Henry Hurt’s “Reasonable Doubt” with 30+ years of hindsight.

[Martin Nee]

Hi Everyone, I’ve been following this forum for quite a while now and always found it educational and insightful so recently decided to join in order to more directly engage with sone of the experts and researchers here. 
I recently managed to get what I was told was the only copy of “Reasonable Doubt” in the Irish library system and had a few questions regarding Henry Hurt’s work. Given the later ARRB revelations and other discoveries and information I wonder if some of these points have been refuted or if more context has been learned. Hoping   authors/researchers familiar with these key areas like@James DiEugenio , @Bill Simpichand @Larry Hancock may be able to help. Apologies if this is a large post but I’d appreciate any information regarding these 12 points:

1) is Mr Hurt and members of his research team still alive, and are their archive/research materials available anywhere?

2) While Robert Easterling in general lacks credibility is there any aspect of his story that Hurt corroborated still considered viable? For example as Easterling potentially driving Oswald from New Orleans?

3) Page 168 in regards the Tippit murder Hurt quotes an unnamed officer:
“Most Dallas policemen interviewed by the author either do not
want to discuss the Tippit case or say that they have no reason to
doubt the official version of their comrade's death. However, one
officer, now retired, asserted flatly and without prompting that he
believed Tippit was killed as a result of a volatile personal situation
involving his lover and her estranged husband. He added, "It would
look like hell for Tippit to have been murdered and have it look like
he was screwing around with this woman. . Somebody had to
change the tape. Somebody had to change thecartridge hulls. Some-
body had to go to the property room and change those hulls and
put some of Oswalds hulls in there--hulls that fit Oswald's gun. This retired police officer claims that others on the force share his beliefs about the Tippit murder--and that some of these policemen will be inclined to talk about it once they have retired and their
pensions are secure.”

Was this officer ever later identified, and have any other DPD members ever made similar remarks since (on or off the record)?

4) what is the current consensus on the relevance of Oswald and Ruby both having post office boxes having post office boxes at the Dallas Terminal Annex, the closure of Oswald’s New Orleans post office box, and the undelivered message to Ruby “*An odd message from Chicago for Jack Ruby reached Dallas about 9:00 AM. on Sunday.
The message was from an officer of the American Guildof Variety Artists, the mob-dominated union that normally provided Ruby with strippers. The message, never delivered,from the officer to Ruby was: "Tell Jack not to send the letter today, it would be awkward in Chicago.' This was before Ruby's sudden infamy. The message has never been adequately explained.”

5) Has there been any further evidence about Louise Latham and her involvement in getting Oswald employment? “Then Mrs. Latham made several curious statements that seemed almost defensive. She said that she interviewed Oswald "five or six times" and that "I never sent him for a job he didn't get." There is no record that Louise Latham ever sent m Oswald to any job other than the one at Jaggers-Chiles-Stovall. Mrs. Latham, a well-educated woman who had worked successfully in New York and Princeton, New Jersey, before going to Dallas declined to elaborate. Mrs. Latham said that she had never been interviewed on this subject
by anyone”

6) on pg 238 Hurt relays the story of an anonymous marine who served with Oswald who was recruited for intelligence purposes. Has this Marine ever subsequently been identified? “There is at least one example of U.S. intelligence recruiting a Marine out of the service in order to work in Cuba, a Marine who served with Oswald in Japan. This man, who is credible on other points, told the author in interviews between 1977 and 1982 that the cover name of the group he worked for was Security Entorcement. He and his fellow mercenaries were never sure of the identity to the real organization, although he said they believed it to be the CIA. Certainly the organizations description sounds much like that of various CIA-sponsored groups now known to have been working for the overthrow of Castro during those years. The recruit interviewed by the author is still in this kind of work and has acknowledged his recruitment on the condition his name not be disclosed. His account supports the proposition that U.S. intelligence did, at least in this one instance, recruit a Marine acquaintance of Oswald as he mustered out of the military service.”

7) how credible are Donald E. Deneselya claims about seeing a debrief report on Oswald on his return to the US?

8 ) Has anything interesting ever been discovered about the “Orthodox Old Catholic Church of North America” religious organisation that David Ferrie belonged to?

9) Has any additional evidence potentially linking Oswald to the Dodd investigation of mail order weapons ever come to light?

10) Are Judge Edward Gillian’s claim that Oswald asked him about LSD considered credible and has anything else been learned?

11) Have the photos claiming to depict a Rambler in Dealy Plaza been debunked? Hurt displays an image of Oswald with his arm around a man Marina is supposed to have described as a friend from Cuba. Hurt implies this man resembles a French OAS agent, has the man ever been conclusively identified?

12) has any additional information regarding Thomas Eli Davis and his potential involvement come to light in later years?

 

[Mark Ulrik]

Paul Hoch devoted almost an entire issue (8 EOC 1) of his newsletter to Hurt's book. In case you haven't seen it before, you might find value in some of his insights.

[Gerry Down]

4 hours ago, Martin Nee said:

10) Are Judge Edward Gillian’s claim that Oswald asked him about LSD considered credible and has anything else been learned?

