Addendum to "new Oswald Witness

[Terry Adams]

Here is the article .

by William E. Kelly, Jr.

The literature of the JFK assassination is littered with interesting lines of inquiry, but few are as detailed as the circumstances presented by Adele Edisen, who first made her story public in the assassination research journal The Third Decade, published by New York State University Professor Jerry Rose. The article, titled "From April to November and Back Again," was written by Edisen. To protect her identity, it was published under the byline of K.S. Turner in the November, 1991 edition (Vol.8, No.1) of the bi-monthly journal, now called The Fourth Decade.

Edisen claimed that in April of 1963 she met a person who apparently had foreknowledge of the assassination of President Kennedy, Dr. Jose Rivera. He gave her a phone number through which she contacted and talked with Lee Harvey Oswald in New Orleans in May, 1963. She called the Secret Service to warn them of the assassination and was interviewed by the Secret Service and FBI after the assassination.

There are, however, few official documented reports on the matter, although some are forthcoming in response to the JFK Assassination Records Review Act. But Adele Edisen's story can be independently confirmed in many respects without official documentation, and subsequent inquiries by Dick Russell, Larry Haapanen, John Gooch and myself have confirmed much of what she has to say. At this point, the lack of documentation seems to make what she has to say even more significant. It is a story that provides numerous leads that should be pursued.

Edisen's article in The Third Decade describes how she came to meet Dr. Jose Rivera at a medical conference in Atlantic City, New Jersey in April, 1963. She and Rivera were both medical professionals. Edisen was in her third year of a Tulane University School of Medicine post-doctoral fellowship in conjunction with the National Institute of Health's Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness. She had previously worked on the faculty of Rockefeller University, the University of Texas at San Antonio, and St. Mary's Dominican College and Delgado Community College in New Orleans. When she met him Dr. Rivera was manning a booth at the Atlantic City medical convention.

Upon learning that Edisen was with Tulane University in New Orleans, Rivera said he had been on the faculty of the biochemistry department at Loyola University, which is also in New Orleans, and that he was then living in Washington D.C. At the time of their meeting Edisen described Rivera as "approximately 45 or 50 years of age, about 5 feet, 3 or 4 inches in height, and obese. His hair was dark brown, almost black, with some grey; he was balding at the forehead and crown. His eyes were brown, and he wore corrective glasses with very thick lenses which greatly magnified the size of his eyes. His complexion was quite dark. He spoke English with a distinct Hispanic accent."

The Atlantic City Convention Authority records reflect that the National Institute of Health (NIH) sponsored a "High Blood Pressure Symposium" at the Atlantic City Convention Hall in April, 1963. Edisen testified before the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) in Dallas, Texas on November 18, 1994 that the meetings in Atlantic City were organized by the Federation of American Societies of Experimental Biology, an umbrella group of six major biological societies, including the American Physiological Society, for which Edisen gave a report on her research.

The strictly professional conversation between Edisen and Rivera became friendly, or as Edisen explained it, "I befriended him or he befriended me." The NIH was their first common tie, with their mutual professional acquaintances in New Orleans providing additional associations. "It turned out he had taught at Loyola University in New Orleans, and we knew some people in common who were, for example, Dr. Fred Brazda who was chairman of biochemistry at LSU Medical School, and a few other people."

"I was planning to go to Bethesda in Washington and visit with colleagues and friends at the NIH and also see the NIH," Edisen later testified, "and so he had, in the course of our conversations and so on, invited me to his home to have dinner with him and his wife and daughter, and also to help me obtain hotel or motel space for my visit in Bethesda after these meetings, and to give me a sight-seeing tour, and so on."

Edisen arrived in Washington D.C. on Monday, April 22, 1963. As Rivera had requested, she telephoned him at his office, and his secretary arranged for her accommodations at a Bethesda, Maryland motel. Rivera picked Edisen up in his car and explained that his wife, who was a nurse, had been called into duty at a hospital. So the two of them had dinner at a Washington restaurant, Blackie's House of Beef. It was while standing in line waiting to be seated, Edisen recalled, when Dr. Rivera "began to talk of his travels in conjunction with his work. He spoke of Dallas, Texas."

Edisen quoted Rivera as saying, "When you go to Dallas, you should go to the Carousel Club because it's a very nice nightclub." Edisen made a mental note of a merry-go-round, while Rivera asked her if she knew Lee Harvey Oswald. He told her that Oswald had lived in the Soviet Union, was married to a Russian, had a child, and they were planning on moving to New Orleans, where Edisen was then living. She distinctly made a mental impression of the name, "I vaguely wondered if he was related to a boy I had gone to high school with, whose name was Fred Oswald." Rivera encouraged Edisen to meet the Oswalds, saying that "you should get to know them." She assumed that Oswald was a fellow medical research scientist.

Edisen and Rivera then made plans to meet the next night, when she would get a sight-seeing tour and could have dinner with Rivera at his home with his wife and daughter. After spending the day with friends, Edisen was picked up by Rivera at her motel, where "a tall, sharp-faced man hailed Rivera, addressing him as 'Colonel.' They spoke for quite a long while about their times together at an Army base. His friend spoke of his current work in the army on telemetry and some work with cameras and telephoto lenses."

Rivera later told Edisen that, "We're photographing demonstrators with telephoto cameras from rooftops. We'll identify individual demonstrators and put their names in computer files. We've started this on the West Coast." Edisen wondered how that could be related to his work as a science administrator at NINDB until Rivera told her of his "other office, on the hill," and ties with "Foggy Bottom," which Edisen thought to be a residential section of the city.

