Pierre Lafitte datebook, 1963

[Ed Berger]

29 minutes ago, Paul Brancato said:

I have a question about George Hunter White’s diary. Where is it? Can we read it? I assume Hank read it and sourced from it.

The George Hunter White papers archive is out at Stanford University in California. The archive inventory has a lot of entries for White's "daily appointment book", which might be it? 

EDIT: Box 5, folder 6 contains "George White affidavit re. Jean Pierre Lafitte". Could be a cool thing to get a copy of... 

Edited August 2, 2023 by Ed Berger

[Paul Brancato]

That’s a start - thank Ed. Do you know how to access this material? It seems to me I’ve read White’s Lafitte affidavit somewhere in one of Hank’s books. Maybe Leslie can chime in 

[Paul Brancato]

3 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

I have a question about George Hunter White’s diary. Where is it? Can we read it? I assume Hank read it and sourced from it.

While reading about White in A Terrible Mistake I noticed a reference to a Colonel James (Hunter) Drum, who was present at a meeting with White, Sidney Gottlieb, Angleton and others discussing using LSD on unsuspecting test subjects in 1953. Drum was head of what was known, perhaps later, as the CIA’s Technical Services Division. Maybe I’m repeating something others have already posted about. I’m thinking of the notation in the datebook ‘DUUM’. 

[Paul Brancato]

There is also a section in A Terrible Mistake taken from an unpublished Lafitte memoir. And Hank refers to White’s ‘datebook’ in A Terrible Mistake’.

Edited August 2, 2023 by Paul Brancato

[Leslie Sharp]

3 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

While reading about White in A Terrible Mistake I noticed a reference to a Colonel James (Hunter) Drum, who was present at a meeting with White, Sidney Gottlieb, Angleton and others discussing using LSD on unsuspecting test subjects in 1953. Drum was head of what was known, perhaps later, as the CIA’s Technical Services Division. Maybe I’m repeating something others have already posted about. I’m thinking of the notation in the datebook ‘DUUM’. 

But the context of DUUM is rifles into building, DPD, etc.  Not sure why Drum would surface on November 20 in this context.

DUUM is the Latin word for deux, French for TWO as in rifles.

This is an instance of why singling out words, terms, initials, phrases, names from any given entry can lead to confusion and possibly distort (witting or not) the investigation.  

[Leslie Sharp]

3 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

There is also a section in A Terrible Mistake taken from an unpublished Lafitte memoir. And Hank refers to White’s ‘datebook’ in A Terrible Mistake’.

Right.  Hank had access to a portion of the memoir that Rene had hoped would one day be published.

Hank made at least two, possibly three trips to CA to study the White diaries. I believe both Tom O'Neill and Jeff Morley have reviewed the diaries as well. White probably provided the deepest insight into Lafitte of any of Hank's sources.

Edited August 2, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Leslie Sharp]

7 hours ago, Ed Berger said:

The George Hunter White papers archive is out at Stanford University in California. The archive inventory has a lot of entries for White's "daily appointment book", which might be it? 

EDIT: Box 5, folder 6 contains "George White affidavit re. Jean Pierre Lafitte". Could be a cool thing to get a copy of... 

I believe both O'Neill and Morley have notes from White's diaries as well although they weren't focused on Lafitte.  It might be worthwhile to ask about the affidavit. 

 

O'Neill did uncover that Ilse Skorzeny had been in California.

Edited August 2, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Ron Bulman]

My brand new copy of A Terrible Mistake came in Monday.  The first thing I did was check out the end notes for the chapters on White and Laffite (22 and 23 pages in each chapter).  I'm no literary or historical critic but they seem pretty extensive to me, how thorough I can't say for sure yet but they are both about a page and a half of very fine print each.  The first (White) consists of 13 separate entries, the second (Laffite), 24 entries.  At least one long paragraph in each, and many of the entries have further references within them.

I just finished reading these two chapters today.  Fascinating.  More later from them but they led me to look around a bit where I found this 1969 Time article on Laffite, The Gourmet Pirate.

"December 3, 1963, he posted a $25,000 bail and vanished. . . . turning up again two years ago (1967) in New Orleans."

Nation: The Gourmet Pirate - TIME

While looking I also found this EDU thread I thought I'd link here instead of bumping.

 

[Leslie Sharp]

7 minutes ago, Ron Bulman said:

My brand new copy of A Terrible Mistake came in Monday.  The first thing I did was check out the end notes for the chapters on White and Laffite (22 and 23 pages in each chapter).  I'm no literary or historical critic but they seem pretty extensive to me, how thorough I can't say for sure yet but they are both about a page and a half of very fine print each.  The first (White) consists of 13 separate entries, the second (Laffite), 24 entries.  At least one long paragraph in each, and many of the entries have further references within them.

I just finished reading these two chapters today.  Fascinating.  More later from them but they led me to look around a bit where I found this 1969 Time article on Laffite, The Gourmet Pirate.

"December 3, 1963, he posted a $25,000 bail and vanished. . . . turning up again two years ago (1967) in New Orleans."

Nation: The Gourmet Pirate - TIME

While looking I also found this EDU thread I thought I'd link here instead of bumping.

