Tom Gabbay

Good! I think I'm too old for the classroom now...I look forward to getting involved with the discussion -- more hearing and reading than talking. Writing The Berlin Conspiracy, while a work of fiction, made me realize just how much there is to learn -- and how much is missing -- from the assassinatin record. I can think of many questions I'd like to ask, but i will have to take my time and look around, find my way into the discussions. I lok forwrd to it. Understood...Do you get testy when its suggested that the film has been aletered, or that it has not been altered? While I've read a great many books on the assassination, I am aware of how much knowledge I'm missing. I never heard it suggested that the film had been altered. What's the story? I'll put a few sentences together later today, have to upgrade this computer operating system this morning. Been around the film/video studio-post production business (in particular compositing, last 25 years) for 40 years now. I contributed a article for the book: The Great Zapruder Film HOAX in 2003. The question for the book I addressed was: IF the Zapruder Film was altered; was the technology, equipment, man-power, TIME and know-how available in 1963-64 to do such alteration? David Healy I'm not an expert, but in my exerience, it would have been possible with optical printing to change the original negative, but I don't know if it would have been easy to hide the changes from experts. My question is this: If someone wanted to change it, why would they make it look like JFK was being shot from the front? What was the motive of those who did the altering? I recall that the film was presented in a magazine (LIFE?) with the frames in the wrong order. Am I right about that? Does that have anything to do with the theory that the film was altered?

