Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy (38 page)

What passed between Kennedy and Giancana in this extraordinary triangle is not known, but in 1988, Exner revealed that she had acted as a
courier carrying sealed envelopes for the two men on at least ten occasions. Given only a short time to live by her doctors, Exner said she wanted to set the record straight. She said she did not tell about the
envelopes during 1975 testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee
because she feared for her life. She also claimed that she never opened the
envelopes nor knew their contents. Most of her courier activities took
place during the tough 1960 campaign and Exner speculated that her
actions may have been connected with attempts to influence the critical
West Virginia Democratic primary.

Once, after being questioned by FBI agents, Exner complained to
Kennedy. She claimed Kennedy-by then president-assured her: "Don't
worry. They won't do anything to you. And don't worry about Sam. You
know he works for us."

Kennedy continued to see Exner until a meeting with J. Edgar Hoover
on March 22, 1962. It is now accepted that on that date Hoover revealed to
the President the extent of Exner's ties with organized crime and the
obvious fact that he knew about Kennedy's liaison with her. Shortly after
Hoover left the White House, there was one more call to Judith Exner. No
more were ever logged. Kennedy also broke off his friendship with
Sinatra, perhaps suspecting that the singer had set him up.

But the worst was yet to come. Although still seeing Exner, Giancana
became suspicious that Phyllis McGuire was seeing comedian Dan Rowan.
Giancana asked his contact with the CIA, Robert Maheu, to place a
wiretap on Rowan's telephone. This was done, but a maid discovered the
tap and told Rowan, who brought it to the attention of the federal government. The Justice Department initiated proceedings against Maheu for
illegal wiretapping.

In May 1962, a month after the Kennedy-Hoover meeting apparently
ended the President's relationship with Exner, Robert Kennedy was asked
by CIA officials not to prosecute Maheu for fear that Giancana's role in
the incident would become known. They reminded Kennedy that Giancana
had played a role in the clandestine effort against Castro's government.

Kennedy, thinking the plots against Castro had been stopped back in
1961, was adamant about pressing the charges. Then on May 7, CIA
general counsel Lawrence Houston finally told Kennedy the whole ugly
truth-that the Agency had contracted with Giancana and John Roselli to
murder Fidel Castro. According to Houston, Kennedy fixed him with a cold
look and said: "I trust that if you ever try to do business with organized
crime again-with gangsters-you will let the attorney general know.'-'

From that moment on, both Kennedys must have feared what Sam
Giancana might reveal if he chose-the CIA-Mafia murder plots and
Giancana's girl in bed with the President. However, this fear did not stop
the younger Kennedy from going on with his war against targeted Mafia
bigshots, including Giancana.

The FBI haunted Giancana day and night, watching his home and
trailing his car. It was most effective. Crime associates wouldn't come
near and Giancana couldn't go where he pleased. He was isolated.

In June 1963, Giancana caused chins to drop throughout the underworld by becoming the first mobster ever to go to court seeking an
injunction against FBI surveillance. To gain the injunction required Giancana
to swear in court that he was an honest businessman, which, in turn,
would expose him to government cross-examination-an unprecedented
hazard for a crime boss. Giancana must have felt confident that the
government would not question him too closely. And he was right. To a
stunned courtroom, the U.S. attorney announced that the government waived
the right to cross-examination. The decision not to question Giancana had
come straight from the attorney general.

But while one effort against Giancana was deflected, the Kennedy
Justice Department's all-out war against the underworld continued. The
top crime bosses were incensed. Hadn't they contributed to Kennedy's
election? Hadn't they helped steal critical votes? Hadn't Kennedy dabbled
with one of their women? It undoubtedly looked like double-cross to the
mob chieftains. And in the underworld the only solution for a doublecrosser is elimination-a "hit."

On November 22, 1963, Attorney General Kennedy met with about
forty of his Organized Crime and Racketeering Section staff. They had
been meeting regularly for the past two and a half years.

Interestingly, one of the young crime busters was G. Robert Blakey, who
years later would become chief counsel of the House Select Committee on
Assassinations created to investigate the murders of John and Robert Kennedy.

Just before they broke for lunch, the last topic of discussion was Sam
Giancana and political corruption in Chicago.

The attorney general had just finished lunch at his McLean, Virginia,
home when J. Edgar Hoover called to inform him: "The President's been
shot. "

Kennedy never met with the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section
again. With the death of John F. Kennedy, the war on crime was lost.
Organized crime was ecstatic, but on FBI wiretaps, older and wiser mob
leaders urged caution in speaking about the assassination. One was overheard explaining: ". . . police spies will be watching carefully to see what
we ... think and say about this." Such caution was certainly justified. In
the years following the assassination, more and more attention has been
drawn to the mob as one of the most likely suspects.

Beginning with Jack Ruby right on through to David Ferrie and Jim
Braden, crime figures keep cropping up throughout the assassination case.

There now can be no question that organized crime had the means,
motive, and the opportunity to murder the President. But could the crime
bosses have effectively covered their tracks without the help of federal
government officials?

