Jump to content
The Education Forum

Joan Mellen: A Farewell to Justice


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 203
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Jim DiEugenio's review of Joan Mellen's A Farewell to Justice is now available on the PROBE/CTKA site.

http://www.ctka.net/mellen_review.html

Ron W

Huh. I was just wondering yesterday what Jim has been up to and where the Probe site had gone. Good to see the site back (and updated!) and good to see this article. It outlines the real problems with AF2J, unlike some of the anti-Garrison rantings that punctuate this thread (yes, you know who you are).

I agree with most of what he says about Mellen's book. Its a shame she had to mix all the valuable and new information she has on Garrison with a few dubious assertions and much RFK-bashing. I think the review is particularly dead-on about Ralph Schoenmann's influence on Mellen's view of the Kennedys. I came to this same conclusion a while ago and told Dawn about it.

Its still a valuable book for research purposes (with a good deal of suplementary reading and familiarity with the case) and the new edition should at least improve its aesethetic qualities, if nothing else. Unfortunately, the book isn't the thorough and definitive take on Garrison's investigation that many of us were hoping it would be. Nor is it a particularly good overview and introduction for the newcomer. :)

Edited by Owen Parsons
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...
...

Garrison was the only honest attempt at an investigation and his was subverted, dirty-tricked by the officials behind the assassination.

Not to be a ditto-head, much, but "ditto."

Jim Garrison did more than any one person could reasonably be expected to do under the circumstances.

And he's one of the few admirable people to come out of this hideous, ongoing, chapter of history.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll be curious to see what the reactions are to the updated (and longer) paperback when it comes out in a couple of months. I read some very mixed things about ULTIMATE SACRIFICE (which I'm yet to get) and then, lo and behold, Peter Dale Scott discusses the updated paperback of that book in his COPA talk and says that it's an improvement and needs to be 'taken seriously'. Now Mellen has had a year or so to reinstall cut material from her book, update stuff here and there and hopefully fix whatever issues the original hardcover had with its index - so, I'm curious as to whether the paperback will be an improvement.

I have DiEugenio's DESTINY BETRAYED, but haven't read it yet. (I have a dozen or more books now directly about the JFK assassination, plus currently another 30-40 on related topics, and am slowly picking my way through them).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...
  • 9 months later...
HSCA Depo of T.E. Beckham 08/18/77

BTW does anyone have the MFF URL........

I wanted to ask Joan about Thomas McBride, who delivered the eulogy at the funeral of Arthur A.E. Cowan, there was a Thomas McBride who on the day of JFK's Assassination was a trial lawyer who served with then, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy's Organized Crime Crime Task Force. Do you happen to know if he was the same Thomas McBride.

The following is the obituary for the Thomas McBride who was an attorney for RFK's Organized Crime Task Force:

Former Watergate prosecutor dead Thomas McBride at 74

DATELINE: PORTLAND, Ore. AP

Thomas F. McBride, former associate Watergate prosecutor and associate dean

at Stanford Law School, has died from injuries suffered in a fall at

Portland's Laurelhurst Park. He was 74.

McBride's wife, Catherine Milton, said her husband fell and died Friday, the

day before he was to attend an event in Washington D.C. marking the 30th

anniversary of the "Saturday Night Massacre," when President Nixon fired

Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox, and other events leading to the

president's resignation.

"He was looking forward to it," Milton said Monday. "He even bought a new

outfit."

Milton said she and her husband were having dinner when the news bulletin

hit in 1973.

"Our son came in yelling 'Dad, dad, you've just been abolished," Milton

recalled.

Milton said her husband, fearing that important paperwork would be

destroyed, immediately drove to the office to remove files for safety and

preservation.

As associate prosecutor, McBride led the task force on campaign

contributions and the selling of ambassadorships. He was responsible for

accepting guilty pleas from some high-level corporate and other officials,

such as George Steinbrenner and Maurice Stans, Nixon's chief fund-raiser for

his re-election campaign.

McBride was born in Elgin, Ill. He attended Columbia Law School and began

his legal career as a prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney's office

before going to Washington D.C. to become a trial lawyer for the organized

crime task force set up by Attorney General Robert Kennedy.

Following Kennedy's assassination, he joined the Peace Corps, where he was

deputy director for Latin America. After Watergate, he became the first

inspector general of the Department of Agriculture.

In 1982, he moved the California to become associate dean at Stanford Law

School. During this time, he also served on the President's Commission on

Organized Crime and the California Council on Mental Health.

From 1989 to 1992, McBride directed Stanford's department of environmental

health and safety. He then moved to Washington D.C., where his wife was the

executive director of the Commission on National and Community Service.

I am not sure the date of the above obit, but apparently it was circa 1992

Robert

Link to comment
Share on other sites

HSCA Depo of T.E. Beckham 08/18/77

BTW does anyone have the MFF URL........

I wanted to ask Joan about Thomas McBride, who delivered the eulogy at the funeral of Arthur A.E. Cowan, there was a Thomas McBride who on the day of JFK's Assassination was a trial lawyer who served with then, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy's Organized Crime Crime Task Force. Do you happen to know if he was the same Thomas McBride?

The following is the obituary for the Thomas McBride who was an attorney for RFK's Organized Crime Task Force:

Former Watergate prosecutor dead Thomas McBride at 74

DATELINE: PORTLAND, Ore. AP

Thomas F. McBride, former associate Watergate prosecutor and associate dean

at Stanford Law School, has died from injuries suffered in a fall at

Portland's Laurelhurst Park. He was 74.

McBride's wife, Catherine Milton, said her husband fell and died Friday, the

day before he was to attend an event in Washington D.C. marking the 30th

anniversary of the "Saturday Night Massacre," when President Nixon fired

Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox, and other events leading to the

president's resignation.

"He was looking forward to it," Milton said Monday. "He even bought a new

outfit."

Milton said she and her husband were having dinner when the news bulletin

hit in 1973.

"Our son came in yelling 'Dad, dad, you've just been abolished," Milton

recalled.

Milton said her husband, fearing that important paperwork would be

destroyed, immediately drove to the office to remove files for safety and

preservation.

As associate prosecutor, McBride led the task force on campaign

contributions and the selling of ambassadorships. He was responsible for

accepting guilty pleas from some high-level corporate and other officials,

such as George Steinbrenner and Maurice Stans, Nixon's chief fund-raiser for

his re-election campaign.

McBride was born in Elgin, Ill. He attended Columbia Law School and began

his legal career as a prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney's office

before going to Washington D.C. to become a trial lawyer for the organized

crime task force set up by Attorney General Robert Kennedy.

Following Kennedy's assassination, he joined the Peace Corps, where he was

deputy director for Latin America. After Watergate, he became the first

inspector general of the Department of Agriculture.

In 1982, he moved the California to become associate dean at Stanford Law

School. During this time, he also served on the President's Commission on

Organized Crime and the California Council on Mental Health.

From 1989 to 1992, McBride directed Stanford's department of environmental

health and safety. He then moved to Washington D.C., where his wife was the

executive director of the Commission on National and Community Service.

I am not sure the date of the above obit, but apparently it was circa 1992

Robert

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 7 months later...

The following is a review I wrote for A Farewell To Justice, which appeared briefly on amazon.com, and was posted in or around November 18, 2005.

Truth is an absolute necessity for societies and peoples to function, and even more so to flourish. In reviewing Joan Mellen's epic, A Farewell to Justice it is virtually impossible to adequately express the significance of her work, and at the same time ignore, or to remain mute of the implications that Farewell to Justice has for America, even 43 years after the assassination of the nation's thirty-fifth President, John F. Kennedy.

