Creating the Oswald Legend Part 5

[James DiEugenio]

Well, VV keeps on working.  There will be a Part 6 and then a conclusion. 

Malcolm Blunt keeps supplying VV with never before seen info.  In part 4 it was the amazing work of Betsy Wolf, which clearly the powers that be did not want anyone to see.

In this one, its Pete Bagley telling Malcolm something about Howard Hunt's employment which had never been revealed before.

And lots more.  Take off your mask and dig in. (Wheeler doesn't have to remove his of course.)

https://kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/creating-the-oswald-legend-part-5

[Micah Mileto]

Why does Blunt only give a few researchers the stuff he found at the Archives? Why not post it in bulk all on the internet himself?

[James DiEugenio]

He gives some to Bart Kamp to post at his site.

And Bart posts some of it at ROKC.

But I have known Malcolm for several years now and we have a personal trust in me that I will get his stuff out as he wants it to be out there.

Edited September 21, 2020 by James DiEugenio

[Steve Thomas]

6 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

And lots more.  Take off your mask and dig in.

https://kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/creating-the-oswald-legend-part-5

Jim,

I was reading through Part 5, and a couple of things jumped put at me.

1) How did the wallet get from Croy to Westbrook? In his WC testimony, Westbrook doesn't mention Croy.

In his WC testimony, Croy doesn't mention the wallet, and doesn't mention Westbrook. AS a matter of fact, Croy specifically said,

"Mr. GRIFFIN. Do you remember the names of the other officers who were there with you when you were interviewing this woman?
Mr. CROY. No; I know them on sight. They all work in Oak Cliff and I don't know the names. I just know when I see them driving down the street."

I'm beginning to suspect that Croy didn't have anything to with the wallet at all. Westbrook just said he got it from Croy.

Croy told the WC that he did not file an after-action police report.

 

2) Who was the eye witness that Westbrook talked to who "lived directly across the street"?

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/westbrook.htm

 

So, we returned to the scene and here I met Bob Barrett, the FBI agent, and Sergeant Stringer and Barrett and I were together, and then an eye-witness to the shooting of the officer from across the street, a lady, came to the car, and she was telling us how this happened.

Mr. BALL. Where were you when this lady came up who was an eyewitness?
Mr. WESTBROOK. We were at the squad car--Tippit's squad car...

Mr. BALL. You were near 10th and Patton?
Mr. WESTBROOK. And she was telling us what had occurred.
Mr. BALL. Do you remember her name?
Mr. WESTBROOK. No; the other officers got it.
Mr. BALL. Was it a Mrs. Markham?
Mr. WESTBROOK. It could have been, sir; I don't recall, because I directed someone there to be sure and get her name for the report, but she lived directly across the street, and she told us--or was in the process of telling us how it occurred--what she had seen, when someone hollered a patrolman hollered--"It's just come over the radio that they've got a suspicious person in the Texas Theatre."

The only witness I know of who lived "directly across the street was Aquilla Clemons, and she had a very different story to tell about what happened at 10th and Patton.

https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKclemons.htm

"Acquilla Clemons lived on the north side of Tenth Street in Dallas. On 22nd November, 1963, Clemons was sitting on the porch of her house when she saw Officer J. D. Tippit killed."

Steve Thomas

[Richard Booth]

Jim,

The quotes below are from V.V.'s latest piece with some thoughts I had after reading those portions:

6 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

Bagley dropped a bomb about Hunt being in the Soviet Division in 1962. Blunt asked “Oh, you mean James Hunt who worked for James Angleton?” Bagley replied matter of factly, “No, Howard Hunt, the Watergate guy. Nobody could figure out what he was doing there.”

Fantastic find. This is unrelated to the Hunt revelation, but is a thought that occurred to me when reading it:  Isn't it interesting that we find our prime suspects are all over the place, in key areas at the CIA?

McCord in the Office of Security. Hunt spying on others for Angleton in the Soviet Division while also wearing the hat of Chief of Covert Action in the Domestic Operations Division. Angleton over in C/I. Joannides and Morales at JM/WAVE. William Harvey, supposed to be in Rome but still in CONUS in April and thereafter, billing things to ZR/RIFLE and talking to mobsters--therefore still working on a Staff D program. Helms at the Directorate for Plans. I have some question as to whether Helms was directly involved, but feel certain he was involved in the cover-up and knew many of the principals and certainly knew much of the truth -- especially when you look at his very unconvincing denial in that recent clip I sent you.

The point being we see likely suspects embedded within key departments at the Agency which to me suggests that 11/22/63 wasn't rogue agents, it was a coordinated effort among multiple agents spread throughout key departments. That isn't rogue unless this rogue's gallery is over a dozen people which seems improbable. 

