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RICHARD CASE NAGELL'S 'ICO' PUZZLES


Tom Hume

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David said: I'd bet the house that Bev's not Babushka Lady. I'd bet the house that Nagell was involved with Oswald and embroiled in pre-assassination maneuvering, to an extent, however, that we cannot yet (or ever?) completely define. Of course Nagell's claims demand investigation: he had things to protect, such as his own life, his children, and his pension

 

David, other than Dick Russell, you’re the expert on Richard Case Nagell, but from my point of view, Nagell was also protecting what was left of his ICO crew.

 

 

 

Again, the package label appears to read:

 

FOR LEE OSWALD

601 WEST NASSAUS ST

DALLAS TEXAS

 

And below the label, we have:

 

“IRVING TEXAS”

 

With “Dallas” being crossed out, this is 33 characters on the label, and 11 characters below the label for a total of 44. I submit that “Irving Texas” is in play as part of the overall puzzle. We will be examining the label in some detail as time goes on, but I’d like talk about the “Irving Texas” line first.

 

 

 

Check out the second letter in “Irving”. It’s supposed to be an “R”, and if you recall from a few posts back, I said the tip-off to the solution of a puzzle was often an anomaly of some sort.

 

You look at the “R” location one way and it looks like a capital “A”. Looking at it another way, it looks like an inverted capital “T”. A “T”, an “A”, and an “R” spells “ART”. And this conglomeration is right between the “I” in Irving, and the “V” in Irving.

 

Tentatively, then, we might suspect that we are seeing “IV ART”.

 

Now I’m going to anagram “IRVING TEXAS” and one of those anagrams is going to tell us to temporarily get rid of the “G” in Irving:

 

“IV ART NIXES ‘G’”

 

"IV" of course is Igor Vaganov, and now that the “G” is out of the way we can make ICO’s intended anagram of "IRVIN...TEXAS"

 

“V’S NIXIE ART”

 

To simplify understanding, I want to stay away from ICO’s binary code as much as possible, but just this once. “V’S NIXIE ART” decodes and anagrams to (footnote):

 

“ART IN V’S ‘44’”

 

Hmm, “44” seems to indicate that there are “44” letters in play in this puzzle. How did this strange package end up in the Nixie section of the Irving Post Office, of all places? The answer, I think, is that “Irving Texas” was an anagram opportunity - ICO created one of their enigmatic events by taking advantage of what was inherently available in those two words - they were making reality conform to either existing anagram coincidences, or anagram creations of their own.

 

Andrej - “Irving Texas” above, was an anagram puzzle of opportunity for either Nagell or Vaganov, and I think you may have found another in “6.5 ITALIAN CARBINE” as well. I had not considered that - good eye again. However, I'm not too crazy about your anagrams so far. Try using the word “FABRICATING” in there. I don’t want to say much more right now because it will let a cat out of the bag that I’m not ready to release.

 

(For those of you that don’t think Oswald ordered the rifle, I think you have many good reasons for believing that, and I applaud your research. I don't think you're wrong, but you might have missed a step. My reading of the puzzles is that Oswald did order the rifle, but C-2766 was not the rifle he received, it was a “RINGER ROD” with a serial number fabricated by Richard for puzzle purposes. The rifle Oswald ordered was taken by one of the ICO crew to Terra Haute, Indiana. Alias “HARRY L POWER” left the Klein’s Carcano in a motel room, causing the FBI etc. considerable grief and paper-work fabrication).

 

If you’re enjoying this sort of thing, Andrej, try anagramming “RICHARD CASE NAGELL”. Many of the enigmatic events surrounding the assassination appear to have been plucked right out of his name. Here's an anagram or "RICHARD CASE NAGELL" I just stumbled on today:

 

"GALLERIED NASH CAR. C"

 

Kind of sounds like the UT Rambler - try your hand at "RED/BLUE PENS" while you're at it. Has anyone heard from Richard Bartholomew lately?

 

And "GALLERIED NASH CAR. C" might be a double entendre - the shooting gallery of 11/22/1963. Maybe we'll find out someday.

 

Tom

 

 

Decode “V’S NIXIE ART”

VSNIXI = 101010, and, 010101, plus tags EART

Yield: EEART

TRAEIX = 110001, and, 001110, plus tags INSV

Yield: INSV. Total yield: EEARTINSV

 

(A=0)(B=1)(C=2)(D=3)(E=4)(F=5)(G=6)(H=7)(I=8)(J=9)(K=10)(L=11)(M=12)(N=13)(O=14)(P=15)(Q=16)(R=17)(S=18)(T=19)(U=20)(V=21)(W=22)(X=23)(Y=24)(Z=25)

Edited by Tom Hume
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The topic is Marina Oswald’s birth certificate, and I apologize for not being able to post a photo of it - some sort of kB problem that’s got me currently baffled. I’ll post it here when I can. For now, if you want to actually see Marina’s supposed birth certificate, CE129, it’s in post #338 at the link below:

HI Tom,

Just wanted you to know I've read your posts whenever I came across them with somewhat baffled fascination. I never commented because I simply had no idea what to say, and I'll bet many others are in the same clueless boat with me. I kind of wish you'd put the post back into the original thread, just in case anyone might come across it some day who might be able to add something substantial. No doubt you have an extraordinary talent with ciphers or cryptography or whatever you call it. If you'd be kind enough to explain to me what the ICO puzzles are and how they relate to Mr. Nagell and if any of this goes beyond him (which it certainly seems to), I'll reciprocate in advance with the following....

