LUCE, PAWLEY & JFK

In 1956, Henry and Clare Boothe Luce were close enough to the Kennedy family that she received a postcard from JFK’s mother, Rose, written when Jackie and John lost a baby. “Pray—please—dear Clare.”1 

But in August of 1970, it was revealed that Henry Luce had voted a decade earlier for Richard Nixon—instead of John F. Kennedy—yet spent the night of the election with Joseph and Rose Kennedy and months later attended JFK’s inaugural.2

In August 1971, an article appeared in the Miami Herald detailing Pawley’s role in Operation TILT, the effort to extract Soviet missile technicians from Cuba and have them state missiles still existed on the island despite the Kennedy administration’s claim that the weapons had been removed. FBI Special Agent in Charge Francis M. Farrell attached the article to his memorandum noting that “Pawley has been of interest to our organization and its predecessor for many years.”3

In 1975, the Washington Star contacted Pawley for follow up to a story that had appeared in City, a short-lived San Francisco publication. City’s story had been co-authored by former FBI agent William Turner and Warren Hinckle, who had been with Ramparts magazine when the publication revealed CIA funding of foundations. The Washington Star story dealt with Operation TILT and reported that Pawley “said yesterday that Life joined the party and paid the commandoes in exchange for exclusive rights to the story.”4

Another account of the tale was published in the spring 1976 issue of Soldier of Fortune magazine. Written by Miguel Acoca, a former Life staff writer, and Robert K. Brown, the publisher of Soldier of Fortune, the exclusive article was titled “The Bayo-Pawley Affair: A Plot to Destroy JFK and Invade Cuba.” It was excerpted from Brown’s 1967 manuscript, Ripped Cloak, Rusty Dagger: JFK, LBJ and the CIA’s Secret War Against Castro. The article included photos taken by Terence Spencer, the Life photographer who accompanied the Bayo-Pawley operation part of the way.

The Soldier of Fortune article asserted that “Operation Red Cross” (a name created by Life) “was a plot to destroy President Kennedy politically, and the CIA played a major role— with “its agents, planes, ships and communications” involved.

Bayo, whose real name was Eduardo Perez, had earlier in the year been involved in a failed attempt “to topple Haiti’s President Francois Duvalier, the hated ‘Papa Doc’” believing that “Haiti was the ideal base for attacks against Cuba.” At one of the first planning meetings, Bayo met with Tony Questa and Ramon Font of Commando L, Mario Fontela of FORDC and “and the boys from DRE.”5 Other Bayo-Pawley planning meetings were attended by INTERPEN’s Frank Fiorini6 and Gerald Patrick Hemming.7

Pawley was interviewed briefly on October 15, 1975 for the Spring 1976 article and stated that he felt that the June 1963 Operation TILT was a “‘one-thousand-in one chance.’”8

As it turned out the odds were not even that good.

When CIA documents were finally declassified decades later they provided details including weapons and points of rendezvous for an operation that was plagued with problems. The radar was out of order and the “operation delayed twenty four hours due to engine trouble Mr. Pawley yacht.” His “Flying Tiger anchored at Point G” had to wait for a replacement part to make emergency repairs. “Bill, States intentions to continue operation independently unless unknown factors exist,” the “Op procedding [sic] as planned X due navigational difficulties involved.” Then there was loss of contact with the and the futile search for the missing TILT team members.9

A memo referring to QDDALE’s May 23 contact with JMWAVE Station Chief Reuteman detailed how John “Martino had tried to talk [Richard] Billings [of Life] out of participating in the Soviet defector operation but Billings had refused to be excused ... This resulted in QDDALE learning that Mr. George P. Hunt, Managing Editor of Life Magazine, planned to be in Miami 23 May” and “Life was willing to pay each of the Soviets $2500 for their story.”10

Richard Billings was not a mere employee. His father, John, had been the first managing editor of Life. Richard was part of the team that purchased the Zapruder film of the JFK assassination. A few years later, he endeared himself to New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison and Tom Bethal who were looking into Oswald’s associates in New Orleans. Months later, Life began questioning Garrison’s integrity.

In the next decade, Billings became the editorial director for G. Robert Blakey who was named chief counsel to the House Select Committee on Assassinations in September 1976. In the book, they co-wrote after the hearings ended, they concluded that Oswald and an unnamed shooter from the Grassy Knoll were part of a conspiracy organized by Carlos Marcello who ran the Southern mafia from New Orleans and had been deported by the Kennedy administration after the “underworld figure, was ruled an undesirable alien.”11

On October 25, 1975, after Pawley was interviewed about TILT, Life magazine’s Clare Boothe Luce called her friend CIA Director William Colby to try to explain how she was able to so very quickly identify Oswald as being pro-Castro. The call took place as Senator Schweiker was reopening the Kennedy
assassination in wake of the Watergate Rockefeller hearings. The entire conversation, transcribed by Barbara Pindar along with her parenthetical notes, offers many insights into the Luce and Pawley mission, their DRE allies and associates, and her spin:

Mrs. Luce: I have a big problem, a case in conscience. I got rather deeply involved during and after the Bay of Pigs, and up to the time of the missile crisis, with a group called the (Directorate Revolutionario Estudiante; Barbara Pindar Note: the spelling of that is just a guess), the DRE. Whether you know this or not, it was me who fed the missile stuff to Keating. I knew a number of these leaders well; they were going in and out of Cuba, and I paid for one of the motor boats. Bill Pawley did too. We thought we were doing another Flying Tiger. The missile crisis came, and I got a telephone call from Allen telling me that the Secrets Act had gone into effect and that henceforth there would be no voluntary American efforts. That ended that, and I don't know what I was doing— maybe I went back to Arizona, or whatever. Then came the assassination. The night of the assassination, right after Oswald was caught, one of my boys telephoned me from New Orleans. Didn't I ever tell you this?

Mr. Colby: No.

Mrs. Luce: It was the captain of my boat. It seems that after the missile crisis—a period of about a year had gone by—he said that all the young Cubans involved profoundly in all of this had been told to scatter and scram, that he and two of my other lads—

Mr. Colby: When, after the crisis?

Mrs. Luce: (Yes.) (were told) to leave Miami.

Mr. Colby: In 1962?

Mrs. Luce: Yes. They were to stop their efforts to free Cuba; and if they did not, they would be deported. It has a very interesting end involving you. In any event, this one had been told to leave Miami after the missile crisis was over, and he had opened a cell in New Orleans. He telephoned me to tell me that Oswald was—I am telling you what his view was—was a hired gun; Oswald had tried to penetrate their little cell; that they turned around and did counterpenetration job on Oswald; all of this was done several months before the assassination. He said,—telling me on the phone, he was terribly excited—he said “you see he had no money, all of a sudden he began to get money, so we checked him and he had a little ‘Communists be Free’ or ‘Be Fair to Cuba’ group going in New Orleans.” He said, “We had tape recordings of what he was telling his group.” It was a counterpenetration they went on. He said, “We have photographs of Oswald passing out handbills on the street, ‘Be Fair to Cuba.’” He said, “We are absolutely certain that Oswald was simply one of three assassination teams, that they were working out of Mexico City (or funded in Mexico City) by Castro.” He said there were three assassination teams. Then he said, “We have these recordings, these tapes, and we have these photos, what should we do?” These fellows always trusted me. I said, “The first thing you do, the minute you hang up this phone, you telephone to the FBI, give them everything you have got.” Working in New York with these Cubans is an extraordinary fellow, one of the most puzzling characters I have ever met; he is a devout Catholic—Justin McCarthy. Justin is the American patron—although he has no money, never had money—of all these free Cubans in America. He never worked at CIA, although CIA tried to pick his brains. He tried to help the FBI. I knew Justin McCarthy, and he used to send me bulletins; he said he had been sending them to me for the past six months, and I had never received one of them. Out comes the Warren Report. I have many other things to do, and I assume my lads had reported what they knew; and maybe it had been discounted, but I had taken the Warren Report at face value without poring over it—and I forgot the whole darn thing. Then, this must be nine years ago, up turns a guy named Lloyd Garrison*—what was he, a sheriff or something? (Barbara Pindar handwritten note: she means Jim Garrison).

Mr. Colby: District Attorney.

