Another Bledsoe lie?

[Larry Hancock]

Back "in the day" there was a good bit of talk among Dallas researchers that indeed this document had been was faked by a very aggressive (and dismissive) LN local who knew enough to make it look plausible and then dump it into the community and expose how superficial and knee jerk the CT community was - yes to embarrass the early researchers.

I seem to recall an article in third or fourth Decade, the newsletter from Jerry Rose that went into that, there were suspicions of who was involved.   If such a hoax seems totally implausible, we need to remember that at a later date a rather sophisticated memo surfaced, with even the right sequence number, which confirmed Oswald was an intelligence asset....that document caused a real flap since it appeared that it was actually at NARA....as it turned out it was not, but somebody pretty well informed did create it as a hoax and it created quite a flap at the time.

[Bill Simpich]

Pat, Steve, Larry, yes to all three comments.     As Larry said, it appears to have been "faked by a very aggressive (and dismissive) LN local who knew enough to make it look plausible and then dump it into the community and expose how superficial and knee jerk the CT community was - yes to embarrass the early researchers.

When Carl Day, the head of forensics - who faked more evidence than anyone I am aware of in the JFK case- is  named by Mary Ferrell in Jerry Rose's newsletter as the man who handed it to the Rev. Al Chapman, one of the early Dallas researchers ...

it makes me want to know more about both Carl Day and the Dallas researcher community in the 1960s (which seems to have almost faded out completely) - can anyone tell me more?  

 

[Larry Hancock]

Its possible either Gary Shaw or Better Windsor might be able to help; I have a vague recollection that both Gary and Jack White had some thoughts on who might have faked it.

[Bill Brown]

On 2/22/2023 at 1:40 PM, Bill Simpich said:

     At top, see 21-18-1-6-9-14-11 - it spells U-R-A-F-I-N-K

 

A "General Offense Report" was created in investigating the General Walker shooting of 4/10/63.  The 10/11/63 Bledsoe police report is a clever forgery, as Oswald was allegedly living in the home of Mary Bledsoe at 621 N. Marsalis the week of October 7-14.

James R. Follliard wrote a case study of this fake report in 1994 - Mary Ferrell told him that Dallas researcher Rev. Al Chapman told her that it was provided to him by Lt. Carl Day  Several copies existed of varying quality before the Garrison trial in 1969 - a forensic examiner should try to figure out how and when it was created.  The head of DPD forensics, Day destroyed the chain of custody for the three rifle shells - Day also took custody of the rifle at the 6th Floor, and claimed finding fingerprints that were not found by the FBI.

James R. Black followed up Folliard's study with a great memo showing that a substitution cipher was used for the number of the report - 21-18-1-6-9-14-11 becomes U-R-A-F-I-N-K.  A fink is commonly known a stool pigeon.  Black offers several good reasons such a game might have been played.

The most provocative reading would be that Oswald was shown this memo before the assassination to let him know that he was a known stool pigeon to the police.   My tentative conclusion - subject to change - is that this fake police report was created to waste time and poison any notion that Ruby and Oswald knew each other or even knew about each other.  Such a technique is very effective.  I don't think this was a joke.  There is nothing "funny" about this kind of malicious forgery.

 

 

 

"The most provocative reading would be that Oswald was shown this memo before the assassination to let him know that he was a known stool pigeon to the police.   My tentative conclusion - subject to change - is that this fake police report was created to waste time and poison any notion that Ruby and Oswald knew each other or even knew about each other.  Such a technique is very effective.  I don't think this was a joke.  There is nothing "funny" about this kind of malicious forgery."

 

This wasn't put out by the Dallas Police Department or anyone else before the assassination and therefore couldn't have been shown to Oswald.  It was created in the mid sixties by a group intending to mess with Mark Lane (probably during the time of his Rush To Judgement nonsense).