And wasn't Allen Dulles continuing to hold weekly meetings in Washington or Virginia even after he was fired from his job? I don't recall where I read that, but I remember it: Dulles was having weekly or regular meetings/briefings prior to the assassination at a time when he was no longer DCI. Planning meetings maybe?

Quote

Marchetti also stated that the CIA was planning a limited hangout to expose Hunt’s involvement. However, this did not happen and Marchetti had not actually seen the memo

I don't necessarily believe that a limited hangout to expose Hunt's involvement didn't happen. V.V. raises a good point following this part of the text, where he says how Angleton showed the memo to Trento and that Trento felt he was trying to distance himself from Hunt by blaming Hunt's presence in Dallas on a mole (And by extension, suggesting the assassination was probably the result of a mole, which then makes it the result of the Soviets, which is the same line of horse-xxxx he sold Epstein on after Epsten turned to the dark side)

Consider this when you think about "the limited hang-out on Hunt didn't happen":

Weberman's Hunt-was-the-old-tramp coupled with Tad Szulc's allegation that Hunt served as temporary Chief of Station in Mexico in August-Sep-Oct when Oswald was supposedly there caused many articles, books and speculations with Hunt in the crosshairs. Given the Agency has the ability to have unwitting assets do their work for them, it's entirely possible that Weberman and Canfield's "Hunt was one of the Tramps" could have been a result of an Agency action, so could Tad Szulc's allegation in his book on Hunt which Szulc attributes directly to unnamed CIA sources, which he refused to reveal to the court citing journalistic privilege.

Agency sources telling Szulc that Hunt was temporary chief of station during the Oswald-in-Mexico shenanigans could also have been part of a limited hang-out to expose Hunt, lord knows everyone cited Szulc in their reports linking Hunt to the assassination and again Szulc's source was CIA employees. 

Of course this is speculation: but we do today have no end of material linking Hunt to the assassination and it's plausible to me that the Agency could have been behind some of that, just like it's likely they were behind the "Castro-did-it" stuff, the "Mafia-did-it" stuff and Angleton's and others' "Khrushchev-did-it" stuff.

And these limited hang-outs continue today: they're still doing this kind of thing! Just look to Rolf Mowat-Larssen's recent load of crap on the NHK documentary and a recent conference where he names many of our leading suspects (and suspiciously leaves out Angleton from his photo spread of suspects) only to call them rogues and claim they "recruited Oswald to kill JFK". So he names some correct names, leaves out one key figure, but keeps the trigger-puller as Oswald. Where have we seen that before? (HSCA, Blakey: Mafia did it but Oswald fired the shots). 

What is old is new again... and history repeats...

Great piece from V.V. 

--Richard

 

[Richard Booth]

41 minutes ago, Steve Thomas said:

I was reading through Part 5, and a couple of things jumped put at me.

1) How did the wallet get from Croy to Westbrook? In his WC testimony, Westbrook doesn't mention Croy.

...

I'm beginning to suspect that Croy didn't have anything to with the wallet at all.

Hi Steve,

John Armstrong writes that "A civilian, who has never been identified, approached Croy and handed him a wallet which he (Croy) later gave to Sergeant Calvin Owens."

Armstrong's citation for this is Jones Harris interview of Kenneth Croy, 11/02/02.

Hasan Yusuf noted the following in a thread on another forum: In the 2013 edition of his book “With Malice,” Dale Myers writes that Croy told him during an interview in 2009 that a witness said that Tippit’s killer “threw the billfold away” after he fled the murder scene. Croy also allegedly told Myers that he looked at the identification inside the wallet/billfold, and that “None of them had any photographs or the name Lee Harvey Oswald on them.”

But Croy also wrote down the following for former FBI analyst, Farris Rookstool; “First on the scene, recovered Oswald's wallet there, too”

Westbrook, if we are taking the position he's guilty, would have reason not to mention Croy in his WC testimony if Croy was involved with bringing the wallet to the scene. 

Of course, if Croy were involved in this we would expect him to lie about it too. If Croy had nothing to do with the wallet, he sure did talk about it ... told Farris Rookstool that he recovered Oswald's wallet, and told Jones Harris that he was given a wallet at the scene. 

I suspect that because there is video/footage of the wallet at the scene and enough evidence to show it was there, so Croy had to invent SOMETHING about the wallet rather than deny everything. So he claims that a witness handed it to him. My .02 

 

Edited September 20, 2020 by Richard Booth

[Steve Thomas]

2 hours ago, Richard Booth said:

Hi Steve,

John Armstrong writes that "A civilian, who has never been identified, approached Croy and handed him a wallet which he (Croy) later gave to Sergeant Calvin Owens."

