Strange Bedfellows

Summary

Who Killed JFK? – Episode: Strange Bedfellows

Host: Rob Reiner
Co-Host: Soledad O’Brien
Release Date: December 20, 2023
Produced by: iHeartPodcasts

---

Introduction

In the commemorative episode "Strange Bedfellows," hosts Rob Reiner and Soledad O’Brien delve deep into the enduring mystery of President John F. Kennedy's assassination. As they explore the intricate web of motives and connections, they uncover how various powerful factions within the United States may have collaborated to orchestrate one of America's most perplexing historical events.

---

Key Players and Their Motives

1. Cuban Exiles

   • Background: Following the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis, many Cuban exiles harbored deep resentment towards President Kennedy for what they perceived as his failure to support their efforts to overthrow Fidel Castro.
   • Motive: Desire to reclaim their homeland and frustration over Kennedy’s pivot towards diplomacy and peace with the Soviet Union.
   • Notable Quote:
     • Ricardo Morales Jr. (08:00): "My dad thought JFK screwed us at the Bay of Pigs and then he screwed us after the Cuban Missile Crisis."

2. La Cosa Nostra (The Mafia)

   • Background: Under the leadership of figures like Carlos Marcello, the Mafia had significant control over organized crime in cities like New Orleans and Las Vegas. Robert Kennedy's crackdown on organized crime threatened their lucrative operations.
   • Motive: Financial loss and retaliatory anger towards Attorney General Robert Kennedy for his relentless pursuit of Mafia figures.
   • Notable Quote:
     • Jefferson Morley (10:18): "Marcello had a deep and abiding hatred of Robert Kennedy by that time. And that was shared by the other organized crime leaders."

3. CIA and Military Hardliners

   • Background: Elements within the CIA and the military were disillusioned with Kennedy’s foreign policies, particularly his approach to the Cold War and perceived softness on communism.
   • Motive: Belief that Kennedy was undermining national security and that his removal was necessary to maintain a strong anti-communist stance.
   • Notable Quote:
     • David Talbot (12:48): "I think he [Kennedy] had alienated not only much of his own government, but the national security establishment... They thought he was a weak leader, an appeaser, and he had to be removed."

---

The Connection Between the CIA and the Mafia

Rob Reiner uncovers the historical alliance between the CIA and the Mafia, originating from World War II when the CIA sought to maintain order in Italy by collaborating with organized crime syndicates. This alliance continued into the 1960s, aligning both entities against common enemies like Fidel Castro.

• Notable Figure: James Jesus Angleton
  • A poet spy who orchestrated the CIA-Mafia collaboration, ensuring that these clandestine operations remained covert.
  • Quote: Jefferson Morley (11:34): "The relationship between the CIA and the American mafia had begun in World War II... They made an agreement with the Mafia that they could continue to run their casinos in exchange for assistance with the US occupation."

---

The Role of Bill Harvey

Bill Harvey, head of the CIA's executive action program known as ZR Rifle, emerges as a pivotal figure. Described as an "assassination specialist," Harvey orchestrated covert operations and maintained deep-seated animosity towards the Kennedys.

• Background: Harvey's insubordination during the Cuban Missile Crisis led to his ousting and relocation to Rome, further fueling his vendetta.
• Connection with Johnny Roselli: Harvey cultivated a close relationship with Mafia leader Johnny Roselli, leveraging his connections to facilitate assassination plots.
• Notable Quote:
  • Jefferson Morley (18:07): "For most of that time, Harvey was a raging alcoholic. He was a bitter, bitter critic of President Kennedy and his brother Bill Harvey was, in the words of his colleagues, a very dangerous man."

---

Maurice Bishop and David Atlee Phillips

A critical revelation involves Maurice Bishop, later identified as David Atlee Phillips, a CIA operative deeply entrenched in anti-Castro operations.

• Background: Phillips, under the alias Maurice Bishop, orchestrated deception operations and was instrumental in supporting exile groups like Alpha 66.
• Role in Assassination Plot: Phillips' covert activities provided the necessary resources and coordination between the CIA, Mafia, and Cuban exiles to execute the assassination plan.
• Notable Quote:
  • Jefferson Morley (28:16): "I want to unequivocally state that Maurice Bishop was David Attlee Phillips."

---

Events Leading to the Assassination

• Alpha 66 and Operation 40:

  • Alpha 66: Led by Antonio Vessiana, this group comprised Cuban exiles determined to assassinate Fidel Castro. Their operations, however, also intertwined with broader assassination agendas against Kennedy.
  • Operation 40: A CIA-run team of operatives ready to carry out any mission, including assassination, as per covert directives.
  • Notable Quote:
    • Ricardo Morales Jr. (23:11): "Op 40 is a special team of operatives, basically assassins."

• Assassination Logistics:

  • Sketched Alias: Maurice Bishop, actually David Atlee Phillips, was the key coordinator, ensuring all factions worked seamlessly towards the assassination.
  • Meeting with Oswald: Witnesses recount seeing Lee Harvey Oswald associate with CIA operatives, indicating his potential involvement as an insider.
  • Notable Quote:
    • Ricardo Morales Jr. (32:24): "I was there as a cleaning team just in case something went wrong."

