The
Director would want someone else to lead the story before his man
Winchell pushed it to the limit. The "diary of secrets," so
reminiscent of Mary Meyer (discussed in Part One of this article)
would suggest Angleton.
Capell was drawn up on charges in 1965. The charges were rather
fatal to the tale told in his RFK pamphlet: conspiracy to commit
libel. One would have thought this discreditation was enough to
impale the tale. And it probably would have been had it not been
for Norman Mailer. In 1973, Mailer published a book, Marilyn,
(really a photo essay) with the assistance of longtime FBI asset
on the Kennedy assassination Larry Schiller. He recirculated the
tale again, inserting a new twist. He added the possibility that
the FBI and/or the CIA might have been involved in the murder in
order to blackmail Bobby ( p. 242). In 1973, pre-Rupert Murdoch,
the media had some standards. Mailer was excoriated for his
baseless ruminations. In private, he admitted he did what he did
to help pay off a tax debt. He also made a similar confession in
public. When Mike Wallace asked him on 60 Minutes (7/13/73) why
he had to trash Bobby Kennedy, Mailer replied "I needed money
very badly."
Swallowing Slatzer
The worst thing about Mailer's money-grubbing antics was that it
gave an alley to run through to a man who had actually been at
work before Mailer's book was published. In 1972, Robert Slatzer
approac
