DVP vs. DiEUGENIO (PART 54)

DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

I've gone back through this whole Education Forum thread and have compiled the following list of "Really Stupid Things" that James DiEugenio has said in this thread, which is a thread that probably should be renamed: "A Wild Imagination Come To Life".

Some of these allegations are so incredibly bizarre and goofy, that DiEugenio should be embarrassed to write them down. But, of course, he's not embarrassed in the least. And DiEugenio's bald-faced lies about Ruth Paine border on slander. Jim is truly pathetic. He sees (and finds) conspiracy and cover-up everywhere.

It's no wonder Vincent Bugliosi decided not to address all of these idiotic issues that Jim "Anybody But Oswald" DiEugenio has raised in this thread. Most of these things are so ridiculous and outlandish that even most conspiracy theorists don't buy them (the "CIA" rumors concerning Ruth Paine to name a prime example).

Let's now take an inventory of some (but certainly not all) of the really stupid things uttered by James DiEugenio in this Education Forum thread (aka: a "Boxed Set Of Balderdash And Bullshit"), which are quoted passages coming from the lips of a person, keep in mind, who actually believes President Kennedy's and J.D. Tippit's murderer--Lee Harvey Oswald--was TOTALLY INNOCENT of shooting either one of those men on November 22, 1963. That type of foundational delusional belief is important to note right up front, prior to posting a list of silliness like the one I have presented below:


JIM DiEUGENIO: "Let us not forget that Ruth Paine was a major witness for him [Vincent Bugliosi] at that phony London trial he talks up so much. .... They [Ruth and Michael Paine] were actually spies. And they may have been spying on Oswald. ....

VB [Vince Bugliosi] dismissed as "slim pickings" absolutely essential evidence that paints the Paines not as the Good Samaritans they try and come off as, but as domestic surveillance agents. Again, as I have shown, he had to have known better. .... When she [Ruth Paine] separated Marina from Lee, was she not just coming down from a visit to her sister in Falls Church, which adjoins Langley? ....

I produced a list of 18 items of provable evidence demonstrating to any objective person that the Paines were domestic surveillance agents. It's your problem if you want to deny that for political purposes. To say Michael [Paine] was peripheral is to ignore his role in the Minox camera caper. Which you do. If you want to also forget about Ruth's near confession, well hey, some people live in denial. ....

In fact her role was so obvious in separating Marina from Lee and producing dubious exhibits that the Secret Service decided to pull Marina from her because it was clear Ruth was CIA. Clear to everyone except DVP. That's quite [a] lot of evidence to be oblivious to, Davey."


DVP INTERJECTION: Big LOL. Oh, sure, Jimbo. I'm the ONLY person on the planet who thinks that Ruth Paine was not a "domestic surveillance agent" for the CIA. Right, Jim? You're delusional (again).


JIM D.: "Another person who DVP props up as an objective authority on this case is Gary Mack/Larry Dunkel. In fact, today he [DVP] serves as a funnel for the Fable Guy to drop information, some would say disinformation, at this forum."


DVP: Sixth Floor Museum curator Gary Mack, of course, is one of the most knowledgeable and courteous and forthright JFK researchers who has ever lived. I suspect the reason DiEugenio enjoys verbally bashing Gary over the head continuously is because Gary dares to speak the truth about Lee Harvey Oswald being a double-murderer (gasp!). That kind of belief, of course, is taboo amongst the Anybody-But-Oswald conspiracy mongers like Jimbo.

For the record, Gary Mack told me this via e-mail recently:

"Just to confirm, as we've discussed before, I still believe the HSCA acoustics finding of two gunmen was correct and that Badge Man appears to be a gunman. They are my personal theories, which of course I leave at home and do not allow them to influence my historical work for The Sixth Floor Museum." -- Gary Mack; Via e-mail message to David Von Pein on August 21, 2010


JIM D.: "There are books you read on this case where, afterwards, you feel like a better human being or more empowered, e.g., JFK and the Unspeakable, Spy Saga."


JIM D.: "[Jean] Davison is such a lousy researcher, she doesn't know she is trapped. .... Unless you stop hiding behind Davison's crummy book and address these facts, we will all know who the idiot is. .... When you can't answer relevant questions and rely on someone as bereft as Jean Davison, you are lost."


JIM D.: "Davey, did you forget what Wesley [Liebeler] told Sylvia [Odio]? The most honest thing any WC guy ever said: [Earl] Warren said that any trace of conspiracy was to be covered up. Just wanted to remind you in case you forgot."


JIM D.: "The evidence and testimony indicates that [FBI Director J. Edgar] Hoover fabricated the June 12 report in order to pacify the Commission's fears about the provenance of CE 399."


JIM D.: "[Robert] Frazier composed a document entitled "History of Evidence". On the top line he wrote that he received the bullet from [Elmer] Todd at 7:30 PM. And Frazier wrote another document. It was called "Laboratory Work Sheet". This also certifies that he got the bullet from Todd at 7:30. It describes it as "Bullet from Stretcher". .... Todd wrote down the time as 8:50 PM. Question for the Prosecutor: How could Todd have given CE 399 to Frazier before he got it from Rowley?"


DVP: A big problem here with DiEugenio's theory about the stretcher bullet is this: The Mannlicher-Carcano rifle which fired Bullet CE399 was not yet in the possession of the FBI in Washington as of EITHER ONE of the two times noted in the official reports (7:30 PM EST or 8:50 PM EST).

Oswald's Carcano rifle, which was positively the gun that fired CE399, was still in Dallas, Texas, at 7:30 and 8:50 EST. Therefore, the CE399 bullet that Robert A. Frazier marked with his initials could not possibly have been a "substitute" bullet that was fired through Oswald's rifle by the FBI at some point before it was received into evidence by Frazier. And that's because the FBI simply did not have the rifle in its possession until approximately 11:45 PM CST on Friday night, November 22 (12:45 AM EST on Saturday morning).

And the rifle actually didn't arrive in Washington, D.C., until a few hours after midnight. Obviously, it had to be flown to Washington from Dallas and then transported to the FBI's lab in Washington, all of which took considerable additional time too, of course.

So, does Jim DiEugenio think the FBI in Washington had possession of Oswald's C2766 Carcano rifle at some time PRIOR to 11:45 PM CST on Friday? Because if they didn't have possession of that gun at an earlier time, then how could Robert Frazier have taken possession (and marked with his initials) a "fake" or "substitute" bullet that was fired BY THE FBI in that exact rifle PRIOR to 11:45 PM on Friday?

Or, as an alternative, I suppose DiEugenio could always say that the FBI's Robert Frazier was a liar too, with Frazier only pretending to receive (and mark) CE399 at a time that was much earlier than when the FBI gained possession of Oswald's rifle.

But if Frazier and the FBI as a whole were liars about the entire CE399 affair -- then why didn't they merely fudge the paperwork to eliminate the time discrepancy regarding the stretcher bullet?

Silly plotters indeed. But Jim DiEugenio is even sillier to believe the cloak-and-dagger nonsense he says he believes concerning the FBI and Warren Commission Exhibit No. 399.


JIM D.: "In Part 1 of this [Bugliosi book review] series I showed beyond a reasonable doubt that the FBI switched the bullets in the Gen. Walker case in order to incriminate Oswald in that shooting attempt. It is now shown--also beyond a reasonable doubt--that the Bureau pulled a similar trick with CE 399. Either the bullet was switched or a second bullet was made to disappear."


DVP: DiEugenio's delusional gene is on full display once again here. Just because General Edwin A. Walker said that CE573 did not look like the bullet that was recovered from his Dallas home in April 1963, Jim DiEugenio thinks that is ironclad PROOF that CE573 is yet another bullet that was "switched" by the evil FBI in order to railroad poor, innocent Lee Oswald in another murder attempt.

DiEugenio must, therefore, overcome this FBI report, which is an FBI report that is part of Warren Commission Exhibit No. 2011 [at 24 H 414]. The report says the following:

"On June 12, 1964, Exhibit C148, a mutilated rifle slug, was shown to Billy Gene Norvell, former Dallas police officer, 1603 Darr Street, Apartment 147, Irving, Texas, by Special Agent Bardwell D. Odum, Federal Bureau of Investigation. He identified this exhibit as the same one which he had found at the residence of Major General Edwin A. Walker, Dallas, Texas, on April 10, 1963, and identified his marking on this slug."

DiEugenio very likely believes that Norvell's identification of CE573 (aka C148) is just another one of the thousands of lies told by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, right Jimbo? And when Norvell said he IDENTIFIED HIS OWN INITIALS on Walker bullet CE573/C148, that was yet another bald-faced lie, right Jimmy D.?


JIM D.: "Here is another howler by VB. In his End Notes, in a footnote on page 426, note how he addresses the whole "which stretcher was the bullet found on[?]" issue, an issue of profound and overarching implications in its importance. This is how he addresses that issue: "a stretcher whose origin remains a little vague". I kid you not. Check it yourself. This is one of the most ridiculous phrases in the whole book. For after a long and illustrated analysis, Tink Thompson wrote in SSD ["Six Seconds In Dallas"] that the weight of the evidence indicates that the bullet was not found on either JFK's gurney or JBC's, but on a little boy's named Ron Fuller."


DVP: Vince Bugliosi's handling of the stretcher issue is not "ridiculous" at all, Jim. His analysis of this issue is based on common sense and logic. Vince knows about the confusion surrounding the stretchers (via Darrell Tomlinson's testimony). But Vince also knows that Tomlinson told the Warren Commission over and over again that he was "not sure" which of the two stretchers he had taken off of the elevator at Parkland on 11/22/63.

But Tomlinson's Warren Commission testimony means zilch to a person like Jim DiEugenio, however. Because Jim thinks Arlen Specter was literally putting words in Darrell Tomlinson's mouth here. But it's testimony that is in the official record nonetheless, whether Mr. ABO/DiEugenio likes it or not:

ARLEN SPECTER -- "What did you tell the Secret Service man about which stretcher you took off of the elevator?"