Mrs. Luce: And he hit the headlines that the assassination had been a conspiracy. Then it all flooded back into my mind that I had never been quite satisfied with what the Warren Report had brought out. Basically, I was troubled by the whole thing, so I said I thought I would call Garrison. In order to call him, I had to have the names of the Cubans, which had gone out of my bean. So I called Justin McCarthy. He said one of them was now, my lad, was in Miami. I got him on the phone, my fellow, and I said, “You remember your midnight call to me about the assassination of the President, I want to know what happened after that.” He said, “We went atonce to the FBI, they took all the tapes and photos and all our information and told us to keep our mouths shut, and shortly after that they informed us that if any of us talked to the press or anyone, dire things would happen.” He said one of the fellows on the boat was deported to Guatemala or Chile, and one of them was murdered. He said, “I am a lawyer, have two children, I am making my way in Miami, and I never want to hear a damn word about the assassination of Kennedy because you Americans really do not want to know the truth.” He said, “We waited, expecting the Warren Committee would want to have us, and we never heard a word.” He said, “I want no part of it.” Then the Garrison thing died down, and I am a busy woman, and I forgot about it. Three days ago a reporter was in here—a gal*—asking about my life style and said, in passing, “What do you think of the investigation of the assassination of the President?” I am afraid I hit the roof. I said, “I think everyone must be absolutely off their rockers. What possible motive would the CIA have for murdering their own President?” I said, "Even to assume such a thing is beyond belief because where there is a murder or assassination, there is a motive, and there could be no motive.” I said, “Who had the motive was Castro; but perhaps not even Castro, possibly just a bunch of Communist Cubans or plain Communists.” I said, “They always had a motive for that sort of thing.” Schweiker called me up yesterday—when the reporter said to me, “What is the name of the young Cuban?” I said, “We’ll, let's call him Julio Fernandez.” The Senator said to me “that is a fascinating story.”

< *Barbara Pindar handwritten note: I missed the fact that the girl reporter was with Knight Newspapers >

Mr. Colby: You told the story to Schweiker?

Mrs. Luce: He read it in the Knight paper.

Mr. Colby: You told the story to the Knight people?

Mrs. Luce: Not in the detail I told you. Schweiker asked if I could locate any of these men involved for him, and I said I would try. That was yesterday. I used that opportunity to say, “I do not know what you are doing on the Hill.” I said, “You are in the (Barbara Pindar note: process?) for headlines and destroying this country's security.” He said, “If you have this information and you can get your hands on it, it would be a good thing to lay this story to rest. He said, “If you can find me these people, I assure you they will be listened to in closed session.” Now comes the big thing. Justin McCarthy runs an animal farm in Nyack: telephone number is 914-647-8596. I have known him to be a man of complete integrity. He is a devout Catholic. He may or may not be a fanatic. What makes one think he is what he tells you is just so terribly alarming; as he was the one, along with Bill Pawley, who involved me with these Cubans, I tracked him down and had a two-hour conversation on the phone with him this morning that was really staggering. When I said to him, “Would you tell these things in the closed session in the Senate?” he said, “I would find it more expedient and to shorten the process to hire loud speakers and put them on top of the Empire State Building.” He said, “You don't know, Clare, the Cubans have not lost their desire to free their country, and there are plenty of them working at it, and they trust me, and I trust them, and they all trust me.”

He said, “All these fellows on the Hill give a damn about is a big headline and political attention, and if this should involve my testifying and some of my fellows got bumped off, or their apparat shut down, I could not live with myself, no I will not testify.” I said, “You know, Justin, if they send for you, you might have to.” He said, “They are not likely to send for me unless you tell them.” He said, “They do not know who to ask for anyway.” (Barbara Pindar note: It doesn’t appear in my notes, but my memory is that he added that the reason the Hill doesn't get to the truth is that they never know who to ask for.) He told me a story about working once with CIA. He said, “We did this, DRE did one operation with CIA, as a result of which all the Cubans involved were caught and killed, and I do not want any part with the CIA.” He said, “It too can be a sieve.” I said, “You have me really over a barrel.” I said, “Justin, I have to tell someone, is there anyone you trust?” He said, “There is only one man in this whole country whose word at this point I would take.” I said, “Who is that?”, and he said, “Bill Colby.” He said, “He is a daily communicant”—

Mr. Colby: No, no.

Mrs. Luce: I did not disillusion him. In any event, if only to put my own mind at rest since—he always says, which is fascinating if true, that my lads in New Orleans, yes, they did turn over the tapes to the FBI but they kept copies.

Mr. Colby: Really?

Mrs. Luce: So he says. If so, you are possibly, if—I think you should get hold of Justin and give him a couple of hours because he has plenty to say. If what he says is true—he also told me, which I had forgotten—that during the time of the missile crisis, and I was the one he came to, and naturally the one I went to was Harry (Barbara Pindar note: this is first mention of a “Harry” maybe I misunderstood; could she have said “Allen”*) because I could trust him. In a way, Justin McCarthy supplied a lot of background material on the Cubans to (note: could not hear what she said). He said a few days ago—Time is planning to do a (take-out) issue on the assassination of Kennedy. He said that, going back through their files, they carne across my name as an informant, and he said “they tracked me down too.” He said, then he told me—I mentioned in passing that there was a wonderful girl on Time that knows more about the Cubans almost than anyone in CIA, Priscilla Badger. He said the Time people are now trying to get information. He said, “I will talk to no one because there are lives at stake”—except you. For my own sake, if you have a go at him, I would be very happy to know how serious it is.
< Barbara Pindar handwritten notes: *or maybe she was referring to her husband, Henry Luce? That may explain Time having her name listed as an informant. [Arrow pointing to Harry] No this is her husband—Henry Luce. >

Mr. Colby: I will report back to you by all means. Let me do a little homework on just where this (looks). You do not remember the name of the Cubans in Miami?

Mrs. Luce: There are so many names; he talked to me so fast. He kept saying “Chilo.” I asked who “Chilo” is, and he said that was his code name.

Jose Antonio La Nuza (Note: That last name may be all one word; she said it means “the nut.”) [D.P. Cannon note: DRE member was Lanusa also spelled Lanuza. Military leader of the DRE was Isidro “Chilo” Borja Simo, cryptonym AMHINT-5.]12

Luis Fernandez Rocha

One of those fellows was the Director of the DRE. Then he also reminded me of a guy who used to come to see me—Cardona. (He had been told by the American Government to get out of Miami) and he died, having become the President of a university in Puerto Rico. These fellows were scattered all over the place. As I mentioned that to Justin, he said, “I know where they all are.” The thing that alarmed me is that—he does not talk in an excited voice, but the statements are—he said “People think of the Bay of Pigs and the nuclear showdown and the assassination of Kennedy as the end of the story, it is only the beginning.” He said, “If you knew what is being laid on for the U.S.,” and he talks like that. I asked him, “What do you think happened?” He said, “Oswald went to the FBI.” He said, “I know that, he was selling them information, and they did not believe him.” I said, “That is incredible.” He said, “I do not know how much you know about the FBI, but no day goes by without desks being loaded with letters saying something will be blown up.” (Barbara Pindar Note: I missed a little bit here due to something else happening in the office.) I said, "What happened?” and he said, “The FBI got the word from on top ‘Destroy the letters.’”

Mr. Colby: From on top?

Mrs. Luce: From the President, who was Johnson. I contended that if at that point the FBI had proven that Castro had in mind assassinating the President, we would have been in war with Cuba. It might have been an act of State to shut up about it. If I had been the President, I would have had (Note: missed more due to outside interference). What is hideous about this is that the CIA is being accused or Kennedy is being accused—anyone except the people who probably were involved. If putting it at rest in a secret session will work, if such evidence does exist, you are the man to present it.

Mr. Colby: Schweiker does not know about McCarthy?

Mrs. Luce: He only knows this—I said there is one man I know who might be able to tell you where these Cubans are, and that is a fellow named Justin McCarthy. He said, “Where is he?”, and I said, “I do not know, I have lost track of him.” He said, “If you find him, let me know.” After talking with Justin McCarthy, I do not want him to talk to Schweiker. I do not know what to say if he calls again. Knowing the Senator, I may never hear from him. I leave it with you.

< Barbara Pindar Note: At this point I had to get off the phone to make another phone call. I do not think there was any further conversation about the above matter. >

< Barbara Pindar NOTE: Mrs. Luce closed the conversation by referring to a CIA paper entitled “Restless Youth” and asked if it had been declassified. Mr. Colby said he would check on it, and Mrs. Luce said she would like to have a copy if it has been declassified. >13

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Three days later, CIA Director Colby spoke on the phone to Justin McCarthy which also was transcribed by Barbara Pindar.

Mr. [Justin] McCarthy: I am glad to know you, even if it is over the phone.

Mr. Colby: Mrs. Luce talked to me yesterday (sic). She gave me a capsule version of some of her chat with you. It puts me in a jam, obviously, because there are some things that really hold some potential for being very important in these days (of) post-mortems of everything. I wondered if maybe we should chat about it sometime, or, quite frankly, one of the main things I would suggest is that you might want to go to this Senate Committee looking into this.

Mr. [Justin] McCarthy: No. There are several reasons why not. I am sure we do not need to discuss them, but there are many reasons. Over the time, there have been so many things. We were the only ones who had information about the missiles in Cuba for many months, and we beat our brains out trying to get someone to do something (or believe?) and regrettably (in) Washington there are too many political (opportunists?), but there are too many lives at stake. We risked our neck for all these years. We are interested in doing the right thing.

