The Mysterious Life and Death of James McCord

[James DiEugenio]

I think Pat is correct about the intent being O'Brien.

 

[Shane O'Sullivan]

This is an interesting and welcome obituary but a few corrections are needed. Hunt and Liddy were in the Plumbers Unit, not McCord, who was the head of security at CRP, where he later met Liddy. And the faulty bug was not placed inside Larry O’Brien’s office. That was the plan but McCord didn't know where O'Brien's office was during the first break-in, so he planted the bug in the wrong office on the other side of the building and had to send Alfred Baldwin on a tour of the DNC on June 12th to find out where O'Brien's office was. That's when Baldwin met Spencer Oliver's secretary, Ida "Maxie" Wells, a key figure in the call girl theory.

Baldwin later claimed McCord told him he was in Dallas on 11.22.63. Baldwin wouldn't speak to me but he told James Rosen about it in a 1995 interview and James kindly shared the transcript with me and I published it for the first time. The Angelo Lano quote comes from an oral history interview he gave the Nixon Library, as noted in my endnotes. 

There's much more on McCord, Dean, the call girl theory and what Baldwin overheard on the bug on Spencer Oliver's phone in my book, which has been highly praised by Jim Hougan and was directly inspired by his book: www.nixondirtytricks.com

[Michael Clark]

43 minutes ago, Shane O'Sullivan said:

This is an interesting and welcome obituary but a few corrections are needed. Hunt and Liddy were in the Plumbers Unit, not McCord, who was the head of security at CRP, where he later met Liddy. And the faulty bug was not placed inside Larry O’Brien’s office. That was the plan but McCord didn't know where O'Brien's office was during the first break-in, so he planted the bug in the wrong office on the other side of the building and had to send Alfred Baldwin on a tour of the DNC on June 12th to find out where O'Brien's office was. That's when Baldwin met Spencer Oliver's secretary, Ida "Maxie" Wells, a key figure in the call girl theory.

Baldwin later claimed McCord told him he was in Dallas on 11.22.63. Baldwin wouldn't speak to me but he told James Rosen about it in a 1995 interview and James kindly shared the transcript with me and I published it for the first time. The Angelo Lano quote comes from an oral history interview he gave the Nixon Library, as noted in my endnotes. 

There's much more on McCord, Dean, the call girl theory and what Baldwin overheard on the bug on Spencer Oliver's phone in my book, which has been highly praised by Jim Hougan and was directly inspired by his book: www.nixondirtytricks.com

I  thought that the whole plumbers unit was transferred to CRP. IMO it is all notional anyway;  if not abject smoke and mirrors.

And, for the passing reader, and good measure, Alfred C. Baldwin, a Watergate burglar/conspirator is {if he hasn't died, {without notice} some years ago}, a member of this forum, @Alfred C. Baldwin

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/profile/4011-alfred-c-baldwin/

Edited April 6, 2019 by Michael Clark

[Joe Bauer]

7 hours ago, Shane O'Sullivan said:

This is an interesting and welcome obituary but a few corrections are needed. Hunt and Liddy were in the Plumbers Unit, not McCord, who was the head of security at CRP, where he later met Liddy. And the faulty bug was not placed inside Larry O’Brien’s office. That was the plan but McCord didn't know where O'Brien's office was during the first break-in, so he planted the bug in the wrong office on the other side of the building and had to send Alfred Baldwin on a tour of the DNC on June 12th to find out where O'Brien's office was. That's when Baldwin met Spencer Oliver's secretary, Ida "Maxie" Wells, a key figure in the call girl theory.

Baldwin later claimed McCord told him he was in Dallas on 11.22.63. Baldwin wouldn't speak to me but he told James Rosen about it in a 1995 interview and James kindly shared the transcript with me and I published it for the first time. The Angelo Lano quote comes from an oral history interview he gave the Nixon Library, as noted in my endnotes. 

There's much more on McCord, Dean, the call girl theory and what Baldwin overheard on the bug on Spencer Oliver's phone in my book, which has been highly praised by Jim Hougan and was directly inspired by his book: www.nixondirtytricks.com

Mr. O'Sullivan, do you personally believe James McCord was in Dallas on 11,22,1963 and if so, do you believe he had some role in the JFK assassination?

Obviously you vouch for James Rosen as a highly credible source as you published the transcript he shared with you. Could you briefly tell us who he his and why you trust his veracity and knowledge?

I know there have been some books focused on the use of women and men as sexual tools of compromise in our political history but it is so interesting to realize how much this timeless Machiavellian practice was such a power effecting part of our highest political level world in the last 60 years. 

And what power groups were using this subversion, to what extent, against whom and how successful it all was and still may be.

One goes back to JFK times and thinks of Ellen Rometsch, Judith Exner, perhaps Marilyn Monroe herself, LBJ's affairs that produced children, Bobby Baker, Hoover's compromising photos, Roy Cohn, Watergate, Gary Hart-Donna Rice, John Edwards-Reille Hunter and their explicit sex tape, Bill Clinton, Jeffrey Epstein and so many of his personal power "guests" and so many other Senators, Congressmen, Governors, highest level journalists, and on and on.

