Who has researched Forrest Sorrels deeply?

[Joe Bauer]

Just read this report.

As much as the coordination of information between agencies makes basic sense, obviously this coordination protocol wasn't implemented well with JFK's visit to Dallas.

[Paul Trejo]

On 10/16/2019 at 4:50 AM, Joe Bauer said:

1. Roger Craig also told us his boss Decker told his men in no way to assist in JFK's security.  Many other Sheriff Department officers affirmed this order by Decker so we know it's true.
2. I am sure Decker and Hosty knew how hostile many super right wing Dallas residents were toward JFK.  As hating as hot headed Cubans.  To a murderous degree based on the public rhetoric of the most right wing of Dallas's politically extreme ilk.
3. Both these men (Decker and Hosty ) saw the JFK threatening "Wanted For Treason" posters and newspaper ad.   They knew that Adlai Stevenson had been physically assaulted when he visited Dallas months earlier.
4. Did all of the security agencies in Dallas ever meet in one venue to discuss JFK's security?  They certainly must have agreed that their hometown was extremely JFK hating in high wealthy right wing political circles and with mentally unbalanced crazies who were rabid followers of their JFK hating venom.
5. The least the Sheriff's department and Hosty and his men could have contributed in the motorcade security plan was to act as spotters toward all the high rise open windows along the parade route. The threat of high building shooters was clearly understood and had to have been discussed. Scanning these with binoculars as JFK was actually underneath them seems like it should have been a basic security maneuver.  
6. Unequipped, untrained, uninstructed idly looking around bystanders on the streets of Dealey Plaza noticed men or a man with a rifle in the TSBD building both before and during the shooting there.  Imagine what two or three binocular equipped security men whose job it was to scan those windows would have seen?

Joe, by the numbers again:

1. Thanks for raising Dallas Deputy Roger Craig in this context.  Despite problems, I accept most of his testimony.  Yes, Sheriff Decker was involved up to his neck.  He expected total obedience from his men, and he got it.  After all, he was the man who got Bonnie and Clyde.  He was a legend in Dallas.  Nobody was going to cross him -- except Roger Craig.   In my humble opinion, Craig was killed by the same Dallas plotters who killed JFK. 

2. In my opinion, Decker and Hosty were among the super right-wing residents of Dallas.  They were very close to Dallas socialites like H.L. Hunt and Robert Morris.  Both of these men were tireless supporters of General Walker (whom JFK and RFK had sent to an insane asylum).

3.  Not only did Decker and Hosty see the "Wanted For Treason: JFK" handbills on October 24th and November 22nd, but they knew very well that Robert Alan Surrey was the publisher.  The Warren Commission made that fact perfectly plain.   There is no way that high-ranking officials in Dallas could have been ignorant of that fact.   Penn Jones, Jr. wrote that Robert Alan Surrey told him personally that Dallas FBI agent James Hosty had been his Bridge partner for years.

4. The Secret Service from the White House came to Dallas in mid-November to meet with Forrest Sorrels to discuss JFK's Security.   Winston Lawson was the point man from the White House.  He could not *believe* that Dallas had zero people dangerous to JFK.   He worked for 48 hours to confirm this.   However, the Dallas plotters knew the White House PRS better than the PRS did. 

The Dallas plotters knew that the PRS got its data *only* from the local FBI.  With James Hosty on their side, they could feed the PRS any deception they wanted.  That's what happened.  After Forrest Sorrels told Winston Lawson that there were no dangerous people in Dallas, Lawson told Sorrels, "Well, I'm calling the PRS right now, Forrest!"   So he called the PRS,  and the PRS replied, "Well, we have no dangerous people on file for Dallas!"  So, Lawson accepted this.

Still, Forrest Sorrels went through the motions for another 48 hours.  He called the Sheriff of Denton, Texas, because some of the student protesters against Adlai on October 24th went to college there.   They got an inside informant in Denton, they got the Dallas Police involved, and the Editor of the Dallas Times Herald.  They collated photographs of all those student protesters, and they sent the photographs to the Secret Service at the Trade Mart.   Come on.  Sorrels knew very well that he was just wasting time.  But it completely fooled Winston Lawson! 

