All Blakey and no Stokes

[Gerry Down]

When you look at the Church Committee, Frank Church was the chairman and Frederick Schwarz Jr. was the chief counsel (I bet you've never heard of Frederick Schwarz Jr. until now). With this committee, Church is always portrayed as the leading figure in it when this committee is referenced in articles and books.

However...

A different matter arises when it comes to the HSCA investigation. With the HSCA investigation the chairman was Louis Stokes and the chief counsel was Robert Blakey. Yet for some reason when the HSCA investigation is referenced in articles and books, it is almost always the chief counsel Blakey that is cast as the leading figure of this investigation rather than the chairman Louis Stokes.

Why is this? Why does Blakey get the spotlight over Stokes when it comes to the HSCA?

[Mitch Todd]

When you look at the Church Committee, Frank Church was the chairman and Frederick Schwarz Jr. was the chief counsel (I bet you've never heard of Frederick Schwarz Jr. until now). With this committee, Church is always portrayed as the leading figure in it when this committee is referenced in articles and books.

However...

A different matter arises when it comes to the HSCA investigation. With the HSCA investigation the chairman was Louis Stokes and the chief counsel was Robert Blakey. Yet for some reason when the HSCA investigation is referenced in articles and books, it is almost always the chief counsel Blakey that is cast as the leading figure of this investigation rather than the chairman Louis Stokes.

Why is this? Why does Blakey get the spotlight over Stokes when it comes to the HSCA?

Stokes may never have wanted to be chairman of the Committee. Remember that he was the third guy to chair it, after Downing and Gonzalez. He may have seen the assignment as a turd that fell from heaven into his lap. Who would be proud of that?

On the other hand, Blakey was already somewhat famous as a mob prosecutor before he joined the show. Baden, among others, have suggested (or outright said) that Blakey wanted to push his a priori notion that the mob was behind the assassination. Perhaps not coincidentally, the the HSCA final report pinned the killing on....the mob.