Two Oswalds in the Texas Theater

[Paul Jolliffe]

2 hours ago, Micah Mileto said:

Is it possible he made up the story based on something he read earlier about Oswald's shoes?

Well yes, anything is possible.

(I am pretty sure that "Oswald" really was a previous customer at Hardy's Shoes - Warren Commission Exhibit 147 (Volume XVI, page 514) is a pair of men's black shoes  labeled "Hardy's Shoes".  If Brewer waited on him and disliked him., then could that have been a motive to help implicate "Oswald" in something that Brewer may not have understood fully? If the person asking for Brewer's help was someone who Brewer trusted/admired/liked, then the answer is maybe yes.)

https://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh16/html/WH_Vol16_0269b.htm

Also, note that the DPD listed a comparable pair of shoes on their inventory from 1026 N. Beckley:

But in the end, we don't know why Brewer told the story about 11/22/63 that he told. However, we know a couple of things:

1. "Oswald" was already in the Texas Theater by 1:10 or so. Butch Burroughs sold him popcorn before the beginning of the 1:15 show. Theater patron Jack Davis noted that "Oswald" was changing seats before  and during the credits of the movie. Therefore, Johnny Brewer's story about seeing "Oswald" hesitate outside the door of his store around 1:35 or so is demonstrably false.

2. No radio broadcast description of Tippit's killer had been broadcast at the time Brewer claimed later to have heard such a description. The only description the DPD had of the president's killer (called in by Inspector Herbert Sawyer at 12:45) was for a suspect who did NOT match "Oswald". 

3. The normal reaction to seeing someone walk into a theater without stopping at the box office is  . .  . to do nothing. Johnny Brewer's story to Julia Postal that a man had just walked in did not even ring true to Ms. Postal! She had to be cajoled repeatedly into calling the DPD. Yet there is filmed evidence (the Ron Reiland news report) that the Dallas Police were tipped off to "Oswald's" presence in the Texas Theater NOT as a result of Postal's call, but because of repeated, anonymous calls from someone within the theater itself. Further that caller claimed that the suspect had been seen walking into the Texas Theater with a rifle or a shotgun. 

This, of course, was laughable even in Texas in 1963, but that report is what spurred the DPD to surround the Texas Theater, not the call from Julia Postal. (Was Johnny Brewer tasked with providing a cover as to why the DPD were called to the Texas Theater? That's my guess.)

So who called the DPD from within the Texas Theater?

I believe it was probably "Oswald's" contact, the person to whom he'd been directed but did not know on sight. 

Further, I think it is probable that contact had possession of the revolver used to kill Tippit. I am not saying that "Oswald's" contact was Tippit's killer, merely that the contact had the revolver at that moment.

On other threads, the question as to why the second LHO came to the Texas Theater was never answered satisfactorily.

But, permit me to speculate that the purpose was simple: to get the killer's gun into "Oswald's" hands just in time for the DPD to arrest "Oswald."

Whether or not Tippit's killer bore a physical resemblance to "Oswald", the vital point was to get that revolver into "Oswald's" contact's hands so that person could then pass it on to "Oswald." Once that transfer was made safely, it was merely a matter then of alerting the DPD in a way guaranteed to bring them running. 

How?

By claiming that a man with a rifle had just walked into the Texas Theater!

It worked, but of course, that story had the drawback of being obviously false.

So Johnny Calvin Brewer was to provide cover for the conspirators, whether he knew exactly and fully his role, or not. 

I bet that to this day, Johnny Calvin Brewer is sure that "Oswald" was guilty as sin in both murders, and that further, Brewer will have nothing to do with conspiracy talk. 

After all, if he (inadvertently) helped the conspirators to cover up the murder of the president and to blame the patsy, his psyche would crumble. 

 

 

Edited August 10, 2019 by Paul Jolliffe

[Ron Bulman]

22 hours ago, Steve Thomas said:

I've been interested in the IBM links to Brewer's store, and the possible links to the 507th Army Security Agency Group.

Here's some notes I have:

 

Ian Lloyd, Why the Texas Theatre? Jfk assassination forum

http://www.jfkassassinationforum.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=da10693a75f6fceb0ce372badd010bff&topic=1633.msg24228#msg24228

 

According to Ian Griggs' "No Case To Answer" Brewer mentions "2 IBM men" who he says he didn't actually know, but were in his shop when Oswald ducked into the doorway but, when Brewer came back to his shop, they had disappeared never to be seen again?

 

Lee Farley, “Oswald's Escape Plan? Jfk assassination forum

http://www.jfkassassinationforum.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=da10693a75f6fceb0ce372badd010bff&topic=3304.msg61982#msg61982

 

“The main reason I place suspicion on Brewer is because when Oswald first entered Hardy's Shoe Store, Brewer claims he was with two people that he had known for over a year.  These two men, he says, worked for IBM. They were in the neighborhood and they popped in and were "killing time" and "lounging around." The Dallas Police didn't seek these individuals to find out who they were and what they saw. No one, it appears, was interested in them in the slightest. They just disappeared from existence.

