Benjamin Cole

Great work. I will have to take a look-see. McClendon certainly fits the profile of someone who would actively finance anti-Castro operations, given the time and place. If he was pals with Ruby for more than prurient reasons, that would add to the Ruby story, that Ruby was more than the not-too-bright nightclub owner portrayed.

Larry H-- Always great to hear from Larry Hancock. My reasoning is as follows: If there is only innocuous stuff in the "dossier" on McClendon, why the hold-up? My hope is there are clues, which by deduction, allow intrepid investigators (that's you) get a better feel of the terrain. I must confess I do not know what is "Tejuana." The 338-page file on J. Walton Moore is probably soporific, and cleansed if it had any bombshells on LHO. Still, why the lock-and-key? I wonder what a guy has to do to get the "Dallas post" in the CIA.

McLendon was also an associate of Jack Ruby as well as being friendly with several other suspects including Clint Murchison, Bobby Baker and David Atlee Phillips. Peter Dale Scott claims that McLendon made a secret trip to Mexico City just before the assassination. According to Seth Kantor when Ruby was arrested he "shouted out for Gordon McLendon". The KLIF disc-jockey, Weird Beard, later told Kantor that Ruby "greatly admired McLendon". Does this mean that they shared the same political views? A member of the Democratic Party, McLendon attempted to unseat Ralph Yarborough in 1964. He later left the party saying he could no longer support the policies of Lyndon B. Johnson. McLendon sold KLIF for $10.5m in 1971. Over the next eight years he sold the rest of his radio stations for approximately $100m. Later it was estimated that McLendon was worth around $200m. In 1975 McLendon and David Atlee Phillips formed the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO). You can find out more here: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKmclendon.htm Chuck S.-- Thanks for responding, and yes I found those links too. There is more online about McClendon, he was in OSS during WWII, and has had contacts with military intel through his life. No doubt, as he became a powerful radio-station network owner, he was useful too. As an aside to no one in particular, anyone reading about the JFKA, but who had no idea of what the population of the US and Dallas was, would assume the country was rather small. This is from the Washington Post, four years ago, in regards to the JFK Records Act: "So what exactly is still being withheld? The missing records include a 338-page file on J. Walton Moore, the head of the CIA office in Dallas at the time of the killing, and an 18-page dossier on Gordon McClendon, a Dallas businessman who conferred with Jack Ruby just before he shot Oswald. Several files on notorious anti-Castro Cuban exiles were apparently withheld, including those focusing on Luis Posada and Orlando Bosch, who had been accused of a 1976 airline bombing that killed 73 people." ---30--- So, to state the obvious, here we are 58 years after the JFKA, and a file on McClendon, ostensibly a civilian radio-station owner, would injure national security if released. The 338-page file on Moore is another laugher. Why the CIA had someone in Dallas anyway---egads, Moore must have been the loneliest man in the CIA. What did he do all day? But whatever he was doing, after 58 years if it were to be revealed, US national security would be imperiled. I traded e-mails with Larry Hancock, and he seems to think there might not be much in the McClenon file. But I wonder. I will try to do a post on McClendon in the next couple of weeks. Just for fun.

Re KLIF radio founder Gordon McClendon---my understanding is that the file on McClendon is still under lock-and-key, despite the JFK Records Act. Does anybody know more?

Calvin Ye-- Great stuff...but how did Ruby get into the DPD on the day of the transfer? And yes, I subscribe to the idea that Ruby stalked LHO, and was hired on to do it.

