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Posts posted by Zach Robertson
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To Kill A President: Finally---An Ex-FBI Agent rips aside the veil of secrecy that killed JFK is a very interesting perspective from the FBI agent who was in charge of Cuban counter-intelligence matters at the Chicago field office in the early 1960's.
Hi Steve,
Thanks for checking back in. And thanks for all your contributions to the forum. They are most appreciated.
There are many interesting things about Chicago and how it was connected to Dallas. I read a long time ago that in the photo that depicts the Joseph Milteer possible on the parade route, there is another man positioned down the street towards the corner of Main that was from Chicago and associated with Paulino Sierra. Could this be where Milteer gained foreknowledge of events to come? Perhaps someone out there has this mystery man's name and can post the photo in question.
Zach
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Hopefully, someone might actually find this interesting enough to actually have a comment.
Hi Robert,
Thanks for posting this interesting information. It is nice to see people like yourself doing some good work here.
Do you have a copy of Fire in the Wind? I wonder if it is possible to post the excerpt of Chapelle being associated with Lansdale here?
Robert Emmett Johnson was fascinated with Dickey Chapelle. Johnson wanted to go to Vietnam with her, but she would not have it. She encouraged him to retire from his soldier of fortune career, write a book [under his own name], and get a 'real job.' Johnson worked at an Ad Agency for a while but it did not take. After Chapelle died, he went back to the shadowy world of free lance merc work.
Here are some pictures she took. The plan was to post these here months ago, but you know how it goes some times...
http://www.wisconsin...yword1=chapelle
A couple of my personal favorites:
CIA Truck observes Comandos "L" meeting
Top echelon Comandos "L" meeting - Tony Cuesta is seen in the center with the red shirt [is the man on the left his case officer?]
Zach
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John,
That's too bad. The book is a doozy. With M. Wesley Swearingen's background and credibility, I'm not at all surprised that the story didn't get more media coverage and discussion here ...
The book has a short chapter on one "Indio", who Mr. Swearingen's Cuban source said (prior to 11-22-63) was involved with a plot to kill JFK.
Steve
Hi Steve,
That is the most interesting chapter in the book. Indio is referred to as David Sanchez, a high ranking CIA officer who wanted revenge on JFK for the Bay of Pigs fiasco.
"Ramon," Swearingen's contact in the Cuban exile community also described how 'political jerks' from different major cities that JFK could travel to were being handled and how one of them would eventually take the fall for the assassination.
Most curious indeed.
Zach
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Justin Joseph "Steve" Wilson was a indeed real person and actually died on Aug. 15, 1985 in Dade County.
Purely as a curiousity, here is an image of Ed Gum [second from left], USMC Marine Recon from 2009 in Bokeelia, FL.
Zach
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Here is an excerpt of a nice ESPN Outside the Lines article about the politics of Miami. Eugenio Martinez is interviewed as quoted below. Here is the link for the full article via our own Mike Hogan:
http://espn.go.com/e...ange-play-miami
MIAMI -- Ozzie Guillen's Castro comments reached every corner of Miami's powerful Cuban community in the week following his apology, including the quiet side street where the Watergate burglar lives. A few blocks from South Beach, a 90-year-old Cuban-American putters around a small condo filled with weights, self-help books like "Windows 7 for Seniors," and stacks of paper detailing his own brushes with history, including a presidential pardon signed by Ronald Reagan. Eugenio Martinez rolls up his sleeve and flexes."Let me show you," he says, laughing.
He spends his days lifting weights, looking up unfamiliar words in the dictionary and trying to understand string theory. His wife has been gone two years now, and he's lonely without her. For 10 years he took care of her while she slowly died of Alzheimer's, and only now does he realize he didn't do that for her, but for him, because he didn't want to lose her. Alone, he thinks a lot about how he spent his life: a decade in the CIA, running hundreds of dangerous missions into Cuba, where he was born, trying to overthrow Castro.
The two most famous of his missions -- the Bay of Pigs and the break-in (he was one of the five "plumbers" caught mid-burglary, costing him 15 months but making sure his grandkids always had the coolest Nixon projects at school) -- ended in fiasco. Castro is still alive. Cuba is still communist. Ozzie Guillen can say he loves and respects Castro, and the manager is returning from suspension tonight on the 51st anniversary of the Bay of Pigs, which virtually no one seems to have noticed. Given all that, you'd expect Martinez to be livid with Guillen.
