Pete Mellor

Thanks, Richard & yourself have clarified that issue. I've tried to find where I came across that false info, but no luck so far.

Cheers Richard, I think that covers all bases!

Gil, can you clarify. I'm sure I have read in the distant past that U.S. Post Offices in '63 would not accept C.O.D. items to a persons post box. True or false?

Yeah, good post Paul, my thoughts are that I reckon we'll never know for sure.

I'm sure I've read somewhere that this meeting was in Paris.

I'm with you Nellie. ☎️ & Greg, unlike the DPD homicide Chief, did you make a recording of the contact?

Michael, From Clark's 'Betrayal: A JFK Honor Guard Speaks' "I remember holding the morgue door open for him and looking for a good five to ten seconds, seeing the President's body lying on the table, and to me looking like he was sleeping. I could not see any wounds. I could not see any distinguishing things that would make me believe that he was hurt or that he had been shot. But I saw him only from the waist up because there was a sheet covering his lower extremities. I remember looking at his head because they said it was a head shot. I remember his neck or his head was on a block." "Phil asked me to describe what I saw when I looked into the morgue briefly. Phil Singer said, 'Hubie' and picked up a block, a plastic block, and handed it to me. 'Yeah', I said, 'that's it'. Phil said, 'This is a chock? That's it? This is what you saw? Something essentially like this?' I took the plastic block and demonstrated how it worked by putting it behind my own neck and holding it there." "I told them I had become familiar with what a chock block looked like when I was a police officer in New York and had to be in the morgue from time to time."

From Clark's publication: 'Betrayal A JFK Honor Guard Speaks.' He writes that they were supposed to remove the casket from the Navy ambulance & place it on the pickup. They were interrupted by press photographers around the ambulance, which then "just took off." Maybe. In his book he makes no mention of any other casket arrival at the morgue. After the Guards duty outside the morgue during the autopsy they left around 4 a.m. with the new casket & the Kennedy family to the White House to escort the casket to the East Room. "At no time did I see any other casket come through either one of those two doors to the morgue, other than the mahogany casket which was brought in around midnight."

Joe, yep! Gawler mortician Tom Robinson was sat in the gallery throughout JFK's autopsy & when this was complete (from memory) around midnight, the Gawler men went to work on the cadaver. I believe they did restorative wax work on JFK's face and dressed the body, placed in casket etc. I believe Robinson testified to the A.R.R.B. that around ten tiny metal fragments were removed from the skull & placed in a glass phial. As for the questions on Hugh Clark, I have his book in my Kindle reader, unfortunately it is a few years since I read his story & the Kindle's battery is flat, so I'll need to get back to you on those details, unless someone answers your queries first.

Yes, Joseph, agree entirely, this guy couldn't keep quiet & let Clark tell his story.

Another great piece Gil. Questions remain on whatever rifle was supposedly found on the 6th floor of the TSBD & the so called ballistics evidence associated with it. Just like the Oswald hand gun supposedly involved in the Tippit killing along with the ballistic evidence and the chains of possession in each case. Also, as Ben has pointed out the evidence against Sirhan's weapon being responsible for killing RFK is equally shoddy. Add to all this the case against James Earl Ray & the investigation into the killing of Malcolm Little.....all would make a satirical comedy if the subject wasn't so tragic.

Greg, even though it is a long time mantra that U.S. & G.B. have a special relationship, I do not really feel able to comment on the viability of an American national membership and lobbying organisation from across the pond, that could engage with the U.S. Congress while being headquartered in D.C. etc. However, as usual, the meat of your thread here I find very interesting. If Joan Mellen can organise the scrutiny of fingerprints from boxes on the TSBD and obtain the prints of Mac Wallace from WWII U.S. Naval records to get recognised experts to compare the two, then I would think it should be possible to achieve the same with Curtis LaVerne Crafard's (Craford) prints, (unless some nefarious higher power deem that not in their interest.) Unless there is a significant improvement in the photographic quality of images of 'prayer man', I do not see that route being of value in the pursuit of exoneration of Oswald in the JFK case. Jonathan Cairns has a fair defence attorney's post on Kennedy's and King. As for General Walker, Gil's present thread on 'The Witness' has a good post from Jim Hargrove regarding CE573 (the item dug out of Walker's wall) being a steel jacketed bullet. I would think this evidence should have more weight to exonerate Oswald with the public etc., than anything. The fact that Walker himself could not identify the bullet that the Warren Commission presented to him also says much. Whatever you develop along these lines I am sure to watch from afar with great interest. Good luck!

