Stephanie Caruana

I am sticking with the original information I got from Bruce Roberts' Gemstone File--the parts that I read in 1974-5, and from personal conversations with him. As some here may know, I wrote a summary of this in early 1975, called "A Skeleton Key to the Gemstone File." I had already written a magazine article for Playgirl (December 1974) based on this information, with Mae Brussell listed as co-author. It was entitled "Is Howard Hughes Dead and Buried Off a Greek Island?" This is (or was) available here and there on the Internet, specifically on the "Mae Brussell Archives" section of http://newsmakingnews.com. If you want to track it down in print, copies of Playgirl from December 1974 (1 million + copies were printed), are often available through e-bay, and you can usually find a copy for between $5-$10. Just thumb past the boy pin-ups, etc., and voila! The scoop of the century! :-) In March, 1975, I wrote and released a 24-page digest version of the Gemstone File info which I called "The Skeleton Key to the Gemstone File." This received worldwide circulation. Many versions appear on the Web; however, in its "unprotected" state (circulated hand to hand samizdat-style), many people put their 2 cents in and sort-of rewrote it, and you have to exercise caution as to which (whose) version you are reading. In addition there was a human sludge named Jim Moore who for decades has been trying to persuade people that he was the "true" author and I am a phony. Gary Buell spent a couple of years corresponding with this cretin, in the hope I expect of getting "proof" that this was the case, and I was a phony, at the same time assuring me that he was writing a book about Gemstone and trying to milk me for whatever information and material he could get. Since Moore's lies didn't pan out, Gary was disappointed, although I kept telling him via e-mail that dealing with this creep on this self-appointed "mission" was a fruitless, in fact, idiotic project. Moore followed me around (e-mail version of "stalking") on the internet and collected a mish-mash of information, some correct and some wildly incorrect, about me and my "biography." In particular, he convinced himself that I was the graduate of a Massachusetts high school somewhere. Anyway! To return to the subject at hand: The Gemstone File information that I had from Bruce Roberts was: The assassination "team" consisted of 28 people. They came from or were sponsored by several sources: 1. Various branches of the U.S. Mafia, including Carlos Marcello in Louisiana; Sam Giancana in Chicago; etc., but the direction from the top came from Aristotle Onassis. 2. CIA/Nixon White House representatives. 3. Some Corporation interests, particularly Texas oil. 4. Anti-Castro elements, Cuban refugees from Batista's cozy corrupt regime who had been tossed out by Castro and who had settled in Miami. The three shooters he named in the hit were: John Roselli; Jimmy Fratianno, and Eugene Brading. (3 Mafia hitmen.) He stated that Lee Harvey Oswald had been set up to shoot Connally, under the impression that that was the day's business at hand. (In other words, that Lee Harvey Oswald shot at Connally, and hit him--twice, and was prepared for the eventuality that he might be caught and arrested for that, but the simultaneous assassination of JFK was not his affair and took him by surprise.) Oswald didn't know he had been selected to be the "patsy" for that murder. Roberts placed Jimmy Fratianno as shooting from the Dal-Tex Building; Brading, from the "pergola"; and Johnny Roselli as shooting from the "Overpass." Kicking these ideas around with Mae Brussell in 1974, we speculated whether Johnny Roselli might have shot from behind the picket fence at the Grassy Knoll (adjacent to the Overpass), or possibly from the sewer grate on Elm Street very near the highway sign. Since then, from other sources, I have tentatively added J.D. ("Roscoe") White, then a "Dallas Police cop" who had been assigned to the Dallas Police force about 3 weeks earlier, just about at the same second that Lee Harvey Oswald had "coincidentally" gotten his job at the Texas School Book Depository. Roscoe White was stationed on the Overpass, on the right-hand side, and frankly, all he had to do was move about 20 feet to the right to place himself behind the picket fence atop the Grassy Knoll. I think he was the "Badgeman" who shows up in some of the enhanced photos. That leaves the sewer grate sniper's stand for Roselli. Roberts also said that it was Roselli's shot which blew JFK's brains out, though the other 2 or 3 (??) shooters shot simultaneously I don't know who else might have been a shooter, but there were clearly spotters, timers, coordinators, etc., who made up the 28-man team. I have a new book coming out within the next couple of months, "The Gemstone File: A Memoir," which covers all of this and more. It is not specifically about the JFK assassination, but deals with the larger topic of how the U.S. got to the point we are at now: Dominated by huge corporations, with a regime in place that favors the wealthy and considers the middle-class and below its natural prey. It also has some new information that I think will be very exciting! Have a nice day! Stephanie Caruana

