Extending Increduludy - the Oswald Film Makers

I was immediately incredulous when I first heard that Jack T. Marttin interviewed General Walker on film, and documented the window and wall damaged by a bullet said to have been fired by Lee Harvey Oswald on April 10, 1963, and then went to New Orleans and haphazardly came upon Oswald and filmed him giving out Fair Play for Cuba Committee (FPCC) on the same reel of film! Now that's beyond coincidence. 

And then, doubling down on the incredulous nature of this story, when I read an article in the New York Times by my old friend Max Holland AND co-authored by one Johann W. Rush, that postulated that the Sixth Floor sniper fired a shot seconds before it was previously postulated, so the window of opportunity was more than the six seconds previously believed. 

After filming Oswald distribute his FPCC leaflets for a local New Orleans TV crew, Rush then went to Dallas and filmed a personal interview with - General Walker! 

Now I don't have the time or inclination to look into this further, but I'm willing to bet that this lead pans out significantly, if anyone wants to run down this alley. 

Here's what I have so far, and keep me posted if anyone comes up with anything else. 

BK 

Johann W. Rush (Sept. 5, 1942 - Dec. 12, 2015)

Johann Rush passed away in Kirtland, New Mexico, on Dec. 12, 2015.

Mr. Rush was a news cameraman and documentary film cameraman with a long and interesting career. After leaving college, Mr. Rush worked as a news cameraman for WSDU-TV in New Orleans, where he filmed a local activist by the name of Lee Harvey Oswald. (Oswald was president of the local branch of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee and was distributing leaflets outside the International Trade Mart in New Orleans on August 16, 1963).

You can view still frames of the news footage filmed by Mr. Rush here: 

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/rush.htm

This encounter in New Orleans later led to a long interest in the people and events concerning the assassination of President Kennedy by Oswald in November 1963. In particular, Mr. Rush developed a theory (along with author Max Holland) concerning the Zapruder film of the assassination and the number of shots fired by Oswald:  

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/22/opinion/22holland.html?_r=0

[in 1981, Mr. Rush interviewed Maj. Gen. Edwin Walker, who had been targeted for assassination by Oswald in April 1963 - Oswald's shot at Walker missed and Oswald was able to escape undetected.]

Mr. Rush also did freelance news camera work for the major TV networks, including being present and filming some major civil rights events in the U.S. South. One example is the September 29-October 1, 1962 enrollment of James Meredith at the University of Mississippi.

Mr. Rush filmed the event for CBS News. In this online article, Mr. Rush shared his role in the event (the article is about Dan Rather and you need to scroll down to the paragraph "Rather's Tall Tales" to read Rather's role in the Meredith event and the differing memory of Mr. Rush about what Rather was up to at the time): 

http://www.aim.org/publications/aim_report/1984/07b.html

During this same period of the early 1960's, Mr. Rush worked as a documentary film cameraman for the Italian director Luigi Vanzi on the Italian "Mondo" film "America paese di Dio." Benito Frattari was chief cinematographer for the film and Gray Frederickson was executive producer. The English title is "So This Is God's Country":   

https://letterboxd.com/film/so-this-is-gods-country/

The film is available for viewing on YouTube.

Just type in   "america paese di dio 1967 film completo documentario"

[Film footage by Mr. Rush of one of the 1960's Berkeley riots was included in the 1971 film "Jimi Plays Berkeley."] Mr. Rush also later worked as a news director in Hattiesburg, Missisippi, and lived and worked in San Francisco, California, before retiring to New Mexico. An interesting man with a long and varied career.

JACK T. MARTIN 

Jack Martin, namely, Jack T. Martin (a.k.a. John T. Martin) who made a home movie showing his airplane flight to Dallas, then General Walker's shot-up home in Dallas; then his airplane flight to New Orleans; and finally Lee Harvey Oswald handing out FPCC fliers on Canal Street.

One of the last things that Gary Mack did as director of the 6th Floor Museum in Dallas, there in 2015, was to post Jack T. Martin's home movie on the Internet for everybody to see, free of charge.

Here's Martin Shackelford's 1996 description of the "Jack Martin Film":

The Jack Martin Film (8-9-63)

 In another of those aforementioned ironic twists, a tourist named Jack Martin was in Dallas in August 1963

His film records his view from the airplane. Next, he visits General Edwin Walker, under whom he had served, allegedly target of an assassination attempt by Lee Oswald in April of that year. 

The film documents the scene of that attempt: the window through which the shot was fired, the bullet hole, and the wall from behind which it was most likely fired, ending with shots of Walker's flag and mailbox, and a nearby building under construction (allegedly also photographed by Oswald prior to the attempt!) . Then we see the entrance to a movie theater, cypress trees, a seal at the edge of a pool,and the statue of Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Park in New Orleans. 

