Index No. 600060/98 - FILED MARCH 9, 1998 [original Verified Complaint was filed January 7, 1998]
SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
COUNTY OF NEW YORK
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------x
LAWRENCE X. CUSACK, III, et al. [removed all plaintiffs' names except the 1st],
Plaintiffs,
-against-
60 MINUTES DIVISION OF CBS, INC., CBS, INC., DON HEWITT, ED BRADLEY, MICHAEL RADUTZKY, JONATHAN H. WELLS, DUAYNE J. DILLON, SEYMOUR M. HERSH, ROBERT L. WHITE, JOHN DOE 1-5, and MARY DOE 1-5,
Defendants.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------x
Plaintiffs (including approximately 150 purchaser interests), by their attorney, Carl E. Person, as and for their verified amended complaint (the "complaint"), respectfully allege:
1. Plaintiff Lawrence X. Cusack, III a/k/a Lex Cusack ("LCusack") is a resident and citizen of Connecticut, with his residence and business address in Connecticut.
2. Plaintiff Jennifer Rush Cusack ("JCusack") is the wife of LCusack, and a resident and citizen of Connecticut.
3. Geneva Archives, Inc. ("Geneva"), d/b/a University Archives Gallery, is a Delaware corporation with its office and principal place of business in Connecticut. LCusack and JCusack are founders, officers and principals of said corporation, which engages in the same business as LCusack and JCusack and has said individuals as its primary asset for obtaining business.
4. LCusack, JCusack and Geneva are hereinafter collectively referred to as the "Cusack Plaintiffs". Starting sometime in 1991, the Cusack Plaintiffs commenced their business of offering and placing or selling the Documents (defined in paragraph 9 below) and other collectible historical documents with private collectors.
5. Plaintiff Thomas G. Cloud ("Cloud") is a resident and citizen of Georgia, with his business address at 8735 Dunwoody Place, Atlanta, Georgia 30350-2995; also, Cloud is acting as co-trustee for plaintiff Cloud Group Profit Sharing Plan described below.
6. Plaintiff Cloud & Associates Consulting, Inc. ("C&ACI") is a Georgia corporation with its principal place of business in Georgia, and its business address at 8735 Dunwoody Place, Atlanta, Georgia 30350-2995. Cloud is the founder, president and sole shareholder of C&ACI, which engages in the same business as Cloud and has Cloud as its primary asset for obtaining business.
7. Plaintiff National Historical Autographs, Inc. ("NHAI") is a Georgia corporation with its principal place of business in Georgia, and its business address at 8735 Dunwoody Place, Atlanta, Georgia 30350-2995. Cloud is the founder, president and sole shareholder of NHAI, which engages in the same business as Cloud and has Cloud as its primary asset for obtaining business.
8. Plaintiffs Cloud, C&ACI and NHAI (collectively hereinafter referred to as the "Cloud Plaintiffs") are in the business of finding and placing or selling collectible historical documents (including autographs) with private collectors.
9. Plaintiff Diane Hamilton d/b/a Charles & Diane Hamilton ("Hamilton") has her principal place of business at 166 E. 63rd Street, New York, New York 10021, and is the successor to the business of Charles Hamilton, now deceased. Hamilton is experienced as a handwriting expert in general, and in John F. Kennedy ("JFK") signatures and handwriting in particular. Charles Hamilton, who died in December, 1996, was the husband of Diane Hamilton and founder of Hamilton. He and Diane Hamilton authored a leading book on JFK handwriting entitled "THE ROBOT THAT MADE A PRESIDENT", which includes, in a recently-published revision with addendum insert, examples of JFK signatures and handwriting from 3 of the Documents and is used as the "bible" by the Kennedy Library (according to library archivists) and most handwriting experts for authenticating JFK signatures and handwriting. Diane Hamilton was interviewed by 60 Minutes for the November 23, 1997 segment (the "60 Minutes Segment") about the documents discovered by LCusack relating to JFK, Marilyn Monroe ("Monroe"), Robert F. Kennedy ("RFK") and others (the "Documents").
