A PUBLIC APPEAL TO WALT BROWN: Release Jay Harrison's Archive

[Charles Drago]

To Walt Brown:

We the undersigned ask that you release in its entirety and with all due dispatch the collection of JFK assassination- and deep politics-related materials formerly owned by the late Jay Harrison that was bequeathed to you and is currently in your custody and/or control, and that you take all necessary measures to safeguard the material from deterioration and sanitization.

This collection is of inestimable importance to the struggles to learn the truth of the death of John Fitzgerald Kennedy and to utilize that truth to bring about justice in the wake of the world-historic tragedy in Dallas.

To deny free access to the collection and to fail to keep it secure from deterioration and sanitization is in essence to aid and abet the assassins -- to become an accessory-after-the-fact.

Sincerely,

Charles R. Drago

[NOTE TO POSTERS ON THIS THREAD: Be advised that your posts will be construed as support of the call for Mr. Brown to release the Harrison collection in its entirety and with all due dispatch, and to take all necessary measures to safeguard the material from deterioration and sanitization.]

[Magda Hassan]

I totally support this appeal. Jay Harrison like Mary Ferrell wanted this information to be made available to all. It is imperative that this archive is released and made public and made available to all. Unredacted. Unedited. Unsanitised. Preserved in it entirety. As Jay Harrison intended it to be.

[Jack White]

Mary Ferrell was paid $1Million for her archives. Maybe Walt is waiting for someone to SHOW HIM THE MONEY.

Jack

[Dawn Meredith]

I join in this appeal. This was Jay's life's work-that the killers of John Kennedy
be identified and brought to justice. Although a very private man who stayed "deep cover", Jay was most gernerous with his work, his knowledge and his time and talents. During the 8 years I was fortunate to be counted among his closest friends Jay worked on "the case" 24/7.

Walt please honor the memory of the man you loved by finding the time to
share Jay's research.

Dawn

[Peter Lemkin]

Walt, You know where I stand. I've asked politely several times for specific materials. Both times I was told it would happen, yet in the three years it has not. When I offered to pay for the copies, you told me you'd only send them to me inside the US and you know I'm outside. We know you are busy with other projects, but many of us feel Jay's work contains at least some diamonds we need for what we are doing and to move this case forward. I found it odd that in my last email to you, asking who the researcher was who was [you said] looking specifically at the materials I had requested, you declined to answer. As you can see above and below, some grow a tad suspicious if and when any/most will get access. Many of us thought you'd digitize the entire collection. I know what a feather in one's cap it is to have such a great collection in one's possession, but it is only 'a pile of papers' if the general researcher or public don't have access - and won't move the case forward, as apparently you aren't even actively working on them either. Please find a way to make this happen. Thank you and thank you for preserving them thus far. I didn't know Jay, but I know Plumlee and Dawn and they both had relationships with him. Plumlee had with him since 1964, I believe! Based upon their and other's information, I believe that Jay would want his work to see the light of day with all due dispatch - despite the secrecy he worked under in his lifetime. Thanks again. This said in hope, not in anger.

[David Guyatt]

Important information should be made available.

[Walt Brown]

A reply to those who have concerns about Jay Harrison's materials. Mr. Drago wrote, To deny free access to the collection and to fail to keep it secure from deterioration and sanitization is in essence to aid and abet the assassins -- to become an accessory-after-the-fact. To which I answer first, the materials are kept in a climate-controlled storage locker, large enough to work in during fair weather. They are safe from deterioration, and unless someone breaks in, they will not be sanitized. Beyond that, Mr. Drago, I have a telephone, and the number is in the phone book. If you have an accusation to make, as you did, perhaps you should say it by phone--it may prevent a lawsuit as it appears in print. I should add, for pecuniary reference, that the above-cited storage locker was a necessity, because I made it obvious in the JFK/Deep Politics Quarterly that these materials would never be in my home. The storage locker, because it had to be climate controlled and be big enough to work in from April until November, has cost me approximately $5,000 since Jay's passing in May, 2005. Have any of you read any appeals from me to cover that cost, or the $1,500 it cost to ship those millions of pages to New Jersey? The answer is "No." Last spring, I had to sell my most precious resource, the 26 volumes of the Warren Commission, to be able to continue to pay for the storage area to preserve Jay's materials. Perhaps some of you will loan me spare volumes--and I'll pay YOU.

As for Ms. Pease, it's a pleasant change NOT to see you slandering me as some form of insider-spy, as I terminated my government employment on July 11, 1970, sine die. Your contrary references have been duly and regularly noted.

