Judyth Vary Baker: Living in Exile

[James H. Fetzer]

OK. Those who have studied Armstrong's work could cite my own post here against me, since I have not studied his work. I have obtained his massive book, however, so that moves me a giant step forward. Judyth has more to say about the photographic record, which I shall post shortly. Dawn's point about two very different personalities and characters is rather fascinating, however, namely: that witness after witness who knew "Lee" described the same person: quick tempered, not given to talks of Marxism, never uttering a word of Russian, while witness after witness who knew "Harvey" describe a mild mannered man, not given to fights, very taken with the intellectual concepts of Marxism, perfect Russian, which would suggest that they were two distinct people. So I will bear that in mind. As Jack has remarked earlier, it would appear that the person Judyth knew, assuming there were two, was the one Armstrong refers to as "Harvey"; but of course there is no good reason she should have had any idea of the existence of a man living a parallel life. Even Jesse Ventura, AMERICAN CONSPIRACIES--which I recommend as a kind of refresher course about the commonplaceness of the occurrence of significant conspiracies in American history--talks about the prospect of there having been "two Oswalds". I would also observe that the importance and illumination of what Judyth has to tell us does not appear to hinge on Armstrong's work or upon any denial of the possible existence of another Oswald. Since the purpose of this thread continues to be to present and to archive major portions of her story, I shall pursue that objective, with a nod here and there to the question of the existence of two Oswalds, where, even if Armstrong is right, some of the evidence and arguments advanced for his thesis may be phony or wrong. Perhaps most worth emphasizing, whether or not Armstrong is right does not imply that Judyth was mistaken about the man she knew in New Orleans. She turns out to be a remarkable woman in many different ways, including having a knack for research, but her primary role is surely that of a WITNESS about her personal experiences with a man who became a crucial part of her life and related events rather than a STUDENT OF THE ASSASSINATION. As far as I can see, Judyth does not bear the burden of disproving the existence of "two Oswalds", but only that of clarifying, elucidating, and substantiating her knowledge of the man she knew as "Lee" in New Orleans.

OK. Attacks from those who have not studied issues bother me a lot. But I appreciate it and will try to do better--and not overuse bold.

I would ask that all members refrain from personal attacks and keep the focus on the research and data only. Please count to 10 if you are feeling particularly pissed off and then let the moment pass. It is not worth having this interesting thread derailed just to have a swipe at some one.

Carry on gentlemen.