(The following is a summarization of the book I’m writing of the same name.)
On a spring day in 1976, my grandfather announced that the entire family was going to attend the cinema together to see “All the President’s Men.” As it turns out, this was the first and last time my grandfather and I went to the cinema together, which was a part of the reason this day was so memorable. The other reason was why he wanted to go.
“We are going to watch your cousin go to jail for Watergate.”
Throughout the years, this memory has lived in my head like it happened last week. When my grandfather yelled, “That’s him!” when the actor playing one of the Watergate burglars, Bernard Barker, came on screen, I was already feeling a rush of adrenaline because I knew there was a lot more to this family than I had thought.
It took almost a lifetime, and a bizarre phone call with Bernard’s daughter, to reach a point of more understanding than I had ever hoped to achieve about who I was, and what I was born into. As much as it is a recount of a criminal who is pinpointed by two of the most respected authors on the subject as a presidential assassin, this is also my story. My family. My blood.
Barker familial connections
Bernard Leon Barker, Jr. was a prolific criminal, cloaked by the protection of the FBI, CIA, and the Mafia. A Google search for this man leads down an endless rabbit hole of daring attempts to control political agendas at all costs. There was nothing off the table for this subservient professional killer.
He was also my second cousin, once removed. Though Bernard is quite distant on the family tree, and convention would say that this man has inflicted zero influence on me, I have a different take.
Bernard’s great grandfather and grandmother were my 2x great grandfather and grandmother, Isaac and Sarah Barker, a Russian Jewish immigrant couple who settled in Columbia, Tennessee. They had 3 children in Russia, and Sarah was pregnant with my great grandfather, Louis, by the time she touched American soil. He and a younger brother were the only children born in the United States (see family tree for clarification).
Bernard is the grandson of Jacob Barker, the oldest child of Isaac and Sarah. I know that my grandfather never met Jacob, Bernard Sr., or Bernard Jr., nor had anyone of our line. Eventually, I broke that paradigm and made the first connection between our branches in over 100 years.
Except for my grandfather’s sister, who I met twice, I never knew anyone from that side. Though that may seem odd to those who have functioning, loving families, this was normal for the Barkers. I’m sure I asked about them at least once, but my grandfather’s diminutive response was my signal that the questions were not welcome.
It took me years to realize that there were massive secrets buried in the family line, solidly embedded in the Barker DNA sequence. The more I uncovered, the more accustomed I became to the recurring occurrences of clear archetypes. The more archetypes I identified, the more I recognized the same archetypes in my immediate household growing up. They weren’t strangers anymore, but family, and not always in the best sense.
It all hit home one day as I read a blog about Bernard. One of the commenters said he had known him somewhat in the bars of Miami. He talked about several aspects of his nature, and small quirks of his personality. By the end, tears choking my throat, I realized how astonishingly similar he was to my father, who was very much a part of my childhood and adult trauma. The detailed descriptions of Bernard’s personality were identical to what I had seen and experienced in my own home. As I struggled with PTSD, I could not help but wonder how far the similarities ran.
The bonds that unite us are stronger than the distance we maintained. I was no longer just delving into the story about my criminal cousin. This was about me. Our family. Our blood.
Bernard’s life as a professional criminal
During the last few years of my life, though I have found out a lot of information on several members of that line, Bernard was the golden ring. Since there was a lot of information about his life and criminal past online, I had to spend my time carefully reading as much as I could, in between raising children, getting divorced, traveling, and finding my home again with my current marriage and life.
This is a short summary of what happened in order, up to the parts that show his darkest sides for sure, some of which still haunt me.
Bernard held dual citizenship in Cuba and the United States because his father was born in Tennessee. He joined the ABC, a revolutionary party opposed to then-President Gerardo Machado y Morales, when he was 16 years old. During this time, he was given the moniker “Macho.” Barker’s father, concerned about the risks he was taking, sent him to live in the United States. Bernard claimed his birthright as an American citizen in 1935, but he returned to Cuba to study at the University of Havana.
