Mary Haverstick's Important New Book on the JFK Assassination

[Leslie Sharp]

@Greg Doudna  my most recent gmail notice for this thread indicates you recently posted the following: 

Mary Haverstick, please be careful. Here is a young man who was brutally intimidated by Ms. Sharp with legal threats, then in some making nice invo.......

Clicking on the EF link in my inbox,  I’m led to your recent extracts from Haverstick’s book. I’m not finding the rest of your Sir Galahad warning to Mary, but I’m taking a leap of logic — you’re referring to Robert “Monte” Montenegro, a two tour Afghan vet who I brutally intimidated.  

Coincidentally, as happens, when I saw your note in my mail I had just hung up from a near two hour convo with Monte regarding topics relevant to this thread, in particular QJ/WIN, Otto and Ilse Skorzeny, Frank Wisner, Heinz Felfe, Frenchy Grombach in Poland, etc.

To be clear, the “legal” threat was a simple cease and desist to protect copyrighted material not yet in the public domain. Had I not intervened, and had our publisher come across the posts, I suspect the ramifications might have been more severe. I think you need to let go of this particular bone you’ve been gnawing on for months.  
 

You position yourself as beyond reproach, so kindly post the full text of your noble warning to Mary Haverstick — or point me to the complete post if it’s buried in your comments — so that I can finish tearing it to shreds. Or did you think twice and shred it yourself?

 

 

 

Edited December 6, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Greg Doudna]

8 minutes ago, Leslie Sharp said:

@Greg Doudna  my most recent gmail notice for this thread indicates you recently posted the following: 

Mary Haverstick, please be careful. Here is a young man who was brutally intimidated by Ms. Sharp with legal threats, then in some making nice invo.......

Clicking on the EF link in my inbox,  I’m led to your recent extracts from Haverstick’s book. I’m not finding the rest of your Sir Galahad warning to Mary, but I’m taking a leap of logic — you’re referring to Robert “Monte” Montenegro, a two tour Afghan vet who I brutally intimidated.  

Coincidentally, as happens, when I saw your note in my mail I had just hung up from a near two hour convo with Monte regarding topics relevant to this thread, in particular QJ/WIN, Otto and Ilse Skorzeny, Frank Wisner, Heinz Felfe, Frenchy Grombach in Poland, etc.

To be clear, the “legal” threat was a simple cease and desist to protect copyrighted material not yet in the public domain. Had I not intervened, and had our publisher come across the posts, I suspect the ramifications might have been more severe. I think you need to let go of this particular bone you’ve been gnawing on for months.  

You position yourself as beyond reproach, so kindly post the full text of your noble warning to Mary Haverstick — or point me to the complete post if it’s buried in your comments — so that I can finish tearing it to shreds. Or did you think twice and shred it yourself?

I thought twice and shredded it myself. It was up for several seconds and then it was deleted. The message read in full:

Mary Haverstick, please be careful. Here is a young man who was brutally intimidated by Ms. Sharp with legal threats, then after some making nice involving what he later said were many lengthy and friendly phone calls, he claimed on this forum at a later stage he was legally prevented from expressing his own opinion on whether a datebook controlled by Ms. Sharp was authentic. It sounded like he had signed something that encumbered him. Be careful of being offered Very Significant Exclusive Access to June Cobb information, provided you sign a NDA. You could be fed some real leads which you then could not pursue and publish because covered by the NDA. https://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/25904-natos-secret-armies-operation-gladio-and-jfk/page/17/#comment-420455

 

[Leslie Sharp]

@Greg Doudna I thought so. If this is exemplary of your reading and comprehension skills, perhaps Mary’s book would be better represented on the forum.

I’ll end your distraction from her work with this: any and all in my sphere with whom I’ve shared the full pdf of the Lafitte datebook . . . and there are many ... signed the same NDA that Monte signed. It remains in place to protect the additional details not yet thoroughly considered before Hank left. Coup is a work in progress.  Monte made clear in several posts he is not standing behind provenance or authenticity of Hank’s primary source. Does that disturb you? It doesn’t me, and he and I remain colleagues and friends.

 

 

[Leslie Sharp]

In conversations related to Mary’s work, I recently opined, how could anyone familiar with June’s story have overlooked some of these sensational documents? Or did they? Did Hank miss that June had a sexual liaison with both Jack and Bobby? Had he planned to include that in his proposed book? Did he intend to protect June’s reputation. Is this claim verifiable, unfounded, pure gossip, or recently manufactured?

