Gene Kelly

Jim

The four-hour version of the screen play will bring all of this detail in your book to light, and so better inform the broader public perception.  I'm further into Destiny Betrayed and its just fascinating.  I have been reading and studying this convoluted/complex JFK story for many years now (and all of its many subplots), but it amazes me how much there still is to learn and appreciate. Big picture, its instructive to see the true picture of Kennedy's foreign policy and an authentic accounting of American Cold War history. It provides a motive and reason for his murder. On the smaller scale, the details found in the released ARRB records are also very important context to add to the previously known stories of fact.  Perhaps more telling is what topics were withheld for so long (until ARRB, and even today) such as the story of FBI agents Sibert and O'Neill, the conflicts of interest and unethical behavior of Clay Shaw's legal team, the inference of so-called journalist  provocateurs (Phelan, Aynesworth, Sheridan, even Garrison's best man), and most notably, the inner workings of the HSCA.

A few prominent observations about the conduct of the HSCA from Destiny Betrayed really stick out to me ... frankly, I had no idea how controlled and predetermined the Committee was.  While most remember it for the Grassy Knoll inferences, it essentially upheld much of the Warren Commission findings (including ballistics), ignored the reality of the autopsy, threw in a convenient 'shot that missed' from the Knoll (based on contentious and confusing acoustics analysis), and then inserted the tentative and uncertain phrase "probable conspiracy".  While I worry that the average audience won't be able to process all of this information (particularly if they're not already well-read into the case), you just can't make a story like this up:

• Robert Blakey was originally associated with Dick Billings of LIFE in discrediting or undermining Garrison during his investigation in the late 60's ... and then ten years later, Billings (a so-called "freelance writer") helps Blakey write the "small conspiracy" HSCA script. This is promptly aggrandized by their "mob did it" book in 1981, which is patent disinformation and a limited hangout.  Hard not to smell some rats there. 
• The sabotage of the early HSCA, and the attack upon Sprague and Tannenbaum.  As one of the attorney's stated: "When I saw that they could do this to Dick Sprague, I knew there was a conspiracy".  And how many of the HSCA  investigators refused to talk about their experiences such as Jonathan Blackmer.
• The extreme censorship and management of the NOLA investigators (L. J. Delsa and Bob Buras) ... HSCA was studiously avoiding Garrison's leads, witnesses and evidence (like the Plague) 
• On the eve of the Clay Shaw trial, Attorney General Ramsey Clark publicizes a misleading report (the Clark Panel)  that ostensibly re-examined the autopsy material, and in particular, the head wound.  This is clearly a cover-up of the disgraceful and treasonous Bethesda autopsy.  To make matters worse, many of the pathologists who were later selected for the HSCA medical panel were from the original Russell Fisher forensic pathology circle, and had a vested interest in maintaining this inaccurate story.  So much for independence. 
• How the trio of Blakey, Cornwell and Billings kept their investigators in the dark, micromanaged a preconceived HSCA Final Report, capitulated to the CIA,  perpetuated the single bullet theory (with questionable science), and sidestepped the sinister suspicious autopsy (although Pierre Finck's Shaw trial testimony is staring them in the face). It also surprised me how Blakey and the HSCA actually treated Garrison almost like a hostile witness in his HSCA interview. 
• Blakey's feigned indignation and hand-wringing in 2003, when he complained that the CIA did not reveal that George Joannides had also been the handler of the anti-Castro group called DRE, and that this somehow compromised the committee’s investigation … the entire DRE/Joannides topic is disingenuous and misleading. 

Gene

And this review from Awards Watch by Adam Solomons on July 13th: 

The Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) set up in 1992 amid a flurry of renewed interest in the assassination has steadily published previously classified documents which give more credence to the notion Kennedy may have been executed by the CIA as part of an effort to expand America’s military interventions abroad. That rationale is a crucial aspect of Stone’s original film: that the Kennedy brothers were the first White House occupants since World War Two to sincerely oppose American interventionism, and haven’t been matched since, is the strongest argument existing that the defense establishment acted to replace Kennedy with the more battle-ready Lyndon Johnson. Shortly after Kennedy was killed, the US vastly expanded its phony case for a full-scale invasion of Vietnam. The rest is history.

After all, the assassination itself was never quite Stone’s main interest. The director’s original film targets the shadowy defense establishment’s ability to conduct illegal covert operations, and kill the president if it wanted to, as much as point the finger to a specific plot. JFK Revisited is much the same, lambasting the CIA and FBI’s intellectual laziness toward essential classified material as much as alleging the involvement of Clay Shaw and the Cuban campaigners. It’s this rejection of American policymaking in general which made JFK so iconoclastic.

It’s encouraging to see Stone hasn’t left it behind. The sound perspective of Kevin Costner’s Jim Garrison is also missing, with Stone’s own investigative angle taking precedent. That reflects a desire to return to the assassination as a widely accepted plot, rather than persuade Americans anything suspicious happened at all, as JFK sets out to do. This gives JFK Revisited the impression of an ideological victory lap – and a somewhat deserved one, too. As the late Donald Rumsfeld might say, there are still many unknown unknowns about the JFK assassination. Oliver Stone still has an appetite to find them.

One of the better reviews is  by Stephen Dalton in the Hollywood Reporter (July 12th) where he opens  by stating that "the controversial director weighs up recently declassified evidence about the assassination in this forensically detailed documentary":  

Had he lived, Kennedy may indeed have avoided full-scale war in Vietnam, but he was far from the messianic prince of peace that Stone needs him to be to fit his reductive narrative of American imperial villainy. None of this disproves speculation that he was killed in a treacherous coup plot, of course, but these lapses into misty-eyed Camelot mythology weaken the film’s otherwise impressively strong factual elements. Stone’s conception of good and evil is military-industrial, but not very complex.

In visual terms, JFK Revisited offers a polished blend of contemporary interviews, archive footage and explanatory graphics. Surprisingly, clips from the original JFK are only deployed very sparingly. Stone’s regular cinematographer Robert Richardson, who also works with Scorsese and Tarantino, gives the film a glossy old-school finish. Stone himself only appears occasionally on screen, chiefly to pose precisely scripted questions to his expert guests. He also shares voice-over duties with Donald Sutherland, who had a small but pivotal role in JFK, and Whoopi Goldberg. Composer Jeff Beal’s overly insistent, intrusive score is the most jarring element in an otherwise handsome technical package.

