Prouty on Lansdale

[Jim DiEugenio]

OK, here we go again.

This stuff is just silly.

Let us call off the roll: there was Morales, Campbell, and Johannides at the Ambassador. Now these were straight on photos and films. This was started with a guy from JM Wave, Brad Ayers who worked with them, and a shadowy guy named Dave Rabern. Which caused Shane O. to go on BBC and announce to the world that three CIA officers were at the Ambassador Hotel that night RFK was murdered.

Hmm. Three CIA officers were allowing themselves to be recorded by movie cameras and still cameras for hours while the conspiracy was actually ongoing? Why would you do it? Just to risk being caught? How did Dick Helms forget to be there then? Sounds sensible to me. And Fetzer still tries to revive this stuff, even though Shane himself renounced it in his book.

Then there was AJ Weberman and the Hunt allegation as Howard being one of the three tramps. How was this verified? By something called an 'earprint". Sure, AJ, that will stand up in court won't it?

Then there was Lucien Conein. Except it was not him. He was in S. Vietnam and the guy mistaken for him was identified as someone else by his close friend.

Then there was Joseph Milteer in Dealey Plaza. Except, as Jerry Rose found out years later, Milteer was on the East Coast.

Oh yeah, and let us not forget Harrelson and Sturgis. And oh yes, that photo of Geroge Bush that Hankey swears by. The gang was all there right? Sort of like the ever evolving Murchison party.

I mean who else do you want there? I guess maybe we are missing Max Taylor perhaps? Someone missed that phone call.

Exactly what has all this gotten us in all these years? Nothing but pratfalls, embarassment, and ridicule. Photo identification is one of the trickiest arts that there is. Unless you have a really good head on shot, which has enough perspective to show comparative height and weight, you don't really have enough to go on. Secondly, unless the guy is so obviously the person that its indisputable, you then have to cross check if this person has an alibi.

If you do not do the above, then you leave yourself wide open. Weisberg swore off the whole three tramps thing for that reason. And that was before they were identified. Oliver made a mistake in using this in his film. Its the kind of thing that called for further investigation, that he did not do. If I had been advising him, I would have told him not to use it. In the Lansdale thing, I am glad he did not make it explicit. He kind of slid by it.

And BTW, for the Gedney, Abrams things, I was going with the TV show which I think was called Current Affair or something like that. They did a pretty good investigation of it, since they had money to do it with. Gedney and Doyle said it was them, and their stories matched from where they were the night before. Doyle's sister said he had told her about being arrested in Dealey Plaza. The deceased Abrams' sister recalled his vagabond days, and she identified his photo.

IMO, at this stage, we should be going with only the very best info we have. And that is stuff that can be used to reopen the case. This kind of thing does not come close to meeting that standard.