"All governments are run by liars
and nothing they say should be believed." I.F. Stone
and nothing they say should be believed." I.F. Stone
An Oswald Witness
(From "The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy: How the CIA Set Up Oswald" by Mark Lane, Hustler, October 1978)
Recently, a former Marine who had served with Oswald in Santa Ana, California, after Oswald had returned from Atsugi, began to talk about his discussions with him. His name is David Bucknell…
Bucknell told me that one day he and Oswald went to a tavern near the base to drink a few beers. Two women approached them. Later that day Oswald told Bucknell the incident with the women reminded him of a experience he had had at Atsugi. Oswald had been alone in a bar when an attractive Japanese woman approached him, he told Bucknell. She asked him some questions about his work on the base. That work was, of course, with the supersecret U-2 program. Oswald,predictably, reported that conversation to his superior officer, who then arranged for a meeting on the base between Oswald and a man dressed in civilian clothes.
The man, a “security” or “security-intelligence” operator, explained to Oswald that he could do his country a great service. Oswald was told that the woman was a KGB contact and that he would be given false information to pass on to her. Oswald agreed, and while still a teenager in the Marine Corps he became an intelligence operative. His liaison with the woman continued; he was given money to spend at the Queen Bee, and apparently encouraged by American intelligence to enter into a sexual relationship with the woman
. ……..
Regarding Oswald’s tour of duty in Japan, Bucknell can only report what Oswald recounted to him. However, he was involved directly with Oswald in an intelligence effort when they both were at MACS-9. In1959 Oswald, Bucknell and others were ordered to report to the Criminal Investigation (CID) at the base. There a civilian began an effort aimed at recruiting those present for an intelligence operation against “Communists” in Cuba. Oswald was selected to make several additional trips to CID. Later he told Bucknell that the civilian who served as his contact or control at Atsugi had taken over the same job at Santa Ana. Still later, Oswald confided to Bucknell that he, Oswald was to be discharged from the Marine Corps very soon and that he would surface in the Soviet Union. Oswald told Bucknell that he was being sent there on assignment by American intelligence and that he would return to the United States in 1961 as a hero.
CIA and Drugs
(I do not want to focus exclusively on the JFK assassination and I realize that so far in this blog I have just been throwing things out there almost at random. I currently do not have a computer at home so I am limited to what I can do in about half an hour on my lunch break at work and while visiting my daughter (Hi Tara!) on weekends. Hopefully, after I get a new home computer I will be able to get a little more focused.) Today, a news article I came across in my files (emphasis added):
(Cincinatti Post, October 2, 1976)
Justice Dept. accused of CIA cover-up in opium case
By Gene Goldenberg
Scrippt-Howard Staff Writer
WASHINGTON--The Justice Department dropped charges against a CIA operative indicted in 1973 for smuggling opium into the United States after the CIA argued that prosecuting the case posed a "national security" risk.
A House subcommittee which investigated the incident concluded that by failing to prosecute this case the Justice Department "may have assisted in a cover-up of CIA participation in Southeast Asian drug traffic."
In a supressed report, the House government and individual rights subcommittee recommended that an independent special prosecutor be appointed to investigate illegal activities of CIA personnel because of the Justice Department's "disturbing ineptitude and neglect" in this and other cases.
The subcommittee report has not been made public because not enough members of the parent Government Oerations Comittee showed up to vote for it at the committee's final meeting of the year. However, a copy of the report was obtained by Scripps-Howard News Service.
The smuggling case involved seven persons, six Americans and a Thai national who the CIA admitted was a "contract employee." The seven were indicted on Aug. 3, 1973, in Chicago on narcotics smuggling charges developed by the U.S. Customs Service, which intercepted a shipment of 25 kilos of raw opium from Thailand to Chicago.
When prosecutors discovered that the Thai citizen was actually a CIA operative, they sought CIA assistance in pursuing their investigation, according to the subcommittee report. This became vital when the defendent promised he would testify that the CIA knew of his smuggling activities and approved them.
After initially promising full cooperation, the CIA then balked, according to the subcommittee report, and refused to provide any of the documentation or rebuttal witnesses necessary to convict the CIA employee in the smuggling case.
