Sky News Australia Interview of Jim DiEugenio

Respected researcher and author Jim DiEugenio was recently interviewed by Sky News Australia regarding key points that lead to a conspiracy in the murder of president John F. Kennedy.

DiEugenio has an excellent grasp of the facts and lays down a very good framework for multiple shooters.  This is a good video for those that have a casual understanding of the assassination of president Kennedy.

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=921hRZKkwOk

Source:  

https://www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/sky-news-australia-interview-of-jim-dieugenio

Transcript available at the Kennedy and King link above.

Sixtieth Anniversary of the Warren Report

James DiEugenio's On the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Warren Report is available at the Kennedys And King assassination investigation site.  This is an excellent overview of the main points of the Warren Commission Report.  The Warren Report is basically government issued propaganda supported by a compliant media.  Its failings are why the majority of the public doesn’t believe the official story of John Kennedy’s death and started the overall decline of public trust in the government.  As has been seen over the years since 1964 this lack of trust has not been misplaced. 

As DiEugenio explains, 

“Yet, both CBS and NBC broadcast specials on the Warren Report on the day it was issued to the public.  How could anyone have read the 888 pages, digested it, and then put together, respectively, a 2 hour program, and a 1 hour program vouching for the validity of that report?  For that is what happened.  The NBC show was hosted by Frank McGee and supported by Tom Pettit, who was right on the scene when Jack Ruby killed Lee Oswald. The CBS special was hosted by Walter Cronkite, with Dan Rather in support.  Was doing such a thing not a violation of journalistic ethics?  It was the equivalent of taking a government press release and announcing it as factually truthful to tens of millions of people, without any review.”

Read more here:

https://www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/warren-commission-report-60-years-later

The Investigation That Never Was

Updated with edits at Substack.

https://open.substack.com/pub/georgebailey/p/the-investigation-that-never-was

From The Saturday Evening Post, 1967

The Kennedy Assassination.  An article by Richard J. Whalen of the Saturday Evening Post published in the January 14, 1967 issue.

As Whalen remarked in the piece, “Without surrendering to fantasy, there is still room for some doubt about the essential finding.”  Imagine any mainstream journalist making such a comment now.

A candid article discussing the controversies of the case and whether there should be a new investigation.  PDF of the article linked below.

http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/wp-content/uploads/satevepost/9670114_kennedy_assassination.pdf

Book Review: With Malice - Lee Harvey Oswald and the Murder of Officer J.D. Tippit by Dale K. Myers

(Updated at SubStack:  https://georgebailey.substack.com/p/book-review-with-malice-lee-harvey)

Updated edition with 140 extra pages, featuring new photos and documents.

Dale Myers has been around a while.  Besides his book on Tippit’s death, he is well known for his nationally broadcast computer animations trying to simulate the single bullet theory and has appeared on numerous television programs.  He’s deeply associated with the “lone nut” crowd and is noted for an online dust-up with researcher Pat Speer a few years ago.  You can read about that, here on Speer’s site.  My take on it is here.

The Book

With Malice is a huge, heavy hardcover book of 864 pages. About half the book is filled with documents, photographs, diagrams, endnotes, and appendixes.  It’s expertly printed with very high quality halftone reproduction of the photos and illustrations.  The large font  makes it a pleasure to read.  The photos are a real treasure in this book as many of them are not reproduced anyplace else in print or on the Web.

The Story

The account of J.D. Tippit’s brief life show him to be a good and decent man.  Born into poverty, he serves in the U.S. Army as a paratrooper with distinction being awarded the bronze star.  Upon leaving the service, he did what many men of that time, married his sweetheart and found a job.  In this instance, the job as a police officer would be his undoing. Since the publication of the first edition, Myers got further acquainted over the years with the Tippet family who kindly provided him with a host of photos of J.D. and his family which are included in the new addition.

Myers swiftly arrives at the heart of the story, the day of the assassination.  Here is the standard account one can find little fault with and is well laid out by the author.  

There are places where Myers appears to be uncomfortable with the narrative.  Such as when Tippet pulls into the Tip Top Record store just a few minutes before his death and make a call.  Seen by both the store owner and the clerk, Tippet lets it ring “7 or 8” times, hangs up and leaves.  Myers then imparts comments from one police officer and a dispatcher both of whom don’t think Tippet would do such a thing.  Finally, Myers comes around and admits that Tippet was in the record shop making the call but the reason why, is left a mystery.  He does this a lot.  We’ll see this again with the wallet.

Tippet had been seen in the shop purchasing records before but had never rushed in to use the phone.  Something very unusual was happening in this instance but it’s not a mystery if there are other factors in play.  For example, the story has been out for years that Tippet was involved in the plot and his role that day was to kill Oswald.  Just as it became Jack Ruby’s job a few days later.  But this leads us down the path of conspiracy, a place Lone Nutters such as Myers won’t tread.

Anyway, like an old movie, J.D. Tippit arrives at 10th and Patton, has his showdown with whomever gets the drop on him, and he is one with the ages.  It’s all rather straightforward with plenty of witnesses watching a lone gunman be the long gunman one more time, before another lone gunman silences him forever a few days hence.

Overall, Myers does a good job in documenting the various aspects of the case from Tippet’s murder, ballistics evidence, and witness testimony.  He does make the case that Oswald encountered Tippet and killed him.  There is no motive for Oswald to do so such as there is not notice for him to kill the President.  There are however, places where he falters and we’ll explore those next.  These issues are mainly the wallet, the pistol, and Myers overall bias in favor of the lone gunman theory.   

The Wallet...The Stumbling Block

All supporters of the Official Story have a hard time with the wallet discovered at the scene of Tippit’s murder.  It is the main out of place artifact.  It would normally be written off as a confused event from stressed out men, functioning on a bewildering and tragic day.  But, there is the WFAA-TV film crew at the Tippet murder scene with Dallas Policemen examining a billfold.  The event is recorded on 16mm film, in black and white, just two over minutes with no audio.

Myers struggles with this issue just as Bugliosi did in Reclaiming History, regulating the incident to his End Notes on the accompanying  CD-ROM.  Bugliosi wrongly concluded it was Tippet’s wallet.  Once again, finding something troubling that creates a conflict with his narrative, Myers shoots an air ball and states at the end of his examination, that the wallet is a mystery.  He clearly wants it to go away as it could represent an attempt to frame of Oswald for the crime.  

The found wallet was largely unknown till retired FBI agent James Hosty mentioned it in his 1995 book, Assignment Oswald.  He says he was told of the wallet with Oswald’s ID in it by fellow agent Robert Barrett.  In turn, Barrett said he learned of it from Dallas police captain W. R. Westbrook at the Tippet murder location.  Westbrook is seen in the TV film footage examining a wallet in the company of several other Dallas police officers.  Barrett says he was asked by Westbrook if he knew a Lee Oswald or an Alek Hidell.  He did not.  This was due to the number if ID's in the wallet.