One document hound reminded us of the E. Howard Hunt incident. Under oath he admitted to engineering at least one false document to slip into government files. 
 

I’m being facetious to a degree, but apropos of insults on this forum hurled at Albarelli and his own primary source material and by extension his coauthor, have documents attributing portions of a draft speech for Kennedy been carbon-dated? @Greg Doudna
 

This is not meant to diminish Haverstick’s herculean effort, but surely forum members recognize that Coup does not make 1/10 the extraordinary leaps we read in AWIK.  I hope to take this up with Mary soon. I’m anticipating she might respond similar to Hank, take it or leave it; I know where the research led me and I stand behind it.

Edited December 6, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Leslie Sharp]

2 hours ago, Greg Doudna said:

(Continued)

"In the final weeks of a presidential campaign, political actors normally jockey to affect the outcome of the election. But CIA agents who specialize in government overthrows aren't supposed to ply their skills in presidential elections. That's why Cobb's submissions to Goodwin, combined with her business with [Harvard Law School dean] William S. Barnes, a policy adviser who was working to get Nixon elected, are so problematic. And just as with her Kennedy speech, Cobb reported on her dealings with Barnes to her CIA case officer. 

October 13, 1960, Cobb's notes to Pierson

William S. [Barnes] had apparently spent the day down in your hometown [Washington, D.C.] precisely discussing our troublesome friends. He is about ready to come to the conclusion that it is too late to carry out the kind of attempt we discussed last summer. He discussed with me the advantages of making one last effort and then finding some new tenants for the house. He is interested in what can be done to improve the whole neighborhood.

"(...) The meaning of the open code becomes clearer in Cobb's next report. Goodwin's misstatement [Goodwin improperly represented JFK to the press without JFK's knowledge or permission as recommending overthrow of Cuba, which JFK staff had to walk back] had just hit the news when Cobb and Barnes reconvened, and the topic between them was how Barnes would help Nixon capitalize (...)

"This would be a good time to ask why, early on the morning of the presidential debate, Barnes would have stopped by Cobb's apartment to share his plan to approach Nixon. Cobb was meeting simultaneously with an adviser who was helping to shape Nixon's response to Kennedy, while also writing a speech to bolster Kennedy's position on Cuba (...)

"That evening, after the meeting between Barnes and Cobb, Nixon drew blood in the debate, citing that Kennedy's position [the Goodwin misrepresentation] violated international law. Had Barnes helped Nixon write his winning response? (...) let's lay out a simplified timeline.

October 12. The CIA installs Cobb in a bugged hotel suite in Manhattan.

October 13. Barnes and Cobb meet to discuss one last attempt and new tenants for the house.

October 20, P.M. Goodwin misstates Kennedy's position without waking the candidate.

October 21, A.M. Barnes and Cobb meet to discuss Kennedy's error, Barnes rushes to help Nixon.

October 21, P.M. Nixon draws blood in the debate, based on Goodwin's mistake

October 23. "Kennedy Plan Risks World War" is the New York Times headline.

October 29. June reads aloud her speech affirming JFK's support for the exiles.

October 30. When JFK retracts exile support, Cobb is furious and calls Kennedy headquarters.

"(...) Goodwin's mistaken position didn't end Kennedy's candidacy. Americans went to the polls on November 8, 1960, and voted for John F. Kennedy as the thirty-fifth president of the United States. The tally was so close that Nixon didn't concede until the next day. He wired his congratulations to Kennedy while the CIA was rolling up the surveillance net on June Cobb's hotel."

(Mary Haverstick, A Woman I Know, 223-241)

I’ve never been comfortable with the whitewash of Goodwin’s egregious blunder. Adding to misgivings was his close friendship with neighbor Norman Mailer who would later perpetuate attention on the perfect patsy in “Oswald’s Tale.” It was Mailer who had inspired “Oswald’s Game” by Jean Davison published on the 20th Anniversary. Davison was provided significant space on the original Morley forum jfkfacts as was the late Prof. John McAdams who virtually single handedly captured the hearts and minds of conspiracy deniers . . . on Morley’s own turf. It was a democracy (and some eventually concluded a boiler room to collect free research) but the deliberations never solved the cold case murder investigation.

What if all that energy and attention had been directed toward identifying who actually killed John Kennedy in Dallas? Instead? The patsy was chased some more. Many here insist we should now celebrate that we finally know with certainty the patsy had been used by numerous government agencies... those were the most dominate headlines for the 60th.  Jefferson Morley garnered headlines.

