Thursday, May 30, 2013
News article dated 11/15/63, 7 days BEFORE the assassination- the circled section, all by itself, debunks Blaine's book...and it was written BEFORE the assassination: "THE SERVICE CAN OVERRULE EVEN THE PRESIDENT WHERE HIS PERSONAL SECURITY IS INVOLVED"
News article dated 11/15/63, 7 days BEFORE the assassination- the circled section, all by itself, debunks Blaine's book...and it was written BEFORE the assassination: "THE SERVICE CAN OVERRULE EVEN THE PRESIDENT WHERE HIS PERSONAL SECURITY IS INVOLVED"
[ MUCH more about this in my forthcoming book]. As for the matter at hand, Clint Hill cleared this up in his 2012 book: On pages 55-56..., Hill talks about the benefits of Jackie Kennedy keeping a low profile during her trip to New York as beneficial to security: “The fewer people who know your intended destination or route, the better. A police escort would have just drawn attention to us, so we kept the motorcade to as few vehicles as possible.” Indeed, on yet another trip to New York in early 1963, this one involving both Jackie and JFK, Hill records Jackie as stating: “We want to keep it private…No police escorts, no motorcades, no official functions. We just want to enjoy the city like we used to.” However, this very same situation for President Kennedy in New York, the very same city, in mid-November 1963 was viewed not as a virtue but as a detriment to his safety and welfare by several writers
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
LISA MCCUBBIN- "SHOW ME THE MONEY"...OR THE TRUTH?
LISA MCCUBBIN- "SHOW ME THE MONEY"...OR THE TRUTH?
During another 6th Floor Museum appearance (with Hill & Blaine, hosted by Gary Mack), co-author Lisa McCubbin mentions that, during the writing of the book, she would find things that contradicted what Blaine was telling her. Ultimately, she copped out, stating “he was there”…no, he wasn’t there on 11/22/63 in Dallas AND WHAT ABOUT ALL HIS COLLEAGUES WHO REFUTE HIM? Geez. McCubbin strikes me as a good investigative reporter. One wonders if her closeness to Blaine (she grew up with him and even dated his son!), along with the allure of big money, swayed her to “look away”, so to speak, at all the conflicting and contradictory evidence
During another 6th Floor Museum appearance (with Hill & Blaine, hosted by Gary Mack), co-author Lisa McCubbin mentions that, during the writing of the book, she would find things that contradicted what Blaine was telling her. Ultimately, she copped out, stating “he was there”…no, he wasn’t there on 11/22/63 in Dallas AND WHAT ABOUT ALL HIS COLLEAGUES WHO REFUTE HIM? Geez. McCubbin strikes me as a good investigative reporter. One wonders if her closeness to Blaine (she grew up with him and even dated his son!), along with the allure of big money, swayed her to “look away”, so to speak, at all the conflicting and contradictory evidence
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
NORMAN KATZ: "I was there, at the White House, assigned (as a military attaché) to the Secret Service, when that horrible dispatch came in advising us of the President’s shooting and death."
NORMAN KATZ: "I was there, at the White House, assigned (as a military attaché) to the Secret Service, when that horrible dispatch came in advising us of the President’s shooting and death."
(WHO IS THIS GUY???)
Eyewitness Turns Back Clock a Half Century to JFK's Assassination
Foundation for Belmont Education-sponsored event brings history to students with a visit from Secret Service agent Norman Katz.
By Lisa Gibalerio
Thanks to grant funding provided by the as, tenth graders at the Belmont High School were given the opportunity to hear from Norman Katz, one of the Secret Service agents on duty in Dallas when John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
“Assassinations have happened before,” he told the audience of sophomores, “and they will happen again.”
Katz outlined how far security measures have come in the 50 years since Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas.
“In the early 1960s, we weren’t even thinking about assassination; we were just there to offer general protection.”
He added that 50 years ago, there were 312 Secret Service agents employed by the US Government; there are more than 7,000 today. President Obama, he stated, receives more than 400 death threats a year and wears a bullet-proof suit and underwear.
Technology back then, he said, consisted of hand signals and walkie-talkies – when they worked, he added.
The students seemed especially rapt when he described the moments that JFK was shot and killed. The limousine, he said, should have sped off when the first shot was fired, but the driver slowed down thinking the limo had backfired. The second shot hit Kennedy in the neck.
“He would have survived that neck shot,” Katz said, “it was the third shot that shattered his brain.”
The students saw photos of that were taken during the shootings as well as photos of JFK’s autopsy.
For a group of students born 35 years after these events occurred, they certainly left this presentation with a clear idea of what happened on that fateful November day in Dallas in 1963. And from the perspective of a man who was standing just a few feet away when it happened.
-----------
The White House
During the Kennedy &
Johnson Years
Former Secret Service officer Norman Katz
spoke to a jam packed meeting this morning
detailing his first hand accounts and
experiences of being in Dallas during the
Kennedy assassination, working with
President Johnson and being present in the
White House during the days of the Cuban
Missile Crisis.
Norman was in Dallas in the Presidential
Secret Service detail on the day of the
assassination. He was not part of the caravan
detail, but was at the Dallas headquarters in
the backup detail. Norman shared with
attendees his and his colleague’s views of the
c o n s p i r a c y t h e o r i e s o n Ke n n e d y ’ s
assassination. He is a firm believer that Lee
Oswald was the only shooter and fired all the
shots from the Book Depository. He offered his
reasons and shared with all his private photos
which revealed details that have not been
shown on newspapers or TV. He commended
President Johnson for the consideration he
showed to Mrs. Kennedy at that time, by
insisting that his plane’s departure be delayed
until she and the President’s body were on Air
Force One.
He described the tension that existed in the
White House during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
He described the behavior and actions of
several of the leaders of the day including
Bobby Kennedy, General Curtis LeMay and
Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara. The
world came very close to nuclear war that day
and the issue was in doubt until Nikita
Khrushchev ordered the ship carrying the
missiles to Cuba to turn around. Norman was
in the midst of all the action during those 13
days. The US was ready to bomb the Cuban
missiles and anticipated a retaliatory strike
from Russia. In fact, during the crisis Norman
called his mother to tell her to fill the bathtub
with water in anticipation of the destruction of
vital services in New York.
One of the most interesting insights he shared
with his audience was the behavior of the
presidents and how they treated others. The
worst was President Johnson. He detailed
how Presidents Kennedy and Johnson
chased women. Marilyn Monroe was a
regular at the Kennedy White House while
LBJ chased women everywhere. He would
have the women that were on Air Force One.
He was not secretive at all, in fact, he was
quite open about his actions. Norman
detailed that on several occasions President
Johnson would walk down the aisle of Air
Force One completely naked. He also
observed President Carter, who publicly
professed that he wasn’t a drinker, having his
morning double bourbon before the day
started.
Norman answered several questions from
members of the audience, many on the
assassination of President Kennedy. Thank
you, Norman, for sharing your observations
and comments about these very historical
events
http://www.clubrunner.ca/data/7950/4827/html/99436/ecb284e7-4ab9-42f7-9816-d3f692d8bf08.pdf
------------
http://www.eventective.com/USA/Massachusetts/Sharon/572647/Norman-Katz-Public-Speaker.html
http://www.eventective.com/provider/Website.aspx?num=572647
NORMAN KATZ: "I was there, at the White House, assigned (as a military attaché) to the Secret Service, when that horrible dispatch came in advising us of the President’s shooting and death."
UPDATE DECEMBER 2013:
Norman Katz contacted me out of the blue via e-mail and wrote "I can assure you I am who I say I am" and promised more information...then promptly disappeared
(WHO IS THIS GUY???)
Eyewitness Turns Back Clock a Half Century to JFK's Assassination
Foundation for Belmont Education-sponsored event brings history to students with a visit from Secret Service agent Norman Katz.
By Lisa Gibalerio
Thanks to grant funding provided by the as, tenth graders at the Belmont High School were given the opportunity to hear from Norman Katz, one of the Secret Service agents on duty in Dallas when John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
“Assassinations have happened before,” he told the audience of sophomores, “and they will happen again.”
Katz outlined how far security measures have come in the 50 years since Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas.
“In the early 1960s, we weren’t even thinking about assassination; we were just there to offer general protection.”
He added that 50 years ago, there were 312 Secret Service agents employed by the US Government; there are more than 7,000 today. President Obama, he stated, receives more than 400 death threats a year and wears a bullet-proof suit and underwear.
Technology back then, he said, consisted of hand signals and walkie-talkies – when they worked, he added.
The students seemed especially rapt when he described the moments that JFK was shot and killed. The limousine, he said, should have sped off when the first shot was fired, but the driver slowed down thinking the limo had backfired. The second shot hit Kennedy in the neck.
“He would have survived that neck shot,” Katz said, “it was the third shot that shattered his brain.”
The students saw photos of that were taken during the shootings as well as photos of JFK’s autopsy.
For a group of students born 35 years after these events occurred, they certainly left this presentation with a clear idea of what happened on that fateful November day in Dallas in 1963. And from the perspective of a man who was standing just a few feet away when it happened.
-----------
The White House
During the Kennedy &
Johnson Years
Former Secret Service officer Norman Katz
spoke to a jam packed meeting this morning
detailing his first hand accounts and
experiences of being in Dallas during the
Kennedy assassination, working with
President Johnson and being present in the
White House during the days of the Cuban
Missile Crisis.
Norman was in Dallas in the Presidential
Secret Service detail on the day of the
assassination. He was not part of the caravan
detail, but was at the Dallas headquarters in
the backup detail. Norman shared with
attendees his and his colleague’s views of the
c o n s p i r a c y t h e o r i e s o n Ke n n e d y ’ s
assassination. He is a firm believer that Lee
Oswald was the only shooter and fired all the
shots from the Book Depository. He offered his
reasons and shared with all his private photos
which revealed details that have not been
shown on newspapers or TV. He commended
President Johnson for the consideration he
showed to Mrs. Kennedy at that time, by
insisting that his plane’s departure be delayed
until she and the President’s body were on Air
Force One.
He described the tension that existed in the
White House during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
He described the behavior and actions of
several of the leaders of the day including
Bobby Kennedy, General Curtis LeMay and
Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara. The
world came very close to nuclear war that day
and the issue was in doubt until Nikita
Khrushchev ordered the ship carrying the
missiles to Cuba to turn around. Norman was
in the midst of all the action during those 13
days. The US was ready to bomb the Cuban
missiles and anticipated a retaliatory strike
from Russia. In fact, during the crisis Norman
called his mother to tell her to fill the bathtub
with water in anticipation of the destruction of
vital services in New York.
