LIBEL TRIAL RESURRECTS JFK CONSPIRACY THEORY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000303190010-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 16, 2010
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: January 27, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

G
conspiracy theory
MIAMI HERALD
27 January, 1985
Libel trial resurrects
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/16: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303190010-6
APT1f+11_E APPEARED
By STEPHEN K. DOIG an unfinished piece of American
Herald Staff Writer long since has made him a folk history, and we may have a
to this
present case,"
Mark acy enthusiast, will ask a Miami federal jury hero the late 1970s, Lane defended "We l intend in
evidence
M
onday to decide that E. Howard Hunt,
formerly of Watergate and fame, was
personally involved in the sassination of
President John F. Kennedy in Dallas 21 years,1-by the FBI. His allegations were
ago. unproven.
Pure twaddle, retort Hunt: and his law-, From there, Lane went on in
Yew 1978 to represent Jim Jones and
The trial, to be heard this week by U.S. the People's Temple. After the
District Judge James Kehoe, is a replay of - Guyana tragedy, Lane' accused _ a
Hunt's 1980 lawsuit against the Washing- i variety of government agencies of
ton-based _ Liberty Lobby, an ultraright > conspiring to drive-Jones and his
pressure group that publishes a weekly to commit mass suicide.
tabloid'dhlled The Spotlight. Y Again, the allegations were un-
In 1978, The Spotlight - which 'bills itself proven
's latest forum is ef eense, se, he
as "The Paper You Can Trust" - published Lobby trial. .Lanee'
an article by former CIA agent Victor :. says, And his defense,
says, will be to prove the truth of
of
Marchetti, which among of er claims cited a Marchetti's story. . .; -.
1966 C, memo that purportedly said Hunt '.This case will be ' tried very
was in Dallas that day and suggested he had differently this time," Lane Arom-
a role in Kennedy's murder.
Hunt, who spent 33 months in prison for ises. "Last time, the defense was
That's
for the article
a
olo
izin
the Watergate burglary, sued the Liberty
James Earl Ray, the convicted
killer of Martin Luther King Jr.,
on the theory that King-was killed
.
p
g
g
not my style."
It certainly isn't, agree Hunt's
,
r
y
o
y attorneys
conceded that Hunt could present witnessestimore-based lawyers, William
Snyder and Kevin Dunne.
to prove he was in Washington the day Last year, when LibertyLobby
Kennedy died. They couldn't produce the ? told Kehoe that it wanted Lane to
memo. And they defended Marchetti's article ;=-defend It, Snyder and Dunne
as just a warning to Hunt that the CIA was -protested on the -argument that
trying to make him a scapegoat. t Lane would turn the trial into a
- The jury didn't buy it and awarded Hunt -Roman circus" of conspiracy
$650,000. But on appeal, a retrial was' theories. They attached a sheaf of
-ordered because of a flawed jury instruction. newspaper and magazine clippings
This time, Liberty Lobby has hired Lane, criticizing Lane for making spec-
author of . the 1966 best seller Rush to tacular, scattershot accusations
Judgment, which lambasted the Warren that can't be proved. One 1979
Commission investigation of Kennedy's mur- Esquire piece said Lane has only
der. Lane's enthusiasm for charging the : two motives: profit and headlines.
government with a variety of unsavory plots Even so, Kehoe finally agreed
that Liberty Lobby could hire
whomever it liked to defend it.
And Lane, who underwent a
quintuple heart bypass operation
last summer shortly before the
trial first was scheduled to begin,
now is ready to defend in full
Mark Lane fervor.
At the 1981 trial
Libe
t
L
bb
regarding the role of the ,
relative to the assassination of
Kennedy."
_. Lane's star testimony, he indi-.'
cates, will come from. Marita
Lorenz,' a 'one-time mistress of
Fidel Castro who later was sent by
the CIA back to C'uba'to kssassi-
nate'~im. That plot supposedly
failed because her poison capsules
accidentally dissolved in th? cold
cream jar in which they were
hidden. ;
According to-Lane, Lorenz says
she drove, from Miami to Dallas
the day before Kennedy's death in
a two-car caravan with Lee Har-
vey Oswald and several anti-Cas-
tro Cubans, including Frapk Stur-
gis, who also would later become
a Watergate burglar. In Dallas,
Lorenz supposedly met Hunt that
day.
Dunne says that Lorenz's story
simply is incredible.
"For instance, she claims she,
first met Oswald in. 1961' _ in
Florida before the Bay of. Pigs
invasion," Dunne says. "Well, all
the evidence shows that Oswald
was in Russia from 1959 to 1962."
Such contradictions, and the .
two-decade history of investiga-
tions that have discounted any ,,L
involvement in Kennedy's. death,
don't make Lane waver.,
"We'll get right in the heart of
the Kennedy assassination,". he
says with evident relish.
As for Dunne and Snyder, they
just plan to prove that Marchetti's
memo is mythical and that E.
'Howard Hunt was 1,200 miles
away from Dallas the day Kenne-
dy died.
"We'll let the jury decide,"
Dunne says.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/16: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303190010-6
STAT