Jim Braden aka Eugene Hale Brading

Conspiracies make for great stories. The greatest conspiracy story is the murder of President John F. Kennedy.  It is said that there have been 40,000 books written on the subject.

The really bad investigation by the hastily formed Warren Commision certainly did not help stop the conspiracy stories.  The Warren Commission called witness after witness and yet they failed to answer simple questions.  One of those questions is how so many people with connections to the Cosa Nostra aka the mafia got involved in this story?  Yet the Commission finds no ties to organized crime.

The Pere Marquette Building in New Orleans was a place where a man named Eugene Hale Brading had an office.  He claimed he was in the oil business and he worked out of office number 1701. A lawyer named G. Wray Gill had an office on the same floor 1707. G. Wray Gill just happened to work for mafia boss Carlos Marcello.  He employed a man named David Ferrie who was a pilot and a private investigator.  He was played by Joe Pesci in the movie JFK.  David Ferrie is the pilot who flew Carlos Marcello back from Guatemala after he was illegally deported by Robert F. Kennedy.  We will come back to David Ferrie later in the story.

Eugene Hale Brading was on Federal parole in November of 1963, and yet he was able to change his name in Los Angeles to Jim Braden.  He then was allowed to fly to Dallas, Texas that same month for oil business.  He was supposed to take a commercial flight, but instead took a private plane. They checked into the Cabana Motel in Dallas.  He just happened to be walking down the street in Dealey Plaza when JFK was shot.  He was going to the parole office, but instead he stood on a small wall to see JFK. He then continued on to see the parole officer, a Mr. Flowers.  There was no Mr. Flowers working there. The Chief parole officer in Dallas never recalled Braden coming into his office that day. He claims he forgot the name of the person he was supposed to see.   He then went into the Dal-Tex building, a place he had never been, and asked to use a phone.  He was directed to the third floor where he said he was going to call his mother.  The elevator operator was so suspicious of him that he alerted the Dallas Police who arrested him.  They didn't investigate much because they just let him go.   Jim Braden was a swindler and con man that has been called a money courier for Meyer Lansky.

He had an office on South Barrington in Beverly Hills during the same time. People claim that he knew Jimmy Fratianno, Joe and Fred Sica.  I asked all the old guys but none of them claimed to know Jim Braden.  Who knows what name he was known on the street by at the time. I would have liked to have been able to show those guys a picture of him.

While he was under arrest in Dallas, he was questioned by the Secret Service for three hours, and then released.  When he got back to the Cabana Motel his friends had left for Houston.

There are some interesting facts the night Jim Braden landed in Dallas.  He ate dinner at Cipango Club, a private club.  It was frequented by many players in the Dallas underworld like RD Matthews and Jack Ruby.  The night before the JFK Assassination, Jack Ruby went to eat at Campisi’s Egyptian lounge and then to the Cabana Motel for a party.  The Campisi of the Egyptian Lounge just happened to be Joseph Campisi, a Capo in the Dallas mafia family. The Dallas family was controlled by the New Orleans boss Carlos Marcello.  

It is interesting to note that David Ferrie left quickly after JFK was assassinated for a trip to Houston, where he claimed he was going duck hunting.  He didn't have any guns with him. One last note on David Ferrie.  He was Lee Harvey Oswald's Civil Air Patrol Captain when Oswald was in CAP.  Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald a few days later and Joseph Campisi and his wife went to see him in the Dallas Jail.  Jack had another visitor, RD Matthews, who he knew from Cuba - another place where Jim Braden just happened to be.  RD Mathews’ card would be found on Charles V Harrelson when he was arrested for killing a Federal Judge.

Jim Braden has arrests for gambling and bookmaking.  He was arrested at a gambling club in Camden, New Jersey.

He was on the board at La Costa Country club in California.  The club was funded by Teamster money and Moe Dalitz was one of the original backers.  

Jim Braden was arrested in a hotel with his wife after Robert Kennedy was shot by an assassin who fired 13 shots from an 8 shot revolver.  He also managed to hit RFK in the back of the head even though he was tackled by football great Rosie Grier while he was in front of RFK.

I wonder what a Vegas oddsmaker would put the odds of one man being at the assassinations of two brothers, but having nothing to do with either of them.

Jim Braden’s testimony in front of the 1977 House Select Committee was sealed for 50 years until a court case forced the Government to release the documents.  Its again a really bad investigation.  They fail to ask him the most basic questions.  He did claim that while at a hotel in Atlanta, he was paged to a house phone where he picked up and was told he was next.  He took this as a threat, because it was the same day John Roselli was found floating in a barrel in Florida.  Why, if he was not a player, would that matter?

The FBI blew the best chance to clear up the JFK conspiracy during the Brilab investigation.  They had an informant with a wire on Carlos Marcello. It was said Carlos made statements but that too has been sealed.  

Who was Jim Braden?

