Final_Judgment

Chapter Ten
Little Man's Little Man:
Meyer Lansky & Carlos Marcello—
Did the Mafia Kill JFK?
Meyer Lansky's Louisiana front-man, Carlos Marcello,
h a s b e c o m e a f a v o r i t e t a r g e t f o r J F K a s s a s s i n a t i o n
researchers who like to claim that "The Mafia Killed JFK."
The fact is that Marcello's most formidable chief accuser,
G . R o b e r t B l a k e y , s t a f f d i r e c t o r o f t h e H o u s e S e l e c t
Committee on Assassinations, had been on the payroll of a
key figure in the Meyer Lansky Organized Crime Syndicate.
Marcello was only one cog in the Lansky Syndicate. His
key placement in New Orleans—scene of much of the preassassination
planning—makes him the perfect fall guy.
Marcello also had ties to Israel's allies in the CIA. There's a
lot more to the Marcello story than meets the eye.
It was Lee Harvard Oswald's pathetic cry, "I'm just a patsy," that has
become immortalized. Ironically, though, one of the most widely alleged
JFK assassination masterminds—New Orleans' widely-publicized supposed
"crime boss"—might himself be able to make that same claim. We are
speaking, of course, of the colorful Carlos Marcello—nicknamed "Little
Man"—a sobriquet he happened to share with Meyer Lansky.
BLAMING MARCELLO
One book, John W. Davis's Mafia Kingfish: Carlos Marcello and the
Assassination of John F. Kennedy, names Marcello as the likely
mastermind of the JFK murder. Standing alone, with no further evidence
such as that we have cited in the pages of Final Judgment, in this chapter
and elsewhere, Davis' contention seems reasonable. But, as we've said, his
conclusions are not based on the totality of all the evidence available to
those who are interested in the big picture.
DISTORTING THE TRUTH
David Scheim, writing in Contract on America: The Mafia Murder of
President John F. Kennedy, likewise blames "the Mafia" for the JFK
assassination and also points the finger at Carlos Marcello in particular. For
whatever reason, however, Scheim is devoted to underplaying (even
ignoring) the critical role of Meyer Lansky in the underworld.
In Scheim's view, Lansky was little more than a bit player—this in
direct contradiction to even standard histories of organized crime which, by
virtue of reality, are forced to recognize Lansky's particular influence.