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Speaker 1: It's the early nineteen sixties and we're in the hottest

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Speaker 1: hotel in Miami. Beautiful people, beautiful cars. But tonight, in

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Speaker 1: a private room, there will be a secret meeting involving

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Speaker 1: some very strange bedfellows. First, there's a sharply dressed guy

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Speaker 1: with slick back hair and sunglasses. His name is Johnny Rosselli.

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Speaker 1: He's a mafia leader in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

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Speaker 1: Next to him is Sam g and Coanna, the notorious

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Speaker 1: head of the Chicago Mafia. These mob guys are at

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Speaker 1: the height of their powers. The extent of their controlled

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Speaker 1: over organized crime is historic.

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Speaker 2: Just days before he was scheduled to testify to the

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Speaker 2: House Select Committee on Assassinations, Johnny Rosselli who was found

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Speaker 2: chopped up and stuffed into an oil drum off the

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Speaker 2: coast of Miami. Of course, in the telling of this

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Speaker 2: story's Bill in one piece and very much alive.

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Speaker 1: Also there is Bill Harvey. Harvey runs the CIA's executive

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Speaker 1: action program known as ZR Rifle. It's a secret program

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Speaker 1: designed to eliminate problematic world leaders. He's meeting with these

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Speaker 1: legendary crime bosses with an official offer from the CIA.

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Speaker 1: He wants to hire them to kill Fidel Castro.

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Speaker 2: It was only revealed in two thousand and seven that Dulles,

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Speaker 2: the godfather of the CIA, personally approved this arrangement.

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Speaker 1: When Rosselli and g and Conna were first approached, they

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Speaker 1: were offered one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in cash

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Speaker 1: to take out Castro, but the mobsters declined the money.

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Speaker 2: They don't want the job.

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Speaker 1: They wanted the job, but they said they'd do it

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Speaker 1: for free. After all, they're patriots.

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Speaker 2: This is who killed JFK. Sixty years later? What can

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Speaker 2: we uncover about the greatest murder mystery in American history?

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Speaker 2: And why does it still matter today? I'm your host,

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Speaker 2: Solidad O'Brien. Okay, so where are we in the story?

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Speaker 1: We've looked at the weeks leading up to Kennedy's arrival

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Speaker 1: in Dallas, which included the CIA connected Ruth Paine helping

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Speaker 1: Oswald get a job at the Texas school Book Depository,

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Speaker 1: which overlooked Kennedy's motorcade route. We learned about Operation Northwoods,

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Speaker 1: a CIA false flag plan designed to attack a prominent

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Speaker 1: American target blame Castro to justify an invasion of Cuba.

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Speaker 2: It's hard to believe all of that's real.

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Speaker 1: But let's look at the motive. In solving any crime,

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Speaker 1: you have to ask who had the most to gain.

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Speaker 2: And who has the most to gain.

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Speaker 1: Well, there are three groups. First, the Cuban exiles, whose

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Speaker 1: country had been taken from them by Castro. They were

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Speaker 1: determine to get it back. Second, the mob who suffered

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Speaker 1: a huge financial loss with their hotels and casinos gone,

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Speaker 1: and were furious at Kennedy's brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy,

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Speaker 1: for cracking down on organized crime. And third, the hardliners

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Speaker 1: from the CIA in the military, who believed Kennedy had

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Speaker 1: gone soft on communism and was selling the United States

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Speaker 1: out to the Soviet Union.

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Speaker 2: Remember, after Castro took over in nineteen fifty nine, the

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Speaker 2: CIA trained a group of Cuban exiles to execute a

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Speaker 2: planned invasion to retake Cuba in nineteen sixty one. The

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Speaker 2: attack was called the Bay of Pigs, and it failed miserably. Kennedy,

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Speaker 2: not wanting American fingerprints on the mission, refused to send

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Speaker 2: the requested air support. The exiles were overwhelmed and slaughtered.

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Speaker 1: So first, let's look at the Cuban exiles.

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Speaker 3: He knows that followed the Bay of Pig's envision there

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Speaker 3: developed a very hostile attitude and then the ex commute

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Speaker 3: toward Kennedy.

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Speaker 2: Of that's Fabian Escalante speaking through a translator. He was

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Speaker 2: a leader in Castro's intelligence agency.

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Speaker 3: They were convinced that he was responsible for the failure

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Speaker 3: of the Bay Bigs invasion and even were saying he

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Speaker 3: was a Communist.

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Speaker 4: My dad was a member of the Pigs invasion.

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Speaker 2: That's the son of Ricardo Morales, Ricardo Morales Junior.

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Speaker 4: My dad thought JFK screwed us at the Bay of Pigs,

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Speaker 4: and then he screwed us after the Cuban missile crisis.

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Speaker 2: Morales refers to the nineteen sixty two nuclear standoff against

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Speaker 2: the Soviet Union where Kennedy, instead of using the crisis

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Speaker 2: as justification to attack Cuba, made a deal with the

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Speaker 2: Soviet Premier khrus Chef to avoid nuclear war.

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Speaker 4: And so he was no longer loved or trusted by

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Speaker 4: by that part of the community, especially my dad. He

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Speaker 4: no longer cared for JFK as a as a leader

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Speaker 4: that it helped the Cuban people. They had given up

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Speaker 4: on Cuba, so he had given up on him.

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Speaker 2: So Ricardo before the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban

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Speaker 2: missile crisis. Your dad got involved to try to quote

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Speaker 2: get Cuba back from Castro.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, my dad was a G two agent in Cuba,

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Speaker 4: which is the intelligence branch of the government. Castro takes

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Speaker 4: over and then it starts to evolve where Castro starts

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Speaker 4: going towards Communism, so he has to figure out a

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Speaker 4: way to get out of the country.

