BOOK REVIEW -- "Reclaiming History" By Vincent Bugliosi (Part 2)
David Von Pein
=====================================================
"RECLAIMING HISTORY:
THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY"
AUTHOR: VINCENT BUGLIOSI
=====================================================
CHAPTER 5 (276 PAGES) -- "LEE HARVEY OSWALD":
DVP: This lengthy chapter contains a wonderfully-written biography on
President Kennedy's murderer, Lee Harvey Oswald. A more complete,
detailed account of the 24-year life of this strange young man named
Lee you'll not likely find anywhere than that which exists on these
pages (although Jean Davison's "Oswald's Game", written in 1983, comes
close).
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/9c2238388f0a72c3
After reading this engaging chapter, I felt as though I had literally
been right alongside Lee Harvey Oswald during his entire twenty-four
years on this Earth.
As with all other parts of "Reclaiming History", the microscopic
detail that exists inside this Oswald chapter is phenomenal, including
a look at Lee's grades in various school subjects over a several-year
period, plus a notation about a KGB report made on Oswald about his
activities on May 1, 1960, wherein the KGB agents following Oswald
around in Minsk (U.S.S.R.) actually noted the trivial fact that Lee
had purchased "200 grams of vanilla cookies" at a local bakery.
I'm surprised the agents didn't record the brand name of the
confections and the color of the box. ;)
Bugliosi, on page 600, even pokes fun at the KGB's ultra-detailing of
Oswald's movements -- "None of this escaped the notice of the KGB,
whose dogged appetite for banality was insatiable."
We also find out that when Lee returned to the USA from Russia, he
boarded Delta Airlines flight #821 for the last leg of his excursion,
from New York to Dallas, on June 14, 1962.
Plus -- Did you also know that Lee shot a "ring-tailed cat" while
hunting with his brother, Robert, during a two-week leave from the
Marines in early 1957? (This is the level of detail this chapter and
book contain.)
"Perhaps the even greater incongruity was someone like Oswald, who was
fiercely independent and resisted any type of authority, joining an
organization {the U.S. Marine Corps} whose trademark and way of life
was authority and regimentation." -- VB; Page 548
-------------------
"{On October 21, 1959, officials in the Soviet Union} stated that they
had no interest in "American Citizen Oswald," and that "it was not
advisable to grant him Soviet citizenship." The quickness of the reply
can only be interpreted to mean one thing: they were so certain they
would never have any interest in Oswald that there wasn't even any
need to sleep on it, not even for one night." -- VB; Page 575
-------------------
"It is worth being reminded that on the same day, October 7 {1962},
that General {Edwin} Walker returned to Dallas...Oswald announced to
the small group of Russian emigres at his Fort Worth apartment that he
had decided, without giving them any explanation, to move to
Dallas. .... What Lee had in mind very likely was his plan to murder
General Walker." -- VB; Pages 673-674
-------------------
DVP: The physical abuse that Marina Oswald suffered at the hands of
this psycho and soon-to-be-murderer named Lee Harvey is documented at
some length within these pages by Mr. Bugliosi.
In fact, via these well-researched pages, I was surprised to learn of
the frequency of the beatings that Marina was being subjected to.
There are many references to Lee slapping and/or beating Marina during
their stormy marriage (they were married in the Soviet Union on April
30, 1961). The February prior to the assassination was when Lee
started to use his fists on Marina. (A nice, loving husband, wasn't
he?).....
"Marina would tell {author} Priscilla McMillan that the month of
February in 1963 was the worst month of her married life. The beatings
grew more frequent and more savage. .... He {Lee} began to hit her
with his fist five or six times. .... On one occasion he hit Marina so
hard that she started bleeding from the nose." -- VB; Pages 674-675
-------------------
DVP: Another fascinating part of this chapter is when author Bugliosi
tells the very odd tale of Albert J. Osborne (aka: "John Howard
Bowen"), an elderly drifter who sat next to Lee Harvey Oswald on the
bus that Oswald took to Mexico City in September 1963. .....
"Osborne turns out to be even more committed to the romance of
falsehoods and flightiness than Lee Oswald. .... Osborne became the
eventual subject of a remarkable 95-page FBI report (with its own
table of contents and eight-page index) to the Warren Commission
investigating his tangled background and true identity. It seems that
years earlier Osborne took on a dual identity. ....
"This resulted in his being interviewed on several occasions by
DIFFERENT FBI agents, sometimes as Bowen, other times as Osborne, the
bureau believing they were talking to two separate people. "Bowen" and
"Osborne" said they knew each other and "each" sent the FBI on
fruitless quests to find the other. ....
"It is ironic that Lee Oswald, who so clumsily fabricated his own fake
identity as Alek Hidell, spent a day and a night in the company of a
master in the art and undoubtedly never realized it." -- VB; Pages
750-752
==============================
CHAPTER 6 (16 PAGES) -- "OSWALD'S OWNERSHIP AND POSSESSION OF THE
RIFLE FOUND ON THE SIXTH FLOOR":
"So, in addition to Oswald's palm print being found on the underside
of the Carcano's barrel, we know that Oswald's fingerprints were found
within an inch of the trigger of the rifle found on the sixth floor of
the Texas School Book Depository Building.
"The evidence is clear and unimpeachable -- Lee Harvey Oswald bought,
owned, and handled the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle found on the sixth
floor. And it was THIS weapon that was used to murder John F.
Kennedy." -- VB; Page 804
-------------------
"If conspirators were to use a fake photograph to frame Oswald, why
would they take all these {backyard} photos--thereby increasing the
risk, by each photo, of their fakery being detected--when just one
photo would accomplish their purpose? ....
"What reason would the conspirators have for taking multiple photos?
Even if it was to ensure that they at least got one good photo, after
they got their good photo, why wouldn't they destroy the others?" --
VB; Page 398 of Endnotes
DVP: I've asked some of those same questions myself, Vince. And many
CTers even go so far as to say that multiple backyard pictures were
faked even though they (the conspiracy theorists purporting such
insanity) readily acknowledge the fact that Marina Oswald herself took
ONE "REAL" PHOTO of her husband on 3/31/63!
In other words, an authentic, bona fide backyard photo of Lee Harvey
Oswald existed prior to 11/22/63, but the photo fakers decided to go
ahead and fake additional pictures anyway....i.e., forgeries which
depicted the EXACT SAME BACKYARD SCENE AS THE ONE "REAL" PHOTO!
Can the conspiracy-loving silliness GET much crazier than that?
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/abf2ea54c9dddca4
-------------------
"{Buell Wesley} Frazier's statements that the rifle was tucked under
Oswald's armpit is hardly as definitive as the critics claim. While
Frazier's description of how Oswald carried the rifle was consistent
in all of his statements to investigators, it was clearly inferable
from his Warren Commission testimony that this was only an assumption
on his part based on his limited view.
"Frazier told the Commission that "the only time" he saw the way
Oswald was carrying the package was from the back, and that all that
was visible was "just a little strip [of the package] running down"
along the inside of Oswald's arm. ....
"Since he could only see this small portion of the package under
Oswald's right arm, and because he didn't notice any part of the
package sticking above his right shoulder...Frazier assumed that it
must have been tucked under his armpit, telling the Commission, "I
don't see how you could have it anywhere other than under your
armpit."
"Although the critics have been quick to embrace Frazier's conclusion,
it should be repeated that he told the Commission over and over (no
less than five separate times) that he didn't pay much attention to
the package or to the way Oswald carried it. ....
