Fred Litwins New Podcast

[Denny Zartman]

9 hours ago, Robert Morrow said:

Who else was "missing" from the Texas School Book Depository after the JFK assassination? Do you have a source, book or web link on this? Just curious.

Let me know if this will do:

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It is apropos to remember that Givens, like Oswald, was missing from the Book Depository after the assassination. According to the verbatim transcript of the police radio log (CE 1974 p. 83) Inspector J. Herbert Sawyer called the dispatcher a few seconds after 1:46 p.m. and said: 

“We have a man that we would like to have you pass this on to CID (criminal investigation division) to see if we can pick this man up Charles Douglas Givens G i v e n s. He is a colored male… a porter that worked on this floor up here he has a police record and he left.”

This entry was not included in an earlier edited transcript of the police radio log for reasons which are not clear. Inspector Sawyer testified about the alert for Givens on April 8th 1964:

Sawyer: I put out another description on the colored boy that worked in that department. 

Belin: What do you mean the colored boy that worked in that depository? 

Sawyer: He is the one that had a previous record in the narcotics and he was supposed to have been a witness to the man being on that floor. He was supposed to have been a witness to Oswald being there. 

Belin: Would Charles Givens have been that boy? 

Sawyer: Yes, I think that is the name and I put out a description on him. 

Belin: How do you know he was supposed to be a witness on that? 

Sawyer: Somebody told me that. Somebody came to me with the information. And again that particular party whoever it was I don't know. I remember that a deputy sheriff came up to me who had been overtaking these affidavits that I sent them over there and he came over from the sheriff's office with a picture and a description of this colored boy and he said that he was supposed to have worked at the Texas Book depository and he was the one employee who was missing or that he was missing from the building. He wasn't accounted for and that he was supposed to have some information about the man that did the shooting… (6H 321-322)

Accessories After The Fact, by Sylvia Meagher, 1967, Pg. 67

 

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Tippit was slain at 1:15 or 1:16 p.m. according to the commission. Why then did the Dallas Police want Oswald at least 30 minutes before Tippit was shot?

At a press conference held a few hours after Oswald's death on November 24th district attorney Wade explained why Oswald's description went out so precipitately:

“A police officer immediately after the assassination ran in the building and saw this man (Oswald) in a corner and started to arrest him but the manager of the building said that he was an employee and was all right. Every other employee was located but this defendant of the company. A description and name of him went out by police to look for him.”

However the commission denied that Oswald's name was dispatched by the police: “the police never mentioned Oswald's name in their broadcast descriptions before his arrest.”

Captain WP Gannaway the officer in charge of the Dallas Police department special Service bureau offered a similar explanation. He said that Oswald's description was broadcast because he was missing from a "roll call” of Book Depository employees. “He was the only one who didn't show up and couldn't be accounted for” Gannaway said.

This attempt to explain why Oswald was wanted implies both that there was a comprehensive roll call in the building and that Oswald was the only person unaccounted for just after 12:30 p.m. . In the first place there was no such roll call and in the second place Oswald was not the only employee absent from the building after the assassination. Out of a total of 75 persons employed in the building 48 were outside at 12:30 and 5 had not reported for work that day. Others left the building almost immediately after hearing the shots. Many employees were not allowed to enter the building after the assassination and thus were absent when the police search began. In fact even among the eight employees known to have been on the 6th floor earlier that day Oswald was not “the only one who didn't show up and couldn't be accounted for.”

Rush To Judgment, by Mark Lane, 1967 Fawcett Crest first edition, pgs 67-68.

 

Edited Monday at 01:04 AM by Denny Zartman

[Robert Morrow]

Denny Zartman - thanks!

[James DiEugenio]

When we start putting Litwin on this site, we should all hang our heads.

 

Also, this is wrong, as is much of what Gus Russo writes and talks about;

I read Russo’s Die by the Sword and I agree that Cuba has far more to do with the JFK assassination than Vietnam. The Kennedys wanted Cuba off the table by the 1964 election. They were pursuing a dual-track of reaching out through back channels as well as assassination. 

