The Tippit Case in the New Millenium

[Gene Kelly]

That is the same individual ... Manuel Pena (JFK, RFK).   He and Hernandez intimidated witnesses and controlled the RFK LAPD investigation.

[James DiEugenio]

You really wonder if its all a coincidence.

[Ron Bulman]

On ‎5‎/‎9‎/‎2018 at 5:48 AM, Gene Kelly said:

Jim

Similar to Westbrook and Hill's roles, one of the names that surfaced (regarding transport of the Oswald revolver records and ballistics) is a fellow named Manuel Pena ... the same notorious LAPD officer (added to the force one month prior) who controlled the police investigation and intimidated witnesses after the RFK murder. 

Two mail-order houses were the center points from which Oswald ordered his Smith and Wesson .38 revolver (Seaport Traders of Los Angeles) and his Mannlicher-Carcano rifle (Klein's of Chicago). Oswald ordered his pistol two days before Senator Christopher Dodd's subcommittee began hearings in January 1963. The subcommittee’s statistics later showed a purchase in Texas made from Seaport Traders. An "investigator" looking into interstate firearms sales at this time was Manuel Pena, who traced Oswald's telescopic sight to a California gun shop. 

Pena was the trusted courier of key evidence being supplied to the FBI ... and he was affiliated with the same mercenaries and cut-outs used by JM Wave  in various operations -- Saigon, El Salvador, Uruguay, Phoenix -- employed by cover with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). In 1967, Pena "retired" from the LAPD, leaving to join AID, a cover for political operations in foreign countries.  Roger LeJeunesse, an FBI agent who had been involved in the RFK investigation, told William Turner that Pena had performed special assignments for the CIA for more than ten years.  After his retirement from the LAPD (and a public farewell dinner) in November of 1967, Pena inexplicably returned in April 1968 ...  just in time to head the LAPD group called Special Unit Senator that controlled the RFK investigation two months later. According to Shane O’Sullivan’s work on the RFK murder, Pena had been on detached duty with the CIA in Central and South America. Pena has an odd background; he served in the Navy during WWII and in the Army during the Korean War, and was a Counterintelligence officer in France.  He spoke French and Spanish, and had connections with various intelligence agencies in several countries.

As posted previously, I don't think Pena's involvement is simply coincidence ... the same "game plan" (use of police to control evidence and incriminate) was employed in both murders.

Gene

 

 

 

 

 

Once again.  Nope.  That's not a coincidence.

[Robert Harper]

14 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

And Robert, I think you mean Sandy Serrano on that.  But it was not Pena who did that with her.  It was Hernandez

Thanks Jim. I got a bit sloppy in my recall but I will never forget listening to that SOB grill that poor young woman. He kept yelling at her that Ethel Kennedy would be hurt, that a good Catholic wouldn't say such things and on and on. I remember that it struck me as a type of torture and I couldn't listen to the whole thing. Pena and Hernandez, along with Pierre Finck, were among those called in to do the dirty work when needed.

[Gene Kelly]

Ron and Robert

The two men who had effective day-to-day control of the RFK investigation in 1968 were Pena and Hernandez. As day watch supervisor, Lieutenant Manuel Pena had to sign off and approve every report and decide who to re-interview and who to dismiss as the case was prepared for trial. This was the same Manny Pena who scrawled across several blank interview summaries relating to Sandra Serrano, "Polka-dot story of Serrano phony".  Pena spent sixteen years of his police career working in Robbery-Homicide, reaching the rank of lieutenant. Author Robert Kaiser recalled his nickname at LAPD was "Shoot 'em up Manny Pena" (he killed several people in the line of duty).  In November 1967, Pena ostensibly retired from the department and was to accept a position with the Agency for International Development (AID), a State Department aid agency that among other roles served as a regular cover identity for CIA operatives abroad (similar to "Pinky" Westbrook). He served as a "public safety adviser" and trained police forces of friendly dictatorships in sophisticated interrogation techniques to use on leftist insurgents and political dissidents. Pena joined the LAPD in 1941 and served in the Pacific with Naval Air Corps during World War II. He spent two years in Verdun as a criminal investigator for the Army during the Korean War, and spoke fluent French and Spanish.  During his two years in France, he worked with the Army Counter-Intelligence Corps and established contacts and friends in the intelligence community. He also built up strong connections with Interpol: a senior official in the Mexican government was his primary connection into Latin America.

