In her new book about Lyndon Johnson, Faustian Bargains, Joan Mellen does something all too rare in the world of JFK research. She checked an oft-asserted “fact,” and found it isn’t a fact at all, but a fiction.
But first, the book. Faustian Bargains is intended less as a biography of LBJ than a portrait of the “robber baron culture” of Texas” and corrective to Robert Caro’s magisterial multi-volume biography, which Mellen scorns for its favorable depiction of LBJ’s political skills and legislative accomplishments.
On one point, Faustian Bargains is especially useful. Mellen makes the very fair point out that Caro never mentions Bill Sol Estes, a con man whose multimillion dollar business schemes depended very much on his association with LBJ. Mellen is convincing that Caro’s omission of this story is a favor that LBJ’s historical reputation does not deserve.
Mellen also excavates in LBJ’s corrupt connections with Bobby Baker and George Brown of Brown & Root Construction Co. fame, who are not exactly ignored by Caro. Mellen’s debatable point is that LBJ’s corruption is more essential to understanding the man than anything else. It seems more credible to say that Johnson’s profound corruption was of a piece with his big accomplishments.
Mellen’s description of LBJ’s Great Society domestic agenda as a “cynical ploy” seems more rhetorical than fair, especially in the context of current American politics. If only Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were so “cynical” to address persistent poverty in America with ambitious measures like Head Start, Medicaid, and affirmative action.
Robber Baron Culture
Where Faustian Bargains is most effective is showing how LBJ’s wheeling and dealing on behalf of himself and his business backers. Mellen shows how LBJ enriched Texas defense contractors, Ling Electronics and TEMCO, in his rise to power.
I was fascinated, but not altogether convinced, by her account of how LBJ absconded with gold bars stashed on the White Sands missile range in New Mexico. One of the sources for the story also alleges that Richard Nixon also enriched himself. LBJ and Nixon working the exact same scam strains credulity.
Fingerprint
As for LBJ’s role in JFK assassination story, Mellen is discerning. She dispatches the only two pieces of “evidence” connecting Johnson to the murder of his predecessor.
One is the story of Madeleine Brown, LBJ’s mistress, who purportedly predicted on November 21, 1963 that he would not have to worry about the Kennedy’s anymore. Mellen shows why her story is not particularly credible.
But Mellen’s biggest service is to revisit the story of an unidentified fingerprint found on a box on the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository. Numerous JFK researchers have repeated the claim that the fingerprint was that of Mac Wallace, an LBJ associate who apparently murdered a man whom he believed to have slept with his wife. As Mellen shows with a careful reconstruction of the case, Wallace escaped punishment for the crime thanks to legal machinations of Texas politicos aligned with LBJ. From these events arose the hoary legend that Mac Wallace had something to do with JFK’s assassination.
Mellen kills the legend. She points out that the two “experts” who said that fingerprint came from Wallace were not certified identification experts at the time of their claims. They also used a faulty image of the fingerprint. She notes that the JFK authors who repeated the story of the Mac Wallace fingerprint often used identical language without ever bothering verify the claim.
By contrast, Mellen did the due diligence. She obtained a quality fingerprint image from the National Archives and showed it to an accredited expert, Robert Garrett, without disclosing the issue at stake. Garrett stated, without qualification, that the fingerprint does not match Wallace’s. Mellen reproduces his methodology. The Mac Wallace fingerprint myth has now been definitively debunked.
LBJ, she argues, understood that President Kennedy had enemies in his own government who would prefer he occupy the Oval Office. While LBJ was unnerved by the gunfire aimed at the presidential motorcade in which he rode on November 22, 1963, he seems to have contemplated what he would do if the president was killed. Mellen’s judicious conclusion is supported by fact.
Fine thread:
While I believe the many deaths of witnesses and those in the know are strong evidence pointing to conspiracy, I also believe that folks often do not realize that there are fundamental differences between looking-ahead probability and post-facto calculations. Selection bias, event bias and other factors can negate the “one in a gazillion” conclusions.
e.g. On Wednesday you could calculate, “what are the odds that on Tuesday (yesterday) that I would stop at these specific 15 stores and travel 37.2 odometer miles, spending exactly $234.56, you might say “one in a trillion” – but if that is what you did the probability is 1.