5.  You're absolutely right about the lack of manpower in protecting JFK.   Actually, many Federal Agencies called Forrest Sorrels from Washington DC, including the FBI, the Secret Service and the CIA, and offered to help in JFK's protection.   Forrest Sorrels turned them all down flat.  Sorrels told them that the Dallas Police were all the protection he needed for JFK in Dallas.

6.  Just a little more help in watching JFK would have made all the difference.   As you said, plenty of people in Dealey Plaza saw a man (or men) with rifles up in TSBD windows.   Photographs released two years ago (10/26/2017) reveal heavily armed Dallas Police and Deputies in many other windows in Dealey Plaza.

In fact, Mrs. Earle Cabell herself, riding in the motorcade, testified to the WC that she herself saw rifle sticking out of a window of the TSBD!

Yet as Mr. Arnold Roland and his wife testified -- after Roland saw a man in  a high TSBD window with a rifle with a scope on it -- he told his wife, "That must be the Secret Service!"

No Dallas citizens would suspect the Dallas Police or Deputies of anything illegal.  Dealey Plaza was filled with Dallas Deputies, because that was where the County Jail was located.   Deputies were the first to arrive at the Grassy Knoll -- just running there.   They were all around.  But nobody would ever suspect them -- not for a half-century!

Edited October 18, 2019 by Paul Trejo

[Joe Bauer]

On 10/18/2019 at 4:52 PM, Paul Trejo said:

Joe, by the numbers again:

1. Thanks for raising Dallas Deputy Roger Craig in this context.  Despite problems, I accept most of his testimony.  Yes, Sheriff Decker was involved up to his neck.  He expected total obedience from his men, and he got it.  After all, he was the man who got Bonnie and Clyde.  He was a legend in Dallas.  Nobody was going to cross him -- except Roger Craig.   In my humble opinion, Craig was killed by the same Dallas plotters who killed JFK. 

2. In my opinion, Decker and Hosty were among the super right-wing residents of Dallas.  They were very close to Dallas socialites like H.L. Hunt and Robert Morris.  Both of these men were tireless supporters of General Walker (whom JFK and RFK had sent to an insane asylum).

3.  Not only did Decker and Hosty see the "Wanted For Treason: JFK" handbills on October 24th and November 22nd, but they knew very well that Robert Alan Surrey was the publisher.  The Warren Commission made that fact perfectly plain.   There is no way that high-ranking officials in Dallas could have been ignorant of that fact.   Penn Jones, Jr. wrote that Robert Alan Surrey told him personally that Dallas FBI agent James Hosty had been his Bridge partner for years.

4. The Secret Service from the White House came to Dallas in mid-November to meet with Forrest Sorrels to discuss JFK's Security.   Winston Lawson was the point man from the White House.  He could not *believe* that Dallas had zero people dangerous to JFK.   He worked for 48 hours to confirm this.   However, the Dallas plotters knew the White House PRS better than the PRS did. 

The Dallas plotters knew that the PRS got its data *only* from the local FBI.  With James Hosty on their side, they could feed the PRS any deception they wanted.  That's what happened.  After Forrest Sorrels told Winston Lawson that there were no dangerous people in Dallas, Lawson told Sorrels, "Well, I'm calling the PRS right now, Forrest!"   So he called the PRS,  and the PRS replied, "Well, we have no dangerous people on file for Dallas!"  So, Lawson accepted this.

Still, Forrest Sorrels went through the motions for another 48 hours.  He called the Sheriff of Denton, Texas, because some of the student protesters against Adlai on October 24th went to college there.   

Weren't some of the Stevenson yelling, poster swinging and spitting protesters well dressed older women? If they got that violent with someone of much less stature than JFK but who represented their "number one" ire ( JFK and the policies he promoted) who knows what they would have done to JFK himself if they could have gotten their hands on him?  Half joking here but to say Dallas had no fanatical threats to JFK is ridiculous. And any JFK threat nut could have come into Dallas from anywhere. 

"Assignment Oswald" agent Hosty's having lunch in a diner right during JFK's vulnerable no protective bubble top motorcade through KKK central Dallas and what JFK himself called "nut country" seems so illogical it's perverse.