According to Edisen: "After a lengthy drive to view the cherry trees, the National Library of Congress, Walter Reed Army Institute and Hospital, the Capitol Building, Georgetown and other sites, we started to approach the White House." While they passed the White House a number of times, the first time they went by Rivera asked Edisen, "I wonder what Jackie will do when her husband dies?" After a pause and Edisen's incredulous, "What?", Rivera said, "Oh, oh, I meant the baby. She might lose the baby." Edisen didn't know Jackie was pregnant.

That was "the first inkling I had that Rivera might be implying something sinister concerning President Kennedy." Then, "every time we toured around the White House he asked me if I saw Caroline on her pony Macaroni, and all kinds of crazy nonsense, and I was beginning to think I was with an absolute madman.... Rivera's part of the conversation at times was difficult to follow, but many of his statements, such as the reference to 'Jackie,' seemed deliberately placed. When he spoke of President Kennedy, Rivera was extremely critical of Kennedy's position on civil rights. Rivera made many disparaging remarks about black people and the civil rights movement."

Rivera also mentioned the NIH, Edisen remembers. "Several times during the course of this evening and the previous one, Rivera referred to the NIH being called 'The Reservation' because there were so many 'chiefs' and no 'Indians.' I wondered why he had to repeat this so many times." Edisen, as a professional research scientist, suspected Rivera was using hypnotic suggestion techniques on her, and possibly even drugs. "He spoke of hypnosis. He had knowledge of hypnotic techniques and of the uses of LSD, a psychomimetic and hypnogogic drug which increases susceptibility to suggestions without causing amnesia."

Since his wife, again, was called in to work at the hospital, Rivera and Edisen had dinner at the Twin Bridges at the Marriott Motor Hotel across the Potomac River. While the dinner was relatively uneventful, Rivera did ask Edisen some strange questions, like if she knew a lawyer named John Abt.

"After we finished eating, he asked me to do a favor for him when I arrived home," recalls Edisen. Rivera wanted Edisen to contact Winston DeMonsabert, a Loyola faculty member who was leaving New Orleans. Edisen wrote a note to herself: "Winston DeMonsabert call Dr. Rivera when leaving N.O." Then Rivera said to also call Lee Harvey Oswald at 899-4244. "Write down this name: Lee Harvey Oswald. Tell him to kill the chief." Rivera then contradicted himself, saying, "No, no, don't write that down. You will remember it when you get to New Orleans. We're just playing a little joke on him."

Edisen said that she still assumed "the joke" would be on Oswald, whom she thought was a scientist and friend of Rivera's. She thought "the chief" was a reference to Elizabeth Hartman, "the chief" of the grants and awards section of the NIH, whom Rivera had earlier joked about as being like the chief of a reservation "with too many chiefs and not enough Indians."

Edisen remembers Rivera then being "agitated and excited. He began talking strangely about 'it' happening" and drew a diagram on a napkin, almost incoherent and very agitated. "It will be on the fifth floor, there'll be some men up there," he said. Edisen quoted Rivera as saying nonsensical things like, "Oswald was not what he seems. We're going to send him to the library to read about great assassinations in history. After it's over, he'll call Abt to defend him. After it happens, the President's best friend will commit suicide. He'll jump out of a window because of his grief.... It will happened after the Shriners' Circus comes to New Orleans. After it's over, the men will be out of the country. Remember, the first time it happens won't be real."

Edisen recalls, "He did not respond to any of my questions about what was to happen, and I became even more concerned and suspicious about his odd behavior and statements. As I entered his car, he asked me to destroy the note I had made and to forget what had just happened. It did not dawn on me that he could have been referring to an assassination of the President -- the Chief."

Rivera threatened Edisen about going to the FBI saying, "They'll want that note. Don't give it to them. I don't want to have to hurt you. We'll be watching you." Edisen said, "I became very frightened. I didn't understand what he was talking about, even though he had made references to the assassination of the President."

About a week after Adele Edisen returned home to New Orleans from Washington D.C. (around May 1-3, 1963), she called the 899-4244 number Rivera had given her for Lee Harvey Oswald, whom she believed was a research-scientist colleague of Dr. Rivera's, who had returned from Russia with a Russian wife and recently moved to New Orleans. A man who answered the phone said there was no one there by that name.

"A week later (approximately May 9-12, 1963) I dialed again, thinking I might have misdialed the first time," recalls Edisen. The same man answered, and seemed surprised when she asked for Oswald, as he said, "They've just arrived." Although Oswald wasn't there, Edisen spoke with his wife briefly, and although she spoke with a Slavic-Russian accent, Marina seemed to understand the conversation, didn't know Dr. Rivera, and said it was okay for Edisen to call back when her husband was there.

The third time she called, the phone was answered by the same man, whom Edisen believes was the landlord. Oswald came to the phone, but denied knowing Dr. Jose Rivera of Washington D.C. "That's strange, because he apparently knows you and your wife," Edisen told him. "I then asked Oswald for the location of the telephone, and he courteously gave me an address on Magazine Street, which I placed to be near the 5000 block.... I thanked him and apologized for bothering him. Still thinking that Oswald was a scientist, I wondered why a scientist would be living in a rather run-down part of the city. Needless to say, I did not deliver Rivera's message ('to kill the chief') to Oswald."

What is really strange is that Dr. (Col.) Jose Rivera, in Washington D.C., knew Oswald's New Orleans phone number on Tuesday, April 23, before Oswald himself knew where he was moving to in New Orleans. It was the following day, Wednesday, April 24, when Ruth Paine drove from Irving to the Oswald's Neeley Street apartment in Dallas to find the Oswalds all packed and ready to move to New Orleans. They had quite suddenly (Marina later said it was because of the Walker shooting incident) decided to move to New Orleans, where Oswald was born. They asked Ruth Paine for a ride to the bus station and she was startled by the sudden decision.

