Ruth Paine

[Paul Brancato]

Can't say I blame DiEugenio for signing off on this thread. Martin Blank chose the word incredible to describe his reaction to Trejo's incredibly rude posts. I use the word 'disgusting'.

I've done a little checking. Trejo, as far as I can tell, has posted more times than anyone else by far since he joined, and his posts are also long and repetitive. it has become clear to me that this is his full time job, and that he has an agenda, and is not just a psyche case.

I am either going to have to completely ignore him, or, fingers crossed, the moderators will figure out he is not just some professor. I am sick of being in 'his' classroom.

[Paul Trejo]

ahhhh, I hate to state the obvious, the Warren Commission was indeed led by this country's (next to Donovan of course) most publicized "premiere" OSS/CIA spook, Dulles (a guy JFK fired for chrissakes), I'm sure there are plenty more hiding in the corners.

The rest is academic my dear Watson.

Everything the WC did (and didn't do) was focused on nailing Oswald for the crime of the century.

As far as case evidence (newly discovered and old rehashes)? We know Oswald was setup, now it's general housekeeping, sweeping up WC support nonsense, undoing what the commission felt was best (and that's being overly generous to most of the commissioners)...

I think you're overstating the case, David. The leader of the WC wasn't Allen Dulles, but LBJ. LBJ created it, designed it, and established it. LBJ chose Dulles, but he also chose Earl Warren and J. Edgar Hoover.

Besides that, J. Edgar Hoover was the first to establish the Primary Game Rule, namely, the "Lone Nut."

We have this on historical record -- it was 11/22/1963 that J. Edgar Hoover first articulated the "Lone Nut" theory.

All the evidence tampering in the WC was always done with one single purpose: The "Lone Nut" theory. That goes for the Bethesda autopsy tampering as well.

That all started with Hoover -- and then LBJ bought it (possibly also on 11/22/1963) and then LBJ sold Hoover's idea to Allen Dulles and Earl Warren.

Allen Dulles went along for the ride. I think a much stronger case can be made for my theory than for yours.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited October 29, 2015 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Trejo]

In my opinion, George DeM was not an agent handler; nor were the Paines.

To become an army agent handler c. 1970, my vintage, one got filtered and trained. One was determined by background investigation to be utterly reliable...

...To handle agents, which is what Joe and I did, and we were both well-educated individuals who passed background checks, one had to be reliable without question, able to learn anything, willing to do anything, face any enemy.

The Paines never ever went through this screening; never ever had such training. Neither did GeoDm. Neither did Marina's husband.

Jon, I think the technical terms are bandied about too freely and loosely. George DeM admitted to becoming involved with LHO at CIA request. What did he do? I don't think George DeM "handled" LHO in the sense that you and your friend Joe "handled" agents.

First, LHO wasn't an agent. He was a flunked candidate, IMHO. George DeM spied on LHO to ensure LHO wasn't a double-agent. That seems plain to me.

George DeM had the ability to do spy on LHO -- so, I think we agree here, right?

LHO was once a candidate for an Intel Agent, but he was too disobedient and headstrong. So, he was set aside. Then, after LHO tried to kill Walker (or was implied in that as Dick Russell showed in TMWKTM) the CIA, ONI, FBI and all other Intel Agencies wrote LHO off forever.

At that point, LHO became desperate and sold his soul to Guy Banister in NOLA, probably hoping he was really working for DAP. By that time, though, George DeM was in Haiti.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited October 29, 2015 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Trejo]

Can't say I blame DiEugenio for signing off on this thread. Martin Blank chose the word incredible to describe his reaction to Trejo's incredibly rude posts. I use the word 'disgusting'.

I've done a little checking. Trejo, as far as I can tell, has posted more times than anyone else by far since he joined, and his posts are also long and repetitive. it has become clear to me that this is his full time job, and that he has an agenda, and is not just a psyche case.

I am either going to have to completely ignore him, or, fingers crossed, the moderators will figure out he is not just some professor. I am sick of being in 'his' classroom.

Well, Paul B., it was Martin Blank who directly expressed, in his 10/23/2015 post, and I quote, "contempt," unquote, for my thinking.

So, I set his account to IGNORE in my FORUM "Manage Ignore Prefs".

