Dear Oliver,

You asked; "Who did it?", "How was it planned?"

Read on.

Society's murders are sophisticated. No one person did it. No one person planned it. I'll show you how it was done.

Your idea of using Jim, the honest, hard-working law man, as the main character is magnificent. Then we have to fill in the real data. What made his job so difficult? What made it so dangerous? These are not data of the "researchers." These are data from the Pentagon, from Board Rooms, from major law offices, from the Executive Suites of major banks...all of this US and foreign.

NOTE: So you'll know this is in bed rock. I happen to have kept almost every daily "Pentagon News Clips" of that period. The "Clips" is a rare 36-40 page summary of world-wide news and other items put together daily by the Intelligence services and distributed to a small group of top pentagon officials. Thus, I have the key "Clips" of interest to that top echelon of men from about 1959-1963. It is a fabulous resource. Now on to the guts of the matter.
-- End NOTE --

During the latter part of the Eisenhower administration the top people prepared for a Nixon Victory and a Nixon Administration, and another high-flying eight years. The biggest dollar deal they had going was the "Everest Fighter", a design created under General Frank Everest as the "Ultimate" aircraft. On purpose that money was reserved from year to year so that, after the Nixon inaugural, it could be allocated in one contract...the biggest ever written...to the hard-core Military-Industry Complex.

Nixon lost. All that money and planning came crashing down. JFK inherited, what was now called, the "TFX" i.e. Tactical Fighters Experimental, billions. By the time the contract was awarded in 1962, that amounted to some $6.7 billion for openers.

All the insiders knew that this contract would go to Boeing. Lockheed withdrew from contention, This left Boeing and General Dynamics/Grumman in the contest. McNamara, who did not know new aircraft from mushroom soup, leaned on a specialist, Al Barbour who had been a Navy Test pilot of great experience, i.e. like my old friend Chuck Yeager.

McNamara had brought in the Whiz Kids and they were good; but Barbour was the only pilot, except for me, on his staff...and I was not in that business. Many thought this mighty TFX selection would be made by Barbour for McNamara.

In this scenario, Barbour can be made into a role almost the equal of Garrison...the competent guy beaten down and ignored by the system.

With that enormous sum of money in the pot, the JFK "Irish Mafia" began to intrigue, "How best to put those billions to work?" JFK had squeaked through the 1960 election. It could be made a run-away in 1964. Master of the scheme was Sec. Labor Arthur Goldberg. He had McNamara set up a suite near his office (happened to be near mine) on the Third Floor-Pentagon.

This office, headed by Ron Linton, was "decorated" by a set of maps from every state showing the counties...the basic political unit. Then, as these huge contract proposals came in from the contractors, every place where a contractor, or sub-contractor, was located was physically marked out on the maps. These maps had been specially treated with the 1960 vote data. The JFK-carried counties were one color. The Nixon counties were another. The Marginal Counties were the battlefield. This is where the money would go first.

In such deals there are always corporate spies and sympathizers. Linton's office became the target. Word leaked out. They wanted it to leak out. The contractors could see the game. They began to put offices in Podunk, that little county that JFK lost by 50 votes. They scheduled new factories in "Sandy Hill, NV." Each new, marginal county gave that contractor another chance. The hell with the airplane.

This was a long slow process and the Boeing empire gave it all they had. Meanwhile annual budget money flowed and the DOD topped $50 billion for the first time. The TFX money went "UP" with that. McNamara's band got a bright idea. They said the TFX would be both an Air Force and a Navy aircraft. This poured more money into the pot. And raised temperatures everywhere.

Al Barbour began to see what was happening. He tried to call the attention of McNamara and the Whiz Kids to the "Aeronautical" advantages and disadvantages of each of the proposals. He wanted the decision to be made on technical grounds for the finest aircraft. Al was worried, and began to see what was coming- He was no politician. Naturally he began to leak this to his friends. Pressures rose as the newspapers showed.

Finally, into l962 I believe--I have the exact dates--McNamara announced that the TFX decision was around the corner. It was now a hotly contested $6.7 billion (l have the exact data).

