Mark Stapleton

Hi Larry,

Great account of the Marshall murder and its wider ramifications. I hope something more can come out of all this.

I agree with these sentiments. The problem is that the political system in the U.S. (and many other countries) is CORRUPT. While corporations are allowed to donate to political parties this will always be so. For example, in the U.S., the pharmaceutical industry has a lobbyist attached to every single Congressman, hence cheaper, generic (and safe) drugs will often be denied its citizens, sacrificed on the altar of shareholder returns. Once a listed pharmaceutical's patent goes past its expiry date, the industry often lobbies its politicians to prohibit it, thereby eliminating competition from others who may wish to produce it at a cheaper price. You won't read about examples like this in the mainstream media.

I should point out that my views don't make me a raving communist. I believe a healthy corporate sector is essential to the economic well being of every country. The Soviet communist regime with it's absence of a genuine corporate sector was a disaster for it's long suffering people. However, when the corporate sector owns the political process lock, stock and barrel, and the media as well, then it's time to worry.

This is why I am a great fan of what JFK stood for. From what I've read about the man, he seemed genuinely interested in the welfare of America's citizens. A philanderer--yes. Riding to power on the back of daddy's money--sure (although it wasn't old Joe who stood on icy street corners or ventured into noisy bars to introduce himself). JFK knew that giving a flat 27.5% tax deduction to oil billionaires was unjust, engaging in foreign conflicts so arms manufacturers could make a killing couldn't be justified by history and mega wealthy people avoiding tax by exploiting loopholes had to be confronted. Because his family was wealthy, he was able to resist the attempts by the powerful lobbies to persuade him to act on their behalf. This, IMO, got him killed. Since JFK, the powerful corporate lobbies and the U.S. Government's interests have converged to such an extent that the incumbent is just a spokesman for these forces.

On the cover of my copy of Posner's "Case Closed" there's a picture of JFK and Jackie in the back of the limo. Seated in the foreground is Governor Connally looking more nervous than I've ever seen a man look. It's a very useful book---I use it as a doorstop.

I agree with Ryan's comments. To the casual observer, it would seem ridiculous for Connally to place his and his wife's lives in such danger, therefore he couldn't have known of the plot. But "they're going to kill us all" seems like a strange thing to say. If the shots were a complete surprise, wouldn't he be more likely to say something like, "what the ####, get down there's a shooter" or something similar? Maybe he expected, as Ryan suggests, a pistol shot or clean rifle shot on JFK or possibly the other theory is plausible--that both he and LBJ expected a later hit for JFK? I don't really believe the latter because LBJ was pretty determined to get Governor Connally back there with him and Senator Yarborough up in the shooting gallery with JFK. Anyway, back to Tricky Dickie.

John,

They must be joking!

According to a Phillip Bonsal article in the January 1967 edition of Foreign Affairs, the Castro government was still on the fence in early 1960, but was pushed into the Soviet sphere of influence largely through American miscalculations, many of them made by Secretary of the Treasury Robert Anderson.  In May 1960, Castro decided to bring in a million barrels of Russian crude oil, and was pressuring the British and American refineries still running in Cuba into refining the crude.  Anderson, however, saw where this was heading, a situation where the Russians could under-cut the over-priced Venezuelan crude of the American companies throughout Latin America, and use their oil to gain leverage.  And this could not be allowed to happen.  And so he called a meeting in early June where he recommended as Secretary of the Treasury that the oil companies refuse to refine the Russian crude.  Of course this caused Castro to nationalize the oil companies, which caused the U.S. to reduce the Cuban sugar quota to zero, which caused Castro to nationalize the Cuban sugar mills, which opened the door for the Russians to buy up all the Cuban sugar and  exchange it for oil, effectively making Cuba a satellite of the Soviets.

Thus, Anderson's misguided loyalty to the U.S. oil industry pushed the world towards the brink of a nuclear war.  This helps explain why Anderson was such a big advocate of assassinating Castro (as per Bissell's memoirs), and makes Ike's near-worship of the man more suspect.  It should be remembered  that Ike supported the oil industry's campaign on off-shore drilling, and that the oil industry supported him right back.

(He does make note in his memoirs, however, of his disgust with an oilman who gave a ton of business to a young businessman who just so happened to be the son of a Senator, in hopes of trying to buy influence with the young man's father.  The father? Prescott Bush.  The son?  George HW Bush. )

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Fascinating information about Robert Anderson. Is the article online?