Since you just directly expressed, Paul B., and I quote, "disgust," unquote, for my thinking, then to be consistent I'm going to also set your account to IGNORE in my FORUM "Manage Ignore Prefs."

No big loss, man.

As for my "agenda" here, it's exactly as I said -- anybody who claims Ruth Paine was a CIA Agent who helped kill JFK and frame LHO must answer to reason and logic -- and I'm going to insist on it. It's just that simple.

I'm not done dealing with James DiEugenio's book, Destiny Betrayed (2012), which trashes Ruth Paine. Actually, I'm just getting started.

Is this zealotry? No. It's a simple search for the TRUTH in the JFK murder -- and I'm sick and tired of just allowing anybody to accuse a civilian of being a CIA agent -- and to blame for the JFK murder -- with the shabbiest evidence in the world.

I hope other people are getting sick and tired of it, too.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited October 29, 2015 by Paul Trejo

[Martin Blank]

Can't say I blame DiEugenio for signing off on this thread. Martin Blank chose the word incredible to describe his reaction to Trejo's incredibly rude posts. I use the word 'disgusting'.

i used the word "incredible" for several reasons with the first being that the situation fits the definition of the word which is "impossible to believe."

​and it does strain my faculties to watch one individual try to dominate the forum and to see that people are trying to reason with him or prove him wrong. i find that incredible. it can't be done; the man is a broken record who reminds me of many fundamentalist christians who just hurl out bible verse after bible verse without understanding what they mean or their applicability to the situation at hand. it's all knee jerk.

​but the solution to the problem lies with us and not with him. all you have to do is stop listening and responding to him and he ceases to exist. simple as that. don't engage with him. it's what he wants because he craves the attention and the fact that he can get people angry and frustrated. in fact i think he wants these things more than he wants a solution to jfk's murder. you can almost see him preening as he shows everyone just how stupid they are and how great he is.

​you are not going to convince him of anything because he is smarter than everyone else. so why bother trying. it's just a waste of time and energy.

​that's my two cents. now i'm going to leave this cloud cuckoo land where the cuckoo is seemingly in charge and go back to ignore land where i can control who exists.

incredible.

[Martin Blank]

no.

[Paul Trejo]

Still on page 197 of the second edition of Destiny Betrayed (2012) by James DiEugenio, we will proceed to the trashing of Ruth Paine and her family through the famous joke by Allen Dulles (whom James despises) that the CT community would have a field day if they knew that his lover, Mary Bancroft, was once the best friend of Ruth Paine's step-mother, also named Ruth Paine. James writes:

Dulles joked in private that the [JFK] conspiracy buffs would have had a field day if they had known...he had actually been in Dallas three weeks before the murder...that one of Mary Bancroft’s childhood friends had turned out to be a landlady for Marina Oswald...and that the landlady was a well-known leftist with distant ties to the family of Alger Hiss.

James doesn't laugh about this. He presents it as *solid evidence* that Ruth Paine was a CIA agent. Actually, however, the statement as printed there on page 197 is incorrect -- it wasn't one of Mary Bancroft's childhood friends that was Marina's landlady, but one of the step-daughters of one of Mary Bancroft's childhood friends. As for the Alger Hiss connection, James DiEugenio thinks it's a major clue in understanding Ruth Paine -- never mind the fact that Ruth Paine was 16 when Hiss was charged. Moving on to page 198, James writes:

This tantalizing quote does not just reveal that Dulles understood how dangerous the exposure of all these associations were to his veneer as an impartial investigator. But that last clause suggests that he understood how important Ruth Paine’s veneer as a “leftist” was in her association with the Oswalds.

Of course, James won't explain *how* Ruth's so-called veneer as a so-called leftist would be "important" in her befriending of the Oswalds -- he leaves that to lynch-mob innuendo. James uses this to lead to his next attack on Ruth Paine, namely the famous "six metal filing cabinets with names of Castro sympathizers."

