A mother lode of June Cobb interviews

[Leslie Sharp]

8 minutes ago, Greg Doudna said:

Yes I stand by that. I had no idea that is what you meant or I would have been happy to have made that statement earlier, did not realize that is what you meant or thought. 

No, I never put up any review on Amazon re Coup in Dallas. Nor was I indirectly behind any other review on Amazon of Coup in Dallas. 

 

 

 

What about the phrase "Amazon review" have you not understood since you and I began discussing Coup in Dallas?  Assuming my link will still activate your review, I'll share it here. 

[Leslie Sharp]

@Greg Doudna

1 hour ago, Greg Doudna said:

Let's lower the temperature here. On the ink dating, no you never explained what difficulties prevent you from having the ink dated on the other thread. You told of difficulties in getting access to prior ink analyses that had been done on the datebook years earlier, not by you, that no one today is allowed to see or know, you included, you explained. Nothing prevents you from getting a new ink dating done that is within your power to access results and make open and transparent to the wider field of researchers--a limited forensic examination solely of the ink even if other forms of forensic examination such as handwriting authentication, however desirable, may not be so easy to get done immediately. Dating of the ink is the most important test for forgery in this case and it can be done with a few days turnaround time and cost is not prohibitive. By your own account you are the sole decider standing in the way of deciding to do this. What not to like about that? Why not do it?

On this:

“Many other people unselfishly assisted the author in writing this book [Coup in Dallas] [including…] three of June [Cobb]’s CIA handlers who must remain anonymous…” (Coup in Dallas, 559)

Is that a reference to June Cobb’s CIA handlers in the 1960s, or handlers of June Cobb at the twice-weekly meetings ca. 2012-2013? (suggesting that a seasoned investigative reporter, Albarelli, would agree to being babysat during his sessions with June? are you serious?)

I did not mean it that way. The reference to three anonymous "CIA handlers" of June is written in Coup in Dallas in the present tense, but it could mean handlers of June back in the 1960s when June is known to have been paid by CIA as an operative. Yet, the three CIA handlers are certainly all three in present time in the sense of being including among those credited with having assisted Albarelli in the writing of the book.

Can you clarify, if you know, whether the reference to "June's CIA handlers" refers to handling of June Cobb in ca. 1963 or ca. 2011-2013 range, and if the latter how would that handling work other than being present with her when she was interviewed? That was the reason for the question. 

If an opportunity for hours of interview material with a witness as significant as June Cobb was conditional upon June Cobb having handlers present when interviewed, sure I can imagine a seasoned investigative reporter agreeing, if those were the conditions. 

So, yes, the question in the form I asked it was serious. Do you have sufficient knowledge to be able to answer the question? Thanks. 

I'll respond after you explain to forum members what you meant by the following:

In either case, these three unnamed CIA personnel, whoever they are, are acknowledged for helping in the writing of Coup in Dallas.  (That is patently absurd, Doudna, and you know it. You've lifted from Hank's acknowledgements and slipped in a casual interpretation to suggest  intelligence agents contributed to the writing of Coup in Dallas.  Do members on this forum fall for such tactics?)

[Greg Doudna]

40 minutes ago, Leslie Sharp said:

What about the phrase "Amazon review" have you not understood since you and I began discussing Coup in Dallas?  Assuming my link will still activate your review, I'll share it here. 

Unbelievable. The first time I saw "Amazon review" was from you in this thread just now. Always before you just said "posted a review" and I thought you meant my comments on the Education Forum.

How was I to know you were accusing me of posting a review on Amazon, when you didn't say that (or if you did say it somewhere I missed it), and I didn't post an Amazon review in the first place. I never did, and if you have been meaning and telling others that all this time, you are wrong and I hope you will get straight to your circle that I did not.  

[Greg Doudna]

47 minutes ago, Leslie Sharp said:

I'll respond after you explain to forum members what you meant by the following:
In either case, these three unnamed CIA personnel, whoever they are, are acknowledged for helping in the writing of Coup in Dallas.  (That is patently absurd, Doudna, and you know it. You've lifted from Hank's acknowledgements and slipped in a casual interpretation to suggest  intelligence agents contributed to the writing of Coup in Dallas.  Do members on this forum fall for such tactics?)

