Richard Case Nagell

[Paz Marverde]

A very fascinating subject. Could someone please tell more on him?

[Larry Hancock]

Understanding the ins and outs of Nagell is a huge task....you need to read Dick Russell's books and if time permits the 2010 edition of Someone Would Have Talked (by me) which deals with him in considerable detail.  Also, my research CD from JFK Lancer includes a large number of documents on Nagell as well as a situational analysis of how his remarks varied with his personal issues...such as regaining custody of his children.  All I can really say is that most of what you read about him on the internet is far too superficial to capture either the man or his contacts on the periphery of the conspiracy.  I studied him for years before I felt I had even a basic grasp.

[Paz Marverde]

5 minutes ago, Larry Hancock said:

Understanding the ins and outs of Nagell is a huge task....you need to read Dick Russell's books and if time permits the 2010 edition of Someone Would Have Talked (by me) which deals with him in considerable detail.  Also, my research CD from JFK Lancer includes a large number of documents on Nagell as well as a situational analysis of how his remarks varied with his personal issues...such as regaining custody of his children.  All I can really say is that most of what you read about him on the internet is far too superficial to capture either the man or his contacts on the periphery of the conspiracy.  I studied him for years before I felt I had even a basic grasp.

Thank you very much. Very kind

[Ron Ecker]

Didn't Nagell deliberately get himself arrested for bank robbery so that he would be in jail on or around November 22? If true, I would say that foreknowledge is the only explanation. But who did he think was going to do it? He wasn't a lone nutter, was he?

 

 

[Paz Marverde]

3 minutes ago, Ron Ecker said:

I would say that foreknowledge is the only explanation

For what i read, he had a deep foreknowledge

[David Josephs]

PAZ,

Larry Hancock did a huge paper on Nagell - I have the pdf so it must be available...  it's 55 Mb

THE MAN IN THE MIDDLE
RICHARD CASE NAGELL'S VIEW OF AN EVOLVING CONSPIRACY

 

 

http://digitalcollections.baylor.edu/cdm/ref/collection/po-arm/id/4259  is the link to a 78 page notebook John A put together...

Edited April 12, 2018 by David Josephs

[David Josephs]

1 hour ago, Ron Ecker said:

Didn't Nagell deliberately get himself arrested for bank robbery so that he would be in jail on or around November 22? If true, I would say that foreknowledge is the only explanation. But who did he think was going to do it? He wasn't a lone nutter, was he?

 

 

Yes Ron... shot twice into the ceiling and sat down waiting for the police...  I believe it was the files in his trunk that he wanted the "FEDS" to find...  but Larry can speak to that with much greater depth.

Nagell claims he was sent by the KGB to stop Oswald from killing JFK by himself killing Oswald.  Or at least he thinks that... his double-agent status is hard to follow... purposefully no doubt.

[Paz Marverde]

16 minutes ago, David Josephs said:

PAZ,

Larry Hancock did a huge paper on Nagell - I have the pdf so it must be available...  it's 55 Mb

THE MAN IN THE MIDDLE
RICHARD CASE NAGELL'S VIEW OF AN EVOLVING CONSPIRACY

 

Dick Russel article on Richard Case Nagell.pdf

http://digitalcollections.baylor.edu/cdm/ref/collection/po-arm/id/4259  is the link to a 78 page notebook John A put together...

Very kind. Thank you

[James DiEugenio]

There are two versions of Russell's book on Nagell, which is titled The Man Who Knew Too Much.

The 1992 version should have been called, The Book that Grew Too Long. As I recall it was like 800 pages.  Which was a mistake since the Nagell story got lost in the forest.

The 2003 version was edited by Dick's friend the Australian actor Lachy Hulme. It is much shorter and now Nagell is center stage.

Here is my review: https://kennedysandking.com/content/russell-dick-on-the-trail-of-the-jfk-assassins-richard-case-nagell-the-most-important-witness-part-2

[Larry Hancock]

The very, very bottom line is that by the summer of 1963 Nagell was monitoring both select Cuban exiles in the U.S. who had been speaking about getting revenge on JFK, Nagell had first crossed paths with them in Mexico.  Separately, Nagell had been doing certain work in Mexico for some deep cover CIA officr, someone he had known in Japan - at present I pretty well convinced, and new evidence supports this, that agent was Henry Hecksher.

In addition, Nagell was also monitoring Lee Oswald, at the request of someone he found out eventually to be a double agent, working for the Russians - who were very worried about what Oswald was doing and what he might eventually do that would cause them grief based on his time in Russia.

By late August Nagell was in New Orleans, monitoring both exiles and Oswald and watching Oswald being manipulated by Cubans posing as Castro agents.  At that point he was spotted by the Cubans who made him as an informant, possibly interfering with their Oswald contacts. At that point in time Nagell knew they were setting Oswald up for some sort of major incident on the East Coast, in or around Baltimore/DC. 

Knowing he had been made and deemed to be a risk to the plot, Nagell literally fled towards Texas and the Mexican border, very possibly killing one of the exiles along the way and with his life in imminent danger.  His ploy in the bank was a last resort thing to get himself off the street and safe. 

He knew that something was afoot between exiles and Oswald and that it involved JFK but that was the size of it.

The case for what I've just said has been made first by Dick Russell and secondly, with some expansion, by myself .  My CD with the Nagell research and documents is here:

http://jfklancer.com/catalog/hancock/index.html

 

[Paz Marverde]

4 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

The 1992 version should have been called, The Book that Grew Too Long. As I recall it was like 800 pages.  Which was a mistake since the Nagell story got lost in the forest.

800? OMG

[James DiEugenio]

Larry:

You are saying that it really was not the KGB that hired Nagell, but a double agent in the Russian camp?

[Larry Hancock]

As best I can tell Nagell initially thought he was being tasked to look into Oswald by someone with CIA connections but later determined that person to be a double actually working for the Russians and believed that he had been compromised and that for a span of time at least could have been charged as working for a foreign power.  Dick could probably clarify since he talked directly with Nagell and I'm only going from memory.  I don't know that we can guess who that individual might have been but Nagell clearly had separate tasks in Mexico City - as an example, we have documents of his going to the embassy and informing that he was essentially going to defect to a foreign power (most likely Cuba) and that he would disclose confidential information to them. 

That is documented yet it appears no security flag was raised or any attention declared towards Nagell for that...raising the possibility that it was a security test, a dangle to a suspected double agent at the American embassy or a dangle to the Cubans or Soviets....that may well have been how he got connected ...

You have to ask yourself once more how an American citizen could show up at the US embassy in Mexico City and declare he was essentially defecting - and have it draw no response, including his not being questioned.  That certainly has the earmark of a counter intelligence activity. 

[Paz Marverde]

One question for you all: do you know who was Nagell's lawyer? 

[Larry Hancock]

Dick does name Negell's defense lawyer in his book and interviewed him at some length - I don't recall his name but you will find those details in Dick's book.  Ironically the lawyer told Dick he would have mounted a much stronger defense if there had actually been proof that Nagell had been in Mexico - which there certainly is, in plenty.  Because he had nothing to confirm that at the time he felt compelled to present nothing more than an insanity defense for Nagell.

Another ironic point is that the trial judge was Homer Thorneberry, a long time friend of LBJ who LBJ later unsuccessfully tried to appoint to the Supreme Court