Props For Researcher Pat Speer

Why?  Because Pat Speer has the patience and fortitude to examine and review just about everything said about the Kennedy assassination leading up to, and during, the 50th Anniversary of the event in 2013.  This includes it all: print, web, and TV.  I really didn’t have the wherewithal to sit thru it thinking I would be so angry I would not be able to sleep at night.  I’m so glad somebody did this work as it needed to be done.  

His review, entitled, The Onslaught: the Media's Response to the 50th Anniversary of the JFK Assassination, is a master clinic in media machinations involving presenting the case to the American, where most television commentators on the major networks, or journalists, have little or no understanding of the event.  After reading two very long pages of Speer’s analysis, it’s really quite amazing to see such a divergent group of people, from the web, print media, PBS, and cable news news networks, people of different backgrounds from seasoned print journalists to new media writers, can all come to the same conclusion:  The Warren Commission got it right.

The conclusion being that there is no conspiracy, that conspiracy is just a bunch of made-up stories, that Lee Oswald is guilty of not only killing President Kennedy, but Officer Tippet, and attempted to assassinate General Walker as well.  It’s amazing to see them all walk in unison together like this.  It’s a hive-mind in operation.  Just one big collective of dead thinkers from all over the place. 

The stumbling block for all of these people is the single bullet theory.  SBT as we call it.  Two ballistic experts, Luke and Michael Haag (father and son), are tasked with replicating it.  They will make the rounds to a host of documentaries on various networks.  Their tests are all supposed to be scientific and feature stunts that have been done before.  As Speer shows, much is flawed in their demonstrations--wrong distances, angles, still targets, not shooting at bone, and so on.  How ironic to have experts trying to prove a theory that comes from non-ballistic experts, i.e., lawyers.  How convoluted is that?  Very!  The staff attorney’s created the SBT for purely political reasons once the FBI came up with an errant bullet striking the curb on Commerce wounding James Tague.  In the end, the Haag’s come off as a pair of fakers to those of us who have studied the case.  At no point in these demonstrations, is it ever revealed that the Warren Commission in 1964 tasked ballistic experts doctors Dolce and Light to conduct tests on cadavers using Oswald’s rifle at the U. S. Army Edgewood Arsenal.  As Dr. Dolce stated in an interview in 1986, each of the ten test fired bullets were in his words, “markably deformed.”  Dr. Dolce was not called to give testimony to Warren Commission and his findings were buried in a report, published in March of 1965, that was classified “confidential” for 8 years before being placed in the NARA.  You’ll never see this mentioned in any of these programs.

And this thread of fakery runs through just about every show and article on JFK’s assassination.  I think what it shows more than anything is how co-opted the American media is when it comes to the controversy surrounding the case.  It should be a time honored American tradition to question and test what the government tells us.  

I don’t know what the are more bothered with...conspiracy or controversy.  

Here is the quote, by Pulitzer prize-winner David Horsey, in the LA Times that most aggravates me:

“In the real world, though, conspiracies tend to unravel. Somebody squeals, somebody leaks, somebody betrays. We always find out – and usually because a conspiring collective of humans is bound to screw up.”

Does this learned man understand anything about history at all?  It’s rife with conspiracy.  To suggest that conspiracies unravel due to human frailty is ludicrous.  Plots can unravel but they mainly unravel after the deed is carried out.  And some, such as the JFK conspiracy can last seemingly forever by having jack legs such as Horsey who would rather pontificate on a national medium rather than conduct a proper investigation.  In many ways people like this are unwittingly government shills, if not on the payroll.  And we know what former CIA director William Colby said about that in front of Congress; that all major media figures are under their control.

Conspiracies are real.  Conspiracy is not a theory, it's a crime.  The one involving JFK’s death is ongoing for 50 years.  It does happen.  About a dozen people were involved with the conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln.  Who talked there? Nobody.  Dozens of men were involved in the plot to a assassinate Adolf Hitler.  Who talked there? Nobody.  The nineteen hijackers on 9/11.  Did any of them talk?  Of course not.

I think Pat Speer sums it up when commenting on the early journalists that looked into the assassination.  As he put it, “..they basically accept whatever evidence is put on the plate before them.”  

