Tom
Dunkin's Deposition
re: Project Nassau
[Reference:
Network News Documentary Practices CBS "Project
Nassau." Serial No. 91-55 pp 417-420]
[NOTE: Where there
are three *** a
name has been excised by the committee for some reason or
other. Most
of these names now are well known]
Appendix C
Deposition
I, John Thomas Dunkin, being duly sworn on oath, furnish the
following
statement to James F. Broder who has identified himself to
me as a
Special Assistant of the Special Subcommittee on
Investigations,
Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, U.S. House of
Representatives, Washington, D.C. This statement is
given freely
and voluntarily, without any offer of reward or promises and
without
duress or threats of any kind being used. I have been
advised
that this information may become a permanent part of the
files and
records of an official hearing conducted by the above
identified
Special subcommittee.
I was born on January 8, 1925, at Ruston, Louisiana. I
presently
reside at 2906--17th Avenue, Columbus, Georgia. I am
employed as
a reporter for the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer newspaper.
I have
been employed in various capacities in the newspaper
business for the
past seventeen years.
I first became aware that the Columbia Broadcasting System
(CBS) was
going to film a documentary of a planned invasion of the
Republic of
Haiti by Cuban and Haitian exiles some time around April or
May,
1966. Mr. Andrew St. George, a freelance writer with
whom I had
been acquainted since we were reporting on the activities of
Fidel
Castro from the hills of Oriente Province, Cuba, in July
1958, first
called this operation to my attention. At this time I
was
employed as a newspaper reporter for the Atlanta Journal.
During the same period (April-May, 1966), I attended a
meeting at the
home of one Mitchell Wer Bell in Powder Springs, Georgia,
along with
Andrew St. George and a Mr. Jay McMullen, who St. George
introduced to
me as a producer from CBS. At this meeting the
discussion was
very general in nature and principally concerned with the
feasibility
of undertaking a filmed documentary of an attempted invasion
of
Haiti. It was also at this time that Jay McMullen
approached me
with regard to my future availability for employment on this
project as
a cameraman and writer in the event that the operation took
place. At this stage, there were no concrete plans
discussed in
my presence. The project seemed to be in the
offing. Wer
Bell was obviously being contacted because of his knowledge
of and
contacts in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Latin
America in
general.
My next direct involvement in the project took place on
September the
11th, 1966. About 7:00 a.m. I received a telephone
call from St.
George. He asked me to meet him at the Atlanta
airport. On
this occasion, St. George was accompanied by Jay McMullen, a
cameraman
named James Wilson, and a sound technician named Robert
Funk. I
gathered from their conversation that they had been filming
something
to do with the invasion operation up in the New Jersey
area. The
entire crew stayed in Atlanta about two or three days.
It was on Sunday, September the 11th, 1966, that Jay
McMullen offered
me a job on his CBS production crew as general
assistant. My
duties were to do camera and sound work and anything else
that came
up. I was hired on a freelance basis by McMullen and
he told me
my salary would be $150.00 per week plus expenses for food,
lodging and
transportation. McMullen did not have to do a selling
job on me,
I was eager to become a part of what then had all the
earmarks of being
a top news project.
On September 12, 1966, I took a two-months' leave of absence
from the
Atlanta Journal. My agreements with Jay McMullen were
all oral,
there was no written contract of employment made.
On Monday and Tuesday, September 12-13, 1966, accompanied by
the above
named CBS crew members, we shot a filmed sequence of weapons
being
loaded in a car and on a boat. This sequence was
filmed at
Mitchell Wer Bell's home in Powder Springs, Georgia, and
both the car,
a Volvo, and the boat belonged to Wer Bell. The
weapons consisted
of about a dozen or so Enfield 30 caliber rifles and about a
half-dozen
38 Special two barrel over-and-under Roehm
Derringers.
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Page 418
This film sequence was shot by Wilson. There was some
sound also
as I recall, but Wer Bell's face was never
photographed. Mostly
the shots consisted of Wer Bell's hands loading rifles into
the trunk
of the car and into a box on the boat. We also filmed
some scenes
of Wer Bell's car towing the boat on a highway in the
vicinity of
Powder Springs. Georgia.
