Hugh Aynesworth is Dead: The Grinch is Gone

[Mark Ulrik]

9 minutes ago, Tom Gram said:

Garland said he heard only two shots and from the sound he “knew” they both hit something. He also said nothing about one shot sounding different from the other:

Today, I was standing on Houston Street, just below the window to Sheriff Decker's office waiting for the parade. I was standing there when the President's car passed and just after they rounded the corner from Houston onto Elm Street, I heard a report and I knew at once it was a high-powered rifle shot. I am a [cross-out] big game hunter and am familiar with the sound of hi [sic] powered rifles and I knew when I heard the retort [sic] that the shot had hit something. Within a [cross-out] few seconds I heard another retort [sic] and knew it also had hit something and all I could see was the highly colored hat that Mrs. Kennedy had on. I couldn't see anything else. I was so sick that I went back to my office but after thinking it over, I came back as a citizen to offer my statement if it could help in any way. During the time I was standing there I did look up into the building where the Texas Book Depository is and saw some people, maybe 12 or 14, hanging out of windows, but I didn't see anyone with a gun.

When the sound of this shot came, it sounded to me like this shot came from away back or from within a building. I have heard this same sort of sound when a shot has come from within a cave, as I have been on many big game hunts.

He says “when the sound of this shot came”, but he doesn’t differentiate between the two shots. His conviction that they both hit something implies that he thought the shots sounded similar, not different. 

Garland doesn’t seem like much of a witness for what you are suggesting. 

Yes, Garland is not a particularly strong witness, but he may have been on to something. The only reason that Ben could think of why the first shot was perceived differently was that it was fired from a different weapon in a different location, so I suggested that only the muzzle needed to have moved. If the first shot was a miss, and a bad one at that, it seems plausible that the shooter would've made adjustments.

[James DiEugenio]

Can we get back to what my article is about.?

Pat has turned this into an acoustical exercise, greatly aided by Mark.

Avoiding the questions I asked in that part of the essay:  was Hugh in Dealey Plaza and if so, where is the photo of him? 

Was he at the scene of the TIppit murder, how could he have gotten there before the official shooting time, and if so, does not that prove the opposite of what the WR says?

Was Hugh at the Texas Theater when Oswald was apprehended?  Can anyone show him coming out of the theater or in any witness description inside the theater.

Was he at the scene of the Oswald assassination?  If so, is there any film or photo evidence depicting him there?

In the case of Hugh, I do not trust any notes because of the obvious problem of him being an amoral huckster on the JFK case.  Which my article proved beyond any shadow of a doubt.  I mean consider the following:

1. Intimidating the Commission into an Oswald did it case by threatening to show the FBI blew the case. 

2. Warren was covering up a communist conspiracy.

3. Oswald was a homicidal leftist nut who was going to assassinate Nixon--which was patently impossible.

4. According to his own words, keeping films of him sleeping with Marina as some kind of blackmail weight over her.

5. Stealing the Oswald diary out of the evidence room and making tens of thousands while cutting Marina out of the proceeds.

6. Being an BFI and White House informant on the Jim Garrison inquiry and then lying about it in public.

7. Being a CIA asset who use his ties to attempt to bribe a key witness in the Clinton/Jackson incident, and then lying about that also.

 

Pat and Mark seem to wish to sidestep these proven facts about one of the very worst reporters ever to write on the JFK case.  Who he himself admitted, the facts and the public did not matter to him, his job was to keep the lid on the case no matter what.

That is not what a journalist is supposed to do.  But presstitute Hugh provided the model for men like Dan Rather and Peter Jennings to do the same in future national productions.

I think that is the main point of the article which, for whatever reason, a couple of people want to avoid.

[Joe Bauer]

8 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said:

Can we get back to what my article is about.?

My apologies Jim.

For my distracting prurient foray into the HA/Marina Oswald affair nonsense.

Meaningless in the larger picture you present.

I may delete those postings.

Yes, no pictures of HA in Dealey Plaza, the Tippit scene, the theater and arrest scene and in the Dallas PD basement shooting of Oswald?

Who is this guy?

His claims to superman journalist doings fame are so over-hyped and exaggerated they border on the fringe.

 

[Tom Gram]

I’m interested in Aynesworth’s relationship with Shaw’s legal team. From Jim’s article: 

Hugh had essentially moved to New Orleans by 1967 and was working with Shaw’s lawyers. He had plants inside of Garrison’s office, e.g. William Gurvich. And they had supplied him with memoranda on which Garrison was working. (See Destiny Betrayed, by James DiEugenio, Second Edition, pp.252-54)

I have Destiny Betrayed but my Kindle is charging at the moment. Do we know how Hugh got involved? In the Wegmann papers there are supposedly several letters from Aynesworth which according the ARRB underline his “extreme partisanship”.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=204118#relPageId=6

The Wegmann papers are not online - but does anyone have copies of those letters? Should be an interesting read. 

