Original subtitles

544 Camp Street.

531 Lafayette Street.

Same building, right?

Different addresses, different entrances, both going to the same place...

...to the office upstairs.

Guess who used it?

Lee Harvey Oswald.

How do we know that?

This address was stamped on...

...pro-Castro leaflets he handed out in the summer of '63 on Canal Street.

The same leaflets they found in his garage in Dallas.

After the arrest, 544 Camp St. never appeared on the pamphlets again.

He was arrested for fighting with anti-Castro Cubans.

But he'd contacted them already...

...as an ex-Marine trying to join their anti-Castro crusade.

When they heard he was now pro-Castro, they paid him a visit.

What's this Fidel shit? You lied to me!

Liar! Son of a bitch!

Do not take this Communist propaganda!

If you want to hit me, hit me.

You pinko shit!

Go back to Moscow!

There was no real fight.

The arresting Lieutenant later said he felt it was a staged incident.

In jail, Oswald has a private session...

...with Special Agent John Quigley of the FBl.

Oswald is released.

And Quigley destroys his notes from the interview.

The arrest gets Oswald a lot of publicity.

And he appears on a local TV debate.

You are a Communist, are you not?

No, Mr. Bringuier. I am not a Communist. I'm a Marxist-Leninist.

Communist, Marxist-Leninist, what's the difference?

What if I told you Oswald was trained in the Russian language in the Marines?

I'd say he got intelligence training.

You were a Marine. Who'd run it?

Office of Naval Intelligence.

Look across the street.

Post Office.

Upstairs, in 1963, that was the Office of Naval Intelligence.

By coincidence, Banister, before he was FBl, was ONl.

What's their saying?

"Once ONl, always ONl. "

He likes working near his old pals.

We are standing in the heart...

...of the US government's intelligence community in New Orleans.

That's the FBl.

That's the CIA.

That's the Secret Service.

That's the ONl.

Isn't this a strange place...

...for a Communist to spend his spare time?

What are you driving at?

We're going back into the case.

The murder of the President.

Lord, wake me. I must be dreaming.

You're awake. I'm deadly serious.

Let's track down your anonymous source from three years ago.

How'd you find out David Ferrie drove to Texas that day?

I can't remember last night, let alone three years ago, Boss.

You're not being cross-examined.

I need clarification about the night Guy Banister beat you over the head.

Don't tell me you don't remember.

You called our office from your hospital bed. You were hopping mad about it.

Here's my problem.

You told me you and Guy were good friends for a long time.

- Over ten years. - And he never hit you before?

Never touched me.

Yet, on November 22, 1963...

...the day of the President's murder...

...the police report says...

...he pistol-whipped you with a. 357 Magnum.

It also says you argued about the phone bill. Look!

Is an argument over a phone bill a believable explanation to you?

There's more to it.

How much more?

I shouldn't talk about it.

I'd ask Guy. We were friendly. Heart attack?

You buy what you read in the papers.

- You have other information? - I didn't say that!

All I know is he died suddenly. Just before the Warren Report came out.

Why did Guy beat you, Jack?

You were the only one here!

The only one here!

You didn't see a goddamn thing!

Hell, Guy's dead, so it don't matter no more. It was all about those...

...people that was hanging around the office that summer.

I was never part of the operation.

I just handled their private-eye work as it came in for Guy.

Not much did, but that's why I was there.

It was a nuthouse.

Cubans coming, going. And Christ, they all looked the same to me.

You going to play with this rifle or pack it?

Dave Ferrie.

- You know about him? - We know Dave. Was he there?

He practically lived there.

The whole thing was...

...all cloak-and-dagger stuff.

They called it "Operation Mongoose. "

The idea was to train these Cuban exiles for another invasion of Cuba.

Banister's office was part of the supply line...

...from Dallas through New Orleans to Miami.

We stockpiled arms, explosives.

In view of the intelligence community in Lafayette Square?

Yes. Everybody knew everybody. They were all part of the network.

All worked for the CIA.

Pilots and black operators and civilians and the military.

Everybody was running guns then.

Ft. Jefferson, Bayou Bluff, Morgan City, you name it.

