James DiEugenio's book about the so-called Oliver Stone documentary JFK Revisited has an interview with Paul Bleau, who is his expert on plots against JFK: (page 436 of the Kindle edition)
Oliver Stone: Describe please the prior plots around John F. Kennedy before Dallas and explain for us their importance.
Paul Bleau: Well, the complete failure by the Warren Commission to look into at least seven plots that failed during the last six months—
Stone: Seven?
Bleau: At least seven, seven that failed in the last six months of Kennedy’s life, is a glaring example of how the Warren Commission investigation was inept. Because had they done so, they would have recognized the template, they would have been able to build an offender profile, and even round up suspects.
Bleau actually believes that the Warren Commission could have "been able to build an offender profile, and even round [ed] up suspects."
He implies that there is a connection between these so-called plots.
What were these plots? I have already blogged about the supposed plot in Chicago, and the supposed plot in Tampa. There is no evidence that there were plots in either city.
Part of the problem is that Bleau does not differentiate between a threat and plot. For instance, in Chicago there was a supposed threat from Thomas Arthur Vallee, but he was not part of a plot. Even then, the evidence that he uttered a threat is extremely thin.
Mr. Bleau is eager to accept anything in regard to other 'plots.' He claims there was a plot in Nashville in May of 1963: (page 436 - 437)
Stone: Well, what is the first plot?
Bleau: There was one in Nashville … in May of 1963. Where Kennedy was waiting for a helicopter after a motorcade and he was approached by a gunman who had a gun hidden underneath a sack. And the Secret Service spotted the gunman and picked him up. What’s key is there is no file on it.
Stone: No file on it?
Bleau: There’s no file, there’s nothing known about it.
Stone: Was it witnesses, was it seen?
Bleau: Oh yes. This was in Nashville. Governor [Frank] Clement talked about it to his son.
Stone: And the gunman was arrested?
Bleau: He was picked up but he was let go by the Secret Service. And there’s no identification. Nobody knows anything about him. So the key for this one is the secrecy about it.
Stone: Well, how do you know?
Bleau: Because articles came out later that the son of the governor talked about what his father related to him.
I couldn't find much about this alleged plot in Nashville. I did manage to find this short piece by Bill Adams:
SYNOPSIS OF ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT AGAINST JFK MAY 18, 1963 IN NASHVILLE, TN
by Bill Adams 8/17/93
A few years ago I began looking into other assassination sites as well as other potential assassins and potential patsies. I was able to track a potential JFK assassin to the general area (Knoxville, TN) of a planned JFK motorcade in May of 1963. The trip was altered prior to the actual day of the trip and JFK instead made a visit to Nashville, TN. His visit, on May 18, 1963, included several motorcades.
In early 1992 I [was] shocked to see a tabloid print a story about an assassination attempt against JFK DURING THE NASHVILLE trip! Congressman Bob Clements of Tennessee had made a startling revelation. He said father, the late Gov. Frank Clement (Governor of Tennessee in 1963) told him of a strange incident while JFK awaited a helicopter after visiting the Governor. The tabloid quoted Congressman Bob Clement of Tennessee as stating, "While the President waited for the helicopter, a man approached with a gun hidden underneath a sack." "Secret Service agents spotted him and grabbed him".
I called and interviewed the Congressman in the early summer of 1993. I also obtained actual Nashville news stories about the Congressman's revelation in January of 1992. As a result of reading the news stories and talking to Congressman Clements, I have been able to piece together the following story:
President Kennedy arrived in Nashville on May 18, 1963. He rode in a motorcade to Vanderbilt University where he gave a speech outside in the football stadium. JFK left the stadium in another motorcade an drove to the Governor's mansion. Somewhere between the Governor's mansion and the helicopter landing site at Overton High School a man approached JFK with a handgun under a sack. It is unclear whether JFK was in his limousine or not at the time. The Governor witnessed this event and the subsequent capture of the suspect by the Secret Service. The man was held at the High School for some time. Nothing more is known about the man. The Secret Service asked the Governor to keep the event out of the press for fear it would lead to more assassination attempts.
I haven't been able to find the Nashville Banner article. Vince Palamara notes that:
Bob Clement said: "Back in those days, privacy was easier to accomplish". The paper interviewed the widow of Paul Doster, the former SAIC of the Nashville office who died in 1987)---although Paul did not mention the incident to her, she said: "But, you've got to remember, he was pretty secretive, even to me."