Brewer had an interview with British researcher Ian Griggs in 1996. Brewer brought up the two men who were in his store (who worked for IBM) and he stated that in his absence they "locked up" for him. Lo and behold, Brewer says that although he had known these men for over a year, and they regularly came into his store to "kill time" he couldn't remember either of their names.”

 

You can see a reference to this system on page 6 in the document entitled: “DCI John McCone and the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy”

http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB493/docs/intell_ebb_026.PDF

that Douglas Caddy referred to in his thread, “CIA report concluded director led JFK assassination coverup

 

According to Wikipedia, Walnut used an IBM 1360 data retrieval and name trace system employing IBM punch cards and microfilm. Paper documents were microfilmed and then the pages were scanned and input into IBM punch cards. The cards were keyword searchable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_1360

 

I had been doing some reading on the 507^th Army Security Agency Group in Germany in the 1950's and 60's. The soldiers talked about using IBM punch cards in their work. Several said that there was a job waiting for them at IBM when their hitch was over.

 

(Source: Email from John O'Neil) (served in 1960)

https://www.usarmygermany.com/Sont.htm?https&&&www.usarmygermany.com/Units/ASA%20Europe/USAREUR_ASAE.htm

 

My next duty station (after Vint Hill Farms) was with the 507th USASA Group (Field Army) at Heilbronn am Neckar. We had 4 -2½ ton trucks with expandable sides that held all our IBM equipment that ran off portable diesel generators (one per truck).

 

Jim Campbell in his email said “(When I was in, no 206 had ever re-enlisted - IBM had a job ready for them when they got out.)” When I got out I went to the IBM office in San Francisco, showed them my diploma with TJ Watson’s signature and asked for a job, they asked me what I knew about computers, so I told them I’d seen one in Germany. I got the hint when they said ‘Goodbye, thanks for stopping in”.

Late in 1962 was not the time to look for a job repairing the soon to be obsolete IBM punched card machines! It all turned out for the best. I worked as a tab operator while I taught myself computer programming and all that stuff and lived happily ever after. My wife, our three children and I moved to Australia 40 years ago.

 

Hielbronn was where Dennis Ofstein of Jaggers-Chiles-Stovall fame and Thomas H. Crigler were stationed.

Thomas Crigler worked as an Army recruiter. There was a recruiting office about one or two blocks from the Texas Theater and Brewer's Shoe store in Oak Cliff. Crigler lived at 1705 McAdams in Oak Cliff.

 

On December 6, 1963 Thomas Crigler was interviewed by the FBI. He said that he met Olfstein “accidentally” on the street.

See FBI interview of Crigler December 6, 1963:

CD 205 p. 478

https://maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10672#relPageId=481&tab=page

 

Thomas H. Crigler, Jr., 1705 McAdams, advised he is currently a Staff Sergeant, U.S. Army Security Agency, Field Representative, assigned to U.S. Army Recruiting Station, Dallas. He advised that he and Dennis Ofstein were assigned to the same U.S. Army branch in Europe and that he knew Ofstein from about June, 1960 to December, 1960 purely as another person attached to the same unit with him. He said that he had never become socially or well acquainted with Ofstein at that time. He said the caption of their group was the 507^th USASA Group, Heilbron, West Germany.”

(This is actually spelled Heilbronn)

However, he said later in his FBI interview that about a week after meeting Ofstein in the street in August, Ofstein and his family came to Crigler's house, and that twice more he and his wife visited Ofstein at his (Ofstein's) house.

 

Steve Thomas

 

When I first read IBM men in the shoe store a few years back the antennae  on my tin foil hat started buzzing.  Thanks for fleshing this out a bit Steve.  It made me think of IBM counting Jews on the way to concentration camps or death.  

Edited August 11, 2019 by Ron Bulman

[Steve Thomas]

4 hours ago, Ron Bulman said:

When I first read IBM men in the shoe store a few years back the antennae  on my tin foil hat started buzzing.  Thanks for fleshing this out a bit Steve.  It made me think of IBM counting Jews on the way to concentration camps or death.  

Ron,

 

I was interested in Crigler because of his role in the recruiting process. Men who went into the Army Security Agency were recruited at the time they signed up, and before they went into basic traaining.

http://jfkassassination.net/russ/testimony/ofstein.htm

Mr. OFSTEIN Well, when I went in the service I was interested in radio--I was a disc jockey at the time, and the closest thing my recruiting sergeant said that I could get to radio would be possibly with the Army security agency, so I signed up, and after basic training I went to Fort Devens, Mass., and was held there on a temporary status while the agency determined what type training I should have, and I was given a language ability test and passed that and had a choice of three languages to take, and Russian was my first choice and I was sent to Monterey to study.

