Gaeton Fonzi (October 10, 1935 – August 30, 2012[1]) was an Americaninvestigative journalist and author known for his work on theassassination of John F. Kennedy. He was a reporter and editor forPhiladelphia magazine from 1959 to 1972,[2] and contributed to a range of other publications, includingThe New York Times andPenthouse.[1] He was hired as a researcher in 1975 by theChurch Committee and by theHouse of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) in 1977, and in 1993 published a book on the subject,The Last Investigation, detailing his experiences as a Congressional researcher as well as his conclusions about the JFK assassination.[3]
Fonzi was bornGaetano Fonzi to Leonora and Gaetano Fonzi, a barber, inPhiladelphia on October 10, 1935; he later shortened his first name.[3] He grew up inWest New York, New Jersey.[1] He studied journalism at theUniversity of Pennsylvania and edited its daily newspaper,The Daily Pennsylvanian.[1][2]
Fonzi began his journalism career at theDelaware County Daily Times, before moving toPhiladelphia magazine after serving in the army.[1]
In 1967, following a three-year investigation, Fonzi co-authored aPhiladelphia magazine article exposing the activities ofHarry Karafin, an award-winning American investigative journalist associated withThe Philadelphia Inquirer who sought and accepted payment from potential reporting subjects in order to avoid negative coverage.[4][5] Karafin was fired and then convicted on 40 counts of blackmail and corrupt solicitation.[6]
In 1970, Fonzi published a book aboutWalter Annenberg and his publishing empire, which includedThe Philadelphia Inquirer.[7] In 1972, having helpedPhiladelphia to its firstNational Magazine Award,[8] Fonzi leftPhiladelphia and moved to Miami, where he worked onMiami Monthly andGold Coast magazines.[1][2]
In 1975, he was hired by SenatorRichard Schweiker as a researcher for theChurch Committee into the activities of U.S. intelligence agencies, and in 1977 he was hired as a researcher for theHouse of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA). According toThe New York Times, Fonzi was recruited as an investigator for the HSCA "mainly on the strength of scathing magazine critiques he had written about the Warren Commission and its conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone in killing the president in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963."[3]Gerald Posner wrote: "Fonzi seems an unusual choice for an inquiry that claimed to be impartial, as he was a committed believer in a conspiracy, having written his first article critical of the Warren Commission in 1966."[9][nb 1]
In his work for the HSCA, Fonzi focused on the role of Cuban exile groups and the links those groups had with theCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Mafia. He obtained testimony fromAntonio Veciana that the latter once saw his CIA contact, whom Fonzi established wasDavid Atlee Phillips, conferring withLee Harvey Oswald.[1] In the course of Fonzi’s research, he attempted to interview Oswald's friendGeorge de Mohrenschildt on March 31, 1977; hours later, de Mohrenschildt was dead, an apparent suicide.[11]
In 1980, Fonzi published an article inThe Washingtonian on the JFK assassination. The article aroused enough interest from the CIA for it to investigate whether Fonzi had breached his 1978non-disclosure agreement with the CIA, which he had signed in order to gain access to classified files (it concluded that Fonzi had not).[12] The article later formed the basis for his 1993 book,The Last Investigation.[3] In 2012,The New York Times said ofThe Last Investigation that "historians and researchers consider Mr. Fonzi's book among the best of the roughly 600 published on the Kennedy assassination, and credit him with raising doubts about the government’s willingness to share everything it knew."[3]
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