Steve Thomas

John,

This is what Harry D. Holmes had to say about the interview he was part of before Oswald was shot.

      When he came into the room, he was just matter of fact; he didn’t know why he was there. He said, “I presume I’m here because I resisted arrest and tried to shoot a policeman there in that theater.

I'm sorry, I just don't believe this exchange. Oswald had already been arraigned for the murder of Tippit at 7:30 on Friday night and the murder of JFK in the wee hours of Saurday morning.

For him to walk into an interrogation room at 10:00 or so on Sunday morning and say, "I don't know why I am here..." just stretches credulity.

Steve thomas

Greg,

the testimony suggests Oswald did not swing a punch until McDonald put his hand on Oswald's waist

I have always taken it on faith that during his arrest at the Texas Theater, Lee Harvey Oswald took out his gun and attempted to shoot arresting Officer M.N. McDonald. This is based on accounts of an audible "snap" that was heard. Later, we read accounts that the only reason Oswald's attempted murder of McDonald didn't succeed because of a bent primer or a "misfire"

I would like to contend that perhaps the "snap" that was heard was either the sound of something else, or was accidently caused by the officers seeing the gun and immediately reacting to take it away from Oswald and that Oswald did not attempt to shoot Officer McDonald.

I say this for the following three reasons:

1)

Here are the after action reports of the arresting officers filed with Police Chief Curry on Decembers 2 - 5, 1963.

They can be found in the Dallas Police Archives, Box 2, Folder# 7

http://jfk.ci.dallas.tx.us/box2.htm

E.L. Cunningham: "When I reached the seating area on the main floor, several officers were in the process of disarming and handcuffing the suspect. ...I did not see anything that indicated that any more force was used than was absolutely necessary to effect the arrest".

Paul Bentley: "Just as I entered the lower floor, I saw Patrolman McDonald fighting with this suspect. I saw this suspect pull a pistol from his shirt, so I went to Patrolman McDonald's aid immediately"

Bob Carroll: "When I arrived at the lower floor, Lee Harvey Oswald was resisting vigorously"...At this time I observed a pistol with the muzzle pointed in my direction. I grabbed the pistol and stuck it in my belt..."

Ray Hawkins: "The subject stood up and as Officer McDonald started to search him, he struck Officer McDonald in the face. The subject and Officer McDonald began to fight and both fell down in the seats. Officer Walker and I ran toward the subject and grabbed him by his left arm. The subject had reached in his belt for a gun and Officer McDonald was holding his right hand with the gun in it".

T.A. Hutson: "As I entered the row of seats behind the suspect he jumped up and hit Officer McDonald in the face with his fist, Officer McDonald was in the seat next to the one in which the suspect was originally sitting, and the suspect was up out of his seat struggling with Officer McDonald. I reached over the back of the seats and placed my right arm around the suspect's neck and pulled him up on back of the seat. Officer C.T. WAlker came up and was struggling with the suspect's left hand, and as Officer McDonald struggled with with the suspect's right hand, he moved it to his waist and drew a pistol and as Officer McDonald tried to disarm the suspect, I heard the pistol snap".

K.E. Lyon: "Enroute to the City Hall, Oswald refused to answer all questions. and he kept repeating, "Why am I being arrested? I know I was carrying a gun, but why else am I being arrested"?

M.N. McDonald: "When I got within a foot of him, I told the suspect to get to his feet. He stood up immediately, bringing his hands up about shoulder high and saying, "Well it's over now". I was reaching for his waist and he struck me on the nose with his left hand. With his right hand, he reached for his waist and both our hands were on a pistol that was stuck in his belt under his shirt. We both fell into the seats struggling for the pistol. ... I managed to get my right hand on the pistol over the suspect's hand. I could feel his hand on the trigger. I then got a secure grip on the butt of the pistol. I jerked the pistol and as it was clearing the suspect's clothing and grip I heard the snap of the hammer and the pistol crossed over my left cheek, causing a four inch scratch".

As you can see from reading these reports, at no time in the first 10 to 12 days following the assassination, did any of the arresting officers on the scene claim that Oswald tried to shoot M.N. McDonald. If the pistol did go off and cause a "snap" of the hammer falling into place, it was because McDonald jerked it out of Oswald's pants.

