Paul Trejo

OK, I will deal with each of Ernie Lazar's false charges by the number: 1. Ernie's use of the word "tortured" indicates exaggeration, which is Ernie's strong suit. When Ernie has a weak argument (which is most of the time) he uses exaggeration to push it through. Harry and I were mistaken about the 11/1963 letter, and we admitted it. That admission would be enough for normal people to accept, but obviously it's not enough for the obsessively biased. 2. Ernie likes to boast about how much he knows about FBI filing practices and FBI procedures for informants. This charge merely amounts to Ernie's continual bragging. 3. Again -- the word "tortured" shows Ernie's use of exaggeration. In fact, Wes Swearingen's own words -- shared with the entire Forum -- showed that he keeps an open mind with regard to both Don Adams and Harry Dean. But the closed-minded Ernie Lazar still fails to grasp how anybody can be open-minded -- and so he resorts to one-sided exaggeration yet again. 4. The details about what General Edwin Walker taught his troops in 1960-1961 through his Pro-Blue program are well-documented by the US Army itself in a 660 page report from Lt. Gen. F.J. Brown dated 22May61. Investigating Edwin Walker, the US Army found Walker guilty of preaching to thousands of troops that First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and former President Harry Truman were "definitely pink." Further, Walker violated the Hatch Act by trying to influence his troops to vote the way that he preferred. There is more. The 660 page report shows that Walker was a disgrace to his uniform, and the US Army rightly dismissed him from his command over the 24th Infantry Division in Augsburg, Germany in April 1961. Yet because of the politics of Robert Welch, Kent Courtney, the JBS and so on, Walker was welcomed as a right-wing hero when he quit the Army in November 1961. 5. Anybody who knows the well-publicized views of the John Birch Society regarding all US Presidents since FDR know very well that these paranoid Americans believed that these US Presidents were Communists and Communist-controlled. Those who doubt that historical fact deserve the smirks they receive. 6. As for Harry's meeting with Wesley Grapp, it was in 1964, not 1963. Furthermore, Ernie Lazar is in no position to jump to any conclusion that Harry's (and my) account is "entirely false" until all FBI records about Harry are in hand. Ernie still lacks some of those records, yet his mind is made up, and he wants you to close your minds, too, dear readers. 7. These false charges from Ernie Lazar today are themselves sufficient proof that Ernie continues to misrepresent Harry's position (and mine) regarding the murder of JFK. I still don't know what Ernie advocates -- all we can tell so far is what Ernie is against -- Harry and Paul. Why? We still don't know. With utmost sincerity, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

Here's one of the key factors that convinces me of the reliability of Harry Dean's memoirs. They are 49 years old. If Harry had waited to tell his story until after Oliver Stone came out with his movie, JFK, then I would admit a higher chance of invention and fiction. For example, Ricky Don White waited until 1991 to tell his story to Bud Fensterwald and Gary Shaw. For example, Ron Lews waited until 1993 to tell his story in FLASHBACK. For example, James Earl Files waited until 1994 to tell his story in I SHOT JFK. For example, Judyth Vary Baker waited until 2011 to tell her story in ME & LEE. Harry Dean came out with his story in January 1965, on The Joe Pyne Show, soon after the Warren Report was published, in protest of the "fiction" told by the Warren Commission. Even though Harry Dean's story was not a sophisticated tome like that of our earliest Warren Commission critics, such as Mark Lane, Harold Weisberg, Sylvia Meagher, Penn Jones, Vincent Salandria, and Ed Epstein -- nevertheless, Harry's story is as early as their works. Harry Dean's story is also independent of their works -- Harry never changed his story to include information that these scholarly writers published (and that's hard to claim about accounts published after 1990). Harry emphasizes people that the others don't emphasize -- Harry Dean stuck to his story after nearly half a century, neither adding nor subtracting from it. Harry has remained committed to telling his truth, no matter how intense the opposition against him. This is only one of the key reasons I find Harry Dean's memoirs to be reliable. Other key reasons include the historical validiity of the events he describes, and the political positions of the JBS, Edwin Walker, Loran Hall and Gabby Gabaldon in 1963. One would need to be a genius in history and fiction to invent something so plausible and detailed as the memoirs of Harry Dean. I never said Harry Dean was a genius. My only claim is that Harry Dean is telling the TRUTH. Best regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

Well, Tommy, the problem of social arrogance and insult is as old as the human species, evidently -- and there could be hundreds of reasons why a given person with the FBI would treat a caller with arrogance. One can speculate, of course, but perhaps one can also make educated guesses. For example, Harry called the FBI and promptly began speaking about the FPCC in 1960. This was only a few months after the FBI had begun a serious investigation into the FPCC. One reasonable guess regarding why this FBI employee lied to Harry Dean, claiming that "this is the first we've heard about the FPCC," after Harry raised the topic, is simply this -- Harry caught that FBI employee by surprise; then he, whoever he was, composed himself and as calmly as possibly 'played stupid.' He probably said something like, "Gee, Mr. Dean, this is the first we at the FBI have ever heard of the FPCC." It isn't difficult to accept Harry Dean's story -- it isn't wild fiction. It's a consistent and cohesive account of real events that correspond to actual events of American history -- the Cuba Crisis, the FPCC episode, the rise of the JBS and General Walker, and the confusion over Civil Rights -- this is the mess with which America lived in the early 1960's. Harry simply said that an FBI Agent told him that Harry's report about the FPCC was "the first he heard about it." Obviously, however, the FBI had heard about the FPCC before Harry called them. Ernie Lazar is too quick to presume that Harry Dean is inventing "fiction." This proves his bias. Actually, there are many other explanations for this simple chain of events. One explanation is that the FBI employee was sarcastically dismissing Harry, as I suggested above. Another explanation is that the FBI employee was stunned, and then tried to hide and protect FBI data about its on-going investigations -- as I also suggested above. By the way -- I don't accuse all of Harry Dean's critics of bias -- but Ernie's bias is self-evident to all. Best regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

You suggest, Larry, that double-agent Richard Case Nagell, though effective in Miami, was ineffective in New Orleans. He had misread Oswald and could not divert Oswald from his course of action. It also seems as though Nagell did not fully understand Oswald’s role. In my view, Oswald was a far-right activist who was working closely with far right activists in New Orleans, including Guy Bannister, David Ferrie, Clay Shaw, Ed Butler and Carlos Bringuier. We can be certain about the first three because of the data Jim Garrison uncovered. We can be certain about the rest because Butler and Bringuier were physically perceived in the media circus surrounding Oswald’s fake FPCC chapter. The fact that the FPCC chapter was 100% fake is our clue that Oswald was pretending to be a left-winger. There are other clues; for example, Oswald did not personally associate with left-wing people. Oswald communicated with left-wing people using the postal service – in order to leave a documented paper trail that would serve as credentials. Instead, Oswald personally associated with right-wing people; not only Ed Butler and Carlos Bringuier, but as Gerry Patrick Hemming claims, also himself, Loran Hall and Larry Howard. I find it interesting that although Harry Dean knew nothing about Gerry Patrick Hemming in those days, still, Gerry Patrick Hemming’s story confirms Harry Dean’s story in multiple areas. In any case, I see Lee Harvey Oswald as a dedicated rightist who was pleased to associate and work with extreme rightists, even if that meant a double role – i.e. pretending to be a Communist and FPCC officer. It is also possible that Oswald would sell information to the FBI – since after all he thought of the FBI as a legitimate part of the rightist cause. It seems to me that Richard Case Nagell did not understand this about Oswald, and tried to warn Oswald about the two men from Miami. Oswald, realizing that Nagell was clueless about his actual role, merely ignored Nagell’s warnings, thus confusing Nagell. Nagell then chose to interfere with Oswald’s plans in Mexico. The way I read it from Dick Russell (TMWKTM), Nagell was a double-agent, and to protect that status he had to protect Fidel Castro. Nagell saw Oswald as a possible threat to Fidel Castro, so he warned Oswald that if he succeeded in getting a Visa to Cuba, Nagell would shoot Oswald dead. Oswald apparently ignored Nagell. (There’s another possible reaction – Ron Lewis agrees with Priscilla McMillan on this – that Oswald at this point frets about other ways to get to Cuba, and talks wildly about hi-jacking a plan to Cuba. Marina in the evenings and Ron in the mornings struggled for days to talk Oswald out of it.) On his way to frustrate Oswald in Mexico, Nagell was followed and gave up his mission, staging an armed bank robbery to get himself imprisoned and therefore safe from murder and from being framed as the patsy for a JFK murder plot. Now – what happened to the two Miami guys? They seem to drop out of the picture. This is why I feel that they didn’t belong to the Walker-Bannister Dallas plot, but to some other plot, e.g. in Miami or Washington DC. They simply fade away; their plot, like so many other plots to murder JFK, fizzled away. Oswald's goal in Mexico City was to get a Visa to Cuba. Oswald failed in that mission. Now – either Oswald remained connected with rightist handlers in NOLA, or he was manipulated to believe that he had changed allegiances when in reality his original handlers still controlled him. In my opinion – and this harmonizes with Harry Dean’s memoirs – Oswald was manipulated to believe that his NOLA handlers have abandoned him, because he failed to get his Cuban Visa, and therefore he felt he was free to accept a new mission. Loran Hall and Larry Howard introduced Lee Harvey Oswald to Silvia Odio – firmly establishing their Anti-Castro credentials with Oswald – and now they introduce him to Guy Gabaldon. Gabaldon, says Harry Dean, offered Oswald some much-needed cash to perform some paltry duties in Dallas – mainly to stay in Dallas and await further instructions. Even though Oswald was collecting intelligence for the FBI, they were paying him very little money for that – Oswald was not an “official” informant with a regular salary. So, Oswald was open to a new “mission.” Also, if Oswald sought to bust illegal arms transfers to Cuban Exile training camps, he would have had more opportunity in NOLA, near Lake Pontchartrain, than in Dallas. I tend to agree with you, that the two guys from Miami were out of their depth in Dallas. They probably had nothing to do with Dallas, and when Oswald moved to Dallas, they were probably out of the picture. However, we have some evidence that Loran Hall and Larry Howard were in and out of Dallas throughout this period. The difference between our scenarios, Larry, is that I maintain that the Dallas plotters had previously plotted with the NOLA Sheep-dippers from the very beginning of the NOLA period (e.g. back in April 1963). So in my theory, Oswald thinks that his handlers have changed, but in fact his handler has always been Ex-General Edwin Walker ever since Easter Sunday. Best regards, --Paul Trejo