---

Involvement of Lee Harvey Oswald and Other Key Figures

Oswald’s interactions with Maurice Bishop (Phillips) and the presence of multiple CIA operatives and Mafia figures in Dallas on November 22, 1963, suggest a coordinated effort to ensure Kennedy's assassination.

• Key Individuals in Dallas:
  • Earl Cabell: Mayor of Dallas and a CIA asset responsible for planning the motorcade route that Oswald had access to.
  • Jack Cannon, Charles Nicoletti, Herminio Diaz Garcia, and John Swetra: All connected to either the CIA or organized crime, present in Dallas on the day of the assassination.
• Notable Quote:
  • Rob Reiner (33:53): "Mayor Cabell was responsible for establishing the route the motorcade would take. And that route would pass right in front of the building where Oswald worked."

---

Conclusion

The "Strange Bedfellows" episode meticulously pieces together the convoluted relationships between the CIA, Mafia, and Cuban exiles, illustrating how their combined motives and actions could have culminated in the assassination of President Kennedy. By uncovering hidden alliances and secret operatives, Rob Reiner and Soledad O’Brien shed new light on the JFK assassination, emphasizing its profound impact on American history and the lingering questions that continue to surround it.

Notable Closing Quote:

• Rob Reiner (37:23): "There can only be one explanation for all of them to have been there that day. They had to make sure that the President got killed."

---

Final Thoughts

"Strange Bedfellows" not only revisits historical events with fresh evidence but also challenges listeners to reconsider established narratives. As Reiner and O’Brien unravel the layers of this complex conspiracy, they highlight the enduring significance of the JFK assassination in shaping America's political and social landscape.

---

Listen to the full episode on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or your preferred podcast platform.

Transcript

[Rob Reiner]

To have a murder as gruesome as Jay Beasley's doesn't happen very often down.

[Lauren Bright Pacheco]

Here in Marion, Illinois. An 11 year old girl brutally stabbed to death, her father's longtime live in girlfriend maintaining innocence but charged with her murder.

[Soledad O'Brien]

I am confident that Julie Beverly is guilty.

[Rob Reiner]

They've never found a weapon, Never made sense. Still doesn't make sense. She found out she was pregnant in jail.

[Soledad O'Brien]

The person who did it is still out there.

[Lauren Bright Pacheco]

Listen to Murder on Songbird road on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or where you get your podcasts.

[Rob Reiner]

You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadow. Join me, Danny Trehov and step into the Flames of Fright, an anthology podcast of modern day horror stories inspired by the most terrifying legends and lore of Latin America. Listen to nocturnum on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast.

[Jon Stewart]

Jon Stewart is back at the Daily show and he's bringing his signature wit and insight straight to your ears with the Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. Dive into John's unique take on the biggest topics in politics, entertainment, sports, and more. Joined by the sharp voices of the show's correspondents and contributors, and with extended interviews and exclusive weekly headline roundups, this podcast gives you content you won't find anywhere else. Ready to laugh and stay informed? Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Rob Reiner]

It's the early 1960s, and we're in the hottest hotel in Miami. Beautiful people, beautiful cars. But tonight, in a private room, there will be a secret meeting involving some very strange bedfellows. First, there's a sharply dressed guy with slick back hair and sunglasses. His name is Johnny Roselli. He's a Mafia leader in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Next to him is Sam Giancana, the notorious head of the Chicago Mafia. These mob guys are at the height of their powers. The extent of their control over organized crime is historic.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Just days before he was scheduled to testify to the House Select Committee on Assassinations, Johnny Roselli was found chopped up and stuffed into an oil drum off the coast of Miami. Of course, in the telling of this story, he's still in one piece and very much alive.

[Rob Reiner]

Also, there is Bill Harvey. Harvey runs the CIA's executive action program known as ZR Rifle. It's a secret program designed to eliminate problematic world leaders. He's meeting with these legendary crime bosses with an official offer from the CIA. He wants to hire them to kill Fidel Castro.

[Soledad O'Brien]

It was only revealed in 2007 that Dulles, the godfather of the CIA, personally approved this arrangement.

[Rob Reiner]

When Roselli and Giancana were first approached, they were offered $150,000 in cash to take out Castro. But the mobsters declined the money.

[Soledad O'Brien]

They don't want the job.

[Rob Reiner]

They wanted the job, but they said they'd do it for free. After all, they're patriots.

[Soledad O'Brien]

This is who killed JFK. 60 years later, what can we uncover about the greatest murder mystery in American history? And why does it still matter today? I'm your host, Soledad O'Brien. Okay, so where are we in the story?

[Rob Reiner]

We've looked at the weeks leading up to Kennedy's arrival in Dallas, which included the CIA connected Ruth Payne helping Oswald get a job at the Texas School Book Depository, which overlooked Kennedy's motorcade route. We learned about Operation Northwoods, a CIA false flag plan designed to attack a prominent American target, blame Castro to justify an invasion of Cuba.

[Soledad O'Brien]

It's hard to believe all of that's.