Apparently he asked the judge about a drug called "soma" which he had read about in a book he had taken out at the library on Sept 19th. Oswald said the drug was capable of affecting the social and economic history of the world for the next 200 years by allowing a person to see into the future.

Was Oswald planning on drugging the entire population of Cuba to ensure Castro's revolution held? And then drugging other countries that Castro was trying to spread the revolution to?

Makes you wonder if Oswald was planning on propositioning himself to Castro as his Minister for Drugging the Public.

[Stu Wexler]

I have had a few days where I have wondered about Hurt's materials. I have quoted his book here more than once. He had a huge investigative bduget from I think he had established contacts from prior books.  He may have deposited his materials at a university. The Easterling stuff really discredited him with people like Hoch (who I respect) and I think we maybe threw the baby out with the bathwater.

[James DiEugenio]

Henry Hurt's book is, to this day, a quite respectable work.  And about the last guy I would use to judge that book is Paul Hoch.

Hurt had worked for Epstein as a researcher on Legend.

He evidently had second thoughts, and decided to write his own book.  It was to be featured in Reader's Digest.

But according to Gary Shaw, when they saw the manuscript, they freaked out and cancelled the deal so he had to find another publisher.

If we threw out every book that had one or two questionable sections, very few books would survive the cut, and Hoch is a guy who still defends Canning and his work on the Single Bullet Theory. 

Hurt's book was clearly a pro conspiracy book.  And for that time it was a good book.  For that time, he did some nice work on the autopsy, and the Tague hit among other areas.  He relied on Weisberg's files for a lot of his work.

I think he is still around so you might want to try and find him to reply to those questions. 

 

Edited March 21 by James DiEugenio

[Robert Morrow]

3 hours ago, Stu Wexler said:

I have had a few days where I have wondered about Hurt's materials. I have quoted his book here more than once. He had a huge investigative bduget from I think he had established contacts from prior books.  He may have deposited his materials at a university. The Easterling stuff really discredited him with people like Hoch (who I respect) and I think we maybe threw the baby out with the bathwater.

Please give me a thumbnail of Paul Hoch's greatest insights on the JFK assassination. What are the top 3-5 things that Paul Hoch has illuminated about the JFK assassination that are valuable? This not a snarky question; I am curious.

[Michael Swanson]

Henry Hurt is still alive. 

He lives about 20 minutes from me and owns a book store in Chatham, Virginia.

He's 81 years old I think and won election to the Chatham town council last year, so still active.

I visit with him every couple of months - think he is still in fairly frequent contact with Gary Shaw.

Not sure if he still has his materials or not - I'll ask him next time.

He had a small old country house that he used for writing that got destroyed in a fire.

 

 

[Martin Nee]

22 hours ago, Mark Ulrik said:

Paul Hoch devoted almost an entire issue (8 EOC 1) of his newsletter to Hurt's book. In case you haven't seen it before, you might find value in some of his insights.

Thank you for this I hadn’t seen it before. Hoch is quoted and thanked in the book as well. 

[Martin Nee]

17 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

Henry Hurt's book is, to this day, a quite respectable work.  And about the last guy I would use to judge that book is Paul Hoch.

Hurt had worked for Epstein as a researcher on Legend.

He evidently had second thoughts, and decided to write his own book.  It was to be featured in Reader's Digest.

But according to Gary Shaw, when they saw the manuscript, they freaked out and cancelled the deal so he had to find another publisher.

If we threw out every book that had one or two questionable sections, very few books would survive the cut, and Hoch is a guy who still defends Canning and his work on the Single Bullet Theory. 

Hurt's book was clearly a pro conspiracy book.  And for that time it was a good book.  For that time, he did some nice work on the autopsy, and the Tague hit among other areas.  He relied on Weisberg's files for a lot of his work.

I think he is still around so you might want to try and find him to reply to those questions. 

 

Thank you for the greater context. Was Mr Hurt the kind of person who would remain up to date with research world? Was he known to have attended or been invited to speak at any of the conferences or panels that you would have attended over the years? 

[Martin Nee]

3 hours ago, Michael Swanson said:

Henry Hurt is still alive. 

He lives about 20 minutes from me and owns a book store in Chatham, Virginia.

He's 81 years old I think and won election to the Chatham town council last year, so still active.

I visit with him every couple of months - think he is still in fairly frequent contact with Gary Shaw.

Not sure if he still has his materials or not - I'll ask him next time.

He had a small old country house that he used for writing that got destroyed in a fire.

 

 

Thank you so much for the reply. I’m glad to hear Mr Hurt is still among the living and active. Sorry to hear about his house. 
I would really appreciate that. I would hope that he didn’t loose any crucial info in the fire. It would be great if his material could be saved and accessed like the Harold Weisberg and MFF archives. If you do see him I’d be very grateful if you could pass on my personal thanks and appreciation for the work he has done on this case. I really enjoyed the book and learned a lot I had not heard before. If he is comfortable with it I would love to talk to him, I’m happy to pass on some contact details privately, unless you know of a better way of reaching out to him directly?