Thomas Graves

Here is a Garrison memo with the list of people who were "involved" in the McLaney Cottage arrest: http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/T%20Disk/Training%20Camps/Item%2018.pdf The list was somehow purloined for Garrison by his assistant Gurvich. --Tommy

Yes. I think the Dixie Ranch location is probably the camp where we would find the hardcore guys. I remember a quote by Hemming stating to the affect that "all the biggest Cuban terrorists were there". You wouldn't send these guys to a camp with no guns -they aren't going to be making smores. I think there is another "camp" along the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, a third camp, possibly right on the lake. Chris, Just thinking out loud here. I wonder why those ten guys (plus the next door neighbor who might have come over out of curiosity) were at Bill McLaney's cottage on Wednesday night, July 31? Why so many of them? Had they just arrived from Florida? Were they staying there for a few days or was it more permanent than that? Were all of them really there? Weisberg wrote in a memo that according to a local sheriff, four camps had been raided one night, but at one of them the people hadn't been run off or arrested. I wonder if "C" was the one he was referring to? Larry Hancock says the authorities were tipped off by someone in Miami about the explosives cache at the cottage. Any idea who that was? --Tommy

Chris, I guess what I'm fishing for is whether or not there was an Artime / AMWORLD camp somewhere around Lacombe. --Tommy

No. I don't think that works for a number of reasons. One is that the "players", the MDC guys and Manuel Artime guys, are two separate factions of anti-Castro Cubans that don't really mix well. You have the Batista guys and then you have the guys that fought Batista until Fidel took over. They only played nice when Rip Robertson put his foot down. Chris, Okay, then how about Camp "C", Bill McLaney's Cottage on 31st Street? Just wondering. You know a lot more about this stuff than I do... --Tommy

bumped I just found this Harvey and Lee (pg 553-4) quote on another website: Few people today realize that there were actually two separate factions of Cuban exiles-one with close ties to Robert Kennedy (moderates), and another with close ties to the CIA (right wind radicals). In the summer of 1963 President Kennedy, reacting to criticism that his administration was not doing enough to stop para- military activities against Cuba, ordered the FBI to get tough with the Cuban exiles. The communist-hating Director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, undoubtedly knew the administration was seeking rapprochment with Cuba and was reluctant to follow the President's instructions and close down the camps. Hoover knew all about the 6 exile training camps on Lake Poncharrtain through New Orleans FBI agents Warren DeBruey and Regis Kennedy. He knew that one of the camps was loated on land owned by William Julius McLaney, who had close ties to Robert Kennedy. Hoover responded to President Kennedy's order by sending FBI agents to close down ONLY the "McLaney Camp." This was Hoover's way of thumbing his nose at President Kennedy's orders to close down the camps, and it placed the Kennedys in a potential embarrassing position if Robert Kennedy's ties to William McLaney became public. On July 31, 1963 the Associated Press reported, "FBI agents swooped down on a house in a resort section near here today and seized more than a ton of dynamite and 20 bomb casings. An informed source said he explosivies were part of a cache to be used in an attack on Cuba. But the FBI would only say that the materials were seized in connection with an investigation of an effort to carry out a military operation from the United States against a country with which the Unites States is a peace....." The materials seized by the FBI included 48 cases of dynamite, 20 firing caps, M-1 rifles, grenades, and 55 gallons of napalm. The FBI arrested two men: Sam Benton, a conduit between William McLaney and the anti-Castro Cubans, and Richard Lauchli, co-founder of the Minutemen and a close friend of Jack Ruby's. From newspaper articles it appeared to the public the FBI was doing it's job by confiscating illegal explosives. But, no indictments were handed down against either of the men who were arrested, and the 11 men who had been detained were quietly released. Neither the President nor the Attorney General were able to complain publicly about the FBI raid because they feared that Hoover might make their relatitionship with McLaney known to the press. The FBI's raid on the McLaney Camp did not affect David Ferrie and Guy Bannister's close relationship with the CIA nor with the camps. Thomas Compton, a friend of Ferrie's, drove him to Guy Bannister's office during the early fall of 1963. Bannister and Ferrie then went to Mancuso's Restaurant and talked while Compton sat at another table. Efforts to eliminate Castro were not limited to the camps at Lake Pontcharrtain. In late summer the DRE (Cuban Student Directorate) took out an advertisement in "See," a national tabloid, and offered a ten-million-dollar reward to anyone helping to assassinate Fidel Castro. DRE delegate Carlos Bringuier was interviewed by the Warren Commission but never menioned, nor was he asked, about the advertisement or the source of the ten-million-dollar reward (undoubtedly from the CIA). Desmond Fitzgerald, the former head of the Special Affairs Staff in Miami (formerly Task Force W), had been transferred to Mexico City and was in charge of assassination plots against Castro-in direct violation of Attorney General Robert Kennedy's orders. One such plot involved placing an unusually spectacular seashell on the ocean floor n an area where Castro went skin diving. When the shell was lifted, hopefully by Castro, an explosive device would be triggered. Another plot involved poison cigars and yet another involved contaminating a skin-diving suit and breathing apparatus with tuberculosis bacilli and spores from a virulent skin disease called "Madura foot." These and other outrageous schemes to eliminate the Cuban leader may have been intentionally leaked to the people connected with Cuban intelligence in Miami. By leaking such information the public would be tricked into believing that when Castro learned of he plots against him, he *RETALIATED* by ordering the assassination of President Kennedy. [-- John Armstrong in Harvey and Lee] Armstrong says Sam Benton and Richard Lauchli were arrested. Well, they were on the FBI's list of eleven people detained during the July 31, 1963, raid in Lacombe. I'm starting to wonder how many people if any were actually arrested -- if any. Or were they all briefly "detained" and released? --Tommy