On the Friday before the final announcement there had been a "last" meeting in McNamara's office-Eugene Zuckert, a major Washington lawyer and then-Secretary of the Air Force, along with General Curt Lemay, left that office elated and told a few close friends that night while closeted for a dinner celebration that they felt certain "Boeing had won it!"

JFK and the Irish Mafia, Goldberg and McNamara had played it cool. (This following information is something that I know from my personal acquaintance with Roger Lewis. then-president of General Dynamics...the eventual winner.) McNamara was concerned. He wanted to he absolutely certain that his "political" choice of General Dynamics would fly. He had called Lewis and asked who he would recommend to make one final study of the TFX plans. Lewis a clever old aircraft builder, formerly Asst. Sec. Air Force, told McNamara, "Send the plans to Kelly Johnson head of the famous U-2 "Skunk Works" at Lockheed. He'll give the plans a last review and then give you his expert advice." What could be better? (Lewis had worked for Lockheed years ago and knew Kelly Johnson well. He was taking no chances. His bet on Kelly was a sure thing.)

McNamara had done that secretly. He did not even discuss the plans with Barbour. Kelly said the TFX plan from General Dynamics was fine. On Saturday, while all offices were closed, McNamara announced that the "TFX Contract Has Been Awarded to General Dynamics/Grumman." Boeing lost!

In Boeing there was an 8 Megaton explosion. In major Board Rooms across the country there were enormous waves of that explosion. For example, and this is a partial listing, on Boeing's Board were representatives from;

Bank California -Tri State Corp.

Citibank N.A. and CITICORP and Crocker National Corp.

Cracker National Bank, and Hewlett Packhard Co.

Gulf United Corp,

Manufacturers Hanover Corp, Manufacturers Hanover Trust

Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Corp (3M)

New York Stock Exchange and Pacific National Bank and the RAND Corp

Seattle First National Bank. and SRI Int'l (Stanford Univ.)

Standard Oil Co. of California

Mobil Corp,

Nordstrom Inc,

Pacific Northwest Tel,

Texas Instruments Co,

United States Steel

Weyerhauser Co.

That's just Boeing. There were a whole family of sub-component manufacturers such as the engine builder, etc. all with their own Boards, Bankers and Lawyers. This sat off a tsunami wave throughout the Military-Industry Complex. McNarnara sent Roswell Gilpatric, his Deputy and a Wall Street man to calm things.

That next Monday, the entire suite of offices, where the Goldberg and Linton maps had been, was empty. Their job done. Al Barbour had resigned. A new era had begun. This was 1962.

Over the horizon the ground work for the Vietnam War was well under way. There were signs, since the disastrous failure of the Bay of Pigs operation and the drastic firing of Allen Dulles, Gen. Charles Cabell and Richard Bissell among others, that JFK was thinking of a new direction there. He had listened to Lansdale, but the Bay of Pigs took the bloom off that rose. He was listening to a new set of voices in place of Lansdale and the old "Southeast Asia" gang. This too reverberated in the highest places. There they knew about the enormous amounts of oil on that peninsula and its off-shore areas.

By early 1963 same of this talk was turning harsh and bitter. JFK had even thwarted a move into the education field by the Catholic Church. His old friend from Whitman, Massachusetts Cardinal Spellman, dean of Military Chaplains and head of the Church in New York (a long time friend and associate of Joe Kennedy) was shocked by JFK's "independence."

In the highest places they were looking at the calendar. It was early 1963. Elections would come in 1964. From Boardroom to boardroom things got more tense. Such things as "We've got to keep him out of the White House in 1965-1966" were heard frequently. Then one day a major, almost informal meeting was held quietly, perhaps in New York, in the elegant offices of - we'll say - the Baker, McKenzie Law firm.

Following heated debate and emotional discussion that group came to the conclusion that "JFK had to go." No single voice said that. The group evolved it. There was no vote. This was a most sophisticated, social decision "for the good of everyone."

At that meeting there had been a special agent--a man with direct access to the upper echelons of the CIA. in former days, he might have been called the "Bag Man." As the meeting broke up, this experienced man knew that he had received his orders.

This is crucial...in accordance with this social system that is as old as the Crucifixion, no one had said "He must die". There had been no vote. There was absolutely no one to blame. The man who left with orders, had received no orders. But he knew.