DARRELL TOMLINSON -- "I told him that I was not sure, and I am not--I'm not sure of it, but as I said, I would be going against the oath which I took a while ago, because I am definitely not sure."

MR. SPECTER -- "Do you remember if you told the Secret Service man which stretcher you thought you took off of the elevator?"

MR. TOMLINSON -- "Well, we talked about taking a stretcher off of the elevator, but then when it comes down on an oath, I wouldn't say for sure, I really don't remember." ....

MR. SPECTER -- "You say you can't really take an oath today to be sure whether it was stretcher A or stretcher B that you took off the elevator?"

MR. TOMLINSON -- "Well, today or any other day, I'm just not sure of it, whether it was A or B that I took off."


JIM D.: "On page 51 of the ["Reclaiming History"] End Notes, VB says that even if T. F. Bewley [sic; Bowley] was right about the time of Tippit being killed as 1:10 or earlier, it does not matter, since we know LHO killed him. Now if you know the evidence in the Tippit shooting, what Bugliosi is saying is that Oswald killed Tippit even if he wasn't there!"


DVP: Bugliosi's statement about T.F. Bowley's obviously inaccurate 1:10 time for the Tippit murder is perfectly reasonable and correct....and that's because all REASONABLE people know that Lee Harvey Oswald killed Officer J.D. Tippit. My gosh, Oswald's guilt in the Tippit killing is even more obvious and definitive than is LHO's guilt in the murder of JFK, which is also pretty obvious from the sum total of the physical evidence and Oswald's own actions that day.

Once again, Mr. Bugliosi was using common sense and the totality of the evidence against Oswald when Vince said what he said about Bowley on Page 51 of the "RH" endnotes.

And, like always, Jim DiEugenio refuses to activate his "common sense" gene. Jim, instead, prefers to swim in a river of fragmented and piecemeal guesswork, speculation, rumors, and unconfirmed timelines when it comes to solving the murder of Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit.


JIM D.: "Almost pathetic. I take it back. It is pathetic. He [Chief Justice Earl Warren] wants to snuff out any other investigation for his own, which is essentially in his vision's, the FBI's. He does not want to run the risk of say, a Rose Cheramie testifying in public hearings. But if that happened, they would do all they could to discredit her and protect the public from the uncomfortable and unsettling thought that JFK was killed by a conspiracy. In other words, they would play the defense attorney for any possible plotters. A truly unbelievable performance by a guy who is supposed to be protecting the fairness and sanctity of the judicial process."


DVP: Yeah, sure, Jim. Sure. DiEugenio acts as though NOBODY at all testified in front of the Warren Commission who believed that a conspiracy existed in JFK's murder (or gave testimony that had a "conspiracy" ring to it).

Jim wants to conveniently forget about witnesses like S.M. Holland, and Roger Craig, and Arnold Rowland, and Jean Hill, and Mark Lane, and Nellie Connally, and Roy Kellerman, and Dean Andrews, and Wilma Tice, and Clyde Haygood, and Clint Hill, and Lee Bowers (who was really not a "conspiracy" type witness at all, of course, but CTers think he was).

Plus there were many other witnesses I didn't mention above who gave testimony or statements to the Warren Commission that pointed in the general direction of conspiracy (or at least toward the direction of PERCEIVED conspiracy).


JIM D.: "As per the record of the DPD, yes not all the evidence was secured by them. But some hotly disputed evidence was: the Tippit ballistics in which the chain of possession was broken wide open in each aspect; the five bullets "found" on Oswald after he was fast frisked and nothing was there; the phony lineups which even witnesses complained about; the confusion about which rifle was actually found at the TSBD and where it was found; the print that did not exist in Washington but miraculously appeared back in Dallas, etc. This record dovetails with the exposed history of the Dallas Police. Which VB NEVER mentions."


DVP: Talk about a laundry list of conspiracy-flavored garbage -- the above list is it. All of those things that DiEugenio apparently thinks are legitimate reasons to believe in a conspiracy were answered a long time ago in non-conspiratorial ways. (Except maybe the silly "fast frisk" business, which I don't think I had even heard about until recently. But it's obviously totally unimportant, because not even cops who WERE trying to frame Oswald would have any desire to plant some additional revolver bullets in his pocket. The police already had taken the murder weapon out of the killer's very own hands just 35 minutes after J.D. Tippit was killed. Why would there be a need to plant some superfluous bullets on the killer? It's just plain silly. But not to an "Anybody But Oswald" club member like James DiEugenio.)


JIM D.: "[J. Edgar] Hoover...covered up the Odio evidence from the start to the finish. .... The FBI cover-up started by the end of the first day. .... Hoover falsified the documents. .... Hoover substituted CE 399 for the actual bullet that was found by Tomlinson and Wright. He had to do that when the DPD decided on the Carcano as the rifle. (After considering first the Enfield and the Mauser.) It was that substitution that allowed Specter and Humes to arrange the Single Bullet Fantasy. ....

Clearly, Hoover was having problems selling CE 399 to the Commission as part of the Single Bullet Fantasy. So what he tried to do in this memo [CE2011] was to trace back the chain of transfer of the exhibit. .... In this same document, on the same page, it is said that this bullet was shown to Tomlinson and Wright at Parkland. Wright was not sure and Tomlinson said it appeared to be the same projectile. But Hoover screwed up here. He named the agent who showed them the bullet. When Gary Aguilar and Tink Thompson visited FBI agent Bardwell Odum in 2001, this was exposed as a lie. Odum did no such thing. So this incident was manufactured by Hoover since he knew that the two Secret Service agents had broken the chain. .... Recall what Hoover did with CE 2011--he lied twice about CE 399 in it."


DVP: Jim's got his "delusional" hat on again, I see. DiEugenio cannot prove that a single document was "falsified" by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, but that won't stop Jimbo from accusing Hoover of such vile tactics.

But we must all keep in mind one of the simple, basic rules about being a JFK conspiracy theorist -- If the theorist alleges that something has been "proven" (such as when DiEugenio boldly proclaims as the Gospel truth that "Hoover falsified the documents"), then it definitely HAS been "proven" in the mind of the conspiracy theorist. (Even though, in reality, the theorist hasn't "proven" any such thing, of course.)

Vincent Bugliosi said it quite nicely when he said this in his 2007 JFK book:

"The conspiracy community regularly seizes on one slip of the tongue, misunderstanding, or slight discrepancy to defeat twenty pieces of solid evidence; accepts one witness of theirs, even if he or she is a provable nut, as being far more credible than ten normal witnesses on the other side; treats rumors, even questions, as the equivalent of proof; leaps from the most minuscule of discoveries to the grandest of conclusions; and insists that the failure to explain everything perfectly negates all that is explained." -- VB; Page xliii


JIM D.: "This is almost funny [Jim "ABO" DiEugenio is referring here to James Hosty's testimony at the 1986 TV trial in London, "On Trial: Lee Harvey Oswald"]. .... This is almost as funny as the Wesley Frazier appearance. Keep them coming Dave. You are demonstrating what a farce this whole thing [the '86 docu-trial] was."


DVP: Take note of how DiEugenio subtly alleges that Buell Wesley Frazier was telling lies when he testified at that same 1986 TV trial in London. DiEugenio has no choice but to believe Frazier was telling some lies HERE, because Jimbo doesn't think Lee Oswald carried any large paper bag into the TSBD at all on the morning of 11/22/63.

That's the type of delusional mindset we're dealing with when we deal with James DiEugenio. We're actually dealing with a person who thinks BOTH Buell Wesley Frazier AND Linnie Mae Randle were lying when they each said (over and over again, especially Frazier, who was interviewed many times after the assassination) that they saw Oswald carrying a big paper package on November 22nd.


JIM D.: "The CE 399 at NARA never went anywhere. And John Hunt, among others, proved it. So please stop with these WC lies. .... CE 399 has already been exposed as a fraud. And the FBI knew it was fraud the day it happened. And we can prove that also."


JIM D.: "So from the beginning, with its reverse trajectory out of the thigh of JBC, to its incredible tunneling under a mat, to its leaping out of Ron Fuller's stretcher and magically knowing it has to be on JBC's, to its shocking ability to alter its form and color, and then to actually crack the time barrier and be in Frazier's office before Todd gives it to him, the Impossible Journey of CE 399 is even more magical than anyone ever could imagine. Except maybe Dave Von Pein. .... The CE 399 we know was not found at Parkland. And that ends this argument."


DVP: It's the end of the CE399 argument for DiEugenio, even though the HSCA, just like the Warren Commission did, said that that exact bullet (CE399) was THE bullet that caused all seven (non-fatal) wounds to John Kennedy and John Connally in Dealey Plaza.

The fact that BOTH the Warren Commission AND the House Select Committee endorsed THAT EXACT BULLET (CE399) as being the "Single-Bullet Theory" bullet (and endorsed the SBT as being true as well) means nothing to Jimbo DiEugenio. Nothing at all. Go figure. The HSCA got it ALL WRONG too.

So, according to conspiracists like Jim D., the Government must have been filled with nothing but boobs and idiots and liars when it came to CE399, the SBT, and the assassination of President Kennedy. In both 1964 AND in 1978, too. Amazing.


JIM D.: "It's not my job to come up with an "alternative theory" [to the SBT], Davey. I'm the defense."


DVP: I feel your pain, Jimmy. Coming up with a believable and reasonable conspiracy-endorsing alternative to the WC's single-bullet conclusion is something that simply cannot be done. And that's mainly because the SBT is obviously the truth. And when you try to dismantle the truth and replace it with some kind of half-baked, incoherent "alternative theory" (such as the "TWO BULLETS WENT INTO JFK AND NEVER EXITED AND THEN DISAPPEARED" claptrap), you're not likely to find the alternative to be nearly as compelling (or reasonable) as the truth.