[James DiEugenio]

Here is a reply to my article from a reader who shall remain nameless.

He gets what I am talking about.

Dear Jim,

 

As I was reading your piece on Hugh Aynesworth, I smiled and recalled being a witness to the assassination of Julius Caesar, the gunfight at the OK Corral, and all eighteen of Mickey Mantle's World Series home runs.

 

With best wishes,

[James DiEugenio]

Tom:

When you read  DB on Hugh and the Wegmanns you will greatly understand how plugged in this guy was and how totally corrupt the Wegmanns were.

Hugh had infiltrators in Garrison's office who would tip him off to what the DA was on to.

Hugh would then find these people, and at times, talk to them before Garrison even did.  I describe the whole thing with SAS in detail in the book.

But even minor witnesses like Julian Buznedo, a friend of Ferrie's.   When I called him, he said that the FBi talked to him before Garrison did! I asked him, how long before?  He said at least a week or so.  There were witnesses that Hugh just completely scared off and intimidated and I mention one in the book.  After he did so, he assured the Wegmanns not to worry about the guy.

Then there was his journey up to Clinton, I think Phelan was with him, where he tried to bribe Manchester.

And when you read the book, that is not all.

Who was paying him?  Was it Newsweek?  Through a CIA subsidy?  That is  what I suspect.

 

Edited January 15 by James DiEugenio

[Ron Bulman]

44 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said:

Then there was his journey up to Clinton, I think Phelan was with him, where he tried to bribe Manchester.

That's interesting, Phelan and Aynesworth working together?  Maybe not surprising.

As I've mentioned before, I let my subscription to Texas Monthly expire after they chose Hugh to do their feature article in 2013, on the 50th Anniversary.

[Pat Speer]

11 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

Tom:

When you read  DB on Hugh and the Wegmanns you will greatly understand how plugged in this guy was and how totally corrupt the Wegmanns were.

Hugh had infiltrators in Garrison's office who would tip him off to what the DA was on to.

Hugh would then find these people, and at times, talk to them before Garrison even did.  I describe the whole thing with SAS in detail in the book.

But even minor witnesses like Julian Buznedo, a friend of Ferrie's.   When I called him, he said that the FBi talked to him before Garrison did! I asked him, how long before?  He said at least a week or so.  There were witnesses that Hugh just completely scared off and intimidated and I mention one in the book.  After he did so, he assured the Wegmanns not to worry about the guy.

Then there was his journey up to Clinton, I think Phelan was with him, where he tried to bribe Manchester.

And when you read the book, that is not all.

Who was paying him?  Was it Newsweek?  Through a CIA subsidy?  That is  what I suspect.

 

Has anyone ever tracked the financing of Phelan and Aynesworth? We know the CIA used Maheu as a cutout to get the CIA to kill Castro. If I recall, Maheu assisted Phelan with some of his reporting on Garrison--gave him access to a photocopier or some such thing. is there any evidence to support the speculation he was paying Phelan and Aynesworth, and having the CIA foot the bill? 

Edited January 15 by Pat Speer

[Sandy Larsen]

10 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

Dear Jim,

As I was reading your piece on Hugh Aynesworth, I smiled and recalled being a witness to the assassination of Julius Caesar, the gunfight at the OK Corral, and all eighteen of Mickey Mantle's World Series home runs.

 

With best wishes,

 

I'm surprised he didn't have sex with Cleopatra.

 

[Joe Bauer]

1 hour ago, Sandy Larsen said:

 

I'm surprised he didn't have sex with Cleopatra.

Or Ruby's strippers, Sylvia Odio, Josefa Johnson, Marilyn Monroe, Dorothy Kilgallen and maybe even Judyth Vary Baker?

 

Edited January 15 by Joe Bauer

[James DiEugenio]

Concerning Phelan, who Pat mentions in relation to Maheu, he had done other government assignments, like attacking Scientology, and he would not admit that he was doing this as an assignment until he was confronted with the documents showing he was. 

And he was close to Maheu, so that might be an avenue.

Concerning Hugh being everywhere: one would think that in 60 years he or one of his cohorts would have found a film or photo of him to bolster that claim.

If so, I don't recall it ever being surfaced.  Not one in any of the four places. Let alone all four.