As a person who has researched the subject, the book will hold special appeal to those who have studied the assassination throughout the years. Joan reveals for the first time, the utter savagery that the government, the print and news media employed in attempting to discredit Jim Garrison, as strange deaths happened to a select few who "knew too much." Jim Garrison is vindicated not only as far as his assertions about the plot, but as far as his indictment of Clay Shaw, and David Ferrie; had Ferrie not died mysteriously before the Shaw trial.

Garrison was simply a man who was too intelligent to accept the fallacies of the Warren Commission.

Joan, who has written several other significant biographies, depicts "Big Jim" Garrison as those who knew him, warts and all. Ms. Mellen eloquently and poignantly reveals a man who was, and is a patriot, in spite of a lifelong effort by the powers-that-be to prove otherwise. A man who knew there was more to the story, than a lone nut with the aid of a magic bullet. Garrison would sacrifice his life, his family and his future in a Herculanean effort to "uncover the truth" of November 22 in Dallas. Contrast that to the hate-filled venom of the indictments of America's 1960's media, political and intelligence structure towards Jim Garrison and you get a bird's-eye view of a government (or at the least, a considerable portion of it, getting the shakes about what Big Jim was unearthing about Shaw, Ferrie and others in the Big Easy.)

You can say that Jim Garrison did not succeed in revealing what really happened on November 22, in Dallas, but I say he did in a way that speaks about the heart of America, and the heart of Americans. Because "Big Jim" inspired Joan Mellen and, Joan in turn spent seven years of her life on this work and interviewing over 1,000 individuals in a quest for truth, one that delivers, both factually in regards to the real story of the assassination and as a literary work. Without Jim Garrison, there would be no Joan Mellen, at least in the context of the Kennedy assassination. A Farewell to Justice settles incontrovertibly, once and for all the divide between the Warren Commission believers and the "conspiracy theorists," and the result is that the apologists for the Warren Commission need to find another line of work. I hope a certain high-profile prosecutor/writer is reading.

Indeed, if a person based their perception of Jim Garrison based on a great portion of the entire media apparatus of the United States virulent attacks on him, one would have to believe he was blood brothers with Rasputin rather than a patriot who sacrificed his life to reveal that high ranking members of the CIA directed the conspiracy that ended on November 22, 1963, with a new President, who had no reservations about "nailing the coonskin to the wall" in Vietnam, an action that filled the coffers of American arms suppliers, and sent thousands of American servicemen home in body bags. It is demonstrated that the assassination of JFK emanated from within the CIA's Clandestine Services Division, the Big-Fishes, Deputy Director of Plans Richard Helms, Western Hemisphere-Chief David Atlee Philips, Counter Intelligence's James J. Angleton and others. Particularly intriguing is the fact that Big Jim hit it right on the head, and if he hadn't had the entire apparatus of the US Government waging an un-holy war against him, he would have nailed it during the Shaw trial. Joan methodically dissects the "real story" of Oswald, his affiliation with the CIA, FBI and the U.S. Custom's Service, his "I'm Just a Patsy" statement rings with a truth now incontrovertible; there is another patsy in the ethereal person of Thomas Edward Beckham, who is never needed. Also proven, beyond a shadow of a doubt is the fact that Oswald is America's version of Albert Dreyfuss, with one exception; Dreyfuss lived to see his vindication, and Oswald sadly did not. The assassination of Pres. Kennedy was one of the most tragic events in our country's history, as Joan quotes Jim Garrison. The tragic assassination of President Kennedy has often been called the "Crime of the Century," yet in reality Joan Mellen reveals in incisive and painstaking detail (complete with over one-hundred pages of footnotes, at the back of the book) that there was another Crime of the Century that dark November day, that has continued to this day, and that is the fact that our government denied us access to the truth, ostensibly in the name of national security.

After an in-depth reading of Mellen's epic, I like many American's will now believe that her book has done what more than two behemoth governmental investigations and millions of taxpayer dollars could never do, break the case of the assassination of Pres. Kennedy, and in doing so, break the chain of lies, deceptions and transparencies that have been occurring up to this very day.

A crime that was an assault on every American's most cherished ideals and principles, almost as much as it was a crime that snuffed out the life of one of America's greatest President's. And therein, is the challenge of Mellen's "A Farewell to Justice" one should have, preferably some kind of knowledge of the facts surrounding the assassination itself, or at least an openness to the truth, in reading it.

But if not, plunge ahead anyway. Why? Because this book unearths the truth, not only about the assassination, but the nefarious goings on in the months prior to November 22; The Clinton trip; Clay Shaw, David Ferrie, Lee Harvey Oswald and Guy Bannister. Confirmation that Oswald had been led to believe he was to kill "Fidel" in Cuba, not "JFK" in Dallas, confirmation that Shaw was "Clay Bertrand."

Sadly, there is evidence that one of the parties to the "cover-up" was none other than Robert F. Kennedy himself; in that, in not doing so, it would reveal the fact of the Castro assassination plots and Bobby's involvement in directing some of them, something that could have destroyed not only his brothers legacy as President, but RFK's future bid for the presidency, at which point he certainly appeared to plan on getting to the facts; the sordid details that Joan Mellen reveals to America for the first time.

You may ask how it is so certain that Joan has solved the mystery of November 22. The answer is that the true facts have been emerging for over four decades, she has broken through to the other side, and because of that we are all in her debt.

Because the truth, she illustrates can hurt you, ask Jim Garrison, the truth in a sense cost him his life, or at least the duration and quality of it after the Shaw trial. If you, the reader have lived long enough to know what "the truth" can ostensibly "cost" a person, or even a nation, then you will appreciate the significance of this book. John F. Kennedy was the last intellectual President America possessed, and even his enemies cannot deny he had a vision for America; it was a vision of democracy as the greats envisioned it, a democracy in action and not just words. In his time, his political opponents' spouted far-right extremist propaganda, that he was a friend of the communists, was in favor of civil-rights, (on that one you would have had to have been there, America in the 1960's was not a friendly place for people of color, as it is still not today, in many ways; he had chickened-out at the Bay of Pigs. And so why was President Kennedy killed by America's intelligence apparatus, you ask? For the simple reason that the President rightly saw that the CIA was "out of control," they had lied to him about the Bay of Pig's, were up to the months before his brutal murder arranging "provocations" towards Cuba, as he was simultaneously trying to reach a solution to the Castro problem. The "faction" in the CIA that decided Kennedy must die, made that decision because he was in the act of "putting them in their proper place," a government, much more a democracy is not a seven-headed monster, or even a two-headed monster. The CIA resented the idea that the President was going to restore them to a subservient role to the Chief Executive and not the other way around, after all that was the outline in the charter that brought them into existence in the first place. Former Pres. Harry Truman (the chief executive responsible for their creation) himself, admitted the agency was exceeding its mandate, in the same general time frame that the assassination took place. And as the book proves conclusively the CIA's involvement to that day in Dallas, there are justifiable assertions in her book that the information trail might not have stopped at the CIA's door alone. James Angleton it seems was not being even remotely honest when he said "I am not privy to who killed John."

The America of 1963 is as seemingly different from the America of 2005 as night is to day. Yet tragically, there are similarities, the fact of these "seemingly" different America's is alluded to when Joan rightly compares the machinations of Leopoldo, Angel and "Leon Oswald" towards Silvia Odio in 1963, to the revelations of "Able Danger" to the 9-11 Commission, revelations that might have brought out that same elusive truth about 9-11 that the Warren Commission would not reveal about the JFK assassination.

