Mafia Spies (2024) s01e05 Episode Script

1
The Bay of Pigs disaster
was a military
and diplomatic defeat
for the new president.
After the failure of
the Bay of Pigs episode,
Kennedy was really keen
on getting rid of someone
who had so humiliated him.
The Kennedys were
essentially out for revenge.
And so the CIA came up
with a set of plans
called Operation Mongoose.
The mission was
to get rid of Castro
one way or another.
Through sabotage,
try to prompt
a popular uprising against him,
try to discredit him.
But up to this point,
Operation Mongoose
was Mission Impossible.
It didn't work.
There is one good thing
that happens
out of Operation Mongoose.
At the Opa-locka Airport
in Florida,
the CIA is debriefing
Cuban exiles,
and they hear rumors
that the Soviet Union
is now putting missiles
inside Cuba.
When Johnny Roselli
hears this,
he starts trying to find out
from his sources,
both CIA assets in Cuba,
but also from sources
that he had among
the Cuban exile community,
was it true?
According to a CIA record
of Roselli's actions
released in 2017,
the mobster claimed he did,
"Through his
Cuban contacts attempt
to verify the location of
the Russian missiles in Cuba."
The human intelligence
was discounted
until the U-2 planes
actually took the pictures
in October of 1962.
If you go back
and look at the newsreels,
you can see the circles
out of Cuba
with how far
the missiles could hit.
So there is a lot of fear
about what Castro
is going to do.
This is JFK's
worst nightmare.
He is facing
the nuclear annihilation
of millions of people.
Let me ask you
one simple question.
Do you, Ambassador Zorin,
deny that the USSR has placed
and is placing medium
and intermediate range
missiles and sites in Cuba?
Yes or no.
I'm prepared to wait
for my answer
until hell freezes over
if that's your decision.
The United States had
nuclear weapons in Turkey
right on the Soviet border.
And so the Soviets decided
to try to even the balance
by putting their own
nuclear weapons in Cuba.
Nikita Khrushchev said,
"They have rockets in Turkey
"faced at the Soviet Union.
Why shouldn't we
put rockets in Cuba?"
Why would Castro
accept Russian missiles
being deployed on Cuban soil?
Because of an
extraordinarily long history
of U.S. intervention in Cuba
and the fact that
the presence of those
missiles on Cuban soil
put Cuba at the center
of the Cold War.
After the Bay of Pigs
and Operation Mongoose
and all the assassination
efforts, Castro thought that
all these operations
aimed against him
would lead
to something bigger--
an all out invasion
by the United States.
So he thought that
accepting these missiles
would help him defend himself
and his own regime.
On this field,
you will see 22 crates
designed to transport
the fuselages
of Soviet bombers.
These bombers are capable
of carrying nuclear weapons.
There followed
13 days in October
where the fate of the world
hung in the balance.
Lights had burned late
in key Washington offices
as those most vitally
involved in the nation's
defense and security made
ready to deal with the crisis.
Over the many days
of the crisis,
Kennedy listens to various
different opinions.
There were a number
of people in the military
who were itching
for a fight with the Soviets.
John Kennedy
did not want that.
But he didn't know how to do
that without looking weak.
He was very much caught
between a State Department
that wanted to find
a way for peace
and a military
that wanted to go to war.
He really made a mistake
with the Bay of Pigs.
Kennedy was made a fool of.
And he said, "I'll never
let it happen again."
The American male
fear of ridicule
runs throughout so much
of our foreign policy.
The takeaway for Kennedy
was not to trust
everything that was
told to him.
So when the Cuban
Missile Crisis happens,
Kennedy is in a very
different frame of mind
than during the Bay of Pigs.
He's gonna make
his own judgments.
Kennedy decided
that the United States
should create a naval blockade.
Within the past week,
unmistakable evidence
has established
the fact that a series
of offensive missile sites
is now in preparation
on that imprisoned island.
To halt this
offensive buildup,
a strict quarantine
on all offensive
military equipment
under shipment to Cuba
is being initiated.
