Oswald as designated patsy; from Bart Kamp's new book

[Pat Speer]

This document only adds to what I already had on Katzenbach.

 

From chapter 1b at patspeer.com:

 

Katzenbach Recap:

On November 22, shortly after the assassination, Katzenbach took over as Acting Attorney General, so that Attorney General Kennedy could both grieve for his murdered brother and devote himself to his family.

On November 24, after Oswald was assassinated, he met with FBI Director Hoover. The next day, he issued a memorandum to Bill Moyers, then working as the Johnson Administration's Press Secretary, encouraging Moyers to use the press to convince the public Oswald had acted alone. He later defended this action by insisting he was under pressure from the State Department to silence talk of a vast conspiracy.

He then began to pressure the FBI to finish its investigation as fast as possible, and pressure President Johnson to create a Presidential Commission to confirm the FBI's findings.

By early December, he cooperated with Chief Justice Warren and began pressuring the Attorney General of Texas to forego its own investigation.

And then on December 9, he pressured the Warren Commission to simply sign-off on the FBI's findings!

It's amazing to reflect that, in the aftermath of the assassination, Katzenbach, acting as the nation's top cop, had tried to cut-off a thorough, and one might say REAL, investigation at every opportunity, and that, when questioned about this later, he refused to take responsibility, blaming his actions on the FBI and the State Department. It was not HIS job to cater to the insecurities of FBI Director Hoover. It was Hoover's job to answer to him. It was not HIS job to assuage the concerns of the international community. It was HIS job, however, to make sure the assassination was properly and thoroughly investigated, and that those responsible were exposed and brought to justice. Even if one were to acknowledge the likelihood Oswald acted alone, one can not possibly believe that Katzenbach's actions were appropriate and reflective of a high regard for his responsibilities. Robert Kennedy may not have been a giant, but his shoes were clearly too large to be filled by Katzenbach.

[Cliff Varnell]

1 hour ago, Pat Speer said:

This document only adds to what I already had on Katzenbach.

 

From chapter 1b at patspeer.com:

 

Katzenbach Recap:

On November 22, shortly after the assassination, Katzenbach took over as Acting Attorney General, so that Attorney General Kennedy could both grieve for his murdered brother and devote himself to his family.

On November 24, after Oswald was assassinated, he met with FBI Director Hoover. The next day, he issued a memorandum to Bill Moyers, then working as the Johnson Administration's Press Secretary, encouraging Moyers to use the press to convince the public Oswald had acted alone. He later defended this action by insisting he was under pressure from the State Department to silence talk of a vast conspiracy.

#3 man at Foggy Bottom, W. Averell Harriman, leveraged the entire US foreign policy apparatus to convince LBJ to back away from any commie conspiracy talk.  But Harriman hadn’t consulted with anyone when he told Johnson top Kremlinologists concluded the Soviets were innocent.

1 hour ago, Pat Speer said:

He then began to pressure the FBI to finish its investigation as fast as possible, and pressure President Johnson to create a Presidential Commission to confirm the FBI's findings.

By early December, he cooperated with Chief Justice Warren and began pressuring the Attorney General of Texas to forego its own investigation.

And then on December 9, he pressured the Warren Commission to simply sign-off on the FBI's findings!

It's amazing to reflect that, in the aftermath of the assassination, Katzenbach, acting as the nation's top cop, had tried to cut-off a thorough, and one might say REAL, investigation at every opportunity, and that, when questioned about this later, he refused to take responsibility, blaming his actions on the FBI and the State Department.

He was correct.  

[Leslie Sharp]

1 hour ago, Cliff Varnell said:

Didn’t the Dallas PD suspect Oswald’s involvement well before the FBI?

I believe Captain Pat Gannaway was the first to publicly disclose Oswald was married to a native of Russia ergo he had been in the USSR.