Submitted by Walter Chisholm

http://www.fortdevensmuseum.org/ArmySecurityAgency.php

“Most enlistees who joined the Army when I did, did so for a period of three years and that was my intention, too. However, after taking the ordinary battery of tests given to new recruits, I and two others in my group were called aside and taken to a room to talk to another recruiter. He told us that our high scores on those tests qualified us to join an elite group of soldiers in the "Army Security Agency". Of course we had never heard of the ASA and when we asked questions he seemed quite evasive saying only that it was so secret that he couldn't tell us much about it, but he used the words "Top Secret" several times. Sounded very "cloak and dagger. He made a point that "you don't have much time to decide. If you accept, I have to get you on a plane to Fort Jackson SC where you will undergo basic training and then go on to your ASA schooling."

We were at the induction station in Louisville KY and I had expected to go to basic just down the road at Fort Knox KY. At the time, I had never flown on a commercial airliner and the prospect of doing so, probably helped to sway my decision. Anyway, that and the way he didn't explain it, made it sound so intriguing that all three of us took the bait. Then he said "One more thing...because the ASA schooling is considerably more extensive than most other MOS's...many take from 6 to 12 months...the required period of enlistment is four years instead of the usual three". We all three thought about it for a moment, but it didn't deter us. We signed the paper and took the oath of enlistment”.

After basic at Fort Jackson, I arrived at Fort Devens in March of 1964. Upon arrival there everyone was first assigned to Charlie Company. Before anyone could start training, a complete background investigation had to be performed by the FBI. That sometimes took a few weeks. C-company was a holding company where you spent most of your time pulling KP, Police Call, or other such menial tasks while you waited for your security clearance to arrive. I was transferred to A-company during training”.

 

Steve Thomas

[John Butler]

While reading through the various posts in this thread, I was struck again with one of the problems I have with Oswald at the Texas Theater.  Let me start this explanation with this photo:

Here we see Oswald at the Dallas Police station surrounded by these huge Dallas Police officers and detectives.  I had two thoughts on this.  One, that the Dallas Police wanted to show how little, scrawny, and pathetic this crazed killer was.  Or, that they were showing how deadly and dangerous this killer of the President and Officer Tippit was.  I think this is what they believed.

The problem I have is the confrontation between Officer McDonald and Harvey Oswald.  Harvey Oswald was 5’8 or 5’9 in height and about 130-135 lbs. in weight.  Officer McDonald was a much bigger man and a trained police officer with years of experience in subduing law offenders.  One would think that the following account is accurate.

Generally, we read about this confrontation in this manner.  Office McDonald approaches Oswald’s location.  He jumps up out of his seat and says something like “It’s all over now” and pulls a .38 revolver on Office McDonald jams it into McDonald’s stomach and pulls the trigger. The gun misfires.  McDonald seizes the gun and then subdues Oswald.  Other officers arrive and help capture Oswald.  In a later video interview Officer McDonald says basically that.

But, is that really the way it happened?  There are other accounts seldom seen in which Oswald knocks down Officer McDonald.  Or, knocks him out cold as stated in this snip of an interview account with Roger Craig, etc.

My problem with this is if this account is true, and I have no reason to disbelieve it, that Oswald knocked Officer McDonald down an out then why did he pull a gun on McDonald and try to shoot him?  It doesn’t make sense.

And, this has led to speculation like who really had the gun?  Did McDonald have a throw away gun and was going to kill Oswald and Oswald saved himself by knocking out McDonald?

IMO, there were several attempts to kill Oswald that afternoon after the assassination.  Baker on the upper floors of the TSBD, the bus incident, and at the Texas Theater.          

 

Edited August 11, 2019 by John Butler

[John Butler]

Jim Hargrove posted a photo of a man sitting in the back of the Carousal Club with a view of a stripper:

I think the man has been identified as Larry Craford.  Here is an interesting article on Craford:

Sunday, November 4, 2018

Update on Larry Craford

New information about Larry Craford has emerged providing new insights into his role in the alleged assassination of John F Kennedy, as well as compelling a revision to our previous belief about his role in the murder of Dallas Police Department Officer JD Tippit.

 

Larry Rivera has unearthed new details about the Texas Employment Commission (TEC) incident revealing that Larry Craford (aka Crafard) was the man impersonating Lee HARVEY Oswald.

 

For those new to the case, a young man said to be Oswald applied to the TEC for employment prior to "finding" a job at the Texas School Book Depository in October 1963. He was interviewed by Laura Kittrell who left a lengthy manuscript detailing her interviews of Oswald.