[Rob Reiner]

Real, but let's look at the motive. In solving any crime, you have to ask who had the most to gain.

[Soledad O'Brien]

And who has the most to gain?

[Rob Reiner]

Well, there are three groups. First, the Cuban exiles whose country had been taken from them by Castro. They were determined to get it back. Second, the mob, who suffered a huge financial loss with their hotels and casinos gone and were furious at Kennedy's brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, for cracking down on organized crime. And third, the hardliners from the CIA and the military who believed Kennedy had gone soft on communism and was selling the United States out to the Soviet Union.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Remember, after Castro took over in 1959, the CIA trained a group of Cuban exiles to execute a planned invasion to retake Cuba in 1961. The attack was called the Bay of Pigs and it failed miserably. Kennedy, not wanting American fingerprints on the mission, refused to send the requested air support. The exiles were overwhelmed and slaughtered.

[Rob Reiner]

So first, let's look at the Cuban exiles. He knows that following the Bay Pigs invasion, there developed a very hostile attitude within the exile community toward Kennedy.

[Soledad O'Brien]

That's Fabian Escalante speaking through a translator. He was a leader in Castro's intelligence agency.

[Rob Reiner]

They were convinced that he was responsible for the failure of the Bay and Pigs invasion and even were saying he was a communist.

[Ricardo Morales Jr.]

My dad was a member of the Bay of Pigs invasion.

[Soledad O'Brien]

That's the son of Ricardo Morales. Ricardo Morales Jr. My dad thought JFK.

[Ricardo Morales Jr.]

Screwed us at the Bay of Pigs and then he screwed us after the Cuban Missile Crisis.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Morales refers to the 1962 nuclear standoff against the Soviet Union, where Kennedy, instead of using the crisis as justification to attack Cuba, made a deal with the Soviet premier, Khrushchev to avoid nuclear war.

[Ricardo Morales Jr.]

And so he was no longer loved or trusted by that part of the community, especially my dad. He no longer cared for JFK as a. As a leader that would help the Cuban people. They had given up on Cuba, so he had given up on him.

[Soledad O'Brien]

So, Ricardo, before the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis, your dad got involved to, try to, quote, get Cuba back from Castro.

[Ricardo Morales Jr.]

Yeah, my dad was a G2 agent in Cuba, which is the intelligence branch of the government. Castro takes over, and then it starts to devolve, where Castro starts going towards communism. So he has to figure out a way to get out of the country.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Morales comes to the United States.

[Ricardo Morales Jr.]

Then immediately he starts becoming involved in the bombings and killings of Cubans that are working for Castro. And then he. He's never home at that point. He's out, you know, doing his thing, and he. It's very emotional right now. Honestly, I don't know why. Oh, yeah. So. But, you know, he. We. We thought he was. What he was doing was trying to free Cuba.

[Soledad O'Brien]

My mom was Cuban growing up. She'd talk about the Bay of Pigs and how disappointed she was in Kennedy. So I do understand when they say that for them, this was the loss of their homeland, the loss of their family. But while there may have been a shared sentiment among many exiles who had to leave, not everyone acted in the same way. It's important to specify that we're talking about a very particular group of Cuban exiles who took really drastic measures.

[Rob Reiner]

These exiles, most of whom settled in Florida and New Orleans. We're not going to just sit by idly and accept this. Their property was taken, relatives were killed and jailed. They wanted their home back. So they started to organize.

[Dick Russell]

This is a huge turning point for the exiles.

[Soledad O'Brien]

That's Dick Russell.

[Dick Russell]

Listen to what Castro's former head of intelligence, Fabian Escalante, told me.

[Ricardo Morales Jr.]

Official.

[Rob Reiner]

The CIA.

[Soledad O'Brien]

An official of the CIA came to a Cuban safe house. He seemed very bothered by this and said, you have to eliminate Kennedy, the pinko of the White House.

[Rob Reiner]

The Cuban Missile crisis made it even clearer to the exiles that Kennedy was not going to help them get Cuba back. He was looking to forge a path to peace with Cuba and the Soviet Union. And it was made clear by his famous speech that he gave at American University. He took the position that was directly at odds with the exiles who wanted their island back. Kennedy was standing in their way so.

[Soledad O'Brien]

That'S the first group you've established the motive for the Cuban exiles.

[Rob Reiner]

Next is La Cosa Nostra, the Mafia. The Mafia's goals were simple. Money and power. And in the 1960s, they had both. This mob story starts in New Orleans with a burly mob boss named Carlos Marcello.

[Dick Russell]

The New Orleans Crime Commission reported that under Marcello, the local Mafia made over a billion dollars annually from gambling, prostitution, and burglaries.

[Rob Reiner]

Attorney General Robert Kennedy was going after Marcello as part of his mission of cracking down on organized crime. In 1961, Kennedy had Marcello deported. He had him flown out of the United States and unceremoniously dumped in a jungle in Guatemala. Two months later, Marcello returned to New Orleans. And let's just say he wasn't in the best of moods.

[Jefferson Morley]

Marcelo had a deep and abiding hatred of Robert Kennedy by that time. And that was shared by the other organized crime leaders.

