Judyth Vary Baker: "Lee Oswald drew this diagram upside down in his very small address book to help obscure its true orientation. Though I described precisely what this diagram was about in 1999, and in the book Me & Lee (2010-2011) two researchers -- whose comments to this witness indicated they had declined to read Me & Lee as of Jan. 2015-- have published their own unique theories about the diagram on Facebook. Anyone reading Theory One or Theory Two might accept what is presented there. It's time for some straight talk."
A TALE OF TWO THEORIES
A. J. Weberman (notorious for stalking Bob Dylan and for his valuable work in collecting many JFK assassination records) offered his Gerry Hemming-General Walker Theory on Facebook and in his recent e-book about Lee's address book as 'fact.' A little later, after Weberman's theory was exposed as impossible (see below), Australian employment agency manager Greg Parker made a stab at it. His theory, too, would be quickly dismissed. However, just as Weberman has done, Parker still insists that HIS theory is correct. As of this writing, neither man has retracted his theory, even though both are provably in error, as I'll demonstrate below. Atop this, both men sneered at my attempts to show them the truth. Further, they proved through their comments that they never read Me & Lee. Weberman declared I was a fraud, offering the address of "511 E. Brooks St. Fort Walton Beach, FL"as "proof." he contended that I forged W-2 forms, documents, stamped envelopes, newspaper articles and letters mentioning that address from 1963 and 1964. How did he come to that conclusion? Because TODAY the address doesn't exist, therefore, it never did!
My publisher at Trine Day proved the address existed through the mid-sixties. Did Weberman then apologize? Did he admit his error? No. Instead, he declared I was a fraud anyway.
Weberman knows nothing of the content of Me & Lee regarding Gen. Edwin Walker. He tells readers that Lee Oswald shot at Walker and that the diagram in Lee's address book is Walker's house (more on that below). He posted that I "made up" the link to 1032 Marengo as soon as I saw the diagram on Facebook a month ago (!) . This "researcher" never knew I had spoken of the diagram since 2000, when somebody asked me if there was anything in Lee's address book about me, and I answered in the positive.
As for Australian employment agency manager Greg Parker, his first posts declared that the diagram was of Lee's mother's house because her address of Vernon, TX, was written (in fountain pen ink) under the diagram. After it was pointed out that Lee was living in the USSR at the tine and would not know what the interior of his mother's house would look like (an interior not drawn in the USSR anyway, since it was drawn with a ballpoint pen, which was easily obtained in the USA, but not so easily obtained in the USSR), Parker then amended his theory to declare that we were looking at a diagram of LEE's OWN APARTMENT in Minsk, Belarus. After all, Lee had written that he was going to describe the apartment to his mother.
But wait. WHY would Lee Oswald draw a diagram of his own apartment in his own address book? Why don't we see the diagram in any letters to his mother? Atop this, Parker of course had no idea what the three X's in the diagram were about, anymore than Weberman knew what they were about.
When it was pointed out that Lee only had a one-room apartment with an attached bath, with a small balcony, Parker insisted that the CIA-approved description of Lee's small studio apartment in the book Marina and Lee was just a pack of lies (decide for yourself when you read more, below).
Both men decided to personally attack me as a witness rather than to admit their errors. Therefore, in defense of the truth as well as of my status as a credible witness, I will here provide information about the diagram that neither of these gentlemen could have guessed, simply because they did not obtain the needed information which was available to every reader of ME & LEE.
The truth is logical. It also happens to be the best fit (the truth is not always self-evident, but in this case, it's pretty evident).
When an inconvenient witness comes along who smashes a theory to smithereens, a dishonest researcher whose theory got wrecked might pretend it never happened. Certainly that's the case with these two gentlemen, who prefer to attack my character rather than face the plain truth and admit they were wrong.
THE DIAGRAM
Weberman was the first to publish Lee's address book in color. Years earlier, this address book had several pages removed, which seem now to have been restored. Weberman published the diagram the usual way--upside down--- as shown in Lee's small address book. The diagram of which we speak is only the size of a postage stamp, as pointed out by "R" on Facebook. Within that small space, everything Lee needed to remember is represented, as I shall explain.
