Don Roberdeau
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Good Day....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...8080702757.html
<QUOTE>
Ford Told FBI of Skeptics on Warren Commission
By Joe Stephens
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 8, 2008; Page A05
Confidential FBI files released this week to The Washington Post detail the inner workings of a secret back channel that Gerald R. Ford opened in 1963 between J. Edgar Hoover's FBI and the Warren Commission's independent investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
The existence of the private conduit has long been known, first disclosed in documents released 30 years ago. Now, newly obtained, previously classified records detail one visit Ford made to one of Hoover's deputies in December 1963 -- three weeks after being named to the commission.
Declassified FBI memos on Ford's interactions with the bureau are among scores of documents in the FBI's previously confidential file on the former president, , who died in December 2006. At the request of The Post, the FBI this week released 500 pages of the bureau's voluminous file.
A December 1963 memo recounts that Ford, then a Republican congressman from Michigan, told FBI Assistant Director Cartha D. "Deke" DeLoach that two members of the seven-person commission remained unconvinced that Kennedy had been shot from the sixth-floor window of the Texas Book Depository. In addition, three commission members "failed to understand" the trajectory of the slugs, Ford said.
Ford told DeLoach that commission discussions would continue and reassured him that those minority points of view on the commission "of course would represent no problem," one internal FBI memo shows. The memo does not name the members involved and does not elaborate on what Ford meant by "no problem."
Ford also told DeLoach that Chief Justice Earl Warren, who headed the commission, had told its members that "they should strive to have their hearings completed and the findings made public prior to July, 1964, when the Presidential campaigns will begin to get hot. He stated it would be unfair to present the findings after July." They missed their deadline, concluding in a report issued Sept. 24, 1964, that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination.
Much of the material in the FBI file concerns intelligence about Ford's political adversaries when he was president, especially organizations that the bureau thought might disrupt Ford's appearances around the country. But the file also sheds light on the investigation into Kennedy's assassination and the FBI's relationship with Ford, and it shows how the bureau strove to curry favor with powerful politicians.
Another memo in the file, previously released with Warren Commission materials in 1978, details how Ford approached DeLoach in 1963 and offered to secretly inform the bureau about the inner workings of the then-ongoing Warren Commission investigation.
"Ford indicated he would keep me thoroughly advised as to the activities of the Commission," DeLoach wrote. "He stated this would have to be done on a confidential basis, however he thought it should be done."
Five days later, DeLoach had a second meeting with Ford and filed another confidential memo. DeLoach recounted that he "carefully" informed Ford that the FBI had released none of its investigative findings to the media. Instead, he said, it looked as though commission members were beginning to leak portions of the FBI report.
"I referred to this week's issue of 'Newsweek' magazine which contains a rather clear analysis of the report," DeLoach wrote. "I told Congressman Ford that 'Newsweek' was owned by the 'Washington Post' and that apparently some one was trying to curry favor. I told him we, of course, did not get along very well with either the 'Washington Post' or 'Newsweek.' He [said] that he was in the same boat, that he liked neither one of these publications."
The conversation, which has apparently not been previously reported, concluded with Ford saying he would like to take a confidential FBI report on the assassination with him on a family ski trip to Michigan. DeLoach offer to lend him an "Agent briefcase" with a lock, so Ford could safeguard the document.
<END QUOTE>
Best Regards in Research,
Don
Don Roberdeau
U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John," Plank Walker
Sooner, or later, The Truth emerges Clearly
T ogether
E veryone
A chieves
M ore
National Terror Alert for the United States:
"Drehm seemed to think the shots came from in FRONT OF or BESIDE
the President." (my EMPHASIS)
----CHARLES F. BREHM, a combat gunfire experienced, United States
Army Ranger, World War II, D-day veteran, & very close Dealey Plaza
attack witness, quoted only minutes after the attack, and while he
is still standing within Dealey Plaza (11-22-63 "Dallas Times Herald,"
fifth & final daily edition, which mis-spelled his name)
"Another eyewitness, Charles Brehm, said he was 15 feet away from the
President when he was shot.
'He was waving, then the FIRST shot hit him and that awful look
crossed his face.' " (my EMPHASIS)
CHARLES F. BREHM, a combat gunfire experienced, United States Army
Ranger, World War II, D-day veteran, & very close Dealey Plaza attack
witness (quoted to the "Associated Press," 11-22-63)
-
FYI....
ROBERT AIME MAHEU (1916-2008) has passed on.
There is an outstanding, very detailed interview with him from November 2007 available at....
http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine...amp;si=0#artanc
His obituary....
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/cuban_colad...-dies-at-9.html
<QUOTE>
Maheu dies at 91; was liaison in CIA plot
A footnote to history. Robert A. Maheu, who in late 1960 served as go-between with the Mafia in a CIA plot to kill Fidel Castro, died in Las Vegas on Tuesday. He was 91. Maheu, who in 1960 was an aide to industrialist Howard Hughes, was asked by the CIA to find someone who might assassinate Castro. Maheu turned to Las Vegas mobster John Roselli, Chicago godfather Salvatore Giancana and Florida mob boss Santos Trafficante.
According to CIA archives declassified in 2007, Giancana recommended "some kind of deadly pill, something to be put into Castro's food or drink." He "indicated that he had a possible candidate in the person of Juan Orta, a Cuban official who had been receiving bribery payments in the gambling racket and who still had access to Castro." Trafficante delivered "six highly lethal pills" to Orta. "After several weeks of attempts, Orta appears to have chickened out and asked to be taken off the mission," the CIA narrative says. "He suggested another candidate, who made several unsuccessful tries."
In an article written last year, Castro recalled that in 1960, "working with me in the offices of the National Institute for Agrarian Reform was a man named Orta. [...] He was a respectful and serious man, but it could only be him. [...] I cannot lay my hands on information to immediately prove what happened to him."
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.
<END QUOTE>
..... from the AP....
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/former-hughes...805193909990083
<QUOTE>
Former Hughes' confidant dies in Las Vegas
By KATHLEEN HENNESSEY,AP
Posted: 2008-08-05 19:39:38
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Robert A. Maheu, a former Howard Hughes confidant and CIA operative once involved in a failed plot to poison Fidel Castro, has died in a Las Vegas hospital. He was 90.
Maheu died Monday evening of congestive heart failure at Desert Springs Hospital, according to his son, Peter Maheu.
Maheu was the public face of Hughes' massive corporate empire in the 1960s, a period in which the troubled aviator and one-time Hollywood playboy was increasingly reclusive and dogged by phobias. Hughes spent the later part of the decade holed up in his Las Vegas hotel suite, directing Maheu and his casino and development interests via memo.
Maheu said he occasionally protected the billionaire from himself.
"There were some memos where references pertaining to absolute power were sent to me. To protect him from himself, I took no action on those memos," Maheu told The Associated Press in a 1986 interview. "To buy a particular president or to buy someone into the White House - no action was taken in that direction."
Maheu was an expert in discretion.
He worked for the FBI in the early 1950s and later as a private investigator who counted the CIA among his clients.
In 1960, Maheu was enlisted by the CIA to recruit a mobster for a "sensitive mission requiring gangster-type action," according to a recently released CIA dossier known as "the family jewels."
"Fidel Casto is the mission target," the document said.
Maheu approached reputed gangster Johnny Roselli and represented himself as an agent for international corporations wanting the Cuban leader dead, according to the document.
Roselli introduced Maheu to two wanted mobsters, Momo Giancana, Al Capone's successor in Chicago, and Santos Trafficante. The CIA gave them six poison pills, and they tried unsuccessfully for several months to have several people put them in the Castro's food.
The plot was dropped after the failed CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, the document said.
Maheu later described his role in the Cold War plot in stark terms.
"War will make you do certain things," he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 1997.
"He said it took him many nights to decide to work for the CIA," Peter Maheu said. "But for the greater good of the country, he agreed to go ahead. It was a very patriotic thing in his mind. Even though it conflicted with his Catholicism."
Peter Maheu described his father as devout, energetic and loyal.
He returned to investigative work after he was abruptly fired by Hughes' company shortly after its chief mysteriously slipped out Las Vegas in 1970. Maheu sued for breach of contract and won a $2 million judgment.
"He always had a respect for Howard Hughes," Peter Maheu said. "But he felt that he was betrayed by the people around him."
"The biggest regret of my life is not grabbing Howard Hughes with my two hands, shaking him by the shoulders and saying, `Enough is enough,"' Robert Maheu told the Review-Journal.
After leaving Las Vegas, Hughes traveled the globe. His legal problems increased and his health deteriorated. He died in 1976.
Maheu remained in Las Vegas, a city he adored.
