Zach Robertson

Hi Greg,

Did Gerry ever mention Reinaldo Pico Ramon while discussing the MLK case or Johnson?

Thanks,
Zach

Thanks Greg. Much appreciated.

To reach any kind of understanding of the assassinations in the 1960s one must study Robert Emmett Johnson. He is a very important character indeed.

Zach

Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara's murder on 9 October 1967, in Higuera, Boliva was a huge victory for CIA's war on Communism in Latin America.

Shortly after, there was an informal gathering at CIA headquarters to celebrate this great accomplishment. Top brass and the best of the back alley operatives who were in on the Op were there for the fete, David Sanchez Morales among them. This is documented.

Pictured below are two men at said party. They are unknown. Does anyone recognize them or have any idea as to who they might be?

Zach

Hi Joe,

My friend Pablo wrote a book on this subject:

http://www.amazon.com/After-The-Bay-Pigs-Liberty/dp/1489550682

He knew both RFK and Mr. Donovan personally; he was right there and this book should answer all your questions.

Zach

I received this book [“Absolute Proof” by Robert Groden] as a Christmas gift and I feel inclined to take a few minutes and write about it. There is no Amazon page for this book and I want to pass along this information. I hardly ever write anything negative, but this book is $75 plus $10 shipping, depending on how you got it, and people need to know what they are getting into if they are dumb enough to order this thing.

I do not buy many books related to the JFK case as many are completely worthless from a historical perspective. This one is no different, save for some pictures; but if you are a student of the assassination, you have seen them at one time or another. This book is filled with many crackpot theories and opinions. It is poorly researched and cited. But that is not the worst of it.

It contains a good bit of disinformation too; some examples:

The McCone – Rowley memo

Gregory Douglas’ Regicide excerpts

The Murchison Party

This book does not mention legitimate assassination suspects, CIA officers – David Sanchez Morales and David Atlee Phillips. However, “Absolute Proof” does include such disinformation legends as James Files and Mac Wallace, both firing at the president from various locations.

Considering the amount of material that has emerged in the last 20 years, this book is not only embarrassing, but should be placed in the “lunatic fringe” area [to borrow a phrase from Mr. Groden] of assassination lore. There is also the use of a dummy being passed off as a real autopsy photo – discussion found here: http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=20816

People who are seriously interested in learning about the assassination of President Kennedy should read The Last Investigation by Gaeton Fonzi and Someone Would Have Talked by forum member Larry Hancock.

Happy Holidays,

Zach

Last night, on CNN's Piers Morgan, Oliver Stone made an appearance to chat about a variety of topics such as bullying in the NFL, the NSA and his new Blu Rays coming out of The Untold History and JFK, the 50th Anniversary edition.

The following clip shows a portion of the interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jmtl2R1gML8&safe=active

Interestingly enough at the end, Piers asks the self defeating question, "Will we ever know?" And Mr. Stone replied that there are always people digging up new things...

Curioulsy, the clip ends there. He went on to add that the CIA is still holding files back and that Jefferson Morley is trying to get them released. He then mentioned a few CIA officers, James Angleon, Richard Helms, David Atlee Phillips, Allen Dulles, and Mr. Morales - David Sanchez Morales - a name not mentioned much on national TV.

Maybe the full clip will be available online soon.

Zach

The man second from the left is San Jenis.

Good work, James. That is indeed Joaquin San Jenis, the chief of Operation 40. Close associations include David Sanchez Morales and his Case Officer, Tony Sforza.

Much disinformation surrounds this man. Can we please put to bed the idea that he was the doorman at the Dakota building when John Lennon was shot? Ludicrous theories like this belong in the toilet.

Just for good measure, find attached another image of San Jenis.

Zach

Thanks, James.

What Stavis Ellis said in his interview with Jack Moriarity is very important.

First, he is saying that Martino hired the shooter. Oswald, of course, was not the shooter. He is likely referring to someone like, Sandalio Herminio Diaz Garcia. I have little doubt that Oswald knew and mixed with the crew who set him up in the time leading up to the assassination. This would include Diaz Garcia and Tony Cuesta as well as Richard Case Nagell.