McAllen, Texas? Big gun-run operation.

Where does Banister fit in?

He was running his camp north of Lake Pontchartrain.

Ferrie did a lot of the training.

They had a shooting range and tropical territory, like in Cuba.

Some Americans were trained there too.

Nazi types. Mercenaries.

That Ferrie, though, Jesus, he was the craziest.

Late summer the party was over. Kennedy didn't want another Bay of Pigs.

He told the FBl, "Shut up the camp.

"Confiscate the napalm, C-4 and all. "

The G-men were just going through the motions.

Their hearts were still with their old FBI buddy Banister.

Oswald?

He was there too.

Sometimes meeting with Banister.

With the door shut.

Shootin' the bull with Ferrie, whatever. But he was there, all right.

Anything more specific, Jack?

It's important.

One time, the secretary got upset.

I can't believe it, Mr. Banister, Oswald is down on Canal Street...

...handing out Communist leaflets supporting Castro.

It's okay, Delphine, he's with us.

Was anyone else involved at...

...Banister's level?

One guy. I don't know who.

Big. White hair.

I saw him in the office once. He looked out of place.

You know, a society guy.

Can't remember his name, but Oswald was with him.

He had something to do with money, because Banister never kissed ass...

...but he kissed his.

Clay something.

That was his name. Clay...

- Bertrand? - Yeah.

- Clay Bertrand? - I don't know.

- Maybe not. - No, that's right.

I must go.

He was in the Warren Report. He got Oswald a lawyer.

Was Kennedy discussed?

I don't know.

- The assassination? - No.

- Not with me. I've got to go. - Hold on.

- That's all I'll say. - What's the problem?

Do I have to spell it out for you?

Nobody knows what we're talking about here.

You are so naive.

- When'd you do business with Bertrand? - Pipe the bimbo in red.

- Lawdy. - She's not as cute as you.

- You should try a legitimate business. - Why are you dancing on my head?

- We've been friends since law school. - Because you're conning me.

- I read your testimony. - Grain of salt.

You said Clay Bertrand called you the day after the assassination...

- ... and asked you to be Oswald's lawyer. - Right.

That's pretty important.

You told the FBI he's 6' 2". Then you tell the Commission he's 5' 8".

How the hell does a man shrink like that?

They put the heat on me, like you. I gave them whatever popped in my cabeza.

Truth is, I never met the dude.

- One likes friends that have friends. - Indeed.

I don't know what that cat looks like or where he's at.

All I know is sometimes he sends me some cases.

One day he calls, talks to me about repping Oswald in Dallas.

- You ever speak to Oswald in Dallas? - No.

I told that Bertrand cat right off this ain't my scene.

- I'm a hack. He needs a hot dog. - Then how did you get in the Commission?

Like I told the Washington boys...

...Bertrand asked me that summer to help the kid upgrade his Marine discharge.

Mr. Bertrand said he would take care of any of-

Fine.

- To whom am I speaking? - Clay Bertrand. I'll pay what they owe.

There was no conspiracy. If there was, why didn't Bobby Kennedy prosecute?

He was his brother.

How'd so many people keep such a secret?

- It was Oswald. He hated- - We're having a communication problem.

I know you know who Clay Bertrand is. Stop eating that crabmeat and listen.

I'm aware of our friendship, but I'll call you before the grand jury.

You lie to them as you lied to me, I'll charge you with perjury.

I took nine judges on here in New Orleans.

I beat them all. Am I communicating with you?

Off the record?

In that case, let me sum it up for you.

If I answer that question you keep asking...

...if I give you the name of the big enchilada...

...then it's bon voyage, Deano.

Like a bullet in my head, you dig?

You're a mouse fighting a gorilla. JFK's dead as that crabmeat.

The government's still breathing.

Either you give the grand jury Clay Bertrand's real identity...

...or your fat behind's going to the slammer.

You're as crazy as your mama. It's in the genes.

Do you know what you're getting into?

The government will jump all over your head and go cock-a-doodle-doo.

Good day to you, sir.

District Attorney Garrison to see Prisoner 5388.

Ward block 237B.

We don't need gates with that swamp.

Many of them gone in there, none of them came out.

