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DEALEY  PLAZA  UK  9TH  INTERNATIONAL  SEMINAR  ON  THE  ASSASSINATION  OF  JOHN  F  KENNEDY  

CANTERBURY  CHRIST  CHURCH  UNIVERSITY  KENT,  ENGLAND:  16TH/17TH  APRIL  2011    

Written by Stuart Galloway – DPUK Secretary

INTRODUCTION Dealey Plaza UK held their 9th Seminar in the beautiful surroundings of the Canterbury Christ Church University Campus (Canterbury, Kent) on 16th & 17th April. We were blessed with beau-tifully warm and sunny weather that made a change from some of the colder conditions that we have experienced in previous years. This time last year the Iceland volcano, “Eyjafallajokull”, had suddenly grounded virtually all transatlantic flights which meant our visiting guests from the USA had been unable to join us. This year everything went to plan and we were very pleased to welcome back Professor Gerald McKnight and his lovely wife Barbara (who first visited us in 2009) and for his first visit, Clay Ogilvie, co-director of the Weisburg Archive. Both Gerald and Clay were presenting papers at the Seminar. This year we were also, for the first time, planning to hook up an audio link with Larry Hancock in Maryland for him to present a paper. Fingers were crossed that it would all work out satisfactorily By tradition the weekend opened on the Friday night where the delegates met up at Pinocchio’s Italian restaurant close to the wonderful Canterbury Cathedral. The wine and food are superb and everybody had an opportunity of getting to know or meet with other friends before the main event begins. It is a time to catch up on what people have been doing and often discussions about the As-sassination get underway. A truly convivial event, made special this year by the company of our American friends. A visit to the local pub, the Thomas Becket (a purveyor of some excellent ales), by quite a few folk extended the evening by several hours allowing for further discussion on a va-riety of subjects, including Jack Ruby and his dog! The seminar began at 9.30am sharp on Saturday morning and everybody arrived on time, despite the late night. Stuart Galloway (DPUK Secretary) introduced the programme and read out a truly

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perceptive and often moving letter written by one of our friends and members, Bernard Wilds, who was unable to be with us at the seminar. He had entitled it “What John Kennedy might have said if he was with you today”. The content of Bernard’s letter is printed below. It was a great pleasure for our Chairman, John Wassell, to present the annual DPUK Annual Achievement Award to Alaric Rosman for all the magnificent articles that he has written for the Dealey Plaza Echo and the superb presentations that he has given over the last nine years at the Canterbury Seminars.

LETTER TO THE SEMINAR – BY BERNARD WILDS What John F Kennedy might have said if he was with you today? 'I wish to communicate with you today, not because I have to, not because I can do, but because I feel that it is necessary, for those among you who still believe in the rights of justice, who believe in civil liberty and sanction there causes, who believe in a democratic world, a free world, a peace-ful world. Today you now live in a world that is controlled not by the people you think you have, or by the people you voted for, but by a force of hidden individuals who have taken those same democratic rights and beliefs’ away, this is why I discourse with you today! In the long years since that fateful day in Dallas, nothing has changed, nothing I believe to have changed my judgments and beliefs from that time, and yes despite the tragic ending I would’ do it all again, but I cannot, ‘so it remains in your hands, you are the ones that can change how the way the world has turned, ‘you are the ones that can bring peace and harmony to this war torn, upside down world you now find yourselves in. ‘Yes that day in Dallas was pivotal, it was a forewarning, not only for those of us that campaigned for the rights of our fellow man, ‘for peace and harmony in the world, for justice and for freedom’ but it was a ‘caveat to us all. Lets begin by not pursuing the innocent, those who were led like lambs to slaughter unwitting and unknowing, those that were following their beliefs and doing there duty like all good men are taught to do. Lets not cast the first stone but also understand that obedience of the law is demand-ed, not asked as a favour. Lets not go astray from the path of justice’ stirred by internal strife and dispute. ‘We must accept that by avoiding information that contradicts with what you already think or believe to be true, will screen the issues, and redirect your views, you must consider all factors and cause you to seek out, or at least consider, other points of view. ‘We seek the truth, and will endure the consequences. We must consider also, the great men that have also died under this background of hatred and greed, people who were not afraid to speak out on issues of racialism, peace and freedom and who were made martyrs because of there beliefs. Let not their words be wasted’ as Martin Luther King said ‘in the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. ‘Dallas should always be a reminder in history, as a significant place in the hearts of all of us, as not the conclusion of democracy, freedom and the road to peace in the world, but the beginning of the end of those who seek to destroy those values! This is where we should commence to answer the question ‘how do we put right the wrongs of those who sought to prosper from the demise of others and who now hold the keys to your free-dom. By bringing to justice from that time, all those who perpetrated and all those that instigated and paved the road to where you are today. Whether dead or alive you can cleanse the past and begin a new future by peaceful and honest means, to seek the truth and stand up to all those that cover up

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the truth for modest gains and infamy, to think logically and ask ‘why we are where we are today and where we will be in the future. The truth is there, seek it out, If not for yourself, then for your children and your children’s, chil-dren, and for those who are less fortunate in mind and body’ for to quote a adage from the past ‘in the final analysis its up to you now, it’s your world, it’s your duty, it’s your obligation, it’s your choice’ God bless and go with peace. Written by Bernard Wilds.

