Fonzi, Gaeton. The Last Investigation. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press,
1993. 448 pages.
This is the first comprehensive insider account of the House Select
Committee on Assassinations. Fonzi was a staff investigator for the HSCA,
and before that an investigator for Senator Richard Schweiker, who was
interested in the JFK assassination as a member of the Church Committee.
Strapped for resources and under deadline pressures, HSCA chief counsel
Robert Blakey steered the investigation along avenues that would look good
in their report. Blakey gave the CIA plenty of room to maneuver around his
investigation, either to enhance his own insider status or because of his
realpolitik pragmatism. He blames organized crime for the assassination,
while Fonzi is much more interested in anti-Castro Cubans and the CIA.
Committee staffers were unable to pursue many promising leads in this area.
Fonzi spends much energy trying to establish that CIA heavyweight
David Atlee Phillips was the "Maurice Bishop" that Alpha 66 founder Antonio
Veciana saw with Oswald before the assassination. He convinces his readers
on this point, but since there's no corroboration for Veciana's story that
Bishop met Oswald, it's unclear where this leaves us. The most interesting
portions of the book, therefore, revolve around Fonzi's occasional evidence
of disinformation and false leads planted in the paths of Committee
investigators, apparently by U.S. intelligence assets.
ISBN 1-56025-052-6
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