Mr. Colby: I wonder if you could (slice?) off that New Orleans thing (and not go any further than that?)

Mr. [Justin] McCarthy: As I said to her—(can’t read the next few words). For me to be seen in Washington, it is (can’t read the next few words). We do not trust anyone. We did so many operations for so long, and we were entirely successful and never lost a man, and then one day we did an operation for the Government and lost 22 men. Lives depend on it. Someone sent a Top Secret memo, and the one he sent it to left it on his desk and someone came in and read (it) and the men were arrested. She asked, “Would you talk to Bill?” I said I would. We think it would be a good idea—for me to go down—I do not want to blow my cover, but I would like very much to chat with you and tell you.

Mr. Colby: My problem is then I get information, and then what are my obligations.

Mr. [Justin] McCarthy: From the point of view of (seeing?) how to do it through persons other than me—to get the end result.

Mr. Colby: It might be that one of your fellows aware of some of the things (would not mind telling Schweiker?) under some protection and assurances of anonymity. That would be enough of a (can’t read the next word) to get started.

Mr. [Justin] McCarthy: There is plenty to get started on.

Mr. Colby: Then (he?) could cut your people out as a source.

Mr. [Justin] McCarthy: She said it would be a closed-door hearing. I said there (would?) still be someone come out of the meeting and (can’t read the next word) their names to the press. You see Jack Anderson’s column on Monday. It is vitally important, and it is true evidence. It’s not conjecture. I am concerned about what it ties into—it is all the same ball of wax. We sat on information about the missiles. This has been going on for a good twenty years, and we have accumulated an awful lot of information. It is appalling, and it is frightening, and people do not want to believe it. Last night I enlightened people about some of the things that are going to happen. We feel that the time has come that some of this should come to light. It is necessary and essential to go back and bring out some of these things that need to be brought out, but not at the expense of (next word missing). We have done this on our own and at our own expense. One of the reasons my people trust me is—I am thinking of a book—we did not want to do a book before. The American public wants to know. It is all part of what went on then. I think it should be clarified and straightened out what went on then. But I am so terribly wary. I went to everyone, including the President, about the missiles. We had evidence—what ships they were on, where they were (docked?), and a few days later they came back and said there is no credibility of what you say.

Mr. Colby: The only thing that bothers me is the story about the existence of some records (you?) still hold. The important part of that is that indicates some (part?) of failure, or possibly even worse—that is the kind of thing that does need investigation or (correction?)—protecting your people that are in on it. The other possibility would be to ask Schweiker or one of his men to go and talk to you or one of your people who would have factual knowledge of it.

Mr. [Justin] McCarthy: When (Dorothy) told me about you over a period of time—(Dorothy) said we have been through this so many times—I took this to editors of Life. That was the time the guy sent the Top Secret memo and it got left on the desk in Miami and we lost a lot of people on that. Inadvertently so many things happen We work so carefully. We have information now that no one else has because it has come to the point where so many of the people I work with find they cannot trust people because of the opportunists. I have never met such overbearing and obnoxious (can't read next word). We sat on this year in and year out—we never know when we might get calls. I was up all night long the night before last. Time is doing a big cover story on

< Barbara Pindar Note: I am not positive about the “Dorothy” above, but don’t know what else it could be. I had written in long-hand, “Doroth.” My only guess at this point is Dorothy Farmer, Mrs. Luce’s secretary. >

the thing— the next issue—the Today Show is bugging me. Washington is a funny place. If I— by and large, when your life is on the line—one of (our?) guys hung himself after one of the escapades we went through. He committed suicide because he felt guilty about it. Up here it is terrific because I am an animal nut. A lot of the guys divulging some of this stuff that they would not normally do.

Mr. Colby: Let me talk with Clare again as to how we handle this. The main thing is not so much the overall stuff about Cuba—the main thing is the story about records, about Oswald. That comes at a time when that is a serious subject of study here by the Congress. If we could in some way shake that information loose without putting the finger on any of your friends, I think we are sort of obliged to do this in terms of clarifying the record against the (facts?)—this is a very key aspect of it and a very serious problem that if it was suppressed at the time.

Mr. Colby: That is the thing. They are looking into it. Let me talk to Clare again and see if I can figure out some way in which we could talk to you (maybe?) and if you could in the meantime think of a way of (can't read the next word) out or (can't read the next word) out this (feature?) of it so that you give the (final result?) but not the sourcing, and let the investigators (find their own source later on?), we would have done our duty. My problem is that I really cannot sit on it with my obligations. I can be reasonable about protecting other people, and I have to be, but I also have to have the responsibility for responding to proper investigations of things that really should be looked into.

Mr. [Justin] McCarthy: Let me (can’t read next word) this in. Some of our guys (can’t read next several words).

Mr. Colby: That is what she said.

Mr. [Justin] McCarthy: They and I are scared to death. I was Executive Producer of TV programs for years—I cannot make—I have earned the respect and confidence of these people over the years. The other night I talked all night long. If I try to push my guys—Clare said it needs to be laid to rest, and it does. I would like to see it get laid to rest, but my people—

Mr. Colby: I can assure you I am as interested (as) you in protecting that part of it if there were some way of having part of the cake and eating part of it, so that you do not lose the one or the other but to work out some vehicle—a way in getting the substantive information loose but protecting people involved. There may be ways to do that if we put our minds to it. Let me talk to Clare and see what really—I will not do anything except with her without your permission.

< Barbara Pindar NOTE: Mr. Colby tried to call Mrs. Luce on 29 October but could not reach her. He contacted her on 31 October (see separate notes) >

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It took well over a month for Barbara Binder’s notes of the October 31st phone call between Luce and Colby to be transcribed.

<Telephone Conversation Between Mr. Colby and Clare Boothe Luce at 4:07 on Friday, 31 October 1975 (this transcript was typed on 22 December 1976 from steno notes of Barbara Pindar) >

Mr. Colby: I got the Restless Youth for you. And I called Justin McCarthy. We had a long chat. He does not want me to do anything about it, but I said you put me in an awful position.

< (Barbara Pindar Note: The "you” there refers, I believe, to McCarthy.) >

I understand what you mean about his strong manner of talking. I think both of us are (hung?) with a rather tantalizing story.

Mrs. Luce: If I had not known the guy for 25 years, I would take him much less seriously.

Mr. Colby: The only real point is the thing about the tapes and the photos and the allegation about the FBI. I tried to (argue?) him into figure some way in getting rid of those but keeping himself out of the act.

Mrs. Luce: He called me back and said he talked with you and that you left him in a box, and I think he feels now that there is some kind of a question of conscience involved. He said, "I am going to let you and Bill Colby decide what is best to do."

Mr. Colby: I said I would be in touch with you and try to figure out something sensible.

Mrs. Luce: Why don't we suggest that he bring you or me—perhaps he feels safer with me—the tapes and photos if he has copies of them.

Mr. Colby: And then you pass them over to Schweiker.

Mrs. Luce: And let them decide, and I will maintain his cover—he keeps saying it is not worth it to him after all these years to blow that—the paradox, he tells me he is going to have to write a book (and whether he is indeed going to?) so that he is not altogether a crackpot. On the other hand, what he is doing is sufficiently crackpot. He is taking care of broken-down animals from his entire area. However,—

Mr. Colby: I think that is a good idea. You say that you and I have talked, and we are all in a kind of box at this point, and we really in conscience cannot sit on this stuff—all these charges that there is remaining evidence that (can't read next word) was held back and disappeared into the FBI, and maybe the way to do it is for him to provide it to you, and you to Schweiker, and then I would just as soon drop out it does not really have much to do with me—and in that way you would protect him from Schweiker, and you would say you got it a friend—and the source is whatever he and you agree on,

Mrs. Luce: I will do that.

Mr. Colby: I think that is the best thing to do. If he does not buy that, I do not know what we do about Schweiker.

Mrs. Luce: (I am going to ignore it if Schweiker comes to me.)

< NOTE: The conversation continued, but it did not pertain to this subject. >14

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Transcripts of the October phone calls were sent to the FBI in January after internal CIA discussions and approvals. And after the first Luce-Colby call was quoted in the Washington Star on November 16, 1975.15

Justin McCarthy, whose integrity and Catholicism the astute and devout Clare Boothe Luce swore by, had been paroled from an armed robbery sentence in 1961 and was suspected then of being a con man.16 A decade after Luce’s phone call, McCarthy was convicted of animal cruelty and of using $500,000 for himself that he had raised to take care of animals in Ellenville, New York.17

Luce had converted to Catholicism in 1944. She was feeding her story to a fellow Catholic whom she felt should share her concern about damage to the national security caused by Congressional investigations—a tactic Nixon had used with Colby’s predecessor Helms during Watergate. But Colby, after serving as Director from 1973 to 1976, was dismissed by President Ford “because of a growing feeling in the White House that he was cooperating too freely with congressional investigators looking into allegations of CIA wrongdoing.”

