Guy Banister | |
|---|---|
 Photo of Banister from the House Select Committee on Assassinations | |
| Born | William Guy Banister March 7, 1901 Monroe, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Died | June 6, 1964(1964-06-06) (aged 63) New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Education | Louisiana State University |
| Occupation(s) | Federal Bureau of Investigation Private investigator |
| Known for | Allegations made byJim Garrison during his investigation of theJohn F. Kennedy assassination |
William Guy Banister (March 7, 1901 – June 6, 1964) was an employee of theFederal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), an assistant superintendent of theNew Orleans Police Department, and a private investigator. After his death, he was accused by New Orleans district attorneyJim Garrison of involvement in theassassination of John F. Kennedy. In the late 1970s, theHouse Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) investigated Banister as part of its inquiry into a possible New Orleans connection to the JFK assassination.
William Guy Banister was born inMonroe, Louisiana, the oldest of seven children. After studying atLouisiana State University, he joined the Monroe Police Department.[1][2] In 1934, he joined theFederal Bureau of Investigation, and was present at the killing ofJohn Dillinger. Originally based in the FBI'sIndianapolis office, Banister later moved toNew York City where he was involved in the investigation of the American Communist Party. FBI DirectorJ. Edgar Hoover was impressed by Banister's work and, in May 1938, he was promoted to run the FBI unit inButte, Montana.[3] In December 1944, Banister investigated a fatalFu-Go balloon bomb near Kalispell, Montana.[4] During the1947 flying disc craze, he examined asaucer hoax in Twin Falls.[5]
Banister also served in theOklahoma City,Minneapolis andChicago FBI offices. In Chicago he was promoted to Special Agent in Charge in 1953.[2] He retired from the FBI in 1955,[3] and moved back toLouisiana where he became Assistant Superintendent of theNew Orleans Police Department. He was tasked with investigating corruption and ties toorganized crime within the police force. In December 1955, he publicly revealed 91 members of the police who were involved in graft, after a list was found at the home of an illegal lottery operator.[6] It later emerged that Banister was also looking at the role played byleft-wing activists in the struggle forcivil rights in New Orleans.[7] On the campuses ofTulane University andLouisiana State University, he ran a network of informants collecting information on "communist" activities. He submitted reports on his findings to the FBI through contacts.[8]
In March 1957, NOPD Superintendent Provosty Dayries suspended Banister after witnesses reported he had drawn his revolver while threatening a bartender at the Old Absinthe House onBourbon Street in theFrench Quarter.[9][10] Banister denied the allegations, and the bartender described the incident as an "unprovoked attack".[11] Later in March, Banister appeared before the state's Joint Legislative Segregation Committee where he claimed he had "documentary proof of clear and specific communist directions to promote friction between the races". He also told of investigating the first Japanese fire balloon to land in the US.[12] His suspension ended in June of that year; however, Dayries dismissed Banister from the force for "open defiance" after he refused to be reassigned as the department's chief of planning.[13][14] In supporting Dayries' decision, New Orleans' mayorChep Morrison said that there was "no other course that one could sensibly follow".[14]
After leaving the New Orleans Police Department, Banister established his ownprivate detective agency, Guy Banister Associates, Inc. at 434 Balter Building.[15] In June 1960, he moved his office to 531 Lafayette Street on the ground floor of the Newman Building.[15] Around the corner but located in the same building, with a different entrance, was the address 544 Camp Street, which would be stamped on the pro-communistFair Play for Cuba Committee leaflets distributed in 1963 by JFK assassinLee Harvey Oswald.[16] The Newman Building housed militant anti-Castro groups, including theCuban Revolutionary Council (October 1961 to February 1962), as well as Sergio Arcacha Smith'sCrusade to Free Cuba Committee.[16] Banister was also involved with theMinutemen.[17]
Banister was implicated in a 1961 raid on a munitions depot in Houma, Louisiana, in which "various weapons, grenades and ammunition were stolen ... which were reportedly seen stacked in Banister's back room by several witnesses."[8] At the beginning of 1961, Banister began publishing theLouisiana Intelligence Digest, a racist anti-communist publication.[18] TheNew Orleans States-Item newspaper reported an allegation that Banister served as a munitions supplier for the 1961Bay of Pigs Invasion and continued to deal weapons from his office until 1963.[19] The newspaper characterized him as having "participated in every anti-Communist South and Central American revolution that came along, acting as a key liaison man for the U.S. government-sponsored anti-Communist activities in Latin America."[20] In its biographical sketch of Banister, the HSCA wrote that FBI files showed he "became excessively active in anti-Communist activities after his separation from the FBI and testified before various investigating bodies about the dangers of communism."[21]
