The Vehicle on the Grassy Knoll

[Peter Lemkin]

Maurice W. Schonfeld was the managing editor of UPI NewsFilm. He later was the founding president of CNN, and has had a long career in television news and production. In 1975 the Columbia Journalism Review published Schonfeld's article The Shadow of a Gunman; An account of a twelve-year investigation of a Kennedy Assassination Film.

In that article, Schonfeld writes extensively about Jones Harris and the Nix Film.

Excerpt:

Stills from the Nix film appeared in the UPI/American Heritage book Four Days, and some of the footage was used in a David Wolper documentary feature movie of the same title. UPI made money on the footage, but no one found it particularly noteworthy until, early in 1965, an assassination buff named Jones Harris came upon stills from the Nix film in the Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, commonly known as the Warren Report. Harris, a New Yorker of independent means, did not believe that Lee Harvey Oswald had pulled the trigger. He had found a picture that had led him to believe that Oswald was standing in the street in front of the Book Depository at the time of the shooting. Working with Bernie Hoffman, a talented film technician and photographer, he had sought to prove that the man in the street was, indeed, Oswald, but their findings were inconclusive.

In some of the pictures published in the Warren Report, Harris found something new. First off, he saw a station wagon with a machine gun mounted on the roof. Such a station wagon did exist in Dallasit was used to advertise a Dallas gun shopand it was Harris's theory that the station wagon and the shop were involved in some way in the Kennedy assassination. Then he found a curious shape on the grassy knoll, a shape that could be read as a man aiming a gun at John F. Kennedy.

We gave Harris some of the key stills made from the Nix film. They showed the knoll and, atop the knoll, "the pergola"a concrete structure consisting of two octagonal towers connected by a wall thirty-eight inches high and 100 feet long. In the process of enlarging these stills, two things happened: the station wagon went away and the head, shoulders, arms, and gun of the rifleman was standing behind this car, leaning on it, as he took aim....

Thanks to Paul Rigby for originally posting the link to the above article years ago: http://www.cjr.org/f...nman.php?page=2

[Peter Lemkin]

Peter,

As for the car, it could not be more wrong to believe that Jay Harrison and Tosh Plumlee stored it properly or kept it safe.

I alone discovered George Wing's 1959 Rambler station wagon on May 29, 1989, on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin, parked in a handicap space next to Batts Hall. I alone, investigated, wrote about and presented my research paper on Wing's Rambler in June 1993 at the Third Decade conference in Providence, RI.

I met Jay Harrison on September 1, 1994 at UT's Barker Texas History Center. Jay was living in his step van on an empty lot next door to a friend of his just west of IH-35 north of the Hwy 183 exit. His friend had recently told him to vacate the empty lot. I arranged for him to move his van to the driveway of my friend Stephen Bright at 3304-A Robinson Ave., Austin, TX 78722. This is where the Rambler had been parked since I drove it there myself after buying it from Lucila Lopez Wing, George's widow in March 1992.

Jay contributed these facts to the history of Wing's Rambler:

• Jay and I thoroughly searched the car at 3304-A Robinson Street and documented its contents on November 12, 1994. Stephen Bright videotaped the search.
  
  
• Jay confirmed that C.B. Smith's first wife, Fronia Ellen S. Smith, the mother of C.B. Smith, Jr. (the sales manager at the time of the April 1963 Rambler sale to George Wing), was working in the third floor, TSBD office of Macmillan Publishing Co. at the time of the assassination.
  
  
• In 1997, Jay arranged for the Rambler to be stored at Del Valle Imports, a junk yard at 3501 Darby St., Austin, TX 78721 (now Vanoye's Auto Sales) after it had been tagged by the City of Austin for removal from 3304-A Robinson St.
  
  
• Jay moved the car from Del Valle Imports without my knowledge or permission in December 2000 and gave it to Tosh Plumlee. I learned about the move from the junk yard's owner a year later when I went to check on the Rambler. Bill Kelly told xxxx yyyyyyy and me that it was scrapped in a junk yard on Airport Blvd. in Austin around 2009, presumably by Plumlee.
  

