Steve Thomas

Jim, I believe so. I think I read the other day that the Saigon police training program was a CIA operation. I didn't keep any references to that, so I'm sorry I can't offer you any specifics. Jim, I had a thought last night. What do you think of the idea that Tippit's call at the Top Ten Record Store and Hawkins' call at the Mobil Gas Station are related; as in "I can't find him.", or "He's not here.", meaning Oswald? From the account's I've read, Tippit was behaving erratically, and the stop at Top Ten was a rushed affair. Hawkins responds to the Tippit shooting, bur doesn't stop at 10th and Patton. He goes to the Library neighborhood at Jefferson and Marsalis and starts circling the neighborhood. Drives back to 10th and Patton,pick up Hutson, and then he and Baggett stop and make a phone call from a Mobil Gas Station at 10th and Beckley, leaving Hutson in the car. When Hutson blows the horn to let them know that a suspect has been seen at the Library, they go rushing back over there. Whatever Hutson is doing, he has blown the clutch on his motorcycle. Is it possible that Tippit and Hawkins were calling the same people? Steve Thomas

This supposedly is a photo of Westbrook on page 26 of this book.The Missing Chapter. by Jack SwikeI am not vouching for the author or his book. It's just something I ran across.https://books.google.com/books?id=64ji-mF2oaAC&pg=PA26&lpg=PA26&dq="William+R.+Westbrook"&source=bl&ots=0xdb2t1bTz&sig=YT8bpNEzyNXWrzg4hG-pY_ooQI0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjAu-KAtOLSAhWB6oMKHR-JADY4ChDoAQgmMAQ#v=onepage&q=%22William%20R.%20Westbrook%22&f=falseSteve Thomas

Jim, I learned about his stint with the Saigon police. From a posting on the ReopenKennedyCase forum: Dallas Morning News, The (TX) - February 21, 1996Deceased Name: Rites set for William Ralph Westbrook Services for William Ralph "Pinky" Westbrook , a retired Dallas Police Department captain, will be at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at Go Ye Village in Tahlequah, Okla. Mr. Westbrook , 78, died Monday of cancer at his home in Tahlequah. He worked for the Dallas Police Department from 1940 to 1965. He also worked as a special investigator for the Dallas County district attorney's office from 1970 to 1983. I was afraid I was going to find that out. E.R. Beck, who worked in the Homicide and Robbery Bureau under Will Fritz, and who signed the release forms for John Elrod, Gus Abrams, Harold Doyle, Daniel Wayne Douglas, et.al. on November 26th went on to become Henry Wade's personal driver. Steve Thomas

Jim, No, I don't. Steve Thomas

Jim, Hill: "I sat down and started to try to organize the first report on the arrest. " "Captain Westbrook suggested that I change the heading of my report to include arrest of the suspect in the assassination of the President..." This was like 2:20 or 2:30 in the afternoon? You don't suppose in your conspiratorial suspicions that Westbrook is already pushing a narrative do you? And again, where is this Report that was signed by Carroll, Hill and Westbrook, that was entitled, "Injuries sustained by suspect while effecting his arrest..." It got buried. Why? Steve Thomas

I was reading through the account of Gerald Hill and my jaw dropped a little bit. When he testified to the Warren Commission, he said, http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/hill_gl.htm (Hill) “...we adjourned to the personnel office, which was further down the hall from homicide and I sat down and started to try to organize the first report on the arrest. I originally had the heading on it, "Injuries sustained by suspect while effecting his arrest in connection with the murder of Officer J. D. Tippit," and a few minutes later Captain Westbrook came in the office... Captain Westbrook suggested that I change the heading of my report to include arrest of the suspect in the assassination of the President and in the murder of Officer J. D. Tippit, which I did. I originally wrote the report for Bob Carroll's signature and for my signature, and left it with the captain to be typed while we moved over in another office to get a cup of coffee and sort of calm down and recap the events. By then McDonald was there, and we had added some information that he could give us such as the information about "This is it." Which the suspect allegedly said as he came into contact with him. When we got it back ready to sign, Carroll and I were sitting there, and it had Captain Westbrook's name for signature, and added a paragraph about he and the FBI agent being there, and not seeing that it made any difference, I went ahead and signed the report. Actually, they were there, but I didn't make any corrections. And as far as the report, didn't allege what they did, but had added a paragraph to our report to include the fact that he was there, and also that the FBI agent was there. Now as to why this was done, your guess is as good as mine.” Hill's Report is in the DPD Archives Box 5, Folder# 2, Item# 76 http://jfk.ci.dallas.tx.us/box5.htm Hill's Report is not signed by Westbrook. Westbrook's Report is Item# 84. Westbrook couldn't remember the name of the patrolman who drove he and Bob Barrett from the site of Tippit's shooting to the theater. I don't know of any Report that has Carroll's signature, Hill's signature and Westbrook's signature on it. Where is this Report? Steve Thomas

