09-03-2018, 08:56 PM
I have just finished my read of "John W McCormack: A Political Biography" by Professor Garrison Nelson.
This book should be read by anyone wishing to expand his knowledge of the JFK Assassination. I will be putting together a detailed review of this book at some point, but here are the highlights:
1) When JFK was killed 11-22-63, McCormack became second in line to be President because he was Speaker of the House.
2) LBJ, in my opinion, lived in fear during 1964 because it would be possible for him also to be murdered (maybe poisoned) by those who were more in favor of the policies of McCormack than LBJ.
3) The Presidential Succession Act of 1967 (and amendment) followed because many others in the Congress feared the same thing. They thought a new President should pick his own Vice-President to prevent the Congress setting up their own Speaker in the White House as was narrowly averted in 1963-1964.
4) McCormack colluded with Senator Thomas Dodd (and three others) in 1959 to set up the "Committee for Freedoms for All Peoples". This was a reaction to the visit to the US of Khrushchev. They wanted to prevent, among other things, an address to a joint session of Congress by Krushchev which was in the works. Of course, I believe that Senator Dodd and his Senate Internal Security Subcommittee was running Oswald as an asset or agent. Dodd was also investigating Oswald's weapons vendors just before the assassination. Dodd and James O Eastland were co-chairs of the SISS committee. See author Jeffrey Caufield on this issue.
5) One of the other three (on this committee) was Senator Styles Bridges (R,NH). In Dodd's censure hearings, it came out that Bridges, like Dodd, was in the pay of the West German government by bag-man General Julius Klein.
6) McCormack's aide Martin Sweig was, like Dodd and General Klein, in the habit of traveling frequently to Europe and back on ocean liners that he could not have had the money to pay for himself on his salary. He often visited, among other places, Rome.
7) McCormack was essentially the first Chairman of HUAC (in its earlier form) in 1935.
8) McCormack was sometimes called "The Bishop of Boston" because he was a staunch defender of Catholic activist positions such as Federal aid to parochial schools (which JFK squelched around 1961).
9) During the crucial year 1964, this threat hanging over the head of LBJ was likely the crucial reason why he escalated the Vietnam War. It is now coming out that Vietnam was mostly carried out in support of the Catholic government of the Diems and General Thieu. This was due in part of the threat of McCormack taking his place by (possibly) a "mysterious death."
10) Before entering Congress, McCormack was a "mafia attorney" who made his money defending Irish gangsters in Boston.
11) McCormack carried on a clandestine correspondence with J Edgar Hoover from 1936 until the death of Hoover in 1972.
12) While in the leadership of the Congress, McCormack intervened with Truman to gain a pardon of the imprisoned (and still serving) Mayor of Boston, James Curley.
13) In 1968, McCormack wrote an infamous letter to the FBI recommending the hiring of John Connally (no relation to the Texan). Connally went on to serve as a "mole" inside the FBI and protected the infamous "Whitey" Bulger who went on to commit 19 murders, six of which directly related to his "protection" provided by the FBI mole.
14) Per author Nelson, LBJ always referred to and lumped together as "the Catholics" when he was talking about the Congressional Leadership under Senator Mike Mansfield, McCormack and whip Hale Boggs of Louisiana. It goes without saying that these Congressmen had a major role in setting up the Warren Commission and the cover-up. Eisenhower also disdained this same leadership as "too political" and doctrinaire (read "too anti-Communist").
15) The McCormacks and the Kennedy families were involved in a huge fracas in the primary battle between Eddie McCormack and Teddy Kennedy in 1962 regarding the open seat in the Senate (which was won by Teddy). These two families were in, basically, a non-stop political feud over control of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, dating back to the 1920's and maybe even earlier.
Of course, all of the above relates to the fundamental events of US history in the 20th Century. Until 2017, there were no biographies ever written about Speaker McCormack. Author Nelson blames that fact on the ficticious family heritage which was totally invented my McCormack. (McCormack's father was not Irish, but rather a Scottish Canadian immigrant). I think the real reason for the lack of a biography was fear of the mafia-FBI connection which would come out front-and-center in any detailed biography of McCormack (as it did in this one).