One troubling issue is where did this wallet come from?  It was seen by no one at the murder scene, either police officers, reporters, or the ambulance crew.  The source is apparently an anonymous bystander that handed it over to reserve sergeant Kenneth Croy.  Eventually it made its way to captain Westbrook.  Myers states that Croy is the only police officer on the scene that can corroborate Barrett.  He further states that in a 2009 interview, Croy told him that there were seven ID’s but not one had Oswald’s name on them.  However, long-time researcher Jones Harris, who interviewed Croy in 1990, told me that Croy never made such a statement to him, and Croy said he never examined the contents of the wallet.  Never the less, this odd comment by Kenneth Croy appears to be a flimsy attempt to discredit Robert Barrett’s account of what happened.  Which in itself is hard to do since Barrett has proven himself over time to be an honest individual whose story never changed.  

It is worrisome however, that captain Westbrook, other police officers at the scene, and agent Barrett left out the wallet in all of their collective reports.  In his interview with Barrett, Jones Harris told me he had queried why he did not mentioned the wallet episode in his report.  Barrett replied, “What was the point Mr. Harris, after all, the man [Oswald] is dead.”  Harris did not press the point, understanding the constraints that Barrett was under at the time and was still under as a government agent. Harris had felt for a long time that things went wrong with the game plan at 10th and Patton.

Myers alleged to have interviewed Robert Barrett in 1996.  If so, why didn’t he ask Barrett why he didn’t document the wallet in his official report?  Or, why he stood by the report as accurate when testifying to the Church Committee in 1975?  We don’t know because Myers never tells the reader why.  Also, Myers hints that Westbrook didn’t tell Barrett about the Oswald/Hidell ID’s till latter that day in headquarters. But that is not what Barrett told researcher Jones Harris about this incident (nor his fellow agent Hosty).  Barrett told Harris that it occurred right there at the murder scene that day.  Later, Harris related this in a conversation with Myers, who after a long pause, expressed shock that Harris had interviewed Barrett.  According to Harris, he felt certain at the time that Myers had not interviewed Barrett.  Harris always felt it was important to talk directly to the people involved rather than depend on government documents, because documents can be manipulated.  

Myers includes a detailed macro shot of the wallet (from the National Archives) taken from Oswald upon his arrest and a frame from the WFAA-TV footage.  Myers attempts to tell the reader how different both wallets are.  That’s a quite a stretch since the frame from the footage is badly blurred.  He goes on to say the TV footage wallet doesn’t show enough wear, has square corners as opposed to rounded, and other differences that are really hard to see because of the blur.  It is apparent however, that the coin zipper is visible in both images.  

Eventually, Myers’ Jedi mind tricks fail to be convincing.  He will admit that Tippit’s wallet is black and found with his things at the Methodist hospital as is documented in police reports–the TV footage wallet is a light color (brown, as seen in Myers' photo and documented) as is Oswald’s arrest wallet.  He will admit a wallet is being examined at 10th and Patton by numerous Dallas police officers.  Ultimately, Myers abandons any hope of resolving the issue.  The wallet completely and utterly disappears from the point of documentation and the mind of man.

The only good thing about this episode is there will always be the film footage to show that wallet being examined in the hands of police officers at 10th and Patton.  

The  Smith and Wesson .38 Special

Myers’ accounting of Oswald buying the .38 pistol is probably the weakest part of the book because so much is left out or totally wrong.  Being a true believer in the official story such as Bugliosi, McAdams, Posner, and others, Dale Myers has to omit the suspicious or the more controversial facts and events in the case. Myers is no exception to this common pattern.

Myers steadfastly remarks there is no doubt that Oswald bought the .38 Smith and Wesson pistol that was used to kill officer Tippet with.  According to Myers, he ordered it under his A. J. Hidell alias and paid for it COD where it arrived at his post office box.  Therein lies the mess Myers creates for himself, a mess which he could have avoided given the time he had.  In fact, this section on the pistol reads like a quickly dashed off summary of what happened.  

The pistol, which was allegedly ordered COD from Seaport Traders was not shipped to Oswald’s P.O. Box.  It was instead sent to the Railway Express Agency for final payment and pickup.  Myers must have a good reason not to mention a word of this.  So it did not arrive at any post office as he says.  Check the order–there is no charge for postage.  Because it’s not being sent that way.  It’s being shipped via rail, Seaport Traders preferred method of shipment.  Not only that, but pickup at a post office would require the recipient to fill out a 5024 postal form for the receiving of a handgun in the mail.  This document has never been found and Myers makes no note of it.  

(Incidentally, Myers features a scan of a Railway Express Agency invoice on his web site.  But he can’t mention anything about this in his book, does not show the scanned receipt, or that the pistol was shipped via rail.)

Also, Texas law at the time required that anyone ordering a handgun would need a “certificate of good citizenship” signed by a local judge for ordering a pistol via mail order.  There is no evidence this was ever done by Oswald and would be difficult since he was ordering the pistol under his Hidell alias, which was lacking any kind of background other than forged ID cards.  He would then have to present this certificate the Railway Express Agency to pick up the gun.  

And to make matters more intriguing, the gun in Oswald’s possession when arrested in the movie theater was a different model than what he allegedly ordered.  It was the more expensive $39.95, .38 Special model which is listed on the order coupon, reproduced in the book.  Oswald ordered the .38 St. W. 2” priced at $29.95 which he allegedly made a $10.00 downpayment.  Myers makes no mention of any of these facts.  It should be pointed out that he never refers to Oswald’s pistol is a “Special” model either.  

The Bullets and Ballstics

The ballistics reporting in this book is very straight forward with plenty of close-up shots of spent hulls and the bullets the entered Tippit’s body.  Myers correctly noted that it’s not possible to connect the recovered bullets with spent cartridges.  

What I take issue with is on page 312 when Myers states the following:

“Oswald’s revolver was originally designed to fire .38 Smith&Wesson cartridges, which have a slightly larger diameter than .38 Special cartridges.”

And then again on page 335:

“The bullets pulled from Tippit’s body are consistence with having been fired from a .38 caliber revolver that had been rechambered to fire .38 Specials.”

He states that Oswald’s pistol was rechambered to fit the Specials since they are smaller in diameter than a standard .38 round.  However, if you have a .38 Special pistol, it only shoots the .38 Special rounds.  So what is the rechambering about?  He is implying that the pistol is being modified to fire the Specials.  But if it’s a .38 Special revolver then no modifications are needed.  As I reference above, Myers never refers to the Oswald gun as a .38 as a “Special” model revolver.  He wants the reader to think that Oswald is using a modified pistol to shoot the smaller diameter ammo.  Because, as stated above, Oswald didn’t order the Smith and Wesson “Special” model pistol.  Yet there he is with one in his hand when arrested in the movie theater.

