MEMO: GARRISON AND THE KENNEDY ASSASSINATION: GORDON DWANE NOVEL
Originator: CIA
From: PRATT. DC/CI/R&A
To: DDP
Document date: 1968-10-28 00:00:00
Document type: PAPER - TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

# DOCID-32402028

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Date: 11/29/99

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JFK ASSASSINATION SYSTEM

IDENTIFICATION FORM

AGENCY INFORMATION

AGENCY : CIA

RECORD NUMBER

: 104-10312-10381

RECORD SERIES

: JFK-MISC

AGENCY FILE NUMBER : DDP FILES

DOCUMENT

INFORMATION

ORIGINATOR

:

CIA

FROM

:

PRATT. DC/CI/R&A

TO : DDP

TITLE : MEMO: GARRISON AND THE KENNEDY ASSASSINATION: GORDON

DWANE NOVEL

DATE:

PAGES

SUBJECTS

10/28/68

8

: NOVEL, GORDON D

DOCUMENT TYPE

PAPER, TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

CLASSIFICATION

SECRET

RESTRICTIONS

: 1B

CURRENT STATUS : RELEASED WITH DELETIONS

DATE OF LAST REVIEW

: 03/17/99

OPENING CRITERIA JFR-M-08: F1 1999.03.17.12:15:43: 013120= ROUTING AND

RECORD SHEET ATTACHED. DUPLICATE OF 104-10312-10013

Released under the John F. Kennedy

Assassination Records Collection Act of

1992 (44 USC 2107 Note]. Case#:NW

55.990 Date: 11-01-2021

!

CLASSIFIED

ATTACHMENT

[R]

- ITEM IS RESTRICTED

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28 00T 1:3

MEMORANDUM

SUBJECT: Garrison and the Kennedy Assassination:

Gordon Dwane Novel

(201-834822)

Reference:

CI/R&A Memorandum of 31 May 1967,

subject as above

SUMMARY

At a meeting on 23 October 1968 the president of an answering

service, Miss Jane Marilley, provided CIA representatives with

information about a client, Gordon Novel, who has received much

publicity in the course of the Garrison investigation. Novel told

Miss Marilley that persons associated with Garrison and with Ramparts

Magazine had planned an article in which Novel would be linked to

the answering service and the service, Courtesy Associates, to CIA.

Central Cover Staff has used the firm's services for fifteen years.

Novel told Miss Marilley not to worry because he had let Garrison

and company know that Courtesy Associates would sue if such a story

were printed, and the story had been killed. Miss Marilley provided

additional information about Novel, who in the past has falsely implied

and even claimed association with CLA.

DETAILS

1. At 1030 hours on 23 October 1968 Mrs. Helen Seelye of

Central Cover Staff (CCS) and the undersigned met by prearrangement

with Miss Jane Marilley, founder and president of a Washington

answering service called Courtesy Associates. Miss Marilley's

offices are at 1629 K St., N. W.

2. Miss Marilley has been a contact of CCS for fifteen years.

Records checks run shortly before the meeting disclosed no derogatory

information.

unit

Manoeg and

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SECRET

3. The meeting had been requested because Miss Marilley had

told Mrs. Seelye that Gordon Novel was one of her clients and that

she had information about Novel which was of possible interest to

this Agency. Novel is a salesman of audio detection gear who has

been prominently involved in the Garrison investigation and has

sought for obscure reasons to create the false impression that he is

employed by or associated with CIA.

4. Throughout the meeting Miss Marilley was completely

cooperative. She volunteered assistance and information, and she

responded most helpfully to all requests. .

5. Novel became a client of Courtesy Associates on 15 March

1968. His account remains active. His number at the answering...

service is 296-6662. The sheet on which he listed the basic information

required by Courtesy Associates contains the following information:

a. Gordon Novel is president of International Dynamics

Corporation, "electronic manufacturer and investment holdings:

military and industrial counter-intrusion equipment", 518 1/2

G St. S.E., Washington D. C., 20003. Novel listed the home

office of International Dynamics Corporation, as 787 1/2

Harrison Ave., New Orleans, La., 486-5477.

b. His instructions to the service were as follows:

(1) Nature of and reason for calls were to be

ascertained.

(2) No information was to be given to anyone

calling for Ramparts of Playboy.