For Mr. White, you need to know that Jay Harrison would personally have burned these papers before he would have let you see them. I personally have enjoyed the time we've spent together, but Jay Harrison hated you for your attitude about the DPD, which he was a part of. As far as seeking money for what's here, Mr. Jack White, why don't you show me the proof that I've asked for money? Talk, on the other hand, is cheap.

For Peter Lemkin, who has asked me to put materials at risk by shipping them outside of the US to Prague, I suggest you seek therapy. Your requests have been answered, yet you have adopted, by choice or otherwise (illegal to be in the US?), the position of an expatriate, and then you had the collosal gall to write to me about a recent visit to the United States, but, Walt, please ship me the materials in Prague, even though I was just in the US. I'm sure that will open the door for the rest of the research community to view those materials.

For Dawn Meredith, the release of these papers would be embarrassing. Your "file" as it were, contains a sizable stack of papers about your ongoing (perhaps, I assume, in the past) debts to the IRS, and the frequent "fellatio-related" name calling therein is not dignified in any way.

As a group, you speak from a total position of ignorance. Since the fall of 2005, I have used Jay's materials as a central part of the "Master Chronology to the JFK Assassination," which is now 6,000 pages-plus, and every entry is sourced. This is on CD-Rom and is readily available to subscribers of the JFK/Deep Politics Quarterly, which I consider a valuable research tool. However, those researchers who have posted this urgent demand from me--none of you are subscribers. Is "research" something you alone can define? Jay's work(s), which are genealogical in nature and rarely contain a complete sentence, but rather raw data, have been the source material for many articles in what is approaching the fourth anniversary of Jay's death, and his work fills the "Chronology." In that sense, much of the valuable material HAS BEEN MADE PUBLIC.

Beyond that, what would you have me do? Sit here while a scanner slowly goes back and forth across each of several millions of pages, and give myself regular, daily manicures? It would take such time as I have remaining to do so, but if I sought payment for the eventual CD-Rom, you would hurl the Jack White-like accusations that appear in this thread, that I need to be shown the money. I'll spend my time doing MY research, working assiduously for the subscribers to the JFK/Deep Politics Quarterly, and continuing to find items of note in Mr. Harrison's work that can be added to the Chronology. None of you are aware, but the vast majority of the materials are highly arcane--obituaries of individuals who died in 1902 or 1921, and about whom I know a grand total of nothing. To know that "name of subject" died in 1921 is useless unless you know something about the subject, and frankly, I don't. I also refuse to spend even ten seconds digitizing the thousands of pages of work that Jay Harrison and I generated for Barr McClellan, only to see our contributions destroyed when he added fifty pages of "faction" (fiction based on fact, although it is neither) to Jay and my work. Ms. Pease and her consort accused me of being the ghost author of Barr's book; I assure you, I try to avoid drivel.

I had hoped to use "my estate" to establish a JFK research center at the college where I was employed. But cost cuts eviscerated the history department last spring, and two-thirds of the history positions were eliminated.

As a result, I did not have the desire to enrich that college any further, after a 19-year career. I don't know what will happen to the materials, but I do know that I'm not going to sit here and scan them, page by page, nor am I going to seek the Mary Ferrell jackpot, as I considered that effort crass (and perhaps of dubious ethics) at the time.

You all seem to think that I need only blink and suddenly, each of you will have a room chock-full of lovely papers. Some of Jay's many family histories, carefully taped together by him and equally carefully protected by me, cover areas the size of carpets. Does anyone have a large scanner? Does anyone have 4,000,000 sheets of paper, so I only have to press "copy"? (That's 8,000 reams of paper, @ $2.50 per ream, or $20,000 in paper. Maybe a discount for bulk....)

My e mail address is KIASJFK@aol.com. If anyone has any practical suggestions for what to do with four million sheets of paper--many of which are redundant in the extreme (Mac Wallace's family history and Andre Marie Dubois, the woman he married three times, history--identical--yet they consume hundreds of redundant pages), I'm listening. Jay was thorough.

But isn't it odd? All this vitriol because I've spent thousands of dollars to preserve something valuable, and all I get is accusations of being an accessory, or that material would be redacted. Did any one of you, at any time, think to say "Thank you" for preserving this stuff?

It's not being hidden, it's being protected. But to send you each a neat copy of 4 million pages might get expensive, and to do anything less would only bring more of your insulting accusations that something is being hidden. It's being worked on daily--except for right now, when I have to deal with this rubbish instead of doing valuable work.