The extent and impact of this sexual compromising of so many of our highest level politicians and other influential players for over half a century is a historical reality that truly needs more public and standard curriculum acknowledgement imo, especially in the area of who the main initiators of this corrupting tool were, how much it was used ( especially in JFK, LBJ and Hoover times ) how it served their needs and effectively manipulated/altered the political power landscape and how they got away with it for so long.

I also mention this specific area of sexual subterfuge in the highest political, corporate, journalistic, military levels ( Eisenhower's Military,Industrial,Congressional Complex)  as another real and serious part of what I have often referred to as one of America's top 3 legacies of the twentieth century...it's corruption.

Through it's entire political and power fabric to such a degree that it has damaged our Democracy beyond what we have been willing to acknowledge and face with honesty and responsibility. 

 

 

[James DiEugenio]

According to Hougan, McCord was on each and every Plumbers foray into the DNC.  There were four of them from May to the final break in on June 17th. (p. 327)

In his book, O'Sullivan writes "The ostensible purpose of the second Watergate break-in was to fix the bug on Larry O'Brien's phone which was either faulty or being "shielded" by the steel structure of the building." (p. 180)

Now, one can argue endlessly about this last point.  IMO, there will never be a firm resolution of the question. Since there are so many different pieces of evidence and testimony on this question.

The other two "corrections" are not corrections.  They are footnotes to footnotes, but in the interests of accuracy, they will be rephrased.

Edited April 6, 2019 by James DiEugenio

[Shane O'Sullivan]

Joe - I think it's worth exploring McCord's possible presence in Dallas that day, particularly when I discovered after finishing the book that McCord headed up a team which brought Nosenko out of Switzerland and into the US in early 1964. I am currently researching a lead in this direction. 

James Rosen worked for Fox News for some time and wrote a biography of John Mitchell, who directed Nixon's election campaigns in 1968 and 1972. The call girl theory is interesting -  and, as you say, sexual blackmail is a timeless tactic - but I wasn't completely convinced by it for reasons described in the book. 

Jim - of course, McCord was involved in all four attempted DNC break-ins, what I am saying is he was never a part of the special investigations unit at the White House. He first met Liddy after Liddy moved from the Plumbers unit to CRP. Yes, the faulty bug was the ostensible purpose for the second break-in but as I discuss at length in the book, McCord made a mistake and planted it in the wrong office, so there was not a faulty bug in O'Brien's office. 

The other two statements are incorrect because you overlooked the sources in my endnotes. Thanks for correcting them for accuracy. I share your admiration for Jim Hougan. He was the only author who read my manuscript in advance and gave me the following blurb: “While we have fundamental disagreements about 'Watergate' and the Deep State agenda that shaped it, O’Sullivan is to be congratulated on an impeccably researched work of investigative reporting that adds greatly to our understanding of the affair and its mysteries."

 

 

Edited April 6, 2019 by Shane O'Sullivan

[David Andrews]

If Howard Hunt had wanted to do us any favors, he would have parsed out Watergate for us on his deathbed.  But the money angle was always invested in....

Edited April 7, 2019 by David Andrews

[David Andrews]

Perhaps the story waiting to be written about this period is how the Deep State of the day divorced itself from three presidents in a row: Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon.  There should be two lengthy epilogues: the assassination attempts on Gerald Ford (together with period investigation of the intelligence community), and the withdrawal of support for Jimmy Carter.

Edited April 7, 2019 by David Andrews

[Paul Jolliffe]

19 hours ago, David Andrews said:

Perhaps the story waiting to be written about this period is how the Deep State of the day divorced itself from three presidents in a row: Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon.  There should be two lengthy epilogues: the assassination attempts on Gerald Ford (together with period investigation of the intelligence community), and the withdrawal of support for Jimmy Carter.

Not to mention the assassination attempt on Reagan that came within a half-inch (the bullet just missed Reagan’s aorta) of putting GHWB in the White House barely sixty days into Reagan’s first term.

[David Andrews]

I'm not sure that can be called a withdrawal of support.  I suspect it was a palace coup planned from the Reagan inauguration, if not before.

[Ron Bulman]

1 hour ago, Paul Jolliffe said:

Not to mention the assassination attempt on Reagan that came within a half-inch (the bullet just missed Reagan’s aorta) of putting GHWB in the White House barely sixty days into Reagan’s first term.

Combined with the assassination of Nixon, so to speak, and the attempt on Ford, would that mean those ultimately pulling the strings, if all were possibly related, didn't really care about which party was in power?  

[Ron Bulman]

20 hours ago, David Andrews said:

Perhaps the story waiting to be written about this period is how the Deep State of the day divorced itself from three presidents in a row: Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon.  There should be two lengthy epilogues: the assassination attempts on Gerald Ford (together with period investigation of the intelligence community), and the withdrawal of support for Jimmy Carter.

I'm sure you remember there was the threat of an assassination attempt on Carter too.

 

[David Andrews]

They weren't screwing around in them days.

[David Josephs]

From the "ain't it strange" coincidence files.....

On the same day Oswald starts at the TSBD... James McCord takes his CIA Oath

 

[Ron Bulman]

Just reading the Secret Memo of Understanding is Wow!  Same day as  O starts at TSBD?  Considering McCord's previous affiliation's with the Company it's quite interesting.  He was already on board, why the official proclamation? 

Edited April 9, 2019 by Ron Bulman