Bill Simpich's State Secret is completed

[Bill Simpich]

It seemed premature to take a lot of questions about a book in progress. Now I'm working on
a description of the lead characters. Here's a timeline for many of the key events. I'm agnostic
about whether Oswald went to Mexico City, and convinced that an imposter made the
calls attributed to him on Sept. 28 and Oct. 1. All questions welcome.

HI, Bill. Thanks for making all this research so freely available.

One of the things creating doubt about the official Mexico City saga, as eventually dribbled out to us, was the Agency's inability--or refusal--to produce a photo of anyone looking remotely like the fellow shot dead by Jack Ruby. Somewhere in your book you mention that at one of the embassies, the Cuban Consulate if memory serves, CIA technicians were changing cameras or something on the day LHO supposedly visited and therefore missed getting his mug shot. What luck! Do you believe that explanation?

My understanding of the the surveillance at both the Soviet and Cuban installations was that there was a pulse camera system as well as one or more backup systems. It always has seemed to me that government agencies like the CIA are nothing if not thorough, and I just can't believe the excuses for failing to get photos or keep audio recordings of the elusive LHO. Why doesn't the dog sometimes eat someone else's homework?

Thanks again.

Jim,

My mind is open on this subject. The CIA failed to provide to the HSCA or the ARRB the photos from LILYRIC or the Cuban consulate, as discussed in Chapter 4. So the photos may be hidden from us to this day.

I have to say, though, that if you look at the Cuban and Soviet embassy photo logs you will notice several things. The visits for Friday, Sept. 27 ended in the morning, which was not unusual. They took no photos on Saturday, also not unusual.

Also, those logs were for the embassies. The Cuban consulate was physically separate from the Soviet consulate. The Cuban consulate door had just been reopened to the public after being shut down for a year due to David Phillips' stink bombs (LITAINT)! It was as if they were trying to get the camera working for Oswald's arrival - so there's that issue.

Most importantly to me is that Win Scott said that photos were taken of Oswald coming and going for every visit on Sept. 27 and 28 by Oswald. That would mean at least ten photos. That doesn't line up with what the logs say. I think Scott made that up, because his ego was bruised by the notion that his people didn't photo Oswald.

To make it even wilder, Joseph Piccolo and Stanley Watson remembered seeing a photo of Oswald from a rear view entering the Cuban embassy. Watson said that the photo made Scott "the number one boy" of LBJ. I think it's entirely possible Scott phonied up a photo!

I say the focus should be on getting all the documents released. I also believe that it's the Oswald legend, not what Oswald or an impersonator did in Mexico City, that is so important. I do think that an impersonator was used for the Sept. 28 and Oct 1 calls is important, and tells us what we need to know.

Why was he impersonated? To get the Mexico City and Angleton's people all worked up to conduct a molehunt and find out who breached Mexico City's security. That creates a paper trail around Oswald that can be used for blackmail purposes after the assassination.

Bill