Letters.

Exner Explained

Prof. Michael O'Brien is wrong ("The Exner File," December 1999). Judith Exner did not fabricate her claim of carrying cash from JFK to Sam Giancana. The Church Committee suspected she was a courier when it gingerly questioned her in 1975. She later confirmed it.

Exner says she met JFK at his home on April 6, 1960. Also present was "Bill," a railroad lobbyist. After dinner, they talked politics, then JFK asked her to carry a satchel of cash to Giancana. To O'Brien, this is "fantasy land." But the man Exner knew only as "Bill" was Bill Thompson, President of Florida East Coast Railroad, a close personal friend of JFK's but unknown to the public. Exner's travel records show she made the trip to see JFK and then went on to Chicago. Significance? The dinner occurred the day JFK learned he was losing the West Virginia primary. If Exner concocted this tale, she picked the right day to set events in motion. Giancana's assistance to the JFK campaign in West Virginia through his associate Skinny D'Amato is now well-known.

In The Dark Side of Camelot, Seymour Hersh confirmed Exner. He reported that Martin Underwood, a Mayor Daley operative loaned out to JFK, had told him that he went on the train to watch after her. Underwood later recanted in an unsworn statement to the Assassination Records Review Board. But his recantation is suspect. As a JFK advance man who had worked in Chicago and was close to Kennedy's right-hand man, Kenneth O'Donnell, he was ideally suited for the task. Fear that the ARRB might subpoena his records may explain his recantation. He had no reason to lie to Hersh.

Moreover, Johnny Grant, the honorary mayor of Hollywood, says that in 1963 Exner told him she carried cash from JFK to Giancana. Thus, her story is not a recent invention.

O'Brien says JFK had other aides who could have done her function "more safely and ably" Who? Were they available on short notice? Did they know Giancana? The job required loyalty, discretion, and anonymity. Clearly, Exner was loyal. She kept her silence about her affair with Kennedy for 12 years, breaking it only to confirm leaks from the Church Committee, and she kept more damning details silent much longer. Unlike his aides, she was publicly unconnected to Kennedy. And since they had recently met, she would recognize Giancana, and vice versa.

O'Brien speculates that FBI spies should have picked up any Exner-Giancana meetings. But it is now known that only in the summer of 1963...