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Dick Russell's On The Trail of the JFK Assassins


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I found your interview of Richard A. Sprague on 25th May 1978 very interesting. He obviously learnt a great deal from his experience as acting counsel and drector of he HSCA. As he said: "There was total dishonesty in the reporting of newspapers that I would otherwise have confidence in, such as the New York Times and the Washington Post... as a result, this attitude by the press was most successful in taking advantage of the attitude of Congress in general, and by individual Congressmen wh were manipulated such that the press could achieve a tone to help kill the investigation."

Do you think that Sprague would have got to the truth if he had remained as director of the HSCA? What are your views on his replacement, Robert Blakey? Has Sprague made any recent comments on the JFK assassination?

A while back I discovered a book published appx. a year before the JFK Assassination..... My Mexico City and Yours by Pepe Romero, has the following passages.

..." My Mexico City and Yours By Pepe Romero A Dolphin Guide

Copyright 1962

Sanborn's is a place that is of interest, ie how many were there, et cetera.

of Sanborn’s, there are five. One at the House of Tiles downtown, another in the U.S. Embassy Building, another in the Del Prado Arcade, one in Calle Niza 30 and still another in the Palacio de Hiero department store building on Salamanca and Oaxaca the site where the old bull ring used to stand in Calle Durango.

Sanborn's

1. Madero 4.

2. Reforma 45. Has a nice bar.

3. Arcade, Hotel del Prado

4. Salmanaca and Oaxaca, in ther Palacio de Hierro department store building, Open late

5. Niza 30.

p 107;

Then there is the Hotel Luma.....

Luma

On Calle Orizaba 16. (Tel. 25-43-46) Situated in the famous Calle Roma, five minutes from everything. Small, neat and well managed.

Its Scherezade Bar is a nice people’s meeting place. Open from 1: P.M. to 1 A.M. Restaurant serves good cooking. All other conveniences.

You brag when you ask for “Broglie."

I was really surprised that there was mention of Broglie in a book published before the assassination.....

Edited by Robert Howard
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I found your interview of Richard A. Sprague on 25th May 1978 very interesting. He obviously learnt a great deal from his experience as acting counsel and drector of he HSCA. As he said: "There was total dishonesty in the reporting of newspapers that I would otherwise have confidence in, such as the New York Times and the Washington Post... as a result, this attitude by the press was most successful in taking advantage of the attitude of Congress in general, and by individual Congressmen wh were manipulated such that the press could achieve a tone to help kill the investigation."

Do you think that Sprague would have got to the truth if he had remained as director of the HSCA? What are your views on his replacement, Robert Blakey? Has Sprague made any recent comments on the JFK assassination?

A while back I discovered a book published appx. a year before the JFK Assassination..... My Mexico City and Yours by Pepe Romero, has the following passages.

..." My Mexico City and Yours By Pepe Romero A Dolphin Guide

Copyright 1962

Sanborn's is a place that is of interest, ie how many were there, et cetera.

of Sanborn's, there are five. One at the House of Tiles downtown, another in the U.S. Embassy Building, another in the Del Prado Arcade, one in Calle Niza 30 and still another in the Palacio de Hiero department store building on Salamanca and Oaxaca the site where the old bull ring used to stand in Calle Durango.

Sanborn's

1. Madero 4.

2. Reforma 45. Has a nice bar.

3. Arcade, Hotel del Prado

4. Salmanaca and Oaxaca, in ther Palacio de Hierro department store building, Open late

5. Niza 30.

p 107;

Then there is the Hotel Luma.....

Luma

On Calle Orizaba 16. (Tel. 25-43-46) Situated in the famous Calle Roma, five minutes from everything. Small, neat and well managed.

Its Scherezade Bar is a nice people's meeting place. Open from 1: P.M. to 1 A.M. Restaurant serves good cooking. All other conveniences.

You brag when you ask for "Broglie."

I was really surprised that there was mention of Broglie in a book published before the assassination.....