JIM D.: "The lengths that an inveterate VB/WC apologist will go to to cover things up. They [Kennedy and Connally] are not reacting at the same time. How could they be? CE 399 never existed. So they are hit by separate bullets. Kennedy is reacting before he disappears behind the sign. .... JBC does not react until around frame 237."


DVP: Truly hilarious. Especially when watching the following Zapruder Film clip a few times, back-to-back, which clearly shows the two victims reacting at exactly the same time (an instant after Z224). Jimbo thinks John Connally's reactions prior to Z237 are merely a mirage.

Or maybe Jimbo would like to blame J. Edgar Hoover for these JBC reactions too. Edgar gets the blame for about everything else in this case. Why not this too? Perhaps Hoover doctored the film to make it falsely appear that Connally was reacting to being shot as early as Z225, even though Jimbo says he cannot see JBC's obvious reactions starting at Z225. Perhaps Jim has been watching a different film all these years:

http://jfk-archives.blogspot.com/2013/02/sbt-clips.html


JIM D.: "[Arlen] Specter knew he could get away with anything. He didn't give a damn about probing for facts. .... So not only did the WC not provide for any kind of equal justice for Oswald, they then started with conclusions that they tried to, at times, ram down witnesses' throats. To the point of browbeating them, harassing them, threatening them, and rewriting their testimony."


DVP: Unbelievable. Do you think that Jimbo actually believes the total crap he's written here (and elsewhere)?

Amazing.


JIM D.: "The SBT was a hoax that Specter and Humes knew they had to have to make this fraud work and please their respective masters--the Commission and the military. Since Specter knew it was all a fraud he knew there would be no cross examination--which would have turned into a humiliation of his goofy theory."


JIM D.: "But Specter was too concerned about keeping the medical and ballistics cover-up intact and punching his own ticket."


JIM D.: "It [CE399] was not found on JBC's gurney. It was on Ron Fuller's. And CE 399 was not the bullet that Tomlinson and Wright found. And they have testified to that [DiEugenio is lying here; Tomlinson and Wright never "testified" in any official fashion to any such thing]. And the FBI told Tomlinson to be quiet about it."


JIM D.: "The SBF ["Single-Bullet Fantasy", per Delusional DiEugenio] was never meant to be taken seriously. It was developed out of expediency to solve a political problem. It is simply not feasible or defensible. Ever. And if the WC had taken care to protect Oswald's rights, it would have never survived any kind of true fact-finding or adversary process. This is why the Commission was neither one. The SBF is the sine qua non of the Commission. But it is a transparent illusion in every aspect. Down to the fact that the bullet the WC says was used in the flight path was not even fired in Dealey Plaza. Because of this transparent illusion, the WC itself proves conspiracy."


JIM D.: "The SBF is a made-to-order loser."


JIM D.: "This gets back to the function of the WC. In the real world this is called "witness coaching". And as you can ask any lawyer, this is outside the canon of legal ethics. But again Specter knew that there was no judge or defense to call him on it. Therefore he could get away with it. And with people like Dulles, Ford, and McCloy in tow, hey why not do it?"


JIM D.: "[Dr. James] Humes was being used as a lying pawn by the Justice Department to stem the rising tide against the WR."


JIM D.: "Everyone knows what happened to the HSCA. Originally created as a populist response to the showing of the Zapruder film on national TV, and a couple of other issues, it was derailed in Congress by interference by lobbyists for the FBI and CIA. And I got that from the the horse's mouth: Tom Downing, the first chairman. ....

The other thing that happened is that once Sprague and Tanenbaum made it clear they were going to conduct a no holds barred inquiry, the media began to attack them fiercely. Sprague had announced he was going to find out what Oswald was doing in Mexico City, that he was going to do a real test of the SBF in public, that he wanted to know why the Commission did not believe Sylvia Odio, he wanted all the CIA files on Oswald's defection plus the military files on their false defector program. And this was all to be done in public.

Now with that kind of investigation, the fraud of CE 399 was not going to last long. And so the MSM realized, "Hey we got to get this guy before he humiliates us for swallowing this crap". And they did. ....

Once Blakey came in, this was mostly dropped. Or if it was done, it was classified, like the Lopez Report. Or, as with Oswald and the defector program, it was rewritten by others who Blakey handpicked to stay behind to finish the report and edit the volumes. ....

Now go ahead and find if there is any topic heading in the report about the "Provenance of CE 399". There isn't. Blakey decided to stick with the WC cover story about Oswald. Except it was slightly modified: now it was Oswald plus some guy on the knoll who missed. (If you have ever been there, which you probably have not, it is almost impossible to believe that Oswald hit his shots, but the guy on the knoll missed. BTW, I mean from the real point behind the fence, not Gary Mack's BS point.)

He then decided to spin his little conspiracy into an "Oswald Did it for the Mob" hypothesis. Yeah, Trafficante and Marcello hired a guy who couldn't hit a deer from 15 yards away and had him use a $12.97 piece of shit rifle with a manual bolt action. When these guys could have hired some of the best professional hit men in America.

That is what happened to the HSCA. Blakey was the perfect fit to salvage an inquiry that the Powers That Be decided had gotten out of control. And he put it back in MSM cover up land. With Mafia sex appeal."


DVP: Jim is unraveling at a rapid pace. Somebody call The Delusional Police, quick! Either that, or call the Funny Farm. Jim needs them badly.

I'll close this post by repeating something I said earlier in this Education Forum thread (which is just as true as ever):

"Bugliosi's book DOES answer all of the major, substantive, and important questions regarding the JFK case. No doubt about that fact. But if a person like Jim DiEugenio (who is bent on promoting the chaff instead of the wheat regarding this murder case) gets ahold of a lone-assassin book like "Reclaiming History", I'm not surprised at all that he can find something in it (or omitted from it!) that he can use to support his very strange "Anybody But Oswald" hobby." -- David Von Pein; August 22, 2010

David Von Pein
September 2010

LINK TO ORIGINAL POST (SEPTEMBER 1, 2010)

DVP vs. DiEUGENIO (PART 53)

JAMES DiEUGENIO SAID:

>>> "Four simple questions about the SBT: 1. What is the evidence of an exit through the throat?" <<<


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

For starters, there's the autopsy report, which states that the bullet which entered JFK's upper back "made its exit through the anterior surface of the neck." [WR; Page 543]

Naturally, Jim DiEugenio knows much more than the three autopsy doctors who signed a report that said a bullet exited Kennedy's neck. Right, Jimbo?

There's also the "pushed outward" clothing fibers on JFK's shirt. This, too, was probably "faked" by the evil FBI later on. Right, Jim? They probably pushed the fibers the OTHER WAY after receiving the shirt in evidence, huh?

There's also the fact that NO BULLET at all was found in JFK's body, indicating via just plain ol' garden-variety logic that the bullet that went INTO a bullet hole in JFK's back must have COME OUT a different bullet hole that we know existed in the same victim's throat.

Plus there's the fact that the pleura and tip of the lung were BRUISED, indicating that a high-speed bullet had passed very close to these objects in JFK's body (without penetrating them). This, too, indicates that the bullet passed clean through the body.


>>> "2. What is the evidence that the bullet in the back was a through and through wound?" <<<

See my list above.

But, mainly, it can be LOGICALLY determined that one bullet passed through JFK's body by the fact that NO BULLET was found in his body. And, furthermore, there certainly was not nearly enough trauma done to the neck/back regions of JFK's body to endorse the kind of loopy "Two Bullets Entered Kennedy And Neither Bullet Exited" theory that most conspiracy theorists tend to advocate. That theory couldn't be any sillier.

You really want to believe, Jim, that TWO separate bullets entered JFK (one from the back and one from the front), with NEITHER bullet then exiting the other side of his body? What kind of low-powered crappy weapons were the assassins using on November 22nd, Jim -- water pistols?

And then, on top of that miracle of BOTH bullets just stopping dead inside JFK's back and neck, the conspiracy theorists have treated us to a SECOND "Two Bullets" miracle, to boot -- with BOTH of those bullets then vanishing off the face of the globe immediately (or very soon after the assassination anyway), because no bullets connected with President Kennedy's wounds were discovered at Parkland and no bullets (other than the very tiny fragments removed from JFK's head) were discovered at Bethesda either.

Where's YOUR logic, Jim? Did you leave it on the Grassy Knoll, right next to the killer's deadly water pistol?


>>> "3. Why is the alleged exit on the throat smaller than the alleged entrance on the back?" <<<

This has been explained a million times in the past, including this explanation by Dr. Malcolm Perry (whose incorrect initial observation about the throat wound being one of probable "entry" is the main reason for CTers continuing this charade about the throat wound):

ARLEN SPECTER -- "Based on the appearance of the neck wound alone, could it have been either an entrance or an exit wound?"

DR. MALCOLM PERRY -- "It could have been either."

Perry also said this in his Warren Commission testimony:

"A full jacketed bullet without deformation passing through skin would leave a similar wound for an exit and entrance wound and with the facts which you have made available and with these assumptions, I believe that it was an exit wound."


>>> "4. Why, as Dr. Shaw stated, were there no cloth fibers carried into JBC's back wound, and not even any cloth impressions were on the bullet that was finally entered into evidence. (Which differs from the one found at Parkland.)" <<<

CE399 probably should have been examined in greater detail for things like fibers, blood, and human tissue. But, as far as I am aware, no such tests were performed on Bullet CE399 to determine definitively whether or not any of those things might have adhered to the bullet.

And why would any "cloth impressions" necessarily have to be on CE399 at all? Does every bullet in history that has touched a "cloth" substance necessarily have such "impressions" adhering to the missile after it has been recovered?

Plus: Since we know that CE399 was being handled rather casually on November 22 by people like O.P. Wright and Richard Johnsen of the Secret Service (with the bullet being placed into the pockets of these men), then any material that might have been on the bullet could conceivably have been wiped off accidentally when the bullet was being transported in such a manner. Don't you agree, Jim? Or isn't that even a possibility in your "All Conspiracy" world?