Our resolution will call
for the prompt dismantling
and withdrawal of all
offensive weapons in Cuba
before the quarantine
can be lifted.
I call upon
Chairman Khrushchev
to halt and eliminate
this clandestine, reckless,
and provocative
threat to world peace.
You might think
while the Cuban Missile Crisis
is going on that Harvey
and Roselli would stop
the operation against Castro.
But instead, Harvey calls
Johnny with orders
to keep going full speed ahead,
unbeknownst to the Kennedys.
This is a huge problem.
At the same time
you're trying to bring peace
to this crisis,
you have death squads
coming into Cuba.
When Bobby Kennedy finds out,
he's incredibly outraged.
Harvey is called
up to Washington.
And there,
Harvey lets it be known
that he's still deploying
these death squads in Cuba.
Bobby Kennedy thinks that
Harvey is out of his mind.
RFK says, disgustedly,
"You're dealing
with people's lives
in a half-assed operation."
But Harvey says,
"Look, nobody ever told me
we should stop trying
to kill Castro."
There's a big confrontation.
And finally, the simmering lid
that Harvey has blows up.
"If you fuckers hadn't
fucked up the Bay of Pigs,
we wouldn't be
in this fucking mess!"
At this point,
Harvey's days are numbered.
"Harvey has destroyed
himself today," his boss says.
"His usefulness has ended."
There had been negotiations
going on for some time,
but they couldn't come up
with an agreement.
A Latin American delegate
told CBS News this evening,
"We are now in
the most dangerous situation
since the end
of World War II."
We are concerned
that there might be shooting
among the ships at sea,
the possibility
that invasion might
have to be undertaken
to assure that those bases
are eliminated.
Strategic air command
immediately begins
dispersing its aircraft.
All elements go
on advanced alert.
The military,
they were ready to roll.
They had the planes
on the runway.
They thought
they were going to war.
Good evening, everybody.
This is Douglas Edwards
reporting.
Cuba reacted by ordering
all its armed forces
on an immediate alert.
In Cuba itself,
100,000 men were put under
emergency orders
as the Cuban regime waited
to see what their bosses
in the Kremlin were to do.
Here centered the most
critical threat of global war
since the surrender
of Germany 17 years ago.
It was a very
unsettling time.
The entire country was
on edge.
And right in the middle
of the crisis,
a movie called
"The Manchurian Candidate"
starring Frank Sinatra
about the fears
of Communist infiltration
hit the theaters.
What have they
built you to do?
I don't think anybody
really knows,
except Berezovo in Moscow.
"The Manchurian Candidate"
really just extended
the general panic
that Americans were feeling
about the expansion
of communism and threat.
I mean, this was
a terrifying moment
in American history.
Anyone who lived through this
has memories
of the acute panic
during those 13 days.
Community fallout shelter space
for more than 100 million
people has been located.
Supplies for the first
46 million spaces
are already in production.
I remember
the absolute fear,
the uneasiness of it all.
It was a frightening time
to a 12-year-old
looking at the world going,
oh, my God,
is there gonna be a tomorrow?
Meanwhile,
JFK and Khrushchev
continue to negotiate.
And Castro feared
that Cuba would be overrun
in an invasion
by the United States.
So Castro writes
a letter to Russia
saying that
if Cuba is invaded,
that the Soviet Union should
launch a military strike.
They would later call that
the Armageddon letter.
Castro had this crazy letter
in the middle
of the Missile Crisis,
saying that he's willing
to sacrifice Cuba
in a nuclear war.
He tells Khrushchev,
"Go ahead and do it."
Because there has to be one,
and if Cuba has to be
the victims, that's OK.
Khrushchev gets this letter,
and he looks at it and says,
"Are you crazy?"
The first one to go
will be Cuba.
You'll be pounded into dust by
the American nuclear missiles.
He's not going to provoke
World War III.
That's not
what Khrushchev wanted.
This was
a Cold War chess game,
and he just wanted to move
one more major part in place.
In the end,
Kennedy stood strong,
called Khrushchev's bluff,
caused him to concede
and agree to withdraw
Soviet missiles.