“CREATING A PERFECT CLIMATE FOR HIS OWN DEATH” PRESENTED BY: BILL BEADLE

The first paper was given by Bill Beadle and was entitled “Creating a Perfect Climate for His Own Death”. Bill gave a background to the Kennedy family and how his father groomed John for the Presidency. Knowing his health and time was against him JFK was determined to make an indeli-ble mark on his term of office. Bill compared JFK’s development during his presidency to the reign of Julius Caesar as Emperor of Rome and Robert Peel both as Home Secretary and later as Prime Minister in the UK Parliament (1820/30/40’s). All three made bitter enemies in their resolve to do what they thought was right for their people as they took on the mantle of office. Bill also made reference to David Pietrusza book “1960-LBJ vs. JFK vs. Nixon” where reference is made to Florence Kater sending incriminating photos of JFK (in 1959) to 50 prominent editors/politicians - none responded. Such misdemeanours by politicians were kept under wraps in those days but were beginning to upset the establishment. The power of the Military Industrial Complex and Arms In-dustry would lead to a disastrous rise of misplaced power as Eisenhower had warned. Kennedy brought in “Can Do” people rather than military leaders. Industry had benefited much from wars – US industry had even supported Nazi Germany at one stage. After the Bay of Pigs JFK sacked Allan Dulles as Director of the CIA for incompetence – many in the CIA and the anti-Castro Cubans hated JFK from then on for what they saw as his lack of sup-port. Curtis LeMay was a strange character but not a racist. He clashed with JFK & McNamara in the Cuban Missile Crisis, claiming the US should bomb Cuba, even after Kruschev had stepped down. Kruschev and JFK wanted peace – their military leaders wanted war. The US was well ahead on first-strike capability. Luckily for the world, both JFK and Kruschev respected each other and stuck to their ideals. Bill also made reference to General Lyman Lemnitzer and Operation North-wood’s – plans to discredit Castro and create support for military action against Cuba. The Opera-tion was designed to undertake genuine acts of terrorism in Miami, Florida and even Washington and then to blame the Communists. JFK was disgusted. He also averted armed intervention in SE Asia. Nuclear Test Ban treaty also upset the Military along with plans for withdrawal of troops from Vietnam. He also fell out with industry particularly the very rich steel and oil companies. He demanded that price increases should be limited and threatened removal of military contracts, or-dering official investigations into commercial practices. Racists were also after JFK’s blood after his endorsement of civil rights. JFK and RFK conducted a relentless campaign against organised crime and the Mafia and in the process earning their hatred and the hatred of J Edgar Hoover. Convictions of criminals climbed – Jimmy Hoffa was persecuted and Carlos Marcello was deported to Guatemala by RFK. Under ex-treme pressure some of the Mafia bosses actually decided to go back to Italy. Mafia people may actually have been part of the shooters in Dallas. JFK left behind an unfinished life – people were incensed at his assassination just as the people of Rome were incensed at the assassination of Caesar and just as the people of the UK were furious when his party sacked Robert Peel after he repealed the Corn Laws. We are left to speculate how leaders can be assassinated by the efforts of a tiny minority when trying to do good for the majori-ty.

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“WHO DID IT?”

PRESENTED BY: TONY BASING The second paper was given by Tony Basing and was entitled “Who did it?” Tony pointed out how the merits of assassination theories by which people are influenced depend on the books that they read. However, the darker side of US history must be thoroughly understood in order to be able to comprehend the background to these theories. He distributed a flyer with 52 names – a “Cast of Characters”. These ranged from CIA officers, agents, and informants, FBI agents, and anti-Castro Cubans. The CIA had full time staff and contract agents all of whom had specific roles. Some of the players were out and out criminals, mainly a mixture of CIA contacts and the Mafia. There was a mass exodus of Cubans to the US some of whom were subsequently trained by the CIA to invade Cuba and oust Castro. US politicians and the business community, along with the Mafia wanted Castro out. The Bay of Pigs was one of the consequences. Both RFK & JFK had been part of the McClelland Committee hearings into organized crime in the late 50’s. The Mafia hated them for this and continued to fight them at every opportunity. The book “The Secret War” by Fabian Es-calante, former head of Cuban state security gives a detailed insight into the CIA plots against Cu-ba. The Cubans blended into Miami society but names eventually came to the surface. The book that prompted the HSCA was Robert Morrow’s “Betrayal”. Morrow was a former CIA contract agent and his book was alleged to expose the real killers of JFK, although he uses pseudonyms. One of the most important characters in the book is Mario Garcia Kohly an extreme anti-Castro defector, who may have been involved directly with the assassination of JFK. In 1959, US companies owned 40% of Cuban sugar land, almost all the cattle ranches, 90% of the mines and much of the utilities and oil. David Atlee Phillips advised the US to distance itself from Fulgencio Batista. Gerry Hemming, Frank Sturgis, Bernard Barker, and Manuel Artime played major roles in the attempts to overthrow Castro. Nixon promised to overthrow Castro in support of his candidacy for President. Sergio Arcacha Smith announced himself as a member of the Frente Revolucionario Democratico (FRD Party – formed in March 1960) whose main aim was the overthrow of Castro. Operation 40 was a CIA sponsored undercover operation dedicated to the overthrow of Castro established by Dulles. Escalante states that Operation 40 was formed to eliminate Castro and possibly Che Gue-vera, Raul Castro, Juan Almeida, and Carlos Rafael Rodriguez. JFK (as president-elect) was ad-vised of an assault brigade to land in Cuba (William Robertson, Grayston Lynch, and William Robert Plumlee were involved in the training.) The ZR/RIFLE project was formed in early 1961 that gave the CIA licence to assassinate foreign leaders. However, some believe that the project was used to assassinate JFK. In February 1961 Roselli gave botulism capsules to William Harvey for Tony Varona to take to Cuba to assassinate Castro. The attempt failed. In Nov 1961 Operation Mongoose was born and JM/WAVE came into being as its operational headquarters, under the ae-gis of Robert Kennedy. The front organisation was Zenith Technological Services. In February 1962 Gen. Edward Lansdale presented a 6-stage plan to overthrow Cuba. At that time anti-Castro Cubans believed JFK to be on their side. In April 1962 Operation “Quick Kick” went into operation. This was a rehearsal for invasion of Cuba using the Puerto Rican coast. 83 warships were involved. By August 1962 the government was keeping close watch on Veciana’s Alpha 66 & Orlando Bosch’s MIRR (Movimiento Insurreccional De Recuperacion Revolucionaria) Operation 40 was the invisible arm of the CIA and Murder Inc. Johnson later refers to “Murder Inc.” a Mafia term, meaning teams of professional hit men. They are skilled automatons that are set in motion by a code system that does not require the identities of those who have made the "Decision." In using the term “We had been operating Murder Inc.” LBJ is obviously referring to the Government with possible reference to the Kennedy assassination. The principle aim of these Groups was to provoke JFK to go to war. William Harvey (chief of ZR/RIFLE & Task Force W) after insulting RFK was sacked by JFK and sent to Rome but re-

