Jim Root

Christopher Thank you for the reply. Add this to your thoughts: It was George De Morhrenschildt who speculated that Oswald had in fact shot at Walker....the necessary ingredient in completing what the CIA letter to David W. Belin points out....Oswald becomes an odds on choice to assassinate the President if it were known that he shot at Walker. The outline of this parellel organization creates the possibility that this group would have known as early as the middle of April that Oswald had attempted to murder Walker. It seems plausible that this would generate an interest in Oswald that was in fact generated as the facts known prove (Oswald and the CIA, Newman). This knowledge would require some action by our potential conspirators (if this game has meat) and we know factually that within a mounth of the Walker incident Oswald's movements begin being tracked and the information about Oswald's movements was collected in the office of Richard Helms (who had been/was a member of this paralled organization known as the Pond). I hope people continue to speculate, read and provide additional thoughts here. Jim Root PS There is another association to the De Morhrenschildt family within Sweden where this group (The Pond) seems to have so many connections as well.

I recently attempted to bring near the top of the Forum list several previous threads I had started that came about as reflextions upon areas of my research over the past several years. They are: Oswald letter to SWP CIA letter to David W. Belin Did the "Big Fish" know The "Raleigh Call" Japanese linguist John Hurt In addition a thread that I wrote some years ago that is posted in the JFK Seminars titled: Serendipity A few years ago James Richards introduced me to an OSS Operation that occured near the end of WWII. After 1000's of miles of travel and countless hours of research and interviews I have been able to piece together an interesting picture of an event that revolves around several names that are associated with the assassination of JFK and the investigation that was conducted leading to the Warren Commission Report. Based upon information that I had gathered I began to suspect that I could identify the "cut-out" that Lee Harvey Oswald called just hours prior to his own death. The assassination research community refers to this call as the "Raleigh Call." Within the cache of material I was able to recover from the files of this suspect person were several documents which have provided me with a great deal of information and a few surprises. But it was not until I found a question that was asked 10 years ao in an article by Louis Kruh (Cryptologia, Oct. 1998) that I understood the answer that was sitting in front of me. Kruh's article is titled "Another Herbert O. Yardley mystery?" and deals with a statement that can be found in John V. Grombach's book, "The Great Liquidator" (a book that contains some interesting information located in the center of the work). Grombach takes credit for being the Head of the Secret Intelligence Branch of the OSS, "I owe a great deal of credit to Major genreral Charles G. Stevenson, my executive officer in World War II, Colonerl John Bakeless, Colonel Walter D. O'Brien, Fletcher Pratt, Colonel Harry Ryan, Colonel George Converse, Colonel Donald Forster, HERBERT O. YARDLEY, Rosario Cadela - all members of the Secret Intelligence Branch, which I directed from January 2, 1942 to January 1, 1955, for the War and State Departments." Herbert O. Yardley was the head of the American "Black Chamber" (Code Breaking Group) until it was disbanded. He was considered the primeir American code breaker of his time but his organization was replaced by William Friedman's team of cryptologists (of which John B. Hurt and Frank Rowlett were both original members). John Grombach's organization in outlined in an article by Mark Strout written for the CIA titled, "The Pond: Running Agents for the State, War, and the CIA" so I will not attempt to describe it in to much detail here. But let me point out that in January of 1942, John J. McCloy was in charge of all intelligence activities in the War Department putting Grombach's organization under his control. Grombach, deepending upon how one wishes to read into the information, would be used to save McCloy from later being investigated by Congress during the McCarthy period (but that is a separete story). First contridiction: Whitney Shepardson, the man who started the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), claimed credit as being the man in charge of the Secret Intelligence (SI), in his bio that is found in the CFR website. Shepardson's postition is also mentioned in Bill Donovan's bio as being the head of SI as well. Leaving us with a contridiction of the CIA placing Grombach in charge and Shepardson and Donovan placing Shepardson in charge. Grombach's background was in radio, radio transmissions and interceptions. He wrote a paper that described how commercial radio broadcasts could be used to transfer intelligence to agents in the field during the 1930's. Shepardson would, along with Demitri De Morhrenschildt (brother of George De Mohrenschildt) begin Radio Free Europe (Radio Liberty) to whom Lee Harvey Oswald would send a note to relating that he could pick up their broadcasts while in Russia). But I digress.... In the cache of material that I recently uncovered we find Whitney Shepardson bringing together the 'old boys' from the Stockholm OSS station in June of 1959, just months prior to Oswald's entry into the Soviet Union from Helsinki. Second Conridiction: Shepardson does not refer to the OSS Station in Helsinki by that name. He refers to the mission as the SI Stockholm Station. With a little research we find that Donavon does not refer to the Stockholm Station in his OSS memoirs. Several recent articles tie the Stockholm Station to Grombach organization mentioning names found in the cache of papers that I recovered. More importantly though is the FACT that Richard Helms is a player within this group and seems to be coordinating the collection of information in June of 1959. It seems an easy connection....Richard Helms was a working member of "The Pond" whose boss (Grombach) had a codebreaker working a parellel code breaking operation from Friedman's group that became the NSA. Stockholm station ran Operation Stella Polaris which leads to the breaking of Soviet Codes and Helms was a player in that operation. Another player in Stella Polaris, the man who got the ball rolling so to speak, is John B. Hurt. In Allen Dulles biography Richard Helms is mentioned as a man who continued to maintain his private intelligence organization even as he worked for the CIA! Was Helm's operating Grombach's organization? We know that offficially Grombach's organization continued till 1955 but I have gathered information that suggests that it continued as a private organization for years after. Grombach, as an Olympic official was in a great posititon to travel the world, into any country, with total and complete diplomatic immunity....an ideal situation for a person to continue to operate a contract spy agency. Every step of Oswald's life (begining with a letter to the SWP which may well have been intercepted by the CIA mail opening program ran in part by Richard Helms) seems to have been monitored by Richard Helms. After the assassiantion of Kennedy and the death of Oswald, the chief coverup man is once again Richard Helms who withheld information from the begining. Most importantly for myself is FBI agent Hosty's third note which stated exactly where LHO was working yet has never appeared on any CIA list of documents in there possession while we know for a fact that Hosty's previous two notes made it to the office of Richard Helms. I have a great deal of detail information that it is difficult to put into a simple thread on this forum but I would like to open this discussion to see what questions it generates from other forum members. Thank You, Jim Root