Armstrong's citation for this is Jones Harris interview of Kenneth Croy, 11/02/02.

Hasan Yusuf noted the following in a thread on another forum: In the 2013 edition of his book “With Malice,” Dale Myers writes that Croy told him during an interview in 2009 that a witness said that Tippit’s killer “threw the billfold away” after he fled the murder scene. Croy also allegedly told Myers that he looked at the identification inside the wallet/billfold, and that “None of them had any photographs or the name Lee Harvey Oswald on them.”

But Croy also wrote down the following for former FBI analyst, Farris Rookstool; “First on the scene, recovered Oswald's wallet there, too”

Westbrook, if we are taking the position he's guilty, would have reason not to mention Croy in his WC testimony if Croy was involved with bringing the wallet to the scene. 

Of course, if Croy were involved in this we would expect him to lie about it too. If Croy had nothing to do with the wallet, he sure did talk about it ... told Farris Rookstool that he recovered Oswald's wallet, and told Jones Harris that he was given a wallet at the scene. 

I suspect that because there is video/footage of the wallet at the scene and enough evidence to show it was there, so Croy had to invent SOMETHING about the wallet rather than deny everything. So he claims that a witness handed it to him. My .02 

 

Richard,

Thanks for these notes. The way I'm reading it, these all came years after the incident. It's possible that Croy is covering for Westbrook. The same question may have come up that I asked: How did the wallet get from Croy to Westbrook?

Calvin Owens is the person who drove Westbrook and Bill Alexander from downtown to 10th and Patton, and I'm not sure how much to trust what he had to say.

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/owens_c.htm

 

Mr. OWENS. Acting lieutenant, Oak Cliff substation.
Mr. ELY. Because you were acting lieutenant in the Oak Cliff substation, would that mean that Officer Tippit would be under your supervision?

Mr. OWENS. That's true.

Now, right there--here's where I'm not quite sure--I don't know whether I was given the gun and all--but I believe I was given the gun and this was Tippit's gun and shells.

Mr. OWENS. Yes--we were informed by a man whom I do not know, that the suspect that shot Officer Tippit had run across a vacant lot toward Jefferson, and thrown down his jacket, I think he said, white, I'm not sure. Not finding anybody that had seen him come out of that area, we blocked off that square block.
Mr. ELY. Can you tell us specifically what block you blocked off?
Mr. OWENS. I believe it was the 400 block of East Jefferson--the 400 or 500 block. It was this block bound by Jefferson, 10th, Patton, and Denver--I believe that was the area. Then we started searching the buildings and houses--there are some old two-story houses there used as businesses.

 

In his WC testimony, Owens conflates the jacket with the report of the man seen running into the Library. You'll notice that the block Owens had sealed off is East of the Tippit shooting.

 

 

Nor did he remember the name of the colored man and lady and two children he took to the Sheriff's office, the man who gave him Tippit's gun, or the man who told him he had seen the suspect run across the cant lot to Jefferson and throw down his white jacket.

Owens did not tell the WC that Croy gave him Oswald's wallet.

Steve Thomas

[Steve Thomas]

14 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

And lots more.  Take off your mask and dig in.

https://kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/creating-the-oswald-legend-part-5

Jim,

I wish Vasilios and Bill Kelly would have explored Lumpkin's, Whitmeyer's and B.B. Smith's connection to the 4150th Army Reserve Training School in Dallas.

While he credit's Crichton's connection to the Emergency Command and Communications bunker, he doesn't mention that Boise Smith was the Director of the Civil Defense and Disaster Commission, which oversaw that Emergency Command and Communications. 

Col. B.B. Smith

Daily Palmer Rustler October 14, 1954 page 2

(Member of the faculty 4150^th U.S.Army Reserve Training School)

https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth782328/m1/2/

 

B.B. (Boise) Smith. Director, Civil Defense and Disaster Commission. Dallas Police Department, Deputy Chief of Police.

Reported directly to Chief Curry.

Batchelor Exhibit 5002

https://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh19/pdf/WH19_Batchelor_Ex_5002.pdf

Steve Thomas

[James DiEugenio]

The interesting point about the wallet is : who saw it on the ground?  Some nameless person who allegedly gave it to Croy. And Croy says he did not write an after action report. So we will never know who that person was.

There is no doubt that was Oswald's wallet.  Martha Moyer told me she interviewed another policeman who was there. Lenoard Jez .  He told her: don't let anyone bamboozle you.  That was Oswald's wallet.

There is another point about this: What were Westbrook and Croy doing there?  Very odd considering one was off duty and one was a personnel officer.

