Not in Your Lifetime: The Defining Book on the J.F.K. Assassination (65 page)

411
     Broken up, etc.: Report, p. 337–.

Police station sightings: Report, p. 340–; analyzed by Kantor,
op. cit.
, p. 45, and by Meagher,
op. cit.
, Chapter 25.

Synagogue: Report, p. 340.

Ruby on Fair Play for Cuba Committee: Report, p. 342.

412
Note 13
:
The admission that he had had his gun with him on the Friday night made it look as though the murder of Oswald was premeditated, and Ruby later withdrew it. (CD 1252.9; HSCA V.179.)

At radio station: Report, p. 343:

Olsen: Report, p. 343.

Note 14
: It may be that Ruby met with Olsen for much more than an hour. They talked in a garage, and the garage attendant’s statement—coupled with the fact that Ruby omitted the episode in answers given to the FBI—may suggest that this was not a casual encounter. On the afternoon of the assassination, Olsen would be not far from the site of Officer Tippit’s murder—a fact that he explained by saying he had been moonlighting, doing guard duty at a vacant estate. He could not, however, recall exactly where the estate was. Ruby was at radio station KLIF at 2:00 a.m. and at the
Dallas Times-Herald
around 4:00 a.m. (met Olsen: XV.254, 483, 532; XXIV.126, 162; XXV.228; XV.557, 566; XXVI.238; XXV.232; CD 105.325; CD 360.132; Olsen at time of Tippit shooting: XIV.264; could not recall: XXV.521, CD 1252.10, CD 1253.4 &
re
Olsen see also Shaw-Harris,
op. cit.
, p. 102; Jones,
op. cit.
, vol. I.92–; Report, p. 363)

Overnight movements: Report, p. 344.

Senior officers: Kantor,
op. cit.
, p. 53.

Ruby asked: Report, p. 346.

Ruby at 4.00 p.m.: Meagher,
op. cit.
, chapter 25; Kantor,
op. cit.
, p. 54–.

Call sequence starting 10:44 p.m.: HSCA IX.1115; CD 1138.3; XIII.247; XIV.620; XXV.251; CD 75.227, 290; CD 301.86; XXV.251; XXV.252; CD 360.132; CD 1252.12; XIV.605; XIV.620; CD 223.82–; CD 1253.6; XXV.251; Report, p. 350; (and Paul) HSCA IX.780.

413
Note 15
: Evidence
gathered by the Assassinations Committee raised questions about Ralph Paul aside from his activities during the assassination weekend. They concerned Officer Tippit. Paul had long been associated with Austin’s Bar-B-Cue, where Tippit worked as a security guard for three years. He was working there in November 1963, and had been having a protracted affair with a female Bar-B-Cue employee. Like Paul, Tippit lived near the Bar-B-Cue. In view of all this, it is probable that they knew each other. Paul died in 1974. (HSCA XII.36-42, Texas Attorney General’s files, 9.)

Ruby on November 24: Report, p. 353; XIII.231–.

Note 16
:
Senator was to behave like a man “overwhelmed with fear” for days after the shooting of Oswald, according to an associate, refused to sleep at home, and soon left Dallas altogether. (Kantor,
op. cit.
, p. 217; XXIV.164–330; XXVI.569–.)

TV technicians: Meagher,
op. cit.
, p. 449.

Minister: XII.75, 294.

Stripper call: Report, p. 353.

414
     Ruby cash/gun: Kantor,
op. cit.
, p. 64–;
Texas Monthly
, November 1975.

Western Union transaction: Report, p. 219 & HSCA IV.587.

Howard: XXIV.135.

Combest: Doubleday edition of Warren Commission Report, New York, 1964 (caption to picture of Oswald shooting).

415
     “intended”: Kantor, p. 113.

Howard: Kantor, p. 76.

Ruby note:
Newsweek
, March 27, 1967; HSCA Report, p. 158; int. Joe Tonahill by Scott Malone, 1978.

Ruby means of entry findings: (police report) HSCA IV.578; (Warren Commission Report) Report, p. 216; Ramp witnesses: (Vaughn) XII.359; (policemen) XII.340; CE 5073; XII.287; (Flusche)
Dallas Morning News
, March 25, 1979; HSCA IV.595–; (cab driver) Tasker, XXIV.488; (journalist) McGarry, XXIV.465; HSCA Report, p. 156 & see HSCA IX.132; Meagher,
op. cit.
, Chapter 24.

416
Sorrels: HSCA IX.137; and Kantor,
op. cit.
, p. 70.

Hall: XV.64–67, HSCA IX.137.

Ruby clammed up: HSCA IX.137–; HSCA Report, p. 157n7; HSCA IV.589.

