No. No. No.
That false and libelous claim, “KOCH FAMILY Had Role In JFK Assassination,” popped up in my Twitter feed today.
@aniktwit @lisapease @whowhatwhy @jeffersonmorley @Leefellerguy KOCH FAMILY Had Role In JFK Assasination http://t.co/c60hmLfeho
— Skook (@skookerG) February 2, 2015
This bogus claim, I’m sorry to say, was written by a progressive grandmother “who loves all of God’s children.” If only she loved historical truth as much as the divine offspring.
There is no evidence — zero, zip, nada — that the Koch family had anything to do with the events that led to the death of President Kennedy. Skook seems to have based her charge on this piece from Addicting Info, which doesn’t actually claim that the John Birch Society was involved in JFK’s murder.
What we have here is a classic example of the social media echo/distortion chamber.
The conspiratorial insinuation is derived from a couple of true facts.
The Koch family did fund the right-wing paranoia of the John Birch Society in the early 1960s. And the Dallas chapter of the John Birch Society did pay for an advertisement in the Dallas Morning News on November 22, 1963, accusing President Kennedy of treason. Later that day, President Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas. That vicious, ill-informed advertisement exemplified the hatred for the liberal president that pervaded the conservative city. It is not evidence of a crime.
“No. No. No. That false and libelous claim…”
I can’t help but to note that is a very similar response to one given to the documentary Shane O’sullivan made connecting dots in the RFK assassination, where he had identified several cia personnel in footage from the Ambassador Hotel. Although his research seemed quite thorough, the identifications each backed up by two or more persons who had worked with them in the past, he was told by “experts” in the research community he was wrong, that these men were not cia they were Bullova watch executives. Now we find out from Malcom Blunt that Bullova watch had a 301 file, was in fact a commercial cover corporation for the cia.
Some people might see a similarity between David H. Koch purchasing Jackie’s apartment and D. H Byrd having the lone gunman’s 6th floor window taken out and framed to put in his house … not that I do; maybe he got a steal? http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/16/realestate/16deal1.html?fta=y&_r=0
It does seem odd though that David and Charles Koch would choose to finance the purposefully disingenuous PBS documentary, “NOVA: Cold Case JFK”; Given that Fred Koch was a co-founder of the Birchers, and that it’s common knowledge they paid for the “Wanted for Treason” Kennedy ads in Dallas, one might think that would be a topic they wouldn’t touch with a 10′ pole or they know they can buy investigative reporters. “Assassinating an Assassination: Charles and David Koch Confess/Finance a Willingness to Murder JFK.” http://www.theassassinatedpress.com/patsy1.htm
Of course to truly understand this political family one needs to go back a long way, an excellent place to start is Jim DiEgenio’s excellent article > “The Back Stoty on Citizen Koch” https://consortiumnews.com/2014/07/14/the-back-story-of-citizen-koch
That the Kotch family is a financially influential entity in US politics is simply a historical fact. That the influence they wield is ultra-conservative is azure clear.
Were they directly involved with the Kennedy assassination?
Highly unlikely, their influence begins way upstream from any events they may have a part in influencing.
I would assert that the System, the “Military Industrial Complex”, if you will; is not Left or Right, Conservative or Liberal, but a synthesis of both. I also assert that it was a consensus within the highest levels of this System that gave approval to the assassination of JFK.
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Well Jeff, I can’t think of a better illustration of the conspiracy mindset and inability to accept facts over ideological conviction than the comments on this one item.
You have previously stated that over 90% of conspiracy theories are bullshit.The fact that anybody could even consider this tripe as plausible reflects how even the most outlandish claims can be accepted by the conspiracy crowd as long as they conform to what they think is true, no matter what the facts really are.
“The fact that anybody could even consider this tripe as plausible…” It’s a fact some do consider some of it plausible.
Isn’t this a bit of a straw man argument?
How many people posted saying that they agreed with this theory of the Koch’s from the regular posters? Maybe 10% at most?
It is not an unknown premise that the most blatant and egregious crime or misdeed hides in plain sight by sheer arrogance of it’s premise…..