Hello Howard! I have the same feeling that we are living in an "occupied country." And that "the U.S. government" is the occupier. It seems clear that as the polls show, the mood of the people is trending more and more to putting an end to the Iraq "war." It started out as an attempt to grab the country of Iraq to get complete control of their oil, as detailed in numerous articles which appeared in print before the actual invasion. After occupying the country, the stubborn resistance of the Iraqis (blowing up the pipe lines about as fast as they can be repaired; I seldom see reports on how much of Iraq's oil is actually flowing into our SUV's and airplanes), as well as no discernable weapons of mass destruction visible in that war-torn country, the official excuse shifted to "bringing democracy to Iraq." This is entertaining in a sick way when one reflects that we supported and armed Saddam Hussein and raised him from the rank of a local chieftain to the big man of Iraq back in the '90's. We are now training and arming thousands of Iraqis so that, when we eventually leave, the Iraqis will have plenty of weapons with which to kill each other in yet another blood bath. The only ones who benefit from this cruel farce are the private contractors such as Halliburton & Co. and the so-called "defense" industries. But I also agree that people can change the national direction, and I hope this occurs. I am taking an active part in this by preparing a new book, "The Gemstone File: A Memoir," which outlines some of the prehistory that led us to this situation. Stephanie Caruana Cambridge, MA

Why bother writing seriously to such programs and such a channel? I think one necessary step to reality is accepting which media channels are completely bought to promote lies, and refuting the lie elsewhere. I noticed that EVERY one of the "Reviews" of this program by the "public" was cut from the same pattern: Oh-what-a-fine-program-this-is! Now-we-know-the-Warren-commission-was-right! I doubt the channel/program would accept any other type of comment. Bugliosi and this program are admirably suited for ridicule, however! Revenge is the best revenge! Stephanie

Quote from Pat Speer: I ordered it from the Discovery Channel website and have already received it and reviewed it and noticed a jillion mistakes. It really pisses me off. Here's what I've written (from an upcoming Power Point presentation) In 2005, the Discovery Channel, owned by the Walt Disney Co., which also owns ABC, began running a program entitled JFK: Beyond the Magic Bullet. While appearing authoritative, using scientists and experts to simulate the shooting in Dealey Plaza, in an effort to prove that the single-bullet theory was plausible, the program was rife with errors and/or distortions. Ultimately, it showed how unlikely the magic bullet really is, but then turned around and claimed the opposite! Consider: They attempted the shot from a hanging platform, at a distance of 180 feet, the distance they claim the HSCA claimed for the second shot. Well, there are two problems with this: one is that the HSCA claimed the shot came at around z-190, which according to Warren Commission’s recreation, would make it roughly 160 feet, and two is that the Dale Myers animation they used as evidence depicted the shot at z-224, which would make it roughly 190 feet. It’s unclear where they derived their 180 foot measurement unless they believed a trajectory from this distance would be more likely to miss bone. They placed a target on the simulated torso representing the President at a point several inches to the right of the actual wound on the autopsy photos. They claimed this placement came after “triple-measurement.” What they failed to mention was that the autopsy measurements measured the distance from the shoulder and from the back of the head and their torso had no head. The HSCA and Clark Panel made estimates as to the distance from the spine, which they clearly ignored. Even so, the shooter missed this target and actually hit the torso very close to where the wound is depicted on the autopsy photos. I’d like to think this “miss” was on purpose. When their “magic bullet,” after traversing both the Kennedy and Connally torsos, failed to explode the simulated wrist to the extent Connally’s was damaged and bounced off the simulated thigh, they looked for it in the surrounding area, only to find a clearly deformed bullet several yards to the right of the torsos. They then conducted a post-mortem to see what went "wrong." During a slow-motion replay of the shooting, the narrator states matter-of-factly that the bullet “struck Kennedy in the neck.” Someone should have told the writer of the program that that lie died with the HSCA. During these replays they never show the front of either torso. After taking the Connally torso to a doctor, who ran a cat-scan, they concluded that the bullet struck two of Connally’s ribs instead of the one struck by the “magic bullet” and that