41: Was Dallas A Target, Too?

Following his arrest at Watergate, Hunt released Give Us This Day, an autobiography detailing his role in the Bay of Pigs invasion. Hunt candidly states that his first recommendation to the agency after measuring Cuba’s social climate was to kill Castro. His superiors tried their best, but success eluded the CIA hit men run by William Harvey. Hunt characterizes General Charles Cabell as the man most responsible for the failure of the invasion, because Cabell waited for JFK’s order for a second air strike instead of initiating the order himself. Among those waiting for the order was Frank Sturgis.

The Washington Post reporters Woodward and Bernstein in All The President’s Men described Watergate burglar Hunt as a “psychological warfare expert.” In a second autobiography, Undercover: Memoirs of an American Secret Agent, E. Howard Hunt quotes Tacitus, a Roman emperor killed by his own soldiers whose brother is also slain by the soldiers. In a classic vendetta, revenge must combine both death and disgrace.

If a classicist, sought a vendetta against Charles Cabell and President Kennedy, the perfect place for the assassination would be Miami where the President had promised to the invasion brigade members that their flag would fly one day in Cuba.

If a Miami shooting was not possible, revenge would be sweet in Dallas, where General Charles Cabell’s brother, Earle, was Mayor as part of a long family tradition. For 90 years the Cabell family had been intertwined with running the city and criminal justice in and around Dallas:1

• 1874-1876 Mayor William L. Cabell

• 1877-1879 Mayor William L. Cabell

• 1883-1885 Mayor William L. Cabell (became a U.S. Marshall)

• 1900-1904 Mayor Ben E. Cabell (previously Sheriff)

• 1961-1964 Mayor Earle Cabell2 (previously President of Dallas Crime Commission)

The original Mayor Cabell, William Lewis “Old Tige” Cabell, was born in 1827 in Danville, Virginia and trained at the U.S. Military Academy. After resigning from the U.S. Army, he became a quartermaster to General Beauregard in the Confederate Army at Manassas. Following the Civil War, he became Mayor of Dallas three times.3 Under his leadership the city began replacing the wood roads, starting with Elm Street. In 1885, he was sworn in as a U.S. Marshall and served for four years.4

William’s son Ben E. Cabell was Sheriff of Dallas County (1893-1897) and was Mayor of Dallas when prominent citizens met with baseball magnates in 1904.5 Charles Cabell6 was born while Ben was Mayor but went into the CIA, while his brother Earle was born after Ben left office and went into the family dairy business.7 

In the 1950s, Earle Cabell was President of the Dallas Crime Commission as well as a member of the Dallas Citizens Council. He was elected Mayor in 1961, and was in the motorcade on November 22, 1963 when President Kennedy was shot. He testified that he was sitting in the front seat with his driver, but was turned to the back seat to talk with Mrs. Cabell when three shots rang out. "No I was not [in the Armed Services during WWII, but there was no question in my mind as to their being from a high powered rifle and coming from the direction of the building known as the School Book Depository. Mrs. Cabell testified she momentarily "saw a projection out of one of those windows"-- "the first or second window of the first group of. the double windows" on the top floor--and said, "'Earle, it is a shot.'" She "was acutely aware of the odor of gun powder."8

Earle Cabell died in September 24, 1975 while Charles passed four years earlier. A Federal building in Dallas is named after Earle while an Elementary School is named after the grandfather.

Oddly as the Rockefeller Commission searched for answers about Hunt and Sturgis, Hugh Chisolm McDonald, a former senior official in the Los Angeles County’s Sheriff’s Office, published Appointment in Dallas: The Final Solution to the Assassination of JFK. In August 1964, McDonald “had been granted 90 days leave to act as a security officer for the Republican National Committee. His specific task was that of protecting Senator Barry Goldwater during the Presidential campaign.”9 The campaign in which Pawley and Penabaz were also involved.

McDonald asserted in his book that he met “Saul” in 1961 in the office of CIA employee Herman Edward Kimsey. Years later he learned from Kimsey that Saul was JFK’s assassin, then tracked him down and got a confession.10

Kimsey had died by the time McDonald wrote his book, but an agency internal review found that Kimsey on May 22, 1961, received “$380,000 cash from Colonel Sheffield Edwards” who coincidentally had approved Pawley for covert operations and was privy to the CIA’s assassination plots against foreign leaders carried out by the Technical Services Division.

