Waiting for the Great Leap Forward

[James Richards]

Newspaper stories from Feb 23, 1967 report that Hank's brother, Earl, asked Escambria County Solicitor, Carl Harper, to exhume Hank's body to determine exact cause of death. (Greg Parker)

Interesting to note that after this episode, a contract was put out on the life of Carl Harper. It was alleged to have originated with Kirksey McCord Nix from the Dixie Mafia (and the son of a judge) and Gary Elbert McDaniel was the one tasked with the job itself. The plan came unstuck when McDaniel was involved in a minor traffic accident and weapons, a map to Harper's house and details of his daily movements were found.

Nix was an interesting character and his criminal connections were extensive; including many from the Dallas underworld.

Nix below.

James

Edited May 29, 2006 by James Richards

[J. Raymond Carroll]

)

[Jack Ruby -

What is not a "maybe" is that he [Jack Ruby] was treated by Joly West after his arrest, and died of cancer after complaining about being injected with cancer cells. Experiments involving the injection of cancer cells were carried out at the Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital (Cancer by the Needle Newsweek, June 4, 1956)

"Waiting For the Great Leap Forward" - Billy Bragg

Pardon my ignorance, Greg, but can you tell us something about "Joly West" ?

[James Richards]

Ray,

If I can jump in here, Louis Joly West was a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Oklahoma Medical School. I also believe he was the head of the UCLA Psychiatry Department. He visited Ruby many times in prison and claimed he was psychotic and had paranoid delusions.

West was also a Government Attorney in the Patty Hearst trial.

Louis J. West below.

James

[J. Raymond Carroll]

Louis Joly West was a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Oklahoma Medical School. I also believe he was the head of the UCLA Psychiatry Department. He visited Ruby many times in prison and claimed he was psychotic and had paranoid delusions.

West was also a Government Attorney in the Patty Hearst trial.

James

James, much obliged indeed. I will google him tomorrow when I regain my strength. Was Jolie West both a psychiatrist and an attorney?

[Robert Howard]

Newspaper stories from Feb 23, 1967 report that Hank's brother, Earl, asked Escambria County Solicitor, Carl Harper, to exhume Hank's body to determine exact cause of death. This action of Earl's was riding on the back of the breaking news on the Garrison probe. Harper took a statement and promised to investigate. The same articles indicate that the police called it "an apparent suicide", but that the Coroner's verdict was accidental death.

Other tidbits include:

Wanda stating that her husband "was briefly employed by a man named Jack Carter" with Earl Killam adding that "Carter once roomed in the same Dallas boarding house as Oswald."

Hank Killam, at the time he died, was residing with his mother. She stated he "recieved a phone call at 4 am, March 17, 1964", and that "he dressed and left the house." She further indicated she had heard a car pull away, although Hank did not own a car. A half hour later, he was dead.

Do you know anything about 1967 investigation by Harper? Was Killam's body ever exhumed?

I am not familiar with the 1967 Harper investigation, do you have a first name, as I will look into it? I do not know if Killam's body was ever exhumed.

Edited May 29, 2006 by Robert Howard

[James Richards]

Louis Joly West was a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Oklahoma Medical School. I also believe he was the head of the UCLA Psychiatry Department. He visited Ruby many times in prison and claimed he was psychotic and had paranoid delusions.

West was also a Government Attorney in the Patty Hearst trial.

James

James, much obliged indeed. I will google him tomorrow when I regain my strength. Was Jolie West both a psychiatrist and an attorney?

Ray,

No, he wasn't an attorney. My apologies for that incorrect piece of information. I misread my notes which were poorly arranged. I will endeavor to be more diligent in the future.

Cheers,

James

[Greg Parker]

Newspaper stories from Feb 23, 1967 report that Hank's brother, Earl, asked Escambria County Solicitor, Carl Harper, to exhume Hank's body to determine exact cause of death. This action of Earl's was riding on the back of the breaking news on the Garrison probe. Harper took a statement and promised to investigate. The same articles indicate that the police called it "an apparent suicide", but that the Coroner's verdict was accidental death.

Other tidbits include:

Wanda stating that her husband "was briefly employed by a man named Jack Carter" with Earl Killam adding that "Carter once roomed in the same Dallas boarding house as Oswald."

Hank Killam, at the time he died, was residing with his mother. She stated he "recieved a phone call at 4 am, March 17, 1964", and that "he dressed and left the house." She further indicated she had heard a car pull away, although Hank did not own a car. A half hour later, he was dead.

Do you know anything about 1967 investigation by Harper? Was Killam's body ever exhumed?

I am not familiar with the 1967 Harper investigation, do you have a first name, as I will look into it? I do not know if Killam's body was ever exhumed.

Robert, it's Carl harper.

[James Richards]

Good stuff, Greg.

As a matter of interest, John Geddie wrote an interesting piece concerning Norman Hooten who was Ruby's jailer. Hooten was to be the recipient of several personal items bequeathed to him by Ruby in a jail-drawn will. This was of course being contested.

Louis J. West was called by the parties opposited to Hooten's claims and testified that he had examined Ruby six times during 1964 and 1965.