Charles In 2004 the National Security Agency released their investigation of Oswald's phone book etc. for possible codes. The two men who did the investigation were Frank Rowlett, a very close associate of Japanese linguist John B. Hurt, and Merideth Gardner, whom, it can be implied, is the person who began working on the Russian Codes mentioned in John B. Hurt's "The Japanese Problem." Rowlett and Gardener, as I have repeatedly stated were, the two NSA personel in charge of the super secret Venona Project that began in ernest with Operation Stella Polaris. Way to many names from my investigation of the assassiantion of JFK can be associated with Stella Polaris, therefore I find it of interest to say the least! And who had the power to eliminate the fact that Lee Harvey Oswald attempted an outgoing phone call, while in custody, to someone named John Hurt.....How about the man that during WWII was receiving information translated by John Hurt on a daily basis, John J. McCloy! Jim Root

BK There is a connection for Win Scott to John Grombach and Operation Stella Polaris at the end of the war. Since the major impact of Stella Polaris was Soviet Codes....well....just where does this lead? Jim Root

Robert Thank you for the information. Several things you mention are important to a post I hope to make soon. You brought up the name of Herbert Yardley. If you google John V. Grombach and Herbert Yardley you will find a question that was raised 10 years ago by Louis Kruh. I have had the good fortune of being in communication with Mr Kruh and he has been gracious enough to review some of my information dealing with Yardley and Grombach. I did not in any way make an association to the Kennedy assassination within this information but the tie to Grombach's Secret Intelligence organization is, I believe, a substantial step forward in understanding the way a group of conspirators could have come together to accomplish both the assassination of President Kennedy and to secure a successful outcome for the investigation that was sure to follow. Your post did suggest that Oswald had a phone number for John Hurt in his pocket at the time of his death. I do believe that the only phone number that was found in Oswald's pocket was for the attorney that he hoped to contact, Jonathan Abt. Check out the Yardley - Grombach connection. The answer could be very interesting. Jim Root

Mark and Thomas Once again does nothing to answer the question about the Connolly thigh wound! Jim Root

Hate to keep bringing back the same question, but what about the Connolly thight wound? If CE399 was planted, the planters had to have known in advance that Connolly would have a wound that would explain where CE399 came from. On the other hand if CE399 is the bullet that created the Connolly thigh wound but did not do the damage that is suggested by the SBT, then where was the Connolly thigh wound bullet fired from? Sitting low in the vehicle, Connolly's thigh was lower than the sides of the car, entry from the front would require the bullet to have penetrated the windshild and the seat in front of Connolly, something no one has suggested. The sides of the vehicle would have obstructed entry from either of those directions which leaves entry from the rear. Somehow the conspirators were apparently able to accomplish this feat in some manner other than the additional wounds suffered by Connolly and Kennedy? Was it possible to fire a bullet from some direction that would not penetrate Connolly and Kennedy that would provide a "spent" bullet to create the superficial Connolly thigh wound? Quite a trick so that the conspirators could plant a bullet that so many people believe is so easy to explain away. Jim Root

Mike Yet, in the case of the Connolly wound we have a fragment that travels deeper than the wound caused by the shell. No penetrating track created by the larger bullet....just the fragment that penetrated further than the bullet itself. So here we are with a fragment in a place that you seem to suggest it can not get to....yet it is there none the less. I follow your argument but it does not seem to support the evidence. Jim Root

William Interestingly enough Win Scott was in fact associated with the group that I am about to attempt to associate with Richard Helms. And yes I do look forward to learning more about this new OSS (which now appears to be much larger than previously thought) information. thanks, Jim Root

