Thursday, August 25, 2011

Motive: To Make Sure Israel Kept the Bomb?

In the Introduction to his book, Salvador Astucia wrote that the motive for assassinating John Kennedy was clear.  It was done to end the Kennedy Dynasty: 
The reason Israel acted when they did was because Kennedy was on the verge of ending the Cold War. He was also making plans to prevent them from acquiring the Bomb. This called for a drastic response....President Kennedy had voiced strong, albeit private, opposition to Israel’s development of the Bomb. The Kennedy Administration was well-aware of Israel’s nuclear reactor in Dimona. In fact, Kennedy and Ben-Gurion got into a heated personal exchange over that issue. Kennedy was concerned about Israel’s nuclear capabilities and made a secret deal for regular American inspections of the nuclear reactor in Dimona in exchange for Hawk anti-aircraft missiles, something that Ben-Gurion wanted. Ben-Gurion allowed an inspection once, but it was a deception. The Dimona facility was disguised to look like a nuclear power plant, but the CIA advised Kennedy that this was not the case and advised the President to push for further inspections.
Astucia continued his Introduction by setting out a "scenario of how the plot against President Kennedy was conceived and accomplished":
I believe the assassination was decreed by Nahum Goldmann, founder of the World Jewish Congress and its president in 1963, after taking counsel from influential friends of Israel.
They likely included, but were not limited to the following individuals:
  • David Ben-Gurion, Prime Minister of Israel and head of the Mapai Party (1948-53 & 1955-63)
  • Levi Eshkol, Prime Minister of Israel and head of the Mapai-Labour Party (1963-69)
  • Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel and head of the Labour Party (1969-74)
  • Menachem Begin, former commander of the terrorist organization, Irgun Zvai Leumi (Hebrew: National Military Organization), Prime Minister of Israel and head of the Likud Party (1977-83)
  • Yitzhak Shamir, former member of the terrorist organization known as the Stern Gang, also a former member of Irgun Zvai Leumi, Prime Minister of Israel and head of the Likud Party (1983-84 & 1986-92)
  • Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel and head of the Labour Party (1974-77 & 1992-95)
  • Samuel Bronfman, billionaire businessman, former bootlegger, owner of Seagram-Distillers Corporation; resided in Montreal
  • Louis Bloomfield, international lawyer (and Bronfman’s attorney), contractor for the CIA and FBI, formerly a British Intelligence officer who served in Palestine under the command of General Charles Orde Wingate training Haganah soldiers during the Arab Revolt in the 1930s; resided in Montreal
  • Bernard Bloomfield (brother of Louis), influential businessman; resided in Montreal

One can easily see Goldmann, speaking not only for himself, but as President of the World Jewish Congress that year, prophesing that President Kennedy should die for the nation of Israel. And his death would not only be for that nation, but for all friends of Israel scattered abroad. From that day forth they plotted to kill him. Louis Bloomfield was directed to manage the assassination. And he did so with the full knowledge and support of Lyndon Baines Johnson and J. Edgar Hoover.

Astucia says further that David Ferrie had flown the assassins from Dallas to Montreal in a private plane several days after the assassination, and, from there Bloomfield arranged to have them flown back to Marseilles, France." He cites as his source a statement made by Christian David to "Steve Rivele that the assassins were flown from Dallas to Montreal about ten days after the assassination (reference The Men Who Killed Kennedy). [See DVD version]. Second, it has been established by Garrison and others that Ferrie provided pilot services on an as needed basis for members of the 'cabal.'  Garrison specifically pointed out that Ferrie had flown Shaw to Montreal on numerous occasions. (Reference On the Trail of the Assassins, pp. 136-137.)"

 Part of the above theory is supported by the contents of a file resulting from a lawsuit filed in 1982 by Gary Shaw, with Bernard Fensterwald acting as his attorney. The report dated June 1981 is referred to as "A Possible French Connection," and involved a dentist in Houston, Texas named Lawrence M. Alderson. The two served in the military together in Europe and Algeria. This file can be read in person at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland, where Harold Weisberg's archives are stored.

In 1936 Nahum Goldmann was in Geneva, elected chairman of the administrative committee of the first World Jewish Congress.  Judge Julian Mack of New York was elected honorary president, with Rabbi Stephen S. Wise named chairman of the executive committee. The meeting adjourned on August 15 that year, and in the years after the war, as chairman of the Jewish Agency for Palestine and president of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims, Goldmann negotiated  the German- Israel restitution agreement with West Germany for it to pay $805 million in reparations to Israel, which was signed in September 1952. He also succeeded Rabbi Wise as president of the World Jewish Congress.

As for Louis Mortimer Bloomfield, Astucia cites David Goldman and Jeffrey Steinberg research that Bloomfield was "recruited into the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) in 1938, during the war was given rank within the US Army, and eventually became part of the OSS intelligence system, including the FBI’s Division Five. Reportedly, Bloomfield became quite close with J. Edgar Hoover." 
[See book about Rabbi Wise.]

He also includes in another footnote (fn. 3) a reference to the book written by Louis' brother, Bernard Bloomfield, Israel Diary (1950), p 5. Stating that "Louis had been a major in the Army Service Corps," before the two brothers traveled to Israel in 1949, Bernard had written: 
"We had dinner at the hotel and then went to a night club. There Amos [brother-in-law*] met a soldier whom he hadn’t seen for twelve years. They were at that time involved in the same arms smuggling plot, back in 1936, for which Amos was sent to jail. They had quite a reunion. He was a fine big fellow, a major, married, with children. When he learned Louis was a major in the Army Service Corps, in which he also had served, he became more communicative and told Louis and Amos that he was fed up with life—all his friends having been killed or wounded. He couldn’t get out of the army because he was such a good soldier; they wouldn’t release him. He said he received 38 [Israeli pounds] per month as pay, and it cost him 75 [Israeli pounds] to live. He made a very good impression on us—a decent and serious fellow."
 Astucia also cites Michael Marrus book, Sam Bronfman: The Life and Times of Seagram’s Mr. Sam (1991, p. 112) as the source for the following statement:
Sir Mortimer Barnett Davis [owner of the Canadian Industrial Alcohol Company] was a whisky supplier to Sam Bronfman during prohibition.
THE DAILY GLEANER - January 26, 1933
A REVIEW OF THE WHOLESALE
LIQUOR TRADE
A depressing picture of the fate of those interested in depots for the American trade appeared in a London morning paper the other day. This report, which was dated from Nassau, opened with the cheerful news that "the days of dry America are numbered, and in their passing passes also the bootlegger, the rum-runner, and the highjacker." The result for one Colony, we are told, is debt and destitution.