Jim

On a personal note, I just got a copy of your 2nd edition of Destiny Betrayed for my birthday.  Its awesome, and really pulls together the big picture of Kennedy's political challenges, and the forces he was up against. I've not been able to put it down since I got it. It reminds me that - which an engineer and physicist (not a liberal arts person) - the JFK story has allowed me to better understand modern American history and Cold war politics. That aspect of the assassination is as interesting to me as is the plot and coverup.  I've also become a big fan of your extensive and meticulous footnoting and references ... as Lisa Pease's preface and Bill Davy's foreword state, the footnotes are an entire book of reading unto themselves.  I'm sure that the fact-checking now common/required for such film documentaries will be greatly aided by have such comprehensively referenced information in your book.  That was an obvious and common criticism of Oliver's 1992 JFK movie (i.e. that it was based upon inaccurate history and facts).  With the thorough accounting in Destiny Betrayed, the critics will have a more difficult time making that specious claim.

While I know many of the back-stories and topics in Destiny, this 2nd edition takes me to a next level of understanding.  Peripheral characters like Kerry Thorley are brought into better focus, and events like the Clinton-Jackson visit become much clearer in intent. Jim Garrison was surely on the right trail, and the forces that he was up against were formidable. As most of us already understand, its nonetheless incredible that the Paines escaped attention and notoriety.  However, if the film depicts their treachery, then the public will become better informed.  I've also learned a lot more about the work of the ARRB that I didn't appreciate. 

Great book!  

Gene

Matt

Thanks for sharing the link ... I found the following to be interesting:

Since the start of the fiscal year last October, the U.S. Coast Guard has intercepted more than 512 Cubans at sea, compared with 49 for the entire previous year.  The Cuban government attributes its longstanding economic problems to the American trade embargo, which cuts off its access to financing and imports. But the pandemic has worsened conditions ... the Cuban Ministry of Health website says the nation of 11 million now has about 32,000 active cases of Covid-19 (6,923 daily cases and 47 deaths on Sunday).  Only about 15 percent of the population is fully vaccinated.

The Foreign Ministry tweeted that "Cubans know perfectly well that the government of the United States is principally responsible for Cuba’s current situation ... Cuba and its streets belong to the revolutionaries.” The President urged government supporters to hit the streets and confront the protesters. He blamed the United States for restricting exports, access to funds and travel to Cuba, which led to widespread shortages.  The protests were a form of “systemic provocation” by dissidents doing the bidding of the United States. He said Washington in recent months had sought to destabilize and weaken the island’s economy as part of a policy designed to “provoke a massive social implosion.”

I recently read an interesting book entitled "To Catch a Spy, The Art of Counterintelligence" by James Olson, a former chief of counterintelligence at the CIA. In the book, he calls out the Cuban intelligence service as very competent and second only to China and Russia as threats to the US:

“I worked a lot in my career against DGI and against Cuba in general. They are a very formidable adversary. They were very professional. They were very disciplined and they had a vendetta against the United States. Castro focused all of his efforts on national security to bringing down his Yankee neighbor, to attacking us. They were impenetrable. They were tough. We had very little success against them. We underestimated them. And we paid a real price for that. I stand by my ranking of the Cubans as the number three intelligence threat to the United States today. 

Miguel Diaz-Canel is as hardline as Stalin and as the communist as Fidel ever was. He’s holding it together. And the DI as it’s now called is still focused almost exclusively on the United States. And they’re causing a lot of issues. I’m getting tired of hearing about people like a Philip Agee or Ana Montes or Kendell and Gwen Myers, The Cubans have penetrated our government. They are all over South Florida. If you go to South Florida today and you know where to tune in on the shortwave dial, you can hear this sultry, female Cuban voice reading off numbers. And that is the DI communicating with its agents and its illegals in the United States of America and they are very aggressive and conducting a lot of operations. And I don’t like the way they do it. You know, they’re vicious.  They’re all over Venezuela. We know they’re rolling in Nicaragua with the Sandinistas. We know what they did in Angola and elsewhere in Africa. They’ve been a thorn on our side forever. Because I guarantee you, we only know the tip of the iceberg. They’re much better than the KGB ever was. In terms of discipline, in terms of tradecraft, in terms of professionalism.”    

Gene

Ron

That is a good observation.  When you read the record closely, Cabell dances around this topic in his Warren testimony.  Hubert presses him on it, but seems to be laying a groundwork and cover story (for Earle).  The red herrings are a parade permit (that gives him an excuse to talk to Curry) and death threats received by Cabell.  However, it gets "muddy" because after Cabell refers a Catholic torchlight parade (replete with the mention of nuns) for Sunday night which was cancelled, intermixing (or conflating) it with a call that he eventually admits to with Curry that occurred "a matter of minutes" before Oswald's murder:

Mr. HUBERT - I believe in your conversation with Chief Curry on Sunday, you discussed a threat that had been made to you, or indirectly?   CABELL - He called me that this call had come through the switchboard of the city hall, and it was his understanding that it was long distance, but he did not know the source, and since it was a direct dial and they could not trace it, there was not enough time, wherein the caller said that an attempt would be made on my life.  

Mr. HUBERT - Attached to page 3 it seems to indicate that the call with Curry must have occurred a bit before you received the news of Oswald's shooting? Mr. CABELL - The first call from Curry, or only the starting of any conversations with Chief Curry were relative to this torchlight parade on that night. I had called him and told him that I would recommend the cancellation of that Parade. He had granted it, but then I had recommended the cancellation, and I would assume full responsibility for having given that instruction. 

 HUBERT - At that time Oswald had not been shot?  CABELL - No.  HUBERT - But on that first call then, was there any discussion between you and Chief Curry about the transfer of Oswald?  CABELL - No.  HUBERT - Was there any discussion about the security precautions that were being observed or the problems that they were?
 CABELL - I do not recall any discussion on that at all.  HUBERT - Chief Curry did not tell you that any threats had been made to Oswald?  CABELL - No.