Prof. P.D. Scott argues that it was Mamantov’s mistranslation of Marina’s Russian that was later used to bolster what Scott calls “Phase-One” . . . the story that Russia and/or Cuba were behind the assassination. On the heels of Ilya’s misinterpretation, Chief of the Intelligence Section of the Dallas Police Department, Don Stringfellow, and according to Scott a member of Crichton’s 488th, notified the 112th Army Intelligence Group which in turn cabled the US Strike Common at Fort MacDill Friday for a possible retaliatory attack against Cuba. It was Stringfellow who accompanied Captain Pat Gannaway of the Special Services Bureau to 411 Elm allegedly to conduct a roll call which culminated in identifying Lee Harvey Oswald as having left the building when all others remained. The roll call appears to have been bogus, yet Gannaway without hesitation advised the media that Lee Harvey Oswald, presumably absent from an employee roll call, had been in the Soviet Union and brought his young Russian wife with him back to America. Statements made by Gannaway in the early hours following the assassination fed the fear that a third World War was conceivable because a “commie” killed Kennedy. 

[Cliff Varnell]

2 hours ago, Leslie Sharp said:

Who Had the Power to Cover It Up? 

Thus asked the composite character, “X,” played by actor Donald Sutherland in Oliver Stone’s depiction of DA Jim Garrison’s investigation into the assassination, JFK (the movie). 

Much deliberation ensued between the authors of this book following the analysis of the “holdout” entries [appearing in a 1963 datebook maintained by intel contractor Pierre Lafitte]. A pertinent question surfaced as the pursuit of "holdout" grew more aggressive: “who within the domestic intelligence agencies would have the most influence over the investigation on the ground in Dallas?”

 

Someone Would Have Talked, Larry Hancock, pg 289.

<quote on>

On Friday night the White House placed telephone calls to Dallas DA Henry Wade, to Texas State Attorney General Carr and Police Chief Curry requesting that they avoid any official statements, charges, or discussion relating to conspiracy.  Johnson’s aide Cliff Carter was making the calls and if the individual in question raised objections, President Johnson was used as the authority for the message.  </q>

Johnson met with Harriman and then instructed his aide Carter to call Dallas and cut short talk of conspiracy.

Edited September 30, 2023 by Cliff Varnell

[Leslie Sharp]

28 minutes ago, Cliff Varnell said:

Someone Would Have Talked, Larry Hancock, pg 289.

<quote on>

On Friday night the White House placed telephone calls to Dallas DA Henry Wade, to Texas State Attorney General Carr and Police Chief Curry requesting that they avoid any official statements, charges, or discussion relating to conspiracy.  Johnson’s aide Cliff Carter was making the calls and if the individual in question raised objections, President Johnson was used as the authority for the message.  </q>

Johnson met with Harriman and then instructed his aide Carter to call Dallas and cut short talk of conspiracy.

I would need to dig through a defunct iPhone for the screenshot of the news account of Gannaway telling reporters Oswald had been in USSR and married a Russian, but I'm virtually certain he did so on Friday afternoon. He must not have received the memo. 😞 

additional background on Gannaway:

According to a reflective exposé in “D” Magazine by reporter Jim Atkinson in 1977, “For Dallas, the Apalachin affair [the November 14, 1957, mass arrest of some 100 of the highest-ranking bosses in the infamous Italian network, La Cosa Nostra] was its own kind of shock. After all, here was a young, vigorous city that prided itself on its safe streets and clean City Hall. But there was certainly no denying that one of its residents had turned up at the largest gathering of the Mafia in history . . . [respected] Dallas businessman Joe Civello’s presence at Apalachin in 1957 would turn out to be less significant than the absence of another key underworld figure: New Orleans Mafia boss Carlos Marcello. Marcello, one of the most powerful and sophisticated mob bosses in the nation, had wisely stayed away from Apalachin; strapped with a 1953 deportation order and other legal troubles, the forty-seven-year-old Sicilian feared such a foray from his Louisiana fortress would overexpose him to federal authorities. 

         In the aftermath of Apalachin, it would become at least probable that Civello had attended as Marcello’s surrogate. This suggested that the 55-year-old imported foods grocer was not only a member of the mob, but a member of some rank. And it suggested one more possibility, one which Dallas law enforcement officers had only guessed at before: that Dallas was an operating outpost for the varied illicit interests of the Marcello mob.”

         In spite of that spectacular arrest in November ’57, and the ensuing national press coverage and indictments, on October 8, 1963, a Dallas Morning News headline read: “Officer Says Syndicated Crime is Doubtful in Dallas.” Reporter John Geddie had recently interviewed head of the Special Operations Division of the Dallas Police Department: “Captain W. P. “Pat.” Gannaway gave three reasons Monday for Dallas being a prime plum but forbidden fruit for Cosa Nostra-type syndicated crime. 

