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New Orleans
Chapter 6
Garrison's New Orleans was a hotbed of illegal, covert paramilitary
operations where corruption, disguise and deception had produced an
intelligence cottage industry. In the 1960's, it was the city where the
Mafia, anti-Castro exiles and self-styled intelligence spooks joined hands to
celebrate what they called their patriotic bonds and to condemn their common
enemies -Castro, Communists, Liberals... Entrenched interests dominated the
order of the day. In particular, New Orleans was a mature organized crime
haven, where political campaign contributions and outright bribery insulated
Mafia bosses like Carlos Marcello. In the final analysis, the power source of
the city that made its own rules and regulations as it went along, was the
cozy relationship between Mob Lords like Carlos Marcello and high ranking law
enforcement officials like Jim Garrison. In retrospect, the fact that the
city where evasion and denial was honed to a science, came to dominate the
Kennedy assasination investigation, is not at all surprising.
Unaccountable corruption is probably the most common feature of the politics
of the 1960's in New Orleans. Mobsters like Carlos Marcello relied upon "the
Fix" or the working relationship between public officials and the Mafia and
they were accustomed to sharing power. The sheer audacity of "the Fix" is
absolutely astounding. When the Kennedy Justice Department targeted Jimmy
Hoffa, the Mafia responded through the Governor of Louisiana, who set up a
meeting where the mob offered the key prosecution witness one million dollars
to change his testimony. It was a desperate, foolish bribe which was prompted
and ultimately exposed because a series of dynamite explosions fortunately
failed to murder targeted witness. In the face of such violent, blatant
corruption the fact that powerful Mafia Bosses like Carlos Marcello survived
criminal prosecution in the 1960's, is astounding and illuminating. In 1967, L
ife printed the following account of the Mob Lord: "He [Marcello] operates
through a complex of political Fixes which enable him to control the makers
and enforcers of law at every level of state govenment."2 Friends in high
places were clearly responsible for the lapse in American justice, which saw
the power of Marcello grow despite press scrutiny and astute Louisiana
newcomers like Aaron Kohn identified the peculiar flavour of New Orleans
"politicking" when he said: "After about a year, I began to realize something
about the system here. In Chicago, people were generally on one side of the
fence or the other -honest or crooked. But in Louisiana there just isn't any
fence".3 Jim Garrison, who was elected District Attorney in 1962, embodied
the fact that "the fence" had been dismantled when he claimed that the Mafia
did not exist despite his association with Marcello's henchmen. A frequent
guest of Mafia assets like Marcello's lieutenant, Mario Marino, who operated
the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, Garrison accepted the hospitality of the Mafia
and instead of cutting off his indebtedness, he said: "I may be naive -this
is my first public office -but I don't see what's wrong with it".4Frequent
meetings between Garrison investigator Pershing Gervais and Carlos Marcello,
further cemented the fact that in New Orleans, business was transacted in
cooperation with the Marcello Mafia. Like J. Edgar Hoover, Jim Garrison
responded to Life Magazine disclosures by using the power of his office to
manufacture the impression that organized crime did not exist. His tactics
may have been more flamboyant, but the end result was the same. Assuming both
the solemnity of a Benedictine monk and the pomposity of Al Capone, Garrison
solemnly declared: "If organized crime is found [through Grand Jury] to be
flourishing, I will resign as district attorney".5 By 1967, the fact that the
power and influence of organized crime was flourishing was not in dispute,
but Jim Garrison knew that he could easily persuade a Grand Jury into
believing whatever he wanted it to believe, and that is exactly what he did.
Favour and bribery were the currency of the corruption that had penetrated
the State of Louisiana. After being entertained at the Sands in Las Vegas,
Aubrey Young, Governor McKeithen's aide, who, like Garrison, accepted the
hospitality of Marcello associate Mario Marino, was seen passing $100 bills
to chorus girls when he was supposedly in debt.6 Young had direct, personal
contact with Marcello and admitted to having set up the meeting where a one
million dollar bribe was offered to silence a witness. Jim Garrison always
maintained the battle to pervert the truth and instead of admitting anything,
he directed a succession of Grand Jury inquiries and manipulated them to the
point where they all payed homage to the contention that there was no
evidence of organized crime in New Orleans. In the final analysis, Jim
Garrison was essentially a Hoover "ditto" on the state, as opposed to the
federal level. Like Hoover's public relations schemes, Garrison cultivated an
image of law and order through highly publicized, honky-tonk and strip-joint
raids, to create the impression that he was fulfilling his law enforcement
responsibilities. But while Garrison targeted independent strip-joints and
honky-tonks and put them out of business to demonstrate what he termed his
"war on vice", the assets of Carlos Marcello were selectively spared.
