.

LBJ knew that he was in a position to launch an attack to overthrow Castro. However, he also knew it would only be a matter of time before this conspiracy would be unmasked. LBJ suspected that the assassination had been paid for by members of the Suite 8F Group. If this was discovered, LBJ would be blamed as the instigator of this plot.

LBJ, for ever the master politician, came up with a solution to this problem. He told Hoover to arrange the evidence to give the impression that JFK had been killed by a lone gunman. As Oswald was now dead this would help to cut off the investigation. This did mean that he could not invade Cuba. However, he would give the Suite 8 Group its much needed Vietnam War.

By this time the FBI (William Sullivan) and the CIA (James Angleton) were involved in a joint investigation of the JFK assassination. They never discovered the full story but they were now aware that Oswald had been an undercover agent for both the CIA and FBI. It is also possible that they had found evidence that linked the assassination to Morales, Robertson and Hunt.

It was not in the interest of the CIA or FBI to reveal this to the American public. Therefore both men joined LBJ and Hoover to cover up the assassination. Sullivan and Angleton rewrote their report and gave it to Hoover who passed it onto Earl Warren. This was, with a few changes, to become the Warren Report. The problem for the Warren Commission was that the evidence showed that JFK had been killed by at least two men. Therefore, they had to get involved with putting forward things such as the “magic bullet” theory.

The only way this was possible was by the CIA and FBI being able to control media reactions to the JFK assassination. This is why Operation Mockingbird plays such an important role in the cover-up. If America really did have a free and independent media, the cover-up would have been impossible.

Morales had the massive problem of cleaning-up after the assassination. It would not have been a major problem if LBJ had gone along with the Castro did it conspiracy. He now had a lot of unhappy Cubans who knew various things about the assassination (Morales was probably the only one with a complete overall picture of what had happened). Those who could not be trusted had to be eliminated. So also did people like Grant Stockdale and Mary Pinchot Meyer who knew important details of the plot. Over the next few years, others had to die as well. Journalists like Dorothy Kilgallen were a real problem and had to be persuaded to “commit suicide”.

Jim Garrison also caused major problems for Morales. Garrison discovered that anti-Castro Cubans and CIA freelance assets had been involved in the assassination. It was now decided that the public would no longer accept the lone gunman theory. Instead, Plan B, came into operation. JFK had been killed by the Mob. When Garrison refused to go along with these leaks (providing by CIA assets, Dick Billings and Bernardo de Torres) he was smeared with stories about being under the control of the Mob. It was to be several years before he could clear his name.

By 1970 those conspirators left alive felt fairly confident that the truth would never emerge about who really ordered and carried out the assassination of JFK. However, there was one man who wanted to use his knowledge of the assassination to make himself a large amount of money. That man was E. Howard Hunt.

In 1970 he had just retired from the CIA. He was desperately short of money. His novels had never sold well and he had saved nothing from his work with the CIA. However, he did have a lot of information that was worth a lot of money. Hunt knew that if he threatened the CIA with exposure he would not live long enough to collect his money. Only a novelist like Hunt could have come up with the plan that would make him into a multimillionaire.

The first thing Hunt did was to get himself a job in the White House. He used his CIA contacts to get a meeting with Charles Colson. As a result of this meeting, on 7th July, 1971, John Ehrlichman appointed Hunt to the White House staff. Working under Egil Krogh and Gordon Liddy,  Hunt became a member of the Special Investigations Group (SIG). The group was (informally known as "the Plumbers" because their job was to stop leaks from Nixon's administration).

It was not long before Hunt was able to persuade Liddy to propose Operation Gemstone. Hunt then told Liddy that Larry O’Brien had documents in his office that could destroy Nixon’s chances of being re-elected. The story convinced Nixon and Hunt was instructed to organize the Watergate break-in. Hunt then recruited four men who were all involved in the assassination of JFK (Frank Sturgis, Virgilio Gonzalez, Eugenio Martinez and Bernard L. Barker). The whole thing was a set-up. Hunt arranged for the men to be arrested. He knew that the men would have in their hotel rooms evidence that they were linked to Hunt and the White House.

Hunt now unveiled his blackmail plan. Dorothy Hunt contacted Colson and told him that her husband was willing to keep quiet about White House involvement in the break-in. However, it was going to cost him a lot of money. Nixon also had to arrange it that Hunt did not go to prison. Hunt also told Colson/Nixon that the Republican Party should not be the only ones paying for Hunt’s silence. Hunt would also agree to keep quiet in court about the CIA and the Watergate break-in. He would also keep quiet about other CIA covert operations he had been involved in, including those that related to the assassination of JFK.