1. Why did you decide to write a novel rather than a history book about the assassination? There are probably a couple of ways to answer that question. First, my background is in drama. I was a program executive at NBC for several years and before I embarked on writing my first book I made a living producing and writing for television. So writing fiction was a more natural progression for me. Second, I’m not remotely qualified to write a non-fiction account of the assassination. There are many historians and interested parties who know a great deal more than I do about the events surrounding Kennedy’s murder. Writing the book was very much a learning process for me. I read many good non-fiction books (which I’ll talk about in your next question) and, though some theories seemed less plausible than others, I found pretty much everything I read very well thought out and researched. Finally, I think a novel provides an opportunity to absorb all the facts and circumstantial evidence that are out there and then to present my own “plausible reality”. In the end, I think that’s what we all do. No one can reasonably claim to one-hundred percent certain about what happened in Dallas that afternoon, so we gather what factual evidence we can and put together our own “plausible reality.” 2. You obviously had to do a lot of research to write a novel about real events. Could you tell us the names of the books that you found most helpful about the life and death of JFK? I look up on my shelf and see many great books that I dove into, one after the other. A list, in only a rough order of how useful I found them, would look like this: CROSSFIRE by Jim Marrs THE KENNEDY CONSPIRACY by Anthony Summers DEADLY SECRETS by Warren Hinckle & William Turner WILDERNESS OF MIRRORS by David C. Martin PLAUSIBLE DENIAL by Mark Lane COMPULSIVE SPY by Tad Szluc COUP D’ETAT IN AMERICA by Alan J. Weberman and Michael Canfield THE BAY OF PIGS AND THE CIA by Juan Carlos Rodriguez BAY OF PIGS DECLASSIFIED: CIA Report edited by Peter Kornbluh KENNEDY’S WARS by Lawrence Freedman AN UNFINISHED LIFE by Robert Dallek THE DARK SIDE OF CAMELOT by Seymour Hersh I also read extensively on the internet, including some lone-gunmen theorists’ sites to help me spot any holes in the thoeory I was building. In addition, I read quite a bit on Berlin and the East German STASI, which wasn’t directly related to the asassination, but helped me with the book. 3. How much of the plot is pure speculation? Or is everything in the novel have some sort of evidence behind it? Aside from the premise -- that “Plan A” was to get Kennedy in Berlin -- I tried very hard to make everything else fit into that “plausible reality” I had contructed with the evidence (as I saw it). It was part of the fun, in fact. I took some evidence directly from the Dallas assassination, such as the plamphlet that linked Oswald to 544 Camp Street, and transplanted it to Berlin. In fact, I used many of the ploys that had been used in Dallas and New Orleans to set Oswald up as the fall guy -- handing out pro-Communist literature, Oswald doubles, and faked photographs all appear in “THE BERLIN CONSPIRACY”. I used the forensic evidence and the evidence of a cover up to inform the plan that would have been put into place, had there been a Berlin attempt. My idea was that Berlin had been chosen as the ideal place to assassinate the president and (I don;t think I’m giving anything away here) when it failed, they got him five months later in Dallas. 4. Your idea that there could have been a plot to kill JFK in Berlin is an interesting one. Lamar Waldron’s new book Ultimate Sacrifice suggests that there were probably plans for 3 plots to kill JFK in 1963. However, organizing the cover-up was always an important factor, for example, this was one of the main reasons the actual assassination took place in Dallas. Would it not be difficult to cover-up the assassination if it took place in Berlin? Interesting point. I certainly see why you say that. It would have been easier to control events, such as the motorcade’s route, Jack Ruby’s access, etc, in Dallas. But you could look at it another way: Assume (as I do) that whoever was behind the conspiracy had set Oswald up to be a Communist sympathizer. This seems one of the areas that most people should be able to agree. It follows that they wanted to blame “the Commies” (probably Castro) for the murder, with the idea that it would put into motion a series of events -- invasion of Cuba, Soviet tanks taking West Berlin, war in Europe and, finally, all out war. JFK was weak on Communism and was losing the Cold War, they believed, so they would get rid of him and start a Hot War, which America would win. The plan didn’t work, not the way they thought it would anyway. because there was one big problem with this plan. Who would believe that Dallas was a hotbed of Communism?! In fact, no one did, and a war was averted. But what if JFK had been assassinated by a Communist in Berlin. Does anyone doubt that it would have sparked World War III? It’s worth looking at how World War I began. Forgive a brief excerpt from “THE BERLIN CONSPIRACY”, but it gives a sense of how history might have repeated itself if Kennedy had been killed in Berlin. The narrator is Jack Teller, a dissillusioned Company operative who stumbles on a plan to assassinate the president when he gives his famous “Eich Bin Ein Berliner” speech: "Where's Kovinski now?" I asked Sam. "How in God's name could the whereabouts of that piss-ant be the most important thing on your mind right now?" "You're pretty good at history, aren't you, Sam?" He shrugged, but I knew he was. "You know the name Gavrilo Princip?" "The guy who shot the Archduke Ferdinand," he answered without hesitation. "What's he got to do with the price of eggs in China?" "He was the piss-ant that got the First World War under way." Sam pulled on his earlobe and made a face "Do you really believe all this crap, Jack? You think there are guys in the Agency who'd go that far?" "Ever hear of the Black Hand?" "Should I have?" "No, the whole point is that you shouldn't have. The Black Hand was a secret society made up of Serbian army and intelligence officers. They planned and executed the assassination of Ferdinand because he was on a peace mission and they thought peace was another word for surrender. They wanted war and victory, so they arranged for the piss-ant named Gavrilo Princip to pull the trigger on the Duke. It's just possible that if he never got the chance to take the shot that day, The Great War wouldn't have happened. So that's why I'm interested in where Kovinski is." "I don't know where he is," Sam shook his head. "But there are plenty of piss-ants around. If you stop this one, there'll be another one in his place next week." "So we have to get the Black Hand," I said. Sam gave me a long look and sighed. "Christ, Jack." "What?" "You're under arrest for treason." 5. I see that you have a history in television. Did you ever consider making a television documentary series on the assassination? (It would probably need to be in 26 parts to do it justice). I have always been surprised this has not happened considering the fascination that most people have with JFK (this is especially true in Europe). I think it would be a great thing to do and I’d watch, particularly if it approached the subject with an open mind and managed to be aforum for various theories, much like this internet forum is. I’m not sure what level of interest there would be by the broadcasters, though, unless there was some sort of new evidence or promotable element in the program. 6. Did you know that one of the prime suspects, David Atlee Phillips, wrote a novel about the assassination of JFK? Phillips died of cancer on 7th July, 1988. He left behind an unpublished manuscript. The novel is about a CIA officer who lived in Mexico City. In the novel the character states: "I was one of those officers who handled Lee Harvey Oswald... We gave him the mission of killing Fidel Castro in Cuba... I don't know why he killed Kennedy. But I do know he used precisely the plan we had devised against Castro. Thus the CIA did not anticipate the president's assassination, but it was responsible for it. I share that guilt." This is interesting as in Gene Wheaton’s recently filmed interview, he claims that Carl Jenkins, the CIA officer who was in charge of the 1963 assassination plot against Castro, redirected them to kill JFK. This is very interesting. I do remember something about Atlee’s unpublished novel, but I hadn’t seen the quote. It fits right into my “plausible reality” that Oswald believed he was being “put together” to kill Castro, not Kennedy. I believe he was handing out pro-Castro literature and doing noisy pro-Castro TV appearances in order to get credibility with the Cubansso they’d give him a Visa and he could get close to Castro. Perhaps Atlee didn’t know about the Kennedy plan, but I think the evidence suggests that some of his colleagues did know. The Gene Wheaton statement’s statement would support this. Did he give any indication as to whether Oswald was in on the changed target? Tom Gabbay http://www.tomgabbay.com

