Nagell under arrest in Texas, 1963
No one knew it at the time, but when Russell spoke those words, Nagell only had about one week to live. The former intelligence agent died on November 1, at the age of 65.
A spokesman for the Los Angeles Coroner's Office told Fair Play that Nagell died from heart disease. Scott Carrier added that he did not know whether an autopsy was performed, but thought there may have been "just an examination" of Nagell's body. He said Nagell had a history of heart disease, and that his body was discovered on the floor of the bathroom at his home in Rampart, a Los Angeles enclave. Beyond that, Carrier said, there's "not much to say, other than he was the man who knew too much."
Nagell, who claimed to have had foreknowledge of the JFK assassination and the activities of Lee Oswald, was considered by many to be one of the last people alive with information that could crack the Kennedy case. Indeed, his death has led to speculation that such information may be forthcoming. Dick Russell wrote that Nagell had stashed certain pieces of evidence as "life insurance" that would surface in the event of his death. These were said to include an audio tape recording of a conversation Nagell secretly made of himself, Lee Oswald, and several alleged assassination conspirators, and a photograph of Nagell and Oswald in New Orleans.
Staff members of Probe, the newsletter of the Citizens for Truth about the Kennedy Assassination, report going to Nagell's apartment as soon as they learned of his death. They write that "the inside door to the apartment was open and one could look inside. By November 4th, the place appeared to be barren. If Nagell left anything of importance behind, it doesn't seem to have been there."
By his own admission, Nagell was, in the early 1960s, a double agent working for both the United States and Soviet governments. After becoming aware of a large conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy, in which Lee Oswald was a designated patsy, Nagell said he attempted to warn the FBI with a registered letter to its director, J. Edgar Hoover. When that yielded no response, Nagell said he began to fear he was being drawn into some kind of trap. So he fired a gun into the ceiling of a Federal bank in El Paso, Texas, so he'd be jailed when the assassiantion occurred. He wound up convicted of bank robbery, however, and served three years of a ten year sentence in Federal prison.
In his 1988 memoir On The Trail of the Assassins, the late Jim Garrison recalls meeting with Nagell. He said it was "one of the most provocative and frustrating conversations I have ever had," since Nagell gave him the broad outlines of his story but would not confirm critical details. Garrison ultimately did not use Nagell in his prosecution of Clay Shaw.
Dick Russell overcame similar frustrations in writing his book The Man Who Knew Too Much, which was published in 1992. Russell spoke at the October 1995 COPA conference in Washington, DC. Fair Play tape recorded a portion of his presentation and reproduces it here.
Russell said that newly released files add further substantiation to Nagell's story. He refers to one Elrod Hensen, a Texas cattleman who he said made a visit to Mexico City in 1963. Russell wrote:
...the CIA describes [Hensen's] meeting with one of its "double agents" who instructed Hensen to use the code name of "Laredo" for future contacts surrounding the Cuban consulate there. The same "Laredo" code name, Nagell alleged long ago, was used by him in connection with his own "double agent" role with the CIA and KGB.
"A number of you have asked me privately, and are wondering if Nagell has ever resurfaced" since The Man Who Knew Too Much was published, Russell said during his COPA presentation. "I will tell you that he has. In April of 1994, which was about a year and a half after my book came out, I came down the stairs one day and heard my answering machine going---and recognized this voice. Picked it up, and sure enough, it was Richard Nagell. He had received some documents I'd sent him, including the Hensen document, and some CIA files about his [Nagell's] notebook names. And was calling me, and talking as if no time had passed. Just commenting on these documents, talking about the description of Elrod Henson and the CIA document, the Laredo codename that fit somebody that he'd run into at the time---once again saying 'it's curious about the word Laredo because that is the codename that I used'...not commenting, really, on the other CIA file except to say that he found it very interesting, particularly since he hadn't signed it.
"And then, as the conversation went on, it began to seem very strange to me, because he hadn't even mentioned the fact that I'd written this book, this massive book about him. And finally---I'd also written him a number of letters when I was putting the book together, hoping that he would get back in touch with me at that time. So I said, 'Dick, I'm really glad to hear from you. But,' I said, 'I wrote you a number of letters over the last few years.' And he said, 'Oh, really? I think maybe I've gotten one or two of them.' And I said, 'You are aware that I've written a huge, unauthorized biography of you...?' And he said he had no idea.
