Leslie Sharp

@Mart Hall I accept both Trump and Biden may have failed to follow the letter of the law, and that case should be heard by the Supreme Court. 

@Paul Brancato not to derail the topic, but what worse things. Mike Johnson’s Alliance for the Defense of Freedom.  Leonard Leo’s final and complete take over of the Supreme Court? Steve Miller, Bannon and Stone as the acceptable face of the Reich.  Liberals aren’t the only Americans who should be very very worried. This isn’t partisanship, this is a battle for OUR Constitution and OUR democratically elected republic. Trump was the Trojan Horse.

@Greg Doudna You have no understanding of policy continuity if you argue the 1960’s aren’t reflected in current geopolitics. 60 years are a blip on the screen of the Great Game.  
 

Why haven’t you researched the Kameradenwerke, the Grand Mufti and the Reich, the French Connection, the blowback of Algeria’s war for independence, Ethiopia/Eritrea and the Italians, Ireland’s ‘neutrality’ and the Nazis, NATO and INTERPOL in context of the assassination v. 2017 when Trump failed to deliver.
 

 Had Kennedy lived, what would our policies look like today? No doubt you argue his influence would still be apparent on the global stage after just 60 years? Or are you still staring at Cuba and Vietnam?

@Ron Bulman Revisiting Van Horn area of Texas as a possible training site. Col. Jack Canon’s original stomping grounds.

@Joe Bauer thank you. I’ve perched precariously on her shoulders for three decades and still only grasp a 10th of what she revealed to us. Those who were threatened by her intellect and inherent skills did a huge disservice to efforts to turn the country around.  And here we are.

enjoy and appreciate your insights, always.

@Ron BulmanWhat a journey Mike has in front of him!  He’s very fortunate to have an informed tour guide waiting in the wings.
 

Someone who knew Willoughby or a good friend of his contacted Dick R. at the Village Voice with a strange partially coded message. If you have Dick’s first edition, check pg 691/2.  If you don’t, let me know and I’ll type it into a comment. 

@Michael Griffith Mary H. established — presumably without realizing it — that John Newman and Hank Albarelli knew the same woman, Viola June Cobb.  I repeat that it is inexplicable to me she didn’t contact Hank, and I hope to discover the reason if I have an opportunity to speak with her directly. 

I found this passage in the book intriguing as well, Michael. Numerous photos of Hank’s friend and godmother to his first grandson Dylan, depict her with loose flowing usually shoulder-length light to medium brown hair.  I think I’ve seen one photo where her hair is in a French bun, very popular in the late ‘50s early ‘60s.  Ella Rometch’s most seductive photo captures the iconic seductress hairstyle of the day as well.

I’ve also watched videos of Jerrie Cobb The Pilot and her hair is often pulled back, length well below her shoulders but loose flowing and distinctly blonde — more Oklahoma school girl than international femme fatale.   Hair color can be easily manipulated but it takes a lot of training/programming to disguise Jerrie’s diction, speech pattern and uniquely Oklahoman accent.  Hank said June worked at perfecting her colloquial speech habits. I don’t detect the same in Jerri’s videos. She appears entirely content and confidant in her own skin.  note: both June and Jerrie could have deliberately fashioned a chignon specifically for a particular audience, including Fortuna.

Which leads me to the single most important identifier for our purpose: the coincidence both women from Oklahoma were pilots.  A pilot’s license can be faked and brandished about, but getting into the cockpit with the intention to take off? No. 

I recognize Mary H. avoids stating emphatically that “Hank’s June Cobb” (for lack of a more suitable mechanism to distinguish his friend June from Geraldyn Cobb The Pilot) earned her pilot’s license and flew planes, but I refer again to pg. 377 of his book, “A Secret Order” and June’s emphatic statement that she “felt distrust for things mechanical and mathematical” ... primary requisites for piloting a plane.  When I reread that quote  — positioned opposite a photo of June Cobb, not Jerrie Cobb — I recognized Hank’s innate mischievousness. 

Scars and hair similarities are non sequiturs; analyzing their body types from a female perspective, Jerrie would have trouble fooling June’s friends; the alleged pilot coincidence should probably be struck from the list; Jerrie did not live significant years in Ponca City; June and Jerrie were on opposite ends of the ideological spectrum; as Fortuna confirms, Jerrie Cobb posing as June, never (to her knowledge) met with Castro. Etc. etc.

Hank’s friend June Cobb was not Babushka Lady. If she was the head QJ/WIN, he concealed it to his death. To what end? If Jerrie posing as June was the head QJ/WIN, why would Mary H. essentially airbrush Otto and Ilse Skorzeny from her saga.  Of note, if indeed Jerrie Cobb maintained an address in Dallas in 1963, the possibilities expand exponentially considering the “lay of the land” leading up to November 22.

