INSIDE THE DIXIE MAFIA: Politics of Death

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INSIDE THE DIXIE MAFIA

                   Politics of Death

Preference: The following true story is a glimpse into my life from
the years 1966 through October 2004, a prelude to the in-depth book
due out soon "Inside the Dixie Mafia"

   By: John Caylor

                             Copyright 2004 @

Sometimes you lose a piece of yourself that you can never get back,
some people say that it’s your soul, drifting off to hell.

For those of us who by fate, have been cast down in this dark and
bottomless pit of drugs and war in America, the nightmares never end.
Every day is a bad dream turned real, the paranoia grips you at times
like rigor mortis. In desperation to tell the story and warn the world
of Satan’s arrival, you get hooked on the never-ending search for
truth, it consumes you and occupies your life and nothing else matters
until the light shines on it and frees your soul.

This nightmare upon America that has us in its grip began back in the
60’s during the Vietnam War at my hometown Enterprise, Alabama, just
north of Bay County, Florida and located 6 miles west of Fort Rucker,
the U.S. Army’s Aviation Center.

During the Vietnam War, merchants at Enterprise laughed all the way to
the bank, when blood money from the poor boys of America, flowed down
the peaks and valleys of this God forsaken place the devil has
declared his own.

Starting in the forties with World War II, the U.S. Army established
Fort Rucker as the training spot and headquarters for army aviation.
During the early 60’s along came Vietnam and a massive buildup of
hundreds of remote airstrips, facilities and influx of thousands of
soldiers and pilots.

The area was a natural for the military; the climate is like that of
Vietnam, hot and humid, the terrain is full of pine forests with rough
hills and valleys. The inhabitants were firebrand rednecks, full of
hate for commies, Jews and blacks, blood thirsty for dollars of death
and destruction that war brings.

Most of the decent locals gave way to military retirees who overtook
Enterprise, with its cheap land and low cost of living, dominating all
aspects of business and government. The area also gave way to an
influx of mobsters and thugs fleeing Phenix City, Alabama in the wake
of "crime fighter" district Attorney Albert Patterson's assassination.

My father was the number one lawman and Chief of Police who welcomed
all those folks with open arms. Everyone addressed him as "Chief"; he
was a dead ringer for actor Carroll O’Connor, in the TV series "In The
Heat of the Night."

As a young man, I developed a unique view of crime and corruption in
America, one that was partly instilled upon me by classmates, kicking
my head in at school until I learned to be a seasoned fighter.

Somehow, I always wound up fighting to defend the "Chief’s" honor and
integrity, that he wasn’t in bed with bootleggers, whores and crooks.
I just didn’t want to believe it, in fact he used to witness the
Gospel of Christ, at area churches. Yet, he was a man of immense
power, because he decided what was right and wrong in the community
and all too often he was wrong.

I believe that my father’s power came from the cruelest parts of hell
and that of his new found associates, men of money, who were the
retired Army Colonels and Defense Intelligence Agency guys who made
their fortunes smuggling opium in the Golden Triangle of Southeast
Asia.

Their dope smuggling skills were fine tuned with the aid of the fixed
wing aircraft under cover of 4500 take offs and landings each day at
Army airfields extending over 150 miles in all directions of South
Alabama, Northwest Florida and Southwest Georgia. Geographically, the
area is not quite a gas tank away from Columbia and other hot spots of
Central and South America.

In 1966 along came Army Captain Clifford Wentworth from Miami. Cliff
was a tall 6’4" handsome All-American type guy, smart as hell with his
new law degree. Everyone liked Cliff, and Daddy who by now had become
a successful real estate developer operating his own construction
company, built Cliff and his wife a new home on Dixie Drive in
Enterprise.

Cliff soon left for his tour of duty in Vietnam and after a year or so
he was back home with his wife Brenda. Upon leaving the Army, daddy
encouraged Cliff to stay and he joined a local law firm with a retired
Army Col., my father’s personal lawyer who was already big time into
representing potheads; in fact he was the first lawyer I ever knew to
openly advocate the use of marijuana in the 60’s.

Shortly thereafter, Cliff left to set up an additional law practice in
South Florida. What business my father and Cliff had between them was
a dead secret as were his other business dealings.

There was something about my father, he always dangled big money
carrots and broken promises to get you back in the fold, like a yo-yo
I kept coming back, even quitting my job as a journalist just to
satisfy him. He never liked answering questions or people who asked
them and I was all mouth and sixty questions. He used to get real mad
at the IRS guys, the ones with the guns and badges who’d show up
unexpectedly at the house wanting business records and answers to
stupid questions.

During the hullabaloo cat and dog fights, Cliff calls, and says for
dad to send me down to Miami, (says), that he would put me to work and
take care of me. My dad issues the order and so I embark in the middle
of the night for the long drive south.

Eight hours later, there I was on Miami Beach in the dead of winter
1974. What a change this was, nice balmy weather, beautiful women and
a paradise filled with too many Cubans. I didn’t know how I was going
to make it, I didn’t know anyone in the whole place but one young
lawyer, Clifford Brown Wentworth.

The next morning, I arrived at this big office building right down
there on Flagler Street and take the elevator flight up to the firm.
Talk about class, money and just about everything you could want,
Cliff had it.

After the hand shake and hug, Cliff looked at me and said, here’s the
deal. I know you are a good photographer and I need one because I do
lots of divorce cases and insurance claims. Every now and then I want
you to go out and secretly photograph guys screwing around on their
wives, because I represent the wives in court.

That afternoon along comes my cousin Neal from Enterprise, who is
working construction in Miami, and I decide to roommate with him at an
apartment complex on North Kendall Blvd.

My third day in town Neal and I are heading down U.S. 1 in his old
Camaro with Neal smoking a joint, and right through an intersection
two cops pull us over. Neal looked about as Colombian as you can get,
dark tan and long ponytail hair, he fit the part we later called the
"profile." All the women loved him, because he was cool.

As the cops approach Neal’s side of the car, I’m about to go in my
pants because Neal’s still smoking the joint. Then this cop sticks his
head in the car and says, "Neal Ol’ Buddy, got any extra smoke, me and
my partner here are entertaining some ladies tonight and we need a few
joints."

Neal smiles and says how about 2 bags of fresh gold? By now the cops
are smiling as Neal reaches under his seat and pulls out 2 large
plastic bags of Colombian Gold for them. The other cop says what do we
owe ya? Neal just looks at them and says my pleasure! Away they go and
so do we, I’m sitting there thinking, what’s the family coming to,
dope dealers, this ain’t our way, maybe it’s just his own recreational
stash Neal’s messing with?

A few weeks later, Neal’s laying out of work all day at home and I’m
making friends with the Cubans at work who used to be somebody in
Havana until Fidel came along. One of the guys who was a big time
lawyer in Havana, tried to get me to join the Cuban Revolutionary
Army, who were playing weekend soldier over in the Glades, compliments
of our CIA.

One Tuesday night I arrived home to a house strewn with garbage, from
Neal’s new puppy and Neal’s just getting up. I want to know why he
doesn’t clean up the mess and why he isn’t working and he’s screwing
around all night?

Next thing I know, he says, "Come on let’s take a drive, I want to
show you something. Ten blocks away we step out of his Chevy Camaro
and walk down the sidewalk into this apartment complex right to the
middle of it.

There at apartment 26, Neal knocks at the door and says, "Hey Manny,
it’s me man, Neal." The door opens and there sits this ugly little
Spanish guy with a sawed off-shotgun

Pointed right in my face. I’m about to freak out, Neal tells him it’s
okay; I’m his cousin John from Enterprise. Inside the 2-bedroom
apartment, the living room is empty except for a rocking chair,
stereo, fish tank, small couch and a table with a cash box on it and
the shotgun.

Neal says, "John, don’t worry me, man, I’m doing fine at work, making
lots of money." and he then takes me to bedroom one, cracks the door
open and there from the floor to the ceiling were bricks of Colombian
Gold. There wasn’t a foot or more of space left in the whole damn
bedroom. Crap, the other one was filled the same from the floor to the
ceiling. I couldn’t even use the bathroom because it was filled up
too.

Shocked, I couldn’t understand how any one could bring this much dope
down the sidewalk without getting caught? Neal says, " Cops man, the
cops." Enough said, Neal lit up some gold and I tried my first and
last joint.

No longer a virgin to marijuana, I decided to live and leave all these
things with Neal and his business associates. It’s a good thing then,
because later on, I learned from Timmy, Neal’s younger brother that
Colombians just kill you on sight if they don’t like your looks. "It
was an instant love or hate relationship that usually ended at first
sight," says Timmy. In the mid 80’s when Timmy was 15 years old, he
was recruited from Enterprise as a cocaine runner.

According to Timmy, they would meet their Colombian buddies for
weekend fishing trips starting off at the Flamingo Bar, mid way down
Alligator Alley in the Everglades. There they would take airboats out
to staging areas and at the predetermined hour, money and cocaine fell
from the sky in army duffel bags.

Back on land, this 15 year old kid was given a Smith and Wesson 45, a
briefcase full on money, a new Cadillac filled to the brim with
cocaine in the trunk and a map showing the route he must drive to
Atlanta. Timmy worked that circuit for quite a few years until he
started sampling the merchandise.

Later on Timmy was recruited locally, to load automatic weapons
apparently stolen from Fort Rucker onto airplanes, and unload cocaine
over at the Opp-Andalusia area some 45 miles to the west of
Enterprise. Timmy refused to discuss that in detail, because he says
the people involved owned the DEA and were more ruthless than the
Colombians. My guess is that they were Oliver North’s Defense
Intelligence Agency guys.

Back to 1974 in Miami, after learning not to mess with Neal and his
buddies, I began to get occasional calls from Cliff. I’d then go out
and shoot the pictures of those divorce case guys actually screwing
around on their wives. Little did I know that those guys were Miami
vice cops working narcotics? Apparently, it must have worked because
Cliff had it all figured out. After I gave him the photos and
negatives these guys were invited to his office for a preview.

After several months, I decided I was too young for prison for just
knowing about Neal’s business, and being homesick, I decided to split
Miami for Enterprise. Once back in Enterprise, I was about as welcome
as the seven year itch. No one would hire me, daddy put out the word.

He was royally mad that motor mouth (sixty questions), had come back
home to roost.

Luckily that same weekend, along came Cheryl, my second wife, who was
drop dead gorgeous. Cheryl was a good woman who could stand up to my
father and put him in his place and he didn’t like that. Next thing I
know we are married and move to Clearwater, Florida just to get away
from the family at Enterprise.

Over the next few years I didn’t hear a word from Daddy and frankly I
was relieved to be left alone. I minded my own business and kept it
that way until Cliff called me up one day and suggested that he would
like to meet the new wife. We decided to get together over that next
weekend in Vero Beach at the Howard Johnson’s Oceanside.

That weekend, Cheryl and I arrived shortly before they did. It was a
different Cliff who wheeled in on a Harley Davidson motorcycle with
Brenda attached, I didn’t know that Cliff was a bike rider; his
favorite was a Mercedes sedan or Lincoln. On a bike behind him was his
brother, Eddie, with wife in tow. Eddie was the publisher of a large
daily newspaper (The Sun-Tattler) in Hollywood, Florida.

It was snort, snort, and snort all weekend long, except for John and
Cheryl; we didn’t touch that stuff, no way! The love of money and 20
mule teams couldn’t make me snort that garbage. I then pretty much
resigned myself to the fact that Cliff was in way over his head and I
didn’t want any part of it, but I still didn’t have any real idea of
what exactly it was and things yet to come.

It never really gripped me until October 1981, when a federal grand
jury in Miami indicted Cliff and several others in operation
"Sunburn", for importing a billion dollars worth of Colombian pot.
Back home in Enterprise everyone was in shock and my dad ranted on
about the indictment being pure horse manure.

Cliff, being the lawyer and mastermind of the group, got word of the
indictments and he immediately fled the country heading south to
Colombia. There from what I’ve been able to piece together from
various DEA and intelligence sources, his business associates Pablo
Escobar and Carlos Lehder put him up in a safe house.

At that time there was no Cartel in Columbia, but there sure as hell
was one in Enterprise. According to former DEA agents Bobby Spencer
and John Kreppine, Cliff and the boys had established a far-reaching
network over the Southeast U.S.

At one point, they even had a commercial airline flying into Columbia.
Agent Kreppine had it in for Cliff, and according to Kreppine, Cliff
almost got some of his agents killed during operation Sunburn.  Whose
side was Cliff really on? Isn’t it normal for DEA guys to get whacked
in the line of duty?

Not only did they use army airstrips, one was set up at a farm
belonging to Brenda’s family in Cottondale, Florida, 40 miles south of
Enterprise, with the Houston County Sheriff’s department flying cover
in helicopters alerting them to snoopy DEA agents.

They were so successful at smuggling; I believe after the indictments,
Cliff turned the whole operation over to Carlos Lehder Rivas, who was
also a pilot. They weren’t going to let this shit end, the money was
too easy, everything was in place, but I’m convinced that there was
hidden force at play here.

Carlos Ledher Rivas was a good pilot, fresh from U.S. prison on car
theft charges at Miami and Chicago; Lehder Rivas was pretty much an
independent.

During those years in the late 70’s and until 1981 cocaine smuggling
was reserved for false bottom suitcases and a condom swallower.

Ledher Rivas was a member of MAS - The "Death to Kidnappers" group
(Spanish: Muerte a Secuestradores, MAS) is a non-state death squad run
by Colombian drug traffickers for the limited purpose of countering
and containing their main enemies, namely Colombian leftist
revolutionaries, politicians, and the Colombian state. The group
formed after the kidnapping of Jorge Luis Ochoa’s daughter.

