33: Shockwaves
The Kennedy assassination shook the nation, but one of JFK’s friends took it harder than others. When Edward Grant Stockdale’s Irish eyes stopped smiling there may have been more to his depression than was ever revealed.
On December 2, 1963, Grant Stockdale fell to his death from his office window on the thirteenth floor of the exquisite art deco Alfred I. duPont Building, Miami’s first commercial skyscraper at 169 East Flagler Street.2 The building lobby housed a major branch of Florida National Bank & Trust Co. headquartered in Jacksonville which Alfred duPont had purchased in 1929 and named his wife Jessie Ball duPont to the Board of Directors. Upon Alfred’s death in 1935, Jessie’s brother, Ed Ball, took charge of bank through his leadership of the Alfred I. duPont Testamentary Trust.
The Alfred I. duPont Building from which Stockdale plunged should not be confused with the DuPont Plaza Center building at 300 Biscayne Boulevard Way (U.S. 1), Miami, where Life magazine was located on the eighth floor. That building sat at a sharp turn in the road— similar to the Dealey Plaza presidential motorcade route—just before it turns past Bay Front Park where 15,000 family members and friends had gathered waiting for the return of the Cuban exiles involved in the Bay of Pigs invasion.3 Three decades earlier, five shots rang out in Bay Front Park shortly after President-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered a short speech. The disgruntled, lone-nut, would-be assassin Giuseppe Zangara missed Roosevelt, but five people were struck by bullets and Chicago Mayor Cermak would die later from complications. Zangara died in the electric chair just 14 days after Cermak died.4
A rightwing plot—lead by Joseph Milteer of the National States Rights Party—to assassinate President Kennedy with a rifle from an office building in Miami on November 18th was publicly revealed in 1967 as I drove along S.W. 8th Street in Miami after eating breakfast at The Skillet. In 1963, the threat was taken seriously enough by the Secret Service that President Kennedy's motorcade was canceled and instead he and Senator George Smathers were driven to a helicopter that flew them to Miami Beach where he delivered a speech to the Inter-American Press Association signaling a desire for peace in the Caribbean which was not what Pawley and Cuban exiles wanted to hear.5
 |
JFK and Senator George Smathers at Miami International Airport 11/18/1963 awaiting a helicopter ride after cancelling a motorcade out of security concerns four days before Kennedy was assassinated 1,300 miles away in Dallas. (Photo: Joe Rimkus/State Archives of Florida)
A December 2, 1963 Miami News report stated that Ambassador Grant Stockdale had looked at a Life magazine covering the Kennedy assassination."After smoking a cigarette, he lept out a window, "hitting a ledge eight floors below.” He was to have hosted Senator Ted Kennedy’s visit to Miami on the occasion of the University of Miami’s homecoming ceremony on December 14th. Stockdale was the chairman of the homecoming event, which was cancelled when he died.7 (In 1969, I received my AB degree in American Civilization from the University of Miami.)
Stockdale did not leave a suicide note but Miami Homicide Detective Robert Utes said Pawley’s friend, Senator George Smathers, who had an office in the same building, claimed that Stockdale had become depressed as a result of the death of John F. Kennedy. Stockdale had been Smathers’ administrative assistant in 1946. As word was being spread by the DRE that Oswald was associated with the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, no doubt Smathers recalled that his proposal to cut to U.S. sugar imports from Cuba by 10% was ridiculed in the FPCC's May 13, 1960 Fair Play newsletter under the headline "Sweetening the Bitter Tea of Senator Smathers."
The police believed Stockdale’s death was a suicide brought about by the financial losses Stockdale had suffered as a result of serving as an underpaid ambassador to his—and Kennedy’s—ancestral nation while the Miami real estate market, where he had made his money, was turning sour.6
Upon being elected to office himself, Representative Stockdale in 1949 had his life threatened after proposing the passage of a bill to prevent the Klu Klux Klan from wearing masks. Following the Kennedy assassination, the Civil Rights Act was passed, but Smathers voted against it—having always been politically more politically aligned with conservative Southern democrats.8 Despite his political slant, the “flamboyant playboy” George Smathers was John Kennedy’s best man at his wedding to Jackie9 and was considered so close of a political ally that President Kennedy called him the week before he went to Dallas to complain about having to take the trip with Vice President Lyndon Johnson.10
George’s brother was Frank Smathers, Jr., a successful banker, who along with William Pawley and others purchased and revitalized Miami Beach’s La Gorce Country Club in 1945. In 1963, they were also on the Board of Trustees of the University of Miami.11
Another tenant in the duPont Building was Angus K. McNair, an accountant whose son Angus Jr. was “arrested by Cuban authorities on the previous day [March 22, 1961] in a boat loaded with guns.” A short time later, Angus McNair, Jr. and Howard Anderson were executed for their anti-Castro activities.12 The older McNair “stated that his son had recently been associated with Frank Fiorini, an American adventurer and self-professed leader of a group of anti-Castro individuals.”
A contemporaneous FBI report had noted that a “boat [named the Jolly Roger] was again intercepted by Border patrol while it was headed Southeast toward Cuba from Marathon, Florida. It was again inspected, but there were no guns on board.” Among the boat’s occupants were Angus McNair, Gilberto Betancourt of MRR, and Orlando Bosch.13 Two other informants advised that Fiorini had been working with Miguel Bosch and his brother, Orlando Bosch Avila, whose personal war against Castro led him to an act of terrorism on October 6, 1975, when he blew up a Cuban airplane killing 73 passengers.