Never mind that these so-called filing cabinets were never produced, and never even photographed. Never mind that Ruth Paine said that they consisted of "two boxes of Folk Dance records, two boxes of college papers, one box of Oswald's FPCC fliers from his stuff in her garage, and a 35mm projector," CIA-did-it CT buffs are quick to lynch Ruth Paine on the basis of this bogus report. James continues:

...Sheriff’s deputy Buddy Walthers...was one of the officers at the Paine household on the twenty-second. He was there to do a search and seizure since the authorities learned that Marina Oswald was living there and her husband’s possessions were likely located there. Walthers later talked about finding several “metal filing cabinets full of letters, maps, records, and index cards, with names of pro-Castro sympathizers.”

I ask the reader to note the words, "talked about," there. These alleged "six or seven metal filing cabinets" were not listed in the offical report. Nor were any photographs taken of them. Does anybody imagine that a Dallas officer might exaggerate now and then? The metal filing cabinets are sheer rumor, as any objective reader will conclude. But that's not the impression James wants to portray. James continues:

Sheriff Decker mentioned the metal boxes in his official report provided to the Warren Commission. This created quite a stir, and therefore the Warren Commission made it go away in the Speculation and Rumors part of its report.

Again, Sheriff Decker repeated the words of Buddy Walthers -- and this "created a stir". In the opinion of James & Co., this *must have been* the truth, and not a rumor, even though there was and remains utterly no single stitch of material evidence ever presented for it. Never. No, for James & Co., this "cinches the case that the Paines were domestic surveillance agents in the Cold War against Communism."

REALLY!? Doesn't it rather cinch the case that James DiEugenio is as biased as the leader of a lynch-mob? Well -- I would actually be impressed if somebody would show me even a photograph of one of the "six or seven" (to use Walther's actual words) metal filing cabinets.

CRICKETS!

Regards,
--Paul Trejo

Edited October 29, 2015 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Trejo]

ya know Paul, this new book by Talbot just may deposit Ruth Paine on the garbage heap... I suspect she knows much more than she's telling us.

Well, David, I just finished reading David Talbot's new book, The Devil's Chessboard (2015) as it relates to Ruth Paine, and I found his treatment of Ruth Paine to be very accurate, sober and mild. His remarks are wry and mildly ironic, but historically accurate. Talbot accused the Paines of nothing.

I found no lynch-mob mentality in Talbot, as we find in attorney Carol Hewett and her quislings Steven Jones, Barbara LaMonica and James DiEugenio.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited October 29, 2015 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Trejo]

Let's move on to page 199 of the second edition of Destiny Betrayed (2012) by James DiEugenio. Since James has already presumed upon rumor-as-evidence that Ruth and Michael Paine kept "six or seven" metal filing cabinets full of names of pro-Castro sympathizers" in their garage, it is a short step for James to accuse Ruth Paine of murder in Nicaragua. James writes:

...The collecting of the names of leftist sympathizers continued with Ruth during the days of American involvement in the Contra War in Nicaragua. Sue Wheaton was a volunteer for a religious group who journeyed to Nicaragua to help the Sandinistas consolidate their leftist revolution. There she met Ruth as part of another group. But Ruth’s group ran a sawmill project on the east coast of Nicaragua, a Contra holdout and nexus of CIA based activities.

James DiEugenio loves rumor. The more salubrious the rumor the better. James has no problem in accusing Ruth Paine with murder if he only has a few items of rumor to work with. I guess this is why his publisher pays him the big bucks. Anyway, we're supposed to believe that Ruth's group in Nicaragua was connected with the CIA -- just because James says so. Not one stitch of evidence is offered.

Everybody knows that Nicaragua in the early 1990's was a hotbed of political struggle, and people were being killed left and right -- almost entirely left. Also, the CIA was clearly involved in those struggles. But so were Quakers, the Catholics, the Methodists and many other humanitarian groups, to provide relief for women and children in that struggle. Ruth Paine went to Nicaragua as a Quaker Charity lady, but James DiEugenio insists that Ruth Paine was in Nicaragua as a CIA killer -- on the basis of his fevered opinion. James continues:

Whenever [sue] Wheaton would encounter Ruth, she said Ruth would be taking copious notes and be accompanied by others who would take snapshots and also tape record proceedings. Wheaton concluded that Ruth was taking down information about Americans in Nicaragua who opposed U.S. policy there and that she was probably then giving it to members of the American Embassy who she said she knew. This posturing as a liberal Quaker, but then acting as a surveillance agent, was not just vaguely suggested by Allen Dulles.