I think I have found another member of the Suite 8F Group. His name is John Tower. He was born in Houston (later moved to Dallas). The key members of the Suite 8F group were all active in the Democratic Party. That had to be the case as the Democrats controlled Texas. However, Tower was a leading figure in the Republican Party and represented the changes that were taking place in the political landscape.

In May, 1961, Tower became the first Republican senator elected in Texas since 1870. This marked the beginning of the end for the Democrats in Texas. The problem got even worse after the passing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

The emergence of John Tower posed a serious threat to the Suite 8F Group. However, by 1965 this problem had obviously been solved as Richard Russell allowed Tower to join his Senate Armed Services Committee. He also became a member of the Joint Committee on Defense Production. The control of both these committees was vitally important to the Suite 8F Group.

In 1981 Tower became chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. By this time he had developed a reputation of someone who looked after the oil and armaments industries in Texas. Under Tower’s guidance defense spending rose to $211 billion a year.

In January, 1985, Tower retired from the Senate in order to become a highly-paid defense consultant (his company, Tower, Eggers, and Greene Consulting was based in Dallas and Washington). However, two weeks after leaving the Senate Ronald Reagan appointed him as chief United States negotiator at the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks in Geneva. I am sure he made a good job of bringing an end to the arms race.

In November 1986, Reagan persuaded Tower to chair the President's Special Review Board to study the actions of the National Security Council and its staff during the Iran-Contra affair. I am sure he made a good job of that as well.

In 1989 President George Bush selected Tower to become his Secretary of Defense. However, the Senate refused to confirm his nomination because of his known links with the arms industry. As Steven Waldman reported in the Washington Monthly: "There was no solid proof Tower did anything illegal when he was a defense consultant after leaving government, but his closeness to the industry makes it doubtful he would have been sufficiently critical of contractors' products and claims." This was the first rejection of a cabinet nominee in more than 30 years.

Tower knew where all the bodies were buried. Was Bush worried that Tower would talk unless he was given a top job like the Secretary of Defense? If that is so, when the Senate rejected him, did he become a man who might talk about what he knew about the CIA and corruption in the Senate.

John Tower was killed in a plane crash new New Brunswick, Georgia, on 5th April, 1991. According to the New York Times the “failure of a severely worn part in the plane’s propeller control unit caused the aircraft to spin out of control.”

I am interested in discovering the names of the oil and armaments companies that Tower was working with. I have ordered a copy of Tower’s autobiography, Consequences: A Personal and Political Memoir. I have also ordered a copy of Rodney Stich’s Defrauding America, that apparently looks at Tower relationship with the CIA and the armaments industry. Does anybody else have copies of these books or any other information that links Tower to the Suite 8F Group?

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKtowerJ.htm

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John,

I will be very interested in the results of the ongoing research of you and the other posters here. I think this thread should be kept alive. It's fascinating. Great work, all.

It's probably just a coincidence but it should be pointed out that the two men in government Oswald wrote to in order to help him with his dishonorable discharge were John Connally and John Tower.  Both of them would presumably have been aware of Oswald's history and could therefore have been involved in fingering him as a patsy. (Pat Speer)

Indeed, Pat.

This clipping outlines what went down there. Interesting to note the name of Tower's Executive Secretary, a woman named Linda Lee Lovelady. I wonder if she is related to ....

Forget it. Let's not go there.

James

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James,

Very good (lol)

I think it would be interesting to compile a list of the hardback and paperback sales of the most popular books on the assassination.  Obviously limited to the most popular since I know there are thousands.  Anyone know an easy way to compile this information?

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No. (Sorry, Tim--couldn't resist)

I like the true story of the gridiron player from the seventies. When he was asked how did he think he'll perform on astroturf he replied, "I dunno--I ain't never smoked astroturf"

John wrote:

Frank Wisner and Philip Graham. Interestingly both Graham (1963) and Wisner (1965) committed suicide in the same way (shotgun to the head).

A very thoughtless way to commit suicide since it leaves quite a mess for the survivors to discover and clean!

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It would be thoughtless if you committed suicide. However, I don't suspect murderers worry about such things.

Another connection was that they both did it in their holiday homes.