In closing, I would reiterate the two Crimes of the Century; one resulted in the death of an American President, sadly in many young American's minds more of a pop icon than a President who led this country through dangerous times. The second Crime of the Century is the fact that our government deliberately expended every effort to prevent that truth from being made known to the American people, and has been doing so ever since Dealey Plaza.

They know who they are, those who are still alive, but better yet we the People, know who they are. The most famous subterfuge in the denial of political reality is "It can't happen here," that was said in Germany in the 1930's, we as American's live in a mindset of that same statement, but the truth has now slapped us in the face "It did happen here."

The question begs to be asked "What are we going to do about it?" If this book is ignored by the nation's media, or attacked to a degree that it resembles the damage control operation against Jim Garrison, then America will know that what we took for granted, has for the most part been taken from us, with no less violence than the Guns of November 22nd.

http://www.amazon.com/review/product/1597970484

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The following is a review I wrote for A Farewell To Justice, which appeared briefly on amazon.com, and was posted in or around November 18, 2005.

Thank you for that one Robert, BK

Truth is an absolute necessity for societies and peoples to function, and even more so to flourish. In reviewing Joan Mellen's epic, A Farewell to Justice it is virtually impossible to adequately express the significance of her work, and at the same time ignore, or to remain mute of the implications that Farewell to Justice has for America, even 43 years after the assassination of the nation's thirty-fifth President, John F. Kennedy.

As a person who has researched the subject, the book will hold special appeal to those who have studied the assassination throughout the years. Joan reveals for the first time, the utter savagery that the government, the print and news media employed in attempting to discredit Jim Garrison, as strange deaths happened to a select few who "knew too much." Jim Garrison is vindicated not only as far as his assertions about the plot, but as far as his indictment of Clay Shaw, and David Ferrie; had Ferrie not died mysteriously before the Shaw trial.

Garrison was simply a man who was too intelligent to accept the fallacies of the Warren Commission.

Joan, who has written several other significant biographies, depicts "Big Jim" Garrison as those who knew him, warts and all. Ms. Mellen eloquently and poignantly reveals a man who was, and is a patriot, in spite of a lifelong effort by the powers-that-be to prove otherwise. A man who knew there was more to the story, than a lone nut with the aid of a magic bullet. Garrison would sacrifice his life, his family and his future in a Herculanean effort to "uncover the truth" of November 22 in Dallas. Contrast that to the hate-filled venom of the indictments of America's 1960's media, political and intelligence structure towards Jim Garrison and you get a bird's-eye view of a government (or at the least, a considerable portion of it, getting the shakes about what Big Jim was unearthing about Shaw, Ferrie and others in the Big Easy.)

You can say that Jim Garrison did not succeed in revealing what really happened on November 22, in Dallas, but I say he did in a way that speaks about the heart of America, and the heart of Americans. Because "Big Jim" inspired Joan Mellen and, Joan in turn spent seven years of her life on this work and interviewing over 1,000 individuals in a quest for truth, one that delivers, both factually in regards to the real story of the assassination and as a literary work. Without Jim Garrison, there would be no Joan Mellen, at least in the context of the Kennedy assassination. A Farewell to Justice settles incontrovertibly, once and for all the divide between the Warren Commission believers and the "conspiracy theorists," and the result is that the apologists for the Warren Commission need to find another line of work. I hope a certain high-profile prosecutor/writer is reading.

Indeed, if a person based their perception of Jim Garrison based on a great portion of the entire media apparatus of the United States virulent attacks on him, one would have to believe he was blood brothers with Rasputin rather than a patriot who sacrificed his life to reveal that high ranking members of the CIA directed the conspiracy that ended on November 22, 1963, with a new President, who had no reservations about "nailing the coonskin to the wall" in Vietnam, an action that filled the coffers of American arms suppliers, and sent thousands of American servicemen home in body bags. It is demonstrated that the assassination of JFK emanated from within the CIA's Clandestine Services Division, the Big-Fishes, Deputy Director of Plans Richard Helms, Western Hemisphere-Chief David Atlee Philips, Counter Intelligence's James J. Angleton and others. Particularly intriguing is the fact that Big Jim hit it right on the head, and if he hadn't had the entire apparatus of the US Government waging an un-holy war against him, he would have nailed it during the Shaw trial. Joan methodically dissects the "real story" of Oswald, his affiliation with the CIA, FBI and the U.S. Custom's Service, his "I'm Just a Patsy" statement rings with a truth now incontrovertible; there is another patsy in the ethereal person of Thomas Edward Beckham, who is never needed. Also proven, beyond a shadow of a doubt is the fact that Oswald is America's version of Albert Dreyfuss, with one exception; Dreyfuss lived to see his vindication, and Oswald sadly did not. The assassination of Pres. Kennedy was one of the most tragic events in our country's history, as Joan quotes Jim Garrison. The tragic assassination of President Kennedy has often been called the "Crime of the Century," yet in reality Joan Mellen reveals in incisive and painstaking detail (complete with over one-hundred pages of footnotes, at the back of the book) that there was another Crime of the Century that dark November day, that has continued to this day, and that is the fact that our government denied us access to the truth, ostensibly in the name of national security.

After an in-depth reading of Mellen's epic, I like many American's will now believe that her book has done what more than two behemoth governmental investigations and millions of taxpayer dollars could never do, break the case of the assassination of Pres. Kennedy, and in doing so, break the chain of lies, deceptions and transparencies that have been occurring up to this very day.

A crime that was an assault on every American's most cherished ideals and principles, almost as much as it was a crime that snuffed out the life of one of America's greatest President's. And therein, is the challenge of Mellen's "A Farewell to Justice" one should have, preferably some kind of knowledge of the facts surrounding the assassination itself, or at least an openness to the truth, in reading it.

But if not, plunge ahead anyway. Why? Because this book unearths the truth, not only about the assassination, but the nefarious goings on in the months prior to November 22; The Clinton trip; Clay Shaw, David Ferrie, Lee Harvey Oswald and Guy Bannister. Confirmation that Oswald had been led to believe he was to kill "Fidel" in Cuba, not "JFK" in Dallas, confirmation that Shaw was "Clay Bertrand."

Sadly, there is evidence that one of the parties to the "cover-up" was none other than Robert F. Kennedy himself; in that, in not doing so, it would reveal the fact of the Castro assassination plots and Bobby's involvement in directing some of them, something that could have destroyed not only his brothers legacy as President, but RFK's future bid for the presidency, at which point he certainly appeared to plan on getting to the facts; the sordid details that Joan Mellen reveals to America for the first time.

You may ask how it is so certain that Joan has solved the mystery of November 22. The answer is that the true facts have been emerging for over four decades, she has broken through to the other side, and because of that we are all in her debt.