There, by James DiEugenio, is a naked accusation -- based again on a rumor. We have the opinion of Sue Wheaton, a religious Charity worker in Nicaragua, merely guessing about the recipients of Ruth Paine's reports. Yet we also have Ruth Paine's own explanation (c.f. Mrs. Paine's Garage, 2002), that in her role as a religous Charity worker in Nicaragua, she wrote reports for the Quaker Church about the successes of their mission there, and how well their money was being spent, since Ruth oversaw a rather large amount of money sent to the Relief effort there.

Ruth took photographs of her friends and events for the Quaker journal, and made notes of business transactions as any careful accountant would. But James DiEugenio doesn't even mention Ruth's side of the story, instead, James continues:

And again, it surfaced through Garrison’s grand jury proceedings. When a member of the grand jury asked Marina Oswald if she still associated with Ruth Paine, Marina replied that she did not. When she was asked why she did not, Marina said that it was upon the advice of the Secret Service. She then elaborated on this by explaining that they had told her it would not look good if the pubic found out that, “she [Ruth] had friends over there and it would be bad for me if people find out connection between me and Ruth and CIA.” An assistant DA then asked, “In other words, you were left with the distinct impression that she was in some way connected with the CIA?” To which Marina replied in the affirmative.

With these weasel words, James DiEugenio believes he has convicted Ruth Paine of CIA evils. Yet I've already debunked these words forced into Marina Oswald's mouth with post #217.

Actually, Marina had repeatedly told Garrison that Ruth Paine was NOT CONNECTED to the CIA. Also, Garrison neglected to ask why the Secret Service told Marina Oswald to disconnect from Ruth Paine, based on the nonsense that she "sympathized with the CIA". Did the Secret Service fear the CIA? Clearly not. But Jim Garrison and Andrew Sciambra wished to make Marina Oswald infer that Ruth Paine was in the CIA, so Sciambria added the weasel words, "in some way." They badgered Marina Oswald until she assented that "in some way" could mean ANYTHING.

Yet James DiEugenio wants to take these weasel words to the bank. He's convinced, and he wants to convince the reader, that Ruth Paine was in the CIA, and was the cause of the deaths of Nicaraguan relief workers there. It is a fact that Nicaraguan relief workers were being killed by the Radical Right in Nicaragua. But to blame Ruth Paine for this -- based on such flimsy so-called evidence, is unforgiveable. Yet James DiEugenio continues:

Steve Jones followed up on Sue Wheaton’s information with another female worker who knew Ruth in Nicaragua and befriended her...The two women drove to Costa Rica for some R&R. When they arrived near the Costa Rican camp, some people approached the car to help them out. When they saw it was Ruth, they walked away moaning, “Oh no, it’s Ruth Paine. Keep her away from us. She’s CIA.” It got so bad, the pair had to leave. When they got back to the USA they remained friends. The woman actually won Ruth’s confidence.

The story is correct except that James' spin at the end is misleading. To explain why the two women remained friends after such a harsh experience, James says, "the woman actually won Ruth's confidence," which suggests that Ruth, the CIA agent, was fooled by this woman who was reporting her CIA activities to Steven Jones and his CT community including James DiEugenio.

Nothing of the kind. Ruth and her friend remained friends because they remained friends. Nothing happened to break them apart. Ruth Paine explained that the murders of the Nicaraguan relief workers at that compound made EVERYBODY there jumpy and suspicious, and ultimately even Ruth Paine had to admit that her history with Lee Harvey Oswald and the JFK murder was too glaring, too famous, to be ignored.

Given this -- and with actual murders occurring -- Ruth Paine wept for the killed relief workers and then permanently left her post in Nicaragua, in order to make people feel safer in light of the RUMORS.

But this common sense explanation by Ruth Paine plays no role in the narrative by James DiEugenio. James remains as biased as they come.