this was why their bullet was more damaged. It was at this point of the program that I concluded the whole show was a fraud. Because the cat-scan revealed that the simulated ribs on the Connally torso were not connected to the sternum in front. This meant that there was no bone in the front of Connally’s chest for the “magic bullet” to strike, and thus create more damage and/or slow it down before it struck his wrist. Upon a replay of my own, I went back to the part of the program where they re-created the torsos and noticed that the Kennedy torso had no spine, and that neither torso had shoulder blades. While these could have been left out due to the belief that the bullet was believed to have evaded these bones, the exclusion of Connally’s front ribs, where the bullet made its exit, is inexcusable. Furthermore, they failed to point out that the two ribs damaged on the torso were the 8th and 9th ribs, in the middle of Connally’s back, some distance from the actual entrance on Connally’s 5th rib in his armpit. When they took an autopsy report based on the damage to the torsos to an L.A. County Coroner, even more deception was exposed. For the face sheet created for the Kennedy torso revealed that the bullet exited not from the torso’s throat but from its left chest, and that it probably would have hit its spine (if it had one) and must have hit its sternum. While a probe poked through a skeleton by the doctor to depict the path of the bullet contradicts this conclusion, as it passes to the right of the sternum, it still explodes the program’s assertion of replicating the magic bullet, as the probe passes below the clavicle and first rib, which means the bullet would have pierced the President’s lung, and not just bruised it, and exited far below his throat. In conclusion, I assert that the Discovery Channel did recreate the magic bullet, if one is to acknowledge that magic is deliberate deception designed to create the illusion that fantastic events have taken place. With its ABC News investigation in 2003, and its Unsolved History programs in 2004, and 2005, it seems clear the Walt Disney Company has picked up where CBS news left off, and has appointed itself the new protector of the single-bullet theory. Yet another reason to believe that companies that specialize in children’s cartoons should keep away from interpreting history And that's without even getting into the Dale Myers cartoon, which changes the position of the President's back wound depending on which angle it presents, and portrays John Connally as skinnier than Kennedy so that his right armpit will be closer to the center of the car and more in alignment with Kennedy's neck.. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> ****************************************************** Sorry for the empty post, but I haven't figured out how to "do" this board right! I ordered the DVD from Discovery, and hope it will arrive fast! What really enrages me the most is this program's pseudo-scientific framework, coupled with "conclusions" that I think would be transparently absurd to any bright ten-year-old, I hope! As I recall, they had umpty-ump "scientists" and "engineers working on recreating the models," etc. Wasn't MIT involved somehow? They clearly "started" with the result they wanted to "prove," discarding any evidence that might interfere. And what really makes me want to puke is Bugliosi's advice: Get over it; it will only make you sick to think on such things! I think about all the grad students and PhD's and such, earnestly examining the mummy of King Tut to determine whether he was assassinated or not; a TV program last night was trying to determine how an elephant died, 3 million years ago, when it was apparently sliced to bits by hungry hominds with lots of flint chips Was it murder, or did the elephant die of natural causes???? Good question! I'm voting for, they drove the beast off a cliff or something. Well, that's all well and good, but where are these scholars when it comes to taking a real look at our own recent history? Running scared. Stephanie Caruana

I ordered it from the Discovery Channel website and have already received it and reviewed it and noticed a jillion mistakes. It really pisses me off. Here's what I've written (from an upcoming Power Point presentation) In 2005, the Discovery Channel, owned by the Walt Disney Co., which also owns ABC, began running a program entitled JFK: Beyond the Magic Bullet. While appearing authoritative, using scientists and experts to simulate the shooting in Dealey Plaza, in an effort to prove that the single-bullet theory was plausible, the program was rife with errors and/or distortions. Ultimately, it showed how unlikely the magic bullet really is, but then turned around and claimed the opposite! Consider: They attempted the shot from a hanging platform, at a distance of 180 feet, the distance they claim the HSCA claimed for the second shot. Well, there are two problems with this: one is that the HSCA claimed the shot came at around z-190, which according to Warren Commission’s recreation, would make it roughly 160 feet, and