RedHanded - JFK Part Two: Deniably Plausible | #407

Episode Date: July 10, 2025

The report into Kennedy's assassination brought in a new era of mistrust in the government... and that was just the beginning. Because if you look for even a second – the official version just doesn't add up.In this second part, we take a closer look at Lee Harvey Oswald's shaky history, meet JFK's other worst enemy (the Mafia), and, finally decide: what do we think really happened that day?Exclusive bonus content:Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHandPatreon - Ad-free & Bonus EpisodesFollow us on social media:YouTubeTikTokInstagramVisit our website:WebsiteSources available on redhandedpodcast.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Keep people and pets safer. Always keep your dog on a leash in public. Learn more at toronto.ca slash leash your dog. A message from the City of Toronto. I'm Hannah. I'm Soruti. And welcome to RedHanded. And to an episode that I think is depressed me more than Eddie Lee Sexton. Oh god. I am, as I sit here, the most cynical version of myself I have ever been. Oh wow. I know. Who knew it could get worse? Nice to meet you.

Tell me more. Putting this case together, I now really understand what they meant when they said don't stare into the bits too long it will start staring back. I see. Well drag me in with you. Let's drag everyone in. Yes, pr- you know, have someone on speed dial, I don't know. Last week we left you. With a whole lot of questions. But one certainty.

President John F. Kennedy, about a thousand days into his term, had pissed off a lot of people. And this week, part two, we've got even more people to add to that list and even more unanswerable questions. But the overarching theme remains. Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country is hiding from you. The Warren Commission created more problems than it solved. Even some of the men who sat on it didn't agree with its verdict. And the whole mess issued in a new era of mistrust in the government,

which is exactly the opposite of what it was supposed to do. And pick up on what you were saying last week about when cases are built and there's even a hint of a second, third, fourth party being involved, it won't be included in the case for all of the very valid reasons that you cited last week. The Warren commission's job wasn't to make a case. Their job was to evaluate whether the systems did what they were supposed to do in the investigation. And they quite roundly did not.

Anyway, suddenly people realized that their government had hoodwinked them. Because we went through most of the Warren Report last week, it is astonishing what they were asking you to believe. Yeah, I think it just screams of so many holes that there was no way that people were going to be satisfied with that. If they'd have presented that in a court of criminal trial, it would It would never have passed the sniff test like it just wouldn't have. No. So yeah it really does come across like it's just the government saying shut up don't worry

about this huge momentous unbelievable thing that happened to a democratically elected president. We'll just tell you what happened don't worry about it we got it under control. Nothing to see here. Please look literally anywhere else. Yeah. We'll just tell you what happened. Don't worry about it. We got it under control. Nothing to see here. Please look literally anywhere else. Yeah. And like the end of World War II is a couple of decades ago, less, decade and a bit ago, like, and World War II was all to do with right and wrong. And we have to stop evil spreading and we have to save the world and we are in

the right and Nazi Germany are in the wrong. So people really believed in government. They were patriots. And that has gone now because there is this dawning realization, but oh my God, what if the government aren't in the right? What if they actually don't have my best interests at heart? Yeah.

And when it comes to JFK, from then to now, the world, us included, have been told What if they actually don't have my best interests at heart? Yeah. And when it comes to JFK, from then to now, the world, us included, have been told many, many, many, many times that one day everything will be revealed. And there have been a bunch of data dumps over the years, most notably the documents associated with the JFK Act in 1992, which I explained last week. But even now, even after Trump released a few more, there are still thousands of documents that have not been released. And even the ones that we have are not fully redacted. Some of them are just black blobs.

And the reason given for this lack of transparency is that if the evidence were made public, then it would be a threat to national security. And I am convinced, just like whenever fox hunting is debated in parliament here, I'm like, what are you really doing? I just think that whenever the US release more documents about JFK or people are talking about JFK again, I'm like, they are doing something else and they don't want us to look at it. Because I don't understand why there seems to be this feeling that if we sign enough petitions and if we do enough rallies and if we're cross enough,

then the secret service are going to be like, oh yeah, actually you're right. You can have it. Like, it's just not going to fucking happen, is it? No. So what I implore you that the next time a leader is like, okay, you can have some more shit on JFK, don't even give it your time because I promise you there will be nothing in there you don't already know. Yeah, the fucking horse is bolted, the trains left the station. They're all fucking dead now anyway.

Yeah, yeah, this is done. The best we can do are these two episodes of- I promise this is the best I can do. I gave this my best shot from the grassy knoll from the front of the motorcade. That slightly slanted bit of grass. I honestly, I just think this is one that no one is going to be able to give you a definitive answer to. It's just going to be what we've got in front of you.

I'm going to tell you what I think. Absolutely, absolutely. At the end I have a theory. Opinions, theories, speculation. We're here for it. Let's do it. As we learnt last week, and during our episodes on MKUltra, they can use the National Security threat excuse to justify literally anything they feel like,

including orchestrating assassinations and pumping unwitting civilians full of LSD. Do you know what it's like? It's like you know when someone's been really horrible to you and like they just take it too far and then you're upset and they're like God can't take a joke. It's the perfect excuse isn't it because it makes it look like you're being unreasonable. Yeah. But also they can always say that and the Department of Defense can always say oh national security threat. Of course.

Couldn't possibly tell you. Of course. Also, quite a lot of crucial evidence pertaining to the Kennedy assassination has been lost by various agencies and authorities. My favourite one, tapes of Oswald on the phone are very important, we'll explain later on. Someone very high up in the CIA had some cassette tapes labeled Oswald seized from his house and they magically disappeared. Just come on guys, you're fucking not helping yourselves.

Or you are. They, do you know what I think it is? They literally just think we're that stupid. Yeah. Well they're like, yeah, people scream about us, but what are they gonna fucking do? Just disappear all this shit? Like would... it will... people will still be talking about it. And they got away with it! Yes. Yes.

So yes, researchers and campaigners have been banging on for years about the responsibility the government has to be transparent with its people. But, to be honest, I think we probably all need to grow up with its people. But to be honest I think we probably all need to grow up a little bit. Yeah man. Yeah because it is tricky right? I am a person who is not particularly fond of government overreach like anybody is but you know what I'm saying? Like I don't but they wouldn't call it government overreach they'd say it was necessary for the government to step into those things but I... Yeah they would say it was a national security risk is what they'd say. Yes. I'm not a big fan of big government, all of those things. I don't think we should

be depending on the government to take care of all of our specific needs. But when it comes to national security, okay, fine. And I do think this idea of like, well, the government should be entirely transparent with us, that's just never going to happen. No. And I also argue, shouldn't always happen. So yeah, it's just always going to be a tough line to tread. Right. Our curiosity about things and the search for justice and truth and wanting all those things weighed up against the price you pay for freedom. And I am aware I sound like a person who was saying, well, it's for national security. Yeah, I don't know. It's a, it's a gray area.

Absolutely. There, I mean, you know, there is no perfect system. Saying anything else is naive. And idealistic and just not in the real world. Quite. So this episode is based upon documents that have been released over the last half century at various different times as parts of various different smoke screens. last half century at various different times as parts of various different smoke screens. This week we're going to show you what we know for sure the CIA have tried to hide about

the assassination of President John F Kennedy and also, very importantly, who that serves. Speaking of smoke screens, let's jump right back into 1963. The second a connection was made publicly between Lee Harvey Oswald and public enemy number one, the Communists, the press had a CIA-funded field day. There couldn't have been a more perfect villainous assassin in that particular climate at that particular time in that particular part of the country until you look a second longer than they want you to. And that's exactly what we're going to do.

