The Ordeal of Malcolm Perry

[Gene Kelly]

George

I would direct you to a very interesting article entitled "How Did Zapruder Know?" by Joseph Scovitch published in July 2000 (Vol 7, No. 5 The Fourth Decade).  The author raises questions about Abraham Zapruder's garment company, Jennifer Juniors, and he states that it warrants more intensive investigation because of the suspicions it arouses as a possible mob front proxy operation (cf., H. Livingstone, 1995, 1998) utilizing Zapruder, and linked to Irwin Schwartz and Jack Ruby, and maybe even to Eugene Brading.

Erwin (Irwin) Schwartz was Zapruder's business co-partner and deeply involved in the dissemination of the film, and in the negotiations on the sale of the film … but he was absent from the motorcade viewing in the Plaza.

Gene

[George Govus]

Thank you, Gene. And The Fourth Decade is archived at the Mary Ferrell Foundation website, I see. Bless. I'm so behind. I recall I think it was William Kelly on his blog wrote of Zapruder being a sometime luncheon companion with Dallas Secret Service SAIC Forrest V. Sorrels. That stirs the pot as well. Dallas, the Big Cozy (Nostra).

[Gene Kelly]

George:

The link to the Scovitch Fourth Decade article is below. Its hard to get through (and a bit repetitive) but thought-provoking. It raises many good questions about Zapruder's knowledge of the Motorcade Route, his so-called "vertigo" (yet climbing up onto a pedestal that wasn't easy to climb), his non-stop "fearless" filming with bullets flying about, and his quick retreat to his Office in the Dal-Tex Building accompanied by the Hester couple and Sitzman.  As the author states:

 "His filming location on lower Elm Street at high noon was almost too ideal for words as he stood on the elevated pedestal or perch".

The author also points to his "inept questioning" by Wesley Liebeler on 7/22/64 to the Warren Commission

"Liebeler had Zapruder under oath concerning the JFK film, but could have also asked other related, pertinent questions. Liebeler concentrated solely on the Z-film. We can readily note that Liebeler never touched upon Zapruder and Schwartz, Zapruder and Sitzman, the presence of the Hesters by the pergola area, the Jennifer Juniors, Inc. company linked to Zapruder, and so forth. No mention was made of Hunt or de Mohrenschildt either. Liebeler did not even readily establish how and why Zapruder was at the pergola perch that day, 11/22/63. The filming effort was an assumed well-established "given."

Scovitch points out that Irwin Schwartz was closely involved who the film went to immediately after the assassination. Schwartz and Zapruder delivered two prints to Secret Service Sorrels. Sorrels asked them to take one to the Dallas Naval Air Station in nearby Grand Prairie, where a jet was immediately dispatched to take the print to FBI investigators in Washington, D.C.

The author draws some interesting conclusions about how Zapruder knew specifically where to go and film, connecting some mighty interesting dots:

" Livingstone (1995) cited suspicion of a strong linkage of Schwartz as a friend of Jack Ruby. Schwartz as a mob go-between figure and underworld operative is a problematic figure beyond all expectations, if he did indeed supply data to Zapruder on the JFK motorcade route. ... no one ever clarified the issue of the Brading trespassing incident at Dal-Tex on 11/22/ 63. Was Brading a close operative with Schwartz on 11/ 22163? The direct linkage of Schwartz to Zapruder and to aspects of the filming (final handling and sales discussions) is bothersome, to say the least. It changes the entire historical perspective".