2)

When questioned by Captain Fritz on the afternoon of November 22nd, Fritz did not accuse Oswald of trying to shoot Officer McDonald.

Fritz (4H214)

Mr. FRITZ. He told me he went over and caught a bus and rode the bus to North Beckley near where he lived and went by home and changed clothes and got his pistol and went to the show. I asked him why he took his pistol and he said, "Well, you know about a pistol; I just carried it." Let's see if I asked him anything else right that minute. That is just about it.

Mr. BALL. Did you ask him if he killed Tippit?

Mr. FRITZ. Sir?

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."

3)

If Oswald had attempted to shoot Officer McDonald, why were no charges of attempted murder filed as they were in the case of Governor Connally?

I believe that the account of Oswald trying to shoot McDonald was invented after the fact.

Steve Thomas

Ron,

[

According to the FBI, Osborne's Canadian passport was issued on October 10, 1963, through the Canadian Consulate in New Orleans (CE 2195, p. 31, in WC v. 25).

According to Mary Ferrell's database:

LAST LAWRENCE FIRST JACK ALAN MID/AKA CARROLL

ADDRESS 1964: 204 Ninth Ave., South Charleston, W. VA

'PHONE (304) 744-3168; RE 4-0857

SOURCES WC 26, pp. 452-453, 686-688, 704; CE 2970; CE 3080, CE 3089, CE 3093; CD

85, pp. 373-377; CD 205, pp. 211-213, 222-223; CD 329, pp. 61-78; CD

1546, p. 118; Forgive My Grief, Vol. 11, Jones, p. 124; The Third

Decade, July 1991, pp. 1-17, "Jack Lawrence, Assassin or Fall Guy," by

Sheldon Inkol; The Third Decade, September 1992, pp. 1-17, "Jack

Lawrence Responds," by Sheldon Inkol.

COMMENT DOB: 9/14/38; SS # 236-58-6645. Wife: Linda. Salesman at Downtown

Lincoln Mercury, Dallas, TX at time LHO allegedly took demonstration

ride. Lawrence allegedly left demonstrator car behind the picket fence

at Dealey Plaza at 12:30 p.m., 11/22, when he was unable to drive

through the Dealey Plaza area to the dealership. He was fired by

Downtown Lincoln on 11/23/63. Lawrence came to Dallas in late October

1963 and stayed at YMCA on Ervay St. He came from West Virginia but

claimed to have worked for a New Orleans car dealer on Carondolet.

Checked out of Dallas YMCA (Room 811) on November 30, 1963 (Saturday),

leaving address: 144 10th Ave., South Charleston, West Virginia (304) RI

4-0857. On 11/27/63, Lawrence told Gene Barnes of NBC that he was going

to San Diego to get job similar to position he had held with NASA

previously (CD 85, p. 376).

I thought that last line about NASA was interesting. Didn't several former Reilly Coffee Company employees go to work for NASA?

Steve Thomas

Robert,

The date of the report was December 3, or two weeks after the event, itself a rather disquieting delay in filing a report that itself stipulates he went to Westbrook's office to file a report immediately after the arrest.

This would have fallen right in that time period when the DPD was conducting an internal investigation into how Ruby got into the basement - an investigation that broadened out into a number of side investigations, including the shooting of J.D. Tippit.

Steve Thomas

David,

I just re-read Westbrook's interview with Sneed and he acknowledges they went to the Texas Theater assuming the man who shot Tippit also killed the President. He says he went directly to the Tippit shooting from the TSBD. (In retrospect, I suppose it makes sense for an FBI agent to go over there as well, just in case.)

dgh01: makes sense if he had nothing else to do, perhaps. I suspect at the moment, every FBI agent west of Washington, D.C. had things to do. Primarily, listening for commandments issued from JEdna's office...

I wonder if Bob Barrett was one of the FBI Agents BILL DECKER sent over:

From his after-action report:

"At approximately 1:30 PM, I received word on Inspector Sawyer's car radio that a Dallas Police Officer had been shot on Jefferson St. in Oak Cliff and that the suspect was supposedly at large in the area on foot. I immediately got ahold of officers who were present, including Deputy Sheriffs, Dallas Police Department Officers and FBI officers who were at the scene (the TSBD) advising them of the shooting, and dispatched them to Oak Cliff to assist in the search."

http://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/...Vol19_0239b.htm

Decker must have carried a lot of weight in those days.