"He called it a city with a heartbeat," his son said.
Maheu was born in Waterville, Maine. He is survived by his three sons and 10 grandchildren. Funeral services are scheduled Saturday.
<END QUOTE>
Best Regards in Research,
Don
Don Roberdeau
U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John," Plank Walker
Sooner, or later, The Truth emerges Clearly
T ogether
E veryone
A chieves
M ore
National Terror Alert for the United States:
"Drehm seemed to think the shots came from in FRONT OF or BESIDE
the President." (my EMPHASIS)
----CHARLES F. BREHM, a combat gunfire experienced, United States
Army Ranger, World War II, D-day veteran, & very close Dealey Plaza
attack witness, quoted only minutes after the attack, and while he
is still standing within Dealey Plaza (11-22-63 "Dallas Times Herald,"
fifth & final daily edition, which mis-spelled his name)
"Another eyewitness, Charles Brehm, said he was 15 feet away from the
President when he was shot.
'He was waving, then the FIRST shot hit him and that awful look
crossed his face.' " (my EMPHASIS)
CHARLES F. BREHM, a combat gunfire experienced, United States Army
Ranger, World War II, D-day veteran, & very close Dealey Plaza attack
witness (quoted to the "Associated Press," 11-22-63)
-
Good Day Pat.... Thank You. Your post and work, and many conversations with several additional key researchers
were the impetus that got me looking hard at Z-206, and thinking again about the tracking of target KENNEDY.
Along with what was decided to be included within the warrenatti canard, there is a YouTube vid of stitched-together Dec
1963 re-creation photos avilable here....
....and the same 1963 re-creations in scoped view, here....
....and a YouTube showing the May 1964 re-creations (from Mr. Z's pedestal), here....
I brightened up the Z-207 scope view, (re-created in May 1964, after SPHINCTER realized the MLRT and JAMES TAGUE
combo posed serious, LN-threatening, problemo's), and outlined key considerations.
Given the SL-to-"JFK" angle at that Z-207 recreation, given the limo was moving at the 11.81 MPH that JFK averaged
between Z-197 and Z-207, and given the green-outlined pertinent edge of the MLRT foliage, my calculations show the re-created
"JFK" stand-in would have emerged from under the tree branches foliage edge, and into the targetable, full head, view of *anyone*
in the SL at approximately Z-199.
Can someone, please, check and see what you obtain?
Another interesting consideration is, in that May '64 scoped Z-207 photo, we can see, fairly clearly, the outline of the light-colored
rear bumper of the re-creation car at about an equal distance of the 199 to 207 clear view line.
This may/probably indicates for us that President KENNEDY, while not un-obstructively visible, WAS visible enough, and
therefore targetable, as early as 191, or before.
IMHO, SL sourced target tracking was semi-locked on and leading with the president during his entire 2 seconds he was
underneath the MLRT, and, importantly, because the SL window was only approximately half open, the SL shooter had to be
standing to track steeply downward through the thin window open space afforded him, starting before the Z-166 east tree
edge. (imho, there is "no way" that *anyone* in the SL was leaning outside that window plane, 166 to 199)
What are your thoughts on SL aquisition, tracking, etc. ?
Best Regards in Research,
Don
Don Roberdeau
U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John," Plank Walker
Sooner, or later, The Truth emerges Clearly
T ogether
E veryone
A chieves
M ore
National Terror Alert for the United States:
On 11-22-63, on the 1,036th day of his administration, at the Fort Worth
breakfast, President KENNEDY spoke again of peace. His last publicly
delivered words were: ". . . to that great cause, Texas and the United
States are committed."
"Committed" was his last public word in a speech.
The 1,037th day never came.
-
Good Day.... FYI
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dw...n2.4d7c406.html
<QUOTE>
Last Dallas officer on duty when JFK shot retires
12:00 AM CDT on Tuesday, July 29, 2008
By MICHAEL E. YOUNG / The Dallas Morning News
myoung@dallasnews.com
REX C. CURRY/Special Contributor
Sgt. Graham H. 'Greyhound' Pierce hugged Claudia Hill, his former clerk, during his retirement party at the Dallas Police Department's southeast division substation on Monday. He was a rookie and was at home when President Kennedy was shot, but later that day, he patrolled South Dallas.
Sgt. Graham H. Pierce and his wife, Ruth Ann, take in the humor during his retirement party.)
Long and lean, Sgt. Graham H. Pierce won his nickname early in his career with the Dallas Police Department, sprinting and catching a suspect in his first foot chase.
To almost everyone in the department over the next 45 years, Sgt. Pierce would be known as "Greyhound."
But when "Greyhound" Pierce retired on Monday, he took with him another distinction: He was the last member of the department who was working the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
As a rookie fresh from the academy in 1963, Sgt. Pierce was assigned to the night shift, so he was home sleeping when the president was killed on Nov. 22.
By the time he reported to work at 11 p.m., Lyndon Baines Johnson was president and Dallas City Hall was a madhouse of reporters searching for scraps of news and photographers desperate to find that special shot.
He spent the next eight hours on patrol in South Dallas, where a somber crowd milled through the streets, shocked that such a thing could happen in their town.
On Monday, he stood in a big room at the southeast division substation before his wife, children and grandchildren, fellow officers and department brass and looked back over his career.
"Forty-five years has been a long time," said Sgt. Pierce, 67. "But it went by awful fast. I still remember being a rookie on the street, just out of the academy.
"I just can't remember anything in between," he joked.
No one in the room believed him for a second. Speaker after speaker honored him for his dedication, his leadership, his willingness to do whatever needed doing.
Sgt. Pierce actually left his job about a month ago to use up vacation time, said his supervisor, Lt. Brian Cornish.
"But one day we were really short on supervisors, and he showed up," Lt. Cornish said.
Deputy Chief Patricia Paulhill, commander of the southeast patrol division, recalled the first time she met Sgt. Pierce.
"It was my first day at southeast and I walked in, a brand new sergeant, and I said, 'I'm Sgt. Patricia Paulhill. Can you tell me where my office is?'
"There was a nice looking gentleman sitting there, and he never looked up," she said. All she heard was a muffled laugh.
She asked again and he pointed her toward the end of the hall, where she found a few cells on one side, and a room packed with file cases on the other.
"He politely told me I had the second drawer on the right hand side," she said.
Assistant Chief Floyd Simpson, who presented Sgt. Pierce with a plaque from the city of Dallas, remembered working with him in southeast, too.
"In my mind, you're an icon," Chief Simpson said. "You're my hero."
Sgt. Pierce spoke last, a quiet man unaccustomed to such attention.
"I knew I'd have to do this," he said as he started his speech. "I've been thinking about it for a week. I'm still thinking about it – I don't know what I'm going to say."
So he spoke from the heart, to the friends he's made over 45 years, as he looked toward a new phase of life.
"The bad part is going to be missing all of you," he said. "And the sad part is there is probably someone here I'll never see again.
"But you'll always be in my memory."
<END QUOTE>
Best Regards in Research,
Don
Don Roberdeau
U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John," Plank Walker
Sooner, or later, The Truth emerges Clearly
T ogether
E veryone
A chieves
M ore
National Terror Alert for the United States:
"Drehm seemed to think the shots came from in FRONT OF or BESIDE
the President." (my EMPHASIS)
----CHARLES F. BREHM, a combat gunfire experienced, United States
Army Ranger, World War II, D-day veteran, & very close Dealey Plaza
attack witness, quoted only minutes after the attack, and while he
is still standing within Dealey Plaza (11-22-63 "Dallas Times Herald,"
fifth & final daily edition, which mis-spelled his name)
"Another eyewitness, Charles Brehm, said he was 15 feet away from the
President when he was shot.
'He was waving, then the FIRST shot hit him and that awful look
crossed his face.' " (my EMPHASIS)
CHARLES F. BREHM, a combat gunfire experienced, United States Army
Ranger, World War II, D-day veteran, & very close Dealey Plaza attack
witness (quoted to the "Associated Press," 11-22-63)
-
Good Day.... CHARLES F. BREHM, the combat gunfire experienced, United States
Army Ranger, World War II, D-day veteran, & very close Dealey Plaza attack witness
probably summed it up one of the best when BREHM stated to the Associated Press on 11-22-63....
"He was waving, then the FIRST shot hit him and that awful look crossed his face."
(my EMPHASIS)
Best Regards in Research,
Don
Don Roberdeau
U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John," Plank Walker
Sooner, or later, The Truth emerges Clearly
T ogether
E veryone
A chieves
M ore
National Terror Alert for the United States:
On 11-22-63, on the 1,036th day of his administration, at the Fort Worth
breakfast, President KENNEDY spoke again of peace. His last publicly
delivered words were: ". . . to that great cause, Texas and the United
States are committed."
