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Deaths of Witnesses before the Assassination


John Simkin

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Researchers have understandably concentrated on witnesses killed after the assassination of JFK:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=603

However, it is possible that people considered unreliable, who knew about the plot, might have been killed before the assassination. For example, Philip Graham, the owner of the Washington Post and a key figure in Operation Mockingbird.

Graham joined the Army Air Corps in 1942. He worked as an assistant to William Donovan, head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). In 1944 Graham was recruited into the "Special Branch, a super-secret part of Intelligence, run by Colonel Al McCormick". He was sent to China where he worked with he worked with John K. Singlaub, Ray S. Cline, Richard Helms, Jack Anderson, E. Howard Hunt, Mitchell WerBell, Paul Helliwell, Robert Emmett Johnson and Lucien Conein. Others working in China at that time included Tommy Corcoran, Whiting Willauer and William Pawley.

Graham's father-in-law was Eugene Meyer, the owner of the Washington Post. In 1946 Meyer appointed Graham as associate publisher. He eventually took over business side of the newspaper's operations. He also played an important role in the paper's editorial policy.

Graham lived in Washington where he associated with a group of journalists, politicians and government officials that became known as the Georgetown Set. This included Frank Wisner, George Kennan, Dean Acheson, Richard Bissell, Desmond FitzGerald, Joseph Alsop, Stewart Alsop, Tracy Barnes, Thomas Braden, David Bruce, Clark Clifford, Walt Rostow, Eugene Rostow, Chip Bohlen, Cord Meyer, James Angleton, William Averill Harriman, John McCloy, Felix Frankfurter, John Sherman Cooper, James Reston, Allen W. Dulles and Paul Nitze.

Most men brought their wives to these gatherings. Members of what was later called the Georgetown Ladies' Social Club included Katharine Graham, Mary Pinchot Meyer, Sally Reston, Polly Wisner, Joan Braden, Lorraine Cooper, Evangeline Bruce, Avis Bohlen, Janet Barnes, Tish Alsop, Cynthia Helms, Marietta FitzGerald, Phyllis Nitze and Annie Bissell.

Graham met Lyndon B. Johnson in 1953. Graham believed that one day Johnson would make a good president. Graham told Johnson that his main problem was that he was perceived in Washington as someone under the control of the Texas oil and gas industry. Graham added that his attitude towards civil rights was also hurting him with liberals in the North. He was advised to go a "bit beyond (Richard) Russell and yet far short of (Hubert) Humphrey".

Graham was a supporter of the Democratic Party and did what he could to get Johnson the nomination in 1960. When Kennedy defeated Johnson he sent Clark Clifford to ask Stuart Symington to be his running-mate. Symington accepted the post but said: "I bet you a hundred dollars that no matter what he says, Jack will not make me his running mate. He will have to pick Lyndon". In the background Graham and Joseph Alsop were attempting to persuade Kennedy to appoint Johnson instead. Despite the objection of Robert Kennedy and other leading advisers, Kennedy decided to replace Symington with Johnson.

After his election Kennedy was persuaded by Graham to appoint his friend, Douglas Dillon as Secretary of the Treasury. It is claimed that Graham had links with the Central Intelligence Agency. He had a close relationship with Tracy Barnes and Frank Wisner. it has been claimed that Graham played an important role in Operation Mockingbird, the CIA program to infiltrate domestic American media. According to Katherine Graham, her husband worked overtime at the Post during the Bay of Pigs operation to protect the reputations of his friends who had organized the ill-fated venture.

As president of the Washington Post Company he purchased Washington Times-Herald. Later he took control of radio and television stations WTOP (Washington) and WJXT (Jacksonville). In 1961 Graham purchased Newsweek. The following year he took control of America's two leading art magazines, Art News and Portfolio. The main person involved in arranging Graham's takeover of other media companies was Fritz Beebe. He ran the law firm Cravath, Swaine, & Moore. This was the company owned by Al McCormick, who Graham met during the war. Averell Harriman was another one involved in these negotiations.

Philip Graham, supposedly committed suicide by killing himself with a shotgun on 3rd August, 1963. Why did they need to kill Graham? The reason was that Graham was an alcholic who was sometimes guilty of dangerous outbursts. In the summer of 1963 he attended a newspaper publishers convention in Arizona and gave a speech attacking the CIA and exposing "insider" secrets about official Washington - including details of Kennedy's affair with Mary Meyer, the former wife of a top CIA official, Cord Meyer.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKgrahamP.htm

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Researchers have understandably concentrated on witnesses killed after the assassination of JFK:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=603

However, it is possible that people considered unreliable, who knew about the plot, might have been killed before the assassination. For example, Philip Graham, the owner of the Washington Post and a key figure in Operation Mockingbird.

