COVERUPSI Number 23 Gary Mack, Editor & Publisher September, 1985

As President Kennedy's car nears the Triple Underpass with Clint Hill sprawled on the trunk (lower circle), a puff of smoke drifts away from the grassy knoll and breaks into smaller parts (upper circle). NEW PHOTO EVIDENCE BACKS UP ASSASSINATION WITNESSES by Gary Mack A frame from 16mm newsfilm by NBC photographer Some have expressed skepticism in the mistaken Dave Weigman may show the mysterious puff of belief that rifles do not smoke; however, defective smoke associated with a second gunman in the Ken- bullets and excess oil in a just-cleaned barrel can, and nedy assassination. do, produce smoke. Also, as seen in tv news tapes of The smoke, reported to officers at the scene, drifted guerillas and riots around the world, some rifles do out from the picket fence, hung briefly under the trees emit a hefty quantity of smoke in various situations. on the grassy knoll, then dissipated. Five witnesses This new evidence, spotted by researcher Warren spotted the smoke immediately after the fatal head Graham of Charlotte, North Carolina, is the second shot; over the years at least three others have come for- significant frame from the Weigman film. As detailed ward with similar observations. in Coverups 2 three years ago, a later frame shows "A puff of smoke came out about 6 or 8 feet above what appears to be the front tire of a motorcycle in the the ground right out from under those trees," said Sam south lane of Elm Street. The location and timing are a Holland to the Warren Commission (6H243-244). After perfect match for the motorcycle with the open leaving his position on the Triple Underpass directly microphone, as measured from the Dallas Police tapes above Elm, Holland ran behind the picket fence to by acoustics expert Dr. James Barger. where the smoke seemed to originate; later that after- The Weigman film has often been overlooked as a noon, he gave the same information in an affidavit to source of evidence because much of it is severely blur- the sheriff's office (24H212). red. He was in car 7, a convertible, and started filming Researchers have demonstrated beyond any doubt just before the last shots were fired. He jumped out, that there was no natural source of smoke anywhere ran down Elm and then cut straight up the hill toward near that area. Warren Commission apologists have in- the pergola. Only a few frames are clear because his correctly, perhaps deceitfully, pointed to a steam pipe camera was operating nonstop while he ran. well over 100 feet away as the likely source, but no in- This frame, as timed by researcher Dick Sprague vestigation was ever done. nearly 20 years ago, is 7 seconds after the fatal head 2 shot. Sprague later gave a copy of the frame and two others to Texas researcher J. Gary Shaw. Graham saw them and spotted the smoke while visiting Shaw this past summer. These blowups are quite representative Marilyn Monroe's of the excellent photo work done by researcher Jack White. There are conflicting reports as to the whereabouts Mysterious Death of the original Weigman film. One source said the HSCA found it at NBC News in Los Angeles, while another said it was only an edited, first-generation print. As far as is known, the HSCA did not obtain or The Untold Story study any versions of the Weigman film, nor did the Iv ANTHONY SUMMERS Warren Commission. Marilyn Monroe's death from a drug overdose came only Researcher Robert Groden, who has a good print, hours after she was dropped by her lover Robert F. Kenne- has offered to analyze adjacent frames to check for dy. But she didn't die in bed at home, as was publicly re- ported — she died either in the hospital or on the way there. movement of the smoke. Marilyn's body then was returned to her home — and the news of her passing wasn't reported until hours FWST 6-27-85 later. The delay was to give Robert Kennedy — who had come to Mari- lyn's home specifically to tell her their affair was over — time to sneak out of town and thus avert a Board takes 3 minutes possible scandal that could have wrecked his career. That's the startling scenario I've pieced together based on my own ex- tensive investigation into Marilyn's mysterious death on Aug. S. 1962. to deny Sirhan parole For years, gossips have been say- ing that Marilyn had an affair with Star-Telegram News Services "I believe it is an indictment of the three guys did not meaningfully and John F. Kennedy. My probe has con- American system of justice. It is firmed that the gossip is correct - SOLEDAD, Calif. — It took just maturely deliberate their decision. and that Marilyn also had an affair being perverted by a group of lac- They have put the American justice three minutes for California's keys who are following orders from with JFIC's brother Robert. Accord- parole board to kill another bid for system on trial." ing to one knowledgeable source. higher up." In an open part of the hearing. Robert fell madly in love with her. parole from Sirhan B. Sirhan. the Before the board began its delib- assassin of Robert F. Kennedy. before the executive session, Castro But in the last months of Mari- erations. Sirhan had said repeatedly called the 1968 assassination "an at- lyn's life. Robert — who was U.S. At- In rejecting Sirhan's quest for that he was sorry for killing Kenne- torney General at the time — was freedom, however, the board inad- tack on the democratic system of dy. Then, with tears in his eyes. he government (that) with three shots confronted by a flood of reports that vertently left open a microphone pleaded for freedom. criminals were hoping to turn the disenfranchised millions of people." Kennedys' indiscretions to their that allowed reporters to overhear "I want my liberty so bad; I'm anx- part of their deliberations — an "Sirhan still does not accept the own advantage. ious to please you." he said. "So tell enormity of his crime," Castro add- There were reports that Bobby oversight that could spark a legal me the answer you want to hear and had been photographed in compro- challenge to the denial of parole. ed. I will give it to you." Panel members Joseph Aceto and mising situations and that his meet- Rudolph Castro, who was chair- But when panelists asked him ings with Marilyn had been bugged. man of the three-member state Ray Hauregui joined Castro in sug- about the night of June 5, 1968, and gesting that Sirhan needs to develop He decided to break off with her. Board of Prison Terms panel that the shots that took Kennedy's life. It wasn't easily done, however. handled the case Wednesday, had a marketable skill and participate in Marilyn nose-dived into despair and Sirhan insisted he could not remem- self-help programs to prepare him proved hard to discard. Hollywood just announced the decision deny- ber firing the gun. ing parole for the slayer of Sen. Rob- for future release. writer Robert Slatzer. who "I don't recall." he said repeated- Board members made it clear that has revealed he once was ert F. Kennedy when he was in- ly. "I have no explanation." briefly married to Marilyn. formed that a microphone in the they questioned the sincerity of When Sirhan goes to the new pris- Sirhan's expressions of remorse and says she even tried to hold hearing room had been left on dur- on, the panel members speculated, it on to Bobby by threatening ing the private discussion. doubted his "partial amnesia" about might be possible to place him in the the assassination. to expose their affair. Because of the large number of general population rather than in an reporters interested in the case, Before starting their delibera- During one conversation. isolated protective custody unit as tions, the board reviewed Sirhan's Siemer says, a despondent news people had been allowed to had been the case at Soledad. Marilyn wondered gloomily whether view Sirhan's appearance via closed history both before and after going Finally, about five minutes into to prison, including a recent prison Bobby had stopped seeing her be- circuit television in an adjoining their deliberations, panel members cause she was not sufficiently edu- room. psychiatrist's evaluation that he has cated. Finally she burst into tears. were heard discussing whether the become . "an exemplary prisoner sobbing that men wanted her "only Although the camera was turned microphone was off when the board went into execu- still on. with no predilection toward vio- as a plaything." Kennedy. she sup- "Let's make su re the sound is of f." posed, "had got what he wanted. tive session to consider the case. lence at this time." - - one panel member said. They also heard Sirhan tearfully Former private detective John someone evidently forgot to discon- "That is really important, or the Dolan, who learned that Marilyn's nect the microphone. plead for his release to return to his phone had been bugged, says the whole world will know," said anoth- homeland in Jordan. "lam not inter- The reporters in the other room er. wiretappers discovered she had listened, intrigued, as the panel ested in being a troublemaker any- been desperate enough to call the A moment later, the microphone more." he said. Attorney General at home in Virgin- swiftly rejected parole for the 41- was switched off. year-old Sirhan. There was no actual He repeatedly said he was sorry ia. He had been enraged. After another 50 minutes, Castro for killing Kennedy and at the con- Bobby called on his brother-in-law discussion; after three minutes' gen- came out to announce the panel's clusion of his statement said. "I wish Peter Lawford — then married to eral conversation, Castro moved to decisions. his sister Pat — for assistance. Law- deny parole and the others con- it had never occurred, for the Ken- Asked how long it had taken the nedys' sake. and for my own." ford said he tried to convince Mari- curred. Then the panel turned its board to decide on Slrhan's parole. lyn that her affair with Bobby was attention to This was the seventh parole hear- over "a couple of days before she Sirhan's application for he said the deliberations