[Would be interested in hearing from owners of .38 Specials to resolve any of the matters mentioned above.]

Additionally, Myers makes no attempt to discover where Oswald purchased the bullets from.  There is no record of him ever purchasing any ammo wherever he lived from Dallas to New Orleans.  The same applies to the rifle bullets.  It’s an important issue and overlooked by many researchers, especially those in the lone nut crowd.  Most gun owners I know are loaded with ammo, not to mention accessories to go along with their firearms.  None of these things were found in Oswald’s belongings.  What was his source of bullets?

Closing Comments...

Dale Myers bias in favor of the government’s flawed conclusion of a lone nut with no conspiracy involved, clouds his judgement in analyzing the case.  To be fair, overall, he does a good job in researching this tragic event and does makes a good case that Lee Oswald killed officer Tippet.  He is clearly ill at ease with the more problematic areas of the Tippet murder, with the wallet being the number one obstacle.  (The framing of Oswald works here but Myers can’t go there.  As stated on his blog: "However, looking at the evidence, I could not in good faith sign off on something so contrary to the official record without definitive proof – no matter how good it sounded."  How about how good it looks?)

Basically, Warren Commission defenders are all in a precarious position to begin with.  They are defending an incomplete investigation that suffers from being politicized from the start, and features a lack of full disclosure (admitted to by both Warren and McCloy) and behind the scenes machinations.  Little details like those listed here just can’t be mentioned–it’s too conspiratorial and muddies up a simple lone gunman story.  And that is a No Man’s Land for this bunch.

While this book is quite pricy, it’s target market is better suited for researchers of the case rather than the causal reader with a basic knowledge of the assassination.  I hate to say it but the best part of the book is the pictures, illustrations, and scanned documents. Most serious researchers should enjoy having access to that material which makes up half of the book.  

Finally, it remains disappointing that a researcher of Dale Myers' skills never resolves the wallet being seen handled at the Tippet murder scene.  

Addendum #1 
Myers has a short section on Roscoe White.  His story on White involves his son Ricky’s account of Tippet’s murder being done by by his father, Roscoe.  Being an omitter of facts, especially anything suspicious or even remotely curious, Myers leaves out the most controversial thing about Roscoe White on the day of assassination.  Namely, that he was walking around Dealey Plaza wearing a Dallas police officer's uniform.  But he wasn’t officially a police officer.  He wouldn’t attend police training till early December of 1963. He was working for them as a clerk.  As told to me by Jones Harris, only those people that had completed training would be allowed to wear the uniform of a Dallas Police officer.  

So what was Roscoe White doing in a uniform (complete with badge and gun) when he was only a clerk at this point? Some believe he was one of the shooters and the uniform made a good cover.  Anybody else have a better explanation?

Addendum #2
Tippet’s widow Marie allows WFAA News to examine her husband’s wallet.  It is black as is known, but does not feature the zippered pouch as seen in the WFAA film footage wallet. So we know for certain that the wallet seen in the footage is not Tippet's.  Read all about it here:  LINK


Addendum #3
AT CTKA.net, Hasan Yusuf has posted his review of With Malice.  It covers a lot of ground but has some curious statements.  First off he states the following:

“Although this reviewer discusses evidence further on in this review which casts doubt on Harris's credibility as far as the wallet containing identification for Oswald and Hidell is concerned, Postal's own testimony as described above suggests that she did in fact sell Oswald a ticket.”

Harris in this case is researcher Jones Harris, mentioned above in my review.  Harris has discussed with me many times his interview with Julia Postal, the ticket seller at the movie theater Oswald entered.  I don’t get what is “alleged” about it.  There is some doubt that this interview happened and Harris accurately recorded her reaction?    

Yusuf then says there is evidence that, “casts doubt on Harris's credibility as far as the wallet containing identification for Oswald and Hidell is concerned...”  No telling what that would be as Yusuf never tells it.  Maybe in part two.  

Overall though, a good review of Myers' With Malice for what is there.

Link:  http://ctka.net/2014_reviews/with_malice_1.html

Addendum #4 - 3.10.14
Once again, Dale Myers must be feeling insecure about his place in the Tippet murder investigation because he’s got a new piece on his blog regarding the wallet.  It’s basically a huge cut’n’paste from an earlier article on his blog.  Same old stuff but he makes an odd goof.  He says that researcher Jones Harris interviewed witness Kenneth H. Croy, the first police officer to come in contact with the wallet, in 2005.  

However, Harris told me the he interviewed Croy in 1990, 8 years before Myers published With Malice.  I think this was intentional as Myers does this to establish some doubt about the credibility of Croy and old memories involving his acquiring the wallet.  Myers knows better but it’s in his arsenal of tricks to insure Lee Oswald’s guilt in the Tippet slaying.

Link: http://jfkfiles.blogspot.com/2014/03/solving-tippit-murders-wallet-mystery.html

Addendum #5 - 3.31.14
Part 2 is up now for  Hasan Yusuf has posted his review of With Malice.

It seems that Yusuf doubts the veracity of Jones Harris’ statements to me in my review.  I fail to see the proper context of why his statements would be false or untrustworthy.  I double-check what he says to me, where I can, and I have found nothing false in his reporting of his interviews with witnesses in the case to me.

http://ctka.net/2014_reviews/with_malice_2.html

Sources

Dallas Police files on Tippit

http://oswaldsmother.blogspot.com/2011/01/tour-of-dallas-police-department.html

Chapter 12c: Animania by Pat Speer

http://www.patspeer.com/chapter12c%3Aanimania

My take

http://oswaldsmother.blogspot.com/2008/12/dale-myers-and-pat-speer-duke-it-out.html

Dale Myers Propaganda Cartoon (Courtesy of Bob Harris)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rESNREam2eg

Hardcover: 864 pages

Publisher: Oak Cliff Press, Inc.; 2nd ed. edition (2013)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0966270983

ISBN-13: 978-0966270983

Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 7.4 x 2 inches

Shipping Weight: 4.2 pounds

Gerald McKnight interview up at Black Op Radio

Gerald McKnight, author of Breach of Trust, has been interviewed by Len Osanic at Black Op Radio.  Breach of Trust of probably the best book on the machinations and back room dealings of the Warren Commission in their investigation of the death of President Kennedy.  A highly recommended book.

Listen online or download the MP3 at Black Op Radio. Real Media plug-in needed for online listening.

