LEE HARVEY OSWALD AND RICHARD CASE NAGELL

                                                  John Delane Williams

                                                Ocean Park, Washington

 

Background on Richard Case Nagell

 

 

Richard Case Nagell was born August 5, 1930 in Greenwich, New York. Nagell never knew his father. He was placed into foster care at 4, and at 11 into an orphanage. On his 18th birthday, he enlisted in the Army and was assigned to paratrooper school. While in training, he spent his free time reading. On September 2, 1949 Nagell completed Enlisted Intelligence Specialist's School at Fort Riley.  Next he finished a Russian language course at the 525th Military Intelligence Group at Fort Bragg, April 3, 1950. Then, a Leadership School at Fort Jackson was completed in September 1950. Finally, Nagell completed Officers Candidate School at Fort Benning, with commissioning as a 2nd Lieutenant, occurring on August 1, 1951. At age 21, he became an instructor at Leadership School of the 5th infantry division in Pennsylvania. He had also taken an extension course in Mandarin Chinese from the University of California. In the Fall of 1951, he was shipped off to the Korean War. On Christmas Day 1951, he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant the same day that he received his first battle wound. Nagell proved to be a fearless fighter. A second wound took place on December 6, 1952, when hand grenade fragments struck him in the legs and in the face. On June 11, 1953 he sustained his most serious wound when fragments from a mortar or artillery shell struck him in the buttocks and face, and he received a concussion. Just as hostilities in the Korean War were coming to a conclusion, General Dunkelberg had Nagell's promotion to Captain backdated to July 15, 1953, making Nagell the youngest person ever to get a battlefield commission to Captain. While in Korea, Nagell was the only survivor of a plane crash, by quickly deploying his parachute from a low flying plane. [1]

 

Immediately after coming back to the United States, Nagell was assigned to the Army Language School in Monterey, California to study Japanese. Nagell was then assigned to the Army's Counter-intelligence Course (CIC). In mid-course, Nagell took a Thanksgiving leave to visit a girl in San Francisco. On November 28, 1954, he was returning to Fort Holabird in a B-25 Bomber, the only Army person among five Air Force personnel. The plane was approaching Andrews Air Force Base. Because of driving rain, they chose to turn the plane to Friendship Airport near Baltimore; the plane went down with Nagell the only survivor. This crash resulted in months for Nagell to be rehabilitated. He reported back to duty at the CIC training center in May 1955. In August 1955, he was designated a Counter-Intelligence Officer. In this role he would become a plain clothes man, where he would interview civilians suspected of some transgression against the military. Unfortunately, the disfigurement in his face frightened many of the persons whom he was to interview. He had a wide scar on the left side of his face and paralysis of an eyelid. His disfigurement was treated with some plastic surgery, and he was redeployed to the Far East. [2]

 

In the Far East, Nagell was working within Field Operations Intelligence (FOI) a unit within the service that was very secretive and funded by the CIA. Members of Nagell’s unit operated as special agents under the direction of the CIA. [3] It was in the Far East where Nagell first met Lee Harvey Oswald. [4] Nagell met Oswald at a German Beer Hall in Tokyo as well as at the Queen Bee bar. Russell suggested that Oswald and Nagell likely entered into a plan that involved developing a "cover" to do intelligence work against the Soviet Union. They both seemed to harbor an interest in Marxism.

 

Oswald's Touch of Success

 

Oswald's Marine experience early on was barely satisfactory, particularly with his poor shooting skills. When he started taking his Marine courses in aviation electronics things started to change for the better for Oswald. His next course, in radar operation, saw Oswald beginning to shine. At the end of the class, Oswald, after taking a battery of tests, finished 7th in his class of 30. He was designated an Aviation Electronics Operator. Oswald was then assigned to Atsugi, after a detour to El Toro Marine Base in California, where Oswald was a replacement trainee.

 

If we look at Oswald's probable state of mind, one could imagine that Oswald was feeling better about himself than he had previously experienced. When he got to Atsugi, his job had him at a base that had significant CIA involvement, he was a radar operator, among other things, monitoring U-2 flights, and apparently doing a good job. Oswald’s supervisor, Captain Francis J. Gajewski, noted in Oswald's record, six months after Oswald came to Atsugi, "As a matter of fact [Oswald] has done good work for me. I would desire to have him work for me at any time...he minds his business and he does his job well." [6]

 

The Meeting of Lee Harvey Oswald and Richard Case Nagell

 

Lee Oswald, then a private in the Marines was reported to have been to the Soviet Embassy in Tokyo, allegedly wishing to have some coins identified. Richard Nagell then sought to be introduced to Oswald; Nagell was “on loan” to the CIA. Nagell claimed that Oswald had been meeting with Colonel Nikolai Grigorievich Eroshkin. Nagell confided that he introduced Oswald to Dr Chikao Fujisawa, a person whom Nagell was trying to recruit to the CIA. Later, Nagell would determine that Dr. Fujisawa was actually already working with the KGB. [7]

 

The Queen Bee

 

The Queen Bee was a bar in Tokyo. It catered to patrons who had significant money to spend. It was one of the three most expensive nightclubs in Tokyo. It catered to elite clients, pilots (including U-2 pilots) and other upper grade officers and the few junior officers who had significant income beyond their military pay.  To take a girl out included not only her fee but also payment to the bar for using her time. There were several (over 100) very attractive hostesses, who typically cost between $60 and $100 for a "date". Oswald's monthly income was around $85. It would seem unlikely that he would have much success with the hostesses. The Queen Bee was yet another place that Oswald and Nagell would meet. [8]

 

Oswald told fellow Marine, David Bucknell, that Oswald had been in the bar alone when he was approached by a hostess who asked about his "top secret" work. Oswald reported the incident to his superior officer, who arranged a meeting between Oswald and a civilian (The "civilians" nearby were mainly personnel from the CIA). The civilian told Oswald that the woman was a known KGB agent. Oswald was given money and told that he could do a service for his country by giving the woman false information about the U-2 spy plane. Using these instructions, Oswald returned to the Queen Bee and began what was to be his first love affair; Oswald fell in love with this beautiful Eurasian woman. [9]

 

Oswald began pursuing his new-found love, even bringing her back to the base at Atsugi to show his girl to his Marine buddies. To a man, this relationship amazed them. Oswald, who had little money and little else to offer. Being with such a beautiful girl, Oswald seemed far out of his league with her. [10]

 

This point in Oswald's life may have been a time when he was perhaps almost ecstatically happy; he was after all living out his dream to be a spy, and he was very definitely doing work that would count as espionage, but he also did quite well in his classes to get there. He was seen as being a valued member of the Atsugi Marine community. And very importantly, he was in love with a beautiful girl, and he hadn't even reached his 18th birthday.

 

But this was to change. Right around his birthday, he found that his beautiful girlfriend had befriended another American serviceman, a 'buck" sergeant. [11] He also heard that his unit was scheduled to ship out to the South China Sea and the Philippines. A possible Marine landing in Borneo might have been in the offing. This prospect seemed disheartening to Oswald, perhaps because he might be unable to get his girlfriend back. In any event, on October 27, 1957, just after his 18th birthday, a gunshot was heard in the barracks at Oswald's bunk. It appeared that a shot grazed his arm, and he admitted that he had shot himself. Perhaps he thought such action might send him to the hospital, and he would be able to stay back from being shipped out, and then he could go back to the Queen Bee to win back the love of his beautiful girlfriend.

 

Still, Oswald was seemingly in good stead regarding the Marines. He did ship out with the other Marines in his unit. Oswald seemed to be interested in advancing his career. He was studying to try to pass the test to be promoted to being a Corporal. He did in fact pass that test on January 15, 1958 while they were stationed at Cubi Point, in the Phillipines, their place of deployment. Also on that day, Private Martin Schrand was shot to death while on guard duty. An investigation showed that Schrand was shot by his own gun. It was not possible for Schrand to have purposely shot himself in that the gun was too long for this to occur. It was surmised that Schrand accidentally dropped the gun and it discharged. [12] Persons wishing to involve Oswald as a shooter in the assassination of President Kennedy, to bolster the idea somehow that Oswald would have a propensity to violence, to justify claiming him as the assassin, tried to implicate Oswald in this shooting of Private Schrand. No evidence for Oswald to be involved in Private Schrand's death was to be found.