All that said, this book should be studied for the deep dives into the cloak and dagger and spy craft on the international stage — far beyond Cuba — that has remained hidden below the radar, and specifically those nickel deals that happen to also serve as further validation of the authenticity of Hank’s primary source material for his final active investigation.  
 

I hope someone from the Forum will issue Mary Haverstick an invitation to join this conversation, and please add my name. @Paul Brancato

Hypothetically, if the remaining records pertain to foreign governments that were and still are our strongest international allies, would Trump and Biden be justified in refusing to release the final tranche.

If RFK2 only views the assassination in Dallas through the constricted lens of THE CIA, THE US Military, THE US Government and disgruntled Cubans, I can see why he might fail to recognize there could be another persistent threat to national security: the collapse of critical international strategic and diplomatic alliances.
 

What if the files expose, for instance, that elements inside the governments of Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, France, Italy, Germany, Argentina, Chile, Egypt, Israel and/or South Africa, or Ukraine and NATO, were complicit in their silence or worse.
 

Can we in fact be certain “our friends allied against ‘communism’” are not still withholding records of what they knew of the conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy. (I’m thinking in particular of the Vatican, SDECE / DST, and INTERPOL.) What might have been the contemporary repercussions of those revelations during the chaos of the Trump administration. Could Biden risk the fragile global balance while cleaning up after Trump.
 

Perhaps Robert Jr.’s myopia is reason for concern. Who is he listening to.

@Andrej Stancak I for one appreciate the reminder. I’ve seen this doc. but never noticed the reference to Preston State and Mercantile, page 3.  Can you determine if they’re looking into Rothman’s accounts, or Pugibet’s?
 

Preston State was run by a leading member of the exclusive Sovereign Order of the Knights of St. John Hospitallers, and Mercantile was run by one-time Dallas mayor R. L. Thornton who served on a number of M-IC boards including Lone Star Steel with Joe Zeppa of Delta Drilling, a vital cog in the Meadows-Skorzeny oil scheme in Franco’s Spain.  Mercantile was H.L. Hunt’s primary bank, and his HQ was located in the adjacent tower.

@Ron Bulman thanks for posting this in depth dive into Williams. I’d forgotten a lot of this and some looks completely new to me.  His stint in Heidelberg is important. I believe a researcher befriended him and ended up with access to his papers following his death You may be familiar with the story. The fellow passed away fairly recently. 

Invaluable data and supporting links, Jean.  Thank you for sharing.  I think this belongs in a dedicated EF thread as well, but I'll leave it to your discretion.

I'll study potential discrepancies carefully  before offering my observations related to the Lafitte db entries that indicate Alice and Filiol were in Dallas.

Again. Merci!

@Nick Bartetzko to your point, I’ve known a number of authors who are not “withholding,” but instead are protecting information and sources until the material can be published in full and accurate context. It’s my understanding the circumstances of “Final Charade” fall into that category. Getting it right isn’t an easy task, getting it out there can be dangerous. And authors who accept those risks earn every dime of that 12-16% Royalty.

That said (underscored), I’ve lobbied privately for decades (beginning with Virginia M. who had custody of Mae Brussel’s files) that private archives belong in a non-governmental fully accessible public repository so that families and estates can pick up the phone, make a one-stop call and say “come get this stuff because that’s what our loved one would want ...he or she just didn’t get around to making the arrangements.”  We’ll do the rest. Santa Fe NM is under consideration for just such a venue with volunteer support staff. We shall see what unfolds in 2024. (If anyone is interested in discussing this project, I’ll launch a dedicated thread — providing our hosts approve.)

PS. If “the community” hadn’t devolved into a fractious, compartmentalized org. — created in the image of the very intel agencies it pursued — filled with green-eyed competitors and infiltrated by the likes of the Dirty Trickster himself, this case might have been solved — fully solved — by at least the mid-90s.  Study the trajectory, consider the current crisis in our democracy instigated by the 45th president, the recent exploitation of the JFK Records Act... the dots are there for the connecting. 
 

21 minutes ago, Paul Brancato said:

The question is was he talking to the wrong Cobb.

What constitutes the “wrong Cobb”?

I think Greg Doudna posited similar. You must not have seen my response. 
 

Have you a copy of “A Secret Order”?  On pg. 377, opposite a photo of his friend June Cobb - a woman he described to me as elegant and exceptionally feminine - he quotes her as saying, “I feel a basic distrust for everything mechanical and mathematical, you know.” — June Cobb, 1960

When is she - Viola June Cobb - alleged to have earned her pilot’s license?

Does anyone else realize how silly this is?