HUBERT - Can you comment upon this Lancaster Smith proposal of a parade?  CABELL - Lane Smith is a very well-known, very active lay worker in the Catholic church, and he had called me earlier, and I think the suggestion for this came from some nuns, and when he first talked to me I didn't realize frankly the implications or the hazard of a procession such as that, and I told him--he asked about a permit, and I said that that is a matter that is handled by the chief of police, that he would have to be the one to issue a permit for any type of parade, because that is what that amounted to.

 HUBERT - When did Lancaster Smith call you?  CABELL - I think it must have been around 8 or 9 o'clock in the morning, originally. HUBERT - Then you called Chief Curry about what time?  CABELL - Must have been very shortly after that. I would say 9 o'clock or possibly a short time after. I believe that it must have been just a little before 10, because I think that he was talking to me in his office at the time word was brought to him that Oswald was shot, or possibly had hung up the phone, or he would have mentioned that to me at the time.

HUBERT - Because the evidence we now have shows that Oswald was shot about 11:20, so perhaps your time would have been 11 rather than 10?  CABELL - Yes; I was thinking in terms of 10 o'clock being the hour of shooting, but we can move this conversation with Curry to a matter of minutes preceding the shooting of Oswald.

There was this retrospect in the Dallas Observer in November 1998:

Not long after Oswald's assassination, Curry was hospitalized because of stress, and in 1966, he retired from the force under doctor's orders. He would go to his death in 1980 insisting he was a "happy" man--but one always "haunted" by the deaths of John Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald. 

Gene

Gil

Your work on the rifle is excellent; its informed me immensely about this key aspect of the JFK murder and setup.  The unique serial number story is obviously disinformation, and one more reason to seriously doubt the provenance of the weapon.  I want to share some trivia, about the following, as I live near Perkasie PA and my friend and I travelled down the aforementioned Mink Road last week, looking for where this Fred Rupp RFD 2 address might be.  I told him that his town was a part of the JFK story, and he was fascinated.  Its a small part of the story, but pretty interesting that it found its way through my neighborhood:

"Periodically, Fred Rupp, RFD 2, Mink Road, Perkasie, Pennsylvania, picked up loads of 91's from Harborside Terminal. He brought them to his shop where, under a subcontract with Crescent Firearms, he would clean and test fire each weapon, then ship it from his place to various customers designated to him by Crescent. If a carton was mutilated, he would repack the weapons in a new carton after cleaning and test firing them. The new carton would be numbered by him with the same number as appeared on the original carton picked up from Harborside. If a particular gun did not function properly, he would replace it with another, and he would indicate on the slip the serial number of the weapon removed and the weapon substituted."

On February 12th 1963, Fred Rupp dispatched carton no. 3376, said to contain C2766, via North Penn Transfer Company against Crescent Firearms order no. 3178 to Klein's Sporting Goods of Chicago. If the record is to be believed, then Klein's took delivery of Mannlicher Carcano serial no. C2766, allegedly one of a very few rifles out of a total of 150,000 repaired and renovated by Luciano Riva that did not have its identifying marks removed.  Luciano Riva allegedly failed to ensure that all identifying marks were removed from a small number of Carcano rifles.

Gene

The Texas State Historical Association "Handbook of Texas" has a detailed biography that includes the following:

Both his father and grandfather (Gen. William L. Cabell) served as mayor of Dallas.  After one term each at Texas A&M and Southern Methodist University, he went to work for Morning Glory Creameries in Houston, then moved to Pine Bluff, Arkansas where he bought a milk and ice cream business. After the business failed in 1932, Cabell and his wife returned to Dallas, where he and his brothers pooled their resources to form Cabell’s, Inc., an ice cream company that opened a chain of ice cream parlors specializing in five-cent double-dip ice cream cones. In 1961 he defeated the candidate endorsed by the Citizens Charter Association, became the first full-time volunteer mayor of Dallas, and worked out of an office in city hall rather than a business office like his predecessors.

His Warren Commission testimony seems to be an odd line of questioning by Leon Hubert, with much of it focused on his contacts with Chief Curry ... its almost as if they are trying to create 'distance' between Cabell and the police regarding any influence that he (Cabell) may've had, particularly Oswald's transfer at the city jail.  Why they would even interview him is beyond me.  He comes across as having little influence with police matters, and there's spurious mention of the alleged death threats he received which seem irrelevant, other than to further paint a picture of innocence and lack of involvement.  In other words, providing an alibi.  Below are excerpts:

HUBERT - In other words, the city manager really has the detailed administration of city affairs?  CABELL - He is entirely responsible for the administrative functions of the city government. Mr. HUBERT - Does the council make any other appointments than the appointment of the city manager? Mr. CABELL - Yes; the direct appointees of the council are the city attorney, the city secretary, the supervisor of public utilities, and the city auditor.  HUBERT - I understand then that the chief of police is appointed by the city manager completely?  CABELL - That is correct; and is responsible only to the city manager.

Mr. HUBERT - When did you first know of the apprehension of Lee Harvey Oswald?  Mr. CABELL - On the field there, Chief Curry told us of the killing of Officer Tippit, and I believe told us at the same time that they had apprehended the suspect. Mr. HUBERT - What was your next contact with Curry, if you recall? Mr. CABELL - I don't recall any further contact with Curry. This was not a face to face or personal contact. It was telephonic concerning the issuance of this parade permit, which is covered in the report by the bureau man. Mr. HUBERT - You had no contact, to your knowledge, with him? Mr. CABELL - I don't recall any further contact with Chief Curry. Mr. HUBERT - Did you have a contact with any other member of the police department? Mr. CABELL - No.

Mr. HUBERT - Did you have any knowledge of the situation in the county jail with reference to the news media? Mr. CABELL - That was the city jail.  I knew fairly well what was going on by watching my own TV from time to time and the covering that they had on the activities around the police department of the city hall.  HUBERT - Did you know prior to the shooting of Oswald, or have you learned since whether there was any awareness in the police department of possible danger to Oswald?  CABELL - No, no. After it had all occurred, then I recall having been told by someone that there had been an attempt, or that an attempt would be made, but that is not clear, and purely a matter of hearsay.