Because the truth, she illustrates can hurt you, ask Jim Garrison, the truth in a sense cost him his life, or at least the duration and quality of it after the Shaw trial. If you, the reader have lived long enough to know what "the truth" can ostensibly "cost" a person, or even a nation, then you will appreciate the significance of this book. John F. Kennedy was the last intellectual President America possessed, and even his enemies cannot deny he had a vision for America; it was a vision of democracy as the greats envisioned it, a democracy in action and not just words. In his time, his political opponents' spouted far-right extremist propaganda, that he was a friend of the communists, was in favor of civil-rights, (on that one you would have had to have been there, America in the 1960's was not a friendly place for people of color, as it is still not today, in many ways; he had chickened-out at the Bay of Pigs. And so why was President Kennedy killed by America's intelligence apparatus, you ask? For the simple reason that the President rightly saw that the CIA was "out of control," they had lied to him about the Bay of Pig's, were up to the months before his brutal murder arranging "provocations" towards Cuba, as he was simultaneously trying to reach a solution to the Castro problem. The "faction" in the CIA that decided Kennedy must die, made that decision because he was in the act of "putting them in their proper place," a government, much more a democracy is not a seven-headed monster, or even a two-headed monster. The CIA resented the idea that the President was going to restore them to a subservient role to the Chief Executive and not the other way around, after all that was the outline in the charter that brought them into existence in the first place. Former Pres. Harry Truman (the chief executive responsible for their creation) himself, admitted the agency was exceeding its mandate, in the same general time frame that the assassination took place. And as the book proves conclusively the CIA's involvement to that day in Dallas, there are justifiable assertions in her book that the information trail might not have stopped at the CIA's door alone. James Angleton it seems was not being even remotely honest when he said "I am not privy to who killed John."

The America of 1963 is as seemingly different from the America of 2005 as night is to day. Yet tragically, there are similarities, the fact of these "seemingly" different America's is alluded to when Joan rightly compares the machinations of Leopoldo, Angel and "Leon Oswald" towards Silvia Odio in 1963, to the revelations of "Able Danger" to the 9-11 Commission, revelations that might have brought out that same elusive truth about 9-11 that the Warren Commission would not reveal about the JFK assassination.

In closing, I would reiterate the two Crimes of the Century; one resulted in the death of an American President, sadly in many young American's minds more of a pop icon than a President who led this country through dangerous times. The second Crime of the Century is the fact that our government deliberately expended every effort to prevent that truth from being made known to the American people, and has been doing so ever since Dealey Plaza.

They know who they are, those who are still alive, but better yet we the People, know who they are. The most famous subterfuge in the denial of political reality is "It can't happen here," that was said in Germany in the 1930's, we as American's live in a mindset of that same statement, but the truth has now slapped us in the face "It did happen here."

The question begs to be asked "What are we going to do about it?" If this book is ignored by the nation's media, or attacked to a degree that it resembles the damage control operation against Jim Garrison, then America will know that what we took for granted, has for the most part been taken from us, with no less violence than the Guns of November 22nd.

http://www.amazon.com/review/product/1597970484

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 years later...
Guest Tom Scully

Yeah....I already know, everything is connected to everything else, so why does any of this even matter. My rationale is, if you stumble upon it, pursue it until it stops giving up interesting additional leads.

(quote name='Tom Scully' timestamp='1337983832' post='253502')

...........................

The New York Times - Mar 2, 1967 article cited below displays a description of 300 students exchanged from each of the two countries since 1958, and names just a few who are accused in Pravda of conduucting espionage missions for the CIA. Those named, including Keenan, denied any relationship, and in Keenan's case, even any contact with the CIA.:

SOVIET SAYS CIA ABUSES EXCHANGE; Pravda Asserts Scholars...

New York Times - Mar 2, 1967

... Edward L. Keenan of Harvard University and A2ichael M. Luther of Hunter College also had been assigned by the agency to perform missions in the Soviet .(/quote)

(quote name='Michael Hogan' timestamp='1338175956' post='253657')

(quote name='Evan Marshall' timestamp='1338132598' post='253610')

I had the opprtunity while a Detroit cop to have a long conversation with a descendant of a Purple Gang member. He commented that conspiracies work best when they are lean and mean AND involve blood relatives exclusively.

Do I think there was a conspiracy? Absolutely! I, however, think the operators were a very small group and most likely involved a Special Operations Team borrowed from Vietnam.

I had a partner in the Tac Unit who had been active in Phoenix-I verified his involvement with an Army Colonel I knew.

My partner indicated that Phoenix had done some "jobs" were outside of Vietnam. I thought he was talking about SE Asia, but he shook his head no and changed the subject.

(/quote)

Good post Evan.

(/quote)

Clover Todd Dulles Wed to Jens H. Jebsen In Chaped of Fifth...

New York Times - Apr 22, 1951

Miss Eleanor Lansing Thomas of New York, cousin of the bride, was maid of honor. The other bridal attendants were Mrs. Richard Bompard Veit, Miss Gregor ..

http://www.nytimes.c...iott.html?fta=y

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

Published: December 6, 2006

....Eleanor Lansing Thomas Elliott was born in Manhattan on April 26, 1926. She graduated from Barnard in 1948 and became a writer and editor at Vogue magazine...

ANNE MACDONALD PROSPECTIVE BRIDE; Sophomore at ...

New York Times - Nov 1, 1946

Thomas and the late Mr. and Mrs. Sheridan Pitt Read. Miss Eleanor Lansing Thomas is his sister. Mr. Thomas is a member of Book and Snake of Yale, the Yale ...

STUART JOHNSON ! DIES AFTER FALL; -inancier Had Opened Home...

to Stalin's Daughter

New York Times - Mar 31, 1969

... House A. widower who lived alone he had dined last night atthe home of Mr. and Mrs. James A. Thomas at 7 Wood Lane, in neighboring Locust Valley

Planners Named For Horse Show At Piping Rock; Committees...

New York Times - Jul 28, 1958

... Carleton H. Palmer, Eben W. Pyne Jr., Robert E. Strawbridge Jr., James A. Thomas Jr. and F. Skiddy yon Stade. AIDING HORSE SHOW: Mrs. Robert Martin, ...

http://www.thecrimso...s-game/?print=1

January 08, 1973 Harvard Housing: Playing the 'Numbers Game'

.......Plan 2 has been the darling of F. Skiddy Von Stade '38, dean of freshmen, for over ten years now. It involves the destruction of Hunt Hall (at the north end of the Yard) and the creation of a new freshmen dormitory capable of housing approximately 200 people. Under plan 2, all freshmen, both male and female, would live in either the Yard or Claverly--none would inhabit the Radcliffe Houses.

Von Stade's plan is supported by those who favor the concept of a separate freshman year, including Burris W. Young. assistant dean of Freshmen and Chase N. Peterson, '52, vice president for Alumni Affairs. The plan is opposed by those who favor the "Radcliffe Way" of intermixing freshmen with upperclassmen. ......

.....THE FINAL PLAN left in contention. Plan 4, represents the ultimate compromise: half of each of Plans 2 and 3. Under Plan 4, connections would be built at the Quad to house.....

.....Second, it would also help to reduce the number of people per house at the Quad from Plan 3's 450 to a more manageable 400. As a result of these advantages. Plan 4 is beginning to attract support, including that of North House Co-Masters Edward and Juan Keenan and of Dean Whitlock.....

http://www.thecrimso...the-big-little/

THE LAST OF THE BIG LITTLE SPENDERS November 07, 1974

To the Editors of The Crimson:

It really is funny the things that end up in print together. Take for example a couple of stories that appeared in last Friday's Crimson (Nov. 1).

One article told us that Harvard is sending a delegation to Iran "to explore the possibility of Harvard aiding in the development of the Iranian higher education system." It lists at least five people making the pilgrimage. Chase Peterson noted that "any action taken would have to [be] consistent with our educational purpose. Our job is to teach school and do research in Cambridge..." He states further that Harvard would pay for the trip "because we don't want to be under any obligation." By current rates for air travel that amounts to at least $7000 and possibly $10,200--for air travel alone! I think that it is wonderful that Harvard has so great an excess of resources.