@Paul Brancato I don't know what could have been 'going on between Hank and June "professionally"' other than maybe the agency which is why I asked.  Did you have something else in mind?  I believe June had a level of experience as a journalist, but he never said they were collaborating in any formal sense.  

I'm sharing what I'm comfortable sharing.

Hank's June Cobb/MC project was under contract with a well-regarded university press. Had Ralph Ganis not come along when he did, I believe other projects would have progressed and probably would have been published long before Hank passed. Coup took precedent.  I've done my bit in attempts to persuade his estate of the importance of submitting the preliminary manuscript to the former editor who could then see to it (hopefully) a completed work makes it onto the public domain, soon. The decision is the prerogative of Hank's executrix. 

I'm trying to explain, poorly apparently, that it is my relatively informed opinion if June represented a "smoking gun" in the Kennedy investigation, there is no reason Hank wouldn't have at least alluded to the gun in Coup. Think of the promotional opportunity for the forthcoming  "June" story. 

On 11/20/2023 at 1:35 AM, Pete Mellor said:

Certainly June/Jerrie Cobb remains somewhat mysterious.  Covered by Newman's 'Countdown to Darkness' & files still being kept out of the public domain.

Her reports on Oswald in MC are weird.  As for the purpose and function of the Redbird aircraft, that remains unknown.

This report is incorrect concerning Babushka's camera as per Bev Oliver's explanation.   But who knows?

Anything on Cobb, IMO, shouldn't be thrown out with the bathwater.

Pete, is there a specific reason you think "anything on Cobb . . . "?

I hear and read that a lot, but I've yet to track the original source of said skepticism. I assume someone tilled the soil of doubt; seems to me it would be useful to follow the breadcrumbs. Who knows what might have motivated someone to exclude her knowledge of characters and events from that period.   Why did Win Scott jump to mind? 

@Paul Brancato

1) meaning, was Hank in the CIA?

2) Hank was concentrated on the Lafitte records: neither June nor Jerrie are apparent in that material. Had they been, he/we would have factored them into the analysis. 
 

3) Hank never discussed twins except in context of my husband’s experience and the esoteric nature of twinning. He never described Jerrie Cobb to me. Scars are easy to create; the human voice, diction, pattern and body type are more complicated.

DAP said a lot, and revealed little. 

4) Hank had intended to tell June’s personal story with a human interest approach.  Assuming he would reveal a smoking gun — based on June — in the investigation is a huge leap.

Ironic, Hank gains access to Lafitte’s datebook — the closest thing to a smoking gun in decades — and writes a book based on it that many on this forum refuse to consider. Yet here we are, chasing JUNE COBB?  @Greg Doudna

@Greg Doudna i stopped reading after your opening sentence which is completely void of fact. 
 

You know nothing about the status of Hank’s projects other than what I’ve shared. Reread my remarks, carefully, before hurling accusations.

The shame is on you, and has been since your first insults to Hank’s professional integrity.

On 11/20/2023 at 1:35 AM, Pete Mellor said:

Certainly June/Jerrie Cobb remains somewhat mysterious.  Covered by Newman's 'Countdown to Darkness' & files still being kept out of the public domain.

Her reports on Oswald in MC are weird.  As for the purpose and function of the Redbird aircraft, that remains unknown.

This report is incorrect concerning Babushka's camera as per Bev Oliver's explanation.   But who knows?

Anything on Cobb, IMO, shouldn't be thrown out with 

On 11/20/2023 at 1:35 AM, Pete Mellor said:

Certainly June/Jerrie Cobb remains somewhat mysterious.  Covered by Newman's 'Countdown to Darkness' & files still being kept out of the public domain.

Her reports on Oswald in MC are weird.  As for the purpose and function of the Redbird aircraft, that remains unknown.

This report is incorrect concerning Babushka's camera as per Bev Oliver's explanation.   But who knows?

Anything on Cobb, IMO, shouldn't be thrown out with the bathwater.

Pete, is there a specific reason you think "anything on Cobb . . . "?

I hear and read that a lot, but I've yet to track the original source of said skepticism. I assume someone tilled the soil of doubt; seems to me it would be useful to follow the breadcrumbs. Who knows what might have motivated someone to exclude her knowledge of characters and events from that period.   Why did Win Scott jump to mind? 

@Paul Brancato  Considering what we now know, is it logical that Otto Skorzeny was dismissed as being "unsuitable"? Perhaps the author chose to highlight an isolated, one-off  incident, but for some reason, Otto and Ilse are then virtually airbrushed from AWIK. (Note: Major Ganis published in 2018; we published in late 2021.)

