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Kerry Thornley: A New Look


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This is probably the most extensive examination of Thornley that there is.

He tried hard to keep his associations hidden.  And its pretty clear the Warren Commission, through Albert Jenner, understood that and helped him. Jenner ran a dog and pony show with the guy.

In reexamining his WC testimony  with what we know today, a new light is cast.  

https://kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/kerry-thornley-a-new-look-part-1

 

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Just read your essay.

Don't know how you manage such deep research of so many JFK related subjects.

I need to rest and digest this Thornley piece. 

As always, incredibly thought provoking.

Maybe I can actually get a few Zzzzz until our day starts at 7 to 8.

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Thanks Joe.

I have to say that the Mary Farrell site and AARC do help a lot.

And I agree, Thornley when you get everything on the table, is a provocative character.

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Jim Garrison was a truly Great American.

Let me list just ten achievements of the deceased DA in comparison to work by Americans that came before him between 1964-67.

  1. Garrison was the first critic to declare that Oswald was an agent provocateur, probably in the employ of the CIA.
  2. The DA was the first critic to find out just what the stamp 544 Camp Street on Oswald’s pamphlet meant.
  3. Garrison was the first person to make a solid connection between Oswald, Ferrie, and Shaw, at the above Clinton/Jackson incident.
  4. The DA was the first critic to understand that Mexico City was a central part of the plot to kill Kennedy.
  5. Garrison was the first critic to comprehend that the escalation of the Vietnam War was a direct result of Kennedy’s murder.
  6. First critic to prove that Clay Bertrand was Clay Shaw (DiEugenio, pp. 387-88)
  7. Garrison’s leads were paralleled and backed up by the FBI (Click here for details)
  8. First critic who said JFK’s murder was a coup d’etat
  9. First critic who said the murder of JFK was designed to roll back JFK’s foreign policy. (Click here for details)
  10. First critic to say the murders of MLK and RFK were related to JFK.

Compare Jim Garrison to Kerry Thornley?  IMO, Thornley was CIA and that's what his framing of Oswald was about.  Some would call that patriotism or being a great American.  But, I don't.  Everything I read about Kerry Thornley comes up questionable. 

Edited by John Butler
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Thornley was so nuttily rightwing, that I don't think he could tell the difference.

I mean that letter he wrote about, since he was In Arlington, he might take the opportunity to urinate on Kennedy's grave?

Opposing JFK on Congo? After they kill Lumumba and Hammarskjold.

The LeFevre School?

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1 hour ago, John Butler said:

Jim Garrison was a truly Great American.

Let me list just ten achievements of the deceased DA in comparison to work by Americans that came before him between 1964-67.

  1. Garrison was the first critic to declare that Oswald was an agent provocateur, probably in the employ of the CIA.
  2. The DA was the first critic to find out just what the stamp 544 Camp Street on Oswald’s pamphlet meant.
  3. Garrison was the first person to make a solid connection between Oswald, Ferrie, and Shaw, at the above Clinton/Jackson incident.
  4. The DA was the first critic to understand that Mexico City was a central part of the plot to kill Kennedy.
  5. Garrison was the first critic to comprehend that the escalation of the Vietnam War was a direct result of Kennedy’s murder.
  6. First critic to prove that Clay Bertrand was Clay Shaw (DiEugenio, pp. 387-88)
  7. Garrison’s leads were paralleled and backed up by the FBI (Click here for details)
  8. First critic who said JFK’s murder was a coup d’etat
  9. First critic who said the murder of JFK was designed to roll back JFK’s foreign policy. (Click here for details)
  10. First critic to say the murders of MLK and RFK were related to JFK.

Compare Jim Garrison to Kerry Thornley?  IMO, Thornley was CIA and that's what his framing of Oswald was about.  Some would call that patriotism or being a great American.  But, I don't.  Everything I read about Kerry Thornley comes up questionable. 

Exactly.

Imagine if Jim Garrison had never taken on his investigation?