You got visitors here. Don't give them trouble.

- How you doing, Mr. Broussard? - Let's go, Willie.

Thank you, Mr. O'Keefe, for this time.

I got nothing but time.

Minutes, hours, days. Years of it.

Time stands still here, like a snake sunning itself.

Clay Bertrand?

I met him sometime in...

...June of '62. The Masquerade Bar.

Dave Ferrie took me there expressly to meet him.

Sexual purposes?

Did he pay you?

$20 each time. Ain't no secret. That's what I'm in here for.

Anything unusual about him...

...you'd be able to describe in court?

He had something wrong with his leg, a limp.

Don't get me wrong. He's not one of those limp wrists.

He's a butch John. Meet him on the street, you'd never snap.

You could play poker with him, go fishing, you'd never snap.

One night we were at David Ferrie's...

...sometime late in the summer of '63.

There was about nine to ten people there.

Cuban. Friends who'd done stuff in the bush with him. Place was a mess.

Dave's mind was a mess. He had caged mice...

...'cause he's working on a cancer cure.

Dave's smart, though. Speaks five languages.

Knows philosophy, medicine, military history, politics.

He wanted to be a priest. They defrocked him 'cause he was queer.

That's where you first met Oswald?

Strange guy. Dave introduced him as...

Leon Oswald.

How you doing?

What the fuck is he doing here?

Fuck you, motherfucker.

Leon's in a bad mood. Don't get excited.

You said Leon was actually Lee Harvey Oswald?

Yeah. I have no reason to lie to you.

I'm already in jail.

Go on.

Finally they left and I was alone with Dave...

...and this Leon...

...two of the Cubans, and this guy Bertrand.

Dave pulled out some clippings.

He'd been obsessed with Castro and Kennedy for months.

Little ass-wipe closed down the camps! Took our C-4!

Took 10,000 rounds! 3,000 pounds of gunpowder!

All our weapons!

You want to free Cuba? Whack out the fucking beard!

Kennedy won't let us. Our hands are empty. How can we?

Problem is getting to him. Informers on every block.

They got new stuff!

I could show you dozens of poisons! Put it in his food, he'd die in three days.

No trace!

Put something in his beard, make it fall out. He'd look ridiculous...

Fucking Kennedy is doing all kinds of deals with that bastard Khrushchev.

Licking his ass.

An inspired act of God should happen here and put a Texan in the White House!

The Cubans left. Dave was drunk.

He started in on Kennedy again.

I will kill! In the White House! Stab him in the heart!

Somebody must get rid of him!

You won't get that son of a bitch!

It won't be long. That fucker will get what he deserves.

It could be blamed on Castro, the country will want to invade Cuba.

We just need to get him in the open.

Always some harebrained scheme.

Let's have some more champagne, shall we?

What about the Secret Service? The cops?

If it's planned right, no problem. They got close to De Gaulle.

Eisenhower always rode in open top.

We need three mechanics in three different locations.

An office building, a high-powered rifle.

Triangulation of crossfire, that's the key. That's the key.

A diversionary shot gets the Secret Service looking one way.

Boom! Get the kill shot.

One man has to be sacrificed.

In the commotion, the job gets done.

The others leave the country.

Let's drop this subject. It's one thing to banter with these kids...

...but this sort of thing could be so easily misunderstood.

I didn't think much about it then. It's just bullshit.

People like to act more important than they are.

Especially in the homosexual underworld.

But when they got him...

...I got scared.

Real scared.

That's when I got popped.

The things you said will be attacked by many people.

Bring them on. Bring their college degrees in here, I got nothing to hide.

No one can buy me.

- I don't even need this parole. - What parole?

You liberal, you don't know shit 'cause you never been fucked in the ass.

This ain't about justice! No, this is about order!

Who rules? Fascism is coming back.

Nobody wants to buy you. No one's promising you parole.

What I need to know is why are you telling us this.

'Cause that motherfucker Kennedy...

...stole that motherfucking election, that's why.

Nixon was going to be a great President until Kennedy wrecked this country.

Niggers wanting rights! Why do you think we have all this crime.

He promised those motherfuckers too much!

