Charles Shaffer, Staff member -- Former Justice Department Investigator
Bleau Assertion: (page 51)
"In a 2014 Washington Post interview, Charles Shaffer admitted that he now thinks that JFK was assassinated as a result of a mob-related conspiracy involving Santo Trafficante and Carlos Marcello. He also claimed that Warren’s biggest blunder was not allowing Ruby to testify in Washington where he may have exposed a conspiracy."
What Bleau Doesn't Tell You:
In interviews I have been conducting for a new edition of my 2013 book on the assassination, Shaffer told me there probably was a conspiracy in President Kennedy’s death, which makes him the first commission insider to say so publicly. He said he has no doubt that Oswald was the lone gunman in Dealey Plaza. Nor does he question the single-bullet theory, developed by the commission’s staff, which holds that one bullet passed through the bodies of both Kennedy and Texas Gov. John Connally. But he now suspects that the assassination was the work, ultimately, of organized-crime figures who somehow manipulated Oswald into gunning down the president in Dallas on Friday, Nov. 22, 1963, and then directed strip-club operator Jack Ruby to silence Oswald by killing him two days later.
“The Warren Report was an honest report, based on what we knew at the time,” Shaffer said. “But nothing should have been written in stone. There were later developments that convinced me that maybe we missed something.”
Part of Shaffer's reasoning is that "It made sense that Trafficante and Marcello would have wanted revenge for the Justice Department’s aggressive prosecution of mob figures during the Kennedy administration ..."
How on earth could organized crime manipulate Oswald into assassinating JFK?
Philip Shenon, author of the article which quotes Shaffer, wrote:
I was never swayed by the theories of a mob plot, if only because it seemed so unlikely that the Mafia would enlist such pathetic misfits as Oswald and Ruby in the crime of the century.
Previous Relevant Blog Posts on Paul Bleau
Bleau claims that Oswald was not a loner, and then he claims he was.
Bleau leaves out some important details about Malcolm Kilduff.
An introduction to Paul Bleau's new book, Chokeholds.
Was David Ferrie Clay Shaw's pimp?
Did Lee Harvey Oswald have an escort?
Edward Girnus was in prison for forgery, and he told a fanciful story about Clay Shaw and Lee Harvey Oswald.
Leander D'Avy told the HSCA he saw Oswald and Ferrie with the three tramps.
Bleau's analysis of Garrison's files is full of errors.
Bleau believes there were seven plots against JFK before Dallas.
Bolden's allegation that there was a plot against JFK in Chicago has changed over the years.
There is no evidence that there was a plot against JFK in Tampa.
There is no evidence that there was a plot against JFK in Chicago.