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mained a close associate of Roselli. David Atlee Phillips takes over responsibility for ZR/RIFLE in April 1963 – confirmed to Tony Basing by Chauncy Holt. The anti-Castro Cubans felt betrayed when they realised that a Cuban invasion was off the agenda. The CIA, the Mafia, and anti-Castro Cubans had all been working to the same end. David Phillips, Tony Varona, and Santos Trafficante involved in the attack on Guantanamo Base. “Friends of Democratic Cuba” meeting in Guy Banister’s Office – fund raising arm of the Cuban Revolutionary Council (Sergio Aracha Smith) to fight against communism.

• Chauncy Holt delivered the fake Secret Service identification to Dealey Plaza • Jack Ruby coordinated the Sniper operations • Frank Sturgis was in charge of Communications • Lee Harvey Oswald was the patsy

“AN INEXPLICABLE TWENTY MINUTES IN DALLAS”

PRESENTED BY: ALARIC ROSMAN The third paper was given by Alaric Rosman and was entitled “An Inexplicable Twenty Minutes in Dallas”. He posed the question – if Dallas couldn’t be trusted with what should have been a fairly straightforward autopsy, why were they allowed to conduct a far more complicated and subtle in-terrogation of Oswald? Why wasn’t the latter carried out in Washington as well, at FBI Headquar-ters? Oswald had declared himself simply a patsy, and evidence pointed to a conspiracy. He must have known some of the conspirators. He should have been under federal jurisdiction. Alaric re-ferred back to his previous presentation on Oswald/ Rosaleen Quinn (career in diplomatic corps) concerning LHO’s ability to speak Russian and the probable involvement by the CIA in his train-ing– possibly as high as James Jesus Angleton (chief of counter-intelligence) –. Perhaps there were two Oswald’s being sheep-dipped, one who was fluent in Russian because of his background from birth. LHO declared he had been framed and declared that he had done nothing wrong. He indicated that he was working for the Intelligence Community. The Dallas Police totally ignored what he said and the implications – who was it who curtailed their investigations? Was LBJ actually involved in supporting the CIA in the covert operations surrounding the assassination? Alaric stated that he was giving a highly speculative and very contentious presentation. JFK was assassinated in order to achieve a vital purpose he opposed, to thwart a policy that he was keen to enforce, or in revenge for what the conspirators considered a treasonable wrong. It must appear non-political – thus a lone individual was to be blamed. Use of a rifle generated potential problems. Had to have at least 3 shooters to be sure of success but how would forensic evidence then stand up? The process would have to be very strictly controlled – a cover up if a single shoot-er was to be ultimately blamed. The murder of a President was not a federal offence unless a con-spiracy was suspected. Other assassinations of presidents & attempts on their lives in the past had been proven to be down to lone assassins. It was natural that the autopsy should be held in Park-land. But doctors would have noticed the inconsistencies in the wounds straightaway. If LBJ had not been involved in the planning when vice-president why did he not simply task Earl Rose (Dal-las county coroner) to undertake the autopsy – this was Texas – his homeland and a homicide had taken place there! But the conspiracy would have collapsed. Johnson was a very forceful character capable of having his own way. He took over Air Force One – the Kennedy camp was furious that he did it in such an insensitive way. But he had to do it on the basis that the assassination might have been part of a worldwide plot. Hoover had moved into action and contacted all his FBI offices demanding that all suspect groups be investigated. Dean Rusk expressed concern that Kennedy’s murder may have had international ramifications (Cu-bans/Russians?). Johnson was also paranoid on the way back to Washington.

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The battle for JFK’s body at Parkland lasted for nearly ½ hour. Dr.Earl Rose (Dallas Medical Ex-aminer) physically tried to block the attempts of the Kennedy aides (Ken O’Donnell & Larry O’Brien) and the Secret Service agents (including Roy Kellerman) to take the body from Parkland. Doctor. Rose pointed out very forcibly that it was Dallas law that no body resulting from a homi-cide could leave the county without an immediate autopsy. Theron Ward (Justice of Peace – 3rd Precinct Dallas) backs Earl Rose. However, Henry Wade (Dallas County DA) stunned them all by agreeing that the body could be removed. Who forced him to change his mind? Probably LBJ – Cliff Carter, Johnson’s aide had phoned him 3 times that day). Nobody questions Johnson – it was he who suggested to Mrs Kennedy and the Kennedy aides that JFK’s body should fly with them back to Washington and even held the departure of AF 1 for 45 minutes waiting for the body to be collected and loaded. Those who were to perform the autopsy at Bethesda had no experience of fo-rensic pathology Then suddenly it was no longer conspiracy and the Lone Assassin card appeared like a rabbit from the hat. Will Fritz meanwhile take’s over the interrogation of LHO at the same time all this was happening – this could only have happened if advice had been given that here was the Lone Assas-sin. The Warren Commission report backs this up (p454). It wasn’t the end result of Fritz’s inter-rogation but the pre-condition, thus shutting off any conspiracy rumours. The questioning of Os-wald was pathetic. Very few questions were asked and the notes taken were non-existent. The U-Turn in such a short period of time must have been planned and only Lyndon Johnson had the power to carry this out. Rufus Youngblood (Secret Service agent who had protected LBJ in his car during the shooting) later referred to the fact that all those aboard AF1, particularly the Secret Ser-vice, suspected a far-reaching conspiracy. The name of Lee Harvey Oswald had not even been mentioned at this time. All associated with LHO’s arrest and subsequent questioning commented on how calm he was throughout the period – this was not the demeanour of a lone assassin. Chief Curry pointed out that the FBI & SS had no jurisdiction over the process but they kept in contact. Robert Kennedy took the time out to phone Mrs Tippit after the murder of JD implying that LHO had killed his brother and her husband – possibly at the behest of LBJ, who also phoned the widow – maybe to cement in people’s minds the idea of a lone assassin. (Alaric finished by actually play-ing a recording of the LBJ phone call)

