The Assassination of RFK and "The Polka-dot File"

[Michael Walton]

Thank you.  I'm reading your articles on MF - very interesting.

[Larry Hancock]

Great, if you have any questions we can do it here or go into more detail via email   larryjoe@westok.net

 

 

[Gene Kelly]

Larry:

Are you aware of the Rense.com blog where one J. Bruce Campbell posted a story about RFK's bodyguard. Bill Barry?  He described an FBI agent named Doug Burau who was a 'shooting buddy' of Barry's. Burau said that his old friend (Bill Barry) didn’t like either RFK or JFK.  He alluded to lurid reports (by Barry) of wild sex parties in the JFK White. I came across this while searching for articles about Bill Barry, as he seems to have been instrumental in leading RFK into the kitchen.  Barry was described in a news article  

Security on the Kennedy campaign has been a 210-pound former FBI agent named Bill Barry. Faithful to a fault, Barry has ignored battered knees and wrenched muscles to lead his much smaller boss through the frenzied mobs that try to tear him to pieces. With rare exceptions, the gentle but powerful Barry has not carried a sidearm in this campaign.

A 1991 NYT article states that his relationship to the Kennedys began in the early 1960's, when Robert Kennedy, then United States Attorney General, befriended Barry on visits to the New York offices of the FBI. He was described as much more a friend than an employee of the Kennedys. Barry's lawyer, claimed that "he's never received any compensation, to my knowledge, from the Kennedy family."  Besides his work in private industry, Barry was chairman of the New York State Racing and Wagering Board. Barry joined the FBI after college, and was often assigned to pick up Robert Kennedy from the airport on his visits to New York. Arthur Schlesinger claimed that RFK detected "a kindred spirit in many ways, including skepticism about J. Edgar Hoover".  Barry later spent his vacation traveling with RFK in his successful race for a New York Senate seat.  Allegedly, when word got back to Hoover, Barry was transferred to Mobile, Alabama; he quit instead, ending 14 years with the bureau and going to the Bankers Trust Company to oversee security, and then becoming a bodyguard.  In the 1980's, Barry provided security for Paschal McGuinness, the carpenters union boss in New York facing trial on Federal racketeering and bribery charges. Ted Kennedy also had Barry help in coordinating security arrangements while traveling, including overseas. Over the years he became particularly close to Ethel Kennedy, Robert Kennedy's widow, and Jean Kennedy Smith and her husband, Stephen E. Smith.

Did any of your work on the RFK murder cause you to question Bill Barry's loyalty?

Gene

 

[Larry Hancock]

Gene, quite the contrary.  You can find a good deal about their relationship and apparently Barry was quite close to Ethel too. My take on the remarks is that the Bureau stuff appears to be pure BS...  If you do some searching you find Barry remained close to the entire family for years after the murder.

But more directly to your point, according to witnesses if RFK had listened to Barry and gone off the stage into the auditoriaum and through the crowd as planned he would have avoided the pantry entirely. It appears rather than leading him there RFK chose that route - which he had preferred in the beginning, to avoid the crowds - and left Barry following along behind.

https://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2012/06/18/bill-eppridge-on-rfk-assassination/

 

 

 

 

[Gene Kelly]

Larry;

Thanks ... makes sense

A blog (on Rense.com) by a friend of a friend - third hand - who said "he didn't like him" (because of so-called wild sex parties in the WH) smacks of character assassination of the Kennedy's.  Then, a sophomoric conclusion that - in all assassinations - its the bodyguards who betray the leader.   Kind of reminds one of Allen Dulles bringing a book in the early days to the Warren Commission, and proclaiming that its always a lone nut.  Same MO.

That said, I'd love to hear Bull Barry's considered (and expert) opinion on what went down at the Ambassador Hotel.  He probably knows the unvarnished truth.

 

[Larry Hancock]

That would indeed be interesting Gene, my searching turned up some articles that suggest he remained devoted to the family for may years and I suspect he certainly has some thoughts about what happened in the pantry. 

I don't recall seeing anything where he commented on the events personally though.

 

[Hugo Langendoen]

Thanks for this very interesting article. It seems to me that in recent years so much information is coming to the surface. 

I wonder if ever the us government will come forward with the complete / real truth. When so much evidence is building up, there should be a moment in time that it is not possible to stay quiet. 

[Larry Hancock]

Hugo, in regard to the RFK case in particular I really doubt the US government knew that much, simply because it was an LAPD investigation and a California criminal case.  The FBI did some work on it but in a support role and the interviews the FBI conducted were superficial at best.  If  you have not read it you might want to check out my essays on the subject, which focus on what the LAPD did and did not do as well as the evidence for a conspiracy.  You can find it on the Mary Ferrell Foundation website at:

https://www.maryferrell.org/pages/Essay_-_Incomplete_Justice_-_At_the_Ambassador_Hotel.html