James DiEugenio

You mean people like Parnell and Arizona's version of Clarence Darrow would defend the provenance of CE 399 ? HA HA HA That will be the day. I'd love to get Peyote in court to argue the following: https://kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/the-impossible-one-day-journey-of-ce-399

If there ever was a writer in this field who was discredited, and who almost no one uses anymore, its John Davis. Bill Davy wrote a really nice critique of him for Probe Magazine. I did so in my two part essay, The Posthumous Assassination of John F. Kennedy. One of the things that bothered me about Davis was the fact that he would always attach long bibliographies to his books, referring to other volumes, files, libraries etc. Yet, his work was not footnoted. So if one wanted to check out information he wrote about, it was hard to find out where it came from. When I found out that not even parts of his bibliography checked out, I came to believe that this was a deliberate move on his part. It was done order for him to hide certain tricks he was pulling. For instance, one of the things he tried to do in his book The Kennedys: Dynasty and Disaster, was to implicate the Kennedy brothers in the plots to kill Castro. This was possible for him to do since the book was written before the CIA Inspector General report was released by the ARRB. So what Davis did was he used the testimony of Dick Bissell in front of the Church Committee in order to incriminate JFK in guilty knowledge through a dead man, Allen Dulles. (The Assassinations, edited by James DiEugenio and Lisa pease, p. 351) . But even at that, Davis edited out the dialogue to eliminate the fact that the questioners--Frank Church and Howard Baker--clearly did not believe what Bissell was saying. Davis then did something even worse. He wrote that Kennedy went through with the Bay of Pigs because he figured the CIA would kill Castro by then and it would be an easy victory! (Davis, p. 292) This is what I mean about the ARRB (which apparently Rich Pope never heard of) dispelling much of this Mob did it mythology. Because now we have literally almost everything there was written about the Bay of Pigs--the Taylor Commission, the Kirkpatrick Report, most of the internal five volume history etc. And guess what? Never were the CIA plots to kill Castro ever mentioned in any way to Kennedy. In fact, its not a part of the written plan for Operation Zapata. We also have the IG report on the plots to kill Castro. And guess what? The CIA never told the Kennedys about the plots until after they were accidentally discovered by J. Edgar Hoover in 1962. Two years after they started. But what makes Davis' writing all the worse on this subject is this essential fact: The IG Report insinuates that it was Bissell who was responsible for the plots in the first place. In other words, what Davis quotes in his book was nothing but CYA. Today, many authors, including Larry Hancock, have concluded that Bissell was a habitual xxxx on these matters. All in the aid of covering his own tracks after Kennedy fired him. For John Davis to use him as a source tells you all you need to know about his work. Why RIch Pope would use a discredited author like Davis, tells you--I don't know what--about him.

Philip Nelson is the kind of researcher Jim Fetzer would like.

Its not true. Groden deals with this in his book Absolute Proof on page 272. Johnson was not crouching down at all.

Sorry Dave. Am i seeing things or did Weisberg write over a thousand pages zapping the critical community?

Marcello was not that powerful, period. The reason Blakey and Billings made him out to be so is they needed to do that in order to construct their antidote to the CIA concept. How do I know this? Not from some cheapjack book by John Davis. But from talking to John Volz. Volz was the late federal prosecutor who was assigned to the Marcello case. He told me that Marcello was not even the leading mobster in the area. That was Joe Carolla. Now if he knew that, then how could Blakey and Billings not know it? Therefore, the idea that somehow a guy who is not even a regional capo would be able to do what people like Davis and Waldron say he did, is a fairy tale. Further, the other part of the construct that Blakey and Billings tried to create, that there was still a connection between the Murrett family and Marcello's gang in 1963, is also false. That was shown by an interview the HSCA did with the wife of the Oswald uncle which Blakey and Billings did not include in the HSCA volumes. The more documents that were declassified by the ARRB, the more this idea was exposed. BTW, Jeremy Gunn actually sent me the stuff that Volz secured on Marcello. Does Rich Pope even know who Gunn was? Has he ever read a declassified ARRB file? Sure does not look it. He likes the books by Roger Stone and John Davis too much. Further, the three pieces of evidence that people like Roger Stone used to incriminate Johnson have also been discredited. That would be the whole LBJ ducked early bit, which was shown by Bob Groden in Absolute Proof to be wrong; the Mac Wallace fingerprint which was disproven in Mellen's book Faustian Bargains, and Madeleine Brown, who switched fathers for her kid later on. There is not much of value in John Curington's book, H. L. Hunt Motive and Opportunity, but he insists that Hunt was not at the Murchison ranch the night before. But he also adds that, Judy Baker style, she tried to convince Hunt that he was.

