Originally posted by TLR
4/28/1975 Richard Helms, after an appearance before the Rockefeller Commission, was pressed by reporter Daniel Schorr about his exact knowledge of CIA-Mafia plots to kill Castro. The normally unflappable Helms exploded, shouting, "Killer Schorr! Killer Schorr!" and hurled numerous profanities at him as he left the hearings. The NYT and Post did not quote all the sexual obscenities Helms used. When asked about LBJ's comments that Kennedy might have been killed in retaliation for anti-Castro plots, Helms said, "I don't know why President Johnson said these things."
Daniel Schorr, from his book Staying Tuned:
“President Ford moved swiftly to head off a searching congressional investigation by extending the term of the Rockefeller commission and adding the assassination issue to its agenda. The commission hastily scheduled a new series of secret hearings in the vice president's suite in the White House annex. Richard Helms, who had already testified once, was called home again from his ambassador's post in Tehran for two days of questioning by the commission's staff and four hours before the commission on April 28. I waited with colleagues and staked-out cameras outside the hearing room, the practice being to ask witnesses to make remarks on leaving. As Helms emerged, I extended my hand in greeting, with a jocular "Welcome back'." I was forgetting that I was the proximate reason for his being back.
His face ashen from fatigue and strain, he turned livid.
"You son of a bitch," he raged. "You killer, you cocksucker Killer Schorr - that's what they ought to call you!"
He then strode before the cameras and gave a toned-down version of his tirade. "I must say, Mr. Schorr, I didn't like what you had to say in some of your broadcasts on this subject. As far as I know, the CIA was never responsible for assassinating any foreign leader."
"Were there discussions of possible assassinations?" I asked.
Helms began losing his temper again. "I don't know when I stopped beating my wife, or you stopped beating your wife. Talk about discussions in government? There are always discussions about practically everything under the sun!"
I pursued Helms down the corridor and explained to him the presidential indiscretion that had led me to report "assassinations."
Calmer now, he apologized for his outburst and we shook hands. But because other reporters had been present, the story of his tirade was in the papers the next day.â€