He's not.
Eugenio Martinez says he's tired of fighting and doesn't care about Guillen.
When Eugenio Martinez looks back at all the times he risked his life, and at the actions of the past five decades, he sees a waste. What was it all for? Nothing has changed -- and everything has changed.
He blames himself for the suffering of the Cuban people in the intervening decades, because the Bay of Pigs not only failed to overthrow Castro, it also entrenched him. Fidel led the counterassault himself, and earned a reputation as a man who could stand up to the Yankees.
That's why Martinez doesn't care about Ozzie Guillen. People who get angry about the comments of an "idiot" are fighting cosmetic wars, he believes, and in his small condo, Martinez seems tired of fighting.
"I don't hate," he says. "Normal people hate. I don't know what hate is. I don't hate anyone. I don't hate Castro. If I could kill him tomorrow, I would kill him as a benefit for Cuba. I'm different. Yeah, I would say that I'm different."
He wears his wedding ring on a chain around his neck. He underlines passages about himself in books, his once-steady hands shaking. There are grainy photographs of him on boats, unsmiling in a black hoodie, hands on a .50-caliber machine gun. Some people started new lives here, but he kept fighting for his old one. That's over now, and there's nothing more out of place than a samurai when the battle ends.
His missions, even the ones that went well, resulted in failure. In a dinette table in his kitchen, where the cupboards are filled with books, he finds a yellowed photograph. It's him, back in Cuba, with short wavy hair, a thin mustache, a gap-toothed grin. The man in that picture dreamed of being a doctor, but circumstances pushed him into a losing fight.
"I was young once," he says.
Zach
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Great stuff Tom,
More than $4 million in drug money went through Nugan Hand between 1974-1980 making them the paymasters of the CIA around the world. Here are a couple nice videos; the first one has been posted before here at the Forum, but I think it is appropriate to re-post it here.
Nugan Hand CBS Report
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VGgjM-SVOU
Partying At The Nugan Hand Bank And The Misadventures In The Pacific
Fascinating stuff for sure.
Zach
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Zach,
can you provide a link or a copy of the famous photo of the president chipping in at Burning Tree on the morning of the Bay of Pigs?
Thanks,
BK
Hi Bill,
I always thought that was just a joke, but I did find this book that mentions it: Golf List Mania!
There is no source for the claim that the President was golfing the day of the Bay of Pigs invasion, and if there were, I'd bet it was the Seinfeld Bottle Deposit episode. JFK did indeed golf 8 times in his first 6 months in office, but I personally doubt he did on the day in question. He was very self conscious about being seen on a golf course, much less being photographed. I suppose the only way to verify this is to contact the JFK Library.
Zach
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Thanks Greg,
Best 30 min. show that has ever been on network TV, in my opinion. Co-creator Larry David was and is a big Kennedy fan and there are numerous references to the clan during the 9 season run.
Two of my favorites are when Mr. Pitt is gearing up to play Ethel Kennedy in a tennis match and later when J. Peterman buys JFK's golf clubs [as seen in the famous photograph of the president chipping at Burning Tree on the morning of the Bay of Pigs invasion] via auction and then they are subsequently stolen by Jerry’s mechanic.
Zach
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4) To your knowledge, do transcripts of that debate exist online or elsewhere?
I was also wondering about this one.
Is the 1977 [sat. Sept. 17] USC debate,"Conspiracy in the Sixties: Who Was to Blame?" between Mr. Lane and David Atlee Phillips available anywhere?
I have been looking for it in any form - film, audio, transcript - for some time now, with no luck. Any help at all would be appreciated.
Zach
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It has been brought to my attention that the rest of the article on John Adrian O’Hare from the March 22, 1984 [Vol. VIII No. 8] of Penn Jones’ The Continuing Inquiry has been made available online at Baylor:
http://digitalcollections.baylor.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/po-jones/id/1580
It runs from pages 2-5 of the issue. It is a well written, accurate article that deserves some attention.
The article was penned by a “Fred Williams,” which is a pseudonym. Does anyone know who that really is? Did “Fred Williams” write any other articles for Penn Jones?
Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Zach
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Here are the links to Larry's blog. There are some great recent comments in there as well. I also posted pictures of Varone, Artime and January on the second page in my above link some time ago.