"I had sent him the book. And obviously he had never received it--- I think he was telling me the truth. He began going on about how the Post Office was still checking on his mail, and somebody was running off with stuff, and he had no idea...
"So I said, 'I can't believe none of your friends wouldn't have told you that this book was out.' He said, 'Well, I don't have that many friends, and the ones I do don't speak---a lot of them don't even speak English.
"So, I was startled by this...he said at the beginning of the call, 'I always check with somebody before I make my calls.' Indicated during the conversation that yes, he would be willing to see me again, and perhaps we could talk further about some things. We had arranged to try to meet when I was in Los Angeles that summer. Got a phone call---something came in before I ever went to LA---to my LA number, saying he wouldn't be able to see me. I later got another call on my answering machine that said he was told not to see me when I was in LA---by whom, I have no idea. And that he'd try to see me when I was out there again. I was out there again about a year ago, and once again we had a meeting, hopefully, arranged [Note: At this point in his presentation, the public address microphone Russell was using went dead briefly; our already muffled recording is worse here.]---has this gone off again?---he called and, uh---there we go---and uh---so I have not seen him.
"The only other file that's come out that's of interest about him---and I've urged the Assassination Records Review Board, by the way, to use their power of subpoena to bring [Nagell] in, to talk to him, to get what documents he has. I know he has his own CIA and FBI files, which I've never seen but are supposed to be quite extensive. So I think under their mandate, they have every legitimate right to question him, to try to get these files---it may be the last chance, certainly for any government agency, to do so. I've talked to them about this on a number of occasions---they've indicated that they do have---they have been receiving some files on him, and are doing them---we'll just have to see what happens.
"The only other file, as I say, that has come out of interest about him is a Garrison investigation file which I'd never seen, and which is a report of an interview which Garrison investigators did with David Kroman, a guy who was in jail with Nagell in Leavenworth Penitentiary in 1967. And, I don't know how much of this is true---one can never tell when you have a secondary source---but some of what Kroman reported to the Garrison investigators about Nagell seems to hold up---things that Nagell had told me and others.
"And what was interesting, particularly in this file, was that when talking about the initial plan to assassinate President Kennedy in Miami in December of '62, he said it was a right-wing extremist group, including the Cuban Batista party, financed by H.L. Hunt and other individuals. The operation was to be performed by this Cuban group, financed by the backers of the 'Freedom for Cuba' party. The intent was, as Nagell had also told me, to launch a full-scale war against Cuba. The Russians, as he had also said, also became aware of this, and set out to try to do something about it, fearing the blame would be placed upon them or on the Cubans. Talked about Oswald being brought into the plan much later, and---you know, the interesting part about Oswald which, again, now, Nagell never said this to me, and it's hard to say how much of this is true or not. But, Kroman says there were seven men involved, in the initial plot, and that Oswald was told initially to bring a Mauser to the building the day before---to the Texas School Book Depository---and leave it there. And then, on the day of the assassination, this was---Oswald, not knowing he was to be betrayed, was assigned an impossible position during the assassination. The plan was given to him as follows:
"Subsequent to the assassination, he was to leave the building, but hand the dismantled the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle to a contact on the third floor. Oswald was instructed to leave the Mauser rifle, which was planted the day before, by him, at the site of the alleged shooting, and make his way without haste to preconcieved [place?] in Mexico City. Once in Mexico City, he was to immediately go to the Cuban Embassy, where he had been before, and give a code name. There was no code name given to the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City, nor was it ever intended one should be. Oswald would then be forced to leave the embassy, and was to be shot one block in any direction from the embassy by [a] CIA agent. It was believed that Mexico City police would then think it was just another killing...[unintelligible]...but something went askew.
"So I found that very interesting, and again I don't know exactly how Nagell would have known about this, since he was in jail at the time, or whether Korman was just making this up. But I found it, certainly, of interest, and noteworthy, and something to follow up.
"All I can say, in closing, is that I would hope, someday---Richard Nagell is now 65 years old---before he leaves this planet, we will finally know everything he knows, and if we do, we will finally be close to solving what happened November 22, 1963."
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