left this country with a kaxte falsified Passport. He says he had lost+ his citizenship back in the mid-50's, without “Notes -~ call from Frank Sturgis w/ £d Keiser.8/2/76 tatel Says he's at a friendts house and this friend Just came back from Israel. He was in one of the big notorious prisons over there, Romley (sp?) prison outside Tel Aviv, the top security - prison where al| the major caDtured terrorists are locked unp., -.-his friend is very much in with the American Jews in this area and he had gone to Israel with the idea of trying to help Israel as an undercover agent; to help infiltrate the PLO. He did that and came back with a lot of information. Sturgis told him-he would try to get someone to talk with him because he feels there is much information his friend has that our government Should be aare of, since he made friends and has a lot of connections now with the terrorist leaders jn prison, He put himself in prison with. the knowledge. of Israeli Intellengence. - mo "This guy has worked for me in the past and he's worked as an undercover agent for several federa| agencies, He used to be with the French Foreign Legion, the guy is realfy a hot-shot guy." --Name is Edwin Keiser , Sturgis said he thought | might find This guy's story of interest. "Whether it can be of any help to you or Schwéiker, | don't knew. After all, your boy is running for politics now." | said | didn't know whether Schweiker would be interested in that information since it's really outside our subject area, "You never can tell,” said Sturgis, “you know how politicians — are, lf they think there's a littte bit of something that they might be able to use and Schweiker, | don't know what = kind of religious background he's got but that sounds. Jewish anyway," losaid | wasn't interested in the Political aspects of any kind. “of intelligence information and |} didn't think Schwiker was either, "Well, why dontt you just say hello to mv friend here anyway," said Sturgis. "He's got an interesting backgoound, I've known. him for a number of years and he's good to know." "Hell, Frank," |{ said, “isn't there anybody you ‘don't know?! : . “Sturgis laughed and said, "Well, there were some peopde | Swear | didn'+ Know and I'd like To keep it that way. Ha, ha, ha, you know, one of those things.” : t Ed Keiser aot on the phone and said that his prohlem was that the ‘Amertéan Embassy in Israel, specifically the vice consul (whose ‘Name is John Adams and who is, in fact, chief of the CIA Station), told him hat when he, Keiser, returned to the U.S. he would be in touch with certain people and now he found that no one wants to talk with him, because technically he's under arrest for having his knowledge of losing it, when kee he joined the kxyem French | . “Foreign Legion. He Says it was taken away without a hearing or’ trial. - and he has since found out that shouldn't have been done. He says, — however, he has never Stopped fighting Communisth and he has been out of the country severa| times since then on false Dassports, 2°) tte mien ints tore eee . AW 53080 DoclId: 32264840 Page 11.
This fast time he went to tsrael he went ona forged passport and | after a month and a half he gave himself up and agreed to work undercover in the prison for the Israeli government. He was in Romley prison for five and a half months, including with .- _the 43 people they wanted to exchange on the hijacking program | in Uganda, al! the top-ranking terrorists. He kaw left in good standing with these terrorists, including the six Jews. and 30 Arabs who had plotted to take over the Israeli government » ‘who had come in out of Syria. He dame back to the U.S. to be prosecuted, paroled to this country .by the Israefti government an an &x Israeli. "| brought back quite a bit of information with me," he said. For instance, he said, he was in prison with an American. whose. . father is a very big man in. the California movie business. The ---son was arrested for smuggling a half a ton of hashish, and — his famity is dealing heavily here in the States and in South America with cocaine and other drugs. LBs The Federal agents he's xxx tried to talk with said they can't talk with him because he's under arrest wan (for false use of a passport) and his case