Revolution's coming, bullshit! Fascism's coming back!

The day that Communist son of a bitch died was a great day!

A great day for this country.

I hate to think they blame it on silly, fucking Oswald.

Didn't know shit, anyway.

People got to know. People got to know why he was killed.

Because he was a Communist.

You go ahead, put me on the stand, I'll tell the same goddamned story!

Don't matter to me!

All right, Willie. Thanks.

We'll be in touch.

All right.

You know, you're not a bad-looking man.

Not bad at all.

I get out of here, I'll come see you. We can have fun!

Their testimony won't hold up in court.

Their reputations are lower than crocodile piss.

That bothers you?

If a woman's a prostitute, must she also have bad eyesight?

Find Clay Bertrand. Start by checking around the Quarter.

The six of us, with almost no budget and in secret...

...will solve a case the Warren Commission couldn't?

- I didn't pick you for your legal skill. - Thanks, Boss.

You're a fighter. I like a man who's not afraid of bad odds.

Mr. Garrison, how are you? Remember me?

You vote for me?

I did. We sang together at the Royal Orleans, remember?

We sang:

"You're the cream in my coffee"

Haven't seen you much lately.

Been too busy. Elected men can't have as much fun as they used to.

It's always nice to see you. Pleasure to serve you always.

How are you? Nice to see you.

Welcome back, Lou.

- Think I could get a martini? - They're waiting for you, sir.

Keep that table open for us.

Anything on the hoboes?

Dallas Times Herald photographer got great shots.

Never published.

Can't say that comes as a surprise.

They took them to the sheriff's and let them go. No record of questioning.

Do they look like the hoboes you remember?

These two look young.

Not a frayed collar or cuff, fresh haircuts and shaves...

- ... clean hands, new shoe leather. - Who the hell are they then?

Sit down.

This could be it. Let's look for them.

What about the railroad man, Lee Bowers, who saw the men at the picket fence?

Graveyard. Dead. August this year.

Single-car accident on an empty road in Midlothian, Texas.

The doctor said he was in a strange shock when he died.

We need to find more witnesses.

There was Rose Cheramie, a whore.

She said she was a dope runner for Jack Ruby.

And that Ruby knew Oswald for years.

- Can we talk to her? - She's dead too.

Hit and run.

Why don't we go to the horse's mouth?

Jack Ruby's been in a Dallas jail cell for three years. Maybe he'll crack.

Can't. If I go to him our investigation will hit the front pages.

It'll blow up in our face. Susie, what did you find on Oswald?

Negative on his tax records. Classified.

First time a DA can't get a tax record.

I asked for the CIA files on Oswald that were part of the Warren Report.

About 1,200 documents. Can't get one of them.

All classified as secret on the grounds of national security.

Gave me his grammar school records. It's a study of his pubic hairs.

Lonely kid, no father.

Joins the Marines at 17.

Learns Russian. Acts overtly Marxist.

But he's stationed at a top-secret air base in Japan...

...where U-2 spy flights over Russia originate.

He's discharged...

...supposedly because his mother's sick. Stays home three days.

Then, with a $1,500 ticket from a $203 bank account, he goes to Moscow.

Mr. Oswald, do you understand...

- ... the action you are about to take? - Yes, I do, sir.

I wish to renounce my citizenship...

...and become a Soviet citizen.

I'll give them all the information I have on the Marines.

He disappears for six weeks, presumably with the KGB.

He's taken to a radio factory in Minsk...

...where he lives as high on the hog as he ever has.

He's given 5,000 rubles, a roomy apartment with a balcony.

Has affairs with local girls.

Makes sense. He's a spokesman.

But he never does any propaganda for the Russians.

He meets Marina.

Her uncle is a colonel in Soviet intelligence.

She thinks he's Russian by his speech.

Six weeks later they marry, have a daughter.

Only explanation for the royal treatment is he gave them radar secrets.

Or fake secrets.

Six months after he's in Russia...

...Francis Gary Powers' U-2 spy flight goes down...

...in Russia. That plane was untouchable.

Powers hinted that Oswald...

...could've given the Russians enough data to hit it.

As a result, the peace summit between Khrushchev and Eisenhower failed.

