The Murder of John Lennon by CIA (Opreration 40). By Giualdo Hidalgo

The night John Lennon was  killed in the upscale Dakota apartment complex in Manhattan, the night doorman called sick. Jose Perdomo, the commander of Operation 40 - a CIA assassination squad- , showed up for coverage. 

Amot-2 was the CIA code name for Jose Perdomo.

 Cryptonym: AMOT - Mary Ferrell Foundation
  Operation 40  - Cryptonym: AMOT. Definition: Team of some 40 Cubans trained by David Morales to be a new Cuban intelligence service once Castro had been ousted.  Operation 40 kept growing training and adding more agents to its roster. For example AMOT 105

Cryptonym: AMOT-2 - Mary Ferrell Foundation
JJose Perdomo, Jose Joaquin Sanjenis Perdomo, also known as Joaquin Sanjenis, titular head of the AMOT organization circa 1961 prior to the Bay of Pigs   

In the Shadows a Killer Waited", James R. Gaines describes Mark Chapman the man who  supposedly "killed John Lennon", together with "the Dakota's night doorman, José Perdomo".  

When Goresh left, Chapman had only the Dakota's night doorman, Jose Perdomo, to keep him company, Jose was an anti-Castro Cuban, and they talked that night of the Bay of Pigs and the assassination of John F. Kennedy."

In the Shadows a Killer Waited - People.com

 The presence of Jose Perdomo at the crime scene is the unequivocal proof that CIA murdered John Lennon.    

 - Jose Perdomo was the doorman at the Dakota on Dec. 8, 1980, the night Lennon was killed; Jose Perdomo was at the crime scene when the murder occurred.

- Jose Perdomo told police Chapman was Lennon's assailant. One of the arresting officers, Peter Cullen, did not believe Chapman shot Lennon. Cullen believed the shooter was a handyman at the Dakota, but Perdomo convinced Cullen it was Chapman. Cullen thought Chapman "looked like a guy who worked in a bank."

Jose (Sanjenis) Perdomo, Chief of Police and Chief of  the Secret Service at the Presidential Palace in Havana, during resident Carlos Prio Socarras, a CIA veteran, worked for CIA/Miami station, and he was assigned by CIA tp recruit the Cuban exiles in Miami in the early 1960s; Hose Perdomo recruited most of the members of Operation 40 (a CIA assassination squad- most of its members were Cuban.

Larry Hancock in his 2006 book, Someone Would Have Talked reveals "Sanjenis, the individual in charge of Operation 40, was actually the number one exile in the AMOT organization trained and prepared by David Sánchez Morales. Jose Perdomo was a member of Brigade 2506 during the Bay of Pigs Invasion.

The U.S. vs. John Lennon  Full documentary

Sanjenis, the Dakota night doorman the day John Lennon was killed

1

Sanjenis (Jose Pwesomo)

https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKoperation40.htm

Sanjenis, the Dakota night doorman the day John Lennon was killed

However, Larry Hancock in his book, Someone Would Have Talked (2006) provides evidence that Operation 40 did not come to an end after the failed Bay of Pigs operation. Hancock reveals that Jose Sanjenis Perdomo was closely involved with David Morales in 1962 and 1963. He points out that "new documents provided by researcher Malcolm Blunt confirms that Sanjenis, the individual in charge of Operation 40, was actually the number one exile in the AMOT organization trained and prepared by David Morales." (13)

    Sam Halper, who has been the Times correspondent in Havana and more recently in Miami, came to see me last week. He has excellent contracts among the Cuban exiles. One of Miro's comments this morning reminded me that I have been meaning to pass on the following story as told me by Halper. Halper says that CIA set up something called Operation 40 under the direction of a man named (as he recalled) Captain Luis Sanjenis, who was also chief of intelligence. (Could this be the man to whom Miro referred this morning?) It was called Operation 40 because originally only 40 men were involved: later the group was enlarged to 70. The ostensible purpose of Operation 40 was to administer liberated territories in Cuba. But the CIA agent in charge, a man known as Felix, trained the members of the group in methods of third degree interrogation, torture and general terrorism. The liberal Cuban exiles believe that the real purpose of Operation 40 was to "kill Communists" and, after eliminating hard-core Fidelistas, to go on to eliminate first the followers of Ray, then the followers of Varona and finally to set up a right wing dictatorship, presumably under Artime. Varona fired Sanjenis as chief of intelligence after the landings and appointed a man named Despaign in his place. Sanjenis removed 40 files and set up his own office; the exiles believe that he continues to have CIA support. As for the intelligence operation, the CIA is alleged to have said that, if Varona fired Sanjenis, let Varona pay the bills. Subsequently Sanjenis's hoods beat up Despaign's chief aide; and Despaign himself was arrested on a charge of trespassing brought by Sanjenis. The exiles believe that all these things had CIA approval. Halper says that Lt Col Vireia Castro (1820 SW 6th Street, Miami; FR 4 3684) can supply further details. Halper also quotes Bender as having said at one point when someone talked about the Cuban revolution against Castro: "The Cuban Revolution? The Cuban Revolution is something I carry around in my checkbook."
(4) Don Bohning, The Castro Obsession (2005)

    The Cuban Intelligence Organization was more commonly known within the local Cuban community and intelligence circles as Operation 40, a quasi-independent group headed by Joaquin Sanjenis, who gained somewhat of a legendary and controversial reputation among some exiles. The group was created in March 1961 and trained in intelligence matters by the CIA as part of the planning for what was to become the Bay of Pigs.



On 11th December, 1959, Colonel J. C. King, chief of CIA's Western Hemisphere Division, sent a confidential memorandum to Allen W. Dulles, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. King argued that in Cuba there existed a "far-left dictatorship, which if allowed to remain will encourage similar actions against U.S. holdings in other Latin American countries." (1)

As a result of this memorandum Dulles established Operation 40. It obtained this name because originally there were 40 agents involved in the operation. Later this was expanded to 70 agents. The group was presided over by Richard Nixon. Tracy Barnes became operating officer of what was also called the Cuban Task Force. The first meeting chaired by Barnes took place in his office on 18th January, 1960, and was attended by David Atlee Phillips, E. Howard Hunt, Jack Esterline, and Frank Bender.

According to Fabian Escalante, a senior officer of the Cuban Department of State Security (G-2), in 1960 Richard Nixon recruited an "important group of businessmen headed by George Bush (Snr.) and Jack Crichton, both Texas oilmen, to gather the necessary funds for the operation". (2) This suggests that Operation 40 agents were involved in freelance work.

It is known that at this time that George Bush and Jack Crichton were involved in covert right-wing activities. In 1990 The Common Cause magazine argued that: "The CIA put millionaire and agent George Bush in charge of recruiting exiled Cubans for the CIA’s invading army; Bush was working with another Texan oil magnate, Jack Crichton, who helped him in terms of the invasion." (3) This story was linked to the release of "a memorandum in that context addressed to FBI chief J. Edward Hoover and signed November 1963, which reads: Mr. George Bush of the CIA" (4)

Reinaldo Taladrid and Lazaro Baredo claim that in 1959 George Bush was asked “to cooperate in funding the nascent anti-Castro groups that the CIA decided to create”. The man “assigned to him for his new mission” was Féliz Rodríguez. (5)

Daniel Hopsicker also takes the view that Operation 40 involved private funding. In the book, Barry and the Boys: The CIA, the Mob and America’s Secret History, he claims that Richard Nixon had established Operation 40 as a result of pressure from American corporations which had suffered at the hands of Fidel Castro. (6)

Webster Griffin Tarpley and Anton Chaitkin have argued that George Bush was very close to members of Operation 40 in the early 1960s. In September, 1963, Bush launched his Senate campaign. At that time, right-wing Republicans were calling on John F. Kennedy to take a more aggressive approach towards Castro. For example, in one speech Barry Goldwater said: “I advocate the recognition of a Cuban government in exile and would encourage this government every way to reclaim its country. This means financial and military assistance.” Bush took a more extreme position than Goldwater and called for a “new government-in-exile invasion of Cuba”. As Tarpley and Chaitkin point out, beneficiaries of this policy would have been “Theodore Shackley, who was by now the station chief of CIA Miami Station, Felix Rodriguez, Chi Chi Quintero, and the rest of the boys” from Operation 40. (7)

Assassination of John F. Kennedy Encyclopedia

Paul Kangas is another investigator who has claimed that George Bush was involved with members of Operation 40. In an article published in The Realist in 1990, Kangas claims: "Among other members of the CIA recruited by George Bush for (the attacks on Cuba) were Frank Sturgis, Howard Hunt, Bernard Baker and Rafael Quintero.” In an article published in Granma in January, 2006, the journalists Reinaldo Taladrid and Lazaro Baredo argued that “Another of Bush’s recruits for the Bay of Pigs invasion, Rafael Quintero, who was also part of this underworld of organizations and conspiracies against Cuba, stated: If I was to tell what I know about Dallas and the Bay of Pigs, it would be the greatest scandal that has ever rocked the nation." (8)

Fabian Escalante names William Pawley as being one of those who was lobbying for the CIA to assassinate Fidel Castro. (9) Escalante points out that Pawley had played a similar role in the CIA overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán in Guatemala. Interestingly, the CIA assembled virtually the same team that was involved in the removal of Arbenz: Tracey Barnes, Richard Bissell, David Morales, David Atlee Phillips, E. Howard Hunt, Rip Robertson and Henry Hecksher. Added to this list was several agents who had been involved in undercover operations in Germany: Ted Shackley, Tom Clines and William Harvey.

According to Daniel Hopsicker, the following were also involved in Operation 40: Edwin Wilson, Barry Seal, William Seymour, Frank Sturgis and Gerry Hemming. (10) It has also been pointed out that Operation 40 was not only involved in trying to overthrow Fidel Castro. Sturgis has claimed: "this assassination group (Operation 40) would upon orders, naturally, assassinate either members of the military or the political parties of the foreign country that you were going to infiltrate, and if necessary some of your own members who were suspected of being foreign agents."
This photograph was taken in a nightclub in Mexico City on 22nd January, 1963.It has been argued by Daniel Hopsicker that the men in the photograph are allmembers of Operation 40. Hopsicker suggests that the man closest to thecamera on the left is Felix Rodriguez, next to him is Porter Goss and Barry Seal.Hopsicker adds that Frank Sturgis is attempting to hide his face with his coat.It has been claimed that in the picture are Albertao 'Loco' Blanco (3rd right)and Jorgo Robreno (4th right).
This photograph was taken in a nightclub in Mexico City on 22nd January, 1963.
It has been argued by Daniel Hopsicker that the men in the photograph are all
members of Operation 40. Hopsicker suggests that the man closest to the
camera on the left is Felix Rodriguez, next to him is Porter Goss and Barry Seal.
Hopsicker adds that Frank Sturgis is attempting to hide his face with his coat.
It has been claimed that in the picture are Albertao 'Loco' Blanco (3rd right)
and Jorgo Robreno (4th right).

Virtually every one of the field agents of Operation 40 were Cubans. This included Antonio Veciana, Luis Posada, Orlando Bosch, Rafael Quintero, Roland Masferrer, Eladio del Valle, Guillermo Novo, Rafael Villaverde, Virgilio Gonzalez, Carlos Bringuier, Eugenio Martinez, Antonio Cuesta, Hermino Diaz Garcia, Barry Seal, Felix Rodriguez, Ricardo Morales Navarrete, Juan Manuel Salvat, Isidro Borjas, Virgilio Paz, Jose Dionisio Suarez, Felipe Rivero, Gaspar Jimenez Escobedo, Nazario Sargent, Pedro Luis Diaz Lanz, Jose Basulto, and Paulino Sierra. (11)

CIA asset, Don Bohning (AMCARBON-3) argues in his book, The Castro Obsession (2005), that Operation 40 was not actually established until March 1961. Bohning quotes one of his sources as saying that the group's initial objective was to take over the administration of "the towns and cities liberated by the invasion force, roundup government officials and sympathizers and secure the files of the government's different intelligence services" after the Bay of Pigs operation. (12)

However, Larry Hancock in his book, Someone Would Have Talked (2006) provides evidence that Operation 40 did not come to an end after the failed Bay of Pigs operation. Hancock reveals that Jose Sanjenis Perdomo was closely involved with David Morales in 1962 and 1963. He points out that "new documents provided by researcher Malcolm Blunt confirms that Sanjenis, the individual in charge of Operation 40, was actually the number one exile in the AMOT organization trained and prepared by David Morales." (13)

Most of these characters had been associated with the far-right in Cuban politics. Rumours soon became circulating that it was not only Fidel Castro that was being targeted. On 9th June, 1961, Arthur Schlesinger sent a memo to Richard Goodwin: “Sam Halper, who has been the Times correspondent in Havana and more recently in Miami, came to see me last week. He has excellent contracts among the Cuban exiles. One of Miro's comments this morning reminded me that I have been meaning to pass on the following story as told me by Halper. Halper says that CIA set up something called Operation 40 under the direction of a man named (as he recalled) Captain Luis Sanjenis, who was also chief of intelligence. (Could this be the man to whom Miro referred this morning?) It was called Operation 40 because originally only 40 men were involved: later the group was enlarged to 70. The ostensible purpose of Operation 40 was to administer liberated territories in Cuba. But the CIA agent in charge, a man known as Felix, trained the members of the group in methods of third degree interrogation, torture and general terrorism. The liberal Cuban exiles believe that the real purpose of Operation 40 was to "kill Communists" and, after eliminating hard-core Fidelistas, to go on to eliminate first the followers of Ray, then the followers of Varona and finally to set up a right wing dictatorship, presumably under Artime.” (14)

In an interview he gave to Jean-Guy Allard in May, 2005, Fabian Escalante pointed out: “Who in 1963 had the resources to assassinate Kennedy? Who had the means and who had the motives to kill the U.S. president? CIA agents from Operation 40 who were rabidly anti-Kennedy. And among them were Orlando Bosch, Luis Posada Carriles, Antonio Veciana and Felix Rodriguez Mendigutia." (15)

This is not the first time that Escalante has pointed the finger at members of Operation 40. In December, 1995, Wayne Smith, chief of the Centre for International Policy in Washington, arranged a meeting on the assassination of John F. Kennedy, in Nassau, Bahamas. Others in attendance were Gaeton Fonzi, Dick Russell, Noel Twyman, Anthony Summers, Peter Dale Scott, Jeremy Gunn, John Judge, Andy Kolis, Peter Kornbluh, Mary & Ray LaFontaine, Jim Lesar, John Newman, Alan Rogers, Russ Swickard, Ed Sherry, and Gordon Winslow. During a session on 7th December, Escalante claimed that during captivity, Tony Cuesta, confessed that he had been involved in the assassination of Kennedy. He also named Eladio del Valle, Roland Masferrer and Hermino Diaz Garcia as being involved in this operation. All four men were members of Operation 40. (16)

It has been argued that people like Fabian Escalante, Jean-Guy Allard, Reinaldo Taladrid and Lazaro Baredo are under the control of the Cuban government. It is definitely true that much of this information has originally been published in Granma, the newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party. However, is other evidence to substantiate this theory.

Shortly before his death in 1975 John Martino confessed to a Miami Newsday reporter, John Cummings, that he had been guilty of spreading false stories implicating Lee Harvey Oswald in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He claimed that two of the gunmen were Cuban exiles. It is believed the two men were Hermino Diaz Garcia and Virgilio Gonzalez. Cummings added: "He told me he'd been part of the assassination of Kennedy. He wasn't in Dallas pulling a trigger, but he was involved. He implied that his role was delivering money, facilitating things.... He asked me not to write it while he was alive." (17)

Fred Claasen also told the House Select Committee on Assassinations what he knew about his business partner’s involvement in the case. He claimed John Martino told him: “The anti-Castro people put Oswald together. Oswald didn’t know who he was working for – he was just ignorant of who was really putting him together. Oswald was to meet his contact at the Texas Theatre. They were to meet Oswald in the theatre, and get him out of the country, then eliminate him. Oswald made a mistake… There was no way we could get to him. They had Ruby kill him.” (18)

Florence Martino at first refused to corroborate the story. However, in 1994 she told Anthony Summers that her husband said to her on the morning of 22nd November, 1963: "Flo, they're going to kill him (Kennedy). They're going to kill him when he gets to Texas." (19)

Hermino Diaz Garcia and Virgilio Gonzalez were both members of Operation 40. So also was Rip Robertson who according to Summers “was a familiar face at his (John Martino) home. Summers also points out that Martino was close to William Pawley and both took part in the “Bayo-Pawley Affair”. (20) This anti-Castro mission, also known as Operation Tilt, also involved other members of Operation 40, including Virgilio Gonzalez and Eugenio Martinez.