The entire important and revealing history of Oswald in New Orleans the summer of 1963, as well as the nefarious covert doings of so many other intelligence connected major characters there before and during Oswald's time, would be forever buried in the graveyard of hidden secrets and truths.

Garrison paid a price for his incredible effort to seek the broader truth.

It came with real and heavy personal sacrifice losses including family stress, criminal indictment, long term personal integrity and reputation public scorn and attack and on and on. 

Honestly, if the only investigation of Oswald and his 1963 time in New Orleans was left to our main corporate media and Hoover, probably the only thing we would know is Oswald's filmed leaflet passing and radio and TV appearance where he claimed he was a Marxist and later claims of a mutual love affair by Judyth Vary Baker.

No Bannister, Ferry, Shaw, Jackson visit, Sergio Smith, hip talkin', shrimp cocktail slobbering, gay boys defending Dean Andrews, Jack Martin, etc.

And no Oliver Stone "JFK" film.      What a loss.

Edited by Joe Bauer
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The idea that the FBI did not know about Oswald at 544 Camp Street is too funny to contemplate.

Regis Kennedy was actually there.

But when the FBI talked to Banister he, of course, did not mention LHO.  Even though 544 Camp was on one of Oswald's flyers and this is in the Warren Commission.

Banister was very upset about that.  Which is why they got rid of all of Oswald's stuff very quickly after the assassination.  And why Newman, the owner. lied about knowing Oswald was there.  The HSCA suspected he was lying too.

BTW, as I wrote in the article, I did not use all the sources that put Thornley in contact with Oswald in New Orleans.  Partly because as I detail, how Connick incinerated Garrison's files.  But someone sent me an FBI report that says Thornley's live in girlfriend--who their source misconstrued as his wife--also said the two associated with each other.

I am convinced  that Thornley, as I said in my essay, was determined to play the role of the pianist downstairs in the bordello who did not know what was going on upstairs.  And the WC, especially Jenner, was aware of this and rolled out the red carpet for him to do just that.

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Gorightly comparing Thornley to other “luminaries from the period” such as Ken Kesey reminds me of George de Mohrenschildt's remarks about Oswald: "Ahead of his time really, a kind of hippie of those days." Oswald was pretty far away from ever being a hippie, just as Thormey was no cool cat beatnik (and certainly no luminary from _any_ period). Pretty much from the get-go, Thornley also seemed to want to pass himself off as some kind of (right-wing) hipster. What was the motivation behind selecting that kind of a persona?

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20 hours ago, John Butler said:

Jim Garrison was a truly Great American.

Let me list just ten achievements of the deceased DA in comparison to work by Americans that came before him between 1964-67.

  1. Garrison was the first critic to declare that Oswald was an agent provocateur, probably in the employ of the CIA.
  2. The DA was the first critic to find out just what the stamp 544 Camp Street on Oswald’s pamphlet meant.
  3. Garrison was the first person to make a solid connection between Oswald, Ferrie, and Shaw, at the above Clinton/Jackson incident.
  4. The DA was the first critic to understand that Mexico City was a central part of the plot to kill Kennedy.
  5. Garrison was the first critic to comprehend that the escalation of the Vietnam War was a direct result of Kennedy’s murder.
  6. First critic to prove that Clay Bertrand was Clay Shaw (DiEugenio, pp. 387-88)
  7. Garrison’s leads were paralleled and backed up by the FBI (Click here for details)
  8. First critic who said JFK’s murder was a coup d’etat
  9. First critic who said the murder of JFK was designed to roll back JFK’s foreign policy. (Click here for details)
  10. First critic to say the murders of MLK and RFK were related to JFK.

Compare Jim Garrison to Kerry Thornley?  IMO, Thornley was CIA and that's what his framing of Oswald was about.  Some would call that patriotism or being a great American.  But, I don't.  Everything I read about Kerry Thornley comes up questionable. 

((edited and modified, 6/21/2020 - 430 AM PST)).