The Soviets backed down
in the face
of U.S. determination,
dismantled their missiles,
and shipped them home.
It was a retreat to Moscow.
It's one
of the last chapters
in the offensive threat
from Cuba
that led the United States
to throw a quarantine
around that island
and force the Russians
to dismantle
their medium range
rocket installations.
From the Kremlin
came a message
directly to President Kennedy.
I have today been informed
by Chairman Khrushchev
that all of the IL-28
bombers now in Cuba
will be withdrawn in 30 days.
The Missile Crisis
really was resolved
by Khrushchev and Kennedy,
outside of Castro's aegis.
And he was very upset.
He only heard
about Khrushchev's
decision to take the missiles
out of Cuba on the radio.
The great secret was
the Kennedy administration
said that it had
compelled the Soviets
to unilaterally withdraw
its nuclear weapons from Cuba.
But in fact,
it had cut a deal,
whereby the Kennedy administration
would withdraw
American nuclear weapons
from Turkey, which had been
kept secret from the public
as a tradeoff or quid pro quo.
President and Bobby Kennedy
felt that to reveal this
would be a suggestion
of weakness.
And they wanted to portray
an image of great strength.
So the removal
of the missiles in Turkey
was kept secret
for more than 25 years.
The course of action
that we finally adopted
was the right one.
Kennedy really rose
to the occasion
in the Cuban Missile Crisis.
It was an emancipation
from his father.
It was an emancipation
from his brother.
It was an emancipation from
all of these people around him
that were advising him.
He called the shots.
He was right.
He handled it.
The Cuban situation itself
was not resolved,
but an hour of great peril
had passed
without nuclear holocaust.
So after Harvey's blowup
with Bobby Kennedy,
Harvey is told
he's out of Florida,
and the CIA dispatches him
to Rome.
Before he leaves town,
Harvey decides,
"I'm gonna go out for dinner
with my good friend
Johnny Roselli."
Harvey wants to make sure that
he's related to his friend
how much he admires him
and that he really has
been convinced of Johnny's
claims of patriotism.
If you want to talk about
one relationship which rose
to a kind of mythological
level in this story,
it would probably be
the Johnny-Harvey relationship.
He really did have
respect for Roselli.
At the dinner, Harvey
gives Johnny what is called
a termination fee of $1,500.
It's not a lot of money.
In fact, Johnny spent
a lot more money
out of his own pocket
during this whole effort
to kill Castro.
But nevertheless,
it's a token of thanks
for Johnny's patriotism.
It's this symbol of respect
that means a lot to Johnny.
Johnny didn't fail
at many things.
And as odd as this may sound,
given his line of work,
he took pride in what he did.
So I think
the end of this mission
would have been
a hard thing for him to take,
because he would have
felt like he had failed
and also would have felt
as though he fell short,
being the patriotic
American that
he always prided himself
on being.
Shortly after
the Cuban Missile Crisis,
President Kennedy plans
to come out to Los Angeles.
JFK was actually coming
to Palm Springs
to talk with Dwight Eisenhower
about presidential business.
And Sinatra is expecting
that JFK is gonna stay
at his place in Palm Springs.
Frank Sinatra,
from the second he met
Jack Kennedy, he was in love.
Sinatra sees this young guy
who is a war hero.
He's a Harvard graduate.
He's dazzled by JFK.
And what Kennedy saw
in Sinatra was Hollywood.
This was a bromance.
At one of his guest houses,
Sinatra has built
a heliport for
the presidential helicopter
to come down in.
That's the way it works
in the business world.
Power goes to power.
Sinatra is all set
for this wonderful visit
from his friend Jack,
and at the same time,
Bobby is warned
about these mob connections
of Sinatra.
Since Bobby Kennedy is
going after the mob,
particularly Sam Giancana,
who was a good friend
of Frank,
Bobby says, "You can't stay
at Sinatra's house."
"The New York Times"
quotes President Kennedy.
"You know,
as much as I like Frank,
"I can't go there,
not while Bobby is handling
this Giancana investigation."
