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Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartmann Argue That a Mob Role and a Cuban Coup Plot Explain JFK's Assassination

Submitted by BuzzFlash on Mon, 12/08/2008 - 7:55pm.

Interviews

A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW

Legacy of Secrecy provides additional evidence showing that John and Robert Kennedy planned to stage a coup against Fidel on Dec. 1, 1963, ten days after JFK's trip to Dallas--and that three Mafia bosses infiltrated that top secret plan. ... The new information includes the confessions of all three Mafia bosses, and some of their associates.

-- Lamar Waldron, coauthor, Legacy of Secrecy: The Long Shadow of the JFK Assassination
* * *

Legacy of Secrecy is the sequel to the hotly debated, but many argue persuasive, Kennedy assassination conspiracy book of a couple years ago, carried in the BuzzFlash Progressive MarketPlace, Ultimate Sacrifice. Both books are authored by Lamar Waldron and our good friend and noted progressive talk show host and writer, Thom Hartmann.

We know that every BuzzFlash reader has an opinion about who might have been behind JFK's murder; that's in the nature of conspiracy theories. There's no Higher Court of Truth to make a final judgment.

There are four basic theories: 1) Oswald did it alone (sorry Vincent Bugliosi, not a chance); 2) Castro and/or the Soviets directed Oswald; 3) the CIA arranged it and 4) the Mafia was behind the assassination. And, of course, there are various blends of these perspectives. Waldron and Hartmann find a lot of evidence to support theory 4. They present a compelling case, but you be the judge. Co-author Lamar Waldron was interviewed by BuzzFlash.

* * *

BuzzFlash: In brief, how does Legacy of Secrecy differ from Ultimate Sacrifice?

Lamar Waldron: Much information has continued to emerge since the publication of the extensively updated trade paperback of Ultimate Sacrifice in 2006, information which provides even more confirmation of what we had originally written. Legacy of Secrecy provides additional evidence showing that John and Robert Kennedy planned to stage a coup against Fidel on Dec. 1, 1963, ten days after JFK's trip to Dallas--and that three Mafia bosses infiltrated that top secret plan. The mob leaders used parts of the secret plan to kill JFK in a way that forced Robert Kennedy, LBJ, and other key officials to cover-up much information, to prevent another confrontation with the Soviets, just a year after the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The new information includes the confessions of all three Mafia bosses, and some of their associates.

Ultimate Sacrifice had to cover 1964 to the present in just a few dozen pages, but the majority of Legacy of Secrecy is devoted to those years, showing how all the secrecy surrounding JFK's murder continued to have tragic effects. Legacy finally explains who paid James Earl Ray to kill Dr. King, and why.

Legacy also delves more into CIA officials like Richard Helms and E. Howard Hunt, whose involvement with the coup plan in 1963 continued to impact their careers and cause more cover-ups.

Leading the top secret coup for the Kennedys on Dec. 1, 1963 was going to be Commander Juan Almeida, head (and founder) of the Cuban Army. He wasn't going to take credit for killing Fidel; that would be blamed on a Russian or Russian sympathizer. It was never supposed to be known that the Kennedys were really behind the coup; otherwise, the Cuban people wouldn't follow Almeida and the new coalition government. Fidel didn't learn about Almeida's secret work with JFK for decades. For reasons detailed in Legacy, Commander Almeida is still listed as the #3 official in Cuba today and he could still be a factor in resolving the decades-long impasse between the US and Cuba.

BuzzFlash: What motivated you and Thom Hartmann to take on perhaps the most analyzed and speculated upon assassination in American history -- and to spend two decades doing it?

Lamar Waldron: After spending a couple of years exploring all the various theories, and running into the usual roadblocks and lack of documents, we decided to talk to people who had actually worked with John and Robert Kennedy in 1963. The first was JFK's Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, who revealed that JFK was close to staging a coup and invasion of Cuba at the time of his death--but (unlike the Bay of Pigs fiasco) this plan was so secret that even Rusk was only told about it after JFK's death.

Next, JFK's close aide Dave Powers explained that he and another JFK aide had witnessed shots from the grassy knoll, while they were riding in the limo right behind JFK's. But Powers said they were both pressured to change their testimony to the Warren Commission "for the good of the country." With revelations like those, it was hard not to pursue all the leads until we eventually had the whole story. One Kennedy aide led to another, until we'd eventually talked to more than two dozen people who had worked with John or Robert Kennedy. Their disclosures led us to documentation in the National Archives, and eventually, to helping additional documents be identified and released.

Legacy of Secrecy explains why the whole process took so long--and why we're still pursuing the release of "more than one million CIA records" related to JFK's murder, that are being withheld despite the 1992 JFK Act requiring their release.

BuzzFlash: Between the two books, you have more 1700 pages of documentation on your theory. Yet, about the same time Ultimate Sacrifice was published, famed LA prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi published a book that he said proved that Oswald was the lone gunman and acted alone. There are enough Kennedy assassination books to fill a large public library. Why do you feel your documentation proves your theory that, in essence, the Mafia was at the center of the JFK assassination?

Lamar Waldron: The three mob bosses and two of their associates in the assassination all made credible confessions, backed up by a mountain of evidence, much of it compiled by Congressional investigators. Many "lone nut, magic bullet" theorists like to pretend that there was only one official government investigation--the Warren Commission--and thus only one official conclusion. As Legacy documents, there were at least six government committees and commissions, each getting closer to the truth. For example, the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded in 1979 that JFK was likely murdered by a conspiracy and pointed to Louisiana/Texas godfathers Carlos Marcello and Tampa godfather Santo Trafficante as having "the movtive, means, and opportunity to assassinate President Kennedy."

We first showed in Ultimate, and document more extensively in Legacy, that the coup plan was at the heart of the secrecy surrounding JFK's murder. And while the public didn't hear about the coup plan until Ultimate was first published in 2005--and even though the Mafia had been barred from the coup plan or from reopening their casinos in Cuba if it were successful--we document that a dozen associates of the mob bosses learned about the coup plan, and six of those actually worked on it.