According to an interview giving by Deborah Davis (one of the journalists at Ramparts who first exposed details of Operation Mockingbird) after the publication of her book (Katharine the Great - a book the CIA tried to suppress), she found evidence that Edward Bennett Williams organized the death of Philip Graham. He was at the time Graham's lawyer. Later he became a close friend of Katharine Graham. Williams was also Bobby Baker's lawyer. Later he defended John Connolly when he was accused of corruption. At the time of the accusation Connolly was favourite to replace Spiro Agnew as Vice President. As a result the job went to Gerald Ford, a man who had been compromised by Fred Black, in a bugged hotel room, during the Baker investigation in 1963. Ford then appears on the Warren Commission and then appears to cover up for Nixon. Williams was also involved with Ben Bradlee in the CIA operation to expose Watergate.

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John.

Great thread. There's some very provocative ideas in your research. I must admit that as a novice researcher, I had never heard of the Suite 8F group before. Now that I've had a look at their history, I believe there's a strong chance that they could have organised the assassination and employed Operation Mockingbird in the aftermath. Kennedy's proposal to scrap the oil depletion allowance was, I believe, both his bravest and also his most foolish initiative. If I were him I would never have telegraphed my punches to such a wealthy, powerful and dangerous group (what happened to Mattei?). Instead, with the great benefit of hindsight, it would have been much wiser to say nothing (or even lie--it wouldn't be a first for a politician) and then implement the policy after winning in 64, his final term.

In Robert Dallek's "Kennedy--an unfinished life" the author describes the deep misgivings of both Sorenson and Bobby about JFK's decision to give LBJ the #2 spot on the ticket, citing a betrayal of his earlier undertaking to union and liberal groups not to do this. LBJ suddenly changed from being a strident critic to a stauch supporter. "It's my only chance to be President" said LBJ. However, I'm not so certain JFK was "persuaded" by Graham and co., although it's a possibility. He might just have wanted to make certain of carrying Texas and the south---Kennedy knew this would probably be his only chance to be President, too.

I think the link between the Suite 8F group, Johnson and the Georgetown group could be the key to the assassination. I would also like to read "The Invisible Government".

[in reviewing THE MEN WHO KILLED KENNEDY by Nigel Turner, I found that most of the researchers stressed that LBJ needed the support of Secret Service and the FBI to carry out the ED CLARK / MALCOLM WALLACE scenario.

Seriously, one of the reasons I post on this FORUM is to emphaasize that forces larger that the individual LBJ were coordinating this.

When people say LBJ, I say Maxwell Taylor, CD Dillon, JEdgar Hoover and Thomas Karamesssines and executives on the order of Marshall Carter and Robert Anderson of the 8F suite...]

LBJ was handed a fait accompli, and while he benefitted I don't think he initiated.

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Shanet,

While I agree that LBJ didn't plan the assassination, I believe he urged its expedition. The timing couldn't have been better for him, with the Billy Sol Estes affair about to break and the widely held belief that Kennedy would drop him from the '64 ticket. There's also too many allegations about his behavior immediately before, during and after the motorcade, in my opinion, for LBJ to be granted a clean bill of health. Moreover, the sudden reversal of some, but not all, of JFK's planned policy initiatives indicate that he was a willing participant in a successful attempt to change the status quo, which some powerful forces within America (and some outside America) believed was developing beyond their control. Finally, his establishment of the WC and its' flawed terms of reference prove to many that he played a pivotal role in the subsequent coverup.

James and Ron,

I think the third guy is a good old innocent bystander. Looks like he's not with Arce or Mr. Slick. Not really sure about Mr. Slick either because he's gone later. But he really does look like he's up to no good. (Mark Stapleton)

Hi Mark,

Ron and I have been looking at this guy below for Mr. Slick. All I can say is maybe. The possible from No Name Key was present when Remigio Arce was there, and also when a guy who was the spitting image of Danny Arce was training on the island.

Definitely a head scratcher.

James

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Hi James,

Yes, it's a scary resemblance.

Thanks Mark!

1. It's a great question.  Wanda's story sounds very credible.  It makes me think of the story of Ruby's reaction in the cell 2 days later when he learns of Oswald's death - very curious and remarkable. 

2. Regarding Tilson, I don't know. It's curious that he would throw away the piece of paper which supports his story. Against that, anyone who was ignored by the WC gets extra credibity in my book. I don't know.

I have a big problem with the Tilson story.  The only part that appears to discredit it is the McIntyre photo.  When all of the other photos are in question, IMO, starting with the backyard photo, the Zapruder film, all of the films that have blackened in the area of the knoll and the sky, the Elsie Dorman film which appears almost black in parts, the limo turn on to Elm not being present in any, the missing shots to Kennedy's head, the flip-flop of z313 and another frame in Life magazine, the doctored autopsy photos, the concealed Operatives at the stairs in Muchmore, Nix, Bell and Moorman - why rely on that one photo to prove or disprove anything? 