Scovitch also makes some interesting about Zapruder's business (and its location) citing previous research by Anthony Frewin in 1993, asserting that Jennifer Juniors filed for bankruptcy right after the  assassination and vacated its premises at the Dal-Tex Building by the end of 1964. There exist no records on its movement back to Manhattan, but Zapruder did not go back to New York and remained in Dallas:

Jennifer Juniors, Inc., the Zapruder company at 501 Elm Street, near the edge of Dealey Plaza, in the Dal-Tex Building. This office of a textile outlet became a central focus for meetings with legal authorities and the media as well as the viewing space for the Zapruder film. Schwartz literally held court there from 22-25 November, 1963. Was this clothing manufacturers' business a "legitimate" business, or was it a mob-controlled "storefront" using Schwartz and the filmographer, Zapruder? It occupied several spaces on the fourth and fifth floors of the Dal-Tex Building, but its funding sources were unclear.

The author notes that Abraham Zapruder made out pretty well in both the short and long run:

"Abraham Zapruder outfoxed history and random chance guessing, outdistanced the staff of the Dallas Morning News and several other Dallas newspapers, outdid the motorcycle cops, the FBI, and the Secret Service agents, and outflanked the Warren Commission and its "single bullet theory.  Zapruder also provided his estate with almost one million dollars in payments, fees, assets, and related residuals, at the time of his cancer death in August 1970. Ultimately, beyond death, Zapruder has provided his estate with sixteen million dollars (taxpayer dollars) and many further fees for the copyright control".

I've always felt - more as an intuition versus a fact-based conclusion - that Abraham Zapruder and his film were a manufactured and carefully packaged story.  He seems too good to be true (and you know what they say).  As you point out, an amateur photographer with a brand new Bell and Howell decides ("spontaneously" it seems) to perch on the perfect vantage point.  His background seems fishy, his company (and associates) seems intriguing, and the provenance and handling of his film are certainly contentious (to say the least) ...  many years of spirited debate about the infamous frames; but only beginning ten years after Life held the evidence close to the vest.    

http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg Subject Index Files/S Disk/Scovitch Joseph/Item 27.pdf  

Gene

[Joseph McBride]

Zapruder was also a member of the Dallas Petroleum Club, which

had many prominent members, including George H. W. Bush

and George de Mohrenschildt. And Zapruder had employed de Mohrenschildt's

wife, Jeanne LeGon, a fact not mentioned in Zapruder's granddaughter's book. Zapruder's

son, Henry, worked for the Justice Department at the time of the assassination.

Abraham Zapruder was a member of the Dallas Council on World Affairs. And so on. But I don't

think Livingstone is a credible source, however, and the article leans

heavily on his unsupported gossip and innuendos.

Edited May 29, 2021 by Joseph McBride

[Ron Bulman]

I've read some of this before.  Taking all of it together makes me wonder about the possibility of Jennifer Juniors being a CIA front right across the street from the TSBD.  With Byrd as it's owner.  One point not mentioned above is de Mohrenschildt's wife Jeanne having worked previously, closely with Zapruder in the dress business, given George's CIA connections.   

[Tony Krome]

I have both Jeanne LeGon and Zapruder as working for Benny Gold/Nardis, but I can't place them there in the same time period. If anyone has anything definitive, please let me know. 

[Gene Kelly]

I apologize for taking us off the topic of this thread (Dr. Perry). Much of the information below is from a Gregory Burnham article entitled "Amazing Web Of Abraham Zapruder: The Man Who Filmed JFK's Assassination" and an Education Forum thread begun in 2009 by John Simkin. 

Jennifer Juniors, Inc., produced the Chalet and Jennifer Juniors brands of dresses. From the summer of 1953 to April 1954, Zapruder worked at Nardis side-by-side with Jeanne LeGon (formerly Eugenia Fomenko). Jeanne designed the clothing and Abraham Zapruder cut the patterns and the material for her. Ben Gold who owned Nardis of Dallas sold his home in the 1950’s to the Haliburton oil family. This home is where Jeanne LeGon-de Mohrenschildt lived with Gold beginning in the summer of 1953 and through 1954. 