Another key reason we stand behind our documentation (almost all of it from the National Archives) and conclusions is that so much evidence supports what the Kennedy associates told us, often long before that documentation was released. Also, the medical evidence shows that the "magic bullet" theory is impossible on several counts. For example, a bullet on a steep downward trajectory can't enter JFK's back almost six inches below his collar (as verified by the bullet hole in JFK's coat and the official autopsy diagram) and then exit much higher, from his Adam's apple--and then turn in mid-air and dive back downward, to strike Governor Connally.

BuzzFlash: Let me ask you about one specific detail of the Oswald story that has always stuck out like a sore thumb to me. How could anyone think that the organized crime-connected Jack Ruby would just impulsively decide to go off and shoot Oswald? And why do you theorize Ruby did kill him?

Lamar Waldron: Keep mind that Jack Ruby has only been connected to the Mafia in the public's mind since the late 1970s. For more than a decade after JFK's murder, the news media almost never mentioned the Mafia in relation to Jack Ruby.

Ruby had worked for the Mafia for years and was their pay-off man for the Dallas police, so his job was to arrange for someone to kill Oswald. When he couldn't, he had to do it himself.

As we document in Legacy for the first time, from previously withheld FBI files, godfather Carlos Marcello admitted setting Jack Ruby up in business in Dallas, and Ruby would regularly go to Louisiana, to report to Marcello.

BuzzFlash: In Legacy, you go beyond the JFK assassination and talk about possible mob connections to the killings of Martin Luther King and RFK. A lot of people would say this is carrying the organized crime conspiracy a bit too far. Your response?

Lamar Waldron: While Legacy documents that Carlos Marcello was the driving force behind JFK's murder, and people like Georgia white supremacist Joseph Milteer had only a small role in JFK's death, the situation was reversed for Martin Luther King's assassination. Milteer and his associates in Atlanta were the driving force behind King's murder. But after failing to find a hitman on their own, and facing increasing pressure to take action against King, Milteer apparently turned to Marcello. A Justice Department memo, which seems to have been withheld from Congress by the FBI, indicates that Marcello "brokered" the King contract. That's very different from Marcello accepting the contract. The contract was actually handled by one or more of Marcello's lieutenants. The godfather simply collecting a huge fee--at least "$200,000" according to the Justice Department memo, over one million in today's dollars--for hooking them up with Milteer.

It's well documented that Marcello was a virulent racist, who had used at least two white supremacists in the JFK hit. Marcello's vice operations in the South were increasingly disrupted by the demonstrations, strikes, and boycotts of Dr. King and other Civil Rights leaders. Plus, Dr. King himself had publicly declared war on the Mafia because they preyed on minority communities. In addition to those reasons and the $200,000, the Justice Department memo says the Mafioso also wanted the blackmail potential over those putting up the money for the King hit.

Using the files of Congressional investigators, we document in Legacy that by the fall of 1967, James Earl Ray was a low-level heroin runner for a drug network that included Marcello's organization. Yet, Ray wasn't an important or long-time member of Marcello's organization, or a professional hitman, who could be traced back to Marcello, which made him a good choice for the hit.

BuzzFlash: Who is Carlos Marcello and why is he such a central figure to the theory that you document?

Lamar Waldron: For decades, Marcello was the unquestioned godfather of Louisiana, much of Texas (including Dallas), and south Mississippi. His influence reached much farther, since he had alliances with all the neighboring mob bosses, like Florida's Santo Trafficante and the Memphis Mafia. Marcello headed America's oldest Mafia family, and as such, didn't need the approval of the national Mafia commission for major hits. Marcello's mob family also had a history of targeting government officials who got in their way.

Marcello was the godfather most heavily targeted in the Kennedys' massive war on organized crime. Close behind were his allies: Trafficante, the Chicago Mafia, and Jimmy Hoffa. During most of the month of November, Marcello was on trial by Attorney General Robert Kennedy's federal prosecutors, and Marcello only got off by bribing a key juror. The week of JFK's murder, The New York Times ran a series saying the Justice Department was getting ready to run the Mafia out of Las Vegas. With Cuba no longer an option (even if JFK's secret coup plan succeeded), Marcello and his associates literally had their backs against the wall and--as Marcello explained to an FBI informant in 1962--they had no choice but to kill JFK in order to end Robert Kennedy's prosecutions of them.

BuzzFlash: What role did the CIA or CIA agents have in the JFK assassination and cover-up, according to your two books?

Lamar Waldron: Ultimate pointed out that of the dozen people knowingly involved in JFK's murder, all were or had been informants, agents, or assets of the CIA or other intelligence or law enforcement agencies. That's what let them feed disinformation into those agencies, and know how those agencies would react.

In Legacy, we take a very close look at the evidence--and lack of it--regarding various people involved with the CIA. CIA asset John Martino confessed his role in JFK's murder, as did David Morales, the Operations Chief for the CIA's huge Miami CIA Station, that had a supporting role in JFK's secret coup plan. Morales was also close friends with Johnny Rosselli, the Chicago Mafia's man in Las Vegas and Hollywood. Rosselli, Trafficante, and Marcello all worked on the CIA's plots with the Mafia to kill Fidel, which had originally begun prior to JFK's election.

Legacy documents that Richard Helms (essentially about the #4 CIA official in 1963) was continuing those CIA-Mafia plots to kill Fidel in the fall of 1963, apparently as a kind of back-up in case the main coup plan failed. However, Helms failed to inform or get authorization from JFK or even the CIA's Director, Helms came to realize those plots had some tie to JFK's murder, which caused him to withhold much information from the Warren Commission and--after he became CIA Director--from LBJ and Nixon. When we talked to Dean Rusk almost thirty years later, Rusk was still livid at Helms' deception.

