Newsweek contributor Edward Jay Epstein has refuted Bill O’Reilly’s JFK fib with a first-person account of George de Mohrenschildt’s suicide. Epstein actually was there. And he says O’Reilly was not.
“Another minor problem is O’Reilly’s claim to have been an ear-witness to the death. In the 2013 version of his book for younger readers, he wrote: ‘As I knocked on the door, I heard a shotgun blast. He had killed himself.’ According to the police report, however, no one inside or outside the house heard the shot (which was fired in the second-floor hallway outside Nancy Tilton’s bedroom). A maid, Anna Vitsula, said she had been in Mrs. Tilton’s room a few minutes earlier to turn on a recorder to tape a television show, but did not hear a shot,” Epstein writes.
via O’Reilly’s JFK Reporting Was Impossible. I Know Because I Was There..
Look up “Edward Jay Epstein” and “James Files”. Wm Dankbaar has done good work exposing the blatant lies the former told of the latter to scuttle an NBC report on Files’ claims about the events in Dallas before it could air. Such a coincidence that he was the last reporter to interview GDM, yes? Another coincidence is that he is allegedly married to a CIA agent.
Mariano, publisher Henry Holt and the author himself obviously relied on the naivety and blind allegiance of their potential audience to guarantee they would not ask your most fundamental of questions. As you state, it is obvious that O’Reilly would have indeed been a witness had he been on the doorsteps as shots rang out. However, a more nuanced intimation in his book is that because O’Reilly was on the doorsteps there surely must not have been a homicide, otherwise our intrepid reporter would have impeded the escape of the perps or at least registered details that would have aided in the investigation and apprehension. He didn’t do either, ergo it was not a murder, ergo it was a suicide. And yet …. we still have O’Reilly on tape asking Gaeton Fonzi, “what happened?” Curiouser and curiouser.
Did O’Reilly make any statement to police at the time of the shooting (after all he would be some kind of witness)? Did he call the police after hearing the gunshot? Did he report at the time that he heard the gunshot? Did he report at the time that he was there?
Would it be strange for none of those actions to take place, if as he said, he was there at the door at the time of the shooting?
Would not a journalist report such a close encounter with the alleged suicide, at that time?
The plot thickens…
Just wanted to relay a surreal Daily Show the other night related to this controversy.
Host Jon Stewarts starts with all the O’Reilly lies, including GDM’s death. He then moves on to the Kremlin killing of a political foe, showing security video of a snow plow moving into place to block the view of the shooting and crews cleaning up the crime scene “only hours after the murder.”
Then he brings on Gerald Posner of all people to tout his Vatican money book never once mentioning the GDM/JFK story.
Really?
Note: at the moment this story has become a top of the page feature on msnmbc’s web page.
They also ran a bit of Bill Maher ranting about it on HBO a few days ago.
Well heck. It was top of the page 5 minutes ago. Now under “opinion”.
[Ronnie:]
“Well heck. It was top of the page 5 minutes ago.”
=================
Ronnie, this is a topic that we are (finally!) allowed to cover in JFK Facts: The Partisan Divide. The site was congratulated recently:
https://jfkfacts.org/assassination/truth-lies-and-mythmaking/#comment-723242
As in almost any issue in America, there are 4 clearly defined (known as “orthogonal”) categories. What you have below is slightly more accurate than the old “CT/LN” divide, but it constitutes a substantial improvement:
(1) Liberal CT
(2) Liberal LN
(3) Conservative CT
(4) Conservative LN
Any specialist in the field of Social Psychology and related will study the *reasons* and *motivations* for the person to prefer on of those categories.
MSNBC, and specially Chris Matthews is clearly positioned in Category No. 2.
Will elaborate in future posts.
Well it’s been about 40 years since I had Sociology or Psychology, though the latter was my short lived intended major.
Nice to know I’ve been categorized on such a “under read” subject as the JFK Assassination.
At least it’s being studied, from some aspect by those younger than I.
Do you have any stat’s / percentages?
was Maher ranting about it in a fun way, or was he angry at OLielly?
Angry. There are a couple links about it here.
http://www.londonthenews.com/news/US/20150310/67249562/Bill-O%E2%80%99Reilly-Sidesteps-Audio-Debunking-His-JFK-Story.htm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/07/bill-maher-bill-oreilly-real-time_n_6823508.html
The take by Rachel Maddow is the best I have seen, even funnier than Maher. She speaks of the Tilton Mansion having a 1,200 mile porch. 🙂
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/watch/oreilly-wobbly-on-facts-of-his-own-story-408716355886
Hi Ramon
Thanks for posting this link. I think Rachel Maddow is right when she says the JFK lie is the most egregious as it cannot be explained in any other way but as a lie. The fact that Fox News said nothing for so long and then came up with the Sirkin angle (which is demonstrably untrue) means that they are worried about this. This will be hung around O’Reilly’s neck for the rest of his life. Any other journalist/media personality would have been fired.
