Friends of Democratic Cuba was formed on January 6, 1961 [1] to serve as the fund-raising arm of anti-Castro activist Sergio Arcacha Smith's New Orleans' branch of the Cuban Revolutionary Council (CRC). [2]
According to an October 26, 1967 CIA document: "This organization was created by several New Orleans business and political figures, including the deceased former FBI agent, Guy Banister, to collect money to aid Cubans in their fight against Communism." [3] Guy Banister, helped draw up a charter for the organization [2] [4] [5] and was on its board of directors. [1] According to the before cited CIA document: "One month after the FDC [Friends of Democratic Cuba] was created, it was put out of business by strong criticism from prominent Cubans. There was evidence that the FDC was organized strictly for the personal gain of the promoters." [3]
Jack Leon Ruby was an American nightclub owner who killed Lee Harvey Oswald on November 24, 1963, two days after Oswald was accused of assassinating President John F. Kennedy. Ruby shot and mortally wounded Oswald on live television in the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters and was immediately arrested.
Lee Harvey Oswald was a U.S. Marine veteran who assassinated John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, on November 22, 1963.
The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established by President Lyndon B. Johnson through Executive Order 11130 on November 29, 1963, to investigate the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy that had taken place on November 22, 1963.
The United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) was established on September 15, 1976 by U.S. House Resolution 1540 to investigate the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963 and 1968, respectively. The select committee was first formed by the 94th United States Congress, and expired at the end of the 95th Congress.
Santo Trafficante Jr. was among the most powerful Mafia bosses in the United States. He headed the Trafficante crime family from 1954 to 1987 and controlled organized criminal operations in Florida and Cuba, which had previously been consolidated from several rival gangs by his father, Santo Trafficante Sr.
The Fair Play for Cuba Committee (FPCC) was an activist group set up in New York City by Robert Taber in April 1960. It was active in both the USA and Canada.
The Church Committee was a US Senate select committee in 1975 that investigated abuses by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), National Security Agency (NSA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Chaired by Idaho Senator Frank Church (D-ID), the committee was part of a series of investigations into intelligence abuses in 1975, dubbed the "Year of Intelligence", including its House counterpart, the Pike Committee, and the presidential Rockefeller Commission. The committee's efforts led to the establishment of the permanent US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
David William Ferrie was an American pilot who was alleged by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison to have been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. Garrison also alleged that Ferrie knew Lee Harvey Oswald. Ferrie denied any involvement in a conspiracy and said he never knew Oswald. Decades later, photos emerged establishing that Ferrie had been in the same Civil Air Patrol unit as Oswald in the 1950s, but critics have argued this does not prove that either Ferrie or Oswald was involved in an assassination plot.
William Guy Banister was an employee of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), an assistant superintendent of the New Orleans Police Department, and a private investigator. After his death, New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison alleged that he had been involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He was an avid anti-communist, alleged member of the Minutemen, the John Birch Society, Louisiana Committee on Un-American Activities, and alleged publisher of the Louisiana Intelligence Digest which maintained that the civil rights movement was part of an international communist conspiracy and was treasonous.
George Sergius de Mohrenschildt was an American petroleum geologist, anti-communist political refugee, professor, and occasional CIA field agent. De Mohrenschildt, who moved to the Dallas area in October 1961, is best known for having befriended Lee Harvey Oswald in the summer of 1962.
On March 1, 1967, New Orleans District attorney Jim Garrison arrested and charged New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw with conspiring to assassinate President Kennedy, with the help of Lee Harvey Oswald, David Ferrie, and others. On January 29, 1969, Shaw was brought to trial in Orleans Parish Criminal Court on these charges. On March 1, 1969, a jury took less than an hour to find Shaw not guilty. It remains the only trial to be brought for the assassination of President Kennedy.
The Cuban Revolutionary Council was a group formed, with CIA assistance, three weeks before the April 17, 1961, Bay of Pigs Invasion to "coordinate and direct" the activities of another group known as the Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front. Both groups were composed of Cuban exiles dedicated to overthrowing Fidel Castro's communist government in Cuba. José Miró Cardona, former Prime Minister of Cuba, was chairman of the Cuban Revolutionary Council. On its board of directors were: Antonio de Varona, Justo Carrillo, Carlos Hevia, Antonio Maceo, Manuel Ray, and Manuel Artime.
The Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front was founded in May 1960 by anti-Castro Cuban exiles and was initially headquartered in Mexico. It was known in Spanish as the Frente Revolucionario Democrático (FRD) and was composed of five major anti-Castro groups. The FRD's military wing was called Brigade 2506, which fought in the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Cuban exile Sergio Arcacha Smith was the head of the New Orleans chapter of the FRD. In December 1960, Arcacha Smith opened an office in the Balter Building at 403 Camp Street, Room 207. This was the building where anti-Castro activist and accused JFK assassination conspirator Guy Banister had his office until July 1960. In October 1961, the FRD was absorbed by the Cuban Revolutionary Council, and Arcacha moved the office to 544 Camp Street for several months. Arcacha was forced out of his position in January 1962 by a group of local anti-Castro exiles.
The Crusade to Free Cuba Committee was founded in December 1961 by anti-Castro Cuban exile Sergio Arcacha Smith to raise funds and support for the CIA-backed Cuban Revolutionary Council, a group formerly known as the Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front.
The CIA Kennedy assassination is a prominent John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theory. According to ABC News, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is represented in nearly every theory that involves American conspirators. The secretive nature of the CIA, and the conjecture surrounding the high-profile political assassinations in the United States during the 1960s, has made the CIA a plausible suspect for some who believe in a conspiracy. Conspiracy theorists have ascribed various motives for CIA involvement in the assassination of President Kennedy, including Kennedy's firing of CIA director Allen Dulles, Kennedy's refusal to provide air support to the Bay of Pigs invasion, Kennedy's plan to cut the agency's budget by 20 percent, and the belief that the president was weak on communism. In 1979, the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) concluded that the CIA was not involved in the assassination of Kennedy.
The assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, has spawned numerous conspiracy theories. These theories allege the involvement of the CIA, the Mafia, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro, the KGB, or some combination of these individuals and entities. Some conspiracy theories have alleged a coverup by parts of the federal government, such as the original FBI investigators, the Warren Commission, or the CIA. Lawyer and author Vincent Bugliosi estimated that a total of 42 groups, 82 assassins, and 214 people had been accused at one time or another in various conspiracy scenarios.
Silvia Odio del Torro is a Cuban-American who provided testimony to the Warren Commission investigating the assassination of John F. Kennedy that Lee Harvey Oswald was one of three strangers who visited her Dallas, Texas apartment in September 1963 to solicit money for the anti-Castro counterrevolutionary group JURE.
The United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) made numerous unsuccessful attempts to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro. There were also attempts by Cuban exiles, sometimes in cooperation with the CIA. The 1975 Church Committee claimed eight proven CIA assassination attempts between 1960 and 1965. In 1976, President Gerald Ford issued an Executive Order banning political assassinations. In 2006, Fabián Escalante, former chief of Cuba's intelligence, stated that there had been 634 assassination schemes or attempts. The last known plot to assassinate Castro was by Cuban exiles in 2000.
Gordon Michael Duane Novel was a private investigator and electronics expert, who was known for several controversial investigations. He was most notable for his conflict with District Attorney Jim Garrison and his work as investigator for automobile industry executive John DeLorean and U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark.
Antonio Veciana Blanch was a Cuban exile who became the founder and a leader of the anti-Castro group Alpha 66.