That said, the accidental and suicidal and difficult to explain deaths are very significant, and we know of institutions that had means and motive, and could make the opportunity.
These types of issues came up in Jesus Tomb calculations and are a standard art of creation-evolution discussion. I’ve discussed this with a world-class probability guy, Erdős number of one.
Steven Avery
Dutchess County, NY, USA
Does anyone know about the timing between the first and second shots? It seems that even in some documentaries I’ve seen over the years, the first two shots have a much shorter time span between them, than is the timing between the second and last shots. This is assuming of course, that there were only three shots. The timing is critical, especially if only one gunman was present.
Trooper Urban, I deeply appreciate your credentials and your point of view. It seems that you believe that Mac Wallace could have been the trigger man, based on what you’ve written. Which leads me to ask this: Were Mr. Johnson in fact the linchpin of a conspiracy, given his deep association with Wallace, would LBJ actually have tapped this man Wallace to shoot at the president? Think about it. Were Wallace identified, much less captured — certainly very real possibilities — all fingers would instantly point right back at LBJ. Now, Mr. Johnson wasn’t a stupid man; I’d posit that Mac Wallace would, therefore, be just about the last individual that LBJ would nominate as the assassin in this case. Far too dangerous for LBJ, given the transparency of their long association. No one knows the answer to this categorically, of course, so it resolves to an issue of deduction. I am simply employing common sense here. (And Trooper, though off the point, I’d like to thank you quite sincerely for a quarter century of service. Tough job. Brave man.)
Personally, I think Joan Mellen is full of shit. First of all, she’s a creative writer not an investigator in any manner, shape or form. Secondly, the print was a fourteen point match which is a slam dunk as far as accuracy is concerned. Mellen is trying to sell books, nothing more. If anyone here needs my credentials, I have an Associate in Science in Legal Assistant, a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice and I am a graduate of the Pennsylvania State Police Academy. I was a State Trooper for 25 years and recently retired.
Oh James, How can you keep a strait face while saying that “computer technology” has proved the single bullet theory and that “no one” doubts this. Have a look at the (WC exhibit 399} bullet. Moreover, the wound in JFK’s neck was an entrance wound anyway.
Many many conspiracy theories but not one piece of credible forensic evidence or valid explanation linking Oswald to any of them. They are all ex poste facto explanations many predicated upon the repeating of claims that have never never been subjected to any rigour and scrutiny. Think of the mileage the conspiracy theorists made of the “single bullet theory” . Scorn was poured on WC for thinking this was possible yet no one doubts now that computer technology has shown that this was exactly what happened. Similarly with the acoustic evidence picked up from the radio on the motorcycle of the Dallas policeman that suggested another shot.Again that is now consigned to the dustbin of assassination theories. The person to gain most from JFK death was Oswald as he now has a place in history. He became a somebody.
James – do you honestly think Oswald aspired to be the world’s most famous “patsy”? If he had shot Kennedy to become famous, he would have owned the deed. Once he denies having does so, he’s relegated to the role of “fall-guy.”
If it made Oswald a somebody, then why did Oswald say that he didn’t do it?
A few points to this valuable post:
(a) Even if Mac Wallace was not on in the Sixth Floor Depository does not this does meant the LBJ was not involved in the assignation of JFK
(b) I observed a video with Evelyn Lincoln, JFK’s faithful secretary, who was convinced based on a meeting by JFK and RFK, which she witnessed, that JFK was being blackmailed by LBJ to get on the ticket before the 1960 election based on information from the FBI director (LBJ’s close friend) about JFK’s womanizing. This evidence is not normally discussed and I think VERY relevant.
(c) Some involvement of LBJ in JFK’s killing is compelling If you consider point (b) from the credible Ms. Lincoln and (1) the interesting linkages of LBJ to the convicted killer Wallace and the mysterious deaths that the credible Clint Peoples believed to be true, (2) the fear of future prosecution that LBJ may have felt in 1963, (3) LBJ’s ambition, (4) LBJ’s role in setting up the Dallas visit, (5) LBJ’s ties to the Texas men who would get rich when the course in Vietnam would be reversed after JFK’s death, (6) LBJ’s close relationship with Allen Dulles who strongly influenced the Warren Commission and protected the CIA and FBI, and (7) Hoover’s “convince the public that Oswald is the real assassin” memo right after the assignation. I think it is difficult for people in today’s generation to understand just how much blackmailing and other crimes were taking place with people of power back then.
