November 22, 1963
50 years ago today, Mafia boss Carlos Marcello sat in a crowded New Orleans courtroom awaiting to hear the verdict of the United States government's latest attempt to imprison him.
While closing arguments were going on in New Orleans, Attorney General Robert Kennedy was in the middle of presiding over a meeting on organized crime at the Justice Department in Washington. The major issues on the agenda were Chicago Mafia boss Sam Giancana, Tampa Mafia boss Santo Trafficante, Jr., Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa, and of course Carlos Marcello. Kennedy, aware that Marcello's trial was ending today, was hoping to have a verdict to announce at the meeting.
By 1:30pm New Orleans time, the trial was winding down with Judge Herbert D Christenberry giving his fifteen minute charge to the jury. Just as he was officially about to hand the case to the jury, a bailiff approached the judge and handed him a note. With a bewildered look on his face, Judge Christenberry arose, and announced to the court that President Kennedy was shot in Dallas and feared dead. The courtroom erupted with confusion and shock. Marcello and his brother Joseph, who was also on trial, were lead out of the courtroom, emotionless.
By 2:15pm Washington time, Attorney General Kennedy was sitting poolside at his Virginia estate, when he received a phone call from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover:
I have news for you. The President's been shot. I think it's serious. I'll call you back when I have more.
Thirty minutes later, Hoover would phone Kennedy again, and unemotionally say:
The President's Dead.
Shocked that he received a phone call about his brother's death, rather than a call about Marcello's conviction, Robert Kennedy called off the afternoon session of his organized crime conference; the group would never meet again.
By 3:15 pm New Orleans time, the jury reconvened in the courtroom and the jury announced they have reached a verdict. In The United States vs. Carlos Marcello, both Marcello brothers received "not guilty" verdicts for the charges of conspiracy and perjury. With President Kennedy dead, and Attorney General Robert Kennedy soon resigning after his brother's death, the biggest threat to Marcello's empire had been removed.
Today
50 years after the assassination of President Kennedy, there have been both breakthroughs and setbacks to uncover the truth. From the passage of the JFK Act in 1992, to the CIA openly dragging out the release of records until their deadline (2017), the question if there was a conspiracy behind the assassination of President Kennedy still haunts modern America.
But maybe not as much as it should. Most people I talk to about the assassination of President Kennedy admit that they believe there was a conspiracy, but the phrase "we will never know" always seems to come after that. And yes, most likely, if there was a conspiracy, we will never know. But why be complacent with that? Why accept the fact that the government either knows or was involved with the assassination of one of its leaders. The term "We will never know" just lets everybody off the hook.
The obsession over one or more shooters doesn't help. Depending on who you ask, it was either impossible for Oswald to have shot President Kennedy by himself, or completely possible. There seems to be an insurmountable amount of evidence for both cases. Even though it is obviously a critical aspect of the Kennedy assassination, I believe people put far too much stock in it. Even if Oswald was a single shooter, that doesn't mean he was acting alone. The evidence leading up to the shooting is just as important as the shooting itself.
I'm not here trying to convince you that there was a conspiracy behind the assassination of President Kennedy. For that you should read both Ultimate Sacrifice and Legacy of Secrecy by Lamar Waldron. My point is to remind that there is still evidence that is yet to be released, and is continually being withheld by the government.
I finish off this post with a quote from the original JFK conspiracy theorist, Robert Kennedy. Shortly after hearing of his brother's death, Kennedy got into a discussion with his press agent, Edwin Guthman. According to Guthman, Kennedy said:
I thought they might get one of us..., but Jack, after what he'd been though, never worried about it. I thought it would be me.
And while Robert Kennedy would go on to publicly endorse the findings of the Warren Commission, privately he was very critical of them, telling former presidential aide Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. that the Warren Commission did a "poor job", and he wondered how he long he could publicly continue to endorse it. (Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years by David Talbot is a wonderful account of Robert Kennedy's doubts about the Warren Commission and his own secret investigation to uncover his brother's killers)