Here is the full quotation with context: 

"Many other people unselfishly assisted the author in writing this book. They are former CIA asset in New York, Cuba, and Mexico City, Viola June Cobb; three of June's CIA handlers who must remain anonymous; Doug Valentine, a very brave soul; Malcom Blunt, for expert advice; Damien Albarelli, David Albarelli, and Nicole Albarelli Centellas, the best children a man can have; Michael J. Briggs, another great book editor; my friend, Michael J. Petro; Jeanne-Marie Thomas Byron, a friend and a very, very brave woman; Tammy and Samantha Ryea; Dick Crandlemire, a great editor; Kris Newby, a friend, a great researcher and writer; David Gill for great backup research; Ashley Crout, an excellent editor; attorney Steve Rosen for always expert advice; Ran Daniel, whose insights proved significant; author Peter Janney; and Charles d'Autremont, a good friend."

(A second paragraph starting words "My great friends ..." with more names continues. A third paragraph starting words "And especially:..." with more names continues.)

I read that as saying the ones listed had various roles in assisting the author in the writing of the book, and that the three of June's CIA handlers were included among those named as having assisted the author in writing the book.

Is that a "patently absurd" reading, in the absence of clarification? Now that I have explained what I meant, and fulfilled your condition, can you keep your part of your bargain and clarify? Have I misunderstood, or was perhaps the wording in the acknowledgements poorly construed and that was not the nature of the relationship of the three CIA handlers with Hank?

I am not wishing to misrepresent. Please accurately represent?

[Leslie Sharp]

24 minutes ago, Greg Doudna said:

Here is the full quotation with context: 

"Many other people unselfishly assisted the author in writing this book. They are former CIA asset in New York, Cuba, and Mexico City, Viola June Cobb; three of June's CIA handlers who must remain anonymous; Doug Valentine, a very brave soul; Malcom Blunt, for expert advice; Damien Albarelli, David Albarelli, and Nicole Albarelli Centellas, the best children a man can have; Michael J. Briggs, another great book editor; my friend, Michael J. Petro; Jeanne-Marie Thomas Byron, a friend and a very, very brave woman; Tammy and Samantha Ryea; Dick Crandlemire, a great editor; Kris Newby, a friend, a great researcher and writer; David Gill for great backup research; Ashley Crout, an excellent editor; attorney Steve Rosen for always expert advice; Ran Daniel, whose insights proved significant; author Peter Janney; and Charles d'Autremont, a good friend."

(A second paragraph starting words "My great friends ..." with more names continues. A third paragraph starting words "And especially:..." with more names continues.)

I read that as saying the ones listed had various roles in assisting the author in the writing of the book, and that the three of June's CIA handlers were included among those named as having assisted the author in writing the book.

Is that a "patently absurd" reading, in the absence of clarification? Now that I have explained what I meant, and fulfilled your condition, can you keep your part of your bargain and clarify? Have I misunderstood, or was perhaps the wording in the acknowledgements poorly construed and that was not the nature of the relationship of the three CIA handlers with Hank?

I am not wishing to misrepresent. Please accurately represent?

Those who have read hundreds of authors' acknowledgements over the years know precisely what Hank means with his opening sentence: assisted the author in writing this book.

Please site passages in Coup that you believe anyone other than co-authors Sharp and Kent might have authored: show me June Cobb's writing, or that of her three handlers; Doug Valentine's contribution other than direct quotes from his own work; or Hank's children or his friends Tammy and Dick; or Steve Rosen ... ask Steve if he penned a single word of Coup?

I'm not suggesting you are "wishing to misrepresent;" I'm stating unequivocally that you misrepresent.





 

Edited August 19, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Leslie Sharp]

1 hour ago, Greg Doudna said:

Unbelievable. The first time I saw "Amazon review" was from you in this thread just now. Always before you just said "posted a review" and I thought you meant my comments on the Education Forum.