is: not resolved. : - "It's really stupid,” he says. "I'm carrying information around with me, | supposed to be in contact with intelligence over there and carry on with what ! was doing,_and | can't even talk with people in my own coutmry to see if they want me to contings,." He was arrested by FBI here after he arrived at Kennedy airport, after being deported by Israel. . They put a $25,000 bond on x him in New York and another $25,000 bond in Miami. They m® brought him here for prosecution because here's where he falsified the passport. He sags he was also subpoénaed to Watergate when Frank.was involved and!he brought up Information that could have really heftped Frank, the information was taken but nothing was done. "It was really. a- sad thing,” he said."I think it was just used politically. | had: agents in Cuba that were coming out of Havana who were willing to come here and testify, but the Senate wouldn't send a PBY or: couldn't get authorization to pick them up. This all went to Howard Baker and ~ his assistant Liebengood and they didn't do anything. ! have but - “one life to. live and l'?l give it to my country, but | felt sour about that. He said he was working with the Cubars here in Miami for a while after Wateraate but he decided to ao to Israel and fight Communish there "because those people are serious. He says he effectively infiltrated the terrorist and Communist groups within Israel prisons and he brought out important information but now ."it seems like my own country could care less about it." He says he'd like to get the information primarily to. the CIA, expecially stuff about the k PLO. He says he has pages of information which, if. - “he dropped on the United Nations "would blow the lid off." “He wouldn't do that, of course, without the authorization of. his government; But 1'm sitting on a § keg of dynamite here and | don't know: why my Sn . government is not at feast talking with me... If they want to. pat me. Mats put me jail, but at lteast- first talk to me. Dectd: 32264840- Page 12
He says his wife put up their house to raise money for his bond, — ~ . He says he's being represented by a public defender because he cant afford an attorney: Edward G. Galante (305-350-4391) © He says he talked to people from DEA who say they're interested ‘in what | got and to head of intelligence of U.S. Customs (Steve Czukos) here in Sowtirh Florida == but they all. put him oft* and he hasn't heard from any of them. -meanwhile, he says he is supposed to get back in touch wk with “Israeli intelligence, he has a4 code and it wax should have been started a week.ago, but he doesn't want to start it up “again without making our government aware of what he is doing. He says he also has agents with the PLO who are waiting now in Rome for him and he has been putting that off too. ‘He says his attorney is talking about making a deal with the government but he's not interested, hets interested only in ‘getting out the information he has... . o ") think that the information | have has something to do with ‘the security of this nation, because it has somethina to do with the security of Israel." ‘He says just the information he has on drugs alone is valuable. ~The guy he met in prison who was busted with a half tone of hash should be out in two or three weeks and he's on ke his way back to California with a conspiracy he put together in the Israeli prison.. Keiser says he's got knowledge of how ‘drugs are coming in, who's arranging for them, and who is -carrying them. sHe says the DEA told him they are interested but because he is “still on charges and has a court case pending, it is not. allowed- oto talk with him or work. wkk with him.. “His home number is 832-3358. He said: "If you can't get’a hold of © ame, you can always get a hold of Frank and he'll! know where 1am because | don't do anything without his knowledge anyway." i told Keiser t don't know what, if anything, t could do about shis problem but that | would bring it to the attention of my office. Sturgis than got on the line again and said that what Keiser forget +o mention to me is that he has informatoon that PLO leaders are using the drug traffic to finance their terrorist operations. 7 53080 ; Docld: 32264840 Page 13...