[Soledad O'Brien]

That's Jefferson Morley again, the creator of.

[Rob Reiner]

Jfkfacts.Org the mafia despised the Attorney General who they felt was targeting them. But as we've come to know, when the mob makes a decision, it's not personal. It's strictly business. And they had a really good business reason to dislike the Kennedys.

[Jefferson Morley]

In 1959, Castro took power and threw organized crime out of Havana.

[Rob Reiner]

Marcello and his partner Santo Trafficante, ran Cuba. They called it the Las Vegas of the Caribbean. When Castro took over, they lost everything.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Cuba was truly a second Vegas to them. Casinos, drugs, women. It's impossible to place a number behind these profits, but the business was huge.

[Rob Reiner]

Massive revenue streams and growth potential was off the charts. Then Castro cuts them off. He shuts down their booming casino and drug business. So now their goal is get rid of Castro. So you have the classic definition of strange bedfellows, the mafia and the CIA.

[Jefferson Morley]

The relationship between the CIA and the American mafia had begun in World War II when the US invaded Italy through the South. And they didn't want any problem with the organized crime syndicates that really controlled that part of Italy. And so they made an agreement with the Mafia that they could continue to run their casinos. The US Occupation wouldn't bother them, and in return, these crime syndicates would assist the US occupation.

[Rob Reiner]

And guess who came up with that idea? The poet spy, James Jesus Angleton. He was stationed in Italy at the time, and under his guidance, the relationship between the CIA and the Mafia began. Angleton relied on his contacts with organized crime throughout the 1950s.

[Soledad O'Brien]

So the CIA and the mafia have this history of working together and in this moment, which is the early 1960s, their motives are aligned against Castro.

[Rob Reiner]

The hardliners in the CIA and the military felt that Kennedy was betraying the country. He had gone soft on communism and in order to stop its spread, you get rid of anything or anyone that stands in the way. And there was also an additional motive for Allen Dulles, the godfather of the CIA.

[David Talbot]

I believe that President Kennedy had alienated much of the US establishment by the time he was killed in Dallas.

[Soledad O'Brien]

That's David Talbot again, author of the book on Allen, the Devil's Chessboard.

[David Talbot]

I think he alienated not only much of his own government, but the national security establishment and the military industrial complex that was making so much money, frankly off the state of permanent war. He and his brother, who came from Wall Street, a very powerful law firm on Wall street, the Rockefeller brothers, the oil industry, the weapons manufacturers, these were all their. And they had had it with President Kennedy and his efforts at peace.

[Soledad O'Brien]

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

[David Talbot]

They said this was putting the country at risk. They thought that President Kennedy was a weak president, that he was a weak leader, that he was an appeaser and he had to be removed from office.

[Rob Reiner]

In October of 1963, just weeks prior to the assassination, JFK signaled that he was going to start a withdrawal from Vietnam. He put it in writing in national security memo 263, which he sent to his secretary of defense, Robert McNamara.

[Dick Russell]

National security memo 263 stated that the president would withdraw 1,000 military personnel from South Vietnam by the end of 1963.

[Soledad O'Brien]

The memo says, quote, a major part of the U.S. military task can be completed by the end of 1965.

[Rob Reiner]

Right. He was telling everyone that this wasn't our war.

[Dick Russell]

McNamara had gone on the record stating that if JFK had lived, he would have withdrawn the US from Vietnam after the election.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Just think how history could have changed if memo263 had actually ever gone into effect.

[Rob Reiner]

And it was the beginning in my opinion, to the divide that we have today. When Lyndon Johnson became President, he rescinded Kennedy's memo and he issued a new one in which he called for an immediate halt to the withdrawal of troops from Vietnam. Johnson signed the memo On November 26, 1963, one day after President Kennedy's funeral. To have a murder as gruesome as Jake Beasley's doesn't happen very often down.

[Lauren Bright Pacheco]

Here in Marion, Illinois. An 11 year old girl brutally stabbed to death. Her father's longtime live in girlfriend maintaining innocence but charged with her murder I.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Am confident that Julie Beverly is guilty.

[Rob Reiner]

This case, the more I learned about it, the more I'm scratching my head. Something's not right.

[Lauren Bright Pacheco]

I'm Lauren Bright Pacheco Murder on Songbird Road dives into the conviction of a mother of four who remains remains behind bars and the investigation that put her there.

[Rob Reiner]

I have not seen this level of corruption anywhere. It's sickening. If you step somebody that many times, you'd have blood splatter. Where's the change clothes? She found out she was pregnant in jail. She wasn't treated like she was an innocent human being at all, which is just horrific.

[Ricardo Morales Jr.]

Nobody has gotten justice yet and that's.

[Rob Reiner]

What I wish people would understand.

[Lauren Bright Pacheco]

Listen to Murder on Songbird road on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jon Stewart]

Jon Stewart is back in the host chair at the Daily show, which means he's also back in our ears on the Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. The Daily show podcast has everything you need to stay on top of today's news and pop culture. You get hilarious satirical takes on entertainment, politics, sports and more from John and the team of correspondents and contributors. The podcast also has content you can't get anywhere else, like extended interviews and a roundup of the weekly headlines. Listen to the Daily Show Ears edition on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Rob has established his belief that the Mafia, the Cuban exiles and the hardliners in the CIA and Milit all had motive to kill President Kennedy.

