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Richard Case Nagell


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10 minutes ago, Rob Couteau said:

One of the frustrating things about the Russell book is the ambiguous manner in which Oswald's role is portrayed. At times he seems to imply that Nagell viewed Oswald as an witting participant who may have actively been involved in killing JFK; at other times as an unwitting patsy. If Nagell had followed orders to kill him, would the plot have been foiled because the patsy was done away with or because a more active participant was done away with? In this account, it isn't clear. So I think David's suggestion is a great one, particularly since Russel's views may have evolved or clarified after all this time. And if Nagall was saying that Oswald was a shooter, I for one would then have to question what role Nagall was actually playing, or whether he was simply misinformed, since it should be clear by now that Oswald was obviously not playing that particular role.

Paz, I'm glad you opened this thread. I read the 800-page plus first edition of the book, and as Jim D says, it is indeed unnecessarily labyrinthine. But it also contains a lot of interesting clues. Part of the frustration in reading it is that Nagall was also The Man who Didn't Talk Too Much. As Larry said, the fate of his children was used as a threat to silence him. Also your question about lawyers is a good one; the reasons he kept switching them is another story that unfolds throughout the book.

Maybe Jim D can suggest to Russell that he prepare such a summary.

Nagell's 1967 prison letter to Arthur Greenstein ("Arturo Verdestein") puts Oswald firmly in the patsy category, and an apparent pawn of David Ferrie.  But how much Mark Lane-Jim Garrison-style research had filtered through to him by this time?  Was he parroting the new party line for his own benefit?  There have been suggestions along the way that Nagell, once out of prison, was induced to contact Garrison.

One thing about Nagell: his war and espionage experiences led him to oppose authority through comic absurdity and tricksterism - which makes him an attractive character (almost a 1960s-film antihero), but also frustrating to deal with research-wise.  Somebody didn't like him; he ended up taking a beating in his last weeks and then dying suspiciously before HSCA could get to him.  But there were a lot of Somebodies with conflicting agendas around him.

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4 minutes ago, David Andrews said:

..............

he ended up ............. dying suspiciously before HSCA could get to him.  ............

According to Wikipedia, it was that Assassinations Records Review Board that had sought-out Nagell the day before he died, in 1995.

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6 hours ago, Michael Clark said:

According to Wikipedia, it was that Assassinations Records Review Board that had sought-out Nagell the day before he died, in 1995.

Posting at work (PAW) - wrong decade.  "You are correct, sir!"

Edited by David Andrews
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26 minutes ago, Rob Couteau said:

And his house was ransacked; no doubt they were searching for documents.

And his remotely located supposedly secured trunks of files were missing as well if I remember right from TMWKTM.

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