Larry Hancock

Dawn, I will leave that to others, certainly there are more than enough people talking, blogging and offering opinions on the subjects you outlined. I'll be talking about the connections I find to Lee Oswald and to the attack in Dallas. I don't want to pretend to offer anything more in this coming series of posts nor to de-focus what I'm going to try to do, this will not be a bigger picture. I offered my study of the bigger picture in NEXUS, this will be back to focusing strictly on the attack in Dallas. -- Larry

This is just a notice that in the weeks between now and the 50th Anniversary, I will be making a series of blog posts with my personal view of the chain of events that led to the attack in Dallas. I invite anyone interested to follow along - I had thought to back off this subject with my new work on Shadow Warfare going in a broader historical direction but I've decided that for at least a few weeks I'll wade back into it. The commentary will be a bit more opinionated than I normally express, the views are strictly my own and it will be as tightly focused as I can make it. -- follow along if you wish, I won't be taking a lot of detours nor taking time to sit on any fences, Larry

Richard, its been a number of decades since I worked with Key Systems but incoming calls might well have gone to the main number or numbers and then been transferred to extensions. Outbound calls would actually pick up available lines. If that were true for the TSBD system it would reflect inside employees hanging up lines and no incoming calls being transferred. Given that it was the lunch hour probably few folks would be calling in and the folks calling out would be dropping off any calls they had up. -- just my guess, Larry

Richard, it was probably Geneva that I was thinking of, initially I was very interested in her remarks in conjunction with the reported short power failure on the elevators. However, there is also a simpler explanation. On a key system phone, you would normally see all the extensions lit which were in use. What she might well have been seeing was that the people who were on the phone knew the motorcade was about to arrive and hung up....causing the lights to go out. As to a common point for all the lines, circa 1963 subscriber carrier systems were relatively uncommon, even the early analog ones. It is likely that the building was probably served by one or more physical cables, coming into interior wiring distribution boxes. Given that the TSBD was an old warehouse, it may well be that cables were added incrementally and that there were several coming into the building, such facilities were wiring nightmares, I can swear to that. There would be no easy way to take out the physical cables easily without actually cutting or un-terminating them. You could cut power to the key systems but I suspect they would have had individual power supplies. All in all I would tend to lean toward the simpler explanation of everyone hanging up their lines to go watch the parade... Larry

Just a minor observation on the "switchboard operator" issue. Given that there were several different companies in the building and I think many had their own independent numbers I'm not sure there was really a central building switchboard....I'm sure somebody can confirm or refute that. But I think that some of the companies may have had key systems, which were essentially extensions off main numbers. That allowed a lot of phones to share a limited number of lines and you could see what lines were available by observing extension lights. One of the book company workers remarked that all the lights on her display were off and then suddenly they all lit up after the shooting... In some instances secretaries were designated as key system operators, especially on the older and less automated models and might even have been though of as switchboard operators, although not in the classic plug the patch cord into a line termination that you see in the really old movies....and yes I am that old, I've worked both types myself...

Bill, you've stated something that has been on my mind recently. In terms of a very minimalist frame, Oswald was going to be framed by the rifle regardless. The rifle is hidden in boxes by the stairway, hulls are left by the window, easily carried in a pocket and tossed down. Oswald could be anywhere, he could be out front watching the motorcade. Once the police find the rifle and hulls he's going down, if not for murder for conspiracy. Its your rifle kid, who did you loan it to, who was in this with you....and on and on....and if the plotters wanted to ensure that a conspiracy was seen in the murder, one pointing to Cuba as I believe, that's all you need. The rest of the pieces are in place no matter what Oswald might have said. Its even better if it is captured or killed "on the run", that ensures his guilt. -- Larry

Very good Don, that's exactly it......to make a point, I'm in no way supporting Easterling's overall story which has many problems. There are two or three points in it that are also strangely consistent with things we do know. Easterling did not seem to be the type who would be all that creative, and as I recall, Hurt found him and dug out the story. Hurt also has some fascinating stuff in the book about the dented Hull that Bill would enjoy and also demonstrated it would have been easy to stash any real weapon in one of the big wooden book containers that nobody ever searched. There are several things in his book that were interesting although Easterling's story itself finally got to the point of nonsense.....ending up exactly counter to his first information and implicating Castro. -- just one more exercise in high strangeness...