James Lateer
This book should be read by anyone wishing to expand his knowledge of the JFK Assassination. I will be putting together a detailed review of this book at some point, but here are the highlights:
1) When JFK was killed 11-22-63, McCormack became second in line to be President because he was Speaker of the House.
2) LBJ, in my opinion, lived in fear during 1964 because it would be possible for him also to be murdered (maybe poisoned) by those who were more in favor of the policies of McCormack than LBJ.
3) The Presidential Succession Act of 1967 (and amendment) followed because many others in the Congress feared the same thing. They thought a new President should pick his own Vice-President to prevent the Congress setting up their own Speaker in the White House as was narrowly averted in 1963-1964.
4) McCormack colluded with Senator Thomas Dodd (and three others) in 1959 to set up the "Committee for Freedoms for All Peoples". This was a reaction to the visit to the US of Khrushchev. They wanted to prevent, among other things, an address to a joint session of Congress by Krushchev which was in the works. Of course, I believe that Senator Dodd and his Senate Internal Security Subcommittee was running Oswald as an asset or agent. Dodd was also investigating Oswald's weapons vendors just before the assassination. Dodd and James O Eastland were co-chairs of the SISS committee. See author Jeffrey Caufield on this issue.
5) One of the other three (on this committee) was Senator Styles Bridges (R,NH). In Dodd's censure hearings, it came out that Bridges, like Dodd, was in the pay of the West German government by bag-man General Julius Klein.
6) McCormack's aide Martin Sweig was, like Dodd and General Klein, in the habit of traveling frequently to Europe and back on ocean liners that he could not have had the money to pay for himself on his salary. He often visited, among other places, Rome.
7) McCormack was essentially the first Chairman of HUAC (in its earlier form) in 1935.
8) McCormack was sometimes called "The Bishop of Boston" because he was a staunch defender of Catholic activist positions such as Federal aid to parochial schools (which JFK squelched around 1961).
9) During the crucial year 1964, this threat hanging over the head of LBJ was likely the crucial reason why he escalated the Vietnam War. It is now coming out that Vietnam was mostly carried out in support of the Catholic government of the Diems and General Thieu. This was due in part of the threat of McCormack taking his place by (possibly) a "mysterious death."
10) Before entering Congress, McCormack was a "mafia attorney" who made his money defending Irish gangsters in Boston.
11) McCormack carried on a clandestine correspondence with J Edgar Hoover from 1936 until the death of Hoover in 1972.
12) While in the leadership of the Congress, McCormack intervened with Truman to gain a pardon of the imprisoned (and still serving) Mayor of Boston, James Curley.
13) In 1968, McCormack wrote an infamous letter to the FBI recommending the hiring of John Connally (no relation to the Texan). Connally went on to serve as a "mole" inside the FBI and protected the infamous "Whitey" Bulger who went on to commit 19 murders, six of which directly related to his "protection" provided by the FBI mole.
14) Per author Nelson, LBJ always referred to and lumped together as "the Catholics" when he was talking about the Congressional Leadership under Senator Mike Mansfield, McCormack and whip Hale Boggs of Louisiana. It goes without saying that these Congressmen had a major role in setting up the Warren Commission and the cover-up. Eisenhower also disdained this same leadership as "too political" and doctrinaire (read "too anti-Communist").
15) The McCormacks and the Kennedy families were involved in a huge fracas in the primary battle between Eddie McCormack and Teddy Kennedy in 1962 regarding the open seat in the Senate (which was won by Teddy). These two families were in, basically, a non-stop political feud over control of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, dating back to the 1920's and maybe even earlier.
Of course, all of the above relates to the fundamental events of US history in the 20th Century. Until 2017, there were no biographies ever written about Speaker McCormack. Author Nelson blames that fact on the ficticious family heritage which was totally invented my McCormack. (McCormack's father was not Irish, but rather a Scottish Canadian immigrant). I think the real reason for the lack of a biography was fear of the mafia-FBI connection which would come out front-and-center in any detailed biography of McCormack (as it did in this one).
James Lateer