"In other words, and understandably, Frazier was confused. So we don't
even know, for sure, how Oswald was carrying the rifle in front of his
body, which Frazier could not see. At the London trial {in 1986} I
asked Frazier, "So the bag could have been protruding out in front of
his body and you wouldn't have been able to see it?" and he responded,
"That's true."
"The most likely scenario was postulated well by Dan Rather {of CBS
News in June 1967}, who rhetorically told his audience, "You can
decide whether Frazier, walking some fifty feet behind and, in his own
words, not paying much attention, might have missed the few inches of
the narrow end of such a package sticking up past Oswald's shoulder"."
-- VB; Pages 409-410 of Endnotes
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.assassination.jfk/msg/025a3639eb985034
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/118eaf60b3c0c0aa
==============================
CHAPTER 7 (14 PAGES) -- "IDENTIFICATION OF THE MURDER WEAPON":
"So we know that Oswald's Carcano was the weapon that murdered the
president." -- VB; Page 808
-------------------
"The movements and handling of President Kennedy's stretcher {at
Parkland Hospital} negates the possibility that the bullet
{controversial Bullet "CE399"} could have originated from the
president's stretcher." -- VB; Page 811
DVP: Exactly correct. And this is a critical point that is often
overlooked (or ignored) by the conspiracy theorists who love to
maintain that CE399 was "planted" in Parkland Hospital. But I haven't
ignored it.....
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/648e0882dfd6c419
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/28046bc62014f146
-------------------
"The whole issue of what stretcher the bullet {CE399} was found on,
Connally's or some unknown person's, is a giant nonissue. Since we
know that the bullet was fired from Oswald's Carcano rifle, and we
know it wasn't found on Kennedy's stretcher, it had to have been found
on Connally's stretcher." -- VB; Page 431 of Endnotes
DVP: Bingo, VB! (Yet again.) .....
THE "SBT" IN A (LONE) NUTSHELL:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/0b30398a449c05b7
-------------------
"WFAA-TV cameraman Tom Alyea...made a...claim about the shells being
moved. Alyea said that {DPD Captain Will} Fritz picked up all three
shells and held them in his hand while Alyea filmed them. But this
part of the film Alyea claims he shot has never surfaced--a highly
unusual circumstance considering that much of Alyea's film was
broadcast UNEDITED over WFAA. .... In any event, if he in fact saw
Fritz pick up the shells it probably was AFTER the crime scene photos
had been taken. ....
"What perhaps is the strongest evidence against {Deputy Sheriff Luke}
Mooney's contention that Fritz moved the shells...is that he {Mooney}
said that once he discovered the shells he put his head out the window
"and called down to Sheriff Decker and Captain Fritz...to send up the
crime lab." So Fritz wasn't even there on the sixth floor at the
time. ....
"When {DPD photographer Robert Studebaker} arrived on the sixth floor
"they hadn't found anything" yet {per Studebaker's WC testimony}.
Studebaker went on to say that as soon as they found the shells, "we
went over there and took photographs," which we can assume would have
been at least a few minutes before Captain Fritz even arrived on the
sixth floor." -- VB; Pages 417-418 of Endnotes
-------------------
DVP: Chapter Seven's endnotes contain another laugh-out-loud moment
from the logical mind of Vince B.; this one here:
"A favorite theme of conspiracy theorists {is that} documents and
photographs {have been} "buried" in the National Archives or in the
Warren Commission's 26 volumes of hearings and exhibits.
"If we're to believe the theorists, it apparently never crossed the
minds of the alleged conspirators who killed Kennedy to simply get rid
of the evidence that could convict them. Unlike nearly all ordinary
conspirators, Kennedy's killers intentionally and knowingly left
evidence behind in the archives and the Warren Commission volumes that
could expose them -- evidence that only the conspiracists are smart
and industrious enough to uncover." -- VB; Page 418 of Endnotes
-------------------
"One can only wonder why Commission Exhibit No. 399 did not have any
blood residuum on it. My only guess is that the blood traces that must
have been on it were removed by someone early on at the Dallas crime
lab or elsewhere almost as a matter of course. In all the evidence
bullets I handled in court in murder cases during my prosecutorial
career, none had any visible blood on them. ....
"Interestingly, {the FBI's Robert} Frazier testified that with respect
to the two main bullet fragments found in the presidential limousine
{CE567 & CE569}, "there was a very slight residue of blood or some
other material adhering, but it did not interfere with the
examination. It was wiped off to clean up the bullet for
examination"." -- VB; Page 425 of Endnotes
-------------------
"The bullet {from the 2004 "SBT" test performed in Australia during
the "Discovery Channel" documentary, "JFK: Beyond The Magic Bullet"},
though it directly struck two ribs, weighed 158 grains, meaning it
lost just .6 grain more than Commission Exhibit No. 399...even though
the latter bullet only struck a glancing blow to Connally's right rib.
"Certainly, the relatively intact Adelaide {Australia} bullet showed
that the limited damage to Commission Exhibit No. 399 was not
inconsistent at all with its having caused all of the wounds to
Kennedy and Connally." -- VB; Page 430 of Endnotes
DVP: The "Beyond The Magic Bullet" program (in which Vincent Bugliosi
made an appearance, by the way) is one of the best documentaries in
recent years on the JFK assassination.
The detailed SBT test performed by the Australian researchers proved
that a Carcano/WCC bullet could positively take a very similar path
through two "bodies", do approximately the same damage to the two
"victims", and have that bullet emerge in a totally UNFRAGMENTED
condition. Here's a picture of that test bullet:
http://216.122.129.112/dc/user_files/6735.jpg
I ask: What are the odds that such a test could mimic the Single-
Bullet Theory so closely (not perfectly, granted...but darn close to
it) and yet have that purported ONE-bullet event actually being
performed by two or three different bullets in Dallas on November 22,
1963 (complete with the appropriate number of "vanishing" bullets
after the shooting)?
Any odds-makers in the house?
Here's some more info concerning the "Beyond The Magic Bullet"
program:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/69758897e673c5a2
-------------------
"Even if the new findings {from 2002 to 2004, not the 2007 study} were
to render NAA, and hence {Dr. Vincent} Guinn's conclusions, invalid,
we DO know that the stretcher bullet was fired from Oswald's rifle to
the exclusion of ALL other weapons.
"Since THAT is definite, what is the likelihood that a bullet found on
CONNALLY'S stretcher, which we know was fired from Oswald's gun, is
not the same bullet that deposited its missing fragments in Connally's
wrist? Next to nothing.
"In other words, when all is said and done, what difference does it
make if it turns out that the NAA tests are completely invalid? But
there is a more important point to be made. Let's not forget that the
NAA conclusions by Guinn...are COMPLETELY CONSISTENT with all the
other evidence showing that Oswald was at the sniper's nest window and
it was his Carcano rifle that fired the only bullets that hit Kennedy.
"This other, independent evidence necessarily increases the likelihood
that Guinn's separate NAA conclusions are accurate." --VB; Pages
436-437 of Endnotes
DVP: In addition to Vincent's comments that I've quoted above (and
probably even more important on the "common sense" and "sheer luck"
scales):
What do you think the chances are that a multi-gun conspiracy took
place in Dealey Plaza, with bullets from MORE THAN ONE GUN striking
the victims in JFK's limousine on Elm Street....and yet, after the
bullets stopped flying and the missiles and fragments were examined,
NOT A SINGLE BULLET OR FRAGMENT from any non-#C2766 (i.e., Oswald's)
gun turned out to be large enough to be tested in order to positively
eliminate Lee Harvey Oswald's Mannlicher-Carcano rifle as the source
for ALL of the bullets and fragments that hit any victims on Elm
Street?