It has been determined that the diagram was drawn with ballpoint ink. Most entries in Lee's address book are written in two kinds of blue ink: the entries for the USSR are in thicker, varying widths of stroke, characteristic of fountain pens. In contrast, the same ink -- making a thinner line, from a ballpoint pen -- is used to write Lee's social security number on the right-hand page shown (which he had obtained early in his teenage years in Louisiana), and the diagram to the left seems written with the same pen. We can generalize that "Thicker" penned entries were written while Lee was in the Soviet Union, using blue ink from a fountain pen.
Because Lee had drawn the diagram upside down, he ran out of space, and the last half of it is squeezed up like an accordion, though all the necessary features can still be understood. Below, "upside down" is the correct way to view the diagram. Clearly, there is a main entrance, on the lower right, from a front porch.
When Lee drew this diagram, which he did in front of me, having turned his address book upside down, he drew only what was important and ran out of room before he could draw the full length of the apartment. The entire layout was unnecessary anyway, because Lee was concerned only about the locations marked by three "X" 's. Neither Weberman nor Parker could provide any logical explanation for the X's.
'X' MARKS THE SPOT
Lee's diagram was a truncated snapshot of my small apartment at 1032 Marengo St. 1032 Marengo was less than a ten minute walk from Lee's apartment at 4905 Magazine St. Lee had installed me at this apartment after rescuing me from a police raid that left me homeless (my brand new husband had left New Orleans a day after we were married and had refused to say where he was going when I became angry, after realizing he would be gone most of the summer. Later, I learned Robert had deliberately arranged to be out of town.), With nobody, at that time, who could help me but Lee and a local pastor, Lee contacted a person he'd known since childhood -- Susie Hanover -- the little old lady who owned this cute little apartment. Her husband was a sea captain who in earlier days had forged a friendship with the Mafia leader. Lee's mother dated mafia figures when he was growing up, and her sister was married to Charles "Dutz" Murret, a favorite of Marcello's who ran a bookie operation for Marcello after he became too old to be a dock enforcer (Dutz had been a boxer).
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Check made out to Susie Hanover [Mrs. William Hanover] for our half of electric/gas bill at 1032 Marengo between Aug. 4 and Sept. 4 (we left New Orleans Sept. 2).
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Susie Hanover had recently evicted two male tenants, one of whom may have been a relative, and she was happy to rent it to me. Susie lived right behind 1032, at 1032 1/2, in the back half of the house, which was linked by a breezeway at that time with 1032.
Lee would show the door between my apartment and Susie's apartment, at the top of the diagram. The next two photos show what the 1032 half looked like (photo taken in 2000: in 1963, 1032 was in fine shape): compare to the diagram:
At the end of the apartment is a hard-to-see window with a ledge. This is where we kept a spare key. Below, you can see the door to the right, as well as both windows and the porch, with stairs up to porch also on the right.
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| 1032 Marengo St. --full length of front can be seen. TO REMIND YOU, HERE'S THE DIAGRAM AGAIN: |
The apartment was 20 feet wide and 40 feet long. On the diagram, that means the living room was about 10 feet wide, and so was the front bedroom. You can see how close the window is to the dividing line in both the diagram and in the photos. The window closest to the door opened easily from the bottom. The window furthest from the door wasn't drawn in because my bed blocked that window,
Only the first half of the apartment was important to Lee, as I'll explain below. Besides the porch, where the main entrance was located, and the window that could be opened and used for an escape, and the locations marked by three X's, here's what else that can easily be seen: a large living room/dining room, and approximately four rooms to the left of the dining room area, with a prominent hallway area. In the back (top of the diagram) there seems to be a doorway or a counter area. It is the doorway, in fact, leading to Susie's half of the house. Lee and I often visited Susie, not only because she had a TV set, but because we loved her.
Though I only knew Susie between May 4 and September 2, she meant so much to me and Lee that I named our first child, a daughter, Susie, in her honor.
