Authors: Lamar Waldron
ing. News reports from Parkland talked about JFK’s throat wound
being an entrance wound, indicating a shooter from the front. This was
repeated by CBS reporter Dan Rather on KRLD-TV in Dallas, who said
that “we are told that the gunshot wound, the fatal wound, inflicted on
the President of the United States entered at the base of the throat and
came out the base of the neck, on the back side.”17 But by the following
day, Rather had so accepted the FBI’s official lone-assassin story that—as
he later acknowledged in his autobiography—he did not clearly relate
what the Zapruder film actually depicted.
It’s important to note the media’s reporting of the overwhelmingly sym-
pathetic reaction of most Americans, and much of the world, to JFK’s
assassination. This is something a racist in the Deep South, like Marcello,
might not have anticipated, given JFK’s razor-thin margin of victory in
1960 and his loss of support since that time among conservative Demo-
crats, due to JFK’s increasing concern over civil rights. However, 1963
was a very different era from today, when President George W. Bush’s
approval rating has hovered near 30 percent for more than a year. In con-
trast, JFK’s popularity never dipped below 56 percent, despite problems
like the Bay of Pigs. His highest disapproval rating was only 30 percent,
which is very good by historical standards. No other president in recent
history has been as popular; even if people disagreed with JFK politi-
cally, many still liked and admired him personally. Hence, by Friday
evening and over the weekend, newspapers throughout the country
noted only a few officials or people who made it clear that they weren’t
sad to see JFK gone; the vast majority of those cited were shocked and
saddened by the President’s death.
The reaction was similar throughout much of what was then called
the “free world”: Countries like England, France, Ireland, and Germany
in particular showed tremendous concern from both officials and the
general populace. Perhaps more surprising in light of the low status
of the US presidency among the people of Latin America in the 21st
century, in 1963 those countries were mostly sympathetic toward the
slain US president.
That’s because JFK had courted, and managed to win over, many
in Latin America, and that effort had an impact on his coup plan with
Almeida. Because JFK had managed to reverse the mostly negative,
heavy-handed image of the United States that grew under Vice President
Richard Nixon in the 1950s, JFK hadn’t wanted to simply invade Cuba to
remove Castro. That’s why JFK had wanted US forces to be “invited in”
after a coup, and for the Organization of American States to be involved
in the immediate aftermath and transition to democracy. It’s ironic that
JFK was set to make remarks about his Latin American progress in
Austin, Texas, on the evening of November 22. JFK had planned to say,
“I can testify from my trips to Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, and Costa
Rica that American officials are no longer booed and spat upon south of
the border”18—a reference to Nixon’s treatment in Latin America.
As for Richard Nixon, the former vice president was one of the few
people who had trouble remembering exactly what he was doing on
November 22, 1963, when he heard that JFK had been assassinated—
which is ironic, since that day’s events eventually played a role in forc-
ing him to step down as president. Nixon told three different stories
over the years about where he was when he heard JFK had been killed.
Once, he even lied to the FBI about it, claiming he had been in Dallas
only “two days prior to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.”
However, as noted earlier, it was no secret that Nixon had been in Dallas
attending a soft-drink convention; it is well established that he flew out
of Dallas about three hours prior to JFK’s assassination; and there is no
credible evidence to support the tales of Nixon, J. Edgar Hoover, and
wealthy Texas oilmen plotting in secret the night before JFK’s murder.19
While Nixon had no role in JFK’s death (it certainly would have been
uncharacteristically foolish for him to be in Dallas if he had anything
to do with it), his associates knew people who were on the fringes of
the plot—including former Cuban president Carlos Prio, the Trafficante
associate who was trying to infiltrate the JFK-Almeida coup plan.
In a CIA memo based on information obtained shortly before JFK’s
death, Prio is reported as talking about various aspects of the coup plan,
then mentioning two exile associates who were part of Prio’s operation
“and have become associated [with] Richard Nixon in accordance with
[the] Republican Party plan [to] bring up the Cuban case before elec-
tions.”20 Ties like these help to explain why Prio would have a little-
known role in the plots surrounding Watergate, as would Artime, while
other veterans of the 1963 anti-Castro operations—like E. Howard
Hunt—would become infamous for their Watergate exploits.
In New Orleans, Carlos Marcello was suddenly consumed with two
problems that threatened to tie David Ferrie, and thus Marcello, to JFK’s
assassination. By Friday evening, a third problem would surface, setting
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LEGACY OF SECRECY
off a chain of events that would cause Ferrie to hastily flee New Orleans
on Friday, have authorities looking for him by Saturday, and have him
under arrest by Monday.
The first problem for Marcello was that Oswald, his former “runner”
who had been introduced to him by Ferrie, was still alive. According to
an FBI report, Marcello’s second problem was word from his lawyer, G.
Wray Gill, that “Lee Oswald, when he was picked up, had been carrying
a library card with David Ferrie’s name on it.” Both of these problems
had an immediate impact on Marcello, who realized they could unravel
his entire carefully planned scheme. Marcello biographer John Davis
wrote that Marcello had initially celebrated after his bribe-induced
acquittal, “embracing his attorneys and receiving congratulations from
his family, friends, and supporters.” But Marcello decided to skip “a
family celebration [and instead] went to his office in the Town and Coun-
try Motel.” A source Davis interviewed said that Marcello looked “as if
he had something urgent on his mind.”21
Ferrie was apparently frantic about the news. Congressional investi-
gators wrote that “Oswald’s former landlady in New Orleans . . . told the
Committee she recalled that Ferrie visited her home on the night of the
assassination and asked about Oswald’s library card.” The investigators
also found that a former New Orleans “neighbor of Oswald’s [said] that
Ferrie had come by her house after the assassination, inquiring if [her
husband] had any information regarding Oswald’s library card.”22 In a
few days, the Secret Service would ask if Ferrie had loaned Oswald his
library card. But before that, Ferrie took an unusual late-night weekend
trip to Texas, apparently in response to the news from Dallas.
