Saint Fletcher the Obscure

[Peter Lemkin]

I contacted, exchanged letters with, and then met with Prouty several times. He was a very nice, kind, generous and intelligent man. He was very interested in some aspects of my research on JFK and would encourage me to pursue those lines - saying "Now, that is an area I would strongly suggest you pursue further!" He would simply remain silent on those he felt would lead nowhere. He had this strange way of answering questions. You could ask point blank and unless he had discussed it in some article before he'd not answer directly, but ask me back what I thought and then 'steer' me - encouraging me if he felt I was 'getting warm' and discouraging me if he felt I was 'getting cold'. A few things, however, he did bring up out of the 'blue' in response to some of my questions and comments. One I'll never forget is that he said 'if I were a researcher, the first thing I'd do is look up who in the world was Dorothy Matlack and who she worked for and what she did! That will go a long way to understanding who was behind the inner workings of the Assassination. It was only much later I did, as info on Matlack is hard to find! She worked under Landsdale and was very senior - surprisingly so for the time, being a woman. She was the person who met DeM when he came to D.C., apparently to debrief him or prep him for any possible hearings on what he know vis-a-vis Oswald and their mutual friends. Prouty helped me on many aspects of my research and did not claim to know everything and everyone that happened or was involved in the Assassination. He explained in detail how compartmentality worked and said it worked even at the highest levels - even between two persons working on the same project in the same department or even office. I always felt, however, there were a few names and a few details about the Assassination he chose, for whatever reasons, to keep to himself and to not divulge. One did get the feeling, thought, that he would have been delighted if someone else came up with this information - only he was not going to divulge it - if for not to violate secrecy agreements or some other reasons. I specifically asked him about flights in and out of Dallas before / after the hit. He didn't seem to know of any details, but said it was logical that planes would have been the transport method of choice, and told me of some other infiltration/exfiltration episodes of which he knew the details about. I have the feeling if he 'lied' he did so only by omission....i.e. withholding a few names and details of friends and colleagues. However, he gave us so very much. I hold nothing against him and honor him greatly for what he did give us.

He seemed to know quite exactly who the shooters were and where they were brought from and returned to...but wouldn't name them. He also seemed sure who some of the commanders of the mechanics and magicians were, but again, other than a few that are public domain, did not name others. A few names of people I was pursuing as involved in this regard I ran past him. He would show with a facial expression or his statement of "Now, that is an area I would strongly suggest you pursue further!" whether he was giving a thumbs up or down on that name.
A few names he seemed to avoid discussing - or would state that it was tradecraft to have several persons using the same name [i.e. Bishop] and that he couldn't be sure which one I meant...even though I had other ways to identify exactly which 'Bishop' I was talking about. He seemed to know just about everyone we've ever looked into at the mid and upper levels and a few at the lower mechanic level he'd met, as well.