The truth of the matter is that the wet victory in the United States has nothing to do with the depression in the West Indies. Several years ago it was found that Canada proved a more satisfactory base for operations. with the result that the West Indies lost much of their former prosperity. In a few hectic years one Colony had replaced rock ruts with roads; waterworks were substituted for wells; public wharves and schools were built. Naturally, it is now feeling the difference.

So, too, is Canada, for that matter; for as a result of the enactment vetoing shipments of liquor consigned to United States ports, the trade is now operated from the French Islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon. The American market is so important that strong influences are at work to induce the Dominion Government to rescind the Export Act. Such a step would give a great impetus to the Canadian liquor trade, and Scotch whisky would also benefit to a lesser extent.
ATLANTIC WHISKY COMBINE.

According to a pronouncement from the leading independent distilleries in Canada, a merger of the Canadian and Scoto-Canadian interests "on an equitable basis," still depends on a good deal of compromise from the extreme bargaining position taken up by principals of the various companies. When several years ago the Distillers' Corporation (the Canadian subsidiary of the Distillers Company, Ltd.. Edinburgh) united with Joseph Seagram and Sons, following the merger of Hiram Walker with Gooderham and Worts, a larger amalgamation was only frustrated, it is believed, by the opposition of the Canadian Industrial Alcohol Company. Since that time, business has been poor, and larger stocks of liquor have been accumulated by all the competing concerns; competition for the irregular United States trade having combined with the high internal taxes to reduce profits.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Turning Plowshares into Swords--Roy Cohn and Lionel

During World War II many of America's factories with machine-tool capabilities, were switched by the War Industries Board into manufacturing weapons for war use. Lionel Corp. made toy trains out of metal and was easily adaptable for this purpose.

Joshua Lionel Cowen, an avid inventor, had founded Lionel Manufacturing Company in 1900--after patenting a mine-detonating device he sold to the U.S. Navy--to turn to making toys for young boys. Retiring from the business in 1958, he sold it to his great-nephew, Roy Cohn.
 
Joshua Lionel Cowen (who had changed his name from Cohen) was at that time alive and living in Florida (until 1965). His son, Lawrence Cowen, had been the company's president from around 1945 until he was named president of the safety razor company called Schick in the spring of 1960.
 
Cohn's mother, formerly Dora Marcus, wife of Judge Albert Cohn, was the daughter of J. Lionel Cowen's sister, Mrs. Joseph (Rachel Celia Cohen) Marcus. Thus, Lawrence Cowen and his sister, Isabel Cowen Otis Brandaleone, were Roy's second cousins. Lionel Corp. was losing money, and the founder's children went into debt to help Cohn bail out the toy train manufacturer.  Lawrence resigned as president in October 1959 but not replaced until August 1960, when a Army General Medaris was elected to the position, where he would serve almost three years.
Roy Cohn, labelled by the Berkshire NY Eagle on Oct. 20, 1959 as "the young cigar-smoking lawyer," was said to have recently headed a group which 
"purchased most of the 200,000 Lionel shares from members of the founder's family at $15 a share, some $5 over the market value at the time. 'We didn't want a proxy fight,' he emphasized....The group is keeping many officials of the old management in the top operating posts. A president for the company has not yet been selected. 'We are considering several candidates and will make a decision shortly. He probably will be an outsider.' Cohn. 32, was a graduate lawyer at 20. His father was the late Justice Albert M. Cohn of the New York State Supreme Court's Appellate Division."

August 8, 1960 - General Medaris Heads Toy Firm
NEW YORK (AP) — Maj. Gen. John B. Medaris, former head of the Army rocket and guided missile program, today became president of a toy train manufacturing company.

Lionel Corp. announced Medaris' new position. He also was elected a director.

Lionel has been without a president since last October.

Lionel has long been the nation's largest manufacturer of electric trains and accessories. It also makes other electric and mechanical toys, chemistry sets and sporting equipment.

The company also manufactures an explosive switch with broad applications in bombs, missiles, rockets and mines.

Medaris resigned from the Army in January. At that time he claimed the United States' "reluctant dragon" attitude toward space was leading to disaster.

There was a short-lived rise in the stock's value the year after Medaris took over, but then by 1963, as Time magazine described events, Lionel:
lost $2,500,000 in 1961, another $4,000,000 in 1962; Cohn shucked off several of the new subsidiaries and eased out General Medaris. Last week the word went out that Cohn was surrendering the controls at Lionel. First step: granting options for his 55,000 shares to a group headed by Manhattan Entrepreneur Victor Muscat [often referred to as the "toothpaste tube tycoon"]. The Lionel shares that he bought for $15 each closed last week at $6.50, which even at that represented a $1.25 rise for the week on news of Cohn's retreat.
The Muscat Family of Brooklyn founded United American Metals in 1889. Like Lionel, their factory was also converted into making armaments during World War II. After the death of the patriarch, Lazarus Muscat in 1944, "Victor Muscat, branched off into Victor Industries and became the largest produce of collapsible tubes in the country; producing Tin-base, Lead base and Aluminum tubes for the pharmaceutical, dental and general trades."

There is definitely more here than meets the eye. 

General John B. Medaris holding a model of the Redstone rocket -Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco May 17, 1957. (U.S. Army, courtesy of Medaris Collection, Florida Institute of Technology.)

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Why Roy Cohn Hated Bobby Kennedy

Life magazine said in its Oct. 3, 1963 issue: "Roy Cohn sits in a chemical complex of dupes and jugglers--all involved in the United Dye Co. conspiracy and the government's indictment of Cohn."
Somewhere in this chemical complex sits Roy Cohn.

The previous blog entry here included an excerpt of an excellent copyrighted research from DUCK KEY ONLINE about early development of Duck Key (on an island chain extending up from Key West) relative to an FBI investigation concerning whether Roy Cohn owned a residence there in his own name. As one of the included exhibits at the Duck Key website reveals, Roy Cohn was a co-defendant in a bribery case brought against him in New York with fellow Assistant U.S. Attorney Morton Robson, who had been previously associated with an assortment of questionable prosecutions, including one against Adam Clayton Powell. In a case arising 56 years after initially being admitted to practice law (a case involving German financier Guido Bensberg), Robson would eventually be disbarred.

Robson's name also appeared in FBI files--with an identification number following it (58-1232), which in other FBI files is simply designated "New York"--connected to New York Bureau information sent to J. Edgar Hoover in Washington, D.C. It appears to indicate that a copy of such investigative information was also sent to the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York, where Morton Robson and Roy Cohn had been employed as attorneys by U.S. Attorney Frank Hogan before Morgenthau's appointment in 1961 by Kennedy.