Lee Harvey Oswald's interrogation statement, as reported by Deputy Sheriff Roger Craig, that the station belongs to Mrs. Paine, always raises the question of Ruth Hyde Paine's car. The question is simple, but the answer is a little more complicated. I cover all of the facets at length in the monograph and its updates. One example is the fact that there are three Mrs. Paines involved: Ruth Hyde Paine of Irving, and her mother-in-law, Ruth Forbes Paine, who is the one with more direct Dulles/CIA connections. A third Mrs. Paine might be a possible wife of Secret Service Agent William Paine, the Austin based agent whom Bill Moyers has characterized as the man in charge of JFK's Dallas itinerary (discussed in the Evica Connally Transcript).

Ownership of the D713121 Rambler prior to C.B. Smith is still an open question. But I think I've answered it as well as it can be without judicial power. I never contacted Lucila Lopez Wing after buying the car from her, and amazingly neither has anyone else to my knowledge. Nor have she or her son and daughter (both last known living in Pittsburgh, PA) contacted me. Feel free, but be warned. Ms. Wing was employed in some very powerful areas of UT. And around the time of the assassination of Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta, the a Mexican PRI presidential candidate who was assassinated (March 23, 1994) at a campaign rally in Tijuana during the Mexican Presidential campaign of 1994, I noted some spooky-looking cars at her house with Mexican plates. I was contacted by the grandson of C.B. Smith and offered to meet with him. I told him I was no longer actively investigating, but would talk to him if he wanted. He never contacted me again.

Based on what Gerry Patrick Hemming told me about Howard K. Davis' identical Rambler, I think it was the car he loaned to two gunrunners. They were arrested in Mexico and the car was impounded in Houston. The guy who had the Texas region's federal contract for auctioning impounded cars was a man named "Boots" Trousdale. His daughter, my neighbor Michelle Sheehan still has the federal contract and runs the auction house in Pflugerville. They famously auctioned Madalyn Murray O'Hair's estate after her death. I interviewed her mother, Mrs. Trousdale. He and C.B. Smith were close friends. Trousdale's junkyard was just up the same street from Smith's dealership. Davis' car was impounded, according to Hemming, in late '62. The Rambler was sold to Wing April 26, 1963. The timing works.

The evidence I found and analyzed regarding Wing's Rambler failed to rule it out, amazingly, as one of several suspicious identical Ramblers photographed and witnessed in Dealey Plaza. I discuss most of the photographic aspects of the Rambler in my monograph and it's updates. The captions and comments throughout my restricted Facebook "Rambler" photo album give further updates.

Here, for convenience, are all of the links to my Rambler monograph and updates:

Posible Discovery of an Automobile Used in the JFK Conspiracy
FORWARD
http://www.acorn.net/jfkplace/09/fp.back...frwrd.html

PART-1
http://www.acorn.net/jfkplace/09/fp.back...bler1.html

PART-2
http://www.acorn.net/jfkplace/09/fp.back...bler2.html

PART-3
http://www.acorn.net/jfkplace/09/fp.back...bler3.html

PART-4
http://www.acorn.net/jfkplace/09/fp.back...bler4.html

1994 UPDATE
http://www.acorn.net/jfkplace/09/fp.back...94.fp.html

1996-UPDATE
http://www.acorn.net/jfkplace/09/fp.back...96.fp.html



Thanks,
Richard Bartholomew

My note: It has been some years since I was actively being informed about this as it was happening by Tosh and others involved. I was shocked and upset to learn from Plumlee directly that the car was gone. As he portrayed it [no way for me to independently verify this], it had been in the back yard of a close relative of his; that relative moved (if I remember) and no one wanted to bother with the car care further. I though Tosh should have done this on his own, or found someone who did want to...as it is EVIDENCE in the case.....now destroyed. For years Tosh boasted to me and others in the know that he was saving this important piece of evidence, and then.....

I have photos of the car in the yard of Tosh's relative. Some have Tosh and Jay in the photos.

[Dawn Meredith]

Peter I do not know why you posted an email from Richard. There is some inaccurate info in it to. Richard did NOT learn from Bill Kelly the final resting place of the Rambler. Richard and Bill Kelly learned from me. I learned from J on his death bed. Tosh had no place to store it after his daughter and husband said they could no longer store it. It was not drivable and would have been very expensive to move let alone store. My garage was converted to a soundproof music studio in 1990 so I could not have stored it. Jay was ill with cancer and was living on almost nothing. He had no place to store it. For Richard to diss J like that ...well...I am keeping out of it. Richard is a good friend as was J.