How was I to know you were accusing me of posting a review on Amazon, when you didn't say that (or if you did say it somewhere I missed it), and I didn't post an Amazon review in the first place. I never did, and if you have been meaning and telling others that all this time, you are wrong and I hope you will get straight to your circle that I did not.  

I wasn't an active member at the time, but soon after your initial Coup-related post on EF just days after our book was published, I was advised by a member that I should probably read what you had to say. 

Understandably, I was astonished that anyone would write such a knee jerk analysis without paying the coauthor the courtesy of personal inquiry.

From there, I began tracking the Amazon reviews, particularly interested in how the "stars" were aligning as it were; Coup was hovering at 4.5 until a series of negative reviews - all 1 and 2 star - began to appear.  I recall distinctly that your review had an immediate impact on the general star rating, otherwise I might consider the possibility I dreamt you posted an Amazon review that matched your purely subjective conclusion  posted on Ed Forum just days after Coup hit the stands.  Why did no one on this forum ask if you had actually READ the book? Appeal to "academic" authority comes to mind in this particular instance.

Subsequently just after Matthew Koch had reached an apex of his obnoxious posts including misogynistic insults that may have contributed to his banishment, Mr. Koch added a review of Coup at Amazon.  I doubt you'll take the time, but you might read it before insisting that rolling out academic credentials has no affect on the impressionable and venge-filled unstable personalities lurking around Kennedy assassination venues.

Edited August 19, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Leslie Sharp]

@Greg Doudna @Tom Gram Instead of waiting for the motherlode — as if to suggest Albarelli withheld vital information — and rather than attack his integrity, let's allow forum readers to decide whether the late Albarelli's published accounts deserve consideration: 

Albarelli writes in Chapter 5 Jacks of All Trades


At the time [September 1963], I don’t think I knew what his name was; only that he was an American. He was easy to remember. Tall, lanky, blond hair, that lethargic, drawling manner, easy going cowboy-like. In Mexico, he stood out like a lone orchid among thorny cacti… I saw him at the Hotel Luma before Elena spotted him at the Duran’s party, but I knew who she was talking about right away. He and Oswald made quite the pair, I would imagine.

                          —Viola June Cobb, November 2015             

 

. . . Had any investigators found [Thomas] Proctor’s New York address at East 94th, they may also have discovered that Lee Harvey Oswald’s good friend, George de Mohrenschildt, had once lived at the same address. Oddly, fifteen years after State Department officials failed to locate Proctor, investigators for the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), which had reopened the investigation into JFK’s murder in 1978, also “were unable to locate” Thomas Proctor. This, even though Proctor’s family was still publicly listed at the New York City address. Proctor passed away in 1967, of cirrhosis of the liver, one year before his son, Philip Proctor’s Firesign Theatre was designated by Rolling Stone magazine as “the funniest team in America today.” Phil Proctor, who is today, a well-respected actor, all-round likeable fellow, and author of among other works, Where’s My Fortune Cookie, graciously shared with these authors some personal family photos, including one that captured his father in a bold Nazi salute. (seen in photo section of this book.)

            Apparently, the Committee, and the State Department, made no inquiry about Proctor (or Davis) to the CIA. Had they done so, and assuming the CIA would have fully cooperated, the fact that Proctor was also associated with CIA assets June Cobb and Warren Broglie, manager of Mexico City’s Hotel Luma, might have come to light. Investigators also might have consulted Martindale-Hubbell Directory of Attorneys to track Proctor’s legal career and current location, but apparently no one thought of this, in spite of the fact that Proctor’s firm had once carried the name of Paul V. McNutt, a former government servant and elected official. Proctor was in fact McNutt’s intended running mate in his presidential bid had FDR not chosen to seek another term.

