New book on Victoria Adams by author Barry Ernest

[Steve Duffy]

Glad to see this in paperback, Barry. Ordered mine today. Looking forward to it.

[Barry Ernest]

Glad to see this in paperback, Barry. Ordered mine today. Looking forward to it.

Thanks, Steve. Hope you enjoy getting to know Vicki better.

[William Kelly]

What actions [of Oswald's] are you talking about? His denials that he owned the rifle? His denials that he killed anybody? The fact that he liked JFK? His actions appear to me to be that of a man who was framed for crimes he didn't commit.

Or they are the actions and words of a man who was lying his ass off after being arrested for two murders he committed with his own guns.

Come now, Bill, you actually ACCEPT Oswald's blatant lies? Such as the ridiculous fairy tale he told the police about having never owned a rifle? Or the one about having purchased his revolver in Ft. Worth? Or the howler about having carried only his lunch into the TSBD on 11/22? Or the one about how he never even mentioned the words "curtain rods" to Buell Frazier?

Are you truly THAT much in denial about Lee Harvey Oswald's guilt, Bill?

I didn't dispute those things you call blatant lies, I just said that those things don't add up to assassin. If he actually did all the things you credit him with doing and doing successfully, like killing the President all by himself, then he was pretty good at it, and not the lying, loser you say he is.

BK

[Shepard G. Montgomery]

I'm enjoying the Kindle version of the book. The author seems like a very likable, personable fellow, and that is evident in his writing. I like his simple, straightforward approach. Good read. And you simply can't beat the price!

Edited April 1, 2011 by Shepard G. Montgomery

[Michael Hogan]

Barry Ernest has written an excellent book. The full title is THE GIRL ON THE STAIRS -- My Search For A Missing Witness To The Assassination Of John F. Kennedy. As everyone now knows, that witness was Victoria Adams. It took Barry thirty-five years to find her, but reading what she told Barry is kind of like going back in a time machine to that tragic day in Dallas.

Those that liked Gerald McKnight or John Kelin's books will like The Girl On The Stairs. Of course, Barry's book is much different, but he has some great personal stories about Penn Jones and Harold Weisberg. And he puts his own personal touch on some of the major weaknesses in the Warren Commission's story.

Barry's descriptions of his visits to Dealey Plaza and the National Archives are as vivid as any I've read. It's almost like you were there with him.

During the course of his research, Barry had the opportunity to meet and interview many persons of interest in Dallas, many of whom are no longer living. Those interviews become an important part of the record; one realizes how incomplete the record really is and how time has, in most cases, extinguished our opportunity to know the full story.

I expect as word gets around, Barry Ernest's work will be very favorably reviewed. Harold Weisberg's influence on Barry is demonstrated by the careful footnotes contained in The Girl On The Stairs. Like Weisberg did so well, Barry uses the government's own findings to show it's failures.

I feel safe in saying that most members of the Education Forum will greatly enjoy reading Barry Ernest's book, which is quite relevant to so many of the topics that are discussed here on a daily basis.

Great work Ernie. Your research (And Vickie Adams' story) will endure.

Edited April 4, 2011 by Michael Hogan

[Michael Hogan]

From theprogressnews.com

Author tracks down witness to JFK assassination

Saturday, April 16, 2011

By Tyler Kolesar

Excerpt:

After talking with Adams, he found out what he had been looking for all along: she was indeed telling the truth. It was then that Ernest's book "The Girl on the Stairs" began to take shape.

"I thought I had a story to tell," said Ernest. "Simple as that."

Ernest said he originally didn't intend to write a book about his findings. For many years, he was a research assistant for author and private researcher Harold Weisberg, who was considered to be the leading authority on the case.

"When I found the evidence that proved Miss Adams had been telling the truth all along, he convinced me to put it all on paper if for no other reason than the historical record," said Ernest. "My intention all along in writing the book was to show that Victoria Adams was telling the truth about what she did and when she did it, and then to reveal how the Warren Commission reacted to that truth."

Ernest said it took another three years to pull information together to write the book, and another six years to actually get it published. He said many publishers wanted a final chapter on a "wild-eyed theory" as to how he thought the assassination occurred, but he wanted to keep his book based strictly on facts, and this led numerous publishers to back out.

He also said one of the most rewarding parts of writing the book was finally getting word out that Adams was telling the truth. Ernest said Adams told him that is all she ever wanted people to know.

Full story: http://www.theprogressnews.com/default.asp?read=26517

[Greg Burnham]

I have been trying to get it commercially published for years through a few literary agents. Several publishers

expressed interest, but wanted me to come up with a final chapter that theorized a "solution" to the murder,

regardless of its speculative qualities. I would not do that.

Good for you! And welcome to the forum.