Aroused by a commotion on Canal Street, Martin crossed to see what was happening, and began filming. We see Lee Oswald, leaflets in hand,standing on the sidewalk, being harangued by anti-Castro militants including Carlos Bringuier. Four police officers are seen arriving. The film ends with a view of the yellow leaflets scattered on the sidewalk after Bringuier knocked them out of Oswald's hands, and a brief aerial view of a subdivision. Parts of the film have only been used, to my knowledge, on the French television documentary, "Le Mystere Kennedy." The documentary is available on video, and frames from the film as well, from The Collector's Archives. A still from this film was finally published in Robert Groden's 1995 book, "The Search for Lee Harvey Oswald," an essential photo archive on Oswald. (Martin Shackelford, 1996)\

On that older thread of Jack S. Martin, we learned that Jack S. Martin was in his fifties, while Jack T. Martin was a teenager in 1963.

In 1968, Harold Weisberg and his right-hand assistant, Gary Schoener, received the Jack Martin home movie, from Jack Martin himself, who had turned pacifist, and had a sit-down meeting with the young Jack T. Martin.

I interviewed Gary Schoener in 2012, who told me that he and Weisberg learned that young Jack Martin had been a rightist extremist in 1963, a former trooper under General Walker in Germany, as well as a member of the Minutemen and the John Birch Society.

I was delighted when Gary Mack obtained this home movie for the 6th Floor Museum, and posted it for free on the Internet. Here it is.

http://emuseum.jfk.org/view/objects/asitem/classification@Films/9/title-asc?t:state:flow=38c26749-3dc5-4b4e-80e1-b58d2275024f

I implored Gary Mack to set up an interview with Jack T. Martin, but Gary told me that the sole condition for obtaining the Jack Martin film was that Jack T. Martin must never be contacted by anybody at any time. So, Gary refused to give me Martin's contact info.

By the way, Gary Mack finally became interested in General Walker as a suspect in the JFK assassination, and he asked me for all my copies of General Walker's personal papers that I had obtained 2012-2014 from the Dolph Briscoe Center for the Study of American History at UT Austin.

I remain convinced that the Jack T. Martin video is one of the most important clues that we possess with regard to the JFK assassination conspiracy. It harmonizes with Dr. Jeff Caufield's recent book, General Walker and the Murder of President Kennedy: the Extensive New Evidence of a Radical Right Conspiracy (2015).

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

http://emuseum.jfk.org/view/objects/asitem/classification@Films/9/title-asc?t:state:flow=38c26749-3dc5-4b4e-80e1-b58d2275024f

You'll notice it's an ordinary 6th Floor Museum web page, but on the right-hand side is a video frame with a white triangle in the center. Click on the white triangle.

The film has been known since 1968, described by Harold Weisberg and Gary Schoener -- 48 years ago -- but it was only in the past 20 years available to the public for purchase -- that was by Martin Shackelford.

The reason John T. Martin was called "Jack," was because his friends called him "Jack," just like some people called JFK, "Jack". But his given name, like JFK's given name, was "John." (It's also possible that back in 1996, there was still some question about whether Jack T. Martin was the same as Jack S. Martin, who was in his fifties, and who worked for Guy Banister at 544 Camp Street in New Orleans. We know today that they were two different men from two different generations.)

As for the film itself -- you're right that the film is dark -- there are probably ways to add light to it, but Gary Mack was no photographic expert. I would like to see more work done on this home movie.

The film is raw and unedited, according to Gary Mack. I also asked Martin Shackelford to verify that it is the same film that he used to sell in the 1990s', and he said that it was. Lee Harvey Oswald can be barely glimpsed at the end, he said, in a split second. Carlos Bringuier can be barely glimpsed there, too.

Gary Schoener told me in 2012 that he and Harold Weisberg completely overlooked the fact that they had in their hands a direct linkage between General Walker and Lee Harvey Oswald in movie format -- in August, 1963. Instead, they spent days and weeks carefully trying to identify each of the men at the end of the movie -- face by face, body by body, trying to detect who was there.

They never asked John Martin about his personal relationship with General Walker.

In 1968, almost nobody thought of General Walker as a JFK assassination suspect. The HSCA completely neglected Walker, even though Walker tried to insert himself into the proceedings through Senator Frank Church! (That's another story.)

Anyway -- with John (Jack) Martin we have a trooper for General Walker in Germany, who also joined the "Minutemen" in Minnesota when he got out of the Army -- and who also kept in touch with General Walker in 1963. This was after Walker had fomented racial riots at Ole Miss in 1962.