The drug traffickers' alliances with leftist rebels against the
government, or with right-wing elements in the security forces against
leftist revolutionaries, have been purely tactical in nature and
intended by the drug traffickers at preserving their relative autonomy
in a fractured and weak Colombian state.
MAS was founded in December 1981 by drug traffickers Carlos Ledher
Rivas and Jorge Luis Ochoa Vásquez. The leader of the Medellín drug
cartel, Pablo Escobar Gaviria (d. 1993), was also believed to be among
the patrons of MAS. This group was originally directed particularly
against guerrilla groups, such as M-19, that had been kidnapping drug
kingpins for ransom. Eventually it became a right-wing death squad
that targeted leftist politicians, students, and other activists. MAS
is believed to function as an umbrella organization for a number of
right-wing paramilitary groups of which 128 could be identified by
1988.
Although there has been evidence of collusion in the early 1980s
between drug traffickers and leftist guerrillas, who shared at least a
common enemy in the Colombian government if not a common ideology,
such a relationship was problematic at best, probably more on the
level of mutual extortion than cooperation.

By the late 1980s, the drug traffickers began attacking the leftists
in earnest. On 11 October 1987, Jaime Pardo Neal, a leader of the FARC-
associated Patriotic Union (UP) Party, was killed by agents of a major
drug trafficker.

On 22 March 1990, traffickers also assassinated UP Presidential
candidate Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa at Bogotá airport and on 26 April
1990 killed M-19 Presidential candidate Carlos Pizarro León-Gómez.
Ironically both candidates had opposed extradition of narcotics
traffickers to the United States.

MAS is also suspected of perpetrating the January 1989 killings of 12
members of a judicial commission investigating death squad activity in
Colombia.

 

In those early years minute amounts of the white powder would flow
into the country and the price was sky high. Only the rich and famous
could afford to snort that crap. In the U.S. things had been put in
place to change that. At their 1980 convention, the American Medical
Association endorsed cocaine as the drug of choice to kick the
cannabis habit.

The good doctors of America decided that cocaine was not addictive,
was less harmful than that evil cannabis weed, and they thought that
everyone trying to kick the habit should switch.

In Colombia, Pablo Escobar, another independent criminal, was also
looking for ways to expand and with Cliff’s network already in place
all they needed to do was get some new airplanes and fresh pilots.

Now comes U.S. Intelligence operative Barry Seal, who along with
Carlos Lehder Rivas, flies up to Enterprise shopping for new airplanes
and pilots.

At Ozark, Alabama, less than 20 miles from Enterprise, CIA asset Carol
Williams at Southern Aero supplies the boys with all the aircraft they
need. Williams taunted U.S. Customs agents and liked for everyone to
know he was an agency guy who sold everything from helicopters to
fixed wing aircraft to drug traffickers.

It’s not against the law to sell and export aircraft, Barry and his
brother bought a flat iron Huey from Carol one time and paid with two
lawn trash bags full of $100 bills.

Seal and Lehder Rivas recruited pilots from retired army aviators
living locally at Enterprise, Ozark and Dothan. In late 1982 time
frame, cocaine began to fly into the area by the ton and it came to
pass, "The Enterprise" began.

Debbie Seal, Barry’s widow, confirmed most of this when she and former
NBC producer Daniel Hospsicker author of "Barry and The Boys" visited
with me and narcotics agent Johnny ____of the Alabama Bureau of
Investigation at my mother’s house at Enterprise during February 1999.

Debbie also confirmed that Barry had been deeply involved with New
Orleans Mafia Boss, Carols Marcello and piloted many of Marcello’s
aircraft. J. Edgar Hoover, former FBI Director personally tried to
deport Marcello from the United States on 19 separate occasions.
Marcello who spent time in prison at Texarkana, Texas, has always been
a key figure in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

During the visit, Debbie Seal provided me with the assassination team
photo taken in Mexico City during the February 1963 time frame, this
was after we shared information and I was able to establish
credibility with her.

Being the only source alive to hear Barry’s taped conversations with
his handler from the DEA, Debbie was anxious to verify facts in those
lost tapes.

Barry Seal always carried a big bag of quarters in his car and an
Olympus Pearl Recorder and a box full of fresh tapes. He never used
anything except a payphone and he recorded everything!

When he was on our side and undercover in another country he was given
a little black box to activate once a week in the woods to enable U.S.
space communications satellites to pick the signal up at certain
times. This is the only way our government knew he was still breathing
somewhere else on the planet.

Barry would complain that he was a clay pigeon and sitting duck when
he was told that he would have to testify about the Bush
Administration’s involvement in cocaine smuggling to a Baton Rouge
federal grand jury.

On the tapes Seal raised hell "You really expect me to tell those
people the truth, that the United States government is in the drug
business? In Baton Rouge everything that is said to a federal grand
jury is on the street in 10 minutes!"

Shortly before his murder by a hit team affiliated with Col. Oliver
North’s Black Ops guys, Barry had a subpoena to testify at the federal
courthouse in Panama City, Florida, in the federal cocaine smuggling
trial of James Charles Elmore from Ozark, Alabama.

For many years everyone speculated that the Cartel had it done because
Fabio Ochoa’s shooters were sitting in the courtroom when the federal
judge announced the address of a halfway house where Barry would be
spending his nights.

Criminal charges related to Barry Seal’s murder were dropped when
Ochoa’s defense attorneys informed the court on July 29, 2003, they
were going to introduce evidence that Oliver North’s Black Ops guys
were responsible for doing Barry with 19 bullet holes. 

When North's people put Barry's headlights out, he had George Bush's
private telephone number in the trunk of his caddy.

Debbie had a $14 million dollar insurance policy on his life and the
IRS tried to confiscate it until she started making a few waves of her
own and then received a speakerphone call from some people in
Washington.

Debbie says, that the people would not identify themselves but they
all agreed that if she would keep her mouth shut she could keep the
money.

Back to September 1980, at the Ramada Inn at Dothan I'm standing there
with Congressman Bill Dickinson Chairman of the House Armed Services
Committee and my early 70's newspaper boss Terry Everett, and I’m
introduced to CIA Director and Vice Presidential candidate George
Bush.

Ramada Inn owner, Bob Miller, formerly from Houston who took up with
one of my ex girlfriends makes, the introduction. He then turns
around, grabs me by the arm and says, "This is the man who is really
going to be President, not that stupid son of a bitch Ronnie Ray Gun,
you watch what I say, he’s going to make everyone rich."

After the November election Bush and Oliver North began to show up
quite a bit.  Terry Everett was persuaded to run for congress and he
is now Rep. Terry Everett, (R) Alabama.  As far as I know Terry has
always been on the straight and narrow, unlike his longtime pal Bill
Dickinson who used to show up at Terry's office on Friday afternoons
with a bottle of whiskey under each arm.

Bill Dickinson was not an honorable man. My father's first cousin,
John Hugh (Pat) Caylor, did federal time for perjury trying to cover
Dickinson's rotten ass at Fort Rucker.  Pat was always the Romeo of
the family, a dark haired handsome looking guy, but he would lose it
over a bottle of whiskey and once side-swiped 9 parked cars in
Daleville, Alabama. 

Pat was rewarded with $500,000 for keeping his mouth shut about
international arms theft and trafficking by Dickinson and his
associates at the Pentagon.  In March 1981, after a surgical
procedure, I was forced to recover at my father's house in Enterprise
where Pat would often come and chat with me for hours about powerful
men from Washington with suitcases full of money.

Doris his pretty wife and mother of his children left him while he was
in the federal pen and he was confessing to me almost daily over a two-
week period.  The secret stories Pat told were confirmed almost 9
years later by refuted Dixie Mafia member and Barry Seal associate,
Billy Grice. 

Billy Grice is a former Fort Rucker, Alabama, supply supervisor who
took a bad rap to the Atlanta federal pen for Dickinson after
exporting billions of dollars in stolen arms during the Arab-Israeli 6
day war.  Billy was my father's favorite when he was chief of police,
Daddy would often give him confiscated handguns from his office desk
drawer.  

But, Billy was bitter as hell over the fact that Dickinson and other
Washington politicians he went down for didn't take care of his family
while he was in prison. It didn't help much that two of my father's
favorite detectives Jake Heath and Larry Baxter robbed Billy's house
of a freezer full of cash and emptied his closets of $500 suits.

Billy is smart as hell and has a photographic memory he can rattle off
names and telephone numbers of everyone of importance in the murky
world of smuggling.  He was the legal whiz of the Atlanta federal pen,
law library buddy to Walter Moody, later convicted in sham proceedings
of murdering federal Judge Robert Vance and Savannah attorney Wayne
Robinson, in the 1989-90 (VANPAC) mail bomb attacks on the federal
judiciary.

At Atlanta, Billy formed solid friendships with Aryan Brotherhood
member Doyle Ray Henderson and others who robbed armored cars and
smuggled cocaine into the United States. Doyle Ray Henderson was also
a key suspect in the VANPAC case, although in 1989-90 when the
bombings occurred he was incarcerated at Leavenworth federal
penitentiary. 

The Aryan Brotherhood:

The Aryan Brotherhood got its start on the West Coast in the 1960s.

The Brotherhood, which has members in prisons throughout the United
States, exhibits an intense hatred of Blacks and Jews, and reportedly
engages in extortion, drug operations, prostitution, and violence in
prisons.

Many Brotherhood members sport an identifying tattoo consisting of a
swastika and the Nazi SS lightening bolt.

The Brotherhood has ties to Aryan Nations, an Idaho-based paramilitary
organization that advocates racial violence and white supremacy.

In the 1980s, Brotherhood members challenged a Missouri prison's ban
on inmates receiving literature from Aryan Nations and similar groups.
Nevertheless, the courts upheld the ban.

The Turner Diaries

The Turner Diaries was written in 1978 by William Pierce, head of the
National Alliance, one of the largest and most organized neo-Nazi
groups in the United States.

The novel has become a "Bible" for right-wing extremists. It calls for
the violent overthrow of the Federal government, and the systematic
killing of Jews and nonwhites.

Pierce's book has reportedly inspired a number of people connected to
vicious crimes including Timothy McVeigh, who was convicted of bombing
the Murrah building in Oklahoma City.

Billy Grice became good at winning freedom for Atlanta inmates forcing
the justice department to transfer him to the federal prison at
Maxwell Air Force Base where he befriended former U.S. Attorney
General John Mitchell who was there serving time on corruption
charges. Billy typed Mitchell's briefs for him in criminal matters
because according to Billy, "Mitchell was schooled only in corporate
law."

When Billy was set free from federal prison in the mid 70's he claimed
to have sent out over 300 resumes for employment to the people he went
to jail for.

Not a one of them called or would take his telephone calls. Billy,
being a good pilot, decided to launch his own cocaine smuggling
career.

Apparently it was highly successful, so much so that he enlisted
refuted Dixie Mafia associate, next-door neighbor Milton McGregor, to
launder his money.

McGregor was a former civilian wage grade employee for Billy at Fort
Rucker who used to bum cigarettes from him, began a career in the pari-
mutuel racing industry when he opened Victoryland Dog Track in a 1984
partnership with Paul Bear Bryant, Jr.

The Duo enlisted the aid of my former neighbor, Montgomery Advertiser-
Journal reporter Milo Dakin to soften attitudes and lobby Alabama
legislators on gambling. Milo, who died in 2003, was a tall well-liked
Louisiana chap, who served them well by buying the Alabama
legislature. 

 As a result of their political clout McGregor and associates have
been instrumental in the drive to bring casinos and gambling to the
Southeast. Based upon my extensive research and personal knowledge of
the matter I believe that Billy always has and continues to be a major
player.  

Enterprise has always been the hub where they audit the books and keep
it straight between competing groups. It was also the place to put
together murky smuggling relationships, Good old Ollie North
personally autographed his picture for my dad long before that "kiss
my ass speech", to Congress. Barry Seal and Ollie loved to hang out in
the Wiregrass area, they were brazen as hell about it, after all, they
were above the law.

One thing I’ve always noted since the 1980 introduction to Bush, Sr.,
is that cocaine lurks in the shadows of his associates. Strange how
things happen, several days after the introduction, some-one goofed
and two Colombian nationals were arrested by the DEA at Bob Miller's
Ramada Inn with a couple of kilos of coke.

They just posted large bonds and were promptly taken to the airport
for a flight back to Colombia. They apparently never responded to the
letters requesting them to come back to the U.S. and be prosecuted for
the big bad felony of importing cocaine.

What about Cliff, daddy's partner? Well, as the story goes, all ends
well that goes well. Three years later, I ran into him, after the
United States forced Columbia to make him leave. He was arrested
shortly after stepping off a flight to meet Brenda and the kids on
some Caribbean Island.

Upon his sentencing for importing a billion dollars worth of dope,
Cliff said, "You know Johnny, I told that federal judge that I was a
disgrace to my legal profession and my country and very much wanted to
make amends to that and that I was ready to face it."

He said "Mr. Wentworth, for your high crimes against the United States
of America, I hereby sentence you to 6 years in a federal correctional
institution, with 5 years and 6 months suspended for restitution in
the amount of twenty five thousand dollars."

Cliff dug deep into his pocket, pulled out a quarter and with that All-
American grin, he flipped it to me, as he was off to serve his time on
golf courses at Elgin Air Force base. I never saw him again, he just
vanished from the face of this earth, Brenda, the kids, Eddie and the
whole family, gone, no crap – crime must really pay!

In 1987, Lucy Morgan, an investigative reporter for the St. Petersburg
Times, who spent nights with Brenda and the kids when Cliff was on the
lam, told me Cliff was in the witness protection program.

In order to get a grip on the complexity of this story and how it
relates to present day politics you must first have an understanding
of criminal history.

   Barry Seal's Mafia Boss, Uncle Carlos

The House Assassination Committee report,  footnoted below, is must
reading and will reveal the influence of players in our series of
articles dealing with the Dixie Mafia. Although most of the men in
this report are dead some of their children, families and associates
expanded to include runners and outsiders.

