Steve Thomas

Tim, If this were true, What would be interesting too would be to learn who ordered the airplanes launched. Steve Thomas

post deleted Steve Thomas

Charles, The cable you cite is what got me started on my search. It was sent from the Commanding General, U.S. Continental Army Command to the Commander in Chief, U.S. Strike Command at Fort Macdill summarizing a phone call that had taken place between a Captain Saxton at U.S. Strike Command and a Lt. Colonel Fons at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. (Fourth Army Headquarters) I started with the assumption, "What if the information communicated by Detective Stringfellow was correct insofar as Oswald going to Cuba in 1959?" That would mean that the person who went to Russia by way of Helsinki was not the historical Lee Harvey Oswald we've come to know. So far, I have not been able to come to a resolution of this question, but there is some circumstantial evidence pointing to the idea that LHO was seen in the United States and elsewhere at least in 1961 and maybe 1960 (when he was supposed to be in Russia). There is a June 3, 1960 memo from J. Edgar Hoover to the Department of State that reads: Since there is a possibility that an imposter is using Oswald's birth certificate, any current information the Department of State may have concerning the subject will be appreciated. A copy was sent to the Director of Naval Intelligence. From John Armstrong in his "Harvey and Lee" series: On January 20, 1961, a man calling himself "Lee Oswald" met with Fred Sewell, manager of Bolton Ford Truck center in New Orleans. On behalf of the "Friends of Democratic Cuba," an organization whose leadership was composed largely of intelligence agents, Oswald and another man indicated they wanted to buy trucks to send to Cuba. Again from John Armstrong: A 5/28/64 four-page FBI document (Assassination Records Review Board Record Number 104-10004-10009) is entitled: "ALLEGATIONS BY RAYMOND B. CARNEY, NEWS DIRECTOR OF RADIO STATION KBEA, MISSION, KANSAS, THAT HE BELIEVED HE WAS IN CONTACT WITH LEE HARVEY OSWALD DURING MAY, 1961." In the summer of 1961, Carney was news director of KBOX in Dallas. He told the FBI that he had met Lee Oswald not just once, but several times during that summer. Oswald, Carney said, was trying to get a list of names of pilots who had volunteered to fly Flying Tiger missions over Cuba. And one last one: In Havana in May 1961, CBS journalist Robert Taber (a Fair Play for Cuba Committee founding member) met with a "Lieutenant Oswald," who was introduced as an arms expert, and Dr. Enrique Luaces. (See "SUBJECTS: OSWALD, LEE; TABER, ROBERT POTENTIAL I.D. OF OSWALD, LEE; FAIR PLAY FOR CUBA COMMITTEE," ARRB Rec. No. 180-10031- 10352.) Dr. Luaces had no doubt that "Lieutenant Oswald" was the same man depicted on television after the assassination of JFK. (Many eyewitnesses had difficulty distinguishing "Harvey" from "Lee." ) See a U.S. Army document detailing the sighting above. During his "Harvey and Lee" presentation at JFK Lancer's November In Dallas ‘97 symposium, John Armstrong displayed an FBI communication describing a U.S. Army report of the Havana incident. Here is the first few paragraphs of that internal FBI document: FROM: SAC (New York) TO: Director FBI Enclosed for each recipient is one copy of a self-explanatory Army communication dated 12.30.63 captioned Harvey Oswald. Enclosed Army communication alleges that Oswald was in Cuba in the company of Robert Taber, former head of Fair Play for Cuba Committee (FPCC), approximately three weeks after the April 1961, Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. According to the Ruby Chronologies: http://jfkassassination.net/russ/jfkinfo/jfk9/hscv9g.htm Jack Ruby went to Cuba in September of 1959 (more than likely to try and get Santo Trafficante out of jail - with a deal for military equipment) INS says Ruby leaves Miami for Cuba on Sept. 12, 1959 WC Vol.22, p.859. INS says Jack Ruby returns to New Orleans from Cuba on Sept. 13, 1959 WC Vol.22, p.859. Lee Harvey Oswald gets a passport on September 10th and gets out of the Marines on the 11th. He arrives in Fort Worth on the 14th and travels to New Orleans on the 17th. I think it is quite possible that Ruby and Oswald were in New Orleans at the same time in 1959. Did Ruby give Oswald papers to travel to Cuba? I don't know. I'm just speculating. Steve Thomas

Tim, Could you give me a specific url reference for this? I would be very interested in reading it. Steve Thomas

James, A lot of people talk about Veciana as head of Alpha-66, but you don't hear much about Menoyo, which is interesting, because if I gather right, he was head of Alpha-66's military wing. Steve Thomas

Eugene, His web site says that it's "coming" http://www.jfkfiles.com/ Steve Thomas

