The State of Continuing Qualitative Research on the Kennedy Assassination
John
Delane Williams
Abstract
Followers of the Warren Commission’s
findings continue to accept Lee Harvey Oswald as the assassin of President
Kennedy. Deniers of the Warren Commission’s findings take a contrary view.
Herein, the view is that Oswald had involvement with the assassination--- but
that involvement was an attempt to stop the assassination. Oswald’s life is
explored, focusing on his military service in Japan until his own death on
November 24, 1963. Particular emphasis is placed on the writings Ernst Titovets
(Oswald’s time in Russia); Judyth Baker (the summer of 1963 in New Orleans); Dick
Russell’s writing of the experiences of Richard Case Nagell (in Atsugi Japan,
1957; and in Mexico City, New Orleans and El Paso, 1963); and Douglas Horne, on
the medical evidence in the assassination.
These
writers correct the record of Oswald’s life. Baker shows Oswald’s continuing
relations with Jack Ruby and David Ferrie, persons that were supposedly not
known to Oswald. Baker clearly points out Oswald’s involvement in the project
that aimed to eliminate Fidel Castro with a bio-weapon (a fast acting cancer).
Russell shows the importance of Richard Case Nagell with Oswald. Horne
elucidates the many missteps in the medical evidence in JFK’s autopsy.
During Lyndon Johnson’s presidency (in 1965), a law was
passed naming all materials involved in the JFK assassination were owned by the
federal government. Christopher Fulton was the only person convicted under this
statute, sentenced to 8 ½ years in prison,
This occurred March 19, 1999.
.
Introduction
This present research is not a rehash
of issues as to how many shooters were there, or where were they stationed, or
even, how did Jack Ruby get to the spot he did to shoot Oswald. Nor will a
recitation of all the possible shooters be addressed. The Warren Commission
focused its attention on one person, and no other- Lee Harvey Oswald. Their
focus was to present evidence that they
saw
as showing him to be the likely assassin. They accomplished this by denying a
defense to be the advocate for Oswald’s side. A great deal of evidence has been
produced over the years, though not necessarily widely circulated in the larger
population. Evidence that would appear to exonerate Oswald is now available,
but again, not widely disseminated to the public. Some of that evidence is
displayed here. Oswald’s life is explored with information from several
different sources. Some of his information has not likely been published
before. Other information comes from sources that lack the distribution of
persons writing to bolster the Warren Commissions findings. The information
itself often can be critical of the Warren Commission findings, even if the reference
to refuting the Warren Commission is not explicitly made.
As many others who experienced the
weekend of November 22-25, 1963, I was engrossed
with events in Dallas and Washington D.C. I
awaited the arrival of the Warren Report; I found the reported ballistics as
probably incorrect. I went about finishing my doctorate in statistics and
putting my emphasis in academic concerns. My own specific involvement in
statistics was in linear models, using multiple linear regression. A book that
demonstrates this approach is Williams (1996). I also received a second PhD in
1994 in clinical psychology, though my second dissertation was very much a
complex quantitative study on aging and cognitive change over a 21-year period
(Williams, 1991; Williams & Klug, 1996). I had begun to integrate both
quantitative and qualitative research as a valid alternative to only using one
approach separately. Though I had had very little published about the
assassination of President Kennedy, I used his assassination as a way of
combining the two research methodologies (Williams, 2001). At that point in
time, I had not passed judgment as to what might be the accurate descriptor of
the events of November 22, 1963.
Fellow JFK assassination researcher Judyth
Baker was concerned that several other assassination researchers did not accept
her claim of knowing Oswald well and that she had a relationship with him in
the summer of 1963. Her critics generally claimed that she most likely didn’t
know him well, their employment at Reily Coffee was merely coincidental, and
her claim that they coordinated their applying to work there the same day was untrue.
She asked me to use existing information from the want ads of the New Orleans
Picayune, for the five days prior to the day they were both hired in 1963. As it turned out, the probability of
them not knowing one another and thus not coordinating their efforts was 1.2 in
a million. However, this outcome did not get too many people to change their
beliefs (Williams & Cousins, 2005).
There
are other quantitative reports regarding the assassination, but many of them
consider the shot was presumably made by Lee Harvey Oswald (or a shooter from
the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository (TSBD)). An argument is made that Oswald was not on the
sixth floor at the time of the assassination, rendering calculations from that
site less relevant for those who are still trying to defend the Warren Report.
One such study was completed by Nicholas Nalli (2018). His article is an
excellent display of mathematics for addressing a hypothetical shot from the sixth
floor of the TSBD, but it has no provenance regarding Oswald’s having made the
shot. There is no evidence placing Oswald on the sixth floor at the time of the
assassination, but considerable evidence that places him on either the first or
second floor for the critical time period. No calculations were made for any
other location. In Nalli’s article, the elapsed time was given as eight
seconds; originally, it was given as six seconds. Thomas (2001) studied the impulses
recorded on Dallas motorcycle policeman D.B. McLain’s dicta-belt during the JFK
motorcade on November 22, 1963. His analysis showed that one of the five
impulses on the recording was consistent with a shot by a .30 caliber rifle
from the Grassy Knoll. Thomas estimated that the probability that the Grassy
Knoll shot was attributable to random noise was .037.
Generally speaking, most of the research
efforts regarding the Kennedy assassination follow a qualitative approach,
often using interview techniques with a particular witness. There are a few
quantitative studies, but they sometimes use quantitative techniques that are
outside the experience levels of otherwise potential readers. There is a very
excellent example of using both qualitative and quantitative methods in
researching the JFK assassination. The five volumes of Douglas Horne’s (2009) Inside the Records Review Board: The U.S. government’s
final attempt to reconcile the conflicting medical evidence in the assassination
of JFK is an excellent example of using different research approaches,
whichever is most appropriate. This set
of five volumes reaches over 1800 pages and is a storehouse of information. My
best guess is that Horne gave little thought to whether to use a qualitative
approach, a quantitative approach, or a mixed models approach. If I were to put
a label on his work, I’d call it a mixed model approach. Beyond that, he
pointed out missteps in the processes used in the autopsy. The three military
pathologists were stopped from tracing the bullets thru President Kennedy’s
body. Military brass present, including Rear Admiral George G. Burkley,
President Kennedy’s personal physician, yelled out instructions to the then
young pathologists. Also loudly instructing the three pathologists was General
Curtis LeMay, who made Herculean efforts to get to the JFK autopsy from an
outpost in Canada, flying directly to Washington D.C. to the major civilian
airport. He ignored the orders of the Secretary of Defense to fly to the
military airport in the D.C. area, where he was supposed to be there for
arrival of JFK’s body.
In the Horne research effort several
important points were brought up. The Zapruder film was a case in point. Two
separate groups of workers independently worked on “supposedly different”
original 8mm films. The two, non-overlapping crews worked at different times on
the weekend following the assassination, at a secret CIA lab at the Kodak
Headquarters in Rochester, New York. The Zapruder film was sold to Time
magazine for $50,000 for still picture rights. The next day, Time re-negotiated
their contract with Zapruder for $150,000, to include motion picture rights.
During the period that Time held the rights to video, no attempt was
made to either distribute the film or sell rights to distribute the film;
apparently, their intent was to keep the film from ever being seen. A bootleg
version of the film was shown on network television by Geraldo Rivera on March
6, 1975. The film had been shown on some local newscasts as early as 1969 in
Los Angeles and in 1970 in Chicago. The source of these “leaks” were bootleg
copies from a copy made available to District Attorney James Garrison when he
was trying Clay Shaw for conspiracy in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Garrison left the copy he’d used in a trial for one of the volunteers assisting
on the trial to make copies if he wished. Reportedly, the volunteer made around
100 copies that night. Those copies and subsequent copies were used by
researchers, including showing the film on college campuses. (My first seeing
the film was at the University of North Dakota in 1980).