            Thomas G. Proctor, according to former colleagues—who declined to be identified in this book because of what they claimed could be “possible legal complications”—reported to the authors that Proctor had known both Cobb and Broglie “since at least around 1959… in New York City… maybe having met Cobb at the Hotel Iroquois, when she had lived there briefly before going to Cuba.” The same former colleagues also state that Proctor, during the “early 1960s,” traveled several times to Mexico City, “reportedly for work related to the [United States] embassy there, and something to do with that country’s Olympics bid.” Mexico City won the bid and hosted the Summer Olympics in 1968. In an interview with this author [Albarelli], former CIA Mexico City asset, June Cobb, recalled that New York City politician Paul O’Dwyer, brother of former New York City mayor, William O’Dwyer, accompanied Proctor to Mexico several times. In 1950, President Harry Truman had appointed the former mayor as Ambassador to Mexico. William O’Dwyer resigned as ambassador in 1952 but stayed on in Mexico until 1960. 

 

and relevant notes from

Chapter 6 Long Shadows

Based on a transcribed interview with an unnamed source in Tampa, Florida and with Viola June Cobb, May–April 2014, Indian Rocks Beach, Florida. The source was a longtime and close associate of Trafficante; June Cobb was a CIA asset in Havana, as well as later, for nearly six years, in Mexico City, Mexico. She encountered Trafficante twice in Cuba, once in the presence of Che Guevara and the other time with William Alexander Morgan, who was executed by Che on March 11, 1961 at Cabana Prison in Havana. Said Cobb, “I met Ruby once in the company of a Dallas businessman, Raymond Cortez, who falsely claimed to be an attorney. The businessman had come to attempt to talk with Che and Fidel about land reform efforts. They never met with him…. I suspected he was with an intelligence group, but, of course, didn’t ask. I ran into the businessman again in Mexico City where he owned a shoe factory. I had no idea who Ruby was until much later, after the assassination.” Cobb had no knowledge about Otto Skorzeny other than conventional news accounts about his wartime exploits, however, she did hear constant reports and rumors about assassination activities originating out of Spain. “There were constant whispers about assassinations, constant. So often I mostly didn’t pay attention. Of course, after Kennedy was killed, Mexico City was abuzz with chatter, everywhere. You couldn’t get into a taxi without hearing something new. People seemed to know about Oswald almost right away. There was no lack of news there. The few people I encountered with the Agency made a concerted effort to not talk about it.” 

Edited August 19, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Leslie Sharp]

When is anyone in this "community" going to pressure those who purport to be experts in the Win Scott history to release his early diaries or datebooks or notes which cover his period in Europe as the chief of Western European division of the Office of Special Operations overseeing all espionage operations collecting intelligence . . . 

Documents confirm that reports of Otto Skorzeny's activities were crossing Scott's desk.

To repeat, @Greg Doudna @Tom Gram, if you are genuine in your expression of interest in June Cobb, please share with us your reactions, in the specifics, to the following — or is this thread intended to provoke something else entirely?

Albarelli writes,

Contact was also made with the CIA officer who recruited and handled June Cobb during the early 1960s. Working under the Agency pseudonym “Bill Mannix,” the officer held the position of Chief of Cuban Operations in CIA’s Mexico City Station, reporting to station head Win Scott. “Mannix” spoke guardedly but clearly with the author when asked about Cobb’s identification of Oswald and Davis in Mexico City in 1963. He confirmed that “she” (Cobb) had reported seeing a man “who turned out to be Davis.” He said that Station Chief Scott told him not to discuss Davis anywhere, or “commit it to any sort of writing, official or unofficial.” The remainder of the author’s conversation with “Mannix” follows:

“Why?”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it?”

“So you believe that June saw Davis in MC at the Luma with Oswald?”

“Yes.”

No doubts? Why?”

“Because she wasn’t the only person who reported him being there.”

“Who else?”

“No. No comment on that. I’ve said too much. And with the understanding 

 you won’t use my name.”

“But, ‘Bill’? I can use that?”

“I can’t stop you.”

Win Scott’s directive that Davis was not to be pursued shines intense light on Scott’s role, witting or not, in the cover-up. And as we learned, the US Ambassador in Madrid, a close friend of Ambassador Thomas Mann whom Scott knew well, followed suit, advising the State Department, and all those inquiring, that the entire Davis matter in North Africa had been given “disproportionate importance by local authorities who fear any and all arms traffic in view local recent political events.” 

