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Who was Jack Ruby?


Paul Brancato

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On 6/21/2019 at 6:13 AM, Jim Hargrove said:

That’s reasonable speculation, but the evidence shows that, on the day of the assassination, Jack Ruby called KLIF radio founder Gordon McClendon’s unlisted private phone number.  McLendon was a former Naval Intelligence officer who was a close friend and confidant of CIA officer David Atlee Phillips. McClendon and Phillips had been friends since both attended school in Fort Worth and in 1975 McClendon joined Phillips in forming the Association of Former Intelligence Agents.

The night of the assassination, Ruby accompanied KLIF announcer Russ Knight in Dallas Police headquarters where the men talked to D.A. Henry Wade and Dallas Police Lieutenant James Gilmore.  Ruby told Gilmore that he was going to McClendon’s radio station, KLIF, to pass out sandwiches.  He arrived there about 1:30am on 11/23.

This is a likely a connection between Ruby and Phillips, with McClendon as the cut-out.  

Jim,  I suggest you read Ruby's trial transcripts for complete information about Ruby's whereabouts on the day Kennedy died. https://markshawbooks.com/assets/images/Jack-Ruby-Trial-Transcript-Excerpts-Exposed-2.pdf

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2 hours ago, Calvin Ye said:

Jim,  I suggest you read Ruby's trial transcripts for complete information about Ruby's whereabouts on the day Kennedy died. https://markshawbooks.com/assets/images/Jack-Ruby-Trial-Transcript-Excerpts-Exposed-2.pdf

Maybe for Ruby's whereabouts but otherwise No regarding Shaw.  I defer to the comments of others on the site regarding his "work".

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I have to admit I don't think I'd ever read of Melvin Belli being a close friend of Mickey Cohen.  Though that does make sense given the prior times in LA. 

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5 hours ago, Calvin Ye said:

Jim,  I suggest you read Ruby's trial transcripts for complete information about Ruby's whereabouts on the day Kennedy died. https://markshawbooks.com/assets/images/Jack-Ruby-Trial-Transcript-Excerpts-Exposed-2.pdf

Re KLIF radio founder Gordon McClendon---my understanding is that the file on McClendon is still under lock-and-key, despite the JFK Records Act. Does anybody know more? 

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No, but John Simkin posted this about Mclendon,"

interesting post. It was indeed Gordon McLendon. In 1963 rumours began to circulate that McLendon might have been involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. In their book, Deadly Secrets, Warren Hinckle and William Turner claim that Gerry P. Hemming obtained money from McLendon to help fund Interpen.

McLendon was also an associate of Jack Ruby as well as being friendly with several other suspects including Clint Murchison, Bobby Baker and David Atlee Phillips. Peter Dale Scott claims that McLendon made a secret trip to Mexico City just before the assassination.

According to Seth Kantor when Ruby was arrested he "shouted out for Gordon McLendon". The KLIF disc-jockey, Weird Beard, later told Kantor that Ruby "greatly admired McLendon".

Does this mean that they shared the same political views? A member of the Democratic Party, McLendon attempted to unseat Ralph Yarborough in 1964. He later left the party saying he could no longer support the policies of Lyndon B. Johnson.

McLendon sold KLIF for $10.5m in 1971. Over the next eight years he sold the rest of his radio stations for approximately $100m. Later it was estimated that McLendon was worth around $200m.

In 1975 McLendon and David Atlee Phillips formed the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO).

You can find out more here:

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

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2 hours ago, Chuck Schwartz said:

No, but John Simkin posted this about Mclendon,"

interesting post. It was indeed Gordon McLendon. In 1963 rumours began to circulate that McLendon might have been involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. In their book, Deadly Secrets, Warren Hinckle and William Turner claim that Gerry P. Hemming obtained money from McLendon to help fund Interpen.

McLendon was also an associate of Jack Ruby as well as being friendly with several other suspects including Clint Murchison, Bobby Baker and David Atlee Phillips. Peter Dale Scott claims that McLendon made a secret trip to Mexico City just before the assassination.

According to Seth Kantor when Ruby was arrested he "shouted out for Gordon McLendon". The KLIF disc-jockey, Weird Beard, later told Kantor that Ruby "greatly admired McLendon".

Does this mean that they shared the same political views? A member of the Democratic Party, McLendon attempted to unseat Ralph Yarborough in 1964. He later left the party saying he could no longer support the policies of Lyndon B. Johnson.

McLendon sold KLIF for $10.5m in 1971. Over the next eight years he sold the rest of his radio stations for approximately $100m. Later it was estimated that McLendon was worth around $200m.