The numbered list you provided --while attempting to be "comprehensive" --does not provide an accurate picture.  The idea that what happened in Dallas on 11/22/63 represented a coup was first voiced by M.S. Arnoni in a series of articles in his publication "The Minority of One," (TMO).  TMO was available at the UCLA Research Library and I spent hours studying his writings back in 1965/1966.  Another pioneer was Vincent Salandria who (along with Thomas Stamm) went to the National Archives, and viewed the Zapruder film and then came his (Salandria's) articles in Liberation magazine. Still another "first generation" researcher was Josiah Thompson, who --in 1966 (approx) --was hired as a consultant by LIFE, visited Dallas, interviewed witnesses, and had "early access" to the Zapruder film. Furthermore, and speaking only for myself, I learned a lot from speaking with--and meeting with - Raymond Marcus, during that same period.  Another member of the SoCal "group" was Maggie Field, and still another Lillian Castellano.  All of this activity by "first generation" researchers--this complete immersion in the 26 Volumes of the Warren Commission, and the realization that the Warren Commission was not just "wrong" but perhaps deliberately so (i.e., an outright fraud) --- took place between 1964 and late 1966. (Furthermore, all of it was "pre-Internet," by several decades).  District Attorney Garrison entered the scene in February 1967, making his headline-producing announcement that he had "solved" the Kennedy assassination; and then, in March, charging New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw with conspiracy.  It was around May 1967 (or perhaps a bit later)  when I first met with him --- more than once, and for several hours.  

(The chronology of my own involvement is laid out, in detail, in the opening chapters of Best Evidence, which was first published (in hardcover) in Jan 1981, which was a Book of the Month Club selection;  and then (again) by three more publishers: Dell [1982], Carroll and Graf ["Trade paper," 1988], and Signet [paperback, 1993]).  Your point number 8 --that Garrison was "[the] first critic who said JFK's murder was a coup d'etat," is incorrect-- completely incorrect.  I had any number of conversations with Ray Marcus on this very subject (back in 1964/1965).  Also, and on the subject of "coup," a most important book is (i.e., "was") "Coup d'etat," by Edward Luttwak,  first published by Harvard University Press in 1968, and reprinted a number of times since.   That book provided a methodical way to examine the JFK assassination (from the standpoint that it was a coup); and led me to focus on the Secret Service -- specifically, the White House Detail ("WHD") of the Secret Service as the key to understanding the mechanics of any plot. 

Bottom line: there's a very solid published record about how thinking developed --among early JFK researchers --about the JFK assassination; and, should you wish to get an overview, there are two lengthy articles in Esquire Magazine --one in December 1966, and then a follow-up several months later  (Just Googe "Esquire" and "assassination theories").  Garrison was not the progenitor of the ideas on your numbered list,  and to believe that is a gross oversimplification.  The original books on this case -- "Oswald: Assassin or Fall Guy," by Joachem Joesten (1964 or 1965),  Inquest (by Edward Epstein, July 1966), and Rush to Judgement (by Mark Lane, August 1966); marked the beginning.  Two other "first generation" researchers were Ray Marcus and Maggie Field.  Later (in 1968, I believe) came Josiah Thompson's Six Seconds in Dallas, and my own work (Best Evidence ) was published in 1981.  My final chapter -- Ch. 32 ("The Assassination as a Covert Operation")-- explicitly argues that the assassination was an "inside job" and leaves little doubt that we are talking about a coup.  FWIW-- and this is admittedly subjective --it was always my impression that Garrison's "political theory" (i.e., his very public talk about a "coup") emerged after a Spring 1967 trip to Los Angeles, and the extensive contacts that he had--at that time--with Ray Marcus and Maggie Field (mentioned above).  In particular, your point #9 --that a purpose of JFK's murder was to change the foreign policy of the U.S. (a polite way of saying, "to escalate the Vietnam War", e.g., starting with Tonkin Gulf, august 1964) -- is developed in The Minority of One (TMO), and was a subject of intense discussion among the two Southern California researchers (mentioned above, along with another,  Lillian Castellano) with whom I was in contact back in those days. A good "snapshot" of the situation can be found in a New Yorker article published in June 1967, called "The Buffs," by writer Calvin (Bud) Trillin.  Years later (circa 1992), some of this history blossomed into a Ph.D. thesis of John Newman, which then (in 1992/93) became his published book, "JFK and Vietnam."  If you will study the materials I have mentioned, and arrange everything in "chronological order," you will have a much more accurate understanding of how the JFK controversy emerged, and the role played by District Attorney Garrison. 