[Leslie Sharp]

@Tom Gram additional assassination research homework courtesy Albarelli.  What do you know about any of the following:

Charles William Thomas Revelations 

Charles Thomas, another individual of intrigue mentioned by June Cobb, was also completely aware of Davis’s presence in Mexico City at the same time as Lee Harvey Oswald’s visit in September 1963. In a December 25, 1965, memorandum, attached to a “CONFIDENTIAL” letter he sent to US Secretary of State William P. Rogers in which he explained that he had thoroughly investigated the events that transpired during Oswald’s stay in Mexico, Thomas wrote: 

During this latter conversation [of January 9, 1966], Sra. De Paz [Elena Garro] admitted that she had to the [United States] Embassy [in Mexico City] on an earlier occasion with her daughter and mother-in-law and had talked to two Embassy officers (presumably from the Legal Attaché’s Office) about the matter [of seeing Lee Harvey Oswald at a party]. She said since the Embassy’s officers did not give much credence to anything they said, they did not bother to give a very complete story.

Charles Thomas then launches into a very detailed accounting of the Garros’ encounter with Oswald. The party, Elena told Thomas, was held at the house of Ruben Duran, who was a cousin to Elena Garro. Elena explained, “Lydia, Horacio, and Ruben Duran are all cousins … [and] Silvia Duran [who worked in the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City and who spoke with Oswald when he visited that embassy in September 1963] is married to Horacio, who is a rather weak man … Sra. De Paz [Garro] had never had anything to do with Silvia, who [Garro] considers a communist and a whore. Ruben [Duran] was born in the United States and served in the US Army during the war. He still goes to the US from time to time but had no relatives or particular connections there…. The party in question was held at the home of Ruben Duran.” 

            Thomas explained that Elena Garro was unsure of the date of the party. She said that it had been held sometime in September 1963 and recalled that “it was on a Monday or Tuesday because it was an odd night to have a party.” Thomas’ report then goes into his Lee Oswald and Thomas Eli Davis section: 

At the party, the man she assumes was Oswald wore a black sweater [perhaps the same black sweater he wore in Dallas when he was murdered by Jack Ruby]. He tended to be silent and stared a lot at the floor. Of his two young American companions, one was very tall and slender and had long blond hair which hung across his forehead. He had a gaunt face and a rather long protruding chin. [A perfect description of Thomas Eli Davis, Jr. in the estimation of the authors.] The other was also rather tall and had short, light brown hair, but he had no real distinguishing characteristics. All three were obviously Americans and did not dance or mix with the other people. The three were evidently friends, because she [Elena] saw them by chance the next day walking down the street together.  

Described by those who knew him as tall and handsome with dark hair, Charles Thomas was a US State Department employee who served as the department’s Political Officer in the US Embassy in Mexico City from 1964 to 1967. Before that, from January 1961 to August 1963, he had been stationed in the US Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Thomas was also a covert employee with the CIA’s Branch 4, Covert Action Staff. He had been hired by the CIA in early 1952, following his service in the US Navy as an ensign assigned to still-secret intelligence matters. Thomas, before going to Haiti and Mexico City, had covertly served the CIA, under State Department cover, at several additional posts, including Monrovia, Liberia; Sierra Leone; Accra, Ghana; and Tangier, Morocco. Endnotes in this chapter provide more on Thomas’s status with the State Department and CIA.

            Interestingly, early on in his stint in Haiti, Thomas inadvertently ran slightly afoul of a team of three physicians working under contract with the CIA’s ultrasecret MK/NAOMI project, according to former Army biochemist Gerald Yonetz, who was interviewed by the author in March 2002. Beginning sometime around 1954, both the CIA’s Security Research Service and the US Army’s biochemical research center at Fort Detrick, Maryland, sometimes working in tandem, favored using Haiti—due primarily to its complete lack of governmental regulatory authorities, but also the ease with which any supposedly concerned authorities could be bought to turn-a-blind eye toward questionable and unethical activities—for risky human experiments with psycho-chemicals and other more lethal drugs. 