It's interesting, however, that Tilson is off-duty.  He's off duty, yet there is a report of at least 200 Police Officiers having been brought in especially to Dallas to provide security for the Trade Mart.  I believe I was told that there were other Police brought in to provide security on the route?  But Olsen can guard an 'Estate' in Oak Cliff, and Tilson has off.  Weird.

If Tilson has Ruby driving in the direction of Fort Worth, highly unlikely that he is chasing Jack Ruby.

I'm not sold on the Harvey and Lee story.  Certainly Lee had lookalikes, and had people impersonating him.  Believing he had an almost identical twin that was part of an intel program practically since his birth is hard to swallow, but I'll admit - I haven't finished Armstrong's book.  If that theory is acceptable, or at a minimum, that there were one or more people impersonating Lee Oswald, isn't it logical that the same thing may have occurred with Jack Ruby?

- lee

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Hi Lee,

Yes, maybe the WC ignoring Tilson was a rare case of them getting it right.

Mark

James,

Do you have any photos of Arce besides the group photo of the arrested Interpen men? That's the only one I have a printed copy of. Based on that photo, I agree that the similarity is striking.

And the man wearing glasses who's second behind the Arce lookalike resembles Nazario Sargen, does he not?

Also, the guy who is between them looks entirely too slick. He had to be in on it. (Ron Ecker)

Hi Ron,

That's the only shot of Remigio Arce I have. For those who are interested, you can find it at the photo archives here -

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PHOTOinterpen16.htm

Kind of makes you think about Danny Arce and that Interpen photograph doesn't it?

The guy with the glasses does resemble Sargen but he looks a bit thin and maybe a bit too old. There are also shots of Sargen at the photo archives under the Alpha 66 heading.

Mr. Slick has also intrigued me over the years. I have tried to find him in other aftermath photographs but with no luck. I think it's time to dust off the box of images I have showing anti-Castro guys and to do some serious comparisons.

James

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James and Ron,

I think the third guy is a good old innocent bystander. Looks like he's not with Arce or Mr. Slick. Not really sure about Mr. Slick either because he's gone later. But he really does look like he's up to no good.

Back to the business at hand...

First article - National Enquirer, but got me thinking.  Jan 31, 1975.

"Speaking exclusively to THE ENQUIRER, Dr. Tateur, 63, revealed that Ruby's mental torture was so great that he 'never spoke in anything above a whisper' for fear of having his words recorded and 'thought the county jail was a concentration camp.'

....."Speaking with marked fear, he said he was the victim of a conspiracy and was 'framed' to kill Oswald, so that Oswald could never say who made him kill Kennedy. 

This 'frame' involved a stripteaser, Ruby;s employee, who, on the fatal morning of Nov 24, 1963, 'made him go to the Western Union to wire her money....'"

"Ruby said the conspiracy also involved high government agencies and his attorneys, whom he considered to be members of the plot.'"

That's enough on that one. Yes, there's more about hearing voices of Jewish people being tortured in the next cell, etc.

However. There are many things that bother me about Jack Ruby.

- As per the initial posting, it appears that there was someone that looked like Ruby active in Dealey Plaza. The man at the TSBD doorway could be said to bear some resemblance.

- Marguerite Oswald is presented with what? A photo of Jack Ruby, before he kills her son? Or Saul?

- Mexican Oswald [saul] and the memo concerning alteration of the photo to avoid confusion with Ruby.

- The Mercer affidavit, which alters her statement to not include her identification of Ruby.

- The man described at the scene of the Tippit murder

- The photos

Now Hemming is saying that Saul was indeed someone we should be looking at. MacDonald says so also - has him on the top floor of the DalTex, with the plan to terminate 'Harvey' and create the fall guy for the assassination. Interesting.

From Coronet, March 1965 - the Belli interview.

Did he remember walking into the Dallas Police Headquarters basement that Sunday morning, November 24?

"Yes.  I just waved my hand to the guy and walked in."

And what did he remember then?

"Well, there were lights and a crowd."

And then?

"Well, I shot him."

Explain.  What happened?

"Well, they were all on top of me and I kept saying, 'I'm Jack Ruby.  You don't need to beat my brains out.'  Then they took me inside...."