Once again Ernie, your bias against Harry Dean is self-evident. The problem with your three criteria to criticize the Chicago FBI is that they are incomplete. You're not considering all the possibilities -- because of your bias. There are other ways, I already explained, to explain why the Chicago FBI would lie to Harry Dean about their investigation of the Chicago FPCC, including: (1) The clerk patronized Harry Dean because he had no respect for Harry. (We already saw that in the insulting comments of FBI Agent William McCauley in his own handwriting on FBI documents about Harry Dean.) (2) Harry spoke with a clerk or an intern on the phone who had not yet been briefed on the issue of the FPCC. (3) Harry spoke with a clerk or an intern who was willing to lie to a caller and potential information source, in order to protect and conceal any information the FBI had about the FPCC. Of course, there are many other possibilities -- but they don't occur to you, Ernie, because of the fatal flaw of bias in your logic. With utmost sincerity, --Paul Trejo

Thanks, Larry. I have just a few final observations and questions about your, Appendix H: Odio Revisited, in SWHT/2010. We tend to agree that Oswald in NOLA was in contact with pro-Castro and anti-Castro Cuban Exiles, as well as double agents. There were Cuban Exiles from Miami who tried to make Oswald into their patsy for a possible Washington DC murder of JFK. We have hard evidence gleaned from letters from Oswald's own hand to the FPCC and CPUSA, about a move to Baltimore. This drama was witnessed by Richard Case Nagell -- it involved a phony Castro supporter and a genuine Castro supporter. The skullduggery was thick.. You suggest that a JFK murder in DC was possibly foiled by Nagell’s efforts, or by Oswald's failure to obtain a Cuban visa in time, or both. In any case, you opine that the Washington DC plotters were -- at a high level -- the same as the Dallas plotters -- correct? You then suggest that these plotters took advantage of Oswald's trip to Mexico City to form a totally a new image of Oswald as a "loose cannon" that could be traced to Fidel Castro. If I have that right, then my question is why did these plotters believe that Oswald went to Mexico in the first place? Or are we possibly observing two sets of plotters -- those who sent Oswald to Mexico, and those who formed a new plot involving Oswald as a "loose cannon"? There is also disagreement between JFK researchers about whether Oswald was really recorded at those Embassies in Mexico City -- Oswald's photographs and voice are nowhere to be found. Also, the descriptions of Oswald given by the clerks often fails to match Oswald at all. You then suggest that the Dallas plot only became firm as of October 1st, after Oswald's failure to get a Cuban Visa. But what were the plotters hoping to do in case Oswald succeeded in getting a Cuban Visa? Again, are we looking at two sets of plotters here? (In Harry Dean's scenario, the original plan given by Guy Gabaldon in Southern California was for Loran Hall and Larry Howard to deliver Oswald to Gabaldon in Mexico City, and then for Gabaldon to give Oswald phony instructions regarding Dallas. As Harry Dean heard the plot first-hand, the JFK murder was to take place at the Trade Mart. Yet this Dallas plot was firmly set in place two weeks before Loran Hall and Larry Howard made their trip to give Oswald a ride to Mexico.) Your theory and Harry Dean's theory agree fully that the setup of Oswald in Dallas was done without Oswald's direct knowledge. Oswald was totally ignorant of any role he was playing in Dallas from the time he arrived there -- so he had to be managed. If Gerry Patrick Hemming was telling the truth when he claimed that he offered Lee Harvey Oswald double the market price for his rifle if he would bring it to the TSBD on 22Nov63, then this is a bit of information that Harry Dean did not know about. First, it suggests that plans had been changed to murder JFK at Dealey Plaza, instead of at the Trade Mart, as Harry Dean expected. Secondly, it means that Hemming was more deeply involved with Loran Hall and Larry Howard than Harry Dean knew. You then suggest, Larry, that during the month of October 1963, the plotters began selecting other patsies -- just in case they might be needed. Jack Ruby was a candidate, as was Loran Hall and possibly Carlos Quiroga. I would add here that Guy Gabaldon acted suspiciously one night in a Los Angeles restaurant when out of the blue he hired a female restaurant photographer to take a dozen photographs of Harry Dean from many different angles. Was Harry Dean also considered as a candidate for patsy? After all, Harry could also be associated with Fidel Castro in official records. Two others feared they could be made into patsies because of their past affiliation with Fidel Castro -- Hemming and Nagell. Following the murder of JFK, all of these guys would be reported in contact with Oswald before the assassination. But the information was never used. For example, as you point out, Larry, the FBI can be shown to have officially avoided investigating either Quiroga or Hall to the fullest. Is it possible that this frustrated the actual plotters? Harry Dean and I affirm today that the plotters who murdered JFK were hoping for the USA to invade Cuba and kill Fidel Castro -- first and foremost. Yet the "Lone Assassin" theory of J. Edgar Hoover (and promoted actively by LBJ, Earl Warren and Allen Dulles) would politically undercut that hope. Comments on any of this? Best regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

Uhhh, that's not true, Paul. Where in the world did you come up with that ? ... http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/dpdtapes/ --Tommy P.S. As far as Chief Curry's possible complicity in the plot against JFK, I would say that his actions are the least suspicious of all of the Dallas upper-level police officers. Since you asked, Tommy, I got that claim from Joachim Joesten and his book, Oswald: Assassin or Fall Guy (1964) which I thought was fairly well documented. Since your account differs sharply from Joesten's account, I'll look deeper into the primary sources. All best, --Paul Trejo