"Committed" was his last public word in a speech.
The 1,037th day never came.
-
....Good Day Mr. Horne.... Touche'
Outstanding.
I have provided your "Two Brains" report linked (twice!) for everyone in my Men of Courage website from when the website first began.
Best Regards in Research,
Don
Don Roberdeau
U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John," Plank Walker
Sooner, or later, The Truth emerges Clearly
T ogether
E veryone
A chieves
M ore
National Terror Alert for the United States:
"Drehm seemed to think the shots came from in FRONT OF or BESIDE
the President." (my EMPHASIS)
----CHARLES F. BREHM, a combat gunfire experienced, United States
Army Ranger, World War II, D-day veteran, & very close Dealey Plaza
attack witness, quoted only minutes after the attack, and while he
is still standing within Dealey Plaza (11-22-63 "Dallas Times Herald,"
fifth & final daily edition, which mis-spelled his name)
"Another eyewitness, Charles Brehm, said he was 15 feet away from the
President when he was shot.
'He was waving, then the FIRST shot hit him and that awful look
crossed his face.' " (my EMPHASIS)
CHARLES F. BREHM, a combat gunfire experienced, United States Army
Ranger, World War II, D-day veteran, & very close Dealey Plaza attack
witness (quoted to the "Associated Press," 11-22-63)
-
Good Day.... Thanks ROBIN.
Here is an animated, enhanced GIF (provided for everyone a few years ago by BILL MILLER), that is cropped in on the retaining wall area.
The GIF shows us aligned, time-alternating views of the BOND slide # 5 and then BOND # 7 that details, perfectly, that, within a minute, there was a person (or another possibility, I suppose, is, there were 2, seperate persons) that was on a BOND line of sight that in BOND # 7 intersects with, exactly, the sitting bench that sat behind the retaining wall.
The head of that person near/on the sitting bench line of sight is seen in the alternating BOND #5 then # 7 to rise up higher from # 5 to # 7, and he/she also, moved noticeably more southward after # 5, to location in # 7.
Years ago I included the following inverted b/w shades, cropped BOND # 5 (provided by MILLER)....
http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/BOND...tedNOarnold.gif
....and inverted b/w shades, cropped BOND # 7 (provided by MILLER)....
http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/BOND...tedNOarnold.gif
....with my research article, "The WILMA BOND Photos Do Not Timestamp GORDON ARNOLD's Presence on the “Grassy Knoll,” available for everyone, here....
http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/BOND...PINGarnold.html
That sitting bench is the same sitting bench that MARYLIN SITZMAN stated to DR. JOSIAH THOMPSON is where she saw the black couple sitting on and sharing their lunch, just before the attack----near where a large, darker area of still wet liquid was filmed on the sidewalk/grass edge a few minutes afterwards, and, where a hamburger bag was found that afternoon and examined by the DPD.
SITZMAN also importantly stated that just seconds after the president's head exploded she loudly heard eminating from that same area what sounded to be glass breaking----perhaps/probably a soda bottle----the probable cause of the large, darker, still wet area of liquid that was filmed, and, perhaps, what several earwitnesses took to be a gunshot after President KENNEDY's head first exploded.
Those same BOND # 5, then, BOND # 7 lines of sight for the person is included in the following detailed, scaled map....
Best Regards in Research,
Don
Don Roberdeau
U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John," Plank Walker
Sooner, or later, The Truth emerges Clearly
T ogether
E veryone
A chieves
M ore
National Terror Alert for the United States:
"there was a single fingerprint lifted from the carton designated 'A' in the 'sniper's nest' which could not be linked with Oswald, any other employee of the Texas School Book Depository, or any law enforcement officer that had handled the carton. The fingerprint remains in the National Archives, labelled 'Unknown.' "
- warrenatti-canard
-
VIDEO: The Impeachment of LBJ; Staffers Meeting 11-22-63
Good Day.... FYI....
Best Regards in Research,
Don
Don Roberdeau
U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John," Plank Walker
Sooner, or later, The Truth emerges Clearly
T ogether
E veryone
A chieves
M ore
National Terror Alert for the United States:
"From a moral standpoint, Johnson had no use for religion except for the political benefits that it bestowed upon him. He had no use for the sanctity of marriage except for the voting benefits it offered to him as a 'married man.' And, his desire for alcohol, just like with sex, was excessive. In short, moral rules relating to his personal conduct had no effect on stopping him from getting what he wanted."
----CRAIG ZIRBEL, summarizing LBJ's amoral characteristics that may have contributed, along with 4 on-going criminal investigations implicating LBJ, to LBJ's motivations for wanting President KENNEDY assassinated, "The Texas Connection" (108)
-
Good Day.... For your valued considerations....
Best Regards in Research,
Don
Don Roberdeau
U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John," Plank Walker
Sooner, or later, The Truth emerges Clearly
T ogether
E veryone
A chieves
M ore
National Terror Alert for the United States:
Dr. DONALD THOMAS during his NID-2001 presentation, "Hear No Evil"
http://pages.prodigy.net/whiskey99/hearnoevil.htm
The x-ray of the President's head taken at the autopsy revealed a metal fragment on the outside of the cranium located 10 cm dorsad of the occipital protuberance. The scalp wound in apposition to this piece of metal was described in the autopsy facing sheet (07HSCA253) as "ragged, slanting" with an arrow indicating an upward trajectory. Dr. RUSSELL FISHER, the chairman of the forensic pathology panel appointed by Attorney General RAMSEY CLARK to review the autopsy materials concluded that the piece of metal was, "...most likely a ricochet fragment" (interview in Menninger pp. 64-66).
-
....Good Day Pamela.... Thank You, very much.
You're welcome.
Are the side, back, and front view dimensions available anywhere for the limo and/or the SS followup?
No. Ironically, there is almost no information about the QMII follow-up car. That car was bulletproofed, and was sequestered with the limo. It slipped away without any record of its condition. It too was part of the primary crime scene in terms of where the blood spatter and skull and perhaps bullet fragments went.
I should be able to get some measurements when I meet up with the replica limo at the Minnesota State Fair. In Michigan I mainly focused on the jump seats.
Several years ago I spoke with a neighbor friend of my parents who is a Director for "O'Gara Hess" (formerly "Hess & Eberhart"), now owned by "Armor Holdings Inc,") and I tried to obtain detailed schematics of the JFK's POTUS limo and the SS followup from him, but, he said he still *could not* provide them due to on-going security.
No kidding. I have spoken to a number of people at FMC and they kept claiming national security, despite the fact that the information was over 40 years old.
He then just referred me to a good book about the POTUS limo's.
Which book is that?
....Good Day Pamela.... I have not, yet, added the book to my collection.... For the life of me, I cannot recall the title, but (I think) I do have a memory of soon looking it up on Amazon's website, and that it was hardcover and oversized, with a predominantly white colored cover. I will check my hand written notes for its title/author because I definitely did write them onto something while speaking with the Board Member/Director. If I cannot find my notes, I will contact him, again.... Is there anything(s) that you want me to specifically ask him?
I recall that he also mentioned to me that, post-assassination, throughout the limo's re-build, there were many photos captured at various stages detailing it as it was completely stripped down, then, many photos were also captured detailing it being rebuilt and modified during the progressive stages of the rebuild.
-
....Good Day.... GARY MACK just provided the following....
"The Dallas Morning News story, which was the source of the edited AP story, is finally on their website:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dw...n1.3922b7e.html
Gary Mack"
Gary,
Is there a transcript of Mr. Cody's Sixth Floor Oral History tape available?
Thanks,
Bill Kelly
....Good Day Bill.... The SFM does list an oral history with CODY....
http://www.jfk.org/go/collections/oral-his...y-name?letter=C
....but it is not, yet, available online. I know from securing the transcript of the 1989 SFM interview with GORDON ARNOLD Sr.** and others, that you can contact the SFM and request a print-out of the transcript and they will snail-mail it for you. Mr. STEPHEN FAGIN administrated that.
** my report, that includes verbatim transcripts of all of ARNOLD's 1989 SFM assassination-claims (including several of his answers that more illuminate, precisely, his, SFM-claimed, assassination-standing location), is always available for everyone, here.... http://members.aol.com/droberdeau/JFK/addi...noldCLAIMS.html
Best Regards in Research,
Don
Don Roberdeau
U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John," Plank Walker
Sooner, or later, The Truth emerges Clearly
T ogether
E veryone
A chieves
M ore
National Terror Alert for the United States:
-
....Good Day Pamela.... Thank You, very much.
Are the side, back, and front view dimensions available anywhere for the limo and/or the SS followup?