In 1975 McLendon and David Atlee Phillips formed the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO).

You can find out more here:

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

Chuck, that link doesn't work. Here is the active link: https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKmclendon.htm

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Yale educated, super wealthy McClendon was certainly a major power and influence player.

Connected to some of the most important agency people.

And yet he had buddy-buddy time for a rough edged, occasional mob connecting, sleazy local strip joint owner like Jack Ruby?  

Maybe Ruby brought him and his station employees more than just deli sandwiches?

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11 hours ago, Chuck Schwartz said:

No, but John Simkin posted this about Mclendon,"

interesting post. It was indeed Gordon McLendon. In 1963 rumours began to circulate that McLendon might have been involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. In their book, Deadly Secrets, Warren Hinckle and William Turner claim that Gerry P. Hemming obtained money from McLendon to help fund Interpen.

McLendon was also an associate of Jack Ruby as well as being friendly with several other suspects including Clint Murchison, Bobby Baker and David Atlee Phillips. Peter Dale Scott claims that McLendon made a secret trip to Mexico City just before the assassination.

According to Seth Kantor when Ruby was arrested he "shouted out for Gordon McLendon". The KLIF disc-jockey, Weird Beard, later told Kantor that Ruby "greatly admired McLendon".

Does this mean that they shared the same political views? A member of the Democratic Party, McLendon attempted to unseat Ralph Yarborough in 1964. He later left the party saying he could no longer support the policies of Lyndon B. Johnson.

McLendon sold KLIF for $10.5m in 1971. Over the next eight years he sold the rest of his radio stations for approximately $100m. Later it was estimated that McLendon was worth around $200m.

In 1975 McLendon and David Atlee Phillips formed the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO).

You can find out more here:

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

Chuck S.--

Thanks for responding,  and yes I found those links too. There is more online about McClendon, he was in OSS during WWII, and has had contacts with military intel through his life.  No doubt, as he became a powerful radio-station network owner, he was useful too.

As an aside to no one in particular, anyone reading about the JFKA, but who had no idea of what the population of the US and Dallas was, would assume the country was rather small.  

This is from the Washington Post, four years ago, in regards to the JFK Records Act:

"So what exactly is still being withheld? The missing records include a 338-page file on J. Walton Moore, the head of the CIA office in Dallas at the time of the killing, and an 18-page dossier on Gordon McClendon, a Dallas businessman who conferred with Jack Ruby just before he shot Oswald. Several files on notorious anti-Castro Cuban exiles were apparently withheld, including those focusing on Luis Posada and Orlando Bosch, who had been accused of a 1976 airline bombing that killed 73 people."

---30---

So, to state the obvious, here we are 58 years after the JFKA, and a file on McClendon, ostensibly a civilian radio-station owner, would injure national security if released. 

The 338-page file on Moore is another laugher. Why the CIA had someone in Dallas anyway---egads, Moore must have been the loneliest man in the CIA. What did he do all day? But whatever he was doing, after 58 years if it were to be revealed, US national security would be imperiled. 

I traded e-mails with Larry Hancock, and he seems to think there might not be much in the McClenon file. But I wonder. 

I will try to do a post on McClendon in the next couple of weeks. Just for fun. 

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Actually it depends on what types of files from what agency. 

The CIA would have a personality file on him and would be larger or smaller according to how much he volunteered any intelligence to them as a corporate source.  It he was actively serving as a source it would look like any of the corporate source files we have seen ranging from Trade Mart including Clay Shaw.

However there might be a lot more if he and Phillips actually did take their proposal for a TV series on the CIA to the Agency; the CIA is always keep explore that sort of thing and if either man made an approach you can bet it would be documented and evaluated.

On the other hand, if McClendon did contribute assets or allow any of this facilities to be used for either covert communications or propaganda broadcasts that might more likely show up in project reports rather than his personality file. As an example we know all about the financial sponsors for the Tejuana (orchestrated by Phillips) but from project and  operational files, not personality files.

As to the FBI,  Hoover was also keen on major media outlets so there actually might have been an FBI security file on McClendon and his operations.

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3 hours ago, Larry Hancock said:

Actually it depends on what types of files from what agency. 

The CIA would have a personality file on him and would be larger or smaller according to how much he volunteered any intelligence to them as a corporate source.  It he was actively serving as a source it would look like any of the corporate source files we have seen ranging from Trade Mart including Clay Shaw.

However there might be a lot more if he and Phillips actually did take their proposal for a TV series on the CIA to the Agency; the CIA is always keep explore that sort of thing and if either man made an approach you can bet it would be documented and evaluated.