Larry, I appreciate your feedback on this thread. I agree with most of what you say – yet where I remain unconvinced I think I have good reasons, as follows: 1.0) You emphasize the Parrot Jungle FBI report – and I see your point. Hemming also claimed that Hoover tried to frame Interpen for a staged assassination attempt on JFK at Miami airport. There was much skullduggery on the East Coast. There were many JFK plots. 2.0) I also agree that Nagell’s NOLA contacts are interesting because they point to a DC plot and Oswald’s own letters confirm it. This pulls the Miami personnel into the Dallas scenario. 2.1) The DC plot was also seeking a patsy. Nagell realized that all these plots were so patsy-hungry that he himself could be transformed into a patsy if he wasn’t diligent (TMWKTM). 3.0) Yet you rejected my list of names as Dallas Operators (excepting Jack Ruby). I can include Miami players and CIA-Mafia players. But the Dallas Operation was larger than these, I say. 3.1) I say the Dallas ground-crew included local Dallas rightists. Outsiders managed higher-level problems (like the autopsy, the limo, the Secret Service, the 4th Army at Fort Sam Houston, the FBI and the Warren Commission). The local crew managed the shooting itself. 3.2) You also separate the Anti-Castro/Pro-Castro Oswald puzzle from Dallas Operations. But the Dallas Operation was impossible without a viable patsy. 3.3) The Sheep-dip of Oswald in NOLA – directly managed by Bannister, Shaw, Ferrie, Ed Butler and Carlos Bringuier, had no other purpose than to document Lee Harvey Oswald as Communist, and thus a viable patsy. The Sheep-dip was a long time in the planning. I say it goes back to April 1963. 3.4) The Sheep-dip of Oswald began when he moved to NOLA only days after his alleged attempt to kill Edwin Walker. 3.5) Dick Russell, TMWKTM, wrote that George De Mohrenschildt and Volkmar Schmidt (and possibly the Paines) had urged Oswald – since January 1963 – to hate Walker. Oswald took them too seriously on 10 April 1963. De Mohrenschildt, terrified of the consequences, fled to Haiti after telling the Voshinins his evidence that Oswald shot at Walker. 3.6) That was on Easter Sunday. The Voshinins then called the FBI right away (says Russell). Somebody then called Edwin Walker to warn him. We know this last part is true from Walker’s personal papers. 3.7) It was no coincidence that Oswald moved to NOLA to be Sheep-dipped only a few days after he shot at Walker, when Walker found out that it was Oswald. I think the evidence is substantial here. 4.0) John Martino suggests that the only important Operations guys in Dallas were two Cuban Exiles -- who knew that Oswald was feeding data to the FBI and other Agencies. I suggest that John Martino and Harry Dean both saw a part of a larger plot. Like two blind men touching two different parts of the same elephant, they arrived at widely different conclusions. 4.1) Gerry Patrick Hemming (who figures for neither Martino nor Dean) told Al Weberman that he personally called Lee Harvey Oswald to offer him double the price of his rifle if he would take it to the TSBD on 22Nov63. Even though Hemming was outside Dallas, he was still a participant. 4.2) Donald Philips and Tom Wilson produced photographic evidence to count nine separate gunmen, 12 shots in three meticulously-timed volleys, six radio coordinators and countless phony (or off-duty) police, Secret Service agents and other shills at Dealey Plaza. 4.3) Philips and Wilson also identify DPD officers Roscoe White and JD Tippit as part of the Operation on the grassy knoll. The fact that DPD Chief Jesse Curry was actually driving the lead car which led the JFK motorcade down Elm Street, and immediately named the TSBD alone as the shooting site, makes him into a major suspect, IMHO. 5.0) I cannot agree that Bannister’s only role was to tell his own folks to let Oswald alone. Here’s why: 5.1) Bannister’s office address was on the FPCC flyers that Oswald handed out. Oswald’s phony FPCC office was in Bannister’s offices. 5.2) Oswald had known David Ferrie for years, and Ferrie worked in Bannister’s office. 5.3) Bannister had worked with Ed Butler and INCA before -- and it was INCA which ultimately Sheep-dipped Oswald with police reports, newspaper reports, a radio program and a TV program. Ed Butler used the acting abilities of Carlos Bringuier. 5.4) The NOLA Sheep-dip was utterly indispensable for the Dallas Operation. Bannister was the guiding force of the Sheep-dip. I suspect Bannister as an integral part of the Dallas Operation, even if he never set foot in Dallas. 6.0) I realize that I must still show with external documents that Walker’s political clout was still viable to the right-wing, including to people like Kent Courtney and Guy Bannister. 6.1) Walker was shot at. That meant nothing to most Americans, but to the radical right, and to Guy Bannister, a fellow Minuteman, it would have meant plenty. 6.2) Obviously Bannister coordinated his efforts with the FBI and possibly the CIA -- but his Sheep-dip project was timed to immediately follow Lee Harvey Oswald’s shot at General Walker. 6.3) The personal papers of Edwin Walker tend toward this conclusion, IMHO. 7.0) Your opinion about Edwin Walker appears to be the standard liberal opinion, Larry, that Walker was a fruitcake. He led the riots at Ole Miss, so JFK and RFK put him in an insane asylum. For many people, that was the end of Walker’s credibility. 7.1) Yet for the American right-wing the opposite was true. Please consider the following: 7.2) The ACLU and psychiatrist Thomas Szasz demanded his release! Walker was released from the insane asylum in only four days – with all but an apology. 7.3) A Mississippi Grand Jury acquitted Walker of all charges stemming from the Ole Miss riots in January 1963. 7.4) The John Birch Society published a 1963 book, "Invasion of Mississippi," by Earl Lively, condemning JFK and defending Edwin Walker with regard to the Ole Miss riots. 7.5) In early February 1963 Walker went on a coast-to-coast speaking tour with segregationist preacher Billy James Hargis, to the irritation of American liberals (like Michael and Ruth Paine, George and Jeanne De Mohrenschildt and Volkmar Schmidt). 7.6) During this rightist tour, liberals in Dallas worked on Lee Harvey Oswald to turn his hostility away from the Bay of Pigs and onto General Walker. They used psychological methods for this (as Volkmar Schmidt admitted). 7.7) Then Oswald purchased a rifle and a gun and began toying with photographs of himself as a modern Robin Hood -- and probably made fake photo variations of Marina’s single photo, at his workplace at Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall, which had sophisticated camera equipment. Roscoe White was probably one of his models for Oswald’s variations (which would give Oswald plausible deniability, if needed). The Worker newspaper later admitted receiving one of these photos from Oswald. 7.8) The very night after Edwin Walker returned from his coast-to-coast speaking tour, Lee Harvey Oswald tried to kill Walker in his own home in Dallas – but he missed. 7.9) Edwin Walker believed that JFK and RFK sent Lee Harvey Oswald to kill him. He was enraged. This is clear from his pesonal papers. At this point, a former US General became personally involved in the Cuban connection of revenge against JFK. I think there is ample evidence for this. 8.0) You suspect, Larry, that Walker, a former US General, had become incompetent to organize anything. Yet only one month before the JFK murder, Walker personally organized the John Birch Society humiliation of Adlai Stevenson in Dallas. 8.1) Note that Walker organized the Adlai attack on October 23rd, and was nowhere in town the next night, October 24th, when his Team carried out their orders with precision. 9.0) You suggest that Oswald’s trek in Mexico City was to become involved in the CIA details of the Dallas Operation – and that would be a fair guess – except nobody has enough evidence to draw a conclusion about the Mexico City episode, yet. 9.1) Insofar as Oswald was the patsy, it would have been folly for the Operators to involve Oswald too much in the details. 9.2) Oswald took his INCA credentials – his NOLA newspaper clippings – to Mexico City. Bannister and Butler evidently lied to Oswald – i.e. Oswald believed that he could get easy passage into Cuba (probably to kill Fidel Castro) because he was an FPCC officer. 9.3) Bannister and Butler knew that was a lie. They knew Oswald would be turned down in the first few moments he applied. Even the Cuban Embassy was not that sloppy. 9.4) Oswald was dashed – he was probably led to believe during his Sheep-dip that he would be given a ton of money and a parade for his role in the Cuba caper. Or, if he failed, he would get nothing. 9.5) Thus, after failing, the real Operators were there in Mexico City to pick up the broken pieces of Lee Oswald’s life. 9.6) Harry Dean’s memoirs suggest a viable scenario. Loran Hall and Larry Howard drove Lee Harvey Oswald to the DACA offices of Guy Gabaldon. 9.7) Gabaldon’s book, "America Betrayed," places him squarely in the John Birch Society ideology. 9.8) According to Harry Dean, Guy Gabaldon fed Lee Harvey Oswald a line – and some cash. Oswald’s new ‘task’ would be in Dallas – and he would simply sit tight and wait for instructions. 9.9) Oswald was clearly aware that something ugly was being planned -- but the details would have been kept from him. 9.10) Oswald’s role, according to Gerry Patrick Hemming, was to bring his Manlicher-Carcano rifle to the TSBD building on Fri22Nov63, and some underworld person would pick it up, and Hemming would pay Oswald double the market price for it. 9.11) That’s the last contact that Lee Harvey Oswald had with the Operators until his final moment with Jack Ruby. 10.0) Larry, you conclude that I’m missing the data showing that the Dallas Operation was organized by serious CIA and paramilitary professionals, with support from the Mafia, like Johnny Roselli and Jack Ruby. 10.1) Actually, I considered that, yet my response is Jim Garrison’s: “yes, the Mafia were involved, but at a lower level." 10.2) The Mafia does not assassinate with sniper rifles; their hits are like the hit on Lee Harvey Oswald. 10.3) I include the CIA and paramilitary because Fletcher Prouty, personally involved at close range testifies to it, and even names General Edward Lansdale as a key conspirator. 10.4) Only Operators in the CIA and Pentagon (like Ed Lansdale) could organize the autopsy manipulation, the media and the control of the Warren Commission; granted. 10.5) Still, former FBI Agent and whistle-blower, Wesley Swearingen, also stops with a CIA-Mafia plot, and my reply to Swearingen is this: I think you underestimate the ground-crew. 10.6) The ground-crew in Dallas had to include the Dallas Police. This was made clear by Penn Jones and Roger Craig. Dealey Plaza was always under complete control of Dallas Police. 10.7) The parking lot behind the picket fence of the grassy knoll was actually a parking lot for Dallas policemen. Dallas Deputy Sheriff Roger Craig said that all DPD officers who rented a space there got a key for the one lock for the one gate in that entire lot. It was always closed to the public. 10.8) Just because no on-duty DPD cops were scheduled to be there at that hour, that says nothing about off-duty cops. 10.9) Philips and Wilson claim photographic evidence of multiple uniformed policemen behind the picket fence at the moment of the JFK murder. 10.10) William Turner wrote that membership in an extreme right-wing organization was practically mandatory for all DPD officers in 1963. 10.11) One of the most active right-wing organizations in Dallas in 1963 was the "Friends of Walker." I’m currently researching the membership of DPD officers in the Friends of Walker organization. I think Wes Swearingen is missing this critical piece of history. I invite further participation in my exploration of the organizational powers of Ex-General Edwin Walker. I conclude with the observation that the memoirs of Harry Dean place Ex-General Walker at one of the highest points of power with regard to the JFK murder. Loran Hall and Larry Howard figure larger in the Dallas Operation than ordinarily thought. The same is true of Gerry Patrick Hemming. The same is true of Ex-General Edwin Walker. Best regards, --Paul Trejo

Larry, thanks for your detailed reply. Here's my feedback: (1) When I say Oswald had “accomplices” I mean it ironically. Oswald knew the people who were making him into a patsy, but obviously he didn’t know he was being made into a patsy. Still, Oswald knew them. Oswald failed to see the vast extent of the conspiracy – and how many of his associates in New Orleans were involved. Harry Dean names three central figures: Ex-General Edwin Walker (whom Oswald perhaps never met but tried to kill), Loran Hall and Larry Howard (who arguably drove Oswald to Silvia Odio's door). Others include David Ferrie, Clay Shaw, Guy Bannister, Carlos Bringuier, Carlos Quiroga, Ed Butler, Gerry Patrick Hemming, Jack Ruby and perhaps some trusted members of DRE and Interpen. (Most of these people had been gun runners and suppliers for Cuba’s revolution and counter-revolution. Harry Dean falls into this same category, which fact supports his account.) (2) Oswald was unknowingly involved in the JFK shooting. He realized far too late that he had been made their patsy. He might have survived his fate if only he had blurted out their names to the News Media when he had the chance – yet even then he behaved as though he still had a chance of obtaining “legal assistance.” (3) Yes, the FBI treated Oswald as a potential informant after he returned from the USSR. He was perhaps an “informal” source of information who received small sums from the local FBI (as described by Wes Swearingen). Everything changed when FBI Agents had to conform to Hoover’s dictum that Oswald must be the "Lone Assassin." (4) It seems to me, however, that Oswald was openly Anti-Castro to those who knew him well -- i.e. the conspirators. These right-wing insiders knew this by Oswald's visible relationship to Shaw, Ferrie and Banister, who were fairly well-known. Ed Butler and Carlos Bringuier played along with Bannister's fake FPCC scenario and organized a media campaign around it in August 1963. Anti-Castro types made a deal with Oswald through Shaw and Bannister in which Oswald would present himself as Pro-Castro. This is when confusion arose within the Cuban Exile community; Oswald got a street reputation of being a double-agent or a secret Communist (as Silvia Odio’s relatives had warned her about Oswald). Thus pro-Castro posers and perhaps some pro-Castro types would later be fooled by Oswald's charade. (5) It seems to me (based partly on Harry Dean's memoirs) that Bannister's “sheep-dipping” program was ordered and directed by Ex-General Edwin Walker. I say Walker sought revenge for Oswald's shooting at him back in April 1963. Walker and Bannister were Minutemen pals – so this was the most secret pact of all. Even the DRE and Interpen might have been ignorant of this pact. (6) We seem to agree that the Odio Incident clashed head-on with J. Edgar Hoover’s demand that Lee Oswald must be the “Lone Assassin.” Arlen Specter would do anything to force all evidence into the “Lone Assassin” theory, even hiding or destroying evidence if necessary. I suspect, however, that Specter’s motivation was purely sycophantic and ambitious. (7) Not only did Hoover document his conclusions by December, but even as early as 29 November 1963, Hoover’s phone call to LBJ already set out the main details of the “Lone Assassin” theory – which remained intact for the remainder of the Warren Commission Hearings. (8) I agree with you, Larry, that FBI reports about the DRE are missing because Oswald was probably a major topic of discussion among the DRE, and Hoover could never afford to make that public. (9) Regarding Hall, Howard and Bannister – and also Hemming – if I can place them together at any point in 1963, I feel justified in naming them all as core conspirators. Hemming told Weberman that he himself offered Oswald double the market price for his rifle if Oswald would bring it to the TSBD on 22 November 1963 – thus Hemming confessed to being a conspirator. (10) My theory affirms your suspicion that the mainstream right-wing found Oswald on their radar specifically because of the “sheep dipping” farce accomplished by the individuals I named above in New Orleans during the summer of 1963. Harry Dean’s memoirs suggest exactly the same scenario. It was the media events in New Orleans featuring Lee Harvey Oswald as an outspoken and courageous officer of the FPCC that caught the attention of the John Birch Society in San Marino, California. Yet even Harry Dean did not realize at that time that Ex-General Edwin Walker had previously planned with Guy Bannister to “sheep-dip” Oswald as early as Easter Sunday, 1963 – the very date that Walker learned from some government official that Lee Harvey Oswald was a suspect in his April shooting (according to Walker's personal papers). Days later, David Ferrie would invite Oswald to New Orleans for a "special task," IMHO. That's when Oswald moved to NOLA in 1963. (11) To link the New Orleans “sheep dip” to the JFK murder in Dallas, I would name five suspects: (i) Ex-General Edwin Walker; (ii) mercenary Gerry Patrick Hemming; (iii) mercenary Larry Howard; (iv) mercenary Loran Hall; and (v) DRE leader Carlos Bringuier. All five moved freely between New Orleans and Dallas. I see how you connect the dots, Larry. I think that these extra connections that Harry Dean and I offer will harmonize fairly well with your own connections. Please tell me if you think I’ve missed something major. Best regards, --Paul Trejo