[Rob Reiner]

Their motives were different, but they were completely aligned. They just needed someone to put it all together, someone who had the means to pull something like this off.

[Soledad O'Brien]

So the popular theory is that the CIA had the means to make it.

[Rob Reiner]

Happen, but not in any what you would think official capacity. Remember, this is all about plausible deniability to do something this world changing, the assassination of an American president, it would have to be done in a way that couldn't be traced back. A team would have to be assembled on a need to know basis. Certainly people like Allen Dulles, James Angleton and Bill Harvey would know how to pull this off.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Harvey, you might recall, was the man Dulles placed in charge of ZR rifle, the CIA's executive action program. In his reporting, Jefferson Morley describes Harvey as, quote, an assassination specialist.

[Jefferson Morley]

For most of that time, Harvey was a raging alcoholic. He was a bitter, bitter critic of President Kennedy and his brother Bill Harvey was, in the words of his colleagues, a very dangerous man.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Here's General Lansdale, who Was in the Air Force and then the CIA. He was a pioneer in covert operations and psychological warfare. Dick interviewed him decades ago.

[Rob Reiner]

Harvey thought of himself as James Bond. He was convinced, I think, that the enemy was after him. So he always went armed. William Harvey. My dad called him a psycho. A drunk psycho. But he was a dangerous man.

[Soledad O'Brien]

That's St. John Hunt, son of E. Howard Hunt, the legendary CIA operative who became notorious for his role in Watergate. We'll talk more about E. Howard Hunt later. Because you guessed it, he's part of this, too.

[Rob Reiner]

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Harvey was so insubordinate to RFK that he was taken off Cuban policy and banished to Rome. The humiliation only added to Harvey's hatred for the Kennedys.

[Jefferson Morley]

Harvey became very good friends with Johnny Roselli, who was the crime boss of Las Vegas at that time.

[Soledad O'Brien]

That's Morley again.

[Jefferson Morley]

Johnny was also a known killer. The FBI suspected him in about 12 murders. So if you wanted to kill somebody, Johnny Roselli was. Was the right person to go to.

[Rob Reiner]

I loved Roselli. My husband always said, if I had to ride shotgun, that's the guy I'd take with me. That's CG Harvey. Bill Harvey's wife. CG Was an agent herself. And here she is talking about her husband's close relationship with Johnny Roselli. He definitely was Mafia, and he definitely was a crook, but he was a patriot.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Well, that's weird, calling a mob boss a patriot.

[Rob Reiner]

Right, but it shows the connection that he had with her husband, which extended to their feelings about rfk. Bobby Kennedy and my husband were absolutely enemies. I mean, just pure enemies. And then she goes back to talking about Roselli. He knew that my husband was a patriot, and that's what drew him to bail. Now pay attention to what comes next. And he had been recruited by another guy from the FBI for assassination purposes. On Kennedy or on Castro?

[Soledad O'Brien]

On Kennedy. That's a big slip.

[Rob Reiner]

Yes. She said that Johnny Roselli was recruited by someone at the FBI for assassination purposes on Kennedy. Then she quickly realized what she had said, and she corrected herself.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Freudian slip and a big one. The CIA withheld a significant amount of material on Bill Harvey's secret operation from the House Select Committee on Assassinations. When they investigated in the mid-1970s.

[Rob Reiner]

You'll remember former CIA agent George Joannidis. He acted as a goalkeeper for the CIA during that investigation. Robert Blakey still has his regrets. Instead of fooling around with people that Joe Anaides gave us, I should have been talking to Harvey.

[Soledad O'Brien]

In 2016, David Talbot filed a Freedom of Information act request for these records on Harvey, among others.

[David Talbot]

They refused to release them to me, they said for national security reasons.

[Soledad O'Brien]

The following year he sued the U.S. state Department.

[Rob Reiner]

And here we are in 2023 and those Harvey records have still not been released.

[Dick Russell]

The records that have been released reveal that even after the Kennedys banished Harvey to Rome, he continued contact with Dulles and Angleton.

[Rob Reiner]

They also reveal that he worked with a man named David Atlee Phillips.

[Soledad O'Brien]

What do we know about David Attlee Phillips?

[Jefferson Morley]

David Attlee Phillips was a trust fund kid from Texas. He inherited a lot of money after the war and moved to Chile and opened up a expat newspaper. It was there he came to the attention of a traveling CIA officer named Howard Hunt, the future Watergate burglar who recruited him to join the agency. And what his specialty was was deception operations using the press and radio.

[Rob Reiner]

He was like A.N. angleton Jr. After Castro took over Cuba, Phillips became a point person for anti Castro activities, specifically working with the Cuban exiles in Miami.

[Dick Russell]

There were a number of different groups that formed during this time and they each had a different method of trying to remove Castro. Some were more diplomatic, while others were outright violent. Alpha 66 and Operation 40 were two of the more violent groups.

