Coup in Dallas

The Decisive Investigation into Who Killed JFK

H. P. Albarelli

• Publisher: Skyhorse
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781510740341
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

The CIA, Dallas, and the Hard Details of the JFK Assassination Coup in Dallas leaves speculation and theory aside to give the hard details of who killed President John F. Kennedy and how the assassination plot was carried out. Through exhaustive research and newly translated documents, author H. P. Albarelli uncovers and explains the historical roots of state-sponsored assassination, finding disturbing parallels to the assassination of JFK. Albarelli goes beyond conventional JFK assassination theory to piece together the biographies of the lesser-known but instrumental players in the incident, such as Otto Skorzeny, Pierre Lafitte, James Jesus Angleton, Santo Trafficante, and others. Albarelli provides shocking detail on the crucial role that the city of Dallas and its officials played in the maintenance of Dallas as a major hub of CIA activity, and how it led to JFK's assassination and its cover-up. Go beyond LBJ, Lee Harvey Oswald, and Jack Ruby, and read the full, definitive account of what happened on November 22, 1963—and how it came to fruition.

CHAPTER 1

WWII, SPECIAL OPS, AND ASSASSINATIONS

The past is never dead. It’s not even past.

—WILLIAM FAULKNER

But more than wild was the man with the wile of Odysseus, Like the King of Assassins, he welded together

An army of desperate, invisible soldiers

Each as bold as himself in single deeds . . .

—CARLETON S. COON, JUNE 2, 1959

It is still an open question whether an operator in OSS or in CIA can ever again become a wholly honorable man.

We deserve to go to hell when we die.

—WILLIAM ALFRED EDDY, 1957

On the wings of murder. The pigeon way for unsuspecting Lee. Clip, clip his wings.

—Lafitte datebook, November 9, 1963

What do France in December 1942, World War II, and the French Resistance—precisely where our story begins—have to do with the assassination of the 35^th president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, the event that shattered the American landscape? This chapter will begin to reveal that the roots of our great American tragedy dive deeply into European soil two decades back, at a time when democracies and monarchies hung by mere threads in the face of Nazi Germany’s military juggernaut and when all hands and all means were called upon to save the Allies from defeat.

As we shall read, the comrades in this monumental effort produced strange bedfellows and shifting expedient alliances that joined anti-Nazis with French profascist terrorists and gangsters, anticommunists, antimonarchists, and Allied commandos, all of whom exploited the means of assassination to advance their collective and sometimes contradictory ends. It’s clear from the outset that this chapter, and the fullness of the book, will not argue that the assassination in Dallas was a new weapon in the arsenal of war and international affairs. Far from it. The beginnings, described here, establish the foundation for what eventually evolved into a complex set of interrelated aims, enterprises, individuals, and methods that ultimately triggered the murder of an American president. The events described in this chapter provided the tip of the spear for what ultimately became a kind of assassination incorporated.

SUMMER PALACE, ALGIERS, ALGERIA, DECEMBER 24, 1942, CHRISTMAS EVE, ABOUT 2:45 P.M.

The dark-haired, thin young man seated in the anteroom shifts about in his chair, nervously running his right hand along the shape of the Colt .45 caliber handgun concealed in his overcoat pocket. In his coat’s inner breast pocket, he has $2,000 in US currency, a fake Algerian passport bearing the surname “Mornard,” and forged papers, on pilfered stationery, stating that he has an official appointment with a civil servant in the Palace building that afternoon. The young man, dressed in all black, is waiting for the arrival of his target, Admiral François “Jean” Darlan.

* * *

Darlan, a lightning rod for controversy, was born in Nerac, France, in 1881. After graduating from the École Navale in 1902, he enlisted in the French Navy and, driven by a fierce ambition, became a rear admiral by 1929. Less than two years later, Darlan became admiral, in command of all French naval vessels. In 1936, he became chief of the French Navy’s general staff and responsible for all French maritime operations worldwide. Historian and prolific author Peter Kross, who has also published respected books related to the assassination of President Kennedy, underscores that Darlan was not only ambitious, but also “an opportunist of the first order, and he showed his true colors shortly after the fall of France in June 1940.”