Colby died at age 76 in April 1996. He had gone canoeing on the Wicomico River near his vacation home in Maryland and nine days later was found. He had become one of the scores of paddlers who drown each year or die from cold-water induced hypothermia. At the time of his death, he was working on an electronic game based on his years as an intelligence agent.18

In all likelihood Luce was aware that Colby’s role in South Vietnam had linked him to the Phoenix Project which evolved into the assassination of suspected communist sympathizers and probably believed he did not want Schweiker poking around CIA secrets. The "Restless Youth" document she requested from Colby was a 1968 detailed sociological/political analysis of global student unrest including youth in the United States. It was considered extremely sensitive by Kissinger and Helms because the CIA was forbidden from conducting surveillance upon Americans in the U.S. which it had been doing since 1967 as part of Operation CHAOS, creating “personality files on over 13,000 people, including some 7,000 American citizens, and subject files on 1,000 domestic organizations.” Director Colby had halted CHAOS surveillance in 1974, but details were not revealed until the Rockefeller Commission released its report.

Was Luce sending Colby a message with her request? She had served for years on the Presidential Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board so she may have learned about “Restless Youth” in that capacity. Shortly after Colby began to investigate Luce’s claim, President Gerald Ford replaced Colby as CIA Director with George H. Bush who worked alongside Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld as they built power within Republican circles that decades later would lead to a U.S. invasion of Iraq after the 9/11/2001 attacks. The Iraq war was launched by George H.’s son, President George W. Bush, based on the false yellowcake premise.

When the House Select Committee on Assassinations looked into Clare Boothe Luce’s assertions, they found that her story could not be verified. “The first report of Oswald's contact with the DRE in New Orleans came from the group's headquarters in Miami. This information was released to national news organizations, the CIA, and the FBI shortly after the identification of Oswald as Kennedy's assassin. The evidence indicates that the Luce allegations, although related to certain facts, cannot be substantiated in the absence of corroboration by other individuals.”19

In addition to Luce, TILT-instigator John Martino’s credibility came into question. “INS investigator, Miami, states he has had similar problem with Martino in that Martino recently furnished allegation that a Cuban exile in Miami was Castro agent ... INS has been unable to identify such person [Orlando Delgado] ... Miami regards Martino as both unreliable and untruthful ... A subpoena of Martino before the President’s commission would add nothing to the Oswald investigation.”20

The Luces were among the most influential people in America because Henry Luce was the publisher of Time, Life and Fortune magazines. In 1941, he declared the 20th century as the “American Century,” a period when the U.S. would achieve its manifest destiny to rule the world.21

That same year, his wife, Clare, was elected as a Republican member of the House of Representatives from Connecticut and was re-elected in 1949. In Congress she served on the Military Affairs Committee and warned of the threat of the Soviet Union at the end of World War II. She also gained fame as a magazine writer, war correspondent, and editor, as well as the playwright of “The Women.” From 1953 to 1956 she was the U.S. Ambassador to Italy where the CIA was funneling money to the Christian Democratic Party candidates, and she spoke out against the Communist labor unions.

A decade later, surveys showed Clare was one of America’s top ten most admired women. In the month following the Kennedy assassination, she undertook “a cross-country speaking tour, with stops in 14 major cities in 12 states, speaking on behalf of the Republican National committee.” Despite sounding a little scatter-brained at times when speaking to Colby, she served on the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board under President Nixon, President Ford and eventually President Reagan who awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1983. Clare died in 1987, two decades after her husband.22

In December 2022 some of the long-withheld JFK documents were released, one from August 8, 1963 granted Clare Boothe Luce the CIA’s Covert Security Approval (“request dated 26 July 1963 ... to permit Subject’s use for contact by COS, Rome, when he visits the U.S. or in the event that she visits his area” where she had once served as Ambassador).23 In 1958, she was approved with a number of other high-profile writers and celebrities for PBGREGALE, an operation providing favorable articles to a Latin American publication.24

As a member of the Citizens Committee for Free Cuba, Mrs. Luce was openly critical of JFK’s anti-invasion policy toward Cuba after the failed Bay of Pigs and continued to criticize him in the following decade for diverting the public’s attention to the style of Camelot instead of the issues of the Cold War. Her sharp tongue made the Citizens Committee seem more like Brutus and the conspirators, despite the presence of Kennedy supporter William Vanden Heuval. She obviously did not learn etiquette from the expert, Letitia Baldridge, who served as Luce’s assistant at the American Embassy in Italy from 1953 to 56, 1956 and was Jacqueline Kennedy’s social secretary and chief of staff at the time of her husband’s assassination in 1963.25 Jackie’s Press Secretary Pamela Turnure Timmins cautioned against riding through Dallas without a bubble top to protect the President.26

The fact that Luce admits to being the source for conservative Senator Kenneth Keating’s revelation that there were missiles in Cuba, much to the embarrassment of the White House indicates she was intent on undermining the President. Within months of questioning why there could be a coup in Vietnam, yet America waits for elections to oust its President, she announced her own platform for the Presidency, strong on college education for everyone and equally hawkish on Russia, Vietnam and Cuba.27

Life published many of the damning photos of the assassination including still frames of the Zapruder film out of order that convinced some readers that all shots came from the rear. The publication also displayed the picture of Oswald holding communist propaganda and the rifle that helped convince America he was a mentally troubled “lone nut assassin.”

Mrs. Luce did not stay silent after her call to Colby. She told writer Betty Beale she had gone to Senator Richard Schweiker, “chairman of the subcommittee investigating the Warren Commission report, to persuade some Cubans she had known to testify before his committee.”

Beale wrote “Clare Luce recounted a fascinating tale during dinner in her aqua-colored Watergate apartment the other evening.” Luce told Beale about helping to “finance a fact-finding fleet of motorboats after the Bay of Pigs” at the behest of former Ambassador Pawley and feeding Senator Keating information. After JFK was shot, she received a call from a “‘young Cuban’” who "‘said that there was a Cuban Communist assassination team working somewhere—in Dallas, New Orleans, or wherever, I don't remember—and that Oswald was their hired gun.’” Yet “Oswald had tried to report the Communist plans to the FBI sometime before the assassination but because he was out for the dough the FBI didn't believe him.’”

Luce told Beale that an older Cuban said Americans don’t understand the serious nature of the situation in Cuba. “You think the Bay of Pigs, the nuclear missiles, the assassination of the President was the end of the story? I tell you it is just the beginning.” The older Cuban then warned that “there are trained Communist terrorists, assassination, kidnapping, bombing and sabotage teams all over the country and the world."28

In early December 1975, a bomb detonated outside the Miami police homicide office and a second “rocked the county justice building ... the latest in a string of explosions in the past 18 months.” Juan Jose Peruyero, the former president of the Bay of Pigs Veterans Association, who had been interviewed on the fiasco’s 10th anniversary, “blamed the bombings on the appearance of Asst. Secretary of State William Rogers, whom he described as ‘public enemy No. 1 of the freedom of Cuba’” as a main advocate of renewing relations with Fidel Castro.29

On April 26, 1978 the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA)with “less than eight months remaining until its final report to Congress is due” began looking into the CIA Director “Colby discussions with Claire Boothe Luce regarding the Bayo-Pawley affair.”30 It would be determined that Luce “concocted the name of Julio Fernandez.”31

Also on the HSCA list to testify publicly was Priscilla Johnson McMillan who had worked for the Citizens Committee for a Free Cuba (CCFC) member, Ernest Cuneo, at the North American Newspaper Alliance; interviewed Oswald in Russia following his defection; befriended Marina Oswald; and eventually wrote the 1977 biography called Marina and Lee. McMillan and her husband, George, became regular propagandists of the concept that Oswald was a loner who suffered psychological damage from life during the Cold War.32 The HSCA commented that “Priscilla Johnson McMillan may be called to discuss her contacts with Oswald in Moscow at which time her CIA ‘witting source’ affiliation may be exposed” which may necessitate a subpoena of “Gary Coit (retired, DCD).”33

Those who would not be testifying before the HSCA were the long-missing TILT team. Nor would the key organizer of the operation whose goal was to discredit JFK.

FOOTNOTES:

1 Laurence Learner, The Kennedy Women: The Saga of an American Family, (New York: Villard). Page 462.

>> The doctor blamed the stress of the Democratic National Convention. John F. Kennedy was sailing at the time of Jackie’s cesarean birth.

2 “Why Luce Wouldn’t Back JFK, Believed Nixon Was Experienced, Tape Reveal.” By Henry Raymont. Long Beach Independent/Press Telegram, August 19, 1970. Page A-16.

3 RIF 1993.07.31.10:03:42:500034 ~ 8/31/1971 Memorandum for Headquarters “Pawley, William—Article in Miami Herald.” From: Francis M. Farrell, Special Agent in Charge. Subject: Pawley, William (Information Concerning).