On “June 23, 1963, Dr. Orlando Bosch, General Coordinator of [Evilio] Duque’s group,” the Cuban Anti-Communist Army of Miami which had “delegations in Chicago, New Jersey, New York and San Juan,” informed an agent that “Duque and his group are interested in obtaining arms for their people in Cuba” but claimed no knowledge of impending raids. A few days earlier, informant “MM T-2, a Cuban exile” had claimed that Duque “met with [Dominick Bartone] a representative of Santos Trafficante, whom informant described as former gambling czar in Cuba and presently a member of the ‘Mafia’ in the United States” to “obtain rockets, high explosives and detonators for use in raids against Cuba. Duque allegedly has received $25,000 from Carlos Prio Socarras, ex-President of Cuba, for this purpose. The representative of Trafficante said he could obtain the equipment in question” after checking Duque’s bona fides. Duque received Trafficante’s approval, but was arrested by U.S. Customs on July 18, 1963, which found 60 rounds of ammunition aboard his boat.14 Bartone was the same person who, with Mitchell WerBell, had approached Pawley years earlier.15
The anti-Castro intrigue surrounding the Alfred I. duPont Building office was the milieu from which Stockdale exited. Months before the deaths of Kennedy and Stockdale, Smathers on August 3, 1963, also lost his friend, The Washington Post publisher Philip Graham to suicide by shotgun. His wife, Katherine Graham (whom he almost divorced a year earlier when he had an affair) took the reins of the newspaper and within a decade lead it to national fame with its Watergate expose.
Philip Graham had been very close to John Kennedy—in fact, Graham convinced Kennedy to name Lyndon Johnson as his vice-presidential running mate and advised the President on cabinet appointees such as Secretary of the Treasury C. Douglas Dillion.16
Pawley revealed in his manuscript, Russia Is Winning, that Philip Graham had breached national security during tennis with Pawley when Graham mentioned that a CIA covert activities official had revealed the Agency’s plans to overthrow Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954. Pawley quickly mentioned the breach to President Eisenhower who then established the Doolittle Committee to examine CIA operations with Pawley as one of four key members.
The manic-depressive Graham revealed in the months before his suicide that his friend President Kennedy was having an affair with a former Hickory Hill neighbor, Mary Pinchot Meyer, the ex-wife of CIA official Cord Meyer.
Eleven months after the JFK assassination Mary Meyer, was found dead along the towpath in Georgetown in a case that went unsolved (one suspect was acquitted). Upon learning of the death, her close friend, Anne Truitt, asked the CIA’s Counterintelligence head James Jesus Angleton, to meet Mary’s sister, Toni Bradlee (wife of Ben Bradlee of Newsweek and The Washington Post) and find Mary’s diary. They went to the Meyer home where Toni located the diary and some papers in Mary’s art studio. Angleton burned the papers but “‘safeguarded’” the diary. Years later, Angleton returned the diary to Toni Bradlee who burned it in front of Anne Truitt.17 No doubt that while Angleton had the diary he read about President Kennedy’s passionate pursuit of Mary and pondered whether the enemies of the U.S. could have been black mailing Kennedy.
In December 2022, a four-and-a-half-decade-old memorandum written by Donald R. Heath, Jr. finally surfaced. “I was, however, present in the FI Branch at the Miami Station when my chief, Mr. Warren Frank, issued orders to all case officers (there were about 12 of us in the Branch at that time) to contact our agents inside Cuba and our support agents in Miami for leads possibly linking Castro or the Cuban exile community to the murder ... I recall that Mr. Anthony Sforza [aka Henry Sloman aka Frank Stephens], AMOT case officer, told me later that that he received specific instructions from Shackley about how the AMOT service was to go about aiding in the investigation.”18
AMOT members were over 100 Cuban exiles used by Tony Sforza to debrief new arrivals from Cuba, keep their ears and eyes wide open for what was going on among the various groups—sometimes even by infiltrating groups such as Alpha-66—so the CIA could anticipate their activities. AMOTs originally were funded by the CIA; after 1968 were paid by Latin American Social and Economic Research (LASER), a proprietary. Sforza (aka Alfred J. Sarno denied an Agency relationship with Task Force W, Harvey, and Sturgis.19
Heath “asked political contact and Cuban exile leader AMING-3 and agent AMBLEAK- 1 the same questions:
a. Get me all possible data on any Cuban exile you know who disappeared just before or right after the Kennedy murder and has since been missing from Miami under suspicious circumstances.
b. (To AMING-3 and AMGABE-1) Get me data on Cuban exiles who approached you or your associates during the fall of 1963 for assistance in getting sizeable amounts of funds, weapons or cars.
c. To AMING-3 and AMBLEAK-: Give me a list of all Cuban exiles or Cubano Americans you consider to be capable of orchestrating the murder of President Kennedy in order to precipitate and armed conflict between Cuba and the USA.
d. To AMBLEAK-1, AMGABE-1 and AMING-3: Give me a list of the richest
Cubans in exile, Cubans possessing sufficient personal wealth and the possible
inclination to bankroll the murder of President Kennedy.”
Pawley, who was not a Cuban exile, would not be scrutinized under Heath’s four guidelines although he was extremely wealthy, had animosity toward Kennedy, had contact with hundreds of Cuban exiles and hitmen, and had ties to the DRE which interacted with Oswald and immediately tried to paint Oswald as pro-Castro.
