Last Hurrah for conspiracy theorists

[Michael Hogan]

Thanks to Treefrog for this:

Last Hurrah for conspiracy theorists

Steve Duin

The Oregonian,

Thursday, August 31, 2006

There are the anti-Castro Cuban connectors, the grassy-knoll fanatics, and the organized crime contingent. There are the Jim Garrison groupies and the Oliver Stone fan club, and the old men still mesmerized by Marilyn Monroe and the sorority of mistresses.

Whatever their connection to the assassination of John F. Kennedy, or their explanation for it, they all consider the house at 937 Memorial Avenue in Williamsport, Pa., their Valhalla . . . or, at the very least, its official library.

"If you are interested in these things," says Andy Winiarczyk, gatekeeper at the Last Hurrah Bookshop, "eventually you find your way to me."

Winiarczyk is a sympathetic ear and a kindred soul, and his shop is a legendary depository for books dealing with the Kennedy family, conspiracy theories and political assassinations. The three-story house is a block over -- and a bankroll removed -- from the aging and garish Victorians on Williamsport's Millionaires' Row, and just about every inch of floor space contains another pile of books begging to be shelved, sold or scrutinized.

There are more than 2,000 books on the Kennedy assassination and Winiarczyk believes in multiple copies. The demand is cyclical but rarely slack. "There are people who take this to heart and can't let go," he says.

"The conventional wisdom is that as boomers enter nursing homes, this (obsession) will die out."

Like the Warren Commission Report, conventional wisdom has its flaws.

As James Tague -- the bystander hit by a cement chip kicked up by one of the bullets on Nov. 22, 1963 -- says at his Kennedy memorabilia eBay store, the assassination "changed America from a society of trust to a society of mistrust."

And thanks to anxiety over Sept. 11, revelations about domestic eavesdropping, and the tortured cover story that justified the invasion of Iraq, that mistrust has only deepened in recent years, for all but the most gullible boosters of the Bush administration.

Winiarczyk opened the Last Hurrah in 1983, an outgrowth of his personal interest in Kennedy's death in Dallas. "I certainly believe there was a conspiracy to murder the president," he told me last week, sitting in the darkness on his back porch, one of his cats in my lap.

"I am also quite certain the people who planned it were 'rogue' elements of the United States intelligence community, and they were aided by anti-Castro Cubans and forces in the Mob. There were a number of people working in more than one group."

The best books on the subject, he says, include Sylvia Meagher's "Accessories After the Fact," the first book to dispassionately dissect the Warren Report; Josiah Thompson's "Six Seconds in Dallas"; and Peter Dale Scott's "Crime and Cover-up," which lays out the connections between the assassination and Watergate.

"One doesn't have to be part of the terminally paranoid to see them," Winiarczyk says.

He also has numerous copies of the Dallas newspapers from Nov. 22 and 23; the early editions report details that disappear later, he reasons, because they were terribly wrong or painfully inconvenient.

William Manchester famously argued long ago that so few people accept the simplest scenario about Kennedy's assassination -- that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone -- because they can't believe a nebbish like Oswald could destroy such a charismatic figure as Kennedy: Conspirators are necessary to balance the scales.

Forty years later, Winiarczyk and Last Hurrah are still in business because the scales of justice are in disrepair. As election results become increasingly suspicious, the oligarchy more entrenched, and distrust a more reasonable response, the Last Hurrah is a safe house for those who no longer accept the simple answers in order to make sense of the world.

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/s....xml&coll=7

[Mark Stapleton]

Thanks for posting that, Mike.

When journalists are describing CT'ers, I always detect a trace of patronising pity in their words. However, it's those who are unwilling or unable to face the unpleasant truth about events like JFK's murder who are deserving of pity. The naive and childish assumption that the Government and media always act in the interests of the people and that conspiracies don't really exist is truly pitiful.

[Sid Walker]

Thanks for posting that, Mike.

When journalists are describing CT'ers, I always detect a trace of patronising pity in their words. However, it's those who are unwilling or unable to face the unpleasant truth about events like JFK's murder who are deserving of pity. The naive and childish assumption that the Government and media always act in the interests of the people and that conspiracies don't really exist is truly pitiful.

Well said, Mark - although I'd be more inclined to use the word 'contempt'.

Talking heads who serve as reflexive conspiracy deniers treat their readers and viewers with contempt - and that's what they merit in return.

[Peter McGuire]

Thanks for posting that, Mike.

When journalists are describing CT'ers, I always detect a trace of patronising pity in their words. However, it's those who are unwilling or unable to face the unpleasant truth about events like JFK's murder who are deserving of pity. The naive and childish assumption that the Government and media always act in the interests of the people and that conspiracies don't really exist is truly pitiful.

CNN called the movie JFK as " spinning wild theories" about the execution when talking about the upcoming film about the assassination of current President Bush.

I too, wish I lived in the fairy tale world of LT denial, rather than knowing Kennedy was lured into an ambush by his own people. And that the operation was covered up by the use of the media who can not print or say anything other than the pre-arranged cover story.

If anyone else tried to frame someone with that backyard picture and insist there were no shots from the front with so much evidence proving this, they would be laughed at.

My only question at this point is WHY?

Was there a violation of National Security by Kennedy and he was deemed a threat? Possibly because of his contact with so many women, including an East German spy and numerous other , unknown women? Now this, perhaps is a wild theory, not the reason outlined in JFK.

But it isn't the "Why" CNN is attacking, they are saying Lee Bowers was mistaken, Jean Hill was nuts because she claimed she saw a dog in the car and umbrella man had a reason to be there and so forth.

In JFK and Vietnam by John M Newman , chapter two, Landsdale " Lone Wolf and Operater" Newman writes:

" By April 27 Landsdale knew his influence on Vietnam policy within the Kennedy administration was, for all practical purposes, finished. He goes on to say; For Landsdale, being removed from influence by Kennedy was a heartbreaking experience. Under these circumstances, then , it is perhaps not surprising that Landsdale wrote the first document urging a large U.S. troop commitment to Vietnam. He was embracing more powerful patrons, those who would have their way in the end."

Landsdale , who, with his deformed hand was photographed shortly after the murder walking away from three men who are known operatives of the CIA.

Wild Theory? I dont think so!

Edited September 6, 2006 by Peter McGuire