I am not taking issue with some of the "particulars" you raise; rather, I'm trying here to focus on "the big picture."

In many ways, Garrison can be viewed as "just another JFK researcher" --the big difference being that, as D.A. of New Orleans, he could charge people with crimes, and actually present evidence to a Grand Jury (which he did). Unfortunately (and this was the serious downside of his investigation) the principal person he charged --businessman Clay Shaw--was, IMHO, completely innocent of any wrong doing. The result was legal proceedings which produced national publicity and historically important testimony (e.g., the Shaw Trial testimony of Col. Finck, one of the Bethesda autopsy doctors) and much other testimony and documentation-- all if which led to a "not guilty" verdict (Spring 1969). The trial also led to the first public showing of the Zapruder film (in a New Orleans courtroom)  which shows that JFK was thrust "back and to the left" by the force of a shot to JFK's head (which received world wide publicity, and was featured in Oliver Stone's 1992 movie, "JFK").  Personally, I don't believe the Clay Shaw had a blessed thing to do with JFK's death, but his prosecution --the prosecution of an innocent man, and a situation that was right out of Kafka -- became the center of Garrison's "quest" for the truth.

Edited by David Lifton
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On 6/19/2020 at 9:41 PM, James DiEugenio said:

This is probably the most extensive examination of Thornley that there is.

He tried hard to keep his associations hidden.  And its pretty clear the Warren Commission, through Albert Jenner, understood that and helped him. Jenner ran a dog and pony show with the guy.

In reexamining his WC testimony  with what we know today, a new light is cast.  

https://kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/kerry-thornley-a-new-look-part-1

 

You had me with the Kesey stuff, much more than I knew before.  The rest is really deep.  I should re read before commenting further.  Thornley was a dangle, tempting those who might be looking for a bite in the MSM?

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A Great American Hero was exactly how Mort Sahl described Garrison during a short conversation I had with him in Mill Valley CA last year.

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Absolutely fantastic essay, Mr. DiEugenio! Bravo!

In reading your examination of Kerry Wendell Thornley's activities with Kent H. Courtney's "American Independent", I find they are are eerily similar to Yves Guillou's "Aginter Press."

I mean, here you have two far-right, neo-Nazi press establishments, utilizing Maoist counterinsurgency methods for the advancement of discord and misery within liberal-nationalist movements.

I suppose Ann Clare Boothe Luce's and her husband Henry Robinson Luce's "Time-Life" funding of anti-Castro Cuban terrorist narcotics traffickers and white slavers would also fit that mold.

And the information that William F. Buckley Jr. of the far-right "National Review" was in the 1962-1963 time period, in direct contact with Jean Parvulesco, the chief of all covert operations for an anti-Salan/Gardy, pro-Catholic faction of the French terrorist group “Organization de l’Armée Secrète”, code-named “Charlemagne”, operating in Italy and its primary commander of all operations was Guido Giannettini, working under the umbrella of an even more covert organization called “Directorate General of the Atlantic Conjuncture”, which was the intelligence gathering arm of AMSAR...

It seems that certain pro-fascist press agencies were covertly funding commando-type paramilitary operations in diametric opposition to President Kennedy's domestic and international policies. 

Certainly, there is the possibility that Kerry Thornley was sheep-dipped out of the USMC and trained in "stay-behind" cover and deception operations, like infiltrating liberal establishments, utilizing front companies and impersonating targeted personalities in order to create future "legends".  

Edited by Robert Montenegro
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Wow, how do i react to  all this?  How about one at a time.