Heath’s memo also noted that “other ‘angles’ and questions about Cuban links to the murder were assigned to specific agents, but I do not recall them all.” He felt that “Shackley has the clearest recollection of tasks the Station may have been given” and everyone involved was “very well informed of the limitations on CIA’s right to conduct investigations of persons residing in the USA, whether they were alien residents or US citizens.”20
In response to the Heath memo, the CIA’s Latin American Division/JFK Task Force sent a compilation of reports from those specifically queried. “There is nothing” was the common refrain or essence from AMPAN-22 (Jose Ignacio Zarraga Diez-Muro), AMING-3 (Alberto Muller Quintana), AMGABE-1 (Julio Gaspar Hubert Rico), AMBLEAK-1 (Fernando Fernandez-Cavada y Paris), and AMWEE-1 (redacted name).21
Eleven days after the JFK assassination, on December 2, 1963, the head of the CIA Special Affairs Staff and the Chief of Station of JMWAVE tried to determine the covert clearance status of William Douglas Pawley. The documents do not reveal why.22 The clearance status of Pawley (QDDALE) remained a topic within the Agency throughout January 1964. Finally on February 20th some action was taken when Desmond FitzGerald, Chief, Special Affairs Staff (SAS), contacted ID/1 Mr. Coleman Deputy Director of Security (Investigations & Operational Support) requesting that Pawley “be granted Covert Security Approval by JMWAVE on a continuing basis.” The memo noted that he “has been in contact with the Agency for a number of years and that the Western Hemisphere Division was granted a CSA in October 1959 to enable their contact with him.”23
A February 12th dispatch regarding QDDALE noted “JMWAVE has maintained an operational contact with QDDALE since 28 August 1962. As a result of this contact, JMWAVE has established that QDDALE is a well-informed businessman with excellent connections throughout the Miami business community. As a result, QDDALE has been used as a special contact for the development of certain background data, operational intelligence and/or the conduct of selected operational support tasks. QDDALE is a special contact and not an agent, QDDALE’s role as a special contact is helpful to the overall mission as QDDALE is a useful reference point within the Miami business community who can be harnessed on certain occasions to carry out tasks which are of interest to JMWAVE. The JMWAVE contact with QDDALE does not preclude his being contacted by KUJUMP or WHD.”24 KUJUMP was the CIA’s Domestic Contact Division (aka Domestic Contact Service or Office of Operations or “OO”) in the 1960s which solicited foreign intelligence insights from U.S. travelers and those with international contacts.25
A February 27, 1964 case analysis on William Pawley (which has an entire page marked “Not released - Not germane”) stated that he is “brother of Edward Pawley (C-248081) whom was investigated in 1961 for use as an unpaid informant. Edward was also granted CSA [Covert Security Approval] in 1963. No [REDACTED]”26
Despite years of gathering information on Pawley, a February 24th background memo on Pawley misspelled his wife’s maiden name as Hare instead of Hahr when detailing their July 25, 1919 wedding, their divorce and his October 1943 marriage in India to Edna Earle Cadenhead.27
Finally at the end of April 1964, an FYI memo from R. L. Bannerman, Director of Security, was sent to the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence informing him that “Office of Security recently issued a Covert Security Approval to permit the utilization of Mr. William Douglas Pawley by the Western Hemisphere Division/Special Activities. He will be special contact for the Station in Miami, Florida.” The memorandum noted “Mr. Pawley is a prominent Florida business executive who formerly served as Ambassador to Peru and Brazil, was an assistant secretary of State in 1948 and 1951, and an assistant to the Secretary of Defense in 1951. In more recent years he was engaged in petroleum and mining activities in the Dominican Republic and served as a consultant to the Dominican Government.”29
Meanwhile, Pawley’s TILT mystery continued into the 1964. On January 7th, a memo was distributed in the CIA regarding a news service release that described Pawley’s expedition to Cuba with Life magazine.30 Months before the CIA had tried to determine its evolution:
1. Martino initiated operation based upon contacts with Perez (Gonzalez).
2. Martino contacted Nathaniel Weyl to obtain non-official sponsor.
3. Weyl simultaneously contacted Life Magazine and the Senate Internal Security
Committee.
4. Life agreed to pay Weyl for story and to pay each Soviet $2500 for his story.
5. Internal Security Committee (Sourwine) wanted to handle initial public surfacing of
Soviets.
6. Sourwine asked Pawley to participate in maritime aspects.
In early March 1964, a name check with the subject line “William D. Pawley” was sent to the FBI and CSIF.28
1- Pawley discussed bringing Soviets to U.S. with JMWAVE.
2- After discussions with DDCI, Pawley agreed to turn defectors over to CIA.
3- JMWAVE wanted Pawley to get Life Magazine out of operation but he was
unsuccessful.
4- Life stayed in at Martino’s insistence. (Speculation that Martino was protecting his
fee as broker.)31
John Martino of the Bayo-Pawley Operation TILT also continued to be a person of interest to the ODENVY (FBI) and KUBARK (CIA). “On 19 February 1964 ODENVY reported that they had received information to the effect that John Martino was supposed to be involved with KUBARK in an operation to bring out three or four Soviet Scientists from PBRUMEN [Cuba]. ODENVY requested [CIA] Headquarters to comment on the information.” In response the CIA told the FBI how an unnamed “American industrialist, well-known to KUBARK came to” the agency with the plan. “Although we believed that the likelihood of such an operation being a success was very small, in view of the fact that the industrialist intended to use his own boat and own crew, and in light of the importance of the Soviet target in PBRUMEN, KUBARK contributed to the operation to the extent of providing some technical and logistical support. It later developed that Martino had generated the operation with the industrialist. KUBARK advised the industrialist of Martino's reputation. The industrialist decided to proceed anyway. KUBARK had no connection or contact with Martino. The operation, which was a failure, demonstrated the fact that Martino was making up the story out of whole cloth.”32
A March 2nd dispatch on the status of Operation TILT reported that as of October 1963 no one on Cuba had heard from Eduardo Perez (Bayo) and that Mrs. Perez in Miami had not heard from her husband as of January 20th. This “leads to the conclusion that in the period June 1963 to January 1964, JMWAVE has not had any hard information on the current status of the individuals who infiltrated Cuba on Operation TILT.” The CIA Station in Miami “can only conclude that” its previous analysis “was correct, i.e., individuals who participated in Operation TILT did not have any Soviet contacts but they developed a story about notional Soviet contacts in order to develop an operational proposal which was designed to obtain for them transportation, arms, and infiltration into Cuba via the good offices of QDDALE.33
The FBI sent a report to the Chief of Station of JMWAVE regarding “a meeting of prominent Cuban exiles in Miami on 3 March 1964, Byron Cameron stated that he was representing an unidentified group of persons who made contact with two Cuban gangsters, who were willing to kill Fidel Castro” for “$100,000, $2,500 of which to be paid in advance.” It was alleged that Cameron belonged “to the Mafia and co-owner of M/V Cayman Hope.” Byron Cameron operated a septic tank company, F.A. Johnson in Fort Lauderdale, and was “co-owner of a garbage scow he planned to convert for use in trade between Jamaica and Santiago de Cuba.”34
What the report does not note is that Byron Cameron had worked at the mile-long Kellex uranium processing plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee along with thousands of Americans who were unaware that they were involved in Oppenheimer’s Manhattan Project developing the atomic bomb. Cameron was extremely proud of his small contribution to ending Japan’s deadly hostilities in World War II and welcomed opportunities to reminisce. When he had a midday reunion in 1968 with one of his Oak Ridge coworkers at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Byron’s son, Ron, and I joined him for the car ride from Ft. Lauderdale to the grand estate. As the Oak Ridge alumni had their reunion in a separate area of the mansion, an elderly gentleman visiting the then owner, Marjorie Merriweather Post35, talked to me in the living room about my American Civilization studies at the University of Miami. We also discussed how much I enjoyed the film editing technique (triple screen) used in the “Thomas Crown Affair” which I felt could be used dramatically in an adaption of William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury. The day was memorable for all.