FBI agent Roger LaJeunesse had known Pena for years and was the FBI liaison to the LAPD during the RFK case. LaJeunesse said Pena left the LAPD for a "special training unit" at CIA's Camp Peary base in Virginia. After nine weeks' training, he would be posted to Latin America, where he could use his Spanish. Pena had been performing special assignments for the CIA for a decade, mostly under AID cover. Pena's new career didn't last long after he had retired from LAPD. RFK announced that he would run for president on March 16, 1968 and Pena was back in Los Angeles by April.  Investigative reporter Fernando Faura encountered Pena on his return, noticing a familiar figure behind heavy horn-rim glasses and a black handlebar mustache, and telling him "Hey, Manny, I damn near didn't recognize you with that disguise".  Pena explained the AID job wasn't what he expected, so he quit and returned to Los Angeles. When the LAPD subsequently unveiled Special Unit Senator, the man put in charge of preparing the case for trial and supervising the day watch investigators was Manny Pena.  SUS Chief Robert Houghton wrote that Pena had "connections with intelligence agencies in several countries." In 1975, Pena's brother, a school principal, was interviewed for a local television show and, during the commercial break, mentioned how proud he was of his brother's service with the CIA, stating:  "Nobody's supposed to know about that … it's supposed to be secret."

Sergeant Enrique "Hank" Hernandez was Pena's chief interrogator, called on to administer polygraph tests to troublesome witnesses to determine if they were telling the truth. Whenever claims of conspiracy were sent to Hernandez, he bullied witnesses into retractions. Many of these tapes survive, documenting the mockery Hernandez's bullying tactics. Hernandez also led the investigation probing possible conspiracy and oversaw the background checks on Sirhan. The two LAPD officers had backgrounds in training Latin American security forces. SUS’s second-in-command, Hernandez, stated in his own resume that in l963 he had played a key role in the CIA’s “Unified Police Command” training in Latin America. Pena and Hernandez coordinated an investigation which not only threatened and discredited conspiracy witnesses, but by the department’s own admission destroyed 2,410 photographs of assassination evidence before Sirhan’s trial.  Their work with LAPD mirrors the infiltration and manipulation of the DPD five years earlier by the plotters and perpetrators of both Kennedy murders.

Gene

[Paz Marverde]

18 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

Thanks again Paz.

Jim, I do thank you, and I add that I am simply astonished that one as vile as TG is still allowed to be here. He received a warning, his posts being restricted to just one per week. He did not learn the lesson and, when back, he immediately started offending and insulting you in a shameful way. How is it possible that someone here could write "Jim DiEugenio, Stalin's buddy" without being expelled? Enough is enough

[Paz Marverde]

10 hours ago, Gene Kelly said:

That is the same individual ... Manuel Pena (JFK, RFK).

Yes

[Dan Doyle]

2 hours ago, Gene Kelly said:

Ron and Robert

The two men who had effective day-to-day control of the RFK investigation in 1968 were Pena and Hernandez. As day watch supervisor, Lieutenant Manuel Pena had to sign off and approve every report and decide who to re-interview and who to dismiss as the case was prepared for trial. This was the same Manny Pena who scrawled across several blank interview summaries relating to Sandra Serrano, "Polka-dot story of Serrano phony".  Pena spent sixteen years of his police career working in Robbery-Homicide, reaching the rank of lieutenant. Author Robert Kaiser recalled his nickname at LAPD was "Shoot 'em up Manny Pena" (he killed several people in the line of duty).  In November 1967, Pena ostensibly retired from the department and was to accept a position with the Agency for International Development (AID), a State Department aid agency that among other roles served as a regular cover identity for CIA operatives abroad (similar to "Pinky" Westbrook). He served as a "public safety adviser" and trained police forces of friendly dictatorships in sophisticated interrogation techniques to use on leftist insurgents and political dissidents. Pena joined the LAPD in 1941 and served in the Pacific with Naval Air Corps during World War II. He spent two years in Verdun as a criminal investigator for the Army during the Korean War, and spoke fluent French and Spanish.  During his two years in France, he worked with the Army Counter-Intelligence Corps and established contacts and friends in the intelligence community. He also built up strong connections with Interpol: a senior official in the Mexican government was his primary connection into Latin America.

FBI agent Roger LaJeunesse had known Pena for years and was the FBI liaison to the LAPD during the RFK case. LaJeunesse said Pena left the LAPD for a "special training unit" at CIA's Camp Peary base in Virginia. After nine weeks' training, he would be posted to Latin America, where he could use his Spanish. Pena had been performing special assignments for the CIA for a decade, mostly under AID cover. Pena's new career didn't last long after he had retired from LAPD. RFK announced that he would run for president on March 16, 1968 and Pena was back in Los Angeles by April.  Investigative reporter Fernando Faura encountered Pena on his return, noticing a familiar figure behind heavy horn-rim glasses and a black handlebar mustache, and telling him "Hey, Manny, I damn near didn't recognize you with that disguise".  Pena explained the AID job wasn't what he expected, so he quit and returned to Los Angeles. When the LAPD subsequently unveiled Special Unit Senator, the man put in charge of preparing the case for trial and supervising the day watch investigators was Manny Pena.  SUS Chief Robert Houghton wrote that Pena had "connections with intelligence agencies in several countries." In 1975, Pena's brother, a school principal, was interviewed for a local television show and, during the commercial break, mentioned how proud he was of his brother's service with the CIA, stating:  "Nobody's supposed to know about that … it's supposed to be secret."

Sergeant Enrique "Hank" Hernandez was Pena's chief interrogator, called on to administer polygraph tests to troublesome witnesses to determine if they were telling the truth. Whenever claims of conspiracy were sent to Hernandez, he bullied witnesses into retractions. Many of these tapes survive, documenting the mockery Hernandez's bullying tactics. Hernandez also led the investigation probing possible conspiracy and oversaw the background checks on Sirhan. The two LAPD officers had backgrounds in training Latin American security forces. SUS’s second-in-command, Hernandez, stated in his own resume that in l963 he had played a key role in the CIA’s “Unified Police Command” training in Latin America. Pena and Hernandez coordinated an investigation which not only threatened and discredited conspiracy witnesses, but by the department’s own admission destroyed 2,410 photographs of assassination evidence before Sirhan’s trial.  Their work with LAPD mirrors the infiltration and manipulation of the DPD five years earlier by the plotters and perpetrators of both Kennedy murders.

Gene

Gene,

Wow, good knowledge, this info about Manuel Pena is really interesting.  I was aware of a "Pena" (and Hernandez) at the LAPD in conjunction with the RFK assassination, but I had no idea that this was the one and same Manuel Pena who was employed by the Dallas PD at the time of the JFK assassination.  I'd like to pursue Pena's history with the DPD.   Could you (or anyone else) point me in the right direction to learn more about his time with the DPD and before.  And what about parallel career paths of Pena and Westbrook ?  Stranger than fiction, as they say.

great post

Dan

[Joe Bauer]

On 5/12/2018 at 12:01 PM, Robert Harper said:

The same Manuel Pena who put young Miss Sorrento through a torturous interview following her ID of the lady in the polka dot dress at the Ambassador Hotel in 1968 when RFK was killed. I could barely stay listening to his aggressive, deceptive, brow-beating of this genuine witness. Pena, like Pierre Finck, was  one "they called for cover" as Harold Rydberg  explained in Law's book, In the Eye of History.