Bottom line, are we slouching toward “Oswald shot Kennedy from the Sixth Floor sniper’s nest”?

Edited December 6, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Leslie Sharp]

@Greg Doudna

’ . . . Following June Cobb’s June 7 interrogation and polygraph session in Washington, CIA Security Office officials made the determination, after thorough review of her interrogation transcript, “that there were many present and future Security ramifications involving [Cobb]and that as much  investigation and research as possible would be done and plans would be made for [Agency interrogator Ralph True] to re-interview and interrogate [Cobb].”  These additional interrogation and polygraph sessions were conducted on October 11 and 12, 1960 at a covert location in Boston, Massachusetts.

COBB INTERROGATION IN BOSTON

June Cobb, accompanied by her case officer, Jean Pierson, flew to Boston by air on October 10, arriving 9:50 P.M. . . . [CIA official Paul T.] Auden also requested that the field office “obtain an adjoining room whereby you [are] to install KING coverage before October 9.” . . . 

The next day, Cobb and Pierson traveled by taxi to the Hotel Bellevue, where Ralph True interviewed and polygraphed Cobb that day and the next, October 11 and 12, 1960. . . .

Ralph True’s subsequent report on the two day session (dated October 17, 1960) began by noting that June Cobb was extremely concerned “about what she felt was a break of security regarding herself.” . . . ‘ 

COBB IS PSYCHOLOGICALLY ASSESSED FOR CIA JOB

On November 9, 1960, June Cobb’s agency handler, Jean Pierson —whose real name may have been Elizabeth Vetter . . . alerted agency officials . . . that she and a CIA psychiatrist . . . had traveled to New York City two days earlier to assess June Cobb’s suitability . . . Dr. Burris and Pierson met with Cobb at the Statler Hilton [November 7] . . . ‘  

— H. P. Albarelli Jr., A Secret Order: Investigating the High Strangeness and Synchronicity in the JFK Assassination 

 

If I understand this, within hours of June Cobb being vetted and interrogated and vetted again over 48 hours by the CIA in Boston, June Cobb was installed in a bugged room in a Manhattan hotel by the same CIA, writing notes to a handler she had just spent two days with, and focused on wording for a forthcoming speech by the Democratic presidential candidate along with the dean of Harvard Law School. By the first week of November, June Cobb’s “suitability” is still in question.

 

Edited December 6, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Evan Marshall]

Important to who?

[Leslie Sharp]

Catherine Taaffe was the first and only licensed and accredited female arms dealer at the time.  As such, I think we all agree she would have been vetted, photographed, and tracked by the responsible government agencies. Have those specific records and photos been compared against the purported evidence provided by Haverstick? 

Did someone within said agency put their signature to records with a photo of Jerrie The Pilot --- a woman prominently in the news --- juxtaposed over the biographical data of licensed arms dealer Catherine Taaffe which included marriage to an AF officer? How did this work?  Was her AF officer in on the doubling? Did he put his career on the line? Anyone who has been interviewed to vouch for a friend or colleague's security clearance recognizes the serious implications.

Did long-time hardened gunrunner Jesse Vickers know Jerrie The Pilot as Catherine The Arms Dealer? Would he risk dealing with triplets Cathy-Jerrie-June?

Taaffe assumes a cameo appearance in Coup in Dallas, published November 19, 2021, ample time for anyone in pursuit of the truth — and Taaffe — to at least be curious, and to consider how Vickers who is prominent in Taaffe govt. docs might provide clues to Dallas.  The name Vickers appears on a critical date, in revelatory context of the unfolding Dallas plot, in the 1963 datebook maintained by Pierre Lafitte.

This is but another anomaly found in AWIK. How could famed female pilot Jerrie Cobb get by actively impersonating an arms dealer and a sometime intel agency asset and still pursue a high profile career in aviation. To coin a phrase, someone woulda talked.

And there's more . . .

Edited December 13, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Leslie Sharp]

@Greg Doudna @Michael Griffith

This is a photo of Hank Albarelli's good friend and godmother to his grandson, Viola June Cobb, approx 85 yrs., taken with brothers Jasper Jr. and Tom in Houston.

Michael, you might want to share the photo with Mary?

