Statements That Sink The WC's Conclusions - #44

[Robert Caprio]

[b]Did Lee Harvey Oswald (LHO) and Jack Ruby know each other before
the assassination? This question has intrigued researchers for many
years, but the official response is no.

Let’s look deeper and decide for ourselves about this matter.[/b]

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[b]The WC said this about the question asked above:[/b]

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There is NO evidence that Oswald and Ruby knew each other or had any
relationship through a third party or parties.” (emphasis mine)

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[b]Well, that is cut and dried, huh? They even eliminated “third
parties” from the mix. Yet, when one goes through their own internal
memos they see Commission lawyers Burt Griffin and Leon Hubert argue
for more investigation into this area. They wrote:[/b]

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In short, we believe the possibility exists, based on evidence already
available, that Ruby was involved in illegal dealings with Cuban
elements who might have had contact with Oswald.

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[b]Does that sound cut and dried to you? Or does it suggest they
already had evidence that showed a POSSIBLE connection between the two
men may have existed before the assassination?

The HSCA in its report would question the WC’s conclusion by pointing
out:[/b]

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The Commission also found NO evidence that Ruby and Oswald had ever
been acquainted, although the Commission acknowledged that they BOTH
lived in Oak Cliff section of Dallas, [BOTH] had post office boxes at
the Terminal Annex, and had possible but tenuous THIRD PARTY LINKS.
These included Oswald’s landlady, Earlene Roberts, whose sister,
Bertha Cheek, had VISITED RUBY at his nightclub on November 18, and a
fellow boarder Oswald’s roominghouse, John Carter, who was friendly
with a close friend and employee of Ruby, Wanda Killam. (emphasis
mine)

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[b]This statement by the HSCA pretty much shows the statement by the
WC was incorrect as there were ties and avenues to investigate that
could have shown the two men were acquainted, if even remotely, but
the WC deleberately did NOT pursue them. Why? They could still argue
both men were “lone nuts” even if they knew each other, couldn’t they?
What was it about this connection that terrified the WC into hiding
the possible connection from the American people?

The HSCA would also try and leave the impression that no link existed,
but this statement does leave the possibility open:[/b]

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…the Committee’s investigation of Oswald and Ruby showed a VARIETY OF
RELATIONSHIPS that may have matured into an ASSASSINATION CONSPIRACY.
Neither Oswald or Ruby turned out be “LONERS”, as they had been
painted in the 1964 investigation. (emphasis mine)

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[b]Wow! No wonder the WC defenders on this board and others stick
with the WC’s work, huh? As I quoted before, Gen. Walker himself said
back in 1964 that they knew each other and he was well connected in
Dallas. He told this to Jim Marrs in 1964:[/b]

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…The Warren Commission report was ridiculous and a sham as well as an
insult to the public’s intelligence. Rubenstein (Ruby) KNEW Oswald;
Oswald KNEW Rubenstein. The report would have to start all over on
this basic fact. (emphasis mine)

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[b]There is much more. Remember that Julia Ann Mercer IDENTIFIED both
Ruby and LHO as the men she saw near the Triple Underpass with a rifle
shortly before the assassination (in LHO’s case it could have been a
look-a-like since the real LHO was inside the TSBD). Also, LHO’s
mother, Marguerite, said she was shown a picture of Ruby the NIGHT
BEFORE he shot LHO. Why was the FBI showing her this picture and
asking IF she recognized him BEFORE he shot her son?

On November 26 Asst. DA William Alexander was quoted in the [i]Dallas
Morning News[/i] as follows:[/b]

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[Investigators] have received at least a HUNDRED tips [linking Oswald
to Jack Ruby] and are checking out each one. As far as I know NONE
have panned out. (emphasis mine)

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[b]This of course was NOT true. What was true was they were NOT
pursuing them to find any connection. LBJ’s alleged mistress, Madeline
Brown, even spoke of a connection between the two men. After a hard
day at the advertising agency she worked for she said her and some co-
workers would go to different places to unwind including the
[i]Carousel Club[/i]. She would say that one night in the spring of
1963 the conversation turned to speculation over who would have shot
at Gen. Walker. According to her Ruby blurted out the name of LHO! She
said she took note of the name because she had never heard it before
and because Ruby seemed so sure of it.

She told this to Jim Marrs in an interview:[/b]

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[color=red][b]I asked around and found out that many people knew that
Oswald and Ruby knew each other.[/b][/color] In fact, I just assumed
everyone knew this. I was surprised when , well into the 1980s, I
learned that officially they were not supposed to be connected.