Good points:
(b) JFK chose as his running mate Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri. But he changed his mind after a visit from LBJ and Sam Rayburn. Who says so? Clark Clifford in his book ‘Counsel to the President’. Kennedy called him up to his room and asked him to pass on the message to Symington.
‘Is he dead yet? Is he dead yet?’ This was what Johnson aide Jo Califano says President Johnson repeatedly asked him after Robert Kennedy was shot.
Even more shocking is that Ted Van Dyk says that his boss, Hubert Humphrey, ordered a military jet to L.A. with a top brain surgeon onboard. The aim was to try to save RFK but he was then informed by the White House that he had no authority to order it and that the plane was grounded.
This testimony raises the real possibility that LBJ ordered Senator Kennedy’s assassination as he had that of JFK.
So I guess what famous Watergate lawyer Douglas Caddy, wrote to Stephen S. Trott at the U.S. Department of Justice on 9th August 1984.In the letter, Caddy claimed that Wallace, Billie Sol Estes, Lyndon B. Johnson and Cliff Carter had been involved in the murders of Henry Marshall, George Krutilek, Harold Orr, Ike Rogers, Coleman Wade, Josefa Johnson, John Kinser and John F. Kennedy. Caddy added: “Mr. Estes is willing to testify that LBJ ordered these killings and that he transmitted his orders through Cliff Carter to Mac Wallace, who executed the murders.” In May 1998 JFK Researcher Walt Brown called a press conference in Dallas to discuss a previously unidentified fingerprint at the “sniper’s nest” in the Texas School Book Depository. According to Brown, this fingerprint had now been identified as belonging to Wallace.
Finally finished this book tonight. Absolute total destruction of the myth that Mac Wallace was LBJ’s long term hitman and in turn present in the Texas School Book Depository or Dealy Plaza on 11/22/63.
In addition, the chapter on the USS Liberty, again, so to speak is a Bomb that has not yet fully exploded in terms of History.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods
Anybody understand the link?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident
“error” = Bullshit.
Outrage. My reaction regarding the chapter in this book on the USS Liberty. Operation Northwoods, abhorred by JFK, realized, effected personally by LBJ. United States Service Men killed by a US originated attack on them to justify a Nuclear Attack on Egypt.
God bless the sailors on board and the few others who prevented this from happening. Nuclear weapons equipped US planes called back 7 Minutes from Cairo because Israeli (US Instigated) attackers couldn’t (or wouldn’t) sink the Liberty after attacking it for two hours.
I’ve never read about the Liberty attack in this depth. It illustrates just what the powers behind the Presidency would do, including killing a president if necessary, to achieve their objectives.
Northwoods and this in turn deserve a book of their own.
Thank you Ms. Mellen.
I mean, Jesus, multiple Sailors who survived saw the Star of David on the initial observation planes, the attack planes, the torpedo boats and helicopters. LBJ personally got on the phone and ordered the Admiral who sent rescue planes to have them turn around telling him “I don’t give a Damn if the Liberty Sinks”!
Marine Staff Sargent Bryce Lockwood and Sailor Terence Halbardier are two of the greatest Hero’s in the annals of US Military History. My Father was a Marine Staff Sargent who never had to see battle field action. His brother carried schrapnel to his grave. Other family members have served and shed blood. If you can read this chapter of this book as a US citizen and not be pissed off at “Your Government” I don’t know what to say.
The strongest argument against Madeleine Brown’s story about the party at Clint Murchison’s estate where LBJ allegedly made the statement about never being embarrassed by the Kennedys any more has, I think, been the evidence that LBJ was at a hotel in Fort Worth at the time.
However, I have read in Philip Nelson’s books about LBJ that LBJ had a lookalike cousin whom he used as a double.
LBJ’s Double – Cousin Jay Bert Peck – And his Untimely Death.
In reference to the number of suspicious deaths, there is a much stronger mathematical case to prove the impossibility of the official version.