“WHY WE DON’T KNOW” OR “A CLOSE RUN THING”

PRESENTED BY: LARRY HANCOCK

The fourth paper was given by Larry Hancock and was entitled “Why We Don’t Know” or “A Close Run Thing”. We were able to hook up with Larry on a telephone link from where he lives in Oklahoma – the whole system worked much better than we had dared to hope. Larry spoke of an inexplicable 72 hours. In the first 24 hours many remarks and reports became available all pointing towards a conspiracy, backing up what Alaric had said earlier. The cover-up was tightly coordinated. Associated Press carried a report from Merriman Smith by radiotelephone from the press car in the motorcade, stating that “bursts of gunfire” had been heard. Secret Service Agent Greer testified to the Warren Commission (WC) that there were more than three single shots – a statement ignored by the WC staff. Dr.Perry was interviewed on air and spoke of injury to front of JFK’s head – the Secret Service (SS) withheld the interview from WC staff. (They lied that it could not be found.) Jesse Curry on air described someone resembling Oswald being picked up from the TSBD and driven away – confirmed by three independent witnesses. It all seemed to point to a conspiracy. No suppression of news at that point in time. The DPD have often been criticised as being very amateurish and failing in they’re duties at the time but Larry pointed out they were actually undertaking a competent investigation. A list of all cars in parking lots was taken (drivers interviewed), along with details of all the people in the Tex-

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as Theatre – both lists subsequently mysteriously disappeared. Frazier was taken into custody and shown the rifle bag (he was polygraphed – that evidence later disappears) – adamant it was not car-ried by Oswald and even told the WC so. The DPD were being professionally aggressive and sus-pected a communist conspiracy. They continued talking to suspects on the Saturday – and then Washington calls ‘LBJ concerned about Russian conspiracy and affects on foreign relations, Na-tional Security is invoked. Henry Wade (Dallas DA) admits he was pressurised into charging LHO with plain murder and drop further investigation into conspiracy. Similar calls came from Cliff Carter (LBJ’s aide) to Dallas Police Chief Curry and Texas Attorney General, Waggoner Carr. The initial paperwork charges were torn-up and replaced. No discussion of conspiracy allowed. A search of Oswald files indicates that he met in Mexico City with two known KGB officers and Johnson orders Hoover to take over the investigation. Air Force 1 tapes and Flight Logs are changed. There is every appearance of Soviet and possibly Cuban involvement in the assassina-tion. Already there are problems at Parklands Hospital. Doctors and staff registered descriptions of wounds that would later conflict with the final, official Bethesda autopsy report. Dr.Perry is pres-surised to change his opinion after being harassed by Washington/the Secret Service. He allowed himself to be overridden, assuming those undertaking the autopsy were the experts and he had made a mistake. A great deal of pressure was applied and he was made to cede to the Bethesda au-topsy “experts”. However, Dr.McClellan was, and has always been, adamant that the autopsy pho-tos did not show what he had witnessed in Dallas (Larry was present on an occasion when he was shown the photos). The autopsy doctors at Bethesda were briefed about a rear-shooting scenario but their initial find-ings could not substantiate this. Evidence was coming in on a regular basis from Secret Service and Dallas. The x-rays films and photos in evidence were in no way sufficient to support a typical homicide court case. No medical records existed validating their autopsy report. Doctors. J Thornton Boswell and James Humes (along with Doctor. Pierre Finck) were supposedly carrying out the autopsy but attendant Army and Navy senior officers and Secret Service agents were apply-ing a lot of pressure as to the procedure. The White House was almost certainly intimidating them. Humes and Boswell’s autopsy notes and the first written report disappeared or were destroyed. Even the second version may also have suffered the same fate. In fact the autopsy report was an it-erative document with possibly 3 or 4 versions being issued. The final version did not support the official death certificate and wound diagram. Back in Dallas more information was being gathered; more pieces of bone found and evidence of the shooting analysed, including bullet fragments. Con-tradicted what was in first report. But the body was gone. Photos & X-rays taken Friday night no longer support revised report. Lots of evidence at Dallas was simply written off and the same can be said for the evidence at Bethesda. Lot of work had to be revisited by the doctors. Problems con-tinue over several days. Ended up with no medical records validating the final autopsy report. What is now known is Johnson talked to Hoover Friday night, maybe several times – call log has been altered and taken off official record. William Manchester had originally confirmed its exist-ence. Also calls him Saturday (record erased) and asks Hoover about Mexico City. Real problems about the known, monitored, LHO calls to the Russians – tape comparisons prove not LHO. Hoo-ver admits to LBJ that Oswald has been impersonated. (Tapes subsequently disappear.) Caller makes offers to Russians and Cubans – asking for money – offering to provide information – very suspicious. The Russian to whom the calls are made is actually running agents in the USA – FBI has double agent who has gone to Mexico and under direction of this KGB officer is collecting in-fo for sabotaging the USA. The Russian may also have been responsible for assassinations opera-tions. On Friday LBJ must have thought there was a Russian/Cuban involvement – facing atomic exchange. Now on Saturday they must have been worried about their own people – the US intelli-gence officers.

