I Was a Teenage Conspiracy Freak

I WAS A TEENAGE CONSPIRACY FREAK 

Blow a whistle – Time Out! For a public service announcement.

Normally I wouldn’t take time from the more serious and on-going research into this subject, and debate the issues, but it’s important to respond to such nonsense to set the record straight, as I have also tried to do with my responses to Phil Shennon’s book, “A Cruel and Shocking Act,”

[ http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/2015/04/a-cruel-and-shocking-twist.html]

and Thomas Power’s review of Jeff Morley’s book on James Jesus Angleton  

[ https://www.lobstermagazine.co.uk/free/lobster76/lob76-powers.pdf / http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/2018/06/response-to-powers-review-of-morleys.html ],

Their publication, especially in the mainstream media, provides an opportunity  to respond and explain how and why they are wrong.

Fred Litwin (fred.litwin@gmail.com) recently sent me an email announcing: “My new book is now available for purchase on Amazon, Kindle, Kobo and a host of other platforms. I have dedicated my book to John McAdams and Paul Hoch who have both taught us how to evaluate evidence.”

The description: “Fred Litwin recounts how he became a JFK conspiracy freak at eighteen, and then slowly moved to believe that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin.” 

Well its quite clear that Litwin’s “I Was a Teenage JFK Conspiracy Freek” can only be taken in the spirit it is entitled - as seriously as “Night of the Living Dead” and “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”

Litwin is just one of a number of  former conspiracy theorists who converted to a “Coincidence Theorists” and they have become a“True Believer” in the Eric Hoffer mold.  Like others I have known – Gary Mack, Gus Russo and Dave Reitzes, Litwin started out, at least he says he started out searching for the truth, but ended up selling his soul and discovering the Warren Commission was right after all. He now believes the lame and easily debunked conclusion that President Kennedy was killed by one man alone – Lee Harvey Oswald, and he was not involved in any conspiracy.

Like Lone Nuts before him, and all Silly Conspiracy Theorists, Litwin assembles all of the evidence that supports his predetermined conclusion and ignores the rest, and closes his mind to all of what we have learned over the past fifty years and what we know today.

To end up where the Warren Commission began, those who support the Lone Nut conclusion must also ignore all of what we have learned since then, especially the CIA-Mafia plots to kill Castro. Learning about the CIA-Mafia plots to kill Castro led Warren Commission attorney Sam Stern to tell the HSCA that if they knew about them in 1964, “We would have gone much more into Cuba, and the Mafia. We would have had a host of new avenues calling for investigation. And we would have obviously had to develop some new sources of information – other than the agency.”

If they would have known about the FBI destruction of Oswald’s note to Hosty, Stern told the Congressional investigators that, “…we would have gone to a full Commission meeting immediately, and would have made the big decision regarding any future relationship between the Commission and the FBI. It just would have gone to the heart of the whole relationships and the Bureau’s motivation. The destruction of that note would have resulted in the ultimate brouhaha.”

[Sam Stern http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg Subject Index Files/A Disk/Agent Oswald Office Files/Agent Oswald Office Official Records Subject File/Item 07.pdf ]

Of course those who still claim that Oswald killed the President all by himself can’t attribute a motive to him. To those who say it was Oswald who killed the President I say Oswald himself is the proof. Oswald is the proof that JFK was killed by what we know today as a covert intelligence operation designed to shield those actually responsible. As a former US Marine, radar and communications specialist, trained in intelligence tradecraft, defector to the Soviet Union, and an associate of other covert intelligence operators – David Ferrie, Guy Banister, Priscilla Johnson, George deMohrenschildt, Carlos Bruinguier and others, Oswald fits the Covert Operational Personality (COP) profile. And every intelligence analyst who read Oswald’s profile knew this immediately and checked their own files for info on Oswald, as the military did, as the CIA did, as the FBI and Secret Service did.

