This article is the second in a trilogy of autobiographical anecdotes. These background tales convey previous experiences that continue to influence my current analysis and writing about the challenges we face today.
My journey into the depths of the October Surprise (read part one) didn’t leave me completely disheartened. Even though efforts hadn’t fully exposed the artifice of the wicked, some minds were opened and power was shifted in subtle ways.
I began work on other documentaries that explored areas of recent history that were obscured by unsubstantiated conventional accounts. The corrupt atmosphere in Washington had existed for decades; there were many fascinating stories to tell.
There was no greater unsolved mystery than the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. When the news of the killing came over our classroom loudspeaker, my sixth-grade teacher, who was usually strict and somber, cried openly. This added to my shock and confusion on that day; I didn’t know exactly what it was that brought her to tears.
Over the years, I’ve understood my teacher’s emotional response and recognized and felt the grief and damage President Kennedy’s death engendered. Many of us still want to know what really happened and understand why there is continuing resistance to revealing the truth.
The drama of this event went beyond any assassination; it was a public execution. Kennedy had quickly tired of the intelligence community lying to him and threatened to “splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the wind.” A clear and powerful message needed to be sent to anyone with similar sentiments. And both the ability to kill him — and get away with it — were intentionally apparent.
Strong circumstantial evidence suggests there was a complex conspiracy behind the assassination and cover-up involving both government and criminal elements. We may never know the details of what really happened. There remains an incredible gap between the official version that Lee Harvey Oswald was a “lone nut” assassin and the most serious allegations involving a plot at the highest levels that included Vice President Johnson.
Thousands of pages of recently released documents reveal an ongoing relationship between the CIA and Oswald. He was neither a loner nor a nut, and the lie that the agency knew little about him is now ludicrous. But the intelligence community is designed to be impenetrable; with cut-outs and covers that obscure inquiry. Conversely, the history of organized crime is replete with witnesses who have revealed the truth.
The Gangsters
For a BBC investigative biography of the mob kingpin, Sam Giancana, I was assigned to explore whether he was involved in Kennedy’s murder. Giancana had supported the Kennedy campaign and had been credited for getting enough Chicago votes to secure Illinois, giving JFK the presidency in 1960. But after Kennedy came to office, the new administration declared a war on organized crime.
It was no secret that this would have given Giancana a motive, but there was no direct evidence indicating that he was involved in planning the killing of the president. I assumed that after thirty years and two official investigations, I was unlikely to find anything new related to Giancana.
It wasn’t very difficult to gather indisputable information that demonstrated a very strong circumstantial connection between Giancana and events in Dallas in November of 1963.
Lewis McWillie, was a former Dallas strip club owner, professional gambler, and a top lieutenant of Sam Giancana before and after the events of 1963. He was one of Giancana’s closest allies and a “pit boss,” entrusted with handling money at his casinos in Cuba and Nevada.
McWillie and Jack Ruby, Oswald’s murderer, were friends and had common interests.
Although McWillie denied he and Ruby were particularly close, records showed that Ruby had bought a gun for him, and McWillie eventually admitted they were friends and had known each other for over ten years. After the assassination, investigators revealed that Ruby had visited Cuba at McWillie’s invitation and expense. And while in prison for shooting Oswald, Ruby said that he admired and idolized his gambler friend McWillie.
Reports that the two mobsters had been seen speaking with each other in Las Vegas one week before the assassination — and Ruby coming back to Dallas flush with cash — have been described as unfounded. Sightings of Ruby and Oswald together in Dallas in the weeks before the assassination have also been dismissed.
When Ruby shot and killed Oswald as he was being moved from Dallas Police Headquarters, McWillie would have known immediately that he would eventually be questioned as one of Ruby’s close associates.
The Warren Commission — formed to investigate the assassination — brought McWillie to Washington. In one of the most telling omissions, his interrogators failed to press him about his knowledge of the assassination. The line of questioning was focused on whether he could confirm Jack Ruby’s mob connections.
Witness McWillie’s assurance that Ruby had an inconsequential relationship with organized crime was taken by the Commission as gospel.
They relied mostly on his testimony (and two other gangsters) to dismiss the mob’s role — and virtually did nothing else to look into whether organized crime in any way facilitated Kennedy’s assassination or any cover-up. There is no other explanation; they needed to conclude that Oswald acted alone, and McWillie conveniently provide dismissive testimony that greatly furthered that process.
In 1978, the House Select Committee on Assassinations also interviewed McWillie, and although he provided additional details, the focus remained on Ruby.
It is extremely unlikely that organized crime was solely responsible for the assassination; although it appears that Ruby had a mission to ensure that Oswald never talked. This was likely a desperate backup plan, as there is other evidence that Oswald, who said in his only public chance to speak out, “I’m just a patsy,” was meant to be killed long before being arrested.
McWillie could have been central to a major break in the investigation for what was viewed as the crime of the century, as he likely knew more details than anyone who the Warren Commission interviewed. If there was a genuine attempt to seek the truth, McWillie would have been a star witness; instead, his testimony was used to eliminate the need for further inquiry.
Even if he didn’t talk under pressure, following the obvious trail and speaking with everyone who McWillie was with during the weeks before the assassination would have likely broken the case wide open.
Lewis McWillie was never asked about his relationship with Sam Giancana.
I attempted to follow some leads, but they went nowhere; the trail was cold. One hope for finding new information was by tracking down McWillie’s son and I discovered he was a pit boss at a Las Vegas casino. A colleague where he worked gave me his home number. I phoned Lewis McWillie, Jr., and asked if he would speak to me about his father’s relationship with Giancana. He angrily said, “Never call this number again,” and hung up.
Truth Is A Conspiracy Theory
What I compiled in my research was only used for background; the details were not presented in the documentary. For anyone with open eyes, everything I discovered was quite obvious sixty years ago, although no one was brave enough to see or speak the truth. The murder had intimidated almost everyone into silence.
Twenty-five years after the JFK murder, the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded, without dismay expressed by anyone, that government agencies were still withholding evidence, organized crime was somehow involved, and that there was more than one sniper — confirming the existence of a criminal conspiracy.
Their most important overall finding was that the Warren Commission had failed in its mission; this too has been ignored by the press. The Report was followed by a barrage of articles, books, and films, presenting with equal certitude that Oswald acted alone or that a group of conspirators engineered a despicable coup.
The sixty-year effort to ensure there was no reversal of the official narrative has so far succeeded; the government and mainstream media still dismiss any alternative assessments of the Kennedy assassination as a conspiracy theory.
As the taunt has succeeded so well in shielding the assassins of a president, this pejorative term is hurled every time powerful forces at the highest levels of government, need to keep facts from being revealed.
Yet these oppressors, no matter what deceptions or insults they sling, don’t recognize that ultimately, truth can’t be killed.
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