Would you happen to know, and I'm too lazy to research it right now, if Cain was involved in the Special Services "Red Squad" while he worked in the Chicago PD? I'm just curious. The Spartacus entry says that he worked in the "Detective Bureau" and "Cain developed a reputation as being a good cop when he was dealing with non-mob-related activities. He often invited the press along to raid on brothels and gambling dens." These are areas that the Dallas Special Services Bureau was involved with. My curiosity was aroused the day I was reading an FBI report one day on Alpha 66 in New York, and discovered that the information to the FBI was being supplied by Jack Caulfied (of Watergate fame). Caulfield and Tony Ulacewicz both came out of New York's BOSS (or Special Services Bureau.) Steve Thomas

The account of T.A. Hutson is very interesting. Ray Hawkins and T.A. Hutson both participated in the apprehension of Lee Oswald. Ray Hawkins call sign was 211 T.A. Hutson call sign was 284 J.D. Tippit is shot. Multiple units respond. A search of the houses in the vicinity is undertaken. The search of the houses proves fruitless. A suspect is spotted at the Library. Multiple units respond. Sometime between the search of the houses and the sighting of a suspect at the Library, Hawkins and Hutson make a stop at a Mobile Gas Station at 10th and Beckley to make a phone call, supposedly in response from a request from Dispatch to call in. I do not find any reference to this phone call in the Dispatch tapes. Is it odd that Tippit and Hawkins are making phone calls on a landline telephone right around this same time period? And what was Hutson doing that he burned out the clutch on his motorcycle? Either the motorcycles in the DPD were poorly maintained, or Hutson was doing some pretty wild riding. I have a vague memory of another motorcyclist's engine or clutch going out that day, but I can't put my finger on it right now. (Hawkins) We had just finished the accident at this time and I was driving an officer, Baggett, and I proceeded to Oak Cliff to the general vicinity of the call after checking out with the dispatcher, stating that we were proceeding in that direction. From the Dispatch tapes - Between 1:16 and 1:19 PM: DIS 211: 211. DIS: 211. 211: We're clear, Industrial and Stemmons. We'll go out there. DIS: 10-4, 211 We arrived in Oak Cliff and there were several squads in the general vicinity of where the shooting had occurred---different stories had come out that the person was--the suspect had been seen in the immediate vicinity. Mr. BALL. Did you go to 10th and Patton? Mr. HAWKINS. We drove by 10th and Patton--we didn't stop at the location. Mr. BALL. Where did you go then? Mr. HAWKINS. We circled the vicinity around Jefferson and Marsalis and in that area, talking to several people on the street, asking if they had seen anyone running up the alley or running down the street, and then they received a call, or I believe Officer Walker put out a call that he had just seen a white man running to the Oak Cliff Library, at which time we proceeded to this location. Officer Hutson had gotten into the car with us when we arrived in Oak Cliff, and there were three of us in the squad car--Officer Baggett, Officer Hutson, and myself. Mr. BALL Hutson is also a patrolman?Mr. HAWKINS. Yes, sir. Mr. BALL. A uniformed patrolman? Mr. HAWKINS. Yes, sir; he is a three-wheel officer. (Hutson) Mr. HUTSON. As I was being released, (From Elm and Houston) I heard the radio dispatcher come on the radio and give a Signal 19, and that a shooting involving a police officer in the 500 block of East Jefferson... Mr. BELIN. When you heard this news about this shooting in Oak Cliff----by the way, where was your regular station ordinarily? Mr. HUTSON. I worked west of Vernon on Jefferson. Mr. BELIN. Is that Oak Cliff? Mr. HUTSON. Yes; that is West Jefferson Boulevard. Mr. BELIN. What did you do after you heard about the shooting? Mr. HUTSON. I got on my motorcycle and I proceeded down through the triple underpass and up onto R. L. Thornton Freeway to Oak Cliff. Mr. BELIN. Where did you go? Mr. HUTSON. I exited off Jefferson and went to the 400 block of East Jefferson Boulevard and began a search of the two-story house behind 10th Street where the officer had been shot. Mr. BELIN. All right. Mr. HUTSON. And after we searched this area, I got in the squad car with Officer Ray Hawkins, who was driving, and Officer Baggett was riding in the back seat. Mr. BELIN. Why did you get inside the squad car? Mr. HUTSON. The clutch on my motorcycle was burned out and I couldn't get any speed and I just barely made it over there, and I didn't know whether I would be able to start and go or not. Mr. BELIN. Then what did you do? Mr. HUTSON. We proceeded west on 10th Street to Beckley, and we pulled into the Mobil gas station at Beckley and 10th Street. Mr. BELIN. That is a Mobil gas station? Mr. HUTSON. Yes. Mr. BELIN. All right. Mr. HUTSON. And Officer Ray Hawkins and Officer Baggett went inside of the Mobil gas station. And I am not positive, but I think they used the telephone to call in. I am not positive, but I believe they gave us a call for us to call. I mean their number to call in. At the time they were in the service station, I heard the dispatcher give a call that the suspect was just seen running across the lawn at the Oak Cliff Branch Library at Marsalis and Jefferson. I reached over and blew the siren on the squad car to attract the officers' attention, Officers Baggett and Hawkins, and they came running out of the service station and jumped in the car, and I told them to report to, I can't remember, Marsalis and Jefferson, the suspect was seen running across the lawn at the library. From the Dispatch tapes - 1:34 PM 22: They've got him holed up, it looks like, in this building over here at the corner. 22: (?) ...were you be? 85: 85, library. DIS: 10-4. 211: 211 out at that location. DIS: 10-4. Hawkins is circling the area around Jefferson and Marsalis (where the Library is). (which is about six blocks east of where Tippit has been shot) He heads west and picks up Hutson in the neighborhood of 10th and Patton. They continue west on 10th till they get to Beckley and 10th, where they make a phone call at a Mobil Gas Station. While they're in there on a phone call, Dispatch announces that a suspect has been seen at the Library, so they head back east again. Very interesting. Steve Thomas