I wish I could remember the source, but there was relatively early book which involved a confession from this fellow out of New Orleans...lots of really strange stuff in it but one of the items of information in the book was that there was a witness the author interviewed who had lived near the short lived exile camp outside New Orleans in 1963. One of the things that puzzled him was that he observed them firing a rifle into a barrel of water, apparently to recover the shells as well as the hulls. Just one of those misc. things out of the last decades that you file away and shake your head whenever you think about it again...

Its a fascinating subject for me David as I'm a Vietnam era college alumnae....we have a pretty good idea of what the FBI did against the anti-war movement but I'm not sure that we have a real clue about the CIA side of it. One of the CHAOS veterans has published a book on it and ties it up in a pretty package but my gut tells me there was a headquarters side to it and an entirely compartmentalized campaign going on within other areas....I can guarantee they didn't spare the horses on the media side and Alsop was a willing tool. -- Larry

Again, just a bit of author context for anyone reading this who may not have bothered to look it up.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Hager

Chris, I think the most fundamental issue is who if anyone actually had a sample of the print at this point. Its my understanding that Jaye got a copy from the Houston PD who were in turn very upset when they found out how he was using it. I would assume then that Walt Brown might have the print. I would suggest that someone contact Walt about the current status of the print and perhaps for some overall comment on the whole issue. If anyone should know it would seem to be he. And if anyone else has a copy of the print that would be good to know too. -- Larry

Robert and Bill, nobody ever found a case, box or anything related to ammo in Oswald's possessions. I'm pretty sure the ammo was traced to a mfg run by the headstamp on the hull. Gary Murr has taken that line of research far beyond anyone else and someday hopefully he will publish his voluminous work on it. For the moment, I think there may be a thread here with some of his comments on it but I have no idea what it was called...

I'm going to offer a couple of thoughts on Fritz handling the hulls....not in defense of him but in regard to the reality of DPD and criminal prosecutions. First off from all that I've learned, DPD was not really all that much into crime scene work - as you can see by the new "trainee" working the photo angle of the TSBD. They certainly did the basics but in general the legal system in Dallas was if the police took something to a judge, it was accepted without much challenge or too much question. All of which means that judging the older police officers by what they should have done vs. what they routinely did with average crimes may be a mistake. Sherry Feister has studied and presented a number of times in regard to their crimes scene practices vs. what were the guidelines of the period and my take away is that they were pretty loose and that was accepted practice. In the heat of the moment Fritz may simply have made a mistake. As to holding one bullet back, the standard explanation is that as of that evening DPD still felt they were investigating a murder and would be the primary in that - not realizing Johnson and Hoover were about to take the ball away from them. Hence Fritz needed to keep a hull so they could investigate where Oswald got his ammo - they needed it for comparison. Actually I tend to believe Alyea in this and of course he goes much further, saying that the photography of the window and boxes was so screwed up that they had to re-stage and re-shoot it...of course that would be a gross violation and they would have committed perjury in defending those as the official real time photos. He makes a good case though and I have a healthy respect for stupid mistakes, and CYA. More interesting to me is that Alyea is a confirmed believer in the official story and believes all the rest of the evidence - when I asked him how he could accept all of it given what he know of the hulls and boxes and crime scene....he pretty much just never replied. -- Larry

I doubt it Bob, but if we are going that route I think Simon and Garfunkel may be more appropriate... It's a still life water color, Of a now late afternoon, As the sun shines through the curtained lace And shadows wash the room. And we sit and drink our coffee Couched in our indifference, Like shells upon the shore You can hear the ocean roar In the dangling conversation And the superficial sighs, The borders of our lives. ............we would probably only get a few "superficial sighs" for our dangling conversations - but at least we aren't indifferent...

If you are interested this link will give you a great deal of information on JFK and the project http://www.lanl.gov/science/NSS/issue1_2011/story4full.shtml IMHO canceling NERVA was a colossal mistake, but then a lot of that was going around during the Nixon Administration...