had lasted ing for Sirhan, and the second since transfer to a prison in Southern Cali- died," according to Deborah entering her house in the for 45 minutes— but fell silent when his scheduled 1984 release date was Gould. who later was briefly fornia where he could be nearer his faced by the news that the reporters early afternoon. family. canceled three years ago. married to the actor. After talking with Bobby. had been listening to the whole That date had been granted in But Marilyn was not easily "Marilyn knew then that it The reporters heard the panel de- thing, and the actual discussion had dropped. "She tried desper- cide to grant Sirhan's request for a 1975, but then-Los Angeles County was over, and she was very taken just three minutes. District Attorney John Van de ately to get in touch with distraught and depressed," transfer from Soledad, where he has When reporters renewed their Bobby," Gould told . Gould told me. been for 10 years, to the California Kamp successfully petitioned the quest' ans. Castro replied: Board of Prison Terms to rescind its "Peter mentioned she made At 4:30 that afternoon Men's Colony at San Luis Obispo to "On advice of counsel. I am cur- calls to Pat, trying to find Marilyn phoned Dr. Ralph finish serving his life sentence. action on grounds that it had not out where Bobby was, and Greenson, her friend and tailing further discussion on this." properly considered death threats found out that he was on the psychiatrist. She sounded "We'll send his ass down there for David E. Brown, the parole as long as possible," made by Sirhan against a writer and West Coast." drugged and depressed, he a member of the board's legal counsel, also declined Bobby, who was staying at panel — whose voice could not be a prison counselor. later said Searching for sol- comment when newsmen asked a ranch 300 miles north of ace, Marilyn also called sev- readily identified — was heard to Los Angeles, finally decided say. him to explain the panel's legal posi- eral other friends and associ- tion. But Sirhan's lawyer. Luke to confront Marilyn face-to- ates. Sirhan returned to his cell after face and convince her the af. Later that night she called McKissack, was more talkative. fair was over, Gould says. telling reporters: "The best way to "I'm dumbfounded," he said. "I Lawford, according to his ex- According to a number of wife Deborah Gould. settle this case is to deport me.... plan to immediately see what legal sources, including an eyewit- "Marilyn got on the phone Certainly I'm not going to hijack a steps might be taken to set aside the ness, Bobby made a hurried to Peter to inform him that plane or take any hostages. board's action today. flight to Los Angeles on Sat- she couldn't take anymore "I'm shocked," Sirhan said. "If this "One thing I do know for certain urday, Aug. 4. 1962 — the and that it would be best for was in some totalitarian country, I after listening to a recording of day before Marilyn's death. everybody that she died, and could believe it. what reporters overheard ... these He drove to her home, where she was going to kill her- he was seen by a neighbor self," Gould said. 3

Lawford replied: "Non- Lawford's ex-wife Debo- sense. Marilyn. pull yourself rah Gould told me the delay together — but my God, in calling the doctors and po- whatever you do. don't leave lice was used to "get Bobby 24-year•old suicide ruling any notes behind." out of town." She says Law- Soon after that call. Man- ford told her that Bobby -left by helicopter.' lyn died of a drug overdose. D!eN 8-14-85 That was the autopsy sur- William Woodfield and geon's official conclusion. Joe Hyams — he only two changed to murder For various reasons -- -,^.—,,,nal •,h,, least of which was that key looked sermu,.: . into Mari- By George Kuempel Retired Texas Ranger Capt. Clint dered, but could have killed him- laboratory specimens were lyn's death - discovered Austin Bureau of The News Peoples of Dallas, who spent 23 self. prematurely destroyed - that a rented •:.•licopter had years investigating Marshall's The 1962 grand jury decided on a been dispatcned to Law- AUSTIN — A state judge ruled we probably will never know death and testified Monday, said he split vote that there was insignifi- for sure whether she died a ford's beach home on the Tuesday that a US. Agriculture De- deliberate suicide, by acci- night Marilyn died, and that partment official listed as a suicide was delighted by the ruling, and cant evidence to change the ruling dent or at the hands of a kill- it had carried a passenger to victim for 24 years actually was considers the case closed. in Marshall's death from suicide to the main Los Angeles air- er. There is no doubt. how- "That man (Henry Marshall) murder. ever. that there was a cover- port. -The booking is a blur murdered, adding a new chapter to up of the last hours of her in my memory now.' says a mystery with connections all the and his family were mishandled A 1984 grand jury reopened the life. Woodfield. who saw the heli- way to Lyndon Johnson's vice presi- more than anyone that I've ever case after Estes agreed to testify Peter Lawford later ad- copter's logbook. "But it was seen in my SS years of law enforce- with a grant of immunity. The definitely in the name of ei- dency. mitted to Gould that he se- meat," Peoples said. panel voted unanimously after a cretly went to Marilyn's ther 'Lawford' or 'Kenne- "It seems to me clear that the home that night. Gould says death of Henry Marshall was not "There has been strong pressure daylong hearing to change the Lawford told her he had cif- Early on the morning af- the result of self-inflicted gunshot of all kinds put on everybody to cause of death to murder. ter Marilyn's death. I learn- stroyed a note left by Mari- wounds," State District Judge Peter keep that (Marshall's death) from Estes told the grand jury that lyn "to protect loved ones in- ed. Lawford hired a security being ruled homicide. Finally, fi- Johnson. then the vice president, volved" — namely the Ken- man recommended by Holly- Lowry ruled after a two-day hear- nedy brothers. wood private detective Fred ing. He ordered the Texas Depart- nally justice has been done." ordered Marshall killed because he Otash to tie up loose ends in "That's where Peter's role ment of Health to change Marshall's Peoples, 74, declined to say who had information that would link the case — making sure came in." she told me, "to Lyndon Johnson to Estes' illegal ac- there was no evidence link- death certificate to show that he he thinks killed Marshall. But he cover up all the dirty work ing Marilyn to the Kenne- was murdered. said he'l "satisified" that Estes' tes- quisition of cotton allotments. Estes and take care of every- dys. Even FBI Director J. thing." The judge's ruling made no men- timonyeto a 1984 Robertson County said that Johnson also was worried Edgar Hoover had a hand in tion of who might have killed Mar- grand jury is the truth. about information getting out about Walt Schaefer, the boss of covering up Manlyn's con- a leading California ambu- nection to the Kennedys - shall. Peoples, who talked Estes into an alleged multimillion dollar polit- lance company. states with ordering the confiscation of Last year, convicted West Texas testifying before the grand jury, ical slush fund controlled by then- utter certainty that one of phone records covering Mar- swindler Billie Sol Estes told a Rob- said he's certain the full story will Vice President Johnson. his ambulances went to ilyn's final days. records that Marilyn's home that night. ertson County grand jury that then- come out one day. could have linked her to the Estes told the grand jury that He said the ambulance "took Kennedys. Vice President Lyndon Johnson "It's going to have 'to be some Malcolm E. "Mac" Wallace, a John- her to Santa Monica Hospi- The above scenario is a had ordered Marshall killed. But on changing of the guard in some tal. She passed away at the fair construction from the Monday, Estes said by telephone places," he said. "You have to read 9011 family friend, killed Marshall hospital. She did not die at mass of information now — on orders from Johnson — and home." from his home in Abilene that the between the lines." available, much of it entirely tried to make It look like suicide. Schaefer said he doesn't new, all of it cross-checked details of Marshall's death are a Henry Marshall, a U.S. Depart- remember who called the and analyzed. mystery. ment of Agriculture employee who Wallace died in an automobile acci- ambulance. He doesn't know In a real sense, this was "I think there's still a God in helped oversee the federal cotton dent in 1971. who, if anyone, accompanied Robert Kennedy's Chappaq- Marilyn to the hospital. uiddick — but his connec- heaven, and I think that God will allotment program, was found dead Fates was fined S554,162 by the Swathed in blankets and tion with Marilyn's death straighten history out," Estes said. on the family's ranch near Franklin Agriculture Department on May 9, without makeup, she may never came out at the time "I've decided that none of us can do in Central Texas on June 3, 1961. He 1962 for the illegal transfer of 3,100 not have been recognized by hospital personnel. But I it down here." had five gunshot wounds in his acres of cotton allotments the year think it is more likely that Former aides to Johnson have side, cuts on his head and carbon before. He was convicted on federal she died BEFORE arriving bitterly denounced Estes as a monoxide in his lungs, according to conspiracy and mail fraud charges in the hospital — putting "pathological liar" and accused him a coroner's report. whoever was with her, per- in 1964 and on mail fraud charges haps Robert Kennedy him- of making up the story about John- A justice of the peace ruled sui- in 1979. He was released from self. in a terrible predica- son to boost sales of a book written cide, based on an investigation by prison in 1983 after being paroled. ment. by Estes' daughter. Robertson County Sheriff Howard John Paschall, the former Rob- The press believed RFX When Lowry issued his ruling Stegall. who has since died. was 300 miles away at that ertson County district attorney who time,. and his unexplained from the bench Tuesday, Marshall's A 12-member Robertson County oversaw the 1984 grand jury probe, presence in Los Angeles on widow, Sybil, was momentarily left grand jury, which included a son- testified Tuesday that Stegall and the night of Marilyn's death speechless. She sat down on a court- in-law of the sheriff, launched a six- his deputies had botched the initial would have raised a lot of room bench weeping, her face bur- week investigation a year later in questions he was desperate investigation of Marshall's death to avoid. ied in her hands. the wake of allegations linking and that the 1962 grand jury didn't There was only one solu- "It's been a long time," she whis- Estes to a fraudulent cotton allot- want to expose him. tion: Return her body to her pered. ment scheme. Assistant Attorney General Lou home, and delay reporting Donald Marshall, 34, the victim's Marshall's body was exhumed her death until Bobby had Bright, who represented the state, time to slip out of town. only child, said he was "happy" and an autopsy performed at that argued that the Marshalls had not Only after this was accom- NATIONAL I about the ruling. Marshall, who INQUIRER grand jury's request produced sufficient evidence to jus- plished did Marilyn's house- filed the suit, would not speculate Harris County Medical Examiner tify changing the state death keeper and companion. Eu- nice Murray. call for help. on who killed his father or why. "It Dr. Joseph Jachimcsyk, who was records. But he said it Is unlikely my investigation indicates. doesn't matter at this point," he called in on the case, concluded the state will appeal the ruling. Murray first phoned Mari- said. that Marshall probably was mur- lyn's friend and psychiatrist. Dr. Greenson, who lived • nearby. He told her to also call another of Marilyn's doc- tors. But Dr. Greenson got Justices give spy agencies there first — and found Marilyn dead, facedown on the bed. at 3:90 a.m. Marilyn's body was al- ready stiff, in rigor mortis. when Dr. Greenson found it broadpowers of secrecy Associated Press — and rigor mortis only ap- "Without such protections the identities of the researchers and in- pears four to six hours after A BBC tv special stitutions would help uncover the death, which places her WASHINGTON — The CIA and agency would be virtually impo- based on Tony's book other US. spy agencies are free to tent," he said. scope of MKULTRA experiments, as death well before midnight. say top medical experts. is being syndicated conceal from the public the identi- Tuesday's decision overturned a well as the names of unsuspecting Natalie Jacobs, the widow for showing this ties of all intelligence sources, the ruling that could have forced the subjects. of Marilyn's public relations CIA to disclose the names of college The appeals court said the CIA man Arthur Jacobs, says year. It includes Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. she's absolutely certain that The court, by a 7-2 vote, gave the researchers and others who con- may not withhold the names of its Arthur received the news of housekeeper "urray's CIA director unlimited power to tributed to a project in the 19503 sources merely, for example, to Marilyn's death by 11 p.m. admission that RFK protect not only secret agents but and 1960s code-named MKULTRA. guard against a public outcry. It that night and immediately rushed over to her home. visited p"M a few also all other sources of informa- The project involved brainwashing said the agency could conceal the When I reminded Natalie hours before her tion — classified and unclassified. and administering of experimental names only if it could show that the that• according to the police. death. Some other That includes the names of private drugs such as LSD to unsuspecting promise of confidentiality was re- Marilyn's body had not been scientists and researchers, and individuals. At least two people died quired to obtain the information. discovered until 3:40 am., excerpts and newer even academic journals. because of the experiments. But Burger said the appeals she replied: "Allow me to interviews will be tell you why. My husband seen on ABC 's 20/20 "Congress intended to give the The US. Circuit Court of Appeals court misunderstood "the realities fudged everything — I can- director of central intelligence ruled in 1983 in favor of the Ralph not tell you why." zen, which filed a 1978 suit under of intelligence work, which often sometime in October. broad power to protect the secrecy Nader lobbying group Public Citi- involves seemingly innocuous Pre,. the forthcomme ...Ha. GODDESS The Sveret I.vres of Manirn Moon. Its antrum. and integrity of the intelligence The suit said disclosure of the sources as well as unsuspecting in- oprneho C .44 Amnon, Summer, 1, no .61.11.4 MiC111111■11 1,mon. Comp., ilpnnivil porftsfasaan of Brown a v.uoaces ■.1e1 process," said Chief Justice Warren the Freedom of Information Act. dividuals who provide valuable in- Burger for the court. telligence information." (Frank Cancel/are, above left, taking the second of two DTH 7-16-85 pictures witliin the first minute of the assassination. room and retired as the prize-winning The full, uncropped version may show more than the one FRANK CANCELLARE. photographer dean of the White House photogra- distributed by UPI. His first picture shows the south who took Me world-famous picture of phers. He had been ill for several - Harry Truman holding a newspaper years and died of cancer. Cancel- knoll and a shadowy figure with what could be a rifle incorrectly declaring Thomas Dewey lers's picture of a grinning and trium- see Coverups 420 for 7d Tatro's analysis.) the winner of the 1948 presidential phant Truman on the rear platform of election, died Monday.. Cancellare, the presidential train after Ns stun- who was 75 on July 4, retired in 1980 ning 1948 upset victory holding a STILL ON THE CASE Ron Rosenbaum after 52 years with Acme Newspic- Chicago Tribune headlined "Dewey tures, United Press and United Press Defeats Truman" probably was the NOVEMBER HISSREVAS MONTHLY International. He started as a most famous political photograph of (Part 2) "mussels boy" In a New York dark- all time. Vil RILE THE POETS PEOPLED THE "a surrogate father of sorts throughout world of that November 22 with a much of Oswald's life in New Orleans" grief-generated galaxy of hostile and "an associate of significant organized ghosts, the official investigators narrowed crime figures affiliated with the Marcello their focus to one man. Somehow lost in organization." the controversy over the acoustical evi- The abstract connections are all there. DTH 7-11-85 dence is that the House Select Committee We know that Marcello hated the Ken- actually came up with a prime suspect. A nedy brothers with a deep bitterness that candidate for the Man Behind It All. And grew out of much more than fear of the CIA charge rejected testimony to back that up. It all comes threat that Bobby Kennedy's organized- down to what you think of the tail-and- crime prosecutions posed to his billion- the-dog story. dollar racketeering empire. Marcello had The tail-and-the-dog story is at the heart experienced the kind of physical humil- against news show of the hottest area of assassination theory iation at the hands of Kennedy justice still thriving after all these years: mob-hit that can brew a passion for revenge sur- Rewald, a Honolulu businessman passing mere calculation of profit and From wire reports theory. In the past few years, mob-hit then facing 100 counts of fraud, to theory has succeeded in shouldering aside loss. WASHINGTON — The Federal prevent him from revealing his such other rival contenders as CIA-anti- Just two months after John Kennedy's Communications Commission Fri- work as a covert agent. Castro-hit theory, pro-Castro-hit theory, inauguration. Marcello was virtually kid- day for the second time rejected a The FCC rejected the CIA's and KGB-complicity theory and in push- napped in New Orleans by immigration complaint last November, saying CIA complaint against an ABC ing itself to the forefront of consideration. officers acting at the direction of Bobby there was no evidence ABC had News program that aired an accu- The rush to the mob-hit judgment began Kennedy's Justice Department. Arrested. sation the agency had planned to intentionally distorted the handcuffed, he was dragged without a information. in 1979 with the publication of the final murder a Honolulu businessman report of the House Select Committee. hearing to a Border Patrol plane and, to prevent disclosure of covert On Feb. 8, the CIA filed an according to Robert Blakey, "flown 1200 amended complaint asking recon- Written by organized-crime expert and operations. chief counsel Robert Blakey, the com- miles to Guatemala City and dumped The CIA had sought under the sideration and an investigation there, without luggage." When his pres- Fairness Doctrine to force ABC to into what was described as ABC's mittee report comes within a whisker of calling the events of November 22, ence became known to the authorities retract the allegations in broad- "false charges and accusations in Guatemala. he was expelled and "un- about CIA activities." 