 

They mailed it to Lane, no doubt wanting him to take it and run with it as proof of Ruby and Oswald knowing each other.  Then, once Lane was committed to the document and parading it everywhere, they would expose the document as fake (U R A FINK) and Lane would look foolish.

 

Lane never received the document, however, and it was returned to sender and later sent off to Penn Jones.

 

 

Edited February 23, 2023 by Bill Brown

[Bill Simpich]

As I thought, the faked Bledsoe police report appears to have been designed to make JFK researchers look bad.  Dave Perry wrote in 1999 that he received a call and personally received a copy of the Bledsoe document from a member of the "group intending to mess with Mark Lane". 

Dave Perry has an active website but I don't know how to reach him - could someone let me know how to reach him -  Bill Brown, do you know how to reach him? - so we can ask him directly to publicly state who created the faked Bledsoe police report?

 From Perry's linked article:

"Here is the rest of the story."

(1) Two people were involved in the creation of the police report. It was produced sometime in 1966.

(2) They had little difficulty obtaining police report forms. Many people had access to the police department main floor, including other law enforcement representatives, average citizens, reporters and attorneys, to name but a few. The reports were NOT sequentially numbered, so none would be missed, and they consisted of a carbonized, multi-page, "snap out" set. The perpetrators of the hoax filled out the form using a manual typewriter. The keys had to be struck forcefully so the type would be legible on all copies.

(3) The people responsible were fed up with the way the Dallas Police Department and some Dallas citizenry were being portrayed and pestered by what they considered self-appointed assassination "researchers." In particular, they were disturbed by some allegations made by attorney Mark Lane.

(4) The men decided to play a trick on Lane. The planned to produce a bogus police report, send the original to Lane and wait for him to call a press conference. At the conference, they would produce their portions of the carbon set and embarrass Lane in front of the media.

(5) They ultimately mailed the "report" to Lane, but it was returned with the envelope stamped "addressee unknown."

(6) The men next discussed whom else they could "sucker" into believing the document to be genuine. They sent the report to Texas Warren Commission critic Penn Jones Jr. As far as the participants know, Jones received the report but did nothing with it.

Edited February 25, 2023 by Bill Simpich

[Bill Brown]

14 hours ago, Bill Simpich said:

As I thought, the faked Bledsoe police report appears to have been designed to make JFK researchers look bad.  Dave Perry wrote in 1999 that he received a call and personally received a copy of the Bledsoe document from a member of the "group intending to mess with Mark Lane". 

Dave Perry has an active website but I don't know how to reach him - could someone let me know how to reach him -  Bill Brown, do you know how to reach him? - so we can ask him directly to publicly state who created the faked Bledsoe police report?

 From Perry's linked article:

"Here is the rest of the story."

(1) Two people were involved in the creation of the police report. It was produced sometime in 1966.

(2) They had little difficulty obtaining police report forms. Many people had access to the police department main floor, including other law enforcement representatives, average citizens, reporters and attorneys, to name but a few. The reports were NOT sequentially numbered, so none would be missed, and they consisted of a carbonized, multi-page, "snap out" set. The perpetrators of the hoax filled out the form using a manual typewriter. The keys had to be struck forcefully so the type would be legible on all copies.

(3) The people responsible were fed up with the way the Dallas Police Department and some Dallas citizenry were being portrayed and pestered by what they considered self-appointed assassination "researchers." In particular, they were disturbed by some allegations made by attorney Mark Lane.

(4) The men decided to play a trick on Lane. The planned to produce a bogus police report, send the original to Lane and wait for him to call a press conference. At the conference, they would produce their portions of the carbon set and embarrass Lane in front of the media.

(5) They ultimately mailed the "report" to Lane, but it was returned with the envelope stamped "addressee unknown."

(6) The men next discussed whom else they could "sucker" into believing the document to be genuine. They sent the report to Texas Warren Commission critic Penn Jones Jr. As far as the participants know, Jones received the report but did nothing with it.