Ferrie must have been alarmed. The fact that Oswald was still alive,
and hadn’t been killed soon after the assassination by Ruby or one of his
policemen, was bad enough, but the library card would tie him directly
to Oswald. To have something that small slip by after all the months
of careful planning, and the long weekends going over every detail
with Marcello, must have been devastating. Something as simple as a
library card could now unravel the whole plot. And Ferrie had worked
with Marcello long enough to know that the godfather wouldn’t hesi-
tate to have him killed if Ferrie couldn’t figure some way out of the
problem.
Ferrie did not flee to Texas on Friday night to avoid Marcello, since he
went to cities that were under Marcello’s firm control; instead, Ferrie’s
trip was part of his attempt at damage control. Ferrie didn’t panic, and
tried to give the sudden trip at least the veneer of plausibility, though
most investigators are skeptical. Ferrie seems to have suddenly decided
to drive more than 350 miles to go ice skating, taking two teenage boys
with him as companions.
The many unusual aspects of Ferrie’s trip have been chronicled in
many books and articles. Ferrie didn’t leave until after nine o’clock on
the night of November 22, and later admitted the trip was connected
to his work with Marcello attorney Gill.23 The first leg of Ferrie’s trip
must have taken at least five hours, probably more. Anthony Summers
wrote that Ferrie drove to a Houston ice-skating rink, where in the late
hours he would “spend a great deal of time at a pay telephone, making
and receiving calls.” Ferrie then checked into a Marcello-owned hotel,
from which Congressional investigators found he called “the Town and
Country Motel, Marcello’s New Orleans headquarters.” He then went to
Galveston and checked into a motel there, while he was still registered
at Marcello’s motel in Houston.24
Jack Ruby made several calls to Galveston just before Ferrie’s arrival.
Also, associates of Ruby had left Dallas and traveled to Houston and
Galveston just before Ferrie’s arrival in each city. We think it’s possible
Ferrie went to Texas to retrieve his library card. Perhaps one of the cor-
rupt members of the Dallas police, close to Marcello’s Dallas boss, Joe
Civello, or to Ruby, had taken possession of the card. The lawman could
have simply been bribed or told by someone like the CIA’s Morales
or Banister that the card involved a sensitive national-security matter
(which was technically true, given Ferrie’s CIA-sanctioned anti-Castro
activities). The bottom line is that by Monday, Ferrie would be able to
produce his library card when FBI agents confronted him about it.25
In the meantime, Carlos Marcello had a third major problem, this one
involving Guy Banister as well as David Ferrie. As detailed by Congres-
sional investigators, one of Banister’s employees, Jack Martin, had an
altercation with Banister on the evening of JFK’s death. Banister pistol-
whipped Martin, causing Martin to call an assistant District Attorney
and accuse Banister of being involved in JFK’s assassination. Martin
later said that Ferrie had gone to Texas “to serve as the getaway pilot
for the men involved in the assassination.”26 One of Bobby Kennedy’s
Mafia prosecutors in New Orleans told us that he had heard that “Ferrie
was supposed to have flown some conspirators out of Texas,” though
it wasn’t anything he could confirm or had firsthand knowledge of.27 In
any event, authorities issued a lookout for Ferrie on Saturday, and by
Monday would have him under arrest.
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LEGACY OF SECRECY
One of Banister’s associates was unaware of those difficulties and
thought the plan was still on track, even with Oswald alive for a while
longer. White supremacist Joseph Milteer told Miami police informant
William Somersett that “Oswald hasn’t said anything and he will not
say anything.” Milteer also made it clear that, despite the initial reports
of Oswald’s stay in Russia and his seeming public support of Fidel
Castro, “Oswald was not connected with Moscow, or any big communist
leaders.”28
Two vastly different women, each with connections to JFK’s assassina-
tion, were in the hospital on the evening of November 22. At East Louisi-
ana State Hospital, the self-described “dope runner” for Jack Ruby, Rose
Cheramie, was still suffering the effects of withdrawal from her heroin
addiction. After JFK’s murder, Louisiana State Police Lieutenant Frances
Fruge recalled the comments Cheramie had made to him about the
impending assassination of JFK. He immediately called the hospital and
ordered them to hold Cheramie so that he could question her further.
But Cheramie was too ill to be questioned at that time, though Lt. Fruge
was assured she would be held until he could interview her.29
In Dallas, the second hospitalized woman was the beautiful, sophis-
ticated Cuban exile Silvia Odio. Earlier that day, she had been listen-
ing to the radio, as she returned to work from lunch, when she first
heard of JFK’s assassination. As mentioned previously, Odio was part
of Manolo Ray’s JURE exile group, though her father was in prison in
Cuba because of a Castro assassination attempt by Alpha 66’s Antonio
Veciana. On November 22, it had been just two months since Silvia Odio
had been visited by two Cuban exiles and an American introduced to
her as Leon Oswald. The following day, one of the exiles had called
her to say that Oswald was a former Marine, an expert marksman who
had said the exiles “should have assassinated Kennedy after the Bay of
Pigs.”30
Odio later told Congressional investigator Gaeton Fonzi that upon
hearing of JFK’s death on the radio, “she immediately thought of the
visit of the three men to her apartment. . . . It produced a tremendous
amount of fear in her.” When she reached work, everyone was being