On The Trail Of Delusion

[Jerry Organ]

I'm about halfway through "JFK Revisited".

Early on, Oliver Stone states:

    "What the HSCA learned was considered too damaging to be
     made public. And close to a half-million records were to remain
     sealed until 2029."

Please point to what the HSCA (who concluded there was a "probable conspiracy") "considered too damaging".



Stone is at the corner of the Grassy Knoll fence; his overdub touches on the work of the ARRB:

    "With these facts in hand, we will go back and piece together
     what really happened that day. And discover the reasons why ...
     Let's begin."

To the gullible, it feels like a magic carpet ride. But the ARRB stuff is barely touched on; Stone hearkens back to people like Mark Lane and Robert Crenshaw. There's the caffeinated Cyril Wecht basking in devilish delight to the lilt of fairy-tale musak:

    "What if one bullet made all seven wounds?"

This is one priceless performance. I'm surprised Stone didn't supply Wecht a ukulele.

How old is the claim about the mushroomed bullets to cadaver wrists? And how it supposedly rules out the squeezed but mostly-intact CE399. The 1964 tests were meant to show what happens when a Carcano bullet strikes a wrist bone nose-on and at full-velocity. Which is why CE399 works so well with the Single Bullet Theory, where the bullet was slowed and off-axis before arriving at Connally's radius (and so it didn't mushroom or disintegrate). Stone has no scruples about deceiving people.

The program contends the rifle linked to Oswald was different from the Klein's ad he was supposed to have ordered from, including where the sling mounts were. Actually, the "Carcano" graphic seen in the Klein's ad was different from any they had been shipping for years; in the late-50s, Kleins used to ship the shortened "Long Rifle" (the 50" M91 Model, the original in the Carcano series introduced in 1891).

When things get slow, they bring in Ukulele Cy, this time he dramatizes the treatment of Earl Rose. A while later, Wecht mocks Humes and Boswell:

    "who had never done a single gunshot wound autopsy
     in their entire careers".

But that's not what the doctors told JAMA in 1992.

At the midway mark, there's a scene from the "JFK" movie where Costner regales the jury. Yet the thing that now impresses me from that scene is how naive the young Costner looks and how taken in he was.

[Jerry Freeman]

What horrible things did the CIA do with Kennedy's approval? There's currently no proof (beyond heresay) that JFK approved of the CIA attempts to kill Castro. 

Will probably say that he probably approved it 

[Jon Banks]

The claim that Todd's initials are not on CE399 rest on still pictures that show the bullet length from four sides. So some areas aren't straight on to the camera. There's no reason to believe all the agents used the same method to apply there initials; some are barely visible today.

The differing times for the handover of CE399 I can only conjecture about. Some agents who "could not identify" CE399 were actually asked to positively identify the bullet, which they could not once it left their possession. They could generally say the bullet appeared to be the same. This is left out of the Stone film.

Stone's movie just grazes the surface of those types of issues. They had to squeeze a lot of info into two hours.

Gary Aguilar and Josiah Thompson's research is what the film references.

The Magic Bullet: Even More Magical Than We Knew?

In a memo to the Warren Commission [C. E. #2011] concerning its investigation of the chain of possession of C.E. #399, the FBI reported that two Parkland Hospital eyewitnesses, Darrell Tomlinson and O. P. Wright, said C.E. #399 resembled the bullet they discovered on the day JFK died. But the FBI agent who is supposed to have interviewed both men and the Bureau’s own suppressed records contradict the FBI’s public memo. Agent Odum denied his role, and the FBI’s earliest, suppressed files say only that neither Tomlinson nor Wright was able to identify the bullet in question. This suppressed file implies the hospital witnesses saw no resemblance, which is precisely what Wright told one of the authors in 1967.

What we are left with is the FBI having reported a solid chain of possession for #399 to the Warren Commission. But the links in the FBI’s chain appear to be anything but solid. Bardwell Odum, one of the key links, says he was never in the chain at all and the FBI’s own, suppressed records tend to back him up. Inexplicably, the chain also lacks other important links: FBI 302s, reports from the agents in the field who, there is ample reason to suppose, did actually trace #399 in Dallas and in Washington. Suppressed FBI records and recent investigations thus suggest that not only is the FBI’s file incomplete, but also that one of the authors may have been right when he reported in 1967 that the bullet found in Dallas did not look like a bullet that could have come from Oswald’s rifle...

https://history-matters.com/essays/frameup/EvenMoreMagical/EvenMoreMagical.htm

[Fred Litwin]

Oliver Stone Pulls the Wool over Joe Rogan's Eyes
What a painful experience. Joe Rogan doesn't know anything about the JFK assassination, and Oliver Stone can only offer shallow talking points. Here's an example of one thing Stone got wrong. And a challenge to conspiracy theorists.

https://www.onthetrailofdelusion.com/post/oliver-stone-pulls-the-wool-over-joe-rogan-s-eyes

[Jerry Organ]

Stone's movie just grazes the surface of those types of issues. They had to squeeze a lot of info into two hours.

