My new book, "Into the Nightmare"

[Dawn Meredith]

Dawn

I didn't mean to say that Badge man is a proven fact. I am totally on the fence about that and not convinced either way. Once again i apologize. You guys are way more professional and qualified than me and nobody should consider me the voice of authority.

Im just a guy that became really interested in the jfk assassination 28 years ago.

I wish there were a lot more like you Steve who had a serous interest in this event.

Dawn

[Albert Rossi]

I wrote previously -

Wow I'm really sorry if i am wrong about Tippit being a good shot. But i just listened to Mr McBrides interview about his new book on Black Op radio yesterday and Im almost sure he stated that when he interviewed Tippits father he specifically said that his son was an excellent shot.

But i make no claims about being infallible. Maybe I didn't understand the interview properly. My sincere apologies if i am wrong.
______________________________________________

I just rechecked the the 8/8/2013 interview with Mr. McBride over at Black Op Radio and at approximately the 56:50 mark he does say that Tippits father said his son was a "great" shot.

I make no other claims about Badge man or Tippit being one of the shooters.

Steve, I don't think Jan was questioning the accuracy of your memory so much as the evidence adduced in the book to support his claim. I have still to read this book. I'm sure it contains a lot of interesting and valuable information. As Dawn said, an author is rarely correct about even 75% of the assertions made. In this case, it is impossible to have that level of certainty.

[Charles Drago]

I wrote previously -

Wow I'm really sorry if i am wrong about Tippit being a good shot. But i just listened to Mr McBrides interview about his new book on Black Op radio yesterday and Im almost sure he stated that when he interviewed Tippits father he specifically said that his son was an excellent shot.

But i make no claims about being infallible. Maybe I didn't understand the interview properly. My sincere apologies if i am wrong.
______________________________________________

I just rechecked the the 8/8/2013 interview with Mr. McBride over at Black Op Radio and at approximately the 56:50 mark he does say that Tippits father said his son was a "great" shot.

I make no other claims about Badge man or Tippit being one of the shooters.

Steve, I don't think Jan was questioning the accuracy of your memory so much as the evidence adduced in the book to support his claim. I have still to read this book. I'm sure it contains a lot of interesting and valuable information. As Dawn said, an author is rarely correct about even 75% of the assertions made. In this case, it is impossible to have that level of certainty.

Steve, I'm certain that you took from the interview exactly what the author wanted you to take. As a result, and through no fault of your own, you tacitly endorsed an indefensible and even ludicrous position uninformed by sophisticated deep political analysis.

Again, you bear no responsibility in this matter -- which I hope you will appreciate and utilize as a valuable learning experience.

Stay with us.

[Jan Klimkowski]

I wrote previously -

Wow I'm really sorry if i am wrong about Tippit being a good shot. But i just listened to Mr McBrides interview about his new book on Black Op radio yesterday and Im almost sure he stated that when he interviewed Tippits father he specifically said that his son was an excellent shot.

But i make no claims about being infallible. Maybe I didn't understand the interview properly. My sincere apologies if i am wrong.
______________________________________________

I just rechecked the the 8/8/2013 interview with Mr. McBride over at Black Op Radio and at approximately the 56:50 mark he does say that Tippits father said his son was a "great" shot.

I make no other claims about Badge man or Tippit being one of the shooters.

Steve, I don't think Jan was questioning the accuracy of your memory so much as the evidence adduced in the book to support his claim. I have still to read this book. I'm sure it contains a lot of interesting and valuable information. As Dawn said, an author is rarely correct about even 75% of the assertions made. In this case, it is impossible to have that level of certainty.

Albert - precisely.

Steve - most researchers during the course of their work uncover evidence which leads them to build a hypothesis which they then test against all the other known facts, information and hypotheses about the event they are exploring. Sometimes, after sharing their hypothesis with others, information which was unknown to the researcher comes to his or her attention, and this information may cause the original working hypothesis to be refined, adapted or even rejected in favour of a new working hypothesis.

This is a good, honest, noble endeavour.

Two steps forward, one step back, represents fine progress.

One of the building blocks of Joseph McBride's work is that the Jack White / Gary Mack Dunkel photographic analysis known as "Badge Man" shows an invidividual wearing a badge firing at JFK, and that this individual is most likely a police officer.

I mourn Jack White and respect his work. However, I do not believe that the "Badge Man" analysis is correct. My own considered judgement is that neither a "badge man" nor a police officer can been seen on the slope as claimed. For me, the "Badge Man" hypothesis is not proven, and is false.

Another building block of Joseph McBride's work is that "Badge Man" was JD Tippit, that Tippit was a "crack shot" and that he blew JFK's brains out:

"The accuracy of that shot that most likely was the one that blew out the back of Kennedy's head attests to the lethal expertise of the gunman who fired it. J. D. Tippit's unusual skill with firearms, from boyhood, was attested to by his father, and it was furthered in his U. S. Army service during World War II and his years with the Dallas Police Department. That expertise could help account for why he may have been chosen for the job of Badge Man....."
(p568, Into the Nightmare)

This is an extraordinary claim and requires extraordinary evidence.

So, for starters, what is the evidence - beyond some hunting stories from Tippit's father - that he was a top class marksman?

Those tasked with organising the military style execution of an American President would surely have recruited world class snipers for a one time only job.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Mr. McBrides interviews at Black Op Radio are top notch.

