Oswald and the Shot at Walker: Redressing the Balance

[James DiEugenio]

I will reply  to my own queries:

Wesley Liebeler asked: Why would Oswald keep the incriminating note and photos around for well over 7 months? (Destiny Betrayed, p. 201)

Marina said that when Oswald returned from the shooting he did not have a rifle with him.  Since he had buried it in the ground  far away from the Walker scene.  Oswald allegedly said it was in a field near a railroad track.  He then went back and got it on the 14th.

The FBI examination detected no traces of dirt on the rifle.  Then what did Oswald use to wipe the rifle clean? Because there was no rifle cleaning solution found in his belongings. (The JFK Assassination: The Evidence Today, p 108)

If you want to read a very good destruction of Marina on this, look back at Meagher's Accessories After the Fact. (pp. 127-31)

Edited March 27, 2023 by James DiEugenio

[Steve Roe]

1 hour ago, James DiEugenio said:

The FBI examination detected no traces of dirt on the rifle.  Then what did Oswald use to wipe the rifle clean? Because there was no rifle cleaning solution found in his belongings. (The JFK Assassination: The Evidence Today, p 108)

Hello Mr. DiEugenio, anyone home? The Walker shooting took place on April 10, 1963. Oswald's rifle was found on 11/22, that's almost 7 months. Rifle cleaning solution? What in the world are you talking about? If it was dirty 7 months ago on the exterior, of course Oswald would have cleaned it.  You wipe it off with a damp cloth and if you wanted you can lightly oil the metal, polish the wood stock and run a bristle brush down the barrel. 

And who said he buried it in the dirt? He could have buried in a brush pile up near the MKT RR tracks. 

[Mark Ulrik]

5 minutes ago, Steve Roe said:

And who said he buried it in the dirt? He could have buried in a brush pile up near the MKT RR tracks.

Whatever was used to conceal the rifle during transport (raincoat?) would also have helped protect it from the elements.

[Leslie Sharp]

Surrey may be the logical candidate for advancing disinformation on behalf of anything related to Walker including the April 10 incident.  However, consideration should be given to Hilaire du Berrier who was staying at Walker's Turtle Creek residence on November 22, and who appears in the records of the project manager within 48 hours of the alleged April 10 attack.

The action taken regarding Major General Edwin Walker is amazing. Is it a crime nowadays to be a patriot? Is it a crime to teach Americanism to our troops? Must a general be “relieved of command” when he is giving his troops something to fight for? Who is relieving of command those in government who are responsible for the Communist foothold in this hemisphere? Who is being “relieved of command” for other Communists favoring actions in our State Department? 

—Frank T. Ryan, President 

  World Commerce Corporation, June 25, 1961

 

This somewhat rousing endorsement by the president of the World Commerce may have gone unnoticed by the average American, but as reported in Chapter 2, the global power structure would recognize the WCC created by the director of the OSS, Bill Donovan and his counterpart in Britain, William Stephenson. As reported, the WCC had over the previous decade acted as an umbrella front for several hundred companies whose primary aim was self-serving information gathering and espionage, sprinkled heavily with sometimes deadly counterintelligence operations, while extracting profits from global markets. Frank Ryan, a former OSS officer under Donovan, had worked closely with Otto Skorzeny for years. For that reason alone, his remarks in support of Gen. Walker are revelatory.

Several months after Ryan’s vociferous support, a telling piece written by syndicated newspaper columnist Drew Pearson, and published in the November 24, 1961 edition of The Washington Post, tackled the cluster of extremists General Walker had attracted. Referring to the “increasing turn to the far right by high-ranking US military men,” Pearson singled out Walker, still head of the Army’s 24^th Infantry Division in Germany, for politicizing his troops with right-wing propaganda. Pearson highlighted a letter to one of Walker’s military supporters, Arch Roberts, from the American born French rightist sympathizer Hilaire “Hal” du Berrier, who compared the Kennedy administration’s crackdown on Walker to de Gaulle’s attack on the rebel French generals who led the OAS. Du Berrier’s history germane to the assassination is pursued momentarily.

