Is Fred Litwin the new LN proponent leader?

[Gerry Down]

There have been several low profile LN proponent leaders in the past. These include Mel Ayton ("The JFK Assassination - Dispelling the Myths and Challenging the Conspiracy Theorists") and Jim Moore ("Conspiracy Of One"). I say low profile because they never really appeared on TV much.

Then there were the more high profile LN proponent leaders.

These include Gerald Posner, Vincent Bugliosi, Dale Myers, and John McAdams. They all wrote books and appeared on several TV programs and documentaries. But they seemed to have gone quiet as of late. As a result it seems a new LN proponent leader has taken their place - Fred Litwin, who has been more willing to put himself out there as of late than any of the other LN proponents mentioned. Thus by default, this in a way makes him the current LN proponent leader.

Fred Litwin has written two books on the JFK assassination: "I Was A Teenage JFK Conspiracy Freak" and "On The Trail of Delusion". The latter book is an anti-Jim Garrison book and so has gained particular ire from Jim DiEugenio who is pro-Jim Garrison. I haven't read either of these books (yet anyway).

How does Fred Litwin stack up against his predecessors Gerald Posner, Vincent Bugliosi, Dale Myers, and John McAdams? Does he make more or less convincing arguments than these in favor of the LN position?

[Tom Scully]

Gerry, although I believe you and political extremist M.T.G. are among the worst phenomena ever to plague this forum, I have to weigh in here, early, but I hope not often because I don't want to further encourage your already hyper-activity.

Mr. Litwin is invested in a desired outcome where it comes to Garrison. He makes the same mistake as Mellen or DiEugenio and Stone.

I was inspired by this to attempt to find out what was least contradictory to the actual facts and follow the evidence wherever it leads to. The facts indicate Garrison and Shaw kept similar secrets, to the grave.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=20298&p=275914
    Thomas H. Purvis – Posted 19 July 2013
    …….
    The “power structure” within New Orleans lies not with those who are currently in what is some temporary political position.

    It lies with those who possess the capability to place these persons in the various political positions.

    Therefore, Jim Garrison, not unlike any other political figure in New Orleans, did what he was instructed to do or else he suffered the consequences.

    Now, if one could only resolve exactly who, within the deep south city of New Orleans, LA, would have reason to replace JFK.

    Hint: It would be those who, for whatever reason, had the means and reasons to end Fidel Castro’s control of Cuba.

    Just perhaps someone whom United Fruit entrusted to their most confidential tasks

Example, in Litwin's post on his website, earlier this week.:

https://www.onthetrailofdelusion.com/post/did-the-cia-pay-the-lawyer-s-of-garrison-s-targets-part-two

    ...It is true that David Baldwin did work for the CIA in the early 1950s. He was stationed in India, but, according to Don Carpenter, author of Man of a Million Fragments, "he had been fired by the CIA for becoming romantically, or at least physically, involved with a woman, Lillian Baxter; during the relationship, certain classified information was divulged." (page 103)...

    ...Garrison's notations were made long after the Parrott memo was written.

     He writes:

        "Re: Attorney STEVE PLOTKIN:

        See statement of DA assistant WILLIAM MARTIN re confidential source informing him that CIA's New Orleans "pay-master" for attorneys was attorney STEPHEN LEMANN (of major New Orleans firm of MONROE + LEMANN) and that LEMANN had retained PLOTKIN to represent individuals, connected with the C.I.A., under inquiry by the New Orleans D.A.'s office...

Mr. Litwin did not share with his readers the following, also from author Don Carpenter,

http://blog.donaldhcarpenter.com/2011_03_01_archive.html
    Wednesday, March 23, 2011
    David Baldwin/Clay Shaw
    I spent some time last week nailing down the relationship between David Baldwin, the ex-CIA man, and Clay Shaw. There are a lot of interesting coincidences in that one.

I don't know what Mr. Litwin considers is enough time to be "long after", as far as Garrison writing notes on the April 1, 1967, Parrot memo.

From Garrison's mid-June 1967 letter to the FCC Chairman.:


Mr. Litwin neglects to share with readers that the lawyer named in the Parrot Memo, Stephen Lemann, owned with his brother, Thomas, more than 20 percent of WDSU or that David Baldwin's wife's mother, Mildred Lyons Lemann had been the step-mother of Stephen and Thomas Lemann since she married their father, Monty Lemann, in 1947.


1946 Newspaper article describes David Baldwin's wife's mother's close relationship to Edgar Stern of WDSU one year before she became Mrs. Monty Lemann, a co-owner and director of WDSU :



Thomas Lemann's son, Nicholas Lemann, nephew of Stephen Lemann, "coincidentally" emerges as Garrison's most prominent critic and Oliver Stone remained clueless to these close relationships because Garrison did not disclose them to Stone or Zachary Sklar and neither did critic, Nicholas Lemann.