One of the things I noticed was that the FIB was only meeting once a month, or even every other month. The Cuban Missile Crisis called for decision making on a day to day or even moment by moment basis. The Intelligence Board was just too unwieldy for that. I've also been reading about the Anatoliy Golitsyn defection. France trying to steal our nuclear secrets, and how much the French SDECE was compromised by the KGB and whether those secrets were being passed along to the Russians. In these FIAB minutes, I've seen lots of concern with the John Dunlap case, but, so far, not much on Golitsyn. It could be buried in all those sections that are redacted. Steve Thomas

Bob Carroll testified before the WC at 9:00 on April 3, 1964 http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/carroll.htm Mr. BALL. We had one witness testify yesterday that he saw a man with a shotgun strike Oswald in the back with the butt of the gun; did you see that? Mr. CARROLL. No, sir; I didn't see that. Ray Hawkins testified before the WC at 9:50 on April 3, 1964 http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/hawkins.htm Mr. BALL. A witness testified yesterday that while they were struggling with Oswald, a police officer took a gun and took it by the muzzle and struck Oswald in the back with the rifle butt; did you see anything like that? Mr. HAWKINS. No; I did not. I couldn't say that it did not happen. Thomas Hutson testified before the WC at 9:00 on April 3, 1964 http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/hutson.htm Mr. BELIN. When did the police stop hitting him? Mr. HUTSON. I never did ever see them hit him. Mr. BELIN. You never saw any police hit him? Mr. HUTSON. No, sir; I didn't. http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/mcdonald.htm Mr. BALL - What did he say about police brutality? Mr. McDONALD - One thing, "Don't hit me any more." I remember that. Mr. BALL - Did somebody hit him? Mr. McDONALD - Yes, sir; I guess they did. (Hutson) Officer Hawkins and Walker and myself attempted to handcuff him. At this time Sgt. Jerry Hill came up and assisted as we were handcuffing. Then Captain Westbrook came in and gave the order to get him out of here as fast as you can and don't let anybody see him, and he was rushed out of the theatre. Mr. BALL - When you saw Oswald, was he bloody any? Mr. McDONALD - Afterwards? Mr. BALL - Well, when he was being taken from the theatre. Was he bloody? Mr. McDONALD - No, sir; I didn't see any blood. Mr. BALL - You didn't? Mr. McDONALD - Because whenever they took him, they took him directly out. I think I understand now why Westbrook wanted to hustle Oswald out as quick as he could and not let anybody see him. In a way, I'm sorry I started this thread because it caused me again to go over the testimony of M.N. McDonald. He was training a rookie that day named T.R. Gregory. A careful reading of McDonald's testimony and actions that day leads me to believe that he: Walked off his post Abandoned his partner Endangered the lives of his fellow officers and innocent bystanders http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/mcdonald.htm Mr. McDONALD - Well, after I left the car, my partner and I reported to a supervisor, and he directed us to patrol the crowd and move the crowd around Elm Street, and rope off the area. And the next thing I heard was a voice over the radio that was not familiar to police procedure. He was saying that an officer had been shot, Mr. BALL - What did you do? Mr. McDONALD - I told my partner we were not doing much good here, to go to Oak Cliff, and see if we could