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The Last Investigation

The Last Investigation

by Gaeton Fonzi
Publisher: Mary Ferrell Foundation Press

Order this book online or see its Selected Book page for comments and reviews.

Gaeton Fonzi's The Last Investigation, now republished by the Mary Ferrell Foundation, is an insider's account of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, where "reality" became irrelevant compared to the need to produce a report. In this book, Fonzi tells of the several leads he developed in anti-Castro and anti-Kennedy milieu of South Florida's Cuban exiles and disgruntled CIA officers.

This page presents additional resources related to the Church Committee, the House Select Committee on Assassinations, and some of the persons and stories discussed in the book.

Essays by Gaeton Fonzi

Gaeton Fonzi wrote a lengthy article entitled Who Killed JFK? which appeared in the November 1980 issue of The Washingtonian. In the article, Fonzi broke his silence about the HSCA and caused an investigation within CIA to see if Fonzi had violated a secrecy agreement with them and could be prosecuted.

See Who Killed JFK?. See also this copy of Fonzi's article, from CIA files.

CIA memo about Fonzi's Washingtonian article. This lengthy CIA memo discusses Fonzi's November 1980 Washingtonian article "Who Killed Kennedy?", with emphasis on whether information in the article came exclusively from CIA files and thus violated Fonzi's secrecy agreement. See also an internal CIA letter of 30 Nov 1980.

Reply From a Conspiracy Believer is Fonzi's response to Vincent Bugliosi's book Reclaiming History.

Keynote Address to the 1993 Third Decade Conference

Listen to Gaeton Fonzi's keynote and following Q & A: (93 min)

Silvia Odio

The Odio Incident. Describes the appearance of three men, including a "Leon Oswald," at the apartment of Cuban exile Silvia Odio in Dallas in late September 1963. One of men later called Odio and said that Oswald had said that "President Kennedy should have been assassinated after the Bay of Pigs."

HSCA Volume X, The Odio Incident. The HSCA staff report on the incident, written by Gaeton Fonzi.

David Atlee Phillips and Maurice Bishop

David Phillips, legendary propaganda expert for the CIA, features prominently in The Last Investigation. In particular, investigator Fonzi pursued leads that one of Phillips' aliases was "Maurice Bishop," the Cuban exile handler described by Alpha 66 leader Antonio Veciana.

More Mexico Mysteries: Part II. The Third Tape, by Rex Bradford. This essay discusses Phillips' corroborated allegation that there is a missing Oswald phone call.

Overview: The CIA, The Drug Traffic, and Oswald in Mexico, by Peter Dale Scott. This essay discusses some of Phillips' curious actions in Mexico City.

HSCA Security Classified Testimony of David A. Phillips, 27 Nov 1976.

HSCA Security Classified Testimony of David A. Phillips, 25 Apr 1978.

HSCA Volume X, Antonio Veciana Blanch. Fonzi's writeup on Veciana and the Maurice Bishop issue.

Letter from DCI to HSCA of 19 Oct 1978. This letter discusses former Director McCone and another retired employee "concerning their recollections about an alleged CIA employee reportedly using the name Maurice Bishop. McCone "withdraws his statements on this point;" the other employee did not.

Antonio Veciana and Alpha 66

Alpha 66 was one of the most militant anti-Castro exile groups. Its leader, Antonio Veciana, told Fonzi that he had seen Bishop in the company of Lee Harvey Oswald. Veciana's description of Bishop, turned into a sketch, led Fonzi to Phillips. Veciana gave strong hints that Bishop and Phillips were the same, but would not confirm it on the record.

HSCA Volume X, Antonio Veciana Blanch. Fonzi's writeup on Veciana and the Maurice Bishop issue.

Operation Alpha 66. FBI document (in CIA files) from 8 Aug 1962 on Alpha 66.

Oswald in Mexico City

Oswald, the CIA, and Mexico City is available in the MFF Store.

Oswald in Mexico City. Explores the many mysteries of Lee Harvey Oswald's purported trip to Mexico City in the fall of 1963, evidence of his impersonation there, and the allegations of Communist conspiracy which emanated from Mexico City in the wake of the assassination.

Oswald, the CIA, and Mexico City (aka "Lopez Report'), written by HSCA staffers Edwin Lopez and Dan Hardway.

CIA memo regarding Sprague visit of 1 Dec 1976. Sprague asked many perceptive questions, particularly about Mexico City, for which good answers have yet to be supplied.

David Sanchez Morales

David Sanchez Morales was Chief of Operations at CIA's large JMWAVE facility, involved in training Cuban exiles for the Bay of Pigs and many other operations before and after. In The Last Investigation, Fonzi recounts the story told by two of Morales' closest associates, that after a delivering an anti-Kennedy tirade Morales ended with "Well, we took care of that son of a bitch, didn't we?"

David Morales - We Took Care of That SOB. Tells of Morales' confession, and provides resources on his secret career in the CIA.

Frank Sturgis and Marita Lorenz

Watergate burglar Frank Sturgis (aka Frank Fiorini) was heavily involved in anti-Castro operations and has long been a "person of interest" in the Kennedy assassination. Fonzi describes in his book the games played by Sturgis and his friend Marita Lorenz, and how he concluded that they were part of a "successful diversion, from the Schweiker probe through to the House Assassinations Committee, of our limited investigation resources."

Rockefeller Commission Testimony of Frank Sturgis of 3 Apr 1975.

