"Dear mes McCor 99 by Paul ICrassner

A correspondence.between our man and the Watergate conspirator, in which legal threats are bandied about and Watergate, the JFK assassination, the Bay of Pigs, Chappaquiddick and Charlie Manson find themselves in the same strange bed.

"And you may see me tonight elsewhere in that issue of The Washington, D.C. a journalism award with an illegal smile . . . " Realist. was presented to New York Times —John Prine Your statement in that issue correspondent. Homer Bigart. He is alleging that the 4 Miami men mentioned in the Pentagon Papers as "The exact composition of the Involved in Watergate were Involved having originally been guilty of passing secret government does change In the IF. Kennedy assassination is along the misinformation of CIA press from hour to hour, and all this also untrue. They were nowhere near briefings from Vietnam. But if we can without the benefit of elections Dallas nor in France as you have embrace young veterans who have and without benefit of anything alleged, have witnesses ds to their committed crimes against humanity, so gross as being fired or having whereabouts on the dates alleged, certainly an establishment reporter is some transgression proved. You and, as I, had no involvement worth forgiving. can be removed from that access ..whatfaccialbALE-Kaanady After the award-presentation, there literally by having the wrong .11.1Egainatjail-cansPiracX--Your article was a panel on Watergate. I posed this expression on your face In the is as vicious as any article can question: "Do yOu think it's just a course of receiving a briefing from possibly be with the statements and coincidence that James McCord's your boss. He can decide suddenly inferences carried that these men attorney, Bernard Fensterwald, is also that you may be getting scruples." were a part of a conspiracy to dieector of the Committee to Investigate — murder a President. Assassinations?" There was no You may rest assured that I will satisfactory reply. Months later I wrote "Freedom's lust another word for carry through to completion with the and asked Fensterwald himself, nothin' left to lose . . . " libel suit on this matter. Copies of enclosing a few issues of The Realist, -Janis. Joplin this letter are going to each of the including the one which offends, ou. men from Miami, and their lawyer. On October 5, he wrote back: * * * . You could have contacted me, or On November 10, 1973 convicted my attorney to try to verify your Dear Mr. Krassner: Watergate conspirator James McCord story, prior to publication. You did I have your letter of October 2 and sent the following to me on his neither. thank you very much for the personal stationery: [signed] lames W. McCord, Jr: enclosures which I look forward to reading . . . This Is to place Mae Brussell, Paul As to my representation of lames Krassner, and The Realist . . . on , On December 7, I sent the following McCord, it may not be complete legal notice that a civil suit for libel is response: coincidence that I both represent being filed against each of you for him and act as an officer of the the article by Mae Brussell on page Dear James McCord, Committee to Investigate Assassina- 13-31 of The Realist No. 95. The tions. I believe that McCord settled statements are libelous, untrue, and Several years ago I stood with other upon me as his attorney because, for malicious on page 14 under "5. 1963 anti-war protestors sticking flowers into better or worse, I have earned the assassination of President Kennedy" the barrels of soldiers' rifles and reputation of a hard-nosed Washing- pertaining to the writer, and untrue chanting "Join us.".Last spring at the ton lawyer who does not shy away statements regarding him appear A.J. Liebling Counter-Convention in from head-on battles with the federal Crawdaddy M cCo G g Coy! oTARcy government. For whatever it may be communication from the Weather Watson's trial, Bugliosi had to convince worth, I did not meet McCord until Underground which I wrote myself. the jury that he wasn't a zombie at all. March 1973, and I have never had However, I didn't hear from my old The judge wouldn'.t allow the jury to any connection whatsoever with the friends as•a result of that practical hoax. hear about this schizophrenic approach Central Intelligence Agency. More recently, after the final World to justice. Looking forward to meeting you Series game, black baseball star Reggie What never came out was that at the November convention, and Jackson revealed on TV that he had Manson and Watson had been again, with thanks, I am been receiving threats against his life meeting with a representative of Navy Sincerely yours, from the Weather Underground. This Intelligence, posing as a artist, [signed] Bud Fensterwald made no sense