So JFK, political animal,
understands
the ramifications of this
and stays
at Bing Crosby's house,
a rival singer who just
happens to be a Republican,
and Frank really goes nuts.
So he calls Bobby Kennedy.
Frank is heard saying,
"What is this shit?"
Kennedy says, "Well, there's
some security concerns."
And Sinatra realizes that
it's because of his friend
Sam Giancana.
That's really
what's going on here.
Sinatra is still loyal to Sam.
But he's upset
that Jack Kennedy,
who he worked so hard for,
he's going to betray him.
Sinatra's assistant
George Jacobs recalled,
"There was an endless silence.
"He stood there staring out
at the desert,
as if someone had told him
his folks had died."
Sinatra was a means
to an end for the Kennedys.
Sinatra was useful, and then
he wasn't useful anymore.
[soft music
Sinatra had been a big
public face for Jack--
a lot of personal favors
in Hollywood.
He got people to
come through for Jack.
And he was totally humiliated.
He became a Republican then,
I remember.
Soon after the Cuban Missile
Crisis, back in Chicago,
Sam Giancana opens up
the Villa Venice.
Sam Giancana, out of
the goodness of his soul,
out of the grandiosity
of his spirit,
takes the hit off of Frank.
And the quid pro quo
is that Frank has to get
his Rat Pack pals
to come to Villa Venice
and do a big show for free.
The Villa Venice
was like the Chicago version
of the Copacabana.
Owned by the wiseguys,
same as the Copa.
There was
an 800-seat auditorium,
and people would arrive
and then they'd get
into gondolas,
and then they'd come
into the auditorium.
My father, he ordered
two gondolas from Italy
to ride on the river.
And you didn't have to pay
for it, either.
It was the most romantic place
you'd ever want to be.
And behind
the Villa Venice were
all these Quonset huts
where betting was taking place.
Gambling was illegal
in the state of Illinois.
Then everything is rigged.
It's a money mine for the mob.
Sinatra and his Rat Pack friends
appear under
what can only be termed
a command performance,
the FBI reports.
So the room is packed.
Everybody is
anticipating Sinatra,
Sammy Davis, and Dean Martin.
The Rat Pack.
Dressed up in a tuxedo,
Martin makes light
of the tension.
"Hold the noise down,"
he instructs,
pointing to a penthouse apartment
overlooking the stage.
"There's a gangster
sleeping up there."
"There's a gangster
sleeping up there."
I mean, it was all
very out in the open.
Also, there's Dean
on stage singing
about how he didn't
want to come there
because he's singing for free.
Well, they had
a successful fire, as they say.
That's the old joke.
The guys walking
on the street said,
"Jeez, I'm sorry to hear
about the fire in the club."
"Shh, that's not
till Thursday."
You know.
Right about the same time
as Villa Venice,
there was a place called
Cal-Neva on Lake Tahoe.
Cal-Neva was a hotel-casino
precisely on the California,
Nevada state line.
And this was useful,
because gambling was legal
in Nevada
and not in California.
There was actually
a state line drawn
across the property,
through the casino.
It was a gorgeous place.
There were all these chalets
on the lake.
Crystal clear water,
crystal clear air.
It was a paradise.
But also, it was a place
where Frank Sinatra
used to like to go.
And he would entertain there
from time to time.
And he very quickly became
connected to Cal-Neva
through Giancana.
Cal-Neva was another
cash register.
And Giancana wanted in.
But in 1960,
the Nevada Gaming Commission
had started this thing
called the Black Book.
When your name was
in this book,
that meant that
you couldn't step into
any gambling facility
in the state of Nevada.
You were barred.
Giancana was one
of the gangsters
in the Black Book.
Sam Giancana,
he became partners
with Frank Sinatra
in the Cal-Neva.
Of course, you're not gonna see
Sam Giancana's name
on any of the paperwork.
You know, a lot
of these individuals,
they couldn't get
a gaming license.
So they had their interests put
in the names of others.
Frank Sinatra,
he's a big draw in Las Vegas.
So having him
affiliated with that
is gonna bring in guests
and money to the casino.