Steve Thomas

Antti,

I know Chief Curry wrote a book, but have the other "higher ups" of the Dallas Police Department and/or the Sheriff's office spoken about their views of the investigation?

There's an interesting story involving Audie Murphy, Decker, and a man named Gary Wean.

Gary Wean

Gary Wean and the JFK Assassination

Sun Nov 16 23:23:33 2003

64.140.159.29

Gary Wean and the JFK Assassination

http://home1.gte.net/res0k62m/cover-up.htm#wean

You can read an excerpt from Wean's book here:

http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/11-17-03/...ion.cgi.10.html

It's ummm... interesting.

Kind of interesting too that he identified the mysterious "John" as Senator John Tower.

Steve Thomas

Mark,

I've read accounts that Oswald's wallet, with the Hidell ID card, was found at the Tippitt murder site; and I've seen accounts that state that Oswald had his wallet on his person when arrested in the Texas Theater.

So...where was the wallet found?  At 10th and Patton, or in Oswald's possession?

Or were two wallets actually found, and the matter intentionally made confusing so as to make investigation all the more difficult?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Here is an excerpt from John Armstrong's "Harvey and Lee"

http://home.wi.rr.com/harveyandlee/November/November_22.htm

"In his book Assignment: Oswald, James P. Hosty wrote that Dallas Police Captain W.R. Westbrook found a wallet with the identification of both Lee Harvey Oswald and Alek Hidell at the Tippit murder scene and showed it to FBI Agent Bob Barrett. Since Dallas Police Detective Paul Bentley removed Harvey's wallet, which also included the Hidell identification, from his left rear pocket in a squad car after his arrest at the Texas Theater, little was made of that claim. Recently, however, footage from WFAA-TV newsreel film was discovered and published in Dale Myers' book With Malice supporting Hosty's claim that Oswald's wallet was discovered at the sight of the Tippit murder. Here is a still from that footage:

John Armstrong believes that "Lee" killed Tippit and left his wallet at the murder scene as a final act of setting up "Harvey" for the assassination of John Kennedy. The wallet deliberately left at the murder scene probably contained "Lee's" Texas driver's license. "Harvey" could not drive and did not have a license. In his speeches and writings, John has shown how Lee spent months establishing the groundwork to set up his look-alike as a patsy for the murder."

On the other hand, Dale Myers in comments on his book, "With Malice" says,

http://www.jdtippit.com/html/intro_faq.htm

"Did Dallas police find Oswald's wallet at the Tippit murder scene?

No. I first wrote about this allegation in my 1998 book With Malice: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Murder of Officer J.D. Tippit. The story has since been distorted by conspiracy theorists peddling the theory that Oswald was framed for the Tippit murder by unseen forces.

While my investigation into the allegation that Oswald's wallet was found at the Tippit murder scene is too detailed to repeat in this limited format (see With Malice, pp.287-304), the essential elements are this:

FBI agent Robert M. Barrett observed Dallas police handling a wallet at the Tippit murder scene shortly before Oswald's arrest. WFAA-TV news footage shot at the scene supports this basic fact. Barrett recalled that Dallas police Captain W.R. Westbrook asked him at the scene whether he knew a "Lee Harvey Oswald" or an "Alek Hidell?" While Barrett assumed the names were taken from identification in the wallet, he never saw the identification or handled the wallet.

Despite Barrett's credibilty, his account runs counter to the documented version of events which show that Oswald's wallet was removed from his pants pocket following his arrest at the Texas Theater. Identification in the names "Oswald" and "Hidell" were discovered at that time.

A comparison of the wallet filmed at the Tippit murder scene by WFAA-TV and the wallet removed from Oswald's pocket shows the two wallets to be similar in style, but not identical. The only thing connecting Oswald to the wallet filmed by WFAA-TV is Barrett's recollection that Captain Westbrook asked him about the names "Oswald" and "Hidell" while at the shooting scene. Yet the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the Oswald/Hidell identification suggests that Barrett was asked the questions at City Hall, long after Oswald's arrest, not at the shooting scene. (See With Malice)

Conspiracy critics have since taken the facts I presented in With Malice and spun them into a series of distortions and half-truths that have transformed the wallet filmed by WFAA-TV as a "plant," designed to frame Oswald for Tippit's murder. The suggestion is preposterous and flies in the face of an avalanche of indisputable facts that prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Oswald murdered Tippit."