Several years ago I spoke with a neighbor friend of my parents who is a Director for "O'Gara Hess" (formerly "Hess & Eberhart"), now owned by "Armor Holdings Inc,") and I tried to obtain detailed schematics of the JFK's POTUS limo and the SS followup from him, but, he said he still *could not* provide them due to on-going security. He then just referred me to a good book about the POTUS limo's.
Best Regards in Research,
Don
Don Roberdeau
U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John," Plank Walker
Sooner, or later, The Truth emerges Clearly
T ogether
E veryone
A chieves
M ore
National Terror Alert for the United States:
-
....Good Day.... GARY MACK just provided the following....
"The Dallas Morning News story, which was the source of the edited AP story, is finally on their website:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dw...n1.3922b7e.html
Gary Mack"
-
....Good Day John.... THOMPSON's article IS a a very interesting article.
I also choose to provide and link it with the scores of many other researchers' outstanding, valuable, important research articles and reports early on my JFK website, "Men of Courage," several years ago! (Always available for everyone here.... http://hometown.aol.com/DRoberdeau/ )
Best Regards in Research,
Don
Don Roberdeau
U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John," Plank Walker
Sooner, or later, The Truth emerges Clearly
T ogether
E veryone
A chieves
M ore
National Terror Alert for the United States:
"When you have eliminated the impossible, what remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
---- Sherlock Holmes, "A Study In Scarlet," (1887) by A.C. DOYLE
-
VIDEO "JFK: Breaking the News" Available Online in Entirety
Good Day.... Recently a researcher referenced the interesting documentary, "JFK: Breaking the News." (52 min's)
It is available online, in its entirety, for everyone, here....
http://www.teachers.tv/video/20864
During the Love Field segment (filmed from what looks to be a 15'-20' elevated position) we can see the limo starting to leave, and then drive away from the reception area.
Can someone, Please, secure and post from this video some still photos and zoomed-in cropped still photos that, imho, clearly, details for us that there was no bullet fragment damage, whatsoever, at that point to the windshield chromed area between the sunvisors? Thank You in advance.
Best Regards in Research,
Don
Don Roberdeau
U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John," Plank Walker
Sooner, or later, The Truth emerges Clearly
T ogether
E veryone
A chieves
M ore
National Terror Alert for the United States:
"When you have eliminated the impossible, what remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
---- Sherlock Holmes, "A Study In Scarlet," (1887) by A.C. DOYLE
-
Good Day Bill.... Thank You for the update and the additional info.... that will be used for my contacting WAXMAN and CLAY. I urge everyone to take just a few minutes and do the same via their USG websites. You can locate them (and your Representatives) via here.... http://capwiz.com/thehill/dbq/officials/
Best Regards in Research,
Don
Don Roberdeau
U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John," Plank Walker
Sooner, or later, The Truth emerges Clearly
T ogether
E veryone
A chieves
M ore
National Terror Alert for the United States:
The Henry Waxman (D.Calf) Committee on Government Reform and Oversight of US Census, Information Policy and National Archives and Records Administration is responsible for oversight of the NARA and government records.There is a movement afoot, though slow and a decade late in getting started, to shame the Waxman Committee into actually holding oversight hearings on the JFK Act, though don't hold your breath.
They will adjurn soon for the rest of the summer and won't reconvein until September.
The Subcommitte on NARA and government records is chaired by Rep. Clay (D. St.Louis), who would be responsible for calling such hearings.
Bill Kelly
-
++Good Day .... The following updates my biography page that John Simkin originally provided many, many years ago with respect for these learning forums.
Donald Roberdeau is a volunteer United States military veteran who has served and led worldwide for Our United States, Coalition allies, + Our many friendly nations Defenses & Strengthening's + Populations defense + Catastrophes & Disasters help + Nations Liberations with Leadership responsible for all assigned Veterans Safety, Skills training, Establish Goals Successfully Accomplished @ coordinated levels for Our Team for the Veteran, Work centers, Divisions, Departments + Our Duty stations.
One of the United States defense/combat commands that Don personally requested in his Navy career was to be stationed aboard our now-retired United States Navy aircraft carrier, U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67.
Don remembers the assassination weekend, and is a 1st generation JFK assassination researcher, steadily researching and detailing evidence (and its massive amount of stark, transparent contradictions), contacting the Dealey Plaza witnesses (46 to date, including the 2 wounded, surviving victims), contacting scores of assassination witnesses to assassination related events before, during, & after, contributing new discoveries, & steadily developing detailed key considerations for 49+ years (after observing the Zapruder film during its 1975, first-ever, nationally public, showing in-motion on TV), providing public & private presentations, + contributing via the Internet, periodicals, newspapers, radio, others books, + TV.
Immediately upon seeing the Zapruder film's very first in motion (yet very late at night), mass public TV showing of the film on 3-6-75, right on up to the present day, Don is a 1st generation researcher that has been personally and steadily researching and reporting its macro and micro details, and freely sharing discoveries, with respect to the assassination.COMING.... A prior to 11-22-63 gunshots experienced, Warren Commission known -- yet, never called by the commission to hear their testimony -- Dealey Plaza extremely close assassination kill zone witness' very detailed attack observations, who stated that I am only the 3rd person (outside of family, but never interviewed in print or film) since the horrors of 11-22-63 to have been shared this close witness' very detailed observations of attack shots time stampings to victims/motorcadists reactions, attack artifacts, etc., and post-attack personal experiences & encounters.
For 49+ years, right on up to the present day, I have been documenting a detailed and referenced chronological timeline that starts in the mid-1800's. (currently, the detailed timeline is over 23,000-plus pages, if printed). This timeline includes related events, persons, groups, places, suspects, etc, that funnel into the assassination, key details of the assassination itself, highlights of the many government-controlled investigations discoveries during the decades (and links to the mega-thousands of pages for all of these reports providing the micro-details), and our devoted private researchers personal investigations and discoveries. The timeline is supported with my comprehensive individual list of 11,762 persons, witnesses, and suspects: detailing each of their individual experiences, actions, re-actions, and precise assassination locations. Each person is supported with documented references for his/her detailed observations related to their witnessed events before, during, and/or after the murder-elimination of President Kennedy. (Please feel free to contact me, anytime, via DRoberdeau@aol.com, with your questions and/or your referenced suggested additions with respect to the detailed timeline and/or the detailed persons list .... Please type "JFK" within your email subject line so that your email is not accidentally deleted as spam)
A registered United States National Archives Certified Researcher, Don freely discusses assassination news, discoveries, and the macro and micro-detailed important considerations of the assassination of President Kennedy with individuals and groups. Don freely contributes on the internet, in printed periodicals, reports, and his research is referenced in reports, in radio, and several books and TV broadcast documentaries.
http://i.imgur.com/jg2v8jS.gif
In 2006 the Mary Ferrell Foundation and JFK Lancer Research honored me with the New Frontier Award. This award was "presented in appreciation for Don's contributions of new evidence, and, furthering the study of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy."http://i.imgur.com/OQfuRl9.jpg
Don has clearly interpreted and synergized a, previously, very hard to decipher Zapruder film frames sequence that details President KENNEDY's actions and his first bullet impact, first reactions to his being impacted, in his Visual Report entitled, "The First Impact: While JFK was Still Hidden Under the 'Magic-limbed-ricochet-tree' ".
Men of Courage: President Kennedy-elimination homepages website by Donald Roberdeau.... President John F. Kennedy's "Men of Courage" speech, and his assassination-elimination detailed evidence: Investigated & Not Investigated, Key Research: On-going, Updated, Discoveries, Supporting References, and Witnesses, Suspects, & Outstanding Researchers links for Your Considerations, available here
A recent important research discovery contribution by Don includes his "Discovery: Very Close JFK Assassination Witness ROSEMARY WILLIS Zapruder Film Documented 2nd Headsnap: West, Ultrafast, and Directly Towards the Grassy Knoll" detailing and showing attack close witness Rosemary Willis's second Zapruder film documented, Z-214 to 215 starting, ultrafast headsnap directly towards the "grassy knoll" .... Rosemary's headsnap was a 0.16 second, 90 to 100 degree, westward headsnap (and because of its sheer speed, most likely an impulsive attraction) that extremely rapidly moved her head away from facing the southWEST corner of the book depository (where Mr. Arnold L. Rowland observed a second rifle armed assassin), towards Rosemary facing Mr. Zapruder----and the long suspected "grassy knoll" picket fence location directly behind Mr. Zapruder from Rosemary's line of sight.