There is another key CIA figure in Operation 40 who has made a confession concerning the assassination of John F. Kennedy. David Morales was head of operations at JM/WAVE, the CIA Miami station, at the time of the assassination. Gaeton Fonzi carried out a full investigation of Morales while working for the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA). Unfortunately, Morales could not testify before the HSCA because he died of a heart attack on 8th May, 1978.

Fonzi tracked down Ruben Carbajal, a very close friend of Morales. Carbajal saw Morales the night before he died. He also visited Morales in hospital when he received news of the heart attack. Carbajal is convinced that Morales was killed by the CIA . Morales had told Carbajal the agency would do this if you posed a threat to covert operations. Morales, a heavy drinker, had a reputation for being indiscreet when intoxicated. On 4th August 1973, Morales allowed himself to be photographed by Kevin Scofield of the Arizona Republic at the El Molino restaurant. When the photograph appeared in the newspaper the following day, it identified Morales as Director for Operations Counterinsurgency and Special Activities in Washington.

Ruben Carbajal put Gaeton Fonzi in contact with Bob Walton, a business associate of David Morales. Walton confirmed Carbajal’s account that Morales feared being killed by the CIA. On one occasion he told him: “I know too much”. Walton also told him about a discussion he had with Morales about John F. Kennedy in the spring of 1973. Walton had done some volunteer work for Kennedy’s Senatorial campaign. When hearing this news, Morales launched an attack on Kennedy, describing him as a wimp who had betrayed the anti-Castro Cubans at the Bay of Pigs. He ended up by saying: “Well, we took care of that son of a bitch, didn’t we?” Carbajal, who was also present at this meeting, confirmed Walton’s account of what Morales said. (20)

Another important piece of evidence comes from Gene Wheaton. In 1995 Wheaton approached the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) with information on the death of Kennedy. Anne Buttimer, Chief Investigator of the ARRB, recorded that: "Wheaton told me that from 1984 to 1987 he spent a lot of time in the Washington DC area and that starting in 1985 he was "recruited into Ollie North's network" by the CIA officer he has information about. (21) He got to know this man and his wife, a "'super grade high level CIA officer" and kept a bedroom in their Virginia home. His friend was a Marine Corps liaison in New Orleans and was the CIA contact with Carlos Marcello. He had been responsible for "running people into Cuba before the Bay of Pigs." His friend is now 68 or 69 years of age... Over the course of a year or a year and one-half his friend told him about his activities with training Cuban insurgency groups. Wheaton said he also got to know many of the Cubans who had been his friend's soldiers/operatives when the Cubans visited in Virginia from their homes in Miami. His friend and the Cubans confirmed to Wheaton they assassinated JFK. Wheaton's friend said he trained the Cubans who pulled the triggers. Wheaton said the street level Cubans felt JFK was a traitor after the Bay of Pigs and wanted to kill him. People "above the Cubans" wanted JFK killed for other reasons." (22)

It was later revealed that Wheaton's friend was Carl E. Jenkins, A senior CIA officer, Jenkins had been appointed in 1960 as Chief of Base for Cuban Project. In 1963 Jenkins provided paramilitary training for Manuel Artime and Rafael ‘Chi Chi’ Quintero and other members of the Movement for the Recovery of the Revolution (MRR). In an interview with William Law and Mark Sobel in the summer of 2005, Gene Wheaton claimed that Jenkins and Quintero were both involved in the assassination of Kennedy. (23)

It seems that members of Operation 40, originally recruited to remove Fidel Castro, had been redirected to kill Kennedy. That someone had paid this team of assassins to kill the president of the United States as part of a freelance operation. This is not such a far-fetched idea when you consider that in 1959 Richard Nixon was approaching oilmen like George Walker Bush and Jack Crichton to help fund Operation 40. We also have the claim of Frank Sturgis that "this assassination group (Operation 40) would upon orders, naturally, assassinate either members of the military or the political parties of the foreign country that you were going to infiltrate, and if necessary some of your own members who were suspected of being foreign agents."

Further support for this theory comes from an unlikely source. David Atlee Phillips died of cancer on 7th July, 1988. He left behind an unpublished manuscript entitled The AMLASH Legacy. The leading characters were explicitly based on Phillips, Winston Scott and James Angleton. The novel is about a CIA officer (Phillips) who lived in Mexico City. In the novel the character states: "I was one of those officers who handled Lee Harvey Oswald... We gave him the mission of killing Fidel Castro in Cuba... I don't know why he killed Kennedy. But I do know he used precisely the plan we had devised against Castro. Thus the CIA did not anticipate the president's assassination, but it was responsible for it. I share that guilt." (24)

In an article published by Washington Decoded on 11th June 2008, Don Bohning (AMCARBON-3) admits: "It is true, of course, that the CIA sanctioned plots to kill Fidel Castro and also initiated assassination plots. But did Operation 40 have anything to do with those efforts?" In an attack on the author of this article Bohning relies on information provided by CIA officials and operatives, Rafael Quintero and Porter Goss, to deny that Operation 40 was ever involved in carrying out assassinations.

However, Larry Hancock argues in his book, Someone Would Have Talked (2006) that evidence has emerged that suggests that members of Operation 40 were involved in assassinations. He even believes that members of this organization was involved in the killing of John F. Kennedy: "The individuals knowingly involved in the actual conspiracy included both exiles and a small number of their most committed American supporters... It is likely that some of the participants were part of the Morales trained and organized intelligence service that was developed to support the 1962 action against Cuba and which had a political assassination (black list) component. Elements of this group were retained as Morales' intelligence and surveillance force in Miami after the failure at the Bay of Pigs. Some of them had been involved in Agency sanctioned (and possibly unsanctioned) projects to assassinate Castro. This group was unofficially known as Operation 40." (24)
Notes

1. Senate Report, Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders, 1975 (page 92)

2. Fabian Escalante, CIA Covert Operations 1959-1962: The Cuba Project, 2004 (pages 42 and 43)

3. Common Cause Magazine (4th March, 1990)

4. Joseph McBride, Where Was George?, The Nation (13th August, 1988)

5. Reinaldo Taladrid and Lazaro Baredo, The Bush Family and the Kennedy Assassination (16th January, 2006)

6. Daniel Hopsicker, Barry and the Boys: The CIA, the Mob and America’s Secret History, 2001 (page 170)

7. Webster Griffin Tarpley and Anton Chaitkin, George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography, 2004 (page 173)

8. Reinaldo Taladrid and Lazaro Baredo, The Bush Family and the Kennedy Assassination (16th January, 2006)

9. Fabian Escalante, CIA Covert Operations 1959-1962: The Cuba Project, 2004 (pages 42 and 43)

10. Daniel Hopsicker, Mad Cow Morning News (24th August, 2004)

11. Jean-Guy Allard, Who had the means and motives to kill Kennedy in 1963? (22nd May, 2005)

12. Don Bohning, The Castro Obsession, 2005 (page 144)

13. Larry Hancock, Someone Would Have Talked, 2006 (page 111)

14. Arthur Schlesinger, memo to Richard Goodwin (9th June, 1961)

15. Jean-Guy Allard, Who had the means and motives to kill Kennedy in 1963? (22nd May, 2005)

16. Fabian Escalante, Cuban Officials and JFK Historians, Nassau, Bahamas (7th December, 1995)

17. Larry Hancock, Someone Would Have Talked, 2003 (page 17)

18. Anthony Summers, The Kennedy Conspiracy, 2002 (page 328)

19. Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan, The Ghosts of November, Vanity Fair (December, 1994)

20. Gaeton Fonzi, The Last Investigation, 1993 (pages 380-390)

21. Anne Buttimer, Assassination Records Review Board Report (12th July, 1995)

22. Anthony Summers, The Kennedy Conspiracy, 2002 (page 371)

23. Larry Hancock, Someone Would Have Talked, 2003 (page 492)

24. Jefferson Morley, Our Man in Mexico, 2008 (page 238)

25. Don Bohning, Washington Decoded (11th June, 2008)

26.Larry Hancock, Someone Would Have Talked, 2006 (page 372)
By John Simkin (john@spartacus-educational.com) © September 1997 (updated January 2020).
Primary Sources
(1) Arthur Schlesinger, memorandum for Richard Goodwin (9th June, 1961)

    Sam Halper, who has been the Times correspondent in Havana and more recently in Miami, came to see me last week. He has excellent contracts among the Cuban exiles. One of Miro's comments this morning reminded me that I have been meaning to pass on the following story as told me by Halper. Halper says that CIA set up something called Operation 40 under the direction of a man named (as he recalled) Captain Luis Sanjenis, who was also chief of intelligence. (Could this be the man to whom Miro referred this morning?) It was called Operation 40 because originally only 40 men were involved: later the group was enlarged to 70. The ostensible purpose of Operation 40 was to administer liberated territories in Cuba. But the CIA agent in charge, a man known as Felix, trained the members of the group in methods of third degree interrogation, torture and general terrorism. The liberal Cuban exiles believe that the real purpose of Operation 40 was to "kill Communists" and, after eliminating hard-core Fidelistas, to go on to eliminate first the followers of Ray, then the followers of Varona and finally to set up a right wing dictatorship, presumably under Artime. Varona fired Sanjenis as chief of intelligence after the landings and appointed a man named Despaign in his place. Sanjenis removed 40 files and set up his own office; the exiles believe that he continues to have CIA support. As for the intelligence operation, the CIA is alleged to have said that, if Varona fired Sanjenis, let Varona pay the bills. Subsequently Sanjenis's hoods beat up Despaign's chief aide; and Despaign himself was arrested on a charge of trespassing brought by Sanjenis. The exiles believe that all these things had CIA approval. Halper says that Lt Col Vireia Castro (1820 SW 6th Street, Miami; FR 4 3684) can supply further details. Halper also quotes Bender as having said at one point when someone talked about the Cuban revolution against Castro: "The Cuban Revolution? The Cuban Revolution is something I carry around in my checkbook."

(2) Fabian Escalante, The Secret War: CIA Covert Operations Against Cuba, 1959-62 (1995)

    On December 11, Colonel King wrote a confidential memorandum to the head of the CIA which affirmed that in Cuba there existed a "far-left dictatorship, which if allowed to remain will encourage similar actions against U.S. holdings in other Latin American countries."

    King recommended various actions to solve the Cuban problem, one of which was to consider the elimination of Fidel Castro. He affirmed that none of the other Cuban leaders "have the same mesmeric appeal to the masses. Many informed people believe that the disappearance of Fidel would greatly accelerate the fall of the present government."

    CIA Director Alien Dulles passed on King's memorandum to the NSC a few days later, and it approved the suggestion to form a working group in the Agency which, within a short period of time, could come up with "alternative solutions to the Cuban problem." Thus "Operation 40" was born, taking its name from that of the Special Group formed by the NSC to follow the Cuban case. The group was presided over by Richard Nixon and included Admiral Arleigh Burke, Livingston Merchant of the State Department, National Security Adviser Gordon Gray, and Alien Dulles of the CIA.

    Tracy Bames functioned as head of the Cuban Task Force. He called a meeting on January 18,1960, in his office in Quarters Eyes, near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, which the navy had lent while new buildings were being constructed in Langley. Those who gathered there included the eccentric Howard Hunt, future head of the Watergate team and a writer of crime novels; the egocentric Frank Bender, a friend of Trujillo; Jack Esterline, who had come straight from Venezuela where he directed a CIA group; psychological warfare expert David A. Phillips, and others.

(3) Daniel Hopsicker, Mad Cow Morning News (24th August, 2004)

    The Mexico City nightclub photo reveals a mixed group of apparent Cuban exiles, Italian wise guys, and square-jawed military intelligence types. It was discovered among keepsakes kept in the safe of the widow of CIA pilot and drug smuggler Barry Seal (third from left). It appears on the cover of “Barry & the Boys’: The CIA, the Mob & America’s Secret History”.

    Goss appears second on the left. He is seated between notorious CIA pilot and drug smuggler Barry Seal (third left) and the equally-notorious CIA assassin Felix Rodriguez (front left), a Cuban vice cop under the corrupt Mob-run Batista regime who later became an Iran Contra operative and a confidant of the first George Bush.

    The only one of the spook celebrants displaying any hint of tradecraft (seated on the other side of the table covering his face with his sport coat) is Frank Sturgis, most famous as one of the Watergate burglars.

    Beside him sits (front right) William Seymour, New Orleans representative of the Double-Chek Corporation, a CIA front used to recruit pilots (like Seal), and a man who many Kennedy assassination researchers believe impersonated Lee Harvey Oswald on several occasions when the lone nut gunman was out of the country and so unable to impersonate himself...

    There are many intriguing connections hinted at by Goss’s presence in the photo: at the time it was taken the CIA's covert action chief in Mexico City was David Atlee Phillips, AKA Maurice Bishop, who reportedly met with Oswald in Dallas before the assassination.

    Other connections: in the well-received “Deadly Secrets,” authors Warren Hinkle and William Turner name Rafael 'Chi Chi' Quintero, Lois Posada Carriles, Felix Rodriguez and Frank Sturgis as members of Operation Forty, under the overall control of E. Howard Hunt.

    Sturgis, a member of the team that broke into Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in 1972, later admitted to having been part of Operation Forty.

    More famous names: Thomas Clines, the notorious Edwin Wilson and "Blond Ghost" Ted Shackley, Mr. Spook himself… all involved with Operation Forty, as was Barry Seal.

    “Yeah, Barry was Op Forty,” Gerald Hemming confirmed to us. “He flew in killer teams inside the island (Cuba) before the invasion to take out Fidel.”

(4) Don Bohning, The Castro Obsession (2005)

    The Cuban Intelligence Organization was more commonly known within the local Cuban community and intelligence circles as Operation 40, a quasi-independent group headed by Joaquin Sanjenis, who gained somewhat of a legendary and controversial reputation among some exiles. The group was created in March 1961 and trained in intelligence matters by the CIA as part of the planning for what was to become the Bay of Pigs.

    According to a Cuban exile who worked for Operation 40 for three years in the late 1960s, the group's initial objective was to take over administration of "the towns and cities liberated by the invasion force, roundup government officials and sympathizers and secure the files of the government's different intelligence services." Sanjenis was the overall boss. The top field officer was Vicente Leon, who was believed to have been a colonel in Cuba's pre-Castro police. Leon killed himself rather than surrender when he landed with the Bay of Pigs invaders as part of an Operation 40 advance team.

    After the Bay of Pigs, Operation 40 turned its attention more to counterintelligence activities directed at suspected Castro agents who might have infiltrated into the local exile community. More controversially, it provided intelligence on the activities of local exile groups, some of which allowed local or federal authorities to thwart unsanctioned exile raids. Numerous declassified CIA Intelligence Information Cables on file at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library in Austin, Texas, included the "source and appraisal of the cables." A variation of the following was often cited: "A member of a group of Cuban emigres trained in the techniques of information collection. The group has provided useful reports for over two years. The information was obtained from a local representative of the JURE who has access to members of the JURE executive committee."

    The exile who worked for the unit in the late 1960s said Operation 40 was "fairly compartmentalized," but "foremost to its existence was the collection of intelligence on Cuba.... Most of the information collected was from overt sources.... primarily the hundreds of Cuban refugees coming to South Florida on Freedom Flights." The refugees were screened as they arrived. Those that might have useful information were interviewed separately.

(5) Jean-Guy Allard, Who had the means and motives to kill Kennedy in 1963? (22nd May, 2005)

    “Who in 1963 had the resources to assassinate Kennedy? Who had the means and who had the motives to kill the U.S. president?”, asks General Fabian Escalante in an exclusive interview in his Havana office. And he gives the answer: "CIA agents from Operation 40 who were rabidly anti-Kennedy. And among them were Orlando Bosch, Luis Posada Carriles, Antonio Veciana and Felix Rodriguez Mendigutia."

    “Who were the ones who had the training to murder Kennedy? The ones who had all of the capabilities to carry it out? Who were the expert marksmen?" continues Escalante, pointing out that the case of international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles has to be seen within the historical context of what he calls "the machinery of the Cuban American mafia."

    And in the heart of that machinery is Operation 40, created by the CIA on the eve of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, says the ex-chief of Cuban intelligence, author of The Plot (Ocean Press), about the assassination of the U.S. leader.

