The Skorzeny Papers

[Paul Brancato]

Brand new, very interesting book. Subtitle is Evidence for the Plot to Kill JFK. 

[Larry Hancock]

I'm reading the book now; the most immediate problem is that the actual "Skorzeny Papers" (which appear to be business records and personal correspondence)  themselves are not released nor in the public domain and while cited frequently in the book they are cited simply as that and have to be taken as an article of faith....the promise is that they will be made available at some future date ....hopefully so but at the moment the only sections which appear to be from sources that can be checked are from open source genealogy searches.

[Paul Brancato]

2 hours ago, Larry Hancock said:

I'm reading the book now; the most immediate problem is that the actual "Skorzeny Papers" (which appear to be business records and personal correspondence)  themselves are not released nor in the public domain and while cited frequently in the book they are cited simply as that and have to be taken as an article of faith....the promise is that they will be made available at some future date ....hopefully so but at the moment the only sections which appear to be from sources that can be checked are from open source genealogy searches.

Yes that is true, so for researchers it’s going to be frustrating. The author states it’s mostly correspondence between Skorzeny and his wife Ilse, documenting his whereabouts and his contacts, but not details of what business he was conducting, from which the author has deduced what business he was conducting by cross referencing the travel and businesses of those contacts. 

[Tom Hume]

Much of the book can be read in preview form at the google link below, including the Forward by Dick Russell:
 

https://books.google.com/books?id=CBmxDgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Edited June 28, 2018 by Tom Hume

[Paul Brancato]

One good point the author Ralph Ganis makes is that studying Oswald doesn't necessarily lead us to the plotters of the assassination. 

I would have written a more complete review of the book, but I was hoping others here would be interested in a new theory. It looks to me like members of the Forum would rather look at the single bullet theory, or who as standing on the steps of the TSBD, than entertain the idea that a prominent Nazi would have been given the contract. I'll make one thing clear that might get more of you to look at this research: The author does not speculate on a Fourth Reich or an Odessa. What he attempts to show is that Skorzeny was incorporated into the US national security state and given autonomy to set up a vast network of connections, mostly within US corporate entities, which could not be traced back to US Intelligence, but could be used to further our anti-Communist agenda. He points out convincingly that the Dallas White Russian community was part of his Network, including DeMohrenschildt, and his explanation for the 'friendship between DeM and LHO is most interesting. There was such a huge class difference between the two that something other than friendship was at work. Ganis suggests that DeM was protecting his cover and making sure that Oswald and Marina were not a threat to him.

There are good reasons to suspect that Skorzeny was QJWIN. The author explores this in some depth, but it's not the centerpiece of his book. His case for Skorzeny running the JFK assassination is incomplete. But he does show the very weird links between Skorzeny and the Dallas elite.

[Michael Clark]

16 minutes ago, Paul Brancato said:

One good point the author Ralph Ganis makes is that studying Oswald doesn't necessarily lead us to the plotters of the assassination. 

I would have written a more complete review of the book, but I was hoping others here would be interested in a new theory. It looks to me like members of the Forum would rather look at the single bullet theory, or who as standing on the steps of the TSBD, than entertain the idea that a prominent Nazi would have been given the contract. I'll make one thing clear that might get more of you to look at this research: The author does not speculate on a Fourth Reich or an Odessa. What he attempts to show is that Skorzeny was incorporated into the US national security state and given autonomy to set up a vast network of connections, mostly within US corporate entities, which could not be traced back to US Intelligence, but could be used to further our anti-Communist agenda. He points out convincingly that the Dallas White Russian community was part of his Network, including DeMohrenschildt, and his explanation for the 'friendship between DeM and LHO is most interesting. There was such a huge class difference between the two that something other than friendship was at work. Ganis suggests that DeM was protecting his cover and making sure that Oswald and Marina were not a threat to him.

There are good reasons to suspect that Skorzeny was QJWIN. The author explores this in some depth, but it's not the centerpiece of his book. His case for Skorzeny running the JFK assassination is incomplete. But he does show the very weird links between Skorzeny and the Dallas elite.

Thanks for that, Paul

[Larry Hancock]

I'm about a third of the way through a detailed study of the book and certainly am interested.  I'll hold off on a full commentary because its going to take a bit to digest - one thing that makes a book like this exceptionally difficult is the new style of citation where everything at the end is simply cited as to book page number.  You really have no easy idea of exactly which point or even sentence is referenced to what source.  If your publisher insisted on this there are things you can do, like actually mentioning books or authors within the copy for key points, but you really have to work at it. 

So far I've run into one source that he does use that I have spent a huge amount of time on myself - since it was the first book that really started my own research - and unfortunately in the end found it to be highly unreliable.  I hate that sort of thing. It has to do with a rather important CIA contact which he ties to Skorzeny. 