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Speaker 2: Morales comes to the United States.

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Speaker 4: Then immediately he starts becoming involved in the bombings and

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Speaker 4: killings of Cubans that are working for Castro. And then

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Speaker 4: he he's never home at that point, he's out, you know,

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Speaker 4: doing his thing, and he it's very emotional right now. Honestly,

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Speaker 4: I don't know why. Oh yeah, so, but you know,

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Speaker 4: he we we thought he was. What he was doing

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Speaker 4: was trying to free Cuba.

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Speaker 2: My mom was Cuban growing up. She talk about the

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Speaker 2: Bay of Pigs and how disappointed she was in Kennedy.

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Speaker 2: So I do understand when they say that for them

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Speaker 2: this was the loss of their homeland, the loss of

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Speaker 2: their family. But while there may have been a shared

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Speaker 2: sentiment among many exiles who had to leave, not everyone

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Speaker 2: acted in the same way. It's important to specify that

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Speaker 2: we're talking about a very particular group of Cuban exiles

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Speaker 2: who took really drastic measures.

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Speaker 1: These exiles, most of whom settled in Florida and New Orleans,

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Speaker 1: were not going to just sit by idly and accept this.

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Speaker 1: Their property was taken, relatives were killed in jail. They

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Speaker 1: wanted their home back, so they started to organize.

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Speaker 5: This is a huge turning point for the exiles.

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Speaker 2: That's Dick Russell.

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Speaker 5: Listen to what Castro's former head of intelligence, Fabian has

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Speaker 5: Klante told me.

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Speaker 3: The official of the CIA and.

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Speaker 2: An official of the CIA came to a Cuban safehouse.

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Speaker 2: He seemed very bothered by this and said, you have

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Speaker 2: to eliminate Kennedy, the pinko of the White House.

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Speaker 1: The Cuban missile crisis made it even clearer to the

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Speaker 1: exiles that Kennedy was not going to help them get

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Speaker 1: Cuba back. He was looking to forge a path to

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Speaker 1: peace with Cuba and the Soviet Union, and it was

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Speaker 1: made clear by his famous speech that he gave at

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Speaker 1: American University. He took the position that was directly at

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Speaker 1: odds with the exiles who wanted their island back. Kennedy

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Speaker 1: was standing in their way.

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Speaker 2: So that's the first group you've established the motive for

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Speaker 2: the Cuban exiles.

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Speaker 1: Next is La Coos Andostra the mafia. The mafia's goals

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Speaker 1: were simple money and power, and in the nineteen sixties

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Speaker 1: they had both. This mob story starts in New Orleans

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Speaker 1: with a burly mob boss named Carlos Marchello.

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Speaker 5: The New Orleans Crime Commission reported that under Marcello, the

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Speaker 5: local mafia made over a billion dollars annually from gambling, prostitution,

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Speaker 5: and burglaries.

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Speaker 1: Attorney General Robert Kennedy was going after Marcello as part

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Speaker 1: of his mission of cracking down on organized crime. In

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Speaker 1: nineteen sixty one, Kennedy had Marcello deported. He had him

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Speaker 1: flown out of the United States and unceremoniously dumped in

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Speaker 1: a jungle in Guatemala. Two months later, Marcello returned to

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Speaker 1: New Orleans, and let's just say he wasn't in the

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Speaker 1: best of moods.

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Speaker 6: Marcello had a deep and abiding hatred of Robert Kennedy

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Speaker 6: by that time, and that was shared by the other

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Speaker 6: organized crime leaders.

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Speaker 2: That's Jefferson Morley again, the creator of jfkfax dot Org.

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Speaker 1: The mafia despised the Attorney General, who they felt was

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Speaker 1: targeting them. But as we've come to know, when the

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Speaker 1: mob makes it decision, it's not personal, it's strictly business,

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Speaker 1: and they had a really good business reason to dislike

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Speaker 1: the Kennedys.

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Speaker 6: In nineteen fifty nine, Castro took power and through organized

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Speaker 6: crime out of Havana.

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Speaker 1: Marcello and his partner Santo Traficanti ran Cuba. They called

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Speaker 1: it the Las Vegas of the Caribbean. When Castro took over,

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Speaker 1: they lost everything. Cuba was truly a second Vegas to them. Casinos, drugs, women.

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Speaker 1: It's impossible to place a number behind these profits, but

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Speaker 1: the business was huge, massive revenue streams, and growth potential

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Speaker 1: was off the charts. Then Castro cuts them off. He

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Speaker 1: shuts down their boomy casino and drug business. So now

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Speaker 1: their goal is get rid of Castro. So you have

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Speaker 1: the classic definition of strange bedfellows, the mafia and the CIA.

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Speaker 6: The relationship between the CIA and the American mafia had

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Speaker 6: begun in World War Two when the US invaded it

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Speaker 6: through the South, and they didn't want any problem with

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Speaker 6: the organized crime syndicates. That really controlled that part of Italy,

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Speaker 6: and so they made an agreement with the mafia that

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Speaker 6: they could continue to run their casinos. The US occupation

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Speaker 6: wouldn't bother them, and in return, these crime syndicates would

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Speaker 6: assist the US occupation.

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Speaker 1: And guess who came up with that idea The poet

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Speaker 1: spy James Jesus Angleton. He was stationed in Italy at

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Speaker 1: the time, and under his guidance the relationship between the

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Speaker 1: CIA and the mafia began. Angleton relied on his contacts

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Speaker 1: with organized crime throughout the nineteen fifties.

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Speaker 2: So the CIA and the mafia have this history of

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Speaker 2: working together, and in this moment, which is the early

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Speaker 2: nineteen sixties, their motives are aligned against Castro.

