Vol. 5, No. 5 July-August, 1998

Probe is published by CTKA PR 3c Citizens for Truth about the Kennedy Assassination Magazine. The truth is in here. 1111998 All Rights Reserved s 5.00 Judge Brown Slams Memphis Over the King Case

The following is a transcription of you that if you are attempting to Judge Joe Brown's remarks made on the use a rest to shoot game, you put 30th anniversary of the assassination of your coat, your hat, your pack, Martin Luther King on April 3, 1998 something under the rifle bar- at the Centenary Methodist Church in rel—and you do not allow the Memphis. The remarks were transcribed rifle barrel to touch hard wood, by author Dick Russell who wilt be writ- The Return of Gerald rock or anything else because ing an article for High Times this fall your weapon will,not shoot on this conference. Russell is also the au- Posner: He's Baaaackl where you have sited it in to thor of the current book Black Genius shoot. Assuming you've sited the which was published by Carroll and Graf Clinton, MPH and Indonesia weapon in. If anyone placed the earlier this year. Our thanks to Dick for weapon on that window sill, suf- letting us share this transcription with ficient to cause an indentation in our readers. the window sill, you can guaran- In this case involving James Earl tee that whatever they were Ray, I found one morning that it was on my "experts" that everyone has been relying upon shooting at would not have been hit. Because calendar. I had been totally unaware of that in this case. The level of expertise, if they had the weapon would not have hit where it was until the prosecutor in this case, Mr. Camp- any such, was extremely low. They had long sited in to hit. bell, came to attempt to approach me and dis- histories of being able to look at bullets un- Now Preston Battle, the honorable late cuss this case off the record which is, of course, der a microscope and using relatively primi- initial judge who handled this case, said this improper. I declined to do this. That was the tive technology to make an analysis on the record. He was firmly convinced that if first of a number of ex parte approaches by the subjectively as CO whether in their opinion James Earl Ray in fact did the killing, he did state to engage in what are basically impro- such-and-such a bullet matched a sample that not act alone. Now James Earl Ray in the prieties. In any event, I was ultimately con- they were attempting to compare it with. That record is said to have gone to a gunshop and fronted with a question: with the application was the extent of their expertise. They had purchased a .243 caliber weapon. It says he of modem scientific methodology, is this in very little knowledge—if any—about rifles and was told by others that this was not a suitable fact the rifle? As the rifle was excluded from firearms in general. continued on page 28 the [unintelligible] of being the murder They found me with the knowledge that I weapon, does this fact alone—based on an as- just happened to have had as an individual. ....■1111. sessment of the entire body of evidence— Amongst other things, I have read in the In This Issue... cause James Earl Ray to be innocent, therefore record the big to-do about the mark in the mandating a new trial? In other words, if the window sill at the boarding house where the Letter from the Chairman 2 weapon was excluded, I was to conduct an rifle was supposed to be fired. Well, let's talk Clinton, RFK, and the Fall of Suharto 3 analysis and an evaluation of the entire case— about the rifle. it's a 760 Remington Michael Paine and his 5300.000 and then write an opinion relative to my as- Gamemaster, a pump action, just like a 12 Trust Fund sessment. gauge pump shotgun. There is very little call James Earl Ray, even in the event that the for this weapon in any other part of the coun- The White House Tapes: rifle [had] been excluded, might have still try other than the eastern seaboard, where Something is Missing? 8 been found legally guilty of being an acces- certain states forbid the use of semi-automatic The Official Story 9 sory, an aider and abettor, or a conspirator. I weapons for deer hunting. it's a fast action Gordon Novel 10 won't touch upon that. But I do know what I but it's not as powerful a weapon. There's a The Return of Gerald Posner 12 saw in terms of the hard evidence, in terms of peculiar thing about this weapon. If you do Jeremy Gunn at Stanford University 18 what's in that file relative to those things that not rest, if you're attempting to use a rest Notebook 35 the untrained might never notice. I would re- when you shoot it—the weapon does not Bookshelf 36 mark initially upon the category of so-called shoot where it is sited in. Any hunter will tell From the Chairman's Desk: CTKA CITIZENS FOR TRUTH In this issue, we are happy to present transcriptions of two officials involved in ABOUT THE contemporary investigations of the assassinations of the sixties. First, we present Judge Joe Brown's comments spread over two nights in Memphis during the commemora- KENNEDY ASSASSINATION tion for the thirtieth anniversary of Martin Luther King's murder. We think you will agree with us that they form quite a strong indictment over what was going on behind www.webcom.com /ctk a the scenes in the year long controversy over that case. In May, the Director and chief counsel of the Review Board, Jeremy Gunn, gave a long and detailed talk at Stanford Chairman University. Gary Aguilar taped that talk and we had it transcribed by Paul Ruiz. This is Jim DiEugenio probably the clearest and most detailed explanation of what Mr. Gunn felt the mission of the Board was and also his personal views on his experience so far and what it was Executive Board like to deal with certain executive intelligence agencies over a nearly four year period. Jim DiEugenio, Chuck Marler, This talk makes us anticipate what will be in the Board's final report scheduled for release this fall. Lisa Pease As readers of Probe know, one of the most ignored changes in foreign policy made after the Kennedy assassination was the U.S. relationship with Indonesia. We have Board of Directors tried to educate our readers on this very important point, most notably through three Gary Aguilar. M.D. long and interesting articles focusing on the CIA, Freeport Sulphur (today Freeport Doug Carlson McMoRan), and that company's influence in Cuba and Indonesia. The tumultuous Kathleen Cunningham events in May marked how important the aforementioned change in foreign policy Gaeton Fonzi was. If you were only watching TV or reading the newspapers, you didn't get the Edwin Lopez Soto, J.D. whole story. We try and give it to you here. David Mantik, M.D., Ph.D. In her third and concluding installment, Lisa Pease probes more deeply into the Jim Marrs mysterious Gordon Novel as revealed through his own words in a long deposition for his libel case against Jim Garrison. Gordon reveals his ties to both Bud Fensterwald Wayne Smith, Ph.D. and Walter Sheridan, the latter taking us even deeper into the subterranean intelli- William Turner gence net meant to ensnare Garrison. In a sidebar, Gordon reveals just how deeply he Cyril Wecht. M.D., J.D. was wired into Garrison's office as early as the first week of March, 1967. Jack White Don Gibson examines some peculiar editing of the Johnson White House phone transcripts as assembled by Michael Beschloss in his 1997 book. As Gibson notes, he PROBE STAFF wrote a landmark article on this particular subject for Probe which pretty much nailed the origins of the Warren Commission. Readers of the Beschloss book will remain partly in the dark on that topic. Finally, Barbara La Monica pulls back one more curtain Co-Editors on the true status and pedigree of Ruth and Michael Paine. We certainly hope that Mr. Jim DiEugenio ezi Lisa Pease Gunn finds the time to depose this extremely intriguing duo before his statute runs out. If not, many people, including me, will be very disappointed. Layout Lisa Pease

Photo and Document Scans David Stern, M.D. What is CTKA? PROBE Volume 4 Subscriptions Citizens for Truth about the Kennedy Assassination was organized as a result of the April (6 issues): 1993 Chicago Midwest Symposium on Assassinations. At the end of that conference, it was =30 USA. S35 Canada, generally decided that the time had come to create a political action group, which would urge the executive branch of our government to reopen the unsolved assassina- .39 Other International tions of the 1960s--i.e., the murders of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Back Issues Volume 3: 54 Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King. CTKA endeavors to ensure that the Review Board fulfill its mandate to release all the remaining records pertaining to the JFK assas- Send Chpck or Money Order sination; CO amend the current Freedom of Information Act to render future covert payable to "CTKA" at: actions more difficult to hide: and to urge the American people to discover the truth about their history. CTKA If you are not already a member of CTKA, please consider supporting our efforts P.O. Box 3317 with a subscription to PROBE or a donation CO help cover the hidden costs of running Culver City. CA 90231 a not-for-profit organization. Tel: (310) 838-9496 Thanks to all of you who are already CTKA supporters. Let's continue to work together to get the truth out about our collective past.

Ficei July-August, 1998

Page 3 Clinton, RFK, and the all of Suharto

By Jim DiEugenio

In May, Bill Clinton had blood on his hands. In June, on his visit to the Christian Science Monitor wrote about the "largest anti-Suharto pro- China, he had it under his feet. On May 21st, President Suharto of test ever" at Gadjah Mada University where 50,000 students and fac- Indonesia was forced to resign under pressure from student demon- ulty demanded that Suharto resign immediately. In the city of strations and labor riots. In the second week of May the demonstra- Yogyakarta, the entire range of demonstrations included as many as dons resulted in the killing of six students in Jakarta. There were reports 500,000. At the university, the 150-yard long phalanx of activists pulled that the three previous months of smaller demonstrations had resulted a casket decorated with Suharto's picture. In the face of the spiraling in several "disappearances" and abductions. By mid-May, the riots and unrest, Suharto finally got the message. On May 21st, he announced bloodshed had spread outside Jakarta to other major cities. These cul- his immediate resignation. The reins were turned over to his vice- minating riots seemed primed by the death of the six students. On president B. J. Habibie. Thus ended the reign of the world's longest May 15th, things had gotten so bad that Suharto had to cut short his running dictatorship, save Fidel Castro's. trip to Egypt to return to Jakarta. Consider the lead of the May 15th The immediate causes of Suharto's downfall did not occur just in Los Angeles Times: May. They began with the collapse of the Mobs of poor, young Indonesians rampaged un- Mb_ Indonesian currency, the rupiah, which checked through downtown streets here Thursday. has been falling since last year. When it looting. burning and pushing this capital of 10 mil- Incredihly, even at this point, appeared that the rupiah's fall could af- lion to the edge of anarchy. They torched cars, banks fect other Asian economies, the Inter- and department stores, targeting businesses owned the lToiletl States still did not national Monetary Fund began by ethnic Chinese and members of the ruling fam- negotiating a deal with Suharto to offer ily Plumes of smoke billowed over Akarta from ev- call for Suharto's resignation. ery direction a multi-billion dollar bailout. This Yet on this same day, the seemed crucial since Indonesia is the Incredibly, even at this point, the United Los iingeks Times did. In an fourth largest country in the world and States still did not call for Suharto's resig- the pivotal state in southeast Asia. Large nation. Yet on this same day, the Los Angeles editorial they made 3111 hones banks in Korea, Japan, and Singapore Times did. In an editorial they made no bones about the tact that Indonesia have heavy holdings in the nation. In about the fact that Indonesia could not sur- could not survive much longer fact, in January, one Hong Kong bank had vive much longer with the dictator at the already fallen because of a bad loan to helm. When Clinton is behind the major with the dictator at the helm. Indonesia. But the IMF deal stumbled media in calling for a brutal tyrant to step When Clinton is behind the when Suharto demanded a dollar for down, something is remiss somewhere. rupiah fixed exchange rate to stabilize The next day, American businesses be- major media in calling liar the national currency. Many commenta- gan closing plants and offices, evacuating brutal tyrant to step down, tors thought that Suharto wanted a workers, and pulling even more capital out fixed, instead of the usual floating ex- of the country. The students still controlled something is remiss change rate, so that he and his family the streets as Suharto tried to move the army somewhere. could cash in rupiahs for dollars and then into the capital as he had done in the sixties send the dollars abroad. For a man worth in his covert, then overt ouster of Indonesia's billions, this was too much even for the first president Sukarno. But by May 19th IMF. With this power struggle going on ,even some of Suharto's political allies inside his own parry were ask- in public, prices continued to rise, the rupiah continued to fall, and ing for him to resign. The estimates of the dead at this time ranged the social consequences spilled over into the streets, eventually carry- from 500-900 due to the riots. Suharto could barely come out of his ing Suharto with them. palace. Thousands of students had circled the parliament building. In In the wake of Suharto's collapse, it is interesting to note how far a mild surprise, the army decided not to fire on the demonstrators and behind the curve the present administration appeared to have been. did not even interfere with their fiery theatrics and polemics against In two articles in 1996 ( Probe Vol. 3 #6 and Vol. 4 #1), we reported on the longstanding dictator, including their hanging him in effigy. By the earlier social unrest in that country, and we noted Bill Clinton's the 19th, these student demonstrations had spread throughout West ties to some of Indonesia's ruling elite. We also noted that Clinton Java where thousands of students shouted slogans in front of a mock had broken a previous precedent by consenting to appear in public coffin symbolizing the death of democracy. Finally, under relentless with Suharto who had been shunned by much of the Western liberal violent pressure, Suharto announced he would step aside at a future community because of his horrendous human rights atrocities. Yet at indefinite time. This did not quell the demonstrators. On May 20th, the time of the earlier demonstrations, mostly sponsored on behalf of continued on page 4 July-August, 1998 PRO3E Page 4

international democracy, and comes in second, it does not speak well Clinton, RFK and Indonesia for his legacy or the future of his party.) continued from page 3 Throughout the months long recent crisis, both in its formative Sukarno's daughter Megawati Sukarnooputri, most of the American stages last year, and in its violent, overt phase in May, the Clinton media ignored the crackdowns by the military—and the resulting administration basically took a "stand and watch" stance—in public. deaths—against her and her supporters. The major media, e.g. the Even in the week before the fall, the strongest statement issued by New York Times, seemed to take the "side of stability", which meant Secretary of State Albright was to urge "more dialogue" between the Suharto and his storm troopers. Many of the commentators praised government and its citizens. Even during his last two days in office, the the "economic progress" made by Indonesia and how this had led CO a White House resisted pleas from human rights groups and Senators rising standard of living for most Indonesian workers. Suharto's mas- like Paul Wellstone to take a stronger stand on the need for Suharto to sacres and political oppression were either whitewashed or dodged as go. Both Wellstone and Senator John Kerry urged the White House to an inescapable outcome of the imposition of stability on the chaos of do just that. The ostensible excuse rendered was that the U.S. had the later, leftist Sukarno regime of 1963-65. little influence inside the country and anything they did could back- What virtually all of these pundits left out of these stories was that fire. This, of course, is hogwash. The U.S. is the prime mover behind the foundation of the so-called economic progress and social stability the IMF upon which Suharto was reliant upon to bail out his country was built on a foundation of sand. Suharto and his backers had as- and save his regime. American corporations form perhaps the single sembled a Potemkin village model for most of the willingly gullible biggest bloc of investors in the nation. By publicly denouncing him American press to swallow. At the same time Indonesian workers were and then withholding IMF funds, Clinton could have forced Suharto making $3.50 a day manufacturing Reebok tennis shoes, the Suharto out much earlier without the riots and the inevitable blood on the family had become one of the richest in the world by arranging deals streets. Another excuse used by the White House was the lack of a with American and British corporations to exploit the country's pro- "strong alternative" to Suharto. This is another chimera. What politi- digious natural resources and cheap labor. Keeping the peonage in cal experience or strength did Corazon Aquino have in Manila politics place was one of the prime functions of the Indonesian army, a large in 1986? Her lack of "political experience" (in that milieu, read as and notorious part of which was controlled by Suharto's son-in-law, corruption) was a huge plus in rallying an angry populace toward her Lt. Gen. Prabowo Soemitro Subianto. The economic pillaging of the in the wake of voter fraud. country had become so obvious that a popular joke during the May There may be a deeper reason why the White House took its weak demonstrations was that Suharto's idea of family planning was to make and rather humiliating stand during Suharto's final days. These both sure that all six of his kids got rich through state sanctioned monopo- have to do with the Pentagon and who really controls the Indonesian lies. economy. In January of this year, Secretary of Defense Bill Cohen be- That the royal oligarchy was one of the main causes of economic gan a tour ofAsia. According to the Los Angeles Times (1/12/98), Cohen's concentration that led to collapse became clear even to the New York aim was to show these governments that the U.S. was their friend "in Times. On March 12th, two months before his fall, Times columnist A. good times and bad" i.e. even with the economic instability caused by M. Rosenthal began to make Suharto-style jokes about President Clin- the collapse of the rupiah. One of the nations he visited was Indone- ton: sia. Cohen was intent on assuring these governments that despite the economic crisis, the U.S. was going to keep the arms flowing into the When the emissaries of President Clinton visit the president of Indonesia to talk about his country's economic disasters and how we can bail it out. do they ever military forces. The article stated that the Pentagon will explore with ask him if he knows that his sons, daughters, in-laws and dearest friends stole U.S. defense companies how "to make sure their security needs are the country bare and blind. met and programs continue." The significance of Cohen's visit (and Albright's tepid denuncia- Rosenthal was quick to add that, of course Suharto knew about it. tions of Suharto and plea for "more dialogue") was perhaps revealed He helped set it all up. The Suharto family owns part of every state by Cohen's visit to KOPASSUS headquarters while in Indonesia regulated monopoly in Indonesia including banks, airlines, agricul- (The Nation 3/30/98). KOPASSUS is the rough equivalent of the U.S. Green ture, automobile, and power plants. On top of that, the family devised Berets or Navy Seals. This special operations group has been trained ways to avoid the problem of paying taxes on all these holdings. As in recent years by the Marines in counterterrorism, small weapons Rosenthal also pointed out, when Suharto grants a monopoly license mastery, reconnaissance, and surveillance. KOPASSUS was helmed to a friend, it is with the stricture that one of his children gets a share by the aforementioned Suharto son-in-law Gen. Prabowo. Prabowo of the business. Since Indonesia is an extraordinarily wealthy nation, also commands KOSTRAD, the strategic reserve unit anchored in corporations are willing to pay the piper. So the trickle-down scheme, Jakarta. It was this unit that Suharto called out in 1965 to quell the praised by the Times in 1996, came crashing down in 1997. When the so-called communist rebellion as he used KOSTRAD to pull the rug media could not avoid the steaming mess, they joined the Indonesian out from under Sukarno. In other words, they helped install him as students in finally exposing Suharto. Which is something the Clinton eventual dictator. In March, one American official told reporter Allan administration did not do. Nairn that regardless of Suharto's fate, U.S. policy was aimed at main- The drumbeat against the aging tyrant began as early as January. taining control of what happens inside Indonesia through its ties to When it became apparent that Suharto would run for another rigged the army. In fact, one reason that the White House would not back election in March, the Los Angeles Times profiled two challengers to Megawati is that she probably would not accept a vice-president ap- Suharto, Muslim leader Arnien Rais, and the aforementioned Megawati. proved by KOSTRAD. Nairn also states that all this military aide had On February 4th, the same newspaper headlined a story "Suharto is been approved by the Stare Department i.e. Albright. Prabowo, until Asian Policy Albatross for U.S." The writer. Jim Mann, then compared his recent release, was backed by the U.S.-Indonesian Society, a pro- the Reagan administration's attempt to divorce itself from Ferdinand Suharto front group composed of U.S. corporations and former Penta- Marcos of the Philippines—which hurried his fall—to Clinton's seem- gon and CIA officials. Cohen reportedly watched KOPASSUS ing inability to do the same with Suharto. (When a Democratic presi- maneuvers for three hours by Prabowo's side. dent is compared to Ronald Reagan in the field of promoting Cohen probably did not ask Prabowo about some of his troops mom JUly-August, 1998 Page 5

more controversial actions in the province of West Papua. KOPASSUS ability. The latter backed General Wiranto who wished to switch to has been accused of torture and murder in that region on behalf of Habibie, a former Suharto crony. In fact, Nairn later reported that Freeport McMoRan. formerly Freeport Sulphur. Longstanding readers Wiranto made it clear to the students that he wished them out of the of Probe will recall Lisa Pease's milestone articles and Donald Gibson's parliament building when Suharto resigned, or else there could be follow-up on this infamous company (Vol. 3 Nos. 3, and 4, Vol. 4 "another Tianamen Square". Evidently Wiranto did not wish it to ap- No.1). One of Suharto's best friends, Mohammed "Bob" Hasan, is a pear too obvious that the students had cowed Suharto. They may have business partner of Suharto's eldest son with Freeport. As Lisa Pease thought they could have then installed Megawati. Afterwards, when pointed out, Freeport holds the rights to the world's two richest mines. Prabowo also left, it then appeared that Wiranto, with U.S. backing, both in West Papua. In was actually managing the 1967, when Suharto's behind the scenes actions U.S. backed removal of so that "people power" did Sukarno was complete, not get too democratic. the dictator agreed to FREEPORT SULP HUR COMPANY One can only suspect that give Freeport sole min- COMMERCE BUILDING Wiranto's caution was be- eral exploration rights in R. DUFFY WALL t.. Como.. Puns twos AW/Wil NEW ORLEANS, LA. 70160 PO. E. 61520 hind the keep-the-brakes- West Papua, along with on stance of the Clinton tax and royalty exemp- administration. tions. Those rights in- But there is one group cluded the Grasberg in Washington backing the and Erstberg copper March 7. 1972 natives of West Papua and gold mines. The es- against Freeport. That is timated metal assets the Robert F. Kennedy Me- from those rights is 60 morial Center for Human billion dollars. Freeport Mr. Clay Shaw Rights. On May 27th, that pays the workers at 424 Barracks St. group sent a letter to the these mines poverty New Orleans. Louisiana 70116 new president Habibie, level wages. As a result, asking him CO explore the though West Papua is Dear Mr. Shaw: military's role in the sup- probably the wealthiest pression of political free- island in the entire ar- Thank you for accepting our invitation to be guest speaker dom in Papua and other chipelago, its citizens at the Press Club of New Orleans Newsmaker Luncheon on areas of Indonesia. The plea remain among the poor- Monday. March 27. at noon. specifically mentioned the est. At any sign of pro- role of KOPASSUS under test among Freeport We would like for you to discuss the riverfront development Prabowo in support of workers, KOPASSUS project in which you are involved. Our format for the Freeport's mining opera- has moved in to snuff Luncheons is to all the speaker about 20 minutes for tions. The Center men- out the resistance im- prepared remarks and then open the meeting for questions tioned the reported mediately. In fact, as from members of the working press. killings, disappearances, World Watch (May/June torture and detention 1998) has reported, We look forward to having you with us and if you have any carried out in Freeport's there is no real line be- additional questions. please give me a call. Grasberg mine area. The tween Freeport security letter stated that many of and KOPASSUS. They Sincerely. these abuses were carried wrote that. "Freeport out in the name of protect. security guards, many ing the mining business of of them, are also mili- Freeport in Indonesia. The tary personnel." Fur- ROW: cbc letter went on to cite Bobby thering this integration, Kennedy's historic role as Freeport has helped his brother's representative fund a base for a Navy in freeing West Papua from Unit Force in the region. Guy Banister's files revealed that Clay Shaw and David Ferrie were flown to Cuba by the Netherlands in 1962. It Freeport can afford such ended by asking that RFK's largesse for its mercenar- Freeport Sulphur. Jim Garrison discovered that a Vice President of Freeport was plotting to kill Castro. Freeport lost a valuable nickel plant in Cuba after Castro came to power. daughter, Kerry Kennedy ies. Freeport paid CEO Cuomo, be allowed to visit James R. Moffett 41 the area to study the hu- million in compensation in 1997. Moffett has two staunch al- man rights conditions there. lies on Freeport's board: former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger Don't expect much support from the White House to sponsor Kerry and former Louisiana Senator J. Bennett Johnston. Kennedy's visit. Clinton has now become the first president to visit We think the above does much to explain the restraint of the Indo- Tianamen Square since the massacre of students there in 1989. He did nesian military in the face of the student demonstrations. There seemed so in the name of stability and economic progress as a means of helping CO be a split in the ranks between those who backed Suharto until the mold a country's evolutionary path toward democracy. Funny, that sounds end (Prabowo), and those who felt Suharto had become a public li- like what the New York limes was saying about Suharto in 1996.

