Paul Mitchinson: The New JFK Conspiracy Books
There’s been a recent deluge of new material on the Kennedy assassination. Formerly top-secret documents and hundreds of fresh interviews have seemingly led to one unshakable conclusion: John F. Kennedy’s assassination was the result of a conspiracy.
But there’s a wee problem. Just who instigated the conspiracy? According to “Rendezvous with Death,” a new documentary by German filmmaker Wilfried Huismann, it was Cuban intelligence. According to Lamar Waldron’s Ultimate Sacrifice, it was the Mob. According to Joan Mellen’s A Farewell to Justice, it was the CIA.
Now I’m not qualified to judge the relative merits of these scenarios. But Mellen’s book, a biography of New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, interests me for a peripheral reason.
Some years ago I was doing research for a journal profile of Ralph Schoenman, a radical activist whose activities have spanned the globe for decades. (The article was never published, for reasons I won’t go into here.) Schoenman got his start in the early 1960s as personal secretary to philosopher Bertrand Russell in his final years. During this time, Schoenman inspired, organized and directed virtually every public enterprise associated with the great philosopher, including the Committee of 100, the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign, the International War Crimes Tribunal, and the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation. Schoenman became a globetrotter for radical causes: documenting American atrocities in Vietnam, revolution in Iran, massacre at Sabra and Shatilla. During the 1967 trial of Régis Debray, who was accused by the Bolivian government of supporting the country’s guerrilla movement, it was suggested that Che Guevara himself had attempted to appeal to Schoenman for money and equipment for the guerrillas. (According to the military prosecutor, Schoenman was as an unnamed American mentioned by Che in his diary.)
What does Ralph Schoenman have to do with Joan Mellen’s book? Well, let’s put it this way, using language familiar to conspiracy theorists everywhere. Ralph Schoenman has “connections” with Joan Mellen. He is her ex-husband. He introduced her to Jim Garrison, whose
“investigation” he assisted. He helped research Mellen’s book, conducting interviews on Mellen’s behalf. His views on the assassination, which he first developed during his years with Russell, provide the skeleton — and much of the flesh and sinews — of Mellen’s book. “Had it not been for Ralph Schoenman,” Mellen writes in her acknowledgements, “this book would not have come into being; his friendship, devotion and understanding have been without parallel.”
Back in 1971, Schoenman urged Garrison to publish the results of his “investigation”:
Let’s get out a book, hard and fast, which nails the case against Shaw that we couldn’t get into the courts…. let’s put THEM on the defensive … with a muck-raking book that closes in on the company [i.e., the CIA] even closer.
Thirty-five years later, Ralph Schoenman has finally got his wish....
Read entire article at Blog of paulmitchinson.com
But there’s a wee problem. Just who instigated the conspiracy? According to “Rendezvous with Death,” a new documentary by German filmmaker Wilfried Huismann, it was Cuban intelligence. According to Lamar Waldron’s Ultimate Sacrifice, it was the Mob. According to Joan Mellen’s A Farewell to Justice, it was the CIA.
Now I’m not qualified to judge the relative merits of these scenarios. But Mellen’s book, a biography of New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, interests me for a peripheral reason.
Some years ago I was doing research for a journal profile of Ralph Schoenman, a radical activist whose activities have spanned the globe for decades. (The article was never published, for reasons I won’t go into here.) Schoenman got his start in the early 1960s as personal secretary to philosopher Bertrand Russell in his final years. During this time, Schoenman inspired, organized and directed virtually every public enterprise associated with the great philosopher, including the Committee of 100, the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign, the International War Crimes Tribunal, and the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation. Schoenman became a globetrotter for radical causes: documenting American atrocities in Vietnam, revolution in Iran, massacre at Sabra and Shatilla. During the 1967 trial of Régis Debray, who was accused by the Bolivian government of supporting the country’s guerrilla movement, it was suggested that Che Guevara himself had attempted to appeal to Schoenman for money and equipment for the guerrillas. (According to the military prosecutor, Schoenman was as an unnamed American mentioned by Che in his diary.)
What does Ralph Schoenman have to do with Joan Mellen’s book? Well, let’s put it this way, using language familiar to conspiracy theorists everywhere. Ralph Schoenman has “connections” with Joan Mellen. He is her ex-husband. He introduced her to Jim Garrison, whose
“investigation” he assisted. He helped research Mellen’s book, conducting interviews on Mellen’s behalf. His views on the assassination, which he first developed during his years with Russell, provide the skeleton — and much of the flesh and sinews — of Mellen’s book. “Had it not been for Ralph Schoenman,” Mellen writes in her acknowledgements, “this book would not have come into being; his friendship, devotion and understanding have been without parallel.”
Back in 1971, Schoenman urged Garrison to publish the results of his “investigation”:
Let’s get out a book, hard and fast, which nails the case against Shaw that we couldn’t get into the courts…. let’s put THEM on the defensive … with a muck-raking book that closes in on the company [i.e., the CIA] even closer.
Thirty-five years later, Ralph Schoenman has finally got his wish....