And I regret it. After Kennedy was shot and Oswald killed JD Tippett, Oswald and his fake ID under the name Alec Heidel were held at the Dallas police station for two days. During that time, Lee Harvey Oswald was questioned by the FBI, the CIA and Bogstrander police. He was reasonably cooperative actually, and he confirmed information that investigators already knew to be true. Lee Harvey Oswald had been born in New Orleans in 1939. At 17 he joined the Marine Corps and in 1959 he defected to the Soviet Union.

Two and a half years later with his new wife and baby he returned to the USA and to Texas specifically, which is where his mother lived. Then he spent a few months back in his native New Orleans, where he was arrested after a pro-Castro protest, and it was in Nolo that he started using the name Alec Hidel. Oswald had used this name to attempt to set up a Louisiana chapter of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, a pro-Castro enterprise that he was the only member of in the city. The Fair Play for Cuba committee is everything around that just needs a complete dissection but like what's so funny about it is the

Fair Play for Cuba committee is actually like run from up in New York. He's all the way down in New Orleans and they hate him. They're like please stop and he's like no no no no no no I going to set up my own chapter down here. It's going to be amazing. And they're like, can you just not stop, please. But he doesn't. And yeah, all this is important because A. Hydel was the name that was used to order the rifle that was confirmed to be the weapon that fired the magic bullet that killed JFK. That rifle was delivered to a PO box rented by Lee Harvey Oswald under his actual name. Which does beg the question, why would one bother to use an alias on the order form?

Yeah, why would you do that? Err, he's stupid? That's like my defence for anything that I will question. Honestly. Mad or stupid. I wish. I think I would probably be happier as a person if I thought Leo Harvey Oswald was stupid. So the Warren Commission reported that there was no one in Dallas or in Oswald's past

with the name Hadell. But that's not quite true. We now know that whilst Oswald was in the Marines stationed in Japan, he lived on the same operational CIA base with a man with the surname Hindel. But everyone called him Hidel. It's like a nickname, just happened. And that Heidel just so happened to be from New Orleans. A coincidence, perhaps. As I said last week, if it was the only thing that was weird, I would probably let it go. But if it is just a coincidence, just a harmless coincidence, why didn't the Warren commission investigate the strange detail?

They knew about it. They didn't include it. If it's harmless, why would you do that? Also, intelligence services had a file on Oswald way before the assassination in which they noted that he used both of those names. So why didn't the CIA pass on that information to the police or the Warren Commission? Why would the Central Intelligence Agency try to obscure any information that they had on the man who just killed the president? Who, by the way, his army intelligence file has now been routinely destroyed. That happens quite a lot. So too was a letter that Lee Harvey Oswald wrote to the FBI while he was

being held at that Dallas police station. Yeah we know that he wrote one, we know it was sent. And we know it was destroyed. Mmm nowhere to be found. Under interrogation Oswald didn't hide much about his life in Dallas. He sent the police straight to the garage where his belongings were being stored. Inside investigators found two photographs of Oswald holding the rifle that shot Kennedy and the pistol that killed police officer JD Tippett. And also a few left-wing magazines. You've probably seen these photos. They're weird. He looks really weird and all. It's

just a weird... but you know... He's a weird guy. He's a weird guy. It's you know late 50s early 60s when they're saying that these photographs were taken I get it mm-hmm Oswald insisted that these photos were fake and he said he'd be able to prove it but he never got the chance because he obviously got shot to death Oswald's mom claimed that there were three photographs in total, one of which she had destroyed in an attempt to protect her son, a detail that was again omitted from the Warren

Report. Yeah, his wife Marina, I don't include her too much because she is interviewed extensively, but she contradicts herself so many times that you just can't. She says that she took one of them but then two show up and she's all can't remember. Like Marina makes everything worse. Funnily enough another photo showed up in 1976 over a decade after the assassination and the image was of Oswald holding two guns and it just turned up one day in Dallas. And it's him holding the two guns that he used that day, allegedly.

And then these lefty magazines. And then this fourth image shows up that no one knew about. And it shows up in the house of this like widowed old lady. And her husband was in the Dallas police department at the time of the assassination and all she says about it is oh well he just told me that it would be worth a lot of money so I kept it. Oh my god. I think it is very odd to have in your possession for a decade a picture of someone as famous as Lee Harvey Oswald. You're from Dallas, you cannot argue, you don't know who he is.

And I'm like, how long are you waiting? How long are you waiting for it to make money? Eggs, come on. It's not just him. It's him holding the rifle that killed the president and the pistol that killed JD Tippett. And also I'm a communist. And yet that's just in your house. Anyway, the newspapers are also interesting. There are two of them that we can clearly see, The Worker and The Militant, and they are both very left-wing publications, but they're diametrically opposed on very key issues, like Lenin versus Stalin. It's that stark.

So it's hard to believe that any self-respecting socialist would have advertised both at once. Especially someone like Lee Harvey Oswald, who'd lived in the Soviet Union, spoke fluent Russian, campaigned for Castro, and described himself as a Marxist, but not a Leninist. Like he's very smart, he's very clued up. He debates this stuff often.

So could it be that these photos were created to frame him as a Marxist assassin? Or had he taken them himself to pose as a Marxist? Now let's have a look at the timelines that the Warren Commission rubber stamped. According to the FBI and later the Warren Commission, on the 22nd of November 1963, no one saw Lee Harvey Oswald after 11.55, over half an hour before JFK's head exploded. But various eyewitness statements collected over the years tell a very different story. Oswald always claimed that when the shots were fired he was having lunch on the first floor of that Texas Book Depository building.

Two other employees remembered him going down to the lunchroom at about quarter to twelve. More importantly though was a statement from his secretary who worked in the building. She specifically remembers seeing Oswald in the lunch area at midday, possibly a bit later. She even spoke to him. This secretary and the others, however, were all ignored by the Warren Commission. Interviewed are not included. In 1992, federal agents surrounded a remote cabin in the mountains of Idaho.

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Start your free trial in the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. The shots start at 1230 and they're rapid and by 12.31 it's all over. So the last sighting of him being at 5 to 12 gives him loads of time to get up there. Yeah. Because 15 minutes would have been plenty of time for Oswald to get up to the sixth floor for 16 bystanders to see him at 12.15 through the window. But the thing is the Kennedy motorcade was late. If Oswald was really there to kill the president

why would he still be having his lunch as his target was scheduled to drive by his pre-arranged sniper's nest? Yeah unless he had a tip-off but who would that tip-off have come from that the presidential motorcade was going to be late? Would it be the Secret Service? Who else would have that information? The Dallas police officer who tried to stop Oswald after the shooting, as I said last week, did so a minute and a half after the last shot was fired. Would that be enough time to get all the way down those stairs and hide a rifle and very carefully place three bullet casings

under the window? Maybe. I don't know how fast he can run, he's dead. There's also no actual evidence that Oswald ever fired the rifle that was found. There were no fingerprints on it. There was a palm print, but that was only recorded days afterwards and it wasn't on any particular bit of the rifle of consequence. It's like where it was is only accessible once the gun has been broken down for cleaning. So that print, even if it is legitimate, which