My preliminary take (based on a limited read of AWIK so far) is anyone who pursues the QJ/WIN programme objectively is compelled to consider Otto, and by extension his wife, far more carefully than is evidenced in this work, especially if one is writing a bombshell K. assassination book. 

Since Mary H. was not a lifelong assassination researcher (she has certainly earned her stripes now), it's obvious she would rely on seasoned experts, but did any have a particulay heavy finger on the scales?

In your view, had Hank (or Ralph) weighed in, might her pursuit of the Skorzenys been more aggresive?  She skirts on some significant events and had she read Ganis or Albarelli, I think she might better or further recognize their importance.

If Jerrie Cobb lived intermittently in Dallas during the early '60s, all the more intriguing.

@Greg Doudna Your purported keen interest in Hank's other work is confusing and dare I say suspect, Greg. Considering the unprofessionalism you exhibited on this forum and on Amazon when the book based on his last active investigation first hit the stands, surely you understand why I recoil at faux interest.

As I said, I'm interested in contunued deliberations related to material presented in AWIK vs. Coup in Dallas. What did you think about the section in Haverstick's book regarding nickel transactions compared to the lengthy analysis presented in Coup? 

@Paul Brancato Paul, first, I think it's incumbent to distinguish fact from speculation presented in AWIK. Your point that June Cobb is integral to solving the case (my words not yours but I assume that's the bottom line) seems predicated on the claims made in Haverstick's book without solid evidence. 

I'll go out on a limb and say that I am 99% certain that if June was Babuska Lady, Hank would have known and would have published. I reserve the 1% because Hank played his cards close and may have intended to drop a bombshell in his planned MC/June Cobb book. Subjectively? Instinct tells me it is an absurd claim.

I agree that it's strange Mary H. didn't contact Hank since ASO was in the public domaine by 2013. One would think she would be anxious to interview anyone who knew June, particularly a fellow investigative journalist who publicly acknowledged his close friendship with June. It actually makes no sense, so for that reason I'm leaving open the possibility Mary did contact Hank and he declined the interview.  It is my understanding that instead, she relied on John Newman to a degree, so there's that to consider. I only know Hank's side of that history so I'll refrain from public debate.

I hope to have a chance to communicate directly with MH at some point.  Her deep dive into Arnold Silver et al is important, and perhaps more substantative than speculation regarding June and Jerrie. Therein rests the conundrum raised in this work.

@Greg DoudnaGreg, as anticipated, you dodge discussion of any overlap of research found in Haverstick's book with Lafitte's personal datebook entries, regardless of the potential for further breakthroughs in the case.  You apparently work to another agenda.

Before you advance misinformation, Hank did not engage with Jerrie Cobb The Pilot thinking she was June Cobb. The suggestion is preposterous.

June was the retired intel employee Hank  befriended and provided with practical assistance and support.

Hank was aware of pilot Jerrie Cobb as evidenced in his reaction to a researcher who phoned to tell him he had "found Cobb." Hank asked with a laugh, "which one?" 

The chapter in "A Secret Order" is about June Cobb, not Jerrie Cobb.  I urge you to read it lest you sow additional confusion.  Hank spells out in detail June's corroboration of her friend's claim that Oswald was in MC in late September and that he was spotted with Thomas Eli Davis.  As unsettling as it is for June's many detractors, Hank also discovered that her account is borne out in Lafitte's datebook.

FYI, Hank's primary works-in-progress were under contract.  I'm curious why you think that you of all people might be entitled to access any of his unpublished work or research? Do you think his estate is oblivious to your veiled attacks on Hank's professionalism and discernment and your unfounded attacks on "Coup"?

In case there is any doubt, and for the public record, the joint-work copyright of "Coup" covers all material meant for the paperback or sequel including certain Cobb records. I'm sure you can appreciate that you are not on the list to.preview those files.

I'm prepared to further pursue the possibility that Mary Haverstick's research and informed speculation might converge with Hank's investigation if you or anyone else is interested. 

Great info.  Does this source material indicate he was still an executive at L'Oreal at time of death?  I think we have a brief obit, but I would be very interested to read his official obituary if you have a link. 

@Jean Ceulemans Very interesting. I wasn't sure from your previous comments whether you had confirmed Alice was a member of the larger Lamy family whose photos you shared. I don't recognize her, but then the images we have appear to be mug shots or the equivalent; most unattractive in contrast to these women.

Do you have details of her life prior to 1961?

Do you contend that at the end of the war, those who knew him well ceased to refer to JPR as Filliol and respected his use of the Lamy surname even in private?  No doubt his history with Deloncle and LaCagoule ceased to serve his interests in polite company, especially the corporate world, so public identity change is reasonable. 

But, are you contesting the fact Filliol and Otto Skorzeny shared a past in Madrid as well?