Final_Judgment

[304] Final Judgment 365
also played some role, although whether they were actual gunmen has yet to be
determined.
Although it is likely (although not certain) that Meyer Lansky's Mafia
lieutenants—Santo Trafficante, Jr. of Tampa and Carlos Marcello of New
Orleans—had advance knowledge of the impending assassination itself, it is
not clear that they, or, for that matter, Chicago Mafia boss Sam Giancana or the
Mafia's "roving ambassador," Johnny Rosselli, were actually involved in the
planning of the assassination itself. However, we do know today that both
Giancana and Rosselli were under the thumb of Mossad-connected crime
boss Hyman Lamer—and that opens up a whole new can of worms.
The role of the Italian-American organized crime figures in the JFK
assassination is more media-generated myth than reality. At best, they were
secondary players in the bigger scheme of things.
In Appendix Nine we will also consider the likely role—at least as an
intermediary—that top-ranking Mossad figure Shaul Eisenberg played in the
events surrounding the assassination, suggesting that Eisenberg did, in fact,
have advance knowledge of the impending assassination.
PEOPLE ON THE PERIPHERY . . .
Here are those persons who were engaged in some form of activity
that tied them to the assassination conspiracy (whether or not
they were aware that an actual assassination would indeed take place):
Lee Harvey Oswald;
CIA operative E. Howard Hunt;
CIA station chief for Mexico City, David Atlee Phillips;
CIA contract agent and Permindex board member Clay Shaw;
CIA contract agent Guy Banister;
CIA contract agent David Ferrie;
Maurice Brooks Gatlin; Permindex courier;
CIA contract agent Robert Morrow;
Dallas mob associate Jack Ruby;
CIA associate, U.S. Senator John Tower and
Assorted anti-Castro Cuban exiles and others, including CIA
contract operative Marita Lorenz.
Meyer Lansky's West Coast henchman, Mickey Cohen, and Israeli
diplomat (later Prime Minister) Menachem Begin, had been involved in
Israeli-related intelligence intrigue against President Kennedy, but it cannot
be said definitively that they were cognizant of an assassination conspiracy
before the fact, although it is likely that Cohen's associate Al Gruber may
have given Jack Ruby the order to kill Lee Harvey Oswald.
Various members of the CIA, figures in the Mafia and the Lansky
Syndicate, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, and some investigators for the
Warren Commission and the subsequent House Assassinations Committee
may have gleaned some information over the years as to portions of what
had happened, but few would be aware of the entirety of the conspiracy.