Deadly secrets.

• Author: Levine, Art

Many conspiracy buffs have long searched for their own Holy Grail, a secret cabal that can be blamed for all the scandals and evils of modern America. To some right-wing extremists, it is the Trilateral Commission; to some left-wingers, it is a "secret team" directed by the military-industrial complex. Still others look to those old standbys, the Jews. But Warren Hinckle, formerly a co-editor of Ramparts, and William Turner, a former FBI agent, have claimed to find their own mother lode in Deadly Secrets. They contend that a me1ange of anti-Castro Cubans, CIA operatives, Mafiosi, and fanatical anti-communists played a major role in everything from the Bay of Pigs on: the Kennedy assassinations, Watergate, the Iran-Contra scandal, and more. By the time we're done with this loosely argued book, we've been shown the purported connections between ex-CIA director George Bush, Latin American drug traffickers, and the killers of Orlando Leteljer. It would seem, based on their book, that much of what has gone wrong in American life can be laid at the feet of... Frank Sturgis, one of the hapless Watergate burglars with a shady anti-Castro past.

As a moderate believer in conspiracy theories (I think JFK was killed as part of a Mafia plot, but I draw the line at ex-Nazis and alien space beings), I was disappointed to find that the book doesn't provide the definitive solutions its title promises. Along the way, though, tantalizing hints of a grand conspiracy are unveiled. For instance, George Bush's name was found in the telephone book of a mysterious, wealthy White Russian with CIA ties, George de Mohrenschildt, who had befriended Lee and Marina Oswald! Just coincidence-or something sinister?

Ultimately, the authors' argument that the "Secret War" against Castro is the Mother of All Conspiracies comes off not as a solidly reasoned case but as an exercise in flinging an assortment of names, incidents, and scandals against a wall with the hope that they'll stick. We're expected to see a clear-cut connection between all the nefarious doings, but weak arguments and sometimes dubious documentation undermine their particular conspiracy theory. At the same time, the authors provide a useful overview of some of the more colorful debacles of the last 30 years, plus an entertaining peek inside perhaps the stupidest one of all: the decades-long effort to overthrow and, occasionally, kill Castro.

The authors mix grade-B melodramatic prose with investigative...