NOTE:  The .mp3 is over 200 megs in size.  Keep this in mind if you have a slow connection or monthly data bandwidth limits.  


Show #632
Original airdate: May 30, 2013
Guests: Gerald McKnight
Topics: Breach of Trust

A Mauser, is a Mauser, is a Mannlicher-Carcano

Top: Mauser. Bottom: Mannlicher-Carcano

Mauser Breech

The saga of three police officers finding a Mauser in the northwest corner of the room where Lee Oswald allegedly killed the President of the United States continues to attract attention. How could three police officers, all experienced with firearms and the identification of weapons, miss pinpointing this important piece of evidence? If indeed, they were wrong to begin with? The discovery of Oswald’s rifle and how it morphs from a German Mauser to an Italian Mannlicher-Carcano is an interesting study of either high confusion, or else men who were subjected to political pressure to recast their stories.

Discovered by Deputy Sheriff Eugene Boone in the northwest corner of the sixth floor, it was identified as a Mauser by Deputy Constable Seymour Weitzman, and Deputy Sheriff Roger Craig. Moments later, Capt. Fritz and Lt. Day shows up to examine and take possession of the firearm. Wetizman would give testimony to the Warren Commission that the rifle found was a Mauser. His signed affidavit of the 23rd describes the rifle as a Mauser. Capt. Fritz said it was a Mauser as well and said so to the Warren Commission. Later, officers Boone and Wetizman, along with Fritz would recant their stories of finding a Mauser. However, Deputy Roger Craig never would.

Mauser Carbine
Not commonly reported, the Mannlicher-Carcano is basically an Italian copy of a German Mauser carbine. A carbine is a short barreled rifle that originated many years ago for use with cavalry. Since a long barreled rifle proved to be ungainly for soldiers on horseback a shorter barreled rifle was developed. Years later, the carbine would again prove useful for paratroopers and their minimalist equipment and weight requirements. A carbine’s advantage is in close combat but offers poor long range accuracy due in part to lower bullet velocity. In the sample images provided here, one can see just how close the Italian version resembles the Mauser, particularly the trigger guard assembly, sights and the shape of the stock. It’s easy to see why the two could be mistaken.

If Lee Oswald did it, he must have been the first sniper to use a carbine. Because no real sniper uses that type of rifle. The only advantage gained would be the ability to sneak the weapon undetected in the building that morning.

But Was It Mistaken?
As already stated, the first man to see the weapon was Deputy Sheriff Eugene Boone and he wrote two reports saying the rifle was a Mauser. He also said that Captain Fritz, who would show up to take possession of the rifle, thought it was a Mauser as well.

In a signed and sworn affidavit on the 23rd, Deputy Constable Weitzman reports the discovery of a 7.65mm, bolt-action Mauser rifle at approximately 1:22 P.M., on the day of the assassination. He would later give the same description in his Warren Commission testimony. The questioning attorney, Mr. Ball never questions Weitzman in regards to the discrepancy to the weapon type, or how the Mauser later becomes known as a Mannlicher-Carcano. But later, the Warren Commission will decide that Weitzman and the other police officers were simply mistaken.

Roger Craig stated in a filmed interview that he was standing with the other officers and examining the rifle up close, within 6-8 inches and he saw “7.65 Mauser” stamped on the barrel. He further states that Weitzman saw it too and pointed it out.

On the other hand, Oswald's Mannlicher-Carcano clearly is marked "MADE ITALY" on the shoulder stock, and "CAL 6.5" stamped on the side of the barrel. How could all of these men miss this? Only if they had a Mauser to begin with.

Eventually, Fritz, Boone and Weitzman would recant their stories and all would say they had been mistaken all along. How could this be? Here are men that had given numerous reports and testimony under oath that the rifle they had discovered was a Mauser carbine. A weapon that Craig said Weitzman had examined up close. Did somebody get to these men?

Fritz, Boone and Weitzman all changed their stories and said they were mistaken and all went on to have normal careers in law enforcement. But Roger Craig, a rising star in the Dallas County Sheriff’s department, who never changed his story, went on to lose everything; his career, his health (including numerous murder attempts) and eventually taking his own life in 1975 at his father’s house.

Importantly, it should be pointed out here–that no signed or sworn affidavit by any police officer involved in the finding of the rifle listed it as a Mannlicher-Carcano–only as a Mauser. 

So when did the switcheroo take place?

The Weapon Mess
As I have often documented here is how mucked-up everything surrounding Oswald obtaining his firearms really are. Even the most simple of efforts on Lee Oswald’s part to acquire the weapons is a weird journey down the rabbit hole. From the buying of the money orders, their processing through the banking system, to the shipment and delivery, to the actual make and model of the rifle and pistol–it’s all one contradiction after the other. And as we see here even the discovery of the rifle is fraught with controversy. Nothing is left alone and the waters are troubled. Like all things in this case nothing is simple and straight-forward.

Adding a new wrinkle is the obscure testimony of Frank Ellsworth, an agent for the ATF that was in the Texas School Book Depository building and participated in later searches, claiming the Italian rifle was found on the fourth floor and not the sixth. He theorized that Oswald, after shooting, ran down the stairs and dumped the Mannlicher-Carcano behind the boxes there on the fourth floor. That would imply another shooter with Oswald on the sixth floor. Ellsworth stuck by this story years later in a 1993 interview with authors Ray and Mary LaFontaine. I note this account here only as a possible explanation in finding a different model of rifle on the sixth floor. Regardless, Frank Ellsworth remains the only witness to this event. It’s an odd side trip to say the least.

There have been discovered bullet fragments and or spent hulls found in and around the Dealey Plaza area. Of note is a bullet fragment found in 1974 by Richard Lester near the triple overpass. It made its way to the FBI lab and there, they determined that while it was 6.5mm caliber, it was not a jacketed bullet so it was dismissed as being fired with Oswald’s rifle.  (Note that the bullet that glanced off the curb near James Tague, left no copper residue as determined by the same FBI lab.) Nevertheless, the bullet that struck Kennedy’s head shattered which no jacketed bullet, in theory, is supposed to do. So what was the fragment doing there? Are we supposed to believe that good ole’ boys were rambling around at night joy-shooting at street lamps and signs?

ARRB And The Envelope
The AssassinationsRecord Review Board (ARRB) in 1995 uncovered an FBI Field Office Dallas (89-43-1A-122) envelope. It was dated 12/2/63 and detailed the contents (since missing) of a 7.65mm shell found in Dealey Plaza after the assassination. This recovered evidence was unknown until the ARRB uncovered it. Unfortunately, it did not contain the 7.65mm shell and the outside of the envelope listed it as having no value and was destroyed. Destruction of material evidence by the FBI?  Did they even bother to take fingerprints off of it? Or, was there too big of a rush?