The bribery case brought against the two attorneys concerned United Dye & Chemical, then controlled by one Lowell MacAfee Birrell. A 1958 report from "Legat, Havana" (short for Legal Attache, or the FBI agent in an embassy abroad) to Director Hoover identified Birrell as follows:
In the past LOWELL M. BIRRELL has been associated with the Oriental Park Race Track outside of Havana. An article appeared in the "Times of Havana", an English language newspaper in Havana on March 4, 1958 reporting that BIRRELL had been ordered to pay a $3,256,639 judgment to the Dynamics Corporation of America for "frauds committed on the corporation by BIRRELL." This article indicated that Federal Judge SYLVESTER J. RYAN had filed the default judgment against BIRRELL following an inquest hearing in New York City....
Extra copies of this letter have been prepared for forwarding by the Bureau to New York (3) Miami (3) and Salt Lake City (2). Additional copies have been prepared in view of the references made to MEYER LANSKY and SANTO TRAFFICANTE in order that copies may be placed in those files.
More than a year after this report, the following item appeared in the news:

 THE POST-STANDARD, Syracuse, N. Y., Wednesday, August 26, 1959
Jurors Indict
Mystery Men
In Stock Gyp
NEW YORK. (AP) — A grand jury linked two alleged master stock swindlers in a single indictment Tuesday, charging mystery-man Alexander F. Guterma [sic] and fugitive Lowell M. Birrell with conspiracy in stock market dealings. The federal grand jury indictment accused the two once-fabulously wealthy financiers with conspiring to violate the securities exchange act by filing false and misleading reports on dealings in the United Dye Chemical Corp.
Also named in the indictment were the chemical company and Virgil D. Dardi. Dardi is now president of Chem Oil Co., successor to United Dye and Chemical, of which Guterma and Birrell were once officers and directors. Others named were Robert C. Leonhardt, former head of a Wall Street brokerage firm; Louis Levin, a Quebec attorney; Pierre A. DuVal, a publisher of brochures [weekly bulletin put out by DuVal's Consensus, Inc.]; and Harry W. Bank, described as a Wall Street "finder" or promoter [one-time promoter of Omega Equities Corp. of Los Angeles]. Guterma is free on bail now with several other charges hanging over him, all involving alleged stock manipulations to swindle other firms he once controlled. They include the Bon-Ami Co. and the F.L. Jacobs Co., a huge holding company through which Guterma acquired control of businesses ranging from lace to the Mutual Broadcasting Co.
Birrell, having fled to Brazil with a false Canadian passport, revealed his opinion of the prosecution against him to Time magazine which tracked him down in Rio in July 1959 after Brazilian police had pursued the passport violation. According to Time:
New York District Attorney James V. Hallisey flew to Rio to test whether Lowell Birrell would come back willingly to stand trial. If Birrell has a change of heart, the Brazilian government, despite the lack of an extradition treaty with the U.S., can probably find ample cause to put him on a New York-bound plane.
Perhaps someone got to the Brazilian government because several months later Birrell was still "living it up in Rio," as Time reported in its November 16, 1959 edition:
Expatriate Nostalgia. With more vodka came wistful recollections of Birrell's fieldstone showplace in fashionable New Hope, Pa., where he once kept a shiny, vintage fire engine, and reportedly entertained such celebrities as his friend the master swindler Serge Rubinstein, and some of Mickey Jelke's choicer, $100-a-night call girls. "I always took a big interest in the volunteer fire department in New Hope," said Old Fire Buff Birrell. "Volunteer firemen are a great thing in rural America." He also liked the autumn hunting. But "my house and nine-acre farm are in litigation now. They took it from me; nobody will get anything except the lawyers." [Minot Jelke's story was told in a movie, "Cafe Society," available on DVD.]

Life Magazine would do a profile on Roy Cohn some years after he wriggled out of Morgenthau's grasp. It showed his closeness to Lewis Rosenstiel of Schenley Distributing Company, another friend of J. Edgar Hoover's who was also mentioned in the Torbitt Document.


Looking back to the 1960's following the 2008 debacle of Wall Street, we can only wonder how all those stock manipulations of the past were brought to light when so much of what the same type of manipulators do today remains hidden until they bring down their house of cards, usually on our heads. They have always loved good times and the "high life".

In 1963 Roy Cohn was 36 years old, ten years removed from the high-flying days when he and Bobby Kennedy sat on Joe McCarthy's Communist-hunting committee in the U.S. Senate. The conspiracy of which Cohn was eventually accused allegedly occurred in 1959 when he entered into an "illicit scheme" to distract a grand jury from indicting the men shown in the cartoon at the top of this blog. Cohn's actions taken on behalf of the conspiracy were said to have been committed between June 1962 and May 1963, covering up the actual stock maneuvers of the other conspirators.

Cohn's foremost defense was "Vendetta!" in which another conspiracy of sorts was to blame--Prosecutor Robert Morgenthau and his superiors, including the Real No.-1 Enemy, then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. As relayed by the Life journalist, the events were traced back to 1955 when Lowell Birrell, a "brilliant student of the University of Michigan Law School, clubman and son of Presbyterian minister, held control of United Dye, a 164-year-old firm..." The public corporation listed on the NYSE had been destroyed by 1955. According to Life, "Birrell had already looted the company's treasury of some $2 million and picked its bones; now he was eager to dispose of the corpse." (page 26)

Roy's father, Albert Cohn, a local judge in New York and a "power" in the Democratic Party, and his mother, the former Dora Marcus, were pictured but not named in the 1963 Life article. Cohn met his fellow conspirators in 1957, though no proof was asserted in the case he even knew Birrell:
Cohn's co-investor in the Sunrise in Las Vegas was Allard Roen, manager of Desert Inn and Stardust casinos. (p.27)
Allard Roen had been a mere protege of oilman Sam Garfield before bringing him into the Las Vegas scene as a shareholder in a private hospital which in some minds linked him, through Roen into enterprises controlled by Purple Gang mobster Moe Dalitz, who had been investigated by Senator Estes Kefauver. Roen was, in turn, tied in up to his neck in United Dye with other stock manipulators engaged in a pump and dump scheme to foist the corporation onto the unwary public after "picking its bones," as Life writers had so colorfully described their blood-thirsty intentions. How all the players were brought into, and used by the perpetrators of, the scheme is deftly shown on page 29 of the Life article cited in the above link, though it takes some study to fully grasp all the intricate maneuvers. It takes even more head-scratching to see how the role of the former U.S. Attorney Morton S. Robson fits into the caper.

What made Roy Cohn's entry into the manipulations possible was his strangely-unknown relationship to the Marcuses and Cowens -- his mother's family -- who controlled the Lionel Corporation.
Keep in mind that this explosive issue of Life appeared at newsstands on October 3, 1963 and would be followed on November 22, 1963 by another exposé about the Quorum Club, and how Bedford and Angus Wynne of Dallas were involved in what Life called the "Bobby Baker Set" in the Q Club. Life was certainly ruffling some powerful feathers that fall.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Roy Cohn's Extended Family--Marcus and Cowen

There was a long tradition of fraud and corruption lurking in Roy Cohn's genetic makeup, as a review of his mother's family reveals.
 