The money given Kimsey was transferred on August 23, 1961 to Cornelius van Schaak Roosevelt11, grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt, who worked for the agency from 1952 to 1973 and headed Technical Services Division in 1960 and 1961. During that time, Cornelius Roosevelt suggested a way to poison Castro. Others found Cornelius more benign: “His principal achievement in the agency was his chairing an interagency committee on technical surveillance countermeasures, which recommended ways of countering electronic eavesdropping.”12

In June 1969 the CIA “Central Cover Staff evidenced interest in Mr. McDonald under Project QKENCHANT,” which was used to provide security clearance for non- agency personnel13 including E. Howard Hunt when he was approved to work with President Nixon prior to the detente meeting and Leo Cherne when his organization was considered to provide cover.

Several weeks before the Rockefeller Report was released Pawley/QDDALE was the center of attention of a memorandum for the record. The memo, fully declassified in 2018, recapped the CIA’s relationship with Pawley. Pawley had been of interest to the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency circa 1952-1954, apparently in connection with Agency operational requirements. In 1959, Pawley again “became of operational interest to the Western Hemisphere Division in connection with the Agency's activities directed against Cuba. At that time Subject was an executive with a private corporation in Miami Florida. Subject was granted a Covert Security Approval in connection with WH Division's interest circa December 1959.” This came after the October 7th request by the Chief, WH Division to “the Office of Security to install an audio mike and wire device in Subject's Miami office for the purpose of ‘making available to WH Division representatives in Miami detailed reports of conversations held by (Subject) with his numerous contacts among Caribbean revolutionary groups, especially anti-Castro Cuban exile leaders.’ Cited request from the Chief, W Division indicated that Subject is a personal friend of the then DCI” who was made aware of the “planned audio installation” which was under Pawley’s “complete control.” The recording device was in place from October 15,1959 through at least January 1961 when “two Office of Security employees were dispatched to Miami, Florida, to repair certain audio equipment which was malfunctioning.” Pawley “remained of interest to the WH Division and to the DCI until as late as 1964.”

The memo concluded with the following list of CIA personnel at the time of Pawley’s relationship:

1. Western Hemisphere Division requesting officer: J.C. King, Chief, WH Division

2. Office of Security assigning officer: Jack Bauman

3. Office of Security employee who installed device: Cryer, John B.

4. WH Division responsible officer: Tom Flores

5. Director of Central Intelligence at that time: Dulles, Allen.14

William Douglas Pawley was not mentioned in Rockefeller’s report, but in mid-December, 1975, Vera Glaser in the Miami Herald reported that Pawley was going to be subpoenaed by Senators Richard Schweiker and Gary Hart who were probing “whether the CIA and FBI covered up evidence that could have affected the Warren Commission’s findings that Oswald alone killed JFK.”

Glaser noted that “Pawley has been ducking phone calls from a subcommittee of Sen. Frank Church’s Intelligence Committee. In one instance when the 79-year-old Pawley was reached, he clammed up.” Pawley, nonetheless, claimed he would “‘be delighted to go to Washington to testify” and “‘had nothing to reveal on the subject.’” Glaser also reported that Clare Boothe “Luce won’t urge Pawley to release the name [of a Cuban], who purportedly taped Oswald, to the Senate panel because, she said, ‘Bill is writing his memoirs.’”15

An informant identified as MM-92517 related to the FBI that he had been told on August 26, 1976 that there were a few people who might have knowledge with regard to suspects in the murder of Johnny Roselli, the Mafia member involved in assassination plots against Castro. “E. Howard Hunt could be a knowledgeable source ... The source also suggested that former ambassador William Pawley would be cognizant of many of the personalities and events during the pertinent period of the plots.” Antonio de Varona also could be knowledgeable.16

On the same day, FBI Special Agent Harold Burgess Smith interviewed Pawley The interview was conducted with regard to the possibility that Fidel Castro had sent agents to kill President Kennedy and “pursuant to an Obstruction of Justice inquiry into the causes for which John Roselli had been recently murdered and his body found in Dumfoundling Bay, Dade County, Florida.”

Pawley stated “that he personally had no knowledge whatsoever nor had he heard any rumors concerning individuals coming to this country from Cuba or any other location with the purpose of carrying out a plot against President Kennedy ... He further noted that until recent revelations in the media, he had never heard of any plots on the part of the CIA or any other United States Governmental agency against the life of Fidel Castro.” Bold emphasis added by D.P. Cannon.