Hey Robert,

That is interesting. You must show it to Dick Russell.

As for Sanborn's, do you think Oswald was ever there?

BK

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I found your interview of Richard A. Sprague on 25th May 1978 very interesting. He obviously learnt a great deal from his experience as acting counsel and drector of he HSCA. As he said: "There was total dishonesty in the reporting of newspapers that I would otherwise have confidence in, such as the New York Times and the Washington Post... as a result, this attitude by the press was most successful in taking advantage of the attitude of Congress in general, and by individual Congressmen wh were manipulated such that the press could achieve a tone to help kill the investigation."

Do you think that Sprague would have got to the truth if he had remained as director of the HSCA? What are your views on his replacement, Robert Blakey? Has Sprague made any recent comments on the JFK assassination?

A while back I discovered a book published appx. a year before the JFK Assassination..... My Mexico City and Yours by Pepe Romero, has the following passages.

..." My Mexico City and Yours By Pepe Romero A Dolphin Guide

Copyright 1962

Sanborn's is a place that is of interest, ie how many were there, et cetera.

of Sanborn's, there are five. One at the House of Tiles downtown, another in the U.S. Embassy Building, another in the Del Prado Arcade, one in Calle Niza 30 and still another in the Palacio de Hiero department store building on Salamanca and Oaxaca the site where the old bull ring used to stand in Calle Durango.

Sanborn's

1. Madero 4.

2. Reforma 45. Has a nice bar.

3. Arcade, Hotel del Prado

4. Salmanaca and Oaxaca, in ther Palacio de Hierro department store building, Open late

5. Niza 30.

p 107;

Then there is the Hotel Luma.....

Luma

On Calle Orizaba 16. (Tel. 25-43-46) Situated in the famous Calle Roma, five minutes from everything. Small, neat and well managed.

Its Scherezade Bar is a nice people's meeting place. Open from 1: P.M. to 1 A.M. Restaurant serves good cooking. All other conveniences.

You brag when you ask for "Broglie."

I was really surprised that there was mention of Broglie in a book published before the assassination.....

Hey Robert,

That is interesting. You must show it to Dick Russell.

As for Sanborn's, do you think Oswald was ever there?

BK

Well, I guess that the $64,000 question, isn't it?

All I can say is which one...no seriously.....

My perception is that either Oswald or the impostor Oswald was there, I doubt both, since if you accept the premise the impostor was there to set-up Oswald as having appeared at the Embassies, he would surely have known who he was and what he looked like.....Since there were five Sanborn's, [assuming none of them closed between the time Romero's book was written and Sept. 26, 1963] the odd's are good that Oswald knew about them, if he knew anything personally about one, my guess is it would be the one in the American Embassy........

If you're like me your probably more interested in Dick Russell's thoughts on that......

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I found your interview of Richard A. Sprague on 25th May 1978 very interesting. He obviously learnt a great deal from his experience as acting counsel and drector of he HSCA. As he said: "There was total dishonesty in the reporting of newspapers that I would otherwise have confidence in, such as the New York Times and the Washington Post... as a result, this attitude by the press was most successful in taking advantage of the attitude of Congress in general, and by individual Congressmen wh were manipulated such that the press could achieve a tone to help kill the investigation."

Do you think that Sprague would have got to the truth if he had remained as director of the HSCA? What are your views on his replacement, Robert Blakey? Has Sprague made any recent comments on the JFK assassination?

A while back I discovered a book published appx. a year before the JFK Assassination..... My Mexico City and Yours by Pepe Romero, has the following passages.

..." My Mexico City and Yours By Pepe Romero A Dolphin Guide

Copyright 1962

Sanborn's is a place that is of interest, ie how many were there, et cetera.

of Sanborn's, there are five. One at the House of Tiles downtown, another in the U.S. Embassy Building, another in the Del Prado Arcade, one in Calle Niza 30 and still another in the Palacio de Hiero department store building on Salamanca and Oaxaca the site where the old bull ring used to stand in Calle Durango.