Okay, I think I've got my answer - sorta. I believe that it was called Plan Omega. Official History of II Frente, Alpha 66, M.R.P. June, 1965. CUBAN INFORMATION ARCHIVES http://cuban-exile.com/doc_351-375/doc0358.html "With the unification of the three groups on May 19, 1963, all efforts were devoted solely to military preparation for Plan Omega. For over a year the organization devoted itself to raising funds establishing delegations, recruiting men and obtaining a secure base for training and operations. On September 17, 1963, Menoyo declared that he expected to be able to begin military operations in about six months. " Steve Thomas

Has anyone here seen this document? AGENCY INFORMATION AGENCY : FBI RECORD NUMBER : 124-10022-10075 RECORDS SERIES : HQ AGENCY FILE NUMBER : 105-82555-1733 DOCUMENT INFORMATION ORIGINATOR : CITIZEN FROM : HAYES, LOU WYLIE MRS. TO : KENNEDY, ROBERT F. TITLE : [No Title] DATE : 12/11/1963 PAGES : 3 DOCUMENT TYPE : PAPER, TEXTUAL DOCUMENT SUBJECTS : LHO, POST-RP, UNSUBSTANTIATED SIGHTING, CUBA CLASSIFICATION : UNCLASSIFIED RESTRICTIONS : OPEN IN FULL CURRENT STATUS : OPEN DATE OF LAST REVIEW : 10/26/1992 Steve Thomas

Is there any documented evidence or anything in writing that a second invasion of Cuba was being planned for the last week of November, 1963. Dave Reitzes in the alt.assassination.jfk newsgroup on 12/16/99 that: "Granted, the La Fontaines certainly THEORIZE otherwise. They note that the DRE "happens to be the same virulently anti-Castro group known through recently released FBI and CIA files to have been holding clandestine meetings in Dallas only weeks before the assassination, seeking to set up an armed invasion of Cuba in the last week of November 1963," (La Fontaine, 7) and they speculate that "Oswald talked" at some of these meetings -- actually addressed the group. (Ibid., 237-80) The Ibid he refers to is the book, "Oswald Taleked." Let's suppose further that at this gathering Silvia found herself listening with concern as the conversation took a slightly crazy turn. President Kennedy was coming to town shortly, and the guys started dwelling on how he needed to be killed, not only for his string of "betrayals" beginning with the Bay of Pigs, but to precipitate a US invasion of Cuba (the assassination would be pinned on Castro's agents). " >> (Ibid., 261-2) This reasoning makes a lot of sense to me, if we approach the problem from the perspective of the invasion being of primary importance and Kennedy's assassination being an afterthought., or a provocation. It reminds me of the Northwoods Project. Steve Thomas

Tim, The two Dallas Policemen who were on the triple overpass were J.W. Foster and J.C. White. Foster stood on the east side of the north/south running overpass, White on the west. Right at the end of his WC testimony, Foster was asked: Mr. BALL - You did permit some railroad employees to remain on the overpass? Mr. FOSTER - Yes, sir. Mr. BALL - How did you determine they were railroad employees? Mr. FOSTER - By identification they had with them. Identification they had and the other men that was with them verifying that they were employees. That "other man" sounds a lot like Holland. Steve Thomas

John, I got to wondering last night if anyone ever tested firing a Mannlicher Carcano in Dealey Plaza and let people who were there listen to the sound of it. Would they have been able to say, "Yes, that's the sound I heard that day", or "No, that doesn't sound anything like what I heard on November 22nd?" Seems like that would have been helpful. Steve Thomas

James, Donald Wayne House being arrested. Steve Thomas

Tim, From Clint Hill's WC testimony: When the cars were moving fast, the distance between JFK's limo and the SS followup car lengthened because of the danger. When they slowed down, the distance was closed up so that the SS agents could get to JFK if they needed to. This testimony could very well be what you see depicted in the photo: Special Agent Greer, was running the car more to the left-hand side of the street more than he was to the right to keep the President as far away from the crowd as possible, and because of this the motorcycles on the left-hand side could not get past the crowd and alongside the car, and they were forced to drop back. I jumped from the followup car, ran up and got on top of the rear portion of the Presidential automobile to be close to Mrs. Kennedy in the event that someone attempted to grab her from the crowd or throw something in the car. Mr. SPECTER. Did you have any other occasion en route from Love Field to downtown Dallas to leave the followup car and mount that portion of the President's car? Mr. HILL. I did the same thing approximately four times. Steve Thomas

Wade, This sight has a number of the films, including Weigman: http://www.jfk-online.com/films.html Steve Thomas

Ah. If I remember right, it's against their forum rules to post anything said there anywhere else. Too bad. Steve Thomas

Duncan, Is this email in the articles section of jfkresearch, or the forum section? Steve Thomas