Ruth Paine discussed the matter with them in the car on the way to the bus station, and convinced them that because they didn't know where Oswald would work or where they would stay in New Orleans, Marina and their daughter should stay with her in Irving, Texas while Oswald went on alone to New Orleans to find a job and locate an apartment. Oswald arrived in New Orleans by bus and called his aunt Lillian Murret to announce that he had returned home, and to ask if he could stay with them at 757 French Street while he searched for employment. Mrs. Murret was surprised, but agreed to take Oswald on as a guest until he obtained a job and apartment.

After filing for unemployment compensation extensions for his work in Dallas at Jaggars-Chiles-Stoval (which required cross-state approvals), Oswald applied for work at a number of locations, including the William B. Reily coffee company at 640 Magazine Street, where he listed three references -- his uncle John Murret, Sgt. Robert Hidell and Lt. J. Evans, the last two of which the Warren Report claimed are "apparently fictitious names."

But they're not fictitious. Oswald did know a Hidell in the Marines, who was living in New Orleans at the time, and there was indeed a "J. Evans," because as the Report notes on the same page, "Also on May 9, Oswald obtained an apartment at 4905-07 Magazine Street with the help of Myrtle Evans, who had known him when he was a child." And Myrtle had a husband named Julian. When he was young, Oswald's mother had rented an apartment from Myrtle and Julian Evans. After the assassination Myrtle Evans characterized Oswald as a spoiled brat to the Warren Commission and Marina's biographer Priscilla Johnson McMillan. Myrtle also helped Oswald find the Magazine Street apartment in the same "coincidental" way that Ruth Paine found Oswald a job at the Texas School Book Depository.

Recreating Oswald's reintroduction into his old neighborhood, Priscilla Johnson McMillan wrote: "Lee went to their building and Julian Evans, who was seated at breakfast drinking his last cup of coffee, recognized him right away. He had known Lee both as a child and as a teenager, and there was something about him that neither he nor Myrtle liked. Julian finished his coffee, shook hands with the caller, and left for work. His wife Myrtle, a heavy-set women in her fifties, who wore glasses, and had reddish hair in a bun, peered at Lee closely, 'I know you, don't I?'"

"'Sure, I am Lee Oswald. I was just waiting to see when you were going to recognize me.'" McMillan: "Myrtle and Julian thought Oswald was in Russia. Even though there was something she didn't like about Oswald, Myrtle took Oswald to lunch and helped him find the apartment on Magazine Street." According to McMillan however, she drove Oswald around in her car looking for "FOR RENT" signs until they found one on Magazine Street."

"Lee spotted one and they went in," McMillan writes (Marina and Lee, p. 313). "There were two apartments for rent at 4907 Magazine Street, and the bigger one looked as if it might do. It was on the ground floor. It had a long living room, a screened-in front porch, a yard, and the kind of iron fence children can't crawl through. The rent was $65 a month. Myrtle advised Lee that it was the best value for his money and he'd better take it."

The landlady was Mrs. Jesse Garner, who lived with her husband in an apartment next door in the same building complex. Oswald told Mrs. Garner he worked for the Leon Israel Company at 300 Magazine Street when he actually had obtained a job that morning at the William Reily Coffee Company on the same street. It was Jesse Garner who most likely answered the telephone the three times that Adele Edisen called at the request of Dr. Jose Rivera.

Oswald photo

The key question is: How did Dr. Jose Rivera in Washington D.C. know Lee Harvey Oswald's New Orleans phone number at Jesse Garner's 4905-7 Magazine Street apartment house on April 23, when Oswald himself didn't know where he would be living until May 9? If true, it indicates that at least some of Oswald's movements were being directed by someone in Washington D.C. On May 9 Oswald called Marina at Ruth Paine's house in Irving, Texas with the news that he had obtained a job and apartment. Marina told Mrs. Paine and the children "Papa loves us," and was very happy. Mrs. Paine, Marina and the children left Irving the next day in Mrs. Paine's station wagon, staying overnight en route and arriving in New Orleans on May 11th. Mrs. Paine then stayed with the Oswalds at their new Magazine Street apartment for three days.

Ed Haslam, who wrote a book called, Mary, Ferrie and the Monkey Virus, and Adele Edisen suspect that the corner 4905-07 Magazine Street apartment building complex was owned by Mr. and Mrs. William McLaney until 1974, when it was sold to Isabella Dawson, who (according to Mary Ferrell) had previously signed a rent receipt for Oswald, indicating she had something to do with the building before she bought it.

Shortly after she returned to New Orleans, Edisen called Winston DeMonsabert, the Loyola faculty member whose name Rivera had given her, but he denied knowing Dr. Rivera. [This is contrary to what DeMonsabert told John Gooch and Dick Russell when they interviewed DeMonsabert, who admitted to being in communication with Rivera up to the time of his death.] When Edisen checked with the chairman of Loyola's biochemistry department, Dr. Fred Brazda, he said he knew Rivera but told Edisen that Rivera "had left the university under very peculiar circumstances" and warned her not to have anything to do with him.

Suspicious of what she knew then, Edisen called the New Orleans office of the U.S. Secret Service and spoke with Special Agent Rice. According to Edisen, "After giving my name, address and telephone number to him, I told him I had met a man in Washington in April who said some strange things about the President which I thought they should know. It was my intention to go there and tell them about Rivera and his statements, but I began to think they might not believe me, so I called back and cancelled. Agent Rice told me they would be there any time I would care to come in."

