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A balanced look at Joan Mellen's book: AFTJ


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A Farewell to Justice -- A Review

by Jim DiEugenio

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At times [Mellen] adapts an omniscient viewpoint. On page 98, she has Banister employee Bill Nitschke looking at a picture of a Cuban who he identifies as Manuel [Garcia] Gonzalez. [Whom Garrison thought was "The Mexican".] She then writes, "He was in fact looking at a photograph of longtime CIA operative David Sanchez Morales." The problems here are that 1) She does not reference the photo 2) She does not footnote the conversation so we can crosscheck it 3) She does not indicate the evidence for her being right and Garrison being wrong about the photo identification 4) Morales never came up in the Garrison inquiry. (Morales' nickname, "El Indio," did come up but we do not know that it applied to Morales in this context, or if the photo was of him.) Perhaps the assertion is correct, but it would need more backup than she provides.

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Posted with permission (by Jim's former co-writer Lisa Pease)

Dawn

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[emphasis added by T. Graves]

I just now came across the above.

It's interesting to me because I believe I've located David Sanchez Morales, in the 8/09/63 Jim Doyle film, monitoring Oswald in New Orleans.

Could Garrison have confused Gonzalez's nickname "El Toro" for Morales' moniker "El Indio"?

At one point in his WC testimony, Dean Andrews said "The Mexican" who had accompanied Oswald to Andrew's office was about the same height as Oswald.

I've read somewhere that Oswald was 5' 9.5"

Morales was 5' 10" ...

Andrews also said that "The Mexican" weighed 160 - 165 pounds and was "stocky." The problem is, 5' 10" and 160 - 165 pounds is not "stocky." It's pretty darn average. But 220 pounds on a 5' 9" - 5' 10" frame is very "stocky."

Morales weighed 220 pounds in 1961, when he was 36 years old ...

https://www.maryferr...geId=2&tab=page

We know that Andrews gave wildlyvarying descriptions of "Clay Bertrand," so we know he was not averse to lying under oath.

In order to protect his own life, I think Andrews lied about "The Mexican's" age ("around 26, hard to say") and weight ("160 to 165 pounds"), but was telling the truth about his height (around 5' 9" - 5' 10").

I seriously doubt that Mellen made up the story about Nitschke's looking at a photo of Morales (which Garrison was apparently showing to him). It would be nice to know what Mellen's source of information was on this.

bumped

Edited by Thomas Graves
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Interesting thread - thanks for bringing it back. Joan is indeed confusing. Such a good speech in NYC ending with such bad information. I can see that you are digging up whatever you can unearth about Morales, a person of extreme interest. I hope we see some of the so far hidden documents on Joannides. I suspect he is a missing link in the story.

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