[Benjamin Cole]

12 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

Concerning Phelan, who Pat mentions in relation to Maheu, he had done other government assignments, like attacking Scientology, and he would not admit that he was doing this as an assignment until he was confronted with the documents showing he was. 

And he was close to Maheu, so that might be an avenue.

Concerning Hugh being everywhere: one would think that in 60 years he or one of his cohorts would have found a film or photo of him to bolster that claim.

If so, I don't recall it ever being surfaced.  Not one in any of the four places. Let alone all four.

Maheu is interesting.

From the NYT 1/29/76

 

The Bennett Mystery

• Share full article
•  

Jan. 29, 1976

Credit...The New York Times Archives

See the article in its original context from
January 29, 1976, Page 32Buy Reprints

New York Times subscribers* enjoy full access to TimesMachine—view over 150 years of New York Times journalism, as it originally appeared.

SUBSCRIBE

*Does not include Crossword-only or Cooking-only subscribers.

About the Archive

This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.

Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.

First, a little Watergate quiz: Who was Howard Hunt's employer at the time of the Watergate break‐in?

Who arranged the release of Dita Beard's hospital‐bed denial of her role in the International Telephone and Telegraph scandal?

Who helped recruit Tom Gregory to infiltrate the Muskie and McGovern campaigns?

Who set up the dummy Nixon campaign committees to receive covert funds from milk producers?

Who suggested that Hank Greenspun, publisher of The Las Vegas Sun, might have information in his safe that would interest the White House?

 

Who represented multimillionaire Howard Hughes in Washington during the Watergate period?

Who served as the contact man between Gordon Liddy and Howard Hunt in the days immediately after the Watergate break‐in?,

Who Made a report on the Watergate matter to the Central Intelligence Agency two weeks after the break‐in?

Who surreptitiously fed information to Bob Woodward of The Washington Post in a manner suggestive of “Deep Throat”?

 

The.answer to all these questions is the same: Robert Foster Bennett. And who is Bennett? He is the mystery man of Watergate, a shadowy figure rarely mentioned in most accounts, but whose trail can be followed through the duskiest corners of the scandal.

Bennett is significant because he stood astride one of the story's crucial intersections—where the interests of the White House, the C.I.A. and Howard Hughes converged. Thus, tracing his path may help us sort out just what those interests were.

Your free account gives you access to many of our newsletters.

Sign up for ones that interest you. You can always opt out or make changes.

AS NEEDED

Breaking News

Get informed as important news breaks around the world.

See the latest

DAILY

The Morning

Make sense of the day’s news and ideas. David Leonhardt and Times journalists guide you through what’s happening — and why it matters.

See the latest

WEEKDAYS

The Evening

Catch up on the biggest news, and wind down to end your day.

See the latest

In the beginning, Bennett was friend of Chuck Colson's. They met during the 1968 campaign, when Bennett was managing the re‐election campaign of his father, Senator Wallace F. Bennett, Republican of Utah. Colson, then a Washington lawyer, raised $15,000 for the Senator, and Bob Bennett was very grateful.

In 1969, both men joined the Nixon Administration: Colson as a White House assistant, Bennett as director of Congressional relations at the Department of Transportation. In early 1970, Colson invited Bennett to lunch. One of Colson's jobs at the White House was to deal with interest groups and he asked Bennett to be his “contact man” at Transportation. Bennett was delighted to be of service.

In July 1970—probably at Colson's behest — a very important interest group got in touch with Bennett. ‘A call came from William Gay, a top aide to Howard Hughes. Gay and Bennett were both Mormons and Hughes had increasingly surrounded himself with that steady, straightliving, efficient breed. Gay asked Bennett to find out whether anything could be done to stop the Government's plans to dump tons of nerve gas on the ocean floor near the Bahamas, where Hughes was planning to move. Bennett looked into it, then reported that nothing could be done.

But apparently Gay was impressed by his fellow Mormon. For one day in December he called again. Hughes had just dismissed Robert Maheu, his chief lieutenant, and this meant that Maheu's Washington representative—Larry O'Brien—would soon be out of a job, too. Hughes was looking for new Washington man. Would Bennett like the job? Bennett would. “Get set then,” Gay said. “Get a base.”

By marvelous coincidence—or perhaps not—Colson called Bennett at just this time to suggest that he buy Robert R. Mullen & Company, a Washington public relations firm which had long served as a C.I.A. front. Since 1962, Mullen's men in Stockholm, Mexico City, Amsterdam and Singapore had been C.I.A. agents. At home, Mullen helped form the Cuban Freedom Committee, another C.I.A front, and many of the company's employees here were “retired” from the C.I.A. One of these was Howard Hunt, who “retired” from the C.I.A. on April 30, 1970 and joined Mullen the next day.

