Guy Banister

[Stan Hayes]

Does anyone have any information about Banister's last days? People with whom he was seen, etc., other than his usual associates?

[Tony Austin]

I remember reading somewhere that there was one building with two entrances. The entrances were 544 Camp Street and 531 Lafayette Street, however, within that building there was no direct communication between the parts that could be accessed through 544 Camp Street and the parts that could be accessed

through 531 Lafayette Street. Can anybody confirm whether this is true or false?

Building owner Sam Mike Newman testified to HSCA that the second floor could only be accessed via the Camp St. entrance.

However, Martin Shackelford reports information from Judyth Baker that the second floor could also be reached from a pull-down ladder in Banister's first-floor office. I have been unable to confirm this, but there WAS a pull-down fire escape on the exterior of the building that could get one from Lafayette to the union office on the second floor.

In a sense, it doesn't matter. Oswald DID choose to use that address, for reasons unknown. The Cuban Revolutionary Council had been out of that building for 18 months, but Guy Banister did have an office in the building. David Ferrie was not a Banister employee, but he did work with Banister on several cases, and could be found in that building at times.

One more interesting note: Sometime in 1963 and prior to the assassination, Banister's office had been broken into once or twice by someone cutting through the wall from the adjacent Mancuso Cafe.

In his book "Case Closed" Gerald Posner talks about the "544 Camp Street" address appearing on some of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee leaflets that Oswald was handing out on the street in the summer of 1963. He writes: "It is possible that Oswald, who had used phony addresses on dozens of applications and forms, had decided when settling on a false address for his imaginary Fair Play chapter that it should embarrass his nemesis, the extreme right wing and the city's anti-Castro militants."

Given your information on the building, we can review what Posner is trying to say here. He is telling us that Oswald was handing out leaflets inviting people to come and join his local branch of the FPCC but he was ruining his chance of finding new members by deliberately putting the wrong address on some his leaflets.

He also suggests that he was somehow trying to annoy Guy Banister and his staff by using the address of a place next door to his offices with no direct connections to his his first floor office ( ground floor in Europe )

If he wanted to annoy Banister surely he would have put 531 Lafayette Street on the leaflets!

Posner tries to suggests that there are no reliable witnesses to confirm that Oswald did have an office at 544 Camp Street. I would be interested to know what evidence you have that convinces you that Oswald did have an office there.

[Stephen Roy]

In his book "Case Closed" Gerald Posner talks about the "544 Camp Street" address appearing on some of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee leaflets that Oswald was handing out on the street in the summer of 1963. He writes: "It is possible that Oswald, who had used phony addresses on dozens of applications and forms, had decided when settling on a false address for his imaginary Fair Play chapter that it should embarrass his nemesis, the extreme right wing and the city's anti-Castro militants."

Given your information on the building, we can review what Posner is trying to say here. He is telling us that Oswald was handing out leaflets inviting people to come and join his local branch of the FPCC but he was ruining his chance of finding new members by deliberately putting the wrong address on some his leaflets.

MAYBE. IN HIS LETTERS TO THE FPCC, LHO SAID HE WAS CONSIDERING RENTING AN OFFICE. AND SAM NEWMAN, AT TIMES, IMPLIED THAT SOME UNKNOWN PERSON MIGHT HAVE TRIED TO RENT AN OFFICE THERE, BUT DENIES IT WAS OSWALD. I THINK IT IS POSSIBLE THAT OSWALD SAW A FOR RENT SIGN AND WROTE THE LETTER TO THE FPCC ABOUT RENTING AN OFFICE, THAT HE WENT TO NEWMAN BUT NEVER ENDED UP RENTING THE OFFICE (OR, THAT HE DID RENT THE OFFICE AND WAS FORCED OUT AS HE IMPLIED IN A LATER LETTER, AND NEWMAN WAS TOO EMBARRASED TO ADMIT IT.)

He also suggests that he was somehow trying to annoy Guy Banister and his staff by using the address of a place next door to his offices with no direct connections to his his first floor office ( ground floor in Europe )

If he wanted to annoy Banister surely he would have put 531 Lafayette Street on the leaflets!

I COULD IMAGINE LHO WANTING TO EMBARRASS BANISTER OR THE CUBAN REVOLUTIONARY COUNCIL**, BUT I CAN'T IMAGINE HIM DELIBERATELY SENDING NEW RECRUITS TO BANISTER.

(**IN LATE 1961, THE CRC DEPOSITED BOOKS AT THE LIBRARY OSWALD LATER FREQUENTED, STAPMED WITH THEIR ADDRESS AT 544 CAMP.)

Posner tries to suggests that there are no reliable witnesses to confirm that Oswald did have an office at 544 Camp Street. I would be interested to know what evidence you have that convinces you that Oswald did have an office there.

I'M NOT CONVINCED THAT HE DID.

[Tony Austin]

In his book "Case Closed" Gerald Posner talks about the "544 Camp Street" address appearing on some of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee leaflets that Oswald was handing out on the street in the summer of 1963. He writes: "It is possible that Oswald, who had used phony addresses on dozens of applications and forms, had decided when settling on a false address for his imaginary Fair Play chapter that it should embarrass his nemesis, the extreme right wing and the city's anti-Castro militants."

Given your information on the building, we can review what Posner is trying to say here. He is telling us that Oswald was handing out leaflets inviting people to come and join his local branch of the FPCC but he was ruining his chance of finding new members by deliberately putting the wrong address on some his leaflets.