Graham joined the Army Air Corps in 1942. He worked as an assistant to William Donovan, head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). In 1944 Graham was recruited into the "Special Branch, a super-secret part of Intelligence, run by Colonel Al McCormick". He was sent to China where he worked with he worked with John K. Singlaub, Ray S. Cline, Richard Helms, Jack Anderson, E. Howard Hunt, Mitchell WerBell, Paul Helliwell, Robert Emmett Johnson and Lucien Conein. Others working in China at that time included Tommy Corcoran, Whiting Willauer and William Pawley.

Graham's father-in-law was Eugene Meyer, the owner of the Washington Post. In 1946 Meyer appointed Graham as associate publisher. He eventually took over business side of the newspaper's operations. He also played an important role in the paper's editorial policy.

Graham lived in Washington where he associated with a group of journalists, politicians and government officials that became known as the Georgetown Set. This included Frank Wisner, George Kennan, Dean Acheson, Richard Bissell, Desmond FitzGerald, Joseph Alsop, Stewart Alsop, Tracy Barnes, Thomas Braden, David Bruce, Clark Clifford, Walt Rostow, Eugene Rostow, Chip Bohlen, Cord Meyer, James Angleton, William Averill Harriman, John McCloy, Felix Frankfurter, John Sherman Cooper, James Reston, Allen W. Dulles and Paul Nitze.

Most men brought their wives to these gatherings. Members of what was later called the Georgetown Ladies' Social Club included Katharine Graham, Mary Pinchot Meyer, Sally Reston, Polly Wisner, Joan Braden, Lorraine Cooper, Evangeline Bruce, Avis Bohlen, Janet Barnes, Tish Alsop, Cynthia Helms, Marietta FitzGerald, Phyllis Nitze and Annie Bissell.

Graham met Lyndon B. Johnson in 1953. Graham believed that one day Johnson would make a good president. Graham told Johnson that his main problem was that he was perceived in Washington as someone under the control of the Texas oil and gas industry. Graham added that his attitude towards civil rights was also hurting him with liberals in the North. He was advised to go a "bit beyond (Richard) Russell and yet far short of (Hubert) Humphrey".

Graham was a supporter of the Democratic Party and did what he could to get Johnson the nomination in 1960. When Kennedy defeated Johnson he sent Clark Clifford to ask Stuart Symington to be his running-mate. Symington accepted the post but said: "I bet you a hundred dollars that no matter what he says, Jack will not make me his running mate. He will have to pick Lyndon". In the background Graham and Joseph Alsop were attempting to persuade Kennedy to appoint Johnson instead. Despite the objection of Robert Kennedy and other leading advisers, Kennedy decided to replace Symington with Johnson.

After his election Kennedy was persuaded by Graham to appoint his friend, Douglas Dillon as Secretary of the Treasury. It is claimed that Graham had links with the Central Intelligence Agency. He had a close relationship with Tracy Barnes and Frank Wisner. it has been claimed that Graham played an important role in Operation Mockingbird, the CIA program to infiltrate domestic American media. According to Katherine Graham, her husband worked overtime at the Post during the Bay of Pigs operation to protect the reputations of his friends who had organized the ill-fated venture.

As president of the Washington Post Company he purchased Washington Times-Herald. Later he took control of radio and television stations WTOP (Washington) and WJXT (Jacksonville). In 1961 Graham purchased Newsweek. The following year he took control of America's two leading art magazines, Art News and Portfolio. The main person involved in arranging Graham's takeover of other media companies was Fritz Beebe. He ran the law firm Cravath, Swaine, & Moore. This was the company owned by Al McCormick, who Graham met during the war. Averell Harriman was another one involved in these negotiations.

Philip Graham, supposedly committed suicide by killing himself with a shotgun on 3rd August, 1963. Why did they need to kill Graham? The reason was that Graham was an alcholic who was sometimes guilty of dangerous outbursts. In the summer of 1963 he attended a newspaper publishers convention in Arizona and gave a speech attacking the CIA and exposing "insider" secrets about official Washington - including details of Kennedy's affair with Mary Meyer, the former wife of a top CIA official, Cord Meyer.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKgrahamP.htm

Steven Ward died the same day. Link to JFK?