The Marcus Family

Roy Marcus Cohn was the only child of American-born Doris "Dora" Gladys Marcus and her attorney husband Albert Cohn, an Assistant District Attorney in New York. The couple married in January 1924 and took a five-week honeymoon to Europe. Thereafter, Dora became a frequent traveler, including a summer voyage aboard the Queen Mary in 1951 with her son Roy when he was 24 years of age.

Dora's father had come to America in 1885 and became a naturalized citizen three years later. Joseph S. Marcus was of Russian ancestry, but born in Germany, while his wife, the sister of Joshua Lionel Cowen, was born in England.

After arriving in America as a young man, Marcus quickly became a successful clothing manufacturer, who by 1910 was a bank president, and resided at 315 Riverside, later moving to a high-rise apartment at 525 West End Avenue.
Joseph S. Marcus founded "Bank of United States" on Delancey Street in 1913, and after his death in 1927, the bank was managed by Roy Marcus Cohn's uncle, Bernard K. Marcus,
who acted in close association with Bank Vice-President Saul Singer. Their strategy involved three elements. One was expansion through mergers and bank purchases. The second involved a series of securities affiliates and a syndicate for stock trading. The third was extensive investment in real estate development projects. These operations generated a bewildering variety of affiliated corporations. The complex linkages among the Bank and the affiliates ultimately gave rise to the fraudulent bookkeeping on the basis of which Marcus and Singer served prison terms. A. Within the space of a year, between May 21, 1928 and May 13, 1929. when the stock market boom was very strong. BUS merged with or purchased five other banks with total book value of about $26 million and with about $170 millions in deposits. [Source: The Failure of the Bank of United States, 1930: A Rejoinder to Anthony Patrick O'Brien by Paul B. Trescott]
Bernard Marcus's obituary in 1954 stated under the headline, "Principal in U.S. Financial Debacle Passes at 63":
Photo of Bernard K. Marcus' arrest in 1931
LETHBRIDGE, ALBERTA. MONDAY, JULY 19, 1954
HUNTER, N.Y. — (AP) — Bernard Marcus, 63, who headed the Bank of United States when it collapsed in one of the spectacular financial debacles of the depression, and who later served a prison term, died Friday.

Marcus spent 23 months in prison in the aftermath of the Bank of United States' closing on Dec 11, 1930. He was later granted a pardon by then governor Herbert H. Lehman.
With 400,000 depositors and deposits of nearly $203,000,000 the bank was forced by the state banking superintendent to close its 82 offices in New York City. For days it had been subjected to a "run" of unprecedented proportions as word that it was in trouble spread like wildfire through the city.


Marcus was convicted in 1931 of charges of misapplying funds of the Municipal Safe Deposit Co a Bank of United States subsidiary.
Amidst the huge bank scandal involving Bernard Marcus, statements made by the judge at his 1931 sentencing were reported as follows:
In passing sentence, Judge Donnellan said he believed despite the testimony of the defendants that they acted in good faith in the transaction which led to the indictment that there was a "consciousness of wrong-doing."
He asserted that the willful misapplication of which the three men were convicted resulted from their gambling in Bank of United States/Bankus Corporation stock units and he said if the units had gone up in price instead of down, he had "absolutely no doubt the profits would have been pocketed by these defendants."
The court granted a week's stay to permit defense attorneys to petition for a certificate of reasonable doubt. During this stay, the defendants will be housed in Tombs prison.

Trial Lasted 12 Weeks

The trial of the bankers and young Singer, a law clerk, lasted 12weeks, the longest criminal trial in the history of New York county.

Marcus, 41 years of age, became known as one of the youngest presidents of a large bank, when at 37 he was elected president of the Bank of United States in 1927 as the successor of his father, the late Joseph S. Marcus.


As the executive vice president, Singer was a powerful figure in the expansion of the bank that started shortly after Bernard Marcus became president and made the institution one of the largest in the city with 59 branches. He is 49, and a native of Crimea, Russia.

Singer became prominent in the cloak and suit business from a humble start as a $2 a week worker. He finally became president of the cloak, suit and shirt manufacturers.

He was first associated with the Bank of United States as a director in 1919 and six years later became vice president.

Herbert Singer, 24, a law clerk in the office of Isidor J. Kresel, counsel and a director of the bank, was indicted with the men sentenced today but was granted a severance due to illness.

The Cowens

A few blocks away from the Joseph Marcus apartment lived Rachel Celia Cohen (Mrs. Joseph) Marcus' brother, Joshua Lionel Cowen, in an apartment at 219 West 81st Street, along with his wife and two children, Lawrence and Isabel (later moving closer downtown to 305 West End Avenue). The Cowen/Cohen siblings' parents were Hyman Nathan and Rebecca Kantrowitz Cohen, who lived in the Bronx. Joshua Lionel Cowen was married to the former Cecilia Liberman of New York.

Cowen manufactured authentic-looking electric toy trains through his company, Lionel Corporation, founded with Harry C. Grant in 1900. A native New Yorker, Cowen nevertheless was eager to convert his business of toy-making into making war instruments during World War I; his passport application made in 1922 shows that Lionel Corporation was making scientific nautical instruments out of its Irvington, N.J. factory at that time. City directories indicate he had an office at 48 East 21st Street.



But even much earlier than that "Great" war, Cowen had made other inventions which were of interest to the American military. His write-up in Who Was Who calls him the  
"Pioneer developer of the dry-cell battery, flashlight; builder galvanic and faradic batteries, also cytoscopic lamps; inventor fuse to set off magnesium flash powder used in photography; awarded contract to equip mines with detonators USN, 1898; builder model r.r.s, 1900, early engines equipped with battery, later engines electricified."
Cowen lived to be 88 years old and died at his home on Nightingale Trail in Palm Beach in 1965. He had long since (at least by 1945) turned over the operation of the Lionel Corporation to his son Lawrence Cowen, who by 1930 was married and working as a stock broker, living at 1125 Park Avenue on the upper east side of Manhattan. Lawrence was interviewed by Mary Harrington, a reporter for United Press International in 1945, as Christmas approached:
Lawrence Cowen, president of the Lionel Corp., largest maker of
electric trains, said his company will produce 15 per cent of his
1941 dollar volume business. "We're through with war work,
and we'll have two electric train sets, transformers, electric switches
and tracks." he said. "But there won't be nearly enough for all the kids."
A June 1943 item by Peter Edson, appearing on the editorial page of numerous newspapers, and headed "War Industry Reconversion," had relayed information that "Lionel Corporation, which used to make toy trains, had an ordnance parts contract taken away from it so that its workers could get onto more delicate fire control and navigation instruments requiring labor of a higher skill."