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[b]More interesting information comes from cab driver Raymond
Cummings. During the Garrison investigation he saw a news story that
included a picture of David Ferrie and the claim that Ferrie had never
been in Dallas. [color=red][b]Cummings would call Garrison to tell him
he had driven Ferrie AND LHO to Ruby’s [i]Carousel Club[/i] in the
early part of 1963. [/b][/color]

Probably some of the most convincing stories come from the employees
of the [i]Carousel Club.[/i] William D. Crowe, Jr. was a magician and
entertainer who used the stage name of Bill DeMar. He was performing
at the club at the time of the assassination. He would call a news
media friend soon after LHO was arrested as he claimed that LHO had
participated in his act just the previous week. On November 25 he told
the Associated Press that he was “positive” that LHO had patronized
Ruby’s club. He said:[/b]

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I have a memory act in which I have 20 customers call out various
objects in rapid order. Then I tell them at random what they called
out. [color=red][b]I am positive Oswald was one of the men that
called out an object about nine days ago.[/b][/color]

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[b]Crowe, a.k.a. DeMar, was known as a master hypnotist too, and of
course some researchers have suggested that LHO was under some control
in this area. A memo from CIA Director John McCone, dated March 3,
1964, to SS Chief James Rowley can be found in the National Archives.
It states following his surgery at the Minsk hospital, Oswald might
have been,[/b]

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"chemically or electronically 'controlled'... a sleeper agent.
Subject spent 11 days hospitalized for a 'minor ailment' which should
have required no more than three days hospitalization at best"...

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[b]Some research that I have read says that Jack Ruby too was put
under hypnosis from time to time by some “performer” who was
pretending to offer a casual audition for the Carousel Club. We will
never know for sure the extent of this, but we now know that mind
control is very real and something the CIA worked on for many years
(Operations MK-Ultra, Artichoke, etc…).

Crowe would tell the Dallas Morning News that after his story appeared
in the AP he was told by the FBI to check out of his hotel and to go
into hiding. OF course he would be handy for the WC and they had him
downplay his comments to them.[/b]

Mr. HUBERT. Do you remember when you first made any announcement
concerning the possibility, at least, that Oswald was in the Carousel?

Mr. CROWE. Sunday afternoon.

Mr. HUBERT. Who did you make the observation to and how did it come
about?

Mr. CROWE. To a television reporter, I guess it was.

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Mr. HUBERT. Now, what did the television man want to talk to you
about, do you know? Or what did you talk to him about?

Mr. CROWE. Well, they had asked me who I was, and what I had to do
with the club. I told them my name, what my job was, and I had
mentioned that it was quite a series of coincidences as far as I was
concerned because I had been in Washington during the inaugural of the
President and then being in Dallas during the assassination of the
President, and then having what I had thought or recalled, to have
possibly seen Oswald in the club the week before and then working for
the man who shot Oswald.

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Mr. HUBERT. I am sure you recall that the press shortly after 24th
played up, snowballed, I think perhaps, as you called it, the fact
that your memory act or memory gimmick as you now call it, gave you a
special expertise, if it is called that, or special ability, in
remembering faces that you had seen. Is that a fact or not? I mean, is
it a fact that your act does give you that extra abnormal ability or
not?

Mr. CROWE. No; it does not give me anything special. Using a gimmick
or a method to do the memory stunt and that is it They built up the
memory thing and they built up the bit of having seen Oswald in there,
and I never stated definitely, positively, and they said that I did,
and all in all, what they had in the paper was hardly even close to
what I told them.

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Mr. CROWE. Well, I wouldn't say there was any, just facts. Like I
stated before, the face seemed familiar as some faces do, and I had
associated him with a patron that I had seen in the club a week
before. That was about it.

[b]We see the WC got him to amend his story to fit the outcome they
wanted. Why would the AP add the word “positive” IF he did NOT say
it? What was in it for them to misquote him?

Others that mentioned a connection were:

1) Robert K. Patterson –He was an electronic salesman who said he sold
equipment to both Ruby and man who looked like LHO. The WC dismissed
this man as being Larry Crafard, a Ruby employee, who even the WC said
had a “strong resemblance” to LHO. Didn’t they find this odd or
strange? Crafard would leave Dallas for the hinterlands of northern
Michigan before being found and brought to the WC by the FBI. Why did
he run?

2) Beverly Oliver –DP witness who would say Ruby introduced LHO to her
as “Lee Oswald of the CIA.” She would also tell researcher Gary Shaw
that she met David Ferrie in the Carousel Club too.