Dean report: XII.432, 439. (The report was filed on November 26, but in his Warren Commission testimony Dean said he had actually dictated that report on the preceding day.)

Note 17
: The three other officers were Detective T. D. McMillon and—a week later—Detectives Barnard Clardy and Don Archer. Dean, Clardy and McMillon had known Jack Ruby for years. (XX.564; XII.412; XII.403; Archer exhibits analyzed in Meagher,
op. cit.
, p. 407–)

Griffin: Kantor,
op. cit.
, p. 144; (“damned liar”) XII.329; (sure Dean lied) ints, Griffin and Dean, 1978; Warren Commission memo for files, March 30 & 31, 1964;
Dallas Times-Herald
, April 5, 1964.

417
     Dean on test: HSCA Report, p. 158, and
Dallas Morning News
, March 25, 1979.

“You have to suspect”: Kantor,
op. cit.
, p. 154.

Ruby and police: Meagher,
op. cit.
, p. 422–; HSCA IX.128; Kantor,
op. cit.
, pp. 148, 56; (Dean) Tyler,
Courier-Times Telegraph
undated, 1977;
Dallas Morning News
, March 25, 1979; (“hysteria”) Kantor,
op. cit.
, p. 216, quoting Dallas police report of December 4, 1963.

9:00 a.m. orders: Kantor,
op. cit.
, p. 60–.

418
     Harrison: (Ruby sheltering) Kantor,
op. cit.
, pp. 60, 71, 145–; XXII.81; (Miller) Kantor,
op. cit.
, p. 146–.

Note 18
: Kantor said the result of Harrison’s lie-detector test was “not conclusive.” A supervisor in police Criminal Intelligence, Lieutenant Jack Revill appeared to say he did pass the test. Perhaps—this was in passing in testimony—Revill meant that Harrison passed the test on the specific point of whether Harrison noticed Ruby behind him just before the shooting. (He said he did not.) Whatever about the test, Revill told the Warren Commission he had “never been satisfied” that Harrison was innocent. (“not conclusive”: Kantor,
op. cit.
, p. 61; Revill: HSCA IV.589)

Butler:
Meagher,
op. cit.
, p. 423–.

Note 19
:
In 1946, Butler had been closely involved in the probe into the Mob attempt to bribe the district attorney and sheriff of the day, referred to earlier in this chapter.

419
     Dean: (and Civello)
Dallas Morning News
, March 25, 1979; HSCA Report, p. 171; CD 84.91–; (dinner)
Dallas Morning News
, March 25, 1979.

Note 20
:
The House Assassinations Committee, rejecting the old theory that Ruby got into the police station via the Main Street ramp, believed he could have got in through an alleyway door that opened onto the ground floor. Sergeant Dean, it turned out, had vacillated as to whether the door could be opened from the outside, claiming eventually that a maintenance man had assured him the door was secure. Two maintenance men and a porter said the opposite—that it could be opened, and without a key.

Dean refused to answer a Committee questionnaire, and it proved impossible to arrange a date for his deposition. The Committee found it improbable that “Ruby entered the police basement without assistance, even though the assistance may have been provided with no knowledge of Ruby’s intentions.” Dean, who said in retirement that he feared he was being “set up,” maintained that his association with mafioso Civello had been in the line of duty. (HSCA on ramp/door: HSCA Report, p. 157; HSCA IX.139, 143–; HSCA IV.590; Dean
re
door: HSCA IX.144; HSCA and “assistance”: HSCA Report, p. 157; HSCA IX.146; Dean “set up”: HSCA IV.590).

Commission request to CIA
re
Ruby: XXVI.467–; CD 1493
re
Karamessines to Rankin, September 15, 1964; CD 1054
re
Helms to Rankin, June 10, 1964 & see HSCA XI.286, 456.

CIA/FBI not tell
re
Ruby-Trafficante allegation: HSCA Report, p. 153.

“When Oswald”:
Washington Post
, September 7, 1976.

420
     Ruby statements: (“used for purpose”) Kantor,
op. cit.
, p. 209; (“framed”/ knew) “Examination of Jack Ruby,” reported by Werner Tuteur, M.D.

“The only thing”: KTVT, Fort Worth, Texas, September 9, 1965 (taped in Dallas County Courthouse).

24. Hints and Deceptions

421
     “Three may keep”: adopted by Benjamin Franklin in
Poor Richard’s Almanac
, July 1735—New Orleans Mafia boss Carlos Marcello is said to have displayed the maxim on his office door. (John Davis,
op. cit.
, p. 65).

Trafficante testimony: (1977) HSCA Executive Testimony, March 16, 1977, NARA 180-10110-10237; (immunity) HSCA immunized testimony November 14, 1977, NARA 180-10118-10137; (1978) HSCA V.375, 373, 371.