After Pearl Harbor, Bernard joined the United States Army Air Forces. On February 10, 1944, he was shot down during a bombing attack over Brunswick, Germany, and imprisoned by the Germans at Stalag Luft I in Barth. On May 2, 1945, the Red Army captured the camp, and Bernard was freed. The irony of this action amused me, as I knew that his life’s obsession, along with his daughter’s, was to fight against Communism. The Red Army was Soviet and created by the Communist government after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. If it weren’t for the communists, his life might have ended here. He had lost 65 pounds by the time he was rescued and was quite ill.
Bernard returned to Cuba after the war and joined the National Police. He was a sergeant who served as an assistant to the Chief of Police. He was then recruited by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and worked as an undercover agent for them. He was also a contractor with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). During this time, his U.S. citizenship was quietly revoked, and he had to use all of his clout to get it back. Here is an interesting black vault of FBI documents that relay the tale.
Bay of Pigs Invasion
When Fidel Castro overthrew the government, Bernard and his young family left for Miami, Florida, where he began working in the Cuban exile community. He stayed at the CIA and worked under Frank Bender, and then was assigned under E. Howard Hunt with an assignment to recruit new members for the catastrophic Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in April 1961, which was a failed CIA operation initiated during the Kennedy administration to depose Castro. Bernard and his fellow attackers were overwhelmed by Castro’s army and surrendered after less than 24 hours of combat. The leader of this band of bumbling men was Manuel Artist, who is pictured below, with Bernard and his wife, Clara. I received this photo from Bernard’s daughter.
The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy
On November 22, 1963, Dallas detective, Seymour Weitzman identified a photo of Bernard as the man on the Grassy Knoll who was showing Secret Service identification and ordering people out of the area. He stood by that identification his lifetime, though he never testified at the Warren Commission in any way other than pre trial testimony.
It is now known that Bernard worked for Mafia godfather Santo Trafficante. Lamar Waldron and subsequent co-author Thom Hartmann, wrote the definitive books on the subject, The Hidden History of the JFK Assassination and “Legacy of Secrecy”, plus many others. The following is the partial transcript of a fascinating interview Waldron did with Hartmann on his broadcast, on December 24, 2009.
“Thom Hartmann: Right. So, let’s start with the Watergate burglar, Bernard Barker.
Lamar Waldron: Bernard Barker. For a lot of your younger listeners, you know, Watergate was this scandal that brought down Richard Nixon; these people were caught in the Watergate, part of a big dirty trick’s operation. Repeated break-ins at Watergate, and even …
Lamar Waldron: Literally on November 22nd. And Bernard Barker, though he was a CIA agent and he had been one for about, a few years at that point, his real boss, the people he worked for for years, were the Mafias, specifically Mafia godfather Santo Trafficante. And as you started to say, Thom, we first learnt this from a close associate of Robert Kennedy, back in 1992. And both because Barker was alive, and we needed evidence to back that up. I mean, you and I treat all sources skeptically. We looked for supporting information, and so then we basically spent the next seventeen years looking for information to document Barker’s involvement in JFK’s murder.
Thom Hartmann: And we found it.
Lamar Waldron: And we came up with a ton of it. There’s three new chapters in this updated trade paperback of “Legacy of Secrecy”. And, I mean, this even includes an eyewitness from law enforcement who saw Bernard Barker on the grassy knoll in Dealey Plaza, behind the picket fence, within seconds of the shooting, and even Barker’s own words about what he saw that day are just so amazing and incriminating, but they’ve been overlooked for so many years.
