Philip Kerr - The Shot

When it was finished, there was a long pause before Bissell said, ‘Can we see it again, please, Jim?’

O’Connell pulled back the drapes, wound the film back and, while he re-spooled the sixteen-millimetre film, Edwards continued speaking.

‘The film was accompanied by this — a thirty-calibre bullet, fitted with an accelerator which snipers use to help slugs achieve a much higher velocity. There was also a copy of the Boston Globe describing Kennedy’s January ninth visit to Harvard University, which is where the film was shot. Since receiving it, we have been able to identify the marksman’s vantage point within Harvard, as Hollis Hall. Agent O’Connell visited Hollis Hall yesterday and, during a search of room fifteen, recovered a thirty-calibre Winchester rifle that was hidden behind a closet, and was, we believe, the rifle used in the film. The two students occupying the room were not in Harvard on the weekend prior to Kennedy’s visit. Nor were they in Harvard on the morning of Kennedy’s walkabout. They have been questioned, and their alibis check out. Although some of the facts affecting them remain to be resolved, we are satisfied that they were not involved in the plot to kill, or rather not to kill, President Kennedy.

‘It’s our best guess that the man in the film is most probably Tom Jefferson. Alex Goldman, the FBI agent we dispatched to try and bring Jefferson in for us, was found dead in a Cambridge apartment just a few days ago. Most likely he was murdered by Jefferson. The connection seems to speak for itself. However, the identity of the cameraman remains a mystery to us. Ready, Jim?’

O’Connell nodded, and pulled the drapes once more. He switched on the projector.

This time, as he watched the film, Bissell said, ‘Could the film be a fake, Sheff? Films like this can be faked, I believe.’

‘I had the same thought myself, sir. And I had the film examined by an expert from TSS who informs me that although the film has been edited, there are no anomalous characteristics that would lead him to believe that the film was a fake. There are no tracking errors, no inconsistency in ground shadows, no magnification aanomalies, nothing. The film is completely genuine, sir.’

‘In which case,’ sighed Bissell, ‘the Cubans could very easily have done it. Killed the President.’

‘Filming it and doing it are two very different things,’ objected Tracy Barnes. ‘There’s the small matter of nerve to be considered.’

‘I don’t think those two men lacked nerve,’ said Bissell. ‘They could easily have been shot and killed if the Secret Service had been doing its job properly.’

‘Since it so obviously wasn’t doing its job,’ said Flannery, ‘it becomes easy to see why they’ve suppressed the film and the accompanying memo. You’re quite sure the President hasn’t seen this, Sheff?’

‘Quite sure.’

The film finished a second time. O’Connell pulled the drapes again, and then returned to his seat. He could recall the look of astonishment on the faces of Chub Farrell and Torbert Winthrop when he found the rifle in their room at Hollis Hall, and smiled. They had been terrified. Still were, probably. They had a lot of explaining that remained ahead of them.

‘Interesting,’ muttered Bissell, and glanced at his watch. ‘In less than four hours John F. Kennedy will be inaugurated as President of the United States. But it is quite clear to me that it could just as easily have been Lyndon Johnson we were inaugurating as President, this morning.’

‘Now there’s a thought,’ said someone. ‘LBJ in the White House. Be like having John Wayne in charge of policy.’

‘Better than Kennedy,’ said someone else.

‘You might as well know,’ said Bissell. ‘Last night President Kennedy more or less told me that I would succeed Allen Dulles as DD/I.’

‘Congratulations, sir,’ said Barnes and Bross.

‘Under the circumstances, I think it’s a little early for that. Quite obviously I feel a loyalty to the man. But at the same time I now have this agency to think of. So the question is, what do I do with this information? Am I to treat this as In-House Communications, and keep it secret to this agency? Or should I bring it to the attention of the President and his security advisers? What do we think?’

‘If we tell the President,’ opined Barnes, ‘then it might very well impact upon JMARC. Right now, Kennedy’s four-square behind plans to invade Cuba and get rid of Castro. But there’s no telling what might be the result of a full disclosure. After all, he’s only human. If it was me that rifle had been pointed at, I might very well turn around and say, “Okay, live and let live. Communist or not, Castro could have killed me and didn’t. It would hardly be the action of a gentleman to reply in any way other than to call off the AMTHUG programme.” I think he might very well cancel the whole deal, sir. The invasion, everything. And where would that leave us in DD/P? A Directorate of Plans without a plan is not much of a directorate.’

‘I am of the same opinion,’ said Bissell. ‘Besides, if the Secret Service have already suppressed this information because it shows them with egg on their faces, then it’s hardly our responsibility, I’d have thought. Frankly, it was their call, not ours. And they’ve made it. If we said anything now, it would upset the whole damned apple-cart.’

‘But surely we can’t just ignore this,’ said Bross. ‘What about the President’s security? If we go ahead with the Cuban invasion plans, and another assassination attempt on Castro’s life, then they may well turn out to be as good as their word. And try and kill him again. What then?’

‘No, we can’t just ignore it,’ said Bissell. ‘Nor are we going to. I’ll speak to Gerald Behn at the White House. See if he can’t ginger up his Secret Service detail. Discourage the President from any more walks around Harvard Yard, that kind of thing. Make sure he only rides in the presidential limo from now on. If I know Gerald, he will have done something like it already. But perhaps my mentioning it will encourage him to go the extra mile. Maybe some new blood in the Secret Service is what is needed. New procedures. Some of those guys are as old as I am. But I don’t think there’s any undue cause for alarm, John. As Tracy has said, doing it for real is a very different proposition to making a movie about it. But I must say, looking at the film, and the way this whole thing has been handled, it gives me a new respect for the Cuban Intelligence Service. This was a very skilful operation. Just goes to show what can be done with a little guts and know-how, eh, Sheff?’

‘Yes sir. It just goes to show what can be done.’

Just what could be done was a matter of equal interest to Sam Giancana when, less than three months after Kennedy’s inauguration, Johnny Rosselli met with the Chicago gangster to tell him what he had been able to glean about the hit on Kennedy that never was, from conversations he had had in Washington and Las Vegas with O’Connell and Maheu.

‘It seems like Jefferson actually had Kennedy in his telescopic sights,’ said Rosselli. ‘Apparently, on the film, he actually pulls the trigger, three or four times, before the camera zooms right in on Kennedy’s head. Almost like it’s a bullet. I’m told that it’s a very nice bit of camera work.’

‘That’s one movie I’d like to see,’ admitted Giancana. ‘Jefferson had balls. I always said so. If he was here now, I’d probably shake him by the hand. Too bad he didn’t do it for real, huh?’

‘It’s true. Things are different now,’ admitted Rosselli.

They were seated in a cabana by the pool, at the Fontainebleu Hotel, in Miami. Giancana had been in town to see Phyllis McGuire and her sisters perform at the four-thousand-seater Cavalcade Theater, on 3 April. But plans to fly to New Orleans the next day, for a sit down with local mob boss Carlos Marcello, had been abandoned following Marcello’s arrest and subsequent deportation to Guatemala. Giancana was still profoundly shocked by what had happened to the other gangster.