DALLAS — the Scene of the Crime

[Paul Brancato]

Leslie - where does the reference to collecting N memorabilia come from?

[Joe Bauer]

2 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

Leslie - where does the reference to collecting N memorabilia come from?

This was referenced in the main stream news several times yesterday.

My wife and I read two accounts on line yesterday.

[Leslie Sharp]

3 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

Leslie - where does the reference to collecting N memorabilia come from?

Paul, ProPublica broke the news of the lavish trips enjoyed by Clarence and Ginni Thomas paid for by their dear friends Harlan Crow and his wife.  
I followed the story to Salon to read a first-hand account of the N-azi collection. (seen here.)  From there I read the Washingtonian report which includes photos. (see link below.)

In a series of tweets written on Saturday morning, sociotechnical researcher, Danah Boyd describes visiting Crow's home years ago while attending a meeting about the future of Democracy, during which she viewed his collection first-hand.

"I didn't know who Harlan Crow was at the time," says Boyd. "I was told he was a major GOP fundraiser . . . Years later, I still shudder thinking about the National Socialist uniform decorations in Harlan Crow's house. And the painting. And the book. And the statues. And the "antebellum" (pro slavery) artifacts. I'm glad others are questioning the acceptability of those materials."

As detailed in the Washingtonian report, Crow's collection contains "two of [Hitler's] paintings of European cityscapes, a signed copy of 'Mein Kampf,' and assorted National Socialist memorabilia—plus a garden full of statues of the 20th century's worst despots."

According to Crow, he collects such things because "he hates communism and fascism."

https://www.washingtonian.com/2023/04/07/clarence-thomass-billionaire-benefactor-collects-hitler-artifacts/

[Leslie Sharp]

4 hours ago, Joe Bauer said:

My goodness.

It's all one big octopus of corruption!

Tentacles everywhere!

Don't forget Clint Murchison's Del Charro resort in La Jolla, Ca.

Where guests there included members of organized crime and from time to time, J. Edgar Hoover and his live in friend Clyde Tolson, Nixon, Joe McCarthy and on and on.

Texas was a virtual "corruption incorporated" state.

Where if you needed to, one could get trial verdict convicted murderers off scot-free ... LBJ and Malcolm Wallace!  Now THAT's "Texas Style" corruption.

And monsters like Skorzeny and his wife are resurrected, protected and used by Texas connection interests?

The connection mentioned regarding Ginny and Clarence Thomas "friend" Harlan Crow and JFK/Texas times Trammel Crow are valid and should not be cause for moving this thread off the main forum ...imo anyways.

 

Joe, I agree. The disconnect is perplexing to say the least.  

[Leslie Sharp]

The 1963 records of Pierre Lafitte provide indisputable evidence that Dallas was always the designated scene of the crime to overthrow the US government as President Kennedy prepared to run for reelection. 

The rationale for selecting Dallas may seem complex and even controversial, in particular to those that believe the Chicago, Miami or Tampa plots were meant to succeed. Lafitte’s entry on November 1, “Trial runs . . . mistakes aplenty – Not Good” sets that record straight. 

            This chapter will explain that of all American cities, including Miami, Tampa, or Chicago, Dallas had “everything going for it”: a right-wing Republican climate that considered Kennedy an anathema to its political goals; a social and religious community that embraced segregation and recoiled at the suggestion that a Roman Catholic could navigate the delicate balance between church and state; a law enforcement apparatus with allegiance to the city’s ultraconservative political agenda; a crime syndicate that manipulated both sides of that law; and a thriving corporate and financial cabal operating in symbiosis with the oil industry and military contractors all of whom aligned far more with the ideologies of fascist regimes than with democracies. Adding to the assertion is a Lafitte note, “Rene says oil smooths the way to silent, and sometimes deadly, change.” Above all, as Renee told the author, Dallas was the “arms and legs of the CIA,” a truth borne out.

[Ron Bulman]

8 hours ago, Pete Mellor said:

That's Pinky Westbrook Ron.