And now, a few questions for Jim DiEugenio:

1.) If the SBT is a fairy tale, then why did BOTH the Warren Commission and the HSCA endorse the SBT as the truth in their respective investigations into JFK's murder? (Was the HSCA part of the "SBT" cover-up too--in 1978?!)


2.) If the SBT is incorrect and if CE399 could not possibly have emerged in its current condition after breaking the hard wrist bone of Governor Connally....then please explain how Martin Fackler's 1992 Mannlicher-Carcano test bullet [shown HERE] ended up in even BETTER shape than CE399 after striking and breaking a human wrist at a reduced muzzle velocity of 1100fps?


3.) If the SBT is wrong and if CE399 is really a bullet that didn't hit anything except maybe a tank of water or some cotton on 11/22/63, then where did the TWO bullets go that went into (but did not exit) the upper back and throat of President John F.Kennedy?

And, really, you need to explain where at least THREE different bullets went, counting the separate bullet that you must certainly believe struck John Connally.

And it's FOUR magical vanishing missiles if you're in bed with James H. Fetzer, because the last time I heard Prof. Fetzer talk about this topic, he had Connally being hit by TWO separate bullets, plus the TWO separate bullets that he thinks hit JFK in the upper back and throat.

Good luck sweeping all of those bullets under the carpet, Jim D.


4.) If the SBT is a piece-of-shit theory that nobody but an idiot would ever endorse (and I remind Jim of my #1 item above, which would make ALL of the WC and HSCA, as units, qualify as "idiots" too), then why is it that in virtually every scientific test and/or re-creation of the SBT that has been done over the years, the Single-Bullet Theory has come out looking pretty good.

For example: There's the computer simulation done by Failure Analysis Associates in the 1980s (and broadcast in 1988 on PBS-TV's "NOVA" program, "Who Shot President Kennedy?").

And there is Dale Myers' excellent animation work, "Secrets Of A Homicide".

And there's also the 2004 SBT test done in Australia for the Discovery Channel, "JFK: Beyond The Magic Bullet". That 2004 test didn't result in an absolutely perfect re-creation of the SBT, but the general path of the bullet certainly mirrored what CE399 was said to have done in Dallas, and the test bullet was
IN ONE PIECE and not broken apart at all after the test. It was flattened more than CE399, but this could have easily been caused by the fact that the test bullet struck one more rib in the surrogate "Connally" body than did the real CE399 in Dallas.

But if the Single-Bullet Theory is REALLY just a wet dream of lone-assassin believers and is a total fantasy that was invented out of the blue sky by the Warren Commission, then doesn't it strike ANY conspiracy theorist as just a little bit strange, in just a general kind of way, to have all of these tests (particularly the 2004 "Beyond The Magic Bullet" test that was done with an actual Carcano rifle and bullet like Oswald's) pretty much BUTTRESSING the likelihood of the SBT being true?

In other words -- Did the "real killers" in Dealey Plaza actually get THAT CLOSE (and THAT LUCKY) to mimicking the Single-Bullet Theory when they shot multiple bullets from different directions at President Kennedy, so that a variety of tests that were done DECADES later would indicate that the SBT is very likely a true scenario after all (even though it really ISN'T true at all, according to conspiracy theorists)?

If the following observation isn't food for SBT thought, then I don't know what is:

Man, those real killers sure got lucky by having their TWO or THREE (or even FOUR) bullets that hit Kennedy and Connally create wounds on both of the victims that appear to look as though the wounds could have all been caused by just ONE single bullet. Not to mention the additional incredible luck of the multiple assassins to have fired their bullets into JFK and JBC at a time so that the MULTIPLE shots that were pelting the two victims appeared to be striking the two men at the EXACT SAME TIME, via the two victims' reactions that can be seen in the amateur home movie taken by Abraham Zapruder.




David Von Pein
August 2010

LINK TO ORIGINAL POST (AUGUST 30, 2010)

================================

http://Single-Bullet-Theory.blogspot.com

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/sbt.htm

================================

DVP vs. DiEUGENIO (PART 52)

JAMES DiEUGENIO SAID:

>>> "The bullet in evidence today [Warren Commission Exhibit 399] is not the one found by Wright and Tomlinson. How many ways do you want me to prove that?" <<<


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

You haven't managed to prove it yet, Jim. Not even close.

Let's do a quick "Fact Check":

Fact #1 -- Commission Exhibit No. 399 is a bullet fired from Oswald's rifle. (Which is a fact, all by itself, that leads toward the high likelihood of CE399 being a genuine bullet connected with the JFK case, since we know that that exact rifle of Oswald's was unquestionably the rifle that fired the shots that struck down Kennedy and Connally. And Fact #2 below proves it.)

Fact #2 -- Oswald's rifle is the weapon that was used to murder JFK (with CE567 and CE569 proving that fact beyond all doubt). How do you think those two badly-damaged bullet fragments managed to get into the limo on Nov. 22, Jim, if Lee Harvey Oswald's C2766 Mannlicher-Carcano rifle wasn't being fired during the assassination? Wait...don't answer that. I fear the "P" word [planted] is going to be uttered again.

Fact #3 -- The chain of possession for CE399 is perfectly intact, in that we know that every person in the chain agrees and has said they received a bullet from the previous person in that chain -- Tomlinson to Wright to Johnsen to Rowley to Todd to Frazier. That's called an INTACT CHAIN OF POSSESSION. Not from every single person's INITIALS being scratched onto the bullet, that's true. But the chain of custody is still fully intact by way of the people who handled the bullet SAYING that they received a SINGLE WHOLE BULLET (not two bullets or three bullets--but ONE bullet) from the previous person in the chain of possession.

Fact #4 -- Jim DiEugenio cannot prove that Bullet CE399 was "substituted" for another bullet. He THINKS he has proven it. But he hasn't even come close to proving it.

Fact #5 -- BOTH the Warren Commission AND the House Select Committee on Assassinations had no problem with accepting Bullet CE399 as THE BULLET that went through both President Kennedy and John Connally in Dealey Plaza.

The #5 fact above is an item that should be drilled into Jim DiEugenio's head on a daily basis from now till doomsday (although it still would do no good, because he resides in his own unique little "Anybody But Oswald" and "All The Evidence Against Oswald Was Fake And Planted" dream world of fantasy).

But it doesn't matter to DiEugenio that even the HSCA (14 years after the Warren Commission disbanded!) accepted Bullet CE399 as THE SBT BULLET in the John Kennedy murder case. To Jimbo, that FACT means squat. One can only wonder why.

David Von Pein
August 29, 2010

==============================================

CE399 ADDENDUM:

Subject: Re: Bugliosi Letter
Date: 8/22/2009 10:06:32 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Rosemary Newton (And Vincent Bugliosi)
To: David Von Pein

----------------------------------

August 22, 2009

Dear David,

Please forgive this belated reply to your e-mail to Rosemary on August 8, 2009, as well as the abbreviated nature of this response, but I've been extremely busy the past two weeks doing, among other things, perhaps 30-35 radio, TV and print interviews on the 40th anniversary of the Manson murders, racing across town to Santa Monica to spend many hours editing the documentary on the Bush book, plus working on my book of essays.

About the issue in your e-mail, the whole purpose behind the chain of possession requirement is to insure that the item being offered into evidence by the prosecution or defense is what they claim it to be. It is particularly important when there is no other evidence that the item is what it is purported to be. We don't have that situation here.

In addition to CE 399 being admissible because of the general practice during trials that I mention on page 442 of the endnotes, there is other evidence that is extremely compelling that CE 399 (even if, let's assume, it wasn't found on Connally's stretcher, but on Kennedy's stretcher or even on the floor) was, in fact, what it is purported to be--a bullet that passed through Kennedy's and Connally's bodies.

What is that evidence? Mainly that we know that CE 399 was fired from Oswald's Carcano rifle to the exclusion of all other weapons (3 H 428-429). This alone and all by itself (and certainly in conjunction with all the other evidence I set forth in "Reclaiming History" such as the orientation of Connally's body vis-a-vis Kennedy's, the ovoid configuration of the entrance wound to Connally's back, etc.), is highly persuasive evidence that CE 399 not only hit Kennedy but went on to hit and exit Connally's body.

Additionally, see the footnote on page 814 of "Reclaiming History".

The above makes the chain of possession or custody requirement even less restrictive than I point out, on page 442, it already is.

To the argument that yes, CE 399 was fired from Oswald's Carcano, but at another time and place, and was planted at Parkland, see pages 814-815 of "Reclaiming History".

The admissibility of CE 399 (along with other items of evidence) was, indeed, dealt with in London by Judge Lucius Bunton at a pre-trial evidentiary hearing, and Bunton, a sitting federal judge in Texas at the time, ruled in my favor that CE 399 (not the actual bullet, of course, which we did not have in London) was admissible at the London trial.

I'm sure there is more I could say on this issue if I had the time but I am still very busy and hope you understand.

David, I can't thank you enough for all the tremendous support you have given me and my book. You have become very valuable in helping to make sure that the truth catches up to all the lies and distortions told about the assassination, and I hope we get to meet some day so I can thank you in person.

Your friend and colleague,
Vince Bugliosi

P.S. In terms of condensing the 1-and-a-half million words of "Reclaiming History", there's no way for any rational and objective person to get around pages 951-969 and 1437-1461 of "Reclaiming History". If the person agrees with the conclusions set forth on these pages, as he must if, again, he is a rational and objective person, then pages 953-954 of the book take over from there and there is no need for further discussion.