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Speaker 1: The hardliners in the CIA and the military felt that

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Speaker 1: Kennedy was betraying the country. He had gone soft on

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Speaker 1: communism and in order to stop it spread, you get

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Speaker 1: rid of anything or anyone that stand And there was

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Speaker 1: also an additional motive for Allan Dulles, the godfather of

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Speaker 1: the CIA.

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Speaker 7: I believe that President Kennedy had alienated much of the

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Speaker 7: US establishment by the time he was killed in Dallas.

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Speaker 2: That's David Talbot again. Author of the book on Alan Dulles,

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Speaker 2: The Devil's Chessboard.

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Speaker 7: I think he alienated not only much of his own government,

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Speaker 7: but the national security establishment and the military industrial complex

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Speaker 7: that was making so much money, frankly off the state

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Speaker 7: of permanent war. He and his brother who came from

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Speaker 7: Wall Street, a very powerful law firm on Wall Street,

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Speaker 7: the Rockefeller brothers, the oil industry, the weapons manufacturers, these

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Speaker 7: were all their clients. And they had had it with

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Speaker 7: President Kennedy and his efforts at peace.

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Speaker 2: What exactly does that mean? They had had it with him.

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Speaker 7: They said this was putting the country at risk. They

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Speaker 7: thought that President Kenny was a week president, that he

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Speaker 7: was a Week leader, that he was an peaser, and

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Speaker 7: he had to be removed from office.

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Speaker 1: In October of nineteen sixty three, just weeks prior to

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Speaker 1: the assassination, JFK signaled that he was going to start

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Speaker 1: a withdrawal from Vietnam. He put it in writing in

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Speaker 1: National Security Memo two sixty three, which he sent to

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Speaker 1: a Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara.

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Speaker 5: National Security Memo two sixty three stated that the president

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Speaker 5: would withdraw a thousand military personnel from South Vietnam by

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Speaker 5: the end of nineteen sixty three.

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Speaker 2: The memo says, quote, A major part of the US

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Speaker 2: military task can be completed by the end of nineteen

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Speaker 2: sixty five.

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Speaker 1: Right he was telling everyone that this wasn't our war.

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Speaker 5: McNamara had gone on the record stating that if JFK

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Speaker 5: had lived, he would have withdrawn the US from Vietnam

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Speaker 5: after the election.

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Speaker 2: Just think how history could have changed. Memo two sixty

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Speaker 2: three had actually ever gone into effect.

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Speaker 1: And it was the beginning, in my opinion, to the

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Speaker 1: divide that we have today. When Blenda Johnson became president,

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Speaker 1: he rescinded Kennedy's memo and he issued a new one

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Speaker 1: in which he called for an immediate halt to the

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Speaker 1: withdrawal of troops from Vietnam. Johnson signed the memo on

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Speaker 1: November twenty sixth, nineteen sixty three, one day after President

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Speaker 1: Kennedy's funeral.

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Speaker 2: Rob has established his belief that the mafia, the Cuban exiles,

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Speaker 2: and the hardliners in the CIA and military all had

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Speaker 2: motive to kill President Kennedy.

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Speaker 1: Their motives were different, but they were completely aligned. They

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Speaker 1: just needed someone to put it all together, someone who

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Speaker 1: had the means to pull something like this off.

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Speaker 2: So the popular theory is that the CIA had the

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Speaker 2: means to make it happen.

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Speaker 1: But not in any what you would think official capacity. Remember,

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Speaker 1: this is all about plausible deniability. To do something this

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Speaker 1: world changing, the assassination of an American president, it would

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Speaker 1: have to be done in a way that couldn't be

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Speaker 1: traced back. A team would have to be assembled on

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Speaker 1: a need to know basis. Certainly people like Alan Dulles,

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Speaker 1: James Angleton, and Bill Harvey would know how to pull

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Speaker 1: this off.

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Speaker 2: Harvey, you might recall, was the man Dullest placed in

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Speaker 2: charge of ZR Rifle, the CIA's executive action program. In

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Speaker 2: his reporting, Jefferson Morley describes Harvey as quote an assassination specialist.

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Speaker 6: For most of that time, Harvey was a raging alcoholic.

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Speaker 6: He was a bitter critic of President Kennedy and his brother.

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Speaker 6: Bill Harvey was, in the words of his colleagues, a

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Speaker 6: very dangerous man.

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Speaker 2: Here's General Lansdale, who was in the Air Force and

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Speaker 2: then the CIA. He was a pioneer in covert operations

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Speaker 2: and psychological warfare. Dick interviewed him decades ago.

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Speaker 5: Harvey thought of himself as James Bond.

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Speaker 7: He was convinced.

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Speaker 8: I think that the anime was after him, so he

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Speaker 8: always went armed.

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Speaker 9: William Harvey, my dad called him a psycho, a drunk psycho,

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Speaker 9: but he was a dangerous man.

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Speaker 2: That's Saint John Hunt, son of E. Howard Hunt, the

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Speaker 2: legendary CIA operative who became notorious for his role in Watergate.

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Speaker 2: We'll talk more about E. Howard Hunt later, because you

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Speaker 2: guessed it. He's part of this too.

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Speaker 1: During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Harvey was so insubordinate to

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Speaker 1: RFK that he was taken off Cuban policy and banished

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Speaker 1: to Rome. The humiliation only added to Harvey's hatred for

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Speaker 1: the Kennedys.

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Speaker 6: Harvey became very good friends with Johnny Rosselli, who was

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Speaker 6: the crime boss of Las Vegas.

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Speaker 1: At that time.

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Speaker 2: That's Morley again.