[Ricardo Morales Jr.]

Op 40 is a special team of operatives, basically assassins.

[Soledad O'Brien]

That's Ricardo Morales Jr. Again. His father, Ricardo Morales Sr. Fought in the Bay of Pigs.

[Ricardo Morales Jr.]

Top 40 became more of a CIA run team that was ready to do whatever the CIA needed them to do. Alpha 66 is just Cubans expats that are furious and want to blow things up. Alpha 66 wanted to go back to Cuba and just assassinate Castro.

[Rob Reiner]

Alpha 66 was led by a Cuban exile by the name of Antonio Vessiana.

[Dick Russell]

Antonio Vessiana was smart and angry and there was nothing he wouldn't do to get his country back.

[David Talbot]

Antonio Verciana was a wealthy guy in Cuba.

[Soledad O'Brien]

That's David Talbot again.

[David Talbot]

He had been a banker, had been a member of the middle class there and saw that thought that the Castro was taking the country in the wrong direction. So he joined the exiles who fled.

[Rob Reiner]

Once he was on US soil, Vessiana started making plans to take Cuba back. He had a plan, but what he didn't have was money. He had left everything he had back in Cuba.

[Ricardo Morales Jr.]

The money for these organizations has to come from somewhere.

[Soledad O'Brien]

That's Morales Jr. Again.

[Ricardo Morales Jr.]

You have the materials that are required, the bombs, the explosives and all that also has to be procured.

[Rob Reiner]

A lot of the support came from a CIA operative named Maurice Bishop.

[Soledad O'Brien]

So who's Maurice Bishop?

[Rob Reiner]

I know I'm throwing a lot of names at you, but stick with me here on Maurice Bishop. This is important. First, what you have to know is that there is no record of anyone at the CIA with that name. Did he even exist? And if he didn't, who was helping Alpha 66 in 1976? During the House committee investigation, we got the answer. And it was like something straight out of a movie. To have a murder as gruesome as Jay Beasley's doesn't happen very often down.

[Lauren Bright Pacheco]

Here in Marion, Illinois. An 11 year old girl brutally stabbed to death. Her father's longtime live in girlfriend maintaining innocence but charged with her murder.

[Soledad O'Brien]

I am confident that Julie Begley is guilty.

[Rob Reiner]

This case, the more I learned about it, the more, the more I'm scratching my head. Something's not right.

[Lauren Bright Pacheco]

I'm Lauren Bright. Pacheco Murder on Songbird Road dives into the conviction of a mother of four who remains behind bars and the investigation that put her there.

[Rob Reiner]

I have not seen this level of corruption anywhere. It's sickening. If you stab somebody, how many times? You'd have blood splatter, where's the change of clothes? She found out she was pregnant and got jail. She wasn't treated like she was an innocent human being at all, which is just horrific.

[Ricardo Morales Jr.]

Nobody has gotten justice yet, and that's.

[Soledad O'Brien]

What I wish people would understand.

[Lauren Bright Pacheco]

Listen to Murder on Songbird road on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jon Stewart]

Jon Stewart is back in the host chair at the Daily show, which means he's also back in our ears on the Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. The Daily show podcast has everything you need to stay on top of today's news and pop culture. You get hilarious satirical takes on entertainment, politics, sports and more from John and the team of correspondents and contributors. The podcast also has content you can't get anywhere else, like extended interviews and a roundup of the weekly headlines. Listen to the Daily Show Ears edition on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Rob Reiner]

Stick with me here on Maurice Bishop. This is important. First, what you have to know is that there is no record of anyone at the CIA with that name. Did he even exist? And if he didn't, who was helping Alpha 66 in 1976? During the House committee investigation, we got the answer.

[Dick Russell]

The committee called Antonio Vessiana in for questioning. Vastiana mentioned that he had a handler with the last name of Bishop. Again, nobody recognized the name so they asked Vasjiana to describe what Bishop looked like. The sketch artist starts to draw a composite of Bishop based on descriptions from Vysiana and others who have described him.

[Rob Reiner]

And then the sketch looked like someone familiar.

[Dick Russell]

When David Atlee Phillips was testifying to the committee, they showed him a copy of the sketch. He said, couldn't identify the person, but it looks like me.

[Jefferson Morley]

I want to unequivocally state that Maurice Bishop was David Attlee Phillips.

[Rob Reiner]

The voice you just heard is Antonio Vessiana's son. He's reading a statement from his father revealing that David Attlee Phillips also used the name maurice bishop. The CIA's very own David Attlee Phillips.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Angleton's disciple, David Attlee Phillips was given a chance to respond in his testimony to the House Select Committee on Assassinations. And he denied that he'd ever use the name Maurice Bishop.

[Rob Reiner]

Well, he would have to. The implications would have been huge. In March of 1963, Alpha 66, under the leadership of Antonio Vessiana, with the support and funding of the CIA through David Attlee Phillips, sank a Russian ship docked in Cuba.

[Soledad O'Brien]

This is in 1963, after the Cuban Missile Crisis, in a moment where Kennedy had turned to peace. Did President Kennedy know that Alpha 66 sunk that Russian ship?