Helms had to cover-up his unauthorized use of the Mafia in the Castro plot, to protect his own career and reputation. As Legacy documents, Helms successfully made covering up--and supporting the Warren Report's "lone nut, magic bullet" conclusion--the mission of the CIA, as we document in Legacy. But there is no evidence that Helms was knowingly involved in JFK's murder and Helms had every reason to have allowed JFK's coup plan to go forward. If it were successful, Helms would get part of the credit and the CIA would have a new playground in Cuba. If the coup plan failed, any high CIA official who wanted to get rid of JFK could have simply leaked JFK's sponsorship of the coup to the media, to end JFK's career. For that matter, CIA officials on the level of Helms or higher had access to all sorts of personally compromising information about JFK, that could have been used against JFK, to force his resignation; they had no reason to resort to a public execution that also ended any chance of the secret coup plan going forward.

Legacy looks at the actions of CIA officials like David Atlee Phillips, William Harvey, E. Howard Hunt, and James Angleton, and the evidence that they did--or did not--have any role in JFK's murder. Based on the evidence and files released so far, David Morales is the highest CIA official tied to JFK's murder, by his own admission.

BuzzFlash: Let's get to the motivation for the original crime. Why did the mob hate RFK so much and why would they kill JFK as a result?

Lamar Waldron: John and Robert Kennedy came to prominence in the late 1950s, by going after Marcello and other mob bosses (and Hoffa) in Senate crime hearings. After JFK's election, they mounted the largest war against organized crime that the US had--or has--ever seen. The Mafia had free reign during much of the 1950s, because of the organized crime ties of Vice President Richard Nixon and because J. Edgar Hoover--for much of the decade--denied the Mafia even existed.

While Robert Kennedy said a few months before JFK's murder that it was almost impossible to prosecute a godfather for anything, especially murder (because they were so well insulated), Marcello was especially vulnerable because he wasn't a citizen. Thus, even a minor conviction could result in his deportation. Early in JFK's administration, Marcello had been briefly, unceremoniously dumped in Central America, and his hellish experience there had only furthered his hatred of John and Robert Kennedy.

BuzzFlash: What was Jimmy Hoffa's knowledge of the assassination plot? Is that why he was murdered?

Lamar Waldron: Hoffa was under too much pressure to actively participate in the plot, but he was aware of it through the attorney he shared with Santo Trafficante, Frank Ragano. Legacy has new information about Ragano's involvement in JFK's assassination, which was more than he ever admitted.

As Legacy documents, Hoffa was one of several associates of Marcello and Trafficante who were murdered in the 1970s, when their names surfaced as Congressional witnesses. Others killed included Sam Giancana (murdered the month before Hoffa) and Johnny Rosselli. Trafficante was linked to all three murders.

BuzzFlash: What were the two assassination attempts on JFK prior to Dallas and why aren't these common knowledge?

Lamar Waldron: As we've noted, the Mafia families who ran Chicago, Tampa, and Texas/Louisiana were the ones most heavily targeted by the Kennedys. The first attempt to assassinate JFK was in Chicago, on November 2, 1963, the day after Marcello's federal trial started. JFK canceled his motorcade at the last minute, and JFK's Press Secretary Pierre Salinger told us that two phony excuses for the cancellation had to be issued. The Chicago attempt was kept out of the press at the time, though Congress did receive some information about it in the late 1970s.

Ultimate was the first book to document the plot to kill JFK in Tampa, four days before Dallas, an attempt which had never been revealed to any government committee. No news of the attempt appeared at the time, though one tiny article slipped out the day after JFK's murder, quoting the Tampa Chief of Police and a Secret Service file that apparently was later destroyed. Thom Hartmann and I found the article after scanning thousands of pages of newspaper microfilm, and then confirmed the account with the Tampa Police Chief from 1963, who said he'd been waiting for someone to ask him about it for more than thirty years.

Legacy has new information about the Tampa attempt, including the name of the recently-deceased Tampa police official who actually worked for Trafficante, and who tipped off Trafficante in 1963 that authorities had learned about the plot.

The information about the Chicago and Tampa plots was withheld from the Warren Commission. When Abraham Bolden, the first black presidential Secret Service Agent, realized that, he went to Washington to tell the Commission staff about the two attempts, and other Secret Service laxity. Bolden was arrested that day, based on accusations of two men he'd sent to prison. Bolden was eventually convicted and sent to prison, even though the judge in his case told the jury he was guilty before they began their deliberations and Bolden's main accuser later admitted he'd lied about Bolden. Legacy and Ultimate note the likely involvement of an associate of Trafficante and Rosselli in Bolden's framing. Bolden is still fighting to clear his name.

BuzzFlash: What do you say to people who call you and Thom Hartmann just a couple of more conspiracy theorists?

Lamar Waldron: No one has really been able to contest the evidence presented in Ultimate Sacrifice, and now there is even more evidence in Legacy of Secrecy. We had hoped to debate the case with Vincent Bugliosi on Thom Hartmann's Air America radio show, but after "Variety" publicized the fact that I'd be on the show as well, Bugliosi canceled his appearance and never rescheduled. We remain willing to debate the case with Bugliosi.

After all, the evidence is on our side. As several people have pointed out, we're simply advancing the investigations begun in secret by Robert Kennedy after his brother's murder, and the conclusions of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, using information and files that weren't available to them.

BuzzFlash: Did you begin your work with a theory that the Mafia was primarily responsible for the JFK assassination or did you end up with that theory after assembling the evidence?

Lamar Waldron: The first couple of years, Thom and I looked at EVERY theory. We found most lacking in evidence. People who worked closely with John or Robert Kennedy not only told us about the secret coup plan, but also pointed us toward the Mafia, particularly Marcello, Trafficante, and Rosselli. It's now known that Robert Kennedy himself told associates that Marcello was behind his brother's murder, and Bobby had suspected someone linked to the secret coup plan within two hours of JFK's death.

In the ensuing years, the evidence has continued to mount supporting the involvement of Marcello, Trafficante, and Rosselli. All made credible confessions (i.e., backed up by much supporting evidence) late in life, to trusted associates. We've continued to look for evidence that goes beyond the mob bosses and their associates, but no credible evidence has surfaced.

BuzzFlash interview by Mark Karlin.