Perhaps our military didn't want the conference to happen?

Maybe Oswald was part of that!

- Stick to what you can prove in court. - You want facts?

Don't get sidetracked. How'd he get back to the States?

Does he have any problems with Uncle Sam?

No. The State Department issues him a new passport in 48 hours...

...and loans him travel money.

He's never investigated or charged for revealing classified information...

...or, as far as we know, debriefed by the CIA.

Bastard should've been prosecuted as a traitor when he got off the boat.

Did Marina have problems getting out?

None, though it's almost impossible to get Russian sweethearts out.

This is a man who defected once already. It's crazy. Ordinary people...

...get blacklisted for having leftist affiliations.

Doesn't add up.

Next thing, he's living in Dallas-Fort Worth, October '62...

...working six months at Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall...

...a photographic firm that makes maps for the US Army.

Oswald becomes chummy with the Dallas White Russian community.

All rabid anti-Communists.

It's odd.

His closest friend is an oilman, named George DeMohrenschildt.

He is 35 years older than Oswald, who is only 23 and supposedly broke.

He is a part of the Dallas Petroleum Club, speaks five languages...

...and was a French Vichy intelligence during the war...

...also rumored to be a Nazi sympathizer.

DeMohrenschildt draws a picture of Oswald as an intellectual...

...well read, speaks excellent Russian, a man who adored JFK.

I think he's made some mistakes regarding Cuba.

I think he's doing a pretty good job. If he succeeds, in my opinion...

...I think he'd make a great President and a handsome one, too.

That's scenery, Susie. Now, don't get sidetracked.

This is the same man that nailed Oswald to the Warren Commission...

...as a potentially violent man and linked him to the rifle.

Well, in that sense Castro is an experimenter.

It could go any way with that country.

- It could go the way of the communism- - What you got there?

Do you have rifles in there?

Tell me what I'm shooting at, rabbits or Fascists?

- I hunt. - You hunt?

We don't know he's CIA. Let's circle him very probable.

Call him Oswald's handler.

The Oswalds are introduced to Janet and Bill Williams.

It's through Janet Williams, in October '63, that Lee gets the job...

...at the warehouse on Elm Street at the Book Depository.

So he can now exercise his intellect, stacking school texts at $1.25 an hour.

Marina fights with Lee about many things.

His secrecy, their lack of money.

She says that Lee is not sexually adequate.

Lee hits her on several occasions.

At the age of 24...

...he rents a room in Dallas under the alias of O.H. Lee.

Do you want to watch TV? Are you all right?

No, thank you. I'm fine.

All I know about the Williams is their tax returns are classified.

Bill Williams has links to the CIA through his family...

...and does classified work for Bell Helicopter.

Bill's convenient separation from Janet allows Marina to move into her house...

...where she suddenly becomes Marina's best friend.

There Marina and Lee have a second daughter.

I have to go away. Just for a short while.

What's wrong with this family?

I love Lee...

...and I sorry him.

Sorry for him?

Yes.

When he's arrested, Marina buries him with the public.

She describes him as a psychotic and violent man.

I have too much facts...

...and facts tell me that Lee shot Kennedy.

After being locked away by the feds for two months...

...and afraid she'd be deported...

...she was probably suffering from nervous exhaustion.

They taught her how to answer.

When they think she's ready, they buy her dresses...

...polish her appearance and wheel her out.

- I'd like to thank the Warren Commission. - Oswald was no angel.

But who was he?

I'm lost. What are we saying?

That when Oswald went to Russia, he was not a real defector.

He was an intelligence agent for our government and remained one till he died.

So, because Oswald pulled the trigger...

...the intelligence community murdered the President?

I'll go you one better. Maybe Oswald...

...didn't pull the trigger.

Nitrate tests indicate he hadn't fired a rifle on November 22.

And they didn't bother to see if the rifle'd been fired that day.

- His palm print was on it. - It went to the FBl.

FBI didn't find a goddamn thing.

It comes back a week later and a Dallas policeman suddenly finds a palm print?

It could've been taken at the morgue. There's no chain of evidence.

I can't figure out why he orders a traceable weapon...