Would anybody be willing to take those incredibly-low odds to Vegas?
In other words: If a multi-gun plot really did end the life of John F.
Kennedy, how is it POSSIBLE that those conspirators got lucky enough
to have none of the non-Oswald bullets (or even fragments thereof)
discovered by anybody?
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/e68af2a823062f43
-------------------
"In support of his position, which I concur with, that the bullet
fragments removed from Connally's wrist did not weigh more than the
2.4 grains lost from the stretcher bullet {CE399}, Gerald Posner
writes in "Case Closed" that Dr. Charles Gregory testified before the
Warren Commission that the bullet fragments he removed from Connally's
wrist were "flakes of metal" weighing "something less than the weight
of a postage stamp."
"But Dr. Gregory was not referring to the bullet fragments he removed
from Connally's wrist, which definitely were not flakes of metal, but
to the bullet fragments left in Connally's wrist, which were never
removed yet show up on X-rays." -- VB; Page 441 of Endnotes
DVP: I'm very nearly certain that Mr. Bugliosi is incorrect re. the
above statement. Because when we look at Dr. Gregory's WC
testimony....
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/gregory1.htm
....there is no question at all that when Gregory said this to WC
counsel Arlen Specter --- "I would estimate that they {the metal
fragments} would be weighed in micrograms, which is {a} very small
amount of weight. .... It is the kind of weighing that requires a
micro-adjustable scale, which means that it is something less than the
weight of a postage stamp" --- Gregory was specifically referring to
the fragments which are visible on two PRE-operative X-rays taken of
Governor Connally's wrist (CE690 and CE691).
Which means that Gregory was referring to ALL of the metal fragments
(or "flakes") that were in Connally's wrist BEFORE Gregory ever
operated on the Governor to retrieve any bullet fragments.
Via comparison, CE692 and CE693 (which are POST-operative wrist X-rays
which were taken after Connally was operated on), it can easily be
determined that Exhibits 692 and 693 depict FEWER fragments within the
X-ray than are shown in 690 and 691.
It's possible that Dr. Gregory misspoke when he said that ALL of the
fragments visible in Exhibits 690 and 691 represented only "flakes of
metal", which is positively what he said, and, as I mentioned, he was
definitely referring to the PRE-operative wrist X-rays, even though
Gregory said that he, himself, removed "two or three" of the largest
fragments from Connally's wrist, and had a chance to determine at that
time whether the term "flakes of metal" really applied to those
removed fragments.
In any event, that is what the official Warren Commission record
reveals with respect Dr. Gregory's testimony in 1964 when he was
looking directly at CE690 and CE691.
And to my (layperson's) eyes, the visible hunks of metal that can be
seen in 690 and 691 certainly don't look very big at all. Perhaps the
word "flakes" would, indeed, describe them fairly well (at least when
looking at the X-rays only). .....
CE690:
http://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh17/html/WH_Vol17_0187a.htm
CE691:
http://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh17/html/WH_Vol17_0187b.htm
Later in Gregory's WC testimony -- after Arlen Specter asked,
"Approximately how large were those fragments {that were removed from
Connally's wrist}, Dr. Gregory?" -- we find these words being spoken
by Gregory:
"Rather thin...their greatest dimension would probably not exceed one-
eighth of an inch. They were very small."
Another semi-important point to all of this talk about the size of
Governor Connally's wrist fragments (which is a point I don't think
Mr. Bugliosi mentions anywhere in his book) refers a portion of Dr.
Gregory's testimony where he, in effect, is saying that ALL of the
fragments that were seen in Connally's wrist (INCLUDING THE TWO OR
THREE FRAGMENTS THAT WERE REMOVED FROM THE GOVERNOR'S WRIST) were
located during surgery "by chance", and ALL of these metal fragments
could have been left inside Connally's body without causing the
Governor further physical problems in the future.
Here is exactly what Dr. Gregory said to the Warren Commission
regarding this matter:
"We know from experience that small flakes of metal of this kind do
not ordinarily produce difficulty in the future, but that the
extensive dissection required to find them may produce...consequences
and so we choose to leave them inside unless we chance upon them. And
on this occasion, those bits of metal recovered were simply found by
chance in the course of removing necrotized material {i.e., dead
bodily tissue}."
~~~~~~
More info re. the "bullet fragment" controversy here:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/61fe27a14fb7dd35
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.assassination.jfk/msg/802781e23092c9de
-------------------
DVP: When it comes to one of the favorite arguments among conspiracy
believers -- i.e., the so-called "lack of a chain of custody" for much
of the evidence in the JFK case -- Vince Bugliosi offers up the
following:
"An argument frequently heard in the conspiracy community is that
Oswald could not have been convicted in a court of law because the
"chain of custody [or possession]" of the evidence against him was not
strong enough to make the evidence admissible in a court of law. ....
"The first observation I have to make is that I would think
conspiracists...would primarily want to know if Oswald killed Kennedy,
not whether he could get off on a legal technicality.
"Second, there is no problem with the chain of custody of much of the
physical evidence against Oswald, such as the rifle and the two large
bullet fragments found in the presidential limousine.
"Third, and most important on this issue, courts do not have a
practice of allowing into evidence only that for which there is an
ironclad and 100 percent clear chain of custody, and this is why I
believe that 95 percent of the physical evidence in this case would be
admissible.
"I can tell you from personal experience that excluding evidence at a
trial because the chain of custody is weak is rare, certainly the
exception rather than the rule. The typical situation where the chain
is not particularly strong is for the trial judge to nevertheless
admit the evidence, ruling that the weakness of the chain goes only to
"the weight of the evidence [i.e., how much weight or credence the
jury will give it], not its admissibility"." -- VB; Page 442 of
Endnotes
-------------------
DVP: Next up -- The supposed Jack Ruby/Seth Kantor meeting at Parkland
Hospital.....
"In any event, even if Ruby was at Parkland, to assume he was there to
plant a bullet on Connally's stretcher to frame Oswald for Kennedy's
murder, making Ruby a part of the conspiracy to murder Kennedy,
is...too ludicrous for words. The philosophy of the zany conspiracy
theorists is that if something is theoretically possible (as most
things are), then it's not only probable, it happened." -- VB; Page
450 of Endnotes
DVP: Allow me to add this common-sense observation ..... If Ruby had
been planting a bullet on a stretcher at Parkland, would he have had
any desire whatsoever to draw attention to himself around the very
time he's engaging in this shady, conspiratorial activity by
approaching SOMEBODY WHO KNEW HIM ON SIGHT--Kantor--who could then, in
turn, tell the authorities, "Hey, I saw Jack Ruby out at Parkland
around 1:30 PM on Friday"?!
That sounds like screwy behavior for a member of the proverbial "Let's
Frame Oswald" conspiracy team...don't ya think?
VB adds a humorous addendum to this "Was Ruby At Parkland?" topic in
the endnotes, by telling his readers about a "looney bird" witness
named Wilma Tice (who was acquainted with two of Ruby's sisters). Per
Wilma's account of events, she saw Jack Ruby at Parkland on 11/22/63
and claimed that Ruby was at the hospital in order to "give Governor
Connally a kidney".