 My first encounter with these men and their children came in 1971
when "Little Joe Marcello", entered my Metairie, LA. apartment at 1:45
A.M. in the morning and told me to get out of the bed and onto the
couch, he then proceeded to have sex with my live-in girlfriend who
had been partying at the Fat City, Court Jester Lounge. The next
afternoon she boarded Marcello's family yacht and cruised to Grand
Isle with Little Joe and Uncle Carlos. I packed my stuff and hit the
bricks, things got a little too close for comfort.      

The second encounter was at Panama City, Florida in October 1981, just
after a dinner "sit down" at the Foxfire Lounge on Hwy 98.  At the
time I was undercover for Treasury agent Bobby Sides at Panama City
Toyota, acting as the right hand man to owner Lowe Smith, "Godfather
of St. Andrews."  The Foxfire, now the Black Angus, was considered a
safe place to have meetings because it was constructed to make it
impenetrable from FBI bugging devices.

It didn't hurt that Lowe Smith married a beautiful young blonde,
Debbie Spring, whose father was the FBI's supervisory agent in charge
in Jacksonville, Fl.  During the time period Lowe Smith, Jerry Wauburn
and other associates at the Boating Center on Hwy 22 and Wewa,
Florida,  were involved in smuggling bales of marijuana from a way
station on Big Pine Key.  Jerry took the fall for the group and later
died in prison.

Before I arrived in 1981, the group had apparently somehow been
involved in the January 1977, Sandy Creek smuggling case set up as an
FBI sting with the help of informant Bobby Joe Vines.  The whole thing
went bad after the dope was delivered to the wrong location and 4 
people partying that night in a Springfield bar decided they wanted
some of it after learning about the drop from David Goodwin one of the
smugglers.

Harold Sims,39, Douglas Hood, 21, Sheila McAdams, 16 and Sandy McAdams,
14, crashed the party and unloading of the "GunSmoke"  shrimp boat. 
The foursome were executed by Walter Gale Steinhorst, 48, of Live Oak,
Fl. who had been paid $100 by smugglers to guard the road leading into
Sandy Creek.

Their bodies were transported into a Jefferson county sinkhole where
they-were dumped with concrete blocks tied to them. They were
discovered by cave divers months later.

 In 1977, Leo Jones was the Florida State Attorney in the Sandy Creek
case and Sister Blackmon was his assistant and girlfriend, who later
became his wife. Both Jones and Sister have since been publicly
accused by law enforcement officers investigating the case, as being
part of a wide-ranging conspiracy to continue the cover-up.  

There have been eyewitness and published reports of Sister and Jones
traveling and partying together with the Lukefahrs brothers who were
among key defendants given state immunity on the murders.  

On February 25, 1978 the Tallahassee Democrat reported that then State
Attorney Leo Jones was ticketed for driving 77 mph in a 55 mph zone on
State Rd. 20 in Liberty County west of Tallahassee. 

At the time, Jones was driving a new 78 Lincoln belonging to the
Lukefahrs Atlanta attorney,  Edwin Marger.  Jones also admitted
accepting a ride to Louisiana in Marger's private plane and attending
social events with him.     After flying to Louisiana - to question
Tom Lukefahr - on Marger's private plane, Leo Jones agreed to drop
murder charges against the  3 Lukefahrs  brothers who were Marger's
clients. 

Meanwhile back to 1981 at Smith's  Panama City Toyota, which was a
hustle, bustle place with shell tricks and marijuana  laden new cars
sold by the dozens to unseen buyers,  whisked away after they were
loaded onto  car-carrier trucks waiting in the parking lot behind the
Foxfire Lounge.

 It was my first real adventure being inside a Dixie Mafia operation
that included, drugs, prostitution, dealing in stolen cars, machine
guns, money laundering and whispers about murders.

Their tentacles ran deep into the Florida 14th Judicial Circuit State
Attorney's office and local law enforcement. Colan Donnell, a Smith
associate and dope dealer who I had known a number of years, once
confided in me, asking if I knew how things were in Panama City?

Colan then explained his walk-away from a 1982 bust for distribution
and sale of cocaine, saying "Alton and Sister always took care of
things for the boys."  At that time former investigators from the
State Attorney's office and Bay County Sheriff office were managing
local strip clubs. Several investigators were directly employed by
Lowe Smith, who died this year.

Speaker of the Florida House, Alan  Bense,  gave the eulogy for Lowe's
funeral  on February 29th, 2004,  at Evergreen Cemetery on Hwy 231. 

        Paulk and Appleman

 

Alton Paulk has always been the Chief Assistant and "Fixer" for the
State Attorney's office, even before the corrupt 20-year reign of
State Attorney Jim Appleman.

Appleman was a puppet to the Dixie Mafia and their money laundering
and drug smuggling interests.  His 2000 campaign treasurer was none
other than Gerald R. Stanton a former Washington, D.C. boss of the now
defunct Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation of America.

Stanton was president of Mutual Development Corporation a FSLIC
subsidiary firm that didn’t exist anywhere but on paper. MDC’s
officers privately pocketed the left over proceeds of savings and
loans confiscated by the United States government.

In the mid and late 80’s Americas savings and loans failed by the
thousands due to fraud and embezzlement at the hands of their Dixie
Mafia associates working in tandem with Oliver North’s covert
operations like the $210 million dollar Topsail Hill S&L scam, by the
St. Joe Company and DGI a Houston CIA front firm. Other coastal
developments included the BayPoint Marriott Resort and Dragons Ridge
developments. The 80’s taxpayer bailout cost Americans hundreds of
billions of dollars and seriously undermined the national economy and
destabilized democracy.

In their far-reaching support of the Dixie Mafia, Chief asst. State
Attorney Alton Paulk and Reverend  J.W. Hunt,  an alleged money
launder with a worldwide Assembly of God church, testified as
character wittiness for the defense in the federal racketeering and
wire fraud trial of refuted Dixie Mafia Associate and Casino Cruise
ship operator Jimmy Maulden,  in Biloxi-Gulfport, Mississippi.

 Maulden's first federal trial ended in a 1992  acquittal after the
duo testified that Maulden was a God-fearing prominent citizen and
businessman of Panama City.  Maulden was accused in federal
indictments of using his casino ship, Euro Jet, to run an illegal
bookmaking business.

In the middle 80's, Maulden moved his cruise lines to Gulfport,
Mississippi, during a time period the Dixie Mafia was trying to
establish casino gambling on the Mississippi Gulf coast and eventually
did so by eliminating opposition by murdering the Sherry's, a judge
and his anti-casino wife in 1987.

 Maulden owned and operated the Southern Elegance Cruise Lines and
several Casino ships under Panamanian registries although the Southern
Elegance vessel was actually owned by Panama City shipbuilder Brian
D'Isernia.   The Southern Elegance set sail from 2 Panama City
locations, Port Panama City and the Downtown Panama City Marina where
passengers boarded for gambling cruises into the Gulf of Mexico. 

Maulden was later convicted and sentenced to prison in a  money
laundering, conspiracy,  misapplication of bank funds and bank fraud
case involving Maulden and his associates at Bay Bank and Trust of
Panama City. 

That indictment had been sealed for over 2 years and was the result of
a three-year investigation led by the FBI. The federal indictment
alleged Maulden's associates the Christos used their positions at Bay
Bank to create false balances on checking accounts for Maulden.

Maulden then continuously ``kited'' checks between accounts at Bay
Bank and Merchants Bank and Trust Co. of Gulfport, Miss., it read.
Since 1986, Maulden presented checks totaling more than $30 million
drawn on accounts with insufficient funds, according to the
indictment.

``It is alleged that the checks were continuously kited between
different accounts at the (two banks) in such a way as to build false
balances at both banks,'' according to a press release from the U.S.
Attorney's Office. The release reported that Maulden drew funds from
the accounts for his own use.

Merchants Bank incurred no loss from the alleged scheme, said Richard
Matheny, executive vice president.

Merchants Bank was an independent bank and had $202 million in assets.
Bay Bank, also independent, had $122.8 million in assets at the end of
1994."

Another Bank in West Palm Beach associated with the Dixie-Mafia and
Maulden, Bay Savings Bank was taken over by the S&L bailout agency,
Resolution Trust Corporation. The key players in that bank were the
Christo's, Maulden, Dempsey Barron and Charles L. Hilton, partner to
Florida Speaker of the House, Allan Bense.

Allan Bense and Hilton own G.A.C Contractors, an asphalt paving firm
that has gobbled up paving contracts and sub-contracts in the state of
Florida.  The Duo's employees include a former Bay County
commissioner, Carol Atkinson, who was appointed by Jeb Bush to serve
as Chairperson of the committee to privatize Florida's prison system.

Hilton and Bense's other top employees have included such noteable
names as Santiago Romero Iglasias, a ring leader in the powerful
Medellin, Columbia drug cartel and first cousin to deceased drug lord,
Pablo Escobar. 

On appeal, Maulden's money laundering case was later reversed on a
technicality, but other convictions were left to stand and Maulden
served time in federal prison.   David Lee McGee was the lead federal
prosecutor on the case. McGee was the famous U.S. Attorney who was
credited with jailing attorney F. Lee for refusing to turn over drug
proceeds.

At Maulden's trial, the governments case was weakened somewhat after
federal court testimony that lead FBI agent Joe Tierney's wife worked
on the Southern Elegance Casino gambling ship for Maulden.  Tierney's
own testimony was impeached during a pre-trial hearing when he
testified about the number of telephone contacts he had with Clark
Harlow, Maulden's bookkeeper for his Mississippi gambling operations.
Clark Harlow and Tierney both testified that they had a close
relationship and Harlow was seeking Tierney's assistance in getting a
full time job with the FBI.  

Back in Panama City during October 1981, I was introduced to Santo
Trafficante, another private diner who was sitting on the opposite
side of the Foxfire meeting.  Trafficante was an old man with a hawk
bill nose who wore black horned-rimmed 1950's style glasses. He
came with his own personal valet and bodyguard, they would always dine
alone.  I had seen Trafficante before in the mid 70's when I lived in
St. Petersburg and my ex-wife Cheryl worked for IRS Criminal
Intelligence.

 

Santo Trafficante was the pre-Castro, Havana Mafia boss, who along
with the financial and management skills of Myer Lansky kept the
Island's Casinos in check. Other Mafia operations included whore
houses and supplying sugar to pre-Dixie Mafia American bootleggers
manufacturing their own whiskey in New Orleans, Port St. Joe, Geneva
and other little towns. 

The Mob rolled in millions on their Cuban operations until the Cuban
people started to starve and disappear in the night.  Along came
Harvard-educated lawyer Fidel Castro, Che Guvera and their rebels who
toppled the corrupt U.S. backed Fulgencio Batista regime.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgencio_Batista

Organized crime had complete control of the Cuban government and
Castro captured Trafficante and tossed him into a Cuban prison and he
was later released to the U.S. after a bit of bargaining.

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/jfkinfo2/jfk5/traff.htm

The United States government apparently sanctioned Trafficante and he
set up a base of operations in Tampa, Florida.

Santo Trafficante was born in Tampa, Florida, on 15th November, 1914.
His father, Santo Trafficante Senior, was a leading figure in the
Mafia. In the 1940s he joined up with Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello,
and Meyer Lansky to set up gambling operations in Cuba. The dictator
of Cuba, Fulgencio Batista, received a large cut of the profits.

Santo Trafficante married Josephine Marchese on 17th April, 1938. He
worked for his father in Florida and in 1953 he was sent to Cuba to
manage some Mafia controlled casinos. Trafficante took full control of
these operations when his father died of stomach cancer in August,
1954.

Trafficante also spent time in Florida. This resulted in his arrest
and conviction for gambling offences. He was released from prison in
January 1957 after his conviction was overturned by Florida's State
Supreme Court. It is believed that soon afterwards Trafficante
arranged for Albert Anastasia, his Mafia rival, to be murdered.

Trafficante returned to Cuba but his casinos were closed down when
Fidel Castro overthrew Fulgencio Batista in January, 1959. Trafficante
spent time in prison before being deported to the United States.

In September 1960 Johnny Roselli and Sam Giancana, took part in talks
with Allen W. Dulles, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA), about the possibility of murdering Fidel Castro. In 1961
Roselli persuaded Trafficante to join the conspiracy. Meyer Lansky
also became involved in this plot and was reportedly offering a
million-dollar reward for the Cuban leader's murder.

Trafficante also worked closely with the CIA agent, William Harvey, in
this operation. By 1962, Trafficante and his friends became convinced
that the Cuban revolution could not be reversed by simply killing
Castro. However, they continued to play along with this CIA plot in
order to prevent them being prosecuted for criminal offences committed
in the United States.

It is also believed that Trafficante became involved in Mafia plots to
kill President John F. Kennedy. He told a friend, Jose Aleman: "Mark
my word, this man Kennedy is in trouble, and he will get what is
coming to him. Kennedy's not going to make it to the election. He is
going to be hit."

Just before Kennedy was assassinated on November 22 1963, Jack Ruby
made contact with Trafficante, and another Mafia leader, Carlos
Marcello, about a problem he was having with the American Guild of
Variety Artists (AGVA). However, the Warren Commission failed to find
any direct link between Trafficante and Ruby concluded that "Oswald
acted alone".

Trafficante continued to work for the CIA and was involved in the Iran-
Contra affair.

Santos Trafficante died on the 19th March, 1987.

On 14th January, 1992, the New York Post claimed that Trafficante,
Jimmy Hoffa and Carlos Marcello had all been involved in the
assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Frank Ragano was quoted as
saying that at the beginning of 1963 Hoffa had told him to take a
message to Trafficante and Marcello concerning a plan to kill Kennedy.
When the meeting took place at the Royal Orleans Hotel, Ragano told
the men: "You won't believe what Hoffa wants me to tell you. Jimmy
wants you to kill the president." He reported that both men gave the
impression that they intended to carry out this order.