            Charles Thomas, according to former Detrick researcher Yonetz, who made several trips to Haiti, as well as to Africa, “was surprised at the conduct of the experiments, as well as their nature, and expressed innocent surprise and perhaps dismay” upon first learning about them. As is underscored in one of this author’s [Albarelli] books, A Terrible Mistake, and in several excellent articles by investigative journalists Dr. Jeffery Kaye and Jason Leopold (available on the Truthout.org website), the US Army and the CIA, under projects MK/ULTRA, MK/NAOMI, and MK/DELTA, conducted extensive covert experiments with many “incapacitating agents” beginning in the 1950s and continuing until about 1970, Haiti being one of the favored locations for certain experiments. Dr. Kaye reveals that the military and CIA were especially interested in anti-malarial drugs derived from cinchona bark. The curative and medicinal powers of cinchona bark have been known for hundreds of years in Haiti. During the 1977 Congressional hearings on the CIA’s stockpiling of lethal and incapacitating drugs, it was revealed that the CIA and army were interested in anti-malarial drugs for “devious reasons.”

            Writes Dr. Kaye: “CIA-linked researcher, Dr. Charles F. Geschickter told Sen. Edward Kennedy in 1977 that the CIA was interested in anti-malarial drugs that ‘had some, shall I say, disturbing effects on the nervous system of the patients.’” 

[Greg Doudna]

1 hour ago, Leslie Sharp said:

I'm not suggesting you are "wishing to misrepresent;" I'm stating unequivocally that you misrepresent.

You said if I explained what I meant by what I wrote, you would answer my questions concerning what you may know of the three CIA handlers of June Cobb. 

I did. Now you are defaulting on your promise that you would answer my question.

You seem to serially respond to straight questions you do not wish to answer by (a) "I will answer Y if you answer ABCE over here", followed by (b) <person answers ABC over there>; (c) change of subject and no answer to the original question Y asked.

I have fallen for this from you two or three times before. 

Since you are condemning me for not understanding rightly what those three CIA handlers of June Cobb were about, that were in some sort of relationship with Hank of some kind, while refusing to say what, if anything, you know about those three CIA handlers (as promised) to enable a correct understanding, I would like to add an additional question:

Were you one of those three to whom Albarelli referred? The question is designed not to anger you or accuse you of anything, but because you are oddly unwilling to give a straight answer (even "I don't know") to the question of what you may know about those three CIA handlers of June Cobb; and also because you chose to use for the past years a pen name, "Sharp", which is the same alias used by June Cobb and was also June Cobb's mother's maiden name. Does that reflect any connection of you to June Cobb (I don't necessarily mean in a family relationship)?

How did you happen to choose "Sharp" for your pen name in JFK assassination related circles, starting at about the time Albarelli was having his meetings with June Cobb? 

Is it possible to not take offense and give simple straight answers? I guarantee you there are others than just me who would like to know.

[Leslie Sharp]

8 minutes ago, Greg Doudna said:

You said if I explained what I meant by what I wrote, you would answer my questions concerning what you may know of the three CIA handlers of June Cobb. 

I did. Now you are defaulting on your promise that you would answer my question.

You seem to serially respond to straight questions you do not wish to answer by (a) "I will answer Y if you answer ABCE over here", followed by (b) <person answers ABC over there>; (c) change of subject and no answer to the original question Y asked.

I have fallen for this from you two or three times before. 

Since you are condemning me for not understanding rightly what those three CIA handlers of June Cobb were about, that were in some sort of relationship with Hank of some kind, while refusing to say what, if anything, you know about those three CIA handlers (as promised) to enable a correct understanding, I would like to add an additional question:

Were you one of those three to whom Albarelli referred? The question is designed not to anger you or accuse you of anything, but because you are oddly unwilling to give a straight answer (even "I don't know") to the question of what you may know about those three CIA handlers of June Cobb; and also because you chose to use for the past years a pen name, "Sharp", which is the same alias used by June Cobb and was also June Cobb's mother's maiden name. Does that reflect any connection of you to June Cobb (I don't necessarily mean in a family relationship)?