help out over there, try to apprehend the person that shot Tippit. Mr. BALL - How did you happen to go to the 400 block on Jefferson? Mr. McDONALD - I was stopped by other officers there. They wanted to search a house. So I relieved my partner to go to help the supervisors search this house, in the 400 block of East Jefferson. Then I went around to the alleys, and started cruising the alley in my squad car. Mr. McDONALD - After I was satisfied that this teenager that had run into the library didn't fit the description, I went back to my squad car, put my shotgun back in the rack. Just as I got into the squad car, it was reported that a suspect was seen running into the Texas Theatre, 231 West Jefferson. So I reported to that location Code 3. This is approximately seven blocks from the library, seven blocks west. Mr. BALL - Did you go down there with your partner? Mr. McDONALD - No, sir; I had let my partner out on arrival; my first arrival in the 400 block. Mr. BALL - He was on foot? Mr. McDONALD - Yes, sir; I didn't see him any more that day. When I got to these two men, I told them to get on their feet. They got up. I searched them for a weapon. I looked over my shoulder and the suspect that had been pointed out to me. He remained seated without moving, just looking at me. Mr. BALL - Why did you frisk these two men in the center of the theater? Mr. McDONALD - I wanted to make sure that I didn't pass anything or miss anybody. I wanted to make sure I didn't overlook anybody or anything. Mr. BALL - And you still kept your eye on the suspect? Mr. McDONALD - Yes, sir. He was to my back. I was looking over my shoulder at him. My comment: (So, you're frisking these two men while looking over your shoulder at somebody who is to your back?) Mr. McDONALD - Well, after seeing him, I noticed the other people in the theater--there was approximately 10 or 15 other people seated throughout the theater. Mr. BALL - Were the lights on or off? Mr. McDONALD - The lights were up, and the movie was playing at this time. Mr. BALL - And could you see to the rear of the theater? Mr. McDONALD - Yes, sir. (Hutson) When I walked in, I noticed there were seven people I observed sitting on the lower floor. Mr. BELIN. Did you count them? Mr. HUTSON. Yes, sir; I counted them. Mr. HUTSON. The lights were down. The lights were on in the theatre, but it was dark. Mr. BELIN. All right. Mr. HUTSON. Visibility was poor. (McDonald) And just as I got to the row where the suspect was sitting, I stopped abruptly, and turned in and told him to get on his feet. He rose immediately, bringing up both hands. He got this hand about shoulder high, his left hand shoulder high, and he got his right hand about breast high. He said, "Well, it is all over now." As he said this, I put my left hand on his waist and then his hand went to the waist. DPD Archives Box 5, Folder# 2, Item# 79 http://jfk.ci.dallas.tx.us/box5.htm McDonald tells Oswald to stand up and then makes a grab for the pistol that was “stuck in his belt, under his shirt.” McDonald and Oswald begin struggling over the pistol, the pistol comes out and they are both fighting over it. The pistol is waving around. My comment: When confronted with a suspect who has to be considered armed and dangerous, instead of telling Oswald to "Freeze", he makes a grab for the gun. Mr. BELIN. Was it aiming at anyone in particular? Mr. HUTSON. No; not any officer in particular. The only one that could have came in the line of fire was Officer Ray Hawkins, who was walking up in the row of seats in front. McDonald should have been fired. Steve Thomas