Thanks Pete.  I don't know what I was thinking.  I knew it was Westbrook, not Bently.  They were both involved in the arrest of Oswald.  I corrected this.

[Michael Griffith]

1 hour ago, Leslie Sharp said:

Paul, ProPublica broke the news of the lavish trips enjoyed by Clarence and Ginni Thomas paid for by their dear friends Harlan Crow and his wife.  
I followed the story to Salon to read a first-hand account of the N-azi collection. (seen here.)  From there I read the Washingtonian report which includes photos. (see link below.)

In a series of tweets written on Saturday morning, sociotechnical researcher, Danah Boyd describes visiting Crow's home years ago while attending a meeting about the future of Democracy, during which she viewed his collection first-hand.

"I didn't know who Harlan Crow was at the time," says Boyd. "I was told he was a major GOP fundraiser . . . Years later, I still shudder thinking about the National Socialist uniform decorations in Harlan Crow's house. And the painting. And the book. And the statues. And the "antebellum" (pro slavery) artifacts. I'm glad others are questioning the acceptability of those materials."

As detailed in the Washingtonian report, Crow's collection contains "two of [Hitler's] paintings of European cityscapes, a signed copy of 'Mein Kampf,' and assorted National Socialist memorabilia—plus a garden full of statues of the 20th century's worst despots."

According to Crow, he collects such things because "he hates communism and fascism."

https://www.washingtonian.com/2023/04/07/clarence-thomass-billionaire-benefactor-collects-hitler-artifacts/

Humm, well, Clarence Thomas showed bad judgment in accepting the luxury trips from Harlan Crow. When Thomas and his wife went on the trips, he was not technically or specifically required to report them as part of his annual financial disclosure statement, but he should have done so anyway. All this being said, I hope nobody is suggesting that Thomas harbors any sympathy for the Third Reich or N-azism. Nothing in his writings or history lends the slightest credence to such a belief.

[Leslie Sharp]

28 minutes ago, Michael Griffith said:

Humm, well, Clarence Thomas showed bad judgment in accepting the luxury trips from Harlan Crow. When Thomas and his wife went on the trips, he was not technically or specifically required to report them as part of his annual financial disclosure statement, but he should have done so anyway. All this being said, I hope nobody is suggesting that Thomas harbors any sympathy for the Third Reich or N-azism. Nothing in his writings or history lends the slightest credence to such a belief.

The subject, Michael, is the Thomas couple's close friend Harlan Crow, son of Dallas developer Trammell Crow who manifested Robert G. Storey's* brainchild — an international trade mart in Dallas.  As you likely know, the Crow dynasty's Dallas Trade Mart was the final destination of Kennedy's motorcade as it passed through Dealey Plaza. Awaiting with a formal welcome to Dallas was mayor Eric Jonnson, co-founder of military contractor Texas Instruments. As an aside (and further evidence of the high strangeness of interconnectedness of characters and events in the lead up to the coup), Jonnson also cofounded the Graduate Research Center of the Southwest. The managing director at the time, Lauriston Marshall, had played host to a small gathering in early January 1963, including George de Mohrenschildt's close friend Sam Ballen, and Everett Glover of Mobil Oil who then set in motion the eventual introduction of Ruth Paine to Lee and Marina Oswald. Both Glover and de Mohrenschildt appear in the 1963 datebook maintained by Pierre Lafitte, as does Robert Storey, and Otto and Ilse Skorzeny on numerous dates. 

*Storey had known SS Otto Skorzeny since the war.

Returning to "real time", in context of the aforementioned history, according to eyewitness Danah Boyle, Harlan Crow collects N-zi memoribliia. Are you arguing that the Thomas couple never visited Crow's home in Dallas?  

Edited April 10, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Gil Jesus]

8 hours ago, Joe Bauer said:

My goodness.

It's all one big octopus of corruption!

Tentacles everywhere!

Don't forget Clint Murchison's Del Charro resort in La Jolla, Ca.

Where guests there included members of organized crime and from time to time, J. Edgar Hoover and his live in friend Clyde Tolson, Nixon, Joe McCarthy and on and on.

Texas was a virtual "corruption incorporated" state.

