Jump to content
The Education Forum

David Von Pein

Members
  • Posts

    7,823
  • Joined

  • Last visited

3 Followers

About David Von Pein

  • Birthday 12/27/1961

Contact Methods

  • Website URL
    http://DavidVonPein.blogspot.com

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Indiana, USA

Recent Profile Visitors

29,048 profile views

David Von Pein's Achievements

Mentor

Mentor (12/14)

  • Dedicated
  • First Post
  • Collaborator
  • Posting Machine Rare
  • Conversation Starter

Recent Badges

  1. THE FASCINATING ACCOUNT OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY'S ASSASSINATION BY MERRIMAN SMITH OF UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL: --------------------------------------------------- WASHINGTON (UPI) -- It was a balmy, sunny noon as we motored through downtown Dallas behind President Kennedy. The procession cleared the center of the business district and turned into a handsome highway that wound through what appeared to be a park. I was riding in the so-called White House press "pool" car, a telephone company vehicle equipped with a mobile radio-telephone. It was in the front seat between a driver from the telephone company and Malcolm Kilduff, acting White House press secretary for the President's Texas tour. Three other pool reporters were wedged into the back seat. Suddenly we heard three loud, almost painfully loud, cracks. The first sounded as if it might have been a large firecracker, but the second and third blasts were unmistakable. Gunfire. The President's car, possibly as much as 150 or 200 yards ahead, seemed to falter briefly. We saw a flurry of activity in the Secret Service follow-up car behind the chief executive's bubble-top limousine. Next in line was the car bearing Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. Behind that, another follow-up car bearing agents assigned to the vice president's protection. We were behind that car. Our car stood still for probably only a few seconds, but it seemed like a lifetime. One sees history explode before one's eyes and for even the most trained observer, there is a limit to what one can comprehend. I looked ahead at the President's car but could not see him or his companion, Gov. John B. Connally of Texas. Both men had been riding on the right side of the bubble-top limousine from Washington. I thought I saw a flash of pink which would have been Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy. Everyone in our car began shouting at the driver to pull up closer to the President's car, but at this moment, we saw the big bubble-top and a motorcycle escort roar away at high speed. We screamed at our driver, "Get going, get going." We careened around the Johnson car and its escort and set out down the highway, barely able to keep in sight of the President's car and the accompanying Secret Service follow-up car. They vanished around a curve. When we cleared the same curve we could see where we were heading--Parkland Hospital, a large brick structure to the left of the arterial highway. We skidded around a sharp left turn and spilled out of the pool car as it entered the hospital driveway. I ran to the side of the bubble-top. The President was face down on the back seat. Mrs. Kennedy made a cradle of her arms around the President's head and bent over him as if she were whispering to him. Governor Connally was on his back on the floor of the car, his head and shoulders resting in the arms of his wife, Nellie, who kept shaking her head and shaking with dry sobs. Blood oozed from the front of the Governor's suit. I could not see the President's wound. But I could see blood splattered around the interior of the rear seat and a dark stain spreading down the right side of the President's dark gray suit. From the telephone car, I had radioed the Dallas bureau of UPI that three shots had been fired at the Kennedy motorcade. Seeing the bloody scene in the rear of the car at the hospital entrance, I knew I had to get to a telephone immediately. Clint Hill, the Secret Service agent in charge of the detail assigned to Mrs. Kennedy, was leaning into the rear of the car. "How badly was he hit, Clint?" I asked. "He's dead," Hill replied curtly. I have no further clear memory of the scene in the driveway. I recall a babble of anxious, tense voices -- "Where in hell are the stretchers . . . get a doctor out here . . . he's on the way . . . come on, easy there." And from somewhere, nervous sobbing. I raced down a short stretch of sidewalk into a hospital corridor. The first thing I spotted was a small clerical office, more of a