The Horne volumes have many other notable
reports. Two (or perhaps 3) separate brains were examined as if they were JFK’s
actual brain. His brain was missing half of its contents, due to the massive
destruction. The reported weight of the brain was 1500 grams, a normal weight
for an undamaged male brain. JFK’s body was delivered twice to the Bethesda morgue,
first at 6:35 PM. At that time surgery
was performed in the head area. A second arrival of the body occurred when Mrs.
Kennedy arrived at 7:17 P.M. The crowd assembled for the first surgery was
removed before the second arrival of the body. A second audience was assembled
before the autopsy continued. This was for the “saving of appearances”; for
those just arriving, they would think that nothing had taken place in the
autopsy, and the autopsy was just beginning. An observer who was there for the
entire autopsy was Tom Robinson, a worker from the morgue who was there with a
replacement coffin. The coffin JFK was
placed in at the hospital in Dallas had a broken handle. Presumably, some of
the military brass were also there for the entire proceedings.
Because Horne was mainly dealing with
medical evidence, Lee Harvey Oswald is not considered until Volume 5, and
there, only briefly. Horne cited Sylvia Meagher (1975), who pointed out that
paraffin tests were conducted on Oswald’s hands and right cheek. The test was
positive for his hands, but negative for his right cheek. Oswald may have fired
a pistol, but he did not fire a rifle; the positive test for his hands could
also be from the nitrates in the boxes he handled.
The
paraffin test for Oswald’s cheeks of and by itself is proof that Oswald did not
shoot a rifle, the purported type of weapon tha killed President Kennedy.
Horne also cited George O’Toole (1975),
who used a Psychological Stress Evaluator to determine stress levels in
Oswald’s voice when recordings of questions from reporters and Oswald’s answers
on November 22 and 24, 1963. Oswald most likely was telling the truth when he
stated that he did not kill the President. The Horne volumes refute much of the
writings in The Warren Commission Report (1964). Horne also took
exception to their methodologies. He saw the Zapruder film as an altered film.
He mused that the first group of researchers who used the film argued for the authenticity
of the film, perhaps so that their research based on it wouldn’t be
invalidated.
Following
Lee Harvey Oswald
The publication of the Warren Commission
Report took place in October 1964. They credited the assassination to Lee
Harvey Oswald as a lone assassin. In reading that report in 1964, my reaction
was that they might have got most of the conclusions correct, but the ballistic
results seemed to be somehow illogical. At that point and for many years to
come, I accepted Oswald as the assassin. The problem with ballistics hadn’t
gone away. A trip to Dealey Plaza in 1980, further eroded ideas that Oswald was
the lone assassin. An excellent marksman would seem to view the task of shooting
three accurate shots in under six seconds as quite difficult. But Oswald was
NOT an excellent marksman. First, a short
review of his life is made, including aspects of his life that are less well
known.
Oswald was born to a recent widow, Marguerite
Clavier Pic Oswald. When Oswald was 3, he was placed in the orphanage where his
two older brothers had previously been placed. Marguerite would marry for a
third time. Several moves would take place, first to Fort Worth, then back to
the New Orleans area, then to New York, where Marguerite’s oldest son lived
with his new bride. In New York, Oswald would become a truant. On one occasion,
the 13 year old Oswald hitchhiked to Niagara Falls, where he encountered a
border agent named Arthur Young. Oswald pleaded with Young to allow him to
cross the border into Canada for a few hours. Young gave the thirteen year old
explicit instructions to follow. Oswald followed those directions including
returning by dusk. They would later go to lunch in New York, where Oswald
reported that he wished to become a spy. This would be just another incident in
Oswald’s life, except that they had a significant encounter in New Orleans in
1963 (Baker 2010, pp. 352-353).
Oswald
and his mother returned to New Orleans, leaving behind his difficulties with
the truancies in New York. In New Orleans, Oswald joined the Civil Air Patrol
(CAP), and had as his instructor Captain David Ferrie. On one occasion, Oswald
was at Ferrie’s house, and Ferrie locked himself in a room with Oswald. Oswald
feared he was in danger; Oswald broke a window and took a shard of glass and pointed it at Ferrie. A
fight ensued and Oswald was badly beaten. After smashing Oswald in the mouth,
Ferrie remembered that Oswald‘s uncle was a significant member of the local
Mafia. Ferrie begged Oswald not to tell anyone. Oswald said he wasn’t a snitch,
but he didn’t want to see Ferrie again. (Baker, 2010, pp. 42-45.) Oswald quit
going to CAP, but returned when he heard Ferrie was no longer with CAP. Later,
Ferrie resumed his CAP duties. A picture with both Oswald and Ferrie was taken
in August 1955 at a CAP bivouac. (Groden, 1995, p. 20).In the Warren
Commision’s view, Oswald and Ferrie did
not know each other. This picture proves otherwise. For years defenders of the
Warren Commission denied any relationship between Ferrie and Oswald. As will be
seen later, they worked together in the Summer of 1963 as well.
Oswald
and his mother moved back to Fort Worth, where Oswald re-enrolled in high
school (though he seldom attended). At 16, he attempted to join the armed
services by claiming to be 17. Failing in that quest, he finally enlisted in
the Marines shortly after his 17th birthday. His time in the Marines
was noteworthy. Early on in military service, Oswald established his lack of
marksmanship with a rifle, but finally achieved the minimum to finish basic
training. Then he took Advanced Infantry Training. He was then sent to
Jacksonville, Florida to the Naval Air Technical Center where Oswald was taught
radar theory and map reading, after which he was promoted to Private First
Class (PFC). Next was a course in Aircraft Control and Warning at Keesler Air
Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi. He finished 7th in a Class of 30.
He was then sent to the Marine Air Station in El Toro, California as a
replacement trainee. His training resulted in him being classified as a radar
operator; Considering Oswald dropped out of high school at the beginning of 10th
grade, this was a somewhat surprising achievement (Groden, 1995, pp. 25-26).
Oswald’s next assignment was to the Marine Air
Control Squadron 1 in Atsugi, Japan. This facility was the most sensitive
intelligence unit of the United States in the Pacific. The Station had a large
CIA involvement there. Oswald went to the Queen Bee, a bar in Tokyo, which catered
to men who had considerable money to spend, particularly if they were
interested in dating one of the beautiful women there. A date could cost $100,
well beyond Oswald’s pay as a PFC. Yet he met a beautiful Eurasian woman, who
was trying to pry information out of Oswald. When getting back to the base he
immediately informed his supervisor, who suggested that Oswald continue to see
the woman, apparently with sufficient money provided to keep the relationship
viable. Oswald was instructed to give her misinformation. Oswald would fall in
love with his Queen Bee escort. At this point, Oswald was still 17 years old
and having seeming success in the military, getting to become involved with work
similar to a spy, and in love with a beautiful woman. It would not last.
Also
at the Queen Bee, Oswald met Richard Case Nagell, who apparently was assigned
to the Atsugi installation as well. Nagell would play an important role for Oswald.
Very likely Nagell was the CIA contact who recruited Oswald to go to the Soviet
Union. The remainder of Oswald’s time in Japan would sour for Oswald. His girl
friend took up with another Marine. Oswald would find troubles with literally
shooting himself in the foot, and then pouring beer on his competition for the
beautiful Eurasian girl. These offenses resulted in a court martial for Oswald.
Oswald
returned to the United States and was again stationed at the El Toro Base. A
woman flew in from New York, ostensibly to see Oswald and his Commanding
Officer, Lt. John Donavan. The woman, Rosaleen Quinn, the aunt of one of
Oswald’s Marine acquaintances at El Toro, had taken a Berlitz Course studying
Russian, and who was going into the U.S. Foreign Service. She had heard from
her nephew about a person in his unit, who seemed to have considerable mastery
of the Russian language. She might have had just as much interest in Lt. Donavan,
who was leaving the Marines, also to enter the U.S. Foreign Service. Quinn was
dazzled by Oswald’s command of the Russian language. Seemingly, his display of comprehension
of spoken Russian, perhaps enhancing his sense of being successful in Russian.
If so, he would be profoundly disappointed when he arrived in the Soviet Union (Parker
& Purcell, 2020).