The ARRB proved with the declassification of the CIA IG report that the plots to kill Castro were CIA operations that were deliberately kept from each and every president for their duration, from 1960-65.  

Also, the ARRB declassifications proved that  by 1963 Kennedy was getting out of Vietnam, no ifs, ands or buts about it. LBJ was cognizant of this withdrawal, and he purposefully reversed it within three months of Kennedy's death.

Gus Russo is one of the very worst sources on Kennedy's presidency. He switched sides along with his buddy Dale M, and they then did that disgraceful PBS show in 1993.  Ask Pat Speer about the stunt PBS pulled with that Rusty L print. 

They then got even worse with that ludicrous Dale M proclamation about the Single Bullet Fact for Jennings.

Russo then pulled a triple for Brokaw at the fiftieth.👎

Edited Monday at 06:11 AM by James DiEugenio

[James DiEugenio]

More on Gus Russo:

https://www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/who-is-gus-russo-2

Secondly, we will never know about the true number of missing people after the shooting because there was really no formal roll call.  And this has been shown by more than one researcher like Mark Bridger. 

Edited Monday at 08:48 PM by James DiEugenio

[David Von Pein]

9 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

When we start putting Litwin on this site, we should all hang our heads. .... Gus Russo is one of the very worst sources on Kennedy's presidency. He switched sides along with his buddy Dale M, and they then did that disgraceful PBS show in 1993.  Ask Pat Speer about the stunt PBS pulled with that Rusty L print. They then got even worse with that ludicrous Dale M proclamation about the Single Bullet Fact for Jennings. Russo then pulled a triple for Brokaw at the fiftieth.👎

After reading the above multi-person bashfest, I now realize how much DiEugenio's words sound a whole lot like some of the ridiculous over-the-top (and inaccurate) attacks that are constantly being gushed forth against a wide variety of individuals by a certain former President named Trump.

 

Edited Monday at 03:18 PM by David Von Pein

[Steve Roe]

On 8/4/2024 at 12:33 PM, Greg Doudna said:

Volkmar Schmidt didn't say a thing about Oswald stating hatred for JFK etc. in his Warren Commission testimony as he started claiming many years later. I don't think Volkmar Schmidt is necessarily the most credible witness on a recalled subjective personal impression of an historically vilified figure given how decades-later witness testimonies can be subject to distortion in memory. 

Volkmar Schmidt didn't say a thing about Oswald stating hatred for JFK etc. in his Warren Commission testimony as he started claiming many years later.

Greg, seriously, you got sloppy again. Schmidt never testified to the Warren Commission. Indeed, there are FBI interviews of him. 

 

[Steve Roe]

15 hours ago, David Von Pein said:

After reading the above multi-person bashfest, I now realize how much DiEugenio's words sound a whole lot like some of the ridiculous over-the-top (and inaccurate) attacks that are constantly being gushed forth against a wide variety of individuals by a certain former President named Trump.

 

David, 

One asks this, why DiEugenio spends so much time on this social media forum, Education Forum???

Thankfully you have chronicled his whacky/crackpot statements to the point does anyone take him seriously anymore?? 

A very long history, even before his involvement with Oliver Stone's money grab conspiracy nonsense, "Destiny Betrayed". 

DVP's JFK ARCHIVES: DAVID VON PEIN VS. JAMES DiEUGENIO —— THE COMPLETE SERIES —— (jfk-archives.blogspot.com)

Bottom line, DiEugenio has not proven one iota of anything conspiratorial in the assassination. What he has done, is raised complete false suspicions garnering conspiracy beliefs. 

 

[Calvin Ye]

No. I have no interest in Litwin's new podcast

[Ron Bulman]

2 hours ago, Steve Roe said:

Thankfully you have chronicled his whacky/crackpot statements to the point does anyone take him seriously anymore?? 

That falls under the forum reasons for warning a member as belittling a member with a direct insult. 