So, I guess it's a tossup whether you want to believe that Barrett was told that at the scene, or not until later at the station.

Steve Thomas

Recently, someone made a reference to something called Operation Tumbleweed (in reference to LHO's trip to Mexico I think).

Can you fille me in on what Operation Tumbleweed was?

Thanks,

Steve Thomas

Wade,

Is he still alive??

You might try writing to the Dallas Police Association and ask them to contact their members. They have been pretty helpful to me in the past.

http://www.dallaspa.org/index.asp

Steve Thomas

John,

The point of it all though is many fold. What's the policemans name? Is that a pistol?

I believe the policeman is Edgar Leon Smith, who was stationed on Houston Street, and told the WC:

"Anyhow, I couldn't see down there without running over here, and I run down here at the time to see the Presidential car go under the triple underpass at a high rate of speed, and I pulled my pistol out and there was people laying down there and run down the street and that was about all."

http://jfkassassination.net/russ/testimony/smith_e.htm

Steve Thomas

James,

FWIW.

Below is a composit photograph. Le man on the right is supposed to be a photograph of Jean Souetre. The picture on the left is a picture in the Dallas Police Department of the alleged assassination rifle. Behind the rifle, leaning up against the wall is what appears to be a police artist's sketch of someone.

To me, the two pictures look remarkably similar.

<img src="http://members.sigecom.net/s1thomas/souetre1.jpg" />

Steve Thomas

Lewis McWillie told the HSCA that he visited some people in Trescornia in Cuba.

Chairman STOKES. Can you give us the names of some of the people who were detained?

Mr. MCWILLIE. In this prison?

Chairman STOKES. Yes, sir.

Mr. McWILLIE. Well, Trafficante was in there, Jake Lansky, Dino Cellini, and a fellow named Guiseppe De George.

He was also asked if the following people were in that prison:

Chairman STOKES. Was someone in that prison by the name of Charles Tourine?

Mr. McWILLIE. Who?

Chairman STOKES. Charles Tourine?

Mr. McWILLIE. No; I don't know.

Chairman STOKES. You don't know anybody by that name? How about Charles Del Monico?

Mr. McWILLIE. Del Monico?

Chairman STOKES. Del Monico?

Mr. MCWILLIE. No.

Chairman STOKES. Lucian Rivard?

Mr. McWILLIE. Not that I know of.

Chairman STOKES. How about Henry Savadra?

Mr. MCWILLIE. No.

Does anyone know how to get a list of the people imprisoned with Santos Trafficante?

I thought I read the other day that one of the people Jack Ruby visited in Cuba was Sam Termine - which, if true, would be very interesting in that Sam Termine was a very good friend of Marguerite Oswald.

I also wondered about the possibility of Jack Ruby knowing Charles "Dutz" Murrett, Oswald's uncle.

Steve Thomas

Lawrence,

Why did it take him 12 minutes to walk 1.3 miles to 10th & Patton, but it took him 30 minutes to walk to the Texas Theatre?

Perhaps this question has been answered before and I missed it.  Thanks for your response.

I am of the opinion that after the Tippit shooting, Oswald headed for the Library at Jefferson and Marsalis. When he saw or heard the commotion of the police cars heading for the Library, he doubled back.

There is also Warren Burroughs who told somebody he sold popcorn to Oswald shortly after the start of the movie at 1:00 PM.

Steve Thomas

Simone,

I'd firstly like to thank you all for the help you have given me so far.  Although I have not firmly decided on a topic, I am considering the question: “What evidence is there that JFK secretly changed his foreign policy after the Cuban Missile Crisis?”

You might find it helpful to read the letters that John F. Kennedy exchanged with Nikita Kruschev.

You can read them here:

http://www.state.gov/www/about_state/histo.../exchanges.html

Steve Thomas

John,

As a relative newcomer I only just figured out what BOP stood for, duh. a dictionary of acronyms as reference could be helpful?

DIA ??

corrections, additions ???

The DIA is the Defense Intelligence Agency. They are part of the Department of Defense.