Probabilities as calculated as follows. Let’s say that you want to calculate the odds of getting the number 4 in a dice:
1/6 = 0.17 (17%)
Now we want to know the possibility of getting a 3 followed by a 5:
1/6 x 1/6 = 0.027778
Next, the possibility of -say- three 1s in a row:
1/6 x 1/6 x 1/6 = 0.004629
As you can see, we keep on multiplying small numbers by small numbers and the results are increasingly tiny. Above, the number of terms was only 3. If we use the number of dead we end up multiplying some 78 small numbers:
https://richardcharnin.wordpress.com/2013/09/18/jfk-witness-unnatural-deaths-a-statistical-summary/
HOWEVER, if we use the number of “coincidences” we will multiply about 1,000 small numbers and the probability of ALL those coincidences (*) holding results in 1 in a penta-quadrillion. That would be like hitting the jackpot several times and getting hit by lighting multiple times.
(*) Here’s one “coincidence”: I contacted the people who did the laser survey of Dealey-Plaza for the Koch-brother sponsored Nova documentary, and I told them that I am willing to pay for an equivalent study. They won’t even give me a price, they won’t answer my e-mail or calls.
Coincidences my rear bottom. I understand the motivation of, say, John McAdams (Conservative, death penalty “expert”, schadenfreude) to perpetuate something that he knows perfectly well to be a lie, but I am baffled by people like:
• Edward Jay Epstein
• David Von Pein
• Jean Davison
who are Liberals and yet they pretend to know better than the Kennedy family.
The HSCA asked two actuarial firms to look into the “mysterious deaths.” Their conclusions start here:
http://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=957&search=%22london_sunday+times%22+letter#relPageId=469&tab=page
They point out the difficulty of making this kind of determination and I hope those here will read it.
I don’t even need to be a statistician to see problems with Charnin’s claim that “There were 122 suspicious deaths among 1400+ JFK-related witnesses from 1964-1978.” His list includes many people whose connection to the JFK assassination is marginal or speculative at best — for instance: a woman friend of Judyth Baker, reporter Lisa Howard, a New Orleans policeman who questioned Ferrie, the daughter of a newspaper columnist, and Chep Morrison, a former mayor of New Orleans who died in a plane crash.
Charmin also repeats the myth that the death of the brother of Tippit witness Domingo Benavides forced Domingo to “change his testimony.” The brother was actually killed in a barroom shooting *after* Benavides testified, and Benavides’ testimony wasn’t crucial in any event. But never mind the facts. JFK myths never die, they just keep on being repeated on the internet.
You’re right about the math and right about the myths, Jean. But seem unaware how many myths are at the root of the Oswald-did-it theory.
What Oswald-did-it myths did you have in mind, Pat?
No one has ever explained how Oswald could be innocent given the evidence against him. There’s only the WC scenario explaining how the evidence got there and 50+ years of complaints about the WC’s version. Simply saying “he was framed” is not enough. How was that possible? Thousands of books/articles and nobody has explained that, to my knowledge.
The myth is that there is evidence against Oswald. Nobody has ever established his location, the weapons, the motive, nothing.
In the United States, we don’t declare people guilty on the basis that “they couldn’t be innocent given the evidence against them.” People accused of crimes are tried by a jury of their peers and provided with a professional defense attorney.
None of this happened with Oswald, who was murdered while in police custody and posthumously declared guilty based on evidence gathered by the same people who had allowed him to be killed. The Warren Commission refused to permit anybody to represent Oswald (even posthumously) and never seriously explored the possibility that anybody other than Oswald had committed the crime.
Didn’t the paraffin test show that Oswald had not fired a rifle that day?
Oswald will forever be legally innocent of murder, just like O.J. Simpson, just like John Wilkes Booth, just like Hitler.
Dead people don’t get tried in court.
I’m talking about the verdict of history.
The evidence against Oswald is far more than the physical items collected by the Dallas police, but even that part hasn’t been explained as part of a frame-up scenario — did they steal his rifle from Ruth Paine’s garage, or what?
Jean Davison: “Oswald will forever be legally innocent of murder, just like O.J. Simpson, just like John Wilkes Booth, just like Hitler.”
Simpson is not “legally innocent of murder”; he was acquitted in a criminal trial and subsequently found responsible for the murders in a civil trial. (For that matter, no one is “legally innocent” of anything; you’re either convicted or acquitted.) Booth committed his crime in front of several witnesses, proclaimed to an entire theater-ful of people that he had done it, left behind letters and a diary that proclaimed his intent and motivation for the murder, and worked with numerous accomplices who attested to his role as leader of the plot. I have no idea why Jean Davison felt the need to include the name of Hitler in this list, but I assume that I don’t have to explain why the evidence of his guilt is decisive.