In 1955 she returned to Dallas and designed dresses for Handmacher Vogel. The following year she met George de Mohrenschildt. When her current husband Robert LeGon discovered what was going on, he wrote a letter to the FBI alleging that she was a "communist spy". This resulted in the FBI making inquiries about her political activities.  In 1956 she worked for Leeds Coats and the following year she was employed by Judy Bond, Nancy Greer and Jack Rothenberg in Dallas.  Following his divorce in 1957, de Mohrenschildt married Jeanne LeGon, in June 1959. The Zapruder-LeGon partnership apparently broke up when Jeanne  married George De Mohrenschildt.  They then made a controversial trip to Mexico and Central America, and subsequently returned to Dallas, where George began writing a book about his experiences and Jeanne found a job in the millinery department of the Sanger-Harris department store.  They became involved in the 'White Russian' community. 

Marie Fehmer (LBJ's personal secretary and Olga's daughter) was a guest on the NBC "Today" Show on January 12, 1989.  After the interview was over (which was  edited for time constraints), Jane Pauley mentioned, very matter-of-fact, that Marie Fehmer became one of the first female senior officers at the CIA.  Perhaps not so coincidental, Olga Fehmer, Jeanne and Abraham Zapruder all worked at Nardis of Dallas at this time. Vince Palamara was the researcher credited by Bruce Adamson for putting him onto the LeGon, Zapruder, Olga Fehmer relationship, formed while the three were allegedly working together at Nardis in 1953.

[Tony Krome]

2 hours ago, Gene Kelly said:

Jennifer Juniors, Inc., produced the Chalet and Jennifer Juniors brands of dresses. From the summer of 1953 to April 1954, Zapruder worked at Nardis side-by-side with Jeanne LeGon (formerly Eugenia Fomenko). Jeanne designed the clothing and Abraham Zapruder cut the patterns and the material for her. 

I guess the only way to confirm the information I've provided below is to find the documents that show when Jennifer Juniors was established. 1949 and 1952 presents a problem with Zapruder and Jeanne working together.

 

[Gene Kelly]

The best information that I've been able to find comes from Greg Burnham, Vince Palamara and Bruce Adamson ... all of whom had "sources" that confirmed they (i.e., Jeanne and Abraham) worked together at Nardis in 1953-1954.  A 2008 article about Zapruder in the Santa Fe New Mexican written by Richard Stolley, the senior editorial adviser at Time and the reporter who negotiated/obtained the Zapruder film for LIFE magazine in 1963, had this to say:

He landed a job in the garment district as a pattern cutter, worked up to head of crew and was lured to Dallas in 1941 as production chief of a dress factory there. With a partner, he ultimately started his own line, Jennifer Juniors, the name borrowed from the movie star, Jennifer Jones.

The founding of Jennifer Juniors seems to have happened in 1949 ... this is consistently reported in various documents.  The co-founder was Erwin (Irwin) Schwartz (not Abraham, as the advert reads).  The Santa Fe article curiously states that Schwartz was the "son of his original partner".  Another article describes Schwartz as the young partner and heir of Zapruder's deceased partner.  It also states that Zapruder managed the factory and Schwartz managed the sales.  

Many authors imply that Schwartz was involved with mob/underworld connections ... Scovitch described his role in brokering the film that weekend as a "convenient go-between" who acted as an "immediate custodian, advisor, and guardian angel" over the film. Schwartz never saw the actual assassination (he was purportedly at lunch across town) but he did view the Zapruder film at least a dozen times later that weekend, according to his own statements. Also in question is why Schwartz wasn't with Zapruder (at the pedestal) during the filming, and his delayed return to the Dal-Tex office of Zapruder at about 2:00 PM, CST (Texas time). Its speculated that Schwartz may have met with (or been with) his friend, Jack Ruby, at the Dallas Morning News offices.

The Black and white photograph below shows policemen and studio personnel at WFAA-TV during a live interview with assassination eyewitness Abraham Zapruder (off camera, to the right) taken by an unknown promotions department employee two hours after the assassination. Police officers Osburn and Jones, stand next to Erwin Schwartz, Zapruder's business partner. Schwartz holds a camera case over his right shoulder containing the camera and undeveloped film. The two policemen drove Zapruder, Schwartz and Forrest Sorrels, head of the Dallas Secret Service office, to The Dallas Morning News and WFAA-TV hoping to have Zapruder's film processed.

[Micah Mileto]

On 5/24/2021 at 10:38 PM, James DiEugenio said:

I really don't have to describe this article. 

Except, as one will see, I owe the climactic info in it to Rob Couteau and Bob Tanenbaum.

The cover up was being enacted in about 90 minutes.  That is how fast they knew, Tanebaum says it was probably an hour, and I cannot argue with that.

https://kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/the-ordeal-of-malcolm-perry

Besides the KAK article, is there a primary source for the following quote:

But it was not just Moore—and it was not just a couple of weeks later. As Horne stated during that FFF conference, Nurse Audrey Bell testified that Perry told her he was getting calls that evening directing him to alter his testimony.(DiEugenio, p. 169) This is now backed up by a startling piece of evidence surfaced by author Rob Couteau. Martin Steadman was a reporter at the time of the JFK assassination. Couteau discovered a journal entry by Martin that is online. Steadman was stationed in Dallas for several days after the assassination gathering information. Some of it got in print and some of it did not. From all indications, the following did not.

One of the witnesses he spent some time with in Dallas was Malcolm Perry. Steadman was aware of what Perry had said at the press conference about the directionality of the neck wound. Steadman wrote that, about a week after the assassination, he and two other journalists were with Perry in his home. During this informal interview, Perry said he thought it was an entrance wound because the small circular hole was clean. He then added two important details. He said he had treated hundreds of patients with similar wounds and he knew the difference between an exit and entrance wound. Further, hunting was a hobby of his, so he understood from that experience what the difference was. And he could detect it at a glance.

Steadman went on to reveal something rather surprising. Perry said that during that night, he got a series of phone calls to his home from the doctors at Bethesda. They were very upset about his belief that the neck wound was one of entrance. They asked him if the Parkland doctors had turned over the body to see the wounds in Kennedy’s back. Perry replied that they had not. They then said: how could he be sure about the neck wound in light of that? They then told him that he should not continue to say that he cut across an entrance wound, when there was no evidence of a shot from the front. When Perry insisted that he could only say what he thought to be true, something truly bizarre happened. Perry said that one or more of the autopsy doctors told him that he would be brought before a Medical Board if he continued to insist on his story. Perry said they threatened to take away his license.

After Perry finished this rather gripping tale, everyone was silent for a moment. Steadman then asked him if he still thought the throat wound was one of entrance. After a second or so, Perry said: yes, he did.

What is so remarkable about this story is that it blows the cover off of the idea that the autopsy doctors did not know about the anterior neck wound until the next day. Not only did they know about it that night, they were trying to cover it up that night.

 

What "journal entry" found online? This is the part of the case I've been trying to gather everything on. I'm trying to make a 2.0 of the "discussing torso wounds" thing I made before., and I'm trying to make an ultimate medical evidence folder to share online.

 

 

Edited September 11, 2021 by Micah Mileto

[Steven Kossor]

Has anyone else noticed that the hand gesture that Honest Abe made when he was interviewed on TV on the afternoon of 11/22/63 was more consistent with the appearance of JFK's head at Bethesda (the right side blown-out) than with a hole in the back of his head (and the rest of the head intact) that was documented at Parkland? He was describing what his film would *eventually* show (rather than the actual wound at the right rear of the head through which brain and gore were sprayed onto the driver's side taillight and officer Hargis). Maybe he was psychic as well as honest.