John McAdams' reaction to the facts:
https://jfkfacts.org/who-was-the-only-man-to-ever-face-legal-charges-in-jfks-assassination/#comment-856848


My comment to a NY Times article about Nicholas Lemann:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/10/books/review/transaction-man-nicholas-lemann.html#commentsContainer&permid=102925733

[Steve M. Galbraith]

There have been several low profile LN proponent leaders in the past. These include Mel Ayton ("The JFK Assassination - Dispelling the Myths and Challenging the Conspiracy Theorists") and Jim Moore ("Conspiracy Of One"). I say low profile because they never really appeared on TV much.

Then there were the more high profile LN proponent leaders.

These include Gerald Posner, Vincent Bugliosi, Dale Myers, and John McAdams. They all wrote books and appeared on several TV programs and documentaries. But they seemed to have gone quiet as of late. As a result it seems a new LN proponent leader has taken their place - Fred Litwin, who has been more willing to put himself out there as of late than any of the other LN proponents mentioned. Thus by default, this in a way makes him the current LN proponent leader.

Fred Litwin has written two books on the JFK assassination: "I Was A Teenage JFK Conspiracy Freak" and "On The Trail of Delusion". The latter book is an anti-Jim Garrison book and so has gained particular ire from Jim DiEugenio who is pro-Jim Garrison. I haven't read either of these books (yet anyway).

How does Fred Litwin stack up against his predecessors Gerald Posner, Vincent Bugliosi, Dale Myers, and John McAdams? Does he make more or less convincing arguments than these in favor of the LN position?

If/when you read his books you'll see that he spends most of his time exposing the fraudulence behing the major conspiracy claims, chiefly the ones promoted by the "Garrisonites" such as Stone and DiEugenio et al, and very little time promoting the lone assassin view. This is more true with his second book about Garrison's incredible abuses in his investigation. In his first book, he explains how he became a conspiracy believer - he mentions seeing the Zapruder film on the Geraldo Rivera show - and how after checking original sources like the WC he came to realize that he was misled if not outright lied to.

So he's more of a anti-CT author than a pro-LN author.

As to a leader: since there isn't much of an organized LN movement there really can't be a leader. Without any followers what's to lead? The CT cause has had conferences and seminars and all sorts of organized programs over the years. If there is a "leader" as such for the lone assassin side who is still alive it would probably be the historian Max Holland. But he's generated controversy among individual LNers with his "early first shot" theory.

Anyway, maybe Mr. Litwin will reply as where he see himself in this controversy.

[Gerry Down]

historian Max Holland. But he's generated controversy among individual LNers with his "early first shot" theory.

How could I forget Max Holland. I believe he is working on some magnum opus work on the history of the Warren Commission. No idea when it is due to be released.

[Steve M. Galbraith]

How could I forget Max Holland. I believe he is working on some magnum opus work on the history of the Warren Commission. No idea when it is due to be released.

As you probably know, Holland's a very serious historian who has done major works on more than the JFK assassination. Events like the missile crisis, Watergate, Iran/Contra...it's a pretty impressive list.

For me, his major contribution to the JFK assassination is how he has documented how confused and disorganized and disoriented "the government" was after it. He shows the bureaucratic infighting, the incompetence, the pettiness, the power struggles, the confusion, the fear. All of the warts; these are human beings not angels (or devils). For anyone to believe that all of this was some act, that Hoover and LBJ and others were behind the murder but were acting this way, is to believe in things that are simply impossible.

But hey, it's a free country. People can believe in all sorts of fantasies if it helps get them through the day.

[Tom Scully]

If/when you read his books you'll see that he spends most of his time exposing the fraudulency of the major conspiracy claims, chiefly the ones promoted by the "Garrisonites" such as Stone and DiEugenio et al, and very little time promoting the lone assassin view. This is more true with his second book about Garrison's incredible abuses in his investigation. In his first book, he explains how he became a conspiracy believer - he mentions seeing the Zapruder film on the Geraldo Rivera show - and how after checking original sources like the WC he came to realize that he was misled if not outright lied to.

So he's more of a anti-CT author than a pro-LN author.

As to a leader: since there isn't much of an organized LN movement there really can't be a leader. Without any followers what's to lead? The CT cause has had conferences and seminars and all sorts of organized programs over the years. If there is a "leader" as such for the lone assassin side who is still alive it would probably be the historian Max Holland. But he's generated controversy among individual LNers with his "early first shot" theory.

Anyway, maybe Mr. Litwin will reply as where he see himself in this controversy.