David, I was trying to imagine the chaotic scene. Carroll and Bentley and Hill and McDonald and Hawkins all piling on. FBI Agent Barrett said that at one point there were three or four policemen on Oswald's left pulling him in one direction, and three or four on his right pulling in the opposite direction. I guess there wasn't time at the moment. Maybe somebody said something to him in the car on the way downtown, but if so, nobody reported that, and as late as his first interrogation, Oswald was still asking what he was being held for. It's just the idea that a person could be jumped on, punched, thrown in a car and hauled halfway across town, and not told why. Steve Thomas

Ah yes, surrogates. "It's deja vu all over again" I was reading through the first couple of minutes after the Cuban Missile Crisis. They were angry that they had been frozen out of any policy advice regarding Cuba. Cuba had been assigned to somebody else in the government. There are a lot of side comments about just what their relationship was to the 5412/2 Committee and who was responsible for what. I can't decide just yet if Kennedy himself was freezing them out or not. And, if so, why. Steve Thomas

Larry, I love this one. The minutes of June 4, 1964. The FIAB learns that the U.S. Embassy in Moscow has been bugged with 41 microphones since 1952. https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1972#relPageId=8&tab=page Consternation ensues. Steve Thomas

Jeffrey, No, you're right on the money. I think the point Jim was trying to make, is that there was a different brand of justice back in those days. He was saying that tongue in cheek. Have you ever read about the Dallas police "shotgun squads", or the "hold for Decker" policies? They were different times back then. The point I was trying to make originally though, is that I've read the accounts of police "subduing" Oswald, or as Cunningham put it, "disarming and handcuffing the suspect", but I've never read a report where a specific policeman wrote, "I told Oswald you are under arrest for... ". I just got curious and wondered why. Steve Thomas

Larry, Yes, my eyebrows went up when I saw the references to drones. I didn't know they had been developed this early. The redactions at this late a date are really frustrating. If I read it right, the last time the reviewers looked these were in 1998, and it seems kind of silly to keep them top secret 35 years after the fact. Did you happen to look at the document, CONSIDERATION OF COVERT ACTION MATTERS BY PRESIDENT KENNEDY'S FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE ADVISORY BOARD https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1976 from pages 9+ or so? I like the dog wagging the tail analogy. It looks like people were getting frustrated with the CIA's covert action for covert action's sake. It makes you wonder who stood the most to lose by removing covert actions from the CIA. Helms? I appreciate you taking the time to talk. You've been very helpful. Steve Thomas

Larry, see MINUTES OF MEETING OF JANUARY 30, 1964 https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1961 See pp. 9 (bullet# 3), recommendations 28 and 29 on p. 25, recommendation# 33 on p. 26-27, and pp. 39-40. They use the words, “pilots” and “ satellite” and National Reconnaissance Office in the same paragraph or context. Whatever it was, it was pretty sensitive. General Doolittle was tasked with presenting information on these programs to President Johnson scheduled for later in the day on the 30th. (see p. 40) The signals effort in Turkey merited its own separate recommendation. The more I read through these minutes, the more astounding they become. It's like a road map of U.S. Intelligence efforts – where they're going, what they want to emphasize, who's in and who's out. Iran, Turkey, Greece, etc. I think this January 30th meeting is the first time they met after JFK's assassination. I was very sad to read Recommendation# 42, authorizing airborne defoliation efforts in South Vietnam. Steve Thomas

Mr. BALL. Did you ask him if he shot Tippit? Mr. FRITZ. Oh, yes. Mr. BALL. What did he say. Mr. FRITZ. He denied it---that he did not. The only thing he said he had done wrong, "The only law I violated was in the show; I hit the officer in the show; he hit me in the eye and I guess I deserved it." He said, "That is the only law I violated." He said, "That is the only thing I have done wrong." McDonald makes a grab for the pistol. Oswald tries to stop him. I wonder who punched who first. Jeffrey, Did you ever find an answer? I've been through all the after-action reports of the police who were there, and I've never read one who said to Oswald, "You're under arrest." Steve Thomas