John K. Greaney, associate general counsel of the CIA, told the prosecutors that the necessary documents, if exposed would reveal sources and methods of on-going CIA operations in Southeast Asia, the report said.
Greaney further refused to allow a federal judge to examine the documents to determine whether their exposure would jeopardize national security, the subcommittee found.
The U.S. Attorney in Chicago then appealed to the Justice Department to intervene with the CIA. On April 15, 1974, Henry Petersen, then assistant attorney general in charge of the criminal division, and other Justice officials met with Greaney, who reiterated his claim of "national security" and asked that the case against the CIA employee be dropped.
Petersen testified that he ordered subordinates to look into the matter. Two weeks later, William e. Ryan, the narcotics section chief in the criminal division, signed dismissal papers dropping charges against the CIA operative.
"Neither Ryan nor Petersen asked to see the documents in order to judge whether they were relevant or too sensitive", said the subcommittee report. "They simply accepted the CIA's assertion."
"The behavior of CIA officials in this case indicates that they still believe that the agency and its employees are above the criminal law and that CIA personnel may be set above the law by the mere invocation of 'national security'," the report concluded.
(I do not want to focus exclusively on the JFK assassination and I realize that so far in this blog I have just been throwing things out there almost at random. I currently do not have a computer at home so I am limited to what I can do in about half an hour on my lunch break at work and while visiting my daughter (Hi Tara!) on weekends. Hopefully, after I get a new home computer I will be able to get a little more focused.) Today, a news article I came across in my files (emphasis added):
(Cincinatti Post, October 2, 1976)
Justice Dept. accused of CIA cover-up in opium case
By Gene Goldenberg
Scrippt-Howard Staff Writer
WASHINGTON--The Justice Department dropped charges against a CIA operative indicted in 1973 for smuggling opium into the United States after the CIA argued that prosecuting the case posed a "national security" risk.
A House subcommittee which investigated the incident concluded that by failing to prosecute this case the Justice Department "may have assisted in a cover-up of CIA participation in Southeast Asian drug traffic."
In a supressed report, the House government and individual rights subcommittee recommended that an independent special prosecutor be appointed to investigate illegal activities of CIA personnel because of the Justice Department's "disturbing ineptitude and neglect" in this and other cases.
The subcommittee report has not been made public because not enough members of the parent Government Oerations Comittee showed up to vote for it at the committee's final meeting of the year. However, a copy of the report was obtained by Scripps-Howard News Service.
The smuggling case involved seven persons, six Americans and a Thai national who the CIA admitted was a "contract employee." The seven were indicted on Aug. 3, 1973, in Chicago on narcotics smuggling charges developed by the U.S. Customs Service, which intercepted a shipment of 25 kilos of raw opium from Thailand to Chicago.
When prosecutors discovered that the Thai citizen was actually a CIA operative, they sought CIA assistance in pursuing their investigation, according to the subcommittee report. This became vital when the defendent promised he would testify that the CIA knew of his smuggling activities and approved them.
After initially promising full cooperation, the CIA then balked, according to the subcommittee report, and refused to provide any of the documentation or rebuttal witnesses necessary to convict the CIA employee in the smuggling case.
John K. Greaney, associate general counsel of the CIA, told the prosecutors that the necessary documents, if exposed would reveal sources and methods of on-going CIA operations in Southeast Asia, the report said.
Greaney further refused to allow a federal judge to examine the documents to determine whether their exposure would jeopardize national security, the subcommittee found.
The U.S. Attorney in Chicago then appealed to the Justice Department to intervene with the CIA. On April 15, 1974, Henry Petersen, then assistant attorney general in charge of the criminal division, and other Justice officials met with Greaney, who reiterated his claim of "national security" and asked that the case against the CIA employee be dropped.
Petersen testified that he ordered subordinates to look into the matter. Two weeks later, William e. Ryan, the narcotics section chief in the criminal division, signed dismissal papers dropping charges against the CIA operative.
"Neither Ryan nor Petersen asked to see the documents in order to judge whether they were relevant or too sensitive", said the subcommittee report. "They simply accepted the CIA's assertion."
"The behavior of CIA officials in this case indicates that they still believe that the agency and its employees are above the criminal law and that CIA personnel may be set above the law by the mere invocation of 'national security'," the report concluded.