 

Back at Atsugi, Oswald's shooting of himself in October 1957 wasn't going away. Had the gun used been a military issue, the incident could have simply been an accident. In fact, Oswald reported that he shot himself with a military issue .45 caliber automatic pistol. The bullet that wounded him was a .22 caliber pistol, which was his own gun that he was not authorized to have. Having an unauthorized firearm on base was a court-martial offense.  Oswald was court-martialed. On April 11, 1958, Oswald was convicted of having an unauthorized weapon. Oswald was reduced in rank to private, fined $50 and sentenced to 20 days at hard labor. The 20 days of hard labor was suspended for six months provided that Oswald kept out of further trouble. Being reduced in rank nullified his having passed the test to move to being a corporal. Further, his officer in charge put him on mess duty, taking him away from working with radar. Oswald was not allowed back to radar duty, even though his radar officers had requested that he be returned. [13] The officer refusing to allow Oswald to return to his duty as a radar operator was Technical Sergeant Miguel Rodriguez, who was the person who replaced Oswald as the person of interest with his Eurasian girlfriend. Oswald eventually retaliated by pouring beer on Sgt. Rodriguez, which resulted in Oswald being court-martialed and sent to the brig. [14]

 

 

A Changed Man

 

After getting out of the brig, Oswald, according to his fellow Marines, was a changed man. Oswald became cold, withdrawn and bitter. Oswald spent more time with his Japanese friends and less with his fellow Marines. Oswald apparently found a new girlfriend, one who had been a housekeeper for a naval officer.  Again, she also was seemingly out of Oswald's class. She was a Russian-Eurasian. Purportedly, Oswald asked her to help him with his learning Russian. [15]

 

Recruiting Oswald to Go to the Soviet Union

 

It was revealed at the House Select Committee on Assassination (1976) that Oswald had been recruited by the CIA when he was stationed at Atsugi to be a double-agent in the Soviet Union. This was testified to by James A. Wilcott, a CIA finance officer. Wilcott testified that he had personally handled the funding for Oswald's mission. Other CIA employees denied all knowledge of such a mission. [16] That the other CIA officers would testify that they had no knowledge of such a mission could have been true, and there still could have been such a mission. If they did have knowledge of such a plan, they could still be expected to testify otherwise, to protect the agency. [17]

 

 

 

Oswald's First Trip to Mexico City

 

Sometime in July, 1963, Oswald took a short trip to Mexico City [18]. That may have been July 25 to perhaps the morning of July 27. Oswald took a plane from New Orleans to another city. Oswald stated that he needed to get materials for The Project on this trip. He would be back to New Orleans in time for his seminar at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama. [19] In Mexico City, he met Richard Case Nagell at the Luma Hotel. He reportedly also visited the Cuban Embassy. Apparently, pictures were taken of Oswald at the Cuban Embassy. While the reason for this trip was not stated by Nagell, the two went to an area where they could shoot guns at a cactus. Nagell's assessment was that "Oswald couldn't hit the side of a barn." [20]

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 23-27, 1963; A Meeting among Oswald, Nagell and Two Other Persons

 

On August 23-27, or fewer days within those dates, Lee Harvey Oswald met with Nagel and two other people in a place described as Houston. A third person at the late August meeting was "Angel" and the fourth person was not identified. [21]

 

This information on Nagell and Nagell's relationship to Oswald in Japan paints a different picture regarding the meeting that took place between August 23-27,1963 in "Houston". The location was neither Houston, nor Texas. The subject of conversation in the "Houston" meeting was the assassination of President Kennedy. The beginning of the meeting transpired in Spanish; Nagell translated for Oswald. Later the conversation proceeded in English. The name of Sergio Arcacha-Smith, a Cuban exile, came up. The name Raul came up as well ("Raul" was a cover name allegedly used by David Atlee Phillips.) Nagell surreptitiously tape recorded the meeting. [22] As a final note on this incident, it should be pointed out that neither John Armstrong nor Judyth Baker have any indication of the whereabouts of Lee Harvey Oswald ( “Harvey" to Armstrong) for the dates in question (August 23-27, 1963) for this meeting. [23].

 

The New Orleans Project

 

Dr. Alton Ochsner was the Director of the New Orleans project, and Lee Harvey Oswald played an important role in the project. Dr. Ochsner had been the Chairman in the Surgery Department at the Tulane University Medical School. He also founded the Ochsner Clinic in 1942. He was credited with being one of the first scientists to document the relationship between smoking and lung cancer. He wrote several books on the subject, and was the President of the American Cancer Society in 1949. [24] Dr. Ochsner was a prolific scholar. He had 584 published articles, many of them with co-authors. Of these articles, there were 135 different co-authors. The person most often a co-author was Ochsner's best student, Michael DeBakey, who co-authored 71 of the articles. DeBakey is remembered for developing several medical devices and procedures. He co-developed with Robert Jarvik the first artificial heart. [25]

 

The year 1956 brought the end of Alton Ochsner's Chairmanship in Surgery; the claim was made that he was spending so much time at his clinic, he was not properly addressing his chair duties. Ochsner fought this decision bitterly, but to no avail. In 1961, Ochsner was subject to mandatory retirement at the Tulane Medical School; though Ochsner fought the process, he was unable to get around this obstacle. [26]

 

Ochsner was, in 1963, an even more complex man. Ochsner had become an adamant anti-communis; like many of his wealthy Southern patients, his politics could be described as being right-wing. While he had earlier been involved with the FBI in classified research activities, they allowed Ochsner to conclude his relationship with them (in 1959) in order to work with another government entity (most likely the Central Intelligence Agency). [27]

 

The year 1959 (On January 1) was the beginning of the Fidel Castro regime in Cuba. As Castro moved closer to the Soviet orb, various government agencies were working on means to remove Castro from power. The project had as its purpose removing Fidel Castro from power in Cuba. As we now know, several other groups were working toward the same objective, albeit with different means of accomplishing that outcome. The rationale behind enlisting Dr. Ochsner and his team of medical scientists would clearly be in the medical arena. It would seem likely that they would be enlisted in developing a biological weapon to incapacitate Castro. Perhaps considered were either a poison or infecting him with a disease that would quickly disable him. As it happened, Dr. Ochsner and his associates were proficient working with cancer and its cure. Perhaps they could change their direction to developing a fast acting cancer, and coincidentally, also learn how to stop it. It's just that, in Castro's case, the last part wouldn't be necessary.

 

It is known through the testimony of CIA Director Stansfield Turner that the CIA funded 159 medical research centers to do classified medical research. It is highly likely that one of these centers was Alton Ochsner's facility. [28] It was shown by Haslam that Ochsner's team had access to a particle accelerator. [29] In most cases, the information on the particle accelerator had to be meticulously documented, but apparently not for secret covert research being conducted through the CIA. [30] In fact, Haslam has gone to great lengths to show the existence of a particle accelerator in New Orleans, and the likely relationship that the accelerator was involved in the mysterious death of Ochsner’s close associate, Dr. Mary Sherman. Prior to Haslam's research, the existence of a particle accelerator (LINAC) was covered up. [31] It is most likely that the particle accelerator was already installed prior to the beginning of the project. Dr. Ochsner received millions of dollars in donations from right-wing oil millionaires who despised both John F. Kennedy and Fidel Castro.

 

The project, (The New Orleans Project) was brought into existence within a week after Attorney General Robert Kennedy approved removal of Fidel Castro from Cuba, likely with extreme prejudice (assassination). This approval came in March 1962. With this came the approval of using the already functional linear accelerator. Undoubtedly several such projects were approved to such an end. The major planners were Dr. Ochsner and Dr. Mary Sherman, with some inclusion of David Ferrie. As they developed the plan, Numerous colonies of mice were to be raised, with little or no knowledge of the plan to be known by the mice's caretakers. A group of mice would be injected with cancerous materials, which originated from monkeys that had the SV40 virus, a virus that infected some of Jonas Salk's monkeys in developing his polio vaccine. The viruses (there may have been other viruses beyond SV40 in the monkeys) were then subjected to the LINAC, then injected into mice and then placed in the care of another set of handlers until the mice were deemed harvestable. Those mice with the largest tumors were then sacrificed, their most aggressive tumors removed, and then the tumors were put into a blender to create a material from which the virus mix and selected cancer strains could be identified and cultivated. This product would be injected into a new set of mice. This process would continue for several iterations. At a point in 1963, marmosets replaced the mice. The marmosets were then replaced by green monkeys. Eventually, the developed biological weapon would be injected into a "volunteer", to test the efficacy of the weapon. Given Fidel Castro's well known habit of smoking cigars, it would seem plausible that Castro's cancer was due to his smoking. [32] A more complete description of this process is given in Baker [33]

 

 Oswald’s Meeting with Richard Case Nagell in New Orleans   

 

“In September 1963, ”Laredo” (a code name unknown to Oswald) met with Oswald in Jackson Square in New Orleans where both were photographed.” [36] “Laredo” was a code name for Richard Case Nagell. This probably occurred shortly before September 17, as Nagell departed New Orleans on September 17. [37] This meeting was at the discretion of Nagell. Presumably, Nagell wanted to know more about Oswald’s future motives. Nagell had been given the job of killing Oswald at the behest of the KGB; the CIA had “loaned” Nagell to the KGB. To Nagell, this involved murdering an American citizen at the request of a foreign government, which he would not do on U.S. soil. It could take place in Mexico when Oswald went there later in the month. [38]

 

Nagell was not the most forthright person in relaying pertinent information; Dick Russell was able to pick out the codename “Laredo” as -being a codename for Nagell himself in the previous paragraph. Thus, 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. [39] By inference we know the decisions Nagell made in relation to their meeting. 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, be in jail/prison at that time. Also, Nagel would send Oswald $500 and plane tickets to get to Mexico. [40]

 

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.