Steve Thomas

Go to the East Dallas page and scroll down to the Garland airport.

oops - sorry about that. The web site is:

http://members.tripod.com/airfields_freema...TX_Dallas_E.htm

Steve Thomas

Go to the East Dallas page and scroll down to the Garland airport.

Dallas Garland Airport had a strange moment in the spotlight

as part of the mysterious events surrounding the assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas.

Robert Plumlee (who had piloted clandestine flights for the CIA for over 31 years)

testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1990 & 1991.

Plumlee testified that on November 22, 1963, he was a co-pilot on a top secret flight supported by the CIA.

The flight carried Philippe Socko (a known Mafia/CIA double operative) from Florida to Dallas,

and that their assignment was to stop the assassination attempt on Kennedy's life.

Plumlee stated that Roselli departed the plane at Dallas Garland Airport on the morning of November 22.

The author of the article wrote, "According to Gary Walker, his father continued as the airport operator "until his death in late 1966.

At that point, my Mother inherited the operation, which she ran up until about 1969-1970."

Steve Thomas

John,

Soon after the assassination of JFK the Dallas police arrested a man called Chet Helms.

How do you know this?

Is his story online somewhere?

Steve Thomas

Tim, as far as I know Mertz was not a "mob guy" in the general sense but rather a drug smuggler for a couple of brothers who ran one of the larger  herion distribution networks out of Marseille.

These would be the Guerini brothers?

Paul Mondolini from Montreal was Antoine Guerini's adopted son.

http://spot.acorn.net/jfkplace/09/fp.back_...Issue/misc.html

What follows are some notes on Rivele's published account of the alleged Corsican connection to the Kennedy assassination. Rivele's book was published in French; what we now publish are a university professor's notes on what he had read.

p. 75 "...Trafficante maintained close ties with Antoine Guerini via a Corsican criminal based in Havana named Paul Mondoloni....Educated, multilingual, courteous and dignified in appearance, he seemed to belong more to the diplomatic corps than to the bloody Marseilles hampa.(Mafia)" [He then moved to Montreal after leaving Cuba].

Steve Rivele: 163: I asked him some of Jim Lesar's questions. I asked if David knew whether Antoine Guerini had participated in the CIA conspiracies to assassinate Fidel Castro. To my surprise, he told me that Guerini was involved. "I believe that the intermediary was Paul Mondoloni," he said. Mondoloni used to spend a lot of time in the US."

It is also worth noting that U.S. Army Pfc. Eugene Dinkin, who claimed to have advance knowledge of the JFK assassination (he was diagnosed by the Army as having a mental condition called "schizo-assassination prognostication") presumably learned of the JFK plot through his work as a military code breaker in France.

Steve Thomas

Tim,

Speaking of Kentucky, can some one help me on this one:

How do you pronounce the capital of Kentucky?

The capitol of Kentucky is Frankfort.

Steve Thomas

According to the Lopez Report (History Matters Archive - http://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/hsc...ezRpt_0091a.htm p. 91)

On Tuesday, October 1, 1963 at 10:45 AM, a man identifying himself as Lee Oswald phoned the Soviet Consulate in Mexico City. He said that he had visited the Soviet Consulate the previous Saturday and had spoken with the Consul. "Oswald added that the Consul had stated that they would send a telegram to Washington and he wanted to know if they had received an answer."

The Russians put "Oswald" on hold and checked.

"When Obyedkov resumed the conversation, he stated that the Soviet Consul had not yet received an answer, but the request had been sent."

On the previous Saturday, this American had been to the Soviet Consulate and was told that the process of getting a visa normally took four to five months because the Washington Consulate had to get permission from the USSR.

If "Oswald" had been told three days earlier that the process took four to five months, why was he anxiously awaiting an telegram on Tuesday. What was being telegrammed and does anyone know what the Russian answer ultimately was?

Steve Thomas

FWIW.

I spent some time researching Souetre, but I didn't get very far.