So just how much truth was there to the National Enquirer story quoted yesterday? Deputy Billy J. Preston and some of his associates also spoke to the Dallas Morning News in 1976. I don't have a copy of this article but found this on the web:
On March 28, 1976, the Dallas *Morning News* ran an unusual story when four Dallas deputy constables decided to come forward to relate something that had been bothering them for a very long time. Shortly after the assassination the four had examined a box of handwritten notes and assorted other papers in the Dallas County Courthouse, a number of which apparently linked Oswald and Ruby. Deputy Billy Preston, Constable Robie Love, and deputy constables Mike Callahan and Ben Cash all recalled that this box had come from the apartment of a Dallas woman (77).
Preston said, "She was really scared because she had all that stuff. She wanted me to pick it up for her. And I just wished I had made some more copies now." The men couldn't for the life of them remember the name of the woman, except Preston thought her first name was Mary. He recalled that the papers were apparently written by Lee Harvey Oswald. Ben Cash disagreed, recalling that the woman had a live-in "Latin American" boyfriend, and Cash thought the papers had been his. He told reporter Earl Golz that ". . . 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." According to Preston and Love, the box was turned over to Dallas DA Henry Wade in late 1963 or early 1964; Wade told the Morning News that he had no recollection of such a box of papers (78).
The deputies tried to recall some of the box's contents. They named newspaper clippings from Mexico; a photocopy of a *Daily Worker* presscard issued to Jack Ruby; a motel receipt from early November 1963 withboth Ruby and Oswald's name on it, as well as references to phone callsmade to Mexico City; papers mapping out a landing strip in Mexico; references to meetings with some kind of "agents" in McAllen and Laredo, Texas (near the Mexico border); a church brochure with handwritten notations concerning a trip to Cuba; and a handwritten note detailing a plan to assassinate President Kennedy during the dedication of a lake or dam in Wisconsin. No one has seen hide nor hair of this mysterious box full of papers since the deputies transferred custody of it.
77. Dallas *Morning News,* March 28, 1976; Marrs, *Crossfire,* 410-1.
78. Ibid< http://www.acorn.net/jfkplace/03/JA/DR/.dr06.html
Notice that Dallas District Attorney Henry Wade denied all knowledge of the matter-which is not what he later told the Enquirer.
I do have one document in my files that refers to this incident. It is an FBI document, dated January 28, 1964 (RIF #180-11007710009) from agents Will Hayden Griffin and Arthur Carter
Mr. Billy J. Preston, Executive Deputy, Precinct 1, Dallas County, Dallas Dallas, Texas, advised that he is an executive deputy in Precinct 1 under ROBIE LOVE, Constable, Dallas County, Dallas, Texas, and he obtained thirty-three documents, including one 2- by4-inch spiral-bound notebook from Mrs. MARY SIMS, who resides at 4311 Cole, Apartment E, telephone LA 1-4764. He stated Mrs. SIMS is employed as a clerical secretary for the Stanley Warner Management Corporation, Dallas, Texas, telephone number RI 8-0781, Extension 28.
He said that Mrs. SIMS told him these documents were obtained by her from one BILLY LEE JONES, also known as H.L. JONES, who claimed to be a great-great, grandson of WILLIAM H. (BILLY THE KID) BONNEY. He said that Mrs. SIMS told him that JONES, a transient, stays at the City Mission on South Ervay in Dallas and allegedly resides at an unknown address in San Antonio, Texas. She told him that she wanted to check up on this man inasmuch as he claimed to be formerly connected with the office of Naval Intelligence and she recalled typing a report for him concerning JACK RUBY's going to Cuba.
Mr. PRESTON advised that the documents had been turned over by him to the District Attorney of Dallas County and believed that Assistant District Attorney FRANK WATTS had examined them and made photostats of them for any interest they might have in the trial of JACK RUBY in Dallas County for the murder of LEE HARVEY OSWALD.
He also advised that this subject called Mrs. SIMS twice on the night of January 27, 1964, advising her that he was in Myrtle, Mississippi, at Camp Zion. He said Mrs. SIMS told him that the subject told her something abouth the Marine Corps—Love Field, and mentioned Serial No. 634168.
He said that Mrs. SIMS resides with a girl whose nickname is “PUTSY”. He was unable to supply additional information concerning her roommate except her roommate was employed by the V.A., Dallas, Texas.
