Meyer Lansky (born Majer Suchowliński, July 4,
1902 – January 15, 1983) was a gangster who, with Charles
Luciano, was instrumental in the development of The
Commission (and possibly the "National Crime Syndicate") in
the United States. Lansky also headed up Murder, Inc. for
The Commission and was largely responsible for the Mafia's
development of Las Vegas and a financially beneficial
relationship with the corrupt Cuban regime of Fulgencio
Batista y Zaldívar. Although Jewish (Jewish mafia), Lansky
undoubtedly played a central role in the Italian Mafia's
organization and consolidation of the criminal underworld
(although the full extent of this role has come under some
debate).
Meyer Lansky was born in Grodno, Russia (now Hrodna,
Belarus) to Max Suchowlijanski and his wife Yetta Lansky. In
1911 the family emigrated to the United States and settled
on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York. While Lansky
was in school, he allegedly met young Charles "Lucky"
Luciano, who tried to shake him down (extort money). When
Lansky refused to pay, Luciano was impressed with the
younger boy's bravery and the two became friends for life.
Lansky met Bugsy Siegel when he was a teenager. They also
became lifelong friends, and together with Luciano, formed a
lasting partnership. Lansky was instrumental in Luciano's
rise to power by organizing the 1931 murder of Mafia
powerhouse Salvatore Maranzano. As a youngster, Siegel saved
Lansky's life several times, a fact which Lansky always
appreciated. The two adroitly managed the Bug and Meyer Mob
despite its reputation as one of the most violent
Prohibition gangs. Lansky was the brother of Jacob "Jake"
Lansky, who in 1959 was the manager of the Nacional Hotel in
Havana, Cuba.
By 1936, Lansky had established gambling operations in
Florida, New Orleans, and Cuba. This was the same year that
his partner Luciano was sent to prison. As Alfred McCoy
records: "During the 1930s, Meyer Lansky 'discovered' the
Caribbean for northeastern syndicate bosses and invested
their illegal profits in an assortment of lucrative gambling
ventures... He was also reportedly responsible for organized
crime's decision to declare Miami a 'free city' (i.e., not
subject to the usual rules of territorial monopoly)." Later,
Lansky convinced the Mafia to place Siegel in charge of Las
Vegas, and became a big investor in Siegel's Flamingo Hotel
project. After Al Capone's 1931 conviction for tax evasion &
prostitution, Lansky realized his own vulnerability to this
type of prosecution. In response, he transferred illegal
funds from his growing casino empire to Europe, where he
opened a numbered bank account following the 1934 Swiss
Banking Act. Later, according to Lucy Komisar, Lansky would
even buy an offshore bank in Switzerland, which he used for
money laundering through a network of shell and holding
companies.
A close associate of Lucky Luciano who would attend Mafia
conventions with the head of the Luciano crime family,
Lansky would not sit in on Mafia discussions.
In the 1930s, Meyer Lansky and his gang stepped outside
their usual criminal activities to break up rallies held by
Nazi sympathizers. Lansky recalled a particular rally in
Yorkville, a German neighborhood in Manhattan, that he and
14 other hoods disrupted: The stage was decorated with a
swastika and a picture of Hitler. The speakers started
ranting. There were only fifteen of us, but we went into
action. We threw some of them out the windows. Most of the
Nazis panicked and ran out. We chased them and beat them up.
We wanted to show them that Jews would not always sit back
and accept insults.
During World War II, Lansky was also instrumental in helping
the Office of Naval Intelligence's Operation Underworld, in
which the US government recruited criminals to watch out for
German infiltrators and submarine-borne saboteurs.
According to Lucky Luciano's authorized biography, during
this time, Lansky helped arrange a deal with the US
Government via a high-ranking Navy official. This deal would
secure the transfer of Lucky Luciano to a minimal security
prison; in exchange the Mafia would provide security for the
docks in New York Harbor. German submarines were beleieved
to be entering the harbor at this time undetected, and there
was great fear of attack or sabotage by Nazi sympathizers.
(See "The Merger", by Paddy Kelly for detailed account).
During the 1940s, Lansky associate Bugsy Siegel persuaded
the crime bosses (including Lansky) to invest in a lavish
new casino hotel project in Las Vegas, the Flamingo. After
long delays and large cost overruns, the Flamingo Hotel was
still not open for business. To discuss the Flamingo
problem, the mafia investors attended a secret meeting in
Havana, Cuba in 1946. While the other bosses wanted to kill
Siegel, Lansky begged them to give his friend a second
chance. Despite this reprieve, Siegel continued to lose
mafia money on the Flamingo Hotel. A second family meeting
was then called. However, by the time this meeting took
place, the casino turned a small profit. Lansky again, with
Luciano's support, convinced the family to give Siegel some
more time.