Immunized HSCA Testimony of Marita Lorenz of 31 May 1978.

George de Mohrenschildt

George de Mohrenschildt, the well-connected oil geologist who became Oswald's "best friend" in Dallas, had begun writing and talking in the second half of the 1970s. Writers Willem Oltems and Edward Epstein were after de Mohrenschildt for more of his story, and so was HSCA investigator Gaeton Fonzi. Within hours of Fonzi's calling upon de Mohrenschildt and leaving a card with his daughter, the man who had admitted talking about Oswald with the Dallas CIA representative was dead of a shotgun blast, apparently self-inflicted. De Mohrenschildt's death paradoxically played a role in the HSCA receiving its needed renewal with the new Congress.

HSCA Volume XII, George de Mohrenschildt. HSCA staff report on DeMohrenschildt.

"I am a Patsy! I am a Patsy!". De Mohrenschildt's manuscript about himself and Oswald, also published in HSCA Volume XII.

Handwritten letter from George de Mohrenschildt to DCI Bush of 5 Sep 1976, asking "could you do something to remove the net around us?" Bush had indeed met de Mohrenschildt, and had the man's nephew for a roommate at Andover. See also a draft reply with attachments, and Bush's reply to de Mohrenschildt of 28 Sep 1976.

Cuban Exile Organizations

Gaeton Fonzi authored or co-authored staff reports for the HSCA on several Cuban exile organizations, all in HSCA Volume X:


Gaeton Fonzi also co-authored two other staff reports in Volume X:

Church Committee

Gaeton Fonzi worked as an investigator for the JFK assassination subcommittee of the Church Committee, headed by Senators Richard Schweiker and Gary Hart.

Book V is available in the MFF Store.

Church Committee. Information about the Church Committee and links to its reports and declassified internal files.

Book V: Performance of the Intelligence Agencies. This volume strongly criticized the FBI and CIA's investigation of the assassination and their support of the Warren Commission. Page 6: "The Committee has, however, developed evidence which impeaches the process by which the intelligence agencies arrived at their own conclusions about the assassination, and by which they provided information to the Warren Commission."

WTOP-TV interview with Sen. Schweiker: "I think the Warren Commission has, in fact, collapsed like a house of cards. And I believe that the Warren Commission was set up at the time to feed pablum to the American people, for reasons not yet known, and that one of the biggest coverups in the history of our country occurred at that time. This evidence indicates that the investigation of the assassination was deficient..."

House Select Committee on Assassinations

HSCA Final Report is available in the MFF Store.

When the HSCA followed up the Church Committee's work with its larger investigation, Fonzi was hired as an investigator for that body as well.

House Select Committee on Assassinations. Information about the HSCA and links to its reports and declassified internal files. See in particular:

Final Assassinations Report of the HSCA.

Volume X of the Report's Appendices. The staff reports in part one of this volume ("Anti-Castro Activists and Organizations and Lee Harvey Oswald in New Orleans") were written or co-written by Fonzi.

HSCA Executive Sessions. A March 16 1977 transcript includes discussion between Chief Counsel Sprague and Committee members regarding Chairman Gonzalez' attacks on Sprague. Sprague defended himself but resigned two weeks later.

Other Resources

Gordon Winslow's cuban-exile.com website is a great resource for information on Cuban exile groups and individuals. See an article by Gaeton Fonzi about Jorge Mas Canosa on that website, entitled Jorge Who? There is also a page about Fonzi himself.

Press Release

June 13, 2008

The Last Investigation. Mary Ferrell Foundation Republishes Scathing Post-Mortem of the House Select Committee On Assassinations.

About the Book

Gaeton Fonzi's masterful retelling of his work reinvestigating the Kennedy assassination for two Congressional committees is required reading for students of the assassination and the subsequent failure of the government to solve the crime. The Last Investigation is a compelling post mortem on the House Select Committee on Assassinations, as well as a riveting account of Fonzi's pursuit of leads indicating involvement by officers of the Central Intelligence Agency.

About Gaeton Fonzi

An award-winning investigative journalist, Gaeton Fonzi is former senior editor of Philadelphia magazine, a contributor to the Chicago Tribune and the New York Daily News, and a consultant to "60 Minutes," "NBC Nightly News," and "Inside Edition."
Photo copyright Gordon Winslow.

Book Trailer

Praise for The Last Investigation

"Gaeton Fonzi brings to the continuing puzzlement over the JFK murder a Chandleresque hardness and wonderment, a sense of a lonely man walking down a dark street, fighting the demons of official power, a loner who was aborted by the Congress at the lip of light.'"

-- Oliver Stone, director of JFK

"In the literature of the assassination controversy, Gaeton Fonzi is the Quiet Man, the investigator's investigator. His account should outrage Americans who care about democracy."

--Anthony Summers, author of Not in Your Lifetime

"A rarity among Kennedy assassination books, The Last Investigation does not indulge in sensational speculation or bizarre conspiracy theories. Gaeton Fonzi is an extraordinarily skilled investigator, who serves up facts, carefully researched and compellingly presented. This book is destined to become the benchmark against which other efforts are measured."

--Richard S. Schweiker, Co-Chairman, U.S. Senate Kennedy Assassination Subcomittee

Reviews of The Last Investigation

The Last Investigation: A Review, by Monte Evans. The Fourth Decade, March 1994.


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