[http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/2013/12/assassination-psychology-and-cop-profile.html]

So if Lee Harvey Oswald was involved in the assassination in any way, it doesn’t matter if he was the shooter as the Lone Nuts portray him, or the patsy he claimed to be, whatever his role in what happened at Dealey Plaza, what happened was a well planned and successfully executed covert intelligence operation.

But those who believe Oswald did it alone for his own crazy reasons have to ignore the destruction of the Hosty note, the CIA-Mafia plots to kill Castro, Oswald’s intelligence training and covert operational experience, and the forensic details of the crime that prove he wasn’t the Sixth Floor Sniper.

There are many good reasons why 80% of the people don’t believe Litwin’s much debunked theory of Oswald’s lone guilt, reasons that are worth detailing for those disbelievers.

Litwin dishonors Paul Hoch by dedicating his book to him and professor John McAdams, who he says, taught him how to evaluate evidence, but he apparently failed to learn the lessons.

If he did he would have been able to answer a few simple questions – like where the bullets came from?, how did the rifle get in the building?, how did the Sixth Floor Sniper get out of the building?, how did Oswald get to the second floor lunchroom in ninety seconds without being seen by four people on the steps?, how did Oswald go through the 2^nd floor lunchroom door without Roy Truly seeing him, as he should have? Of course those questions cannot be answered, even by the most inquisitive Lone Nutters, because the answers don't fit their beliefs, but they can be answered by anyone seeking the truth. 

Of his book Litwin writes: “I Was a Teenage JFK Conspiracy Freak demonstrates how the left and right have used the JFK assassination to drive home myths about power in America.”

And yes, the assassination of President Kennedy, like other Deep Political events, is beyond left and right, liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, and is the ultimate myth about power in America.

Then Litwin’s own phobia comes out when he says, “There is also the persecution of a gay man prosecuted for conspiring to kill Kennedy, the ugly story of Oliver Stone’s homophobic film JFK.”  This of course is a reference to Clay Shaw, who I think was honorably presented in Stone’s film by Tommy Lee Jones.

 [ http://www.jfk-online.com/jfkjones.html ]

The movie played a major role in freeing many of the government’s JFK assassination records, including the HSCA interview with Sam Stern.

Litwin also promises to “… exposé the conspiracy nonsense on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation,” that I will have to actually read the book to learn what that’s all about, and there’s certainly a lot of conspiracy nonsense going about, but the CBC has a pretty good reputation.Better than Litwin at this point. 

Litwin  also says he “looks at how the Soviets tried to influence American public opinion that CIA was behind the murder,” which propagates the real nonsense that CIA media assets like John Barron and Max Holland promote, while ignoring the real and documented “disinformation” campaign, that continues today (via Litell, Shennon) that Fidel Castro was behind the Dealey Plaza conspiracy.

[  http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/2017/08/castro-on-grassy-knoll.html ]

Then there’s the big secret Litwin tells us, “the incredible secret why some JFK assassination documents must remain locked up. And a whole lot more.”

Well we know why some of the JFK assassination documents must remained locked up, and why the most significant assassination records are missing, were destroyed or are otherwise being kept out of the JFK Collection at the National Archives, but Litwin promises an even bigger secret, so his book might be worth reading after all.

I emailed Litwin and requested he send me a digital copy of his book that I would give a fair review at my blog, and he responded, declining to give me a review copy and telling me I could order it on line.But he did engage in a short dialog that's worth citing. 

I wrote:  Dear Fred, I'm so glad that you are making fun of yourself, as you represent a lot of silly conspiracy theorists who started out searching for the truth and found it by accepting the official cover story in blaming the Patsy for a horrible crime that we are just now getting to fully understand. 

I am currently reading and reviewing Gail Nix Jackson's "Pieces of the Puzzle" and Roger Stone’s “The Man Who Killed Kennedy,” and they do supply some new and significant pieces to the Dealey Plaza puzzle that will make a difference, while you sit back and laugh at yourself and the silly conspiracy theorists who have really learned nothing by adopting a fully discredited acceptance of an official proclamation or promoting an untenable theory.