Also of interest, during the probate court hearing, Hooten made the claim that Jack Ruby said that after his own death, there would be evidence of a conspiracy brought out that would link him with the assassination. Ruby also said that it was not true. This prediction was made the same day that newspapers published stories that Garrison has officially named Jack Ruby as being connected with the conspiracy.

FWIW.

James

[Greg Parker]

Good stuff, Greg.

As a matter of interest, John Geddie wrote an interesting piece concerning Norman Hooten who was Ruby's jailer. Hooten was to be the recipient of several personal items bequeathed to him by Ruby in a jail-drawn will. This was of course being contested.

Louis J. West was called by the parties opposited to Hooten's claims and testified that he had examined Ruby six times during 1964 and 1965.

Also of interest, during the probate court hearing, Hooten made the claim that Jack Ruby said that after his own death, there would be evidence of a conspiracy brought out that would link him with the assassination. Ruby also said that it was not true. This prediction was made the same day that newspapers published stories that Garrison has officially named Jack Ruby as being connected with the conspiracy.

FWIW.

James

Thanks James. If West testified to 6 examinations, only 3 were conducted in Ruby's prison cell according to records. You know what doctors are like... he probably counted saying hello as a "consultation", or else 3 visits were not recorded for whatever reason.

Ruby's lawyers claimed Ruby's downhill mental slide was a result of the verdict at the murder trial. However, it really seems to have started to deepen only after giving his WC testimony. Within two weeks of his testimony, and only days before the request for a sanity hearing, Ruby tried to kill himself by running head-first into his cell wall. I think some of the things he said to Warren indicated he was sussing out just how much he could say... how much interest Warren would have in the truth...

More on West: he was a "profiler" before the term was invented, giving his profile for the King assassin. Can it be any surprise that the person he described would turn out to be an excellent match for James earl Ray?

West was a firm believer in the role of genes in psychological make-up to the point where he often sounded like a Eugenicist. In fact, he was closely associated with Margaret Singer, a famed advocate of Eugenics.

In the '70s he was part of a Reagan plan to stop violence by firstly identifying those who may become prone to it, then treating them by various means including chemical castration, psychosurgury and experimental drugs.

The release of the movie "A Colckwork Orange" seems to have played a role in stopping this plan going ahead.

[Robert Howard]

Speaking of Billy Bragg, decades ago, I used to listen to a BBC show, on shortwave radio and heard Billy Bragg's Rumours of War.

Before I post my Ruth and Michael Paine info, I thought I would include the lyrics.....

There was soldiers marching on the Common today

They were there again this evening

They paced up and down like sea birds on the ground

Before the storm clouds gathering

I must buy whatever tinned food is left on the shelves

They're testing the air raid sirens

They've filled up the blood banks and emptied the beds

At the hospital and he asylum

Saw a man build a shelter in his garden today

As we stood there idly chatting

He said, "No, no, I don't think war will come"

Yet still, he carried on digging

Everything in my life that I love

Could be swept away without warning

Yet the birds still sing and the church bells ring

And the sun came up this morning

Life goes on as it did before

As the country drifts slowly to war

Rumours of War - Billy Bragg

I decided to post this here for Greg, even though it may have been more appropriate

to post it in the obvious place.....

Mary Ferrell's site has just created a new section of JFK Files which include a rather large number

of FBI files on Michael and Ruth Paine.

See

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/docset/getList.do?docSetId=1937

There are eight pages of documents, with approximately 50 documents on each page.

Most are dated, as you would imagine from 1963 and 1964, with a few HSCA administrative files

here and there.

Hitherto unknown, at least to me is information contained in, at least one file,originating from Mason P. Smith and

Thomas F. Lewis, in Philadelphia, Pa., which reveals that Michael served in the Korean War period; 7-15-1952 to 4-28-1954

[The RIF page says the document is from 1954, but actually it appears it is from 1964]

See

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=145619

After that, Michael was in the U S Army Reserves, from 4-29-1954 to 7-14-1960.

On that same date, the State Department's "White" sent or wrote a letter to Marguerite Oswald, regarding Lee Oswald,

as a point of reference.

See CD 1122

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=11518&relPageId=5

Other topics are also of interest, the document mentions Arthur Young's interest in

Extra Sensory Perception and that he believes there is another force in the universe like electricity, or similar, that

has not yet been tapped;

There are the obligatory references to the Johnson Group and the Forrest Group's splitting off from one another,

plus some rather interesting, and leading comments by Allen Dulles, which Allen Dulles recieved from "his girlfriend,"

dated 12-2-1963, in which he alleges that 'I have also heard but not from his mother, that Michael had homosexual

tendencies but did marry and have children."

There is also clarification that Sylvia Ludlow Hyde-Hoke was a personnel research technician in the U.S. Air-Force.

Not an insignificant amount of information to be contained in just one file.

If there is one question that could be answered, in my part of the universe, it would be

whether the Paine and Oswald families both had members who served as FBI informants to monitor activities

of other family members, and other families, whom J Edgar Hoover deemed security risks.

if the answer is yes, it would go without saying that such a circumstance would easily lend itself, to the informants themselves being

at risk for being setup if extenuating circumstances ever took place, of course, that would depend on whether one would define

the assassination of a President, as qualifying as such a circumstance.