Apparently this forum gives us a limited amount of graphic storage on its own servers, but then expects us to find another solution to keep the owners' bandwidth and storage costs halfway affordable. Sandy Larsen explained the simple work-around to me, and so here 'tis: Find any graphic anywhere on the net that you want to reproduce here. Right click on the graphic and select "Copy image address." (I use Linux, but Mac and Windows should be similar.) Then when you reach the point where you want to incorporate the graphic into your post on EF, click the "Image" box on the second line of the Reply menu (at the top of the window) and paste and enter the url you copied into the field that opens up. You'll immediately see the graphic in your composition window, and as soon as you post it so will everyone else. Amazingly simple once you know about it. Thanks again for your work, and please don't give up just because few of us can keep up with you.

Hi Jim,

Thanks for mentioning this. I think it's a good tip for those who want to include images. There is one other way you can host your own images and that's on Google Drive. You have to do a very minor tweak to the code and it does work. Unfortunately, the forum system is rejecting that type of URL (but oddly enough it does work on my Profile page as seen on my profile page). I've reached out to the forum folks and hopefully they will fix it so these Drive linked images work.

But in the meantime, you can upload a photo to a shared Drive folder, then put the link of that image directly into the post or reply. It's not the most elegant solution (forces you to click to open the photo) but it does work.

One other thing - I produced a while back a video tutorial for my soon-to-be ex-client about how to downsize photos using Microsoft Paint. Since not everyone has Photoshop, I made it with Paint since if you have a Windows machine, you should have Paint too. Do you think if this video were posted here it would be a help to the community?

Thanks, Michael Walton

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We are slowly working our way through an overview of the label on the Undeliverable Package, and my goal is to show that the label is a series of intentionally created anagram puzzles. I regard the label as the Rosetta Stone of ICO’s vast puzzle system, and by extension, a major key to understanding not only who Lee Oswald, Richard Nagell, and Igor Vaganov were, but a major key to understanding the Kennedy assassination.

 

 

 

In my first post on this series, #16 above, we saw that the label contained 33 letters, but that there were 11 letters in “Irving Texas” written below the label. I submitted that all 44 letters were in play, and to begin that argument, we looked at an anomaly in the letter “R” in “IRVING”.

 

There appears to be a capital “A” over the “R”, and looked at another way, there appears to be a capital “T” tilted on its side. The combination spells “ART”, and this is a little vexing. Here’s one anagram of “IRVING TEXAS”:

 

“‘ART’ IS VEXING”

 

On either side of that anomalous “ART” conglomeration referred to above, are the letters “I V”, which appears to be another hint: “IV ART”, and keeping that in mind, we can make another anagram of “IRVING TEXAS”:

 

“IV ART NIXES ‘G’”

 

A double entendre, as “G’ can stand for “Guy”, but once the “G” is properly “NIXED”, we can make this anagram of “IRVIN...TEXAS”:

 

“V’S NIXIE ART”

 

And that’s where Vaganov’s art showed up, in the “NIXIE” section of the Irving Post Office. But you may have noticed another anomaly in the word “IRVING”, the “G” actually looks more like a “Y”. Let’s put the “G” back in “IRVING TEXAS” and make this anagram:

 

“REVISIT AN XG”

 

And now this anagram of “IRVING TEXAS” (Number/Letter translation device at bottom of post):

 

“VISIT A '4X6'. RN”

 

The “4”, of course. came from translating an “E”, and the “6” from translating a “G”. “4 x 6 = 24, and “24” translates to the letter “Y”.

 

With the new “Y” replacing the “G”, “Irving Texas” now looks like this, “IRVINY TEXAS”, and we can anagram:

 

“I IN YVES 17. 0 x 19”

 

Let’s do the arithmetic first, “0 x 19” = “0”, and “0” translates to “A”, and our anagram answer is:

 

“I IN A ‘YVES’ 17”

 

And now we have to dig around in ICO’s vast storehouse of puzzles and find a 17-letter “YVES” puzzle. Here it is:

 

“STEVEN 'YVES' L’EANDES”

 

At this point, I’m tempted to tell you everything I think I know about the gigantic “Steven Yves L’Eandes” puzzle. I’ll restrain myself and post about it soon. By the way, “YVES” is a French name and it’s pronounced “IV”.

 

Getting back on track, one of the arguments I’m making is that the label puzzle contains 44 letters; 33 on the body of the label, and 11 below in “Irving Texas”.

 

There are usually clues in the ICO puzzles as to how long the puzzle is, and “44” letters is a common size for large puzzles like the package label. Clues are often found in the first few letters, and/or the last few letters.

 

FOR LEE OSWALD

601 WEST NASSAUS ST

DALLAS TEXAS

IRVING TEXAS.

 

The first three letters on the label is the word “FOR”, and translating those to numbers, we have, “5, 14, 17”.

 

The 5th character on the label is “E”, the 14th character is “0 (zero)”, and the 17th character is “E”. The two “Es” translate to “44”, and the “0” translates to an “A”. Our anagram is “A 44”.

 

As another example of this “44” tie-in, let’s look at the so called “Vaganov Note”:

 

EL6-6111

E. STRAZDS

353-1539

ARVIDS

JZAKS

 

It has “33” characters, just like the label of the Undeliverable Package.

 

The first two letters on the “Vaganov Note” are “EL” and these translate to “4 11” (as in 411 Elm), and since “4” times “11” is “44”, we may have a hint as to how long the puzzle should be.

 

Now let’s add up all the numbers on the Vaganov Note: “6-6111 353-1539”. They also total “44”.

 

Again, like the package label, there are “11” characters we need to find in order arrive at a total of “44”. Our clue to this is in the last three letters of the note: “AKS”.

 

Associated with the Vaganov Note is a portion of a playing card, a King of Spades, and the letters “AKS” are telling us to use an 11-letter version of this: “AKS” = “A KING SPADES”. The note is now “44” letters:

 

EL6-6111

E. STRAZDS

353-1539

ARVIDS

JZAKS

A KING SPADES

 

Also, the note is now “6” lines instead of “5”, and notice that the first three characters on the note are “EL6”, or translated, “4/11 6” - possibly a tip of the hat to where the “real” assassin will take place: 411 Elm, 6th floor.

 

By the way, until we added “A KING SPADES”, there was only one actual word on the Vaganov Note - the last line, “JZAKS”, and it’s reversed. It can read “SKAZ J”. “SKAZ” is a form of Russian story telling where the teller’s monologue is in a vernacular or lingo not necessarily understood by the general population. It is essential that the listener understand the lingo to appreciate it, and "SKAZ" serves as a good metaphor for many of the ICO puzzles. The ICO puzzles teach us a shorthand language, one piece at a time, and there is a fairly complete list of ICO abbreviations at the end of my first post on the Oswald Code thread:

 

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=20276&hl=%22the+oswald+code%22

 

Below are two links to Lee Oswald’s letter to the FPCC - one link to a transcription of the letter, and one to the original letter itself. It can be seen that there are “44” words in the body of the text, and “44” letters in the heading and signature portions (one needs to notice that “Sincerely” is misspelled as “Sincerly” in order to achieve the correct “44” total. This is a number puzzle, by the way, using the five numbers found in the body of the text)

 

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=84204&relPageId=21&search=placare

 

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1137&search=VT_Lee#relPageId=531&tab=page

 

As pointed out earlier, “Historic Diary” anagrams to “RICHARD’S ’88’ TOY”, and there are “88” puzzles in Oswald’s diary. We will encounter many puzzle answers that tell us that Richard Nagell penned “44” of them, and Igor Baganov the other “44”. Here’s one handy example (list of Historic Diary puzzles and links to the original docs in post #14 of The Oswald Code linked above):

 

Puzzle number “1” in the diary is “BERLIN”, which anagrams to “LINE ‘1’. R”.

 

Then in puzzle “44”, Richard is finished and passes the mantle to Igor. Puzzle “44” is “TIME”, but this clever puzzle is little too long to get into right now, but in puzzle “45”, “BORATIN”, we get another indication that Baganov is taking over, “BORATIN” anagrams to “RN to a IB”, and another anagram: “a ‘B’ Intro”.

 

The numbers “4”, “11”, and “44”, are all factors of “88”, and it’s one of two sets of numbers used by ICO as unifying principles in their puzzle system. The other set is “7”, “11”, and “17”, or translated to letters, “H/L. R”

 

Next time will look at the exciting and information-packed address line of the label on the Undeliverable Package: “601 WEST NASSAUS ST”.

 

Tom

 

(A=0)(B=1)(C=2)(D=3)(E=4)(F=5)(G=6)(H=7)(I=8)(J=9)(K=10)(L=11)(M=12)(N=13)(O=14)(P=15)(Q=16)(R=17)(S=18)(T=19)(U=20)(V=21)(W=22)(X=23)(Y=24)(Z=25)

Edited by Tom Hume
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  • 6 months later...

 

After spending several days putting together the material for the following post, I posted it on "How Did They Get Roscoe White To Lean Like That And Not Fall Over?" thread, and it was buried in 12 minutes flat. Feeling somewhat cheated, I'm re-posting it here:

I’m adding more anagrams to my work-in-progress post #76. A few patterns are emerging in my admittedly highly subjective work: A “Roman” theme (that exists in other areas of the ICO puzzles), the notion that two body doubles were used in the ICO-created Backyard Photos - Roscoe White, and Buell Wesley Frazier (a bad guy, and a good guy, in that order), and the apparent possibility that lead (the metal) was added to the body-double’s left shoe somehow.

 

Since there are several new additions to my work-in-progress post #76, I’ll merely show what the list looks like now.

 

LEE HARVEY OSWALD” anagrams to:

 

(1) “L HEAD OVERLAY WES”

 

(2) “WESLEY HAVE A L ROD”

 

(3) “HO, WES, A LEVEL YARD”

 

(4) “O, A VERY ‘SWELL’ HEAD”

 

(5) “A HELLOVA SEEDY R.W.” (RW = Roscoe White)

 

(6) “RW: EH DEALEY SALVO” (EH = Edgar Hoover)

 

(7) “LHO SWAY REVEALED”

 

(8) “RW SOLE, HEAVY LEAD”

 

214 WEST NEELY STREET” anagrams to:

 

(1) “LEE TEETERS N-WEST. BY C”

 

(2) “WESLEY BEST TEETER. CN”

 

(3) “1944 WESLEY CENTER. 18-BT”

 

(4) “SECRET TEEN: B WESLEY - 19”

 

(5) “L EYE TEST: CENTER B WES”

 

RICHARD CASE NAGELL” anagrams to:

 

(1) "C RIG L LEAN CHARADE"

 

(2) “CIA L’S LARGE HEAD. RCN”

 

(3) “LAD, LARGE CHIN. R. CASE”

 

(4) “R CASE AD: L, LARGE CHIN”

 

(5) "R, A LARGE-SCALED CHIN"

 

(6) “RE: H’S RADICAL ANGLE. C”

 

[“ROMAN” anagrams to “A RN MO”]

 

"ROSCOE WHITE" anagrams to:

 

(1) "SWITCHEROO '4'" (there are 4 versions of the BYP)

 

(2) “i.e. WES COHORT”

 

(3) “WES, OTHER ICO”

 

(4) “WE RE-SHOT. ICO”

 

(5) “HOW ESOTERIC”

 

(6) “IS TOWER ECHO”

 

MANNLICHER-CARCANO” anagrams to:

 

(1) “CN RAN A ROMAN CLICHE”

 

THE MILITANT, THE WORKER” anagrams to:

 

(1) “WHITE, THE K/L TERMINATOR”

 

(2) “ROMAN LETTER: WHITE HIT K”

 

(3) “K ROMAN, WHITE THE TILTER”

 

(4) “HINT: METALWORK HERE”

 

(5) “WHITE, THE ROMAN TILTER. 10”

[Historic Diary puzzle #10 is “how easy to die”, anagram: “WHITE AD: SOOEY”]

 

THE LEANING TOWER OF PISA” anagrams to:

 

(1) “OF NOTE, R WHITE PISA ANGLE”

 

(2) “NOTE R WHITE ANGLE OF PISA”

 

IMPERIAL REFLEX” anagrams to:

 

(1) “411 FIREARM, 411 PIX”

 

(2) “PIX LIE, RE-FRAME L”

 

(3) “A L ELM FERRIE PIX”

 

(4) “411 ELM PIX ARE RF. I”

 

(5) “RE: LEE MAIL RF PIX”

 

(6) “A MR LEE RIFLE PIX”

 

IGOR VLADIMIRS VAGANOV” anagrams to:

 

(1) “IVV, A ROMAN ADVISOR GIG”

 

Note that I’m not doing any real decoding on this thread, I’m just looking for pertinent and possibly intended anagrams.

 

Andrej, I’m looking into a possible metaphoric connection between the Backyard photos and things Roman, or Italian. The tilt of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, for example, has varied between 3 and 5 degrees since the completion of the bell tower circa 1400. Today, after some heavy duty engineering, it sits at about 4 degrees off plumb.

 

Can you make a guess at Oswald’s tilt, and a guess at your tilt too? I’m asking because there are some puzzle indications as to what Oswald's tilt angle was designed to be.

 

Tom

 

Number/Letter translation device:

(A=0)(B=1)(C=2)(D=3)(E=4)(F=5)(G=6)(H=7)(I=8)(J=9)(K=10)(L=11)(M=12)(N=13)(O=14)(P=15)(Q=16)(R=17)(S=18)(T=19)(U=20)(V=21)(W=22)(X=23)(Y=24)(Z=25)

Edited by Tom Hume
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Tom:

Your new ICOs are brilliant as always. I would wait with the angle of Oswald's body inclination because I would not be able to say responsibly at this moment. The 3D reconstruction of his stance is more or less finished, however, I see still some minor problems with the arms. We come back to it then if you would agree.

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Hi Jim,

I put the post back on your thread, and thanks for asking. When I saw Marina’s birth certificate that David posted at #338, and read his comment that she was already in the US by July 19, 1961, it got my attention. The tip-off to many ICO puzzles is that they contain an obvious anomaly of some sort, and this anomaly usually lights the way to the puzzle’s solution - the irritant in the oyster that kick-starts the pearl.

LHO and Marina arrived in the U.S. on June 13, 1962. July 19, 1961, which is the date on which Marina's duplicate birth certificate was issued, was just about the time they began the process of applying to leave the USSR. They began filling out papers in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow on July 11, 1961 and submitted exit visa requests to the USSR in August. Like my wife, Marina got a duplicate birth certificate to meet the visa requirements. There is no mystery. There is no anomaly, obvious or otherwise. Your "pearl" is, alas, a faux one. However, never let the facts get in the way of a good conspiracy theory.

Your efforts remind me of the efforts in the early 1900s to prove Francis Bacon wrote Shakespeare through the use of hysterically complicated ciphers. Your posts are at least as humorous as the following passage from "The Reverent Wooing of Archibald" by P. G. Wodehouse, which is no small thing. See if the following doesn't sound familiar:

Archibald is trying to impress a beautiful girl by showing he is intelligent and high-minded, and he also tries to ingratiate himself with her aunt. The aunt is a devout believer that Shakespeare did not write his plays and that the real author, Francis Bacon, can be proven through a code system - a system that not only applies to the plays, but to things that other people wrote about Shakespeare.

Scooping him up and bearing him off into the recesses of the west wing, she wedged him into a corner of a settee and began to tell him all about the remarkable discovery which had been made by applying the Plain Cipher to Milton’s well-known Epitaph on Shakespeare.

“The one beginning What needs my Shakespeare for his honoured bones,” said the aunt.

“Oh, that one?” said Archibald.

“‘What needs my Shakespeare for his honoured bones? The labour of an age in pilèd stones? Or that his hallowed reliques should be hid under a starry-pointing pyramid?'”

Archibald, who was not good at riddles, said he didn’t know.

“As in the plays and sonnets,” said the aunt, “we substitute the name equivalents of the figure totals.”

“We do what?”

“Substitute the name equivalents of the figure totals.”

“The which?”

“The figure totals.”

“All right,” said Archibald. “Let it go. I daresay you know best.”

The aunt inflated her lungs.

“These figure totals,” she said, “are always taken out in the Plain Cipher, A equaling one to Z equals twenty-four. The names are counted in the same way. A capital letter with the figures indicates an occasional variation in the Name Count. For instance, A equals twenty-seven, B twenty-eight, until K equals ten is reached, when K, instead of ten, becomes one, and T instead of nineteen, is one, and R or Reverse, and so on, until A equals twenty-four is reached. The short or single Digit is not used here. Reading the Epitaph in the light of the Cipher, it becomes: What need Verulam for Shakespeare? Francis Bacon England’s King be hid under a W. Shakespeare? William Shakespeare. Fame, what needst Francis Tudor, King of England? Francis. Francis W. Shakespeare. For Francis thy William Shakespeare hath England’s King took W. Shakespeare. Then thou our W. Shakespeare Francis Tudor bereaving Francis Bacon Francis Tudor such a tomb William Shakespeare.

The speech to which he had been listening was unusually lucid and simple for a Baconian, yet Archibald, his eye catching a battle-axe that hung on the wall, could not but stifle a wistful sigh.

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  • 8 months later...

I’m posting a transcription of Richard Case Nagell’s October 8, 1967 letter to his friend Arthur Greenstein. It’s not only an interesting read, it’s also, I submit, a typical Richard Case Nagell anagram puzzle. I will be posting my solutions to the puzzle in the days and weeks to come. The transcription appears to be faithful and the only change I’ve made is to apply bracketed numbers to the 32 sections of the letter to make referencing easier. My source for the letter is the link below, which also starts off with an interesting article by Dick Russell, “Oswald and the CIA”.

 

[1] October 8, 1967

[2] Dear Arturo:

[3] I've received both of your letters, dated 9/26 and 10/4, respectively. Still haven't seen hide nor hair of the Equipment Times, though. Does it really advertise the likes of machines that nibble steel at the rate of three feet per minute? Now I know why E. T. wasn't delivered. Should have thought of the reason sooner, last week, when a recent issue of a popular magazine was withdrawn from circulation because it featured a bar-stretching device. Looks like the meticulous inspection-for-microdots-and-sophisticated-cable-arrangement theory will have to be shelved in favor of a more logical premise. Can you imagine the possibilities that E.T.'s next issue might provide to some innate-genius with a penchant for slapping together a facsimile of the Steel Eater, merely by studying the specifications set forth in E.T.? Wow! I can see it now. Built on the Q.T. in the prison library, cranked up and let loose after its christening, like some weird science-fiction monster, easily smashing past 20,000 volumes of Zane Grey, bursting out through the side of the library building, rumbling slowly across the west yard toward the nearest gun tower, bullets bouncing off its impenetrable armor, tear-gas bombs exploding all around it, sirens wailing, bedlam - National Guard called out, still rumbling onward, onward, not to be stopped, finally reaching THE WALL, angry now - completely out of control - spitting gooey blobs of black molten tar at the N.G. Commander running along the top of the wall, now rearing a gigantic head, flashing a single mamouth [sic], keenly-polished incisor, hesitating, momentarily, then suddenly lunging forward, chomping at the wall, bricks and chunks of concrete flying every which way . . . once . . . twice . . and . . through! Daylight on the other side! A gaping hole, 20' x 20', appears out of nowhere . . . . two thousand cons stampeding through, on their way to Sacramento.

[4] After perusing your comments about the First Day's reporting of the Great Bank Robbery - random shots, 27 centavos, gambling activities, etc. - I am more convinced than ever that you should see the transcripts of the first and second trial record. As for myself, I've never read either transcript, though I would bet that I could give a fair account of both without much error. I wrote sis again, this time asking her to send everything.

[5] Here's a more up-to-date lead on Abe Greenbaum: "Informant F-HC reports subject handed suspected courier forty pieces of silver on 10/21/62 at Laredo, Mexico, for delivery to nuclear physicist residing in house on 92nd Street, New York City. S/A B. O. Schernnn, Washington, D.C. Field Office, reports subject seen 11/28/62 walking east on Beacon Street, constantly checking for tail, suddenly dashing into parked limousine sporting U.S.S.R. Embassy license plates, which speeds away, runs red light, terminating surveillance as Agent Schernnn forced to brake bicycle to avoid breaking the law. Informant F-111-B reports subject and suspected courier observed at King's Tavern, Wilmington, Del. on 12/6/62, paying for drinks with strange-looking silver dollars taken from bulging briefcase carried by subject. Subject now suspected of being Mr. Big in Communist plot to disrupt U.S. economy by flooding country with hard cash. /s/ I.M. NEVERWRONG, SAIC, D.C. LAIR."

[6] Or, we could furnish Mr. Xerox an even more up-to-date lead, of somewhat different vintage:

[7] Abe Greenbaum, long suspected leftist is actually confirmed rightist, in deep cover, working plausible denial bit with one of nation's leading and best-financed foreign policy-making firms. He is driving along highway not far from Langley, Va., peering intently out of jagged hole in windshield of his Volkswagen, searching for sign bearing acronym "BPR". Date is November 21, 1963. BPR-Bureau of Public Roads-is innocuous designation used by Abe's firm. "Gee, the Chief must be upset about something," Abe mutters to self, "he used a rock this time instead of the ol' soap-the-windshield trick." Purposefully cruising past BPR sign, Abe makes U-turn in center of highway, barely missed by Fruehauf semi-trailer, then turns right onto road leading to firm's Main Office Building. "Must not be seen making left turn this close to headquarters," Abe mutters. Arriving at destination, Abe circles Main Office Building five times, finally enters parking lot abutting wooded area to right rear of building, drives to extreme right end of lot, parks Volkswagen on right side of firm's undercover utility truck, disguised with Bell Telephone Company markings. Sliding across right-hand seat, he exits from right door of auto, walking long distance to right rear entrance of Main Office Building which is draped with high Quonset-hut type roof. "Hello there," Abe mutters as he slips by uniformed guard he recognizes as Soviet defector, former KGB light colonel. Abe proceeds down mile-long, musty-smelling corridor, pauses under tiny, inconspicuous replica of firm's seal which is painted upside-down on right wall, notices that Bald Eagle's beak on seal is pointing to far left. "Must tell Chief Bald Eagle looking wrong way," mutters Abe. He then takes elevator to fourth floor, goes directly to Chief's office, raps out coded knock on unmarked door, enters. Chief is reclining in swivel-chair with feet on desk, arms folded, sleeping. On desk Abe sees torn-up typewritten letter addressed to CHIEF, DIVISION OF DIRTY TRICKS, signed by B. KNOWNOTHING. Chief is balding, slender man, oft referred to by underlings as "Dirty Dick", albeit behind back. "What's up, Chief?" asks Abe. Chief blinks eyes, opens them, snaps, "I see you got my message!" Chief smiles. "What's with this guy Osborne recruited for Fair Play Caper? XYZ man claims he's being used for wet affair by team we sold out at Cochina Bay." Abe shifts weight to left foot, uncomfortably. "Don't know, Chief," he mutters, "Ozzie seems like good man for penetration of target." Chief stands and yawns, grins slyly. . "Well, just the same you'd better contact Tidbit and have him execute alternate . . . plan." Abe stares at Chief with knowing-look. "Right, Chief, I'll get on it . . . first thing Monday morning." Abe picks up cloak and dagger conveniently lying on desk, turns to leave, stops dead in tracks. "Incidentally, Chief, Bald Eagle on firm's seal is pointing left." Chief grins, sits down in swivel chair, leans back, puts feet on desk, clasps hands behind head, closes eyes. "Really?" He says. Soon Chief is snoring. Abe departs, returns to Volkswagen, worried about jagged hole in windshield. Mutters to self, "Gee, I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow."

[8] Of course, this lead is utter fiction too, a figment of the imagination . . . still, it may make interesting reading for somebody.

[9] Are you aware that a Duesseldorf record company has come out with just the thing for any German who wants to relive the heady days of Nazi victory? It is two long-playing phonograph records called, "From the Fuehrer's Headquarters (Aus dem Fuehrerhauptquartier)." Billed as documentary records, they are comprised of victory announcements and special bulletins from the Nazi high command, military music and soldier's songs, Nazi songs and speeches. A booming voice discloses the Nazis are fighting for the German nation and the security of Europe "against the . . . plot of the Jewish-Anglo Saxon warmongers . . . and against the . . . Jewish rulers of the Bolshevik central in Moscow."

[10] (Now where did he get that? What does all this gobbledygook mean, anyway? Could this be an important lead? . . . I mean there is this thing about doing business with the Military-Industrial Complex, you know.)

[11] Seriously, Arturo, I had better give with a plausible lead on this Abe Greenbaum fella, in spite of this business about plausible denial, or "they" are liable to drop his name from my approved correspondents list. That would be catastrophic, considering that he is the only other person besides sis who is so approved. And the lead had best not sound too cryptic either, or "they" might ship #83286 [Nagell's prisoner number] back to the Funny Farm . . . you know, for more "treatment."

[12] So let's try again:

[13] Young Regent of Yanquis Land is visiting "Little D" to plug for assistant who is fast losing popularity amongst ultra-conservative proletariat of Friendship Province. Date is well-remembered date in fall of '63. Young Regent is hated by proponents of Secret War (and by director of large pharmaceutical combine specializing in manufacture of cyanide capsules) because word is out he intends to decree   of clandestine operations of various Yanquis Land spook outfits, citing as reasons that regime's continued reliance on covert methods of achieving political goals widens faith-in-government gap, is corrosive to principles of democracy, etc., especially when spooks get caught in the act. Young Regent feels one spook outfit in particular is exceeding bounds of propriety, has expanded narrow function delegated it by International Security Act of '47 . . . is becoming TOO POWERFUL . . is unduly influencing both foreign and DOMESTIC policy by its shenanigans . . . thus, must have nefarious activities at home and abroad throttled, or at least have them restricted to endeavors which cannot be accomplished by other, more acceptable means. BANG! BANG! BANG! Young Regent no longer Regent of Yanquis land. Clandestine operations of spook outfits not curtailed. Cyanide capsule market flourishing. Too Powerful One getting MORE POWERFUL . . .

[14] What has all this got to do with Abe Greenbaum? ANSWER: Nothing. Is it a plausible lead? ANSWER: Not very.

[15] Wait!

[16] Before visit to Little D, Young Regent also thinking of effecting rapprochement with Isle of Cuber, establishing nicer rapport with Isle of Cuber's Big Mother Busher. Strange! . . . Young Regent of Isle of Cuber also thinking of effecting rapprochement with Yanquis Land, establishing nicer rapport with Yanquis Land's Big Doctrine, Monroe.

[17] How nice!

[18] Feelers put out by both Young Regents through "private" channels in July '63, then quasi-official channels in August '63, through "official" channels in September '63.

[19] Meanwhile, anti-Castor Oilers known as Bravo Club gets wind of feelers . . . doesn't like smell . . . nohow! There is huddle. There is chant: "Remember Cochina Bay! - Remember Cochina Bay! Soon there is talk (louder than '62 talk) of giving Young Regent of Yanquis Land Xmas present . . . yo! . . . gonna brow that out to keep situation status quo (at worst) . . . to change status quo for worse (at best).

[20] Patsy is needed! She is pro-Castor Oiler well-known to Bravo Club. Two Bravo members speak to Patsy, convince her they are boyfriends, buy her Cuber Liber Cocktail (minus rum), get her drunk on glory, tell her they are special emissaries to Yanquis Land personally by Young Regent of Isle of Cuber to give Xmas present to Young Regent of Yanquis Land . . . have "chosen" Patsy to help deliver Xmas present. Will be furnished Safe Conduct Pass to Isle of Cuber by Embassy in Mexico City. Will be given proper treatment on arrival. Oh, joy! Will live happily ever after. Can Patsy join Xmas Present Committee now?

[21] Uh-uh! Not yet. First must prove self deserving of great honor. Must set up Chapter of Foul Ploy for Isle of Cuber, must stand on street corner . . . pass out pro-Castor Oil tracts, must appear on TV . . . root for Castor Oil products, must rumble with anti-Castor Oil salesman. Above all, must not mention Xmas Present Caper to anybody, not even husband, Ivan.

[22] Meanwhile, Single-Man named "Snerd" gets wind of Xmas Present Caper and going-on at Bravo Club. Snerd is Isle of Cuber's Big Mother Busher's illegitimate son. Snerd gets in touch with Double-Man Abe Greenbaum, working in deep cover at BPR, Division of Dirty Tricks, as Rightist. Actually, Abe is Leftist-turned Middlist. Middlist Abe contacts Triple-Man Zero, sitting on ice because has burned butt. Triple-Man Zero instructed to join Delta Club, which is affiliate of Bravo Club, find out if things real. Zero does just that, craftily, in guise of crossbow expert. Discovers Patsy undergoing hypnotherapy by ex-ferry pilot named Hairy De Fairy. Reports to Abe things are for real, yes siree! Abe passes info on to Dirty Dick (and Snerd). Snerd passes info on to Big Mother Busher. Somebody flashes word back for Zero to let go with well-aimed arrow in Patsy's rump . . . leave Yanquis Land, hubba hubba! Zero chickens out day he is to arrow Patsy, six days before Xmas present to be delivered. Pens Abe nasty note. Pens Snerd nastier note. Pens Dirty Dick even nastier note. Also pens note to Boss of Yanquis Land's Main Secret Police Bureau, tattles on Xmas Present Caper, tattles on Patsy, etc. Burns butt again. Searches in vain for cake of ice to sit on. Winds up in Friendship Province Halfway House.

[23] End of lead? Not hardly.

[24] Apparently something amiss. Xmas Present Caper does not come off per schedule. Delta Club disintegrates. Bravo Club Xmas Present Committee disintegrates. Abe drops out of sight. Dirty Dick is mum. Snerd crawls back inside Big Mother Busher's womb, dies. De Fairy puts on falseface, hides at 3330 Clubhouse, gets whipped. Director of large pharmaceutical combine gives order for increased production of cyanide capsules. Boss of Main Secret Police Bureau sits in office, drums fingers on desk, waits. Zero is still in Friendship Province Halfway House, getting older . . . if not wiser.

[25] End of lead? . . . Not hardly.

[26] Day of Infamy arrives! Patsy crouched at open window, armed with second-hand crossbow, quiver filled with curare-tipped arrows slung across shoulder. ZIP! ZIP! ZIP! BANG! ZIP! BANG! ZIP! BANG!

[27] End of lead? . . . Not hardly.

[28] Patsy awakens from hypnotic trance. Says, "What am I doing here?" Wonders what cyanide capsule is doing clenched between teeth? Wonders what cloak and dagger is doing on window sill? Wonders why floor of room is lettered with pro-Castor Oil pamphlets? Wonders how chicken bones got in lunch pail? Memory returns. Patsy flees. Refuses ride by former Bravo boyfriend driving by in utility truck bearing Bell Telephone Company markings. Catches bus instead.

[29] End of lead? . . . Not hardly.

[30] Patsy has gone her way. De Fairy has gone his way. One former Bravo boyfriend now living vicinity M. Cyanide capsule market still flourishing. Dirty Dick promoted within superstructure of BPR . . . is still mum. Snerd reborn as "Terd". Abe Greenbaum has changed name, retired, resides in mansion protected by pack of snarling German Shepherds, disappears for one hour each night in vault to count huge pile of American silver dollars. Boss of Yanquis Land Main Secret Police Bureau has four-year old secret . . . but is relaxed. Zero out of Friendship Province Halfway House . . . is now in Old Triple-Man's Home for Aged. More Powerful One now MOST POWERFUL (evidently). End of lead? . . . Not hardly. End of letter? . . . yes.

[31] Most sincerely yours,

[32] Richard C Nagell

 
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Section #1 in Richard Case Nagell’s letter in the post above is simply the date, October 8, 1967. It’s an interesting date, in that this was the same day that Che Guevara was captured in Bolivia by Felix Rodriguez. Che was killed the following day. Using the number/letter translation key at the bottom, I will translate the numbers in the date to letters:

“OCTOBERITGH”

And this anagrams to:

“OBIT: R GOT CHE”

The letter “R” in this instance would appear to stand for “Rodriguez”.

Another anagram of the translated date, “OCTOBERITGH”, has nothing to do with Che, but rather the length of the puzzle parts we will be dealing with. Since it’s a little cryptic, I’ll introduce this anagram when it becomes pertinent later.

As near as I can tell, the October 8 letter has little to do with Che Guevara, but has everything to do with the alias “A Hidell” and its use as key in a wide variety of Nagell/Oswald/Vaganov discourse.

There is also an Oswald letter that can serve as an instruction manual on the use of the “A Hidell” alias as a key, Lee Harvey Oswald’s undated letter to the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in Volume XX, Ex 1. 

http://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh20/html/WH_Vol20_0266a.htm

We will get to this letter later, but for those that want to work ahead, there are several numbers in the letter, “15, 40, 40, 50, and, 14”. Working in the body of the text starting at “Dear Sirs”, we can write down letters “15, 40, 40, 50, and, 14,” and anagram this clue: “A ‘A’ TOOL”. And we can do the same with word numbers “15, 40, 40, 50, and, 14” and anagram a larger clue: “APPLY MY ALIAS. O” (O=14).

While I’ve left out a few steps, this Oswald letter first shows us that we can use numbers to unlock a series of letters or a series of words hidden in ordinary looking discourse, and also tells us how to deal with the problematic letter “A”, as in “A Hidell”. 

You can see from the letter/number translation device at the bottom that “A” translates to “zero”.  And since we can’t go to a letter or word “zero” in a text, we are given the letter “A” as a freebie. So “A HIDELL” would translate to one letter (A) and six numbers: “A 7, 8, 3, 4, 11, 11”. 

Now notice that the real topic of Nagell’s October 8th letter is the mysterious “Abe Greenbaum”, and we will be working a lot with that name. But Abe’s initials are “A G”, and since the letter “G” translates to “6”, it looks like we have at least a small clue as to what the October 8th letter is all about: “A 6”, or, “A HIDELL”, or, “A, 7, 8, 3, 4, 11, 11.”

Let’s try it out on the last line of the October 8th letter, “RICHARD C NAGELL”. We have our free “A”, and then using the numbers we get “D, C, C, H, G, G”. And translating the last four letters to numbers, we get something we don’t even have to anagram:

“AD: C-2766”

If we can be so bold as to add “Richard C Nagell” to this answer, we would have:

“RICHARD C NAGELL AD: C-2766”

And as I’ve opined many times before, “C-2766” was the rifle found at the TSBD, but it was not the rifle A Hidell ordered from Klein’s. Richard C Nagel chopped and channelled C-2766 into existence to mess with Hoover’s patsy paper trail. 

I’m going to change “C-2766” back into letters, “CCHGG”, and you Johann Sebastian Bach fans can play the notes “CCHGG”, the theme to the old Italian chestnut, “O sole mio”. The most famous Italian rifle in the world was built on a German scale, and using the German musical scale, that rifle's serial number plays the most famous Italian song in the world. 

We’ll dig deeper into Nagell’s October 8, 1967 letter next time.

Tom

P.S. For you non music majors, the German musical scale calls “B natural”, “H”. In countries not using the German scale, “CCHGG” would be played or sung, “CCBGG” = O sole mio.

Letter/Number translation device:

(A=0)(B=1)(C=2)(D=3)(E=4)(F=5)(G=6)(H=7)(I=8)(J=9)(K=10)(L=11)(M=12)(N=13)(O=14)(P=15)(Q=16)(R=17)(S=18)(T=19)(U=20)(V=21)(W=22)(X=23)(Y=24)(Z=25) 

 
 
Edited by Tom Hume
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Hi David,

The letter is dated October 8, 1967, but it might have been written well after that, with Richard merely choosing a date with good puzzle possibilities. 

Since the bulk of Richard C Nagell’s October 8, 1967 letter to his friend Arturo concerns the mystery man, “Abe Greenbaum”, it seems likely to me that his name is central to the puzzle at hand. 

“ABE GREENBAUM” anagrams to:

“e.g. A ABE NUMBER”

Mention the name “Abe” and most people in the U.S. think of Abe Lincoln. The fate of the 16th president aligned with JFK’s, and the clue above, “e.g. A ABE NUMBER” appears to be telling us to expand the 12 letters in “Abe Greenbaum” to 16 letters:

“ABRAHAM GREENBAUM”

“Abraham Greenbaum” is loaded with anagrams that might lead one to conclude that the name “A HIDELL” is to be translated into numbers and used as a key in the puzzle. As mentioned in the previous post, the wrinkle is the letter “A”, which translates to “0” (zero)  

“ABRAHAM GREENBAUM” anagrams to things like:

“ARAB NUMBER GEM ‘0’. A.H.”

“ARAB GEM 7, ‘0’ NUMBER ‘A’”

“RAH! A A-1 NUMBER GAME”

“A.H. ARAB NUMBER GAME”

“A ARAB ‘7’ NUMBER GAME”

(Arabic numbers revolutionized mathematics in Europe largely because the Arabs introduced the number “zero”)

There is also a group of anagrams working off of the word “ANAGRAM” inside the “Abraham Greenbaum” name. For example,

“RE: HUBBA! ANAGRAM ME” 

This anagram sends us to section 22 of the letter, “leave Yanquis Land, hubba hubba!” for anagram work.

In the previous post I discussed the use of the “A HIDELL” alias as a key, translating the letters to number, and applying “A 7, 8, 3, 4, 11, 11” to something to be decoded. “ABRAHAM GREENBAUM” yields “A M G R A E E”. This anagrams to several things useful, but a simple anagram is:

“RE: A GAME”

I’m mostly guessing, but I think Abe Greenbaum is a fictitious person, a name chosen for its puzzle value. One of the puzzle answers appears to answer the "Snerd" question, and I'll be posting that soon. 

Tom

Letter/Number translation device:

(A=0)(B=1)(C=2)(D=3)(E=4)(F=5)(G=6)(H=7)(I=8)(J=9)(K=10)(L=11)(M=12)(N=13)(O=14)(P=15)(Q=16)(R=17)(S=18)(T=19)(U=20)(V=21)(W=22)(X=23)(Y=24)(Z=25) 

Edited by Tom Hume
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"Dirty Dick" Helms seems obvious - that was his nickname well before Watergate.

One of the curiosities of the letter is recipient "Arturo Verdestein," or Arthur Greenstein.  This was a curious friendship for Nagell to have and maintain, and not enough is known about this guy, or researched in the Russell book.  "Arthur Greenstein" seems oddly close to "Abe Greenbaum," though this may be only coincidence.  It's possible Nagell wrote to Greenstein as he had few friends after incarceration, and Greenstein was an innocent who wanted to know what put Nagell away..

"Snerd" the "illegitimate son" of Castro, "reborn as Terd" after the assassination?  Who dat?  The most common association of the name "Snerd" was "Mortimer Snerd," a ventriloquist's dummy created by Edgar Bergen, which Nagell would have been aware of from period TV appearances.  I think "Snerd" was also a cognomen for "idiot" (it may be the linguistic ancestor of today's "nerd.")

Some perspicacious researcher should be able to trace "Greenbaum" by deciphering his espionage hijinks as detailed in the letter.  "House on 92nd street" refers to a wartime Nazi spy ring bust, supposedly involving nuclear secrets, fictionalized in a famous movie of the same title.  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037795/ 

Note how Nagell obliquely works former Nazis into the letter as a "lead," using the release of old Fuhrer recordings on LP.

P. S. - Another Lincoln number is 5, as in five-dollar bill.

Edited by David Andrews
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