David Andrews: As for me, I am waiting for the revelation that Judyth Vary Baker was Bobby Baker's sister, and that Oz and LBJ were in communication through the Baker siblings. "You just get me the presidency, and I'll get you your damned honorable discharge!" Are you trying to give Mr. Pope more ideas?

Mark: You are going to compare Stone's JFK and what it says about Kennedy, Vietnam and the Cold War to Scorsese's Wolf movie and what that says about the Meltdown of 2007? As per Goodfellas, I have no idea how it revolutionized anything, since I walked out about halfway through.

Are you going Ron? It might be interesting.

Thanks Ron, I was unaware of that. BTW, I have decided to attend the CAPA conference next month and this is going to be my topic: The FBI versus Jim Garrison.

Gene: Did something happen to Belmont during the HSCA? I was not aware of that. BTW, I am going to be talking about this in Dallas next month.

I am adding to this for a rather surprising reason, one which I had no idea would occur. When I posted my article on Thomas D. Herman, and his disgusting kissing up to Sheehan and Halberstam, I included my years old review of Halberstam's cover up book about Vietnam, The Best and the Brightest. That book, which the MSM and the liberal blogosphere still hold dear, was called by the late Warren Hinckle, "One of the greatest bullxxxx books ever written." Which is accurate. Well, guess what? The highest rated article at Kennedys and King.com is now my review of Halberstam. Which is fine by me, since the more people are aware of what a horrendous book that is, the better for us all. Be my guest and join the party. https://kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-reviews/halberstam-david-the-best-and-the-brightest-part-1

In looking over at the Shaw trial testimony, it appears that the FBI was investigating Ferrie up until about the 29th. Because, Mr. Rolland, the manager of the skating rink in Houston where Ferrie went with his two friends, said that the FBI interviewed him around that time. This is all fascinating, especially in light of the announcement the Bureau went out of its way to make when they let Ferrie walk away: This was all the DA of New Orleans' idea, not ours we had nothing to do with it. Yeah, sure.

Rich: Can you produce the evidence that the FBI knew the above was a fact? And I do not mean quoting from a trashy book by Ragano or John Davis. The HSCA did all it could to make Ferrie a pawn of Marcello, I mean all it could. This is as far as they got in the regards to transporting Marcello from Central America: An unconfirmed Border Patrol report of February 1962 alleges that Ferrie was the pilot who flew Carlos Marcello back into the United States from Guatemala after he had been deported in April 1961 Knowing what the HSCA was up to with Ferrie, I would think if they could have written that the FBI knew such was a fact they would have done so. Also, notice the lag time in the unconfirmed report by about 8 months.

There are two salient ones I think. Lyman Lemnitzer, who JFK thought he was kicking upstairs since he did not know about the stay behind ops. John Newman has done some good work on this. Clay Shaw and the CMC.