Against these three, we have Mr. Oswald, who was not actually witnessed committing the crime, may have been in a different location at the time that the crime was committed, denied doing it to his dying breath, had no plausible motive, and had a background that was not only extremely interesting, but entirely at odds with the caricature of him as a “loser” who simply wanted to earn his place in history. Not quite as open-and-shut, to say the least.
Jean, one point of Mr. Charnin’s work is that even if you take out the four you mention and Several more the odd’s are still astronomical. I’m not a mathematician to question it, are you? His presentation is quite detailed and well explained, enough so a layman can comprehend most of it.
Ronnie,
Arguments that sound detailed and well-explained aren’t always right. The actuarial firms the HSCA consulted do this sort of thing for a living — they calculate life expectancies and risks for life insurance companies. Look at what they had to say about the “mysterious deaths,”
in the link I posted.
In 1978 the HSCA investigated the London Times story and found it was a bogus statistic that was immediately retracted, as a London Times spokesman explained:
http://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=957&search=%22london_sunday+times%22+letter#relPageId=468&tab=page
A researcher who investigated William Spitzer’s death in depth ultimately concluded that it was a suicide:
http://www.manuscriptservice.com/Pitzer/homrecon.html
http://www.manuscriptservice.com/Pitzer/opinion.html
Among other things, he found that Pitzer wasn’t left-handed and the gun was found on the floor, not in either hand.
So a man is going to sign out a handgun in order to commit suicide and write himself a note reminding himself to return the gun. Good grief Charlie Brown.
Are you aware that the Times newspaper in London hired a mathematician to calculate the odds of X amount of witnesses (and those linked to the assassination), dieing. The odds were something absurd like 1 in 100 trillion of that happening.
I recall an admiral present at the autopsy of JFK at Bethesda being found dead having blown his own head off and was recorded as suicide. Interestingly the gun used was in his left hand which was also crushed incidentally. He was right handed also. The admiral was due to retire and told a friend he had originals of the autopsy and was his pension!
James
November 10, 2016 at 10:37 am
“Are you aware that the Times newspaper in London hired a mathematician to calculate the odds of X amount of witnesses (and those linked to the assassination), dieing. The odds were something absurd like 1 in 100 trillion of that happening.”
No James, I wasn’t aware of this. A reference would be nice.
“I recall an admiral present at the autopsy of JFK at Bethesda being found dead having blown his own head off and was recorded as suicide. Interestingly the gun used was in his left hand which was also crushed incidentally. He was right handed also. The admiral was due to retire and told a friend he had originals of the autopsy and was his pension!”
But you don’t recall his name? Again, a reference would be nice.
The odds of the number of witnesses and others associated with the assassination are evaluated in greater depth here:
https://www.amazon.com/Reclaiming-Science-Conspiracy-mathematical-disinformation/dp/1502715996/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1479155061&sr=1-5&keywords=richard+charnin
What about Texas Ranger Clint Peoples, who investigated the Marshall killing and others? Shortly before Peoples died in another traffic accident in Texas in 1992, he had supposedly told a friend that he had evidence that Wallace fired at least one shot at Kennedy in Dealey Plaza.
Just a lot of these strange stories surrounding Wallace and LBJ in Texas. A lot of people winding up dead in either suicides involving carbon monoxide or auto accidents.
I too, find it hard to believe someone close to LBJ like Wallace would be on the sixth floor. But my point is there were a lot of weird deaths going on of people connected to Estes and LBJ.
BG
November 6, 2016 at 11:39 pm
“I too, find it hard to believe someone close to LBJ like Wallace would be on the sixth floor. But my point is there were a lot of weird deaths going on of people connected to Estes and LBJ.”
Have you heard all the deaths blamed on Hillary? Do you believe that BS too?
“it doesn’t prove his innocence” ????? Sorry, the burden of proof goes the other way. You gotta prove his guilt with something more than strangely-disconnected rhetoric.
Ok, I appreciate we have to work with ‘facts’, and I don’t dispute those excellent dlfibdings concerning Wallace although it doesn’t prove his innocence and like so many others Wallace met an untimely end under sus circumstances like the so many others!