3 of my 5 children
Below is the extended layout of 1032, though Lee was concerned only with the front end of the apartment where the two important X's were located:
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| Arrow shows steps up to the front porch and the entry door.' Note the three X's. The black circles are where the overhead lights were located. |
Yes, I lived there:
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(1) Postcard mailed to me by Robert. Postcard was mailed in New Orleans, but Robert had been too busy with his friends to visit me. We'd been married less than three months at the time. It terribly hurt my feelings. (2) One of our 1032 bank statements with address. I also kept the deposit slips and checks.
In 2003, when 1032 Marengo was visited to be filmed for the History Channel, it was learned that a doctor from London had purchased the apartment and changed everything, including gutting the interior. The door was moved to the center, even though the steps leading up on the right-hand side remained as before. A proper conversion would have included the steps placed in the center, where the door was now located. Fortunately (see email at end of article) researchers had been inside 1032 before it was so radically and conveniently altered.  photo by Steve Dudley |
Since my husband was almost always absent, I spent evenings mostly by myself, as Lee spent most evenings with his family. Those who haven't read Me & Lee often state that Lee was home at night and therefore had no time to conduct a love affair. But those who have read Me & Lee realize how much time we had, especially after Lee was fired from Reily. During the many long, silent nights when I was alone, I was quite busy catching up on work missed at Reily's, where I held a cover job as a secretary, but often was absent, just as Lee was. I also spent many hours reading research papers, writing reports and inspecting cancer specimens under a microscope. Of course, Robert knew nothing about this. Lee and I planned to divorce our spouses in Mexico. We both were unhappily married (Our plans and supporting evidence can be found in Me & Lee, though recently, researcher Linda Minor has discovered additional supporting evidence for our plans to escape to the Yucatan.).
I usually clocked Lee out every afternoon for him; if later there were problems with his time cards, it was I or my boss, ex-FBI agent William I. Monaghan, Vice President of Reily Coffee, who OK'd any discrepancies (in one case I could not "OK" a huge time discrepancy where Lee clocked out at 7:32, because I had to take the blame for 'not' clocking Lee out at the expected time: in that one case, the time card was approved by Personnel after I was reprimanded.).
Lee had to be covered for many absent hours at Reily. But it turned out that I might need to be covered, too. If something happened to me, the research papers, reports in progress, slides of cancer cell specimens and the sophisticated oil immersion microscope I was using would be in danger of being discovered --unless they could quickly be removed. This is what the X's were all about.
WHY THE DIAGRAM WAS MADE
Lee told me that if anything happened to me, it would be important to remove any and all materials that could lead to The Project. Imagine my husband suddenly came home, because I was hospitalized ... or I was hit by a car... or if police raided the apartment if pro-Castro spies figured it all out...
Sanitizing the site -- quickly-- could be a top priority under some circumstances, remote as the possibility might be. Everything was always covered. there was always a "Plan B."
Such an sanitizing event was necessary, it seems, even before I left New Orleans. I have long reported that I never heard Dr. Mary Sherman's voice again after Friday, August 30, 1963. In fact, by Saturday night of August 31, Dr. Mary was on a sudden flight to London. She would be gone for weeks.
Researcher Edward T. Haslam, the author of Dr. Mary's Monkey, recently discovered that fact. He reported to the JFK Assassination Conference 2014 how he discovered, that on the SAME DATE -- August 31, 1963 -- that I conducted a final blood test from the veins of one or more "volunteer" prisoners, proving the cancer-causing material was multiplying and alive. The final test was then underway. Either the product worked, or it was all in vain. Now "cleanup" was necessary. So when Dr. Sherman suddenly (and conveniently) flew to London that night, where she remained for weeks, that's when the 'sanitizing' took place.
That same night, Mary's apartment was broken into.
Ed Haslam and I were able to determine from police records that every trace of what Dr. Mary had been working on in her apartment, that could be connected to The Project, had surely been removed when the high cost of "unlisted" removed items was considered. Numerous non-related items were also stolen, to make it appear that the invasion of her premises, when discovered, had a different motive.