How did you happen to choose "Sharp" for your pen name in JFK assassination related circles, starting at about the time Albarelli was having his meetings with June Cobb? 

Is it possible to not take offense and give simple straight answers? I guarantee you there are others than just me who would like to know.

Since you are condemning me for not understanding rightly what those three CIA handlers of June Cobb were about, that were in some sort of relationship with Hank of some kind, while refusing to say what, if anything, you know about those three CIA handlers (as promised) to enable a correct understanding, I would like to add an additional question:
 

Hank conferred with those who knew June to verify her claims.  Are you such a novice investigative journalist that you don't understand sources and how they operate? 

 

And here again you interject, "relationship." Hank developed a friendship with June Cobb. Why is that your concern, Greg?

I agreed to reply to your datebook authentication remarks — which have nothing to do with the label on this thread —  once you explained how you misinterpreted Hank's acknowledgements. You've yet to convince me it was all in, gosh all gee, innocence. 

 

Edited August 19, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Leslie Sharp]

23 minutes ago, Greg Doudna said:

You said if I explained what I meant by what I wrote, you would answer my questions concerning what you may know of the three CIA handlers of June Cobb. 

I did. Now you are defaulting on your promise that you would answer my question.

You seem to serially respond to straight questions you do not wish to answer by (a) "I will answer Y if you answer ABCE over here", followed by (b) <person answers ABC over there>; (c) change of subject and no answer to the original question Y asked.

I have fallen for this from you two or three times before. 

Since you are condemning me for not understanding rightly what those three CIA handlers of June Cobb were about, that were in some sort of relationship with Hank of some kind, while refusing to say what, if anything, you know about those three CIA handlers (as promised) to enable a correct understanding, I would like to add an additional question:

Were you one of those three to whom Albarelli referred? The question is designed not to anger you or accuse you of anything, but because you are oddly unwilling to give a straight answer (even "I don't know") to the question of what you may know about those three CIA handlers of June Cobb; and also because you chose to use for the past years a pen name, "Sharp", which is the same alias used by June Cobb and was also June Cobb's mother's maiden name. Does that reflect any connection of you to June Cobb (I don't necessarily mean in a family relationship)?

How did you happen to choose "Sharp" for your pen name in JFK assassination related circles, starting at about the time Albarelli was having his meetings with June Cobb? 

Is it possible to not take offense and give simple straight answers? I guarantee you there are others than just me who would like to know.

Busted!

Seriously, I anticipated the karma of my own "dot connecting" over the decades, so the only thing I'm surprised by here is that it took you so long to come up with "Sharp" and "Sharp". Surely you know that I've delved into the possible relationship considering "my Sharps" were from the Texas Panhandle and eventually relocated their ranch north of the Oklahoma border not far from June's birthplace, which by the way dovetails with the Jenkins / Wheaton storyline.  So far, I find no genealogical connection with Viola June Cobb.  I didn't have the pleasure of meeting her through Hank before she passed away.

And no, I was not one of the three agency contacts Albarelli made in context of June's story. The closest I've come to "the agency" that I'm aware of — other than Dick Stolley, de M's close friend Sam Ballen, a daughter of a renowned CI agent named Moore, and brushes with Valerie Plame and her husband — is a close friend from the dog park. She left, disgruntled, and has nothing but disdain for the dysfunctional bureacracy. She scoffs at the suggestion that anyone she encountered while employed by the CIA might have had the brains to do anything other than create mayhem for mayhem's sake.

Straight enough?

Edited August 19, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Greg Doudna]

1 minute ago, Leslie Sharp said:

Busted!

Seriously, I anticipated the karma of my own "dot connecting" over the decades, so the only thing I'm surprised by here is that it took you so long to come up with "Sharp" and "Sharp". Surely you know that I've delved into the possible relationship considering "my Sharps" were from the Texas Panhandle and eventually relocated their ranch north of the Oklahoma border not far from June's birthplace, which by the way dovetails with the Jenkins / Wheaton storyline.  So far, I find no genealogical connection with Viola June Cobb.  I didn't have the pleasure of meeting her through Hank before she passed away.