In his autobiography, Mob Lawyer (1994) (co-written with journalist
Selwyn Raab) Frank Ragano added that in July, 1963, he was once again
sent to New Orleans by Hoffa to meet Trafficante and Carlos Marcello
concerning plans to kill President John F. Kennedy. When Kennedy was
killed Hoffa apparently said to Ragano: "I told you could do it. I'll
never forget what Carlos and Santos did for me." He added: "This means
Bobby is out as Attorney General". Marcello later told Ragano: "When
you see Jimmy (Hoffa), you tell him he owes me and he owes me big."

Back to Enterprise where George Bush, Sr. and Col. Oliver North used
connections to Dixie Mafia  as their sole importation-distribution
source for cocaine smuggled into America. Forging a relationship with
the Devil under the guise they were funding covert wars against
Communist aggression, the network expanded rapidly with official
protection of United States government law enforcement agencies.  

In February 1990, I was recruited by the FBI to work undercover in the
VANPAC case (Vance Politicial Assassination Conspiracy Case).

The letter below is my secret marked-up copy of the August 1989
Declaration of War Letter sent to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals and Media in 11 U.S. cities, confiscated and hidden from
public view by the FBI. 

Judge Robert Vance of Birmingham was the first to die on December 16,
1989 in a wave of political assassinations  by Dixie Mafia soldiers.
Dixie Mafia terrorists threatened to launch nerve gas attacks upon
U.S. cities and the threat was real. The typewriter that typed this
letter came from my hometown of Enterprise, Alabama; there were 2 more
typewriters used by the bombers in the attacks. The FBI has continued
to shield the fact from public exposure that the letters were mailed
from various cities on the same day. The official version has always
been that a lone racist nut who sits on death row was behind the
bombing.

 

 House of Representatives Committee on the Assassination of John F.
Kennedy

III. CARLOS MARCELLO

CONTENTS

o The position of Marcello within the National Crime Syndicate

o Marcello: A Kennedy administration target

§ Deportation efforts

§ Increased Federal pressure

o Alleged assassination threat by Marcello

§ FBI investigation of the allegation

§ Committee investigation of the allegation

§ Becker's statement to the committee

o Analysis of the evidence

 

 

Following the completion of its investigation of organized crime, the
committee concluded in its report that Carlos Marcello, Santos
Trafficante, and James R. Hoffa each had the motive, means, and
opportunity to plan and execute a conspiracy to assassinate President
Kennedy. On the basis of the available evidence, the committee
concluded that it was unlikely that any one of them was involved in
such a conspiracy. Nevertheless, the possibility that one or more of
them was involved could not be precluded.

 

while the committee's investigation established evidence of
association between Jack Ruby, the murderer of the President's
assassin, and acquaintances or associates of Marcello, Trafficante,
and Hoffa, similar evidence was difficult to establish in the case of
Lee Harvey Oswald. Despite this, some such associations--both direct
and indirect-were in fact indicated in varying degrees between Oswald
and various figures having at least some affiliation or association
with the organized crime network of Marcello, the long-time leader? of
the Maria in New Orleans and surrounding regions.

 

Marcello was, as noted in the consultant's report, one of the major
leaders of the national crime syndicate. Certainly, he was one of the
most successful at evading the intelligence-gathering efforts of law
enforcement agencies and at avoiding conviction, at least in recent
years. He became a prime target of the Kennedy administration, which
was determined to conclude the very protracted deportation proceedings
that had been initiated against him in 1953. The seriousness of Robert
Kennedy's intent was evidenced by the successful, albeit brief,
deportation of Marcello in 1961. The Federal Government also stepped
up other investigative efforts, principally in the area of tax evasion
and intelligence gathering.

THE POSITION OF MARCELLO WITHIN THE NATIONAL CRIME SYNDICATE

 

Carlos Marcello, now 68, has been identified by Federal authorities as
the leading. Maria figure in New Orleans, La., for almost 30 years.
(1) His criminal syndicate has long. provided a classic illustration
of the destructive impact that organized crime has on American
society.

 

The exact place of Marcello's birth on February 6, 1910, has long been
in doubt, and at one point was a central question in a lengthy
deportation proceeding. Nevertheless, it is generally believed that
Marcello was born in Tunis, North Africa, with the name Calogero
Minacore. (2)

 

Marcello's first contact with the law came on November 29, 1929, when
he was arrested at the age of 19 by New Orleans police as accessory
before and after the robbery of a local bank.(3) The charges were
subsequently dismissed. Less than 6 months later, on May 13, 1930, he
was convicted of assault and robbery and was sentenced to the State
penitentiary for 9 to 14 years. He served less than 5.(4) It was
during his prosecution on these charges that Marcello first came to
the attention of the public and press. Testimony disclosed that he had
personally planned the crime-a grocery store robbery-using an
interesting method of operation. (5) In testimony before the McClellan
Senate committee in 1959, Aaron M. Kohn, the managing director of the
Metropolitan Crime Commission of New Orleans and a former FBI agent
testified that Marcello had shielded his own complicity in the crime
by inducing two juveniles to carry out the robbery. (6) Kohn testified
that Marcello and a confederate had supplied the juveniles with a gun
and instructions on their "getaway."(7) The plan had gone awry when
the two were later apprehended and pressured by authorities to
identify the "higher-ups."(8) Kohn also noted that Marcello "was
referred to as a Fagin" in press accounts at the time, in an apparent
reference to the Dickens character who cruited juveniles to carry out
his crimes. (9)

 

In 1935, after receiving a pardon by the Governor of Louisiana,
Marcello's early underworld career continued, with charges being filed
against him for a second assault and robbery, violation of Federal
Internal Revenue laws, assault, with intent to kill a New Orleans
police officer, and yet another assault and robbery.(10) Marcello was
not prosecuted on the various charges. In 1938, as part of what
Federal agents described as "the biggest marihuana ring in New Orleans
history "Marcello was arrested and charged with the sale of more than
23 pounds of illegal substance.(11) Despite receiving another lengthy
prison sentence and a $76,830 fine, Marcello served less than 10
months and arranged to settle his fine for $400.(12) Other charges
were brought against Marcello over the next several years, stemming
from such alleged offenses as narcotics sale, a high-speed automobile
chase, and assaulting an investigative reporter; these were never
prosecuted, and the records have since disappeared. (13)

 

During the 1940's, Marcello became associated with New York Mafia
leader Frank Costello in the operation of a slot machine network. (14)
Costello was then regarded by some authorities as one of the most
influential leaders of organized crime in the United States and was
commonly referred to in the newspapers as the Mafia's "boss of all
bosses" or "prime minister of the underworld." Marcello's association
with Costello in various Louisiana gambling activities had come about
following a reported agreement between Costello and Senator Huey Long
that allowed for the introduction of slot machines into New Orleans.
(15)

 

Marcello was also involved in Louisiana gambling through his family-
owned Jefferson Music Company, which came to dominate the slot
machine, pinball and juke box trade in the New Orleans area. (16) By
the late 1940's, in an alliance with Joseph Poretto, Marcello had
taken control of the largest racing wire service in New Orleans, the
Southern News Service and Publishing Co., which served Louisiana's
prosperous gambling network. (17) Marcello and other associates also
gained control of the two best -known gambling casinos in the New
Orleans area, the Beverly Club and New Southport Club; the Beverly
Club brought Marcello into partnership with the syndicate financier,
Meyer Lansky. (18)

 

By the late 1950's, the Nola Printing Co., of New Orleans, gambling
wire service controlled by the Marcello interests, was serving
bookmakers and relay centers throughout the State of Louisiana, as
well as areas as diverse as Chicago, Houston, Miami, Hot Springs,
Indianapolis and Detroit and cities in Alabama and Mississippi. (19)

 

In a statement prepared for the House Judiciary Committee in 1970,
Kohn outlined the continuing expansion of Marcello's holdings during
the 1940's and 1950's:

Marcello and his growing organization developed their capital or
bankroll through extensive gambling, including casinos, slot machines,
pinball, handbooks, layoff, football pools, dice, card games, roulette
and bingo; also narcotics, prostitution, extortion, clipjoint
operations B-drinking, marketing stolen goods, robberies, burglaries,
and thefts. Their criminal enterprise required, and had, corrupt
collusion of public officials at every critical level including
police, sheriffs, justices of the peace, prosecutors, mayors,
governors, judges, councilmen, licensing authorities, :State
legislators, and at least one Member of Congress. (20)

 

When Marcello appeared as a witness before the Kefauver committee on
January 25, 1951, he invoked the fifth amendment and refused to
respond to questioning on his organized crime activities. (21)
Subsequently convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to respond
to the directions of the chair, Marcello was later successful in
having his conviction overturned. In its final report, the Kefauver
committee concluded that Marcello's domination of organized crime in
Louisiana had come about in large part due to the "personal enrichment
of sheriffs, marshals, and other law enforcement officials"
whoreceived payoffs for "their failure to enforce gambling laws and
other statutes relating to vice."(22) The Kefauver report further
noted that "In every line of inquiry, the committee found that the
trail of Carlos Marcello." (23)

 

The Kefauver report also raised the question of why Marcello, who "has
never become a citizen," "had not been deported."(24)

 

In early 1953, partly as aresult of the national attention he received
from the Kefauver committee investigation, Marcello finally became the
subject of deportation proceedings; these proceedings continued for
over 25 years and were still being conducted in 1979. (25) Federal
officials have noted that Marcello has expended more legal resources
in his two and a half decade fight against deportation than in any
other such case in American history.

 

In the years immediately following the Kefauver investigation,
Marcello apparently decided to try to escape his public image as
Louisiana's "rackets boss." As the New Orleans Crime Commission noted,
he took several steps to that end:

Not until Carlos Marcello became a subject of deportation . . . did he
start publicly conducting himself in a manner intended to substantiate
his claim that he was a legitimate businessman. But this was contrived
public relations having little relationship to fact. He continued to
direct his underworld government and to press further expansion. He
became involved in a series of motel transactions involving millions
of dollars, and land negotiations of even greater worth. But for the
most part, he kept his name off the record, using members of his
family and trusted lieutenants for that purpose. (26)

 

Marcello did not attend the national Mafia "conference" at Apalachin,
N.Y., of November 14, 1957. Instead, he sent his brother Joseph, the
family's underboss, as his personal representative. When the State
police discovered the gathering, Joe Marcello was one of those
identified as having attended, along with Vito Genovese Santos
Trafficante Carlo Gambino, Joe Bonanno, Sam Giancana, Russell
Bufalino, and Gerardo Catena. Joe Marcello, however, was able to evade
arresting officers and escaped from the scene along with Sam Giancana
and Carmine Galente. (27)

 

Carlos Marcello was called to testify before the McClellan committee
on March 24, 1959, during the committee's extended investigation of
labor racketeering and organized crime. Serving as chief counsel to
the committee was Robert F. Kennedy; his brother, Senator John F.
Kennedy, was a member of the committee. In response to committee
questioning, Marcello again invoked the fifth amendment in refusing to
answer any questions relating to his background, activities, and
associates.(28)

 

At the conclusion of Marcello's appearance before the committee,
Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina requested of the Chair permission
to ask the New Orleans underworld leader one final question:"I would
like to know how you managed to stay in the United States for 5 years,
9 months, and 24 days after you were found ordered deported as an
undesirable person."(29) Marcello's response to the question--"I
wouldn't know"--provoked Ervin to state that "the American people's
patience ought to run out on t his" and that "those who have no claim
to any right to remain in America, who come here and prey like leeches
upon law-abiding people * * * ought to be removed from this
country." (30) Senator Karl Mundt joined in Ervin's denunciation,
urging prompt action by the Attorney General, and Senator Carl Curtis
further remarked to Marcello that "I think you ought to pack up your
bags and voluntarily depart? (31)

 

By the early 1960's Carlos Marcello was widely recognized as one of
the 10 most powerful Mafia leaders in the United. States; he was a La
Cosa Nostra boss whose businesslike approach, political influence, and
power were particularly respected within the national underworld. His
30-year record of advancement in the organized crime hierarchy,
together with his influence in Louisiana and neighboring States,
secured a position of special respect for him among his syndicate
peers.

 

It was this same record of underworld achievement, as will be
discussed later, that also led to Carlos Marcello's becoming a special
target of investigation by the Department of Justice while John F.
Kennedy was President and Robert F. Kennedy, Attorney General.