After the failed 1961 French generals’ putsch, the OAS was determined to halt de Gaulle’s move toward Algerian independence at all costs. The price was not simply removal of the president, but deadly removal. The war between de Gaulle and the OAS had ramped up when de Gaulle’s political changes continued to move forward in Algeria. In May1961, the French government had started negotiations with the FLN. These talks did not have immediate success, and over the course of the next year the level of extreme violence had escalated. Finally, in March 1962, a cease-fire was reached, setting the stage for the Evian negotiations that would eventually lead to independence for Algeria. Taking command of the 

“secret army” was General Raoul Salan who, by the time Pierre Lafitte made note of him in his 1963 diary, was still in prison on orders of President de Gaulle on November 22. However, Hilaire du Berrier, the North Dakota native described as an ambitious soldier of fortune, pilot and spy, identified by Lafitte on the same day as Salan, was not. Regardless, it appears that the former leader of the OAS and his sympathizers including du Berrier and Jacques Soustelle, preferred as the next leader of France and Algeria by powerful Texas oilmen, were at the very least a rallying point for events in play in the spring of 1963. @copyright Coup in Dallas

 

[Leslie Sharp]

The Diem Myth, by Hilaire du Berrier.

This scathing analysis of Diem was published just weeks before Kennedy's assassination in a clear attack on JFK's policy toward the Diem Brothers.

https://www.fpparchive.org/media/documents/communism_and_responses/The Diem Myth_Hilaire Berrier_Oct 1963_American Opinion.pdf

[Allen Lowe]

2 hours ago, Steve Roe said:

Hello Mr. DiEugenio, anyone home? The Walker shooting took place on April 10, 1963. Oswald's rifle was found on 11/22, that's almost 7 months. Rifle cleaning solution? What in the world are you talking about? If it was dirty 7 months ago on the exterior, of course Oswald would have cleaned it.  You wipe it off with a damp cloth and if you wanted you can lightly oil the metal, polish the wood stock and run a bristle brush down the barrel. 

And who said he buried it in the dirt? He could have buried in a brush pile up near theMKT RR tracks. 

Earth to Steve Roe: Where is your proof? You LN nuts are all the same - you demand material, empirical proof until you don't demand material, empirical proof, which is when YOU make an argument. And honestly, the concealment idea is the dumbest effing thing I have heard in the whole JFK LN fiasco. Yeah, he could have buried it, you might have helped him. Anything is possible in LN Land. Try again, we on the other side are not that dumb.

[Benjamin Cole]

8 hours ago, Steve Roe said:

Ben, so you have seen the actual HSCA tapes of Blakey holding up a steel-jacketed bullet? 

That's great, I've been on the hunt for that old video. Can you link me and everyone here to that video of Blakey holding the steel jacketed bullet?

 

At times, whether you are CTer or LNer, Blakey's reasoning seems...off. 

Example: Blakey looks at a scar on Connally's back, and says "See the size of that scar? Prove the bullet tumbled, and ergo the SBT is true." 

Well, except that the bullet hole in the rear of Connally's shirt is small and round, just large enough to accommodate a straight shot. 

Add on Connally's surgeon testified he "debrided" the wound, or cut away dead tissue, thus enlarging the wound and subsequent scar.  

And Connally's back was not at a perfect 90-degree angle to the shot. 

If Blakey held up ungilded steel jacketed bullets on national TV...well, sad so say, I am not surprised. 

Blakey may have been an earnest and solid anti-Mob lawyer. 

As a detective...well, Barney Fife comes to ind. 

[Leslie Sharp]

As early as January 1963, Walker was circulating pamphlets filled with anti-Semitic racist tropes to his friends and philosophical adherents in Europe, not simply to military troops.  Was this an operation to prepare the international soil for the inevitable hit on the US president in Dallas?  Was it critical for both Walker and Willoughby to act as roving ambassadors in Europe and beyond to assure those of like mind (ABN, WACL, etc.) that Kennedy would be taken care?

The papers referred to around line 3 of this report are said to be a stack of those pamphlets. I'll be receiving the images soon, but if anyone here has a link, I would appreciate seeing it. 
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth338124/

Edited March 28, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Leslie Sharp]

36 minutes ago, Benjamin Cole said:

 

At times, whether you are CTer or LNer, Blakey's reasoning seems...off. 

Example: Blakey looks at a scar on Connally's back, and says "See the size of that scar? Prove the bullet tumbled, and ergo the SBT is true." 

Well, except that the bullet hole in the rear of Connally's shirt is small and round, just large enough to accommodate a straight shot. 

