Mary Haverstick's Important New Book on the JFK Assassination

[Michael Griffith]

BTW, Mary's book just got a great review on JFKFacts.org:

The Labyrinth of 'A Woman I Know' - by Peter Voskamp (substack.com)

[Leslie Sharp]

1 hour ago, Sandy Larsen said:

The top photo was posted earlier by Leslie and is of JUNE Cobb.

The two photos below that are somewhat younger photos of JERRIE Cobb. (No gray hair.)

They look reasonably similar, and could be the same person.

JERRIE has very distinctive looking earlobes. If Leslie has a photo showing JUNE's earlobes, we could easily rule out their being the same person if their earlobes don't match. Conversely, if they do match, there's a good chance that they are one and the same person.

 

 

 

 

You can zoom to see June’s left facing ear. 

Speaking independent of my association with Albarelli who knew June well, and perhaps being female influences my subjective photo analysis, but I cannot see the slightest resemblance in these two women, not in their youth nor well into their 60s-80s.

Aside from the obvious attention to grooming, June’s being meticulously feminine in every photo available v. Jerrie’s far more casual and tom-boyish approach, note that Jerrie’s teeth are prominent and her mouth is significantly wider than June’s. Jerrie maintained her blonde hair into her 6th or 7th decade; June’s perfectly coifed naturally gray hair is in distinct contrast. Jerrie’s ears appear sizably longer in relation to her skull than June’s.

From a woman’s perspective, the most obvious distinction is their general demeanor, their countenance when captured on film. These are two different woman.

Edited December 20, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Leslie Sharp]

18 minutes ago, Michael Griffith said:

BTW, Mary's book just got a great review on JFKFacts.org:

The Labyrinth of 'A Woman I Know' - by Peter Voskamp (substack.com)

Some might suggest that was to be expected. I’m not a subscriber to Jeff’s substack so I’ve been unable to review Voskamp’s take. Maybe Jeff would give you dispensation to copy paste on EF as a gesture of good faith?
 

Also, are you willing to respond to the concerns about AWIK I presented earlier, and or provide details of my alleged inaccuracies so that I might rebut or retract?
 

Edited December 20, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[James DiEugenio]

I would have to say, I don't see a resemblance.

In fact, its not even close. If you place the middle picture next to the top picture, the divergence is  obvious.

[Greg Doudna]

On 12/1/2023 at 6:05 AM, Michael Griffith said:

She proves, with photographic evidence, that Jerrie Cobb had the same “26” scar on her left forearm that two of Castro’s thugs carved into Catherine Taafe’s left forearm in February 1960.

She proves, again with photographic evidence, that Jerrie Cobb had the same circular, two-ring leishmaniasis scar on her left clavicle that June Cobb had on her left clavicle.

She proves that CIA records and other sources show an amazing activity overlap and checkerboard-like synchronicity between the lives of Jerrie Cobb and June Cobb and Catherine Taafe. Consider the amazing parallels between Jerrie Cobb and June Cobb:

Both came from Ponca City, Oklahoma. They were the same height and weight. Both lived for a time in Norman, Oklahoma. Both were in the Civil Air Patrol, a rare thing for women back then. Both were fluent Spanish speakers. Both lived extensively in Latin America. Both left home in their twenties for South America. Both lobbied on behalf of the Indigenous tribes at the Amazon headwaters. Both visited the isolated Andes mountains in the early 1950s, when almost no white people had ever been there. Both advocated for causes related to the coca-leaf-chewing habits of the Andean natives. Both exited the jungle from their expeditions burdened by a lifelong jungle-borne disease (leishmaniasis).

Once in South America, both worked for aviation firms serving identical countries—Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Peru. Both traveled into dark corners of the Amazon jungle, and both got there by flying with a new love who was also a pilot. Both considered their respective affairs to be the love of their lives, and both relationships ended tragically.

Both traveled the same geographic circuit of cities in perpetual motion. Both had indications of wealth but no visible means of support. Both disappeared for extended periods of time during their lives. Both were well connected to the national and international press.

Both opposed some of John F. Kennedy’s policies. Both were in Mexico City six weeks before Kennedy was killed. Both intersected with events surrounding Kennedy’s death.

-- Haverstick interviewed a person who knew the CIA June Cobb well, Fortuna Calvo-Roth. She showed Fortuna nine photos that included one alleged photo of the CIA June Cobb and two photos of Jerrie Cobb. Fortuna identified the two photos of Jerrie Cobb as the CIA June Cobb. When Haverstick asked her about the photo of the CIA June Cobb, she said it was not June Cobb.