10. The following plaintiffs (collectively referred to as the "Purchaser Plaintiffs") were purchasers of one or more of the Documents and continue to own such Documents as of the date of this complaint: [Removed names/addresses of Purchaser Plaintiffs on 11/12/02, in paragraphs A through QQQQ.]
10A. The Purchaser Plaintiffs are third-party beneficiaries under each contract entered into between the Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs and the CBS Defendants, including each fiduciary duty of the CBS Defendants and each confidential relationship with the CBS Defendants created under said contract or contracts.
11. Defendant 60 Minutes ("60 Minutes") is, upon information and belief, an unincorporated division of CBS, Inc. and has its principal place of business at 555 W. 57th Street - 9th Floor, New York, New York 10019. Upon information and belief, and alleged in the alternative, 60 Minutes is a joint venture between defendants CBS, Inc. and Don Hewitt.
12. Defendant CBS, Inc. ("CBS") is a New York corporation with its principal place of business in New York, and its address at 52 W. 52nd Street, New York, New York 10019. CBS is the owner of CBS television network which broadcasts the weekly 60 Minutes Show to more than 20,000,000 persons in the United States and elsewhere.
13. Defendant Don Hewitt ("Hewitt") is the founder and Executive Producer of, and highest full-time CBS official employed at, 60 Minutes, and was personally involved in defendants' dealings with the plaintiffs (described in paragraphs 1-10C above) and the 60 Minutes Segment entitled "The JFK Papers" aired by CBS on November 23, 1997. Hewitt's business address is 555 W. 57th Street - 9th Floor, New York, New York 10019.
14. Defendant Ed Bradley ("Bradley") is one of five "correspondents" employed by 60 Minutes to ask questions on camera of some of the persons being interviewed by 60 Minutes, and was the correspondent who interviewed plaintiffs LCusack, Cloud, Diane Hamilton, Gary Vick, Robert Losure and defendant Duayne J. Dillon for "The JFK Papers" (13.5 minutes) 60 Minutes Segment. Bradley's business address is 555 W. 57th Street - 9th Floor, New York, New York 10019.
15. Defendant Michael Radutzky ("Radutzky") is one of 25 producers at 60 Minutes and the senior producer of "The JFK Papers" 60 Minutes Segment. Radutzky, together with producer Jonathan H. Wells, were aware of all information and interviews obtained by 60 Minutes and assisted in preparation of the questions asked by Bradley when interviewing aforesaid plaintiffs and others for the segment, and responsible for editing the interview footage and the addition of visuals and off-camera spoken test to complete the segment. Radutzky together with Wells had most of the contact between 60 Minutes and said plaintiffs and the 25 or so other persons interviewed by 60 Minutes for the segment. Radutzky's business address is 555 W. 57th Street - 9th Floor, New York, New York 10019, and Radutzky resides in Short Hills, New Jersey.
16. Defendant Jonathan H. Wells ("Wells") is one of 25 producers at 60 Minutes and the junior of the two producers of the 60 Minutes Segment. Wells, together with producer Radutzky, were aware of all information and interviews obtained by 60 Minutes and assisted in preparation of the questions asked by Bradley when interviewing aforesaid plaintiffs and others for the segment, and responsible for editing the interview footage and the addition of visuals and off-camera spoken test to complete the segment. Wells together with Radutzky had most of the contact between 60 Minutes and said plaintiffs and the 25 or so other persons interviewed by 60 Minutes for the segment. Wells' business address is 555 W. 57th Street - 9th Floor, New York, New York 10019, and Wells resides in New York, New York.
17. Defendants 60 Minutes, CBS, Hewitt, Bradley, Radutzky and Wells are collectively referred to as the "CBS Defendants".
18. Defendant Seymour M. Hersh ("Hersh") resides at 3214 Newark Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20008 and has offices in Washington, D.C. and (with Lancer) in New York. Hersh is the author of a book published in November, 1997 entitled THE DARK SIDE OF CAMELOT and is one of 13 defendants in another action by the Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs alleging defamation of the plaintiffs and property disparagement relating to what 60 Minutes calls "the JFK Papers". Hersh (according to the CBS Defendants) declined to be interviewed for the 60 Minutes Segment and, upon information and belief, alone or with the CBS Defendants made a threat to White of bodily harm and/or a threat to reveal secrets of wrongdoing by White in the acquisition of his JFK memorabilia acquisition secrets of White, upon learning that White planned to appear in support of the Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs and the Documents, which deterred White from appearing in support of plaintiffs and instead caused him to say in the 60 Minutes Segment, contrary to his belief, that the Documents were forged, and that he was not a handwriting expert.
19. Defendant Duayne J. Dillon ("Dillon") resides at 5350 Likins Avenue, Martinez, California 94553-5725 and purports to be an expert in one or more phases of handwriting analysis and document examination, and was retained by 60 Minutes to examine a limited number of the Documents (less than 10% of the total); Dillon had no prior experience in analyzing the handwriting or signatures of John F. Kennedy or Marilyn Monroe and travelled to New York for a 4-day period to review such limited number of Documents at the offices of 60 Minutes; Dillon was interviewed by 60 Minutes for the 60 Minutes Segment and appeared on the segment as aired, appearing to state that, in his opinion, all of the Documents (including the ones he had not seen) had been forged. 60 Minutes refused to permit Kennedy expert Diane Hamilton to explain in the segment why Dillon's analysis of the Kennedy and Monroe handwriting was erroneous and his conclusions (or alleged conclusions) were false. Dillon later complained to a caller that 60 Minutes had falsified his opinion. Dillon had told 60 Minutes that he had been unable to reach a conclusion, one way or the other, on the JFK handwritten documents because Dillon had insufficient experience with JFK's handwriting.
19A. Robert L. White ("White") resides at 302 Bloomsbury Avenue, Catonsville, Maryland 21228. White is a JFK handwriting and JFK memorabilia expert and appraiser who authenticated in writing approximately 254 Documents for the Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs and many of the Purchaser Plaintiffs and appeared on the 60 Minutes Segment pursuant to the agreement between the Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs and the CBS Defendants.
19B. Upon information and belief, White now appears to be liquidating his real estate and the most valuable parts of his JFK memorabilia collection to hide his assets from plaintiffs and persons defrauded by White and possibly to flee the United States.
20. Defendants John Doe 1-5 and Mary Doe 1-5 are the person or persons not presently named as defendants who (i) prepared questions for Bradley to ask, or edited and/or were responsible for the editing of the 60 Minutes Segment, the identity of whom is not presently known to the plaintiffs; or (ii) planned and conspired with any of the defendants to injure the plaintiffs and their property and participated in the acts in furtherance thereof.
21. The plaintiffs who participated, assisted and/or cooperated in 60 Minutes' production of the 60 Minute Segment are referred to as the "Participating Plaintiffs", which includes all plaintiffs except the Purchaser Plaintiffs identified in paragraphs 10-D through 10-RRR [error: should have read 10-PPPP] above.
22. The following headings have been inserted for convenience of the reader:
Summary of Complaint (pp. 18-22, paragraphs 23-31A)
23. LCusack discovered the Documents in the personal files of his deceased father, LXCSr, appearing to be documents written, signed or initialled by JFK, Monroe, RFK, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. ("JPK") and others, and referring to matters involving mafia chieftain Sam Giancana ("Giancana") and FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover ("Hoover"). Defendants Hersh and ABC acquired the rights from LCusack to do a book and documentary about the Documents, and plaintiffs LCusack and Cloud were retained by ABC as paid consultants for the documentary.
24. ABC, without warning or notice to LCusack or Cloud, obtained their participation in an ABC 20/20 news story on 9/25/97 (the "9/25/97 20/20 Broadcast") denouncing the Documents as forgeries, and accusing some or all of the Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs as forgers of the Documents. The Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs, in response to the defamatory, ambush-journalism broadcast by ABC, did two things. They retained a lawyer who prepared a 67-page complaint against ABC, Inc., Roone Arledge, Peter Jennings, Lancer Productions, Inc., Hersh and others alleging fraud, defamation, breach of contract, ambush journalism and other claims; and arranged to meet with 60 Minutes which agreed to produce a segment with the Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs giving their side of the controversy created by the 9/25/97 20/20 Broadcast, which issues concerned only 7 or so typed documents among the 350 Documents making up the whole Cusack collection, with issues limited essentially to matters involving types of typewriters, lift off use and typefaces. The Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs advised the CBS Defendants about their intention to sue the ABC Defendants and others (and about one week later gave the CBS Defendants a copy of the Complaint to be filed) and told them about a pending federal Grand Jury investigation which had just been commenced in the Southern District of New York as a result of the 9/25/97 20/20 Broadcast.
25. The CBS Defendants made a variety of promises and material representations to the Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs to induce them to provide full cooperation and full disclosure to the CBS Defendants, which such plaintiffs did. Among others things, the CBS Defendants promised and represented that they would produce a 60 Minutes segment presenting the Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs' side of the controversy created by the 9/25/97 20/20 Broadcast and ABC's failure to abide by journalistic ethics. Nothing was said at the outset about having CBS retain and use another expert, especially one with no Kennedy or Monroe experience or expertise to review the handwriting or signatures of JFK and Marilyn Monroe. One more (alleged) expert handwriting expert could not disprove what all prior Kennedy handwriting experts had said was authentic handwriting.
26. The Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs and their lawyers produced documents and witnesses for the CBS Defendants and spent near full time working with the CBS Defendants, in an alleged non-hostile relationship, to assist in lining up and explaining the Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs' Document and other evidence relating to typewriter types, typefaces and lift-off use and equivalents, and producing witnesses who travelled from as far as New Hampshire, Georgia and Utah, some with documentary evidence.
27. The CBS Defendants aired the 60 Minutes Segment on November 23, 1997 and in so doing breached their various promises to the Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs (set forth at paragraphs 77A-77N below) and committed fraud as to the Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs by intentionally failing to live up to the material representations they had made to the Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs (set forth at paragraphs 87A-87R below).
28. The worst act among egregious, malicious acts by the CBS Defendants was to have it appear that Dillon, the 60-Minutes expert, had concluded that the Documents had been forged when in fact, because of his lack of expertise with JFK handwriting, he had no opinion one way or the other, and for the CBS Defendants to communicate with 12 of plaintiffs' experts and encourage about 9 of them (according to the CBS Defendants during the broadcast), through false and misleading statements (consistent with the CBS Defendants' objective to injure the Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs and the value of their Documents and help the ABC Defendants in their litigation with the Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs), to back off from their prior written authentications of (some of) the Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs' Documents and to distort or omit the present opinion upholding authentication for those experts (including plaintiff Diane Hamilton) of the Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs who were not intimidated by the CBS Defendants and therefore did not waiver in their opinions.
29. The CBS Defendants made the Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs promise not to file their action against ABC and others until immediately before the 60 Minutes Segment was aired, for the purported purpose of giving the Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs a better public airing of their side of the ABC-20/20 dispute, but as the plaintiffs now see the purpose was to prevent the plaintiffs' side of the dispute from being published by the rest of the press until the CBS Defendants came out with their fraudulent broadcast, as a result of which the Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs' lawsuit was denigrated and the Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs were derided for planning to file it, and the featured story, once again (similar to what happened with the ABC 20/20 Broadcast) was that another expert was [contrary to his actual opinion] giving his apparent opinion that the Documents were a fake.
30. 60 Minutes head defendant Don Hewitt (who is a friend of defendant Peter Jennings) spoke with Roone Arledge, 1-2 days prior to plaintiffs' first meeting with 60 Minutes, about 60 Minutes' interest in, or intention to do, a segment on the plaintiffs' dispute with ABC and upon information and belief Hewitt and Arledge conspired starting at that time to do what plaintiffs' have alleged in this Complaint. Defendant Seymour Hersh (author of THE DARK SIDE OF CAMELOT), for his part, who is also a defendant in the Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs' action against ABC and others, made a telephone call to White, one of plaintiffs' most important experts, and threatened him with bodily harm (or, alternatively, the threats of disclosure of White's secrets described in paragraphs 30A and 73E below) if he appeared on the 60 Minutes Segment and made statements which supported the Documents and the Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs. This threat (and perhaps White's recognition of the true intent of the CBS Defendants concerning the 60 Minutes Segment, which adverse publicity would tend to create or increase any contractual or other liability of White, the other experts, and the Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs to the Purchasers), caused White to back off somewhat from his written authentication of about 254 (or 2/3rds of all) of the Documents. Also, White was afraid of losing his prospects for setting up a Kennedy museum, or opportunity to sell some of his collection at auction through Sotheby's, if he made truthful statements in favor of plaintiffs' position and Documents.
30A. Upon information and belief, White knowingly made false statements and defamed the Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs and the Documents during the 60 Minutes Segment to avoid having the CBS Defendants and/or defendant Hersh expose (i) the fraudulent way in which White had, over many years, amassed his vast JFK memorabilia collection; (ii) White's civil and criminal liabilities attributable to such past activities; and (iii) that White was making plans to sell off his real estate and JFK collection in an effort to hide his assets and possibly flee the country sometime during late March, 1998, to try escape from his growing civil and criminal liabilities.
31. In addition to the Hersh threat, the ABC Defendants had called some of the Purchasers and made threats to them if they did not make complaints against the Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs and the ABC Defendants called some or all of the Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs' experts and coerced at least one of them (John Paul Osborn) to change his expert opinion and give an opinion similar to the opinion by ABC's expert Gerald Richards, which Osborn did. Upon information and belief, ABC and the CBS Defendants agreed that the CBS Defendants would implement this successful ABC strategy against the Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs once again, which the CBS Defendants did, through their broadcast of the 60 Minutes Segment. Upon information and belief, pursuant to this strategy, the CBS Defendants coerced White into making the statements he did, White having no reasonable reason for making such statements unless he was so coerced.
31A. The CBS Defendants, in gathering information for the 60 Minutes Segment, called each of the Cusack/Cloud Plaintiffs' 11 living experts and induced all but one of them (according to the 60 Minutes Segment itself - see bracketed paragraphs 71-79 in Exhibit A attached hereto) through threats of bad publicity to change the facts to which they were to testify and otherwise interfered with such plaintiffs' expert witnesses and induced them to breach the contractual agreements and guarantees they had entered into for the benefit of the 140 purchasers, including the Purchaser Plaintiffs.
[End of Summary]
Return to Top of Amended Complaint
Persons appearing on segment:
[Opening Visual Shot: ˙EB on left, still headshot of JFK on right superimposed over assorted JFK Papers (referred to as the "Documents" in the complaint); "Produced by Michael Radutzky [and] Jonathan Wells", and entitled "The JFK Papers"]
[1] EB: They are known as The JFK Papers, a collection of more than 300 letters and notes supposedly written by President John F. Kennedy. If authentic, they would provide the strongest evidence yet linking JFK to all sorts of sinister activities, from ties to the mafia to payments of hush money to his reputed lover, Marilyn Monroe. The problem is just about every one, from document experts to the national media, have said they're fake. However, the man who says he discovered the JFK Papers, Lex Cusack, insists they are real. He is so convinced that he came to us with all of his papers in hand asking us to examine them, prove him right and everybody else wrong.
[VISUAL: Closeup of Cusack being interviewed by Bradley]
[2] LC: I think for someone to embark on a hoax like this would be insanity. Insane.
[3] EB: Lex Cusack is a 47-year old former law clerk who says he was cleaning out the files of his late father, prominent New York lawyer Lawrence Cusack, when he came across hundreds of papers which, if legitimate, would show that his father had secretly provided legal advice to President Kennedy from 1959 until his death in 1963.
[4] EB: So, all of those years, you never knew that he was giving advice to the President?
[5] LC: Well, No, sure. No, I didn't know directly that he was giving advice. There was a number of times there were sort of signs that my father was always involved in something that he was not talking about, that was kept confidential and quiet.
[6] EB: What is in these JFK Papers appears to be an extraordinary correspondence between John F. Kennedy and the lawyer Lawrence Cusack on index cards, note paper and White House stationery. They write to each other about everything from mundane tax issues to Kennedy's efforts to keep a lid on his alleged dealings with Marilyn Monroe and the mob.
[7] EB: Did you ever stop and say to yourself, wait a minute. I mean, This is hard to believe, John F. Kennedy, in his own handwriting, with letters that would reveal that he had an affair with Marilyn Monroe, that he planned to buy her silence for $600,000, and that his family had an elicit relationship with mafia boss Sam Giancana? Did you ever stop to say, Whoa! Oh, Oh?
