November 22 Once Again

I entered the 47th anniversary of John Kennedy’s assassination by not being able to sleep. Not because I was pondering the events that happened on that day that changed America forever, but instead a long night of waiting for sleep to come. So I got up, turned on the radio to the listen to the late night show, Coast To Coast AM as I knew Edward Haslam author of Dr. Mary’s Monkey was going to be on and would also feature a live interview with Judyth Vary Baker whose new book, Lee And Me, has been recently published and I’ve just started reading. She claims to have been Oswald’s lover for a few months in 1963 and so far, her story, while seemingly improbable is surprisingly well documented and filled with insights not documented before.

Judy’s voice are clear and familiar sounding. A bit feisty, but never rude, she recounted bits of her life as Lee Oswald’s lover and what it was like to see somebody she claims to have loved killed on live TV. She described Oswald as a patriot that loved his country and was knowingly set up to be the patsy and vilified afterward. To add to the intrigue she was calling from an undisclosed location in Europe and using something other than a phone (never defined). When asked by host George Knapp about the death threats she said she has gotten, she never gave a straight answer and laughed it off. I wish she had been more forthcoming on the threats and how they were delivered.

I think what stood out for me the most is when Judyth said that Lee knew what was going down and that he was going to be made the patsy. She says he stuck it out hoping to thwart the conspiracy. Well, that certainly is a new take on the assassination! I’ll have to study more on this and read more of her book before I can form a deeper opinion on that.

Also of note is that Edward Haslam spent a lot of time on the show last night discussing Judy and the assassination. Ed is a bit...out there. When a caller made some comments about the deadliness of the Mannlicher-Carcano, Haslam corrected him and said it was a Mauser that was fired and uncovered and the Mannlicher was not “discovered” until two days later. I was surprised he would say something that far off from the known facts. While there is an ongoing debate on numerous rifles discovered in the sixth floor it’s quite evident from police reports and numerous photographs and films that a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle was recovered within a few hours of the assassination. Frankly, I’m disappointed in Haslam for the inaccuracy here. I’m all for a divergence of thought on what happened but this is just plain wrong.

I’ll post a more detailed review of Me and Lee later. Judyth Vary Baker presents a unique take on the Kennedy assassination with more details then ever exposed before on who Lee Oswald was, who of course, remains the ultimate enigma of the case.