Prediction of the Assassination of JFK

Twenty-five minutes before the assassination of JFK someone phoned the Cambridge Evening News in the UK warning of “big news” and suggesting the paper called the US embassy in London. When this story emerged it was claimed the phone-call was anonymous. However, later that day a CIA officer based in London sent a telegram to their office in Washington claimed “some similar phone-calls of strangely coincidental nature previous received in this country over past year, particularly in connection with the Dr Ward’s case.” If it was the same informant, who was it?

We now know some of the people who were involved in leaking information about the Ward case. For example, the case originally became public when George Wigg raised the matter in the House of Commons. This information came from John Lewis, a former Labour MP who had lost his seat in the House of Commons. He got this information from Christine Keeler, who he met at a party. Lewis had two reasons for passing this information onto Wigg. Firstly, he was trying to please the leadership of the Labour Party as he wanted to a safe seat to enable him to get back into the House of Commons. Secondly, he hated Ward as he believed he was the cause of the break-up of his marriage.

We also know that Michael Eddowes leaked this information about Profumo and Keeler to Special Branch. Eddowes also got this information from Keeler. Eddowes was a patient of Ward’s who was trying hard to sleep with Keeler. He was also a solicitor and had been advising Keeler concerning the attack on her by John Edgecombe on 14th December, 1962.

Two days after the shooting Keeler contacted Eddowes for legal advice about the Edgecombe case. During this meeting she told Eddowes: "Stephen (Ward) asked me to ask Jack Profumo what date the Germans were to get the bomb." However, she later claimed that she knew Ward was joking when he said this. Eddowes then asked Ward about this matter. Keeler later recalled: "Stephen fed him the line he had prepared with Roger Hollis for such an eventuality: it was Eugene (Ivanov) who had asked me to find out about the bomb."

Eddowes believed Ward rather than Keeler and told Special Branch that Ivanov had been seeking this information. Eddowes claims that he did this for reasons of national security.

MI5 files suggest that the man who provided some of the information on the Ward case to George Wigg was Victor Louis, who also worked for the Cambridge Evening News. MI5 also suggest that he was getting information from the Soviet Union and may have been working for the KGB. If he was, he was never arrested and was allowed to continue working as a journalist. There is no doubt that KGB, like the CIA, leaked stories to journalists that they wished to appear in the press. Was it Louis who phoned the Cambridge Evening News predicting the JFK assassination? If so, did he get this information from the KGB? Is this why Eddowes became convinced that the KGB was behind the assassination of JFK?

Christine Keeler revealed in her 2001 autobiography that Stephen Ward told her in October 1962 that "a man like John Kennedy will not be allowed to stay in such an important position of power in the world, I assure you of that." Keeler believed this information came from Eugene Ivanov. Ward was a passionate “Liberal” and an open opponent of the Cold War. To some of his Conservative friends, Ward was seen as being pro-Soviet. However, according to Keeler, Ward had several heated arguments with Ivanov about the flaws in the communist system.

The fact that the Castro’s agents had infiltrated CIA operations against Cuba, makes it indeed possible that the KGB was aware of the conspiracy to kill JFK. Maybe one of the roles of Eugene Ivanov was to bring this to the attention of MI5. This is why the Soviets allowed Ivanov to enter the “honeytrap” that was being organized by Stephen Ward.

Michael Eddowes