Add on Connally's surgeon testified he "debrided" the wound, or cut away dead tissue, thus enlarging the wound and subsequent scar.  

And Connally's back was not at a perfect 90-degree angle to the shot. 

If Blakey held up ungilded steel jacketed bullets on national TV...well, sad so say, I am not surprised. 

Blakey may have been an earnest and solid anti-Mob lawyer. 

As a detective...well, Barney Fife comes to ind. 

Another example is Blakey acknowledging publicly during a 1981 interview that he had seen the Jean Rene Souetre files presented to HSCA by J. Gary Shaw in December but that by the following December they still hadn't pursued the leads, saying [paraphrasing] we just didn't have time. 

Both Walker and Souetre are identified in the records of Pierre Lafitte and in fact, an April 30 datebook entry reads,

Tuesday, April 30, 1963

WALKER = SOUETRE IN NEW ORLEANS/ARMS

(DAVIS WHERE? CABLE TO O.)

[Leslie Sharp]

Another example is Blakey acknowledging publicly during a 1981 interview that he had seen the Jean Rene Souetre files presented to HSCA by J. Gary Shaw in December but that by the following December they still hadn't pursued the leads, saying [paraphrasing] we just didn't have time. 

Both Walker and Souetre are identified in the records of Pierre Lafitte and in fact, an April 30 datebook entry reads,

Tuesday, April 30, 1963

WALKER = SOUETRE IN NEW ORLEANS/ARMS

(DAVIS WHERE? CABLE TO O.)

[Greg Doudna]

The single most important difference between the Scott Reid article and my study is this. Referring to the testimony of witness Kirk Coleman who saw two persons in two cars leaving the church parking lot next to Walker's house immediately following the shot, Reid states, in the Kennedys and King article of March 19, 2023:

"Coleman provided a detailed description of both men ... Sixty years later, the identities of the two men have yet to be uncovered ..."

The first sentences of my study, posted on my website on March 11, 2023: 

"Witness Kirk Coleman saw two men in two cars ... The following represents a breakthrough in the case: a solid identification of one of those two vehicles and individuals seen by witness Coleman. The solution to this identification has been missed in all studies until now. This breakthrough is not minor but critical, going to the heart of what happened that evening of April 10, 1963 ..."

My study argues that man No. 2 of Coleman was Walker aide Robert Surrey going to his car, coming from the Walker house. Readers (including Scott Reid who I am sure had not seen my study at the time he submitted his article to Kennedys and King) can assess on the basis of the evidence and judge up or down for themselves: was Coleman's car No. 2 Robert Surrey's car, and Coleman's man No. 2 Robert Surrey, or not? 

That is the central starting point of my study, the breakthrough in the case. As the quote from the Scott Reid article shows, as recently as March 19, 2023 the Robert Surrey identification of one of the two cars seen by Kirk Coleman was still not on the radar of the mainstream of the CT community.

It was all made possible for me by the work of Gayle Nix Jackson who produced Pieces of the Puzzle (2017), and contributions from her coauthors such as Steve Roe. Gayle Nix Jackson reported the data, I read it a few times without realizing the significance, until one day as I read and thought, read and thought ... and then an "aha!" reaction as I put 2 and 2 together and came up with 4. If not for Pieces of the Puzzle this would not have happened. I will be interested in and welcome Scott Reid's take on my study.

This morning I was honored to see Jefferson Morley feature the work of Gayle Nix Jackson and my study on his online newsletter, JFK Facts (https://jfkfacts.substack.com/p/did-lee-harvey-oswald-shoot-general?utm_. (Worth the price of the one or two cups of coffee per month subscription to help support the work of a hardworking journalist who is probably the premier journalist dealing with the JFK assassination in America.) 

Edited March 28, 2023 by Greg Doudna

[Benjamin Cole]

3 hours ago, Greg Doudna said:

The single most important difference between the Scott Reid article and my study is this. Referring to the testimony of witness Kirk Coleman who saw two persons in two cars leaving the church parking lot next to Walker's house immediately following the shot, Reid states, in the Kennedys and King article of March 19, 2023:

"Coleman provided a detailed description of both men ... Sixty years later, the identities of the two men have yet to be uncovered ..."

The first sentences of my study, posted on my website on March 11, 2023: 

"Witness Kirk Coleman saw two men in two cars ... The following represents a breakthrough in the case: a solid identification of one of those two vehicles and individuals seen by witness Coleman. The solution to this identification has been missed in all studies until now. This breakthrough is not minor but critical, going to the heart of what happened that evening of April 10, 1963 ..."