[Greg Doudna]

3 hours ago, Steve Roe said:

Volkmar Schmidt didn't say a thing about Oswald stating hatred for JFK etc. in his Warren Commission testimony as he started claiming many years later.

Greg, seriously, you got sloppy again. Schmidt never testified to the Warren Commission. Indeed, there are FBI interviews of him. 

You're right it was FBI. What is odd is Volkmar, a week after the assassination on Nov 29, 1963 recalling that Feb 1963 conversation, tells the FBI: 

"Schmidt stated that throughout the evening Oswald was objective and was very articulate in his descriptions of the United States and Russian societies. Oswald did not speak of President Kennedy or his policies. On one occasion, Schmidt praised President Kennedy by stating that President Kennedy would improve the welfare of the working man in the United States. Oswald made no objection to this statement.

"Schmidt stated that Oswald, from outward appearances and from his conversation, appeared to have a burning dedication to political truth. Schmidt surmised that Oswald had great ambitions but realized he could not fulfill those ambitions because of limited education. Throughout the conversation, Oswald did not express any views which would indicate future violent action but appeared to be a violent person." (https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10406#relPageId=201)

On that last sentence, Oswald "did not express any views which would indicate future violent action" but "appeared" to "be a violent person"?

How so? By what?

This is the same Volkmar Schmidt who later told Epstein and William Kelly and is cited on the Frontline documentary website as claiming Oswald in that very conversation spoke very hostilely and negatively and critically toward President Kennedy and his policies. What is to be made of the FBI in their early interview saying Volkmar told them the opposite ("Oswald did not speak of President Kennedy or his policies")?

Here is a comment from Peter Whitmey from 2012.

Dave Reitzes makes reference to Volkmar Schmidt's conversation with
LHO at the end of his article about Oswald (http://www.jfk-online.com/
jfk100wholho.html). Schmidt described Oswald in an interview with Gus
Russo as a "deeply disturbed man", who was prepared to kill anyone of
importance in order to make his mark on history. I had learned about
Schmidt's conversation with Oswald at a party in Feb. 1963 from
reading Epstein's LEGEND, and discovered that he was living in
Calgary, Alberta. I wrote to him in 1992 and later phoned him several
times. As Epstein describes, When Schmidt turned the discussion away
from Kennedy towards General Walker, Oswald suggested he was as much a
danger to the U.S. as Hitler had been to Germany in the late 1920s. I
asked Mr. Schmidt if he remembered hearing or reading about the
assassination attempt on Walker, and whether it occurred to him that
possibly Oswald was responsible. He still recalled learning about it,
which took place less than two months after the party, but he stated
that he never thought of Oswald in connection with the shooting, which
I find hard to believe. Given the statements made to Gus Russo about
Oswald's extreme feelings towards JFK because of his anti-Cuban
policies (beginning with the Bay of Pigs), it makes me wonder why he
also didn't think of Oswald in connection with JFK's assassination.
Could it be that Schmidt's bias towards LHO has grown more extreme
over the years since their Feb. 1963 conversation? -prwhitmey (https://groups.google.com/g/alt.assassination.jfk/c/4MATS2lXiws)

And again Whitmey:

According to Bill Kelly's interview with Volkmar Schmidt in the late
1990s, Schmidt seemed to feel in retrospect that he might have planted
the seed in Oswald's mind in regard to shooting Walker. I suspect
Schmidt came to this realization after my conversations with him in
the early 1990s perhaps? I'm surprised Bill Kelly didn't ask him why
it hadn't occurred to him that Oswald might have fired on Walker
too. (same link above)

Finally I found this video interview of Volkmar Schmidt.

 

[Denny Zartman]

As I see it, it could also be reasonably asked why any Lone Nut theorist stays on this forum. According to LN's, the case was solved in an hour, sixty years ago. Solved by cops that couldn't even correctly identify a rifle they held in their own hands.

There was no formal roll call, but LN's would like you to believe it was so. Oswald was not the only building employee unaccounted for after the assassination, but LN's would like you to believe it was so.