I don't think it is, only proves that at some point Lee Harvey Oswald handled that weapon, it does not prove that he shot it. There was also no gun residue found on Oswald's cheek, which would almost certainly, not almost certainly, there would be if you'd fired a rifle that powerful three times. Yes, fibers matching clothes that Lee Harvey Oswald owned were found in the rifle's crevices. Those fibers were dark blue, black and like orangey yellow. And he was arrested wearing a shirt that easily could have produced those fibers. But multiple eyewitnesses on Dealey Plaza, who

reported the man in the window, said that he was wearing white, white top. And yes when Oswald was arrested, everyone's seen the very famous picture, he's wearing a white t-shirt. But then why does the rifle have shirt fibers in it if the people down there can see that he's only wearing white? That doesn't really make sense. And also we know that Lee Harvey Oswald went home to change and he's arrested wearing that shirt so that doesn't really make sense. And also we know that Lee Harvey Oswald went home to change and he's arrested wearing that shirt so that doesn't really make sense does it? I'm baffled. Also why would you wear white if you're trying to secretly assassinate somebody? But let's leave the physical evidence for a second and move into ideology town. Lee Harvey Oswald was the only marine in history to defect

during peacetime but no one bothered to investigate that, at least in any traceable way. You would think. If any military personnel are defecting, just do a little typey type maybe. And after the Russian dream didn't work out and he returned to his homeland on the 13th June 1962, Lee Harvey Oswald was not confronted by anyone. In fact, he was welcomed by the Secretary of the Anti-Bolshevik Nation, an anti-communist organisation with known intelligence connections. He was also given a loan to help him get on his feet again. Even the Warren Commission admitted that Oswald had sailed through immigration

and customs with no challenges, which at the height of the Cold War, especially being accompanied by a Russian wife, seems odd. Why would he be so tolerated by a government that he had betrayed? And it's actually even worse, because Lee Harvey Oswald was no average defector. When he showed up at the American embassy in Moscow in 1959, he told his countrymen that he wanted to renounce his American citizenship. And then he told officials that he intended to tell the Soviets everything he knew about the Marine Corps and that he had information that would be of special interest to the Soviets.

And he absolutely did. When he was stationed in Japan, Oswald had been a radar operator on a base from which U-2 spy planes flew from. And he had the highest possible security clearance in that situation, which is called crypto, which is weird. And that meant that he had access to offices, locations, operations, air defense, frequencies,

tons of sensitive information that the Soviets would have died for and the US had no problem just sending him off to Moscow with them. Being like, yeah sure fine, go ahead, go ahead buddy. He was just given a tourist visa and a train ticket. Six months after Lee Harvey Oswald arrived in Mother Russia, a U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union for the first time ever. Again, dots that just weren't even remotely connected or even looked at. No one's doing any eye tests. Warren Commission just ignored it. They did record him having psychological issues though and at least one suicide attempt under his belt, complete with angry Marxist ideals and illusions of grandeur. This diagnosis does come with some backup.

When Oswald was stationed in California, he was known around the base as Comrade Olsoglowicz, which he found quite amusing actually. It is quite amusing. Yes. The young Marine never hid his interest in socialism. He particularly enjoyed discussing the rational morality of Marxism. He played Russian records quite a bit in the barracks and studied the language. He wasn't very good at it though. Oswald actually roundly failed a Russian exam. But then, mere months later, he showed up Soviet-side.

Totally fluent. Which is remarkable progress. The Department of Defence does have a language school in Monterey, California, which is pretty close to where he was stationed in Santa Ana. When he was in California and not in Japan, obviously. Although there is literally no record of Comrade Osolcovich ever having been enrolled there. However, a memo from the contemporary Solicitor General and Warren Commission committee member Lee Rankin has now been

uncovered and it's called What Oswald Studied at Monterey. Which heavily implies that Oswald did study there. Lee Rankin just wasn't sure what he had studied. But it's all been wiped from the record. Which, if there's nothing to hide, why? Why would the Marines hide one of their recruits learning a language? I've got an idea. It's no secret that the Cult of Intelligence had big problems getting information out of the USSR during the Cold War. One of the ways they tried to combat this was send at least 40 disenchanted looking

men into the Soviet Union to spy and then report back. The KGB know they are doing this. They try and seek them out. They try and double them. Historical fact that happened. And also you do have to wonder why a Marxist would join the Marines. Yeah. And there are more oddities in Oswald's military career.

When he was stationed in the Philippines, he shot himself in the arm. What a marksman! And we don't know whether he did that on purpose, because there's no medical record of the incident to be found anywhere. But Oswald was sentenced to 20 days of hard labour afterwards, which is the only reason we know about the incident at all. Another medical mishap was the time Oswald was flown from Taiwan to Japan for urethritis treatment caused by a mild venereal disease,

which military records show was contracted in the line of duty, not due to misconduct. Quite literally what it says. Yes, it inspires two main questions. Isn't STI enough to fly a radar operator to a different country? One would assume they have antibiotics in Taiwan. Yeah. And two, could he have been sleeping with the enemy on military orders?

How else would one contract VD in the line of duty? Yeah, so what that does is put him under cover. And there are heaps of anecdotal accounts of Lee Harvey Oswald kicking about with a lot of beautiful women from Soviet countries. The general feeling on base being that he was punching way above his weight. There's a lot of stories of people who knew him in these various army bases and they were like, there's no way. There's no way. What's she getting out of this? There's no way he is fucking someone that fucking fit without there being something else going on. And that

sort of follows him wherever he goes. Yeah. So people were naturally asking, were these hotties pumping this foolish American for intel or was it the other way around? The problem is there is literally no way of proving someone is not a CIA agent. That's kind of the whole point. Yeah. Can't prove I'm not one. No, no I can't.

So after two and a bit years in the Soviet Union, Lee Harvey Oswald either decided that he'd had enough of working in a factory in Minsk or he was instructed that his services were needed elsewhere. On the 1st of June 1962, Oswald, his wife and their baby took a 40-hour train to Rotterdam. 40-hour train to Rotterdam. Any parent I know dreads even a two-hour flight with a child. A 40-hour train! Different times, man. And as the Oswald family passed over the East versus West German border, Marina's passport was stamped, but her husband's wasn't. Which is quite the oversight on the hottest land border in the whole world at that time. Then the Oswalds got a boat from Southampton to New Jersey

and they traveled to Fort Worth straight away. I left this out but I can't help myself. Another thing about the East West Germany bit. In his pocket, he had a hand drawn map of West Berlin. His train didn't stop in West Berlin, but that is where all of the like CIA intelligence were based. Is like the map he has is where all of their like, they're all stationed. Why would he have a hand-drawn map of that bit of Berlin when he's not even getting off the train there? He's going straight through to Rotterdam. I don't know anything anymore. Do you see what I mean? Is the abyss looking back at you yet? I'm sad. Welcome to the jungle. Oh no. The jungle of sadness. Anyway, they make it to Southampton and then from Southampton they get on a boat

to New Jersey and then they travel down to Fort Worth. And once they were in Fort Worth, which has a surprisingly large Russian population, I discovered, Oswald was befriended by a man known locally as The Baron. A relic of the Tsarist regime and confirmed spy. His real name was George de Moenstrult. And he shows up across 10 different CIA reports because he spent years swapping information for business leads from the CIA. The Baron confirmed in an interview in 1977 that he had been encouraged by the CIA to get to know the ex-Marine who had just undefected in his

neighborhood and because the Baron needed the CIA to get Papa Dog to agree to an oil deal in Haiti he paid Lee Harvey Oswald a visit. Funnily enough, it was the Baron who encouraged Oswald to move to Dallas, and it was the Baron who got Oswald a job at a photography company, a smallish operation that specialised in military maps and images taken by U-2 spy planes, just like the ones Oswald had learned so much about as a radar operator in Japan. Four days after Oswald's first trip on the job, President John F. Kennedy was showing the U-2 images of Cuba that triggered the missile crisis.