Four months later, in early August 1963, Edisen received an envelope in the mail with no return address and her name and address printed in a very crude scrawl. Enclosed, in a wadded up form, was the box-like drawing made by Jose Rivera on April 23, 1963 at the Marriott Hotel restaurant in Washington D.C., when Rivera made mention of men on the "fifth floor." Also in August, Edisen saw Oswald on television, handing out Fair Play for Cuba leaflets in front of the International Trade Mart in New Orleans. She recalled the announcer referring to him as "Leon" Oswald, noticed the similarity in names, and wondered if it was a coincidence.

In September 1963, sometime after Labor Day, Edisen was speaking with Dr. Greg Harris in the hallway at LSU, when Rivera got off an elevator. "Of course I watched him," Edisen recalls, "and he didn't see me at first. He had very thick glasses. He may not have seen at long distance. But when he was about eight or ten feet away, he noticed me and halted and he almost stumbled stepping backwards. He looked as if he had seen a ghost, and then he walked on. He recovered by saying he had to go see Fred Brazda, his friend in the biochemistry." That was the last time Adele Edisen saw Dr. Jose Rivera.

For Edisen it all came to a head on the day of the assassination. "[On] November 22, my fears became reality. I spent much of the day listening to the news from Dallas and sorting out my memories of April, 1963. I felt I was involved, however innocently, and I thought it important the Secret Service and FBI be told of Rivera. Rivera was, to me, no longer a delusional psychotic, but an assassination conspirator. It also occurred to me that Oswald might be innocent despite the emphasis on his guilt by the news media, and that he might have been somehow manipulated by Rivera and his 'we' who were 'playing a little joke' on Oswald."

Two days later, on Sunday, November 24, Edisen, for the third time, called U.S. Secret Service office in New Orleans and spoke with Special Agent Rice. She was asked to go to the Federal Building at 600 South Street, where SA Rice met her in the lobby. She was told not to sign the entry-exit register with the security guard. They went to an office on the fifth floor, where they were informed that Oswald had been shot in Dallas.

Edisen, at first, believed she met with Special Agent J. Calvin Rice, who has been identified as an agent of the FBI. Rather, she met with John W. Rice, the Special Agent In Charge of the New Orleans office of the Secret Service. She described Rice as being thin and short, not much taller than she was, while J. Calvin Rice has been described as over six feet tall and husky. In addition, it would have been the Secret Service, not the FBI, who were responsible for the safety of the President and investigation of threats against his life.

In the office, Rice introduced Edisen to "a tall, heavy-set bald man with wire-rimmed eyeglasses, a Special Agent of the FBI," who she recalls was named Orrin Bartlett. Orrin Bartlett has been identified as the FBI liaison with the Secret Service. Rice said they were working closely on the case. There was no one else in the office. Edisen believes the three-to-four hour long interview was tape-recorded. "Mr. Rice was seated at his desk, and I was seated to his right, and the FBI agent remained standing most of the time. I believe he may have taped it because every time Mr. Rice got up from his desk, there was a partition over there, for example, and there was a phone there which they used even though there was a phone on the desk, which I didn't understand, but apparently there was some reason for that. So every time Mr. Rice got up to answer the phone or to use the phone, I noticed his hand would do this, and I would either hear a whirring, a mechanical sound like a tape recorder or something. It may have been audiotaped."

Edisen told them the story of how she met Dr. Jose Rivera in Atlantic City in April and visited with him for two days in Washington D.C., and showed them the airline ticket, hotel receipts and the notes she kept. "At this point," Edisen recalls, "the agents' questioning became more intense. I was asked to further identify Rivera, his position at the NIH, and his physical description. I also gave them Rivera's office telephone number and his home phone number (301-654-7348) in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The FBI agent quickly went behind the partition and called someone, giving this information. I thought Rivera was to be apprehended."

"When the FBI agent returned from behind the partition, he asked if they could have the note, and I agreed," Edisen later wrote. As the interview came to an end, Agent Rice asked the FBI agent if he "had the film," and if he was ready to leave for Dallas, as "the plane was ready." "Before he showed me the door," wrote Edisen, "Agent Rice asked me to call them if I remembered anything else, and requested that I not tell anyone I had been there to speak with them. I understood this to be for my own protection as well as for their investigation. Both agents thanked me for speaking with them."

After she recalled a few more details, Edisen called Agent Rice a few days later, and repeated her fears of Rivera and his threats, but Rice counseled her, "Don't worry. That man can't hurt you." Edisen thought Rivera was in custody, and she expected to be called as a witness before the Warren Commission. "When the Warren Report was published, I was mystified and dismayed by the conclusion that Oswald acted alone, and that Jack Ruby acted alone, for my experiences told me otherwise."

Rivera's voice would come back to haunt her many times over the years, beginning shortly after the assassination, when she learned of the death of Edward Grant Stockdale, a former Ambassador to Ireland. When she heard Stockdale had jumped out of a window in Miami a few weeks after the assassination, she thought of what Rivera said: "They will say his best friend killed him. After it happens the President's best friend will jump out a window because of his grief."

After maintaining her silence about the whole affair for many years, Edisen consulted an attorney to see if there was any record of her pre-assassination phone calls to the Secret Service or her post assassination interview. After perusing the 26 volumes of Warren Commission testimony and exhibits and finding nothing about Dr. Jose Rivera or reports from FBI Agent J. Calvin Rice or SAIC John Rice, she had New Orleans attorney Jack Peebles file a request under the Freedom of Information Act, but no documentation was discovered.

When the Church Committee convened she contacted Sen. Frank Church, Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and when Sen. Daniel Inouye and his staff seemed interested she sent a copy of all documentation she had as well as a narrative of her experiences, but later received the response that the matter was "outside the purview of the Special Committee's work." A copy of the three-page summary of her experiences was also personally given to a Special Agent of the FBI in San Antonio, Texas, in 1984, which he sent to Headquarters.

