E Howard Hunt

From The Kennedy Assassination Resource

(Not to be confused with Howard L Hunt)

E. Howard Hunt was a CIA operative. He had been involved in assassination plots against Castro. He had also run the Bay of Pigs invasion. The CIA's White House action officer for this ill-fated operation was Richard M. Nixon.

Like many of his CIA colleagues after the Bay of Pigs invasion, he resented the Kennedys and thought Robert Kennedy, then Attorney General, to be "an abrasive little man." A CIA colleague of Hunt's was William Harvey who had a reputation for gun-running and heavy drinking. He had been in charge of the unsuccessful attempts to assassinate Castro and was then appointed to establish and manage the "Executive Action" capability of the CIA. Its function was the removal of foreign leaders, by assassination if necessary.

On the morning of November 22nd, Hunt was supposedly at a CIA meeting finalising arrangements for the removal of Castro, with James McCord and Desmond FitzGerald, the new head of Cuba operations. However, Hunt has denied being at the meeting or of being part of the Cuban operation at that time.

In Dallas, one of the "tramps" arrested at the railroad yard after the assassination resembled Hunt. The "tramps" were fingerprinted and had mugshots taken but all of these have disappeared. The only evidence remaining is a series of photographs showing them with a police escort in Dealey Plaza.

Years later, Hunt and McCord were involved in the Watergate break-in and cover up, again under Nixon's direction.