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John Balch

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  1. I'm not sure how many school children read this...seems like a red-herring to me. However I would say, that if you can't handle Hunter S. Thompson, you don't really want to know what happened here. I'm not questioning your motivation, just the strength of your stomach. HST on JFK...couldn't get any better.
  2. Your book about the Secret Service was amazingly researched and quite enlightening. The people that try to keep a lid on this sort of stuff had to respond eventually. I'll wait to see what they say, but will keep looking elsewhere. One thing I would like to know is what Secret Service Agent got out the bucket of water at Parkland Hospital and "cleaned up" the crime scene? Do we know who gave the order, and has this person ever testified in any forum about such an outrageous and grisly experience?
  3. An interesting test was done on recordings of Oswald's statements to the press using the Pyschological Stress Evaluator, a type of lie detector that works through the medium of the voice. By measuring comparable stress levels in the voice, it was determined that Oswald showed absolutley no stress when he said "No, I didn't shoot anybody, no sir." He did show stress when he said that he didn't know anything about it. So, his lies were indicated, but not on the important charge of murder. (see Lee Harvey Oswald Was Innocent by George O'toole, originally published in Penthouse Magazine 1975, reprinted in The Assassinations, Dallas and Beyond by Peter Dale Scott, Paul L. Hoch & Russell Stetler.)
  4. The choice to make LBJ the vice-presidential candidate, some have speculated, may have been spurred by material J. Edgar Hoover supplied to Johnson that would blackmail JFK.
  5. Greer has been universally panned as the driver you'd want in a situation like that. I've always felt that way, but recently had another angle thrown at me, I forget where. So many people, in and around the motorcade, testified that they thought shots where coming from behind the picket fence. Others alluded to more than one shooter. If Greer thought he was driving into an ambush, it probably did give him pause. With shots from the rear, you can hit the accelerator, but shots from the front? The guy blew it, of that there's no doubt, but maybe this would explain his paralysis. Also, was he one of the Secret Service agents that went out drinking until the wee hours? This, too, might provide an explaination of why the guy was so stunned.
  6. Weren't Silbert and O'Neill also presented with an "extra" bullet at the autopsy? Somehow the bullet disappeared.
  7. I'm not sure what you refer to. When did Marina say that her husband thought something was going to happen on the 22nd, and can you please point us towards the source? Perhaps for my first post in this Forum my language was not as precise as it could have been. Regarding the speculations of Marina, I was relying on what she told Priscilla Johnson McMillan for the book Marina and Lee. That source, like much of what Marina has said, is questionable, but it provides a sort of domestic "truth" about their marriage that is spelled out in some detail. As for specifics, Marina was recollecting about that last night together and was understandably looking for hidden meanings. Oswald had made a determined effort to get her to live with him again. Three times he asked her to move to Dallas. He spent an unusual amount of time playing with his daughters that evening, and seemed to be trying hard to reconcile with Marina. He even offered to buy her a washing machine. Previously, they'd been arguing and Marina continued to rebuff him, enjoying the opportunity of feeling wooed. In the morning Oswald got up alone and went back to Dallas. He left Marina $170 with the instructions to buy anything she wanted. He also left his wedding ring on the dresser. In a nutshell, this could be interpreted as a domestic quarrel having nothing to do with John Kennedy, but it can certainly be seen as a man wrestling with a momentous decision and hoping to be delivered from his fate, if only his life would take a different turn.
  8. I'd like to add two more items on Kennedy's agenda for a second term: gettting rid of LBJ and Hoover. JFK's political moves notwithstanding, those two men had many allies who also disapproved of the way Kennedy seemed to be heading. Johnson's career was falling apart at the seams by November 22, 1963. And I don't think Hoover would have balked at anything to stay in power. At the very least, they were both useful tools to be used by other unscrupulous men.
  9. We can see numerous instances of some hidden (and not so hidden) guiding forces in Oswald's brief life. His famous quote "I'm just a patsy" expresses what he felt to be his situation upon arrest, but what about before? All of his various activities in his last year have some meaning, probably many. They all led him to be viewed as a perfect suspect. I don't feel that he was aware of the grand design, or even of who was guiding him, but what did he think as the situation unravelled? If Marina is to be believed, he clearly thought something was going to happen on the 22nd. I invite speculation on this point. The President passes by his window, and he shows no interest. For such a political guy that makes no sense. After the murder he goes home and gets his pistol. What was he expecting? Who was he fearing? Was he really in that theatre to meet someone, or did he end up there by accident? If he truly felt set up, what was his intended defense? By all accounts he was a cool customer. He must have had some sense of how he was going to get out of all this. Ruby put an end to that, but are there skeins to be woven out of what we know to deduce Lee Oswald's frame of mind?
  10. I have been a long time student of the Kennedy Assassination, but a few years back I felt like I'd run out the skein. Seeing what the internet has brought to a study, such as this, has blown me away. The sharing of resources, and points of view has opened up in me a real sense of optimism...perhaps, cooperatively, we will get to the truth behind this central crime of our age. Your forum allows me to study the most obscure points of this mystery, and ask for opinions, help or insights. It's great. I am a former American, residing in London, Ontario. My brother was a casualty of the Viet Nam War, and that stuck in my craw enough to get me to move here, alone, at 23. More of my life has been lived in Canada than the US. I married a Canadian and have three sons. I've been an off-and-on teacher, doing many other things as well, but am now teaching ESL to adult New Canadians. My degree was in history, and that passion has never left me; engaging in primary research is the best.
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