1. Attached herewith is an article on William D. Pawley which appeared 22 August 1971 edition of the Miami Herald.

2. Pawley has been of interest to our organization and its predecessor for many years.

4 RIF 1993.08.09.17:07:29:370007 ~ “Ex-Envoy, Life Staffer in ’63 Cuba Raid: Sought 2 Defecting Soviet Missile Men.” Washington Star, January 8, 1976. Unsanitized CIA File of William Pawley. Page 11 of 267. Mary Ferrell Foundation website. MaryFerrell.org

>> Life’s parent company, Time, Inc., “and the Life journalist accompanying the raiders, Richard Billings, denied that Life had financed the expedition.” The former Miami bureau chief, Billings, “confirmed most of the details published in City.”

>> William Pawley stated “he navigated his personal yacht that carried the raiding party to Cuba. He said Life paid the commandos between $15,000 and $25,000.” The article went on to state:

Pawley said he refused to take any Life staffers along on grounds the mission was “too dangerous.” But Billings, in Washington said he was there and described the event in some detail.

Pawley said he personally put up about $20,000 to cover the rest of the cost of the project, which was launched because the two Russian missile technicians reportedly were ready to be defect. That would have proved the Soviets still had missiles in Cuba.

Pawley said Sen. James Eastland D-Miss., informed him in 1963 there might be Russian technicians still in Cuba and asked whether he could help an attempt to get them out. Although both he and Eastland were skeptical about the project, Pawley said, he gave it a try because “information on Russian missile bases in Cuba would have been valuable to the U.S. government.”

“Former Envoy Confirms 1963 Cuba Raiding Party.” The Washington Post, January 9, 1976. Page C3.

“Did Life magazine Finance CIA Sneak Raid into Cuba?” Nevada State Journal (Reno), January 8, 1976. Page 1.

5 “The Bayo-Pawley Affair: A Plot to Destroy JFK and Invade Cuba.” By Miguel Acoca and Robert K. Brown. Soldier of Fortune, Spring 1976. Pages 12-21.

It was a plot to destroy President Kennedy politically, and the CIA played a major role. Without the CIA, in fact, the weird adventure could not have taken place. Without its agents, planes, ships and communications, “Operation Red Cross”, the name dreamed up by Life, which was anxious to publish the pictures and tell where the missiles were hidden in the words of the Soviet defectors could never have sailed.

6 NARA 104-10221-10106. CIA Memo circa September 16, 1963. Frank Anthony Sturgis aka Frank Fiorini. Subject: INTERPEN, MIRR Ops [pages 1 and 4 of 4].

>> Pedro de la Camera was partnering with Fiorini in the effort.

RIF 1993.07.02.11:06:04:930800 ~ Max Forman Gonzalez aka Max Gonzalez.

>> Bonelli alias for Frank Sturgis.

NARA 124-10281-10203 ~ 10/11/1963 FBI Document “Subject: Americans for Freedom (Americanos Por Libertad) Internal Security – Cuba – Haiti; Neutrality Matters.”

>> “A confidential informant, familiar with certain aspects of Cuban exile activity, furnished the following information concerning captioned organization and its legal counsel, Charles R. Ashman ... an attorney with offices in the Dupont Plaza Building ... Ashman was an assistant to Senator George A. Smathers in 1956 and 1957 ... Ashman’s efforts on behalf of Harris and Company [an ad agency that had filed suit against the Castro government] resulted in effectively attaching 21 Cuban airplanes and other property.”

>> From June to September 1962, he represented a group “composed of approximately 15 to 25 ex United States servicemen headed by one Gerald Patrick Hemming, also known as the ‘Bearded Giant of No Name Key.’” Two of the members “were one Howard Davis, who handled liaison with other anti-Castro groups, and one Joe Garman, the son of a wealthy man from Kentucky.” Ashman also represented “members of Alpha 66, who were picked up by the United States Coast Guard while attempting to launch a raid on Cuba” and “Commando L., Cuban Anti-Communist Army, and Second National Front” plus others.

7 “The Bayo-Pawley Affair: A Plot to Destroy JFK and Invade Cuba.” By Miguel Acoca and Robert K. Brown, Soldier of Fortune, Spring 1976. Page 18.

NARA 104-10048-10134 ~ 10/30/1963 CIA Memorandum “Subject: Documents, Correspondence and Maps Which Were Observed in a Briefcase [in September] which was Determined to Belong to Frank Fiorini.” From: JMWAVE. 

>> Robert K. Brown was known to Fiorini/Sturgis as early as June 30, 1960 when Brown wrote to Fiorini’s friend, Pedro Diaz Lanz, offering to “‘help in any way possible.’” The letter was found in Fiorini’s possession.

8 “The Bayo-Pawley Affair: A Plot to Destroy JFK and Invade Cuba.” By Miguel Acoca and Robert K. Brown, Soldier of Fortune, Spring 1976. Page 61.

9 NARA 104-10312-10177 ~ 6/29/1963 Dispatch “Maritime After Action Report – Operation TILT.” To: C/Special Affairs Staff. From: COS, JMWAVE Subjects: Op TILT, Pawley, W.D.

NARA 104-10312-10254 ~ 6/9/1963 Cable “Nine. Op procedding [sic] as planned X die navigational difficulties involved.” To: Barr, Kola. From: JMWAVE. Subjects: Op TILT, Pawley, W.D.

10 NARA 104-10312-10379 ~ 5/22/1963 CIA Memorandum for the Record “Subject: Soviet Defectors.”

11 Richard N. Billings and G. Robert Blakey, The Plot to Kill the President Organized Crime Assassinated J.F.K. (New York: Times Books, 1981).

“Marcello Loses Case; New Orleans Rackets Figure Is Ordered Deported Again.” The New York Times, July 12, 1961. Page 20.

>> Henry Luce died in Phoenix at age 68 on February 28, 1967. His death came during the week New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison revealed his plan to indict several people for plotting the assassination of JFK, among them anti-Castro Cubans.

12 NARA 124-10306-10071 ~ 1/9/1964 FBI Report. Subjects: SAD, MAB, Mil Training, Finances, TRA, ACA, Plan, Organizations. From Dwyer, Robert James. To: Director, FBI.

13 NARA 104-10103-10359 ~ 10/25/1975 “Telephone Conversation between Mr. Colby and Mrs. Clare Boothe Luce at 12:40 on Saturday, 25 October 1975 (from steno notes of Barbara Pindar transcribed the same day). Book V, SSC Final Report, The Investigation Of The Assassination Of President Kennedy: Performance Of The Intelligence Agencies. Pages 195-200.

Another person who asserts that Castro got his way with the JFK assassination was Portuondo:

November 25, 1963. Message. From: Mexico City. To: CIA Director.

1. Following received 1405 from William Durkin narcotics representative who received from member police bank of Mexico, which one of two Interpol reps here...

2. At 2030 hrs 24 Nov, Director Intetenation Telephone Services called writer re phone call between Jose Antonio Cabarca in Mexi and Emilio Nunez Portuondo in Miami ... Cabarca told Portuondo that with the assassination Pres Kennedy Castros plan has been realized (ya se venia realizando el plan Castro) and that next one to go would be “Bob” and that any atomic bombs would rain down on U.S. without anyone knowing why, that if all U.S. unable defend life of its President, would not be able to defend themselves either ...

[Attached Biographical Sheet with photo of Portuondo shows he first entered government in Havana in 1920 but had been born in the USA in Philadelphia in 1898].

11/2/1964 Telegram. To: JMWAVE. From: Director.

ODENVY requests declassification pages 1, 8, 10, 11 of ODENVY Miami Report, 20 Dec 63, File No 105- 8342, Subject Lee Harvey Oswald based on WAVE info date 7, 11, 12 Dec 63. Material required for use Warren Commission. Pls cable reply.

WH/SA/MOB (TILTON in draft)

Bruce B. Cheever Harold F. Swenson DC/WH/SA C/WH/SA/CI

14 NARA 104-10322-10216 ~ Memo “Transcripts of October 1975 Telephone Conversation between Director Colby, Mrs. Clare Boothe Luce and Justin McCarthy.”

15 CIA-RDP80-00473A000200120015-5 ~ 1/18/1977 CIA Memorandum. For: The Director Federal Bureau of Investigation. Attention: Intelligence Division. From Robert W. Gambino, Director of Security. Subject: Colby/Luce Telephone Conversations Regarding Kennedy Assassination Information.

16 NARA 104-10071-10196 ~ 11/15/1961 Memorandum for the Files “Subject: Justin McCarthy—New York Parole Board Inquiry Regarding Relations With CIA.”

CIA memorandum for the files. Subject: Justin McCarthy-New York Parole Board Inquiry Regarding Relations with CIA:

1. Having been authorized by DADO (through Robert Crowley) to reveal to the New York Parole Board the extent of our contacts with Justin McCarthy, I phoned Mr. Bowering of the Parole Board and told him that McCarthy made a voluntary approach to the Agency in April 1961; that thereafter a representative of this office met with Mr. McCarthy on two occasions; that except for these two meetings, communication with McCarthy has been confined to telephone conversations made at his initiative; to the best of our knowledge McCarthy has had no contact with the Agency in Washington.