When the Cal-Neva
came up for sale,
Sinatra did not have the money
to purchase the Cal-Neva.
So my father, Sam Giancana,
bankrolled him.
Frank tried to be in
residence as much as he could.
It was a dream of his
that he made a reality,
and it was a go-to place.
One night in a chalet
at Cal-Neva,
The McGuire Sisters are there.
Their road manager,
Victor LaCroix Collins,
is there.
And Sam Giancana is there,
although he's not allowed,
because he's in
the Black Book.
There's a tension
between Sam and their manager
because the McGuires
are feeling
that Phyllis is ruining
their act
by being involved
with this gangster.
Phyllis is a tough broad,
as they used to call them.
And she gets in
a sort of frisky mood,
and every time
she walks by where
her road manager is sitting,
she punches him
on the shoulder.
And every time
she walks by his chair
and gives him a punch
on the shoulder,
the punch is a little harder.
Finally, Collins throws her
to the floor.
And Sam Giancana runs over
to her rescue.
No! No, no!
Victor Collins
picks Giancana up
and carries him outside,
at which point,
Frank Sinatra shows up.
In his book, Roemer wrote,
"When Victor made a move,
"Sinatra jumped on him
and held him
"as tight as he could
while Sam, the tough guy,
punched Victor's lights out."
Sinatra tells Victor Collins,
"You're a dead man."
And Victor Collins tells Frank,
"You know what?
"They better shoot me
with a telescopic sight,
"because if that motherfucker
comes anywhere near me,
I'm gonna kill him
with my fists."
The cops come in,
and it becomes a big fiasco
because Giancana's
in the Black Book.
It turns out that
they had been
watching Cal-Neva to prove
that Sam has been there.
It becomes
a big tabloid display
in "Life" magazine
and newspapers
all around the country.
And eventually, this
relationship of Frank Sinatra
and Sam Giancana, which was
secret to the public,
is now out in the open.
And the linkage
of Sinatra with the mob
is now firmly affixed
in the public's mind.
Tony Accardo is looking
at all this in the papers.
And Accardo is really
upset about it,
because the limelight
that Giancana's private life
is bringing is now
affecting the business
of the mob in Chicago.
When you are in the mafia
and you are told,
"We don't want any heat on us,"
and you're somebody
that brings that kind of heat,
you're a goner.
With the Castro government
completely victorious
over the invading rebels,
there is despair and confusion
among the relatives
of the insurgents.
After the Cuban Missile
Crisis is resolved,
the more than 1,100 Cuban
exiles from the Bay of Pigs
that are now
being held by Castro
still remain the problem.
With Castro claiming
the capture of invaders
and threatening them all
with the firing squad.
It's been almost 18 months,
and this issue loomed
over Kennedy's presidency.
James Donovan,
a New York lawyer,
had been tasked
to get the Bay of Pigs
prisoners freed.
And he engaged
in protracted negotiations
with Fidel Castro.
Donovan goes down to Cuba.
He's gonna bring presents
as kind of tone setters
to finalize
these negotiations.
He gets Fidel Castro
a brand-new Polaroid camera.
This is early '60s.
It's almost like magic
for everybody.
And he acquires
a scuba diving suit.
Once the CIA gets wind
that he's gonna bring
this wet suit down,
they basically go, "Well, jeez,
here's our opportunity."
Castro was
a scuba diving enthusiast.
So the idea was
we'd poison this wet suit.
We will switch out
this wet suit.
We will put in the poison one
instead of the one
that he bought.
The wet suit itself would have
poison powder ingrained in it.
The snorkel would be
contaminated
with a special
bacteria fungus.
Donovan was not told of this.
I don't think he ever
would have agreed to do this.
He had been hired
to be a negotiator.
The people who were working
directly with Donovan
protected him.
They found out
that the CIA wanted
to replace the wet suit,
and they secured
the scuba diving suit
that Donovan had purchased
so that nobody could
get to it.
It wasn't until later
that the CIA finds out
that Donovan didn't use
their poison wet suit
and that the wet suit
that Castro is seen wearing
isn't gonna kill him.