One of the most interesting insights he shared
with his audience was the behavior of the
presidents and how they treated others. The
worst was President Johnson. He detailed
how Presidents Kennedy and Johnson
chased women. Marilyn Monroe was a
regular at the Kennedy White House while
LBJ chased women everywhere. He would
have the women that were on Air Force One.
He was not secretive at all, in fact, he was
quite open about his actions. Norman
detailed that on several occasions President
Johnson would walk down the aisle of Air
Force One completely naked. He also
observed President Carter, who publicly
professed that he wasn’t a drinker, having his
morning double bourbon before the day
started.
Norman answered several questions from
members of the audience, many on the
assassination of President Kennedy. Thank
you, Norman, for sharing your observations
and comments about these very historical
events
http://www.clubrunner.ca/data/7950/4827/html/99436/ecb284e7-4ab9-42f7-9816-d3f692d8bf08.pdf
------------
http://www.eventective.com/USA/Massachusetts/Sharon/572647/Norman-Katz-Public-Speaker.html
http://www.eventective.com/provider/Website.aspx?num=572647
NORMAN KATZ: "I was there, at the White House, assigned (as a military attaché) to the Secret Service, when that horrible dispatch came in advising us of the President’s shooting and death."
UPDATE DECEMBER 2013:
Norman Katz contacted me out of the blue via e-mail and wrote "I can assure you I am who I say I am" and promised more information...then promptly disappeared
The bullet is still in his leg
AP dispatch/ "The Atlanta Constitution", 11/23/63: quotes Dr. Shaw---"[The Governor] seems to have been struck by just one bullet…We know the wound of entrance was along the right shoulder. He was sho from above…[the bullet] entered the back of his chest and moved outward…It emerged from his chest and struck his wrist and thigh…The bullet is still in his leg."
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Lem Johns: Secret Service Man- dvd review
Lem Johns: Secret Service Man- dvd review
I was quite impressed with this movie/ dvd- great use of films and photos, many of which are previously unreleased, as well as the obvious love and care put into this production. This is an informative, moving tribute to the esteemed former Secret Service agent Thomas L "Lem" Johns. In addition to lengthy, thought-provoking interviews with the man himself, we are also treated to interviews with Lem's wife of over 65 years, Nita, as well as former agents Joseph Novak and Terry Oden.
Known for his presence in Dealey Plaza on 11/22/63 when JFK was assassinated, Johns offers some surprising and interesting revelations about exactly where he thought the shots were coming from that day, as well as the notion that he was allegedly the "agent" of unknown repute on the knoll. In addition, we learn about Lem's pre-agency career as an Alcohol and Tax (later known as the ATF) agent, as well as his illustrious Secret Service career protecting Ike, Nixon, JFK, and, of course, LBJ. There is much to learn and admire in this entertaining presentation, an obvious labor of love for the producer (s).
As well as his own legacy, Lem's son Jeff served 20 years in the Secret Service and now works for the Department of Homeland Security, while Lem's grandson Michael has been in the Secret Service for over 15 years now; impressive. I spoke to Lem on the phone in 2004 and I was pleasantly surprised to learn about the living legacy he has bestowed upon the agency. There have been Johns in the Secret Service since the 1950's!
You can do no wrong in purchasing this extremely well done dvd. I am very glad I did! http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BNL5CMG/ref=cm_cr_mts_prod_img
knoll: "I thought that's where it [the shots] was coming from"; "the sound came from the right. I just assumed that that's where the shooting was taking place from that location"; after the second shot: "car slowed up. We were going too slow."
Adamantly refutes the notion that he was the "agent" on the knoll: "absolutely not"; he stood in the street for a minute or less to hitch a ride- did not go to the knoll. Hitched a ride with a press car
Haldeman and Erlichmann adamantly wanted Johns fired in early 1969 (from his position as Assistant Director)
I was quite impressed with this movie/ dvd- great use of films and photos, many of which are previously unreleased, as well as the obvious love and care put into this production. This is an informative, moving tribute to the esteemed former Secret Service agent Thomas L "Lem" Johns. In addition to lengthy, thought-provoking interviews with the man himself, we are also treated to interviews with Lem's wife of over 65 years, Nita, as well as former agents Joseph Novak and Terry Oden.
Known for his presence in Dealey Plaza on 11/22/63 when JFK was assassinated, Johns offers some surprising and interesting revelations about exactly where he thought the shots were coming from that day, as well as the notion that he was allegedly the "agent" of unknown repute on the knoll. In addition, we learn about Lem's pre-agency career as an Alcohol and Tax (later known as the ATF) agent, as well as his illustrious Secret Service career protecting Ike, Nixon, JFK, and, of course, LBJ. There is much to learn and admire in this entertaining presentation, an obvious labor of love for the producer (s).
As well as his own legacy, Lem's son Jeff served 20 years in the Secret Service and now works for the Department of Homeland Security, while Lem's grandson Michael has been in the Secret Service for over 15 years now; impressive. I spoke to Lem on the phone in 2004 and I was pleasantly surprised to learn about the living legacy he has bestowed upon the agency. There have been Johns in the Secret Service since the 1950's!
You can do no wrong in purchasing this extremely well done dvd. I am very glad I did! http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BNL5CMG/ref=cm_cr_mts_prod_img
knoll: "I thought that's where it [the shots] was coming from"; "the sound came from the right. I just assumed that that's where the shooting was taking place from that location"; after the second shot: "car slowed up. We were going too slow."
Adamantly refutes the notion that he was the "agent" on the knoll: "absolutely not"; he stood in the street for a minute or less to hitch a ride- did not go to the knoll. Hitched a ride with a press car
Haldeman and Erlichmann adamantly wanted Johns fired in early 1969 (from his position as Assistant Director)
JFK, Honolulu, Hawaii 6/8/63+ Lem Johns notes re: Haldeman and Erlichmann wishing to fire him
JFK, Honolulu, Hawaii 6/8/63+ Lem Johns notes re: Haldeman and Erlichmann wishing to fire him
ASAIC Kellerman with a lei (?!?!?)+ SA Greer, SA Duncan, SA Chandler
ASAIC Kellerman with a lei, SA Olsson, SA Duncan
ASAIC Kellerman with a lei (?!?!?)+ SA Greer, SA Duncan, SA Chandler
ASAIC Kellerman with a lei, SA Olsson, SA Duncan
Friday, May 17, 2013
Security Guard Criticized- 9/28/64
SF Examiner 9./28/64
Security Guard Criticized;
`Serious'
Flaws in
Protection
By LESLIE H. WHITTEN
Examiner Correspondent
WASHINGTON
T h e
Warren Commission
found serious flaws in the
protective ring around
John F. Kennedy and today
proposed ways of
strengthening the guard
for President Johnson
and his successors.
The Secret Service was
"seriously deficient" in its
intelligence work and the
FBI "took an unduly restrictive
view of its role" in failing
to give the Secret Serv- ,
ice information on Lee Harvey
Oswald before Nov. 22,
196 the report said.
The FBI has been virtually
immune from official criticism
in its 40 years under
J. Edgar Hoover.
The Commission also cited
"a breach of discipline" by
nine members of the Secret
Service in Fort Worth. The
agents had up to three beers
and a mixed drink and a
half after midnight. One
stayed out until 5 a. m. Nov.
22. The report said there was
no evidence these men could
have averted the tragedy,
but that "it is conceivable
(they) might have been more
alert in the Dallas motorcade"... A cabinet-level committee
to observe the Secret
Service and other Federal
agencies in their protection
of a president. The committee
might study whether protection
should be removed
from the Secret Service and
put elsewhere... The Secret Service,
through Agent Robert I.
Bouck, in charge of the Protective
Research Section, testified
if it had such information
and had known he had
been courtmartialed on a gun
charge,, it would have been
on the alert for Oswald.
Security Guard Criticized;
`Serious'
Flaws in
Protection
By LESLIE H. WHITTEN
Examiner Correspondent
WASHINGTON
T h e
Warren Commission
found serious flaws in the
protective ring around
John F. Kennedy and today
proposed ways of
strengthening the guard
for President Johnson
and his successors.
The Secret Service was
"seriously deficient" in its
intelligence work and the
FBI "took an unduly restrictive
view of its role" in failing
to give the Secret Serv- ,
ice information on Lee Harvey
Oswald before Nov. 22,
196 the report said.
The FBI has been virtually
immune from official criticism
in its 40 years under
J. Edgar Hoover.
The Commission also cited
"a breach of discipline" by
nine members of the Secret
Service in Fort Worth. The
agents had up to three beers
and a mixed drink and a
half after midnight. One
stayed out until 5 a. m. Nov.
22. The report said there was
no evidence these men could
have averted the tragedy,
but that "it is conceivable
(they) might have been more
alert in the Dallas motorcade"... A cabinet-level committee
to observe the Secret
Service and other Federal
agencies in their protection
of a president. The committee
might study whether protection
should be removed
from the Secret Service and
put elsewhere... The Secret Service,
through Agent Robert I.
Bouck, in charge of the Protective
Research Section, testified
if it had such information
and had known he had
been courtmartialed on a gun
charge,, it would have been
on the alert for Oswald.
DPD motorcycle officer BJ Martin: Clay Shaw trial testimony 2/15/69
DPD motorcycle officer BJ Martin: Clay Shaw trial testimony 2/15/69
Now, Officer Martin, shortly after hearing the
third shot did you notice the Presidential
l'imousine's speed?
Yes, sir, it was after the third shot it had
almost come to a stop, it was going very
slow.
Q What was the first reaction of the limousine
after you heard the third shot?
A The only reaction right after it was going very
slow.
Now, Officer Martin, shortly after hearing the
third shot did you notice the Presidential
l'imousine's speed?
Yes, sir, it was after the third shot it had
almost come to a stop, it was going very
slow.
Q What was the first reaction of the limousine
after you heard the third shot?
A The only reaction right after it was going very
slow.
DPD motorcycle officer James Chaney FBI interview 9/17/75 (via Harold Weisberg collection)
DPD motorcycle officer James Chaney FBI interview 9/17/75 (via Harold Weisberg collection)
"CHANEY stated the officers assigned to closely
accompany the President's automobile in the motorcade.
received instructions from the United States Secret
Service as to haw they should position themselves adjacent -•
to the President's automobile during the motorcade. CHANEY ,
said the officers were instructed to ride just off the
rear wheels on the presidential vehicle. They were in- .:
structed not to block the vision of the President unless
a crowd surged toward the presidential car. CHANEY stated
during the motorcade, he and his fellow officers worked
up and down behind the President's car, depending on the
closeness of the crowd."