Sanborn's

1. Madero 4.

2. Reforma 45. Has a nice bar.

3. Arcade, Hotel del Prado

4. Salmanaca and Oaxaca, in ther Palacio de Hierro department store building, Open late

5. Niza 30.

p 107;

Then there is the Hotel Luma.....

Luma

On Calle Orizaba 16. (Tel. 25-43-46) Situated in the famous Calle Roma, five minutes from everything. Small, neat and well managed.

Its Scherezade Bar is a nice people's meeting place. Open from 1: P.M. to 1 A.M. Restaurant serves good cooking. All other conveniences.

You brag when you ask for "Broglie."

I was really surprised that there was mention of Broglie in a book published before the assassination.....

Hey Robert,

That is interesting. You must show it to Dick Russell.

As for Sanborn's, do you think Oswald was ever there?

BK

Well, I guess that the $64,000 question, isn't it?

All I can say is which one...no seriously.....

My perception is that either Oswald or the impostor Oswald was there, I doubt both, since if you accept the premise the impostor was there to set-up Oswald as having appeared at the Embassies, he would surely have known who he was and what he looked like.....Since there were five Sanborn's, [assuming none of them closed between the time Romero's book was written and Sept. 26, 1963] the odd's are good that Oswald knew about them, if he knew anything personally about one, my guess is it would be the one in the American Embassy........

If you're like me your probably more interested in Dick Russell's thoughts on that......

Hey Robert,

But Oswald was never officially at the US Embassy. He visited the Cubans and Ruskies, but not the USA.

As for Sanborns, I think the one next to or in the same building as the US embassy is the one Oswald would have visited. It was a popular place for english speaking people to congregate.

I think Sanborns became a big chain and now there are many.

There may be a photo of the original Sanborns and the one by the us embassy on line.

I too would like to ask Dick Russell about this and Collins.

BK

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I found your interview of Richard A. Sprague on 25th May 1978 very interesting. He obviously learnt a great deal from his experience as acting counsel and drector of he HSCA. As he said: "There was total dishonesty in the reporting of newspapers that I would otherwise have confidence in, such as the New York Times and the Washington Post... as a result, this attitude by the press was most successful in taking advantage of the attitude of Congress in general, and by individual Congressmen wh were manipulated such that the press could achieve a tone to help kill the investigation."

Do you think that Sprague would have got to the truth if he had remained as director of the HSCA? What are your views on his replacement, Robert Blakey? Has Sprague made any recent comments on the JFK assassination?

A while back I discovered a book published appx. a year before the JFK Assassination..... My Mexico City and Yours by Pepe Romero, has the following passages.

..." My Mexico City and Yours By Pepe Romero A Dolphin Guide

Copyright 1962

Sanborn's is a place that is of interest, ie how many were there, et cetera.

of Sanborn’s, there are five. One at the House of Tiles downtown, another in the U.S. Embassy Building, another in the Del Prado Arcade, one in Calle Niza 30 and still another in the Palacio de Hiero department store building on Salamanca and Oaxaca the site where the old bull ring used to stand in Calle Durango.

Sanborn's

1. Madero 4.

2. Reforma 45. Has a nice bar.

3. Arcade, Hotel del Prado

4. Salmanaca and Oaxaca, in ther Palacio de Hierro department store building, Open late

5. Niza 30.

p 107;

Then there is the Hotel Luma.....

Luma

On Calle Orizaba 16. (Tel. 25-43-46) Situated in the famous Calle Roma, five minutes from everything. Small, neat and well managed.

Its Scherezade Bar is a nice people’s meeting place. Open from 1: P.M. to 1 A.M. Restaurant serves good cooking. All other conveniences.

You brag when you ask for “Broglie."

I was really surprised that there was mention of Broglie in a book published before the assassination.....

Robert,

This is the type of research that is needed, but is seemingly rarely carried out.

Well done.