Regards,
--Paul Trejo

Edited October 29, 2015 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Brancato]

Ignoring

[Martin Blank]

Ignoring

me too

[Paul Trejo]

Let's move on to page 200 of the second edition of Destiny Betrayed (2012) by James DiEugenio. James continues to pry into the girlfriend of Ruth Paine from Nicaragua for further gossip about Ruth, and this is what he uncovered:

She even told her that she had an estranged daughter who would not talk to her until she came to grips with the evil she had done in her life. When the woman asked Ruth, “What evil?” she clammed up. But the friend is certain that she was talking about the Kennedy assassination since the assassination was the previous context of the discussion.

James doesn't bother to offer us a detailed account of this obscure conversation -- yet from a biased reporter we can only expect a teasing word -- and of course, a biased conclusion. James jumps to a conclusion about the nature of the word, 'evil,' but he omits that Ruth's daughter (who is no longer estranged) was into Wicca. There is just so much omitted that we cannot rely on James as a reporter. But James presses on with his bias that Ruth is hiding "evil" secrets about the JFK murder:

If that is so, then what “evil” could Ruth be talking about? One instance could be her dubious testimony about the call from Robert Adams, which could have placed Oswald outside of Dealey Plaza on November 22.

Here James DiEugenio accuses Ruth Paine of manipulating events so that LHO would take the job at the TSBD building, because another job was offered to LHO at a higher price by Robert Adams. James simply leaves out the facts -- that LHO followed up on that other job offer, and he was too late. The facts aren't interesting to James -- he wants a lynching. And not just the job at the TSBD, but the Walker shooting was also the fault of Ruth Paine, he claims. James writes:

But Ruth also figured prominently in producing questionable evidence to help the FBI and Warren Commission finger Oswald for a previously unsolved rifle assault. This was an unsuccessful shooting attempt at General Edwin Walker back on the evening of April 10, 1963. It is important to note that in the entire nearly eight month span the Dallas Police had this case under inquiry, Oswald ‘s name never surfaced in any part of their investigation.

Well, if it's so important to note the facts in the case, then why does James DiEugenio omit the facts brought out by Dick Russell in his 1992 book, The Man Who Knew Too Much, in which Russell states that Mrs. Igor Voshinin told the FBI only four days after the Walker shooting that LHO was Walker's shooter? This also corresponds to Walker's own letter to Senator Frank Church in 1975 in which Walker admitted he learned that LHO was his shooter only days after the shooting. http://www.pet880.com/images/19750623_EAW_to_Frank_Church.pdf

No, James isn't interested in actual facts -- his mind is slammed shut. James adds:

Let us now observe how a German newspaper and Ruth Paine combined to give the Commission and the Bureau pretexts to convict Oswald in the public mind in the Walker case. On November 29, a reporter named Helmet Hubert Muench published an article for a conservative West German newspaper published out of Munich....The point...was that Walker had told the paper that it was Oswald who had fired at him in April...The problem with this story is that Walker denied under oath saying this to Thorsten, and in no uncertain terms.

So, James DiEugenio is willing to accept General Walker's "oath" that he never boasted to Muench alias Thorsten that LHO had been his April shooter -- and yet Walker tacitly admitted to Senator Frank Church that he lied to the WC when Walker told them he never spoke of LHO until 11/22/1963. Also, the story in the German newspaper was repeated by Walker until the end of his life. For example, in this 1993 newspaper article. http://www.pet880.com/images/19920119_EAW_Oswald_arrested.pdf

James wants us to believe the sworn testimony of General Walker, the racist fomenter of the Ole Miss race riots and sworn enemy of JFK, but not Ruth Paine, the Quaker Charity Lady. Why?

Wait a minute, we recall that James DiEugenio also wants to validate the objections of Senator Richard Russell, the Southerner and Segregationist on the WC who wanted to press so hard for a Communist plot against JFK. Hmm. I think we might want to reconsider whose side James is on here.

Regards,
--Paul Trejo

Edited October 31, 2015 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Trejo]

Let's move on to page 201 of the second edition of Destiny Betrayed (2012) by James DiEugenio. James now raises the perennial problem of the infamous Walker Letter. James writes:

But then, a day later, on November 30, a piece of evidence emerged from Ruth Paine’s home...It was a note allegedly written by Oswald in Russian which ominously tells Marina what to do if he was in jail, and how to find him there. Why did Ruth produce this book at the time?