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Speaker 6: Johnny was also a known KI or. The FBI suspected

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Speaker 6: him in about twelve murders. So if you wanted to

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Speaker 6: kill somebody, Johnny Rosselli was the right person to go to.

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Speaker 1: I loved Roselli.

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Speaker 8: My husband always said, if I had to write shotgun

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Speaker 8: and that's a guy I'd.

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Speaker 7: Take with me.

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Speaker 1: That's CG. Harvey. Bill Harvey's wife, cig was an agent herself.

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Speaker 1: And here she is talking about her husband's close relationship

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Speaker 1: with Johnny Rosselli.

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Speaker 8: He definitely was mafia and he definitely was a crook,

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Speaker 8: but he was a patriot.

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Speaker 2: Well that's weird calling a mob boss a patriot, right.

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Speaker 1: But it shows the connection that he had with her husband,

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Speaker 1: which extended to their feelings about RFK.

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Speaker 8: Bobby Kennedy and my husband were absolutely enemies, I mean

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Speaker 8: just pure enemies.

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Speaker 1: And then she goes back to talking about Rosselli.

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Speaker 8: He knew that my husband was a patriot and that's

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Speaker 8: what drew him to be.

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Speaker 1: Now, pay attention to what comes next.

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Speaker 8: And he had been recruited by another guy from the

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Speaker 8: FBI for assassination purposes on.

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Speaker 2: Kennedy or on cashtill on Kennedy. That's a big slip.

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Speaker 1: Yes, she said that Johnny Roselli was recruited by someone

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Speaker 1: at the FBI for assassination purposes on Kennedy. Then she

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Speaker 1: quickly realized what she had said and she corrected herself.

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Speaker 2: Freudian slip, but a big one. The CIA withheld a

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Speaker 2: significant amount of material on Bill Harvey's secret operations from

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Speaker 2: the House Select Committee on Assassinations when they investigated in

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Speaker 2: the mid nineteen seventies.

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Speaker 1: You'll remember former CIA agent George Joanniedes. He acted as

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Speaker 1: a goalkeeper for the CIA during that investigation. Robert Blakey

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Speaker 1: still has his regrets.

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Speaker 8: Instead of pulling around with people that joeannadies Davis, I

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Speaker 8: should have been talking to Harvey.

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Speaker 2: In twenty sixteen, David Talbot filed a Freedom of Information

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Speaker 2: Act request for these records on Harvey, among others.

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Speaker 7: They refused to release them to me, they said for

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Speaker 7: national security reasons.

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Speaker 2: The following year he sued the US State Department.

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Speaker 1: And here we are in twenty twenty three and those

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Speaker 1: Harvey records have still not been released.

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Speaker 5: The records that have been released reveal that even after

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Speaker 5: the Kennedys banished Harvey to Rome, he continued contact with

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Speaker 5: Dulles and Angleton. They also reveal that he worked with

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Speaker 5: a man named David Attlee Phillips.

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Speaker 2: What do we know about David Attlee Phillips.

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Speaker 6: David Attlee Phillips was a trust fund kid from Texas.

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Speaker 6: He inherited a lot of money after the war and

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Speaker 6: moved to Chile and opened up a expat newspaper. It

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Speaker 6: was there he came to the attention of a traveling

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Speaker 6: CIA officer named Howard Hunt, the future Watergate burglar, who

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Speaker 6: recruited him to join the agency, and what his specialty

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Speaker 6: was was deception operations using the press and radio.

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Speaker 1: He was like an Angleton Junior. After Castro took over

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Speaker 1: a Cuba, Phillips became a point person for anti Castro activities,

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Speaker 1: specifically working with the Cuban exiles in Miami.

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Speaker 5: There were a number of different groups that formed during

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Speaker 5: this time, and they each had a different method of

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Speaker 5: trying to remove Castro. Some were more diplomatic, while others

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Speaker 5: were outright violent. Alpha sixty six in Operation forty were

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Speaker 5: two of the more violent groups.

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Speaker 4: OP forty is a special team of operatas basically assassins.

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Speaker 2: That's Ricardo Moreles Junior again his father, Ricardo Moreles Senior,

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Speaker 2: fought in the Bay of Pigs.

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Speaker 4: OP forty became more of a CIA run team that

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Speaker 4: was ready to do whatever the CIA needed them to do.

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Speaker 4: Alpha sixty six is just Cubans expats that are furious

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Speaker 4: and want to blow things up. Alphai six wanted to

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Speaker 4: go back to Cuban just assassinate Castro.

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Speaker 1: Alpha sixty six was led by a Cuban exile by

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Speaker 1: the name of Antonio Vessiana.

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Speaker 5: Antonio Vessiana was smart and angry, and there was nothing

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Speaker 5: he wouldn't do to get his country back.

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Speaker 7: Antonia was a wealthy guy in Cuba.

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Speaker 2: That's David Talbot again.

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Speaker 7: He had been a banker, had been a member of

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Speaker 7: the middle class there and saw that thought that the

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Speaker 7: castro was taking the country in the wrong direction, so

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Speaker 7: he joined the exiles who fled.

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Speaker 1: Once he was on us soil, Vessiana started making plans

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Speaker 1: to take Cuba back. He had a plan, but what

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Speaker 1: he didn't have was money. He had left everything he

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Speaker 1: had back in Cuba.

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Speaker 4: The money for these organization this just has to come

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Speaker 4: from somewhere.

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Speaker 2: That's Morellis Junior. Again.

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Speaker 4: You have the materials that are required, the bombs, the

357
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Speaker 4: explosives and all that also has to be procured.

358
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Speaker 1: A lot of the support came from a CIA operative

359
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Speaker 1: named Maurice Bishop.

360
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Speaker 2: So who's Maurice Bishop.

