The HSCA Investigation: A Major Step Forward in the JFK Case

[Gerry Down]

When Robert Blakey allowed the HSCA's final report to say that Mafia elements and some anti-Castro Cubans may have been involved in the assassination conspiracy, he was coming dangerously close to the truth, since the anti-Castro Cubans were funded and directed by the CIA, and since the CIA used Mafia men for some domestic operations.

Blakey also allowed the final report to state that the CIA and elements of the military withheld information from and misled the Warren Commission.

For all of Blakey's sins (and there were many), he should be given due credit for allowing these two key conclusions to appear in the committee's final report.

The problem with the HSCA report is that is says there was probably a conspiracy but couldn't give the actual evidence of it or say who was involved with Oswald (as they did say that Oswald had fired three shots from behind).

You can't say there was a conspiracy and then not say who or what the conspiracy was. That doesn't make any sense.

[Michael T. Griffith]

The problem with the HSCA report is that is says there was probably a conspiracy but couldn't give the actual evidence of it or say who was involved with Oswald (as they did say that Oswald had fired three shots from behind).

No, they did provide evidence, quite a bit of evidence: the DPD dictabelt, the post-assassination box movement in the sniper's nest, Ruby's Mafia ties, Ruby's route to entering the DPD basement, the parallels between Oswald's execution by Ruby and the Mafia's execution of hired gunmen, the witness accounts of hearing shots from the grassy knoll, relevant anti-Castro Cuban activity, etc., etc.

You can't say there was a conspiracy and then not say who or what the conspiracy was. That doesn't make any sense.

But that's not what they said. Even the final report clearly identified Mafia elements and anti-Castro Cuban elements as plausible suspects. But Blakey and other HSCA personnel noted that the committee had reached the end of its lifespan and thus could not continue its investigation. A key factor was that the acoustical evidence was only firmly developed toward the end of the committee's lifespan.

[Michael Carney]

Yes they made a major step forward but they could not come out with the “whole truth” and that is that Carlos Marcello and Carlos Trafficante conspired together to kill JFK. This in conjunction with Hickey accidentally firing the, or one of the head shots that killed JFK. 

Marcello and Trafficante both admitted that they did it. Marcello made insinuations, found in the book "Mafia Kingfish" and another book?? That he did it and while in prison he admitted it to his cell mate who was an FBI plant that “they” did it. Trafficante admitted to his lawyer Frank Ragano while in a car with him. That is in Ragano’s book "Mob Lawyer". Trafficante admitted it just before he passed away.

There was also another time that Trafficante told someone that JFK was going to be hit.

[Michael T. Griffith]

Yes they made a major step forward but they could not come out with the “whole truth” and that is that Carlos Marcello and Carlos Trafficante conspired together to kill JFK. This in conjunction with Hickey accidentally firing the, or one of the head shots that killed JFK. 

Marcello and Trafficante both admitted that they did it. Marcello made insinuations, found in the book "Mafia Kingfish" and another book?? That he did it and while in prison he admitted it to his cell mate who was an FBI plant that “they” did it. Trafficante admitted to his lawyer Frank Ragano while in a car with him. That is in Ragano’s book "Mob Lawyer". Trafficante admitted it just before he passed away.

There was also another time that Trafficante told someone that JFK was going to be hit.

As you know, we don't agree on the Hickey shot, but I totally agree that elements of the Mafia were involved.

I concur that John Davis's book Mafia Kingfish is a great book. An even better book on the Mafia angle, perhaps the best book on the subject, is Dr. David Scheim's book The Mafia Killed President Kennedy (previously titled Contract on America).

Believe it or not, another good book on the Mafia angle is Robert Blakey and Richard Billings' book Fatal Hour: The Assassination of President Kennedy by Organized Crime.

[John Iacoletti]

It's Santo Trafficante.

[Walt Cakebread]

That is all you have to say in response to the facts I presented?

Anyway, no, I do not agree with that conclusion (I don't think Oswald fired any shots). However, I agree with far more of the HSCA's conclusions than any lone-gunman theorist can. Although the HSCA said Oswald fired three of their four shots, the committee also said that someone was moving boxes around in the sniper's window within 2 minutes after the shooting (obviously, at a time when Oswald could not have been there), that there was a second gunman, that the second gunman fired from the grassy knoll, that the Warren Commission's rejection of all the eyewitness accounts of hearing shots from the knoll and of smelling gunpowder on the knoll was unjustified, etc., etc.

someone was moving boxes around in the sniper's window within 2 minutes after the shooting

This is utter BS!.....  The reason the HSCA concluded that someone was moving boxes is because the FBI jumbled the chronology of the variuos photos of the face of the TSBD.   They claimed that James Powell took his photo AFTER Tom Dillard had taken photos and the boxes were arranged differently when comparing the photos.     In reality Powell too his photo first and it was supposed to show a gunman ( LHO) firing a rifle out of the window.   When the person behind that window hastily with drew the rifle he bumped the window sill box and thus it was positioned differently when Tom Dillard took his photos a couple of minutes after Powell had taken his photo.

[Michael T. Griffith]

Yes they made a major step forward but they could not come out with the “whole truth” and that is that Carlos Marcello and Carlos Trafficante conspired together to kill JFK. This in conjunction with Hickey accidentally firing the, or one of the head shots that killed JFK.

I think the fatal flaw of the Hickey shot theory is that it requires the cowlick site for the rear head entry wound, but that site has now been debunked. Donahue admitted that his proposed Hickey shot was impossible with the EOP entry site.

[Michael Carney]

Well I have seen plenty of evidence that says the shot in the back of the head was several inches higher than the EOP. Also if I am not mistaken I saw a picture of the back part of the skull with a fragment spray fanning outwards. A FMJ round will not do that. Also we must explain the dozen or so folks that smelled gunpowder in the motorcade. Not to mention the coverup..........