Foreshadows of President Kennedy's Assassination

President Kennedy was well aware that his office, policies, and record placed him in extraordinary danger. He spoke of the danger to friends and often remarked how easy it could be to kill a president. Many of his colleagues were also aware of the peril of his position. It is common knowledge that he was reluctant to travel to Texas and was discouraged to make the trip by Senators Hubert Humphrey and William Fullbright, and Congressman Hale Boggs. On November 22, 1963 at the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth Kennedy told an aide that "last night would have been a hell of a night to assassinate a president . . . anyone perched above the crowd with a rifle could do it." What is not so well known is the many times that Kennedy's assassination was mentioned, hinted at, and openly planned before November 22, 1963.

The Mob- The mafia has always been the source of rumors when conspiracy is considered. Mafia figures that wished harm to either JFK or Robert Kennedy reads like a Who's Who of Sixties mobsters: Sam "Sam Gold" Giancana, Johnny "John Rawlston" Roselli, Santos "Joe Pecora" Trafficante, Carlos "The Little Man" Marcello. JFK and RFK had committed themselves to fighting "organized" crime well before they entered the White House. The Kennedys' investigations caused great animosity between Jimmy Hoffa and RFK. Mafia lawyer Frank Ragano revealed in early 1992 that he personally delivered a message from Teamsters head Jimmy Hoffa to Mafia bosses Santos Trafficante and Carlos Marcello to "kill the president." Did Jimmy Hoffa wish to remove RFK from power by removing JFK from office? RFK indicted Hoffa on jury-tampering charges and deported Marcello to Guatemala. After the assassination, Marcello told Ragano that "Jimmy owes me, and he owes me big." Santos Trafficante, a Florida don, confided in Cuban exile leader Jose Aleman that JFK wouldn't be re-elected since "he's going to be hit."[1]

Private investigator Edward Becker attended a meeting with Carlos Marcello in September of 1963 at a small Louisiana farmhouse on land Marcello intended to develop called Churchill Farms. Becker told Marcello that he thought he was getting unfair treatment from RFK. At the mention of RFK, Marcello went into a rage and said RFK would "be taken care of." Marcello vehemently argued that going after RFK would bring the president's wrath onto mafia families, but if JFK were out of office LBJ would do nothing and RFK would lose his power since LBJ and RFK hated each other.

Marcello finished his diatribe by stating that the murder would have to be arranged so his men wouldn't be accused. Someone would have to be manipulated to take the fall for the murder, a "nut" to take the blame, "the way they do it in Sicily." He had already figured out a way to do it.

Marcello had strong ties with Joe Campisi who owned the Cabana Motel in Dallas where Ruby made a call to his Carousel Club at 2:30 a.m., November 22nd. One of several interesting characters who stayed at the Cabana on the night of November 21st was Eugene Brading. Brading had recently been released from prison and had a rap sheet of 35 arrests and possible links to the underworld. Brading was arrested at 12:45 pm, fifteen minutes after the shooting, in the Dal-Tex Building across the street from the Texas School Book Depository. Brading was arrested for acting suspicious in the building, but was quickly released after he used a fictitious name (James Braden) and convinced authorities he was only making a phone call. At one time Brading had told Federal authorities that his address was on the same floor and building (Pere Marquette in New Orleans) that Carlos Marcello's lawyer kept an office and where David Ferrie worked as an investigator. Ferrie worked for Marcello and had a background that linked him to CIA operations in Cuba. Oswald was a member of Ferrie's New Orleans Civil Air Patrol unit when Oswald was a teen.

The Right Wing- Kennedy made public appearances and speeches in Chicago on November 2, 1963 and in Miami in November 18, 1963. Chicago police arrested Thomas Vallee, a member of the John Birch Society, when they found he had made threatening remarks about Kennedy. Vallee possessed a M-1 rifle, 3000 rounds of ammunition, and took the day off from work on November 2. Before Kennedy's Chicago visit Secret Service agent Abraham Bolden was alerted about a threat to the president in the form of a four-man hit team possessing high-powered rifles. The threats to the president in Chicago were never passed onto authorities preparing security in Dallas.