361
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Speaker 1: I know I'm throwing a lot of names at you,

362
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Speaker 1: but stick with me here on Maurice Bishop. This is important. First,

363
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Speaker 1: what you have to know is that there is no

364
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Speaker 1: record of anyone at the CIA with that name. Did

365
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Speaker 1: he even exist? And if he didn't, who was helping

366
00:21:36,960 --> 00:21:41,399
Speaker 1: Alpha sixty six? In nineteen seventy six, during the House

367
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Speaker 1: Committee investigation, we got the answer, and it was like

368
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Speaker 1: something straight out of a movie. Stick with me here

369
00:21:59,160 --> 00:22:04,080
Speaker 1: on Maurice Bishop. This is important. First, what you have

370
00:22:04,160 --> 00:22:07,480
Speaker 1: to know is that there is no record of anyone

371
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Speaker 1: at the CIA with that name. Did he even exist?

372
00:22:12,480 --> 00:22:15,920
Speaker 1: And if he didn't, who was helping Alpha sixty six?

373
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Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy six. During the House Committee investigation, we

374
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Speaker 1: got the answer.

375
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Speaker 5: The committee called Antonio Vesciana in for questioning. Vasciana mentioned

376
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Speaker 5: that he had a handler with the last name of Bishop. Again,

377
00:22:33,960 --> 00:22:37,879
Speaker 5: nobody recognized the name, so they asked Vasciana to describe

378
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Speaker 5: what Bishop looked like. The sketch artist starts to draw

379
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Speaker 5: a compositive Bishop based on descriptions from Vesciana and others

380
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Speaker 5: who've described.

381
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Speaker 1: Him, and then the sketch looked like someone familiar.

382
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Speaker 5: When David Attlee Phillips was testifying to the committee, they

383
00:22:54,119 --> 00:22:57,639
Speaker 5: showed him a copy of the sketch. He said, couldn't

384
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Speaker 5: identify the person, but it looks like me.

385
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Speaker 10: I want to unequivocally state that Maurice Bishop was David

386
00:23:04,080 --> 00:23:04,880
Speaker 10: Attlee Phillips.

387
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Speaker 1: The voice you just heard is Antonio Vessiana's son. He's

388
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Speaker 1: reading a statement from his father revealing that David Attlee

389
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Speaker 1: Phillips also used the name Maurice Bishop, the CIA's very

390
00:23:19,400 --> 00:23:22,879
Speaker 1: own David Attlee Phillips, Angleton's disciple.

391
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Speaker 2: David Attlee Phillips was given a chance to respond in

392
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Speaker 2: his testimony to the houselet Committee on Assassinations, and he

393
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Speaker 2: denied that he'd ever use the name Maurice Bishop.

394
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Speaker 1: Well, he would have to. The implications would have been huge.

395
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Speaker 1: In March of nineteen sixty three, Alpha sixty six, under

396
00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:46,760
Speaker 1: the leadership of Antonio Vessiana, with the support and funding

397
00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:51,280
Speaker 1: of the CIA, through David Attlee Phillips, sank a Russian

398
00:23:51,320 --> 00:23:52,560
Speaker 1: ship doctor in Cuba.

399
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Speaker 2: This is in nineteen sixty three, after the Cuban Missile crisis,

400
00:23:57,800 --> 00:24:01,600
Speaker 2: in a moment where Kennedy had turned to peace. Did

401
00:24:01,680 --> 00:24:06,080
Speaker 2: President Kennedy know that Alpha sixty six sunk that Russian ship?

402
00:24:06,440 --> 00:24:09,800
Speaker 2: He did, and that Alpha sixty six was backed by

403
00:24:09,840 --> 00:24:10,440
Speaker 2: the CIA.

404
00:24:11,080 --> 00:24:11,560
Speaker 1: He did.

405
00:24:12,080 --> 00:24:13,879
Speaker 2: He must have been furious, he was.

406
00:24:14,320 --> 00:24:17,880
Speaker 1: Remember By the spring of nineteen sixty three, Kennedy had

407
00:24:17,920 --> 00:24:21,479
Speaker 1: promised Khrushchev that he'd be hands off with Cuba, that

408
00:24:21,560 --> 00:24:25,640
Speaker 1: Castro wouldn't have to worry about another US invasion. Kennedy

409
00:24:25,720 --> 00:24:28,399
Speaker 1: knew that this attack on the Russian ship was an

410
00:24:28,480 --> 00:24:32,719
Speaker 1: attempt to undermine his improving relationship that he was developing

411
00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:37,320
Speaker 1: with Russia and also with Cuba. He assured kruse Chef

412
00:24:37,359 --> 00:24:39,640
Speaker 1: that he didn't order the attack and would make these

413
00:24:39,760 --> 00:24:46,040
Speaker 1: activities stop. And then Alpha sixty six launched another attack

414
00:24:46,160 --> 00:24:47,639
Speaker 1: on another Soviet ship.

415
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Speaker 2: So they were intentionally undermining President Kennedy.

416
00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:55,280
Speaker 1: Yes, and they even took it a step further. After

417
00:24:55,320 --> 00:24:58,600
Speaker 1: the attack, members of Alpha sixty six hold a press

418
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Speaker 1: conference where they suggest that the American government is supporting

419
00:25:02,560 --> 00:25:06,320
Speaker 1: their actions. Kennedy, needless to say, was livid.

420
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Speaker 5: He had the Coastguards seized the boats of Cuban exiles

421
00:25:09,920 --> 00:25:12,960
Speaker 5: before they could attack any more Soviet or Cuban vessels.

422
00:25:13,560 --> 00:25:16,280
Speaker 5: He sent planes and boats into the waters around Cuba,

423
00:25:16,840 --> 00:25:20,360
Speaker 5: and he banned a dozen Cuban exile leaders from leaving Miami,

424
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Speaker 5: including Vesianabi.

