[Sample B: Approval/Signature Sheet] - George Mason University

“was not recruited by Marcello, Bannister, and Ferrie to participate in a conspiracy to
assassinate the president” but rather was set up to take the blame. 471
Davis discounted Oswald’s supposed intelligence connections. He acknowledged
that the mob could not have sent Oswald to the Soviet Union, but weakly argued that “the
issue is not relevant to the conspiracy to assassinate the president.” 472 Actually, if
Oswald was a U.S. or Soviet intelligence agent, that would indicate some degree of
conspiratorial complicity by the CIA or KGB in the assassination. Others argue that the
mob could not have covered up so many aspects of the conspiracy – that government
institutions must have been involved. Davis dismissed this argument by saying that FBI
director J. Edgar Hoover, the Kennedy family, President Johnson, and the Warren
Commission had their own reasons for not thoroughly investigating a mob conspiracy.
Such a probe would have uncovered many unsavory secrets. Davis claimed, for example,
that Hoover was a horse gambling addict, and that New York mobster Frank Costello had
incriminating information about the FBI director. Hoover for many years denied the
existence of the mob, and focused on his anti-communist crusade. Bobby Kennedy
sought to change that, but the murder of his brother brought an end to his campaign
against Marcello, Trafficante, Hoffa, and the mob.
None of the mobsters ever faced criminal charges in the assassination of President
Kennedy. Trafficante died a free man on March 17, 1987, but not before his alleged
death-bed confession to Ragano. Marcello was convicted of fraud and conspiracy
471 Davis, 88-89.
472 Davis, 254.
209