One of the more interesting JFK books is an autobiography of Chauncey Holt, who claims to have been Meyer Lanksy’s accountant, forger and occasional pilot. Holt managed to outlive his gangster and CIA associates, which is why he was able to tell his story eventually. You might recognize him as one of the three “tramps” photographed in Dallas that fateful November day fifty years ago.
The other two photographed with him in the Plaza have since been identified Charles Harrelson (Woody’s dad) and Charles Rogers, although when the photos first surfaced, a huge effort was made to ID Holt and Harrelson as Howard Hunt and Frank Sturgis. It was actually James Angleton, head of CIA counterintelligence who planted the story Hunt was in Dallas that day, which was true, although Hunt seems to have had little idea what was going down. He was a propaganda expert who may have been placed in Dallas as a diversion, as the Plaza was filled with spooks and gangsters, most of whom had zero idea the President was about to be killed. See, spooks and gangsters often play their games with little background information or just a made-up cover story. Everything is done on intel rules: “need to know” basis, with most not knowing much of anything, except you do what the bosses say or face the unhappy consequences.
Organized crime and the intelligence agencies work hand in glove and the corruption of our political system is worse than you ever imagined. Holt was a lifelong criminal and he makes no excuses for his behavior. He does, however, provide an important window on the assassination.
I know Johnny Roselli was one of the shooters because Roselli confessed many times to multiple people. The other two shooters, however, may have been James Files and Charles Nicoletti, although there were multiple professional assassins in Dealey Plaza that day. Of course, the number-one suspect for the on-site team leader and a possible shooter has to be William Harvey because he was working closely with Roselli on assassinating Castro, a plot that was diverted to JFK after the oligarchy lost confidence in JFK as he was “changing too fast.” Many in the CIA believed Harvey took the kill shot.
Apparently, after Mary Meyer gave JFK some LSD for one of the lovemaking sessions, Kennedy decided to join her mission to manifest world peace and he began learning the strings of power to aid in his mission. No doubt, the military industrial complex became quite alarmed by this unexpected turn of events as they viewed JFK as little more than a chronic womanizer who stole lines from President Lincoln for use in his best speeches.
Holt, like most of organized crime, did not like Kennedy and felt he had betrayed their cause after they helped him steal an election from Nixon, something that mostly happened in Chicago. While attacking Carlos Marcello and Jimmy Hoffa through his brother Robert, JFK was also trading secret messages with Sam Giancana through their mutual mistress. It certainly would be interesting to know what was in those messages they traded as Giancana would soon be involved in assisting the assassination effort, sending his three best hit men to Dallas.
Although Holt died in 1997, long before this book was published, he did participate in a documentary available on YouTube that is worth watching. Like many involved, Holt did not come to Dallas realizing they were going to assassinate the President. Even among the spooks and gangsters at the scene there was confusion as to what had actually gone down and who’s secret agent(s) had done the shooting.
In the autobiography Exner wrote with Kitty Kelly, she claimed that when she shuttled between JFK and Giancana carrying manila envelopes of handwritten notes, the contents were JFK soliciting Giancana to kill Castro, and getting feedback. JFK was dumb enough to admit to Giancana he had no CIA resources left in Cuba, and could the mafia please help him out with polishing off Castro. The mafia did not tell JFK they had no Cuba resources left either because Castro had them wiped out too. But as long as they pretended to help, and strung JFK along thinking they were helping him, JFK would owe them favors, right? So, like the Alec Guiness movie “Our Man in Havana” they showered JFK with all kinds of heroic tales about getting this close here and that close there to wiping out Castro. They had lofty stories about their best assassins getting captured or frustrated at the last moment, and had JFK sitting on the edge of his seat clutching at their hollow straws. Even though the mafia was supposedly losing its best men to patriotically serve their president (JFK thought) he didn’t cut them any slack as to prosecutions. Which made Giancana extra happy to blow the ingrateful s.o.b. to Kingdom Come.