 

She described a man who was prone to outbursts, bragged of speaking Russian and being in Russia, and displayed other idiosyncratic behaviors which suggested that he was a "Lone Nut." When Kittrell later saw pictures of Craford from the Warren Commission, she recognized the man as her noisy Oswald.

But that wasn't the only Oswald Kittrell interviewed. The other version was indeed Lee HARVEY Oswald who was much more polished and composed. Kittrell noticed this difference, realizing that she was being played, but not sure of its meaning.

 

Thus it is very clear that CIA was running multiple Oswalds, as John Armstrong has abundantly demonstrated, to create a profile of a man who was unhinged and liable to do anything, including murdering a president.

 

Kittrell noticed that her boisterous and careless Oswald was not the news media Oswald, and was thus studiously avoided by the Warren Commission. Her records at TEC had been confiscated by FBI while she at the Trade Mart expecting to hear the president speak.

 

Not only had Kittrell seen Crafard, but she also saw the real HARVEY Oswald. She knew that 2 people were playing the same Oswald character.

 

Previously, we had opined - with conviction - that Larry Craford had murdered Tippit, but we may raise caution after these revelations. On the other hand, it cannot be ruled out all together. We are also not convinced that Tippit was murdered.

 

In other words, it appears that Crafard's assignment was to make Oswald look like a nut case. But we also know that he was involved with organized crime because he mentioned to Kittrell his ties to Nixon aide and real estate investor Murray Chotiner. We also reported previously Crafard's career as a gun for hire. Thus we have a credible basis for assuming that Craford applied his trade in the execution of JD Tippit.

 

Further research by Armstrong shows that LEE Harvey Oswald murdered Tippit, but there may be more to the story. Some witnesses reported seeing 2 men leave the alleged Tippit murder scene, each going in opposite directions.

 

If the Tippit murder was faked, as we suspect, then we have to question whether or not any of the witnesses were authentic. They may have been crisis actors as the government uses them so frequently in faked "tragedies."

 

But accepting that 2 men were at the scene of the "murder", it is entirely possible that one of them was Crafard while the other was LEE. But because the accounts of 2 assailants is somewhat murky, we leave as conjecture our hypothesis that Crafard was the murderer - if in fact there were a murder.

 

Reasons for doubting that a murder was committed include the cleanliness of the crime scene, and the cleanliness of LEE Oswald - there was no blood spatter or flying body fragments expected in a close range gun attack.

 

On the other hand, if Crafard was the gunman, then that might explain why the white-shirted LEE Oswald was untainted with physical evidence of the crime.

 

At this point, we can firmly believe and know that Larry Crafard was the man impersonating Lee HARVEY Oswald at the Texas Employment Commission.

References
Larry Rivera, Laura Kittrell, Larry Crafard, and Lee Oswald, The New JFK Show Blog, September 27, 2018, accessed 11/4/2018

John Armstrong, The Murder of J. D. Tippit, Harvey and Lee (website), September

 

The stripper in the photo is Tammy True, aka Nancy Monnell Powell:

She is an interesting character people rarely pay attention to for her role and her association (other than stripping at the Carousal Club) with Jack Ruby in the Kennedy Assassination.  IMO, and the opinion of others, she was a Kennedy Assassination co-conspirator.

Edited August 11, 2019 by John Butler

[Jim Hargrove]

John,

John A. argues that the other “Oswald” seen by Laura Kittrell was NOT Larry Crafard because, among other reasons, Crafard had terrible teeth.  Since Kittrell reported that this other “Oswald” had a boisterous voice and laughed heartily, his dental problems should have been immediately obvious to her.

As for the image of the fellow watching the stripper, John K. points out that he appears bigger than Classic Oswald®, which is what John Armstrong has been saying all along.  We think the man who worked with Ruby was American-born LEE Oswald, who was about two inches taller and at least twenty pounds heavier than Russian-speaking HARVEY Oswald, the man killed by Ruby.

[Jim Hargrove]

18 hours ago, Paul Jolliffe said:

Well yes, anything is possible.

(I am pretty sure that "Oswald" really was a previous customer at Hardy's Shoes - Warren Commission Exhibit 147 (Volume XVI, page 514) is a pair of men's black shoes  labeled "Hardy's Shoes".  If Brewer waited on him and disliked him., then could that have been a motive to help implicate "Oswald" in something that Brewer may not have understood fully? If the person asking for Brewer's help was someone who Brewer trusted/admired/liked, then the answer is maybe yes.)

https://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh16/html/WH_Vol16_0269b.htm

Also, note that the DPD listed a comparable pair of shoes on their inventory from 1026 N. Beckley:

But in the end, we don't know why Brewer told the story about 11/22/63 that he told. However, we know a couple of things:

1. "Oswald" was already in the Texas Theater by 1:10 or so. Butch Burroughs sold him popcorn before the beginning of the 1:15 show. Theater patron Jack Davis noted that "Oswald" was changing seats before  and during the credits of the movie. Therefore, Johnny Brewer's story about seeing "Oswald" hesitate outside the door of his store around 1:35 or so is demonstrably false.