3) Karen Bennet Carlin—She danced at Ruby’s club under the name
“Little Lynn” and was the woman Ruby sent money to minutes before
shooting LHO. The FBI interviewed her on November 24, 1963 and they
noted she seemed on “the verge of hysteria.” FBI agent Roger C Warner
reported the following:[/b]

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Mrs. Carlin was highly agitated and was reluctant to make any
statements to me. She stated to me that she was under the impression
that Lee Oswald, Jake Ruby, and other individuals unknown to her, were
involved in a plot to assassinate President Kennedy and that she would
be killed if she gave any information to the authorities.

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[b]4) Janet Adams Conforto—Jack Ruby dancer known as “Jada” would tell
local newsman shortly after the assassination that she had seen LHO in
the club.

4) Bill Willis—Musician at the club would say he saw LHO “sitting
right in the corner of the [Club’s] stage and runway.

5) Kathy Kay—Ruby dancer would tell the Dallas Times Herald in 1975
that she recalled seeing LHO in the club and that she even danced with
him.

6) Bobbie Louise Meserole—Dancer at the club under the name “Shari
Angel” would corroborate Kathy Kay’s account by saying how they
laughed at the order Ruby gave Kathy to “bump and grind” LHO to
embarrass him.

7) Walter “Willy” Weston—Husband of “Shari Angel” and had been the
club’s master of ceremonies until five days before the assassination.
He would tell the New York Daily News in 1976 that one night while he
was on stage a man walked up to the front of the stage and said to
him, “I think you are a Communist.” He told the man he was an American
and told him to sit down, but the man said he still thought he was a
Communist. Weston then jumped off the stage and hit the man. Ruby was
behind the man and fell into his arms when he was hit by Weston. Ruby
grabbed him and said: “You [son of a bitch], I told you never to come
in here.” The man was wrestled to the door and thrown down the steps.
After the assassination Weston recognized the man as LHO.

8) Ester Ann Marsh—She said she served drinks at a meeting in the
Carousel Club attended by “gangsters”, Ruby and LHO. She said he was
so unusual and different from the others that he stood out. He drank
beer instead of the hard drinks the others had. She said he was “wimpy-
looking” and she remembers faces. She recognized him when he was
arrested for shooting Tippit and eventually JFK.

9) Carroll Jarnigan—Attorney who claimed he visited the Carousel Club
on 10/4/63 to discuss a legal case with one of the dancers at the
club. While waiting for the dancer he sat in a booth and overheard
Jack Ruby (whom he knew well) talking with another man. He heard the
man tell Ruby that he “Don’t use my real name. I’m going by the name
O.H. Lee.” Of course LHO used this name to rent a room on North Beckly
in Oak Cliff. He claims they were discussing plans to kill the
Governor (Connally). He also heard Ruby offer LHO a “drug franchise.”
Jarnigan would report this conversation to the police prior to the
assassination, but nothing came of it. After seeing LHO’s picture in
the media following the assassination he was sure it was the same man
he saw and heard speaking with Ruby. He again called the authorities.
But after speaking with the FBI and the DPD his account was buried in
the volumes of the WC and left out of the WCR. He said the treatment
he was given was definitely “abuse of a witness.”

10) Documents were found in the possession of a Dallas woman that
included handwritten notes and other papers that showed a link between
LHO and Ruby. Deputy Billy Preston and Constable Robie Love would
give these documents to DA Henry Wade. Wade would tell the papers he
did NOT remember getting these documents. Others who saw the papers
were deputy constables Mike Callahan and Ben Cash. Preston said the
woman was really scared to hold onto these papers and he said he
wished he had made more copies. Cash said he remembered they belonged
to the woman’s roomate as she was keeping them for her Latin American
boyfriend. He would tell reporter Earl Golz:[/b]

“The impression I got [was that] the papers were from the Latin
American because he mentioned Ruby and he mentioned Oswald in the
writings. He didn’t mention the third party but he kept referring to a
third party. And the third party would have to be him.”

[b]There were things like a press clippings from Mexico, a photocopy
of a card with the words –“Daily Worker” issued to Ruby, a receipt for
a motel in New Orleans dated several weeks before the assassination
with both the names Ruby and Oswald on it, There were many other
things in these boxes regarding landing strips in Mexico and supposed
plans to assassinate JFK in Wisconsin.

There is ample evidence showing there was some kind of connection
between LHO and Ruby to warrant a further investigation, but we have
NOT seen it.[/b]

Quotes and references come from Jim Marrs' book - [i]Crossfire: The
Plot That Killed Kennedy[/i], pp. 403-411