Since no "thank you's" will be forthcoming, I'll just close with a "you are welcome." But know this: if there are any more Drago-like "accessories after the fact" accusations, or any more "Pease-like 'spy' accusations," as I add Jay's materials to the ongoing Chronology, I'll thereafter consume the files to the flames. I've no intention of working every day since Jay died AND being kicked around for my efforts. And make no mistakes: Jay would want me to do just that. We spoke every day for years, and I know what his thinking is in this regard. Spit on Jay and he spat back.

Try a little tenderness.

[David Guyatt]

Walt, I can appreciate the difficulties as I have an archive too and wouldn't remotely consider scanning or copying it, even though it is a very long way short of the size of the one you mention.

As a practical solution would it be feasible to donate the archive to a university (assuming one can be found) or some other reliable entity who can safeguard them - thus relieving the cost and burden from your shoulders - and that such a donation be made on the unbreakable condition that serious researchers should have free access to them?

David

[Peter Lemkin]

Walt, I did say thanks and I don't think most were as accusative, as anxious to have access to what we think is an important resource...and many of us are getting old and the case 'colder'. I can understand the costs. I spent a hell of a lot on the case, myself.

[Jack White]

A reply to those who have concerns about Jay Harrison's materials. Mr. Drago wrote, To deny free access to the collection and to fail to keep it secure from deterioration and sanitization is in essence to aid and abet the assassins -- to become an accessory-after-the-fact. To which I answer first, the materials are kept in a climate-controlled storage locker, large enough to work in during fair weather. They are safe from deterioration, and unless someone breaks in, they will not be sanitized. Beyond that, Mr. Drago, I have a telephone, and the number is in the phone book. If you have an accusation to make, as you did, perhaps you should say it by phone--it may prevent a lawsuit as it appears in print. I should add, for pecuniary reference, that the above-cited storage locker was a necessity, because I made it obvious in the JFK/Deep Politics Quarterly that these materials would never be in my home. The storage locker, because it had to be climate controlled and be big enough to work in from April until November, has cost me approximately $5,000 since Jay's passing in May, 2005. Have any of you read any appeals from me to cover that cost, or the $1,500 it cost to ship those millions of pages to New Jersey? The answer is "No." Last spring, I had to sell my most precious resource, the 26 volumes of the Warren Commission, to be able to continue to pay for the storage area to preserve Jay's materials. Perhaps some of you will loan me spare volumes--and I'll pay YOU.

As for Ms. Pease, it's a pleasant change NOT to see you slandering me as some form of insider-spy, as I terminated my government employment on July 11, 1970, sine die. Your contrary references have been duly and regularly noted.

For Mr. White, you need to know that Jay Harrison would personally have burned these papers before he would have let you see them. I personally have enjoyed the time we've spent together, but Jay Harrison hated you for your attitude about the DPD, which he was a part of. As far as seeking money for what's here, Mr. Jack White, why don't you show me the proof that I've asked for money? Talk, on the other hand, is cheap.

For Peter Lemkin, who has asked me to put materials at risk by shipping them outside of the US to Prague, I suggest you seek therapy. Your requests have been answered, yet you have adopted, by choice or otherwise (illegal to be in the US?), the position of an expatriate, and then you had the collosal gall to write to me about a recent visit to the United States, but, Walt, please ship me the materials in Prague, even though I was just in the US. I'm sure that will open the door for the rest of the research community to view those materials.

For Dawn Meredith, the release of these papers would be embarrassing. Your "file" as it were, contains a sizable stack of papers about your ongoing (perhaps, I assume, in the past) debts to the IRS, and the frequent "fellatio-related" name calling therein is not dignified in any way.

As a group, you speak from a total position of ignorance. Since the fall of 2005, I have used Jay's materials as a central part of the "Master Chronology to the JFK Assassination," which is now 6,000 pages-plus, and every entry is sourced. This is on CD-Rom and is readily available to subscribers of the JFK/Deep Politics Quarterly, which I consider a valuable research tool. However, those researchers who have posted this urgent demand from me--none of you are subscribers. Is "research" something you alone can define? Jay's work(s), which are genealogical in nature and rarely contain a complete sentence, but rather raw data, have been the source material for many articles in what is approaching the fourth anniversary of Jay's death, and his work fills the "Chronology." In that sense, much of the valuable material HAS BEEN MADE PUBLIC.