The Flamingo soon went back into the red. At a third
meeting, the family decided that Siegel was finished. He had
humiliated the organized crime bosses and never had a
chance. It is widely believed that Meyer Lansky himself was
compelled to give the final okay on eliminating Siegel due
to his long relationship with Siegel and his stature in the
family.
On June 20, 1947, Bugsy Siegel was shot and killed in
Beverly Hills, California. Twenty minutes after the Siegel
hit, Lansky's associates, including Gus Greenbaum and Moe
Sedway, walked into the Flamingo Hotel and took control of
the property. According to the FBI, Lansky was to retain a
substantial financial interest in the Flamingo for the next
twenty years. Lansky said in several interviews later in his
life that if it had been up to him, Ben Siegel would be
alive today.
This also marked a power transfer in Vegas from the New York
to the Chicago crime families. Although his role was
considerably more restrained than in previous years, Lansky
is believed to have both advised and aided Chicago boss Tony
Accardo in initially establishing his hold.
After World War II, Lansky associate Lucky Luciano was
paroled from prison on the condition that he permanently
return to Sicily. However, Luciano secretly moved to Cuba,
where he worked to resume control over American mafia
operations. Luciano also ran a number of casinos in Cuba
with the sanction of Cuban president General Fulgencio
Batista, though the American government succeeded in
pressuring the Batista regime to deport Luciano. As
Luciano's Cuban revenues grew and the tourism and gambling
business blossomed, with Batista taking his own cut, Lansky
himself started investing heavily in a Cuban hotel project
called the Havana Riviera.
However, the 1959 Cuban revolution and the rise of Fidel
Castro changed the climate for mob investment in Cuba. The
new Cuban president, Manuel Urrutia Lleó closed the casinos
and nationalized all the casino and hotel properties. This
action essentially wiped out Lansky's asset base and revenue
streams. Lansky left Cuba for the Bahamas and other
Caribbean destinations. With the additional crackdown on
casinos in Miami, Lansky was forced to depend on his Las
Vegas revenues.
In his later years, Meyer Lansky lived a low-profile,
routine existence in Miami Beach, making life difficult for
the FBI. Lansky's associates usually met him in malls and
other crowded locations. Lansky's chauffeur drove him around
town to look for new payphones almost every day. Lansky was
so elusive that the FBI essentially gave up monitoring him
by the mid-1970s.
Lansky invariably kept very little property in his name
throughout his career, concealing his equity through
partnerships, and appeared to be just another struggling old
man. Among Lansky's frontmen were men like Sam Cohen, Ben
Siegel and Alvin Ira Malnik. Malnik had originally started
working for Lansky associate Al Mones in the late 1950s.
Malnik's rise in the Lansky organization was fast and by
1970, he had seemingly become the most valuable player.
After Lansky's death in 1983, Alvin Malnik's power became
more visible than ever. Law enforcement officials have long
suspected him to be Lansky's sole "heir". During the 1970s,
Lansky fled to Herzliya Pituah, Israel, to escape federal
tax evasion charges. Two years later, Israel deported Lansky
back to the U.S. However, the government's best shot at
convicting Lansky was with the testimony of loan shark
Vincent "Fat Vinnie" Teresa, an informant with little or no
credibility. The jury was unreceptive, and Lansky was
acquitted in 1974.
Lansky's last years were spent quietly at his home in Miami
Beach. On January 15, 1983, he succumbed to lung cancer, at
80 years of age, leaving behind a wife and three children.
On paper, Meyer Lansky was worth almost nothing. At the
time, the FBI believed he left behind over $300 million in
hidden bank accounts, but they never found any money.
However, his biographer Robert Lacey describes Lansky's
financially strained circumstances in the last two decades
of his life and his inability to pay for health care for his
relatives. For Lacey, there was no evidence "to sustain the
notion of Lansky as king of all evil, the brains, the secret
mover, the inspirer and controller of American organized
crime." He concludes from evidence including interviews with
the surviving members of the family that Lansky's wealth and
influence had been grossly exaggerated, and that it would be
more accurate to think of him as an accountant for gangsters
rather than a gangster himself.
Source:
http://mafia.wikia.com/wiki/Meyer_Lansky
More Information:
http://bit.ly/glIXxn
Israel's
Central Role in JFK Assassination,
Who's Who in JFK Assassination
excerpted from the book
Final Judgment
The missing link in the
JFK assassination conspiracy
by Michael Collins Piper
Wolfe Press, 1995,
paperback
pxix
PREFACE
THE UNSPOKEN TRUTH: ISRAEL'S
CENTRAL ROLE IN THE JFK ASSASSINATION
Where in the world could anyone
come up with the idea that Israel's Mossad had a hand in the
assassination of John F. Kennedy? Well, there's more to the
story than meets the eye. All of the information which,
taken together, proves this contention has already been
committed to print. This book, Final Judgment, brings all of
these facts together for the first time in a frightening
scenario that makes sense.