>From 1965 through 1969, Garrison obtained just two convictions and five
guilty pleas in police cases brought against Marcello's gangsters. He elected
not to prosecute 84 such cases, including 22 gambling charges, one for
attempted murder, three for kidnapping and one for manslaughter. Garrison
even managed to hush up the fact that last June a Marcello bagman, Vic
Carona, died after suffering a heart attack during a political meeting held
in Garrison's own home.7
Perhaps, the most peculiar and quixotic character who was invariably well
acquainted with Jim Garrison was fellow pilot David Ferrie. Ferrie was a Cold
War legend who was allegedly responsible for everything from secret bombing
raids over Cuba to secretly whisking Marcello back to the United States after
his unceremonious deportation by Robert Kennedy. Ferrie's violent,
anti-Communist ideology established the predictable dimension of his
enigmatic life. Clearly, in the absence of his consistent, conspiratorial
zeal to fight Communism, it is difficult if not impossible to "get a handle"
on David Ferrie: He was a gifted pilot, a cancer researcher who kept hundreds
of mice in his room, a self-professed psychologist, a self-trained hypnotist,
a self-ordained priest, a soldier of fortune, a contract worker for both the
CIA and the Mafia -there was indeed no end to the David Ferrie dabble. In
1950, he joined the Army Reserve and the "predictable" David Ferrie described
his anti-Communist obsession in a letter to the commander of the U.S. 1st Air
Force. In the words of David Ferrie:
There is nothing I would enjoy better than blowing the hell out of every damn
Russian, Communist, Red, or what have-you.. We can cook up a crew that will
really bomb them to hell... I want to train killers, however bad that sounds.8
Obsessive hatred motivated David Ferrie to the point where he
enthusiastically embraced every conspiracy that satisfied his rabidly
anti-Communist temperament. In particular, his determination to "train
killers" was satisfied when David Ferrie trained and armed anti-Castro exiles
who engaged failed, military skirmishes in Cuba. Heavily involved in covert,
anti-Castro exile activities, in 1961, Ferrie reportedly planned airborne
missions against Castro's military installations. It is certainly difficult
to believe that the CIA would turn down a daring pilot like David Ferrie and
the overlap between CIA-supported anti-Castro operations and Ferrie's
anti-Castro involvement, strongly suggests that Ferrie was indeed, as is
often reported, a CIA operative. When interests overlap, it is sometimes
difficult to separate the effort of one from the other, and that certainly
seems to be the case with regard to anti-Castro plots, David Ferrie, the
Mafia, the CIA and J. Edgar Hoover's FBI. In the process of deploying covert
war efforts, David Ferrie developed the reputation of a heroic Cold Warrior.
In stark contrast, John F. Kennedy, who had refused to use the American
military to invade Cuba, was the perceived traitor. David Ferrie certainly
hated Kennedy to the point where he did not waste a single opportunity to
proclaim his wish to have him shot. And while David Ferrie's demand was
ultimately fulfilled, his obvious share of the responsibility is on the low
end of the scale -Ferrie's proclivity was to join and to advance plots, he
did not have the power to hatch them.
In particular, David Ferrie was one of many intelligence spooks who helped
set Oswald up. At the time of his arrest, Lee Harvey Oswald had David
Ferrie's library card on him, and that certainly exposed the secret
relationship that was never supposed to be disclosed. Initiated in 1955, when
the nearly sixteen year old Lee Harvey Oswald had joined the Civic Air Patrol
unit in New Orleans and was a cadet under the command of David Ferrie, the
genuine nature of the secret relationship between Ferrie and Oswald is
practically impossible to uncover -suffice it to say, it definitely existed
and David Ferrie, who claimed a Ph.D. in psychology and who had listed
himself as "doctor" in the telephone directory, was certainly anxious to put
his skills to use in the advancment of his predictable obsessions. The dirty
tricks of covert operatives like David Ferrie routinely evade detection, but
Kennedy's assasination was followed by reports that David Ferrie's library
card had been found in the possession of Oswald, and that evidently terrified
Ferrie to the point of panic. On November the 22nd, David Ferrie was with
Carlos Marcello celebrating the fact that the Mafia Boss had just been
cleared of the long-standing deportation charges that Robert Kennedy had
initiated. The assassination of John F. Kennedy presented further cause for
celebration amongst "patriots" who were angry at Kennedy for refusing to
support and for seeking to dismantle the illegal, covert operations of anti-Ca
stro exiles. But despite the momentous occasion which was ostensibly one of
if not the happiest day in Ferrie's life, the opportunity to relax and enjoy
anti-Kennedy triumphs was instantly disrupted by a revelation which was so
dramatic that the celebration was abruptly terminated and Ferrie drove
non-stop into the night some 350 miles to Texas. While in Texas, Ferrie hung
around pay phones where he frantically placed calls which were obviously too
urgent to postpone. The report that Ferrie's library card had been found in
the possession of Lee Harvey Oswald had evidently awakened Ferrie to the
realization that his secret relationship with Oswald threatened to be
exposed, and that instantly disrupted an otherwise perfect day.