We went over it again and again.  Always the same story.  Always the same failure to be specific about the thing itself - to tell how he did the shooting.  He referred to everything but the actual event.  The block in his recollection was glaring.  He told about sending the money order to his dancer, leaving his beloved dog Sheba in his parked car, but he never knew where he was just before the shooting....

Here's the Dallas Police Department Ruby.

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/rubydpd2.jpg

Here is the Warren Report Ruby.

http://www.all-science-fair-projects.com/s...ting-oswald.jpg

And this is....who is this?

http://www.yale.edu/yale300/democracy/may1...ssasination.gif

More from Coronet:

"There was one weird trait.  Unfailingly, at the mention of a member of President Kennedy's family, tears would start to course down his cheeks.  It could even be a casual mention -- later we tested his reaction by saying things like, "Too bad Jack Kennedy won't be able to see the Giants play" -- and the tears would just flow out of there.  It was too spontaneous to be an act."

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Just a few thoughts and queries. Great thread.

1. The statements of Victoria Adams, Malcolm Crouch and Jean Hills grassy knoll runner put Wanda Walker's DMN placing of Ruby in doubt. Is it possible he ran to the DMN offices for a brief alibi appearance (then back again?)

2. Regarding Tilson, I don't know. It's curious that he would throw away the piece of paper which supports his story. Against that, anyone who was ignored by the WC gets extra credibity in my book. I don't know.

3. Who was this cycle cop who told Jean Hill's boyfriend, J B Marshall, that he saw LBJ ducking before the shots. Anyone know his name?

4. The (large) photo of the Oswald shooting has one aspect which has always bothered me. What's the name of the detective in the white hat, dark suit and glasses to the left of the image? To me he looks like he's on guard in case anyone interferes with what Ruby's about to do. Just a thought. Is it Fritz?

Robin,

Your site is great!

Also, that last document - humorous.  I actually went back to a College history book about a year ago - it uses the word 'alleged.'

Do you plan to ever put any of those documents up?  Great stuff.

I don't know what Oswald thought he was doing that day, but I wish we could get someone to fix the history books.  Let's take out 'alleged' and say 'not guilty.'  I would like to see a 'Guilford 4' public apology, but I'd settle for that.

Anagram

Lee Harvey Oswald = wasrevealedholy a little much, but that's one that cranked out.

- lee

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Thanks Lee.

Yeh eventually i will have another webpage with just documents in "thumnbnail" style, i have already started to work on it.

It takes quite a while to upload all that information, and then set it out in a style that is easy to navigate.

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Guys,

Extremely funny exchanges, all. You're forgetting Jack, though. Just to go one-up on his old buddy Lee, he decides to sacrifice his life and liberty in front of 40 million viewers for what--to save a person he has never met the trauma of a courtroom trial!! Those gun running, violent, gangster connected nightclub owners are really the most altruistic guys aren't they?

Robin, I tried to access your site but it said something about insufficient data space. My computer's a musuem relic which I will soon update. I'm looking forward to checking out your site. I know it'll be a beauty.

Tim

While Helms is more than an interesting character I do not make him out to be the "big fish."  I continue to believe that the trail leads to Maxwell Taylor.  The work by Jefferson Morley proves that information about Oswald was making it to the Office Richard Helms but I do not rule out the possibility that that information would also have made it to the ultimate head of Military Intelligence (the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Taylor).  But the Army Intelligence file on Oswald has been destroyed....suspicious in itself.

Chester Victor Clifton, Jr.l, senior military aide to President John F. Kennedy, would be in a position to influence the motorcade.  Appointed to this position by Taylor, Clifton was in the motorcade on November 22, 1963.  It is also interesting to point out that Clifton's first commanding officier, upon graduation from West Point , was Edwin Walker.

The other piece of the puzzle that I believe is important, whoever planned the route past where Oswald was working would also need to be familiar with and suspect that the attempted assassination of Walker could be attributed to Oswald.  I believe this narrows the focus substanially.

Jim Root

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Jim,

I agree Max Taylor would have been in a great position to organise it all. But I've read elsewhere that he was a personal friend of the Kennedys. Is this not the case? What do you think about the guilt or otherwise of his predecessor, Lyman Lemnitzer?

John,

And again, Earl Warren did not feel that LBJ's concern over a nuclear war if a determination was made that Cuba had sponsored the assassination "daft".

You may speculate that LBJ's concern was feigned because he KNEW Castro did not do it but you cannot deny that intelligent, rational men such as Warren responded to the argument.