Considering all of the theories
about the assassination of John F. Kennedy that have been
circulating for years, how could anyone ever suggest that
Israel's Mossad was involved?
This was the reaction of more
than a few people when apprised of the thesis presented in
the pages of this book. Yet, I believe, that when you read
this volume you will reach the same conclusion: that Israel
and its spy agency, the Mossad, did indeed play a critical
role in the JFK assassination conspiracy and its cover-up.
The evidence, you shall see, is there.
It was several years ago that I
first stumbled upon a hint that this was indeed the case. I
came across a strange reference in the pages of a
controversial work about the JFK assassination which alleged
that rogue CIA operatives had been behind the president's
murder, A. J. Weberman and Michael Canfield's Coup d'Etat in
America, first published in 1975. The reference, simple as
it was, appearing on page 41, read as follows:
"After the assassination, an
informer for the Secret Service and the FBI who had
infiltrated a Cuban exile group and was in the process of
selling them machine guns, reported that on November 21,
1963 he was told, 'We now have plenty of money-our new
backers are the Jews-as soon as they take care of JFK.' This
man had furnished reliable information in the past."
I barely noticed the reference,
but it did intrigue me. Who did this source mean when he
referred to "the Jews"? This was the question I needed to
answer. My immediate conclusion was this: the source meant
Jewish gangsters-such as Meyer Lansky-who had a stake in
reviving their Cuban gambling interests that they lost when
Fidel Castro came to power. This was the logical answer.
Frankly, I laid the reference
aside. It was just one lone remark out of perhaps millions
of words written about the JFK assassination. It was nearly
a year that went by before I came across the quotation
again-while re-reading the same book. I pondered the quote
for a moment, thinking, "This is interesting."
However, I once again cast
those thoughts aside. I had already reached my own
conclusions about the JFK assassination long before: The CIA
was primarily responsible, working hand-in-hand with certain
elements in "the Mafia" and also in the anti-Castro Cuban
movement.
However, in the subsequent year
that followed, I began to stumble across some interesting
information.
In David Scheim's book,
Contract on America, which contends that "the Mafia" was
solely responsible for the JFK assassination, I saw a
variation of the same quote referenced in the Weberman and
Canfield book.
However, Scheim's rendition of
the quote had deleted the reference to the alleged Jewish
backers of the Cuban plotters. I began to think that there
might be something more to the story after all, whatever the
accuracy of the story allegedly told to the federal
authorities.
THE LANSKY CONNECTION
It was around this time that I
learned that a new biography of organized crime figure Meyer
Lansky had been released. It was entitled Little Man:
Meyer Lansky and the Gangster
Life. The book-prepared in cooperation with Lansky's
family-was little more than a puff piece for the deceased
thug. Gossipy, full of inside information, and even
entertaining at times, the book still somehow seemed to be
missing a lot.
It was then that I returned to
my library and pulled a book off the shelf that I hadn't
re-read in perhaps fifteen years. It was Hank Messick's
biography of Lansky. Re-reading this important book I began
to see that Meyer Lansky was not just another gangster. He
was "the chairman of the board" of organized crime.
All of the Mafia figures that
had been repeatedly implicated in the JFK assassination
were, in fact, Lansky's front-men-his subordinates, his
underlings. In short, if "the Mafia" had a hand in the
killing of JFK, then Lansky had to have been one of the key
players.
Yet, as I quickly began to see
in reviewing many of the works which allege that "The Mafia
Killed JFK," Lansky's preeminent role was being ignored or
otherwise under-played.
I was aware of Lansky's close
ties to Israel. After all, Lansky fled to Israel when the
heat was on in the United States. But how deeply did the
Lansky-Israeli connection go?
My research into that question
began to turn up some interesting facts relating to an
Israeli connection to the assassination 2f John F. Kennedy.
THE ISRAELI CONNECTION
Why would Israel have an
interest in participating in the JFK assassination
conspiracy? That was the burning question.
It was just about the time that
I had begun to take a second look at the Lansky connection
to the Kennedy assassination that several new works about
the covert relationship between the United States and Israel
were released providing never-before revealed information.
These books, cited extensively
in Final Judgment, made it all too clear that John F.
Kennedy-before his death-was in a pitched battle with
Israel. In fact, Kennedy was at war.
This was something that
long-time JFK assassination researchers had no reason to
know about. Much of the material had long been classified.
It was a secret-a deep, dark secret.
Some of JFK's communications
with then-Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion are still
classified. Not even top-level intelligence officials with
special security clearance have been allowed access to these
potentially explosive documents.
This discovery made me realize
that there was a lot more to the Kennedy relationship with
Israel and a lot more about the JFK assassination than we
had ever been told.