except to perpetuate the who provided the dope and the government's strategy of divide and Helter-Skelter scenario. The Rand conquer. The same applies to a long Your previous attorney, Gerald Alch, • Corporation and the Hudson Institute testified to the Senate Committee: letter supposedly from Weatherperson had extrapolated on the implications of Jane Alpert in Ms. Magazine. But if a spreading counter-culture, away from Mr. McCord was extremely upset Howard Hunt can forge a cable to imply the nuclear family unit upon which the over what he believed to be unfair that President Kennedy was behind the entire inhumane economic system is newspaper coverage of his dis- based. When Tim Leary was sent to closures. He kept smashing his fist on Folsom Prison, they put him in solitary my suitcase. At this point, Mr. confinement in a cell next to Charlie Fensterwald said to Mr. McCord, Manson, who said to Leary: "They took "The reporters have been asking me you off the streets so that I could whether or not you or I had ever had continue with your work." any past relationship. I told him that In terms of an overall continuing we had." motivation, then, the Manson case can At this point, Mr. McCord looked be seen as a missing link-between the up with a surprised expression. Mr. assassination of President Kennedy and Fensterwald said, "Well, after all, the Watergate iceberg. Underthe you have in the past submitted to me heading "Knowledge Omitted from the checks which were donations to the Campus," Mae Brussell wrote in the first Committee for the Investigation of issue of her Conspiracy Newsletter the Assassination of the President." which I published in The Realist: Mr. McCord smiled 'and said,• "Oh, yeah, that's right." Clandestine assignments are composed of a combination of acts At any rate; Fensterwald has been a whose main ingredients are secrecy guest at the home of Mae Brussell, and lies. Secrecy is necessary because where they exchanged assassination most of the assignments and methods data. For you to call her article are illegal. The operations, when "vicious" is a'transparent ploy. Mae is discovered, are covered by lies. the most responsible researcher I've ever The patterns of illegal, criminal met, and the most compassionate spy operations, with, certain agents human being. Those two qualities have reappearing In many of the same guided her in a decade of seeking the assignments, become more com- truth about political assassinations. A plicated every day. majority of the American people believe that there was a conspiracy behind the She proceeded to list some murder. of President Kennedy, but our examples-1. 1954 assassination of children learn in school that it was a President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman, Krassner: "Instead of single assassin. That's not education. It's Guatemala; 2. Richard Nixon, 4th propaganda. suing me why don't you Crisis, Latin American tour, cold war Your justification of police-state expose .the game plan to propaganda; 3. U-2 flight over USSR, to surveillance has been secret intelligence declare martial law using sabotage summit conference for cold reports to which you had daily access, war; 4. Bay of Pigs; 5. 1963 assassina- the energy crisis as an about planned violence by the tion of President Kennedy; 6. Plans to movement, but the frightening excuse?" assassinate the President of Panama in possibility is that you may not even be 1971; 7. ITT, CIA, Chile and Watergate; aware that those secrets are lies. For assassination of Diem, and if Gore Vidal 8. Ellsberg, Dr. Fielding robbery—and example, Daniel Ellsberg mentions in can contend that Arthur Bremer's diary then she added: Rolling Stone the likelihood that the is a fraud, then we can begin to White House plumbers were involved in understand the depth of insidiousness. None of these people, including the bombing of the Capitol building in For the past two years I've been the President, believe they are 1971 which was blamed on the Weather investigating the Charles Manson case. breaking any laws. Certain members Underground. The murders which are still 'associated in of the Defense Intelligence Agency, The note taking credit for that the public's mind with Manson were CIA, Division V of the FBI, Secret incident was signed Weatherman, actually committed by Tex Watson, Service, armed forces and National although they had already become who received a separate trial when Security Council have, been warfare Weatherpeople. This male chauvinist slip federal authorities wouldn't permit his killers and war criminals for a long first made me suspicious that perhaps extradition from Texas to Los Angeles. time. They are now conducting those folks had actually been captured In order to find Manson guilty, para-military