Donovan later told
overconfident Americans,
"Castro is crazy like a fox.
"Whether certain elements
want to accept it or not,
the island of Cuba
belongs to Castro."
On March 29th,
the prisoners were brought
to trial in Havana
and fined, ranging
from $25,000 to $50,000.
James Donovan ended up
basically agreeing
to pay a ransom of $53 million
worth of food and medicine
for the release
of over a thousand prisoners.
We've heard a lot of stories
about Castro's prison.
How did they treat you there?
20 months were to pass,
months that alternated
between hope and despair.
But on Sunday, December 23,
just two days
before Christmas,
the first group
of 107 prisoners landed
at Homestead Air Force Base.
Ten trips in all were made,
and 1,113 men
welcomed the new year
on free soil.
When the prisoners
are released,
the Kennedys decide
to take this disaster
and turn it into their favor
by having a big celebration
at the Orange Bowl.
Johnny sees on television
his friend Manuel Artime,
the leader
of the Cuban exiles.
He's there
right next to the president.
He's in uniform.
He's safe.
The Bay of Pigs
was not only bumbled.
It was also a bloodbath.
And so they took
the Bay of Pigs
and turned it
into something that was
a confirmation
of American greatness,
a confirmation
of American bravery.
It is a pageant of trying
to turn a story around.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Mrs. Kennedy
would like to say
a word to you.
JFK brings his most potent
publicity arm,
his wife, Jackie Kennedy.
She addresses the crowd.
I can assure you
that this flag
will be returned to this
brigade in a free Havana.
Johnny Roselli is asleep
in a hotel room in Las Vegas.
It's a friend of his,
and he says,
"Turn on your radio."
Three shots were fired
at President Kennedy's
motorcade in Downtown Dallas.
President Kennedy has been
seriously wounded.
Roselli's only comment,
"Those damn communists."
And just now,
we've received reports here
that Governor Connally was
shot in the upper left chest.
And the first
unconfirmed reports say
the president was hit
in the head.
Now from Washington,
government sources say
that President Kennedy is dead
of an assassin's bullet
in the 46th year of his life
and in the third year
of his administration
as President
of the United States.
This is a dark day
in the history of America.
This man, I think,
wanted to save America.
He is not dead.
His spirit lives.
We are sorry, deeply moved
over this incident
here in America.
I'm sorry.
I was in school when
it came over the loudspeaker.
It was like a hit
to the solar plexus.
I couldn't believe it.
That's all.
I just couldn't believe it.
We were all crying
in my place, all crying.
I think the whole country
felt the same way.
I can hardly express
my emotion.
And I hope that
the country will survive.
It was the first time
I ever saw nuns crying.
Our parents picked us up
from school.
You have little glimpses
in your memory
at that age of what you recall.
But seeing adults cry
was really something.
Frank was shooting a movie,
"Robin and the 7 Hoods,"
when word came that JFK
had been assassinated.
Frank didn't even stay
in Los Angeles.
He went down to the desert
to mourn the loss
of his friend.
In the immediate aftermath
of the assassination of JFK,
Bobby Kennedy in some ways
was a shattered man.
He was said
to have been terrified
after the assassination
at the thought
that maybe he had caused it.
He first wondered
whether or not the mafia
might be behind
his brother's killing.
For years, Bobby Kennedy
went after the mafia.
He was zealous about it.
But once Jack is killed,
Bobby is unmoored in many ways.
He stays as attorney general,
but he's lost his fight.
Robert Morgenthau,
then U.S. Attorney
in New York, says,
"Kennedy never mentioned
organized crime to me again."
Who do you think would do
something like this?
I don't know.
I--I can't imagine in a way.
I can't imagine.
Only two months earlier,
Castro complained
that the Kennedy
administration
was trying to kill him,
and Castro said two people
could play that game.
The Kennedy assassination
fell victim
to conspiracy theories
almost within hours
of the President of the United
States being gunned down.
A lot of conspiracy theories
focused on the idea
that Cuban exiles
working with the CIA
had assassinated
John F. Kennedy
because they were angry
that he had not
followed through with
clear U.S. military support
during the Bay of Pigs.