ISRAEL, LANSKY & THE CIA
The long and close relationship
between Israel and JFK's foes at the CIA is something which
is becoming more and more known to the general public. JFK's
own war with the CIA is common knowledge.
At the time of the president's
assassination, however, the depth and breadth of the CIA's
relationship with Israel's Mossad, however, was not so
commonly known.
What's more, as I began to
discover, Israel's allies in the Lansky Syndicate had much
deeper relations with the CIA than most researchers have
realized.
And while the stories of
CIA-Organized Crime assassination plots against Castro have
been told time and again, the evidence I began to discover
told an even bigger story.
The pieces of the puzzle were
all there. They simply needed to be put together. As the
research continued, I repeatedly found myself stumbling upon
new facts and information that continued to verify what was
initially in my mind just a theory, but which I now believe
to be the truth.
THE PERMINDEX CONNECTION
It is the little-discussed
Permindex connection to the JFK assassination which is the
tie that binds-the final proof that Israel's Mossad was at
the center of the assassination conspiracy.
In the Permindex connection we
find all of the critical elements which tie Israel's Mossad,
the CIA and organized crime together in close-knit intrigue
linked directly to the murder of President Kennedy.
Although researchers, over the
years, have devoted much time and energy to pursuing a wide
variety of questions relating to the JFK assassination
controversy (focusing on controversies that will never be
resolved) they have steered clear of the Permindex
connection.
Those who have made any
reference to Permindex have described it as some sort of
"neo-Nazi" entity-even a remnant of Hitler's SS-but, as we
shall see, nothing could be further from the truth.
To understand the forces behind
the Permindex connection, which we examine in detail in this
volume, is to understand the answer to the biggest mystery
of this century: the question of who killed John F. Kennedy.
INSIDERS AGREE
Just before I began the book I
mentioned my theory to a rather well-known former United
States congressman. He surprised me when he said, "I think
you are on to something. I've believed for years that the
Mossad was involved in the Kennedy assassination, but I
never really took the time to look into it. I'm glad you're
doing it, though. It will be an important book. It's a book
I would have liked to have written myself."
Then, just after I finished the
book, I sent a copy of the manuscript to another former U.S.
congressman, thinking that he might have some interest in
the subject. His response was perhaps a bit astonishing.
After the former congressman
received the manuscript he wrote me a surprising letter in
which he said, "I will tell you this. A retired Western
European diplomat and intelligence officer with whom I've
been in correspondence (and who has had disastrous
experiences with Israel and the Mossad) has been urging me
for the last four years to write the book that you have
written."
He passed the manuscript on to
the Frenchman who in turn wrote me a fascinating letter
providing further information confirming my thesis.
ONE COMPLETE PICTURE
The fruits of my labor appear
in this book. I owe so much to all of those JFK
assassination researchers who made this book possible. Their
pioneering efforts laid the foundation for the construction
of a framework which I firmly believe proves Mossad
complicity in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
All of those who sought the
truth-and sometimes risked their reputations (and even
perhaps their lives) doing it-cleared the way for a final
judgment:
Israel was the driving force
behind the conspiracy that resulted in the assassination of
John F. Kennedy. It is the Israeli connection that pulls all
of the pieces of the puzzle together into one complete
picture. The role of 'j Israel in the JFK assassination is,
indeed, the until-now "missing link."
pxxiii
A WHO'S WHO OF THE JFK ASSASSINATION CONSPIRACY AND COVER-UP
While the following selection
of names in this special "who's who" is by no means
complete, it does provide the reader of Final Judgment with
a brief overview of the facts relating to the involvement of
the individuals in question with the circumstances
surrounding not only the JFK assassination itself, but also
the efforts to not only uncover the truth about the
assassination-and also to bury it.
Following each name and
description are references to the particular chapters in
Final Judgment where details about that individual appear in
pertinent part. The inclusion of any name in particular is
by no means intended to suggest that the individual-unless
specifically stated-had foreknowledge that the murder of
President Kennedy was being planned.
As we note in these pages,
there were many people who were brought into the JFK
assassination conspiracy and the subsequent cover-up who had
no idea of the actual role that they were playing.
The following "who's who"-if
read in this context-provides the reader a quick glance at
the key individuals who ultimately prove central to a
complete understanding of the entirety of the conspiracy
that resulted in the assassination of President Kennedy.
AT PERMINDEX
Clay Shaw - If New Orleans
District Attorney Jim Garrison had been permitted to carry
out an unimpeded investigation and prosecution of Shaw, a
CIA contract operative and a former director of the
International Trade Mart in New Orleans implicated in
involvement with Lee Harvey Oswald, David Ferrie, Guy
Banister and other figures central to the JFK assassination
conspiracy, Garrison would have divined Shaw's connections -
through a shadowy corporation known as Permindex - to not
only the Israeli Mossad, but also the international crime
syndicate of Israeli loyalist Meyer Lansky.
