Because we members of The Caped Fraternity try to be fair, I consulted my very own copy of Harvey & Lee & Ted & Alice to see if I could figure out what the heck Armstrong is talking about.
Armstrong says in H&L that in 1995 he spoke for four hours with John Neumeyer, who was then living in Las Vegas. Four hours!!!??? The call ostensibly lasted until 3 AM, meaning Armstrong called him at 11 PM. If the notes of this conversation are in the John Armstrong Collection, I didn’t find them even though the collection is easily searchable. (It appears that John Neumeyer may still be living at age 85, now in Pass Christian, Mississippi. Call him and harass him! See what story he tells now! Maybe he was Umbrella Man!)
As you will see, Armstrong’s obsessive diligence was remarkable to the point of being comical. It’s my belief that he so overwhelmed himself with minutiae that this explains many of the errors in his voluminous magnum opus.
Anyway, Armstrong says Neumeyer “clearly remembered the fight, which lasted quite a while, and said that he hit Oswald hard in the mouth several times, but was not sure if he knocked out one of his front teeth.” What??? Neumeyer in 1995 clearly recalled a fight entirely different from what he had recalled when he spoke with the FBI in 1963, 32 years earlier – a fight that his younger brother barely remembered at all in 1963?
But note this, Factoid Fans: Even in 1995, Neumeyer did not confirm what Armstrong now claims – i.e., that he had knocked out Oswald’s tooth! Armstrong combined Neumeyer’s uncertainty with the silly “missing tooth” photo to reach his conclusion. 1.49 + 0.75 = 20.7 in Armstrong World.
In 1995 Neumeyer also had a more specific recollection of when the fight occurred: “Neumeyer told me his fight with Oswald occurred sometime in the fall of his 9th grade year at Beauregard (1954-55).” This set Armstrong off on a truly remarkable quest to date the missing tooth photo.
He noticed a picture above the blackboard in the photo: “With a magnifying glass I examined the picture and noticed a ‘crown’ and the name ‘Hallmark’ in the lower right hand corner, which I recognized as the company logo for Hallmark Greeting Cards.” By contacting Hallmark, he determined this was an ad “which appeared in the November 17, 1954, edition of Scholastic Magazine.” This told him, he says, that the fight with Neumeyer had occurred sometime before that date (i.e., because the fight was how Voebel first became acquainted with Oswald and the photo ostensibly shows a missing tooth from the fight). The photo thus was taken “shortly after” the fight, according to Armstrong. This is Armstrong Logic, which doesn’t quite hold water, but we’ll let it go.
Concerning the photo, Oswald’s 8th grade homeroom teacher, Myra DaRouse, saw it in LIFE Magazine and told Armstrong in 1995 that it appeared the clowning kid had a missing front tooth. She knew “for certain” that her Oswald did not have a missing front tooth. Because The Caped One is sane, he interprets this as further evidence that Oswald did not have a missing tooth. Because Armstrong is a Factoid Master, he interprets this to mean the kid is not Harvey but Lee. (Just in case you don’t know, Armstrong believes Voebel knew both Lee and Harvey at Beauregard, losing touch with Harvey after June of 1954 and meeting Lee in October of that year. Oh, Jesus ….)
Neumeyer also confirmed for Armstrong that Robin Riley had also punched Oswald in the kisser. The mysterious John Lane likewise confirmed this for Armstrong: “The identity of Robin Riley was confirmed during one of my interviews with Neumeyer … and with John Lane, a boy who was standing at the bottom of the steps and witnessed Riley punch Lee Oswald in the mouth.” This is the sole reference to Lane in H&L.
What does all this tell us:
1. Armstrong was diligent as hell, we’ll give him that.
2. As I originally stated, Armstrong and his sycophants play fast and loose with the facts because they are hellbent to promote a theory that is bat guano crazy, at the level of “Queen Elizabeth was a shape-shifting reptilian alien."
3. The substance of my original post stands as written.
Thanking you for your kind attention, which I realize is difficult for CT goofs who think only in terms of Conspiracy Factoid soundbites and wouldn't know genuine research if it bit them on the fanny, I remain, as ever,
The Caped Factoid Buster