booth than an office. Inside, a bespectacled man stood shuffling what appeared to be hospital forms. At a wicket much like a bank teller's cage, I spotted a telephone on the shelf. "How do you get outside?" I gasped. "The President has been hurt and this is an emergency call." "Dial nine," he said, shoving the phone toward me. It took two tries before I successfully dialed the Dallas UPI number. Quickly I dictated a bulletin saying the President had been seriously, perhaps fatally, injured by an assassin's bullets while driving through the streets of Dallas. Litters bearing the President and the Governor rolled by me as I dictated, but my back was to the hallway and I didn't see them until they were at the entrance of the emergency room about 75 or 100 feet away. I knew they had passed, however, from the horrified expression that suddenly spread over the face of the man behind the wicket. As I stood in the drab buff hallway leading into the emergency ward trying to reconstruct the shooting for the UPI man on the other end of the telephone and still keep track of what was happening outside of the door of the emergency room, I watched a swift and confused panorama sweep before me. Kilduff of the White House press staff raced up and down the hall. Police captains barked at each other, "Clear this area." Two priests hurried in behind a Secret Service agent, their narrow purple stoles rolled up tightly in their hands. A police lieutenant ran down the hall with a large carton of blood for transfusions. A doctor came in and said he was responding to a call for "all neurosurgeons." The priests came out and said the President had received the Last Sacrament of the Roman Catholic Church. They said he was still alive, but not conscious. Members of the Kennedy staff began arriving. They had been behind us in the motorcade, but hopelessly bogged for a time in confused traffic. Telephones were at a premium in the hospital and I clung to mine for dear life. I was afraid to stray from the wicket lest I lost contact with the outside world. My decision was made for me, however, when Kilduff and Wayne Hawks of the White House staff ran by me, shouting that Kilduff would make a statement shortly in the so-called Nurses Room a floor above and at the far end of the hospital. I threw down the phone and sped after them. We reached the door of the conference room and there were loud cries of "Quiet!" Fighting to keep his emotions under control, Kilduff said, "President John Fitzgerald Kennedy died at approximately one o'clock." I raced into a nearby office. The telephone switchboard at the hospital was hopelessly jammed. I spotted Virginia Payette, wife of UPI's Southwest Division manager and a veteran reporter in her own right. I told her to try getting through on pay telephones on the floor above. Frustrated by the inability to get through the hospital switchboard, I appealed to a nurse. She led me through a maze of corridors and back stairways to another floor and a lone pay booth. I got the Dallas office. Virginia had gotten through before me. Whereupon I ran back through the hospital to the conference room. There, Jiggs Fauver of the White House transportation staff grabbed me and said Kilduff wanted a pool of three men immediately to fly back to Washington on Air Force One, the presidential aircraft. "He wants you downstairs, and he wants you right now," Fauver said. Down the stairs I ran and into the driveway, only to discover Kilduff had just pulled out in our telephone car. Charles Roberts of Newsweek Magazine, Sid Davis of Westinghouse Broadcasting and I implored a police officer to take us to the airport in his squad car. The Secret Service had requested that no sirens be used in the vicinity of the airport, but the Dallas officer did a masterful job of getting us through some of the worst traffic I've ever seen. As we piled out of the car on the edge of the runway about 200 yards from the presidential aircraft, Kilduff spotted us and motioned for us to hurry. We trotted to him and he said the plane could take two pool men to Washington; that Johnson was about to take the oath of office aboard the plane and would take off immediately thereafter. I saw a bank of telephone booths beside the runway and asked if I had time to advise my news service. He said, "But, for God's sake, hurry." Then began another telephone nightmare. The Dallas office rang busy. I tried calling Washington. All circuits were busy. I then called the New York bureau of UPI where the General News Desk seemed quite shocked to hear from me. I told them about the impending installation