I'm working on something at the moment which may add weight to the suggestion it was not Oswald in MC in Sept/Oct. This will also identify a likely "suspect" and the FBI cover operation I think was used - all backed up by FBI documents and WC exhibits showing travel records.

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I found your interview of Richard A. Sprague on 25th May 1978 very interesting. He obviously learnt a great deal from his experience as acting counsel and drector of he HSCA. As he said: "There was total dishonesty in the reporting of newspapers that I would otherwise have confidence in, such as the New York Times and the Washington Post... as a result, this attitude by the press was most successful in taking advantage of the attitude of Congress in general, and by individual Congressmen wh were manipulated such that the press could achieve a tone to help kill the investigation."

Do you think that Sprague would have got to the truth if he had remained as director of the HSCA? What are your views on his replacement, Robert Blakey? Has Sprague made any recent comments on the JFK assassination?

A while back I discovered a book published appx. a year before the JFK Assassination..... My Mexico City and Yours by Pepe Romero, has the following passages.

..." My Mexico City and Yours By Pepe Romero A Dolphin Guide

Copyright 1962

Sanborn's is a place that is of interest, ie how many were there, et cetera.

of Sanborn’s, there are five. One at the House of Tiles downtown, another in the U.S. Embassy Building, another in the Del Prado Arcade, one in Calle Niza 30 and still another in the Palacio de Hiero department store building on Salamanca and Oaxaca the site where the old bull ring used to stand in Calle Durango.

Sanborn's

1. Madero 4.

2. Reforma 45. Has a nice bar.

3. Arcade, Hotel del Prado

4. Salmanaca and Oaxaca, in ther Palacio de Hierro department store building, Open late

5. Niza 30.

p 107;

Then there is the Hotel Luma.....

Luma

On Calle Orizaba 16. (Tel. 25-43-46) Situated in the famous Calle Roma, five minutes from everything. Small, neat and well managed.

Its Scherezade Bar is a nice people’s meeting place. Open from 1: P.M. to 1 A.M. Restaurant serves good cooking. All other conveniences.

You brag when you ask for “Broglie."

I was really surprised that there was mention of Broglie in a book published before the assassination.....

Robert,

This is the type of research that is needed, but is seemingly rarely carried out.

Well done.

I'm working on something at the moment which may add weight to the suggestion it was not Oswald in MC in Sept/Oct. This will also identify a likely "suspect" and the FBI cover operation I think was used - all backed up by FBI documents and WC exhibits showing travel records.

I can't wait to see it.......Robert

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Was Edwin Collins Angelo? What does Gaeton Fonzi and Dick Russell think about this?
What are your current views on the Silvia Odio incident?

I have never heard that Edwin Collins was "Angelo." My views on the Odio incident are basically unchanged from what I've written - it was part of the set-up of Oswald, which does not mean it was not a "second Oswald" who was present with Angel and Leopoldo.

Edited by Dick Russell
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  • 2 weeks later...
Was Edwin Collins Angelo? What does Gaeton Fonzi and Dick Russell think about this?
What are your current views on the Silvia Odio incident?

I have never heard that Edwin Collins was "Angelo." My views on the Odio incident are basically unchanged from what I've written - it was part of the set-up of Oswald, which does not mean it was not a "second Oswald" who was present with Angel and Leopoldo.

I just wanted to let you know, Mr Russell, that I have read dozens of books on the assassination of JFK, and that your most recent book in it's own context, surpasses The Man Who Knew Too Much. I came away with several things from the book, but I don't want to insert myself into a Question and Answer format, so I will simply say that the material on Castillo alone was both extremely illuminating, and I thought literally contained leads, if he was really in Dallas that day, instead of being programmed to say he was in Dallas that day. I am sure you realize my point.

One last thing I thought I would share with you, is regarding ostensibly a decade later version of Luis Castillo, that is mentioned on the website serendipity and in Weberman and Canfield's book regarding someone circa 1972 named Larry Trackman, who, also was allegedly trying to assassinate Ferdinand Marcos.