~Obligatory LOL~
Jack Ruby was a busy bee that day, for sure....he was placing ads for
his club, he was calling gobs of friends on the phone, he was driving
a pick-up truck in Dealey Plaza (per Julia Mercer), he was running
around the Grassy Knoll just seconds after JFK was shot (per Jean
Hill), he was assassinating President Kennedy (per Tom Tilson), he was
planting a bullet on a hospital stretcher (per Oliver Stone and other
conspiracy-loving kooks), and he was attempting to donate one of his
kidneys to the injured Governor of Texas.
Whew! It's a good thing Jack closed his nightclubs that night. He
probably wouldn't have had time to oversee the Carousel Club (and toss
his quota of unruly patrons down the stairs) anyway. ;)
-------------------
"One...problem that rises to the dignity of a true mystery .... a
man's leather wallet {was supposedly found} near the puddle of blood
where Tippit's body had lain. The wallet, per {FBI agent James} Hosty,
was Oswald's. ....
"If I had to wager, I'd conclude it was Tippit's wallet, and the
reason {WFAA TV cameraman Ron} Reiland stated...that it was Tippit's
wallet is that the police had informed him at the scene that it
was. ....
"It makes no sense to me that the Dallas police and detectives,
several of whom were Tippit's friends, would keep from the world that
his killer's wallet was found near his body." -- VB; Pages 453 and 456
of Endnotes
==============================
CHAPTER 8 (26 PAGES) -- "OSWALD AT THE SNIPER'S NEST AND 'EVIDENCE' OF
HIS INNOCENCE":
"Conspiracy theorists rank Oswald's second-floor lunchroom encounter
with Dallas police officer Marrion L. Baker near the very top of the
list of reasons to believe Oswald didn't kill Kennedy.
"According to the critics, Oswald couldn't possibly have gotten from
the sixth-floor sniper's nest to the second-floor lunchroom in the 90-
second time frame estimated by the Warren Commission. .... Once again,
however, the critics have exaggerated and misrepresented the
circumstances surrounding this encounter in their curious zeal to
exonerate Oswald of the crime he so obviously committed." -- VB; Page
837
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/aaeb4a1389e69938
-------------------
"Oswald's declaration...{"I'm just a patsy"}...has been taken out of
context by the conspiracy theorists, who want people to believe that
when Oswald said he was just a patsy he was referring to being a patsy
for the conspirators behind the assassination. But it appears from the
context that he was not." -- VB; Page 841
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/cf7e02eca298afbf
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.assassination.jfk/msg/4c02eefb838067d3
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.assassination.jfk/msg/59788c64670330ef
-------------------
"The bottom line is that evidence of Oswald's innocence in the Kennedy
assassination is about as rare as hundred-dollar bills on the floor of
a flophouse." -- VB; Page 844
DVP: A related essay.....
"SOLID VALIDATION THAT LEE HARVEY OSWALD WAS IN THE SNIPER'S NEST":
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/182cecc7c4e37bb2
-------------------
"Perhaps Oswald wanted only to CONFIRM the exact route of the
motorcade {when he talked to James Jarman on the morning of November
22}. .... On the morning of the assassination, the Dallas Morning News
published a map of the route which seemed to show the motorcade
entering the freeway from Main Street, without making the jog north on
Houston to Elm, then west on Elm. .... (It was this map that led some
to believe that the motorcade route had been changed when, in fact,
the map was simply inaccurate in its detail.)
"Although there are no credible reports that Oswald read the paper
that particular morning, if Oswald had looked in that morning's Dallas
Morning News and seen the map, it might have raised questions in his
mind about the precise route the motorcade would take, and hence, his
question to Jarman." -- VB; Pages 460-461 of Endnotes
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/fbacd51dfe2f074c
-------------------
"FINALLY. Thank God for George O'Toole." -- VB; Page 464 of Endnotes
DVP: Laugh Break (again). Check out pages 463 to 465 of the CD-ROM's
endnotes for more details about how the great George O'Toole solved
the JFK case using his handy "Psychological Stress Evaluator".
==============================
CHAPTER 9 (14 PAGES) -- "THE GRASSY KNOLL":
"If, indeed, a fourth shot was fired that day, why did only 6
witnesses hear four shots according to two studies and only 8
witnesses according to another, whereas the vast majority of witnesses
heard only three shots? .... If you had to wager your home on who is
right, whose opinion would you endorse? Can there really be any
question? ....
"{And} if a second gunman was firing at the presidential limousine
that day from the grassy knoll, why is it that only 4 of {author
Josiah} Thompson's 172 witnesses, 4 of the HSCA's 178, and 5 of London
Weekend Television's 189 thought they heard bullets being fired from
TWO directions?" -- VB; Page 849
DVP: Indeed. Those are questions that I, too, have asked many times as
well. In my view, the answer is quite obvious. Those witnesses who
said they heard ALL of the shots coming from the grassy knoll area (by
the very fact they did not hear different sounds/shots coming from
multiple locations) heard only Lee Harvey Oswald's shots from the Book
Depository, and the acoustical environment in Dealey Plaza was playing
tricks on them.
More.....
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/7b06a89bd4042363
-------------------
"Even though there's no credible evidence that any shot was fired from
the grassy knoll, one could still have shouting rights if one could at
least argue that logic and common sense dictate that one or more of
the three shots emanated from there. But when you have no evidence and
no common sense on your side, isn't it time to put the "Closed" sign
on your door and go home?" -- VB; Page 858
==============================
CHAPTER 10 (6 PAGES) -- "A CONVERSATION WITH DR. CYRIL WECHT":
"The conspiracy theorists' leading medical forensic expert {Dr. Wecht}
cannot even HYPOTHESIZE a shooting from the right side or right front
that is intellectually sustainable. Even with as fine a forensic mind
as Dr. Wecht's, by definition no one can defend a position that is
indefensible." -- VB; Page 864
==============================
CHAPTER 11 (7 PAGES) -- "SECRET SERVICE AGENTS ON THE GRASSY KNOLL":
"The probability is substantial that the person Dallas police officer
Joe Smith encountered behind the picket fence whom he took to be a
Secret Service agent was none other than James W. Powell {a special
agent from the "112th Military Intelligence Group"}." -- VB; Page 869
-------------------
"From all the evidence it clearly appears that the Secret Service
sightings on the grassy knoll and behind the Book Depository Building
after the shooting are entitled to about the same weight as Oswald's
statement in Captain Fritz's office about being confronted by a Secret
Service agent in front of the Book Depository Building {as Oswald was
leaving the building at 12:33 PM on November 22}." -- VB; Page 871
-------------------
"When I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for Oswald's
military intelligence file on November 20, 1999 (made with the
faintest hope that someone, somehow, had salvaged the file), I was
informed by letter from the FOIA staff at the National Archives on
January 18, 2000, that the file "no longer existed."
"It is nothing short of incredible that the federal government would
destroy Oswald's file the same way it would that of any ordinary
person. But government officials always feel it is incumbent upon them
to live up to two well-earned reputations. One is that they are
bureaucratic automatons whose bloodless daily activities do not admit
exceptions to their rules.
"And two, as with law enforcement, even though normally innocent they
insist on acting guilty so that conspiracy theorists will have more
fodder for their charges. (They do so because being innocent, they
have no guilty conscience and continue to be angered and shocked when
they are later accused of a "cover-up.")