July-Auguat, 1998 p:103E Page 6

MICHAEL PAL AND HIS $300,000 TRUST Fitit4t

By Barbara LaMonica

The FBI document at right represents part in the hopes Cubans would rise up against As the reader can ee by the accompanying of the background check on Michael Paine con- Castro. FBI document, Michael Paine was the benefi- ducted during the period of the Warren Com- In addition to marriage ties, the Cabot and ciary of one trust fund worth $269,000, quite a mission. The investigation of Michael's Forbes families have longstanding commer- sum in 1963. According to another FBI docu- finances shows that he was a comparatively cial ties. Parr of the Boston shipping tradition, ment, Michael and his brother Cameron were wealthy man in 1963, and that once again Lee they originally made their fortunes together left a trust fund of thirty thousand dollars by Harvey Oswald managed CO establish himself in the infamous "triangle trade" of slaves, their paternal grandmother, Clara May Paine. in an aristocratic circle of patrons. sugar and rum.' Then in the nineteenth cen- The Paine family goes back to colonial Massa- A trust fund was established for Michael tury, these families increased their fortunes chusetts. Michael's great-great-great-grandfa- by his maternal grandmother Elise Cabot through the Chinese opium trade. William H. ther was Robert Treat Paine. speaker of the Forbes, mother of Ruth Forbes Paine Young. Forbes, Michael's great-grandfather, was a Massachusetts House of Representatives in Ruth, as we know, was Michael's mother (and close associate of the British East India Com- 1777 and attorney general of the state from a friend of a lover of Allen Dulles'). In addi- pany, and joined the Board of Directors of the 1778 to 1790. He was actually one of the sign- tion to being related to the Cabots, Ruth is a Hong Kong and Shanghai Banks. He later ers of the Declaration of Independence. great-granddaughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson. founded the American Bell Telephone Com- Considering the above gourmet pedigree The Cabot family, part of the "Boston Brah- pany. Michael's grandfather. Ralph Emerson of both money and politics, it should come as min" lineage, is of course the same family as Forbes, left a fortune of over two million dol- little surprise that the Warren Commission Henry Cabot Lodge, former Senator, Ambas- lars at his death in 1937. failed to ask Michael Paine any difficult ques- sador to the UN, and at the time of the assas- With their commercial ties firmly estab- tions about a) what a man with today's equiva- sination, ambassador to South Vietnam.' The lished in the Near and Far East, the Forbes lent of a million dollar trust was doing living Cabot family traditionally held the senate seat family became involved in foreign service. in a lower class suburb of Dallas-Fort Worth, from Massachusetts until Henry Cabot Lodge William C. Forbes, a great-uncle of Michael or b) what a Forbes-Cabot heir was doing was defeated by John F. Kennedy in 1952. Paine. served as Secretary of Commerce and chumming around with an alleged itinerant Lodge, the British Brahmin, did not call the Police, then Vice Governor, and finally Gover- Marxist agitator. • young Irishman to congratulate him the night nor General of the Philippines. He was finally of his upset victory. removed in 1913 after a stormy administra- Notes: Michael had several Cabot cousins includ- tion. One of his more controversial acts was 1. An example of these families' financial ing Thomas Dudley Cabot, a former president the deportation, without trial, of a large and dominance is this popular Boston rhyme: prosperous group of Chinese merchants who of the United Fruit Company, and in 1951, a Hooray, hooray for Boston, director of the State Department Office of In- had long been established in Manila. But The home of the bean and the cod, ternational Security Affairs. In the early six- Cameron Forbes lived to serve another day, Where the Cabots speak only to the Lodges. ties, Cabot was president of the Gibraltar In 1914 he was sent back to Manila by Presi- And the Lodges speak only to God Steamship Corporation, which leased land on dent Warren Harding as part of the Woods- 2. an uninhabited mound of guano near Hondu- Forbes mission to study possible From the 1700's to the early 1800's these New England shipping merchants would ac- ras named Swan Island. It was on Swan Is- independence for the Philippines. Their final land, through the Gibraltar Steamship report vetoed a grant of independence. In quire slaves from Africa, then sell them in the Caribbean where they would buy sugar and Corporation, that David Phillips established 1930, Forbes became ambassador to Japan, "Radio Swan", a CIA radio station broadcast- and in 1935 he was chairman of the Ameri- molasses. The sugar and molasses would be ing to Cuba, Mexico and Central America. can Economic Mission to the Far East. Prior brought into the states where they it was made During the Bay of Pigs invasion. Radio Swan to his death in 1959 he joined his Cabot rela- into rum which was then brought to Africa to broadcast instructions in the art of sabotage tives on the board of United Fruit. purchase more slaves. FffinE July-August, 1998 Page 7

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

Date 4/1/64

Mr. DAVID C. FORBES, an Attorney with J. M. Forbes and Company, Property Managers, 199 Washington Street, Boston, Massachusetts, an uncle of MICHAEL RALPH PAINE, furnished the following information:

MICHAEL PAINE inherited money from his maternal grandmother, ELISE CABOT FORBES, who died in 1960. Under the terms of her will, each of her fifteen grandchildren was to receive equal shares of a fund when they reached twenty-one years of age.

The appraised value of MICHAEL PAINE's share of this fund as of January 1, 1963 was $269,000.00. The fund is held in the name of J. M. Forbes Company who serve as agents under the power of attorney.

Mr. FORBES stated that MICHAEL's money has been reinvested in securities and that the accumulated interest from his account as of January 1, 1963 was $5500.00 and as of January 1, 1964 was $3900.00.

During the year, 1963, MICHAEL withdrew $285.00 a month from his accumulated interest on this account which was paid to him by check drawn on the New England Merchants Bank of Boston where J. M. Forbes Company maintains a checking account. He stated that MICHAEL PAINE has access to this entire account and may withdraw funds at any time he desires.

He also advised that from time to time, MICHAEL PAINE requests additional payments from his account, in which case J. M. Forbes Company as agents will draw additional checks payable to MICHAEL PAINE or to the Irving Bank and Trust Company of Irving, Texas.

He also advised that MICHAEL PAINE is the beneficiary under the terms of a trust fund set up by some other relative on his father's side of the family which pays him around $500.00 a year and which is handled by FRANCIS H. CUMMINGS as Trustee, who is located at 111 Devonshire Street, Boston, Massachusetts.

He stated he was not aware of any other income accruing to MICHAEL PAINE.

On 4/1/64 at Boston. Massachusetts File # BS 105-10942 By SA DARREL B CURRLE/maj Date dictated 4/1164

July-August, 1998 perou Page 8 The White House Tapes: Something Missing?

By Donald Gibson, Ph. D.

In 1997, Simon and Schuster published Taking Charge: The Johnson Beschloss presents only part of this other historic phone call. His White House Tapes, 190-1964. Editing and commentary are by Michael editing job conceals some of what is significant in this call. Also, he R. Beschloss. The book presents transcriptions of White House tapes prefaces the transcript with his own comment which supposedly sum- beginning on the day of President Kennedy's assassination and con- marizes the meaning of the call. Beschloss writes: tinuing into 1964. A new and more fully automated taping system had been installed in the White House during President Kennedy's Johnson prods one of the most powerful columnists of the time to turn Wash- ington Post colleagues against the notion of a commission. (p. 32) final trip. The focus of this brief discussion will be quite narrow. We will This is an extraordinary misrepresentation of this phone call. The look only at the way Beschloss (or someone at Simon & Schuster) purpose of the phone call was to convince Johnson to create a com- treated two extremely important phone calls. Full and accurate tran- mission. Beschloss gives the call a different purpose and he implies scriptions of those calls do provide a crucial part of the story of how that Johnson made the call and spent most of the call on the matter of the Warren Commission was created. Such transcripts are available at the Washington Post. In order to do this, you would have to eliminate the LBJ Library. The creation of the Commission was a critical part of the first three lines of the transcript which show that Alsop called the the initial stage of the cover-up, similar in importance CO the activities President. Then one has to pretend that something that was, at most. of certain media entities during the hours following the assassination, secondary was primary. Beschloss does both. and of the Alan Belmont-J. Edgar Hoover controlled FBI operation. There are a number of instances where significant content is ex- These two phone calls, one on November 24th and the other on cluded or misrepresented through the editing of this crucial phone the 25th, are the beginning of an effort to get President Lyndon Johnson conversation. For example, on page thirty-four of the book, about two- to a) create a presidential commission to review evidence gathered by thirds of the way down the page, there are three dots at the end of the FBI and perhaps do a small investigation, and then to b) issue an LBJ's statement that if he sets up a commission he will "ruin both official report carrying the full weight of the federal government be- procedures" already in place. Those three dots represent sixteen lines hind it. LBJ was opposed to this and did not give in until sometime spoken by Alsop. Among other things, those lines contain one of the between the afternoon of November 25 and November 28. (Note: For four references in this phone call to former Secretary of State Dean a full description of how the Commission was created, see the author's Acheson and an unexplained reference CO ''things that the FBI says articles in Probe, May-June, 1996, and July-August, 1996, or Mid-America: can't be used" in the report on the assassination. An Historical Review, Fall, 1997.) On page thirty-five, six lines down from the top, Alsop is saying The first person to suggest a presidential commission to the White "I'm just suggesting." In this line, and in the next, there are three dots House was Eugene Rostow, Dean of the Yale Law School and a mem- inserted. The reader will be mistaken if he or she assumes that those ber. with Allen Dulles and John J. McCloy, of the then fairly exclusive dots represent a pause or some irrelevant comment. They represent Council on Foreign Relations. Rostow began this effort within min- about eight lines of Alsop's words. Those words included another utes of Oswald's murder on November 24. Until Oswald was mur- important reference to Dean Acheson which clearly indicates that it is dered, the Texas authorities had clear priority (although the FBI had Acheson who is pushing for the creation of a commission and that partly usurped that priority). Rostow first tried to get Deputy Attor- Alsop's phone call is on behalf of that effort. ney General Katzenbach to press for a commission, but he became Why would anyone decide to edit out this material? This is the concerned that Katzenbach was not going to act on this so he called second time that Acheson's name has been edited out and along with Beschloss' misleading prefatory comment, it fundamentally alters this Bill Moyers, aide to President Johnson. Rostow got Moyers to promise conversation. that he would bring up the idea of a commission with LBJ. Dozens of lines are eliminated near the end of the conversation. How does Beschloss (or Simon & Schuster) handle this first at- Amongst the text that Beschloss deleted is yet another reference CO tempt to get LBJ to create a commission? He doesn't. Incredibly, he Dean Acheson, wherein Alsop makes one last attempt to get LBJ CO decides to exclude this call from the book. An eminent historian has a promise that he will talk to Acheson. LBJ does promise CO do so. Alsop phone call relating to the creation of the most famous and controver- refers to Acheson four times in this call which was made for the pur- sial presidential commission in American history and he just leaves it pose of talking LBJ into setting up a presidential commission. Bes- OM. He does include a conversation later in the same afternoon be- chloss eliminated three of those references and did other things to tween LBJ and Representative Jack Brooks which is devoted to dinner plans. make this call into something it was not. There is still enough there to allow the reader to see that Alsop is pushing LBJ to create a commis- A transcript of the other important call related to the creation of sion. To conceal that entirely, Beschloss or Simon the Warren Commission is in the book. Well.„sort of. Less than 24 & Schuster would have had to have done with Alsop's phone call what they did with hours after Rostow's calls to Katzenbach and Moyers. quintessential Rostow's: exclude it altogether. Is this a case of extreme incompe- establishment journalist Joe Alsop called and made a more aggressive tence and carelessness; or worse? People familiar with these matters pitch to President Johnson. This time it was directly to LBJ. will also be familiar with this choice of hypotheses. .4 MOW July-August, 1998

113 11) The Official Story co James Earl Ray, waiting in a public bathroom to kill Martin Luther King

Hey - when are you gonna be through in Look, I don't know how long I'll be. Try the one there? I gotta go in a big way! downstairs at Jim's Grill.

Aw man. emon. I've been drinking all day and I Geez. Can't a guy aim in peace around here? cant hold it much longer! Give me a break! Oops - looks like I just dented the sill here...

ni give you everything I have. I'll even throw in my How am I supposed to kill King with drunks wife! Just let me in man, this hurts! banging on my door every minute? Wh000ps...

Pang slippery tub!

July-Angust, 1998 GordonNovel:AgerdAgainstGarrison

By Lisa Pease

In past issues of Probe, we have learned a Reserve. After a few months at Northrop, he information to Garrison, that Novel knew that great deal more about the Kennedy assassina- was accepted to USC, where he took a course Governor McKeithen and J. Marshall Brown tion through the words of Gordon Michael in play writing and studied television produc- were out to wreck Garrison's chances in an Novel, taken during his deposition in his suit tion. He also claimed that one of his class- upcoming election by bugging his campaign against Playboy magazine, a suit which was ul- mates was the future king of Mozambique. manager's phone. Garrison wanted CO know timately thrown out of court on the grounds They met because of a mutual interest in auto what Novel knew about bugging and anti- that his case lacked credibility. He was suing racing. He applied for a scholarship to the pres- bugging equipment. Playboy for having published Jim Garrison's tigious Pasadena Playhouse and was accepted In late 1966, Novel heard from Dean charge during his interview that Gordon Novel into their program. The program was aimed Andrews that Garrison was quietly looking was CIA. During the course of the deposition, at the business side, training producers and into the assassination of President Kennedy. it became obvious that Novel had indeed been writers, but Novel enjoyed the fencing. (Novel Novel characterized Andrews as working on involved with the CIA, and thus the determi- was also proficient in archery.) He was there the investigation with Garrison, at this point, nation by the judge. for six months. saying Andrews was Garrison's advisor, and But in this 1500+ page deposition, there In lace 1957 and early 1958, Novel wrote that "They were trying to figure out how the is still much gold to be mined. We have "little confidential trash" for Confidential Maga- plot went." More specifically, Novel reported, learned from this deposition such bombshells zine, the magazine owned by Fred and Marga- using Andrews' own colorful terminology, as the fact that Novel was in direct contact ret Mead. He wrote under a pseudonym which they wanted to know "Who killed Cock with Allen Dulles during the period in which he said was provided as a matter of course by Robin." At that point, Novel thought such he was working to undermine Garrison. We the magazine. He described his job in this speculation was "stupid and inane and point- learned that Guy Banister and Sergio Arcacha manner: less," explaining, "I was very aware of the Smith worked under David Atlee Phillips in Warren Report and I happened to ascribe to anti-Castro propaganda campaigns and that They would give you a detective report. a broken- down report and they gave you the times. dates do have a bad habit of believing in the Phillips had been to Banister's office. We and places. et cetera, and cars, et cetera, and time. United States Government for better or for learned that the Houma raid, in which Novel, and witnesses, whatever they could get, photo- worse." Banister, Smith, David Ferrie, Layton Martens graphs. And then you cheese it up you just write Novel claimed he heard only bits and pieces and others were involved, was a raid to obtain the dialog into the damn thing. about Garrison's case between that conversa- weapons destined for the Bay of Pigs opera- He returned after these episodes to New tion and the time it exploded onto the front tion. pages of newspapers on February 17, 1967. In this article, you will hear how Novel Orleans and enrolled at LSU. By the summer came CO be involved in undermining Garrison, of 1959, he decided he had had enough of his relationship with Walter Sheridan, and school, and wanted to strike out on his own. Hooking Up With Garrison about the famous "Mr. Weiss" letter, includ- He operated a place called the International Raceway in Hammond, Louisiana out of the About 4:30 p.m. in the afternoon, shortly ing who Mr. Weiss really was. Hammond airport, leasing unused runways after the story broke, Novel got a call from for drag racing. His two partners in this ven- Robertson, asking him to come over to his Novel's Early fpisodes ture were his good friend Rancier Ehlinger office to talk to a friend who needed help. and Salvador Giangrosso. Savvy Novel asked would it have anything to A great deal of Novel's curious background do with "what is on the front page in the and character is revealed in this transcript. For He also got to know many in the political circles through his evidently well off and well- newspapers." Robertson said yes. Novel re- example, he once worked at Boeing. When he counted the following conversation: was fired for making too many long distance connected mother. He met Willard phone calls, he let out some information that Robertson, a man who was to become some- "Jim has a problem that you are the only person I caused the man who fired him to also be fired. what of a patron of Novel's. During 1959- know that can take care of it-" I said. "What is He once shot a cop with a pea shooter from a 1960 Novel became "socially and politically his problem?" He said. "Well. as you can read by bus. A cop came aboard the bus because an interested in politics." Novel dated his asso- the newspaper, he has decided to reopen the ciation with Clay Shaw as having begun in Kennedy investigation and that he has a case. and African American kid had refused to sit in the he says he has promised me that he has all the this period, 1959 CO colored only section. The cop pulled the kid be exact. evidence." off the bus, and a surprisingly civil rights- minded Novel blew a pea at the cop. Novel and Garrison And I said. "Well, what do you need me for then? Living in Pasadena in the late fifties, he He says. "Well, he is very, very worried that the Novel had first met Garrison casually in a applied and was accepted at the Northrop government is going to be bugging his telephones Aeronautical Institute of Technology. Novel bar in 1964. In 1966, Willard Robertson, one in his offices and what have you." And I said, really wanted to learn how to fly jets, but he of the Truth or Consequences supporters of "That's interesting. that's probable, that makes had had asthma as a child and wasn't allowed Garrison, set up a meeting between the two. sense and I wouldn't disagree with it." I said, "In to fly, although he belonged to the Naval Air Novel had told Robertson, who passed the my opinion." I said, The has got to be crazy.' I said. "because if he has the case, he will literally MOM July-August, 1998 r

