The JFK Assassination Dissected Cyril Wecht and Dawana Kaufmann

[Ron Bulman]

First, has anyone else here read this?  I'm just finishing it, 10 pages to go, many flagged/highlighted passages.  Three from the latter part I thought I'd share for now.

One.  "During the period when de Mohrenschildt gave testimony to the Warren Commision, he told me that on more than one occasion he would privately eat lunch with Allen Dulles, I was stunned to hear the former CIA director would extend an invitation for an off the record meeting with any witness."  Page 241.

I was stunned too reading this, but maybe I shouldn't have been. GDM met Allen in about 1917 at about 10-12 years old in Russia/Belarius where his dad managed an oil field during the Russian revolution which Allen was seeking an interest in on behalf of Sullivan and Cromwell/the Rockefellers of Wall Street.  From memory, correct me, Devil's Chessboard, Talbot.

Two.  My lunch with Marina, beginning page 260.  I thought this had been put to rest in discussions on the forum, in the opposite direction, apparently, I was wrong.  To summarize, Wecht surprisingly got a call from Marina in 1991, he had never talked to her.  But she had read and seen his work.  She had agreed to an interview she didn't want to do and asked him to do it for her, which he did.  They agreed to speak again in more detail in the future.  That happened in November 1992 in a "quiet corner" of a restaurant Marina chose over a leisurely meal with Wecht's wife Sigrid also present.  A very interesting lunch, as Dr. Wecht says, she was a very astute scholar of the assassination.

"As she had said over the phone, Oswald was never a verry good husband, but now she added more details.  He beat her, including while she was pregnant, and would force himself on her . . .

I thought that was dispelled.  But she seems very credible, down to earth and knowledgeable and open in this lunch with the esteemed Dr. Wecht.

Three.  Page 279.  President Nixon seemed star stuck by Connally, the handsome Texan with the bigger-than-life personality.  Despite the latter's decades long obeisance to the Democratic party, Nixon offered to appoint Connally as U.S. secretary of the treasury.  But Connally would only take the job if Nixon could find a nice gig for George H. W, Bush . . .  a one term congressman who had lost two senatorial bids.  Nixon appointed him Ambassador to the United Nations, kicking his political profile into high gear."  Onwards and backwards to the CIA?

[Sandy Larsen]

18 hours ago, Ron Bulman said:

"As she had said over the phone, Oswald was never a verry good husband, but now she added more details.  He beat her, including while she was pregnant, and would force himself on her . . ."

 

I don't believe it.

I think Marina said that because the alternative story has her looking bad.

 

[Greg Doudna]

Even his friend and advocate (posthumously anyway) in the manuscript “I’m a Patsy!”, de Mohrenschildt, said Oswald was a hitter of Marina when he was angry, and de Mohrenschildt told him that was wrong. Marina apparently got some hits in on Lee too when they fought. I knew a man in Ohio who ran a shelter for troubled people in transition and he told me they had one couple in one room that to this day he honestly could not tell whether it was mutual battery or rough sex, every night, sounds from their room.

[Sandy Larsen]

Yelling and arguing are one thing. Beating is quite another. And there was only gossip that that happened.

 

 

[Sandy Larsen]

 

I don't recall in which thread it is, but a recent post showed that Ruth Paine said Lee was a loving husband.

 

[Pat Speer]

21 hours ago, Ron Bulman said:

First, has anyone else here read this?  I'm just finishing it, 10 pages to go, many flagged/highlighted passages.  Three from the latter part I thought I'd share for now.

One.  "During the period when de Mohrenschildt gave testimony to the Warren Commision, he told me that on more than one occasion he would privately eat lunch with Allen Dulles, I was stunned to hear the former CIA director would extend an invitation for an off the record meeting with any witness."  Page 241.

I was stunned too reading this, but maybe I shouldn't have been. GDM met Allen in about 1917 at about 10-12 years old in Russia/Belarius where his dad managed an oil field during the Russian revolution which Allen was seeking an interest in on behalf of Sullivan and Cromwell/the Rockefellers of Wall Street.  From memory, correct me, Devil's Chessboard, Talbot.

Two.  My lunch with Marina, beginning page 260.  I thought this had been put to rest in discussions on the forum, in the opposite direction, apparently, I was wrong.  To summarize, Wecht surprisingly got a call from Marina in 1991, he had never talked to her.  But she had read and seen his work.  She had agreed to an interview she didn't want to do and asked him to do it for her, which he did.  They agreed to speak again in more detail in the future.  That happened in November 1992 in a "quiet corner" of a restaurant Marina chose over a leisurely meal with Wecht's wife Sigrid also present.  A very interesting lunch, as Dr. Wecht says, she was a very astute scholar of the assassination.

"As she had said over the phone, Oswald was never a verry good husband, but now she added more details.  He beat her, including while she was pregnant, and would force himself on her . . .

I thought that was dispelled.  But she seems very credible, down to earth and knowledgeable and open in this lunch with the esteemed Dr. Wecht.

Three.  Page 279.  President Nixon seemed star stuck by Connally, the handsome Texan with the bigger-than-life personality.  Despite the latter's decades long obeisance to the Democratic party, Nixon offered to appoint Connally as U.S. secretary of the treasury.  But Connally would only take the job if Nixon could find a nice gig for George H. W, Bush . . .  a one term congressman who had lost two senatorial bids.  Nixon appointed him Ambassador to the United Nations, kicking his political profile into high gear."  Onwards and backwards to the CIA?

Wait. When did Wecht speak to DeMohrenschildt? 

The phrasing makes it sound like 1964. Wecht was not a leading light of the research community at that time. I highly doubt he spoke to DeMohrenschildt in 1964, let alone about Dulles. 

[Ron Bulman]

45 minutes ago, Pat Speer said:

Wait. When did Wecht speak to DeMohrenschildt? 

The phrasing makes it sound like 1964. Wecht was not a leading light of the research community at that time. I highly doubt he spoke to DeMohrenschildt in 1964, let alone about Dulles. 

1977.  The comma is the key Pat.  I should have put the quote in a greater context, I can see how it might look like Wecht was talking about 1964.  Which he was, about what George said, in 1977.

To summarize a little greater detail from what I just re read and I'm referring to as I type:

In early 1977 Wecht got a call out of the blue from Willem Oltmans whom he'd heard of but never spoken with.  Oltmans was staying at de Mohrenschildt's in Dallas audio recording George's story over the years for a planned autobiography.  Oltman's said George was fearful about his upcoming HSCA testimony, would Wecht be willing to talk to him about what he thought George might expect?  To quote Cyril "I wasn't going to turn down the opportunity to meet both these men, so I flew there and spent a long afternoon with them at de Mohrenschildt's home, which he designed." 

Wecht says his request to testify to the HSCA had not yet been granted so he couldn't speak from personal experience.  But from reading the WC report he knew GDM had testified for two full days.  Wecht was puzzled why he seemed so unnerved, GDM's responses to the Warren panel had been so assured.  "he was kicking himself now over answers to the WC which now seemed glib to him now".  He advised him to take an attorney he trusted and tell him his story beforehand.

He asked him if he was or ever had been a CIA agent he denied it but admitted he had encountered agents in his travels and been debriefed after foreign trips.  That (Dallas CIA head) J Walton Moore insisted Oswald was "a harmless lunatic" and encouraged them to stay in the ex-Marine's life.

The comes the "During the period when de Mohrenschildt gave testimony to the Warren Commission,  he told me that on more than one occasion he would Privately eat lunch with Allen Dulles."