Like Pawley, Desmond FitzGerald had been involved in the Burma-China theatre of operation in World War II as liaison to Chiang Kai-shek's military forces. Years later, FitzGerald authored a number of CIA documents dealing with Pawley, such as the February 20, 1964 request “that Subject be granted a Covert Security Approval for use by JMWAVE on a continuing basis.”36
That same mont, FitzGerald became Chief of the Western Hemisphere Division. Previously, as head of the CIA’s Special Affairs Staff, he organized three different assassination attempts against Castro, including one in involving Rolando Cubela (cryptonym AMLASH) who had met with FitzGerald and Nestor Sanchez in October 1963 in Paris.37 FitzGerald gave AMLASH a poison pen to use against Castro just before learning that President Kennedy had been assassinated. In 1965, Fitzgerald became Deputy Director of Plans—overseeing covert operations.
Desmond FitzGerald died at age 57 on July 23, 1967, while playing tennis which is a rarity.38 Deadly, destructive riots were breaking out in Detroit that morning; but FitzGerald may have really been stressed out by the growing shockwaves from the half-hour appearance on NBC-TV a week earlier by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison who defended his investigation of Clay Shaw’s CIA-linked involvement in the JFK assassination. An accusation that caused the Agency to launch a propaganda war based on dirt it could find on Garrison and his investigative team.
FOOTNOTES:
1 NARA 104-10076-10143 ~ 12/6/1963 CIA JMWAVE Cable “Requested PCSA's Followed By CSA's For Three Attorneys.” To: Director. From JMWAVE. Subjects: Attorneys Frates, Wm Snow; Fay, Peter T.; Floyd, Robert Lester. KUVEST.
NARA 104-10077-10033 ~ JMWAVE Cable “Re Subject Travel Plans To Discuss KUVEST Funding.” To: Director. From JMWAVE.
2 The Historic of the Alfred I. duPont Building. http://www.alfredidupontbuilding.com
>> The building lobby housed a major branch of Florida National Bank & Trust Co. until 1983.
City of Miami: Historic Preservation. http://www.historicpreservationmiami.com/pdfs/dupont%20building.pdf
3 “The Massacre,” Time, April 28, 1961.
Before news of the disaster arrived, some 15,000 wives, mothers and friends of members of the wiped-out invasion forces gathered in Miami's Bayfront Park for a scheduled "Thank Kennedy" meeting. But under the impact of tragedy, the women, faces wet with tears, screamed instead, "Kennedy! Help!"
4 Blaise Picchi, The Five Weeks of Guiseppe Zangara (Academy Chicago Publishers (September 1, 1998).
5 “Agencies and Departments of the U.S. Government Performed with Varying Degrees of Competency in the Fulfillment of Their Duties.” House Select Committee on Assassinations Final Report. Section D. Pages 232 and 233.
The November 18, 1963 plot to assassinate President Kennedy was lead by National States Rights Party leader Joseph Milteer. Miami police intelligence learned about it and passed the information to Secret Service, which failed to follow up. Milteer had been suspected of being involved with the Klansmen who had bombed the church in Birmingham killing the four young girls.
An FBI informant known as TP T-1 later advised the Bureau that a meeting was going to be held on February 27, 1964 at the DuPont Building office of Elliot Roosevelt, at which plans for a new invasion of Cuba in the Summer of 1964 would be discussed. Attendees were said to be Richard J. Veranes, Armando Fleites, Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo, Antonio Veciana, Hubert Humphrey and Wayne Morse.
"November 18 1963: Lethal Threats in Florida JFK's 28-mile motorcade goes ahead in Tampa; a shorter one is canceled in Miami." By Chad Nagle. Exclusive to JFK Facts.
6 Miami Police Department Supplemental Report on death of Grant Stockdale.
“Fall.” Independent (Long Beach, California), December 3, 1963.
>> A source in the Miami police department told this author that Frates spoke to Stockdale at church.
“Former president Floyd dies at 89.” The Florida Bar News, June 1, 2007.
>> Frates was a partner in Frates, Floyd, Pearson, Stewart, Proenza & Richman. Floyd was in the FBI while going to law school at American University, but left in 1943 and went into private practice. In 1947, he became the youngest Mayor of Miami. He was city attorney for North Miami at the time of Stockdale’s suicide and later served as president of the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI.
“The Nixon Conspiracy Laid Bare,” Time, December 2, 1974.
>> Frates was an attorney for Nixon’s friends, Bebe Rebozo and John Ehrlichman.
www.lexisnexis.com/documents/academic/upa_cis/1948_WatergateinCourt.pdf
7 “Grant Stockdale Dies in 8-Story Plunge.” By Sanford Schnier. The Miami News, December 2, 1963. Pages 1 & 8.