In their 2017 coverage of Trump's anticipated release of ALL of the files in accordance with the JFK  Records Act -- a legal duty and promise he failed abysmally to fulfill -- NBC News noted that Viola June Cobb had passed away on October 17, 2015 as confirmed by both her sister-in-law and an official with the Manhattan nursing home where June spent her final days. RIP.  

I knew that Hank sent June weekly care pkgs. from FL, but I’ve only latterly been told that he personally saw to it June’s living conditions were safe and comfortable.

Edited December 13, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Leslie Sharp]

@Greg Doudna please acknowledge that you have seen the photo I've parked momentarily on my FB page; and retract your defamatory accusation that Hank Albarelli lied about his source.

Renee Chagnot

b. Nov 24, 1904  -- Selancour FR

d. June 21, 2000 -- US

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2126475874356938&id=100009836370242&mibextid=Nif5oz

Edited December 13, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Leslie Sharp]

From A Secret Order by H. P. Albarelli Jr., published 2013,Trine Day:

‘. . . It is not clear that [COS Mex City] Winston Scott ever saw June Cobb’s October 5, 1964 report, but on November 25, 1964, about a year before Charles William Thomas had his initial conversation with Elena Garro de Paz concerning Lee Harvey Oswald, CIA officer “Willard C. Curtis,” a pseudonym used by the CIA Chief of Station Winston Scott, wrote a memorandum for the files bearing the subject line “June Cobb.”

The memorandum explained that through two trusted covert sources — Manuel Alonzo Calvillo, a Mexican code named LI-CHANT/1, and Alonso Rudolph Wichtrich, executive Vice President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Mexico and code-named LIHUFF/1 — Curtis had been informed that the former wife of Octavio Paz “rents a room to an American communist whose name is June Cobb.”

[so far so good; I believe Mary Haverstick has relied on the same records Albarelli accessed for the passages seen here and published years before AWIK.]

‘ . . . Continued the memorandum ... [reminding the reader that the author is COS Win Scott who by November 1964 was heavily into clean up mode for THE Agency and particularly his operation in MC. ] “The former Mrs. PAZ is, however, afraid of Miss COBB [beginning to paint a picture of a crazed drug addled commie?]. She said COBB broke the legs and smashed the ribs of a pet cat when she got mad at the cat. Mrs. Paz is afraid COBB will ‘break her arms and legs’ one day if she gets angry.” . . . ‘

Albarelli continues . . . 

‘ . . . If Cobb’s alleged [emphasis added] animal cruelty wasn’t enough, according to the [Win Scott] memorandum the informants also reported, “June COBB is [now get this] promiscuous and sleeps with large numbers of men [inferring orgies?] sometimes spends several nights (consecutive) [gasp] with a man in his apartment.”

The document continues: “Mrs. PAZ believes COBB may have been ‘planted’ on her by communists.” . . . ‘

 

I’ve taken the liberty of editorializing, first to make a mockery of the hypocrisy of Win Scott who was known to have carried on his own affair while his wife wrestled with mental health issues, but also to remind Mary Haverstick that June Cobb was known to his station, and his station was either complicit or grossly incompetent and June knew.

In a recent conversation, I was admonished that obviously Hank mistakenly failed to realize what an evil, “nasty,” dangerous woman was Viola June Cobb. When I put two and two together —  she lectured him on “How Intelligence Agencies Work” — beginners manual, CIA 1.01 including (drum roll please) “agents use aliases; doubling is tradecraft,” I realized why the call — from someone developing her own theories sans facts to conclude he had been snookered or worse by a femme fatale — lasted less than ten minutes. He did not suffer fools.

Contrary to the claim that the “cat terrorizing incident” is a scoop, the docs have been available for over a decade. Further, rather than buy into the orchestrated attack on Cobb — it’s obvious the Win Scott memorandum was a cya, meant to undercut the credibility of the agency’s own (relatively recently recruited) asset — why not dig a little deeper? Ask why Scott’s history as the Western Europe division Chief of Special Operations in the early 1950s has been completely ignored? Would that deep dive reveal that Scott was reviewing reports on Otto & Ilse  Skorzeny’s activities in Madrid?
 

Are we now to believe that Jerrie (or, June?) Cobb was Otto’s commandant in the QJ/WIN programme?

Edited December 13, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Greg Doudna]

2 hours ago, Leslie Sharp said:

@Greg Doudna please acknowledge that you have seen the photo I've parked momentarily on my FB page; and retract your defamatory accusation that Hank Albarelli lied about his source.