Thom Hartmann: And here’s one other little factoid that will make many peoples’ brains explode. Most people are familiar with the name E. Howard Hunt. Bernard Barker was his…
Lamar Waldron: Assistant. And E. Howard Hunt was the mastermind of the Watergate break-ins, plural, there were three. And, but it’s interesting that when they came to work together, the CIA assigned Barker to work for Hunt, in the CIA’s plot with the Mafia, to assassinate Fidel Castro, began under Vice President Richard Nixon…
Thom Hartmann: Because there’s been a lot of information here, and what we have found, in summary, is that first, Richard Nixon was planning an October Surprise before the election of 1960. Because Jack Kennedy was beating him up about the fact that Fidel Castro had gone Communist on the Eisenhower / Nixon administration’s watch. And Nixon was the Vice President, he was running for President against Jack Kennedy. He hired the Mob, who were his good buddies, and brought Bernard Barker into this operation to assassinate Castro. And that was going to be his October Surprise…He leaked to Trafficante a year later Bobby Kennedy’s secret plan to assassinate Castro and have a coup in Cuba. And thus sold out the Kennedy family and facilitated the assassination, and in fact we can even put Barker at the scene of the crime in Dallas…What Bernard Barker did, was to sell out this top secret coup plan, whose exposure could have meant World War Three. He sold it out to his boss, Trafficante. And that Trafficante and his Mob associates, Carlos Marcello of Louisiana and Texas, Johnny Rosselli, the Chicago Mob’s man in Las Vegas and Hollywood, let them use parts of that plan to try to kill JFK first in Chicago, then Tampa, and then finally succeed in Dallas. But do it in a way that forced poor Bobby Kennedy to work with his hated enemies, like LBJ, J. Edgar Hoover, to cover up a lot of information.”
Then I discovered other eyewitness accounts that differed from the Warren Commission Report that was officially released about President JFK’s assassination. Cheryl McKinnon, a journalism major who witnessed the assassination of President Kennedy, said in an article, “My last look at Mr. President,”
“I have read the Warren Commission Report in its entirety and dozens of other books as well, I am sorry to say the only thing I am absolutely sure of today is that at least two of the shots fired that day in Dealey Plaza came from behind where I stood on the knoll, not from the book depository.”
The discovery of this recount of the assassin by Amos E. Heacock, the owner of an independent Military Air Transport MAT airline that the CIA airlines put out of business after using his aircraft for that mission, was a stunning revelation. He sent a long testimony to the Honorable Richard S. Schweiker, member of Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, on October 14th, 1975.
“Female witnesses going to work before the assassination saw an older man hand a rifle to a younger man who took it to his white compact car behind the Depository. Bernard Barker handed the German Mauser to Eugenio Martinez. Martinez put it in his white Mustang, a. car that Martinez favored. Four years later he gave money to James Earl Ray to buy a white Mustang just like his own. Ray was Martinez’ partner in the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King…The fourth shot that killed the President was fired by Bernard Barker from a point fourteen feet from the corner of the stockade fence that provided Barker’s concealment. This was first revealed by Josiah Thompson in his book which is still the best summary of the physical and photographic evidence of the shots in print, “Six Seconds in Dallas.” The Mary Moorman photo by Polaroid camera caught the inside of an approximately circular piece of the President’s skull, about 3 1/2 or 4 in diameter, three or four inches above his head. Only an explosion within his head could produce this phenomenon. Finally, the unretouched Zapruder film clearly shows the light blue powder smoke from his head drifting slowly away in the breeze to be picked up by nosewitnesses in following cars. Barker fired a sophisticated rocket rifle, designed by the Soviet KGB and manufactured in the Soviet Union. It fired a rifle bullet size rocket missile designed to explode after penetrating the cranium, just as Soviet antitank- shells are designed to explode after penetrating the tank hull. Unlike a conventional rifle the rocket weapon released a puff of white smoke that was observed by several witnesses. It emitted a low “poof” as it was fired.”
According to Heacock, Bernard fired the fatal shot into JFK’s head, sealing the mission with a rocket designed to destroy his head. This Polaroid photo, taken by Mary Ann Moorman, reveals this moment. The top arrow is the supposed location of Bernard, and the bottom arrow shows the trajectory of the shot, and the moment his head was hit.
This video, “Was “BadgeMan“ a shooter on the Grassy Knoll?” shows how the examiners of the photo determined whether someone was behind the wall, and an interview with an eyewitness who claims the shot came from behind his left ear.
Pentagon Papers and Watergate
The Pentagon Papers and Watergate scandals were a series of interconnected political scandals during the administration of US President Richard M. Nixon.
Daniel Ellsberg, a defense expert specializing in nuclear weapons policy and counterinsurgency theory, is at the center of the Pentagon Papers. Ellsberg had extensive experience with Vietnam, having worked in the Pentagon’s International Security Affairs (ISA) section from 1964 to 1965, followed by two years as an analyst in South Vietnam. His research validated his suspicions: the US engagement in Vietnam was predicated on systematic deception by the government. Ellsberg became increasingly agitated as the Nixon government followed its own policies in Vietnam, witnessing a persistent pattern of deception and escalation.