    "The first news that we have of Operation 40 is a statement made by a mercenary of the Bay of Pigs who was the chief of military intelligence of the invading brigade and whose name was Jose Raul de Varona Gonzalez," says Escalante.

    "In his statement this man said the following: in the month of March, 1961, around the seventh, Mr. Vicente Leon arrived at the base in Guatemala at the head of some 53 men saying that he had been sent by the office of Mr. Joaquin Sanjenis, Chief of Civilian Intelligence, with a mission he said was called Operation 40. It was a special group that didn't have anything to do with the brigade and which would go in the rearguard occupying towns and cities. His prime mission was to take over the files of intelligence agencies, public buildings, banks, industries, and capture the heads and leaders in all of the cities and interrogate them. Interrogate them in his own way”.

    The individuals who comprised Operation 40 had been selected by Sangenis in Miami and taken to a nearby farm "where they took some courses and were subjected to a lie detector."

    Joaquin Sangenis was Chief of Police in the time of President Carlos Prio, recalls Escalante. "I don't know if he was Chief of the Palace Secret Service but he was very close to Carlos Prio. And in 1973 he dies under very strange circumstances. He disappears. In Miami, people learn to their surprise -- without any prior illness and without any homicidal act -- that Sangenis, who wasn't that old in '73, had died unexpectedly. There was no wake. He was buried in a hurry."

    Operation 40 had "in the year '61, 86 employees, of which 37 had been trained as case officers...while in Cuba we probably didn't have one single case officer trained. I didn't finish the course until July of '61 and I was in the first training group."

    After the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion, the CIA organizes a Domestic Affairs Division. "For the first time, the CIA is going to work inside of the U.S. because until that moment, it wasn't doing it. It was prohibited.

    "And at the head of this division they put Tracy Barnes, who was chief of the CIA operations group which operated against Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala, and he brought to the same group of officers David Atlee Phillips, David Sanchez Morales and Howard Hunt, and two or three other Americans who just as surely worked on the Guatemala project."

    The first CIA project against the Cuban revolution wasn't a landing and assault brigade, remarks the general. "The first CIA project was to create a civil war inside of Cuba. They were thinking of creating political leaders overseas, organizing a series of military cadres overseas who are the ones who will infiltrate Cuba and who will place themselves at the head of this civil war they are planning to carry out. And furthermore parallel to that, to make an intelligence network. All of this falls apart almost as soon as it is born.

    "In October 1960, they realize that this project has failed, and that is when Brigade 2506 is formed, when due to the uprising of a group of patriotic military officers in Puerto Barrios in Guatemala and, this was in November, they send the Cuban mercenaries in Brigade 2506 to put down this operation."

    Escalante remembers that in 1959 a "very strong" CIA center existed in Cuba with several case officers based in Havana. Among them two very important figures: David Sanchez Morales, registered as a diplomat with the U.S. embassy, and David Atlee Phillips who was doing business in Cuba since 1957.

    "Phillips had a press agency, David Phillips Associates, which had offices on Humbolt St., behind the Rampa theater. We had information from a person who was his personal secretary at the time and he was using the Berlitz Academy, where he would meet with people he wanted to recruit. The Berlitz Academy was not his business, but he had recruited its director and that's why he was using it to train his agents.

    "And at that time he recruits Antonio Veciana, Juan Manuel Salvat, Ricardo Morales Navarrete, Isidro Borjas, a person of Mexican origin, to carry out the internal counterrevolution."

    Phillips will train illegal cadres while Morales, on his part, directs a group of North Americans who are infiltrated in the Rebel Army: Frank Sturgis, Gerry Hemming, William Morgan.

    "When the revolution triumphs these people are officers in the Rebel Army, many of them in the air force because the chief there is Pedro Luis Diaz Lanz, who was the first chief of the rebel air force and who later leaves the country when an assassination attempt against Fidel fails. He will also direct Howard Hunt, who is visiting Cuba in '59 and '60 and who will write a far-fetched chronicle about Havana which is a series of lies. Hunt is a professional liar.

    "There was information that at the end of '58, when CIA Inspector General Lyman Kirkpatrick came to tell Batista to leave power, he has an interview with a group of figures. And since this Phillips was passing himself off as a respectable North American businessman, Kirkpatrick has an interview with him. And Phillips explains to him that the situation is very difficult."

    In this context, now in the middle of '58, the CIA plans an assassination attempt on Fidel with a North American citizen, Alan Robert Nye, and ex-marine recruited in Fort Lauderdale by agents of the FBI and by the Cuban military intelligence service.

    "He was received here in Havana, they put him up at the Comodoro hotel, fortunately they paid his bill and that was how he was later discovered. They sent him to a zone near Bayamo where Fidel was, in a zone called Santa Rita and he was arrested there by the Rebel Army. He had instructions to introduce himself to Fidel as a sympathizer of the Cuban cause and to assassinate him at the first opportunity," recalls Escalante.

    The man is arrested on December 12, 1958, by rebel forces and remains in custody until the beginning of 1959. "An officer of the Rebel Army is in charge of the investigation. Knight says that he was lodged at the Comodoro hotel and it turns out that the ones who had paid this gentleman's expenses were none other than Col. Orlando Piedra, the chief of the investigation bureau of the police, and Col. Tabernilla II, the son of the head of the army."

    "These are the principal artists," says the ex-chief of Cuban intelligence. "David Phillips; David Morales; Howard Hunt; a figure who disappeared later and who was head of the CIA until diplomatic relations were broken, James Noel; and several more who were working actively."

    When the Domestic Affairs Division is created, the large CIA operations base in Miami was subordinate to the central division of the CIA; "that is to say that the JM/WAVE station, which had 400 officers plus 4,000 Cuban agents, was directed by the main center in Langley.

    "Whom are they going to use? Operation 40. That is to say all of the specialists who are already trained, have gone through the school, have already participated in operations against Cuba...I refer to the group of Felix Rodriguez Mendigutia, Luis Posada Carriles, Orlando Bosch, Virgilio Paz, Alvin Ross, Jose Dionisio Suarez, Antonio Veciana, Ricardo Morales Navarrete, Felipe Rivero, who recently died, the Novo Sampoll brothers, Gaspar "Gasparito" Jimenez Escobedo, Juan Manuel Salvat, Nazario Sargent, Carlos Bringuier, Antonio Cuesta, Eladio del Valle, Herminio Diaz, Pedro Luis Diaz Lanz, Rafael "Chichi" Quintero, Jose Basulto, Paulino Sierra, Bernard Baker, who was a Cuban with a North American name -- he was a guard at the U.S. embassy -- and Eugenio Martinez, alias 'Musculito.'

    "And there was the team that brought together all of the North Americans: David Morales; David Phillips; Howard Hunt; Willian Harvey; Frank Sturgis; Gerry Hemming; John Rosselli, who was second head of the Chicago mafia and at that time in '62; Porter Goss, the current head of the CIA, who is in the JM/WAVE as a subordinate of Phillips and Morales."

    "Operation 40 is the grandmother and great-grandmother of all of the operations that are formed later," continues Escalante.

(6) Webster Griffin Tarpley and Anton Chaitkin, George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography (2004)

    A body of leads has been assembled which suggests that George Bush may have been associated with the CIA at some time before the autumn of 1963. According to Joseph McBride of The Nation, "a source with close connections to the intelligence community confirms that Bush started working for the agency in 1960 or 1961, using his oil business as a cover for clandestine activities." By the time of the Kennedy assassination, we have an official FBI document which refers to "Mr. George Bush of the Central Intelligence Agency," and despite official disclaimers there is every reason to think that this is indeed the man in the White House today...

    According to George Bush's official biography, he was during 1963 a well-to-do businessman residing in Houston, the busy president of Zapata Offshore and the chairman of the Harris County Republican Organization, supporting Barry Goldwater as the GOP's likely 1964 presidential candidate, while at the same time actively preparing his own 1964 bid for the US Senate. But during that same period of time, Bush may have shared some common acquaintances with Lee Harvey Oswald.

    Between October, 1962 and April, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald and his Russian wife Marina were in frequent contact with a Russian emigré couple living in Dallas: these were George de Mohrenschildt and his wife Jeanne. During the Warren Commission investigation of the Kennedy assassination, de Mohrenschildt was interviewed at length about his contacts with Oswald. When, in the spring of 1977, the discrediting of the Warren Commission report as a blatant coverup had made public pressure for a new investigation of the Kennedy assassination irresistible, the House Assassinations Committee planned to interview de Mohrenschildt once again. But in March, 1977, just before de Mohrenschildt was scheduled to be interviewed by Gaeton Fonzi of the House committee's staff, he was found dead in Palm Beach, Florida. His death was quickly ruled a suicide. One of the last people to see him alive was Edward Jay Epstein, who was also interviewing de Mohrenschildt about the Kennedy assassination for an upcoming book. Epstein is one of the writers on the Kennedy assassination who enjoyed excellent relations with the late James Angleton of the CIA. If de Mohrenschildt were alive today, he might be able to enlighten us about his relations with George Bush, and perhaps afford us some insight into Bush's activities during this epoch.

    Jeanne de Mohrenschildt rejected the finding of suicide in her husband's death. "He was eliminated before he got to that committee," the widow told a journalist in 1978, "because someone did not want him to get to it." She also maintained that George de Mohrenschildt had been surreptitiously injected with mind-altering drugs. After de Mohrenschildt's death, his personal address book was located, and it contained this entry: "Bush, George H.W. (Poppy) 1412 W. Ohio also Zapata Petroleum Midland." There is of course the problem of dating this reference. George Bush had moved his office and home from Midland to Houston in 1959, when Zapata Offshore was constituted, so perhaps this reference goes back to some time before 1959. There is also the number: "4-6355." There are, of course, numerous other entries, including one W.F. Buckley of the Buckley brothers of New York City, William S. Paley of CBS, plus many oil men, stock brokers, and the like.

(7) Reinaldo Taladrid and Lazaro Baredo, The Bush Family and the Kennedy Assassination (16th January, 2006)

    In 1959, a young officer and businessman from Texas received directions to cooperate in funding the nascent anti-Castro groups that the CIA decided to create, but it wasn't until 1960 that he was assigned a more specific and overt mission: to guarantee the security of the process of recruiting Cubans to form an invasion brigade, a key aspect within the grand CIA operation to destroy the Cuban Revolution.

    The CIA Texan quickly took a liking to the Cuban assigned to him for his new mission. The system of work, although intense, was simple. Féliz Rodríguez Mendigutía, "El Gato," would propose a candidate to him, who would then be checked out, both in the Agency and among the Miami groups, and finally, the Texan would give the go-ahead.

    In that period, Félix Rodríguez already knew quite a few Cubans, like Jorge Mas Canosa (subsequently the leader of various counterrevolutionary organizations and then president of the Cuban-American National Foundation) and had confirmed his loyalty to "the cause" and to the Americans. For that reason he was among the first to be proposed. He passed through the process satisfactorily, and in a meeting in the city of Miami, which the Texan liked to make as formal as possible, Jorge Mas Canosa officially became an agent of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

    Jorge Mas didn't know how to thank Félix for what he had done for him. From that moment he was constantly grateful to him and, at the same time, obedient to his every petition.

    But Jorge Mas was far from imagining the significance of this recruitment on the rest of his life. The significance rested on the fact that that Texan officer who undertook his recruitment process, approved it and then notified him at that meeting, was none other than George Herbert Walker Bush, the same man who, later, between 1989 and 1992, was the 41st president of the United States.

    Various sources coincide on the foregoing. Paul Kangas, a Californian private investigator, published an article containing part of his investigations in The Realist in 1990, in which he affirms that a newly discovered FBI document places Bush as working with the now famous CIA agent Félix Rodríguez on the recruitment of ultra-right wing exiled Cubans for the invasion of Cuba.

    For his part, in his "Report on a Censored Project," Dr. Carl Jensen of Sonoma State College states: "There is a record in the files of Rodríguez and others involved in the Bay of Pigs invasion, which expounds the role of Bush: the truth is that Bush was a senior CIA official before working with Félix Rodríguez on the invasion of Cuba."

    But Kangas is more precise in his quoted article, when he states:

    "Traveling from Houston to Miami on a weekly basis, Bush, with Félix Rodríguez, spent 1960 and 1961 recruiting Cubans in Miami for the invasion."

    Other publications that have referred to the theme are The Nation magazine, whose August 13, 1988 edition reveals the finding of "a memorandum in that context addressed to FBI chief J. Edward Hoover and signed November 1963, which reads: Mr. George Bush of the CIA;" or the Common Cause magazine that, on March 4, 1990, affirmed: "The CIA put millionaire and agent George Bush in charge of recruiting exiled Cubans for the CIA?s invading army; Bush was working with another Texan oil magnate, Jack Crichton, who helped him in terms of the invasion."

    Without knowing it, Jorge Mas had become part of something far more complex than the planned mercenary invasion. The recent recruited CIA agent became one of the participants in what was originally known as Operation 40.

    Operation 40 was the first plan of covert operations generated by the CIA to destroy the Cuban Revolution and was drawn up in 1959 on the orders of the administration of President Ike Eisenhower.

    In his book Cuba, the CIA's Secret War , Divisional General (ret) Fabián Escalante Font, former head of the Cuban Counterintelligence Services, explained what occurred in the early 1960.

    "A few days later (end of 1959), Allen Dulles, chief of the CIA, presented to the King (Colonel, chief of the Western Hemisphere Division of the CIA) memorandum to the National Security Council, which approved the suggestion of forming a working group within the agency which, in the short term, would provide alternative solutions to the Cuban problem."

    The group, Escalante Font relates, was composed of Tracy Barnes as head, and officials Howard Hunt, Frank Bender, Jack Engler and David Atlee Phillips, among others. Those present had one common characteristic: all of them had participated in the fall of the Jacobo Arbenz government in Guatemala.

    General Escalante recounts in his book that, during the first meeting, Barnes spoke at length on the objectives to be achieved. He explained that Vice President Richard Nixon was the Cuban "case officer" and had met with an important group of businessmen headed by George Bush and Jack Crichton, both Texas oil magnates, to collect the necessary funding for the operation.

(8) Larry Hancock, Someone Would Have Talked (2006)

    Manolo Ray had also been among the "leftist" exile leaders who would have possibly been on the target list for Operation 40, a covert operations team trained by David Morales and organized in support of the Bay of Pigs. The team's mission reportedly included seizure of strategic facilities and the kidnapping or elimination of targeted Communists, left wing politicians and Castro cadre.' Due to the failure of the invasion, most Operation 40 personnel did not land in Cuba. Although the group was officially disbanded after the invasion, we now know that certain individuals were retained as a shadow intelligence group (see Chapter 8 for details and sources). Persons reportedly associated with Operation 40 and with Sanjenis (its leader) continued to appear in anti-Communist and criminal activities for another decade or more...

    Victor Hernandez's own HSCA testimony suggests that these CIA reports were very probably a cover for individuals assigned to invasion support missions relating to Operation 40. Hernandez speaks of being removed to a safe house in New Orleans and then being sent on to Cuba but not having the chance to land. New documents provided by researcher Malcolm Blunt confirm that Sanjenis, the individual in charge of Operation 40, was actually the number one exile in the AMOT organization trained and prepared by David Morales. The CRC was actively recruiting in New Orleans while the brigade was being formed. The local CRC head was Sergio Arcacha Smith...

    The individuals knowingly involved in the actual conspiracy included both exiles and a small number of their most committed American supporters. Neither the exiles nor the Americans belonged to a single group although some of them likely held membership in Alpha 66, SNFE and other militarily active organizations such as AAA and Commandos L. Some of them had CIA training, military training and had worked for the Agency for periods of time.

    It is likely that some of the participants were part of the Morales trained and organized intelligence service thatwas developed to support the 1962 action against Cuba and which had a political assassination (black list) component. Elements of this group were retained as Morales' intelligence and surveillance force in Miami after the failure at the Bay of Pigs. Some of them had been involved in Agency sanctioned (and possibly unsanctioned) projects to assassinate Castro. This group was unofficially known as Operation 40.

    The conspiracy participants were individually recruited and acted as individuals rather than as members of an established group. However, some of those involved had a history with members of the former Havana "casino crowd" and connections to Trafficante organization in Cuba and later in Florida.

(9) Don Bohning, Washington Decoded (11th June, 2008)

    As described by some of its members, as well as in official documents, Operation 40 was the name given to a special unit created to play a supporting role in the CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961. The unit’s assigned but never-realized task was to follow on the heels of the Cuban-exile invasion force, purge pro-Castro officials, seize documents, and take over administration of “liberated” towns and villages. Scheduled to depart Nicaragua two days after the invasion force, Operation 40 never did land.