Lawrence would later move up to bigger and better things, so to speak. According to Time magazine on March 21, 1960 :
Lawrence Cowen, 52, president of Lionel Corp. from 1946 until last fall, was named chairman and chief executive officer of Schick Inc., makers of electric shavers. Cowen, who bought a seat on the New York Stock Exchange at the age of 21, was ousted from Lionel when a new group led by Lawyer Roy M. Cohn took control of the company founded by Cowen's father (who gave his middle name, Lionel, to the toy electric trains he created). At Schick, Cowen succeeds Chester G. Gifford, who took over as Schick chairman in November 1958 when Revlon President Charles Revson bought a controlling 20% share of Schick stock for Revlon, resigned after a stormy tenure.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Did D. Harold Byrd Sell out to Israelis?

Uranium exploration and Byrd Oil Corp.

It has previously been shown at this blog that a great deal of intrigue was witnessed during the 1950's (shortly following upon the acceptance of the Jewish State of Israel in 1948) within uranium mining fields. In all likelihood, this active search for uranium is what led to the ability of Israel to quickly become one of the few nations in possession of a nuclear bomb. The facts, however, are not clear and lucid--strewn haphazardly as they are among the news of the day--making them almost hidden within plain sight.

In 1952 Byrd Oil Corp. of Dallas registered 380,000 new shares of common stock with the Securities and Exchange Commission--Byrd and his wife owning 62.36 percent of the total outstanding shares, according to a prospectus from the company. Proceeds from the sale of new stock was added to the working capital of the company, used mainly to the pay drilling expenses.

The following year, Byrd acquired McConnell Drilling, which was engaged in exploration in the Rocky Mountains. He said publicly that he planned to do extensive development work during the summer in the Uintah Basin of Utah and was also quoted as saying the Clear Creek field was a "major discovery" being produced by Three States Natural Gas Co., which had recently merged with his former company, Byrd-Frost, Inc.

In 1952 he had started to phase out Byrd-Frost and focused on Three States Natural Gas Company, which he sold to the Murchisons' Delhi-Taylor Oil Corporation in 1961, several years after Three States had employed George de Mohrenschildt. When De Mohrenschildt testified at the Warren Commission in 1964, he said the company he worked for was "in Dallas." Albuquerque newspapers during the mid-1950's indicated, however, that Three States Oil and Gas, along with Delhi Oil, were unlisted New Mexico companies. Both companies may have been loosely connected to the Southern Union Gas Corp., as the following item that appeared in Lubbock, Texas in 1946, indicates with regard to Delhi:
CHICAGO, June 10, 1946 - (U.P.)—Southern Union Gas company announced today that it will dispose of all oil properties and will offer purchasing rights in the stock of the subsidiary Delhi Oil corporation to stockholders of record June 20. Delhi, an oil-producing subsidiary, took over Southern Union's Louisiana oil properties when first formed and later acquired the company's wells and leases in New Mexico.
The connections between these corporations and the individuals involved in them is too complicated in this entry and must be reserved for a later one, which will be focused on the gas pipeline which was built to take natural gas from the wellhead to its destination.

In 1956 D. Harold Byrd was recognized as president of Byrd Oil Corporation, Byrd Uranium Corporation, McConnell Drilling Corporation, and Colorado Carbonics, Inc.  Byrd Uranium Corp. went public in 1955 on the American Stock Exchange with its shares then wholly owned by Byrd Oil Corp.

Buyers of Byrd's uranium company

The men involved in the group which would make Byrd even more wealthy were primarily Canadian, with the exception of a state supreme court judge named James J. Crisona, who lived in Queens, New York. In 1967 Judge James Crisona was embarrassed when his brother, Frank Crisona, former Queens Assistant District Attorney, was arrested with others in a national swindle. Ten years later he was indicted again for offering $1,000 bribe to IRS agent for approving $40,000 deduction on his 1965 income tax return. Frank Crisona's co-defendant in the swindle, Dominick C. Lonardo, was, among other things, the president of Trans-American Corp., a bail-bonding agency, and in 1960 he had filed a $3-plus-million lawsuit against two competitors for libel. Lonardo, "reputed Cleveland underworld figure," would be tied into a nationwide mortgage fraud scheme in 1977 with Moe Dalitz, his father's buddy.

January 1967
Clevelander charged in swindle

NEW YORK (AP) - A Cleveland restaurant owner and five other men were indicted yesterday in an alleged coast-to-coast mortgage swindle U.S. Atty. Robert M Morgenthau said they were accused of taking more than $250,000 in advance payments from mortgage applicants for commitments "in the millions of dollars" although, this money did not materialize. Those indicted included Dominick C. Lonardo, 47, of University Heights owner of the Highlander Restaurant in Cleveland, and Frank J. Crisona, 46, a brother of New York Supreme Court Justice James J Crisona. Morgenthau said the scheme was pulled off in several cities, including Cleveland. The 30-count indictment said the men operated through Columbia Resources, Ltd, New York, pretended the firm had more than $17 million in assets, listed fictitious officers and directors and induced Dun and Bradstreet to give Colombia credit ratings based on the false information. The defendants were released on bond. A hearing was scheduled for next Tuesday in Federal Court.
"According to Plain Dealer columnist Brent Larkin, the Highlander Restaurant and Lounge, 'is remembered as a gathering place' for people like Salvatore 'Sam' Vecchio and other members of the Cleveland Mafia. Like Jackie Presser’s Mayfield Heights, Ohio restaurant, The Forge and the Pettibone Club in Bainbridge, Ohio. Along with the Theatrical Restaurant on Short Vincent Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. The Highlander became a watering hole for local organized crime figures and celebrities. Mafia and Mafia wanabees rubbed shoulders and traded stories there." --By Amy A. Kisil

Associates of Buyers Abernethy and Crisona

1943

March 13, 1943 - THE LETHBRIDGE HERALD (Alberta, Canada)
EDMONTON, March 12, 1943.—(AP)— Charges of monopolistic control of the Vermilion oilfield, made by Elmer E. Roper (C.C.F., Edmonton) in a recent address in the legislature, was denied in a telegram received by minister of lands and mines N. E. Tanner from Bryan W. Newkirk, Toronto, member of a group operating the field. The wire, made public Thursday by Mr. Tanner, said from Mr. Newkirk's knowledge "there is no monopolistic control of the Vermilion field, and disclosed that the Canadian National Railways should have their new oil cleaning plant in operation at the Vermilion field next month. [In a speech in the legislature Mr. Roper charged monopolistic control in the Vermilion field and criticized the government for not taking over the oil cleaning plant when it was closed down by its operators.]
1951
NEW YORK, Feb. 7, 1951 (JTA) –Mr. Arie Ben-Tovim arrived in New York today to assume the position of Consul at the Consulate General of Israel. He has served in a similar capacity in Montreal since May, 1949. Born in Jerusalem 43 years ago, Mr.Ben-Tovim is a third Israeli generation. He was educated in the Hebrew College of Jerusalem and is a graduate of the Universities of Strasbourg and Paris.