Nixon was concerned that Ellsberg would disclose one of his own Vietnam secrets, specifically the undisclosed bombing of Cambodia, one of Nixon’s first acts as president, and the Chennault Affair, Nixon’s covert effort to thwart peace talks before the 1968 presidential election.
Ellsberg managed to sneak out and photocopy the study and decided to leak it. Nixon called the publication “treasonable,” and ordered that Ellsberg’s life be examined for a weak point to exploit.
After Ellsberg’s psychiatrist, Dr. Fielding, declined to be examined by FBI agents, the unit decided to conduct a clandestine operation to collect copies of Ellsberg’s medical records. Hunt hired Bernard and Martinez to carry out the scheme. Hunt instructed the defendants to enter an office, look for a specific file, photograph it, and replace it. Contrary to plan, defendants had to use force to complete the break-in, and as instructed, the defendants spilled pills on the floor to give the impression that the break-in was a drug search. There was no file with the name Ellsberg found.
The Watergate scandal involved a June 17, 1972, break-in at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., and a subsequent cover-up by people working for or with the White House, as well as Nixon himself.
Five burglars were apprehended by police at the DNC office in the Watergate complex. Four of the five burglars, including Bernard, were CIA agents. The fifth was James W. McCord, Jr., the Committee to Re-elect the President’s security chief (later known popularly as CREEP).
Bernard dropped his address book in the hotel room. This allowed the authorities to trace the break-in back to the White House. In some ways, Bernard brought two presidents down.
Bernard was indicted under 18 U.S.C. 241 alongside other White House officers for conspiring to violate Dr. Fielding’s Fourth Amendment rights by unlawfully entering and searching his office, as well as participating in the Watergate break-in.
Nixon resigned, and Bernard was sentenced to 6 years in prison. He was released after a year and a half.
The following is a five-minute clip from Bernard’s testimony in front of the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities. I must say, his dedication to Nixon and Hunt was extraordinary. His answers were so drippingly dutiful, the entire committee, and audience, laughed.
The original archetype
For years, I’ve been gathering information to create an accurate timeline of the Barker’s beginnings in America. Sending his children to Cuba was certainly a romantic tale, but it bothered me that I did not know more about how this happened, and why.
But all a good investigator must do is pull all the bits of information together, and a story begins to reveal itself. My discoveries were heartbreaking, and it was hard for me to understand how someone who had lived in the Pale of Settlement in Russia could be so cruel and cold-hearted.
Isaac and Sarah arrived in the United States in 1871. There is a letter written that states they were in England for 2 years prior to them coming over, so that means they left the Pale of Settlement in Russia approximately 1869.
The Pale of Settlement was a western region of the Russian Empire with varying borders that existed from 1791 to 1917 in which permanent residency by Jews was allowed and beyond which Jewish residency, permanent or temporary, was mostly forbidden. During the reign of Alexander II, who ruled from 1855 to 1881, he expanded the rights of rich and educated Jews to leave and live beyond the Pale, which led many Jews to believe that the Pale might soon be abolished. Many decided to immigrate.
It was during this period, most likely prompted by Jewish friends who had also left, and long discussions of where they could land, that they decided to immigrate to Columbia, Tennessee. According to the Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities – Columbia, Tennessee, there was a significant Jewish settlement there, all arriving within a short time of each other, right after the Civil War.
“Isaac Barker was born in Russia and came to Tennessee in 1871. By 1880, he was living in Columbia as a fruit salesman with his wife Sarah and their five children. Barker lived in Columbia until he died in the first decade of the 20th century. Isaac’s son, William, remained in Columbia and started a very successful egg and poultry company. In 1907, his business was earning over $200,000 a year, with a sizable portion of this total coming from selling eggs to merchants in Cuba. William Barker also sold “dressed poultry” and live chickens in the area around Columbia. Barker was active in civic life in Columbia, serving as the president of a local fraternal society, the colorfully named “Prudent Patricians of Pompeii.””