"For example, the Los Angeles Police Department in its investigation
of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, and the Memphis Police
Department in its investigation into the assassination of Martin
Luther King, destroyed evidence after a period of time that should
have been forever preserved." -- VB; Pages 486-487 of Endnotes
==============================
CHAPTER 12 (29 PAGES) -- "THE ZANIES (AND OTHERS) HAVE THEIR SAY":
"Comedy feeds on tragedy. And whenever there's a major catastrophe or
tragedy, as sure as death and taxes a chorus of cuckoo birds will
voice their bizarre observations." -- VB; Page 872
-------------------
"The conspiracy theorists are so impoverished in their desperate
search for evidence to support their cause that they are compelled to
descend to such whimsical, ever-changing, and obviously untrue
accounts as that of Virgil {Ed} Hoffman." -- VB; Page 875
-------------------
"Although it would not be too easy to have any less credibility than
Mrs. {Jean} Hill, conspiracy buffs, in their desperation, have
elevated her to an iconic stature, Hill being one of the very
brightest stars in the conspiracy theory constellation. .... {Hill's}
Dealey Plaza observations are cited and accepted without criticism in
virtually all the major conspiracy books on the assassination." -- VB;
Page 877
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/01377bde4de2b5e4
-------------------
DVP: Vince Bugliosi's sarcastically-tinged narrative in this chapter
when he's referring to the "dreaded Richard Randolph Carr" is an
absolute scream, and had me rolling with laughter at the silly nature
of Carr's embellished conspiracy-flavored story that Carr told over
the years. Check out pages 880 to 883 for the full belly-laugh re.
Carr. Vincent doesn't disappoint.
-------------------
DVP: As I continue to read this chapter, my sides are beginning to
ache more from the persistent laughter, as Vince tells it like it
should be told with respect to the "Zanies (and others)" who have had
"their say" re. the assassination. For another whopper of a laugh,
check out the way VB dismantles the wholly-illogical story of famed
pro-conspiracy witness Julia Ann Mercer. Here's an excerpt:
"She {Mercer} said, "A man was sitting under the wheel of the car and
slouched over the wheel." (I defy any student of the English language
to explain, from these words, the position the man was in.) ....
"But why presidential assassins...would deliberately draw attention to
themselves by parking illegally and blocking traffic on a busy street
in the presence of three Dallas police officers as well as lay
witnesses like Miss Mercer is not known. Of course, conspiracy
theorists never let common sense get in the way of their hallucinatory
theories." -- VB; Pages 883-884
DVP: Proverbial "LOL"!
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/4c5c64ebb97fa1ee
-------------------
DVP: The incredibly-enjoyable CTer bashfest continues as Vince takes a
look at the widely-believed, but ultimately "terribly silly" (per VB's
footnote on page 888), "Badge Man" theory. The side-splitting hilarity
of this chapter flows non-stop, as indicated by the following excerpt:
"Apparently, Kennedy's assassin, instead of trying to...escape from
behind the picket fence after shooting Kennedy, had much more
important things to do -- mainly, climb over the fence (at which point
he'd be in plain view of everyone on Elm Street) so he could beat up
on that louse Gordon Arnold and take his film." -- VB; Page 888
-------------------
DVP: Regarding witness S.M. Holland's claim of having seen "a puff of
smoke" on the knoll during the President's assassination, Vince offers
these eloquent and well-stated words:
"If an ephemeral wisp of smoke -- even if it existed -- can overcome
several mountains of solid evidence to the contrary, then the
investigation into the truth in the assassination is more of an
existential exercise fit for black coffee-sipping Left Bank
philosophers who have always been more interested in asking questions
than in getting answers to those questions." -- VB; Page 896
-------------------
DVP: In an extensive endnote on the CD-ROM, Vince provides many well-
thought-out and reasonable observations when it comes to the various
other "I Saw Smoke" Dealey Plaza eyewitnesses (besides S.M. Holland).
VB systematically shreds each and every "smoke" witness (and takes a
stab at good ol' Mark Lane, to boot). Vincent's "smoke" surgery can be
found on pages 497-499 of the endnotes.
"A puff of smoke: As with every other area of the case, the conspiracy
theorists and Warren Commission critics...have distorted the official
record." -- VB; Page 497 of Endnotes
-------------------
DVP: Additional well-placed humor is inserted into VB's CD notes when
talking further about the topic of smoke:
"If what {Robert} Groden encircled {on a still frame of Dave Wiegman's
film; photo linked below} were smoke, it would appear to be smoke from
a small smokestack. If that's an exaggeration, what is not is that the
image is probably 50 times larger than what could be expected from the
muzzle of a fired rifle. ....
{ http://216.122.129.112/dc/user_files/3448.jpg } ....
"Moreover, the large image is not anywhere along the stockade fence,
being to the west of the fence near the Triple Underpass. And finally,
Groden has also encircled the presidential limousine on the photo, and
it is, as he acknowledges, "disappearing under" the Triple Underpass,
meaning that Wiegman's photo had to have been taken at least a few
seconds AFTER all the shots were fired.
"What can Groden's response to this be? That the smoke originally came
from a rifle fired behind the picket fence, that instead of vanishing
in the wind it actually mushroomed into a large, cloudlike image that
kept its form and was drifting west at the time of the frame from
Wiegman's film?
"We KNOW the image in the Wiegman frame is not smoke from any rifle."
-- VB; Pages 500-501 of Endnotes
DVP: Smoke Talk.....
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/5f471a0a36f07d06
-------------------
"There's a strong reason to believe that what {witness Lee E.} Bowers
said is not credible. .... {In Bowers' sworn 11/22/63 affidavit} he
said absolutely nothing at all about the commotion and unusual
activity behind the picket fence that attracted his attention." -- VB;
Page 898
DVP: This is a very good "Why Didn't I Ever Think Of That?" moment
that VB has offered up here in "Reclaiming History". For years,
conspiracy believers have propped up Lee Bowers as a top-notch
"conspiracy" witness, but Mr. Bugliosi's point above is an excellent
one indeed.
I've checked Bowers' original affidavit online and, just as Vince
said, that document doesn't mention a single word about Bowers having
seen any men near the picket fence. In fact, practically the entire
affidavit contains Bowers' observations about the three cars that
circled the parking lot just before the shooting, with the shooting
itself seemingly being a mere afterthought in Mr. Bowers' mind. The
only reference to the actual shooting comes in the last two sentences
of Bowers' affidavit, when he says:
"About 8 or 10 minutes after he left {i.e., the last of the three cars
that toured the lot} I heard at least 3 shots very close together.
Just after the shots the area became crowded with people coming from
Elm Street and the slope just north of Elm." .....
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/bowers1.htm
But even if we were to fully believe Mr. Bowers with respect to what
he told the Warren Commission in 1964 and Mark Lane in 1966, the sum
total of Bowers' comments really makes him a pretty decent "lone
assassin" type of witness. Here's why I say that:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/3b7e7c5c568f85c3
-------------------
DVP: Vincent sums up his thoughts about Lee Bowers this way (once
again, to the delight of my funny bone):
"If Bowers hadn't died...in August of 1966, it probably would have
been just a matter of time before he had Jack Ruby with a machine gun
on the grassy knoll." -- VB; Page 899
==============================
CHAPTER 13 (34 PAGES) -- "OTHER ASSASSINS":
"Three alleged Corsican hit men hired by the mob to kill Kennedy were
memorialized in the disgraceful documentary "The Men Who Killed
Kennedy". .... For all its silliness, the American public can't get
enough of the British film." -- VB; Pages 902 and 906
-------------------
"Another alleged assassin is James E. Files, the Rodney Dangerfield of
Kennedy assassins. .... Files has fallen on such hard times that few
buffs will even talk to him. However, a few promoters and publicity
seekers have tried to exploit Files's pathetic story." -- VB; Page 917
-------------------
DVP: Vince also does a nice job of forever destroying the theory that
has Mac Wallace's fingerprint being on one of the book cartons in the
Depository's Sniper's Nest. And Vince does this by actually talking to
the person (Nathan Darby) who supposedly positively identified the
print in question as being Wallace's. But there's a big problem for
those who want to buy into this Wallace theory -- the print on the box
was a PALMprint, not a FINGERprint.