One can see from this 7.65mm shell affair how deeply entrenched the lone gunman dogma is at this juncture. Yes, dismiss the evidence if there is only one shooter. But if there is a conspiracy, with multiple shooters, then the recovered shell has greater implications for it. But they don’t think like that. Ironically, the spent cartridge is of the same caliber as the recovered Mauser. With these people the evidence doesn't matter as much as the carefully constructed narrative. Just like it didn’t matter when Gerald Ford moved Kennedy’s back wound up to his neck and stated that lie as a fact to the American people.

The End Game
The misidentification in this is epic. There is a thread running through this episode that speaks of intimidation. We know there were witnesses coerced into changing their testimony. Kennedy aide Kenny O'Donnell being a more well known casualty, so much so, he basically perjured himself at the Warren Commission. We never heard his account till House Speaker Tip O’Neil wrote of O'Donnell’s coerced testimony in his autobiography. He admitted to O’Neil he was under a lot of pressure from the FBI.

There is no decent explanation why men so experienced with firearms, apparently of good vision and of good sense, could make such a blunder. Roger Craig read “Mauser” on the breach of a rifle and preserved that account to his dying day. As stated earlier, he said he heard Weitzman identify the rifle as Mauser as well. Roger became the last man standing to the controversy after the others had retreated and he cast a mystery over the proceedings but he surely wasn’t the only witness with troubling testimony. Though he stood his ground the opposition found ways to isolate him and cast him in the wilderness. He lost it all but never his ability to ruffle the status quo. All you need is one voice that never quivers. There are few heroes in this jam but Roger Craig stands like a rock. (And more than just the finding of the rifle--Deputy Craig testified to seeing Lee Oswald in places he should not have been. Craig is no stranger to controversy in many areas of that fateful day.)

So were the police officers browbeaten into changing their account of the discovery of the rifle? I think they were. After all, look at what happened to Roger Craig by not going along with the script. In comparison, the other police officers were left alone. It would be understandable for somebody to say to them, “You want to end up like Roger?”

But if coerced then by whom? Figure that out we’ll know what really went down on November 22. We’ll find out a lot of things. Things they don’t want us to know.


Addendum 5/29/13

Another Witness
Not widely reported in the annals of the Mauser controversy is the Warren Commission testimony of Malcolm Price.  On October 26, 1963 Price was at the SportsDrome Rifle Range in the next booth over from Lee Oswald and took note of the rifle he was using.  He reportedly talked to Oswald about the rifle and was allowed to handle it.  He identified the weapon as a German Mauser with a Tascosa brand scope.  Price said the scope was bright and sharp.  He also reported not seeing a serial number anywhere on the rifle (Armstrong, p.773).


Sources
Mars, Jim, Crossfire; The Warren Commission 26 Volumes; Dallas Police Online Archives; O’Neill, Tip, Man of the House; Armstrong, John, Harvey and Lee; Talbot, David, Brothers.

The Sum Of All Things

"The committee believes, on the basis of the evidence available to it, that President John F. Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy. The committee is unable to identify the other gunman or the extent of the conspiracy."

HSCA, Final Report, 1979

From the very beginning, the Powers that Be have treated the Warren Report as if it is the word of God, come down from on high, etched in stone. In the picture above, that big book almost looks like a stone tablet. Why, it might as well be Moses himself placing it in Lyndon Johnson’s awaiting hands. Later, he would tell Walter Cronkite that he never believed in the lone gunman theory. After second thoughts he asked CBS to delete the comment, under the grounds of National Security. A moment of candor we are not supposed to know about.

In a 1999 doctoral dissertation by Ross Frank Ralston, he relates an important concept in the study of JFK. It is the principle of "hegemony" in the media. In other words, the ability of certain players in the media to dominate others. According to Ralston, those main players are CBS and Time-Life in the way they presented the government’s case in the assassination. And early on, they set the standard as to how the assassination would be relayed to the public after the Warren Report was published in late 1964. The Warren Report, as Ralston summarizes is, "a man in a building shot a man in a car..."

However, there is more than one theory of what happened because there was another, and final, investigation launched in 1977 to become known as the House Select Committee on Assassinations. In this case they explored both the deaths of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Despite political infighting and government agencies lacking in openness and outright lying to the Committee (i.e., CIA) their final report published in 1979 concluded there was a possibility of a conspiracy in the deaths of Kennedy and King but they didn't have the means to continue any further investigation. 

So we are left with two official government investigations both with different outcomes. The first, a lone gunman with no confederates; and the last, more than one gunman with a conspiracy in play.

What Ralston concentrates on in his dissertation is how the media focuses on the former, ignoring the latter, and extending into every possible area of the media from print to TV. In effect, the Warren Report becomes the sum of all things.

The Watch Dog Became The Lap Dog
The way the "Fourth Estate" functions with the Kennedy assassination has long been the fly in the ointment. It is a frustrating issue to examine. Where they should question, they accept without comment. Isn't one of the aims of journalism to research what the facts are? Research what you are told? After all, we are not living in Nazi state, right? In many ways the American press operates like a propaganda arm of the government. Joseph Goebbels never had it so good! One can view this behavior in the way they cover the official government investigations from JFK, to Watergate, to 9-11.

And therein lies the disconnect. The public will question what they are told; the mainstream press, largely, will not. The Watch Dog became the Lap Dog. No one in the American Press ever did a critical analysis of the Warren Report, the 26 volumes of collected evidence and hearings, from then till now. It is as if they wanted to prove the Government's story of what happened. And why? Probably because press independence is a thing of the past. Plus, there are many connections between the government and press at this point. As Carl Bernstein reported in a piece for Rolling Stone magazine in 1976, he found at least 400 CIA operatives in the press, either as volunteers or paid agents.

The internet itself has been a great boon to critical thought on JFK’s assassination. No other media outlet comes close. True, there is a lot of junk out there, misinformation out there from both sides of the issue. One ultimately needs to do their own research to filter out the nonsense. And as I have found in my own research, a careful examination of the evidence paints a totally different picture of the assassination and the surrounding events. Well, back in the day when there were only three networks reporting the news it was easy to play cover for the Ruling Class. Or for that matter, cover up anything that the status quo wanted. Of course they have their own shills in operation on the Internet now as well, but they are all just voices–their impact is diminished as there are so many more voices in opposition

Various Machinations
Ross Frank Ralston does a good job at accounting the various machinations of CBS, Time and Life. It’s the standard mishmash of cherry picked evidence, straw man arguments, and slight of hand, misdirection ploys. These guys are good! And run this same game now. Just watch any History Channel or Discovery Channel documentary on the assassination of Kennedy and you’ll see the Warren Commission’s conclusion verified every time. If you take note of any of these documentaries, their aim is to support the government’s theories and claims on everything from assassinations to terror attacks. While there are too many to document in this post, you can download the PDF below,  about 7.9 megs in size.

