Classic Harold Weisberg Interview

[James DiEugenio]

I am pretty sure Weisberg was the only first generation critic to begin to question Marrion Baker's story about the second floor lunch room encounter.  

He did so in his book Whitewash 2.  In this interview he also talks about the dubious Howard Brennan.

Those were the days when critics could easily get on Pacifica.  No more.

Harold was really outspoken and direct in these interviews.  

https://kennedysandking.com/videos-and-interviews/harold-weisberg-on-howard-brennan-and-marrion-baker

[Ron Bulman]

R. E. Baker seeing Oswald.  "The angle at which he could have seen something would have shown him a blank wall".

I guess this is probably in Prayerman or Bart has provided a link before.  

I've never read Weisberg in depth though I've seen him referenced many times.  Given the time of his early observations he was a pioneer.

[James DiEugenio]

In those days Harold was really a one man wrecking crew.

I mean the guy completely destroyed the Warren Report many times over.

 

I think his best two books were his first two, Whitewash and Whitewash 2.

Let us also never forget what he says about Troy West here.

That is crucial.

[John Butler]

I can't get the link to work on what Troy West said.  If memory serves wasn't Troy West on the 1st floor of the TSBD.  And, he said essentially nothing in this statements.

What did Weisberg say about Troy West?

Harold Weisberg was exceptionally good at comparing two events or testimonies and picking up any differences.  He was also good at spotting things that others had missed.

He spotted a rifle or object pointing out of a Dal-Tex window in Altgens 6 in 1967.  I too spotted this but thought it was someone messing with the internet copy I had downloaded of Altgens 6.  Then I read Weisberg's account and if he saw that in 1967 that meant if someone had included that in Altgens it would have to be done prior to 1967. 

If Weisberg spotted a suspicious object, a rifle, in a Dal-Tex window then sit up and pay attention Lone Gunners.  If the object is true and unedited then there's your conspiracy and no Lone Gun Theory or SBT theory is worth talking about. 

It's just one bit that says there was a conspiracy to murder the President of the United States.

[Ron Bulman]

20 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

In those days Harold was really a one man wrecking crew.

I mean the guy completely destroyed the Warren Report many times over.

 

I think his best two books were his first two, Whitewash and Whitewash 2.

Let us also never forget what he says about Troy West here.

That is crucial.

I can't get this link to work either Jim.  I googled Troy West Harold Weisberg and didn't find anything that panned out.  I know I've read something of West before but don't remember what.

[James DiEugenio]

Could you tell how the bag was constructed?

Weisberg:

Well I can tell you how they say it was constructed. I do not vouch for it and I do not believe it. The bag is supposed to have been made from wrapping paper, taken from a roll of wrapping paper, that was then currently used in the Book Depository building, and to have been shaped by folding and to have been sealed by paper tape that is used to wrap packages to seal them. Now there was one man, and only one man who was in charge of the wrapping table. And he was unlike most of the other employees of the Texas School Book Depository. A man who was almost lashed to his work bench.

O’Connell:

This was Troy Eugene West?

Weisberg:

Troy Eugene West. The commission, which has so much trouble with the testimony on the bag, and which had to use testimony, which was diametrically opposed to its conclusion, decided that it had best forget all about the testimony of Troy Eugene West, and he is not mentioned in the report. But it was the testimony of West that he got to work early, filled a pot with water so he could make coffee, and thereafter never left his work bench, the wrapping table, for the rest of the day.

O’Connell:

What day was that?

Weisberg:

The day of his testimony, I don't recall, but he-

O’Connell:

No I mean, when did he ... he's referring to his arrival at the Depository.

Weisberg:

Every day.

O’Connell:

I see.

Weisberg:

This was his custom. He never left his work bench, he said. And he said that Oswald was never there, that Oswald never got any paper, that he never had access to any paper. He testified 100% against the interests of the commission's story that Oswald was the assassin.

[James DiEugenio]

It was when I read Weisberg's analysis of Troy West's testimony in Whitewash that I  first began to question the whole "Oswald's paper bag" concept in the Warren Commission.

The obvious mystery then becomes, "Where did he get the paper?"

I guess the conspirators realized that could be a problem also, since they sent the brown paper to Ruth Paine's house a day or so before the assassination.