Theory of John Armstrong
Before proceeding with Oswald in Russia, it
is useful to introduce a theory about Oswald from John Armstrong. A quick
summary of Armstrong’s theory is that a young male, born in a Russian speaking
area in Eastern Europe, immigrated to the United States. At some point this
young man subsumed Lee Harvey Oswald’s identity. The false Oswald is referred
to as Harvey, and Lee Harvey Oswald would be called Lee in Armstrong’s theory. The
so-called actual Lee Oswald is not prominent in Armstrong’s theory, though he may
have been active in Dallas. Armstrong posited that Oswald’s remarkable learning
of Russian was because he was a native speaker of Russian from a Soviet bloc
region. Further Armstrong posited that, “Oswald had to be suspicious of
everyone around him, including Marina and the Zigers, and would never have
dared to speak Russian. In fact, no one ever said he did, except Marina” (Armstrong,
2003, p. 340).
To
this end, Gary Severson and I met at a JFK assassination Conference in
Minneapolis. One of the main speakers was John Armstrong. Gary made inroads
with Armstrong and his entourage, and we were asked to go to Stanley North
Dakota to interview a Russian speaking woman who ostensibly was to help this
young man to get his Russian back to
where it was in his homeland. Gary and I went to Stanley, North Dakota to
interview her. On going to her front door, there was no indication of any
occupation of the house. We interviewed one of her neighbors. We were told the
neighbor hadn’t seen the woman for several months. She did indicate that the
woman was reclusive.
I
had one other assignment from the Armstrong contingent; I was to check records
of driver’s licenses in the names of two possible aliases supposedly used by
the substitute Oswald in the state of North Dakota; the names were Don (Donald)
Norton and Charles Bair. I received this reply from Marsha M. Lembke, Director,
Driver’s License and Driver Safety, North Dakota Department of Transportation.
Her letter stated, “A search of Drivers License and Traffic Safety records
indicate that no licenses were ever issued to Don (Donald) Norton, nor to a
Charles Bair.” Over two weekends, we
interviewed several residents about a possible Oswald visit to Stanley, in the
Summers of 1954 and/or 1955 which led us to writing two articles about our
Stanley experience (Williams & Severson, 2000a, b).
Oswald’s Russian Experience
Oswald’s experience in Russia (then, the
Soviet Union) was brought to American readers by Priscilla Johnson McMillan
(1977). McMillan interviewed Oswald’s wife, Marina Oswald, several times. She
had visited with Lee Harvey Oswald in the Soviet Union in 1959, shortly after
he had defected to the Soviet Union. Arguably, she had little information about
Oswald except through Marina’s lens. The writing of Ernst Titovets (2010) gave
a very different perspective from McMillan.
The
first part of Oswald’s Russian Experience seems to be relatively well known. In
Moscow he went to the American Embassy, attempting to renounce his citizenship;
this part was heard by the Soviets, who were bugging the American embassy. By
not returning to the Embassy, Oswald retained his right to eventually return to
the United States. Oswald applied for Soviet citizenship, which was denied. He
gave the appearance of attempting suicide, was taken to a hospital, and was
given a temporary residence permit and was sent to Minsk. He was given an
apartment and a job at a radio factory. His salary was 1400 rubles a month, above
other workers and approximately equal to the supervisor in the factory.
Oswald’s lament is that he had nowhere to spend the money. The then Soviet
Union was no match for the United States in terms of available merchandise for
purchase. It was deemed that Oswald needed significant tutoring to help his
dismal abilities in spoken Russian; the local Communist party assigned a person
to give him instruction in the language. If Oswald had the impression, he was
proficient in Russian, the persons he interacted with saw him as inadequate. He
was helped also by in-tourist guides. One in-tourist guide mused, just before
Oswald was married, “How could they communicate?’ Perhaps this was an example
of the native Russian speakers noticing Oswald was not a native speaker.
Oswald
had been friendly with a department manager at the radio factory, Donald Ziger,
who emigrated to Russia from Argentina. Ziger was fluent in Polish, Spanish,
Russian and English. He invited Oswald to his apartment many times. Ziger had
two daughters near Oswald’s age, Eleanora and Anita, whom Oswald would spend
much of his time when at the Zigers. On one occasion in late September 1960,
Ernst Titovets also visited the Ziger household. The two young men left together,
and agreed to get together at Oswald’s apartment a few nights later. Titovets
presumed Oswald was an educated person; he seemed to enjoy classical music, his
apartment appeared to be that of a higher level employee. His fluency in
Russian seemed adequate; when they were together with no one else present they
would speak English, by Titovets’ request; Oswald was the first native American
speaker Titovets encountered and he wished to improve his spoken English. However,
if even one person in a group did not speak English, everyone would use
Russian. Oswald and Titovets would attend concerts or operas or plays and
motion pictures together. Oswald would often pay both of their admissions. They
would also go to see university girls in their dorms.
It should be clear that Armstrong was wrong in
his belief that Oswald never spoke Russian in the Soviet Union. To this point,
the Communist Party even appointed a person to provide instruction in Russian
to Oswald.
Ella German was a girl who attracted Oswald’s
attention shortly after he began work at the radio factory. She had friends who
worked at the radio factory. Oswald and German began with taking walks
together. Their “romance” was definitely on the slow side. Yet Oswald seemed
smitten by her. On New Year’s Eve 1960, her parents invited him to their family
party; Oswald met her parents for the first time. The evening was very
satisfying to Oswald. Oswald decided to propose to Ella German. Two days later,
they went to the cinema. When they got back to her doorstep, Oswald proposed.
After hesitating, Ella said, “No”. She explained that his being an American could
be a potential problem, he might be arrested just because he was an American. Oswald’s
hastening of the proposal might have been related to a decision that had to be
made soon. Oswald had to decide on whether he wanted to formally seek Soviet
citizenship, or if he wanted to return to the United States. Perhaps if she
consented to marry him, he might choose to seek Soviet citizenship. Two days
later he declined seeking Soviet citizenship.
Oswald Meets Marina Prusakova
On March 17, 1961, Oswald and Titovets
attended a lecture by Lydia Cherkasova, a higher-level Communist Party member.
Titovets was more interested in going to the dance in a different part of the
hall. After the lecture Oswald joined Titovets at the dance. There he saw an
attractive girl who was surrounded by several suitors. Oswald went up to her
and asked for a dance. Titovets noted that several of her suitors had
previously had relations with her. Oswald walked Marina home. It was Titovets
view that Oswald was beginning to court Marina to make Ella German jealous.
Marina had worked as a pharmacy assistant in St. Petersburg, but had been
expelled to Minsk for prostitution. After a short courtship Oswald and Marina
were married. Their first child would be born before they left the Soviet Union
for the United States (Titovets, pp. 240-260). Back in the USA. The Oswalds arrived at Hoboken,
New Jersey on June 13, 1962 (CE 279: 260-261). They moved to Dallas. Their
relationship there was tumultuous. Oswald did hold at least one interesting job,
at Jaggers-Stiles-Stovall, a graphics arts company. Among other things, they
were doing classified work, including making maps of Cuba. This work was only
weeks before the Cuban missile crisis.
New Orleans
Eventually Oswald returned alone to New
Orleans on April 24, 1963. Marina was to join him later. On April 26, Oswald
went to the post office. As he was standing in line, a young lady in front of
him in line dropped some papers. Oswald picked up the papers and handed them to
her. In Russian, she said, “Thank you.” Oswald responded to her in Russian,
“Your welcome. It’s dangerous to speak Russian in New Orleans” (Baker, 2010, p.
113). They then sat on a bench, and they learned something about the other
person. The young lady was Judyth Vary and was in New Orleans to do a learning
experience with Dr. Mary Sherman. Oswald said he could introduce her to several
people, including Dr. David Ferrie, a cancer researcher, who worked with Dr.
Sherman. Ferrie is the same person who was an instructor in CAP who had been
one of Oswald’s teachers. The project
employed Oswald, Ferrie, and
Judyth Vary Baker; Judyth married her fiancé Robert Baker on May 2, 1963, in
Mobile, Alabama when Robert Baker had a chance to have time off from his job
working on a drilling operation in the Gulf of Mexico (Baker 2010, pp. 189-195).