And no, I was not one of the three agency contacts Albarelli made in context of June's story. The closest I've come to "the agency" that I'm aware of — other than de M's close friend Sam Ballen, a daughter of a renowned agent named Moore, and brushes with Valerie Plame and her husband — is a close friend from the dog park. She left, disgruntled, and has nothing but disdain for the dysfunctional bureacracy. She scoffs that anyone she encountered while employed by the CIA had the brains to do anything other than create mayhem for mayhem's sake.

Straight enough?

Actually yes, that is responsive and straight, thank you. 

To be clear, as I understand you, "Sharp" is a name in your family, in the Texas Panhandle area, not too far from June Cobb's birthplace where she grew up in Ponca City, Oklahoma.

And not surprisingly you, aware of this, checked what you know in your family lines and ancestry and so far have found no genealogical connection between your family's Sharps and June Cobb's mother's Sharps. You did not meet June Cobb before she passed away. You were not one of the three CIA handlers of June Cobb or agency contacts that Hank made in the course of his work on the June Cobb interviews or story.

I am sure some would be interested in your mention of brushes with Valerie Plame and her husband if you ever cared to tell anecdotes, however that is afield from topic and maybe another time.  

Speaking of the Panhandle, in my book (Showdown) I tell of spending my 30th birthday camped with about 300 protesters outside the Pantex plant outside Amarillo, which was then the site of final assembly for all nuclear weapons in the US arsenal before deployment. A huge native American drum was set up and 24/7 with volunteers in shifts every 10 seconds or so a giant mallet would be swung to hit the drum, with the drumbeat reverberating across the flat land. It was some Native American prayer for the Great Spirit to end the weapons of mass destruction being assembled inside the plant. It was August and very hot, near 100 degree temperatures, with heat lightning at night creating a dazzling light show. I thought I was staring into the source for the end of the world, into manmade Dante's inferno itself. Anyway there's my Panhandle story.

[Leslie Sharp]

2 minutes ago, Greg Doudna said:

Actually yes, that is responsive and straight, thank you. 

To be clear, as I understand you, "Sharp" is a name in your family, in the Texas Panhandle area, not too far from June Cobb's birthplace where she grew up in Ponca City, Oklahoma.

And not surprisingly you, aware of this, checked what you know in your family lines and ancestry and so far have found no genealogical connection between your family's Sharps and June Cobb's mother's Sharps. You did not meet June Cobb before she passed away. You were not one of the three CIA handlers of June Cobb or agency contacts that Hank made in the course of his work on the June Cobb interviews or story.

I am sure some would be interested in your mention of brushes with Valerie Plame and her husband if you ever cared to tell anecdotes, however that is afield from topic and maybe another time.  

Speaking of the Panhandle, in my book (Showdown) I tell of spending my 30th birthday camped with about 300 protesters outside the Pantex plant outside Amarillo, which was then the site of final assembly for all nuclear weapons in the US arsenal before deployment. A huge native American drum was set up and 24/7 with volunteers in shifts every 10 seconds or so a giant mallet would be swung to hit the drum, with the drumbeat reverberating across the flat land. It was some Native American prayer for the Great Spirit to end the weapons of mass destruction being assembled inside the plant. It was August and very hot, near 100 degree temperatures, with heat lightning at night creating a dazzling light show. I thought I was staring into the source for the end of the world, into manmade Dante's inferno itself. Anyway there's my Panhandle story.

I'm not sure why you felt compelled to repeat back to me what I wrote, but we all have our idiocyncracies.

My experience in the Panhandle continues to inform my perspective - nay alarm - regarding where our nation is headed; I'm convinced more than ever that the assassination in Dallas in 1963 is the Pole Star to lead us out of this pending inferno of Civil War.
 

[Ron Bulman]

Just for the record, Ponca City Oklahoma is in the far eastern part of the state, not too far from the Arkansas state line.  Been through there several times.  Over 300 miles from the Texas panhandle, e.g. Clarendon.  Which I've been through several more times than P C.