Robert, where can one find an audio playback of that interview of Serrano by Hernandez  Is this available on You Tube?

Thanks, Joe B.

[Robert Harper]

1 hour ago, Joe Bauer said:

where can one find an audio playback of that interview

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/serrano.mp3

This is not as clear nor as long as what I recall listening to, but 'tis something.

Found it. Creepy isnt it. THANKS Gene for great synopsis.

(Larry Hancock wrote informative essay on mff in @2007}

 

Edited May 14, 2018 by Robert Harper

[Joe Bauer]

12 hours ago, Robert Harper said:

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/serrano.mp3

This is not as clear nor as long as what I recall listening to, but 'tis something.

Found it. Creepy isnt it. THANKS Gene for great synopsis.

(Larry Hancock wrote informative essay on mff in @2007}

 

Just mind blowing.

It sounds as if Lee Harvey Oswald himself wasn't put through this level of rough interrogation.

Yes, almost like torture.

All to break down Ms. Serrano to get her to accept a different reality other than what she stated and described over and over and over about what she saw and heard that night on the stairs outside the Ambassador hotel.

How could any reasonable person who cared even a little about the truth of the RFK murder, hear this audio tape and not have the most serious doubts about the L.A.P.D. investigation of it?

This one specific audio tape should be used as a nationwide police and law school training tool to demonstrate the most egregious, badgering, intimidating, threatening and yes, even torturous form of interrogation of a crime scene witness.

The audio tape does rattle you and is extremely disturbing. Not just in it's incredible aggressiveness and unethicalness , but in it's suggested agenda which you can't help but feel is ominously trying to create a false investigative finding.

I wish Ethel Kennedy "could" hear this interrogation audio tape. I am sure she would feel that the truth about who killed her husband was something other than the one Hernandez was trying so hard to create.

Edited May 15, 2018 by Joe Bauer

[Robert Harper]

9 minutes ago, Joe Bauer said:

The audio tape does rattle you and is extremely disturbing. Not just in it's incredible aggressiveness, but in it's suggested agenda which you can't help but feel is ominously trying to create a false investigative finding.

Hearing it again - after so many years - still evoked what you describe. So despicable; so shameful; so devious. She was brave as hell early on and even that took real chops. Hopefully a different world is emerging about the misuse and abuse of authority. I love all the "first amendment audits" on You Tube, because one can see with their own eyes, how often power manipulates any who are vulnerable.

[Steve Thomas]

4 hours ago, Dan Doyle said:

  I was aware of a "Pena" (and Hernandez) at the LAPD in conjunction with the RFK assassination, but I had no idea that this was the one and same Manuel Pena who was employed by the Dallas PD at the time of the JFK assassination.  I'd like to pursue Pena's history with the DPD.   Could you (or anyone else) point me in the right direction to learn more about his time with the DPD and before. 

Dan,

 

Maybe I missed it, but I don't find Pena listed in Batchelor's Exhibit 5002,

https://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh19/pdf/WH19_Batchelor_Ex_5002.pdf

or in the DPD Archives.

http://jfk.ci.dallas.tx.us/index.html

 

Steve Thomas

[Joe Bauer]

4 minutes ago, Robert Harper said:

Hearing it again - after so many years - still evoked what you describe. So despicable; so shameful; so devious.

She was brave as hell early on and even that took real chops. 

You can say that again Robert. If she was my daughter, I would have been extremely  proud of her that day and for the rest of my life.

She really fought for the truth against a very intimidating aggressor.

 

 

Hopefully a different world is emerging about the misuse and abuse of authority. I love all the "first amendment audits" on You Tube, because one can see with their own eyes, how often power manipulates any who are vulnerable.

 

[James DiEugenio]

Pena was not with Dallas PD he was in LA.  Seaport Traders and George Rose company were in California.

So that would make sense.

 

Can someone please post the exhibit or evidence?