 

 

They got an inside informant in Denton, they got the Dallas Police involved, and the Editor of the Dallas Times Herald.  They collated photographs of all those student protesters, and they sent the photographs to the Secret Service at the Trade Mart.   Come on.  Sorrels knew very well that he was just wasting time.  But it completely fooled Winston Lawson! 

5.  You're absolutely right about the lack of manpower in protecting JFK.   Actually, many Federal Agencies called Forrest Sorrels from Washington DC, including the FBI, the Secret Service and the CIA, and offered to help in JFK's protection.   Forrest Sorrels turned them all down flat.  Sorrels told them that the Dallas Police were all the protection he needed for JFK in Dallas.

6.  Just a little more help in watching JFK would have made all the difference.   As you said, plenty of people in Dealey Plaza saw a man (or men) with rifles up in TSBD windows.   Photographs released two years ago (10/26/2017) reveal heavily armed Dallas Police and Deputies in many other windows in Dealey Plaza.

Yet not one in high rise TXSBD which JFK's limo approached head on then passed right under and at slowing speeds with a hair pin 90% turn? Why leave that prime snipers location high rise unattended?

 

On 10/18/2019 at 4:52 PM, Paul Trejo said:

In fact, Mrs. Earle Cabell herself, riding in the motorcade, testified to the WC that she herself saw rifle sticking out of a window of the TSBD!

Yet as Mr. Arnold Roland and his wife testified -- after Roland saw a man in  a high TSBD window with a rifle with a scope on it -- he told his wife, "That must be the Secret Service!"

Include Carolyn Walther with the Rolands as well a couple others and Mrs. Cabell.

No Dallas citizens would suspect the Dallas Police or Deputies of anything illegal.  Dealey Plaza was filled with Dallas Deputies, because that was where the County Jail was located.   Deputies were the first to arrive at the Grassy Knoll -- just running there.   They were all around.  But nobody would ever suspect them -- not for a half-century!

 

[Paul Trejo]

On 10/20/2019 at 3:38 PM, Joe Bauer said:

(1)  Weren't some of the Stevenson yelling, poster swinging and spitting protesters well dressed older women? If they got that violent with someone of much less stature than JFK but who represented their "number one" ire ( JFK and the policies he promoted) who knows what they would have done to JFK himself if they could have gotten their hands on him?   Half joking here but to say Dallas had no fanatical threats to JFK is ridiculous. And any JFK threat nut could have come into Dallas from anywhere. 

(2)  "Assignment Oswald" agent Hosty's having lunch in a diner right during JFK's vulnerable no protective bubble top motorcade through KKK central Dallas and what JFK himself called "nut country" seems so illogical it's perverse.

(3) Yet not one in high rise TXSBD which JFK's limo approached head on then passed right under and at slowing speeds with a hair pin 90% turn? Why leave that prime snipers location high rise unattended?

(4) Include Carolyn Walther with the Rolands as well a couple others and Mrs. Cabell.

Joe, 

By the numbers again -- 

(1)  The person who actually struck Adlai Stevenson on the head with her poster was a well dressed older woman.   When Adlai asked her why she did it, her reply was, "Well, everybody else here knows why -- why don't you know?"   

The key in my opinion is that Dallas was itself a bastion of the Radical Right.   Oil billionaire H.L. Hunt was a heavy financier of the John Birch Society.  Another Dallas socialite on Radical Right was the academic giant, Robert Morris, president of the University of Dallas (who was a former attorney supporting Joe McCarthy, and saw Communists everywhere in Washington DC).  To be inside respectable Dallas Society, one had to be close to the Radical Right!   "Everybody else here knows why" that woman bopped Adlai on the head in Dallas on 10/24/1963. 

For Forrest Sorrels to claim that there were no dangerous people in Dallas -- after witnessing the "WANTED FOR TREASON: JFK" handbills circulating around Dallas -- not just on 11/22/1963, but also on 10/24/1963 (says Chris Cravens, 1991) --  he would have to be inside the JFK plot.  I see no other explanation. 