Page 11

overthrow the government." That was my exact handler, and that he believed Ferrie and there." statement. Arcacha handled the more nuts-and-bolts Novel knew two of the agents personally: Novel claimed he told Robertson at least portions of the operation. Peter Chase and Roger Bombardier. He also ten times that he didn't want to get involved, Novel's enthusiasm waned well before the claimed that "the FBI occasionally worked for but agreed to listen to Garrison. He met Gar- end of this first meeting. "I just couldn't see me." Novel characterized the agents as "hun- rison at the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans. taking on the entire federal establishment and gry wolves" who nonetheless approached him and had a long conversation. The following being his scapegoat to do it." He was also gently, saying, "Hi. What has the Giant [Gar- is excerpted from Novel's rendition of this unsure that Garrison could afford to pay him: rison) got on his mind tonight?" Novel invited event: am going to set up security against the FBI. the them into his place and proceeded to tell them everything his would-be employer had just I said, "Well. what do you want me to do?" He Secret Service. the CIA. et al., the Internal Rev- enue et al. against you, what is going to be in it shared with him. "We joked a lot, we joked a says, "I would like you to be my chief of secu- rity." And I said. "What price glory." I said, "Be- for me from the standpoint of this If they win lot. I was friendly with them. I wasn't worried cause I am interested in getting married and I am and you lose. everybody gets hurt...He says. "I about them...I mean, we called each other like, Strongly considering it and, " I said. "I haven't— can assure you that you will be paid and com- you know, 'Gordon,' and 'Pete,' and 'Hey. if I am going to become involved in something pensated for your services in a manner that will clown,' and things like that." The FBI agents make anything that you have done in the past like this. it is going to take up all my time." I said. asked how close Novel could get to Garrison. "I have to be paid " appear to be small." I says. "That would be very difficult for you to achieve " and would Novel help them, to which Novel responded, "Do I have any choice." They re- Well. he says. "Well. I have got to worry about However, Willard Robertson had raised plied that they were simply asking him on a the guys that are working on my staff because I quite a bit of money to be used to back Garri- "friendly basis" and he replied "Look, I will believe the CIA is going to put men in there." son. Enough to pique Novel's interest, at any This is the first time he said that. cooperate. I have got no compunctions against rate. it." Novel was surprised to learn that his Novel goes on to tell a story that, several Novel referred to his involvement as look- friend Bill Gurvich had joined up with Garri- drinks later, Garrison talked of a plan to shoot ing like that of a "quadruple agent", adding son. "That doesn't sound like Bill Gurvich to a dart with atropine or miazine, some form of that by then, he was being asked to do some me," Novel told Garrison. Garrison also ex- tranquilizing agent, into David Ferrie in or- work for Walter Sheridan. Hmm. The FBI, pressed frustration that Dean Andrews had der to kidnap him for the point of working Garrison and Sheridan. That makes three. stopped being cooperative. him over to obtain the details of the plot. Given Who was the fourth party for whom Novel Novel told how he was taken by Garrison Big Jim's propensity for humor, it is entirely worked? initially, but quickly changed his mind: likely he was just recounting an amusing fan- tasy. Novel, however, appears to have taken See. he started to open up his case on that [refer- Novel and Sheridan ring to the assassinationl Now, that was—he him seriously. had me convinced. I was skeptical the first hour Novel says a turning point for him came "The minute I went to work for him, Mr. or the first forty-live minutes. he had me con- when Garrison expressed a desire to arrest Sheridan got me involved in Mr. Garrison's vinced the next hour. and then as he unwound James Reily of the Reily Coffee Company, witch hunt from the other side." Novel re- and told me about where he could go with the where Oswald had worked. Novel thought ferred to the arrangement as "clandestine thing, he then de-convinced me and that is when such a notion was preposterous. His (illogi- employment" for which he was paid $500 in I became very interested. Because I believe I was cal) explanation was that Reily was "just too cash (by Sheridan at Novel's apartment) and other than Gurvich the first person who knew he big a thief" to be involved in the assassina- was going to arrest Shaw. later another $750 when he was hiding out in tion. Columbus, Ohio. Novel passed Sheridan rapes _Then he went on to tell me about David Ferrie. Despite Novel's tale of his near instant dis- of conversations between himself and Mr. and in the last hour he started telling me all these missal of Garrison's credibility, when Garri- Robertson. Novel is coy with the lawyers about weird crackpot schemes of his. arid the more he son told him later that night that he had only having Garrison on tape, claiming, "1 had tape unwound on the principals, that's when his plot one witness with the guts to testify, Novel said, recordings of Mr. Garrison, but they were made good sense and his schemes made sense. "Do me and yourself a favor. Don't tell any- turned over to a parry, or parties unknown to but when he started talking about the actual in- body who it is until you are ready to get him me at this time." Novel explained further. dividuals and he staring talking about things that to testify." I knew, like telling me that a guy could hypnotize As I recall it was in the presence of some other himself and beat a be detector. I knew he was agents. There was a gentleman who was identi- lust absolutely nuts, and that's when we Novel and the FBI fied to me. but he never showed any credentials started—that is when I started pushing him to For all I know. he could have worked for you or get the rest of his case. The conversation with Garrison lasted anybody But I was told it was all right to turn about five hours, after which Novel returned aver certain tape recordings to him. Curiously, Novel seemed to have great to his apartment at 336 Exchange Place. When faith in his own ability CO pass a lie detector Novel arrived home, as he described it, "it Novel first met Sheridan in person through test, as he incessantly mentioned his willing- looked like an armada of FBI agents were Dean Andrews. "Mr. Andrews called me and ness to do so throughout the 1500 plus page there....They were hanging out—they were so asked me to come up to his office. He had some- deposition! obvious that it was ridiculous.... they were in one, he said, it was very important that I meet." When Novel claimed that Garrison the doorway. They were across the street in Novel described the encounter thought David Ferrie was a superagent of the the alley, there was two or three of them "Hi. hello. Tell me everything you know about Gar- CIA, Novel added that was "very possible, by dressed up as bums. There was two of them rison. I got to know. Who are you? I am Walter the way, but I doubt it." Garrison told Novel parked in a car. I would say all told there must Sheridan from NBC." What does that mean to that Shaw's role was primarily that of money have been six of them, Mr. Hoover's proudest continued on page 12

July-August, 1998 ?Ron Gordon Novel continued from page 1 The following is excerpted from a State Police report me on Novel made out to Jim Garrison from officers Thomas I am former chief investigator for Senator Rob- Casso and John J. Buccola dated April 1, 1967. ert Kennedy and Bob thinks this is a fraud.' IThe evidence contradicts Sheridan's assertion in this regard—Ede I SUBJECT: Special Investigation, 3-0-87 through 4-1-67 .. 'von also explained other phases of this case and when the name of Gordon I said, "You are not the first person to tell me that in the past twenty-four hours.' Or whatever pe- Novel, W/11, came up, Sgt. Smoot& advised that on March 7,1987, Gordon Novel, riod it was. who is an acquaintance of Sgt. Buccola, called him at his residence asking him if he (Bev:iota) was assigned to the case and what did he know about the case. Sgt. I said, 'A lot of other people seem to ascribe to that theory" He said. "Who in particular?" I said. Bucoole advised Novel that he was not on the case and knew nothing about It "The Federal Bureau of Investigation." He said, Novel advised Buocola that he soon would be and that he (Novel) would appreciate 'What do you know about it?" I said. 'I'll tell being called when this happened, as Navel was interested in this case. you what I have told the FBI and what I have told Garrison Let me know that your credentials are We were advised by Louis Ivon to conoentrate on Shaw and any phase of the in order." case on which we could uncover any information. From March 9 through March 21, 1987, vre were unable to locate Clay Shaw but the following was accomplished. So he showed me his credentials. I says, "Who do you represent. per Sc. Mr. Kennedy or NBCr During this period it was brought to our attention that Gordon Novel attempted to He said, "I represent the Kennedy family and obtain the names and addresses ofthe two subjects who were arrested with Layton NBC." ... He said...Bob was the Attorney General Martens from one of Desk Sergeants for the BM of ;100. With this information, during the time that the Warren Report was writ- ten. and much of it was under his control !an- the undersigned officers went to the Bureau of Identification in New Orleans; other bogus claim---Eds.l. and he knows it to be obtained s mug shot of Idaykeasekeee, also mug shots and rap sheets of the two a fraud.' End of story. subjects arrested with him on 8-30-61, one Andrew Blackmon and one Melvin I says, well. I told him about Houma. I told him Sealing. about what I knew about Mr. Garrison. And I said. Sgt. Bu000la then Galled Gordon Navel and agreed to meet him in his establish- "What do you want to do?" ment, the Jamaican Village, 800 North Rampart Street, New Orleans, on Friday He says. "Well, you obviously know more about night, March 10,1967. this thing than anybody walking around right Whlls In the Jamaican Village with Novel, Sgt. Buccola asked Novel how he now" I said. "Yeah. So what?" I said, 'Mr. Garri- knew that he (Bus colit) would be assigned to the ease even before assigned. Ravel son wants me to be his chief of security" He said, 'Fine. How would you like to be my chief of secu- stated that he had connections everywhere. Sgt. Butiocila then &eked Novel to lend rity while you are working for Mr. Garrison?' him a miniature tape recorded (ale).— Novel stated that all of his recorders were working full-time at this I said. "Gee, triple agent. How much are you go- time but that maybe something could be done fora little ing to pay?" He says, "Well, you will get what- inforrnation....The information Navel wanted in exchange for the tape recorder ever you want.' ..we had an agreement, $500 a was the mug shots and names and Menace of the two men arrested with Mar day....! think I worked another day and Walter blew tens and the exact details of our part in the investigation. At this time I showed it. Walter Sheridan will admit, he goofed a little bit. I am sure....Well. the plot unfolded at a high him a mug shot of Layton Martens and Novel stated he knew Verlaine but etudled rate of speed. Mr. Garrison became aware who at length the picture and the information contained on the back of the mug shot. Mr. Sheridan was. Mr. Sheridan pretty well spelled He then asked where the mug abate of the two man arrested with Martens were out his intentions of why he was in New Orleans and I informed him that I had left those at home but would show them to him to Mr. Garrison's investigators. He told them it was his opinion they were a joke. And we were when he delivered the tape recorder— Novel then started pumping me as to why off to the races. my partner and I were not in Le spitte and elms Novel NNW to know more about this cue than I did, I advised him that we bed to have WM tiMe off and Mr. Sheridan didn't come there with an open mind to Mr. Garrison's investigation. that I was not interested in talking 'hop. Novel claimed that he was working with the Distriet.Attorney (Garrison) and that he had immunity from J. Edgar Hoover, During the initial conversation, Sheridan Garrison, the CIA and anyone else oonneoted with this Investigation. /fuel asked also pumped Novel for information regard- ing the different Cubans, who did what, and me, 'When Garrison opened up this case to you, weren't you amazed to hear about so forth. Whereas Novel had held back much the second Oswald?', to which I stated, "Stranger things have happened." of what he knew from Garrison, he told Sheri- While Novel wee pumping me he asked what I thomilit about 'the student' dan everything. "Walter has a way of getting ducking beak to oollege when Ferris was killed (Navel did not nu "died' but ape- inside of your heart, and at the same time eifically mid 'Irilletr.).....Navel stated he 'Mew all of the people involved at the Walter offered to pick up the phone and get time they were questioned by the CIA end FBI. I asked him why he became in- Bobby Kennedy on the phone and things like volved with these people end he stated awe were makingmoner —Novel also Inti- that, and that was strong enough for me, and mated he knew the taut whereabouts of Cie Raw and wee amused Eng GarritOn I wasn't about to call his bluff So I told him the truth Among the things Sheridan wanted had Eihtar under obernation. continued on page 34 Mai July-August, 1998 He3 Name n Cora r

By Jim DiEugenio

This past March, April and May, Gerald let, KPFK. Shockingly, or not, two of the fea- Report. Posner acknowledges that his debt to Posner did a mini-version rerun of what he tured voices on National Public Radio on the Lifton is a bit odd, but makes no more of it had done in 1993. Five years ago, Posner wrote thirtieth anniversary of King's death were than that. We wonder what Lifton would think one of the most one-sided, monomaniacal Posner and Robert Blakey. of another comment from that interview books ever on the assassination of John F. How single-minded is single-minded? In which is a pure Posnerism: Kennedy. Case Closed was given a huge public- an interview in the San Jose Mercury News (4/ ity build-up and, when released, Posner was 26/98), reporter Jeff Guinn asked Posner if The murders of Martin Luther King and John allotted more public appearances on major me- Kennedy did not do justice to the status of the Ray had actually killed King. Posner's answer victims. Many people want something meatier to dia outlets than any author in recent memory, was, to put it lightly, untouched with ambi- lend extra weight to how they died. In each case, a save Seymour Hersh in 1997. In the mean- guity: "There is no question. Ray was the conspiracy does that nicely. Look, the facts are that time, Posner has become a regular name at shooter. That's how I see the evidence, how King and Kennedy were killed by sociopathic publications like the New York Times and Time anybody objective has to see the evidence." losers....There were no intricate assassination plots. magazine. In the latter publication, early last None. year, the first announcements came that Such metaphysical certainty from a man Posner was at work on a book on the King who writes about scouring the Toronto Sun assassination. No surprise, it was timed to Such metaphysical certainty newspaper for mentions of Ray in 1967 when appear at the time of the thirtieth anniver- that newspaper did not exist until 1971. Ditto sary of King's murder. Although Posner did from a man who writes about for research Posner did at the so-called Cana- not get quite as big a launch this time as be- scouring the Toronto Sun dian Bureau of Vital Statistics, which also is fore, he still appeared with Dan Rather on 48 newspaper for mentions of Ray non-existent. Hours (3/24/98). and had a large spread in No surprise, the symphony of praise also Newsweek (4/6/98). The latter was interest- in 1967 when that newspaper included the New York Times and the Memphis ing in that it coupled an excerpt from Posner's did not exist until 1971. Ditto Commercial Appeal. The former review was writ- book with rather unenthusiastic articles about for research Posner did at the ten by Anthony Lewis, their liberal commen- King's legacy and the lives and characters of tator who also praised the Warren his children. The phenomenon that Probe de- so-called Canadian Bureau of Commission Report when it was first issued. tailed about the JFK assassination—a posthu- Vital Statistics, which also is The latter's review was penned by Marc mous character attack to go with a cover-up non-existent. Perrusquia who was that newspaper's point about the original murder—was now trans- man on the effort by Bill Pepper to revive the muted and crystallized in the MLK case. King case. The praise for Posner extends Killing the Dream is pretty much drawn from through the major media to major political fig- the same mold as Case Closed. ures. In June of last year, Governor Frank Posner shows the same type of "convict at Posner went on to use Robert Blakey's HSCA Keating of Oklahoma praised Posner's earlier any cost" attitude, the same quoting of clearly version of a motive, the Ray brothers were work on the JFK case as "masterful". biased resources, the same use of character after a $50,000 bounty put up by a Sc. Louis Masterful? Let us never forget the sworn assassination on the supposed perpetrator, the racist. As Bill Pepper and others have noted it affidavit of Roger McCarthy of Failure Analy- same heavy-handed maneuvering of the evi- is odd that, if this was the motive, there ex- sis Associates. His company did work for the dence to rig the deck. For instance, in his pub- ists no evidence CO indicate that Ray or his ABA when they did their mock trial of Os- lic appearances, Posner's version of candor is brothers tried to collect the money. Another wald in San Francisco in 1992. McCarthy's admitting that certain government agencies oddity here is that one of the people who firm provided experts and analysis for both had surveillance on King. Sending King a note Posner thanks in his book is none other than the defense and prosecution. In his affidavit, with a thinly veiled threat to commit suicide David Lifton. Back in 1977, Lifton, with Jeff McCarthy writes: "There was not a conclusion or be sexually blackmailed—which is what the Cohen, wrote an article for New Times. It reached by FaAA as a company concerning the FBI did to King—qualifies as a bit more than (rather weakly) postulated Ray as a racist and issues of the assassination. Each of our teams intelligence surveillance. Yet, no commenta- his brother Jerry Ray as a co-conspirator in a did its best within the factual, time, and re- tor I listened to challenged Posner on this rightwing plot. This article caught the eye of source constraints to assist the two eminent point. This included the supposedly liberal Blakey and the HSCA and Lifton's ideas ended trial lawyer teams to resolve the key issues Marc Cooper of the Los Angeles Pacifica out- up influencing the final product of their Final continued on page 14 July-August, 1998 pategE Page 14

None of the reviewers mentioned another M.D. Posner testified that they confirmed to him The Return of Gerald Posner problem with Case Closed: the interview deni- that they had changed their minds about the origi- continued from page 13 als. Some of the people who Posner sources nal location they had given for Kennedy's skull wound....Posner informed the US. Congress that for their respective sides." Significantly, he also in his footnotes deny ever talking to him. For instance, when Peter Scott phoned Carlos the pathologists told him that they had erred (in added, "..there are gaps in the factual record their original autopsy report)—the Iheadlwound Bringuier in New Orleans to confirm that he that our analysis was unable to bridge." Fi- was 10 centimeters higher, at the top rear of the nally, the affidavit concludes: told Posner what Posner quoted him as say- skull. On March 30. 1994.Icalled both Drs. Humes ing, Bringuier said he didn't recall ever talk- and Boswell. Both physicians told me that they Subsequent to our presentation one Gerald Posner ing to the author. Gary Aguilar wrote a letter had not changed their minds about Kennedy's contacted Du Robert Piziali. the leader of the pros- to the Federal Bar News & Journal noting this wounds at all. They stood by their ecution team, and requested statements...which contradicted copies of the prosecution ma- Posner. Startlingly Dr. Boswell terial, but not defense material, told me that he has never spo- which we provided. Eventually ken with Posner Random House published a book by Mr. Posner entitled Case The following Is from the second page of an affidavit by As John Newman has Closed. While Mr. Posner ac- Henry Burnell Clark, dated 9/12/87, discussing the noted, one of the most incred- knowledges in the book the presence of Oswald, Ferrie and Clay Shaw In Clinton, i ble things about Posner's material from Failure Analysis Louisiana in the Summer of 1983: book was its bombastic tide. Associates he does not mention How could anyone write a or acknowledge the ABA, or book so pretentiously tided mention or acknowledge that ...During the same period of time in the summer of 1983, there was additional material after the conclusion of the picketing demonstrations and during when the millions of docu- prepared by FaAA for the de- the attempted voting registration of the Negroes, I stepped out ments sealed for decades fense. Incredibly. Mr, Posner In front of the Stewart & Carroll Store and saw a man whom I were just about to be re- makes no mention of the fact noticed particularly because of his unusual hair. leased? Couldn't there be just the mock jury that heard that It a few interesting morsels in and saw the technical material was bushy and stood up [MI all directions on his head like he had been out on a drunk all night. He walked up to the pay there that could have some that he believes is so persuasive effect on the Warren and "closed" the case. but telephone on the street and stood there for a short while. I do which also saw the FaAA ma- not know whether he made a telephone call or not. From pic- Commission's conclusions? terial prepared for the defense. tures shown to me this date I can state this man who went to (Vincent Bugliosi's upcoming could not reach a verdict. the telephone booth was the man wearing over his chest the Oswald-did-it whitewash has a similar title, Final Verdict.) In early televised interviews of label NEW ORLEANS, LA 107062 with the numbers under It Mr. Posner that were witnessed reading 2 18 82 [an arrest photo of David Ferriel or It was his One notorious presumption by FaAA staff. Mr, Posner made twin brother. I have marked with my signature the aforenumbered made by Posner was the no attempt to correct any sup- photograph as that of the man who walked past me In Clinton statement that Oswald did position by a questioner that and stood by the public telephone that day. not know David Ferrie. This, the FaAA analytical work was Thus signed and executed of the own free will and volition of course, is a real problem performed at his request for him, and after a due reading of the whole by appearer on the date for the Oswald-did-it crowd and certainly left quite the op- since it opens up a Pandora's posite impression and place aforesaid: /s/ Henry Burnell Clark box of weird associations for Another point, reviewers that supposed Marxist loner of Posner's recent whitewash Sworn to and subscribed before me, notary on the 12th Day Oswald. It was a box Posner do not mention is that in the of September, 1987 at Clinton, Louisiana. did not want to lift the cop earlier work, Posner used /s/ William F. Kline off of. Very shortly after the Professor David Wrone as an Notary Public book's publication, Posner historian who is aghast at East Feliciano Parish, Louisiana had CO eat those words when some of the more irrespon- PBS and Frontline produced a sible efforts of the critical photo of the two in the Civil community. What Posner, Air Patrol. The bumbling nor any of his reviewers, add is that Wrone was Posner had to recover some also aghast at Posner's book when it originally phenomenon (Vol. 41 #5): face, so he told another whopper. In response came out. Wrone wrote a merciless review for to a negative review of his book which used I called (James) Tague on April 30. 1994, and he The Journal of Southern History (Vol. 6 RI). In the told rne....that he has never spoken with Posner. the photo, Posner replied that the picture first paragraph, Wrone stated, though the implication of three references in Case could be a fake since two such photos secured is that Posner did speak with him on two by Jim Garrison depicting Oswald with Ferrie "...[Posneesj book is so theory drrven, so rife with Closed successive days... ' had proved to be fakes also. First of all, there speculation. and so frequently unable to conform is no evidence that Garrison ever had photos his text with the factual content in his sources that Then there is the possibility that Posner of Oswald and Ferrie in the CAP Secondly, it stands as one of the stellar instances of irre- may have deceived Congress. To quote sponsible publishing on this subject." the photos which he did have appear to show Aguilar's letter again: Ferrie with Shaw, not Ferrie with Oswald. He later added, "Massive numbers of fac- On November 1 7. 1993 before the House Com- Third, no one has ever produced evidence to tual errors suffuse the book, which make it a mittee on Government Operations, Posner reported demonstrate that veritable minefield.... Posner often presents the those particular photos are that he had interviewed two of Kennedy's patholo- forgeries. opposite of what the evidence says." gists. James Humes. M.D. and J. Thornton Boswell. But Posner did not have to go photograph plif/aa July-August, 1998 hunting to know that what he had said about Ferrie and Oswald was false. He just had to go to New Orleans and talk to some of Ferrie's Ferrie and Oswald old CAP cadets. Or, he could have talked to some of the HSCA New Orleans investigators stilt living in New Orleans like L. J. Delsa and Bob Buras (see the accompanying excerpted document). They could have told him that the "There is no credible evidence that presumption was patently false. Or he could have just waited to publish his book in 1994 Oswald knew...David Ferrie" when some of the following documents were released. But then of course, the book would (p. 148 of 1993 hardcover edition of have appeared too late to dominate the broad- Gerald Posner's book Case Closed.) cast waves on the thirtieth anniversary ofJFK's murder. Which was probably the real point all along. What makes this above assertion quite tenable is that on March 28, 1998 the Is that so? Decide for yourself. New York Times allowed the masterful Posner to write an editorial for the 30th anniversary of King's death. In it, Posner asked for the re- KENNEDY lease of the government's King assassination SELECT COMMITTEE ON ASSASSINATIONS files. is Posner now an advocate of the free Name JerrY Paradis Date 12/15/78 Time 3.i20 As John Newman has noted, one of Address New Orleans law firm Place by phone 504/###-#### the most incredible things about Interview: Posner's book was its bombastic title. How could anyone write a book so I called Paradis to cilscuss his involvement with David Ferris and the CAP in New pretentiously titled when the millions Orleans during the 1950s. of documents sealed for decades were I told him that we had seen his name in Ferrie's FBI interview from November 25, just about to be released? 1963, and that Ferrie had stated that Paradls was the commander or instructor of the CAP unit during the period in which Ferrie was associated with it in around 1954-55; and that Parable hats been the instructor during the period Ln which Os- flow of information? Does he really want to wald was alleged to have attended. In the FBI Interview, Ferrie had recommended spend years going through millions of docu- Paradis as the person who could tell the Bureau that Oswald and himself were never ments and cull out the wheat from the chaff? In the same unit at the same time. Does he wish CO vigorously challenge the offi- cial version of some of our history? Of course I asked Paracils if he was ever interviewed by the Bureau back then and he stated not. After saying that the JFK Act of 1992 has that he had not; noting that he has never previously been questioned about any of it. released plenty of pages of new files, Posner's New York Times column continued: Paradls, now a corporate attorney, stated that "Oswald and Ferris were in the unit together. I know they were because I was there." He stated that "I specifically While nothing has contradicted the original War- remember Oswald. I can remember him clearly, and Ferric, was heading the unit ren Commission finding that Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole gunman, the files have filled in many then. I'm not saying that they may have been there together, I'm saying it is a details for historians and eliminated much of the certainty." suspicion that the government was hiding some- Paradis stated that he like (sic) Oswald, but that he thing nefarious. was quiet. He stated that he rarely discussed anything with Oswald except CAP business and instructions. He Are we to conclude that Posner has read said: "I really only talked about flying with Lee." He further stated that he was in the 4 million pages now declassified at the the CAP for a couple years, but that he saw Oswald at the meetings for only a few National Archives? From the record adduced weeks or months. He said: "I can't say how marry times he came to the meetings, but above, could we trust him if he had read them? he was there quite a few times." He stated that he would guess "at least ten or But further, since publishing Case Closed in fifteen meetings." He stated that Ferrie was present at all of these meetings, saying that Ferrie never missed coming and was 1993, Posner has written two other non-fic- always there." tion books. Besides the King book, he did a He stated that he and Ferris became fairly good friends and that he respected biography of Ross Perot timed for the 1996 Ferris, though he was somewhat unusual . election. Assuming he worked on the Perot book at least through 1995 and 1996, and the Paradla stated that he does not know of any relationship between Ferrie and Oswald King book in 1997 and early 1998, just when other than their contact at the CAP meetings, and recalls that there was nothing did he have the time to go through the mil- unusual about their relationship there. lions of newly declassified pages? I think we He stated that Ferrie was a "fairly stern, but generally likable" guy, and that the all know the answer to that question. Unfor- unit primarily studied aerodynamics, navigation, and meteorology. tunately, so does the New York 'Times. • continued on page 16 July-August, 1998 pqcsa Ferrie and Oswald The following is excerpted continued from page 15 from an interview of Mr. He stated that these meeting with Ferris and Oswald at the CAP occurred at New Robert Boylston conducted Orleans Lakefron (sic) Airport, and that Ferris and some of the others occasion- by HSCA field investigators ally went to Moissant airport. He stated that Ferris later left the Lakefront air- port and worked only at Moissant with the CAP. Bob Buras and L. J. Deisa on October 17, 1978 at the He stated that the unit used to meet twice a week, on Friday nights and on Sunday afternoon. Hilton Hotel in New Orleans. He stated that be always thought It was "funny' that Garrison's people never interviewed him about the CAP; he stated that he was also a personal acquain- tance of Garrison's aide, James Alcock, but never discussed the case with him DAVE FERRIE paid (him) over one thousand dollars for tuition at the Uni- He stated that le (sic) last saw Ferris sometime in the early 60s after Ferris was fired by Eastern for homosexual activity. He stated that "Ferrie was really bitter versity of Loyola in New Orleans and about that. A very bitter guy." never once asked for it back or even referred to it.... I asked him if he was aware that Ferrie worked for Marcello, and he stated that he had never heard that before, and was surprised. ....Boylston remembers Ferrie over the years as always talking about se- paradis ageln repeated that he has been surprised that the FBI never interviewed cret orders of a military or Intelligence him, and stated that "I sure could have told them when Oswald and Ferris were in nature. He was usually saying things also repeated that he does the CAP. I could have given them what they wanted." He to impress others of his knowledge. He not believe the relationship between Oswald end Ferris "meant anything really," talked of knowledge of some seoret or- and does not think that Ferrie was a. bad guy or anything like that' der during the Lebanon Crisis in 1959. Inteviewer Signature In L 960 he knew of secret orders about Cuba. Dave once was wounded and Typed Signature Mike Ewing stated that he was shot over Cuba In Date transcribed 12116178 00 or 61. Around 1961 Ferris talked a great deal about a "group" who knew what was going on in this country and was going to take care of It.....