Writes Kross: “With France now in his grasp, [Hitler] appointed Marshal Philippe Pétain as the head of the Vichy government. Pétain was a mere figurehead, doing the bidding of his German masters. Darlan was given wide powers within the Pétain administration, the most important being control of the large French fleet that was still virtually untouched by the war. Later, decisive action by the British Royal Navy crippled elements of the French fleet and assured the Allies that these ships would not fall into German hands.”

Kross continues, “When the allies invaded North Africa in 1942, an enraged Hitler canceled the peace accord he had arranged with Vichy in 1940 and took measures to occupy all of France. Darlan believed that the Germans would inevitably win the war and did all he could to keep the Vichy regime in Hitler’s good graces. By 1941, Darlan had assumed two new posts: Minister of the Interior and Minister of Defense. It was Vichy policy to support the Germans as much as possible, going so far as to offer them the use of the former French colonies with their strategic locations and vital raw materials. In the United States, the Roosevelt administration received information from the OSS about covert Vichy operations in Central and South America. According to the government website of the Central Intelligence Agency, its forerunner, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), formerly known as the Office of Coordination of Information established in 1941, “consisted of men and women from many areas and backgrounds—lawyers, historians, bankers, baseball players, actors, and businessmen. Their assignment was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and morale operations against the Axis powers, and conduct in-depth research and analysis on the nation’s enemies and their capabilities.’”

Its chief, General William J. Donovan, who had led the 165th Regiment of the US Army during WWI, received reports that Vichy agents were infiltrating the Caribbean island of Martinique, then prowling around the region while the port was being used as a refueling base for German U-boats. For all of Darlan’s German sympathies, he drew the line in advance of full cooperation and made contact with the United States in the months leading up to Operation Torch. All his intrigues came once he was designated Pétain’s successor on February 10, 1941. Darlan was now playing both ends against the middle in his dealings with the Allies and the Germans. During a visit to French Algeria in October 1941, he ordered his subordinates in the Navy to counter any Allied attack on Dakar, Senegal. At the same time, he contacted the Americans telling them he was prepared to cooperate “when the Torch landings took place.”

* * *

The young man shifts nervously in his chair again and then stands and begins to pace the small anteroom. Darlan will be returning from a late lunch any minute now, and the young man’s weeks of arduous small arms and evasive techniques training at a secret paramilitary camp will be put to the ultimate test. Two days earlier, the young man told two close friends, who, like him, were members of a small secret group called Hydra: “Darlan is a traitor who must be killed. He must disappear and I, as a member of Hydra, will be the one to make him disappear from this earth.”

* * *

But what, if anything, might the just-turned twenty-year-old would-be assassin Fernand Bonnier de la Chapelle have in common with a twenty-four-year-old former US defector who two decades later would be arrested and subsequently charged with the broad-daylight assassination of the president of the United States?

Fernand de la Chapelle, reported to be an ardent monarchist and antifascist, was strongly opposed to the Vichy government and its supporters. Fernand had been a student until recently, dropping out of school to attend the paramilitary camp in Aïn Taya, an outlying area of Algiers graced with beautiful beaches. Aïn Taya camp was operated jointly by Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Lee Harvey Oswald exhibits a similar profile of the young ardent idealist when at age sixteen he joins the Civil Air Patrol, a youth auxiliary of the US Air Force, and upon turning seventeen, enlists in the US Marines.

* * *

Fernand belongs to a recently formed, tightly controlled commando unit called Corps Franc d’Afrique. The unit consists of about one hundred men, and its training concentrates on small arms fire, hand-to-hand combat, and escape and evasion. OSS Major Carleton Coon, who the reader will learn had a storied career as a trained anthropologist promulgating racial superiority, directs Fernand’s unit. The lead trainer under Coon was French Army Master Sergeant Gilbert Sabatier, thirty-five years old at the time. Sabatier oversees a team of four highly skilled trainers, who concentrate especially on the use of firearms. At Coon’s direction, Sabatier issues each of his trainees a Colt .45 caliber automatic pistol.

Fernand again sits in the chair, lights a cigarette, inhales deeply, and stands and paces once more. Through one of several large windows in the room overlooking a palm-tree-lined courtyard, he sees two Palace security officers standing, smoking, and talking to each other.