Rich, Please. You have now used three different sources that have all turned out to be false. In order, these are Regicide, Frank Ragano, and the alleged Malcolm Wallace fingerprint hoisted on us by Barr McClellan and Walt Brown. From my review of Mark Shaw's Denial of Justice: As per Ragano, his book was exposed as a tall tale back in 1994 in the pages of Vanity Fair by Anthony and Robbyn Summers. Ragano wrote that before he died his client Santo Trafficante made a confession to him by calling him up from Tampa. Ragano picked him up and the Don told him that they should have killed Bobby Kennedy and not JFK. As the article notes, HSCA Chief Counsel Robert Blakey found this claim credible. But as the authors showed, Trafficante did not even live in Tampa at that time—March of 1987. He was living in Miami. He only visited Tampa at Christmas. The idea that he would have flown there is made ridiculous since he was on kidney dialysis and had a permanent colostomy bag. On top of all that, Summers and his wife came up with three witnesses to furnish an alibi for Trafficante. (“The Ghosts of November”, 12/94, Vanity Fair) In the face of this, it is shocking that Shaw is at pains to defend Ragano. But somehow he does not reference this essay. From my review of Mellen's Faustian Bargains: Using high technology, including a 256 shade gray scale that Darby did not have, Garrett now went to work. He concluded that the unidentified box print was not a match with the Wallace print. First he noted eight points of discrepancy between the two—that is, specific mismatches. And he described these in detail. (p. 259) Beyond that, he brought up problems with all fourteen of the alleged matches that Darby had made. Some of these were due to the poor copies he had to work with. But also part of it was the black and white methodology employed. Garrett indicated where the “plotting” was off due to incorrect alignments. (p. 260) Garrett therefore concluded that there was no doubt that the unidentified Warren Commission box print did not belong to Wallace. It’s discouraging that we had to wait 15 years to correct this historic misjudgment. Meanwhile, people like Roger Stone, Barr McClellan, Philip Nelson and Nigel Turner used this evidence in their books and films. But due to the better original quality, the higher technology, and Garrett’s certification, the Darby/Harrison identification must stand corrected.

I have done a lot of research on New Orleans. I had never seen this document before. The great Malcolm Blunt fished it out and Bart Kamp scanned it for me. It is important because it shows that the FBI knew about Ferrie before Jim Garrison did. And they were getting multiple leads from multiple sources on both him and Oswald. And the infamous John Rice wanted to talk to Ferrie. But then the New Orleans office decides to call Deke DeLoach. That then spelled the end of any FBI inquiry into Ferrie. But this all adds depth and texture to that famous announcement by the FBI when they let Ferrie go, that it was only the New Orleans DA who recommended it. Because as the second document shows, the FBI let Ferrie lie his head off to them about everything--and then they let him go. One of the stupidest and falsest things the late Vince Bugliosi ever said about the JFK case was that there was not a scintilla of evidence of an FBI cover up. Like many other things he said about the Kennedy case, this was BS. https://kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/the-fbi-knew-about-david-ferrie-on-11-22-63

First, the book Regicide turned out to be a hoax, and Gregory Douglas is just one of more than one pseudonyms. Most people should know this by now. If you do not, click below: https://kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/beware-the-douglas-janney-simkin-silver-bullets The idea that the CIA and Mob are flip sides of the same coin is a real stretch. If it were true, then Bissell would not have had to search for an intermediary. He just would have phoned someone like Trafficante himself. Rich, what is your proof that Harvey located the killers of JFK? This would mean that you know who actually pulled the triggers and how they were recruited. Or you are assuming that ZR Rifle was used for the JFK hit? Why would you assume that? OMG and you are using Barr McClellan as a source also? And no I do not agree that Hoover was kept in the loop. How do you know such a thing? All the indications seem to me to be the opposite. The idea of a massive plot including several different agencies first surfaced in that stilted piece of disinformation we now call the Torbitt Document, except its not a document. Its a classic piece of disinformation. In its intent, its design and its sourcing. I consider the Douglas book to be more of the same.

Ok Rob, since you are our man on the beast, what about Mr. Williams? Time for another review?