    When the invasion failed miserably, the unit returned to Miami and morphed into a Cuban intelligence organization-in-exile, aka the Cuban CIA, or more commonly, Operation 40. Its CIA codename was AMOT, and for the next 13 years it operated under, but quasi-independently and at a separate location from, JMWAVE, codename for the large CIA station in Miami that waged the secret war against Castro. For many years, AMOT was headed by Joaquín Sanjenís, an official in the pre-Castro Cuban government of Carlos Prío. AMOT was disbanded in 1974 as JMWAVE operations were phased out...

    Without specifying a point in time, Simkin goes on to claim that Operation 40 was not only involved in sabotage, but “evolved into a team of assassins.” It is true, of course, that the CIA sanctioned plots to kill Fidel Castro and also initiated assassination plots. But did Operation 40 have anything to do with those efforts?

    Simkin also fingers, without providing any documentation, Porter J. Goss as a member of Operation 40. The Spartacus website even features a photograph, which it claims was “taken in a nightclub in Mexico City on 22 January 1963. It is believed that the men in the photograph are all members of Operation 40.” Among them, allegedly, is Goss (with glasses, at the bottom left-hand corner).

    Goss, of course, actually was a CIA officer from 1962 to 1972, and worked for a 2-3 months in the Miami station during the Cuban missile crisis, primarily as a photo-interpreter. Several years after he left the agency he became a Republican congressman from Florida. He served eight terms before resigning from Congress, and his chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee, to serve as CIA director from 2004 to 2006.

    Goss was provided with a copy of the photograph featured on Simkin’s website. In a telephone interview, Goss not only said that he had “never heard of Operation 40,” but declared, with some vehemence, that the “Goss” identified in the photo is “categorically, decisively, and completely... not me.”

(10) Don Bohning, The Intelligencer: Journal of U.S. Intelligence Studies (Volume 16 – Number 2 – Fall 2008)

    A U.S. government report published in 1975 based on a congressional inquiry headed by the late Idaho Senator Frank Church and entitled Alleged Assassination Plots Against Foreign Leaders, makes no mention of Operation 40. (1) Neither does a Report on Plots to Assassinate Fidel Castro, prepared in 1967 by the CIA's inspector general under orders from then President Lyndon Johnson. It was declassified in 1993. (2) It is inconceivable that had Operation 40 been an assassination unit, as Simkin claims, that either or both the Church Committee and the CIA's Inspector General's Inspector General's report would not have made some made mention of it. Essentially, the only references to it as described by Simkin are contained in books and other works by conspiracy theorists, including Fabian Escalante, an official in Cuban State Security.

    While there were unsuccessful plots to assassinate various foreign leaders, mostly involving Cuba's Fidel Castro, beginning in 1960, the only documented systematic CIA assassination program as such was code-named ZRRIFLE. Created by the late Richard Bissell, it was headed by the late Bill Harvey from November 1961 through the Cuban Missile Crisis in the fall of 1962. Part of that period Harvey also headed Task Force W, the CIA component of Operation Mongoose, the multi-agency, post-Bay of Pigs program to rid Cuba of Fidel Castro. Mongoose was designed by Kennedy White House aide Richard Goodwin. As far as is known, ZRRIFLE never assassinated anyone. (3)

    Contrary to Simkin's definition, Operation 40, as described by some of those who were part of it, as well as in official documentation, was the last unit formed for the failed, CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in April 1961. Its task essentially was to follow the Cuban exile invasion force, purge officials, seize documents and take over administration of "liberated" towns and villages.

    When the invasion failed, the group returned to Miami , morphing into what was known locally as the Cuban intelligence organization in exile, the Cuban CIA or, more commonly, as Operation 40. Its CIA codename was AMOT. It operated under, but quasi-independently and at a separate location from JMWAVE, codename for the giant Miami CIA station then located at the University of Miami's South Campus (now the home - perhaps appropriately - for Metrozoo).

    Headed by Joaquin Sanjenis Perdomo, a former police official in the pre-Castro Cuban government of Carlos Prio, it was disbanded in 1974 as part of the phase-out of JMWAVE operations. Its CIA case officer for at least two years, beginning in 1970, was the late Frank Belsito, who died in 2006. An account of AMOT can be found in a rather obscure book authored by Belsito, entitled: "CIA: Cuba and the Caribbean (CIA Officer's Memoirs)". It was published in 2002 by Ancient Mariner Press of Reston, Virginia.

    (1) Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders: An Interim Report of the Select Committee to Study Governmental operations with respect to intelligence Activities. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington , D.C. November 1 975 .

    (2) Reports on Plots to Assassinate Fidel Castro. J.S. Earman, (CIA) Inspector General. May 2 3, 1967. (Declassified in 1 993)

    (3) An excellent account of the ZRRIFLE program can be found in the book, " Flawed Patriot: The Rise and Fall of CIA Legend Bill Harvey", authored by Bayard Stockton and published in 2006 by Potomac Books, Washington , D.C.

 Ooperation 40

Operation 40  was approved by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in March 1960.    The group was presided over by Vice President Richard M. Nixon and included Admiral Arleigh Burke, Livingston Merchant of the State Department, National Security Adviser Gordon Gray, as well as Allen Dulles, CIA director.-==

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                   

 

 

 

 https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130401193

Uncovering The 'Truth' Behind Lennon's FBI Files

October 8, 201012:00 PM ET

Heard on Fresh Air

 

 Former Beatle John Lennon, giving the peace sign, and his wife, Yoko Ono, arrive for a hearing on their deportation case at U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service office in lower Manhattan, May 12, 1972.

 

Oct. 9, 2010 would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday. Fresh Air remembers the legendary musician with excerpts from interviews conducted with people who knew him, and people who studied his life. This discussion with Jon Wiener was originally broadcast on Jan. 25, 2000.

Anti-war songs, like "Give Peace a Chance," didn't exactly endear former Beatle John Lennon to the Nixon administration. In 1971, shortly after Lennon went to New York on a visa and met up with radical anti-war activists, the FBI put Lennon under surveillance, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service tried to deport him a year later.

Historian Jon Wiener spent 14 years fighting to gain access to the FBI's secret files on John Lennon. At first, the FBI refused to release many of the documents, saying their release would endanger national security. Wiener's Freedom of Information case went all the way to the Supreme Court before the FBI agreed to settle.

Wiener spoke with Terry Gross about the case in 2000. His book about John Lennon's FBI files is entitled Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files. Wiener also consulted on the documentary The U.S. vs. John Lennon, which features interviews with Gore Vidal, Angela Davis, Yoko Ono and Walter Cronkite about the case.

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Jon Wiener is a history professor at the University of California-Irvine and a contributing editor to The Nation magazine. His other books include Come Together: John Lennon in his Time and Historians in Trouble.

DAVID BIANCULLI, host:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm David Bianculli sitting in for Terry Gross. Tomorrow is the 70th anniversary of the birth of John Lennon. In his lifetime, during and after The Beatles, Lennon lobbied hard to question and change the status quo - sometimes in song.

(Soundbite of song, "Give Peace a Chance")

Mr. JOHN LENNON (Singer-songwriter, musician): (Singing) Two, a one, two, three four. Everybody's talking about Bagism, Shagism, Dragism, Madism, Ragism, Tagism, this-ism, that-ism. Isn't it the most?

All we are saying is give peace a chance. All we are saying...

BIANCULLI: Anti-war music, like "Give Peace a Chance," didn't exactly endear John Lennon to the Nixon administration. In 1971, shortly after John Lennon arrived in New York on a visa, he began associating with radical anti-war activists, and the FBI put Lennon under surveillance. The Immigration and Naturalization Service tried to deport him.

Jon Wiener is a historian who investigated what the FBI and the INS did to Lennon between 1971 and 1972. After Lennon was murdered, Wiener requested Lennon's FBI files under the Freedom of Information Act.

Terry Spoke with Jon Wiener in 2000, the year he wrote a book about the FBI files called "Gimme Some Truth." It opens with a memo from Senator Strom Thurmond to the Nixon White House, about an upcoming Beatle tour of the United States. The memo warns that John Lennon might combine rock music with politics and organize young people to vote against Nixon in the 1972 election. Thurmond's memo also suggests that terminating Lennon's visa might be an effective countermeasure.

Professor JON WIENER (Author, "Gimme Some Truth"): A little historical background here, the '72 election was going to be the first in which 18-year olds had the right to vote. Before that you had to be 21. Everybody knew that young people were the strongest anti-war constituency, so the question was, for Lennon, how could he use his power as a celebrity to get young people into the political process? And also, this is a time when kids are very alienated from, you know, mainstream politics. So to get Lennon out of the country, the strategic countermeasure is to deport Lennon so he won't be able to take this tour that would register young voters. At the same time they're worried that, you know, young voters will vote against Nixon for kicking out, you know, the clever Beatle.

TERRY GROSS: Now how accurate was the FBI's information that John Lennon did want to help organize these political concerts - that would be for peace and against Nixon?

Prof. WIENER: There's no question that Lennon was talking about this his friends - his friends being Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman, Bobby Seale -and they tried doing one of these in Ann Arbor, Michigan in December, 1971. They had John and Yoko headlined a political rock concert, the Free John Sinclair concert. Every once in a while I run into somebody who was there. Fifteen thousand people spent six hours in Chrysler Arena, they listened not only to John and Yoko, but Stevie Wonder came, Commander Cody came, the MC5 came, William Kunstler gave a speech, Jerry Rubin gave a speech, Bobby Seale gave a speech. And a lot of it was about, you know, mobilizing young people to oppose Nixon. So - and they were very excited. John and Yoko were very excited about the tremendous turnout they had for this concert and how successful it was. So they were interested in the idea. They never got to the stage of setting up the national concert tour because the deportation order came down just two months later.

GROSS: How far did the INS get in deporting Lennon?

Prof. WIENER: Well, for much of 1972 and '73, Lennon was under an order to leave the country within 60 days. He had very talented legal help and they kept getting these deadlines extended. There was a lot of people mobilized to support him, but really, it wasnt until after Watergate, after Nixon left office, that the Gerald Ford administration immigration service finally agreed to grant Lennon his green card on very narrow legal grounds. So for two years he was under a 60 day order to leave the country, almost continuously.

GROSS: Now, let's talk more about the FBI documents that you were finally able to get through the Freedom of Information Act. You say that the FBI documents make the FBI look more like the Keystone Cops than the Gestapo. Give us an example of one of the documents that you think makes them look like Keystone Cops.

Prof. WIENER: Well, there's one where they - J. Edgar Hoover sends out instructions to locate Lennon as quickly as possible. They say his last known address is St. Regis Hotel, 150 Bank Street, New York City. Now every cop and cab driver in New York knows that the St Regis Hotel, you know, is on Central Park. It's not - and that Bank Street is in the West Village, so this couldnt be right. In fact. Lennon at the time, was living on Bank Street, but he was living at 105 Bank Street, not 150 Bank Street. So here's like this all points bulletin, you know, find Lennon. They're just confused. I mean it could've happened to any of us, I guess.

The other really strange one is that there's a kind of a wanted poster for Lennon. The FBI proposed that "Lennon should be arrested, if at all possible, on possession of narcotics charges" - I'm quoting now from one of the documents "which would make him more immediately deportable." And these instructions to local police officials include a kind of a wanted poster. A picture of Lennon, you know, height, weight, eye color and so on. You'd think that they wouldnt really need this. Lennon was certainly one of the most recognizable faces in the world in 1972. They have a picture there anyway. But the strangest thing is the picture isn't of John Lennon. It's of another guy.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Prof. WIENER: A guy - I mean I know who it is. It's a guy named David Peel...

(Soundbite of laughter)

Prof. WIENER: ...who was an East Village folk singer, a street singer, the busker type, who looked a little like Lennon. I mean he wore the wire-rimmed glasses and had Lennon's style of long hair, of course, lots of other people did in 1972. David Peel had recorded on Apple Records. Maybe that's how they got confused. So the FBI, you know, was lamentably out of touch with the mainstream, not just of, you know, the radical counterculture of New York City, but you would, you know, you would think John Lennon is kind of pretty much the mainstream in 1972.

GROSS: Well, the funny thing is is that the FBI documents - for instance, there's a memo from Hoover in which he describes Lennon as something like a member of the singing group, The Beatles. As if like...

(Soundbite of laughter)

GROSS: You know, as if like who The Beatles are really needs to be explained.

Prof. WIENER: You know, I've always been fascinated by that sentence. This is in J. Edgar Hoover's letter to H.R. Haldeman. And the first sentence is John Winston Lennon is a member of The Beatles singing group. Now what I'm not sure is, is it that J. Edgar Hoover wants to prove that he knows what The Beatles are and the names of The Beatles? Or is it that he thinks that Nixon does not know who John Lennon is?

(Soundbite of laughter)

Prof. WIENER: Or that it's this John Lennon, the John Lennon who is The Beatle is the one that we're talking about here. I've never been able to figure out which of those is the case.

GROSS: Did you find anything in the FBI files that were released to you that indicated that the FBI went beyond surveillance - that they ever tried to set Lennon up?

Prof. WIENER: You know, there's like a couple of documents. Their concern was that Lennon would participate in some kind of concert, rally, anti-war demonstration outside the Republican National Convention. And there's a memo from J. Edgar Hoover to the head of the Miami FBI office that suggests that if Lennon could be arrested on possession of narcotics charges he would become more immediately deportable. Now this seems to me an effort to set Lennon up for a drug bust. The FBI doesnt enforce possession of narcotics charges, that's a state offense, this is not part of what the FBI is supposed to be doing. I then filed a Freedom of Information request with the Miami FBI office, asking for their files on Lennon, to see what their response to this was. They replied to me that their John Lennon file had been destroyed as a part of a routine file destruction procedure.

GROSS: Hmm.

Prof. WIENER: Now I have to note that - know that Lennon files were collected in five other cities and none of those places destroyed their Lennon file, so we wonder what was in the Miami Lennon file that was destroyed.

BIANCULLI: Historian Jon Wiener speaking to Terry Gross in the year 2000.

More after a break.

This is FRESH AIR.

(Soundbite of music)

BIANCULLI: Let's get back to Terry's 2000 interview with historian Jon Wiener whose book about the FBI investigation of John Lennon is titled "Gimme Some Truth."

GROSS: Now you have the FBI document that explains why the FBI stopped its surveillance of Lennon. Would you summarize and read an excerpt of that document for us?

Prof. WIENER: This is dated August 30th 1972. This is like two months before the presidential election. This is a memo to the acting director - now that's L. Patrick Gray, J. Edgar Hoover had died in May - from the special agent in charge of the New York FBI office. It says (Reading) For the past several months there has been no information received to indicate that the subject is active in the new left.

And it indicated what the sources are. (Reading) All advised that during the month of July 1972, that the subject has fallen out of favor of activists Jerry Rubin, Stewart Albert and Rennie Davis, due to subject's lack of interest in committing himself to involvement in anti-war and new left activities. In view of this information, the New York division is placing this case in a pending inactive status.

GROSS: Now is that true of the whole FBI or just the New York division?

Prof. WIENER: Well, New York was the office of origin - the OO - as its called in the files. They are the ones who are responsible for conducting the investigation. I mean, what this really is saying here is that the Immigration Service and the FBI have succeeded in pressuring Lennon to cancel his plans for this national concert tour and to withdraw from anti-war activity. His lawyers told him that his case for fighting deportation was a pretty weak one. In fact, they'd never seen anyone win a case under these terms, and therefore, the legal advice was dont do anything more that would further provoke the Nixon administration. He really wanted to stay in the United States. Yoko was involved, at that point, in a custody dispute over her daughter from a previous marriage - her daughter Kyoko. So John, if he had been deported, Yoko would've stayed behind. He didnt want to be separated from Yoko, so he cancelled the plans for the concert tour. He dropped out of movement activity and the FBI is reporting that they have accomplished their job.

GROSS: So in that sense the FBI did succeed in neutralizing - as they like to put it - in neutralizing John Lennon.

Prof. WIENER: Yeah, neutralizing is one of the scary words which appear in the file. Some people think this refers, you know, to assassination plans or something like that. I dont think that that's the case. Neutralizing means silencing him, getting him out of the picture through this deportation threat. And there's no question that Lennon was silenced as a spokesman of the anti-war movement.

GROSS: How much do you think John Lennon knew about the FBI's surveillance of him?