2. No radio broadcast description of Tippit's killer had been broadcast at the time Brewer claimed later to have heard such a description. The only description the DPD had of the president's killer (called in by Inspector Herbert Sawyer at 12:45) was for a suspect who did NOT match "Oswald". 

3. The normal reaction to seeing someone walk into a theater without stopping at the box office is  . .  . to do nothing. Johnny Brewer's story to Julia Postal that a man had just walked in did not even ring true to Ms. Postal! She had to be cajoled repeatedly into calling the DPD. Yet there is filmed evidence (the Ron Reiland news report) that the Dallas Police were tipped off to "Oswald's" presence in the Texas Theater NOT as a result of Postal's call, but because of repeated, anonymous calls from someone within the theater itself. Further that caller claimed that the suspect had been seen walking into the Texas Theater with a rifle or a shotgun. 

This, of course, was laughable even in Texas in 1963, but that report is what spurred the DPD to surround the Texas Theater, not the call from Julia Postal. (Was Johnny Brewer tasked with providing a cover as to why the DPD were called to the Texas Theater? That's my guess.)

So who called the DPD from within the Texas Theater?

I believe it was probably "Oswald's" contact, the person to whom he'd been directed but did not know on sight. 

Further, I think it is probable that contact had possession of the revolver used to kill Tippit. I am not saying that "Oswald's" contact was Tippit's killer, merely that the contact had the revolver at that moment.

On other threads, the question as to why the second LHO came to the Texas Theater was never answered satisfactorily.

But, permit me to speculate that the purpose was simple: to get the killer's gun into "Oswald's" hands just in time for the DPD to arrest "Oswald."

Whether or not Tippit's killer bore a physical resemblance to "Oswald", the vital point was to get that revolver into "Oswald's" contact's hands so that person could then pass it on to "Oswald." Once that transfer was made safely, it was merely a matter then of alerting the DPD in a way guaranteed to bring them running. 

How?

By claiming that a man with a rifle had just walked into the Texas Theater!

It worked, but of course, that story had the drawback of being obviously false.

So Johnny Calvin Brewer was to provide cover for the conspirators, whether he knew exactly and fully his role, or not. 

I bet that to this day, Johnny Calvin Brewer is sure that "Oswald" was guilty as sin in both murders, and that further, Brewer will have nothing to do with conspiracy talk. 

After all, if he (inadvertently) helped the conspirators to cover up the murder of the president and to blame the patsy, his psyche would crumble. 

Paul,

Fascinating post.  Thank you!

I had always assumed the second “Oswald” arrived at the theater to lure the cops there (though John A. was never so certain of that). Your theory about getting the pistol into Classic Oswald’s® hands does seem possible; it had just never occurred to me before.

Also, you mentioned “repeated, anonymous calls from someone within the theater itself.”  Can you say what led you to this conclusion?  It’s clear that  ADA Jim Bowie told Leo Sauvage there were “over a half-dozen anonymous phone calls made to the Dallas Police advising that a suspicious man had gone into the Texas Theater," but I don’t believe anything was said about where these calls originated.

Thanks again for your post.  Much to think about in it.

[John Butler]

43 minutes ago, Jim Hargrove said:

John,

John A. argues that the other “Oswald” seen by Laura Kittrell was NOT Larry Crafard because, among other reasons, Crafard had terrible teeth.  Since Kittrell reported that this other “Oswald” had a boisterous voice and laughed heartily, his dental problems should have been immediately obvious to her.

As for the image of the fellow watching the stripper, John K. points out that he appears bigger than Classic Oswald®, which is what John Armstrong has been saying all along.  We think the man who worked with Ruby was American-born LEE Oswald, who was about two inches taller and at least twenty pounds heavier than Russian-speaking HARVEY Oswald, the man killed by Ruby.

Jim,

Right.  Laura Kittrell from her statements appears to be a keen observer.  There were many Oswald doubles out and about during this period.  I can see how one would confuse them as in the Riveria article.  This confuses whose who in the work of identifying who is Lee and who is Harvey.  People differ greatly on their appearance in photos and the stories told about them. 

When photos of Oswald doubles, say Billy Seymour or the most recent alleged to be Oswald double, Manual Rodriquez Ocarberrio , are compared to either what one considers to be Lee or Harvey, they soon fall by the wayside as a person identified as Lee Harvey Oswald.  It's obvious the man in the Carousal Club photo is not Lee or Harvey. 

Tammi True is related to the problems I have with the Babushka Lady and general photo alterations in Dealey Plaza.  Do you have any interesting information on Tammi True or sources one could look at? 