I would however, like to point out a few discrepancies that Ralston chronicles regarding the 1967 CBS Kennedy assassination documentary since so much malfeasance occurred masquerading as a legitimate journalistic investigation.

Such as, when they tell us that Oswald’s rifle, utilized by an expert could recycle the weapon in 5 seconds. (The Warren Report settled on 4.8 to 5.6 seconds.) Sounds reasonable, of course. The trouble is, they never alert the viewers that Oswald was never an expert rifleman and barely qualified on his last of three marksmen tests. Nor do they mention the three metal shims used to properly align the telescopic site, or a host of other problems with the lone gunman scenario. (And I might add, you can read about this and a lot more here on this blog.) And since then, a FOIA request has uncovered a CIA document that their own photographic analysis department concluded a time span of just 1.6 seconds, obviously far too fast for anybody to work the bolt manually.

Nevertheless, it’s interesting to see how they manipulate the facts so the man in the building is forever shooting at the man in the car. The Lone Gunman is an ever present character in documentaries like this since he’s the fall-guy to quash conspiracy. In CBS ballistics tests done with a Mannlicher-Carcano, which by the way, is a model they acquired, not Oswald’s original weapon, they used it to shoot up masonite and gelatin dummies to simulate bone and flesh. Their conclusion? Yep, one bullet could do all that damage on two men. The trouble is, they never showed what the spent bullets looked like. Did they resemble CE399, the so-called pristine bullet? We’ll never know for sure but my hunch is that it did not. It certainly didn’t at the Edgewood Arsenal test where experts fired at the radial bones in 10 different cadavers and all ten bullets were, as Dr. Joseph Dolce said in his report, “markedly deformed.” He was never called to testify for the Commission and his report was concealed.

One thing Ralston left out, which I think is particularly egregious of CBS, is the way they treated Orville Nix in this show. He, of the Nix film and a witness to shots coming from the grassy knoll was interviewed in such a way so they could edit the tape later so he was heard saying the shots came from the school book depository building. This bit of tomfoolery is what the Nazis used to make propaganda films showing Jews in the ghetto, living happily. Years later, another TV producer would pull the same stunt on Jim Garrison making him look like a nut saying there were 33 gunmen in Dealey Plaza. When actually, he was referring to the number of people involved in a conspiracy. Garrison thought only six gunmen were involved in the slaying, which were cut out of the final broadcast in order to make him look like a fool. This is an example of the nasty games these people play under the guise of “journalism.” Yes, journalism for their Masters.

And this is why the Internet is so great. They can’t do this now. It would be posted somewhere on the web. One can see why the Ruling Class despises this new medium so much and are constantly floating ways of controlling it. As we used to say, “The free press is free for whomever owns one.” Now we all do..

Epilogue
Look at the lengths the government goes to quash a conspiracy in the death of John F. Kennedy? If this case is so strong and so true, why go to all the trouble to manipulate witness testimony as the CBS did with Orville Nix, or Life Magazine’s notorious shuffling of the Zapruder film frames in order to fool the public into thinking all the shots came from the rear? What do they have to fear? Why do they want us to believe this myth they created so strongly?

Probably because there is official history and there is what actually happened. They fear the truth and the public’s lack of confidence in them and their seat of power. Finally, they failed. The Majority do not believe the official fiction of what happened. They fail every time they have to resort to Nazi-style propaganda techniques in order to present their case, and by doing so, show us how weak their case really is.

1999 doctoral dissertation by Ross Frank Ralston.  PDF on https://georgebailey.substack.com/p/the-sum-of-all-things?sd=pf

Sources:
Fonzi, Gaeton; The Last Investigation; Law, William In The Eye of History; HSCA Report, 1979; Warren Report, 1964

Unexplained Mysteries Of The JFK Assassination

(Updated with corrections at my Substack site.  https://georgebailey.substack.com/p/unexplained-mysteries-of-the-jfk)