Richard P-- Thanks for posting. Fascinating article. I disagree with the conclusions, as it seems clear the CIA was running LHO for years and likely Cuban exiles were in Dallas on Nov. 22. The Mob, Italian or Jewish or otherwise, had little or nothing to do with LHO. The building of the LHO biography, and the post JFKA cover-up, was entirely a CIA and federal government operation. John Newman's "World War III" virus is far beyond anything the Mob could do. Still, lots of fascinating info about Ruby. My take is post-JFKA, the CIA wanted LHO eliminated, and quickly, or obvious reasons. Imagine if it came out that LHO was a CIA and intel asset, and had even been involved in a flopped CIA op that day in Dallas. But the CIA needed hands-off on the LHO murder, and did have not infinite resources in Dallas. I mean J. Walton Moore? de Mohrenschildt? These are not guys to plug LHO. So they turned to the Mob, with whom they had good relations, and Ruby was "hired." As we see from this biography you present, Ruby was far from the dunce portrayed after the LHO murder. Maybe even Ruby liked to play the "dumb guy" in Dallas for a naive audience. But in defense of Ruby, anybody who has Candy Barr for a girlfriend cannot be all bad.

Mohrenschildt said he was friends with the Dallas mayor Cabell too.

Oh, my guess is no one was shooting at Tague. By some estimates, the shot that ricocheted and hit Tague, first went 20 feet high over the limo. In my scenario, this was LHO fulfilling his mission of a false-flag failed JFKA. A sure miss, and high, just like with Walker. However, I can't explain why the bullet left only lead, and no copper, when it struck the curb. There is an outside possibility that LHO was actually using lead slugs, and not copper-jacketed slugs. Hunters were known to repack Western ammo with something better for hunting. In fact there was one shop in Dallas doing this.

Tony K-- I also think it possible the Grassy Knoll shot was a diversion, with purposely smoky ammo. That still leaves a shot that struck the curb by Tague. The strike on the curb indicated no copper, and only lead. So who shot that? I would like to say this will be revealed in the fullness of time, but I am running our decades....

Maybe you are right. Perhaps Oswald did not fire and miss, as the first audible shot. On the other hand, some have posited a missed shot was the first shot, such as the HSCA... "the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), which was much more certain about which shot of Oswald’s was the errant one, estimated that the first shot might have been fired as early as Z 158, making the entire shooting sequence assassination approximately 8.5 seconds long." You are correct, Connally and his wife, testified they heard one shot that appeared to strike JFK, then Connally was struck, and then the third shot. Three shots, three hits. On the other hand, we have the indisputable curb shot near Tague, and not by a copper-jacketed bullet. It had to be a miss by somebody---a gun with a silencer? Pneumatic weapon? In conclusion, I am close to saying this whole topic reminds me of my late, great Uncle Jerry and his statement, "If you are not confused, then maybe you do not understand the situation."

Anthony M- Well, regarding Thomas...unfortunately, he makes an elementary error. He repeats the canard that Connally was struck by a tumbling bullet. "But, there is evidence that the bullet which hit Governor Connally at Z-224 also hit President Kennedy. That evidence is the elongation of the entrance wound in the governor's back. A bullet hitting straight on would normally make a rounded perforation. The governor's wound was 0.5 cm wide and 1.5 cm long. The elongation can be explained by a bullet entering sideways from tumbling caused by an earlier impact." ----Thomas See: http://www.whokilledjfk.net/hear_no_evil.htm Actually, as the attending surgeon made clear on many occasions, in treating Connally, Dr. Robert Shaw enlarged the entrance wound and thought it a "clean" shot. https://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol7/html/HSCA_Vol7_0168a.htm Thomas posits the Connally bullet should have made a round hole, as if shot from, say, street level. But if the bullet was fired from an elevated point, it would have entered at a downward angle, leaving a clean but elliptical wound. Which is what Shaw found. In addition, Thomas' version requires (again, like the WC and the HSCA) that Connally did a 180-degree in his seat after receiving a shot that crossed through his body, obliterated most of a rib, and smashed his wrist. Shaw, who had treated more than 900 bullet and shrapnel wounds in military service, thought Connally doing so was highly unlikely. But again, Connally and his wife were firm in their statements that Connally was immediately incapacitated after being shot. Well, seems likely. Other parts of the Thomas view seems to lack imagination. There could have been additional shots from a weapon with a silencer, or a pneumatic gun, which might show up in the Z film but not on an audio report. This is not even addressed. And if there were five audible gunshots as caught on the Dictabelt, why do so many witnesses say there were three shots, and some four shots? The blur analysis, whoever does it, has always struck me as suspect. Zapruder was an ordinary guy with a home movie camera, panning sideways. He could have been jerking around from gunshots, shock waves, adjusting the pan, somebody's scream, an unsteady hand, a sudden pumping of the heart, what have you. The acoustics...well, I do not know to say. Maybe there were five shots that day. Maybe more, through the use of silencers and pneumatic guns. All in all, I can't say I find the Thomas argument persuasive. Thomas' review of the Walker shooting, in his book, is very weak. The DPD concluded the shot fired at Walker struck a window pane, and was deflected lower, yet still struck well above Walker's head. Walker mentioned nothing about luckily ducking just before the shot in the initial police reports, and indeed initially thought kids had tossed a firecracker into his room. That's how close the shot was---that, not close. In other words, almost certainly an intentional miss. Probably a biography-builder. Thomas has some interesting points that the bullets Oswald used were manufactured under CIA contract, and intended to help dislodge De Gaulle or Italian communists.