It's a shame that this happened as this just may have been Ruth Paine's car. It certainly had many indications and connections to 1963, for those familiar with Richard's manuscript.

Dawn

[Peter Lemkin]

Peter I do not know why you posted an email from Richard. There is some inaccurate info in it to. Richard did NOT learn from Bill Kelly the final resting place of the Rambler. Richard and Bill Kelly learned from me. I learned from J on his death bed. Tosh had no place to store it after his daughter and husband said they could no longer store it. It was not drivable and would have been very expensive to move let alone store. My garage was converted to a soundproof music studio in 1990 so I could not have stored it. Jay was ill with cancer and was living on almost nothing. He had no place to store it. For Richard to diss J like that ...well...I am keeping out of it. Richard is a good friend as was J.

It's a shame that this happened as this just may have been Ruth Paine's car. It certainly had many indications and connections to 1963, for those familiar with Richard's manuscript.

Dawn

I had to think several times about posting it. It was NOT sent to me privately; there is a very large CAPA email list and it was posted there - though it starts out as if it was only written to me - not so. Only seems that way as I had posted something in answer to someone else and yet another person sent it to Richard and then posted the response. I found some errors in the email...but we learn the truth by hearing different sides of the story.

However, the loss of the car is a crying shame. Obviously Jay is not to blame in this matter - he had no place to keep it. Tosh [and his daughter] took control of it...but lost it by their own collective inaction[s]. Tosh got upset at me for getting upset that it had not been saved. It wouldn't take much money to put it in a storage space or on a flatbed and brought to Tosh's home - or some alternative home nearer. Many a JFK researcher in the Austin or Dallas area would have been proud to host that rusty car. Very sad story....any version.

[Drew Phipps]

Dawn: Is this the car you took me to see back in the 90's? IIRC, someone was trying to raise money to store and/or preserve it... but the documents and provenance of the vehicle wasn't very convincing to me at the time. I recall making (what I thought were helpful) suggestions about how to improve the documentation attached to the vehicle, which weren't at all well received. So I lost interest.

[Dawn Meredith]

Dawn: Is this the car you took me to see back in the 90's? IIRC, someone was trying to raise money to store and/or preserve it... but the documents and provenance of the vehicle wasn't very convincing to me at the time. I recall making (what I thought were helpful) suggestions about how to improve the documentation attached to the vehicle, which weren't at all well received. So I lost interest.

Drew I don't recall this. I do remember that I was trying to find a home for it so it must have been. Ya it could never be traced back to prove it was THE car. (I have not looked at RB's manuscript in decades, which he linked to the email.) OH Peter got ya, it was a group email. I opted out of that group, just no time for group emails. So it was not meant to be private.
Dawn

[Peter Lemkin]

Richard emailed me that he feared the CIA would get the car in the end (and did)....

If you have not read through all of his parts on the car, I strongly suggest it!

The evidence in this case is mostly all tampered with, disappeared, fake or altered....no wonder it is difficult to solve - add to it that NO ONE in authority ever wanted to 'solve' it [because they all know that means the collapse of their horrible political and financial system - they don't touch it...or make believe they are doing an investigation - anyone doing real investigation meets resistance - as did Garrison....and many who died only for knowing the right thing or doing the right thing......

Anyone who thinks the JFK Assassination is 'ancient history' and doesn't effect you and me and all of us every day now and will into the future...I'd like to sell you my share of the old WTC towers...... 9-11 would NOT have been possible if the events of Dallas had been dealt with. We'd not be having militarized police, endless wars, the rich feeding off the poor more and more, a war OF terror, total surveillance on everything everyone does or says, etc. et al. We have all that and more because it was not dealt with and those who 'did it' became more powerful and bold in secret control of our society and others.

[Drew Phipps]

If the CIA wanted this car, they could have bought it for a song and a promise from Richard himself back in the early 90's when he was asking for money for the vehicle.