-- Haverstick discovered that Jerrie Cobb was an experienced target shooter, and that she had excellent marksmanship skills.

-- Haverstick makes a strong case that Jerrie Cobb was QJWIN. No other proposed candidate for QJWIN comes close to Cobb’s qualifications for being QJWIN.

-- Haverstick makes a plausible case that Jerrie Cobb was the Babushka Lady.

Haverstick’s ID of Jerrie Cobb as the Babushka Lady is strengthened by Cobb’s admission to her that she was the pilot of the suspicious plane at Redbird Airport on 11/22/63. The ID is also strengthened by Jerrie Cobb’s statement to Haverstick that June Cobb knew who killed JFK.

-- Even if one rejects Haverstick’s Cobb-Babushka identification, she makes a very good case that the Babushka Lady’s conduct during and after the shooting was unusual and suspicious.

-- Haverstick’s theory that the Babushka Lady was holding a gun disguised as a camera is entirely plausible and feasible.

-- Haverstick’s research on Cobb’s use of multiple identities and on Cobb’s pretending to be pro-Castro and pro-Soviet gives us useful insight into Oswald’s pro-Castro/Soviet posturing.

After finishing a careful rereading of the book I don’t think H has shown that Jerrie Cobb was the CIA June Cobb and I don’t think they were identical. I also don’t think either had anything to do with the Babushka Lady. I think H makes an intriguing case for some June Cobb connections with QJWINN but does not show a connection of Jerrie Cobb to June Cobb or QJWINN.

Jerrie Cobb’s claim to have been the twin-engine pilot at Redbird is believable, since I see no other obvious sign Jerrie was lying to H. As a veteran pilot already employed in Fort Worth why wouldn’t it be plausible Jerrie would fly a charter flight of a news crew from Florida to Dallas. But no reason to conclude that had anything to do with June Cobb.

To run down the short list of supposed strong items for the identity, with the exception of Fortuna Calvo-Roth’s identification of Jerrie Cobb photos as the long-ago June Cobb she remembered—with the exception of that—nothing else shown by H in the book is substantial to me, in identifying Jerrie as June. And with only that left standing, not good enough. From what I see Calvo-Roth appears to be still living at age 90 and would merit a serious reinterview and fact-check on the photo ID reported if that is to be stand-alone relied upon.

The “26” scar? Look at the photo of Jerrie’s arm again. There is no “6” or “o” at all that I can see apart from natural folds or wrinkles in the aged skin of Jerrie arm. There is a line scar with a curl at the end that does look like the shape of a huge “2” but I doubt that is significant, simply coincidence. At the start of that scar a couple of other straight-line scar lines radiate outward which one has to disregard to have only one of them become the base of the “2”. Seeing shapes in clouds phenomenon.

The “26” of Taafe’s assault reported in the Miami newspaper is completely different scars in the news photo, smaller distinct “26”, not Jerrie’s scar at all. H suggests a deceptive photo was published of Taafe’s assault mutilation in Miami. But nothing verifies that ad hoc claim.

June Cobb had a massive diseased boil-looking disfigurement on her clavicle area of her lower throat published in a medical journal which shows her young face in the early 1950s which is not the face of Jerrie Cobb. H suggests photo alteration in that article published by an MD in a medical journal to explain that the face of June Cobb there is not Jerrie. Totally ad hoc. 

H’s photo of the aged Jerrie’s neck or clavicle area shows a small slight darker spot in the skin that looks like a birthmark. H sees that small darker skin spot in aged skin as the remnant of June Cobb’s massive disease scar, I don’t think so. 

H shows a comparison of QJWINN document signatures of “Jeri” as looking like a signature of “Jerrie” Cobb. While visually it is striking, in H’s otherwise well-documented book I could find no identification or source for where she got that Jerrie Cobb signature. I wanted to fact-check that, and cannot on information provided. Therefore, as it stands, insubstantial. 

On checkerboarding, the interesting checkerboarding claims H shows have to do with June Cobb and QJWINN, without bringing Jerrie into the picture. I don’t see Jerrie as identifiable with June Cobb via checkerboarding claimed to show that. 

My take on these points. The book makes June Cobb more interesting, but I do not see a convincing case made in the book that Jerrie Cobb ever went under the name June Cobb.

Edited December 20, 2023 by Greg Doudna

[David Boylan]

Jerrie Cobb was a 5'7" and 121 lbs blond. She logged 7500 hours in flight time. Daughter of William Cobb, a former Air Force Lt Colonel taught her to fly.

