HINTS OF THE MOB

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000300510011-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 20, 2004
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: October 9, 1978
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

Approved For Release 200Jf2gJ, IA-RDP88-01315R00 300510011-
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ON PAGE/ 9 October 1978
Dallas Times-Herald
lack Ruby shooting Oswald: Was there more to his motive than Oswald's smirk?
Hints of t Wow- Mwa--b
id the Mafia have a hand in the mur-
L9 der of John F. Kennedy? The very
question sounds farfetched, but assassi-
nation buffs have bandied it about for
years. Mob leaders, after all, were known
to dislike Kennedy because of his Ad-
ministration's pursuit of organized crime
and prosecution of Teamsters boss Jim-
my Hoffa. And the Mafia played an active
role in a CIA plot to murder another
Head of State: Cuba's Fidel Castro. Last
week, the issue came up again, in tanta-
lizing detail, before the House assassina-
tion committee. Though there was no
conclusive evidence, several new leads
provoked committee counsel G. Robert
Blakey to say that organized crime "had
the motive, opportunity and means to kill
Kennedy. From the testimony thus far,
the possibility cannot be dismissed, al-
though it can hardly be said to have been
established."
On the Fringes: No witnesses produced
any evidence linking Lee Harvey Os-
wald to the Mafia. But the committee did
hear a lot of talk about mobsters, the
Cuban exile community and a strange
cast of characters on the fringes of both
groups. Jose Aleman, a prominent Cuban
exile, spent a morning recalling one of
killed. Last week, however, expressing
fears for his life, Aleman backed off his
interpretation, and suggested that maybe
Trafficante meant Kennedy was going to
be hit with Republican votes.
Patriotism: Trafficante took the stand
the next day. Now retired and living in
Florida, he testified under a grant of
immunity and said he "never made the
statement that 'Kennedy's gonna get
hit'." But he did admit to some anti-
Castro activities, which began in 1960 or
1961, after his release from a Cuban
detention. camp. Trafficante said he had
met fellow mobster Johnny Rosselli at
the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami. "He
told me the CIA and U.S. Government
was involved in eliminating Castro and
asked if I would help him," Trafficante
recalled. Rosselli introduced Trafficante
to his boss, Sam Giancana, and Traffi-
cante said he joined the plot out of patri-
otism. Rosselli and Giancana both
turned out to be friends of Judith Exner,
several conversations he had with Santos
Trafficante, who controlled much of the
gambling in Havana before Castro's rise
to power-and a man with links to Castro
and the CIA. Aleman said that in June
or July of 1963, Trafficante complained
to him about Kennedy's pursuit of Hof
fa. "This man, he's not going to be re-
elected, no doubt about it," Aleman re-
nave a LOCA MW TWe`R6 s'?a`2
b
h"
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s going to
He
it. In interviews with committee staffers
a woman who has been linked romant
call), to Kennedy.*
The committee also delved into Jac
Ruby's possible connections to the mol
and disclosed a computer analysis
his phone calls in the fall of 1963-a
investigation not made by the %Varre
Commission, despite the recommend
lions of staff lawyers. Investigators di
covered calls to associates of Ne
Orleans crime boss Carlos Marcello; 1
Irwin Weiner, a Chicago bondsman wh
according to Blakey, knew Hoffa, Traf;
cante and Giancana, and to other orgai
ized crime leaders as well. Ruby vv:
having union problems at his striptea:
clubs, and may have been seeking he]
from the bosses. But Blakey said "&
ultimate meaning of these facts ... r
mains as yet indeterminate."
Another curious point came up du
ing the testimony of Lewis MeWillie,
friend of Ruby's who managed the Trap
cana Club in Havana. Ruby visits
McWillie in 1959, about the time Traf cants had been detained by Castro. Tra
ficante insisted Ruby never stopped
see him, and McWillie said last wee
that Ruby only stayed with him six day
But Ruby's tourist cards show that 1
entered Cuba Aug. 8, flew to Miami Sec
11, back to Havana Sept. 12, then left tk
next day for New Orleans. All th
prompted conjecture that Ruby was ac
ing as a courier for someone, thoug
McWillie, himself a courier for the Trod
icana Club's owners, discounted the th,
ory. He described Ruby as a "Ieech ...
hard fellow to get rid of," and said he w:
simply a strange character. Ruby's broti
er, Earl, who also testified last wee
agreed. He said Jack had told him he sb
Oswald only because "when I saw hi:
.: with that smirk on his face as thoug
he were happy he killed the President,
just lost control of myself."
The Cuba tie appeared again-th
time with an Oswald twist in the stoi
of Antonio Veciana Blanch, the found!
'Ciancana was murdered In June 1975. Rosselli was mi
dered a year later. short' after he had testified to the Sem
intelligence committee ab, it plots against Castro.
AP pog_
me with lawyei
by (above): Tale