Lots of Walker's former troopers joined Walker's call for protest at Ole Miss in 1962 -- I would not be surprised to learn that John Martin was one of them. But as I say, Gary Mack discouraged any contact with John (Jack) Martin back in 2014-2015.

As for the film itself, it shows a summer vacation. Young John Martin takes an airplane from his home State in Minnesota to Dallas, Texas, and we see the airplane itself (Braniff) and the clouds in the sky. Then we see General Walker's house from various angles, from the front, and then from the back, and then up close, where the bullet holes were from the April 10, 1963 shooting.

Then John Martin gets back in an airplane, and we see further clouds, and he arrives at New Orleans. He is there at Lafayette Park, with that familiar old statue of President Andrew Jackson, just across the street from 544 Camp Street. (This statue appears in Oliver Stone's 1992 movie, JFK, in the scenes before and after his visit to 544 Camp Street.)

Then, there seems to be some interpolation of a scene from a zoo or the pier -- that is, an ocean seal is filmed in profile. Then we find ourselves on Canal Street, in a brief scene where there are Cuban Expatriates ganging up on somebody, with police arriving to stop the violence, and then, dramatically, there are shards of FPCC handbills on the ground. The final scene is from the air, as John Martin flies back home from his summer vacation.

This film seems harmless and amateur, and that may be why it has received so little attention over the past half-century -- however, given the new, 21st century CT that Walker-did-it, we can now realize the great historical value of the so-called "Jack Martin Film."

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

This is a very strange film, Paul. If it is legit, and I suspect it is, somebody was trying to establish an Oswald connection before the fact. On the surface, it appears that Edwin Walker set about to create a piece of evidence that could later be used to substantiate his early suspicion that Oswald was his shooter. If someone, like the President for example, were to be assassinated by Oswald, Walker would of course be in the clear, since Oswald had tried to get Walker first.

But the ordering of events and time-stamping of the film are so blatantly contrived, that from Walker’s point of view, the film would probably work against him, I think. And who knows, this might have been the intent of the filmmaker and his reason for his releasing it before vanishing into the woodwork.

Here’s my fictional narration for the 3 minute film:

“Hi there, my name is John T Martin and I’m going to treat you to a little documentary of my vacation in the summer of 1963. Here I am at the airport getting ready to board a Braniff 707, tail number 7072, which flew daily to Love Field in 1963 - you can check. Now that we’re in the air, look at the pretty clouds and the engines of the 707. After a safe landing in Dallas, here I am at General Edwin Walker’s house, my old Commanding Officer in Germany. I hope he remembers me, there must have been a couple of hundred guys named John Martin under his command. Look - there’s the station wagon he drove in ’63, and I thought you’d all enjoy the extra film-footage I took of his full name in large print on the side of his mailbox: “General Edwin Walker”. Some lone nut tried to assassinate him recently, you know, and here’s some nice footage of the bullet hole. To timestamp my trip for you, here’s some footage of a landmark skyscraper in downtown Dallas that was under construction in August of 1963. Now I’m back at Edwin’s house [i think, it’s pretty dark], saying “goodby” before venturing off on the next leg of my journey - The Big Easy. Arriving in New Orleans, I can’t wait to photograph the bald cypress trees, the sea lions at the Audubon Zoo on Magazine Street, and, of course, the statue of Andrew Jackson perched on his rearing horse in Lafayette Square. But wait: There’s a commotion over on Canal Street. The police are rushing to the scene. Another lone nut had been passing out commie literature and got himself into a brawl with some patriotic guys. Look at all those torn-up “Hands off Cuba” leaflets on the ground - take a really long look. Look some more. And now, I’m back in the air and headed home to Minnesota, but not before I shoot some low-level neighborhood footage that can easily be fact checked. I hope you all enjoyed my attempt to create a low-quality but extremely well-documented three-minute home movie of my vacation. JTM.”

Paul, when you get a chance, would you please post John T Martin’s Minuteman registration card - I can’t seem to find it.

Tom

Another one of those 1-in-10,000 coincidences?

Joe,

Yes, this is my opinion, also. There was no coincidence whatsoever, IMHO, that Jack Martin would film the bullet holes in General Walker's home in the first half of his home movie, and Lee Harvey Oswald getting beat up by Carlos Bringuier on Canal Street in the second half of his home movie.

