Legacy of Secrecy

Updated with dramatic new revelations! John F. Kennedy’s assassination launched a frantic search to find his killers. It also launched a flurry of covert actions by Lyndon Johnson, Robert F. Kennedy, and other top officials to hide the fact that in November 1963 the United States was on the brink of invading Cuba, as part of a JFK-authorized coup. The plan’s exposure could have led to a nuclear confrontation with Russia, but the cover-up prevented a full investigation into Kennedy’s assassination, a legacy of secrecy that would impact American politics and foreign policy for the next forty-five years. It also allowed two men who confessed their roles in JFK’s murder to be involved in the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968. Exclusive interviews and newly declassified files from the National Archives document in chilling detail how three Mob bosses were able to prevent the truth from coming to light—until now. With three new chapters and updated text throughout, this is a must-have edition. New material includes the completed story of how three powerful Mafia bosses used John and Robert Kennedy’s top-secret plan of staging a coup against Fidel Castro to murder JFK. Documented from the National Archives for the first time is Watergate burglar Bernard Barker’s decades-long work for the Mafia, even Barker’s time aiding the CIA with the coup plan. Barker sold out the coup plan to his Mob bosses helping to assassinate JFK, and forcing US officials previously involved with Barker to withhold key information from the Warren Commission. This version also contains important new information about the FBI informant who obtained the JFK assassination confession of godfather Carlos Marcello, which the Bureau kept secret for twenty years.