The Project
The
Project that Oswald and Judyth Vary Baker as well as David Ferrie would be
working on was secretly funded by a government agency that could skirt ordinary
procedures; the funding most likely was from the CIA. The aim of the project
was to produce a biological specimen that could be injected into a human and be
a fast acting cancer that within weeks would kill the intended target---the
intended target was Fidel Castro, the head of the Cuban government. Castro had
ruffled too many feathers after removing the dictator, Fulgencio Batista.
Castro eliminated prostitution, closed most of the casinos, and imprisoned many
of the people profiting from these enterprises. He had also aligned his country
with the Soviet Union, to avoid further aggression by the United States. Judyth had as a high school student developed
fast acting cancers in mice. Oswald’s role during the project was carrying
specimens from Ferrie to Dr. Sherman. Ferrie would take already cancerous mice,
send them to Dr. Sherman, and she would take the most potent cancers and inject
then into a new group of mice. Several iterations of this process took place.
Judyth served as the lab assistant to Dr. Sherman. When a satisfactory
biological product was achieved, it would be tried out on available subect(s).
When it was successful, Oswald would take the specimen to a particular store in
Mexico City and a handoff would be made to a Cuban medical worker (Baker,
2010).
Along
the way, Baker met several notable persons; first there was Jack Ruby, though
he was introduced to Judyth as “Sparky Rubenstein”. When Oswald first moved to
Ft. Worth, Oswald’s uncle Dutz Murret asked Ruby, who lived in Dallas, to
“Watch over my boy, Lee”. Both Murret and Ruby had allegiance to Carlos
Marcello, the Mafia boss in New Orleans; Dallas was in the Mafia jurisdiction
of New Orleans. Ruby also had provided financial support to the “Project” and
he was aware that they intended to eliminate Castro with a fast-acting cancer. Others that Oswald introduced Judyth to
included Guy Banister (Baker, 2010, pp. 171-175) and Dr. Alton Ochsner. Oswald
preceded Judyth in having an interview with Dr. Ochsner; Dr. Ochsner discussed
with Judyth her role in the project. She would be enrolling in Tulane to attend
medical school in the Fall. Yet another person that Oswald would introduce
Judyth to was Arthur Young, who was in New Orleans for one day to process
Oswald for a passport to Mexico (and whomever else appeared that day to get
passports). This was the same man who allowed Oswald to cross the border into
Canada ten years previously. The passports would be available the next day. It
should be pointed out that very few prior publications address information about
Oswald knowing Jack Ruby or David Ferrie, or that Oswald introduced them to
other persons.
Oswald and Judyth Baker
Judyth Vary Baker (2010) described her time
with Oswald, including their plans for the future. Initially they knew the
other person was married, but they still fell in love. They began an intimate
relationship, with the intent of getting together in Mexico after the current
issue (the getting rid of Castro and avoiding an assassination of President
Kennedy) was done. Arguably, their plans had a low probability of success.
Jackson, Louisiana
The occurrence of Oswald being in Jackson
Louisiana has puzzled several persons following the evidence regarding persons
connected to the Kennedy assassination.
In a car, a black Cadillac, David Ferrie. Lee Harvey Oswald, Clay Bertrand/Shaw
and a hospital orderly from Jackson State Hospital were waiting near a phone
booth for a call informing them that the volunteer(s} would soon be arriving.
The volunteer(s) were to be injected by the “fast acting cancer” developed
through Dr. Ochsner’s research project. Later, Judyth was sent to check on the patient(s).
As Judyth checked the patient(s) she became aware that multiple prison “volunteers”
were injected with the fast acting cancer that she helped develop. She wrote a
note to Dr. Ochsner, which stated, ”Injecting
disease-causing materials into an unwitting subject who does not have a disease
is unethical” (Baker, 2010, p. 470).
As Judyth was aware, this note ended everything in her presumed medical
future. She was fired from the job with the project, she would not be going to
medical school at Tulane, BUT she was still required to test the subjects at
Jackson State Hospital one last time. Oswald was told he should not contact
Judyth ever again by Dr. Ochsner. Oswald would speak to her on the phone
several times after she returned to the University of Florida. Once she left
New Orleans a few days later, they would never see each other again (Baker,
2010, pp. 470-475).
The Veraciy of Judyth
Baker
It would be remiss of me to not address the criticisms of
Judyth Baker. She has been accused of not knowing (or not knowing well or not
having a relationship with) Lee Harvey Oswald. It has also been claimed that
Oswald and David Ferrie did not know each other; we know that claim was proved
false by a picture showing the two together at a bivouac when Oswald was in the
Civil Air Patrol. Baker also claims that Oswald and Ferrie worked together on
the “Get Castro” project in the Summer of 1963.
As to the relationship between Oswald and Baker, we of course do not
have any documentation from Oswald about the relationship; we do not know if
their planned get together after successfully saving President Kennedy from an
assassination attempt was seen by the two of them as of one mind or two
separate minds. Neither President Kennedy nor Lee Oswald survived the weekend.
Perhaps Oswald had put the relationship
in mothballs until after that fateful weekend. We could understand that there
could be distance between what was in the star-crossed lovers separate minds.
That will never be known. Judyth in her reporting tells us what she knows from
her personal experience, and what she thinks she knows from what others told
her. The latter I would call it what it is, communication from others that
needs to be fact checked (a phrase not likely used much in 1963). Dealing with
that which she experienced is also subject to her own interpretation of events.
With these caveats in mind, it is my opinion that she has tried to be honest in
her communication with others. She is steadfast in her belief that Oswald was
attempting to stop the assassination of President Kennedy, not being a part of
the conspiracy to kill the beloved President. She is criticized for not
revealing her experiences in the Summer-Fall of 1963 until sometime after her
divorce from her husband. One can disagree with her timing, but she finally
revealed it in 1999, the same year that I became aware of her, and we began
correspondence then.
Also, another researcher has addressed the issue of her
veracity in his most recent book. Edward Haslam (1995) had written an earlier book which
gave him credence as a New Orleans based researcher who was contacted by
producers of the CBS news show 60 Minutes regarding his assessment of Judyth
Vary Baker. Years earlier, he had met a woman using that name who left a poor
impression for Haslam. He later found out that whomever he met, she was not the
same person that is now known within the JFK research community. He was told
that the missing ingredient in his first book was a lack of a witness.
Interviews with Baker convinced him that Baker was that witness. Haslam’s
(2007, p. 328) view is “She has been treated disgracefully in Internet news
groups and subjected to insults from people hoping to humiliate her back into
silence.”
Richard Case Nagell
Though
Richard Case Nagell and Lee Harvey Oswald had last met up at Atsugi Japan, they
would have encounters in July, August and September 1963. The reasons for these
meetings appear to be Nagell’s wanting to determine, according to the wishes of
the Soviet KGB, would Nagell murder Oswald? Nagell had been “loaned” to the
Soviets by the CIA. The Russian interest was, were there an assassination of President
Kennedy, the Russians would be able to avoid any implications that Oswald had
been involved in the assassination at the behest of the Soviet Union. Nagell
had already determined he would not perform the killing in the United States.
The CIA was not authorized to commit felonies on U.S. territory. The question
for Nagell was, would he do it outside the United States?
The first get together of the two was in
Mexico City between July 23 and July 27 at the Luma Hotel. Oswald also
reportedly went to the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City. No reason was stated for
this trip, but Nagell and Oswald went where they could shoot guns at some
cacti. Nagell’s assessment was that “Oswald couldn’t hit the side of a barn” (Russell,
2003, p. 237-241). The second meeting was said to have taken place in
“Houston”. Nagell told Russell that the meeting was neither in Houston nor
Texas. At the meeting were Nagell, Oswald, “Angel” and a fourth unidentified
person. This meeting occurred within August 23-27, 1963. The meeting was about
the assassination of President Kennedy. The meeting began in Spanish, with
Nagell translating for Oswald, and then turned to English. The name of Sergio
Arcacha Smith came up. Raul was also mentioned. Raul was a cover name allegedly
used by David Atlee Phillips (Russell, 2003, p. 275).