The info on Tippit is fascinating. Really makes you wish you could access phone records from 1963 to see who JD was calling from the Top Ten Record shop just minutes before his life ended.

The fact that he was a crack shot with a gun also raises some very interesting possibilities.

Steve - please read the thread and Joseph McBride's book carefully.

To my mind, the evidence presented does not establish that Tippit was a good enough marksman to have been entrusted by the Facilitators with a shooting part in the assassination of an American President.

Additionally we all take issue at this point with the entire Badge Man concept, given its origin together with trying to "see" what you want to "see" in the many fuzzy photographs.
That said, a disagreement with an author on one matter does not mean we begin an attack on said author, or that on balance the book does not offer a great amount of valuable contributions.
I wish Tosh would weigh in how how good a shot Tippit was. Another question I can't ask Jay Harrison who knew Tippit well and could tell us what kind of shot he was.
I am also not convinced that the killers would risk having a Dallas cop be a shooter. There are MANY hired guns who could have served this purpose.

Dawn

These are also important and considered challenges to the hypothesis presented in Joseph McBride's work.

[Charles Drago]

So, for starters, what is the evidence - beyond some hunting stories from Tippit's father - that he was a top class marksman?

Those tasked with organising the military style execution of an American President would surely have recruited world class snipers for a one time only job.

Sound reasoning, Jan, reflecting mastery of the study of deep politics.

By no stretch of the imagination can pointing out that Mr. McBride's Tippit-as-Badge-Man argument is uninformed by serious study and understanding of deep politics -- as I have done so often in the past -- reasonably be construed as an "attack" on Mr. McBride.

So with all this in mind, is it not fair to hold suspect the balance of Mr. McBride's book and its author's deep politics-related conclusions proffered therein?

Let me be clear: In this case, "to hold suspect" is not to dismiss, but rather to approach with intensified wariness, including the leveling of a keen eye on sub-text.

Such has been my point from Day One regarding Into the Nightmare.

Is Mr. McBride's Tippit-as-Badge-Man fiasco (my conclusion) an aberration within an otherwise soundly reasoned volume? An exemplar of the majority of his published conclusions?

Draw your own conclusion.

[Tracy Riddle]

The shooters were probably Cuban exiles who had received US military training (one of Bobby's mistakes; some of them would have shot his brother for free) or some imported mercenary/professional snipers (the Gladio stable of fascists, Corsicans, etc.)

You wouldn't use a local cop (unless, of course, you were willing to kill him soon after). But in his later years, I think Tippit was busy full time with a wife and 3 kids, a job as a cop that paid poverty wages (I think $6000 a year was what I read), plus extra jobs on the side. He probably didn't have a lot of time and energy to spend target shooting to keep his skills in top shape. The low wages they paid Dallas police made them good candidates for corruption, though.

I used to work with a guy who was an Army sniper in Vietnam (two tours, proud to have hunted "the most dangerous game.") A total gun nut, talked about them all the time, owned a virtual arsenal. Went target shooting every chance he could. A big library of books and magazines on guns. Not only does this not sound like Tippit, it sounds even less like Oswald.

[Charles Drago]

The shooters were probably Cuban exiles who had received US military training (one of Bobby's mistakes; some of them would have shot his brother for free) or some imported mercenary/professional snipers (the Gladio stable of fascists, Corsicans, etc.) [EMPHASIS ADDED BY DRAGO]

Tracy, while I stand in near-total agreement with what you've written below, I am obliged to note for the record that I find you conclusion as rendered above vis a vis Cuban exiles to be as flawed and, to the best of my knowledge, indefensible as McBride's Tippit-as-Badge-Man argument. Also, I must indicate my problem with your either/or stricture.

To be precise, I take issue with the words "probably" and "or".

I eagerly anticipate reading what I have every reason to expect will be a typically thoughtful, reasoned defense of your Cuban exiles argument.

In the meantime, I would remind you of the potential for disaster when the either/or mindset is applied to the study of deep political events. Solely for example, please tell us why the shooter teams could not have been comprised of Cuban exiles AND mercenary/professional snipers.


I'm happy to reproduce the balance of your post now, insofar as I find it to be insightful and informative.

You wouldn't use a local cop (unless, of course, you were willing to kill him soon after). But in his later years, I think Tippit was busy full time with a wife and 3 kids, a job as a cop that paid poverty wages (I think $6000 a year was what I read), plus extra jobs on the side. He probably didn't have a lot of time and energy to spend target shooting to keep his skills in top shape. The low wages they paid Dallas police made them good candidates for corruption, though.

I used to work with a guy who was an Army sniper in Vietnam (two tours, proud to have hunted "the most dangerous game.") A total gun nut, talked about them all the time, owned a virtual arsenal. Went target shooting every chance he could. A big library of books and magazines on guns. Not only does this not sound like Tippit, it sounds even less like Oswald.

[Steve Minnerly]

Thanks to all.

No offense taken and none directed at anybody by me. And yeah i have a lot to learn even after reading up on the jfk assassination for a while.

And Albert im gonna get that private message off to you concerning our interesting off topic conversation. Just a bunch of stuff happening on this end thats kept me busy.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Thanks to all.

No offense taken and none directed at anybody by me. And yeah i have a lot to learn even after reading up on the jfk assassination for a while.

Steve - thank you for your gracious response.

Our shared endeavours are noble and, ahem, fiendishly complex.

:happydrinks: