Mr. HUBERT. How is it spelled?
Mrs. GRANT. [Spelling] M-c-W-i-l-l-i-e.
Mr. HUBERT. Oh, that’s Louis McWillie, is that who you mean?
Mrs. GRANT. I met him 8 or 9 years ago in the restaurant with Jack,
and Jack told me that night or the next night that, “He’s a gambler,”
in fact, I think he was the main guy at the high class club here,
Cipango’s, he ran games over there at that club and it is highly
recognized, and the town sort of overlooks him and they admire
him—truthfully, if you met this man, you would think he is a doctor or
a lawyer.
Mr. BURLESON. Jack has had some contact with him?
Mrs. GRANT. Yes; not in business. He was a nice fellow. I don’t know
how well Jack knew him—I do know this man was getting a divorce. He was
married to a much older lady and he went to Jack—he wanted Jack to talk
to this lady to be sure she files a divorce, something to that effect,
because I went with him to her home. He wasn’t there.
Mr. BURLESON. Jack also had contact by going on vacations with him, for
instance?
Mrs. GRANT. Well; wait a minute. Jack was broke, as you know. That’s
another thing, and he was so disgusted and so blue and it seemed it
was the year my father was very ill, I think it was 1958, and that
McWillie sent him a ticket to come to Havana, Cuba, and my sister was
there—not the same time, but the same year, but there was no commotion
with Havana, Cuba, then, and McWillie—the airlines has proved that this
ticket was bought by this McWillie—that’s as much as I know.
Mr. BURLESON. He went down there and was it for some type of business
that they had talked about?
Mrs. GRANT. I’ll tell you—I understand—now, this was told to me
recently and I don’t even know if it’s so.
Mr. BURLESON. It wasn’t told to you by Jack?
Mrs. GRANT. I don’t even know who told me—it’s something about jeeps
and I don’t know if I’m dreaming it or thinking it. McWillie was a
gambler and they are running a game in the big casinos where all the
bigwigs out of Miami come over for a couple of nights, and that was as
much as I knew about it because I have never been to Florida or to that
part of Florida.
Mr. BURLESON. Now, as far as you know, Jack and McWillie never had any
business relationship, McWillie was just helping Jack out on a vacation?
Mrs. GRANT. Well, Jack was depressed and sick mentally then and we
didn’t realize it.
Mr. BURLESON. Is that about the time he locked himself up?
Mrs. GRANT. No; he locked himself up before that.
Mr. BURLESON. Do you think of any other person or any other incident or
anything else that you know concerning Jack and having any connection
in the last 10 years with any one of the so-called criminal element?
Mrs. GRANT. Now, I know he went to New York to talk to a guy by the
name of Glazer, but he is considered the wealthiest booking agent,
and from what I heard years ago, this guy probably could have been
in rackets—I don’t know, but he is with the AGVA. I can’t explain
this—some of these boys have worked themselves up to——
Mr. BURLESON. So that the only contacts that you do know about were
through AGVA, or what you have already told us?
Mrs. GRANT. There was nothing—I know when Lenny—he said something about
“Maybe he knows somebody in the AGVA.”
Mr. BURLESON. Who could help them in the trouble he was having?
Mrs. GRANT. That’s right. He also called—there was a fellow in Chicago
by the name of—I have noticed all their names.
Mr. BURLESON. But this is all you can think about?
Mrs. GRANT. But if they have got names, I will answer it.
Mr. BURLESON. All right, we will get to that.
Mrs. GRANT. I am not trying to get out of it.
Mr. BURLESON. This is all you can think of now?
Mrs. GRANT. Let me explain something before you even—and since this
is going in this record—I knew more racketeers than he did. My girl
friends lived in classy buildings and there were fellows that worked,
they were gambling men. The ran districts in Chicago and when I was
16 or 18, this was the prohibition. We hear all of this stuff and we
were intrigued by it, but we didn’t know who these people were, but I
knew they existed, and truthfully, all in 1 year—in the early forties
they were, as you say, bumped off, but he didn’t know them, and please
believe me I am very truthful and very honest.
Mr. HUBERT. Let’s go off the record now and recess until this evening.
(Discussion between counsel off the record.)
Mr. HUBERT. We will recess until 7:30 this evening.
(Whereupon, the proceeding was recessed.)