HW 53080. Sturgis 8/4/76 tatel ~-asked if 1! contaeted the person who got the note from Cuba re meeting of Castro and Ruby... asked if 1! would give him the ax hames and details again of tbe Tarabochia memo... --doesn't know the name of Pratkin or Paskin mentioned in memo.. (Why would Ruby visit him?) Well, why would Ruby go visit _McWillie.. You know McWillie was one of the big boys there... so evidentally he had more than one connection...but remember when he went over there there were no more racket guys there, so why would he go see this man? --Trafficante came out, | think, in 60, when they closed the casinos...that was after | came out...! left in June of X2&@z7*989- 1959 -- the casinos were stil | operating.. (Could Trafficante have had a deal with Castro?) _- doubt it. "Remember | closed the casinos for 10 days on Castro's orders. There was a big uproaa. I! told Trafficante and some of these otherpeople, because | was in charge of the casinos for the government, and |! told them, | says, | want to tell you something for your own good, Fidel has said that kexx he's gotng to run all the gangsters out of Cuba and take all their businesses. On one of my tours of the casinos | ran into Santos and | told Santos,! said, ! want to tell you something, if you see your other friends tell them | was in the prime ministers oftice with. Fidel and Bidel said he's gonna nationalize all the American businesses here and he 's goinna run you fuckin! gangsters out) of Cuba.' And he says, 'Naah, he can't do that, we got.over a hundred million dollars in investiments here! Who the fuck does he think he is?’ He was really hot. "That sunavatich should.be dead!' Naah, he was an enemy of Fidel's. (What's behind Crile piece then?) 1 don't know. Crile took some cracks at me. Well, 1! can't say that's wrong, because | don't know, all | can say is what happened to me and what | know. .- a But, let's face it, Martinez worked for the mob. He was working for the Havana Hilton when | met him in 1959 on the baccarat. table.. a avers c7knows Aleman, not well. ‘not buddy buddy with him like Si@eeRR never talked to him about this; "i'm surprised Aleman came up with 9° that because one time Aleman borrowed some money from Santos when he needed it." ‘Trafficante kill JFK?2. "I dontt think so, no, | don't think. so. The man most logically to want to kill JFK would be that guy & In New Orleans, whassisname, yeah Marcelle. He would be the logical. one." Surprised Aleman said that. "He's got a lotta balls to say that in the paper; wxaegkukkxx but why didn't it come out down, here?" **® ‘But | don't know why Martinez & is working with Barker. Barker is a totten sunavabitch. But one of these days I'll find out why a. certain CIA agent wanted me to do a domestic assassithation. 1 wish | bad a good memory to xm find out when it was asked me because that. . would nail that sunnavabitch CO of the party, because as | understand. his CO was very leftist and considered an undercover Communist. agent, but I'll dig it out one of these days..." Ts Moe DocId: 3227643940 Page 14
2 - You know, Ambassador Smith called Wiltiam Caldwell, who was ~ chief of CIA in Havana in 1959, a “goddamn Communist.” Oh, you don't know what went on... (Was there a Cogswell also?) | don't know, I'll have to check some of my notes on some of these things. You know Paul Bethel was there also, he was the press agent...that was a nice little cover...yeah, he was an agent... he may be retired right now, but | believe he's done some contract work for them off and on... No, | can't believe that Santos worked with Bd Fidel! You know | told you that they contacted me once, wanted me to kill Fidel... (Yeah, Norm Rothman asked you, didn't he?) Ohmxas no, no, no. lt was Hymie Levine and another party...but they had a lot of connections with other people, besides me, who were constantly with Fidel and if they wanted to nail him they coutd have..: ~Trafficante hangs out at Capra's (80th & Biscayne) when he's . in town... that's one of his people there.... 8 o'clock. | haven't been there for years, but | know, | was told one time, if you ever want to see me or something like that, 8'oclock, have spaghetti with me, you know, we'll both. hit, but ! don't go there, ! don't mess with him, | keep away _from zee mob...not my kind of people... ‘HW 53080 DocId:32264840 Page 15