 

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=102753#relPageId=53

Edited December 20, 2023 by David Boylan

[Leslie Sharp]

Gary Shaw weighed in recently (and with his blessing), “This lady pilot named Jerri was married to Joe Truhill, a pilot who was running guns with Ruby and Tommy Davis.”  

He is referring to Jerri Sloan Truhill. 
from wiki . . . In 1961 she got a call from her friend Jerrie Cobb, asking for her interest in a secret government project, which would turn out to be the Women in Space Program run by Dr. William Randolph Lovelace . . .

 

Albarelli picked up on Lovelace in A Secret Order,  noting his role in the CIA’s Project Oxcart in 1954, but one of the medical experiment programmes Hank had been tracking since the Olson case. 

He also notes the association between Harold Meltzer and Tri-Cities Flying Service owned by Evelyn “Pinky” Brier, former wartime Women’s Auxiliary whose clients on the West Coast had included DCI John McCone. Note that Albarelli does NOT mention Jerrie Cobb.

 

Had Haverstick not rejected Albarelli’s ASO allegedly* because he provides no direct quotes from June Cobb, she might have been compelled to acknowledge that he makes not one reference to Jerrie The Pilot even in context of Lovelace’s Albuquerque NM programme.
 

She might have also realized the significance of Happy Meltzer who was slated by the agency as a QJ/WIN spotter. Meltzer was acquainted with two brothers who were notorious as Columbia’s up and coming young drug traffickers, one of whom would later fall head over heels in love with Viola June Cobb.  Meltzer, based in LA, was not only a sometime hit-man for Johnny Roselli, but he had been engaged in a semi-legitimate business with one Jean Pierre Lafitte. 
 

When Mary Haverstick opined that it was a pity Hank wouldn’t engage with her (for even one second) about her theory Jerrie and June were one and the same, and how important it is for ‘the community’ to work together, I thought, ‘but look at your missed opportunities?’  Hank’s coauthor of Coup in Dallas, was a phone call away months before the final draft of AWIK.
 

In addition to setting the record straight  — that Hank befriended June Cobb, not Jerrie —- we might have pursued in tandem Meltzer then Lafitte who leads straight to QJ/WIN  in North Africa/Otto Skorzeny in Madrid, and possibly pilot and acquaintance of Jerrie Cobb —Jerri Sloan Truhill and husband Joe who ran guns with Tommy Davis (who met Skorzeny in Madrid in November 1963) and Jack Ruby. So many opportunities missed.

*A Secret Order had been in the public domain since 2013 yet Haverstick didn’t phone Albarelli until May of 2015. 

Edited December 20, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Leslie Sharp]

1 hour ago, Greg Doudna said:

After finishing a careful rereading of the book I don’t think H has shown that Jerrie Cobb was the CIA June Cobb and I don’t think they were identical. I also don’t think either had anything to do with the Babushka Lady. I think H makes an intriguing case for some June Cobb connections with QJWINN but does not show a connection of Jerrie Cobb to June Cobb or QJWINN.

Jerrie Cobb’s claim to have been the twin-engine pilot at Redbird is believable, since I see no other obvious sign Jerrie was lying to H. As a veteran pilot already employed in Fort Worth why wouldn’t it be plausible Jerrie would fly a charter flight of a news crew from Florida to Dallas. But no reason to conclude that had anything to do with June Cobb.

To run down the short list of supposed strong items for the identity, with the exception of Fortuna Calvo-Roth’s identification of Jerrie Cobb photos as the long-ago June Cobb she remembered—with the exception of that—nothing else shown by H in the book is substantial to me, in identifying Jerrie as June. And with only that left standing, not good enough. From what I see Calvo-Roth appears to be still living at age 90 and would merit a serious reinterview and fact-check on the photo ID reported if that is to be stand-alone relied upon.

The “26” scar? Look at the photo of Jerrie’s arm again. There is no “6” or “o” at all that I can see apart from natural folds or wrinkles in the aged skin of Jerrie arm. There is a line scar with a curl at the end that does look like the shape of a huge “2” but I doubt that is significant, simply coincidence. At the start of that scar a couple of other straight-line scar lines radiate outward which one has to disregard to have only one of them become the base of the “2”. Seeing shapes in clouds phenomenon.

The “26” of Taafe’s assault reported in the Miami newspaper is completely different scars in the news photo, smaller distinct “26”, not Jerrie’s scar at all. H suggests a deceptive photo was published of Taafe’s assault mutilation in Miami. But nothing verifies that ad hoc claim.