Edited August 11, 2019 by John Butler

[John Butler]

It is very difficult to tell whether a photo or film is about Lee or Harvey or some other double.  These frames were taken from a New Orleans video and show something that you will not catch if the video is just watched and not examined closely.

The first frame on the left clearly shows a face mask covering who this is.  The mask is also in the right hand frame, but less noticeable.  The second frame on the right shows an Oswald figure with a large, muscular right arm and a noticeably smaller, weaker left arm.  The hair appears to have been worked on, but it is difficult to say confidently.  Although it appears to be Harvey Oswald, it is not.  It is probably Lee.  In these frames the ears are clearly a problem.

So, whose at the Texas Theater confronting Officer McDonald?  Harvey or Lee?  Is it the stronger, heavier Lee who one would think more capable of knocking out Officer McDonald or the scrawny Harvey? 

I think it was Harvey and if I had to put money down it would be on Harvey.  Just because a person is smaller or weaker looking in appearance doesn't mean they are not capable of knocking out Officer McDonald.  Depending on his training (one can learn the correct ways to strike someone) or have the natural strength to do it.   I think Harvey was capable.  But, dealing with the two there is always an element of doubt.   

Edited August 11, 2019 by John Butler

[Paul Jolliffe]

6 hours ago, Jim Hargrove said:

Paul,

Fascinating post.  Thank you!

I had always assumed the second “Oswald” arrived at the theater to lure the cops there (though John A. was never so certain of that). Your theory about getting the pistol into Classic Oswald’s® hands does seem possible; it had just never occurred to me before.

Also, you mentioned “repeated, anonymous calls from someone within the theater itself.”  Can you say what led you to this conclusion?  It’s clear that  ADA Jim Bowie told Leo Sauvage there were “over a half-dozen anonymous phone calls made to the Dallas Police advising that a suspicious man had gone into the Texas Theater," but I don’t believe anything was said about where these calls originated.

Thanks again for your post.  Much to think about in it.

Jim Hargrove said: "I don't believe anything was said about where these calls originated."

Yes, you're right. I conflated the Sauvage quote with Penn Jones's statement (found on page 12 in Ron Bulman's reply from the March 1, 1968 Los Angeles Free Press story "Ruby had 15,000  bullet, grenades, rifles".

Look in the first column on the right - Penn Jones and Roger Craig discuss the fact that the Dallas Dispatchers somehow managed to "misplace" the tape of the calls from the Texas Theater to the DPD at that moment.

(Of course that tape was not misplaced. It was destroyed because it contained a recording of a conspirator's voice! Not to mention that calls from anyone other than Julia Postal did NOT fit the emerging narrative!)

 

[Ron Bulman]

21 hours ago, Steve Thomas said:

Ron,

 

I was interested in Crigler because of his role in the recruiting process. Men who went into the Army Security Agency were recruited at the time they signed up, and before they went into basic traaining.

http://jfkassassination.net/russ/testimony/ofstein.htm

Mr. OFSTEIN Well, when I went in the service I was interested in radio--I was a disc jockey at the time, and the closest thing my recruiting sergeant said that I could get to radio would be possibly with the Army security agency, so I signed up, and after basic training I went to Fort Devens, Mass., and was held there on a temporary status while the agency determined what type training I should have, and I was given a language ability test and passed that and had a choice of three languages to take, and Russian was my first choice and I was sent to Monterey to study.

Submitted by Walter Chisholm

http://www.fortdevensmuseum.org/ArmySecurityAgency.php

“Most enlistees who joined the Army when I did, did so for a period of three years and that was my intention, too. However, after taking the ordinary battery of tests given to new recruits, I and two others in my group were called aside and taken to a room to talk to another recruiter. He told us that our high scores on those tests qualified us to join an elite group of soldiers in the "Army Security Agency". Of course we had never heard of the ASA and when we asked questions he seemed quite evasive saying only that it was so secret that he couldn't tell us much about it, but he used the words "Top Secret" several times. Sounded very "cloak and dagger. He made a point that "you don't have much time to decide. If you accept, I have to get you on a plane to Fort Jackson SC where you will undergo basic training and then go on to your ASA schooling."

We were at the induction station in Louisville KY and I had expected to go to basic just down the road at Fort Knox KY. At the time, I had never flown on a commercial airliner and the prospect of doing so, probably helped to sway my decision. Anyway, that and the way he didn't explain it, made it sound so intriguing that all three of us took the bait. Then he said "One more thing...because the ASA schooling is considerably more extensive than most other MOS's...many take from 6 to 12 months...the required period of enlistment is four years instead of the usual three". We all three thought about it for a moment, but it didn't deter us. We signed the paper and took the oath of enlistment”.