Don has also freely contributed what many researchers have stated is the most accurate research Dealey Plaza detailed map that provides very precise victims locations and their reactions, pinpoints witnesses and photographers locations and their attack observations, photos and films, details key evidence and evidentiary artifacts, suspected assassins locations and bullets trajectories, and provides important attack and post-attack related information all gathered in one, convenient source. Following the map are several additional key, valuable considerations that are visually detailed in charts and scaled graphics.... A long time, dedicated researcher recently told me that he had a commercial business place print onto one sheet just the Dealey Plaza map without the 5 followup graphs and charts (and it cost him $ 97). You can easily assemble your own DP map for free by printing it onto twelve, 8.5" by 11" paper sheets, then, trimming off the blank border, then, simply matching up and adjoining the sheets at their common edges points with clear tape. I also have available for you a DP map that is four times larger in size when you email me via my contact information. Your comments, and your specific referenced critiques are always welcomed. All of your referenced information will be considered for inclusion to help for our DP map when you email me via my contact information. Please Feel free to bookmark the maps in your favorites file, and check back periodically as I usually update them regularly with new information.
Visual Report: Reality versus C.A.D. : the Real World, versus, Garbage-In, Garbage-Out .... Direct, same-sized, side-by-side comparison of the President's real, sitting-erect posture that is clearly documented in the TOWNER photo, documented in the ZAPRUDER film, and, documented in additional photos, versus, comparisons to C.A.D. (computer aided drawing) fabrications of theoretical depicted revisionists attempts. These comparisons transparently reveal the Warren Commission-apologists being forced into concocting their not-so-subtle, revised-yet-again, patently-absurd, deliberately-incorrect JFK posture at the instant of the apologists, supposed, "single-'magic'-bullet" "theory"
. . . . Unfortunately for the Warren Commission-apologists . . . .
.... Along with the fact that President KENNEDY was smiling widely and happily waving (over 2 seconds after the commission-apologists loud shot that the, supposed, "lone-nut," supposedly, fired into the known nearby tree branches) and his head was turned nearly 90-degrees rightward when he exhibited his first evidentiary, ultrafast signs of his being impacted with a bullet....
.... and, at no time in the Zapruder film prior to his first reactions to being bullet impacted, is the President, ever, seen sitting and leaning his head, nor his neck, nor his upper torso so very far forward and downward into a posture where his throat front wound was below his back wound....
.... a back wound that was, repeatedly, explored by all 3 autopsy doctors with their fingers....
.... a back wound that was, repeatedly, explored utilizing several long, stiff, and flexible sounding rods (bullet trajectory duplicating rods)....
. . . . and . . . .
repeatedly, all 3 autopsy doctors initially confirmed 11-22-63 with the President's body right in front of them for many hours that the President's back-entering bullet had penetrated a very short depth of only 1" to 2".Best Regards in Research,
+ ++Don
Donald RoberdeauUnited States Navy
U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, plank walker
Sooner, or later, The Truth emerges Clearly
For your key considerations + independent determinations....
Homepages Website: "Men of Courage": President Kennedy-elimination Evidence, Witnesses,Photographers, Outstanding Researchers Discoveries, Suspects, + Key Considerations....
The Dealey Plaza Detailed Map: Documented 11-22-63 Victims Precise Locations +Reactions, Evidence, Witnesses + Photographers Locations, Suspected Bullet Trajectories,Outstanding Researchers Discoveries, + Important Information + Key Considerations, inOne Convenient Resource....( updated map, + new information )
Visual Report: The First Bullet Impact Into President Kennedy: While JFK was Still HiddenUnder the "Magic-limbed-ricochet-tree"....
Visual Report: Reality Versus C.A.D. : the Real World, versus, Garbage-in-garbage-out....
Discovery: Very Close JFK Assassination Witness ROSEMARY WILLIS:
Zapruder Film Documented 2nd Head Snap: West, Ultrafast, and DirectlyTowards the Grassy Knoll .... -
Man who bought gun used to kill Oswald dies
Good Day.... FYI....
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5870078.html
<QUOTE>
Man who bought gun used to kill Oswald dies
© 2008 The Associated Press
DALLAS — A former Dallas police officer who bought Jack Ruby the gun ultimately used to kill presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald has died.
Joe Cody, who was a friend of Ruby's, took him to a hardware store in 1960 and paid $62.50 for the .38-caliber Colt Cobra revolver and ammunition. He bought it for Ruby to help him save money, because as a police officer there was no tax on the purchase. In 1963, Ruby shot Oswald with the gun two days after President John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas.
Cody, a Navy veteran, died Saturday, according to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. He was 78.
Concerned about protecting the profits in his nightclub, Ruby had asked Cody about buying a safe. Cody instead suggested that Ruby carry the cash in his left pocket and a gun in his right, The Dallas Morning News reported Thursday.
The next time Cody saw the gun was on television Nov. 24, 1963, while stopping in a Louisiana grocery store.
"And finally, they said, 'We've just now determined his name is Jack Ruby.' And I thought, 'Oh, my God,'" Cody said in an oral history for The Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas.
In March, a Florida real estate developer who owns the gun tried selling the weapon for a minimum of $1 million at auction but was only offered a fraction of the asking price.
<END QUOTE>
Best Regards in Research,
Don
Don Roberdeau
U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John," Plank Walker
Sooner, or later, The Truth emerges Clearly
T ogether
E veryone
A chieves
M ore
National Terror Alert for the United States:
"Drehm seemed to think the shots came from in FRONT OF or BESIDE
the President." (my EMPHASIS)
----CHARLES F. BREHM, a combat gunfire experienced, United States
Army Ranger, World War II, D-day veteran, & very close Dealey Plaza
attack witness, quoted only minutes after the attack, and while he
is still standing within Dealey Plaza (11-22-63 "Dallas Times Herald,"
fifth & final daily edition, which mis-spelled his name)
"Another eyewitness, Charles Brehm, said he was 15 feet away from the
President when he was shot.
'He was waving, then the FIRST shot hit him and that awful look
crossed his face.' " (my EMPHASIS)
CHARLES F. BREHM, a combat gunfire experienced, United States Army
Ranger, World War II, D-day veteran, & very close Dealey Plaza attack
witness (quoted to the "Associated Press," 11-22-63)
-
House Committee Investigating Wecht's Prosecution By Feds
Good Day.... FYI....
http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/1...952/detail.html
<QUOTE>
Dr. Wecht
House Committee Investigating Wecht's Prosecution By Feds
POSTED: 6:01 pm EDT June 30, 2008
UPDATED: 6:18 pm EDT June 30, 2008
PITTSBURGH -- The House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed the government to see all documents related to the federal prosecution of Dr. Cyril Wecht.
The committee is looking into whether some public corruption cases are politically motivated.
WTAE Channel 4's news exchange partners at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported that U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr., the committee chairman, sent a letter informing Attorney General Michael Mukasey of a subpoena for documents from the Justice Department.
The subpoena requests any memos or communications involving Wecht's case, as well as all reports of FBI interviews.
Wecht, the former Allegheny County coroner, is facing a second trial on charges that he used his public office for private gain.
The first trial ended without a verdict when the jury deadlocked.
Federal prosecutors allege that Wecht, 76, illegally used county workers to cut costs in his multimillion-dollar private practice.
Most of the counts against Wecht are wire and mail fraud charges.
Visit Our Wecht Trial Page For Today's Top Story, Previous Stories, Case History http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/Wecht
<END QUOTE>
Best Regards in Research,
Don
Don Roberdeau
U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John," Plank Walker
Sooner, or later, The Truth emerges Clearly
T ogether
E veryone
A chieves
M ore
National Terror Alert for the United States:
"Drehm seemed to think the shots came from in FRONT OF or BESIDE the
President." (my EMPHASIS)
----CHARLES F. BREHM, a combat gunfire experienced, United States
Army Ranger, World War II, D-day veteran, & very close Dealey Plaza
attack witness, quoted only minutes after the attack, and while he
is still standing within Dealey Plaza (11-22-63 "Dallas Times Herald,"
fifth & final daily edition, which mis-spelled his name)
"Another eyewitness, Charles Brehm, said he was 15 feet away from the
President when he was shot.
'He was waving, then the FIRST shot hit him and that awful look
crossed his face.' " (my EMPHASIS)
CHARLES F. BREHM, a combat gunfire experienced, United States Army
Ranger, World War II, D-day veteran, & very close Dealey Plaza attack
witness (quoted to the "Associated Press," 11-22-63)
-
Dictaphone Expert Helps Refine JFK Recording
Good Day.... FYI....
http://www.democratherald.com/articles/200..._dictaphone.txt
<QUOTE>
Bill McWilliams shows a sample of blank tape used in Dictabelt recordings.