There is no official record of the claim that Oswald's library card was found
in the possession of Lee Harvey Oswald. The unofficial record is less
evasive. Within hours after the assasination, Ferrie went to Oswald's former
landlady to ask her whether she had come across Ferrie's library card.9 The
claim that Oswald had Ferrie's library card in his possession was evidently
true enough to cause Ferrie to frantically search for his missing library
card, to frantically trail through Texas in a mysterious bid to tie up "loose
ends", and to provoke a Jim Garrison-style hoax. Indeed, on November 25,
1963, Jim Garrison actually turned Ferrie over to Hoover's FBI to create the
impression that David Ferrie's link to the Kennedy assassination had been
thoroughly investigated. Ferrie was not turned over prior to the 25th because
when he bee-lined to Texas following the Kennedy assassination, he stayed
until Sunday evening. Earlier that very same day, Jack Ruby had murdered
Oswald and had conveniently simplified Ferrie's concerns -a dead Oswald could
neither confirm nor deny reports that he had borrowed David Ferrie's library
card.
As long as the Warren Report dominated the so-called truth about the Kennedy
assasination, David Ferrie had nothing to worry about. Obsessed by the need
to cover up the truth, the Warren Report was doing just fine until it was
critically analyzed and discredited. And then, it all fell apart and Jim
Garrison resumed his "damage control" responsibilities. In the process, David
Ferrie died, or committed suicide or he was murdered, depending upon what Jim
Garrison was prepared to tell the world. Garrison explained Ferrie's strange
death in the following terms. "I suppose it could just be a weird coincidence
that the night Ferrie penned two suicide notes, he died of natural causes."10
Jim Garrison, who was evidently a "traceless death" enthusiast, was not too
concerned about exposing the genuine cause of Ferrie's death. His book of
fiction The Star Spangled Contract, graphically illustrates the act of murder
and the process of erasing every hint of foul play to make death appear
natural. In Mafia Kingfish, John Davis describes the same process in an an
ugly, factual account exposed by British journalist Christopher Robbins,
whereby Carlos Evertze, an executioner for Dominican Republic dictator Rafael
Trujillo, murdered a suspected student activist. The student was knocked out
with chloroform, a 4-inch extra-fine needle was driven into his brain from
underneath the earlobe, pulled out rapidly, and the pinpoint of blood was
brushed away with alchohol. "In the autopsy it seems as if the victim had a
cerebral hemorrhage. The needle prick just looks like a pore."11 Likewise,
the mysterious death of David Ferrie had all the earmarks of the "traceless"
operations that Jim Garrison, Carlos Marcello and J. Edgar Hoover relied
upon, to cover up the truth about the Kennedy assassination. The sequence of
events that led to the murder of David Ferrie are very clear: In November of
1963, Jim Garrison turned David Ferrie over to the "custody" of Hoover to
"investigate" reports of a link with Oswald. Hoover released Ferrie into the
"custody" of a world which was essentially controlled by Jim Garrison and
Carlos Marcello. When Marcello's lawyer warned Ferrie about his library card
being in the possession of Oswald, it was only a matter of time before the
lingering panic to cover up the truth caught up with David Ferrie. And while
he was in the custody and constant surveillance of Jim Garrison, he died -a
patriot.
Guy Banister, the self-proclaimed, violent anti-Castro crusader who occupied
the strange world of David Ferrie and Carlos Marcello, was evidently one of
Hoover's direct links into the world of violent, unaccountable fanatics.
Banister was Hoover's former FBI Special-Agent-In-Charge in Chicago, and that
was certainly a position reserved for loyal Hooverites. In New Orleans,
Banister's private detective agency operated on the level of the covert
operations headquarters of right wing extremists. Well connected to
intelligence agencies since his alleged association with Naval Intelligence
during World War II, reports that Banister had cultivated FBI and CIA
contacts are entirely consistent with all the evidence that surrounded his
bizarre world. Shortly before the Bay of Pigs, Banister's office was a
storehouse for boxes of grenades, mines and other munitions, and the
clandestine, illegal paramilitary operations Banister engaged were actually
the unofficial territory of the FBI, the CIA and the Mafia. Banister was
certainly well connected to the clandestine war against Communism. With
former bosses like J. Edgar Hoover and Carlos Marcello, Banister's agenda was
as transparent as David Ferrie's. On the surface, the people that Banister
worked for were worlds apart, but in the world of illegal covert operations,
they were one and the same. Technically a civillian, Banister offered
intelligence interests the opportunity to disguise illegal, covert
operations. Not surprisingly, the irresistible intrigue that Banister's
office exuded also attracted young, independent intelligence enthusiasts like
Lee Harvey Oswald. It is difficult to pinpoint the allure but like a
notorious strip-joint that tickles the fancy of an adolecent, Banister's
office was a veritable "clap trap", where the mix of government intelligence
agents, "retired" zealots and the Mafia, produced a free-wheeling climate
where conspiracy and intrigue was the order of the day. It is no small
coincidence that all of Guy Banister, David Ferrie, J.Edgar Hoover and Carlos
Marcello did absolutely everything in their power to undermine the Kennedys.
