David Minier, former district attorney for Madera County in central California, writes in The Fresno Bee, that the CIA is hiding records of an asset in 1963 named Claude Barnes Capehart. That may well be true, but Minier’s argument thatt Capehart was involved in JFK’s assassination strikes me as weak.
I don’t know of any evidence corroborating the linkage of Capehart to Kennedy’s assassination. The claim that Capeheart is a “dead ringer” for a man photographed in Dealey Plaza is inherently weak; such visual identifications are not scientific nor reliable. Capehart’s claim that he was in Dealey Plaza is hearsay from a dead man, also weak. His name does not appear in other accounts of the assassination
Minier’s case is strongest when he says Capehart was connected to the CIA.
Only four days after President Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, the CIA requested a “name check” on Capehart from other federal agencies. Secret government documents about Capehart include, in “one (1) sealed envelope,” information “for the inclusive dates of 1963-1975.” And a 1973 CIA “letter of assignment and investigative transmittal” designates Capehart as “covert,” instead of “field.”
However, the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) investigated in the 1990s found “no evidence . . . to suggest that Capehart worked for the CIA on any additional contracts nor in any capacity directly or indirectly.” The ARRB had the resources and personnel to get to the bottom of such issues.
The Capehart story may be a lead that requires more reporting. It is not evidence that Capehart was involved in JFK’s assassination.
Source: Fresno, CA writer: CIA hides details on JFK assassination | The Fresno Bee