425
00:25:25,800 --> 00:25:29,520
Speaker 3: Strategies theory about the United States. One from the administration,

426
00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:31,879
Speaker 3: and then there's one of the CIA and the Cuban

427
00:25:31,880 --> 00:25:35,360
Speaker 3: exiles in the mafia, and they had their own independent objectives,

428
00:25:35,840 --> 00:25:38,080
Speaker 3: this need to assassinate Kennedy.

429
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Speaker 1: And here it is the CIA, the Cuban exiles, and

430
00:25:42,760 --> 00:25:47,000
Speaker 1: the mafia all in sync the goal assassinate Kennedy.

431
00:25:47,840 --> 00:25:50,720
Speaker 5: They were working together. The mob was selling guns to

432
00:25:50,760 --> 00:25:55,359
Speaker 5: the exiles. The CIA was directly funding and organizing in

433
00:25:55,359 --> 00:25:56,360
Speaker 5: the exile groups.

434
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Speaker 1: And here's Alpha sixty six leader Antonio Vessiana Hill himself

435
00:26:01,040 --> 00:26:06,040
Speaker 1: in twenty fourteen at a JFK Assassination Researchers conference. He's

436
00:26:06,080 --> 00:26:10,919
Speaker 1: eighty six years old and a translator is speaking for him.

437
00:26:12,480 --> 00:26:14,680
Speaker 11: Over the years of his training and his experience in

438
00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:17,879
Speaker 11: dealing with the CIA and Bishop and other Phillips and others,

439
00:26:18,240 --> 00:26:20,760
Speaker 11: he learned how to become a professional conspirator.

440
00:26:20,760 --> 00:26:26,200
Speaker 2: What it meant Phillips meaning David Atlee Phillips aka Angleton's

441
00:26:26,200 --> 00:26:28,680
Speaker 2: protege code name Maurice Bishop.

442
00:26:28,880 --> 00:26:30,360
Speaker 1: Correct, correct, Correct.

443
00:26:30,840 --> 00:26:33,840
Speaker 11: The CIA never had an official meeting where they said, hey,

444
00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:35,919
Speaker 11: here's where we're going to plan on the murder of

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00:26:35,960 --> 00:26:38,960
Speaker 11: the president. But he happens to know that a group

446
00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:43,639
Speaker 11: of officials working within the CIA got together with the

447
00:26:43,680 --> 00:26:46,000
Speaker 11: clear plan to assassinate and murder the president.

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00:26:46,440 --> 00:26:50,119
Speaker 1: And there's one more bombshell from Vessiana, and this is

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00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:54,200
Speaker 1: revealed by another translator. It shows how all the pieces

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00:26:54,240 --> 00:26:55,280
Speaker 1: start to come together.

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Speaker 10: I traveled to Dallas at the end of August or

452
00:26:58,280 --> 00:27:02,000
Speaker 10: beginning of September nineteen sixty three to meet with Maurice Bishop,

453
00:27:02,040 --> 00:27:04,880
Speaker 10: my CIA hander. We had agreed to see each other

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00:27:04,920 --> 00:27:07,879
Speaker 10: in the lobby of a downtown Dallas bank. They are

455
00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:10,760
Speaker 10: observed Bishop with a young man I later identified without

456
00:27:10,800 --> 00:27:12,480
Speaker 10: a doubt as Lee Harvey Oswalt.

457
00:27:13,560 --> 00:27:16,960
Speaker 1: So you have Oswald meeting with a CIA agent who

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00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:22,520
Speaker 1: is a master in counterintelligence. In September nineteen sixty three,

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00:27:22,720 --> 00:27:27,120
Speaker 1: pieces were being moved around the board, and Oswald wasn't

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00:27:27,160 --> 00:27:31,360
Speaker 1: the only piece being moved. The list of people who

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00:27:31,400 --> 00:27:34,760
Speaker 1: were in Dallas on November twenty second will make your

462
00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:37,600
Speaker 1: head spin. Let's start with someone that didn't have to

463
00:27:37,640 --> 00:27:40,200
Speaker 1: travel very far, the mayor of Dallas.

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00:27:40,920 --> 00:27:43,680
Speaker 2: How is it possibly news that the mayor of Dallas

465
00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:46,080
Speaker 2: is in Dallas.

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00:27:46,160 --> 00:27:49,760
Speaker 1: Well, that in and of itself is not news. But

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00:27:49,960 --> 00:27:53,919
Speaker 1: what is news is what we've learned about this particular

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00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:58,200
Speaker 1: mayor over the years. Do you recall the name Charles Cabell?

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00:28:00,119 --> 00:28:04,119
Speaker 1: Remind me okay, He was the former deputy director of

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00:28:04,160 --> 00:28:07,440
Speaker 1: the CIA and one of the agents that Kennedy fired

471
00:28:07,720 --> 00:28:09,840
Speaker 1: after the failed Bay of Pigs evasion.

472
00:28:10,200 --> 00:28:12,280
Speaker 2: And how does he fit into all of this?

473
00:28:13,280 --> 00:28:16,720
Speaker 1: Well. In nineteen sixty three, the mayor of Dallas was

474
00:28:17,640 --> 00:28:18,440
Speaker 1: Earl Cable.

475
00:28:19,040 --> 00:28:24,040
Speaker 5: Charles's brother, Earl Cabell, himself was a CIA asset.

476
00:28:24,440 --> 00:28:28,840
Speaker 2: In twenty seventeen, a batch of newly declassified documents revealed

477
00:28:28,840 --> 00:28:32,199
Speaker 2: that Earl Cable had secretly worked as an asset of

478
00:28:32,240 --> 00:28:35,680
Speaker 2: the CIA during his tenure as the mayor of Dallas.