A year later she again made an FOIA request to the FBI for anything they had in their files, and the FBI again replied that it had nothing. More recently, Adele Edisen asked, in writing and at a public hearing, that the Assassination Records Review Board examine any records pertaining to Dr. (Col.) Jose Rivera, "and what his role was in all of this. I know something about him, that he spent some time in Japan, for example, he told me that, and it may have been there at that time Oswald was there. He knew Oswald somehow."

As she concluded her Third Decade article, Edisen wrote, "History should record that some investigative work was conducted relevant to the information I had furnished to the U.S. Secret Service and the FBI following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy; however, there is no official record that this conversation ever took place. Why? If the information was not considered to be relevant and pertinent, there should be some record of the fact that the interview took place. If the information was considered to be relevant and pertinent, there certainly should have been a record of it."

"Whatever forces were operating to assassinate President Kennedy may never be revealed, but this should not deter anyone from seeking the truth. If our system of government, its laws, and our civil rights are to survive, we need to know the truth, no matter how convoluted and strange it may be. We deserve to know this long before the next century."

In 1989, Maryland newspapers published the obituary of "Dr. Jose Albert Rivera, pathologist, analyst, 78," which read:

Dr. Jose Albert Rivera, 78, a retired Army pathologist and research analyst at NIH, died of pancreatic cancer, Wednesday, Aug. 16, at the Naval Medical Center in Bethesda. He lived in Kensington, Maryland [at 3913 Dunnel Lane]. Dr. Rivera retired in 1973 from a second career as a medical research analyst at the Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness, one of the NIH, where he worked after retiring from the Army in 1965.

Born in Lima, Peru, Dr. Rivera studied medicine at the University of San Marcos. He moved to the United States to study at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, earning his undergraduate degree there. He earned his doctoral degree from Georgetown University in 1939 and interned at Providence Hospital.

In 1942, he volunteered for the Army and was commissioned a first lieutenant in the medical corps. He was stationed at Walter Reed Army Hospital and later assigned to Halloran General Army Hospital in New York.

In 1944, while acting as chief of pathology at Halloran, he was promoted to captain and went on a series of assignments in Italy and France and at the 198th General Army Hospital in Berlin.

During the Korean War he served in the 1273rd Medical Field Unit of the 406th Medical General Laboratory and received a battlefield promotion to major. After the war, he was chief of laboratory service and pathology at the U.S. Army Hospital in Tokyo.

In 1958, he was assigned to the Reserve Training Center in Washington D.C., where he remained until his retirement in 1965.

Dr. Rivera was active in many civic organizations and charities. His favorites were the Epilepsy Foundation of America, the Reserve Officers Association of the United States and the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States....

Dr. Rivera is survived by two daughters, Linda Rivera-King of Abington, Pennsylvania, and Natalie Rivera Frederick of San Ramon, California, and three grandchildren. His wife, Anne J. Rivera, to whom he was married for 52 years, died in 1988. Services were held at Fort Myer Chapel, with burial at Arlington National Cemetery."

[David G. Healy]

Adele and Bill are both members of this forum...

[William Kelly]

Hi Terry,

Indeed, that is an article that I wrote about a decade ago that is still posted on the internet. But it is now obsolete and there are a number of inaccuracies, the least of which is the contact numbers that I ask you to delete. Although I did live there for over thirty years, I no longer live at that address, and the phone number and email address are also no longer correct.

We have made many great research strides since then, and now have a better make on Dr./Col. Jose Rivera, and what he was up to.

Rather than that article, I refer anyone interested to the Education Forum profiles of Adele Edisen and Dr. Rivera that are more up to date.

Hopefully, if we get the Congressional Oversight hearings in the fall, Adele will be a witness, along with Doug Horne, who requested and receieved Colonel Rivera's half-baked military file.

As I mentioned in another thread, regarding Harold Weisberg's Oswald In New Orleans documents, posted by Rex Bradford at MFF documents, there are few JFK assassination records that deal with Special Agent In Charge of the New Orleans Secret Service office - John W. Rice.

I believe he is still alive and any information that anyone can obtain on him would be greatly apprecaited.

The Warren Commission didn't bother interviewing him, and Vince Palmara has nothing on him.

But if one of the researchers on this forum could locate him it would be a feather in their cap.

Bill Kelly

[William Kelly]

Hi Terry,

Indeed, that is an article that I wrote about a decade ago that is still posted on the internet. But it is now obsolete and there are a number of inaccuracies, the least of which is the contact numbers that I ask you to delete. Although I did live there for over thirty years, I no longer live at that address, and the phone number and email address are also no longer correct.

We have made many great research strides since then, and now have a better make on Dr./Col. Jose Rivera, and what he was up to.

Rather than that article, I refer anyone interested to the Education Forum profiles of Adele Edisen and Dr. Rivera that are more up to date.

Hopefully, if we get the Congressional Oversight hearings in the fall, Adele will be a witness, along with Doug Horne, who requested and receieved Colonel Rivera's half-baked military file.

As I mentioned in another thread, regarding Harold Weisberg's Oswald In New Orleans documents, posted by Rex Bradford at MFF documents, there are few JFK assassination records that deal with Special Agent In Charge of the New Orleans Secret Service office - John W. Rice.

I believe he is still alive and any information that anyone can obtain on him would be greatly apprecaited.

The Warren Commission didn't bother interviewing him, and Vince Palmara has nothing on him.

But if one of the researchers on this forum could locate him it would be a feather in their cap.

Bill Kelly

Could someone post the url's for the newer info....searching on this Forum is a great frustration.

I'd read this long ago and just re-read it and find it even more significant than I did the last time. Lee, you never knew what hit 'ya......they even knew your phone number and address before you did! John Le Carre can't hold a candle to the real story of Dallas.....good work Bill.