James DiEugenio knows that WC handwriting experts proved the handwriting was that of Lee Harvey Oswald. James knows that Ruth swore she never saw the letter before in her life, and that its very existence was a surprise to her, when the Secret Service men banged on her door on November 30th to demand why she forged this Russian document!

The Secret Service was understandibly sensitive, having just failed in their protection of JFK, and now their "search and seizure" duty had been proved to be incomplete. But James wants to fixate on their blaming Ruth Paine for this letter, without any evidence. The Secret Service later admitted their error -- James has not.

James refuses to believe that the Walker Note, found inside one of Marina's books that Ruth sent to Marina in one of the care packages of baby clothes things through the Irving Police to the Dallas Police to the Secret Service -- contained this note, heretofore missed by the search and seizure procedure.

Why would Marina ask for her books, demands James? Marina was under 24-hour watch by the loving care of the FBI and Secret Service -- why should she need anything in the world? Never mind that Marina Oswald had two babies with her, and that Law Enforcement guys aren't really famous for child-care skills. James continues:

But also interesting is this: the FBI did happen to take seven latent fingerprints off the note; yet none of them matched Lee or Marina.

Well, it isn't really surprising that a single sheet note, placed inside a book for seven solid months, would have no visible fingerprints on it. But that won't convince James, who insists that this is proof of a CIA plot to blame LHO for the Walker shooting. James doesn't explain why the Walker shooting might have anything at all to do with the JFK shooting. But James seems concerned that if we are to defend LHO from the JFK shooting, that we must also defend LHO from the Walker shooting, too. The complexity of the scenario never detains James for a moment. James continues:

It was the confluence of these three elements – the news article, the photo [of Walker's house], and the note – that provoked the FBI to take a new look at the Walker case. Yet even Wesley Liebeler of the Warren Commission asked an obvious question: Why would Oswald keep the incriminating note and photos around for well over seven months?”

First of all, James DiEugenio is confusing apples with oranges. James seems to worry that if LHO shot at Walker, that this is somehow evidence that LHO shot at JFK. Well, it isn't.

Secondly, it wasn't LHO who kept the note for seven months, it was Marina. Marina admitted that LHO left the note with her on the night of the Walker shooting, and Marina admitted that she secretly kept the note in her book as a way to control LHO in the future.

Thirdly, the photographs of Walker's house were also explained by Marina -- LHO had kept a large album of photographs of Walker's house, including maps and diagrams. Marina never knew why. Then, after LHO confessed to her about the Walker shooting, Marina ordered him to burn the full album. But LHO didn't burn them all. Did he want a keepsake, like the BYP he signed and sent to George DeM, or the BYP he gave to Roscoe White (which turned up years later), or the BYP he sent The Militant (which turned up years later) or the BYP he told Marina (to her dismay) to keep for baby June?

James DiEugenio seems to know next to nothing about the Walker shooting -- but that doesn't slow him down. James seems to be willing to acquit General Walker of any involvement or perjury in the matter, if only he can blame Ruth Paine for the whole thing. The whole complex scenario has nothing to do with marksmanship, as James falsely complains -- but really involves the central role of General Walker in the entire JFK Conspiracy.

Yet none of this is perceived by James DiEugenio, because he's too busy rallying a lynch-mob for Ruth Paine.

Regards,
--Paul Trejo

Edited October 30, 2015 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Trejo]

Still on page 201 of the second edition of Destiny Betrayed (2012) by James DiEugenio, James offers again the typical pitiful grasp of the Walker shooting by most CTers.

I repeat: one of the dumbest stories of all of the CIA-did-it CT literature is the utter silliness that somebody got the Paines and the DeMohrenschildts and Marina to agree with the racist, segregationist General Walker in order to blame Lee Harvey Oswald for the Walker shooting.

This alleged conspiracy of the Paines, DeM's and Marina with General Walker would include the Backyard Photographs, the photographs of Walker's house, and the"Walker Letter."

Who would coordinate this Big Lie? Walker? The FBI? The Secret Service? BUT WHY ALL THIS BOTHER? Why would anybody even conceive of such silliness -- it adds nothing to the JFK murder to bring up the Walker shooting.