[8] LC: Yes. Of course, of course. That's why I said there was fear and trepidation. The subject matter was so explosive that you have your own disbelief, then, what I figured the next step to do is confirm the handwriting, to make sure this isn't someone else writing down the story or telling the story or whatever.
[Visual: still picture of Charles Hamilton]
[9] EB: So Cusack says he took 6 of the more than 300 documents to a noted document dealer, Charles Hamilton, who declared those 6 documents to be authentic. It was then that Lex Cusack says he decided to sell his collection and he brought it to this man, Thomas Cloud, established dealer of gold, diamonds and documents.
[Visual: Thomas Cloud in his own office]
[10] TC: I was just blown away. I mean, The most significant find in my opinion in the 20th Century. It's exciting. To sit here and look at them. And they were penned by Kennedy talking about Marilyn Monroe or Sam Giancana or something of, you know, of that magnitude, and you're holding, you're looking at it, it's a great feeling. I looked at it as the best opportunity of my career and I have been in the business for 21 years, now.
[Visual: Cusack and Cloud sitting alongside each other while being interviewed]
[11] EB: It was an opportunity to make a lot of money. Cloud and Cusack did just that. They sold the documents for more than $6 million and Lex Cusack was suddenly a wealthy man.
[Visual: Front, side and back of Cusack's Connecticut home]
[12] EB: He purchased this $1.3 million home in Connecticut
[Visual: Garage with Porsche, Mercedes and Chev. Suburban parked outside Conn. home]
[13] EB: ... and a Porsche, a Mercedes and a Chevy Suburban.
[Visual: Front of Cusack's summer home in the Hamptons]
[14] EB: He also bought this half million dollar summer home in the Hamptons in Long Island.
[Visual of Losure and Vick sitting alongside each other while being interviewed]
[15] EB: Former CNN anchorman Robert Losure and insurance executive Gary Vick are among the 140 people who invested in the JFK Papers.
[16] GV: I had chills running up and down my spine when he was going through this. It was just, it was awesome.
[17] RL: They were some, in some ways, many ways, the missing links as to how Kennedy dealt with Monroe, how he dealt with his father, with Bobby Kennedy, Sam Giancana. They seemed to fit in a real mosaic of history.
[18] GV: I bought it, number 1, to make money. Number 2, because of the history involved around it.
[19] EB: Lex Cusack was on top of the world, and preparing to make the JFK papers public. A blockbuster book on Kennedy by Pulitzer prize-winning reporter Seymour Hersh with a chapter devoted to the JFK papers was in the works. A 2-hour documentary for ABC was in production.
[20] EB: But then the roof fell in. ABC hired 2 forensic experts who examined 7 typewritten documents, some bearing signatures of Marilyn Monroe and John F. Kennedy, and concluded they were forged. If you look at those documents under a microscope, you can see that some letters were typed incorrectly then lifted off the paper. The problem is that this system for correcting mistakes was not available on typewriters until well after Monroe and Kennedy were dead.
[21] EB: What followed this discovery was a barrage of news stories branding the entire Cusack Collection a fake. There were suggestions that Cusack himself may have forged them. Seymour Hersh took the chapter on the JFK papers out of his book, and ABC removed any mention of the papers from its documentary.
[22] EB: His back to the wall, Cusack offered us complete access to all of the original documents. He said that everyone had jumped to conclusions without examining 98% of the collection, some 700 pages of handwritten documents.
[Visual: Cusack and Cloud being interviewed together]
[23] LC: I think it's impossible for someone to have forged the number of these documents, the information in the documents, and everything that had to go in behind with it in forming the documents.
[24] TC: Not one time in the four years that I've dealt with this have I heard there were any problems with the handwriting. Nobody has ever questioned the handwriting. I have never heard that one time.
[25] EB: Cloud and Cusack were right about that. No one had questioned the handwriting because nobody had thoroughly examined more than a few documents.
[Visual: Duayne Dillon]
[26] EB: ... So we hired Dr. Duayne Dillon, one of the top document and handwriting experts in the country to look at all of them. He came highly recommended by investigators at the FBI and the U.S. Postal Service. He examined Cusack's JFK Papers and compared them to hundreds of examples of President Kennedy's known writing.