I did not know that Buckley was in contact with the Salan/Gardy terrorist part of the OAS. And further that group operated out of Italy?

Can you please give me a source on that  one?  Its really interesting, since as I wrote, Buckley opposed Kennedy on the Congo/Katanga crisis and he hired the racist nut Kilpatrick to oppose JFK on ciivl rights.

I even might be able to use that in the annotated script to the series.

 

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29 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said:

Wow, how do i react to  all this?  How about one at a time.

I did not know that Buckley was in contact with the Salan/Gardy terrorist part of the OAS. And further that group operated out of Italy?

Can you please give me a source on that  one?  Its really interesting, since as I wrote, Buckley opposed Kennedy on the Congo/Katanga crisis and he hired the racist nut Kilpatrick to oppose JFK on civil rights.

I even might be able to use that in the annotated script to the series.

 

I found that bit of information, Mr. DiEugenio, in a book written by Professor Jeffery M. Bale called “The Darkest Sides Of Politics I: Postwar Fascism, Covert Operations And Terrorism


The following quote can be found on page 207, in the notes section of Chapter 3 titled “Postwar “Neo-Fascist” Internationals, Part II: Aginter Presse and the “strategy of tension” in Italy

QUOTE — "...Parvulesco’s involvement in international anti-communist networks is also revealed in his own correspondence. For example, in a 10 May 1962 letter to James Burnham, the former American Trotskyist turned anti-communist who thereafter became involved in many covert projects during the Cold War, Parvulesco identified himself as the chief of the “external apparatus” of a Europe- and Latin American-based organization called the Organization de l’Armée Secrète “Charlemagne,” which (according to that same organization’s 23 April 1962 intelligence report, also sent to Burnham by Parvulesco) claimed to represent the “European, Catholic, and social revolutionary current” within the OAS, the current opposed to the Salan/Gardy faction. In his letter, Parvulesco suggested that Burnham collaborate with the OAS Charlemagne group and urged the American to meet him in Madrid – where Parvulesco then lived – the next time he was in Europe. After meeting with an American recommended by Burnham in Spain, Robert Minelli, Parvulesco (using the pseudonym “Pierre-André Manda”) wrote Burnham another letter on 2 June 1962, in which he revealed that the OAS Charlemagne group was only the “visible tip” of another secret organization whose highest echelon was known as AMSAR, the very group later identified by Giannettini. AMSAR itself comprised an external apparatus, an internal apparatus, and an intelligence apparatus called the Direction Générale de la Conjoncture Atlantique (DGCA: Directorate General of the Atlantic Conjuncture), a name which clearly reveals its Atlanticist geopolitical orientation. Indeed, Parvulesco argued in this second letter that a united Atlantic Community was alone capable of saving the West at this moment of crisis. AMSAR therefore hoped to undertake intelligence and other types operations in cooperation with NATO, including operations beyond the Iron Curtain. Finally, in a 3 June 1962 letter written to William F. Buckley Jr., editor of The National Review, “Manda” indicated that Giannettini was his organization’s chief in Italy and that the Italian would henceforth be contacting Buckley using the pseudonym “Marjorie Levin.” All of these French-language documents can be found in the Hoover Institution Archives, James Burnham collection, Box 10, folder (Subject File) 5: OAS “Charlemagne.”  — END QUOTE.

When I posted the above information to my topic "Confederate Counterinsurgencies And GLADIO Gambits: The JFK Murder Seen Thru A “Stay-Behind” Lens…" which can be found here:

I caused quite a fuss.

And yes, Mr. DiEugenio, I have noted in your research and others, the connection between the Organization de l’Armée Secrète, William Guy Banister's "Legión Anticomunista del Caribe" 544 Camp Street CIA/FBI front, the anti-Castro Cuban terrorist "JM/WAVE" controlled narcotics traffickers and white slavers, and the international neo-fascist and outright Nazi elements behind the torture-assassination of Prime Minister Patrice Émery Lumumba.

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