Guest Stephen Turner Posted March 8, 2006 Share Posted March 8, 2006 Found in the archives of the Cambridge evening news, March 1981. As John F Kennedy was chauffeured into downtown Dallas, a telephone call was made to the Cambridge News. The anonymous caller gave a reporter the cryptic message. " Call the American embassy in London for some big news" and rang off, 25 minutes before the Worlds most powerful man was shot. At least thats what happened according to the text of a telegram attributed to the CIA, one of 25,000 items now released under America's freedom of information act." Nobody that I talked to at the paper now remembers this incident. FWIW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Stephen Turner Posted March 8, 2006 Share Posted March 8, 2006 i have just come off a phone call to a guy who was a sub editor of the News in the 1960's. He claimed that this was a well known piece of office lore during his time there, and that it was rumoured that the call was not as cryptic as later made out, and actually mentioned Kennedy and danger, but was quickly dropped once LHO was named as the lone assassin. He cant, unfortunately, remember the name of the reporter who took the call. I think this has all the makings of an urban legend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Ecker Posted March 9, 2006 Share Posted March 9, 2006 There's a page on my website with text of the CIA cable. The reporter who took the call is referred to as "the senior reporter," whoever that might have been. Here's the link: http://www.hobrad.com/cambridg.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Stephen Turner Posted March 9, 2006 Share Posted March 9, 2006 There's a page on my website with text of the CIA cable. The reporter who took the call is referred to as "the senior reporter," whoever that might have been. Here's the link:http://www.hobrad.com/cambridg.htm Ron, thanks for that. I will see if I cant find the reporters name, and if he is still with us, contact him. Im just surprised that the peerless Mr Richards hasnt a photo of the "senior reporter" actually taking the call. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Francesca Akhtar Posted March 9, 2006 Share Posted March 9, 2006 Hi all, thanks you two for the info on this - I had not heard of this incident before , am always interested in any British stories, connections etc to the case. It would be great Stephne, if you could find out more about this and track the reporter down. Keep us posted! regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Stephen Turner Posted March 9, 2006 Share Posted March 9, 2006 Hi all, thanks you two for the info on this - I had not heard of this incident before , am always interested in any British stories, connections etc to the case. It would be great Stephne, if you could find out more about this and track the reporter down. Keep us posted! regards Hi Francesca, I have a couple of contacts at the Evening news (made during my union organisor days) who may be able to help. Cambridge itself was, and remains, the main recruiting ground for British espionage, MI5, MI6, etc, and if any British city has a connection to Kennedys assassination, it wouldnt surprise me to know that I live there.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest John Gillespie Posted March 9, 2006 Share Posted March 9, 2006 I think this has all the makings of an urban legend. ...or urban legerdemain? JG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Stephen Turner Posted March 23, 2006 Share Posted March 23, 2006 Hi all, thanks you two for the info on this - I had not heard of this incident before , am always interested in any British stories, connections etc to the case. It would be great Stephne, if you could find out more about this and track the reporter down. Keep us posted! regards Francesca, afraid I have drawn a blank. No-one seems to know who this "senior reporter" was. Guess we will have to file this under interesting, but unconfirmed, yet another Kennedy legend. Steve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher T. George Posted March 23, 2006 Share Posted March 23, 2006 There's a page on my website with text of the CIA cable. The reporter who took the call is referred to as "the senior reporter," whoever that might have been. Here's the link:http://www.hobrad.com/cambridg.htm Hi Ron For some reason when I call up the URL that you cite, I don't see the text of the cable. Can you help? I am also wondering if possibly the mystery of the prescient phone call might be explained by someone making a mistake in the time difference between Cambridge, UK, and Texas. Just a thought. We tend to forget that communications were more primitive back then and instant satellite communication etc was just starting to come in (Telstar able to beam the first transatlantic images was launched the prior year, 1962, a sensation at the time). Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Ecker Posted March 23, 2006 Share Posted March 23, 2006 Chris, Do you mean that the link doesn't work? It's working okay now. The text is shown for paragraphs 2 and 3 of the cable. The first page of the cable (containing paragraph 1) was not included in the sources, so I don't know what's on it. Ron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher T. George Posted March 23, 2006 Share Posted March 23, 2006 (edited) Chris,Do you mean that the link doesn't work? It's working okay now. The text is shown for paragraphs 2 and 3 of the cable. The first page of the cable (containing paragraph 1) was not included in the sources, so I don't know what's on it. Ron Hi Ron Okay I have it now. I misread what you said at the top of the page and was looking for a cable "in all caps" and maybe a photograph of the original document. Presumably the "Dr. Ward case" referred to is the supposed suicide of osteopath Dr. Stephen Ward, of the Profumo affair, who took a fatal dose of sleeping pills on July 31, 1963, the last day of his trial at the Old Bailey for living on immoral earnings, dying three days later on August 3. Conspiracists say he was murdered and may have been a Russian spy. Thanks Chris Edited March 23, 2006 by Christopher T. George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Ecker Posted March 23, 2006 Share Posted March 23, 2006 I would include a photo of the original document if I had a scanner. It's reproduced in Michael Eddowes's book The Oswald File (p. 228). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher T. George Posted March 24, 2006 Share Posted March 24, 2006 I would include a photo of the original document if I had a scanner. It's reproduced in Michael Eddowes's book The Oswald File (p. 228). Thanks for the reference, Ron. I will check it out. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mathias Baumann Posted October 29, 2017 Share Posted October 29, 2017 (edited) http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/soviet-agent-tip-news-john-13818429 Quote Mr Eddowes, who died in 1992, told the News in 1981 that he was convinced the document was genuine, and that the caller was a British-born Soviet agent, Albert Osborne – who two months before the killing had been with Lee Harvey Oswald, the man charged with murdering Kennedy. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5026495/Shocking-JFK-confession-Soviet-agent-Grimsby.html Quote The suspected Soviet spy had befriended Oswald while on a bus to Mexico two months before the assassination - but insisted to relatives that his 'conscience is clear'. Edited October 29, 2017 by Mathias Baumann more information Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Brancato Posted October 29, 2017 Share Posted October 29, 2017 Wow that is weird. I've never heard the mysterious Albert Osborne referred to as a Soviet agent. What do you make of that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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