David Price Cannon entered the University of Miami as a freshman thirteen months later in January 1965.
8 “Fall.” Independent (Long Beach, California), December 3, 1963.
“Even the President Elect Has Trouble Getting Tickets To Broadway Musicals.” The Herald Press (St. Joseph, Michigan), January 10, 1961.
“Guardsmen On Duty At Lake County Town.” The Evening Observer (Dunkirk, NY) July 29, 1949.
9 “Former Sen. George Smathers Dies at 93.” By Matt Sedensky. The Washington Post, January 21, 2007.
10 “The Kennedy’s.” The American Experience series, PBS-TV.
11 “History of La Gorce Country Club.” http://www.lagorcecc.com/fw/main/History-2.html
Within 24 hours the “old” La Gorce Country Club was to be sold to real estate developers and a colorful era in Miami Beach was about to close. But that did not occur because several civic-minded men quickly raised $1 million and purchased the club. It was April 1945, and the “new” La Gorce was born; a colorful era was underway.
Among those leaders were former Governor James Cox, William Pawley, Frank Smathers, Hugh Purvis, Paul Scott, George Sally, Carl Fisher, Arthur Pancoast, Van Kussrow, Dan Mahoney, James Buchanan, Oscar Dooly, and of course, Dr. John Oliver La Gorce.
12 “Reported Defeat of Invaders.” The Guardian (UK), April 20, 1961.
13 NARA 124-10277-10380 ~ 3/21/1961 FBI Report. From: MM 105-2855. Pages 4, 6, & 8.
“Movimiento Insurreccional de Recuperacion Revolucionaria (MIRR) and Orlando Bosch Avila.” House Select Committee on Assassination’s Report, Volume X, Section X. Page 89.
>> Bosch’s airplane bombing details.
14 FBI 124-10225-10220 ~ 7/31/1963 Memorandum. To The FBI Director. From: William Mayo Drew, Jr.
15 NARA 124-10221-10094 ~ 4/29/1960 FBI Memorandum “Subject: Anti-Fidel Castro Activities IS-Cuba.” To: FBI Director. From: SAC, Miami.
4/29/1960 [No Title]. Subjects: Deb, Assoc, INTV, Pawley, William D., B/F INT, ACA, Meetings, Plane Sale, Dominican Government. Originator: FBI. To: Director, FBI. From: SAC, MM. 16 “Philip Graham, 48, Publisher, Suicide,” The New York Times, August 4, 1963
17 Nina Burleigh, A Very Private Woman: The Life and Unsolved Murder of Presidential Mistress Mary Meyer (Random House Publishing Group 2009)
“Letter to the Editor. From: Cicely D’Autremont Angleton and Anne Truitt.” The New York Times, November 5, 1995.
Editor:
We write to correct what in our opinion is an error in Ben Bradlee's autobiography, “A Good Life” (review, Oct. 1).
This error occurs in Mr. Bradlee's account of the discovery and disposition of Mary Pinchot Meyer's personal diary. The fact is that Mary Meyer asked Anne Truitt to make sure that in the event of anything happening to Mary while Anne was in Japan, James Angleton take this diary into his safekeeping.
When she learned that Mary had been killed, Anne Truitt telephoned person-to-person from Tokyo for James Angleton. She found him at Mr. Bradlee's house, where Angleton and his wife, Cicely, had been asked to come following the murder.
In the phone call, relaying Mary Meyer’s specific instructions, Anne Truitt told Angleton, for the first time, that there was a diary; and, in accordance with Mary Meyer's explicit request, Anne Truitt asked Angleton to search for and to take charge of this diary. Consequently, according to Cicely Angleton, those present agreed that a search should be made. This search was carried out, Mrs. Angleton affirms, in Mary Meyer's house in the presence of her sister, Tony Bradlee; the Angletons, and one other friend of Mary Meyer's.
When Tony Bradlee found the diary and several papers bundled together in Mary Meyer's studio, she gave the entire package to Angleton and asked him to burn it. Angleton followed this instruction in part by burning the loose papers. He also followed Mary Meyer’s instruction and safeguarded the diary. Some years later, he honored a request from Tony Bradlee that he deliver it to her. Subsequently, Tony Bradlee burned the diary in the presence of Anne Truitt.
CICELY D'AUTREMONT ANGLETON, ANNE TRUITT Arlington, Va.
18 NARA 104-10423-10226 ~ 3/22/1977 CIA Memorandum For The Record “1963-1964 Miami Station Action to Aid USG Investigation of the Murder of John F. Kennedy.” Signed by: Donald R. Heath, Jr., Rm 3D02 Red 1591.
19 NARA 157-10005-10250 ~ 6/25/1975 Testimony Of Alfred J. Sarno (CIA Employee).
20 NARA 104-10423-10226 ~ 3/22/1977 CIA Memorandum For The Record “1963-1964 Miami Station Action to Aid USG Investigation of the Murder of John F. Kennedy.” Signed by: Donald R. Heath, Jr., Rm 3D02 Red 1591
21 NARA 104-10103-10019 ~ 5/17/1977 Memorandum For The Record “Files of Miami Station Assets Reviewed for Requirements Levied in Connection With JFK Assassination.” Prepared by: LAD/JFK Task Force.
22 12/3/1963 Dispatch “Status of Clearance—Mr. William B. [sic] Pawley.” Subjects: Pawley, William. 12/3/1963 Dispatch “Status of Clearance—Mr. William B. Pawley.” To: C/Special Affairs Staff. From: COS, JMWAVE. Subjects: Pawley, William; Status.
12/3/1963 “William B. Pawley.” Subjects: Clearance Statu; Pawley, William. From: COS, JMWAVE. To: C/Special Affairs Staff.
12/3/1963 “Status of Clearance on William Pawley.” To: Chief, Special Affairs Staff. From: COS, JMWAVE. Subjects: Pawley, William.