Or, go ahead and call it a 'coincidence' --just as was Mary's gruesome death on the same day - July 21, 1964-- that the Warren Commission came to New Orleans to obtain unsolicited testimonies. She was a brave woman. There is every indication that she probably would have talked.
Instead, my patriotic friend was front page news: she was the third important witness in three months to die. First was Guy Banister's associate and pilot, Hugh Ward, who'd flown Lee to Austin and Dallas before dropping him off in Houston to catch a bus to Laredo and Mexico City. His plane crashed in flames, with New Orleans' former Mayor, Delessops Morrison and his son aboard. Next was Banister himself, with a bullet in the back --but officially, he dropped dead, stark naked, from a heart attack. After Mary was murdered and her body, also nude, was set on fire, nobody was anxious to talk except for Carlos Marcello's voluble, garrulous, lying attorney Dean Andrews, who stood forth gushing gratuitous gems of disinformation.
Such independent and previously unknown "coincidences" in the record, such as Mary's sudden trip to London and the burglary of her apartment the very day the Project's research phase was officially finished, keep emerging. I used to be accused of 'inserting' myself into the record, and wherever no record could be found, I was also charged with making up 'that' part. However, as new evidence keeps emerging that supports the 'unrecorded' part, many researchers now realize that I didn't 'insert' myself into the record. I was there all along.
But A. J. Weberman and Greg Parker, who by their own statements proved they never bothered to read Me & Lee, were quite adamant that they did not have to read the book. Weberman was sure that his theory was correct. Greg Parker was sure that his theory was correct.
They agreed on one thing: Judyth Vary Baker had to be stopped.
They both declared that their particular theory proved I was a fraud.
Even though each one offered a different theory concerning the very same diagram in Lee's address book.
THE THREE X's
For logical reasons, Lee placed three X's on the diagram. He also showed the location of two small circles, which were the apartment's overhead lights, as well as a third small circle where a heater and a hall light were located, explaining to me that such lights were turned on by wall switches and would help save time for anyone needing to enter and locate the materials at the "X" spots.
I eventually realized that Lee drew the diagram not for himself alone. After all, something could also happen to him. With whom could Lee share such information? The answer is easy: Dr. Mary Sherman. Dr. Mary had never been to my apartment, but it would be easy to explain to her, using the diagram, where to find the crucial, hidden materials. Where to find the key in an emergency. However, it was best to make sure Dr. Mary would never be seen at 1032 unless it was absolutely necessary. Hence, the creation of the diagram.
Lee was interested only in the front part of the apartment. That is where the research papers, journals, slides and microscope were located. There were no closets in the apartment, a part of which was still being remodeled, including the bathroom, which had no tub. The tub, in fact, was oddly located in Susie Hanover's kitchen, as researchers who visited there in Jan. 2000 were surprised to find was verifiable, since they talked to Susie Hanover's granddaughter, who remembered that very detail effortlessly.
Instead of closets, there were shelves, bookcases, clothes hooks and a coat rack. Lee drew one "X" where I kept the cancer research journals and reports I was writing hidden in my bedroom-- on a book shelf there, kept out of view under my stacked clothing. The window Lee shows was the one not blocked by the bed. This window could be used to quickly exit the apartment, should anyone suddenly enter through the front door. The second "X" was placed in the entry area by the front door, where a tall bookcase with doors was located. This is where I had hidden the microscope.
A third "X" was drawn over the back window ledge, where an emergency key was kept. Why this key was made is fully explained in Me & Lee. Its use, on the day Lee asked me to marry him, should remind all readers that Lee knew exactly where it was located.
