A few weeks ago, I bought a Kindle version of Vince Palamara's new book, The Plot to Kill President Kennedy in Chicago and other Traces of Conspiracy Leading to the Assassination of JFK.
The book is an epic failure in that it doesn't provide any evidence of a plot in Chicago.
But Palamara's book also suffers from its tendency to repeat conspiracy stories from other JFK conspiracy books. For instance, he repeats the Rose Cherami story and the Richard Case Nagell story without really understanding the underlying primary documents.
This is not the first time that Palamara has written about Richard Case Nagell. In his book, Honest Answers about the Murder of President John F. Kennedy, Palamara believes that Nagell's "assassination prediction" is one of the smoking guns that proves conspiracy.
Palamara "merely followed" DiEugenio and others. And that's the problem. Instead of actually researching Cherami or Nagell, Palamara relies upon others. And guess what? So do people like James DiEugenio.
If you check his book, Destiny Betrayed, you will find that 21 of his 32 footnotes on Richard Case Nagell are from Dick Russell's book. A few of his other footnotes are to Jim Garrison's papers.
The same holds true for James Douglass's JFK and the Unspeakable. All of his material on Richard Case Nagell comes from Russell. He even repeats Russell’s claim that there was something suspicious about Nagell’s death: (page 157)
Russell asked an investigator for the Los Angeles coroner, Gary Kellerman, if a heart attack could be induced. Kellerman said it was indeed possible to kill in such a way, while leaving no clues: “I’m not sure what chemical you have to use, but I’ve heard of it,” he said. “From what I understand, it’s a chemical that gets into the system and then it’s gone. You can’t find it.”
Douglass does not mention that Nagell was a lifelong smoker, nor does he mention Nagell’s forensic autopsy. Not surprisingly, he also does not discuss Nagell’s plane crash or any of his mental health issues.
The Nagell section in Jim Marrs' book, Crossfire, also comes from Dick Russell's article in Gallery Magazine and his book, The Man Who Knew Too Much. Marrs even believes the Nagell story that he sent a letter to J. Edgar Hoover before the assassination warning of the plot.
Nagell tells Russell that "One purpose in communicating with you at this time is to advise that I am no longer certain the letter I dispatched to the Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation, in September 1963 was sent via postal registry, or, for that matter, even mailed."
He's not even sure if he mailed his letter?
You won't see that in JFK conspiracy books.
And here is one thing you won't see in any JFK conspiracy book when it comes to Nagell.
The court decision in 1982 to grant Nagell full disability from the time of his injury in 1954. Here is a short excerpt:
Plaintiff’s brain syndrome has been manifested by severe personality and behavioral disturbances. They took the form, over the years since the airplane crash, of suicidal preoccupation, deliriousness, restlessness, and violence, paranoid trends and passive-aggressive behavior, hysteria, psychotic states, severe headaches, dizziness, confusion, impaired judgment, confabulations, and delusional formulations, anosognosia or Anton’s disease. Plaintiff attempted suicide in 1962 by shooting himself, and according to Dr. Weinstein in 1963, when he tried to slash his wrists after this arrest, and in 1964, when he took a drug overdose. Dr. Weinstein described plaintiff’s suicidal behavior too, immediately after the 1954 plane crash. Plaintiff has been in various mental institutions and psychiatric wards almost a dozen times between 1955 and 1969.
The evidence is unhappily abundant of likely confabulations, or fictitious stories told by plaintiff with no awareness of their falsity. One example surrounds plaintiff’s attempted suicide in 1962. He has variously suggested that he shot himself (the most likely), that his wife shot him, and that it was an unknown assailant. Stories told by plaintiff throughout the years after his discharge involve work for the CIA and, alternatively, persecution by the CIA. He has suggested that the bank shooting incident in 1963 involved undercover CIA activities, that he had dealings with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to the Kennedy assassination as part of an undercover CIA assignment, and also that he sought by the shooting to be taken into protective custody because he felt his life threatened by the CIA. These stories are unsubstantiated and are likely confabulations, continuing symptoms of plaintiff’s brain injury.
Relying on Dick Russell for the Nagell story is like relying on Richard Nixon for the Watergate story.
And yet book and after book quotes from Russell and I am sure there will be no shortage of new books that take the Nagell story from The Man Who Knew Too Much.
For the complete story on Richard Case Nagell, please read my new book, A Heritage of Nonsense: Jim Garrison's Tales of Mystery and Imagination, which has a chapter on Richard Case Nagell.
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.
Was there a plot in Los Angeles against JFK?
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 issues.
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.
His mental issues were apparent during this visit.
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?
Samoluk was Deputy Director of the ARRB and he doesn't think much of the Nagell story.