To be fair, that was a time when most people believed their government.  However, a host of revelations were to follow over the next decade to dispel that.  A whole lot of lying was uncovered from Vietnam, Watergate, and the CIA/FBI revelations. The disappointing thing is that people in the media today still believe what is presented to them with minimal examination. 

Speer finishes up with the following:  “I mean, have any of the old newsmen dragged out to tell their stories --MacNeil, Lehrer, Schieffer, Rather, Brokaw, Aynesworth, Allman, and Payne--expressed the slightest doubt about the most doubtful aspect of the Warren Commission's conclusions: the single-bullet theory? I don't believe so.” 

So the most common prevailers of the lone nut theory in all of these 50th Anniversary media presentations (print-web-TV) either have no working knowledge of the case, are government shills, money and fame seekers, habitual liars, or just a bunch of opinionated blowhards.  I imagine the next generation of stooges will be in place for the 100th Anniversary.  I’m glad I won’t be here to see it.

Sources

http://www.patspeer.com/the-onslaught

Pat Speer debunks the debunkers!

Pat Speer on his excellent research site debunks the debunkers of conspiracy in the national media, print-web-TV, regarding the reporting on the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's killing.  This is why I didn't watch a lot of it.  I knew it would be so anti-conspiracy and fraudulent that it would not be worth wasting time on.  As Pat documents, indeed it was. It shows what lengths these media gate keepers do to keep the government myth of a lone assassin alive.  The amount of selective evidence sourcing to make sure Lee Oswald forever guilty boggles the mind.   

It's worth reading both pages:
http://www.patspeer.com/the-onslaught

And 

http://www.patspeer.com/the-onslaught-part2

Highly recommended.

Dale Myers Takes A Stab At Book Reviewing (And Conspiracy Theorist Bashing)

The first time I wrote about Dale K. Myers was in my piece, Dale Myers and Pat Speer Duke it Out. Researcher and critic Pat Speer has an online book on the Kennedy assassination that is an excellent research tool. As Speer said of Myers’ work, “...his depiction of the single-bullet theory is so incredibly misleading.” He took on Myers in a series of online debates regarding Myers’ computer simulations of the Kennedy murder that have been featured on various TV documentaries. He started out years ago using crash-test dummies before moving on to computerized simulations and he’s made a lot of variations on them. After a lot of exchanges between the two, Myers retired from the field of battle after getting his nose bloodied by Speer. You can read my piece HERE and for much greater detail on Pat Speer’s site HERE.

Dale Myers recently posted a review of a newly published book on the Tippit murder from Donald Byron Thomas called, Hear No Evil: Social Constructivism and the Forensic Evidence in the Kennedy Assassination. It’s quite a screed filled with insults towards the author and plenty of good ole’ fashion Bugliosi style conspiratorialist bashing calling Warren Commission critics, conspiracy nut-jobs and boobs. Oh, and throw in a little sarcasm as well to salt the wounds. In the process, Myers comes off as a jerk. But hey, whatever the government says is okay with people like this. After all, the Feds never lie do they?

Myers starts off by dissing the author, Donald Byron Thomas, a Ph.D Entomologist (study of insects–the doctorate degree is never mentioned in the review). Says Myers: “To say that Mr. Thomas, an entomologist by profession, is way out of his league pontificating on the Tippit case would be an understatement devoid of description.” Because he studies bugs? I guess Myers considers himself more immanently qualified to research the Kennedy assassination with his background as a computer geek animator. Amazing. The haughty Myers in a huff! As if producing digital recreations of the discredited Magic Bullet theory gives one total credibility in researching the JFK case. Perhaps he is envious of a book on this subject since he wrote one as well, With Malice: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Murder of Officer J.D. Tippit. A book that is out of print and priced at over a $100 used. (He links it to Amazon, but there is only one new copy there and it’s priced at $169.95! The current cheapest used price is $114.03 and if one has some cash to burn, the most expensive is $1,289.79 from some dude in Germany. Other used books sellers online also price it over $100 as well. While Myers constantly references his book but never alerts the reader of its hefty cost. Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #872,807. Oi!)

Early on, Myers’ opines about Hear No Evil: “Thomas’ take on the Tippit murder is the most outrageous, error-riddled, load of crap I’ve read in a long time. It’s hard to believe that anyone with an ounce of sense would believe such nonsense, but hey, if you don’t know what really happened I guess anything – even the kind of bull droppings that Thomas is hawking – can sound plausible.”