The remastermind: Dictaphone expert helps refine JFK recording
By Steve Lathrop
Albany Democrat-Herald
It has been 45 years since Bill McWilliams first became immersed in the continuing investigation of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
“I was right in the middle of it all,” he says.
He still is, in his own way.
From his home in North Albany, McWilliams works with engineers at the Lawrence Livermore National Loboratory in California, trying to determine the exact number of shots fired in Dallas, Texas on Nov. 22, 1963.
Widely considered an expert Dictaphone technician, McWilliams was recruited by researchers who are using advanced techniques in sound reproduction to provide them with first-hand information on the machine and the assassination as they search for additional evidence.
It was McWilliams who serviced the now-famous Dictabelt #10 at the Dallas police station the day of the assassination. It is the machine that recorded events as they crackled forth from a motorcycle policeman’s open microphone.
“I heard it all as it happened,” McWilliams says.
The research, which has been going on since 2005, was authorized by Leslie Waffin of the National Archives, who released the machine to the lab to apply the latest techniques in sound reproduction.
Dr. Carl Haber and Dr. Vitaliy Fadeyev have led the research using a digital optical camera called a Smartscope to scan the grooves of the belt and create a digital image of sound patterns.
It is fed into computers programmed to clean up the sound removing excess noise, static and voices.
“The sound is reproduced without the stylus riding on the grooves,” said McWilliams. “And the computer can eliminate any unnecessary noise.”
Already involved for more than a year, McWilliams supplies equipment, specifications and mechanical data for the dictabelt recordings.
“It’s a slow process. They are still working on it,” he said. “Ultimately they are trying to find out if there were more shots fired.”
The day of the assassination, McWilliams not only heard the event, he witnessed the transfer of the mortally wounded president from the ambulance to the hospital, which was located directly behind the Dallas Police Station.
“I believe there were more shots fired,” he says. “Maybe this will answer that question.”
In addition to his work on the assassination investigation, McWilliams never is far from a Dictaphone, which were in wide use between the late 19th- and early 20th century. Dictabelts that had grooves cut into a plastic belt, rather than onto a wax cylinder, were introduced in 1947. Then the tape recorder gained popularity, and Dictaphones fell out of favor.
McWilliams may be the world’s largest provider and repairer of vintage machines. His shelves are lined with wax cylinders, vacuum tubes, cassettes and magnetic tape analog recording and dictating equipment — technological relics that predated tape recorders and cell phones.
“He’s known all over the country,” said his wife Dorothy.
Working from a large shop behind his home, McWilliams and his son Doak have created a website and also sell parts on eBay.
“I don’t deal much with the computers,” he admits. “I don’t really trust them.” He doesn’t ignore them, either; he simply prefers being able to use his hands. His entire inventory has been indexed by hand to back up the computer log.
McWilliams spent 33 years with Dictaphone after his graduation from Texas Institute of Technology. He eventually becoming a regional service director.
The Korean War veteran retired in 1989 and moved to Albany in 2000.
He now owns about 200 machines dating back to 1889, a year after Dictaphone — then Columbia Graphophone — was created.
“I’ve always collected,” he says. “Some are pretty unique.”
His largest is 6 feet tall, and 300 pounds and the smallest is a hand-held device that fits into a shirt pocket. Also included is a 1953 model that was the world’s first audio machine to announce the time.
“There are probably no more than two or three of them in the world,” he said.
The collection evolved into repair work, parts sales and consultation. It also has star quality.
“I get a lot of calls to rent or loan machines to movie prop companies,” he said.
The Kevin Costner movie “Thirteen Days” and the PBS series “Meaning of Grace” both used vintage Dictaphones from McWilliams’ inventory.
<END QUOTE>
....With respect to reporter LATHROP's, "The day of the assassination, McWilliams not only heard the
event, he witnessed the transfer of the mortally wounded president from the ambulance to the hospital,
which was located directly behind the Dallas Police Station".... President KENNEDY was transferred out
of the limo, and, PH is several miles from the DPD.
Best Regards in Research,
Don
Don Roberdeau
U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John," Plank Walker
Sooner, or later, The Truth emerges Clearly
T ogether
E veryone
A chieves
M ore
National Terror Alert for the United States:
"Drehm seemed to think the shots came from in FRONT OF or BESIDE the
President." (my EMPHASIS)
----CHARLES F. BREHM, a combat gunfire experienced, United States
Army Ranger, World War II, D-day veteran, & very close Dealey Plaza
attack witness, quoted only minutes after the attack, and while he
is still standing within Dealey Plaza (11-22-63 "Dallas Times Herald,"
fifth & final daily edition)
"Another eyewitness, Charles Brehm, said he was 15 feet away from the
President when he was shot.
'He was waving, then the FIRST shot hit him and that awful look
crossed his face.' " (my EMPHASIS)
CHARLES F. BREHM, a combat gunfire experienced, United States Army
Ranger, World War II, D-day veteran, & very close Dealey Plaza attack
witness (quoted to the "Associated Press," 11-22-63)
-
ARTICLE: "The Department of Forgetting" (N.A.R.A. related)
Good Day.... FYI....
http://www.slate.com/id/2191902/
<QUOTE>
The Department of Forgetting
How an obscure FBI rule is ensuring the destruction of irreplaceable
historical records.
By Alex Heard
Posted Tuesday, June 24, 2008, at 12:47 PM ET
I got bad news from the FBI a few months ago. A file I'd requested
under the Freedom of Information Act wasn't going to be available.
Ever.
And not for one of the reasons I already knew to expect—that the
material was classified, that the file concerned a living person, or
that no file existed to begin with. Judging by the FBI's final
response letter, there might have been a file on my subject, a long-
deceased Mississippi lawyer name John R. Poole. But if there was, it
got shredded.
"Records which may be responsive to your … request were destroyed on
July 01, 1995," the letter said. "The FBI Records Retention Plan and
Disposition Schedules have been approved by the United States District
Court for the District of Columbia and are monitored by knowledgeable
representatives of the NARA."
NARA is the National Archives and Records Administration, the agency
that keeps track of everything from the Declaration of Independence to
Lee Harvey Oswald's rifle. The letter conjured up images of my file
getting scrutinized by furrow-browed NARA scholars who decided that,
alas, John R. Poole was not of sufficient historical interest to keep
around.
At the time, I was new to the weird science of FOIA requesting, so I
didn't know the FBI was allowed to destroy files routinely. Dismayed,
I looked into how the Records Retention Plan works, with help from
several generous FOIA experts. What they described sounded more like a
Records Destruction Plan, since it allows the FBI to discard roughly
80 percent of its files at any given time. The FBI would have you
believe the plan is a best-of-all-possible-worlds compromise that
preserves the essential and discards only the unworthy. Don't buy it.
Though the NARA experts who helped create the plan tried to come up
with a fair, workable system, the bottom line is that the FBI gets to
trash mountains of historical source material without adequate
oversight. And there is nothing the public—which owns the records,
after all—can do to stop it.
Like many people who make FOIA requests, I'm probably hypersensitive
to the potential loss of any one file among millions, but that's how
it is when you're researching something: The people on your punch list
become all-important. I'm writing a book about the 1951 execution of
Willie McGee, an African-American man from Laurel, Miss., who got the
death penalty in 1945 for allegedly raping a white housewife from the
same town. For the past two years, I've been working to find out
anything I can about McGee, Poole, and dozens of other people involved
in the case.
McGee's legal saga was little-noticed at first, but it became so
famous that, toward the end, President Harry Truman was getting
harangued by people from all over the world who wanted him to grant
McGee a pardon—some because they thought he was innocent, some because
they thought the sentence was too harsh. Given the time, place, and
nature of the offense, the outcome of McGee's first trial in December
1945 was almost pre-ordained. It lasted a day, and an all-white jury
found him guilty after deliberating for 2½ minutes.
During appeals and two retrials over the next five years, the Civil
Rights Congress, a Communist-linked activist group based in New York,
threw tremendous energy into making the case a cause. McGee's appeals
lawyer was a young, energetic Bella Abzug. Among the prominent figures
who spoke out were Jessica Mitford, Paul Robeson, Albert Einstein, and
Josephine Baker.
(Continued from page 1)
The FBI took an interest because the case involved lefties. I already
have its thick file labeled "Willie McGee," and I won't have much
problem gathering info about the famous people—Einstein's file is so
popular that the FBI has put it online. But the smaller fries like
Poole are at risk, and to me they're just as important. Poole was a
white lawyer from Mississippi who represented McGee during his third
circuit-court trial, and though he wasn't a Communist, he got Red-
baited by fellow lawyers on the other side of the case. This led to
his getting disbarred, at the end of a murky process, the basic facts
of which are hard to pin down. I'd hoped an FBI file on him might
contain useful information.