One of the dominant
conspiracy theories
around the Kennedy
assassination
is that the mob killed Kennedy.
There's even a theory
that Johnny Roselli
was one of the shooters.
Sam Giancana, you know,
hated the Kennedys
for the way that
they came after the mafia.
Santo Trafficante, Jr.,
is implicated
through his connections
with a lot of figures.
Jack Ruby is
a perfect example.
He visits Trafficante
in prison in '59 in Havana.
And four years later,
he's the patriotic American
who shoots and kills
Lee Harvey Oswald.
Even if you don't believe any
of the conspiracy theories,
that's a pretty interesting
connection right there.
People want to say the mob
orchestrated the whole thing.
These guys are not
that kind of guy.
These guys are worried about
the rackets they got going,
the deals they got going.
They're looking at that.
Among the most outrageous
of those theories
was one that was generated
by a prosecutor
in New Orleans
named Jim Garrison.
The most recent,
most spectacular development
in the Oswald case
involves the CIA.
He started out
by blaming what he called
a cabal of homosexuals
for killing Kennedy
and then expanded this to
include the CIA and the FBI.
We know how it was done.
We know
the key individuals involved.
And we are in the process
of developing evidence now.
The Oliver Stone movie "JFK"
was about that particular
conspiracy theory,
presenting it as if
it was true.
So what really happened
that day?
Let's just for a moment
speculate, shall we?
The movie
that Oliver Stone did
was based on
what I and others thought
were some outlandish
conspiracy theories.
This is the key shot.
The president going back
and to his left.
Totally inconsistent with
the shot from the depository.
Everything about that movie
was a bald lie.
One of the few things that
Stone got right in that film
was the date on which
Kennedy was killed.
It's hard to believe
how much he got wrong.
But the American public
who saw the movie
were kind of outraged.
The people who worked
on the film were very savvy.
Oliver Stone, with this movie,
he wanted to get
so much public attention
to the JFK assassination
that it put pressure
on the government
to release, you know,
thousands--
tens of thousands of pages
on the JFK assassination
that they had been sitting on.
But those five million pages
of documents that were
released under the JFK
Assassination Records Act,
not a single one suggested
that anybody but Oswald
killed the President
of the United States.
Lee Harvey Oswald had
this tortured childhood.
Oswald decides
to join the Marines,
and it's an unmitigated
disaster for him.
They think he's gay.
He's ostracized.
In the middle of the Cold War,
he defects
to the Soviet Union,
where he expects
to be greeted as a hero,
and the Russians say to him,
"Get lost."
So he decides
how these guys in Russia,
they screwed up communism.
"I want to go back
to the U.S."
Not because he loves it,
but as he says in his notes,
it's the lesser of two evils.
And Lee Oswald commits himself
to the new revolution--
Castro and Cuba.
I think Oswald was
infuriated by what he felt
was American
mistreatment of Cuba.
The embargo.
The Bay of Pigs,
all the raids.
And in his twisted mind,
he had had enough
and had an opportunity.
And the rest is history.
As the casket is
returned to the caisson,
Mrs. Kennedy begins the long
hours of her public grief
with the courageous dignity
that has marked
each moment of her ordeal.
Caroline and John seem
to mirror
their mother's poise.
Mrs. Kennedy comes forward
with Caroline
in a tableau
that calls for no words.
Its poignancy calls
only for tears.
The JFK assassination leads
to a three-day period
of mourning,
and it's a mortal wound
to the psyche of America.
And one of the things
that saved the country
and put the country back was
the post mortem that happened
of that funeral
and all of the details,
and the loving wife
and the little boy saluting.
A gentle reminder
from his mother.
And John-John celebrates
his third birthday
with a soldier's farewell
to his father.
The martyrdom of him,
it ended up healing a nation.
Bearing the burden
of their own sorrow,
a quarter of a million people
brave near freezing weather
to pass by the dead
president in tribute.
The old, the young,
the aged, the children--
they became one
in their grief,
in the spontaneous outpouring
that throws up
an enduring memorial
to the American spirit.