422
     Audiotape: HSCA source who heard tape in int. with author, May 1989.

Note 1
: The author discounts, as explained in
Note 7
to Chapter 14, a claim by one of Trafficante’s lawyers, Frank Ragano, that Trafficante confessed before he died that he, Carlos Marcello and Jimmy Hoffa had orchestrated the President’s assassination.

Hoffa’s probable murder:
New York Times
, December 6, 1975;
Clandestine American
, II.1, p. 9, Spring 1979, Sheridan,
op. cit.
, pp. 300, 356, 408.

Giancana:
Chicago Daily News
,
Chicago Tribune
, June 20 1975,
Washington Star
, December 29, 1975, int. Joseph Shimon.

Roselli:
Washington Post
, August 5, 8, 22 & September 12, 1976.

Trafficante suspect: HSCA V.366,
New York Times
, February 25, 1977, Schlesinger,
Robert F. Kennedy
,
op. cit.
, p. 549.

“said he believed”:
Washington Post
, August 22 & September 7, 1976 (Jack Anderson), March 24, 1977.

423
     “means, motive”: HSCA IX.61.

Marcello: (tomato salesman) HSCA IX.65; (testimony to Cttee.) transcript January 11, 1978, NARA 180-10131-10312; (recordings obtained) Assassinations Records Review Board, Transcripts of Brilab Conversations, supplied to author July 17, 1998.

424
Note 2
: Reported by author John Davis, citing a 1988 interview with former Assassinations Committee Chief Counsel Robert Blakey. Blakey has said he was told of the episode by an Assistant Director of the FBI. The information cited does not, however, appear in a folder of surveillance material sent to this author by the Assassination Records Review Board in 1998. (visitor/Marcello: John Davis,
op. cit.
, pp. 477–, 523; Blakey told: Bugliosi,
op. cit.
, Endnotes, p. 657; not appear: Jeremy Gunn letter to author, July 17, 1998)

Record shows: Davis,
op. cit.
, p. 309.

Hauser: Davis,
op. cit.
, pp. 522–, 434,
Washington Pos
t, November 7, 1993.

Saia: See Chapter 17,
supra
.

425
     Van Laningham: ints. Jack Van Laningham, Thomas K. Kimmel, Jr., Raymond Hult, Ronald Sievert, Van Laningham to Carl Podsiadly, letter attached to SAC San Francisco to Director, July 15, 1988, NARA 124-10193-10468, & see NARA documents 124-10356-10199, 124-10356-10198, 124-10356-10197, 124-10193-10471, 124-10193-10470, 124-10193-10465, 124-10193-10466, 124-10193-10469, 124-10193-10476, 124-10193-10475, 124-10356-10201, 124-10356-10200, Waldron & Hartmann,
Legacy of Secrecy
,
op. cit.
, pp. 46-, 750-, 862.

Note 3
: The FBI document was first reported by authors Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartmann in their 2009 book
Legacy of Secrecy
, and the National Archives has provided it and its explanatory cover sheet to the author. The version obtained from the National Archives names Van Laningham as the source of the information. It shows, too, that Van Laningham gave his account to agents following his transfer to a prison at
Seagoville, Texas.

Van Laningham, who claimed that he had been promised early release in exchange for his cooperation over Marcello, then wrote a series of heated letters to the FBI repeating his account of what the Mob boss had told him and—among other things—naming the other inmate who had been present as “Don Wardell.” The U.S. Bureau of Prisons told the author it had no record of anyone by that name having been imprisoned at Texarkana or anywhere in the federal prison system. Interviewed in 2013, Van Laningham nevertheless maintained that the other inmate’s name was Wardell, and that he had disappeared from the prison soon after Van Laningham named him to his FBI handlers as a witness to Marcello’s supposed confession.

Movie rights to the confession story were purchased, with a view to a Warner Brothers movie on the assassination that would reportedly star Leonardo DiCaprio. (first reported: Waldron & Hartmann,
Legacy of Secrecy
,
op. cit.
, p. 754–; report: available at www.maryferrell.org; Archives version: NARA 124-10193-10465, first partially published in Waldron & Hartmann,
Legacy of Secrecy
,
op. cit.
, p. 835-; letters/“Wardell”: NARA 124-10356-10197, 10198 & 10199, 124 -10193-10466, ints. Chris Burke (BOP), Jack Van Laningham; movie: www.legacyofsecrecy.com)

428
Note 4
: What the prison doctor called Marcello’s “senility,” or mental deterioration, had certainly taken hold by 1989. Jack Van Laningham has claimed that, contrary to the recollections of FBI agents Kimmel and Hult and prosecutor Sievert, the mobster had still been mentally “sharp” in 1985, when Marcello allegedly said he had had Kennedy killed.