 

In February 1964, the Saturday Evening Post reported additional
information about the growth of Marcello's criminal enterprises,
disclosing figures prepared by the New Orleans Crime Commission. Of
particular note was the prominent role which the New Orleans Mafia had
come to assume under Marcello's direction by 1963:

One of the things that distinguishes this branch is its talent at high
finance. So adept has it become at handling large sums of money--both
for itself and for the national organization-that it is sometimes
called the Wall Street of Cosa Nostra. Its annum income runs to
$1,114,000,000, making it by far the State's largest industry,
according to * * * the metropolitan crime commission * * * The sum is
all the more remarkable in that it compares with the estimated $2
billion racketeer take in Chicago and environs, and area with more
than five times the population of metropolitan New Orleans.(32)

 

The crime commission had estimated that the Marcello controlled
syndicate generated at least $500 million annually from illegal
gambling; $400 million from diverse "legitimate interests" in the
fields of transportation, finance, housing, and service industries;
$100 million from illegal activities in over 1,500 syndicate-connected
bars and taverns; $8 million from professional burglaries and holdups;
$6 million from prostitution; and another $100 million in the form
underpayment of taxes. (33)

 

The size of the Marcello organization's annual income is significant
in the context of the reported national income of organized crime.
Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark has noted that the most
conservative estimates indicate that "the profits for organized crime
[are] comparable to those of the 10 largest industrial corporations
combined * * * General Motors, Standard Oil, Ford, General Electric,
Chrysler, IBM, Mobile Oil, Texaco, Gulf, and U.S. Steel together. * *
*"(34)

 

In testimony before the House Select Committee on Crime several years
ago, Marcello provided a significantly different account his income,
stating that he earned "a salary of about $1,600 a month" as a tomato
salesman, traveling to various fruit stands and markets in the New
Orleans area. He also testified that he made a living through various
land investments. (35)

 

While Marcello's influence and stature as a Mafia leader was well-
known to both his underworld colleagues and Federal and State
authorities by the early 1960's, another significant aspect of his
careers--his relationship with the Maria's national governing
commission-was not confirmed until several years later. While it was
known that the New Orleans Mafia had been the first branch of the
Mafia in America (the Sicilian La Cosa Nostra had entered the United
States through the port of New Orleans during the 1880's) whether it
had extraordinary special privileges within the national syndicate had
long been mystery. During the late 1960's the FBI learned new and sub-
stantive information regarding its unique position. Sensitive Bureau
reports on La Cosa Nostra set forth the details obtained from a highly
reliable source. Among them were the following:

* * * he learned that the first "family" of what has now become known
as La Cosa Nostra (LCN) came from Sicily and settled in New Orleans *
* * the source noted that inasmuch as this "family" was the
predecessor of all subsequent "families," it has been afforded the
highest respect and esteem, and because of its exalted position, the
New Orleans "family" could make decisions on its own without going to
the "Commission." (36) * * * the source learned that the New Orleans
"family" could have, on its own, "opened the books," [admitting new
members into the organization] but because of the tact and diplomacy
of Carlos Marcello he sought "Commission" approval in making new
"soldiers," which the "Commission" naturally granted * * *.(37)

 

Aaron Kolm believed that Marcello's underworld syndicate had "a more
than autonomous combination of circumstances because of the remoteness
of New Orleans" (37) and thus enjoyed an unusually independent
relationship with the ruling commission of the Mafia. (38) Patrick
Collins, an FBI agent who investigated the Marcello organization
during the late 1960's, expressed a similar view regarding Marcello's
relationship with the underworld commission. He told the committee
that the New Orleans Mafia family "was unique among all the mobs" (39)
in that it "didn't have to consult the commission in the same way as
the other families did; there was a unique independence of sorts."(40)
Collins said further that "the commission wouldn't question Marcello
about making new members. He was not subject to the necessity of
clearing such things with the commission, like the other families
were."(41) In addition Marcello "is probably the single most respected
boss among all of the others" in La Cosa Nostra and "has been for
years."

 

In late 1966, Marcello's status in organized crime was underscored
when he was arrested in New York along with Carlo Gambino, then the
Maria's reported "boss of all bosses" at a summit meeting of La Cosa
Nostra leaders. (43) On September 22, 1966, New York police arrested
those two Santos Trafficante, Joe Colombo, Thomas Eboli, Mike Miranda
and several others at the La Stella restaurant on Long Island; this
mob gathering was quickly dubbed by the newspapers "the Little
Apalachin" conference. (44) While authorities came to believe that the
La Stella "luncheon" was actually a pro forma gathering following a
more serious meeting (probably of the night before), the assemblage
has never been fully explained. (45) In his testimony before the
committee, Marcello stated there had been no substance to the
gathering:"We just walked in. When we walked in we got arrested. We
didn't have time to eat or talk."(46) None of those arrested were
convicted of a crime. The seating arrangement was as follows:

Seating Arrangement at La Stella

 

Eight days after, the La Stella arrests, upon his return to New
Orleans International Airport, Marcello committed the only Federal
offense for which he has been tried and convicted iu recent times. On
September 30, 1966, as he made his way through the crowd of newsmen
and spectators who had gathered to watch his return, Marcello had a
verbal exchange with a man in the crowd who he believed was impeding
his way. (47) Shouting "I'm the boss here!", Marcello took a wild
swing with his fist at the man.(48) The man turned out to be FBI
Special Agent Patrick Collins.(49) Arrested by FBI agents on the
following day and charged with assault, Marcello was eventually tried
in Laredo, Tex. The trial resulted in a hung jury (the New Orleans
Crime Commission subsequently. conclude that "There were substantial
reasons to suspect jury tampering had occurred."). (50)

 

Under the vigorous direction of the New Orleans strike force, Marcello
was retried and subsequently convicted in .Houston, Tex:, on August 9,
1968. (51) Originally sentenced to 2 years in Federal prison, Marcello
served less than 6 months, he was released on March 12, 1971. As the
New Orleans Crime Commission noted at the time the large number of
prestigious individuals who .sought to intercede on his behalf, urging
clemency, further underscored the depth of his influence in Louisiana.
(52)

 

During the late 1960's and early 1970's, Marcello and his organized
crime activities were the subject of renewed public attention. He was
referred to ,by the chief of police in Youngstown, Ohio, as "the
archetype of the devious pattern of the Mafiosi." (53) On September
1967, Life magazine also identified Marcello as one of the "handfull"
of men who controlled organized crime throughout the Nation.(54) In a
special investigative report, the magazine reported that Marcello was
personally directing a national La Cosa Nostra scheme to secure the
release of Teamster leader James R. Hoffa from Federal prison through
attempts to bribe the former chief prosecution witness against him to
recant his testimony.(55) Life said that various key Mafia leaders in
the east had given the alleged free-Hoffa assignment to Marcello,
along with personal pledges of between $1 to $2 million to effect the
plan. (56) (The effort was to fail.) In its following issue, Life went
on to portray Marcello as "King Thug of Louisiana." reporting that he
was one of the State's wealthiest men and "the lord of one of the
richest and most corrupt criminal fiefdoms in the land." (57)

 

In August 1969, Look magazine reported on Marcello's political and
criminal influence in the Gulf States region. (58)

 

On March 1, 1970, UPI stated that there were indications that Marcello
might be preparing to leave the United States, rather than submit to
the forthcoming imprisonment growing out of his conviction for
assaulting the FBI agent. (59) According to the story, Marcello's
attorney, G. Wray Gill, had denied the rumor, stating, "This is where
Marcello wants to be and nobody can put Marcello out of the country
unless they put a shotgun to his head."(60) On March 2, amid
television reports in New Orleans that Marcello would in fact flee the
country, the New Orleans States-Item reported that there was no firm
evidence to support the rumors. (61) In fact, Marcello never did leave
the country.

 

In its April 10, 1970 issue Life published a followup to its
investigation of Marcello of 3 years earlier, concluding that
"Marcello, now 60, not only continues to dominate [Louisiana] but
grows vastly richer each year at public expense."(62) The magazine
detailed various alleged relationships between Marcello and key State
officials and reported on two recent organized crime murders
attributed to the Marcello organization. (63) The following month, in
May 1970, labor columnist Victor Riesel reported that Federal
organized crime investigators had concluded that Carlos Marcello had
become one of the two most powerful Mafia leaders in the Nation,
second only to Carlo Gambino, the actual "boss of all bosses."(64)
Riesel stated that Federal officials had come to view Marcello as the
single most influential organized crime figure in the Nation outside
of New York. (65)

 

In the fall of 1970, the Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times
published further accounts of Marcello's more recent activities, with
the Times reporting that his criminal organization had expanded to
unprecedented dimensions. (66)

 

Appearing before the House Select Committee on Crime in June of 1972
Marcello repeated his claims that he was not involved with organized
crime. He testified that he did not know what a racketeer was; (67)
did not have any business interests outside of Louisiana; (68) had
never contributed any funds to political figures in an effort to gain
influence; (69) and had not been significantly acquainted with any
national organized crime leaders with the exception of Santos
Trafficante (70) and the late Frank Costello. (71)

 

In response to a question by a member of the crime committee as to how
he could "account for the fact [that] you have been repeatedly
identified as a significant figure in organized crime by apparently
responsible people," Marcello responded that he had been the subject
of "false statements" ever since the Kefauver committee investigation
of 1951. (72) Marcello testified that although numerous Federal and
State investigators had caused him to be the subject of negative
publicity, "I am not in no racket. I am not in no organized
crime."(73)

MARCELLO: A KENNEDY ADMINISTRATION TARGET

Deportation efforts

 

Carlos Marcello and his syndicate became a primary target of
investigation by the Department of Justice during the Kennedy
administration. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy viewed him as one
of the most powerful and threatening Mafia leaders in the Nation and
ordered that the Justice Department focus on him, along with other
figures such as Teamsters president Hoffa and Chicago Mafia leader Sam
Giancana. (74)

 

In Marcello's case the intent of the Kennedy administration was made
known even before Inauguration Day, January 20, 1961. On December 28,
1960, the New Orleans States-Item reported that Attorney General-
designate Kennedy was planning specific actions against Marcello. (75)
An FBI report from that period noted:

On January 12, 1961, a [source] advised that Carlos Marcello is
extremely apprehensive and upset and has since the New Orleans States-
Item newspaper on December 28, 1960 published a news story reporting
that... Robert F. Kennedy stated he would expedite the deportation
proceedings pending against Marcello after Kennedy takes office in
January 1961. (76)

 

The Bureau's La Cosa Nostra file for 1961 noted that Marcello flew to
Washington, D.C., shortly after the inauguration o.f President Kennedy
and was in touch with a number of political and business associates.
(77) While there, he placed a telephone call to the office of at least
one Congressman. (78)

 

Bureau records further indicate that Marcello initiated various
efforts to forestall or prevent the anticipated prompt deportation
action. An FBI report noted that Marcello may have tried a circuitous
approach. (79) Through a source, the Bureau learned of another Mafia
leader's account of how Marcello had reportedly proceeded.(80)
Philadelphia underworld leader Angelo Bruno discussed a specific
attempt by Marcello to forestall an action by the immigration
authorities.(81) According to the Philadelphia underworld leader
Marcello had enlisted his close Mafia associate, Santos Trafficante of
Florida, in the reported plan. (82) Trafficante in turn contacted
Frank Sinatra to have the singer use his friendship with the Kennedy
family on Marcello's behalf. (83) This effort met with failure and may
even have resulted in intensified Federal efforts against Marcello.
(84)

 

In response to Attorney General Kennedy's strong interest in Marcello,
the New Orleans FBI office prepared a report on him and his Mafia
associates for FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover on February 13, 1961. (85)
A report prepared under the direction of special Agent Regis Kennedy,
the New Orleans office stated that "Continued investigation of Carlos
Maxcello since December 1957, has failed to develop vulnerable area
wherein Marcello may be in violation of statutes within the FBI's
jurisdiction." (86) This assessment by the New Orleans office
illustrated why Justice Department and other law enforcement officials
viewed as less than satisfactory its performance prior to the
mid-1960's in investigating organized crime.

 

While the committee carefully examined numerous areas of information
pertaining to the proficiency of the FBI in investigating organized
crime during the 1950's and early 1960's and found various areas in
which Bureau performance was significantly deficient, the city of New
Orleans was a special case. The indications are that the Bureau's
limited work on the Marcello case may have been attributable to a
disturbing attitude on the part of the senior agent who supervised the
case, Regis Kennedy. He had been in charge of the Bureau's work on
Marcello and the New Orleans Mafia for years and also directed much of
the FBI investigation in that city of President Kennedy's
assassination. In an interview with the committee several months
before his death in 1978, Kennedy had stated that he believed Marcello
was not engaged in any organized crime activities or other illegal
actions during the period from 1959 until at least 1963. (87) He also
stated that he did not believe Marcello was a significant organized
crime figure and did not believe that he was currently involved in
criminal enterprises. (88)

 

Kennedy further informed the committee that he believed Marcello would
"stay away" from any improper activity and in reality did earn his
living as a tomato salesman and real estate investor. (89) In response
to the question of why Marcello had been consistently identified as
one of the Nation's most powerful Mafia leaders by Federal authorities
for over 20 years, Kennedy stated that the New Orleans FBI office did
not know why Marcello was so identilied. (90) He further stated that
the New Orleans office had simply responded to periodic directives
from Washington instructing it to monitor Marcello, but had not
selected him from investigative attention on its own.(91)

 

In November 1978, the managing director of the New Orleans Crime
Commission, Aaron Kohn, testified that agent Kennedy's surprising
views about Carlos Marcello were well-known to him during that period.
(92) While Kennedy had served the Bureau with distinction in other
areas, his attitude toward investigating the organized crime syndicate
in New Orleans was one of negativism and ridicule; (93) it was also
accompanied by a belief that Carlos Marcello was not in any way a
significant criminal figure. (94)

 

In an interview with the committee on November 15, 1978, Kennedy's
successor as the FBI organized crime case agent in New Orleans,
Patrick Collins, stated that Kennedy "had taken the Deep South
approach to organized crime; it's up North but it sure isn't down
here." (95) Further, Kennedy and other agents "didn't see Marcello for
what he is. It is incredible to think, but they didn't understand that
this was a Mafia family down in New Orleans." (96) While stating that
he had it high regard for Kennedy's other work, Collins said he
believed Kennedy's attitude was one of "boredom" over having to file
periodic reports on Marcello and organized crime. (97)

 

While the New Orleans FBI office's assessment of Marcello and his
activities did not significantly contribute to the Federal efforts
against him, other agencies were pressing the drive in a more
substantive way. On March 3, 1961, General Joseph Swing of the
Immigration and Naturalization Service advised the FBI that: . . . the
Attorney General had been emphasizing . . . the importance of taking
prompt action to deport notorious hoodlums. In this connection, the
Marcello case is of particular interest. A final order of deportation
has been entered against Marcello but this fact is being held in
strictest confidence. (98)

 

On the afternoon of April 4, 1961, 8 years after he was ordered
deported, Carlos Marcello was finally ejected from the United States.
As he walked into the INS office in New Orleans for his regular
appointment to report as an alien, he was arrested and handcuffed by
INS officials. (99) He was then rushed to the New Orleans airport and
flown to Guatemala.(100) Marcello's attorneys denounced the
deportation later that day, terming it "cruel and uncivilized," and
noted that their client had not been allowed to telephone his attorney
or see his wife.(101)

 

On the following day, April 5, 1961, Attorney General Robert F.
Kennedy stated that "Marcello's deportation was in strict accordance
with the law."(102) Justice Department officials noted that while
Marcello had not been allowed to call an attorney, one of his
attorneys was present with him at the time, and that INS officials had
unsuccessfully tried to bring Mrs. Marcello to the airport to meet
him. (103) The officials noted that special security precautions had
been taken to insure against Marcello's escape prior to actual
deportation(104) because he had disappeared several times in the past
when deportation proceedings were reaching critical junctures. (105)
(As will be seen, such precautions were unable to prevent Marcello's
return to the country 2 months later.)