Immediately upon completing the filming of the loading
sequence, Jay
McMullen and his crew departed for Miami leaving me with the
car, boat
and Wer Bell. I was to accompany a Haitian driver on
the trip
south to Miami supposedly towing the boat containing the
weapons.
My job was to film the travel sequence, tape record an
interview with
the Haitian driver during the trip and also to record news
and weather
from the radio in the car during the course of the trip for
purposes of
time and location identification on sound. The only
problem was
that St. George did not provide a Haitian driver for the
trip.
The interview of the "Haitian driver" took place a few days
later, in
Miami and was simulated to make it sound like it took place
during the
actual transportation of the car and boat from Powder
Springs, Georgia
to Miami.
Wer Bell and I drove the Volvo to * * *1, Marietta, Georgia
where we
disconnected the boat and then drove the car and the guns
back to Wer
Bell's place in Powder Springs, Georgia. We also took
the rifles
out of the chest in the boat but left the empty chest in the
boat for
the trip south. At Wer Bell's place in Powder Springs
we unloaded
the Enfield rifles and all but two of the derringers from
the car and
placed them in Wer Bell's garage. On September 14th,
1966, around
2:00 p.m. in the afternoon * * *1, age 18, a friend of Wer
Bell's
family, and I left Marietta, Georgia, driving the Volvo and
towing the
boat. We drove to the American Marina Motor Hotel in
Fort
Lauderdale, Florida where we met Andrew St. George paid * *
*1 $60.00
for his expenses and the return trip to Georgia. Then
St. George
and I drove the car and boat to the Everglades Hotel in
Miami where we
met Wer Bell and a Cuban named Rolando Masferrer.
Masferrer was
introduced to me for the first time on this occasion.
I had
learned from St. George earlier that Masferrer was in charge
of the
group of exiles who were planning to invade Haiti.
On this occasion, Masferrer told St. George that he needed
some money
for a boat to carry the expedition to Haiti. Masferrer
produced a
handful of bills which he said was $2,000.00 but it was for
the cause
and could not be used to acquire a boat. It was my
impression
that Masferrer expected either Wer Bell or St. George to
provide the
needed capital for the boat but no money changed hands on
this occasion.
It was at this meeting with Masferrer when I told St. George
I needed a
Haitian driver to interview in order to simulate gun running
by the
exiles from Georgia to Florida. Masferrer agreed to
provide a man
who was an experienced gun runner. He said the man
would
cooperate and explain why he was involved in transporting
arms.
The man was provided as agreed and I did a 5-15 minute taped
interview
while riding in a car being driven by a Cuban named Antonio
Rojas. I do not know the identity of the man I
interviewed.
The interview was staged by me without Jay McMullen's
knowledge but the
assistant producer, Andrew St. George, was aware of the
staging.
Next, I drove the car and boat from Miami to the Ocean Reef
Club in Key
Largo, which was headquarters for the CBS group at this
time. I
arrived there on September 15th, 1966 and the next
afternoon, September
16, 1966, a Deputy U.S. Marshal attached a lien on the "Poor
Richard". a motor sailor which was docked at the Ocean
Reef at
the time. I later learned that we were to have used
the "Poor
Richard" to carry some of the expedition as well as the
camera crew on
the invasion trip to Haiti.
From September 16, 1966, to October 3, 1966, when I returned
to
Atlanta, Georgia. I was involved in filming, or
present when
filming was being done, on the following sequences:
1. Filming the simulated arrival of the Volvo and the
boat owned
by Wer Bell at the Ocean Reef Club. The car and boat
actually
arrived at night, but the film sequence was shot the next
day.
2. The filming on a farm in Homestead, Florida, a
so-called "safe
house" where the exiles had an arms cache of 50 and 30
caliber
machineguns, a 20 MM antiaircraft gun. bazookas and
rocket shells
and other assorted weapons and ammunition. Present at
this
location were 2 Cuban women and perhaps a dozen men.
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Page 419
3. Filming of the training sequence where ex-Marine
Sergeant Don
Miller was directing a firearms training session when one of
the
weapons exploded injuring the eye of one of the exiles.