Actually, the killing of John F. Kennedy is one long, drawn out mystery. Because something happened here that was so far out of normalcy. Every single thing involved with it is problematic; even the simple things like Oswald buying a money order to purchase a mail order rifle is rife has problems. Conspiracy can be debated forever, but one thing is for certain–the reasons regarding the death of President Kennedy were covered up by a multitude of government agencies both Federal and State, the military, and the media. But why? Either they did it, or else somebody else did and they never could find out what happened and couldn’t tell the public they couldn’t figure it out. Never the less, there was a swift rush to judgement to the point where Lyndon Johnson was being told by Joint Chiefs on the flight back to Washington that there was no conspiracy and the lone gunman was in custody. Amazing! How could they have known that so quick just hours after the event? Before any investigation had taken place? The Dallas police were still in the process of collecting evidence. This appears to be standard operating practice as this modus operandi would be repeated many times later, most notably the September 11 terror attacks where within hours of the disaster the government was relaying through the cable news networks that the crime was perpetrated by Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda organization. Once again, no investigation had started, nor any evidence collected from the smoldering crime scene to arrive at this conclusion. But somehow, they came forward with this no matter how strange this looks. Then years later, when they had the official government investigation, they issue a report arriving at the same conclusion they established on the day of the disaster, within hours of it happening. Nothing changed! The exact same thing occurs on November 22, 1963. Perhaps this nonsense is an easier sell within moments of a national tragedy than days or weeks later. However, it’s a recurring pattern that occurs over and over again. This is just one of many mysteries of the JFK assassination. Although there are enough to fill, and have filled, many volumes of books, what follows are a few more to consider. Oswald’s Money Order As with all things Oswald, this one episode is fraught with trouble too. In my article, Who Bought The Guns?, I chronicle the strange ends and outs of obtaining his guns. The problem is the money order he used for ordering the Mannlicher-Carcano from Kline’s Sporting Goods of Chicago is missing important routing codes. The routing codes are important as they trace the instrument through the banking system, insuring that each institution is only paying once. Only the endorsement stamp of Klein’s is visible. Missing are the stamps from the First National Bank of Chicago, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and finally, the Federal Postal Money Order Center in Kansas City where all good MO’s go for their final resting place. However, the money order was not found there in the but in the National Archives in Virginia. Mystery: Why are the routing stamps missing? Where are Oswald’s fingerprints on the money order and the order form? Why was the money order purchased at one post office and then mailed from a different one miles away? How did Oswald’s MO arrive in the Federal Records Center in Alexandria, VA? Or for that matter, who thought to look for it in the National Archives in the first place? The Otepka Incident Otto Otepka, a successful security analyst for the Department of State’s Office of Security, had his career destroyed by Lee Harvey Oswald. Or rather, his interest in the man. One day in June of 1960, while viewing a routine security file on defectors to the Soviet Union, Otepka noticed that one of defectors was listed as a tourist. The man’s name was Lee Oswald. Curious, Otepka contacted both the CIA and the FBI requesting more information on the man. After all, it was odd to see a defector listed as a tourist. He also was interested in uncovering if this man was really a defector or possibly, someone working for intelligence. This all sent ripples through the upper echelons of the government bureaucracy. What Otto Otepka did was look too closely at an individual that was under a national security blanket. This resulted in John Francis Reilly being placed in charge of the Office of Security in 1962. He would later state under oath that Robert Kennedy had placed him there. In essence, Reilly was to keep an eye on Otepka who by then had started his own file on Oswald. By 1962 he had his office phone tapped. In June of 1963 Otepka’s office safe was broken into and guess what file got stolen? Of course, the Oswald file. In the same month he was removed from his job. By September he had ten criminal charges brought against him which he was eventually successful in fighting off. However, this all has a genesis in Otto Otepka’s first and only meeting with Robert Kennedy which occurred in December of 1960. One of Otepka’s duties was issuing security clearances. There were several Kennedy appointees that he had denied. Bobby showed up late and agitated. Otepka calmly gave his reasons for denying the appointees and Bobby exploded. Otepka held his ground and Bobby, seeing this man was not easily rolled, left in a huff. For many years Otepka thought his troubles with Bobby began with the security clearances. Doing his own research years later he came to believe it was his curiosity in Lee Oswald that destroyed his career in government service. More powerful figures didn’t want him snooping around there and apparently, Robert Kennedy was one of them. By sending out inquires to other agencies Otepka inadvertently brought attention to himself–by those in the loop and those not in the loop. And he believed the Attorney General was behind it all. Mystery: So what did Robert Kennedy know about Lee Oswald and when did he know it? As early as 1960-61? Certainly by 1962 to have sent his people in to keep an eye on Otepka. What is the basis of the interest in Oswald at this early date? And what brought this to Bobby’s attention? Who learned of Otepka’s Oswald file? Did Bobby not want Otepka researching Oswald? And to what end? Multiple Oswalds If you are a steady reader of this blog you will know I’ve done done a lot of writing on the Oswald as doppelganger theory. It’s an interregnal part of JFK assassination lore and possibility of Lee Oswald being impersonated runs deep. It is something that can be viewed as a fringe subject but a careful investigation of witness testimony and documents collected by the Warren Commission shows a wealth of loose ends and conflicts. There is a disparity in employment records, tax forms, school records, and medical records. Even his autopsy face sheet has conflicts. There are not a handful of people that interacted with Oswald when he should have been somewhere else. There are dozens of these encounters ranging from New Orleans to Montreal. Some of these loose fragments are tied up with having another Oswald in play but that by no means solves all the problems encountered here with this subject. Namely, who is running this and what happens to the other Oswald after the assassination? As John Armstrong (Harvey and Lee) discovered through his research that if Lee Oswald is being impersonated the it starts as early as the age of 13. If he was impersonated that young, then his mother Marguerite must be impersonated as well. Suddenly things are greatly entangled–two moms and two sons. And both sets have to resemble each other, a seemingly impossible task. Add to that two more sons from previous marriages and a frightening path lies ahead for anybody wanting to develop this as an intelligence operation. And to what end? To be involved with an assassination somewhere down the road? Indeed, high strangeness is all over this. Indeed, I can see why many would dismiss this doppelganger legend outright. However, the trail of this enigma does not start out with what Gerald Ford called “armchair investigators” but in the highest echelons of the government itself. J. Edgar Hoover sent a memo in 1960 to the State Dept. with a warning that a Lee Oswald was possibly being impersonated. In 1961 a State Dept. official sent a memo to another, warning that the next time Lee Oswald is issued a passport, make sure he gets it personally; that way the right Oswald gets the right passport as it was suspected he was being impersonated. The possibly of a second Oswald had apparently made the rounds. In September of 1963 Lee Oswald makes his fabled trip to Mexico City. CIA station chief Winston Scott believed that Oswald being impersonated after examining the tapes from the bugged Soviet and Cuban diplomatic compounds. Hoover had his agents, seven of them, review the tapes and they determined the man speaking on the telephone calls is not Oswald. Shortly after the assassination, Hoover related this information to Lyndon Johnson. The new President in turn, used this for the final arm twisting of Earl Warren to get him to serve on the Commission. Those in the loop knew Oswald was being impersonated from 1960 to 1963. And they kept this information to themselves. He was apparently more than just a malcontent with a delusions of grandeur. Other people were keeping track of him and his business for years. Lee Oswald remains the biggest enigma of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. A mystery in life he as well in death as uncovered by Dr. Earl Rose when he did the autopsy. His report of the autopsy leaves out numerous scars which the body of the real Oswald should have had. Such as the three inch long mastoid scar on the left side of the neck, the two wounds in his left arm from the accidental shooting in the Marines, and his small pox vaccination scar. Later, mortician Paul Groody who prepared Oswald’s body for burial was contacted twice by the Secret