 

"Dave Perry has an active website but I don't know how to reach him - could someone let me know how to reach him -  Bill Brown, do you know how to reach him? - so we can ask him directly to publicly state who created the faked Bledsoe police report?"

 

I've talked to Dave Perry on the phone about the Bledsoe document.

 

Perry told me he was invited by Jim Marrs to attend some press release at UT Arlington.  Perry took Gary Mack along with him.  Bobby Hargis was in attendance.  Perry happened to have a copy of this document with him.  Perry noticed Hargis and in an attempt to determine if the document was authentic or not, Perry went up to Hargis (who's name appears on the document as one of the officers on the scene).  Hargis told Perry that nothing like that ever happened and that the document is fake.  Hargis added that he never worked as a patrol officer in a car (motorcycle officers don't get sent to domestic disturbances, they work traffic duty and escorts).

 

Perry told me that two people are responsible for this fake document.  They sent it to Mark Lane but it was returned.  They then sent it off to Penn Jones.  I think Penn Jones then sent it to Jim Garrison, who didn't believe the document was real so he never used it.

 

To prove they were responsible, one of the two creators of the document gave the original yellow copy to Perry (the document had three or four colored carbon copies attached to the white sheet at the top).  Perry told me that he still owns the yellow copy.

 

Perry told me that the two who created this document made him promise to not release their names until after they have both passed away.  One is still alive.

 

[Bill Simpich]

Bill, thanks very much for this thoughtful reply.

I wonder if Dave Perry would be willing to ask the surviving creator of this document to go public - and tell the full story - and field questions.   I'm more willing to believe the storyteller when anonymity is abandoned and there is a true dialogue.

I've admitted my bias.  My opinion at this point - again, subject to change - is that this forgery was done not just to hurt Mark Lane and Penn Jones, but all researchers who believed that more than one gunman was involved and that there was some kind of relationship between Ruby and Oswald.

It's been almost 60 years since this document was created - it would be good to have an open dialogue about it and try to engender a spirit of understanding among all of us with various points of view - rather than being reduced to pointing fingers and speculating.   

FWIW, it sounds like Perry's conversation with Hargis led to the two people communicating with Perry in some fashion.  To my knowledge, no one has challenged Mary Ferrell's tip from Al Chapman that he got the Bledsoe police report from Lt. Carl Day, who is now deceased.  Is Al's son Randy Chapman still alive?  Maybe he could tell us a little more.

Conspiracy theorizing is inevitable when the holders of secrets continue to keep their secrets for no good reason.  Keeping secrets about events like the JFK assassination is corrosive.

[Bill Brown]

29 minutes ago, Bill Simpich said:

Bill, thanks very much for this thoughtful reply.

I wonder if Dave Perry would be willing to ask the surviving creator of this document to go public - and tell the full story - and field questions.   I'm more willing to believe the storyteller when anonymity is abandoned and there is a true dialogue.

I've admitted my bias.  My opinion at this point - again, subject to change - is that this forgery was done not just to hurt Mark Lane and Penn Jones, but all researchers who believed that more than one gunman was involved and that there was some kind of relationship between Ruby and Oswald.

It's been almost 60 years since this document was created - it would be good to have an open dialogue about it and try to engender a spirit of understanding among all of us with various points of view - rather than being reduced to pointing fingers and speculating.   

FWIW, it sounds like Perry's conversation with Hargis led to the two people communicating with Perry in some fashion.  To my knowledge, no one has challenged Mary Ferrell's tip from Al Chapman that he got the Bledsoe police report from Lt. Carl Day, who is now deceased.  Is Al's son Randy Chapman still alive?  Maybe he could tell us a little more.

Conspiracy theorizing is inevitable when the holders of secrets continue to keep their secrets for no good reason.  Keeping secrets about events like the JFK assassination is corrosive.

 

Regarding their identities, Perry told me that one was a police officer and one was a reporter (I'm assuming both in the Dallas area).