Weberman's Mansion Theory
Alan J. Weberman reported that Lee's diagram represented Gen. Edwin Walker's three-story mansion, basing this on one of Gerry Hemming's stories. Weberman did not know that I knew Gerry well. Gerry did not have kind words for Mr. Weberman. In fact, he ended up hating him. I have six hours of Gerry on tape. I also flew in to Fayetteville, NC where Gerry lived out the last years of his life. After I proved to him that he knew Lee far better than he had ever admitted to anybody, and after I caught him in several lies, and told him several secret things about himself that Lee had told me to tell Gerry, if I ever needed his help, After Gerry realized I really was Lee's girlfriend, he knew he couldn't squirm out of the fact that Lee knew him much better than Gerry had ever let on to outsiders.
As for me, I was surprised that Gerry knew about Dr. Alton Ochsner's various experiments on prisoners and mental patients, and that he knew (as William Davy reported, shortly after I did) that Ochsner had worked with Dr. Robert Heath at the East LA State Mental Hospital at Jackson, where the final experiment on one or more human "volunteers" took place to test The Product. Gerry accurately described additional things about Ochsner that would shock almost anybody but me.
Gerry and I became friends. This brilliant man with an equally impressive memory (not always placed at the disposal of his interrogators) placed me on a blind CC so I could see all his INTERPEN members and their emails back and forth. Finally, after we talked some more, Gerry contacted Nigel Turner, the creator of the series The Men Who Killed Kennedy.
I thus became the sole subject of Episode 8, "The Love Affair" which aired on Nov. 2003 on the History Channel (and, along with Episodes 7 and 9, was quickly banned). Lady Bird Johnson and her entourage, which included former presidents Ford and Carter, along with Jack Valenti, Bill Moyers and prestigious others, destroyed Turner's reputation and for him blackballed: I was burdened under death threats and, after being permanently harmed, including neck injuries affecting my vision, I fled to Europe, where I've lived, for the most part, ever since.
Weberman explains to us that the diagram is General Edwin Walker's three-story mansion located in Dallas, TX. Full of his beliefs, he tells readers that Gerry Hemming was the one who "...convinced his puppet Oswald to take a pot shot at Walker... " Weberman said Walker had helped Gerry financially, and shooting at Walker would raise sympathy, helping the disgraced general to look like a victim. Frankly, in Dallas Walker was a hero who needed no help to sustain that position.
Weberman, who fell for most of what Hemming told him between winks, says "...Hemming had visited Walker and had given Oswald a floor plan of Walker's house." Weberman identifies the diagram as the "floor plan of Walker's house." Of course he has no viable explanation for the three x's, or for why the diagram in NO WAY resembles Walker's three-story mansion. Here's the diagram again: compare it with the photos of Walker's mansion, below
Please note the doorway,the size of the door, and the porch. Now, look at the photos, below, of the front and back of Gen. Walker's three story mansion on Turtle Creek, where Walker was shot at: |
| Gen. Edwin Walker's mansion, front view, Turtle Creek, Dallas |
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| Gen. Edwin Walker's mansion of Turtle Creek: REAR, The license plate number was obliterated AFTER photo came into custody of the FBI. The license plate, intact, can be seen in an earlier photo showing many items photographed together. It was probably planted among Lee's effects. Note there is no resemblance to Walker's mansion in the diagram drawn by Lee. Is there anything else we need to say about Weberman's theory? I don' t think so. GREG PARKER'S EXPLANATION (REF:http://www.reopenkennedycase.org/apps/blog/categories/show/1979947-lee-harvey-oswald)
FIRST, PARKER QUOTES WHAT I HAD WRITTEN:
"On the Vindication site [Facebook] it was soon pointed out that in the "CIA approved" book "Marina and Lee" the flat was described as a single room, had no closets, and was a studio with a balcony, whereas the schematic clearly had two bedrooms, a separate bathroom area, and front porch with a main entrance, as well as a rear exit. There was no balcony opening from a small, single-room studio layout with a bathroom, that itself was accessed from a hallway. Photo shows Lee standing on his balcony overlooking the river at Minsk. This is not a "front" door. It has no security."
PARKER: "You can rely on a CIA approved book if you want. Here is what I relied upon.