This is actually for John Simkin. I know a while back, you were inquiring about something called a Suite 8-F Group. I don't know if the group you had in mind was national in scope or not. (I tried doing a search of the posts, but because one of the words was less than four characters, the software just returned an error.) Anyway, I've been reading a book called Red Scare, by Don Carleton, Texas Monthly Press, 1985. It's about right-wing hysteria in Houston, TX in the 1950's. On page 70 of Carleton's book he talks about the power brokers of Houston regularly meeting in Suite 8-F of Jesse Jone's Lamar Hotel. They were called "The 8-F Crowd." Carleton wrote, "One writer has referred to the meeting place as "one of the secret capitals of Texas."" Footnotes Carleton includes on the "8-F Crowd" include: Conway, The Texans, pp. 101-103. Hurt, The Most Powerful Texans, p. 73 Green, The Establishment in Texas Politics, p. 17 Hope this helps. Steve Thomas

Wade, I once wrote an essay called, "Drunk on the Railroad Tracks." It went like this: I started out by reading Deputy Sheriff "Lummie" Lewis' after action report in the WC Hearings. There is one line that reads: COUNTY OF DALLAS SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT SUPPLEMENTARY INVESTIGATION REPORT ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY Deputy C.L. "Lummie" Lewis, Dallas County Sheriff's Department Lonnie Ray Wright w/m/ - 3 time loser. Drunk, put in jail. Was on RR track. I went to the DPD Archives, and Wright does not appear in the Index. So, I went to the DPD Dispatch tapes. At 1:08, there is this transmission: At 1:08 : 261: I have a white male that fits that description in size. He's drunk down at the end of the north end of Laws Street. You want to have someone check him? DIS: 15. 15: 15. DIS: Can you get to him? DIS: 261, are you near that person? 261: I've got him on my motor. DIS: Are you at the north end of Laws, at the dead end? 261: 10-4. 261 is Patrolman C.M. Barnhart 15: If you can get 15, car 2, would you get him to put some personnel on those railroad tracks near Market Hall and check back toward this location? And check up the tracks in that immediate vicinity. DIS: 10-4. DIS: 15, car 2. DIS: 10-4, 15. He's on Channel 2. He has the information. DIS: Do you have anybody you could send to the dead end of Laws Street? 15: 10-4. 212: 212. DIS: 212. 212: Have you got another squad that can meet that unit at the dead end of Laws? I'm blocked in over here and can't get out. DIS: Yes. Disregard. Have someone there now. 212: 10-4. 15 is Captain Talbert 15-2 is Captain Souter 212 is Patrolman Spredlin 261: 261. DIS: 261. 261: I'm going to stay on these railroad tracks down at the end of Laws. DIS: 10-4. 261 is Patrolman C. M. Barnhart and is a 3 wheel motorcycle At 1:12 # 243 calls in on Channel 2. #243 is Patrolman B. L. Apple “I’m down here with this three wheeler at the dead-end of Laurels and he has got black hair. He is 42 years old and got a light colored jacket on and he is pretty drunk but he has been walking down these railroad tracks. Do you want me to take him up there or what do you want me to do with him? Yes, take any of them up there to 505 Main and contact Matt or Emmit Hughes. 10-4 Box 14, Folder# 4, Item# 11 page 32 http://jfk.ci.dallas.tx.us/box14.htm In the DPD Archives, there is an Arrest Report for John Elrod signed by C.M. Barnhart (Box 3, Folder#20, Item# 2) http://jfk.ci.dallas.tx.us/box3.htm It reads in part, "This man was arrested on railroad tracks a few minutes after radio call was dispatched that man was walking along railroad carrying a rifle. This man was not carrying a rifle at time of arrest." The time on Elrod's Arrest Record is given as 2:45 pm, but Barnhart is talking about his suspect as "having him on my motor" as early as 1:10 or so. Elrod's age in his arrest report is given as 31. Apple's transmission at 1:12 gives his suspect's age as 42. So, is the 1:08 - 1:12 arrest for Lonnie Ray Wright? How old was Lonnie Ray Wright? Apple is instructed to take his suspect to the Dallas County Sheriff's Office. Elrod's arrest report is filed by the Dallas City Police. Elrod's arrest report was signed by C.M. Barnhart, H.M. Hart and F.A. Hellinghausen of the Special Services Bureau, and M.A. Rhodes. Why was Elrod's arrest record signed by Barnhart and not L.L. Hill? Barnhart was in on the arrest at 1:08PM, but there is no reference on the dispatch tapes to him being in on the 2:23 PM arrest. There is a M.A. Rhoads who is listed as a 3-W motorcycle officer on the second platoon 10:00 - 6:00 PM shift in the Traffic Divison (19H131) He was number 292. His name is spelled differently on Elrod's arrest report. I wonder what happened to Lonnie Wright? He'd probably have an interesting story to tell. Steve Thomas