KENNEDY FERRIE did know a lot of people and SELECT COMMii IEE ON ASSASSINATIONS when the CAPC Drill Team went to Na- tional Competition Boylston, John Irion Name Anthony Atzenhoffer Date1/2/79 Time 11:48 and Jim Graffeo went to Dallas, Tex. three days in advance. Ferris them Address Gretna. Louisiana Place by phone: 505/ gave a name to call when they got there and Interview: when they talked to this men (unknow) he had reservations for them at a mo- I called Mr. Atzenoffer to discuss several points which were not entirely clear tel. Ferris later flew back on an Air from the report of Bob Burae's interview with him in Ootober. Force 0-47. Boylston remembers being Atzenhoffer stated that he believes that Ferris Was In fact instructing the Moissant a little surprised when the Warren Com- CAP unit at the time that Oswald was a member. Atzenhoffer stated "I can't mission said that Ferris didn't have con- recall seeing the two of them together. I don't have that detailed a memory. But tacts In Dallas. The man that set up the I'm sure they were there together at, the same time." Atzenhoffer stated that motel and the people that got him the Oswald was very quiet and was mainly friendly with Ed Voebel, who Atzenhoffer C-47 were personal contacts as far as also knew. Boylston could ascertain. Ferris would motivate people by flattery and disci- Atzenhoffer stated that "Ferree was always around the unit during those days. I can't say that I know anything about Ferrie and Oswald being together anywhere pline and always had an effect on the else except at the meetings." people around him. Boylston was warned by Ferris not to ever talk about Atzenhoffer also stated that the -experiments" that Perna tried to recruit CAP the training going on over the Lake or cadets for were supposedly to be conducted by the Medical School of Tulane anywhere no matter what happened. Univereity. Ferric said not to talk about It even If Inteviewer Signature "it" didn't go. Boylston didn't know what "It" was and to this day don't (sic) want Typed Signature Mike Ewing to know. He felt then and still feels that some of the people around Ferris and Date transcribed Jan 3.. 1979 Ferrie were not playing when they talked about "taking care of something" pRO3E July-August, 1998 Page 17

PEDEBAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

Date 11127/63 The ROY MC COY, 108 Fourth Street, Chalmette, Louisiana, telephonically contacted the New Orleans office of the FBI and following III advised that his wife had received a telephone call from DAVID FERRIE during the afternoon of Novemeber 27, 1963. FBI Mr. MC COY said that he was not at home when FERRIE called but according to his wife, FERRIE was interested in any photographs which MC COY might have in his possession. These document photographs were in reference to MC COY's former association with the Civll Air Patrol of which he was a member during the was early 1950's. He said the meetings of his group were held at the New Orleans Airport and that for a time, DAVID FERRIE was the head of this unit. FERRIE also asked MRS. MC COY declassified whether the name of OSWALD was familiar to her. Mr. MC COY said that he had not returned FERRIE's before call but that in conversations with his wife, it was her impres- sion that FERRIE was seeking information abnout OSWALD and photographs of OSWALD to show that he was not acquainted Posner with OSWALD. Mr. MC COY said that to the best of his recollection, started his Oswald never attended any Civll Air Patrol meeting at the New book on the Orleans Airport nor did he ever meet OSWALD.

JFK case. On 11 /27/03 at New Orleans. Louisiana File # NO 89-69 By SA STEPHEN M. CALLENDER Date dictated 11/27/62

Through the photograph adduced by Frontline, and the documents preced- MEMORANDUM ing the above one, we now know that March 1, 1968 the last line of the above FBI report TO: Jim Garrison, District Attorney is wrong. Ferrie knew exactly what he FROM: Andrew J. Sciambra, Assistant District Attorney was doing hunting down any photos of he and his longtime friend Lee RE: DAVID FERRIE Harvey Oswald. After all, how does Today I talked to MRS. DORIS EAMES in regard to her meeting with DAIVD FERRIE. It was reported to us by MARY LEE one explain a member of the Fair LASAVIA that MRS. EAMES had said that DAVID FERRIE came Play for Cuba Committee associat- to see her in regards to where the OSWALDS were right after ing with a CIA contract agent in- OSWALD left Texas. MRS. EAMES today said that DAVID FERRIE did come to her house but it was not until after the assassina- volved with the Bay of Pigs, tion and he was not looking for the OSWALDS but only wanted Operation MONGOOSE, and para- to know if MRS. EAMES had any information regarding LEE HARVEY OSWALD's library card. MRS. EAMES had stated that military training for Cuban exiles? he had seen OSWALD in the public library and FERRIE wanted to know if MR. EAMES had also seen OSWALD's library card Posner also tried to state that even if and, if he had he wanted to know whose library card OSWALD there was a link between Ferrie and had. MRS. EAMES also said that she cannot ever remember seeing anybody with the OSWALDS or go to the OSWALD'S home. Oswald through the CAP in the fif- She said that they were loners and didn't associate with any- ties, there was nothing between them body. in 1963. Then why is the following (Doris Eames was Oswald's neighbor while in New Orleans in report in Garrison's files? 1963,1

July-Animist, 1998 pereag Page 18

Court. And today, as a matter of fact, this morning, one of the distractions that I had this morning was the Supreme Court denied cert JEREMY GUNN AT in that case, meaning that we now will be get- ting into the National Archives all of the origi- nal records from Jim Garrison's investigation and prosecution of Clay Shaw. STANFORD UNIVERSITY There are other committees that have looked into this issue as well. Senator Schweiker, who later worked for the Church Transcription by Paul Ruiz Committee, did an investigation into the as- Tape provided by Gary Aguilar sassination. Then when that ended up not proving successful, the House Select Commit- tee on Assassinations was created in the late 1970s. And they, too, looked at the question of the assassination. In our March-April issue of Probe, there was a The American people were not satisfied But what we have found is that with each rather discordant exchange of letters between with the answer that the Warren Commission of these prior investigations, there was a legacy of distrust and doubt that lingered over the Jim DiEugenio and the Review Board. Tom gave. I think now the figure is approximately Kennedy assassination. Most_ people in the Samoluk felt that we had mischaracterized the 70 to 80 percent of the people of the country, this country, believe that there was a con- United States, again, between 70 and 80 per- work of the board by criticizing some of its spiracy to assassinate President Kennedy. cent of the people, believe that there was a members' public comments. We tried to stress There were several other inquiries that conspiracy to kill the president. the point that we felt there was a difference were sponsored by the U.S. government to between the attitudes of four of the board mem- look into the story of the assassination. There bers and the actual staff of the board. For that was the Clark Panel. There was a military re- Well, let's go back to the Warren Com- reason, we have decided to present Chief Coun- view in 1966. Jim Garrison, as you know, par- mission. Look at some of the things that they sel Jeremy Gunn's public comments made in ticularly if you've seen the move "JFK," did did and see some of the very early problems that we have. On December 9 of 1963, the May of this year. We think it dramatizes the an investigation into the assassination him- FBI believed that it had completed its investi- point that we were trying to make in that ex- self. • gation into the assassination. They gave a re- change of letters and gives a much more objec- port to the Warren Commission. tive view of what the board is actually doing. And actually, I have a little bit of timely It was kind of interesting to see what the news to report on that. You remember Kevin members of the Warren Commission thought Costner, who was really Jim Garrison in the about that apparently, or supposedly conclu- movie—how many of you have seen the sive investigation that had been completed by What I'd like to do is talk to you GUNN: movie? Widely seen. So you know— all know J. Edgar Hoover and his friends. about three different areas that I have been who Kevin Costner was. In the discussion about the report that had working in and suggest three sorts of themes During the earlier phase in the board's been issued by the FBI, in then-secret, now for you. The first one is the story of the assas- work, we received a promise from Harry it's open testimony, Hale Boggs, one of the sination itself and the legacy of distrust that Connick, Sr., the father of you-know-whom, members of the Warren Commission, says, story has left. that he would give us the—he's the district "There's nothing in this FBI report about Gov- The second one is to talk a little bit about attorney of New Orleans. And he promised ernor Connally." Earl Warren says, "No." Coo- the work of the agency that I work for. It's an that he would give us the papers from the New per—John Sherman Cooper—and whether or independent agency of the federal govern- Orleans district attorney's office from the time not they found any bullets in him. ment. It was created in 1992, and k's slated of the Garrison investigation. John ]. McCloy then says, "This bullet bus i- to go out of business in September of this year. He then later changed his mind and de- ness leaves me confused." Earl Warren says, So we've just about completed our work. cided not to give us those records. But he said "It's totally inconclusive." Senator Russell And then the third thing I'd like to look at that he wanted nothing further to do with this. says, "They couldn't find where one bullet briefly is what the records that we have been So we subpoenaed the records, and we got the came out that struck the president. Yet they able to declassify and release to the public tell district court in Louisiana to agree to give us found a bullet in the stretcher." us about history, what they tell us about the those records.... So you have commission members, who Kennedy assassination. Harry Connick was not satisfied with that have just read the FBI's conclusive report on On November 29, a week after the assas- answer, so he appealed it to the Fifth Circuit. this, and they can't understand what's going sination, President Johnson appointed a com- And the Fifth Circuit looked over the case, on, what kind of bullets hit President Kennedy, mission to investigate the assassination. That went through a long briefing process. And the where they went, what the trajectory is. And commission, after it issued its final report, Fifth Circuit ended up agreeing with us as this is the report of the finest investigative went out of business and classified many of well, and ordered Harry Connick to turn the body in the United States, the FBI. It had de- the records that it had used to create its story. papers over. voted a massive amount of resources to it So they released some records. They classi- Harry Connick, Sr. — as opposed to Harry within the few weeks after the assassination. fied other records and put them into deep stor- Then John J. McCloy says, referring to age. Connick, singer—Harry Connick, Sr. decided to file petition for cert in the U.S. Supreme Jackie Kennedy, "She's the chief witness as CO moC July-August, 1998 Page 19

how those bullets hit her husband." That's The FBI. or the Warren Commission ex- they classified it, buried it, put it away. an important thing. She was the person sit- amines this question of whether Oswald was Now when the Warren Commission report ting closest to President Kennedy. So she an informant or not. And they asked them- came out, there was doubt in the country would be the one who would have pretty good selves the question, how would we know about whether this was the true story or not. evidence about this. And the Warren Com- whether Oswald was an informant for the FBI? But I think one of the great tragedies of the mission realized that. They understood it, and And then they ask Allen Dulles, former Warren Commission, and the legacy of the they pointed her out as the lead witness. director of the CIA, how they would know Warren Commission is that they were not Then McCloy says, "This is looming up as whether Oswald had been a CIA agent. And completely candid about what they knew the the most confusing thing we've got—how Allen Dulles says, "Well, you wouldn't know." problems were. these bullets hit the president, what hap- And they said, well, wouldn't the director of They wanted to write something, in my pened." So they go on in this sort of discus- CIA tell us this information? And Allen Dulles opinion, that smoothed over the issues so as sion, and they're a little bit confused about says, "Well, if I were the director of CIA, I not to trouble peoples' minds about this. So what's going on. So they don't accept what wouldn't do it." the Warren Commission does not release the the FBI has told them. And they say, well, how would you find FBI report. That remains classified, after the The next session of the Warren Commis- out? And Allen Dulles, the director of CIA, Warren Commission goes out of business. The sion, they now have the autopsy report from says, "The only way your would find that out FBI report, that conflicts with the autopsy re- the doctors. Now if you're—if you do crimi- port, that conflicts with other information nal trials, if you do murders, homicide cases, • when J.—by the time—when J. Edgar Hoover you'll know that probably the medical evi- died, he still believed his version of what hap- dence is the single most important body of And then they ask Allen pened in Dealey Plaza, not the version that evidence that you need to have. And you need the Warren Commission came up with. to get your medical evidence lined up the right Dulles, former director of So there were problems—there were prob- way. the CIA, how they would lems right from the beginning. We end up Well, listen to what the commission mem- having. I think, one of the most peculiar and bers say after they finally received the autopsy know whether Oswald had interesting problems with Lee Harvey Oswald. report. So here we have, again, secret testi- been a CIA agent. And I mentioned that there are at least three prob- mony, secret discussions in the Warren Com- lems—the medical evidence, the ballistics evi- mission. This is from January 21, 1964. Allen Dulles says, "Well, dence, and the Oswald problem. John J. McCloy says, "Let's find out about you wouldn't know." And these wounds. It was just as confusing now they said, well, wouldn't as could be. It left my mind muddy as to what Who was Lee Harvey Oswald? He tells really did happen. Why did the FBI report the director of CIA tell us a very—there is a very interesting story.... come out with something which isn't consis- this information? Anti Oswald was a little bit of an enigma. The tent with the autopsy when we finally see the Warren Commission analyzes Oswald as if he autopsy report?" Allen Dulles says, "Well, it is a loner, somebody who is a drifter, is some- Commission members, already in January I were the director of CIA, one who is not of any particular consequence. 1964, see a disparity between what the FBI Well, that's one way that you can understand has said about the assassination and what I wouldn't do it.- Lee Harvey Oswald. And there is certainly they—how the FBI has analyzed it and what some evidence to support that. the autopsy report is of the doctors. The com- But then there's some evidence that's a mission members knew that there was a prob- little bit different from that as well. And a way lem there. is if the president of the United States asks that the Warren Commission could have been the Director of Central Intelligence, was this candid is CO say what that other evidence was. guy a CIA agent. Then you might get the right A way to, I think, so the legacy of mistrust is Well, going on to the next—the third an swe r. " to present one sanitized version of him. commission meeting. The first one they were So, with these first three meetings, then, ...But let's just look at a couple of the talking about a problem with the bullets. The of the Warren Commission, we have three of things that Lee Harvey Oswald did. Now when second one, they're talking about the prob- the big problems of the Kennedy assassina- he's 17 years old, he's a member of the Civil lem with the medical evidence. The third one tion. We have confusing ballistics evidence. Air Patrol in New Orleans, which is a some- they get to problems with Oswald. And it's We have the confusing story of the medical what right-wing group in New Orleans. very nice what they did to help me organize evidence. And we have the confusing story of Now at the time that Oswald is a member my little talk today. who was Lee Harvey Oswald, and how much of the Civil Air Patrol, he also claims to be a It had been reported in early January, Janu- can we trust the U.S. government to say what Marxist. Now that, on its face, is a little bit ary of 1964. that Lee Harvey Oswald was an it knew about Oswald? odd. Now it could be that there are a lot of FBI informant. That would change the whole These three problems were present right odd people who do things that are inconsis- nature what's going on here, that we have not from the beginning. Now what I'll suggest to tent. Oswald may have been of them. But this lone gunman who doesn't have any con- you today, and I will avoid belaboring the is- that's the first realm of oddity. nection with the U.S. government, but some- sue, is at the time the Warren Commission Now after becoming a Marxist, or a Marx- body who may have been an FBI informant. finished its job, it took those questions and it ist-Leninist, as he sometimes referred to him- Now that was rumor that came out. And the gave answers CO those questions. And then it self, he decides to join the U.S. military. Now Warren Commission got very excited, nervous, took all of the evidence that was inconsistent of all of the branches that he could have cho- interested in this. with the answers that they had published and continued on page 20

duly-August, 1998 pRo3E Page 20

go to the Soviet Union, we now know. bassy, announced to the walls that he is going JEREMY GUNN Now if I were to try to figure out, using to tell the Russian government. Why is it say- continued from page 19 my brain, if I wanted to get in the Soviet ing it to the walls? Union, how would I try to do that, if we're In 1964, it was revealed that Soviet—the talking about 1958 or 1959? And I know what sen to join, he joins the United States Marine KGB had thoroughly penetrated most parts Corps. Now that is probably the last place that I would have done would be to go to France, of the U.S. Embassy, including floors of the you would think of looking for a Marxist. But probably because I like France, I'd put that on U.S. Embassy that they should not have been Lee Harvey Oswald goes and does that. the itinerary. But then I would have gone CO able to penetrate. They did it. And that infor- Now the Warren Commission portrays him Berlin, then I would have gone to East Berlin. mation was released in 1964. as being a little bit disgruntled, which he was. Then 1 would have gone to Moscow. That's So KGB is listening to this. And Oswald's And they portray him as being a little bit er- how I would have thought about doing it. speaking CO the walls. Does Oswald know that ratic, which he was. But he also became a ra- Now that was the wrong way to do it, the KGB is listening or not? Does he have any dar operator, when he would work for the which I wouldn't have known. It would seem knowledge? I don't know. But he says that he's United States government. He was trained in to me to be very common sensical, but not going to tell these secrets. So, Mr. Marine that, and then he was sent off to Atsugi, Ja- the right way CO do it. The right way to get to Corps is now essentially saying that he wants pan, as a Marine Corps radar operator. Moscow, if you want to go there, is to go to commit treason. And he wasn't sent just to any place in Ja- Well, he stays in the Soviet Union for a pan. He was sent to Atsugi, which is one of __-4•11■ couple of years and has some peculiar experi- the bases for ... the U-2 flights that went over ences. Besides, he wants to come back to the the Soviet Union. And we're talking about the Now after becoming a United States. Now how does the United period of 1957-58. During the Cold War, in States treat this guy, who was—who tried to fact, while Oswald was in Japan, the first Sput- Marxist, or a Marxist- be a defector to the Soviet Union, in the Ma- nik missile, or the first Sputnik satellite was Leninist, as he sometimes rine Corps under a potentially false purposes. launched. So there you have Oswald over sit- referred to himself, he who may have told the secrets of what he's ting down in the same base, as a radar opera- learned? Well, the United States welcomed tor, where the U-2 is taking off from. decides to join the U.S. him back. Now, what would a radar operator know military. Now of all of the Now it's a little bit odd, in the records that about the U-2? Well, maybe he never saw one I have seen from the FBI. from the CIA, there of the U-2 planes. But these are still the most branches that he could was a lot of interest in Marxists and in com- secret technology device that the United States have chosen to join, he munists who were in the United States and government has at this period of time. doing things. And the FBI would frequently Oswald's a radar operator. What does he know joins the United States put either tails on them or put wire surveil- about the U-2s? Marine Corps. Now that is lance on them. Well, he would know altitude. He would Lee Harvey Oswald marches back, waltzes know trajectory, and he would know speed. probably the last place that through, after he's married to a Soviet wife, All he needs to do is look at his screen. And you would think of comes back and the U.S. government does not what he would be seeing on his screen, as- looking for a Marxist. seem to be interested in him. That's a little suming that nothing else is told to him at all, bit odd, too. what he is seeing on his screen is what — is a r Six weeks before the assassination, Lee classified secret, what the U-2s were capable Harvey Oswald decides to go from New Or- of doing. leans down to Mexico City. Now in 1963, six And Oswald could see that. So here you through Helsinki. Well, Lee Harvey Oswald weeks before the assassination, there are prob- have a 19-year-old—think of yourselves when knew if you go to Helsinki, you then got into ably two or three spy capitals of the world. you were 19 years old. Some of you may even the Soviet Union, where he stayed for a couple You could argue about which one was the pre- qualify for that right now. But think of your- of years. miere spy capital. One of them was certainly selves as a 19-year-old, and there you are, over When he first went into the Soviet Union, Berlin. One of them was certainly Vienna. And in Japan, Sputnik's going around the world. making a long story short, he went into the the third one, and perhaps the most impor- The United States is getting very upset United States Embassy in the Soviet Union. tant, but we don't even need to reach that about Sputnik. And you know about flights And some people say that he spoke as if he question, was Mexico City. going over the Soviet Union at an altitude that was speaking to the walls and announced that Why Mexico City? Mexico City had a So- is not supposed to be possible at a speed that's he was defecting and that he was going to tell viet embassy. There was the Chinese embassy; not supposed to be possible. You've got that the Russian government the secrets that he there was a Czech embassy; there was a Pol- information in your head. And you are also a had learned and the information that he knew, ish embassy; there's a Cuban embassy. All in Marxist. And you're also a member of the OK? Mexico, which is not too far from the United Marine Corps.. And you think, all right, you have this States. It was the—Mexico City was one of Well, Oswald goes back to the United Marxist Marine who knows about the U-2, at the bases for the Soviet Union to do intelli- States after having been in the Marine Corps least—whether he even knows the term "U- gence penetration of the United Stares. and decides to get discharged a little bit early. 2" or not, he knows altitude, speed and tra- So Lee Harvey Oswald, six weeks before He couldn't wait for those last four months. jectory, all the most secret information, the assassination, decides to go where, of all He said that he needed to go take care of his technological information the United States places in the world, but to Mexico City. And mother. He went back to New Orleans, where government has. he goes down to Mexico City, and he goes into his mother was, got on a boat and went off to And he's now gone to the American Em- the Cuban Embassy and out of the Cuban