Mike Once again very interesting. I appreciate your willingness to enlighten me. Please allow me to ponder further. An automobiles collides with a wall which stops the vehicle abrubtly from continuing in a straight line. If the driver of the auto did not secure themself in a seat belt the unattached person now becomes a projectile themselves and continues the forward motion until acted upon by its own impact upon something or until the energy that has been transferred from the now stopped vehicle is spent propelling the person beyond the impact of the vehicle It the structural integrity of the wall has been broken (the skin surface) and a less dense substance beyond the wall is all that is available to stop the now forward moving human pojectile, that second pojectile, while much lighter than the vehicle it came from and while moving at a slower speed could travel beyond the plane of the broken down wall. Unfortunately I whitnessed the results of this example to oftern while working coroners calls for a mortuary while in college. Now according to our good doctor the fragment that penetrated to the femur was indeed tiny compared to the back (not pointed portion) of the bullet that he believe to have caused the shallow skin wound. I might liken this to the point of a foil versus the edge of a sabre (blunt slashing versus pinpoint puctures). Once again less mass deeper penetration with less energy because the energy is focused on such a small point. Another example would be the military application of the shaped charge. Less energy directed on a smaller point creating greater penetration. Bigger is not always better, nor does it always cause more damage or, in this case, greater penetration. During the Vietnam War the US military went to a smaller caliber weapon when it was realized that less mass could do greater damage via increased penetration than the larger calibers. The velocity of a smaller mass became the key element which provided desired penetration. Jim Root

Mike Enjoying the intelligent discussion. My thoughts explained in a different manner. It would take much less energy for a needle to penetrate skin that it would take for a 6.5 mm piece of dowling. Jim Root

Once again I bring this thread back only because it brings in the name of William Friedman whose original group of cryptologists (including John B. Hurt) became what today is known as the National Security Agency. Friedman's group was brought together after a code breaking organization know as the "Black Chamber" had been disbanded. The man who was in charge of and was Americas premier code breaker at the time the Black Chamber was disbanded was a man named Herber Yardley. This man will become important in relation to the secret intelligene organization beyond the CIA that Richard Helms was involved with (an organization that may have been mirroring the activities of Friedman's group (or the NSA) for 20 years prior to the assassination of John F. Kennedy) Jim Root.

For years I have been facinated by the prospect that the John Hurt that Oswald attempted to call, which we associate with the call to Raleign, North Carlolina, may have been made to a "Cut-Out" who would pass up the information that Lee Harvey Oswald was attempting to contact someone by the name of "John Hurt." The Japanese linguist and NSA employee John Hurt has the distinction of knowing and working with both of the men assigned to by the NSA to investigate Lee Harvey Oswald for potential intelligence contacts (Frank Rowlett and Meredith Gardner). He also has a proveable connection to Warren Commissioner John J. McCloy and a little more difficult to prove (but can be made) connection to Edwin Walker and Maxwell Taylor. Hurt can also be connected to an operation near the end of World War II known as Operation Stella Polaris that once again is connected to both Rowlett and Gardner and led to one of the greatest secrets of the Cold War, the Venona Project. I recently speculated upon whom Oswald might have actually called in Raleigh, North Caroling, just hours before his own death, based on information that I had uncovered about Operation Stella Polaris. This speculation led me to a cache of material that has opened a door into an organization (beyond the CIA) which Richard "Dick" Helms was involved in. It also provides information that this organization was comming together in June of 1959 to collect information on events and people in and around Helsinki, Finland. Coordingating this collection of information and meeting with Helms as the information was being collected was the man who had originated the Council on Foreign Relations, Whitney Shepardson. Shepardson was the man behind Radio Liberty (Radio Free Europe) an organization that Patricia Johnson has recently revealed was the recipeant of a letter from Oswasld apparently while he was in Minsk stating that Oswald was able to receive Radio Liberty broadcasts while in Russia. Working with Shepardson was a man named Demitri De Morhrenschildt brother of George De Mohrenschildt. Once again this is additional background for a further thread on Richard Helms and his tie in to a secret intelligence organization beyond the CIA. Jim Root

Additional background on the connections to Richard Helms and his awareness of Oswald and his movements prior to the assassination of JFK. How far back Helms awareness of Oswald goes has become more relevent to recent information which I have uncovered. Jim Root

Once again for those of you that are following my posts and research I bring this topic back so that you may review the fact that Richard Helms had access to informaiton that may have allowed Helms to cultivate information about Oswald that could lead to Oswald becomeing a potential intelligence asset even before Oswald entered the Marines. We know for a fact that Helms was following Oswald's movements prior to the assassiantion of JFK but I will here suggest that the potential monitoring of Oswald's movements may go back much further in time. Without question, Helms had the means and the ability as well as the program in place and working to do exactly what I am here suggesting. Jim Root

It has been over a year since this topic has been at the top of the board. The past several months have allowed my research to shine new light upon this subject once again. The most important fact remains the same, Hosty's third note allowed the US Intelligence community to know exactly where Lee Harvey Oswald was working and allowed that information to be received in the office of Richard Helms prior to the final decission on the exact route of the motorcade. Two facts remain un-nerving: Number 1: To this day the CIA has never acknowledge that the CIA received Hosty's third note while acknowledging the first two only because they had been given Commission Exhibit numbers. Both Allen Dulles and John J. McCloy questioned Hosty during his testimony but did not demand that the most important note written by Hosty be given a commission exhibit number. John Neuman's excellent work has allowed us to follow the paper trail via Jane Roman to the office of Richard Helms. Number 2: The final building passed along the planed motorcade route would be where Lee Harvey Oswald was working. Together with the the information provided by the CIA to Bellin in (1976?) we known that the CIA admits that they could have predicted that Oswald would assassinate the President IF they had known that he had attempted to assassinate Edwin Walker the previous April. In a new thread I hope to present recently uncovered information which is leading me to believe that Richard Helms may have been more involved in this crime than I had previously thought. It seems obvious to me that Helms did withhold the thrid Hosty note from public scrutiny and it also seems that both Dulles and McCloy were involved (via there questioning of Hosty and failure to qive that note a commission exhibit number) in withholding this information as well. Jim Root