He advised that JONES had advised SIMS that he was in the Carlson Raiders of the U.S. Marine Corps Intelligence and called her sometime before the 23rd and claimed that he was with DAVE SCARBORO, an attorney from Abilene, Texas, and advised SIMS that he and SCARBORO were in an automobile accident and were hospitalized in a hospital at Fort Worth, Texas.
So, were Oswald and Ruby Castro agents? Not likely, in my opinion, but someone went to a lot of trouble to make it appear that that was the case. The box of documents unquestionably existed and just as unquestionably disappeared while in government custody.
On March 28, 1976, the Dallas *Morning News* ran an unusual story when four Dallas deputy constables decided to come forward to relate something that had been bothering them for a very long time. Shortly after the assassination the four had examined a box of handwritten notes and assorted other papers in the Dallas County Courthouse, a number of which apparently linked Oswald and Ruby. Deputy Billy Preston, Constable Robie Love, and deputy constables Mike Callahan and Ben Cash all recalled that this box had come from the apartment of a Dallas woman (77).
Preston said, "She was really scared because she had all that stuff. She wanted me to pick it up for her. And I just wished I had made some more copies now." The men couldn't for the life of them remember the name of the woman, except Preston thought her first name was Mary. He recalled that the papers were apparently written by Lee Harvey Oswald. Ben Cash disagreed, recalling that the woman had a live-in "Latin American" boyfriend, and Cash thought the papers had been his. He told reporter Earl Golz that ". . . 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." According to Preston and Love, the box was turned over to Dallas DA Henry Wade in late 1963 or early 1964; Wade told the Morning News that he had no recollection of such a box of papers (78).
The deputies tried to recall some of the box's contents. They named newspaper clippings from Mexico; a photocopy of a *Daily Worker* presscard issued to Jack Ruby; a motel receipt from early November 1963 withboth Ruby and Oswald's name on it, as well as references to phone callsmade to Mexico City; papers mapping out a landing strip in Mexico; references to meetings with some kind of "agents" in McAllen and Laredo, Texas (near the Mexico border); a church brochure with handwritten notations concerning a trip to Cuba; and a handwritten note detailing a plan to assassinate President Kennedy during the dedication of a lake or dam in Wisconsin. No one has seen hide nor hair of this mysterious box full of papers since the deputies transferred custody of it.
77. Dallas *Morning News,* March 28, 1976; Marrs, *Crossfire,* 410-1.
78. Ibid< http://www.acorn.net/jfkplace/03/JA/DR/.dr06.html
Notice that Dallas District Attorney Henry Wade denied all knowledge of the matter-which is not what he later told the Enquirer.
I do have one document in my files that refers to this incident. It is an FBI document, dated January 28, 1964 (RIF #180-11007710009) from agents Will Hayden Griffin and Arthur Carter
Mr. Billy J. Preston, Executive Deputy, Precinct 1, Dallas County, Dallas Dallas, Texas, advised that he is an executive deputy in Precinct 1 under ROBIE LOVE, Constable, Dallas County, Dallas, Texas, and he obtained thirty-three documents, including one 2- by4-inch spiral-bound notebook from Mrs. MARY SIMS, who resides at 4311 Cole, Apartment E, telephone LA 1-4764. He stated Mrs. SIMS is employed as a clerical secretary for the Stanley Warner Management Corporation, Dallas, Texas, telephone number RI 8-0781, Extension 28.
He said that Mrs. SIMS told him these documents were obtained by her from one BILLY LEE JONES, also known as H.L. JONES, who claimed to be a great-great, grandson of WILLIAM H. (BILLY THE KID) BONNEY. He said that Mrs. SIMS told him that JONES, a transient, stays at the City Mission on South Ervay in Dallas and allegedly resides at an unknown address in San Antonio, Texas. She told him that she wanted to check up on this man inasmuch as he claimed to be formerly connected with the office of Naval Intelligence and she recalled typing a report for him concerning JACK RUBY's going to Cuba.
Mr. PRESTON advised that the documents had been turned over by him to the District Attorney of Dallas County and believed that Assistant District Attorney FRANK WATTS had examined them and made photostats of them for any interest they might have in the trial of JACK RUBY in Dallas County for the murder of LEE HARVEY OSWALD.