I don't think he's telling the entire story. If the McLaneys were your neighbors and you were be asked these questions what would your priority be? As far as the FBI goes, I don't think they intended Garrison to get the list that was just luck. There are two locals on the list - and yes I've seen different lists - suggesting that not everyone is listed for the same reasons. The big question is why were the other people on the list? Did Lauchli bring the ammo there? Chris, Could Camp "A" (the MDC camp on Big 7 Road) have been part of the Kennedy / Manuel Aritime / CIA "AMWORLD" program? --Tommy

Tommie, That's the "rub". No one has been able to figure out what that list means. They got the McLaney's neighbor on the stand in front of a N.O. Grand Jury and asked him if he was arrested? Nope. Questioned? Nope. Asked by Garrison why his name was on the list? I don't know. There's no information except they are people that were of interest to the FBI apparently in regards to the raid. Some of these people are serious real deal - Lauchli is the #2 guy in the Minutemen Chris, There are two antithetical "working theories" : The reason none of the "Lacombe Eleven" were arrested was because they were associated with the CIA. --OR -- Mike McClaney, a friend of JFK and RFK, had arranged for the ammunition and explosives to be stored at his brother's cottage after the Miami raid six weeks earlier, and the "Lacombe Eleven" were let off by the Kennedys either as a favor to McClaney or ... because it was part of the AMWORLD project. https://books.google.com/books?id=7Q87Rrxyh9wC&pg=PA183&dq=%22the+mclaney+camp%22+%22mdc+camp%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAGoVChMIsY7G_PqxxwIVxtCACh3qMw01#v=onepage&q=%22the%20mclaney%20camp%22%20%22mdc%20camp%22&f=false It is interesting that the next door neighbor, Byron Chiverton, told the grand jury that after the raid he had expected the FBI to contact him about it -- in fact he called the FBI afterwards to tell them what he knew about the situation -- but they never came. http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/garr/grandjury/Plotkin/html/Plotkin_0017b.htm --Tommy edited and bumped