warfare inside the U.S. and killed. When I co-edited with Ken prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi had to Kesey the Last Supplement to the convince the jury that he made zombies Murders, conspiracies, entrap- Whole Earth Catalog, we included a of Watson and the women. But in ment, assaults, false imprisonments Crawdaddy MAOrNi_ t 5 CIF). are part of warfare. Unsuspecting could be called Yippies, but when Abbie Kent State massacre? Why don't you citizens are taken by surprise because Hoffman and Jerry Rubin.got caught up disclose what was actually done to they did not realize that white in their own rhetoric, such as "Kill your Teddy Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne America was the enemy. Blacks, parents," I disaffiliated myself from the at Chappaquiddick? Why don't you tell Indians and Chicanos have known for non-organization. what really happened to J. Edgar a long time the open warfare against The other defense is that you have Hoover, George Wallace anclLyja_clop_* their existence. Watergate is an not been hurt by what I published: you Johnson? Why don't you call a press education into a civil war which is who were caught in. Democratic conference to describe the rampant not likely to go away without a National Headquarters wearing rubber experimentation in human psycho- struggle. Expect a counter-attack by gloves; you who helped write the plans surgery that is currently taking place in the White House and even the armed for a military takeover of Greece; you American institutions? forces if necessary. who specialized in censorship of news Oh, I'm aware of how bizarre this plea must seem to you, but as the late media and mail in the United States. I Under "5. 1963 assassination of David Ben-Gurion once said, "To be a don't think a jury would find it President Kennedy," she had written: realist, one must believe in miracles." reasonable that I have stained your Come, James McCord, share that space reputation. But it's not too late to lose Romero, soldier of fortune, between John Prine's illegal smile and was approached by hired assassina- Janis Joplin's illegal tears. Join us. Join tion team from the U.S. which us. planned to kill Kennedy during his 1961 visit to France. Romero Your move, definitely remembers. Frank Sturgis as one of the representatives from [signed] Paul Krassner the U.S. lames McCord, according to Editor and Zen Bastard Louis Tackwood, was in Dallas the day Kennedy was shot, and flown P.S. The thing that confuses me is afterwards to the Caribbean. The that, on one hand, in your letter to National Archives have FBI reports Judge John Sirica, you said that you indicating Frank Sturgis as a friend "felt the White House was taking over of Lee Harvey Oswald and David the CIA for political purposes, which Ferrie. Sturgis had a Miami arsenal of smacked of the situation which Hitler's weapons, and original plans were to intelligence chiefs found themselves in kill IFK in Miami in 1963. the 1930's"—and therefore you refused to trade silence for executive clemency The reference to you, James McCord, —yet on the other hand, you warned alias Martin, was taken from Pages that "every tree in the forest will fall" if 171-2 of The Glass House Tapes by the White House blames Watergate on Louis Tackwood, published by Avon the CIA. Does this mean your Press. (Why aren't you suing them, commitment to truth depends only on too?) Of course you all have witnesses whether or not the finger is pointed at as to your whereabouts, although if you the company you've worked 21 years have nothing to hide why would you for? bother to check out each other's alibis? ,4 Incidentally, I've taken the liberty Henry Cabot Lodge didn't pull the a of sending copies of our corres- trigger on Diem, but there were plans pondence to reporters and Sen- for his transference from Vietnam when ators. How ironic that a few sen- the coup was designed. Richard Nixon tences were inadvertently left out of was in Dallas on November 22, my very first "press release." I attribute 1963—he arrived on a private plane and this, naturally, to a sinister force. But if departed on a commercial airplane—but McCord: "I . . . had no you think that's weird, wait till you hear he forgot that fact when he signed a how your lawyer, Bernard Fensterwald, involvement whatsoever deposition for the Warren Commission. feels about your case. He merely wants In 15 years of publishing The Realist, in the J.F. Kennedy assas- to handle your involvement in only one libel suit has actually come to sination conspiracy." Watergate; as far as your possible court. I had called another editor a liar, connection with the assassination of in print. I proved to the satisfaction of President Kennedy is concerned, he says the jury the truth of my