 

In testimony before the committee on January 11, 1978, Marcello stated
that he had not been surprised that Attorney General Kennedy had
decided to press his deportation. (106) He noted, that "he [Kennedy]
said * * * he would see that I be deported just as soon as he got in
office. Well, he got in office January 20 * * * and April the 4th he
deported me." (107)

 

As he had in the past on several occasions, Marcello referred to his
1961 deportation as an illegal "kidnaping."(108) In his ance before
the committee, he testified that "two marshals put the handcuffs on me
and they told me that I was being kidnaped and being brought to
Guatemala, which they did, and in 30 minutes time I was in the
plane."(109) He further testified that "they dumped me off in
Guatemala, and I asked them, let me use the phone to call my wife, let
me get my clothes, something they wouldn't hear about. They just
snatched me and that is it, actually kidnaped me." (110)

 

On April 10, 1961, 6 days after he was deported, the Internal Revenue
Service filed a $835,396 tax lien against Marcello and his wife. (111)
On April 23, news reports disclosed that Marcello was being held in
custody by Guatemalan authorities in connection with what were
reported to be false citizenship papers he had presented on arrival
there April 6. (112) On May 4, Guatemalan President Miguel Fuentes
ordered that Marcello be expelled; he was driven to and released at
the El Salvador border late that night. (113)

 

On May 19, 1961, a Federal court in Washington ruled that Marcello's
deportation was fully valid and denied a motion by his attorneys that
it be declared illegal. (114) With that ruling, Marcello's reentry to
the country was prohibited. (115 )

 

Less than 2 weeks later, Marcello secretly gained entry into the
United States. On June 2 1961, confirming widespread rumors that their
client had somehow slipped back in, Marcello's attorneys announced he
had returned and was in hiding.(116) Federal investigators have never
been able to establish in detail his means of entry.

 

On June 5, 1961, after Attorney General Kennedy dispatched 20 Federal
agents to Shreveport, La., to conduct a search for Marcello, the
Louisiana crime leader voluntarily surrendered in New Orleans and was
ordered held in an alien detention center st McAllen, Tex.(117) On
June 8, a Federal grand jury indicted him for illegal reentry;(118) on
July 11, the INS ruled he was an undesirable alien and once again
ordered him deported. (119)

 

On June 16, 1961, the FBI received a report that a U.S. Senator from
Louisiana might have sought to intervene on Marcello's behalf. (120)
This Senator had reportedly received "financial aid from Marcello" in
the past and was sponsoring a Louisiana official for a key INS
position from which assistance might be rendered. (121).

 

In July 1961, the Justice Department's organized crime section with
the assistance of codebreaking specialists of the FBI, made an effort
to decode what was believed to be a secret communication involving
Marcello and an associate.(122) While senior aides to Attorney General
Kennedy sought to decipher the reported Marcello message, the FBI
Laboratory concluded that:

Because of the brevity of the text, no determination as to the meaning
of the possible code * * * could be made. It is possible, however,
that the names in the text * * * represent double meaning, wherein
certain words are given arbitrary meanings by the correspondents.
(123)

 

While the various court actions and appeals on Marcello's deportation
and illegal reentry were continuing in the fall of 1961, he was again
called before the McClellan committee to testify about organized crime
gambling activities in Louisiana. (124) In response to committee
questions Marcello invoked the fifth amendment: refusing to provide
any information other than his name and alleged place of birth. (125)

 

On October 30, 1961, Attorney General Kennedy announced the indictment
of Marcello by a Federal grand jury in New Orleans on charges of
conspiracy in falsifying a Guatemalan birth certificate and committing
perjury. (126) Marcello's brother, Joseph was also charged in the
alleged falsification of the birth certificate. (127)

 

On December 20, 1961, with Marcello free on a $10,000 bond, the five-
member Board of Immigration Appeals upheld the deportation order
against Marcello, denying another appeal by Marcello attorneys that it
be declared invalid. (128)

 

In October 1962, a Bureau of Narcotics report described Marcello as
"one of the Nation's leading racketeers" and noted that he was
"currently under intensive investigation by the Internal Revenue
Service Intelligence Division for tax fraud."(129) The report also
noted that Marcello was then instituting a further legal step to
forestall deportation. (130) Marcello's attorneys had filed a legal
writ in an effort to set aside his Federal conviction on narcotics
charges from years earlier.(131) This conviction was one of the key
factors in the ongoing deportation proceedings against him.(132)

 

On October 31, 1962, a Federal court ruled against Marcello's attempt
to have the 1938 drug conviction nullified. (133) The court said that
his claim that he had not had counsel present when he pied guilty to
the narcotics charge on October 29, 1938, was false, (134) as was his
claim that he had not known of his rights and could not afford an
attorney. (135)

Increased Federal Pressure

 

On February 15, 1963, in apparent response to Attorney General
Kennedy's request for continuing action against Marcello, FBI Director
J. Edgar Hoover directed the New Orleans FBI office to intensify its
coverage of Marcello and his organization. (136) He ordered that a
"special effort" be made to upgrade the level of the investigation of
Marcello, and suggested increased use of informants as well as the
possible initiation of electronic surveillance. (137)

 

During the course of its investigation of specific organized crime
leaders and their activities, the committee had devoted special
attention to the degree to which such figures were subject to
electronic surveillance by Federal or State agencies during the period
of the early 1960's. The committee believed that there was a
possibility that electronic surveillance might have recorded some
discussion of the Kennedy assassination. In evaluating various
assessments by organized crime specialists during the early 1960's,
the committee had noted that the likelihood of identifying the
commission of criminal acts by organized crime figures during that
period varied with the scope of electronic surveillance of those
figures. (138)

 

After carefully examining the various electronic surveillance programs
in effect during the early 1960's, the committee found that Carlos
Marcello had never been subject to such coverage during that period.
FBI files indicate that while there had not been prior interest in
using such investigative techniques in Marcello's case the Bureau did
attempt to institute electronic surveillance during the period of 1963
and 1964. (139) Two unsuccessful attempts were made to effect such
surveillance,(140) failures attributable in all likelihood to the
security system employed by Marcello at the various locations from
which he operated. (141)

 

AI Staffeld, the former FBI official who coordinated Bureau activities
in the organized crime field in this period, gave the committee his
view--that the FBI "had virtually nothing in electronic surveillance
on Marcello and his guys. We just couldn't effectuate it. With
Marcello you've got the one big exception in our work back then: There
was just no way of penetrating that area. He was too smart."The
inability to effect surveillance of Marcello apparently continued, as
FBI files indicate that as late as 1967 Bureau officials were prepared
to testify that Marcello had never been the subject of electronic
surveillance. (143)

 

Attorney General Kennedy's personal interest in the continuing Justice
Department investigation of Marcello was further evidenced in April
1963. He had received a letter which he in turn ordered the chief of
the Criminal Division, Jack Miller, to forward to Hoover for his
personal attention. (144) The letter was from a citizen claiming to
have knowledge of a severe beating inflicted upon a friend by
lieutenants of Marcello.(145) The Attorney General requested immediate
Bureau attention to the matter.

 

On May 27, 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court, in response to an appeal
filed by Marcello's attorneys, (146) declined to review the Marcello
deportation action and upheld the earlier decision of the U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals. (147)

 

On November 4, 1963, Marcello went on trial in New Orleans on Federal
charges of conspiracy in connection with his alleged falsification of
a Guatemalan birth certificate. (148) Eighteen days later, on November
22, 1963, he was acquitted. The news of President Kennedy's murder in
Dallas reached the New Orleans courtroom shortly before the verdict
was announced'(149).

 

On July 22, 1964, the Supreme Court rejected another appeal by
Marcello to have his 1938 narcotics conviction set aside, upholding
the rulings of various lower courts. (150)

 

On October 6, 1964, Marcello and an associate were indicted in Federal
court on charges of having bribed a member of the jury that had
acquitted Marcello on November 22, 1963.(151) The indictment alleged
that Marcello and his lieutenants had made two secret pay- ments to a
juror with "the intent to influence his action, vote, opinion and
decision" in the case. (152) The indictment further charged that in
November 1963, Marcello had endeavored "to influence, obstruct, and
impede" the prosecution "by requesting the murder of * * * a principal
witness" for the Government, Carl Noll. (153)

 

Marcello surrendered at the Federal courthouse and was subsequently
freed on a $100,000 bond on October 8, after the U.S. attorney noted
that a search by 10 FBI agents had been unsuccessful in locating him
the day before. (154) The charge of having requested the murder of the
chief prosecution witness in the 1963 case was later dropped,
following the reported unwillingness of that person to testify to the
incident. Marcello was acquitted by a jury of the other charges. (155)

 

Efforts to deport Marcello were still underway in 1979. In late 1975,
Marcello's attorneys had filed an appeal for suspension of his
deportation order, based on "good moral character" during the previous
10 years. (156) Another Marcello appeal was pending in the U.S.
district court in New Orleans in 1978. (157)

 

While INS officials point out the peculiar nature of the current
deportation process in the United States, which sets no practical
limits on the number and frequency of appeals and other legal steps a
person may initiate to forestall deportation, another factor has been
central to Marcello's continued presence in the United States.
Immigration officials note that before the final step of deportation
can be taken, some other country must agree to issue travel documents
authorizing the person to settle in that nation. (158) As of 1979, no
country was willing to do so. (159)

ALLEGED ASSASSINATION THREAT BY MARCELLO

 

As part of its investigation, the committee examined a published
account of what was alleged to have been a threat made by Carlos
Marcello in late 1962 against the life of President Kennedy and his
brother, Robert, the Attorney General. The information was first set
forth publicly in a book on organized crime published in 1969, "The
Grim Reapers," by Ed Reid.(160) Reid, a former editor of the Las Vegas
Sun, was a writer on organized crime and the coauthor, with Ovid
Demaris, of "The Green Felt Jungle," published in 1963.

 

In a lengthy chapter on the New Orleans Mafia and Carlos Marcello,
Reid wrote of an alleged private meeting between Marcello and two or
more men sometime in September 1962. (161) His account was based on
interviews he had conducted with a man who alleged he had attended the
meeting. (162)

 

According to Reid's informant, the Marcello meeting was held in a
farmhouse at Churchill Farms, the 3,000-acre swampland plantation
owned by Marcello outside of New Orleans.(163) Reid wrote that
Marcello and three other men had gone to the farmhouse in a car driven
by Marcello himself.(164) Marcello and the other men gathered inside
the farmhouse, had drinks and engaged in casual conversation that
included the general subjects of business and sex.(165) After further
drinks "brought more familiarity and re- laxation, the dialog turned
to serious matters, including the pressure law enforcement agencies
were bringing to bear on the Mafia brotherhood" as a result of the
Kennedy administration. (166)

 

Reid's book contained the following account of the discussion:

It was then that Carlos' voice lost its softness, and his words were
bitten off and spit out when mention was made of U.S. Attorney General
Robert Kennedy, who was still on the trail of Marcello. "Livarsi na
petra di la scarpa!" Carlos shrilled the cry of revenge: "Take the
stone out of my shoe!" "Don't worry about that little Bobby, son of a
bitch," he shouted. "He's going to be taken care of!" Ever since
Robert Kennedy had arranged for his deportation to Guatemala, Carlos
had wanted revenge. But as the subsequent conversation, which was
reported to two top Government investigators by one of the
participants and later to this author, showed, he knew that to rid
himself of Robert Kennedy he would first have to remove the President.
Any killer of the Attorney General would be hunted down by his
brother; the death of the President would seed the fate of his
Attorney General.(167)

* * * * * * *

No one at the meeting had any doubt about Marcello's intentions when
he abruptly arose from the table. Marcello did not joke about such
things. In any case, the matter had gone beyond mere "business"; it
had become an affair of honor, a Sicilian vendetta. Moreover, the
conversation at Churchill Farms also made clear that Marcello had
begun to move. He had, for example, already thought of using "nut" to
do the job. Roughly 1 year later President Kennedy was shot Dallas--2
months after Attorney General Robert Kennedy had announced to the
McClellan committee that he was going to expand his war on organized
crime. And it is perhaps significant that privately Robert Kennedy had
singled out James Hoffa, Sam Giancana, and Carlos Marcello as being
among his chief targets. (168)

 

In an interview with the committee, Reid said that his informant
stated that Marcello seemed to be "very serious" as he spoke of'
planning to assassinate President Kennedy. (169) He further told the
committee that while his informant had had great doubts at the time as
to whether Marcello could or would have the President assassinated,
immediately after the, assassination occurred, he came to believe that
Marcello was in fact the perpetrator. (170)

 

Reid informed the committee that he believed his informant, man with
underworld associations, was credible and trustworthy (171) and had in
fact provided "unusually reliable" information about organized crime
on past occasions, including during the writing of "The, Green Felt
Jungle.';(172) based on past association and contacts with the
informant, Reid was "strongly inclined to believe his account of the
Marcello meeting,"(173) although he was "not sure, what it all means
in the final analysis." (174)

