WATERGATE FIGURE DENIES JFK MURDER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100120147-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 10, 2012
• Sequence Number: 147
• Publication Date: January 29, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/10: CIA-RDP90-06965R000100120147-9
p,-,,,a, MIAMI HERALD
M
29 January 1985
atergate figure denies
JFK murder
By STEPHEN K. DOIG
Herald Staff writer
Conspiracy author and attorney Mark Lane
entered a Miami courtroom Monday to prove
that Watergate figure E. Howard Hunt and the
CIA assassinated John F. Kennedy.
Lane's star witness swears that she and
other conspirators met Hunt in Dallas the day
before Kennedy was shot.
But she won't come to Miami to testify.
Lane's key piece of evidence is a CIA memo
that suggests that Hunt was in Dallas and
involved in the murder.
But he doesn't have the fabled memo.
The trial before U.S. District Judge James
Kehoe is Hunt's libel suit against the ultra-right
Liberty Lobby. In 1978, the group's "Spot.
light" tabloid printed an article implying that
Hunt was an active participant in Kennedy's
murder when he was a CIA agent.
In 1981. Hunt won a $650,000 verdict
against Liberty Lobby, but the judgment was
overturned on a legal technicality. He is back
in court this week to try again, with Lane
representing the defense.
As the first witness, Hunt spent his first da
on the stand in a trip down memory lane. Y
He reminisced candidly about the burglary
of the Watergate office complex for President
Nixon. He talked about rifling the files of
Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist. He mentioned
covert "black bag" break-ins at foreign
embassies for the CIA. He blandly described his
plan to put cyanide in columnist Jack
Anderson's aspirin bottle.
But he resolutely denied having any part in
any conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy.
"Venomous libel," Hunt says acidly of
claims that he played a role in Kennedy's
death.
He testified that he, was in Washington that
day, buying Chinese food with his wife, when
he heard of the tragedy in Dallas. And unlike
Lane, Hunt's lawyers say, they will offer
witnesses and evidence to prove their case.
Lane is perhaps the nation's most notorious
conspiracy buff. His best-selling Rush To
Judgment criticized the Warren Commission's
conclusion that Kennedy was shot by a lone.
assassin.
Though -Lane's own credibility has been
questioned over the years, he was eager
Monday to link Hunt to the murder, which he
says grew out of the failure of the Bay of Pigs
invasion of Cuba.
"The whole CIA blamed John Kennedy,"
Lane told the six-member jury. "Kennedy fired
[CIA director] Allen Dulles, and then Kennedy
was kill
d
"
e
.
Despite Hunt's denials, various authors have
claimed that Hunt and fellow Watergate
burglar Frank Sturgis were two of the
never-identified "three bums" photographed
near where Kennedy was shot.
Lane has a sworn deposition from Marita
Lorenz, a onetime mistress of Fidel Castro and
later a CIA agent. Lorenz claims that she drove
to from Miami to Dallas with Sturgis and
several Cubans the day before Kennedy was
shot. She says they met Hunt there.
But Lorenz's story won't be told in person.
"She is afraid to come to Miami," Lane said.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/10: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100120147-9