* * *

Resources:

Legacy of Secrecy: The Long Shadow of the JFK Assassination, by Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartmann, available from the BuzzFlash Progressive Marketplace.

BuzzFlash Review: Legacy of Secrecy: The Long Shadow of the JFK Assassination

Ultimate Sacrifice: Yes, There Was a Kennedy Assassination Conspiracy (Paperback), by Lamar Waldron with Thom Hartmann, available from the BuzzFlash Progressive Marketplace.

A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW

Technorati Tags: Interviews JFK

Where Have the Authors Been These Past 40 Years?

Submitted by SkeeterVT on Tue, 12/09/2008 - 2:13pm.

In 1969, the Italian television network RAI broadcast a documentary on the JFK assassination that pointed the finger at the Mob -- specifically, New Orleans Mob boss Carlos Marcello. A New York TV station, WOR-TV (Now WWOR-TV) aired an English-language version of the documentary on the sixth anniversary of the president's murder. I watched that documentary and have believed JFK's assassination to be a Mob hit ever since -- especially after Chicago Mob boss Sam Giancana was rubbed out just before he was to testify to the House Committee on Assassinations. It had long been rumored that the Kennedy family patriarch, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., made his fortune as a rum-runner during the Prohibition era. Bobby Kennedy was determined to extricate his family from its Mob ties, which is why he was so aggressive in his crackdown on the Mob during his tenure as attorney general -- a crackdown that no attorney general before him had carried out and none have since. I believe that the Mob's real target in 1963 was Bobby Kennedy and that their motive was obvious: Revenge. But as long as the attorney general's brother was president, the Mob chieftains knew that had they killed Bobby first, the president would have spared no expense in bringing the full force of the federal government down to destroy the Mob in retaliation. So they killed the president -- to send a message to Bobby. When RFK ran for president in 1968, the Mob bosses knew that they were in deep trouble and had to stop him from becoming president at all costs. The rest is history.

Was a conspiracy believer for years

Submitted by bogmanoc61 on Tue, 12/09/2008 - 12:15pm.

But it's funny. The more some find evidence outside the forensics realm it was a conspiracy, the more the actual evidence of the crime points to a single individual. Computer modeling of the Zapruder film shows the second shot hit Kennedy and Connally. The single bullet naysayers never took in to account that Connally was in a jump seat situated below and to the side of Kennedy, which does line up both men's wounds. Any two points make a line and that line leads straight to the 6th floor. A recent experiment showed a shot from the grassy knoll would've killed Jackie. And a shot from behind was consistent with the wounds Kennedy had. Also, if someone can tell me how the Mafia or anyone got Oswald on the parade route more than two months before Kennedy's visit and at least a month before even Kennedy's staff knew he was going to Dallas, I'd like to hear it. And don't tell me his neighbor who got him the job was mob. I believe the one person who interviewed both Kennedy and Oswald. I forget her name, but she was a UPI reporter who interviewed Oswald after his defection to Russia. She said Oswald was perfectly capable of carrying out the assassination by himself. He had got himself discharged from the Marines on his own. He had learned Russian on his own. He had successfully defected to Russia, and successfully got back to the U.S. as well. These were difficult things to do. Yet he did them. He had tried to make himself a recognized figure, and when he heard Kennedy would come right by his building, it must've felt to him that the fates were driving him to his fateful decision. Sorry. The other stuff is fun, no doubt. But the actual physical evidence doesn't support it. Oswald wanted to be somebody and he succeeded at that as well -- here we are talking about him more than 40 years after the fact.

Well said, bogmanoc61 - the FORENSIC evidence points to Oswald

Submitted by vvvc1 on Tue, 12/09/2008 - 6:50pm.

Well said, bogmanoc61 - "The more some find evidence outside the forensics realm it was a conspiracy, the more the actual evidence of the crime points to a single individual. Computer modeling of the Zapruder film shows the second shot hit Kennedy and Connally."

This above Buzzflash article (interview) echoes the conspiracy theory lucidly laid out in the book "DOUBLE CROSS" written by Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana's brother, Chuck Giancana,
http://www.amazon.com/Double-Cross-Explosive-Mobster-Controlled/dp/0446364126/ref=sid_dp_dp
after Sam had been killed by a "mob hit" following his return to Chicago from exile in Mexico.

Giancana's most compelling "factoids" about such a conspiracy were that the US mafia sought out foreign mafia gunmen for 'the hit', and obtained one or two such experts from the Marsailles (France) mob (a region rife with smuggling and assassins for centuries), and paid their expert sniper assassin(s) off with heroin delivered in South America several weeks after the hit (on Kennedy). According to Giancana, there were two or three teams of gunmen (including "patsy" Oswald) and the pair operating on the Dallas infamous "grassy knoll" used forged police and Secret Service IDs, and a police uniform for the assistant, to ward off Dallas spectators as they set up their sniper nest. And, most convincingly, according to Giancana, in the chaos after the shooting, the two sniper teams all drove out to a small airport close by in Dallas suburbs, hoped on a waiting small Cessna aircraft, and were out of Texas and in Mexico within an hour or three of the "hit."

All very logical and indeed even plausible. But as you explain, Bogmanoc, the modern, forensic recreation of the crime indeeds points more and more convincingly to a SINGLE SHOOTER from the Texas book depository window.

I am not a big fan of ABC nor Peter Jennings, but the network and Jennings hosted the production of "The Kennedy Assassination: Beyond Conspiracy",
http://www.amazon.com/ABC-News-Presents-Kennedy-Assassination/dp/B0001BFDKU
a digital/computer/forensic recreation of Dealey Plaza at the moment of the assassination, and in my estimation they did a terrific job of analyzing the ballistics, the target angle and sight-picture, the sounds in Deley Plaza, and Oswald's experience as a Marine-trained gunman who earned the basic "marksman" award in USMC basic training in their production. The notion fostered by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison (played by Kevin Costner) in the Oliver stone movie "JFK" about the assassination - that Oswald "HAD MAGGIE'S DRAWERS" (fear-incited shakiness) and therefore simply could not have made those shots that killed Kennedy - is simply false. No one in their right mind would give ANY Marine qualified gunman (much less a winner of a "marksman" award) a free shot at them from 100 yards with a sniper-scope equipped rifle!
Much less from a good vantage point, much less in a vehicle moving at a slow and steady pace away from the sniper position.

Discovery Channel this November took ABC's previous "could Oswald have hit Kennedy?" ballistic analysis one step further, Discovery's "JFK: Inside the Target Car"
http://blogs.discovery.com/jfk/2008/11/gary-mack-answe.html
actually doing a ballistic analysis of a bullet HITTING a human skull, a bullet identical with those fired from a Manlicher-Carcano Italian 6.5mm WWII rifle (and fired from an identical gun) as Oswald was alleged to have used. As with the ABC shooting reconstruction, the Discovery analysis used identical sighting angles, distances, and a recreation of the interior of the Lincoln presidential limo, but this time using human skull models carefully constructed to simulate skullcase and brain composition. Instead of a forward moving carriage, a 12 mph. fan was used to simulate the windspeed of the car moving along Dealey Plaza at that speed.
Not only did the high-speed video capture the the bullet's impact on the simulated skull exactly matching the motion of President Kennedy's head in the Zapruder film, but so too did the spray of tissue in the recreated shoting match the Zapruder film, as tasteless as it may be to describe the test and its "perfect match" with the infamous video frames.
But more importantly, the Discovery Channel producers included one of their expensive ballistic head models in a shot from the Grassy Knoll angle... and this bullet, hiting from the victim's right side going left, would (as expected) have produced a similar shower, not forward and up (as the Zapruder film shows) but to the victims left, on a largely horizontal plane.
Clearly, this shooting test documents beyond dispute - along with those forenzic photos of President Kennedy's head from the autopsy - that the president was NOT shot from the right, that he was NOT shot from the grassy knoll.
The ABC reconstruction details that one bullet could, indeed, have gone through Kennedy's throat, and entered Connelly's torso, Gov. Connally sitting lower and slightly askew to Kennedy in that low, retractable jump-seat position.
And, most telling of all, the ABC test gunman explained, "After my first two shots, I gripped the gun much more tightly, was able to focus in much more effectively, and sure enough, the last shot I squeezed off was the most accurate of the three." Since Oswald's 2nd shot had hit the president's throat (quite possibly a fatal shot of itself), and since these shooting, ballistic recreations "match" the Zapruder film to the point of individual skull fragments flying through the air above the presidential limo, it is time to give Oswald his "credit due" - He had SOUGHT TO BE AN ASSASSIN, first of ultra-right-wing Air Force General Walker, and, a having failed that shooting, when fate brought the American president directly below the building that Oswald was working in, he grabbed that second "providential" opportunity to put himself in the history books forever - and with his wild first shot, he breathed deeply, gripped his rifle harder, concentrated better, and put his Marine corps rifle training (from those hot, dusty shooting fields with instructors yelling in your ear) to use.
Anyone who doubts the effectiveness of the Manlicher-Carcano 6.5 mm shell, recall that the Japanese on Iwo Jima, Okinawa, New Guinea, and other battlefields, also used 6.5mm rifles to exact a withering toll on US soldiers and Marines assaulting their positions, and usually not providing a very visible, steadily moving shot target.

Exactly

Submitted by bogmanoc61 on Tue, 12/09/2008 - 7:12pm.

That's everything I was referring to. Also, if Oswald had not been working at the building for nearly three months before the trip to Dallas, and was not introduced to the job by the lady boarding his wife and child, I'd say there might be a chance he was paid to do it. But he was WORKING IN THE BUILDING ON THE MOTORCADE ROUTE WEEKS BEFORE KENNEDY HIMSELF HAD DECIDED TO GO TO DALLAS.

I love the conspiracy theories -- they're fascinating. And I do think the investigation was horribly done at the time to convince everyone and the investigators themselves it was a lone assassin because of Cold War paranoia and the crap the U.S. was doing in Cuba with the Mob, et al. That doesn't mean, though, that the dreaded conspiracies they hoped to NOT find were there to begin with.

I started to question the conspiracy buffs when I first realized it wasn't 'six seconds' in Dallas. It was more like 8.5. You can count it yourself on the Zapruder film.

That means four seconds to set-up the second shot, and 4.5 seconds to set up the third, with the limo slowing down to almost a halt. The lack of a driver speeding up is what killed Kennedy, and the fact that his back brace kept him from ducking (see how Connally slumps below shot level). And he couldn't yell for someone to take him down because of the shot thru the throat. If Kennedy had the ability to yell, someone might've saved him.

The final factor was visiting Dealey Plaza and going to the sixth floor. I was shocked to see how close the limo was (a painted X marks the spot of the fatal shot on the street below, believe it or not). It always seemed so faraway on TV, but when I looked out the window my first thought was "Easy shot."

Hard to give up the conspiracy theories, but facts are the facts.

Blah, Blah, Blah from another rightwingnut

Submitted by Norm on Tue, 12/09/2008 - 12:48pm.

Buzzflash is truly an open forum for any and all detractors of democracy. The fact that Lyndon Johnson picked Earl Warren and the rest of Kennedy's enemies to investigate the murder it's not surprising that they concluded Oswald was the single gunman ignoring all the eye witness testimony that there were other gun shots that came from in front of Kennedy instead of behind him. The best lie is the conclusion by the corporate media spokespeople and especially PA Senator Arlen Specter that Kennedy was shot from the back by Oswald when in fact the whole back of his head was blown away and the laws of physics dictate that momentum of the fatal bullet had to be from front to back in order to blow off the back of Kennedy's head. Lying is the tradition of the anti-democratic American corporate elite.

Bugolosi

Submitted by bogmanoc61 on Tue, 12/09/2008 - 5:09pm.