Beyond that, what would you have me do? Sit here while a scanner slowly goes back and forth across each of several millions of pages, and give myself regular, daily manicures? It would take such time as I have remaining to do so, but if I sought payment for the eventual CD-Rom, you would hurl the Jack White-like accusations that appear in this thread, that I need to be shown the money. I'll spend my time doing MY research, working assiduously for the subscribers to the JFK/Deep Politics Quarterly, and continuing to find items of note in Mr. Harrison's work that can be added to the Chronology. None of you are aware, but the vast majority of the materials are highly arcane--obituaries of individuals who died in 1902 or 1921, and about whom I know a grand total of nothing. To know that "name of subject" died in 1921 is useless unless you know something about the subject, and frankly, I don't. I also refuse to spend even ten seconds digitizing the thousands of pages of work that Jay Harrison and I generated for Barr McClellan, only to see our contributions destroyed when he added fifty pages of "faction" (fiction based on fact, although it is neither) to Jay and my work. Ms. Pease and her consort accused me of being the ghost author of Barr's book; I assure you, I try to avoid drivel.

I had hoped to use "my estate" to establish a JFK research center at the college where I was employed. But cost cuts eviscerated the history department last spring, and two-thirds of the history positions were eliminated.

As a result, I did not have the desire to enrich that college any further, after a 19-year career. I don't know what will happen to the materials, but I do know that I'm not going to sit here and scan them, page by page, nor am I going to seek the Mary Ferrell jackpot, as I considered that effort crass (and perhaps of dubious ethics) at the time.

You all seem to think that I need only blink and suddenly, each of you will have a room chock-full of lovely papers. Some of Jay's many family histories, carefully taped together by him and equally carefully protected by me, cover areas the size of carpets. Does anyone have a large scanner? Does anyone have 4,000,000 sheets of paper, so I only have to press "copy"? (That's 8,000 reams of paper, @ $2.50 per ream, or $20,000 in paper. Maybe a discount for bulk....)

My e mail address is KIASJFK@aol.com. If anyone has any practical suggestions for what to do with four million sheets of paper--many of which are redundant in the extreme (Mac Wallace's family history and Andre Marie Dubois, the woman he married three times, history--identical--yet they consume hundreds of redundant pages), I'm listening. Jay was thorough.

But isn't it odd? All this vitriol because I've spent thousands of dollars to preserve something valuable, and all I get is accusations of being an accessory, or that material would be redacted. Did any one of you, at any time, think to say "Thank you" for preserving this stuff?

It's not being hidden, it's being protected. But to send you each a neat copy of 4 million pages might get expensive, and to do anything less would only bring more of your insulting accusations that something is being hidden. It's being worked on daily--except for right now, when I have to deal with this rubbish instead of doing valuable work.

Since no "thank you's" will be forthcoming, I'll just close with a "you are welcome." But know this: if there are any more Drago-like "accessories after the fact" accusations, or any more "Pease-like 'spy' accusations," as I add Jay's materials to the ongoing Chronology, I'll thereafter consume the files to the flames. I've no intention of working every day since Jay died AND being kicked around for my efforts. And make no mistakes: Jay would want me to do just that. We spoke every day for years, and I know what his thinking is in this regard. Spit on Jay and he spat back.

Try a little tenderness.

Hi, Walt...

I am quite baffled by your statement...

"Jay Harrison hated you for your attitude about the DPD,
which he was a part of."

I never met Mr. Harrison, and in fact never had heard anything
about him until his unfortunate death. He seemed to have many
admirers among researchers.

I cannot believe that he knew enough about me to HATE ME, since
I have never stated ANY "ATTITUDE" ABOUT THE DPD.

I have, based on abundant evidence, formed opinions about certain
INDIVIDUALS within the department, for instance...
...along with Seth Kantor, I believe that a cop assisted Ruby in
entering the basement, and knew why Ruby needed to be there.
...I think Will Fritz was in some way complicit in "something".
...I think that Gerald Hill knew way too much.
...I think that the detectives who "searched" the Paine house planted
evidence.
...I think Roscoe White was an "agent" placed on the DPD for a
specific purpose, and that someone in the DPD knew this.
...I think Jack Revill was a contact with military intelligence.
...I think J.D. Tippit had some sort of "assignment".
...I think Jim Leavelle was wearing a bullet-proof vest for a reason.
...I think several of the motorcycle escort "went along" with the
coverup of the motorcade STOP for "personal reasons."

...I think Chief Curry was "clueless" and not a suspect.
...I think MOST of the 1000 or so officers were decent honest cops.

If Mr. Harrison "hated Jack White" for these well-founded
suspicions, then perhaps he is not the sterling character
I have been led to believe. If "bad cops" existed in 1963,
I cannot believe that he defends them. I doubt that Mr. Harrison
ever heard of Jack White or expressed an opinion about me.
If so, he did so because of his ignorance of my search for
the truth.

And I cannot believe you did not "get" my SHOW ME THE MONEY joke.
If it offended you, I apologize.

Sincerely,

Jack