Louis M. Bloomfield - Based in
Montreal, Bloomfield was a long-time intelligence operative
and a front man for the powerful Bronfman family interests.
The Bronfmans were not only key international backers of
Israel but also long-time figures in the Lansky crime
syndicate. Bloomfield, one of the foremost figures in the
Israeli lobby in Canada and one of Israel's leading
international operatives, not only served as the chief
shareholder in the Permindex Corporation on whose board of
directors Clay Shaw served, but also had intimate ties to
American intelligence.
Tibor Rosenbaum - One of the
"godfathers" of the state of Israel and the first director
for finance and supply for Israel's intelligence agency, the
Mossad, Rosenbaum was a prime financial angel behind the
Permindex corporation. His Swiss banking concern, the Banque
De Credit International, also served as the chief European
money laundry or the global crime syndicate of Miami-based
crime chief Meyer Lansky.
John King - A close business
associate of Tibor Rosenbaum's protégé and sometime front
man, Bernard Cornfeld, King showed up in New Orleans in the
early stages of Jim Garrison's investigation-before Clay
Shaw's name had come up-and sought to persuade Garrison
(through a bribery attempt) to give up the inquiry.
Fortunately he failed in his scheme.
THE MOSSAD CONNECTION
David Ben-Gurion - Prime
Minister of Israel; resigned his post in disgust with JFK's
stance toward Israel. in April of 1963; Said JFK's position
threatened Israel's very survival.
Yitzhak Shamir - A long-time
Mossad officer (based largely at the Mossad's chief European
office in Paris), Shamir headed the Mossad's assassination
squad at the time of the JFK assassination. A former French
intelligence officer has charged that Shamir himself
arranged the hiring of JFK's actual assassins through a
close ally in French intelligence.
Menachem Begin - In 1963, Begin
(later prime minister of Israel) was a roving Israeli
diplomat; prior to JFK's assassination he was overheard
conspiring with Meyer Lansky's California henchman, Mickey
Cohen, in a conversation that suggested hostile intentions
by Israel against the American president.
Luis Kutner - Although known
largely as a "mob lawyer," (who was long and closely
associated with Jack Ruby, a sometime-client) Kutner also
doubled as an international intelligence operative and
functioned as an advisor to an ad hoc pro-Israel lobby group
in the United States.
A. L. Botnick - Head of the New
Orleans office of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of B'nai
B'rith, an intelligence and propaganda arm for Israel's
Mossad; a close associate of New Orleans-based CIA contract
operative Guy Banister who helped create Lee Harvey Oswald's
preassassination profile as a "pro-Castro" agitator.
Evidence suggests that Banister's manipulation of Oswald may
have been carried out under the guise of an ADL
"fact-finding" operation.
Arnon Milchan - Israel's
biggest arms dealer, Milchan was "executive producer" (i.e.
chief financial angel) of Oliver Stone's Hollywood fantasy
about the JFK assassination-a fact which may explain Stone's
aversion to exploring the Israeli connection to the affair.
Maurice Tempeisman - The
international diamond merchant and Mossad operative who
became the lover of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and used his
connections to double-perhaps triple-her substantial
fortune, thereby co-opting the Kennedy family forever.
THE CIA CONNECTION
Rudolph Hecht - An owner of the
CIA-linked Standard Fruit concern, Hecht was a prominent
figure in the New Orleans Jewish community and as chairman
of the board of directors of the International Trade Mart
was Permindex board member Clay Shaw's primary sponsor.
James Jesus Angleton -
Angleton, the CIA's long-time chief of counterintelligence,
was the CIA's primary high-level conspirator in the murder
of President Kennedy and the subsequent cover-up. Angleton,
who had been co-opted by and was totally loyal to the
Israeli Mossad, played a major role in the effort to frame
Lee Harvey Oswald. Final Judgment is the first JFK
assassination study to delve into Angleton's role in the
conspiracy.
David Atlee Phillips - A
long-time high-level CIA official, Phillips was the CIA
station chief in Mexico City at the time a strange effort
was underway to implicate Lee Harvey Oswald as a Soviet KGB
collaborator. If anyone in the CIA knew the truth about
Oswald, it was Phillips. He confessed publicly that the
story about Oswald being in Mexico City was not precisely
what the CIA had long claimed.
E. Howard Hunt - Long-time CIA
officer and liaison to the anti-Castro Cuban exiles.
Testimony by ex-CIA contract operative Marita Lorenz placed
Hunt in Dallas, Texas the day before the president's
assassination. The full truth about Hunt's actual
involvement in the affair may never be known, but there is
no question that Hunt was deeply involved in the intrigue
surrounding the president's murder. Evidence does indeed
indicate that there was a conscious effort to frame Hunt for
involvement in the crime.