Variations on that story get a lot of press -- even inside the work of James DiEugenio. It makes good spy-drama fiction, but otherwise it's foolish on every count. I'm sure that Marina wasn't a racist. I'm sure the Paines didn't like Walker. I don't know about Jeanne, but George DeM used to call Walker, "General Fokker".

What sort of acrobatics is needed to even conceive of a plot between these people to speak up for General Walker? It's really not thought through. The odd thing is, that even though James DiEugenio wants to pin the "Walker Letter" on Ruth Paine, even James himself realizes the foolishness of such a scenario. James says:

The problem with this odd evidence is that it does not at all fit the parameters of the crime. First, the shooting of Walker vitiates the marksmanship in the Kennedy case. In the latter, one has to believe that Oswald fired three shots from a manual bolt action rifle in six seconds and got two of three direct hits at a moving target from as far away as 270 feet. Something that the best Army snipers could not do. In the Walker case, Walker was sitting at his desk in his study, a stationary target. The sniper had time to line up the still target. The distance was approximately 30 yards. And he missed.

On this single point I actually agree with James DiEugenio -- there's no logical way to link the Walker shooting with the JFK shooting in the first place. The entire concept is backward.

There are even bigger problems -- even the John Birch Society saw this in 1963 when they said, "Why in the world would a Communist shoot another Communist?" That is, if LHO was really on the Left (and so wanted to kill Walker) then why would he then want to kill JFK, who was also on the Left?

The argument also works in reverse: if LHO was really on the Right (and so wanted to kill JFK) then why would he then want to kill Walker, who was also on the Right?

People don't stop to answer these important questions, typically -- instead, they just shrug their shoulders and plow on through to the next issue. James DiEugenio is one of these. He wants to *absolve* LHO of the Walker shooting. He doesn't say WHY, but he gives the impression that the CIA and Ruth Paine were trying to *frame* LHO of the Walker shooting, just as they were trying to *frame* LHO for the JFK shooting.

Yet he already showed how illogical such a gambit would be in the first place! Anyway, James plows ahead:

There were two principal witnesses. The first was Robert Surrey, an aide to Walker. Surrey had told the police that four nights prior to the shooting he had seen two men sitting in a brown Ford behind Walker’s house. They got out of the car and walked around Walker’s home...The other witness was young Kirk Coleman...He said that he saw two men drive off in separate cars from Walker’s home after the shooting attempt.

Both Surrey and Coleman said neither resembled Oswald. We are now supposed to believe that Oswald was innocent, and that Ruth Paine was trying to *frame* LHO of the Walker shooting -- and somehow got the BYP forged, and the Walker photos, and the "Walker Letter," and got Marina and the Paines to all swear under oath to this.

But really, there are several other better theories other than that ridiculous theory that has been with the CIA-did-it CTers for over 45 years. For example, just using common sense:

(1) LHO lied to Marina when he said he acted alone.
(2) LHO lied to Marina when he said he traveled by foot and bus.
(3) LHO lied to Marina when he said he buried his rifle.
(4) LHO actually had ACCOMPLICES in the Walker shooting.
(5) LHO's ACCOMPLICES had other rifles as well as automobiles.
(6) LHO had ACCOMPLICES behind desks as well as ACCOMPLICES in the field.
(7) LHO's ACCOMPLICES called Walker, General "Fokker," and compared Walker to Hitler.
(8) LHO was innocent of shooting at JFK -- but guilty of shooting at Walker.

Ultimately, then, LHO had ACCOMPLICES who betrayed LHO, first and foremost, by getting possession of his personal rifle. But James DiEugenio doesn't speculate this far -- James buys into the whole CIA "conspiracy" of Ruth Paine to "frame" LHO for the Walker shooting. James writes:

In fact, Walker complained to the Commission that he had been blocked from getting any info on the case since the FBI took it over...This makes perfect sense in light of Hoover’s upcoming agenda on the Walker case.

James fails to explain how any of this makes any sense at all. IMHO, this is the weakest part of James' entire CT. And to force the issue, James has to accuse Ruth Paine of being a CIA agent who would forge the "Walker Letter," the Walker house photos, and the BYP.