statement, and redeem your own soul. he doesn't want to get involved. So, if was found not guilty. In your proposed Instead of suing me, why don't you you really did donate checks to his libel suit, truth would not be my expose the game plan to declare martial Committee to Investigate Assassina- defense because evidence has been law using the energy crisis as an excuse? tions, it would seem to me that you locked up, destroyed or altered, and Why don't you tell how military ought to ask for your money back. witnesses have been bought off or intelligence is trying to bring about a And, finally, there's an old murdered. You yourself said you were race war by acts of provocation around Chinese curse which I offer as a New afraid of going to prison because you the country? Why don't you explain Year's blessing: "May you live in would be killed since you know too how Nixon is expendable now that we interesting times." much. have President-to-be Gerald Ford who —Paul No, I will defend myself on two helped cover up the bombing of other grounds. One is lack of malicious Cambodia, Special Prosecutor Leon The Realist ($3 a year) and Mae intent. In everything I've written or Jaworsky who helped cover up Lee Brussell's Conspiracy Newsletter 'said, publicly or privately, I've tried to Harvey Oswald's connections with Navy ($6 a year) are both available from be free of hostility. I invented the Intelligence, and Attorney General Main PO Box 4227, San Francisco, Youth International Party so that we William Saxbe who helped cover up the Calif. 94101. March 1974 L.13. Qs , WAS in‘SC:)G1INIkt-VEZ, tc. 45

"All the news, all the doo-dah day"

Written & compiled by Greg Mitchell MARCH, 1974 No Cents Whatsoever A BASKET CASE Edward Ben Elson is still around, and if you aren't one of his Chosen People, you should be glad. A wacked-out Wisconsin attorney, Elson announced last month that he had been visited by a "beautiful black angel" who informed him that Kohoutek was not a comet, as was reasonably believed, but a space ship, sent by alien creatures on a Hef's Girl mercy mission to save him Raps Playboy and 144,000 other Earth- lings. Elson said he had been named captain of the space- Philosophy ship and given the responsi- ing in explosions of petro- tion. (Elson says.) The 21-year-old daughter bility of selecting an addi- leum which would destroy Elson admitted that his of Hugh Hefner (by a mar- tional 1000 people to be the earth. wife had been less than riage that ended in divorce saved; the others—mostly The nucleus of the eager to take the flight, and in 1959) has turned up as a blacks, women and the "comet" was to hover over says she even threatened to Phi Beta Kappa senior at mentally ill, who (accord- McFarland, Wisc., lower an sweep the little people out Brandeis University. Christie ing to Elson), are all in "astral escalator" and take of the basement. Maybe the Hefner told Esquire that she closer contact with the Elson, his wife Patricia and aliens missed their appoint- is appalled by Playboy's "oversoul" than others—had their 144,000 roomates ment because they found notion of femininity but ad- been nabbed by UFOs over aboard. the earthlings ungrateful? mitted: "The girls who pose the past year and safely If that seems like a lot of Elson claims that his wife are paid well, and they do it stored in bushel baskets in people to cram on to one has gone so far as to sell a by choice. And if some of Elson's basement. comet, consider that the couple of the chosen ones the articles make the girls The rest of the world was Chosen People have been to a local used car dealer sound insipid," she added, doomed, Elson said, because miniaturized by the aliens who wanted to use them as "well, I've met the girls and Kohoutek's tail was going to to one-half inch in height and hood ornaments for Cadil- some of them are insipid." lash across the globe result- placed in suspended anima- lacs ... Watergate Open, Dick's Double Drowns "It's been terrible. I haven't had a tion," Dixon declared, "I was sensa- major date since Watergate. Nobody tional. People howled when they look- thinks anything about Nixon is funny ed at me. I earned $50,000 a year just anymore, not even how he looks or working conventions. Now I have a talks or behaves." whole act, an entire routine, and I James La Roe, a.k.a. Richard M. can't get a major booking." Dixon, who made a career of looking Dixon claims he "humanized the like Tricky Dick, has been cast adrift President with my act" and in fact by the rough waves of Watergate. Like voted for him in 1972 but was reward- Vaughn Meader, who just a decade ago ed by being placed on the Dean's List. lost his "First Family" schtick when Pondering the possibility of Nixon's JFK was shot, Dixon has taken the impeachment, Dixon