Which brings us back to the Records Retention Plan. The reason the
Poole file might not exist anymore dates back to the early days of
FOIA, which was enacted by Congress in 1966. For the first several
years, the FBI was largely successful in fending off FOIA requests,
which is exactly how J. Edgar Hoover wanted it. "One precept of
Hoover's was that these are our files, they're nobody else's, and
nobody else can have them," says Scott Hodes, a Washington, D.C.-based
lawyer who ran the FBI's FOIA litigation unit from 1998 to 2002.
But Congress changed the playing field in the wake of Watergate,
making it easier for researchers to get their hands on FBI material.
According to Ivan Greenberg, an independent researcher who is writing
a book about the FBI and civil liberties called Trouble Times, the new
rules led the FBI to conduct a massive internal purging of files,
among them more than 330,000 pages from the FBI's file on "Sex
Deviates," which tracked homosexuals in government.
That phase of house-cleaning came to a halt in 1980, thanks to a case
brought by the American Friends Service Committee and a host of
plaintiffs, including Daniel Ellsberg and Jessica Mitford. The suit
was prompted in part by unchecked file dumping at FBI field offices in
cities like New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and elsewhere. The
plaintiffs won, and Judge Harold H. Greene ordered the FBI and NARA to
conduct an inventory and come up with a plan about what would be kept
and destroyed.
A 17-member body dove into that task in 1981. According to a summary
of the appraisal process written by archivist James Gregory Bradsher,
they were confronted with files that took up 500,000 cubic feet of
shelf space in 70 locations. (To put that in perspective, the volume
of the Washington Monument is just over 1 million cubic feet, so the
files would have filled it about halfway.) Obviously, the archivists
didn't sit down and study every word. The process relied on a method
developed in the late '70s during a review of 35,000 cubic feet of
records from the Massachusetts Superior Court. It involved a
systematic sampling designed to answer a macro-question: What
percentage of the FBI's total holdings seemed to have genuine historic
value?
The team reviewed roughly 20,000 files from FBI headquarters and seven
major field offices—with FBI personnel on hand to pull files
individually and hand them over—scribbling information about the
contents on a data-collection sheet that asked some 75 questions. How
thick was the file? ("Fat file theory," a rather obvious guidepost
used in the Massachusetts review, holds that if there's a lot of stuff
inside a folder, it might be important.) What were the results of the
case? Whom or what was it about? What forms of intelligence-gathering
were used?
Using this data, files were rated according to a scale of perceived
research potential, with four main values applied: no, low, medium,
and high. By May of 1981, a review of 5,832 headquarters files yielded
a breakdown that went like so: 71 percent of files were deemed to have
no value; 22 percent had low; 5 percent had medium; and less than 1
percent had high. Trudy Huskamp Peterson, who worked on that review
and later served as the acting archivist of the United States during
the Clinton administration, told me the group looked at samples of
records from each of the 214 filing classifications used by the FBI.
Then as now, the Bureau arranged its material in large categories that
are each assigned a number. For example, 44 is Civil Rights, 76 is
Escaped Federal Prisoner, and 100 is Domestic Security, which covers
subversive activities on the left and right. New categories have been
added since the big review in the '80s, covering crimes like Tampering
with Consumer Products (251) and Weapons of Mass Destruction (280).
Some but not all of these categories have subsequently been sampled
and analyzed by NARA.
For each classification, the 1981 assessment group came up with a rule
for the FBI, describing in big-picture terms what they had to keep and
what they could consider for destruction, a process that led to a
final retention rate of about 20 percent. Civil Rights came through
with broad protection. For that large category—there was a total of
234,379 cases in the headquarters and field offices combined—
everything created prior to 1977 was marked "permanent," thanks to the
assumed historical value of this subject. Presumably, John Poole
wasn't a class 44 Civil Rights case, or his file would not be sleeping
with the banana peels. My initial guess—the FBI's response didn't say—
was that he was filed under 100, Domestic Security. There were more
cases created in the Domestic Security category than in Civil Rights—
1,790,191 as of 1981. The destruction guidelines on this class are
looser, however, and if Poole was in there, he didn't make the cut.
(Continued from page 2)
The system's fundamentals make sense, I guess—very complicated sense—
but to me the disturbing part comes at the end of the line. At some
point 25 years after a case closes, a file that isn't marked
"permanent" gets pulled and looked at by one or two people inside the
FBI. There are no "knowledgeable representatives of the NARA"
monitoring this crucial moment. If it's decided internally that the
file isn't important, it's gone.
Michael Ravnitzky, an FOIA researcher based in the Washington, D.C.,
area, is no fan of the Records Retention Plan and likens it to an open-
ended manual for strip-mining a priceless public record. "The FBI got
a list of exceptional files given to them by historians, and they
said, 'We'll keep that,' " he says. "We'll keep large files. Smaller
files, we'll keep a sampling. Everything else gets tossed. That's what
the plan is." Based on documents Ivan Greenberg obtained from the FBI,
he estimates that 250 million pages were destroyed between 1986 and
1995.
But isn't the FBI destroying only junk? I doubt it. Ernie Lazar, an
independent researcher in California whose particular interest is in
far-right groups, sent me a list of "destroyed" responses he's
received over the years from FBI headquarters and field offices. There
are dozens. We'll never know if they were significant—they don't exist
anymore—but they sure look interesting to me. In 1994, for example,
the Baltimore field office destroyed a file called "Arab Participation
and Influence of Hate Literature in the United States." Also destroyed
in the '90s or later: files on "race riots" from Birmingham, Ala.; a
Dallas file on the John Birch Society; and a headquarters file on the
political activities of actor Walter Brennan.
When I moaned about this to Peterson, she acknowledged that the system
wasn't perfect, but she said there was no other choice because of the
volume. "It is a mammoth quantity of material," she said, "and to save
it all is just impossible." An FBI spokesman told me that there are
now 56 linear miles of files scattered in headquarters and field
offices. That's approximately 300,000 cubic feet. I have no idea how
much new material has been added since '81—the FBI wouldn't tell me—
but there's obviously been a huge net loss since then.
Maybe the volume is too much to manage, but I have to wonder if it
might be time to put on the brakes and reassess. Even if the Records
Retention Plan team had scrutinized every page, I wouldn't trust their
ability to decide now what might be significant to someone 100 years
down the road. Also, the rate of handoff from FBI to NARA seems
awfully slow. At this point, NARA has been sent only about 13,100
cubic feet of records for permanent archiving. What do they have? Good
luck figuring that out. There's no general index to the NARA holdings
that lists this information using comprehensible subject headings like
"John Birch Society" or "Judge Crater." You sort of have to know they
have it before asking for it, which you find out by sending them or
the FBI a FOIA request.
My final gripe: The volume of the FBI files isn't that mind-boggling.
NARA has a much bigger load in the attic—29,019,647 cubic feet of
material in its main D.C.-area facilities, regional hubs, and
Presidential libraries—and NARA manages to preserve it without
institutional meltdown. That's 60 times as much as the FBI files
targeted for destruction. The half-million cubic feet of FBI documents
from 1981 would have fit into about a dozen McMansions, packed floor
to ceiling. The stuff was already cataloged and cross-referenced, so a
simpler strategy would have been to keep it all together. The Feds
have no shortage of storage space. Time published a report in 2006 on
the nationwide glut of empty government buildings that require
expensive upkeep, including Chicago's Old Main Post Office (2.5
million square feet of floor space) and the General Services
Administration (376 "vacant and underused" buildings, courthouses,
labs, and warehouses). To protect this priceless collection of FBI
material, all it would have taken was shelves, guards, and about
20,000 smoke alarms.
Meanwhile, there's a new glimmer of hope on the John Poole front. I
was able to get an interview with an FBI official who said the
destroyed Poole file was listed under the classification that covers
interstate transport of stolen vehicles. That's probably not my John
Poole, but attempts to confirm it either way have met with foot-
dragging. Separately, I sent a Poole request to the Jackson, Miss.,
field office and was told that material "which may pertain to your
subject" has been released to the big National Archives storage
facility in College Park, Md.
But when I contacted College Park, I was surprised to find out that
this material, fully freed up by the FBI, can be obtained only with a
separate FOIA request to NARA. I'll do that next, and I'll let you
know whether I get the information or just decide to lie down and go
nuts—whichever comes first.