"CHANEY stated the officers assigned to closely
accompany the President's automobile in the motorcade.
received instructions from the United States Secret
Service as to haw they should position themselves adjacent -•
to the President's automobile during the motorcade. CHANEY ,
said the officers were instructed to ride just off the
rear wheels on the presidential vehicle. They were in- .:
structed not to block the vision of the President unless
a crowd surged toward the presidential car. CHANEY stated
during the motorcade, he and his fellow officers worked
up and down behind the President's car, depending on the
closeness of the crowd."
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Douglas Jackson, DPD motorcycle officer 11/22/63- unpublished statements
Douglas Jackson, DPD motorcycle officer 11/22/63- unpublished statements (in Harold Weisberg collection):
"The original plan was to have two officers ride on the left of the car and two on the right of the car." [this was "page 114". Unfortunately, the statement jumps to "page 117"]
http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/P%20Disk/Posner%20Gerald%20Book%20Critique/For%20Conclusions%20&%20Adds/Item%2021.pdf
"The original plan was to have two officers ride on the left of the car and two on the right of the car." [this was "page 114". Unfortunately, the statement jumps to "page 117"]
http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/P%20Disk/Posner%20Gerald%20Book%20Critique/For%20Conclusions%20&%20Adds/Item%2021.pdf
Hole in JFK limo windshield
Presidential Car
May Be Retired
To A Museum
STEVENS POINT (WISCONSIN) DAILY JOURNALTuesday, Dec 3 1963
WASHINGTON (AP)—Unless
President Johnson decides to
use it the bubble-top limousine
in which President Kennedy
was assassinated probably will
be retired to a museum.
The vehicle was flown back
to Washington after experts
carefully examined it for bullet
fragments or other evidence in
connection with the fatal shooting
of Kennedy in Dallas on
Nov. 22.
The 30-month-old limousine is
in perfect condition except for a
small, unexplained hole in the
windshield which may have
been caused by a bullet fragment
May Be Retired
To A Museum
STEVENS POINT (WISCONSIN) DAILY JOURNALTuesday, Dec 3 1963
WASHINGTON (AP)—Unless
President Johnson decides to
use it the bubble-top limousine
in which President Kennedy
was assassinated probably will
be retired to a museum.
The vehicle was flown back
to Washington after experts
carefully examined it for bullet
fragments or other evidence in
connection with the fatal shooting
of Kennedy in Dallas on
Nov. 22.
The 30-month-old limousine is
in perfect condition except for a
small, unexplained hole in the
windshield which may have
been caused by a bullet fragment
Harold Weisberg re: Roy Kellerman's daughter
Harold Weisberg re: Roy Kellerman's daughter
Harold Weisberg (to Bruce Milner, 9/29/86) [with typos; Weisberg wrote the same thing to myself in early 1992]:
"I made one of two appearances I made at the univereity of Maryland in
1966 and 1977. Aside from the story I'm about to toll, it may amuse you how I can have
a clear recollection of these among so many college appearances. Well, once it
coincided with a world series game and the other time it coincided with the first
fratornity sororiety confernee on sex. Stiff competition both times! But I had full
audience and I'm reasonably certain that the time I'm getting to the kide went out
to classes or for supper and then returned. It lasted quite some time. At the end there
were some student: who wanted books autographed, and a thhle had been set up for this
off to the right of that large meeting room. Theyi formed a line. I notice one rather
attractive woman students, slightly hailer than most, moving to the back of the line
ae others came up and was mustified. Until thore waa nobody else. I could then see
her clearly and I could see she'd been crying. She said she wanted to thank me for
the kind things I'd said about her father. I tried to make light of it and said she
had the advantage, she knew who her father is. She said it was (he died, too) Roy
Kellerman. I told her that I'd spoken only the truth, that those man were more
distress than most of us because they could not have done anything and because they
were closer to the .President. Before she left she added the hope that the time might
come when they could safely say in public what they were saying in the privacy of their
own home and circles."
Harold Weisberg (to Bruce Milner, 9/29/86) [with typos; Weisberg wrote the same thing to myself in early 1992]:
"I made one of two appearances I made at the univereity of Maryland in
1966 and 1977. Aside from the story I'm about to toll, it may amuse you how I can have
a clear recollection of these among so many college appearances. Well, once it
coincided with a world series game and the other time it coincided with the first
fratornity sororiety confernee on sex. Stiff competition both times! But I had full
audience and I'm reasonably certain that the time I'm getting to the kide went out
to classes or for supper and then returned. It lasted quite some time. At the end there
were some student: who wanted books autographed, and a thhle had been set up for this
off to the right of that large meeting room. Theyi formed a line. I notice one rather
attractive woman students, slightly hailer than most, moving to the back of the line
ae others came up and was mustified. Until thore waa nobody else. I could then see
her clearly and I could see she'd been crying. She said she wanted to thank me for
the kind things I'd said about her father. I tried to make light of it and said she
had the advantage, she knew who her father is. She said it was (he died, too) Roy
Kellerman. I told her that I'd spoken only the truth, that those man were more
distress than most of us because they could not have done anything and because they
were closer to the .President. Before she left she added the hope that the time might
come when they could safely say in public what they were saying in the privacy of their
own home and circles."
motorcade schematic in full+ Greer's tall tales
Motorcade schematic in full:
http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/M%20Disk/Motorcade%20Route/Item%2015.pdf
NY Times 2 July 1966
10 C T121
Agent Who Drove Kennedy Car in Dallas Retires
Raced to Hospital Without
Knowing President Had
Been Hit by Bullet [---?!?!?!?!]
By ROBERT B. SEMPLE Jr.
a- special to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, July 1—The
handwriting on the card, simple
and backward-sloping, conveys
a message at once concise and
poignant: 'For Bill Greer—
whom the President loved, and
who was with him until the
very end. Thank you."
The note, signed by Jacqueline
Kennedy, is a cherished possession
of William R. Greer, a 56-
year-old Secret Service Agent
who was driving the limousine
in which President Kennedy
was killed on Nov. 22, 1963.
Mr. Greer retired yesterday
from his job as Presidential
chauffeur because of an ulcer
condition that doctors believe
was seriously aggravated by the
tragedy.
Mr. Greer, a tall, handsome
native of Ireland with a warm
smlle and even temperament,
joined the Secret Service in 1945
and was assigned to drive Mr.
Kennedy right after the inauguration.
He drove for President
Johnson until he was required
to undergo stomach surgery
last January.
Hazards of His Job
in • an interview today at his
comfortable but modest splitlevel
hime in a nearby Maryland
subdivision, he recalled
that day in Dallas, spoke briefly
about Presidents he has
served, and explained a few of
the hazards Presidential drivers
face.
-"When the first shot was
fired," he recalled, "I thought
it was a sound I'd heard many
tunes before — a motorcycle
backfire. I glanced over my
right shoulder and saw a red
spot on [Texas Gov. John B.]
Connally's shirt.
-"I wasn't sure what had happened
but I tramped on the
accelerator. At about the same
time Roy Kellerman [another
agent in the car] yelled, 'we've
been hit.' "
Mr. Greer says he did not
know the President had been
hit until the car reached Parkland
Hospital, where he helped
put Mr. Kennedy on a stretcher
and carry him into the emergency
room.
"We were going very fast
and there was a lot of traffic
around the Dallas Trade Mart,
where the President had been
scheduled to speak. I was too
busy picking holes in it to look
around," he explained.
Mr. Greer remained in the
emergency room, then flew back
to Washington with the
body and the new President.
He drove the Navy ambulance
carrying the body from Andrews
Air- Force Base to Bethesda Naval
Hospital and, later, drove
the dead President to the White
House, where his body lay in
the East Room overnight.
There was hardly a moment
in the first 12 hours after the
assassination when Mr. Greer
was not near Mr. Kennedy. He
even watched the autopsy at
Bethesda.
A 'Rough' Experience
"I was there mainly for professional
reasons," he said.
"We were looking for -traces
of lead or bullet fragments that
might lave helped us later on.
It's ndthing for a policeman to
watch an autopsy. But this one
was very, rough."
Mr. Greer has kind words for
all the chief executives he has
served , (the first was Mr. Truman),
btit the one he knew best
and felt the closest to was Mr.
Kennedy.
"He made us all feel at home.
He would stop and talk to us
and kid a little bit and keep
track of what we were doing.
There was a waiting list to
work at the White House in
those days, he was a wonderful
man, always laughing .. .
The pace quickened under Mr.
Johnson. "There was a schedule
in the old days but under Mr.
Johnson we had to be ready
Associated Press Wirephoto
William H. Greer at his home in Maryland after he announced
his--.retirement as the Presidential chauffeur.
to move at anytime. I'd be sitting
in the garage at 22d and
M (there is no garage at the
White House) and then I'd get
a call saying "hustle on over,
we're going to Texas."
Mr. Greer, who lives in Seabrook,
Md., is married and the
father of an 19-year-old son, a
student at the University of
Maryland. He is looking forward
now to playing golf. His
annual retirement pay will be
two-thirds of his $12,900 salary
as an agent.
http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/M%20Disk/Motorcade%20Route/Item%2015.pdf
NY Times 2 July 1966
10 C T121
Agent Who Drove Kennedy Car in Dallas Retires
Raced to Hospital Without
Knowing President Had
Been Hit by Bullet [---?!?!?!?!]
By ROBERT B. SEMPLE Jr.
a- special to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, July 1—The
handwriting on the card, simple
and backward-sloping, conveys
a message at once concise and
poignant: 'For Bill Greer—
whom the President loved, and
who was with him until the
very end. Thank you."
The note, signed by Jacqueline
Kennedy, is a cherished possession
of William R. Greer, a 56-
year-old Secret Service Agent
who was driving the limousine
in which President Kennedy
was killed on Nov. 22, 1963.
Mr. Greer retired yesterday
from his job as Presidential
chauffeur because of an ulcer
condition that doctors believe
was seriously aggravated by the
tragedy.
Mr. Greer, a tall, handsome
native of Ireland with a warm
smlle and even temperament,
joined the Secret Service in 1945
and was assigned to drive Mr.
Kennedy right after the inauguration.
He drove for President
Johnson until he was required
to undergo stomach surgery
last January.
Hazards of His Job
in • an interview today at his
comfortable but modest splitlevel
hime in a nearby Maryland
subdivision, he recalled
that day in Dallas, spoke briefly
about Presidents he has
served, and explained a few of
the hazards Presidential drivers
face.
-"When the first shot was
fired," he recalled, "I thought
it was a sound I'd heard many
tunes before — a motorcycle
backfire. I glanced over my
right shoulder and saw a red
spot on [Texas Gov. John B.]