479
00:28:36,280 --> 00:28:40,600
Speaker 2: Those documents came out fifty four years after the assassination

480
00:28:40,720 --> 00:28:41,680
Speaker 2: of President Kennedy.

481
00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:46,520
Speaker 1: Mayor Cable was responsible for establishing the route the motorcade

482
00:28:46,560 --> 00:28:50,280
Speaker 1: would take, and that route would pass right in front

483
00:28:50,320 --> 00:28:54,440
Speaker 1: of the building where Oswald worked. Wait till you hear

484
00:28:54,520 --> 00:28:58,000
Speaker 1: the roster of people who arrived in Dallas that morning.

485
00:28:59,080 --> 00:29:03,120
Speaker 1: First up have Tosh Plumley, who was a CIA operative

486
00:29:03,120 --> 00:29:06,360
Speaker 1: and a mercenary pilot during the fifties and sixties. As

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00:29:06,400 --> 00:29:10,000
Speaker 1: you may recall, he was stationed at Nagshead, North Carolina

488
00:29:10,080 --> 00:29:13,959
Speaker 1: with Oswald. The day of the assassination. Plumbley was tasked

489
00:29:13,960 --> 00:29:17,480
Speaker 1: with transporting two high profile people to Dallas.

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00:29:17,920 --> 00:29:20,840
Speaker 12: I was asked to go fly as co pilot on

491
00:29:20,920 --> 00:29:22,000
Speaker 12: that particular flight.

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00:29:22,360 --> 00:29:23,240
Speaker 1: That's Plumblee.

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00:29:23,720 --> 00:29:26,960
Speaker 12: The flight was to go from West bomb Beach to

494
00:29:27,040 --> 00:29:29,719
Speaker 12: go over to Tampa, and we flew open water across

495
00:29:29,760 --> 00:29:32,719
Speaker 12: the New Orleans and some other people got on there

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00:29:32,760 --> 00:29:35,880
Speaker 12: at New Orleans and then from there we flew into Dallas.

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00:29:36,080 --> 00:29:38,600
Speaker 1: Plumbley, like everyone else, was on a knee to know

498
00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:41,920
Speaker 1: basis and doesn't claim to know why he was piloting

499
00:29:41,960 --> 00:29:44,920
Speaker 1: the flight, but he confirmed that one of the passengers

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00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:48,280
Speaker 1: on board was mob boss Johnny Rosselli.

501
00:29:48,280 --> 00:29:50,080
Speaker 12: Rose Ella was on board our aircraft, so it was

502
00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:52,000
Speaker 12: that a couple of other Cubans. I don't know for

503
00:29:52,080 --> 00:29:52,840
Speaker 12: sure who they are.

504
00:29:53,080 --> 00:29:56,760
Speaker 1: There was one other passenger plumb Lee could confirm. His

505
00:29:56,840 --> 00:29:59,520
Speaker 1: name was Howard Hunt. Hunt was a high level American

506
00:29:59,560 --> 00:30:04,080
Speaker 1: intelligen and, as we know, became infamous for his role

507
00:30:04,120 --> 00:30:07,840
Speaker 1: in the Watergate break in. Here's Saint John, his son

508
00:30:08,280 --> 00:30:10,480
Speaker 1: talking about his dad in Dallas.

509
00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:16,560
Speaker 9: Well, at the time, I asked my mom, where's Papa,

510
00:30:16,640 --> 00:30:20,000
Speaker 9: and she said he's in Dallas on business. And I

511
00:30:20,080 --> 00:30:22,720
Speaker 9: remember that as if it were yesterday, And at the

512
00:30:22,760 --> 00:30:26,360
Speaker 9: time I didn't I didn't put it together with the assassination,

513
00:30:27,080 --> 00:30:29,920
Speaker 9: you know, but later on I thought, wow, that was

514
00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:31,680
Speaker 9: right there at the same time.

515
00:30:31,960 --> 00:30:34,680
Speaker 2: So what would be the role of someone like E.

516
00:30:34,920 --> 00:30:37,040
Speaker 2: Howard Hunt in Dallas on that day?

517
00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:39,360
Speaker 1: Saint John, you once told me that your father was

518
00:30:39,400 --> 00:30:42,480
Speaker 1: in Dallas as a benchwarmer. What exactly is a benchwarmer?

519
00:30:42,840 --> 00:30:45,560
Speaker 9: He knew who was involved, where they would go after,

520
00:30:46,200 --> 00:30:49,800
Speaker 9: you know, the mission was accomplished, how to get them out,

521
00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:50,800
Speaker 9: and things like that.

522
00:30:51,160 --> 00:30:52,560
Speaker 1: I feel that he.

523
00:30:52,600 --> 00:30:55,920
Speaker 9: Knew the points of entry and the points of exit,

524
00:30:56,480 --> 00:30:59,680
Speaker 9: and he knew safe houses. I think he was someone

525
00:30:59,760 --> 00:31:02,560
Speaker 9: who we had a grasp on the whole mission.

526
00:31:03,080 --> 00:31:05,520
Speaker 1: When we spoke to Ricardo Morales Junior, whose dad was

527
00:31:05,520 --> 00:31:08,720
Speaker 1: a Cuban exile working for the CIA out of Miami,

528
00:31:09,240 --> 00:31:11,760
Speaker 1: he said his dad was in Dallas and used very

529
00:31:11,800 --> 00:31:12,920
Speaker 1: similar language.

530
00:31:13,520 --> 00:31:18,200
Speaker 2: Here's Morales Junior translating his father's testimony of that day.