Prof. WIENER: Well, he understood that this whole deportation thing was politically motivated. He complained publicly on TV shows, on "The Mike Douglas Show," on "The Dick Cavett Show," you know, these criminal enterprises that - too many people were coming to fix his phones down on Bank Street in the West Village and that there were strange men outside in suits who followed him around. He eventually sued the FBI, claiming he had been the target of illegal wiretapping.

Part of his FBI file is the FBI's own response to that charge. They replied that they could find no evidence of authorized wiretapping in their files. You know, this seems to me like a typical Nixon-era, non-denial denial. They say they could find no evidence, but maybe they didnt look very hard. They said they could find no evidence of authorized wiretapping, but it could've been unauthorized. It's also possible that the wiretapping was not done by the FBI but was done by the New York police or some other agency.

So Lennon sometimes thought he was just being paranoid. He would say, you know, he wasnt important enough to be the target of this kind of surveillance. And other times he, you know, loudly proclaimed that he was the target of government persecution. It turns out it's the second that was correct. But he never was sure in his own time that it was the FBI that was after him.

GROSS: Do you have evidence that his phone really was tapped?

Prof. WIENER: There are no wiretapping logs in the Lennon FBI file of the kind that there are, say, in the Martin Luther King files, so...

GROSS: Mm-hmm.

Prof. WIENER: ...this remains an open question. I mean, he lived next door to John Cage on Bank Street, and whenever he needed to take a...

GROSS: Wow.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Prof. WIENER: It's, you know, it's the '60s. It's the West Village in the '60s. Whenever he needed to make, you know, a secure conversation, they would go next door and use John Cage's phone in the belief that the FBI didn't know John Cage was. They were probably right about that.

GROSS: Right. The FBI wasn't interested in chance music, huh?

(Soundbite of laughter)

Prof. WIENER: Probably not.

GROSS: You know, you say in your book that one of the things you really find fascinating about these FBI files is that they document an era when rock music seemed to have real political force. Say some more about that.

Prof. WIENER: Well, you know, it's a little hard to believe today that a president would fear the power of a rock star. Rock stars often today have political causes, but they're always or - they're often - they're usually the safe ones - you know, save the rain forest or fight breast cancer or something like that, issues that nobody is going to, you know, try to deport you for advocating.

It's still hard to figure out whether the effort to deport Lennon was a complete paranoia on Nixon's part. After all, Nixon did win the 1972 election by an overwhelming landslide. His opponent, George McGovern, carried what, two or three states, something like that. So maybe the whole thing was just paranoia on the part of Nixon matched by paranoia on the part of Lennon and his friends.

On the other hand, all of this was put in motion long before that presidential election, you know, in the winter beforehand. And at that point, I don't think it was clear to anybody that Nixon was going to win in a landslide. Nixon was concerned about this youth vote and how that might affect the elections. It wasn't clear that McGovern was going to be the candidate.

You know, there's a lot of reasons not to like Richard Nixon. I don't -never liked him very much myself. But, you know, he was one of the most successful political candidates in recent history. So I'm kind of willing to accept Nixon's judgment that Lennon's political plans for 1972 were significant, were interesting, and, you know, did merit some kind of presidential response.

GROSS: And that's something that you find interesting about the times, and something that you admire Lennon for.

Prof. WIENER: Yeah. I mean, Lennon really took risks here of a kind that you hardly see anybody ever taking. How many people in the entertainment world have faced deportation because of their political actions? I mean, what - Charlie Chaplin was sort of run out of the United States. Paul Robeson left. It was sort of the opposite, where he was denied the right to travel, and then he left, you know, anyway. You know, Bertolt Brecht fled after being quizzed by HUAC. This is a very small group of people.

So I think it underscores the intensity of Lennon's commitment. I mean, I don't think he knew the risks he was taking. But, you know, that's sort of what he was like. He was a risk-taker. He wanted to stand up for what he believed in. He wasn't going to play it safe. It wasn't a safe age. So I think that's admirable.

GROSS: Well, John Wiener, I thank you so much for talking with us.

Prof. WIENER: My pleasure.

BIANCULLI: Historian John Wiener, speaking to Terry Gross in the year 2000. His book about the FBI investigation of John Lennon is called "Gimme Some Truth."

John Lennon, who was murdered in 1980, would have turned 70 tomorrow.

On our website, you can link to an op-ed by John Weiner in today's L.A. Times and read letters supporting Lennon's case to stay in the country written by Bob Dylan, John Cage and others. That's at freshair.npr.org.

Coming up: Film critic David Edelstein reviews two new movies. This is FRESH AIR.

Copyright © 2010 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/15/movies/15lenn.html

The U.S. vs. John Lennon - Movies - Review - The New York ...

www.nytimes.com › 2006/09/15 › movies

Sep 15, 2006 — Using archival clips and talking-head interviews, this documentary makes the case that John Lennon was a much better person than Richard ...

Doctor who took credit for trying to save John Lennon's life is called a liar by ex-colleagues

 

With the "story: of killing Fidel Castro, Operation 40 murdered John F Kennedy, Johm Lennon and many more, tens of thousands in Latin America and the United States.

Operation 40 was approved by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in March 1960.

Tracy Barnes became operating officer of what was also called the Cuban Task Force. The first meeting chaired by Barnes took place in his office on 18th January, 1960, and was attended by David Atlee Phillips, E. Howard Hunt, Jack Esterline, and Frank Bender.

 The CIA assembled virtually the same team that was involved in the removal of Arbenz: Tracey Barnes, Richard Bissell, David Sanchez Morales, David Atlee Phillips, E. Howard Hunt, Rip Robertson and Henry Hecksher; Added several agents who had been involved in undercover operations in Germany: Ted Shackley, Tom Clines and William Harvey. The following were also involved in Operation 40: Edwin Wilson, Barry Seal, William Seymour, and Gerry Hemming.

 The ultrasecret Operation 40 included some nonpolitical conservative exile businessmen, but its hard core was made up of dice players at the foot of the cross—informers, assassins-for-hire, and mob henchmen. They were the elite troops of the old guard within the exile movement, who made effective alliance with CIA right-wingers against CIA liberals

Virtually every one of the field agents of Operation 40 were Cubans. This included Antonio Veciana, Luis Posada, Orlando Bosch, Rafael Quintero, Roland Masferrer, Eladio del Valle, Guillermo Novo, Rafael Villaverde, Virgilio Gonzalez, Carlos Bringuier, Eugenio Martinez, Antonio Cuesta, Hermino Diaz Garcia, Barry Seal, Felix Rodriguez, Ricardo Morales Navarrete, Juan Manuel Salvat, Isidro Borjas, Virgilio Paz, Jose Dionisio Suarez, Felipe Rivero, Gaspar Jimenez Escobedo, Nazario Sargent, Pedro Luis Diaz Lanz, Jose Basulto, and Paulino Sierra.  

 

 

Mark David Chapman, John Lennon alleged murderer:

"He -John Lennon- walked past me and then I heard in my head, 'Do it, do it, do it,' over and over again, saying 'Do it, do it, do it,' like that," recalled in a BBC documentary several years after going to prison. "I don't remember aiming. I must have done, but I don't remember drawing a bead or whatever you call it. And I just pulled the trigger steady five times." The assassin described his feeling at the time of the shooting as "no emotion, no anger dead silence in the brain."

His unnatural tone sounded all-too-familiar for British lawyer and journalist Fenton Bresler, who wrote the book, Who Killed John Lennon? The assassin was a brainwashed hit man carrying out someone else's contract, writes Bresler, "he is in many ways as much the victim of those who wanted to kill John Lennon, as Lennon himself."

 

 

 

 

 

 Jose Perdomo, the Commander of Operration 40, the true shooter and assassin of John Lennon. When Frank Sturgis - the famous Waterway burglar - joined Fidel Castro's guerrilla in 1958, through the CIA at the United States consulate in Sanriago, Cuba, the CIA assigned Jose Perdomo as a contact officer for Frank Sturgis. Jose Perdomo was chief of police in Havana before Castro, and chief of the Secret Service in the Presidential palace during the government of Carlos Prio Socarras. Before the Bay of Pigs invasion, Jose Perdomo opened an office on Flagger Street in Miami and recruited the majority of Cubans for CIA, CUA agents from the 60s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mark David Chapman, John Lennon alleged murderer:

"He -John Lennon- walked past me and then I heard in my head, 'Do it, do it, do it,' over and over again, saying 'Do it, do it, do it,' like that," recalled in a BBC documentary several years after going to prison. "I don't remember aiming. I must have done, but I don't remember drawing a bead or whatever you call it. And I just pulled the trigger steady five times." The assassin described his feeling at the time of the shooting as "no emotion, no anger dead silence in the brain."

His unnatural tone sounded all-too-familiar for British lawyer and journalist Fenton Bresler, who wrote the book, Who Killed John Lennon? The assassin was a brainwashed hit man carrying out someone else's contract, writes Bresler, "he is in many ways as much the victim of those who wanted to kill John Lennon, as Lennon himself."

 

 

 

“That's part of our policy, is not to be taken seriously, because I think our opposition, whoever they may be, in all their manifest forms, don't know how to handle humor. You know, and we are humorous, we are, what are they, Laurel and Hardy. That's John and Yoko, and we stand a better chance under that guise, because all the serious people, like Martin Luther King, and Kennedy, and Gandhi, got shot.”

- John Lennon

 

 

 

For over 30 years-, we were told that a Dr. Stephan Lynn had been the attending physician on duty that evening. Dr. Lynn had conducted several interviews over the past three decades and claimed to have been the doctor who was responsible for the “heroic effort” bestowed upon this VIP patient, opened up the victim’s chest on this fateful evening and massaged his heart to no avail. He also claimed he was the person that informed Yoko that her husband had died.

NOT TRUE.

In 2011, a man by the name of Dr. David Halleran stepped up to the plate and announced he was actually the attending physician that evening. Halleran claims he was the one who opened Lennon’s chest to examine the extent of the injuries, he was the doctor that held the patient’s heart in his hand, he he doctor who broke the heartbreaking news to a distraught Yoko Ono.

The Number Nine

The way things are going… An investigation into the events of December 8th, 1980

 https://thenumbernineblog.wordpress.com/2016/11/30/the-way-things-are-going-an-investigation-into-the-events-of-december-8th-1980/?fbclid=IwAR0-V8PCH8isuaGKCQB4bRSlctM-WTIGT73rdRgKwUkhPlNNzqIWrVYb5Jc

The Ballad of John and Yoko, released as a single with “Old Brown Shoe” on the B Side was a Beatles hit in 1969.  It never made any official album, but was used in several compilation albums post-breakup. The lyrics take us on a ride through John and Yoko’s struggle to get married.  Which they eventually did on the Spring Equinox, March 20th, 1969. Might this be yet another “clue” inserted into John Lennon’s music and artforms foreshadowing his death?

---

They’re going to crucify me

TheNumberNineBlog has touched on John Lennon’s mysterious, sometimes alarming premonitions in past articles. I think it is high time to discuss the high strangeness revolving around his death, and the implications of what an alternative perspective might contain. This December 8th, 2016 will be the 36th anniversary of John Lennon’s death. The crime that was never fully investigated, I personally feel that many fans do not know the whole story and the various issues and direct contradictions that present themselves within. From time to time, I may refer to certain premonitions explained in the article; The Prophecies of John but it is not necessary to have that information to follow this article. There are many oddities and “strange coincidences” surrounding the Beatles, (I’m sure I’ve mentioned that before. That’s why this blog exists in the first place. ) Some of the official accounts we have been given surrounding the deaths and happenings of certain persons in and around the Beatles camp have never quite sat right with me. John Lennon’s death is probably the biggest elephant in the room of them all. This subject has been the plot of many books as well as films, documentaries, articles, commentaries etc. and while I am not trying to one up any of those accounts, I am hoping to provide a wider perspective and a bit of deeper questioning involved in the case surrounding my favorite ex-Beatle, John Lennon.

It is important to remember throughout this article, as well as any information you come across on this topic- The John Lennon homicide case was never properly investigated. The suspect, Mark David Chapman was arrested on site, and presumed to be the lone shooter, and pleaded guilty to the murder. It was a grounded investigation. Proper, careful investigative measures were not taken because police had their suspect. Case closed. No more to see here. But what if there is more to this story?  What if justice wasn’t completely served? I have cited sources extensively for this article from a very informative blog, The X Spot, by X Dell which can be found here. I highly recommend if interested reading over this series of articles for a very well-written account of the events in question. Also, Fenton Bresler’s book “Who Killed John Lennon” may be the most authoritative, informative, realistic investigation of the investigation that never took place. A great read for truth seekers and Beatles-fans alike. This truth in my opinion, is very important, and little known to the general populace.  We must not let this fade into obscurity. We owe it to John at the very least.

I think most of us know the official narrative that accompanies John Lennon’s untimely death.  But for those in need of a refresher, a brief recap:

(for a more detailed account try here.)

• John Lennon was shot in the back by a deranged fan by the name of Mark David Chapman (MDC- going forward here) in front of his Dakota Apartment building in New York City, December 8th, 1980 around 10:50pm (times vary by account).
• He was hit by four bullets, however five rounds were reported to have been fired. Two of the bullets hit Lennon in the upper left back, and two in his left shoulder. After being hit, it is reported Lennon turned around and exclaimed “They’ve shot me” climbed up a few steps towards the foyer of the Dakota Building before collapsing.
• Police arrived within 2 minutes of the initial call (made by Dakota employee Jay Hastings), promptly arrested MDC who was “calmly” standing in front of the Dakota waiting for police to arrive reading a copy of The Catcher in the Rye. The officers hoisted Lennon into the backseat of the patrol car and delivered him to Roosevelt Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival at 11:15 pm. (For those keeping track, that’s approximately 25 minutes from shots fired to being pronounced dead).

Stepping out (just for awhile)

Pay particular attention to what Lennon looks like at this time, and what he is wearing on this fateful evening. It will be important later. The above series of photos were taken by Paul Goresh, an amateur photographer and fan of Lennon’s who often hung out in front of the Dakota in hopes of snapping a few pictures of his hero, John Lennon. Goresh took this photo above hours prior to John’s death. Lennon is seen here signing MDC’s copy of the “Double Fantasy” album, and that is MDC himself cut off on the right side of the photograph. At the time this photo was taken, Lennon was leaving the apartment building with Yoko to finish mixing a new recording of Yoko’s “Walking on Thin Ice“.  The recording studio sent a limo to pick the couple up called “The Record Plant”.

-Point of interest: “The Record Plant” facility in New York was bought by Sir George Martin in 1987, and was closed very quickly after.

Curiosity Number One:

The Paul Goresh pictures. Thanks to Miles Mathis’s brilliant paper on John Lennon (linked here) we can realize some possible foolery going on with Goresh’s photographs. But beyond that, this is simply the first of a series of anomalies surrounding this story. First and foremost, Goresh began his run-ins with Lennon by forging his way into the Dakota.  He masqueraded as a TV repairman and swindled his way into the Lennon’s livingroom. He (admittedly) continued to stalk John Lennon, and at first according to Goresh himself- Lennon would not allow Goresh to take any photos of him. Regardless, Goresh continued to stalk and secretly take pictures of John anyway. Apparently, John had a change of heart and allowed Goresh to take photos of him once Double Fantasy had gone public. Goresh accounts the two of them even began to go on walks together, and he was invited into the Lennon’s home on more than one occasion. The Lennon’s even used one of Goresh’s amateur photos for their single “Watching the Wheels” whose lyrics sync interestingly well with the plot line of Catcher in the Rye, as well as Goresh’s photo featuring John and Yoko in the very spot John would be killed a month later. Pretty good for a man who swindled his way into getting into John’s house. But… that doesn’t count as foreshadowing right? But wait- there’s more.

Watching the Wheels Released November 17, 1980 Photo by Paul Goresh

As if that wasn’t lucky enough for this amateur photographer stalker gone Lennon-pal, Goresh got his big moment mere weeks later when he happened to be in the right place at the right time and captured John Lennon’s assassin on film on December 8th, 1980. Goresh immediately sold the photo to the New York Daily News for a reported $10,000, but managed to receive residual royalties earning him well over a million in 35 years. Yoko Ono also purchased several photographs from Goresh that were used in the posthumous release “Imagine” documentary.

Today, Paul Goresh is a recluse. He lives on the outer-fringes of society.  Rarely granting interviews or offering commentary  on his part in this story.  The story that has been told and retold countless times over the years, Paul Goresh’s tale is a quite unique.  Although haunting and morbid- Goresh’s part was essential to the entire scene and couldn’t have been timed more perfectly. A re-creation of Paul’s story was made for a TV documentary in 1990 on the 10 year anniversary of John’s passing. It is quite chilling to watch. Was there anything that Goresh failed to tell us??