NEW YORK, Mar. 6, 1951 (JTA) – Hanan Aynor, who served with the Western European Division in Israel's Ministry for Foreign Affairs, has arrived in Montreal, Canada, to assume his new duties as Vice Consul in the Israel Consulate, He replaces Mr. Arie Ben-Tovim who was recently transferred to New York as Consul.
1952
WINNIPEG FREE PRESS- APRIL 14, 1952

EDMONTON, April 14 (CP) —Hon. N. E. Tanner, mines minister, has announced the first entry of Quebec mining interests into the Alberta oil picture. Quebec mining interests are financing Marigold Oils limited, which has an interest in 10,612 acres of oil rights in the Barrhead area, about 60 miles northwest of Edmonton. The group financing Marigold includes

  • East Sullivan Mines limited,
  • Louvicourt Goldfields corporation,
  • Bibis Yukon Mines limited,
  • Eric Cradock and
  • Bryan W. Newkirk.
1953
THE LETHBRIDGE HERALD (Alberta, Canada) May 9, 1953

Arie Ben-Tovim returned recently to Toronto from the State of Israel where he secured licenses for oil prospecting and development for a Canadian group of oil men. This group comprises
  • Bryan W. Newkirk, representing Marigold Oils Limited and Barclay Oil Company, Limited, 
  • T. R. Harrison, representing Trans-Era Oils Limited and Wilrich Petroleums Limited, and 
  • A. M. Abernethy, of Minerva Mining Corporation Limited. 
  • Mr. Ben-Tovim is a chemical engineer by profession, and after the establishment of the State of Israel he was appointed consul of Israel in Canada where he served in 1949-50, and then as consul in New York during 1951-52. Mr. Ben-Tovim then asked to be relieved of this position so that he could return to his professional and private occupation and to engage in this oil project.
1960
FLORENCE MORNING NEWS, FLORENCE, S.C. - APRIL 6, 1960 -
DUCK KEY, Fla., — This is a sunny blob of coral and money 95 miles from Miami down the Overseas Highway toward Key West. The coral was here when Blackbeard sailed the Spanish Main; the money was trucked in by Bryan W. Newkirk, the wolf of Canada's penny stock market, who had a hand in developing Coral Gables, has one foot in Canadian gold mines and another in uranium. With his remaining hand he directs the Florida-Southern Land Corp., which has transformed this pelican roost into a flowering hideout for the over-privileged, complete with yatch harbor, fresh and salt water swimming pools, a nine-hole long-iron golf course, and a spang new hotel of simple elegance.
From the 1952 article that appeared in Canadian press, along with others, we learn that one of the men who bought out D.H. Byrd's interest in the oil company he created, which owned all his stock in a uranium company, was a Canadian named A.M. Abernethy of Toronto, Canada, partner of James Crisona of New York.

Abernethy's financial connections indicates he was one of several Canadian oil men with ties to Arie Ben-Tovim, a Canadian who served as Israeli consul in Canada and then in New York. [See Zachary Kay, Diplomacy of Prudence: Canada and Israel, 1948-1958.]

Another of the group was a Toronto stock broker, Eric Cradock, better known as the owner of Canadian sports teams. Still another was Bryan W. Newkirk, who developed Coral Gables and the small island in the Florida Keys, known as Duck Key. Roy Cohn, a member of the committee staff of Senator McCarthy at the same time as Robert F. Kennedy (later Attorney General), was one of the first residents of the island developed by Newkirk.

Roy Marcus Cohn's Connection to JFK Hit?

Cohn was a flamboyant homosexual within the J. Edgar Hoover orbit of friends, as well as within the Clay Shaw, David Ferrie circle which intersected with business interests in Permindex, a Swiss corporation whose name was short for "permanent industrial exhibitions"--a wet dream first announced by Mussolini in 1942: "Then came the war. The great olympiad of culture was forgotten while the world bled. Only a few curious German and then Allied soldiers ever wandered out to the weed-grown site to stare at the abandoned massive statue heads and slabs of marble, great foundations and debris. Italy had no time to think of the place in the difficult days after the war. But in 1952 a plan was elaborated to finish the work and turn the quarter into a permanent world exposition center, museums, government offices, and restful gardens." (Source: United Press International, April 20, 1959)
 

The above connections all seem to lead us to the network surrounding Bobby Kennedy's nemesis, Roy Cohn, a Jewish corporate attorney in league with Canadian businessmen and investors, including many named in the Torbitt Document.


For anyone who is not up on the financiers for the JFK assassination named in the Torbitt Document, you can read it by clicking on the link and downloading the pdf file.
Roy Cohn in Duck Key

Excerpts from website about Duck Key:

THIS PAGE CREATED BY DUCK KEY ONLINE
COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL

An old news article reveals that Roy Cohn of Army-McCarthy hearing fame built one of the first homes on Duck Key. He may have built 1104 Indies Drive South, the home now owned by Tom and Graham Davis....

The first homes to be constructed on the residential islands of Duck Key are located at 1104 Indies Drive South (Davis residence and and associated with Roy Cohn), 1100 Indies Drive South, 158 Indies Drive North (Copeland residence), 146 Bimini Drive (Smithwich residence), and # Schooner Drive which is owned by the Kellogg, Brown and Root....
Developer Newkirk and his wife stayed in living quarters in the Administration Building during his early visits to Duck Key. Other buildings constructed early on were given names: Villas St. Pierre, Villa Jamaica, and Villa Trinidad. Villa Trinidad became the Newkirk residence and has changed hands a number of times over the years. It is now owned by Kellogg, Brown and Root, also known as KBR Engineering & Construction and serves as a corporate retreat....
Another image in a scrapbook in possession of Hawk's Cay shows Roy Cohn in the same lounge chair but from a different angle. A small plane is visible and no doubt had landed on the small airstrip that developer John Newkirk built on Center Island. See Elizabeth Newkirk's recollections on the Duck Key Mecca web page.

