Lyndon Johnson and Mac Wallace - by Joan Mellen

[Dawn Meredith]

If Darby should have sued someone it should have been Bugliosi.

In his book he said Darby could not tell the difference between a palmprint and a fingerprint.

Either that or Jay Harrison faked the evidence he gave him to analyze.

I actually was faked out on this until Pat Speer alerted me that Bugliosi was wrong. So I went back to the annex of McClellan's book and read up on it and yep, Pat was right. Bugliosi either was misinformed or he was pulling a fast one.

When I discovered this, I tried to call Darby but Dawn told me he was passed away.

I just returned from a wonderful vacation in Canada.
Thanks Drew for your efforts, and Peter.
Jay Harrison faked NOTHING ever. I will say this one last time: J had the actual print from Wallace's murder arrest (John Kinser), and the latent from the 6th floor. A police detective who is a relative of the deceased JK was also assisting J. A very good man whom I shall not name. I did give his name to Joan but he did not reply to calls or other contact. I met him a few times and was very impressed with his dedication.
Bugliosi is simply a liar, but we all know that already right?
I have never met anyone in the research community more honest than J Harrison. Nathan was not a JFK researcher. Just a brilliant, wonderful and honest -to- the- core gentleman. He was completely astute until his stroke that eventually took his life. The reply to Drew is quite "telling".
Dawn

[Dawn Meredith]

I just met with Pastor and Mrs. Steve Darby, who live a block from me. It was a "chance" meeting. I wandered into a nearby open house and they did too. I told Pastor Darby that I had planned to visit him to ask about Nathan's certification status. Pastor Darby replied that his dad "always kept everything up to date". Of course I already knew this as Nathan Darby was one of the most honest men I have ever been privileged to know and call friend. He would NEVER have perjured himself on that Affidavit. I have a good mind to write an email to Joan and Walt, but I am sure someone has already alerted them to this thread.
Thanks also to my old friend Drew for contacting the IAI. Their response was VERY telling. Pretending not to understand. Sure. So I guess if some lie comes from some fucking government agency -with reason TO lie- is good enough for Joan Mellen to trash the good name of Nathan Darby, then I would question her other "research" methods. Joan nor Walt have never had a single conversation with Nathan.
I will not be commenting further. Those who know me know my personal views on this whole matter.

Dawn

[Drew Phipps]

Thanks for that contact with the family. Looks like Mellen is being set up with some disinformation. Let's hope she's smart enough to avoid printing it.

[Tom Bowden]

When the Press Conference was held at the Conspiracy Museum to announce the fingerprint match, Jay and several of his friends were there. Walt Brown was designated as the speaker to the Press. Barr McClellan was also supposed to attend. He did not show up. Walt was left high and dry without support. He was at a disadvantage as he did not have first hand knowledge. I have to say it was the least received of any press conference we held. We had AP, DMN and several local TV stations. The press did not get the full story. I was frankly embarrassed for Walt and the museum. Jay was livid with the non-appearance of Barr. I was under the impression that Nathan would be there with Barr.

Be that as it may, I did meet Nathan on two occasions. The second was the videotaping for use in our French documentary. He came across as being honest and definitely believing in the match. We have a very good copy of the submission to the FBI. The fingerprints are excellent copies.

I think many on this site are being hard on Walt. I believe he has acted in good faith and as I stated before many do not understand the state of Jay's files. I spent several days with him when we were researching Wallace. I have over forty years experience in information retrieval and storage. Jay's was a bastard system and he told me himself that no one else could run it. I am not criticizing Jay because he used what he had. That should not reflect on his data or his work. Perhaps some should put more trust in Jay's faith in Walt.

I patiently wait to read Joan's book and will certainly react to it at that time.

[Dawn Meredith]

When the Press Conference was held at the Conspiracy Museum to announce the fingerprint match, Jay and several of his friends were there. Walt Brown was designated as the speaker to the Press. Barr McClellan was also supposed to attend. He did not show up. Walt was left high and dry without support. He was at a disadvantage as he did not have first hand knowledge. I have to say it was the least received of any press conference we held. We had AP, DMN and several local TV stations. The press did not get the full story. I was frankly embarrassed for Walt and the museum. Jay was livid with the non-appearance of Barr. I was under the impression that Nathan would be there with Barr.

Be that as it may, I did meet Nathan on two occasions. The second was the videotaping for use in our French documentary. He came across as being honest and definitely believing in the match. We have a very good copy of the submission to the FBI. The fingerprints are excellent copies.

I think many on this site are being hard on Walt. I believe he has acted in good faith and as I stated before many do not understand the state of Jay's files. I spent several days with him when we were researching Wallace. I have over forty years experience in information retrieval and storage. Jay's was a bastard system and he told me himself that no one else could run it. I am not criticizing Jay because he used what he had. That should not reflect on his data or his work. Perhaps some should put more trust in Jay's faith in Walt.

I patiently wait to read Joan's book and will certainly react to it at that time.

