Gilberto Policarpo Lopez

A tidbit from the Waldron/Hartmann book:

Declassified Warren Commission and CIA documents confirm that Lopez, whose movements parallel Oswald in so many ways in 1963, was on a secret ‘mission’ for the US involving Cuba, an ‘operation’ so secret that the CIA felt that protecting it was considered more important than thoroughly investigating the JFK assassination.” 46

Hm. That's a bit of a stretch, isn't it?

On the other hand, what do we know about Lopez after the assassination, anything? I haven't been able to find much.

The AMWORLD theory doesn't make sense to me. If the mafia found out Kennedy was finally going to move on Cuba, wouldn't they have let him? That's what they wanted from the beginning, isn't it? The numbers I've seen say that Cuba basically dwarfed Las Vegas in terms of financial revenue for the underworld, and wouldn't that really be the prize? If you were Carlos Marcello and you were upset about a little deportation, wouldn't a half billion a year go a long way towards causing you to reconsider?

And the same for the Joint Chiefs, wouldn't they have been overjoyed that Kennedy was finally going to move against Cuba? I find it impossible to believe they wouldn't have been in the loop at some level. What is interesting in all this is the message DPD Officer Stringellow allegedly sent to Florida immediately after the assassination.

Anyway.... Lopez... what's a good place to start with this character? How much do we know about him?

nonsqtr wrote:
The AMWORLD theory doesn't make sense to me. If the mafia found out Kennedy was finally going to move on Cuba, wouldn't they have let him? That's what they wanted from the beginning, isn't it? The numbers I've seen say that Cuba basically dwarfed Las Vegas in terms of financial revenue for the underworld, and wouldn't that really be the prize? If you were Carlos Marcello and you were upset about a little deportation, wouldn't a half billion a year go a long way towards causing you to reconsider?

Marcello didn't have as much of an interest in Cuba as Santo Trafficante. Plus there was no guarantee that the Mob would've been allowed to resume activities in Cuba after Castro's fall. Overall, I don't buy that the Mob was as interested in overthrowing Castro as the CIA and Cuban exiles. 

Marcello, Hoffa, and Trafficante all had a common interest in their hate of the Kennedys. Robert Kennedy specifically. Federal prosecutions of organized crime spiked with RFK as AG and rapidly declined after JFK's murder. 

The Mob knew that LBJ and J. Edgar Hoover didn't get along with the Kennedys and that RFK would be replaced if LBJ replaced JFK as POTUS. Killing RFK would've invited an even bigger organized crime crackdown from JFK. In order to neutralize RFK, his brother had to go. If the mob was involved in Kennedy's assassination at an organizational level, then removing Robert Kennedy as AG would've likely been a primary motive. 

I've read Waldron's latest book on the Kennedy assassination. While I too am not sold on the idea that Kennedy was planning an invasion of Cuba when he was killed, a high level mob plot against Kennedy with some help from corrupt agents in the CIA and law enforcement doesn't seem too far fetched.