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Embassy, and into the Soviet Embassy and out rky net of the United States in Atsugi. He's The third thing, on the medical evidence, of the Soviet Embassy. been through the security net of the United and I suggested to you before that that was Meanwhile, there are CIA cameras that are States when he goes to the Soviet Union, goes probably the most important area of study, the aimed at the doors of the Soviet and Cuban to the American Embassy there when he most important aspect of any homicide case. embassies, and pictures are taken, though the comes back. Now what should the Warren Commission CIA doesn't have any record of having taken a And he's gone through the security net of have done? I would personally give the War- picture of Oswald. Although he went in and the United States also in Mexico City. So we've ren Commission its worst grades on how they out 10 times. In theory there would have been got a very interesting character here. Well, handled the medical evidence. 10 pictures. And there are many explanations how does the Warren Commission portray What they had from the medical evidence as to why there may or may not have been him? They portray him as somebody who is was several people who had performed the photographs taken. just a little bit disgruntled. autopsy of President Kennedy. They had sev- But Oswald also, there is a tape recording How does the Warren—I said that there eral people who had tried to treat President of Oswald having called the Soviet Embassy were sort of these three things that were of Kennedy in Dallas. They had photographs that on October 1 of 1963, where Oswald asks in interest to the Warren Commission right off. were taken of the autopsy. They had an au- sort of a garbled way if he can speak to How did they treat Oswald? They treat him topsy report. They had a face sheet from the Kostikov, a person named Kostikov. Now not as a potential problem in terms of how do autopsy. Kostikov, in October of 1963, is the head of you understand this? How do you understand So they had some evidence there. What did — director of the 13th directorate of the KGB. these intelligence connections? Those are the Warren Commission do with that evi- And that was the directorate that did wet whitewashed in the Warren Commission re- dence? Well, they asked some questions to operations, assassinations in the Western port, not well-handled. three of the autopsy doctors, and they looked Hemisphere. at the face sheet of the autopsy, and they So there's Lee Harvey Oswald, this ne'r- looked at the autopsy protocol. Arlen Specter, do-well, disgruntled Marine Marxist Soviet who was then not a senator from Pennsylva- defector who now wants to speak to the head I have seen from the HIL nia, but was a junior staff member of the War- of assassinations of the KGB six weeks before ren Commission, wrote a memo where he President Kennedy is killed. And the CIA from the CIA, there was a lot described the types of things that should be knows that. of interest in Marxists and in done by the Warren Commission CO investi- So what's going on here? If we go CO No- gate this and to make sure the medical record vember 22, 1963, all that information is communists who were in the was straight. known about Oswald. That exists in various United Slates and doing Well, they didn't do what he suggested that files throughout the U.S. government. What they do. They ended up having a—they ended is the CIA going to do about this information? things. And the FBI would up writing a rather summary version of this. Now imagine that you are working in the frequently put either tails on One of the things that we have tried to do CIA, you are doing some kind of analysis at them or put wire in the Assassination Records Review Board is the CIA in 1963. And you then hear that the to collect records that show the background president's been assassinated, and this guy surveillance on them. of the Warren Commission. We were able to named Lee Harvey Oswald is accused of hav- Lee Harvey Oswald marches get the records of the general counsel of the ing committed the crime. What do you do? Warren Commission, whose name is J. Lee 1 mean, it's a pretty strange thing to think hack, walties through, after Rankin. His son donated his father's papers. here, we knew six weeks before the assassi- he's married to a Soviet wife, And in those papers, there were the various nation that this guy was talking to the head of drafts of the Warren Commission report. assassinations at the KGB for the western comes hack and the U.S. In the first draft of the Warren Commis- hemisphere. We didn't do anything about it. government does not seem sion report, it says that the draft—it says that So whether you think the CIA had anything the bullet in President Kennedy went in the to do with the assassination or whether they to be interested in him. back. Gerald Ford did an editing job on that, didn't have anything to do with it, you've got where he took that phrase and put in the back, a very interesting person here. 'Mr and he made a (UNINTELLIGIBLE) going out One thing I didn't mention — perhaps it's of the neck. So the wound went from being in implicit, perhaps not—is that Oswald, while the back to the neck. he was in the Marine Corps, not only was read- Now the Wan-en Commission—part of the ing Marxist literature, but he learned the Rus- How did they treat the question of bal- Warren Commission internal deliberations, sian language. Now ask yourself this question: listics? Remember, we had this problem of the which I did describe to you, they talk about how How many Marines do you think in the 1950s, members of the Warren Commission know- the wound is down below — the shoulder 1960s were Marxists, Marxists-Leninists, an- ing right off the bat there was a ballistics prob- wound in the back is down below the shoulder nounced it and learned Russian, and then de- lem. Well, they analyzed the bullets, and they blade. By the time the Warren Commission re- fected CO the Soviet Union? carne up with a very interesting theory, which port gets out, it is in the back of the neck. Are we talking about just an average, run- you all know is the pristine bullet, the "magic Again, we have—the question is, why does of-the-mill ne'r-do-well? I mean, this is not a bullet." They give an interesting description this wound get moved up, in what would os- ne'r-do-well who sits on the street corner and of what happened, which we can talk about tensibly be the version that they first had, ver- asks for some change. This is a guy who has a later, if you're interested. But they come up sus the way that it gets when it finally appears pretty interesting life by the time that he's 24 with an answer that is, we'll just say a little in the Warren Commission report? years old. He's been right through the secu- bit odd. They—it's a little bit odd. continued on page 22

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them, and sending them out to the archives lege, didn't learn lessons like this. But yon JEREMY GUNN so that people can see the records. learn how bureaucracies work, and you lean continued from page 21 In addition to the work that we've done how certain sorts of cultures work withit declassifying records, we also have done a few agencies. Now people are capable of making many other things one of the things that is inter- First thing that was interesting, the FBI, different interpretations of that. You can say, esting, we have the authority to order federal well, Gerald Ford did not, in fact, know. And a huge bureaucracy. If they want to file a pa agencies to give us records that are related to per, they have a person who writes the met perhaps we could say that's just what he re- the assassination. membered, he made an editorial change, no- who has CO give it to his or her boss, who give: And for the most part, the federal agen- body caught it, and that's what came out. it to his or her boss. And it goes all the wa, cies have cooperated with that. There is one up to the director. So for them to get a brie little agency, whose name I will not use right done in this particular case, it will take them now, because we're still dealing with them, at minimum, if they're working quickly. twt One of the problems we have here is that that has refused to give us records so far. fairly consistently, the Warren Commission weeks to get it through the chain of command And we have been in negotiations with this So the FBI would take two weeks to get classified, or kept secret the information that agency. Its one that you probably haven't even conflicted with what they said in their official paper filed. We would be able to take that, heard of, but we've been in negotiations with turn it around within a few hours, and ge version. And this has been one of the prob- this agency. And they have shown us their lems that has occurred with most of investi- something back, sometimes filed the ver. records, and they do, in fact, have assassina- gations of the assassination, that a body that same day that they filed theirs. And we jus tion records. There are no smoking guns in kept them off-balance. So that was one thini tries to reach certain types of conclusions. they there, so there it is not a treasure trove. do their analysis, whether in good faith or not, the nice, lean and mean, small agency with But they do have assassination records, and out a top-heavy bureaucracy is able to ac whether intelligently done or not, whether they have said that they're not going to turn conspiratorially done or not. Whatever it is much more quickly sometimes than the hug, them over because they don't need to do it. that they are doing, they then come up with a agency of the FBI, with all of its resources. Se They don't need to turn them over. And we've that was one part. conclusion. And then they hide the evidence gone back and forth with them, and we are that is inconsistent with the conclusion that The second thing that was very interest now in the midst of a battle with them to make ing to me was how the FBI had—did not have they reach. sure that they turn them over. I'm very confi- So we had a problem, and an increasing intellectual control or intellectual Icnowledgi dent we are going to win that particular battle. number of records about the Kennedy assassi- of what they even had that was secret. Typi Another sort of problem that we have is nation were secret. Now you all know about tally, when someone makes a FOIA request when we go through the process of declassi- the movie "JFK" I asked you about, that at the they will get back a document that will halm fying just federal government records, that the end of the movie "JFK" if you remember, it large sections of it blacked out so you can' law provides that the Review Board will make talks about how there are these secret files, and read. And you can then go to a judge and say formal determinations about records. And that the government won't open them up. It was you know, open this up. And the judge wil any agency who disagrees with the decision partly because of that uproar, largely because hear from the FBI about why it can't b, of the Review Board has the sole option of of the uproar from that event that Congress opened. And the judge usually—usually, no then appealing the board's decision to the decided to enact what became the JFK Act. always — sides with the FBI. It says you can' president of the United States. I was told by Congressman Stokes that he open this up. Up until very recently, there had been only saw the movie "JFK" with his daughter. They We had the advantage that we could set one agency that had attempted to--or had gone were sitting in a theater in Chicago, from what all the information that the FBI wanted CC to the president. And one of the things that we I recall, although Cleveland would have been postpone. And we also could go out and re became involved with then was for a several- more appropriate a place. That he—I think he search to see what was in the public record week period was preparing memoranda back said Chicago. And she said—he said that his And we found that time and time again the and forth to the president, the FBI on one side daughter turned from him after the movie FBI was trying to keep something secret, was and the Review Board on the other side. over and said. "Daddy, why don't you open was already a matter of public record. It wa: And so we had to make arguments to the those records?" So he then became the chair- 90 percent a matter of public record, or wa: president about why the records should be man of the House Select Committee—or he so much a part of the public record that wha opened. I happen to think that we made very informed the chairman of the House Select they were trying to protect was minuscule good arguments. I think they were very per- Committee to help sponsor the legislation that And very, very typically, the FBI didn't ever suasive. I was very proud of our agency. And made—that created our agency. know it. there's a little bit of understandable self-pride What we are is an agency that is unlike Then you have some people making deci- in this sort of thing. the Warren Commission, unlike the Church sions in one wing; in another part of the I think they were so good that the FBI, af- Committee, unlike the House Select Commit- agency, it's off defending some other standard ter all the briefing had been done, withdrew tee on Assassinations, that our job is not to And so you have left-hand/right-hand not their appeals and let the records be opened, tell the American people who shot JFK. But it knowing what the other one was doing. And as we had asked to do that. That, to me, was is to tell the—it is to get the records of the we ended up being able to show that on some one of the most interesting experiences about prior investigations, to declassify them, and cases, things which the FBI had said were se- understanding government, understanding make them available to the public so that they cret, we were able CO find testimony that J bureaucracy, and understanding secrecy in the can see what the evidence is. Edgar Hoover had made to Congress in 1959 U.S. government, this interchange that we had And for the most part, I'd say probably that said 95 percent of what we thought with the FBI. about 95 percent of the work of our agency should be open. I learned several lessons then, that I had has been taking federal records, declassifying And we were able to go and do that ant no idea when I took political science in col- show the president that this stuff is already z plIKSE July-August, 1,998 Page 23

of secrecy, a culture that does not want the believes there are significant forces, either in information to come out. the U.S. government or in the world or among Now the information that the FBI was try- Let me suggest four different sorts of les- people who act in secret, who have a certain ing to protect was not particularly assassina- sons or things that come through out of this. kind of power that other people don't have tion-related. It didn't say who shot JFK, and One of them is just the very question, or the and that they operate and move the govern- the FBI was now trying to suppress this. This notion of what does "conspiracy" mean? Now, ment in mysterious ways. And there are a lot was on a lot of issues that are peripheral to conspiracy could mean—well, let me try a of different versions of this conspiracy with a the core of what we're doing, but necessary question first. If I can just try this. I hope you capital-C. for us to be able to release the documents. will indulge me in this. One of the things that's so difficult about We've just been told that there's another If I had to ask you how many of you be- this capital-C conspiracy is there is very lade agency that is now going to be appealing some lieve that there was a conspiracy to assassi- evidence that can ever defeat it. That if I were decisions of the board. We're going to—we're nate President Kennedy—and I want the to say, just taking this hypothetical, that some- trying to negotiate with that other agency and standard to be reasonably loose. I'm not ask- body believes that there was a vast conspiracy see if we can convince them not to appeal to ing if you're absolutely convinced of it. But if to kill President Kennedy, and that conspiracy the president. We know that we have an ex- you say probably more than less, who of you involved the CIA, it involved the Director of traordinarily strong argument, and we're go- would think that there is more likely a con- Central Intelligence, and I were CO say to them, ing to try and convince the agency that they spiracy to kill the president than not likely to well, I understand how you might make a cir- shouldn't do it. kill the president? cumstantial case for that, but there's no di- One of the things that was interesting for (PAUSE) rect evidence that the Director of CIA John us as well is that the briefing that we did for And those who think that there was not McCone was involved in the assassination. the president on FBI records circulated in the likely to have been a conspiracy? There is no record that shows that. There is CIA. So they wanted CO see what happened (PAUSE) nobody who's said that they saw him do it. to—what happened to the FBI in this appeal That would reflect probably the American There's just no direct evidence. Doesn't mean process. And I heard back from some people population generally. There are probably a few he didn't do it, but there's no evidence. that one of the reasons the CIA didn't want to more anti-conspiratorialists than there are The capital-C conspiratists will often think appeal the board's decision is that they did conspiratorials than is represented here. But that doesn't matter. The records were shred- not want us to do to the CIA what we had roughly that breakdown. ded. He lied about it. People knew about that done to the FBI. It's very clear to me now—it wasn't clear and they've been bumped off. What I'm sug- (LAUGHTER) when I started out—that conspiracy means two gesting here is a certain kind of approach to One of the things that was funny is that different things. And people often get those an issue that does not allow a counter-ex- immediately after the decision was—the FBI sorts of things confused. And it's a really im- ample, or does not allow evidence to contra- withdrew the decision, the FOIA request was portant distinction that I would like CO make. dict it, so you can have this sort of made on our briefing on this issue. And those One, there's just the plain old legal under- conspiratorial frame of mind. have now gone through the laborious FOIA standing of what a conspiracy is, which is two And I have decided during my work at the process. And those are also available to the or more people acting in concert to perform Review Board, if I didn't believe it before, there public. an illegal act. So you take this one particular are people who have a genetic predisposition Now let me jump to the last part of what I notion, you say Lee Harvey Oswald—this is to have a capital-C conspiracy in them. And want to talk to you about, and just try and hypothetical, this didn't happen — Lee Har- you don't need to be conservative or liberal. present you the question about what are the vey Oswald says to Marina in the morning, You can just have that. greater lessons to be learned here? I obviously I'm going to go shoot the president today. And And I've noted that it seems to me in— haven't said who shot JFK. I don't have an he says, but it's a little bit bad, because I'm this is all anecdotal. I don't have any proof for answer to that question. feeling a little bit shaky and I had too much any of this. And you can't dismiss anything The records don't say who shot JFK. But coffee this morning. else I've said, but you can dismiss this. That they do say some things that are interesting And Marina says to him, here, let me give typically in the elite in the United States, and I think worth paying attention to. 1 think you a sandwich, and that will help steady your people who tend to be government officials, there are sort of four points that I think that nerves so you'll be able to shoot better. In that who tend to be media officials, U.S. elite do come out of this. We now have—we will have particular scenario, Marina Oswald is part of not have this capital-C conspiracy gene in their released or processed, putting in the National a conspiracy to kill the president. Although bodies. They always believe that there is an Archives almost four million pages of records her action was simply to give him a sandwich, answer of a bureaucracy. There's a bureau- about the Kennedy assassination. Some things she was doing it for the purpose of facilitating cratic mistake, or that there's a mix-up or are more closely related than others. a murder of the president. something like that. That's how you explain The four million pages, we can say in some That would be a conspiracy. And I'll call events that seem otherwise unexplainable. ways this is perhaps the most documented that a small-C conspiracy. There are others— Whereas the other part of the—there's a event in history, other than the O.J. Simpson you can have two people get together, and fairly widespread belief in the population that trial. There's more information about the they're going to get at different angles to shoot there are these conspiratorial forces. This is Kennedy assassination than any other event at president Kennedy. That's a conspiracy as different in Europe, where the capital-C con- well. And that's not exciting, that's not dra- of its—than any other event of its kind. But spiracy can go right through top levels of gov- does that mean because we have all of the in- matic. That happens. People do get together ernment officials, and it's not so crazy for and agree to perform illegal acts, or to take formation, that we have more information them. When KAL-007 was shot down over acts in furtherance of an illegal activity. So about this than anything else, that we know Sakhalin Island, in Europe it was very com- that's a small-C conspiracy. mon to have the immediate presumption that more about the Kennedy assassination than There is also another kind of conspiracy that was a U.S. intelligence mission, that the we know about other things? that I will call the capital-C conspiracy, that continued on page 24 July-August, 1998 mow Page 24