After the Second World War Ward worked for the Osteopathic Association Clinic in Dorset Square. His first private patient was Averell Harriman...

I would add Alex Rorke ( a pro Kennedy man )and trusted friend of Oswald, and chosen by him to fly JVB to mexico...

Oh, I forgot: Quote R Bartholomew:

In early April, 1963, the date for Kennedy's trip to Texas was set for November 21st. The occasion was an appreciation dinner in Houston for Kennedy's friend, Texas Congressman Albert Thomas. On April 23rd, Lyndon Johnson made a cryptic statement at a press conference in Dallas that included a phrase about reporters figuratively shooting Kennedy during his Texas trip. (...) The senior Smith's mentor, Texas historian Walter Prescott Webb, was an intimate friend of those planning Albert Thomas' dinner. Webb died suddenly in late April, 1963, in a one-car accident near Austin.

Edited by Karl Kinaski
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Researchers have understandably concentrated on witnesses killed after the assassination of JFK:

http://educationforu...p?showtopic=603

However, it is possible that people considered unreliable, who knew about the plot, might have been killed before the assassination. For example, Philip Graham, the owner of the Washington Post and a key figure in Operation Mockingbird.

Philip Graham, supposedly committed suicide by killing himself with a shotgun on 3rd August, 1963. Why did they need to kill Graham? The reason was that Graham was an alcholic who was sometimes guilty of dangerous outbursts. In the summer of 1963 he attended a newspaper publishers convention in Arizona and gave a speech attacking the CIA and exposing "insider" secrets about official Washington - including details of Kennedy's affair with Mary Meyer, the former wife of a top CIA official, Cord Meyer.

http://www.spartacus.../JFKgrahamP.htm

What I have read is that Philip Graham was a manic-depressive. (Now who do I know who's like that?) He was in a mental hospital and they let him go home for the weekend. Supposedly, only Katherine Graham was in the house when he shot himself with a rifle in a downstairs bathroom.

Earlier, when he was invited to the Kennedy's Oval Office, he walked in, picked up the "red" phone and yelled, "Scramble the planes."

Suspicion surrounds his death. His father-in-law gave the business over to Philip, when rightfully it should have gone to Katherine Graham. Male chauvinism. Did Philip really kill himself? Would someone with foreknowledge of Kennedy's Assassination confide in Philip, who was a "mental case"? Who knows what he knew?

Kathy C

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Researchers have understandably concentrated on witnesses killed after the assassination of JFK:

http://educationforu...p?showtopic=603

However, it is possible that people considered unreliable, who knew about the plot, might have been killed before the assassination. For example, Philip Graham, the owner of the Washington Post and a key figure in Operation Mockingbird.

Philip Graham, supposedly committed suicide by killing himself with a shotgun on 3rd August, 1963. Why did they need to kill Graham? The reason was that Graham was an alcholic who was sometimes guilty of dangerous outbursts. In the summer of 1963 he attended a newspaper publishers convention in Arizona and gave a speech attacking the CIA and exposing "insider" secrets about official Washington - including details of Kennedy's affair with Mary Meyer, the former wife of a top CIA official, Cord Meyer.

http://www.spartacus.../JFKgrahamP.htm

What I have read is that Philip Graham was a manic-depressive. (Now who do I know who's like that?) He was in a mental hospital and they let him go home for the weekend. Supposedly, only Katherine Graham was in the house when he shot himself with a rifle in a downstairs bathroom.

Earlier, when he was invited to the Kennedy's Oval Office, he walked in, picked up the "red" phone and yelled, "Scramble the planes."

Suspicion surrounds his death. His father-in-law gave the business over to Philip, when rightfully it should have gone to Katherine Graham. Male chauvinism. Did Philip really kill himself? Would someone with foreknowledge of Kennedy's Assassination confide in Philip, who was a "mental case"? Who knows what he knew?

Kathy C

This man had a link to a rather famous Kennedy Assassination figure........his obituary appeared in the Dallas Morning News on October 31, 1963....

I can't help but think that face reminds me of someone.....

If this isn't a conversation piece, I guess I don't understand the meaning of the phrase....

