Justification For Killing (61 page)

“
What the hell? We don’t
need no outsider to take care of our business!” said one of the
mobsters.

Interrupting the speaker
the handler explained that Danny’s Father was Colonel Andrei
Danletsky, a Russian by birth, second in command under the Cuban
dictator General Batista. His position under Batista gave him
control of the Cuban Secret Police; however, in 1958 Batista along
with Colonel Danletsky and his family were forced to flee Cuba when
Fidel Castro overthrew the Batista government. The CIA, to lead the
Free Cubans in the CIA backed effort to retake Cuba, recruited
Colonel Danletsky. On the morning of 17 April 1961, Colonel
Danletsky was…

“
Shot dead on the beaches
of Cuba.” Danny angrily added. “Killed in the Bay of Pigs invasion
by that yellow-bellied president – John Kennedy. He did not provide
the invasion force with air cover as he promised. I’ve waited two
years to pay those Kennedy’s back!!”

“
My,” said one of the
Mafia group, “seems as though you’ve got a burr under your saddle
against the Kennedy’s? But how do we know you’re up to the
task?”

At this point, the CIA man
Donald Pearson took over the conversation and explained how Danny
was very young when the family was forced from their home in Cuba.
He told how the Russian KGB had recruited Danny, when older, to
work as a double agent with the Castro regime. Later the CIA
enlisted Danny’s services to help plan the re-taking of Cuba by the
Free Cuban Exiles. He further explained, “Danny was part of our
planning group in the Bay of Pigs screw-up. Those Kennedys really
fouled up the works.”

“
Darn right,” Danny said.
“Those sorry Kennedys got my Father and a lot of his friends
murdered on those beaches in Cuba - I’m never going to forgive them
or find peace until I can avenge their deaths. I’m goin’ to get me
some peace tomorrow!”

“
Now,” said Pearson, “I am
going to use Danny to help with this Dealy Plaza
‘event’.”

Johnny Russolli added,
“Good, sounds like you found a person with enough revenge in their
heart to get the job done, but one question: What the hades is
Dealy Plaza?”

“
Don’t worry Johnny,” said
Pearson, “it’s a park in downtown Dallas. It has a couple of sharp
turns, which will make the motorcade slow down. Then our shooters
can get a good shot.”

“
Shooters? How many we
got?” One of them asked.

“
We have four, but only
three will be shooting. I have this fellow Oswald who will be
perched in a window on one of the top floors of a corner office
building. There will be another shooter on the roof. A third will
be hiding in some bushes just before the parade gets to the triple
overpass.”

“
I thought you said you
had four?”

“
Yes, the fourth is just a
back up if something goes wrong. He will be in the building across
the street from Oswald. He will have a walkie-talkie speaking
directly to the shooter in the bushes. If our man on the roof, or
Oswald misses, then he and the shooter at the grassy knoll will
make sure the President is killed.”

“
We sure about this Oswald
guy?” Mancini asked.

“
No I’m not real confident
with him!”

“
Well you’re the CIA
‘handler’, you’re supposed to handle him. What’s the problem
Pearson?”

“
No problem Carlos. He is
just a patsy. He’s too dumb to pull off something like this by
himself, but by the time we are through the police will think he
was a lone gunman in the ‘event’.”

“
Well, Pearson what makes
you think he’ll do as you told him?”

“
The CIA dealt with Lee
Harvey Oswald years ago, and since then we have been screwing with
his mind. The CIA has a program called MK-ULTRA, it is like...
like... well its mind control.”

“
Did you say MK-ULTRA?”
Carlos Mancini asked as he began writing on a piece of pink
napkin.”

“
Yes, but don’t write that
down, we don’t know who might see it,” answered Pearson.

“
We not only used mind
control techniques, but psychedelic drugs and in some instances
torture. We have screwed with this poor kid’s head for years. He
wouldn’t know his rear-end from a hole in the ground, unless I tell
him. Right now the CIA has him believing he is doing the country a
big favor by getting rid of Kennedy. He believes he is a patriot.
He thinks Communism is a better form of government than a
Democratic Republic, the nitwit.”