Mr. Bugliosi talked to Darby over the phone in November 2001, and
Vincent quotes Darby as saying: "I wasn't given any palm print. They
were both fingerprints." ....
"So much for Malcolm Wallace at the window and another desperate
attempt by the conspiracy community to implicate ANYONE other than Lee
Harvey Oswald for Kennedy's murder." -- VB; Page 923
-------------------
"Fortunately, {the book} "Mortal Error" has not been mortal in its
impact. Other than Howard Donahue and his biographer Bonar Menninger,
I know of no serious student of the assassination who takes the book
or its contents seriously." -- VB; Page 929
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/bfe239f3742d68f8
-------------------
"Perhaps the most famous of the "other" assassins are the "three
tramps". The fact that there never was any evidence at all of their
guilt is irrelevant to the conspiracy theorists. To the buffs, there
was one big piece of incriminating evidence against the tramps: THEY
WEREN'T LEE HARVEY OSWALD! And in the balmy and unhinged conspiracy
universe, no evidence of guilt is stronger against someone than that
he isn't Lee Harvey Oswald." -- VB; Page 929
-------------------
"Remarkably, in one of the segments of the documentary {"The Men Who
Killed Kennedy"} (Part 3), three "Dealey Plaza witnesses," not one of
whom testified before the Warren Commission, are the stars of the
film, telling their tales of conspiracy and grassy knoll hijinks.
"All three almost assuredly were never even in Dealey Plaza at the
time of the assassination. All three came forward for the first time
years later (Beverly Oliver, seven years later; Ed Hoffman, the deaf-
mute, four years later; and Gordon Arnold, fifteen years later), and
all three significantly changed their story every time they told it,
although the viewers of the film were not, of course, told this.
"The stories of these three witnesses are so far-fetched and
contradictory that it is easy to form the opinion that not one of them
was even present in Dealey Plaza at the time of the assassination." --
VB; Pages 504-505 of Endnotes
==============================
CHAPTER 14 (16 PAGES) -- "MOTIVE":
"{Oswald's} attempt, just seven months {before JFK's murder}, to kill
Major General Edwin A. Walker clearly showed his propensity for
murder, at least where his target was political. ....
"When we couple his capacity for violence with his deep hostility for
people and institutions, there can be little question that Oswald was
a ticking time bomb, and it was only a matter of time before something
like the Kennedy assassination occurred. ....
"Remarkably, many major books on the assassination by Warren
Commission critics and conspiracy theorists don't even mention
Oswald's attempt to murder Walker. Not one word." -- VB; Page 942
-------------------
"If anyone ever had the psychological profile of a presidential
assassin, it was Oswald. He not only had a propensity for violence,
but was emotionally and psychologically unhinged. .... His alleged act
was completely consistent with his personality." -- VB; Page 949
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/66803e710380d800
==============================
CHAPTER 15 (19 PAGES) -- "SUMMARY OF OSWALD'S GUILT":
"It is...remarkable that these conspiracy theorists aren't troubled in
the least by their inability to present any evidence that Oswald was
set up and framed. For them, the mere belief or speculation that he
was is a more-than-adequate substitute for evidence." -- VB; Page 952
-------------------
"With respect to the Kennedy assassination, once you establish and
know that Oswald is guilty, as has been done, then you also
NECESSARILY know that there is an answer (whether the answer is known
or not) compatible with this conclusion for the endless alleged
discrepancies, inconsistencies, and questions the conspiracy theorists
have raised through the years about Oswald's guilt." -- VB; Page 953
-------------------
"Conspiracy theorists have attacked the case against Oswald as being
weak because it was "only circumstantial," the implication being that
any case based on circumstantial evidence is not solid. .... But
nothing could be further from the truth. ....
"Not only was there PHYSICAL circumstantial evidence against Oswald
{e.g., guns, bullets, and fingerprints traced to the defendant}, but
there was an enormous amount of non-physical circumstantial evidence,
including the very most powerful in this category: his flight from the
murder scene, his resisting arrest, and his telling one provable lie
after another upon his apprehension, all showing an unmistakable
consciousness of guilt." -- VB; Page 528 of Endnotes
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/8845d85a86407d31
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/d654c1e6ad40ca56
-------------------
"Predictably, conspiracy theorists have picked up the canard that
{assassination eyewitness Howard} Brennan's eyesight was not good at
the time of the assassination. ....
"Brennan told the Warren Commission that "both" of his eyes were
"sandblasted" in January of 1964, two months after the assassination,
and this trauma was responsible for his eyes being "not good" at the
time of his Warren Commission testimony on March 24, 1964.
"It couldn't be clearer that Brennan said he had excellent eyesight at
the time of the assassination but poor eyesight since the sandblasting
incident. After an FBI interview of Brennan on the evening of the
assassination, the interviewing agent wrote that Brennan had
"volunteered he has been informed by his optometrist...that he
[Brennan] has 'perfect vision' at a distance, or, in other words, he
is farsighted. He advised he wears glasses for reading only"." -- VB;
Pages 529-530 of Endnotes
~~~~~
HOWARD L. BRENNAN -- EYEWITNESS TO A TRAGEDY:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/discussions/start-thread.html/ref=cm_rdp_dp/105-4913190-2911629?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0898963311&authorID=A1FDW1SPYKB354&store=yourstore&reviewID=R3NVHAOQQK4XLZ&displayType=ReviewDetail
MORE ON BRENNAN (WITH A VINCE BUGLIOSI IMITATION, JUST FOR FUN):
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/d26167f23399f7d6
-------------------
"A myth that has taken hold among a great number of people outside the
criminal justice system is the supposed unreliability of eyewitness
identification. But don't tell that to any prosecutor. ....
"An eyewitness...pointing a finger at the defendant from the witness
stand and saying, "He's the man who raped (or robbed, etc.) me" or
"the man I saw shoot the victim" has sent countless defendants to
prison and death row throughout the years.
"The basis for the value of eyewitness identification is that there is
something incredibly distinctive about a human face. So unique that
out of the over six billion people on the face of the globe, no two
people, other than identical twins, look exactly alike. ....
"When a witness to a crime sees the face of the perpetrator, the image
is stored in his mind, and far more often than not, when he sees the
face again, a silent bell rings and he instantaneously knows "that's
the man." That's just a reality of life." -- VB; Page 533 of Endnotes
-------------------
DVP: In this "Summary" chapter, Vincent Bugliosi lists every one of
his "53 pieces of evidence" that point toward Lee Harvey Oswald's
guilt in the JFK assassination. The only item on Vince's list that I
think really doesn't belong there is #41, where VB talks about the
results of the paraffin test on Oswald's hands being positive.
In my opinion, it was a mistake for Vince to have placed that
particular item on his list because he knows that paraffin tests are
not considered very reliable. And VB even discusses the unreliability
of such tests on page 164 of this book.
However, in VB's defense of including the paraffin test results on his
53-item list, I'd like to add this .... While it is, indeed, true that
paraffin tests are inherently unreliable (since the presence of
nitrates on a persons hands can be caused by various other things
besides just gunpowder residue) -- I'd also ask this question with
respect to Lee Oswald's "positive" paraffin results in this case:
What do you suppose the odds are of something OTHER than gunpowder
residue causing that "positive" result in his paraffin test when we
also know that Lee Oswald was CARRYING A GUN ON HIM when he was
apprehended in the Texas Theater on November 22nd, 1963?