1963, a gangland slaying and within a casts made on the network's ceremoniously flown to an out-of-the-way World News Tonight program last The agency said it wanted the whisker of a whisker of pinning the con- FCC to force ABC to respond. tract on New Orleans mob boss Carlos village in the jungle of El Salvador, where Sept. 19-20. (he and his lawyer) were left stranded. Allegations were made in the The commission said the CIA Marcello. Salvadorian soldiers jailed and interro- broadcast that the CIA had or- failed to prove deliberate distor- "The committee found that Marcello dered the killing of Ronald tion by the network. had motive, means, and opportunity to gated the two men for five days. then have President John F. Kennedy assassi- put them on a bus and took them twenty BrOACICIUMing Aug 5 1985 nated, though it was unable to establish miles into the mountains. . . . They were direct evidence of Marcello's complicity," hardly prepared for the mountain hike, Southern California Americans for Democratic Action Foundation as they were dressed in silk shantung has filed $14S-million lawsuit in federal district court in Los Ange- the report states. "The committee iden- les against CIA, CIA director William Casey and ABC, alleging. tified the presence of one critical evidenti- suits and alligator shoes. . . . Marcello among other things. that network defamed man who claims CIA ary element that was lacking with other fainted three times. . . During a down- directed him to kill Hawaii investment banker. Complaint stems organized crime figures examined by the hill scramble, Marcello fell and broke two from series of ABC News stones last year that broadcast allegation committee: credible associations relating ribs" before reaching an airstrip and by Scott Barnes. who asserted CIA contact had tried to recruit him both Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby managing to reenter the U.S. illegally. to kill Hawaii investment banker. CIA filed complaints at FCC to figures having a relationship, albeit Indubitably. in all this unaccustomed (those complaints were subsequently rejected). asserting that alle- tenuous, with Marcello's crime family." humiliation at the hands of the Kennedys. gation was false. ABC World News Tonight anchor Peter Jennings. the motive is there. two months after broadcasts. broadcast statement that network The key here is Oswald's uncle Dutz. had been unable to obtain corroboration and that Barnes had Ruby's organized-crime ties—to teamster But where is the direct connection? refused to take lie-detector test. As result, Jennings said. ABC thugs connected with Jimmy Hoffa, to That's where the tail-and-the-dog story News had concluded that Barnes's "charges cannot be substanti- Sam Giancana and guys like John Ro- comes in. The teller of the tale is Ed ated and we have no reason to doubt the CIA's denials." Barnes. selli who were in on the CIA-mob plots Becker, whom Blakey describes as "a however. according to has attorney. is contending that story is to assassinate Fidel Castro—had long former Las Vegas promoter who had lived true. He's also alleging ABC libeled him by claiming he refused to been known. What the House Select on the fringe of the underworld." take lie-detector test. Barnes's attorney said Bames had offered to Committee established was an Oswald The scene is Churchill Farms, Mar- take such tests on seven occasions. Barnes. according to his attor- cello's plantation outside New Orleans. It ney. is also alleging that Casey and CIA pressured ABC into mak- organized-crime connection: his uncle ing retraction. Charles "Dutz" Murret, of New Orleans, b September 1962. Becker is there to dis- whom the committee described as both cuss a business proposition, but the talk 5 turns to the Kennedy campaign against of the Assassination Information Bureau. he fled Dallas, arrived here. and began to Next, the Bronson film. Real Blow-Up organized crime. The mention of Bobby came up with several other periods in act weird. stuff. There was the limo turning the cor- Kennedy's name drives Marcello into a Oswald's career during which the psyche- One thing almost all conspiracy theo- ner onto Elm Street right below the Book rage. "Don't worry about that little Bobby delic connection might have been made. rists, even Warren Commission defend- Depository. beginning to head downhill son of a bitch.- he shouts, according to The U-2 base in Atsugi. Japan. for ers. agree on is that though the assassina- toward the Triple Underpass and the spot Becker. "He's going to be taken care of." instance. Where Oswald served as a tion was an act executed in Dallas, it was a hundred yards farther down Elm, where How? Becker testified before the House Marine Corps radar operator before he conceived in the contagion of intrigue that the shots would hit. The real mystery of Select Committee that the plan was to defected to the Soviets. Ranftel and com- infected the mind of Oswald that August that particular moment. a mystery that be- "take care of" Bobby by "taking care pany discovered that during the time in New Orleans. comes apparent once you've walked the of" his brother and that Marcello -clearly Oswald was stationed there. Atsugi base The mind of Oswald. I'm beginning motorcade's route in Dealey Plaza. past stated that he was going to arrange to have was a storage and testing facility for the to feel some inkling of the turmoil therein the Book Depositors and down toward President Kennedy murdered in some drugs used in the CIA's Operation Arti- as I stand before the curious ,culpture that the fatal spot, a mystery neither the offi- way.- Becker said that Marcello com- choke. Artichoke was the forerunner of has replaced the now-demolished building cial inquiries nor the amateur critics pared Bobby to the tail and his brother Operation MK-ULTRA. the CIA's search at 544 Camp Street. have satisfactorily explained or even ad- Jack to the whole dog, citing a proverb: If for a foolproof truth serum—at first called I fled Dallas yesterday, sick of brain dressed. is this: why didn't Oswald. or you cut off the tail. the doe will keep the Twilight Zone drug—which led to the and body. A bad case of food poisoning whoever was up in the Book Depository, biting: but if you chop off the head. the testing of LSD. often on unsuspecting got to my body. So bad that for a while shoot the pre;ident when he was coming dog will die. tail and all. military personnel. Racinel and his col- I thought I'd end up as number 189 in right toward the sniper's-nest window. The committee took a lot of time pains- leagues located a Marine who was sta- Penn Jones' list of suspicious casualties when he was heading down Houston takingly and convincingly corroborating tioned at Atsugi at the same time as of the case. (Of course, how could they Street straight into his gunsight, a mere the circumstantial details of the story. Oswald and says that he himself was know I would stuff myself with barbecue thirty yards away? Why did the assassin Then they called Marcello in to testify given LSD and other psychedelics. in that particular place on Mockingbird wait until the president's car turned the about it. He denied it. But he also testified And then there was Oswald's curious Lane?) corner onto Elm Street and began pulling before the committee in executive session bad-trip episode at Atsugi. Ranftel. It was Gary Mack's assassination film away? Was there an inner struggle, some that he made his living as a tomato sales- Cohen, and Lee described it last March in festival that got to my brain. Drove me crisis of conscience going on in the assas- man, testimony that his recent Brilab their Rolling Stone article. "Did Oswald out of town. Not the goat's-head hypothe- sin's mind? Did he almost decide to let conviction calls into question. Drop Acid?": "While Oswald was on sis, not the eyestrain from the Bronson- his target slip away unharmed? The tail-and-the-dog story may not be guard duty, gunfire was heard. He was film blowups. No it was the Oswald The Bronson-film blowup that Gary enough evidence to indict or convict, al- found sitting on the ground, more than a craniotomy controversy that took me out Mack showed me that afternoon did not though I have been told that the committee little dazed, babbling about seeing things of the merely maddening world of Blow- address that question. The Bronson film staff forwarded its Marcello material to in the bushes . . . what in the Sixties Up right into Texas Chainsaw Massacre was really a kind of ghost story. Be- the Justice Department in order to en- would become known as a bad trip." horror. cause in the early footage, six minutes courage it to do just that. But Becker's Ranftel and company point to the wide- Should I tell you about this experience. before the limo reached the fatal turn story takes mob-hit theory a step beyond spread suspicion that Oswald's defection or will you think it too ghoulish, too onto Elm Street. there, up in the corner motive, means, and opportunity in the to the Soviet Union may have been staged gruesome? of the frame, in the windows six floors abstract. with the connivance and encouragement Notes on the assassination film festival. above the street. pale, ghostly, evanescent of the CIA or military intelligence, both Arrived Gary Mack's lovely suburban shapes flickered. HAT NIGHT. BACK IN MY HOTEL of which were at the time repeatedly try- Fort Worth tract home. Eager to see the Gary had blowups of the crucial frames. room after Penn Jones' tour, re- ing to plant "defector" operatives inside Bronson film, but first there was Gary's They showed dim gleams of shadowy Ill covering from the plunge into the USSR. They cite CIA sources reveal- critique of the goat's-head hypothesis. shapes in the corner sniper's-nest window. undiluted grief. I continue calling my buff ing that agents dispatched into situations The goat's-head hypothesis is the And pale, ghostly presences moving, contacts across the country. A long mid- with the potential for hostile interroga- official explanation of the most horrible blotches and blurs, in the two windows night talk with Bay Area buff Robert tion—including the use of psychedelic moment in that horror-filled home movie next to that. Windows that should have Ranftel is the most provocative. interrogation aids—were often exposed known as the Zapruder film. The moment been empty at the time of the shooting, Ranftel is a. codiscoverer of a fascinat- to such drugs before setting out on those when the fatal head shot appeared to slam according to the lone-assassin theory. ing new piece of information about the missions, so they would be able to recog- the president back into the seat of his car Assassins? Or artifacts in the photo- case. The Gillin story. The Psychedelic nize and cope with the effects of the as though it had been a frontal hit. sensitive emulsion? Oswald theory. drugs. People so exposed were known in Gary ran and reran that moment for me Gary Mack thinks they're men wearing Don't laugh. It's based on careful re- the intelligence world as enlightened on his home projector and screen set. pale green and magenta shirts. They could search, and it addresses perhaps the most operatives. Not that I objected. After all. it could be be. They could be John. Paul, George. endunng and perplexing mystery remain- Oswald an enlightened operative? Os- argued that if you haven't seen the and Ringo, for all I can tell. As a matter ing in the case: the mind of Lee Harvey wald a Huxleyan psychedelic 'mystic? Zapruder film, you haven't actually expe- of fact. does anyone know exactly where Oswald. The implications are, indeed, as they used rienced the assassination. You know a the Fab Four were that day? If we go by Because, after all these years the ques- to say, mind-blowing. president was shot, an office vacated, but the cui Bono, or who-benefits, theory of tion for most researchers is no longer For one thing, as Ranftel remarks to- you haven't seen the man's head brutally the assassination, the finger of guilt could whether Oswald was involved but who he night. "it might explain that strange, quiz- blown apart, you haven't seen John Ken- well swing toward the lovable Liverpud- was. Was he KGB or CIA? Was he a pro- zical smile you see on the guy's face in so nedy die, and so perhaps you haven't had lian lads. since it's always been my belief Castro partisan infiltrating anti-Castro many of his pictures." a chance to confront the loss. that the Beatlemania that swept America groups, or was he an anti-Castro activist What was going on behind that smile? It was the sudden appearance in the just eight weeks after the assassination setting up false pro-Castro fronts? Was he The Psychedelic Oswald hypothesis offers seventies of bootleg copies of the was really a hysterical transference of informing for the FBI or being informed an explanation, a way of reconciling some Zapruder film and the showing of high- repressed JFK-assassination shock and on? Did he support JFK or hate him? of the intractable contradictions he left quality copies to congressmen that did grief. The link being the hair—both John There is convincing evidence on both behind. CIA or KGB? Pro-Castro or anti- more than anything to get the Senate and Kennedy and John Lennon being loved for sides of each of these questions. How Castro? Perhaps the answer is neither and the House to launch their own investiga- the look of their locks. could one man have created so much am- both. Perhaps the answer is that he en- tions of the shooting. I refrained from exploring this theory biguity about his true identity in so short joyed the game of posing as both, of play- Because, watching that shot knock Ken- with Gary, but he had convincing tech- a time? And why? Was he just confused? ing at infiltrating one side on behalf of the nedy backward, all the senses cry out nical answers to my other objections. Or was he out to confuse? other, of playing both sides against the that it came from the front. But Oswald. He was certain that he had prima facie Ranftel unearthed a clue to this dilem- other, the pleasures of the enlightened op- we know. was behind. Which would evidence of conspiracy right there on ma, an episode that took place during erative. We know that as a boy Oswald's mean a second gunman and therefore a his screen, the kind of evidence no Oswald's mysterious sojourn in New Or- favorite TV show was f Led Three Lives. conspiracy. goat's-head shoots can refute, and that leans the summer before the assassina- Had drugs given a psychedelic twist to the And yet from a restudy of the autopsy costly computer enhancement, which he tion. The Galin story first surfaced in a solemnity of that classic of role playing? evidence the House Select Committee can't afford, might even show us human document that wasn't declassified until The Psychedelic Oswald hypothesis concluded—just as the Warren Commis- features as well as the shirts of the 1977, an FBI memo about an interview might go a long way toward explaining sion had—that the head shot was fired assassins. with a New Orleans assistant district some of the mysteries of Oswald's strange from behind. But scientific evidence alone is not attorney named Edward Gillin. On the summer in New Orleans—those months "How could that be'?" I asked Gary enough here. This case requires what day Oswald was killed, Gitlin phoned the before the assassination when he began Mack. Kierkegaard called a leap of faith. The FBI to report a strange encounter he had •playing the dangerous game of pro- and "Well. they cited the films of the goat's- existence of God, K. argued. can never be had in the summer of 1963 with a man anti-Castro politics and which climaxed head tests." Gary said. "Back in 1948 the proved by constructing a scaffolding of calling himself Lee Oswald. How this with his mysterious pre-assassination trip Army did filmed studies of the impact of rational argument. Faith can only come skinny guy named Oswald had come into to Mexico City. bullets on goats' heads that demonstrated through a leap from that scaffolding into his office and started talking about a book what they called a neuromuscular reac- the realm of what he called the absurd. he'd read by Aldous Huxley. A book III EW ORLEANS. THE FRENCH QUAR- tion, which in certain circumstances will And El Exigente here is not ready to make about psychedelic drugs. "He was looking ter's decaying fringe. 544 Camp cause a backward motion even with a shot that leap. He is troubled also by the ques- for a drug that would open his vision, you Street. to be specific. The most from behind. tion of what happened to the green and know, mind expansion," Gillin recalled. intriguing address in the whole JFK case. "And do you accept that?" I asked. magenta men and, if they were up there He had come to the assistant DA. Oswald Only it's not here anymore. I came all the "Well. the thing they fail to take note shooting, what happened to their rifles said, because he wanted to know if such way to this steamy, sweaty late August of." he told me. "is that in the neuro- and bullets? drugs were legal. And how to get them. swamp of a city to enter the building at muscular reaction, the extremities are No leap of faith required in the crani- Oswald and Aldous Huxley. What a 544 Camp Street because some buff or supposed to go rigid. Now if you look otomy controversy, though. No, this one bizarre meeting of minds. Oswald and other told me it was still here. Because, of closely at the president at the moment he's requires a leap back into the grave. psychedelic drugs. What a combination all the shrines in the story of 0.. this one hit—here. I'll slow it down so you can see Oswald's grave. Or, as Gary prefers, the of ingredients. And yet Ranftel and his might hold the clue to what was going on that doesn't happen to Kennedy: he's all grave of Oswald's impostor. Because collaborators, Martin Lee and Jeff Cohen in his mind in the summer of 1963, when loose and wobbly." Gary had new evidence that very well 6 Marine, then a Soviet citizen, then a U.S. Oswald may have acted alone; the Warren might be enough to cause people to open headquarters of a right-wing ex-FBI agent citizen again. Someone for whom change Commission, for all its bungling, might again. That's right. named Guy Banister. who was that very up Oswald's grave have gotten it right after all. Just two years after the notorious summer recruiting people to infiltrate pro- of identity has become second nature. someone who has seen the world from "What about the mob-hit theory," I ask Eddowes-Marina exhumation seemed to Castro movements. both sides and been disillusioned by both. Ranftel. "Isn't there any hope for that? I establish that Oswald was the guy buried What was Oswald up to! As far back as in Oswald's grave. Gary came upon a key 1964. Warren Commission staffers were Someone who— with his doors of percep- mean the House Committee pretty much discrepancy in the exhumation evidence. scratching their heads over that and writ- tion opened— thinks he sees through it endorsed it?" He began to explain the thing to me in ing memos to each other about the possi- all. Someone for whom the only pleasure -Well. mob-hit theory is where the great and gruesome detail, a tale that bility that Oswald's paper FPCC group now is in the posing, the plotting, and action is now," Ranftel says. "Every- might be called the Clue of the Assassin's was a front set up to infiltrate the pro- the counterplotting. Look at 0. as a body's writing their mob-hit book. Did Skull. Castro movement on behalf of the anti- pre-assassination assassination buff. Not you see the latest — Contract on America To understand the importance of his Castro group based in 544 Camp Street. a lone nut but a lone mastermind. de- [by David Scheim. subtitled The Mafia new discovery, Gary said, you have to They never were able to resolve it. ploying identities the way Penn Jones Murders of John and Robert liennedyr" know what they did to Oswald's skull dur- When the staffers presented their memo deploys gunmen. What a paradise New "Do you think mob-hit theory is just an- ing his first autopsy back in 1963. on Oswald in New Orleans to the harried Orleans would have seemed that steamy other buff trend?" "It's part of the record they did a crani- chief counsel of the Warren Commission. summer to someone like that. with its "I think the organized-crime theory otomy on him, back then," Gary told me. it came back with these words scrawled murky web of plot and counterplot. is sort of a halfway house out of the "They sawed off the top of his skull with on it: -AI this stage we are supposed to he How convenient 544 Camp Street would Kennedy case for a lot of buffs." he says. a power saw. They reached underneath closing doors, not opening them." have been. So many strands of intrigue "A halfway house'?" the brain, cut it off, and lifted it out, and Subsequent Senate and House assassi- so close at hand. so many strings so easy -Well. it solves a lot of problems. You they noted in the official record that a nation investigations tried to reopen the to pull. look at the typical mob hit. It's a murder craniotomy had been done. doors to 544 Camp Street but found only How inconvenient for my purposes that that goes unsolved. And the people who "Now. when they did the exhumation doors within doors. 