I agree with Tom Humes that that chances are high that General Walker planned the entire home movie, start to finish. We should remember that Jack Martin was a young member of the MInutemen. Let me quote from Dallas FBI agent James Hosty's book, Assignment Oswald (1996) on the connection between General Walker and the Minutemen:

-------------- Begin Extract of James Hosty (1996, p. 4) ----------------------------------

My caseload in the four-man counter-intelligence squad in the Dallas office was dominated by right-wingers. I spent much of my time tracking the movements and actions of both Klan members and members of former US Army General Edwin Walker’s radical militia group, known as the Minutemen. Convinced there was a Communist hiding under every bush, the Minutemen had been quietly and discreetly arming themselves with an impressive arsenal of weapons. In the eyes of the Minutemen, Kennedy was at best a dupe of the Communists; at worst a Communist collaborator.

-------------- End Extract of James Hosty (1996, p. 4) ----------------------------------

Jack T. Martin told Harold Weisberg and Gary Schoerner in 1968 that in 1961 he had served in the Army under General Walker, and in 1962 had joined the Minutemen and the John Birch Society. Here in August 1963 we find Jack T. Martin making a home movie of General Walker's bullet holes and LHO's FPCC antics in NOLA.

Forum members have challenged me to find some connection between General Walker and LHO at any time before the JFK assassination. This home movie is solid evidence.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=135908&search=%22john_t+martin%22#relPageId=11&tab=page

Tom,

It seems to me equally likely that General Walker was simply setting up a trophy for his followers.  Here was the April Crime -- the shooting at 4011 Turtle Creek Boulevard in Dallas, and here are the bullet holes.   Then -- here is the culprit -- the hated Communist Lee Harvey Oswald.

The fact that this film was taken in August, 1963 is the most significant point.  Walker's personal papers are full of his confession that he knew Oswald was his shooter only days after the shooting -- but Walker told the Warren Commission that he never heard of Lee Harvey Oswald until after the JFK assassination.

Walker's personal papers include this early interview taken less than 24 hours after the JFK assassination:

http://www.pet880.com/images/19631129_Deutsche_NZ.jpg

Walker's personal papers also include this mini-confession to Senator Frank Church in 1975.

http://www.pet880.com/images/19750623_EAW_to_Frank_Church.pdf

But people have consistently asked me -- what connects Walker with Oswald before the JFK assassination?   Today we can point to the Jack T. Martin home movie, online at the 6th Floor Museum web site.  This is one of the most important historical artifacts of the 20th century, IMHO.

Regards.
--Paul Trejo

For those interested in the enigmatic John T Martin film, the film and the circumstances surrounding it were discussed on this forum in a thread entitled “Jack S. Martin Sr.” between 2005 to 2015. In spite of the tread’s title, the discussion eventually drifted to an entirely different fellow, John T Martin, and the topic stayed there for the duration. At the time, nobody on the forum had actually seen the film.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?/topic/4738-jack-s-martin-sr/&page=7

Paul, since the 6th Floor Museum has now made the film available (link below), and since you were in contact with Gary Schoener as recently as two years ago, do you think it would be prudent to contact Gary again and find out if this is the exact film he remembers? 

http://emuseum.jfk.org/view/objects/asitem/classification@Films/9/title-asc?t:state:flow=b3cfa3d9-2faf-449b-9beb-32dee07c3297

Here’s my reason for asking: Weisberg and Schoener said they spent a great deal of time studying the end of the film, which depicted Oswald’s arrest for the altercation during his leafleting on Canal Street. They said they saw Oswald’s face from several angles and suspected that he was being signaled by someone. The footage in question is 2:40 through 2:47, and even though I too studied that section, the only Oswald possibility I see is on the left of our screen in 2:40 - 2:42, and during those two seconds of film, I see only the right rear portion of this guy’s head. In other words, if this is the complete film, there wouldn’t have been much for Weisberg and Schoener to study there. I’m wondering if footage has been removed. 

A shot in the dark: It’s my suspicion that John T Martin is a fictional character, and that the real filmmakers filmed a cameo of themselves at a building in downtown Dallas. The footage is between 1:14 and 1:27 and while it’s very dark, someone on the forum with the proper skills and software might be able to give us a good look at these fellows - it might turn out to be important. 

Here’s a screenshot I took of one of those frames: 

PHOTO TO COME 

Another shot in the dark: At 1:09 of the John T Martin film we see a tall Dallas building under construction. In the old Jack S Martin Sr. thread linked above, someone mentioned that among Oswald’s possessions was a similar photograph of the same tall building. I seem to remember seeing that photo too, but after a day of searching, I haven’t been able to come up with it yet. Like I said, a shot in the dark, but what if the two photos turned out to be the exactly the same? If anyone knows where this Oswald photo is, please clue me in.

Tom

If you guys will read what I posted about "Jack T. Martin" back in the day, you'll see that I found someone in Minnesota by the name of John Timothy Martin who "fills the bill," for our purposes, age-wise and address-wise.