<END QUOTE>
Best Regards in Research,
Don
Don Roberdeau
U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John," Plank Walker
Sooner, or later, The Truth emerges Clearly
T ogether
E veryone
A chieves
M ore
National Terror Alert for the United States:
"Drehm seemed to think the shots came from in FRONT OF or BESIDE the
President." (my EMPHASIS)
----CHARLES F. BREHM, a combat gunfire experienced, United States
Army Ranger, World War II, D-day veteran, & very close Dealey Plaza
attack witness, quoted only minutes after the attack, and while he
is still standing within Dealey Plaza (11-22-63 "Dallas Times Herald,"
fifth & final daily edition)
-
Good Day.... Found here....
http://untoldvalor.blogspot.com/2008/05/its-small-world.html
....a claim by an Internet blogger for his wife and a friend recently meeting a black man at the Sixth Floor Museum who claims to have been a DP witness, who also witnessed the GK gunsmoke....
<QUOTE>
Second, my wife was in Dallas, Texas for a nursing convention, and went to the Sixth Floor Museum at the Texas Book Depository, which is the site where Lee Harvey Oswald fired his shots at President Kennedy that terrible day in 1963. At the museum was a middle-aged African-American gentleman who comes to the museum from time to time to talk about the assassination. He can be seen in the photo in the red shirt, running, after JFK has been shot. He told my wife and her friend that he is absolutely certain he saw a puff of smoke from the grassy knoll at Dealy Plaza, near where he was watching the motorcade.
The man my wife talked to at the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas is seen
in red running shortly after the JFK assassination. Grassy Knoll in
background. JFK was shot roughly where this press bus moments earlier.
<END QUOTE>
....That is the BOND # 5 photo.
Best Regards in Research,
Don
Don Roberdeau
U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John," Plank Walker
Sooner, or later, The Truth emerges Clearly
T ogether
E veryone
A chieves
M ore
National Terror Alert for the United States:
"Drehm seemed to think the shots came from in FRONT OF or BESIDE the president." (my EMPHASIS)
CHARLES F. BREHM, a combat gunfire experienced, United States Army Ranger, World War II, D-day veteran, & very close Dealey Plaza attack witness, quoted only minutes after the attack, and while he was still standing within Dealey Plaza (11-22-63 Dallas Times Herald, appeared only in the fifth & final daily edition, which mis-spelled his name)
"Another eyewitness, Charles Brehm, said he was 15 feet away from the President when he was shot.
'He was waving, then the FIRST shot hit him and that awful look crossed his face.' " (my EMPHASIS)
CHARLES F. BREHM, a combat gunfire experienced, United States Army Ranger, World War II, D-day veteran, & very close Dealey Plaza attack witness (quoted to the Associated Press, 11-22-63)
-
Good Day....
Allen W. Dulles Papers, 1845-1971 (bulk 1918-1969): Finding Aid
http://diglib.princeton.edu/ead/eadGetDoc....y/MC019.EAD.xml
Best Regards in Research,
Don
Don Roberdeau
U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John," Plank Walker
Sooner, or later, The Truth emerges Clearly
T ogether
E veryone
A chieves
M ore
for the United states
"Drehm seemed to think the shots came from in FRONT OF or BESIDE the president." (my EMPHASIS)
CHARLES F. BREHM, a combat gunfire experienced, United States Army Ranger, World War II, D-day veteran, & very close Dealey Plaza attack witness, quoted only minutes after the attack, and while he was still standing within Dealey Plaza (11-22-63 "Dallas Times Herald," appeared only in the fifth & final daily edition, which mis-spelled his name)
"Another eyewitness, Charles Brehm, said he was 15 feet away from the President when he was shot.
'He was waving, then the FIRST shot hit him and that awful look crossed his face.' " (my EMPHASIS)
CHARLES F. BREHM, a combat gunfire experienced, United States Army Ranger, World War II, D-day veteran, & very close Dealey Plaza attack witness (quoted to the "Associated Press," 11-22-63)
"He was coming down the street and my five-year-old boy and myself were by ourselves on the grass there on Commerce Street, and I asked Joe to wave to him and Joe waved, and I waved--and the ma--the man----As he--as he was waving back he was--he was----the shot rang out and he slumped down in his seat and his wife reached up toward him and he was slumping down and the second shot went off and it just--just knocked him down in the seat. ... Two shots. ... No sir, I did not see the man who did it. I--I----All I--all I did was look in the mans' face when he was shot there and saw that expression on his face and he grabbed himself and slide, and the second one whenever it went----I'm positive it hit him--I hope it didn't--but I'm positive it hit him and he went all the way down in the car, then they speeded up and I didn't know what was going on so I just grabbed the boy and fell on him and hoped that there wasn't a maniac around.
----CHARLES F. BREHM, a combat gunfire experienced, United States Army Ranger, World War II, D-day veteran, & very close Dealey Plaza attack witness, recorded within an hour after the attack for tv and radio
(BREHM's 11-22-63 written affidavit statements to the Dallas police have "disappeared" from the Dallas police file)
"When the President's automobile was very close to him and he could see the President's face very well, the President was seated, but was leaning forward when he stiffened perceptibly at the same instant what appeared to be a rifle shot sounded. According to BREHM, the President seemed to stiffen and come to a pause when another shot sounded and the President appeared to be badly hit in the head. Brehm said when the President was hit by the second shot, he could notice the President's hair fly up, and then roll over to his side, as Mrs. KENNEDY was apparently pulling him in that direction.
BREHM said that a third shot followed and that all three shots were relatively close together. BREHM stated that he was in military service and he has had experience with bolt-action rifles, and he expressed his opinion that the three shots were fired just about as quickly as an individual can maneuver a bolt-action rifle, take aim, and fire three shots.
BREHM stated he definitely knew that the President had been shot and he recalled having seen blood on the President's face. He also stated that it seemed quite apparent to him that the shots came from one of two buildings back at the corner of Elm and Houston Streets."
----CHARLES F. BREHM, a combat gunfire experienced, United States Army Ranger, World War II, D-day veteran, & very close Dealey Plaza attack witness, statement to the FBI, 24NOV63
"After the car passed the building coming toward us, I heard a . . . surprising noise, and [the President] reached with both hands up to the side of his throat and kind of stiffened out . . . And when he got down in the area just past me, the second shot hit which damaged, considerably damaged, the top of his head. . . . That car took off in an evasive motion . . . and was just beyond me when a third shot went off. The third shot really frightened me! It had a completely different sound to it because it had really passed me as anybody knows who has been in down under targets in the Army or been shot at like I had been many times. You know when a bullet passes over you, the cracking sound it makes, and that bullet had an absolute crack to it. I do believe that that shot was wild. It didn't hit anybody. I don't think it could have hit anybody. But it was a frightening thing to me because here was one shot that hit him, obviously; here was another shot that destroyed his head, and what was the reason for that third shot? That third shot frightened me more than the other two, and I grabbed the boy and threw him on the ground because I didn't know if we were going to have a 'shoot-'em-up' in this area." ... "I was telling them that there were rifle shots and that they came from up in the corner of the School Book Depository or up in the corner of the building across from it."
----CHARLES F. BREHM, a combat gunfire experienced, United States Army Ranger, World War II, D-day veteran, & very close Dealey Plaza attack witness, to Larry Sneed, "No More Silence" (1988)
-
A Hole In One!
in JFK Assassination Debate
Posted · Edited by Don Roberdeau
Good Day Mike.... Simply Outstanding.
Best Regards in Research,
Don
Don Roberdeau
U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John," Plank Walker
Sooner, or later, The Truth emerges Clearly
Discovery: ROSEMARY WILLIS Zapruder Film Documented 2nd Headsnap : Westward, Ultrafast, & Directly Towards the "Grassy Knoll"
Dealey Plaza Professionally-surveyed Map Detailing 11-22-63 Victims locations, Witnesses, Photographers, Suspected trajectories, Evidentiary artifacts, & Important information & considerations
President KENNEDY "Men of Courage: 4 Principles" speech, and a portion of fellow researchers articles and my research & discoveries, 1975 to present
T ogether
E veryone
A chieves
M ore
National Terror Alert for the United States:
"Drehm seemed to think the shots came from in FRONT OF or BESIDE
the President." (my EMPHASIS)
----CHARLES F. BREHM, a combat gunfire experienced, United States
Army Ranger, World War II, D-day veteran, & very close Dealey Plaza
attack witness, quoted only minutes after the attack, and while he
is still standing within Dealey Plaza (11-22-63 "Dallas Times Herald,"
fifth & final daily edition, which mis-spelled his name)
"Another eyewitness, Charles Brehm, said he was 15 feet away from the
President when he was shot.
'He was waving, then the FIRST shot hit him and that awful look
crossed his face.' " (my EMPHASIS)
CHARLES F. BREHM, a combat gunfire experienced, United States Army
Ranger, World War II, D-day veteran, & very close Dealey Plaza attack
witness (quoted to the "Associated Press," 11-22-63)