---

 Walking on Thin Ice

Directly after the photograph was snapped with John Lennon and his assailant by Goresh, John and Yoko left for The Record Plant, where they were working on Yoko’s latest song, “Walking on thin ice“. According to official stories, John and Yoko caught a ride with RKO personality  Dave Sholin because the limo from The Record Plant had been delayed. Dave Sholin and crew from RKO had just completed John Lennon’s final interview moments earlier inside the Dakota apartment. Moments before that, John had what would become his infamous final photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz where John appeared naked clenched to Yoko’s clothed body, featured on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine. (Pictured left) John in fetal position, in the nude- clinging onto “Mother” Yoko, seems a bit symbolic to me, but that’s a topic for another article.  Moving on for now.

-Point of Interest: In the Beatles strange avant-garde “Revolution No. 9” from the White Album, Yoko can be heard repeating the line: “If you become naked.”  There are other curiosities that seem to tie in with John’s death from this track as well. More on that later.

While at the Record Plant Studio, they began mixing a track credited solely to Yoko titled “Walking on thin Ice”. On the version included on 1992’s Onobox, a new intro was added, where John Lennon can be heard remarking “I think you just cut your first number one, Yoko.” This peculiar track has some very interesting lyrics.

I gave you my knife,
You gave me my life
Like a gush of wind in my hair.
Why do we forget what’s been said
And play the game of life with our hearts?

I may cry some day,
But the tears will dry whichever way.
And when our hearts return to ashes,
It’ll be just a story,
It’ll be just a story.

The duo had just finished mixing the final cut of the track, and decided to head home.

Curiosity Number two:

The details as to how exactly the pair returned home are a bit fuzzy.  The story cited most often is that the Lennon’s personal white limo and driver picked them up from the studio and returned them home at approximately 10:50 pm. The Dakota building itself has a secure-gated entrance in which cars can easily drive thru and park inside (which is the norm).  For whatever reason, the Lennon’s decided to exit the limousine on 72nd street, and walk into the Dakota from the front entrance. It is unclear where the driver went from the point of drop-off.  Surely, the driver would have driven a bit past the pair and driven directly into the secured gates to park the car for the evening? This apparently did not happen, because John was shot just moments later in that very driveway.  Was the car there after the crime had been committed?  John was rushed to Roosevelt Hospital in a police squad car, was the limo not closer?  Where did the driver go? What was the drivers name? How long had he been working for the Ono-Lennon’s? Good luck finding information on this character. I have read many Lennon Biographies, watched countless documentaries, searched through gobs of information available online- typically, in most accounts from the time they pair left the Record Plant elevator to the point of drop off at the Dakota is not even mentioned… at all. One witness (which will be discussed in more detail later) arrived to the Dakota in a cab, which he mentions stopped directly behind Lennon’s limo. The driver of the cab and rider both are to witness a man shooting.  WHY were the Lennon’s were dropped off in the street, rather than within the secure compound of the Dakota Building? Why was this potential star-witness never questioned? These nagging questions always seem to get overlooked.

The entrance to the Dakota Building where Lennon was shot.  Why didn’t the driver drive in instead?

-Point of Interest: In later years, Yoko Ono had a major falling out with one of her personal drivers.  It seems as though this driver could not be the same driver the Ono-Lennon’s used in 1980… But in all honesty, it is rather unclear how long he had been an employed by Ono. Maybe he knew something?  Mr. Karsan, Ono’s personal driver attempted to use extortion against Yoko reportedly on the anniversary of John’s death. An article about the incident can be examined here. It is explained in part:  “Prosecutors say that Mr. Karsan read the letter to Ms. Ono in her apartment at the Dakota on Dec. 8, the 26th anniversary of the killing of her husband, John Lennon, by a crazed fan. They have characterized it as an extortion letter, saying that Mr. Karsan threatened to release embarrassing tapes and photos and to kill Ms. Ono if she did not pay him $2 million so he could return to his native Turkey.”

---

Living on Borrowed Time

We are told, upon arriving at the Dakota, Yoko exits the car first and John is quite a few steps behind (10-30 feet behind depending on your source) clutching the newly mixed tape of Walking on Thin Ice in his grasp. If the reason for exiting the limo on the street was to “enjoy the beautiful mild New York evening” (as has been said) why were they not walking together… enjoying the beautiful New York evening together?  Aside from that, as has been pointed out- it was a mild December evening, in New York City- dubbed “The City That Never Sleeps” for good reason. It’s an incredibly busy, bustling city! Especially in front of John Lennon’s home which not only has a bus route stop directly in front, but a subway entrance around the corner and Central Park directly across the street. Not to mention the reports of countless fans and admirers that would camp out in front of the Dakota in hopes of catching a glimpse/picture/autograph of John and Yoko.  So given all of this, perhaps it is a bit surprising to you that on this particular evening- NO ONE was around to witness the events about to unfold. No one except of course the just arrived Yoko Ono and John Lennon, his alleged assailant MDC, and the Dakota Doorman Jose Pedormo. One other witness standing outside of the Dakota building on 72nd street pulled up shortly thereafter, in time to observe MDC shooting, but not who he was shooting at. Source  A few other witnesses heard the shots, and came to the scene soon after, but did not actually witness the crime being committed.

New York Times sketch of crime scene December, 1980

As Yoko walks into the Dakota courtyard, she passes MDC waiting in the shadows under the right side of the archway. Yoko and John walk by MDC on his left (see graphics).  Official accounts recall that Yoko gives a nod in greeting to MDC as she passes by. John does as well. Once John is a few paces in front of Chapman, he says “Mr. Lennon?” To which Lennon turns to acknowledge. MDC drops into combat stance and fires five rounds in Lennon’s direction from approximately nine feet away. (This account was in some of the very earliest accounts and has since been disputed- there are a few conflicting accounts as to what exactly happened.)

Remember, there are only a few witnesses here to retell the story. That becomes highly relevant and important to keep in mind as we continue.

Curiosity number three:

Outside of the Dakota at this time, a taxi cab is alleged to have pulled up directly behind John and Yoko’s limo (not pictured in graphic). He claims to have exited the cab in time to see MDC standing outside of the Dakota gates closer to the right side of the archway, actively shooting. The witness was unable to see who was being targeted. Source This testimony is useful in a few ways. Not only does it give us a direct position of MDC, it also seems to confirm that John and Yoko’s limo was still parked in front of the Dakota building as the shots occurred. Who WAS this driver? How could MDC’s bullets be found in the doorway of the Dakota on the right side of the arch, given his position as witnessed? According to the graphic above as published by the Daily news- the bullets took a hard right turn. Talk about magic bullets!!

---

 One and One and One is Three

There are several accounts of exactly where John was shot. Chief Medical examiner, Dr. Frank Veteran reports four bullets hitting John in the back. Dr. Veteran stated specifically, “Lennon had been shot four times from the left at point blank range.” Veteran also stated that the shot appeared to have come from a .357 magnum. (MDC is officially reported to be standing 10-30 feet away at the time of shooting, and used a Charter arms undercover .38 special. Discrepancies, discrepancies!)

At this time, the most accepted explanation is that John arrived in the E.R. that evening with a total of 7 wounds- 4 entry wounds, and 3 exit wounds. The wounds were close together indicating a “good shot group” meaning the bullets were close together, and well placed. This seemingly was not a shot group of an amateur (or if it was he got extremely lucky).  One bullet hit Lennon in the upper left shoulder area, and passed out through his chest completely. Two more bullets hit John in the left back area, near the shoulder and also exited through the chest. The death certificate indicates that the fatal bullet had a specific route passing through the left shoulder, then the left subclavian artery, the left lung, and finally the aorta. Accounts also recall a single bullet that did not hit Lennon, instead going over his head and into a glass pane on the side of the Dakota building. However, there were a total of three bullet holes in the Dakota lobby doorway. Two are alleged to be the two bullets that exited John’s chest- hitting the glass door pane. (More discrepancies here- will be discussed later).
Later, the doctor which attended Lennon’s wounds, Dr. Stephen Lynn admitted the immaculate precision of the shots. There was no way John would have survived these injuries. (More on the doctor’s interesting role in this later). Was MDC a professional hitman? Was he just an incredibly good shot? Did he just get lucky?

---

Curiosity Number 3 and a half:

Immediately after the shooting, according to reports, a few strange incidents occurred.

Firstly, John Lennon, fatally wounded but still alive staggered into the Dakota lobby up a few stairs and collapsed, saying “They’ve shot me“. In statements given by Yoko herself, she is apparently unsure if she was in front or behind John at the time. Source. But regardless, it is important to note that John is INSIDE the lobby at this point.  Any random images you see on the internet claiming to be John Lennon dead in the street, or on the sidewalk or anywhere else are fake. There are no known photos of John Lennon shot at the Dakota. We only have witness (albeit a few) accounts to go on here.

Lobby attendant, Jay Hastings tends to Lennon at this point, removes his glasses and tries to console Lennon. He also removes his uniform jacket and covers Lennon’s chest wounds.  Hastings then notifies the police from the Front Desk. No word about where Yoko was at this point in time, but it is assumed she was also near Lennon, consoling him. Outside the lobby doors at this time, Jose Perdomo, the Dakota doorman asks MDC;

“Do you know what you just did?”

To which Chapman replies, “I just shot John Lennon”.

MDC drops the gun, removes his jacket and according to witnesses paces about for a few seconds. Jose Perdomo at this time tells MDC;

“Go on, get out of here.”

“Where would I go?”

Replies Chapman, who then pulls from his pocket and begins to read J.D. Salinger’s A Catcher in the Rye until police arrive minutes later.

Joseph Many (Dakota elevator operator) is asked by Jose Perdomo to remove the dropped gun. Many picks it up, and promptly removes it from the scene. The weapon is taken to the adjacent freight elevator which leads to the basement. Important here is that the gun was removed from the scene, and later returned to police as evidence.

Joseph Many, the elevator operator for the Dakota complex, told Officer Clark that he arrived on his shift at 3:30pm that day. He saw Chapman talking to Jeri Moll, whom he recognized as a regular. Many saw Chapman at 9:30, and asked him “Why are you still hanging around here; you already got his autograph?”

Shortly before 11:00pm, he heard three shots while in the basement with two other Dakota employees, Victor Cruz and Joe Grezik. He went upstairs, where Perdomo motioned to the gun, saying, “Get this out of here.” Many took the gun, went downstairs, and hid it in a drawer before handing it over to the police. Source

-Point of interest:  Jose Perdomo the Dakota doorman has ties to the CIA. According to several sources Perdomo worked as the Chief of Police under Batista in Cuba, was exiled in the US under Castro, was the operations coordinator/recruiter in Operation 40 and took part in the Bay of Pigs incident in Cuba as well. Quite an interesting person. More here.

The gun, a Charter arms undercover .38 special 5 shooter with the initials “PM” carved into the shaft? Rather odd. The two bullets recovered were hollow-tip bullets, according to Police Evidence tags- found in John’s leather jacket at the crime scene. (Pictured above) I’m not a ballistics expert, but from what I have read, hollow tip bullets are designed specifically not to exit the target upon impact.  They “mushroom” upon impact, causing considerable damage to body tissue etc. Hollow point bullets are not supposed to ricochet– their design is specifically calibrated for this effect.  The fact that these particular hollow-tip bullets are not behaving as such is a real head scratcher. The odds are overwhelming. It’s not just one bullet behaving in strange ways- but at least 3 bullets are said to have produced exit wounds.

So what is happening here? We have yet another conflicting report. Five shooter gun. Four bullets were fired that hit Lennon. One bullet missed the target altogether- and possibly hit the glass door. Two bullets were found in his leather jacket according to police evidence. Three bullet holes in the lobby doorway. Makes a total of five bullets… right? But what about the fatal bullet that remained lodged in Lennon’s body? Wouldn’t that make a total of six bullets?

Police inspect the crime scene at the Dakota on December 8th, 1980.  Bullet holes in Doorway clearly visible. (AP Photo/Handschuh)

---

Instant Karma

Minutes after the shooting, Officers Steve Spiro and Peter Cullen arrive at the Dakota.  Here is a blurb from arresting officer Steve Spiro’s report:

As I point a gun at Suspect, a male white starts to put his hands up toward the top of his head. ‘Don’t move! Put your hands on the wall!’ Suspect still has hands on his head. ’Put your hands on the wall and don’t move.’ Suspect does what he is told. ’Please don’t hurt me!’ says the Suspect.

Put gun to subject’s back. I see two males to my left. I don’t know who they are (thinking a robbery–more than one gunman?) I place my left arm around Suspect’s neck moving him against me and using him as a shield to defend myself against other possible gunmen. Turning toward my right with the suspect I see the doorman, another male, and at least three bullet holes in the glass doors. My gun is now pointed toward the doorway. The doorman, who I’ve seen before while working, yells that the man I have is the only one involved. I put the Suspect back up against the wall. Suspect says, ’I acted alone! Don’t hurt me!’ ‘No one is going to hurt you.’

Still thinking that there was a robbery inside the building I start asking Suspect ‘What apartment were you in?’ ‘Who did you shoot?’ No response. I hear Jose, the doorman, yell ‘He shot John Lennon.’ I ask Suspect ‘Did you shoot John Lennon!’–No response. Pete Cullen yells ‘Steve put cuffs on him!’ As I get cuffs on the Suspect asks once again–’Don’t hurt me.’  Source

As officers Spiro and Cullen attend to MDC the suspect, another patrol car arrives with  Officers Tony Palma and Herb Frauenberger. These officers find Lennon in the Dakota lobby fatally injured, but still alive. Realizing the urgency of the situation, they decide to carry Lennon out of the Dakota and into a third squad car that had arrived moments earlier. The squad car which belonged to Officers William Gamble and James Moran, after receiving the victim drives to Roosevelt hospital where the emergency crew has been notified and ready to receive the wounded victim. Both Officers Gamble and Moran are said to be huge Beatle-fans, in route allegedly ask their passenger- “Are you John Lennon?” To which Lennon supposedly nods and moans. Neither officer recognized their passenger as being John Lennon.

-Point of Interest: Several accounts of witness interviews and testimony etc. have said that they did not recognize John Lennon that evening. The NYPD officers that took Lennon to Roosevelt hospital were simply the first to enunciate their disbelief. It was a stressful, blur of an evening for everyone involved I am sure, faulty memories, denial, shock- all of which could be at play here. But this may be important to the overall case.

 The squad car containing Lennon arrives at Roosevelt hospital a few minutes before 11pm, and though he had no vital signs at the time of arrival, the attending physicians and nurses made a “heroic effort” to save him. The attending staff recalls that no one realized who this gunshot victim was until his wallet was pulled from his pocket and an ID was discovered. His chest was cut open, and his heart was even massaged to try to get the blood pumping again. One bullet had pieced the aorta, making this impossible.  John Lennon was officially pronounced dead at 11:15pm.

John Lennon’s death certificate

Curiosity Number Four:

The two most informative, comprehensive works on this controversy as sited above were both done some time ago- Fenton Bresler’s book was published in 1989, and XDell’s articles in 2010- we have since been enlightened to a few new facts that are highly relevant to this mystery. One such fact is that for over 30 years- until 2011 to be precise, we were told that a Dr. Stephan Lynn had been the attending physician on duty that evening. Dr. Lynn had conducted several interviews over the past three decades and claimed to have been the doctor who was responsible for the “heroic effort” bestowed upon this VIP patient,  opened up the victim’s chest on this fateful evening and massaged his heart to no avail. He also claimed he was the person that informed Yoko that her husband had died.

NOT TRUE.

In 2011, a man by the name of Dr. David Halleran stepped up to the plate and announced he was actually the attending physician that evening.  Halleran claims he was the one who opened Lennon’s chest to examine the extent of the injuries, he was the doctor that held the patient’s heart in his hand, he was the doctor who broke the heartbreaking news to a distraught Yoko Ono.

Why did it take 30 years for Dr. Halleran to come forward with this? Is he telling the truth? Below is his first television interview, conducted by ABC3 in 2011, this particular interview received the attention of film writer and director,  Jeremy Profe.  It inspired Profe to rewrite his already funded “Lennon Report” film project to bring this new information to light. The Lennon Report was released in theatres and online this past October, 2016 claiming to “set the record straight” about the night John Lennon died.  Here Dr. Halleran also solidifies the notion that no one recognized Lennon at the time, but in essence gives the same recount of  events in which Dr. Lynn had described for three decades prior.