Then he mentioned that Oswald was hired by the #2 man at the TSBD, a Cuban. James is likely correct in his assertion that this man is Joe Molina. Curiously, Jose Rodriguez Molina voluntarily went to the DPD for closed questioning. What became of that? Researching Molina’s associations would seem to be somewhat important.

Thanks, David for that information. To finish up what was documented with Ellis, the handwritten note reads:

SGT DV HARKNESS PO OAK CLIFF

NEW COUNTY BLDG DOWNTOWN POINT SAT 3 - WHEELER

BRACED LHO RE: LEAFLETS

Ellis also describes a shooting sequence slightly different from the 'official' version. He was in a position to be right in the thick of the action [100-125 feet away from JFK] and with his experience in the military and intelligence; he would understand this sort of thing.

It should also be noted that Ellis was not only well respected within the DPD as a leader and honest man who was not afraid to make tough decisions, but he was also well respected in the community and by JFK himself. This morsel is just probably the tip of the spear as to what the DPD really knew that initial weekend of 11-23.

Zach

So I wanted to follow up on this thread for the any of the many of you out there keeping track of it. I was chasing down a lead following a document. I found Cliff Fenton and spoke to him on the phone. He is a great guy, getting up there in age.

The document in question was from Larry Hancock’s excellent book, NEXUS. Larry is a prominent member of this forum and maybe he can comment here if he sees fit.

Anyway, the HSCA document was an interview of Stavis Ellis of the DPD. Ellis served in the military during WWII and was in the military section of the DPD. He was the motorcycle officer who was in charge of escorting the motorcade on 11/22. I would encourage readers to research Stavis Ellis to see what kind of person he was.

The document cited in Larry’s book are Ellis’ interview notes to the HSCA. There is a handwritten note in the margin that reads simply:

“MARTINO (MARINO) HIRED THE SHOOTER. ASK CAPT. FRITZ-”

Why this hasn’t been really mentioned anywhere else is beyond me. Ellis also describes the shooting sequence.

So I wanted to find who was in Dallas for the HSCA to do that interview. It was Jack Moriarty (photo above) and the three paged typed memo ends with the following:

“ELLIS RECOMMENDS CHECKING ‘MARTINO’ OR ‘MARINO.’ THE SECOND IN COMMAND OF THE TEXAS SCHOOL BOOK DEPOSITORY WAS A MAN OF CUBAN DECENT WHO ACTUALLY HIRED LEE HARVEY OSWALD.

ELLIS SUGGESTED THAT RETIRED SGT. D.V. HARKNESS SHOULD ALSO BE INTERVIEWED ABOUT OSWALD PASSING OUT LEAFLETS IN DALLAS. HARKNESS INVESTIGATED THIS COMPLAINT.”

Anybody have any idea on who this Cuban might be?

Does anyone remember Oswald handing out leaflets in Dallas?

Zach

I agree, Bill.

This appears to be mid-to-late 1960s, Tommy.

Thanks for the interest, guys.

Zach

Great image, James.

Thanks for posting.

Zach

I received this image from the family of a well known covert operator and contract officer for CIA. The officer’s widow would like to know who these gentlemen in the cropped photo are and gave me permission to post it here.

I have it on good authority that these guys were part of, or associated with the AMOT team and Operation 40, the Anti-Castro counter-intelligence group that was run by CIA officers at JMWAVE. Trying to ID these guys has proved difficult. If anyone has some intelligent suggestions, advice or recognizes anyone in the photo, please let me know.

aroberts@heidelberg.edu

Zach

Seamus texted me

To say

This forum officially

Jumped the shark

By allowing this topic

To stay

On the front page for so long.

Seamus went on

To say

He is embarrassed

By all this weird attention

He is getting

On an Assassination Forum.

Seamus then said

Play me Candle in the Wind,

The one where Sir Elton

Wears the weird wig

Down Under.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoOhnrjdYOc

Goodbye.

Thanks for reviving this classic thread, Steve.

It seems that this old topic has been removed:

Following these important but older topics - Robert Emmett Johnson...

Oops. Perhaps it was deleted on accident. Johnson is a pretty interesting character worth studying.