Larry, I wonder if our assessment of the material will be so different. Your SWHT/2010 suggests that the testimony of Silvia Odio shows that Lee Oswald was not a lone nut, but clearly involved with others in secret activities in the Fall of 1963. You suggest that the Odio incident illustrates some of the methods the FBI used to forge an image of Oswald as an “loose cannon”. You also associate Oswald with individuals from Cuba – either pro-Castro or anti-Castro, or (like Harry Dean) first pro-Castro and later anti-Castro. Gaeton Fonzi presented a similar portrait (The Last Investigation, 1993) when he delved into the Cuban connection with regard to Lee Harvey Oswald. You both see in Odio's case the lengths to which the FBI was willing to go to avoid any evidence that Oswald had accomplices, and to protect their sources and their own activities. Your book, Larry, portrays the FBI report to the Warren Commission as a deliberate deception. The FBI reported that Silvia Odio had simply mistaken William Seymour for Lee Harvey Oswald on her doorstep during the final week of September, 1963. Actually, the FBI knew that Seymour, Howard and later Loran Hall had all denied the claim, and the alibis of Seymour and Howard were verified. Further, FBI files reported that both Silvia and Annie Odio failed to identify Hall, Howard or Seymour as their visitors. Other FBI records showed that Hall and Howard arrived in Dallas around October 3, staying a few days; and that Hall and Seymour arrived in Dallas on October 17 and were arrested on drugs charges. The FBI withheld all this from the Warren Commission. Finally, as we saw yesterday, Loran Hall had also been retained for questioning regarding the JFK assassination in late November 1963, about redeeming the rifle of Gerry Patrick Hemming pawned to Richard Hathcock and Roy Payne during September 1963. This was also withheld from the Warren Commission. Then, Larry, you introduce another figure, Carlos Quiroga from New Orleans. An associate of Carlos Bringuier and the DRE, this Quiroga was known for his claims that Lee (Leon) Oswald was a US-hating Communist, and that Quiroga tried to infiltrate Oswald's FPCC chapter in New Orleans, posing as a Castro supporter. Still, the FBI omits any record of interviews with Quiroga after the JFK murder, even though he might have supported the FBI case that Oswald was a Communist lunatic. Jim Garrison in 1967 did interview Quiroga at length, and linked Lee Oswald with Guy Banister through Quiroga, the DRE and Carlos Bringuier. For this exploration, Jim Garrison was energetically opposed by both the FBI and the CIA. In its own files on Guy Bannister, the CIA linked him with a project code-named QK/ENCHANT from 1960, which involved both Clay Shaw and E. Howard Hunt. It is well known that Oswald wrote a letter to the FPCC on August 4, 1963, telling them about his street brawl with Cuban Exiles over the status of Castro’s Cuba, and that the police became involved. It is also well-known that this letter was mailed 12 full days before this event actually took place near Canal Street and was reported by New Orleans police. Then, Larry, you add a new wrinkle; actually Carlos Quiroga delivered these FPCC leaflets to Oswald before the street brawl. This batch of the FPCC leaflets was stamped with the 544 Camp Street address, and was paid for in receipts traceable to the CIA. Quiroga and Bringuier both lied to investigators; actually Quiroga visited Oswald before the street brawl, and not afterwards. Also, Oswald's landlady saw Quiroga arrive with a stack of FPCC leaflets, 5 or 6 inches thick; not “one or two leaflets” as Quiroga claimed. Like David Ferrie, Quiroga was a friend of Sergio Arcacha-Smith and his CRC during the period when many Cubans (and Americans like Harry Dean) supported Fidel Castro before turning against him. The CIA, reports Larry Hancock, evaluated Quiroga as a possible CIA asset. Quiroga was passed over, however, because he was gay (and considered more prone to blackmail in those days) and he made too many anti-USA statements. You suggest, Larry, that Quiroga gave the CIA much inside information about the Garrison case while he was a witness for Garrison. Quiroga also led Garrison astray, so Garrison forced Quiroga to take a lie-detector test. That test showed that Quiroga often lied about Oswald, Oswald's accomplices and some sort of a conspiracy. The lie-detector test also demonstrated that Carlos Quiroga knew Lee Harvey Oswald quite well, and that Oswald was involved somehow in some sort of an anti-Castro operation. Quiroga also knew about the ‘heavy-set Mexican’ often seen with Oswald. You also suggest, Larry, that “a considerable number” of reports about the DRE during the summer and autumn of 1963 that mention Oswald in New Orleans “are either missing or unreleased.” I myself see connections of this material with the memoirs of Harry Dean. Firstly, that ‘heavy set Mexican’ is most likely Larry Howard, the frequent companion of Loran Hall. Secondly, Loran Hall is a significant player in New Orleans training camps for Cuban raids, such as the one in Lake Pontchartrain which was organized by Guy Bannister and David Ferrie. Thirdly, Gerry Patrick Hemming and his Interpen mercenaries were occasionally seen at Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana, just as they were occasionally seen at Ex-General Walker’s home in Dallas, Texas. Fourth, Carlos Bringuier was known to make political speeches for the DRE at events that included Ex-General Walker and segregationist Reverend Billy James Hargis. (Walker admitted to the Warren Commission that he made a cash donation to the DRE). Harry Dean has been saying since 1965 that Lee Harvey Oswald had accomplices, and he has provided the names of those accomplices he knew about. By connecting Lee Harvey Oswald to the DRE in this way, you are, Larry, without even trying, linking Lee Harvey Oswald to the same personnel cited in Harry Dean’s memoirs, and thus your findings and the memoirs of Harry Dean agree once again. Best regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