What I discovered was....

Lawrence Trackman, [next paragraph is spelled as Truckman] identified as "an American adventurer" by the Rome newspaper "Il Messaggero," 1972 no date included.They report Trackman was arrested in Manila, Phillipines because of his alleged involvement in an assassination plot against Ferdinand Marcos. He told interviewers that Kennedy was "The victim of a plot by 15 Cuban and American mercenaries enlisted for the Bay of Pigs invaison." The group could have been Interpen-IAB.......Truckman was allegedly under the influence of sodium pentothat at the time.

The text above is what appeared in the 1993 update by Weberman/Canfield page 149 no footnote reference

Also See

http://www.serendipity.li/wod/nsmith_chron.htm

Since there was no footnote in Weberman’s book regarding Lawrence Trackman, I continued to look, and today I did find something in the files at maryferrell.org under the category of Angelo Bruno a document dated Jan 13, 1964 contains a list of persons making telephone calls from the New York City telephone number

TN 7-8670, which is listed to System Merchandise Corporation, 19 West 44th Street in New York City.

On June 25th 1963 first name not listed last name Yetman, apparently placed a call to Larry Trackman in Buenos Aries, Argentina tel number 414031. * While I would definitely not assume the two names are the same person, conversely, I would not assume they weren’t. Further complicating matters is at the end of the document there is another spelling of said person, this time Larry Tractman.

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...mp;relPageId=74 *

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...amp;relPageId=1

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...sPageId=1348086

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...mp;relPageId=85

The Buenos Aries telephone number kind of shocked me......

Have you ever heard the story regarding Trackman?

Edited by Robert Howard
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  • 3 weeks later...

In your book, On the Trail of the JFK Assassins, you include an interesting interview with Gerry Hemming that originally appeared in Argosy Magazine in April 1976. You quote Hemming as saying: “Look, going back to things concerning the overthrow of Batista in 1958, the Mob was trying to get their boys into Cuba – Sturgis, Johnny Devereux, Jack Canon, Herman Marx. They wanted people on both sides (with Batista and with Castro). Later they operated the same way, trying to do the hits against Fidel through 1959 and 1960.”

In another part of the interview you quote Hemming as saying that he suspected that Loran Hall was involved in the assassination of JFK. He added that in 1963: “He (Hall) siphoned off a couple of people who had worked with me in the past, and started organizing his own operation with Sturgis and some other guys.” In the interview you did not follow-up the possibility that Sturgis was involved in the assassination. Have you come across any other information that supports Hemming’s theory about the Hall/Sturgis theory?

It might be significant that Don Bohning, writing in the association of Former Intelligence Officer’s journal, was keen to point out that Sturgis never worked for the CIA. Yet a CIA document that was declassified in 1993 makes it clear that Sturgis was a paid operative of the agency. The document dated 9th February, 1975, has the subject heading: "Telephone Call from John Dean". The memo is signed JRS (James Rodney Schlesinger) and is for the attention of General Vernon Walters, the Deputy Director of the CIA at the time. The memo includes the following: "I discussed these matters with Bill Colby, who indicated that Sturgis has not been on the payroll for a number of years and that whatever his allegations about the Chilean Embassy, the Agency has no connection at all." Joe Trento, the author of “The Secret History of the CIA”, told me by email that Colby told him that Sturgis was a “contract operative for the Agency for more than a decade.”

Do you think it is possible that Sturgis and Hall were part of a CIA operation to kill JFK?

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Was Edwin Collins Angelo? What does Gaeton Fonzi and Dick Russell think about this?
What are your current views on the Silvia Odio incident?

I have never heard that Edwin Collins was "Angelo." My views on the Odio incident are basically unchanged from what I've written - it was part of the set-up of Oswald, which does not mean it was not a "second Oswald" who was present with Angel and Leopoldo.