544 Camp Street has disappeared from the did it typically never talk. So you can this time, no mention was made of a crani- "We have evidence," then-Senator Rich- face of the earth. How I wanted to walk its almost use the fact that the JFK case otomy. And then Paul Groody, the morti- ard Schweiker declared. "which places at halls and get a feel for its atmosphere. But remains unsolved as evidence it was a cian, said it had suddenly struck him after 544 Camp Street intelligence agents. Lee the building was torn down some years mob hit. It allows a lot of people to they had reburied the corpse that he hadn't Oswald. the mob, and anti-Castro Cuban ago to make why for a new federal court walk away from the case and say we've noticed that a craniotomy had been done exiles." building. The'old building's exact loca- brought it as far as it can go. You see a lot on the skull of whoever it was buried in Yes, behind those doors Oswald had tion at the corner of Lafayette Street of assassination buffs now turning into Oswald's grave. The skin had rotted gotten himself entangled in some of the is now a concrete plaza empty except organized-crime buffs." away, leaving a naked skull. But with a darker strands in the fabric of American for a large. abstract. federally subsidized A halfway house out of the case. craniotomy, the top of the skull should life. And yet what does it all prove? Per- sculpture. Rankers phrase suddenly clarifies for me have fallen off. It didn't. In fact, there are haps there is a clue behind another set of And yet that sculpture . . . a persistent subtext I thought I'd been videotapes of the exhumation showing doors — The Doors of Perception. The best way to describe the sculpture picking up in my conversations with some them handling the skull, even . holding Consider this passage from Huxley7s would be to call it a sixteen-foot twisted of the best of the buffs. Take Paul Hoch. it upside down, and nothing falls off. classic account of the psychedelic experi- helix of black painted steel. Military- for instance. Almost universally regarded And at one point they severed the head ence, based on his mescaline trips: industrial-complex-size damaged chro- as one of the most careful and meticulous and placed it on a metal stand. Some- The schizophrenic is like a man mosomes. Its title: Out of There. Hard researchers in the game. A computer pro- body bumped it and it rolled onto the permanently under the influence to believe its creator did not know grammer by profession. he specialized in table, but the top still didn't fall off. of mescalin . . . which, because it the significance of the place in which looking into an area of ambiguity and Which proves that it can't be Oswald's never permits him to look at the his work was installed. A better monu- searching the thousands of cubic feet of skull down there, that it must be an im- world with merely human eyes, ment to the tortuous doubling and redou- declassified documents in the archives postor. Wouldn't you like to see that tape, scares him into interpreting its un- bling of the mind of Lee Harvey Oswald until he found the single document that Ron?" remitting strangeness, its burning could not be imagined. clarified the point in question. He was At that point I made an excuse and fled intensity of significance, as the I wander south on Camp Street. pass- still working on the case—publishing his town. manifestations of human or even ing comatose derelicts, disintegrating Echoes of Conspiracy newsletter—but his cosmic malevolence, calling for the warehouse buildings, and dingy rooming work now was filled with echoes of ND SO I AM HERE AT 544 CAMP most desperate countermeasures. houses. Come upon the Crescent Street echoes. Reports of reports. Clippings. Street. Trying to forget about from murderous violence at one end Garage, where 0. used to drop in and There seemed to be no edge, no direction, AOswald's skull. Trying to get in- of the scale [italics mine) to cata- read gun magazines in the office. Next to no sense that any of this was leading to side his head. Let me explain why this tonia, or psychological suicide, at the Reily Coffee Company, where he was anything. particular address is so important. the other end. And. once embarked employed, greasing coffee-grinding ma- "I get the impression that you're shifting Shortly after Oswald arrived in New upon the downward. the infernal chines. The garage was also, according to from being an assassination investigator Orleans in April 1963, he embarked on a road, one would never be able to the testimony of a mechanic, a depot for to something more like a commentator," I mystifying campaign of dangerous and stop. . . . unmarked FBI and Secret Service cars. told Hoch. duplicitous political intrigue whose mo- "If you started the wrong way," I The mechanic said that he saw envelopes "I think that's true. A historian might be tive is still obscure. One of his first acts said in answer to the investigator's pass between agents in unmarked cars and more accurate. I try to keep the record was to contact the national headquarters questions, "everything that hap- Oswald. straight." of the pro-Castro Fair Play for Cuba pened would be a proof of the con- Back up the street, past Our of There, "But what about solving the case?" I Committee (FPCC) to get a charter to set spiracy against you. It would be to the all-night drugstore on the corner asked. up a New Orleans chapter. He gave the self-validating. You couldn't draw a of Canal. Another 0. hangout that sum- "I just don't know." he said. "I just don't name "A. J. Hidell," one of his false breath without knowing it was part mer. Horrible glaring fluorescents that know if it's too late now." identities, as president and only member of the plot."'" must have been around since that sum- of the chapter. This last paragraph strikes me as a good mer, truly a depressing place, the nature 11100 LATE? WOULD IT MATTER IF At the same time, he was approaching description of the mind of the assassina- of whose clientele can be surmised from it weren't? Maybe that's the real anti-Castro Cuban-exile groups, declaring tion buff as well as of the assassin. a scrawled sign over the prescriptions question. Maybe, after all. there's that he shared their feelings, boasting of Up until now there have been three counter: "Due to Uncertainties All Drug no big secret, no clandestine conspiracy his marksmanship and his Marine training theories relating to Oswald's strange Sales Are Final." there to uncover. Immersed once again in in guerrilla warfare and telling them that immersion in the subeurrents swirling Due to uncertainties. I push through the the frustrations of the case, the frequent he wanted to be sent on a paramilitary around 544 Camp Street: (I ) he was a sweaty atmosphere back toward my hotel, foolishness and apparent futility of the mission to Cuba. pro-Castro activist infiltrating anti-Castro mired in the maze of uncertainties sur- buff biz, I find myself almost longing to Then, in August 1963, one of the anti- movements on behalf of Cuban agents. (2) rounding 0.'s Camp Street summer. His succumb to the simplicity and convention- Castro activists he had been soliciting he was an agent of anti-Castro forces sojourn there suggests that everything al comfort of lone-assassin certainty. To came upon Oswald distributing pro- using a pro-Castro front to infiltrate Cuba. proves nothing. Provides support for al- be able to stuff all the seething ambigu- Castro pamphlets in his role as one-man perhaps to kill Castro, and 131 he was a most every conspiracy theory; proves ities, strange coincidences, provocative Fair Play for Cuba Committee. A fight pro-Castro activist being cultivated and none. hints, all the suggestions. implications, ensued. Oswald was arrested and jailed. set up as a patsy by sinister anti-Castro- curious connections, and mysterious Demanded to see an FBI agent. Told the mob-intelligence world operatives. ND SO THERE IT IS. AFTER ALL sightings that the critics have turned up, bureau he was willing to inform on the These contradictory theories have one these years. Theories, uncertain- just stuff them all in a drawer and say, pro-Castro movement. thing in common. They all make Oswald A ties, possible connections, suspi- "Case closed." Just what was he up to? And on behalf a pawn in someone else's game. cious coincidences. Yes, the Warren Before I do that, though, there is one of whom? That's where that address 544 If, however, we go through the doors Commission investigation was inept and man I want to track down and talk to. A Camp Street becomes so interesting. It's at of perception and look at New Orleans incomplete, relied on information sup- private eye. My onetime philosophy the heart of the paradox of 0.'s simul- through the eyes of an "enlightened" 0.. plied by agencies with a stake in covering prof turned buff turned shamus: Josiah taneous pro-Castro and anti-Castro activ- another way of thinking about the am- up their role. And yet, twenty years later, Thompson. What will the author of The ity. The address first surfaced in the case biguities suggests itself. several minor and one major congressio- Lonely Labyrinth have to say about the when it was found rubber-stamped on one Look at New Orleans through the eyes nal inquiry down the line, there is only JFK case now. after twenty years. when of the pro-Castro tracts Oswald was hand- of an 0. whose favorite TV program as more uncertainty. it has grown more labyrinthine—and ing out. It identified 544 Camp Street as a child was I Led Three Lives. Who I speak to Robert Ranftel again. This lonelier. the headquarters of the Fair Play for Cuba may have absorbed the dark conspiracy- time about the dismaying question of I have some misgivings about calling Committee. And yet not only did the obsessed consciousness of that Huxley whether it is time to call it quits, ad- him. Afraid. I guess, that he has become building at that address never house the passage. Someone who has been is U.S. mit defeat, and give up the whole intrac- another casualty of the case. Picturing FPCC but it also swarmed with right- table case. Perhaps even concede that—in him in some seedy Sam Spade-like office, wing anti-Castro groups and was the .C.InrrIthr !.