Service in regards to Oswald’s left arm and twice he told them he did not see any scars just as Dr. Rose had not documented them either. Mystery: If Lee Oswald is being impersonated then what happens to the other “Lee” after the assassination? Or for that matter, his other mother? Are they put in safe houses or executed? Did the other Lee do the shooting leaving the real Oswald to be the patsy? Is this one of the fundamental secrets of the assassination and hence, the cover up? Classified Files One thing all investigations into the JFK assassination have in common is not what they uncover, rather, what they cover. They all add to the classified evidence pile. From the Warren Commission through the Clark Panel, the Rockefeller Commission, and lastly the House Select Committee on Assassinations, they all take information and classify it so the general public can never see it. The Warren Commission supporters come along and say, “See? They did all these investigations and they uncovered nothing new. The Warren Report stands.” I hear you Mr. Bugliosi. Not really. New information is uncovered, it’s just buried through classification. Every so often a researcher will obtain documents through a FOIA request and it’s apparent why the files were classified to begin with. Researcher Harold Weisberg uncovered such gems as the 1/22/63 closed-door meeting where the Commissioners decided not to pursue any leads on Oswald being a government informant/agent (despite what they said to the contrary) and the CIA’s National Photographic Intelligence Center report, #1641-450, that examined the Zapruder film to determine the timing between shots one and two, which they determined to be a period of 1.6 seconds, which are impossible to do on a bolt action rifle. To fire off shots that fast would require a second shooter and hence, a conspiracy. So one can understand why these records are kept secret. Any evidence that leads away from the Lone Gunman is to be covered up by any means. And classification does that. After all of this time files are still classified from the beginning. Marguerite Oswald's tax returns from 1956 to 1962 are still sealed. They are marked, "referred...postponed in full." Of course many files on Lee Oswald are still withheld. Oddly, there is a John and Minnie Smith from the same exact time period, 1956-62 that are also classified and nobody knows who they are! Michael and Ruth Paine’s returns from 1956 to 1958 are classified as well, at time in their lives when they were listed as being employed as a farmer ad a farmer's wife. Lee’s cousin Marilyn Murret had all 23 pages of her testimony to the HSCA in 1977 classified. The list of classified information could fill many volumes–and goes deep in the belly of the Beast. But don’t be surprised. The government has yet to release the autopsy photos of John Wilkes Booth, held in storage for 145 years. Mystery: What is being covered up here? Could the tax returns being still being withheld from the public show just who Lee Oswald was working for during the 1956-62 period? Such as maybe the FBI, ONI, or the CIA? He’s in the Marines from 1956-59. So why hide his income from that? Also, many tax and employee documents on Lee Oswald are missing or withheld for various reasons. Just want kind of threat to National Security is there if Marguerite Oswald’s tax returns were released? Collins Radio The connections to the Collins Radio corporation has threads that run throughout the JFK assassination. A major defense contractor, journalist William E. Kelly wrote the following about them: “Collins Radio supplied and maintained the equipment used by the Voice of America, all manned NASA space flights, the Strategic Air Command (SAC), as well as all equipment used for the CIA’s Guatemalan and Cuban operations. Most significantly, Collins Radio was responsible for installing and maintaining all radio equipment aboard Air Force One, Air Force Two and the Cabinet’s plane." Kelly further adds, “Collins Radio not only installed and maintained the radios aboard most military and executive branch planes, they also operated the station known as ‘Liberty’ at their Cedar Rapids, Iowa headquarters, which served as a relay station for all radio communications between the White House, the Pentagon, Air Force One, Air Force Two, the Cabinet plane and Andrews AFB in Washington.” In one of the more stranger incidents recorded in the history of the assassination, mechanic T. F. White noticed a man sitting in 1958 two-tone Plymouth sedan. To White, he was acting suspiciously as the man watched a flurry of police cars speeding to the murder scene of Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit. White exchanged glances with the man, who drove off. White wrote down the license tag number: PP4537. Later, as Lee Oswald’s image was broadcast on TV, White recognized him at the man in the Plymouth. Later, authorities would trace down the tag to a car belonging to Collins Radio employee Carl Mather of Garland, Texas. When contacted, Mather’s wife responded that her husband was at work the day of the assassination. The important point to consider here is that T. F. White says he saw a man resembling Oswald occupying and driving off in Mather’s car. It should be added that Mather was a close friend of J.D. Tippit and later that afternoon drove to the Tippit residence to offer condolences. Even more peculiar, the FBI interviewed mechanic T. F. White later for additional details about his sighting but but do not interview Carl Mather. Even stranger, years later, The House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) offered Mather immunity then never do question him under oath. It has since been uncovered through the JFK Records Act that investigators did talk to Carl Mather and discovered that he was responsible for installing the radio gear in Air Force Two, the Vice President’s aircraft. Nevertheless, this is basically a great lead that is never followed through on or adequately sussed out. Why? I think it is safe to assume that Mather possessed a high level security clearance for his work. I am not saying that Mather was a government informant but he does get the kind of coddling that an informant usually receives in an investigation. Collins Radio’s involvement in Military-Industrial Complex and National Security State operations, runs deep. Everything from hiring Paper Clip Nazis to leasing a ship, the Rex, that was used to place assassins on the shores of Cuba to assassinate Fidel Castro. Lee Oswald, upon returning to America was introduced to a Collins Radio executive by Russian emigrant George de Mohrenschildt for possible employment. Though trivial, Oswald’s widow, Marina married a former Collins Radio employee, Kenneth Porter. Mystery: What is the true Collins Radio link to the assassination, if any? Did T. F. White really see Lee Oswald in Carl Mather’s car? Did Mather know Oswald and loan him his car? The timeline is off–did White encounter an Oswald impostor? Why is Carl Mather treated so lightly to the point of being virtually ignored by investigators? The Kennedy Family One has the feeling at Kennedy family gatherings the death of John is the ghost in the room. Publicly, they support the Warren Commission’s conclusion. Privately, apparently not. David Talbot in Brothers, calls Robert Kennedy the first conspiracy theorist in the death of Presidential brother and told family confidants so. He did not believe in the Warren Report’s conclusion. In examining mysteries of the assassination I find nothing more mysterious than this large Irish-Catholic family’s silence on the issue. You would think somebody over time would break the hush. But so far, none have. It’s the job of the independent investigator to probe the depths of this thing. There is something deeply buried here that has insured their alliance to the myth. They won’t even speak up with John F. Kennedy is having his character trashed. Yes, Bobby okayed the wire taps on Martin Luther King. Yes, he was involved with the assassination plots on Fidel Castro. Bobby was very much involved with thwarting Garrison’s trial of Clay Shaw and had family henchman Walter Sheridan involved with all kinds of dirty business with that. One can only assume Bobby wanted to uncover the truth his way and on his timeline. Talbot in Brothers thinks it would be in another Kennedy administration in the oval office and hence Bobby’s fateful run. In a way Ted Kennedy sort of strikes back by his involvement with the Freedom of Information Act legislation which resulted in a number of revealing files being released. And that is about all we’ll ever get out of the Kennedys. Perhaps that is enough since the FOIA could break the case open one day. Mystery: What insures the Kennedy family silence to this day? Epilogue This is just a small sampling of mysteries in the Kennedy assassination. There simply is not enough space to list them all. I selected a few of my favorites. There are three main phases in the life of Lee Oswald: The Russian phase, the New Orleans phase, and the trip to Mexico City. Any one of these episodes have enough intrigue and weirdness to leave the mind wondering just what was this former Marine really up to? I think the intelligence angle is valid one and I return to it often in my research. Every single thing in the case gets more troublesome the deeper one delves in which makes it so difficult to decipher what is really going on here. No wonder, almost 50 years afterward, the search for the truth continues. Sources McKnight, Gerald, Breach of Trust; Proudy, R. Fletcher, The Secret Team; Armstrong, John, Harvey and Lee; Garrison, James, On the Trail of the Assassins; Mars, Jim, Crossfire; Bugliosi, Vince, Reclaiming History; Mellen, Joan, Farewell To Justice; Talbot, David, Brothers Collins Radio Connections, by William E. Kelly http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/2010/01/collins-radio-connections.html