He could have ended the review there, but no, no, no. The Emmy award winning animator is not done slinging insults by a long shot. The review is so long I placed it in Word at 12 point type and it stretched on for 38 pages! And that doesn’t include the pages of Errata and end notes. All this babbling for a book he says is a load of crap, filled with half-truths and outright fabrications. But Myers, the Warren Commission’s defender of Truth and Logic must soldier on refuting many of the facts mentioned in the Dr. Thomas’ book both major and petty. For example, he starts out with the initials “J. D.” and says Thomas can’t get the name right alleging that the initials meant nothing. However, researcher, Thomas H. Purvis, who has copy of a Tippet insurance form says he lists his full name as Jefferson Davis Tippit. Purvis also says it was common in the Tippit family to have names of noted leaders.

Myers takes to beating on Dr. Thomas even if he has to use a feather.

To be fair to Myers, he does appear to have found some serious flaws in the research as it’s presented in Hear No Evil. For example, Thomas’ claim that Tippet’s autopsy report had been suppressed or that Tippet suffered three wounds instead of four; the placement of a gas station at a corner where there was none; or that Tippet was shot with different types of bullets rather than different brands. Though I think he errs greatly on the issue of the wallets.

That Pesky Wallet
One of the mainstays of JFK assassination controversy has been the wallet found at the scene of the Tippet murder with Oswald’s ID cards in it. Myers touches on this issue for another opportunity to rip on Thomas and conspiracy theorists in general, but the fact of the matter is that the whole issue is revealed in the first place in FBI agent James Hosty’s 1966 (reprinted in 1996) book, Assignment: Oswald. Further adding credence to the episode is the wallet which is being examined by Dallas Police officers is being filmed. Not so easy to dismiss witness testimony this time around. Myers is reduced to a pitiful declaration, “...the pedigree of the wallet is unknown. It remains to this day, unknown.” Sure, sure...

This is a favorite subject of mine to explore and I wrote about it in The Tale Of The Two Wallets. The genesis of the story is when an unnamed witness hands a black wallet to a Sargent Calvin Owens who in turn brings it to the attention of Captain W. R. Westbrook of the Dallas Police. This examining of the wallet is captured on film (no audio) by Ron Reiland of WFAA-TV. Allegedly Lee Oswald’s ID and one for his alias, Alex Hidell were found in it. Along comes FBI SA Robert Barrett and Capt. Westbrook asks him if he knows the individuals on the IDs, as if Barrett would know, and he does not. Eventually the story of this incident makes it way into FBI agent James Hosty’s, Assignment Oswald, where agent Barrett relates the story to him for the book. (Attempts were made to interview officers Westbrook, Owens, and a third officer seen on film, Captain George Doughty, but were unsuccessful.)

The tricky part is that when Oswald is arrested at the movie theater, there is a wallet in his left pocket on him! So, two wallets in play and that makes a frame-up and hence, a conspiracy. In my view, this is why Myers leaves the wallet a mystery, without pedigree, because either the second wallet story is true, or somebody is lying here. Agent Hosty wrote that fellow agent Barrett told him that an Oswald wallet was found at the Tippit crime scene. Agent Barrett believed without a doubt the case against Oswald being Tippet’s murderer was a “slam-dunk” because the wallet with Oswald’s ID in it was found at the murder scene! Obviously, that is a lie if Barrett’s allegation is false. But why would he lie about such a thing? The lofty Myers has no say on that point.

After all, there can’t be a second wallet as that indicates a frame-up of Oswald for the Tippet murder.

According to Myers, “To date, the wallet’s origin and owner remain unknown.” Not to FBI agent Barrett! Or for that matter, three Dallas Policemen seen with it. Myers furiously typed, “But that doesn’t stop Thomas from turning the wallet episode into some half-baked conspiracy theory like all of his brethren before him.” Gosh, we are all in lock-step here? Does he know the source of this? Which is an FBI agent, right? And apparently Hosty believed it as he included the incident in his book.