I'd say, given these circumstances (plus the fact that the very gun
Oswald had on him when he was arrested was determined beyond all doubt
to be the weapon that killed Officer J.D. Tippit), the odds would be
pretty doggone low that something other than gunpowder resulted in
that positive paraffin conclusion.
I think Vince Bugliosi should have probably included the above "What
are the odds?" argument as an addendum to his 41st item on page 965,
but he did not include any such addendum.
But other than that one quibble I have with #41, VB's large list is
excellent, with several "powerful new inferences" (as Bugliosi would
say) emerging along the way.
Here's a sampling of some of the things listed on "The VB 53":
"Before Oswald got into {Wesley} Frazier's car that Friday morning,
the day of the assassination, he placed a long, bulky package on the
rear seat, telling Frazier it contained...curtain rods." -- VB; Page
956
~~~~~
"During Sunday's {11/24/63} interrogation Oswald slipped up and placed
himself on the sixth floor {of the TSBD} at the time of the
assassination. .... In his Sunday-morning interrogation he said that
at lunchtime, one of the "Negro" employees invited him to eat lunch
with him and he declined. .... WHERE WAS OSWALD AT THE TIME THE NEGRO
EMPLOYEE INVITED HIM TO LUNCH, AND BEFORE HE DESCENDED TO THE SECOND-
FLOOR LUNCHROOM? {Answer:} The sixth floor." -- VB; Page 957
~~~~~
"There is another very powerful reason why we can know that Oswald, at
the time of his confrontation with {Officer Marrion} Baker in the
second-floor lunchroom, had just come down from the sixth floor, not
up from the first floor {to get a Coke}, as he claimed. ....
"Indeed there was a Coca-Cola machine in the {second-floor lunch}
room. But to my knowledge, there is no direct reference in the
assassination literature to a SECOND soft drink machine in the Book
Depository Building. ....
"Neither {Bonnie Ray} Williams nor {Wesley} Frazier expressly said
what floor this machine was on. .... Through a few phone calls I was
able to reach Wesley Frazier, whom I hadn't talked to since 1986, when
he testified for me at the London trial. Still living in Dallas, he
told me that "there was a Dr. Pepper machine on the first floor."
Where, specifically, was it? "It was located by the double freight
elevator near the back of the building." ....
"And indeed, I subsequently found proof of the existence of the
machine, with the words "Dr. Pepper" near the top front of it, in an
FBI photo taken for the Warren Commission of the northwest corner of
the first floor, and it is located right next to the refrigerator." --
VB; Pages 957-958
DVP: Via a source note Vince provides, I located the WC photo in
question....and sure enough, there's the forgotten-about Dr. Pepper
machine, in "Warren Commission Document #CD496; Photo 7". Here's a
direct link to that photograph:
http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=10896&relPageId=12
More "Dr. Pepper Talk" at the links below:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.assassination.jfk/msg/1c48b1ff9fc98381
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/820c12165848cef1
~~~~~
"There is yet another reason why Oswald's statement that he was on the
first floor eating lunch at the time of the shooting makes no sense at
all. If he had been, once he heard the shots and the screaming and all
the commotion outside, if he were innocent, what is the likelihood
that he would have proceeded to go, as he claims, up to the second
floor to get himself a Coke? How could any sensible person believe a
story like that?" -- VB; Page 958
DVP: This is yet another very good common-sense inference made by VB
here. In fact, even from the point-of-view of Oswald being merely a
"patsy" (as he is portrayed in Oliver Stone's 1991 movie), i.e., he
knows SOMETHING about the assassination plot but Oswald, himself,
wasn't one of the triggermen, his story about going UP to the second
floor (a floor NEARER THE DEPOSITORY ASSASSIN) to get a drink at that
critical time is totally unbelievable. Oswald was obviously telling a
lie when he told the police he went UP to get a Coke. More on this sub-
topic below:
~~~~~
"Forty-five minutes after the shooting in Dealey Plaza, out of the
close to three-quarters of a million or so people in Dallas, Lee
Harvey Oswald is the one who just happened to murder Dallas police
officer J.D. Tippit. .... For all intents and purposes there
were...ten witnesses who identified Oswald as the murderer {including
the several witnesses who watched Oswald flee the Tippit murder scene,
gun in hand}." -- VB; Pages 960-961
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/cbcca847390ffca8
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/3959008382f45641
~~~~~
"No one knew Oswald as well as his wife, Marina. .... Marina told
{author Priscilla} McMillan that when she visited her husband in jail
on the day after the assassination, she came away knowing he was
guilty. .... She said she knew that had he been innocent, he would
have been screaming to high heaven for his "rights," claiming he had
been mistreated and demanding to see officials at the very highest
levels." -- VB; Page 962
~~~~~
"In a city of more than 700,000 people, what is the probability of one
of them being the owner and possessor of the weapons that murdered
both Kennedy and Tippit, and yet still be innocent of both murders?
Aren't we talking about DNA numbers here, like one out of several
billion or trillion? Is there a mathematician in the house?" -- VB;
Page 964
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/7e70b829247b4a49
~~~~~
"When he {Oswald} was asked {by police} to furnish all of his previous
residences since his return from Russia...he gave all of them...with
one notable exception. He omitted any reference to the Neely
residence, the residence, of course, where he knew his wife had
photographed him with the murder weapon in the backyard. .... Oswald
flat-out denied ever living there." -- VB; Page 966
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/beb8390c3526124d
~~~~~
"Oswald told {Dallas Police Captain Will} Fritz he had bought his .38
caliber Smith & Wesson revolver in Fort Worth, when he actually
purchased it from a mail-order house in Los Angeles." -- VB; Page 966
DVP: Yes, indeed. Even though Oswald was caught red-handed with the
Tippit murder weapon ON HIM in the Texas Theater, he still felt the
need to distance himself from the revolver he used to kill Officer
Tippit (just as he had done by continuously trying to distance himself
from the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle he had used to assassinate President
Kennedy).
Lee Harvey Oswald's lies were almost non-stop from the moment he was
arrested in the theater on November 22, 1963. If you want to see just
how many more lies Oswald told, check out my essay below:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/beb8390c3526124d
-------------------
"I can tell the readers of this book that if anyone in the future
maintains to them that Oswald was just a patsy and did not kill
Kennedy, that person is either unaware of the evidence against Oswald
or simply a very silly person. .... Any denial of Oswald's guilt is
not worthy of serious discussion." -- VB; Page 969
~~~~~
THE ABSURDITIES OF THE "OSWALD-AS-PATSY" CONSPIRACY PLOT:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/606503e4d63e74ad
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/dd321914097fcd2d
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/30f318ea48653a72
=====================================================
"PART 3" OF THIS BOOK REVIEW CAN BE ACCESSED AT THE LINK BELOW:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/ab11190c4ac56163
=====================================================
cdddraftsman
sobbing like a spoiled little brat that he is and hillbilly Gil has
headed for the hills again ! Good work DVP that gets you another 5
star Rating on the big board ! ........tl
> http://groups.google.com/group/alt.assassination.jfk/msg/025a3639eb98...
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/118eaf60b3c0c0aa
>
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/discussionboard/discussion.html/ref=cm_rdp_s...
> CE690:http://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh17/html/WH_Vol17_0...
>
> CE691:http://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh17/html/WH_Vol17_0...