Larry, I'm finally ready to discuss your 2010 edition of Someone Would Have Talked (SWHT), from "Appendix H: Odio Revisited." You're correct that the direction of your assessment is significantly different than the direction that I'll take the same information in light of Harry Dean's memoirs -- and yet there are intereting similarities as well. I'll deal with one small part at a time. Today I'd like to start on the common issue of Loran Hall. I've often asked how the FBI could so quickly pick up Loran Hall for questioning after Silvia Odio sketchily described the two Latinos at her door with Lee Harvey Oswald during the final week of September 1963. Larry Hancock's excellent book, SWHT (2010), offers important clues in this regard. (First, a word about the spelling of Silvia's name in JFK literature. Gaeton Fonzi uses the Spanish spelling, Silvia, while most authors use the English spelling, Sylvia. Following Fonzi, I use the Spanish spelling. Also, the name, Lee Oswald, rendered in Spanish is "Leon Oswald" because in Spanish there is no boy's name of "Lee". A typical Spaniard, hearing the name "Lee," would think of the Chinese surname, "Li." The proper first name, in Spanish, would be "Leon." This is most likely why Lorenzo named Oswald as "Leon" to Silvia.) Anyway, in SWHT (2010) you note that Loran Hall was well-known to the FBI long before they picked him up regarding the Odio Incident. Hall is mentioned in several FBI reports going back to 1959, and was actually a subject of a separate JFK murder investigation. As you noted, this FBI investigation began on 23 November 1963 when pawn-broker Richard Hathcock told the FBI that Loran Hall and Gerry Patrick Hamming pawned Hemming's 30-06 rifle together. Two weeks before the JFK murder, Loran Hall and "a fat Mexican fellow" (probably Larry Howard) brought Hathcock enough money to reclaim the rifle. (Many here may recall the story told on this Forum in 2007 by Gerry Patrick Hemming, namely, that Loran Hall redeemed Hemming's rifle from a pawn shop in California and took it to Dallas, thus infuriating Hemming.) Richard Hathcock didn't go to the FBI -- the FBI came to Hathcock promptly after the JFK murder to ask Hathcock about his employee, Roy Payne, in connection with that 30-06 rifle. Here is what Hathcock told the HSCA in 1978: "It's my opinion that the reason the FBI agent wanted to see Mr. Payne was because Payne's fingerprints undoubtedly were all over that rifle from his having handled it many times. It's also my opinion that unless that particular rifle had been...in some way involved in the assassination, that the FBI would have no interest in it." The FBI also questioned Roy Payne on 23 November 1963, who told them that he'd seen Loran Hall five days before the JFK murder, and asked about his raids on Cuba. Hall told Payne that the CIA stopped his Miami operations. In 1978 Payne told the HSCA that the FBI had secretly searched Hathcock's offices and truck and spied on them for a long time. Roy Payne also told the FBI that he saw Loran Hall two weeks after the JFK murder, and that Hall admitted he was in Dallas on that day -- "right in the middle of the lobby of the Hilton Hotel." (Gerry Patrick Hemming -- again on this Forum in 2007 -- stated that he had information that Loran Hall was in Dallas 22 November 1963.) Loran Hall repeatedly denied to the FBI that he was in Dallas on that date, yet the HSCA made Hall admit that on that date he phoned a relative to establish an alibi! Also as you reported, Larry, the word of Loran Hall was "considered questionable" by the FBI as early as 1959. Both the CIA and the FBI have statements from Loran Hall during September 1963 about his speeches in California to raise funds for raids on Cuba. Oddly, the John Birch Society paid for a private lie detector test for Loran Hall, to verify some of these statements to the FBI and CIA. There are further FBI and CIA files on Loran Hall regarding the arrest of Loran Hall and William Seymour in Dallas in October 1963 (when Edwin Walker's attorney, Robert Morris, found bail for them). Significantly, as you note, Larry, none of this background on Loran Hall shows up in the FBI's report to the Warren Commission about the Silvia Odio incident. The FBI simply withheld this information from the President's Commission. So, Larry, I think your exposition goes a long way toward explaining why the FBI picked up Loran Hall after the sketchy description that Silvia Odio gave the FBI regarding the two Latinos with Oswald at her door in September 1963. Also as you noted, it still leaves open the question about why the FBI picked up Roy Payne about Gerry Patrick Hemming's rifle on 23 November 1963. Harry Dean's memoirs confirm several aspects of your account. Loran Hall was a regular speaker at the John Birch Society in Southern California, raising funds (and supplies) for raids on Cuba. Larry Howard was his frequent companion. Hall and Howard often traveled between Miami and Los Angeles together, running guns and drugs. Loran Hall was also an aggressive, shady character who could rarely be trusted. Harry Dean told me that Larry Howard once confessed to Harry that he felt like killing Loran Hall. Hall comes to life on YouTube today, in a recording of his standard speech, "Cuba Betrayed," which Harry Dean has preserved for history: LORAN HALL, Part One: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6daWtQYlydQ LORAN HALL, Part Two: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kLVVHQ_Myg Loran Hall was more closely connected to Interpen and Gerry Patrick Hemming than Harry Dean knew, but Harry Dean did know that Loran Hall and Larry Howard were deeply connected to many anti-Castro groups from Florida to California. It seems to me that Loran Hall plays a bigger role in the JFK assassination than has been attributed to him by most JFK research literature. Hall's role includes General Walker, who also played a leading role in the humiliation of Adlai Stevenson in Dallas one month before the murder of JFK. Hall's role also includes Gerry Patrick Hemming -- a player in your scenario, Larry, who is missing in Harry Dean's scenario. Yet your citation of Hemming's connection to Hall using FBI records turns out to be an important confirmation of Harry Dean's story, because it more firmly establishes Loran Hall as a key suspect in the murder of JFK. Best regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

Well, Larry, I agree with viewpoint this entirely. Of course, if somebody conclusively "solves" the JFK murder, and if that clear solution excludes Ex-General Edwin Walker as a key conspirator, then I would publicly renounce my theory. I would still claim that Harry Dean saw what he saw -- but I would change my mind about how much weight to give Harry's memoirs. That is, we know that there were many, many plots to murder JFK -- and that only one plot among them was successful. So, if it turns out that some other plot was successful, then Harry Dean only saw one of the many plots develop, which like most other plots just fizzled away. Former FBI Agent Wesley Swearingen says that Harry Dean and Don Adams heard somebody talk about killing JFK, but those plots just fizzled away, while the CIA-Mafia plot was the only plot that was successful. I replied to Swearingen that he fails to account sufficiently for Lee Harvey Oswald. Also, the ground-crew barely interests Swearingen; he's satisfied to identify the major planners and financiers. The vitality of Harry Dean's account is that it accounts for Lee Harvey Oswald -- and only a plot that accounts for Lee Harvey Oswald can claim to be the "winner" in the contest of plots. It may be that Harry Dean's version of the JFK plot accounts for more data than Swearingen's. Also, Harry's account is more flexible -- with a wider reach than first anticipated -- even by Harry himself. For example, in the early decades after the JFK murder, Harry Dean believed that the conspiracy he witnessed was the whole show -- so Harry Dean just announced that the Mormon Church was in control of the John Birch Society which controlled General Walker and Guy Gabaldon who controlled Loran Hall and Larry Howard. This was how it appeared to Harry Dean based on the specific events he personally witnessed in Southern California. Today Harry Dean recognizes that the Mormon Church never was in control of the John Birch Society -- even though in 1963 Ezra Taft Benson, president of the LDS, had a close political relationship with Robert Welch, founder of the JBS. Subsequent presidents of the LDS distanced themselves from the JBS as far as possible. So, Harry eventually changed his interpretation of the facts he saw. For another example, in those early decades Harry Dean strongly suspected that Loran Hall and Larry Howard were the shooters themselves. Today it is clear that identifying the shooters amongst the many claimants, including Roscoe White, Eladio Del Valle, JD Tippit, Johnny Roselli, James Files and many more, will not be so easy. For another example, in those early decades Harry Dean had no idea that Ex-General Walker and Congressman John Rousselot were politically connected to White racists in the US South. Harry Dean never saw a racist connection among the Southern California JBS or inside the Minutemen under Troy Houghton. Today, however, we see photos showing Rousselot posing under JBS billboards announcing, "Impeach Earl Warren," a famous rallying cry for school segregationists. Also, the fact that Edwin Walker led the race riots at Ole Miss in 1962 is clear evidence. The reason Harry Dean failed to see that connection in 1963 was because the JBS directly spun the Ole Miss riots to make it appear that JFK was the bad guy and Edwin Walker was the good guy in those riots -- Edwin Walker was merely fighting "Communism" (as the racist right wing liked to call Civil Rights), said the JBS. Harry Dean believed the JBS propaganda at the time. Today Harry Dean can see those historical nuances. So, even Harry Dean himself has changed his assessment of the JFK murder plot that he actually witnessed in September 1963 in the headquarters of the San Marino chapter of the JBS. The events that Harry Dean personally witnessed form a part of the whole puzzle -- they don't form the entire puzzle. Yet a part that is truly a part can be used -- scientifically -- to reconstruct the entire puzzle; for example, when a paleontologist reconstructs an entire dinosaur from a few bones. That is how I regard the memoirs of Harry Dean. Harry has a major piece of the puzzle to offer JFK researchers, and it has been undervalued for decades, in my opinion. That's why I followed the posts of John Dolva, who spent a lot of time on the JFK Forum researching the role of the radical right-wing in the murder of JFK. That's why I also follow your writings, Larry, when you piece together evidence about Walker in Miami, for example, or Walker dealing with the extreme right wing. In my theory, Ex-General Edwin Walker fits inside a larger scenario that involves the poliitcs of the South, where the JBS was a major force in 1962-1963. The clash of the JBS with the Civil Rights movement in the early 1960's is best shown, I believe, in the Ole Miss race riots of 1962 and the JBS defense of Edwin Walker in those riots. Those riots display the mood that murdered JFK. Remember that 1963 was the year in which Alabama Governor George Wallace gave his "Segregation Now, Segregation Forever" speech. The JBS played a major role in connecting the White racist South with the more moderate North by arguing that Civil Rights was Communist. In this way, non-racists like Harry Dean could be exploited for Southern, racist politics. This was the key -- here is the connection that combines many different JFK theories into a larger theory. The JBS formula, that Civil Rights was Communist, brought together vast multitudes of people from the far right and the center wings in politics, so that a critical mass was formed that was too powerful for JFK to handle. The far right turned to Cuban Exiles and the problem of Cuba. Now Loran Hall and Larry Howard enter the picture. In my theory, rogue elements from the CIA were involved -- specifically those who had served at the Bay of Pigs, and who could enlist radical Cuban Exiles and Mafia bosses kicked out of Cuba. These CIA-Mafia elements supported paramilitary training camps in Florida and Louisiana -- and in those camps we find Interpen, including Gerry Patrick Hemming, Loran Hall and Larry Howard. Active JBS members supported these paramilitary training camps -- by sending them guns and medical supplies. Harry Dean and Guy Gabaldon were two of the more active suppliers of these training camps from their base in Southern California. Harry's memoirs don't mention Gerry Patrick Hemming or Interpen -- probably because Loran Hall and Larry Howard never spoke of them, although Hall and Howard were friendly with Harry Dean in Southern California, because Harry Dean was a capable organizer of supplies for these training camps. Harry Dean collected arms, but also medical supplies (drugs) for the many trips that Loran Hall and Larry Howard made between California and Florida, running guns and drugs to these paramilitary training camps. Harry Dean, however, was only directly informed about paramilitary activities run by Gabaldon (e.g. DACA) by Loran Hall (e.g. CRC), and the Southern California Minutemen. That is, Harry Dean himself did not see the bigger picture in the early decades -- but in his work with me during the past year, Harry Dean has reorganized his conclusions about what he personally witnessed. Best regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