Where if you needed to, one could get trial verdict convicted murderers off scot-free ... LBJ and Malcolm Wallace!  Now THAT's "Texas Style" corruption.

And monsters like Skorzeny and his wife are resurrected, protected and used by Texas connection interests?

The connection mentioned regarding Ginny and Clarence Thomas "friend" Harlan Crow and JFK/Texas times Trammel Crow are valid and should not be cause for moving this thread off the main forum ...imo anyways.

 

Joe, I think the murder of USDA agent Henry Marshall in 1961 is significant because it demonstrates how someone politically connected could, in fact, get away with murder in Texas in the early 1960s.

[Joe Bauer]

3 hours ago, Gil Jesus said:

Joe, I think the murder of USDA agent Henry Marshall in 1961 is significant because it demonstrates how someone politically connected could, in fact, get away with murder in Texas in the early 1960s.

True.

[Leslie Sharp]

' . . . The first mention [of Caretaker] is on March 7, just days after Lee Oswald was introduced to Ruth Hyde Paine in the home of Socony Mobil Oil chemist Everett Glover. Everett had known both Ruth and her estranged husband, Michael, through Madrigal choir practices and performances, a passion shared with Hungarian-born Fr. Ralph March, who cofounded Our Lady of Dallas, the Cistercian Abby located in Irving, Texas. Fr. March also served on the faculty of the University of Dallas, located on the campus of the Abby, during the tenure of President Robert Morris, the head of the regional chapter of the ultraconservative John Birch Society (JBS), and legal counsel to General Edwin A. Walker. (Morris’s history has been pursued in depth earlier in this book.) Michael Paine testified that out of curiosity, he attended a John Birch meeting in October at the invitation of a JBS advocate who was part of the Madrigal choir. . . . 

So How Does It All Come Together?

Roy Marcus Cohn, identified as one of the most powerful attorneys in Senator Joseph McCarthy’s stable during the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and the ensuing Army-McCarthy hearings—and Robert Morris of the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee who would later become a senior executive of the John Birch Society—each epitomized the philosophical argument that the only bulwark against the scourge of the earth, communism, was unregulated capitalism functioning in league with a fully sympathetic and compliant government apparatus, the generally accepted definition of fascism.

In the early 1950s, Cohn had caught the eye of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover who soon recommended the twenty-four-year-old attorney to his personal friend, Joe McCarthy, to fill the role of his chief counsel. For assistant counsel, McCarthy fulfilled another request, that of his good friend Joseph P. Kennedy who was looking for a spot for his young and restless son, Robert F. Kennedy. McCarthy designated RFK as assistant counsel to his committee, working alongside Hoover’s professional protégé, Roy Cohn. 

Perhaps concerned for his political future as a liberal Democrat, or perhaps out of genuine disgust, Kennedy began to object to the aggression with which the committee, especially Cohn, was pursuing intelligence on suspected communists. He would eventually resign his duties as minority counsel, and although he managed to maintain a cordial relationship with McCarthy in deference to his father, a seismic rift developed between him and McCarthy’s counsel, Roy Cohn, one that would fester for a decade. When Robert took over the reins at the justice department in 1961, Cohn’s close association with FBI Director Hoover factored into the acrimony caused by Kennedy’s shift of focus from domestic surveillance to organized crime. RFK’s decision hampered Hoover’s obsession with a young minister and Black activist, Martin Luther King, Jr. who he had been spying on, and set the stage for what would become a virtual standoff between the attorney general and the director of domestic intelligence. After the assassination of Bobby Kennedy’s brother, Hoover was free to pursue his fixation with King and, brazenly, his bureau initiated attempts to blackmail the unflinching, charismatic leader of the civil rights movement. . . .