Mike While no expert by any means I do belive the physics would work the opposite of what you suggest. Imagine if you will a dart and a softball. The softball obviously has a greater mass but when both are tossed at the same speed the dart will penetrate a dart board while the softball will bounce off. It seems logical that the smaller fragment moving at the same speed would, in fact, be more likely to penetrate further than the larger object traveling at the same speed. If this is the case the doctors words seem to make sense leaving us with a missing bullet. Once again, if CE399 were to be planted by the conspirators they would have had to have known in advance that Connally would have a thigh wound that would explain where that bullet had come from. I find that fact very difficult to accept! And if the whole SBT were to be the crux of the case against Oswald, then once again the conspirators would have had to have known in advance that Connally would have a thigh wound that would explain where the "pristine" bullet came from. The planning would have been extrodinary.....get the rifle, fire and recover a bullet that would exactly match a bullet fired from the rifle "planted" on the 6th floor and make sure that Gov. Connally would have a penetration that would match a wound created by a bullet that had not been mutilated, that would only leave a shallow wound in the skin, not penetrating into the soft tissue and would, in the doctors opinion, have easily fallen out only to be recovered by someone other than the doctor who arrived on the scene to late to have recovered the bullet before the one was found on the gurney that was so necessary to the conspirators. I would appreciate it if someone could explain Connally's "magic" wound! Jim Root

Thomas: Only going from the testimony of the doctor that treated Connally. If he were dishonest in his testimony he should be considered another of the conspirators. If he were honest in his testimony then the bullet only penetrated to a shallow depth: Warren Commission Hearings: Vol. VI Testimony of Dr. T. Shires George The testimony of Dr. George T. Shires was taken at 4:35 p.m., on March 23, 1964, at Parkland Memorial Hospital, Dallas, Tex. by Mr. Arlen Specter, assistant counsel of the President's Commission. Mr. Specter. And what did you observe as to the wound on the thigh ? Dr. SHIRES. The wound on the thigh was a peculiar one. There was a 1 cm. punctate missile wound over the junction of the middle and lower third of the leg and the medial aspect of the, thigh. The peculiarity came in that the X-rays of the left leg showed only a very small 1 mm. bullet fragment imbedded in the femur of' the left leg. Upon exploration of this wound, the other peculiarity was that there was very little soft tissue damage, less than one would expect from an entrance wound of a centimeter in diameter, which was seen on the skin. So, it appeared, therefore, that the skin wound was either a tangential wound or that a larger fragment had penetrated or stopped in the skin and had subsequently fallen out of the entrance wound. Mr. SPECTER. What size fragment was there in the Governor's leg at that time? Dr. SHIRES. We recovered none. The small one that was seen was on X-ray and it was still in the femur and being that small, with no tissue damage after the debridement, it was thought inadvisable to remove this small fragment. Mr. Specter. Is that fragment in the bone itself at the present time? Dr. SHIRES. Yes. Mr. Specter. What would your best estimate be as to the size of that fragment? Dr. SHIRES. One millimeter in diameter---one to two. Mr. SPECTER. Would you have any estimate as to how much that might weigh in grains? Dr. SHIRES. In grains---a fraction of a grain, maybe, a tenth of a grain---very small. Mr. Specter. A tenth of one grain? Dr. SHIRES. Yes. Thomas: From the testimony of the doctor it seems that a 1/10th grain fragment (rather small) penetrated the femur but that the actual bullet barely "penetrated or stopped in the skin and had subsequently fallen out of the entrance wound." If Dr. Shires lied I suppose you could add another name to the total group of conspirators needed to pull the SBT "story" off. Interesting to note that Shires was not "pre-placed" at the hospital prepared for this emergency but had to be called in to deal with the thigh wound. Jim Root

Everybody wants to start with the entry wound to Kennedy when dealing with the SBT. What I find more perplexing is the thigh wound to Connelly. In that wound the depth, the angle of entry and the shape left by the bullet all point to a nearly intact shell which only penetrated to a shallow depth. The three questions that intrigue me are: 1) If not the bullet found at Parkland, what happened to the bullet that made the Connelly thigh wound? 2) If a group of conspirators did plan, in advance, to plant a bullet at Parkland Hospital, how did they know that Connelly would sustain a wound that would both match and explain where that bullet had come from? 3) If a group of conspirators did plan, in advance, to plant a bullet at Parkland they also had to have a person in place in the Connelly operating room to assure that no other bullet would be recovered from the wound that they had to have known in advance Connelly was going to receive. This degree of planning is, as I said, even more perplexing to me than some of the rationalizations for the single bullet theory that can so easily and simply explain the Connelly thigh wound without having in place the above to achieve the success of the conspirators plans. Jim Root

