Final_Judgment

274 Double Cross in Dallas? [213]
G. Robert Blakey (about whose own connections with the CIA and the
Meyer Lansky Organized Crime Syndicate we learned in Chapter 10).
Miss Lorenz, a German-born beauty, had, in fact, been the one-time
mistress of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, but she had ultimately turned on
the Cuban leader and had become involved in anti-Castro activities under the
CIA's tutelage. Among her key contacts in the CIA during this period was
the CIA's chief liaison with the anti-Castro Cuban operatives, E. Howard
Hunt, as well as veteran CIA contract agent Frank Sturgis who essentially
functioned as her handler. Mark Lane asked Miss Lorenz to testify in the
Hunt trial in The Spotlight's defense, restating—again under oath—what she
had told the House Assassinations Committee and what she had told Lane
himself years previously.
HUNT & RUBY IN DALLAS
So it was that during the Hunt libel trial, Miss Lorenz testified in a
deposition that just one day prior to Kennedy's assassination, she, along
with Sturgis and several anti-Castro Cuban exiles, met in Dallas with not
only E. Howard Hunt, but also nightclub operator Jack Ruby who later
killed Lee Harvey Oswald, the president's alleged assassin.
According to Miss Lorenz, Hunt was the CIA paymaster for a top-secret
operation, the purpose of which she did not know. Miss Lorenz said that she
had been told by Sturgis that she was to serve as a "decoy."
However, feeling uneasy, Miss Lorenz left Dallas on November 22 and
never participated in the operation. It was later she learned that President
Kennedy had been assassinated and that, of course Jack Ruby had killed Lee
Harvey Oswald, the president's alleged assassin. 589
As for Hunt himself, his contradictory stories about where he was
situated both the day before the Kennedy assassination and the day of the
assassination itself were suspicious. Lane took excellent advantage of
Hunt's sworn statements (in deposition and during the two trials, as well as
several other forums) to show those contradictions. These contradictions
alone could have spelled Hunt's courtroom demise.
What's more, the witnesses called in Hunt's defense by the ex-CIA
man's attorneys only ended up suggesting Hunt had more to hide than he
had to admit. Many of these witnesses, in fact, were an assortment of
Hunt's former CIA colleagues, a number of whom were represented during
their testimony in deposition by CIA-dispatched lawyers.
However, it was the testimony of Marita Lorenz that convinced the
jury, once and for all, that The Spotlight (and Lane himself) had a much
more plausible story than Hunt. Thus, the stunning courtroom victory for
The Spotlight, vanquishing Hunt's libel action.
Leslie Armstrong, a Miami resident who was jury forewoman in the
case, issued a statement in conjunction with the release of Lane's written
account of the trial:
"Mr. Lane was asking us [the jury] to do something very difficult. He
was asking us to believe John Kennedy had been killed by our own