. . . In a stroke of synchronicity in September 1963, just weeks after suspected East German spy and seductress Ellen Rometsch was quietly shipped out of the US, Roy Cohn was indicted in the Southern District of New York with the blessing of Attorney General Robert Kennedy. US Attorney Robert Morgenthau, a good friend of the Kennedy family and an early appointee of President John Kennedy, had been aggressively investigating Cohn since taking office in 1961. That investigation culminated with the late 1963 indictments for perjury and obstruction of justice. According to Cohn’s oral history taken by James Oesterle for the Robert F. Kennedy Oral History Program of the Kennedy Library, when Robert Kennedy received the fateful call that his brother had been assassinated in Dallas, he was at home in Virginia having lunch with Bobby Morgenthau to discuss the Roy Cohn case. History records that the call came from Cohn’s old friend, Director Hoover.  

 

Indigo Olivier/April 10, 2023

Today’s Paranoid Right Has Surpassed the John Birch Society

Matthew Dallek’s “Birchers” traces how conspiracy theories went from being a fringe pastime to the right’s defining feature.

. . . During their most active years, Birchers formed dozens of chapters across the country. Their predominantly wealthy, white Christian membership was looking for a vehicle outside of the two-party system with which to make an impact. Members operated in relative secrecy and independence, organizing letter-writing campaigns to lawmakers, running for school board elections, and rallying behind local causes. Members fought against civil rights legislation, school integration, sex education, taxes, and public health measures like water fluoridation which they believed was a plot to poison Americans. They self-published right-wing literature, hosted talk radio shows and grew through word-of-mouth referrals. The John Birch Society pioneered the use of front groups to shape public opinion and policy, and counted Fred Koch of Koch Industries among its founding members. . . .

https://newrepublic.com/article/171736/todays-paranoid-right-surpassed-john-birch-society

Note: Matthew Dallek, author of prizewinning histories of the twentieth century, is the son of Robert Dallek, esteemed historian and author of "An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy 1917 - 1963". The senior Dallek is noted for having succeeded as no other biographer has done in striking a critical balance -- never shying away from JFK's weaknesses, brilliantly exploring his strengths -- as he offers up a vivid portrait of a bold, brave, complex, heroic, human Kennedy.

 

[Ron Bulman]

11 hours ago, Leslie Sharp said:

Lafitte’s entry on November 1, “Trial runs . . . mistakes aplenty – Not Good” sets that record straight. 

I do believe Chicago, Miami and Tampa were trial runs but also part of a series of reported threats where nothing happened.  Intended to make some skeptical after nothing happened repeatedly.  Right down to they made it through down town Dallas, the city he was advised not to go to, just not quite all the way out of it.  The thing is with these three, Chicago happened on 11/2, both Miami and Tampa were on 11/18.

This does not mean they were not Trial runs, or threats meant to lull.  We do know there was reportedly a threat of an attempt in LA in June of 1963.  And one I didn't remember reading of until tonight on 11/21/63 in San Antonio.  None of these were brought to public attention at the time, none came up in the Warren report, they were in fact suppressed for years.  Which we now know, e.g. Abram Bolden, Don Adams.

I have to wonder if there were other Trial runs that we never found anything out about.  For that matter I think I've read Secret Service reports about this for November or the fall of 1963 were never released or destroyed or disappeared.

Might there have possibly been more than one type of Trial run?  I think about the scene in Executive Action where they are practicing shooting down at a mannequin in a convertible driving slowly by in a desert canyon.  Maybe a little more elaborate and detailed than that.

I've thought for a few years now the assassination was planned in detail well in advance.  Multiple shots, exfiltration/no one was caught.  Might a Trial run, or two or three have been done in Dealy Plaza/ the TSBD?  Maybe a couple of Sunday afternoons a month or more before the actual act so as to not attract attention to the area near the date of it, and, time to review, discuss and correct "mistakes aplenty".  People observe from the GK, South Knoll, TSBD, Dal-Tex, a guy in a convertible with a couple in the back seat drives by 2-3 times, test getting into position, getting away.