Thomas: Perhaps the reason that he was holding two different magazines representing two organizations that were anti-each other can be best understood if you look at the attorney that Oswald wanted, Jonathon Abt. Abt had acted as an attorney in a Smith Act case that had led to the overturing of the Smith Act by the Warren Supreme Court. The Smith Act had been used against both of the groups represented by the magazines held by Oswald in the picture at two different historical times. The Warren Commission would use this picture as evidence of Oswalds lack of understanding of the various left leaning organizations but if you read the testimony of James Patrick Hosty you will learn that Oswald was very much aware of the differences between the various Communist/Socialist groups. The use of the Smith Act circa 1941 was pushed by John J. McCloy in his position as Asst. Sec. Of War at a time when the Hitler Stalin Pact was being touted to slow war production in the USA by the CPUSA. It would be Earl Warren, as the VP Candidate in the 1948 election, that would call Truman soft on Communism, giving J Edgar Hoover cause to suggest the use of the Smith Act again in the the late 1940's and early 1950's. It is my personal belief that Oswald holding those two magazines in that picture (together with his request for Abt to be his attorney) shows a level of sophistication and intelligence on the side of Oswald that many wish to disreguard. I believe Oswald to be a multi-dementional character rather than the simple "patsey" WE seem to want to paint him as. After having been shown the pictures while in custody, why do you think Oswald neglected to give the address that the pictures were taken at as a previous address while willingly providing his other previous addresses? Jim Root

Mark A lot of IF's: "IF--BIG "IF" here--the rifle in the National Archives is one of the ultra-rare Moschettiere del Duce models--less than 200 made--and IF Walker had one of these, possibly as a war trophy, prior to the assassination...but didn't have one afterwards...AND assuming that Walker and Oswald had a relationship on the road to Helsinki, and possibly afterwards as well... Well, it's hard for me to NOT entertain the possibility that the relationship between LHO and Walker was NOT adversarial, and that the Walker shooting was a set-up...it made Walker a target, at least on paper; it "proved" the inaccuracy of the Klein's cut-down rifle; and it gave LHO tho "opportunity" to, in Marina's words, "bury" the Klein's rifle and later pick up the more accurate "short rifle" used in the actual assassination.....if it's NOT the rifle shipped from Klein's." In my study of Walker's fall from grace (Overseas Weekly article and investigation) and overlapping that upon what we now know from the CIA and State Department records surrounding Oswald's attempts to return to the United States from the Soviet Union...it is my belief, and it fits well within the facts as known, that Walker was a fall guy already....before Oswald even returned to the United States! Let me produce my IF list: If Walker provided Oswald with the State Department information regarding the purchase of First Class Intourist Vouchers (information which was provided by Ambassador Hickerson one day prior to Oswald's arrival in Helsinki...the extra travel day that required Oswald to spend additional money in order to arrive in Helsinki a day later than he needed to) in order to expedite his Visa (directions which Oswald did in fact follow) and IF Oswald could then identify Walker as the man who provided him with this information....Walker becomes, in the eyes of Oswald, the leader of a very bad organization (which is what Oswald apparently believed). Using the words of Oswald spoken at Spring Hill College we find that the downing of the U-2 and the failure of the Paris Summit were very much on the mind of Oswald in the days between the assassination attempt on Walker and the murder of Kennedy. Since the failure of the Paris Summit was something that John J. McCloy expressed an interest in as early as November 1959, is it surprising that the Paris Summit did in fact fail? By June of 1963 McCloy was openly opposed to Kennedy's nuclear flip flop and in a conversation with Dwight Eisenhower spoke of the fact that there was not a Republican that he felt was qualified for the presidency but that McCloy also felt that Kennedy needed to be replaced. In this senario Oswald was supposed to have stayed in the Soviet Union and never returned (a good explanation as to why there was no 201 file opened by the CIA upon his initial "defection"). But Oswald did return which would require that Walker be made to look like the ultra right wing fanatic that might be willing to attempt to facilitate an international event (like the downing of a U-2) which could lead to WWIII rather than the U-2 event being revealed as a staged event to protect the United States from being forced into signing a Limited Test Ban Treaty that was not considered to be in the best interest of the United States. Within the Walker records it is significant to note that at the time of his forced removal from command he was baffled! He himself believed that the CIA was behind it and attempted to extract as much information as to the "Who" that was setting him up as well as to the "Why" he was being set up. When the assassination of Kennedy did occur Walker went to great lengths to identify himself to those people who were around him. At exactly 7:00 am the following morning a German newspaper called Walker at the Captain Shreve Hotel in Shreveport, LA and based upon two phone interviews with Walker, published the story of the Walker assassination attempt in their publication the following Thursday. The question of how the German reporter knew to contact Walker at the Captain Shreve Hotel has never been answered. It is my belief that Walker recognized Oswald's picture on the television set in his hotel room immediatly (as the "defector" that he had helped to enter the Soviet Union) and as a Dallas resident and a man who had been portrayed as both a "right wing" nut as well as an enemy of Kennedy that Walker may have believed that he was being set up! It is my belief that Walker then "arranged" the interview with the German publication on the morning of the 23rd to protect himself because he knew that whoever had Kennedy killed had to be the same people that had had him (Walker) help Oswald into the Soviet Union and then had Walker forced out of the military (very powerful people indeed)! I suggest that everyone read the Walker testimony for the Warren Commission...it is interesting to say the least....and the letter sent by John J. McCloy to Walker in June of 1963 (three copies of which I have now found in easily locatable places) were, in my belief, the insurance policy that was needed by the conspirators to compel Walker to "play along" or be implicated in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy! Remember that it is the CIA memo to Attorney David Belin that provides the nexus....if Oswald shot at Walker and given Oswald's pro Castro leanings....Oswald would be a shoe in to assassinate the President. The conspirators had their shooter and didn't even have to "program" him to do it....just run the motorcade past where he worked and make sure that Hosty's third note (which could identify who had the information dealing with where Oswald worked) never saw the light of day. (By the way, attorney John J. McCloy was involved in questioning Hosty about that note but never bothered making it part of the official record. Interesting that McCloy would participate in the witholding of that information from the American public). In my senario we don't need a lot of IF's, just a couple of conspirators that could run a motorcade past a man that they already knew had a weapon and the had a willingness to shoot the man the conspirators wanted eliminated! Very simple actually! Jim Root