On that same front page of The Crimson, there is an article about saving money. We are told that "the administration has compiled a list of possible areas for saving money...including the discontinuation of...the bells desk at Currier House." Later in the article, Joan Keenan, co-master of North House, suggests that "priorities must be set before changes are made." I must differ with Ms. Keenan--I think that it is very clear that the administration's priorities are set. H.A. Decker '76

http://www.thecrimso...sas-facing-the/

Keenan at the GSAS: Facing the Turbulence

NO WRITER ATTRIBUTED

Published: Wednesday, September 14, 1977

.....Although Keenan has never served as an administrator at Harvard's GSAS before, he garnered some first-hand experience with the vagaries of graduate school administration through a professional commitment he keeps halfway around the world. For the past two years, Keenan has served as one of the three American members of the board of overseers of the new Iranian national graduate school being built outside Teheran, Reza Shah Kabir University (RSKU). Four times a year, Keenan makes the 16-hour plane trip to Teheran, where he confers with the other RSKU directors over a three-day weekend.

It is a commitment that has drawn severe criticism from segments of the Harvard community. Critics label RSKU as direct support for one of the world's most repressive regimes. It is reliably reported that agents of the Shah of Iran's secret police, SAVAK, are present in most college classrooms in the country, taking careful note of students who dare to criticize the conventional texts. Keenan says he believes the reports are true about SAVAK's infiltration of Iranian universities, but thinks it may be possible to avoid this lack of academic freedom at RSKU. The new university will be located in a relatively isolated area next to a national forest outside Teheran, away from the major urban foci of the spy network, Keenan maintains. And since the RSKU facility will only be utilized for Ph.D. candidates preparing their dissertaition, instruction will be given almost exclusively on a one-to-one basis, rather than in a classroom situation, he says.

"The project has merit from almost any point of view. It is trying to help a very rapidly developing country generate its own capacity to produce Ph.D.s," Keenan says. "The moral calculus is essentially a personal one. Currently I think it is a legitimate, even promising, activity."

"I have yet to encounter any political interference of what we'd call the thought control type, and if I did, I'd quit," Keenan says, but adds "It would be naive to think that RSKU is going to be more like Cambridge than it is like universities in most parts of the world."

Keenan displays a warmth and respect for Harvard that is a sterling example of institutional loyalty. There was seemingly no question but that he would accept the GSAS post when Dean Rosovsky finally chose him as his candidate for the job after a four-month-long search process. "When the dean asks me to do something, I do it," Keenan says.

A look at Keenan's career helps explain his devotion to Harvard. Except for a two-year period of study at the University of Leningrad during the early '60s, Harvard has been Keenan's home for the past 24 years. He arrived in Cambridge as a college freshman in 1953, a self-described "kid from the boon-docks" of western New York. "This place has been very important in my life. Harvard has been very good to me," Keenan says and adds after a moment's reflection, "It still is." He served as master of North House for five years during the late '60s and early '70s and spearheaded a fundraising drive as director of the Russian Research Center.

It is somewhat ironic that Keenan the academic should find himself engrossed in the trials and tribulations of the academic market. It is a market with which Keenan has never known any problems. The specialist in medieval Russian history was given the unofficial nod for a tenured appointment in 1968, at the tender age of 33, only two years after he received his Ph.D., and joined the Harvard faculty......

Hi John, Greg, Robert et al,

I think we are discussing this topic in a Mexico City thread, and I hope Joan Mellen comes back to discuss her book with us.

She livies near me, north of Trenton, New Jersey, while I am east of the capitol, and teaches at Temple in Philly, which is nearby. I would like to read her book and meet up with her sometime soon.

As for Keenan, after writing the article on the Philadelphia Quakers and the Mexico City connection a few years ago, I got an email from Greg in Australia and Stu Wexler in North Jersey. Greg had noticed that there was an Ed Keenan mentioned in the Warren Report, as being at the American embassy when Oswald was there.

A contemporary search came up with TWO Edward L. Keenans ( - who I dubbed ELKI and ELKII), one of whom was the one at the Moscow embassy when Oswald was there. That is Dr. Edward L. Keenan, Harvard Professor at Dumbarton Oaks Research Center (1703 Thirty-second St., Washington D.C.) and specialist on Muscovite social, cultural and political history to 1700.

The other Dr. Edward L. Keenan is a professor of linguistics at UCLA, who was a student in Philadelphia in the early 1960s, and worked for the State Department as an interpreter in 1963.

We (Greg, Stu and myself) contacted Tony Summers, who was busy on his Sinatra book at the time, and he was kind of "stunned" that he missed the Keenan in USSR when he was running down the Keenan in Mexico City (kiddoos to Greg).

So I exchanged emails with both ELKs and the one at Dumbarton Oaks acknowledged being in the American Embassy in Moscow when Oswald was there, but said he had never been to Mexico City.

The Prof. of linguistics responded to my email inquiry if he had ever been to Mexico City with the quisical, "Why, did something horrible happen?" or something like that. (I have it filed away).

I then talked with him on the phone and exchanged more emails with him but he at first denied being Mexico City, other than the airport.

When asked about a motorcycle or motorbike, he said, "I don't drive a motorcycle," which is a little strange, as most people would have said, 'ride' a motorcycle, and being a linguist he should have been pretty precise.

In addition, someone later came up with a list of participants at a confernce of linguists in Mexico City that included Keenan, so he either forgot about that or lied about it.

I personally think one of these Ed Keenans could be the "Steve Keenan" who rode Oswald around Mexico City on his motorcycle and worked as a double-agent for the KGB and CIA.

And if not, the Quaker Keenan from Philadelphia who was in Mexico City with Oswald should be positively identified with a little more research.

Bill Kelly

(quote name='B. A. Copeland' date='09 April 2011 - 02:59 AM' timestamp='1302314379' post='223262')

I love topics such as these that focus on very well connected JFK murder involved individuals that are still alive and well. I honestly believe that it is a bit of both. They were truly unawares, perhaps a bit naive and complacent. Surely what many honest researchers know concerning the power elite now were not as well known by as many back then. It is very profound when you look back in hindsight nowadays...

(/quote)

Looking under the "rocks" uncovers even more interesting details, but the names never seem to change.

(quote)http://www.google.co...cda70c90b9696a8

Social register, summer

1955 - Snippet view

...Nantucket Mass de Mohrenschildt M" Phyllis (Phyllis Washington) Married at 11 E 75 Clucas Mr Chas (late Lowell M) Nov 14 '54...(/quote)

The 21 November 1963 obit. of Charles Clucas contains such details, leading to a surprising number of coincidences.

As I posted on the Ben Bradlee thread, I found that the widow of Charles Clucas in Nov., 1963, Celia de Gersdorff, was the niece of Ben Bradlee's mother's mother (Josephine de Gersdorff).

On the day before the JFK assassination, the obituary of Charles Clucas was published. Clucas's sudden death made Celia de Gersdorff, daughter of Ben Bradlee's mother's uncle George Bruno de Gersdorff, a widow.

Charles Clucas was divorced in 1959 from Baroness Phyllis De Mohrenschildt.

Just a few key words and names here, but they are associated and intriguingly intertwined and repetitive.: Clucas - DeMohrenschildt - de Gersdorff - Thomas Hoving, Bush - Devine - Macomber - Lindsay, Cogswell - New Yorker - Truax - McCloy, Paris in the 1950's - CIA - John Train - Plimpton - McCloy, Thomas Hoving - Walter Hoving - John V. Lindsay - Met. Museum of Art - William B. Macomber, Jr. - C. Douglas Dillon - Roswell Gilpatric, Albert B. Carter, Jr. - Lowell Clucas, Jr. - Munich - Thomas J. Devine - Charles Hubbard (step-son of Henry C. Brunie, best man of John McCloy)

(quote)http://www.google.co...709a90cde17f16d

Cholly Knickerbocker .

