Lucien Sarti (8 October 1937[1] – 28 April 1972[2]) was a Frenchdrug trafficker.[3] Sarti was shot to death in Mexico in 1972 in a drug trafficking ring raid.
On 19 April 1968, Sarti was arrested along withAuguste Ricord and François Chiappe for questioning regarding the robbery of a branch of theNational Bank of Argentina.[4] The three were released due to lack of evidence.[4] In April 1972, Sarti was shot to death in Mexico City during a raid of a drug trafficking ring by theMexican federal police.[3][4][5] A detective in Rio de Janeiro was later suspended from the police force after being accused of accepting a bribe to free Sarti and his girlfriend Helena Ferreira from jail earlier in 1972.[6] In January 1975, four French citizens alleged to have supplied heroin to Sarti were among a group of 19indicted by a federalgrand jury inBrooklyn.[5]
In November 1988, Steve J. Rivele's French-published bookThe Murderers of John F. Kennedy named Sarti as one of three French (Corsican) gangsters involved in theassassination of John F. Kennedy.[7] Rivele claimed Sarti fired the fatal shot fromDealey Plaza's "grassy knoll."[7] According to Rivele, Sarti, Roger Bocagnani, and Sauveur Pironti were contracted by organized crime in the United States to protect its drug interests.[7][8] The British two-hour television specialThe Men Who Killed Kennedy was based on Rivele's book, but preceded its release airing on October 25, 1988.[7][8] In the French newspaperLe Provençal published the day following the special, Pironti denied the allegation, stating that he believed at the time of the assassination that Sarti was held inMarseille'sBaumettes Prison and that Bocagnani was inBordeaux's Fort du Hâ.[8] He also showed the paper military records proving that he was serving on aminesweeper from October 1962 to April 1964.[8] TheFrench Ministry of Justice stated that Bocagnani was in prison on the day of Kennedy's assassination and officials from theFrench Navy confirmed Pironti's military service.[8]
After the death ofE. Howard Hunt in 2007, Howard St. John Hunt and David Hunt stated that their father had recorded several claims about himself and others being involved in a conspiracy to assassinate John F. Kennedy.[9][10] In the April 5th, 2007 issue ofRolling Stone, Howard St. John Hunt detailed a number of individuals purported to be implicated by his father including Sarti, as well asLyndon B. Johnson,Cord Meyer,David Phillips,Frank Sturgis,David Morales, andWilliam Harvey.[10][11] The two sons alleged that their father cut the information from his memoirs,American Spy: My Secret History in the CIA, Watergate and Beyond, to avoid possible perjury charges.[9] According to Hunt's widow and other children, the two sons took advantage of Hunt's loss of lucidity by coaching and exploiting him for financial gain.[9] TheLos Angeles Times said they examined the materials offered by the sons to support the story and found them to be "inconclusive."[9]
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