Regards,
--Paul Trejo

Edited October 31, 2015 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Trejo]

Moving on to page 202 of the second edition of Destiny Betrayed (2012) by James DiEugenio, James continues to dwell on his weak grasp of the Walker shooting. James sees no role of General Walker in the JFK murder -- and James further insists, despite all the material evidence, that Lee Harvey Oswald had nothing to do with the Walker shooting.

To make his weak theory work, James DiEugenio chooses to accuse Ruth Paine of a CIA and FBI plot to frame LHO, not only for the JFK murder, but for the Walker shooting. James says that J. Edgar Hoover was also involved in this plot to falsely accuse LHO of the Walker shooting, adding:

For by June 10, Hoover – after leaking to the press that Oswald had shot at Walker – was shutting down the inquiry; even though his agents in the field came to no conclusion in the case. In fact, the chief suspect prior to the FBI taking over the case was a man named William Duff, a former employee of Walker. Walker’s lawyer said that Duff had actually admitted to firing on Walker to a former girlfriend.

James DiEugenio is far behind the times here. William Duff, or McDuff, was a live-in, bisexual gigolo in Walker's house (as Walker was admittedly gay), who sat around the house watching TV, eating and reading novels. Robert Allen Surrey and Julia Knecht, who had their American Eagle offices in Walker's house, were sick and tired of McDuff under foot all the time. Walker adored him.

When Walker went on his "Midnight Ride" coast-to-coast speaking tour with the bisexual Segregationist Reverend Billy James Hargis, starting in late February 1963, and continuing to early April 1963, Surrey and Knecht moved McDuff's belongings out into the street.

McDuff moved in with a few girlfriends here and there, but the girls lived closely with their mothers, so nothing permanent was obtained until Clyde Watts, one of Walker's lawyers, offered McDuff a job as a house-boy in Oklahoma. McDuff was happy there.

We cannot be surprised, then, to learn that Robert Allen Surrey and Julia Knecht were the ones who filed the DPD complaint against McDuff, accusing McDuff of the Walker shooting. The DPD found McDuff through Clyde Watts and gave McDuff a lie-detector test. McDuff passed the test with flying colors. The DPD let him go.

Even to the Warren Commission, General Walker expressed that he would welcome McDuff back into his house at any time, sincerely. But McDuff said he never wanted to go back to uncle Edwin's house in Dallas anymore, because Surrey and Knecht were so mean to him.

James DiEugenio is simply behind the times when he states that the DPD was still working on the McDuff lead in 1964, when they actually let McDuff off the hook in mid-1963. Anyway, James continues:

The Commission was enthralled by Ruth Paine now producing questionable evidence to implicate Oswald in the shooting. And the exhibits produced by Ruth, almost by necessity, had to be dubious. As mentioned above, the FBI cut off Walker from all communications about their investigation.

All this is misleading, as presented by James. In fact, the DPD had closed the Walker shooting case in early December 1963, with the testimony given to the FBI by Marina Oswald that Lee Harvey Oswald had been Walker's shooter back in April.

To suggest that Hoover closed the case as part of a plot is simply REACHING. James also raises the fact that nobody could match the bullet fragments found at Walker's house with LHO's rifle. That's a fact. But that doesn't acquit LHO of the shooting unless one can prove that LHO acted *alone* -- which is long odds.

Although Marina said LHO acted alone, Marina wasn't an eye-witness -- she only repeated what LHO told her, and actually, Lee lied chronically to Marina about almost everything. As with the JFK murder (where LHO played the Patsy) in the Walker shooting LHO had ACCOMPLICES. That is where the evidence really leads. But for James DiEugenio, he sees only another reason to accuse Ruth Paine of a CIA plot. James continues:

As the reader can see, the combination of Ruth Paine with the FBI allowed the Warren Commission to manufacture a case that likely did not exist. As we will see, this will recur. The pictures of the outside of Walker’s home, along with the famous backyard photographs – the ones depicting Oswald with a rifle and handgun plus communist literature in his hands – both were found at the Paine home.

At this point, since the BYP and the Walker house photographs are so central to the case against LHO in the Walker shooting, James DiEugenio will next take aim at the cameras, in order to further accuse Ruth Paine.

Regards,
--Paul Trejo

Edited October 31, 2015 by Paul Trejo