-notes--call from Frank Sturgis 7/28/76 -tatel --~said he wasn't surprised by the Schweiker announcement of running with Reagen: "| think Schweiker's using this thing, but, hey, you can't blame him, he's a politician. The thing worked out beautifully for him." Then he asked: “Is he still: officially investigating the JFK thing?" I said, yes, he was still interested. After a few minutes of inconsequential conversation, he asked again: “Hey, let°me ask you something. . Are you still checking up on the JFK thing?" J said, yes, \ was. Then he said: "I told you about that letter from Cuba, didn't |?” , | said we wm had checked up on it and that we had gotten a - memo from Tarabochia about it but the memo said nothing about — Castro, although it did mention a trip to Cuba by Ruby. He asked did the report mention about the letter that came ; to the relative in Miami, he said his friend "Satvatore” Lthe — former CIA man] told him definitely there was 4 kx letter er and that "Bob Dwyer probably was the man [the FBI agent], because: — he was in charge of the Cuban desk at the Bureau downtown, was. oo probably one of the agents who picked up The fetter." | told him that Tarabochia's memo indicated only that Ruby went to Cuba, not that he had seen Castro, and that the FBI man was James O'Oonnor, not Dwyer. Sturgis asked how we got a copy of that memo and | told him | didn't know. He implied +hat perhaps if was changed or censured and | said that was possible. for all | knew, because | had never seen the oriaqinal. Ho then said that Ruby could have been to Cuba without people knowing it, of course, Sturgis then asked me if | & had ever heard of Lyle Stuart. i said yes. he's the Bx book Bk publisher who has published a lot of sensational and controversial books. "You know he supposedly met Oswald a month before Kennedy was assassinated — in Miami, accorddna to a report i'm trying to track down. ™" There's supposed to be something in the newspapers in 1963 before Kennedy was killed about Oswald being in Miami, Sturgis said,.and | -he is going to the library to check up on that. Ses tyte Stuart, says Sturgis, was head of the Fair Play for Cuba — “Committee. "It was also reported he was very pro-Castro and ‘that Castro was supporting him financtally and that Lyle Stuart was seen with and connected with Oswald. And it was reported in the papers +hat Oswald was here a month before the assassiadtion. Now it may all be bullshit but I'm still aoing to check it out.” Sturgis said the man who told him this was a writer who was "oretty. much involved" in the investigation of the assassination. He was | with him last night, and the auv said that Lyle Stuart would be the oe one to check with. The auy's name is Bob Traglins. oy did ask him & if it would be alright for him fo talk with you." “at this time Sturgis went to get Traitins phone number and in the ‘background | could hear the television news which -- coincidental ly \-~ happened just then to announce the news of Howard Hunt. filing the . g¢2-1/2 million libel suit against Weberman & Canfield. "Did yous. “hear that?" Sturgis asked, just +o make sure. sh tf 53060 DocId: 32264840 © Page ?f
> “What Ellis is doing," said Sturais, “is to file Howard's now and then by the ns end of the week or next week he's filing mine. Both Howard and myself are using Ellis." [Eltis Rubin, | local controversial attorney is most known in Miami for his °°. we! publicity ploys and long-standing. feud with State Attorney (Dade.Co.) . Richard Gerstein. ] Sturgis said the suit mak would be against 0. the authors and publisher of Coup D'Etat: and against Playboy © - and Hefner and later maybe against Dick Gregory ("As soon as | dig up enough about him." | said libel suits are tough to win. “Yeah, but hey," said Sturgis [St. George was right: he says "but hey" a lot], even if we get a judgment for a dollar it't! stop all the shit about us being involved in the the assassination of John F. Kennedy." - He asked if | had a chance to speak with the Cuban who received that letter, | said no, | haven't had a chance because as a result. of his television appearances Wally Weston had come forth with his information and | had been busy-on that. "I spoke to Wally Weston tonight," said Sturgis, "and | have a meeting to sit down and find out what he can tell me and so forth." Back on Oswald's meeting with Lyle Stuart, Sturgis said he thinks it may have been possible because there was a report that he himself had met Oswald in Miami and that could have been: very possible, what with all the anti-Castro people he met and the ~double-agents, but he himself didn't remember it. But he did hear that Stuart was connected with the Fair Play for Cuba Committee and getting financial assistance from Cuba. “This Bob Tralins was a friend of his and dislikes the man very much, but. he definitely told me this." Switching subjects, |! asked him what he knew about operations: — that took place from Cay Sal istand. [the Hughes connection. ] =: All he knew, he said, that Fhere was a black Customs official who tried to’ keep people off the island because the CIA used itas | a stepping stone, like a "listening post" off the coast of Cubaso . “He himself didn't have any onerations from there. On some of 0 ow) F .. the island close by there we stopped by occasionally for several ..