June Cobb had a massive diseased boil-looking disfigurement on her clavicle area of her lower throat published in a medical journal which shows her young face in the early 1950s which is not the face of Jerrie Cobb. H suggests photo alteration in that article published by an MD in a medical journal to explain that the face of June Cobb there is not Jerrie. Totally ad hoc. 

H’s photo of the aged Jerrie’s neck or clavicle area shows a small slight darker spot in the skin that looks like a birthmark. H sees that small darker skin spot in aged skin as the remnant of June Cobb’s massive disease scar, I don’t think so. 

H shows a comparison of QJWINN document signatures of “Jeri” as looking like a signature of “Jerrie” Cobb. While visually it is striking, in H’s otherwise well-documented book I could find no identification or source for where she got that Jerrie Cobb signature. I wanted to fact-check that, and cannot on information provided. Therefore, as it stands, insubstantial. 

On checkerboarding, the interesting checkerboarding claims H shows have to do with June Cobb and QJWINN, without bringing Jerrie into the picture. I don’t see Jerrie as identifiable with June Cobb via checkerboarding claimed to show that. 

I don’t believe that Jerrie had anything to do with the intell appearing woman who tried to direct H away from looking at Jerrie’s history; I doubt Jerrie intentionally food-poisoned H; and I don’t believe H’s claim that Jerrie never wanted to go into space.

My take on these points. The book makes June Cobb more interesting, but I do not see a convincing case made in the book that Jerrie Cobb ever went under the name June Cobb.

I was struck by the assertion that Cobb’s agency payouts are identical in amounts and dates with those of [a] QJ/WIN, yet the graphic doesn’t support the claim. Admittedly, the numerous discrepancies might be viewed as minor, but “identical,” by definition, the amounts and dates are not. 

[Leslie Sharp]

‘ . . . Interesting to note here is that Edward Lawton Smith who came to the United States sometime in the early 1950s, was reported to look similar to Lee Harvey Oswald. Smith, who frequently traveled to Mexico City in the early 1960s, had been in the Canadian army during World War II, serving in Germany, France, and Belgium. Smith was recruited in 1953 by Jean Pierre Lafitte, a “special employee” of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and contractor for the CIA to be undercover, paid informer reporting to the Bureau’s George Hunter White and Garland Williams. In 1959, Smith had mysterious dealings with June Cobb and Warren Broglie in New York City, thought perhaps to have been related to a drug trafficking ring in New Orleans that both Smith and Cobb were knowledgeable about.’ —pg 230-231, A Secret Order.

The name “Smith” appears early in the year in the 1963 datebook maintained by Pierre Lafitte. 
 

@Michael Griffith, do you have any reason to contend that Jerrie the Pilot knew Broglie or Lawton Smith, or Pierre Lafitte?

Edited December 20, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[James DiEugenio]

May i ask, who is Peter Voskamp?

At the risk of sounding ill informed I never heard of the guy.

Or he is down the memory hole.

[Ron Bulman]

1 hour ago, James DiEugenio said:

May i ask, who is Peter Voskamp?

At the risk of sounding ill informed I never heard of the guy.

Or he is down the memory hole.

I'd seen his name in relation to another article on What The Doctors Saw via Jeff's substack.  Not being a subscriber i couldn't read the whole thing (like the one above).  Other than that, I knew nothing.  Found this out of curiosity.

Articles by Peter Voskamp’s Profile | Rolling Stone, Substack, The Block Island Times Journalist | Muck Rack

[Sandy Larsen]

9 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

May i ask, who is Peter Voskamp?

 

On this JFK Facts page, Peter Voskamp is referred to as "Jeff's aide-de-camp." "Jeff" presumably is Jefferson Morely.

I'm surprised that Jefferson has allowed this glowing review of Haverstick's book to be published on his website. He's always been cautious with his beliefs and claims, as far as I can tell.

 

[Michael Griffith]

23 hours ago, Greg Doudna said:

After finishing a careful rereading of the book I don’t think H has shown that Jerrie Cobb was the CIA June Cobb and I don’t think they were identical. I also don’t think either had anything to do with the Babushka Lady. I think H makes an intriguing case for some June Cobb connections with QJWINN but does not show a connection of Jerrie Cobb to June Cobb or QJWINN.

Jerrie Cobb’s claim to have been the twin-engine pilot at Redbird is believable, since I see no other obvious sign Jerrie was lying to H. As a veteran pilot already employed in Fort Worth why wouldn’t it be plausible Jerrie would fly a charter flight of a news crew from Florida to Dallas. But no reason to conclude that had anything to do with June Cobb.