Vincent Bugolosi thinks it was Oswald alone, and he's no right-wing shill. His most recent book was on trying Bush for murder, which I agree with. I respect Thom Hartmann (don't know the other author). But until you can show me how any conspiracy put Oswald on the motorcade route before there was a motorcade route, I'm not buying it.

Watch Documentary "The Men Who Killed Kennedy"

Submitted by Norm on Tue, 12/09/2008 - 12:10pm.

I suggest any and all Buzzflash readers watch Nigel Turner's BBC series, "The Men Who Killed Kennedy." Turner doesn't definitely state who killed Kennedy, but this is only because Johnson and J Edgar Hoover made sure all the evidence was destroyed as to who really killed Kennedy. The Kennedy murder was a conspiracy. The facts do not support any other conclusion. JFK made lots of enemies and the subsequent deaths of RFK and JFK Jr only confirm that there is a conspiracy of people who truly hate the Kennedys and kill Kennedys that threaten to become President of the US. http://hidhist.wordpress.com/assassination/jfk/the-men-who-killed-kennedy/ http://johnmccarthy90066.tripod.com/id847.html

JFK

Submitted by Captain Jessie on Tue, 12/09/2008 - 11:25am.

The JFK assassination has been confounded by those who put forth theories. There are those who say I know something you don't know and others who target those who had motives to murder JFK. Those who had motives are many. Throw all of it in a paper bag, shake it up and a picture emerges. It is relatively clear to me that one group could not have pulled off the assassination of JFK. Was security for the president lapse in that era? It doesn't sound like it. After all, "Ultimate" uncovers credible evidence of previous plots to kill JFK in Chicago and Tampa. That also says government agencies had their ears to the tracks. So, one has to suspect that cooperation from "key people" in government was needed. Now we're looking at FBI,CIA, Secret Service and people in Dallas who had the power to set up changes in the parade route to bring it in front of the TX School Depository and past the Grassy Knoll, from where the fatal shot was fired at Kennedy. That shot was not fired by your casual Sunday hunter. It appears that the rifleman was an Expert Sharp Shooter. The rifleman had to be an expert to hit a moving target in the right temple. He had to hit a moving and small 4 inch area of the temple from a distance. If it is true about the examination of Oswald's rifle having an inaccurate sight and a tree obstructing his aim, we have to question whether Oswald's shot hit the president at all. That could possibly fit with a report on a witness who arrived at the parade late and stood under the overpass the limo was approaching to get a glimpse of Kennedy. That witness claimed he heard the shot and simultaneously felt a sting on his cheek which began to bleed immediately. Realizing what had just happened, he theorized it could have been a small chunk of concrete ricocheted from a stray bullet, then crouched up under the overpass. He examined the curb where he was standing and found what looked like a bullet scar in the curb. He said the FBI was notified and agreed. They cut the suspect area from the curb and left. He also claims that the FBI lost the evidence. So many unanswered questions. Looking back, it almost looks like there were as many as three expert sharp shooters strategically placed in Dallas that day. Were they former military, CIA? The haunting question remains: Who were they and who contracted them? My hope is that some day a diary might be discovered explaining what happened and all who were involved. Until then, we will deal with theories and conjecture. However, one fact is absolutely true: This country has never been the same since the JFK assassination. PS: I wish Buzzflash would tell us how to break paragraphs.

Former Nazi's Assassinated John F. Kennedy

Submitted by Libarchist on Tue, 12/09/2008 - 10:29am.

I believe that the Waldron/Hartmann theory is incorrect.

My theory is that it was done by former Nazi German agents -- posing as Russians. The CIA was aware of it; and told Johnson to put a lid on it, for fear of it possibly sparking a Nuclear war with the USSR.

The mafia in no way was involved; it was done by a team of Nazis, paid for with Nazi Gold.

After the hit they simply crossed the border; into Mexico, probably with the assistance of KKK that were employed with the Dallas Police. I have no doubts the CIA was aware of it: but that fact would be to strong for the American public then; or even now to handle.

What About George H. W. Bush?

Submitted by Carol Burns on Tue, 12/09/2008 - 10:14am.

Wasn't he knee-deep as well? What about Zapata Oil & Gas? Isn't it documented that he was involved with the CIA long before his "actual" service?

I, too, beleive that GHWB was involved

Submitted by elder693 on Tue, 12/09/2008 - 2:22pm.

When JFK was assassinated, many people, like RFK, thought it was a Mafia hit job but, of course, some government agency had to be involved, probably more than one. We have film of the secret service officer, riding the right rear security platform on the president's Lincoln being ordered to stand down, waving his hands in the air, as if he is saying WTF, why am I being ordered to step down?

We also have the FBI memo saying that a Mr George Bush, businessman (yep, Zapata Oil) from of Houston, Texas, had called his local FBI office to inform them that a Mr James Parrot, also of Houston, had threatened the president's life. Mr. Parrot was checked out by FBI field agents and President Kennedy's stop in Houston was uneventful. Of course, few Americans had any idea of who George H.W. Bush was at the time.

Another FBI memo has since been discovered that stated that George Bush, of Houston, Texas was informed by the FBI, immediately after the assassination, about the South Florida Cuban Community and how they were reacting to the news that JFK and been killed. Most were in shock, as was most of the rest of the nation.

Many of the names put forward by the authors interviewed above are familiar to most of us who are even remotely interested in the assassinations of the 60s and who have a gut sense that the official stories of each are b.s.

One of the interesting things about G.H.W.B is that, when asked, years later, about his memories of that day first stated that he did not remember where he was on that dreadful day. How can anyone over the age of 55, let alone the junior scion of a political family not remember where he was on that day. I was a mere 14 years of age, and I shall never forget the assassination and where I was when I learned about JFK's death. I was in English class at Banks High school in Birmingham, Alabama and was not much interested in politics.

I admit that at first I wasn't very much on conspiracy theories of any kind in those days. All I knew was that my beloved president had been gunned down in Dallas and if I suspected anyone of being in on it it was LBJ. After all who had the most to gain,in the short term, anyway? (Short-term, being the operative word.) Nevertheless, as time wore on and more books came out about the assassination and the Warren Commission I began to wonder. Of course, nothing was going to bring JFK back to us.

