The HSCA Investigation: A Major Step Forward in the JFK Case

[John Tonkovich]

The more I have studied the HSCA, the more I have come to view Blakey in a more positive light. Blakey did many things that I still find inexcusable. Yet, Blakey let Ed Lopez and Don Hardway conduct a no-holes-barred investigation into Oswald's visit to Mexico City, and they uncovered compelling evidence that someone was impersonating Oswald there.

When Blakey heard back from BBN that the DPD dictabelt had at least four gunshot impulses on it, he ordered follow-up research, and then forced a massive rewrite of the HSCA report when Weiss and Aschkenasy confirmed BBN's findings.

Blakey gathered up the nerve to acknowledge that Silvia Odio's account was solid, and he ensured that the HSCA report contained an excellent section on her story, whereas the WC dismissed her account, saying it was "almost certain" that Odio was wrong.

Some of the HSCA skullduggery that critics attack was most likely done without Blakey's knowledge or consent, such as the HSCA FPP's misrepresentation of the testimony of the autopsy witnesses regarding the large head wound as being in agreement with the autopsy report and in disagreement with the Dallas testimony, when in fact we learned when the ARRB released most of the sealed HSCA files that nearly everyone at the autopsy said the large wound was in the back of the head, just as the Dallas doctors and nurses said it was.

Joannides. Fail.

[Michael Carney]

"* Mafia boss Carlos Marcello was a plausible suspect for having been involved in the assassination conspiracy.

* Oswald associated with David Ferrie, an ultra-right-winger who was involved in the Carlos Marcello Mafia organization. (Very strange company for an alleged Marxist to be keeping.)

* Oswald had ties to the Marcello crime organization.

* The Mafia had the means, motive, and opportunity to assassinate President Kennedy.

* In some Mafia hits, the Mafia hired a gunman through third parties to conceal their involvement and then had a Mafia man kill the gunman."

Has anyone discussed the motive the mafia would have for killing JFK?

[Michael T. Griffith]

When Robert Blakey allowed the HSCA's final report to say that Mafia elements and some anti-Castro Cubans may have been involved in the assassination conspiracy, he was coming dangerously close to the truth, since the anti-Castro Cubans were funded and directed by the CIA, and since the CIA used Mafia men for some domestic operations.

Blakey also allowed the final report to state that the CIA and elements of the military withheld information from and misled the Warren Commission.

For all of Blakey's sins (and there were many), he should be given due credit for allowing these two key conclusions to appear in the committee's final report.

[Jerry Freeman]

When Robert Blakey allowed the HSCA's final report to say that Mafia elements and some anti-Castro Cubans may have been involved in the assassination ... he should be given due credit for allowing these two key conclusions to appear in the committee's final report.

As it did nothing to sway the perception of the general public... any credit [though merited] is therefor moot.

[Gerry Down]

When Robert Blakey allowed the HSCA's final report to say that Mafia elements and some anti-Castro Cubans may have been involved in the assassination conspiracy, he was coming dangerously close to the truth, since the anti-Castro Cubans were funded and directed by the CIA, and since the CIA used Mafia men for some domestic operations.

Blakey also allowed the final report to state that the CIA and elements of the military withheld information from and misled the Warren Commission.

For all of Blakey's sins (and there were many), he should be given due credit for allowing these two key conclusions to appear in the committee's final report.

The problem with the HSCA report is that is says there was probably a conspiracy but couldn't give the actual evidence of it or say who was involved with Oswald (as they did say that Oswald had fired three shots from behind).

You can't say there was a conspiracy and then not say who or what the conspiracy was. That doesn't make any sense.

[Michael T. Griffith]

The problem with the HSCA report is that is says there was probably a conspiracy but couldn't give the actual evidence of it or say who was involved with Oswald (as they did say that Oswald had fired three shots from behind).

No, they did provide evidence, quite a bit of evidence: the DPD dictabelt, the post-assassination box movement in the sniper's nest, Ruby's Mafia ties, Ruby's route to entering the DPD basement, the parallels between Oswald's execution by Ruby and the Mafia's execution of hired gunmen, the witness accounts of hearing shots from the grassy knoll, relevant anti-Castro Cuban activity, etc., etc.

You can't say there was a conspiracy and then not say who or what the conspiracy was. That doesn't make any sense.

But that's not what they said. Even the final report clearly identified Mafia elements and anti-Castro Cuban elements as plausible suspects. But Blakey and other HSCA personnel noted that the committee had reached the end of its lifespan and thus could not continue its investigation. A key factor was that the acoustical evidence was only firmly developed toward the end of the committee's lifespan.

[Michael Carney]

Yes they made a major step forward but they could not come out with the “whole truth” and that is that Carlos Marcello and Carlos Trafficante conspired together to kill JFK. This in conjunction with Hickey accidentally firing the, or one of the head shots that killed JFK. 

Marcello and Trafficante both admitted that they did it. Marcello made insinuations, found in the book "Mafia Kingfish" and another book?? That he did it and while in prison he admitted it to his cell mate who was an FBI plant that “they” did it. Trafficante admitted to his lawyer Frank Ragano while in a car with him. That is in Ragano’s book "Mob Lawyer". Trafficante admitted it just before he passed away.

There was also another time that Trafficante told someone that JFK was going to be hit.