Edited September 5, 2021 by Steven Kossor

[Eddy Bainbridge]

There is a part of this article I don't think anyone has touched on yet : The suggestion is that Perry was called during the Autopsy or very soon after (before the autopsy conclusions certainly). It is not in dispute that the Surgeons spent time trying to fathom out where the low wound on the head came out (Boswell, Ipsey for two). It always struck me as odd they didn't leap to the conclusion it was through the Trach wound. The article may suggest they had already been told about Perry's statement that the Trach wound was an entrance point. They were thus initially forced to try and find an alternative exit, and then forced to bully Perry.

[Micah Mileto]

13 minutes ago, Eddy Bainbridge said:

There is a part of this article I don't think anyone has touched on yet : The suggestion is that Perry was called during the Autopsy or very soon after (before the autopsy conclusions certainly). It is not in dispute that the Surgeons spent time trying to fathom out where the low wound on the head came out (Boswell, Ipsey for two). It always struck me as odd they didn't leap to the conclusion it was through the Trach wound. The article may suggest they had already been told about Perry's statement that the Trach wound was an entrance point. They were thus initially forced to try and find an alternative exit, and then forced to bully Perry.

I touched on that,  here is a link: https://www.rareddit.com/r/JFKsubmissions/comments/ds3q7h/discussing_jfks_torso_wounds_contents/

 

parts 8-27 deal with the claim that the pathologists couldn't identify a bullet wound in the throat until after the autopsy.

Edited September 5, 2021 by Micah Mileto

[Micah Mileto]

On 9/4/2021 at 5:44 PM, Micah Mileto said:

What "journal entry" found online? This is the part of the case I've been trying to gather everything on. I'm trying to make a 2.0 of the "discussing torso wounds" thing I made before., and I'm trying to make an ultimate medical evidence folder to share online.

 

 

 

From the online journal Eve's Magazine, 2013, 50 Years from that Fateful Day in Dallas... by Martin J. Steadman:

 

The meeting with Dr. Perry occurred the evening of December 2. Fred and I were joined by Stan Redding, a first-class crime reporter for the Houston Chronicle. I’d taken a liking to Redding as soon as I met him; he was my kind of reporter. Speculation and suspicion and insinuation were never part of his game. He was interested in facts, only facts. But he was a keen political observer as well as a seasoned police reporter. It was no secret in Texas that the President and the First Lady had come to their state because Texas polls showed Kennedy was in trouble for re-election in 1964. Arizona GOP Senator Barry Goldwater held a comfortable lead, despite the fact Vice-President Lyndon Johnson was a Texan. And the Goldwater edge in the polls also applied to other states in the South and Southwest at that time. Stan Redding spoke softly when he allowed an opinion, but I’ll never forget what he said: “Those three bullets shot Barry Goldwater right out of the saddle.” He was noting that Texan Lyndon Johnson was now the President, and Senator Goldwater would be matched against a man of the South in the new polls. How bright was Redding’s political crystal ball in November 1963? Johnson led Barry Goldwater in the first wave of new national polls, and Johnson buried Goldwater in November 1964, in a landslide.

 

Our meeting with Dr. Perry was after dinnertime at his home, and I remember a little girl playing with her toys on the living room floor as the three reporters and her father talked about how he tried to save a President’s life. She was oblivious to the gravity of the conversation, playing quietly with her toys throughout.

 

Dr. Perry had become a controversial figure in the assassination story--to his dismay. With the President lying on his back on a gurney, fighting for breath in his dying moments, Dr. Perry tried to create an air passage with an incision across what he believed to be an entrance wound at the front of Kennedy’s neck. The President was pronounced dead soon after, but the doctor’s incision at the throat had forever foreclosed a conclusion that the wound was an entrance wound or an exit wound.

 

Late that Friday afternoon, the Parkland Hospital officials held a news conference for the hundreds of reporters who had descended on Dallas. Dr. Perry spoke of his efforts to save the President and his belief that his incision was across an entrance wound. The controversy didn’t erupt until government officials in Washington later said all three shots at the President had been fired from a sixth floor window of a building behind the President’s limousine.

 

So little more than a week later, three reporters were speaking quietly to the surgeon at the center of the dispute. As far as I know, it was the first and only such private interview with Dr. Perry. None of us in his living room that night took out a notebook or a pencil. It was a conversation with a clearly reluctant surgeon who had done his best in a crisis and who had agonized about it since.

 

Dr. Perry said he believed it was an entrance wound because the small circular hole was clean, with no edges. In the course of the conversation, he was asked and answered that he had treated hundreds of gunshot victims in the Emergency Rooms at Parkland Memorial Hospital. At another point he said he was a hunter by hobby, and he was very familiar with guns and ammunition. He said he could tell at a glance the difference between an entrance wound and an exit wound with its ragged edges.

 

But he told us that throughout that night, he received a series of phone calls to his home from irate doctors at the Bethesda Naval Hospital, where an autopsy was being conducted, and the doctors there were becoming increasingly frustrated with his belief that it was an entrance wound. He said they asked him if the doctors in Dallas had turned the President over and examined the wounds to his back; he said they had not. They told him he could not be certain of his conclusion if he had not examined the wounds in the President’s back. They said Bethesda had the President’s body and Dallas did not. They told Dr. Perry he must not continue to say he cut across what he believed to be an entrance wound when there was no evidence of shots fired from the front. When he said again he could only say what he believed to be true, one or more of the autopsy doctors told him they would take him before a Medical Board if he continued to insist on what they were certain was otherwise. They threatened his license to practice medicine, Dr. Perry said.

 

When he was finished, there was only one question left. I asked him if he still believed it was an entrance wound. The question hung there for a long moment.

 

“Yes,” he said.

 

Ultimately Dr. Perry appeared as a witness before the Warren Commission. In substance he testified that he realized he had no proof the bullet hole in the President’s neck was an entrance wound, and he conceded that the Bethesda doctors who autopsied the President would know better because they had all of the forensic evidence and he had but a fleeting recollection.

 

I can’t fault Dr. Perry for his testimony before the Warren Commission. Surely it occurred to him there was no point in holding out for a belief that couldn’t be proved. And just as surely, this 34-year-old surgeon with an exemplary record and a brilliant future knew his life would be forever shadowed by conspiracy theories that relied heavily on a bullet fired from the front. He testified only as he most certainly had to testify. But I’ll never forget what he said to three reporters that night in Dallas.

 

The interview in Dr. Perry’s living room was the most memorable moment, but there were other disturbing bits and pieces of information from my time in Dallas.

[Micah Mileto]

More direct evidence of a cover-up. From ABC's 20/20, April 1992: with Dr. Charles Crenshaw and Dr. Charles Baxter:

 

Q: It seems almost incomprehensible that a team of highly intelligent, highly-trained doctors could be standing over the President of the United States and see wounds that, you say, came from the front, and yet the official government story is it came from the back, and wait this long to break the silence.

 

Crenshaw: Intimidation, fear, and career-mindedness.

 

Q: Those are the factors?

 

Crenshaw: Exactly. But again, you have to understand the time in 1963. The people that were with this country were telling you what to do, how to do it, and I think the feeling was we went along to get along.

 

Narrator: Now semi-retired, Dr. Crenshaw has written a book breaking nearly thirty years of silence.

 

Q: Could these what you call "conspiracy of silence" had been out of plain old fasioned patriotism among the doctors?

 

Crenshaw: No question about that. And Dr. Baxter had wanted no one to say anything because he was worried about commercialisation.

 

Dr. Charles Baxter: Well, I made a statement that any one of us in the school or in the hospital that ever made a dime off of anything they said about the assassination, I would try to see that their medical career was ruined.

 

Q: You felt that strongly?

 

Dr. Baxter: Yes. I don't know how many emotions were in that statement, but I felt like it was one that needed to be said.

 

Dr. Crenshaw: That's the reason I waited so long. I waited until I felt I'm at the end of my career, I don't fear my peers 'cause I think they believe it too.