I don't know the true story here. But it sure doesn't sound like a plot.
The next plot, according to Bleau, was in Los Angeles: (page 437)
Stone: Second plot?
Bleau: Second plot would be Los Angeles in June, when Kennedy actually attended the showing of PT 109. Which was a movie about his war heroics. The alternate patsy in this case would have been Vaughn Marlowe, and Vaughn Marlowe had many similarities to Oswald. He was ex-military and he headed a chapter of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in Los Angeles. And he could be portrayed as anti-Kennedy.
But what was this plot? Bleau gets his information from Dick Russell's book, The Man Who Knew Too Much.
I went to Russell's book, and he discusses this alleged attempt on JFK"s life on pages 208 - 221 in hi new edition from 2003. Russell's source is Richard Case Nagell, a fabulist of the highest order. (page 210)
President Kennedy was scheduled to come to Los Angeles in June. According to Nagell, a second plot to assassinate him was being discussed among some Cuban exiles in the spring of 1963 -- much more seriously than the Miami proposal of the previous winter. "It was to take place," Nagell says, "during the showing of the movie PT-109 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, Beverly Hills, in June 1963."
The man being looked at for "recruitment" as a shooter was Vaughn Marlowe, an executive officer of the Los Angeles Fair Play for Cuba Committee.
Vaughn Marlowe's real name was Vaughn Snipes. He was an organizer for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and a member of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee (FPCC) in Los Angeles. He ran a left-wing bookshop in Venice, California. One day, Richard Case Nagell walked into his bookshop, and they began a friendship. They shared left-wing views and Nagell did some writing for a newsletter that Marlowe was publishing.
After Nagell was in prison for his El Paso 'heist,' he sent a letter to Marlowe asking him to send a press release to Earl Warren, Senator Richard Russell and various newspapers saying that Nagell "had been overheard to say during his arraignment that 'the FBI held full responsibility for the Kennedy assassination' and that he was immediately led out of the court by 'federal men.' Meaning, as I later came to learn that he'd attempted to notify the FBI that a domestic plot was in place to assassinate JFK."
This is all delusion. Marlowe did send out a few press releases. He then sent a coded telegram to Nagell informing him that he had done so. Russell got a copy of the telegram and at the bottom was a typed paragraph from Nagell: (page 211)
One of the two Cubans who were associating with Oswald in August and September 1963 (who also fits the description of one of the two Cubans who allegedly visited Sylvia Odio at Magellan Circle with Oswald the day before his trip to Mexico in September 1963) was witnessed entering the "ON THE BEACH BOOKSTORE" on two separate occasions while he [Snipes] was under surveillance. The bookstore was located in Venice and Snipes was the proprietor. Snipes, who once boasted that he was a good shot with a rifle, was considered for recruitment to hit JFK in June 1963 during his visit to the Beverly Hilton hotel. That "project" never materialized.
Marlowe told Russell that "I just have no recollection of anybody I knew as a Cuban coming into the bookstore, or my having any contact with anyone who was Cuban." (page 214)
So, the "project never materialized."
However, Russell has found another clue that there was to be an attempt on JFK's life. Much like his fiasco in the bank in El Paso in September 1963, Nagell knew he had to be in custody during the L.A. attempt:
Three days before JFK's trip to the West Coast, on June 4 [1963] Nagell requested admission to the psychiatric ward at the Veterans Administration Hospital in suburban Brentwood. It was the same tactic he employed in Florida the previous December, to remove himself the local scene and, I believe, to somehow inform his respective intelligence contacts about what he had uncovered.
Subject's condition diagnosed by Veterans Administration, Los Angeles, on 6/4/63 as "depression, tearful, nervous rigid. Would only utter words, 'Got to see my kids.'"
Russell looks for clues that there was some sort of plot, but really comes up empty: (page 219)
A question that arises, in looking back at press accounts of Kennedy's trip is whether the president might have already been alerted that something was afoot. JFK arrived in L.A. on the afternoon of June 7, having just spent eighteen hours aboard two aircraft carriers at California's China Lake Naval Ordnance Testing Station. There, The New York Times noted, he was "given a look at virtually every weapon in the Navy arsenal."
JFK then went to L.A. aboard a helicopter that landed on the roof of the Beverly Hilton Hotel. There was a group of picketers from CORE outside the hotel. On the night of June 7th, Kennedy flew to Hawaii.
