INTRODUCTION

The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy has fascinated readers from, as they say, Day One. In the reporting of the assassination and surrounding issues, initially, the traditional news sources reported what they had come into their hands. At a very early stage, there were anomalies. One such anomaly came from Christchurch, New Zeeland. Within an hour of the taking of Oswald to the police station, the Christchurch Star published an article about Oswald’s background, including his having lived in the Soviet Union (Russia). This story was out in a regular edition about four hours after Oswald was arrested. (Christchurch Star, November 23, 1963)

Sometimes ordinary citizens found themselves in circumstances that belied the official stories that came out of Dallas. One of these involved Junior Moore in Mobile Alabama on November 21, 1963. Junior was told to come down to FBI office four blocks away. There, he was asked whether he knew anything about Lee Harvey Oswald. Perhaps the question came either because Oswald had given a lecture on Russia at Spring Hill College in Mobile the previous Summer, or the interest could have been spurred on by the telegram received at the New Orleans FBI on the previous Sunday about a possible assassination attempt in Dallas, November 21-22. [1] Were the FBI to have acknowledged that they had in fact interviewed someone regarding Lee Harvey Oswald just before the assassination, the FBI trying to maintain that they had little or no information on Oswald just before the assassination would be seen to be a lie.

A second anomaly relates to a neurophysiologist, Adele Edisen. She was reentering the workforce and had obtained post-doctoral fellowship at Tulane University. An administrator at the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness (NINDB) Dr. Jose Riviera, had conversed with Edelson at a National gathering. A number of quirky incidents occurred in their conversations. Riviera asked Edelson if she knew Lee Harvey Oswald. Riviera indicated that Oswald would be moving to New Orleans soon, and Edisen should meet Oswald and his Russian wife. He gave Edisen Oswald’s telephone number when he got to New Orleans. And told Edisen to tell Oswald to shoot the chief. The information that Riviera gave Edisen seemed bewildering and nonsensical—until November 22, 1963. [2]

A third anomaly was that of Rose Cherami (nee Melba Christine Marcades), who, was with two unknown men on the early morning of November 20, 1963, driving down the highway near Eunice, Louisiana. One of the men threw Rose out of the car as they were driving down the highway. Rose was picked up and taken to a hospital, and then to a police station. Rose was said to have told those who would listen that President Kennedy would be killed in Dallas, two days later. No one seriously took what she said as being of any value. [3]

The Rose Cherami story is the only story of these three that surfaced any time near the assassination. It would be the 1990’s before the first two stories would see the light of day.

One anomaly that did become a controversial issue is that of the “magic bullet”. Initially, the Warren Commission had hypothesized three bullets, two hitting President Kennedy, and one hitting Governor Connally. Since one bullet missed the Presidential limousine entirely and hit a section of curbing that broke loose and hit Donald Teague as he was watching the motorcade, it became necessary to revise the scenario if the number of shots were to be limited to three. [4] It came to Arlen Specter, a lawyer serving on the investigative team to come up with the magic bullet theory, wherein a bullet fired from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository that struck President Kennedy in the back of the head, exit his throat, make a 90 degree turn to the right and then entered Governor Connally, leaving several serious wounds and the bullet somehow end up in a stretcher in the hospital, still in pristine condition. One more bit of magic was that the wound in President Kennedy’s front neck gave the appearance of an entrance wound and the wound in the back of his head gave the appearance of an exit wound! [5]

Lee Harvey Oswald

Lee Harvey Oswald has been characterized, first by the Warren Commission as a loner, a traitor, and a person who was unable to have sufficient income to support his family. Further he did not have any knowledge of Jack Ruby or David Ferrie. This is the “legend” that the CIA wanted to construct regarding Oswald. None of it was true.