DVP vs. DiEUGENIO (PART 51)

JAMES DiEUGENIO SAID:

>>> "Davey boy, the whole point is that you try not to leave the evidence that such a thing was done with premeditation. This is why Wright was avoided by Specter. Duh. Need more proof? Go ahead and read CE 2011 and look at the words Hoover used in the document as to what Tomlinson and Wright said. They are weasel words like: "appears to be", "but he cannot positively identify the bullet" , "looks like". That is called CYA." <<<


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

No, Jim. That's called TELLING THE TRUTH.


>>> "Who exactly subbed CE 399 can never be known since the WC did not want to challenge Hoover on this. That it was switched is a proven fact." <<<

Jim, only in the fevered world of the conspiracy theorists' imaginations has such a bullet "switch" been "proven" as a "fact".


>>> "Now, I have been very patient in answering your silly questions." <<<

And I've appreciated your generosity so much, Jimbo. You've just been wonderful to a lowlife liar like myself. I think I'm gonna puddle up right here and now. (Excuse me.) [Big hug.]


>>> "Please answer any of the following questions for me: 1. CE 399 begins its magical journey at Parkland Hospital. A bullet rolls out from under a mat and lodges against the side of the gurney. (Mark Lane, Rush to Judgment, p. 79) Question: How did it get under the mat Davey?" <<<

I've offered up a possible solution to that "problem" in the past, Jim.

Imagine this scenario in your mind, James (if you can push aside the millions of conspiracy-tinged thoughts that are embedded in your cranium for just a minute or two):

1.) John Connally is placed on a stretcher at the Parkland emergency entrance (and CE399 is still either inside his left thigh or is snagged in his pants leg).

2.) While on the stretcher inside the hospital, the bullet falls out of Connally (or his clothing) and onto the stretcher (with Connally still on the stretcher, of course).

3.) During the emergency procedures in Trauma Room No. 2 at Parkland, Connally's body moves to a position on the stretcher so where the rubber mat that is underneath the large 6-foot-4 Governor of Texas is inadvertently LIFTED UP slightly on one side of the stretcher, permitting something to roll under the slightly-lifted-up mat (an object like, say, a bullet that has just worked its way out of the Governor's thigh/clothing).

4.) Connally is then lifted off of the stretcher in the operating room on the second floor. As the large Governor is removed from the stretcher, the rubber mat then again is free to FALL FLAT against the metal of the stretcher, thereby trapping the bullet temporarily underneath the rubber mat.

5.) While being moved from the second-floor operating room to the first floor, the stretcher is jostled and shoved up against a wall on the first floor, thereby causing the bullet to pop out from under the mat.

Your witness, Mr. Mason/DiEugenio.


>>> "2. Even VB admits that the stretcher it originated from is under serious question. In fact, the weight of the evidence says that the gurney it was found on belonged to neither JFK or JBC. (Sylvia Meagher, Accessories After the Fact, pgs. 174-176; Tink Thompson, Six Seconds in Dallas, pgs. 154-64) It would be a physical impossibility for the bullet to somehow jump from Ron Fuller's stretcher to someone else's. How did it know to jump onto JBC's stretcher Davey?" <<<

You're being silly (again), Mr. Jimbo.

You know full well that Darrell C. Tomlinson told the Warren Commission more than HALF-A-DOZEN times that he "was not sure" which of the two stretchers in question he took off of the elevator at Parkland Memorial Hospital on that fateful Friday afternoon of November the twenty-second.

But, just ignore Tomlinson's continual "I'M NOT SURE" testimony. It's better for your silly theories if you do.


>>> "3. When hospital attendant Darrell Tomlinson notices it, the bullet has no blood or tissue on it. (Meagher, p. 173) Yet the WC will say that this bullet went through two men and caused seven wounds. How is that possible Davey?" <<<

That bullet might very well have had some blood and tissue on it when it was first found. Do you actually think that Darrell Tomlinson was examining every groove of the bullet for blood and tissue when he found it on November 22?

Also -- the bullet was being carried around in the pockets of multiple persons prior to being examined in Washington by Robert A. Frazier of the FBI.

O.P. Wright had it in his pocket, and I believe I'm correct in saying that Secret Service agent Richard Johnsen put it in his pocket too. (Correct me if I'm wrong here.)

Plus, as far as I know, there was never any tests done at all to determine whether CE399 had any blood, tissue, or fibers on it. None. So your whole argument here is moot to begin with. The bullet probably DID have some human material on it. But we'll never know now whether it did or not.

I'll also offer up this quote from Jimbo's all-time favorite ex-Deputy D.A.:

"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...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 and 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"." -- Vincent T. Bugliosi; Page 425 of "Reclaiming History" (Endnotes)


>>> "4. But yet, it's even worse than that. Why? Because the WC will eventually say that the last resting place of this bullet was in the thigh of JBC. How could 1.) The bullet reverse trajectory and work its way out?" <<<

You're being REALLY silly here, Jim.

For heaven sake, you act like the bullet was lodged a mile deep into Connally's leg. The bullet, in fact, caused a very small superficial wound to the left thigh of Governor Connally, with the bullet not even reaching the femur bone under the skin.

It's not a tremendous feat for a bullet that barely entered JBC's leg to work its way out of this shallow wound--either in the limousine or in the emergency room after Connally was wheeled into the hospital.

Why is this the miracle of the ages for you, Jim?


>>> "2.) How could it emerge out of a wound it already made? Most pathologists tell you entry wounds slightly shrink afterwards." <<<

More silliness here. See my last answer for complete details.


>>> "3.) But then how could it have no blood or tissue on it if it traversed backwards?" <<<

See my earlier answer.


>>> "5. Tomlinson picks up the bullet and takes it to security man O. P. Wright. Wright is very familiar with firearms since he was with the sheriff's office previously. Wright gets a good look at the bullet, he notes it as a lead colored, pointed nosed, hunting round. (Thompson, p. 175) How could that be Davey?" <<<

Mr. O.P. Wright was wrong. Simple as that. The bullet he saw on November 22 was certainly not a "pointed nosed" bullet.

And what I want to know is this: IF a "pointy" bullet had really been found on a stretcher....and IF it was really inside John Connally's body and caused a lot of bony damage to his right wrist....then WHY WAS THE BULLET STILL "POINTY" WHEN WRIGHT SAW THE BULLET ON NOVEMBER 22?

Most CTers think it would have been impossible for ANY rifle bullet to emerge in really good shape after doing the damage to Connally it did do. And yet a pointy-nosed bullet that (per some CTers) possibly caused Connally's injuries remained POINTY at the end of this journey through Connally?

Kind of makes you want to re-think the theory put forth by conspiracy believers concerning CE399's near-"pristine" state after making that very same trip through Connally, doesn't it?


>>> "6. At the White House, Rowley turns a bullet over to FBI agent Todd. They sign a receipt. The time of the transfer is 8:50 PM on the 22nd. Yet as John Hunt shows, agent Frazier enters the stretcher bullet into his notes at 7:30! How can that happen Davey?" <<<

Clerical error. Couldn't be more common.

Back at ya:

Why didn't Hoover's non-stop lies cover this crucial timing error, Jim?

These guys at the FBI can frame Oswald and plant evidence and coerce witnesses and get rid of other evidence at the drop of a hat (and NOT GET CAUGHT doing any of it!)....and yet these boobs can't see to it that a few times on a report of theirs are coordinated and "corrected" to reflect only ONE time for CE399's arrival at the Washington crime lab?

The FBI: Brilliant one minute, and total brain-dead morons the next.

Go figure.


>>> "7.. Why did neither Tomlinson nor Wright recognize CE 399 as the bullet they turned over? And why did neither of the SS agents do so either?" <<<

One WHOLE bullet (without very much damage) looks pretty much like any other.

Next hunk of silliness please....


>>> "8. When Wright composes his affidavit for the WC, he incredibly leaves out his co-discovery of the bullet and his giving it to the Secret Service. (ibid) Even though Johnsen recorded this and it's in the volumes. (Thompson, p. 155) Why would a former law enforcement officer do that?" <<<

You tell me, Jimbo. (And please be sure to include in your explanation AS MANY FBI LIES as you can. It's always better for your unprovable tales of FBI misconduct if you do that. Ten-Four?) :)


>>> "9. When it comes time to write the WR, Wright's name is not in it. And there is no evidence Arlen Specter interviewed him. Why did Specter avoid him Davey?" <<<

Probably because the Commission knew they already had Darrell Tomlinson to tell the story about how the bullet was found at Parkland Hospital. They obviously didn't think it was necessary to call O.P. Wright to testify as well.

Nathan Pool, who supposedly was also nearby in the Parkland corridor when the stretcher bullet was found, didn't appear in front of the Warren Commission either, Jim. Is his omission from the report part of the "cover-up" too?

The same thing pretty much happened with autopsy doctor J. Thornton Boswell too. The only Warren Commission testimony elicited from Boswell was to have him confirm (for the record) that he attended the autopsy and that he agreed with all of the testimony provided by Dr. Humes.

In retrospect, yes, it would have been nice to have more (or any) testimony from people like O.P. Wright and Dr. Boswell (particularly Boswell).

But the Warren Commission obviously could not possibly have dreamed in their wildest dreams that there would actually be people in the world who would be second-guessing every single move the WC made during its nine-month probe into JFK's death.

And those same WC members undoubtedly also couldn't have dreamed that there would be people like James DiEugenio in the world who be suggesting in the year 2010, despite all the evidence that proves Jimbo to be 100% wrong, that Lee Harvey Oswald was COMPLETELY INNOCENT of murdering EITHER of the two victims LHO killed in 1963.

That type of mindset is reserved for people whose home is Rod Serling's Twilight Zone.

If only you'd BLUSH occasionally, Jimbo. That might help a little anyway.


>>> "10. Do you think he avoided him [Wright] because he knew what he would say? As he did with Thompson when he rejected CE 399 as the bullet he gave Johnsen." <<<

No. He was likely not called by the Commission for the reason I gave above. I cannot KNOW for certain, of course, why Mr. Wright was not called to testify. But I'm certainly not going to take a trip down "Everything Was Fake" Avenue with Jim DiEugenio and suggest that the WC "avoided" O.P. Wright because he wouldn't be able to identify CE399 as the stretcher bullet.