Did "Angel" (pronounced 'on-hell') use the last name Wrangel or was it just a nickname or pseudonym? Did you know that Baron

Charles Wrangel, the son of Baron Pyotr Wrangel, has been linked into Boris Brasol via John Roy Carlson, when Brasol worked for

The Coudert Brothers law firm in NYC who helped hundreds of ex-Czarists into this country via their Paris, France and Baku, Russia

offices? George deMohrenschildt once ran the Russian National oil industry for the Nobels of Peace Prize fame in Baku. It is very likely that

just about all of the Dallas based White Russian petroleum geologists came over here using the Coudert Brothers Orient Express Ukrainian Nazi Ratlines.

Also working for The Coudert Brothers was a young [Robert J. Morris] who was assigned to the commie-hunting Rapp-Coudert Committee.

Brasol brought over The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion from Czarist Russia and may have invented the concept of scapegoating

the Jewish-Bolsheviks for everything and passed this legacy and subterfuge on to Morris and GLK Smith who first pushed "Holllywood Blacklisting" then later, attached Alger Hiss and then supported McCarthyism.

Adrian Arcand, Brasol's boss, was a Canadian Fascist who was jailed as a danger to national security in Canada and both deMohrenschildts

circled in this same orbit as Nazi spies and traitors to the USA. Coudert Brothers, Freeric Rene, Coudert Jr. later ran William F. Buckley's Mayoralty campaign in 1965 with Morris' assistance. Whole lot of Condon's Dirty Dozen got started at The Coudert Brothers law firm with "THE Manchurian Candidate", Anastase Andreivitch Vonsiatsky. Coudert Brothers brought Lukoil Public a few years ago for almost a Billion Dollars.

James Wheeler Hill, Charles Wrangel and Boris Brasol were all BUNDists who knew this entire cast of characters.

Any comments?

Edited by John Bevilaqua
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In your book, On the Trail of the JFK Assassins, you include an interesting interview with Gerry Hemming that originally appeared in Argosy Magazine in April 1976. You quote Hemming as saying: “Look, going back to things concerning the overthrow of Batista in 1958, the Mob was trying to get their boys into Cuba – Sturgis, Johnny Devereux, Jack Canon, Herman Marx. They wanted people on both sides (with Batista and with Castro). Later they operated the same way, trying to do the hits against Fidel through 1959 and 1960.”

In another part of the interview you quote Hemming as saying that he suspected that Loran Hall was involved in the assassination of JFK. He added that in 1963: “He (Hall) siphoned off a couple of people who had worked with me in the past, and started organizing his own operation with Sturgis and some other guys.” In the interview you did not follow-up the possibility that Sturgis was involved in the assassination. Have you come across any other information that supports Hemming’s theory about the Hall/Sturgis theory?

It might be significant that Don Bohning, writing in the association of Former Intelligence Officer’s journal, was keen to point out that Sturgis never worked for the CIA. Yet a CIA document that was declassified in 1993 makes it clear that Sturgis was a paid operative of the agency. The document dated 9th February, 1975, has the subject heading: "Telephone Call from John Dean". The memo is signed JRS (James Rodney Schlesinger) and is for the attention of General Vernon Walters, the Deputy Director of the CIA at the time. The memo includes the following: "I discussed these matters with Bill Colby, who indicated that Sturgis has not been on the payroll for a number of years and that whatever his allegations about the Chilean Embassy, the Agency has no connection at all." Joe Trento, the author of “The Secret History of the CIA”, told me by email that Colby told him that Sturgis was a “contract operative for the Agency for more than a decade.”

Do you think it is possible that Sturgis and Hall were part of a CIA operation to kill JFK?

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  • 2 weeks later...
In your book, On the Trail of the JFK Assassins, you include an interesting interview with Gerry Hemming that originally appeared in Argosy Magazine in April 1976. You quote Hemming as saying: “Look, going back to things concerning the overthrow of Batista in 1958, the Mob was trying to get their boys into Cuba – Sturgis, Johnny Devereux, Jack Canon, Herman Marx. They wanted people on both sides (with Batista and with Castro). Later they operated the same way, trying to do the hits against Fidel through 1959 and 1960.”

