Hit List-- The Systematic Murders of JFK Witnesses

[Kevin Balch]

23 hours ago, Bill Simpich said:

A quick note for Richard Bertolino (for some reason, I can't send him messages):

Richard, Can you share with us the facts indicating that Forrest Sorrels is behind the Mike Howard story?   That is fascinating, I know nothing about their relationship.  I have found that I tend to give Sorrels a pass because he told Orville Nix that he thought JFK was killed due to a conspiracy, but that alone doesn't mean much.  Thanks!

I think Richard no longer participates in this forum. You might ask him your question in the Community section of his Youtube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/@notrueflagshere198

Edited September 16 by Kevin Balch

[Paul Brancato]

It’s amazing how this important thread was hijacked. Mr. Simpich tried to narrow it to journalists killed early on, and he also mentioned Gary Underhill in his first post, not a journalist but definitely someone who caught wind of the conspirators and was in a position to know. 

[Bill Simpich]

Paul. Why don’t you re-state your best thinking on this subject.  We can try again.

[Paul Brancato]

1 hour ago, Bill Simpich said:

Paul. Why don’t you re-state your best thinking on this subject.  We can try again.

I’ll give it a go, but I have to ask - earlier in this thread you mention Charles Willoughby as a possibly suspicious death. I haven’t seen anything supporting that. 
You posted a lot of groundwork supporting your idea about journalists being killed or intimidated. I disagree with Jim D when he says that suspicious deaths wouldn’t fill a book. 
It was the mention of Gary Underhill that got my attention. According to friends he confided in, there was a clique of drug and weapons running Intelligence operatives associated with Far East operations that did the deed because JFK had caught wind of their illegal operations. The question for me isn’t whether Underhill was murdered, but how he came upon his information. As it turns out he was quite dialed in to the movement of weapons and an expert in Military history. He worked for Time Life, and that’s in itself suggestive. He was associated with Sam Cummings and Interarmco, who in turn had links to Merex and thus Skorzeny and other Nazis. There’s evidence that he did work for the CIA, though what exactly I don’t know. You quote Jim D as saying that it was a friend of Underhill who contacted Garrison in late 1963. I find that fascinating. Officially Garrison’s investigation dates from a few years later, but it looks like he was onto Ferrie immediately. How did Underhill’s friend knew to write a letter to Garrison that early? 
I mentioned Underhill on Robert Montenegro’s post naming the operational hit team. It may seem fanciful to some, but not to me, in part because Underhill described something very similar, and it hard to discount because of his unique talents and history. He was extremely well regarded during his professional life, and he was terrified in the weeks leading to his death and told close friends about it. 

[Ron Bulman]

On 9/15/2024 at 6:08 PM, Bill Simpich said:

A quick note for Richard Bertolino (for some reason, I can't send him messages):

Richard, Can you share with us the facts indicating that Forrest Sorrels is behind the Mike Howard story?   That is fascinating, I know nothing about their relationship.  I have found that I tend to give Sorrels a pass because he told Orville Nix that he thought JFK was killed due to a conspiracy, but that alone doesn't mean much.  Thanks!

Hi Bill.  On May 15th Richard started a thread called the Education Forum is Now Just a Cathole.  In which he bashed the moderators and administrators calling us sh*tbags and saying most here were shills because there is not a button for him to click to delete his account.  That tread was hidden after a page and a half.  He did receive a warning for insulting the mod's and admin's.  I didn't find it in a brief look but if I remember right this was in part because a member had called him out for posting under another name at another website.  Which, if I remember right he admitted to.  He did delete many of his posts immediately before this.  He has not posted or visited the site since that date.  Best regards, Ron.

[Bill Simpich]

Ron, thanks for the backstory.  Paul, the only mention I see of Charles Willoughby's alleged death in 1972 was from Jim Hargrove, I don't know anything about it. 

Let me re-state my thinking on the best way to analyze the mysterious deaths cases - the best way to go is to pick the 5-10 most egregious cases, and investigate them very carefully.   I include links to John Simkin's great bios at the Spartacus site.