of a new president aboard the airplane. Kilduff came out of the plane and motioned wildly toward my booth. I slammed down the phone and jogged toward the runway. A detective stopped me and said, "You dropped your pocket comb." Aboard Air Force One on which I had made so many trips as a press association reporter covering President Kennedy, all of the shades of the larger main cabin were drawn and the interior was hot and dimly lighted. Kilduff propelled us to the President's suite two-thirds of the way back in the plane. The room is used normally as a combination conference and sitting room and could accommodate eight to 10 people seated. I wedged inside the door and began counting. There were 27 people in this compartment. Johnson stood in the center with his wife, Lady Bird. U.S. District Judge Sarah T. Hughes, 67, a kindly-faced woman stood with a small black Bible in her hands, waiting to give him the oath. The compartment became hotter and hotter. Johnson was worried that some of the Kennedy staff might not be able to get inside. He urged people to press forward, but a Signal Corps photographer, Capt. Cecil Stoughton, standing in the corner on a chair, said if Johnson moved any closer, it would be virtually impossible to make a truly historic photograph. It developed that Johnson was waiting for Mrs. Kennedy, who was composing herself in a small bedroom in the rear of the plane. She appeared alone, dressed in the same pink wool suit she had worn in the morning when she appeared so happy shaking hands with airport crowds at the side of her husband. She was white-faced but dry-eyed. Friendly hands stretched toward her as she stumbled slightly. Johnson took both of her hands in his and motioned her to his left side. Lady Bird stood on his right, a fixed half-smile showing the tension. Johnson nodded to Judge Hughes, an old friend of his family and a Kennedy appointee. "Hold up your right hand and repeat after me," the woman jurist said to Johnson. Outside a jet could be heard droning into a landing. Judge Hughes held out the Bible and Johnson covered it with his large left hand. His right arm went slowly into the air and the jurist began to intone the constitutional oath, "I do solemnly swear I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States..." The brief ceremony ended when Johnson, in a deep firm voice, repeated after the judge, ". . . and so help me God." Johnson turned first to his wife, hugged her about the shoulders and kissed her on the cheek. Then he turned to Kennedy's widow, put his left arm around her and kissed her cheek. As others in the group -- some Texas Democratic House members, members of the Johnson and Kennedy staffs -- moved toward the new president, he seemed to back away from any expressions of felicitation. The two-minute ceremony concluded at 2:38 p.m., CST, and seconds later, the President said firmly, "Now, let's get airborne." Col. James Swindal, pilot of the plane, a big gleaming silver and blue fan-jet, cut on the starboard engines immediately. Several persons, including Sid Davis of Westinghouse, left the plane immediately. The White House had room for only two pool reporters on the return flight and these posts were filled by Roberts and me, although at the moment we could find no empty seats. At 2:47 p.m., CST, the wheels of Air Force One cleared the runway. Swindal roared the big ship up to an unusually high cruising altitude of 41,000 feet where at 625 MPH ground speed the jet hustled toward Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington. When the President's plane reached operating altitude, Mrs. Kennedy left her bedchamber and walked to the rear compartment of the plane. This was the so called Family Living Room, a private area where she and Kennedy, family and friends had spent many happy airborne hours chatting and dining together. Kennedy's casket had been placed in this compartment, carried aboard by a group of Secret Service agents. Mrs. Kennedy went into the rear lounge and took a chair beside the coffin. There she remained throughout the flight. Her vigil was shared at times by four staff members close to the slain chief executive -- David Powers, his buddy and personal assistant; Kenneth P. O'Donnell, appointments secretary and key political adviser; Lawrence O'Brien, chief Kennedy liaison man with Congress; and Brig. Gen. Godfrey McHugh, Kennedy's Air Force aide. Kennedy's military aide, Maj. Gen. Chester V. Clifton, was busy most of the trip in the forward areas of the plane, sending messages and making arrangements for arrival ceremonies and movement of the