 

   Another Oswald Impersonator  

 

An interesting detail was later revealed probably emanating from Nagell:

“Leon Oswald, Male, Caucasian, American, 24-26, 150 lbs., 5’ 9”. Alive on September 14 or 15, 1963. Not alive after September 19, 1963.” [41] This information was not elaborated on, but one of the Lee/Leon Oswald impersonators apparently was eliminated. Russell was unable to determine just how it related to Nagell, but it does add to the number of Oswald impersonators.

 

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. [42] In the week prior to this, Nagel had sent a letter to F.B.I. Director, J. Edgar Hoover, warning him of a planned assassination against President Kennedy [43] 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.” [44]

 

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 him. Nagell also stated, “All my problems have been solved for a long time, and now I won’t have to go back to Cuba.” [45]

 

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, he was released from Leavenworth Federal Prison on April 29, 1968. [46]

 

Re-addressing the meeting in New Orleans between Oswald and Nagell, it can be remembered 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.

 

The Curious Relationship of the Teenager and the Grizzled Veteran

 

The foregoing described relationship between a 17 year-old Marine and a 26 year old veteran who had already crammed in seemingly multiple lifetimes by the time of their first meeting.  What attracted Oswald to Nagell? Russell opined “In a way, Oswald may be seen as a younger alter ego of Richard Nagell. Their life paths are so similar it is eerie: Both from broken homes, both military men who were students of Marxism, both walking down the perpetually winding corridors of American and Soviet Intelligence agencies both caught up in a conspiracy to assassinate the president of the United States.”  [47] Another possibility is that Nagell may have had tasks for Oswald to complete, perhaps in an apprenticeship in spying. [48]

 

The Deaths of Oswald and Nagell

 

Oswald’s death was witnessed by perhaps millions of television viewers on Sunday November 24, 1963 in his shooting by Jack Ruby. Though not widely reported, Jack Ruby had known Lee Harvey Oswald since Oswald was a young boy, through Dutz Murret, an associate of Carlo Marcello, and an uncle to Oswald. [49] Nagell died unnoticed for several days, found in a bathroom in his apartment in Los Angeles, dying of an apparent heart attack on October 1995 at age 65. [50]

Notes:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

1. Russell, D.(2003). The Man Who Knew Too Much, New York: Caroll & Graf Publishers., pp. 42-45.

2. ibid., pp. 46-51.

3. Victor Marchetti telephone conversation with Dick Russell, January 28, 1977, in Russell, p. 51.

4. Russell, pp. 71-72. 

5. ibid., pp. 81-82.

6. Gajewski, cited in Epstein, E.J. Legend-The Secret World of Lee Harvey Oswald. New York: McGraw-Hill. p. 68.

7. Russell, pp. 71-72.

8. ibid., p.76.

9. Russell, pp. 76-77.

10. Epstein, p. 12.

11. ibid., p. 72.

12. ibid., pp. 75-76.

13. ibid., p.73-78.

14. ibid., p. 78.

15. ibid., pp.82-83.

16. Benson, (2002). Encyclopedia of the JFK Assassination. New York: Checkmark, p. 199.

17. Weisberg, H. (1974). Whitewash IV: JFJ Assassination Transcript. Frederick, MD: Author, p.62.

18. Russell, pp. 237-248. Judyth Baker wrote in an email (July 11, 2017) that she thought this trip to Mexico might have occurred during August 5-9, 1963.                                                                            19.Baker (2010) p. 414.

20.Russell, pp. 237-241.

21. Russell, p.275.

22. ibid., p.275.

23. Armstrong, J.A. (2006) Harvey & Lee: How the CIA Framed Oswald. Arlington TX: Quasar; Baker (2010) 

24.Wilds, J. & Harkey, I. (1990). Alton Ochsner: Surgeon of the South. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, pp. 177-187.

25. ibid.

26. ibid.

27. Haslam, E.T. (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. 182.

28. ibid., p. 181.

29. ibid., pp. 243-272. .

30. ibid., p. 245.

31. ibid., pp. 243-271.

32. Baker, J.V. (2014). Ferrie: Mafia Pilot, Participant in the Anti-Castro Bioweapon Plot, Friend of Lee Harvey Oswald and Key to the JFK Assassination. Walterville, OR: Trine-Day, pp. 185-199.

33. Baker (2010).  Me & Lee: How I Came to Know, Love and Lose Lee Harvey Oswald. Walterville OR: Trine Day, pp. 207-211.

34. Russell, p. 282.

35. ibid., pp. 282-283

36. ibid., p. 282.

37. ibid., p. 286. Oswald went to the Mexican Consulate in New Orleans sometime before noon on September 17, 1963 to obtain a tourist permit. He used his birth certificate, rather than his passport to obtain the tourist permit. He was directly behind William George Gaudet in line. Gaudet was a New Orleans based CIA agent.

38. ibid., p. 286.

39. ibid., p. 288. Russell obtained this from New Orleans District Attorney James Garrison’s files on Richard Case Nagell. p. 290.

40. Letter from Richard Case Nagell to Bernard Fensterwald, Jr., August 26, 1974, quoted in Russell, p. 290.

41. Russell, pp. 288.

42. ibid., p. 290.

43. ibid., p. 242.

44. ibid., p. 290.

45. ibid., pp. 291-292.

46. ibid., p. 418.

47. ibid., p. 464.

48. Personal communication with Dick Russell, November 22, 2019. See also Williams, J.D. (2019). Lee Harvey Oswald, Lyndon Johnson and the JFK Assassination. Walterville, OR.: Trine Day.

49. Baker (2010), p. 236.

50. Russell, pp. 450-453.

 

Published in The Dealey Plaza Echo, July 2020, 23, 1, 15-19

                                       Head Shot- A Physicist Analyzes the Assassination

     

                                                             John Delane Williams

Andy Winiarczyk (Last Hurrah Book Shop) recently called me and suggested I might be interested in a newer book, Head Shot: The Science Behind the JFK Assassination, by E. Paul Chambers. [1] Andy’s synopsis perked my interest. Chambers holds a Ph.D  in physics; Currently, he is working on development of renewable energy for Bellatrix Energy. As many of us who have become interested in pursuing the mysteries of the JFK assassination, Chambers is an outsider, or, as Baars [2] refers to them , a nucleator . A nucleator is a scientist with considerable expertise in an area of science who then applies their expertise to another area). Because of at least a slight similarity of backgrounds with Chambers (My first Ph.D. was in statistics [3]), I gladly accepted Andy’s suggestion. I was somewhat disappointed with portions of Chambers’ work(and, of course, there are criticisms).

Chambers organized his book into ten chapters, and like a lot of newcomers to research on the assassination, he takes the Warren Report to task—this seems to be a rite of passage for new critical assassination researchers. For myself, I am content that many researchers before me have done a sufficiently good job of criticism of the Warren Report that, in my opinion, we don’t need to have another proof that the Warren Report lacks credibility. [4] For those who do seek additional proofs, the book by Chambers is a worthy addition. Chambers uses Edward Epstein’s Inquest [5] as his guide to addressing the Warren Report in general, and the single bullet theory in particular. On the other hand, Chambers uses the works by Gerald Posner [6] and Vincent Bugliosi [7] to contrast his findings and interpretations.