"(Release date: May 13, 2004. The Strength of the Wolf: The Secret History of America's War on Drugs by Douglas Valentine. London: Verso Press, 2004. ISBN: 1-85984-568-1)

Consider, if you will, the JFK assassination in some ways rebounding off of the so-called French Connection. To most people, their idea of the French Connection is based upon the film, starring Gene Hackman. The film is based on a real case, handled by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN), however Valentine suggests that the French Connection case had ramifications far deeper than shown in the movie. One tangent of the French Connection involves former French colony Algeria. French president Charles DeGaulle collided with the Organization de l'Armee Secrete (OAS), which wanted to maintain French rule in Algeria. A complex series of offshoots, painstakingly detailed by Valentine in The Strength of the Wolf, branched into the July 1961 assassination plots against DeGaulle. Reportedly, the attempted overthrow by coup d'etat of French president DeGaulle was partly financed by about $200,000 in secret funds handled by none other than Permindex. (Recall that Clay Shaw was reportedly an employee of Permindex.)

Also connecting with the Organization de l'Armee Secrete (OAS) was former FBI agent Guy Banister, who reportedly sent the OAS $200,000 in 1962. That money allegedly went to Jean Rene Marie Souetre of the OAS. In early 1963, Monsieur Souetre had a sequence of clandestine meetings with, respectively, E. Howard Hunt, far-right General Edwin Walker, and Guy Banister. Souetre and unnamed Corsican assassins are shown by Valentine to have been the probable actual killers of John Kennedy. Corsican drug smugglers used as assassins were reportedly favored over U.S. Mafiosi due to ongoing Project Luciano-type entanglements between them and the CIA."

From William Harvey’s handwritten notes on setting up the ZR/Rifle Program

From ajweberman’s Coup d’etat in America Nodule 0

http://www.weberman.com/nodules/nodule0.htm

8. Use nobody who has never dealt with criminals; otherwise will not be

aware of pitfalls or consider factors such as freedom to travel, wanted

lists, etc. Exclude organization criminals, those with record of

arrests, those who have engaged in several types of crime. Corsicans

recommended. Sicilians lead to Mafia.

Souetre reportedledy met with E. Howard Hunt in Madrid to get CIA backing for the OAS. I belive the CIA turned them down.

From another 1998 posting by Stephane Risset:

"for you information, Jean Souetre was not in Dallas on 22/11/63, he was in jail in Oran ( algerie ), I met sou tre 2 years ago, he is not corsican, and a gangster, he his military man, back in 1961/2 he was under the order Salan/Jouhaud ( top general in alger) later it became an O.A.S men under the direction of pierre Sergant, and after so tre took the O.A.S direction for the spain.

Soutre was a specialist of terrorism, and anti-terrorism, he belonged a

commando now : delta ( service action de l'O.A.S )

but the thing his this: Soutre was a friend of Michel Merzt ( died in july 1997) Merzt was military men, working for the nazi in second war.after the war, he became a spy and a gangster very dangerous,in the event of alger and O.A.S matter

Merzt infiltrate the O.A.S organisation, for the french secret service.

there are lots of physicals apparence between the 2 guys.

Soutre tell me that it was Merzt who was in Dallas,with his passports.

i see lot of document belong to Soutre, I think there is no doute that

Soutre was not involving in Dallas, I can't says the same thing for Merzt. Merzt was a very dangerous person,with lot of murderer, it was also involving in drug traffic knowing at the name of " FRENCH CONNECTION " back 1970/76.

for a long time ago I was very concern about this connection.

Lucien Sarti died in 1973 in Mexico city.

if you want more details tell me what do you about him?

Stephane"

Searches in the NARA database reveal about a dozen of these kind of entries:

AGENCY INFORMATION

AGENCY : FBI

RECORD NUMBER : 124-10224-10058

RECORDS SERIES : HQ

AGENCY FILE NUMBER : 105-128529-1

DOCUMENT INFORMATION

ORIGINATOR : FBI

FROM : LEG, PA

TO : DIRECTOR, FBI

TITLE : [No Title]

DATE : 03/04/1964

PAGES : 1

DOCUMENT TYPE : PAPER, TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

SUBJECTS : [RESTRICTED]

CLASSIFICATION : CONFIDENTIAL

RESTRICTIONS : 1C; 4

CURRENT STATUS : RELEASED WITH DELETIONS

DATE OF LAST REVIEW : 04/09/1996

OPENING CRITERIA : INDEFINITE

Steve Thomas

James,

I guess there is the possibility that Souetre was in Dallas for another reason. He might have been there to meet with General Walker. De Gaulle's visit to Latin America was coming up and Souetre may have been wanting to utilize Walker's network of contacts in that part of the world for another assassination attempt.