Peter,

Here's a few links from right here on this forum.

The most anyone can do at this point is to help locate John W. Rice, former Special Agent In Charge of the New Orleans Secret Service office 1963-64.

BK

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKedisen.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKrivera.htm

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph...amp;#entry43867

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph...amp;#entry43918

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph...hl=Adele+Edisen

[William Kelly]

Hi Terry,

Indeed, that is an article that I wrote about a decade ago that is still posted on the internet. But it is now obsolete and there are a number of inaccuracies, the least of which is the contact numbers that I ask you to delete. Although I did live there for over thirty years, I no longer live at that address, and the phone number and email address are also no longer correct.

We have made many great research strides since then, and now have a better make on Dr./Col. Jose Rivera, and what he was up to.

Rather than that article, I refer anyone interested to the Education Forum profiles of Adele Edisen and Dr. Rivera that are more up to date.

Hopefully, if we get the Congressional Oversight hearings in the fall, Adele will be a witness, along with Doug Horne, who requested and receieved Colonel Rivera's half-baked military file.

As I mentioned in another thread, regarding Harold Weisberg's Oswald In New Orleans documents, posted by Rex Bradford at MFF documents, there are few JFK assassination records that deal with Special Agent In Charge of the New Orleans Secret Service office - John W. Rice.

I believe he is still alive and any information that anyone can obtain on him would be greatly apprecaited.

The Warren Commission didn't bother interviewing him, and Vince Palmara has nothing on him.

But if one of the researchers on this forum could locate him it would be a feather in their cap.

Bill Kelly

Could someone post the url's for the newer info....searching on this Forum is a great frustration.

I'd read this long ago and just re-read it and find it even more significant than I did the last time. Lee, you never knew what hit 'ya......they even knew your phone number and address before you did! John Le Carre can't hold a candle to the real story of Dallas.....good work Bill.

Peter,

Here's a few links from right here on this forum.

The most anyone can do at this point is to help locate John W. Rice, former Special Agent In Charge of the New Orleans Secret Service office 1963-64.

And once again I ask Terry or an administrator to please remove my old contact addresses and numbers, as I wouldn't want any innocent people to be intruded upon by the Dealey Plaza Cleanup Crew.

I will furnish them or anyone with my current address and contacts if interested.

BK

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKedisen.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKrivera.htm

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph...amp;#entry43867

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph...amp;#entry43918

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph...hl=Adele+Edisen

[Terry Adams]

Hi Terry,

Indeed, that is an article that I wrote about a decade ago that is still posted on the internet. But it is now obsolete and there are a number of inaccuracies, the least of which is the contact numbers that I ask you to delete. Although I did live there for over thirty years, I no longer live at that address, and the phone number and email address are also no longer correct.

We have made many great research strides since then, and now have a better make on Dr./Col. Jose Rivera, and what he was up to.

Rather than that article, I refer anyone interested to the Education Forum profiles of Adele Edisen and Dr. Rivera that are more up to date.

Hopefully, if we get the Congressional Oversight hearings in the fall, Adele will be a witness, along with Doug Horne, who requested and receieved Colonel Rivera's half-baked military file.

As I mentioned in another thread, regarding Harold Weisberg's Oswald In New Orleans documents, posted by Rex Bradford at MFF documents, there are few JFK assassination records that deal with Special Agent In Charge of the New Orleans Secret Service office - John W. Rice.

I believe he is still alive and any information that anyone can obtain on him would be greatly apprecaited.

The Warren Commission didn't bother interviewing him, and Vince Palmara has nothing on him.

But if one of the researchers on this forum could locate him it would be a feather in their cap.

Bill Kelly

Could someone post the url's for the newer info....searching on this Forum is a great frustration.

I'd read this long ago and just re-read it and find it even more significant than I did the last time. Lee, you never knew what hit 'ya......they even knew your phone number and address before you did! John Le Carre can't hold a candle to the real story of Dallas.....good work Bill.

Peter,

Here's a few links from right here on this forum.

The most anyone can do at this point is to help locate John W. Rice, former Special Agent In Charge of the New Orleans Secret Service office 1963-64.

And once again I ask Terry or an administrator to please remove my old contact addresses and numbers, as I wouldn't want any innocent people to be intruded upon by the Dealey Plaza Cleanup Crew.

I will furnish them or anyone with my current address and contacts if interested.

BK

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKedisen.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKrivera.htm

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph...amp;#entry43867

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph...amp;#entry43918

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph...hl=Adele+Edisen

"And once again I ask Terry or an administrator to please remove my old contact addresses and numbers, as I wouldn't want any innocent people to be intruded upon by the Dealey Plaza Cleanup Crew."

Bill,

I am so sorry. I tried to e-mail John but was unable to get past the error problems. I too hope that he or one of the other administrators will remove your old contact information. I should not have posted an address, but I simply copied everything on the page.

Again I sincerely apologize,

Terry

[William Kelly]

Hi Terry,

Indeed, that is an article that I wrote about a decade ago that is still posted on the internet. But it is now obsolete and there are a number of inaccuracies, the least of which is the contact numbers that I ask you to delete. Although I did live there for over thirty years, I no longer live at that address, and the phone number and email address are also no longer correct.

We have made many great research strides since then, and now have a better make on Dr./Col. Jose Rivera, and what he was up to.

Rather than that article, I refer anyone interested to the Education Forum profiles of Adele Edisen and Dr. Rivera that are more up to date.

Hopefully, if we get the Congressional Oversight hearings in the fall, Adele will be a witness, along with Doug Horne, who requested and receieved Colonel Rivera's half-baked military file.

