From jmcadams@primenet.com Mon Jan 27 13:13:35 CST 1997 Article: 5565 of alt.conspiracy.jfk.moderated Path: news.primenet.com!jmcadams From: jmcadams@primenet.com (John McAdams) Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy.jfk.moderated Subject: Stockwell Critique of Files Story - 5 Date: 23 Jan 1997 21:24:03 -0700 Organization: PrimeNet Lines: 176 Approved: jmcadams@primenet.com Message-ID: <5c9dh3$1b8@nnrp1.news.primenet.com> X-Posted-By: jmcadams@206.165.5.111 (jmcadams) Xref: news.primenet.com alt.conspiracy.jfk.moderated:5565 FROM: John R. Stockwell, 105475,2627 Re: The Files Confession, Part V Summary of Files's published "confession", Part A: Files states that his name was James Sutton until late 1963, when it was changed to James E. Files with the aid of the government, so that he could marry and live a normal life free of harassment and other risks which might have arisen from his activities with a radical Cuban group. Files served in the 82nd Airborne in Laos from 1959 for about 14 months. He was involved in training people to do ambushes. After that, he did some race driving, and his abilities attracted the attention of Charles Nicoletti, who recruited him as his personal driver. At that time, Tony Accardo ran the Chicago Mob. On November 22, 1963, Files went to Dealey Plaza in Dallas about 10 a.m. He checked the area, discussed the assassination plan with Nicoletti. It began with Nicoletti around five months earlier. Files had a connection with the Bay of Pigs operation. He was at No Name Key (gives two other names for it also). His CIA controller was David Atlee Phillips. Nicoletti asked Files if he wanted to help him kill "a friend of yours," knowing that Files hated Kennedy. At first, files thought it was a local hit, but Nicoletti told him the target was JFK. John Rosselli, out of Miami, was involved. Files met Rosselli through Phillips. The original plan was to hit JFK in Chicago, but no one was comfortable with doing it there, so the idea was dropped. About a week before the assassination, Files drove to Mesquite, Texas, with the weapons for the operation, A day or so after he arrived, Lee Harvey Oswald came to him to show him around the area. Oswald also took him to locations where he could test and calibrate the weapons. As far as he knows, Oswald didn't know what the plan was. Files explored Dallas routes, with the idea of getaway options. On November 22, Files drove to the Cabana Motel, where he met Rosselli around 7 a.m.. They went to a pancake house in Fort Worth, where Rosselli met with Jack Ruby, while Files served as lookout. Ruby handed Rosselli an envelope, and left. They opened the envelope in the car: it contained Secret Service identifications and an updated motorcade route map; Rosselli commented that he saw only one change, the double turn in Dealey Plaza. They returned to the Cabana. With Nicoletti, Files went to Dealey Plaza around 10 a.m. They looked over the area further. Nicoletti asked if Files would back him up as an extra shooter, if needed, and Files agreed. As his location, he chose the area behind the fence on the grassy knoll. He suggested Nicoletti fire from the Dal-Tex Building (Nicoletti had a rifle). They separated, Files going to the railroad yard area and making preparations. He had a briefcase with a Remington Fireball inside. As the limousine began coming down Elm Street, Files heard shots from behind it, and assumed that was Nicoletti. He noticed JFK was hit, but only in the body; and that Connally seemed to be hit. If he was going to fire, he had to do it before he risked hitting Jackie, as they had been told not to hit anyone but JFK, and especially not to shoot Jackie. He fired-just after Nicoletti, it turned out, both hitting JFK in the head. Files' bullet hit JFK in the left (actually, right, as he later explained) temple. He put the gun into the briefcase, turned his coat from plaid to gray business suit (reversible), and walked away via the Elm Street extension to Houston Street. He had bit the shell casing, and left it sitting on the fence, as a calling card, but no one realized it had been bitten until 1994, he said. At Houston, he got into a 1963 Burgundy Chevrolet; Rosselli was in the back seat, and Nicoletti in the front passenger seat. They were in a parking lot, and exited turning right onto Houston, went 5 or 6 blocks, then turned left, and near the freeway dropped the two off at another car. Files returned to his room in Mesquite, cleansed himself with hot was to remove any traces of powder, showered, changed, then took care of the guns. Nicoletti's rifle was in the trunk, the briefcase was under the steering wheel; both were taken care of, then placed in a special gun compartment inside the car. The next day, he drove to Southern Illinois, and on Sunday, he drove on into Chicago. He had been instructed to drive only during the day and not to attract any attention. Sometime later, Nicoletti gave him $30,000 for the job, although they hadn't ever discussed money. Files said he first met Lee Harvey Oswald in early 1963, in