[Rob Reiner]

He did.

[Soledad O'Brien]

And that Alpha 66 was backed by the CIA?

[Rob Reiner]

He did.

[Soledad O'Brien]

He must have been furious.

[Rob Reiner]

He was. Remember, by the spring of 1963, Kennedy had promised Khrushchev that he'd be hands off with Cuba, that Castro wouldn't have to worry about another US invasion. Kennedy knew that this attack on the Russian ship was an attempt to undermine his improving relationship that he was developing with Russia and also with Cuba. He assured Khrushchev that he didn't order the attack and would make these activities stop. And then Alpha66 launched another attack on another Soviet ship.

[Soledad O'Brien]

So they were intentionally undermining President Kennedy.

[Rob Reiner]

Yes. And they even took it a step further. After the attack, members of Alpha 66 hold a press conference where they suggest that the American government is supporting their actions. Kennedy, needless to say, was livid.

[Dick Russell]

He had the Coast Guard seize the boats of Cuban exiles before they could attack any more Soviet or Cuban vessels. He sent planes and boats into the waters around Cuba, and he banned a dozen Cuban exile leaders from leaving Miami, including Vaseana.

[Rob Reiner]

Two strategies that were being followed in the United States. One from the administration, and then there was the one of the CIA, the Cuban exiles in the Mafia, even they had their own independent objectives. This need to Assassinate Kennedy. And here it is. The CIA, the Cuban exiles, and the Mafia all in sync. The goal, Assassinate Kennedy.

[Dick Russell]

They were working together. The mob was selling guns to the exiles. The CIA was directly funding and organizing the exile groups.

[Rob Reiner]

And here's Alpha 66 leader Antonio Vessiana himself in 2014 at a JFK assassination researchers conference. He's 86 years old and a translator is speaking for him. Over the years of his training and his experience in dealing with the CIA and Bishop and other Phillips and others, he learned how to become a professional conspirator.

[Soledad O'Brien]

What it meant Phillips meaning David Atlee Phillips, AKA Angleton's protege. Codename Maurice Bishop.

[Rob Reiner]

Correct? Correct, Correct. The CIA never had an official meeting where they said, hey, here's where we're going to plan on the murder of the President. But he happens to know that a group of officials working within the CIA got together with the clear plan to assassinate and murder the President. And there's one more bombshell from Vessiana, and this is revealed by another translator. It shows how all the pieces start to come together. I traveled to Dallas at the end.

[Jefferson Morley]

Of August or beginning of September of 1963 to meet with Maurice Bishop, my CIA hander. We had agreed to see each other in the lobby of a downtown Dallas bank. There, I observed Bishop with a young man I later identified without a doubt, as Lee Harvey Oswald.

[Rob Reiner]

So you have Oswald meeting with a CIA agent who is a master in counterintelligence in September 1963. Pieces were being moved around the board. And Oswald wasn't the only piece being moved. The list of people who were in Dallas on November 22nd will make your head spin. Let's start with someone that didn't have to travel very far. The Mayor of Dallas.

[Soledad O'Brien]

How is it possibly news that the Mayor of Dallas is in Dallas?

[Rob Reiner]

Well, that in and of itself is not news. But what is news is what we've learned about this particular mayor over the years. Do you recall the name Charles Cabell?

[Soledad O'Brien]

Mmm. Remind me.

[Rob Reiner]

Okay. He was the former Deputy Director of the CIA and one of the agents that Kennedy fired after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion.

[Soledad O'Brien]

And how does he fit into all of this?

[Rob Reiner]

Well, in 1963, the mayor of Dallas was Earl Cabell.

[Dick Russell]

Charles Brother Earl Cabell himself was a CIA asset.

[Soledad O'Brien]

In 2017, a batch of newly declassified documents revealed that Earl Cabell had secretly worked as an asset of the CIA during his tenure as the mayor of Dallas. Those documents came out 54 years after the assassination of President Kennedy.

[Rob Reiner]

Mayor Cabell was responsible for establishing the route the motorcade would take. And that route would pass right in front of the building where Oswald worked. Wait till you hear the roster of people who arrived in Dallas that morning. First up we have Tosh Plumlee, who was a CIA operative and a mercenary pilot during the 50s and 60s. As you may recall, he was stationed at Nags Head, North Carolina with Oswald. The day of the assassination, Plumlee was tasked with transporting two high profile people to Dallas. I was asked to go fly as.

[Ricardo Morales Jr.]

Co pilot on that particular flight.

[Rob Reiner]

That's Plumlee.

[Ricardo Morales Jr.]

The flight was to go from West.

[Rob Reiner]

Palm beach to go over to Tampa.

[Ricardo Morales Jr.]

And we flew open water across to New Orleans and some other people got on there at New Orleans and then from there we flew into Dallas.

[Rob Reiner]

Plumlee, like everyone else, was on a need to know basis and doesn't claim to know why he was piloting the flight, but he confused confirmed that one of the passengers on board was mob boss Johnny Roselli.