[JVB: Here is the schematic, shown upside down as it is in Lee's address book:] Parker quotes a description of Lee's apartment, below:
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PARKER CITES A REPORT OVER A DECADE OLD. NEXT, PARKER WRITES:
"The balcony is at the top of the drawing."
But the diagram shows a door to the left. The actual balcony in Minsk shows the doorway was centered, not located on the left side (right side to viewers outside):
And the balcony, notice, wraps itself around the corner.
I decided I'd also look up Edward, who was still living in Lee's apartment a decade later. I found the interview AFAR internet magazine, who was also willing to describe the apartment when Edward let finally him in:
"The two-room apartment [REMEMBER THAT! JVB] was crammed with bookshelves and framed photos ...The man said his name was Edward. He was 75 years old. He told us he was originally from Kazakhstan and that he did not know about the Oswald connection when he bought the apartment 10 years ago. He ushered us onto his balcony and told me to stand at the far end of it. I wasn’t sure what he was doing, but then he handed me a black-and-white photograph of Oswald and his wife. Ivan said, “Look, they’re standing in the same spot you are.”
It was true. Behind them in the photo, and behind me in real life, were the pediment and columns of the ministry of defense. Then Edward took us inside, a cigarette dangling from his lips, and led us to the bathroom. “See this toilet?” he asked with more enthusiasm than I’d ever heard about a commode. He fanned his hand around it like he was trying to sell it to us. “You can see it’s an old toilet because the tank is up high and connected by this pipe.” We nodded. “This,” he said, taking a moment to catch his breath from all the excitement, “was Oswald’s toilet. Oswald sat right here!” And just in case we needed a physical exclamation mark, he pulled down on the chain hanging from the tank and gave it a flush.
What does Parker say?
Parker at one point tried to say the diagram showed the entrance to the common interior hallway, until it was pointed out that there was no balcony with that interpretation -- surely a feature Lee Oswald would have proudly included.
PARKER NEXT WROTE: "The one room is on the left." Yes, we can see the big room on the left in the diagram:
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| PARKER USES THE ORIENTATION HE SEES IN LEE'S ADDRESS BOOK |
He next writes:
"The kitchen is on the right." Well, this could be a right-hand corner, true enough...
OOPS! Problem! Using Parker's interpretation, you cannot get to the "kitchen" on the balcony side without going through the bathroom and down a hall that doesn't exist in any description. In addition, with this arrangement, you cannot enter the apartment, either, without going through the bathroom first, since Parker says the porch and entrance at the top opens to the balcony. Parker makes sure we do not misunderstand him, writing plainly:
"The bathroom and toilet are at the opposite end to the balcony. The old iron tub is clearly drawn in. The closet is possibly what is shown next to the bath."
If the "old iron tub is clearly drawn in" then the tub is the rectangle, with a 'closet' to the right:
Parker: "...the kitchen is on the right..." Can you believe that the stack of rooms on the right-hand side of this one-room (or two room) apartment reads like this (according to Parker): (at bottom:) Doorway at bottom of diagram opens to a common hallway. Here, upon entering, you find yourself in the apartment's tiny bathroom, with a closet to your right. Keep walking straight ahead, and you will see a room, again to the right, that Parker says is the bedroom. Keep on walking, and far from the plumbing, all by itself, is the kitchen. The big room to the left is a living room, but you can't enter it from the kitchen. It supposedly opens to the balcony, with the door in the wrong place.
You may choose to describe Lee's Minsk apartment as a one-room apartment or as a two-room apartment, as you wish, but you still have a pesky problem: what about that middle room, which is clearly a second bedroom, on the diagram?
The sensible layout is simple and logical: first, turn the diagram upside-diown.
The front door opens into a large room that functions as both a living room and dining area, as found in a thousand small homes in New Orleans. Turn the corner, to the left, and before you is the kitchen. To your left, as you stand there, is a hallway leading to two bedrooms. The kitchen is to your right as you stand at that doorway. From there, you can see the doorway leading to the breezeway between kitchen counter areas. A small square is where a hotplate sat. The door in the kitchen opens to a breezeway connecting 1032 with 1032 1/2. The driveway is to the right, handy to both kitchens when bringing in the groceries from the car. The entrance to the bathroom can be seen where you stand. Both the kitchen and bathroom were under renovation at the time.
The kitchen did not have a stove installed yet. A tiny half-drawn area next to the kitchen was a pantry. The plumbing, as was usual to save money, meant that the bathroom was close to the kitchen. Turn left, then go down the hall past the bathroom to the two bedrooms.
The sensible layout is simple and logical: first, turn the diagram upside-diown.
The front door opens into a large room that functions as both a living room and dining area, as found in a thousand small homes in New Orleans. Turn the corner, to the left, and before you is the kitchen. To your left, as you stand there, is a hallway leading to two bedrooms. The kitchen is to your right as you stand at that doorway. From there, you can see the doorway leading to the breezeway between kitchen counter areas. A small square is where a hotplate sat. The door in the kitchen opens to a breezeway connecting 1032 with 1032 1/2. The driveway is to the right, handy to both kitchens when bringing in the groceries from the car. The entrance to the bathroom can be seen where you stand. Both the kitchen and bathroom were under renovation at the time.
The kitchen did not have a stove installed yet. A tiny half-drawn area next to the kitchen was a pantry. The plumbing, as was usual to save money, meant that the bathroom was close to the kitchen. Turn left, then go down the hall past the bathroom to the two bedrooms.
The Fireplace and the Diagram's Hack Marks
I described 1032 Marengo to researchers just prior to a tour of it in early Jan. 2000 -- now more than 15 years ago, I soon reaIized I'd forgotten an important detail: a small but elegant carved fireplace that was part of the wall of the front bedroom. In the old email shown below from Nov. 2000, slightly altered to protect the innocent, I mention my embarrassment at having forgotten it.
But Lee Oswald didn't forget it.
The fireplace was a handy place to burn things, if necessary.
Perhaps that's why Lee indicated, with a hatched line, that a structure of some kind was on that wall (it's the fireplace). Look carefully by the doorway to the front bedroom, and you can see the hatch marks. That's exactly where the fireplace was --and it was seen by several researchers in Jan. 2000:
Unfortunately, Debra Conway, who ran Lancer (an organization at the time which I did not know existed) volunteered to develop Martin Shackelford's film for us, but so far as i am aware, she refused ti return the film of the interior of 1032 to us. However, I have emails preserving the report of the existence of the fireplace, and researchers present at the time -- Dr. Howard Platzman, Martin Shackelford, and Dr. Joe Riehl -- saw the interior, and it is to them that I wrote, complaining that Conway, who volunteered to process the films for us, now refused to return them. It took four years to get witness Anna Lewis' film from her, after a pro bono lawyer threatened a lawsuit.
Enough people were sent these emails that some still have a copy of them. Here is the relevant portion (SOME TYPOS CORRECTED):
Enough people were sent these emails that some still have a copy of them. Here is the relevant portion (SOME TYPOS CORRECTED):
"By the way, we also went inside my old apartment house, at 1032 Marengo, where the owner's daughter verified that once there had been a bathtub in the kitchen there. (Yet, I am so embarrassed, I totally forgot about the little fireplace, amazing what I remember and forget! ). Shackelford filmed of all of this. CONWAY SAW NONE OF THIS...BECAUSE.... Conway fell ill (she is not a strong woman) when we first started all of this, when we drove to Magazine St. --- she got VERY crabby and went back to the motel to rest. . Shackelford was really doing almost all this filming. She did not even see all the downtown tour."