As I mentioned in another thread, regarding Harold Weisberg's Oswald In New Orleans documents, posted by Rex Bradford at MFF documents, there are few JFK assassination records that deal with Special Agent In Charge of the New Orleans Secret Service office - John W. Rice.

I believe he is still alive and any information that anyone can obtain on him would be greatly apprecaited.

The Warren Commission didn't bother interviewing him, and Vince Palmara has nothing on him.

But if one of the researchers on this forum could locate him it would be a feather in their cap.

Bill Kelly

Could someone post the url's for the newer info....searching on this Forum is a great frustration.

I'd read this long ago and just re-read it and find it even more significant than I did the last time. Lee, you never knew what hit 'ya......they even knew your phone number and address before you did! John Le Carre can't hold a candle to the real story of Dallas.....good work Bill.

Peter,

Here's a few links from right here on this forum.

The most anyone can do at this point is to help locate John W. Rice, former Special Agent In Charge of the New Orleans Secret Service office 1963-64.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKedisen.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKrivera.htm

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph...amp;#entry43867

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph...amp;#entry43918

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph...hl=Adele+Edisen

"And once again I ask Terry or an administrator to please remove my old contact addresses and numbers, as I wouldn't want any innocent people to be intruded upon by the Dealey Plaza Cleanup Crew."

Bill,

I am so sorry. I tried to e-mail John but was unable to get past the error problems. I too hope that he or one of the other administrators will remove your old contact information. I should not have posted an address, but I simply copied everything on the page.

Again I sincerely apologize,

Terry

Hi Terry,

No problem, John Simkin took care of it. It's just irritating to have such bogus info about oneself posted. I am easy enough to contact.

In addition, here's the signature of John W. Rice, the former SAIC NO SS who I would like to locate and interview, if he is still alive. If dead, an obit.

Thanks to anyone who takes up this quest, and help answer some of these outstanding questions.

BK

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...amp;relPageId=2

[William Kelly]

Hi Terry,

In addition, here's the signature of John W. Rice, the former SAIC NO SS who I would like to locate and interview, if he is still alive. If dead, an obit.

Thanks to anyone who takes up this quest, and help answer some of these outstanding questions.

BK

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...amp;relPageId=2

Besides the documents from Oswald In New Orleans, there is a mention of John W. Rice in Pat Lampert's book about Jim Garrision in which she mentions that once David Ferrie was suspected as being involved in the assassination, JWRice drove to Ferrie's apartment to find newsmen already there. So he must have known where it was.

Vince Palamara, between gushing over Dale Meyers' flawed With Malice and what Bugliosi has to say about him, mentions JWR in his Survivor's Guilt Appendix B, saying:

Under New Orleans :

"Rice, John W. SAIC; took part in third Secret Service school held in November and December of 1954; pictured on p. 62 of AFAUSSS Book (1991)."

Does anybody have any info on the Secret Service school and/or the photo of Rice in AFAUSSS?

Thanks,

BK

[Thomas Graves]

[...]

Besides the documents from Oswald In New Orleans, there is a mention of John W. Rice in Pat Lampert's book about Jim Garrision in which she mentions that once David Ferrie was suspected as being involved in the assassination, JWRice drove to Ferrie's apartment to find newsmen already there. So he must have known where it was.

_______________________________

William,

A statement and a question:

If the newsmen were already at Ferrie's apartment when Rice arrived, they knew (or found out) where it was, too.

Was Ferrie's address listed in the New Orleans telephone book? If so, maybe that's how Rice found out where it was.... (Nah. Not sinister enough.....)

Keep up the good work,

Sincerely--

--Thomas

_______________________________

[William Kelly]

[...]

Besides the documents from Oswald In New Orleans, there is a mention of John W. Rice in Pat Lampert's book about Jim Garrision in which she mentions that once David Ferrie was suspected as being involved in the assassination, JWRice drove to Ferrie's apartment to find newsmen already there. So he must have known where it was.

_______________________________

William,

A statement and a question:

If the newsmen were already at Ferrie's apartment when Rice arrived, they knew (or found out) where it was, too.

Was Ferrie's address listed in the New Orleans telephone book? If so, maybe that's how Rice found out where it was.... (Nah. Not sinister enough.....)

Keep up the good work,

Sincerely--

--Thomas

Thomas, I don't have the exact quote from Pat Lampert's book, and would appreciate it if somebody who has it would post it. I assume that if SAIC NO SS John W. Rice went to Ferrie's appartment and found newsmen there, it was a well known story on the street.

I don't know if Ferrie's number and address were in the phone book but if somebody has access to a 1963 New Orleans phone book it would be interesting to check as well as Jesse Garner's phone number on Magazine Street.

BK

[Stephen Roy]

[...]

Besides the documents from Oswald In New Orleans, there is a mention of John W. Rice in Pat Lampert's book about Jim Garrision in which she mentions that once David Ferrie was suspected as being involved in the assassination, JWRice drove to Ferrie's apartment to find newsmen already there. So he must have known where it was.

_______________________________

William,

A statement and a question:

If the newsmen were already at Ferrie's apartment when Rice arrived, they knew (or found out) where it was, too.

Was Ferrie's address listed in the New Orleans telephone book? If so, maybe that's how Rice found out where it was.... (Nah. Not sinister enough.....)

Keep up the good work,

Sincerely--

--Thomas

_______________________________

To the best of my knowledge, this took place early on Monday Nov 25.

WWL reporters had first heard about Ferrie from Martin late Saturday night, and they presumably got the address from Martin. They visited 3330 Louisiana Avenue Parkway a couple of times on Sunday, and again on Monday. WDSU reporters also heard about Ferrie from their WWL counterparts.