Connally's shirt.
-"I wasn't sure what had happened
but I tramped on the
accelerator. At about the same
time Roy Kellerman [another
agent in the car] yelled, 'we've
been hit.' "
Mr. Greer says he did not
know the President had been
hit until the car reached Parkland
Hospital, where he helped
put Mr. Kennedy on a stretcher
and carry him into the emergency
room.
"We were going very fast
and there was a lot of traffic
around the Dallas Trade Mart,
where the President had been
scheduled to speak. I was too
busy picking holes in it to look
around," he explained.
Mr. Greer remained in the
emergency room, then flew back
to Washington with the
body and the new President.
He drove the Navy ambulance
carrying the body from Andrews
Air- Force Base to Bethesda Naval
Hospital and, later, drove
the dead President to the White
House, where his body lay in
the East Room overnight.
There was hardly a moment
in the first 12 hours after the
assassination when Mr. Greer
was not near Mr. Kennedy. He
even watched the autopsy at
Bethesda.
A 'Rough' Experience
"I was there mainly for professional
reasons," he said.
"We were looking for -traces
of lead or bullet fragments that
might lave helped us later on.
It's ndthing for a policeman to
watch an autopsy. But this one
was very, rough."
Mr. Greer has kind words for
all the chief executives he has
served , (the first was Mr. Truman),
btit the one he knew best
and felt the closest to was Mr.
Kennedy.
"He made us all feel at home.
He would stop and talk to us
and kid a little bit and keep
track of what we were doing.
There was a waiting list to
work at the White House in
those days, he was a wonderful
man, always laughing .. .
The pace quickened under Mr.
Johnson. "There was a schedule
in the old days but under Mr.
Johnson we had to be ready
Associated Press Wirephoto
William H. Greer at his home in Maryland after he announced
his--.retirement as the Presidential chauffeur.
to move at anytime. I'd be sitting
in the garage at 22d and
M (there is no garage at the
White House) and then I'd get
a call saying "hustle on over,
we're going to Texas."
Mr. Greer, who lives in Seabrook,
Md., is married and the
father of an 19-year-old son, a
student at the University of
Maryland. He is looking forward
now to playing golf. His
annual retirement pay will be
two-thirds of his $12,900 salary
as an agent.
The tall tales of Mike Howard
The tall tales of Mike Howard
4/26/64 It was charged here [San Francisco] yesterday that a Dallas Secret Service agent deliberately "planted" a false story about the assassination of President Kennedy.
New York attorney Mark Lane .. charged that the phony story was "leaked" to a Ft. Worth reporter on 2/9 to take press attention away from the appearance of Oswald's mother before the Commission on the following day.
[Story refers to Negro janitor alleged to have seen Oswald shoot.]
5/9/64 Mark Lane ... charged the Secret Service with deliberately planting a false story in the press ... According to Lane, the ... falsification concerned an article in the 2/10 issue of the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram ... "The story broke the same day Oswald's mother was to appear as the first witness on behalf of Lee Oswald. It was obviously calculated to prevent press coverage of any witness who was going to raise doubts about Oswald's guilt." National Guardian
[Story given by Mike Howard, Secret Service, to Thayer Waldo, reporter for the Star-Telegram: a Negro janitor, looking out of a window on the same floor Texas School Book Depository, heard first shot, saw Oswald and was prepared to identify him. AP account of Star-Telegram story filed Chronology, 2/9, 813 to 1143 pcs.]
See Secret Service 2/13/64 – AP, 131 aes, Sterling Green
5/9/64 Mark Lane, in a statement to the Guardian 5/4 ... said he has learned that a second rifle, not the one attributed to Oswald, was found on the roof of the Texas School Book Depository building the day the President was murdered.
[Lane describes meeting between Thayer Waldo, reporter for Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, and Mike Howard, Secret Service agent.] ... At one point during their meeting, Waldo asked Mike Howard whether there was any truth to the story that another rifle was found on the roof of the school book building, a story that had previously been denied. Mike Howard replied: "Yes, we found a rifle on the roof, but it was dropped by a Dallas police officer earlier in the day and he forgot to pick it up." National Guardian
4/26/64 It was charged here [San Francisco] yesterday that a Dallas Secret Service agent deliberately "planted" a false story about the assassination of President Kennedy.
New York attorney Mark Lane .. charged that the phony story was "leaked" to a Ft. Worth reporter on 2/9 to take press attention away from the appearance of Oswald's mother before the Commission on the following day.
[Story refers to Negro janitor alleged to have seen Oswald shoot.]
5/9/64 Mark Lane ... charged the Secret Service with deliberately planting a false story in the press ... According to Lane, the ... falsification concerned an article in the 2/10 issue of the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram ... "The story broke the same day Oswald's mother was to appear as the first witness on behalf of Lee Oswald. It was obviously calculated to prevent press coverage of any witness who was going to raise doubts about Oswald's guilt." National Guardian
[Story given by Mike Howard, Secret Service, to Thayer Waldo, reporter for the Star-Telegram: a Negro janitor, looking out of a window on the same floor Texas School Book Depository, heard first shot, saw Oswald and was prepared to identify him. AP account of Star-Telegram story filed Chronology, 2/9, 813 to 1143 pcs.]
See Secret Service 2/13/64 – AP, 131 aes, Sterling Green
5/9/64 Mark Lane, in a statement to the Guardian 5/4 ... said he has learned that a second rifle, not the one attributed to Oswald, was found on the roof of the Texas School Book Depository building the day the President was murdered.
[Lane describes meeting between Thayer Waldo, reporter for Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, and Mike Howard, Secret Service agent.] ... At one point during their meeting, Waldo asked Mike Howard whether there was any truth to the story that another rifle was found on the roof of the school book building, a story that had previously been denied. Mike Howard replied: "Yes, we found a rifle on the roof, but it was dropped by a Dallas police officer earlier in the day and he forgot to pick it up." National Guardian
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Raw notes re: "Breaking Tecumseh's Curse" by Jan Marie Ritter with Bob Ritter (2013)
Raw notes re: "Breaking Tecumseh's Curse" by Jan Marie Ritter with former Secret Service agent Bob Ritter (2013)
page 189 bio- Stu Knight;
page 191 bio- LuBert "Bert" de Freese;
page 192 Secret Service manual;
page 193 bio- Charlie Gittens;
------------------------
page 216 bio- Winston Lawson;
Chapter 19 "Death in Dallas" pp 215-234:
page 217 "to prevent a double tragedy" President and VP do not travel in same car, helicopter, airplane, etc...what about same MOTORCADE as in Dallas?; "The motorcade route chosen by Agent Lawson was suggested by SAIC Forrest Sorrels of the Dallas Field Office. Sorrels was a living legend.";
pages 217-218 bio- Sorrels;
page 232 doesn't rule out "others" being involved in JFK assassination; "In Secret Service school, they told us that President Johnson privately believed Cuba was behind" the murder;
--------------------
page 254 bio- Rad Jones;
page 393 "Instead of routinely evaluating protective procedures and techniques and making improvements where needed, the Secret Service sometimes blamed its own protectees. Bob remembered the instructor in Secret Service school who said: "Kennedy didn't want agents on the back of the limo. They could have saved his life." [Ritter's emphasis]
page 414 Re: the administrative assistant of the Intelligence Division (formerly known as PRS): soon after the Reagan assassination attempt (3/30/81), "She came to me later in the day and said she wanted to 'warn me'...She's been around a long time. She started in the Chicago Field Office and worked there during the JFK assassination [Charlotte Klapkowski? June Marie Terpinas?]. She told me that 'funny things' went on back then and she has the same feeling again...she wouldn't elaborate on that. She did say that SAIC Richards told her to type only an original of my report. No copies were to be made, not even the standard agent's copy. And she was ordered to shred my original handwritten submission! She knew how strange that was. She warned me to look out for myself."
page 432 bio -Robert DeProspero
page 189 bio- Stu Knight;
page 191 bio- LuBert "Bert" de Freese;
page 192 Secret Service manual;
page 193 bio- Charlie Gittens;
------------------------
page 216 bio- Winston Lawson;
Chapter 19 "Death in Dallas" pp 215-234:
page 217 "to prevent a double tragedy" President and VP do not travel in same car, helicopter, airplane, etc...what about same MOTORCADE as in Dallas?; "The motorcade route chosen by Agent Lawson was suggested by SAIC Forrest Sorrels of the Dallas Field Office. Sorrels was a living legend.";
pages 217-218 bio- Sorrels;
page 232 doesn't rule out "others" being involved in JFK assassination; "In Secret Service school, they told us that President Johnson privately believed Cuba was behind" the murder;
--------------------
page 254 bio- Rad Jones;
page 393 "Instead of routinely evaluating protective procedures and techniques and making improvements where needed, the Secret Service sometimes blamed its own protectees. Bob remembered the instructor in Secret Service school who said: "Kennedy didn't want agents on the back of the limo. They could have saved his life." [Ritter's emphasis]
page 414 Re: the administrative assistant of the Intelligence Division (formerly known as PRS): soon after the Reagan assassination attempt (3/30/81), "She came to me later in the day and said she wanted to 'warn me'...She's been around a long time. She started in the Chicago Field Office and worked there during the JFK assassination [Charlotte Klapkowski? June Marie Terpinas?]. She told me that 'funny things' went on back then and she has the same feeling again...she wouldn't elaborate on that. She did say that SAIC Richards told her to type only an original of my report. No copies were to be made, not even the standard agent's copy. And she was ordered to shred my original handwritten submission! She knew how strange that was. She warned me to look out for myself."
page 432 bio -Robert DeProspero
Monday, May 13, 2013
VERY interesting JFK assassination articles (see especially the last one)
AP: May 11, 2013, 8:35 PM
Poll: Continued belief in JFK conspiracy
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57584061/poll-continued-belief-in-jfk-conspiracy/
JFK conspiracy theories still alive
http://www.the-leader.com/newsnow/x464928986/JFK-conspiracy-theories-still-alive
Editorial: Still fascinated by JFK assassination
Posted: Sunday, May 12, 2013 8:00 am
http://www.enterprise-journal.com/opinion/article_bc90e03e-bab8-11e2-aa57-001a4bcf887a.html
SEE ESPECIALLY:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/11/jfk-assassination-50-years_n_3259817.html?
JFK Assassination Leads To Countless Works About 'Truth' And Conspiracies
By ALLEN G. BREED 05/11/13 12:06 PM ET EDT
-- On the very day John F. Kennedy died, a cottage industry was born. Fifty years and hundreds of millions of dollars later, it's still thriving.