12/3/1963 Operational Dispatch “Clearance—Mr. William Douglas Pawley.” Subjects: Pawley, William; Clearance.
12/3/1963 Operational Dispatch “Status of Clearance—William Douglas Pawley.” To: C/Special Affairs Staff. From: Chief of Station, JMWAVE. Subjects: Covert Security; Pawley, William.
23 NARA 104-10139-10045 ~ 1/21/1964 Dispatch “Status of Clearance (Pawley).” To: [CIA] COS/JMWAVE. Subjects: Pawley. From: C/Special Affairs Staff.
NARA 104-10138-10383 ~ 2/12/1964 “Status of Clearance for William Pawley.” To: Chief, Special Affairs Staff. From: COS, JMWAVE. Subjects: Pawley, William.
NARA 104-10049-10182 ~ [Undated] 1964 “Status of Pawley Clearance.” To: COS, JMWAVE. From: Chief, Special Affairs Staff. Subjects: LA Contacts.
NARA 104-10139-10046 ~ 2/12/1964 Dispatch “Status of QDDALE Clearance.” To: C/SAS. From: [CIA] COS/JMWAVE. Subjects: Pawley.
NARA 104-10049-10187 ~ 2/20/1964 “Request for Covert Security Approval for William Pawley.” To: DD/Security (Invest. & Ops Sup.). From: Chief, SAS. Subjects: Pawley, William.
NARA 104-10160-10068 ~ 2/20/1964 “Request for Covert Security Approval on William Pawley.” To: DD/Sec (I&OS). From: C/SAS. Subjects: Pawley, William.
NARA 104-10049-10387 ~ 2/20/1964 Memorandum “re William D. Pawley.” Subjects: Security Approv; Pawley, William.
NARA 104-10139-10047 ~ 2/20/1964 “William D. Pawley (Request for CSA).” To: DD of Security (I&OS). From: Chief, SAS. Subjects: Pawley, William.
NARA 104-10134-10043 ~ 2/20/1964 CIA Memorandum “William D. Pawley and Three Dispatches from JMWAVE.” To: ID/1 Mr. Coleman, Deputy Director of Security (Investigations & Operational Support). From: Desmond FitzGerald, Chief, SAS. Subject: William D. Pawley.
It is requested that Subject be granted a Covert Security Approval for use by JMWAVE on a continuing basis. The references [ALL 3 REDACTED] reflect that Subject has been in contact with the Agency for a number of years and that the Western Hemisphere Division was granted a CSA in October 1959 to enable their contact with him.
1. Refer any questions to M. K. Holbik, SAS/Security, ext. 5909
[One of the attached dispatches references Status of QDDALE Clearance. One says “WAVE KUSODA has no record of Mr. William B. [sic] Pawley. And a third from January 21, 1964 reads “KUSODA files reflect the Subject of references has been utilized off and on for several years. He is appropriately cleared for contact by KUJUMP. A CSA was granted on 14 October 1959 to WH/Division to contact him in view of his extensive Latin American contacts.]
>> KUSODA was the cryptonym for the CIA Office of Security.
24 NARA 104-10139-10046 ~ 2/12/1964. Dispatch - Status of QDDALE Clearance. From COS/JMWAVE. To: C/SAS.
...it is requested that a CSA be granted for JMWAVE to maintain a continuing contact with QDDALE. JMWAVE has maintained an operational contact with QDDALE since 28 August 1962. As a result of this contact, JMWAVE has established that QDDALE is a well-informed businessman with excellent connections throughout the Miami business community. As a result, QDDALE has been used as a special contact for the development of certain background data, operational intelligence and/or the conduct of selected operational support tasks. QDDALE is a special contact and not an agent, QDDALE’s role as a special contact is helpful to the overall mission as QDDALE is a useful reference point within the Miami business community who can be harnessed on certain occasions to carry out tasks which are of interest to JMWAVE. The JMWAVE contact with QDDALE does not preclude his being contacted by KUJUMP or WHD.
25 Mary Ferrell Foundation Cryptonyms.
26 NARA104-10134-10042~2/27/1964 Case Analysis“William Pawley.”Subjects: Pawley, William; Pawley, Edward.
27 NARA 104-10133-10165 ~ 2/24/1964 Biographical Data “Pawley William Douglas.”
28 NARA 104-10122-10066 ~ March 5, 1964 “William D. Pawley—Name Checks at Government Agencies.” To: Special Agent in Charge. Subjects: Pawley, WM.; Name Checks; Gov’t Agencies.
It is requested that you conduct name checks at the Government agencies marked below.
X(FBI) X(CSIF)
FBI was positive in 1959. Bring up to date.
Refer to data Rafael Garcia – sent September 16, 1960 (Rpt September 1, 1960 – Page 6) and data re: Anti- Fidel Castro Activities—in Cuba sent May 11, 1960.
NARA 104-10134-10042 ~ 2/27/1964 Case Analysis “William Pawley.” Subjects: Pawley, William; Pawley, Edward.
Comments: JFK48:F17/2 1993.08.19.09:31:24:090064: CIA Form and a Note: "NOT RELEASED - NOT GERMAINE"
NARA 1993.08.05.11:16:09:210007 ~ 3/5/1964 Request “Name Checks on Pawley at FBI.” To: CIA HQ. From: Noble, John D., Jr., CIA. Subjects: CIA Files Pawley, William FBI Files Name Traces.
NARA 104-10122-10066 ~ March 5, 1964 “William D. Pawley—Name Checks at Government Agencies.” To: Special Agent in Charge. Subjects: Pawley, WM.; Name Checks; Gov’t Agencies.
NARA 104-10312-10176 ~ [Undated]. Dispatch: Status Report on Operation TILT.
NARA 180-10141-10378 ~ 10/30/1977. [No Title]. 7/26/1963 Dispatch (REDACTED)-10281. Page 1 of 8.
