What did Grant Stockdale know?

[Leslie Sharp]

On 2/3/2023 at 4:26 PM, Douglas Caddy said:

Lee Shepherd posted this on Facebook today. He added to his posting that this came out of the Bobby Baker scandal.

 

Within months of taking office, President Kennedy appointed his friend Grant Stockdale ambassador to Ireland. Two years later, Stockdale, an administrative assistant to Senator George Smathers, became a major stock holder of Serv-U Corporation that had expanded into some major land holdings in Florida. Through these contacts, Stockdale was pulled into the inner circle of individuals surrounding JFK’s assassination. On November 26, 1963, Stockdale suddenly flew to Washington DC and talked secretly with Robert and Edward Kennedy. It is not known what he conveyed to them, but upon his return he told several of his friends, "The world is closing in." On December 1, Stockdale spoke to his attorney, William S. Frates: “He started talking. It didn't make much sense.” Frates recalled, “He said something about 'those guys' trying to get him. Then about the [Kennedy] assassination...he knew and was closely associated with almost all of the top figures in the cabal.” The next day the forty-eight-year-old Stockdale either “fell to his death,” or was shoved from the fourteenth floor (technically the 13th) of the DuPont building in downtown Miami. He did not leave a suicide note

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All reactions:

5Keven Hofeling, Kelly Houckham and 3 others

 

As no doubt Lee Shepherd is aware — having indicated to me in a private message request for photos of Pierre Lafitte —  we address Stockade in Coup in Dallas . . . 

In February 1961, newly elected President John Kennedy had nominated Stockdale to be the US Ambassador to Ireland. On March 28, 1961, the US Senate confirmed the nomination. Stockdale and his family enjoyed their time at the ambassador’s residence, Phoenix Park in Dublin, Ireland where as ambassador, he often hosted formal gatherings and events for dignitaries. 

Among the Stockdales’ guests, in the spirit of céad míle fáilte (a hundred thousand welcomes) were Otto and Ilse Skorzeny. The Skorzenys had purchased a 155-acre estate named Martinstown House, in Curragh, County Kildare in June 1959. Stockdale was acutely familiar with the former National Socialist SS officer who often visited with various American businessmen in meetings held in the American Embassy in Ballsbridge, Co. Dublin, including military officers and intelligence officials, as well as various embassy staff members throughout 1960, 1961, and 1962. Former embassy personnel vividly recall Skorzeny coming to the embassy on a near “weekly basis.” Evidence also reveals that the Skorzenys were occasional dinner guests joining the ambassador and his wife, and that Ilse Skorzeny was a frequent visitor to Miami, Florida. As we learn in a later chapter in pursuit of the Skorzenys’ time in Ireland, the SS officer had been an active participant in aiding arms trafficking to the Irish Republican Army (IRA). 

When the Serve-U Corporation scandal involving Democratic operative Bobby Baker finally exploded, under pressure from his close friend President Kennedy, Grant Stockdale reluctantly resigned his post in Ireland in July 1962.

Stockdale’s Friends, Phil Graham and Frank Wisner

Just three weeks before the first clear reference to Ellen Rometsch in his diary, Lafitte writes on May 26:

L.O. – Wisner

Vosjoli   DC   JA

 

Then on June 16, Lafitte first acknowledges Ella by name in an entry that reads, “Ella acting classes – who?”  

Four days later, on June 20, Lafitte makes a note to cable OS (Otto Skorzeny), preceded by the name Wisner. The note reads in full:

Wisner - cable / OS

NYC / Wash D C

 

On July 28, 1963, the project manager of the assassination of President Kennedy makes a note that George [Hunter-White] and/or Otto Skorzeny would talk to [Grant] Stockdale about P. [Phil] Graham and the prospects that Graham would end up at Chestnut Lodge, in a duplicate fashion of Frank Olson’s journey toward death some ten years earlier.

George / OS talk

to Stockdale about P. Graham

(George says Chestnut Lodge) - dupe –

 

[Ron Bulman]

Oh what a tangled web we weave . . .  This is tantalizing but confusing.  

Stockdale’s Friends, Phil Graham and Frank Wisner

Just three weeks before the first clear reference to Ellen Rometsch in his diary, Lafitte writes on May 26:

L.O. – Wisner

Vosjoli   DC   JA

 

Then on June 16, Lafitte first acknowledges Ella by name in an entry that reads, “Ella acting classes – who?”  

Four days later, on June 20, Lafitte makes a note to cable OS (Otto Skorzeny), preceded by the name Wisner. The note reads in full:

Wisner - cable / OS

NYC / Wash D C

 

On July 28, 1963, the project manager of the assassination of President Kennedy makes a note that George [Hunter-White] and/or Otto Skorzeny would talk to [Grant] Stockdale about P. [Phil] Graham and the prospects that Graham would end up at Chestnut Lodge, in a duplicate fashion of Frank Olson’s journey toward death some ten years earlier.

George / OS talk

to Stockdale about P. Graham

(George says Chestnut Lodge) - dupe –

 

 

In the first part, L.O. is not Lee Oswald, but who else?  Wisner created the Wurlitzer/Mockingbird.  Manic-Depressive 12/58, shock treatment, shot himself in 1965.  Vosjoli I've read about a tiny bit on here.  DC?  JA - James Angleton?

In the second part Laffite is to cable Skorzeny about Wisner, NYC and Washington DC???

Part three is a doozy.  If George is George Hunter White, wow.  I first came across him as operator of the San Francisco CIA safehouse/test rooms for LSD and other drug experiments using hookers as lures for Sidney Gottlieb in Poisner In Chief.  He liked to partake in both the drugs and the hookers.  Had a had a toe, foot, high-heel fetish or something if I remember right.  Him and Otto (separately) talking to Stockdale about Phil Graham, owner of the Washington Post, is mind blowing.  As is the Chestnut Lodge bit.  Did that part refer to Graham being doped to the point he shot himself?  He went off his rocker so to speak in 62-63 and shot himself in August.  

The Frank Olson allusion is appropriate for both oddly.  Why did Grahm go nuts?  After JFK was assassinated, Stockdale knew too much and like Olson, jumped out a 13th floor window.

Sorry for the centered format, don't know what I did.

Edited February 11, 2023 by Ron Bulman