Biography: G. Robert Blakey

[G. Robert Blakey]

George Robert Blakey studied at the Notre Dame Law School (1957-60). Admitted to the bar of the District of Columbia, he worked as a Special Attorney at the Department of Justice in the Organized Crime & Racketeering Section from 1960 to 1964. He also served as a professor of law and director of the Cornell Institute on Organized Crime at Cornell Law School.

In the 1960s Blakey campaigned for and helped write much of the anti-racketeering legislation that helped undermine the activities of the Mafia. This included the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (1970).

Blakey served as chief counsel and staff director to the House Select Committee on Assassinations from 1977 to 1979. In this role he led the investigation into the assassination, reexamining the evidence with a new forensics panel.

Blakey is also the co-author with Richard Billings of The Plot to Kill the President (1981). In the book Blakey and Billings argue that there was a conspiracy to kill John F. Kennedy. He believes that Lee Harvey Oswald was involved but believes that there was at least one gunman firing from the Grassy Knoll. Blakey came to the conclusion that the Mafia boss, Carlos Marcello, organized the assassination. The book was reissued in paperback in 1993 as Fatal Hour: The Assassination of President Kennedy by Organized Crime.