Christmas Eve, Fernand thinks, is ideal for lax security. Per his plan, he will kill Darlan and then attempt a faux escape during which he will be quickly apprehended, held briefly, and then released. Perhaps I’ll become a national hero, Fernand thinks.

Fernand’s thoughts are interrupted by the sound of moving tires on the gravel driveway outside. He sees that it’s a large, dark sedan, Darlan’s aide’s car. He’s here, Fernand thinks, returning to his chair, sitting on the edge of the seat. He runs his hand again over the gun in his pocket. He’s here. He’ll be up any minute now, Fernand thinks, and, as if on cue, he sees Admiral Darlan and his chief of staff, Jean Hourcade, come around a dimly lit corridor corner. They are walking down the hallway toward him, approaching the door to the Admiral’s office. The two men are talking animatedly and laughing. Fernand stands, grinds his cigarette out on the floor, takes the gun from his coat pocket, and moves toward the two men, who haven’t yet noticed him.

Fernand thinks, Should I say something? Should I make a declaration of some sort before firing or as I fire?

As Fernand raises his gun to fire, Darlan sees him and instinctively raises his own arm to protect himself from the coming bullet. Fernand pulls the trigger, and the bullet strikes Darlan in his head. There is a spray of teeth, skin, and blood, and Darlan is pushed back a few feet. He utters a low moan, and Fernand fires again. This time he hits the admiral center in the chest. Darlan crumbles to the floor, blood pumping from his chest wound, and a widening stain quickly overtakes his entire front. Darlan’s eyes glaze over, and he never regains consciousness, dying an hour later in the hospital. Fernand turns to flee, but Hourcade is quickly on him, knocking him backward onto the marble floor. Fernand pushes the chief of staff away enough so that he can raise his gun and fire. The round hits Hourcade in his upper thigh and he cries out. Not surprisingly, the gunshots and sounds of human pain attract nearby people to the scene, all of whom come running.

Hourcade is still struggling to restrain Fernand, and the floor is slick with blood. Fernand breaks loose from Hourcade’s grip, stands, slips and slides in blood, gains his footing, and bolts for the room’s largest window—his planned escape. He smashes the glass with the butt of his pistol, but the window is barred tightly—the metal making it impossible to pass through. A uniformed Spahi cavalryman (Algerian cavalry), who heard the murderous commotion, comes running, throws his arm around Fernand’s neck, and yanks him backward, as another security man hoists a chair and smashes Fernand over the head with it. Several hands yank Fernand farther away from the window and pull the gun from his hand. He is pinned to the floor by a heavier man. Another security guard begins to strike Fernand about the head and face. Fernand cries out, “Tu me tues, tu me tues.” [“You’re killing me. You’re killing me.”]

Fernand is dragged to his feet, his arms held behind his back. A security guard begins to lead him down the hallway that Darlan had come from. Fernand is quietly sobbing and says, “Je n’essaie pas de ficher le camp.” [“I’m not trying to get away.”] As he is led by Darlan’s motionless body, he says, “A présent il est mort.” [“He’s gone now.”]

* * *

At the police station, Fernand talks to officers of the Algiers judicial police, who surround him. He is remarkably calm now, an air of confidence about him. Here again, we spot a similar reaction once Lee Oswald is brought to police headquarters, Dallas, TX, November 22, 1963. Some observers would later remark that Fernand appeared to be in a trance-like state, but his outward appearance seemed understandable, since he had been beaten about his head and, additionally, was most likely suffering the early manifestations of posttraumatic stress. He confesses to the Algerian officers, “I must tell you that I went every day to the home of Mr. Henri Astier, who was liaison to the Franc Corps. In the Corps, we had formed a hard group of us. We called this group Hydra.” Fernand doesn’t mention it, but the name “Hydra” was also used at the commando camp for a small elite group of marksmen and snipers. Was Oswald caught up in “hard groups” with similar code names?

Fernand goes on and explains to the police that “Mr. Astier” [Henri d’Astier] and Father Cordier, who lived with Astier, “made me realize what the future would be with Admiral Darlan as head of government.”