In 1962, Banister allegedly dispatched an associate, Maurice Brooks Gatlin — legal counsel of Banister's "Anti-Communist League of the Caribbean" — toParis to deliver a suitcase containing $200,000 for theFrench OAS. In 1963, Banister and anti-Castro activistDavid Ferrie began working for a lawyer named G. Wray Gill and his client,New Orleans Mafia bossCarlos Marcello. This involved attempts to block Marcello's deportation toGuatemala.[8][22] In early 1962, Banister assisted Ferrie, anEastern Airlinespilot, in a dispute in which the airline and the New Orleans police brought charges against Ferrie for "crimes against nature andextortion."[8] During this period, Ferrie was frequently seen at Banister's office.[23] Banister served as a character witness for Ferrie at his airline pilot's grievance board hearing in the summer of 1963.[8][23]
On the afternoon of November 22, 1963, the day that President Kennedy was assassinated, Banister and one of his investigators,Jack Martin, were drinking together at the Katzenjammer Bar, located next door to 544 Camp Street in New Orleans. On their return to Banister's office, the two men got into an argument. Banister, believing that Martin had stolen some files, drew his .357 Magnum revolver and struck Martin with it several times. Martin was badly injured and treated atCharity Hospital.[24] When questioned about the incident in December 1977 by investigators for theUnited States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), Martin said that in the heat of the argument just prior to the pistol-whipping, he asked Banister, "What are you going to do — kill me like you all did Kennedy?"[25]
Over the next few days, Martin told authorities and reporters that David Ferrie had been involved in the assassination. He maintained that Ferrie knew Oswald from their days in theNew OrleansCivil Air Patrol, and that Ferrie might have taught Oswald how to use a rifle with a telescopic sight.[26] Martin also asserted that Ferrie drove to Texas on the day of Kennedy's assassination to serve as a getaway pilot for the assassins.[27] Witnesses interviewed by the HSCA indicated that Banister was "aware of Oswald and hisFair Play for Cuba Committee before the assassination."[28]
Banister's secretary, Delphine Roberts, told authorAnthony Summers that Oswald "seemed to be on familiar terms with Banister and with [Banister's] office."[29] Roberts said, "As I understood it, he had the use of an office on the second floor, above the main office where we worked. Then, several times, Mr. Banister brought me upstairs, and in the office above I saw various writings stuck up on the wall pertaining to Cuba. There were various leaflets up there pertaining to Fair Play for Cuba."[29] The HSCA concluded that because of contradictions in some of Roberts' claims and the lack of independent corroboration, "the reliability of her statements could not be determined."[30]
The alleged activities of Banister, Ferrie and Oswald reached New Orleans District AttorneyJim Garrison who, by late 1966, was pursuing a possible New Orleans connection to the JFK assassination. In December 1966, Garrison interviewed Martin who said that Banister, Ferrie and a group of anti-Castro Cuban exiles were involved in operations against Castro's Cuba that included gun running and burglarized armories.[31]
As Garrison continued his investigation, he became convinced that a group ofright-wing activists, including Banister, Ferrie andClay Shaw, participated in aconspiracy with elements of theCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA) to kill Kennedy. Garrison claimed that the motive for the assassination was to stop the President "from achieving peaceful relations with the Communist world".[32][33] The New Orleans DA also believed Banister, Ferrie, and Shaw had plotted to set up Oswald as a patsy in the assassination.[34] By early 1967, with Banister and Ferrie deceased, Garrison indicted Shaw for conspiring to assassinate JFK butfailed to obtain a conviction.
Banister died ofcoronary thrombosis on June 6, 1964.[35] Banister's files went to various people after his death.[36] Later, New Orleans Assistant District Attorney Andrew Sciambra interviewed Banister's widow. She told him that she saw some Fair Play for Cuba leaflets in Banister's office when she went there after his death.[37]
Banister is a character inOliver Stone's 1991 movieJFK, in which he is portrayed byEdward Asner.[38] He is also central to the plot ofDon DeLillo's novelLibra.[39] Banister appears as a character inJames Ellroy's 1995 novelAmerican Tabloid and its sequelThe Cold Six Thousand. InAmerican Tabloid, Banister organizes John Kennedy's assassination, which is based on Ward Littell's original plan. InThe Cold Six Thousand, Banister is murdered byChuck Rogers under orders fromCarlos Marcello.