Tom: I was at the center of this entire matter for a very long time prior to the press conference that I did not attend. This is how it all went. Barr was supposed to be doing a second press conf. in DC. Not Dallas. That did not happen. Richard Bartholomew- also a good friend of mine- had been the one working on all of this with J but J wanted someone with clout. A name. Walt having at least five books on this case was suggested by Richard, and together they brought Walt in. As you know J was OBSESSED with secrecy. (I never even said his name to anyone til after he died). At the last minute J got the-insane- idea that Walt should not name the print examiner. Even though RB was there in HIS mind he "heard" Walt name Nathan. We talked the next day. RB contacted John Kelin, who I believe still had his online mag Fair Play going at that time. RB told John Nathan's name. The next day I had lunch with J, Walt, my husband Erick and a couple of others at a place we "conspiracy types" had been having Sunday brunch for several months. J and Walt were beyond livid at Richard. The f word was thrown around a lot. Richard and J would never again speak and I remained in the middle for years trying to mediate. Nathan was not told that his name would be withheld and we had many conversations about how absurd it was to hold a conference and not name your expert. Nathan was NOT afraid. He was ready willing and able to testify anywhere. I could not really ever discuss this with J as it made him so angry- that RB had outed Nathan. Those who knew J well knew he had a trigger temper.
And yes J's files were not the kind that anyone else could easily utilize. Perhaps it was his experience in MI. I have one of those files, one that was very important to him, and it is just pages of dates and the entry of things. If I did not know the significance of this particular file - the Pegues doc I call it- it would have been virtually meaningless to me. But J and I had many talks about Steven. And it was in his hands on his death bed, so I copied it hoping I could somehow be helpful. Later I heard Billie sol Estes owned the rights. And I verified such with Billie sol over the phone.
Odd that J "was livid" with Barr's absence. The plan all along was to be a joint press conference Dallas and DC. Perhaps that also got changed at the last minute but J never demonstrated any anger to me that Barr was not in Dallas. He was angry that Barr was a no show in DC. It was Richard that Jay remained lived with til he died. However he did have a falling out with Barr but that is a separate matter. And in J's honor I will say why: Barr never gave J a dime from the sales of his book. Once again J had been used. Without Jay Harrison all Barr had was some alleged gossip from Ed Clark's law firm. I too have had little to no contact with Barr since all of this occurred. J died 5/25/05 in poverty. In obscurity.
Feel free to verify all of this with Walt. I agree that Walt must have felt very silly not being able to name Nathan. I am not privy to THAT particular conversation. I have talked with both J and Walt about it on many occasions and J was fearful that Nathan would be awakened every hour by reporters and harassed. Walt said that "you know J and how he is with secrecy" or something to that effect. All in all it was a sad affair that 5/20/98.
I am very glad you got a chance to meet Nathan and assess his honesty, ability etc.
I just had Erick read this post to see if this is all his recollection too, as he too was in the middle of all of this, we were both very close to J and Nathan used to come to our home in his golf cart on a regular basis. He called it his horse. Erick affirmed that this is exactly how he remembers all of these events.
I miss J and Nathan. Seeing Nathan's son today brought it all back.

Dawn

[Tom Bowden]

I am well aware of Jay's obsession with secrecy. We were totally surprised when he volunteered to be on camera for the French documentary. At the press conference, Jay, Walt and the others posed for a picture outside the museum, probably one of the few pictures of them all together. BTW, I have the final copy of the Pegues document.

[Jim DiEugenio]

Tom, when will your book be on the market in USA?

It looks interesting. I have been waiting for someone to get to the bottom of Billy Sol for a long time.

[Tom Bowden]

The 2003 Billie Sol book was issued in French, Japanese and Spanish. I decided to not publish an english version. The new book will be issued in english and French. It is about the assassination and includes Malcolm Wallace but not in the way BSE told the story. We do discuss how BSE learned about Malcolm Wallace. BTW I wrote the autobiography, which BSE sold but he changed it to reflect his view. I believe either BSE and/or his brother was at the murder of Henry Marshall. Incidentally, I was good friends with his daughter, Pam, and she learned many things after BSE and her uncle died.

I have many hours of video interview with BSE but even more telling audio tapes of phone calls where he was more forthcoming. My research went way beyond the assassination and included how his assets were dispersed. I have two large boxes of his financial records and his correspondence with various people including LBJ. In addition, I knew both his lawyer and his partner in his farming operation for many years. At this time I do not intend to write any more about him. I expect my research will end up at Baylor.

My next project is a living history book on Samuel Bangs, First printer west of the Mississippi. He printed the first document in Texas in 1815 and was the printer of many historical documents in Mexico and Texas.

[Magda Hassan]

I have many hours of video interview with BSE but even more telling audio tapes of phone calls where he was more forthcoming. My research went way beyond the assassination and included how his assets were dispersed. I have two large boxes of his financial records and his correspondence with various people including LBJ. In addition, I knew both his lawyer and his partner in his farming operation for many years. At this time I do not intend to write any more about him. I expect my research will end up at Baylor.

I hope they can digitalise your research collection when it gets there. It sounds like a fascinating treasure trove to wade through.

[Dawn Meredith]

I am well aware of Jay's obsession with secrecy. We were totally surprised when he volunteered to be on camera for the French documentary. At the press conference, Jay, Walt and the others posed for a picture outside the museum, probably one of the few pictures of them all together. BTW, I have the final copy of the Pegues document.

Joan told me she had the Pegues manuscript and it was awful. Useless. She got it from Walt so I do not know if this was the "final copy" or not. Re Steven Peagus' deadly heart attack and the timing of such, she did not find this suspicious. When I told her that J told me his home was also ravaged and all related to his work on Wallace was stolen, she did not even blink. Insisting that people have heart attacks. I like Joan but I find her to be naïve, at least when it came to her "tribute book" to J. She is positively brilliant on other matters.
I have several pic of J and J and Nathan. together. Also one of Barr, J Nathan and John Kinsner's grandson, the cop who was working with them. J used to like to call me and tell me to hurry and get here- his home- or some eatery, then surprise me with who was there. It was one of his many sweet little quirks.