FBI investigation of the allegations

 

In early May 1967, over a year and a half before the book was
published, senior officials of the FBI learned of the account of the
alleged meeting. (175) According to an FBI memorandum of May 1967,
from Assistant Director Alex Rosen to Assistant Director Cartha
DeLoach, the Bureau's Los Angeles office had been contacted on May 6
by Reid. (176) The memorandum stated that Reid, "who has written
several books concerning the hoodlum element," had contacted the Los
Angeles office and had "indicated he had information concerning John
RoselIi."(177) The memorandum further stated that when Reid was
interviewed, he showed his manuscript to the Bureau's Los Angeles
agents. (178) The memorandum gave the following account of Reid's
information: Reid refers to Carlos Marcello and indicated there was a
meeting on September 11, 1963 at Churchill Farms outside New Orleans,
La., attended by several people including Marcello and Reid's
informant. Marcello was alleged to have said that in order to get
Bobby Kennedy they would have to get the President, and they could not
kill Bobby because the President would use the Army and the Marines to
get them. The result of killing the President would cause Bobby to
lose his power as Attorney General because of the New President. (179)

 

While the Bureau memorandum indicates that the agents who read that
section of Reid's manuscript believed it placed the meeting in
September 1963, the actual account published by Reid in 1969 stated
that the meeting had occurred in September 1962.(180) In his committee
interview, Reid said that he had "always stated that the meeting was
in September 1962"(181) because his informant had "clearly recalled"
the time of the meeting and had been "traveling in Louisiana" that
month. (182)

 

The Bureau memorandum went on to state that Reid had informed the Los
Angeles agents that "a person who attended this alleged meeting was
interviewed by agents of our Los Angeles office and furnished them the
information."(183) Further, Reid believed that "several days" after
the informant had artended the meeting with Marcello, he "was
interviewed concerning the Billie Sol Estes case, an which time he
allegedly related to our agents what he heard at Churchill
Farms." (184)

 

The memorandum goes on to note that a review of FBI files on Reid's
informant, whose name was Edward Becker, showed he had in fact been
interviewed by Bureau agents on November 26, 1969, in connection with
the Billie Sol Estes investigation. (185) While "[i]n this interview,
Marcello was mentioned * * * in connection with a business proposition
* * * no mention was made of Attorney General Kennedy or President
Kennedy, or any threat against them. (186)

 

The memorandum said that the agents who read the part of Reid's
manuscript on the meeting told the author that Becker had not informed
the Bureau of the alleged Marcello discussion of assassination. (187)
In fact, "It is noted Edward Nicholas Becker is a private investigator
in Los Angeles who in the past has had a reputation of being
unreliable and known to misrepresent facts." (188)

 

The memorandum concluded by stating that Reid's offer to provide the
Bureau with information about Marina figure John Roselli had been
declined:

In connection with John Roselli, Reid wanted to trade information
concerning him, which offer was refused. He mentioned he was concerned
with Roselli's association with attorney Edward Morgan of Washington,
D.C. As you recall, Morgan was previously interviewed at the request
of the White House concerning alleged information in his possession
regarding the assassination. Also, Roselli was the connecting link
between ,CIA and Robert Maheu who was hired by CIA to approach Sam
Giancana to have Castro assassinated. (189)

 

The memorandum went to Assistant Directors Rosern and DeLoach, and to
the most senior officials in the Bureau, including Assistant Director
William Sullivan and several of his deputies, and Assistant Director
James Gales of the Inspection Division, all of whom had direct
responsibility for the FBI's investigation of President Kennedy's
murder.(190) No instructions of any kind to follow up on the
information regarding Marcello, the alleged, assassination discussion,
and the informant, were issued subsequently. (191)

 

The only directive regarding the matter was a handwritten notation
made on the memorandum by DeLoach:(192) "We should discretly identify
the publisher" of the Reid book. (193)

 

Two days later, in an FBI memorandum of May 17, 1967, the Special
Agent in Charge (SAC) of the Los Angeles office reported some
additional information to Hoover.(194) In the memorandum, the Los
Angeles office set forth some alleged information it had learned
regarding Becker, who, the memo noted, claimed to have heard
"statements supposedly made by Carlos Marcello on September 11, 1963,
concerning the pending assassination of President Kennedy."(195) The
FBI memo stated that 1 day after the Bureau first learned of the Reid
information, its Los Angeles office received information regarding
Edward Becker which was allegedly damaging to his reputation. (196)
According to the information, Sidney Korshak had been discussing
Becker and:

* * * Korshak inquired as to who Ed Becker was and advised that Becker
was trying to shake down some Korshak's friends for money by claiming
he is the collaborator with Reid and that for money he could keep the
names of these people out of the book. (197)

 

The memorandum also stated that Sidney Korshak had further stated that
"Becker was a no-good shakedown artist," (198) information which in
turn became known to the Bureau. (199)

 

The memorandum did not mention the background of the person who was
supplying the negative information and allegations about Becker--
Sidney Korshak. He was a Los Angeles labor lawyer, who has been
alleged to have underworld associations in Chicago, California, Las
Vegas, and New York.(200) The Bureau's own files identified him as a
continuing subject of numerous organized crime investigations, an
associate of reputed Chicago Mafia executioners Gus Alex and Murray
"The Camel" Humphreys, (201) and a business associate of James R.
Hoffa and Paul Doffman. (202) In an extensive four-part investigative
series in 1976, the New York Times noted that a 1968 Justice
Department report had described Korshak as perhaps "the most
significant link in the relationship between the crime syndicate
politics, labor, and management."(203) The Times further reported that
at a meeting in April 1976, senior officials of the Justice
Department's Organized Crime Division had "reached a consensus that
Mr. Korshak was one of the five most powerful members of the
underworld."

 

*Where Becker is referred to as an "informant," it should be noted
that this applies to his relationship to Reid and not to a Federal law
enforcement agency.

 

 

On June 5, 1967, in another memorandum to Director Hoover, the Los
Angeles FBI office reported that the person who had provided the
derogatory information on Becker had contacted Reid on May 26 in an
effort to "discredit" Becker's information about Marcello. (205) This
person had provided Reid with the information about Becker 'which had
derived from Korshak.(206) The memorandum went on to state that "The
purpose [of this person] was to discredit Becker to Reid in order that
the Carlos Marcello incident would be deleted from the book by Reid.

 

On May 31, 1967, according to the same memorandum, a special agent of
the Los Angeles office was involved in a visit to Reid's (208) in a
further effort to persuade him of Becker's alleged untrustworthiness.
(209) During this visit:

It was again pointed out to Reid that Becker had been interviewed by
Bureau agents in November 1969 concerning the Billie Sol Estes case,
but had not mentioned the reputed conversation or statements allegedly
made by Marcello on September 11, 1963 (almost a year later) at at
Churchill Farms, New Orleans.(210)

 

The Bureau's possible confusion over the time periods involved in the
matter was further evidenced in the memorandum, Which said that "in
November 1969" Becker had "not mentioned the reputed * * * statements
allegedly made by Marcello on September 11, 1963."(211) Again, both
Reid and Becker have maintained consistently that they made clear that
the meeting was in September 1962, rather than September 1963, (212)
and that the specific reference in the Reid book stated "September
1962."(213) Additionally, the Bureau's own files on Becker (while not
containing any references to assassination) clearly indicated that
Becker had been interviewed by agents in November 1962, following a
trip through Louisiana that September. (214) Committee investigation
of the allegation.

 

The committee carefully examined the FBI's files relating to Becker
and the Bureau's contact with him in late 1962. The first Bureau
reference to Becker appeared in a report of November 20, 1962,
regarding a private investigator working on the Billie Sol Estes case,
the famous multimillion-dollar fraud investigation of the early 1960's.
(215) The report noted that Becker, then 42 was associated with an
investigator being employed by one of the oil service companies that
had allegedly been swindled by Estes.(216) Becker was said to have had
first met with the investigator in Brownswood, Tex., on September 18,
1962, and that they had traveled to Shreveport, La. on business on
September 21. (217) Becker was associated with an oil geologist in
Shreveport, Carl Roppolo,(218) who was alleged to be a close
acquaintance of Carlos Marcello. (219) The report noted that one
person had told the Bureau that "Roppolo had said that his mother is
Carlos Martello's sister, and that Roppollo is the favorite
nephew."(220) As is discussed later, Becker informed the committee
that Roppolo, a close friend of his, was the man who allegedly set up
the September 1962 meeting with Marcello and artended the meeting
along with Becker for the purpose of seeking Marcello's support for a
proposed business venture of theirs. (221)

 

Becker was referred to in a second FBI report of November 21, 1962,
which dealt with an alleged counterfeiting ring and a Dallas lawyer
who reportedly had knowledge of it. (222) This report noted that
Becker was being used as an "informant" by a private investigator in
the investigation(223) and was assisting to the extent that he began
receiving expense money.(234) The Los Angeles FBI office noted that
the investigator working with Becker had "admitted that he could be
supporting a con game for living expenses on the part of Becker * * *
but that he doubted it," as he had only provided Becker with limited
expenses. (225)

 

The November 21, 1962, Bureau report noted further that Becker had
once been associated with Max Field, a criminal associate of Mafia
leader Joseph Sica of Los Angeles. (226) According to the report "It
appears that Becker * * * has been feeding all rumors he has heard
plus whatever stories he can fit into the picture." (227)

 

On November 26, 1962, Becker was interviewed by the FBI in connection
with its investigation of the Billie Sol Estes case on which Becker
was then also working as a private investigator.(228) Becker told the
Bureau of his recent trips to Dallas, Tex., and Louisiana, and
informed them of the information he had heard about counterfeiting in
Dallas.(229) At that point Becker also briefly discussed Carlos
Marcello:

He [Becker] advised that on two occasions he has accompanied Roppolo
to New Orleans, where they met with one Carlos Martello, who is a
longtime friend of Roppolo. He advised that Roppolo was to obtain the
financing for their promotional business from Marcello. He advised
that he knew nothing further about Marcello. (230)

 

Becker was briefly mentioned in another Bureau report, of November 27,
1962, which again stated that he allegedly made up "stories" and
invented rumors to derive "possible gain" from such false information.
(231)

 

Three days later, on November 30, 1962, another Bureau report on the
Billie Sol Estes case made reference to Becker's trip to Dallas in
September and his work on the ease. (232) The report noted that Becker
was apparently associated with various show business personalities in
Las Vegas.(233) Further, a man who had been acquainted with Becker had
referred to him as a "small-time con man." (234)

 

In an April 11, 1963, FBI report, Becker and his friend Roppolo were
referred to once again. (235) The report had been written by agent
Regis Kennedy of the New Orleans office in response to a directive
issued shortly after Becker informed the Bureau that Roppolo had
accompanied him to two business meetings with Marcello. (236) The New
Orleans office had been instructed to determine if Roppolo was in fact
acquainted with Marcello, as advised by Becker. (237) The April 11,
1963, report concluded that Roppolo did in all likelihood know the New
Orleans Mafia leader. (238) A source had informed the New Orleans
office that the Marcello and Roppolo "families were quite close at one
time as they came from the 'old country' at approximately the same
time and lived as neighbors in New Orleans." (239)

 

This report further stated that the same source doubted whether
Roppolo himself could secure financial backing from Marcello for a
business venture, due to Roppolo's alleged reputation as someone
"rather shiftless."(240) Roppolo was regarded as "a problem" a person
who "is always trying to promote something." (241)

 

While the committee was unable to develop more specific information
regarding the relationship between Becker's associate, Roppolo, and
Marcello, the committee did receive information indicating a closer
relationship than was indicated in the April 1963 FBI report. The New
Orleans Crime Commission, in various analyses and charts of the
Marcello organization, had for years been identifying Lillian Roppolo
as an associate of Carlos Marcello. (242). Aaron Kohn, noted the
reported relationship between the two families and stated that Lillian
Roppolo "was considered to be something of a courier for
Marcello."(243) A Crime Commission file on the Roppolos indicates that
she had an even closer personal relationship with Marcello, in
addition to the alleged courier and business activities.(244) During
his appearance before the committee on January 11, 1978, Marcello
himself brought up his apparent familiarity with the Roppolos when he
was questioned about his knowledge of a person having a similar
sounding surname. (245)

Becker's statement to the committee

 

During its examination of Reid's published account of the alleged
Marcello discussion about assassinating President Kennedy, the
committee received a more detailed account from Becker of the
allegations and information he originally provided Reid. Becker, 57 in
1979, told the committee that his account of the meeting and
discussion with Marcello in 1962 "is truthful. It was then and it is
now. I was there."(246) He maintained that "the FBI--their agents in
Los Angeles--have tried to discredit me. They've done everything
except investigate the information I gave Reid. They apparently have
always said it was not the truth, but they've never investigated it to
arrive at that judgment? (247) Becker indicated a willingness to
support his truthfulness in other ways.(248)

 

Becker stated that he was born in California and raised in New Haven,
Conn. (249) His early years of employment had included publicity work
for several San Francisco nightclubs and, subsequently, writing a
column for two California newspapers. (250) During later years he had
done further work in the entertainment field, managing singer, as well
as writing and producing programs/or television in Los Angeles during
the early 1950's.(251)

 

Becker said he became a public relations man for the Riviera Hotel and
Casino in Las Vegas in 1955, working closely with Gus Greenbaum, (252)
the Riviera manager and well-known gambling figure who was the victim
of a much publicized underworld killing in 1957. (253) Becker stated
that he "was then traveling in some pretty fast circles. I was
certainly not the cleanest person around."(254) He further maintained
that while he "was always out to make a buck," he was never engaged in
any significant criminal activity. (255) Becker noted that he had
twice become the subject of criminal investigations,(256) the first
resulting in his conviction on misdemeanor charges for having stolen
"around $200" from a nightclub photographer with whom he was
acquainted.(257) He was in his twenties at the time and served 60 days
in jail. (258)

 

Becker stated that in 1959 he had also become involved with two men
who were "running a con deal involving laundermats and stolen credit
cards" (259) and that one of the two men was an associate Los Angeles
Mafia leader Joseph Sica.(260) He was the subject of an SEC desist
order in conjunction with the 1959 investigation. (261)

 

Becker told the committee that he had worked as a private investigator
during the years since coordinating undercover investigative work for
corporate clients, (262) as well as working on various organized crime
cases.(263) During the early. 1960's he was doing investigative work
for Julian Blodgett, a private investigator and former FBI agent.
(264)

 

Becker told the committee that he and Roppolo had met with Marcello in
late 1962 to seek his financial backing for an oil additive product
they were planning to market. (265) Due to Roppolo's close
relationship with Marcello, the meeting was arranged without
difficulty. (266)

 

Becker stated that he and Roppolo met with Marcello on three or four
occasions in connection with the proposed business deal and that
Marcello made his comments about President Kennedy during the first or
second meeting.(267) The meetings transpired between sometime in
September 1962 and roughly January 1963.(268) Only the three of them
had been present during two or three of the meetings but a Marcello
aide named "Liverde," a barber, had also been present once. (269)

 

Becker stated that Marcello had made his remarks about the Kennedy
brothers after Becker said something to the effect that "Bobby Kennedy
is really giving you a rough time."(270) He could not recall the exact
words Marcello used in threatening President Kennedy, but believed the
account in Reid's book "is basically correct."(271) Marcello was very
angry and had "clearly stated that he was going to arrange to have
President Kennedy murdered in some way." (272) Marcello's statement
had been made in a serious tone and sounded as if he had discussed it
previously to some extent.(273) Becker commented that Marcello had
made some kind of reference to President Kennedy's being a dog and
Attorney General Robert Kennedy the dog's tail, (274) and had said
"the dog will keep biting you you only cut off its tail," but that if
the dog's head were cut off, the dog would die.