I also spent two days (September 22-23, 1966) in the library
of the
Miami Herald Newspaper researching the background of Rolando
Masferrer
for Jay McMullen. When I finished I had compiled seven
pages of
biographical data which I gave to McMullen tracing the
entire career of
Masferrer. From this point on, Jay McMullen should
have had no
doubt in his mind as to what kind of person he was dealing
with.
It was after completing this research project that I offered
to bet Jay
McMullen 10-1 odds that the invasion would never take place.
I was away from the project from October the 3rd, 1966,
until November
16, 1966. During this time, I returned to Atlanta,
Georgia.
On November 16 McMullen called me long distance from Miami
and asked me
to return and rejoin the crew to finish the job. I
remained on
the payroll until December 1, 1966. At this time,
McMullen
formally advised me that he was in charge of this project
and that I
was to take orders from no one else but him.
On November 20, 1966 I filmed a sequence of aviation
activities at the
Tamiami Airport which included shots of a B-25 sitting in a
field which
had nothing to do with the invasion but looked good, as well
as shots
of a Piper Colt airplane which was being used to check out
potential
exile pilots for the expedition. I was also present
when Wilson
shot some scenes of boats docked at the Miami River Harbor,
none of
which had anything to do with the invasion insofar as I was
able to
determine. All of these activities were directed by
Jay McMullen.
On Thanksgiving Day, 1966, the Miami Herald published a
front page
story quoting Napoleon Villaboa, the military chief of the
invasion
group, in which Villaboa told why he quit the group.
McMullen who
was in New York was notified and he immediately returned to
Miami. Upon his arrival, it was obvious that he was
very
upset. He told me that he had spent a lot of time and
money on
this project and had nothing to show for it. It was
shortly after
this that McMullen told me he had fired St. George Mitchell
Wer Bell
left Miami around Thanksgiving Day, 1966 and never returned
to the
project.
It was also about this time when I had a conversation with
McMullen
about staging. McMullen told me that he felt that the
training
sequence when the boy was injured by the exploding rifle was
faked. When I told him that I had the same information
he said,
"I wonder how much more of this production has been
faked?" I
then told him about the staging of the sequence in Powder
Springs at
Wer Bell's home when the 30 caliber Enfield rifles were
loaded, then
unloaded prior to the trip south and the fake interview of
the "Haitian
driver." McMullen was very upset upon learning this because
he said
that he had intended to use that sequence as part of his
documentary.
In his parting conversation on 11/28/66, Jay McMullen at the
Chateau
Bleu Inn located in Coral Gables, Florida, told St George in
my
presence that he (McMullen) had spent half his life trying
to put
together good reliable true productions and
documentaries.
McMullen said that he was aware that the whole operations
was a fraud
and accordingly he was closing down the production. I
drove
McMullen to the Miami airport and remained until December
the 1st,
1966, taking care of some loose ends for McMullen such as
returning
rented equipment, etc, and then I left and went back to
Atlanta.
The only money that was paid to me by CBS was for my salary
and
expenses. I have furnished copies of two (2) signed
documents of
my expenses for the periods 22 September through 3 October
1966 and 16
November through 1 December 1966, which are attached hereto
as Exhibit
"A". I was never used as a conduit for funds paid to
any member
of the exile group nor were any such funds ever paid to
anyone in my
presence. The only cash transaction I ever witnessed
was St.
George paying $60.00 to the young boy, * * *2 who drove the
Volvo from
Georgia to Florida in September, 1966. I was never
present nor
did I ever observe or hear of any financial transactions
that may have
occurred between McMullen, Wer Bell, St. George or any one
else
connected with CBS and Rolando Masferrer or any other member
of the
exile group with the one exception of the conversation
reported above
between Masferrer, St. George and Wer Bell regarding
acquiring a boat.
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page 420
I have read this statement consisting of this and 10 other
pages.
I have been given an opportunity to make any additions or
corrections. This statement is true and correct to the
best of my
recollection.
John T. Dunkin.
Witnessed by: James F. Broder,
Special Assistant,
Subcommittee on Investigations.
Sworn to and subscribed before me this 29th day of August,
1969.
Mrs. Joan E. Langston,
My commission expires March 5, 1973.
End of Page
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