(2)  Remember that FBI HQ didn't originally assign James Hosty to Lee Harvey Oswald -- they assigned Hosty to General Walker.   Hosty admits this on page 4 of his book, "Assignment Oswald" (1996).   Yet Hosty spent much of 1963 asking the FBI to assign Oswald to him -- and they resisted for months.  Why would Hosty do this?  In my reading, it is because he had turned and had begun to follow General Walker.   

In my reading, General Walker hated the fact that a Marine "defector" to the USSR returned to Walker's home town, Dallas, with a Russian wife!   Walker couldn't sleep at night.  Hosty bothered Belmont and Hoover for months -- until they relented and let Hosty track Oswald.  And when he did, he fed all his data to Walker, and only a little to the FBI HQ.  That's my reading. 

In my opinion, Sorrels and Hosty are two of the dirtiest characters in the Dallas JFK plot.  Lucky for us -- history has given us their Warren Commission testimony.   For 55 years CTers have been looking in the wrong places, trying to blame the CIA, the Mafia, Hoover, LBJ and anybody except the Dallas Radical Right  -- who have been in plain sight for 55 years.

(3)  It seems amazing -- but the evidence convinces me -- the Secret Service from the White House in Washington DC relied so heavily on Forrest Sorrels and James Hosty -- that they neglected their own Standard Operating Procedures.   

In my reading, Sorrels and Hosty were both working for the interests of General Walker -- the good pal of H.L. Hunt and Robert Morris -- with underlings like Wade, Curry, Decker, Fritz, and many of their men, ready, willing and able -- right there at Dealey Plaza -- a famous Dallas killing floor.

(4) Yes, the Warren Commission counted Carolyn Walther, Arnold and Mrs. Roland, Mrs. Cabell, Amos Euins and Howard Brennan among those who saw one or more men with rifles, and one or more rifles, on the 6th floor of the TxSBD building.   

Yet there were also multiple Dallas Police stationed right there at that intersection of Houston and Elm -- and nearly a dozen Dallas Deputies watching the motorcade on the sidewalk outside their offices at Main and Houston -- with the TxSBD building in plain sight for 20 minutes.   Just like Forrest Sorrels, they claimed they saw nothing at all.

Edited October 26, 2019 by Paul Trejo
typos

[Paul Trejo]

On 10/6/2019 at 1:43 AM, Vince Palamara said:

Thanks! 

 Vince,

I just finished reading your book, Survivor's Guilt (2013).  I should have read it long ago.  Here are just a few of my remarks:

• Chapter 2: A "Hot" City Goes "Cold"; No Threats.   Here is the main crux of the matter, to me.  The Secret Service PRS (Protective Research Section) provided three separate reports, as you said in your opening sentence.  Never was any threat reported for Dallas -- where UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson had been struck on a Dallas street,  and spat upon  on October 24, 1963. 

As Chris Cravens wrote (1993), that WANTED FOR TREASON: JFK handbill circulated around Dallas around Dallas on October 24th, also.   No Dallas insider doubted where it came from.

On November 8 -- only sixteen days after the Adlai scandal -- Secret Service agent Winston Lawson asked the PRS for dangerous people in Dallas.  "None," was the answer.

On November 10 -- Secret Service agent Roy Kellerman asked the PRS for dangerous people in Dallas. "None," was the answer.

On November 22 -- Secret Service agent Rufus Youngblood asked the PRS for dangerous people in Dallas. "None," was the answer.

So, where did the PRS get their information?  Answer: from Dallas Secret Service staff and Dallas FBI staff.

• Chapter 4: The Trade Mart & The Mystery of the Motorcade Route.  Dallas Secret Service agent Forrest Sorrels took a leading role in promoting the Trade Mart as the JFK speech venue.   In his WC testimony, however, he claims he wanted someplace else, and Washington DC folks demanded the Trade Mart.

Sorrels admitted to the WC, however, that he was the one who selected the Motorcade Route.  it was the same route used by FDR and Truman, he said, except for that tricky turn down Houston and Elm.

Sorrels noted that the Dallas Police quickly approved of that specific Route.   Seeing the wide agreement, the Washington DC Secret Service went along with it.

• Chapter 5: Calling Off the Guard & Strange Omissions. Here is a clear demonstration of a Dallas-based plot, in my opinion.   Sheriff Bill Decker, according to multiple reports, had ordered his Dallas Deputies to stand down during the JFK motorcade, and become mere spectators.