In Washington he told no one. Someone in that meeting would have told John McCone, Allen Dulles' replacement as head of the CIA through the "old boy" network. Allen Dulles would have been told. Gradually, like an oil spot spreading over the surface of a pond, others at that level would know, even others would feel it. They seemed to know what was underway, but it had no face. Some began to see Goldwater as the sacrificial lamb to be.

The "bag" man made one call to a most experienced agent who had participated in other such actions. "A job has been scheduled for this Fall. You will use men from our best group. We shall provide you with the date, the time and the place later.

YOU WILL HAVE COMPLETE RESPONSIBILITY FOR GETTING THEM IN AND OUT QUICKLY AND SAFELY, AND YOU WILL BE TOTALLY AND COMPREHENSIVELY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE COVERING ARRANGEMENTS. BOTH BEFORE AND AFTER, THAT MUST BE MADE THEN AND FOR ALL TIME. YOU ARE TO USE CLEARED MEDIA RESOURCES IN AMERICA AND WORLD WIDE. MONEY IS NO PROBLEM. YOU HAVE THE CHECK BOOK."

JFK's schedules were studied with care. Dallas, the home of Gen. Cabell where his brother was Mayor, was selected as ideal. This was to be a power play. There were deception moves, but there was be no need to hide. No one would ever be arrested, tried and prosecuted. This was a Coup d'etat; not a simple murder. They would be in charge as soon as this was done.

Teams of experts were formed for the Job. They were totally cellularized. Few ever met each other. The technical side of the job was easy. The "mechanics" were already trained. They live in an over-seas site, and are available anytime and anywhere. They need no particular briefing: just how to get in and get out.

Up close. the central operator is put in charge of a large and ostensibly TOP SECRET project: we'll say, something like a CIA/Military Operation to assassinate Castro. It is called "MONGOOSE." This gives that same operator a reason for those who become whiting of the project to do many things that otherwise might raise questions. (Witness the Contra deal for Drugs)

A special part of MONGOOSE is based in the New Orleans area. This is because it was in the Lake Pontchartrain region that an element...the renegade element of the old Bay of Pigs Brigade was isolated and trained. The tough Marines who trained them are there. The top CIA infrastructure is there from Bertrand, the senior official in that region to that individual Oswald who has been selected to be the "Fall Guy" or "Patsy." New Orleans becomes a bee-hive of clandestine "Anti-Castro" activitiy. It is "clandestine" but it is leaked to media sources and to the police for later use as cover stories.

The Dallas area is placed under other experts who know only that something they are doing may involve "Castro" or someone like that. They meticulously arrange the "Scenario of the Patsy." At the same time they skillfully brief the Dallas Police, the Sheriff, the local FBI men and all the rest. They bring in a gang of the old "Bay of Pigs" Cubans and CIA guys to add color.

Down through top society in Dallas, in the Petroleum Club, word trickles out that something important is afoot. They learn the President is coming. "Of course. That's what it is." There are mixed emotions because they do not know "The Plot."

In Washington the more intricate plans are underway. JFK has been crafting his plan to get out of Vietnam. Earlier, after the Bay of Pigs fiasco, he had issued a directive (NSAM # 55) that would end the CIA's role in Covert Operations and turn "Peacetime Operations" i.e. covert, over the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This had angered the ClA and its allies.

Then in early September 1963, after a summer of careful planning. the President sent a skilled team (Gen. Krulak from the Joint Staff and Joseph Mendenhall of the Dept. of State) to Saigon on an important mission. No sooner had they returned than he dispatched Secretary McNamara and General Maxwell Taylor to Saigon. It was the "Taylor-McNamara Report" of their visit that led to president Kennedy's declaration that he was going to bring 1000 troops home for Christmas-1963. and have all US personnel out of Vietnam by the end of l965. This was the opening gun of his 1964 Campaign.

These pressures converged. Kennedy's plans were underway. Meanwhile, the plot was moving skillfully. An unusual action was taken to assure that Vice-President Lyndon Johnson would be in the Presidential procession as it traveled through Dallas. Other plans were made to assure that Richard Nixon, then Counsel to the Pepsi-Cola Co. was in Dallas on Nov 22. Both men would be "indoctrinated under fire." More intricate plans were made to have most of Kennedy's Cabinet en route to Tokyo in an unusual group visit to Japan.