Sturgis 8/5/76 — tatel -asked if | spoke to Barker or Martinez yet? Crile wrote an article about me that didn't put me in a good - light. Of course, you know me and Barker &. are on the outs. 1 don't like Barker... You know, | was gonna put Barker's head through the wall xap in prison. The sunavabitch is a freakin' coward. | tried to get at him and four of the prisoners grabbed me and he went into the corner like a coddamn baby, the sunavabitch. But Itit fix his ass. . You .know: | told the Senate Watergate Committee that one CIA associate of mine asked me to do-a domestic assassination, and |- told xa them it was Bernard Barker. Add | told them, if you don't believe me, give me a -polygraph...And his CO was a goddamn Communist bastard! (yells) Because he sure ftoved Fidel, even over here. But | told Barker | wanted ‘the orders directly from theCO because 1 wanted to make ‘sure | knew who the # people was... | told Barker, if you're CO told you to contact me, then | want to see him...then So, +he CO told him he didn't m want me to do it... And 1 don't. know what year this was... The Rockefeller Commission really went into detail with me on that. | told them, | says, well, -|'t} be honest with you, because +his is why I'm so mad at these goddamn CIA officials. They get you to do their dirty work and after a while they throw you to the wolves, like they did at the Watergate and...uhh, you know... uhhh... so now | 'm down on them. Fuck em. Well, whatayagonna do? (asked him who Barker's CO was: talked aroond it) Barker had same CO here as he had in Havana... 1 forget who is CO was, because an employee had various types of agents: Barker and - Martinez were contract agents, | was not a contract agent, beacause oe - didn't sign a contract and | didn't swear to KRRRER Secrecy, but | was a so-called field operator recruited by them to an work for them on a cash basis, for a week or for months...but | wasn't in the same position Barker and Martinez waS...because +here were times here when they wanted me to turn in Cubans - . making raids against Cuba and | said, Hell, you gotta be kiddin', . I'm a goddamn revolutionary! Just because you people are not -assisting Cubans anymore, l'm gonna turn them in? Fuck you, I'm ‘not gonna do it... ike | was very close to Sam Jenis and his whole x family, we were very close, very close, since 1956, -. and | worked with that whole family, and two of the family members were CIA people, but they knew how | felt, they knew | would never betray the Cubans.. _. this here David Phillips, he knocked the shit out of me on televisoon, he said, "We never did no assassination, and Sturais ‘is. full of shit, he never had no association with us, he never was an agent!" Well, fuck him, the sunavabitch, a week later — all the shit broke loose about assassinations and allt, and the ~ Gianncanna bit, and then admitted on television that when he was : chief of western hemisphere division, that he notified +he Cuban. _ -government--Castro! -~- through the Czeckheslovakian embassy, when.“ . Cuban groups were leaving the South Florida area to da.go to ft Cuba and a do operations against him. Here's a man admitting | - that he was betraying Cubans to be caught over there and executed! Wf 53080 Docld: 32264840 Page 16
(l heard & he was involved in seme Castro assassination attempts _ that never came off) Lo "I'm gonna tel] you something. | think it's a little game they play, | think the plots that they wanted us to do were simply done to go ahead and make certain people think that they were working. But | think what they were doing al] along, they were - really betraying uS, you know what | mean? They have one . polic¥: Nail 'em, but behind the door Stop it. The Cubans ‘had.a d force here and they had this feeling against Castro, so to pacify certain people who had a lot of influence here, they had to pacify them by saying, well, we're gonna do things. but at the same time they're doing the betrayal bullshit... And David Phillips convinced me that they had been doing this all along, just betraying everyone, the American public and everyone., a hear he was pretty much involved in the Chilean thing also) Who, Phillips? With the Allende thing? You better believe it!.- (Cl asked him why did David Phillips have an interest in his KXKKHKKE _Cellula Fantasma operation, as ! had heard he had?) 1 don't know, he said, | really don't know. Well, he was pretty high up, you know..(even in 61, 627) --well, yeah..." Said the — guy in charge was Conte-Aquerra, he worked for the company, later they sent him to Europe on an economic mission... "Then Diaz-Lanz- got into the picture, he was Suppose to take over the group, | and that's what started a lot of problems. We had a lot of problems and | think this is where David Phillips came in, becaase ‘then he started to get interested, you know, because of Pedro Diaz Lanz coming into the group." ptm writing @ book. | sign a contract with Oséar Fraley this .. Sunday." Doing a movie with Morgan on the Trujillo thing, and Fraley will do the book of his life, less the Trujillo thing.. ov~talk to Pedro Diaz Lanz, that's how | got involved in. the Trujiflo HW. 53080.) DocTd: 32264840. Page 17 thing. And talk to him about Artime. You Artime is still working an for the people. RKexd Hell! tell you Artime's an double agent. 