muses: "I guess I President's troubles personally. would have to turn my comedy act "In the first Nixon Administra- into a tragedy." March 1974 55 The Jews arose from the holocausts, a cause of universal joy; but the Jews arose like warriors, armed J. EDGAR OFFED? to the teeth. They took possession of a land, they Was J. Edgar Hoover tive in the Ellsberg break-in, exiled and destroyed old Arab communites, they (a offed by the Cubans who as at first admitting and minority) made outsiders of those who were in fact, the later became involved in the then denying that Hoover's majority of citizens. Then they flexed their muscles; Watergate break-in? The home had been burglarized. like . . . the idolators . . . like Babylon and Egypt and Harvard Crimson fetched far The story holds that the Assyria; like those kingdoms which Israel's own for that story last month in Cubans left a vile of poison, prophets summoned to judgment, Israel entered the reporting that at least two thy on phosgate—which imperial adventure . . . sources close to the Cubans induces heart seizures of the If the Jews are indeed the people of promise, and have given affidavits to that type that killed Hoover and Israel the land of promise, then it must follow that effect to the FBI and the is undetectable in the body— God has willed the two to coincide. They are Senate Watergate Commit- in Hoover's personal toilet swallowed up in the end, they disappear into glory. I tee. The Crimson quoted articles. And if the means include domestic repression, decep- Felipe De Diego, an opera- tion, cruelty, militarism? And if the classic refugee people is now creating huge numbers of refugees? Are Buy and Buy such means as these swallowed in glory? Or do they According to Media and stick to the throat of those who believe, as Judaism Methods magazine, the typ- taught the world to believe, "Thou shalt not kill." ical American 14-year-old —, in the speech, has seen 350,000 television labeled "anti-Semitic," that cost commercials ... him the 1974 Peace Award Ray Plots King Conspiracy Break

The Chicago Daily News were a rou of wh. has quoted "a source close outherners ea • uarte to" James Earl Ray as say- in New Orleans. T e planning Peace Bond ing that if the convicted for the alleged conspiracy killer of Dr. Martin Luther took place at various times Won't Mature King, Jr. is given the hearing in several other cities, ac- he is now demanding he will cording to this report. If you're still looking for "name the names, dates and "I never saw anybody that great Peace Dividend places" involved in a con- shoot King, but that's as far generated by the "end" of spiracy to assassinate the as I want to go," Ray told a the Vietnam war and the civil rights leader. reporter for the Nashville supposed multi-billion dol- Ray pleaded guilty to the Banner last month. At his lar saving that should-have- shooting in 1969 and is serv- trial in 1969 Ray testified been: forget it. The new ing a 99-year sentence but that he had shot Dr. King Defense Dept. budget calls has repeatedly maintained but he balked at denying for a f5-6 billion increase that he was coerced into a there had been a conspiracy over last year's, to a record guilty plea by his attorney, his innocence, Ray recently behind it. high, 1185 billion ... Percy Foreman. Proclaiming filed a writ for a new trial. Foreman reacted to his The "source" close to former client's latest asser- "I think many of his judgments have been very Ray told the Daily News tions by declaring that Ray poor." that Ray now contends that was "either bluffing or plan- "Mr. Nixon has made mistakes, and this is one of the King conspiracy existed ning to lie" about the con- them: you cannot, as President, isolate yourself." for nearly a year previous to spiracy. "Ray acted alone," "It is quite obvious that I do not agree with the March, 1968 murder Formean said, "on his bias everything the Nixon Administration does." and that the central figures against black people." "I can make no excuses for Watergate." "I believe that every Christian should give 10% of his income to his church or charity, and above that if the Lord prospers him." (In reference to Nixon's announcement that last year he had donated only $296 to charity.) "I know that I told the people who handle my own tax affairs to always pay the tax if there's any question. I think this ought to be the attitude of all yers, but especially one in such a sensitive of ice." "Whenever we go to church together he always has to borrow money from me to put in the collection plate." —Rev. Billy Graham, in his well-publicized "break" with Richard Nixon, an lb MUM interview in Christianity Today magazine Smile! You Are Dancing Because You Are Now • Democracy!'

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