After all, Darrell Tomlinson didn't positively identify it either. And Tomlinson testified in front of the Commission.


>>> "See, all this other evidence corroborates what [John] Hunt did. If you cannot answer any of these in any credible way--without smoke--I am going to move onto another topic about VB and RH and his broken pledge. Because your counter arguments have been silly and tiresome." <<<

Yeah, conspiracy theorists very often find logic and common sense (and the REAL EVIDENCE in the JFK case) difficult to fathom. That's because the real evidence in this case proves beyond all doubt that the CTers' prized patsy named Oswald was guilty of double-murder.

And to a conspiracy theorist like Jim DiEugenio, those two words -- OSWALD'S GUILTY -- are the dirtiest and most obscene words in the English language. (Except for perhaps "BUGLIOSI IS RIGHT".)

David Von Pein
August 2010

LINK TO ORIGINAL POST (AUGUST 28, 2010)

DVP vs. DiEUGENIO (PART 50)

DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Jim DiEugenio,

You know the Single-Bullet Theory is true. You have no choice BUT to
know it's true.

Why?

Because you have EYES! You can SEE it happening--right here:



You see the SBT in that clip. You're just too stubborn to admit that
those men are reacting AT THE EXACT SAME TIME. Your Conspiracy-itis
will not permit you to say what you see in that clip.


JAMES DiEUGENIO SAID:

>>> "You and VB say that LHO is guilty beyond all reasonable doubt. But if you cannot explain steps 1-15 which I documented above, he is not and then you lose." <<<

This might come as a great shock to the all-knowing, all-seeing James
"ABO" DiEugenio -- but I don't have to play your silly games. I don't
have to PRETEND that ALL of the evidence was planted and/or faked. I
don't have to PRETEND I can't see JFK & JBC reacting at the same time
in the above Z-Film clip (and only a person with no eyes would be
unable to see that they are reacting in unison). When were yours
gouged from their sockets, Jim? Because that's the only excuse you've
got for not seeing the SBT in the above clip.

You, however, DO need to play your silly games. And that's because
somewhere along the road, you've convinced yourself that a double-
murderer name LHO was totally innocent of shooting anybody. (And only
a small percentage of all conspiracy theorists in the United States
are actually in your corner when it comes to believing that particular
fairy tale.)

You have no choice now but to pretend that all of the evidence is
faked...even though you cannot come within a country mile of proving
that ANY of it was.

Maybe you should lobby to get the JFK case re-opened by Congress
(again). Then we Americans can spend a few more million dollars to
prove what the WC and the HSCA already proved -- Lee Harvey Oswald
killed two people in 1963.


>>> "You will never find out what actually happened to JFK in that car because 1.) The FBI switched the bullets..." <<<

That's your delusion. Not mine. No bullet was switched. And you cannot
prove that any bullet was "switched" by the FBI, or by anybody else.
You're in Rod Serling land.


>>> "...and 2.) The military curtailed the autopsy which should have never been done by the guys who did it anyway." <<<

More unprovable CT garbage from Delusional DiEugenio. The autopsy was
not "curtailed" by the "military". RFK and Jackie wanted the procedure
to be completed as quickly as possible. And some things that would
normally be done at a regular autopsy (i.e., in an autopsy of a person
who wasn't the POTUS) were obviously not done during JFK's autopsy.
Nothing conspiratorial there at all. Unless you want to drag RFK and
JFK's widow down into your bottomless pit of co-conspirators.


>>> "Meanwhile, here is my gift to you since you have tacitly admitted you cannot explain the incredible journey of CE 399." <<<

I like Jim Nabors' version better.


>>> "...you cannot explain the incredible journey of CE 399." <<<

Already have. Years ago. Right HERE.

Not to mention the fact that BOTH the WC and the HSCA have fully
explained the journey of CE399, and have endorsed it. Naturally,
having TWO official versions of the shooting that BOTH endorse this
"impossible dream" means absolutely zilch to James "ABO" DiEugenio.


>>> "JBC does not react until around frame 237." <<<

Yeah, sure Jim. All of this shoulder-flinching and hunching and mouth-
opening and grimacing and arm-raising by John B. Connally is all just
a great-big mirage. It's not really happening. I'm merely dreaming it.
Right, Jimbo? ....






http://Single-Bullet-Theory.blogspot.com


David Von Pein
August 2010

LINK TO ORIGINAL POST (AUGUST 27, 2010)

BOOK REVIEW: "FOUR DAYS IN NOVEMBER: THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY"

Vincent Bugliosi's "FOUR DAYS IN NOVEMBER: THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY", published by W.W. Norton & Company in late May 2008, paints a vivid word picture of the events surrounding the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

This 688-page paperback is a reprint of the first chapter of Bugliosi's mammoth and spectacular 2007 hardcover tome "Reclaiming History". So if you've already got that book, there's really no reason to also purchase this "Four Days" volume too.

The award-winning* "Reclaiming History" lays out all the evidence (in overwhelming doses) to definitively show that Lee Harvey Oswald--alone--did, indeed, murder President Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963.

* = "Reclaiming History" won an "Edgar Allan Poe Award" on May 1, 2008, as the "Best Fact Crime" book of 2007.

Author and former Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Vincent T. Bugliosi has referred to "Reclaiming History" as his "magnum opus", and after reading its compelling and convincing contents, such a description is certainly hard to disagree with, in my own personal opinion.

"Reclaiming History", as mentioned, is mammoth in size and scope, logging in at 1,535,791 words and 2,824 total pages (which includes the 1,100+ pages of endnotes and source citations on a CD-ROM computer disc that is attached to the back cover of the book). That page count also includes all of the photo pages in "RH"; and most of those same photographs also show up in this shorter "Four Days" volume as well, albeit smaller in size.

The narrative that we find in "Four Days In November" begins at 6:30 AM on the morning of President Kennedy's assassination (Friday, November 22nd, 1963), and continues chronologically through the day of JFK's funeral (Monday, November 25th).

Bugliosi provides an incredible amount of information and seldom-revealed facts in "Four Days", much of which will probably be brand-new to some readers.

Many portions of this book actually can be traced back to two other similarly-styled books about JFK's assassination that were written in the late 1960s -- William Manchester's "The Death Of A President" and Jim Bishop's "The Day Kennedy Was Shot".

This is quite evident when glancing through the 49 pages of source notes in "Four Days", with Manchester's and Bishop's books being referenced many times within the 1,557 citations that Bugliosi provides. ("Reclaiming History", by the way, contains more than 10,000 source citations, which is a figure that probably makes it one of the most-sourced books in publishing history.)

To a person who isn't inclined to believe that virtually every piece of evidence against Lee Harvey Oswald for the murders of President Kennedy and Dallas policeman J.D. Tippit was miraculously and magically "manufactured" or "faked" in some way, "Four Days In November" leaves little to no doubt as to the identity of the one and only person who was responsible for those two homicides.

Or, to put it more bluntly (as Vince Bugliosi does in this quote from "RH"):

"I can tell the readers of this book ["Reclaiming History"] 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." -- Vincent Bugliosi; Page 969 of "Reclaiming History" (c.2007)

So, if you're interested in just about every last detail imaginable when it comes to those four incredible days in November of 1963 when America lost its President to an assassin's bullet, then "Four Days In November" is undeniably the book to pick up.

And for an even more exhaustive examination of JFK's assassination and the large number of conspiracy theories it spawned (with Mr. Bugliosi reducing each one of those theories to a most-deserved pile of smoldering rubble), "Reclaiming History" is an absolute must-have item for the "True Crime" home library.

Both of Vince Bugliosi's JFK volumes ("Reclaiming History" and "Four Days In November") are books that will (or certainly should) make anybody reading them think twice the next time they hear the words Oswald was just a patsy.

David Von Pein
May 2008

RELATED LINK

===============================================
QUOTES FROM THE AUTHOR, VINCENT BUGLIOSI:

"The millions of Americans who have been hoodwinked into buying into the conspiracy illusion don't believe that Oswald conspired with some other lowly malcontent like himself to assassinate the president. Instead, though most don't clearly articulate the thought in their mind, they believe that Oswald was merely the triggerman for organized crime, a foreign nation, or conspirators who walked the highest corridors of power in our nation's capital. ....

"Not the smallest speck of evidence has ever surfaced that any of the conspiracy community's favorite groups (CIA, mob, etc.) was involved, in any way, in the assassination. Not only the Warren Commission, but the HSCA [House Select Committee on Assassinations] came to the same conclusion. .... But conspiracy theorists, as suspicious as a cat in a new home, find occurrences and events everywhere that feed their suspicions and their already strong predilection to believe that the official version is wrong. ....

"The fact that Kennedy was a powerful public figure was very relevant to Oswald's motivation for killing him. On the other hand, murders of powerful public figures in America by the groups fancied by conspiracy theorists--the CIA, mob, FBI, and military-industrial complex--are absolutely unheard of. Show me a precedent. ....

"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. ....

"Only people who subscribe to rules of absurdity, not rules of life, could possibly believe that a conspiracy to kill Kennedy ever existed. The conspiracy argument in the Kennedy assassination requires the belief that for over forty years a great number of people have been able to keep silent about the plot behind the most important and investigated murder of the 20th century. In other words, it requires a belief in the impossible. ....

"Waiting for the conspiracy theorists to tell the truth is a little like leaving the front-porch light on for Jimmy Hoffa."

-- Vincent Bugliosi; Pages xiv, xvi, xlii, 844, 950, and 1442 of "Reclaiming History: The Assassination Of President John F. Kennedy" (c.2007)

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REVIEW: "FOUR DAYS THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD: NOVEMBER 22-25, 1963" (AUDIO CD)

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The sudden and tragic assassination of U.S. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy on Friday, November 22, 1963, was a vicious blow to the heart of America, and to much of the world as well. As you would expect from such a big news story, there was massive media coverage of the events in Dallas and Washington.