After Kennedy
was assassinated,
if you had even the slightest
connection to him,
you could imagine what
you would feel in terms of,
could you be in danger?
I mean, literally,
Johnson didn't know
if he was gonna be next.
Nobody knew anything.
And so if you were Roselli
or Judy Campbell
in the days after that,
you could imagine
how petrified they would be.
This is a young woman
who's now trapped
in the middle of a situation
with very high-profile
players.
I think Johnny Roselli,
his heart just
went out to her.
She had walked
into a dangerous game,
and he understood that
she was certainly an innocent.
But also, Johnny knew that
if the FBI were to get to Judy
and her story got out,
she could expose
her affair with the president.
Judy said, "They had me
going from hotel to hotel
"so the FBI couldn't
subpoena me.
I sensed I was
in terrible danger."
You have the whole creation
of the Camelot myth
with the loving wife.
What she could have done
in terms of undermining
all of that would almost
have been a national
spiritual catastrophe.
Just imagine it.
And Johnny was patriotic.
He would not be comfortable
with the country
being destroyed
in a spiritual sense.
So there was every reason
to want to keep her close,
keep her contained,
and keep her quiet.
Meanwhile, Johnny has his
own problems with the feds.
They're building a case
against him
based upon what they found out
about his illegal
immigration status.
Sometimes he would use
two S's in Roselli.
Other times,
he would use one S.
The whole purpose is that
people who would try
to follow him
really couldn't be sure
whether or not
they had the right guy.
The feds had been after
Roselli for years.
They learned of his secret
because one of his own
betrayed him.
When Roselli started
working out in LA,
he was doing all right
for himself.
And he needs to send money
to his family back in Boston.
His family is
depending upon him.
And so he's very aware that he
doesn't want to expose himself
with this alias that he has.
He wants to make sure
that his real identity
as an illegal immigrant
was never found,
because it was not uncommon
for the government
to go after mobsters
who had come here illegally
and have them deported.
The authorities leaned
on the INS and the taxman
in order to combat
the syndicate and the mafia.
So he had this buffer
between himself
and his family back in Boston.
Johnny would rely upon
Salvatore Piscopo.
This is a man
that he could entrust
with the biggest secret
of his life.
Every year, Johnny would give
a satchel full of money
to his mother in Boston.
So that was the big fear
in Johnny Roselli's life,
that this deep, dark secret
of what his real name was
and what his real background
was, if it was found out,
he would be shipped
out of America.
For years, he would send
money to his mother.
But Piscopo got into trouble
with the feds himself.
The taxman had something
against him.
He had to start divulging
information.
And he didn't give up Johnny
right away.
But at some point,
he finally gave up.
You know, hey, this guy,
he wasn't born in Chicago.
His real name is
Filippo Sacco.
He's from Italy.
The feds could
potentially deport him.
May 5, 1966.
Johnny Roselli is
walking down the street.
The feds roll up in a car,
and they do one of these,
"Psst.
Hey, Johnny, you feel like
being deported?"
Johnny's gonna blow them off
like he does most times.
"See my attorney,"
Roselli growled,
without breaking stride.
The two men continue
to follow him.
One of them said,
"We know where you were born
and when you entered
the United States."
The FBI agents called out
Hey, Filippo Sacco!
That's like a hammer
hitting Roselli.
He knows they know.
Roselli gave
an unconvincing denial.
"I don't know
what you're talking about."
After years of fakery
and covering his tracks,
Roselli came face to face
with who he really was.
Johnny's worst fears
have come true.
Johnny Roselli,
this tough mobster,
had an inner fear
of somebody discovering
that he isn't Johnny Roselli.
They're gonna do
the same thing to him
they did to Lucky Luciano.
They're gonna do
the same thing they did
with Carlos Marcello
when they kicked him
out of the country,
the head
of the New Orleans mob.
You could see this fear
of not being a real American
and your very name
being a fraud
being something that
was devastating to him.
And in terms of him being
the U.S. government's
mafia spy--
a disaster.