Tommie, That's the "rub". No one has been able to figure out what that list means. They got the McLaney's neighbor on the stand in front of a N.O. Grand Jury and asked him if he was arrested? Nope. Questioned? Nope. Asked by Garrison why his name was on the list? I don't know. There's no information except they are people that were of interest to the FBI apparently in regards to the raid. Some of these people are serious real deal - Lauchli is the #2 guy in the Minutemen Yes, and John Koch Gene, too. In this Weisberg memo, some reference is made to the possibility that a Miguel Alverez Jiminez and a Antonio Soto Vasquez were also among those who were apprehended and quickly released. http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/T%20Disk/Training%20Camps/Item%2046.pdf Regarding the place where the airplanes could have taken off from, I've read that Acelo Pedros Amores told a federal agency that the B-25 or B-26 bombers were at an airstrip forty miles west of New Orleans. http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/T%20Disk/Training%20Camps/Item%2018.pdf --Tommy Now, regarding "Camp A" -- The Weisberg memo, above, says that Ricardo Davis' ex-girfriend (17 y.o. in 1963) described his training camp as having a landmark swimming pool. And, from the McAdams website we have this CIA document: "The internal documents of the CIA show an intense interest in the Garrison prosecution of Clay Shaw, since Garrison had targetted the CIA as prime suspect in his supposed assassination conspiracy. So the CIA was concerned with the question of what Garrison might discover, and about whom. The most concise treatment of the issue is the following memo from Lawrence Houston, General Counsel of the CIA." -- McAdams 29 September 1967 MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Central Intelligence SUBJECT: Clay L. Shaw's Trial and the Central Intelligence Agency [...] a. A witness, Carlos Quiroga, might testify that Ferrie was a friend of Sergio Arcacha Smith, who was associated with the Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front (CDRF) until January or February 1962 and that Ferrie and Arcacha Smith were involved in a cache of arms in 1961. Garrison attempted to extradite Arcacha Smith from Texas to testify before the Grand Jury but was not successful. The CDRF was funded by CIA in Miami, and Arcacha Smith was with the New Orleans branch. b. Rudolph Ricardo Davis might testify about a training camp across the lake from New Orleans, possibly at Lacombe, Louisiana, run by a Cuban exile group (MDC) not affiliated with CIA, and that connected with this camp were Victor Paneque and Fernando Fernandez. Davis claims he met Oswald in the fall of 1963 in connection with anti-Castro activities. Paneque was also identified by Quiroga, the possible witness mentioned above, as having been in charge of the training camp at Lacombe, which Garrison falsely asserts was run by CIA. Our Miami Station was interested in Paneque in August 1964 and requested a provisional clearance, but a report of 5 October 1965 stated that Paneque would be dropped at the end of that month for lack of any immediate operational use for him. The Fernandez mentioned by Davis was also identified by one Michael W. Laborde as being the head of the Cuban organization for which Laborde's father, Lawrence J. Laborde, had worked. Fernandez was a contact of the Miami Station. [sENTENCE REDACTED] Lawrence Laborde was a contact of the Miami Station in 1961 and 1962 and served as an officer on a ship used for CIA Cuban operations. [...] http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/shawcia.htm

Tommie, That's the "rub". No one has been able to figure out what that list means. They got the McLaney's neighbor on the stand in front of a N.O. Grand Jury and asked him if he was arrested? Nope. Questioned? Nope. Asked by Garrison why his name was on the list? I don't know. There's no information except they are people that were of interest to the FBI apparently in regards to the raid. Some of these people are serious real deal - Lauchli is the #2 guy in the Minutemen Chris, The two antithetical "working theories" -- The reason none of the "Lacombe Eleven" were arrested was because they were associated with the CIA. --OR -- Mike McClaney, a friend of JFK and RFK, had arranged for the ammunition and explosives to be stored at his brother's cottage after the Miami raid six weeks earlier, and the "Lacombe Eleven" were let off by the Kennedys as a favor to McClaney. https://books.google.com/books?id=7Q87Rrxyh9wC&pg=PA183&dq=%22the+mclaney+camp%22+%22mdc+camp%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAGoVChMIsY7G_PqxxwIVxtCACh3qMw01#v=onepage&q=%22the%20mclaney%20camp%22%20%22mdc%20camp%22&f=false It is interesting that the next door neighbor, Byron Chiverton, told the grand jury that after the raid he had expected the FBI to contact him about it -- in fact he called the FBI afterwards to tell them what he knew about the situation -- but they never came. http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/garr/grandjury/Plotkin/html/Plotkin_0017b.htm --Tommy

Fascinating stuff, Chris. Regarding the following list of (mostly) Cubans at the "Lacombe raid": Victor Dominador Espinosa Hernandez, Carlos Eduardo Hernandez Sanchez, John Koch Gene, Acelo Pedros Amores, Miguel Alvarez Jimenez, Antonio Soto Vasquez, Sam Benton, Byron Chiverton, Rich Lauchli or Luchli, Earl J. Wasem Jr., Ralph Folkerts I assume these were the guys who were "seized" during the N. 31st Street raid, but "not arrested, charged, or even booked" ? According to the document, in 1967 Garrison was allegedly interested in locating a "Manuel Garcia Gonzales," but he's not on the list. I've read that Dean Andrews made up this name and, as a kind of test, gave it to Garrison as someone with whom Oswald had been seen. --Tommy