Tim, So Trafficante may very well have been serving two (or even three) masters when he helped plan the Kennedy hit. You need cutouts and plausible deniability. The people who made the decision to kill John F. Kennedy were not the same people who planned it. The people who planned it were not the same people who carried it out. The people who carried it out were not the same people who covered it up. That's why it gets so confusing. Steve Thomas

Wade, I was finally able to get to the Report you cited. With respect to statement number 3, I believe this to be John Elrod. The time on Elrod's arrest report is given as 2:45 PM The radio transmissions surrounding this subject and getting a wrecker to pick up a car near Cobb Stadium are kind of interesting: According to CE 1974 at 23H885, at approximately 2:20PM, Unit 474A (which is only identified as the Special Services Bureau) is dispatched to pick up a "subject on this overpass, carrying a rifle; railroad tracks, Cobb Stadium." 474A was asked if he could see the subject. 474A said no, but that they would go over and get him. At 2:23, Unit 22 (Patrolman L.L. Hill) was dispatched to go out to Cobb Stadium on the railroad track overpass and meet 474A at the railroad tracks. "There is a white male carrying a rifle" (23H886) At 2:26, unit 562 (a wrecker) radioed in and said that he was at Cobb stadium "for that suspect's car" (23H887). The Dispatcher told the wrecker to wait there, that 474A will "be back in a minute". At 2:27, Unit 52(unknown) radioed in and asked if the T.C. Cobb Stadium was on the Hines Blvd overpass, the railroad overpass, or the freeway overpass and asked which direction the suspect was walking. The Dispatcher's response was garbled, but said he didn't know about the direction. (23H887) At 2:28 Patrolman Hill reported that he was with the wrecker at Cobb Stadium and Unit 474A was ordered to go there. (23H887) 474A radios in and says, "The car that we want picked up is on the parking lot if front of the Merchandise Mart just north of Cobb Stadium." 22 asks if it is a 1964 Falcon. 474A says, "No. It is a red panel truck with writing on the side... license plate 3E9087. (23H888) The time on Elrod's Arrest Record is given as 2:45 pm. As early as 2:03 PM, Unit 474A was calling for a wrecker. "We need a wrecker on the parking lot just west of Cobb's stadium for suspect's car." (23H881) At 2:26, unit 562 (a wrecker) radioed in and said that he was at Cobb stadium "for that suspect's car" (23H887). The Dispatcher told the wrecker to wait there, that 474A will "be back in a minute". What suspect was that? 474A wasn't dispatched to pick up the suspect walking on the railroad tracks until 2:20 PM. (23H885) There follows as series of transmissions from 474A looking for Deputy Chief M.W. Stevenson and Lieutenant C.C. Wallace. Steve Thomas

Wade, For some reason, the DPD Archives server is acting up. Can you tell me what Box, Folder, and Item # you are referring to? I'll go back and look at it later. Steve Thomas

Shanet, Carroll Jarnagin, Dallas attorney, told the FBI that on October 4, 1963, he was in the Carousel Club and overheard Ruby talking to a man named 'H.L. Lee' about plans to kill the governor of Texas." This is at 26H257 under CE2821 He was given an 11 question polygraph by the Dallas Police and flunked 10 out of the 11 questions. The only answer he got right was, "Were you drunk at the time?" His polygraph interview can be found in the DPD Archives at Box 13, Folder# 4, Item# 15. Steve Thomas

I forgot to mention that there are various documents relating to Mr. Bray and the Thresher incident in the DPD Archives. They can be found in Box 8, Folder# 7, Item# 1 Box 13, Folder# 5, Item# 8 and Box 18, Folder# 5, Item# 1 Steve Thomas

John, FWIW Well, for some reason the software is not allowing me to upload this, but if you go to Box 1, Folder# 3, Item# 26 of the DPD Archives: http://jfk.ci.dallas.tx.us/box1.htm There is a memo there from Detective B.M. Waters to Deputy Chief Lunday concerning a 1966 phone call from a guy named James Hacker in Los Angeles. He said that Oswald was paid by Jack Ruby to kill Connally. What was interesting to me is the amount of time he spent on the phone with two Detectives and FBI Agent Bob Gemberling. I spent some time on this subject a shile back. Coincidentally, the Thresher went down on the same day that someone took a potshot at General Edwin Walker. I tried to determine if the initials JFCOTT were an acronym for something. I didn't come up with anything. Steve Thomas

Hi Bill, Bill Greer's after-action report is at 18H723 here: http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk...Vol18_0369a.htm While he starts his narrative at 11:30 on the morning of the 22nd, James Rowley said that of the 9 SS Agents who went to the Press Club and 10 Agents who went to the Cellar, only four agents went to these places who were also in the motorcade: Landis, Hill, Ready, and Bennett. Steve Thomas