I'm not suggesting that those photographs came from the photography company that Lee Harvey Oswald had been placed in by a CIA handler. But I also am. I mean it's the story I want to believe. It's too close man. Very shortly after that the Baron won a $285,000 government contract and moved to Haiti. And that's what I call business! Then on the 29th of March 1977. So this is like post-Select Committee investigations beginning. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So like nearly 15 years after the assassination, the Baron was found shot dead in a house in Florida.

An investigator from the Select Committee for Assassinations had popped round earlier in the day and left a card for him. Come on. This is what I mean. This is how stupid they think we are. I genuinely thought about bringing tin foil into work today. I mean... If we were videoing it, I would have.

And it's 35 degrees outside, just bake like potatoes, but it would have been worth it. This is crazy. It's crazy. Again, like, I don't fucking know. I don't know anything. I have a headache. It's confusing. Okay, let's move on. Yeah I had wanted to do a deep dive

into the death of Dr. David Kelly and the sexed-up dossier all of that but I just think it's gonna it's gonna push me over the edge after this. Yeah maybe after we've had a little break. Yeah let's let's re-approach that in 2026. Yeah I know I said we do Bobby Kennedy year. I don't want to look at a Kennedy for two years minimum. You've got time. I'm kidding. I can't look away now. Lee Harvey Oswald did not stay at the spy plane photography business for very long,

almost like he'd been put there to do a job and he'd done it. And actually he decided he was going to leave Texas for a bit. On his own, he doesn't take his wife and his now two children with him. He just fucks off to New Orleans for a bit. For a summer, actually, in 1963. He headed to his home turf. And whilst he was in New Orleans, Lee Harvey Oswald met a man called Guy Bannister. Guy Bannister had an office building which was round the corner from the coffee company

that Oswald greased machines at. Bannister was a slippery character and a known supporter of the Cuban Revolutionary Council. He pretends he's a PI. He's not. The Cuban Revolutionary Council are an anti-communist group who were conveniently set up by the CIA about three weeks before the Bay of Pigs fiasco. And Guy Banister's office at 544 Camp Street was a covert action centre and munitions supply depot for the anti-Castro paramilitary group Alpha 66.

Alpha 66 violently fucked shit up on the island whenever they got the chance. And once again this militia was funded, instructed and facilitated by the CIA. That is a fact. It's not gossip, it's not speculation, Google operation mongus. That is your homework. The founder of Alpha 66 was a Cuban exile called Antonio Vecciana and his main contact at the CIA was known to him as Maurice Bishop. And Antonio and Maurice Bishop worked together on many a plan to kill Castro.

They didn't manage it. Close but no cigar. Ha ha. 544 Camp Street was a hub of anti-Castro Cuban counterintelligence that the CIA were well aware of. Oswald, despite being a vocal Castro supporter, who wanted to remember set up a chapter of the Fair Play for Cuba Commission in New Orleans, seemed to somehow be well liked by Guy Banister

and you know all the Cuban exile gun runners? So much so it seemed that even shadowy Maurice Bishop had time for him. Antonio Vecchiana swore blind that he saw Maurice Bishop chatting to Lee Harvey Oswald in the foyer of 544 Camp Street. After stating this publicly, Antonio Vecchiana was shot in the head in Miami. He did survive but refused to speak about Alpha 66 ever again. Don't think I would either. So the vocally pro-Castro Lee Harvey Oswald was allowed to use an office on the second floor of Bannister's building, and he stamped 544 Camp Street in the back of his Fairplay for Cuba leaflets.

When another office frequenter spotted these pro-Castro bulletins lying around in a building that is full of anti-Castro militia, he goes to Guy Bannister and he was like, do you know about this? And Guy Bannister, according to this guy, right, you know, informant, eyewitness, whatever. It's just an eyewitness statement, but we do know that address was stamped in there and we know the CIO were well aware of it. Bannister just says, oh, he's, he's with us. Don't worry.

But it really didn't seem that way. At least to the untrained eye. Oswald took to the New Orleans streets to hand out his pamphlets about how great Castro was and he wore a sign that said, Viva Fidel. And that didn't go down so well with some Cuban exiles that were kicking about and a scuffle ensued. One of these cross Cubans, whose name is Carlos Brinquiere, was pissed off on multiple levels. Firstly, he'd experienced life under Castro and there was no fair play about it. And secondly, just the day before, Lee Harvey Oswald

had told him in 544 Camp Street that he wanted to help to train Cubans to fight the Castro regime. And now here he was, saying exactly the opposite. Carlos was a member of the DRE, yet another anti-Castro organisation funded by the CIA, with an office just round the corner from Guy Banister's building. And if I wanted to cause a scene, I think that's exactly how I'd do it. Carlos later said that it felt like Oswald was willing him to get violent, waiting for a scene. Yeah he gives this interview and he was like, he was like begging me to hit him. And he got one because all four men involved in

this hot mess were arrested for disturbing the peace. Oswald was fined ten dollars and spent a night in the cells. Carlos and his two mates were then let go without charge. Whilst he was in the clink, Oswald asked to speak to an FBI agent. He was given agent John Quigley, who told the Warren Committee that Oswald made a very self-serving statement of very little consequence, but we'll never know if that's true. Gauze quickly destroyed his notes, really very quickly, after this jailhouse interview. Less than a week later, Castro, Love and Oswald was at it again.

And the Fair Play for Cuba committee HQ all the way up in New York were not feeling great about it. But Oswald didn't care. He was making box office baby. He made such a loud stink that he was invited on the radio to debate Carlos Brinqueira, to debate Cuba, Castro, communism, all of it. And Oswald did a terrible job. Carlos absolutely battered him. It was very embarrassing for the Fair Play for Cuba committee, but it also meant that Oswald's support for Castro was now public

and another provable chapter had been added to his story. The common man didn't know that Kennedy was actually trying to open communication with Castro. Even the CIA didn't know about JFK's little scheme. So Oswald being pro-Castro made him by default anti-Kennedy and he'd gone public with it. Castro knocking off Kennedy would be a perfect reason for the United States to invade Cuba like the CIA had been wanting to for ages. And they had done it before. Last year, law and crime brought you the trial that captivated the nation. She's accused

of hitting her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe with her car. Karen Reid is arrested and charged with second degree murder. The six week trial resulted in anything but resolution. We continue to find ourselves at an impasse. I'm declaring a mistrial in this case. But now the case is back in the spotlight and one question still lingers. Did Karen Reed kill John O'Keefe? The evidence is overwhelming that Karen Reed is innocent.

How does it feel to be a cop killer, Karen? I'm Kristin Thorn, investigative reporter with Law and Crime and host of the podcast Karen the Retrial. This isn't just a retrial. It's a second chance at the truth. I have nothing to hide. My life is in the balance and it shouldn't be. I just want people to go back to who the victim is in this. It's not her. Listen to episodes of Karen, The Retrial, exclusively and ad-free on Wondery+.

It's all a lighthearted nightmare on our podcast, Morbid. We're your hosts. I'm Alina Urquhart. And I'm Ash Kelly. And our show is part true crime, part spooky, and part comedy. The stories we cover are well researched. Of the 880 men who survived the attack, around 400 would eventually find their way to one another

and merge into one larger group. With a touch of humor. Shout out to her. Shout out to all my therapists the other years. There's been like eight of them. A dash of sarcasm and just garnished a bit with a little bit of cursing. That mother-fucker is not real.