Quiet calls were made to Secret Service units shifting them around so that it would happen that few if any were on duty in Dallas. At the same time, the usual military units used to augment the Secret Service as "Presidential Protection" had been told that they were not needed that day, since another unit would take care of Dallas.

Great care had been taken in the preparation of the "Patsy." He had been put under the wing of a prominent oil man and member of the Prestigious Petroleum Club of Dallas. With this type of care, it was not difficult to place the "Patsy" in a most propitious place working in the Texas Book Depository Building. The next step was to arrange the Presidential processional route to pass below that building and on a street with defillade fire on the President's car from two directions. There is no need here to progress with this draft.

It is important to note that the first official meeting President Lyndon Johnson had in the White House after the duties of the Kennedy funeral and the visit of all the foreign dignitaries was over, was held on Friday Nov 29, l963.

That first official visitor was the Att. General of the State of Texas, Waggoner Carr. The discussion, no doubt, was simple. Carr was informed that the President had decided to appoint a Commission to investigate the assassination and THERE WOULD BE NO NEED TO HOLD A MURDER TRIAL IN TEXAS, EVER. Carr understood.

President Johnson's second guest was his old friend, and 19-year neighbor in Washington, J. Edgar Hoover He could hardly wait to speak with Hoover. His first question to Hoover was:

"Were they shooting at me?"

Lyndon had heard those bullets as they whistled close above him from the DAL-TEX building. He knew the sound of gun fire. He knew his good friend Governor Connally had been hit. He wondered had they shot at him? Was there a chance he might be shot at some other day? LBJ had been "indoctrinated" and the sword of Damocles hung directly over that Texans brow and he knew it.

Hoover's reply was quickly spoken:

"No, Mr.President, they were not!"

With that question and that answer we have ended our story.

Lyndon knew THEY had fired the guns. Hoover knew THEY had not fired at the Vice President. They both knew that THEY had done it. "THEY" could not have been that "Lone Gunman" Lee Harvey Oswald. Both Johnson and Hoover knew that then. That is all we need to know.

That afternoon, after obtaining Hoover's concurrence, LBJ announced the make-up of the Warren Commission. The heavy work had begun. The cover-up that had been so carefully planned began to march across the sands of time

This is what the District Attorney in New Orleans saw. He had seen that covering action in Louisiana. He knew there had been some major activity; but his was a local and parochial view. There is no way he could have known what had taken place in the "Faceless" Board Room when an act of spontaneous evolution had taken place. Therefore he did what he had been so ably trained to do. He began the difficult and -in this case- impossible process of seeing that Justice be done.

This is the Jim Garrison story. It is, in a particular sense the AI Barbour story. This is an all American story. This country has not been the same since, and never shall be.

Lyndon died wondering about those shots. Shortly before his death he told an old acquaintance with the media that "The CIA has a Murder Inc. in the Caribbean". He was right; but he did not know that a Murder Inc. can be maneuvered suddenly to perform its deeds in any direction. All it takes to set this enormous train in action is the word of one single man, the Focal Point operator, who is totally anonymous and who knows that he has that special authority from on high and that he will never be punished or uncovered...unless, like the men who buried Capt. Kidd's gold. it becomes necessary to silence him.

He never would have been uncovered had it not been for a chance, random photograph taken during those hectic minutes at the Dallas Text Book depository building that afternoon of the 22nd of November, 1963.

This is stuff to sleep on. Then, if it helps to sort out the answers you sought with your direct questions, think it all over carefully and draw up all the questions you can think of. I have tons of source data and, given the direction of your inputs, I can polish and elaborate on this rough work.

Why have I done this? You are the first person in a position to be able to do something serious with this rare data, who has asked me point blank the right questions. I don't see why we can't answer them and in so doing memorialize the crime of the Century by creating the story of an epoch. Mere "solving" the crime would be a shallow goal. We must create a monument.

Sincerely,

L. Fletcher Prouty