         Captain Gannaway, head of the Dallas Police Department’s vice, narcotics, and intelligence bureaus “credited the police force, the district attorney’s office, and good juries for keeping big time crime out of the city.” Gannaway insisted, “ . . . the manner of survival proves it [the syndicate] is not well organized in Dallas . . . Walk down the street and try to place a bet . . . Most won’t know where . . . there is no main heroin contact . . . and you don’t see prostitutes walking down the streets of Dallas.” Geddie concluded the report with a quote from the captain, “There may be members of organized crime in Dallas practicing their trade elsewhere, but not in Dallas.”

         Captain Gannaway’s observation was especially ironic considering how closely aligned his protestations were with the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, J. Edgard Hoover vs. the task force on organized crime headed by US Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. RFK had already widened his investigation into Dallas mob connections by calling for federal grand jury hearings a month before Geddie’s interview with Gannaway. According to investigative journalist Mark North, author of Act of Treason: The Role of J. Edgar Hoover in the Assassination of President Kennedy, who uncovered a deeply buried case against a Dallas bookmaker by the name of John Eli Stone, “Robert Kennedy, knowing he could not get indictments in Dallas because of the pro-Mob mind-set, had chosen the smaller conservative city [Wichita Falls, Texas].” 

         North observed that, “ . . . reporters were there when Philip Bosco [a Joe Civello bookmaker] was called into the Grand Jury room. From Bosco, RFK had the opportunity to gain a detailed understanding of the Pearl Street Mafia. But true to omertà, Bosco took the Fifth against self-incrimination. He was brought before Judge Sarah [sic] Hughes, who ‘exempted him from criminal prosecution . . .’” According to North, after Bosco again refused to answer, and again took the Fifth, a reluctant Judge Hughes scheduled a contempt of court hearing to, in North’s words, “placate RFK’s prosecutors.” North’s investigation into the deeply buried facts surrounding the 1963 case, revealed that the prosecutor was meaning to also prosecute the Civello mob. (Note: Mark North chose to refer to the Civello crime family in Dallas as Pearl Street Mafia because it originated in the Pearl Street Market district.)

[Cliff Varnell]

1 hour ago, Leslie Sharp said:

I would need to dig through a defunct iPhone for the screenshot of the news account of Gannaway telling reporters Oswald had been in USSR and married a Russian, but I'm virtually certain he did so on Friday afternoon. He must not have received the memo. 😞 

The no-conspiracy “memo” from the White House didn’t go out until Friday night.

[Leslie Sharp]

27 minutes ago, Cliff Varnell said:

The no-conspiracy “memo” from the White House didn’t go out until Friday night.

We posit Capt. Gannaway was a pivotal character on the ground, operating outside official Washington, and closely aligned with Jack Crichton.

[Cliff Varnell]

1 hour ago, Leslie Sharp said:

We posit Capt. Gannaway was a pivotal character on the ground, operating outside official Washington, and closely aligned with Jack Crichton.

On the ground to paint Oswald as a killer commie, right?

[Leslie Sharp]

lone nut shooter, affiliation if any. . . fill in the blank. The objective of the strategist was to ensure the patsy deflected from official pursuit of his team of assassins ... a strategy that continues to this day on assassination forums. We are still discussing who didn't kill Kennedy, and I contend that the Prayer Man movement has — witting or not — fed the beast.

[Benjamin Cole]

11 hours ago, Jean Ceulemans said:

Now, a lof this is new to me, and I don't have a clue who shot JFK.

But I have a little trouble in seeing they planned it all in detail (incl. blaming Russia and Cuba),

but somehow had forgotten about the part where they could be the cause of a nuclear war ?

Unless they planned an attack on JFK, but not an actual killing.

Hit him genlty, something like the shallow backwound would be acceptable....

I enjoyed your comments.

BTW, you violated EF-JFKA etiquette by not declaring you know exactly and 100% what happened on 11./22, and all background and related activities also. 

IMHO, just shooting at JFK, and blaming Cubans, would be enough....

[Benjamin Cole]

4 hours ago, Pat Speer said:

This document only adds to what I already had on Katzenbach.