JEREMY GUNN case based upon the one that they want, and they ignore the countervailing evidence. And him some questions, and he said he remer continued from page 23 that's why there is just a plethora of conspira- bered that day very, very vividly. He remer bered being in the treating room United States government had decided to sac- cies and non-conspiracies about this assassi- President Kennedy in Parkland Memorial Hwit rifice this plane in order to gather intelligence nation of President Kennedy. pital. o about Soviet intelligence. The next thing is trying to understand what And he remembered seeing Jackie Kennet Just natural presumptions. You don't need it is that we know. I mean, what kind of proof walk in. He had never seen her before. A any facts. You don't need any evidence. It's is necessary in order to be able to convince T what a stunning moment that was for hit just you know this is what happened. There's someone of something? Now, there are dif- and how traumatic it was. There was the pres a little bit—there are some strange oddities ferent standards that you can use for evidence dent, who had just died. There's his wido.t about the trajectory of the flight. And so that— on a legal basis. You can say one is—one could who's there with him. He said, "This jut and that's sufficient for it. Anyway, there are be called by the preponderance of the evi- burned in my memory. I remember Jackie h these two kinds of conspiracies. And it's im- dence, or more likely than not. And that was i ing there in a white suit." portant to keep the two sorts of things straight. ■ And I thought, absolutely everyone The second sort of thing is the problem of I a- -AL A United States knows that Jackie Kennedyin wa the using circumstantial evidence in order to be wearing a pink suit. This is the only guy i: able to make a case. I think that the JFK as- One thing that I have the United States who thinks that she wa sassination is particularly interesting because wearing a white suit. There's—people wh of the number of completely inconsistent cir- noticed in...almost every were never present in the autopsy, who wer cumstantial cases that you can make. book about the Kennedy never present in Bethesda, never saw Dallat You can make an argument, pretty convinc- everyone knows Jackie was wearing a pin ing argument — particularly if the people don't assassination...is that very, suit. know all the evidence—pretty convincing ar- very typically, people pick gument that Castro was behind the assassi- And here you had one of the treating phy sicians who remembers Jackie wearing a whit nation. You can also make a pretty convincing and choose among the suit. And I assume he wasn't lying argument, based on circumstantial evidence, to me. evidence. They make the assume he wasn't trying to trick me. And I'n that anti-Castro Cubans were involved in the assuming he didn't have a second-suit theory assassination. case based upon the one (LAUGHTER) You can say the KGB was involved in the that they want, and they And I said, none of that was true. But hen assassination. You can get information. You ignore the countervailing he has this memory. Then he describes some can put certain pieces of the puzzle together. other things about the autopsy, or about the And it looks as though it's the KGB. You can evidence. And that's why treatment of President Kennedy. Let's suppose say that CIA was involved in the assassina- there is just a plethora of tion. You can say the FBI was involved. You that I think he's wrong on what he says about can say disgruntled people within the CIA conspiracies and non- something that happened in the treating room. were involved. You What can I say? This guy is so wrong, he can say there was a right- conspiracies about this doesn't even remember what kind of wing business conspiracy against the presi- suit dent, and they did it. assassination of President Jackie Kennedy was wearing. You could dis- miss his testimony. You can say that LBJ was part of this. You Kennedy. Just dismiss it. know, after all, it took place in Texas. Johnson Or suppose that I think what he said what happened at the treating room was what I wasn't in the car with the president. Johnson's w ■ friends are all surrounding this issue. Johnson think happened, too. And I said, well, his sort memory of the suit, that's not relevant. What then gets the body out of Texas immediately of the standard that I asked—I used with because they want to get back to Washing- you when I asked if you believed in conspira- is relevant is his professional skill as a doctor. ton. Very suspicious. The one state in the cies. That more likely than not that President He's not into fashion. He's into being in medi- United States that Lyndon Johnson controlled Kennedy was killed as a result of a conspiracy. cine. So I can trust what he's saying there. is the state where John Kennedy The second sort of thing is, is there clear And that's one of the problems that you was killed. So you can make these kinds of cases for a and convincing evidence? So not just that you have with the Kennedy assassination. You have for of different things. The problem with the sort of think it, or more likely than not. But all this wealth of information. and people pick circumstantial cases is that you pick and there's pretty clear evidence. And the third and choose, and then they refute, they argue choose among the evidence. And you can't say sort of standard that we have, at least in the against one person. They could use an incon- that there is necessarily a good reason for one law, is beyond a reasonable doubt. Those three sistency that they've made, and you end up having all of this confusion. piece of evidence and not a good reason for things mean different things. And I find that the other sorts of evidence. when people analyze the Kennedy assassina- So what do we do about it? I can tell you One thing that I have noticed in, and I tion, they frequently switch around between what I think should have been done, is the would say with almost every book about the which standards of evidence, what standards Warren Commission should have investigated Kennedy assassination, this is whether— of proof they want.... the assassination the right way the first time. whether you're talking about the Warren Com- There's one doctor — this'll be the con- They should have had doctors testify before mission report, or people who think the clusion on the eye-witness testimony—there them. They should have asked the doctors the Warren Commission was a conspiracy itself, was one doctor who was one of the treating right questions about the assassination. And is that very, very typically, people pick and physicians of President Kennedy at Parkland they should have released all that information choose among the evidence. They make the Hospital, whom I interviewed. And to the public. I asked If there's any lesson that's to be learned Nen July-August, 1998 here, that's the one for me, is it should have The Official Story: Oswald joins the Marines been done the right way. And the American I'm a Marxist-Leninist. I people should have been told that right off the bat. don't enjoy discipline. I want to join Castro's Son, you're just what --\\ revolution. Oh, and did I this country needs. I would be happy CO try to fend off ques- tions or dodge questions, if anyone has one. mention I'm learning Welcome to the United (LAUGHTER) Russian? States Marine Corps! QUESTION: Jeremy, after the Review Board goes out of business, could you say something about what will be the status of new information, new allegations, new records created? Are you putting anything in place— have you talked about putting anything in place as a follow-up to the Review Board for continuing access or, for example, strength- ening FOIA on Kennedy assassination-related records? GUNN: The board's going to be issuing a final report in September. And they will be making recommendations there. And I don't know what the recommendations are going to he. They haven't decided it yet. But cer- tainly one of the questions they have CO con- sider give a personal opinion. This does not reflect the Review Board. I have no idea what they're going CO say. I have certainly learned some of the major problems with FOIA, in my own experience, like our ability to be able to see all of the clas- for. For all practical purposes, we have had information, that are typically technical and sified records and to know what the issues complete access to that. typically say nothing at all about the assassi- were, we can understand what the agencies What we have done in some cases, we nation, not being released. are doing. And I'm not attributing malice or found little treasure troves and pockets of CIA I think that this is really a very interesting evil or anything like that to the agencies. But information. Often we've found records the experience in U.S. government to be able to it is clear that they don't necessarily know CIA did not even know they have. And we've say we're going to take a citizens body now, what they're doing, or they don't have intel- been able to look through them, things where and they are going to have effective control lectual control over it. we would hope there might be information over the records of the intelligence commu- So there are real problems with FOIA. about the assassination, so we read through nity. That hasn't happened before. And still. FOIA should be fixed. I don't know if the Re- that. If we identify information relevant to the they can appeal to the president. But to be view Board's going to do it. assassination, we tell the CIA it needs to pro- able to say CO the CIA, to the National Secu- QUESTION: Mr. Gunn, it's my under- cess it under the Act. rity Agency, to National Reconnaissance Of- standing, having read the Act, that there is If we look through information and it fice. whatever the agencies of the government, nothing that can be held back. Any records doesn't have anything, then they don't need the most secret agencies of the government. submitted to the ARRB, nothing, there's no to. Just a specific example, the CIA finally you have to make these records available for question about something being stamped top- came up with the files of John McCone, who us. And then were going to make the deci- secret, secret, withheld for various reasons, was the Director of Central Intelligence. We sions on what can be released. that anything submitted to the ARRB, that's just got those a couple of weeks ago, and we're That's new, and it's been a remarkable suc- my understanding. I may be incorrect on that. now looking through those files to find out cess. I think. The board still redacts modest Is that correct, or am I incorrect? whether there's anything relevant to the as- amounts of information. But there is no in- GUNN: Well, there are a couple of differ- sassination. They have to make those avail- formation that 1 have seen myself that has ent issues. We have the authority under our able to us. been redacted or postponed that explains the statute to order federal agencies to make their Now there's a different question on after Kennedy assassination. It's typically some file records available to us. As far as I know, this we get their designated assassination records, number or something like that, that doesn't is the first time that there's been any law like then they go through the processing, we still have probative information. this. can have information be postponed or re- So when we are finished in September of There have been things somewhat like this. dacted. That would not be made available. But this year, all of those secret files that you've But this is really unusual, for us to be able to the Review Board has a very high standard, or heard about in the movie, those are going to tell the CIA we want you to bring those records a very low threshold, whatever it is, they maxi- be open to the public. And everything relevant over, and that they have to do it. And the CIA, mally want information to be released. And to the assassination that we have been able to with one tiny little exception, has always made for the most part, records have gone from be- find is going to be open and available to the the records available for us that we have asked ing largely redacted to very small pieces of continued on page 26

July-August, 1998 pc/03E Page 26

JEREMY GUNN exist for assassination-related issues, and have found a few documents, which are being pro- swer to what's going on with the Kenn continued from page 25 cessed and will be released under the Act. assassination. One of the thoughts that I I had at the beginning is, OK, the original pr public. And then you get to decide for your- And we have pursued different sorts of means to try and find those things out. But km is defined as all the records related to selves what happened. once again, if something was destroyed 30 Kennedy assassination that are in various QUESTION: There, in William Sullivan's g years ago, we're not going to be able to find emment offices, and those need CO be opet book, former assistant head of the FBI, he up. Those are the secret files, so I thoug said in the days right after the Kennedy as- that. My own take on this, and I don't know, is for practical purposes. I don't see signifi- when we started this process. sassination, that Hoover and his boys stored And what happens if we go and we find lots of documents pertaining what he as- cant bodies of evidence that were destroyed and not accounted for. the records, we then open them up, what; sumed was something related to the Kennedy people going to say? People are going to s assassination. There are things that are missing. I've tried—I've filed—I know sometimes I try and ah, well, there's other files that you didn't iii How would we know, or would we ever be file something, or I look for it the next day, and That's where it is. And there will be the cc able to really know, whether some of these scant ability to say intelligence agencies that have been known I can't find it. And things like that happen. So it's always somewhere el there are missing records, and then sometimes And, you know, maybe it is. I can't prc to destroy documents in the past, certainly the that it isn't. But I haven't seen the eviden CIA in Iran and other situations, how do we I find it a week later in the wrong file, and I put it in the wrong place. Things like that happen. of destruction on any kind of significant 1 know, or is there any way of really knowing sis. There are some examples of a—the Sec' whether they have destroyed files? And And sometimes you might think you're filing, and you accidentally throw it away. Service destroyed some records in 1993 a whether the files we have are complete? they shouldn't have destroyed. I don't s And as a follow-up So stuff happens, no doubt. We have not CO that, one part of the seen-1 haven't seen anything that looks as any—I see ineptness as part of the problem story that did not come out of the Review don't see a conspiratorial explanation for rho Board when it sent its press release, which I though it's systematic to do that. And I think the records are probably fairly reflective of particular records. got via e-mail, was a story that appeared in Doesn't anyone want to know who sh AP today. And that is, that apparently in the what the agencies created. One of the big problems is records that were JFK? files that came out of New Orleans, and Henry QUESTION: Could you talk a little I (sic) Cowlick, at least one file cabinet is now never created that should have been created. The best example I can think of for this, I think more about the ballistic evidence that t1 missing. So, I mean, the question is, in gen- Warren Commission received (UNINTELL eral, how can you know that you're not pour- the most telling story for CIA, was the 1967 report, the Director of Central Intelligence, Ri- GIBLE)? ing through documents that have now been GUNN: To my mind, one of the least col cleansed by deletion or destruction? And is chard Helms, asked the CIA—certain people in the CIA, CO find out about the Castro assas- vincing parts of the Warren Commission there any way of getting hints that perhaps Commission Exhibit 399. This is a bullet chi that might have happened? sination plots. So this—there's this internal CIA investigation under the authority of the Direc- appears basically pristine, that the Warre GUNN: If a file was created 35 years ago Commission decided had been shot through- and destroyed 34 years ago, and there's no tor of Central Intelligence to find out what they did, find out what the CIA had been doing about the Warren Commission decided it wen cross-reference to that file, we're not going to through the back of President Kennedy's neck know about that, unless somebody comes and trying to kill Castro. This was done in 1967, so they're talking out the front of President Kennedy's throat tell us about that. So such things are possible. then into Governor Connally and wen One of the things about intelligence about basically the previous eight years. From 1959 to 1967, what had the CIA done. So they through several parts of his body, thet records, certainly with the FBI, and less so, emerged basically unscathed. but still with the CIA, is that the way they do went around and they interviewed the vari- And we have this one bullet performing cross-referencing, you can sort of get your way ous people at the CIA. And the story they tell is very confusing. all of these actions. I just cannot—this is into it. And if you find one little mother lode personal opinion—I just cannot believe that in it, you can work your way to other things. People saying, just like the two FBI people whom I mentioned, two people were supposed that happened. I don't know what happened. This is one of the things that we have learned But I don't believe that that one happened. about how these things go. CO be at a meeting. One of them says. "I was never at this meeting." The other one says, "I The Warren Commission tried several bal- I don't know what has been destroyed or listics tests CO see if they could replicate this not. I can say we have not reached, for practi- remember that he was at the meeting, because I hadn't seen him for 10 years earlier, and I by shooting it through goats, human cadaver cal purposes, any sign that anything from the wrists, and to take bullets out and do it to see FBI that was in their central filing system has was stunned to see him there, because we had been in camp together." They have these sto- how deformed the bullets were. Any bullet been destroyed. There's a separate set of files that went through any kind of bone ended up for the FBI, which are Hoover's personal and ries that are utterly irreconcilable. And no par- ticular reason to think that one of the two being really deformed. You'd look at it and say confidential files. And there are different ver- this bullet looks squished. sions of the personal and confidential files. people is lying on this particular issue, And when you see Commission Exhibit One of the projects that we have taken on whether they attended a meeting or not. So they also—absence of records on many 399, the one that did all of this damage, it ourselves is to try and do everything we can to doesn't—it just doesn't pass muster. I think things where on the assassination of Castro, document the personal and confidential files. what probably happened is the Warren Com- There's a version of Hoover's—these are you just don't want to put that in writing. The record was never created. So that's going to mission decided that they had to take the evi- Hoover's secret files, that he kept in his out- dence that they had and come up with the best side—in his office, separate from the main fil- be a problem. And you're going to have that problem, even if you're talking about some- explanation that they could. And so they put ing system of the FBI. We have looked through these things together and tried to have the all the personal and confidential files that still thing that happened fairly recently. It's a problem. I don't see that as the an- things fit. men July-August, 1998 And it was probably putting a square peg Page 27

into a round hole, or a round—you can't put a former police officer who told me this story go to somebody and say, I want to get this round hole into a square peg, can you? Try as or not? This is, once again, where you come analysis done by Dr. So-and-So? I want this you will. Anyway, that was sort of the problem. up with this messy kind of evidence. And military analysis. What is actual mechanics of There were many other problems. Let me people will latch on to the version that they the procedure? give you one example that—there was an in- want. If you believe that in this case of the GUNN: ...There are several different teresting discussion I had last week. There assassination of the president, the police are things that we do, and that we have done. And was—the person who picked up the bullet going to get it right, and if they don't get it the answers are—can be complicated. And shells, there are three shell casings that were right, they're involved in some kind of cover- right now it's not a matter of public record, found under the window of the sixth-floor de- up, if that's the predisposition in which you so I can't give very many details. But this will pository. They were picked up. approach the evidence, then you've got the all become publicly available, certainly before The person who was supposed to have obvious answer. The police officers are lying we go out of business. picked them up testified to the Warren Com- and they know something, and they're trying So none of this is going to be classified. mission. He was asked the question, did you CO suppress the evidence. And it's just—no, I can't say it here now. But pick up the shell casings? He said, no, I didn't If you're kind of this casual guy, you say, we have looked into the questions of the Za- do it. And they went off the record, and the oh, that's just the way it always happens, no pruder film. We have looked into the ques- Warren Commission—he then came back and big deal, nobody ever thinks anything about tion of the authenticity of the autopsy said, oh, I was mistaken. Yes, I did—I am the it on the police department. Which is the right photographs. One thing that we did is we got one who picked them up. answer? I don't know. basically every person who is still living who Now that seems a little bit strange. I told Yes? was involved in the creation of autopsy that to a—there's an agency that we deal with records, and we put them under oath in front that helps us find people. It's an agency of the of the original autopsy records in the National Archives. U.S. government. It's called FINCEN. And I've And %%hal happens if we go talked—they are mostly former law enforce- So in some cases, we've subpoenaed people ment officials. And I talked to this former law and we find all the records, who did not want to come and brought them enforcement official about that. we then open them up, whit, to Washington. We brought out the original He said, you know, that's pretty suspicious autopsy photographs, the original autopsy X- if you're trying to get chain of custody on are people going to say? rays, the photographs of the brain, and asked something, the person who supposedly picked People arc going to say, ah, them a series of detailed questions. And the up the shells can't remember whether he did answers that they give are sometimes quite it or not in the murder of the president. And a well, there's other files that interesting. And all of that testimony is going law enforcement officer said to me, oh, that's you didn't find. That's where to be released to the public. nothing. He said, that's the way things are I'll give one little teaser to you here. We it is. And there will he the always done. That when you're collecting evi- found one of the people who was involved in dence, you know, people—different people constant ability to say it's developing the autopsy photographs, and we got her testimony. And that's one of the things pick up stuff. Usually you have to decide that always somewhere else. one person is going to be the person who will that will be released later. And she tells a very testify in court. So they say they picked up interesting story. r w ■ stuff, even though they didn't. That's just stan- We have tried to pursue every reasonable dard police procedure. No big deal. lead that we can on theft. One of the things And I thought, well, how do you deal with QUESTION: May I ask you another ques- that is crazy about the JFK assassination is that chat story? And let's assume that he's prob- tion? (UNINTELLIGIBLE) question the me- people come out and say all kinds of nutty ably right. That is how things typically hap- chanics and the procedure of the board, you things. The number of people who claim to pen. And typically, things are not done the may or may not be familiar that there's a rag- be former CIA officers who were present in right way. Not done—police officers go into ing controversy among the research commu- Dallas on November 22, you could fill a sta- Court and routinely perjure themselves, not nity about film alteration, including the dium with them. And what do you do when because they are involved in any major con- famous Zapruder film, lesser-known film, the somebody says, "I was a CIA officer," or I had spiracy to cover up anything on any kind of (UNINTELLIGIBLE) film. And also, autopsy somebody who told me that they were a CIA crime, but it's just—it's an easier way to do forgery, fakery, X-rays forged. I'm not inter- officer and they were instructed to go CO Dal- things. ested in your opinion about this. But (UNIN- las on November 22. So perhaps that is standard police proce- TELLIGIBLE)... You know, that's possible. How do we find dure. I think he was probably right, it was stan- (MOAN) out? So we have chased down a lot of leads by dard procedure. And they followed, then, (LAUGHTER) that—go to the CIA and go through the filing standard procedure in the assassination of the ... but what I am interested in, has any- system, we go through their record system and president. body come forward to present what they claim try and identify people. One thing that you Now I think if I were a Dallas police officer, is evidence? And I'm not talking about receiv- end up believing, if nothing else, is that people and the president had been murdered. I don't ing a book, which anybody can send. And the are not reliable about what they say about think I would follow standard procedure. I think second question is, if this does occur, what is what they've done in the past and what they I would follow impeccable procedure. I would the mechanics of procedure about handling saw and what they observed. want to make sure I do it the right way. And I this body of information, since it could be con- In some cases because they are just out- don't need to worry about one person needing sidered assassination-related in the sense that right con-people. Not con-men, but con- to testify about everything. You get whoever somebody has come up with what they claim people. And sometimes they don't know, or needs to testify there in court to do it. is evidence? sometimes that it's just a little bit of an exag- 28 So, do I believe this police officer — this What is procedure of the board? Do they continued on page July-August, 1998 r"

Page 28

JEREMY GUNN And then you crank in 25-30 clicks to the right, Judge Brown 15-20 up, and you get it approximately to the continued from page 27 continued from page center of that paper at 25 yards. Then you back geration of the story. Anyway, we've tried sev- off to approximately 100. and then you fire eral different things on that. weapon for the purpose. "Others", o-t-h-e-r- again, and you keep adjusting your sites until Last question. s, I'm assuming that means the same to ev- you hit what you're trying to hit. QUESTION: Well, this isn't quite as tech- eryone else that it does to me. He returned That was not done in this case. It would nical, but have you been exposed to a vast the .243 to exchange it for a 30.06. Where- be the most profound accident I've ever heard amount of the information on the subject, upon he had a scope mounted on the weapon of if you simply bolted a scope to the top of what is your personal feeling on (UNINTEL- in the gunshop. that weapon and you were able to achieve suf- LIGIBLE)? ... There's an interesting thing about the ficient accuracy at 100 yards to hit your tar- GUNN: I don't know. The evidence is re- Remington 760 Gamemaster. The breach of get. I won't speak on the number of times that ally confusing. One way that you can look at the weapon is closed by the receiver—don't just out of curiosity I took people who had it, and it's an appropriate way. This is not very worry about what this means, it's rather ar- little experience in firearms to arrange or to ti satisfying. My father, when he—when 1 talk cane. It means that you can't simply do what measured 100 yard stretch of open ground in to him about this issue, he always wants to you would do with a the country, set up a silhouette target, and know whether I have found the file that will bolt action, which ordi- allowed them the op- say who killed JFK? narily would be the portunity to attempt to I don't know. I mean, suppose there's a file weapon of choice if you There were a number of hit the head of that tar- that says we know who killed JFK, and it's were going to commit get. I can tell you that, signed by John McCone and J. Edgar Hoover, items that were removed any sniping activity be- with the exception of and it says that Lee Harvey Oswald did it, you from the case, a number of cause its far more accu- certain experienced know, who's going to believe that Or if it says rate. It means that you things that were leaked, riflemen, there was that so-and-so did it, I mean, I don't know how can't simply take the zero success. anyone would be able to prove anything at all. and there was another in- bolt, prop this weapon Now that's just one One of the things that I think is interesting up on some cushions cident where the court had thing that's out there. is that even if you were to—if one were to say and sandbags, anything There's another little that there is more exculpatory evidence about to send one of its bailiffs that does not move, something. Ammuni- Lee Harvey Oswald than there is inculpatory look down the bore at to physically stop an indi- tion companies com- evidence, so it's more likely than not, just bas- some object a hundred pete with each other ing this on the evidence, that Lee Harvey Os- vidual, while this case was yards distant, center for sale of their prod- wald didn't do it, that may be the case. We could that object in the bore pending, from removing ucts. In other words, say, take that as the hypothesis, the evidence and then take your the company with the principally suggests that Oswald didn't do it. the bullet fragments from scope site using the ad- most accurate ammu- On the other hand, there is more evidence justing screws, move the courthouse. This indi- nition sells the most of pointing to Oswald than at any other person your crosshairs until it. Remington, Win- at all. So if your standard is, where does vidual had gone to the it they center the object chester, Federal and a point more than anybody, it has to point at property room. They had approximately 100 number of others were Oswald. I mean, he is on the sixth floor. He yards away while that given the fragments to this in high competition does do some funny things that day. He does object is centered in the about that time behave strangely. He has been to the Soviet individual as he was leav- bore. That's called bore [1968], to corner the Union. He is a Marxist. There are a lot of prob- siting. What you'd have ing the courthouse. market. One of the lems that he has. to do is colonate the things that you might The curtain rod story is, to me, not believ- weapon. That means know if when an am- able, among other things. There are a lot of you stick something that looks like a small munition company problems that Oswald has. So there's prob- telescope in front of the muzzle of this weapon makes ammunition, they do not have a ma- ably more evidence pointing towards him than chine dedicated to a particular caliber. They any other person. with an adapter and you attempt to get the crosshairs of the scope registered on the make a run, several million of this particular After—if you say Oswald's not the leading crosshairs of this colonator device that is in- item that's relative to that caliber, and then candidate, then who's the leading candidate? serted into the muzzle. they change the machinery to something else. The amount of evidence you have drops to So there might be a run of 15 million 30 cali- fairly dose to zero. You don't know who it is. The gunshop in question did not possess such a colonator. So the scope was simply ber 150 grain bullets. 180 grain bullets—what- So that means, you know, by plurality, Oswald bolted to the top of the rifle. Now it has been ever the specification might be. And all of is more likely than anyone else. But that's not those bullets are roughly similar. About a year the way that you decide culpability, and it's my personal experience when siting in more than 60 rifles in my lifetime...if you colonate or so later when they convert the machine back not a very convincing answer. a weapon, bore-site it or whatever, and you and attempt to make the same thing, there Anyway, thank you very much.... take it to the range to continue to calibrate it are subtle differences—and those differences have a grave effect upon the accuracy of the Jeremy Gunn's talk has been slightly edited to so that it hits what you're trying to hit, and you place a target which is maybe 4-5 feet trajectory. So what the ammunition compa- allow for the flow and some technical problems with nies always do is, separate them by what they sound on the tape as it was square on a target rack at 25 yards, you will transcribed.—Eds. probably be lucky if the weapon hits paper. call lots. A lot is one run. You take the lot of 150 grain bullets—you run a marker that has peon July-August, 1998