two is that the Dale Myers animation they used as evidence depicted the shot at z-224, which would make it roughly 190 feet. It’s unclear where they derived their 180 foot measurement unless they believed a trajectory from this distance would be more likely to miss bone. They placed a target on the simulated torso representing the President at a point several inches to the right of the actual wound on the autopsy photos. They claimed this placement came after “triple-measurement.” What they failed to mention was that the autopsy measurements measured the distance from the shoulder and from the back of the head and their torso had no head. The HSCA and Clark Panel made estimates as to the distance from the spine, which they clearly ignored. Even so, the shooter missed this target and actually hit the torso very close to where the wound is depicted on the autopsy photos. I’d like to think this “miss” was on purpose. When their “magic bullet,” after traversing both the Kennedy and Connally torsos, failed to explode the simulated wrist to the extent Connally’s was damaged and bounced off the simulated thigh, they looked for it in the surrounding area, only to find a clearly deformed bullet several yards to the right of the torsos. They then conducted a post-mortem to see what went "wrong." During a slow-motion replay of the shooting, the narrator states matter-of-factly that the bullet “struck Kennedy in the neck.” Someone should have told the writer of the program that that lie died with the HSCA. During these replays they never show the front of either torso. After taking the Connally torso to a doctor, who ran a cat-scan, they concluded that the bullet struck two of Connally’s ribs instead of the one struck by the “magic bullet” and that this was why their bullet was more damaged. It was at this point of the program that I concluded the whole show was a fraud. Because the cat-scan revealed that the simulated ribs on the Connally torso were not connected to the sternum in front. This meant that there was no bone in the front of Connally’s chest for the “magic bullet” to strike, and thus create more damage and/or slow it down before it struck his wrist. Upon a replay of my own, I went back to the part of the program where they re-created the torsos and noticed that the Kennedy torso had no spine, and that neither torso had shoulder blades. While these could have been left out due to the belief that the bullet was believed to have evaded these bones, the exclusion of Connally’s front ribs, where the bullet made its exit, is inexcusable. Furthermore, they failed to point out that the two ribs damaged on the torso were the 8th and 9th ribs, in the middle of Connally’s back, some distance from the actual entrance on Connally’s 5th rib in his armpit. When they took an autopsy report based on the damage to the torsos to an L.A. County Coroner, even more deception was exposed. For the face sheet created for the Kennedy torso revealed that the bullet exited not from the torso’s throat but from its left chest, and that it probably would have hit its spine (if it had one) and must have hit its sternum. While a probe poked through a skeleton by the doctor to depict the path of the bullet contradicts this conclusion, as it passes to the right of the sternum, it still explodes the program’s assertion of replicating the magic bullet, as the probe passes below the clavicle and first rib, which means the bullet would have pierced the President’s lung, and not just bruised it, and exited far below his throat. In conclusion, I assert that the Discovery Channel did recreate the magic bullet, if one is to acknowledge that magic is deliberate deception designed to create the illusion that fantastic events have taken place. With its ABC News investigation in 2003, and its Unsolved History programs in 2004, and 2005, it seems clear the Walt Disney Company has picked up where CBS news left off, and has appointed itself the new protector of the single-bullet theory. Yet another reason to believe that companies that specialize in children’s cartoons should keep away from interpreting history And that's without even getting into the Dale Myers cartoon, which changes the position of the President's back wound depending on which angle it presents, and portrays John Connally as skinnier than Kennedy so that his right armpit will be closer to the center of the car and more in alignment with Kennedy's neck.. <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I saw that show too, and it made me sick too! I'm writing a book on U.S. history, and I'm just about at the Conclusion. Somehow that program keeps coming back to haunt me, and I want to write about it. Any thoughts on how I can get a DVD/CD of the show? Stephanie Caruana

I live in Cambridge, MA. My educational background is in literature, writing, art and drama. My professional life centers around writing and computers. I am the author of the "Skeleton Key to the Gemstone File." I am currently working on a new book to include many of Bruce Roberts' letters. http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=3373