New Joan Mellen book "The Texas Robber Barons and The CIA"

[Myra Bronstein]

Joan Mellen's upcoming book is "The Texas Robber Barons and The CIA."
If we were to cross paths, or e-paths, I'd ask her the following (for starters):

-Will the JFK murder case be a part of this book?
-Will the oil depletion allowance be discussed in the book?
-More specifically will JFK's plans to do away with the oil depletion allowance be discussed?

My opinion is that this was one of many factors in his murder.

Myra

[Magda Hassan]

This does look interesting. I will definitely be getting a copy of this. I think you are right Myra. The Texas connection played a pivotal role in the assassination and not just because it happened in Dallas.

Do you know when the book will be launched?

[Myra Bronstein]

This does look interesting. I will definitely be getting a copy of this. I think you are right Myra. The Texas connection played a pivotal role in the assassination and not just because it happened in Dallas.

Do you know when the book will be launched?

No, I already spilled my guts. That's all the info I have. Don't see the publication at the online bookstores either.

I also wonder if the Suite 8F group will be discussed in the book. Prime suspects in my view.

[Magda Hassan]

Well, I'll just have to keep an eye out for it then.
Of course. The suite 8F group. Even with out murder there was so much corruption around them and LBJ. Schemers, plotters, criminals in suits.

[Peter Lemkin]

This does look interesting. I will definitely be getting a copy of this. I think you are right Myra. The Texas connection played a pivotal role in the assassination and not just because it happened in Dallas.

Do you know when the book will be launched?

No, I already spilled my guts. That's all the info I have. Don't see the publication at the online bookstores either.

I also wonder if the Suite 8F group will be discussed in the book. Prime suspects in my view.

From the hints I've gotten from Joan, it will be some months yet before the book is done. She is actively working on it now. Given her ability to gather both the old information and put it in a new light and new information/documents/interviews others missed, it should be quite a book. Yeah, it certainly took place in Texas, but it is not chance that it did. Many, but not all, of the movers were IMO Texan and most of the others had connections to them. I'm currently very interested in Jack Crichton - who seems to have been little studied and right in the thick of it all.

[Magda Hassan]

Peter, if you have some good stuff on Jack Crichton you can put it in the Players thread as well as JFK.

[Peter Lemkin]

After her first Garrison book, Mellen met a man named Don Deneselya. Deneselya had worked as a translator for the CIA in 1962. Contrary to what the CIA has maintained, Deneselya told Mellen that Oswald had been debriefed by the CIA on his return from Russia. It was by a man named Andy Anderson. The CIA was very interested in the Minsk radio plant where Oswald worked during his residence there. Deneselya reported to Robert Crowley, a close friend and colleague of James Angleton. Crowley handled the Robert Webster defection and Anderson, according to Deneselya, also reported to Crowley. According to this source, Oswald was part of the false defector program and was therefore working for the CIA's Counter-Intelligence unit. (pgs. xi, xii) Deneselya maintains he actually saw the Anderson report on Oswald. Yet Oswald was not actually named in that report. But the context and description, which Deneselya was familiar with, made it clear it was he.

Deneselya talked to both Richard Schweiker and the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) in the late seventies. (p. xiii) In his HSCA report, he describes his job in detail. It was maintaining files on all technical and scientific industries in Russia, which is why he was interested in the Minsk plant. Oswald gave the CIA a detailed briefing about the Minsk plant. Deneselya appeared on the infamous 1993 PBS Frontline special on Oswald. But his voice was drowned out by that of Richard Helms. The former CIA Director denied the Agency ever debriefed Oswald. What the show's reporters—Gus Russo and Scott Malone—did not tell the public is that former intelligence analyst John Newman was on the set the day Helms issued his denial. When the camera was turned off, Newman leaned over to Helms and said, "Mr. Director, what would be so bad about the CIA interviewing Oswald on his return from Russia? I mean isn't that what they were supposed to do? Doesn't it therefore look bad if you say you didn't?" Helms thought it over a bit. He then told the cameraman to start rolling again. This time he would say that the Agency did debrief Oswald. Of course, the program director did not take him up on that offer.

[pages noted above refer to oan Mellen's Jim Garrison: His Life And Times - The Early Years]