<4 ildous Mole, ',Pnnrnl pennelvefm.f Mew/ Row PUbbthrel the absence of any proven alternative— embittered and cynical over his failure t. 7 crack the JFK case, trudging through the commission right. raise that possibility-that some pieces of I tell him I've gone into this most recent fog. doing divorce work or something The much-ridiculed single-bullet theo- the puzzle have their edges shaved off or journey through the state of the art with similarly dispiriting. But after the first ry, for instance. The whole lone-assassin pieces never in the puzzle have been the vague feeling that the mob-hit theo- five minutes on the phone with him I theory depends in complex but definite brought in-you're never gonna put that rists probably have come closest to the know that Thompson is just the person I ways on the Warren Commission's belief puzzle together. In my heart of hearts. truth of the case. but I've come out of it am looking for. He has emerged from the that one bullet went through JFK's body, that's what I believe happened. And since feeling that they have failed to nail it maze with his lively intelligence, judi- smashed through John Connally's fifth we no longer have objective criteria of down. That the tail-and-the-dog story is as cious wit, and wry humor intact. And his rib and wrist, and emerged unscratched. physical evidence. we're left with an epis- close as they'll ever come but 11 falls short private-eye work has given him new in- I have actually handled that so-called temological conundrum." of being proof, and that the rest is all the sights into the problems of the Kennedy pristine bullet myself in the National An epistemological conundrum. Yes. usual suggestive connections of the sort case. Archives. felt how smooth and unmarked that's what it has always seemed like to El that can support any number of unproven He begins by explaining why he chose its surface is, and scoffed at the idea Exigente. Somehow the JFK case is a theories. to make the switch from professor to that it could have emerged so utterly lesson in the limits of reason. in the im- And. I tell Thompson, I find myself private eye. After the publication of Six unscathed. possibility of ever knowing anything with longing-because of the advent of the Seconds in Dallas. after serving as a con- But, as Thompson points out, recent absolute certainty. Goclel's Proof and two-decade anniversary-to come to some sultant on the evidence for Life magazine's neutron activation analysis of the bullet Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle all conclusion instead of suspending judg- JFK reinvestigation in 1966 and 1967, he and the tiny fragments left in Connally's wrapped into one. That's why El Exigente ment on the crime of the century forever. returned to a prof job at Haverford Col- wrist make it almost a scientific certainty has always stayed above the battle. ob- And that althougliel am resisting it, to my lege. disillusioned by the fiasco of the that they came from the same bullet. serving the foibles of the buffs from a dismay I find myself tempted after all Garrison investigation. "That's very powerful evidence that the position of amused detachment. resisting these years to give in and embrace the "Garrison just blew the critics out of the single-bullet theory is correct." he says. the impulse to become obsessed with Warren Report conclusions. water," Thompson tells me. "So I sort of "It absolutely astonishes me. but you gotta knowledge maddeningly dangerous for its "You're right to say the conspiracy ex- gave up for a while in the late sixties." look at what .the evidence is. One thing unknowability. I've seen too many bril- planations are unsatisfying," he replies. After completing his Kierkegaard biog- I've learned from these years of being a liant people-some of them my friends "And you're right to recognize the urge raphy in 1973, he turned his attentions to private investigator is that I no longer -self-destruct in the attempt. I've always to push it all into one pattern or the other the complexities of that other twisted and place much faith in most eyewitness testi- been too cautious, to risk becoming a for the satisfaction of having a conclusion. tormented late-nineteenth-century think- mony to prove anything. If you're gonna passionate casualtylof the case. But." he added. "you're also right to resist er, Friedrich Nietzsche. rely on anything, it's the physical evi- But now Thompson. El Exigente's men- that temptation." While he was on leave out in San Fran- dence and photographs. Another thing tor, turns the tables on the Demanding And so- for another ten years at least - cisco writing a biography of Nietzsche, I've learned is that it's a waste of time to One. In his modest but insistent Socratic 1 will. As far as I'm concerned, the case is he had dinner with famed private investi- try to prove anything with government way. he demands to know what I think. still not closed. gator Hal Lipset. At the time, Lipset documents, the endless nit-picking that (This sidebar, like the one accompa- was being considered as a possible chief was done by the critics in the JFK case nying Part 1 last issue, was written investigator for the newly formed House comparing discrepancies in what a wit- by Ron Rosenbaum.) Select Committee on Assassinations. But ness said to the police or the FBI in a Thompson found himself enthralled by deposition and what they testified to later. Lipset's discussion of his own cases. You learn that the police get it wrong all "Just on a lark I hit him for a job," the time and that nit-picking doesn't get Thompson tells me. "And he gave me you closer to the truth." THEY con mil 11011 one. Before I knew it, I was working for The truth. What does Thompson think five dollars an hour doing surveillance in is the truth in the JFK case? Is he actually Oakland." leaning toward accepting the Warren He was good enough that when Lipset's Commission verdict that Oswald acted partner David Fechheimer formed his alone? own firm, he asked Thompson to come to No, Thompson says. In fact, he still liter twenty years these are the work for him and gave him a murder case doesn't think the evidence adds up to assassination theories that still survive. for his first assignment. Oswald's firing any shots that day. "I started working on a really great "I think it's maybe sixty-forty that he WASHING MACHINE THEORY Oswald's reconciliation with Marna on eve it case." he tells me. "And I couldn't give didn't," Thompson tells me. "Although I assassination thwarted when they argue about buying a washing machine. Re- jected and distraught. he kills the president. that up. It was too much fun." can see reasonable men taking the other Kos SLEEPER THEORY. Early Warren CO=15551011 critic Edward 1 Epstein In a short time, it seems, he turned into position." shifts his ground in Legend. The Secret World of Lee Harvey Oswald. He an absolute ace of a private eye. "What, then, do you think Oswald's role speculates Oswald fired the shots alone but perhaps with the knowledge. If not There's one case in particular that was that day?" I ask him. the instigation. of the KGB. who sent Oswald back to the U.S. after his pleases him. A Korean-born prisoner. "I've stayed away from analyzing." he defection, as an unwitting. or "sleeper." agent. IFK STILL ALIVE THEORY. A perennial item of JFK-cult fantasy. favored by Jailed for five years on a murder rap. tells me. "What you have when you look publications like the .Vational Enquirer. First ettnbuted to and then dented by Thompson reinvestigated the original into him is puzzle boxes within Chinese Truman Capote a dozen ■• ears ago. Usually involves report that JFK is alive case. Got it overturned. Got his man out puzzle boxes. In the logic of intelligence but comatose in obscure Swiss Alps clinic. seen only by family members of jail. circles, anything can mean anything. I MILITARY INTELUGENCE THEORY. House Select Committee found -ettreme• "He didn't do it." Thompson tells me. "I think he was scheming in ways I don't Iv troublesome the 1973 destruction by Defense Department of its classineu tile on Oswald. Other intelligence agencies point finger at Oswald's possible know who did it." understand, and finally, when the presi- military-intelligence role to disavow their own connections with Oswald. Interesting: he got an innocent man off, dent was shot, the curtain opened and he 71.WES-PICAVVVE THEORY Jean Davison in Oswald's Game portrays 07,.w aid and he knows the identity of the real recognized a lot more was going on than as a committed Marxist and Castro partisan. Suggests he was in New Orison, killer, who is presumably still walking he knew." when the New Orleans Times-hcayitne published an AP 'interview Castro around. gave on September 7. 