> http://groups.google.com/group/alt.assassination.jfk/msg/802781e23092...
> http://groups.google.com/group/alt.assassination.jfk/msg/4c02eefb8380...
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/alt.assassination.jfk/msg/59788c646703...
> http://www.jfklancerforum.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=3&to...
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/discussionboard/discussion.html/ref=cm_rdp_s...
>
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/discussionboard/discussion.html/ref=cm_rdp_s...
>
> -------------------
>
> "Another alleged assassin is James E. Files, the Rodney Dangerfield of
> Kennedy assassins. .... Files has fallen on such hard times that few
> buffs will even talk to him. However, a few promoters and publicity
> seekers have tried to exploit Files's pathetic story." -- VB; Page 917
>
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/discussions/start-thread.ht...
> HOWARD L. BRENNAN -- EYEWITNESS TO A TRAGEDY:http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/discussions/start-thread.ht...
> http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=108...
>
> More "Dr. Pepper Talk" at the links below:
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/alt.assassination.jfk/msg/1c48b1ff9fc9...
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/820c12165848cef1
>
> ~~~~~
>
> "There is yet another reason why Oswald's statement that he was on the
> first floor eating lunch at the time of the shooting makes no sense at
> all. If he had been, once he heard the shots and the screaming and all
> the commotion outside, if he were innocent, what is the likelihood
> that he would have proceeded to go, as he claims, up to the second
> floor to get himself a Coke? How could any sensible person believe a
> story like that?" -- VB; Page 958
>
> DVP: This is yet another very good common-sense inference made by VB
> here. In fact, even from the point-of-view of Oswald being merely a
> "patsy" (as he is portrayed in Oliver Stone's 1991 movie), i.e., he
> knows SOMETHING about the assassination plot but Oswald, himself,
> wasn't one of the triggermen, his story about going UP to the second
> floor (a floor NEARER THE DEPOSITORY ASSASSIN) to get a drink at that
> critical time is totally unbelievable. Oswald was obviously telling a
> lie when he told the police he went UP to get a Coke. More on this sub-
> topic below:
>
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/discussionboard/discussion.html/ref=cm_rdp_s...
tomnln
It's you KOOK-SUCKERS who's knees are Shaking from working the I-80 Rest
Starts.
"cdddraftsman" <cdddra...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1182374859....@o11g2000prd.googlegroups.com...
eca...@tx.rr.com
` ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"So, in addition to Oswald's palm print being found on the underside
of the Carcano's barrel, we know that Oswald's fingerprints were
found
within an inch of the trigger of the rifle found on the sixth floor
of
the Texas School Book Depository Building.
"The evidence is clear and unimpeachable -- Lee Harvey Oswald bought,
owned, and handled the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle found on the sixth
floor. And it was THIS weapon that was used to murder John F.
Kennedy." -- VB; Page 804
` ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Very convincing and I do btw agree with you that VB should not have
used the gun powder test as an example.. it is well established that
they are notoriously unreliable.. However, they do have considerable
value as a bluffing tool..
Good review DVP!
Ed
> http://groups.google.com/group/alt.assassination.jfk/msg/025a3639eb98...
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/118eaf60b3c0c0aa
>
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/discussionboard/discussion.html/ref=cm_rdp_s...
>
> CE690:http://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh17/html/WH_Vol17_0...
>
> CE691:http://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh17/html/WH_Vol17_0...
> http://groups.google.com/group/alt.assassination.jfk/msg/802781e23092...
> http://groups.google.com/group/alt.assassination.jfk/msg/4c02eefb8380...
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/alt.assassination.jfk/msg/59788c646703...
> http://www.jfklancerforum.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=3&to...
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/discussionboard/discussion.html/ref=cm_rdp_s...
>
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/discussionboard/discussion.html/ref=cm_rdp_s...
>
> -------------------
>
> "Another alleged assassin is James E. Files, the Rodney Dangerfield of
> Kennedy assassins. .... Files has fallen on such hard times that few
> buffs will even talk to him. However, a few promoters and publicity
> seekers have tried to exploit Files's pathetic story." -- VB; Page 917
>
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/discussions/start-thread.ht...
> HOWARD L. BRENNAN -- EYEWITNESS TO A TRAGEDY:http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/discussions/start-thread.ht...
> http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=108...
>
> More "Dr. Pepper Talk" at the links below:
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/alt.assassination.jfk/msg/1c48b1ff9fc9...
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/820c12165848cef1
>
> ~~~~~
>
> "There is yet another reason why Oswald's statement that he was on the
> first floor eating lunch at the time of the shooting makes no sense at
> all. If he had been, once he heard the shots and the screaming and all
> the commotion outside, if he were innocent, what is the likelihood
> that he would have proceeded to go, as he claims, up to the second
> floor to get himself a Coke? How could any sensible person believe a
> story like that?" -- VB; Page 958
>
> DVP: This is yet another very good common-sense inference made by VB
> here. In fact, even from the point-of-view of Oswald being merely a
> "patsy" (as he is portrayed in Oliver Stone's 1991 movie), i.e., he
> knows SOMETHING about the assassination plot but Oswald, himself,
> wasn't one of the triggermen, his story about going UP to the second
> floor (a floor NEARER THE DEPOSITORY ASSASSIN) to get a drink at that
> critical time is totally unbelievable. Oswald was obviously telling a
> lie when he told the police he went UP to get a Coke. More on this sub-
> topic below:
>
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/discussionboard/discussion.html/ref=cm_rdp_s...
David Von Pein
IMO, that is by far the biggest "error" in the whole book. As I
pointed out in my review, Vince argues AGAINST the reliability of the
paraffin test earlier in the book, but then includes the paraffin test
as his 41st of 53 things leading toward Oswald's guilt. That's a
mistake, in my view.
HOWEVER (and I think this is at least a semi-important point to add in
here, and is something I also put in my review).....
In THIS particular case re. Oswald, I wonder what the odds are of any
substance OTHER THAN GUNPOWDER FROM OSWALD'S REVOLVER causing the
"positive" reactions on LHO's hands in the paraffin test he was given
shortly after his arrest?
My guess is: The odds would be pretty low. Especially given the fact
that Oswald was caught WITH A GUN IN HIS HANDS when he was arrested.*
* = Yes, I realize that the CTers can now argue the fact that a gun
doesn't actually have to be fired in order for a positive nitrate
reading to show up on the hands of a person). It's been proven that
just handling a weapon can, indeed, produce a positive nitrate
reading.
But when we factor in other evidence regarding Oswald's obvious guilt
in the Tippit murder, it's pretty obvious to this writer that the
positive paraffin-test result on Oswald's hands was probably NOT
caused by an ordinary household cleaning item like bleach or something
similar. The nitrates were almost certainly caused by pulling the
trigger of his revolver four (or maybe five) times on Tenth Street.**
** = And I think Vince Bugliosi should have added the exact same type
of argument I just mentioned above to his "#41" item on his 53-item
list of things leading to Oswald's guilt. If he had placed that type
of addendum about the paraffin test and Oswald on his list, it would
definitely make having that item on such a VB list a lot easier on the
pallet (IMHO).
tomnln
Nitrates can be obtained from>>>
paper
wood
cardboard
paint
urine
When firing a weapon the nitrates are on the BACK-SIDE of the hand.
Because the palm side is covered by the weapon
The nitrates on Oswald's hands were on the PALM SIDE.
http://whokilledjfk.net/catch_of_the_day.htm
"David Von Pein" <davev...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1182443377....@p77g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...