Steve, continuing from my last post, here is an excerpt of another blog post (March, 2021) of Mr. Litwin,

https://www.onthetrailofdelusion.com/post/did-clay-shaw-take-lee-harvey-oswald-to-the-gay-baths-the-fred-leemans-story-part-two
....
All of this raises serious questions about Mr. James Quaid. Perhaps he was briefly associated with Baldwin, and perhaps he had some leftover letterhead. But, his status, at the time he wrote that letter, is very unclear. And, there is no evidence to support the DiEugenio claim that "Quaid had heard about this easy employment from his law partner Ed Baldwin." Nor is there any evidence that Baldwin was on any such referral panel....

You indicate you have the identical approach as Mr. Litwin's. You minimize, avoid, or ignore what does not fit your conclusions, instead of being open to what the facts indicate.

My original research is now 5 years old. Five years of ignoring new, verifiable details while sticking to the old, which resolved nothing, because it can't, it is incomplete, is par for the course, I guess!

Mr. Litwin does not mention Edward Baldwin's brother David in the blog post I linked to. They are son's of the sister of Garrison's father-in-law. Edward Baldwin worked for years as associates under WC senior asst. counsel,
Leon Hubert. Baldwin, Hubert, and the Baldwins' sister's future husband (See Obit, below) went into law practice together.:

Date on left: 1965, date on right, 1954:


https://jfkfacts.org/comment-of-the-week-17/#comment-859056




Proof the Baldwin brothers were nephews of Garrison's wife's father, Herbert Ziegler.
His sister. the Baldwin's mother, was Adele Ziegler Baldwin Raworth, obit displayed above.

[Jerry Freeman]

Is Fred Litwin the new LN proponent leader?

"Leader"?   

[Tom Scully]

If/when you read his books you'll see that he spends most of his time exposing the fraudulency of the major conspiracy claims, chiefly the ones promoted by the "Garrisonites" such as Stone and DiEugenio et al, and very little time promoting the lone assassin view. This is more true with his second book about Garrison's incredible abuses in his investigation. In his first book, he explains how he became a conspiracy believer - he mentions seeing the Zapruder film on the Geraldo Rivera show - and how after checking original sources like the WC he came to realize that he was misled if not outright lied to.

So he's more of a anti-CT author than a pro-LN author. ....

Steve, at least Joan Mellen is sincere, sincerely conned by Jim Garrison. Mr. Litwin, OTOH, has had the benefit of newer available information but has chosen instead to "stick to the script."

Joan Mellen first met Jim Garrison just months after the Clay Shaw trial in 1969 and described interviewing more than 1200 people before publishing her book on Jim Garrison, “Farewell to Justice.”

More than 30 years after she first met Jim Garrison and in addition to much other research and interviewing 1200 people, this was the crux and the emphasis of Joan Mellen’s presentation on the best supported CIA influences/interference on Garrison’s investigation and his prosecution of Clay Shaw.

    https://www.maryferrell.org/pages/Unredacted_-_Episode_1_-_Transcript.html
    "Unredacted Episode 1: Transcript of Interview with Joan Mellen
    Joan Mellen is the author of A Farewell to Justice: Jim Garrison, JFK’s Assassination, and the Case That Should Have Changed History. This interview was conducted on 22 Feb 2006. Tyler Weaver provided the introduction, and the interview was conducted by Rex Bradford.
    …….
    REX: I – I think –

    JOAN: – when Baldwin was present, he was a CIA asset, his brother worked for the International Trade Mart and Clay Shaw, David Baldwin, and these, these are CIA people…."

Yes, Joan, but they were also Garrison's wife's close family, Clay Shaw knew it, but nobody told you, Sklar, or Stone. Nicholas Lemann knew it, too, so did Tom Bethell!

David Baldwin's wife, Mildred, was the daughter of Nicholas Lemann's step-grandmother, Mildred Crumb Lyons Lemann:
http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/orleans/obits/1/l-11.txt
"003004 Lemann Mildred Crumb Lyons Lemann, A Homemaker, Died Friday At Her Home In New Orleans. She
Was 94. Mrs. Lemann Was A Lifelong Resident Of New Orleans. … In 1929, She Worked At Metairie Park
Country Day School, Where She Coordinated The School's Non-Academic Activities. Survivors Include A Daughter, Mildred Lyons Baldwin;
A Sister, Ethel Crumb Brett; Two Stepsons, Thomas B. Lemann, And Stephen B. Lemann; …. Times Picayune 01-14-1990"

Mary wasn't 100 percent accurate, but a lot more transparent than Mr. Litwin or Nicholas Lemann :

https://www.maryferrell.org/php/marysdb.php?id=2345&search=stephen%20b%20lemann
2. CIA, IN NEW ORLEANS
Found in: Mary Ferrell's Database
"Leake, III; Stephen B. Lemann (resident CIA Chief in New Orleans - with Law Firm: Monroe & Lemann). See Lloyd A. Ray."

http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/T%20Disk/TV-Radio%20Transcripts%20From%20Trunzo%20Russ/WFLD-TV/67-07-11.pdf