Right, Tommy, my sentence in post #942 was beyond ambiguous, it was sloppy. I had intended to write that Silvia Odio testified under oath to the grouping of Lee Harvey Oswald and two Latinos (whom the FBI later identified as Loran Hall and Larry Howard) on the road together from New Orleans during the last week of September 1963, and that this fact matches Harry Dean's story. I didn't intend to imply that Sylvia Odio knew their destination -- so I just now changed post #942 to clarify my original intent. Thanks again for the correction. Silvia Odio confirms half of Harry Dean's claim about that week -- but she has nothing to say about the other half. Regarding the other half of Harry Dean's claim -- you are again right -- the claim that the three men were going to Mexico City together only comes from Harry Dean, and we have no other sources for that specific claim -- although there are nuances. As most everybody here knows, the Warren Commission places Lee Harvey Oswald on a bus to Mexico City at this date -- however, the bus records and the people on that bus were all examined -- and they failed to confirm the Warren Commission story. (Gaeton Fonzi writes about this at length.) Still, the Warren Commission stuck to the bus story, and dismissed Silvia Odio's story. The Warren Commission claims that Lee Harvey Oswald was certainly on the road to Mexico City sometime during the final week of September 1963. The Warren Commission claims that Oswald was certainly in Mexico City sometime during the first week of October 1963. So, for the Warren Commission to insist that Lee Harvey Oswald had no accomplices, they had to squash Silvia Odio's story. The Warren Commission used an impeached affidavit from Loran Hall to argue that. This is why Gaeton Fonzi attempted to revive this argument in 1978 -- but he was too late; the leads were no longer warm. My point is that the memoirs of Harry Dean successfully revive the testimony of Silvia Odio. Harry confirms her testimony without even trying. And furthermore, Silvia Odio confirms half of Harry Dean's story without even trying. Finally - a judicious combination of the stories by Silvia Odio with FBI interviews can be interpreted to argue that Loran Hall, Larry Howard and Lee Harvey Oswald rode in a car together during the final week of September 1963, stopped at Silvia Odio's house seeking funds and support, then traveled to Mexico City where Oswald's name (but not his photo) shows up at the Cuban and Russian Embassies before Oswald returns to the USA and Dallas, Texas. It is this combination that arguably confirms Harry's fuller account of the final week of September 1963. Best regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

Well, Paul B., it's a great question. As Larry Hancock once observed, Loran Hall was an unreliable witness - he had become accustomed to wiggling out of everything. The trouble with Loran Hall's denials that he met SIlvia Odio was that he contradicted his own previous statement. The FBI has Loran Hall on record admitting that he did meet Silvia Odio at her apartment in Dallas, Texas during the final week of September 1963. In his first statement, Loran Hall admitted that he met with Silvia Odio in Dallas during the final week of September 1963, however, he and Larry Howard weren't with Lee Harvey Oswald that evening (it was about 7pm) as Silvia Odio claimed, but with William Seymour. Therefore, argued, Loran Hall, Silvia Odio could not link Hall and Howard to Lee Harvey Oswald. Silvia could be excused because she was seeing a psychiatrist -- and was therefore "a mental case." If Loran Hall's first statement had been -- "No, I never met Silvia Odio in Dallas," then I would have believed him with little problem. But since he first admitted seeing Silvia Odio -- and then only denied seeing Silvia Odio in a second report, one week later -- I cannot believe his second report. In his second report, Hall "remembered" that it wasn't Seymour, it was "Wahito" and it wasn't Odio, it was "somebody else." Hall merely repeated his second report to Jim Garrison four years later. Also, review Loran Hall's description of the events surrounding his first report. He gave this information to Jim Garrison four years later (in 1968) and it is also printed in the National Enquirer dated 1 September 1968 -- specifically -- Loran Hall said that after speaking with the FBI about Silvia Odio, he escaped two attempts to kill him! One of the attempts was a tampering with his car steering that almost got him killed. The other attempt was somebody trying to run his car off a California cliff; and he barely escaped. Loran Hall did not tell the National Enquirer who tried to kill him, but he quickly changed his story to the FBI. No -- no -- it's not that Silvia Odio mistook William Seymour for Lee Harvey Oswald -- because actually it wasn't Seymour, it was "Wahito," who accompanied Howard and Hall -- and the Cuban lady they visited was somebody else -- but he couldn't remember who she was! So -- based on this 180 degree change in direction, I say that Loran Hall was terrified of telling the truth about Silvia Odio -- because he realized too late that he could not wiggle out of further questions that could incriminate his mercenary associates -- and they would probably kill him. One only has to look at Loran Hall's latest interview when he was asked about Gerry Patrick Hemming -- and he practically became violent on the spot. He was terrified, I believe, of meeting the same fate as Johnny Roselli, Sam Giancana and so many other dead witnesses regarding 22 November 1963. (Combined with the probabiilty that he was also addicted to amphetimines -- yes, I believe that Loran Hall had become an unreliable witness), The mystery is not Loran Hall's late denials -- the mystery is twofold: (1) how the FBI quickly picked up Loran Hall based on Silvia Odio's description, when she could not remember his name or identify him from photographs; and (2) why Loran Hall immediately confessed to the FBI that he and Larry Howard were at Silvia Odio's apartment during the final week of September 1963. Best regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

Right, Tommy, I meant 1963. Thanks for catching my typo (which I corrected). To elaborate -- we have FBI documents (on the Mary Ferrell site) that describe multiple trips taken by Loran Hall and Larry Howard from Florida through New Orleans to California and back again -- running weapons and medical supplies (drugs) to support continuing raids against Castro's Cuba. The FBI also named William Seymour as one of the gun-runners in that crew. The connecting link for all three figures was that they were all members of Interpen, led by Gerry Patrick Hemming. The FBI also names Hemming in connection with Hall, Howard and Seymour. The FBI also tells about Hemming and Hall pawning some of their possessions in California in late 1963, including Hemming's own rifle -- and Loran Hall later picking up Hemming's rifle from the pawn broker -- without telling Hemming! This made Hemming furious -- and about seven years ago, on this very Forum, Gerry Patrick Hemming retold that story with anger still seething for Loran Hall. Hemming later became more enraged because this happened shortly before 22 November 1963 (when Hemming was allegedly in Florida), and on 22 November 1963, Hemming panicked because he had information that Loran Hall was in Dallas on 22 November 1963 -- with Hemming's rifle! As for Silvia Odio -- my understanding is that she never mentions the Mexico City trip. The three travelers tell her that they drove in from New Orleans, and they also tell her that they cannot stay in Dallas -- but they never tell Silvia their destination. So, Silvia never guesses that they are on their way to Mexico City -- she only knows that they will be leaving Dallas soon. Finally, as for the role of Hall and Howard inside Mexico City, aside from drivers and escorts -- Harry Dean has very few details to share, but only some suggestions from what he was told in Southern California. For Harry Dean, there is no guarantee that Lee Harvey Oswald was ever at the Cuban and Russian Embassies in Mexico City. He might have been -- that is, Marina Oswald said that Lee took many newspaper clippings to Mexico City to "prove" that he was an officer of the FPCC (because FPCC officers were allowed into Cuba instantly). However, that might have taken only an hour or so to flop -- because the Cuban Embassy had its own list of FPCC Officers, and since Lee Harvey Oswald was not on the officlal List, the clerks would only laugh in his face. They would instantly know that Oswald was a provacateur. At this point (or even before this point) actors and impersonators could pretend to be Oswald at the Embassies.for whatever games the CIA wanted to play. (Hall and Howard were not needed at the Embassies -- there were plenty of CIA rogues there that day.) All that is irrelevant for Harry Dean's account in which the key drama was about a group called DACA (Drive Against Communist Aggression) that was set up in Mexico City by Guy Gabaldon (with funding from the JBS). The real reason that Hall and Howard drove Lee Oswald to Mexico City during the final week of September, 1963, according to Harry Dean, was to meet with Guy Gabaldon. What did the meeting consist of? Harry Dean was not there -- and he got no meeting details from the participants. Harry can only surmise based on the meetings he attended in the headquarters of the San Marino branch of the JBS -- Lee Oswald was being fooled to participate in a JFK plot in Dallas. What would Oswald's role be? Simply to sit and wait for further instructions. Oswald received a modest amount of cash for this. He would live in Dallas, work near the expected motorcade route, and wait for instructions. It is interesting that Loran Hall and Larry Howard had a close working relationship with Gerry Patrick Hemming. (Thus we see from his associations that Lee Oswald circulated personally among the extreme right-wing, and only communicated with the extreme left-wing using postal letters.) I mention this because Gerry Patrick Hemming admitted to Alan Weberman that he personally offered Lee Harvey Oswald double the cash value for his Manlicher-Carcano if Oswald would bring it to work on 22 November 1963, and stash it on the 6th floor for his underground pal to find! Best regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

