Final_Judgment

294 Double Cross in Dallas? [233]
In his book Conspiracy, Anthony Summers describes one John Martino
who was known to have connections to both the Mafia, Meyer Lansky's
lieutenant, Santo Trafficante, Jr., in particular, and the Central Intelligence
Agency. In fact, Martino admitted in 1975 that he had been a CIA contract
agent and that he had inside knowledge about the circumstances surrounding the
JFK assassination.
Summers quotes Martino as having said, "The anti-Castro people put
Oswald together. Oswald didn't know who he was working for—he was just
ignorant of who was really putting him together." 621
After Martino died in 1978, Summers notes, his widow claimed that
"the Company" (i.e. the CIA) picked up his body to determine the cause of
death, which was established to have been a heart attack. 622
Martino and film star Audie Murphy unquestionably had at least one
connection, indirect, at the least, that can be documented.
Murphy was employed for a period during the mid-1960s by New
Orleans businessman, D'Alton Smith. 623 Smith was an intimate personal
associate of Meyer Lansky's Louisiana front man, Carlos Marcello.
The story told by John Martino, at the very least, has a ring similar to
the story told by the "John" whom Gary Wean met in Dallas. However,
shortly before Final Judgment went to press, Wean revealed to this
author the identity of the gentleman named John who told him what had
really happened in Dallas.
According to Wean when he wrote his book describing his meeting
with John, he deliberately did not reveal John's last name, although he knew
exactly who John was. What's more, according to Wean, he slightly altered
his physical description of John in order to protect his identity.
At the time Wean's book was written, John was alive. However, on
April 5, 1991 John died, like Audie Murphy, in a bizarre airplane explosion
that made national headlines. He was John Tower who, in 1961 had been the
first Republican in this century to win a Senate seat from Texas.
A stalwart ally of the CIA throughout his career, it was Tower who
took many of the secrets of the Iran-Contra scandal to his grave, having
headed the commission which critics contend was a CIA whitewash of the
events, particularly those involving Israel's role in the affair.
A 'THIRD FORCE'?
Veteran JFK assassination researcher, Dick Russell himself has
pondered the possibility that the CIA's relationship with Lee Harvey
Oswald—whatever the nature of that relationship—was "usurped by another
group.” 624
As Russell notes, "Many people in the CIA had reasons to cover up
their own relationship to Oswald, even if this had nothing to do with an
assassination conspiracy. In considering this plethora of possibilities . . .
what cannot be overlooked is that a 'third force' was aware of the counterspy
web [surrounding Oswald] and seized on it to their own advantage." 625