In the next paragraph, FBI Special Agent Smith reported that “Pawley stated that there are possibly three individuals who might be able to furnish information regarding these matters. He stated Ernesto Williams and Mike Cervera who were “prominent in Cuban exile politics in this country and now work for Talisman Sugar Corporation ... these individuals could be contacted through his secretary at his business location. He stated that a third individual is Jake Esterline” former CIA Chief of Western Hemisphere Branch 4 and then head of JMWAVE. “Pawley requested that he, as the source of the suggestion to speak with Esterline not be divulged.”17

The 46-year-old Miguel “Mike” Cervera stated that he “is presently employed as general manager of the Talisman Sugar Corporation ... Belle Glade, Florida.” He noted that after his capture during the Bay of Pigs invasion he “was thereafter incarcerated in Castro’s prisons until he was ransomed and returned to the United States with the other survivors ... and has been involved in the sugar business at Belle Glade since ... [and] has had nothing to do with Cuban politics as they pertain to Castro and does not considerhimself knowledgeable in that field.” This is a rather surprising statement from a man who worked so closely with William Pawley.

“Cervera stated that the only Cardona whom he ever knew who was prominent in anti-Castro activities was Jose Miro-Cardona who was the head of the Frente Revolucionario Democratico [FRD] ... the political arm of the Cuban [exile] organization which planned and carried out the Bay of Pigs operation ... Miro-Cardona died approximately two years ago in Puerto Rico.”

On the key question, Cervera “stated he definitely had no inkling of such activities” other than the Bay of Pigs and no knowledge of “a plot against President John F. Kennedy’s life; either in retaliation for an American operation or as a spontaneous Cuban undertaking.”18

Nine months earlier, the FBI had issued a “potentially dangerous” alert to the Secret Service regarding Talisman employee Ramiro Zacarias de la Fe Perez. Informant MM T-2 heard on the street that de la Fe was in possession of some dynamite furnished by Orlando ‘Bebo’ Acosta, a Cuban anti-Castro activist in the Miami, Florida area ... more dynamite was expected to be delivered to de la Fe’s care, believed to be coming from the Novo brothers (Ignacio and Guillermo), well-known anti-Castro activists in the New York City area. Informant MM T-3 said de la Fe indicated “there may be an attempt on the life of the Cuban Ambassador in Canada ... de la Fe is known to be very knowledgeable of Cuban anti-Castro activities.”

MM T-4 “advised on February 16, 1976 that de la Fe is working at Talisman Sugar Corporation Plantation out of Belle Glade, Florida but manages to spend a lot of

time in Miami even during this employment.” His friends “are Jose Aleman and Enrique ‘Rolando’ Martinez, both of whom are widely known in the Cuban community.”19

Jose Aleman, was the former Minister of Education in Cuba under President Grau, who met multiple times with Santos Trafficante in the summer of 1963 at Scott Bryan Hotel and Junior’s Restaurant (a Miami landmark famous for its cheesecake). According to Aleman’s testimony before the House Select Committee on Assassinations, Trafficante said that a condominium project couldn’t proceed without a Teamster pension fund loan and Jimmy Hoffa wasn’t coming up the funds because of his problems with the Kennedys. Trafficante said JFK “is not going to be reelected ... he is going to be hit.” Aleman wanted the Committee to know about that comment.20

In all likelihood, “Enrique” Martinez was actually “Eugenio” Rolando Martinez, “the Cuban who infiltrated the island more times than anyone else as a CIA agent and member of the Movimiento de Recuperación Revolucionaria (MRR). He also was one of the four ‘plumbers’ in the Watergate scandal.”21 Martinez was pardoned for his Watergate role in 1983 by President Ronald Reagan and died in 2021 at age 98,.The only other pardon in the scandal was handed to impeached President Nixon prior to the formation of the Rockefeller Commission by President Ford who had helped the Warren Commission paint the incident in Dallas as the act of a lone-nut assassin.22

FOOTNOTES:

1 Ben Cabell was Mayor of Dallas and sheriff of Dallas County for several terms. Reminiscences of Judge P.A. Martin. [Website no longer available.]