Chambers states, regarding Bugliosi ,”Many in the news media and in the general public now consider Vincent Bugliosi’s Reclaiming History the last word on the subject.  However, his physics is wrong, and his science is, frankly, impossible.” [8] Chambers described his background thusly;  “My background in detonation physics and high speed photography of explosive events allows me to properly and accurately assess the scientific data set associated with the assassination.” [9]

The Beginnings of the Warren Commission

Chambers addresses the beginning meeting of the Warren Commission, which occurred on January 27, 1964. This was an emergency meeting, called to address allegations that Lee Harvey Oswald had been either an “undercover agent” or “paid informant” of the FBI. The only reference to the FBI “problem” was Bugliosi [10]. This is curious. Through of Freedom of Information request, Harold Weisberg secured the transcript of the first meeting of the Warren Commission and published it in toto, with interpretive notes. The transcript published by Weisberg [11] is a primary document, and perhaps the most important ever published about the manner in which the Commission would work. Why depend upon a second hand source of dubious merit when the primary source is available? Doing a good literature review is a necessary part of scientific research.

Science

Chambers goes to some length to explain the scientific process to a presumably less scientifically             sophisticated readership.  While he goes about saying scientific research is self-correcting, i.e., if someone either misinterpreted data, or simply had a non-representative data set, other researchers will point this out. He doesn’t make it clear how long this process might take. For example Galileo, whom Chambers refers to several times, suffered for his contributions to science. What he doesn’t mention is that Galileo’s experiments ran afoul of the church, which led to his imprisonment and excommunication from the church. He died as an excommunicant in 1642. The excommunication was removed in 1985, as I remember. In fairness, Chambers does cover the Galileo issue more thoroughly in the Epilogue. When science confronts those in control, acceptance may be a long time in coming. Yet another example of a scientist whose fame came years after his research being discarded and dying in scientific obscurity after giving up on his experiments was Gregor Mendel. Upon his death in 1884, his papers were all destroyed in a disagreement with the civil government on taxation of religious properties; Mendel was an abbot at a monastery . Only in the 20^th Century was his work appreciated for its importance. [12] Science is filled with controversies. Many years may pass before a view is finally accepted. Theories guide scientific practice, until more useful theories are developed. Theories are to be used only until they fail to correctly predict the outcomes of experiments. When they fail, they are to be discarded. Those who continue to believe in failed theories no longer continue to be scientist. Consider that a Flat Earth Society continues to exist. Unfortunately, Chambers oversimplification obscures this dialectic in science. Being a scientist is a lot messier than Chambers implies. Yet, by other comments in his book, I’m sure that he knows this.

                                                             The Medical Evidence

  

Chambers does a reasonably good review of the medical evidence. For me, I kept thinking, ‘Why has he not even referenced the extensive work of Douglas Horne’s seminal effort on the medical evidence, which was published about six months before Chambers finished his book? Horne’s exhaustive effort (over 1000 pages on the medical evidence alone) is the centerpiece on his report of the work of the Assassination Records Review Board. [13] In fairness to Chambers, his interest in the medical evidence was in relation to its usefulness in applying his knowledge base in physics.

Regarding the official autopsy performed in Bethesda, in Chambers view, the autopsy is of little value regarding reconstructing the facts of Kennedy’s death.  Most importantly the data are unstable. The head wound moves from the side of the head in the Zapruder film to the lower rear, occipital region, to the top of his head at the autopsy, to the top front of his head in the x-ray. These reports are inconsistent with both the Zapruder film and the reports of the physicians at Parkland Hospital. The Harper fragment was originally identified as an occipital bone (from the rear of Kennedy’s skull).  A…“ recent evaluation by Dr. Joseph Riley, a neuro-anatomist, indicates that the bone is instead from the parietal (side) portion of the skull.”  [14] The Harper bone fragment being a parietal bone is consistent with the Zapruder film, showing a wound to the right side of Kennedy’s head. Using a blowup of Z-333, the only apparent wound is to the right side of Kennedy’s head; in Z-333, the top rear part of Kennedy’s head, hair and skull are intact. The results of the official autopsy are at variance with the Zapruder film.            

Was the Zapruder Film Altered?

In this chapter, I was hoping to see Chambers address the Zapruder film with his own independent analysis. Instead, he relies heavily upon  Wrone’s The Zapruder Film: Refraiming Kennedy’s Assassination [15 ]. Chambers dismisses in particular the work of a scholar who holds both a Ph.D. in physics and an M.D., David Mantik’s article in Assassination Science [16]. Rather than provide his own analysis regarding Mantik’s article, Chambers stated, “These works, have been widely criticized, however, as documents that distort facts and suffer from serious errors and omissions. A most telling argument against these claims has been advanced by Harold Weissberg in his books Whitewash and Never Again!” [17]. As an aside, Chambers refers to Mantik as a “medical doctor”. Mantik is a medical doctor, but also a Ph.D. physicist, or in that sense a colleague of Chambers. Lest one conclude that Weissberg had leveled this criticism at Mantik, Never Again! [18] was published in 1995; Mantik’s article was published in 1998. We know that Chambers was still writing the book as late as June 16, 2010 (from his references). Why did he not review Doug Horne’s chapter (almost 200 pages long) in Inside the Assassination Record Review Board [19], which was published in 2009? Horne explains at length how two different groups worked separately on November 23-24, 1963 on the Zapruder film at a C.I.A. secret facility in the Kodak plant in Rochester, New York. Earlier, Horne described in detail the workings of one of the groups working in the C.I.A. laboratory [20].  He also points out that he sees Wrone’s work to be less than honest. Wrone reported that Horne indicated that Time turned the Zapruder film over to be altered. In the article by Horne, a report of an interview with Homer McMahon mentions the Secret Service delivered the film to the C.I.A. film laboratory in Rochester, NY. [21]

I’ll also offer an observation of my own. Whether or not there was an alteration, there is a clear discontinuity in the Zapruder film between Z-132 and Z-133. Z-132 shows the motorcycles preceding the limousine; the limousine is not yet shown. Z-133 shows the limousine after it has already made the turn and is heading down Elm Street [22]. Missing is the entirety of the turn, which reportedly had limousine driver William Greer driving poorly, almost driving the limousine up on the North curb near the Texas School Book Depository’s front door. The limousine would have covered a minimum of 20 feet, and perhaps as much as 40 feet between Z-132 and Z- 133. The reported speed of the limousine was 12 mph. At 12 mph, the limousine would travel 17.6 feet a second. As it happened, the Zapruder film had approximately 18 frames per second, so that at least 20 frames are missing between Z-132 and Z-133. [22] While Zapruder might have stopped the camera momentarily, the turn of the limousine onto Elm Street is definitely missing. Whether the frames are missing by Zapruder’s hand, or by an alterationist, it is propitious to the Secret Service that the incompetence of the Secret Service driver is hidden from the public eye.  In my opinion, Chambers, like many of the early critics of the Warren Report, used the Zapruder film for doing their calculations to discredit the Warren Report.  Of course, if alterations were made, those alterations are a withholding of facts regarding the assassination and can by themselves be seen as being part of a conspiracy. Some of the other missing information might also be due to Zapruder’s handling of the camera, for example, the apparent stop at the time of the fatal shot, which is not apparent on the film. There are other possible alterations that would not be at the hand of Zapruder. Whether there are alterations or not, it seems simplistic to view the film in an all or nothing at all manner. The film is not a perfect representation of reality even if there were no alterations. Insofar as alterations are hypothesized, do they render the film worthless? I think not. In any event, the film is ambiguous, but useful.

The Shooter on the Grassy Knoll

Presumably the raison-d’etre of Chambers’ book was the process of identification of the type of weapon used in Dealey Plaza for the fatal shot, and the location of the shooter. To do this, he was relying heavily on the Zapruder film, and hence the concern that the film be authentic, though not all of his analysis is tied to the Zapruder film. Chambers asserts that the bullet that killed Kennedy was likely a small caliber frangible round that fragmented inside his head. That it was a frangible bullet is deduced from the many bullet fragments seen by witnesses, without an exit wound; Chambers surmised that the point of entry was the right side of his head where the flap was visible after the shot (and on the Zapruder film as well). “The bullet that caused the extensive tissue jetting observed in Z-313 was a high velocity round traveling at or near 4000 ft/sec. “ [23] (A Mannlicher-Carcano missile travels at about half that speed). The blood that spewed out of Kennedy’s head would have been forced through the entrance wound, there being no exit wound because of the frangible bullet. The likely weapon to deliver this velocity would be the Winchester .220 Swift. I would point out that the shot would be consistent with a Winchester Swift, but could have been a custom made rifle, or some other rifle with similar ballistics characteristics to the Winchester .220 Swift. I lack the expertise to follow that up. However, I would only elevate the Winchester .220 Swift to being a likely candidate, and not exclusive to all other possibilities, which surely would include custom made weapons. On the other hand, it should be pointed out that a conclusion such as Chambers makes in identifying the model of gun used is not a statistical interpretation, but only that the model may be a likely candidate. In a later chapter, Chambers acknowledges that the fatal shot was likely fired a Winchester .220 Swift, or a rifle with similar characteristics. It would be interesting however, to check into the distribution of these (and similar) guns that were existing in 1963. Chambers also surmises that the Grassy Knoll was the most likely place where the shooter was located. While Chambers does an excellent job of analyzing the information that he has gleaned from the Zapruder film, he concludes that the weapon was a Winchester .220 Swift; it seems tenable to me , but I’d like to see others address his analysis, trying other possible weapons, giving their confidence limits for the different weaponry. As Chambers says himself, science is about repeatability. If there is no other suitable candidate, then the most likely candidate has been identified—but someone could still look into the records of the whereabouts of Winchester .220 Swifts in 1963. One of the important points about Chambers presentation is that, for those who are not trained in physics, Chambers explains the aspects of physics directly applicable to understanding the scientific base of his argument.