MAYBE. IN HIS LETTERS TO THE FPCC, LHO SAID HE WAS CONSIDERING RENTING AN OFFICE. AND SAM NEWMAN, AT TIMES, IMPLIED THAT SOME UNKNOWN PERSON MIGHT HAVE TRIED TO RENT AN OFFICE THERE, BUT DENIES IT WAS OSWALD. I THINK IT IS POSSIBLE THAT OSWALD SAW A FOR RENT SIGN AND WROTE THE LETTER TO THE FPCC ABOUT RENTING AN OFFICE, THAT HE WENT TO NEWMAN BUT NEVER ENDED UP RENTING THE OFFICE (OR, THAT HE DID RENT THE OFFICE AND WAS FORCED OUT AS HE IMPLIED IN A LATER LETTER, AND NEWMAN WAS TOO EMBARRASED TO ADMIT IT.)

He also suggests that he was somehow trying to annoy Guy Banister and his staff by using the address of a place next door to his offices with no direct connections to his his first floor office ( ground floor in Europe )

If he wanted to annoy Banister surely he would have put 531 Lafayette Street on the leaflets!

I COULD IMAGINE LHO WANTING TO EMBARRASS BANISTER OR THE CUBAN REVOLUTIONARY COUNCIL**, BUT I CAN'T IMAGINE HIM DELIBERATELY SENDING NEW RECRUITS TO BANISTER.

(**IN LATE 1961, THE CRC DEPOSITED BOOKS AT THE LIBRARY OSWALD LATER FREQUENTED, STAPMED WITH THEIR ADDRESS AT 544 CAMP.)

Posner tries to suggests that there are no reliable witnesses to confirm that Oswald did have an office at 544 Camp Street. I would be interested to know what evidence you have that convinces you that Oswald did have an office there.

I'M NOT CONVINCED THAT HE DID.

Fair comment. Does anybody else strongly believe that Oswald had an office at 544 Camp Street? Have they good evidence for this?

[Stephen Roy]

Fair comment. Does anybody else strongly believe that Oswald had an office at 544 Camp Street? Have they good evidence for this?

What it boils down to is this:

Oswald did use the address on some pamphlets and possibly some leaflets.

In one FPCC letter, Oswald said he was thinking of opening an office. The FPCC advised him not to. In a later letter, he said he had disregarded the FPCC advice and initiated rental of an office, but the rentor backed out.

Building owner Sam Newman gave conflicting accounts. He basically denied ever renting to Oswald or talking with him, but he made references to people inquiring about an office that MIGHT have been Oswald.

A few witnesses of unknown reliability specifically said Oswald had an office in the building, including Jack S. Martin and Delphine Points Roberts. Some other people who worked in the building that summer said they don't recall Oswald having an office there.

I guess the answer is maybe, but maybe not.

[Douglas Caddy]

I am one of those (like Stephen?) who finds it difficult to imagine that Guy Bannister had any connection to the JFK assassination. The statements by Delphine Roberts and her daughter, made so many many years later, have very very little credibility. Of course even if they were true, all these statements would do is connect Bannister with Lee Oswald, which is not quite the same thing as connecting Bannister to the assassination.

Harold Weisberg did some first investigation into Bannister. According to Weisberg's book Oswald In New ORleans (P.339) Bannister had not paid the rent on his office since Sept/Oct 1963. His health was probably not the best by this time and he died in June of 1964, with the rent still in arrears.

I expect that when the killers of JFK are finally identified we will see that none of them was short of money in the period just before and just after the assassination.

News from http://www.unknowncountry.com/

April 6, 2006:

“Jim Marrs's May, 2005 interview with Ed Haslam, author of Mary, Ferry and the Monkey Virus has become a Dreamland classic. Not only can subscribers still listen to this fabulous information, now Ed Haslam has set up a website and you can get this rare, virtually unobtainable book directly from the author!

“Haslam asks the question: was AIDS manmade, and did people like Clay Shaw, Guy Banister, David Ferrie and Dr. Alton Ochsner, one of New Orleans' most famous residents play a role. AND why are some of these same names connected both to the horrible murder of eccentric genius Mary Sherman and Jim Garrison's abortive attempt to solve the Kennedy assassination?”

From the web site of Edward T. Haslam:

http://www.themonkeyvirus.com/

“Why is there so much cancer today? Did monkey viruses contaminate the polio vaccines in the 1950s? Was SV40 one of them? Is this the origin of the current epidemic of soft-tissue cancers? CFIDS? AIDS? Was there a desperate attempt to find a vaccine?

Were these noble efforts diverted by political extremists into an effort to kill Fidel Castro with a biological weapon?

And does this dark plot connect to Lee Harvey Oswald and the JFK Assassination? If you think these fair questions, it’s time you read…

Mary, Ferrie & the Monkey Virus

The Story of an Underground Medical Laboratory

A non-fiction book by Edward T. Haslam”

One can read four free chapters from the new and revised edition of the book by going to Edward Haslam’s web site, using the above link.

Of special interest is Chapter 3, entitled The Classroom in which Nicky Chetta, son of the New Orleans Coroner, Dr. Nicholas Chetta, tells his classmates what really happened to the Garrison investigation. See page 16 of Chapter 3, which can be downloaded on Haslam’s web site.

[Gary Buell]

There are several references to Guy Banister in the book "Black Struggle/Red Scare: by Professor Jeff Woods, although he is not listed in the index. One thing I did not know was that Banister testified before

the Arkansas Legislative Council's Special Education Committee, conducting hearings on alleged subversion in Arkansas. More on this can be found at:

http://libinfo.uark.edu/specialcollections...chr/ACHRSound...

No mention of a transcript but a sound recording is available. As far as I know this may be the only sound recording of Guy Banister.

This web page leaves the identity of the person testifying slightly in doubt but Professor Woods in his excellent book refers to news articles confirming it was Banister.