My study argues that man No. 2 of Coleman was Walker aide Robert Surrey going to his car, coming from the Walker house. Readers (including Scott Reid who I am sure had not seen my study at the time he submitted his article to Kennedys and King) can assess on the basis of the evidence and judge up or down for themselves: was Coleman's car No. 2 Robert Surrey's car, and Coleman's man No. 2 Robert Surrey, or not? 

That is the central starting point of my study, the breakthrough in the case. As the quote from the Scott Reid article shows, as recently as March 19, 2023 the Robert Surrey identification of one of the two cars seen by Kirk Coleman was still not on the radar of the mainstream of the CT community.

It was all made possible for me by the work of Gayle Nix Jackson who produced Pieces of the Puzzle (2017), and contributions from her coauthors such as Steve Roe. Gayle Nix Jackson reported the data, I read it a few times without realizing the significance, until one day as I read and thought, read and thought ... and then an "aha!" reaction as I put 2 and 2 together and came up with 4. If not for Pieces of the Puzzle this would not have happened. I will be interested in and welcome Scott Reid's take on my study.

This morning I was honored to see Jefferson Morley feature the work of Gayle Nix Jackson and my study on his online newsletter, JFK Facts (https://jfkfacts.substack.com/p/did-lee-harvey-oswald-shoot-general?utm_. (Worth the price of the one or two cups of coffee per month subscription to help support the work of a hardworking journalist who is probably the premier journalist dealing with the JFK assassination in America.) 

Interesting. 

 

[James DiEugenio]

Whenever someone quotes Roe, I have to read his baloney.

No one ever saw Oswald working on that rifle with any kind of solution.  The most anyone could come up with it was he would be working the bolt etc. that kind of stuff.  The only time anyone saw him cleaning it was Marina months before. But then (yawn) she changed her story since the FBI alerted her that the rifle had not been sent yet. So she now said it was in April, but still before the Walker shooting.

its really fun working with facts not in evidence eh? Love that coat story. Kind of Don Adamsish.

As Leo Sauvage also said, what did he dig the hole with?  His bare hands?  If he did bury it how did he recall where he did so 4 days later? Did he set up a marker perhaps:  "This is the spot Lee!"

Bugliosi found this issue so troubling that he kind of gave up and said, well he just buried it under some leaves!  😜

BTW, if you look at that Meagher quote, Marina blew her story again, it did not match the Baron and his wife.

How anyone on this board, in this day and age, can rely on this woman for any kind of evidentiary record of fact is simply amazing.

In any real legal proceeding, which the Warren Commission was a lampoon of, Oswald would have been found not guilty in the Walker shooting.

Edited March 28, 2023 by James DiEugenio

[Steve Roe]

13 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

If Blakey held up ungilded steel jacketed bullets on national TV...well, sad so say, I am not surprised. 

Ben, now your story is changing. You stated that the HSCA did show a steel-jacketed, non-copper gilded bullet. Which I assumed you did see the HSCA video of Blakey holding up that bullet. 

Now, you say if Blakey held up ungilded steel jacketed bullets on national TV. 

[Benjamin Cole]

29 minutes ago, Steve Roe said:

Ben, now your story is changing. You stated that the HSCA did show a steel-jacketed, non-copper gilded bullet. Which I assumed you did see the HSCA video of Blakey holding up that bullet. 

Now, you say if Blakey held up ungilded steel jacketed bullets on national TV. 

My story has not changed. 

Here is what I wrote:

"In all fairness, I think Walker's letter to the HSCA was in error, so to speak. 

For whatever reason, the HSCA, during hearings, broadcast some images of unfired steel-jacketed bullets, which were not copper-gilded.

It looked as though the HSCA was saying, "See, these are steel-jacketed bullets, like the one found in Walker's home." 

Walker then fired off a letter to the effect the bullet found in his home was badly mangled etc."

---30---

It has been a number of decades since the HSCA hearings, and that is about as much as I remember about this particular point.

IMHO, the HSCA was bungling matters, and besides that everyone had bad hairdos. 

If you remember Blakey himself holding up steel-jacketed bullets at the HSCA hearings, I do not contest that. I just do not remember that exact episode.