The September 7, 1963 Meeting
of Oswald, Phillips and Antonio Veciana
For
much of the time in September, Oswald was waiting for the outcome of the
injections to the prisoner “volunteers”. Oswald did meet with David Atlee
Phillips together with Antonio Veciana, on September 7. Much of that meeting
was observed by two teenagers, Wynne Johnson and his girlfriend, Vicki, though
Wynne only became aware of the identities of two of the participants (Phillips
and Veciana) in 2014. The teenagers observed the younger person (Oswald) arrive
in a taxi. The two teenagers walked to the Southland Center, adjacent to where
the younger man was dropped off. The teenagers planned to go to the observation
deck of the 42 story Dallas skyscraper. Inside the building, when they reached
the lobby, the youngest man and two others were talking. The older man
(Phillips) turned to the two teenagers and asked, “Excuse me, can you tell me
if there is a coffee shop around here?” Vicki answered by telling him about a
coffee shop they saw on their way to the Southland Center.
As
that conversation appeared to be ending, Oswald said to Phillips, “He seemed to
recognize me.” Vicki immediately replied to Oswald, “We saw you outside.” Then,
Phillips said, “I thought he was on our side.” Oswald quipped, ”That’s what
you’re going to find out.” Phillips asked Vicki. “Does he (Wynne) have a
camera?” Vicki stated, “No.” (Wynne did have a camera in his pocket, but had
not taken any pictures.) The two
teenagers then continued on toward the observation deck elevator. Vicki
suddenly decided to go back into the lobby. As Wynne recalls, when Vicki
returned, she stated that the younger man was “Lee Harvey Oswald”, whom Wynne
had heard on the radio of the rebroadcast of a program in New Orleans in
August, but without committing the name to memory. The two teenagers went to
the observation deck, their original intention. (emails from Wynne Johnson,
4/25/2021; 5/3/2021, Johnson, 2021 a,b) Shortly
thereafter, Oswald was sent back to New Orleans without getting invited to
lunch with Phillips and Veciana (Williams, 2019, pp. 127-128).
The
Third and Decisive Meeting with Richard Case Nagell
The third meeting took place between Oswald
and Nagell on or before September 17, 1963 in New Orleans. “Laredo” (a code
name for Nagell), called for the meeting. Presumably, he wanted to know what
Oswald was doing, before he made a decision as to what he would do with Oswald.
We do not know precisely what Nagell and Oswald spoke about in New Orleans;
Nagell reported that Oswald denied involvement with plots against President
Kennedy. Nagell also reported criticizing Oswald for attempting to interfere
with the revolution in Cuba. What we do know is that Oswald was directed to get
a 15 day visa to Mexico, which Oswald applied for on September 17 (Russell,
2003, p. 288). Nagell entered the conversation with the possibility of killing
Oswald in Mexico; his decision was to not only not kill Oswald, but Nagell also
would deliberately commit a crime a few days later, guaranteeing that he would
be in jail/prison when Oswald was in Mexico, and if President Kennedy would be
assassinated, Nagell would be in jail/prison at that time. Also, Nagell would
send Oswald $500 and a plane ticket to get to Mexico (Russell, 2003, p. 290). This
would suggest that Nagell supported Oswald’s assignment in Mexico. One might
consider that Oswald gave some information to Nagell about his efforts in New
Orleans, and his role in delivering the bioweapon for the elimination of Fidel
Castro, hopefully thereby ending planning for the assassination of President
John F. Kennedy.
Nagell in El Paso, September 20, 1963
On September 20, 1963, Nagell drove around
the streets of El Paso, perhaps trying to decide exactly what he would do.
Nagell parked his Ford Fairlane in an alley near the post office, by a “no parking”
sign. He had written three letters, one to Desmond Fitzgerald, then Chief of
the CIA Cuban Task Force, and previously, from 1957-1962, Chief of the CIA Far
East Division. A second, and nastier letter went to an unnamed CIA official at
the Langley Headquarters; the third letter was to Lee Harvey Oswald, which contained
five $100 bills, and an airline ticket to Mexico City. Later, Nagell indicated
that the FBI was aware of this letter. In the week prior to this, Nagell had
sent a letter to FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, warning him of a planned
assassination against President Kennedy. In a letter written in 1974 to lawyer
Bernard Fensterwald, Jr., in replying to Fensterwald’s question, “Why did
Oswald take the bus to Mexico City, instead of the plane to Mexico in an effort
to ‘make a few bucks?” Nagell responded that he had “… cause to believe that he
(Oswald) was never given, or did not receive, the five hundred dollars” (Russell,
2003, p. 290).
Nagell mailed the three letters at the
downtown post office. Nagell then walked across the street to the State
National Bank and shot two bullets into the wall. In that Nagell had threatened
no one and did not attempt to rob the bank, he presumed that he would be
charged with only a misdemeanor. He then casually left the bank, went to his
car, and waited to be arrested. Finally, a young policeman, James Bundren
arrived and asked, “Why did you try to rob a bank?” Nagell replied, “I didn’t
know there had been a robbery.” Nagell left several clues about what he was
doing; he said his actions would… ” keep
anyone from following me.” Nagell also stated, “All my problems have been
solved for a long time, and now I won’t have to go back to Cuba” (Russell, 2003,
pp. 291-292). Nagell would be right about his last statement. However, instead
of being charged with a misdemeanor, Nagell found that firing a gun in a bank
was a felony. He was to spend several years in prison. Finally, Nagell was
released from Leavenworth Prison April 29, 1968.
Re-addressing
the meeting in New Orleans between Oswald and Nagell, recall that Nagell was deciding what he
might do with regard to Oswald, in that he had been given the assignment of
eliminating Oswald, which Nagel would only consider outside the United States,
if at all. We know that Nagell not only removed himself from having any
possibility of eliminating Oswald, we can infer from Nagell’s castigating
Oswald for being involved with a plot against Castro, and yet attempting to
fund Oswald’s trip to Mexico, that, all things considered, given the direction
that Oswald might go, trying to avoid the assassination of President Kennedy
was preferable to saving Castro, if those were the only choices available
(Williams, 2020).
Outcome of the New Orleans Fast-Acting Cancer Project
The ultimate outcome of the project was
the building of a biological weapon that appeared to meet the expectations for it.
The weapon did not however, get used on its primary target, Fidel Castro, as
Lee Harvey Oswald was not able to successfully hand over the weapon to a Cuban
medical technician, who never arrived in Mexico City. Apparently, the hurricane
season kept the Cubans responsible for their co-ordination with the project
from fulfilling their duties. But, there is an even more sobering outcome; the
CIA now had a terribly destructive cancer that could be used at their
discretion (or lack thereof). Did it ever get used? Perhaps. It so happened
that Jack Ruby died of cancer within weeks of winning his appeal for a new
trial for the murder of Oswald. Ruby claimed he had cancer cells injected into
him.
A
Telegram Sent to FBI Offices
On
November 16 Oswald met with a Dallas FBI agent and discussed with him what he
knew of the impending assassination of President Kennedy. A telegram was
constructed and (probably) sent to the FBI National Office. On the following
morning, the telegram arrived at the New Orleans FBI Office early Sunday
morning, November 17,1963. (Baker, 210, p. 516).
At, the time that the Assassination
Records Review Board was Operational (1990’s),
Marina
Oswald wrote to the Board Chairman “I now believe that my former husband met
with the
Dallas
FBI on November 16, 1963 and provided information on which this telegram was
based.”
(
Baker, 2010, p. 516). The telegram follows:
This
document has been published in several different writings, including Williams
(2004).
