E. Grant Stockdale

[John Simkin]

The Tuscan Daily Citizen (3rd December, 1963)

The last conversation of former U. S. Ambassador to Ireland Grant Stockdale before he plunged to death from his office window yesterday was, about how he cried when his close friend John F. Kennedy was killed, a secretary said.

Detectives tentatively recorded the death - as a suicide and said Stockdale had been in almost constant despondency since the assassination of the President Nov. 22.

Mrs. Mary Ruth Hauser, who works in an office across the hall from Stockdale's on the 13th floor of a downtown building, said she talked with Stockdale a few minutes before he fell from the window of his office. "He told me he was in his office when his wife called to tell him the President had been shot. He said he just got down on his knees and prayed," Mrs. Hauser said. "He said he was still on his knees when the phone started ringing with news that Kennedy was dead. But he said he couldn't talk, that all he could do was blubber."

The secretary said it was only minutes later that she heard "this terrible thud. Stockdale fell eight stories to his death, to the roof of a five-story building. Police made, a preliminary ruling of suicide pending result of an autopsy and further investigation.

Many of Stockdale's friends reported he had been despondent over the death of Kennedy, who had visited Stockdale's Coral Gables home before becoming president and whom Stockdale liked to call "the chief."

Acquaintances also indicated that Stockdale, who served as Kennedy's ambassador to Ireland for 14 months in 1961 and 1962, had recently experienced some financial reverses.

The Troy Times (3rd December, 1963) mainly repeated what was said in the Bridgeport Telegram and The Tuscan Daily Citizen. However, it did include the following:

In a recent newspaper interview, Stockdale talked about how much money it had cost him to serve as ambassador to President Kennedy's ancestral nation.

He said that when he quit the job to return to his real estate business, he found that the market had declined badly. And he spoke of the great expense of a large family. He had two sons and three daughters.

Mrs. Stockdale said her husband had told her "when the President died, something within me died too." She and friend said Stockdale had been greatly depressed since the assassinaion.

[John Simkin]

Eugene A. Hancock and George Smathers carried Grant Stockdale's coffin at his funeral. The local newspaper reported that Hancock was a close business associate of Stockdale. In fact, the three men were co-owners of Automatic Vending. A few weeks later Hancock appeared before the committee looking at the Bobby Baker scandal.

Montana Standard-Post (15th January 1964)

A Miami, Fla., vending machine operator testified Tuesday that former Senate aide Robert G. Baker never used influence to

help him obtain a contract.

Eugene A. Hancock, former president of Serv-U Corp., told the Senate Rules Committee that Baker plans to appear before

the committee and challenge testimony that he accepted $5,600 for helping another operator land a contract. The testimony concerning the $5,600 was given Monday by Ralph L. Hill, former president of the Capitol Vending Co., Inc., of Washington. Hill's differences with Baker, as set forth in a $300,000 lawsuit, led to the current investigation into Baker's outside business activities while he was secretary to the Senate Democratic majority.

Hancock said he discussed the inquiry with Baker at dinner Monday night and, "He said he was coming down here and go

against Mr. Hill." The committee, which is seeking to determine whether Baker engaged in any business dealings that conflicted with his Senate duties or involved other improprieties, plans to call him as a windup witness. Baker resigned under fire last Oct, 7 after Hill accused him of conspiring to force Hill out of a profitable vending machine franchise.

Chairman B. Everett Jordan, D-N.C., said the group has no intention of calling Sen. George A. Smathcrs, D-Fla., who was

shown Monday to have let Baker in on a profitable Florida real estate investment. "We don't need him - we're not investigating senators," Jordan said when newsmen asked if Smathers would be called.

Jordan said the committee's assignment is to investigate Senate employes, past and present, and he said Smathers is not

an employe of the Senate.

L. P. McLendon, the committee's chief counsel, said in answer to earlier questions that the Florida transaction would

be invesligated thoroughly.

Smathers said in a statement that he invited a former aide, Scott ]. Peek, and Baker to buy shares in the Florida land venture for $1,500 each. The investments have brought them more than $7,000 over the past seven years, Smathers said. Aides of Smathers said that the real estate deal involved a tract of land in Orange County, near Maitland, Fla.

Hancock, Tuesday's only witness, testified he was president of Serv-U "only in name" and knew little about its affairs. He

said Baker's law partner, Ernest C. Tucker, was secretary and board chairman and controlled the company's bank account.

Hancock Insisted he still has no personal knowledge that Baker was a big stockholder in the firm.