Great apologies for Rupert Murdoch by the way.
Media Matters: “O’Reilly’s Ally Unable To Corroborate His JFK Story (Update)” http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/03/10/oreillys-ally-unable-to-corroborate-his-jfk-sto/202819
“In an interview with Media Matters last month, Sirkin likewise said that he was unable to confirm O’Reilly’s account of having heard the gunshot.
Sirkin previously wrote a September 2012 blog comment claiming he visited Florida with O’Reilly prior to de Mohrenschildt’s suicide. The entry makes no mention of O’Reilly hearing the gunshot. As Washington Post writer Erik Wemple notes, “There’s no mention of Sirkin and O’Reilly splitting up or of O’Reilly heading over to the house where de Mohrenschildt committed his last act.” Sirkin emailed Wemple later stating that he didn’t include that detail “because of brevity and because I was not with Bill when he claimed to have heard a shot.”
Sirkin’s statement to O’Reilly’s publisher also includes information that undermines his claim that he and O’Reilly were in Florida on the day of de Mohrenschildt’s death. Sirkin identifies the freelance cameraman who worked with them in Florida. (Note: while award-winning filmmaker Frank Eberling has previously attested to being Sirkin and O’Reilly’s cameraman during their 1977 Florida trip, Sirkin’s statement on the publisher’s website, which appears to be a transcription of a verbal comment, identifies him as “Frank Everly.”) Eberling told Media Matters last month that while he is unsure, he thinks O’Reilly arrived in Florida the day after the suicide.”
Bill O’Reilly must be really, really concerned about what his outrageous lying about being at the death site of George DeMohrenschildt has done to his machine gun-riddled credibility.
Now he had enlisted former WFAA reporter Bob Sirkin in his fantasies. They have “fixed” the story so now that O’Reilly is at the death site in Manalapan. This is an utter fantasy of O’Reilly that no JFK researcher had ever heard about until he wrote his “Killing Kennedy” book in 2012.
Here is the web link where the O’Reilly cover up operation is going on: http://deadline.com/2015/03/bill-oreilly-killing-kennedy-publisher-defense-1201389389/
Now we have TWO people lying about where Bill O’Reilly was when DeMohrenschildt died. You, WFAA in Dallas has traditionally been one of the *least credible* places to go for JFK assassination truth and they have proven it once again.
[Robert Morrow:]
“Bill O’Reilly must be really, really concerned about what his outrageous lying […]
============================
Hi Robert:
Issues as this are seldom simple, and Mr. O’Reilly may certainly be somewhat concerned. Even worried.
Call me cynical, but I am partial to the view expressed in the post below:
https://jfkfacts.org/assassination/dismantling-oreilly-the-last-chapter/#comment-721102
Notice that in it, a prediction was made, about his ratings going UP, which turned out to be fulfilled.
What does Epstein have to say about the fact that deMohrenschildt or someone else could have used a silencer? (The “or someone else” of course would mean he was murdered).
Silencers, or actually suppressors (thanks BobP) I don’t believe work with shotguns. Never heard of one though I’m not a weapons expert.
Given the nature of the ammo you use in a shotgun, I don’t think a silencer is even possible.
Everyone needs to read Roger Craig’s manuscript. He was a cop in Dallas that day who claims he saw LHO leaving the scene in a vehicle with another. He also claims he was told as were all the other cops that day to leave the car alone. He also never changes his story up until the day he dies from a shot to the chest (self inflicted apparently). He discusses at least two attempts on his life also including being run off the road which put him in a wheelchair. He gives a fascinating insight into that day, from cops views on the ground of JFK which was toxic and the blatant refusal from heads of dpt to investigate. Guys and gals read up on this American hero. He never changed his story once despite character assassination attempts and literal attempts on his life.
Craig certainly WAS a hero on that tragic day. I believe that the fact that he never changed his story shows that he knew what he was talking about.
There is no excuse for such a falsehood. It is a clear lack of journalistic ethics and a bloated need to elevate self-importance. This tendency to not merely exaggerate but falsify casts a cloud over all his work.