And if you're a weirdo like us, I'd love to cozy up to a little bit of cursing. That mother-fucker is not real. And if you're a weirdo like us and love to cozy up to a creepy tale of the paranormal. Or you love to hop in the way back machine and dissect the details of some of history's most notorious crimes. You should tune in to our podcast, Morbid. Follow Morbid on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can listen to episodes early and ad free by joining Wondery Plus and the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Rather suddenly the 24 year old Lee Harvey Oswald decided he was done with the FPFCC and made his way back to Dallas. Yeah, just after, you know, a few months campaigning, getting imprisoned, going on the radio. One day he just decides he's just bad enough. Bad enough? No more fair play?

Don't feel that strongly about Castro anymore, actually. His barren friend wasn't there to get him another job, however. He was too busy swimming in oil in Haiti. Another shadow man was waiting for him south of the border, though. On the 9th of October 1963, a month before the assassination of JFK, the CIA were made aware of a strange phone call made to the Soviet consulate in Mexico City. An American man, speaking almost unintelligible Russian and claiming to be Lee Harvey Oswald, rang the Soviet switchboard and asked if anything had come in for him from Washington. He hung up when he was told

no. And so begins the most confusing and exhausting part of this whole story, because it does get worse if you can believe that. A tale of two Mexico cities. It is alleged by the Central Intelligence Agency that following this call made to the Soviet embassy, a man claiming to be Lee Harvey Oswald made several visits to the Cuban and Soviet embassies in Mexico city, becoming increasingly agitated every time he went back, slamming guns on tables etc. He's demanding a safe passage to Cuba. He says that people are on his tail, his life's in danger, blah blah blah. This man was described by multiple state employees to be about 35,

blonde, athletically built with a receding hairline, Oswald, thinning up top, I'm not denying it, certainly not blonde. And I know that he is quite often, people are like, about 30. He's only 24. But I can also see why he doesn't look 24. I'm not trying to say that. 35 to 24 is quite a big gap. So basically, there are lots of calls that are made and these exchanges in various embassies are reported. But it is so hard to tell it coherently. So I've just picked out some bits. Actually, I've picked out maybe two bits. One of the calls that the CIA claim to have been made during these many calls and visits,

the 28th on their list of calls, they claim was made to the Cuban embassy on a Saturday. Which was impossible. The Cuban and Soviet Embassies were closed on Saturdays. The switchboard was off. No call could have come in that day. But that fact wasn't included in the Warren Commission's investigation. And the CIA did absolutely nothing about an armed, defection-prone American running around Mexico City acting mental, apart from slipwritten transcripts of these calls to J. Edgar Hoover. It is so wild.

This is the month before Kennedy dies, right? There's also anecdotal reports that come in that say this man was talking about killing Kennedy in embassies in Mexico City and that's relayed to the CIA. If he's been barbed to it, why is he talking about it? It's not him. It's not him. He can't speak Russian. Lee Harvey Oswald speaks fluent Russian.

Yes, this is true. And he's not blonde. And he's not blonde. And he's not blonde! So yeah, J. Edgar Hoover gets these transcripts and the then head of the FBI passed these transcripts on to President Lyndon B. Johnson after Kennedy died. Why weren't those transcripts given to Kennedy before it was too late? Why would the CIA and the FBI wait to pass on that information? Did someone need to strengthen the connection between Oswald and Cuba perhaps? If tapes of those broken

Russian phone calls ever really existed, the CIA have now lost them. Meaning that no one will ever be able to make voice comparisons. But to be honest, I don't think we need to. There is so much that is wrong with the Mexico City story that like all we have is the transcripts which could easily just have been pulled out of J. Edgar Hoover's butthole and then a statement from a translator who's like, his Russian was so bad I could barely understand what he was trying to say. So if you're confused, you're not the only one. The Assassinations Records Review Board wrote this in 1998. Oswald's visit to Mexico City in September, October, 1963 remains one of the most vexing

subplots to the assassination story. Could say that again. But we can leave it behind. We never have to talk about it again. We're going to move on to the next chapter. The CIA were not the only ones who wanted Castor out of the way. So did their mirror image, The Mob. One of the books I read made a very good point.

It's like the intelligence services and the Mafia have the same hunting grounds. They look for the same people. They are in the same places. And the Mafia were not huge fans of JFK either for different reasons. Let's start with Castro. Before there was Castro, there was Batista who was both a DC puppet and manipulated by the mob in equal measure. In the bad old days casinos in Cuba were a big dealio. Pre-revolution Havana made the Mafia more money than Las Vegas. We're talking nine million a year in

today's money. Dirty cash was not part of Castro's vision for his nation so he blasted the American gangsters off his island using weapons that they had run there themselves which is quite funny. And then they set up shop in Miami, which is where the Banished Bandits joined forces with the CIA who were waiting for them. And they were all too ready to destroy their common enemy. And they didn't tell the Warren Commission that either. In Miami, the Mafia and the CIA needed someone Cuban to join their No Castro's Club. And they found mega gangster Santo Traficante.

Having the surname Traficante and being a drugs trafficker is quite funny. Isn't it? And before anyone pulls me off, I know he was born in Tampa, but he is of Cuban heritage. And luckily for them, he was also the vice president of the Exiles Revolutionary Council and he really fucking hated John F Kennedy. All of this came to light during the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations. Not that anyone really noticed his connection at the time. They were far more concerned about the bonkers Mexico City nonsense. When the Mafia get involved, it makes sense why the crosshair shift from Castro to Kennedy.

Still though, as a result of that investigation, we have recorded conversations indicating that JFK knew that this undercover Castro cast-off operation was happening and he was absolutely raging about it. At least he was in front of his brother Bobby. Now if you believe Judith Campbell, one of his many mistresses, JFK was all up in the mafia that his brother was trying desperately to dismantle. If that's true, perhaps the Mafia bosses felt betrayed when Kennedy employed policies that lost them a lot of money and let his attorney general brother come after them like a rabid dog. In the version of events that we are closest to believing, the CIA slash Mafia co-counsel decided that Castro could wait

and their attention shifted to the Kennedy administration. Bobby Kennedy will have his own moment under the red-handed regime when I've recovered. And I'm going to save the best bits for then, but just like his brother, Bobby Kennedy had very powerful enemies. His ultimate nemesis was a man called Jimmy Hoffa, King of the unions and certified mobster. The year before Bobby was made Attorney General, there were only 35 convictions for organised crime in the whole of America. In 1963, there were nearly 300.

So you can't argue that there was no push to dismantle organized crime and that the Mafia might not have been too happy about that. Justice was catching up with Jimmy Hoffa specifically. The Kennedys were coming for him because he'd been embezzling loads of money through a bunch of labor unions forever and always. According to FBI informant Jose Aleman, in 1962 there was a meeting of the High Council. Jimmy Hoffa said to Santo Trafficante that someone needed to bump Kennedy off, adding, He drives about in a convertible and swims by himself. I've got a 270 rifle with a high-powered scope on it that shoots a long way without

dropping any. got a 270 rifle with a high-powered scope on it that shoots a long way without dropping any. It would be easy to get him with that. But I'm wary of it, it's too obvious. Traficante agreed and he confirmed that JFK was not going to see the next election. This meeting, if we believe the informant, which I do, was held on the grounds that belonged to a man called Carlos Marcello, the Sicilian kingpin of the southern United States. He was also very very small. His criminal empire raked in eight billion dollars a year in today money obviously, eight billion! And he's just in charge of the South. Anyway, if José Alemán is to be believed, it was Carlos Marcelo's idea to quote, set up a nut to take the blame for the assassination of the president. They did it in

Sicily all the time. What's your final view on to what degree she believes all this stuff? She lied. She tried to manufacture evidence. I'm Christopher Goffard with a new series from LA Times Studios. This is one of the most heartbreaking cases. The victim couldn't be more innocent. Each week we'll be diving into a consequential case. I didn't just start as some nut job that wanted to go do violent shit.