Yet, Decker had promised the Secret Service, only one day beforehand, that he would "furnish 15 of his men for duty!"

Dallas officials regularly blamed Washington DC for the lapse in JFK security, yet Dallas was the key entity that had failed in its duty.  Not only the Dallas Sheriff; not only the Dallas Police -- but especially the Dallas Secret Service.   

It seems clear that Dallas Secret Service agent Forrest Sorrels directed the flow of information for all parties involved in the JFK motorcade in Dallas.  It seems to me that deception was his main intent.

• Chapter 6: Security Stripping: Further Examples. Dallas Police Captain Perdue Lawrence told the WC that at 5 PM on the day before the JFK motorcade, he was ordered to a special meeting.  Dallas Secret Service SAIC Forrest Sorrels was the senior officer in a room full of Chiefs.  

The purpose of the meeting was a change in motorcycle protection.  Claiming that JFK wanted this, the Dallas Police motorcycles were instructed to "fall back" and stay to the rear of the JFK limo.

• Chapter 11:  Roll Call of Participants: Part Two.  This chapter includes a section dedicated to Dallas Secret Service agent Forrest Sorrels.

Sorrels told his good buddy Orville Nix that the shots came from the Grassy Knoll.   The following is what Sorrels told the Warren Commission in 1964:

Soon after arriving at Parkland Hospital in Chief Curry's lead, Sorrels ordered some police to speed him back to the TSBD.  Why that building?   Sorrels told the WC that he just mean "that general area."

When Sorrels arrived at the TSBD, he immediately went to the back entrance, and noticed it wasn't sealed off.  He asked a bystander if anybody had come out the back way, and the bystander said, "No, sir!"

Sorrels then demanded the TSDB supervisor, and Roy Truly was right there.   Sorrels ordered Truly to get the names and contact info for every employee -- because he wanted witnesses quickly.

Sorrels then rushed out the front door of the TSBD and shouted, "Who saw anything?"  People quickly pointed to Howard Brennan, who had been telling policemen that he saw the man shooting the rifle in the eastmost 6th floor TSBD window.   Brennan thought he might be able to identify him.  Sorrels asked him for an immediate description.  All Brennan could say was -- "slender with a light colored jacket."  So, that's the description that Sorrels ordered the Dallas radio dispatch to tell all cars.

Sorrels shouted, "Who else saw anything?"  People pointed to high-school student Amos Euins.  He had also seen a man shooting a rifle from the eastmost 6th floor TSBD window.   But Euins said he could not tell if the man was Black or White. 

Sorrels took both Brennan and Euins to the Sheriff's Department, where Deputies were taking depositions from eye-witnesses.

Sorrels at the Sheriff's Department met Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Roland.  Roland had seen a man with a rifle and scope near the west 6th floor TSBD window.  He told his wife that the man must be in the Secret Service.  So he didn't tell the police.

Sorrels then learned about a man from the DalTex building who had filmed the JFK head shot.  His name was Abraham Zapruder.  Sorrels rushed to Zapruder and got agreement to get a copy, and rushed Zapruder to Eastman Kodak to develop the film.  

Sorrels then called his office for the first time that afternoon -- and learned that Dallas Police Captain Will Fritz had a suspect in the JFK assassination.  Sorrels rushed to the Police Department to interview the suspect -- Lee Harvey Oswald. 

Dallas Secret Service agent Forrest Sorrels had clearly played a major role in the events of 11/22/1963.  He seems to have touched all the key bases.  The motorcade route, the lead car, Parkland Hospital, the TSBD, key witnesses, and face time with Lee Harvey Oswald.

Yet, as you pointed out on page 305, Vince, the FBI got a call on 11/27/1963 from a woman who had heard a recent speech by Forrest Sorrels at her Lady's Club.  She told the FBI that Sorrels was, "definitely anti-government, against the Kennedy administration, and she felt his position was against the security of not only the President but the United States."

This is why, Vince, I hope to see even more research into Forrest Sorrels.   He seems to be very near the center of the cyclone.

All best,
--Paul

Edited November 5, 2019 by Paul Trejo
typos