Chris, Got it. 61027 N. 31st Street. Twelve acres. Do you think anything was seized there? --Tommy

Bernie, One must be a "True Believer" to have any faith in the H & L doctrine. --Tommy

What happened to bumping this thread, David? Why have you disappeared from this forum? I was actually worried about you - until I saw you posting on FB yesterday... Why are you avoiding addressing the schnozz issue? Shouldn't all photos of Oz have a conk like we see in the Bronx Zoo photo? Who pinned the nose on the "HarveyOz"? Who blacked up "LeeOz's" hair? Do we have to put out an APB on you, DJ? Greg, Maybe he's picking his feet in Poughkeepsie. --Tommy

Chris, The camp "with a stream or bayou running through it" sure sounds like the camp at the end of Big 7 Road to me. My topo map overlay on GE shows that the "Lacombe Bayou" (stream) is only 160 feet from the house. What Angel said about the no firing of guns at that camp makes sense, too, as does the swimming pool, the house, the (dead end?) dirt road with no traffic, the other house visible from the property, etc. Stupid question: Where was the (Bill?) McLaney cottage? Edit: Or is that what we're trying to find out? LOL --Tommy PS It sure would be interesting to check the historical records for the Big 7 Road property at the St. Tammany Parish "Recorder's Office" (?) in Mandeville, LA.. http://www.stpgov.org/ When I google "big 7 road" in quotation marks, the only address I come up with is 28539 Big 7 Road ...

Thanks, David! Two comments and a question: 1 ) The camp in red sounds like the camp on Big 7 Road near Lacombe. The clincher for me is that the "Lacombe Bayou" (or stream) is only 160 feet from the house, according to Google Earth. (I have the free NGS topo map "overlays" on my GE.) 2 ) The camp in green must have been fairly close to if they could hear gun shots from it. If the camp in green was situated where the Dixie Ranch Hunting Club (and fire watch tower) are today, then, according to GE, they were 3.9 miles apart, as the crow flies. With 3.9 miles of flat but, densely forested, land in between. Question: Would it have been possible to hear M-1 shots from that far away, over that kind of terrain, in humid conditions? --Tommy

Hi Gayle, Who was Lefty Allen? --Tommy Edit: I did a little more "research" and came up with this part of a 1967 Harold Weisberg interview of Colonel and Mrs. L. Robert Castorr which Tom Scully posted on an EF thread called "Kennedy Ripples" back in 2012: W: When you were briefed on [John] Martino's background, were you told anything about him prior to the months he spent in the Castro prison. What did he do in Havana before Castro?. Mrs. C: No. Mr. C.: Subsequently, the terminology which was used I believe that he was an electronic engineer but let's get down to specifics now and... I think he was a gambler, a syndicate operator, I imagine. W: He was protecting the house against cheaters. Mr. C: Did you ever hear where he might have worked. You know I'm quite curious to know whether it might have been Lefty Allen or Mike McLaney??? Mrs. C: I have no idea. W: Never heard of them. [ http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/C%20Disk/Castorr%20L%20Robert%20Colonel/Item%2012.pdf TAPE #1 (SIDE 1) Subject Index Files/C Disk/Castorr L Robert Colonel Weissberg -- questioning (Dick Billings is also present) (7 May, 1967) (Col. and Mrs.) Castorr-- answering ] I wonder if Col. Castorr meant to say Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, whom some researchers believe was associated with Operation 40 member Luis Clemente Posada Carriles? My intuition tells me that when Colonel Castorr said "Lefty Allen," he was confusing and combining the names of mobbed-up Las Vegas casino boss Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal and his "employer" / front man Allen R. Glick, both of whom were memorialized in the film Casino. Edit: That doesn't make sense, though, because the interview of Colonel Castorr was in 1967, and Rosenthal and Glick didn't start working together until the mid 1970's. Still, Castorr could have meant Lefty Rosenthal when he said "Lefty Allen." Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal testifying in 1961 to the Senate Investigations Committee on organized gambling. --Tommy