Mark You stated, "Boy, I'd love for Jim Root to add a comment or two to this thread. Jim looks upon the shooting at Walker as a hostile act by LHO" My research began when I first read the Warren Report and learned that Oswald had been accused of attempting to assassinate Edwin Walker. I had never heard of this event before reading the Warren Report! In hindsight this is not so surprizing since movies like Stones JFK just don't seem to want to deal with it. Having had a casual background in military history I knew that a Major Gerneral in 1963 would have done something during WWII. I was correct, although Walker's pre-Little Rock exploits were surprizingly difficult to uncover. When I finally succeed in reaching back into time I discovered not the screwy idiot that has been portrayed in history but rather a very complicated historical figure that found himself repeatedly at the center of some of the most important early Cold War developments and events. A man deeply emersed in Army counter intelligence and highly trusted by his number one benifactor, Maxwell Taylor. A man who was also called upon to do provide specific service to at least two projects that were of importance to John J. McCloy during WWII. Without going into alot of the depth which surrounds my research, complicated to say the least, I early on decided to see if it would be possible to discover a motive of why Oswald would attempt to assasssinate Walker, if he did in fact attempt to assassiante Walker. It was my thought that if Oswald had in fact attempted to kill Walker and succeeded the succeeded in killing Kennedy we would today consider Oswald a serial killer. I had heard that serial killers usually have a common thread in the choice of their victims, something by the way, contrary to what the Warren Commission suggests in thier attempt to tie the two events apart. Via my research I have been led to three undisputable facts that can all be explaned within an Oswald/Walker connection and motive. 1) Oswald's travel from London to Helsinki.....not identified by the Warren Report although passenger lists were available (the Warren Commision did provide the exact cost of this travel to the penny, but not the passenger lists). Walker was traveling to Europe at this same time and (with the help of Antti Hynonen) have proven that there was the possibility that both Walker and Oswald could have been on the same flight out of London although they could have had different destinations. 2) FBI agent James Patrick Hosty wrote three notes concerning the movements of Oswald in the days, weeks and months prior to the assassiantion of JFK, including his final note listing Oswald's place of employment. John Newman (Oswald and the CIA) identified that the first two of those notes made it to the office of Richard Helms. The third note, the one identifing where Oswald worked has NEVER appeared on a CIA list of items that had been collected dealing with Lee Harvey Oswald. If the CIA's non identification of this third Hosty note is to be accepted we must also accept that no other people within the government of the US had access to the facts surrounding exactly where Oswald was working. If this note has been withheld....well perhaps, if uncovered, we would have our smoking gun! The note must exist! At the end of WWII Helms was part of the OSS Station in Stockholm which was involved in Operation Stella Polaris. This operation began when a man named John Hurt translated a Japanese communication dealing with the movement of Finnish cryptologist at the end of WWII. This operation would lead to what became known as the Venona Project (breaking Soviet codes) which would be led by Frank Rowlett and Meredith Gardner (incidently the same two men who would report on Lee Harvey Oswald's potential intelligence connections). 3) Lee Harvey Oswald would attempt to make an outgoing phone call to someone named John Hurt just hours before he himself was murdered. Edwin Walker can first be associated with the cryptologist John B. Hurt in 1934. By 1941 this same John B. Hurt would be associated with John J. McCloy (who would use information provided by Hurt to attempt to halt the use of the first Atomic Bomb) and Maxwell Taylor. The "Raleigh Call" somehow missed being added to the Warren Report but two close associates of John B. Hurt (Frank Rowlett and Meredith Gardner) would provide information for the Warren Report that would specifically suggest that there was no connection between Oswald and intelligence. Dealing with the attempt on the life of Walker. The wall that the bullet that missed Walker passed through is perpendicular to the wall that has the window that the bullet passed through. Until I saw the press footage I assumed that the window and the wall were parallel to each other. By seeing the news reports and viewing the damage done to the window paine as well as seeing the angle from which the shot must have been fired to pass through a wall that was perpendicular to the window wall.....well the shot was at best, a long shot that came very close to hitting the man that it was intended for! Jim Root

Just relocated this information that I found on the NSA Home Page a few years ago....I has new meaning for me since I have uncovered information about "THE POND" and John V. Grombach. In an article titled "Origins of the Army Security Agency and INSCOM" it states: "In 1955, ASA (Army Security Agency) took over electronic intelligence (ELINT) and electronic warfare functions previously carried out by the Signal Corps. Since its mission was no longer exclusively identified with intelligence and security, ASA was withdrawn from G-2 control and resubordinated to the Army Chief of Staff as a field operating agency." To me this is interesting.....Maxwell Taylor becomes Army Chief of Staff (1955) and almost immediately the control of Army Intelligenc is assigned to himself. Did he do the same with all military intelligence when he became Chairman of the Joint Chiefs during the Kennedy Administration? One can speculate that he did. It is believed that John V. Grombach was still an intelligence contractor that remained employed by the Army in 1955. Grombach, who had worked with Whitney Shepardson and the men in the Stockholm OSS Station (which included Richard Helms) had been heavily involved in the world of communications. After resigning as Chief of Staff of the Army, Maxwell Taylor would take a position with Mexico's leading telecommunications company and would live for a period in Mexico City, where Oswald would later travel. Did Taylor, who was ever envolved in Intelligence, operate Oswald via "THE POND?" Pieces supporting this position seem to be falling into place. Jim Root