In addition to being a director of Florida Southern Land Corp. and developing the resort area on Duck Key, Cohn who was only thirty-three at the time of the 1960 article indicated that he headed a group of investors associated with Lionel Corp., makers of toy electric trains and after being elected Chairman made the corporation profitable again. He was also reported to be a director of Feature Sports, Inc. which at that time was promoting boxing rematch between Ingemar Johansson and Floyd Patterson. Johansson considered Duck Key as a possibility for a training camp for the Patterson fight. He chose Miami.
["The Government brought an action against Johansson to collect the taxes assessed and against Feature Sports, Inc., Thomas Bolan, Roy Cohn, and Humbert Fugazy to foreclose tax liens against funds held by them for Johansson's benefit. The District Court for the Southern District of Florida entered judgment against Johansson for the full amount of the taxes claimed by the Government, plus interest.... In the year and a half between the date Johansson claims to have moved to Switzerland and March 13, 1961, the record shows that he spent only 79 days in that country as compared with 120 days in Sweden and 218 days in the United States. Except for his activities in the United States during this period, his social and economic ties remained predominantly with Sweden. Indeed, the summary of Johansson's ties with Switzerland presented in his brief to this Court cites only his maintenance of an apartment and bank account there, his self-declaration of residence, and two acts by the Swiss government that may well have been predicated entirely upon his self-declaration of residence.... A contract of employment was entered into by Johansson in December 1959 with Scanart, S.A., a Swiss corporation formed that very month.... answer filed by Feature Sports alleges "as and for an offset" that it made certain payments to Scanart for Johansson free and clear of any valid assessment or lien. (R. 62-63). That these pleadings were considered as raising the issues to be tried in the case was expressly acknowledged in the parties' pre-trial stipulation. (R., p. 98.) That stipulation also specifically referred to a number of exhibits which bear on no other issue in the case except that of setoff. (Govt. exhs. 5, 15, 17, 18 and 133-E.) All these exhibits were admitted without objection. Moreover, testimony relevant to the setoff issue was elicited from appellants Cohn, Bolan, and Johansson and from William Fugazy, a member of the board of appellant Feature Sports.... To allow a setoff for that part of the $37,750.60 attributable to the second fight would be in violation of the agreement made by all the parties to this suit and the Franklin National Bank in 1960. Under that agreement, all funds received by appellants in connection with the second fight, with certain exceptions not material here, were to be deposited in the bank to secure the full collection of the taxes due on Johansson's 1960 United States income....  court refused to allow a setoff in the amount of $250,000 which was transferred to Johansson following the third Patterson fight by the Bank Germann in Basel, Switzerland. On the present state of the record, we are unable to affirm this part of the judgment. The $250,000 was transferred to the Bank Germann by Feature Sports in three installments, all prior to the date the Government's tax lien attached, and was intended as an advance on the compensation which Johansson was to receive from the third fight. Appellants contend that the transfers were in escrow and that the funds were therefore not property of the taxpayer in their possession to which the Government's lien could attach. The Government, on the other hand, contends that a valid escrow arrangement was not perfected. The findings of the district court on this issue are ambiguous. Although the court's conclusions of law and judgment clearly favor the Government, in its findings of fact it twice denominated the Bank Germann as Feature Sports' 'escrow agent.' " Ingemar Johansson et al., Appellants, v. United States of America, Appellee, 336 F.2d 809 (5th Cir. 1964)]
Cohn's mother's family controlled the Lionel Corporation which made it possible for him to acquire control of the venerable toy train maker company. Cohn borrowed over $900,000 from banks in New York, Panama, and Hong Kong to facilitate the deal. Cohn moved Lionel into the area of modern electronics. Cohn lost control of Lionel in 1962 with Lionel recording losses of more than $4 million a year.

Several books give accounts of Cohn owning a home on Duck Key.

Jacob M. Alkow in his 1985 book, "In Many Worlds" wrote of meeting Roy Cohn and Bryan Newkirk on Duck Key, His recollection of marble bridges and the death of Bryan Newkirk's son are a bit off, but for the most part his narrative agrees with news accounts of that period. Alkow died as a citizen of Israel in 1999 at age 96. He was a Chinese art expert, a movie developer in Hollywood during World War II, a Wall Street financier, and was part of the American Zionist movement and an active participant in in the struggle for Israel's creation. Of his experience on Wall Street he wrote:

"While in Los Angeles. I received a call. . . that a Mr. Brian [Bryan] Newkirk phoned from Florida. He wanted to know if I would meet him on my next visit to our office in Hollywood, Florida. He had a proposition that 'sounded very interesting.' . . . I had heard of Newkirk in Wall Street. He was a Canadian multi-millionaire, who made his fortune in uranium mines in Canada."southern point of the United States.
"Newkirk and his wife, Lucille, had an only son, who had died from an incurable disease, leaving them two grandchildren. To memorialize the life of his son, Newkirk bought the island of Duck Key and began to convert it into a replica of Venice. [Actually the son was involved in the development of Duck Key and his death brought building to a halt for a time. The Newkirks decided to honor their son's death by continuing the development.] Newwkirk "cut through the island with canals and spanned them with decorated marble [concrete] bridges high enough for small craft to pass underneath. Newkirk asked me to be his guest for three days on Duck Island. I would see the beauty of the site and its potentialities. My association with Wall Street wa now leading me to new ventures."
Alkow wrote that he thought Duck Key to be even " . . . more beautiful than Newkirk's description of it. With its canals, curved marble bridges, and wide, two-story houses built in the exquisite architectural style of the West Indies, there was nothing like it on the North American continent". Alkow recalled that there were " about twenty other permanent residents on the island and about eight guests from all over the world, most of whom were listed in Who's Who."

"Surrounded by a view of the blue waters, I could not have wished for better accommodations. There were fifteen people at dinner and a trio played South American music. One of the guests was Roy Cohn. Like many Americans. I could not forget the important role that Roy Cohn played as the chief counsel for McCarthy's Un-American Activities Committee during one of America's darkest hours. Roy Cohn was one of Newkirk's lawyers, and he occupied a beautiful cottage. Newkirk himself was politically a reactionary, but his cool attitude toward Cohn helped to mitigate my uneasiness in getting involved with him and his associates. Newkirk alone, I thought, was bad enough for me, but with Cohn as his lawyer, it was a little too much to take. After a few days some of my fears and suspicions were allayed by Lucille Newkirk."

Of Lucille Newkirk, Alkow observed that Lucille "was as different from her husband as any wife could be different from the man she lives with". She had withdrawn herself from her husband and his opulent way of life. The bottles of Canadian rye standing on the tables of the house helped her retain her inner equilibrium."

Alkow wrote that Lucille took consolation in her life by reading books. Alkow recorded that Lucille "did not like her husband, . . . her daughter-in-law, and . . . did not like Roy Cohn." Lucille liked "honesty, humility, and intelligence. She avoided all the pleasures and pastimes of her husband". I waited for every available chance to sit and talk with her and listened to her expressions of faith with reverence.

Alkow comments further that he liked spending time with Lucille Newkirk. He observed that she was a "remarkable woman, old beyond her years. As time went on, my respect for Brian Newkirk increased because of the admiration he had for his unhappy wife."