mei Page 29

a lot number. Take a run of cases and that run taxpayer's expense. supposedly to conduct an as an elected judge from the 30th Judicial Dis- has a lot number.... investigation that resulted in this report they trict, State of Tennessee presiding over Divi- Now there are other subtle things differ- released week before last. I don't know what sion 9 of the Criminal Courts in Memphis, ent with these lots. For example if you ana- it had to do with the investigation, but a lot of and tell you that there is sufficient evidence lyze, you will find the composition of the metal their activities had a lot to do with following in this case to scream out to any decent per- in the various components will change from the judge—videotaping the judge coming out son that a criminal investigation is mandated lot to lot. Now what I saw in this record, in a of restaurants and with his associates. send- to determine what other persons were in- very abrupt and abbreviated report from the ing individuals to attempt to contact the judge volved in this. FBI...is there is a cartridge case that is said to in the case and place him in compromised situ- Judges are not supposed to do this. Well have been fired from this rifle. They found ations. One of whom incidentally has made they can take it and go to hell with it! They other unfired cartridge cases, with bullets, the statement to law enforcement officials— can shove it! Thirty years ago today, a man powder—intact along with the weapon. Well that statement's been recorded—and he said, who was trying to speak about truth and the they couldn't shave them a conscience of America was slain in brass from a fired cartridge case, this city because of that. He gave they took a shaving of brass his life. I can say the devil with it, from the unfired cases and they The reason we must go forward and resolve this job as a judge is not as impor- made an analysis. Metallurgical this matter is for the children. Generation X is tant as a man's life. And if I have analysis revealed the fired car- CO risk that, then go to hell any- tridge and the unfired cartridge coming of age and there's going to be leader- body that doesn't like it! case were from the same lot. ship that will come out of this generation and I have a very good idea what They took a sample of the lead really happened in this case, from from each of the unfired bullets the one behind it. They will do things to of- going through these files and scru- and they analyzed those four fend the power structure, Just like we did tinizing them. And if necessary I unfired bullets. They all were will withdraw from this [judicial] from the same lot. They took a things in the sixties, the fifties, or seventies. race and won't run or resign if it sample from the leaded core of To protect this new generation from this type takes that CO bring the truth forth. the bullet they removed from of response by the system, we must expose, But it needs CO be brought forth, Dr. Martin Luther King. Guess because this is more important what? It is not from the same we must dismantle the mechanism and we than any one individual. This in- lot. must do something profound so that volves a child of history, one of That's a red flag. Ammuni- those people that God send every tion companies say clearly, somebody's brought to Justice as a deterrent now and then to deliver a message without equivocation, they — so this does not happen to the children when to mankind. That involves a never do that. The bullet that prophet, a man who was about the was removed from Dr. Martin somebody says we can step outside of the law business of bringing black, brown, Luther King was sent to the FBI because we believe our cause is holy. red, yellow, white, all of America intact. What they sent back was together so it could remain the fragments. There is a picture of best in the world. That was that the intact bullet. I will tell you man's business. And that is my now that in the last four years. that photo- quote, "I don't know what they have against business. And that I think is the business of graph, which was marked into evidence, is this judge, he's just trying to be honest and everyone assembled here today. missing. they're trying to get me to see if can't get I read this [Attorney General's] report that Which incidentally was one of the reasons him in a compromised situation. I don't know they have, such as I was able to get out of it. why the court exercised the prerogative un- why they're trying to do this, or what they are It's absolutely ridiculous. I'm not surprised at der statute to have the files left in its office afraid of," unquote. the results of the investigation. I'm not sur- rather than downstairs. There were a number I was jogging down the street in my neigh- prised at the attitudes that have been reflected of items that were removed from the case, a borhood, became aware that I was being fol- in the investigation. I'm not surprised at the number of things that were leaked, and there lowed. Somebody came up eventually and course of conduct that has been engaged in was another incident where the court had CO decided to say a good lawyer over here told by the people responsible for protecting the send one of its bailiffs to physically stop an him to come talk to me etc. etc. etc. "I'll tell interests not only of the citizens of this state, individual, while this case was pending, from you what you need CO do. I'll give you the name this county, but advancing the interests of the removing the bullet fragments from the court- of the senior law enforcement official, you go whole world in finding out what happened to house. This individual had gone to the prop- talk to him." Apparently, the people on this Dr. King—so we can have atonement and have erty room. They had given the fragments to investigation committee that the Attorney closure. I'm not surprised. this individual as he was leaving the court- General's office had put together became I'm not surprised that the District Attor- house. Now, that's not kosher. What you've rather upset. There was a dialogue they had ney General's office went all the way to the got in terms of the physical evidence relative with a law enforcement official who will re- United States Supreme Court to have the prin- to ballistics... is frightening. I won't touch on main unnamed at the moment, about why did ciple ratified by that august body that the it anymore at this rime. he have a conversation with this person. In- victim's family has an absolute right to be The conduct of the Attorney General's of- teresting what transpired as a result from that. heard, relative to the disposition of a homi- fice in this case is highly unusual. They had a I don't know whether or not James Earl cide case. I'm not surprised that they fought select committee that they formed, at Ray would be legally guilty, but I can sit here continued on page 30

July-August, 1998 mow Page 30

ing with the economy and labor, and talking are things that you require some experienc Judge Brown about the Vietnam War, then that whole thing with. You've got an odd distance involved i continued from page 29 kicked in. It is not about James Earl Ray. It's the shooting, especially from the claimed to about what else has gone on out there. Now cation of the shot. With a 30.06, it makes tooth and nail and engaged in the worst dis- singularly missing from what I have seen in respect I've seen by prosecutors in a court- particularly difficult shot shooting downhil this record is an examination of who financed in that circumstance you had. You don't hay. room in 25 years CO prevent the widow of Dr. the itinerary [of James Earl Ray's travels after King and his son from being allowed to be the thing that adds up to what you need. the assassination.] You've got the itinerary, What's likely to have happened also, heard in open court as to their wishes. I'm if yol who paid for it? That's one of the things you get into the mechanics of doing some shoot not surprised. But that has got to stop! This is need to look at. How was the hotel paid for? ing, if you've ever...stand waiting on a dee: egregious. That is not right.... The airline fare? Where did it come from? Excuse the liberty but I'm you know that hardest bloody thing is to keel probably going to catch all kinds your rifle in a position that' of hell for these remarks, so I handy so you can quickly get u thought I'd at least give you ...you want to say a three time loser, an it without tipping your positiot enough of a plate for the hell I escaped convict with no obvious financial by your movement.... know I'm going to get.... Please put resources, no technical knowledge, is going What seems CO have hap this out there, you can take it CO pened is that somebody who wa: hell and shove it if being less than to, not only miraculously learn how to at the [Lorraine) hotel, who wal a man is what is required by hold- operate, fire, and direct a rifle and become a closely privy to the comings ant ing this office. Thank you very goings of Dr. King, made a call— much. good marksman. This one individual is going and notified whomever was the to be able to acquire the resources to get real sniper that Dr. King was The following remarks were shortly coming out on the bal. made at the COPA (Coalition identities for deceased individuals, come up cony. That's how this went on Political Assassinations) with very, very good forgeries for passports down. You've got somebody who was not remote, but somebody conference the next evening and fake identifications, is going to somehow in Memphis. that was close, who was in- acquire funds to express himself in a pre-paid volved. That has a lot to do with It's obvious from looking at ev- the posture of what you've seen erything that's in that [case] file, very expensive itinerary and travel schedule. in the investigation. You've got this matter is not resolved. There's And then he gets himself caught because he political purposes here.... no way an intelligent reasonable goes through Heathrow Airport, but he does ...Everybody's talking about person can examine what's in that somehow or another you've got file, what's in this case, and say not know whether he is a citizen, an alien, or a government implicated in this. that we have one individual who's You've got a director of the FBI in the penitentiary who is solely whether he has commonweal status. Now, be who has a pathological hatred of responsible for the death of Dr. real. You have to be the worst culpable moron Dr. King. You've got somebody Martin Luther King. that ran an agency with an iron The reason we must go forward to go for that story. fist and whom history has re- and resolve this matter is for the vealed to frequently have vio- children. Generation X is corning of age and Track down the passports that were seized. lated not only the letter and there's going to be leadership that will come spirit of the law, but to have total disregard What's the common thread with the individu- out of this generation and the one behind it. for it as an impediment toward his own ends, als that are the subjects of these fake identifi- They will do things to offend the power struc- which he thought cations? How would someone go about was to protect America. ture, just like we did things in the sixties, the What is the paramount phrase that explains acquiring the information? fifties, or seventies. To protect this new gen- intelligence operations? You know, on a need- We talked about the rifle yesterday, which eration from this type of response by the sys- to-know basis. So you're asking people who was the subject of the inquiry I conducted. tem, we must expose, we must dismantle the are pretty well low down on the totem pole to It's not there. Not the right type of rifle. mechanism and we must do something pro- It's explain CO you everything that went on. Why never been sited in. Wrong kind of scope. found so that somebody's brought to justice in the world would you assume that they Wrong kind of equipment. A person who does as a deterrent—so this does not happen to the know? They're not gonna tell you. They know not know how to use it. Metallurgical analy- children when somebody says we can step a small piece of the action. I would imagine sis excludes the bullet from the body of Dr. outside of the law because we believe our Ray doesn't really know too much. What King from coming from the cartridge case they cause is holy. you've got in this case was a stooge whose say was fired in that rifle. That so-called dent In this case, what it was all about is some- task was to throw everybody off of the trail. body was attempting to rake the tack that we in the window sill is a complete red herring That's what an analysis suggest. A three time because one, if you're a rifleman you simply have this "demon of world communism fac- loser.... What do you think he knows? They're do not rest a bare rifle against a hard surface. ing our great democracy and need to take steps not going to tell him much of anything.... You're guaranteed to miss your target. You've to protect it from those who would tear it Look at what you've got in our record re- not a downward trajectory which would re- down." When Dr. King stepped over the line cently. The Pan Am disaster, not the one off quire someone to aim under the target in or- from just being civil rights oriented to deal- the American coast, the one over the British der to hit at what you're shooting at. These Isles. They left no stone unturned in doing mow July-August, 1998 Page 31

great detective work and they come up with out using electric current, put a rubber stop- expert witnesses and we're worried that several suspects, foreign suspects, a very ad- per in the muzzle, fill the bore up with a they're going to leak the information before vanced plot in scheme. They can solve that chemical, plug the other end, rum the device it's revealed in court and they haven't been but for some reason strangely here in America, on, come back in 24 hours, pull all the fouling paid and we think the court ought to see to it with something like this, you leave this in- out, you've got a pristine rifle bore. I've used that they get paid. Well, excuse me Mr. Camp- vestigation in the condition you find it in and one myself, works excellently. That won't bell, have you talked about this with Mr. Pep- you want to say a three time loser, an escaped touch the barrel. Won't harm it a bit. Then per? "No, I' think I'll bring k to the courts." convict with no obvious financial resources, you take this weapon and you shoot it. And "Well, I'll convey this to Mr. Pepper." I tell no technical knowledge, is going to, not only you analyze what you get. Sounds simple this to Mr. Pepper, and Mr. Chastain provides miraculously learn how to operate, fire, and enough, doesn't it Why was somebody so shortly an affidavit of indigency for Mr. James direct a rifle and become a good marksman. damned worried about that that they fought Earl Ray. And guess what's going on? Some- This one individual is going to be able to ac- it tooth and nail for 3 1/2 years? James Earl body is saying bzz bzz bzz, you guys haven't quire the resources to ger identities for de- Ray did it. We've got the man. There's no need been paid. We'll see to it that you get paid if ceased individuals, come up with very, very to go any further. Are you that arrogant and you switch sides. good forgeries for passports and fake identifi- cocksure to make that kind of statement, when The last hearing we had on that, they were cations, is going to somehow acquire funds you ought to be anxious as the chief law en- saying we want another hearing because these to express himself in a pre-paid very expen- forcement agency in the county wherein the people will testify against the petitioner now sive itinerary and travel schedule. And then crime was committed to see if there are other and say there's nothing to these rifle tests. he gets himself caught because he goes perpetrators that ought to be brought to jus- Well gentlemen. this is Thursday, you have through Heathrow Airport, but he does not tice? Damn, they do better than that on a DUI. until Monday to provide a synopsis, written know whether he is a citizen, an alien, or What's going on here? Why does the At- statement in writing from these gentlemen as whether he has commonweal status. Now, be torney General's office engage in a national to what they would testify to. Well we want real. You have to be the worst culpable moron campaign of slander against the King family? the court to rule on whether it's going to re- to go for that story. Some reporters have called me up and let me cuse itself. No, you have this by Monday. The But you see, a lot of things were buried hear some tapes they made of comments by Colin will rule on that recusal as a separate because everybody trusted J. Edgar Hoover and members of the Attorney General's office. It's matter. They never provided it. the FBI thirty years ago. That was an icon, disgusting. It's revolting. les defamation of Interesting to look at the appellate deci- mom, apple pie, and the flag. And nobody character. You've got the same group of folks sion [which removed Judge Brown from the questioned the lackadaisical, disgustingly in- running around screaming about the victim's case]. Most of the information they based it ept work that they had in this case. Judge rights and they holler and they disrupt the on was in error. The Attorney General's office Battle in 1968 ordered the rifle re-tested. He court process for what was traditional for the had a habit of running up there to get some- said what I see in the record is not adequate. new morality—saying a victim's family has an thing done before a transcript could be pre- The rifle never got re-tested. He stated him- absolute right to be heard. What the sentence pared and then making fundamental self. I am sure that Ray did not act alone. Noth- is going to be, whether there is a plea bar- misrepresentations to the Court of Criminal ing was done of it. The House Select gain. To be heard in the event a person is con- Appeals as to what transpired. And then the Committee on Assassinations says there was victed relative to whether or not the person Court of Criminal Appeals says the judge was no investigation of a conspiracy. gets the death penalty, life in the penitentiary too involved in the fact-finding process. Well, See, conspiracy is only an agreement be- or life without possibility of parole. They al- what does rule 608B rules of evidence say? tween persons to do a wrongful act. Under ways do this, bring the victim's family down The judge may interrogate witnesses. Case law the laws of the state of Tennessee, you can and parade them in front of the court or the says there is no limit to the extent to which a criminally conspire to do an unlawful thing. jury, put them on the stand and let them have judge during a trial to a bench—in other words There's an interesting thing about conspiracy their say. And yet they don't want Core= where the facts are to be determined by the that scares the hell out of the Attorney Scott King to have a right to say anything. They judge—can question a witness. Judges gener- General's office: if they actually were to nail don't want Dexter King to have a right CO say ally cannot call witnesses. Rule 714 of the rules somebody—rules of evidence change. Any anything. They don't want Dexter King to be of evidence State of Tennessee says, where the statement by any person shown to be a con- allowed to take the stand. What goes here? trial is to the bench and not to a jury, or the spirator can be used against any other person, And then you turn around and you can't issue of fact is to the bench not to a jury, a even if that person does not Lake the stand. leave it at that. You try to slander and libel judge may call expert witnesses if he does not Ordinarily a statement of a co-defendant can- the King family—bzz, bzz, bzz things in the feel that those provided by the parties are ad- not be used against another, unless the maker ear of other people to try and wage a cam- equate. Rule 715, compensation of expert wit- of the statement takes the stand and is sub- paign to discredit them. What goes on here? nesses, etc. etc., expert witnesses called by the ject to cross-examination. If you get a state- What gives when witnesses are sending— court in criminal matters shall be compensated ment from anybody and that person dies, if since the court's supposed to see to it that in the event that the defendant is indigent, you can show a conspiracy, there being no stat- they get paid—an indication that they have through the state's fund for compensation of ute of limitations on a murder, you can use interesting evidence, you say well hold on let's witnesses for indigent parties. Now if the that statement in perpetuity against anyone see what's revealed when they come in and judge can call a damn witness, if the judge and you can bring the whole chain down.... testify. And then when they come time to tes- can interrogate witness, then what the hell You see, you don't get into a situation tify; they have nothing to say. Or Mr. Camp- do they mean that the judge is too much in- where all it takes as a law enforcement agency bell again, who seems to be so prone to being volved in finding the facts of the case and in- is. you clean a rifle. I gave them something offended, comes in and ex pane says. Judge, terfering with the Attorney General's ability known as an outers file-out. It works on re- you know we've gotten word that some of the to manipulate the matter through procedural verse electrolysis. You simply hook the thing tabloids are going to contact the defendant's continued on page 32

July-August, 1998 Fte3E Judge Brown continued from page 31 devices. Fading Spirit The judge is biased against the state. Well, I mean that's very ironic. I suppose I should take it as a compliment. They're taking an Old Spooks lurk speaking slyly like Shackley the ghost African-American man who's had a long his- tory of civil rights involvement—in the six- `Those were the days". ties was known for being quite militant—and Old stories. Old men. they're saying he's biased in favor of a self- War stories. avowed bigot and racist. Well, when you have Tinkering. tailoring. Doctoring the spin. ordered that records be sealed and the state's representatives decide that they are going to leak them anyway; when you've got a politi- You remember. Nocturnal death-optics tracking Che's heat. cal action committee that is operating in the A satellite shot: Outlined in the dark jungle like a corpse in chalk on the street. AG's office and they've already picked a mem- Wet A crash program. Agent Olson's suicide silhouette in glass. ber to run against you and they are using the opportunity to get some political clout, what The shatter froze. Sagged. Clattered glittering to the street light following mass. do you think's going to happen? Historically, A mad dash. A brute crash. A black bag of warm meat. correct me if I'm wrong, it has always been a longstanding rule in the District Attorney Before technical services. Or one lousy germ. General's office that no assistant would be Recall the orchid man white as a worm. permitted to run against an incumbent crimi- nal court judge,only if there is a vacancy. So Slighted in corridors. Glimpsed In the stacks. they've already set somebody up to run against Colleagues cowering. Eyes on their backs. yours truly and they were doing it at the time Him; a sensitive instrument tuned to the squirm. and they were doing political manipulation. Tennessee rules of judicial conduct says, any judge subject to election may campaign at any Now the past glimmers shimmering gold. time and make statements relative to his can- Business lawyers panning Saigon when the war was cold. didacy at any time to the news media. What Packing monumental artillery. Wielding word of mouth. was wrong there because somebody said this The north was spooked.. Assaulting the south. is nothing but politics that you see, it has noth- Now we look back looking old. Out of the past. In from the cold. ing to do with the merits of the case. Never discussed, never indicated, never gave any indication or information what his ruling was By Peter Kems going to be relative to whether or not James Earl Ray got a new trial, I still haven't given any indication. Because whether or not that money, on the lam who's an escaped convict was the rifle had nothing to do with whether with I suppose great ties into England, great tigation. Mr. Clinton's been over in Afric James Earl Ray got a new trial per se. What ties into the civil reporting and health systems apologizing for the conduct of this countr was going on was, if the rifle was excluded, of England, great ties into people who were relative CO African citizens who were kid then an evaluation of the entire record must expert forgers with identification and pass- napped and brought over here and colonia be done. A written finding of fact must be ports, got an inside track into international activities, and a lot of folks are real upset wit' delivered by the court and in light of that ex- air travel, inside track into obtaining the him for that. Why the devil are you going Ix clusion, did that mandate a new trial for James wherewithal to do what was required to make get upset with somebody for having the de Earl Ray? In other words you were going to those reservations, accommodations and cency to apologize for some wrongdoing I do get an African-American man who came from transportation arrangements in various coun- not know. But I submit it's the same attitude Los Angeles, California, went to UCLA, was tries. Yeah. See, you got another thing going you see here. active in everything going on, anti-war, civil on. Now we've got a real live problem. Anc rights, equal tights, gender tights, in the six- I have a pretty good idea what actually hap- until we clear this problem up, our childrer ties—was going to get a chance to write for pened. I'm not going to say right now, but let's are in danger. Because they'll do it again. This history a synopsis of what really happened in put it at this point that there needs to be in- is thirty years after King was killed. J. Edgar the James Earl Ray case. Now, you get another vestigation. I think the federal government Hoover pulled this charade off and we still idea about what the devil's going on here? ought to do it, because this agency here is not haven't come far enough because the Attor- And you want to look at that piece of gar- capable of doing it. They don't have any re- ney General's office in Shelby County Tennes- bage [the Attorney General's report] that's 32 sources. They don't have the knowledge. They see is still pulling it off thirty years later and pages long, filled with inaccuracies, errors, don't have the expertise and they don't have doing it with the feeling they can do it with deliberate misstatements, misspellings, incor- anything in this state that's sufficiently sophis- impunity. They're to be called to the carpet, rect information--and you want to rely upon ticated to draw upon to handle these matters. raked across the coals, and a demand needs to it as a statement that a 6th grade dropout, no The federal government ought to do an inves- be made as to why this farce has been perpe- petoaa .fitly-August, 1998 Page 33