0 Geraldine Shamma will tell you that also..she hates him.. “ ‘CDo, you see him much?) Not too much. When we were in Drison, yeah.. “But since I've been out I've kept away from him. | don't want a goddamn thing to do with the company... ~=€About about Roselli?) | think they nailed him good. How do | read it? Cuban agents. But | leave a question mark. | hate to jump ion something wzmek else, really, but they're capable of doing anything. "Cause | did a lot of dirty work for the sunavabitches, believe me, and tThey'!!l get people like me -- because you know 1 was considered one of the most six dangerous men in thexwaxxkyd x country -- and they can get people like me to do a lot of their dirty work, you know what | mean, because it leaves their hands ‘clean and if they want to discredit you they can because they have. . the force and the Power, they got everything working for them... : But 1'l! give them the benefft of the doubt, | don't think they had anything to do with killing the President through. That I'll give | them the benefit of the doubt... | ee |
Sturgis 8/16/76 -  tatel | had the FBI call me. On the JFK stuff. They said, well, you made some statements on televiston andwe'd l|ike to | get together with you. Met tbem over at Denny's. It- was about when | went to Calif. and was on TV out thre and made certain statements about the meeting with Castro and Jack Ruby and they wanted to know about that... said Wash. calledthem... agents..Ben Conte and ??? ...when | asked them about the letter, they told: me tat O'Connor had investigated that and that O'Connor was the one who spoke withme > abott the JFK assasshadion. But they told they didn't know anythingabout a fetter... *** O'Connor now in New Orleans??2??_ Hey did you ‘read anything about four constables fron Dallas who received a box of letters and. documents pertaining toa meeting between Oswald and Ruby and so forht?? This bx of 3% documents turned over to Dallas DA Henry Wade....?7?? ... well, a friend of mine calleéed*me up last night and | copied dan some shit on it...you want to rad you sae of this??? (is this frans clippings?) I+ may have > because he told me he got it out ofsare papers... ...they turned if over to the FBI and theygave a number and now they can't find the documents. Canyoubelieve that? Just like they can't find the letter, they can't find the documents... ...You never got a whold of Salvadore, did you? (You never gave me his name) Yes, | did, | gave you his . 7 phone number but he told me he wouldn't talk’ toyou, Schweiker !s_ man.. Bs we. Salvadore Garcia ~~ former CIA guy... says he doesn't like , Schweiker. : The & FBI guys also asked me about Roselli. | told them 1 didntt believe | knew Roselli. | told them | know nothing about it...They asked me what | thouht, |! said } tout the -mob got rid of him..they're always fightingamong: temselves.. (re Crile pieces) | don't believe it. | don't think Trafficante had anything to do with it. | don't believe a gu like Trafficnte - could go ahead and do something like that on his own, he woud . have to get permission from the Commission, and | don!tt belive the Commission would allow him to do something like that. They tried it once before with Anastasia. Anastasia wanted. totake oer. some of the gambling in Havana and the Commission said no. What happened, he went against the Commission's orders And © L ook what happened to him. “The same thing happened to Dutch Schultz who wanted to knock off Tom Dewey. |! can't see it. . | don't think the mob would want that kind of catastrophe tohappne | to kill the president. oo oa! Wf 53080 DocId:32264840. Page 18
(re the Rolling Stone piece and Trafficante relation totte Bay of Pigs and his contatct in thatoperation, FS) (Laughed) Was that in Rolling Stone? You know, {'m trying to get my lawyers to sue them sunavabitches for about $20 million. Well, you know the mob was here on the Beach. And remember | told you how in Cuba the Embassy was divided and how Smith even accused Caldwell, the chief of station of CIA, of being a communist because all his agents were feeding informatio to the guerillas and Castro... And here you have the mob over there, all these Cubans who were working for the mob over there, they came over here and the CIA made agents out of them! So, hey, the mob knew everything was going on... .. You know, you had Normie Rothman who had the Biltmore Terrace, which was\Batista's money, the top floor over thre was going to house Batista if the government gave me him