Palm Beach Daily News - Feb 1, 1959

NOTEBOOK A divorce on grounds ofintolerable cruelty habitual intemperance and misconduct obtained by chemical exec Charles Clucas from Mrs Phyllis Washington Clucas in Connecticut may sound pretty final.

However, Mrs. Clucas, the former Baroness de Mohrenschildt says it is only the beginning....

(she says she has letters and other evidence) concerning Mr. Clucas's interest in a very-much married New York lady socialite...

http://nyvagenealogy...969NYOBITS.html

Nov 21 1963 found in the NY Herald Tribune

Charles Clucas of Stockbridge, Mass. His wife Celia de Gersdorff Clucas & son of the late Lowel M & Frances T. Clucas of Stockbridge, Mass. Brother of Mrs Franklin Paddock - Lenox Mass, Lowell Clucas Jr of Menlo Park Ca, Thomas T.Sherwood of Lantana Fla. beloved father of Alice Graham Clucas of Greenwich Conn & Catherine Clucas of Stockbridge Mass....

(/quote)

(quote)http://www.nytimes.c...ces-clucas.html

Paid Notice: Deaths PADDOCK, FRANCES CLUCAS

Published: December 07, 1999

PADDOCK-Frances Clucas, 81, of Lenox, MA and Nevis, West Indies; active champion of environmental causes in Berkshire County; devoted wife of the late Franklin Kittredge Paddock, MD, died on December 5 in Nevis. Survived by her son Lowell Clucas Paddock of Frankfort, Germany; her daughter Christine Paddock Foster of Bedford Hills, NY; her brother Lowell Melcher Clucas of Monterey, CA; and her grandhildren Franklin Hastings Foster of New York, NY, and Charles Whitman Foster of Bedford Hills, NY. Memorial service will be held on Saturday, December 11, at 11 AM, at Trinity Church in Lenox, MA.(/quote)

So....from 1954, the brother-in-law of former CIA receptionist and ex-wife of George De Mohrenschildt, Phyllis (Wasserman) Washington was Lowell Melcher Clucas, Yale '39 and Skull and Bones.

The father of Charles and Lowell Melcher Clucas was also Lowell Melcher Clucas, Yale "Sheff" '05, the brother of Edward Welch Clucas, Yale '04.

Charles Clucas's uncle Edward married Bush family relation Frederica Bull, and the republican opera star is their granddaughter.:

(quote)http://www.google.co...cda70c90b9696a8

Five year record: class of nineteen hundred and five Sheffield ... - Page 41

Yale University. Sheffield Scientific School. Class of 1905 - 1910 - 232 pages - Free Google eBook - Read

Lowell Melcher Clucas Home address — New York City. Business address — First National Bank Building, New Haven, Conn. ... and Mary Baker (Welch) Clucas, who was born in Brooklyn, NY A brother, Edward Welch Clucas, graduated at Yale in ..

http://www.google.co...709a90cde17f16d

Marriage Announcement 1 -- No Title

New York Times - Aug 2, 1917

\ir. and \Irs. Frederic Bull of Green Acre Farm, Peapaclc, NJ, havo announced the engagement op their daughter, Miss Frederica Bull, to Edward \\- Clucas of .(/quote)

(quote)http://articles.lati...2_1_von-stade/7

Jenny Rebecca Elkus - Oh, the Life of the Diva : 20 years since ...

Mar 4, 1990 ... 20 years since her debut, Frederica von Stade finds herself at the ... She was named for her maternal grandmother, Frederica Clucas, ..

http://www.google.co...lient=firefox-a

All the best, George Bush: my life in letters and other writings - Google Books Result

George Bush - 1999 - Biography & Autobiography - 640 pages

I got a letter from F. Von Stade.* He was on a 14 day furlough at Aiken [sC] ... a family friend and uncle to the opera singer Frederica Von Stade. .

http://www.dallasnew...ederica-660.ece

By Alan Peppard

apeppard@dallasnews.com

Published 11 December 2009 02:35 AM

There must be an intimidation factor to hosting a birthday party for the grandest of Dallas grande dames, Nancy Hamon. It's hard to impress someone who once chartered the entire Sea Goddess ship for a Mediterranean cruise with her pals and who booked Louis Armstrong to entertain at one of her and her late husband, Jake's, parties.

But Monday night's 91st birthday dinner and private concert for Nancy at the Winspear Opera House met the mark.

Not only was the entertainer mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, she was accompanied by composer Jake Heggie, who wrote the role of Madeline for Frederica in his opera Last Acts.

It was also an opportunity to take Nancy's recent gift to the AT&T Performing Arts Center for a test run. The event was the first private performance held in the Winspear's Nancy B. Hamon Education and Recital Hall.

Only 150 friends were on hand for the evening hosted by Nancy's pals Margaret McDermott, Mary McDermott Cook, Barbara and Mark Lemmon, Roxanne and Gene Phillips, Caren Prothro and Marnie and Kern Wildenthal.

Among the exalted guests were philanthropists Margot and Ross Perot; SMU president Gerald Turner and his wife, Gail; Rosewood Hotels founder Caroline Rose Hunt with Fort Worth oilman Charles Simmons; Mary Noel Lamont, daughter of the late Texas icons Lupe and John Murchison, and her husband, Bill; as well as Dallas opera stalwarts Ellen and Don Winspear, son of opera house eponyms Margot and Bill Winspear; Joyce and Harvey Mitchell and Arlene and John Dayton.

After Frederica's recital, the black-tie guests retired to the Winspear's lobby for a Wolfgang Puck-catered dinner.(/quote)

(quote) Did the C.I.A. "Sheep Dip" and Orchestrate the Tale of the Patsy, Lee Harvey Oswald?

.....The connection between the Dulles family and the man who reported Stuart H. Johnson missing.

The Aiken, SC connection between Cass Canfield and family, and Aiken writer, George McMillan, who served with Canfield at the Office of War Information

Canfield and Dulles puit out the final book associated with Dulles, and probably others, I haven't looked yet.

Canfield escapes all of the scruitny his underling, Evan Thomas, attracted instead, from the media, authors, the CIA, and for example, Jim DiEugenio....(/quote)

Aiken, SC:

http://en.wikipedia...._South_Carolina

Population (2010) • Total 29,494

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Tom Scully

I just found this page:

http://www.deepinthe...ton-clucas.html

it says on this page that the first cousin of Phyllis Demohrenschildt's husband Charles Clucas was the widow of F Skiddy von Stade's brother , Charles. She was employed by the CIA as a secretary, working all over the world. She was the mother of opera singer, Frederica.

More here:

...................

....................

I just found the Clucas family history; it would have saved much time and effort to stumble upon this, sooner.

http://www.deepinthe...les-clucas.html

Charles Clucas 1848-1930 - Mary Baker Welch 1857-1930

.....Charles did not marry until he was 31 years old. He and Mary Baker Welch were married at St Paul's Episcopal Church in Brooklyn, New York on December 9, 1879. Mary was 22 years of age.....

Their two surviving sons, Edward and Lowell were both graduates of Yale University. It is more difficult to find schooling information about their daughter, Helen. But all three children “married well...” coming from other successful families on the East Coast, the Bull’s, the Tileston’s, and the Wood’s. The family was very involved in the New York City and Fairfield, Connecticut social scenes.