It’s easy to attack and right off the account of one person, LBJ’s mistress, simply due to no corroboration. Why say those things? Money?
The famous LBJ wink image when stood next to Mrs Kennedy paints a thousand words and there is credible tangible evidence showing LBJ bracing himself for gunfire before anything happens.
Regardless of how many books are written, let’s deal with the FACTS as you say- who gained the most from JFK’s slaying? L B J
Hook, line and sinker eh?
Dulles and Angleton’s bosses and friend’s profited even more.
How did they? I agree they were all involved as they all had huge gains but none more so than LBJ! He achieved his life long ambition and stole even more millions from the US public as a result with corrupt defenders contracts etc etc.
Exploitation of foreign assets. War profits. Improved intimidation and control of the executive branch.
Yes
My recent conversation with Professor Mellen regarding Faustian Bargains may be heard here: http://www.jfkconversations.com/
Thanks your comment.I will buy and read this book.
In Japan,”Mac Wallece did it” theory is very famous.
The men who interested JFK case are believed this theory.
Because few years before,”Guilty man” partly on-air JAPAN-TV.
Excellent overview of Joan Mellen’s meticulously researched and exceptionally well-written new book!
I was especially impressed by her in-depth biography of Mac Wallace, a fascinating if seriously flawed man of unusual intellectual, political and technical knowledge. Mac was also a sexual adventurer, a predilection that led to the only murder he unquestionably committed, the 1951 shooting of John Douglas Kinser after Kinser had slept with one of Mac’s many wives…that Kinser had also coupled with LBJ’s sister, Josefa, may or may not be germane.
To her credit Mellen reports work of the late researcher J Harrison in great detail and with great respect, even mentioning the Woodrow Wilson H.S. yearbook photos and covering Mac’s college days as a student activist during WWII at the Univ. of Texas in Austin.
her acknowledgements recognize folks such as John Armstrong, Malcolm Blunt, Rex Bradford, Tosh Plumlee, Rachel Rendish, Lyle Sardie, Doug Horne and even the late Billie Sol Estes…
these and several more are thanked for “contributing to the research…”
Mellen’s exhaustive research thoroughly debunks the fingerprint,
and she concludes that Mac killed Kinser, of course, and remained beholden to LBJ for job security at Ling-Temco-Vought etc., but she seriously doubts his culpability for the murders of U.S. Dept. of Agriculture office Henry Marshall and JFK…
Russ Tarby
October 12, 2016 at 4:01 pm
I’ll probably read this one. Sounds to me like the book is on a higher level than most of the crap put out. I salute Mellen for not drinking the kool aid about the fingerprints, the “party” and Madeleine Brown.
As for correcting Caro, I’ll have to wait and see. That would be pretty heavy stuff.
But her past book is bad.
Especially “Farewell Justice” is worst conspiracy book.
If you read a her book,then you read and analyzed her material,you will understand my comment.
Between Jeff and Jim DiEugenio’s review’s my copy is on the way. If they both conclude it’s relevant who am I to argue? I’m intrigued enough to want to see for myself.
The idea that fingerprint analysis is a hard science–in which accredited examiners will come to the same conclusions and not be subject to bias–has long been destroyed. In 1995, 156 currently accredited fingerprint examiners were asked to match 7 latent prints to the prints of but 4 suspects. Only 44% were correct on all 7 latents, with 22% of the examiners making one or more mis-identifications. Although limited in size, a 2006 study was even more disturbing. In this study, 5 examiners were shown a set of prints (a latent found at a crime scene and a print from the card of a suspect) which they had previously testified were a match, and told these were the latent and card print of a notorious mis-match made by the FBI. Of the 5, only one said he thought the prints really were a match, with one saying they were inconclusive, and the other three saying they were definitely not a match.
Fingerprint analysis is prone to error, and it’s not at all surprising that Darby would get it wrong, or that someone like Garrett would say he got it wrong, for that matter.
QED
So Oswald is vindicated
It would behoove the FBI to figure out who’s fingerprint that is if in fact is is not Wallace’s.
Also, I’m curious, does Mellen reference LBJ ducking in his car 20 seconds before the shots ring out?
That is just a myth.
No it’s not watch the footage and read what his secret service agent said about it.
footage? Where?