I think the journalists like Bill Hunter (died April 1964) Jim Koethe (died Sept. 1964), Dorothy Kilgallen (died Nov. 1965) and her colleague Florence Pritchett Smith (died Nov. 1965) who were effectively "taken out" of this case deserve the highest level of scrutiny.   

I add Thayer Waldo to this list because he worked with Koethe and Hunter before they were killed, and he began providing his leads to Kilgallen in 1964 because  Waldo was forced to leave Texas by early 1965 due to harassment, and forced to leave Mexico by 1967 due to "business interests" angered by Waldo's support of Jim Garrison - his career was effectively killed.

Besides the focus on journalists, Belzer's list offers a second valuable thread when it focuses on witnesses who were about to testify who suffered violent deaths - people like Sam Giancana (died July 1975) and Johnny Rosselli (died July 1976).   I would add Gary Underhill (died May 1964) and Bill Sullivan (died November 1977) to this list - I don't think anyone ever looked at the killing of Sullivan hard enough - it would be interesting to interview the young boy who shot Sullivan at this late date if he is still alive.

These two threads - journalists that have been "taken out" of the JFK case, and witnesses who die violent deaths at the verge of providing testimony - appear to be the most valuable paths to make a major investigative priority.  After this stepping stone is completed and fully analyzed, then choose another intriguing thread of deaths, give them the same level of scrutiny, and see how they compare.

Edited September 21 by Bill Simpich

[Paul Brancato]

Jim Koethe and Bill Hunter - thanks again for posting about them. Both deaths are so suspicious. 
Gary Underhill, Jim Koethe, Bill Hunter, and the exclamation point - Dorothy Kilgallen and her friend. Enough to scare the rest off. Then in the 1970’s a series of HSCA witnesses, pretty much seals the deal. Gotta ask Jim D - really can’t see a book?  

[Benjamin Cole]

28 minutes ago, Paul Brancato said:

Jim Koethe and Bill Hunter - thanks again for posting about them. Both deaths are so suspicious. 
Gary Underhill, Jim Koethe, Bill Hunter, and the exclamation point - Dorothy Kilgallen and her friend. Enough to scare the rest off. Then in the 1970’s a series of HSCA witnesses, pretty much seals the deal. Gotta ask Jim D - really can’t see a book?  

Do not forget Alpha 66 member Eladio Del Valle. Or David Ferrie.

Edited September 21 by Benjamin Cole

[Paul Brancato]

33 minutes ago, Benjamin Cole said:

Do not forget Alpha 66 member Eladio Del Valle. Or David Ferrie.

Yes - thanks - from the Jim Garrison period.

[Paul Rigby]

Useful to establish a precedent for the Agency bumping off a journalist who had departed the Cold War reservation:

The murder of CBS' George Polk, May 1948, and the In Fact connection:

https://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/7697-the-murder-of-cbs-george-polk-may-1948-and-the-in-fact-connection/

Thayer Waldo, from memory, falls into a different category of awkward. Wasn't he involved, late 1950s-early 1960s, in the Agency's shenanigans in Cuba? If this recollection is correct, one likely explanation of the pressure applied to him would be as part of a desire to clamp down on further attempts to disturb the status quo on the island.

[Paul Brancato]

4 hours ago, Paul Rigby said:

Useful to establish a precedent for the Agency bumping off a journalist who had departed the Cold War reservation:

The murder of CBS' George Polk, May 1948, and the In Fact connection:

https://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/7697-the-murder-of-cbs-george-polk-may-1948-and-the-in-fact-connection/

Thayer Waldo, from memory, falls into a different category of awkward. Wasn't he involved, late 1950s-early 1960s, in the Agency's shenanigans in Cuba? If this recollection is correct, one likely explanation of the pressure applied to him would be as part of a desire to clamp down on further attempts to disturb the status quo on the island.

That is very apropos. Thanks Paul.