Mr. HUBERT - I believe in your conversation with Chief Curry on Sunday, you discussed a threat that had been made to you, or indirectly? Mr. CABELL - He called me that this call had come through the switchboard of the city hall, and it was his understanding that it was long distance, but he did not know the source, and since it was a direct dial and they could not trace it, there was not enough time, wherein the caller said that an attempt would be made on my life. It was his impression, the switchboard operator's impression that it was some long distance.

Mr. HUBERT - But on that first call then, was there any discussion between you and Chief Curry about the transfer of Oswald? Mr. CABELL - No. Mr. HUBERT - Was there any discussion about the security precautions that were being observed or the problems that they were? Mr. CABELL - I do not recall any discussion on that at all. Mr. HUBERT - Chief Curry did not tell you that any threats had been made to Oswald? Mr. CABELL - No.

Mr. HUBERT - Mr. Cabell, there have been some reports as to the authenticity or veracity of, for which I do not vouch at all, to the effect that some pressure was put upon Chief of Police Curry by you or others to cooperate with the press in all ways possible. Mr. CABELL - There was one that has been rumored. One of our local weekly publications made that as a statement. That is completely false. At no time did I have any contact with Chief Curry to the extent that I gave him any orders, instructions, or make any comment upon the situation other than the contact which I have mentioned with reference to this proposed torchlight parade.

Mr. HUBERT - Do you know of any pressure put upon him by anyone in authority over him? Mr. CABELL - I do not know of any, and my assumption would be, and I say assumption, would be that none had been made, because I know how Mr. Crull operates to the extent that he would not interfere in the duties of his chief of police. Now I am sure that they had conversations with reference to security and that sort of thing, but I would question very definitely that any orders as such on that subject would have been issued by Mr. Crull. HUBERT - In any case, neither you nor anyone else, to your knowledge, did anything of that sort, to wit, bring pressure upon him in anyway whatsoever?  CABELL - That is entirely correct. 

President Kennedy asked for Charles Cabell’s resignation and he was replaced in February 1962 as CIA deputy director. General Cabell’s subsequent hatred of Kennedy became an open secret in Washington. He would later return to the Pentagon, after being relieved of his position at the CIA by JFK, where he would describe the President as a “traitor”. Cabell never forgave the President, and criticized him publicly and often. On one such occasion in 1962, he was introduced to the Foreign Policy Association of New Orleans by Clay Shaw. 

His brother, Earle Cabell, became the Texas state chairman in 1955 of the Crusade for Freedom organization, which actively opposed the spread of communism. The Crusade had been started in 1949 in New York city, where many of its members were active in the Council on Foreign Relations.  It began as the National Committee for Free Europe (NCFE), a private non-profit group. Founding members included Allen Dulles, then a Wall Street lawyer and soon to become CIA director. This led to the well-known Radio Free Europe operation, which began broadcasting in 1950 to countries behind the Iron Curtain. While the operation did take in private donations, the vast majority of its funding came from the CIA. Crusade for Freedom chapters in different US cities helped obscure the true source of funds. The recently released CIA 201 file opened on Earle Cabell in 1956, and the secrecy agreement that he signed, may’ve been related to his once-prominent role in this organization. When the ARRB came across the CIA records connected to Earle Cabell, they marked them as “Not Believed Relevant” and delayed their release.  The person who presented Jacquelin Kennedy with a bouquet of red roses at Love Field on November was Elizabeth (Dearie) Cabell, the wife of the mayor.  Jackie later stated: 

"Every time we got off the plane that day, three times they gave me the yellow roses of Texas. But in Dallas, they gave me red roses. I thought how funny, red roses … so all the seat was full of blood and red roses."  - Jackie Kennedy  

Mayor Earle Cabell allegedly received death threats prompting police protection after the assassination. The treats came that weekend after he accepted an invitation from San Antonio Mayor Walter McAllister to join him and a delegation of other Texas mayors at the funeral in Washington. The mayor of Dallas is largely a ceremonial post in city government; a professional city manager/administrator is hired by the city council to run the day-to-day city operations.  In Cabell's Warren testimony taken in July 1964, Leon Hubert mainly focused on the distinctions in roles between the mayor and the city manager (appearing to absolve Cabell of any influence with the DPD or the motorcade route):

Mr. HUBERT - Could you describe briefly for us the relationship between the mayor and the council and the city manager? Mr. CABELL - Well, it is the relationship of the general manager of a corporate entity and his board of directors, with most day-to-day contact being made through the mayor as the presiding officer of that board. HUBERT - In other words, the city manager really has the detailed administration of city affairs?  CABELL - He is entirely responsible for the administrative functions of the city government.

Mr. HUBERT - Does the council make any other appointments than the appointment of the city manager? Mr. CABELL - Yes; the direct appointees of the council are the city attorney, the city secretary, the supervisor of public utilities, and the city auditor, the city auditor being nominated by the Dallas Clearing House Association.  HUBERT - I understand then that the chief of police is appointed by the city manager completely?  CABELL - That is correct; and is responsible only to the city manager.

Mr. CABELL - I have done a great deal of hunting and also used military shoulder guns, as well as hunting rifles ... there was no question in my mind as to their being from a high-powered rifle and coming from the direction of the building known as the School Book Depository. 

The SMU papers of Earle Cabell contain the following information of his career after the assassination:

After carefully guiding the city through the aftermath of the assassination, Cabell decided to resign as mayor and work for Dallas at the national level. Running as a Democrat in the fall of 1964, Cabell defeated the incumbent, conservative Republican Bruce Alger, for the Fifth District Congressional seat. Cabell served four successive terms until 1972, when the boundaries of his Fifth District were redrawn in a more conservative electorate. Cabell lost the 1972 election to Republican Alan Steelman, prompting Cabell's retirement from all political activity. The Earle Cabell Federal Building and Courthouse, named for the former Dallas mayor, is located in the Government District of downtown Dallas, on 1100 Commerce Street. Earle and Dearie were present in 1974 at the dedication of the Earle Cabell Building in downtown Dallas; it was one of Cabell's last public appearances. After several years of failing health, Earle Cabell died in Dallas in September 1975.