JMWAVE was seeking an attribution source. (Agent) was selected—a person to whom Pawley had a “father-type” relationship. Pawley had helped ransom (agent) out of Cuba December 1962, following (agent’s) participation in 2506 invasion.
“...neither JMWAVE nor CIA could refuse to pursue because, had there been an exfiltration of four Soviets, we would have a veritable gold mine of current intelligence on Cuba.”
29 NARA 104-10134-10062 ~ 4/30/1964 Memorandum For: Deputy Director of Central Intelligence. “Subject: Pawley, William Douglas #778 435.” From: R.L. Bannerman.
-
This memorandum is for information only.
-
The Office of Security recently issued a Covert Security Approval to permit the utilization of Mr. William Douglas Pawley by the Western Hemisphere Division/Special Activities. He will be special contact for the Station in Miami, Florida.
-
Mr. Pawley is a prominent Florida business executive who formerly served as Ambassador to Peru and Brazil, was an assistant secretary of State in 1948 and 1951, and an assistant to the Secretary of Defense in 1951. In more recent years he was engaged in petroleum and mining activities in the Dominican Republic and served as a consultant to the Dominican Government.
SIGNED
R. L. Bannerman Director of Security
30 1/7/1964 News Service Release “Pawley’s Expedition to Cuba with Life Magazine.” Subjects: Pawley\Life Mag. 31 6/5/1963 “Attempt to determine origins and chronology of Operation TILT.” To: DIR. From JMWAVE. WAVE 9342. HSCA CIA Segregated Collection. Page 2 of 8.
1. Martino initiated operation based upon contacts with Perez (Gonzalez).
2. Martino contacted Nathaniel Weyl to obtain non-official sponsor.
3. Weyl simultaneously contacted Life Magazine and the Senate Internal Security Committee.
4. Life agreed to pay Weyl for story and to pay each Soviet $2500 for his story.
5. Internal Security Committee (Sourwine) wanted to handle initial public surfacing of Soviets.
6. Sourwine asked Pawley to participate in maritime aspects.
7. Pawley discussed bringing Soviets to U.S. with JMWAVE.
8. After discussions with DDCI, Pawley agreed to turn defectors over to CIA.
9. JMWAVE had Pawley unsuccessfully get Life Magazine out of operation.
10. Life stayed in at Martino’s insistence. (Speculation that Martino was protecting his fee as broker.)
32 3/6/1964 CIA Dispatch [Handwritten comment: “OP Tilt 201 File.”]. To: Chief of Station, JMWAVE. From: Chief, Special Affairs Staff. Subject: TYPIC/Operational/CI John Martino. References: A. DIR-02726 C. WAVE- 2478.
1. On 19 February 1964 ODENVY reported that they had received information to the effect that John Martino was supposed to be involved with KUBARK in an operation to bring out three or four Soviet Scientists from PBRUMEN [Cuba]. ODENVY requested Headquarters to comment on the information.
2. Headquarters informed ODENVY that:
"An American industrialist, well-known to KUBARK came to KUBARK with the story that four Soviet soldiers could be infiltrated from PBRUMEN. Although we believed that the likelihood of such an operation being a success was very small, in view of the fact that the industrialist intended to use his own boat and own crew, and in light of the importance of the Soviet target in PBRUMEN, KUBARK contributed to the operation to the extent of providing some technical and logistical support. It later developed that Martino had generated the operation with the industrialist. KUBARK advised the industrialist of Martino's reputation. The industrialist decided to proceed anyway. KUBARK had no connection or contact with Martino. The operation, which was a failure, demonstrated the fact that Martino was making up the story out of whole cloth."
3. ODENVY said this answer would satisfy their request, and no further information would be required.
>> Throughout 1964, Martino took his message of Castro’s oppression to anyone who would listen and received considerable press coverage, including in The Oakland Tribune, Western Kansas Press, and The Indiana Evening Gazette.
33 NARA 104-10312-10176 ~ 3/3/1964 Dispatch “Status Report on Operation TILT.” To: Special Affairs Staff. From: COS, JMWAVE [Andrew K. Reuteman]. Subject: Op TILT, Pawley, W.D.
ACTION REQUIRED: None; for your information and files
REFERENCES:
A. WAVE-0438, dated 28 June 1963
B. UFGA-9733, dated 29 June 1963
C. WAVE-9712, dated 13 June 1963
D. WAVE 9342, dated 5 June 1963
1. Introduction: The origins of operation TILT were outlined in Reference D. In summary, however, it is believed that it should be pointed out that Operation TILT was essentially an operation designed to see if it would be possible to exfiltrate from Cuba four Soviet military officers who had allegedly defected from a Soviet Missile sight in Banes, Cuba. Operation TILT was not KUBARK-controlled, but it did utilize QDDALE as KUBARK's window into the operation. Operation TILT involved a strange cast of characters and this resulted in the operation following patterns of implementation which are not typical of KUBARK- controlled operations. The Cubans who were infiltrated into Cuba on Operation TILT were put into the target area on 9 June 1963. It was anticipated that the Cuban infiltrees would exfiltrate from Cuba on 10 June 1963. This exfiltration did not take place as scheduled on either the primary or alternate date; therefore, the search for the TILT exfiltrees was discontinued as of 13 June 1963. Since 13 June 1963, JMWAVE has received a number of fragmentary reports relative to the current status of those Cubans who infiltrated into Oriente Province on Operation TILT. These fragments are reported in the following paragraph.