Explains Fernand, “Gradually, I understood that because of the greatness of Darlan’s vision, he would have to be countered by a historical action: his removal . . . his disappearance . . . an act of purification. I was made to understand that the disappearance of Darlan through execution would have to happen on Christmas Eve, 1942. . . . Father Cordier gave me an appointment on the morning of December 24 in his church. I went there, and he said he needed me to confess before acting [to assassinate Darlan]. In the name of Jesus Christ, he had me make my confession. I had barely made the sign of the cross before Father Cordier said, ‘Here are the plans of action.’ Cordier explained the process I must use to enter Darlan’s office and the place where I had to post it. He handed me a large caliber handgun, loaded, and invited me to confess what I was doing, and he gave me absolution.” Bonnier also reportedly told police that the $2,000 US found in his overcoat pocket came from Henri d’Astier.

Fernand continues with his confession and states that after Father Cordier gave him absolution, he met up with his “companions,” Jean-Bernard d’Astier, Sabatier, and Mario Faivre. Says Fernand: “We were always four.” The four young men then drove “to the gates of the Summer Palace.” Once they were there, says Fernand, “It was about eleven thirty, early afternoon, when I entered without any difficulty into the place and went to be near Darlan’s offices.” There, Fernand recalls, “I stared at the spot decided by Father Cordier and then learned that the Admiral would not be there for at least two hours.” Fernand went back outside, where his three companions waited, and they drove him to have lunch at the nearby Le Paris restaurant with Henri d’Astier and Father Cordier. Fernand tells police that Cordier spent most of the lunch time encouraging him “not to change his line of conduct.”

At “about three o’clock” after lunch, Fernand recalls, “My friends came back to me with the same car. They took me to the same place [the Summer Palace]. I stood at a place and, upon arrival of Admiral Darlan, I was able to accomplish the mission which I was charged with.”

Following Fernand’s statement to the police, on December 25, Christmas Day, a judge declares that he would be subjected to a military court-martial before a tribunal in Algiers. Amazingly, the military tribunal convenes within hours and meets for only about an hour, hears all the evidence, rejects Fernand’s lawyer’s request for further investigation, and sentences Fernand to death. Fernand’s attorney immediately pleads for clemency, but the plea is rejected, and it is ordered that Fernand be executed the next morning, December 26.

By this time, Fernand is beginning to have serious doubts about assurances he had been given that he would be released, and he asks to speak to the judicial police once again. He tells police Commissioner Garidacci that he did not act alone and that Abbe Cordier and Henri d’Astier were well aware of his plans to kill Darlan in advance of the act. Garidacci does nothing with Fernand’s additional statement. Fernand is growing frantic with the realization that nobody is going to come forward to help him and that he is soon to shuffle off this mortal coil. Did Lee Harvey Oswald come to a similar realization, and far more quickly, within twenty-four hours of his arrest and a day before being led in cuffs to his death at the hand of Jack Ruby in the basement of police headquarters? We do know that Fernand was right. At 7:30 a.m. the next day, December 26, he is taken to a square called Hussein Dey and executed by a firing squad. Nobody records his last words. Oswald did not have the opportunity to offer his “last words.”

Further implications of de la Chapelle as a precursor to Lee Harvey...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword by Dick Russell
• Publisher’s Statement
• The Lafitte Datebook: A Limited Analysis by Dick Russell
• Introduction by H. P. Albarelli Jr.
• A Roadmap
• Chapter 1: WWII, Special Ops, and Assassinations
• Chapter 2: Holding Companies, Intel Ops, and the Cold War
• Chapter 3: The Project Manager and The Patron
• Chapter 4: Suicides and Call Girls
• Chapter 5: Jacks-of-All-Trades
• Chapter 6: Long Shadows
• Chapter 7: The Generals, the Teams, and the Kill Squads
• Chapter 8: The Skorzenys
• Chapter 9: Dallas . . . Lay of the Land
• Chapter 10: D’Affaire Kennedy
• Epilogue
• Coauthor’s Postscript by Leslie Sharp
• Afterword by Charles Robert Drago
• Essays
• Acknowledgments: H. P. Albarelli Jr., Leslie Sharp, and Alan Kent
• Organizational and Character Maps by Pete Sattler
• Coauthor’s Statement on the Provenance and Authenticity of the Lafitte Datebook
• Pierre Lafitte Datebook—Select Entries and Images
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index