Edited April 16, 2011 by Greg Burnham

[Greg Burnham]

Barry Ernest has written an excellent book. The full title is THE GIRL ON THE STAIRS -- My Search For A Missing Witness To The Assassination Of John F. Kennedy. As everyone now knows, that witness was Victoria Adams. It took Barry thirty-five years to find her, but reading what she told Barry is kind of like going back in a time machine to that tragic day in Dallas.

Those that liked Gerald McKnight or John Kelin's books will like The Girl On The Stairs. Of course, Barry's book is much different, but he has some great personal stories about Penn Jones and Harold Weisberg. And he puts his own personal touch on some of the major weaknesses in the Warren Commission's story.

Barry's descriptions of his visits to Dealey Plaza and the National Archives are as vivid as any I've read. It's almost like you were there with him.

During the course of his research, Barry had the opportunity to meet and interview many persons of interest in Dallas, many of whom are no longer living. Those interviews become an important part of the record; one realizes how incomplete the record really is and how time has, in most cases, extinguished our opportunity to know the full story.

I expect as word gets around, Barry Ernest's work will be very favorably reviewed. Harold Weisberg's influence on Barry is demonstrated by the careful footnotes contained in The Girl On The Stairs. Like Weisberg did so well, Barry uses the government's own findings to show it's failures.

I feel safe in saying that most members of the Education Forum will greatly enjoy reading Barry Ernest's book, which is quite relevant to so many of the topics that are discussed here on a daily basis.

Great work Ernie. Your research (And Vickie Adams' story) will endure.

Michael,

Thanks for the info and (abbreviated) review. I look forward to the read. Coming from you, I'm sure the recommendation will be more than worth it.

[Michael Hogan]

Michael,

Thanks for the info and (abbreviated) review. I look forward to the read. Coming from you, I'm sure the recommendation will be more than worth it.

Thanks for the good words Greg, they are appreciated. I am certain you will enjoy Barry's book.

When you are finished reading it, I hope you will post some of your impressions.

[Pat Speer]

Michael,

Thanks for the info and (abbreviated) review. I look forward to the read. Coming from you, I'm sure the recommendation will be more than worth it.

Thanks for the good words Greg, they are appreciated. I am certain you will enjoy Barry's book.

When you are finished reading it, I hope you will post some of your impressions.

Hey, Mike and/or Barry...How many eyewitnesses were interviewed for the book? Are there transcripts of their statements?

[Michael Hogan]

http://www.ctka.net/reviews/accidental_history.html

This is the first full length review of the book. There are things I disagree with in it, like his comments about Groden, Oliver Stone's film, and Barry's taking of Gary Mack--Mr. SIxth Floor cover-up seriously.

But there are many good things in it also. And plus its an interesting story, actually two stories.

The section on the TIppit case is quite bracing I thought. He found a new witness who confirms the time the shooting happened as 1:06--T. F. Bowley's time-- and this is by looking at a clock. Bowley looked at his watch. Could not be Oswald. In 21 years, Bugliosi could not find this person.

Good stuff about how the government did all they could to harass Adams into changing her testimony,discredit her, and to alter her testimony, all they could.

Nice part in there about what they did to Roger Craig also.

As time goes on, this has become a major motif about the Commission, that is, what they did to people in order to make them fit the preordained story. This is what happens when you have no defense, as Oswald did not.

It seems like it was the E-book that was reviewed. The page references given do not correspond to my softcover edition of Barry's book.

I know that it was a lot of work on Jim and Joseph's part to review Barry's book. My following comments are in no way meant to demean their efforts.

Titled Accidental History, the CTKA review is complete and accurate in my opinion.

However, it almost reads like CliffsNotes. It tells me too much about The Girl On The Stairs. Maybe a spoiler alert should have been issued, much like a movie review that gives away too much.

Having gotten that off my chest, the CTKA review is well-written and faithful to Barry's book. But if you're going to buy Barry's book, I suggest thinking about doing so before reading Jim and Joseph's review.

Incidentally, for anyone that has a copy of Gerald McKnight's book, he does an excellent job of summarizing the way the government treated Vickie Adams.

[Jack White]

What is needed is a book on another TSBD employee...Carolyn Arnold.

Claiming the WC misrepresented what she told them, she changed her name

and job, and gave her lawyer a deposition to be released in event of the

suspicious death of her children or herself. She became an executive at

a high profile enterprise in the DFW area.

Jack

[Barry Ernest]

Two points need to be made here:

1) First, a note of thanks to Joseph and Jim for taking their time to review "The Girl on the Stairs." It was, for the most part, an accurate reflection. I agree with Mike Hogan, however. It was taken from the e-book version, and it was presented more as a synopsis rather than a review. Perhaps, in the end, they felt it was a kinder way of doing it.