The idea that the mafia pulled something like this off, or that the plot was based around the Majestic Papers is so utterly inane that its a bit shocking. As I have often said, in my view, the actual assassination was not a multi agency cooperative effort. And the best evidence is that Hoover was not directly involved. Hoover did not know what the heck was going on in Mexico City. He was simply lost. And he did not figure it out for about six weeks. Paul is on to something with his comment above. When the plot went awry, and they had to drag in Ruby to kill Oswald, that is when the Power Elite decided--hey everybody is now going to say, "Ruby was sent in to silence this guy." Therefore, the Warren Commission--which Alsop and Rostow essentially dictated to the White House--now became the modus operandi for the willy nilly CYA operation. And oh boy, did they do a good job. Work in secrecy, issue the report first, the MSM buys into it like hungry dogs--then issue the evidence in 26 volumes and 17,000 pages 2 months later which, as Allen Dulles predicted, no one is going to read. Then when some people do read it, the MSM at the highest levels, comes in to clobber them--through CBS and NBC. There is nothing fanciful about this, because that is what happened. We have it in documents that prove this is what happened: through both the ARRB and the late Roger Feinman, who pilfered his from his former employer CBS. Now, were Bill Paley, Dick Salant, and Robert and David Sarnoff in on the plot to kill Kennedy? Only someone as bereft and pernicious as Lance would even offer such tripe. But anyone who studies the power elite understands that they have an interest in upholding the status quo. Therefore, when some issue threatens to upset that balance e.g. Iran/Contra or the CIA and drugs through Gary Webb, they will do all they can to keep the dam from bursting. And they did. That is the way the system works. And one does not need to read people like Michael Parenti to figure it out. Anyone who studies these kinds of cases will know that. Apparently, everyone who says that America has gone to Hades in a hand basket in the last 55 years is wrong. According to our ace lawyer, all has been just fine in America over the last 55 years. Hmm. JFK, Malcolm, MLK, RFK, Watergate, the Church Committee, the Pike Report, BCCI, Iran/Contra, Oliver North, drugs for arms in Central America, hostages for weapons with Iran, the October Surprise, Part 1-1968, Part 2- 1980, the banks and savings and loans--which go belly up-- rip off America, not once but twice, and the second time the Treasury saves them etc etc. etc. None of that really occurred I guess. Go back to sleep Lucky Lance. Everything is just fine and dandy.

After listening to that, Scorsese could have never made something like JFK. He is just not the thinker that Oliver Stone is.

Michael: You are correct on that with no doubts about it. Its just a matter of how far back it extended. I really find things like the Lincoln Mercury demonstration, the rifle range appearance, and the two ladies at the furniture mart all utterly fascinating. And what the Warren Commission did with them was nothing less than negligent. They were clearly out to dismiss them no matter what the actual circumstances were. And boy did the FBI and Secret Service do all they could to help. In the case of the furniture mart, they did background checks on Hunter and Whitworth until they found someone--if they did-- who said that Mrs. Hunter attempted to insert herself into any big event that comes to her attention. (Note the term "big event", later to be used by Baker and Hunt. Here you have it in 1964) Sylvia Meagher does a nice job on the furniture mart and the rifle range. (See Accessories After the Fact, pp. 368-71) Then there is the Bolton Ford incident, with the name Oswald on the equipment purchase form in 1961, while LHO is in Russia. (Anthony Summers, Conspiracy, p. 382) Plus Al Bogard from the Lincoln Mercury dealership who took a spin with a guy named Oswald who said the price on the car he rode was too high and he might have to go back to Russia where they treat workers more like men. (Harold Weisberg, Whitewash, p. 264) . Again, the Commission said, well that can't be him since he was somewhere else at the time and he did not drive. The most comprehensive early treatment of the subject was by Richard Popkin in his book The Second Oswald. I always thought that was a valuable book that was underrated and underutilized. It is hard to get today. There are several others of these episodes--like the Odio incident-- one could list. Are we to believe all these people were simply wrong? Or did they all have Hunter's disease --wanting to get in on a big event? The WC ran away from the most logical conclusion, that Oswald was being impersonated-. And that was the last thing they wanted to confront. I don't even think the HSCA took this issue on. But to me it is one of the strongest indications of a preplanned, complex conspiracy.

MA: Jim - at least they made De Niro an Irish killer.... LOL Rob: That is what I mean. All of those illustrious Italian directors and how many films about the Mafia? But In America, its a staple of our film diet. But on top of that, the Scorsese movies I like the most aren't his stupid and predictable mobster movies. The ones I like are After Hours and The Last Temptation of Christ. The former is a Kafkaesque dusk to dawn movie, and the latter is one of the two best films ever made about Christ, (the other being Pasolini's The Gospel According to St. Matthew.)

Scorsese and Coppola have made careers out of reducing Italians in America to 1. Shooting people 2. Eating spaghetti and meatballs and red wine 3. Shooting each other (See the Sopranos) Enough already. DId you ever hear of Enrico Fermi?

OMG, according to Glieberman, Scorsese fell for that whole Chuck Giancana Double Cross BS that I put under the microscope in my review of Mark Shaw's pice of baloney. If this is true, i wonder if its in the book or if Scorsese had Zillian add it to the script? So now I have to repeat all this stuff because guys who should know better decided to make a stupid movie like this one?