Oswald’s Whereabouts Prior to the Assassination
At
11:45 AM on November 22, 1963, Oswald was at his work assignment on the Sixth
Floor. When fellow employee Charles Gibbons was asked by police, he responded
that Oswald was in the Domino Room at 11:50 AM on the first floor reading a
newspaper. Bill Shelly, foreman at the Texas School Book Depository, saw Oswald
shortly before noon. Another employee, Eddie Piper talked to Oswald at 12 Noon
on the first floor. Oswald apparently went to the second floor and purchased a
soda, returned to the first floor and began eating his lunch; another employee,
Harold Newman was eating his lunch at the same time. Carolyn Arnold, a
secretary at the Texas School Book Depository, observed Oswald in the Domino
Room at 12:15. Carolyn Arnold stayed in the Domino Room till 12:25; Oswald was
there for this time period. (Ernst, 2013). There is some evidence that places
Oswald in the doorway at the entrance of the Texas School Book Depository just
prior to the time of the assassination. (Dane, 2015; Rivera, pp. 242-257). As the shots rang out during the assassination
(12:30 PM), Oswald was getting change in the office of a secretary, Jeraldean
Reid (Groden, 2020).
Oswald’s
Whereabouts Immediately After the Assassination
From
the work of Barry Ernst, (2013), we know that Oswald was not on the Sixth Floor
at the time of the assassination. Dorothy
Ann Garner, Elsie Dorman, Victoria Adams and Sandra Styles were watching the
motorcade from Dorothy Ann Garner’s office window. Gorman was filming the
motorcade from the window. Shortly after the 12:30 assassination (90 seconds
later), motorcycle Officer Marion Baker and Building Superintendent Roy Truly
encountered Oswald on the second Floor. Shortly after his encounter with Officer Baker
and Superintendent Truly, Oswald left the building.
After
the shooting, Garner sat between the stairs and elevator, and could see both
ways with no obstacles interfering with her vision. Garner stayed there for
several minutes, well after Oswald left the building. Adams and Styles began
descending the stairs and proceeded to exit the building in the rear entry. Oswald
would board a bus, which became caught in traffic, then took a cab to his
boarding house. Upon leaving the boarding house, we know that Oswald went to
the Texas Theater, where he was apprehended by the Dallas police. Oswald would
later be charged with the murder of Officer J.D. Tippit. One curious point is
that there were three wallets involved for Oswald on that day. He left a wallet
for Marina in their room at Ruth Paine’s home. A second wallet with contents that
appeared to belong to Oswald (though it may have been a deliberate drop) was
found at the scene of the killing of J.D. Tippit. A third wallet was in Oswald’s possession at
the time of his arrest. It would seem strange that 1) Oswald would have three
wallets; 2) he would be carrying two wallets that day (Baker & Schwartz,
2017, p. 50).
Verdict on Oswald
Did Oswald shoot President Kennedy? The answer
is very clear—Oswald did not shoot President Kennedy. There is no further
reason to consider him as a possible shooter. What was Oswald’s role in the
assassination of President Kennedy? Most likely, Oswald was what he said he was,
a patsy, though probably not the only one. It appears he had other roles,
seemingly trying to stop the assassination.
Albarelli Tome
H.P. Albarelli’s final book, Coup in
Dallas: The decisive Investigation into who killed JFK (2021) is best
described as a research process that begins its story much earlier than most
attempts to address the crime of the twentieth century, going back to the
Roosevelt administration. The research is clearly a contribution, but it
arguably is not definitive, but is suggestive. Albarelli has written two
previous books that may be of interest to JFK assassination researchers. A
Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA’s Secret Cold War
Experiments (2009) describes misguided military research of lysergic acid
diethylamide (LSD) that clearly violates the rights of unsuspecting subjects of
that research. In the case of Frank Olson, it cost his life.
A
second book, A Secret Order: Investigating the High Strangeness and Synchronicity
in the JFK Assassination (2013) does in fact have several examples of very
unusual circumstances. One such strange circumstance (also summarized in
Williams 2019, pp. 273-275), occurred with a young scientist, Adelle Edisen.
She was a post-doctoral fellow with the National Institute of Neurological
Diseases and Blindness. Her contact person at the Institute was Dr. Jose
Rivera. Edisen was meeting with Rivera in April 1963. At a dinner meeting,
Rivera told Edisen that, “When you would go to Dallas, you should go to the
Carousel Club because it is a very nice night club”. Then Rivera asked, “Do you
know Lee Harvey Oswald?” Edisen replied, “No”. Rivera said that Oswald had
lived in the Soviet Union, married a Soviet citizen, and had a child, and that
they would soon be moving to New Orleans. Rivera suggested getting to know
them, because they are a lovely couple. Then Rivera gave Edisen their upcoming
telephone number, 899-4244. Upon returning to New Orleans, Edisen called the
number given to her; she was told no one by the that name lived there. One week
later she tried again. Oswald had just arrived. In finding out his address,
Edisen remembered that was a somewhat run-down neighborhood suggesting that
Oswald was not a scientist who was of the same status as Edisen.
Rivera
then asked, as they drove by the White House, “What will Jackie do when her
husband dies?” Edisen exclaimed, “What?” Rivera then said, “I mean the baby.
She might lose the baby.” He then told Edisen to write down the name, “Lee
Harvey Oswald”. Then Rivera told Edisen to tell Oswald to “Kill the Chief. Were
just playing a little joke on him. It will occur when the Shriner Convention
come to New Orleans. That’s in November. It will happen after the Shriners come
to New Orleans” (Albarelli, 2013. pp. 137-138). The question that comes to mind
is “How can a person know these details seven months before the incidents take
place?”
Jean Pierre Lafitte and the 1963 Notebook
Jean
Pierre Lafitte was a remarkable man. A
description of him given by George White was (Albarelli, 2009, p. 429): “He was
what you call a changeling. I don’t mean master of disguises. I mean an actual
chameleon, a man that had the ability to transform himself right in front of you.
He could go from good to bad, from rich to poor, from royalty to commoner, from
intellectual to simpleton, from hoodlum to police officer. He would disappear
for months or years at a time, and then show up at your door, like only a day
or two had passed”.
White continued, “I liked him, but I never
trusted him because he was always in the game. He only loved and cared about
his wife and children; everyone was fair game in the scheme of things. He was
the greatest imposter and confidence man that ever lived, not because he was a
good actor, but because he was one hundred different people in one” (Albarelli,
2009, p. 429). It seems that Lafitte
chose his own name. Most likely, he was born in New Orleans, perhaps in 1902,
1907 or 1912. However, there are reports that he was born in Corsica. His
mother was a madam. They moved to Marseille when Jean Lafitte was 7 years old.
His mother apparently was murdered about a year later, though her body was
never found. Relatives took him in, but he ran away and lived on the streets.
As a practical solution to his situation, he would work in the kitchens of
restaurants, which provided him with food, and was also dry and warm. He also acquired culinary skills that would
serve him well. He claimed that he was
descended from two pirate brothers, Jean and Pierre Lafitte, two well-known
pirates from Corsica in the 1800s (Albarelli, 2009, p. 418).
In Jean Lafitte’s experiences as a youth, he
was involved with other similarly situated young men; many of them would be
involved in some way with drugs and other illegal activities. In the process,
Lafitte became expert in a variety of ways. In particular he came to know quite
a bit about drugs such as heroin. He had along the way acquired the skills of a
chef. And of course, he had learned the skills of pulling off illegal
activities. Lafitte was involved in many well-known nefarious situations, yet
without gaining any notoriety from them, as an undercover contract agent for
the CIA and the Narcotics Bureau, through George White. He was the person who
convinced Joe Valachi to turn against the Mafia and testify against them.
Another such situation occurred in in 1953
but remained a mystery for over 50 years.
A chemist, Dr. Frank Olson was either murdered or committed suicide in a
bizarre way. Olson was a chemist for the military, but was “on loan” to the
CIA. He had been involved in a couple of situations that caused him remorse,
and apparently mentioned them to someone. He was deliberately given lysergic
acid diethylamide (LSD) in a drink. Several other CIA co-workers also consumed
LSD in drinks. Olson had a bad “trip”, and the plan was to take him by
automobile to a CIA treatment facility in Maryland. This plan would have
included George White and one accomplice, who would have been Jean Pierre Lafitte.