Lee Harvey Oswald’s life is a major part of the present writing. What is different here is that the entirety of his life is addressed. Two big chunks of his life that are omitted from most presentations are Oswald’s time in the Soviet Union (Russia) and his time in New Orleans in 1963. Oswald’s time in Russia was written about by his best friend there, Ernst Titovets. [6] At the time of Oswald’s being in Russia, Titovets was a medical student. Titovets received his medical degree and subsequently two scientific doctorates; his career was as a medical researcher. Titovets was unaware of the characterizations of Oswald’s life in Russia by American authors. For example, John Armstrong made the statement that Oswald never spoke Russian in Russia, except possibly with Marina. [7] When I contacted Titovets about this, he said that, once Oswald learned to speak Russian (in Russia), whenever Oswald and Titovets were with friends, they spoke Russian all the time. [8]

A second area that is most important is Oswald’s time in New Orleans from April to September 1963,’. In April, 1963, Oswald met Judyth Vary (who shortly became Judyth Vary Baker upon her marriage to a fellow University of Florida student Robert Baker). It is Judyth Baker’s story that fills this gap in Oswald’s life. [9] Not only is Oswald not a loner; two of his good friends were David Ferrie and Jack Ruby. Oswald met Ferrie, when Oswald was a cadet in the Civil Air Patrol, where Oswald was taught to be a pilot by Ferrie. In the Summer of 1963, Oswald was a currier for a secret medical research project in New Orleans funded by the CIA, under the direction of Anton Ochsner, M.D. [10] Oswald, Judyth Baker, and David Ferrie all worked closely with Mary Sherman, M.D. During the late Spring and early Summer, Jack Ruby came to New Orleans and met with Oswald and Judyth Baker. It was during this time, that, as a patron to the research project that Ruby found out about the development of fast acting cancers, intended for use on Fidel Castro. This also gave Ruby the heads up, after his murder conviction was overturned, that he was injected by a physician with likely cancer cells, that he also was being murdered. [11]

There is the issue of Oswald’s financial circumstances. Oswald was directed by the CIA to give the appearance of being poor. While as a son of a widow in his early life, there was little unique about Oswald. It was the depression at that time, and many were in frugal circumstances. Once he entered the military at age 17, though his take home was not high, he seemed to have more resources in Japan In Japan, Oswald was recruited to be a false defector. In that capacity, his needs were likely met. He seemed to be getting money from the CIA, and the FBI on his return to the United States. His good friend George deMohrenschildt was given several thousand dollars to save for Oswald until some later point in time. He had also given Mrs. Paine money to buy a car for Marina. Oswald gave Judyth Baker $400 to help when they were able to reunite in Mexico. During his last two months in life, Oswald received $3665.89. according to a report by Richard Mosk, a staff lawyer for the Warren Commission, and Phillip Barson, an IRS Supervisor, which was turned over to the Warren Commission. This is not the financial information one would expect in 1963 for a poor man. [12]

It is a goal of this presentation to show that Oswald was not only a patsy for the persons planning the assassination of President Kennedy, Oswald was in fact trying to intercede to avoid the assassination of President Kennedy.

One other difference with other books about the assassination is the inclusion of the presidential terms of Lyndon Johnson. At a minimum, Johnson knew about the plan to assassinate President Kennedy, though he may not have known long about that plan before he went to the Murchison’s home and went into a meeting taking place there. Most likely he made statements there about the assassination scheduled for the next day. He revealed as much to his longtime mistress. Madeleine Brown, directly after leaving the meeting. [13]

The reason to address Johnson’s time in office is to compare it to what could be expected from a continued Kennedy presidency. In one sense, Johnson was very successful in getting Kennedy’s initiatives passed much more quickly than President Kennedy might have. Ironically, Johnson had cautioned President Kennedy to proceed slowly on civil rights and other Kennedy social programs. Invoking Kennedy’s name, Johnson used all the hand shaking and arm twisting to get the programs through. However, one could interpret Johnson’s behavior as a prelude to getting his “Great Society” programs passed through congress. Put another way, President Kennedy’s programs dovetailed perfectly with Johnson’s Great Society. There were two differences. Johnson was perfectly willing to help the military with their agenda in Vietnam. The Vietnam agenda was the undoing of the Johnson presidency. Additionally, there was the deliberate loss of the USS Liberty during the Six Day War in 1967, as a pretense to enter the war on Israel’s side. The treatment of the survivors of the USS Liberty was inhumane. The deliberate attack on the USS Liberty was treasonous. [14]