A Los Angeles FBI memo dated 4 Sep 1964 on the subject LORAN EUGENE HALL -- written around the time of Silvia Odio's questioning by the Warren Commission and the FBI -- describes a 17 Oct 1963 arrest of Loran Hall and William Seymour in Dallas, Texas. (It is included in FBI Record Number 124-10216-10157.) The arrest occurred in the 6000 block of North Central Expressway by Officers KW Heard and RC Wagner. The charge was possession of dangerous drugs. They were driving a 1955 Oldsmobile with Florida plates and they possessed eight bottles of drugs, namely, Appetrol, Dexedrine and Paregoric. The DPD called in the FBI regarding interstate transport. Loran Hall told the FBI that the accused were members of CRC (Cuban Revolutionary Council) based in Miami, and they collected these drugs from medical doctors in California, whose names he refused to disclose. The CRC conducted bombing raids on Castro's Cuba, and these doctors were sympathetic to the soldiers involved. Loran Hall said that the camera in his possession had been donated to him by the John Birch Society in Dallas. In his possession he also had a photograph of himself with Gerry Patrick Hemming. He used the alias Lorenzo Hall. Detective Stringfellow described Loran Hall as 'emotionally disturbed' and William Seymour as 'definitely neurotic.' (Thus we confirm that police and FBI Agents often think of themselves as qualified psychologists.) The memo offered a further description of Loran Hall: Age 33, born 4 Jan 1930 in Newton, Kansas. Height 5'11" and weight 185 pounds -- his lawyer was Robert Morris who obtained bond for the two men and had them released. I note for the Forum that this same lawyer, Robert Morris, was also associated with the John Birch Society, and he was also present at the hearing of Ex-General Edwin Walker before a Grand Jury at Oxford, Mississippi to argue for the acquittal of charges against Walker. Robert Morris won that argument. Back in Kansas, the Wichita Crime Commission manager and director, Maurice Corcoran, advised that he knew Loran Hall to be a soldier of fortune, but that "Hall definitely is not the type of individual to set up a revolution." He said he considers Hall "the playboy type and not the revolutionary type." Loran Hall is one of the person's whom Harry Dean claims to have known in Southern California in 1962-1963. Hall was a frequent speaker at the John Birch Society, where he raised funds for raids on Cuba. Running guns from California to Miami in this way was perhaps Loran's Hall main source of income -- his livelihood. He was a mercenary, and he did fight with Interpen, but he also wanted to start his own group (CRC) so Hall was also in competition with Gerry Patrick Hemming. According to Harry Dean, the two mercenaries, Loran Hall and Larry Howard, accompanied Lee Harvey Oswald to Mexico City during the final week of September 1963. Harry Dean adds that this was conducted as part of their regular drug-and-gun-running activities between Southern California and Florida. ADDITION: Sylvia Odio confirmed that in the final week of September 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald was driven to her doorstep by two Latinos from the radical right-wing, who claimed: (1) to have come from New Orleans: (2) to be members of JURE; (3) to have been in contact with her father languishing in a Cuban prison; and (4) that this American, "Leon Oswald", was intent on murdering JFK. The FBI, in response to her story, picked up Loran Hall and Larry Howard -- I'm still trying to find out why. Best regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos; 1963, not 1962; Addition>

Larry, even though the method of 'pick your villain and work backwards' is an admittedly clumsy method -- when one is dealing with an unknown quantity of unknowns, that method at least remains a valid way of eliminating suspects. Also, if one is unable to eliminate a given suspect after years of effort, a red flag should go up. Best regards, --Paul Trejo

You didn't get an answer from Ernie on this, Paul B., because Ernie evidently keeps this a secret. I've often wondered about it myself. Why does Ernie Lazar spend month after month on this Forum thread -- since 2010 -- to try to bring down the account told by Harry Dean about the murder of JFK? I'm slowly developing a theory about it, based on the contradiction that Ernie seems to defend the JBS (John Birch Society) whenever I criticize them, and he seems to attack the JBS when I suggest that he's defending them. (Ernie takes somewhat the same attitude toward my position on the FBI.) So, it's slowly dawning on me that Ernie has no firm position yet -- but he does have a claim to fame, namely, Ernie Lazar apparently wants to be recognized as the man who brought down the JBS. To this end, Ernie has spent years on the Internet debating with members of the JBS. Also, Ernie has collected a massive amount of information from the FBI about the JBS and related cases. That's how Harry Dean came into Ernie Lazar's radar in the first place. It seems to me that years ago Ernie Lazar thought that he could just brush Harry Dean aside without much trouble. But when it couldn't be done, Ernie stepped up his efforts. Harry Dean is still standing after years of Ernie's struggle, and so Ernie has taken out all the stops and puts his whole energy into it. Imagine spending years trying to bring down the JBS, but then watching in astonishment as some professional plasterer, some 8th grade graduate, some stately old Veteran of World War 2, effortlessly accomplishes what Ernie Lazar has struggled for a whole career to accomplish! As superficial as that may sound, it's the only explanation that I see today that fits all the available evidence. Ernie is jealous of Harry Dean's historical role. Insofar as Harry Dean's story is true and correct, then Ex-General Edwin Walker and other leaders in the JBS were at the center of a cyclone that murdered JFK -- and this is the most damaging testimony against the JBS in all of American history. Ernie Lazar cannot abide that Harry Dean will get the credit for this historical revelation, so Ernie tries again and again to discredit Harry Dean's story -- through any means possible -- and Ernie seems to be getting desperate about it. Yet the linkage between the JBS and the murder of JFK is not unique to Harry Dean. Professor David Wrone of the University of Wisconsin history department said this in the last decade: "There was almost an immediate concern among people that I know that this murder had been brought about by the right wing. I know that in some communities where they had John Birch Societies men went out with axes and chopped down the John Birch Society advertisements -- immediately." (Dr. D.R. Wrone, 2005) One needs a sense of history today to grasp the common sense of Harry Dean's story. The FBI and J. Edgar Hoover tried their best to prevent this common sense from spreading through the USA, perhaps because it could have started a Civil War. (Anyway, that is giving J. Edgar Hoover the extreme benefit of the doubt.) Best regards, --Paul Trejo

Actually, I've considered contacting everybody who ever contacted Harry Dean from 1959 through 1965 -- but I don't happen to be independently wealthy or even retired. It paradoxically serves my purpose that somebody with some weird vendetta against Harry Dean's story would scour the whole wide world to try to discount that story -- because just about every bit of new information that comes up tends to support Harry Dean's story! Sincerely, --Paul Trejo

BUMP

In my humble opinion, what is missing in the account of former FBI Agent Wes Swearingen with regard to the JFK murder, is any reference to the details surrounding the career of Lee Harvey Oswald, and all the open questions that this entails. As Larry Hancock was willing to discuss in his book, Someone Would Have Talked (2010), the Warren Commission questioning of Silvia Odio is part of the open question of Lee Harvey Oswald, because she claims that she saw Lee Harvey Oswald in the final week of September 1963 at her apartment in Dallas, accompanied by two accomplices -- two Latino men. They said they just drove in from New Orleans. Those men spread lies to the effect that they knew her father (who, along with her mother, was in a Cuban prison) and that they were members of the Cuban Exile counter-revolutionary group, JURE. Later that week, one of the Latinos called her at home, and told her that Oswald said that JFK should be assassinated. This terrified her. Silvia Odio provided a thorough physical description of the two Latinos to the FBI -- although she did not know their real names (as the men had only provided their so-called war names). The FBI quickly picked up Loran Hall for questioning in this regard -- although they had nothing to go on, as far as we know, except Odio's physical description. (I suggest the FBI is not telling all it knows about the Loran Hall connection.) Anyway, Loran Hall quickly confessed that he and Larry Howard were indeed at the apartment of Silvia Odio in Dallas during the last week of September 1963, and that they were indeed soliciting funding and support for their Anti-Castro counter-revolutionary raids on Cuba. However, claimed Hall, the American with them was not Lee Harvey Oswald, but William Seymour (from Interpen) who looks a little like Lee Harvey Oswald -- therefore Silvia Odio made a simple mistake in her nervous condition. This is the story that J. Edgar Hoover rushed to the Warren Report in time for publication. However, J. Edgar Hoover had received three letters from Hall, Howard and Seymour the previous week, and he failed to tell the Warren Commission their contents, because they totally reversed Loran Hall's account above, namely: (1) William Seymour could prove that he was in Florida that week; (2) Larry Howard denied he ever visited the apartment of Silvia Odio; and (3) Loran Hall recanted his story, claiming that he, Larry and "Wahito" solicited funds in Dallas that week, but they visisted some other Cuban lady, and he can't recall her name. Knowing that Loran Hall impeached his own affidavit, J. Edgar Hoover still carried this false affidavit to the Warren Commission, and submitted it as the truth. The problem, as I say, with the account of FBI Agent Wes Swearingen is that he provides no data at all about this internal FBI affair -- and yet it remains germane to the JFK murder. We should turn to the account of Harry Dean to address this question. Harry Dean claims to be one of the people in Southern California who helped to load the cars and trucks of Loran Hall and Larry Howard as they drove guns and medical supplies (drugs) from California to Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana, to No Name Keys, Florida, and to other Cuban paramilitary camps in-between. On one particular trip, claims Harry, during the final week of September, 1963, Guy Gabaldon instructed Loran Hall and Larry Howard to pick up Lee Harvey Oswald in New Orleans, and drive him to Mexico City. The description that Silvia Odio gave to the FBI was so accurate that the FBI quickly picked up Loran Hall -- and this was so sudden that Loran Hall quickly confessed -- partly. But as Gerry Patrick Hemming often told this very Forum when he was still alive, he would never name names regarding the JFK murder, because the conspirators were still alive. When Loran Hall found that his comrades-in-arms failed to stand by his story (and Loran Hall avoided two close calls with death shortly after his confession to the FBI) he retracted his first report to the FBI. The FBI later learned that "Wahito" also denied being in Dallas that week. Yet the FBI let the matter drop -- after all, the Warren Report was published, and the FBI Director only wanted to hear about "Lone Nut" stories, not about "Accomplice" stories. (Jim Garrison would subpoena Loran Hall four years later.) Wes Swearingen's account is similar to the many other CIA-Mafia accounts we've read over the years -- the most famous perhaps being Professor Robert Blakey's, Plot to Kill the President (1981). It has much to recommend itself, but it also tends to remain at a high-level, discussing mainly meetings and money changing hands, and the vile hatred of JFK among these criminals and rogue CIA players. It never gets down to the ground-crew. Harry Dean validates the story of Silvia Odio. This is an important dimension for JFK research. Soon I'll be ready with my review of Larry Hancock's work on Silvia Odio in his book, Someone Would Have Talked, showing how a discussion of Harry Dean's memoirs can add depth to Silvia Odio's claims. Best regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

