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Call me crazy. Has anyone thought to investigate the possibility that Bishop wasn't Phillips but someone who was working for him and looked a bit like him too? I am thinking of Hal Hendrix. Hal certainly knew Phillips and worked for him. He also knew an awful lot about Oswald right away as his phone conversation with fellow journalist Seth Kantor.

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Excuse my poor english. Is there any evidence that Veciana knew Hendrix? Was Hendrix too much of a public figure to also be a cutout for Phillips?

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Has anyone thought to investigate the possibility that Bishop wasn't Phillips but someone who was working for him and looked a bit like him too?

Hi Paul,

I don't think you are crazy and I do think your thoughts have merit. It is very possible that someone who worked with Phillips in the Miami/Havana milieu used the Bishop name and also was closely associated with David Morales. Sure Phillips used the name, but I think we need to dig a little deeper here regarding the identity of the Maurice Bishop we are looking for.

Zach

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I thought that Cuban intel had confirmed this fact .

I know it's a bit naive to believe them!.

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Hi Paul,

You are not crazy in regards to the Bishop issue.

At this point, there is no doubt that Bishop was a name that was shared by a number of spooks for operational purposes.

In that sense, Phillips "used" the name. Research is ongoing in this area and hopefully there will be more fit to print soon.

Researchers should dive in, as it is an unexplored area, save for Gaeton Fonzi's work.

Cheers,

Steve

Edited by Steve Rosen
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It was nice to get responses from a few researchers on this subject. Whether or not Hal Hendrix used the ' bishop' code name or not, and regardless of the role of David Phillips in the JFK plot, I have never been quite convinced about Veciana being directly run by Phillips himself.

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Yes - who looked something like him. When I looked at some pics of Hendrix I thought he resembled Phillips, and fit the description by Veciana. But it was later when I reread the account of Seth Kantor, who while at Parkland hospital a few hours after JFK's death received a phone call (no cell phones, so how did that happen?) from Hendrix in Miami who was already peddling the Oswald did it story and had Oswald's official background at his fingertips, that I started looking at Hendrix. Apparently there is some evidence that he had already been working with or for the CIA for several years by that time, and flash forward a few years and he is officially working with Phillips in South America. They were already aqcuainted with each other in 1963. Of course there may be nothing here, but if anyone had more biographical info on Hendrix I'd sure like to read it.

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  • 8 months later...

Phillips had a brother?.

Ian, David Atlee Phillips was the youngest of three brothers.

Yes - who looked something like him. When I looked at some pics of Hendrix I thought he resembled Phillips, and fit the description by Veciana. But it was later when I reread the account of Seth Kantor, who while at Parkland hospital a few hours after JFK's death received a phone call (no cell phones, so how did that happen?) from Hendrix in Miami who was already peddling the Oswald did it story and had Oswald's official background at his fingertips, that I started looking at Hendrix. Apparently there is some evidence that he had already been working with or for the CIA for several years by that time, and flash forward a few years and he is officially working with Phillips in South America. They were already aqcuainted with each other in 1963. Of course there may be nothing here, but if anyone had more biographical info on Hendrix I'd sure like to read it.

Paul, I am short on Hal Hendrix bio information (as opposed to his brother, Jimi Hendrix :afro ), but I believe he is still alive, if there is anyone bold enough to track down the so-called "Spook Reporter".

---

Shot in the dark - has anyone researched the Maurice/Morris Bishop names in a while? There is great stuff to discover, none of which has appeared here ...

Where is the intrepid John Kelly when you need him?

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In addition to Phillips, Hal Hendrix had a direct relation to Ted Shackly, in fact William Pawley identified Shackly as the primary source for Hendrix on

Cuban affairs. Hendrix was just one of the local media folks that Shackley used as channels and we even have a memo of his talking about how successful

he had been in his local media outreach. We also know a lot about his movements and he would not have been inside Cuba making the initial contacts

that Veciana describes...

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Larry,

Thanks for adding that. I spoke to a reporter who both shared info with JMWAVE and knew Hal Hendrix.

Hendrix was known to be especially close with the Miami station and of course was personally friendly with Dave Phillips.

Of course, such professional camaraderie among writers and spies was looked at as harmless, patriotic, and mutually beneficial by reporters, not seamy and unethical.

Steve

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Thanks Steve, and I agree with you, I don't think it was taken as anything more than doing their job by the reporters, However if you read

Shackley's memo as well as get a handle on the broader media goals of the Agency, you can see they used the contacts quite effectively'

to plant information. Of course that;s always a two way street and always will be, but where it crosses the line is where the CIA officers

let their own views and agendas get into it. I've written about how the Backstage with Bobby article was very likely an attempt by

Shackley or Phillips, most likely Shackley to sabotage RFK's autonomous group project - and it did exactly that.

-- Larry

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To weigh in on this is a bit more detail, in SWHT I present what I think is an extremely strong circumstantial case that Phillips did use the Bishop alias beginning in Cuba while

he was for years after that. Phillips admitted to using an alias in Cuba and to working with a rebel group wanting to assassinate Castro, a perfect fit for the known

Veciana contact inside Cuba. Keep in mind that in his undercover position any alias Phillips used could well have been local, not a CIA crypt or even necessarily a formal

assigned alias - he was deep undercover, not using a backstopped cover of any sort, say as Morales was doing at the same time in Havana, assigned to the U.S. embassy.

But the connection goes years beyond that, with a strong case that Phillips continued to use both Veciana and Luis Posada in Castro assassination projects in Latin

America, even after he moved into much higher positions as a country station chief and then division chief for the region. Veciana is on record that he was amazed that

as a legally restricted exile, restricted to Florida, someone managed to get him a job down there, and with AID for that matter. Its going to take Phillips to do that sort

of thing...

To see the connections between some of these folks, its necessary to look way beyond just the Cuba secret war projects of the early 60's, their agenda continued for many

years beyond that, possibly sanctioned but in the case of Phillips, very possibly not...

-- Larry

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Larry, I agree. The Agency & Miami station especially were particularly adroit at exploiting the patriotic and chummy nature of reporters. The reporters, of course, were all too happy to help in order to get great scoops. It was a symbiotic relationship that worked quite well.

Andric, thanks for posting. That "police sketch" of "Maurice Bishop" has always been interesting to me. Does anyone know who the artist is? I recall that Gaeton Fonzi commissioned it.

I don't believe it's the dead ringer for Dave Phillips that most people seem to think. Phillips had dark hair, the sketch is lighter. The hairline is different, as is the face, to me.

Assume it actually is a sketch of Phillips. That doesn't change the reality - not theory - that the Bishop handle was a name used by multiple operatives.

Dig deeper here and you can find written confirmation for this fact from multiple and reliable sources who knew Dave Phillips and were familiar with the use of the Bishop name.

Once you discover this, the endless confusion around Mr. Bishop makes a lot more sense.

For example, DCI John McCone recalled a Bishop name for the HSCA, and then withdrew that recollection. "Bishop" wasn't any one person, so of course it could plausibly be said that McCone was "mistaken". Again - Bishop was an operational name employed by many people for various projects and purposes.

People should conduct serious research into this largely unexplored but very important area.

-- Steve

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