Could the witness Croy talked to have been either Holan or Higgins?

https://kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/the-tippit-case-in-the-new-millennium

[James DiEugenio]

Richard:

In the sense that the Marchetti article got out there, and the lawsuit followed, then yes Hunt's name got out there.

But the HSCA made very little of this, if anything at all.

I agree that its really something  that Hunt was in SR and DOD.   IMO, this means that Angleton AND Helms were close to Hunt. (The latter was revealed in Dirty Tricks by Shane O'Sullivan.).  This makes the Trento revelation, that Angleton leaked the story as a warning to Helms, more credible I think. 

[Steve Thomas]

2 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

There is another point about this: What were Westbrook and Croy doing there? 

https://kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/the-tippit-case-in-the-new-millennium

Jim,

Thanks for this. I read through your article in K&K, and a question came to me.

How did Westbrook get from the Depository to 10th and Patton?

WC testimony of Calvin Bud Owens

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/owens_c.htm

Mr. OWENS. No. I told Inspector Sawyer that I was assigned to Oak Cliff and an officer was involved in the shooting, and I was taking off, so I proceeded--I got in my car, and Captain Westbrook and Bill Alexander, an assistant district attorney, also was in the car with me.

I did not find an after-action report from Owens in the Portal to Texas History.

However, Westbrook said that he rode over to Oak Cliff with Sgt. Stringer and a patrolman, whose name he did not know.

I'm inclined to go with Westbrook on this.

WC testimony of William Westbrook

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/westbrook.htm

“Well, then, of course, I ran to my radio because I am the personnel officer and that then became, of course, my greatest interest right at that time, and so, Sergeant Stringer and I and some patrolman---I don't recall his name---then drove to the immediate vicinity of where Officer Tippit had been shot and killed.”

Stringer went with him from the Personnel Bureau to the Depository. For some reason, Westbrook had Stringer's first and middle name wrong.

In his WC testimony, Westbrook said, “

“Mr. WESTBROOK. After we reached the building, or after I reached the building, I contacted my sergeant Sgt. R. D. Stringer, and he was standing in front and so then I went into the building to help start the search...”

H.H. Stringer was a Sergeant in the Personnel Bureau. His after-action report only relates to Oswald’s arrest starts with his arrival at the Texas Theater. He did not testify before the Warren Commission.

In Batchelor’s Exhibit (CE 5002), there is no R.D. Stringer, only H.H. Stringer).

https://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh19/pdf/WH19_Batchelor_Ex_5002.pdf

Westbrook's after-action report states:

https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth337135/m1/1/?q=Westbrook

 

Where the hell did Calvin Owens get the idea that he took Westbrook and Bill Alexander to 10th and Patton?

Do you remember ever reading anything from Bill Alexander on how he got to 10th and Patton? I know he was there when the search warrant for 1026 N. Beckley was finally driven over.

Steve Thomas

 

[Richard Booth]

10 hours ago, Steve Thomas said:

Richard,Thanks for these notes. The way I'm reading it, these all came years after the incident. It's possible that Croy is covering for Westbrook.  

Absolutely. I find it unusual that Croy is admitting to any of this stuff. You would think he would lie. 

[Richard Booth]

5 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

Richard:

In the sense that the Marchetti article got out there, and the lawsuit followed, then yes Hunt's name got out there.

This makes the Trento revelation, that Angleton leaked the story as a warning to Helms, more credible I think.

 

I think that Tad Szulc writing that Hunt was chief of station in Mexico in August-Sep 1963 in his book and using CIA sources for that points to an effort to link Hunt to the assassination. At the very least, it is CIA agents telling a writer that Hunt was in Mexico at the same time Oswald was supposedly there--there is suggestion and innuendo in that. I speculate that the Szulc allegation about Hunt in Mexico might have been the start of a campaign that was never followed-through on.

I agree re: Trento/Angleton/Helms

[James DiEugenio]

Yes, because from everything I have read, Szulc's information is false.

Hunt was not temporary chief of station in Mexico City.  No one has seen an document that says that since the ARRB began declassifying.

Which makes one wonder: who told Szulc that?

IMO, no one who studies this case should ever forget what I think are two of the most important sentences ever uttered in the literature:  "A mansion has many rooms.  I was not privy to who struck John."

I will never forget reading that for the first time.

[James DiEugenio]

I find this part so interesting, is it accurate?  I think Larry Hancock says it is.

"Wayne January was a charter air service operator at Red Bird airport. On November 20, 1963, he was visited by a young couple looking to hire a small aircraft to fly to Mexico. January thought that the pair was asking peculiar questions and acting suspiciously, so he decided not to charter the plane to them. He also observed that there was a young man that stayed in the car the whole time. Later, he identified him as Lee Harvey Oswald.[5]"