2) Second, a note of clarification. Reference was made in Mike's post to Jerry McKnight's "Breach of Trust" and that author's description of Victoria Adams. On page 113 of his book, Jerry states that Miss Adams testified that within thirty seconds to a minute after witnessing the shooting she ran down the back stairs. This, of course, is wrong and he knows that, for he clarifies the timing when, in a footnote (#13 on page 399), he writes: "Actually Adams would later report that she started down the stairs not thirty seconds to a minute but fifteen to twenty seconds after she saw the head shot. Adams corrected the Commission's account of her testimony when on February 17, 1964, she went to the U.S. attorney's office in Dallas to check a transcript of her testimony." It is the footnote that is inaccurate.

A. Even though Miss Adams waived her right to examine her testimony (as indicated in her deposition), a copy was hand-delivered to her office for her to examine, which she did, notated some spelling and grammar errors, and then signed. (Perhaps this was done to put on record the fact she had seen her testimony prior to publication.) None of her corrections involved the timing issue, however, which in the original stenographer's copy of her testimony is shown as "Between 15 and 30 seconds, estimated, approximately." In my interviews with her, she said the gentleman who delivered the copy of her testimony "stood over" her, watching intently as she made the corrections, which you can see in her handwriting in the original testimony. None of those corrections involved the "15 and 30 seconds" passage, and she did not make the trek to the U.S. attorney's office to make the changes.

B. Jerry states Miss Adams went to that office on February 17, 1964, for the express purpose of viewing her testimony. That was not possible for a second reason: her testimony was taken April 7, 1964.

C. When I called Jerry to inquire about this confusion, he understandably couldn't recollect that passage. So he looked in his own copy of "Breach of Trust" and found that he had written the word "error" next to the footnote in question. The document he cites in that footnote as "confirmation" of Miss Adams changing the time (from 30/60 to 15/30) is indeed, as he states, a letter from Martha Jo Stroud to Lee Rankin. But that letter is the June 2, 1964, one I show in my book. That letter does, in fact, list several changes Miss Adams made when she reviewed her testimony in her office, but none of those changes involve timing, and none of those changes she did mention were ultimately made to the final version of her deposition as shown in the 26 volumes.

I am not bringing this up as a criticism but merely for the sake of accuracy. I've known Jerry for a while (our mutual friend was Harold Weisberg) and I know he is diligent and meticulous in his research. I'm sure it was simply human error, something we are all victims of regardless of our care.

Edited April 28, 2011 by Barry Ernest

[Don Jeffries]

Great work, as usual, on the book review, Jim.

Thanks, Barry, for writing this important book.

[Barry Ernest]

Jim,

Victoria Adams never made a change to her testimony regarding the 15 to 30 second time period. It was always that estimate. The only changes she made to her testimony involved spelling and grammar, none of which appeared in the final version in the 26 volumes. Those changes were made in her fourth-floor office of the TSBD.

Coupled with the fact Miss Adams did not see or hear anyone let alone Oswald, her sighting of Shelley and Lovelady on the first floor, two men who claimed they did not return to the TSBD until several minutes after the assassination, became a major factor in the WC's logic of saying she was wrong about when she descended the back stairs. It is that logic which continues to be used today to discredit her, and on it's face, it does appear to be reasonable.

In my interviews with her, however, Vicki insisted the Shelley/Lovelady passage had been inserted into her testimony and the reasons she felt that way are spelled out in my book. She said those were not her words, they didn't sound at all like the way she would have said it, and the passage was NOT in the original testimony she examined in her office that afternoon. No mention was made of the Shelley/Lovelady encounter in any of the other interviews she did with authorities except for the one with Det. Leavelle of the DPD. A close and objective reading of that statement does seem to indicate that the passage saying she saw Shelley and Lovelady is out of context with the rest of what she is saying at that point. Perhaps that is why the DPD interviewed her twice, the second time with Leavelle under the reasoning that a fire at police headquarters had destroyed Miss Adams' file. No such fire occurred.

Reading Shelley and Lovelady's testimony, it's clear they did not see her, Shelley especially and in Lovelady's case, there is every indication that he was "coached" into making the even mild statement that he evenutually did, admitting he couldn't "swear" to the fact a girl he saw was Vicki.

Sandra Styles confirmed for me that Shelley and Lovelady were not there. She knew both men well and told me she didn't understand why Vicki would have made the statement ("if she did," she said) that the two men were there when, in her words, "they definitely" were not. She seemed adamant about it.

The Martha Jo Stroud letter as well confirms the timing of Vicki's early descent.

How then do we account for the questioned passage in Vicki's testimony when Vicki and Sandra did NOT see Shelley and Lovelady, Shelley and Lovelady did not see them, and the Stroud letter now confirms the accuracy of what Vicki had been saying all along about her early descent down the stairs?

And thank you for being kind! As for Groden, Stone, and Mack, those were simply my observations recorded at that moment and should not be interpreted necessarily as criticisms or endorsements.