Did the U.S. government have advanced knowledge of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy?
A newly published book claims it did, and the evidence it cites is tied to a high-profile espionage case that was tried in Jacksonville 17 years after the assassination.
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Attorney Kevin Jursinski first met Joseph Helmich in a federal prison in Alabama in 1982, less than a year after Helmich pleaded guilty to espionage and received a life sentence.
“It was a startling conversation,” Jursinski said.
The official story behind Helmich’s conviction painted him as a former Army cryptographer who, out of desperation after passing a few hundred dollars in bad checks, sold top-secret American code keys to the Soviets for $131,000 in 1963.
The case, prosecuted in Jacksonville where Helmich lived at the time, caught national attention.
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But after talking with Helmich, Jursinki lost faith in that narrative, in part, due to an affidavit signed by Helmich’s wife.
In that document, she claimed her husband was threatened into taking a plea deal.
“He was gonna go on Monday to tell this story to raise reasonable doubt. He was told in a call from his handler that if he went on the stand, his wife and son would be murdered, and he wouldn’t leave the courthouse alive, and he pled guilty,” Jursinski said.
According to Jursinski, Helmich claimed he was approached by CIA agents in early 1963 and was recruited for a mission that involved selling key lists for the KL7 cryptographic system to the Soviets.
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“He indicated, in his words to me, the Soviets would never believe it if we handed it to them. They’d only believe it if they stole it,” Jurskinski said.
Jursinski said Helmich didn’t know the purpose of the mission until he was on a flight to France on November 22, 1963, en route to deliver the codes.
“He started to put it together on route to Paris when he heard over the loudspeakers what happened,” Jurskinski said.
That announcement: President John F. Kennedy had been shot and killed in Dallas, Texas.
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Court records show at least one government witness acknowledged Helmich was on the flight that fateful day.
Jursinski said Helmich came to believe the intent of his mission was to allow the Soviets to intercept American communications in the aftermath of the assassination.
“As part of someone’s methodical plan to make sure there was no retaliation by the Soviets,” Jursinski said.
After obtaining Helmich’s memoirs, Jursinski attempted to publish the document soon after, but after contacting publishers, he claims to have been sent a cease and desist from the Department of Justice, threatening to charge him with revealing the identities of CIA operatives.
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“And my thought was, if Helmich has nothing to do with the CIA why are you threatening me publishing his memoirs?” Jursinski said.
Helmich passed away in federal prison in 2002 at the age of 65.
Now, almost 45 years after his conviction, Helmich’s side of the story is finally being told.
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Jursinki’s recently published book, “Interview With a Spy” details Helmich’s story and lays out the evidence backing his claims.
He explained the recent declassification of Helmich’s case and push by President Donald Trump’s administration to declassify the Kennedy files made him feel comfortable finally publishing the story.
He said it’s his goal to clear Helmich’s name, and raise questions about the official story behind the assassination of a sitting U.S. President.
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“The overall summary was that I’m one voice and everyone else has a voice, and speak up and talk about things that we see every day going on in our society,” Jursinski said.
Action News Jax did contact the CIA, asking if the agency could verify or reject the claims made by Jursinski and Helmich.
We have not heard back.
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