Was Cuban professional hit man Herminio Diaz a second Kennedy assassin?

Was Cuban professional hit man Herminio Diaz a second Kennedy assassin?

By Daily Mail Reporter
PUBLISHED: 13:07 EST, 16 October 2013 | UPDATED: 14:22 EST, 16 October 2013
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2463291/Was-Cuban-Herminio-Diaz-second-Kennedy-assassin.html#ixzz2iK2P22rP

Author Anthony Summers has claimed that Cuban exile shot President John F. Kennedy in 1963 with Lee Harvey Oswald
Diaz was part of an anti-Castro movement that felt betrayed by Kennedy for the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis
He ‘told a friend that he was responsible for the killing before his death’

A Cuban exile and professional hit man assassinated President John F. Kennedy with Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963, an author has claimed.

Anthony Summers said evidence shows Herminio Diaz, who was part of the anti-Castro movement that felt betrayed by Kennedy for the Bay of Pigs invasion, was in the U.S. at the time of the killing.

Afterwards, Diaz reportedly revealed to friends that he had been part of the murder and after his death in 1966, one moved to Miami and eventually contacted officials to share the story.

The chief counsel of the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations, G. Robert Blakey, said he believed the account and called the new details ‘a breakthrough of historical importance’.

PHOTO
Accused: An author has claimed that Heminio Diaz (left), a Cuban exile, was also responsible for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy n 1963. Lee Harvey Oswald (right) was arrested for the killing

The startling claims have been made by Summers in an update to his 1998 book on the killing, ‘Not In Your Lifetime’ and shared with the National Enquirer.

While Diaz’s name has been linked to the assassinations before, Summers claims he now has the real evidence – and support from experts – to prove the claims are true.

It further fuels beliefs that Kennedy’s assassination as he drove in a motorcade through Dallas, Texas was a conspiracy and not carried out solely by Oswald, who was arrested for the murder.

Diaz, who had worked for Mafia boss Santo Tafficante Jr. in Cuba and killed a Cuban police officer in the 1940s, arrived in the U.S. a few months before the assassination on November 22, 1963, CIA documents show, the Enquirer reported.

‘Diaz was a professional hit man with a record of political assassinations,’ Summers said. ‘He was in the country at the right time and was involved in the anti-Castro movement.

‘Many people in that movement thought President Kennedy had betrayed them during the CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, and had a motive to kill him. Frankly, it all adds up.’

Summers did not say how Oswald and Diaz would have been acquainted with each other.

After the assassination, Diaz was traveling to Cuba for an anti-Castro raid with a friend, Tony Cuesta, who he told about his role in the killing, the Enquirer reported.

Diaz died in the raid and Cuesta was hurt after trying to commit suicide to avoid capture – but he was caught and jailed at La Cabana Prison.

Claims: Author Anthony Summers said he spoke to another Cuban immigrant who heard that Diaz confessed to the assassination. The new details are an addition to his 1998 book, Not In Your Lifetime

While being treated in the infirmary, he told another anti-Castro inmate, Reinaldo Martinez, about Diaz’s confession.

After Martinez was released from prison, he went to Miami and eventually contacted G. Robert Blakey, chief counsel of the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations, in 2007.

Blakey told the National Enquirer that Martinez thought he was going to die so wanted to come clean.

‘After speaking with him, I believe he was telling the truth,’ he said. ‘This is a breakthrough of historical importance.’

Summers, who also spoke to Martinez at length, and Blakey said that Martinez had gone to the FBI with his story, but he was told the investigation was closed.

In the famous Zapruder film of the assassination, Kennedy can be seen being hit from behind – where Oswald was standing – and then apparently being hit from the front, some experts have said.

Cyril H. Wecht, a medical examiner who has studied the assassination for decades, said he agrees there was someone else involved.

‘Based on the initial backward trajectory of the president’s head after being impacted by the gunshot blasts, I believe a shooter operated from the right front of the vehicle behind the picket fence on the grassy knoll,’ he said. ‘Eyewitness accounts corroborate this.’

The Warren Report into the death discounted this and instead only Oswald was arrested for the death.

He denied any role in the assassination. Two days after his arrest, he was shot dead by nightclub owner Jack Ruby as he was transferred from police headquarters to jail.