As I laid out the timeline, I kept remembering a story my grandfather told me; one of the very few, in the last year of his life. Isaac had a cart that he took around town, selling and trading items. As he developed his business of growing and selling fruits and vegetables and had earned enough money, he sent Jacob (the grandfather of Bernard) and another of his children to Cuba to start a sugar plantation. They would sell their sugar to him, circumventing the middleman and earning him a handsome living. The Tennessee business grew larger under Isaac’s stateside son, William, and both ends became very wealthy. Just as a side note, my great grandfather Louis, took the vege/fruit business over as “Louis on the Square” with a gambling den in the back.
As I looked at their timeline, and thought of that story, something struck me that another motivation had to emerge, because on its own, Cuba did not make practical sense. I thought about Isaac’s actions, as they were described to me. I thought about what was going on in the United States at that time, especially the south. Then, like a well-cut puzzle, the pieces fell together. I could see the story unfolding before me.
In the Pale, they must have heard rumors about slavery in the United States. I’m sure the news was not just a few days or weeks late reaching them; I imagine that it took years, especially with the area being so tightly controlled. Maybe an occasional traveler wandered through that told them about the United States, but that would be rare, as the Pale was not a popular tourist mecca.
I am also certain that “slavery abolished in 1865” was not what Russian authorities wanted to advertise to the millions of Jews who were enslaved and oppressed in this area. So, in 1869, when Isaac and Sarah decided to leave, they most likely did not know that they were not allowed to own a human being in the United States any longer.
This assumption makes sense because it explains the rest of Isaac’s actions. Jacob was 18 years old in 1879. He married his wife, Jeanette, in 1885, in New Orleans. This strongly indicates that Jacob was sent to Cuba before he was married, but returned in 1885 to New Orleans port to get married there, so he could take her back to Cuba. I do not know the birth date or birthplace of his other children, but I do know that Bernard Sr. was born in Columbia, TN in 1890. So at least Jeanette came back to Tennessee to assure her son had dual citizenship. Bernard Sr. accompanied his mother back to Cuba. There are numerous records of Jacob and Jeanette returning to the United States. This means that going back and forth from Cuba was a common thing for them to do throughout their lives.
After I looked up one more statistic, the story fell into place. Slavery in Cuba wasn’t abolished until 1886, and its main source of exploitation was the sugar plantations. This means Jacob had several years to build a business and wealth on the backs of slaves. By the time Cuba abolished slavery, and he was legally forced to pay something, he could well afford the pittance he gave them.
Barker Timeline
1865 Slavery abolished in the United States
1869 Isaac and family leave The Pale of Settlement
1871 Isaac and family arrive in Columbia, TN
1879 Jacob turns 18 and is sent to Cuba to start a sugar plantation
1885 Jacob marries Jeanette in New Orleans
1886 Slavery abolished in Cuba, but by that time the Barker wealth had grown
1890 Bernard Sr. was born in Columbia, TN then back in Cuba before he was one year
Sugar grows in warmer climates, and there is plenty of good warm weather in the states to choose from. Then why Cuba? The fact that you could own and work a human being there is the only answer that makes sense. Why else would you send your child away to a country that you know little about, unless the reward outweighed the risk? This type of travel then was a major event in anyone’s life, especially an 18-year-old who spent most of his life in a small dilatory community. I think that Isaac decided that owning slaves was his way to ultimate wealth, and his sons agreed.
As we well know from our own U.S. history, abolishment does not mean that full legal and societal rights are immediately restored, and there are some indications that their plantation was the site of long held abusive acts and maintained a very toxic environment.
I found a Reddit post from a descendant of Jacob. This Reddit poster had never heard of Bernard, nor the family saga until he dug into his ancestry recently. His grandmother was Bernard’s sister. The last sentence at the end of the post caused me to perk up:
“BTW that massive wealth is totally gone after my grandfather decided he didn’t want to live a life associated with that family and moved his wife to XXXXX where he built houses until the day he died.”
I did have the opportunity to converse with this cousin, and he said that his grandmother’s birth family was never discussed, and as his grandmother died before he was born, the conversations never came up. He did finally discover that his grandfather was disgusted with who the Barkers were and how they lived, and even though they had immense wealth, this man decided that leaving that toxic environment was a much better decision for his family. Evidently, that was the last time Bernard’s sister ever saw Cuba or talked to her biological family again.