Larry, Great work on the blog; I always look forward to reading new entries.
Zach
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The Pegaus thing is all very fascinating. I believe Ross Perot delved into it and the Republican Dirty Tricks at the following press conference:
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Hi Bill,
Here is one old thread on Red Bird:
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=6091
Keep up the good work,
Zach
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Thanks Robert,
I'm still waiting for Gary Shaw's stuff on Bishop to be uploaded at Baylor. O'Hare and Bishop were two different people. O'Hare escaped to Africa and hooked up with Mike Hoare and his people there. Interesting misdirection originating from Fensterwald though.
Zach
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Robert,
Great stuff. I believe that is the man in question. Without any further investigating as of yet, I'm assuming that the Find a Grave people made an error and that his death was indeed in 1992. I've had such problems with Find a Grave in the past.
Zach
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Tommy,
I don't think there is anything more to that file other than the picture and the TV transcript from 1983. However, like I said, the Weisberg archive can be difficult to navigate (for me anyway) so I'm not totally sure.
Any thoughts on the One Hour TV Special?
There has to be a copy of that somewhere...
Thanks,
Zach
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Good work Tom,
Davis is pretty interesting. I think this 1983 TV interview could be somewhat important; it would be nice to at least find it. In my opinion, finding anything on Col. William Bishop is well worth the time invested.
Here is another file on Bishop at Hood:
The Weisberg Archive is great but it can be difficult to navigate at times.
Thanks,
Zach
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Dick Russell's book has info describing Thomas Eli Davis as finishing a five year army stint in Feb. 1958 and that Davis told the FBI he was an army ranger in Korea. Davis's wife told the State Dept. he was a POW in Korea.
Davis actually told the FBI he served two years only in the U.S. and finished in Feb. 1957, matching details in reports of June, 1958 bank robbery. weisberg archive has file in which C. William Bishop in a televised interview, links Davis to Alpha 66.
Are Bishop and Davis more myth than fact?
Hi Tom,
Nice find. Is this the file you were talking about:
Did this TV interview ever air? I'd like to find a copy of it, or see if it can be posted on Youtube one day. Any thoughts on going about tracking it down? I'm not sure about Davis, but I think Bishop is a pretty important character.
Zach
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Why not just ask Judyth Baker if it is her Lee in the doorway and settle this imbroglio once and for all?
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Tommy,
The guy in the photo with Artime is Henry Hecksher. He was about 52 years old in 1963. Hecksher died in 1990 at the age of 79.
The photo quality is very poor, but it does not look like he is wearing glasses.
Zach
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Hi Tommy,
Artime was approximately 5'6". Hecksher is described elsewhere on this forum as "short and somewhat pudgy." He would have been over 50 years old in this photo. He definitely wasn't tall and in his mid 30s.
I must admit, I have not read all of Russell's book. It can be very confusing and I do not know what Nagell is saying there exactly. That isn't the only thing he said that I can't quite follow.
Zach
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There was a mention from Jack White some time ago about how official pseudonyms are created:
Philip Agee's INSIDE THE COMPANY
The official names in documents are separate from field names like Maurice Bishop and Edward Hamilton. Phillips' use of Michael Choaden is interesting in that "Choaden" seems to be part of a series of inside jokes he enjoyed and mentioned in The Night Watch. Phillips also employed various other pseudonyms like Paul D. Langevin.
Steve, thanks for the kind words. I do enjoy checking in from time to time.
Zach
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Zach,
Yes, Nagell knew him as "Bob", as in "Berlin Operating Base".
Interesting to note that in addition to "Nelson L Raynock", he used the names "James D Zaboth" and "Henry Boysen".
--Tommy
Thanks Tommy,
Some time ago, it was brought to my attention that it is possible that Carl Jenkins is Zaboth. Jenkins used the pseudos Carl James and James Beckhoff. Personally, I still think Henry Hecksher is Zaboth since he was AMBIDDY-1's case officer but there are some goofy memos out there that can be quite confusing.
Zach
To Kill a President by M. Wesley Swearingen
in JFK Assassination Debate
Posted
David,
That is a great collage. You are doing some fantastic work here lately; so thanks for all that.
Not to divert the thread, but do you have any other blown up images from the corner of Main and Houston?
Zach