Yes, excellent tributes in Fort Worth. One of my favourite bands, the Allman Brothers, never got to see them but those Fillmore albums are top of my Spotify list!

Yeah John, I was adding to Jeremy's post.

God only knows how I got home from a drinking session with John in 1972 after Pentangle's gig at Manchester's Free Trade Hall. White House Blues for Ron.

'Four Days' must be the earliest publication on the JFK assassination beating Buchanan's 'Who Killed Kennedy?' & the Warren Report. I obtained my copy from a DPUK book auction for £10. Later editions have a cream colour front with a photograph of JFK but my hardback copy is black with just 'FOUR DAYS' printed in silver lettering. The book was compiled by UPI and published by American Heritage Magazine, although my copy has Simon & Schuster printed on the hardback spine. As the title indicates it covers the events from Friday morning in Fort Worth to the interment at Arlington. There are just four pages of assassination pictures in Dealey Plaza. P16 has a Muchmoor frame showing the limo with the Newman's standing on the north side of Elm & Babushka/Brehm on the south side. P17 again shows a Muchmoor frame (No55) with Jean Hill & Mary Moorman on the south side of Elm around the same time of Moorman's b/w polaroid No5, which occupies a double spread on pages 18 & 19. P20 has another Muchmoor frame showing Clint Hill just reaching the limo which I think is equivalent to the Nix film frame No66. Finally on P21 there are two pictures which show Hill with his foot on the rear step, very similar to Nix frame No66 & the other shows Jackie on the trunk & Hill assisting her back into her seat. The Notes do not acknowledge any source/picture takers, simply stating that "The photographs are from the UPI newspicture services, & the sequences showing the assassination of the President are from UPI Newsfilm. All in all, a great historical souvenir. Although I am no expert on film matters I would tend to agree that authorities (FBI/Warren etc) did not have access to Muchmoor's film or Wilma Bond's & although FBI agents watched Bronson's brief images they were not used because of a lack of clarity and because they did not show the TSBD.

I think this first appeared in 1965 in Jean Stafford's 'A Woman in History' where Marguerite rambles about JFK's life threatening illnesses leading to the government mercy killing. Stafford also writes that Marguerite "had petitioned to have Lee Harvey buried in Arlington Cemetery". Although no mention is made as to who and when Mrs Oswald made the petition.

Thanks for the detailed reply Greg. You must wear out many keyboards!

Agree. I've never held the view of Oswald walking towards Ruby's apartment & meeting Tippit at 10th & Patton. What is not mentioned in your post above is the vehicle (cop) pipping horn that Roberts testified to. (Maybe you've dealt with that on another thread.) Also, as well as changing dirty work clothes Oswald is supposed to have picked up his gun at Beckley! To go watch a movie!?! Did that really happen or do you consider that part of the framing by DPD for the Tippit killing? I have mentioned previously that I appreciate your logical and thoughtful posts on many aspects of this case. The discarded snub nose found on Saturday morning I have never read of that previously. I do sit on the picket fence on many points of the JFK assassination & I'm still vague on Oswald trying to escape the JFK killers....but great food for thought.

See Thompson's 'Last Second in Dallas' chapter 6 "A Matter of Reasonable Doubt" pgs 85-90. Tink photographed Zapruder transparencies of individual frames in Time's office.

When President Kennedy's car was about ten feet from us, I heard a noise that sounded like a firecracker going off. President Kennedy kind of jumped like he was startled and covered his head with his hands and then raised up. After I heard the first shot, another shot sounded and Governor Connolly kind of grabbed his chest and lay back on the seat of the car....Just about the time President Kennedy was right in front of us, I heard another ring out and the President put his hands up to his head. I saw blood all over the side of his head. -Gayle Newman. Michael, Gayle Newman's statement taken at the Dallas Sheriff's Dept., on Nov. 22nd., & she and husband Bill were, as we know, two of the nearest witnesses to the kill shot(s). These witness statements are what keep us debating this topic! The Secret Service agent who claimed to see the back wound shot was Glen Bennett.

Nice one Gil, so the next question is:- Did DPD search team purportedly find the bus transfer in the pocket of CE151?

So, the bus transfer was found two hours after Oswald's arrest in his shirt pocket, after his second frisk by Boyd & Sims. Didn't Oswald change his shirt at his rooming house, or is that story just more uncorroborated confusion?

Termed Mondegreens:- a misunderstood or misinterpreted word or phrase resulting from a mishearing of the lyrics of a song. I can think of many that I misheard too!

Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin'We're finally on our ownThis summer I hear the drummin'Four dead in Ohio