To run down the short list of supposed strong items for the identity, with the exception of Fortuna Calvo-Roth’s identification of Jerrie Cobb photos as the long-ago June Cobb she remembered—with the exception of that—nothing else shown by H in the book is substantial to me, in identifying Jerrie as June. And with only that left standing, not good enough. From what I see Calvo-Roth appears to be still living at age 90 and would merit a serious reinterview and fact-check on the photo ID reported if that is to be stand-alone relied upon.

The “26” scar? Look at the photo of Jerrie’s arm again. There is no “6” or “o” at all that I can see apart from natural folds or wrinkles in the aged skin of Jerrie arm. There is a line scar with a curl at the end that does look like the shape of a huge “2” but I doubt that is significant, simply coincidence. At the start of that scar a couple of other straight-line scar lines radiate outward which one has to disregard to have only one of them become the base of the “2”. Seeing shapes in clouds phenomenon.

The “26” of Taafe’s assault reported in the Miami newspaper is completely different scars in the news photo, smaller distinct “26”, not Jerrie’s scar at all. H suggests a deceptive photo was published of Taafe’s assault mutilation in Miami. But nothing verifies that ad hoc claim.

June Cobb had a massive diseased boil-looking disfigurement on her clavicle area of her lower throat published in a medical journal which shows her young face in the early 1950s which is not the face of Jerrie Cobb. H suggests photo alteration in that article published by an MD in a medical journal to explain that the face of June Cobb there is not Jerrie. Totally ad hoc. 

H’s photo of the aged Jerrie’s neck or clavicle area shows a small slight darker spot in the skin that looks like a birthmark. H sees that small darker skin spot in aged skin as the remnant of June Cobb’s massive disease scar, I don’t think so. 

H shows a comparison of QJWINN document signatures of “Jeri” as looking like a signature of “Jerrie” Cobb. While visually it is striking, in H’s otherwise well-documented book I could find no identification or source for where she got that Jerrie Cobb signature. I wanted to fact-check that, and cannot on information provided. Therefore, as it stands, insubstantial. 

On checkerboarding, the interesting checkerboarding claims H shows have to do with June Cobb and QJWINN, without bringing Jerrie into the picture. I don’t see Jerrie as identifiable with June Cobb via checkerboarding claimed to show that. 

My take on these points. The book makes June Cobb more interesting, but I do not see a convincing case made in the book that Jerrie Cobb ever went under the name June Cobb.

I disagree. I think Mary makes a convincing case that Jerrie Cobb was the CIA June Cobb and Katherine Taafe.

You don't see the scar on the left forearm? I see at least half of it. Mary notes that part of the scar, the 6, is not really visible; however, I see a visible 2 on Jerrie Cobb's left forearm, and I see some kind of scar next to the 2, as Mary notes--part of it could be the circular part of a 6. The odds that it's a coincidence that Jerrie Cobb had a 2 on her left forearm and a scar next to the 2 and that Katherine Taafe had a 26 carved into her left forearm are too remote to fathom. 

Similarly, the odds that it's a coincidence that Jerrie Cobb and June Cobb both exited the same South American jungle with a disease that scarred the same clavicle are too remote to fathom. 

And the odds that all the many parallel life experiences and actions of Jerrie Cobb and June Cobb are a coincidence are equally mind boggling. 

I am unsure/reserving judgment about several of Mary's claims, but I believe she has made a compelling case that Jerrie Cobb was the CIA June Cobb and Katherine Taafe. I also think she makes a strong case that the Babushka Lady's actions before, during, and after the shooting are suspicious. 

[Greg Doudna]

Michael Griffith, are you in contact with Mary H.? The claim of a handwriting match between an unidentified “Jeri” who wrote a marginal note on a QJWINN working internal CiA document, and Jerrie Cobb, is testable, if verified handwriting of Jerrie Cobb could be produced for expert comparison. 

Would it be possible for you to ask what H’s source is for the “Jerrie” lookalike signature that H identifies in the book as Jerrie Cobb’s? I cannot see a reference for that in the book. And ask if H could produce a longer sample or exemplar of Jerrie Cobb’s handwriting? 

There is already good sample quantity of the unidentified CIA “Jeri” writing on those documents, all that is missing is verified Jerrie Cobb handwriting to compare, which I would not think should be difficult to find. That could allow confirmation or falsification of this particular detail up or down decisively and fairly easily. 

[Leslie Sharp]

@Michael Griffith 

 

I find it incomprehensible you would continue to promote this work without publicly respondung to the discrepancies being brought to your attention.

 

Please provide the members following this thread the specific inaccuracies you allege I've made challenging Haverstick's speculation and innuendo.