Lee Oswald's possible role in regard to intelligence agencies is something we discuss interminably. Its important to remember that intelligence assets don't have to be spy's of the type you find in action novels and movies, they can have much simpler roles. In that regard, the October issue of Smithsonian Magazine has a good article about how the FBI used a dangle in a counter intelligence operation against the KGB in New York City. It really helps to define the very basic and limited role of a dangle and I'd recommend it; I've also blogged some comments about the article in relation to Lee Oswald if you want some further thoughts on his employment as a dangle. -- Larry

Tommy, not precisely sure about your question but Bill has a number of documents which refer to JMWAVE activities in Mexico City. Actually I mentioned some of this in NEXUS including AMMOT activity in Mexico City and in particular both JMWAVE folks in Miami and Mexico City suddenly becoming very concerned about the Cuban individual involved in the backchannel dialog between JFK and Castro in fall 1963....after having no interest in the guy for years he suddenly starts showing up in urgent messages from both locations - with the goal of actually planting a Miami station AMMOT on him as I recall. Specifically in regard to the question I'm thinking the most pricise answer might be that there was a JMWAVE subsidiary group in Mexico City, compartmentalized from the CIA station itself which was, as usual under American embassy cover. Actually its not that unusual to find a separate mission like that, its pretty standard practice and helps isolate the operational folks, especially if they are also trying to stage operations into third party countries. . Anyway, Bill will will be telling the story and will do so in much more detail....and no doubt both knows it and is more current with it than I so I'll leave it to him. -- Larry

And of course everyone is aware of Tom Alyea's observation on this - being that it was not what he saw when the hulls were picked up and that they were thrown back down again prior to this photo being taken. Alyea's position as a first day, real time witness to that is certainly clear, he has expressed it in many places and I've had him tell it to me in person. -- I offer it strictly for reference, not to insert myself into any debate.. Larry

For those going to Dallas in November, Joan will be speaking on Wallace, the fingerprint issue and her book. Early on I shared all the relevant information I had collected and I know she has spoken with Richard B. and done additional work so her presentation should be the most up to date thing on the subject. I had asked her to present on Wallace and she graciously agreed to the topic. -- Larry

It seems a shame that they themselves are not searching out a scholarly venue to learn what they might have missed from folks who have seriously researched their work. -- not likely to see them joining a self help program though, guess that's just human nature, who really wants to know they made such a colossal mistake...

I'd recommend some internet searching in Richard Bartholomew and the subject of the Wallace prints and unidentified TSBD prints. He has written articles on that which are probably the best reference. Certainly there were unidentified prints on various boxes...the WC brought that up as an issue towards the end of its tenure, sending people scurrying around to try and match them to TSBD employees.

Note that Ted doesn't appear unduly stressed or perhaps concerned about the tens of thousands of Hmong refuges he has has abandoned and who will soon be fleeing hundreds of miles on foot to become refuges in Thailand...but they were good troops while they lasted.... -- just a little perspective, sigh...

I'll add in one more relevant item. An FBI memorandum states that when administering a polygraph to Frazier the evening of the assassination, the Dallas police showed Frazier the actual bag which was being represented as having been used by Oswald to carry his rifle into the TSBD just that morning. The actual bag, that Frazier would have seen that same morning. Frazier was adamant that it was not the bag Oswald had carried into his car just that morning and the polygraph confirmed his truthfulness. To my knowledge the transcript of that polygraph session has never surfaced and there have been a variety of conflicting remarks by very DPD officers in regard to it. If the FBI memo is accurate there would not only have been a major hole in the case against Oswald but a serious question as to the origin of the bag in question.

Chris, for reference, I spent over 5 years at two large state universities and you won't find me listed or a photo more than once because it cost...grin. I think I may show up in a couple of dorm group photos because those are free. Don't know if its relevant here. I would suggest you contact the University alumnae office or the registrar, if they were enrolled full time as degree students they should show up in the records, if part time maybe not. Same thing if they were taking night classes or other types of non degree classes. Varies by school I suspect.

I'm not going to say anything further about the book prior to at least scanning it. I couldn't pick up a whole lot from the Amazon page itself and the book is just out...however comments in one review endorse it for doing something new - covering the "larger context" of the assassination and dealing with powerful elements in the government, their allies in the military industrial complex and in the financial institutions. It also remarks on the relevance of the book to the current political climate. ......gosh, powerful elites, Military Industrial complex, financial institutions...Vietnam....broader context....sounds like "deep politics", is this really ground breaking stuff? Perhaps its the New World Order thing... somehow I'm thinking that "relevant to our current political climate" remark may be a clue..... once again time I shut up.