In an incisive piece in Washington Decoded, Tim Brennan contributes some useful details to understanding the photograph that Donald Trump used to falsely and absurdly accuse Ted Cruz’s father of involvement in the assassination of President Kennedy.
Forget about the Trumpian BS, says Brennan, and focus on the known facts.
He was “a Cuban-looking fellow” accompanied by a taller man, according to the testimony of Michael Steele, a young man whom Oswald recruited at a local employment office.
Brennan writes:
“When Steele met up with Oswald at the Trade Mart entrance, they were soon joined by a third man. Steele gained the impression this “sort of Cuban-looking” fellow was another one of Oswald’s recruits from the unemployment line. They were introduced but Steele promptly forgot his name. WDSU cameraman Johann Rush, who was never deposed by the Warren Commission, later recalled that this third man was accompanied by a taller friend. The friend seemed to be there for moral support, yet was intent on keeping his back toward the cameras.”
Brennan assumes that the “Cuban looking fellow” was, like Steele, recruited at the employment office. Citing a notation in Oswald’s address book, he thinks his name might have been “North.”
Another possibility, admittedly more speculative, is that “taller friend” who seemed into on keeping his back to the camera, was John Martino, a former Havana casino employee and anti-Castro author, who later told Newsday reporter John Cummings that he was present that day when Oswald handed out pamphlets. Martino said that he had helped “put together” Oswald as a patsy for JFK’s assassination.