[27] EB: You spent a lot of time looking at this?
[28] DD: Yes, I have spent quite a number of hours.
[29] EB: And in every case, with all of the variety of documents, you come to the conclusion that...?
[30] DD: That it is not the writing of President Kennedy.
[31] EB: That they are all forgeries?
[32] DD: Yes.
[Visual: Cloud and Cusack being interviewed together by Bradley]
[33] EB: We hired Dr. Duayne Dillon, one of the most respected document examiners in the country, to evaluate the handwriting in your collection. After an extensive examination, he concluded that the writing on those documents was not the writing of John F. Kennedy . He said that it was a forgery.
[Visual: Cusack being interviewed by Bradley]
[34] EB: Any reaction?
[35] LC: I don't doubt that he said that. I don't doubt that he may think that. I think, I do not believe that he is a Kennedy handwriting expert.
[36] EB: Dr. Dillon may not be a Kennedy expert, but he is a handwriting expert and he's been doing it for 33 years.
[Visual: Dillon with microscope inspecting some of the Kennedy Papers]
[37] EB: He told us that he is certain that the JFK papers are a forgery - and what convinced him was his discovery that certain frequently used letters in Cusack's Collection didn't match Kennedy's handwriting.
[38] DD: This is an example of one of the G's on the Cusack Papers and comparing that with the actual type of G which I find throughout the Kennedy writings.
[39] EB: So you can see a clear difference in these two?
[40] DD: Yes.
[41] EB: When you look at those two G's, one looks fairly smooth and the other looks narrow in some places, fatter in others. What causes that?
[42] DD: When a person attempts to simulate the writing, they are in fact in most instances attempting to draw the model that they see and do not show the freedom of line movement that you see in a normal handwriting.
[43] EB: And Dr. Dillon found other inconsistencies. The J's in John Kennedy were strikingly different as were the H's in words like Hyannis. Dillon says President Kennedy wrote with a continuous fluid stroke, but in the Cusack Papers the writing is slow and awkward resulting in gaps within words, as you can see in this word misunderstanding.
[Visual: Kennedy Document with word "misunderstanding" featured]
[44] EB: Dr. Dillon also analyzed a letter supposedly written by Marilyn Monroe to JFK. This is a letter saying
[Visual: Bradley quotes from original Kennedy Document; Bradley/Dillon on screen]
[45] EB QUOTING: "Dear Jack. I hope you understand I only want to make sure that my mother is taken care of. This is difficult for me. I am afraid she will not be cared for. I will be silent on this secret of yours about Sam G. and others. Thanks. M. Monroe"
[46] DD: It's not Marilyn Monroe's signature and the body of that letter does not match known extended writing that I had of Marilyn Monroe.
[47] EB: So she didn't write this?
[48] DD: No.
[49] EB: Good forgery?
[50] DD: I'd say that those are poor forgeries.
[51] EB: But Cusack and Cloud point to another man, Robert White, who they claim is one of the nation's top Kennedy handwriting experts. They say White authenticated their entire collection after looking at it under his microscope.
[Visual: Robert L. White]
[52] EB: Did you ever look at them under a microscope?
[53] RW: No. The last time I owned a microscope I was 12 years old and I looked at ants in my backyard. I mean, I don't own a microscope. If I had one, I wouldn't know what to do with it with a document.
[54] EB: The fact is that Robert White is a collector of Kennedy memorabilia, a passport, wrist watches, neckties, and rocking chairs. He is not a handwriting expert. White says he merely gave an informal opinion that some of the handwriting in Cusack's Collection looks like Kennedy, and that's an opinion he no longer holds.
[55] EB: What credentials do you have as an authenticator of handwriting?
[56] RW: I don't have any forensic knowledge on handwriting analysis at all.
[57] EB: So if anyone ever suggested that you were a handwriting expert, they would be mistaken?
[58] EB: Would be mistaken?
[59] RW: Totally mistaken. Totally.
[60] EB: If you're not qualified to authenticate something, then why do you think that they are holding you up as the person who has validated their entire collection?
[61] RW: I can only say that desperate people at some point do desperate things.