(3) Calls or inquiries from news media were to

be considered as emergency matters and relayed to

him immediately by collect call or telegram to (614)

267-4633. (Comment: A number in Columbus, Ohio.

See sub-paragraphe, below.)

c. He listed his clients as the U.S. government, foreign

governments, and industrial security representatives.

2

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SEGRET

d. He listed anticipated callers as the following:

(1) Mr. Willard Robertson. (Comment:

Robertson is a Volkswagen distributor for the

New Orleans area and a member of Truth and

Consequences Inc., a private association of

Garrison supporters who have donated funds to

Garrison's office. An FBI report of 10 October

1967 stated that Robertson wanted another

businessman to file charges of theft or fraud

against Novel in connection with a $2, 700 diamond

ring in order to get Novel. in jail and "under the

floor". )

(2) Mr. Elmer Gertz. (Comment: No prior

record in Garrison case. Traces to be run.)

(3) Mr. Phillip Gabriel. (Comment: As above.)

(4) Mr. Walter Sheridan. (Comment: Has

appeared in prior reports on this subject. He is

an NBC investigator who was associated earlier

with the deceased Senator Robert Kennedy. Sheridan

was a principal source of the information used in

NBC's anti-Garrison TV show of 19 June 1967, after

which Garrison charged Sheridan with bribery.)

e. Novel listed the following as an emergency contact:

Mrs. Abby Novel, 226 E. Oakland St., Columbus, Ohio.

(614) 267-4633. (Comment: Miss Marilley believed that

Abby Novel is Subject's mother. The New Orleans

States-Item of 22 February 1968, however, referred to

Subject's wife as Abby, nee Mulligan, a former Playboy

bunny.)

f. As references in Washington Novel listed a firm of

lawyers: Miller, McCarthy, Evans, and Cassidy at

1701 K St. He noted that he banks at Riggs National,

Dupont Circle.

3

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6. Novel told Miss Marilley that he had been associated in

some way with Senator Robert Kennedy. (Comment: The reference

may have been to Walter Sheridan, who served as an investigator

for Robert Kennedy when the latter was Attorney General.)

7. Novel asked Miss Marilley whether she could make

arrangements for party or conference calls to pass from the

caller through the rented number in Washington to Novel's actual

location and then to record the calls in Washington. She said no.

8. Novel listed his own current address as 566 E. Main St.,

Suite A, Columbus, Ohio.

9. In mid-September 1968 Novel mentioned to Miss Marilley

that District Attorney Garrison is associated with a fnu Burnham

(no prior record in this context, although Richard V. Burnes is an

assistant DA for Garrison), a fnu Roper (no prior record in this

context), and William Turner (a staff writer for Ramparts who has

been closely associated with Garrison and his investigation). Novel

also told Miss Marilley that he has a penetration of Garrison's

office. (Comment: He has made this claim earlier.)' Through the

penetration he learned that he was to appear prominently in a

Ramparts article which would list him as a client of Courtesy

Associates and would also list Courtesy Associates as a cover or

front for CIA operations dealing with internal (i.e., domestic)

affairs. Novel told Miss Marilley not to be concerned because he

had sent word back to Garrison that if such an article appeared,

Courtesy Associates would sue. He later learned that the idea of

publishing such an article had been dropped. He told this story to

Miss Marilley with the air of one who had done her a favor. Miss

Marilley had the impression, however, that Novel himself did not

believe the allegation about her firm and CIA.

10. Novel told Miss Marilley that he is working on a real estate

deal involving a planned resort area in Michigan. It is noted that

two of the telephone calls listed below were from a fnu Cork or Corke

in the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

11. The following are the telephone calls listed by Courtesy

Associates as placed to Novel's number:

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a. On 30 August 1968 Mr. fnu Gabriel, Sr., called

from New Orleans, 522-5075. No further information.

(Presumably identical with the Phillip Gabriel of

paragraph d (3) above.)

b. 4 September 1968. As above.

c. 4 September 1968, from Amy Helmuth, Reno,

Nevada, 358-0331. No further information.

d.

? September 1968. Office of Mr. Cork, Bureau

of Indian Affairs, 343-5704. No additional information.

e.

5 September 1968. Caller, J.J. Harris, said that

there had been no word from London. No more information.