In another part of the interview you quote Hemming as saying that he suspected that Loran Hall was involved in the assassination of JFK. He added that in 1963: “He (Hall) siphoned off a couple of people who had worked with me in the past, and started organizing his own operation with Sturgis and some other guys.” In the interview you did not follow-up the possibility that Sturgis was involved in the assassination. Have you come across any other information that supports Hemming’s theory about the Hall/Sturgis theory?

It might be significant that Don Bohning, writing in the association of Former Intelligence Officer’s journal, was keen to point out that Sturgis never worked for the CIA. Yet a CIA document that was declassified in 1993 makes it clear that Sturgis was a paid operative of the agency. The document dated 9th February, 1975, has the subject heading: "Telephone Call from John Dean". The memo is signed JRS (James Rodney Schlesinger) and is for the attention of General Vernon Walters, the Deputy Director of the CIA at the time. The memo includes the following: "I discussed these matters with Bill Colby, who indicated that Sturgis has not been on the payroll for a number of years and that whatever his allegations about the Chilean Embassy, the Agency has no connection at all." Joe Trento, the author of “The Secret History of the CIA”, told me by email that Colby told him that Sturgis was a “contract operative for the Agency for more than a decade.”

Do you think it is possible that Sturgis and Hall were part of a CIA operation to kill JFK?

In retrospect, it is hard to say how much of what Hemming said was true. Certainly most of it could not be verified, and having subsequently interviewed Hall twice, I tend to doubt that he was directly involved in the assassination. Same for Sturgis, whom I also met. I don't think the people directly involved could have lived all that long afterwards. This is not to say that Sturgis wasn't a contract CIA guy, that seems quite likely. In sum, what I published in 1976 did not necessarily hold water over the ensuing decades, even though I was excited about it at the time.

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In your book, On the Trail of the JFK Assassins, you include an interesting interview with Gerry Hemming that originally appeared in Argosy Magazine in April 1976. You quote Hemming as saying: “Look, going back to things concerning the overthrow of Batista in 1958, the Mob was trying to get their boys into Cuba – Sturgis, Johnny Devereux, Jack Canon, Herman Marx. They wanted people on both sides (with Batista and with Castro). Later they operated the same way, trying to do the hits against Fidel through 1959 and 1960.”

In another part of the interview you quote Hemming as saying that he suspected that Loran Hall was involved in the assassination of JFK. He added that in 1963: “He (Hall) siphoned off a couple of people who had worked with me in the past, and started organizing his own operation with Sturgis and some other guys.” In the interview you did not follow-up the possibility that Sturgis was involved in the assassination. Have you come across any other information that supports Hemming’s theory about the Hall/Sturgis theory?

It might be significant that Don Bohning, writing in the association of Former Intelligence Officer’s journal, was keen to point out that Sturgis never worked for the CIA. Yet a CIA document that was declassified in 1993 makes it clear that Sturgis was a paid operative of the agency. The document dated 9th February, 1975, has the subject heading: "Telephone Call from John Dean". The memo is signed JRS (James Rodney Schlesinger) and is for the attention of General Vernon Walters, the Deputy Director of the CIA at the time. The memo includes the following: "I discussed these matters with Bill Colby, who indicated that Sturgis has not been on the payroll for a number of years and that whatever his allegations about the Chilean Embassy, the Agency has no connection at all." Joe Trento, the author of “The Secret History of the CIA”, told me by email that Colby told him that Sturgis was a “contract operative for the Agency for more than a decade.”

Do you think it is possible that Sturgis and Hall were part of a CIA operation to kill JFK?

In retrospect, it is hard to say how much of what Hemming said was true. Certainly most of it could not be verified, and having subsequently interviewed Hall twice, I tend to doubt that he was directly involved in the assassination. Same for Sturgis, whom I also met. I don't think the people directly involved could have lived all that long afterwards. This is not to say that Sturgis wasn't a contract CIA guy, that seems quite likely. In sum, what I published in 1976 did not necessarily hold water over the ensuing decades, even though I was excited about it at the time.