Zach

Does anybody know if former NYC homicide detective and HSCA Chief Investigator Cliff Fenton is still around? If so, I'd like to get in touch with him. If anyone has any information at all, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks,

Zach

Jack Moriarty, Jim Kelly and Cliff Fenton.jpg

Zach, who are the guys in the photo? HSCA investigators?

Thanks,

BK

Hi Bill,

The guys in the photo are from the HSCA: from left to right - Jack Moriarty, Jim Kelly and Cliff Fenton.

From The Last Investigation by Gaeton Fonzi:

Chief Investigator Cliff Fenton

Does anybody know if former NYC homicide detective and HSCA Chief Investigator Cliff Fenton is still around? If so, I'd like to get in touch with him. If anyone has any information at all, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks,

Zach

Very good, Tommy,

I do think Capehart was one of a series of guys using the name Oswald in Mexico City during that Sept-Oct time period in 1963. Again, I don't trust Duran's testimony as she has a 'soft file.'

Its interesting bringing up umbrella man; I was looking at his height not long ago. Approximates etc. I was thinking around 5'9"-5'10".

Damon's height is listed in a Mary Ferrell document. Don't have the link handy, I have files overflowing on my computer but is should be an easy find. It's funny, I looked at the Damon file first and it has him as 6'1". I just now found the Capehart biographical data file and he is listed as 6'1" as well. Those files are pretty funny.

Zach

Hi Tommy,

Sorry for any confusion.

You mentioned he was holding an umbrella; so I just wanted to say he looks nothing like the Umbrella Man aka TUM. Not in appearance or dress.

I seem to remember a Congo thread with a similar umbrella reference back in the day. Neither that Cuban or CBC was the Umbrella Man. And yes, we were talking about the blond Oswald.

Awesome work on the picture once again. Great job.

Zach

Hey Tommy,

Thanks for reviving this classic thread. Glad you got to see the images.

One thing to remember about Duran is that she has a 'soft file' with the Agency, so I don't put much stock into the specifics of her testimony.

George Damon aka Claude Barnes Capehart was around 6'1".

Great find on the image; I've never noticed that before. I don't think he matches TUM's description we see in the images, but very interesting nonetheless. Nice work.

Zach

I agree. You could also include his friend and fellow agent, Carl Elmer Jenkins. People like George Bush don't get their hands dirty by being involved in assassinations. They might order them through third-parties but you will never get the evidence of it.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKjenkinsC.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKmorales.htm

Thanks, John. As Jenkins' resume shows, he is a most fascinating individual.

Jenkins trained everyone of significance within the Cuban Project during the lead up to the Bay of Pigs and a bit after.

He is still around these days; probably still doing a little "consulting," as these guys never really retire.

Zach

The Ship Barbara J was named after GC Jullian's wife, NOT HW Bush's.

Associating the assassination of JFK with HW Bush is a stretch at best.

If one is actually interested in 'research,' and not just googling and poorly written books; look into David Sanchez Morales. All the answers are above and below him.

FWIW

Zach

Yes, that is the same Francois Schirm; a veteran of the FFL and the Hungarian revolution. He is an interesting character who spent some time as an anti-Castro instructor in South Florida and mixed with the likes of Gerry Hemming, Steve Wilson, Roy Hargraves, Ed Collins, Col. Bob Brown, and Robert Emmett Johnson.

Translated from the link:

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Schirm

François Schirm is a former militant Front de libération du Québec called "General".

Born in Budapest (Hungary), a political refugee in France after the Second World War , he joined the Foreign Legion at the age of 18. He first fought in Indochina against the Viet Minh , with the French army, then Algeria against the FLN . Disgusted with these colonial wars, he left the Legion in 1956 and emigrated to Montreal . he worked as a construction worker, has attended a diesel mechanic, became security guard and night watchman. Aware of being exploited as a worker speaking, he began to advocate the RIN and established contacts with militants of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ).

In the Revolutionary Army of Quebec (which has replaced the Liberation Army of Quebec as a military wing of the FLQ), Schirm is the head of a group eager to take action. In July 1964, he opened a training camp in the forest near the village of Saint-Boniface-de-Shawinigan in Mauricie , 150 km from Montreal , with the intention of implementing a first outbreak of guerrilla warfare in Quebec. This initiative has been criticized and taxed adventurism by those who want to prepare a realistic direct action.