The results of a nuclear war would be cataclysmic.  It would be taking quite a gamble that the Soviet Union would not have responded to an invasion of Cuba merely because it was close to the United States and because we believed Castro had killed Kennedy.

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After reading the April 30, 1964 Executive Session of the Warren Commission, I'm no longer sure about Warren. In that session he agreed to the necessity of a Commission member and a doctor examining the autopsy photos. And yet this was not done. McCloy in his HSCA testimony blamed Warren. Either Warren stopped the examination because he was an overly-sentimental fool who was worried about upsetting the Kennedys, who had said the photos could be viewed if necessary, or he was worried the examination of the photos would take the investigation down an avenue he couldn't control. I now find it easier to believe Warren participated in a cover-up than that he was completely unqualified to lead an investigation. His comments in his memoirs that the Clark Panel confirmed the Warren Commission's interpretation of the wounds is the height of deceptive polito-speak. He was a politician, first and foremost--maybe he was swayed by fears LBJ would unleash a nuclear arsenal--maybe LBJ told him he would do as much. I find the scenario that Warren was afraid of what LBJ might do (if the evidence pointed at him) more plausible than the scenario that he was scared of what the Russians might do (if the evidence pointed at them).

There is no getting around it: either Warren was an incompetent or a participant in a cover-up. And if he covered-up, either he did it out of fear of LBJ or fear of the Russians. If he allowed the Russians to get away with the crime, what assurance would he have had that they wouldn't just turn around and kill LBJ, or all of congress? Therefore, his covering for LBJ after LBJ threatened to use all the powers of the Presidency to protect himself, including perhaps the distraction of starting a nuclear war, makes a lot more sense. Which sounds more reasonable to you?

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Pat,

I think Earl Warren was simply following his riding instructions (from LBJ). Namely, OSWALD DID IT FULL STOP. Whether he feared the Russians is irrelevant. His boss gave him a job and he carried it out.

Mark:

Have you read all of the tapes before you made this assessment?

I think you need to read all of the tapes before you can make an intelligent assessment if it was all just a game being played.  The latter does not make sense because there was no plan to release them.  So the idea that LBJ was just acting so he could use the tapes to prove he was innocent makes no sense.

I believe LBJ was a crook.  I believed that in 1964.  But he did not kill Kennedy.  The tapes help demonstrate that.

Read the tapes.

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Tim

I confess I haven't read all the LBJ tapes. Far from it. From my research of the assassination (which is only a few books and movies, I admit) there seems to be a consistent line of behavior concerning LBJ. He was a fixer, a backroom dealer. Not a crime, of course, but here's a brief sample of some of LBJ's stunts;

1. How he "earned" his Blue Star (that's a beauty)

2. His odd behaviour after the assassination.

3. the Coke Stevenson controversy.

4. Bobbie Baker.

5. His savage smearing of Kennedy prior to the 1960 nomination (telling Ike that JFK was a "dangerous man") and then suddenly accepting the VP ticket with this "dangerous man".

6. His choice of personnel for WC. (He initially favored a Texas inquiry--loud guffaws)

Are we kids or what?

I never said LBJ killed JFK. He would'nt have had the nerve. Instead, I believe he dropped a subtle hint here and there, among the powerful people with whom he was associated, that while Kennedy opposes their ideas, he does not. And he surely knew about it in advance.

Pat wrote:

One of the aspects which inspired this theory was LBJ's lack of response to the signs pointing towards Castro. If killing Kennedy had been the plan all along, and setting up Castro, what changed LBJ's mind? The thought occurred that maybe he hadn't been in on it.

Pat, the thought that ocurred to you was right.  LBJ had nothing to do with it. Read "The Assassination Tapes"; read how LBJ cowered in fear after the assassination thinking he might be the next target.

One of the things that might have caused LBJ to wind down the war against Cuba was simple fear.  If he was concerned (correctly or not makes no difference to this analysis) that Castro did it, he did not want to be Fidel's next target.

It is even possible that Castro had banked on that!

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While I find the tapes fascinating I always take into account that LBJ controlled the taping himself, and deliberately avoided taping some of the conversations a historian would be most curious to hear. Consequently, we can't be sure some of the tapes were not mini-dramas scripted and recorded for posterity. What I find most interesting on the tapes is Hoover's absolute lack of ability--the man seems utterly lacking in the instincts and insight one might expect from "America's top cop."

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Hi Pat,

Yes I agree. Of course those tapes were "edited". LBJ was the most cunning of politicians. You need only research his career to know that.

Long time interest in JFK assassination.