My conversation with Bernard’s daughter
I had no intention of contacting my oldest living relative in that branch, but her email presented itself to me through contacts. After days of thinking about it, I chose to reach out to MariaElena Barker, Bernard’s only child.
I had heard from other cousins that we were on opposite political spectrums; her very alt right, and me, quite a progressive independent. I decided to avoid those conversations at all costs, and approach this with a genuine quest; finding more information about Isaac and Sarah. I asked her if she knew their Russian name, and where in the Pale of Settlement that they lived. She responded with in an hour. Some names have been redacted for privacy.
“I read your email with great pleasure. I am very happy to hear from a cousin, no matter how distant. Being an only child, I have few relatives left.
“I will tell you what I know. Our Barker name was BARKEROVITCH in Russia, but it changed to Barker when Isaac and Sarah arrived in the USA. Their son Jacob, who married Jeanette, from a well-to-do German Jewish family, had a very large plantation of potatoes in Columbia, Tennessee, which supplied their potatoes to the US Army. Jacob became closely acquainted with President Teddy Roosevelt, and during the Spanish-American War supplied the potatoes to the Rough Riders in Cuba. Teddy told Jacob that, instead of shipping his potatoes to Cuba, he should buy land in Cuba, which was very cheap, and for every potatoes plantation he would grow in Tennessee, he would grow 4 in Cuba, due to its climate. So Jacob moved to Cuba with his wife and 5 children, and bought 3,333+ acres for 25 cents each.
After Cuba was free, in 1902, Jacob was a VERY RICH MAN in Cuba, and he and his wife stayed there until their deaths.
“Two of the children, Margaret and Ralph went back to the US, but my grandfather, Bernard Leon Barker, Sr. and his two sisters, Alma and Josephine, remained in Cuba until their death. Aunt Josie never married, but Alma married a Cuban, Manolo XXXX, and had a daughter. JEANNETTE XXXX; she had two daughters, Alma (who has a daughter and a son Angel XXXXX,, who now has a son. Julian Angel XXXX. and Jeannette, Alma’s sister has two daughters.
“My grandfather married (in the Catholic Church) an Irish-American-Cuban socialite, descendant from Irish royalty, ALICIA TERRY, that owned a town called Cienfuegos in the province of Santa Clara, also knows as Las Villas. They had two children, my aunt Alicia and my father, Bernard, Jr., who married a Cuban socialite, my mother, CLARA-ELENA FERNANDEZ-COLLAZO. Both of my grandfathers became very close friends when my parents were very small children. A year after the communists took over Cuba, we came to Miami, Florida. Both died, my mother in 2008, and my father on June 5th, 2009.
I am XX and as healthy as God wants me to be. We have a XXXX dog, XXXXXX, that we very dearly love, and live in a beautiful home in XXXXXXXX, which we own together with the bank.
My Cell number is XXX-XXX-XXXX. Call me when you like, so I can tell you more stories about my father.
With much love,
MariaElena Barker”
While ecstatic that she was so open to talking to me, I had to look at the information she gave me about her family, closer. I had never heard any of this story before, and my grandfather, while not being the icon of truth, was a braggart. If he had known the Teddy Roosevelt story, he would have proudly regaled it to anyone who would listen.
My grandfather had photos of himself with the Rockefellers, him and Eleanor Roosevelt campaigning, and at one point had the chair that John F. Kennedy sat on in his office in 1960 while campaigning for president. How ironic is that?
Barkerovitch is not a known surname in Russia or anywhere else I can find, however, Barkovitch is. On his deathbed, I asked my grandfather about the name, and he said, “there was a maid we had growing up that called us ‘the little Barkovitches’, but I can’t say for sure that was our Russian name.” Even though she got it wrong, I am certain that our name was Barkovitch. That was a thrilling revelation.
I called her the next morning.
She opened with her confession that her and her family have fought Communism all their life. She regaled their wealth again, and then gave me her heroic version of Bernard’s life, who was only working to save our country.