body to Bethesda Naval Hospital. As the flight progressed, Johnson walked back into the main compartment. My portable typewriter was lost somewhere around the hospital and I was writing on an over-sized electric typewriter which Kennedy's personal secretary, Mrs. Evelyn Lincoln, had used to type his speech texts. Johnson came up to the table where Roberts and I were trying to record the history we had just witnessed. "I'm going to make a short statement in a few minutes and give you copies of it," he said. "Then when I get on the ground, I'll do it over again." It was the first public utterance of the new chief executive, brief and moving: "This is a sad time for all people. We have suffered a loss that cannot be weighed. For me it is a deep personal tragedy. I know the world shares the sorrow that Mrs. Kennedy and her family bear. I will do my best. That is all I can do. I ask for your help -- and God's." When the plane was about 45 minutes from Washington, the new President got on a special radio-telephone and placed a call to Mrs. Rose Kennedy, the late President's mother. "I wish to God there was something I could do," he told her. "I just wanted you to know that." Then Mrs. Johnson wanted to talk to the elder Mrs. Kennedy. "We feel like the heart has been cut out of us," Mrs. Johnson said. She broke down for a moment and began to sob. Recovering in a few seconds, she added, "Our love and our prayers are with you." Thirty minutes out of Washington, Johnson put in a call for Nellie Connally, wife of the seriously wounded Texas governor. The new President said to the governor's wife: "We are praying for you, darling, and I know that everything is going to be all right, isn't it? Give him a hug and a kiss for me." It was dark when Air Force One began to skim over the lights of the Washington area, lining up for a landing at Andrews AFB. The plane touched down at 5:59 p.m., EST. I thanked the stewards for rigging up the typewriter for me, pulled on my raincoat and started down the forward ramp. Roberts and I stood under a wing and watched the casket being lowered from the rear of the plane and borne by a complement of armed forces body bearers into a waiting hearse. We watched Mrs. Kennedy and the President's brother, Atty. Gen. Robert F. Kennedy, climb into the hearse beside the coffin. The new President repeated his first public statement for broadcast and newsreel microphones, shook hands with some of the government and diplomatic leaders who turned out to meet the plane, and headed for his helicopter. Roberts and I were given seats on another 'copter bound for the White House lawn. In the compartment next to ours in one of the large chairs sat Theodore C. Sorensen, one of Kennedy's closest associates with the title of special counsel to the President. He had not gone to Texas with his chief but had come to the air base for his return. Sorensen sat wilted in the large chair, crying softly. The dignity of his deep grief seemed to sum up all of the tragedy and sadness of the previous six hours. As our helicopter circled in the balmy darkness for a landing on the White House south lawn, it seemed incredible that only six hours before, John Fitzgerald Kennedy had been a vibrant, smiling, waving and active man. [END ARTICLE.] ============================================ Here's the above article as it appeared in an Oregon newspaper on November 24, 1963.... CLICK TO ENLARGE:
  2. http://jfk-archives.blogspot.com/2015/06/jfk-assassination-arguments-part-952.html
  3. Related info concerning the subject of Paraffin Tests.... ----------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here's the complete Hoover letter in CD787: http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=11185&relPageId=2 ------------------------------------- From Page 165 of Vincent Bugliosi's "Reclaiming History".... "To confirm that firing a rifle will not leave nitrate residue on the firer's cheeks, the FBI had one of their agents, Charles L. Killion, fire three rounds in Oswald's Carcano rifle. The result of the paraffin test conducted thereafter was negative for his cheeks and hands (3 H 494, WCT Cortlandt Cunningham; WR, pp.561–562)." ------------------------------------ The Warren Commission Report, Pages 561-562.... "In a third experiment, performed after the assassination, an agent of the FBI, using the C2766 rifle, fired three rounds of Western 6.5-millimeter Mannlicher-Carcano ammunition in rapid succession. A paraffin test was then performed on both of his hands and his right cheek. Both of his hands and his cheek tested negative." ------------------------------------ Also see: http://jfk-archives.blogspot.com/2015/06/jfk-assassination-arguments-part-952.html