I too first began reading the WC Report and volumes at the age of 17 in 1969 when I met John Judge as a freshman at the University of Dayton and he gave me Jim Garrison's Playboy interview. While I now don't believe the New Orleans bozos were responsible for what happened at Dallas, what I call the Dealey Plaza Operation - I know it was not carried out by one man alone, especially Oswald. 

As Research Coordinator for CAPA - Citizens Against Political Assassinations, (CAPA-US.org)  I work closely with a number of other researchers, including Paul Hoch, Bill Simpich, Dr. Cyril Wecht, Peter Dale Scott, John Newman, Malcolm Blunt, Rex Bradford, Jim Lesar, Larry Hancock and a dozen others whose names you wouldn't recognize but have made contributions to what we have come to know. 

In short, we are in agreement, that Oswald was not only set up as the Patsy, but that the covert intelligence operation that resulted in the death of JFK included a psychwar deception operation to blame the murder on Oswald and Castro. It was not a plot but a well designed and executed CIA contingency plan to kill Castro that was redirected to JFK at Dealey Plaza.  Those responsible were anti-Castro Cubans paid and trained by the CIA to kill Castro who redirected their fire to JFK at DP when their plan was "disapproved by higher authority" - JFK. 

While you may laugh at such a suggestion, it is also the scenario proposed by a number of people who were not silly conspiracy theorists -  former FBI agent Bill Turner, mob boss John Rosselli, USMC Captain and CIA JMWAVE trainer Carl Jenkins, military investigator Gene Wheaton and others.  As we are whittling away at the records released under the JFK Act, we now have documents that include the CIA pay records of the JMWAVE Cubans who were the actual shooters. 

As I know of a number of serious researchers who can't get their manuscripts published, I take exception to your book, and your approach to the subject, as the only correct approach is to keep an open mind, don't try to pin the blame on anyone before all the facts are in, and follow the evidence where ever it goes. That's where I am going and while I feel that I am almost there, the total truth is elusive, but unlike those Lone Nutters and former CTs who now say we will never know the truth, I say that we already know the truth - and will know the details soon, as we keep plugging away. 

In response "Fred Litwin"  wrote:  You name former FBI agent Bill Turner as some who was never a silly conspiracy theorist. But, I have several articles he wrote for Ramparts in the 1960s that are utter poppycock. I mean it’s so embarrassing to see what he wrote, he just regurgitated the Garrison party line hook, line and sinker. I lost all respect for the man.

Bill Kelly: Fred, I first read about the Garrison investigation in back issues of Ramparts that I bought at a used bookstore on the Ocean City boardwalk when I was in high school. I was impressed with what he wrote and later learned that he was in Dallas on the day after the assassination investigating the murder. I later was impressed by his books “The Fish is Red,” that he co-wrote with the Ramparts editor about the anti-Castro Cubans at the JMWAVE station in Miami, and his auto-bio “Rearview Mirror,” both of which contain significant information on the CIA maritime operations and the CIA-mafia plots to kill Castro. I don’t believe you have read either of these books.

At one of the last COPA conferences in Dallas the late Bill Turner said: “We now know to a fairly good degree of certitude what happened. First of all the motives were piling up – JFK had supposedly withdrawn air cover during the Bay of Pigs, failed to invade Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis and proceeded to withdraw troops from Vietnam. JFK was also on a second track to Cuba, which was to secretly carry on negotiations with Castro to bring about a détente. The motives were piling up to the point they had to assassinate him. I think it’s pretty obvious, with the compilations of the information that we have today, that the whole thing, the mechanism of it came out of the allegiance between the CIA and the web of Cuban exiles and the Mafia. They already had an assassination apparatus set up for killing Castro, and they just switched targets, and they killed Kenned instead.”

And that is what I believe happened.