However, White’s mother was quite ill in California and White went to see her;
she passed away, and White remained there through her burial. Lafitte chose as
his back-up, Francois Spirito, recently released from prison, but a long-time
companion of Lafitte, from their days as youths in Marseille. In the hotel room
in the Statler Hotel in New York on November 28, 1953, a struggle took place
between Olson and the two men (Lafitte and Spirito) trying to remove Olson in
the hotel room on the 13th floor (but numbered room 1018A). During the struggle, Olson was pitched headfirst
through a closed window. He landed on his feet but was killed by impact of the
fall.
The Lafitte 1963 Notebook
As
Albarelli was finishing his book, A Terrible Mistake, he became aware
that Lafitte and his wife Rene were living in New England; as Albarelli was
living in Vermont working on the book, he immediately got in contact with Rene,
who was now Lafitte’s widow. In their conversations, she mentioned her husband
had kept several datebooks. One that interested Albarelli was the one for 1963.
Albarelli took a trip to her lawyer and several negotiations took place before
an agreement could be made for her to release the notebooks. The agreement
included areas that were not to be revealed. The notebook was in code. One
example, for September 22, 1963, is: Oswald—Mex City Gaudet? This is coded but more easily read than most
entries. In terms of Oswald’s actual activities, he had taken a trip to Mexico
City earlier in late August when Gaudet was on the same bus traveling to Mexico
City.
If that is what is referenced to, then
this is a report of Oswald’s activities, possibly only related to Lafitte at
that time. While Albareili concludes that Lafitte was the mastermind behind the
assassination, the notebook was evidence that Lafitte was a silent scribe,
reporting in code information perhaps intended for only Lafitte himself. Lafitte’s
wife Rene related that in over 40 years, no one else had successfully sought
the notebook, and Lafitte had already passed away. Additionally, his friend
George White, associated with the CIA and the Federal Narcotics Bureau,
introduced Lafitte to both those organizations. We know that White didn’t trust
Lafitte—why would the CIA trust him to be the mastermind behind the Kennedy
assassination? Nevertheless, Albarelli concluded that Lafitte was the Project
Manager.
Lafitte in New Orleans
Lafitte purchased a house in Gretna,
Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans, in late 1961 or early 1962. He was employed
briefly as a maintenance worker at Reily Coffee for three months, before
gaining work as a chef at one of New Orleans finest restaurants. Lafitte was
given the job of keeping track of Lee Harvey Oswald on the day Oswald was hired
at Reily Coffee. This job was assigned to Lafitte by Mr. T. (probably Tracy Barnes of the CIA; see Kent,
2021). Lafitte would remain as a special agent until 1978. In 1967, Lafitte
became the manager and executive chef at the Plimsoll Club, located in the
International Trade Mart, which formerly was under the direction of Clay Shaw,
who particularly enjoyed the cuisine of Lafitte.
Financiers
Some of the financiers were persons being
scammed by others involved in the assassination project. One such person was
James Hoffa, President of the Teamsters Union. Using Teamsters’ money as a loan
(never to be re-paid), Hoffa turned over 2.6 million dollars, and later, an
additional 2 million dollars to Santo Trafficante Jr. as payment for arranging
the murder of President Kennedy; Hoffa believed Trafficante and Carlos Marcello
were in charge of the assassination, and did it on Hoffa’s behalf. (Ragano
& Rabb 1994). The financiers would include the Texas oil industry, the CIA
and organized crime. The latter two groups would also play other roles.
Planners and Decision Makers
This
would include persons who had the ability to give the go ahead for the plan to
remove President Kennedy by way of assassination. Members of the inner circle
would have included some of the long time members from the CIA particularly
persons like James J. Angleton, though he may not have been a member of the
inner circle. Members of the military might have been involved, but their
involvement might have been on the periphery. One of these persons was General
Le May, though his direct involvement could have been in the cover-up. In the
actual decision making as to whether or not to proceed would likely have been
as few as three persons. My assessment of Jean Pierre Lafitte is that he was
kept in the loop, but as an advisor. Albarelli saw him as the actual main
person in the coup, the Lancelot Project. We may yet come to know some of these
persons and their roles in the Lancelot Project. Seemingly “up the food chain” from
Lafitte was Otto Skorzeny who informed Lafitte on November 5, 1963 that the
Lancelot Project was a go. Skorzeny’s wife Ilse was an important person in this
matrix of persons. While Otto was restricted to either his home in Ireland or
Franco’s Spain, Ilse was free to travel, and spent much of her time in the
United States. Skorzeny had been important in World War II Nazi Germany and had
been involved with commando training in Spain.
The Caretakers, or Handlers
Lafitte
was a handler for Oswald from the day Oswald got the job at Reily for the time Oswald
was in New Orleans. Along the way, Lee Harvey Oswald had several different
handlers. Another handler likely was David Atlee Phillips. Earlier, George
deMohrenschildt apparently also played this role for Oswald. Marina Oswald had
handlers, including Ruth Paine, pre-assassination, and Isaac Don Levine post-assassination.
Jean Souetre
Jean
Rene Marie Souetre was born October 15, 1930, in La Brede, France. In 1950,
Souetre joined the French Air Force, rising to the rank of Captain. In 1959 he
abandoned the French Air Force and joined the Organisation Armee Secrete-(OAS)
with the intent of keeping Algeria under French control. In 1962, Sourtre was
involved in the attempted assassination of Charles deGaulle. Souetre was
reportedly brought to Mexico along with other Corsicans to assassinate
President Kennedy. Other Corsicans who might have been accompanying him were Michel
Mertz, Michel Roux and Lucian Sarti. Mertz and Roux were also psuedonyms used
by Souetre. Whether there were three
different people among Souetre, Mertz and Roux is not clear. Reported by Benson
(2002, p. 48), Sarti was the shooter behind the fence on the Grassy Knoll.
According to Albarelli (2021), Souetre was either a shooter, or knew who they were.
Continuing Cover-up
It may be surprising that the cover-up of the
Kennedy assassination continues. Going back to 1965, a law was passed by Congress
at the behest of Lyndon Johnson, 89-318. This law made all materials related to
the assassination of President Kennedy the property of the U.S. government.
While the appearance of the law was to keep safe such materials, its outcome
was to keep such materials from the public. One such item was the pink outfit Jaqueline
Kennedy was wearing. She turned it over to the government. It was put away for
safe keeping and was to be left there until 2103. Even then, it was to have no
public viewing.
One sought after item was JFK’s Cartier wristwatch,
given to him by Jaqueline Kennedy on their 3rd wedding anniversary
in 1957. JFK didn’t like it and started wearing a new watch, an Omega. In 1960,
Jackie put the Cartier watch with her other possessions. On the morning of
November 22, 1963, a Secret Service agent gathered all of President Kennedy’s
metallic items for radon detection, to be returned to JFK upon his return to
Washington. Whatever protection that might have been afforded through these
objects were stripped from him that morning. Jackie then retrieved the Cartier
watch for President Kennedy to wear that day. Initially, the Secret Service was
going to provide the Omega watch as the one he was wearing during the
assassination. A nurse took the watch off President Kennedy’s wrist at Parkland
Hospital handing it to a Secret Service person, and the watch was returned to
Jacqueline Kennedy. Evelyn Lincoln, President Kennedy’s secretary, took possession
of the Cartier watch. She left it in her will with several other JFK memorabilia
to Robert White, a young man who wished to start a museum in honor of President
Kennedy. Neither Lincoln nor White knew anything about the 89-318 law regarding
assassination materials. White sold the watch and some other materials to
Christopher Fulton.
What was important about the watch and Jackie
Kennedy’s dress? They both would have been spattered by material from JFK’s
brain, which would have been not only blood, but material from the bullet. Were
the bullet to show signs of military grade mercury, the cover-up would be in
jeopardy. Oswald would not have access to such bullets, and the military might
be put in the position of explaining where the origin of the bullet was.