By 1968, I had, as most of my generation had, become more politically active. With the assassinations of Dr. King and, finally, Bobby Kennedy, my world seemed to collapse. Hope was gone, or so it seemed to me. Apparently I wasn't alone. 1968 was the year all hell broke loose and there was all out political street fighting. Bobby's murder was the final straw for me. That horror, more than Dr. King's murder which was terrible enough, made it very clear to me that the assassination in 1963 was the beginning of a uniquely American coup; a coup that has continued 'til only recently. Even my own very republican father, who did his best to break the news to me gently about Bobby's death, that awful morning in June, while we were on a family vacation in Florida, wondered out-loud if we had not become just a big banana republic.

By election day of 1968, the American people had elected a two- time loser, Richard M. Nixon, whose main strategy of "divide and conquer" involved deeply held racism in the south in those days and the fear of many Americans of what was happening in the streets and on the campuses of America. That evil strategy took him into the White House and I do not believe that would have ever happened had Bobby lived. Admittedly, I despised Nixon, but it had yet to dawn on me that if there was one person who hated the Kennedys more than LBJ did and stood to gain the most out of two of them being dead, it was old Tricky Dick. I cannot remember hearing the name George H.W. Bush in those days.

GHWB's political career consisted of two terms in Congress, as a Rep from Texas, two terms as Ronald Reagan's VP and one term as president, beginning in 1998. All of the rest of his high offices were appointments.

Gerald Ford appointed him Director of the CIA in 1976, when the Intelligence community was under continuing public scrutiny and criticism after "Watergate" and the Nixon administration's uses and attempted uses of powerful government agencies against reporters, political opposition and ordinary American citizens.

George H.W. Bush denies 'till this day that he ever worked for the CIA prior to this appointment, even though more and more evidence has surfaced that he did work for the CIA and was involved in the Bay of Pigs disaster. For example, three ships were taken out of mothballs, re-painted for the invasion, the names of which were the Zapata, the Barbara and the Houston.

In those days, the CIA's connection with the mob were fairly well-known among those who were paying attention. They had similar interests in Cuba

The uncovered communications with GHWB around the time of the Kennedy assassination makes it even more difficult to believe that he had no connections with the CIA and the S. Fla. Cubans who wanted Castro dead. He was more than likely a "handler" of the Cubans.

There was one other man on the political scene who could not seem to remember where he was when JFK was assassinated: Richard M. Nixon.

After "Watergate" broke, it is common knowledge, from the White House Tapes and the Halderman Diaries, that Nixon was desperate to stop the FBI investigation. He told Halderman to call the CIA and advise them that if the investigation went forward, the "Texans" were bound to be outed; that the investigation would lead directly to the "Texans." One has to wonder, doesn't one, what Texans? What had those Texans done? Hell, by that time everyone knew about the Bay of Pigs. Any Texan's involvement in that operation would not have caused much of a stink at all. Proof of who was really behind the assassinations of JFK and/or RFK would have.

It is also well known that Prescott Bush took Dick Nixon under his political wing in the 1950s. Nixon was responsible for most of the White House involvement in the planned invasion of Cuba.

Many of us have wondered, over the years, why Nixon felt it necessary to break into the DNC in the first place in 1972. He was headed for a landslide victory against McGovern. What could have possibly stopped him from a win that year? Many theories have been floated, but none have ever made much since to me, unless Nixon was paranoid enough to believe that the Democrats had proof of who was really involved in the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers and planned to spring it before the election.

Fifth Alternative?

Submitted by Andy Swamp on Tue, 12/09/2008 - 9:40am.

There is an interesting variation scenario laid out in the video on the following link. It connects George H. W. Bush, the CIA, Bay of Pigs, and Hoover with some really interesting circumstantial evidence. It doesn't sound as though the video's theory differs substantially from the facts the authors have uncovered. Since it has been around for some time why didn't the authors speak to this one, or even mention it? http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4315024059102108031

JFK really was whacked by the Mob. Believe it! Hoover did!

Submitted by Billy Bishop on Tue, 12/09/2008 - 3:13am.