I didn't want to do any violent shit really at all. From Los Angeles and beyond. What was so startling about the case was that it did mark the first time that there was a criminal trial which disclosed that the government had lied to people and it's hard to remember. Crimes of the Times. Subscribe to Crimes of the Times. Subscribe to Crimes of the Times on your favorite listening app.

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So how did these gangsters come across Lee Harvey Oswald? or visit your favourite bookstore. So how did these gangsters come across Lee Harvey Oswald? Well, there are lots of possibilities. Perhaps the CIA served him up on a platter. But also, Oswald did have a gang-connected uncle. But in post-war America, everyone knew someone who knew someone. Much more interesting than that is a gay pilot who thought he could cure cancer single-handedly. A man named David Ferry. David was in the army reserves and hated Fidel Castro so much that he flew to Cuba often

in the early 60s to drop bombs on communists. Just like off his own bat. He also has complete alopecia and would wear a bright red toupee and red fluffy false eyebrows. The point being he's a recognisable man. So after the Bay of Pigs embarrassment David Ferry shifted his hatred

from Fidel Castro towards JFK. In his eyes, Kennedy was a coward who would let every single American down by not dealing with the Cubans with fire and brimstone. Which is exactly what the CIA think. Whilst giving an impassioned speech, David Ferri belted out that JFK deserved to be shot and that an electorate cannot be trusted to pick the right man. Which ironically is quite communist of him.

A New Orleans native, David Ferry often frequented 544 Camp Street. He knew Guy Banister very well. Although he's always denied ever having met Lee Harvey Oswald. But that's not true. David Ferry and Lee Harvey Oswald went to the same Civil Air Patrol cadet meetings. Lee Harvey Oswald is significantly younger than David Ferry. There's a picture of them together at a cadet chapter cookout. So very recognizable David Ferry just is like. David Ferry was also known for encouraging young boys to sign up to the forces. So could he have been the reason that Oswald joined the Marines so young

and so Marxistly? Perhaps Oswald thought he was part of some anti-Castro operation. Maybe he, yeah, he hypothetically, perhaps he's very young. He doesn't have a father figure. He meets David Ferry in the cadets. David Ferry is like, join the Marines And I've got a job for you. Do you want to save the world? And then he joins the Marines, starts talking about communism really loudly, tries to learn Russian, and then the CIA are like, hang on a minute.

Do you, do you want to keep doing this and help us out? And he's like, yeah, all right. I'd love to be a spy. And then that goes on for a few years. this and help us out and he's like yeah all right I'd love to be a spy and then that goes on for a few years. They're like oh please just just come come back whenever you want we'll help you. Meanwhile Batista is toppled and they're like fuck now we've got this problem to deal with and then the Mafia are in Miami and the CIA are like well we have a problem and then the Mafia are in Miami and the CIA are like, well, we have a problem. And then the Mafia are like, we also have the same problem, but we have a bigger

problem and that is JFK. And then the CIA are like, you know what? We hate him too. And we've been grooming this kid for years. Here you go. And you need a nut. And you need a nut. We got him.

I'm in. Thank God. I literally have been thinking I've been going mad! So maybe that's why Oswald shot JD Tippett so quickly. Maybe they did know each other, maybe they didn't, maybe Tippett's a handler, don't know. But he realizes he's being set up and they're after him and that's why he just shoots in broad daylight multiple eyewitnesses and he runs. And we do undeniably know that behind the doors of 544 Camp Street, New Orleans, there were mobsters, there was the CIA, there was the FBI, there were anti-Castro Cuban exiles, there was Alpha 66, there was David Ferry, there was JFK

announcers, and there was Lee Harvey Oswald. And that's just too many. It's too many to be nothing. To be meaningless is too much. I give up. I quit. No, we're nearly there. So a quick reminder, Alpha 66 was handled by a CIA man known as Maurice Bishop, who was orchestrating

assassination attempts on Castro without presidential consent. Anyone who wants to write to me saying that JFK approved Operation Mongoose, fuck off. I don't want to talk to you. Because I'm the Warren commission now. A bishop was spotted with Oswald by the head of Alpha 66. Many suspect that Maurice Bishop was actually David Atlee Phillips, also star of MK Altshire, and the chief of covert action and Cuba operations for the CIA based in Mexico City. He was awarded the CIA's

highest possible honor after the Kennedy affair, the intelligence medal. But we don't know what he did to deserve it because the records have never been released. Eventually Phillips rose to the rank of chief of the Western Hemisphere Division So even if he wasn't Maurice Bishop which he absolutely fucking was, it's hard to believe that the Chief of Covert, Action and Cuba Operations didn't know about the people renting office space at 544 Camp Street, New Orleans, Louisiana in the summer of 1963. Chief of Covert, Action and Cuba Operations? Sure. That's what he tells the Warren Commission he's like, I've had absolutely no idea. No clue. Look over there.

Okay, I feel like I've made my argument. Yeah. There's one thing I haven't handled. What the shit has Jack Ruby got to do with anything? Yeah, let's get back to him. The answer is enough. He's got enough to do with stuff. His real name, Jacob Rubenstein, he's not even mid-level when it comes to organized crime. His biggest claim to fame was running errands for Al Capone when he was like in his early teens. It's quite fun though.

Yeah, it's the highest he got. So the point is, I don't think anyone would have put up a fight to save him. He just wasn't important enough. He ran a few nightclubs, a few strip clubs, and in doing so, he ran up a lot of debts. By 1963, Jack Ruby was in real trouble. He owed big, scary people big, scary money. And as the shots heard around the world were fired on Dealey Plaza, Jack Ruby wasn't there. He was in the office of the Dallas Morning

News. He was there to complain about the threatening welcome message from the John Birch Society. When the news of the assassination reached the office minutes after it happened, it's just around the corner, Ruby was visibly shaken. He left the building in tears. He was asking everyone whether he should close his clubs out of respect for the dead president. He rang his sister and said, I've never felt so bad in my life even when Ma and Pa died. Then Ruby went to a synagogue commemoration service and then he took a bunch of salt beef sandwiches to the Dallas police station. Why would someone who cared this much about Kennedy not be at Dealey Plaza to see him drive by? And then why would he go to multiple different places acting quite strangely talking to a lot of different people in

quick succession? I have no idea. So over the next 48 hours, Jack Ruby spent quite a lot of time standing in the sea of reporters outside Dallas Police Station. And he knew his stuff. When the DA announced that Lee Harvey Oswald was a member of Free Cuba, a well-known anti-Castro group, Jack Ruby corrected him. It was an important thing to get wrong because FPFCC, what very pro-Castro, remember it stands for fucking fair play for fucking Cuba. Yeah it's a big thing to get wrong. Yeah. But the Fair Play for Cuba committee are all the way up in New York. Why would Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner

who lives in Dallas, know they existed at all? So many whys. I don't know. An Oswald Hall FPFCC street theatre had all happened in New Orleans. How would Jack Ruby know about that? So after this, Jack then went to another newspaper office, loudly speaking about how upset he was. The next day he was back at the police station asking when they were going to move Oswald to the county jail and he also made a bunch more phone calls including one to Union Big Man and Kennedy Enemy Jimmy Hoffa. Hmph! At 11.17, Jack Ruby left the police station and wired $25 to one of his dancers.