For four solid days (November 22nd to November 25th, 1963), television, radio, and the print media were saturated with news surrounding JFK's murder, as well as assassin Lee Harvey Oswald's arrest and subsequent death at the hands of nightclub owner Jack Ruby, President Kennedy's funeral, and many related side stories about JFK, new President Lyndon Johnson, and other topics.

This 49-minute program, which bears the full title of "THE ASSASSINATION OF JOHN F. KENNEDY: FOUR DAYS THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD: NOV. 22-25TH, 1963", was originally marketed by Colpix Records shortly after JFK's death. It was re-released on Audio CD in 1993 by RPM Records of London, England.

Taken from more than 85 hours of original audio material, "Four Days That Shocked The World" features many of the major radio highlights from that sad four-day weekend. Reid Collins of WNEW Radio News serves as narrator. The program can be heard in its entirety via the embedded video player above.

You get a true sense of what it was like to be in Dallas just after the shots were fired at the President's motorcade in Dealey Plaza. Many on-the-scene and on-the-spot audio news clips are included from pertinent locations in Dallas and Washington as the dark weekend progresses. It's quite literally history in the making.

Many of these November 1963 audio reports are fairly rare, including one particularly interesting and ironic clip that takes place in the basement of the Dallas Police Department on Sunday morning, November 24th at 11:21 AM -- that being the riveting radio account of Lee Harvey Oswald's killing as reported by WNEW's Ike Pappas.

After Oswald is shot dead by Jack Ruby, Pappas continues with radio coverage from the jail basement and quickly interviews a few eyewitnesses to the shooting. It's almost immediately revealed (practically before Oswald has cleared the basement's driveway via ambulance) that Jack Ruby was, in fact, the man who plugged Oswald.

And, by coincidence, on-the-spot reporter Pappas just happened to have a business card of Ruby's in his pocket at the time Ruby shot his prey. It's an amazing audio clip, with Pappas exclaiming excitedly on the air: "He [Ruby] runs the Carousel Club?! He handed me that card the other day. He was in the headquarters here. ... I know him. ... I got a card from him the other day."

The entire 5-minute Ike Pappas radio clip can be heard HERE.

Also included on this Compact Disc is the rare Joe Meek JFK tribute record, "The Kennedy March", which is the last of 10 tracks on this disc. Meek released this single in early December 1963, just weeks after JFK was killed. And, according to the liner notes, it is being re-issued for the very first time on this CD.

The liner notes included in this CD package are quite extensive and collectible in nature. There are some lengthy 1993 text notes by Stephen Fellows, a detailed listing of what can be heard on the disc, and a good-looking Kennedy 5-cent postage stamp reproduction, with simulated Dallas postmark, stamped at the exact moment of JFK's shooting at 12:30 PM, Nov. 22, 1963 (which serves as the front cover of the CD).

In addition, on the opposite side of the liner notes' insert page can be found a unique newspaper front-page reproduction (re-print) from "The New York Herald Tribune" (dated November 23-24, 1963; "European Edition"). This newspaper re-print is rather interesting reading, with every page-one article, not surprisingly, focusing on the murder of the President.

Audio quality is very, very good on this CD. Considering the age of these 1963 recordings, you couldn't ask for better quality sound here. Very little old-time radio "crackle" can be heard at all on these audio clips. Everybody sounds clear as a bell.

Here's a Track List for this Compact Disc:

1.) President Kennedy's breakfast speech in Fort Worth. (Length of track = 1:43)

2.) JFK's arrival at Love Field. (4:55)

3.) Mobile radio reports (KBOX) -- "Something has happened in the motorcade route!" This track includes an interview with eyewitness Charles Brehm. (8:48)

4.) President Kennedy's death is officially announced. (1:07)

5.) Interview with ambulance driver; Comments by UPI's Merriman Smith; Swearing-in of new President Lyndon Johnson; LBJ's short speech at Andrews AFB. (4:40)

6.) Police account of Lee Harvey Oswald's arrest; Comments by Oswald himself ("I didn't shoot anybody, no sir!"). (3:24)

7.) Ike Pappas of WNEW-New York reports on shooting of Oswald in Dallas Police basement; crystal-clear account of Pappas' question to Oswald ("Do you have anything to say in your defense?"), followed an instant later by a gunshot and a very audible groan from Oswald as he falls dead on the basement floor. This "Ike Pappas perspective" is a rare audio clip that's not featured on very many programs covering the JFK Assassination. Fascinating stuff here. .... "Holy mackerel, Oswald has been shot! There's mass confusion...!" (6:34)

8.) President Kennedy's casket taken from White House to Capitol Rotunda on November 24; Excerpts of eulogies by Chief Justice Earl Warren and Senator Mike Mansfield. (6:54)

9.) Coverage of JFK's State Funeral on Monday, November 25th, 1963. (8:02)

10.) "The Kennedy March", by British record producer Joe Meek. (2:33)

Total Run Time: 49:09.

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The FBI:

The original LP recording of "Four Days That Shocked The World" even garnered the attention of the FBI during the Warren Commission's 1964 investigation into President Kennedy's assassination. (See pages 11-17 of THIS WARREN COMMISSION DOCUMENT for more information.)

The FBI investigators were inquiring as to whether any of the footage from Dallas radio stations KLIF, KBOX, and WFAA that is included on the LP recording might contain the sounds of the gunshots that were fired in Dealey Plaza. None of the shots were recorded, however.

This audio compilation includes the complete KBOX "re-created" simulation of the assassination aftermath and the frenzied drive to Parkland Hospital. From information I have gathered over the years, including a few e-mail conversations that I had with former KRLD reporter Bob Huffaker, apparently the majority of the KBOX material was re-created in a studio several days after the assassination, instead of being broadcast live on 11/22/63.

One of the KBOX reporters who is heard in the simulated coverage, Sam Pate, was interviewed by the FBI on March 10, 1964. The brief FBI report regarding that interview can be found HERE.

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A Final Word:

For a concise audio-only account of the events surrounding JFK's death, you need look no further than this CD of "The Assassination Of John F. Kennedy: Four Days That Shocked The World".

David Von Pein
December 2004
June 2010
August 2010

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RELATED LINKS:

REVIEW: "KENNEDY" (1983 TELEVISION MINI-SERIES)

"KENNEDY" (1983 TV Mini-Series)
Starring Martin Sheen and Blair Brown
2-Disc DVD Set
Running Time: Approx. 5 Hours (Plus Bonus Features)
Video: Full Frame (1.33:1)
Audio: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo
DVD Release Date: September 25, 2001
DVD Back Cover

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In September 2001, Lance Entertainment, Inc. and DVD International released this 2-Disc DVD set of the 1983 made-for-television mini-series "KENNEDY".

I recall seeing this mini-series when it originally aired on network television in November 1983, exactly 20 years after President Kennedy's assassination. It's nice to now have it available on DVD.

Several years after this Lance Entertainment version was issued, MPI Home Video released THIS two-disc edition of the same "Kennedy" program.

All the major elements that made up the presidency of John F. Kennedy are explored very nicely during this five-hour TV film, including the Bay Of Pigs invasion of April 1961 and the ultra-frightening Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962.

"Kennedy" star Martin Sheen, who portrays President Kennedy here, is certainly no stranger to playing Kennedys. Prior to this 1983 TV mini-series, Martin was cast as Attorney General Robert Kennedy in the 1974 telefilm "The Missiles Of October" (opposite William Devane's portrayal of JFK).

And in another "Kennedy connection", Sheen played Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach in the 2003 film "The Commission", which explores The Warren Commission's examination into President Kennedy's 1963 assassination.

Sheen is probably now best-known for playing fictional "President Bartlet" on the NBC-TV drama, "The West Wing".

A major reason I purchased this DVD product was for the extra features included on Disc 2. Here, we get to see the real JFK in action, in a series of documentaries and historic film footage. These extras total 75 minutes, making this 2-Disc package a completely absorbing and satisfying experience for anyone who wants to look back into history at one of the most popular men ever to occupy The White House.

The four bonus programs on the second disc of this set are:

1.) JFK's Inaugural Address (January 20, 1961).

2.) "One Week In October" -- A half-hour film produced in 1964 by the Department Of Defense about the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Lots of archival film footage detailing the events surrounding the Missile Crisis is included here. It's a good, concise overview of those terrifying days in October '62.

3.) "One Day In Berlin" -- Excerpts from the speech JFK made at the Berlin Wall in June 1963.

4.) "The Last Two Days" -- A 19-minute color film chronicling the last two days of President Kennedy's life in November of 1963.

David Von Pein
November 2001
August 2010

REVIEW: "THE MURDER OF JFK: A REVISIONIST HISTORY" (1999 DOCUMENTARY)

"THE MURDER OF JFK: A REVISIONIST HISTORY"
(1999 Documentary)
Running Time: 2 Hours, 20 Minutes
Video: Full Frame (1.33:1)
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
DVD Release Date: February 28, 2006 (MPI Home Video)
DVD Back Cover

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"THE MURDER OF JFK: A REVISIONIST HISTORY" makes a very nice addition to any collection of John F. Kennedy-related materials (regardless of whether you're "pro-conspiracy", "anti-conspiracy", or somewhere in-between with respect to your particular beliefs regarding President Kennedy's assassination).

Although a definite thread of conspiratorial belief most certainly is woven into this documentary, it's not shamefully brazen or overly ridiculous-sounding in terms of conspiracy, which is unlike many of the other outlandish JFK theories and plots that have been postulated in the various books, films, and documentaries over the years.

What this program fails to do, though, is to delve in any depth whatsoever into the life (and more importantly, the mind) of Lee Harvey Oswald, a man who I believe killed President Kennedy all by himself in 1963.