Agreed Chuck ... I saw that association too: he attended Texas A&M University between 1933-1937 with fellow students Harvey Bright and Earle Cabell. Harvey Bright developed extreme right-wing political opinions and - along with his friends, Clint Murchison, Sid Richardson, George and Herman Brown and H. L. Hunt - was a supporter of the John Birch Society. They also funded politicians in the Senate to ensure the preservation of the oil depletion allowance. Bright, along with Edgar Crissey and  Lamar Hunt, helped to pay for the full-page, black-bordered anti-Kennedy advertisement that ran in the Dallas Morning News on the day that JFK was assassinated. The advert, placed by Bernard Weissman, attacked Kennedy's foreign policy as being anti-American and communistic. 

Gene

Paul:

Actually, to be more precise, this is what was in his obit in December 2007 in the Dallas Morning News:

Jack proudly served his country during the Second World War in the U.S. Army as Special Agent OSS in Europe, where he was awarded the Bronze Star, Five Battle Stars and numerous other Citations of Merit. He was a retired Colonel in the US Army Reserves. 

A more detailed biography is found in "Find a Grave" published by the Dallas Morning News, on December 15, 2007, (author: Joe Simnacher) which quotes his daughter: 

He served in the Army as a field artillery officer and special agent assigned to the Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor of the CIA. He received the Air Medal and the Bronze Star. In December 1967, he retired from the Army Reserve after serving for 30 years. He received the Legion of Merit for his service, which included organizing the 488th Military Intelligence Detachment reserve unit in 1956.

An earlier EF thread contained this comment:

Researcher Larry Haapanen found that the 488th seems to have had its own direct chain of command linking it to Washington. In an esoteric publication entitled The Military Order of World Wars (1997), he found that Crichton "commanded the 488th MID (Strategic), reporting directly to the Army Chief of Intelligence and the Defense Intelligence Agency. And in 1970 Haapanen was told by Crichton’s commander in the Texas Army Reserve, Lt. Col. Whitmeyer, that Crichton's unit did its summer training at the Pentagon.

Much of the information later quoted on this faux 44th Detachment is derived from a Jack Crichton interview, July 6, 2001, Oral History Collection, Sixth Floor Museum, Dallas. Crichton's Legion of Merit award was reported in the Lubbock Avalanche Journal in December 5, 1967 article about his "retirement".  The 2015 Politics Forum post did not identify the author, but its interesting that it states the more accurate oil/petroleum context of this faux 488th Strategic Detachment (i.e. " ... use and exploration of petroleum worldwide"). Crichton used it as a venue in the late 1950s to conduct “a study of Soviet oil fields;” and in the 1990s Crichton would himself explore the oil and gas reserves in the former Soviet Union. Other websites (e.g. Alchetron) appear to derive their statements from Baker's Family of Secrets ... one contains this detail:

 During World War II, Crichton served in Europe in the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency. He was a field artillery officer and special agent. In 1946, Crichton was recruited by Everette DeGolyer, a former conservation director in the administration of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and later a co-founder of Texas Instruments, to operate a group of companies which renamed frequently, presumably to make it more difficult to trace their operations.  In 1956, Crichton became commander of the 488th Military Intelligence Detachment, which operated under Lieutenant Colonel George Whitmeyer, the overall commander of all United States Army Reserve units in East Texas.

It would appear that these various oil companies and associations were standard CIA funding and organizational conduits to gather information on oil as a strategic resource.  If one connects the dots, Crichton's name is associated with and mentioned in a very interesting circle of individuals such as Clint Murchison, George de Morenschildt, George Bush (and Joe Zeppa), Ilya Mamantov, William Westbrook ... even Skorzeny (in Spain).  If that's not enough, Crichton was a charter member (and past president) of the Dallas Petroleum Club along with none other than David Atlee Phillips. In an interesting sidebar, as President of the Dallas A&M Club, Crichton gave four-year scholarships at Texas A&M University to slain officer J.D. Tippit's sons, Curtis and Allen.  And I remind myself that he was former OSS. 

Gene

Paul

I only know what's been posted previously, or what was contained in Crichton's obituary.  I've never actually seen the citation, traditionally awarded almost exclusively to senior officers in the rank of lieutenant colonel (Army) or commander (Navy) and above.:

In December 1967, he retired from the Army Reserve after serving for 30 years. He received the Legion of Merit for his service, which included organizing the so-called 488th Military Intelligence Detachment reserve unit in 1956. Crichton served during the Second World War in the Army as Special Agent OSS in Europe, where he was awarded the Bronze Star, Five Battle Stars and numerous other Citations of Merit. He was a retired Colonel in the Army Reserves.

He attended Texas A&M University between 1933-1937 with fellow students Harvey Bright and Earle Cabell. In 1953 Crichton joined the Empire Trust Company and eventually became a vice-president of the organization. The company had a network of associates that amounted to "something very like a private CIA". The Empire Trust was also a major investor in the defense contractor General Dynamics. In 1956 Crichton started up his own spy unit, the 488th Military Intelligence Detachment. Crichton served as the unit's commander under Lieutenant Colonel George Whitmeyer.

After World War II, Crichton joined the DeGolyer & MacNaughton petroleum consulting firm in Dallas.  In 1952 Crichton joined a syndicate that included Clint Murchison to influence the Franco government to acquire drilling rights in Spain. In 1953 Crichton joined the Empire Trust Company and eventually became a vice-president. The company had a network of associates that amounted to "something very like a private CIA".  Since Crichton was involved in oil, right-wing Texas politics (and was former OSS), its seems obvious that his "Strategic" Unit was less military and more oil/intelligence related.  On the Politics Forum, the following was posted in September 2015:

In 1956, Crichton started a military intelligence reserve unit originally called the 488th Strategic Detachment, and its purpose was to provide assessments of foreign countries' usage and exploration of petroleum worldwide. They were interested in how the Russians were using petroleum, and the Chinese, and etc. In this role the 488th did not report "through the usual military intelligence channels", which would have been the 112th Military Intelligence Division based in San Antonio - it reported directly to the White House.  Gradually they became less interested in petroleum and more interested in "subversives". They brought on a lot of Dallas police officers (50 to 100, according to Crichton), to be their eyes and ears. The name of the 488th changed from "Strategic" to "Military Intelligence",

Russ Baker wrote the following, in his book "Family of Secrets":

Crichton started and ran a baffling array of companies, which tended to change names frequently; these operated largely below the radar, and fronted for some of North America's biggest names, including the Bronfmans (Seagram's liquor), the Du Ponts, and the Kuhn-Loeb family of financiers.