The Heydrich character in the German Wannsee Conference movie says something like: “Die Sache tarnt sich von selbst. Und wieso, meine Herren? Weil es unglaublich ist. [The whole matter conceals itself. How is that? Because it is fantastic.]”
I’m no fan of the Koch brothers. One might reasonably describe it as an ideological divide. That said, it is true that there is no evidence linking them, nor any organization to which they belonged, to the president’s murder. I’ve always found it difficult to believe that a responsible party would be so stupid as to have provided the authorities with such a clear motivation the day of the assassination. Then again, we are discussing the intellectual titans of the John Birch Society.
“I’ve always found it difficult to believe that a responsible party would be so stupid as to have provided the authorities with such a clear motivation the day of the assassination.”
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John: Watch the movie “Basic Instinct”. In it, Catherine (Sharon Stone) says to Michael Douglas:
“Why would I write a novel in which I describe a murder, and later perform it exactly in real life?”
(spoiler: the lady specialized on ice picks)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103772/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_31
… and don’t forget that the best minds in the planet (half on our side, half on the Soviet), masters of deception and counter-counter-counter-intelligence were working on this.
Some Birchers may have known about the upcoming event, some may not. It’s wasn’t like:
“Gentlemen, this is the schedule: On Wednesday, we elect next years’ board of directors, Friday is the murder of the SOB, then we celebrate on Saturday. Don’t forget to pay your dues plus the special one-time payment… This ain’t cheap. Who is in charge of the steak?”
Jeff:
As we all know, even -or specially- the Posners, Bugliosis and McAdamses of the world, we a dealing with 2 conspiracies:
– One, with a few carefully selected -some self-appointed- highly specialized actors. This phase ended with the pulling of the triggers.
– Another, composed by a DeMillean “cast of thousands”. That phase is very much alive, kicking and screaming, as you -an indefatigable litigator- know so well.
At this point, it matters not what role some Koch may have played in the former. As you well say: No, no, no.
In the latter, however, it is a resounding: Yes, yes, yes.
See this previous post:
https://jfkfacts.org/assassination/news/national-archives-creates-a-team-to-review-jfk-records-for-2017-release/#comment-603219
It’s me, the grandmother who loves all God’s children, about whom you wrote your disparaging blog prior to hearing my response to your tweet. As a researcher of “facts” wouldn’t you ethically wait for my response prior to posting your assumptions with my photo on line? Slow news day?
The propaganda and the news ad (which you admit are true) are tantamount to those in the article I cited. As I tweeted (post-blog) the John Bircher Soc. (funded by Papa Koch) distributed the wanted posters and other anti-JFK propaganda throughout Dallas and ran an article in the Dallas paper.
No, that’s not evidence of involvement in a murder AND THAT’S NOT WHAT I SAID. I SAID its evidence that they were attempting to INCITE violence and rage in right-wing Dallas prior to JFK’s arrival. Why else would they distribute that type of propaganda in Dallas? Did they publish ads across the country? No. They published them in Dallas where the president would be visiting.
Further, I did NOT RELY ON ONE ARTICLE.
There are several similar articles which I read prior to my tweet but I only cited one as tweets are limited in size.
Well, I GUESS they COULD have contributed to a general fund as some SPECULATE H L Hunt, Murchison Sid Richardson and others did. The Bircher’s were popular among those opposed to changing the oil depletion allowance. Then some speculate Marcello, Trafficante and Giancana and others did this within the mafia.
But I don’t think either group planned it, did it and covered it up.
I’ve never seen any claim that any of the Koches were at the party at Murchison’s Dallas house the night before the assassination that may or may not have taken place. But I suppose one or more of them could possibly have been.
(By the way, the strongest argument for Madeleine Brown not having told the truth when she said that that party took place has been the fact that there are photos of LBJ in a hotel in Fort Worth at the very time the party supposedly took place. But I recently learned from Philip Nelson’s new book on LBJ that LBJ had a lookalike cousin whom he used as a double. So that argument is not quite so decisive as it used to appear.)