2. Bowering explained that McCarthy is paroled from a sentence imposed for armed holdup. He is now suspected of being a “con” man, but so far there has been no evidence of swindle. McCarthy’s violation of parole is subject to investigation. Bowering believes the information I gave him will suffice, but if McCarthy makes a big issue of his relations with the Agency, Bowering said he might want to know if McCarthy was helpful, harmful or harmless. I told him this matter would have to be discussed with higher authority if more information is desired. Signed, Harry A. Neal(?).

17 “Man Admits Cruelty at Animal Shelter.” The New York Times, November 10, 1988.

“His Love of Animals Keeps Ex-exec Down on the Farm.” By Michael Geczi. The Dallas News, February 3, 1985.

>> Justin McCarthy in 1985 stated that he established the animal farm because he wanted “to be left alone.”

18 “Former CIA director presumed drown.” CNN. http://www.cnn.com/US/9604/29/colby10pm

Morton Halperin, Jerry Berman, Robert Borosage, Christine Marwick, The Lawless State: The crimes of the U.S. Intelligence Agencies (New York: Penguin Books, 1976). Pages 148-153.

“CIA’s Colby Played a Complex Role, Devoted Life to Service.” Sun Sentinel, Ft. Lauderdale. May 9, 1996. Page 22A.

“The Perils of Paddling: The death of William Colby proves again that canoeing can be dangerous.” By Keith Moore. Sports Illustrated, August 5, 1996.

19 “Section IX. Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil (DRE).” HSCA Final Assassination Report – Hearings and Appendix.
http://jfkassassination.net/russ/jfkinfo4/jfk10/hscv10b.htm

295.Despite such strong sentiment, the DRE continued to accept support although its more militant member had been urged to join Manuel Artime's Movimiento de Recuperacion Revolucionaria (MRR) forces.(43) Whether or not this suggestion was ever taken by any DRE members is not documented, but the top leaders remained a homogeneous group and, by 1964, were soliciting additional financial support outside the U.S. Government. They were successful in receiving some funds from the Bacardi rum family in Miami.(44)

296.Although the DRE continued its relationship with the U.S. Government until the end of 1966,(45) the group’s activities, like those of other anti-Castro organizations, declined in intensity and effectiveness.

297.Because the DRE was an extremely militant “action” group, the committee was especially interested in DRE operations prior to the assassination of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963.

298.As noted, one of the effects of the Blanquita raid in September 1962, was to garner the DRE a blast of national publicity, which, in turn, gave the leaders of the group the opportunity to solicit additional funding from wealthy individuals who were sympathetic to their anti-Castro cause.(46) Among those who wound up supporting the DRE was Miami multimillionaire William Pawley, a staunch rightwing conservative, former owner of the Havana bus system, and a friend of former CIA Director Allen Dulles.(47) Another supporter of the DRE was a friend of Pawley's, former Ambassador to Italy Clare Boothe Luce,(48) then the wife of Time-Life publishing boss Henry Luce, and later, a Nixon appointee to the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.

299.In its review of DRE activities, the committee took special interest in a relatively recent series of events involving Clare Boothe Luce. In October 1975, Luce was being interviewed by Vera Glaser, a reporter and columnist for Knight newspapers, when she told Glaser of an alleged incident involving member of the DRE and Lee Harvey Oswald.(49) At the time, Senator Richard Schweiker and Senator Gary Hart were in the midst of their subcommittee investigation of the Kennedy assassination as part of the Senate select committee inquiry into intelligence activity.

300.According to Glaser’s report of the interview, this is basically what Luce told her:

301.Luce said that after the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion, her friend, William Pawley, persuaded her to help sponsor a fleet of motorboats for a group of anti-Castro Cubans who, Pawley envisioned, would be Cuban “Flying Tigers,” flying in and out of Cuba on intelligence-gathering missions. Pawley had helped start Gen. Claire Chennault's original Flying Tigers in World War II. Luce said she agreed to sponsor one boat and its three-man crew. She said she met with this Cuban boat crew about three times in New York and, in 1962, published a story about them in Life magazine. (50)

302.Following the missile crisis in October 1962, Luce said that the Kennedy administration clamped down on exile activities against Cuba, and the Pawley-sponsored boat raids were discontinued. Luce said she never saw her “young Cubans,” as she called them, again.(51)

303.Then, on the night of Kennedy's assassination, Luce said she received a call from New Orleans from one of the boat crew Cubans. Luce told Glaser she would call him Julio Fernandez. She said the Cuban told her he called because he wanted to tell her about some information he had concerning the President's killer, Lee Harvey Oswald.(52)

304.Luce told Glaser that, according to “Julio Fernandez,” Oswald had approached the anti-Castro group to which Fernandez belonged and offered his services as a potential Castro assassin. The Cubans, however, did not trust Oswald, suspected he was really a Communist, and decided to keep tabs on him. They eventually penetrated Oswald's Communist “cell” and tape recorded his talks, including his bragging that he could shoot anyone, even the Secretary of the Navy.(53) 305.Then suddenly, Luce said Fernandez told her, Oswald came into some money, went to Mexico City and finally to Dallas. Luce said Fernandez told her he still had the tape recordings of Oswald, as well as photographs of Oswald and samples of handbills Oswald had distributed on the streets of New Orleans. Fernandez, she said, asked her what he should do.(54)

306.Luce said she advised him to contact the FBI immediately. She then told Glaser that she did not think about the story again until the Garrison investigation hit the Headlines in 1967. Luce said she then contacted the Cuban who had called her. He told her his group had followed her instructions and turned their material over to the FBI. But, he said, they were advised to “keep their mouths shut” until further contact. Further contact was never made, he said.(55)

307.Luce said that Fernandez then told her that one of the members of his group had since been suddenly deported and that another had been murdered. He himself, he said, wanted nothing further to do with the Kennedy assassination.(56)

308.After Luce told her this story, Vera Glaser immediately went to Senator Schweiker and told him about the alleged Oswald encounter.(57) Intrigued, Schweiker contacted Luce directly and asked her for information about the Cuban who had called her (58) As a result, Schweiker sent a staff investigator in search of “Julio Fernandez,” No such individual was ever found.(59)

309.During the course of its own investigation into the Luce allegations, the committee reviewed the 1977 CIA Task Force report that dealt with the newspaper reports of the incident.(60) According to the task force report, Luce called then CIA Director William Colby on October 25, 1975, and told him that Schweiker had called her to ask her for details about the allegations. She said she had given Schweiker the name of Justin McCarthy who, along with Pawley, had initially aroused her interest in helping the anti-Castro Cubans. Nevertheless, she said she did not tell Schweiker how to locate him.(61)

310.Luce told Colby that after she talked to Schweiker, she had contacted McCarthy. He told her that he doubted that anything would come of a congressional probe and suggested instead that she contact Colby. Luce then told Colby that McCarthy gave her the names of three Cubans with whom he had been associated in DRE activities. They were Luis Fernandez Rocha, Jose Antonio Lanusa, and someone he remembered only by his code name, “Chilo.”(62)

311.According to the 1977 task force report, as a result of Luce's call to him. Colby contacted Justin McCarthy and attempted to persuade him to call Senator Schweiker and provide him with any information or evidence he might have. McCarthy said he did not want to get involved because there were too may "political opportunists" in Washington.(63)

312.With this background of information, the committee decided to conduct its own investigation into the Luce allegations.

313.Luce told the committee basically the same story given to Vera Glaser.(64) Luce was specifically asked if she was certain the late night call on November 22, 1963, came from New Orleans. She was definite in her answer that it did. The Warren report account of the Bringuier/Oswald association was outlined for her. She responded that it sounded much the same as the type activity in which her “boys” were engaged. Luce also told the Committee she did not recognize the name Jose Antonio Lanusa, mentioned in her conversation with Colby in 1975.(65)

314.The committee located in Miami three anti-Castro Cubans, who were among the leaders of the DRE in 1963. One of them, Juan Manuel Salvat Roque, was a founder of the group. He was interviewed by committee investigators on February 7, 1978.(66) Although Salvat did not recall Luce's involvement with the DRE, he said he “heard” William Pawley had provided the group some support.(67) He said that, as far as he remembers, the group never received a large amount of money from any single individual, but received small contributions from a great many people.(68) He said that, according to his knowledge, Carlos Bringuier, the New Orleans delegate of the DRE, was the only member of the group who ever had any contact with Oswald.(69) Committee records, moreover, indicate that Carlos Bringuier became the New Orleans delegate to the DRE in the summer of 1962.(70) As detailed elsewhere, Bringuier and Oswald had a confrontation on Canal Street in New Orleans in August 1963, when Oswald was distributing “Fair Play for Cuba” leaflets. Both Bringuier and Oswald were arrested, but were later brought together to engage in a radio debate. (71) Further, Bringuier previously had arranged for a friend of his, Carlos Quiroga, to approach Oswald and talk to him on the pretense of being interested in pro-Castro activities.(72)