 

I think I shared the TIME Magazine article on another thread recently or perhaps earlier on this one. It's one of the more flagrant puff pieces on the enigmatic Lafitte, published just eight months after Shaw was acquitted with no mention of their history;  Lafitte was the lead Chef at the Plimsoll Club housed in Shaw's new ITM building at the time he was picked up by the Feds for a seven year old indictment.  You really can't make this up.

Notice Anthony Frewin's appearance here? I encourage you to read the essay, Clay Shaw, Pierre Lafitte, and Two Degrees of Separation . . . posted on an independent thread under that title. That essay was in prelim draft when I first met Hank; I had no idea he knew Frewin.

[Ron Bulman]

I'd never heard of the Corps of Intelligence Police.  A part of the Military Intelligence Division of the Army in WWI.  From this group of about 400 French and German speakers in 1917 several became the Special Security Group for the American Expeditionary force in France.   Shortly after landing they were arrested because of their unusual attire.  One, a teenager from Louisiana using the name Jean Paul Laffite.

Condensed and paraphrased from page 405 of A Terrible Mistake by H J Albarelli.

Chronologically this is the first public mention of Laffite's name I've seen yet.  In service of the U S Military.  Conman, thief, murderer, drug dealer, likely.  A good bit of it on behalf of the USA.  Not a hero but useful, even in his youth.

[Paul Brancato]

8 hours ago, Leslie Sharp said:

Right.  Hank had access to a portion of the memoir that Rene had hoped would one day be published.

Hank made at least two, possibly three trips to CA to study the White diaries. I believe both Tom O'Neill and Jeff Morley have reviewed the diaries as well. White probably provided the deepest insight into Lafitte of any of Hank's sources.

Hank had access to a portion of the memoir that Rene, Jean Pierre’s wife? Hoped one day would be published. Where is the memoir now?

[Ron Bulman]

1 hour ago, Ron Bulman said:

I'd never heard of the Corps of Intelligence Police.  A part of the Military Intelligence Division of the Army in WWI.  From this group of about 400 French and German speakers in 1917 several became the Special Security Group for the American Expeditionary force in France.   Shortly after landing they were arrested because of their unusual attire.  One, a teenager from Louisiana using the name Jean Paul Laffite.

Condensed and paraphrased from page 405 of A Terrible Mistake by H J Albarelli.

Chronologically this is the first public mention of Laffite's name I've seen yet.  In service of the U S Military.  Conman, thief, murderer, drug dealer, likely.  A good bit of it on behalf of the USA.  Not a hero but useful, even in his youth.

Bumping what I thought was important material.

[Jeremy Bojczuk]

Leslie Sharp writes:

Quote

DUUM is the Latin word for deux, French for TWO as in rifles.

As I explained back on page 11, duum is not the Latin word for 'two' or 'deux'.

The Latin word for 'two' is duo, not duum. The latter was an archaic, i.e. non-standard, version of duorum, the genitive form of duo. It means something like 'of the two', and makes no sense in the context of 'rifle into building / [illegible] DPD /' (check the original, provided by Andrej Stancak).

Can anyone think of a good reason why, in that context, a native French speaker writing in English would use an archaic form of the Latin word for 'of the two'? If, for whatever reason, the author of the datebook really felt the urge to write something in Latin, why didn't he just use the word duo?

Since the remainder of that entry appears to be in English (insofar as it can be deciphered at all), why didn't he use the English word 'two'? Does the author, whoever he was, do this sort of thing elsewhere? If not, why would he do it here?

The word probably isn't DUUM, is it? And if it isn't DUUM, that entry probably isn't referring to two rifles, is it?

Indistinct handwriting, combined with vague phrases and incomplete sentences, allows plenty of room for interpretation. These are precisely the sort of features you would expect of a datebook that was fabricated to appeal to over-imaginative conspiracy-minded folk who enjoy playing join-the-dots but aren't too bothered about establishing the authenticity of their sources.

Given the harm that this venture could cause to genuine criticism of the lone-gunman ideology, perhaps Leslie could get in touch with the film production company and let them know that the datebook is probably a fake and thus can be of no use to anyone who wants to find out who killed JFK.

[Leslie Sharp]

14 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

Hank had access to a portion of the memoir that Rene, Jean Pierre’s wife? Hoped one day would be published. Where is the memoir now?

Presumably the full text is with the owner /estate of Lafitte.

[Ron Bulman]

CIA agents were reportedly not to keep datebooks per their confidentiality agreements from what I've read.  Former director Allen Dulles apparently did.  Per recent re confirmation on this site, his for 11 22-23-24 1963 said simply, Farm.  

Federal Bureau of Narcotics "Colonel" George Hunter White", a CIA contract agent apparently felt no such compunction as he kept several over several years.  Which are quite revealing.  With no apparent implication of intent of monetary gain. 

Though to my knowledge they have not been verified by "expert" analysts.  Jean Pierre Laffite reputedly kept one, abbreviated, coded, in 1963, likely it seems with others over the years, that his family did not wish to fully reveal, though it seems his wife did feel part of the one from 1963 should be revealed as a part of history.  Is that where this argument over authenticity and relevance is stuck at the moment?