My main problems with Richard's thesis back then were:

a) Richard said it was Ruth Paine's car. From the beginning of JFK assassination research, everybody but Roger Craig (who never went to look at Ruth Paine's car to see if it was the same car) and apparently Craig's partner Wiseburg(?)/Wizeman(?) (who did go to Ruth Paine's house but didn't see the events at Dealy Plaza like Craig) knew that Ruth Paine owned an entirely different vehicle. The Warren Commission said it was a Chevy station wagon. See for yourself:


and


b) Now, that doesn't exclude the remote possibility that GG Wing's vehicle was used during the assassination in 1963. However, the title history (that Richard ran) clearly shows Wing bought the car in 1965. Furthermore the Turista sticker is dated 1964, making it at least 39 days too late for a quick getaway vehicle to Mexico. (I offered to run down the history of the Turista sticker for Richard, but he declined. He apparently hasn't managed to give that a shot himself in the last 20 years, either)

c) I do not doubt that the car was being used as some sort of showpiece for whatever Wing wanted to show, or remind people of. But Wing never bothered to explain it. The "Red Ripper" angle could have been anybody, including Richard himself. It seems just as likely (to me at least) that Wing, by creating a clever and subtle mystery, was attempting to increase the resale value of his relic.

d) the bulk of Richard's work is examining "connections," (...the knee bone is connected to the thigh bone...) which I find to be of minimal and limited probative value, even if interesting. Unfortunately much conspiracy research is of this variety.

[Tracy Riddle]

I don't know if anyone has posted this earlier. It's about Ruth Paine's station wagon up for sale:[URL="http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/features/2015/03/26/jfk-assassination-oswald-station-wagon-auction/70522738/"]

http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/features/.../70522738/[/URL]

DALLAS The last known automobile in North Texas related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is up for auction on eBay.
"Oh yeah, it's all steel. There's no plastic in this car," said David Garrett from Texas Classic Cars of Dallas.
It's a 1955 Chevrolet BelAir station wagon with a unique place in history.
"This is a copy of the original registration that Ruth Paine had," explained Garrett.
Ruth Paine, who lived in Irving, was close friends with Marina and Lee Harvey Oswald.

The last known automobile in North Texas related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is up for auction on eBay. News 8's Jason Whitely has more.



"What's unique about this is this vehicle actually transported his rifle back to Dallas from where Oswald had been living in New Orleans," said Farris Rookstool III, a JFK historian.
1955 Chevy BelAir that transported Lee Harvey Oswald's rifle back to Dallas from New Orleans. (Photo: Jason Whitely, WFAA)


"Oswald rode in this vehicle on October 14, 1963 because Ruth was driving him to Dallas so he could try to get this job at the Texas School Book Depository," he continued.
Ruth Paine remembers her old Chevy. She's 82 years old, lives in Northern California now and spoke to News 8 on the telephone Thursday. Ms. Paine said she sold the BelAir to a neighbor for $500 in the late 1960s.
She said she does remember taking Lee Harvey out in it trying to teach him how to drive just a few weeks before the assassination but he couldn't steer that BelAir very well.
Paine's neighbors kept the vehicle in a garage but it has deteriorated over the decades and no longer runs but remains part of the historic puzzle.
The auction ends Friday morning.
The current bid is up to $10,300 but the reserve price has not yet been met.

[Tracy Riddle]

As for Roger Craig, I've learned to be a little more skeptical of some of his stories. This is what Harold Weisberg wrote to a fellow researcher in 1970:

“Roger Craig may be a brave guy and all of that, but he is also full of what is generally reserved for toilets. I have gone over his annotation of his testimony, as printed, and his account of the changes is utterly impossible. I spent too many years working with court reporters, particularly, the firm the Commission used, to find it possible to credit this in any way. More, have traced that testimony all the way from Dallas to the Government Printing Office, and it is printed as it was taken down, I have copies of the typescript sent to the GPO, and I have the letter of transmittal to DC the bills for taking it, the whole story. Roger is, despite Penn's [Penn Jones] great love for him, at best simply wrong, in the newer areas, what he embellished his original testimony with. Now I have met Roger, and he is a finelooking, clean-cut kind of guy who appears to be truthful, serious and all that-just like dozens of guys I once guarded in an Army locked ward in a large mental institution. He does not impress me as the kind of guy who is out to make trouble. But he is.”