Guy Banister -The former FBI
agent-turned-CIA contract operative whose New Orleans office
was a central point for international intrigue involving the
CIA, the anti-Castro Cuban exiles and the anti-DeGaulle
forces in the French Secret Army Organization (OAS). Under
Banister's direction, Lee Harvey Oswald established a public
profile for himself as a "pro-Castro" agitator in the
streets of New Orleans.
David Ferrie - An enigmatic
adventurer and CIA contract operative, Ferrie was closely
involved with Lee Harvey Oswald during Oswald's stay in New
Orleans in the summer of 1963, working alongside Oswald out
of Banister's headquarters. The investigation of Ferrie by
New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison ultimately led to
Garrison's discovery of Permindex board member Clay Shaw's
ties to both Ferrie and Oswald.
Marita Lorenz - A former CIA
contract operative, she testified under oath that one day
prior to the assassination of President Kennedy she arrived
in Dallas in an armed caravan of CIA-backed Cuban exiles who
were met by not only Jack Ruby, who later killed Lee Harvey
Oswald, but also CIA official E. Howard Hunt.
Guillermo & Ignacio Novo - Two
brothers, veterans of the CIA-backed Cuban exile wars
against Fidel Castro. According to Marita Lorenz, the Novo
brothers were part of the armed caravan that arrived in
Dallas one day before the assassination of President
Kennedy. Many years after Dallas, the Novos were later
convicted of participating in the murder of a Chilean
dissident in collaboration with international adventurer
Michael Townley who himself had ties to high-level figures
implicated in the JFK conspiracy.
John Tower - In 1963 Tower was
a newly-elected Republican U.S. Senator from Texas with
close ties to the CIA. Shortly after the assassination he
told associates of his own inside knowledge of the bizarre
story of what really happened in Dealey Plaza. The story
told by Tower suggests strongly that there were many unseen
forces at work, manipulating many of the key players in the
JFK assassination conspiracy. It was not until the release
of Final Judgment that Tower's name was ever connected to
the mystery surrounding the JFK assassination.
Victor Marchetti - A
high-ranking CIA official who left the agency in disgust,
Marchetti later made a career writing about the CIA. In a
1978 article he charged that the CIA was about to frame its
long-time operative, E. Howard Hunt, with involvement in the
JFK assassination. A libel suit resulting as a consequence
of Marchetti's article resulted in a climactic finding by a
jury that the CIA had been involved in the assassination of
the president.
Robin Moore - A journalist with
long-standing close ties to the CIA, Moore co-authored
former CIA man Hugh McDonald's book, LBJ and the JFK
Conspiracy which promoted James Jesus Angleton's false claim
that the KGB was behind the president's murder-another of
the disinformation stories that emerged following the
assassination.
THE LANSKY SYNDICATE
Meyer Lansky - Chief executive
officer and de facto "treasurer" of the international crime
syndicate; active in gun-running on behalf of the Israeli
underground; collaborated closely with American intelligence
on a number of fronts; later settled in Israel. Researchers
who have claimed that "the Mafia Killed JFK" have pointedly
refused to acknowledge Lansky's preeminent positioning in
the underworld.
Carlos Marcello - The head of
the Mafia in New Orleans, Marcello owed his status to Meyer
Lansky who was his chief sponsor in the crime syndicate.
Marcello could not have orchestrated the JFK
assassination-as some suggest-without Lansky's explicit
approval.
Seymour Weiss - Meyer Lansky's
chief bagman and liaison with the political establishment in
Louisiana, he later served as a director of the CIA-linked
Standard Fruit company and may actually have been a
high-ranking CIA contract operative in New Orleans at the
time of the JFK assassination.
Sam Giancana - The Mafia boss
of Chicago, Giancana was a player in the CIA-Mafia plots
against Castro; later murdered, probably at the behest of
Santo Trafficante, Jr. His family says that Giancana
admitted having been involved in the planning of the JFK
assassination.
Santo Trafficante, Jr. -
Although best known as the head of the Mafia in Tampa,
Trafficante actually functioned as Meyer Lansky's chief
lieutenant in the crime syndicate and as Lansky's liaison
with the CIA in the Castro assassination plots.
Johnny Rosselli - A roving
"ambassador" for the Mafia, Rosselli was the primary conduit
between the CIA and the mob in the plots against Fidel
Castro; may have arranged the murder of Sam Giancana for
Trafficante and was later murdered himself.
Mickey Cohen - Meyer Lansky's
West Coast henchman; Jack Ruby's role model and a gun-runner
for the Israeli underground, Cohen collaborated closely with
Israeli diplomat Menachem Begin prior to the JFK
assassination;. Cohen arranged for John F. Kennedy to meet
actress Marilyn Monroe who was assigned the task of finding
out JFK's private views and intentions toward Israel.