[Ricardo Morales Jr.]

Rossella was on board our aircraft, so was a couple of other Cubans. I don't know for sure who they are.

[Rob Reiner]

There was one other passenger Plumlee could confirm.

[Ricardo Morales Jr.]

His name was Howard Hunt.

[Rob Reiner]

Hunt was a high level American intelligence officer and as we know became infamous for his role in the Watergate break in. Here's St. John, his son talking about his dad in Dallas.

[Ricardo Morales Jr.]

Well, at the time I asked my mom, where's papa?

[Rob Reiner]

And she said, he's in Dallas on business. And I remember that as if it were yesterday. And at the time I didn't, I didn't put it together with the assassination, you know, but later on I thought, wow, that was right there at the same time.

[Soledad O'Brien]

So what would be the role of someone like E. Howard Hunt in Dallas on that day?

[Rob Reiner]

St. John, you once told me that your father was in Dallas as a bench warmer. What exactly is a bench warmer? He knew who was involved, where they would go after, you know, the mission.

[Ricardo Morales Jr.]

Was accomplished, how to get them out and things like that.

[Rob Reiner]

I, I feel that he knew the points of entry and the points of exit and he knew safe houses. I think he was someone who had a grasp on, on the whole mission. When we spoke to Ricardo Morales Jr. Whose dad was a Cuban exile working for the CIA out of Miami, he said his dad was in Dallas and used very similar language.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Here's Morales Jr. Translating his father's testimony of that day.

[Ricardo Morales Jr.]

I was there as a cleaning team just in case something went wrong. Those are the only orders I received. And that's what we did. We were at a safe house in Dallas awaiting orders. So once the assassination took place, they called in for orders. Their orders were to return home. And that's what they did.

[Rob Reiner]

Others reported to be in Dallas that day were mob connected Charles Nicoletti, CIA operative Jack Cannon, a Cuban exile named Herminio Diaz Garcia, and a former member of French intelligence named John Swetra.

[Soledad O'Brien]

So Dallas at that moment was like the super bowl of covert operations.

[Rob Reiner]

There can only be one explanation for all of them to have been there that day. They had to make sure that the President got killed.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Next episode who killed JFK? We follow Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22, 1960.

[Rob Reiner]

He knows something big was going to happen that day, and he knows that he's on the inside of whatever this thing is. And so I said, what's in the package, Lee? And he says, don't you remember we talked about this yesterday. I'm going to bring some curtain rods to work. When the shots began to ring out, people really began to panic.

[David Talbot]

I think he felt that the plot was had been turned against him and he believed that his life was in danger.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Who Killed JFK is hosted by Rob Reiner and me, Soledad O'Brien and our executive producers are Rob Reiner, Michelle Reiner, Matt George, Jason English David Hoffman and me, Soledad O'Brien. Our writer is David Hoffman with research by Dick Russell. Our story editors are Robert Briner and Julie Pinero. Our senior producer is Julie Pinero. Our producers are Tristan Nash, Dick Russell, Michelle Goldfine and Amari Lee. Our editors are Tristan Nash, Julie Pinero and Marcus Dilaudo. Our project manager is Carol Klein. Our associate producer is Emilse Quiros. Mixing mastering and sound design by Ben Lahoulier. Research and fact checking by Girl Friday and Emilse Quiros. Archival audio in this episode, thanks to the Assassination Archives and Research center, the Alderton Family, Dick Russell and Rob Reiner. Business affairs by Hernan Nadea and Jonathan Furman. Our consulting producer is Rosanne Galagini. Recorded in part at CDM Studio and 4th Street Recording Studio. Show Logo by Lucy Quintanilla. Production assistance by Rocco Del Prior and Grace Barron. Special thanks to Joe Honig, Rose Arce and Dan Storper. If you're enjoying the show, leave us a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. Who Killed JFK? As a production of Soledad O'Brien Productions and I Heart Podcasts.

[Rob Reiner]

To have a murder as gruesome as Jade Beasley's doesn't happen very often down.

[Lauren Bright Pacheco]

Here in Marion, Illinois. An 11 year old girl brutally stabbed to death. Her father's longtime live in girlfriend maintaining innocence but charged with her murder.

[Soledad O'Brien]

I am confident that Julie Beverly is guilty.

[Rob Reiner]

They've never found a weapon. Never made sense. Still doesn't make sense. She found out she was pregnant in jail.

[Soledad O'Brien]

The person who did it is still out there.

[Lauren Bright Pacheco]

Listen to Murder on Songbird road on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Rob Reiner]

You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadow. Join me, Danny Trejoze and step into the flames of Fright, an anthology podcast of modern day horror stories inspired by the most terrifying legends and lore of Latin America. Listen to nocturnum on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast.

[Jon Stewart]

Jon Stewart is back at the Daily show and he's bringing his signature wit and insight straight to your ears with the Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. Dive into John's unique take on the biggest topics in politics, entertainment, sports and more. Joined by the sharp voices of the show's correspondents and contributors, and with extended interviews and exclusive weekly headline roundups, this podcast gives you content you won't find anywhere else. Ready to laugh and stay informed? Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.