the Mafia and Hoffa was to kill JFK instead.
Marcello said that since LBJ disliked Bobby so much, once the President
was dead, Bobby’s power would be over.8
New information, published here for the first time, shows how Marcello
came to his decision to kill JFK, and offers the first information from
FBI files tying Marcello directly to Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby.
Chapter Three
47
These revelations provide unique insight into Marcello and his actions,
because they are in the words of someone who heard them directly from
Marcello himself, in many long talks with the Mafia chief. Marcello’s
confidant was a trusted FBI informant, for an undercover operation
targeting Marcello (CAMTEX, for Carlos Marcello, Texas) that has never
been revealed until now.
The Marcello informant’s credibility was confirmed to us by two
former FBI agents who worked on the case, including the supervisor of
the operation, Thomas A. Kimmel. The files themselves also confirm the
informant’s reliability. FBI memos note that a federal judge found the
informant’s reporting so solid that he authorized extraordinary surveil-
lance on Marcello while he was in prison. This included not just phone
taps, but even an FBI bug in a special transistor radio the informant
kept in the small prison cell he eventually shared with Marcello. These
devices yielded “hundreds of hours” of tapes of Marcello, according to
the files, a trove of information previously unknown to historians and
journalists.
Most of the following information about Marcello comes from recently
declassified FBI files, discovered at the National Archives in September
2006. They cover the time when Marcello was finally serving a long
prison sentence, but before debilitating illness overtook him. These files
show that the informant also helped FBI offices in San Francisco and
Tampa target other criminals in the late 1980s, including one crime fam-
ily that is still active. The FBI files praise the informant for helping them
target “Colombian drug fugitive Jorge Luis Ochoa,” described by the
DEA as “the head of the Medellín drug cartel.” Ochoa was convicted in
1991, but his unexpected release from prison in 1996 allowed his family
to continue being a major force in the drug trade today; Ochoa’s brother
is currently fighting to overturn his thirty-year federal prison term.9
As one might expect of a trusted informant who helped the FBI target
the criminal organizations of Marcello and Ochoa, an FBI memo states
that the “Informant’s name is not to be disclosed in report or otherwise
unless it has been decided definitely that he is to be a witness in a trial
or hearing.”10 About a third of the internal FBI memos don’t use the
informant’s actual name—they refer to him as “the Informant” or use
his FBI informant number—but some memos use his real name exten-
sively. While these allowed us to verify his personal information and
background, for his safety and that of his family, we will refer to him
simply as “the Informant.” We have also excluded a small amount of
personal information that might identify him. However, all of the quotes
48
LEGACY OF SECRECY
that follow are from the Informant. They are his own words, from the
new FBI files in which he wrote what Marcello told him; we have made
only minor corrections for grammar and spelling.
Carlos Marcello and the Informant were incarcerated together at Tex-
arkana Federal Prison in 1985. They eventually became roommates in
the two-man cell that afforded the Mafia boss far more privacy than the
large dormitory rooms that housed most inmates; even in prison, Mar-
cello received extraordinary privileges and special treatment. The Infor-
mant writes that he became “pretty good friends” with Marcello, and
that they “would talk for hours about his early life in New Orleans. He
told me about all the gambling clubs that he had owned in New Orleans
and all
Marcello said that since LBJ disliked Bobby so much, once the President
was dead, Bobby’s power would be over.8
New information, published here for the first time, shows how Marcello
came to his decision to kill JFK, and offers the first information from
FBI files tying Marcello directly to Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby.
Chapter Three
47
These revelations provide unique insight into Marcello and his actions,
because they are in the words of someone who heard them directly from
Marcello himself, in many long talks with the Mafia chief. Marcello’s
confidant was a trusted FBI informant, for an undercover operation
targeting Marcello (CAMTEX, for Carlos Marcello, Texas) that has never
been revealed until now.
The Marcello informant’s credibility was confirmed to us by two
former FBI agents who worked on the case, including the supervisor of
the operation, Thomas A. Kimmel. The files themselves also confirm the
informant’s reliability. FBI memos note that a federal judge found the
informant’s reporting so solid that he authorized extraordinary surveil-
lance on Marcello while he was in prison. This included not just phone
taps, but even an FBI bug in a special transistor radio the informant
kept in the small prison cell he eventually shared with Marcello. These
devices yielded “hundreds of hours” of tapes of Marcello, according to
the files, a trove of information previously unknown to historians and
journalists.
Most of the following information about Marcello comes from recently
declassified FBI files, discovered at the National Archives in September
2006. They cover the time when Marcello was finally serving a long
prison sentence, but before debilitating illness overtook him. These files
show that the informant also helped FBI offices in San Francisco and
Tampa target other criminals in the late 1980s, including one crime fam-
ily that is still active. The FBI files praise the informant for helping them
target “Colombian drug fugitive Jorge Luis Ochoa,” described by the
DEA as “the head of the Medellín drug cartel.” Ochoa was convicted in
1991, but his unexpected release from prison in 1996 allowed his family
to continue being a major force in the drug trade today; Ochoa’s brother
is currently fighting to overturn his thirty-year federal prison term.9
As one might expect of a trusted informant who helped the FBI target
the criminal organizations of Marcello and Ochoa, an FBI memo states
that the “Informant’s name is not to be disclosed in report or otherwise
unless it has been decided definitely that he is to be a witness in a trial
or hearing.”10 About a third of the internal FBI memos don’t use the
informant’s actual name—they refer to him as “the Informant” or use
his FBI informant number—but some memos use his real name exten-
sively. While these allowed us to verify his personal information and
background, for his safety and that of his family, we will refer to him
simply as “the Informant.” We have also excluded a small amount of
personal information that might identify him. However, all of the quotes
48
LEGACY OF SECRECY
that follow are from the Informant. They are his own words, from the
new FBI files in which he wrote what Marcello told him; we have made
only minor corrections for grammar and spelling.
Carlos Marcello and the Informant were incarcerated together at Tex-
arkana Federal Prison in 1985. They eventually became roommates in
the two-man cell that afforded the Mafia boss far more privacy than the
large dormitory rooms that housed most inmates; even in prison, Mar-
cello received extraordinary privileges and special treatment. The Infor-
mant writes that he became “pretty good friends” with Marcello, and
that they “would talk for hours about his early life in New Orleans. He
told me about all the gambling clubs that he had owned in New Orleans
and all
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