Fulton lived in Vancouver, British Columbia,
and held citizenship in both the United States and Canada. In turn, he
proceeded to sell the watch through Sotheby’s to John F. Kennedy, Jr. Fulton
likely is the only person charged and convicted regarding the 1965 law on
materials related the JFK assassination. The prosecution sought a 25-year
sentence for Fulton. Earlier a retired Secret Service agent, Robert Bouck,
handed Fulton a note inside a sealed envelope, which Fulton was to provide to
the trial judge before the sentence was passed, which Fulton accomplished.
Fulton was unaware of the contents of the note. Later, Fulton learned that the
note said, “Working under executive order of the President of the United
States, Ronald Regan” (Fulton & Fulton, 2018, p. 287). After a two-hour
recess, the judge returned and fixed the sentence to 8 ½ years with credit for
time served. Fulton had 7 ½ years to go. During his incarceration, he learned
of John F. Kennedy, Jr.’s death, the death of his grandparents, and that he
would not be able to resume his life with his wife, without any explanation.
Upon getting out of prison, he asked his father about his wife; he’d like to
see her if he could. His father took him to the cemetery and showed him her
grave. She was killed under suspicious circumstances in a car accident shortly
after he was incarcerated (Fulton & Fulton, 2018).
Discussion
The research
described here are in disagreement with both the Warren Commission report and
the 1977 Congressional Investigation of the JFK assassination. It also
conflicts with the John Armstrong two Oswald hypothesis. First hand information from several authors
help in this effort.
The Armstrong theory is decimated by Ernst Titovets, without Titovets
ever hearing of Armstrong or his theory.
Oswald freely speaking Russian in the Soviet Union accomplishes that.
Judyth Baker’s experience in being present when Oswald converses with Jack
Ruby, or works with David Ferrie renders the Warren Commission investigators
failure to learn this is remarkable. These experiences, together with Oswald’s
reasons to be in New Orleans (eventually, carrying the bio-weapon to hand over
to medical personnel to accomplish the demise of Fidel Castro), cast Oswald in
a very different light from that portrayed by the Warren Commission. The change
in the demeanor of Richard Case Nagell toward Oswald after their meeting in New
Orleans is pivotal in Nagell’s life. Oswald continued to advance avoiding the
assassination of JFK in convincing an FBI agent to alert the Headquarters of
the FBI of a possible assassination attempt in Dallas November 21-22, 1963.
Implications and Applications
The implications
of the present research clearly point out that Oswald has wrongly been deemed
the assassin of President Kennedy. However there appear to be no governmental
efforts to reconsider this failure of removing the casting of Oswald as
assassin. Perhaps it is because those who have benefitted from JFK’s death (now
beneficiaries) wish to avoid the negative imputations, and possible loss of
wealth. Perhaps the newer rancor in the political goings-on in the United
States is enough reason for some to avoid yet another firebrand issue. The hope
is addressing Oswald’s miscasting as the assassin, may someday may be achieved
in his native country.
References.
Albarelli,
H.P. (2009). A terrible mistake: The murder of Frank Olson and the CIA’s
secret Cold war experiments. Walterville, OR: Trine Day.
Alberelli,
H.P. (2013). A secret order: Investigating the high strangeness and
synchronicity in the JFK assassination. Walterville, OR: Trine Day.
Albarelli,
H.P. (2021). Coup in Dallas: The decisive
investigation into who killed JFK. Dover, DE: Skyhorse Publishing.
Armstrong,
J. (2003) Harvey & Lee. Arlington, TX: Quasar.
Baker,
J.V. (2010). Me & Lee: How I came to
know, love and lose Lee Harvey Oswald. Walterville, OR: Trine Day.
Baker,
J.V. and Schwartz, E. (2017). Kennedy & Oswald: The big picture.
Walterville, OR: Trine Day.
Benson,
M. (2002). Encyclopedia of the JFK assassination. New York: Checkmark Books.
Dane,
S. (2015). Prayer man. Coppell, TX: Martian Publishing.
Fulton,
C. & Fulton, M. (2018). The inheritance: Poisoned fruit of the JFK
assassination. Walterville, OR: Trine Day.
Groden,
R.J. (1995). The search for Lee Harvey
Oswald. New York: Penguin Books.
Groden,
R.J. Personal communication, November 13, 2020; also in Groden, R.J. (2013). The
absolute proof. Dallas: Conspiracy Publications.
Haslam,
E.T. (1995). Mary, Ferrie & the monkey virus: The story of an underground
medical laboratory. Albequerque: Wordsworth Communications.
Haslam,
E.T. (2007). Dr. Mary’s monkey. Walterville, OR: Trine Day.
Horn,
D.P. (2009). Inside the record review
board: The U.S. government’s final attempt to reconcile the conflicting medical
evidence in the assassination of JFK. 5 Vol. Author. (originally available
through Amazon).
Johnson, W. (2021). emails from W. Johnson,
4/25/3021; 5/3/2021.
Johnson,
W. (2021a). September 7, 1963.//vimco.com/354977601, retrieved January 2, 2022.
Johnson,
W. (2021b). Sightings of CIA’s Veciana &
‘Bishop’ with Lee Harvey Oswald, September 7, 1963. Presented at the JFK
Conference, Dallas, November 22, 2021.
Kent,
A. (2021). A well concealed ”T”. In Albarelli, H.P. Coup in Dallas.
Dover, DE: Skyhorse, pp. 491-505.
McMillan,
P.J. (1977). Marina & Lee. New
York: Harper & Row.
Meagher,
S. (1976). Accessories after the fact.
New York: Random House.
Nalli,
N.R. (2018). Sniper tracking analysis of John F. Kennedy’s assassination. J. Assoc. Crime Scene 22:11-21.
O’Toole,
G.J.A. (1975). The assassination tapes: An electronic probe into the murder
of John F. Kennedy and the Dallas coverup. New York: Penthouse Press.
Parker,
G.R. & Purcell, J. (2020). Lee Oswald and the Russian Language.
//aarclibrary.org, retrieved 12/20/2021.
Presidents
commission on the assassination of President Kennedy. (1964). The Warren
commission report (1992, facsimile edition). New York: Barnes & Noble.
Ragano,
F. & Raab, S. (1994). Mob Lawyer: Including the inside account of who
killed JFK. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Rivera,
L. (2018). The JFK horseman.
Crestview, FL: Moon Rock Books.
Russell,
D. (2003). The man who knew too much. New York: Carroll & Graf.
Thomas,
D.B. (2001). Echo correlation analysis and the acoustic evidence in the Kennedy
assassination revisited. Science &
Justice, 41:21-32.
Titovets,
E. (2010). Oswald’s Russian episode.
Minsk, Belarus: Mons Libra.
Williams,
J.D. (1991). Age, cohort & period in life-span research: A three-way
analysis with logically missing cells. Multivariate
behavioral research. 26: 631-654.
Williams,
J.D. (1996). Statistical Methods.
Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
Williams,
J.D. (2001). The qualitative-quantitative continuum: Research on the JFK
assassination. In R. Hathaway, ed. Annals
of the joint meeting of the association for the advancement of educational
research and the national academy of educational research 1998-1999.
Lanham, MD: University Press of America: 3-28.
Williams,
J.D. (2004). Was the FBI searching for Oswald the day before the assassination?
Dealey plaza echo: 8:2, 46-52.
Williams,
J.D. (2019). Lee Harvey Oswald, Lyndon Johnson and the JFK assassination.
Walterville, OR: Trine Day.
Williams,
J.D. (2020). Lee Harvey Oswald & Richard Case Nagell. Dealey plaza echo:
23:1,15-19.
Williams,
J.D. & Cousins, K.T. (2005). Judyth and Lee: Was their employment at
Reily’s Coffee a chance event? Dealey plaza echo. 9:2,37-43.
Williams,
J.D. & Klug, M. (1996). Aging and cognition- methodological differences in
outcome. Aging, 22: 219-244.
Williams,
J.D. & Severson, G. (2000a). Was Oswald in North Dakota? part I. The
fourth decade. 7:2, 21-26.
Williams,
J.D. & Severson, G. (2000b). Was Oswald in North Dakota, part II. The
fourth decade. 7:3, 19-22.
Published
in the Journal of Scientific Exploration (2022), 36,3,655-668.