Why it Matters

 When Abraham Lincoln became the first president to be assassinated, a conspiracy was quickly exposed. The exposure of that conspiracy was important, because history matters. One could argue that we still don’t have all the details about the conspiracy that ended in Lincoln’s assassination. There is some disagreement as to whether Mary Surratt was a part of that conspiracy (she was the landlady at the boardinghouse where some of the conspiracy planning took place; she was hung shortly after the assassination), more was publicly known about the Lincoln conspiracy shortly after the assassination than is yet known about President Kennedy’s assassination. If “The truth shall set you free” then we have been held captive from the truth about President Kennedy’s assassination for forty-eight years and counting.

Notes:

1.       Chambers, E.P. (2010). Head Shot: The Science behind the JFK Assassination. Amherst, NY : Prometheus Books.

2.       Baars, B.J.  (1986).The Cognitive Revolution in Psychology. New York: Guilford Press.              

3.       A second Ph.D. was received in clinical psychology.

4.       Just a brief selection of books that disprove the Warren Report would include: Harold Weissberg’s Whitewash-The Report on the Warren Report (1965). Frederick, MD: Author; Mark Lane’s Rush to Judgment (1966). New York: Holt Rinehart & Winston;  Sylvia Meagher’s Accessories After the Fact (1967). New York: Vintage; J. Gary Shaw, Cover-Up (1976). Austin, TX: Thomas: Henry Hurt’s Reasonable Doubt (1985). New York: Holt, Rinehart &Winston; Robert Groden & Harrison Livingstone’s High Treason (1985). New York: Conservatory Press; Jim Marrs’ Crossfire (1989). New York: Carroll & Graff; Dick Russell’s The Man who knew too Much (1992). New York: Carroll & Graf; Walt Brown’s Treachery in Dallas (1995). New York: Carroll & Graf; Assassination Science (1998) Peru, IL: Catfeet Press , edited by Jim Fetzer; and Gerald MacKnight’s Breach of Trust  (1995). Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas. There are several other excellent refutations of the Warren Commission findings.

5.       Epstein, E.J. (1966). Inquest: The Warren Commission and the Establishment of Truth.  New York: Bantam.

6.       Posner, G. (1993). Case Closed. New York: Random House.  

7.       Bugliosi, V. (2007). Reclaiming History. New York: Norton.

8.       Chambers, p. 8.

9.        Ibid, pp. 8-9.

10.   Bugliosi, p. 346.

11.   Weisberg, H. (1974). Whitewash IV: JFK Assassination Transcript. Frederick, MD: Author.

12.   Carlson, E.A.  (2004). Doubts about Mendel’s Integrity are Exaggerated. Mendel’s Legacy. Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, pp. 48-49.

13.   Horne, D.P. (2009). Inside the Assassinations Record Review Board, Vols I-V. Lexington, KY: Author.

14.   Chambers, p. 94.

15.   Wrone, D.R. (2003). The Zapruder Film: Reframing JFK’s Assassination. Lawrence KS: University Press of Kansas.

16.   Mantik, D.W. Special Effects in the Zapruder Film: How the Film of the Century was edited. In Fetzer, J.H., Ed. (1998). Assassination Science. Peru, IL: Catfeet Press, pp. 263-344.

17.   Chambers, p.188.

18.   Weisberg, H. (1995). Never Again! New York: Carroll & Graf.

19.   Horne, D.P. (2009). Inside the Assassinations Record Review Board: The U.S. Governments Final Attempt to Reconcile the Conflicting Medical Evidence in the Assassination of JFK. Volumes I-V. Lexington, KY: Author.

20.   Horne, D.P. Interviews with Former NPIC Employees: The Zapruder Film in November 1963. In Fetzer, J.H., Ed. (2000). Murder in Dealey Plaza. Chicago: Catfeet Press, pp. 311-324.

21.   Horne, D.P. (2009). P. 1227.

22.   Images of an Assassination: A New Look at the Zapruder Film. (1967, 1995). Washington DC: MPI Media Group, The LMH Company.

23.   Chambers, p. 207.

           To be published in JFK/Deep Politics Quarterly

                                        Inside the Assassination Record Review Board  

                                     Part III- The Political Context of the Assassination

                                                          John Delane Williams                                                                    

The fifth volume of Inside the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) [1] also corresponds to Part III-The Political Context of the Assassination. It would be easy to envision this volume being released as a book for the mass market (presuming that the mass market would welcome a pro-conspiracy publication.) Were this to become such a publication, we could hope for more than two chapters for over 400 pages of material. The first chapter addresses the set-up

for events in Dallas.

Getting Kennedy to Dallas and the Planning of Events

If Horne is on the right track, John Connally and Lyndon Johnson were the spearheads behind the Texas trip. It would seem political considerations enticed President Kennedy to venture to Texas. A planned testimonial dinner for Congressman Al Thomas, which occurred in Houston on the night of November 21, was pivotal. Thomas was said to be dying of cancer—just as importantly, Thomas controlled the funding for JFK’s space program. Horne also points out that it was Thomas who winked at Lyndon Johnson, during Johnson’s swearing in ceremony, which was also photographed (p. 1388); see [2]. To be sure, Connally and Johnson had their own agendas as well. Connally wanted the luncheon planned at the Trade Mart, which seated 1500, rather than the Women’s Building, which seated 4000. The Women’s Building was preferred by Jerry Bruno, JFK’s advance man from the Democratic National Committee. The Women’s Building site was considered much easier to insure safety, and also, it would allow attendance by a larger cross-section of citizens; the smaller venue at the Trade Mart was said to likely be attended by those who reflected the conservative wing of the Texas Democratic Party. Connally was adamant about the Trade Mart site. Secret Service (SS) Agent Winston Lawson and Jack Puterbaugh, also from the Democrat National Committee, and in charge of motorcade political protocol, recommended the Trade Mart as the luncheon site. The choice of the luncheon site dictated the motorcade route (pp. 1387-1398). It has been purported than one reason for the preference for the Trade Mart was that the Women’s Building was not nearly as dignified venue as the Trade Mart. [3]  

Lyndon Johnson and Pre-Knowledge of the Assassination

 On the eve of the Dallas motorcade, Vice President Johnson argued with President Kennedy about the placement of Senator Ralph Yarborough and Governor John Connally in the next day’s Presidential parade. Johnson wanted Governor Connally in his car and Senator Yarborough in President Kennedy’s limousine, rather than vice-versa. Kennedy would not relent. Later that evening, Johnson attended a party at the estate of Clint Murchison. Johnson arrived long after the party started, and immediately called a meeting for selected dignitaries, including  J. Edgar Hoover, H.L. Hunt, John Currington (Hunt’s Chief of Staff), George Brown (of Brown & Root), John McCloy, and Richard M. Nixon (pp. 1429-1430); the event was termed a “victory party” by Livingston. [4] The celebration reportedly regarded the next day’s planned assassination. As Johnson left the meeting, he bellowed to Madeleine Brown, his former mistress, “After tomorrow those goddam Kennedys will never embarrass me again—that’s not a threat--that’s a promise.” [5]

Lyndon Johnson’s behavior in the motorcade on 11/22/1963 was curious. Johnson was ducking down 30 to 40 seconds before the shooting started. He was listening to a walkie-talkie at the time the shooting started (p. 1433). Immediately after the first shot, Secret Service Agent Rufus Youngblood pushed Johnson to the floor of the Vice-Presidential limousine, and proceeded to lie on top of Johnson as they sped out of Dealey Plaza. [6]

Security Stripping in Dallas

The motorcycle escort for the Presidential limousine was cut in half, from four on either side to two on either side, and the remaining motorcyclists were stationed to the rear of the limousine; Captain Perdue Lawrence, Dallas Police Department (DPD), and driver of the pilot vehicle, testified to this arrangement at the Warren Commission, saying that President Kennedy wanted no motorcycle policemen between him and the crowd. Lawrence was told this not by JFK, but by SS Agent Winston Lawson. Lawson also gave the order for no secret service agents to ride on the back of the Presidential limousine, again suggesting that this came from President Kennedy. Vince Palamara, in presentations at two research symposia in 1995 & 1996, was given assurances by both Gerald Behn (Head of the White House detail in the Secret Service) and Floyd Boring (#2 man under Behn) that JFK never vetoed or modified any Secret Service procedures ever. Apparently Palamara has contradicted himself on this issue on various websites. [7] The Dallas motorcade is contrasted with the previous day in Houston, when there were nine motorcycle escorts on either side of President Kennedy’s limousine (p. 1401-1405). When Clint Hill ran toward the Presidential limousine in Dealey Plaza, a second agent, Jack Ready, was also going to run to the limousine, but was told not to move by SS Agent Emory Roberts (pp. 1410-1412). That decision seems inexplicable.