Two weeks before the assassination Joseph Adams Milteer, a Miami resident and member of several right-wing organizations, had a telephone conversation taped by police informant William Sommerset. "He knows he's a marked man . . . " Milteer said. He also said that Kennedy would be shot "from an office building with a high-powered rifle . . . " Some researchers believe that Milteer can be seen in photos of Dealey Plaza on the afternoon of the assassination.[2]

When Kennedy arrived in Miami on November 18th the Secret Service canceled some appearances due to rumors of trouble. A motorcade was canceled due to a concern about disenchanted Cuban exiles. Word had also been forwarded to the Secret Service that an assassination attempt would be made in Miami "from an office building with a high-powered rifle." Instead of using a motorcade the President flew by helicopter from Miami airport to the Americana Hotel where he made a speech.

Guy Banister, an ex-FBI agent who had worked in Chicago, had set up an office in New Orleans. He seemed to support many right-wing causes from his office, and possibly covert CIA operations. In 1978 Banister's Secretary Delphine Roberts admitted that she had seen Oswald in Banister's office in 1963. Oswald filled out an application form to become one of Banister's "agents" and met with Banister several times in his office. Oswald came back several times to the office at 544 Camp Street where he had access to an office full of pro-Cuba literature that he passed out on a New Orleans street. Banister's office also saw the likes of David Ferrie, Clay Shaw, and Sergio Arcacha Smith.

Target Practice - During the morning of November 20, 1963 two downtown Dallas police officers on routine patrol entered Dealey Plaza and noticed several men standing behind the wooden fence on the grassy knoll situated next to the Texas School Book Depository. The men seemed to be engaged in a mock target practice. The police officers watched the men raise rifles over the fence and point them toward the street. By the time the police officers arrived in the area the men with guns disappeared. The incident was reported to the FBI November 26, but was never made public until 1978 through the Freedom of Information act.

Rose Cheramie - During the night of November 20, 1963, Rose Cheramie (aka Melba Marcades) was either pushed from a car or abandoned by two men outside of Eunice, Louisiana. During her stay in the Eunice Louisiana State hospital, she had told Dr. Victor Weiss and another attending doctor that her two companions had been discussing a plot to kill the President in Dallas. She said that the two men looked Italian and that the "underworld" was involved in the plot. The story was later confirmed by police officer Lt. Francis Fruge.

Fruge testified to the 1978 Select Committee on Assassinations conducted by the House, that during a follow-up inquiry, he checked with the owner of the Silver Slipper Lounge - a brothel where Cheramie had been with her two companions. The owner examined photos shown by Fruge and picked out Sergio Arcacha Smith and a Cuban exile named Osanto. The 1978 House Committee also reported that Sergio Arcacha Smith was a friend of David Ferrie and supposedly had contacts with Carlos Marcello.

Sergio Arcacha Smith served under Batista in Cuba and had a right-wing political philosophy. He setup the Cuban Revolutionary Council with Guy Banister's help at 544 Camp Street and supposedly maintained extensive relations with the FBI and Carlos Marcello who provided funds for CRC.

Smith created the CRC for Cuban exiles and to secretly promote the overthrow of Castro. Marcello contracted a promise from Smith that in the event that Castro was overthrown, Marcello would be granted generous concessions in Cuba. Ferrie became a member of the CRC.

Fruge contacted the Dallas police after Oswald was shot, but they were uninterested in his story. Cheramie died in 1965 in an auto accident. She also had told investigators that she was on a drug run from Louisiana to Houston for Jack Ruby and that Ruby and Oswald knew each other.