  4. ------------------------ More: http://kennedy-photos.blogspot.com/2012/11/kennedy-gallery-268.html
  5. "And all of that subterfuge and lying was done just so they could—what was it now?—oh, yes....just so they could falsely place Oswald on the SECOND FLOOR instead of the FIRST FLOOR (which is where most CTers say he was in the first place). Hardly seems worth it, does it? Because the SECOND FLOOR isn't the SIXTH FLOOR, is it? You'd think the crafters of this Baker/Oswald ruse would have had Baker and Truly (both rotten liars, according to CTers) say they saw Oswald dashing down the stairs between the SIXTH and FIFTH floors. Such a fabricated tale would have been infinitely better for the "Let's Frame Oswald" team of plotters. But no! They only wanted to say they saw him on the SECOND floor. As if THAT story somehow nails the resident "patsy" to the cross more efficiently. (Hilarious!) Please explain for me why the plotters and patsy-framers didn't make up a better lie regarding WHERE Baker and Truly saw Oswald. After all, most Internet CTers think BOTH of those men (Marrion Baker and Roy Truly) were evil rotten liars anyway. So why not have them say they saw Oswald either ON the sixth floor or coming down the stairs nearer to the sixth floor? The fact that the "Lunchroom Encounter" makes ZERO sense if it were, in fact, just made up from whole cloth is one of the reasons to know that it really did happen the way Officer Baker and Roy S. Truly always said it happened." -- DVP; December 2017
  6. Whether or not the rifle's scope had to be "sighted in" after being reassembled is something that I don't think has been proven one way or the other. And it's largely a moot point when we consider that Oswald might very well have utilized the rifle's iron sights instead of using the scope on November 22nd. We can never know which method he used, but the iron sights are certainly an option that cannot be ignored. I myself am of the opinion that Oswald very likely did try to utilize the 4-power telescope on his rifle for the first shot he fired at the President, but when that shot went wild and missed the entire limousine and everyone in it, he then quickly switched to using the gun's iron sights for his second and third (successful) shots. It's possible, IMO, that Oswald abandoned the scope upon realizing (after his first missed shot) that the cheap four-power telescope did, indeed, require some readjusting after the rifle had been broken down and then reassembled. But, as I said, we'll never know for sure which method of sighting Oswald used in Dealey Plaza. It will forever remain one of the several "unknowables" in the JFK case. As an addendum to the "Assembled vs. Disassembled" topic, allow me to offer up these remarks from a few years back (taken from a lengthy discussion I had with David Lifton concerning the rifle and curtain rods and, of all things, fishing poles).
  7. (DVP NOTE --- I don't know why, but Greg has now removed the above comment from his previous post. But I was able to save it before he deleted it. And I think it's a very good question/observation too, so I can't figure out why Greg wanted to dispose of it in his prior post. But, anyway, since I think it's a good question, I'll just answer it anyway, despite its deletion by Mr. Doudna....) ------------------------ Hi Greg, Regarding James Hosty's "parade" note and Thomas Kelley's report being compatible and not contradictory.... Yes, I think that certainly is possible, based mainly on my belief (which I talked about earlier today in this thread via a replay of my 2019 comments) that Hosty's "Presidential Parade" note is almost certainly (IMO) referring to the "Out Front With Shelley" timeline that also appears in another FBI document---James Bookhout's solo 11/22/63 report. When comparing the Hosty note with Bookhout's solo report, we can see that the chronology of the following three things perfectly blend together and match each other, indicating that Hosty's "parade" reference is, indeed, referring to a time that was AFTER the shooting had taken place and not DURING the assassination or BEFORE the shooting: 1. Oswald going to the 2nd floor to get a Coke (which we know, via the extra details revealed in the solo Bookhout report, occurred AFTER the shooting and at the same time Oswald encountered Officer Baker in the lunchroom). 2. Oswald then going to the 1st floor to eat lunch. 3. Oswald then going outside. I created the photo below so that a direct comparison between the two documents in question can easily be done....and, in my opinion, the words "Then went outside to watch P. Parade" are meant to convey the same meaning as "He thereafter went outside and stood around for five or ten minutes with foreman Bill Shelley". I think this conclusion becomes an obvious one to make after taking a look at the chronology in Bookhout's 11/22 solo report. There's also this excerpt below from another FBI report, which totally negates the idea that Lee Oswald was standing outside on the front steps of the Book Depository Building when the assassination of JFK was occurring:
  8. Yes. Yes, Cory, I think that's likely. Here's what I said about this matter in 2019 in this Education Forum discussion.... ---------------------- "Even if the handwritten notes were written by James Hosty (and they probably were; I'm not arguing that they weren't), then IMO it's just another in a long list of lies being uttered by Lee Oswald after he was arrested. My goodness, are LNers supposed to now fold up their tents and go home whimpering because another lie has been discovered coming from the lips of Lee Harvey Oswald (assuming LHO actually did say those exact words about going outside to watch the "P. Parade")? LNers didn't fold their tents after seeing that Oswald told Fritz he was on the first floor (and not the sixth) at the time of JFK's murder. So why would LNers now decide that this new revelation discovered by Malcolm Blunt in the National Archives is revealing something TRUTHFUL being spoken by Oswald? That'd be crazy. So, nothing's changed for Lone Assassin believers. Nothing at all. The hard evidence of Oswald's guilt in both the JFK and Tippit murders doesn't suddenly stop being in existence just because of one additional lie being told by the assassin himself. To think otherwise is to be mired in the "Prayer Man" garbage, which is where "Wishful Thinking" and a reference to "P. Parade" will now merge to provide the "PM" disciples with something to make them feel that their fantasy about Oswald being on the TSBD steps has now turned into reality. But, at most, all that's been "discovered" is just one more lie being told by a World Class Liar named Oswald." -- DVP; February 2019 [Later....] "My best guess is: I think James Hosty's "went outside to watch P. Parade" note was very likely referring to a point in time that was AFTER the assassination, not before (even though Hosty used the words "P[residential] Parade"). That note is likely referring to the "out with Bill Shelley in front" situation (which appears in Captain Fritz' notes). And that "out with Shelley" chronology, according to James Bookhout's solo FBI report that appears on Page 619 of the Warren Report, is clearly something that occurred after the assassination and after Oswald's encounter with the policeman on the second floor. With respect to why there are two separate FBI reports regarding some of this same information, well, I think it's quite possible that the two FBI agents involved in the first report (Hosty and Bookhout), after filing that first report (dictated on Nov. 23), realized that a relevant and important piece of information (the 2nd-floor lunchroom encounter) had not been included in that first joint Hosty/Bookhout report. Therefore, the necessity arose for a second report to be written which would include the information about Oswald being stopped by the police on the second floor (which became the "solo Bookhout" report that was dictated a day later, on Nov. 24). But please keep this in mind.... The Warren Commission didn't HIDE or DESTROY either of those two FBI reports. The Commission didn't conceal their existence from the public. Both of those reports---warts, omissions, and all---are readily available for anyone to view and can easily be found right there in the Warren Commission's final report, just a few pages apart in Appendix XI." -- DVP; February 2019 ------------------------------------ The full 2019 discussion is archived HERE.
  9. Hosty didn't lie. I said that previously. You don't listen very well.
  10. Sandy, Why do you think Hosty's rough notes are more believable (and spot-on accurate) than Kelley's final report? Please explain that to me.
  11. Yeah, you're right. Just because every scrap of evidence points directly at this guy named Oswald, why would I even begin to suspect him (of all people) of any wrongdoing? The new policy endorsed by many conspiracy believers seems to be: The More Evidence There Is Against Oswald, The More Innocent He Becomes. A very strange policy indeed.
×
×
  • Create New...