1963. in which the Cuban leader said he knew of U.S And who does he think 0. was schem- plots against him and warned that those who instigated them would be subject Dangerous knowledge. It is gratifying ing with? Thompson leans toward the to retribution. Davison believes that Oswald took this as inspiration to kill JFK to find that Thompson hasn't fled from the mob-hit school of thought because of the in retaliation for the attempts to assassinate Fidel. frustrations of the seemingly insoluble but new evidence developed by the House MOB HIT THEORY. New Orleans mob boss Carlos Marcello or Florida boss has instead embraced them. I envy him; I Select Committee about Ruby's connec- Santos Trafficante or Jimmy Hotta or all three together order the hit, perhaps am tempted to hit him up for a private-eye using anti-Castro Cubans recruited for Castro assassination plots by John tions and movements. "If Ruby was given Roselli and Sam Giancana. The latter tw., were murdered gangland style job myself. But first I want to get his access to the jail, if Ruby was stalking shortly before they were scheduled to test is before the Senate Intelligence private eye-philosopher's assessment of Oswald. as it seems they've demonstrated. Committee. ..e state of the art of the JFK case. one has to ask the question, why? And CIA SLEEPER THEORY. Oswald recruited 45 a young Marine by CIA or A few years ago it looked as if Thomp- you have to look at the statistics on Naval Intelligence. Asked to pose as Marxist detector to Soviet Union to infiltrate USSR for us. Later manipulated or made a patsy by "a renegade ele- son might get credit for cracking that one organized-crime prosecutions and how ment in U.S. intelligence' who set him up to take the hit and place the blame too. When:Ahe House Select Committee they dropped off after the assassination. - on ostensible pro-Russian. pro-Castro figure. came out with its report on the acoustical One thing you can say about the assassina- SAIGON REvENGE THEORY. JFK hit came three weeks after murder of Press. analysis of the Dallas police tape, it tion is that it's been enormously effective. dent Diem of South Viet Nam as reprisal for Kennedy-sponsored ...oup. Lai placed a gunman behind the stockade It worked. They blew his head off, and once suggested wealthy Diem family or pro-Diem intelligence racoon might fence on the grassy knoll. exactly the spot have had revenge motive for JFK hit. they got away with it." , AMLASH TIANAROL SD THEORY. While JFK is ostensibly pursing out feelers Thompson pointed to in his book. They? toward rapprochement with Fidel in fall of 1963. uncontrolled elements of But, refreshingly, he's willing to con- "Why has nobody broken? And what CIA continue to plot murder of the Cuban leader. Key figure: Rolando cede that the acoustical evidence that group can enforce that kind of discipline? Cubela. code-named AMLASH. close associate of Castro. CIA agent in Pans once promised such certainty now looks Nobody's turned. Of course, maybe supplied AMLASH with deadly weapons (including a poison fountain pen; on muddied. the day Kennedy was shot. Theory is that AMLASH plot leaked to Castro and there's nobody to turn." led to retaliation against JFK. "Uncertainty has replaced clarity." he Is there anything his private-eye's in- FRANK STURGIS THEORY. Frank Sturgis. Howard Hunt's associate in the says wistfully. "We're back in the swamp. stinct tells him about the case that might Watergate burglary. says he has info that Jack Ruby was part of Castro drug- Back in the morass again." solve it or explain why it's unsolved? smuggling plot and orchestrated JFK killing along with Cuban agents on "The lonely labyrinth?" I ask. "That goddam bullet." he says. "that behalf of Fidel. He just laughs.. ' bullet just doesn't fit. You have to con- JAPANESE RESPONSIBILITY THEORY. Meticulous investigator Jones Hams suggests Oswald was recruited by Japanese secret agents at Atsugt. And refreshingly,_ considering that he sider the possibility that evidence was ROTTEN APPLES IN THE SECRET SERVICE THEORY. David Litton in Best was one of the original Warren Report tampered with. I know when I was work- Evidence suggests that conspirators seized the body of the president and then critics, he is prepared to concede that in ing on the Life project they left me alone subjected it to secret surgery to create evidence of trajectory reversal (the crucial aspects of the case, further inves- with that bullet for fifteen minutes. I could impression that shots were fired from behind). Litton alludes to "certain rot- . ten apples in the Secret Service." in addition to higher-level figures in tigation has proved him wrong and the have done anything with it. But once you government. 8

FWST 7-11-85 RFK probe to be unsealed IP,N 6-22-85 LOS ANGELES — Seventeen History for sale years after investigating the assassi- nation of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. the Los Angeles Police Department was directed Tuesday to make pub- ErBook Depository owner offers JFK-assassination artifacts lic its confidential. 1.500-page sum- mary of the case, but not before By Laura Miller cational and historical in nature have no doubt people will support editing from it evidence still suWwritsromemws deemed "sensitive." — with no artifacts collected and this," Mrs. Adams said. In unanimously ordering disclo- A man who used to own the no souvenirs sold. To ensure a profitable cam- sure of the summary, the Los Ange- Texas School Book Depository But it appears that Mayhew's of- paign, the foundation has hired les Police Commission turned down wants to sell Dallas a slice of its fer may be an exception. Terry McCullough Productions requests from a handful of scholars history. Foundation President Lindalyn Inc. of Dallas to produce a slide-au w ho came from as faraway as Massa- Aubrey Mayhew, who owned Adams said Mayhew also claims to dio show describing the proposed chusetts requesting access to all of the building from 1970 until 1972 own office furniture used in the exhibit. The short film will cost the department's investigative case and now lives in Nashville, Tenn., building the day of the 1963 assas- about $10,000, Mrs. Adams said. file on the Kennedy assassination. says he owns the original sixth- sination and work ledgers signed Titled One November Day - The, file, a massive collection of floor window where Lee Harvey more than 50.000 documents and by Oswald. also the name of the proposed ex- 1.700 photos. is stored in five cabi- Oswald allegedly perched to shoot "Although we're not collecting hibit — the slide show notes that nets at thepolice department's Par- President John F. Kennedy. artifacts for this exhibit, I thought Dallas cannot escape history. ker Center headquarters. Only a The Dallas County Historical the window certainly belongs in "There is a natural reluctance small fraction of the reports has nev- Foundation says Mayhew has con- the building," Mrs. Adams said. to dwell on tragic times," the nar- er been made public. tacted the group about buying the "But he (Mayhew) said he would rator will intone. "But history window and as many as 3,000 pave to sell these things." cannot be denied. And Dallas has other Kennedy-assassination arti- Money is a sensitive issue. a chance to chronicle that fateful BRPTS....No, you didn't miss an issue; facts he claims to own. Although it was formed almost day as no other city can." this is ."21, the followup to !say 4.'22. I The offer was discussed at a re- two years ago, the foundation is Originally projected to be open kept putting off the July issue to in- cent board meeting of the founda- just now gearing up for its first by late 1985, the exhibit is now at clude the latest on the voorman photo, non, a panel of 11 Dallas residents ., fund-raising drive. The group least a year away from opening. but there were several small delays and appointed in September 1983 to plans to solicit contributions from "It's no one's fault but my then a fascinating discovery: a new, oversee fund raising and con- corporations first, then expand own," Mrs. Adams said. "I've had structioa of a S3 million, sixth- the effort to the public. clearer version of the picture/ If it is so many other projects going on. floor Kennedy exhibit. "It's just up to us now to mount But I think we're really making rated an arbitrary 10, the previous copy The exhibit will be purely edu- an organized campaign, and I progress now.' is a 7 and the first blowup from issue 1 is a 4.. Computer analysis of both prints as a longtime, former CIA man....On the very day Billie Sol is continuing, but an obnoxious news- vstes' testimony changed Texas history, he was arrested for all- paper has forced me to put a news black-egedly twice raping his 18 year old /lexican housekeeper 18 days out on all details. When the story does earlier; he was indicted 9-6. As Coverups readers know, 'stes break, the wire services will get the refused to answer when a juror asked if information and NBC will have the best JFK assassination; in fact, RFK may haveLBJ known was of involved LBJ's part in the in coverage of all.....Henry„,Hurt '5 book the Yarshall murder - was that the motive Tor horrible revenge "Reasonable Doubt" will be in bookstoresby Johnson?....For those who believe Nazi involvement in the JFK the second week of December; publisher killing, the chairman of a Senate panel investigating Holt, Rhinehart & Winston is being sold gale was Arlen Specter, Chief Counsel to the Warren Commission;Josef "en- by owner CBS....IIPI, which owns the Nix also, three members of the medical team that examined the *"angels and Yuchmore assassination films, is in remains were on the HSCA Forensic Pathology Panel..,.Looking for bankruptcy proceedings and will soon be the front door of the Carousel Club? It's in a back room at Sol's sold; one of the bidders was identified Turf Bar across the street - you might mention it at a slow party. COVERUPS! A bimonthly publication, copyright 1985. Subscription price in the US and North America is $1.00 per issue; $1.25 per issue elsewhere. Payment must be in US currency; outside the US only postal money orders will be accepted. Back issues are available at your regular subscription rate. Your subscription will expire with,the issue number nekt to your name. Original articles and local clippings are greatly appreciated—COVERUPS! is dedicated primarily to the responsible study of the JFK assassination and related events. COVERUPS! 4620 Brandingshlre Place Fort Worth, TX 76133

Harold Weisberg 0100 Route 12 Frederic*, MD 21701