 

Becker stated that Marcello also made some kind of reference to the
way in which he allegedly wanted to arrange the President's murder.
(276) Marcello "clearly indicated" that his own lieutenants must not
be identified as the assassins, (277) and that there would thus
necessity to have them use or manipulate someone else to carry out the
actual crime. (278)

 

Becker said that Marcello's alleged remarks about assassinating the
President lasted only a few minutes during the course of the meetings
which went 1 to 2 hours.(279) Marcello had spoken in Sicilian phrases
during parts of the meeting and had grown angry at one point in the
discussion of their proposed business deal. (280)

 

Becker said that although he and Roppollo met with Marcello on two or
three occasions following this meeting, they never again discussed
President Kennedy.(281) (Becker added that the oil additive business
business deal never came to fruition. (282)

 

Becker told the committee that while he believed Marcello had been
serious when he spoke of wanting to have the President assassinated,
he did not believe the Mafia leader was capable of carrying it out or
had the opportunity to do so. (283) He emphasized that while he was
disturbed by Marcello's remarks at the time, he had grown accustomed
to hearing criminal figures make threats against adversaries. (284)

 

Becker stated that the only error in Reid's published account the
meeting related to the statement that Becker had informed two
Government investigators of it. (285) Becker said that he never told
any Government Investigator of Marcello's remarks about President
Kennedy;(286) he "would have been afraid" to repeat Marcello's remarks
to anyone during that period, out of concern that Marcello or his
associates might learn he had done so. (287) Becker suggested that
Reid may have incorrectly inferred that he told the FBI of the alleged
Marcello threat when he was interviewed by agents regarding the Billie
Sol Estes case in November 1962. (288) Becker also stated that he was
never interviewed by the FBI about the alleged Marcello meeting in the
years since Reid first reported it, a fact borne out by the
committee's examination of Bureau files on Becker.

 

Becker further stated that the only person other than Reid whom he
might have informed of Marcello's remarks was his close associate
Julian Blodgett, who employed him during that period as an
investigator. (289)

 

Blodgett, a former FBI agent and chief investigator for the district
attorney of Los Angeles County, informed the committee that he can
"vaguely remember something" about Becker's having met with Marcello.
(290) Blodgett stated that he "can verily" that Becker traveled to New
Orleans in September 1962, but could not recall any specific account
of Becker's meeting with Marcello.(291) Blodgett told the committee he
regarded Becker as an honest person who was of "the most knowledgeable
detail men" in the private investigation business. (292) While noting
that Becker "has been a controversial guy," Blodgett stated that he
personally would believe Beckers account of the alleged Marcello
meeting. (293)

 

Becker further told the committee that following President Kennedy's
assassination in Dallas, he quickly came to believe that Carlos
Marcello had in fact probably been behind it. (294) He reached this
opinion because of factors such as Lee Oswald having been from New
Orleans, as well as Jack Ruby's alleged underworld associations. (295)
Becker stated that "it was generally thought in mob circles that Ruby
was a tool of some mob group." (296) Becker further stated that he had
learned after the assassination that "Oswald's uncle, who used to run
some bar, had been a part of the gambling network overseen by
Marcello. He worked for the mob in New Orleans." (297)

 

During his appearance before the committee on January 11, 1978,
Marcello was questioned about Reid's account of the meeting at which
he allegedly spoke of assassinating President Kennedy.(298) Marcello
firmly denied that the meeting and discussion ever took place and
stated that he was familiar with the Reid book: "The way the paper
puts it and the books put it in there, it makes it like you had some
kind of secret meetings because I have heard the book about what you
are telling me." (299)

 

Marcello testified that while he had heard that Robert Kennedy was a
strong advocate of intensifying the investigation of organize crime
figures, and had been so even before becoming Attorney General, "I
didn't pay no attention to it at that time."(300). Asked when he did
begin to pay attention to Robert Kennedy's intentions Marcello
testified, "When he got to be Attorney General." (301) While recalling
that Attorney General Kennedy "said he was going to get organized
crime and all that kind of stuff," (302) Marcello stated that "the
only time I really knowed about it" was when he was arrested and
deported from the County'." (303) Asked if he placed any particular
blame on the Attorney General for his deportation, Marcello testified,
"No, I don't, he just, done what he thought was right, I guess."(304)

 

Marcello further testified that he could not recall having any
discussion at his Churchill Farms estate about the Kennedy,
administration's investigation of Federal efforts against, organized
crime. (305) Marcello stated that Churchill Farms was not a place
where he would conduct a meeting; that the estate was only used for
hunting and was the location of various duck blinds. (306) Marcello
further testified that he did not have to discuss his deportation with
associates because "Everybody in the United States knowed I was
kidnaped. I didn't have to discuss it . I told the whole world that it
was unfair. Anybody who talked to me said it was unfair?' (307)

 

When asked if he had ever made any threat against Attorney General
Kennedy or had spoken of taking any physical action against him,
Marcello stated, "No sir; I never said anything like that." (308) When
asked if he had ever spoken of taking such action against President
Kennedy or had threatened him in any way, Marcello stated, "Positively
not, never said anything like that." (309)

ANALYSIS OF THE EVIDENCE

 

The account of the alleged Marcello discussion set forth by Becker and
Reid presented a number of serious issues, some of which had highly
disturbing implications regarding the performance of the FBI in
investigating the possibility of Mafia complicity. The evidence
indicates that the FBI's handling of the allegations and information
about Marcello was characterized by a less than vigorous effort to,
investigate its reliability, as well as a strong desire to "discredit"
the information without having actually to investigate it. (310)

 

Upon learning, in 1967 of the Beaker account of the alleged Marcello
remarks about assassinating President Kennedy, the Bureau did not make
any effort to interview Becker about the information, nor did it
institute any actions to seek elaboration, clarification, or
corroboration of the information. Instead, the allegation was merely
circulated to the Bureau's most senior officials, including Director
Edgar Hoover(311) while the Bureau's own files on Becker contained
several pieces of information that should have been the subject of
careful review. The Bureau's files from November 1962 noted that
Becker had in fact traveled through Louisiana during that period and
had also traveled to Dallas. (312) The Bureau's own November 26, 1962,
interview report on Becker noted that he had informed the Bureau of
two business meetings with Marcello that he had attended with Carl
Roppolo in recent weeks. (313) A subsequent report, dated April 11,
1963, concluded that Roppolo may well have known Marcello and that the
Roppolo and Marcello families had long been associated. (314)

 

In 1967, in noting that Becker had not told the Bureau of the alleged
Marcello threat during his 1962 interview with agents, the Bureau
seemed to reach the conclusion that the significance of the alleged
Becker information was greatly undermined as a result. Likewise, the
Bureau's apparent view that Becker's background of criminal
associations undermined the possibility that he had in fact met with
Marcello--rather than strengthened that possibility--was indicative of
the Bureau's deficient approach to the matter. In its handling of the
allegations about Marcello, the Bureau did not carry out any
substantive examination and evaluation of the source who had set forth
the information; only the standard examination of various criminal
informants and underworld sources was made to determine the specific
nature of their motivations, credibility and activities.

 

Similarly, there was no evidence that the FBI made any effort to
investigate the allegations from the other direction--from the
specific travels and activities of Marcello during the period or
periods in question. Patrick Collins, the agent covering Marcello's
activities at the time, informed the committee that he "was never
asked to investigate it in any way." (315) While he later read of the
alleged Marcello threat in the press, he "never saw any directive on
it" or heard of any Bureau interest in the matter. (316) He stated
that he would in all liklihood have been aware of any such Bureau
directives or interest had there been any.(317)

 

The evidence shows another aspect of the Bureau's performance. FBI
files clearly indicate a high level awareness that the Bureau was
involved in trying to "discredit" (the term used in a Bureau
memorandum) the source of the information, Edward Becker. (318) As
noted earlier, the files show that a Los Angeles FBI agent
participated in the effort, and without having ever investigated the
Marcello allegations. (319) Further, the June 5, 1967, FBI memorandum
on the matter (which went to Director Hoover himself, as well as to
his closest aides) clearly indicated that the "purpose" of the visit
to Reid was "to discredit Beeker to Reid in order that the Carlos
Marcello incident would be deleted from the book by Reid "(320)

 

The FBI files also contain repeated references to the Bureau's use of
allegations about Becker received from Sidney Korshak, an associate of
various organized crime leaders. (321) The files indicate a high level
awareness at Bureau headquarters that the Los Angeles FBI office was
using the information received from Korshak in an effort to persuade
Reid not to publish the Marcello allegations. (322) There was,
however, no reference in the files to Korshak's own possible
background and activities, nor to his possible motives in supplying
the information at that time. (323)

 

The evidence shows that the FBI's failure to investigate the
allegation that Marcello had discussed assassinating President Kennedy
constituted a violation of the Director's promise to investigate all
circumstances surrounding the President's murder even after the
official Warren Commission investigation had ended in 1964. In his
appearance before the Commission on May 6, 1964, FBI Director J. Edgar
Hoover had personally affirmed that promise stating:

I can assure you so far as the FBI is concerned the case will be
continued in an open classification for all time. That is, any
information coming to us or any report coming to us from any source
will be thoroughly investigated, so that we will be able to either
prove or disprove the allegation. (324)

 

The FBI's failure to take seriously the alleged Marcello threat was
all the more disturbing given the time at which the Bureau learned of
and discarded the allegation--less than 2 months after the leadership
of the Bureau had been faulted by President Johnson himself not
pursuing another allegation by an underworld informant that Mafia
figures and Cuban agents might secretly have been involved in
President Kennedy's assassination.(325) In that instance, as detailed
by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in 1976, FBI Director
Hoover and his top deputies had learned of the information from Los
Angeles Mafia figure John Roselli's lawyer, Edward P. Morgan, (326)
only to decide on February 15, 1967, that "no investigation will be
conducted regarding the allegations." (327)

 

On March 17, 1967, upon learning of the Roselli allegation and of the
Bureau's failure to investigate it, President Johnson personally
intervened and ordered the Bureau to interview Morgan, pursue the
information and report its findings to him. (328)

Submitted by: G. ROBERT BLAKEY,
Chief Counsel and Staff Director.

GARY T. CORNWELL,
Deputy Chief Counsel.

MICHAEL EWING,
Researcher. REFERENCES

(1) Attorney General's Conference on Organized Crime, Report of
February 15, 1960, p. 20; hearings before the Select Committee to
Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, U.S. Senate, 82d
Congress, January-February 1951, part 8 (Washington, D.C.: U.S.
Government Printing Office) (here inafter cited as Kefauver Committee
hearings and report); hearings before the Select Committee on Improper
Activities in the Labor and Management Fields, 86th Congress, 2d
Sess., March 1959, part 48 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing
Office, 1959) (hereinafter cited as McClellan Committee); hearings
before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee
on Government Operations, U.S. Senate, 87th Congress, Gambling and
Organized Crime, August-September 1961, parts 2 and 3 (Washington,
D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1961) (hereinafter cited as
Permanent Investigations Subcommittee); the President's Commission on
Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice, Task Force Report:
Organized Crime (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office,
1967), (hereinafter cited as Organized Crime Commission Report).

 

        TO BE CONTINUED:

http://insider-magazine.org/inside_the_dixie_mafia.htm
 

[donal...@gmail.com]

Interesting...but I was wondering about a certain figure of New Orleans name Jack Dewald whom was let out of jail to committ a murder for a judge is not in any of this...I meet him about 12 years ago and he was reestablising ties. A very old man then and most likely dead now. However, the man he use for the assasination in Florida is much younger and his name is Tommy also of New Orleans area. Any ways...Jack was very well connected but I never seen his name anywhere....you want too hear something really crazy....I almost think he is Jimmy Hoffa in protected custody...His associates which he mention and his age....anyways, guess it doen't mattter, HELL is/will be his final home.