Eugene
Hale Brading (also known as James Lee and Jim Braden) developed a
long criminal record while living in California. Arrested 35 times
he had convictions for burglary, illegal bookmaking and embezzlement.
On
21st November, 1963, Brading arrived in Dallas with a man named Morgan
Brown. They stayed in Suite 301 of the Cabana Motel. Later that day
Brading visited the offices of Texas oil billionaire Haroldson
L. Hunt.
It is believed that Jack
Ruby
was in the
offices at the same time as Brading.
After
the assassination of John
F. Kennedy,
Brading was arrested and taken in for interrogation because he had
been "acting suspiciously" in the Dal-Tex Building, overlooking
Dealey Plaza. Brading told the police he was in Dallas on oil business
and had gone into the building to make a phone call. Brading was released
without charge.
Brading
returned to his room at the Cabana Motel. It was later established
that Jack
Ruby
visited
the motel around midnight.
In
his book, The Kennedy Conspiracy,
Anthony Summers shows that Brading had
links with Carlos
Marcello,
Santos Trafficante and David
Ferrie.
In
1968 Brading was interviewed by the Los Angeles Police Department
because of his presence in Los Angeles
on the night that Robert
Kennedy
was
murdered.
Forum Debate on the Kennedy Assassination
Forum Debate on Jim Braden
Namebase: Jim Braden (Eugene Brading)
Forum Debate on Watergate
(1)
Matthew
Smith, JFK: The Second Plot
(1992)
Interestingly, there
were several arrests made in the Dal Tex building. A young man wearing
a black leather jacket and black gloves was taken to the Sheriff's
Office who, according to the police, '. . . had been up in the building
across the street from the Book Depository without a good excuse'.
No record appears to exist of the man or of any interrogation, however,
and he seems to have somehow slipped away from the Sheriff's Office
and disappeared, without even anything to indicate he was thereafter
sought. Larry Florer was also arrested and detained for some hours.
He said he had asked where he could find a telephone and had been
directed to the Dal Tex building. All lines being busy, Florer said
he could not make his call and he was arrested as he left the building.
A third man arrested there was extremely interesting. He was Jim Braden,
also known as Eugene Hale Brading, a known Mafia courier. He said
he had had an appointment to meet Lamar Hunt, son of H.L. Hunt, the
oil millionaire, on oil business. Braden was with a friend, Morgan
H. Brown, who bolted when he heard he had been taken in for questioning.
A man with 30 arrests to his record, Braden had been staying at the
Kabanya Motor Hotel, where Jack Ruby - who was to kill Lee Harvey
Oswald in the Police Headquarters basement two days after the assassination
- had met some of his Chicago friends the night before the President
was killed. Braden was not detained. Five years later, however, Braden
was to turn up in Los Angeles when Senator Robert Kennedy was murdered.
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