Other accounts of Crichton's life state that, In 1961 he joined forces with other right-wing figures in Dallas to establish a program called "Know Your Enemy". This was to combat communist influence that "was undermining the American way of life". The following year Crichton opened an underground command post under the patio of the Dallas Health and Science Museum that was intended for "continuity-of-government" operations during a communist attack. 

Gene

Jack Crichton (pronounced Crayton) served during the Second World War in the U.S. Army as Special Agent OSS in Europe, where he was awarded the Bronze Star, Five Battle Stars and numerous other Citations of Merit. He was a retired Colonel in the US Army Reserves. In 1964 he was a Republican candidate for governor in the state of Texas.  After graduating with honors from Texas A&M (BS Petroleum Engineering), in 1937 - earning athletic letters in Tennis, Basketball and Cross-Country Track - Crichton subsequently earned a Master of Science degree from MIT, where he was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity. After World War II, Crichton joined the DeGolyer & MacNaughton petroleum consulting firm in Dallas, where he became vice president and director.  

In December 1967, he retired from the Army Reserve after serving for 30 years. He received the Legion of Merit for his service, which included organizing the so-called 488th Military Intelligence Detachment reserve unit in 1956. The conservative radio commentator Paul Harvey wrote in his syndicated column in September 1960: "The Communists, since 1917, have sold Communism to more people than have been told about Christ after 2,000 years." He urged his readers to support the "counter-attack that had been mounted in Dallas."  

Jack Crichton passed away in 2007 at age 91. 

I appreciate the feedback from both Chris Bristow and Chris Barnard ... I do like the idea of keeping it as simple as possible.   Given special (experienced) shooters, their #1 priority would be ingress/egress.   I see everything else as lesser details.  And the South Knoll/bridge location affords that opportunity.   

As previously posted, another sniper consideration (as far as that shooting vantage) is that the shooter didn't have to re-aim ...  he can fire off several shots.  Perhaps it was a silenced weapon, but it’s only about 60 yards away, which is a sure shot for an experienced marksman.  Furthermore, Harry Holmes had his office in the Annex Building (and he was assuredly complicit).  Then there's O'Hare and Robertson strolling across the lawn shortly thereafter (aka the "sweepers"). 

This shooter location solves many questions. It was the best location to assure a kill, with the School Book Depository a diversion ... a good place for red herrings to be observed by witnesses.

Plots, angles and windshield crack aside, my two cents (FWIW) is that the fatal head shot originated from south of the Triple Underpass, most likely somewhere within the confines of the Terminal Annex building's parking lot. 

An ideal sniper location would be the south end atop the overpass, which affords the best pan angle on the limousine as it proceeded down Elm, with the greatest elevation over the limo's obstructions. It's a challenging shot, but is an excellent sniper location with favorable ingress/egress.  The ingress/egress aspect is what most convinces me, as that is a primary consideration by experts for this type of operation.  As I posted back in October 2018, making the shot is only half the objective, the other is escaping either undetected or without being molested. The military practice to overcome this obstacle is termed “Canyon Shoot”. This practice utilizes multiple snipers from locations suited to draw attention to those origins where they cannot be accessed, or by allowing the terrain to confuse the shot origin to the enemy present.

In addition to ideal egress, there are several other aspects that convince me of this shot location:

1. The Umbrella and/or DCM (signal man) is facing towards those locations. The triangulated and simultaneous military-style ambush seems to be somehow coordinated by these two suspicious individuals.
2. There were multiple shooting teams - and simultaneity was part of the plan - hence the use of timing techniques (i.e. hand signals)
3. The brightness of the noonday sun above the South Knoll renders anyone looking in that direction (from the street or limousine) essentially blind to the whole area ... a classic sniper tactic
4. A shooter firing from the TSBD would initially fire and the other shooters in the plaza would cue off the Depository shooter by startle reaction and fire a round immediately on top of the shot fired by the Depository shooter. By utilizing startle reaction to cue simultaneous fire from three locations, three shots could easily sound like one.
5. A TSBD shooter would have initially been facing the President from the sixth floor when the presidential limousine rounded the corner ... yet he allegedly waited, and took the more difficult shot from behind (which on face makes no sense). That delay and longer shot range from the rear was obviously part of a triangulated ambush, with shooters on the Knolls (North and South) able to use the overpass railroad tracks for escape routes. 
6. Such a positioning of the President's limousine for the kill shot would appear to be associated with Abraham Zapruder's camera POV, as well the expected echo distortion.  

Gene

Sheba aside, as I think the "left in the car" story is manufactured and questionable:

That morning Harry D. Holmes arrived at his regular church visit with his wife. 'Out of the blue', he leaves her there and goes to the DPD. When he arrives at the DPD, his friend Capt. Fritz, motions to him and 'whispers' an invitation for Harry to be in on the last pre-transfer Oswald interview. Harry then joined the interview and when most have asked their questions he largely takes over and starts to go over assorted minutiae re post boxes etc. In other words, Harry was the reason for why the interview lasted until: "someone banged on the door" and the interview wound up. Harry then invited someone (Sorrels) to come with him to his office to view the transfer on TV. This moment of someone banging on the door appears to coincide with the time when Ruby was approaching.

Quite a few coincidences here ...

One review (Kirkus) characterized the book as "a bright spotlight on well-worn ground".  I am interested because Ruby is such an under-researched character and topic.   Of course, those of us on the Forum who are better informed and have what I would call more accurate (albeit controversial) information, know there is way more to Ruby's story and involvement.  Nonetheless, the authors have good credentials, and the book focuses on the legal issues, Ruby's trial and his defense by Melvin Belli:

Abrams, chief legal analyst for ABC News, and journalist Fisher team up for their latest investigation, this time focused on the trial of Ruby, accused of killing JFK assassin Oswald. With the shooting broadly televised, Ruby’s defense lawyers—headed by “square-jawed, silver-maned, impeccably groomed Californian Melvin Belli, arguably the most famous lawyer in the country”—hoped to spare Ruby from the death penalty by conjuring an innovative defense. Ruby, Belli asserted, suffered from a rare mental illness—psychomotor variant epilepsy—that resulted in a fugue state, during which he had no control over what he was doing. The authors offer an animated, overwhelmingly detailed examination of the trial, from the family’s decision to hire a high-powered “superstar” lawyer, whose $50,000 fee, the family believed, could be raised by selling Ruby’s story; to the verdict, when jurors unanimously found Ruby guilty and sentenced him to death. Jury selection was predictably contentious. Of 900 people called to serve, 500 showed up, and after 14 days of lawyerly wrangling, a jury consisting of eight men and four women, all White Protestants, was finally seated.  