It was standard practice for one of JFK’s two military aides, Air Force Brigadier General Godfrey McHugh, or Naval Captain Tazewell Shepard, to ride in the Presidential limousine; minimally, they would ride in the follow-up car; both were placed 12 cars behind the Presidential limousine. President Kennedy’s personal physician, Rear Admiral George Burkley, was also usually placed as close as possible to the president. In Dallas, he was in a vehicle- one of the two press busses 20 cars behind the Presidential limousine- unable to respond to any trauma that might occur. Quite often a press vehicle was placed directly in front of the Presidential limousine to film the President’s tour; in Dallas the two press cars were 13^th and 15^th respectively behind the Presidential limousine (pp. 1413-1414). However, the 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th vehicles behind the Presidential limousine were camera cars; Thomas M. Atkins, a White House cameraman, was in the first of the camera cars. [8]

William Greer

William Greer was the driver of the limousine. Horne has hearsay evidence that a steward on Air Force One was helping Clint Hill change his blood stained clothes on the way back to Washington. Reportedly Hill told the steward that Greer pulled his gun on Hill as he jumped on the back of the limousine (pp. 1415-1418). Given that the Secret Service agents were not supposed to be on the limousine (by Winston Lawson’s orders), it is not surprising that Greer would pull his gun on someone jumping onto the back of the limousine. Horne alludes to the possibility that Greer shot President Kennedy in the head. Horne stated, “The very unpleasant tentative possibility exists that limousine driver William Greer fired a fourth head shot into the President’s temple with his revolver.” (p.1150). Personally, I would have preferred this conjecture had been placed in the Appendix rather than in the body of the text.  In my view, the evidentiary base is just not there for this interpretation—a shot to the left temple, yes—by Greer—no. This statement tends to detract from the rest of the text. The evidence is far too weak to suggest that William Greer shot President Kennedy in the head from the information presented. [9]

The Secret Service’s Involvement with the Assassination

It is because of Doug Horne’s work that we now know how much more deeply the Secret Service (at least several key members) was involved with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Their involvement can be seen in the security stripping, which included not only reducing the protection around Kennedy’s limousine, but the planning of the route to the Trade Mart, the selection of the Trade Mart instead of the Women’s Building, and the changing of the placement of cars in the Presidential parade in Dallas, putting Kennedy’s personal physician far enough behind the Presidential limousine, so that he couldn’t respond to an emergency. Also, the press would be unable to record the parade on film, as was normally done (But see note 8). At Parkland Hospital, the Secret Service stole the slain president’s body, illegally removing him from Texas, and avoiding an autopsy in Texas. At the Bethesda autopsy, SS Agent Roy Kellerman was in charge of allowing persons to view the proceedings; some persons were kept from being in a particular audience to try to keep the body alterations unknown to attendees at the autopsy. It is likely that Dr. Burkley was in a liaison with the Secret Service. Burkley was one of the individuals shouting instructions to the autopsists in Bethesda. The Secret Service personnel took possession of the Presidential limousine and had it torn down to remove evidence, and apparently had a new windshield installed to try to eliminate evidence of a frontal shot. According to Horne, William Greer not only slowed or stopped the limousine during the motorcade, but also possibly shot President Kennedy in the head. After the ARRB was instituted, the Secret Service deliberately destroyed files relating to the assassination, some 32 years after the assassination. Also according to Horne, Kellerman likely did some alterations on his own to remove a frontal bullet from President Kennedy’s body. I am not convinced of the veracity of the involvements of Greer and Kellerman in these allegations. Burkley testified at one point about his anger about where he stuck in the motorcade; but he did NOT blame the SS; he stated that placement in vehicles was usually left to local folks, of the ‘host committee’ not the SS. Kellerman, it should be stated, also testified that there was a bullet entrance in what would be JFK’s right ‘sideburn’ [2H 91], and such testimony casts doubt on Kellerman consciously playing any cover-up role.

Not emphasized in Horne’s analysis is the treatment of Abraham Bolden, the first black SS agent to serve in the presidential detail. After a year in Washington, Bolden asked to be transferred back to Chicago. Bolden was part of the Secret Service detail in Chicago that unearthed a threat against President Kennedy and caused the cancellation of his trip to Chicago on November 1, 1963. During Bolden’s tenure in Washington, he began to have strong misgivings about presidential security.  In May of 1964, Bolden flew to Washington to attend a Secret Service training school. When he arrived in Washington, he attempted to call J. Lee Rankin, counsel to the Warren Commission. His call was placed to the White House Switchboard. Bolden wished to give testimony to the Warren Commission on the low level of protection afforded President Kennedy by the Secret Service. The Secret Service apparently got wind of Bolden’s plans. Bolden was sent home directly, and charged with counterfeiting on his return to Chicago. Bolden would eventually be convicted and sentenced to prison. Though he was paroled in 1969, the government never saw fit to offer him a pardon. After all, his conviction could be construed to be because of government misconduct. The government rarely acknowledges its own misconduct.  [10]

 The Enablers- J. Edgar Hoover and Lyndon Johnson

Horne refers to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and Vice-President (and on 11/22/1963, President) Lyndon Johnson as “enablers” of the plot to eliminate John F. Kennedy (p. 1472). Without being an apologist for either, it is hard to conceptualize two people that apparently became aware of the plot as late as 11/21/1963, as enablers to the plot. They likely became instrumental in the cover-up, making both enablers of a different sort, as they kept the heat off of the actual plotters, but overstates their involvement with the assassination. And, their participation in the cover-up was “different”. For J. Edgar Hoover, his participation in the cover-up was more akin to “business as usual” (his business as usual was in its own way nefarious). For example, at no point did Hoover and his FBI ever venture away from a two shot hit scenario (one shot in the back of President Kennedy’s skull, exiting at the top of his skull, and the other a shallow, non-transiting wound in the back), despite Arlen Specter’s magic bullet scenario. Hoover’s bureau seemed to have saved most of their collected materials in relation to the assassination of President Kennedy and cooperated with the ARRB with this process (obviously, Hoover was long gone), but the FBI’s collected materials were apparently destroyed less often than by other agencies.

Johnson, as president, set in motion the Warren Commission, which was the means to covering up the incriminating evidence from the assassination, and pinning it onto Lee Harvey Oswald. Johnson would have been seen to be an enabler for the interests of the military, and would deliver on that aspect following the Gulf of Tonkin resolution. Perhaps Johnson thought he was going to be removed from the 1964 ticket, but if JFK would only remove him were an indictment against Johnson made, Johnson had little to worry about. [11] It was not likely that he would be indicted by any Texas court, and insofar as the Rules Committee hearings held in the Senate, even on the day of the assassination, Johnson had little to fear. The Senate Rules Committee members, made up of 6 Democrats and 3 Republicans, were if anything (the 6 Democrats) defending their former colleague, rather than trying to gather evidence against him.  See [12].

The Military (JCS) and their Relationship with President Kennedy

To say the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) had a conflicted relationship with President Kennedy would be a gross understatement. Presumably, the JCS would have looked forward to the Kennedy Presidency—he campaigned as a Cold Warrior, seemingly more interested in combating the Soviet Menace than his opponent Richard Nixon. In particular, he wished to close the missile gap with the Soviet Union. Once elected, he found that there was no missile gap or bomber gap; any gap that existed was in the United States’ favor. Then the impending Cuban issue arose. Unlike his predecessor, President Eisenhower, JFK initially attended meetings with the JCS without any experts from his own administration. The Bay of Pigs planning would be affected within a series of meetings with the JCS. What President Kennedy did not understand was that if the Bay of Pigs operation were to have a chance of success, direct intervention by the American military would be necessary. The JCS and the CIA were expecting the cold warrior to accede to the use of the military rather than face defeat for the Cuban ex-patriots attempting to invade Cuba. JFK refused to allow any direct intervention by American militia. More meetings would bring out the strong differences between JFK and the JCS. Included in these meetings were aspects of the Northwoods plan. This bizarre plan had several scenarios for creating a pretext for an invasion of Cuba by the U.S. military. One such plan was to implement a fake “Communist Cuban Terror Program” in Miami in which Cuban refugees would be exposed to actual exploding bombs, with attempts on the lives of the Cuban refugees, perhaps wounding some, and also using false documents to implicate the Castro regime (pp. 1525-1530).

The Vietnam situation was yet another area of contention. President Kennedy was continually being pushed to allow American combat troops there. Kennedy had become aware that the glowing reports of success in Vietnam were far removed from the truth.  Though he earlier decided to reduce the number of advisors in Vietnam by 1000 by the end of 1963, using the erroneous information supplied to him, he remained steadfast in the drawdown in American advisors; after his reelection, he planned to withdraw all American military personnel by the end of 1965 (pp. 1583-1602). Eventually the JCS would come to see JFK as a traitor, and that his elimination would be necessary.

A Convenient and Agreeable Replacement Was Found

On April 27, 1961, a crisis meeting was held regarding Laos. Present were 15 congressional members, the JCS, President Kennedy, and Vice-President Johnson. Arleigh Burke, sitting in for General Lemnitzer, advocated immediate military intervention in Laos with combat troops, with possible escalation up to and including the use of nuclear weapons. President Kennedy asked for the views of those present. Only one person sided with Burke--Lyndon Johnson (pp.1553-1554). On May 5, 1961, President Kennedy indicated that Vice President Johnson would be going to Vietnam in the near future--without discussing it with Johnson. When Johnson got on the plane 5 days later, he was given a briefing book about the goals of the trip by USAF Colonel Howard Burris. After studying the book for about one minute, Johnson said, “Howard, if you give me any of this State Department crap again, I’ll throw you off the plane.” (p. 1569). On May 12, without authorization, Johnson promised President Diem that the U.S. would fully fund and equip the 20,000 man additional increase Diem wanted. Later that evening, LBJ called Diem the “Churchill of Asia” (p. 1571). As the war effort in Vietnam deteriorated, but rosy reports of success were reported back to JFK, Johnson was given accurate back channel information about how badly things were going in Vietnam (p. 1583). If need be, it would appear that the military might have a suitable replacement for President Kennedy.

The CIA Became the Operational Arm of the Security Establishment in the Assassination

It is Horne’s assertion that the CIA was the operational arm of the security establishment in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. I think it would be more correct to say that key personnel from the CIA were likely a part of the operational arm of the security establishment in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. However, this does not mean that the CIA, nor any of its members, was part of the group that made major decisions about the assassination. Horne placed David Atlee Phillips in the midst of the CIA operational arm in the assassination. Phillips was involved with the sheep-dipping attempt with Lee Harvey Oswald, with the intended outcome of labeling Oswald as a pro-Castro assassin of President Kennedy. A second person was David Sanchez Morales, a notorious CIA hitman, who bragged about the CIA’s involvement in the assassination. Morales was the Operational Manager at a training base in Florida, training Cuban exiles for a possible invasion of Cuba. According to Bradley Ayers, also involved in training exiles at that base was mobster Johnny Rosselli. [13] A third CIA planner named by Horne was James Jesus Angleton. Angleton stressed a relationship between Oswald and Valery Kostikov, a Soviet official at the Mexico City embassy who was in charge of assassinations in the Western hemisphere. Covering up this relationship (or pseudo-relationship) would help keep the U.S. out of war with the Soviet Union, but more importantly from Angleton’s view, also get the CIA off the hook for their part in the assassination. Mark Lane argued this theory persuasively in Plausible Denial, suggesting, with credibility, that the entire Mexico City scenario was fraudulent, yet presented quickly to the WC by the CIA in order to drum up the possibility of nuclear war as a pretext/excuse for the WC to find a lone, non-political assassin. [14] Edward G. Lansdale, a Brigadier General in the Air Force, owed his true loyalties to the CIA.  President Kennedy disappointed Lansdale in both Vietnam and Cuba. Lansdale had the offer to be Ambassador to Vietnam rescinded by Dean Rusk, who did not want a CIA “spook” serving as an ambassador; Project Mongoose (an attempt to start a popular uprising in Cuba against Castro) was shut down in early 1963, following President Kennedy’s no invasion pledge to Kruschchev, after the Cuban Missile Crisis. JFK’s intent to withdraw from Vietnam after the 1964 election also rankled Lansdale (pp. 1613-1649). According to Horne, Colonel L. Fletcher Prouty identified Lansdale as being in the photograph of the three tramps in the yard area behind Dealey Plaza in Dallas on 11/22/1963 (p. 1648).  This statement by Horne is accurate but possibly misleading. Colonel Prouty identified Lansdale as being a person photographed with the three tramps when the tramps were being escorted by two men dressed as Dallas police. The man identified as Lansdale by Prouty was walking in the opposite direction as the three tramps. The three tramps would then be escorted to the nearby County Jail by the same two Dallas policemen. It seems highly unlikely that the Dallas police would escort persons to the County Jail. The whole scene seemed bogus to Prouty in an interview he gave in 1989. [15] [ In an aside, the police interviewed stated that “the tramps” removed from the boxcars—there were more than three, were taken off trains parked near Union Station, three blocks SOUTH of Dealey Plaza; the implication regarding the “tramps” is that they were behind the picket fence. [16] The question then becomes, why march them through Dealey Plaza if they were caught three blocks south?

The Longstanding Desire of Hawks to Obliterate the Soviet Union

Horne reviewed Richard Rhodes’ book on the history of America’s nuclear arms race [17]; the planning for the obliteration of the Soviet military and industry was begun as early as September 1945.  In 1950, Paul Nitze and Dean Atcheson (then Secretary of State) deliberately began exaggerating the Soviet threat in order to boost defense spending (p. 1694). This exaggeration apparently continued to the 1960 election year; JFK campaigned on the premise that he would move, as president, to erase the missile gap. Shortly after JFK became president, Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara concluded there was no missile gap (pp. 1690-1692). In terms of nuclear warheads, the U.S. held a 20 to 1 advantage.  In 1954, President Eisenhower issued an updated Basic National Security Policy statement: “The United States and its allies must reject the concept of preventative war or acts intended to promote war.” (p. 1695). Air Force General Curtis LeMay authorized the Strategic Air Command (SAC) to plan for preemption—for beating the Soviet Union to the punch if intelligence indicated the Soviets were beginning a first strike. LeMay’s plan would have left virtually the entirety of the Soviet Union as a smoking, radiating ruin in two hours. LeMay deliberately had begun overhead flights of the Soviet Union from the mid- 1950’s, apparently hoping a response from the Soviet Union would justify a preemptive first strike (p. 1696). 

At the end of WWII, custody of the U.S. nuclear bombs was transferred to the civilian Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). In 1957, LeMay wrestled physical custody of the nuclear weaponry from the AEC. Robert Sprague, chairman of a committee appointed by President Eisenhower to study SAC’s response abilities, expressed his concerns to LeMay. LeMay said, “If I see the Russians are amassing their planes for attack, I’m going to knock the shit out of them before they take off the ground.” Sprague protested, “But general, that’s not national policy.” LeMay responded: “I don’t care. It’s my policy. That’s what I’m going to do.” (p. 1699).

The Single Integrated Operational Plan for 1962 (SIOP-62)  

This plan was first revealed to President Kennedy at a meeting with the JCS on July 20, 1961. Horne discussed SIOP-62 in Chapter 5 (pp. 482-487). Briefly, SIOP-62 was a plan for a nuclear war in 1962, annihilating the Soviet Union, China, even Albania. It was to be an obliterating attack on everything Red. Once begun, the entire plan was to be executed. It involved using 3,423 nuclear weapons against 1,077 military and urban-industrial targets scattered throughout the Sino-Soviet bloc. The enormousness of this plan was incredible. In all human history, only two atomic bombs had ever been used against another nation, the bombs used to end WWII. Many of the thermo-nuclear warheads available to the U.S. in 1962 were much more powerful than the two atomic bombs used in 1945. Generals Lemneitzer and LeMay were strong advocates of this plan (pp. 1701-1707).  

What was the Meaning of the Assassination of President Kennedy?