Mark, Good One. Question: I take it you don't think the writer of the letter could have been wittily implicating Clay Shaw in his completely-unnecessary-to-mention "stay with a friend at the Shaw Hotel" in some unspecified city? Was there a well-known "Shaw Hotel" or a "Hotel Shaw" in the Washington D.C. or Langley, Virginia, area, or anywhere in the U.S. for that matter, that RFK and Dulles would have known about in 1963, making the mentioning of it more plausible, more realistic, and less uhhh... "out of left field"? Or was the letter just a subtle anti-Black joke (and an attempt to give gay bars a bad name by connecting them with the mafia)? There was, after all, a Hotel Shaw that catered to "Negroes" as late as 1955 in Harlem, New York City, but how well would that have been known to RFK or Dulles? http://issuu.com/dafiyab.benibo/docs/negro_traveler_s_green_book How could the writer of the letter, so seemingly knowlegeble about "The Syndicate," have screwed up so badly as to confuse the gay "Brass Rail" in Hillcrest for the notorious mafia-owned and, yes, Johnny Roselli-connected "Gold Rail" in downtown San Diego for the place at which Jack Ruby had allegedly conferred with "Syndicate" members before the assassination? (Go to Mary Ferrell Foundation website sometime and put the terms "gold rail" and "san diego" in the search box at the same time. You'll be amazed.) It seems to me that the true writer of the letter was fully aware of the existence of both the gay Brass Rail and the mafia-owned Gold Rail "Steak House' dive bar in San Diego, and intentionally mixed them up, and mixed them together, in the letter. "Bompensiero was proud of the Gold Rail. Actually, if you are to believe the license and the Yellow Pages listing, the “Gold Rail Steak House.” No steak was served. Law said you had to serve food. Bompensiero didn’t serve food." http://www.sandiegor...check-us-grant/ --Tommy bumped Edit: There was a famous Hotel Shaw in San Francisco in 1963. http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2014/08/renoir-hotels-storied-history-transformation-time.html --Tommy

Chris, Yes, I see the tower on GE. I guess the Dixie Ranch is now the "Dixie Ranch Hunting Club." It's interesting that it's only about 3.5 miles from the Slidell Airport which has a 5000' runway. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slidell_Airport I did a little snooping around on the Internet an found out that an Allen S. Clark, Jr. (b. 1925, d. 2003) was a WWII marine who later on was on the board of directors of the hunting club. That tower might have been a good place to train for an upper floor TSBD or a DalTex shot. Keep up the good work. --Tommy

Great work, Chris. Thanks for spelling all this out for us, and so clearly, too. --Tommy

These naboobs think Robert Oswald's first wife took the role. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=102795476 You want to follow them down that grave hole as well? Greg, It sounds like a dead end to me. LOL --Tommy

Mark, Good One. Question: I take it you don't think the writer of the letter could have been wittily implicating Clay Shaw in his completely-unnecessary-to-mention "stay with a friend at the Shaw Hotel" in some unspecified city? Was there a well-known "Shaw Hotel" or a "Hotel Shaw" in the Washington D.C. or Langley, Virginia, area, or anywhere in the U.S. for that matter, that RFK and Dulles would have known about in 1963, making the mentioning of it more plausible, more realistic, and less uhhh... "out of left field"? Or was the letter just a subtle anti-Black joke (and an attempt to give gay bars a bad name by connecting them with the mafia)? There was, after all, a Hotel Shaw that catered to "Negroes" as late as 1955 in Harlem, New York City, but how well would that have been known to RFK or Dulles? http://issuu.com/dafiyab.benibo/docs/negro_traveler_s_green_book How could the writer of the letter, so seemingly knowlegeble about "The Syndicate," have screwed up so badly as to confuse the gay "Brass Rail" in Hillcrest for the notorious mafia-owned and, yes, Johnny Roselli-connected "Gold Rail" in downtown San Diego for the place at which Jack Ruby had allegedly conferred with "Syndicate" members before the assassination? (Go to Mary Ferrell Foundation website sometime and put the terms "gold rail" and "san diego" in the search box at the same time. You'll be amazed.) It seems to me that the true writer of the letter was fully aware of the existence of both the gay Brass Rail and the mafia-owned Gold Rail "Steak House' dive bar in San Diego, and intentionally mixed them up, and mixed them together, in the letter. "Bompensiero was proud of the Gold Rail. Actually, if you are to believe the license and the Yellow Pages listing, the “Gold Rail Steak House.” No steak was served. Law said you had to serve food. Bompensiero didn’t serve food." http://www.sandiegor...check-us-grant/ --Tommy bumped