And just two days after the June 10th AU speech, John J. McCloy would pen a letter to Maj. Gen. Edwin Walker. The subject matter contained in this letter was related to Sylvanus Thayer, "The Father of West Point." Sylvanus Thayer was the Superintendent of West Point from 1818 - 1833. When assigned to the Superintendency the students mutinied when Thayer replaced the previous superintendent. This mutiny led to the placing of West Point under strict military disipline and the cadets from this point forward were considered soldiers subject to military law and discipline. This mutiny occurred on Nov. 22, 1818 exactly 145 years before the assassination of John F. Kennedy. In some ways this mutiny led to the assendency of a professional military elite within the United States. It was this event that began Sylvanus Thayer's march to becomming the "Father of West Point." Some thoughts here........ Although Kennedy was calling for a comprehensive nuclear test ban in public: "We have also been talking in Geneva about other first-step measures of arms control, designed to limit the intensity of the arms race and to reduce the risks of accidental war. Our primary long-range interest in Geneva, however, is general and complete disarmament -- designed to take place by stages, permitting parallel political developments to build the new institutions of peace which would take the place of arms. The pursuit of disarmament has been an effort of this government since the 1920's. It has been urgently sought by the past three Administrations. And however dim the prospects may be today, we intend to continue this effort -- to continue it in order that all countries, including our own, can better grasp what the problems and possibilities of disarmament are. The one major area of these negotiations where the end is in sight, yet where a fresh start is badly needed, is in a treaty to outlaw nuclear tests. The conclusion of such a treaty, so near and yet so far, would check the spiraling arms race in one of its most dangerous areas. It would place the nuclear powers in a position to deal more effectively with one of the greatest hazards which man faces in 1963, the further spread of nuclear arms. It would increase our security -- it would decrease the prospects of war. Surely this goal is sufficiently important to require our steady pursuit, yielding neither to the temptation to give up the whole effort nor the temptation to give up our insistence on vital and responsible safeguards. I am taking this opportunity, therefore, to announce two important decisions in this regard. First: Chairman Khrushchev, Prime Minister Macmillan and I have agreed that high-level discussions will shortly begin in Moscow, looking toward early agreement on a comprehensive test ban treaty. Our hopes must be tempered with the caution of history -- but with our hopes go the hopes of all mankind. Second: To make clear our good faith and solemn convictions on the matter, I now declare that the United States does not propose to conduct nuclear tests in the atmosphere so long as other states do not do so. We will not be the first to resume. Such a declaration is no substitute for a formal binding treaty, but I hope it will help us achieve one. Nor would such a treaty be a substitute for disarmament, but I hope it will help us achieve it." In reality he had already backed his position away from a "comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty" and was, for political reasons, prepared to accept a "limited test ban treaty" (which the US formally adopted in August of 1963). For this reason his lead negotiator, John J. McCloy refused to participate. Did this "change" in position lead to the death of Kennedy? I believe very strongly that the investigation of this area of research remains fertile! Jim Root

