W. Niederhut

Well, I'm shocked, shocked to learn today that Ted Cruz's father didn't kill JFK! What's next? Finding out that Hillary isn't really dying of brain cancer? National Enquirer Made Up Story About Ted Cruz’s Father April 23, 2024 at 4:26 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard “David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, testified at Donald Trump’s trial Tuesday that the tabloid completely manufactured a negative story in 2016 about the father of Sen. Ted Cruz, of Texas, who was then Trump’s rival for the GOP presidential nomination,” NBC News reports. “The paper had published a photo allegedly showing Cruz’s father, Rafael Cruz, with Lee Harvey Oswald handing out pro-Fidel Castro pamphlets in New Orleans in 1963, not long before Oswald assassinated President John F. Kennedy.” “Trump repeatedly referred to the story on the campaign trail and in interviews.”

Matt, Jamelle Bouie published an op-ed in the NYT about this subject a month or two ago. The gist of it was that Rudy Giuliani has always been a sleazeball. Most Americans don't know that Rudy Giuliani lied to the 9/11 Commission about the fact that he was forewarned on 9/11 that the Twin Towers were going to, unexpectedly, collapse to the ground. Giuliani admitted this to Peter Jennings on 9/11. (The NYFD thought Giuliani was nuts when he told them the steel skyscrapers were going to collapse.) Ron: Yes, I'm familiar with the Elizabeth Reed story-- about the headstone and the magic mushrooms. Fascinating rock 'n roll history about Dickey Betts's brilliant composition.

Bill, My point is that the specific forensic details of many of these deaths render mere actuarial probabilities less than significant-- although the actuarial stats indicate high improbability. For example, it's one thing to estimate the actuarial probability of George De Mohrenschildt suddenly dying at age 66, and another thing to estimate the probability that he would suddenly die of a gun shot wound to the head the day before his scheduled testimony about the JFK assassination. Why did De Mohrenschildt die on that particular day, rather than on one of the other 5,100+ days that had elapsed after JFK's murder? The same probabilistic logic applies to Giancana's murder, and most of these JFK witness murder cases. So, yes, we can get a composite number about the actuarial probabilities of all of these witness deaths-- as Beltzer and Wayne did, in Hit List -- but what is even more improbable are the strange, specific circumstances of the murders occurring when, and how, they did by mere chance. What is the probability that Giancana would have been murdered, by chance, by multiple gunshot wounds spelling an "O" around his mouth-- for "Omerta"-- the day before his scheduled testimony about the JFK assassination? What is the probability that a random burglar would have stolen Koethe's JFK assassination notes, by mere chance, after killing Koethe with a karate chop? (We could ask the same question about the Killgallen and Pritchard Smith murders.) Aside from actuarial mortality stats, how frequently do burglars steal manuscripts and notes written by their victims?

Indeed. These poll numbers tell us nothing about the JFK assassination evidence, per se. They are merely an index of public ignorance vs. public knowledge about the evidence. Propagandists may find them useful, in line with Ronald Reagan's old concept that, "Perception is reality." As examples of this all-too-common disconnect between reality and mass ignorance, 50% of Republicans in a recent Washington Post survey believe that human activity has not contributed to climate change. The poll tells us nothing about the scientific climate change evidence.

Bill, Getting back to my point (above) about the salience of forensic details, how would we calculate the probability that both Sam Giancana and George De Mohrenschildt would have been murdered, by chance, one day prior to their scheduled testimony about the JFK assassination?

Kevin, The issue of actuarial probabilities is one interesting aspect of these cases, but the specific forensic details are more telling, IMO. As an example, we could look at the actuarial probabilities that Sam Giancana and George De Mohrenschildt would be shot in the head at a particular age. But what are the actuarial probabilities that they would be shot in the head immediately before their scheduled testimony about the JFKA assassination? Related forensic examples are endless here. As another example, we could focus on the actuarial probability that Koethe would be killed by a karate chop, but a more salient question might be, "Why did the alleged burglar steal Koethe's notes about the JFK assassination?" The same question could be asked about James Angleton's theft of Mary Pinchot Meyer's diary, or the theft of Dorothy Killgallen's (and Florence Pritchard Smith's) notes about Jack Ruby, after these women were murdered.

Rush to Conspiracy? Huh? It has taken years for independent researchers to identify and publish all of the evidence debunking the Warren Commission cover up of the JFK assassination plot-- including the systematic murders of important witnesses. And the Mockingbird contractors in the mainstream and social media have been working to discredit them for decades. Meanwhile, I wonder if Bill Brown and Mark Ulrik have even studied the forensic data in Hit List. Do they know what Lee Bowers said, privately, about what he had witnessed in the parking lot on 11/22/63?

Columbia University protests: What's really happening isn't what you've been told. (slate.com)

A replay of Trump floating Presidential pardons to Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Roger Stone, and Michael Flynn during the Russia-gate investigation. Trump floated a pardon to Walt Nauta to stonewall his classified documents investigation. Trump co-defendant in classified documents case was told he’d be pardoned in a second term, notes in FBI interview say | CNN Politics

As AIPAC-funded ethnic-cleansing hawks, Tom Cotton and Josh Hawley, call for National Guard deployment against anti-war protesters on college campuses, law professors at Columbia University denounce the arrests and suspensions of students protesting against Netanyahu's Gaza massacre ops. The U.S. mainstream media continues to frame the campus protests as "Anti-Semitic," despite the fact that many protesters are Jewish, (and all Palestinians are Semites.) And, incidentally, the IDF killed another 22 Palestinians in Rafah this weekend-- 18 of whom were children. Columbia Law School Faculty Condemn Administration for Mass Arrests (theintercept.com)

If I wrote the headlines... 🤥 What Was the Role of Pecker in Trump's Stormy Daniels Scandal? David Pecker, Former National Enquirer Publisher, Set To Testify First In Trump’s Hush Money Trial | HuffPost Latest News April 21, 2024

Yes, sadly, NPR, like all mainstream media outlets in the U.S.-- including even Robet McNeil, Jim Lehrer and PBS (!) -- has colluded in selling the Warren Commission Report during the past 60 years. Operation Mockingbird has been highly successful. The shocking, rare exception to the rule was Tucker Carlson's post-Trump presidency commentary -- on Fox News of all media outlets (!) -- about the CIA's alleged role in killing JFK! It stunned all of us-- especially coming from a television commentator who had actively promoted Trump's Stop-the-Steal scam in 2020, and had subsequently tried to cover up Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election by re-framing Trump's January 6th attack on Congress as a Deep State "patriot purge." That was one aspect of Carlson's more general re-framing of any investigations of Trump's serious misconduct as victimization by the Deep State. As for NPR, another rare failure of NPR's generally outstanding reporting was their suppression of any references to Operation Timber Sycamore and our covert Sunni proxy war against Assad's Alawite government in Syria. I used to cringe while listening to NPR's reporting on Syria's civil war while driving to and from work. If I understand it correctly, Mockingbird has always been focused chiefly on covering up public awareness of CIA and military black ops. As in the JFK assassination case, NPR towed the Mockingbird line on the Syrian proxy war. But why is Ben Cole posting this five month-old hit piece on NPR today? Could it be part of the current MAGA-verse ampliganda attacking NPR, in the wake of Uri Berliner's debunked recent hit piece on NPR? Even Donald Trump has now called for de-funding NPR, in the wake of Berliner's bogus attack on NPR. For those who haven't read it, (including Ben Cole) Steve Inskeep recently published an outstanding refutation of Berliner's hit piece on NPR. It can't be said any better. How my NPR colleague failed at “viewpoint diversity” (substack.com)

Ron, In memory of Dickey Betts. I think I'm repeating myself, but my favorite Dickey Betts song has always been, In Memory of Elizabeth Reed. I first heard this masterful instrumental opus on the Live at the Fillmore East album in 1971, and I've been an Allman Brothers fan ever since. The boys could play.

Bill, Thanks for confirming the points I made (above) from the very beginning of this thread-- about Koethe, Hunter, Underhill, Sullivan, Killgallen, Florence Pritchard Smith, Giancana, De Mohrenschildt, et.al.-- without even realizing that you were doing so. But you incorrectly attributed many of my observations about Hit List to Pat Speer, while simultaneously repeating Speer's vague, inaccurate disparagement of Hit List, at the top of the thread. Odd. My point in starting this thread was to draw attention to an historical/forensic reference book that has never really been reviewed or discussed in any detail on the Education Forum, perhaps because Belzer was dismissed as a non-historian-- a mere television actor. You also confirmed my observations (from Belzer) about the temporal clustering of murders of JFK witnesses who were about to testify in investigations, inaccurately attributing them, again, to Pat Speer. At the same time, you must have missed my comments on the thread in which I disagreed with Pat Speer's comments dismissing the significance of Hit List, including his misleading comments about the book's actuarial data. In point of fact, Speer also dismissed the significance of the murders of Koethe, Hunter, and Lee Bowers. As for your sagacious editorial advice, do let us little people know which of Belzer's 50 witness murder cases you would have "edited" from Hit List. Addendum: Here's my March 6th response to Pat Speer and James DiEugenio. Jim, Belzer's hit list of murdered JFKA witnesses is substantial, and the forensic evidence and actuarial probabilities are extremely suspicious-- the diametric opposite of what Pat Speer claimed (above.) All of the identified cases in the book were people who had knowledge about people and events relating to JFK's murder, and many died when they were threatening or scheduled to spill the beans-- e.g., Gary Underhill, the journalist from L.A. (Hunter?) who had been in Ruby's apartment, Mary Pinchot Meyer, Dorothy Killgallen, David Ferrie, William Sullivan, (and a few FBI lab technicians) the officer who filmed the Bethesda autopsy, Giancana, De Mohrenschildt, and dozens more. (I'm naming a few off of the top of my head.) In Lee Bowers case, he was driven off the road by a mystery vehicle into a concrete wall, and he told the EMTs prior to his death that he thought his coffee had been drugged at a local diner, before returning to his car. Bowers had also, reportedly, told family members that he had not reported everything that he witnessed on 11/22/63-- in the parking lot behind the picket fence-- because he was afraid. Curiously, this is the precise opposite of what Pat Speer just claimed (above.) Pat's 0-2 here. My impression from studying the Hit List data is that someone was carefully monitoring these witnesses over time -- tapping phones, etc.-- and ordering hits when they had evidence of impending testimony refuting the Warren Commission narrative. Incidentally, William Sullivan told friends that he thought he was going to be murdered, prior to his Congressional testimony. My hypothesis is that these systematic murders of witnesses were implementations of the 1964 CIA Executive Order instructing Agency personnel to do "whatever is necessary" to promote public acceptance of the Warren Commission Report.