This mundane detail would later be used as evidence that what he did next was a crime of passion. In no way premeditated and certainly not planned at all by the Mafia, or anyone else for that matter. Everyone knows how much Jimmy Hoffa fucking hates the Kennedys. Why would you ring him? I don't know. Ha ha!

And then, as Lee Harvey Oswald was led out of the basement of the Dallas police station toward the van that was supposed to take him to Big Boy Jail, Jack Reaby fired one bullet, point blank range, which tore through Oswald's major veins and organs. The assassin had been assassinated. On camera, key detail. There is no way that Jack Ruby should have been allowed to get that close to the captive, been allowed to get that close to the captive. And he never explained how he managed it. Either no one on the force recognized the very well-known man who brought them whiskey and sandwiches all the time, or someone at the Dallas police station

that morning allowed Jack Ruby to slip into an area no civilian should have been given access to at such a time. So it's fuck up or cover up on that one. And also while we're here, Rose Shirami, who we met all the way back at the top of last week's episode, who said that she'd met two men driving from Miami down to Dallas talking about killing the president, occasionally worked in Jack Ruby's clubs. And another detail that nobody bothered to tell the Warren Commission is that Jack Ruby had been to Cuba recently to visit his old buddy Santo traffic captain, who by the way was caught on FBI surveillance tape in 1975 saying, now only two people alive know who killed Kennedy.

Stop it, Santo. It gets so much better and worse. Stop it. Even when Santo Traficante was promised immunity in return for testimony, he only ever pleaded the fifth on the snap. Jack Ruby never admitted this, but he found the flames of conspiracy way more than anyone else. Because he, right, they let him live the longest.

And then he starts chatting shit and they're like, listen. We warned you. We couldn't have been clearer. He straight up told the Warren Commission that he was used for a purpose, and that he knew who really killed JFK. He said on camera in court, the world will never know the truth. That's what all of his appeal hearings are like. Yeah.

Very cryptic, but like, enough. Yeah. To get him fucking killed. And I think he's right. Ruby died in 1967, Trafficante died in 1987, and Jimmy Hoffa disappeared in 1975. Marcello died in 1983 in prison,

was quite senile towards the end, and according to prison staff, he would often find himself in the past, speaking about events from decades before. You are not going to believe this. And he still really hated Kennedy. One choice quote that he would often throw around was this. That Kennedy, that smiling motherfucker, we're gonna fix him in Dallas. Mm-hmm. It's prison staff testimony, that.

Just to illustrate the audio format, I just shoved my fist in my mouth. We're almost home free. In the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination, the DRE, which was the organization that Carlos, the angry Cuban, belonged to, the one who punched Oswald back in New Orleans, they directed a PR blitz, making sure that everybody knew that Oswald was pro-Castro. It just so happened that the DRE had been given a new case officer a couple of months before Kennedy was shot. Another nugget of knowledge that was not given to the Warren Commission. And it was concluded by the House Select Committee in the 70s that the CIA actively obstructed this detail

from the Warren investigation. When the Select Committee themselves were having trouble getting responses from the CIA during their own investigation, the CIA decided that they would show willing. the CIA during their own investigation, the CIA decided that they would show willing. So the company called one of their agents out of retirement. His name is George Ioannidis. And they gave George the job of handling liaison requests that came from the Select Committee.

So the committee are like, George, can you find us some stuff about this specific thing? And he's like, okay. Like a fixer. Exactly. And when it came to the DRE, George Ioannidis told the House Select Committee that he couldn't find any documentation indicating who the CIA officer was that was in charge of the DRE. But he did know. Because it was him! Oh my god.

There is still more. Similarly, David Atley Phillips has always denied being mysterious Maurice Bishop, the handler of Alpha 66. But the committee suspected him of perjury throughout their entire process.

Yeah, like he just lies about very provable things and they're like, okay, but this, are you still going to stand by what you said? And he's like, yep. Yeah. And Phillips has also been positively identified to be Maurice Bishop by quite a few Cuban exiles from Alpha 66. He's literally the head of the Western Hemisphere. Who is going to touch him?

Oh. David Atlee Phillips died in 1998, leaving behind a possible quasi-confession, which sounds made up. You are going to want to shove your fist in your mouth. The former CIA Chief of Operations for the entire Western Hemisphere left a draft of a novel behind, which was written from the point of view of a CIA operative stationed in Mexico City, which, just as he had been in real life. And we have a few lines of this novel for you here. I was one of those operatives 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 was responsible for it. I share that guilt. Oh my god. So, did the 2000-ish files that Trump recently released shed any more light on who really killed Kennedy? No, it did not. Not really. Those documents just confirm stuff we already know and that we've known since the 70s. By the way, the House Select Committee concluded that there was quote,

probably a conspiracy to kill President Kennedy but made no indication of who that plot may have involved. Great. Satisfying. In the most recent documents, there's a bit more about the Soviet and Cuban embassy Palava in Mexico City and there's a bit more on Oswald in the Soviet Union. There's some bits and pieces confirming that the CIA were actively attempting to overthrow foreign governments. We know they actually had 128 agents working undercover in the US embassy in Paris alone. had 128 agents working undercover in the US Embassy in Paris alone. A policy that Kennedy was not happy with and there were loads of memos recording the less than ideal relationship between President

Kennedy and the intelligence agencies but we already knew that. There are a few documents on whistleblowers who magically died very soon after they said anything related to the plot to kill Kennedy but no bombshells, no revelations on who really pulled the triggers that day that killed John F. Kennedy. But my comrades, my friends, my Romans, my countrymen, it just doesn't fucking matter. Before JFK was sworn in, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the man who gave the CIA carte blanche to do whatever they wanted in Cuba, Eisenhower, the man who gave the CIA carte blanche to do whatever they wanted in Cuba, warned his electorate about the unwarranted influence of the military-industrial complex. And this is what he had to say.

In the councils of government we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex, the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. The military-industrial complex, of course, refers to the defence contractors and private companies that make untold billions when the world is at war. And untold billions also means big political influence. In 1961 there were dozens of such companies. Now there are just five.

Raytheon Technologies, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, NorthropGerman and General Dynamics. These days the Big Five lobby politicians for higher defence budgets, which influences other nations to up their spending, also with the Big Five, and so on and so forth. The military-industrial complex is a self-sufficient cycle and no one even tries to hide it. Global instability is therefore perpetuated for profit, even if it negatively impacts the national economy of any country. The Big Five always win. And there is reason to believe that Kennedy had really pissed off the men behind the curtain with

his South East Asia policy and his refusal to bomb the Shita Aqibah. So I think, at least for me, there is enough evidence that the military industrial complex and the people who control it wanted to get rid of John F. Kennedy. And I think they used the CIA to do it. And did you know that this year, the budget for the Pentagon and nuclear weapons was $8.92.6 billion. That's nearly a trillion. In 2020, Lockheed Martin received $75 billion in Pentagon contracts. That alone is more than the budgets of the State Department and the Agency for International Development combined.