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Researchers have understandably concentrated on witnesses killed after the assassination of JFK:

http://educationforu...p?showtopic=603

However, it is possible that people considered unreliable, who knew about the plot, might have been killed before the assassination. For example, Philip Graham, the owner of the Washington Post and a key figure in Operation Mockingbird.

Philip Graham, supposedly committed suicide by killing himself with a shotgun on 3rd August, 1963. Why did they need to kill Graham? The reason was that Graham was an alcholic who was sometimes guilty of dangerous outbursts. In the summer of 1963 he attended a newspaper publishers convention in Arizona and gave a speech attacking the CIA and exposing "insider" secrets about official Washington - including details of Kennedy's affair with Mary Meyer, the former wife of a top CIA official, Cord Meyer.

http://www.spartacus.../JFKgrahamP.htm

What I have read is that Philip Graham was a manic-depressive. (Now who do I know who's like that?) He was in a mental hospital and they let him go home for the weekend. Supposedly, only Katherine Graham was in the house when he shot himself with a rifle in a downstairs bathroom.

Earlier, when he was invited to the Kennedy's Oval Office, he walked in, picked up the "red" phone and yelled, "Scramble the planes."

Suspicion surrounds his death. His father-in-law gave the business over to Philip, when rightfully it should have gone to Katherine Graham. Male chauvinism. Did Philip really kill himself? Would someone with foreknowledge of Kennedy's Assassination confide in Philip, who was a "mental case"? Who knows what he knew?

Kathy C

This man had a link to a rather famous Kennedy Assassination figure........his obituary appeared in the Dallas Morning News on October 31, 1963....

I can't help but think that face reminds me of someone.....

If this isn't a conversation piece, I guess I don't understand the meaning of the phrase....

Dead at age 51...[hmmm...in 1963, LBJ would've been 55]...and the resemblance, at least in the newspaper photo, IS uncanny.

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  • 2 years later...

This individual also died before the JFK Assassination; His role was central in the preparations for the Bay of Pigs invasion....

Chicago Tribune (IL) - August 07, 1962

WILLAUER, 55, EX-AMERICAN ENVOY, DIES

Deceased Name: Whiting Willauer

Nantucket, Mass., Aug. 6 (UPI) -- Whiting Willauer , 55, former American ambassador to Costa Rica and Honduras, died today in his summer home on Nantucket Island.

Willauer was ambassador to Honduras from 1954 to 1958, when he became ambassador to Costa Rica. He held the latter post thru the end of the Eisenhower administration.

Willauer , a summer resident of Nantucket for the late 15 years, was born in New York City. He was graduated from Princeton university and Harvard university law school.

I would, out of curiosity like to know the cause of death.

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Maybe correlation?

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One of the more ironic facts regarding being a JFK researcher in 2014 is that while there is the usual debate taking place between the "conspiracy theorists" and the "official historians," the latter who occupy center stage on any television specials in the media world, is that very bona fide books continue to come out.

Much to my delight, a week ago, I purchased the book referenced below

http://www.amazon.com/Hit-List-Investigation-Mysterious-Assassination/dp/1620878070

see

If I were to rank this book on a scale of 1 to 10, I would give it a 9. Many past and present members of the Education Forum are mentioned, John Simkin, Pat Speer, Tosh Plumlee

Bill Kelly and Kathleen Collins, to cite a few......The Craig Roberts Book The Dead Witnesses, is the only other book I am aware of that covered this area. Any serious student of the

assassination would do well to have this book. But don't take my word for it. If you have an Amazon account, you can even, as of now search the book.

At some point soon, I will try to upload the article about Whiting Willauer and his involvement in the planning of the Bay of Pigs Invasion.

Richard Belzer is one of my favorite mainstream figures who has the chutzpah to take on the mainstream media in authenticating the reality of the JFK assassination, and that is no small feat

when you are a well known figure.....

All for now

Edited by Robert Howard
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  • 2 weeks later...

Great find, Robert.

I recently passed around another copy of Last Word to a sibling and friend. The friend, is a retired public school teacher. ( and currently a working Adjunct Instructor at a Community College )

Her first comment when we discussed the assassination was " who did in then, the Russians? " Now, she understands what really happened. In her late 60's , she went from believing the myth to feeling sickened by the actions of the Secret Service of 1963.

I guess all that it takes is an open mind and unbiased research on the Coup to be willing to accept an ugly truth.

I have talked to several educators on the matter, and often was not the one taking the lead in the discussion!

Edited by Peter McGuire
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