After basic at Fort Jackson, I arrived at Fort Devens in March of 1964. Upon arrival there everyone was first assigned to Charlie Company. Before anyone could start training, a complete background investigation had to be performed by the FBI. That sometimes took a few weeks. C-company was a holding company where you spent most of your time pulling KP, Police Call, or other such menial tasks while you waited for your security clearance to arrive. I was transferred to A-company during training”.

 

Steve Thomas

Steve, the IBM guy's in the shoe store when Oswald supposedly tried to hide from passing police really made me think along these lines.  I have this maybe wrong or naïve concept of IBM at that time being heavily involved in the government and vice versa.  "The" computer giant of the day at the start of (compared to now) computer age. Reading about huge underground (IBM?) "computers" at the NSA.  Involved in census, statistics, and, intelligence analysis.  I.E., I don't think it's inconceivable that in certain situations, certain IBM reps could have been CIA assets using the company as a front.  

So, we have two IBM guys in the shoe store Brewer manages when Oswald supposedly turns into the store doorway to avoid being seen by passing cops.  The same two guys he'd "known"(?) for a year but couldn't remember their names (??).  A couple of IBM guys, looking at shoes on a very long Friday afternoon lunch, in the store where Brewer also previously sold shoes to the rude Oswald.  Brewer never mentioned recognizing Ozzie when he turned toward the entrance hiding.  Maybe the IBM guys could have verified the radio description of the suspect that Brewer heard but never happened.  Some investigator should have leaned a little harder on Brewer for more info about the IBM guys and investigated them.

When you throw the IBM guys in with Brewer being suspicious of this Oswald he remembered later but didn't recognize at his front door based on a radio broadcast that didn't happen...  Brewer's so suspicious he follows the second Oswald to and into the Texas Theater.  Tells Postal to call the cops, searches for this likely armed and dangerous suspected assassin/cop killer then this just seems a little fishy to me.  Then we now throw in Brewer's employee Rowe being so tight with Ruby that he moves into Jack's apartment after he's arrested ???  It gets even fishier.  (hey, if WN can create a new verb, why can't I create a new adjective?  I've got a natural excuse, English was not my strong suit in high school, I've butchered it many time since).

Edited August 12, 2019 by Ron Bulman

[Steve Thomas]

5 hours ago, Ron Bulman said:

  I.E., I don't think it's inconceivable that in certain situations, certain IBM reps could have been CIA assets using the company as a front. 

Ron,

 

Think military intelligence, not CIA.

 

Steve Thomas

[Jim Hargrove]

According to a 1967 Time magazine cover story, CIA actions had "more in common with IBM’s 360 than with Ian Fleming’s 007.”
 
https://time.com/4669239/1967-cia-cover-story/

[Paul Jolliffe]

9 hours ago, Steve Thomas said:

Ron,

 

Think military intelligence, not CIA.

 

Steve Thomas

Steve and Ron,

Your are both correct to suspect that the "IBM men" at Hardy's Shoe store played a  key role that day.

In this 1996 interview with Ian Griggs which I posted earlier, Johnny Brewer made several interesting admissions.  Obviously he introduced the "IBM men" into the narrative.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=16235#relPageId=8&tab=page

But even more fascinating is the following:

1. Contrary to his Warren Commission testimony, what drew Brewer's attention to the lobby area WAS NOT "OSWALD"! 

Brewer freely confessed to Griggs that he, Brewer, "was actually on my way to come out from behind the counter to go outside, to watch out and see what was going on when this fellow entered from my left as I'm standing there.  . . . And actually, I was a little annoyed because I thought it was someone coming in as I was fixing to go out . . ."

2. Brewer was not certain the "the man" had sneaked into the Texas Theater: (" I didn't really know for sure whether he bought a ticket or not." ) (Contrary to his later statements, the ticket booth did not butt out onto the sidewalk. Instead, in 1963 it was slightly recessed, although not as far back as it is today. Nonetheless, in 1963, the ticket window was NOT visible from Hardy's Shoes. One would have to walk within a few feet of the entrance to the theater to ascertain whether a transaction actually took place. See the first video below at the 2:15 mark.)

So why did Brewer's conversation with Julia Postal come about?

Well, it only happened after Brewer returned to Hardy's Shoes and talked to the mysterious "IBM men"! ("I went back and - I can't remember either of their names - but one of them closed up for me while I was gone.")

Brewer hinted that they urged him to go up to the theater ("So they stayed there and all the time I'm thinking to myself what am I doing here?") In other words, Brewer himself wasn't sure why he was going to the theater, but it only happened after the two "IBM men" said they'd stay at Hardy's and that they'd close it up for Brewer. These men were not at Hardy's when Brewer returned later that afternoon "the store was locked." (Yet these men disappeared as soon as "Oswald" was arrested, never to be seen or heard from again . . .)

Question: What kind of manager allows customers to close up and lock the store?

Answer: None do. These "IBM men" from the neighborhood were known to Brewer since August of 1962. Brewer explicity denied these men were customers. ("They'd just come in and kill time and lounge around.")