Larry, Collections agents? --Tommy

Tommy, I would see it not so much as a segue but addressing the issue of Blakey's main suspect - Marcello. What is interesting is that while stating they see [no] evidence of any CIA involvement in Kennedy's death, it does admit Clay's connection to the CIA, as well as mentioning the substantial documentation on Trafficante and other mob figures - I'm betting all of whom were used by the CIA in anti-Castro operations. A contract source would be a paid asset/agent contracted to collect and provide data on specified areas of interest during their travels. Thanks, Greg. So Shaw may have perjured himself when he said he had never worked for the CIA. --Tommy Morally yeah... technically, maybe not. The strict test of an employee/employer relationship comes down to if they take out any deductions from pay, direct you in hours worked, how you do your work, where you do your work and other things of a similar nature. This type of test however, is usually reserved to determine your tax (and in some counties your social security) status. The term "contract source" would get him off the hook as not being an employee - a fine distinction - but maybe just enough wiggle room. Yeah, I know, Greg. It depends on whether the word "work" is defined narrowly or broadly. Shaw obviously answered it in the narrow sense. --Tommy

Holy smokes, Bob. Focus. I've said from the beginning that the CIA assassination manual suggested the use of long rifle ammunition, hand-loaded to be subsonic. As far as your next line, you're joking, right? No one has ever said or even suggested that a slienced assassination rifle is an ideal weapon for a common soldier. It is a special weapon made for special jobs, for use by only the most skilled marksman. We have no idea how well they performed in the field, by the way, because that kind of info is classified. Still. I kind of stumbled into this whole area, by the way, by accident. I was reading Mortal Error, when I noticed that within its pictures was an exhibits list handed out by the HSCA. Well, among this exhibits list was a gelatin block showing the trajectory of an M-16 bullet (essentially a souped-up .22) fired at 800 fps, the approximate velocity of a subsonic bullet upon striking Kennedy. Now, this set off alarm bells. Why was Sturdivan talking about a subsonic M-16 round? I then realized that the caption to this exhibit in Sturdivan's published testimony said this was a bullet fired at 800 mps, not fps, and that Sturdivan's testimony reflected that, yessirree, the bullet was fired at 800 mps. Well, that solves it, right? Only not so fast. I compared this gelatin block to other M-16 gelatin blocks and realized that it was in fact the block of a bullet fired at 800 fps, as shown on the original exhibits list. I then contacted Sturdivan, and he told me that I was right and that it was in fact the gelatin block for a subsonic round, quite possibly around 800 fps. I then asked him who would change his testimony and the title of his exhibit, and he said it would have to have been I. Charles Matthews, an assistant counsel to Blakey. A few years later, however, I realized that I'd ignored the possibility Sturdivan had mis-stated the velocity as mps in his actual testimony, and that someone had changed the name of the exhibit to match his testimony, and ignored the original exhibits list and the script which they all were supposed to follow. And so I gave in and purchased a tape of Sturdivan's testimony, and found that he did briefly state that the gelatin block reflected an M-16 round traveling at 800 mps, but that he then corrected himself and said it reflected the velocity 800 meters downrange. Well, this was strange, first, because his correction never made it to the published transcript, and second, because he described the bullet in terms of how far it was downrange, and not how fast it was traveling. By then, I'd read dozens of articles by Sturdivan and others in which bullet velocity was discussed, and no one discussed the velocity of a bullet in such terms. I then wrote Sturdivan and asked him if he remembered using those terms, and if he'd been asked to use those terms to disguise that his exhibit reflected an M-16 bullet fired at a subsonic velocity, and/or to conceal that the wound ballistics experts hired by the WC and HSCA had conducted tests regarding the lethality of subsonic ammunition. I got no response, that I recall, but I came away with the ongoing suspicion tests were performed to see if JFK's and Connally's non-lethal wounds could have been caused by subsonic ammunition, and that this all got covered up when the answer came up "Yep." Thanks for the feedback, Pat. Your conclusion makes sense to me. --Tommy

Tommy, I would see it not so much as a segue but addressing the issue of Blakey's main suspect - Marcello. What is interesting is that while stating they see [no] evidence of any CIA involvement in Kennedy's death, it does admit Clay's connection to the CIA, as well as mentioning the substantial documentation on Trafficante and other mob figures - I'm betting all of whom were used by the CIA in anti-Castro operations. A contract source would be a paid asset/agent contracted to collect and provide data on specified areas of interest during their travels. Thanks, Greg. So Shaw may have perjured himself when he said he had never worked for the CIA. --Tommy