What it comes down to is Myers doesn’t want to find out who it belongs to and concedes it is all a mystery. I am sure it would have been so much easier for him if the whole wallet scene had not been filmed! He inserts there is no proof it was Oswald’s yet can’t or won’t attribute it to Tippet–or anybody else. But it has to belong to somebody. Bugliosi had the same problem in Reclaiming History and sent the issue to his End Notes on disc where he finally concluded it was Tippet’s billfold that had fallen out of his trouser pocket. (At no point has anyone at the murder scene, police, FBI, or the ambulance crew said this was the case.) At least Bugliosi could make a decision on the issue unlike Myers, who would rather have it all go away.

Also of note: Neither SA Barrett or Capt. Westbrook, Sargent Owns, or Capt. Doughty wrote up the discovery of the wallet in their official reports. Captain Westbrook apparently never turns it over to the Homicide department. It vanishes. And if it’s a second wallet belonging to Oswald, then it has to, right?

Just Too Much Thinkin’ Goin’ On Here
Not be undone Dale Myers also has J.D. Tippet web site to refute critics. On it Myers heroically claims:

“As long as my health permits, I will continue to be alert for false and misleading information being publicized about the JFK assassination investigation. I will utilize whatever resources are available to refute such information. Future generations deserve to know the truth. During the past forty-one years there has been far too much fiction.”

He’s right. There has been too much fiction and it begins with the Warren Report! Oh well, nothing like being a guiding light of reason against those unruly, superstitious peasants that have the audacity not to believe what their “betters” tell them! Actually, it’s just defending the honor of the status quo since a large majority of the public doesn’t believe them, not matter how many shills they have in place; no matter the mainstream media’s blackout of JFK conspiracy related books, videos, magazines and web sites. After a while it’s just as much a political exercise as it was for the Warren Commission and the government sanctioned investigations that followed.

In Dale Myers’ Lone Nut world everybody tells the truth. Nothing is suspicious at all– it’s all random chance, coincidence, simple little errors that don’t mean anything. Any witness that has something controversial or even hints at conspiracy has to come under close scrutiny. Vince Bugliosi does the same thing in Reclaiming History, and in fact, Myers worked on part of it till they had a parting of ways. So one can see the modus operandi at work here, such as with lead witness Helen Markham with her scatter brained testimony being fully acceptable as opposed to Roger Craig, who defies all the main dogmas of the case and is in turn, treated like the bastard at the family reunion. (Another example is cab driver William Whaley that dropped Oswald off at certain street only to change the address numerous times over the years. But that is okay with these cherry pickers so long as Oswald comes out guilty every time.)

Unfortunately, Myers’ review sets a nasty tone. Laced with insults, sarcasm, condescension and slander, it’s hard to fathom where all the hate comes from. If author Donald Byron Thomas is wrong in his analysis of the facts then say so. It’s a noble enterprise to combat disinformation in the case but this screed ramps up the nastiness to John McAdams levels. Generally, it seems most of the vitriol comes from the Lone Nut believers. Most of their focus seems to be on the critics and not the original source of the controversy to begin with–the Warren Commission and its report. Why such a fevered drive to prove what the Commission was saying as opposed to breaking it all down and really finding something out?

Errata 12/22/10
The Amazon book prices have changed again. Now the latest used price for Dale Myers’ With Malice is $149.99. The latest new price is, incredibly, $1,289.78!

Sources
The Warren Report; Hosty Jr., James, Assignment: Oswald; McKnight, Gerald, Breach of Trust; Armstrong, John, Harvey and Lee; Mars, Jim, Crossfire; Bugliosi, Vince, Reclaiming History

Thomas H. Purvis
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=2594

Dale Myers and Pat Speer Duke it Out
http://oswaldsmother.blogspot.com/2008/12/dale-myers-and-pat-speer-duke-it-out.html

Pat Speer analysis of Myer’s animation
http://www.patspeer.com/chapter12c%3Aanimania

Dale Myers and Pat Speer Duke It Out

Dale Myers (left) and Pat Speer (right)

I’ve been following Pat Speer’s web site for a while now. I admire his work. His web site is laid out like an online book (which it is) with chapters loaded down with illustrations and photographs. As an independent researcher he is thoughtful and well reasoned in dealing with the confusing mess that makes up the Kennedy assassination. He delves into what happened rather than conspiracy theories.