“
If he gets caught can he
be tied back to you or any of us?”

“
Perhaps, but what he
doesn’t know is I am going to get rid of him tomorrow. I don’t
trust him to stay quite, we are going to eliminate him.”

“
How you goin’ to do
it?”

“
After the shooting, he
will return to his boarding house, and I have arranged for a police
car to drive by, blow the horn twice and deliver a .38 Colt
revolver to him as he leaves. It’s a World War II Smith &
Wesson Victory Model that I picked up at a pawnshop, totally
untraceable back to us. I am going to send a car over to Oswald’s
rooming house on Beckley and drive him down within a couple of
blocks of 10th Street and Patton Avenue. A few blocks down and over
from Beckley a police officer by the name of J. D. Tippet will stop
and search him. One of my associates who will be riding in the
police car with Tippit will step out and fire two or three times
killing Oswald. Our guy will then turn and kill Tippet. Next he
will remove the gun from Oswald’s pocket and fire it into the air.
It will appear as though Oswald shot Tippet and Tippet then killed
Oswald. Afterwards, no one will ever be able to tie us back to
Oswald in any manner.”

Ruby asked, “What happens
if something goes wrong Mr. Pearson? What if Oswald gets captured
before you can eliminate him?”

“
Then we will just deal
with it if that happens, but I don’t foresee any difficulties,
we’ll take care of Oswald when the time comes. If things do not
work out as I have planned Oswald has been instructed to go to the
Texas Theatre and meet one of our contact men – this man will
eliminate Oswald if need be.”

“
Okay,
gentlemen,” said Ruby leaning over on the table and looking
directly into the sinister eyes of the Mafia bosses said, “If Mr.
Pearson does not take care of our friend Mr. Oswald,
I will
. I’m your guy...
depend on me... I’ll make sure he doesn’t talk; you all can rest
assured... you have my word on it. I pledge before all of y’all
here and now, I will take him out, or die trying, that is a
promise, and everyone knows Jack Ruby keeps his
promises.”

“
Good, good, that’s good
to know Jack, you’ll take care of Oswald. What about the Vice
President... is he on board?”

Pearson answered,
“Completely, there will be a meeting tonight up in north Dallas,
and all the parties attending will agree to our protocol of events.
It will be a confirmed ‘go’ by all those at the meeting. Johnson
would do anything to become President, and it looks like he will be
doing it. I was personally given the word by his Chief-of-Staff to
proceed.”

Santo Riccocante the mob
boss from Tampa interjected his two cents saying he would be glad
to get rid of Kennedy. Calling him a sorry s.o.b. He thought with
Johnson, he could get back into Cuba, and get his casinos opened
back up and running again. You could hear the hate in his voice
when he said the Kennedy brothers were costing the “Family”
millions. If only they could get rid of his brother too.

“
Pearson said, “Don’t
worry, Mr. Attorney General Robert is going to be taken care of
next, but first we got to get rid of his brother, the
President.”

“
You know,” one of the
mobsters said, “why is the CIA so hot and bothered about
Kennedy?”

Pearson answered, “That
worthless President and his idiot brother want to dismantle the
whole covert section of government, especially the CIA. They don’t
have a clue how things work. We were ready, willing and able to
take Cuba back from Castro, but Kennedy got cold feet at the last
minute and let the whole thing turn into that Bay of Pigs fiasco.
If he had just stayed out of it Cuba would be free today, and
Santo, me and you would be at one of your casinos drinking Scotch,
throwing dice and chasing women.”

“
Yeah, now you’re
talkin’.”

“
Kennedy blamed it all on
the CIA, called us foul ups. Well he was right with the name ‘foul
ups’, but he had the name on the wrong party. He should have been
talking about himself and his idiot brother the Attorney
General.”

“
Damn right, we’re losing
a fortune every day that moron Castro stays in power.”