Renee Chagnot

b. Nov 24, 1904  -- Selancour FR

d. June 21, 2000 -- US

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2126475874356938&id=100009836370242&mibextid=Nif5oz

I get a broken link and “page not available” from your link so saw no photo on your Facebook. But I see the photo of ca 85-yr old June Cobb and one of her brothers you posted here; thanks for posting that photo.

I never accused Albarelli of lying about his source, at least I don’t remember doing so. I thought Albarelli may have been deceived, different thing. 

From your photo however, I retract the idea that Albarelli’s June Cobb, the godmother of his grandson, was not the real June Cobb from Ponca City OK.

I still don’t know how someone as famous as June Cobb could die with no known newspaper notice or obituary, but maybe that is less unusual than I supposed, probably happens all the time (a lot) dependent on the accident of whether a family member proactively makes an announcement happen. But what a story June Cobb—the CIA femme fatale in her heyday—would have to tell!! I hope her story via Albarelli may see the light of day. 

[Leslie Sharp]

13 hours ago, Greg Doudna said:

I get a broken link and “page not available” from your link so saw no photo on your Facebook. But I see the photo of ca 85-yr old June Cobb and one of her brothers you posted here; thanks for posting that photo.

I never accused Albarelli of lying about his source, at least I don’t remember doing so. I thought Albarelli may have been deceived, different thing. 

From your photo however, I retract the idea that Albarelli’s June Cobb, the godmother of his grandson, was not the real June Cobb from Ponca City OK.

I still don’t know how someone as famous as June Cobb could die with no known newspaper notice or obituary, but maybe that is less unusual than I supposed, probably happens all the time (a lot) dependent on the accident of whether a family member proactively makes an announcement happen. But what a story June Cobb—the CIA femme fatale in her heyday—would have to tell!! I hope her story via Albarelli may see the light of day. 

Fair enough. I think you suggested Renee might have been a figment of his imagination. I’ll make the photo public on FB tomorrow if you want to check back in. She was quite beautiful.

Her large extended family who appear to be salt of the earth citizens that love our country carry the burden; navigating Hank’s commitment vs. living with my own conscience — sunlight heals all as long as it doesn’t burn  — i’ve now pushed the envelope far beyond what Hank ever intended.  

You may not accept this, but I'm doing what I can -- staying in my lane but making sure his Cobb M/s doesn't fall into the wrong hands. Initial working title: CIA Femme Fatale: The Secret Life of June Cobb. (2011)

Note: he didn't title the work in progress, The Woman Impersonated by the Woman Who Shot JFK: Revelations of the Babushka Lady

Edited December 13, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Joe Bauer]

Just beginning to read the very basics of the American "Matta Hari" Viola June Cobb story after reading these debate postings about her.

What a life! Almost hard to believe.

I'm surprised a major A list film was never considered regards her and her many mysterious, highest covert level doings.

I clicked on Images for her. Hardly any came up with the exception of one particular photo. It is a full body shot.

In this she looks as femininely attractive as a major Hollywood starlet. Beautiful really.

Aren't there other photos of her in her prime?

Sorry for the distraction from the much more important heavy weight debate discussion in this thread.

 

Edited December 13, 2023 by Joe Bauer

[Leslie Sharp]

11 hours ago, Joe Bauer said:

Just beginning to read the very basics of the American "Matta Hari" Viola June Cobb story after reading these debate postings about her.

What a life! Almost hard to believe.

I'm surprised a major A list film was never considered regards her and her many mysterious, highest covert level doings.

I clicked on Images for her. Hardly any came up with the exception of one particular photo. It is a full body shot.

In this she looks as femininely attractive as a major Hollywood starlet. Beautiful really.

Aren't there other photos of her in her prime?

Sorry for the distraction from the much more important heavy weight debate discussion in this thread.

 

@Joe Bauer I believe a collage of photos is available. I’ll link if possible. Certainly Albarelli included one in A Secret Order. He selected an image of her interacting with indigenous youth. We used the photo above in a video promo for Coup focused on the femme fatales in the JFK case. She is as you note, quite feminine and apparently so into her later life. For that reason, I struggle with the proposition she was successfully impersonated within the milieu of arms dealers and gunrunners; the drug lords in particular could not be fooled, imo.

I believe a team of documentarians hope to tell June’s story; Hank had agreed to give them access to his interview tapes. At this juncture I think they have accumulated even more material. Work in progress.