Oswald's role in the assassination is pretty much glossed over here; and, strangely, Jack Ruby (the man who killed Oswald) is barely even mentioned in this documentary.

There's a short clip of Ruby murdering Oswald in the police basement, but after that snippet the subject of Ruby comes up (as I recall) only one other time, during a rather strange film clip showing a group of protestors demanding the immediate release of Dallas prisoner "John Ruby". (Oddly, these protestors didn't even seem to know the true name of the man they were fighting so hard to have released from jail. Ruby's real name, before he changed it to Jack Ruby, was Jacob Rubenstein.)

"A Revisionist History" is a lengthy program, with a running time of 140 minutes (not the 180 minutes that is advertised on the DVD). It was made in 1999 and won an award for "best use of news footage in a documentary". And I can see why.

This DVD is loaded with rare news snippets associated with JFK's terrible murder, which occurred in Dallas, Texas, on November 22nd, 1963. There are many news clips presented here that I had never seen before, including quite a bit of footage taken during the years leading up to Kennedy's death.

"Revisionist" hints at a possible "Cuban connection" with respect to JFK's ultimate demise, and thusly this documentary features several video and film clips taken in Havana around the time that Fidel Castro gained control of Cuba.

One such interesting clip was culled from "The Ed Sullivan Show" of January 5, 1960, where Sullivan puts on his interviewer's hat and asks Castro some hard-hitting questions. Fidel, in a classic bit of irony, informs Mr. Sullivan (and, hence, America) -- "You can be sure that Batista will be the last dictator of Cuba."

Some of the video footage seen in this program can also be found in another excellent, must-see documentary film on the Kennedy assassination, that being 1964's "Four Days In November" (narrated by actor Richard Basehart).

"Four Days" in many ways serves as a good companion program to "A Revisionist History", insofar as presenting a large dose of vintage filmed materials relating to the JFK case.

In my own opinion, "Four Days In November" (which consists of almost nothing but vintage, archival news footage, circa 1963) is superior to all other Kennedy films and documentaries, with a musical score by Elmer Bernstein that is also second to none.

But this "Revisionist History" program has its own set of high points in the "vintage footage" department as well, making it a pretty good bookend piece to "Four Days".

Some of the highlights worth noting from "A Revisionist History" include:

• A good-sized portion of a June 22, 1964, interview with Texas Governor John Connally (via KRLD-TV in Dallas). Mr. Connally, after having recounted the entire assassination sequence which had occurred exactly seven months earlier, becomes quite emotional at the end of this footage. This black-and-white clip (which appears to be on videotape and not film) exhibits super-sharp video and audio quality.

• Footage showing John Connally introducing Lyndon Johnson as a candidate for the Presidency at the Democratic National Convention on July 10, 1960.

• Two brief rarely-seen film clips (in color) showing Lee Harvey Oswald during his altercation with police on the streets of New Orleans in the summer of 1963.

• The November 29, 1963, telephone call between new President Lyndon Johnson and Senator Richard Russell, discussing the creation of LBJ's Warren Commission, of which Senator Russell was strongly opposed to being a member (as can be heard in this phone call). Excellent audio quality attached to this clip, too. [Listen to the entire 11/29/63 phone call HERE.]
  

• Very rare film clip (I'd never seen it before) showing Warren Commission members standing outside the Texas School Book Depository Building in Dallas in July 1964. This black-and-white film footage is accompanied by audio as well, with the microphones picking up some comments made by Allen Dulles and David Belin. This unique footage also shows Dulles and Belin looking out at Elm Street (where JFK was assassinated) from behind the picket fence atop the now-famous Grassy Knoll in Dealey Plaza.*

* = I thought that that particular "Behind The Picket Fence" portion of this 1964 footage was rather interesting, in that it certainly indicated that the Warren Commission members were, in a sense, not totally ignoring the idea that one or more shots on 11/22/63 could have conceivably come from behind that fence -- otherwise, why would the Commission and its staff have even bothered to have a look for themselves at the view that a potential assassin would have had from that Knoll vantage point? Conspiracists will no doubt argue that the Commission members were merely "going through the motions" for the press, which was following the Warren Commission's every move in Dealey Plaza that day, as can be observed in these film clips.

• Portions of a BBC-TV special entitled "The Death Of Kennedy", in which the Single-Bullet Theory is discussed (and even reconstructed on camera using mock-ups of victims Kennedy and Connally). This BBC clip, which is in B&W, also includes comments made by Warren Commission counsel member Arlen Specter, as Mr. Specter defends his position aggressively with these words: "You call it the theory; I call it the conclusion; it was a theory until we found the facts; that's why I refer to it as the Single-Bullet Conclusion."**

** = Note: The DVD claims this BBC program aired on January 27, 1964; but that's an obvious error/typo. The Single-Bullet Theory had not even been postulated by Specter and the Warren Commission as of that January '64 date. The Commission, in fact, as of that date in early 1964, had barely even begun their work. That BBC broadcast was actually aired on January 29, 1967.

• Rare color footage of a portion of the May 24, 1964, FBI/Warren Commission re-enactment of the assassination, filmed from the sixth-floor window of the Book Depository (as seen through the scope mounted on Lee Oswald's Mannlicher-Carcano rifle). I didn't know that color footage of the FBI re-creations even existed until viewing this DVD. This snippet is very short, but it's quite interesting seeing it in fairly vivid color.

• A September 27, 1964, news clip from a CBS-TV special ("November 22nd And The Warren Report"), with Walter Cronkite giving a general overview of the just-released Warren Report. Cronkite speaks forcefully about the facts and evidence of Oswald's guilt during this black-and-white news clip. I especially enjoyed Cronkite's first blunt and to-the-point observation: "Oswald was a liar." Darn right he was, Walter. Lee Harvey Oswald never stopped lying from the minute he was arrested in the Texas Theater. And it's great hearing a newsman reporting it like it is. [CLICK HERE to see the entire two-hour CBS program, "November 22nd And The Warren Report".]
  

• A portion of Walter Cronkite's September 1969 CBS-TV interview with former President Lyndon Johnson, during which JFK's assassination is openly and candidly discussed. (Note: Oddly, this particular color news clip with Johnson and Cronkite is shown in a 1.66:1 Widescreen format on the DVD. A few other clips on the DVD are also shown in Widescreen for some reason.)

• March 1975 footage of the late-night talk show "Good Night America" with Geraldo Rivera -- The Zapruder Film (showing JFK's murder) is broadcast for the first time on national television. This color clip includes Robert Groden's blatant exaggeration of the number of witnesses that he claims heard shots from the Grassy Knoll on 11/22/63 ("80 percent"). Groden deliberately overstated the number of Knoll earwitnesses in order to further his own notions of a JFK conspiracy. In reality, well more than 50% of all earwitnesses in Dealey Plaza said they heard shots from BEHIND the President's car, and not from in front of it. This same "Good Night America" footage (in expanded form) can also be found on another MPI Home Video release from 1998 -- "Image Of An Assassination: A New Look At The Zapruder Film" (which is another very worthwhile collectible DVD product pertaining to the Kennedy murder case).

• Color film clip of Congressman Christopher Dodd interrogating former CIA Director Richard Helms on September 22, 1978, during the House Select Committee's inquiry into JFK's death. Stinging remarks by Mr. Helms can be heard in this clip, which is footage that's not in very good shape, picture-quality-wise. In the years following JFK's murder, Richard Helms, obviously sick of having his agency raked over the coals and suspected of having a hand in Kennedy's death, always exhibited a harsh and brusk tone in every comment I ever heard him make publicly in wake of President Kennedy's assassination. Helms' comments, however, come off as rather foolish-sounding in this specific clip regarding "AM/LASH".

• Video clip of an irate Wesley Liebeler (Assistant Counsel member of the Warren Commission) in the early 1990s, wherein Mr. Liebeler publicly denounces the Oliver Stone film "JFK". Liebeler: "Your movie is a vast tissue of falsehood, deception, and distortion. .... Your movie cannot be defended on a factual basis."

• The "Castro Playing Ping Pong For Three Hours" video clip. (Consult the DVD for more details on this humorous footage.)
  

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DVD SPECIFICATIONS:

"A Revisionist History" is presented on a single-sided DVD and offers up a clear-sounding Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo soundtrack (although some of the vintage '60s-era audio clips do show their age, with understandable limited fidelity and waning crispness).

The video on the DVD, with the exception of a few Widescreen clips, is Full-Frame (1.33:1). English subtitles are included. A Scene Selection sub-menu provides access to the program's 17 individual chapters. There aren't any special features to supplement the main program. The Keep Case packaging includes a 16-page DVD Catalog List for other titles released by MPI Home Video.

DVD Chapter List:

1. Opening Credits
2. Battlefield Cuba
3. Fidel Castro
4. Bay Of Pigs
5. Operation Mongoose
6. Peaceful Resolution
7. Test Ban Treaty
8. Dallas
9. Oswald Killed
10. LBJ And The Aftermath
11. J. Edgar Hoover
12. Warren Commission
13. Conspiracy Theories
14. Assassination Committee
15. Seven Days In May
16. History
17. End Credits

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IN-A-NUTSHELL BREAKDOWN OF THIS PROGRAM:

Pros:

• Many rare and hard-to-find-anyplace-else news clips.

• Good video (DVD) quality.

• Peter Dean's solid narration. (Peter also, btw, served as narrator for MPI's "Image Of An Assassination" documentary.)

Cons:

• Could probably have been edited down to a shorter length.

• The music score (which isn't very impressive, IMO).

• Not enough background information on Lee Harvey Oswald.

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OVERALL:

I think that conspiracy theorists and lone-assassin believers alike will be able to appreciate many things within this MPI program, with the wealth of seldom-seen film footage that is presented here, all by itself, being worth the cost of this disc for ardent collectors of JFK-related material.

David Von Pein
March 2006
August 2010