Nixon vs Kennedy

[Tracy Riddle]

Newsweek
5/21/79

At first it seemed just a bum's boozy fantasy. When a grubby transient named Raymond Lee Harvey was arrested 50 feet away from Jimmy Carter at a Los Angeles rally two weekends ago, he claimed to be part of a four-man conspiracy to assassinate Carter. Harvey carried only a blank-firing starter's pistol, and the Secret Service said at the time that he had "all the characteristics of a derelict." But investigators found new evidence last week that supported Harvey's storyincluding a shotgun case and ammunition in a nearby hotel roomand once again raised the specter of a Presidential assassination plot.

The case is as bizarre and confusing as it is potentially serious. One curious twist is the names of the principals. Raymond Lee Harvey, who was held on $50,000 bail last week on a charge of conspiring to kill the President, and Oswaldo Espinoza Ortiz, who was held on $100,000 bail as a material witness. References to Lee Harvey Oswald and the assassination of John F. Kennedy were unavoidable. Officials have also indicated that Harvey has a history of mental illness. Both Harvey and Espinoza now claim that Harvey was supposed to create a diversion by firing his starter's pistol while two other men attempted to shoot Carter. But investigators say they have no clues to the whereabouts of the alleged accomplices and are not even certain of their identities. Accordingly, the authorities have been careful to stress their doubts about the case.


This was back in the days before cable TV News however all three networks reported this story at least once on their respective evening news broadcasts.

CBS News:
Headline: Carter Assassination Try
REPORTER: Walter Cronkite
CBS Evening News for Friday, May 11, 1979

ABC News:
Headline: Carter Assassination Attempt
REPORTER: Frank Reynolds
ABC Evening News for Friday, May 11, 1979

NBC News:
Headline: Carter / Assassination Plot
REPORTER: John Chancellor
NBC Evening News for Thursday, May 17, 1979

Three Australian Newspapers also reported on the story. This story seems to have vanished shortly after it was first reported.

From Wikipedia:

• Raymond Lee Harvey

  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  
  Raymond Lee Harvey was an Ohio-born unemployed American drifter. He was arrested by the Secret Service after being found carrying a starter pistol with blank rounds, ten minutes before President Jimmy Carter was to give a speech at the Civic Center Mall in Los Angeles on May 5, 1979.
  Although he had a history of mental illness,[SUP][1][/SUP] police investigated his claims that he was part of a four-man operation to assassinate the president. He claimed that he had been approached by three Latino men staying at the Alan Hotel who gave him the starter pistol, and asked him to shoot it into the ground to create a diversion, so they could then shoot the president from their hotel room during the distraction.[SUP][2][/SUP] According to Harvey, he fired seven blank rounds from the starter pistol on the hotel roof on the night of May 4, to test how much noise it would make. He then spent the night in a room taken by one of the men, whom he knew as "Julio", but who was later identified as a 21-year-old illegal Mexican alien who gave the name Osvaldo Espinoza Ortiz.[SUP][1][/SUP] At the time of his arrest, Harvey had eight spent rounds in his pocket, as well as 70 unspent blank rounds for the gun.[SUP][3][/SUP]
  The names "Lee Harvey" and "Osvaldo" (Osvaldo is the Spanish equivalent to "Oswald") drew comparisons to Lee Harvey Oswald who was, according to four government investigations, the assassin of President John F. Kennedy. This led conspiracy theorists to claim that the incident was set up to scare Carter into submission.[SUP][4][/SUP][SUP][5][/SUP] Although originally dismissed as "a tale spun by an intoxicated man,"[SUP][6][/SUP] police investigating the claims found a room in the Alan Hotel rented under the name "Umberto Camacho," the name of an alleged conspirator given by Ortiz, containing a shotgun case and three unspent rounds of ammunition. The occupant had checked out of the hotel room the day of the alleged assassination attempt.[SUP][1][/SUP]
  Harvey was jailed on a $50,000 bond, given his transient status, and Ortiz was alternately reported as being held on a $100,000 bond as a material witness[SUP][1][/SUP] or held on a $50,000 bond being charged with burglary from a car.[SUP][3][/SUP] Charges against the pair were ultimately dismissed for a lack of evidence.[SUP][7][/SUP]
  His age at the time of the event has been alternately given as 34[SUP][8][/SUP] or 35.[SUP][1][/SUP]
  

  References

  
  
  
  
  
• "Skid Row Plot: A scheme to kill Carter?" Time 21 May 1979.
  
• "The Plot to Kill Carter." Newsweek 21 May 1979.
  
• "Alleged Carter death plot: man charged." Sydney Morning Herald 10 May 1979.
  
• Carter Assassination Attempt - TinWiki.org
  
• Lee Harvey and Osvaldo Conspiracy | AlienZoo.com
  
• UPI (May 12, 1979). "Reported Carter-Assassination Plot Given Credibility by New Evidence; Arrest Despite Disbelief". New York Times. p. 19.
  
• Harvey / Carter Assassination Plot CBS News broadcast from the Vanderbilt Television News Archive
  
• "Carter Plot Alleged". Sydney Morning Herald. May 9, 1979.