Ford finally told the Truth

[Jim DiEugenio]

http://ctka.net/2013/VGEonJFK.html

I am really surprised the has not gotten more play.

But hopefully with its own thread it will so.

I mean, its kind of devastating to the WC and its backers.

Ford was lying all those years.

[David Josephs]

This man has been carrying that around since '75 or so?

Couldn't get a word to the HSCA? or did he?

The way he describes it, sounds like they are discussing the HSCA findings... not the WC. Ford probably knew the outcome of that one ahead of time as well...

Ford, couldn't finish his statement...

He told me: 'It's not a satisfactory [i.e., positive (ntr)] one. We arrived at an initial conclusion: it was not the work of one person, it was something set up. We were sure that it was set up. But we were not able to discover by whom.'»

because the FBI who I was working for at the time did not let any of the non-Oswald incriminating evidence see the light of day. Based on the evidence presented to the commission, Lee Oswald did it.

The Evidence IS the Conspiracy... nice find Jim

DJ

[Jim DiEugenio]

I agree. That is what is left out.

The FBI loaded the dice. But Jerry is the last guy who will admit that.

[Jim Hargrove]

I just read (or maybe re-read) Ford's Portrait of the Assassin a couple of months ago, and I was surprised that it really was more interesting than a typical Lone Nutter screed today. It certainly does nothing to examine how bad much of the evidence was against Oswald, but still.... Most of us are familiar with the startling opening page.


Ford wrote that just as the WC was getting started, Rankin got a call from Waggoner Carr, the Attorney General of Texas, who said that LHO was an "undercover agent" for the FBI. On the second page, Ford wrote:


"The information was that Lee Oswald was actually hired by the FBI; that he was assigned the undercover-agent number 179; that he was on the FBI payroll at two hundred dollars a month starting in September 1962 and that he was still on their payroll the day he was apprehended at the Texas Theater...."


Very early on, Ford also explains how Marguerite, Pravda and others believed that LHO was a CIA spy.


Most of us are familiar with this beginning, but unless I dozed off later in the book somewhere, I missed the part where Ford flat-out denies the charges. Saw some innuendos for sure, but no clear, definite denial. I kept thinking it would be there somewhere, but I sure didn't find it. Can anyone point me to the page I must have missed?


Also, my copy of Ford's book contains this inscription on the first interior page.







Does that look legit?

[Albert Doyle]

Ford wrote that just as the WC was getting started, Rankin got a call from Waggoner Carr, the Attorney General of Texas, who said that LHO was an "undercover agent" for the FBI. On the second page, Ford wrote:


"The information was that Lee Oswald was actually hired by the FBI; that he was assigned the undercover-agent number 179; that he was on the FBI payroll at two hundred dollars a month starting in September 1962 and that he was still on their payroll the day he was apprehended at the Texas Theater...."

You can be sure this information was in the possession of the Dallas Police.

[Tracy Riddle]

If I recall correctly, that informant story was later said to have been made up by Bill Alexander or Hugh Aynesworth or someone who was just trying to "mess" with the Feds and stir up some trouble.

Regarding the story to Giscard d'Estaing, it's an odd one because the WC never really investigated anyone besides Oswald, never looked for a conspiracy at all. At least to our knowledge.

[Dawn Meredith]

http://ctka.net/2013/VGEonJFK.html

I am really surprised the has not gotten more play.

But hopefully with its own thread it will so.

I mean, its kind of devastating to the WC and its backers.

Ford was lying all those years.

WOW. I had never seen that quote before. Totally devastating. Maybe Ford had some conscience after all and it bothered him that he was part of a huge lie. Just posted it on fb.

[Drew Phipps]

If I recall correctly, that informant story was later said to have been made up by Bill Alexander or Hugh Aynesworth or someone who was just trying to "mess" with the Feds and stir up some trouble.

This is a claim made by Posner in "Case Closed." As I read (between the lines?) the executive session notes from the WC, it sounds to me like Bill Alexander, lead prosecutor on Ruby, was upset that the FBI had disclosed something to the Ruby defense team, and used this rumor as an excuse/ploy to get the Ruby trial judge to order some sort of gag order preventing the FBI (or Texas "authorities") from working with the Ruby team. Or as a threat to keep the FBI out of the case.


Between Wade and Carr and Alexander, there seems to be a lot of finger-pointing on the issue of the origin of the informant story, but Carr didn't hear it (at first) from Wade. Wade says Alexander heard the "number and money" story from an "informant" that Alexander knew. One wonders what sort of assistance Alexander might have believed the FBI was providing the Ruby defense team... or whether the Ruby defense team was trying to "psych out" Alexander with hints of FBI assistance.


(Other interesting tidbits about the 1/22/64 executive session: Ford is present for this session... Wade Boggs knew Ed Butler and INCA (but didn't name the organization, even though Butler had obtained Bogg's endorsement for INCA)... Dulles states that IF is true that Oswald was an FBI informant, then he can see that it is in the FBI's interest to "get rid of this man" but doesn't understand why the FBI would risk backing itself into the lone nut theory without running out all the leads.... In a funny echo of Posner's title, Boggs and Dulles discuss "closing the case")

[Jim DiEugenio]

I agree that the Alexander/Aynesworth hypothesis is very dubious.

It probably came from Revill.

[Jim Hargrove]

Interesting theory. Revill clearly had no love for the FBI:

Mr. DODD. Can we just suspend for 1 minute?

Could I ask you if in fact later at a subsequent time in your conversations with Jim Hosty, you ever explored with him how it was that he happened to have drawn the conclusions he had, how he happened to develop a file on Lee Harvey Oswald?

Mr. REVILL. No, sir. After, I believe, that night, Chief Curry went on TV and announced that the FBI had information to this effect.

Later, it is my understanding that the statement was--he made a retraction, and from that day I don't recall ever talking to Jim Hosty again. I may have but I don't recall. And I do know that we never discussed

Mr. DODD. You said you wrote up a report?

Mr. REVILL. Yes, sir.

Mr. DODD. Pertaining to the Hosty conversation?

Mr. REVILL. Yes, sir.

Mr. DODD. You signed it that afternoon according to your testimony in 1964 and you state then, you said, "yes sir, at the time I was hoping it would never come up."

Mr. REVILL. This is true.

Mr. DODD. Would you tell this committee why you hoped it would never come up?

Mr. REVILL. Because Jim Hosty was a friend of mine and I knew that Hoover would crucify him.

Mr. DODD. Crucify him for what?

Mr. REVILL For making that statement. Whether or not it was true or not, Hosty made the statement to me and I relayed the information to my captain at the time, Pat Ganaway, shortly after our conversation, and he instructed me to reduce it to writing.

At that time I told him if I do, Jim Hosty will be crucified or penalized by the Bureau, and to that he said, "I don't care, you put it on paper." I put it on paper.

Mr. DODD. Which, is he going to be, crucified for telling you or crucified for not following in the normal operating procedures of sharing that information with the Dallas Police Department?

Mr. REVILL. It is not normal operating procedure for the FBI to share that information with you. As I mentioned to you earlier, the information local law enforcement gets from the Federal Bureau of Investigation is primarily based on personal contact between an agent and the officer.

Mr. DODD. So he more than likely would have been crucified by the Director for admitting to the Dallas Police Department that they had information in the security file on someone who they perceived as capable of assassinating the President?

Mr. REVILL. I can only assume that, sir.

Mr. DODD. Thank you.

Do you suppose Revill got the informant information from Hosty?