Yes, I mentioned to Paul Brancato on another thread the other day that I thought that so much focus has been put on the CIA and the FBI over the years is because there is a paper trail you can follow. With the military, there virtually is none, or at least none that's been made widely available. I was reading through the minutes of the FIA Board meeting of January 30, 1964 https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1961#relPageId=1&tab=page and a couple of things jumped out at me: 1) Between 1961 and 1963, the Board made 170 recommendations to Kennedy, of which he acted on 125. "A large percentage of the recommendations made by President Kennedy's Board involved activities internal to the Department of Defense..." (p. 10) 2) On page 10 it says that 85% of the foreign intelligence dollar expenditures fall under the management and control of the Secretary of Defense, and yet on page 58 of those minutes, the Pentagon has gone to Johnson and complained that Defense is being shut out of the FIAB. (That move doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me.) Clifford responds that the Advisory Board would function better with a smaller membership. "The President indicated that the Joint Chiefs of Staff did not agree". (I guess they wouldn't.) (ha ha ha) Clifford also says that Defense already has their own newly established DIA to play with. 3) A number of those recommendations had to do with the CIA keeping the Ambassadors in various countries informed about what they were up to. It looks like CIA was keeping State in the dark. And on pp. 62-63, there's a letter from John McCone to Clark Clifford complaining that the State Department enjoys harassing the CIA in the press every chance they get. You can tell there is a real bureaucratic battle going on. These guys in the bureaucracies do not really play well with others, do they? You said, "So knowing the reality still presented him with a huge challenge in facing an upcoming election year." You're absolutely right. 4) The military was really balking at the idea of not militarizing space. 5) The Dunlap case was a lot more serious than most of us know about. 6) I have a question: Sprinkled throughout these minutes are references to three major SIGINT activities. One was called CORONA, a second one is consistently redacted, and the third was the U-2. I'll have to read up on Corona, but do you have any idea what the redacted program might have been? I have a hunch that it had to do with satellite reconnaissance, but that's just a guess on my part. Steve Thomas

Larry, I was just astounded in reading through these minutes. Mr. Murphy asks Fitzgerald if the CIA had anyone in mind as a replacement for Castro after Castro gets overthrown and Fitzgerald says no. He says that the CIA is working with three exile groups and wouldn't recommend any of them. He added that, "the CIA was not working with the State Department on a possible replacement and CIA prefers that no leader in exile be considered". page 16. Man, I would hate to have been the President and get that kind of advice. I would have asked, "Then what the blankety blank are we doing there then"? I'll have to go through those 1964 minutes. PS: I loved the BOARD PANEL ON COVERT ACTION OPERATIONS 2) Report on the CIA support of infiltration operations in North Vietnam https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1975#relPageId=6&tab=page "Not a great success. High losses of teams." Yep, that'll do it alright. Steve Thomas

Sorry, That's https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1960 Steve Thomas

I've been reading through the minutes of the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board meeting of September 12-13, 1963. My god. What a mess. It's apparent we've been listening to the wrong CIA guy, 'cause this guy doesn't know anything about what we want to know about. p. 10 "The situation in Vietnam is so bad we may have to get out of the war." p. 18 "The CIA has no long-range plan for Cuba in the event of a coup." p. 21 What were these people thinking? Steve Thomas

This is just a little minor side note, but in all the accounts I've read of police officers at the Texas Theater, I can't remember ever reading one where a policeman ever told Oswald he was under arrest. I mean, I know Oswald was led out in handcuffs, and he kept shouting, "I am not resisting arrest", but did anyone ever tell him that's what was going on? I wonder who told him, and what the charge was. Sneaking into the Theater without paying? Carrying a concealed weapon? Creating a disturbance? Shooting a policeman? Like I said, I've just never read anyone who said, "I told Oswald he was under arrest for..." Steve Thomas

I was just reading a piece in the 1983 issue of Lobster No. 2 magazine. “The Assassination of John Kennedy: An Alternative Hypothesis”, by Robin Ramsey. Lobster No. 2, 1983. https://issuu.com/bristlekrs/docs/lobster_2 page 6. It is Ramsey's conclusion that Oswald was supposed to have been killed in the theater resisting arrest, and the snap that was heard came from someone else's gun. A gun was heard to misfire in the theater, but an FBI weapons expert “found nothing to indicate that this, (Oswald's) weapon's firing pin had struck the primer of any of these cartridges.” as quoted from Robert Anson, They Killed the President, (NY, 1975) pp. 354-5. I have to admit, I never thought of this. I'd like to see that FBI Report. Steve Thomas