 The Three Failed Plots to Kill JFK: The Historians' Guide on how to Research his Assassination – with an addendum (kennedysandking.com)

Edited April 11, 2023 by Ron Bulman

[Leslie Sharp]

 

A researcher recently brought to my attention that Christopher Simpson's Splendid Blonde Beast details the machinations of certain US authorities, including Bill Donovan, to ensure that Hitler’s (former) favorite banker Hjalmar Schacht was acquitted following indictment for war crimes. Despite Judge Robert Jackson’s objections, Schacht was released to resume his career. I urge all to read those sections if you have the book, bearing in mind that Robert Storey (director of RNB Dallas) and Leon Jaworski (attorney for Houston-based Schlumberger who maintained a Dallas presence in RNB Dallas) reported to Judge Jackson.  Storey’s recently released diaries indicate he dined with Donovan on occasion during the Nuremberg ordeal. Storey later served as the exclusive Dallas liaison to Allen Dulles and the Warren Commission.

As we know, Bill Donovan, along with Allen Dulles and William Stephenson created the World Commerce Corporation, a vehicle that served Dulles and his corporate clients especially, but was also used by Otto Skorzeny to advance a visionary agenda shared by Rudel, Degrelle, Bernhardt who had been instrumental in defending the Third Reich.

 

It’s clear now that the path to who actually financed the Dallas plot likely begins — and possibly ends — with the banker long-considered one of the brightest minds in world-banking, Hjalmar Schacht, operating in league with those who permitted him to resume his financial career instead of going to prison (or worse) as a convicted National Socialist criminal. 

 

Simpson’s research is a fascinating account that emphasizes just how essential Schacht — referred to by Ilse and Otto Skorzeny as “uncle” — was to American interests in pre-post WWII Germany.

 

Well worth the read because it also provides an even deeper appreciation for just how the mechanics of Ilse’s eventual role in the plot to kill Kennedy worked. It was Donovan’s chief of security, Archbold van Beuren who founded the global real estate concern Previews Inc.  Van Beuren returned to Cue Magazine and Previews Inc. after the war and within several years, Ilse Skorzeny was on board Previews, providing her access and cover for travel on a global scale.

 

We also know that in the lead up to the assassination, Ilse could use the newly opened Dallas office of Previews, Inc.  — a building that can be traced to Dallas developer Leo Corrigan who was Ruby’s landlord and an investor in properties in the Bahamas with Clint Murchison, both of whom relied on the contacts of Schacht and Sir Stafford Sands) — as justification for arriving and departing Dallas throughout the summer and fall of 1963. 

 

We wouldn’t know any of this without Pierre Lafitte. . .

 

Ilse remains “dormant” in Pierre’s world until October 15 when another meeting is held in New York at the offices of Previews Inc., 49 East 53rd, involving General Charles Willoughby. On the 24th, Ilse meets with “T,” and on the 30th, one day following the forty-eight-hour planning session for Lancelot, Pierre makes a note to call Ilse. 

To date, the identity of the individual or individuals who served as liaison between the Dallas contingency and Schacht has yet to be determined, but considering that Howard Corp. (an off the books entity of Republic National Bank) was a member of the Texas syndicate in Spain, we can assume someone within the Howard Corp./Republic Bank cabal was directly involved. This places National Socialist banker Hjalmar Schacht in the middle of the Dallas oil and finance community as early as 1952.

11:30 meet [Old] Warsaw [restaurant] ( + Hotel) with 

T.  and  Hjalmar / Ilse - Get $

November 7, 1963

 

Hjalmar Schacht is the key to determining how exactly the bulk of the funds for Lancelot Project flowed. As referenced above, it was likely through the banking black hole of Otto Skorzeny’s business partner, Algur Meadows, executive of Howard Corp, the off-the-books account derived from West Texas Crude lodged in Republic National Bank of Dallas.

 

 

Edited April 12, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Leslie Sharp]

Out of curiosity, considering recent vehement defense of Hungarian revolutionary hero and convicted assassin Lajos Marton, I’m tracking the breadcrumbs from Hank's “Hungarians” who surfaced in his investigation into the assassination in Dallas — the scene of the crime — and possible implications for current events.

 

‘ . . . Pierre Lafitte, in a volatile October 9 datebook entry, mentions Hungarians in context of [Jean Rene] Souetre and the Lancelot project [the plot to assassination Kennedy in Dallas]. 
 