On this page http://www.deepinthe...ton-clucas.html ,

It says:

The mother of the opera singer was Sara Clucas, first cousin of Charles who was married to Phyllis Demohrenschildt, probably concurrently with Sara Clucas von Stade's employment as a secretary at the CIA, traveling to assignments, such as in Greece, according to her daughter the opera singer's autobiography. Sara married F. Skiddy von Stade's brother Charles in 1942 and he was a war fafataliity in 1945. Sara went to work for the CIA and did not remarry.

And on this page, at the very bottom, Sara's cousin, Charles and his wives, Phyllis DeMohrenschildt and Celia de Gersdorff are mentioned:

http://www.deepinthe...l-m-clucas.html

Edited by Tom Scully
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

I'd like to revive this discussion, now nine years old -- not by extolling Joan Mellen's book, "Farewell to Justice" (2005), but by criticising her position.

Although Mellen's book is a must-read, I think her conclusions merit criticism. In her opinion, she amassed enough data to name Thomas Edward Beckham along with Jack S. Martin and Fred Crisman as employees of the CIA. That equation is central to her conclusion that the CIA plotted JFK's murder, and I believe her conclusion is hasty.

During the famous JM/WAVE period of the Cold War, thugs and street people of many sorts were exploited by the CIA as "assets" to be tossed around as needed, e.g. Gerry Patrick Hemming, David Ferrie, Loran Hall, Larry Howard, Frank Sturgis, Johnny Roselli, even members of the Mafia as well as Lee Harvey Oswald.

This was unfortunate for history and politics because these thug-like elements were less than team players, and association with the CIA went to their heads. They would boast about it (when they could) and exploit the connection as best they could for personal aggrandisement. It went to their heads.

The culture of secrecy among CIA assets became a sub-culture in which crime could literally flourish -- even the crime of the murder of JFK.

Yet to blame the CIA for officially planning the JFK murder goes too far with the available evidence, in my opinion.

Joan Mellen showed that Fred Crisman and Thomas Edward Beckham were deeply involved in the JFK murder. This was something that the great Jim Garrison tried and failed to prove. We are greatly indebted to Joan Mellen for this advance in our knowledge.

However, Ms. Mellen also concluded that the CIA itself was behind the plot. That wasn't proven, in my opinion.

In his capable review above, Robert Howard rightly distinguished two plots -- the plot to murder JFK and the plot to cover it up. We can clearly find the official CIA knee-deep in the second plot. But we can clearly find the street-thugs alone in the first plot.

Now, this could lead to an unwarranted conclusion; that the street-thugs were "agents" of the CIA and only following orders. But this is to ignore the nature of street-thugs -- that they are essentiallfy disobedient, headstrong, self-serving and not team players.

It seems to me that we find right-wing radicals among those street thugs involved -- and I find Interpen members (as Joan Mellen does) as well as other Cuban Exile groups (as Joan Mellen does) as well as those suspected by Jim Garrison (as Joan Mellen does) to be front and center in the JFK murder.

The official CIA, it seems clear to me, was involved in the cover-up. Now -- one could argue that the cover-up makes the CIA accessories after the fact, or accessories before the fact. There seems to be no other choice here.

Joan Mellen concludes -- too hastily I believe -- that the CIA was at least an accessory before the fact. Yet I find reason to doubt that, and to more sharply divide the two separate plots.

In my view, given that groups like Interpen and other Cuban Exile paramilitary groups were involved, then the motivation for the JFK assassination was the eventual US invasion of Cuba and the further murder of Fidel Castro. The sheep-dip of Lee Harvey Oswald as a Communist (as Jim Garrison put it) leads us to that plausibility.

Yet the most blatant result of the cover-up -- i.e. the Warren Commission -- was the very opposite, namely, that the USA never invaded Cuba.

This geo-political result is decisive for my criticism of Joan Mellen's conclusion. The JFK murder plot could not have reached the highest levels of the US government as charged, otherwise, the full intent of the JFK murder would have been played out, and the USA would have invaded Cuba as revenge for the JFK murder.

On the contrary -- those who successfully conducted the first plot, to murder JFK -- were literally foiled by those who conducted the second plot to cover-up the crime!

But if the second-plotters were not accessories with only one goal -- to conceal and protect the first-plotters, then how are we to understand their fierce efforts? My answer is the same as that offered by LBJ and the Warren Commission, namely, National Security.

It would have been clear in the context of the politics of 1963/1964 that if the truth came out about the radical right-wing in the USA murdering JFK, that a Civil War could have been ignited. (Remember, these were also the days of the Civil Rights marches.)

Futhermore, a Civil War in the midst of a Cold War would have tempted the USSR to intervene, and thus World War III could have been a likely outcome.

Therefore, to prevent World War III, that is, in the interest of National Security, the second-plotters sealed the Truth of the murder of JFK for 75 years. (At least, this was the date that Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren placed on the sealing of the records. Note that this was a tacit promise to eventually reveal the Truth.)

My attempt at a Unified Field theory of JFK Research would accept all of the insights of Joan Mellen and her 2005 book, "Farewell to Justice," which is a glowing tribute to the brilliance and courage of NOLA DA Jim Garrison -- and yet dialectically retain a respect for the CIA, the Warren Commission and LBJ.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited by Paul Trejo
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

To put it in simpler terms, Joan Mellen's book falls into the same error as her mentor, Jim Garrison, namely, surveying these low-level CIA mules and flunkies (e.g. David Ferrie, Carlos Bringuier, Gerry Patrick Hemming, Loran Hall, Jack S. Martin, Fred Crisman and Thomas Edward Beckham) and jumping to the conclusion that the CIA high-command was in charge of all their antics.

While it is certainly true that the CIA high-command participated with the FBI and the Warren Commission to "cover up" their antics, this is not the same as showing that the CIA was in charge, or ordered them to commit their crimes.

Larry Hancock and Bill Simpich have, I believe, adequately demonstrated that CIA Agent David Morales was the highest level CIA Agent who was unquestionably involved in the murder of JFK. (Howard Hunt confessed only to being "on the sidelines".) Bill Simpich, further, seems to have proven beyond any doubt that a rift existed inside the CIA that found a mole (David Morales) impersonating Oswald in Mexico City, while the CIA high command was caught by surprise and started a mole-hunt.

The hard evidence actually suggested that the JFK murder was evidently plotted by David Morales, aided by Frank Sturgis, Johnny Roselli, and his loyal subordinates inside JM\WAVE. Along with these low-level mischief-makers we can find Cuban Exiles and their American supporters in arms, like Gerry Patrick Hemming, Loran Hall and Larry Howard.

When we consider plotters in New Orleans, however, we encounter a completely different chain of command, starting with Guy Banister over Ed Butler, Carlos Bringuier, David Ferrie, Clay Shaw, Fred Crisman, Thomas Edward Beckham and Lee Harvey Oswald.

When we consider plotters in Dallas, further, we encounter an entirely different chain of command, starting with Edwin Walker over his John Birch Society coven, Larrie Schmidt, Bernard Weissman, and radicals in the DPD who were also active in ultra-right-wing politics (NIC, WCC, KKK, etc.).

Like Jim Garrison, Joan Mellen fails to make a solid case for a CIA plot -- too many threads are left hanging.

It is more likely that CIA rogues became involved with an on-going, ultra-right-wing conspiracy to murder JFK.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited by Paul Trejo
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Larry Hancock and Bill Simpich have, I believe, adequately demonstrated that CIA Agent David Morales was the highest level CIA Agent who was unquestionably involved in the murder of JFK.

But David Morales was afraid of something, and then died. Even if his anxiety killed him, and not poison, his response was to a stimulus.

Under these considerations - is Morales the end user of the JFK assassination? Do we stop the buck here, as others have done with LBJ?