permissio +o come into thecountry.. Now that place was the hang out of a fot .of mob people..a lot.. and a lot of Cuban CIA boys used to work for Batista...and alos intelligencé agents from other countryes would come in there...and the. American CIA agents used to go wine and dine there, used to have a bali there _.and as far as I'm concerned, | don't have contact wxk with Santos Traftficante here and | don't have any contact with the mob.. (re Watley's statement of Sturgis contact with Trafficante) Han Well, | don't know how Richard Weatley can goahead and: say shit like that because that's garbaxge....That is garbage! (Who was Whatley?): kWhatley was one of these mercenaries who used tofool aoround with this Jerry Patrick, trying to get involved. with the Cuban exiles... You know, when | came out of Cuba they came up withall sorts of wild stories that | was the contact between the mob and te » CLA...that'a all bullshit we -re a conflict of interest on Ellis Rubin part because of suit. with Hunt and him against CREEP (7???) | mo ..But |'m going to Washington anyway tomorrow.. Yeah, | ‘told you.” that Senator Baker wanted to see me..yeah, they called me, Michael Madigan and Howard Liebengood calied me, they sayd,. come on up, we'd tike to talk to you about this JFK shit. Yeah, | was surprised.... (re Martinez working at Havana Hilton and Crile saying no) That's bullshit. That's where | met Martinez when | was working for the &mbassy. | told that to the Senate Watergate “Rommittee when they asked me...(why) Well, because Martinez has ‘been working on $100 month retainer for the CIA and he. has prebably dug up a lot of information for the Company and writing thebook | with Crile and talking about Trafficante and Aleman, so naturally the CIA don't want anybody to know there was any. connection...He's not ggkax going to admit he worked for the. Rakxk gamblers.. |: met him at the Havana Hilton working on the baccarat table... - (fairly well off?) Yeah, he did abortions, he had a whore howe: -- over there...yeah, he was pretty well off... are 53080" Docld:322764640. Page 19
(re WerBell trial) Yeah, you know | recruited the undercover agent that got Bernstine..Jerry Buchanan... 1 got a hold of the Company first because it was out of the country, because they have a drug..you know,, thing, but they slammed the door on me when | contacted them...!| even had to go to Washington for the damn thing...so | got a hotd of other friends of mine and. they made the connseetion.. that's how Jeryy was recruited...and he made out pretty good, they busted one of the biggest international dum drug conspiracies in the country...-- and Bernstine turns around and he starts to work for the government.... (undercover?) Buchanan got involved up to his eyeballs with Bernstine... | don't know how he made the connection... (Bernstine involved in Bay of Pigs?) | think that's all buléshit... (Bernstine crash an accident?) No, | think somebody killed him. He's too good a wks pilot... (WerBell) Well, he's « 2 friend of my old friend Andrew St. George and | +hink maybe Andy has helped bury WerBell a little- bit... | swear to God, you can't even trust your friends nowadayS..-. ~ WW 53080 Docld:32264840 Page 20
-notes -- Frank Sturgis - tatel - 4/18/77 (partial) (get any reaction from the New Times piece? Came dronunke heavy on CIA..any reaction from them?) No, except David Phillips, you know every time he gets a chance he wacks me. Because I made a big. liar out of him... Hen You know when I was in frrnt of tee Rockefeller Commission, I spent — 16 hours with them, they went over very much with?me on the JFK stuff.and the mob stuff and CIA assassinatirn plots and all this «x stuff and everything started to leak out. Then David Phillips came mk out and started wacking me. Then I got mad and I said, Fuck them, the hell with them, I'll just tell the truth! And that's when I said, Yeah, damn right, I been in txem touch with them, I was associated with them!" That's when David Phillips went on television and started knocking me, saying I was never an agent. I never told anyone I was. I said I was associated with them. But the truth i8 I was recruited by then, because it's on record. It's in CIA records (Did you ever meet Phillips in Havana?) I don't know. This —, is the problem. I don't know. You know my contact man, the “CO I was working with, was Colonél Nichols. And Nichols had *" Major Van Horn working with him. And I met a few other CIA. guys but I had never any contact with. because the rest was strictly telephone. You know when you make contact with an agent, an employee, and you are directly in contact with them, if someteing happens where teey have to leave, well, they'll give you a code name