Dick, you should be congratulated for identifying Sturgis as a very real participant in the JFK hit. I actually saw Sturgis a couple of times in the yard of my neighbor's house in Miami, stealing concrete cinder blocks from our fence to be used as bomb casings for his "boom and bang" operations over Castro's Cuba. Then when Winslow messed up the exact details of my experiences in Miami as a teenager, Sturgis came looking for me in my hometown driving an old White Cadillac Coupe de Ville, with silver-grey hair and a Florida license plate with "Stirgis" or "Sturgis" as a vanitly plate.

And I "never" said that Sturgis was seen at the CIA safehouse on the "day of" the Dallas plot overheard by my father. I only said I saw him a couple of times in the "early 1960's" along with Hunt (twice), Ruby (once), and Hemming (twice). So by dint of falsely enhanced paranoia, Sturgis implicated himself in the JFK hit, by paying me a little visit and having some of his friends give me threatening phone calls.

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Was Edwin Collins Angelo? What does Gaeton Fonzi and Dick Russell think about this?
What are your current views on the Silvia Odio incident?

I have never heard that Edwin Collins was "Angelo." My views on the Odio incident are basically unchanged from what I've written - it was part of the set-up of Oswald, which does not mean it was not a "second Oswald" who was present with Angel and Leopoldo.

I just wanted to let you know, Mr Russell, that I have read dozens of books on the assassination of JFK, and that your most recent book in it's own context, surpasses The Man Who Knew Too Much. I came away with several things from the book, but I don't want to insert myself into a Question and Answer format, so I will simply say that the material on Castillo alone was both extremely illuminating, and I thought literally contained leads, if he was really in Dallas that day, instead of being programmed to say he was in Dallas that day. I am sure you realize my point.

One last thing I thought I would share with you, is regarding ostensibly a decade later version of Luis Castillo, that is mentioned on the website serendipity and in Weberman and Canfield's book regarding someone circa 1972 named Larry Trackman, who, also was allegedly trying to assassinate Ferdinand Marcos.

What I discovered was....

Lawrence Trackman, [next paragraph is spelled as Truckman] identified as "an American adventurer" by the Rome newspaper "Il Messaggero," 1972 no date included.They report Trackman was arrested in Manila, Phillipines because of his alleged involvement in an assassination plot against Ferdinand Marcos. He told interviewers that Kennedy was "The victim of a plot by 15 Cuban and American mercenaries enlisted for the Bay of Pigs invaison." The group could have been Interpen-IAB.......Truckman was allegedly under the influence of sodium pentothat at the time.

The text above is what appeared in the 1993 update by Weberman/Canfield page 149 no footnote reference

Also See

http://www.serendipity.li/wod/nsmith_chron.htm

Since there was no footnote in Weberman’s book regarding Lawrence Trackman, I continued to look, and today I did find something in the files at maryferrell.org under the category of Angelo Bruno a document dated Jan 13, 1964 contains a list of persons making telephone calls from the New York City telephone number

TN 7-8670, which is listed to System Merchandise Corporation, 19 West 44th Street in New York City.

On June 25th 1963 first name not listed last name Yetman, apparently placed a call to Larry Trackman in Buenos Aries, Argentina tel number 414031. * While I would definitely not assume the two names are the same person, conversely, I would not assume they weren’t. Further complicating matters is at the end of the document there is another spelling of said person, this time Larry Tractman.

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...mp;relPageId=74 *

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...amp;relPageId=1

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...sPageId=1348086

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...mp;relPageId=85

The Buenos Aries telephone number kind of shocked me......

Have you ever heard the story regarding Trackman?

Thank you Mr. Howard for your kind words about my work. I came across the Larry Truckman story back-in-the-day, but was unable to ferret out anything more about it. I think there was an article in 1975 on AP.

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