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John Newman in his book “Oswald and the CIA” (2008) leads to conclusion that calls were an im-personation and provides strong evidence as to who could have carried it all out. They were really big problems in Washington in Presidents office, as well as in the FBI, and the CIA offices. Call traffic indicates they are all confused. Tapes are discussed but suddenly the tapes go missing – can’t be traced. Sorry - we’d love to help but we can’t compare voices. But this was an absolute lie. Things move from confusion to obfuscation. In coming years CIA officers will continue to lie about what happened in Mexico City and other subjects. By now the FBI is making the CIA look devious. Hoover had the goods on what really happened. Later on he is forced to deny the remarks he made to LBJ and does not take this gracefully. Within an hour of the call Hoover issues a directive closing down an open-ended enquiry and focussing all efforts on LHO. It has been admitted by the Johnson Library that 14 minutes of presidential tape have been erased from the records – must have had something to hide. On Saturday evening the Zapruder film was taken to the National Photographic Interpretation Cen-tre (NPIC). They should have been asked to analyse the film - but no. They were simply told to blow-up certain frames so that Briefing Boards could be produced and CIA Director McCone up-dated. It is not known what information was included but McCone apparently subsequently ad-vised RFK there were multiple shooters but RFK chose to go with what Hoover had told him about a single gunman. Then another team goes in Sunday and asks NPIC to produce another set of blow-ups – completely different staff involved. These were designed to show a lone gunman had committed the crime. Certainly the Boards are not those now held by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Almost certainly the Briefing Boards made up on the Saturday indicated a conspiracy. What happened at NPIC is exact mirror of what happened at Bethesda again suggesting evidence of conspiracy but this would never be published. By controlling selection of data the conclusions drawn can be controlled or manipulated. Friday night Johnson orders conspiracy investigation to be aborted because of possible Communist plot. Russians also concerned – frantic efforts around embassies to assure all concerned they were not involved. Russians & Cubans both consider they will be suspected and an extremely volatile situation arose on Friday. On Saturday things change and the implications of an Oswald imperson-ation are staggering – covert CIA operations involving Oswald or somebody writing a conspiracy on top of Oswald to make him look a patsy. National Security meeting on Sunday to discuss Mexi-co City and the assassination of Kennedy which only involved Johnson, McCone, and Bundy. On-ly knew about it because of a log entry. No notes of meeting, McCone files gone. Helms probably destroyed all the documentation. Not knowing what was discussed they possibly suspected a CIA operation with Oswald. At end of 72 hours Hoover/Johnson impersonation conversation erased – totally illegally. Records of National Security meeting erased – again illegally various tapes and transcripts of supposed Os-wald calls disappear. Russian transcripts erased. The Secret Service was forced to accept a series of embarrassing gaps in the chain of evidence for items it handled – in particular the CE399 bullet. Chain of evidence was manipulated. Several CIA officers were forced to lie about events in Mexi-co City. Johnson used the “40 million dead” (Russians/Cubans did it) fear to suppress any open in-vestigation of conspiracy. So we don’t know about the conspiracy because of what happened in those 72 hours – reason is EITHER because LHO was involved in very active, possibly unsanctioned, intelligence operation conducted by Desmond Fitzgerald & David Phillips – (the latter wrote the notes for an unreleased fictional manuscript in which LHO was used against Castro but something went wrong and he killed Kennedy – we felt bad about it but we didn’t tell him to do it) - OR because the leads point towards the involvement of US intelligence officers in a conspiracy against the president which

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was what David Phillips said in the last months of his life. For 20 years he had lied to protect him-self and the agency. Recommended Reading: -

• “Inside the Assassination Records Review Board” – Vol.1 & 2 By: Doug Horne Deals with the autopsy and the doctors and the changing nature of the re-ports etc.

• “Oswald & the CIA” – 2008 Edition by: John Newman Builds strong case for proving the Oswald Mexico City calls were im-personations and also advocates who could have carried out the impersonation

“A POSTSCRIPT TO OSWALD IN MEXICO – HOW THE FBI DEVOURED ITS OWN MESSENGER” PRESENTED BY: PROFESSOR GERALD MCKNIGHT

Gerry began by pointing out that the subject of his presentation was the emissary sent by J Edgar Hoover to Mexico City after the Assassination. His name was Larry Keenan. He actually got in touch with Gerry after Gerry had written his book on the Warren Commission. They have re-mained in touch off and on. Keenan was devastated by news of the assassination. He was attending in-service training at the FBI academy in Virginia at the time. Initially he didn’t realise that the event would affect him so dramatically in both his professional and personal life over 10 years threatening his health, eco-nomic security, family stability, and result in him being used as an unwitting tool in the cover-up of the Assassination. J Edgar Hoover told Manchester that LBJ had rung him on 27th after he had got home from a day’s work in the office – more likely LBJ spoke to him from AF1 on the flight back from Dallas. Before touchdown of AF1 at Andrews, FBI Agent Vincent Drain had started to collect together 400 or 500 pieces of evidence from the Dallas Police, including the rifle, revolver, identification cards etc. for flight back to Washington – however, the evidence passage was not controlled. The contents could have been added to or changed by a number of people. But at this stage it was not declared a federal crime so the investigation should have continued by the Dallas Police – it was a homicide in Texas. The two FBI agents, James Sibert and Francis O’Neil heard from Special Agent in charge Balti-more Office that they were go to Bethesda to attend the autopsy (this is still before AF1 had landed in Washington). When they get to Andrews the first person they meet is the Head of the Secret Service (Rowley) who provides transport for them to Bethesda. It would seem that the Secret Ser-vice was handing the investigation over, carte blanche, to the FBI. LBJ probably also contacted Admiral Burkley while on AF1 instructing him to make sure that the body gets to Bethesda. Jackie would have been advised that this was the best place for the autopsy because her husband had been ex-Naval. Really the worst place for the autopsy to be carried out, and by three surgeons whose skills in that branch of medicine were sadly lacking, they were purely administrators. There were no questions as to the adequacy of the autopsies on Oswald and Tippit in Dallas but in Bethesda it was pure butchery. The autopsy room was sealed off but full of Secret Service and FBI agents and top ranking military officers. It was like a picnic in there. Admirals Burkley & McKinny blocked any exploratory sur-gery to JFK’s neck as well as the back wound – the track of the bullet should have been examined – it became a political autopsy. Considering the 2hrs 17mins that AF1 was in the air it is estimated that between 7 and 9 hours of Radio traffic tapes have been lost. Probably much of the transcripts would have been associated with how LBJ wanted the whole situation to be handled. Dean Rusk at 12.45 CST (on way to Ja-