Alkow recounts a fishing trip that he, Roy Cohn, Newkirk and his daughter-in-law took. At the end of the busy day catching fish, he writes" . . . my relations with my three companions with whom I had spent a full day were very friendly and cordial. Even Roy Cohn appeared in a better light. He was bright and interesting as a conversationalist. He avoided all controversial subjects including anything Jewish with which I tried to test him. Ironically, Newkirk. who said that he never thought of me as a Jew always thought of Roy Cohn as a Jew. When I told him angrily. 'What you call Roy Cohn a Jew?' he was embarrassed".

Newkirk tells Alkow of his plan to build a large luxurious hotel on Duck Key. He explains that he has used up "a great deal of money in the development of the island and laying the foundation for the hotel" and was in need of private and public financing to complete the project. Alkow agrees to present financing plans to his firm when he returns to Wall Street.

"On my return. I consulted with underwriters of new enterprises and they agreed to join our firm in raising the funds needed for the building of the hotel. I called Newkirk and he was delighted."

On Alkow's second visit to Duck Key he attends an elaborate party after concluding business. 

"International Was the Word for Newkirk Party," read one Miami newspaper. "Alkow writes, "After the party which was hilarious, I told Lucille that while I enjoyed it very much. I was not overly impressed with the big name celebrities. She smiled and promised not to tell her husband. Quite unintentionally I derived some profit from Newkirk's reference to my association with him as his "able Wall Street financial advisor."

Alkow went through with the underwriting later in 1959. The SEC Digest in April of 1959 reported a proposed Florida-Southern Land Offering.





Florida-Southern Land Corp., Tom's Harbor, Monore [ sic. Monroe] County. Fla., filed a registration statement (File 2-14918) with the SEC on April 13, 1959, seeking registration of 2,000,000 shares. The stock is to be offered for public sale at $2 per share. The offering is to be made on a best efforts basis by Alkow & Co., Inc., for which it will receive a 36 cents per share selling commission. The underwriter also will receive an expense allowance of $50,000, payable at the rate of 5¢ per share on each of the first 1,000,000 shares sold; and it will be entitled to purchase, at one mill each, 200,000 four-year warrants to purchase a like number of common shares at prices ranging from $2 to $3 per share.

The issuer was organized in 1956 to engage in the business of buying, selling, developing and operating real properties. Its present business consists of the ownership and development of a 300-acre tract known as Duck Key, located on the Atlantic Ocean in the Florida Keys. It proposes to develop Duck Key as a luxury-type, island resort community. The Duck Key properties were acquired in 1956 from Florida corporations controlled by Bryan W. Newkirk, president of the issuer. In consideration thereof, the company issued 2,150,000 common shares to Newkirk Realty Corp. Newkirk Realty, which is said to have expended $1,131,362 on the properties, has been liquidated; and of the 2,750.000 shares. 2,529,000 were distributed to Lorita Trading Corp., a Liberian company owned by Mr. Newkirk and 138,000 shares to Newkirk personally. The company now has outstanding 2,801,655 common shares, of which 220,888 shares owned by Newkirk are to be donated back to the company.

The company first proposes to expend some $770,000 for the construction of 50 motel units and other facilities on Indies Island, one of its island properties, plus $153,000 for furnishings and equipment. $400,000 will be reserved for working capital, $125,093 will be used to repay advances by Newkirk, and $1,136,901 added to general funds to be used for either the construction of lease accommodations on Duck Key or the acquisition of additional land sites in other areas. 

Florida-Southern Land Corp. underwent a name change to Florida Southern Corp. in 1961. This new entity was adjudged insolvent in August of 1963.

Thomas Bruce Morgan wrote in 1965 in "Self-creations: 13 impersonalities"

"I would do anything Roy Cohn told me to do," said the client, "because he is the most wonderful lawyer in the world. ... Over the desk was a six-foot sailfish which Cohn had caught near his vacation home at Duck Key, Florida, in 1959."
The same snippet of information appeared in a 1960 edition of Esquire,

". . . Cohn awoke before eight in the morning. ... Over the desk was a six-foot sailfish which Cohn had caught near his vacation home at Duck Key, Florida, in 1959. ..."
COHN, THE F.B.I. AND DUCK KEY

Although the image above shows Roy Cohn relaxing on Duck Key, F.B.I records do not substantiate that Cohn ever owned a home on the island. How is it that the Federal Bureau of Investigation showed an interest in Cohn and Duck Key?

Cohn was accused of tampering with a 1959 grand jury probe in order to save four stock swindlers from indictment. Investigators thought possibly money change hands in Las Vegas or during Cohn's visit to Florida in 1960 and that possibly Duck Key might have been the location for this exchange of bribe money.


Allegation
The case against Cohn alleged that $50,000 was paid to Cohn; two thirds of the bribe money was supposed to have been paid to an Assistant United States Attorney named Morton Robson with Cohn retaining the remaining third. The investigation tried to ascertain where the money exchange took place. Handwritten references to the side of the typed pages (b 7 c, etc.) indicate reasons for redacted parts of the communications.

FBI investigation of Cohn on Duck Key

The communication above shows that in 1962 the F.B.I. conducted an investigation at Duck Key to establish if Cohn owned a vacation home on the island.The record below shows that an interview was conducted with a female to try an establish if Cohn had been on Duck Key as well as an effort to inspect Indies House ( now Hawks Cay) guest records.
Interview and effort to see Indies House records

The record below dated 8/27/1962 reports that several parties likely including County Officials reported no record of Roy Cohn owning a home on Duck Key.

Did Cohn own a home on Duck Key as the original May 1960 UPI news article stated? The picture of Cohn reclining in a lounge is evidence that Cohn visited Duck Key. A review of old property records might shed some light on this mystery.

COHN ACQUITTED IN 1964

News reports of 1964 indicate that Roy Cohn was acquitted by a federal jury on charges of perjury and obstructing justice. If found guilty on all counts Cohn could have been sentenced to 35 years.

He is quoted as telling newsmen "Above all I thank God for the United States of America, where no matter who in high places moves against you, there is recourse to a jury of 12 Americans." Who in "high places" was Cohn referring to? Cohn had previously contended that "a few people" in the Justice Department were out to get him. Robert F. Kennedy was U.S. Attorney General and headed the Department of Justice at this time. The animosity between Kennedy and Cohn began in 1953 during the Army-McCarthy hearings. Cohn was made Chief Counsel to the McCarthy Committee and Kennedy was Assistant Counsel. Their differences actually led to fist fight in the outer chamber of Congress and according Donald Ritchie, the U.S. Senate historian. "they became enemies for the rest of their lives."

THIS PAGE CREATED BY DUCK KEY ONLINE
COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL
http://www.duckkeyonline.com site map
email@duckkeyonline.com