For what it's worth, here is a 1998 posting from someone named Stephane Risset

in the alt.conspiracy.jfk newsgroup. English is obviously not this person's native tongue.

From: Stéphane RISSET (risset.@club-internet.fr)

Subject: Re: Were Souetre & Sarti on FBI List?

View this article only

Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy.jfk

Date: 1998/05/09

vern

I'm not familiar of twyman's book,I'm going to find it, if you give me the reference and dates. I don't now the circonstance of the Sarti's death, but the writer Steven Rivele, I think now litlle more about Sarti.

regarding Merzt's matter,is very difficult to have somes details, I have somes official record of the French army and from the D.S.T ( direction de la surete du territoire ) (counter-intelligence service).

3 years ago I try to see Mezrt, in his castle, but without a single sucess, after his death ( long suffer diceasse) I phone to his son, he told me that he would't not make any statement.

May be you already now Merzt was married to the girl of the mob Canadian Martel after the war.

despite this fact he was the protoge of alexsandro Sanguinnetti ( high

ranking of the french governement under De Gaulle.).

I met one reseacher, who work on O.A.S files. I toll me something

interesting but wihtout any proof.

yes, Merzt was in Dallas on the day of the assassination, for one

counter-operation regarding the attempt on De Gaulle life, when he official visit in Mexico city, made by the O.A.S.

but we have no official documents for that version.

if you have some specifikly question, may be i can help you

stephane.

Steve Thomas

I emailed Jim Conner and asked him if his mother ever told him what kind of car the men were in and if she had ever described the men.

I wrote the author of this posting and he replied with the

following concerning his mother:

"She described the men as both of Spanish or Cuban

extraction. At that time she had had little interplay with

either nationality. Many years later she worked for the

Immigration Dept. and felt that in retrospect that they were

more than likely Cuban. The car was a Ford, 4 door Station

Wagon with Texas license.(Cream colored)

She wrote the license number down and gave it to Mr.

Truly."

This is from the WC testimony of S.M. Holland - signal supervisor of the Union Terminal Railroad, who was working on the railroad overpass:

Mr. HOLLAND - Well, the only thing that I remember now that I didn't then, I remember about the third car down from this fence, there was a station wagon backed up toward the fence, about the third car down, and a spot, I'd say 3 foot by 2 foot, looked to me like somebody had been standing there for a long period. I guess if you could count them about a hundred foottracks in that little spot, and also mud upon the bumper of that station wagon.

Mr. HOLLAND - It was muddy, and you could have if you could have counted them, I imagine it would have been a hundred tracks just in that one location. It was just----

Mr. STERN - And then you saw some mud on the bumper?

Mr. HOLLAND - Mud on the bumper in two spots.

Mr. STERN - As if someone had cleaned his foot, or---

Mr. HOLLAND - Well, as if someone had cleaned their foot, or stood up on the bumper to see over the fence.

What kind of car did Jack Lawrence borrow?

from Mike Griffith. "Compelling Evidence."

http://karws.gso.uri.edu/JFK/the_critics/g...from_front.html

Jack Lawrence and His Borrowed Car

About a month before the assassination, a man named Jack Lawrence was hired at Downtown Lincoln-Mercury, a Dallas car dealership that was only two blocks from Dealey Plaza. Lawrence got the job by providing job references from New Orleans. These references were later found to be phony. Lawrence was known as an ardent right-wing speaker, and reportedly had been an expert marksmen in the military. The night before the assassination, Lawrence borrowed a car from the dealership, saying he needed it for a date.

Lawrence did not show up for work in the morning. However, thirty minutes after the shooting, he came hurrying through the company's show room. He was pale and sweating and had mud on his clothes. He rushed into the men's room and threw up. He claimed he had been ill, and that he had tried to return the car but was forced to park it because of traffic. His co-workers became suspicious and called the police. Later, the car Lawrence had borrowed was found--it was discovered in the parking lot behind the wooden fence on the grassy knoll (Marrs 339-340; Groden and Livingstone 133-134).

Steve Thomas

John,

The Forum on the site is now fully operational.

I think you should get rid of the wallpaper in the Forum. You can't read the list of the topics.

Steve Thomas