“
Oh, the main thing
Kennedy said he wanted to do was scatter the CIA to the winds. The
CIA ain’t gonna let that happen, trust me. After Johnson takes
power, this harassment will stop, and then your associates and my
associates can get back to doing business in our customary, normal
fashion.

Reaching across the table,
they all touched glasses and in unison said, “To a successful
‘Event’ tomorrow.”

“
What about that?” said
Lonnie Joe.

“
Great, and we have it all
on tape.”

MEANWHILE, ACROSS
TOWN

It was almost dark
outside. Bud and Lou did not see anything else they could do today.
They decided to go over their agenda for the next day, and
afterwards go out and get a bite to eat. After supper they would
return and watch a little television with Mrs. Rodgers. Later they
would try to get a decent nights rest. They certainly realized they
would have a busy day tomorrow.

Lou was worried. He just
had one question for Bud. “We both have seen pictures of the Texas
School Book Depository’s front door. There will be a large crowd of
people ganged up there trying to get a glimpse of the President. I
was thinking it is very possible we could miss Oswald in the crowd
as he leaves the building. What if one of us stands close to the
front door and the other is up the street a few yards toward the
corner of Elm and Houston. When he leaves he will have to come
right by both of us. Surely, one of us will see him.”

“
Good idea Bud, which
station do you want?”

“
Either is fine, but since
it’s my idea I will take the position on the corner, you stand
close to the entrance to the School Book building. How’s
that?”

“
Sounds good, let’s drive
down to 10th and Patton before finding something to eat. I would
like to ‘scope’ out the place before we arrive
tomorrow.”

The drive from 1026 North
Beckley Avenue to 10th and Patton was only a few blocks. They
slowly drove down Patton until it intersected with 10th. They
noticed a ‘For Sale’ sign in one of the front yards just a house or
two from the corner.

“
Bud, stop! Stop the car!”
The car stopped rolling; Lou opened the door and jumped out, pulled
the ‘For Sale’ sign up and tossed it into the back seat of their
car.

“
What... what are you
doing Lou?”

Lou explained with this
sign missing no one will know this house is for sale. So no one
should be at the house tomorrow when they arrive. Lou suggested
they pull up into this driveway, park and replace the For Sale
sign. The house is empty, and for sale, none of the neighbors
should notice them. Even if some neighbors do, they will suspect
they are just potential buyers. When Officer Tippit and Oswald
approach Lou, they could crouch down in the seats and remain hidden
from view. They should be able to witness the entire brutal
shooting of Officer Tippit.”

“
Bud, something has been
bothering me. We know Officer J. D. Tippit is going to be killed
tomorrow, right here on this very spot. We have the ability to
prevent this tragedy. Is it morally wrong that we sit back and
don’t intercede, or maybe the question is – should we?”

“
I’ve just got two answers
for you Lou – No, and especially No!! Remember what the Captain
said, ‘Little changes in the past can create major changes in the
future’. It is not up to us to alter the course of J. D. Tippit’s
life. I wish it were so, but it is not. This terrible scene has to
play itself out just as though we were not here to witness it.
Agreed.”

“
Reluctantly, yes - you
are right Bud. Let’s try calling Lonnie Joe and Rocky and see how
they are coming along. I’m depressed and need to hear some friendly
voices.”

“
Yeah,
good idea – we are within five miles of
Pegasus
. I’ll give their number a
try.”

“
Hey, LJ and Rocky, Bud
and Lou here... yeah you’re right, it is funny...who else could be
calling... how are things going on your end... good... good...
yeah, us too. We’re all set for tomorrow what are you and Rocky
going to do. Say, you get the goods on the Mafia bunch today?
Yeah... good... Lou and I have been discussing the events of
tomorrow... yeah, that’s right... we have to follow Oswald after
the shooting and see what he does... yeah... yeah... we’ve done
that... but here’s our problem. We’re afraid with the large crowd,
which will be gathered in front of the Texas School Book building
we might miss Oswald when he comes out... okay... okay... yeah, LJ
that sounds great. In fact, it sounds really great... okay, we’ll
see you both tomorrow. Goodbye.”