04-08-2014, 12:18 AM
Tom Bowden Wrote:When the Press Conference was held at the Conspiracy Museum to announce the fingerprint match, Jay and several of his friends were there. Walt Brown was designated as the speaker to the Press. Barr McClellan was also supposed to attend. He did not show up. Walt was left high and dry without support. He was at a disadvantage as he did not have first hand knowledge. I have to say it was the least received of any press conference we held. We had AP, DMN and several local TV stations. The press did not get the full story. I was frankly embarrassed for Walt and the museum. Jay was livid with the non-appearance of Barr. I was under the impression that Nathan would be there with Barr.
Be that as it may, I did meet Nathan on two occasions. The second was the videotaping for use in our French documentary. He came across as being honest and definitely believing in the match. We have a very good copy of the submission to the FBI. The fingerprints are excellent copies.
I think many on this site are being hard on Walt. I believe he has acted in good faith and as I stated before many do not understand the state of Jay's files. I spent several days with him when we were researching Wallace. I have over forty years experience in information retrieval and storage. Jay's was a bastard system and he told me himself that no one else could run it. I am not criticizing Jay because he used what he had. That should not reflect on his data or his work. Perhaps some should put more trust in Jay's faith in Walt.
I patiently wait to read Joan's book and will certainly react to it at that time.
Tom: I was at the center of this entire matter for a very long time prior to the press conference that I did not attend. This is how it all went. Barr was supposed to be doing a second press conf. in DC. Not Dallas. That did not happen. Richard Bartholomew- also a good friend of mine- had been the one working on all of this with J but J wanted someone with clout. A name. Walt having at least five books on this case was suggested by Richard, and together they brought Walt in. As you know J was OBSESSED with secrecy. (I never even said his name to anyone til after he died). At the last minute J got the-insane- idea that Walt should not name the print examiner. Even though RB was there in HIS mind he "heard" Walt name Nathan. We talked the next day. RB contacted John Kelin, who I believe still had his online mag Fair Play going at that time. RB told John Nathan's name. The next day I had lunch with J, Walt, my husband Erick and a couple of others at a place we "conspiracy types" had been having Sunday brunch for several months. J and Walt were beyond livid at Richard. The f word was thrown around a lot. Richard and J would never again speak and I remained in the middle for years trying to mediate. Nathan was not told that his name would be withheld and we had many conversations about how absurd it was to hold a conference and not name your expert. Nathan was NOT afraid. He was ready willing and able to testify anywhere. I could not really ever discuss this with J as it made him so angry- that RB had outed Nathan. Those who knew J well knew he had a trigger temper.
And yes J's files were not the kind that anyone else could easily utilize. Perhaps it was his experience in MI. I have one of those files, one that was very important to him, and it is just pages of dates and the entry of things. If I did not know the significance of this particular file - the Pegues doc I call it- it would have been virtually meaningless to me. But J and I had many talks about Steven. And it was in his hands on his death bed, so I copied it hoping I could somehow be helpful. Later I heard Billie sol Estes owned the rights. And I verified such with Billie sol over the phone.
Odd that J "was livid" with Barr's absence. The plan all along was to be a joint press conference Dallas and DC. Perhaps that also got changed at the last minute but J never demonstrated any anger to me that Barr was not in Dallas. He was angry that Barr was a no show in DC. It was Richard that Jay remained lived with til he died. However he did have a falling out with Barr but that is a separate matter. And in J's honor I will say why: Barr never gave J a dime from the sales of his book. Once again J had been used. Without Jay Harrison all Barr had was some alleged gossip from Ed Clark's law firm. I too have had little to no contact with Barr since all of this occurred. J died 5/25/05 in poverty. In obscurity.
Feel free to verify all of this with Walt. I agree that Walt must have felt very silly not being able to name Nathan. I am not privy to THAT particular conversation. I have talked with both J and Walt about it on many occasions and J was fearful that Nathan would be awakened every hour by reporters and harassed. Walt said that "you know J and how he is with secrecy" or something to that effect. All in all it was a sad affair that 5/20/98.
I am very glad you got a chance to meet Nathan and assess his honesty, ability etc.
I just had Erick read this post to see if this is all his recollection too, as he too was in the middle of all of this, we were both very close to J and Nathan used to come to our home in his golf cart on a regular basis. He called it his horse. Erick affirmed that this is exactly how he remembers all of these events.
I miss J and Nathan. Seeing Nathan's son today brought it all back.
Dawn