and they'll give you a “number and they'll tell you that this man Naxaxxx here, so and so, will contact you, and this i§ the number. Then "he disappears . and then it's strictly telephone. You never really in touch- with one another, after the first shot, after your first man: leaves, , f....Just like Barker. Barker met Hunt only one time. When he y'was turned over to Hunt...'cause Howard told me thi'...I said, {| How many times did Barker ever meet you? He says, Well, one “| time. &kxkxmx His man, who Barker was in. touch with in Havana, | when he came over here, he says, he turned Barker over to me, “I needed an assistant, kex he says, so he turned Barker over to 1 me, I met him one. time and then after that we checked by telephone, the normal way of contact. He says after that when I left, I turned Barker over tw somebody else, he said. It all depends on the situation you're in. Like Martinez, he was in maritime operations and so forth. Well, when you're in maritime operations you come in direct contact with one or more CIA CO's © at one time....f{as a result of working on a ship where CIA officials | XR are &&x restricted in their movements].. in maritime you have more personal contact with then, because thep stay with. the mehnnx mother ship... : . (why is Phillips on your back?) Becanse [ sold the Comaittee’ chat’. -the CIA helped Fidel.. The Communists were out to kill Fidel at the. 53080 Docld:32264840 Page 21
very beginning when we came out of the mountains. When Ambassador Smith asked the CIA the background of the Castro brothers and his top military officials, the Cia said no, " they had no communist background. Well, the FBI in the Embassy _ waS given all the information on the Castro brothers, but a. ‘the CIA wouldn't give Smith the correct intelligence informatonn. $e Cardwll, William Cardwell, was the CIA station 6 chief and Smite called Cardwell noteing.but a fuckin communist. He said 90 % of tee agents that work for me here are noteing but pro-communist bastards. That's why. CIA had Smith removed _ through pressure in Washingtan.. And Jim Knowles was another .. one of them. He was later Barker's CO here, and that sunavabitch was way to the left. : a (when was Knowles Barker's CO here?) Right after Hunt. You. see, Hunt left a week before the invasion. Jim Knowles got tr . be Barker's next political officer. Hunt went back up to _Washington and was in the Cuban desk, and the man...remember Hunt was a political officer...and Hunt was transferred from the. politicad office tr work with David Phillips, who was propaganda... (When wa$ Bender here?) F ank Bender? He was here before, _ during and after the Bay Sf Pigs Te's a queer sunavabitch. CS . (Wasn't he Barker's CO?) No! Bender? No! Bender was . over-all chief of CIA here for the poliitcal section. That's ~ old Droller. He wa$ German born...and he was faggot too. ~~ No, he wasn't Barker's CQ. Barker's CO was Hunt and teen a . it was Jim Knowles. Jim Knowles worked under Bender, just like Hunt... [Not Knowles -- KNOEL; Droller also called DRESCHER. ..] (Don't know where Droller if now; may be retired; he's a few years older than Hunt..) (RE PRIO); under gxn financial pressure recently; wife only allotted _him $1000 a month; he snorted Coke for years; only those close tr - him knew how much business pressure he was under,.***]I asked a. 1 ff friend of mine who was close what happened..." {Duran???] oN l “No, he wasn't involved in narcotics...only yeass ago back in Batista’s day, everybody wag then..but all he did now was sniff coke...has all his life... Stee eee ore een HW. 53080. Docld:32264840 Page 22
Frank Sturgis ~ notes ~- 9/2|/77— Sea fre Lorenz story) (Had you known she was going to break this?) No! | got a call Monday night, tonight's Wednesday, right?,.from Paul Meskil, and Paul told me, he says,"Frank, Merita gave me” something and | wanted you to &® know about it and | want your comments on it." | says, "Shoot." He says, "You know, she has made statements and gave it to us and my editor is thinking about putting it in the papers." So | says, "What is it?" He says, "Well, she claims, she says, you know, this, this ‘and this about Alex Rorke and some pictures somewheres in a training camp, | suppose, you know,. and pictures of you, | Paaz Lanz, t. think she mentioned Diaz-Lanz, I'm not sure, well ~ anyway, me, Oswald and so forth. So l says, "Oh yeah, what else?” And he says we had some maps out with a couple of Cubans, . Pedro Diaz Lanz, y@urself, Oswald, and it had Qkasx&x Dallas, * and that we were, we al! got into two automobiles and we drove “to Dallas a couple days, a few days, whatever, before the assassination, and +hat we went there, and that we were members of Operation 