Here is one of the more recent Dr. Stephen Lynn’s interviews about his role in the event of December 8th, 1980. This particular interview was filmed mere weeks prior to Dr. Halleran’s “coming out”.

As far as I know, Dr. Lynn has not refuted Dr. Halleran’s claims- nor made any comment regarding them whatsoever. Did Dr. Lynn simply want the notoriety of the historical event, claiming to be what he wasn’t? Why didn’t the nurse seen in the video interview say anything when Dr. Lynn clearly stated he massaged Lennon’s heart in his hand? Does anyone care about justice? Or maybe… they were unable to speak up? I don’t know the answers.  I hope someone still alive on this planet does though- and comes forward with truth. Better late than never….

---

Gimme Some Truth

After either Dr. Halleran or Dr. Lynn informed Yoko of her husband’s demise, arrangements were made for Yoko and friend David Geffen to leave Roosevelt hospital and return to the Dakota to inform Sean of his father’s passing.  Yoko had asked for a delay in the media announcement in order to give her adequate time to get back home.  Crowds were already gathering at Roosevelt as well as the Dakota, as word had already began to spread of the event. Rumors apparently spread quickly in “the city that never sleeps“.

The announcement is finally made a short time later- perhaps most remembered by fans on the United States East Coast, as it was announced by Howard Cosell during Monday Night Football in a Patriots vs. Miami Dolphins game.

-Point of Interest: The football game was nearly over, with a few seconds remaining as the Patriots prepare to kick a field goal. The Miami Dolphins “blocked that kick” immediately after the announcement was made. In Revolution #9 someone can be heard in a track loop repeating “block that kick”.

Ringo Starr and Wife, Barbara Bach were vacationing in the Bahamas when they received word of the shocking event. They immediately packed up and got on the last flight to New York.  When they arrived, they were mobbed by mourning fans holding a vigil in front of the Dakota building. Multiple witnesses outside have said that Yoko met Starr and Bach at the front (closed) gate and asked Starr to come inside alone (without Bach) to which Ringo replied;

“No you don’t. If I go, Barbara goes. Remember, you started this.”

The pair were let in, and a few hours later Ringo emerged from the Dakota visibly shaken and upset. It is unknown what exactly Ringo meant by “Remember you started this” but apparently, there are several witnesses who confirm this dialogue. What is even more interesting is Ringo’s first interview about John Lennon’s death.  He is obviously distraught in this interview with Sir Paul McCartney’s wife Nancy Shevell’s cousin- Barbara Walters (she seems to get all the good interviews). Here, at 0.41 seconds Ringo looks at the camera and says “I’m sure he’s ok”.  You’re sure he’s ok Ringo? Spiritually? or what?  What does that mean?

The next morning, all the major headlines revealed to the world the tragedy that had transpired the night before. What I find interesting is the amount of information the media already had access to about the crime, the suspect in custody and the details of the weeks and months leading up to the event. If you google original articles published by the various media outlets on December 9th and 10th 1980, you will see what I mean. So much information in such a short amount of time in a crime that was never even fully investigated (especially within hours of the event).  This information (however it was obtained) became the official narrative about Lennon’s death for decades afterward. Until more and more conflicting information began to see the light.

Curiosity Number Five:

John Lennon’s body was taken to Ferncliff Crematorium in Greenburgh, NY and cremated the following day, December 9th. The quick turnover leads many, including myself into speculation of why this was such a rushed decision. Lennon’s family back in the UK were not notified or asked for approval or even allowed to pay their respects to their beloved family member. What Yoko did with the ashes afterwards are also not known. It has been speculated that the ashes were scattered at Strawberry Fields memorial in New York’s Central Park, across the street from the Dakota building. Some people believe that Yoko still has them, and keeps them under her bed. A single photo was taken of John at the crematorium, and leaked to tabloids soon after.  This photo has always bugged me- it indeed looks like John (even though no one else recognized him that evening) but where is his ear?  Why has the edge of his face been smudged out like that? (He was not shot in the face). It is also reported that he lost 80% of his blood- his face has a great deal of life and color to it in this photo… is this really a picture of John Lennon’s lifeless body??

Regardless of your views of John Lennon, what he stood for (or didn’t)- his sudden and heinous death rocked the world as much if not more so as his controversial life. An icon of rock n roll, a major influence on culture of the 1960’s and beyond, an advocate for peace, awareness and understanding of the world we live in.  His assassin, described as a “lone nut” or “crazed fan” has been living out his 20 year sentence for the past 36 years. Chapman was declared legally sane, able to withstand normal incarceration. He was not found to be crazy, or even mentally unstable even though the main paradigm amongst Beatle fans and admirers and media paints him in that very light.

Was there more to this unfortunate incident than we are privy to? The two authors I have cited throughout this article both believe in the possibility of a second shooter. They each make very valid points regarding their suppositions based on the investigations they have conducted themselves. The present a very solid case. If a second shooter was present in this scenario, then we have a cover-up of immense proportions involving many collaborates. What would a cover-up of this magnitude mean for the reality of what might have really happened to John Lennon? In future articles, I plan to explore these angles of “what if” type scenarios.  I feel this article is a good foundation to prepare readers as to what is coming next. It is important information! I truly believe we have been lead astray as to the  true circumstances surrounding the death of John Lennon.

Was MDC a programmed patsy?

Was there a second shooter? and if so- who was he?

Was Lennon’s assassination ordered? By who?

Did John Lennon really die that evening?

These are some of the questions I hope to tackle in the very near future. I hope you will continue to read, do your own investigations if interested, and most importantly always question… everything.

I appreciate your taking the time to read this article, and I encourage your thoughts below. Thank you.

---

References used for this article:

https://xdell.blogspot.com/2010_03_01_archive.html

http://www.john-lennon.com/theassassinationofjl.htm

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread235960/pg3

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_John_Lennon

http://www.nj.com/bergen/index.ssf/2015/12/nj_man_who_took_last_photo_of_john_lennon_recalls.html

https://books.google.com/books?id=aUvyhraJmJcC&pg=PT13&lpg=PT13&dq=Cab+driver,+Richard+Peterson&source=bl&ots=tsq0D9OY4w&sig=ACfU3U30mJhzWb9DkZBm_RVB9E95Gz-Rkw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjpieTuhLvtAhVN_J4KHTIPBwU4ChDoATAGegQIBxAC#v=onepage&q=Cab%20driver%2C%20Richard%20Peterson&f=false

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John Lennon, Mark David chapman, Yoko Ono

 

 

 By secretly collaborating with Raul Castro, Nicolas Maduro and Daniel Ortega, Donald Trunp,  CIA & Defense Intel General have murdered my dogs and have taken our homelands away  from Cubans, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans

Donald Trumpm and CIA and Defense Intel Generals have tortured and murdered my seven German shepherdss. They savagely killed my beloved Sasha, the mother of all my German shepherds by removing her from United States soil and  taken her illegally to Pereira, Colombia for the the ELN guerrilla skin my baby Sasha and put her in the street of OPereira alive to die

Sasha skinned

Donald Trumpm and CIA and Defense Intel Generals have kept my dogs as hostages demanding that I collaborate with CIA and Cuban intelligence agents posing as dissidents, At the end, all my seven German shepherds have been murdered. The last survivors of my German shepherds -Princess, in the picture, which was sent as a proof of life for me to negotiate- was murdered by Orden of Donald Trump

This  criminal mob - CIA, Defense Intel, Donald Trump (psychopaths, renegades and and traitors to America and the Word do not stop in their  criminal and defamatory campaigns. Right now they had a black guy standing in front of my table talking aloud on his cell phone, while CIA and Defense Intel video record with hiden cameras to make their usual fake porno gay video to slander a Cuban political prisoner. The fact that the President of United States and Generals from CIA and Defense Intel dedicate themselves to defaming a former Cuban political prisoner is overwhelming evidence of their  betrayal to America, the United States government, its Senate and Congress.

 

With the greatest cynicism and cowardice, Donald Trump hadmessage me a few days ago insinuating that he was the one who had ordered that heavy gunfire be shot near me, at midnight, as a warning of what could happen to me if I did not  shut my mouth

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This Defense Intel hostage, the psychopath, traitor  and renegade Donald Trump, sent me his usual email message insinuating that he is  the one who ordered to make the defamatory video that this criminal mob is distributing.

 Defense Intel & CIA Nazi Generals, Miami's Casdtro Mob linked to the assassination of Preesident John F Kennedy keep me as a hiostagein this house located in Dania Beach  for these depraved psychopaths to make defamatory videos fullky edited by Intel Nazi Mob, and distribute them to thousands of people to discredit as a way to hide their crimes.

I am a hostage of CIA & Defense Intel Nazi Generals in this house in Dania Beach 

The other day I went to rent a room in South Miami Beach, when I went to the ATM machine to  eothdraw $ 500 dollars to pay the monthly rent, CIA & Defense Intel blocked the ATM, and they withdrewthe money, I could not pay the rent they requested. This mob returned my money back later, but I failed to rent. 

I am a hostage at this house in Dania Beachm fukky prepared for defamation and slanders. I am a hostage of CIA and Defense INtel Generals backing Raul Castro,. And these criminal murdered my 7 German sjepherds

CIA and Defense Intel Mercenary Mob setup yesterday a new room for their criminal defamation campaings .. I am not going to please these sadistic and criminal generals., quienes han arruinado mi vida y asesinado mis perros, del mismo modo que han arrionado America Latina. Everything will end soon. No puedo dormir mas en ese antro inmoral y criminal used by the US intelligence generals to defame me, repress me and try to physically eliminate me. From now on I will go on the sidewalks of the streets, and I will only come home when I need to cook and bathe. CIA and Defense Ibtel nazi rats have turned that house into an unbreathable and sickening den.

Last night, CIA & Defense Intel Generals and Miam's Castro Rats continued running campaigns of defamation in this house located at Dania Beach, Fla. The Mercenary Generals of CIA and Defense Intel have taken away our homelands from us Cubans, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, with their secret support of these traitorous psychopathic generals to Raul Castro, Nicolas Maduro and Daniel Ortega

Estos generales nazis de ka Inteligencia de Estados Unidos   torturaron y asesinaron salv ajemente mis 7 German shepherd dog

And to top it all, for several years, these generals have dedicated themselves full time to making fake gay porn videos to discredit a critic of Raul Castro, Daniel Ortega, Nicolas Maduro, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinpimg, Iran, North Korea

It is a house that CIA & Dehense Intel Generals share with Raul Castro to make fake gay porn video to defame me

The God of Artificial Rain has Stopped Crying over Dania Beach

 

Working in Secret - The New York Times

 

Miami CIA Dania Beach Police Mob are threatening 

They are keeping a black guy standing at the door Wallgreen pharmacy in Sterling Road. The country is controlled by Intel Nazi Mob that kill3d President John F Kennedy.

 It's raining, and the buses are usually ordered not to stop to pick me up.

Today I have an appointment with the ophthalmologist  at 12 noon. but CIA and Defense Intel - the ones that attacked my eyes in Aentown Pennsylvania- blocked my calls to United Heathcare trans [prtation. And the buses are ordered not to stop.
Up tp this moment, I can read only using high contrast: dark background, fonts in while.   
That's why I cannot use most of aoftwares and programs.

on't usually make a judgment on police officers. Police officer carry out the orders transmitted to them. In Washington Township, NJ 07882, in the end only two police officers were used by CIA and Defense Ibntel, and that is something extraordinary, because the pressure is very strong from Intel, and that pressure is put on doctors, bus drivers , offices of police, prosecutors, judges, defense attorneys. And let's not forget that it is intel nazi mob rhar killed JFK, murdered hundreds more, and kills anyone

 

CIA & Defense Intel tortured and murdered the  seven German shepherds of a Cuban political prisoner.

It is a  hsndful  of traitors conspiting against America and sewcretly backing Raul Castro, Nicolas Maduro, Daniel Ortega, North Korea, Iran, Russia, China

 Tiger Jr., murdered on July 10, 2014 by order of CIA  and Defense Intel Generals.. The brutal assassination of Tiger revealed the hatred and deep contempt of the CIA and Defense intel Generals for the Cuban people, and in particular for the opponents  to Castro and for the Cuban political prisoners, to the extent that they did not hesitate for a moment to assassinate a beautiful, intelligent and valuable German shepherds with the aim of causing deep pain and sorrow to a Cuban political prisoner. These generals are ruthless, brutal, and traitors because they secretly support Raul Castro, Nicolas Maduro and Daniel Ortega, as well as Iran, North Korea, China and Russia.

 

Leaders in the Middle East Surrendering to Iran Rhewareneed with Criminal Charges, and Imprisonment

 

Secret deals with Iran put Jews, Arabs and Sunnis at risk of annihilation.

The Betrayal is led by Intel Nazi Mob linked to the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy 

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This criminal Mob - CIA, Defense Intel, Dania Beach Police Departmednt, Miami's Castro Rats- is tryng to shut my mouth by running a gigantic defamation campaing in Dania Beach, Fla. by mobilizing a hundred black guys who are deployed around the city: street corners, coffee shops,  stores, wherever I go, wherever  I walk  

 Since 2018, Intel Nazi Mo linked to the murder of President John F. Kennedy uses black people to run defamation campaigns based on their erratic and sickening  racial supremacy beliefs that bkacks are disgusting, reible, shameful ... Well, what do you going to expect  expect from the psychopathic traitors who assassinated  President John F, Kennedy 

 

 The psychopaths of the CIA and Defense Intel who run these campaigns of defamationsgging are the same ones who cowardly murdered  Rev Martin Luther King for daring to have a dream

I Have a Dream speech by Martin Luther King

 

BBC security correspondent, at the High Court

Add caption

 

Report: Trump violated Cuba trade embargo

Add caption

 Trump’s Russia Cover-Up By the Numbers – 272 contacts with Russia-linked operatives

Ehud Olmert: Netanyahu will go to prison for many years

 

 

What Are the Chances Trump Could Actually Go to Jail?

51

 

The Saudi crown prince’s shifting rhetoric on Iran

 

Two years ago, the kingdom’s young and inexperienced ruler was confident he could “get rid of” rn from the Middle East, but now has shifted towards seeking dialogu  

 

What is behind UAE's shifting policy toward Iran

Anadolu Agency gets details of secret UAE officials meeting where they mull softening of stance on regional rival Iran

Turgut Alp Boyraz   | 01.08.2019

Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump, two hostages of CIA, Raul Castro and his Miami’s astro Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu and t I Operation ...

 d Donald Trump and the Miami’s Castro Mob

  

Miami Mob, Defense Intel & CIA Generals linked to JFK assassination used Dania Beach Police to expel me from coffee shop Artesan.. As always - anywhere- the police refuse my right to file a police report.   This nazi mob lle habia ordenadp a Artesan to send a black guy to clean the restroom whenever I used it for they  run  defamation campaigns making fake porno gay video fully edited  by Intel Mob who murdered JFK, Robert Kennedy,and hundreds more 

 

 

 

 2

 

 

This photo of Lee Harvey Ozswald with Dave Ferrie suggests that 1955 was Lee Harvey Oswald's first contact with the CIA. Dave Ferrie work for CIA, the Mafia and   fCuban exiles He was an airline pilot, and as soon Carlos Marcelo was  deported to Guatemala by the Kennedy administration, he flew severely to Guatemala to bring Carlos Marcelo back to the United States

 Dave Ferrie was awarded a PhD in Psychology for his thesis on the therapeutic uses of hypnosis.  But Lee Harvey Oswald could have been hypnotized as well by the hypnotist who worked for Jack Ruby's nightclub.  Lee Harvey Oswald was enrolled in the Marine on the recommendation of Dave Ferrie

 

Glimpses - More About The Ferrie Photo | Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald? | FRONTLINE | PBS

 

 

 

FRONTLINE obtained this photograph from John B. Ciravolo, Jr., of New Orleans. Ciravolo was also a C.A.P. member in 1955 and says he was in the same unit with Oswald and was standing right in front of him in the photo. Ciravolo identified David Ferrie, while former C.A.P. cadet Tony Atzenhoffer, also of New Orleans, identified Oswald and Ferrie in the photograph, and Colin Hammer, who says he served with both men in the C.A.P., also identified both in the photograph.

FRONTLINE located the photographer, Chuck Frances, who says he took the picture for the C.A.P. Francis also said that when he was interviewed by the FBI, he told them Oswald and Ferrie knew each other, but he did not tell them about the photograph. The executor of Ferrie's estate, as well as Ferrie's godson, also picked out Ferrie.