Jack Ruby - A long-time
functionary for the Lansky syndicate, Ruby was the Lansky
connection man in Dallas and also engaged in CIA-linked
gunrunning to the anti-Castro Cuban exiles. Evidence
suggests there is more to Ruby's sudden "death" than meets
the eye.
Jim Braden - A veteran personal
courier for Meyer Lansky, Braden was almost assuredly in
contact in Dallas with Jack Ruby prior to the JFK
assassination. He was briefly detained in Dealey Plaza
minutes after the president's murder, but those JFK
assassination researchers who have mentioned Braden prefer
to cast him as a "Mafia" figure rather than as Lansky's man
on the scene in Dallas.
Al Gruber - A henchman of Meyer
Lansky's West Coast operative, Mickey Cohen, Gruber and Ruby
spoke by telephone just shortly before Ruby killed Lee
Harvey Oswald. It is believed that Gruber gave Ruby the
contract on Oswald on behalf of his superiors.
THE FRENCH CONNECTION
Charles DeGaulle - Repeatedly
targeted for assassination by Israeli-allied forces in
French intelligence and in the Secret Army Organization
(OAS) who were angry that DeGaulle had granted independence
to Arab Algeria. The Mossad-sponsored Permindex operation
that also had a hand in the murder of JFK, laundered money
used in the assassination attempts on DeGaulle.
Georges deLannurien - High
ranking official in the SDECE, the French intelligence
agency; pinpointed by a former French intelligence officer
as the individual who (at the best of Mossad assassinations
chief Yitzhak Shamir) contracted the hit team who killed JFK
in Dallas.
Michael Mertz - A former French
SDECE officer and the Paris connection for the Lansky-Trafficante
heroin syndicate; alleged to have been one of the actual
gunmen in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Said by some to be
the legendary CIA contract killer, QJ/WIN.
Jean Soutre - A liaison for the
French OAS with the CIA's E. Howard Hunt, Soutre maintained
contact with Guy Banister's CIA- and mob-linked gun-running
headquarters in New Orleans. Soutre may have been in Dallas
at the time of the JFK assassination. There is evidence
linking Soutre to James Jesus Angleton's intrigue inside the
CIA that affected French intelligence in a dramatic way.
Thomas Eli Davis III - A
world-traveling mercenary with apparent links to both Jack
Ruby and Lee Harvey Oswald, Davis was taken into custody by
the Algerian government for his subversive activities
alongside Israeli agents in supplying weapons to the French
OAS just prior to the JFK assassination. It is said that CIA
operative QJJWIN (possibly Michael Mertz, one of the reputed
assassins of President Kennedy) helped secure Davis's
release from prison.
Geoffrey Bocca - A former
propagandist for the OAS, Bocca later co-authored former CIA
contract agent Hugh McDonald's book, Appointment in Dallas,
which pointed the blame for the JFK assassination away from
those who were actually responsible-the first of two suspect
books put out by McDonald.
Christian David - A French
Corsican criminal associated with reputed JFK assassin
Michael Mertz, David has claimed knowledge of a French hit
team involved in the JFK assassination. David himself was
the chief suspect in the murder of a Moroccan dissident,
Mehdi Ben-Barka, whose killing was orchestrated by the
Israeli Mossad through anti-DeGaulle forces in French
intelligence.
TRUTH SEEKERS
Mark Lane - Retained by Lee
Harvey Oswald's mother to represent her son's interests
before the Warren Commission, Lane's book Rush to Judgment
was the first major critique of the Warren Commission
Report. In a libel suit filed against The Spotlight
newspaper by former CIA operative E. Howard Hunt, Lane
proved to the satisfaction of a jury that the CIA had indeed
been involved in the JFK assassination. His best-selling
book Plausible Denial outlined the circumstances of that
libel suit and its ultimate conclusion.
Gary Wean - A former detective
on the Hollywood beat of the Los Angeles Police Department,
Wean discovered how Meyer Lansky's West Coast henchman,
Mickey Cohen, was conspiring against John F. Kennedy on
behalf of the Israelis. In a meeting with the former sheriff
of Dallas County, Bill Decker, Wean learned a portion of the
truth about what really happened in Dallas.
NEWS TWISTERS
Edgar & Edith Stern - Close
friends of Clay Shaw, major financial backers of the
pro-Israel Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of B'nai B'rith, and
owners of the WDSU media empire in New Orleans that not only
played a major role in giving vast publicity to Lee Harvey
Oswald's preassassination profile as a "pro-Castro agitator"
but later sought to undermine Jim Garrison's investigation
of Clay Shaw.