connection with gun-running, in Clinton, Louisiana, via David Atlee Phillips. Both were doing CIA work at the time. There was obviously some government involvement in the assassination, as otherwise they wouldn't have gotten the Secret Service identifications Ruby gave them. Phillips had given him the Remington Fireball for an earlier job. Files said he saw Frank Sturgis among the crowd of people on Elm Street. He also saw Eugene Brading, whom he had seen at the Cabana with Nicoletti and Rosselli. Files knew Sturgis from anti-Castro activities, as did Rosselli. Files didn't see Oswald at all that day. He and Oswald never discussed the assassination plan. He would not comment on the murder of J.D. Tippit, except to say that Oswald didn't kill Tippit, and the man who did was still alive at the time of the interview (a later reference possibly referring to the same man indicated he is now in his '80s), and had originally been assigned to kill Oswald. The man came to see Files in Mesquite after the assassination, saying there was a screwup and he had killed a cop. Files said he saw Ruby in the Plaza, below the knoll near the sidewalk. He said everyone reacted slowly to the shots. As he walked away from the knoll, he noticed two men in suits behind him, turning people back. He said he didn't see Zapruder, and wasn't sure what he would have done if he thought he had been filmed, but he carried a Colt pistol, and might have shot him. He also didn't realize Mary Moorman's camera had photographed him, and declined the interviewer's request that he autograph a copy of the photo. The Remington Fireball was designed in 1961, but had a tendency to blow up, so was re-designed. It fired a .221 cal. long round. It was a bolt-action pistol with a telescopic sight, effective at 100 yards; not unlike a cut-down rifle. The shells were custom-made, with a mercury load, and fragmented on impact. They were fired at 3100 feet per second. Files believed Giancana gave Nicoletti his orders, and that Accardo had to know about it. In response to a question, Files said he was receiving no money for this interview. He talked about West's first contact, telling West he must have him confused with someone else. Then West calling, and getting into some things Files didn't want discussed in a prison-recorded phone call, so he told West to come and see him if he wanted to talk with him. First they talked only about sports and so on. The second time, Files felt more comfortable with West. As time went on, he began to open up to him more. West had a plan to reopen the case by getting Files to testify in court, first seeking immunity for Files. Files said he had been threatened by both government and organized crime people for discussing the case, but wouldn't specify individuals, as he refuses to give up the name of a living person for any offense. He said the FBI visited him. He had knowledge of the death of David Ferrie, but wasn't willing to discuss it, except to say the brain hemmorhage was caused intentionally, and he had identified the area in Ferrie's brain to look at. He had talked to Joe West because he came to like and respect West. He felt no remorse for his actions in Dallas. He was bitter about the Bay of Pigs. He knew Richard Helms. Antonio Veciana was a good friend, and not involved in the assassination. Nicoletti flew to Dallas via commercial airline. Rosselli said he had been in D.C. and caught a MATS (Military Air Transport Service) flight to Dallas, thanks to the CIA. Files didn't know any details because he doesn't ask questions; he only knows what he was told. In the 1970s, with Senate investigations, things began to get uncomfortable. Giancana didn't know Files had fired a shot, only that Nicoletti had. Files thinks Rosselli, who was in Chicago at the time, may have killed Giancana, as he was one of the few who would have had the access, and he left town right afterward. Rosselli was later killed. Files was involved in guarding Nicoletti, as there had been indications he was a target. In mid-March 1977, Nicoletti gave Files a package, which Files buried. Nicoletti was killed March 29. In April, Files was snatched and brutally interrogated, but didn't give up the package's location. After he was dumped, severely injured, and recovered, he carefully returned to the location where he had buried the package, dug it up, and found inside the Secret Service identifications, the motorcade route map, and Nicoletti's diary. He destroyed all but the diary, which he still has somewhere. He freely admits having worked for organized crime, though he says he was never a member of the Mob. He felt he had lived a good life, doing as much as "a hundred other guys." He was born January 1942 in Alabama, but his family soon moved to Chicago, where he grew up the only English-speaking kid in an Italian neighborhood, and soon became accepted by the community. He did little jobs for mobsters from the age of 11, as they tipped well. He became known as a kid who wouldn't give up anybody, who could be relied upon.. He had his first car at age 14.