Anthony M- Oh, "favours." When will you Brits learn to spell like us in the colonies? I will try to find "Hear No Evil" and give it a read. I live in the Thai outback now, so getting a particular book can be a challenge. The more I review the JFKA, the more it looks like HSCA Chief Counsel Blakey must have "stipulated to the evidence" to get the job. He was a Mob-hunter too, and a decent public servant, but used badly. Later, to his credit, Blakey renounced the CIA, admitted to errors, and posited two Cuban exiles were in Dallas that day, being Eladio Del Valle and Hermininio Diaz. Hoping the C19 drearies are not getting you down....

Add on: "Why, nearly six decades after his murder, do Americans still care so much about and, for the most part, continue to think so highly of John Fitzgerald Kennedy?"--Michael Kazin Right, we Americans only care about the JFKA as we deluded about his true nature. Ergo, we should not care if all the records are released under the JFK Act, or that the assassination be re-investigated. I got news for Kazin: 1. You got the JFK record wrong. 2. Even if JFK was a bad president, or had policies we disagree with, even ordinary citizens cannot stand idly by while the national security state removes an elected president. And murder is murder.

Egads, what has happened to the American "left"? The left has not only become elaborately censorious, they are so aligned with the Deep State, globalists and the national security state they make Tucker Carlson look appealing. To me, this Kazin writing has the look of another article, written by another useful idiot, intended to undermine any impetus for a full release of documents under the JFK Records Act, which Biden will rule on later this year. It was long-dead Russians that did the JFKA, or the Cubans did the JFKA, a lone nut did the JFKA, and JFKA was not that great anyway, and on and on. No, JFK was not perfect. But he deserves a fair shake.

Tony K-- Thanks for reading and commenting. Well, my reasoning is that the other parties were acting on cue on LHO's first shot, and then all fired ASAP. That, or "We all open fire when the limo gets near the Stemmons Freeway sign." You are correct, you want everybody to fire at once. My JFKA scenario is not the stuff of James Bond movie, or the textbook, perfectly executed CIA plan. I suspect several Cuban exiles converged on Dallas, and came up with a plan, and did it. The plan may not be perfect, or even good, and not an example of excellent spycraft. And indeed, LHO managed to leave the scene without being murdered first. Had LHO the slightest resources, he could have fled town entirely. Connally was shot also, nearly fatally. This whole nearly impromptu plan might have been exposed, and looked like a dreadful macabre Keystone Kops tale, except any investigation was shut down immediately. A real, immediate and dreadnought investigation likely would have exposed the plan and participants within weeks or months. This complete lack of a real investigation has led to a type of glorification, that a super-organized and skilled operation was put into place in the JFKA. And riddle me this: You know the Rose Cheramie story. Now, how high-end and sophisticated could a plan for the JFKA be, if Rose Cheramie knows about it and is spilling the beans? She was en route to Dallas with a couple Cuban exiles, who were involved in the drug trade but evidently ready to participate in the JFKA. In my view, where high-end complicity and skill comes in is after the JFKA. The CIA had to halt any investigation into the JFKA, and eliminate LHO. The way the CIA accomplished both ends showed a lot of netherworld competence all around, and in the black arts especially.

Steve T-- Thanks for reading and commenting. Also, and I lost the cite (a hard drive meltdown a few years back), there was a fresh chip mark seen in one of the pylons of the Third Street overpass, not far from James Tague. While most witness heard three or four shots, this does not rule out the possibility of simultaneous shots, or separate shots heard as one shot, due to the speed of sound. (That is, if one rifle is fired 1,225 feet from you, and another a half second later from 612 feet feet from you, you will hear one shot.) Additionally, there could have been the use of silencers, or pneumatic guns. As I stated, Governor Connally said slugs were entering the JFK limo as if from automatic gunfire, and Kellerman spoke a flurry of shots, among other witness testimony. My own guess is that LHO fired once, a high and intentional miss, and ran down to the second-floor lunch room. Other parties fired in earnest thereafter. LHO was part of a false-flag intentionally failed assassination attempt, to be blamed on Cuba, to justify a regime change operation in Cuba. This operation was piggy-backed on by other CIA assets, who learned of the false-flag plan, but shot for real. The use of frangible bullets is an interesting possibility also. No copper, and only lead, was found on the curb strike near Tague. As I say, "LHO did it all alone" ---that dog don't hunt.

Joe B- Jack Ruby did get in DPD building somehow, on the other hand he was familiar with the premises. Ruby refused to say how he got into the DPD, which does suggest collusion, but is not proof.

Chuck S- OK, I think I see what you are looking at, Z-331. One "problem" is that Josiah Thompson says there was another shot after 313, but seven-tenths of a second later, and that would be 12 or 13 frames after Z-313, or ~Z-226. I am still mystified by the Thompson statement. On Z-331 there appears to be some short of shaking or motion of JFK's head. It is hard to tell if this is an effect of the film, the camera shaking, a JFK convulsion, or a shot, or what. The whole image is shaky. Jackie K. did not mention two shots in quick succession to JFK's head, and she was sitting right there (although in her defense, she may have been justifiably hysterical at the whole event). The Connallys do not mention another shot in quick succession to JFK, although they may have been "out of it" by Z-331. So, we have a lot of witnesses who say "three shots, three separate hits" but no one saying there were two shots to JFK's head, and the Z-film does not appear to confirm the second shot to JFK's head. My take is that the "three shots, three separate hits" version is the most believable, and does rule out a lone gunman armed with a single-shot bolt action rifle. There is conclusive evidence of another shot that struck a curb near James Tague, and very strong evidence a shot was fired from the Grassy Knoll.

Great post. Yes, Connally and his wife never wavered in their testimony, and their recounting of the event is verified by the Z film. The weak link in the "Mob did it" storyline is the LHO backstory. LHO was a CIA asset, and the CIA was doing a biography build on the LHO. So how did the Mob get LHO to commit the JFKA, or frame him so expertly, if LHO was a CIA asset? Even if the Mob provided the actual triggermen (which I doubt), the framing of LHO had to require CIA involvement, and the immediate release after the JFKA of the "World War III" virus---that is, if LHO was not defined as a leftie-loner-loser, then US hawks would launch an unprovoked nuclear war on Russia. The LHO meeting with KGB wet-work chief Kostikov in Mexico City, and the Katzenbach memo, etc. The Mob had no inkling of LHO activities in Mexico City. The backstory and the cover-up are way beyond the Mob. The Connallys are to be credited for their honest and forthright description of what happened in Dallas that day---many others buckled under pressure to hew to an accepted narrative. Add on: The Mob angle was pursued by HSCA chief counsel Blakey, a veteran Mob-hunter. He said wiretaps had exonerated Mobsters with the exception of Marcello, but that was because Marcello was not wiretapped. But there is no evidence that LHO ever worked for Marcello, or had affiliations with mobsters, but there are volumes of evidence of LHO meeting with intelligence assets Bannister, Ferrie, Mohrenschildt, or doing un-Mob things like meeting with Kostikov, and spending time in Russia. Lest anyone forget, LHO was affiliated with the US Marines, and received an honorable discharge. Jack Ruby is another story... My guess is the CIA turned to the Mob to erase LHO.