This is the evidence of a plot against JFK?
I challenge anybody to read the section in Russell's book and see if they can make any sense of it. He believes that Nagell was up to something because he wrote the following:
"In May 1963, another representative of the same foreign government made the same proposal to me. At that time I agreed to such a proposal."
Russell believes that the 'proposal' relates to the L.A. plot against JFK.
My head hurts.
It's bad enough that Dick Russell can write such nonsense. But then to have Paul Bleau talk about all of these 'plots' as if they are real, and then to claim that the Warren Commission should have built an "offender profile" so they could round up suspects?
Paul Bleau missed his calling. Rather then teach business, he should have become a profiler for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
Harold Weisberg actually checked out the entries in Russell's book on Snipes and Marlowe. Here is a letter he wrote to Jim Lesar:
Don't miss the Viewer's Guide to JFK: Destiny Betrayed and JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass.
Over the past several months, I have shown in multiple blog posts how Oliver Stone's documentary series, JFK Revisited and JFK: Destiny Betrayed, misleads viewers. In fact, despite months of work, there are still many more misleading segments that need to be addressed. It's no wonder that the fact checkers of Netflix nixed the airing of the films.
There is a choice between four hours of tendentious nonsense (JFK: Destiny Betrayed) and two hours (JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass). As a handy guide for viewers, here are all those posts in order of their appearance in JFK: Destiny Betrayed and JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass, preceded by some general critiques
Additional Posts on Richard Case Nagell
The Importance of Richard Case Nagell to Some Conspiracy Theorists
Jim Garrison and a few conspiracy theorists think Nagell is a very important witness. But is he really?
Genesis of the Richard Case Nagell story
David Kroman met Richard Case Nagell at the Springfield Medical Center for Federal Prisoners. Stephen Jaffe, a Garrison volunteer, wrote a memo, relating Nagell's story through the eyes and ears of David Kroman.
Nagell was convicted of armed robbery and was sentenced to ten years, but his conviction was overturned because of startling new evidence.
Richard Case Nagell and the JFK Assassination
There is no credible evidence that Nagell had any foreknowledge of either Lee Harvey Oswald or the JFK assassination.
Nagell claims he met Oswald in Japan, Texas, Mexico City, and New Orleans. There is no credible evidence that he ever met Oswald.
Nagell went to Cuba and met with Fidel Castro and even played ping-pong with the man.
Insane Conspiracy Theories about Richard Case Nagell
Richard Case Nagell said that he knew the two Oswalds - Lee Harvey and Leon. Some conspiracy theorists believe this madness.
Combine one part crazy and one part ridiculous and what do you come up with? An early attempt at a unified conspiracy theory of the JFK assassination.
Two Smoking Guns of the Richard Case Nagell Story
Nagell sent conspiracy theorist Dick Russell one page of a military intelligence file which seemed to indicate that he was monitoring Oswald and his wife on behalf of the CIA. But does the whole document really show that?
Did Richard Case Nagell have an Oswald Military ID in his possession when he was arrested in September 1963?
Richard Case Nagell and Jim Garrison
Richard Case Nagell believes that he wasn't called to testify at Clay Shaw's trial because his testimony would have blown up Jim Garrison's case.
At a conference in September 1968, Garrison and his investigators discuss his face-to-face meeting with Nagell in New York City.
William Martin, an Assistant District Attorney working for Jim Garrison, tried to retrieve a tape that Nagell said contained the voices of three JFK assassination conspirators.
Richard Popkin, author of "The Second Oswald," writes Jim Garrison about Richard Case Nagell. Garrison staffer Tom Bethell thought the Nagell lead was useless.
Richard Case Nagell's Mental Health
A lawsuit by Nagell proves his mental isssues.
Nagell won a full disability pension in 1982 and the 60+ page court case provides complete details on his mental problems.
Richard Case Nagell told a psychiatrist why he shot up the bank in El Paso in 1963.
The FBI spoke to Nagell's ex-wife, his mother, his sister, and one of his friends. They all agreed that Nagell had significant mental health problems.
Nagell visited the American consulates in Zurich and Barcelona in 1969. He was a deeply disturbed man.
More shenanigans in Europe in 1970.
Richard Case Nagell's Evidence
None of the so-called evidence that Nagell promised would materialize on his death has shown up. Did this evidence ever exist?