At this point - after skimming all the book and now being into a detailed reading  I agree with Paul on his assessment in regard to the incomplete JFK assassination tie. I am finding the early material in the book to be most interesting in the manner that Skorzeny was of interest first to the US Army and then to the OPC and finally the CIA as part of the larger effort to put together an anti-Communist counter to what was anticipated as an imminent Soviet move west in the years right after WWII.

[Paul Brancato]

1 hour ago, Larry Hancock said:

I'm about a third of the way through a detailed study of the book and certainly am interested.  I'll hold off on a full commentary because its going to take a bit to digest - one thing that makes a book like this exceptionally difficult is the new style of citation where everything at the end is simply cited as to book page number.  You really have no easy idea of exactly which point or even sentence is referenced to what source.  If your publisher insisted on this there are things you can do, like actually mentioning books or authors within the copy for key points, but you really have to work at it. 

So far I've run into one source that he does use that I have spent a huge amount of time on myself - since it was the first book that really started my own research - and unfortunately in the end found it to be highly unreliable.  I hate that sort of thing. It has to do with a rather important CIA contact which he ties to Skorzeny. 

At this point - after skimming all the book and now being into a detailed reading  I agree with Paul on his assessment in regard to the incomplete JFK assassination tie. I am finding the early material in the book to be most interesting in the manner that Skorzeny was of interest first to the US Army and then to the OPC and finally the CIA as part of the larger effort to put together an anti-Communist counter to what was anticipated as an imminent Soviet move west in the years right after WWII.

Larry - I’m glad your reading the book carefully. Would you share the name of the source book that you found unreliable? 

[Larry Hancock]

Sure Paul, its Robert Morrow.  The reason I didn't name him is that giving the name means I should step up and explain why I found him unreliable and that is very long story I'm not prepared to revisit here - which leaves it as strictly my opinion,.   I started with First Hand Knowledge and years later had finished all his other books and done a lot of supplemental research, at which point I realized how much of his personal fiction was in First Hand Knowledge. 

I also became friends with a long time researcher who had become close to Morrow for many years. As I understand it Morrow  was convinced of a JFK conspiracy but didn't have the research to back it up and a good bit of what he wrote was simply to stimulate interest in tracking down the real conspiracy (worked on me) while privately admitting that he was making up a lot of his own content. 

The CIA itself actually investigated (internally) his claims given how dramatic they were and that they were stated as fact - turns out there is a good bit of documentation on his true activities in the early 1960's, based in contemporary documents of the time which differ dramatically from what is in his books.

 

[Paul Brancato]

Thanks Larry. I’ve not rad his books but think I used to see him post here. Did he win elected office somewhere recently? In any case I always had the feeling he was not trustworthy.

for me the interesting parts of the book are as you say the early years, and also the names and places of contacts in the letters between Otto and his wife, which as you point out can’t be verified at this time. The book reads well and sure doesn’t seem sensationalist in tone. We will have to see how things develop. For some reason Ganis and Albarelli decided to part company, and Hank is coming out with his own book later this year. I don’t know the back story there. But I would hope that others are not discouraged from reading the book. It could be a breakthrough. 

Edited June 29, 2018 by Paul Brancato

[James DiEugenio]

Paul:

 

That is a different Robert Morrow.

[Paz Marverde]

On 6/28/2018 at 7:06 AM, Paul Brancato said:

Brand new, very interesting book. Subtitle is Evidence for the Plot to Kill JFK. 

Could you please paste here whatever related to Byrd in the book? Thanks in advance

[Larry Hancock]

Paul, as Jim says you are thinking of a very different Robert Morrow (someone I do know and an extremely outgoing proponent of the Johnson murdered JFK idea).  The fellow being referenced in Ganis's book was an engineer who became involved with a Cuban exile political figure (Mario Kohley) who had approached the State Department and was active in expatriate Cuban political activities in Miami in the early sixties.  Morrow actually took on a project for Kohley, building the equipment needed for  counterfeiting currency with the intent to destabilize the Cuban economy. And Morrow was charged and convicted of the counterfeiting. The story continues from there but Morrow's version of Cuban covert operations is ...well lets just say not historically correct....but because he was a prolific and sensational writer on the subject and on the JFK assassination he is cited as a source for a great many things about the CIA and Cuba. 

[Paul Brancato]

4 hours ago, Paz Marverde said:

Could you please paste here whatever related to Byrd in the book? Thanks in advance

Yes Paz. Skorzeny was connected with the company Safarilandia that ran the Safari expediion that Byrd was on when the assassination occurred. The Safari was led by a former member of the Austrian SS (like Skorzeny) named Baron Werner Von Alvensleben, who later worked for the OSS. Byrd invited the Baron to Dallas in January 1964. Can you download the book on Kindle? There are some other business connections between Byrd and members of the World Commerce Corporation, founded by William Donovan and Sir William Stephenson. It’s a very complex subject. There may be connections between WCC and Permindex.

Edited June 29, 2018 by Paul Brancato

[Paz Marverde]

28 minutes ago, Paul Brancato said:

There may be connections between WCC and Permindex.

YES, there are. Thank you very much