He also advised that this subject called Mrs. SIMS twice on the night of January 27, 1964, advising her that he was in Myrtle, Mississippi, at Camp Zion. He said Mrs. SIMS told him that the subject told her something abouth the Marine Corps—Love Field, and mentioned Serial No. 634168.
He said that Mrs. SIMS resides with a girl whose nickname is “PUTSY”. He was unable to supply additional information concerning her roommate except her roommate was employed by the V.A., Dallas, Texas.
He advised that JONES had advised SIMS that he was in the Carlson Raiders of the U.S. Marine Corps Intelligence and called her sometime before the 23rd and claimed that he was with DAVE SCARBORO, an attorney from Abilene, Texas, and advised SIMS that he and SCARBORO were in an automobile accident and were hospitalized in a hospital at Fort Worth, Texas.
So, were Oswald and Ruby Castro agents? Not likely, in my opinion, but someone went to a lot of trouble to make it appear that that was the case. The box of documents unquestionably existed and just as unquestionably disappeared while in government custody.
One of my areas of interest is tabloids
and the JFK assassination. Today I have typed out an article from the
National Enquirer August 17, 1976, in its entirety:
and the JFK assassination. Today I have typed out an article from the
National Enquirer August 17, 1976, in its entirety:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4 Dallas Policemen Reveal They Saw Evidence Ruby
and Oswald Conspired to Kill JFK—On orders From Castro
…But the Documents, Turned Over
to FBI, Mysteriously Disappeared
By Charles Cobb, William Dick and Lee Harrison
Documentary evidence that Jack Ruby conspired with Lee Harvey Oswald and a third man to murder John F. Kennedy was found two months after the assassination, say four Dallas police officers who saw the material.
The documents clearly stated that Cuban dictator Fidel Castro ordered Kennedy killed—and that the three “did it for Castro, the officers declare.
The crucial evidence was turned over to the FBI, which claims it forwarded the documents to the Warren Commission—but at some point it has been mysteriously “lost.”
Dallas District Attorney Henry Wade confirms he personally received the evidence from the officers at his home on Jan. 23, 1964.
Wade, in turn, handed the documents over to the FBI.
But an ENQUIRER probe of the Warren Commission’s archives shows that the documents are inexplicably missing.
Deputy Constable Billy J. Preston of Dallas, who obtained the evidence, read it and turned it over to District Attorney Wade, told The ENQUIRER:
“There is no doubt in my mind that the evidence proved a conspiracy.”
The Warren Commission report states there was no evidence that Ruby knew Oswald before the assignation. But Constable Ben Cash of Port Arkansas, Tex., who was a deputy constable in Dallas at the time of the assassinations and who also read the documents, declared:
“The papers Preston picked up contained a receipt for a motel room outside New Orleans in two names—Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby!
It showed two long-distance calls billed to the room. Beside one was the notation ‘Cuban Embassy,’ beside the other, ‘Russian Embassy.’
"This receipt was dated two months before the assassination occurred.
"There was a document among the papers detailing how the assassination was accomplished. I have no doubt the writer of that document was the third man involved in the killing.
"It revealed the whole conspiracy and I believe the writer intended it to protect his own life—he could warn others who knew that if anything happened to him, the document would be released.
It stated that Oswald was not alone in the assassination, and that a .25 caliber gun—it didn’t say whether it was a rifle or a handgun—had been used in the killing.”
The only weapon cited in the Warren Commission report as having been fired at Kennedy was an Italian-made 6.5 millimeter carbine.)
Preston told The ENQUIRER that the evidence consisted of 33 documents, packed in a cardboard container about the size of a shirtbox and included:
* The document Cash mentioned, laboriously handwritten in part-English, part-Spanish, giving accurate details of the assassination. It also recounted an earlier plan to assassinate Kennedy in Wisconsin in September 1963—which was abandoned because security around the President was too tight.
* Newspaper clippings identifying the author of the document—the third member of the assassination team—as a Texas-born gunman who had hired out repeatedly as a professional killer in Mexico.
“There were notes stating clearly that Fidel Castro had Kennedy assassination, tht the killers were doing it for Castro,” Preston stated.