Gunmen on the Sixth Floor - Fifteen minutes before the motorcade entered Dealey Plaza, Arnold Rowland and his wife witnessed two men and a rifle on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. Approximately the same time Mrs. Ruby Henderson saw two men with a rifle on the sixth floor, one with a dark complexion. Seconds before the motorcade entered the plaza, Mrs. Carolyn Walther also noticed two men with a rifle on a high floor of the Depository. Witnesses with the best view of the sixth floor were inmates of the county jail. John Powell saw two men on the sixth floor, one adjusting a scope on a rifle. He noticed that one of the men had a darker complexion than the other, and said that several other inmates saw the same thing and believed that the men were security agents.

"Colonel" Rivera - In April of 1963 a curious encounter between a K.S. Turner and Jose Rivera eerily portended the fates of Oswald and Kennedy.[3]

Turner and Rivera met each other at a professional meeting in Washington D.C. Rivera introduced himself to Turner as a science administrator with the National Institute of Neurological Diseases. Rivera made it clear that he had worked with hypnosis and LSD during his career. Turner noted that Rivera was addressed at one time by an acquaintance as Colonel Rivera.

When polite conversation between Rivera and Turner brought up the fact that Turner lived in New Orleans, and that Rivera had taught at Loyola University in Biochemistry Department, Rivera mentioned knowing a Lee Harvey Oswald in New Orleans. Turner assumed that Oswald was a scientific colleague. Curiously within the same context of mentioning Oswald, Rivera encouraged Turner, whenever he might be in Dallas, to visit Jack Ruby's Carousel Club in Dallas.

Rivera asked Turner to do him a favor: to contact Lee Oswald, a person he claimed to have taught at Loyola University in New Orleans. Rivera wanted to know when Oswald planned to leave New Orleans. He told Turner to call Oswald and tell him to "kill the chief." Then Rivera cryptically added, without elaborating, that "we" are playing a joke on him. He also said that Oswald was not what he seemed, and that after "it's" over in November someone will kill Oswald. When Turner asked for more details Rivera refused.

Upon returning to New Orleans, Turner called the phone number that Rivera provided. First he spoke to Marina Oswald who claimed she did not know a Jose Rivera. Turner called later and spoke to a man who identified himself as Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald also had no knowledge of Rivera. Turner spoke with U.S. Secret Service agent Calvin Rice and told him about Rivera's strange statements. It was Turner's intention to travel to Washington and tell the Secret Service the entire story first hand but felt no one would believe such a fantastic tale.

After the assassination Turner, was determined to tell the FBI the full details of the strange encounter with "Colonel" Rivera. On November 24, 1963 Turner traveled to Washington to speak with agent Rice and gave him Rivera's phone number. Rice said nothing about Turner's story other than to assure Turner that Rivera was harmless. Turner is currently trying to find the whereabouts of agent J. Calvin Rice. The FBI has told Turner that they have no record of Turner's meeting with Rice on November 24, 1963.

The CIA and Marita Lorenz - Mark Lane's book Plausible Denial details the story of Marita Lorenz who claims to have been part of a two-car caravan of assassination conspirators that traveled from Miami to Dallas via New Orleans, arriving in Dallas on November 21. Her story was told in a court deposition that was delivered at a defamation trial against the Spotlight magazine and its publisher Liberty Lobby. The case was brought against Liberty Lobby by E. Howard Hunt. Hunt accused Victor Marchetti of libel when Marchetti, in a Spotlight article, accused Hunt of being involved in the JFK assassination.

Lorenz was an alleged mistress of Castro and self-admitted CIA employee. At one time she supposedly carried poison pills into Cuba to kill Castro. Lorenz claims that she and several men met in November of 1963 at a CIA safe house in Miami. Though they didn't go on the caravan, Orlando Bosch (an anti-Cuban CIA agent) and another CIA agent named Alexander Rorke Jr. were in the house when they left. From Miami the caravan traveled to Dallas with a car load of rifles, handguns, machine guns, and shotguns. She was regularly involved with CIA gun-running operations that were involved with anti-Cuban activities.

