Oswald's Raleigh call

[William Edney]

[Lance Payette]

Total and utter nonsense. One of the classic conspiracy factoids. Even Greg Parker acknowledged I had exposed it for the nonsense it is, but it will never die. I no longer even have the work I did on it, but the CT version of what took place with the switchboard operators just doesn't hold up, and the mysterious John Hurt was a mental case. Believe me - or don't believe me, if you like - but I did massive work on this and it's just a 32nd-degree conspiracy factoid. I even made extensive use of Proctor's work.

To kill a conspiracy factoid like this, you have to stand in a circle of 6.5 mm bullets at the intersection of Houston and Elm in Dealey Plaza at midnight on the anniversary of the JFKA and, holding a crucifix and Bugliosi's tome high above your head, rotate three times while repeating "The Raleigh phone call is nonsense, the Raleigh phone call is nonsense, the Raleigh phone call is nonsense ...." Even that usually doesn't work.

(DVP, you were right - I apparently shouldn't have deleted all my stuff at the Ed Forum!)

[Steve M. Galbraith]

Total and utter nonsense. One of the classic conspiracy factoids. Even Greg Parker acknowledged I had exposed it for the nonsense it is, but it will never die. I no longer even have the work I did on it, but the CT version of what took place with the switchboard operators just doesn't hold up, and the mysterious John Hurt was a mental case. Believe me - or don't believe me, if you like - but I did massive work on this and it's just a 32nd-degree conspiracy factoid. I even made extensive use of Proctor's work.

To kill a conspiracy factoid like this, you have to stand in a circle of 6.5 mm bullets at the intersection of Houston and Elm in Dealey Plaza at midnight on the anniversary of the JFKA and, holding a crucifix and Bugliosi's tome high above your head, rotate three times while repeating "The Raleigh phone call is nonsense, the Raleigh phone call is nonsense, the Raleigh phone call is nonsense ...." Even that usually doesn't work.

(DVP, you were right - I apparently shouldn't have deleted all my stuff at the Ed Forum!)

This is another example - it's never ends - of where it takes 10 seconds for someone to make a conspiracy claim and then 30 minutes to explain how it's wrong. Once the bell rings it's hard to unring it. People remember the ringing of the bell; not the instructions to ignore what they heard, that there was no bell ringing. Mark Lane was notorious - and quite skilled - at this tactic. He was the first Gish galloper. Garrison too but he was too obvious and erratic. His bells were cracked.

Frankly, we are fighting a lost cause (yes, I am depressed over who the Senate confirmed to run the government). Anywhere from 65 to 85% of people - two? three generations of Americans - believe there was a conspiracy. Been that way for 60 years and trying to correct an near infinite number of ringing bells is hard to do.

[Tom Mahon]

The problem shown here is another example of where it takes 10 seconds to make a conspiracy claim and then 30 minutes to explain how it's wrong. Once the bell rings it's hard to unring it. Mark Lane was notorious - and quite skilled - at this tactic. He was the first Gish galloper.

Frankly, we are fighting a lost cause (yes, I am depressed over who the Senate confirmed to run the government). Anywhere from 65 to 85% of people - two? three generations of Americans - believe there was a conspiracy. Been that way for 60 years and trying to correct an near infinite number of ringing bells is hard to do.

Whom did the Senate confirm to run the government?

[Lance Payette]

To the extent I can jog my memory, the net result was basically that the primary claimant of the two switchboard-room women changed her story dramatically over the years, the other switchboard women told a completely different story, there was bad blood between them, and basically this was an INCOMING call from Hurt, whose personal life was a disaster and who no one in their right mind would have called.

I am working right now, if I can keep my sanity, on the Definitive Statement on the absurd "bogus Postal Money Order" factoid. I thought I had killed it years ago, but It Lives! and Harvey & Lee enthusiast Sandy Larsen at the Ed Forum continues to trumpet it as one of his great triumphs. I have more work into this silly factoid than a pretty serious appellate brief. The work required to kill these things is INSANE - and then you don't kill them anyway.

Anyhoo, look for me again with a 5,000-word post on the Postal Money Order at some point in the future unless I completely crack again and delete it all.