Johann Rush - As a young WDSU
cameraman, Rush was on the scene to record Oswald's
"pro-Castro" activities. He emerged-many years later-as the
brains behind a "computer-enhanced" version of the famous
Zapruder film of the JFK assassination that author Gerald
Posner cited as "proof' that Oswald acted alone in the
president's murder.
Drew Pearson - Accused by his
own mother-in-law of being a "mouthpiece" for the pro-Israel
ADL, Pearson had close ties to not only the Israeli lobby,
but also the CIA and to President Lyndon Johnson and his
cronies. It was Pearson who floated an unlikely story that
Fidel Castro was behind the JFK assassination and who also
played a major influence in shaping Earl Warren's
perceptions of the tragedy.
Jack Anderson - As protégé of
Drew Pearson, Jack Anderson likewise had strange connections
that might have biased his own reportage on the JFK affair.
Since 1963 Anderson has promoted a number of conflicting
versions about "who really killed JFK" ranging from "the
Mafia" to Fidel Castro or a combination of both.
Jack Newfield - A liberal
columnist and some-time JFK assassination buff, Newfield has
been a likewise long-standing devotee of Israel. He made a
big splash with a highly fantastic story that missing
Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa had "ordered" two Mafia figures to
arrange the killing of President Kennedy. Not surprisingly,
Newfield's ridiculous story was given wide play in the
Establishment media.
THEORISTS AND/OR PROPAGANDISTS?
Oliver Stone - His Hollywood
extravaganza, JFK, gave the public a fullblown, full-color,
gory-in-every-detail conspiracy theory on the JFK
assassination. Yet, Stone's presentation of the conspiracy
was far from complete and failed to reach any firm
conclusions. He deliberately suppressed the "French
connection" which, in turn, was the long-hidden Israeli
connection. Not only was Stone's chief financial backer
Israel's leading arms dealer but also his film distribution
company had its origins in the Lansky crime syndicate.
What's more, one of the chief shareholders in the film
company was none other than Bernard Cornfeld, long-time
associate of Permindex figure Tibor Rosenbaum
Frank Mankiewicz - This former
publicist for the Israeli Mossad-linked Anti-Defamation
League had a peculiar part in the events that took place
prior to the murder of Robert F. Kennedy. Then when Oliver
Stone began promoting his film JFK, Mankiewicz popped up as
his key public relations man.
Anthony Summers - Author of one
book hinting that the Kennedy family were responsible for
the death-maybe the murder-of actress Marilyn Monroe,
Summers wrote another book on the JFK conspiracy. In neither
book did Summers reveal explosive information (of which he
was aware) that could have helped point the direction of
those same forces which played a part in both crimes.
Robert Morrow - A former CIA
contract operative who played a major role in activities on
the periphery of the JFK assassination conspiracy, Morrow's
book on his experiences is rife with detail, yet suspect in
the eyes of many who had looked into his claims. Morrow's
book absolves the key CIA conspirator, James J. Angleton, of
involvement in the JFK conspiracy and portrays him as being
"out of the loop" when, in fact, precisely the opposite was
true. Is it a coincidence that Morrow's book publisher is an
American affiliate of an Israeli publishing company?
G. Robert Blakey - An unlikely
choice to serve as director of the House Select Committee on
Assassinations, Blakey had, just two years previously,
served as a character witness for a long-time close
associate of crime boss Meyer Lansky. When it came time to
point the blame in the JFK assassination, Blakey targeted
Lansky's protégé, New Orleans Mafia boss, Carlos Marcello,
but looked no further. Blakey, likewise, found no role by
the CIA-or any other intelligence agency-in the JFK
assassination.
David Scheim - The author of a
book that pins the murder of President Kennedy on "the
Mafia," Scheim refuses to acknowledge Permindex board member
Clay Shaw's intelligence connections and paints Israeli
loyalist Meyer Lansky as a low-level syndicate figure with
no influence of substance. Scheim's book was published by
the American front for an Israeli publishing company.
Richard Billings - A journalist
with close ties to the CIA, Billings played a major role in
the media's campaign to undermine New Orleans District
Attorney Jim Garrison's investigation of Clay Shaw. Billings
emerged as the prime promoter of the outlandish theory that
Garrison was a Mafia front man trying to take the focus off
the Mafia and direct the attention toward the intelligence
community.
James DiEugenio - Although a
deep admirer of both John F. Kennedy and New Orleans
District Attorney Jim Garrison, DiEugenio has tread lightly
when inquiring into the ties between Clay Shaw and the
Permindex operation with its multiple links to the Israeli
Mossad and the crime syndicate.
Peter Dale Scott - His years of
in-depth research on the JFK assassination have led him
directly to the doorstep of the CIA, the Mossad and the
Lansky Crime Syndicate, yet he has never been prepared to
name names or point in the direction of those very forces,
preferring to sidestep the issue.
SOURCE:
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Assassinations_page/Israel%27s_Central_Role_FJ.html
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