2 City of Dallas Mayors. http://www.ci.dallas.tx.us/cso/mayors.shtml

Dallas Historical Society. http://www.dallashistory.org/history/dallas/cabell.htm

3 Jack D. Welch, Medical Histories of Confederate Generals (Kent Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1995). Page 33.

William Cabell. http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=1130

4A Biography of Brigadier General William Lewis Cabell, C.S.A., “Old Tige,” Sons of Confederate Veterans.
http://www.texas-scv.org/camps/cabellBio.html

5 Dallas County Archives, Daily Events, 1904: January 17, 1904. http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jwheat/1904.html

6 Charles P. Cabell, air force general and deputy director of the CIA was born in 1903 to Ben E. and Sadie E. (Pearre) Cabell. He and Earle Cabell were grandsons of William Lewis Cabell.

7 Proceedings of the Philosophical Society of Texas, 1970. Vertical Files, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin.

Who's Who in America, 1960-1961.

8 Earle Cabell Federal Building And Courthouse, U.S. District Court—Northern District of Texas.   http://www.txnd.uscourts.gov/about/tour.htm

>>The Earle Cabell Federal Building, built in 1971, was “named in honor of Earle Cabell who served as Mayor of Dallas from 1961-1964, and as Congressman from 1965-1973.”

President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy. Report of Proceedings Held at Dallas, Texas, Monday, July 13, 1964." Pages 13-16 and 41-44.

9 FBI 62-109060 JFK HQ File, Section 145 ~ 11/1/1967 Memorandum “I. Irving Davidson.” To: Mr. DeLoach. From T.E. Bishop. Page 128 of 240. Mary Ferrell Foundation website.

10 Hugh C. McDonald, Appointment in Dallas: The Final Solution to the Assassination of JFK (Zebra Books, 1975).

11 RIF 1993.08.13.17:03:02:090059 ~ CIA “Security File on Herman Edward Kimsey.”
>> Memorandum “Subject: Hugh Chisolm McDonald.” To: Associate Director for Administration. From: Robert W. Gambino, Director of Security.

12/2/1975 Memorandum “Subject: Kimsey, Herman Edward #71 129.” To: Director of Security. From: Jerry G. Brown, Deputy Chief, Security Analysis Group.

12 Jeffrey T. Richelson, The Wizards of Langley: Inside the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology. (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 2002).

Evan Thomas, The Very Best Men: The early years of the CIA, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995), Pages 235 and 236.

J. Taylor Hollist and Doris Schattschneider, “M.C. Escher and C. v. S. Roosevelt,” a chapter in M. C. Escher’s Legacy: A Centennial Celebration (New York: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2003).

13 RIF 1993.08.13.17:03:02:090059 ~ CIA “Security File on Herman Edward Kimsey.”
>> Memorandum “Subject: Hugh Chisolm McDonald.” To: Associate Director for Administration. From: Robert W. Gambino, Director of Security.

Lamar Waldron with Thom Hartmann, Legacy of Secrecy: The Long Shadow of the JFK Assassination. Page 709.

>> Cites NARA 104-10119-10320 ~ 10//27/1970 “Request for Utilization of Hunt in a project.” Subjects: Hunt, E. H. #23 500. To: Chief, Central Cover Staff, Mr. Martin Lukoskie. From: Deputy Director of Security, Victor R. White.

14 NARA 106-10134-10061 ~ 4/30/1975 CIA Memorandum for the Record “Subject: William Douglas Pawley SF#078 435.”

1. Subject, a U.S. citizen and former U.S. Ambassador to two Latin American countries, was of interest to the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency circa 1952-1954, apparently in connection with Agency operational requirements. In 1959 Subject again became of operational interest to the Western Hemisphere Division in connection with the Agency's activities directed against Cuba. At that time Subject was an executive with a private corporation in Miami Florida. Subject was granted a Covert Security Approval in connection with WH Division's interest circa December 1959.

2. On 7 October 1959 the Chief, MH Division requested the Office of Security to install an audio mike and wire device in Subject's Miami office for the purpose of "making available to WH Division representatives in Miami detailed reports of conversations held by (Subject) with his numerous contacts among Caribbean revolutionary groups, especially anti-Castro Cuban exile leaders." Cited request from the Chief, W Division indicated that Subject is a personal friend of the then DCI and that he had cooperated with the Agency in the past. Subject's file also indicates that the then DCI was made aware of the planned audio installation.