40, and that we went there specifically to go ahead and kill the President of the United States. | says, "She's got to be out of her goddamn mind! She's gotta be whacko to say shit tike that! How the hell can she prove this? | says, |! volunteered, like you know with the JFK assassination, to take a polygraph. i says, I'!t do the same goddamn thing now! That she's tying." oe So he says something about supposedly the two pictures 4hat she had, one was missing with some German girl who was ‘supposed to write her book.... (Had she ever mentioned this to you before?) Not a thing -sebout that. You know, my own opinion, she's been messing varound with these canasters. And yak you know, the father “of one of her kids is a very wealthy man, owns some race horses ‘and stuff Like that, a Jewish cuy, and he's a loan shark for +the mob. (Know his: name?) Ed something. 1 think maybe him ‘or the other ke guy might have pushed her, because she's always bitching that she needs money, and {| think maybe more or less ahhey busted her balls and said, hey look, you want cash for your took, this and that, you gotta k qet something. spectacular, -wou know, they always came up with some goddamn mob fawyers tor her to handle her book and so forth, and you know, she's \ «a tittle whacko. This is the conclusion { come to, but | don't HNenow whatts behind her mind to de this, because, hey, we're “friends, but, christ, with something like this, she's actually ‘netting harsééft, and Pedro and myself involved in killing “the President! She's gotta be out of her goddamn mind! seWas she in Miami at that time, in Novenber.of '63?2) “tb can't remember that long. All | know is, like | told you, the hay that Kennedy got killed | was here in the house. It beats the hell out of ms, | can't get remember that long if she was here cat the time.” IMerohr 7 att | relline-EI ft
"Well, you know, too, she was Perez Jimenez's mistréss. And Perez Jimenez was giving some of the Cuban people money. And also in New Orleans, with money and so. forth. And she told me, at one time, thet possibility at one time that Jimenez wanted to do something acainst the Kennedys. Now | don't know who she meant, weether it was the President or Bobby Kennedy or what, 1 don't know, but it's something she told me this pasyud year when t- was up in New York. How true it is, |! don't know." (Did Jimenez have a lot of money when ‘he was here?) Shit, yeah. He lived on one of the istand here, kept her in a fancy apartment because you know she had a. baby by Jimenez, a cirl, and she's a split image of Jimenez. And @he was involved in all kind of bullshit, Jimenez was. : 53080... Doeld: 32264840... Oe ee, . But who knows whether it's true. The only way to go ahead - and get the truth out of her, tike | told Paul, |! says Paul, the people from the Assassination Committee if they believe her, should make her come to Washington and put her under oath, then ask her to take a polygrah. And I'11 yam tell you this, I!'tl take @ polygraph that the statement that she said is a complete lie! That it is not so! .No way in the world did | ever travel to Dallas, ‘Texas with her, with Basch, with Pedro, or Oswald. Cause | told the Committee and ! told you, too, hey, to “the best of my knowledge | don't think | ever met Cswald. Because you know the shit that was coming out of the town from here, that | made the statement the FBI got sax going that Oswald was in town here, and this Lyle Stuart, the. cuy who was financing the Fair Play for Cuba thing, and > thet's known as being backed up with Communist money, that “supposedly Oswald was here and was on a radio station, there was some articte abott it in the paper, that .he appeared ing front of some TV station or something, but hey, | don't know, this is all some bullshit talk, | dontt know if he was here or notf Sut t was talking with a friend oft mine today, Bob Tralins, and he remembered Oswald was here... (Talked to him last year)..."Oh you did.” (Didn't check out.) (fe Lorenz claim that Hemming was in photo) "Yeah, he called me up fast nicht. (Where was that training camp supposed to have been?) "Big Pine Key, or No Name. Well there wese several: down there. We had one out in the Everaltades too. fut eventually they separated from me and started doing shit on thair own. Jerry had all the fuckin! carbege all over theUnited States in with him, a bunch of crazy bastards." (Jerry knew Merita, also, “didn't he?) "EL don't know, That's it, | really don't know.’ "But why Merita would say shit like this, | really kawmx don't know either. But | tell vou something, she's cot a tot of balls this gal. But, hey, this gal here did some good stuff. for the government, bélieve me. You know, in the past she turned: