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Dick Russell: The Man Who Knew Too Much


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When it was first published Dick Russell's The Man Who Knew Too Much (Carroll & Graf, 1992) was hailed by Publisher's Weekly as "a masterpiece of historical reconstruction".

Daniel Brandt of Namebase has this to say about the book:

If the avalanche of reissued and rehashed JFK assassination books since Oliver Stone's movie has a downside, it's only because the one book that is possibly as significant as all the rest put together might get buried. After over a hundred interviews (including James Angleton and other CIA officials) and seventeen years of persistent research, Dick Russell has written such a book. While providing much new information on the intelligence connection, Russell doesn't offer any easy answers apart from the observation that organized crime alone could not have manipulated the physical evidence and the cover-up without substantial help.

Russell's treatment of the intelligence angle is comprehensive - Oswald in Japan, CIA in Mexico, military intelligence, mind-control, KGB, anti-Castro Cubans, H.L. Hunt et al. Simultaneously, his journalistic hook is an extended cat-and-mouse debriefing of Richard Case Nagell, an untalkative Oswald associate who contracted with U.S. intelligence and also had an arrangement with the Soviets; it still isn't clear who was pulling his strings. Nagell walked into an El Paso bank in September 1963 and fired two shots into the wall so that he would be in jail while "it" came down. "It" happened two months later, on November 22, 1963. If there is space on your shelf for only one JFK assassination book, make it this one.

The book was reissued in a revised, updated edition in 2003, coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the assassination.

I am pleased to announce that Dick has agreed to answer questions about his research into the assassination of JFK.

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When it was first published Dick Russell's The Man Who Knew Too Much (Carroll & Graf, 1992) was hailed by Publisher's Weekly as "a masterpiece of historical reconstruction".

Daniel Brandt of Namebase has this to say about the book:

If the avalanche of reissued and rehashed JFK assassination books since Oliver Stone's movie has a downside, it's only because the one book that is possibly as significant as all the rest put together might get buried. After over a hundred interviews (including James Angleton and other CIA officials) and seventeen years of persistent research, Dick Russell has written such a book. While providing much new information on the intelligence connection, Russell doesn't offer any easy answers apart from the observation that organized crime alone could not have manipulated the physical evidence and the cover-up without substantial help.

Russell's treatment of the intelligence angle is comprehensive - Oswald in Japan, CIA in Mexico, military intelligence, mind-control, KGB, anti-Castro Cubans, H.L. Hunt et al. Simultaneously, his journalistic hook is an extended cat-and-mouse debriefing of Richard Case Nagell, an untalkative Oswald associate who contracted with U.S. intelligence and also had an arrangement with the Soviets; it still isn't clear who was pulling his strings. Nagell walked into an El Paso bank in September 1963 and fired two shots into the wall so that he would be in jail while "it" came down. "It" happened two months later, on November 22, 1963. If there is space on your shelf for only one JFK assassination book, make it this one.

The book was reissued in a revised, updated edition in 2003, coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the assassination.

I am pleased to announce that Dick has agreed to answer questions about his research into the assassination of JFK.

Dick:

I received an e-mail from Guillermo Yglesias' daughter a while back, and she was wanting more information than what she garnered from that 1976 Argosy Magazine interview that you did of me, and I am about to refer her to the fact that LBJ was inclined to shut down the "2nd Naval Guerrilla" operations after the mistaken fatal attack on the Spanish merchant vessel "Sierra Aranzazu", which Yglesias and his commandos mistook for Fidel's merchantman "Sierra Maestra". But LBJ was talked out of it until 1966. Raul Castro later claimed that the "Lucha-Contra-Bandidos" [LCB] & "Division 50" campaign against guerrillas inside, and raiders from outside, had cost Cuba over a Billion dollar$ up untill 1967.

Oh, by the way, Nagell was working for the G.R.U., not the K.G.B. !! "Stasha" Sokolowska worked with our Sandinistas trainees [and helped feed us] in Habana during 1960. She must have forgotten all about her teenage marriage to the Tokyo CIA/COS which you footnoted in the "..Knew too Much" book. She had a daughter by Sandinista Harold Martinez y Saenz during the mid-1960s, and used to stop by my apartmentment on her return trips [every 2 months] from Cuba throughout the 1960s. She couldn't fathom how I could suffer living alongside all of the "Little Havana Gusanos??!!".

She reported to June Cobb, and June's CIA Case Officer was Elizabeth Vetter, who is still alive and laughing.

I haven't gotten a copy of your book on the Whales yet, but have seen very good reviews of same.

Give me a call again when you have the urge.

Gerry

_____________________________

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[quote=John Simkin,Aug 19 2005, 07:48 AM]

When it was first published Dick Russell's The Man Who Knew Too Much (Carroll & Graf, 1992) was hailed by Publisher's Weekly as "a masterpiece of historical reconstruction".

[The book was reissued in a revised, updated edition in 2003, coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the assassination.

I am pleased to announce that Dick has agreed to answer questions about his research into the assassination of JFK.

John, that is great news.

He and Carl Oglesby are pals, and I am pleased to say

Carl is also seriously considering getting online

(finally) so that he can participate here.

Dawn

He is presently trying to find an agent, or someone to help him get Yankee Cowboy reissued (he will do an updated version). Anyone here have any suggestions. Thanx.

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Dick's book cannot be praised highly enough, particularly the more comprehensive first edition.

Questions of greatest importance to me deal with the Mexico City episode.

The book's footnotes include startling revelations from unnamed CIA personnel who were stationed in the Mexican capitol. These include the fact that Win Scott did possess [a] photo of Oswald on his way into or out of the Soviet embassy; that Scott had an acetate recording of Oswald dealing with the Soviets; and that "Oswald" luggage had been found at the airport after the assassination.

Since the likelihood of Oswald's imposture in Mexico City hasn't ever been definitively confirmed or discounted, I think all the information attainable about the above is highly important and would appreciate whatever Dick can offer us.

Also, in the book Nagell contends there was a prior trip by Oswald to Mexico City. Dick, have you found anything that would confirm this allegation?

Thanks in advance for whatever you may be able to provide.

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The Man Who Knew Too Much is one of those books that got me interested in the JFK assassination. Crossfire (Jim Marrs), The Last Investigation (Gaeton Fonzi) and The Kennedy Conspiracy (Anthony Summers) are others that fall into this category.

What I liked so much about your book was the way it was written. (It was like reading a Raymond Chandler book). It drew you in and made you feel like you were a co-investigator. I think this is the reason why it inspired me to do my own research into the assassination.

If you were writing another book on the Kennedy Assassination today, what areas would you focus on? What characters need more research? In other words, who do you think organized, carried out and paid for the assassination of JFK.

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The Man Who Knew Too Much is one of those books that got me interested in the JFK assassination. Crossfire (Jim Marrs), The Last Investigation (Gaeton Fonzi) and The Kennedy Conspiracy (Anthony Summers) are others that fall into this category.

What I liked so much about your book was the way it was written. (It was like reading a Raymond Chandler book). It drew you in and made you feel like you were a co-investigator. I think this is the reason why it inspired me to do my own research into the assassination.

If you were writing another book on the Kennedy Assassination today, what areas would you focus on? What characters need more research? In other words, who do you think organized, carried out and paid for the assassination of JFK.

I would like to go no record as stating that I have both the original and updated versions of "The Man Who Knew Too Much," and I feel that they are essential to any serious JFK researchers collection. I would like to ask Mr. Russell about the tapes and photographs of Oswald, Nagell and Leopoldo and Angel that at one time were in a safe deposit box in Switzerland. Did Nagell ever recover those items before his death, or are they still in Switzerland, unrecoverable? Have you discovered any new "revelations" about the assassination. Is David Dinkins still alive? If so have you spoken with him recently? What is your opinion of the William Torbitt manuscript "Nomenclature of an Assassination cabal"? And finally are there any documents that have been de-classified by the ARRB that you would place a high priority on obtaining. Sincerely/Robert Howard

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  • 1 month later...
Questions of greatest importance to me deal with the Mexico City episode.

The book's footnotes include startling revelations from unnamed CIA personnel who were stationed in the Mexican capitol.  These include the fact that Win Scott did possess [a] photo of Oswald on his way into or out of the Soviet embassy; that Scott had an acetate recording of Oswald dealing with the Soviets; and that "Oswald" luggage had been found at the airport after the assassination.

Since the likelihood of Oswald's imposture in Mexico City hasn't ever been definitively confirmed or discounted, I think all the information attainable about the above is highly important and would appreciate whatever Dick can offer us.

Also, in the book Nagell contends there was a prior trip by Oswald to Mexico City.  Dick, have you found anything that would confirm this allegation?

Thanks in advance for whatever you may be able to provide.

I'm afraid I can't offer any more than what's already in my book concerning the various mysteries about Mexico City. Nagell, of course, is not the only one who contends there was a prior trip by Oswald there.

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If you were writing another book on the Kennedy Assassination today, what areas would you focus on? What characters need more research? In other words, who do you think organized, carried out and paid for the assassination of JFK.

I believe the most important aspect that remains to be delved into, regarding the assassination, focuses on the CIA and relationships between certain of its employees with the Cuban exile community. Besides the well-known David Phillips, I'd look into a fellow named Henry Heckscher (now deceased). Also, what Jefferson Morley of the Washington Post has uncovered about George Joannides strikes me as most important.

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I would like to go no record as stating that I have both the original and updated versions of "The Man Who Knew Too Much," and I feel that they are essential to any serious JFK researchers collection. I would like to ask Mr. Russell about the tapes and photographs of Oswald, Nagell and Leopoldo and Angel that at one time were in a safe deposit box in Switzerland. Did Nagell ever recover those items before his death, or are they still in Switzerland, unrecoverable? Have you discovered any new "revelations" about the assassination. Is David Dinkins still alive? If so have you spoken with him recently? What is your opinion of the William Torbitt manuscript "Nomenclature of an Assassination cabal"? And finally are there any documents that have been de-classified by the ARRB that you would place a high priority on obtaining. Sincerely/Robert Howard

As far as I know, Nagell never recovered whatever items were in a safe deposit box in Switzerland. He indicated, as I recall, that the box may have been "closed" without his knowledge. I don't know if David Dinkins is still alive. My opinion on the Torbitt manuscript is, basically, it's just too wide-ranging. I don't see how you could keep a conspiracy of that magnitude under wraps forever. There are still more documents on Nagell that have never been released by the FBI, CIA, and other agencies. Those would be my highest priority in terms of obtaining declassifications.

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Oh, by the way, Nagell was working for the G.R.U., not the K.G.B. !!  "Stasha" Sokolowska worked with our Sandinistas trainees [and helped feed us] in Habana during 1960.  She must have forgotten all about her teenage marriage to the Tokyo CIA/COS which you footnoted in the "..Knew too Much" book.  She had a daughter by Sandinista Harold Martinez y Saenz during the mid-1960s, and used to stop by my apartmentment on her return trips [every 2 months] from Cuba throughout the 1960s.  She couldn't fathom how I could suffer living alongside all of the "Little Havana Gusanos??!!".

She reported to June Cobb, and June's CIA Case Officer was Elizabeth Vetter, who is still alive and laughing.

Gerry, you are not the first to tell me that Nagell was working for the G.R.U., not the KGB. Interestingly enough, so did Fabian Escalante, the former head of the Cuban spy agency, at a researchers' meeting in the Bahamas in 1996. This is described in the revised edition of my book. That's an interesting "aside" about "Stasha" Sokolowska. I've always believed June Cobb might be important to the Oswald story.

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Mr. Russell.

Absolutely thoroughly enjoyed TMWKTM. Only read it once, but referred back to it frequently - and it's now on loan. I once had a multitude of questions I had wanted to ask - forgotten now - save one or two.

Near the end of the book - after Nagell's effect have been handed over to his niece - who discovers that the purple trunk is now among the others at the storage facility [going by memory here] - she relayed to you that in one of the trunks which remained there were photographs of a man she did not know - he was in a variety of poses, and if I recall, these were both photos and newspaper clippings. Any update on that? Any chance of acquiring them?

I was exchanging emails with some members on this forum who believed that these trunks had been passed on to Mitsuko. I wrote 3 letters to Robert - all with no reply - enquiring after these photos. Is there any chance of getting them now do you suppose?

Perhaps nothing - however, from the excellent view of Nagell that you have provided us - he doesn't seem the type to save something without reason - and one could theorize that he had stowed something apart from his other caches so as not to leave all the eggs in 5 baskets?

Sorry - do you suppose that part of what went on in Berlin was the exchange of one of these caches in return for his children?

Kind regards,

Lee Forman

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  • 4 weeks later...

Dick,

what do you make of CE 1813 which is an FBI interview with the employer of Weissman and Burley in Dallas?

CE 1813

As you probably know, Weissman testified that Jones had left Dallas prior to his own arrival.

Mr. JENNER. He is mentioned in some of these interviews. Did you meet Larry Jones?

Mr. WEISSMAN. I didn't meet him in Dallas; no. He was gone before I got there.

CE 1813 however, places Jones in Dallas on the day of the assassination. Moreover, it shows Weissman as being startled and so worried about this news, he apparently denied to his boss even knowing him.

Thanks, and sorry if this is covered in the 1st edition. Only have the 2nd.

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  • 2 weeks later...
If there is space on your shelf for only one JFK assassination book, make it this one.

I'd just like to second that notion above, that this is perhaps the single best book on the JFK Assassination for several reasons... While it doesn't try to cover all the different parts of the cabal...those it does cover it covers in detail. Amazing research! Bravo. It certainly raises as many [or more] questions than it answers. It puts the final nail in the coffin of the 'official' version and lets the final genie out of the bottle of conspiracy...if any more were needed! It also shows the incredible tangle and complexity of operations ongoing at the time of the planning of the Assassination and those that were used to interweave into it [to make the tracing of the real movers all but impossible to find...blind allies, multiple pathways, stand-by patsies, etc. et al. Read the book and then take a part and research it further.... Should be required reading throughout the Empire.

Sad to hear that Nagell didn't get the things secreted in the Swiss Bank! Is there anyone alive who could retrace those items [that safe deposit box]? - likely not.

I much appreciate your praise for my book, thank you. And I agree it "raises as many [or more] questions than it answers." If there's anyone alive who could retrace the items that once existed in Nagell's Zurich swiss deposit box, that'd be fantastic, but I'm afraid I don't know of any such person.

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One of the names in Nagell's address book was Dr. John Lechner, followed by "Americanism Educational League."

Do you know why Nagell was investigating him? Was it his activities regarding Paulino Sierra?

I'm not aware of any connection between Dr. John Lechner and Paulino Sierra, but that sounds intriguing.

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