After the war, and his imprisonment, Bernard came to Cuba where he met and married her mother. The day after Cuba was overthrown by Castro, Bernard marched down to the CIA office and signed up. He fought against the invasion, then the CIA told him that because he was so brave against the enemy, his life was in danger. They decided to get him out of Cuba by putting him in a casket with a dead American, laying directly above his body. MariaElena and Clara left Cuba two years later. He worked for the CIA for a while, then wanted to get out, so he and the family moved to Chicago, but hated the weather, so they moved back to Miami, where he was begged to come back to the CIA, so he did.
Regarding Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, she said that Ellsberg was audio taped in the back of a Russian diplomat limousine revealing our country’s secrets, so he had to be stopped. Bernard knew that the proof of his disgrace was at his psychiatric doctor’s office, so he broke in but couldn’t find anything. He went to the psychiatrist’s home, and was ready to break in, when a dog approached ready to attack. He left and called Hunt, who told him to kill the dog and get in the house. Bernard told him that he will kill a human enemy, but never a dog, and he walked away, refusing to finish the mission. She said that Hunt was aghast. MariaElena laughed with glee at the end of that story.
With Watergate, she said they knew that McGovern was in league with Russia, and the proof was in the offices. When Bernard and his friends were caught, they had the evidence, but the police destroyed it and never acknowledged it existed. He was only trying to save our country.
She did not mention the grassy knoll, and I decided not to challenge her on that. I took what information she gave with gratitude.
She invited me to come to Florida and stay with her, because, as she so proudly stated, “We have DeSantis,” referring to their extreme alt-right governor. When she learned I lived in California, she said, “California is communist. I will never go there.” She then abruptly said goodbye because frankly, her mission was complete. I am so glad that I didn’t tell her I lived in Humboldt County.
She then sent a few photos via text and asked for photos from me. I smartly avoided my long-haired husband with the Karl Marx union shirt, and anything I use with my writing. My dogs were a big hit, and she said that my grandfather and I have the same ears as her and her father. I put my hands to my ears when I read that.
Her call was primarily to defend Bernard’s legacy with a litany of tall tales. I am not cruel, and it took a lot for me to feel comfortable in writing about this interaction. She was very friendly, and kind, and I don’t forsake that, but she was not really interested in me. She didn’t even ask what I did for a living, or how many children I have, and only entertained polite questions about Bernard. This conversation had one purpose, and one purpose only: to change the narrative on who her father was. She is the family defender. She will lie about him to her dying day, no matter how Christian she professes to be, because the greater sin is truth. This archetype was easy to identify.
I have a sibling like that. When asked one time if our father had abused her like he abused me, her response was, “Do you think I would admit such a thing? I’m not doing anything to cut me off from his money.” Then she wrote an obituary that was a glowing biography, placing him at the feet of saints.
I am resigned that MariaElena and I will never talk again.
Conclusion
The act of gaining wealth on the backs of others is a well-known archetype in my father’s line, as well as exhibiting some frightening behavior. My immediate family and their muses were political figures, and though it intermittently waned or waxed depending on the issue or member, the darkness surfaced time and time again. Trauma is complex, and most of my family morphed from one to the other, depending on the need or motivation. Money is most definitely one of the strongest, as the person who holds the purse strings now spent a lifetime working at manipulating family rather than working to support herself.
Sadly, my family uses every opportunity on social media to openly vilify me, as they have done for years. I have seen many posts, because it is meant for everyone to see. However, I have never used any public platforms to even discuss family issues, until now, as I care more for my answering to the universe for my actions, rather than attacking on the lowest level. The gift that this research has given me is the strength of knowing who I am. When one has achieved that pinnacle, telling the truth holds no fear, even as I face that ones who would love to bring me down.
There are possibilities that aspects of MariaElena’s version of the Barker motivation is true. At this time, I have no way of verifying. I will continue to try to get extended family members to get back to me. However, I keep going back to an old lesson I learned from being a juror in the court system: once you have established that a testimonial has one lie, you have to throw out the rest.
After all this male carnage, it was two women’s stories that helped me the most; Bernard’s sister, along with another aunt who also left the family. They showed me that I had, without knowing, become just another family archetype. I wasn’t the bad seed for leaving; I simply sustained a long family scapegoat/lost-child tradition of leaving a toxic environment to find immense happiness and gratitude in my life.
And I am very happy, finally.