The fur started to fly when Speers did a chapter on his site entitled, Chapter 12c: Animania. Here, he takes on Dale Myers, an Emmy award winning animator who is most famous in recent years for his recreations of the Warren Commission’s SBT—single bullet theory for network TV documentaries. Myers has been at this for years starting out with test dummies and moving on to computer simulations. You can see Myers work in Beyond Conspiracy and Beyond the Magic Bullet.

Frankly, I would not want to be in Myers’ position here. There are numerous conflicts in the evidence from over 40 years ago and that carries over into the animation as well. For example in one animation, which is supposed to be correct in every detail, we are shown a red line depicting the bullet passing through Kennedy’s back and entering Connolly’s back. However, the line exits Kennedy’s chest, not the neck, which is an error Myers never addresses.

Pat Speer’s analysis of Myers’ animations have led him to conclude that his work is fraudulent. Strong words. Myers has issued several rebuttals on an Internet forum and on his web site and the fur has flown. The resulting tit-for-tat is far too involved to go into here; see both men’s sites (see links below) for the blow-by-blow details.

Speer does bring up some valid issues with Myers’ work. The placement of the jump seat relative to the door, the relative seat heights, the exact positions of both men to allow the passage of the single bullet, and how much foliage was present on Elm Street that Oswald had to shoot through. He does a decent job of finding flaws with animations and raises some valid issues.

Speer however, does falter on one issue and that is Myers’ placement of Kennedy and Connally in the limousine. Myers has Connally sitting low enough to be on the floor.  Myers’ response is to blame it on the distortion of the digitally generated camera wide-angle view. I am a photographer and have used wide-angle lenses for years. This simply cannot happen. Oddly, the side view from the animation showing Connally seated well below Kennedy. Myers’ explanation is odd, as he could have made a better response here. There are numerous photographs shot that day showing Connolly seated lower. Other photographs at apparently different angles show them seated on the same level (see examples below). In fact there is one I found of the limo door opened showing the jump seat positioned much lower than the rear seat. All Myers has to do is show the photos. Obviously, the President should sit taller, right?


Conversely, Speer had to know these photographs exist as well. But for the sake of argument, or whatever, chooses not to address them.

In Dale Myers defense, I do not think he is out to deceive the public. Pat Speer does and calls him a liar. I think Myers’ intentions are sincere though he seems content with what data is at hand, which is a flawed mess to begin with. For example, what we know as the SBT comes to us from a lawyer—not ballistics experts or engineers. Myers seems unconcerned with that and ends up doing what the original investigation did, which in some areas is to jury-rig the evidence to fit the theory. What Myers does is no different than Gerald Ford moving the President’s back wound to the back of the neck to be more “precise” in the final report. That way, everything works out right for the narrative. (And ironically, Myers does position the back wound in his animations inches above where the autopsy photos and measurements show the injury.)

I think a lot of serious researchers such as Myers go for the lone gunman theory because of the bad reputation that conspiracy researchers have been pegged with. Even Pat Speers, who is reasonable and not a conspiratorialist, with his simple questioning of the official scenario, finds himself placed in that camp.

At last count Myers has retired from the field of debate with Speer. Good for him. He needs to heal up from the bruises. Speer lets Myers have the final word:

“Forget about convincing Mr. Speer that one cannot draw a rational conclusion from an irrational premise; I’ve tried. Suffice it to say that Mr. Speer prefers to live in a land of illusion where physical realities don’t hold a candle to obsessive conspiracy theories.”

Myers only rejoinder is that he has tried to talk sense to a mule. As if that is smart to begin with. What Speer has done is to carefully dissect Myers’ recreation of the STB in painful detail. Speer paints Myers in a corner largely due to his own numerous errors in his data. Of course in time, the paint will dry and Myers will escape to find a friendly venue for his theories and recreations. A stage where he will not be asked hard questions and be allowed to promote his version of what happened on that tragic day in November.

Addendum 1.20.14
Review of the updated version of Myers' book With Malice.
http://oswaldsmother.blogspot.com/2013/10/book-review-with-malice-lee-harvey.html 

Sources: Video, Beyond Conspiracy and Beyond the Magic Bullet. Web sites: Speer, https://www.patspeer.com/  and Myers, http://jfkfiles.blogspot.com/

JFK: Inside the Target Car

Don't miss Pat Speer's excellent review and analysis of the Discovery Channel's "JFK: Inside the Target Car".

LINK