Carl Marzani

Carl Aldo Marzani was born in Rome, Italy, on 4th March 1912. The family emigrated to the United States in 1924 and settled in Scranton, Pennsylvania. An extremely intelligent boy he won a scholarship to Williams College. Soon afterwards he became a socialist.

In 1936 Marzani won a place at Oxford University. However, on the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War he joined the International Brigade and served under the anarchist leader, Buenaventua Durruti. By 1937 he was commanding a unit of the Durruti Column.

Marzani returned to university and graduated with a BA in Modern Greats, Philosophy, Politics and Economics in June 1938. He also joined the British Communist Party before teturning to the United States. He found employment with the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and became a member of the American Communist Party and served as district organizer on the Lower East Side of New York. He resigned from the party in August 1941.

During the Second World War Marzani joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and between 1942 and 1945 served in the Analysis Branch. In 1945 Marzani transferred to the Department of State, where he worked as the Deputy Chief of the Presentation Division of the Office of Intelligence. Marzani handled the preparation of top secret reports.

In 1946 Marzani founded Union Films to make documentaries for trade unions. In January 1947 Marzani was indicted for defrauding the government by receiving government pay while concealing membership of the American Communist Party. He was convicted on 22nd June 1947, and sentenced to thirty-six months in prison, in spite of pleas for parole by William Donovan, Albert Einstein and Thomas Mann.

On his release he published We Can Be Friends: The Origins of the Cold War (1952), a book that blamed Harry S. Truman for the Cold War. Marzani now went into publishing and established the company Marzani & Munsell. According to Marzani he specialised in books that upset the status quo.

Marzani refused to accept that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone-gunman who had killed President John F. Kennedy. He published several pamphlets on the subject. He also published Oswald, Assassin or Fall Guy? (1964) by Joachim Joesten. In the book Joesten claimed that the Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Dallas Police Department and a group of right-wing Texas oil millionaires conspired to kill Kennedy. He openly accused Police Chief Jesse Curry of being one of the key figures in the assassination.

Victor Perlo, reviewing the book in the New Times , commented that the book had been rejected by several publishers before Marzani accepted it. "The firm deserves credit for publishing and promoting the book, so that thousands of copies were sold in a short time, despite a blackout by commercial reviewers. Publisher-editor Carl Marzani edited the manuscript brilliantly... This reviewer approached the Joesten book with skepticism. Despite my low opinion of the Dallas police and the FBI, I've had enough experience to know that utterly senseless things do happen in America... But the Joesten book erased most of my skepticism."

The book was largely ignored by the mainstream media but was reviewed by Hugh Aynesworth, a strong supporter of the lone gunman theory and a reporter with Dallas Morning News, in the Editor and Publisher. "Joesten, an ex-German who became a U.S. citizen in 1948... states that Oswald was an agent of both the FBI and the CIA (how's that for a 24-year-old who couldn't spell "wrist"?). It's the same old tripe with some new flavouring." Aynesworth uses the review to criticize Mark Lane, who was another writer questioning the idea that Oswald was a lone-gunman: "Lane is the troublemaker who spent two days in Dallas in January on his investigation and now pretends to be an expert on all aspects of the weird tragedy."

On the publication of the Warren Commission Report Marzini's old friend, I. F. Stone defended it in the I. F. Stone's Weekly, stating that "I believe the Commission has done a first-rate job, on a level that does our country proud and is worthy of so tragic an event. I regard the case against Lee Harvey Oswald as the lone killer of the President as conclusive." Stone then went onto to look at the role played by Marzini, Thomas G. Buchanan and Joachim Joesten, in the two books that had already been published arguing that there had been a conspiracy: "The Joesten book is rubbish, and Carl Marzani - whom I defended against loose charges in the worst days of the witch hunt - ought to have had more sense of public responsibility than to publish it. Thomas G. Buchanan, another victim of witch hunt days, has gone in for similar rubbish in his book, Who Killed Kennedy? You couldn't convict a chicken thief on the flimsy slap-together of surmise, half-fact and whole untruth in either book… All my adult life as a newspaperman I have been fighting, in defense of the Left and of a sane politics, against conspiracy theories of history, character assassination, guilt by association and demonology. Now I see elements of the Left using these same tactics in the controversy over the Kennedy assassination and the Warren Commission Report."

Carl Aldo Marzani died on 11th December 1994.

Primary Sources

(1) I. F. Stone, I. F. Stone's Weekly (5th October, 1964)

All my adult life as a newspaperman I have been fighting, in defense of the Left and of a sane politics, against conspiracy theories of history, character assassination, guilt by association and demonology. Now I see elements of the Left using these same tactics in the controversy over the Kennedy assassination and the Warren Commission Report. I believe the Commission has done a first-rate job, on a level that does our country proud and is worthy of so tragic an event. I regard the case against Lee Harvey Oswald as the lone killer of the President as conclusive. By the nature of the case, absolute certainty will never be attained, and those still convinced of Oswald's innocence have a right to pursue the search for evidence which might exculpate him. But I want to suggest that this search be carried on in a sober manner and with full awareness of what is involved.

The Joesten book is rubbish, and Carl Marzani - whom I defended against loose charges in the worst days of the witch hunt - ought to have had more sense of public responsibility than to publish it. Thomas G. Buchanan, another victim of witch hunt days, has gone in for similar rubbish in his book, Who Killed Kennedy? You couldn't convict a chicken thief on the flimsy slap-together of surmise, half-fact and whole untruth in either book.