During the interview with Mark Lane, Lorenz was reluctant to say who was in the caravan, but did name Frank Sturgis, two Cuban brothers named Novis, a man named Lanz, and Jerry Patrick Hemming. Hemming has denied that he was part of this caravan. Lorenz said that Sturgis told her that E. Howard Hunt would provide operating funds for cover, and plans for exit after the operation was complete. The caravan arrived in Dallas November 21st. Lorenz and her companions then stopped at a motel where E. Howard Hunt arrived and gave Sturgis an envelope of money. An hour and a half later Lorenz claimed that Jack Ruby arrived at the motel, though what he did there is unclear. Lorenz left Dallas that night by plane. Later Sturgis told Lorenz that she had missed "the really big one . . . we killed the president that day . . . it was all covered, very professional." Lorenz claims that she spoke to the FBI immediately after the assassination and told them the names of the people in the caravan and the nature of the trip, but they weren't interested in the fact that CIA agents were running guns since "they know all about those associations," Lorenz said, " . . . they didn't want to go into it. Those are CIA activities, not FBI."

This curious Miami connection has been recently highlighted by the story of Michael Kensington (pseudonym) who will soon publish a book on the CIA's involvement in the JFK assassination.[4] Kensington was a young man when he lived in the northwest section of Miami (Grapeland Heights) in the summer of 1963. From Kensington's house he and his father eavesdropped on several conversations of men who lived in a house behind theirs. Kensington believes the house was a CIA safe house where cars and trucks came and went at any hour of the day, and men loudly and heatedly conversed on political subjects. In front of the house set a sign, "The Keyes Co." Kensington claims that the Keyes Co. was later exposed as a CIA front run by Watergate burglars and CIA agents Eugenio Martinez and Frank Sturgis.

The snippets of Spanish conversation that Kensington and his father heard were reported to Miami police on or around November 19, 1963. The facts of the report to the police was corroborated by a former Miami police officer in 1992. Kensington's father reported to the police that he heard several Cubans planning a trip to Dallas where they were going to do something to President Kennedy. During their trip they planned to stop in New Orleans on the way to pick up supplies and more associates. Within the conversation was the mention of several key words and names: Orlando, Bosch, Marita (Marita Lorenz?), Frank (Frank "Fiorini" Sturgis?), El Presidente, Alex or Alek (Alexander Rorke or Alek Hidell?) and rubio (Ruby?). Within a week of the assassination a "For Rent" sign appeared in front of the "Keyes Co." rental house.

Sources:

Canal, John. Silencing the Lone Assassin, The Murders of JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald, Paragon, St. Paul, Minnesota, 2000.

Davis, John H. The Kennedy Contract, McGraw Hill, 1992.

Fonzi, Gaeton. The Last Investigation, Thunder's Press, 1993.

Goldberg, Robert A. Enemies Within - The Culture of Conspiracy in Modern America, Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, 2001.

"Investigation of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy," appendix to Hearings Before the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives, 95th Congress [HSCA Report]. Washington, DC: GPO, 1979. Also 12 volumes of testimony and exhibits.

Mantik, David W. Murder in Dealey Plaza, "Paradoxes of the JFK Assassination: The Zapruder Film Controversy," ed. Fetzer, James, Catfeet Press, Chicago, 2000.

O'Leary, Brad and Seymour, L.E. Triangle of Death - The Shocking Truth About the Role of South Vietnam and the French Mafia in the Assassination of JFK, WND Books, Nashville, Tennessee, 2003.

Russell, Dick. The Man Who Knew Too Much, Carroll and Graf, 1992.

Russo, Gus. Live by the Sword, Bancroft Press, Baltimore, 1998.

[1] Russell, Dick. The Man Who Knew Too Much, Carroll and Graf, NY, 1992, p. 480.

[2]Hinckle, Warren and Turner, William. Deadly Secrets - The CIA-Mafia War Against Castro and the JFK Assassination, Thunder's Mouth Press, New York, 1992, p. 245.

[3]K.S. Turner, From April To November and Back Again, The Third Decade v. 8, n. 1, pp. 1-5, November 1991.

[4]M. Kensington, The Miami Connections to the Assassination, The Third Decade, v. 9 n. 6, pp. 26-31, September 1992.