RICO and The Mafia

The 1970's was a bad decade for La Cosa Nostra and they had no idea what was yet to come. One word: RICO, an acronym for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. It was introduced into the US Code in 1970 after having been written by G. Robert Blakey.

RICO is the single most powerful weapon the Government had to use against the Mafia.  They used two other weapons in conjunction with the RICO Act, asset forfeiture and The Witness Security Program.

RICO enabled the FBI to finally make cases against the Bosses that controlled the Mafia.  J. Edger Hoover never let his Agents work undercover because he felt they would get dirty.  So they were stuck making cases against low level hoods.  RICO enabled the Government to put together cases against the organization as a whole based on two predicated acts committed in a 10 year period for the group or with it.  These acts or crimes are (1) “racketeering activity,” which means any act of murder, kidnapping, gambling, arson, robbery, bribery, extortion, dealing in a controlled substance or a listed chemical, dealing in obscene material (Porn etc) -- and this definition really gives the Government a second bite at the apple.  They can use crimes you already did time for to hit you with RICO.

There are more acts but this is not a law blog and I just want to give you an idea of what it is about:

- It shall be unlawful for any person who has received any income derived, directly or indirectly, from a pattern of racketeering activity or through collection of an unlawful debt in which such person has participated as a principal

- It shall be unlawful for any person through a pattern of racketeering activity or through collection of an unlawful debt to acquire or maintain, directly or indirectly, any interest in or control of any enterprise which is engaged in, or the activities of which affect, interstate or foreign commerce.

Like I said above, this is just a little bit of the RICO ACT. The best part?  You get 20 years to life and lose everything as does your family.

So the FBI used this as a big hammer against the Mafia.  By the late 70's they really knew how to use it best.  They then started assaults on the Families all over the country.  They started an operation against the oldest Mafia family in the US headed by its iron fisted leader Carlos Marcello who had ruled the New Orleans underworld for decades.

The FBI called this Operation Brilab.

The FBI got the whole operation moving when a Washington DC Lobbyist Isaac Irving Davidson started doing business with a convicted conman from Los Angeles named Joseph Hauser. Davidson was really in the mix in DC politics and he also happened to be very close to Carlos Marcello.  Davidson introduced Hauser to Carlos and soon, thanks to a quarter million dollars, Carlos had him working with all the Unions.  Hauser even bought a New Orleans insurance company, but things did not go well.  He was soon in deep troubles with the SEC and the Feds.  Hauser was looking at some huge fines and prison time for his failed insurance business.  That is when the FBI approached him to work as an informant in Operation Brilab against Carlos Marcello.  Hauser soon introduced two undercover FBI Agents to Carlos.  The two undercover agents had set up a fake insurance company in Los Angeles and they were soon looking for Carlos to get them contracts through his contacts.  Carlos fell for this right away because all he could see was the huge cut he would get from the commissions.  It was during this time that Hauser, wearing a wire, picked up Carlos talking about the LA Family.  

The Los Angeles Family leadership, Boss Dominic Brooklier, Underboss Sam Scorentino, Capo Mike Rizzi and others were facing a RICO case thanks to Jimmy Frattiano who had flipped after the family had turned against him.  He became the second made member of the Cosa Nostra to flip and tell the FBI everything.  One of the things he told the FBI about was how the LA Family had set up and killed Frank Bompensiero in San Diego.

Carlos was close to the LA Family because a high ranking member was related to Sam Scorintino, the LA Underboss.  This is what Carlos told Hauser, "I'm doin' this for friends of mine in California. They Maf like me, you know, personal friends." The FBI came up with a plan right away because now they had proof from Carlos that he was in the Mafia.  They had Hauser tell Carlos that he could bribe a Federal Judge and help out the LA Family.  Carlos played right into the FBI's trap, he was eager to help his friends. Carlos agreed to pay the judge $125,000 for the bribe to help out the family.  The FBI took Carlos down.  First on the Brilab and then on attempting to bribe a Federal judge in Los Angeles.  Carlos lost his RICO case in New Orleans and he knew right away that he would lose the LA Case.  Carlos had beaten the Government for years on his home turf, but in LA it was a different story.  He was convicted on all counts and soon faced almost 20 years in prison.  The LA Family had gotten of easy because Tommy Riccardi, the shooter of Frank Bompensiero, had died during the trial.  Los Angeles Family Boss Dominic Brooklier, largely resulting from the testimony of government informant Jimmy "The Weasel" Fratianno, is convicted of racketeering charges and sentenced to 4 years imprisonment. Other members of his organization include Capo Michael "Big Mike Rizzi" Rizzitello with 5 years, Underboss Samuel Scoirtino with 4 years, and 2 years each for Capo Louis Dragna and Consigliere Jack LoCicero, who are also convicted of racketeering, included the gangland slaying of former Capo/Consigliere Frank Bompensiero.

This case shows a lot about how the Cosa Nostra works, how they cross state lines and how relations exist among all the families. It also proves how effective RICO can be against Organized Crime.