On 28th June, 1972, Vernon Walters told John Dean that the CIA was unwilling to provide financial assistance to Hunt and his men. The CIA knew that if Hunt was paid he would come back for more later. The CIA also knew that Hunt had taken part in the assassination of JFK for ideological reasons. Even though he would threaten disclosure, it was highly unlikely that he would go public with this information.

Nixon was unwilling to take the chance of Hunt talking. Hunt therefore got two initial payments of  $40,000 and $53,000. On 14th November Hunt demanded more money. On 1st December John Mitchell tells John Dean to give Hunt a large proportion of the $350,000 that has been raised. One assumes that Hunt got this money soon afterwards.

How was the CIA reacting during this period? It is difficult to say. Maybe they did give him money. If they did, it would have come with a warning. Not that Hunt’s life was threatened. They knew that he would have arranged for details of the JFK assassination and cover-up to have been placed with lawyers with the instructions that they would be published in event of his unexpected death. No, the CIA would have used the same methods as they always used to keep people quiet. They would have told him that they would arrange for those closest to him to have accidents. This always worked. On 8th December, Hunt’s wife died in an air crash (after taking out $250,000 life insurance for the flight).

Understandably, at his trial, Hunt and the other burglars remained silent. Hunt had been dealt with but there was still one other person who was trying to expose the people behind the JFK assassination and the Watergate burglary. That was Deep Throat. This was a man who knew a great deal about both events. Along with James Angleton, he knew more about the conspiracy to kill JFK than anyone other than Morales and Hunt (Robertson had died in 1970). Deep Throat was William Sullivan. He had been willing to go along with the cover-up in 1963 for the sake of the FBI and his career. It was always a difficult decision to make. Like JFK he was a Roman Catholic. He was also a member of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party.

Sullivan’s attitude changed when Hoover sacked him on 28th August, 1971. Not that he was out of work for long. He was immediately given a job by Richard Nixon. On the surface this was a shrewd move by Nixon. After all, Sullivan knew most of Hoover’s secrets. Information was power. Sullivan also knew a great deal about Nixon. He was determined to use his new position to expose CIA involvement in the JFK assassination as well as removing the reactionary Nixon.

Sullivan got some of his information about Watergate from his CIA buddies, Richard Helms, Cord Meyer and Richard Ober. Not that they were aware that Sullivan was Deep Throat. If they had been they would have told him not to use the Washington Post to get the story out. Sullivan did not know they were part of Operation Mockingbird. Therefore, the story about Nixon and Watergate came out, the story about the JFK assassination was suppressed.

Would Sullivan have told the House Select Committee on Assassinations about what he knew about the death of JFK. Probably. But we will never know. He was shot dead on 9th November, 1977. An inquest decided that he had been shot accidentally by hunter, Robert Daniels, who was fined $500 and lost his hunting license for 10 years.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Very intriguing, John. I’ll be interested in reading the final product. Of particular interest will be the point of contact between S8F and the boys at JM/WAVE (Morales, et al.). Good work so far.

Edited May 24, 2005 by Greg Wagner

[Shanet Clark]

John,

How was the CIA domestic operative JOHN PAISLEY mixed up in all this?

I know he was aware of the Sheraton Hotel Washington DC prostitution ring that was used by the CIA for extortion and intimidation of US and foreign political leaders in 1972.

I know he was someone in CIA with an early interest and understanding of the Watergate burglary.

I know he was murdered.

I now am reading that he was considered a Soviet Mole.

What is your take on JOHN PAISLEY?

He seems to be a point of intersection between the CIA and the White House Plumbers,

in a similar structural role to the CIA agent (now u.s. senator) BOB BENNETT.

Shanet

Edited May 24, 2005 by Shanet Clark

[James Richards]

Excellent work, John. Very interesting indeed.

A few things, I don't think Interpen as an organization was involved. I do believe however that some of the guys who were connected to Interpen at one point in time found themselves mixed up in what happened in Dallas.

I know this is a shade of grey but important none-the-less. For example, I think Roy Hargraves and Felipe Vidal Santiago were in Dallas at the time of the assassination. Hargraves mixed with Interpen but I don't think he was recruited because of that. Guys like William Seymour and Ed Collins had solid connections to Bernardo De Torres, and James Arthur Lewis (having spent time with the Interpen crew) was connected to Dick Whatley, Eddie Bayo, John Martino, Rip Robertson and participated on Operation Tilt. This non exclusiveness is important I believe when figuring who should be considered as suspects.

To slightly sidetrack, the trio of James Arthur Lewis, Dick Whatley and Bobby Willis need a lot more research to what they were doing at the time of the assassination.