I have two questions actually. Number one would be why didn't Hosty make any effort to find out where Oswald lived? He asked that the Oswald file be assigned to him. He visited the Paine's twice and told Ruth Paine that he was most anxious to determine Lee Oswald's whereabouts. On November 1st he sat on her couch and together they looked in the phone book to get the address of the TSBD and on Monday the 4th he made a pretext call to find out if they had his address. Two weeks later or so Oswald visited the FBI and left Hosty a note. Regardless of what the note said, if Hosty was so anxious to "determine his whereabouts", why didn't he just tail him home from work one day? Was it because he didn't need to, because he already knew? One clue might be in the address for Oswald that Hosty gave in his Report of Oswald's Interrogation on 11/22. Hosty's Report of the Interrogation is CE 382 https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1134#relPageId=811&tab=page page 785. He gives Oswald's address as 1026 N. Beckley. He doesn't use the 605 Elsbeth that Revill was giving in his memos to Curry that afternoon; and he didn't give the 2515 W. 5th in Irving that was on Oswald's job application, or that Hosty himself had visited twice in early November. True, Hosty dictated his Report on the 23rd, after it had been established that Oswald had a room on Beckley, but still... In his Report, Hosty wrote "...further, Oswald admitted that he was living at 1026 N. Beckley..." as though Oswald was confronted with this fact and admitted to it. As an aside, why isn't this with the other Reports of the Interrogations of Oswald in Appendix XI of the Warren Report? My other question was, why didn't Hosty attend any more interrogations of Oswald after the first one? After the police started questioning Oswald on the afternoon of the 22nd, Gordon Shanklin got call from Washington and called Fritz and asked that the questioning be stopped until Hosty could get there. Hosty arrives about an hour after questioning started and asked Oswald 2 questions: 1) Did you go to Russia?; and, 2) Did you go to Mexico? The first question is nonsensical. Hosty had known about Oswald for over a year. He'd been all the Fort Worth papers on his return from Russia in June of 1962. Hosty knew all about his Fair Play for Cuba Committee work in New Orleans and his radio appearances. Oswald's interrogation didn't need to be halted so that Hosty could rush in there and ask him a stupid question. In his Report, Hosty wrote that Oswald said he had only been to Mexico once, to Tijuana. But there's got to be more to it. If Hosty was in charge of Oswald's case file, why didn't he attend the later interrogations? Was it because Hosty's presence was so upsetting that Oswald wouldn't cooperate as long as Hosty was there? In his Report, Hosty wrote that Oswald was antagonistic toward both FBI Agent, both he and Bookhout. Bookhout, however, attended later interrogations, but not Hosty. Why? Part of me wonders if Hosty had the hots for Marina. Fritz describes Oswald as getting angry because Hosty was bothering his wife, and in his "destroyed note", Oswald was supposed to have complained about Hosty harassing his wife. It makes me wonder... Maybe Hosty was pressuring Marina to become a source or she would be deported, or maybe he was pressuring her for a different reason. And maybe I need to get my mind out of the gutter. I don't know enough to know if the CIA had shared their Mexico City cable traffic from late September and early October with the FBI by then, but it just seems odd that the FBI would rush in their lead agent on Oswald over to the Friday interrogation, just so that he could ask a couple of stupid questions, and then not be seen again. Doesn't make sense. Steve Thomas

Sorry, I jumped the gun before I read the next blog entry: Email from Brooke Anderson, 180th ASA Co, Bad Aibling, 1960-61) "Just found your web site and read it with great interest. Thanks for your major effort to bring this history to some sense of order. I was stationed at Bad Aibling, 320th USASA Bn, and a member of the 180th Co. I read Larry Uloth's comments on the 180th, and wanted to add some additional details. The Martin and Mitchell thing was really big, particularly after their Moscow news conference, in which they really outlined everything we were doing, and by name. It was quiet, but as Larry says, it finally got noisy again. Later on, while looking through the magazines at the Snack Bar, I found one entitled "Two-Fisted Tales" or some such macho title, but one article on the front cover grabbed my attention. It was about the ASA, "...the 8,000 hand-picked men whose existence the Pentagon refuses to admit." In it, Martin and Mitchell's conference was reported verbatim, so as we practiced daily security in our jobs and lives, the information we protected could be bought by anybody on base for 50 cents!" I read in another place that over 200 GI's were kidnapped in this time period. Steve Thomas