Chuck Schwartz- Thanks for commenting. Do you mean Z-313? Not 331?

David A-- There is a Z-film online that stabilizes on Connally, and agonizingly I lost the link. Great idea.

Anthony M- Thanks for reading and commenting. "The data in it (acoustic evidence) can not be detected by the human ear but has been extensively studied and it is critical to a coherent model of the assassination."--AM You may be correct, but right away we have a problem, for general public consumption. The public hears this: That experts took the DPD dictabelt, put it into a black box for analysis, and determined it backs up the WC, or it does not. Josiah Thompson explains what happened here, and it does look like the Alvarez-Ramsey team was a hatchet job, not true analysis. https://whowhatwhy.org/2021/05/28/the-original-inconvenient-truth/ My true story, for public consumption, is that the single-shooter WC crowd posits that Connally was shot through the chest, had a fractured right wrist and other injuries, and then did a 180- degree turn in his chair to check on JFK. Anyone can see this is the WC version, and (sadly) even the HSCA version, by a simple review of the Z-film. I contend the WC version does not hold water on its own, and moreover conflicts with the explicit testimony of Connally and his wife, and others, who recount separate shots hit JFK, then Connally, then JFK. Connally also remembers the shot he took as immediately incapacitating. Adding to the muddle: Speaking of Thompson, he now says another bullet struck JFK in the head 7/10ths of a second after Z-313. OK, at 18 frames per second that works out ~326. I wonder what Thompson is talking about. A frame by frame version of the Z film. https://www.assassinationresearch.com/v2n2/zfilm/zframe327.html I see nothing. Also, no one in the limo saw or heard the fourth shot either. I am mystified.

I probably agree but.. The establishment media said that whacko-conspiracy theory that COVID-19 came from a lab in Wuhan had been certifiably debunked. Alex Jones said it came from a lab. A sane person does not take cues from Alex Jones, or the Washington Post. In this world, you are on your own. A friend of mine says there is nothing more fake than an American reality TV show. One might add that (too often for comfort) there is nothing more fake than "real" news. The treatment of the JFKA is a case in point.

Micah M--- Thanks for reading. In the Z-film, JFK seems fine, but then goes behind the Stemmons Freeway sign, and thereafter looks injured. He can be see waving at the crowd at Z-190, seems fine, then possibly something wrong at Z-201, but then JFK goes behind the sign. JFK emerges from behind the sign at Z-225, and everyone seems alarmed, and JFK injured. Sure looks like JFK was struck at Z-200-225. It is possible there was a shot before Z-200 that missed, or that there were shots that were muffled, or that there were simultaneous shots heard as one shot. That's my take.

Chris B.- Thanks for reading and commenting. Oh, I agree there had to at least a second shooter, but based on the Z-film. Anyone who has worked in and around law, or the court system, knows how dubious witness testimony is. Echoes? People might have heard different echoes as they were at different places in Dealey Plaza. Other people just have faulty memories. Some heard four shots. Some of the witness testimony is inexplicable. Two TSBD employees side-by-side outside the TSBD watching the motorcade, and one said the shots came from the Grassy Knoll, and other said from the TSBD. Side-by-side! You are correct, occupants of the Presidential limo described bullets entering the cab as if by "automatic" fire (Connally), or in a "flurry" (Kellerman). Based on multiple and credible witness testimony, but backed up by the Z-film, I say we can rule out a single shooter armed with a single-shot bolt-action rifle. That dog don't hunt. I wish I could make heads-or-tails out of the Dallas PD dictabelt, and the experts say it indicates perhaps even five shots. I listened to it a few times and I hear nothing decipherable. Of course, if a pneumatic gun was used, that would not even show up on the dictabelt.