traced upon the people of this county, this that he is absolutely not the perpetrator. Well bound to accept it. You may reject it in pan or state, this country and the world. And I really under Tennessee law at the time, there's noth- totally. You should base your acceptance or re- don't care that much about being a judge, to ing that could be done. jection on the witnesses ability to answer ques- sit there and keep my mouth shut when I see So what I did is say I deny the petition but tions, his knowledge of the subject etc etc. this kind of injustice. They can take it and I will allow the defense to make a proffer of So the next thing they did is they tried shove it. Meanwhile I may just change careers. proof for the appellate record. In other words, again, and somebody filed and said no it You can watch my program starting in the fall. you may test the rifle, see what you get. Well, should be in my court. We had a big to-do. The Judge Joe Brown Show brought to you by they ran up and got an immediate injunction. And it seems every time I was out of town is the same folk that do Judge Judy, Aaron Spell- Said I was crazy. They said they'd never heard when they'd do it. So they have one statement ing Productions and Big Ticket Television. And of it and they filed an affidavit that was very in the paper that this is nothing but nonsense. again, good hunting. interesting. It says: "If the rifle is tested, it It's politically motivated. Hell, I may have said may be damaged which would prevent it from The following is part of an answer Judge it, I don't remember. I was probably full of it being tested in the future." They ordered me Brown gave during the question and an- because I was in Jamaica and it was 2 AM in to dismiss the whole damn thing, and a week the morning and we had been dancing and swer period afterwards. after the order came down, guess what? I had drinking Bahama mammas, and somebody I know what's been conspicuously absent been talking with some of the state legisla- from the Commercial-Appeal managed to track from that file—nothing to investigate pay- tors, so they passed a new law. It says there is me down at a resort hotel after we had been ments, or obviously what's going on interna- no stature of limitations when there is new at the reggae festival. tionally. When you make a reservation at a scientific methodology that will establish the In any event then when they got through hotel internationally, you've got to provide innocence of the petitioner. And/or he may with that round they tried again and wanted passport information, financial information, simply request that his petition be reopened. another set of hearings and wanted to run back means of payment whether it's currency, credit up. Frankly, if I'd had anything to do with it, I or some other kind of transfer. I don't see any Well they came to me and they had would have said that your Court of Criminal of that in the record. It should exist and if it's this cocksure attitude—of course we've Appeals needed to recuse itself because there destroyed, you should at least be able to get got a formerly militant black man. He's were former prosecutors involved in the James an indication as to how it became destroyed... Earl Ray case who had sat on or were sitting going to throw James Earl Ray right out So understand this issue does not die with on the Court of Criminal Appeals. They were James Earl Ray. There is not statute of of court. What they did not count on is closely and personally connected with those on murder and they don't need James in fact somebody who understands individuals; and the fact it might cause an onus Earl Ray to reopen this investigation. what justice is about. That it's blind. upon the prosecutor's office at the time and Q: Did you expect the kind of resistance upon Criminal Appeals for more valid reasons, you found? then they thought I ought to be recused. How- Brown: Well they came to me and they had They went and requested that it be reopened. ever, I didn't have any say-so in the matter this cocksure attitude—of course we've got a First thing that happened was, I had a hear- because nobody asked me. Again, this is the formerly militant black man. He's going to ing to determine whether that would damage same court system that brought you the throw James Earl Ray right our of court. What the rifle. The conclusion was it would not, let's Scopes monkey trial. they did not count on is in fact somebody who go ahead with it. Next thing they ran up to Q: Based on what has happened in the past, understands what justice is about. That it's the Court of Appeals saying they wanted it can we be comfortable with a commission that blind. It doesn't make any difference who is out of my courtroom. It should go back to would take control of this case? in front of you. Everyone is to get the same Division 3 because that's the original trail Brown: There is a method that could be done rights. Sometimes they don't like that. I didn't court. They did not understand that there is a on the state level. We have a special prosecutor pay any attention to Mr. Ray's personal phi- thing called trial court, a thing called appel- law in Tennessee. It says when there is a con- losophy. All we dealt with was the issues at late court, and a thing called Supreme Court. flict in the prosecutor's office or they seem hand. So trial court simply meant Division 8. They unable or unwilling to go forward, a special Now actually it started out in a unique fash- sent that back down. So then they went over prosecutor can be appointed. It happens all the ion. When the case came in front of me, they to somebody who had the administrative time particularly when a law enforcement offi- were saying there was new scientific techni- judgeship in rotation and they said, you must cial is the subject of a prosecution. I actually cal methodology that would establish his in- correct this, there's another mistake, they thought that would have been appropriate. nocence. I think there were a number of issues didn't really mean this, transfer it to another There is a California case of First Impression that were raised relative to that. What I did is division. That didn't go. So they they went up that's interesting. It says that where prosecu- denied the petition. But I said there's a loop- to the Criminal Court of Appeals and they said tors are tied to a position that makes them ad- hole in Tennessee law that needs to be closed. no you can't do that. So then they try it again. verse to bringing out the whole truth, they must And that is if you do not file within a certain Three times. We got back to the streets and be removed from the case because they repre- period of time—even if there is some new sci- we finally get these tests, and they come up sent all of the people including the accused or entific evidence that shows that you're with this flimflam and I cross-examined their the petitioner. And if they're not capable of ob- pristinely innocent—you lose your judicial experts and they did not appear to be too ex- jectivity in their conduct of handling of the remedy and you have to go to the governor pert to me based upon their inability to an- matter, they should not be allowed to prosecute for a pardon. That's repugnant to the law, for swer questions. And what did the law on and they must be removed. Now that would a legal situation to exist that has no legal rem- experts say: expert testimony is sometimes the have some bearing on this situation. I think edy. In other words, a person sitting on death best or the only means of arriving at the truth. what you need to do is get a select committee. row condemned to die for a murder and it But you are cautioned that you should receive But it needs to have absolutely nothing to do turns out that new DNA testing would reveal expert testimony with suspicion. You are not with any of the previous interests in this.

July-August, 1998 prteg,E Pr— Page 34

"Mr. Weiss" letter was intended for, and what they are instructed to simultaneously release same Gordon Novel its cryptic contents meant. This was a letter for public scrutiny in different areas simultaneously found in an apartment in New Orleans, writ- continued from page 12 ten by Gordon Novel but not sent. In this Appropriate counteraction relative to Garrison's inquisition concerning us may best be handled Novel to do were to locate Sergio Arcacha deposition, Novel is asked explicitly about Smith, Layton Martens, and the truck used in through military channels vis (a) vis 0.1 A. man. every part of this letter. The following is an Garrison is presently Colonel in Louisiana Army the Houma raid. Novel did whatever Sheri- excerpt of the lengthy exchange on this sub- National Guard and has read reserve status. Con- dan asked. He found Arcacha simply by ask- ject. David Krupp, attorney for Playboy, is do- tact may be had through our attorneys of current ing Gurvich where he was. Recall that Gurvich ing the questioning. record Plotkin. Alvarez. Sapir. cold Garrison he was looking forward to ar- The text of the letter (taken from a tran- Novel identified Sergio Arcacha Smith as resting Sergio so he could say "1 gotcha, scription and the deposition text) is as follows: Arcacha." But evidently, Gurvich knew where the associate to be subpoenaed. Other associ- ates included Ferrie and Martens. he was all along) Novel also reported passing Dear Mr. Weiss: Regarding Garrison being in possession of Minox photographs of some of the evidence This letter is to inform you that District Isic) Jim unswom testimony, Garrison had shown his Garrison shared with him on to Sheridan. Garrison has subpoenaed myself and an associate case files to Novel, and he was therefore fa- When Novel was in Columbus to escape to testify before his Grand Jury on matters which the reach of the DA's office, which had sub- may be classified TOP SECRET. Actions of individu- miliar with the contents. poenaed him, Sheridan allowed him the use als connected with DOUBLE-CHEK Corporation in Regarding the phrase "He is unaware of Miami in first quarter of 1961. of his credit card and paid his phone bills. Double-Chek's involvement in this matter," Sheridan was also responsible for arranging Novel explained, "I was saying he was unaware Novel's polygraph test in DC. One of the 101■4■Abibabsdad of the CIA's covert involvement in this case is questions on the polygraph was, "Do you have actually what I was saying." Asked what was or have you ever had any knowledge of a genu- mean by the parent holding company, Novel ine conspiracy to kill the President?" What Mr. Weiss was really Charles Weiss, responded: constitutes "genuine"? This phrasing in- the man he believed replaced Well, the holding corporation would have been a trigued attorney David Krupp, who asked nice way of sending that letter through the mail Novel who framed the questions. Novel Otto Otepka in Security at the without saying -CIA.- wouldn't it have been. at quipped back. "What do you want me to do? that time?...The parent holding corporation was the Say Richard Helms?", an interesting knee-jerk Department of State. fie met Central Intelligence Agency. response. Novel admitted he had lied to the FBI about Novel boasted at one point that he had Weiss through Bernard (Bud) the CIA's involvement in Houma because he "fairly decent credit these days, but it only fensferwald. felt he was expected to do so. became effective after Mr. Shaw was vindi- Asked if Novel was suggesting Garrison be cated." Before Shaw was acquitted, Novel ex- activated for duty, Novel said, "Yes, I was; I plained, he drove a shabby '62 Lincoln. After was really suggesting that....In fact, I was Shaw was acquitted, one of his many corpo- pleading for that." rations (which he likened to CIA fronts) leased We have no current contact available to inform of So who was Mr. Weiss? Novel explains that this situation. So I took the liberty of writing you him a new (1969) Lincoln Continental Mark Mr. Weiss was really Charles Weiss, the man III. Novel did not even have to shell direct and apprising you of current situation. Ex- out a down pecting he believed replaced Otto Otepka in Security payment. Novel said the following: "I have you to forward this through appropriate channels. at the Department of State. He met Weiss fairly decent credit these days, but it only be- through Bernard (Bud) Fensterwald. came effective after Mr. Shaw was Our connection and activity of that period involves Fensterwald was at that time the head of the vindicated...1 didn't have the ability to buy a individuals presently under investigation and about National Assassination Committee to Inves- car or anything of to be indicted as conspirators in Mr Garrison's in- that nature until Mr. Shaw vestigation. tigate the Kennedy-Kennedy-King assassina- was vindicated." tions. Fensterwald and an investigator of Novel, by his own admission, had known We have temporarily avoided one subpoena so as Garrison's named George Hommey found out Clay Shaw since 1959. Shaw and Novel were not to reveal Double-Chek activities or associate that Novel had developed a device that pre- them with this mess. We want out of this thing associated through mutual interests in the In- vented a room from being bugged, called a ternational Trade Mart. In personal papers re- before Thursday 341/67. OW attorneys have been told to expect another subpoena to appear and Checkmate device. Fensterwald and Hommey cently turned over to the archives, we find that testify on this matter. The fifth amendment and/or brought Novel to Washington D.C. to promote Shaw had Gordon Novel's name and phone immunity, legal activities will not suffice. his wares. When Senator Edward V. Long, for number for when Novel was in Reno, Nevada. whom Fensterwald worked, heard of the de- Mr. Garrison is in possession of Many people knew where Gordon was in New annumm portions vice, he suggested alerting the State Depart- Orleans. Some knew where to find him in Co- of this testimony. He is unaware of Double-Chek's involvement in this matter but has strong suspi- ment. The Checkmate device emitted white lumbus. But how many were close enough to cions. I have been questioned extensively by local noise that made it impossible to tape record have tracked him to Reno, where he went for a FBI recently as to whether or not I was involved anything but that white noise within a 2000 more underground portion of his life? Curi- with Double-Chek's parent-holding corporation square foot range of its vicinity. A group of 12 ously, Clay Shaw was one of those people. during that time. My reply on five queries was nega- people was convened, and the person there tive. Bureau unaware of Double-Chek association from the State Department's Office of Secu- in this matter. Our attorneys and others are in rity was Charles Weiss. Novel and fhe Mr. Weiss Leifer possession of complete sealed files containing all Novel explained that, "After seeing that information concerning matter. In the event of our One of the longstanding mysteries from unit work, he [Weiss] would know Gordon Novel has been who the now-famous sudden departure. either accidental or otherwise, I was no continued on page 36 mon July-August, 1998

vel Page 3S

Notebook The Endless Circle The Plots (and Disinformation) Continue Last Issue, we quote former representative Walter Fauntroy refer- A recent book on the Kennedy assassination to entitled Did Castro ring to some unnamed sinister force In the U.S. as the apparatus'. Kill Kennedy? It was written by a Russian emigre named (suppos- He was being necessarily vague. But we have tried to point out that edly) Andrei Muscovit. Muscovit defected to America In the seventies there are tried and true networks of power in this country that and went to work as a translator. His book was translated from Rus- have continually tried to cover-up any investigation of the assassi- sian into English and then published In Miami by the Cuban American nations of the sixties. These people persist to this day For instance, National Foundation. As most Probe readers know, the hypothesis In In his book Orders to Kill, Bill Pepper describes the HBO mock trial the title is pretty ridiculous but there is a good reason why the CANF he took part In in 1993. The prosecuting attorney in that case was would want to get it into bookstores. As the New York Times revealed Hickman Ewing. By all indications, this is the same Hickman Ewing on March 5th, the foundation itself has been Implicated Ina plot to kill who appears to be the go-between for Ken Starr In his communica- Castro. Last October, four Cuban exiles were questioned by U. S. Cus- tions with Richard Mellon Scaife (Probe Vol. 8 #3). We should also toms agents in Puerto Rico. They had a cache of weapons on board note that another Illustrious obstructionist for Pepper has been including two .50 caliber assault rifles which, they admitted, were part King biographer David Garrow. Garrow has repeatedly attacked the of a plot to kill Castro. One of the rifles was registered to Pepe Hernan- King family for Insisting on a new probe of the MLK murder. The dez, president of the CANE This group came to huge prominence in the media has showcased him In that regard. He once referred to James eighties when It got very close to Ronald Reagan and the CIA, which Earl Ray's guilt as having been "proven." In his new (and awful) bestowed huge grants of money on It for propaganda warfare against book Killing the Dream, the notorious Gerald Posner acknowledges Castro. Its latest patron has been none other than Sen. Jesse Helms, Garrow as being one of the people who encouraged him to take on who is unrelenting in his desire to keep up the American trade em- the King case. That's some apparatus. bargo against Cuba. A disinformation effort? Highly likely. Yet this book was approvingly reviewed in a recent Issue of the Fourth Decade More Drugs (May 1998), and by Walt Brown In JFK Quarterly (January 1998). We advise everyone to get Gary Webb's new book which we touch on In C'mon guys. It's not 1964 anymore. We have learned some things in our bookshelf. Both he and Robert Parry have recently disclosed a 34 years. rather tantalizing new fact that came to light via Frederick Hitee newly disclosed CIA Inspector General's report. In 1982, former CIA More Posner Director Bill Cagey secretly engineered a deal with thenAttorney Gen- In 1998, when Dan Moldea published his whitewash of the RFK case, eral William F. Smith. The deal would exempt the CIA from a legal re- the New York Times made sure they gave him a good review. How? The quirement to report on drug smuggling by Agency assets. The timing reviewer was none other than Gerald Posner. Disturbing, but not sur- is Important The exemption was granted on Feb, 11,1982, two months prieing. When Posner published his book on the King case this year, after President Reagan authorized covert CIA support for the Nicara- the Boston Globe gave him a good review. How? Christopher HItchens guan Contra army. As Parry notes It was about eight months before reviewed the book. Yep, the Hitchens of The Nation and the October the first evidence of Contra alliances with drug traffickers surfaced. Surprise. Hitchens has now joined Alexander Cockburn, Noam Predictably, this revelation was Ignored by most of the mainstream Chomsky, and Marc Cooper in the 'Lefties for Lone Nuts Club" or Who press. It would have suggested Casey's cooperation in the Contra came cares What Happened to the Sixties" circle. Need we add that the Globe by any means necessary, including the drug trade. was recently bought by the Posner-banking New York Times. la Hitchens angling for a column there? Haldeman Sure Learned Something In 1990, University of Wisconsin professor Stanley Kutler wrote a RIM a Memoir rather dull, prosaic book on Watergate. All one really needs to know In June, the Discovery Channel broadcast a three-hour documentary about The Wars of Watergate is that By Hersh gave Kutler a blurb. special on the career of Robert Kennedy. If you have not seen It, please But Butler has now published another book on the subject, Abuse of do. It was produced and written by former RFK aide Jack Newfield, Power. This is more valuable because it is a transcription of some of and includes many Insights from those close to Bobby, especially In the newly declassified tapes from the Nixon years. On pages 139- the period after the JFK murder. In our last two Issues, Lisa Pease 140 a fascinating discussion takes place. Chief of Staff H. R. exposed that RFK's murder was the work of a conspiracy and sug- Haldeman is discussing ways to spike any further Investigation of gested some of the people who may have been involved. If you are look- the Watergate break-in. He postulates a blue-ribbon panel that will ing for a motive, just watch the closing section of this special. On the certify the findings of the FBI and the Department of Justice. Who morning of the California primary In 1968, Newfield woke up early to does he grab out of thin air to head the panel? Earl Warren and J. check the voting In the Mexican and black sections of I.A. Al] his life, Lee Rankin. To pound the point home, Haldeman then adds that the he was told those people don't vote. That morning they were lined up findings of this panel should then be trumpeted as the most thor- at 6:00 AM. Incredibly, the turnout in the black ghetto of Watts was ough Investigation since the death of President Kennedy. Talk about higher than In Beverly Hills. Mr. Flitotiene, Mr. Cockburn, Mr. Chomaky, a collective unconscious. that Is why the assassinations of the sixties still matter. Case closed.

July-August, 1998 NOW

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Gordon Novel continued from page 34

crank." By implication, Novel is also suggest- ing that Weiss would have immediately rec- ognized the Double-Chek reference and warned the CIA. ALI Novel's deposition should sound a death knell for belief in the Torbitt document. A document was surfaced in the early 1970s which alleged to provide the Rosetta Stone to the assassination. The author wrote under Cn the Kennedy assassination: a pseudonym, but was believed to a be a Southern lawyer. A craftily prepared piece, Oswald, the CIA and the Warren Commission by Peter Kross, $19.95, to Kross the Torbitt document completely misrepre- Research & Publications, P. 0, Box 9, Franklin Park NJ 08823. sents both this letter and Novel's entire back- #5 Man, November 22, 1963 by Raymond Marcus. Sold through Last Hurrah ground of associations. The Torbitt document Bookshop, send 32.50 plus $4.00 postage to, Last Hurrah, 849 West Third St. #1, is an everybody-but-the-CIA did it document, Williamsport PA 17701. which attempts to paint Novel as not being connected to the CIA. Anyone who has fol- Bloody Treason by Noel Twyman. Available through Laurel Publishing, P. 0. Box lowed the series of revelations about Gordon 6785125, Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067. (We made an error in our last bookshelf Novel published in Probe based on his depo- entry; this book will not be excerpted in Probe.) sition cannot but come to the opposite con- clusion. Whether on payroll or not, it's quite clear that he had deep contacts, including a Upcoming: substantial relationship with Allen Dulles. He Let Justice be Done by Bill Davy, self-published. Scheduled for release late this year, was involved with an operation to be led by this book will be excerpted in Probe. Should be the best and most current look at David Mice Phillips before it was cancelled. the Garrison investigation. He was heavily involved in operations sur- rounding the Bay of Pigs, for which he was thanked after the operation failed. And most Related and Recommended: of all, Novel showed a loyalty such that he would lie to the FBI to protect what he was Secrets: The CIA's War atHome by Angus Mackenzie (University of California Press). certain had been a CIA operation. 4- A very unusual posthumously published book. It is a history of the methods by which the CIA and other agencies have tried to limit the scope and reach of the Freedom of Information Act, especially In recent years. Also how the CIA has used surveillance, informants, and covert operations to cripple the leftist press, most notably .Ramparts. Very few heroes besides Ted Kennedy and Ernie Fitzgerald. A long list of villains includes George Bush and the ACLU. Don't miss out on the best kept secret Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion by Gary Webb in America! Subscribe today. See the (Seven Stories Press). This book should be called the revenge of Webb. With 500 inside front cover for subscription in- pages to lay out a huge canvas, not three newspaper columns, he manages to formation. connect all the dots to show with precision just how the crack cocaine epidemic Probe is on the Web @ originated in Los Angeles through Ricky Ross' work for the Contras. Incorpo- rates details from the recent CIA Inspector General Report to prove his case. http://www.webcom.com/ctka Webb makes his critics i.e. the mainstream press, look pretty naked.

CTKA Please note the expiration date of your subscnptiort on the label below. PO. Box 3317 Culver City, CA 9023 I

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