3. Subject's file specifically states that the audio device while talking to foreign nationals. The file reflects that Subject was not only witting of the mike and wire installation but was in complete control of the audio equipment.

4. Cited mike and wire installation was made on 15 October 1959. By employees of an Office of Security field office. Subject's file does not reflect when, or if, the audio equipment was removed from Subject's office. However, a report dated January 1961 indicates that the equipment was in operation as of that time as two Office of Security employees were dispatched to Miami, Florida, to repair certain audio equipment which was malfunctioning.

5. Subject's files do not reflect the results of any tape recordings made through the above installation although the file does indicate that any such product would have been given to WH Division representatives.

Subject appears to have remained of interest to the WH Division and to the DCI until as late as 1964.

Western Hemisphere Division requesting officer: J. C. King, Chief, WH Division
Office of Security assigning officer: Jack Bauman
Office of Security employee who installed device: John B. Cryer
WH Division responsible officer: Tom Flores 

Director of Central Intelligence at that time: Allen Dulles

15 Panel Asks Pawley Testimony on JFK, Offbeat Washington.” By Vera Glaser. Miami Herald, December 14, 1975.

Pawley has been ducking phone calls from a subcommittee of Sen. Frank Church’s Intelligence Committee. In one instance when Pawley was reached, he clammed up. The subcommittee has information that Pawley master-minded a CIA project in the early 1960s involving a group of young anti-Castro Cubans. One of the youths later shadowed, Lee Harvey Oswald, who offered himself as a hired gun to a Communist group in New Orleans.

The Cuban-taped Oswald’s pitch. When JFK was murdered, the material was turned over to the FBI. It is believed now that the information was withheld from the Warren Commission....

Pawley told the Herald he’d be delighted to go to Washington to testify if they wanted him to, and, that he’d spoken to Sen. Schweiker and assured him he had nothing to reveal on the subject...

Secret depositions are being taken now with public hearings expected to open in 1976. Pawley...is now 79 years old. He lives in affluent retirement.

Clare Boothe Luce, former Ambassador to Italy, recently revealed that she worked with Pawley on the CIA Cuban project. At one point she recalled Pawley gave her the name of the Cuban whose testimony the Subcommittee now seeks.

But Mrs. Luce won’t urge Pawley to release the name to the Senate panel because, she said, “Bill is writing his memoirs.”

16 NARA 124-10289-10035 ~ [No Title]. Subjects: JRO, Homicide, Crime Scene, Assoc, LCN Members, Susp, Pep, Background, Ident Records, OC, ACA, Intv. From Edward J. Dunn, Jr. To: Director, FBI. Page 5 of 88.

>> RESEARCHER ALERT: There are multiple versions of this document at the Mary Ferrell Foundation website. They range from a few pages to 88 pages; heavily redacted, and without redactions.

17 NARA 124-10289-10035. [No Title]. Subjects: JRO, Homicide, Crime Scene, Assoc, LCN Members, Susp, Pep, Background, Ident Records, OC, ACA, Intv. From Edward J. Dunn, Jr. To: Director, FBI. Page 20 of 20. READER ALERT: There are multiple versions of this file some short, some long, redacted and unredacted.

18 NARA 124-10289-10035. [No Title]. Subjects: JRO, Homicide, Crime Scene, Assoc, LCN Members, Susp, Pep, Background, Ident Records, OC, ACA, Intv. From Edward J. Dunn, Jr. To: Director, FBI. Page 86 of 88.

19 NARA 124-10306-10000 ~ 11/6/1975. [No Title]. Subjects: Jan, Perez, Ramiro Zacarias de la Fe Y, Assoc, ACA, TRA, Explosive, EMP, Res, Financial. From: SAC, MM. To: Director, FBI. Pages 1-23.

20 Section: Testimony of Jose Aleman HSCA Report, Volume V. Pages 302-307.

21 “Item id369718—Martinez, Eugenio Rolando ‘Musculito.’” University of Miami Cuban Heritage Collection, University of Miami Archival Collections. University of Miami Library.

22 “Eugenio Martínez, Watergate burglar whose bungled break-in led to Nixon’s fall, dies.” Los Angeles Times, February 12, 2021.

“Power To Pardon Unquestioned And Often Used By Reagan.” By William M. Welch. Associated Press, November 26, 1987.