“The notes also spoke about Ruby and Oswald meeting in New Orleans, about trips to Mexico City, and about visiting the Cuban and Mexican embassies.
“There was mention of an airfield across the border in Mexico, and I’ve often wondered if this could have been the planned getaway field.”
Preston said the documents included a membership card, No. 52, in the “Fair Play for Cuba Committee,” issued to Jack Ruby. The committee was a pro-Castro group, and Oswald is known to have passed out leaflets for it in New Orleans.
The papers also included a press card issued to Ruby at a Chicago address by the Daily Worker, a communist newspaper.
The box containing the documents was given to Preston after he got a call from a girl he knew, who was rooming with another girl named Mary. She said Mary had something Preston should see. Preston went there and Mary told him her boyfriend had left her with a file of papers.
“Mary was an employee of Paramount Pictures, and some of the notes made by her boyfriend were on the stationery of the company,” Preston said. “I remember one thing very well: that girl was scared!
“She told me that Oswald had also spent some time at her residence, which was in a lower-income neighborhood of Dallas.”
Dallas Deputy Constable Michael Callahan stated that he too had seen the contents of the box when Preston brought it back to the constable’s office. “I saw a message in it about going to Cuba,” he said.
And former Deputy Constable Tom Stockard Jr., told The ENQUIRER: “I was there when the other constables were going through the contents of the box. It happened just like they said.”
Cash said the documents were turned over to District Attorney Wade that same night, and he saw them handed over by Preston. Wade confirmed it.
“I definitely remember receiving those documents,” he told The ENQUIRER. “I remember the deputy constables bringing them to my home.”
The FBI confirms that it received the documents and claims it forwarded them to the Warren Commission. Official FBI spokesman William “Bill” Hayes told The ENQUIRER from FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C.:
“These documents were filed with the Warren Commission in an FBI report dated Feb. 11, 1964. They are presently in the custody of the National Archives in Washington.”
A search of the Archive yielded the report itself—but no documents. The report, bearing Bureau File Number 105-82555, states definitely that the FBI received the documents on Jan. 28, 1964, but they are not with the report, nor is there any reference in the report to enclosures or attachments.
Marion Johnson, archivist in charge of all papers relating to the Kennedy assassination, said: ‘I never heard of these documents before.”
Nevertheless, The ENQUIRER, with Johnson, made a thorough search of the Archives. The missing documents were not found.
When The ENQUIRER went back to FBI spokesman Hayes to report that the documents were not in the Archives as stated, he refused to discuss the matter—leaving side open the question of what happened to this startling evidence after the FBI received it.
Said Preston: “We were told at the time that the documents were so important they were being rushed to Washington.”
Cash added: “We knew they were important. I believe that if they had been released then, we would have had World War 3.
“When I heard nothing more about them, I figured they were being kept secret for that reason—the Cuban involvement could have led us into a war with Cuba and Russia.”
And Preston noted: “I was surprised when none of us who saw the documents were ever questioned or called before the Warren Commission.
“Then I figured decisions had been made by higher authorities to keep the conspiracy secret because of political repercussions.”
But after 12 years of silence, the deputy constables said, they decided to reveal the evidence because Congressional probes hinting at a cover-up had encouraged them to speak out.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tomorrow: Could it be true?
Tippit-Weissman-Ruby meeting
From the Warren Commission Report (p.591, New York Times edition)
Speculation.-Patrolman J. D. Tippit, Bernard Weissman, and Jack Ruby met by prearrangement on November 14, 1963 at the Carousel Club.
Commission Finding.-Investigation has revealed no evidence to support the allegation. Nor is there any evidence that any of the men knew each other.
Excerpts from an FBI document from the National Archives (#180-10020-10469), dated March 28, 1967. The original document is a teletype and is in all caps.
Bureau has received a letter from a Mr. Lawrence Schiller, Alskog, Inc., Los Angeles, dated March Fifteen last ...
Schiller has advised he is in possession of the name and location of Mark Lane's informant who allegedly furnished Lane information. He was supposedly present and overheard an alleged meeting between Jack Ruby, Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit, and Bernard Weissman, On Nov. Fourteen, Sixtythree...