According to the National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, this is what was revealed recently. The average taxpayer spends about $1,087 per year on weapons contractors and just $270 on K-12 education and only $6 on renewable energy. The American nuclear stockpile is nine times that of China and the defense budget three times as large. Those five companies have donated around 85 million to political candidates in the past two elections alone. The New York Times are four times as likely to speak to an expert with MIC funding the one who doesn't.

So next time you see a quote about world peace in the New York Times, there is a large chance that that person has come from a think tank that is directly funded by the Military Industry Complex. The Pentagon made script revisions on Top Gun Maverick and Lockheed Martin partnered with the producers. Oh, and did you know that the Pentagon has never passed an audit? Not one. Never. But no one seems to know that the US government has a propaganda department. That's what that all is anyway. The point is, it's all still very much alive and well. JFK had a lot

of enemies very capable of concocting an assassination scheme and getting away with it. When it comes to JFK conspiracy camps people tend to fall into different categories. LBJ, I've explained why I don't think that's true. Castro, I don't see what he would possibly have to gain from that. Or people think the CIA did it, or the Mafia did it, or the military industrial complex did it. I think it was a combination of the CIA who were instructed by the military industrial complex working alongside the Mafia and the anti-Castro Cuban exiles that were controlled

by the CIA. And they got away with it. If a conspiracy is good enough, it doesn't matter if you can see it, I'll never prove it. No. And that's the whole point. Anyone with any answers is dead now, so they can release all the documents we want, really. And anyone who has anything to say is now, could be, ironically, in Cuba with Tupac and Jimmy Hoffa. And since 9-11, no one's that bothered about the Kennedy assassination anymore. The enemy has been removed from within and flung over to the Middle East. Whoever shot Kennedy, in my opinion is immaterial, there is a quite convincing paper trail that leads to a Cuban

assassin. You can read about it. I just don't think it's that important because whoever shot Kennedy, the bodies that they represented in 1963 are still here and they still wield loads of power and the powers that be don't have our best interests at heart if they ever did. They're gonna do whatever they want and if we question it they've proven that they're very good at making sure we can't ever uncover it completely. George Orwell told us that war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. And if we know that to be true, then ethics just don't really matter. Right and wrong don't matter, justice and equality don't matter, and everything will always be a little

bit worse. So we don't look, that's how they like it. And if they can get rid of a President of the United States of America in front of a crowd in broad daylight, why would they think twice about you? Oh no. And I am signing myself into a psychiatric ward for quite some time. Oh my gosh. Exhale. Hold. Inhale. Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot. And look, I am utterly bamboozled, but I'm happy to take your theory on board. My only question that I have, and again, might be very easily pushed aside. Cause you know, a lot of people who believe, you know, JFK was like literally shot by SEIA agent on the day, will be the same people who believe that like,

we never landed on the moon, for example. I'm sure there's not a hundred percent crossover, but I'm sure there is some. And you know, one of the biggest things of being like, well, to refute people who say that the moon landing was a conspiracy and a lie is that if the Soviets had one whiff of evidence that the US had never landed on the moon, you can bet your fucking ass they would have been screaming about it. Why would they not? Similarly here, my question is, if the Soviets who would be maybe possibly likely to infiltrate get some information about this, if they had one whiff of evidence that this was a cover-up and I'm not

saying the Warren Commission was above board or anything like that, would they not scream about it, throw everything they could at it to destabilise the US from within? To be like your government is so you know full of itself telling you that communism is bad, that we're evil. They're lying to you. They fucking killed your democratically elected president. So much for your democracy. Boom. Destabilisation. In the West. Wet dream for the fucking Soviets. Now I'm not saying how they would have that evidence or if they would know, but just a question to pose. Because Khrushchev really liked Kennedy and he was not deposed until 1964, by which time they had bigger fish to fry, would be my argument.

I don't doubt that there has been Soviet comms. I don't think we would be allowed to see them in our media. Yeah, because even Khrushchev, because Khrushchev and him had these like, no-erb arc letters and they got on so well, and he wasn't opposed for another few years. Why does he never say anything about it? Or does he?

I think he was scared for his life. His son does. So his son released a series of essays after a safe enough amount of decades had passed. And he's, you know, sort of voices in those essays that he really believes the world would be very different now if Kennedy hadn't had died. Oh, of course. There's a whole thought exercise, isn't it? So no, Khrushchev, apart from sort of, you know, diplomatic speeches of sorrow, doesn't

really say anything, but also like he's knocked off quite aggressively and replaced with a very different set of people. And possibly maybe the reason he doesn't say anything is because the government, the US government, the CIA try quite hard to prove straight away, it's not the Russians, it's not the Russians, it's not the Russians, it's not the Russians. And maybe, you know, he's under instruction Khrushchev on the Soviet side to be like, let's not insert ourselves into this because the whole reason that we are glad they're saying it's not us, and I don't believe it was the Russians, is that we don't want, we want to avoid a war. If you start pointing the finger

at the CIA, we're back in big bomb territory. Nobody actually wants there to be no earth anymore. But it's interesting, isn't it? Because then, which I totally agree with you that that's what nobody wants. Khrushchev doesn't want it. JFK didn't want it. Even the CIA seemed to move away from that idea later. But that's the thing that sticks with me is that if Khrushchev had any suspicions, any evidence, any even thoughts around it, and was free to speak, assuming that's the case, kind of feels like the information warfare of the death of his friend by insiders in the government would have been kind of perfect. Perfect for? Destabilisation.

Because Kennedy's gone now and Lyndon B. Johnson is, is presumably much more hawkish. Hmm. I don't know. I guess we'll never know. We'll never know. It's just one of those questions to think about, or maybe you're already in some sort of coma and we're just talking into the abyss.

Who knows? But yeah, that is it guys. That is the two-parter from us on, in small part, the assassination of JFK, in much larger part, everything else. Everything is bad, a series by Hannah Maguire. And I am now going to go put Hannah Maguire to bed. And all of you, take care. And don't... Just don't...

Just don't... Just don't Google the military industrial complex because you're never going to be able to look away. There is nothing you can do about it. Just go to the pub with your friends and get pissed and have a nice time. Live the pro life we're meant to, man. That's it, that's all you can do. And I'll take Lockheed Martin out myself, don't worry about it. It's on my list. Goodbye. Bye.

We acting bad, bad, bad, bad. We ain't trying I heard nobody. For decades he was untouchable. But now it's all coming undone Sean combs the mogul as we know it is over he will never be that person again even if he's found not guilty of these charges. I'm Jesse Weber host of law and crimes, the rise and fall of did he the federal trial a front row seat to the biggest

trial in entertainment history, sex trafficking racketeering prostitution allegations by federal prosecutors that span decades and witnesses were finally speaking out. The spotlight is harsher the stakes are higher and for did he there may be no second chances. You can listen to the rise and fall of did he the federal trial exclusively with one degree plus join one degree plus in the one degree app Spotify or Apple podcast right now in the summer of 1925 a

small Tennessee town became the battleground for the fight between science and faith in America's public schools. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, host of Wondry's podcast American History Tellers. We take you to the events, times, and people that shaped America and Americans, our values, our struggles, and our dreams. In our latest series, when a young science teacher agrees to participate in a test case orchestrated by the ACLU to challenge Tennessee's ban on teaching evolution, he lands in the center of a raucous spectacle, the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial. Legendary attorneys Clarence

Darrow and William Jennings Bryan face off in a sweltering Tennessee courtroom as the world watches fundamentalist Christianity clash with modern science, setting the stage for battles over education and religious freedom for decades to come. Follow American history tellers on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Experience all episodes ad-free and be the first to binge the newest season only on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial today.