On the other hand, if McClendon did contribute assets or allow any of this facilities to be used for either covert communications or propaganda broadcasts that might more likely show up in project reports rather than his personality file. As an example we know all about the financial sponsors for the Tejuana (orchestrated by Phillips) but from project and  operational files, not personality files.

As to the FBI,  Hoover was also keen on major media outlets so there actually might have been an FBI security file on McClendon and his operations.

Larry H--

Always great to hear from Larry Hancock. 

My reasoning is as follows: If there is only innocuous stuff in the "dossier" on McClendon, why the hold-up? My hope is there are clues, which by deduction, allow intrepid investigators (that's you) get a better feel of the terrain. 

I must confess I do not know what is "Tejuana."

The 338-page file on J. Walton Moore is probably soporific, and cleansed if it had any bombshells on LHO. Still, why the lock-and-key?

I wonder what a guy has to do to get the "Dallas post" in the CIA.  

 

 

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I think anything in his his personality file would be interesting, especially if it related to the proposed Phillips CIA TV series.

But the most interesting material would be in any operational files involving him as a source or his business operations as covers, especially for broadcasting.  That's why  I mentioned the Tejuana, which was the first large craft obtained by the CIA for maritime operations in the first Cuba project.  It was financed by Phillips contacts in Texas and elsewhere,  reworked and armed by the CIA and crewed by individuals that show up around the JFK story, like Bayo.  It also transported Felix Rodriquez into Cuba for an abortive rifle attack on Castro.

We learned a huge amount about Phillips contacts and activities as well as early anti-Castro activities from the ships operational files...for reference that is in SWHT including an appendix on its owner and in the more recent In Denial. 

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18 minutes ago, Larry Hancock said:

I think anything in his his personality file would be interesting, especially if it related to the proposed Phillips CIA TV series.

But the most interesting material would be in any operational files involving him as a source or his business operations as covers, especially for broadcasting.  That's why  I mentioned the Tejuana, which was the first large craft obtained by the CIA for maritime operations in the first Cuba project.  It was financed by Phillips contacts in Texas and elsewhere,  reworked and armed by the CIA and crewed by individuals that show up around the JFK story, like Bayo.  It also transported Felix Rodriquez into Cuba for an abortive rifle attack on Castro.

We learned a huge amount about Phillips contacts and activities as well as early anti-Castro activities from the ships operational files...for reference that is in SWHT including an appendix on its owner and in the more recent In Denial. 

Great work. I will have to take a look-see. 

McClendon certainly fits the profile of someone who would actively finance anti-Castro operations, given the time and place. If he was pals with Ruby for more than prurient reasons, that would add to the Ruby story, that Ruby was more than the not-too-bright nightclub owner portrayed.

 

 

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On 8/10/2020 at 5:24 AM, Pete Mellor said:

Alleged plans of Secret Army Organization in Portugal for post deGaulle takeover in France.  Report #DB-3/655,207. 25th June 1963.  This document ends with comment on Souetre.  "Information from both press and official French sources indicate that the Souetre is the name of a former French army captain who escaped from a detention camp in 1961.  Subsequently to his escape he was alleged to have been involved in an assassination attempt against deGaulle.  Souetre was born 15 October 1930 in the Gironde Department of France.

But....it's a tangled web of course.  Souetre aka Michael Mertz aka Michael Roux.  Possible candidate for QJ/WIN or WI/ROGUE/1?   Who knows?  As you say Steve, solid evidence is absent.

Michael Collins Piper claims that SDECE Colonel DeLannurien was with Angleton in Langley on 22nd Nov. '63.  Is that really true?  

An article written by Louis Assemat-Tessandier, published in the paper Cote-Basque Soir of Bayonne.  In the article Louis states that he was in Montreal in January 1964 and met another Frenchman who had recently been to Texas, gone to Mexico, and then came to Montreal.  The Frenchman according to Louis was a young officer from Algeria who wandered back and forth between the three OAS centres in the Western Hemisphere, i.e. Montreal, Mexico City and Rio.  Louis would not reveal the Frenchman's name, but he introduced himself as a former paratroop officer in Algeria and said that he had arrived that morning by plane from Mexico City.  He said that he had been in Dallas at the time of Kennedy's murder but had been expelled by the American Police 18 hours later.

How credible is an assassin arriving in Montreal and spilling beans to a news hound?  Lots of smoke though, just need to touch the flames! :offtopic

https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/44l1B7dAZuEC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=souetre

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