Its product? The "truth" about the president's assassination.
"By the evening of November 22, 1963, I found myself being drawn into the case," Los Angeles businessman Ray Marcus wrote in "Addendum B," one of several self-published monographs he produced on the assassination. For him, authorities were just too quick and too pat with their conclusion.
"The government was saying there was only one assassin; that there was no conspiracy. It was obvious that even if this subsequently turned out to be true, it could not have been known to be true at that time."
Most skeptics, including Marcus, didn't get rich by publishing their doubts and theories – and some have even bankrupted themselves chasing theirs. But for a select few, there's been good money in keeping the controversy alive.
Best-selling books and blockbuster movies have raked in massive profits since 1963. And now, with the 50th anniversary of that horrible day in Dallas looming, a new generation is set to cash in.
Of course, the Warren Commission officially concluded in 1964 that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone – and issued 26 volumes of documents to support that determination. But rather than closing the book on JFK's death, the report merely served as fuel for an already kindled fire of doubt and suspicion.
Since then, even government investigators have stepped away from the lone assassin theory. In 1978, the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations ended its own lengthy inquiry by finding that JFK "was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy."
That panel acknowledged it was "unable to identify the other gunman or the extent of the conspiracy." But armed with mountains of subsequently released documents, there has been no shortage of people willing to offer their own conclusions.
Among the leading suspects: Cuban exiles angry about the Bay of Pigs fiasco; Mafiosi enraged by Attorney General Robert Kennedy's attacks on organized crime; the "military-industrial complex," worried about JFK's review of war policy in Vietnam.
One theorist even floated the notion that Kennedy's limousine driver shot the president – as part of an effort to cover up proof of an alien invasion.
Anything but that Oswald, a hapless former Marine, was in the right place at the right time, with motive and opportunity to pull off one of the most audacious crimes in American history.
"As they say, nature abhors a vacuum, and the mind abhors chance," says Michael Shermer, executive director of the Skeptics Society and author of "The Believing Brain," a book on how humans seem hardwired to find patterns in disparate facts and unconnected, often innocent coincidences.
Polls underscore the point.
About 6 in 10 Americans say they believe multiple people were involved in a conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy, while only one-fourth think Oswald acted alone, according to an AP-GfK survey done in mid-April. Belief in a conspiracy, though strong, has declined since a 2003 Gallup poll found 75 percent said they thought Oswald was part of a wider plot.
The case has riveted the public from the start. When the Warren Commission report was released in book form, it debuted at No. 7 on The New York Times Best Sellers List.
Two years later, attorney Mark Lane's "Rush to Judgment" dominated the list. The Warren Commission, he argued, "frequently chose to rely on evidence that was no stronger and sometimes demonstrably weaker than contrary evidence which it rejected."
The book has since sold millions of copies in hardcover and paperback, says Lane.
Since then, dozens of books with titles like "Best Evidence," "Reasonable Doubt," "High Treason" and "Coup D'Etat in America: The CIA and the Assassination of John F. Kennedy" have sought to lay responsibility for JFK's death at the highest levels of the U.S. government – and beyond.
British journalist Anthony Summers, whose BBC documentary became the 1980 book "Conspiracy," says many conspiracy buffs "are fine scholars and students, and some are mad as hatters who think it was done by men from Mars using catapults."
Unlike the later coverage of Watergate, there were no reporters like The Washington Post's Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who were told by their editors, "Get on this and don't get off it," says Summers, whose works focused on people and events largely ignored or treated cursorily by the official investigations. "Nobody went down there and really did the shoe leather work and the phone calls that we're all supposed to do," he says.
For many, the Kennedy assassination has become "a board game: `Who killed JFK?' So you feel free to sit around and say, `Oh! It's the mob. Oh! It's the KGB' ... and have no shame," scoffs Gerald Posner, whose 1993 book "Case Closed" declared that the Warren Commission essentially got it right.
The Oswald-as-patsy community has vilified Posner.
But the lawyer says he didn't set out to write a defense of the Warren Commission. Instead, he planned to go back through the critical evidence to see what more could be determined through hindsight and more modern investigative techniques – "and then put out a book that says, `Read THIS book. Here are the four unresolved issues of the Kennedy assassination, with the evidence on both sides.'"
Halfway through the allotted research time, Posner went to the editorial staff with a new idea: A book that says flat-out who killed Kennedy.
"Who?" one of the editors asked, as Posner retells it.
"Oswald," he answered.
"And who?"
"Oswald," Posner says he repeated. "And they literally looked at me as though I had just come in from Mars. And you could tell there was this feeling of, `Oh my God. He's read the Warren Commission and that's all he's done.'"
"Case Closed" went on to sell 100,000 copies in hardcover. "I would have never thunk it," Posner says.
Unlike Posner, Vincent Bugliosi, author of 2007's "Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy," embarked on his book expecting to vindicate the Warren Commission.
What he didn't expect was for it to balloon into a 1,650-page behemoth – with a CD-ROM containing an additional 960 pages of endnotes – that cost $57.
"STOP writing," he recalls his wife telling him. "You're killing the sales of the book."
The 78-year-old lawyer blames the conspiracy theorists. "We're talking about people," he explains, "who've invested the last 15, 20, 25 years of their life in this. They've lost jobs. They've gotten divorces. Nothing stops them."
"Like a pea brain," he says, he responded to all of their allegations. "It's a bottomless pit. It never, ever ends. And if my publisher ... didn't finally step in and say, `Vince, we're going to print,' I'd still be writing the book."
Despite its girth and hefty price tag, "Reclaiming History" had a respectable first printing of 40,000, says Bugliosi, best known as the former deputy Los Angeles district attorney who prosecuted Charles Manson.
But in a 9,400-word review, Gary L. Aguilar, a director of the Washington-based Assassination Archives and Research Center, wrote that the only thing Bugliosi's book proved was "that it may not be possible for one person to fully master, or give a fair accounting of, this impossibly tangled mess of a case."
Bugliosi omitted or distorted evidence and failed to disprove "the case for conspiracy," Aguilar wrote.
Lamar Waldron is not surprised at the success of people like Bugliosi and Posner.
"The biggest money has been generated for the authors ... who kind of pretend it all was right back in 1964 and nothing really has happened since," says Waldron, who has co-written two books on the assassination. "The large six-figure advances and everything like that don't go to the people who dig through all those millions of pages of files and research for years."
In "Ultimate Sacrifice" and "Legacy of Secrecy," Waldron and co-author Thom Hartmann used declassified CIA documents to make the case that JFK (and later his brother Robert) were killed because of plans to overthrow Cuban dictator Fidel Castro – and the Mafia's infiltration of that operation. Waldron says the books have sold a combined 85,000 copies since 2005.
And now, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro are set to star in a feature film version of "Legacy of Secrecy" – with a reported price tag of up to $90 million.
That's one of a pair of major movies – landing on opposite sides of the Oswald-as-lone-gunman debate – due out this year.
Oscar winners Marcia Gay Harden and Billy Bob Thornton have signed on for the Tom Hanks-produced "Parkland," named for the Dallas hospital where Kennedy was pronounced dead. That project, which Hanks' website describes as "part thriller, part real-time drama," is based on a small portion of Bugliosi's magnum opus.
A TV movie is to be made from another new book, "Killing Kennedy," co-written by Fox News host Bill O'Reilly, which had sold 1 million copies within four months of its release in October. In a note to readers, O'Reilly wrote: "In our narrative, Martin Dugard and I go only as far as the evidence takes us. We are not conspiracy guys, although we do raise some questions about what is unknown and inconsistent."
Academy Award winner Errol Morris is working on a documentary about the assassination. He did not respond to an interview request.
One film, critics say, has done more than anything to shape the public's perception of the assassination: That's Oliver Stone's 1991 drama, "JFK."
"He made this kind of paranoid conspiracy theory respectable," says New York writer Arthur Goldwag, author of "Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies."
The movie tells the story of New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, played by Kevin Costner. Garrison remains the only prosecutor to bring someone to trial for an alleged conspiracy to kill Kennedy.
The film is "a remarkable litany of falsehoods and misrepresentations and exaggerations and omissions," Posner says. "The reason that I'm so hard on Stone is because he's such a good filmmaker. If he was a schlocky filmmaker, it wouldn't matter."
Shermer, of the Skeptics Society, agrees that Stone's role in stirring the conspiracy pot is "huge."
"You tell somebody a good story, that's more powerful than tons of data, charts and graphs and statistics," he says. "And Oliver Stone's a good storyteller. He's biased and he's very deceptive, and I don't trust him at all. But the movie's great."
Stone's publicist said the director had "chosen to pass on this opportunity" to comment.
"JFK" took in more than $205 million at the box office, nearly two-thirds of that overseas, and has since raked in untold millions more in television royalties, pay-per-view, and videocassette and DVD rentals.
In the recent AP-GfK poll, respondents were asked how much of what they knew about the JFK case came from various sources. Only 9 percent cited movies or fictional TV shows, while the greatest portion, 37 percent, said history texts and nonfiction books.
About two dozen JFK-related titles are due on bookstore shelves in coming months, says Patricia Bostelman, vice president of marketing for Barnes & Noble booksellers. Among them is "They Killed Our President: The Conspiracy to Kill JFK and the Cover-Up That Followed," by former pro wrestler and Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura.
Other authors are taking advantage of the anniversary to reissue or expand on previous works.
Waldron is working on a book focusing on mob figures who confessed to being part of a conspiracy to kill the president. Summers is publishing a sequel to "Conspiracy," incorporating material released since 1980, while Bugliosi has a "Parkland" paperback to accompany the movie release.
And "Case Closed" will soon appear for the first time as an e-book. Despite the mountains of documents released since its publication, and a mountain of criticism of his conclusions, Posner says there is no plan to update it, other than perhaps including a new foreword.
"I moved on to other subjects," he says.
On Nov. 22, 1963, John Kelin was a 7-year-old second-grader in Peoria, Ill. He says the Kennedy assassination is "my earliest clear memory in life."
But he didn't really give the case much thought until 13 years later, when as a sophomore at Eastern Michigan University he attended a lecture by Mark Lane. It was the first time he saw the Abraham Zapruder film that captured the moment when Kennedy was fatally wounded.
"Using slow motion and freeze frame, Lane made sure that all of us sitting in that hot, poorly ventilated auditorium understood that Kennedy's head and shoulders were slammed backward and to the left, and that Lee Harvey Oswald's alleged shooting position was behind the presidential limousine," Kelin wrote in a book, "Praise from a Future Generation," about early critics of the Warren Report. "In a way, that lecture was the genesis of this book."
Kelin bristles at references to a conspiracy theory "industry," preferring to think of himself as part of a grass roots response to the government's "severely flawed, unsatisfactory explanations for what really happened in 1963."
His publisher, Wings Press, has "made intimations" about releasing a digital edition of "Praise" for the 50th anniversary. Meanwhile, Kelin has written another JFK book – a fictional account of how he came to write the first one.
"It's kind of a satire of the present-day research community," he says, "with a love story thrown in to try to broaden the interest level."
The title: "Conspiracy Nut."
___
Poll: Continued belief in JFK conspiracy
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57584061/poll-continued-belief-in-jfk-conspiracy/
JFK conspiracy theories still alive
http://www.the-leader.com/newsnow/x464928986/JFK-conspiracy-theories-still-alive
Editorial: Still fascinated by JFK assassination
Posted: Sunday, May 12, 2013 8:00 am
http://www.enterprise-journal.com/opinion/article_bc90e03e-bab8-11e2-aa57-001a4bcf887a.html
SEE ESPECIALLY:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/11/jfk-assassination-50-years_n_3259817.html?
JFK Assassination Leads To Countless Works About 'Truth' And Conspiracies
By ALLEN G. BREED 05/11/13 12:06 PM ET EDT
-- On the very day John F. Kennedy died, a cottage industry was born. Fifty years and hundreds of millions of dollars later, it's still thriving.
Its product? The "truth" about the president's assassination.
"By the evening of November 22, 1963, I found myself being drawn into the case," Los Angeles businessman Ray Marcus wrote in "Addendum B," one of several self-published monographs he produced on the assassination. For him, authorities were just too quick and too pat with their conclusion.
"The government was saying there was only one assassin; that there was no conspiracy. It was obvious that even if this subsequently turned out to be true, it could not have been known to be true at that time."
Most skeptics, including Marcus, didn't get rich by publishing their doubts and theories – and some have even bankrupted themselves chasing theirs. But for a select few, there's been good money in keeping the controversy alive.
Best-selling books and blockbuster movies have raked in massive profits since 1963. And now, with the 50th anniversary of that horrible day in Dallas looming, a new generation is set to cash in.
Of course, the Warren Commission officially concluded in 1964 that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone – and issued 26 volumes of documents to support that determination. But rather than closing the book on JFK's death, the report merely served as fuel for an already kindled fire of doubt and suspicion.
Since then, even government investigators have stepped away from the lone assassin theory. In 1978, the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations ended its own lengthy inquiry by finding that JFK "was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy."
That panel acknowledged it was "unable to identify the other gunman or the extent of the conspiracy." But armed with mountains of subsequently released documents, there has been no shortage of people willing to offer their own conclusions.
Among the leading suspects: Cuban exiles angry about the Bay of Pigs fiasco; Mafiosi enraged by Attorney General Robert Kennedy's attacks on organized crime; the "military-industrial complex," worried about JFK's review of war policy in Vietnam.
One theorist even floated the notion that Kennedy's limousine driver shot the president – as part of an effort to cover up proof of an alien invasion.
Anything but that Oswald, a hapless former Marine, was in the right place at the right time, with motive and opportunity to pull off one of the most audacious crimes in American history.
"As they say, nature abhors a vacuum, and the mind abhors chance," says Michael Shermer, executive director of the Skeptics Society and author of "The Believing Brain," a book on how humans seem hardwired to find patterns in disparate facts and unconnected, often innocent coincidences.
Polls underscore the point.
About 6 in 10 Americans say they believe multiple people were involved in a conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy, while only one-fourth think Oswald acted alone, according to an AP-GfK survey done in mid-April. Belief in a conspiracy, though strong, has declined since a 2003 Gallup poll found 75 percent said they thought Oswald was part of a wider plot.
The case has riveted the public from the start. When the Warren Commission report was released in book form, it debuted at No. 7 on The New York Times Best Sellers List.
Two years later, attorney Mark Lane's "Rush to Judgment" dominated the list. The Warren Commission, he argued, "frequently chose to rely on evidence that was no stronger and sometimes demonstrably weaker than contrary evidence which it rejected."
The book has since sold millions of copies in hardcover and paperback, says Lane.
Since then, dozens of books with titles like "Best Evidence," "Reasonable Doubt," "High Treason" and "Coup D'Etat in America: The CIA and the Assassination of John F. Kennedy" have sought to lay responsibility for JFK's death at the highest levels of the U.S. government – and beyond.
British journalist Anthony Summers, whose BBC documentary became the 1980 book "Conspiracy," says many conspiracy buffs "are fine scholars and students, and some are mad as hatters who think it was done by men from Mars using catapults."
Unlike the later coverage of Watergate, there were no reporters like The Washington Post's Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who were told by their editors, "Get on this and don't get off it," says Summers, whose works focused on people and events largely ignored or treated cursorily by the official investigations. "Nobody went down there and really did the shoe leather work and the phone calls that we're all supposed to do," he says.
For many, the Kennedy assassination has become "a board game: `Who killed JFK?' So you feel free to sit around and say, `Oh! It's the mob. Oh! It's the KGB' ... and have no shame," scoffs Gerald Posner, whose 1993 book "Case Closed" declared that the Warren Commission essentially got it right.
The Oswald-as-patsy community has vilified Posner.
But the lawyer says he didn't set out to write a defense of the Warren Commission. Instead, he planned to go back through the critical evidence to see what more could be determined through hindsight and more modern investigative techniques – "and then put out a book that says, `Read THIS book. Here are the four unresolved issues of the Kennedy assassination, with the evidence on both sides.'"
Halfway through the allotted research time, Posner went to the editorial staff with a new idea: A book that says flat-out who killed Kennedy.
"Who?" one of the editors asked, as Posner retells it.
"Oswald," he answered.
"And who?"
"Oswald," Posner says he repeated. "And they literally looked at me as though I had just come in from Mars. And you could tell there was this feeling of, `Oh my God. He's read the Warren Commission and that's all he's done.'"
"Case Closed" went on to sell 100,000 copies in hardcover. "I would have never thunk it," Posner says.
Unlike Posner, Vincent Bugliosi, author of 2007's "Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy," embarked on his book expecting to vindicate the Warren Commission.
What he didn't expect was for it to balloon into a 1,650-page behemoth – with a CD-ROM containing an additional 960 pages of endnotes – that cost $57.
"STOP writing," he recalls his wife telling him. "You're killing the sales of the book."
The 78-year-old lawyer blames the conspiracy theorists. "We're talking about people," he explains, "who've invested the last 15, 20, 25 years of their life in this. They've lost jobs. They've gotten divorces. Nothing stops them."
"Like a pea brain," he says, he responded to all of their allegations. "It's a bottomless pit. It never, ever ends. And if my publisher ... didn't finally step in and say, `Vince, we're going to print,' I'd still be writing the book."
Despite its girth and hefty price tag, "Reclaiming History" had a respectable first printing of 40,000, says Bugliosi, best known as the former deputy Los Angeles district attorney who prosecuted Charles Manson.
But in a 9,400-word review, Gary L. Aguilar, a director of the Washington-based Assassination Archives and Research Center, wrote that the only thing Bugliosi's book proved was "that it may not be possible for one person to fully master, or give a fair accounting of, this impossibly tangled mess of a case."
Bugliosi omitted or distorted evidence and failed to disprove "the case for conspiracy," Aguilar wrote.
Lamar Waldron is not surprised at the success of people like Bugliosi and Posner.
"The biggest money has been generated for the authors ... who kind of pretend it all was right back in 1964 and nothing really has happened since," says Waldron, who has co-written two books on the assassination. "The large six-figure advances and everything like that don't go to the people who dig through all those millions of pages of files and research for years."
In "Ultimate Sacrifice" and "Legacy of Secrecy," Waldron and co-author Thom Hartmann used declassified CIA documents to make the case that JFK (and later his brother Robert) were killed because of plans to overthrow Cuban dictator Fidel Castro – and the Mafia's infiltration of that operation. Waldron says the books have sold a combined 85,000 copies since 2005.
And now, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro are set to star in a feature film version of "Legacy of Secrecy" – with a reported price tag of up to $90 million.
That's one of a pair of major movies – landing on opposite sides of the Oswald-as-lone-gunman debate – due out this year.
Oscar winners Marcia Gay Harden and Billy Bob Thornton have signed on for the Tom Hanks-produced "Parkland," named for the Dallas hospital where Kennedy was pronounced dead. That project, which Hanks' website describes as "part thriller, part real-time drama," is based on a small portion of Bugliosi's magnum opus.
A TV movie is to be made from another new book, "Killing Kennedy," co-written by Fox News host Bill O'Reilly, which had sold 1 million copies within four months of its release in October. In a note to readers, O'Reilly wrote: "In our narrative, Martin Dugard and I go only as far as the evidence takes us. We are not conspiracy guys, although we do raise some questions about what is unknown and inconsistent."
Academy Award winner Errol Morris is working on a documentary about the assassination. He did not respond to an interview request.
One film, critics say, has done more than anything to shape the public's perception of the assassination: That's Oliver Stone's 1991 drama, "JFK."
"He made this kind of paranoid conspiracy theory respectable," says New York writer Arthur Goldwag, author of "Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies."
The movie tells the story of New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, played by Kevin Costner. Garrison remains the only prosecutor to bring someone to trial for an alleged conspiracy to kill Kennedy.
The film is "a remarkable litany of falsehoods and misrepresentations and exaggerations and omissions," Posner says. "The reason that I'm so hard on Stone is because he's such a good filmmaker. If he was a schlocky filmmaker, it wouldn't matter."
Shermer, of the Skeptics Society, agrees that Stone's role in stirring the conspiracy pot is "huge."
"You tell somebody a good story, that's more powerful than tons of data, charts and graphs and statistics," he says. "And Oliver Stone's a good storyteller. He's biased and he's very deceptive, and I don't trust him at all. But the movie's great."
Stone's publicist said the director had "chosen to pass on this opportunity" to comment.
"JFK" took in more than $205 million at the box office, nearly two-thirds of that overseas, and has since raked in untold millions more in television royalties, pay-per-view, and videocassette and DVD rentals.
In the recent AP-GfK poll, respondents were asked how much of what they knew about the JFK case came from various sources. Only 9 percent cited movies or fictional TV shows, while the greatest portion, 37 percent, said history texts and nonfiction books.
About two dozen JFK-related titles are due on bookstore shelves in coming months, says Patricia Bostelman, vice president of marketing for Barnes & Noble booksellers. Among them is "They Killed Our President: The Conspiracy to Kill JFK and the Cover-Up That Followed," by former pro wrestler and Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura.
Other authors are taking advantage of the anniversary to reissue or expand on previous works.
Waldron is working on a book focusing on mob figures who confessed to being part of a conspiracy to kill the president. Summers is publishing a sequel to "Conspiracy," incorporating material released since 1980, while Bugliosi has a "Parkland" paperback to accompany the movie release.
And "Case Closed" will soon appear for the first time as an e-book. Despite the mountains of documents released since its publication, and a mountain of criticism of his conclusions, Posner says there is no plan to update it, other than perhaps including a new foreword.
"I moved on to other subjects," he says.
On Nov. 22, 1963, John Kelin was a 7-year-old second-grader in Peoria, Ill. He says the Kennedy assassination is "my earliest clear memory in life."
But he didn't really give the case much thought until 13 years later, when as a sophomore at Eastern Michigan University he attended a lecture by Mark Lane. It was the first time he saw the Abraham Zapruder film that captured the moment when Kennedy was fatally wounded.
"Using slow motion and freeze frame, Lane made sure that all of us sitting in that hot, poorly ventilated auditorium understood that Kennedy's head and shoulders were slammed backward and to the left, and that Lee Harvey Oswald's alleged shooting position was behind the presidential limousine," Kelin wrote in a book, "Praise from a Future Generation," about early critics of the Warren Report. "In a way, that lecture was the genesis of this book."
Kelin bristles at references to a conspiracy theory "industry," preferring to think of himself as part of a grass roots response to the government's "severely flawed, unsatisfactory explanations for what really happened in 1963."
His publisher, Wings Press, has "made intimations" about releasing a digital edition of "Praise" for the 50th anniversary. Meanwhile, Kelin has written another JFK book – a fictional account of how he came to write the first one.
"It's kind of a satire of the present-day research community," he says, "with a love story thrown in to try to broaden the interest level."
The title: "Conspiracy Nut."
___
My book selling much better than Clint Hill's new book (and Gerald Blaine's at this same time three years ago)
My book selling much better than Clint Hill's new book (and Gerald Blaine's at this same time three years ago)
Holy $@+!!! My book on Amazon right now (not released until 9/1/13)- Dan Emmett confirmed these are outstanding numbers for pre-sales only and are better than a lot of released books: Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #19,796 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
#53 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Communication & Media Studies...Clint Hill's new book? 412,000-yik! Amazing
Later in the day:
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #30,491 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
#79 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Communication & Media Studies
Holy $@+!!! My book on Amazon right now (not released until 9/1/13)- Dan Emmett confirmed these are outstanding numbers for pre-sales only and are better than a lot of released books: Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #19,796 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
#53 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Communication & Media Studies...Clint Hill's new book? 412,000-yik! Amazing
Later in the day:
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #30,491 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
#79 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Communication & Media Studies
Monday, May 6, 2013
Noted Law Professor gives negative review to "The Kennedy Detail"
Noted Law Professor gives negative review to "The Kennedy Detail"
Pay No Attention
The Kennedy Detail, the other book I want to discuss, whitewashes
the Secret Service. It attempts to continue the earlier coverup of the
major errors the Secret Service committed. It is defensive in tone
and pretends that the Secret Service did not let down President
Kennedy. It omits or misstates key facts in order to make the
performance of the Secret Service agents look better than it was.
Nastily, the book even suggests that JFK was partially responsible
for his own assassination because allegedly he forbade agents from
standing on the back of the limousine where they might have
shielded him from shooters. (The claim that JFK barred agents from
riding on the back of the limousine is almost certainly false.) The
Kennedy Detail could appropriately have been subtitled Pay No
Attention to the Secret Service’s Major Malfunction.
Perhaps unintentionally, however, The Kennedy Detail sets forth facts which are confirmatory of
the consensus critical of the Secret Service.
• Jerry Behn, the Special Agent in Charge of the White House Detail (and the most senior agent
on the Detail) was on vacation and did not accompany JFK on the trips to Florida or Texas. “He
took his first vacation in four years the week JFK was assassinated.” Oddly, however, Jerry Behn
was in his office in Washington, D.C. when the assassination occurred. “He was supposed to be
on vacation, but he’d come into the office for just a couple of hours.” As the most senior Secret
Service agent on the Detail, Behn usually was at the president’s side whenever Kennedy was
away from the White House, and on trips he occupied the right front seat of the presidential
limousine. (This means, of course, that despite the known threats to JFK’s safety posed by
gunmen, and despite the fact that he was traveling to a dangerous place, JFK was, on his visit to
Dallas, not accompanied by the experienced, supervisory agent who ordinarily was in close
personal attendance when the president appeared in public or traveled. With President Kennedy
in such apparent danger on his trip, Jerry Behn had chosen a most inopportune time to take a
vacation.)
• When the Special Agent in Charge was unavailable, an Assistant Special Agent in Charge
would closely accompany the president on trips and sit in the right front seat of the limousine.
Contrary to usual practice, however, Jerry Behn’s deputy, Floyd Boring, an Assistant Special
Agent in Charge of the White House Detail, was at home on an unusual day off on Nov. 22,
1963. “Agent Floyd Boring was relaxing at home on a rare day off when he got the call [telling
him of the assassination].” (This means that Boring had picked a peculiar time to take the day
off, since he knew about the dangers of the Dallas visit and also knew that Jerry Behn was not
traveling to Dallas. It also means that while on his hazardous visit to Dallas JFK unusually was
not accompanied by either of the experienced agents who usually were in close proximity to him
while traveling.)
• Because of the absence of Behn and Boring, another Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the
White House Detail, Roy H. Kellerman, sat in the right front seat of the limousine as it
motorcaded through Dallas. Kellerman was an experienced agent. (The Dallas visit appears to
have been Kellerman’s first major trip as the supervisory agent.) It was Kellerman who
scandalously remained in his seat and made no effort to get to or shield the president when the
shooting began.
• At the time of the assassination, the White House Detail was in a weakened condition due to
recent resignations and transfers. Nearly one-third of the 34 agents on the White House Detail
assigned to protect JFK, including a number of experienced agents, had recently resigned or been
transferred. “In the past two months alone, eleven of the most experienced agents on the
Kennedy Detail had been replaced. It had been a purely personal choice by the agents–they’d
requested, and had been granted, transfers to field offices… [N]early a third of the agents had
decided they just couldn’t do it any more. Too many missed birthdays and anniversaries, too
many holidays away from home.” (This means that despite several known plots to assassinate the
president, the Secret Service nonetheless was permitting numbers of its experienced agents to
leave the Detail. Shouldn’t it have been obvious under the circumstances that allowing so many
experienced agents to depart was unwise?)
• Perhaps because of the recent departures from the Detail, some of the agents in Dallas were
working their first motorcade.
Ironically, therefore, despite The Kennedy Detail’s efforts to divert blame away from the security
men who dismally failed to prevent the assassination, some of the information in the book tends
to support the consensus that the Secret Service did not do its job on Nov. 22, 1963.
Donald E. Wilkes, Jr., is Professor of Law Emeritus in the UGA School of Law
Pay No Attention
The Kennedy Detail, the other book I want to discuss, whitewashes
the Secret Service. It attempts to continue the earlier coverup of the
major errors the Secret Service committed. It is defensive in tone
and pretends that the Secret Service did not let down President
Kennedy. It omits or misstates key facts in order to make the
performance of the Secret Service agents look better than it was.
Nastily, the book even suggests that JFK was partially responsible
for his own assassination because allegedly he forbade agents from
standing on the back of the limousine where they might have
shielded him from shooters. (The claim that JFK barred agents from
riding on the back of the limousine is almost certainly false.) The
Kennedy Detail could appropriately have been subtitled Pay No
Attention to the Secret Service’s Major Malfunction.
Perhaps unintentionally, however, The Kennedy Detail sets forth facts which are confirmatory of
the consensus critical of the Secret Service.
• Jerry Behn, the Special Agent in Charge of the White House Detail (and the most senior agent
on the Detail) was on vacation and did not accompany JFK on the trips to Florida or Texas. “He
took his first vacation in four years the week JFK was assassinated.” Oddly, however, Jerry Behn
was in his office in Washington, D.C. when the assassination occurred. “He was supposed to be
on vacation, but he’d come into the office for just a couple of hours.” As the most senior Secret
Service agent on the Detail, Behn usually was at the president’s side whenever Kennedy was
away from the White House, and on trips he occupied the right front seat of the presidential
limousine. (This means, of course, that despite the known threats to JFK’s safety posed by
gunmen, and despite the fact that he was traveling to a dangerous place, JFK was, on his visit to
Dallas, not accompanied by the experienced, supervisory agent who ordinarily was in close
personal attendance when the president appeared in public or traveled. With President Kennedy
in such apparent danger on his trip, Jerry Behn had chosen a most inopportune time to take a
vacation.)
• When the Special Agent in Charge was unavailable, an Assistant Special Agent in Charge
would closely accompany the president on trips and sit in the right front seat of the limousine.
Contrary to usual practice, however, Jerry Behn’s deputy, Floyd Boring, an Assistant Special
Agent in Charge of the White House Detail, was at home on an unusual day off on Nov. 22,
1963. “Agent Floyd Boring was relaxing at home on a rare day off when he got the call [telling
him of the assassination].” (This means that Boring had picked a peculiar time to take the day
off, since he knew about the dangers of the Dallas visit and also knew that Jerry Behn was not
traveling to Dallas. It also means that while on his hazardous visit to Dallas JFK unusually was
not accompanied by either of the experienced agents who usually were in close proximity to him
while traveling.)
• Because of the absence of Behn and Boring, another Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the
White House Detail, Roy H. Kellerman, sat in the right front seat of the limousine as it
motorcaded through Dallas. Kellerman was an experienced agent. (The Dallas visit appears to
have been Kellerman’s first major trip as the supervisory agent.) It was Kellerman who
scandalously remained in his seat and made no effort to get to or shield the president when the
shooting began.
• At the time of the assassination, the White House Detail was in a weakened condition due to
recent resignations and transfers. Nearly one-third of the 34 agents on the White House Detail
assigned to protect JFK, including a number of experienced agents, had recently resigned or been
transferred. “In the past two months alone, eleven of the most experienced agents on the
Kennedy Detail had been replaced. It had been a purely personal choice by the agents–they’d
requested, and had been granted, transfers to field offices… [N]early a third of the agents had
decided they just couldn’t do it any more. Too many missed birthdays and anniversaries, too
many holidays away from home.” (This means that despite several known plots to assassinate the
president, the Secret Service nonetheless was permitting numbers of its experienced agents to
leave the Detail. Shouldn’t it have been obvious under the circumstances that allowing so many
experienced agents to depart was unwise?)
• Perhaps because of the recent departures from the Detail, some of the agents in Dallas were
working their first motorcade.
Ironically, therefore, despite The Kennedy Detail’s efforts to divert blame away from the security
men who dismally failed to prevent the assassination, some of the information in the book tends
to support the consensus that the Secret Service did not do its job on Nov. 22, 1963.
Donald E. Wilkes, Jr., is Professor of Law Emeritus in the UGA School of Law
11/18/63 JFK Tampa
Then-deputy recalls Kennedy’s visit to Tampa
HOWARD ALTMAN/STAFF
Published: May 4, 2013
TAMPA - Daryl May, a rookie deputy with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, stood with his back to a swelling and anxious crowd, locking arms with other law enforcement officers to keep the throng at bay.
As people pushed forward against the officers, May had a troubling thought.
“I can’t reach my gun,” he recalled Saturday afternoon, seated at a table on the first floor of the Tampa Bay History Center. “Someone could have grabbed it from me and used it.”
The day was Nov. 18, 1963.
May, 27 years old at the time, was on the most historic detail of his life as part of the team providing security for President Kennedy, the first sitting president ever to visit Tampa. Kennedy spent five hours in the city, one of the longest stops of his presidency.
It was a day of triumph for the city, a glow that would last another four days, until Kennedy was gunned down while his motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in Dallas.
Now 70, May was one of many area residents who came to the history center Saturday to share their memories, and memorabilia, of the Kennedy visit, with a crew shooting a documentary for WUSF-TV. JFK In Tampa: the 50th Anniversary, will be a multimedia “celebration,” said Lynn Marvin Dingfelder, the former Tampa television reporter who is producing the documentary.
Scheduled to debut with a showing at the Tampa Theater on Nov. 14, and on WUSF-TV three days later, the project “is not about the grassy knoll or assassination theories,” said Dingfelder, in between interviews. “This is about our place in the sun. JFK in Tampa is about joy. It is not a downer.”
As Kennedy took the bandstand at Al Lopez Field, May had no idea that three weeks earlier, the 35th president of the United States had received death threats while in Chicago.
All he knew was the Secret Service and Tampa police were extremely attentive to his security.
“They told us not to take our eyes off the crowd,” said May. “During the prayer, we were not to take our hats off or salute during the National Anthem.”
The speech, said May, was moving.
“He had a lot of charisma,” said May. “The crowd fed off the energy. You could feel his aura.”
After the speech Kennedy got back into his Lincoln convertible, which slowly rolled toward the crowd.
“People were trying to touch him, shake hands,” said May. “The Secret Service was very uncomfortable.”
That’s when May and the others locked arms, facing Kennedy.
“I was close enough to be able to smell the cigar smoke off his jacket,” May said.
May, who left the force in 1970 and went on to become an entertainer, said he was relieved when the president left town safely.
“It was a big deal,” he said. “I found it very pleasant and exciting. Something I could tell the grandkids.”
Four days later, Kennedy was dead.
May said he was taking out the trash before heading to work when a neighbor asked him if he’d heard the terrible news about the assassination.
“All of us felt like we lost a family member,” he said.
For Dingfelder, the hardest part about making the documentary will be winnowing all the stories down to an hour.
She said there will be about 45 interviews from which to choose.
In addition to the documentary, there will be DVDs with all the outtakes, as well as a book containing stories people submitted by mail and email.
“People’s eyes light up when they talk about their memories,” she said.
To learn more, go to jfkintampa.org
HOWARD ALTMAN/STAFF
Published: May 4, 2013
TAMPA - Daryl May, a rookie deputy with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, stood with his back to a swelling and anxious crowd, locking arms with other law enforcement officers to keep the throng at bay.
As people pushed forward against the officers, May had a troubling thought.
“I can’t reach my gun,” he recalled Saturday afternoon, seated at a table on the first floor of the Tampa Bay History Center. “Someone could have grabbed it from me and used it.”
The day was Nov. 18, 1963.
May, 27 years old at the time, was on the most historic detail of his life as part of the team providing security for President Kennedy, the first sitting president ever to visit Tampa. Kennedy spent five hours in the city, one of the longest stops of his presidency.
It was a day of triumph for the city, a glow that would last another four days, until Kennedy was gunned down while his motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in Dallas.
Now 70, May was one of many area residents who came to the history center Saturday to share their memories, and memorabilia, of the Kennedy visit, with a crew shooting a documentary for WUSF-TV. JFK In Tampa: the 50th Anniversary, will be a multimedia “celebration,” said Lynn Marvin Dingfelder, the former Tampa television reporter who is producing the documentary.
Scheduled to debut with a showing at the Tampa Theater on Nov. 14, and on WUSF-TV three days later, the project “is not about the grassy knoll or assassination theories,” said Dingfelder, in between interviews. “This is about our place in the sun. JFK in Tampa is about joy. It is not a downer.”
As Kennedy took the bandstand at Al Lopez Field, May had no idea that three weeks earlier, the 35th president of the United States had received death threats while in Chicago.
All he knew was the Secret Service and Tampa police were extremely attentive to his security.
“They told us not to take our eyes off the crowd,” said May. “During the prayer, we were not to take our hats off or salute during the National Anthem.”
The speech, said May, was moving.
“He had a lot of charisma,” said May. “The crowd fed off the energy. You could feel his aura.”
After the speech Kennedy got back into his Lincoln convertible, which slowly rolled toward the crowd.
“People were trying to touch him, shake hands,” said May. “The Secret Service was very uncomfortable.”
That’s when May and the others locked arms, facing Kennedy.
“I was close enough to be able to smell the cigar smoke off his jacket,” May said.
May, who left the force in 1970 and went on to become an entertainer, said he was relieved when the president left town safely.
“It was a big deal,” he said. “I found it very pleasant and exciting. Something I could tell the grandkids.”
Four days later, Kennedy was dead.
May said he was taking out the trash before heading to work when a neighbor asked him if he’d heard the terrible news about the assassination.
“All of us felt like we lost a family member,” he said.
For Dingfelder, the hardest part about making the documentary will be winnowing all the stories down to an hour.
She said there will be about 45 interviews from which to choose.
In addition to the documentary, there will be DVDs with all the outtakes, as well as a book containing stories people submitted by mail and email.
“People’s eyes light up when they talk about their memories,” she said.
To learn more, go to jfkintampa.org
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Missing Gerald Blaine transcript/ William Manchester papers+ Behn and Roberts, etc
Missing Gerald Blaine transcript/ William Manchester papers+ Behn and Roberts, etc
"Vince,
"Vince,
I don’t know why there is no transcript of the Blaine interview, but I’m not sure you can make much out of this. Everything that is in the Manchester papers is listed in the finding aid. As you can see from the finding aid, the transcripts are arranged chronologically. It appears that Manchester did the bulk of his interviews in 1964 and then did additional interviews in 1965. The 1964 transcripts seem to have been created much more systematically than those in 1965. As far as I can tell, Manchester appears to have saved everything related to his projects. If there is no transcript for a particular interview, it would seem that it either somehow got lost or misplaced (for example, over the course of his career, Manchester repeatedly consulted his Death of a President papers and it wouldn’t surprise me if a document did not find its way back to the collection) or there was no transcript created in the first place. I read the acknowledgements in One Brief Shining Moment and took a look at the papers listed in the finding aid for this book. It does not appear to me that he contacted (again) all of these people for OBSM, but rather, he was acknowledging people who had previously helped him at one time or another that may have contributed to his thinking about the new book.
The transcripts relating to Gerald Behn and Emory Roberts are restricted until 2067.
Best,
Leith
Leith Johnson
University Archivist
Special Collections & Archives
Olin Library
Wesleyan University"
----
FROM
| 1-2 | Interviews and sources, 1964 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3-4 | Index of interviews (alphabetical), 1965 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5-6 | Index of interviews (chronological), 1965 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alphabetical and chronological indexes are not comprehensive of all interviews conducted. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Interview transcripts, numbered set 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| These files consist primarily of transcripts of interviews. Other files contain document transcriptions or summaries and the personal observations of WM. Restricted materials have been removed. ------------- **Foster, Bob, p. 835-39 [restricted], 1964 Nov 18 ; **Hill, Clinton, p. 840-48 [restricted], 1964 Nov 11; **Jack Warner; **Greer, Bill, p. 850-52 [restricted], 1964 Nov 19 ; **Johns, Lem, p. 853-58 [restricted], 1964 Nov 19; **Behn, Gerald, p. 869-871 [restricted], 1964 Dec 18 ; **Wells, Thomas, p. 872-79 [restricted], 1964 Dec 18 ; **Roberts, Emory, p. 881-84 [restricted], 1964 Dec 4 ; **Kinney, Sam, 1965 Feb 19 ; **George McNally [former Secret Service agent; head of WHCA]; **Wilson, Frank [former Chief of Secret Service];
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A good review of Blaine's book
A good review of Blaine's book
2.0 out of 5 stars **, May 1, 2013
By Lance Moore (AL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) This review is from: The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence (Hardcover)
Interesting, and told in a likable style. However, the book is downright deceptive, according to written statements by a dozen other Secret Service agents. It attempts to blame Kennedy for his own death, rather than face the failures of the agents. Secret Service agents are, in general, brave and dedicated and risk their lives to protect our democracy. But on November 22, 1963, they failed. This book runs from that fact and defends some things for which an apology, not a defense, is due. On this topic, read the work of Vince Palamara (author of "Survivors Guilt") for example. Or my upcoming book, "50 Years, 50 Lies: From the Warren Commission to Bill O'Reilly, A History of Deceit in the JFK Assassination." Until it is released next month, read: "Class Crucifixion: Money, Power, Religion and the Death of the Middle Class
2.0 out of 5 stars **, May 1, 2013
By Lance Moore (AL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) This review is from: The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence (Hardcover)
Interesting, and told in a likable style. However, the book is downright deceptive, according to written statements by a dozen other Secret Service agents. It attempts to blame Kennedy for his own death, rather than face the failures of the agents. Secret Service agents are, in general, brave and dedicated and risk their lives to protect our democracy. But on November 22, 1963, they failed. This book runs from that fact and defends some things for which an apology, not a defense, is due. On this topic, read the work of Vince Palamara (author of "Survivors Guilt") for example. Or my upcoming book, "50 Years, 50 Lies: From the Warren Commission to Bill O'Reilly, A History of Deceit in the JFK Assassination." Until it is released next month, read: "Class Crucifixion: Money, Power, Religion and the Death of the Middle Class
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