ROUTING AND RECORD SHEET WITH ATTACHED MEMORANDUM: GARRISON AND THE KENNEDY ASSASSINATION
Originator: CIA
From: ROCCA, RAYMOND G.
To: RID/ANALYSIS
Document date: 1968-10-28 00:00:00
Document type: PAPER - TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

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Date: 11/29/99

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JFK ASSASSINATION SYSTEM

IDENTIFICATION FORM

AGENCY INFORMATION

AGENCY : CIA

RECORD NUMBER

:104-10312-10013

RECORD SERIES

: JFK

AGENCY FILE NUMBER : DDP FILES

DOCUMENT INFORMATION

ORIGINATOR : CIA

FROM

: ROCCA, RAYMOND G.

TO : RID/ANALYSIS

TITLE : ROUTING AND RECORD SHEET WITH ATTACHED MEMORANDUM:

GARRISON AND THE KENNEDY ASSASSINATION

DATE: 10/28/68

PAGES

8

SUBJECTS : NOVAL, GORDON

DOCUMENT TYPE : PAPER, TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

CLASSIFICATION

: SECRET

RESTRICTIONS

CURRENT STATUS : RELEASED WITH DELETIONS

DATE OF LAST REVIEW

: 09/25/98

OPENING CRITERIA

COMMENTS : JEK-M-08: F1 1998.09.25.07:08:01:420129:

Released under the John F. Kennedy

Assassination Records Collection Act of

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

65990 Date: 11-01-2021

CLASSIFIED

ATTACHMENT

[R]

- ITEM IS RESTRICTED

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7572403.

0H109

280ck1968

MEMORANDUM

SUBJECT: Garrison and the Kennedy Assassination:

Goidon Drane Novel

(201-834822)

Reference:

CI/R&A Memoranduin of 31 May 1967.

suuject

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 courso 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.

Not do we sat me and to try servic be to

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

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

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

and even claimed association with CIA.

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 1ó29 k St., N. W. •

2.

Miss Marilley has been a contact of CS for fifteen years.

Records checke run shortly before the meeting disclused no derogatory

information.

3B0

"e..

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3. The meeting had been requested because Miss crilicy had

sold virg. Seëlye that Gordon Novel was one of her clients and that

she had information about Novel which was of possible interest io

this Agency. Novel is a salesinan of audio detection gear who lias

been prominenily involved in the Garrison investigation and has

sought for obscure reasons to create the lalse impression that ho is

employed by ur associated with CLA.

* Throughout the meeting Miss Marilley was conpletely

cooperative. She volunteered assistance and information, and she

responded most helpfully to all requeste.

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 inforination

required by Courtesy Associates contains the following information:

/a. Gordon Novelte president of International Dynamice

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 a8 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 calla were to be

ascertained.

(2) No information was to be given to anyone

calling for Ramparte or Playboy.

(3) Calls or inquiries from news media were to

be considered as emergency matters and relayed to

him immediately by collect call de telegram to (614)

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

See sub-paragraph e, below.)

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

governments, and Industrial security representatives.

2

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¿. ¿He listed anticipated callere 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

busineesman 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) Mi. Elmer Gertz. (Comment: No prior

record in Garrison case.

Traces to be run.)

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

(4) Mr. Walter Sheildan. (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 Sherican with bribery.)

e. Novel listed the following as an emergency contact:

16r9,

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'a wifo 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 notod that he banks at Riggs National,

Dupont Circle.

3

SEEMOT

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

some way with Senator Robert Kennedy, (Comment: The reierence

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

for Robert Kennedy when the latter was Attorney Gencral.)

7. Novel asked Miss Marilley whether she could nake

arrangemente for party or conference calls to pase from the

caller through the rented number in Waghington 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 Garrioon is associated with a finu Burnham

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

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

context), and William Turner (a staff wilter 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 haa made thie claim earller.) Through the

penetration he learned that he was to appear prominently in a

Ramparts article which would liat him as a client of Courtesy

Associate and would also list Courtesy Associates as a cover or

front for CLA 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. Ho told this story to

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

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

bellove the allegation about her firm and CLA.

10. Novel told Mies Marilley that he le working on a real estate

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

two of tho telephone calls liated below were from a fnu Cork of Corke

in the Bureau of Indian Affalrs.

11. The following are the tolephone calle listed by Courtesy

Associates as placed to Novel'e number:

4

•!:!

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a: On 30 August 1908 Mr. fnu Cabriel, Si., called

from New Orleans, 922-5075. No further information.

(Presumably identical with the Phillip Gabriel of

paragraph d (3) avove.)

b. 4 September 1968. As above.

c. 4 September 1968, from Any 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: Ono Jones Harris la 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.)

1. 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 Mis. Francis.

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

Reno, 358-0331.

1. 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 Helinuth, 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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n. 26, September 1968. Call from Mr. Wallace,

Arnerican Aircraft, Washington, NA 8-1462.

o. As above.

• p. 4 Octover 1968. Call from Mr. Williams,

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

9. 8 October 1968. A8

above.

í. 10 October 1968. Call from Arny Hellman, Reno,

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

identical.)

8. 12 October 1968. Call from Mr. Wallace, Spy

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

paragraphs, above.)

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

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

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

with a landlady who told Andrew Sclambria, an investigator

for Garrison, that William Wayne Dalzell had been placed

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

Logan, by a former New Orleans attorney named Grady

Durham. Ramparts, January 1968, p. 53, Bayo that a CLA

man named Logan was closely linked to a group called

"The Frienda of Democratic Cuba". )

15 October 1968. Mr. 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 .

221-5862.

22 October 1968. Mr. Deiton, Kansas City,

6

SUNST

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

additional information about Novel by writing to a triend of reis,

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

Metropolitan Crine Commission in New Orleans. She asked whethe:

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 co with

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

as a custorner 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 rerained an ally of Garrison

after their seeming antagonism developed. If 80, his efforts to link

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

the Agency, This theory would also explain Novel'e relationship to a

Garrison crony like Willard Robertson. Another poscibility is that

the feud do 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 ClA may be part of a campaign

to creato for International Dynamica 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 cliente. His

relationship to Willard Robertson might then be explained by hie

repeatod assertion that he has a penctration in Garrison's entourage.

Donovan E. Pratt

DC/CI/R&A

Distribution:

Orig - DDP

1 - C/CCSV

7

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