WCTV in Utica, New York, reported this week that a local man had an insider’s perspective on JFK assassination.
What the station didn’t report is that the so-called JFK expert, Ed Sinker, has been convicted of fraud and that his story cannot be confirmed.
Sinker told the TV reporter that he was an “informal consultant” to the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) in the 1970s.
In that capacity, he said that he had been allowed to view the medical evidence in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy held by the National Archives.
“Senator Kennedy opened the doors to the National Archive for me,” Sinker said. “I got to see some things that most Americans will never see: Autopsy materials, cross-sectional specimens of the brain.”
Rob Tannenbaum, who served as deputy counsel to the HSCA in the mid-1970s, says he never heard of Sinker. Cyril Wecht, former Alleghany County Coroner who is active in JFK research, says Sinker is “a fraud.”
Sinker’s 1993 fraud conviction does not enhance his credibility.
Sinker was convicted of mail fraud and served four months in prison, according to Cigar Afficionado magazine.
From the article:
“According to court records, Edward Sinker, a 39-year-old Syracuse, New York, attorney and button collector, claimed that his 2,200-item collection, valued at $76,097, had been stolen while he was at a political button show in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in July 1990. He filed a claim with Allstate Insurance Co. and was fully reimbursed. Among the items Sinker said he had lost was an extremely unusual 1916 Charles Evans Hughes button worth $5,000. It featured a photo of Hughes (the last major party presidential candidate to sport a beard), along with the words: “Undiluted Americanism, Hughes for president.” Only three examples of this particular Hughes button are known to exist, Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles E. Roberts told the court.”
“Sinker might have gotten away with his scam had he not succumbed to a common penchant of button collectors: he liked to show off his treasures. In October 1992, at the height of the Bush-Clinton race, Sinker went on WKTV in Utica, New York, to display his splendid assortment of antique buttons — two years after he claimed they had been stolen.”
“The Federal Bureau of Investigation began an inquiry. FBI agents went to Sinker’s home in December 1992 and recovered 3,700 buttons. Sinker contended that after his collection had been stolen, he had replaced it, button for button, by going to garage sales, antique dealers and a museum of Americana. Unfortunately for him, however, one of the items recovered by the FBI agents was that spectacular, one-of-only-three Hughes button. Scientific tests showed that it bore the marks and defects unique to the one Sinker claimed had been stolen, according to court evidence. Similar meticulous examinations of eight or nine other buttons showed them to be among those Sinker said he had lost to thieves. A jury convicted Sinker of mail fraud and U.S. District Court Judge Frederick J. Scullin Jr. sentenced him to four months in prison, four months of home detention and three years of supervised release.”
Perhaps Ed Sinker should seek his own and find employment with Fox News where telling the truth is a liability.
OH, ANOTHER THING: Sinker made NO MENTION of seeing this evidence back in 1991 when given the forum to do so.
Ed Sinker was on the now-defunct Jenny Jones Show on NBC back in December 1991 with Mark Lane, during the height of the “JFK” movie media blitz, and he was billed as a former consultant to the HSCA (this is THE only time I ever saw him or heard of him, before or since…until Joe’s blog today). Jones had him on the show to debate and attempt to DEBUNK Lane, as Sinker said he used to believe there was a conspiracy, but no longer.
it’s wonderful that the FBI went to so much time and trouble to identify a campaign button belonging to a small-time fraud. This is the same Bureau that has a long history of fabricating/destroying evidence and intimidating witnesses in important cases. Even killing them, in the case of Ibragim Todashev.
He’s even worse than that, Jeff.
See – http://justiceforkennedy.blogspot.com/2014/03/edward-m-sinker-hes-worse-than-you.html
what is really incredible is the complete ineptness of the so-called journalists. They made no effort to verify any of the facts much less his background. It is astounding that such a poorly researched piece could be aired. The station manager and producers should all be fired !
But famously, the brain was not sectioned.
Sinker must be missing a few brain cells himself if he thought he could get away with either misrepresentation.
Yes……… add him to the rogue’s gallery of fraudsters over the decades, those who have put their own words in the mouths of the deceased for either fame or fortune. Ghouls.