Schiller interviewed by Los Angeles, March Twentytwo last, and indicated that Mark Lane's confidential informant is Paul Bridewell aka Phil Burns, and that Bridewell currently located somewhere in Oregon, possibly Portland or Rainier. Exact location of Bridewell is probably known to one John Sutton, who formerly was in radio business in Dallas...
According to Schiller, Mark Lane learned of identity of Bridewell and info in possession of Bridewell from Theodore (Thayer) Waldo, formerly associated with Fort Worth, Texas, newspaper, "Sun Telegraph"...
Waldo indicates that about a week after assassination Sutton asked to meet him at the Dallas Press Club and at that time Sutton indicated he knew a man who witnessed a meeting in the Carousel Club between Ruby, Officer J.D. Tippit, and a Bernard Weissman, but who was reluctant to come forward with this information [over one line redacted]
Waldo indicateds that on or about Dec. Seven, Sixtythree, he met Sutton at the Dallas Press Club and was introduced to Phil Burns, White male, age late thirties, five feet eight, one forty five lbs., chestnut hair, wore glasses and employed by some advertising firm on account of one of Sutton's sponsors. After many assurances that identity would be protected, Burns related that he was acquainted with Ruby [about one line redacted] also that he knew officer Tippit since he had seen him in uniform at the club which apparently was on his beat. Burns indicated he passed a table and Ruby greeted him saying, "You know J.D. here", and Ruby then introduced the other individual as Bernard Weissman from the East. Burns described Weissman as white male, thirtyfive years, black hair, over six feet tall. Burns allegedly returned to his table and Ruby sent him a complimentary drink.
I do not know at this point if the FBI located Paul Bridewell. I believe that Bridewell may have been using an alias because he was in the Carousel Club with a woman who was not his wife.
From the Warren Commission Report (p.591, New York Times edition)
Speculation.-Patrolman J. D. Tippit, Bernard Weissman, and Jack Ruby met by prearrangement on November 14, 1963 at the Carousel Club.
Commission Finding.-Investigation has revealed no evidence to support the allegation. Nor is there any evidence that any of the men knew each other.
Excerpts from an FBI document from the National Archives (#180-10020-10469), dated March 28, 1967. The original document is a teletype and is in all caps.
Bureau has received a letter from a Mr. Lawrence Schiller, Alskog, Inc., Los Angeles, dated March Fifteen last ...
Schiller has advised he is in possession of the name and location of Mark Lane's informant who allegedly furnished Lane information. He was supposedly present and overheard an alleged meeting between Jack Ruby, Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit, and Bernard Weissman, On Nov. Fourteen, Sixtythree...
Schiller interviewed by Los Angeles, March Twentytwo last, and indicated that Mark Lane's confidential informant is Paul Bridewell aka Phil Burns, and that Bridewell currently located somewhere in Oregon, possibly Portland or Rainier. Exact location of Bridewell is probably known to one John Sutton, who formerly was in radio business in Dallas...
According to Schiller, Mark Lane learned of identity of Bridewell and info in possession of Bridewell from Theodore (Thayer) Waldo, formerly associated with Fort Worth, Texas, newspaper, "Sun Telegraph"...
Waldo indicates that about a week after assassination Sutton asked to meet him at the Dallas Press Club and at that time Sutton indicated he knew a man who witnessed a meeting in the Carousel Club between Ruby, Officer J.D. Tippit, and a Bernard Weissman, but who was reluctant to come forward with this information [over one line redacted]
Waldo indicateds that on or about Dec. Seven, Sixtythree, he met Sutton at the Dallas Press Club and was introduced to Phil Burns, White male, age late thirties, five feet eight, one forty five lbs., chestnut hair, wore glasses and employed by some advertising firm on account of one of Sutton's sponsors. After many assurances that identity would be protected, Burns related that he was acquainted with Ruby [about one line redacted] also that he knew officer Tippit since he had seen him in uniform at the club which apparently was on his beat. Burns indicated he passed a table and Ruby greeted him saying, "You know J.D. here", and Ruby then introduced the other individual as Bernard Weissman from the East. Burns described Weissman as white male, thirtyfive years, black hair, over six feet tall. Burns allegedly returned to his table and Ruby sent him a complimentary drink.
I do not know at this point if the FBI located Paul Bridewell. I believe that Bridewell may have been using an alias because he was in the Carousel Club with a woman who was not his wife.