 

In early 1971 — armed with the blockbuster Hughes account—Bennett bought the Mullen company. In April, he was introduced to its C.I.A. supervisor, Martin J. Lukasky. And for the next two years, Bennett served as an indispensable link between the White House, the C.I.A., Howard Hughes, Howard Hunt, Gordon Liddy, Tom Gregory, Dita Beard and others.

Since Watergate, Bennett has gone to work full‐time for Hughes in Encino, Calif. But, of late, his former constituents have been falling out with him, most notably Colson.

Colson now charges. that Bennett was the key figure in the C.I.A.'s efforts to cover up its own role in Watergate and to blame the whole thing on the White House. He cites several C.I.A.” memos which suggest that Bennett was feeding stories to Bob Woodward, who was “suitably grateful,” and who was protecting the Mullen company and the C.I.A.

Woodward concedes that Bennett was one of his important sources during the Watergate investigation. Whether or not he was Deep Throat—Woodward has consistently refused to identify his super source—Bennett seems to have had access to much not all of the information coughed up by Deep Throat.

J. Anthony Lukas is author of “Nightmare: The Underside of the Nixon Years,” from which this article is adapted.

Charles Harbutt/Magnum

[Joe Bauer]

On 1/15/2024 at 11:38 PM, Benjamin Cole said:

Colson now charges. that Bennett was the key figure in the C.I.A.'s efforts to cover up its own role in Watergate and to blame the whole thing on the White House.

He cites several C.I.A.” memos which suggest that Bennett was feeding stories to Bob Woodward, who was “suitably grateful,” and who was protecting the Mullen company and the C.I.A.

What a massive Machiavellian world that all was.

Woodward has always been connected it seems. Access way beyond any other major news print media journalist. Even in today's times.

He gets Trump ( while Trump is President ) to talk to him dozens of times in personal chats? Which he then uses as a sensationalized hook in his book?

I remember watching a segment of the Bill O'Reilly TV show where he interviewed Frank Fiorini ( AKA Frank Sturgis ) regards Watergate mostly, but also the JFK assassination.

O'Reilly asked Sturgis who was CIA in the White House during the Watergate scandal.

Sturgis stated Alexander Haig...and Alexander Butterfield.

Butterfield was the White House taped conversations man. 

Of course. Control those tapes and you control Nixon when you need to.

Bennett, Howard Hughes, William Gay...all Mormons?

"Steady, straight-living, efficient breed?"

Mormons?

Strange religious order imo.

A guy named Joe Smith finds some gold tablets in the desert sand and declares them to be sent from God?

 

 

 

Edited January 17 by Joe Bauer

[Ron Bulman]

On 1/15/2024 at 1:09 PM, James DiEugenio said:

Concerning Phelan, who Pat mentions in relation to Maheu, he had done other government assignments, like attacking Scientology, and he would not admit that he was doing this as an assignment until he was confronted with the documents showing he was. 

And he was close to Maheu, so that might be an avenue.

Concerning Hugh being everywhere: one would think that in 60 years he or one of his cohorts would have found a film or photo of him to bolster that claim.

If so, I don't recall it ever being surfaced.  Not one in any of the four places. Let alone all four.

My first edition of DB has gotten buried somewhere.  But the second edition is still on the top shelf, I still use it for reference sometimes though It's been about a dozen years since I read it.  I've been looking at the pages on Phelan in particular 243-248, which precede the part on Aynesworth.  The part on HA I have multiple passages highlighted, page corners folded, a couple of post it notes sticking up, Phelan hardly any.  I guess the import didn't sink in back then.  Reading through them, and a couple of references elsewhere in the book and in another book it seems he was every bit as bad as Aynesworth or worse.  Maybe it's him on a national basis as opposed to HA on a Sothern/Texas/regional basis.

[Sandy Larsen]

3 hours ago, Joe Bauer said:

Bennett, Howard Hughes, William Gay...all Mormons?

 

Howard Hughes was never a Mormon. He lived in Las Vegas, a city founded by Mormons and still populated by them after the Mafia turned it into Sin City. Hughes hired Mormons because they were hard working, honest, and loyal. And there were plenty of them.

 

3 hours ago, Joe Bauer said:

One great gift in those tablets...men can have multiple wives? I think if I was a young single man in those times I might have whip raced my horse over half the country and through hell and high water to join that group! 

 

If you've had a number of girl friends, after putting some serious thought into having multiple wives, I think you will conclude that polygamy would make your life very, very difficult.