I also believe that the authors don't have an agenda, nor do they try to debunk the notion of added conspiracy ... that is simply not their focus for this book:

A forgotten trial somehow few have focused on despite the fact that it served as the genesis or launching pad for many of the conspiracy theories. Sometimes in the form of testimony, and many other times with questions left unanswered. And while the trial wasn’t about a possible conspiracy, the issue was forever lurking within the halls of the courthouse and the courtroom itself. Both sides sought to use the possibility of there being “more to the story” for strategic advantage.

It has even been alleged that the defense team was involved in the conspiracy, that Ruby’s lead attorney, Melvin Belli, then considered the nation’s greatest legal showman, was part of an effort to ensure that Ruby was actually convicted. Neither David Fisher nor I take that seriously, but we did differ on the strategy employed by the defense. This was not an easy case, but I believe Belli did Ruby a disservice with the defense he chose and yet David felt Belli generally made a compelling case. So keep an eye out for the subtleties in our agreed upon characterizations of the defense and decide for yourself. This is our fourth book together, where we have tried to tell the story of an overlooked trial while tracking the evolution of the American legal system ... 

Has anyone gotten this yet, or have any insights on the new book about Jack Ruby?

.

The best information that I've been able to find comes from Greg Burnham, Vince Palamara and Bruce Adamson ... all of whom had "sources" that confirmed they (i.e., Jeanne and Abraham) worked together at Nardis in 1953-1954.  A 2008 article about Zapruder in the Santa Fe New Mexican written by Richard Stolley, the senior editorial adviser at Time and the reporter who negotiated/obtained the Zapruder film for LIFE magazine in 1963, had this to say:

He landed a job in the garment district as a pattern cutter, worked up to head of crew and was lured to Dallas in 1941 as production chief of a dress factory there. With a partner, he ultimately started his own line, Jennifer Juniors, the name borrowed from the movie star, Jennifer Jones.

The founding of Jennifer Juniors seems to have happened in 1949 ... this is consistently reported in various documents.  The co-founder was Erwin (Irwin) Schwartz (not Abraham, as the advert reads).  The Santa Fe article curiously states that Schwartz was the "son of his original partner".  Another article describes Schwartz as the young partner and heir of Zapruder's deceased partner.  It also states that Zapruder managed the factory and Schwartz managed the sales.  

Many authors imply that Schwartz was involved with mob/underworld connections ... Scovitch described his role in brokering the film that weekend as a "convenient go-between" who acted as an "immediate custodian, advisor, and guardian angel" over the film. Schwartz never saw the actual assassination (he was purportedly at lunch across town) but he did view the Zapruder film at least a dozen times later that weekend, according to his own statements. Also in question is why Schwartz wasn't with Zapruder (at the pedestal) during the filming, and his delayed return to the Dal-Tex office of Zapruder at about 2:00 PM, CST (Texas time). Its speculated that Schwartz may have met with (or been with) his friend, Jack Ruby, at the Dallas Morning News offices.

The Black and white photograph below shows policemen and studio personnel at WFAA-TV during a live interview with assassination eyewitness Abraham Zapruder (off camera, to the right) taken by an unknown promotions department employee two hours after the assassination. Police officers Osburn and Jones, stand next to Erwin Schwartz, Zapruder's business partner. Schwartz holds a camera case over his right shoulder containing the camera and undeveloped film. The two policemen drove Zapruder, Schwartz and Forrest Sorrels, head of the Dallas Secret Service office, to The Dallas Morning News and WFAA-TV hoping to have Zapruder's film processed.

I apologize for taking us off the topic of this thread (Dr. Perry). Much of the information below is from a Gregory Burnham article entitled "Amazing Web Of Abraham Zapruder: The Man Who Filmed JFK's Assassination" and an Education Forum thread begun in 2009 by John Simkin. 

Jennifer Juniors, Inc., produced the Chalet and Jennifer Juniors brands of dresses. From the summer of 1953 to April 1954, Zapruder worked at Nardis side-by-side with Jeanne LeGon (formerly Eugenia Fomenko). Jeanne designed the clothing and Abraham Zapruder cut the patterns and the material for her. Ben Gold who owned Nardis of Dallas sold his home in the 1950’s to the Haliburton oil family. This home is where Jeanne LeGon-de Mohrenschildt lived with Gold beginning in the summer of 1953 and through 1954. 

In 1955 she returned to Dallas and designed dresses for Handmacher Vogel. The following year she met George de Mohrenschildt. When her current husband Robert LeGon discovered what was going on, he wrote a letter to the FBI alleging that she was a "communist spy". This resulted in the FBI making inquiries about her political activities.  In 1956 she worked for Leeds Coats and the following year she was employed by Judy Bond, Nancy Greer and Jack Rothenberg in Dallas.  Following his divorce in 1957, de Mohrenschildt married Jeanne LeGon, in June 1959. The Zapruder-LeGon partnership apparently broke up when Jeanne  married George De Mohrenschildt.  They then made a controversial trip to Mexico and Central America, and subsequently returned to Dallas, where George began writing a book about his experiences and Jeanne found a job in the millinery department of the Sanger-Harris department store.  They became involved in the 'White Russian' community. 

Marie Fehmer (LBJ's personal secretary and Olga's daughter) was a guest on the NBC "Today" Show on January 12, 1989.  After the interview was over (which was  edited for time constraints), Jane Pauley mentioned, very matter-of-fact, that Marie Fehmer became one of the first female senior officers at the CIA.  Perhaps not so coincidental, Olga Fehmer, Jeanne and Abraham Zapruder all worked at Nardis of Dallas at this time. Vince Palamara was the researcher credited by Bruce Adamson for putting him onto the LeGon, Zapruder, Olga Fehmer relationship, formed while the three were allegedly working together at Nardis in 1953.