315.Isidro “Chilo” Borja, another leader of the DRE, was interviewed by the committee on February 21, 1978.(73) Borja said he knew Luce was supportive of the DRE, but said he did not know the extent of her financial involvement.(74) He also recalled Bringuier's contact with Oswald and the fact that the DRE relayed that information to the CIA at the time.(75) Borja said his responsibilities with the DRE involved only military operations (76) and he suggested that Jose Antonio Lanusa, who handled press and public relations for the group, knew Luce and had been in contact with her.(77)

316.Jose Antonio Lanusa was interviewed by the committee on April 22, 1978, Lanusa said that on November 22, 1963, he and a small group of DRE members were at a Miami Beach hotel when they heard the news of the assassination of the President.(78) When Oswald's name was broadcast, Lanusa recalled the name as that of someone who had something to do with one of the DRE delegates, so Lanusa and those who were with him went to the Miami DRE office to search the files to determine if Lanusa's suspicion was right.(79) By late afternoon, they had found delegate Bringuier's report from New Orleans detailing his encounter with Oswald. Along with it was a sample Fair Play for Cuba (FPCC) leaflet and a tape recording of the radio debate.(80) With this discovery, someone immediately called a CIA contact. This person told them not to do anything or contact anyone else for at least an hour. He said he needed that time to contact Washington headquarters for instructions.(81) Nevertheless, Lanusa said, he was so anxious to release the information that Oswald was associated with a pro-Castro group that he contacted the major news organizations before the hour was up.(82).

317.When the CIA contact called back, he told then the FBI would contact the group. The next day, Lanusa said, Miami FBI agent James J. O'Conner showed up at DRE headquarters. He was given Bringuier's report, the FPCC leaflet, and the tape recording of the radio debate. Lanusa said O'Conner told them they would get a receipt for the material but, Lanusa said, they never did. Neither, he said, was the material ever returned.(83)

318.Lanusa also told the committee that soon after the DRE shelling of the Blanquita Hotel in 1962, he was introduced to Clare Boothe Luce by Justin McCarthy, who Lanusa said was the DRE’s public relations contact with the New York major media.(84) Lanusa said Luce told them she wanted to publish the Blanquita raid story in Life Magazine and that she would give the DRE the $600 she would receive from the magazine as payment for that story.(85) As far as he knows, Lanusa said, that was the only contact any member of the DRE ever had with Luce.(86) Lanusa also said he strongly doubted Luce or William Pawley ever paid for motorboats for the DRE because, he said, he knew how all of the boats were acquired. Lanusa said he had no knowledge of any DRE member having been deported or murdered.(87) Lanusa said, “I think Clare Boothe Luce shoots from the hip without having her brain engaged.”(88)

319.In investigating her allegations, the committee considered the possibility that Luce incorrectly identified the source of her information. The source of the documentation of Oswald's contact with the DRE was New Orleans-based Carlos Bringuier. Nevertheless, Bringuier told the committee he never engaged in any paramilitary DRE activities(89) and therefore could not have been one of the crew members of the alleged Luce-sponsored motorboat. Bringuier’s New Orleans associate, Celso Hernandez, the secretary of the chapter,(90) also said he never received any paramilitary training and did not know Oswald prior to encountering his passing out pro-Castro literature on Canal Street in New Orleans.(91) Bringuier also told the committee he knew Luce by reputation only, had never contacted her personally, and had never given her any information about his experience with Oswald.(92) He further said he was not aware of the fact that Luce was involved in any Cuban exile activities.(93) Bringuier maintained that no member of his DRE group in New Orleans had any contact with Luce during this period of time.(94)

320.The investigation of the Warren Commission documented that Oswald was interested in establishing a chapter of the FPCC in New Orleans and had contact with the New York headquarters of this pro-Castro organization during the summer of 1963.(95) Luce raised questions about the nature and extent of involvement the New Orleans chapter of DRE had in monitoring Oswald's activities, and its association with the FBI regarding Oswald's Communist activities.

321.The evidence indicated that the official DRE delegate in New Orleans was Carlos Bringuier, and that he was aided by two Cubans, Celso Hernandez, and Miguel Aguado. In an attempt to monitor Oswald, Bringuier approved the efforts of his friend, Carlos Quiroga, to call on Oswald to elicit additional information about FPCC activities in New Orleans.

322.None of the New Orleans individuals associated in these events had any involvement in the paramilitary activities of DRE. The New Orleans chapter engaged solely in propaganda and fundraising activities. No New Orleans DRE member had any association with Luce.

323.The first report of Oswald's contact with the DRE in New Orleans came from the group's headquarters in Miami. This information was released to national news organizations, the CIA, and the FBI shortly after the identification of Oswald as Kennedy's assassin. The evidence indicates that the Luce allegations, although related to certain facts, cannot be substantiated in the absence of corroboration by other individuals.

Submitted by: GAETON J. FONZI, Investigator.

Elizabeth J. Palmer, Researcher.

[Footnotes available in the report.]

Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil en el Exilio (DRE) Records, Cuban Heritage Collection, University of Miami Libraries, Coral Gables, Florida. Gift of Juan M. Salvat, Alberto Muller, and Luis Fernández Rocha, 1996. http://www.library.miami.edu/chc/collections/finding_aids/chc0510_find.pdf

Members of the DRE turned over their files to the University of Miami Libraries in Coral Gables, Florida. The following description is used in referencing the materials in the Cuban Heritage Collection:

Historical Note

El Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil en el Exilio (Students Revolutionary Directorate in Exile), also known as the Directorio Revolucionario 13 de Marzo, was founded in Miami in 1960 by former University of Havana students exiled as a result of the Cuban Revolution. Founders included Luis Fernández-Rocha, Juan Manuel Salvat, Pedro Ynterian, General Fatjo Miyares, Luis Gutíerrez, Bernabe Peña, Isidro Borja, Elio Mas Hernández, and Ernesto Fernández Travieso. These exiled students were originally members of Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil (DRE) in Cuba, one of the largest organizations in Cuba’s insurrectionary struggle.

After 1959, the DRE became a revolutionary resistance faction. The DRE in exile was dedicated to activities that could foment clandestine movements against the communist ideology of the Revolution. The most common [DELETED]

The mission of the organization was to make trips to the island with the aim of starting clandestine movements against the communist ideology established in Cuba. The group’s most common activities included infiltration on the island, sabotage, TV and radio programming, propaganda campaigns to save the lives of the political prisoners Alberto Muller and Miguel Garcia Armengol. The DRE established chapters in various US and Latin American countries to extend their reach. As part of their propaganda efforts, DRE in exile published many pamphlets for distribution in Cuba and throughout Latin America and the U.S. The organization also published several newsletters and newspapers, including Cuban Report, DRE Boletin Informativo, Entre Nosotros, and Trinchera.

The collection includes files on political prisoners, propaganda and military operations (none on Operation 40) and subject files on the various groups that focused on Cuba after Fidel Castro seized power:

• Agrupación Católica Universitaria (ACU), 1960-1981 
• Agrupación Montecristi, 1961-1962
• Alianza Revolucionaria, 1961-1966
• Alpha 66, 1962 
• Asociación de Contadores Públicos y Privados de Cuba en el Exilio, 1961-1965 
• Asociaciones Católicas Cubanas, 1961-1964
• Brigada 2506, 1961-1966
• Chicago Council for a Democratic Cuba, 1963, 1965
• Christian Civic Military Junta, 1960
• Christian Democrat International, 1963-1964
• Claustro de Profesores de la Universidad de la Habana en el Exilio, 1961, 1963
• Comité de Organizaciones Juveniles Cubanas en el Exilio (COJCE), 1963-1965 
• Colegio Médico Cubano Libre, 1960-1966
• Colegio Nacional de Periodistas, 1961-1965
• Colegio Nacional de Profesionales Publicitarios de Cuba en el Exilio, 1963-1966  
• Comandos L, 1963-1964
• Comité Pro Gobierno de Cuba en el Exilio, 1965
• Comité Pro-Liberación de Cuba, CN, 1963-1964
• Comité Pro-Libertad de Cuba, Washington DC, 1962-1965
• Comité Pro-Referéndum: See Representación Cubana del Exilio (Rece)
• Comité Unidos de Recaudación, 1963
• Confederación de Trabajadores de Cuba CTC, 1961-1964
• Consejo Revolucionario de Cuba, 1961-1963
• Corporaciones Económicas de Cuba en el Exilio, 1963
• Cuban Freedom Committee, 1965
• Directorio Magisterial Cubano, 1961-1966
• Directorio Revolucionario Cubano: Program n.d. [Undated]
• Ejercito de Liberación Nacional, 1960-1961
• Escuela Interamericana de Educación Democrática, 1964-1965
• Federación de Trabajadores Telefónicos de Cuba en el Exilio, 1962-1965
• Federación Nacional de Juristas Cubanos, 1961-1966
• Frente Obrero Revolucionario Democrático Cubano (FORDC), 1960-1965
• Frente Revolucionario Democrático, n.d., 1960-1961
• Frente Revolucionario Estudiantil, 1961-1962
• Instituto de Asuntos Internacionales de la Juventud, 1961-1965
• Instituto de Estudios Cubanos, 1966, 1973
• Instituto de Estudios Democráticos, n.d. [Undated]
• Junta Revolucionaria Cubana (JURE), 1963-1965
• Junta Revolucionaria de Liberación Nacional, 1961
• Movimiento Demócrata Cristiano, 1961, 1965
• Movimiento Familiar Cristiano, n.d. [Undated]
• Movimiento Insurreccional de Recuperación Revolucionaria (MIRR), 1963-1965 
• Movimiento de Recuperación Revolucionaria (MRR), 1960-1965
• Movimiento Revolucionario 30 de Noviembre, 1961-1963
• Movimiento Revolucionario del Pueblo (MRP), 1961-1963
• Movimiento Unidad Revolucionaria (UR), 1963-1965
• Organizaciones Revolucionarias Cubanas, 1966
• Oficina Relacionadora Movimientos Estudiantes Universitarios (ORMEU), 1963-1964 
• Partido Revolucionario Cubano (Autentico), 1963
• Pax Romana, 1964
• Representación Cubana del Exilio (Rece), 1963-1965
• Rescate Democrático Revolucionario, 1960- 1963
• Rotarios Cubanos Exiliados, 1963
• Truth about Cuba Committee, 1961-1972
• Underground Evangelism, 1962-1966
• Unión de Cubanos en el Exilio, 1962-1963 
• Unión Nacional Democrática 20 de Mayo, 1961 
• La Voz de Cuba, 1962-1966
• World Assembly of Youth (WAY), 1964-1966.

20 FBI 1963 Document “Martino December 1963.” FBI Washington DC. Page 2. Doc MF717321.

21 “Playing Fast and Luce with 20th Century; the Growing ‘Menace.’” By Mark Feeney. Boston Globe, April 14, 1999.

22 “Clare Boothe Luce Dies at 84: Playwright, Politician, Envoy.” By Albin Krebs. The New York Times, October 10, 1987.

“Luce Speaking Tour.” The Bridgeport Post, December 20, 1963.

“F. Mark Wyatt, 86, C.I.A. Officer, Is Dead.” By Tim Weiner. The New York Times, July 6, 2006.
>> Wyatt joined the clandestine service shortly after the agency was formed in 1948. His “mission was to ensure the electoral victory of Italy's Christian Democrats over the Communist Party.” The practice was “repeated in every Italian election for the next 24 years.” He became “deputy chief of the Rome station in 1964 ... worked as a liaison aide with South Vietnam's spies at the Saigon station in 1968 and 1969” and then in New York “focusing on the United Nations, from 1970 to 1972; and as chief of station in Luxembourg from 1972 to 1975. After his retirement, he worked to help Soviet defectors start new lives in the United States.”

23 NARA 104-10120-10417 ~ Memorandum For: Chief, WH Division. From: Deputy Director of Security (Investigations and Operational Support). Subject: Luce, Clare Boothe, #167 102

24 RIF 1993.08.13.18:07:26:900059 ~ “Security File On Clare Booth Luce.” Page 100 of 102.

25 “Letitia Baldrige, Etiquette Maven, Is Dead at 86.” By Anita Gates. The New York Times, October 30, 2012.

>> In the bio on her no longer existing website Letitia Baldridge stated: “It was mind-boggling being privy to the workings of the mind of Clare Luce, who taught me so much - including the fact that ‘no good deed goes unpunished,’ and ‘anyone can write a book who knows how to apply the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.’” >> Baldridge served as a Personal Social Secretary to David K. E. Bruce, U.S. Ambassador, Paris, (1949-1951). She then was a CIA officer before joining U.S. Ambassador Clare Boothe Luce and Henry at the Embassy in Rome.

26 “Pamela Timmins, Press Secretary to Jacqueline Kennedy, Dies at 85.” By Neil Genzlinger. The New York Times, May 3, 2023.

>> Pamela Turnure Timmins was the first person to become a Press Secretary to a First Lady (Jackie Kennedy). She warned against the couple riding in a convertible in Dallas on November 22, 1963 but was overruled because being seen was essential to campaigning.

>> In his 1996 book, “Jack and Jackie: Portrait of an American Marriage, Christopher Anderson “wrote that Ms.Timmins had been Kennedy’s ‘on again, off again mistress’ when she was appointed press secretary.”

27 “Mrs. Luce ‘Helps Out’ With Platform; Dagger-in-Cheek.” By Stan Swinton. Corpus Christi Times, February 4, 1964.

>> Candidate Luce stated she was “doing away with all military juntas except those we bring into power ... I am for a vigorous two-party system in which my party will control the White House, all the governorships and over 75 per cent of Congress.”

28 “Cuban Tale Reveals Plots of Kidnapping, Bombing.” News Journal (Mansfield, Ohio), November. 16, 1975. Page 12-C.

It seems that former Ambassador Luce was one of the U.S. citizens who, at former Ambassador Bill Pawley's suggestion, helped finance a fact-finding fleet of motorboats after the Bay of Pigs.

Clare several times met with the three young Cubans who manned the boat she helped finance. They secretly visited Cuba and came out with some accurate information which was fed to the late Sen. Kenneth Keating, and then passed on to the White House.

But after the nuclear missile showdown such efforts were halted. ... Then President Kennedy was shot.

"The young Cuban who called me," continued Mrs. Luce, "said that there was a Cuban Communist assassination team working somewhere—in Dallas, New Orleans, or wherever, I don't remember—and that Oswald was their hired gun. He said Oswald had tried to report the Communist plans to the FBI sometime before the assassination but because he was out for the dough the FBI didn't believe him. I suppose they must hear from a thousand such ‘crackpots’ a week."

... “You think the Bay of Pigs, the nuclear missiles, the assassination of the President was the end of the story? I tell you it is just the beginning."

What you Americans don't understand is, there are trained Communist terrorists, assassination, kidnapping, bombing and sabotage teams all over the country and the world.”

29 “More Explosions in Miami.” Syracuse Post Standard, December 5, 1975.

30 NARA 104-10096-10140 ~ 4/26/1978 Memorandum for the Record “Subject: House Select Committee on Assassinations—A Projection.” Prepared by: Rodger S. Gabrielson.

>> In addition to the “Bayo-Pawley Affair” other public hearings being considered were: 

• “CIA-AM/LASH connection.”
• “Operations of anti-Castro Cubans, Miami based.”
• “The scope and nature of CIA files regarding Marita Lorenz-Castro-Sturgis.”
• Oswald’s contacts with Russians (Nosenko, Golitsyn, Deryabin) which may necessitate calling “Helms, Colby, Angleton, Bagley, Miler, Hart, Epstein and possibly Len McCoy and Bruce Solie” of the CIA. [John M. Newman in his 2022 book Uncovering Popov’s Mole: The Assassination of President Kennedy Volume IV provides a deep dive into whether Oswald’s “defection” to the Soviet Union was part of a dangle to help reveal a spy within the CIA. James Jesus Angleton in Counterintelligence became obsessed with the mole, but Newman makes the case that Solie, head of the Office of Security which was in charge of seeking to identify the mole was actually the Soviet mole.] 
• “Rameriz Ortiz’s knowledge of Oswald’s file in Cuban DGI.
• “James Wilcott former CIA finance officer” who “testified in executive session that Oswald had a relationship with the CIA.”
• Oswald’s activities as a United States Marine who learned Russian at the Atsugi U-2 spy plane base in Japan in 1958 “although at a separate location.’
• The performance of the CIA’s David Phillips, Win Scott, and Anne Goodpasture when Oswald visited Mexico City and who was the unidentified E. Howard Hunt’s report on the JFK assassination.
• David Christ who “resembled the ‘unidentified man’ of Dallas.”
• “Priscilla Johnson McMillan may be called to discuss her contacts with Oswald in Moscow at which time her CIA ‘witting source’ affiliation may be exposed” which may necessitate a subpoena of “Gary Coit (retired, DCD).”

31 Gaeton Fonzi, The Last Investigation (New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1993). Page 59.

32 “Qualms About the House's Assassination Investigation.” By George McMillan. The New York Times, February 5, 1977. Page 19.

Priscilla Johnson McMillan, Marina and Lee, (New York: Harper and Row, 1977).

33 NARA 104-10096-10140 ~ 4/26/1978 Memorandum for the Record. “Subject: House Select Committee on Assassinations—A Projection.” Prepared by: Rodger S. Gabrielson.