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pan) was told three shots had been fired at the President. At 12.45 Dallas Police dispatcher Inspec-tor Sawyer received description of the suspect from an unknown source - white male, 5’10”, about 30, 165 lbs. - Definitely not describing Oswald. Howard Brennan purportedly saw the shooter but his testimony is dubious – details of LHO fed to him by the CIA. Under Freedom of Information Act back in the 70’s CIA file was obtained which gives the de-scription for a Lee HENRY Oswald gives the same description as above. Dummy file designed to confuse. File now held in the Weisburg collection On 10 December 1963 WG Griffiths talking to Ivan Conrad (Forensic)- FBI file – talking about 8mm Kodak movie film – doesn’t say whose it is but almost certain it belonged to Charles Bron-son who was in Dealey Plaza and had new camera equipment. By mistake he caught 6th floor SE window of the TSBD – in fact 94 Frames! Turned it over to FBI – when the FBI got it they real-ised that what they had did not match the official story. Nobody was in the SE window. Sent the film to the Navy Photographic Interpretation Centre. – Same result – nobody in window. FBI Headquarters said keep it and bury it. It is obvious that LHO was not on the 6th Floor at the time of the assassination. On 23rd September 1964 – official story settled. Warren Report being finalised. Alan Belmont (FBI – who was running the cover-up, not Hoover) talks to Tulson in relation to David L Wolper (film company) screening film on JFK assassination. Sends script to FBI to check details. Few er-roneous statements here and their but later part of script refer to fact that paraffin tests carried out by Dallas authorities provide a link connecting the rifle to Oswald. But FBI states this is erroneous. None of the tests carried out tie LHO to the rifle. Couldn’t connect Tippit bullets to Oswald either. LHO fingerprints could not be lifted from the rifle. Obvious that the FBI knew from square one that Oswald was not the shooter. They knew him from contact with him in New Orleans (Agent John Quigley – Canal Street incident. LHO actually called the FBI from jail) and therefore his true description. The Brennan description was simply fed to him by the CIA. Larry Keenan doesn’t believe that Oswald was ever in Mexico. If he had been then it is possible he made the telephone call on 27th September but the other two calls did not come from him and the FBI knew it. The Russian accent was very poor yet Marina had commented on the excellence of LHO’s accent when first meeting him – maybe Latvian or Estonian. LHO had mastered the lan-guage through the professional tutelage of the CIA. The American Ambassador to Mexico, Thomas Mann, was a Texan with a similar political back-ground to LBJ. He was formally the executive of United Fruit Co. (overthrow of Arbenz in Gua-temala set up by Pawley and others on behalf of the Company – keen to overthrow Castro). There had been reports that LHO had been seen outside the Cuban consulate talking to a Cuban Negro about money and killing JFK. Probably cooked up by Win Scott. Keenan informed Thomas Mann who in turn alerted Washington – Justice Dept., State Dept., and Presidents office – suspected LHO tool of the Russians and a Castro agent. Something had to be done to close Mann down. Hoover was instructed to send an agent, Larry Keenan, to Mexico to convince Mann there was no need to probe further the plot to assassinate JFK. Keenan well respected, ex Naval officer, fluent in several languages. He was scheduled to become FBI liaison officer with the Counter Intelligence Special Investigation Group (James Angleton’s Dept.). Left for Mexico City and Clark Anderson (FBI Legal attaché) had to get him through security. Taken to US Embassy and met with Mann – delivered his message. Washington satisfied that there was no need to investigate further (includ-ing RFK). Mann accepted this and backed down. There were CIA staff at the meeting but Keenan was not given the opportunity of consulting with anybody else. As a guest of Anderson, he was ef-fectively placed under house arrest for two days meeting only with Clark Anderson, his wife, Am-bassador Mann, and his deputy. He was not given the opportunity of undertaking any follow-up investigation. Returning to FBI headquarters nobody had missed him. He was approached by William Sullivan (FBI Counterintelligence) to write a report. He managed two pages but was asked to write more.

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But he had nothing to write about. What Sullivan wanted him to say was that he had carried out a full investigation with the CIA? Kennan refused to manufacture evidence so Sullivan wrote a re-port and signed it on his behalf. The whole atmosphere was becoming hostile. When he refused to go along with the charade his whole future was destroyed – he was effectively demoted and put on the road as an inspector and often had to be away from home. Hoover wanted him out of the coun-try – deputy agent in charge San Juan office. Saw little of his family. Falsely accused of having an affair with a secretary. Later had to explain why a new teletype machine had not been installed in the office for accurate communication with LBJ – Keenan’s boss had not discussed the situation with him so knew noth-ing about it. Hoover, Sullivan and other senior FBI persons were listening to conversation with Belmont. Keenan was made to look a fool. He was then effectively sacked and Hoover continued to make sure that any future employment within Government offices was virtually impossible for him. He eventually ended up selling real estate. In 1976 Keenan was called to testify to the Church committee – looking into allegations the CIA was involved with Executive Action activities (assassinating foreign leaders) and abuses of FBI. Lasted about 45mins. He was asked what transpired during his Mexico City mission. Effectively nothing. He never received a transcript of his testimony but later learned that his testimony amounted to over 120 pages and contained what Sullivan had originally written, i.e. that Keenan had investigated fully and pronounced that LHO had acted alone in the assassination. Gerald Ford could have been involved in the cover up. Ford had been extremely dishonest in the work he un-dertook on the Warren Commission – a Hoover stooge. Commission fell apart when it came to ex-plaining Oswald’s motive. Ford & Arleen Spectre manipulated those who appeared before the Commission. After Warren had written his memoirs in the 70’s those who were now criticising the Commission puzzled him. His response summed up the whole work of the commission. “To say that these people (CIA, FBI, Secret Service etc.) As well as the Commission suppressed or neglected to unearth evidence of a conspiracy would be an indictment of the entire US Govern-ment. It would mean the whole structure was absolutely corrupt from top to bottom.” Hmmmm…well…Actually…yes!!!