William Bolden is one of three sources for information about the Raleigh Call. The other two are a bit more interesting in many ways but Bolden's statements give support to the other two. Dr. Grover B. Proctor, Jr. has compiled the most information about the primary source for the Raleigh Call. That person was of course Mrs. Alveeta Treon who worked as an operator at Dallas City Hall at the time of the assassination. The third source is a little less well known and is only supportive rather than diffinitive. It is a TV news reporters story about a phone call made by Oswald that was not completed. It was broadcast in the moments before Oswald was himself gunned down by Jack Ruby and seems to have been lost in the coverage of that particular event, recieving little or no notice after the death of Oswald. A copy of that tape is stored in the 6th Floor Museum. My research has led me down several paths and I believe I can now create a plausible explanation for the events surrounding the Raleigh Call. I do not say this frivolously. My hunch has led me to a cache of material that did exist in a place where I thought it would exist based upon my research. There are of course other explanations of why this material would be where it was but the fact remains that I did search for and find it exactly wher I supposed it would be. So much for the mystery. I first found information about my John Hurt (future NSA employee) while researching the life of Maj. General Edwin Walker. This connection came from an incident that occured in 1934 and suggests that Walker was working in the capacity of an undercover counter intelligence agent (this is the first time that I have disclosed this information..my reasons for suggesting the undercover counter intel are supported by privious events in Walker's career as well as the events surrounding the 1934 incident). It is my belief that this same John Hurt became associated with future General Maxwell Taylor in 1940. The connection between the two places them in the same place at the same time working on similar projects. It is Hurt's own post war manuscript that suggests that Taylor would have been working with him but unfortunately Hurt makes it clear that he was not good with names and could not remember all the people at the time of his writting (circa 1947). Hurt did make referece to the (I believe it was) two Army officers that were engaged and qualified in Japanese translation at the time (1940/1941) Taylor's biographer and his own son make reference to Taylor's work in this field at this time in his life. John B. Hurt was an original member of William Friedman's team of cryptographers that broke the Japanese codes during WWII. Known as the magic intercepts, knowledge of this information was known to very few people. According to a Pentagon historian, John J. McCloy was the keeper of the keys to this program and was the man who decided who received the magic information. Although there is a question of if McCloy ever met Hurt on a personal basis but there is no doubt that McCloy received translated intercepts with hand written notes from Hurt which provided context information about the meanings and expressions used to translate the true Japanese intent and emphisis of the messages. In discussion with the President about the droping of the first Atomic Bomb (another project that McCloy was in charge of) McCloy's documented statements mirror information provided by Hurt in his 1947 review of the "Japanese Problem." All of this information was in my possession prior to the 2004 release of the the results of the NSA investigation done for the CIA/Warren Commission dealing with potential connections of Oswald to the intelligence community. The two men tasked with this research in 1964 were Frank Rowlett (another original member of William Friedman's team of cryptologist) and Meredith Gardner (who together with Rowlett are considered the fathers of the Venona Project, breaking of Soviet Codes). Information from Hurt's 1947 paper suggests that Gardner and Hurt were also closely involved with each other in signals intelligence. So where does this all lead...... Most historians credit the beginings of the Venona Project, which Rowlett and Gardner worked on for years (and I believe that Hurt did as well. I have some interesting supportive documentation for this position), with an operation called Stella Polaris which occured at the end of WWII. Recent research suggests that while OSS personel were involved in this operation several of those same OSS personel were associated with an organization ran by John "Frenchy" Grombach, a rather shady character that continued his "private" spy network going, in a sometimes official sometimes unofficial capactiy, for years after the war. Grombach was associated with John J. McCloy prior to the war and would have had his organization, "THE POND," fall under the control McCloy during the war. There is some evidence to suggest that McCloy used the services of Grombach into the 1950's. SIDE BAR: By the way, for James Richards, it seems that Harrod Miller, who is associated with John Hurt may have worked with Grombach just prior to his association with Hurt. What is also interesting is this group associated with both Stella Polaris and "THE POND" includes Richard Helms, the man who, more than anyone else, was monitoring the movements of Lee Harvey Oswald prior to the assassiantion of JFK. Six months before the "defection" of Oswald to the Soviet Union via Helsinki, Finland, this group of individuals were brought back together by William Shepardson (another man closely associated with both Grombach and McCloy) who was gathering information about personel used by the OSS (and "POND" officials) in Finland. Now in the case of Grombach, his background in intelligence began in the late 1930's when he wrote a paper about the use of commercial radio broadcasts to send intelligence information to agents in the field. (This system was used extensively during WWII) On a forum thread it was reported that in a recent article by Pricilla Johnson it was revealed that Oswald had written a letter to Radio Liberty that he could receive broadcasts while in Minsk. In charge of Radio Liberty was William Shepardson, a Grombach and McCloy associate. This is an interesting area of research that I will continue to follow. Now the call itself that was made by Oswald that received no answer. At the time, 1963, an operator was needed to place a long distance phone call. It was not unusual for a local operator (Like Mrs. Swinney) to contact a regional operator (someone in Raleigh, NC) to initiate a call. While this was being done the person attempting the call would wait to hear back from the operator. As a child it was not unusual to go to my grandmothers for dinner so that we could make a long distance phone call to my great aunt. At the start of dinner the call sequnce would be started and sometime around the end of the main course we might hear back from the operator that the call had been accepted (Person to Person being the norm, sometimes collect where the receiving party would pay). In the case of Oswald he made several calls in an attempt to contact Mr. Apt, an attorney. When the first call did not go through he had the operator find additional numbers for Abt and attempted additional calls. In the case of the Raleigh Call it seems that if Oswald's original call was not "accepted" it would be logical for the operator to retrieve additonal numbers for "John Hurt" that Oswald might wish to use to contact the person that he intended to contact. But it seems that Oswald was OK with the fact that his call was not accepted and he did not attempt additonal calls to Hurt. This would explain why Mrs. Swinney was willing to toss the two additional numbers which were later retreived by Mrs Treon. This is also consistant with a call placed to a cut out. This would be a call that was only intedended for the person at the other end to know who the call was from and a name to be passed on to someone higher up the latter. A name like John Hurt (at least NSA employee John Hurt) passed up to higher intelligence sources that came from Lee Harvey Oswald may have been Oswald's death warrent without any conspirators in the assassination having to order Oswald's death themselves! But only a person at the highest levels of intelligence could know that John Hurt's name would generate such an action. That same person would have to control the investigation could place associates of John Hurt in the position to investigate Oswald's intelligence background. The same person would have to be able to keep out of the Warren Report any mention of this so called Raleigh Call..... Speculation for sure, but where did I find my information? Stored in the archives of a known CIA intelligence agent that lived in Raleigh and was associated with all of the above people. I speculate that it may have been him who Oswald called that night who was the cut out that knew to pass on the name John Hurt to those higher up in intelligece and that it was Lee Harvey Oswald that had called and used that name. It was my thought before I found the information that it was possible and believed that if true there may have been some clues left behind. I was not surprized to find what I found. Does it prove anything.......unfortunatly it is only circumstantial. Jim Root