As to whether N.O. D.A. Jim Garrison had a worthwhile case, among the records recently released at the NARA (that I’m sure you are not reading as I am), Washington columnist Jack Anderson certainly thought so as he told the FBI after meeting with and having dinner with Jim Garrison in New Orleans

[ http://jfkcountercoup2.blogspot.com/2016/04/jack-anderson-on-jim-garrison.html ]

“...Anderson stated that he went to New Orleans fully prepared to present a hostile viewpoint to Garrison. After listening to Garrison for approximately 90 minutes, he began to believe Garrison’s story. Anderson described Garrison as a very convincing talker who has considerable facts at his disposal. Anderson now believes there is some authenticity to Garrison’s claims and future plans.”

I don’t share the same attitude towards the case against Banister-Ferrie-Shaw and the New Orleans Bozos after I learned and wrote about the Houma Bunker Raid that clearly shows these clowns could not have been responsible for the Dealey Plaza operation that was successfully planned and executed like a military mission.

[ http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/2009/05/houma-bunker-raid-revisted.html    ]

And it is you who have apparently regurgitated the Warren Commission party line, hook, line and sinker, which makes me loose all respect for you without having met you or read your book.

Fred: Cyril Wecht  figures prominently in my book. He was very influential on my thinking, particularly when he definitively wrote that the head shot came from behind.

Bill: Yes, but that shot, as former Federal Prosecutor John Orr has demonstrated, did not originate from the Sixth Floor TSBD window, nor was it the same type rifle or bullet like the copper jacketed bullets found on at the scene.

Fred: I would believe your theories, if you presented evidence. I have strictly followed the evidence over the years, and the evidence is clear ... Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK and there was no conspiracy.

 Bill: Yea, Oswald acted alone all right, he just didn’t kill anyone, so there had to be a conspiracy, and one of the conspiracy theories is correct, and good luck debunking the rest. I have done my share of debunking silly conspiracy theories.

As far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t really matter if Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK all by himself or was the Patsy as he claimed, as LHO fits the Covert Operational Personality (COP) profile, and therefore happened it was a covert intelligence operation and not the work of a deranged loner. Once you approach the crime as a covert intelligence operation, using standard counter-intelligence operational techniques, all of the facts and evidence fit into place, and the Dealey Plaza picture becomes clear, even without the still missing pieces.

And with that realization, the teenage conspiracy freak become a real researcher who knows the truth when he hears it.

Now to get back to some real research, as the truth awaits.

PRAISE FOR I WAS A TEENAGE JFK CONSPIRACY FREAK

“As a young man growing up in the heyday of Kennedy assassination theorizing, Fred Litwin believed a conspiracy killed JFK.  And then he grew, and he studied and he researched.  The result is this volume, a thorough, cogent and meticulously argued case for a lone assassin.  A seasoned conspiracy skeptic will learn new things here, and a conspiracy believer open to looking at the other side could do no better than this volume.”
- John McAdams, Associate Professor of Political Science at Marquette University and author of JFK Assassination Logic: How to Think about Claims of Conspiracy

"This is a great book for conspiracy buffs—and, more important, for those who debunk such theories. Fred Litwin does a terrific job in blowing up the myriad JFK assassination scenarios, not least in completely demolishing The Fifth Estate’s decades-long efforts to “uncover” the truth. The CBC’s lead investigative show is revealed here to be more than slightly unhinged.”
  -J.L. Granatstein, Author of Who Killed Canadian History?

“In Fred Litwin's marvelous book, he charts how he went from an early skeptic to someone dedicated to dissecting their arguments and carefully tearing them apart. He puts the final nail in the coffin of all the conspiracy theorists, who develop new ones as old theories are proven wrong. Everyone still concerned with JFK's death and thinks it's a mystery must read this book. They will be glad they did.”
-Ronald Radosh, Professor Emeritus of History at CUNY, opinion columnist for The Daily Beast and co-author of A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel

“Mr. Litwin’s book is the best in many, many years in dealing with the truth about this horrendous piece of history…and exposing the fakirs, cons and opportunists who often call themselves ‘historians.’ A fine presentation!”
-Hugh Aynesworth, Author of November 22, 1963: Witness to History and JFK: Breaking the News