° a . houss, but | kept away from Cay Sal because it was being operated). \o. 4). Dy other people, other aroups.” [772] Was it ClAvor ofher opeuators?. oe (> "They were ClA operations. One time Barker got a hold of me because | was doing something, in some operations with Bil! Johnson which | was financing, and Barker got a hold of me and said, 'Hhey, we're: doing something very sensitive in that area! and he asked me TO 2” stop for a while and go into another area.” [Note: This is obviously. [very ge be Who was Sturgis working for if not CIA? Here he became {very deliberately convoluting and wound up talking about Pinar de Rio.” - operations in Cuba. ] | asked him if he was involved in the training camp in. New Orleans wtith Gus DelLabarre and Rudopph Davvs: "No," he said quickly. "Not. at all. | never_knew about any training camp in Dallas...or - New Orleans.” [NOTE: WHO SAID ANYTHING ABOUT DALLAS??? _] HW.53080 Docld:32264840 Page 8
! asked him about the guy who was reportedly the head CIA man here, Mr. B, or Bender or his supposedly "real" name, Drescher, and what he looked like. "Oh, | don't know,” he said. "I mean | never met him. You've got to understand the agents didn't talk to the contract employees, but there would just be a telephone system of reporting. The telephones were connected by relays so that if the FBI were checking the number .. it would be located in one area but it would just be a relay station, so they could never check it down.” 7 Sturgis talked then about Schweiker and the Reagen situation and | said |! thought they would have a tough fight on their hands . against Ford who, after all, has all the power, "I disagree ~<with you," said Sturgis. "Il think the power is up there and © they're advising him what to do. He's being controlled, like - al! Presidents are. Certain power groups control, you know what | mean?" . _ fle changed the subject and mentioned he had been out in California last week. He said he was invited out by Chuck Ashman [a former Miamian who has a radio or TV talk show out there and has written some exploitation books about the Mafia and the ClA]. Sturgis said he has Oscar Fraley (author of "The Untouchables") who wants to do the story of his tife. LFraley's latest book is on Jimmy Hoffa]. Ha said he has been tryina to get a hald of his ex-agent friend (Salvatore) who told him about the Ruby in Havana story to get more information but the quy is in the Domican Republic for the week. \ . “Sturgis then asked if it were possible to get a copy of the -Tarabochia memo and | said | would check on that with my office. The conversation got back on the CIA: "Tee CIA is very funny," he said. "They do things right up to a point and then they turn. right .around and screw you. Depending what their policy is} If they... “want to change it they'll change it and bury your ass too. “dn the last few years they've had their own internal: power struggle “and in that struggle a lot of people wk get hurt who are decent ~~ ‘people. Like if | favor Howard Hunt and his boss gets whacked out, then everybody down the tine goes. That could go into hundreds or -couple thousand people. Just like when Helms left. JI told you... that Nixon wanted some files from Helms and Helms wouldn't give | it to him, so the President fired him. Now I'm assuming, from... omy discussions with certain CIA officials fired now. the filesoe. he wanted pertained to the Bay of Pigs and also the JFK assassination. And Helms didn't to turn them over. He was scared that if he... “turned it over to the President, that Haldeman and Erlichman. - » would have used it for political reasons. And after Helms was... | fired McCord turned aa™ around and said, ‘If Helms qoes, all. the trees in the forest will fall!' That's why McCord blew the. -. 53080 ‘Docid:32264840. Page 9 oe ON
‘whistle on the President. Well, you know who Deep Throat was, don't you? | think Helms ordered Bennett to bury Nixon, ‘Deep Throat was probably several guys, but the main man was | ‘Bennett, the CIA man. Unfortunately poor Howard got sucked Into this thing, | don't think he even knew anything about it. And Bennett was his boss, both at the Mullen company and, | suspect, his CIA chief also. Oh yeah,.! believe certain CIA officials, Helms the major. one, set up Nixon to be caught.: And the company's hot at me because {| told all this to the Rockefeller and the Senate Watergate committees. But fuck'em, they screwed me enough all. these years. Maybe Schweiker will get to be the Vice Bresident and I'tl get him to get me into ClA-and I'!1t clean that place up myself..." And on that note.... #HE HW 53080 Docld:32264840 Page 10