 

From chapter 1b at patspeer.com:

 

Katzenbach Recap:

On November 22, shortly after the assassination, Katzenbach took over as Acting Attorney General, so that Attorney General Kennedy could both grieve for his murdered brother and devote himself to his family.

On November 24, after Oswald was assassinated, he met with FBI Director Hoover. The next day, he issued a memorandum to Bill Moyers, then working as the Johnson Administration's Press Secretary, encouraging Moyers to use the press to convince the public Oswald had acted alone. He later defended this action by insisting he was under pressure from the State Department to silence talk of a vast conspiracy.

He then began to pressure the FBI to finish its investigation as fast as possible, and pressure President Johnson to create a Presidential Commission to confirm the FBI's findings.

By early December, he cooperated with Chief Justice Warren and began pressuring the Attorney General of Texas to forego its own investigation.

And then on December 9, he pressured the Warren Commission to simply sign-off on the FBI's findings!

It's amazing to reflect that, in the aftermath of the assassination, Katzenbach, acting as the nation's top cop, had tried to cut-off a thorough, and one might say REAL, investigation at every opportunity, and that, when questioned about this later, he refused to take responsibility, blaming his actions on the FBI and the State Department. It was not HIS job to cater to the insecurities of FBI Director Hoover. It was Hoover's job to answer to him. It was not HIS job to assuage the concerns of the international community. It was HIS job, however, to make sure the assassination was properly and thoroughly investigated, and that those responsible were exposed and brought to justice. Even if one were to acknowledge the likelihood Oswald acted alone, one can not possibly believe that Katzenbach's actions were appropriate and reflective of a high regard for his responsibilities. Robert Kennedy may not have been a giant, but his shoes were clearly too large to be filled by Katzenbach.

PS--

I never knew about the 11/22 internal FBI memo indicating Katzenbach had asked the FBI to issue a statement identifying LHO as the JFK assassin.

Miles Massicotte raised an interesting point. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hDpIhnKWuHpQ-54b1XAoeMlY107_xLlu/view

However, now that I review the document again...maybe it was not written on 11/22. 

As presented, it appears connected to the 11/22 memo. But is it? 

 

[Benjamin Cole]

On 9/29/2023 at 7:33 PM, Miles Massicotte said:

I'm currently about halfway through Bart Kamp's Prayer Man book and I was struck by a document I hadn't seen before relating to but earlier than the Katzenbach memo. It is an FBI document from November 22nd where Clyde Towson states that Katzenbach wants to get a statement out asap confirming Oswald's guilt. "We are now persuaded that Oswald killed the President; however, the investigation by the Department of Justice and FBI is continuing.” 

Bart then notes "At that time there was no Hidell ID, not one line-up held at all, no backyard photo, no rifle and its fingerprints and revolver evidence developed and so on." (I am reading it on Kindle so I don't know how to give page numbers. It is page 220 of 407 on my mobile phone but that changes depending on font size.....it is under the heading "15:15 Katzenbach Wants to Release a Statement of Oswald’s Guilt"). 

I find this intriguing. Like many, my interpretation of the later more famous Katzenbach memo has always been that the government wanted to seal the deal on Oswald's guilt asap, guilty or not, for the sake of persuading the public consciousness that he was the lone assassin (and the Warren Report being the rubber stamp on that, that "no one will read" according to Dulles.) 

But that assumes that someone like Katzenbach, as well as Hoover, had at least something, some kind of evidence, convincing them that Oswald could be linked to the assassination, enough to be able to run with it as a public narrative. But this document shows that they didn't, it was too early, their intent to frame Oswald as the assassin was present right from the beginning. All they had at that time was a man in custody who, allegedly (I am dubious), pistol whipped a Dallas police officer in the Texas theater, and otherwise proclaimed his innocence of any and all charges. Bart does a great job going through the interrogations in the book and showing how Oswald seemed mostly clueless himself throughout. 

So in other words something, or someone, had already reached the highest levels of government enough to convince them to run with Oswald as Kennedy's assassin. This implies something far more nefarious, and for me is some of the best evidence I have seen implying a conspiracy to implicate Oswald at the highest levels. The state department was risking everything by running with Oswald as their lone assassin if they didn't have any solid evidence against him. What if solid evidence emerged that he wasn't on the 6th floor (*cough* Prayer Man *cough*)? What if the BYPs, rifle etc etc all never turned up? It strongly implies that they were quite confident they had their man. And someone had to know that. 

