...did you kill JFK?

  on to Tampa...WDAE....1978-79

  
   "Did YOU kill President Kennedy?"

That was a legitimate question for my guest...

   Grayston Lynch former CIA agent who says he was one of two American agents on board the command ship for the ill fated “ Bay of Pigs” invasion.

Lynch had first hand knowledge of the consequences of President Kennedy’s refusing air cover for the invading forces.

I’d call that motive

Lynch was trained as a CIA operative....and I’d think he would have the capability of firing a kill shot from a grassy knoll. 

And he had been CIA....and questions persisted as to whether any agency in our own government might have conspired to kill JFK.

Just see the Oliver Stone movie about that and if Donald Sutherland doesn’t scare the hell out of you...he at least leaves unanswered questions in the film...JFK.  I’ll have lots of JFK assassination stuff in later posts...but Lynch’s one word answer to that question was “ridiculous”.

“Did you have any knowledge about the assassination?”

“None whatsoever”

"Did you work with or know of any men who hated Kennedy enough to kill him?"

(pause)

“Yes” 

Gary Lynch was one of my first guests on my new talk radio show on WDAE in Tampa Bay.
Here's a link for an excellent writeup on Lynch from the Miami Herald:
                    
                   http://www2.fiu.edu/~fcf/bpigtestam.html

 
Later...in Miami I would be asking another interesting individual the same question about killing Kennedy.

That was Watergate burglar Eugenio Martinez.

He basically answered the same way.

I ended up talking about the alleged conspiracies surrounding JFK so much that a friendly FBI agent in Tampa invited me out for coffee just to warn me about checking my car for bomb devices and telling me to leave the door wide open while starting the vehicle...a closed door is bad news. 

One alleged mobster most often mentioned in connection with the affairs in Dallas lived in Tampa.  

Santo Trafficanti probably listened to my show but he would not grant me an interview there or in Miami when I asked his lawyer.

“What’d want to talk to him about?” Was the response! 

Then there was New Orleans mob boss Carlos Marcello (Jim Garrison shied away from alleging any mob involvement in the assassination and many wondered “why”.)

A girl from a college in Tampa called my show one night and chastised my pronouncing of his last name.  I said how do you know about him.

“Oh...he’s my uncle!”

Yep...one never knows who’s listening.

Hollywood is bringing Carlos back to the big screen.  Robert DeNiro is slated to play the mobster who may or may not have actually admitted that he ordered the killing of JFK.  Filming is this year.  I Hope Marchello’s niece enjoys the flick.

One the personal side I found a nice new apartment complex in Clearwater...across the bridge from Tampa.  I moved in and the first night I headed for my car to drive into Tampa and the worst stench hit me as I stepped out the door. The next day I went into the complex office and asked the manager what the smell was.

She blushed and finally admitted there was a former trash dump a few blocks away.

Now I know why the rent was lower there than at other places.

I stuck it out....since it only smelled at night I reduced my excursions outside. 

Just like the lesson on “fire” a few posts earlier...you should check any potential new location two or three times at different hours to avoid that kind of problem.

One strange thing happened at the radio station.

I was set to have Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson on my show one night.  he was running for President and making the talk show rounds.

I came in a bit early and the boss, Don Clark, one of the rare nice and intelligent managers in radio, stopped me before I entered the studio where there was a desk with locks for private stuff.

“You are not gonna believe what the Secret Service did.  They busted open all the draws on your desk to check them out.”

“Did they think the talk host was gonna shoot the Senator or something?” I said...bewildered by this blatant breach of my privacy.  “Or maybe they just needed some paper clips?”

        Don laughed and said he was sending them a bill for fixing the desk.

That night I ask the Senator on the air why the Secret Service would do something like that...”has there been some kind of threat against you?”

“Not that I know of” Jackson replied.

My guess is were over reacting to the events in Dallas.  The Secret Service had taken a lot of heat about lack of protection....losing a President means they failed on many levels.

The great thing about living in Clearwater/St. Petersburg is, of course, the beach.  If you don’t like one beach...just head further south...great beaches in Sarasota, Ft. Myers and Sanibel Island and down to Naples and to my favorite...Marco Island.

For years I would be driving south out of St. Petersburg and become nervous when going over “Sunshine Skyway Bridge”. 

I hate heights. 

Years later...in 1980... a ship would crush a support column causing a portion of the span to collapse.  35 people would be killed when a bus drove into the open space and crashed into the water below. 

I would return to that area to initiate my new national all night call in show and I lived in Clearwater again (avoiding the trash heap this time).  

Each weekend I returned to our home in Ft. Lauderdale...so I would cross the NEW Sunshine Skyway Bridge and try to avoid looking down at the remaining portions of the old bridge...now used a fishing piers. It’s still scary for me.

An email response from Tampa:

     You certainly turned this town on its head when youworked here. Classic
radio Bro, loved every minute of it.

Live it up
Tedd Webb. 
     

     Well.....after some bits and pieces that have little to do with the radio stuff....I’ll be on my way to Miami to work. 

Neil Rogers awaits!

connect:

stanmajor@aol.com