It now appears that the vocal wishes of the crime bosses to eliminate the
Kennedys were echoed by certain powerful men in both government and big business. G. Robert Blakey, chief counsel of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, pulled no punches in his book, The Plot to Kill
the President. Its subtitle stated: Organized Crime Assassinated J.F.K.
Blakey once told this author:

One reason no one realized organized crime's involvement [for many
years] was that people never saw before . . . what was going on in
Cuba. They failed to see the significance of men like Lewis McWillie
and Russell Matthews [and] because they did not understand these
men's connections.

Asked if the fact that organized crime has been connected with the
assassination only in recent years might suggest some control in the
government on the part of the mob, Blakey replied: "That's conceivable
I would find that troubling, but no more so than the fact that they
killed the man and got away with it. "

Following his brother's death, Robert Kennedy appeared to lose interest
in prosecuting the mob and the Justice Department staff seemed to follow
suit.

While there must have been the desire to protect the loving-husband
image of his dead brother, the cooling of the attorney general's passion for
fighting the mob likely was due more to the potential revelations of
CIA-Mafia assassination plots.

In fighting what the Kennedys had perceived as a great internal evil,
they had once again found themselves confronted with an intelligence
agency-the CIA.

Since its inception in the 1930s, organized crime or the national crime
syndicate has exerted malevolent influence in the United States.

Attorney General Robert Kennedy, backed by his brother the President,
waged war against organized crime as never before, causing great fear and
hatred in the ranks of crime leaders.

Every one of the major crime bossess-including the powerful Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa-were reported to have issued threats
against the Kennedys.

What the Kennedys learned were the connections between the mob and
U.S. intelligence agencies. These connections dated all the way back to
Lucky Luciano and World War II.

Hoover's FBI had always taken a laissez-faire attitude toward the syndicate, while the CIA actually had worked with crime figures in assassination plots. These CIA-Mafia assassination plots continued right up to
Kennedy's assassination in Dallas.

Considering the Kennedy war against the mob as well as its vital
interests in Cuba lost to Castro and Kennedy's failure to militarily support
the Bay of Pigs Invasion, mob bosses had more than enough motive to
want the President dead.

If Judith Exner is to be believed, there were contacts between Kennedy
and Sam Giancana during the 1960 campaign that may have led to
Kennedy winning the Democratic nomination and the election. With Kennedy's support of Robert Kennedy's "war on crime" it must have looked
like a double-cross to the mob.

There most certainly existed the opportunity to utilize intelligence contacts in an assassination plot.

Many assassination researchers, including House Select Committee on
Assassinations chief counsel Blakey, today believe that organized crime
was responsible for Kennedy's death.

But is the American public expected to believe that the mob could kill a
president and that the combined resources of the FBI, CIA, Secret Service,
and military, and the nation's police agencies could not discover that fact?

If American crime bosses ordered the assassination, they may have
received some assurance of protection before the fact. And such assurance
would have had to come from persons in high government positions.
Perhaps, in time, such connections between government leaders of the
time and the mob will become more fully documented. Until such time,
the American public is left with only tantalizing bits of information and
common sense to suggest such complicity.

[I will] splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds.

-President John F. Kennedy

Since the first conflicts of man, there has been a need for intelligence,
or information on the activities and purposes of a perceived enemy. In
modem America the growth of several intelligence organizations over the
years has spawned an intelligence industry. Under acronyms such as CIA,
DIA, NSA, ONI, and others, these intelligence power bases have grown
far beyond their original charters.

The history of the Central Intelligence Agency-the most publicized of
the spy agencies-reveals a government organization that does much more
than merely collect and interpret intelligence. In less than ten years after its
creation in 1947 this coordinating agency grew to oversee military operations, destabilization efforts in foreign countries, and the assassination of
national leaders-and an unholy alliance with organized crime.

At the end of World War II, information on a wide variety of issues and
activities was being handled by as many as a dozen various intelligence
organizations, including those within the Army and the Navy. President Harry S. Truman and others perceived a need for a coordinating
intelligence unit. This need was further reinforced by the Congressional
Joint Committee on the Pearl Harbor Attack, which concluded that the
fragmentation of U.S. intelligence prior to 1941 resulted in the Japanese
taking this nation by surprise. The committee recommended a unified
intelligence service. Creating such a hybrid would not be easy. None of
the existing intelligence units wanted to relinquish power or authority.

During World War II, one of the organizations that proved most effective against the Axis powers was the Office of Strategic Services, headed
by the colorful Gen. William "Wild Bill" Donovan. The OSS not only
gathered a remarkable amount of information on the enemy, but also
engaged in various covert activities. It was a rough-and-tumble wartime
operation that provided the factual background for many a fictional spy
novel or movie.

The OSS was closed down at the end of the war, and on January 22,
1946, just four months later, President Truman signed a directive creating
the National Intelligence Authority (NIA) composed of the secretaries of
state, war, and Navy as well as the President's personal representative.
The operating arm of the NIA was the Central Intelligence Group (CIG),
made up of veteran intelligence officers from the participating depart ments. These men were managed by a director appointed by the President.
To limit the CIG, Truman specifically prohibited any clandestine or
paramilitary activities. The CIG was to have "no police, law-enforcement
or internal-security functions" nor conduct "investigations inside the .. .
United States."

The veteran spies and operatives of the old OSS were soon transferred to
this new organization, operating under the designation of the Office of
Special Operations (OSO). And these men of action soon wanted more
elbow room in their restricted world of intelligence gathering.