[62] EB: Desperate, he says, because now the JFK Papers may be worthless.
[63] RW: These documents now have what we call in the marketplace the kiss of death. They're forgeries.
[Visual: Cusack being interviewed by Bradley]
[64] LC: He's backing off his verification. He was, he was here the other day. He was here the other day.
[65] EB Why would he back off?
[66] LC: I don't know. Maybe he's afraid of getting sued by these people that relied on his authentication.
[67] EB: So because of that he's changing his word?
[68] LC: It must be. It must be. I can't think of any other..., He's given no indications of... In fact we were told all week long that Bob White is standing behind everything he said before.
[69] EB: Despite the evidence pointing to a forgery, Lex Cusack and Thomas Cloud are going on the offensive.
[Visual: "ABC; VANITY FAIR - Secrets and Lies; THE NEW YORKER - Fakes]
[70] EB: They are filing a $100,000,000 lawsuit against ABC and other news organizations claiming that they've been defamed by reports suggesting that their documents are fakes.
[71] EB: Excuse me if this sounds a little harsh, but, but isn't it bold to file a lawsuit against all these news organizations claiming that they have defamed you when you have the leading document experts in this country who are unanimous in their opinion that what you have here, what you are selling, is a forgery?
[72] LC: We have 12 other leading document exerts in the country who have the experience behind the Kennedy Papers to note, who say that they are not.
[73] EB: Well, let's talk about the 12 document dealers and autograph experts who at one time or another authenticated this material. We talked to them and 9 of the 12 said they have withdrawn their authentications. They say they don't want their names associated with the Collection any more. Why would they do that? 9 of the 12.
[74] LC: They're scared. Right? They're afraid for their business or own reputation.
[75] EB: 2 of these people say that they were tricked into giving their stamp of approval
[76] LC: No, no way ... [77] EB: ... and 3 of them say that they now are convinced that most if not all of your collection was forged. I mean, that's not a very good sign.
[78] LC: No. The two that you say were tricked were not tricked.
[79] EB: There are now just 2 handwriting experts on record who believe that these papers are authentic, Charles Hamilton who is dead, and his widow, Diane Hamilton, who also examined some of the papers. That's not very comforting to the 140 investors who have spend millions of dollars buying up the JFK Papers.
[Visual: Vick and Losure being interviewed by Bradley]
[80] EB: When do you get to the point where you throw your hands up and say I want my money back?
[81] GV: I want the truth to come out. I hope that if they prove not to be true that they will pay the money back.
[82] EB: Let me ask you a very blunt question, Mr. Cusack. It's been strongly suggested by some people that you forged these documents. It's a pretty serious charge.
[83] LC: Yes, it is.
[84] EB: Your response to it?
[85] LC: It's absolutely incorrect. It's absolutely incorrect.
[86] EB: And you in no way altered or created these documents?
[87] LC: No, I did not. No. No.
[88] EB: Certain?
[89] LC: Certain, Yes. Yes. Certain.
[90] EB: Lex Cusack may be asked that same question again under oath before a federal grand jury which is now investigating whether fraud was committed in the sale of the JFK Papers.
[Closing Visual: same as Opening Visual]
[91] EB: To examine the so-called Kennedy Papers linking JFK to Marilyn Monroe and the mob, we did something no one else had bothered to do. We hired one of the most respected handwriting experts in the world to examine each of the documents, to give them a first-class going over.
[92] EB to DD: So you've come to the conclusion that....
[93] DD: ... that it is not the writing of President Kennedy.
[94] EB: That they're all forgeries?
[95] DD: Yes.
[96] EB: But Lex Cusack, who got rich on the Kennedy Papers, says another handwriting expert declared them the real thing when he looked at them under his microscope.
[97] EB to RW: Did you ever look at them under a microscope?
[98] RW: No. The last time I owned a microscope I was 12 years old and I looked at ants in my backyard. I mean, I don't own a microscope. If I had one, I wouldn't know what to do with it with a document.
[99] EB to LC: And you in no way altered or created these documents?
[100] LC: No, I did not. No. No.
Go to Main Menu for this JFK/RFK/MM/Giancana and Cusack Papers Website