OSARN_OSARN_OSARN_

OSARN-get Willoughby-Litt- 

plus Souetre, others (Hungarians)

Lancelot proj - kill squads Dallas,

New York, Tampa-(Labadie) -T says 

called Oswald to purpose- weapons- 

Walker. Davis in N.O. with 

swamp groups Florida (Decker, 

Bender, Vickers, K of M)---
— Lafitte datebook, October 9, 1963

To underscore the ideology driving Otto’s choice for involvement in the plot to kill Kennedy, one that unites all those named on October 9 . . . the history of the Secret Organization of National Revolutionary Action (OSARN) as presented in Chapter 1 warrants repeating as well: 

OSARN was closely aligned with Benito Mussolini and Hitler. OSARN’s purpose was stated: “We want to build a new Europe in cooperation with national socialist German and all other European nations freed from liberal capitalism, Judaism, Bolshevism and French Masons . . . to regenerate France and the French race . . . to ensure that Jews who stay in France are subject to harsh laws, preventing them from infesting our race. . . . OSARN was also closely associated with Reinhardt Heydrich, head of the dreaded N-AZI Gestapo.” @Coup in Dallas

 

For contextual continuity or continuity of the coup:

NPR August 4, 2022

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is set to give the kickoff address to the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, in Dallas.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has drawn sharp condemnation across the globe for anti-democratic moves inside Hungary. He inspired a fresh round of condemnation last week for saying, quote, "we do not want to become peoples of mixed race." One top aide described the speech as pure National Socialist text and quit. Yet this week, Orban is in the U.S., where he has been warmly embraced by former President Trump and other conservative voices

(NPR's David] FOLKENFLIK: Orban met with Trump at his New Jersey estate on Tuesday and is scheduled to kick off CPAC's Dallas conference later today - same group, different location. The conference excites a certain cadre of hard-line donors and activists. Speakers in Dallas include Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Fox News' Sean Hannity and conspiracy peddler Jack Posobiec*  In Orban, attendees will hear from a European leader who promotes an explicitly Christian and white vision of Hungary, a leader who built up a hard border and severe policies to keep out migrants. Orban's ruling party has also ground down political opponents, bought off or starved independent voices in the press and in universities and targeted human rights groups. https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1115541985

*Jack Posobiec has been cited during debates on Kennedy related threads on Ed Forum, particularly the now defunct EF thread titled, “the end results of the last 57 years” launched in 2020.  

How might this all come together? Albarelli would likely suggest “high strangeness”; I believe the clue may reside in vehement defense of Hungarian revolutionary heroes and convicted assassins. 

 

Edited April 12, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Michael Griffith]

On 4/10/2023 at 12:50 PM, Leslie Sharp said:

Paul, ProPublica broke the news of the lavish trips enjoyed by Clarence and Ginni Thomas paid for by their dear friends Harlan Crow and his wife.  
I followed the story to Salon to read a first-hand account of the N-azi collection. (seen here.)  From there I read the Washingtonian report which includes photos. (see link below.)I

Leslie, if someone is going to criticize Clarence and Ginni Thomas for accepting lavish vacations from a billionaire who collects Third Reich souvenirs, they should never quote or cite, much less praise, L. Fletcher Prouty. Prouty had a close and disturbing relationship with Liberty Lobby, an anti-Semitic and Holocaust-denying group founded by the notorious Willis Carto. Prouty even volunteered to serve as a character witness for Carto in the IHR trial. 

As for Harlan Crow, it turns out that he also collects other historical souvenirs, including documents signed by George Washington, Dwight Eisenhower's helmet, French Foreign Legion gear, and statues of Communist leaders. Crow's mother was a survivor of a ship sunk by the Germans in WWII. Even Israeli newspapers have noted that Jews who know Crow insist that he is actually pro-Israeli and is not pro-N-A-Z-I in any way. (That being said, having been raised Jewish for a brief period in my childhood, having lived in Israel for a short time, and having Hebrew as my second language, I personally could not stomach having any Third Reich memorabilia in my home.)

Edited April 13, 2023 by Michael Griffith