If my timeline is correct, Hoover 15 minutes before this memo tells RFK that he believes Oswald is the assassin. This is before any interrogations have even taken place (!), as Bart Kamp notes. I think it is highly likely then that this memo was created also without any knowledge of what Oswald said under interrogation, as it was issued about simultaneously to when Oswald was being interrogated for the first time. 

I had previously taken the interpretation that framing Oswald was an ad hoc job. But they literally just brought the man into the DPD, and the government is gearing up to plaster this man's face across the country as the lone nut assassin. The wheels were in motion to incriminate Oswald from day 1, perhaps from before day 1. Maybe I am reading too much into this. But I don't think so. 

(It is a great book by the way. When I am finished I will try to post a review, I am still not personally sold on Prayer Man but this book is going a long way to convince me). 

MM-

In reviewing this fascinating document...I have to ask, is it truly from 11/22/63?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hDpIhnKWuHpQ-54b1XAoeMlY107_xLlu/view

The first page is dated as Nov. 22, and we can accept that. 

The second page is not dated...it appears attached or appended to the first page.

It was released under the same tag (handwritten at top of page), dated March 7, 199?.  

My guess is the second page was stapled to the first page. 

Also, the second page appears to be intended for Mr. Tolson only, whereas the first page has a distribution list of six. 

Just wonderin'

 

 

 

[David Andrews]

21 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

My pet theory is LHO was part of CIA-planned false flag op, but no actual assassination. Some bad guys, elements within the CIA, piggy-backed on the op and shot for real. 

Very close to your outline. 

 

I'd add that a diffuse secondary cover-up would have had to be overlaid on the legend of Oswald as commie shooter.

[Pat Speer]

1 hour ago, Benjamin Cole said:

MM-

In reviewing this fascinating document...I have to ask, is it truly from 11/22/63?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hDpIhnKWuHpQ-54b1XAoeMlY107_xLlu/view

The first page is dated as Nov. 22, and we can accept that. 

The second page is not dated...it appears attached or appended to the first page.

It was released under the same tag (handwritten at top of page), dated March 7, 199?.  

My guess is the second page was stapled to the first page. 

Also, the second page appears to be intended for Mr. Tolson only, whereas the first page has a distribution list of six. 

Just wonderin'

 

 

 

Good eye!!! That's why I didn't know about this memo--because it doesn't exist in the form presented. In Chapter 1 of my website, I write: 

An 11-24-63 internal memo from Alan Belmont to Clyde Tolson of the FBI reflects that "At 4:15 PM Mr. Deloach advised that Katzenbach wanted to put out a statement, 'We are now persuaded that Oswald killed the President, however, the investigation by the Department of Justice and the FBI is continuing." According to Belmont, Deloach was opposed to the idea. In any event, no such statement was issued.

So...the second page comes from the 24th..not 22nd. I assume this was just a mistake...

Edited October 1, 2023 by Pat Speer

[Benjamin Cole]

1 hour ago, Pat Speer said:

Good eye!!! That's why I didn't know about this memo--because it doesn't exist in the form presented. In Chapter 1 of my website, I write: 

An 11-24-63 internal memo from Alan Belmont to Clyde Tolson of the FBI reflects that "At 4:15 PM Mr. Deloach advised that Katzenbach wanted to put out a statement, 'We are now persuaded that Oswald killed the President, however, the investigation by the Department of Justice and the FBI is continuing." According to Belmont, Deloach was opposed to the idea. In any event, no such statement was issued.

So...the second page comes from the 24th..not 22nd. I assume this was just a mistake...

Interesting.

In hindsight, and from the comfort of my armchair, I am still appalled that the Dep. Attny Gen of the US wanted the FBI on 11/24 to put out a statement that LHO "killed the President." 

Let alone it was early in the game, but add on, how would LHO get a fair trial after that? 

As stated, Katzenbach had all the intellectual tools and advantages, and legal training and experience, that anyone could want. He was not a blundering PR guy. 

Then, in 1965, McCone suggested to LBJ that Katzenbach could be the next CIA director. 

Interesting. Why Katzenbach?