The 29 August 1964 , a commando of the ARQ organizing a theft of weapons in an armory in Montreal. Two police patrol in the area arrived on the scene and a shootout broke out. One of the officers accidentally kills an employee of the armory while the manager is killed by a member of the ARQ accidentally.

Four authors of the flight are quickly captured, François Schirm, wounded by a bullet in the thigh during the shooting. The fifth Edmond Guenette , manages to escape but is arrested three days later.

At the end of the trial, and Schirm Guénette be sentenced to death, unique in the annals of the FLQ. They will spend three years in the cell on death row, and after a new trial, will be sentenced to life in prison.

François Schirm spend nearly 14 years behind bars, the longer a member of the FLQ. Refused to be deported to Europe in 1974, he was released on parole (day) in 1978. During all these years, he continued to repeat what he had said after his trial: "As revolutionary, I was ready to give my life and I am still ready to give to the People's Liberation Quebec. "

And here:

Photo 19. [P. 488] Political prisoners photographed in prison of Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines in 1975. In the left foreground, Paul Rose, a member of the Chenier cell of the FLQ kidnapped and "executed" the minister Pierre Laporte in October 1970. In the right foreground, François Schirm, leader of the Revolutionary Army of Quebec in 1964, and originally sentenced to death, then life imprisonment for a deadly raid on an armory in Montreal August 29, 1964. The other prisoners are, from left to right: Bernard Lortie, Edmond Guenette, Daniel Lamoureux, Francis Simard, Pierre Demers, Robert Hudon, Pierre Boucher, Pierre-Paul Geoffroy and Reynald Lévesque. (Photo Normand Pichette)

Zach

Tony Izquierdo's case officer passed away over the summer:

http://www.caller.com/news/2012/jun/14/harold-feeney-retired-navy-commander-former-dies/

CORPUS CHRISTI — Harold "Hal" Feeney, a retired Navy commander, former businessman and special investigator died Saturday. He was 89.

Raised in Long Beach, Calif., Feeney graduated military college in Pennsylvania and returned to take classes at the University of Southern California. He left college at the start of World War II and volunteered for the Army after learning his brother had been killed at sea. It was the start of a distinguished military career.

Feeney would go on to learn a half dozen languages and was assigned to posts around the globe. Feeney served as an intelligence officer during the Korean War, and later worked with special agents in Panama and Cuba. He also served as a chief intelligence officer at posts in France and Belgium, and was an adviser during meetings of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council, then chaired by President John F. Kennedy at the White House.

"He had such a dedication to his country and the military," Feeney's son Hal Jr. said. "He taught us all to appreciate our freedom and be thankful for those who defend it."

Feeney also was awarded many foreign and domestic medals during his career including the medal of valor by Brigade 2506 for his efforts in Cuba.

In 1970, he moved to the Coastal Bend, accepting a job as vice president of Great Western Corp.

A few years later he left his job to work as a special investigator for several federal agencies. He also was a regular contributor to the Caller-Times.

Though his health had been declining in recent months, relatives were able to say their goodbye when caregivers gave notice that he had just a few days left.

"We were able to share a couple of laughs," Hal Feeney Jr. said. "It was a blessing to be able to say goodbye to him and tell him we love him."

Feeney is survived by wife Lydia; sons Harold Jr. and Charles; six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by son David.

Services will be at 2 p.m. today at Seaside Memorial Funeral Home Chapel.

Burial will be at Arlington National Cemetery at a later date.

Has anyone thought to investigate the possibility that Bishop wasn't Phillips but someone who was working for him and looked a bit like him too?

Hi Paul,

I don't think you are crazy and I do think your thoughts have merit. It is very possible that someone who worked with Phillips in the Miami/Havana milieu used the Bishop name and also was closely associated with David Morales. Sure Phillips used the name, but I think we need to dig a little deeper here regarding the identity of the Maurice Bishop we are looking for.

Zach

Awesome stuff David, thank you.

Do you know what the last colorized image is from? I don't think I have seen it before. The Weaver image is very interesting in that in the full version you can see numerous windows open on the 5th and 6th floors.

Here is a nice image of retired FBI agent Wesley Swearingen.

Zach