George:

The link to the Scovitch Fourth Decade article is below. Its hard to get through (and a bit repetitive) but thought-provoking. It raises many good questions about Zapruder's knowledge of the Motorcade Route, his so-called "vertigo" (yet climbing up onto a pedestal that wasn't easy to climb), his non-stop "fearless" filming with bullets flying about, and his quick retreat to his Office in the Dal-Tex Building accompanied by the Hester couple and Sitzman.  As the author states:

 "His filming location on lower Elm Street at high noon was almost too ideal for words as he stood on the elevated pedestal or perch".

The author also points to his "inept questioning" by Wesley Liebeler on 7/22/64 to the Warren Commission

"Liebeler had Zapruder under oath concerning the JFK film, but could have also asked other related, pertinent questions. Liebeler concentrated solely on the Z-film. We can readily note that Liebeler never touched upon Zapruder and Schwartz, Zapruder and Sitzman, the presence of the Hesters by the pergola area, the Jennifer Juniors, Inc. company linked to Zapruder, and so forth. No mention was made of Hunt or de Mohrenschildt either. Liebeler did not even readily establish how and why Zapruder was at the pergola perch that day, 11/22/63. The filming effort was an assumed well-established "given."

Scovitch points out that Irwin Schwartz was closely involved who the film went to immediately after the assassination. Schwartz and Zapruder delivered two prints to Secret Service Sorrels. Sorrels asked them to take one to the Dallas Naval Air Station in nearby Grand Prairie, where a jet was immediately dispatched to take the print to FBI investigators in Washington, D.C.

The author draws some interesting conclusions about how Zapruder knew specifically where to go and film, connecting some mighty interesting dots:

" Livingstone (1995) cited suspicion of a strong linkage of Schwartz as a friend of Jack Ruby. Schwartz as a mob go-between figure and underworld operative is a problematic figure beyond all expectations, if he did indeed supply data to Zapruder on the JFK motorcade route. ... no one ever clarified the issue of the Brading trespassing incident at Dal-Tex on 11/22/ 63. Was Brading a close operative with Schwartz on 11/ 22163? The direct linkage of Schwartz to Zapruder and to aspects of the filming (final handling and sales discussions) is bothersome, to say the least. It changes the entire historical perspective".

Scovitch also makes some interesting about Zapruder's business (and its location) citing previous research by Anthony Frewin in 1993, asserting that Jennifer Juniors filed for bankruptcy right after the  assassination and vacated its premises at the Dal-Tex Building by the end of 1964. There exist no records on its movement back to Manhattan, but Zapruder did not go back to New York and remained in Dallas:

Jennifer Juniors, Inc., the Zapruder company at 501 Elm Street, near the edge of Dealey Plaza, in the Dal-Tex Building. This office of a textile outlet became a central focus for meetings with legal authorities and the media as well as the viewing space for the Zapruder film. Schwartz literally held court there from 22-25 November, 1963. Was this clothing manufacturers' business a "legitimate" business, or was it a mob-controlled "storefront" using Schwartz and the filmographer, Zapruder? It occupied several spaces on the fourth and fifth floors of the Dal-Tex Building, but its funding sources were unclear.

The author notes that Abraham Zapruder made out pretty well in both the short and long run:

"Abraham Zapruder outfoxed history and random chance guessing, outdistanced the staff of the Dallas Morning News and several other Dallas newspapers, outdid the motorcycle cops, the FBI, and the Secret Service agents, and outflanked the Warren Commission and its "single bullet theory.  Zapruder also provided his estate with almost one million dollars in payments, fees, assets, and related residuals, at the time of his cancer death in August 1970. Ultimately, beyond death, Zapruder has provided his estate with sixteen million dollars (taxpayer dollars) and many further fees for the copyright control".

I've always felt - more as an intuition versus a fact-based conclusion - that Abraham Zapruder and his film were a manufactured and carefully packaged story.  He seems too good to be true (and you know what they say).  As you point out, an amateur photographer with a brand new Bell and Howell decides ("spontaneously" it seems) to perch on the perfect vantage point.  His background seems fishy, his company (and associates) seems intriguing, and the provenance and handling of his film are certainly contentious (to say the least) ...  many years of spirited debate about the infamous frames; but only beginning ten years after Life held the evidence close to the vest.    

http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg Subject Index Files/S Disk/Scovitch Joseph/Item 27.pdf  

Gene

George

I would direct you to a very interesting article entitled "How Did Zapruder Know?" by Joseph Scovitch published in July 2000 (Vol 7, No. 5 The Fourth Decade).  The author raises questions about Abraham Zapruder's garment company, Jennifer Juniors, and he states that it warrants more intensive investigation because of the suspicions it arouses as a possible mob front proxy operation (cf., H. Livingstone, 1995, 1998) utilizing Zapruder, and linked to Irwin Schwartz and Jack Ruby, and maybe even to Eugene Brading.

Erwin (Irwin) Schwartz was Zapruder's business co-partner and deeply involved in the dissemination of the film, and in the negotiations on the sale of the film … but he was absent from the motorcade viewing in the Plaza.

Gene

No problem Jim ... your opinions weigh heavily for me, but I too am still on the fence about body and film alteration theories.  They are tempting rabbit holes, but difficult to establish with all the conflicting stories (and diverse proponents).  I would say that there's quite a bit of disinformation and strong challenges from certain prominent individuals that surrounds both topics ... that fact alone makes me suspicious. 

I do think its odd that Zapruder's film (alone) became such a key piece of evidence, and its handling for the next ten years+ was certainly suspicious.  I am also highly suspect of Zapruder himself, and why he was allowed to stay on that pedestal ... plus the curious fact that are very few pictures of him on (or off) the pedestal!  His legend seems manufactured and his film is clearly contentious.  I have relatives in Rochester, and have driven by the old Kodak Hawkeye Works many times ... it gives me the creeps. 

Jamey

Based on recent research and truth-finding, I am coming around to the notion that none of the films or still pictures can be trusted.  There appears to have been a very thorough collection/gathering of all films (and photographers) in the hours and days immediately following the assassination. Evidence and witnesses were being managed early-on, especially film.  So, from first-hand reliable witnesses, its highly likely the President's limousine stopped when it reached the kill zone. 

Gene