In Ike Altgen’s famous photograph taken at the moment JFK’s clenched fists are visible at his throat, in the background the VP’s white Lincoln convertible is clearly visible. The passengers in the rear seat, from left to right, are LBJ, Lady Bird Johnson and Senator Ralph Yarborough. Examination of a blowup of that photo shows LBJ missing in his seat and SSA Rufus Youngblood, clearly visible, has not yet moved to cover the VP with his own body, which, in any case, has been disputed for decades Lady Bird and Yarborough are easily seen. In other words, at the moment of the first audible shot, Johnson is ducking down in the rear passenger seat on the right side of the car. He cannot be seen in the photo.
Correction: the VP’s car is “light” not white. Apologies.
There are pictures proving this are there not?
Indeed there is although eye witness accounts from his security detail and the moving footage is most telling! LBJ’s agent admitted years later that LBJs claim that the agent pushed him down was false.
Senator Ralph Yarborough contradicted this at the time.
But just think about the Altgens photograph: Lady Bird Johnson and Yarborough are seen sitting calmly whereas LBJ has ducked down.
If LBJ had been pushed to the floor by a Secret Service man, would we not have expected the other two to have ducked down as well?
As I recall, the fingerprint match was made by a retired FBI print analyst with many years of experience. The fact that he was not “certified” goes to the weight of his testimony, not its admissibility, under the Federal Rules of Evidence.
But let’s assume Robert Garrett is right; so who DID leave the fingerprint on the 6th floor? The evidence has already eliminated LHO, the other TSBD employees and the Dallas PD officers who worked the crime scene.
I’m not sure I’d rely on any image stored in the National Archives to support my case here. The autopsy photos in this case that reside in the Archives have clearly been doctored, almost absurdly so, so exchanging a fingerprint photo for the purpose of cutting a link between a rifle and the VP seems like small potatoes.
Most excellent points. It’s sad when people get caught up in red herrings to dimiss allllll the evidence that disproves their allegations. The Devil’s Chessboard by David Talbot is the book to read if you want to know at least some of the truth.
Mellon’s comments are wrong..whether on purpose or not, that I can not know. It was Barr McClellan ( a lawyer who went to work at Edward Clark law firm 3 yrs after the assassination..Edward Clark and LBJ were good friends & handled LBJs legal problems including his rigged election in 1948) who through office chatting that was still going on 3 yrs after the murder that made him seek the fingerprints from Mac Wallace’s murder of LBJs sisters boyfriend. He took those prints along with the prints of the unidentified print found on the box of the 6th fl. Texas School Depository. Barr then gave the prints to Nathan Darby not telling what it was. Darby was a leading expert at the time and stated that the fingerprints were a match. Mellon’s version can only be believed by ppl. who either are not well educated on the assassination or those that lie on purpose! Get educated ppl. FBI Hoover was a total monster. He let innocent ppl. rot in jail to protect an informant that was in the mafia. Look up the Joseph Salvati case!
You are absolutely 1000% correct
I would agree with your comments. Nathan Darby was in a league of his own as a finger print expert. It would seem that the conclusion reached by Darby Is forensically sound.
However, putting the finger print issue aside, there was numerous sitings of MAC Wallace at the Texas Book Depositary on the fateful day. We are also talking about a convicted murderer, even though he was only given a suspended sentence which in itself is highly suspicious when considering his Texas connections!
His presence and finger print on the sixth floor adds a chilling dimension to the assassination of JKF.
Anne Catherine makes an accurate appraisal. A lot of discussion has taken place about the authenticity of the Wallace finger prints. Texas courts needed 14 matching points to be admissible in court. However, Nathan Darby concluded a 34 point match. He did this from records in 1951.A good quality card sample was withheld from scrutiny by the Austin Police Department. Eventually, J Harrison obtained a high quality sample from The Texas Department of Public Safety. The Dallas Police Department located this higher quality sample but refused to release it using various legal excuses. Eventually, this higher quality sample was released as a certified copy. Nathan Darby’s identification analysis has survived the onslaught of the most serious sceptics as found by Garrick Alder. He predicts that future developments relating to analysis will occur. It would have been interesting to see what Darby’s analysis would have conclude with a higher quality sample, and its impact on Mellon’s arguments. Finally, why did it take 14 months for the FBI to conclude no match on an earlier sample?