531
00:31:19,200 --> 00:31:22,560
Speaker 4: I was there as a cleaning team, just in case

532
00:31:22,600 --> 00:31:25,200
Speaker 4: something went wrong. Those are the only orders I received,

533
00:31:25,800 --> 00:31:27,520
Speaker 4: and that's what we did. We were at a safe

534
00:31:27,520 --> 00:31:32,760
Speaker 4: house in Dallas awaiting orders. So once the assassination took place,

535
00:31:33,360 --> 00:31:35,920
Speaker 4: they called in for orders. Their orders were to return home,

536
00:31:36,480 --> 00:31:37,320
Speaker 4: and that's what they did.

537
00:31:38,200 --> 00:31:41,520
Speaker 1: Others reported to be in Dallas that day, where Mob

538
00:31:41,600 --> 00:31:47,120
Speaker 1: connected Charles Nicoletti, Cia operative Jack Cannon, a Cuban exile

539
00:31:47,320 --> 00:31:51,680
Speaker 1: named Herminio Diaz Garcia, and a former member of French

540
00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:54,120
Speaker 1: intelligence named John Swetre.

541
00:31:54,880 --> 00:31:58,760
Speaker 2: So Dallas at that moment was like the super Bowl

542
00:31:58,960 --> 00:32:00,600
Speaker 2: of covert operations.

543
00:32:00,840 --> 00:32:04,120
Speaker 1: There can only be one explanation for all of them

544
00:32:04,200 --> 00:32:07,320
Speaker 1: to have been there that day. They had to make

545
00:32:07,360 --> 00:32:09,360
Speaker 1: sure that the president got killed.

546
00:32:12,600 --> 00:32:16,840
Speaker 2: Next episode on Who Killed JFK? We follow Lee Harvey

547
00:32:16,840 --> 00:32:21,360
Speaker 2: Oswald on November twenty second, nineteen sixty three.

548
00:32:21,200 --> 00:32:24,280
Speaker 1: He knows something big was going to happen that day,

549
00:32:24,680 --> 00:32:27,440
Speaker 1: and he knows that he's on the inside of whatever

550
00:32:27,480 --> 00:32:28,400
Speaker 1: this thing is.

551
00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:31,080
Speaker 7: And so I said, what's in the package?

552
00:32:31,160 --> 00:32:31,480
Speaker 1: Lee?

553
00:32:31,520 --> 00:32:33,920
Speaker 7: And he said, don't you remember we talked about this

554
00:32:34,040 --> 00:32:36,480
Speaker 7: sches Today, I've gone to Branks some curtain Rodge to work.

555
00:32:37,200 --> 00:32:40,400
Speaker 8: When the shots that get to ring out, people really

556
00:32:40,520 --> 00:32:41,200
Speaker 8: began to pay.

557
00:32:41,840 --> 00:32:46,360
Speaker 7: I think he felt that the plot had been turned

558
00:32:46,360 --> 00:32:49,760
Speaker 7: against him and he believed that his life was in danger.

559
00:32:52,040 --> 00:32:55,400
Speaker 2: Who Killed JFK is hosted by Rob Reiner and me

560
00:32:55,720 --> 00:32:59,760
Speaker 2: Solidad O'Brien, and our executive producers are Rob Reiner, Michelle

561
00:32:59,840 --> 00:33:04,960
Speaker 2: r Matt George Jason English, David Hoffman and me Solidad O'Brien.

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00:33:05,640 --> 00:33:09,240
Speaker 2: Our writer is David Hoffman, with research by Dick Russell.

563
00:33:09,640 --> 00:33:13,680
Speaker 2: Our story editors are Rob Reiner and Julie Pinero. Our

564
00:33:13,720 --> 00:33:18,760
Speaker 2: senior producer is Julie Pinneo. Our producers are Tristan Nash,

565
00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:23,880
Speaker 2: Dick Russell, Michelle Goldfein and Amari Lee. Our editors are

566
00:33:23,920 --> 00:33:28,320
Speaker 2: Tristan Nash, Julie Pinneto, and Marcus de Lauro. Our project

567
00:33:28,360 --> 00:33:34,640
Speaker 2: manager is Carol Klein. Our associate producer is emilse Kiros. Mixing,

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00:33:34,840 --> 00:33:38,840
Speaker 2: mastering and sound design by Ben la Julier. Research and

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00:33:38,880 --> 00:33:44,520
Speaker 2: fact checking by Girl Friday and emilse Kiros. Archival audio

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00:33:44,640 --> 00:33:48,800
Speaker 2: in this episode thanks to the Assassination Archives and Research Center,

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00:33:49,200 --> 00:33:54,080
Speaker 2: the Alderton Family, Dick Russell and Rob Reiner. Business affairs

572
00:33:54,120 --> 00:33:58,080
Speaker 2: by Hennan Nadea and Jonathan Furman. Our consulting producer is

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00:33:58,120 --> 00:34:02,880
Speaker 2: Razanne Galliini. Recording in part at CDM Studio and Fourth

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00:34:02,920 --> 00:34:08,960
Speaker 2: Street Recording Studio. Show logo by Lucy Quintanilla. Production assistants

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00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:13,239
Speaker 2: by Roccodel Prior and Grace Barron. Special thanks to Johenig

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00:34:13,320 --> 00:34:16,839
Speaker 2: Rose Arsay and Dan Storper. If you're enjoying the show,

577
00:34:16,920 --> 00:34:20,560
Speaker 2: leave us a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform.

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00:34:21,239 --> 00:34:24,840
Speaker 2: Who Killed JFK as a production of Solidad O'Brien Productions

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00:34:25,040 --> 00:34:26,360
Speaker 2: and iHeart Podcasts.