Also regarding E. Howard Hunt, maybe he wasn't involved on the level Morales was. I think this is a study all on its own as it gets very complicated indeed. Hunt is a professional xxxx and an opportunist, not someone to initiate a competent plan and to be trusted with its execution.

So not to deflect this thread, maybe the Hunt aspect is a discussion worthy on its own.

Cheers,

James

[Tim Gratz]

John, is your statement that Tippit was assigned to kill Oswald based on an unnamed informant or is it speculation? As speculation, it does make some sense. I hate, however, to speculatively malign someone who may have been a clean, innocent cop killed in the line of duty.

I certainly credit the statement of Oswald's landlady that a police car pulled up in front of the rooming house and honked. I suspect whooever was in this car was assigned to dispose of Oswald.

I have often wondered if the conspirators might not have created a fake Dallas police car. It would not have been too difficult to accomplish this. A perfect get-away car. So I speculate the car the landlady saw could have been a fake car with fake police officers inside. When Oswald did not come out, the killers left.

Edited May 25, 2005 by Tim Gratz

[John Simkin]

A few things, I don't think Interpen as an organization was involved. I do believe however that some of the guys who were connected to Interpen at one point in time found themselves mixed up in what happened in Dallas.

I agree. I should have made that clearer. I was not suggesting that Gerry Hemming as leader of Interpen helped to arrange this. (Although I suspect he now knows who was involved in this operation). What I was trying to say that the people who were recruited were either members of Interpen or had worked with the organization against Castro.

Also regarding E. Howard Hunt, maybe he wasn't involved on the level Morales was. I think this is a study all on its own as it gets very complicated indeed. Hunt is a professional xxxx and an opportunist, not someone to initiate a competent plan and to be trusted with its execution. 

I agree about his competence but believe he had the imagination to develop such a plan. However, he was clearly subordinate to Morales. After studying Hunt for some time I have concluded that he overcomplicated things. He also did not know as much as he thought he knew. For example, one of the reasons I don’t believe any senior figures in the CIA were involved in the original conspiracy is that they would not have gone along with the “Castro did it” plan. Like LBJ, they would have known that JFK was involved in secret negotiations with Castro. They knew that he did not have a motive.

In time I think it is well worth starting up a thread on Hunt. However, in the meantime I would like to discuss him in relation to this particular theory. After all, he is still alive. He is also someone who has shown that he cares what his children think of him (that was the reason he gave for the libel action against Spotlight). Maybe he will like Gerry join us in this discussion. It will be interesting to know if he believes in the “lone gunman” theory.

Where does Cubela in Paris and RFK and his promises to his select Cubans fit in here?

I think we have to separate the plots against Castro from the assassination of JFK. I do not think these two events are related. Although those involved in the cover-up tried to do this. There were several reasons for leaking information about the CIA/Mafia plots to kill Castro. One was to suggest a motive. For example, Castro seeking revenge (a theory much loved by Tim Gratz). This of course was completely undermined when it was revealed that JFK was having secret talks with Castro. JFK might have initially been in favour of having Castro assassinated, but clearly he did not hold this view in 1963.

The other main reason was to bring the Mafia into the frame. As I said earlier, the “Mob did it” theory became Plan B during the Garrison investigation. In reality, this is all part of the cover-up that attempts to confuse those who have not accepted the conclusions of the Warren Report.

I believe the historical record will indicate that "militarial-industrial" spending (including spending on the space program) increased dramatically in the JFK Administration.  Some Forum members may be old enough to recall that JFK campaigned against Nixon by arguing that a dangerous "missile gap" had developed under Eisenhower-Nixon.

Shouldn't  JFK have been made an honorary member of Suite 8F for all of his contributions to the defense budget?

It is no doubt true that JFK presented himself as more of a Cold War warrior than Nixon in 1960. He even got his CIA friends to help him with this and severely embarrassed Nixon over Cuba during the presidential campaign. As Victor Marchetti has argued, JFK was the CIA candidate in the election. Suite 8F Group had no problems with JFK. He showed his goodwill to them by appointing Fred Korth as his Navy Secretary (a vitally important post to the Suite 8F Group). Nor did JFK attempt to deal with 8F’s main source of power (the chairmanships of the key Congressional committees).

My main point is that JFK changed policy as a result of the Cuban Missile Crisis. This is not surprising as the Cold War came very close to destroying the world. The problem for JFK was that he could not tell the American public this. He knew that he would be defeated in 1964 if he revealed his true thoughts about the Cold War. Therefore his speech in Dallas makes perfect sense. However, as he told his close aides, get me elected and I will pull out of Vietnam. I believe JFK’s second term would have been very different from the first one. The conspirators knew that and that is why he had to die.