2. Fragmentary Reporting on the Current Status of Operation TILT: The following chronological presentation outlines those details which have come to JMWAVE's attention relative to Operation TILT in the period 24 August 1963 to 20 January 1964.
a. 24 August 1963: As outlined in Reference D., Luis CANTIN was one of the individuals who infiltrated into Cuba on Operation TILT. Reference D. indicated that as of 5 June 1963, JMWAVE did not have any traces on Luis CANTIN. This lack of trace material is attributed to the fact that we did not have sufficient identifying information on CANTIN with which to make a meaningful trace. This situation was rectified on 20 June 1963 when AMARGO-1 reported to JMWAVE that one Luis Mario CANTIN de Nacimiento was a port pilot who was knowledgeable of the south coast of Oriente Province and could be recruited as an area guide. AMARGO-1 was advised to obtain further information on this CANTIN, and on 21 July 1963 AMARGO-1 learned from CANTIN's three sons that CANTIN had gone to Cuba in June 1963 on an operational assignment. It was at this point that JMWAVE was able to determine that the Luis *CANTIN of Operation TILT was identical with Luis Mario *CANTIN de Nacimiento. On 24 Augut (sic) 1963 AMARGO-1 was to check with CANTIN's sons to see if they received any recent word on their father's whereabouts. This action resulted in AMARGO-1 contacting CANTIN's sons at 520 S.W. 1st Street, Miami, Florida. CANTIN's sons advised AMARGO-1 that they had not heard from their father since June 1963; therefore, they presumed he was dead. This negative reporting did not give JMWAVE any insight into the status of Operation TILT, but it did reveal that at least one member of the infiltration group had not returned to Miami or communicated with his family as of 24 August 1963. (Field Comment: JMWAVE traces on Luis Mario CANTIN de Nacimiento reveal the following: Luis CANTIN de Nacimiento, UFGA- 7424, 28 January 1963; Luis CANTIN, UFGA-12817, 10 December 1963 and AMOT Report DD-368, 26 August 1963 states Subject one of the men who left Miami for Cuba in the first days of June 1963 on a clandestine operation.)b. 26 August 1963: On 26 August 1963, AMCRAG-1 reported that he had been contacted in Miami by Laudelina *PEREZ, the wife of Eduardo *PEREZ Gonzalez, aka Bayo, the leader of the Cuban infiltrees on Operation TILT. AMCRAG-1 stated that Mrs. PEREZ had contacted him because she was aware of the fact that he had just recently arrived in Miami from YOACRE. In view of this, Mrs. PEREZ felt that that AMCRAG-1 might be able to give her some news relative to her husband. AMCRAG-1 told Mrs. PEREZ that perhaps Benito *QUEVEDO, a Cuban employee at YOACRE might have knowledge of her husband. Mrs. PEREZ asked that AMCRAG-1 question QUEVEDO upon his return to YOCARE; and, if this produced any information on her husband, she would appreciate AMCRAG-1 forwarding this information to Mrs. PEREZ in Miami. Mrs. PEREZ told AMCRAG-1 that she knew her husband had gone to Cuba on some operation which involved John *MARTINO, born 3 August 1911 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, but Mrs. PEREZ made the point that she did not know the details of the operation.
34 NARA 104-10308-10070 ~ 4/20/1964 CIA Dispatch “Operational/Typic Byron Cameron.” To: Chief, Special Affairs Staff. From Chief of Station, JMWAVE.
35 Upon the death of her father in 1914, Marjorie Meriweather Post inherited Postum Cereal Company and $20 million making her the wealthiest woman in the United States. She and her second husband, E. F. Hutton acquired Jell-O, Maxwell House Coffee, Hellman’s Mayonnaise, and renamed the company General Foods in 1929.
36 NARA 104-10134-10043 ~ 2/20/1964 CIA Memorandum “William D. Pawley and Three Dispatches from JMWAVE.” To: ID/1 Mr. Coleman, Deputy Director of Security (Investigations & Operational Support). From: Desmond FitzGerald, Chief, SAS. Subject: William D. Pawley.
37 Rockefeller Commission on CIA Activities within the United States, May 19, 1975.
Memorandum. From: David W. Belin on Interview of Nestor Sanchez. Photocopy from the Gerald R. Ford Library.
>> In 1959 Sanchez returned to Washington and was assigned to the Special Operations Group on Cuba run by William Harvey. “Seymour Bolton was part of the group and part of the – on the psychological political action part of the staff, and I was working first with him when I first got in there, but then after Bill Harvey left and FitzGerald – Desmond FitzGerald took over I became a special assistant for the organization of the collection of intelligence first and the organization of military inside Cuba.” Belin asks him about the assassination plot and a meeting with FitzGerald in Europe. “Probably more than that – on three or four occasions – but at least on two occasions, yes.”
38 NARA 104-10122-10070 ~ 2/20/1964 “William D. Pawley.” To: DD/Security (I&O Support). From: FitzGerald, Desmond, C/SAS. Subject: Pawley, William; KUJUMP.
NARA 104-10134-10043 ~ 2/20/1964 CIA Memorandum “William D. Pawley and Three Dispatches from JMWAVE.” To: ID/1 Mr. Coleman, Deputy Director of Security (Investigations & Operational Support). From: Desmond FitzGerald, Chief, SAS. Subject: Pawley, William; KUJUMP.
NARA 104-10049-10386 ~ 2/24/1964 Biographic Data “William Douglas Pawley.” Subjects: Pawley, William; Bio Data.
“Desmond FitzGerald, Dies at 57; Chief of CIA Secret Operations,” The Washington Post, July 24, 1967
CIA Inspector General's Report on Plots to Assassinate Fidel Castro (1967). http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/Two_Tracks_on_Cuba.
>> FitzGerald had warned President Kennedy not to meet with Tony Varona because of his role in one attempt on Castro’s life.
Tennis is said to cut cardiac risk by 50%. At age 77, I play 3 sets of tennis a day, up to 5 days a week.
Labels: AMLASH, CIA, Cubela, Dealey Plaza, DuPont, FitzGerald, Garrison, Grant Stockdale, Heath, JFK, JMWAVE, Kennedy assassination, Mary Meyer, Milteer, Oppenheimer, Oswald, QDDALE, Smathers, TILT, Zapruder
posted by David Price Cannon @ 2:07 PM
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