The connections that link them all together are too solid and the suspicions
too closely linked to the Kennedy assassination to doubt the fact that they
all colluded in the effort to frame Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald in fact handed
out pro-Castro leaflets that were stamped in Banister's office, and in a
world where they controlled the profile of Lee Harvey Oswald, they were
ideally suited to the task of demonizing Oswald. Working out of Banister's
office, Oswald was probably used to advance a covert scheme to feret out
Communists, and secrecy made the task of setting Oswald up, a breeze.
David Ferrie had certainly cultivated Oswald's trust -he even lend him his
library card to reinforce the impression. A library card in the possession of
another party implies some sort of ongoing relationship and Marcello's lawyer
certainly didn't miss the significance when he warned Ferrie about his
library card being in the possession of Oswald. In typical American Grotesque
fashion, Banister's office, through private detective Jack Martin, diverted
attention away from the library card reports and towards sensational
propaganda like the claim that Ferrie was Oswald's "getaway pilot". The
secret service interviewed Martin and Banister's loyal lieutenant provided
"evidence" to confirm Ferrie's claim that he was simply the victim of false
leads. The aggressive campaign to discredit the fact that Oswald and Ferrie
knew each other ultimately triumphed when Jack Martin told the secret service
that he suffered from "telephonitis while drinking and that it was during one
of his drinking sprees that he telephoned Assistant District Attorney Kohlman
and told him this fantastic story about David William Ferrie being involved
with Lee Harvey Oswald".12 The simple story about Ferrie's library card was
buried in the process. When Marcello's lawyer, G. Wray Gill, was questioned
by the FBI about how he learned that Ferrie's library card had been found on
Oswald, Gill could not recall, though he supposed it might have originated
with Jack Martin.13 In retrospect, the frantic, exhaustive disinformation
campaign to deny a simple truth, is merely a reflection of the campaign to
cover up the truth about the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
In the last analysis, it is not possible to dispute the fact that Marcello,
Ferrie, Banister and Hoover were all absorbed by a cooperative, well
coordinated effort to cover up the truth and that betrays all the secrecy,
all the deception and all the deliberate disinformation which can and was
conveniently manufactured. The power that this corrupt triumvirate commanded
was broad enough to penetrate the very heart of Dallas Texas. In Bob Davis' Ma
fia Kingfish, a chapter appropriately titled Marcello's Dallas, details the
fact that the Texas rackets were actually a satellite of the Marcello
organization. John Halfen, Marcello's bagman funelled money to cultivate
political influence and the system was honed to the point where "thanks
partly to the influence of Vice president Lyndon Johnson, Carlos Marcello was
able to operate freely in Dallas in 1963."14 With allies like Jack Ruby, who
also operated on the level of a Mafia bagman in the sense that he cultivated
corruptible police, all the mysterious pieces of the Kennedy assasination
puzzle fall into place. Clearly, if the Dallas Texas "circle of corruption"
was capable of papering over concrete evidence like Ferrie's library card and
of eliminating Kennedy assassination suspect Lee Harvey Oswald, relatively
simple tasks like getting Jack Ruby to plant the "magic bullet" at Parkland
where he was spotted and possibly even dropping off assassins at the grassy
knoll [the scene of other Jack Ruby citings], were relatively painless. At
the very least, every single unanswered question which surrounds the "magic
bullet" dissolves, when the motivation behind all the purposeful controversy,
is carefully acknowledged.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2E
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1Life, September 1, 1967, p.22.
2Life, September 8, 1967.
3Ibid.
4Ibid.
5Life, September 29, 1967.
6Ibid.
7Life, April 10, 1970.
8Anthony Summers, Conspiracy, p. 299-300.
9Anthony Summers, Conspiracy, p. 490.
10Jim Garrison interview, Playboy, October 1967, p.176.
11Quoting Christopher Robbins in Mafia Kingfish, p.333.
12John Davis, Mafia Kingfish, p. 200.
13Ibid., p.197.
14Ibid., p.139.
-----
Aloha, He'Ping,
Om, Shalom, Salaam.
Em Hotep, Peace Be,
All My Relations.
Omnia Bona Bonis,
Adieu, Adios, Aloha.
Amen.
Roads End
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