After the Kennedy assassination, David Ferrie told investigators he never knew Lee Oswald. "I never heard David Ferrie mention Lee Harvey Oswald," said Layton Martens, a former C.A.P. Cadet and a close friend to Ferrie until Ferrie's death in 1967.

But when FRONTLINE showed Martens the photograph, he identified Ferrie. "It does indicate the possibity of an associaton," said Martens, "but if and to what extent is another question. Of course we've all been photographed with people, and we could be presented with photographs later and asked, 'Well, do you know this person? Obviously, you must because you've been photographed with them.' Well no, it's just a photograph, and I don't know that person. It's just someone who happened to be in the picture."

"As dramatic as the discovery of this photograph is after thirty years," says Michael Sullivan, FRONTLINE executive producer for special projects, "one should be cautious in ascribing its meaning. The photograph does give much support to the eyewitnesses who say they saw Ferrie and Oswald together in the C.A.P., and it makes Ferrie's denials that he ever knew Oswald less credible. But it does not prove that the two men were with each other in 1963, nor that they were involved in a conspiracy to kill the president

Cryptonym: AMOT - Mary Ferrell Foundation

Operation 40 -AMOT- was the CIA code name for a team originally composed by 40 Cubans trained by David Sanchez Moirales

 

 Operation 40 continued to grow. For example:

Cryptonym: AMOT-87 - Mary Ferrell Foundation

Mercedes Maria de los Angeles Meana Comdina ... 5/31/61, memo from Chief of Base to Chief, WH: AMOT-87 provides a great deal of information about the ...

 

Cryptonym: AMOT-99 - Mary Ferrell Foundation

www.maryferrell.org › php › cryptdb › id=AMOT-99

Cryptonym: AMOT-99. Definition: Julio Fernandez Gonzalez. Fernandez Gonzalez was employed by the Intelligence and Security Commission of the FRD .

 

Operation 40  was approved by President Dwight D. Eisenhower i

n March 1960, after the January 1959 Cuban Revolution, and was presided over by Vice-president Richard Nixon.

On March 4, 1960,  Operation 40 exploded  the French freighter La Coubre in  the harbour of Havana, Cuba, while it was unloading 76 tons of grenades and munitions. Casualties may have been as high as 100, and many more were injured. Fidel Castro charged it was an act of sabotage on the part of the United States, which denied any responsibility.

 

 

 

 

Operation 40 hit Havana again targetting El Encanto Departmet Store.
At 6:00 pm on 13 April 1961, the store closed as usual. At about 7:00 pm, two incendiary devices exploded in the tailoring department. The next day, the charred body of Fe del Valle was found in the rubble, other casualties being recorded as 18 people injured.  El Encanto was the largest department store in Cuba, with five retail storeys, originally built in 1888, and situated on the corner of Galiano and San Rafael in Old Havana. Before the Cuban Revolution, it had been privately owned, but in 1959 it was nationalized. In 1961, it had about 930 employees. On 9 April 1961, a bomb exploded outside the store, near the main entrance, resulting in broken windows of several stores in the same street.

 

   

 

 

 

ryptonym: AMCALL-1 - Mary Ferrell Foundation

Reinol Gonzalez Gonzalez, head of the Catholic-based MRP in Cuba until arrested at ... See Reel 52, Folder J - REINOL GONZALES, p. ... 104-10217-10397: BIOGRAPHIC DATA: GONZALEZ GONZALEZ, REYNOLD (REINALDO, ... 127: When asked about his CIA contacts in Cuba and Florida, Gonzalez said, "(When the ...

 

 Carlos González Vidal  - Reinold Gonzalez's nephew- AMCAL-1  -  CIA Cryptonym

 

 

At midnight, on 13 April 1961, in Baracoa Beach, militiamen observed lights being flashed from land towards the sea. Nearby houses were searched, and Carlos González Vidal was recognized  as an employee of the store, El Encanto.  Carlos González confessed to the action of setting the two incendiary bombs, and provided details of the devices, events and people involved in assisting him. He recounted that Jorge Camellas (aka "Cawy"), a CIA agent, had been infiltrated into Cuba with a consignment of C-4 plastic explosives from Miami. Mario Pombo Matamoros, chief of the Movimiento Revolutionario del Pueblo (MRP, or People's Revolutionary Movement), outlined the arson plan to Carlos, who had been recruited by his uncle Reynold González, CIA agent and a leader of the MRP

 

On December 11, 1964 , members of CIA Operation 4 fired a bazooka shell toward the United Nations Headquarters while Maj. Ernesto Che Guevara, Cuban Minister of Industry, was addressing the General Assembly.
Operation 40 on Freelance basis, the members acted as if it were for themselves rather than for Operation 40, something really tricky and deceptive because all the power of CIA Operation 40 supported those alleged individual actions. Several Cubans were members of Operation 40 and, at the same time, were leaders of their own anti-Castro organizations.

Three Castro Foes Arrested in Firing Of Bazooka at U.N.

 

 The assassination of Orlando Letelier  by Operation 40 on  September  21,  1976

 

 

The shutdown of Flight 455 of Cubana  de  Aviacion by Operation 40

Atentado terrorista al vuelo 455 de Cubana de Aviación

 

Chile and Operation Condor - The National Security Archive

OPERATION CONDOR DOCUMENTS INDICATE 1976 TERRORIST ATTACK IN ... The Condor Years, by Columbia University professor John Dinges, and The ..

Exposing the Legacy of Operation Condor - The New York Times 

Operation Condor - Latin American Studies

 

 Operation Condor. From: Columbia University | By: John Dinges. EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION | From 1975 to 1977 military regimes in Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay,

 

Ooperation 40 and  Operation Condor, Unleashing the Terror in  the Southern Cone 

Michael V. Townleyn

Michael Vernon Townley was born in Waterloo, Iowa, in 1942. His father, Vernon Townley, was appointed head of the Ford Motor Company in Chile. As a result, the family moved to Santiago. Vernon Townley had developed links with the CIA while working in the Philippines,.

I 1961 Townley married Mariana Callejas. Although active in the Socialist Party of Chile, she was actually working as an informer for Chilean military intelligence. Soon afterwards Townley began working for the CIA. He became associated with a Cuban group called the Chicago Junta. This group included CIA  Operation 40  agents, Orlando Bosch, Antonio Veciana and Aldo Vera Serafin. .

In 1967 Townley moved to Miami. According to Donald Freed (Death in Washington: The Murder of Orlando Letelier) Towney was now being sponsored by Frank Sturgis and the Secret Army Organization (SAO). "Townley began an intensive study of electronics and explosives under the tutelage of several former CIA men who were in the process of taking over an electronics operation in the Fort Lauderdale area." One of Townley's tasks was to plant bombs under the cars of people living in Miami.

 

 In 1969 the CIA arranged for Townley to be sent to Chile under the alias of Kenneth W. Enyart. He was accompanied by Aldo Vera Serafin of the SAO. Townley now came under the control of David Atlee Phillips who had been asked to lead a special task force assigned to prevent the election of Salvador Allende as President of Chile.

The CIA attempted to persuade Chile's Chief of Staff General Rene Schneider, to overthrow Allende. He refused and on 22nd October, 1970, his car was ambushed. Schneider drew a gun to defend himself, and was shot point-blank several times. He was rushed to hospital, but he died three days later. Military courts in Chile found that Schneider's death was caused by two military groups, one led by Roberto Viaux and the other by Camilo Valenzuela. It was claimed that the CIA was providing support for both groups.

 David Atlee Phillips set Townley the task of organizing two paramilitary action groups Orden y Libertad (Order and Freedom) and Protecion Comunal y Soberania (Common Protection and Sovereignty). Townley also established an arson squad that started several fires in Santiago. Townley also mounted a smear campaign against General Carlos Prats, the head of the Chilean Army. Prats resigned on 21st August, 1973. His replacement as Commander in Chief was General Augusto Pinochet.

 

On 11th September, 1973, a military coup removed Allende's government from power. Salvador Allende died in the fighting in the presidential palace in Santiago. General Augusto Pinochet replaced Allende as president. Soon afterwards Townley was recruited by General Juan Manuel Contreras, the head of DINA, the new secret police. 

 

 Townley's main task was to deal with those dissents who had fled Chile after General Augusto Pinochet gained power. This included General Carlos Prats who was writing his memoirs in Argentina. Donald Freed argues in Death in Washington: The Murder of Orlando Letelier that: "On September 30, 1974, shortly after the first anniversary of the violent overthrow of the Allende government, Townley and a team of assassins murdered Carlos Prats and his wife in Buenos Aires. Their auto was exploded by a bomb."

 

Promoted to the rank of major by General Juan Manuel Contreras Townley made regular visits to the United States in 1975 to meet with Rolando Otero and other members of the White Hand group. In September 1975, Townley's death squad struck again. Former Chilean vice-president Bernardo Leighton and his wife were gunned down in Rome by local fascists working with DINA.

 

On 25th November 1975, leaders of the military intelligence services of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay met, with Juan Manuel Contreras in Santiago de Chile. The main objective was for the CIA to coordinate the actions of the various security services in "eliminating Marxist subversion". Operation Condor was given tacit approval by the United States which feared a Marxist revolution in the region. The targets were officially leftist guerrillas but in fact included all kinds of political opponents. Townley soon became involved in this undercover operation.

 

 One Miami police veteran told the authors of Assassination on Embassy Row (1980): "The Cubans held the CORU meeting at the request of the CIA. The Cuban groups... were running amok in the mid-1970s, and the United States had lost control of them. So the United States backed the meeting to get them all going in the same direction again, under United States control."

 

Frank Castro told the Miami Herald why he had helped establish CORU: "I believe that the United States has betrayed freedom fighters around the world. They trained us to fight, brainwashed us how to fight and now they put Cuban exiles in jail for what they had been taught to do in the early years."

 

On 18th September, 1976, Orlando Letelier, who served as foreign minister under Salvador Allende, was traveling to work at the Institute of Policy Studies in Washington when a bomb was ignited under his car. Letelier and Ronni Moffitt, a 25 year old woman who was campaigning for democracy in Chile, both died of their injuries.  

 

 

The FBI eventually became convinced that Michael Townley was organized the assassination of Orlando Letelier. In 1978 Chile agreed to extradite him to the United States. Townley confessed he had hired five anti-Castro Cubans exiles to booby-trap Letelier's car. Guillermo Novo, Ignacio Novo, Virgilio Paz Romero, Dionisio Suárez, and Alvin Ross Díaz were eventually indicted for the crime.

On the 9th January, 1979, the trial of Guillermo Novo, Ignacio Novo and Alvin Ross Díaz began in Washington. General Augusto Pinochet refused to allow Virgilio Paz Romero and Dionisio Suárez, two DINA officers, to be extradited. All three were found guilty of murder. Guillermo Novo and Alvin Ross were sentenced to life imprisonment. Ignacio Novo received eighty years. Soon after the trial Michael Townley was freed under the Witness Protection Program.

 

 

 

 

Miami Mob linked to the assassination of Presidenbt John F Kennedy and John Lennoncontinua their attacks and defamation campaign making fake gay videos. Miami Mob threaten with framing using kids like theyb did in Wasgingtonm, New Jerset.. This mob tortured and murdered my 7 German shepherd dogs

 

Frank Calzon, double agent- CIA, Cuban intelligence 

 A leading member of yje fake Cuban opposition fabricated by Castro brothers, CIA and defense Intel to perpetue Castro to "replacing him"  with his agents. Tht's the scheme of dissidence regarding Cuba.

 

 

 

 

 

Felix Rodriguez Mendigutia, double agent- CIA, Cuban intelligence  

 

Che Guevara was the largest capture in Operation 40. The hunt for Che Guevara was led in the shadows by David Sanchez Morales, Defense Intel

 

 

 

 

  Orlando Gutierrez Boronat, double agent - CIA, Cuban intelligence  

 

 

 "Transcript of 1981 competency hearing in which Chapman says he did not say anything to Lennon

 

John Lennon Encounters Mark David Chapman

John Lennon and Yoko Ono intended to use one of the results of this November 1980 photo session for their Christmas card that year.

On the morning of December 8, sitting in the Lenono office at the Dakota, John Lennon, together with Yoko Ono, gave his last-ever interview. This was done for RKO Radio, in the presence of Dave Sholin, Laurie Kaye, Ron Hummel, and Bert Keane.

"I still believe in love, peace, I still believe in positive thinking," he told them. "You have to give thanks to God, or whatever it is up there, the fact that we all survived. We all survived Vietnam or Watergate or the tremendous upheaval of the world. ... The whole map's changed and we're going into an unknown future, but we're still all here, and while there's life there's hope."

A few days earlier, John had his hair cut in a style similar to that which he had sported as a Teddy boy all those years ago, and this is how he appeared in snapshots with the BBC team on December 6, and in the photos taken by Annie Leibovitz inside the Dakota throughout the

 

 

UPI

Death of John Lennon

Published: 1980

Play Audio Archive Story - UPI

 

 

WAX2000120800 - 08 DECEMBER 2000 - WASHINGTON, DC, USA: Former Beatle John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono listen in on the Watergate hearings on Capitol Hill in this 1973 file photo. Today is the 20th anniversary of John Lennon's murder who was shot dead in New York by Mark David Chapman December 8, 2000. cc/FILE PHOTO UPI ..

In December, one of the leading figures of the rock music world was gunned down outside his expensive New York City residence. The death of former Beatle John Lennon aroused anger and resentment around the world. Brian McFadden filed this report on the death of the famed rock star.

Brian McFadden: John Lennon died in the city he so often said, “He love New York”. Police say, Mark David Chapman ended Lennon's life on the evening of December 8. The former Beatle and his wife Yoko Ono were returning to their luxury building on Manhattan's upper west side when Chapman allegedly called to Lennon then assumed a combat stance and pumped several bullets into the rock idol.

Doctors who tried to save his life say the damage and blood loss were just too much to overcome. Lennon was dead on arrival at Roosevelt Hospital just minutes from the Lennon's residence by speeding police cruiser. Throughout the ride, Yoko Ono demanding the police, “Just tell me he is alright.”

 

 

Larry King Live Weekend
A Look Back at Mark David Chapman in His Own Words

 
Aired September 30, 2000 - 9:00 p.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight, it's been nearly 20 years since Mark David Chapman gunned down former Beatle John Lennon. Now he's up for parole. Chapman talked with me in Attica in 1992. An encore presentation of that gripping interview with John Lennon's killer is next on LARRY KING LIVE.

Mark David Chapman joins us from Attica Correctional Facility on this, the 12th anniversary of John Lennon's death.\

Mark, why now? Why tell the story now?

MARK DAVID CHAPMAN, JOHN LENNON'S ASSASSIN: Well, Larry, I'm well now. I've had a number of years of wellness. I feel good. There's always been things inside of me that I wanted to get and tell me why I did what I did.

Descent into Madness - People.com

 By James R. Gaines

Updated June 22, 1981 12:00 PM

It was almost as if I was on some kind of special mission that I could not avoid.

—Mark David Chapman

There were no news cameras rolling when he called out to John Lennon from the dark of a cold December night, but the reconstructed images of those nightmarish seconds assume a clarity that imitates memory. There is Lennon slowly turning to acknowledge the greeting, Chapman crouching in a combat stance and opening fire, Lennon staggering into a security booth, Yoko bending over him, screaming. Recalls witness Sean Strub: “I never saw anything like the look on her face. Her mouth was open wide like a whale’s, her arms covering him like an animal. She looked as though she had been electrocuted.” On Chapman’s face there was a smirk. The doorman asked him if he knew what he had done. “I just shot John Lennon,’ he said evenly. Then he took a dogeared copy of The Catcher in the Rye from his pocket and began to read.

 Stand By Me - John Lennon

johnlennon
 

Come Together - John Lennon/The Beatles (Live In New York City)

 George Harrison on John Lennon and The Beatles | The Dick Cavett Show

The Dick Cavett Show

 

 

Julian Lennon Gets Candid About His Late Father, The Beatles’ John Lennon

Larry King   

 

Jewish Education in Interwar Vilna: Holocaust Survivor Testimonies

Yad Vashem. The World Holocaust Remembrance Center

 

 Yoko: Too Soon to Talk About Mark David Chapman

Associated Press
 
 Jewish Survivor Gloria Ungar Testimony

USC Shoah Foundation

 

WABC 77 New York - Bruce Morrow's Return FIRST SHOW - September 5 2020 - Radio Aircheck 

Ellis Feaster