(Comment: One Jones Harris is an assistant of Richard H.

Popkin, a journalist who has made repeated trips to

New Orleans, who is strongly pro-Garrison, and who wrote

a book called The Second Oswald.)

f. 5 September 1968. Call from Mr. Gabriel of

New Orleans..

g. 5 September 1968. Call from Mrs. fnu Hellman

of Reno, Nevada, asking Mr. Novel to call Mrs. Francis.

h. 5 September 1968. Call from Mrs. fnu Francis,

Reno, 358-0331.

i. 6 September 1968. Call from Mr. Gabriel, New Orleans.

j. 10 September 1968. Call from Mrs. Francis, Reno,

Nevada.

k. 10 September 1968. To Amy Helmuth, Reno,

358-0331. She was to call Jo Capurro.

1. 11 September 1968. Call from Mr. Gabriel,

New Orleans, 522-5075.

m. 19 September 1968. Re a meeting with Mr. Cork,

Washington, 343-5704.

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SEGRET

n.

26. September 1968. Call from Mr. Wallace,

American Aircraft, Washington, NA 8-1462.

o. As above.

p. 4 October 1968. Call from Mr. Williams,

Hunington National Bank, Columbus, Ohio, 469-7500.

9. 8 October 1968. As above.

I. 10 October 1968. Call from Amy Hellman, Reno,

358-0331. (Comment: Helman and Helmuth seem to be

identical.)

s. 12 October 1968. Call from Mr. Wallace, Spy

Shop, Washington, NA 8-1462. (Comment: See sub-

paragraph n, above.)

t. 14 October 1968. Mr. Logan. No further information.

(Comment: An FBI report of 11 May 1967 says that a

source of the Bureau's New Orleans office was in contact

with a landlady who told Andrew Sciambria, an investigator

for Garrison, that William Wayne Dalzell had been placed

in contact with a CIA agent in New Orleans, a man named

Logan, by a former New Orleans attorney named Grady

Durham. Ramparts, January 1968, p. 53, says that a CIA

man named Logan was closely linked to a group called

"The Friends of Democratic Cuba".)

u. 15 October 1968. MI. Wallace of NA 8-1462.

v. 15 October 1968. Mr. Raft.

882-5292.

w. 15 October 1968. Mr. Wallace.

x. 17 October 1968. Amy Hellman, Reno, 358-0331.

y•

22 October 1968. Mr. Deiton, Kansas City,

221-5862.

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12. Miss Marilley said that she believed that she could obtain

additional information about Novel by writing to a friend of hers,

Mr. Aaron M. Kohn, who is the managing director of the

Metropolitan Crime Commission in New Orleans. She asked whether

there was any objection to her doing so. She was told that there

was no objection as long as her inquiry was couched within the

frame of reference of her own business and had nothing to do with

CIA. She then penned a note to Mr. Kohn, inquiring about Novel

as a customer of her service and read it aloud. She was assured

that there was no objection. She added that Mr. Kohn had done fine

jobs of cleaning up first Denver, then New Orleans. (Comment:

Kohn is a firm antagonist of Garrison.) Miss Marilley cautioned

that she may not get a reply for several weeks. She will give CLA

any information about Novel that Kohn may provide.

13. Novel's motives remain obscure. As was reported earlier,

there is a clear possibility that he remained an ally of Garrison

after their seeming antagonism developed. If so, his efforts to link

himself publicly with CIA could be part of Garrison's attack upon

the Agency. This theory would also explain Novel's relationship to a

Garrison crony like Willard Robertson. Another possibility is that

the feud is genuine. (Novel has made very strong accusations against

Garrison in major radio broadcasts; these include charges of

occasional homosexuality and possible direct involvement in the

alleged murder of David Ferrie.) Miss Marilley formed a clear

impression that Novel's dislike of Garrison is genuine. If so, his

persistent attempts to link himself to CIA may be part of a campaign

to create for International Dynamics Corporation an aura of prestige

as a result of supposed ties to the federal government. He listed the

U.S. government with Courtesy Associates as one of his clients.

His

relationship to Willard Robertson might then be explained by his

repeated assertion that he has a penetration in Garrison's entourage.

Donor a thall

Donovan

Pratt

DC/CI/R&A

Distribution:

Orig - DDP

- C/CCS

7

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