He may have enjoyed his work wholeheartedly, and agreed with its ends, in Vietnam, South America, and Texas, but his final ideations imply that it was work done for others.

Is Ruben Carbajal still alive? "He {Morales] only had two bosses - the president and the head of the CIA." Is Carbajal quoting Morales in the documentary linked to below?

Are rogue agents and right-wing organizations the end users of the JFK assassination? Out of ideology, hatred, revenge, self-preservation? Or do these motives climb higher up the organizational chain, and up the economic chain beyond formal organizations, in the case of Kennedy.

Edited by David Andrews
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Paul wrote: Larry Hancock and Bill Simpich have, I believe, adequately demonstrated that CIA Agent David Morales was the highest level CIA Agent who was unquestionably involved in the murder of JFK.

But David Morales was afraid of something, and then died. Even if his anxiety killed him, and not poison, his response was to a stimulus.

Under these considerations - is Morales the end user of the JFK assassination? Do we stop the buck here, as others have done with LBJ?

He may have enjoyed his work wholeheartedly, and agreed with its ends, in Vietnam, South America, and Texas, but his final ideations imply that it was work done for others.

Is Ruben Carbajal still alive? "He {Morales] only had two bosses - the president and the head of the CIA." Is Carbajal quoting Morales in the documentary linked to below?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzOs-jTOo-Q

Are rogue agents and right-wing organizations the end users of the JFK assassination? Out of ideology, hatred, revenge, self-preservation? Or do these motives climb higher up the organizational chain, and up the economic chain beyond formal organizations, in the case of Kennedy.

Well, David, that's an excellent video that you shared about CIA Agent David Morales, with a virtual live confession from him that he was closely involved with the murder of JFK.

The only other official CIA Agent on record who has confessed to participation in the JFK murder was Howard Hunt in his now-famous deathbed confession. Yet Hunt also claimed at that time that he was "only on the sidelines." As for his eye-witness account, we only know that Frank Sturgis approached Howard Hunt about the JFK plot, and invited Hunt to meet with David Morales.

It was at this meeting with David Morales that Howard Hunt learned of "details" that implicated LBJ and CIA Agent Cord Meyer -- however, this was only hear-say. Howard Hunt says that he declined to join the plot -- but he stayed "on the sidelines" which means that he would not report these plotters to the Justice Department, but would keep their secret. (Maybe Hunt would also make a few payoffs for them.)

So, all we really have inside the CIA -- by actual confession -- are David Morales and Howard Hunt.

It is highly probable that David Morales used low-level CIA assets underneath his command. There were many of them, especially from the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and their many American supporters, like Frank Sturgis, Johnny Roselli, John Martino, Gerry Patrick Hemming, Loran Hall and Larry Howard.

Then there are all those people named by Joan Mellen in her excellent book (following Jim Garrison) which identified many other people in the plot who confessed -- yet NONE of them were official CIA Agents. Instead, every single one of them was a low-level CIA asset -- a field flunky. Those low-level assets who confessed included Frank Sturgis, John Martino, Johnny Roselli, David Ferrie, Jack S. Martin, Gerry Patrick Hemming and Thomas Edward Beckham.

So, from my viewpoint, the *only* guaranteed official CIA Agents that were unquestionably involved in murdering JFK were David Morales and Howard Hunt. Everybody else was a low-level flunkie, a rabble of rabble-rousers.

Now, David, you would like to push the envelope and find more people inside the CIA, higher than David Morales, who were clearly involved in the plot to murder JFK. I would like this too. But I want hard evidence.

You point out that David Morales "was afraid of something, and then died." Our hard evidence from this is the word of his best friend, Ruben Carbajal, whose story we heard in that video you shared. In his opinion, David Morales didn't "die", but he was "murdered," and he was murdered because he "knew too much." Maybe, maybe not.

Granted, David Sánchez Morales (1925-1978) was only 53 when he died, yet he did live a particularly hard life in the military and in the undercover field in Latin America. He orchestrated the deaths of "thousands" of Latin American leftist activists, according to Larry Hancock. He was a man of action.

But was he murdered? Our only evidence is from his best friend, yet he only offers the all-too-common expression of grief when freinds say that their dear departed did not "die" but were "killed" by negligent doctors, nurses, enemies and so on. The evidence is paper thin.

If that is the evidence we have for building a case for a higher CIA officer than David Morales in the JFK murder, then I want more evidence.

Next, David, you ask if the buck stops with David Morales. I believe you make an excellent point that David Morales was a leader only over his direct subordinates -- and ultimately he obeyed orders for his entire career. I agree with you 100% on this point, David.

My guess is that David Morales was the highest level CIA Agent in the plot, but I agree with you that he was probably following orders. The only question then becomes: who gave those orders? So, David, in my theory, David Morales was not the ring-leader -- in my theory the ring-leader was outside of the CIA, and was a US civilian.

You ask, David: "Are rogue agents and right-wing organizations the end users of the JFK assassination?" My answer today has to be, "Yes." My starting point is the answer that Jack Ruby gave to Chief Justice Earl Warren on 7 June 1964, as follows:

------------------------------

Jack RUBY. There is an organization here, Chief Justice Warren...there is a John Birch Society right now in activity, and Edwin Walker is one of the top men of this organization -- take it for what it is worth, Chief Justice Warren...Don't register with you, does it?

Chief Justice WARREN. No; I don't understand that.

-------------------------------

What was the motivation of the JFK murderers? The John Birch Society was extremely clear in their literature -- that the following people were part of the Communist Conspiracy: FDR, Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Milton Eisenhower, JFK, RFK, along with John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles and so many more leaders of Washington DC that space forbids their listing here.

The John Birch Society truly believed this. They plainly implied that only by overthrowing the US Government could the Constitution be saved from godless Communism. They truly believed it.

People like Ex-General Edwin Walker, Congressman John Rousselot, Guy Banister, Harry Dean, Guy Gabaldon, David Ferrie, Fred Crisman and Jack S. Martin -- joined the John Birch Society and their radical program. Very likely they took it to the next level, being men of ACTION.

It's my belief that David Morales joined THEIR PLOT to murder JFK.

If memory serves me, Joan Mellen places David Morales with Guy Banister and Edwin Walker in Louisiana at a hotel owned by Carlos Marcello in July, 1963. THAT was the meeting in which David Morales received his orders to do his part to murder JFK.

That's my theory.

Some of these people hated JFK for his June 1963 support of Civil Rights -- some didn't. The one thing they all agreed upon, however, was that Cuba had to be taken back from the Communists to re-join the Free World -- at any cost. This is what got David Morales involved in the JBS/Minuteman underground plot to murder JFK (according to my theory).

I realize that I'm speaking contrary to the majority of JFK researchers after Jim Garrison who have tried to pin the JFK murder entirely on the CIA. However, following the chain of evidence, I think my case is becoming stronger, and the Garrison/Mellen case is becoming weaker.

The superb book by Bill Simpich, State Secret: Wiretapping in Mexico City, Double Agents, and the Framing of Lee Oswald (2014) which is available for free on the Mary Ferrell site, IMHO proved conclusively that the CIA didn't know who impersonated Lee Harvey Oswald in Mexico City (so they started a molehunt).

In my opinion, that's solid proof that the CIA high-command had no clue about what David Morales was up to. It was a secret plot. It was hatched in Dallas on Easter Sunday, 1963, was nurtured in Louisiana, was financed from *dozens* of sources, and ended up back in Dallas.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

<edit typos>

Edited by Paul Trejo
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now

×
×
  • Create New...