25-11-2008, 03:22 PM
(This post was last modified: 25-11-2008, 03:41 PM by Charles Drago.)
As noted in an earlier thread:
In his presentation at "Making Sense of the Sixties," this year's Cyril Wecht-sponsored symposium at Duquesne, William Turner offered the following:
"In May 1968 RFK's California campaign aide, Richard Lubic, tracked me down by phone in [Jim] Garrison's office to advise, 'after he's elected, [Bobby Kennedy] is going to go. He's going to reopen the investigation [of JFK's death].' When I conveyed the glad tidings Garrison broke into a Cheshire cat grin.
"Several months before, comedian Mort Sahl, who was aiding the DA's investigation, had arranged a secret meeting between Garrison and Sahl's friend Bobby at the Carlyle Hotel in New York. Garrison briefed Bobby, who agreed that he was on the right track. 'What are you going to do about it?' Garrison asked. 'I'm going to wait until I'm president, then reopen the case,' Bobby replied. (emphasis added)
"'If it was my brother, I'd reopen it right now,' Garrison retorted. On June 3, two days before he was shot, RFK said, 'I now fully realize that only the powers of the presidency will reveal the secrets of my brother's death.'"
This rather startling revelation prompted me to pose two questions to Joan Mellen, whose A Farewell to Justice stands as the most passionately and reasonably argued defense of Garrison, his methods, and the validity of his core conclusions regarding the assassination conspiracy:
1. To the best of your knowledge, did the RFK/Garrison meeting described by Turner -- or anything like it -- ever take place?
2. If so, might RFK's overt hostility to Garrison's investigation have been designed to disinform the watchers?
Ms. Mellen's public responses were typically direct, and I offer them below in condensed form:
"To my knowledge, no such meeting between Jim Garrison and Robert Kennedy ever took place ... If you look, for example, at the transcripts of the televison programs that Garrison did (ABC, etc.) available at the Archives, you can see his perplexity, his wondering why Bobby did not help him, and in fact, as Garrison put it, 'torpedoed' his investigation ... I talked to Lubic, but did not find him credible."
Thus I am compelled to address the following questions to Messrs. Turner and Sahl:
Will you, Mr. Turner, publicly offer additional details on the alleged Sahl-facilitated Garrison/RFK meeting?
Will you, Mr. Sahl, publicly confirm or deny that, to your direct knowledge, a meeting between Robert Kennedy and Jim Garrison took place during the latter's investigation of the JFK assassination; that the principals discussed the investigation in meaningful detail; that RFK ventured that Garrison was on the right track; that you facilitated any such a meeting or at least attempted to do so?
Please know that your responses and any additional commentaries you may wish to provide will be published on this forum in their entirety and immediately upon receipt.
Respectfully,
Charles Drago
In his presentation at "Making Sense of the Sixties," this year's Cyril Wecht-sponsored symposium at Duquesne, William Turner offered the following:
"In May 1968 RFK's California campaign aide, Richard Lubic, tracked me down by phone in [Jim] Garrison's office to advise, 'after he's elected, [Bobby Kennedy] is going to go. He's going to reopen the investigation [of JFK's death].' When I conveyed the glad tidings Garrison broke into a Cheshire cat grin.
"Several months before, comedian Mort Sahl, who was aiding the DA's investigation, had arranged a secret meeting between Garrison and Sahl's friend Bobby at the Carlyle Hotel in New York. Garrison briefed Bobby, who agreed that he was on the right track. 'What are you going to do about it?' Garrison asked. 'I'm going to wait until I'm president, then reopen the case,' Bobby replied. (emphasis added)
"'If it was my brother, I'd reopen it right now,' Garrison retorted. On June 3, two days before he was shot, RFK said, 'I now fully realize that only the powers of the presidency will reveal the secrets of my brother's death.'"
This rather startling revelation prompted me to pose two questions to Joan Mellen, whose A Farewell to Justice stands as the most passionately and reasonably argued defense of Garrison, his methods, and the validity of his core conclusions regarding the assassination conspiracy:
1. To the best of your knowledge, did the RFK/Garrison meeting described by Turner -- or anything like it -- ever take place?
2. If so, might RFK's overt hostility to Garrison's investigation have been designed to disinform the watchers?
Ms. Mellen's public responses were typically direct, and I offer them below in condensed form:
"To my knowledge, no such meeting between Jim Garrison and Robert Kennedy ever took place ... If you look, for example, at the transcripts of the televison programs that Garrison did (ABC, etc.) available at the Archives, you can see his perplexity, his wondering why Bobby did not help him, and in fact, as Garrison put it, 'torpedoed' his investigation ... I talked to Lubic, but did not find him credible."
Thus I am compelled to address the following questions to Messrs. Turner and Sahl:
Will you, Mr. Turner, publicly offer additional details on the alleged Sahl-facilitated Garrison/RFK meeting?
Will you, Mr. Sahl, publicly confirm or deny that, to your direct knowledge, a meeting between Robert Kennedy and Jim Garrison took place during the latter's investigation of the JFK assassination; that the principals discussed the investigation in meaningful detail; that RFK ventured that Garrison was on the right track; that you facilitated any such a meeting or at least attempted to do so?
Please know that your responses and any additional commentaries you may wish to provide will be published on this forum in their entirety and immediately upon receipt.
Respectfully,
Charles Drago