“PRESERVING HAROLD’S BRAIN – THE WEISBURG PAPERS”

PRESENTED BY: CLAY OGILVIE Clay opened his presentation by saying how he had read the Warren Report in detail but had failed to understand the logic behind the content. He came across Harold Weisburg in a Seminar class and agreed to collate and type up some of his notes – started with a 180 page manuscript – turned it round in 6 weeks which impressed Weisburg. Proceeded to read every single piece of paper in his basement comprising hundreds of thousands of pages, papers, and information obtained direct-ly through various government agencies. This was over a period of 15 years. Much help came from Gerry McKnight and David Wrone. Harold spent 40 years asking the question “who really shot JFK?” He bought all 26 volumes of the Warren Report and read the content assiduously. Needless to say his question was not answered. He started requesting documents from the National Archives some of which were sealed for 75 years. Filed many lawsuits to obtain documents and even sued the FBI, knowing more about the records that they held than they did themselves. The FBI deposed him but he insisted that this be done at his house – over three separate days. FBI then went to court and admitted that they could not contest his position. Tried to evade payment to Harold but the judge insisted that he be paid. The FBI dropped off all their records at his house in a huge vehicle. Segmented all the documents into thousands of folders covering every possible aspect of the As-sassination.

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Harold had a superb memory. He possessed 135 x 4 Draw filing cabinets in his basement and of-fice full of files and documents and this is the material that Clay worked on, documents from the Warren Commission, FBI, CIA, Secret Service, Department of Justice and much more besides. He felt he had to make all this information available to everybody. Many researchers came to him and he would encourage them to talk to him about their queries and thoughts. He wrote about the books that were written up until 1983 – major critique of each chapter. Never stopped right up un-til his death. 10 published books and 36 unpublished manuscripts. Dallas Field Office Special In-dex – index of every document by name and by subject held in the Dallas Field Office. Clay re-typed every reference from the Index (12 cabinet draws full) and went back to the National Ar-chives and went through card-by-card and validated all of the entries (available on the Hood web-site). 350 Gigabytes of information available on the website. All his lawsuit details are available on the website – all the affidavits some lengthy manuscripts – can follow the litigation in every case. Digital access location is: - www.hood.edu/library/archive Clay has produced spread sheets of contents of folders – Agency number, national archives record number, date, time, type of document, who originated it, who it went to, number of pages, subject, and comments + location at the National Archive. The Warren Commission knew what they had to come up with from day one. Government laid down what their conclusions must be. The same with how many Commissions that are set-up to-day. If it’s a difficult problem to solve set up a commission and tell them the result you want. Rec-ords that were planned to be confidential for 75 years have had to be released because of efforts of people like Weisburg. Why are we having to ask the question “Who shot JFK” after so many years. Being able to quote citations is essential for credibility. No serious effort for investigation by the authorities. All they do is issue records, investigate nothing, and then issue more records later on. Sylvia Meagher’s records also held at Hood University. All her documents are being scanned and made available for upload. No charge is made for viewing all the records on the Hood website. Us-ing these records can knock down the Warren Commission findings. The Government can be proved wrong by simply by taking their own records to a logical conclusion, even though some may be buried deep down in the system. Many classified documents are no longer redacted be-cause of the efforts of Wesiberg and his fellow researchers. The Commission was unable to pro-vide satisfactory conclusions to many of the questions that they posed and answers that they re-ceived. Much of the data would have blown their whole case apart. Much of the evidence held in the Archives, exonerates Oswald. They chose to bury the documents. The Government’s case simply cannot withstand the scrutiny that they demand of the critics and most researchers have al-lowed them to get away with it. The documents are there. The case is bogus! Hopefully somebody in the 50th year will take up the challenge and say “Show me how I am not right!” – “With your own records your case is not proven!”

“FATAL KNOWLEDGE? WITNESS DEATHS”

PRESENTED BY: PAUL BROWN Paul began his presentation by stating that there were quite a few people who were involved in the Assassination who talked – e.g. Martino, Morales, and Marcello. However, there must have been a number of witnesses who had information to share but who could not talk and others who may have paid the ultimate price because they attempted to give advance warning or attempted to give evidence later on. There were many deaths after the death of JFK that were strange, convenient, coincidental or very suspicious. His presentation would give details of some of these people. JD Tippit – conveniently blamed on Oswald. How did he get to the scene in time? Evidence of witnesses mostly indicated it was not Oswald. Problems with matching the gun to Oswald, and it may have not had anything to do with the Assassination at all. Taxi Driver who drove Oswald to his Rooming House.