Rice first heard of Ferrie early Sunday night from Donald Mitchell and Alec Gifford (WDSU). Rice may have gotten the address from Gifford, from SS Agent Anthony Gerrets, who also had a tip on Ferrie, or when, on Monday morning, Rice called FBI ASAC Joe Sylvester, who was scrambling to find out why the NOPD/NODA had arrested Beaubouef and Martens (at 3330) the night before.

[William Kelly]

[...]

Besides the documents from Oswald In New Orleans, there is a mention of John W. Rice in Pat Lampert's book about Jim Garrision in which she mentions that once David Ferrie was suspected as being involved in the assassination, JWRice drove to Ferrie's apartment to find newsmen already there. So he must have known where it was.

_______________________________

William,

A statement and a question:

If the newsmen were already at Ferrie's apartment when Rice arrived, they knew (or found out) where it was, too.

Was Ferrie's address listed in the New Orleans telephone book? If so, maybe that's how Rice found out where it was.... (Nah. Not sinister enough.....)

Keep up the good work,

Sincerely--

--Thomas

_______________________________

To the best of my knowledge, this took place early on Monday Nov 25.

WWL reporters had first heard about Ferrie from Martin late Saturday night, and they presumably got the address from Martin. They visited 3330 Louisiana Avenue Parkway a couple of times on Sunday, and again on Monday. WDSU reporters also heard about Ferrie from their WWL counterparts.

Rice first heard of Ferrie early Sunday night from Donald Mitchell and Alec Gifford (WDSU). Rice may have gotten the address from Gifford, from SS Agent Anthony Gerrets, who also had a tip on Ferrie, or when, on Monday morning, Rice called FBI ASAC Joe Sylvester, who was scrambling to find out why the NOPD/NODA had arrested Beaubouef and Martens (at 3330) the night before.

And then Special Agent In Charge of the New Orleans office of the Secret Service disappeared, was not questioned by the Warren Commission, dropped off the face of the earh and has not been located by the best independent researchers in the world.

BK

[William Kelly]

Okay, Check this out.

From this doc we learn that SAIC NO SS office John W. Rice at the time of the assassination is at the Special Investigations office at Barksdale Air Force Base in Northwest Louisiana.

He is notified by phone that Jack Martin has made some allegations about the accused assassin who had previously lived in New Orleans.

Currently home to the 8th Air Force - given the mission to fight war in cyberspace, was Gen. LeMay's old outfit.

Was Barksdale home of 8th AF in 1963 and does anybody know what they were doing there at that time? Thaks - BK

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId

http://www.barksdale.af.mil/47745&relP...mp;relPageId=13://http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/a...elPageId=13://

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/a...elPageId=13://http://www.barksdale.af.mil/47745&a...elPageId=13

Edited July 27, 2007 by William Kelly

[Antti Hynonen]

Bill,

Here's some history on Barksdale AFB.

http://www.barksdale.af.mil/library/factsh...eet.asp?id=4409

From the above:

The renowned 2nd Bomb Wing transferred to Barksdale April 1, 1963 , from Hunter Field, Ga. taking over the B-52 and KC-135 mission from the 4238th Strategic Wing. From 1965 and into the 1970s, the 2nd Bomb Wing routinely deployed aircraft and personnel to Southeast Asia for "Arc Light" (B-52) and "Young Tiger" (KC-135) missions in support of the war in Vietnam.

-------------

More details can be found from that url. Not much about the early 1960's apart from what I quoted above.

-------------

Headquarters Air Force ordered the permanent designation of the group’s history, awards and emblem bestowed on the wing April 1, 1963. On that same date, the wing moved to Barksdale from Hunter and took control of the B-52 and KC-135 aircraft assigned to the 4238th Strategic Wing.

In the early 1960s, 8th Air Force received the B-52 Stratofortress, KC–135 tanker, and Atlas and Titan intercontinental ballistic missiles.

the above from this url:

http://www.militarynewcomers.com/BARKSDALE/index.htm

-------------

In brief, it looks like this air force base was preparing for what it would need to do in SE Asia in a year or two.

[William Kelly]

Bill,

Here's some history on Barksdale AFB.

http://www.barksdale.af.mil/library/factsh...eet.asp?id=4409

From the above:

The renowned 2nd Bomb Wing transferred to Barksdale April 1, 1963 , from Hunter Field, Ga. taking over the B-52 and KC-135 mission from the 4238th Strategic Wing. From 1965 and into the 1970s, the 2nd Bomb Wing routinely deployed aircraft and personnel to Southeast Asia for "Arc Light" (B-52) and "Young Tiger" (KC-135) missions in support of the war in Vietnam.

-------------

More details can be found from that url. Not much about the early 1960's apart from what I quoted above.

-------------

Headquarters Air Force ordered the permanent designation of the group's history, awards and emblem bestowed on the wing April 1, 1963. On that same date, the wing moved to Barksdale from Hunter and took control of the B-52 and KC-135 aircraft assigned to the 4238th Strategic Wing.

In the early 1960s, 8th Air Force received the B-52 Stratofortress, KC–135 tanker, and Atlas and Titan intercontinental ballistic missiles.

the above from this url:

http://www.militarynewcomers.com/BARKSDALE/index.htm

-------------

In brief, it looks like this air force base was preparing for what it would need to do in SE Asia in a year or two.

Thanks Antti,

There seems to have been a lot happening in April, 1963.

I wonder if there's any connection between what they were doing at Barksdale and the SAC-AFB near Ft. Worth where they docked the AF1-2-3 - before flying to Love Field?

I recall the AF base commander there wouldn't open the base to civilians and spectators who wanted to greet the President and see him off to Dallas but reluctantly agreed.

What would the head of the SS in NO be doing at Barksdale unless he was investigating something?

BK