Good! I think I'm too old for the classroom now...I look forward to getting involved with the discussion -- more hearing and reading than talking. Writing The Berlin Conspiracy, while a work of fiction, made me realize just how much there is to learn -- and how much is missing -- from the assassinatin record. I can think of many questions I'd like to ask, but i will have to take my time and look around, find my way into the discussions. I lok forwrd to it. Understood...Do you get testy when its suggested that the film has been aletered, or that it has not been altered? While I've read a great many books on the assassination, I am aware of how much knowledge I'm missing. I never heard it suggested that the film had been altered. What's the story?

Is it too late? (I did get a BFA from Philadelphia College of Art. Not sure that counts.)

Tom Gabbay was born on April Fools Day, 1953 in Bloomington, Indiana, the son of Jacob Gabbay, a history teacher, and Susan Davis, a librarian. The second of four children, Tom misspent his youth in the small town of Liverpool, New York, playing football and avoiding truant officers. He left Central New York in 1971 to attend Colorado State University in Fort Collins. In February of his freshman year, Tom joined some friends for a weekend of Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and never returned to class. That summer, he departed for Europe, where he attended L'Ecole des Beaux Arts in Avignon, France. Backpacking throughout Europe that year, he enrolled in the Heatherly School of Fine Art in London, where he studied painting and drawing. He spent days copying paintings in the National Gallery, nights watching Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore perform in "Beyond The Fridge" at the Cambridge Theatre, where he worked as an usher. In 1974 Tom returned to the United States to attend the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied classical painting and sculpture. While at the the Academy, Tom contributed weekly political cartoons to the editorial page of the Philadelphia Daily News. Upon completing the four-year degree at the Academy, Tom spent a year studying film and animation at the Philadelphia College of Art. He earned a BFA in 1978. Tom moved to New York City in 1979 to pursue his interest in film. From his loft on Crosby Street in Soho, he directed a series of award-winning animated shorts for the innovative children's program, "Sesame Street" and went on to direct commercials and music videos. Married in 1981, Tom's first child, Jared, was born in 1982. His second son, Jake, arrived in 1984 and the following year Tom moved his family to Los Angeles, where he took up the position of Director of Children's Programmes for NBC television. Two years later he became Director of Comedy Programs at NBC, overseeing the production of well known sitcoms such as "Cheers" and "Family Ties". In 1990, Tom returned to London in order to run NBC's European production division. He left NBC in 1993 to become Executive Producer of "The Wanderer", a 13-hour drama series shot in Salzburg, Munich, Madrid and London. Since 1996, Tom has written several screenplays for film and television, working with companies like Fox, Warner Brothers, BBC, Bertelsmann (UFA) and Hallmark Productions. His most recent screenplay "The Vanishing Act" will be filmed in Rome in March 2006. His first novel, "The Berlin Conspiracy", is a cold war thriller set in 1963. It will be published by William Morrow (HarperCollins) in January 2006. Tom is married to Julia Keighley. They live in Europe with their two children, Max and Sophie.