In the summer of 1963 there were as many as six Cuban exiles training
camps and weapons bunkers on the north shore of Lake Ponchartrain.
According to Rene Carballo, a Cuban refugee living in New Orleans, one or
more of the camps were run by "El Mexicano" (Francisco Rodgriguez Tamayo),
a Cuban exile who formely resided in Miami.
In August 1959 LEE Oswald accompanied "Mexicano" to the home of Gladys
Davis in Coral Gables, Florida.
On July 24 a group of anti-Castro Cubans from Frank Sturgis' International
Anti-Communist Brigade (Miami) arrived in New Orleans and joined one of
the training camps on the north shore of Lake Ponchartrain.
Al Campbell worked as an investigator for Guy Bannister in 1958, 1959,
1962, and 1963 gathering information on suspected communist groups in the
City. On one occasion Campbell overheard Banister's secretary, Delphine
Roberts, tell Bannister that she saw Oswald handing out pro- Castro
leaflets on a street corner. Bannister replied, "Don't worry about him.
He's a nervous fellow, he's confused. He's with us, he's associated with
the office." Campbell said that Bannister worked closely with Ray Huff
and the CIA. He told HSCA investigators that Sergio Arcacha Smith spent a
lot of time at the camps, and said that many of the guns used for training
the exiles were furnished by the Mardi Gras Corporation.
Dan Campbell said that Guy Bannister was a "bagman" for the CIA and was
also running guns to the Cuban exile group "Alpha 66" in Miami. He said,
"Bannister was one of the most frigheningly violent persons I have ever
known." He also said the people who hung around Bannister "were the worst
kind of fanatics."
Carlos Quiroga (FBI informant "NO T-5") was a close friend of Sergio
Arcacha Smith and was involved with the Cuban Revolutionary Council.
Quiroga said, "Ferrie always had $100 bill around all the time, even after
he lost his job with the airlines." He said that Ferrie often provided
Arcacha with loans, which he never repaid.
Layton Martens, who identified himself to the New Orleans Police as
Arcacha's second-in-command, drove with Dave Ferrie to Houston, Texas the
evening of the assassination.
Joseph Newbrough, Jr., another associate of Bannister's, said that David
Ferrie visited Bannister's office on a daily basis for several months.
He recalled that Ferrie, FBI Agent Warren DeBrueys, and FBI Agent Regis
Kennedy frequently traveled to the MDC, (Movemiento Democratica Cristiano
aka Christian Democratic Movement) and the McLaney Camps (named for the
owner of the land - William McLaney) on the north shore of Lake
Pontchartrain.
Thomas Beckham, a runner for Ferrie, Banister, Clay Shaw, Sergio Arcacha,
and Grady Durham, told the HSCA that Ferrie came to meetings at
Bannister's office dressed in green fatigues directly from the training
camps at the Lake. Beckham once flew to Miami with Arcacha and Louis
Rachel with a large suitcase of money and delivered it to Eugenio
Martinez, a future Watergate burgular along with E. Howard Hunt and Frank
Sturgis.
In 1977 Beckham told the HSCA he felt members of the CIA plotted and
carried out the assassination of President Kennedy and framed Lee HARVEY
Oswald in the process.
Bannister investigator Jack Martin told the New Orleans District
Attorney's office that he saw Oswald with David Ferrie in Bannister's
office on several occasions.
Guy Bannister's secretary (Delphine Roberts) recalled that on at least one
occasion Oswald accompanied Ferrie to one of the training camps at Lake
Poncharrtrain.
Jack Martin also told the New Orleans District Attorney's Office that
David Ferrie trained Oswald to use a rifle.
It was at one of the training camps that LEE Oswald was seen, and filmed,
with an 8 mm home movie in the summer of 1963, which was found by
researchers in the Georgetown University Library. Following is a short
excerpt from the film as described by Tannenbaum to the Assassination
Records Review Board in 1996.
"The cameras view moved to another group of men standing by a track. One
of the men in the group turned around and smiled at the camera. It was
actually more of a smirk than a smile, the famous smirk....LEE Harvey
Oswald. There were several unidentified men....."
Harvey and Lee pg. 552-3
CJ
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