3. Since no one ("Oswald" or anyone else) passed by Butch Burroughs at the concession stand on the way to the main floor, the only possible path for the man to have taken would be up the stairs to the balcony. And, in fact, that is exactly what Brewer and Burroughs suspected. They both walked upstairs to check, but according to Brewer there was no one in the balcony. (I don't believe that. I think there was at least one person up there. This matches so well with the TWO DPD arrest reports stating that "Oswald" was arrested in the balcony of the Texas Theater!)

4. Brewer hinted that he had been given a description of "Oswald": "Well first of all I walked all the way down the left aisle and just kinda looked for somebody who looked like him . . ."

Say what?  Brewer "just kinda looked for somebody who looked like him"? Why not just look for the man he had just seen outside the shoe store?

Further: "Nobody had gone out. So I walked back up to the other side and walked out and I said to Julie "Call the police" and I said "Butch, you stay here out front and if anybody matching his description leaves, then stop them . . ."

5. Brewer told Julia Postal to call the Dallas Police with the report of a suspicious person, but " I still had no reason to have somebody call the police. I'm not sure what the hell I'm doing here to start with."

Gentlemen, I believe that with this statement, Brewer virtually confessed that he had been put up to the task of drawing the Dallas Police to the Texas Theater. 

That fits so perfectly with what I argued earlier about the purpose of the Brewer mission, namely to provide a cover story for the arrival of the DPD to the Texas Theater. 

Who could have put Johnny Brewer up to such a thing? What acquaintances of his were in the right place at the right time to persuade this 22 year old to go report a "suspicious person"?

Only the mysterious "IBM men" who so helpfully paved the way for Brewer to step into history's spotlight, and then, like magicians, disappeared without a trace. 

Note that in the second video below, that as soon as Brewer described watching the man enter the Texas Theater ("I was still in front of my store and watched him enter the theater") Vincent Bugliosi interrupted Brewer! Bugliosi did not want to take a chance that Brewer might inadvertently let slip the fact that Brewer then returned to the store and talked with the IBM men! Bugliosi interjected and gestured (as Brewer was still speaking) to say " thereupon you proceeded toward the theater." Brewer then described briefly his interaction with Julia Postal.

By interrupting when he did, Bugliosi knowingly prevented Brewer from describing his return to Hardy's and his conversation with the two IBM men!

That interruption was no accident - Bugliosi knew exactly what to hide: The two IBM men and their role in urging Johnny Brewer to report the "suspicious person."

(See the 3:35 mark and beyond in the second video below.)

 

"

 

 

 

Edited August 12, 2019 by Paul Jolliffe

[David Josephs]

Much has been discussed about the German/Nazi/Farben/Banking connections to those involved with the death of JFK...
IBM - like all the large corps of the time - did business wherever possible and whenever profitable - regardless of client or purpose...
That IBM (and some of the German NASA people) would have an interest in the goings on at the presidential level is not hard to accept.

Also not too hard to accept was the deep infiltration of CIA into international businesses like IBM and Wackenhut....  just to name 2

DJ

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ibm-and-quot-death-s-calculator-quot-2

https://archive.org/details/IbmAndTheHolocaust

When Hitler came to power, a central Nazi goal was to identify and destroy Germany's 600,000 Jews. To Nazis, Jews were not just those who practiced Judaism, but those of Jewish blood, regardless of their assimilation, intermarriage, religious activity, or even conversion to Christianity. Only after Jews were identified could they be targeted for asset confiscation, ghettoization, deportation, and ultimately extermination. To search generations of communal, church, and governmental records all across Germany-and later throughout Europe-was a cross-indexing task so monumental, it called for a computer. But in 1933, no computer existed.

When the Reich needed to mount a systematic campaign of Jewish economic disenfranchisement and later began the massive movement of European Jews out of their homes and into ghettos, once again, the task was so prodigious it called for a computer. But in 1933, no computer existed. When the Final Solution sought to efficiently transport Jews out of European ghettos along railroad lines and into death camps, with timing so precise the victims were able to walk right out of the boxcar and into a waiting gas chamber, the coordination was so complex a task, this too called for a computer. But in 1933, no computer existed.

However, another invention did exist: the IBM punch card and card sorting system-a precursor to the computer. IBM, primarily through its German subsidiary, made Hitler's program of Jewish destruction a technologic mission the company pursued with chilling success. IBM Germany, using its own staff and equipment, designed, executed, and supplied the indispensable technologic assistance Hitler's Third Reich needed to accomplish what had never been done before-the automation of human destruction. More than 2,000 such multi-machine sets were dispatched throughout Germany, and thousands more throughout German-dominated Europe. Card sorting operations were established in every major concentration camp. People were moved from place to place, systematically worked to death, and their remains cataloged with icy automation.