Gary Aguilar and Josiah Thompson's research is what the film references.

The Magic Bullet: Even More Magical Than We Knew?

In a memo to the Warren Commission [C. E. #2011] concerning its investigation of the chain of possession of C.E. #399, the FBI reported that two Parkland Hospital eyewitnesses, Darrell Tomlinson and O. P. Wright, said C.E. #399 resembled the bullet they discovered on the day JFK died. But the FBI agent who is supposed to have interviewed both men and the Bureau’s own suppressed records contradict the FBI’s public memo. Agent Odum denied his role, and the FBI’s earliest, suppressed files say only that neither Tomlinson nor Wright was able to identify the bullet in question. This suppressed file implies the hospital witnesses saw no resemblance, which is precisely what Wright told one of the authors in 1967.

What we are left with is the FBI having reported a solid chain of possession for #399 to the Warren Commission. But the links in the FBI’s chain appear to be anything but solid. Bardwell Odum, one of the key links, says he was never in the chain at all and the FBI’s own, suppressed records tend to back him up. Inexplicably, the chain also lacks other important links: FBI 302s, reports from the agents in the field who, there is ample reason to suppose, did actually trace #399 in Dallas and in Washington. Suppressed FBI records and recent investigations thus suggest that not only is the FBI’s file incomplete, but also that one of the authors may have been right when he reported in 1967 that the bullet found in Dallas did not look like a bullet that could have come from Oswald’s rifle...

https://history-matters.com/essays/frameup/EvenMoreMagical/EvenMoreMagical.htm

I see they still haven't made available the full transcripts of their phone and sit-down interviews with Odum. So much uncertainty arose from the phone interview, Aguilar and Thompson visited Odum in Dallas. Wonder what transpired. Odum as much as conceded he simply forgot about the Parkland visit (CE399 wasn't famous until after the Report came out) if a 302 report could be found. But 302s were not always issued if information was to be collated in a covering report, such as CE 2011.

It could be CE 2011 got wrong the name of the agent who went to Parkland. In a footnote in his 1967 book, Thompson thought Wright might have been mistaken about the bullet being pointed.

Raymond Marcus interviewed by phone Darryl Tomlinson on July 25, 1966:

     Marcus: Did anybody show you the bullet after the time you
          found it, and after the time you gave it to Mr. Wright?

     Tomlinson: I seen it one time after that. I believe Mr. Shanklin
          from the FBI had it out there at the hospital in personnel
          with Mr. Wright there when they called me in.

     Marcus: When Shanklin and Mr. Wright called you in at that
          time, did they show you the bullet?

     Tomlinson: Yes.

     Marcus: Did they ask you if it looked like the same one?

     Tomlinson: Yes, I believe they did.

     Marcus: And as far as you could tell--- of course, you weren't making a
          making a ballistics test of it--- but as far as you could tell, did it look
          like the same one to you?

     Tomlinson Yes, it appeared to be the same one.

[Jerry Organ]

You won't get much push-back from the critics on anything Oliver Stone does to feel the insanity.

They think "conspiracy" is a foregone conclusion ("conspiracy fact" in "JFK Revisited") and that just about anything supportive of conspiracy--no matter how error-laden--is justified as a public service where the end justifies the means.

Oh, a few draw the line at something like Greer-Shot-Kennedy or Umbrella-lauched flechette. I haven't started on the second half of "Revisited" so I'll see how far off the deep end Stone goes.

[Jon Banks]

The film was written by Jim DiEugenio so, Jimmy D should be invited to these interviews about JFK Revisited. Why only Stone gets invited, I'm not sure. 

Stone is a great film maker but not a scholar of history. He produces many projects about historic events but usually gets help from academics and actual historians.

[Fred Litwin]

take the challenge in my post, please. Prove me wrong.