Former FBI Agent and whistle-blower, M. Wesley Swearingen released a book in 2010 entitled, To Kill a President. It is an excellent read for anybody interested in the internal behavior of the FBI with regard to the murder of JFK. In October of 1960, Wes Swearingen, an FBI Agent in Chicago, was approached by a stranger -- a member of the Cuban Exile community in Chicago who wanted to tell the FBI about a secret invasion of Cuba that was being planned in Florida by his associates along with the CIA. He called himself "Ramon." "Why me?" asked Agent Swearingen. Ramon replied, "because my people tell me I can trust you." Agent Swearingen invited Ramon into his car and listened at length to the details and the names that Ramon wanted to share. The more he listened, however, the more Swearingen thought the idea was just wild imagnation. Finally he ordered this information "source" out of his car. When the Bay of Pigs actually happened in early 1961, however, Agent Swearingen wished that he had listened more carefully to Ramon, because all the details he had heard just months beforehand unfolded in exactly the way that Ramon had told him. In October of 1962, Wes Swearingen was still working as an FBI Agent in Chicago, and he was again approached by Ramon. This time Ramon wanted to tell him about a plot to murder JFK by his associates along with the CIA -- the same personnel as previously. This time Agent Swearingen listened and took notes. Ramon named names: rogues from a CIA group called 'JM/Wave' in Florida had assembled former Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista along with mafia figures, Sam Giancana, Johnny Roselli, Santo Traficante, Carlos Marcello and Jack Ruby, as well as Bay of Pigs veterans Manual Artime, Frank Sturgis, Bill Harvey and members of Alpha-66, along with questionable Chicago cops like Richard Cain and Guy Bannister. Ramon again provided lots of detail -- and this time Agent Swearingen wrote it all down. Wes Swearingen rushed to tell his boss, Bill Roemer, who insisted that Ramon was "crazy." Agent Swearingen then escalated his report to his boss' boss, Joe Culkin, who also insisted that Ramon was "crazy." Swearingen was then willing to forget the whole thing, when suddenly he was transferred out of Chicago to Kentucky where he could work on interstate auto thefts for the rest of his FBI career. When JFK was actually murdered one year later, Wes Swearingen was stunned. He tried again to offer the information he had written down, which could have been helpful, but he quickly learned that his information flatly contradicted FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, and he was warned repeatedly that if he ever dared to contradict the Director, he would be fired on the spot. Swearingen at this point tried everything he could to obtain further information about the JFK murder from inside the FBI -- however, he was blocked at every turn. So, he made it his business to slowly gather information on the murder of JFK over the years. Among the strange events that fascinated FBI Agent Wes Swearingen, were the various sudden deaths of the very people that Ramon had named to him, whenever the JFK murder would be mentioned in national American news. A few other FBI Agents were also interested in tracking the JFK murder, and one might suppose that FBI Agents had access to insider information. Not so. In the early 1970's FBI Agent Ralph Hill, a former Chicago pal of Wes Swearingen and now in the Miami FBI tracking the mafia, told Wes, "The newspapers know more about what's going on down here in Miami than we do. We're still playing catch up just like we did in Chicago in 1959 when we had to read the papers to find out who was in the Mob." Ralph Hill could only direct Swearingen back to his original source, "Ramon," for further information about the JFK murder. I'll stop my review of Swearingeng's book here -- and I hope I've interested the reader in obtaining a copy of, To Kill a President (2010) by M. Wesley Swearingen. I was intrigued by what Ralph Hill told Swearingen, however, because it's so revealing that FBI Agents would ever need to consult civilian news media and civilian literature to learn about information that even the FBI does not have. What is the word on the street? Wes Swearingen's account of his own research showed that he was often playing "catch-up" with JFK researchers in collecting details about the JFK assassination. His advantage, of course, was that he knew which JFK researchers were warm and which were cold -- because he had, after all, spoken with "Ramon" in 1962. Still, the discoveries dug up by Mark Lane and Jim Garrison in the sixties and the seventies had not been available to the average FBI Agent, just as they were alien to the average US citizen after the Warren Commission dictated its irrational conclusion as history. That is why, in my humble opinion, the memoirs of Harry Dean will soon take on an increasing relevance in JFK research. Just like the legitimate findings of Wes Swearingen, the legitimate findings of Harry Dean were suppressed by the FBI with its "Lone Nut" version of the JFK murder. As I showed yesterday, the data of Wes Swearingen are rock solid as far as they go -- and yet I believe that they remain incomplete -- they don't reach down to the ground-crew in Dallas, to explore the personal handlers of Lee Harvey Oswald. To obtain that data we need to ask Harry Dean -- What was the word on the street? Best regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

I'm OK with the fact that I'm still gathering the evidence I need to propose finality for my theory about the JFK murder. I'm patient and I'm willing to work and to wait. Yet the pieces that we have today make a pattern that is becoming increasingly clear to me, and I'm hoping that I can convey it to others. Paul Brancato was correct to separate research about Ex-General Edwin Walker from the memoirs of Harry Dean -- because the case against Edwin Walker will stand or fall on its own merits. Harry Dean's story, however, will fall if the case against Edwin Walker falls. Nor would I feel bad if Edwin Walker was somehow exonerated -- even though I think Walker was totally wrong about Martin Luther King, the NAACP, James Meredith and Civil Rights, I continue to give Walker high marks for his heroism in World War 2 and for his accomplishments in the Korean War. Edwin Walker was, after all, a Major General from the Greatest Generation. Walker deserves our respect for his Miitary service, even if his career as a civilian was less than honorable. Yet the personal papers of Edwin Walker himself will never let us forget Walker's obsession with the murder of JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald -- an obsession which lasted from 1961 until the year he died. It is the personal papers of Edwin Walker himself that continually remind us about Lee Harvey Oswald, and how soon Edwin Walker knew that Oswald was his shooter on 10 April 1963. It was within days, wrote Walker, of that shooting. Walker told a lot of people that Lee Oswald was his April shooter, including reporters of the German newspaper, Deutsche Nationalzeitung, during the early morning of 23 November 1963 -- less than 24 hours after JFK was murdered. Ten days before Marina Oswald told the FBI about Oswald's April shooting (she told the FBI on 3 December 1963) Edwin Walker and his ANP publisher, Robert Allen Surrey were telling any newspaper reporter who would listen that Lee Harvey Oswald was also Edwin Walker's shooter back in April. Walker repeated this story contnually -- until the day he died. Walker really wanted to be associated with JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald in the public mind, and he wouldn't let anybody forget it. Even when the HSCA started up in 1977, Edwin Walker also contacted them and demanded that they investigate Lee Harvey Oswald at his home on 10 April 1963. While some people might think that this would have been too risky for any normal person (to be guilty and then call Federal attention to oneself) those people don't know the personality of Ex-General Edwin Walker. And yet Edwin Walker had the nerve to look the Warren Commission attorneys in the eye and tell them, under oath, that he never heard of Lee Harvey Oswald in his life before 22 November 1963! What keeps me intrigued about the memoirs of Harry Dean isn't simply that I find Harry believable -- despite minor gaps in his memory or in his assignment of cause. Those are normal attributes of any legitimate memoir. The amazing thing is that the key aspects of Harry's story match everything we now know about Ex-General Edwin Walker! We have personal papers showing Walker's affiliation with Gerry Patrick Hemming. That spells Interpen, and that invokes Loran Hall. Loran Hall admitted to Jim Garrison that he visited the home of Edwin Walker in Dallas in 1963. Also, one of Walker's lawyers, Robert Morris, gave Loran Hall legal assistance in Dallas in the autumn of 1963. There are real connections there. These connections exist aside from memoirs of Harry Dean -- and Harry Dean has never changed his story since 1965 -- no matter what theories have come out by anybody -- including Jim Garrison, Mark Lane, or even E.Howard Hunt himself. Harry Dean's story remains consistent over a half-century and it harmonizes with what we are learning independently about Edwin Walker today. Nor did Harry Dean ever see the personal papers of Edwin Walker (which were not available until the 21st century.) That's why I'm confident that any documentation that the FBI throws at us will eventually be proved to conform to the general contours of Harry Dean's story -- because Harry Dean is telling the TRUTH. Best regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

Former FBI Agent turned whistle-blower, Wesley Swearingen, wrote the following in 1995: "When the FBI raided my boat, insulted my wife, searched our safe deposit box and raided my attorney's office at night without a valid warrant, the idiotic FBI goons expected to walk away from all that as though nothing had ever happened. Well, something did happen. The FBI's stupidity on that day gave me a chance to go public and expose the FBI's corruption and wrongdoing in a manner that might not have been possible without the FBI's help." (M.W. Swearingen, 1995, FBI Secrets: An Agent's Expose, p. 163) In 1966 Senator J.W. Fulbright wrote about "the arrogance of power." Although civilization dearly requires police to enforce laws, there is always a danger that the police might become arrogant with their power, and press hard for a Police State. It appears to some writers that the FBI attained this level of "the arrogance of power" at specific points when they somehow justified "breaking the law in order to enforce the law." In the case of Wes Swearingen, I suspect the FBI now wishes they had obeyed the very laws they are sworn to uphold. Yet what can be done in cases where "the arrogance of power" extends to the very Director of the FBI, who controls his FBI Agents with an iron fist? If J. Edgar Hoover concluded on 22 November 1963 that Lee Harvey Oswald was the Lone Shooter in the murder of JFK, then which FBI Agents were going to fight Hoover on this position? None, obviously. We are seeing this increasingly as former FBI Agents come out of the woodwork to expose FBI excesses. Hoover leaked his position on Oswald to newspapers across America starting in December 1963, and continued throughout the period of the Warren Commission Hearings (e.g. the LOOK Magazine cover showing Oswald's alleged backyard photographs that came out in mid-1964). Some people think that the Warren Commission conducted an investigation of the JFK murder. They did not. The Warren Commission instructed the FBI to do that investigation for them. Because the FBI was at that time an autocracy, with J. Edgar Hoover granted lifetime Directorship and absolute control, no FBI Agent -- no matter how honorable -- could contradict Hoover and remain an FBI Agent from that moment forward. With J. Edgar Hoover and the JFK murder case we observe close-up what Senator Fulbright called, "the arrogance of power." The quotation by Wes Swearingen above is hard evidence for my argument. Best regards, --Paul Trejo

Many thanks, Pat, for your call to civility on this Forum thread. Best regards, --Paul Trejo