There was a time about 40 years ago when that I was attending the University of British Columbia that I came across an edition of Rolling Stone that was devoted almost entirely to the asassination of JFK. After reading that I became obsessed with the whole subject. Having not been politicized at that point I thought it scandalous that the government, through the Warren Commission, should be covering up the true culprits and placing the blame on somebody who was conveniently dead. Negotiating the world of the JFK asassination is an incredibly involved process, because one thread in the story inevitably leads to two or three new ones that seem worth investigating. And some threads lead to dead ends or unprovable theories. Not to mention the vicious in-fighting between various conspiracy authors, who knew a good thing when they saw it and jealously guarded their seats on the asassination gravy train. I originally was more fascinated with the actual events in Dealy Plaza and pretty much ignored the wider picture. The next publication that very much influenced me was a book called "Best Evidence" by David Lipton. He focused on the botched autopsy and speculated that the "official" autopsy, done my high ranking Navy surgeons, was only conducted after an unofficial autopsy had tried to remove evidence of more that one shooter. The book offers lots of thought provoking ideas and is supported by numerous statements by those who were actually there. So here was pretty clear evidence of government involvement, but just who and why. Then came the movie "JFK". I was thrilled that someone was going to make a movie about the asassination, but the movie was a disappointing hodge podge of characters which never really got close to the answering the big question. The theory, as laid out by Oliver Stone, is that JFK was going to pull out of Vietnam and the military-industial complex did him in. If one consults Chomsky on this however, he will scoff at the idea. Yes Kennedy was going to scale down American involvement in Vietnam, but not because he was soft on Communists but because all his advisers in Vietnam were telling him that the job of eliminating the insurgency was all but accomplished. The actual reason LBJ escalated the war was that he found the estimates that Kennedy had been receiving were about a defeated enemy were wildly over optimistic. Then one day I picked up "Act of Treason: The Role of J. Edgar Hoover in the Assassination of President Kennedy" by Mark North. Well it was like scales dropping from my eyes. this book lays out with impeccable research the involvement (or more properly, the lack of involvement) of J. Edgar Hoover in the asassination. He outlines Hoover's back ground as an ultra-conservative, rabid anti-communist and also his cosy relationship with the mob. Also his hatred for the liberal Kennedy brothers, especially Robert who was the Attorney General and Hoover's boss. To thicken the mix, Hoover was approaching mandatory retirement age and only the President had the ability to extend his term as Director of the FBI past this point. Because the Kennedy's feelings for Hoover were mutual, it was common knowledge that JFK was not going to grant Hoover this exemption. Under pressure from the Kennedy's and public opinion, Hoover was using more of his resources to gain information about the Mob/Mafia/Cosa Nostra (I use Mob cause its only 3 letters), including wiretaps. From FBI wiretaps of Carlos Marcello it was shown that as early as September the FBI were aware that an attempt would be made on JFK. At this point Hoover made a crucial decision. He decided to sit on the evidence and let things take their own course. Hoover's real involvement didn't really start until the after the asassination. His goal was to protect the reputation of the FBI and himself. He did everything to destroy evidence and steer people to believing that a lone nut was responsibe. He manipulated the Warren Commission to reach the conclusion they eventually came up with. J. Edgar Hoover was probably the most powerful man and the most feared in all of Washington politics. Hoover had secret files on many, many people. The information within these files could destroy careers overnight. After Lydon Johnson was inaugurated one of his first acts was to extend the term of Hoover as Director of the FBI. Lyndon had A LOT of secrets in his closet! The Mob was indeed responsible. The actions of the Mob's representative in Dallas, Jack Ruby, is the icing on the cake in my opinion. Friend of the corrupt Dallas police and middle man for the Mob, he was excellently placed to facilitate the plan. Witness to the actual killing, seen at Parkland Memorial Hospital while Kennedy was being operated on, seen at a police news conference offerring information about Oswald, and of course, killing Oswald on the Mob's orders. Its been many years since I spent any money on my JFK library, but these two books by Waldron and Hartmann do seem to represent the latest research in the field. I would certainly be interested in their views on Hoover and what other, if any, government agencies were involved. The sad legacy about the whole thing is that the Mob proved that they were so powerful that they could murder a President and get away with it.

Ultimate Sacrifice and Legacy of Secrecy

Submitted by pvhclh on Mon, 05/25/2009 - 9:50pm.

Great Email..Billy Bishop. I must admit that I am extremely impressed by what Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartmann have finally been able to uncover. As it relates to the JFK Assassination,unfortunately, "timing is everything", as in the death of key participants, as well as the time honored process of "declassification of government files". I will say right now that I do not consider myself an authority on the subject, but I have easily read over 50 books on the JFK Assassination, everything from Sylvia Meagher's "Accessory after the Fact" Mark Lane's ("Rush to Judgement", and also "Plausible Deniability") to David Lipton's "Best Evidence". I even have my own set of Warren Commission volumes, and have read their report, and even read Gerald Posner's (plagiarized American Bar Association Brief) book which he entitled "Case Closed". All through the years of reading about the assassination I truly believed that the CIA is evil and in some way connected to these events. The fact that they continued to try to kill Castro even after JFK died, and even continued to work with the Mafia for decades makes me wonder who the hell these people think that they are. Yet I never heard any concrete evidence to suggest that they had become as much of a propaganda tool as we have seen in any Authoritarian Dictatorship.. until I read these two books. No, I am not naive, all along I had had nagging suspicions about the evidence withheld from the Warren Commission by J Edgar Hoover of the FBI, and Richard Helms of the CIA. But now, at long last it all seems to make perfect sense why they covered up the JFK Assassination for all these years. The CIA was so blatantly compromised by the Mafia and their covert dealings with them over the years (to this day in fact) that they literally created a network of American media suppression. They created it so as to ensure that they would never fall victim to articles or books which would expose them. JFK sponsored attempts to overthrow Fidel Castro in December of 1963 or more importantly the CIA's involvement in plots to kill Castro in direct violation of orders from President Kennedy and his Brother Bobby Kennedy could have resulted in the end of Richard Helm's career and even the dismemberment of the CIA all together. The Kennedys would have rid us of the mafia infestation in the mid sixties if left unchecked, and the CIA gave the mafia the perfect opportunity to infiltrate their plans, and manipulate assets into position in Chicago, Tamps, and ultimately in Dallas. I am by no means a fan of organized, in fact the exact opposite is true. But the Mafia figures (Marcello, Trafficante, Rosselli, and Hoffa) did a brilliant job of planning the hit, implicating Oswald ahead of time, bringing the assets in to do the shooting, pulling it off, and getting away clean. Of course they had to kill many witnesses along the way, such as Oswald, Ruby, ultimately Giancana, Hoffa, and Rosselli... what a shame there). But the CIA, in their infinite wisdom, will always bear a lion's share of the blame... may Hunt, Helms, and Morales all rot in hell. I spent 3 years as an FBI clerk, 20 years as a Secret Service Agent and was trained to shoot a variety of shoulder weapons, and I can say this. Shooting at a moving target with a scoped rifle is extremely difficult, and it requires constant practice. Lee Harvey Oswald (was trained to shoot by the Marine Corps...yes!) but no evidence was ever uncovered to suggest that he EVER practiced long distance shooting (after he left the Marine Corps), and had not a single round of ammunition among his belongings that were found after the assassination. Yes, anything is possible, but Lee Harvey Oswald was a patsy from beginning to end, and he did not shoot Kennedy or Tippit. I had never before read the extent to which Oswald was involved (through his uncle Dutz Murret) with Carlos Marcello. More importantly I never read a more detailed account of Jack Ruby's association with the Chicago Mafia and Santos Trafficante. Specifically his trips to Cuba (gun running & heroin trafficking). But his connection to Marcello is undeniable, and he met with Rosselli and Oswald many times before 22 November 1963.

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