It was sad to hear that G. Robert Blakey died last Friday at the age of 90. He will always be remembered for taking over the helm of the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) and having it focus on the science side of the case. The HSCA was in a shambles until he provided some clear leadership. Don Edwards Writes Thomas Downing about Richard Sprague While the HSCA went off track with the acoustics evidence, they also provided a clear scientific case for the guilt of

Houston Post, May 4, 1975 Money Quotes : "If I were a betting man," says trial lawyer Bernard J. Fensterwald, "I'd bet the full story will be known within a year." "A year? I'm surprised at Fensterwald," said Dr. Richard Popkin, a philosophy professor at Washington University in St. Louis. "I'd make in six months." Fensterwald's comment on Marina Oswald strikes me as fairly cruel: "Can you imagine what you could do with Marina (Oswald's Russian-born widow) in one morning if y

Here is an excerpt of G. Robert Blakey's book, Fatal Hour : Here is what the HSCA Final Report said : Previous Relevant Blog Posts on Mark Lane George Lardner on Mark Lane Mark Lane and the HSCA. When Mort Sahl Kicked Mark Lane Out of his House An interesting anecdote from Mort Sahl's book, Heartland. Should We Blame Mark Lane? Some ads for Lane's film Rush to Judgment. In Defense of the Warren Commission A Garry Wills opinion piece on Mark Lane. Victor Navasky Reviews Mark L

Here is the article from the Los Angeles Times that Edwards was referring to: Here is a George Lardner article on the controversy: Previous Relevant Blog Posts George Lardner on Mark Lane Lane supported Don Edwards until he complained about the HSCA.

Washington Post, May 14, 1977 Money Quote When Rep. Don Edwards (D-Calif), as chairman of the House Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights, protested against the intrusive nature of the hidden recording devices, voice stress analyzers and other gadgets proposed for the investigation by chief Counsel Sprague, Lane began denouncing him on the lecture circuit and noting darkly that Edwards was a former agent of the FBI. Up to that point, Edwards had been mentioned favorably in Ci

Here is a link to Part One of my review of Robert Tanenbaum's new book, That Day in Dallas. What is perhaps more interesting than what...

Paul Bleau's first chokehold is that "the official record impeaches the Warren Commission." He believes that: (page 38 in the Kindle edition of his book Chokeholds) U.S. investigations into the assassination, statements made by investigation insiders and foreign government conclusions about the assassination prove that there is a strong consensus by the independent investigative authorities that there was a conspiracy in the murder of President John F. Kennedy. Bleau's chapte

The HSCA located Corrie Collins in Highland Park, Michigan and interviewed him on October 24, 1978. They also had him sign an affidavit. Here is the report of his interview: That's it. That's the entire interview of Corrie Collins. While Collins said that while he recognized Oswald after the assassination, he could not remember where he saw him. Collins "saw no reason to say anything to anybody." At the Shaw trial, his testimony at the Shaw trial was slightly different: Mr. D

The HSCA's investigation of the Clinton/Jackson witnesses was extremely poor and incomplete. Many witnesses were not called to testify, and those that did were not asked important questions. If you can believe it, the HSCA never determined that Anne Dischler was one of Garrison's main investigators of the Clinton/Jackson witnesses. Here is the HSCA conclusion about Clinton: Aware that Garrison had been fairly criticized for questionable tactics, the committee proceeded cautio

You can watch this video on YouTube. Here is a transcript of his testimony: Here is a link to highlights of his testimony. Raymond...

Oliver Stone's so-called documentary, JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass , misleads viewers on the context of discussions between...

Here is a note that Jim Garrison sent to Gaeton Fonzi: For some strang e reason, Jim Garrison believed that he was on to something. Here is what Thornley said about his height to the Warren Commission: Only Jim Garrison could feel that this exchange was suspicious. Here is what he wrote in his book, On the Trail of the Assassins : (page 73) One of the reasons I had developed an interest in Thornley was that I suspected he could have been the man who used the name "Oswald" at

Gaeton Fonzi Here is a memo written by Gaeton Fonzi to Troy Gustavson about Kerry Thornley. This memo predates the HSCA and was written when Fonzi was doing some work for Senator Schweiker. Gustavson was Schweiker's press secretary. There are many people who believe that Fonzi was this amazing investigator. This memo shows him to be someone who was capable of swallowing the most amazing nonsense from Jim Garrison. Documents courtesy of the Malcolm Blunt Archive. You can downl

Here is another tape from the summer of 1977 of Jim Garrison being interviewed by investigators from the House Select Committee on Assassinations. The focus is on Kerry Thornley and his supposed impersonation of Lee Harvey Oswald. Here is a Word document with the transcript: Here is a PDF of the transcript: Jim Garrison takes a variety of 'sightings' of Oswald and then tries to convince the HSCA that it was really Kerry Thornley. Garrison starts off the discussion with James

Here is yet another tape of Jim Garrison being interviewed by the House Select Committee on Assassinations in either late July or early...

Here is yet another recording of an HSCA interview with Jim Garrison. This took place in either in late July or early August of 1977. In this session, Garrison talked mostly about Guy Banister. Here is a Word document with the transcript. Here is a PDF file with the transcript. Discussion Garrison discusses the memos written about Betty Parrott (see below for documents). She was an informant in the French Quarter who was very close to Bill Dalzell, who started an anti-Castro

In July and August 1977, Jim Garrison was interviewed by staff members of the House Select Committee on Assassinations. I have five tapes of his interviews and, over the next several weeks, I will be publishing them here for the first time ever. Here is page one of the HSCA memo on the interviews: Here is the first of five tapes. And guess what? It's Jim Garrison at his craziest: This was not the first tape - it was recorded towards the end of the week with Garrison. Here is

When Delphine Roberts (secretary to Guy Banister) was interviewed by the HSCA, she told them several things she clearly made up. Here is...

In February 1978, Jim Garrison called into Ted Gandolfo's radio show with some startling information. Here are some of the highlights:...

Gary Cornwell was the Deputy Chief Counsel for the House Select Committee on Assassinations. In 1998, he published his book, Real Answers , about his work on the HSCA. Here is an excerpt from his chapter on Oliver Stone: "If it can be said that the Warren Commission acted irresponsibly in telling us that there was no conspiracy without having the any real factual basis for that assertion, wasn't it just as irresponsible for the New Orleans District Attorney to prosecute charg