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Domingo Benavides – witness to the shooting of Tippit. Received mysterious death threats after the shooting. His brother was shot dead in 1964 – maybe mistaken identity. Domingo changed his evidence. Lee Harvey Oswald – killing by Ruby. How did he get to the basement so easily? It is believed he was let in. Certainly in the building several times that weekend. Bill Hunter (journalist) – visited Ruby in jail – searched his rooms – a year or so later shot by a po-liceman, by accident, in a game of quick draw! Jim Koethe – involved with Bill Hunter and Jack Ruby – killed in 1964 by somebody who broke in to his apartment struck him with a karate chop. Tom Howard (attorney) – involved after the arrest of Ruby – died in 1965 of a heart attack at the age of 48 Dorothy Kilgallen (Reporter) – interviewed Jack Ruby in jail. Told various people she was going to blow the lid off the Assassination. Soon after (Nov 1965) found dead in her apartment. Suspect-ed suicide! Florence Smith (Pritchett) – friend of Kilgallen’s who held her interview notes for safekeeping – found dead soon after Kilgallen – brain haemorrhage. Married to Earl Smith who was ambassador to Cuba until 1959. Possibly had an affair with JFK. Stated Ferrie may have been involved in the Assassination. David Ferrie (Pilot – found dead in apartment in Feb 1967 – brain haemorrhage. Worked with Guy Bannister, Carlos Marcello, and Arcacha Smith Eladio del Valle – Cuban exile - murdered in Miami on the same day as Ferrie. Jim Garrison had tried to find him without success. So many of these deaths seemed to coincide with the New Orleans probe. Clay Shaw – acquitted but evidence was against him and indicated a conspiracy. Shaw died in 1974 in very strange circumstances. Reported that ambulance pulled up outside his home – a body was carried in and then an empty stretcher taken out. A few hours later reported that Shaw was found dead in the house. No official cause of death was ever established. Body embalmed before coroner was notified. It was later admitted that he worked for the CIA Jack Ruby – In December 1966 the day after he learned of his re-trial reported feeling ill. Three weeks later he was dead of lung cancer. He reported to his family that he believed he had been in-jected with cancer cells. David Ferrie had been working on cancer research. Co-worker (Doctor Mary Sherman) had been stabbed and killed in the laboratory in 1964 (New Orleans). Links with CIA Grant Stockdale – Knew JFK well – appointed by him to US Ambassador to Ireland in 1961, he al-so was a friend of Senator Smathers. In December 1963 apparently committed suicide by jumping from 13th floor of his office block – left no suicide note. Forced to resign after involvement in scandal with Bobby Baker. Jack Sangretti (Hotel Manager) – He told friends that LHO was not the assassin and Ruby would kill him the next day. Foretold that member of the Sinatra family would be kidnapped to divert at-tention from the Assassination. On 8th December, Sinatra (junior) was kidnapped and the same day Sangretti was found floating in a lake shot through the chest. Hank Killam – In 1964 he was found dead in the street. His jugular had been severed. His wife worked for Jack Ruby. Lived in Oak Cliff rooming house at same time as LHO. Gary Underhill (CIA agent) – told friends that the CIA had killed JFK, and that LHO was a patsy. In May 1964 he was found dead having supposedly shot himself. He had feared for his own life. Guy Bannister – In June 1964 supposedly died of a heart attack before the Warren Commission could interview him. He also knew Ferrie and Oswald. Mary Meyer – was married to CIA agent Cord Meyer. She was murdered in 1964. It seemed to be the work of a professional hit man not the man who was charged and later acquitted. No evidence he had fired gun or was at the scene of the crime. His diary was missing after her death. James An-gleton (CIA) had been found searching her belongings.

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Rose Cherami – In Sept 1965 killed in a road accident in Texas. Argued that she may have been shot. She had apparent advanced knowledge of the Assassination and warned hospital doctors on 20th Nov 1963 after two gangsters who worked for Jack Ruby had thrown her from a car. Albert Bogard – found dead in car – apparent suicide (Feb 1966). Salesman at Downtown Lincoln-Mercury in Dallas who had a customer he believed was Lee Harvey Oswald. Not long after giving testimony to Warren Commission he was threatened and feared for his life. Lee Bowers – witnessed strange goings on in the Plaza from his railroad-switching tower. Killed in car crash in August 1966 – before he died told medics that he had been drugged during a rest stop. Eyewitness reported he had been forced off the road by another car. Lieutenant Commander William Pitzer – found dead at Bethesda Medical School in Oct 1966 – gunshot wound to the head. Had worked during the autopsy of JFK and may have had photos which disputed the autopsy findings. Ruled suicide although no evidence from nitrate tests that he had fired a gun. Bobby Kennedy – June 1968 when running for presidency, gunned down in Ambassador Hotel. Sirhan Sirhan convicted of the crime although he could not have got close enough for the fatal shot. Acoustical evidence indicates 12 or 14 shots were fired – Sirhan’s gun only held 8. He has recently again denied parole. Roger Craig (former police officer) – May 1975 died of self-inflicted gunshot wound. He had iden-tified Oswald leaving through the back of the Book Depository and was seen to enter a Nash Ram-bler outside the front of the building. He had been shot at on two separate occasions and had es-caped a car bomb. Sam Giancana (Mafia)– called before Church Committee to answer questions on involvement with CIA- Mafia plots to kill Castro. June 1975 found shot dead at home – ring of bullets around his mouth. Warning to others not to talk. Johnny Rosselli – also appeared before Church Committee. In 1976 his dismembered body was found floating in the river in an oil drum. George de Mohrenschildt (friend of LHO and linked to CIA) – On 29th March 1977 he committed suicide by shooting himself with a shotgun. Had been interviewed by Edward Epstein that day. Had been due to give evidence to the HSCA. Considered a crucial witness. William Sullivan (former FBI Assistant Director) – shot dead near his home by a man who had mistaken him for a deer!! Paul stated that there were many other mysterious deaths and the Sunday Times had calculated the chances of these being random deaths were 100,000 trillion to 1. Did they have information that led to their deaths? At what point does coincidence become conspiracy. It is quite likely that those responsible for JFK’s death would be prepared to murder civilians in order to continue the cover-up.

THANKS GO TO ALL THOSE WHO PRESENTED PAPERS AT THE SEMINAR

STUART GALLOWAY