Hancock swore he never gave Baker any money, and denied that Baker was to share in commissions Hancock expected

from a contract with a Washington area defense plant.

[Jeanie Dean]

Ignore This Post - No Entry Error

I am currently researching the relationship between John F. Kennedy, Edward Grant Stockdale and George Smathers. I would be very interested if members have any information on Stockdale and Smathers.

Stockdale and Smathers (member of the Senate for Florida) formed a company, Automatic Vending, that was involved in providing vending machines to government institutions.

Stockdale was head of the State Democratic Party committee to elect John F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential campaign.

In March, 1961, President Kennedy appointed Stockdale as Ambassador to Ireland. Later that year Automatic Vending was sued for improper actions in getting a contract at Aerodex but the suit was eventually dismissed.

Stockdale resigned as ambassador in July, 1962. He returned to Miami where he became consultant to another vending machine company which had contracts at Cape Canavaral.

According to William Torbitt (Nonmenclature of an Assassination Cabal ), Stockdale was involved with Bobby Baker, Fred Black and mobsters Ed Levenson and Benny Sigelbaum in a company called Serve-U-Corporation. Established in 1962, the company provided vending machines for companies working on federally granted programs. The machines were manufactured by a company secretly owned by Sam Giancana and other mobsters based in Chicago.

In 1963 rumours began circulating that Bobby Baker and Fred Black were involved in corrupt activities. Eventually Baker and Black were imprisoned for their actions. Some researchers have claimed that there was a link between this scandal and the assassination of JFK (Evelyn Lincoln later claimed that in November, 1963, Kennedy decided that because of the emerging Bobby Baker scandal he was going to drop Lyndon B. Johnson as his running mate in the 1964 election. Kennedy told Lincoln that he was going to replace Johnson with George Smathers).

Edward Grant Stockdale died on 2nd December, 1963 when he fell (or was pushed) from his office on the thirteenth story of the Dupont Building in Miami. Stockdale did not leave a suicide note but It was claimed that he had become depressed as a result of the death of John F. Kennedy.

George Smathers resigned from the Senate in 1968. According to the Biographical Directory of Congress website George Smathers is still alive. Has anyone interviewed him about these issues? Does anyone know anything about the possible business relationship between Smathers, Stockdale, Baker and Black?

Edited April 12, 2010 by Jeanie Dean

[Jeanie Dean]

Grant's Stockdale's son Lee announced Screenplay about his father and JFK

I am currently researching the relationship between John F. Kennedy, Edward Grant Stockdale and George Smathers. I would be very interested if members have any information on Stockdale and Smathers. end quote}

Grant Stockdale's murder in 1963 seems important in the JFK assassination although the reasons are obscure. He may be the first of the long list of material witnesses who suffered an early death by their knowledge of some fact or detail related to the assassination.

Lee Stockdale the son of Grant Stockdale, lawyer, retired US Army Colonel, and author has written a screenplay about JFK and Grant Stockdale called Ask Not

I came across this press release from Grant Stockdales' son Lee Stockdale announcing his screenplay about his father's death. It might add to this discussion.

Jeanie

From: Lee Stockdale.Com --- http://leestockdale.com/newsUpdates.html

Ask Not is the untold story of Grant Stockdale's death, on December 2, 1963, ten days after JFK's assassination.

Ask Not, a screenplay, is available for development. Interested parties contact the author.

The Omega watch which Stockdale gave JFK, and which JFK wore during the Inauguration, was recently sold at auction for $350,000.00.

The Omega Company purchased the watch.

Personal Biography -- Lee Stockdale studied creative writing at Antioch College and the University of Washington (BA, English). He enlisted in the Army as a military policeman and went to Germany before returning to the states to complete officer candidate, airborne, and infantry training. Newly married, he returned to Germany as a platoon leader in the Berlin Brigade.

He left active duty, received his law degree from Case Western Reserve University, and practiced civil litigation in a Miami law firm until, on August 22, 1992, Hurricane Andrew destroyed their home. Lee returned to active duty as a judge advocate general -- JAG -- officer. He served at the Pentagon and in various other assignments to include duty in Afghanistan. Colonel Stockdale retired from the Army in 2007.

Works in addition to Murder of Law include Ask Not, a screenplay based on the friendship between his father and JFK.

Lee and his wife, Gail, have five children and a boxer. They make their home in the North Carolina mountains.

Edited April 12, 2010 by Jeanie Dean

[John Simkin]

The daughter of William Yarrington, who was a student at the University of Miami with Grant Stockdale, has sent me this photograph dated January, 1938. The man with Stockdale is Campbell Gillespie.