If the Warren Commission and its defenders are to be believed, there is no major meaning to the assassination of President Kennedy. He was murdered by a madman; the policies which President Kennedy was promulgating were kept intact, and there was no change in government. It is Horne’s assessment that the JFK presidency was a break from “business as usual”. Horne argues against those historians who maintain that nothing would have changed had President Kennedy lived. Horne claims that this sort of thinking--Kennedy’s death was irrelevant to subsequent events, ignores Kennedy’s role as a reformer who was in the process of a paradigm change--a change that infuriated the military-industrial complex. Kennedy had plans to remove American troops from Vietnam in 1965; 58,000 American lives and over a million Asian lives would have been saved. Détente with the Soviet Union could have come 25 years earlier. Just perhaps, hundreds of billions of dollars could have been saved in the military budget. A cooperative effort for putting mankind on the moon, rather than the race which took place, could have signaled that a transformative change in our way of interacting with other nations had begun.

Even more importantly, it is likely that a nuclear war was avoided in regard to the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) were unanimous in recommending a military solution to end the crisis. The JCS wanted to bomb the missiles in Cuba. Their view was that the missiles were not yet operational. The CIA had also seriously underestimated the number of Soviet personnel in Cuba. There were at least 42,000 Soviet troops there. Nor did the JCS know that the missiles were operational, armed with nuclear warheads and permission to use them was granted if the Soviet installations were attacked. Had the president given the green light to attack the Soviet missile structures, the ensuing holocaust would have been almost unimaginable. As it was, the U.S. Navy harassed four Soviet diesel-electric submarines, which were each carrying 10 kiloton nuclear warheads, though this information was not known until years later (p. 1740).  Had the captains of any one of these submarines had the mentality of, say, General Curtis LeMay, World War III would surely have been underway. Such a war would have had profound effects worldwide; a long lasting nuclear winter would have been the prize for the survivors. In saving the world from the devastation implicit in such a conflict, President Kennedy was seen by some as a traitor, and he was marked for assassination. The nuclear winter theory espoused here, which I agree with, would have accounted for far more than the “39 million” dead that Lyndon Johnson sold to the WC; it could have been closer to 1.5 billion dead, particularly as the fallout were to go eastward, to India, Pakistan, China, and Japan- all heavily populated.

A Quick Synopsis of Horne’s Contribution

This massive writing encompassing over 1800 pages; it is an important contribution to understanding the events of 11/22/1963. Part I, almost half of the five volumes, makes the set a must reading for any person seriously wanting to understand the assassination. The medical evidence involved with the autopsy is riveting. Yet it is hard to read in such detail about the handling of President Kennedy’s body. Horne leaves seemingly no detail out of his magnum opus. Part I is a major contribution to the assassination literature. In a real sense, it is hard for Part I not to overshadow the final two Parts.         Part Two was an extension and interpretation of Part One. The two brain hypothesis (JFK’s real brain, and a substitute, more intact brain) is explored. Horne’s looking into the Zapruder film is well worth reading. One issue that deserves more emphasis in ballistics evidence is the use of sabots (a sabot would allow a bullet which would have been fired from a rifle to retain its original ballistic markings when fired from a sabot in a larger caliber rifle), particularly when the government is trying to frame a suspect. Part Three is an uneven contribution. Horne presents no evidence that William Greer acted improperly, but provided only hearsay reports of Greer improprieties. Were Greer under the understanding that no secret service agents would approach the limousine, it doesn’t seem unreasonable for him to pull out his handgun when someone jumped on the limousine. Even on a hearsay basis, I didn’t read anything that suggests Clint Hill said that Greer fired the handgun at either Hill or President Kennedy. Perhaps such evidence may eventually surface; at that time hypothesizing a shot from Greer would then be appropriate. On the other hand, the involvement of General Curtis LeMay, laid out in considerable detail, is handled more gingerly than that of William Greer. The richness of Part III is in regard to the coverage given to the relationship of the military brass to President Kennedy. Horne presents considerable evidence of disdain toward Kennedy on the part of several key top brass in the military, including their seeing Kennedy as a traitor for not using a military response to the missile crisis. Given inaccurate assessments of the Soviet nuclear preparedness in Cuba, the military brass were adamant about a military attack on the missiles in Cuba. It was the steadfastness of President Kennedy against the military attack on Cuba that likely saved the world from a massive nuclear holocaust. While it is not Horne’s specific interpretation, it is not a long stretch to postulate that selected military brass were at the center of the conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy. Whatever criticisms have been brought up herein, I would strongly recommend the five volumes by Horne to any researcher interested in the JFK assassination.      

Notes:

1.      Horne, D.P. (2009). Inside the Assassination Records Review Board: The U.S. Government’s Final Attempt to Reconcile the Conflicting Medical Evidence in the Assassination of JFK, Volumes I-V. Lexington, KY: Author.

2.      Lifton, D.S. (1980). Best Evidence: Disguise and Deception in the Assassination of John F. Kennedy. New York: Macmillan.

3.      This seems like a trumped up excuse. I am reminded of the time I saw President Kennedy; JFK gave a speech in a high school football stadium in front of 20,000 onlookers. All the dignity necessary for the occasion was provided by President Kennedy. Williams, J.D. (2009). How “Typical” was the Protection for President Kennedy in Dallas? Dealey Plaza Echo, 13, 1,1-4.

4.      Livingstone, H.E. (1993). Killing the Truth: Deceit and Deception in the JFK Case. New York: Carroll & Graf. (pp. 483-487).

5.      Brown, M.D. (1997). Texas in the Morning: The Love Story of Madeleine Brown and President Lyndon Baines Johnson. Baltimore: The Conservatory Press. (p. 166). See also, The Men Who Killed Kennedy: Part 7: Smoking Guns. The History Channel, 11/21/2003.

6.      Youngblood, R.W. (1973). 20 Years in the Secret Service: My Life with Five Presidents. New York: Simon and Schuster. (pp. 113-115).

7.      Palamara, V. (1993). The Third Alternative-Survivors Guilt: The Secret Service and the JFK Murder. Pittsburgh, PA: Author. The two presentations Palamara made were at the Coalition on Political Assassinations meetings in Washington, DC in 1995 & 1996. Videotapes were made of Palamara’s presentations (along with other presenters).

8.      Trask, R.B. (1994). Pictures of the Pain: Photography and the Assassination of President Kennedy. Danvers, MA: Yeoman Press. (p. 306). In the three camera cars were six cameramen (NBC, CBS, the White House cameraman, three local TV affiliates,) seven photographers, an NBC sound technician a pool electrician, and three drivers.

9.      This is not to say that I would absolutely reject the idea that William Greer shot at President Kennedy, only that I am unaware of any additional evidence that would conclusively show that Greer fired at the President.

10.   Bolden, A. (2008). The Echo from Dealey Plaza. New York: Harmony Books.

11.  Williams, J.D. (1999). LBJ and the assassination conspiracies. JFK/Deep Politics Quarterly, 4, 2, 25-28.

12.  Williams, J.D. & Conway, D. (2001) The Don Reynolds Testimony and LBJ. Kennedy Assassination Chronicles, 7, 1, 19-28. No publication of the Senate Rules Committee hearings (being held on November 22, 1963) was ever made, because they were never concluded. Because the hearings, involving Donald Reynolds, an insurance salesman purportedly involved with kickbacks to Johnson, were resumed, we can discern what happened at the hearings at the time of the assassination from Reynolds later testimony regarding the hearings on 11/22/1963.

13.  Ayers, B.E. (2006). The Zenith Secret: A CIA Insider Exposes the Secret War Against Cuba and the Plot that Killed the Kennedy Brothers, Brooklyn: Vox-Pop. Also, Ayers, B.E. (1976). The War that Never Was: An Insider’s Account of CIA Covert Operations Against Cuba. New York: Bobbs-Merrill.

14.  Lane, M. (1991). Plausible Denial. New York: Thunder’s Mountain Press.

15.  A U-Tube video of Colonel Prouty’s 1989 interview regarding General Lansdale was received from Treefrog (treefrog@ix.netcom.com) on 8/1/2010. The video is available at www.prouty.net. The picture that Colonel Prouty identified General Lansdale as being in with the three tramps can be found in Trask, R.B. (1994). Pictures of the Pain. Danvers, MA: Yeoman Press. (p. 340).

16.  From the testimony of D.V. Harkness, DPD; at the WC hearings, Harkness was not asked about the tramps. See Brown, W. (1996). The Warren Omission. Wilmington, DE: Delmax, p. 310.

17.  Rhodes, R. (2007). Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.