An important issue to address is the legacy of President Kennedy, and what was lost forever with his assassination. One of the most important parts of his legacy was not known during his lifetime (and as of this writing, still not widely known) was that at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, between 95-100 of the 172 Soviet missiles were operational. The Joint Chiefs had every intention of bombing the missile sites; only the steadfastness of President Kennedy kept them from their goal. [15] Among the losses occurring by the assassination of President Kennedy, beyond the dynamic young president, without doubt the most glib of presidents to that point, was the carnage in Vietnam. It was President Kennedy’s goal to remove all military, except for advisors, from Vietnam by the end of 1965. Instead by the end of 1965, Vietnam had become a bloodbath. As President Kennedy foresaw, we did have men on the moon before the end of the decade

Notes:

1. Williams, J.D. (2004). Was the FBI Searching for Oswald the Day Before the Assassination? The Dealey Plaza Echo, 8, 2, 46-52.

2. Edisen’s story was first published in the Third Decade, a JFK Assassination research journal, under the pseudonym K.S. Turner; Albarelli, H.P. (2013). A Secret Order: Investigating the High Strangeness and Synchronicity of the JFK Assassination. Walterville, OR: Trine Day, pp. 127-162.

3. Elliott, T.C. (2013). A Rose by Many Other Names: Rose Cherami & the FK Assassination. Walterville, OR: Trine Day.

4. Tague, J.T. (2003). Truth Withheld: A Survivor’s Story. Dallas: Excell Digital Press.

5. Groden, R.J. & Livingstone, H.E. (1989). High Treason: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy What Really Happened. New York: The Conservatory Press, pp. 54-61.

6. Titovets, E. (2010). Oswald’s Russian Episode. Minsk Belerus: MonLitera Publishing House.

7. Armstrong, J. (2003). Harvey & Lee: How the CIA Framed Oswald. Arlington TX: Quasar, pp. 339-340.

8. Williams, J.D. & Titovets, E. (November, 2013). Did Oswald Speak Russian in Russia? 50^th Anniversary Conference, Arlington, TX. Also published in JFK-E/Deep Politics Quarterly, (2014). 1, 3, 21-34.

9. Baker, J.V. (2010). Me & Lee: How I Came to Know, Love and Lose Lee Harvey Oswald. Walterville OR: Trine Day.

10.Wilds, J. & Harkey, I. (1990). Alton Ochsner: Surgeon of the South. Baton Rouge LA: Louisiana State University Press.

11. Haslam, E. (2007). Dr. Mary’s Monkey: How the Unsolved Murder of a Doctor, a Secret Laboratory in New Orleans and Cancer-Causing Monkey Viruses are Linked to Lee Harvey Oswald, the JFK Assassination and Emerging Global Epidemics. Walterville, OR: Trine Day, p. 337. See also, Haslam, E.T. (1997). Mary, Ferrie & the Monkey Virus: The Story of an Underground Medical Laboratory. Albuquerque NM: Wordsworth Communications,

 12. Shenon, P. (2013). A Cruel and Shocking Act: The Secret History of the Kennedy Assassination. New York: Henry Holt & Co., p.452.

13. Brown, M.D. (1997). Texas in the Morning: The Love Story of Madeleine Brown and President Lyndon Baines Johnson. Baltimore: Conservatory Press,

14. Allen, R.J. (2012). Beyond Treason. Create Space. (Available Through Amazon.com).

15. Norris, R.S. & Kristensen, H.M. (2012). The Cuban Missile Crisis: A Nuclear Order of Battle, October and November, 1962. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 68, 6.

In Williams, J.D. (2019). Lee Harvey Oswald, Lyndon Johnson & the JFK Assassination. Walterville, OR: TrineDay, 1-5.