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| NOTE LOCATION OF FIREPLACE... (BEDROOM 2 IS SHOWN TOO BIG, MY BAD!). ------------------------------------------ |
POSTSCRIPT FOR THE CURIOUS:
(Quote above is from the email shown below, which was sent to many recipients)
11/04/2000 Debra Conway says SHE owns OUR film--background info --al B/=/C/ZRS½RAOLHh[1][1][1][1]
11/04/2000 V_____@concentric.net, IVY 0749, _____louisiana.edu, _______@aol.com, atlasrecrd@aol.com ________@usa.net, emmatyler@aol.com, SPIDER7897@aol.com, kathomas@cox-internet.com, Viking8350, ______@aol.com, , , evygirl2@midiowa.net, , f______@juno.com, , ppromo@execulink.com,_______@prodigy.net paulhoch@uclink4.berkeley.edu, EdHaslam@________, maryferr@swbell.net, aedisen@swbell.net
PART TWO OF THREE EMAILS.....RE STOLEN FILM AND BACKGROUND
ElectLady63 from Blackburst: Do you want me to see about getting your film or a copy back? Do you have a
short synopsis of what the film is, how it came into being, all
that? Thanx.>
David B. MESSAGE BELOW IS FROM JUDYTH TO ALL:t feel like i am living
in a blooming soap opera! THE LANCER CONFERENCE WILL SOON BEGIN. DEBRA
REFUSES TO HAND BACK OUR FILM AND CLAIMS IT BELONGS TO HER.ALL OF YOU NEED TO
KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON HERE, AND THE PROVENANCE OF THE FILM...Dear David; the film was made
early in January, 2000 in New Orleans. Here is how it came to be: please do forgive some chronological inaccuracies, but this is approximately how i recall it. We were exhausted by a
series of circumstances, including my being kept up almost all night for a
couple of days while this was going on, so my sequencing may be a little off,
but basically, here is what happened:PART ONE OF TWO EMAILS:WE ARRIVE AT
HOTEL HECK (Martin S's apt term)Martin Shackelford, Howard Platzman, Joe
Riehl, Debra Conway, Anna Lewis, with her daughter, Sondra, and I all
congregated in "Hotel Heck": very rundown, only one I could afford to
go to, so they all went there, too (this was a Days Inn, even the hot water failed,
who would have thought a Days Inn could be in such deplorable condition?The
first day, I took them on tour that began at Reily's. That is just about as far
as Debra Conway made it. She saw and
heard almost nothing of the tour, compared to everybody else, and it is a
shame,because my comments brought everything into perspective. She had a
hypoglycemia attack, I think she said.WHAT DEBRA MISSED She did not see,
but everybody else did, the routes we had between my place to Dr. Mary's to
Dave Ferrie's, just minutes apart by streetcar and bus. I could make the route
in little more than half an hour to all three and get back if I had to. They documented all of this.You could see the
circle I made between all these sites as easy to make and could be made every
day if necessary. We then went by Lee's and I showed them it
was the side, not front, apartment, 4905, and met the current tenant, who said
this WAS the apartment originally, not the front one that is always pointed
out.
I also showed them the bus route --- just one stop between his place and
mine, and where we met in between at the playground many a time. Of course, Lee
and I rode the same bus to and from work: they could see we were only two
minutes apart by car and Shack filmed the entire route of this. . By
the way, we also went inside my old apartment house, at 1032 Marengo, where the
owner's daughter verified that once there had been a bathtub in the kitchen
there. (Yet, I am so embarrassed, i totally forgot about the little fireplace,
amazing what I remember and forget) ). Shackelford filmed of all of this.CONWAY
SAW NONE OF THIS...BECAUSE....
Conway fell ill (she is not a
strong woman) when we first started all of this, when we drobe to Magazine St.
--- she got VERY crabby and went back to
the motel to rest. . Shackelford was
really doing almost all this filming.
She did not even see all the downtown tour. ... Debra missed all of this, and stood there
talking to an Alba family member and took some film of that person with her
camera, while. I did come back there, and showed everyone else (she also may
have missed this) where the original office was at Alba's--- and that was the
same as described in my book ... took everybody BUT
Debra (she went around later, but missed my remarks) around
to the back and showed them how Lee used Alba['s to slip away unobserved by
Reily employees, rather than going around the front way, and being seen by
everybody at Reily's when he left.
It was very obvious once you poked your nose through the doorway there.
You could see the street, and if it was clear or not. naturally, Lee became
friends with Alba to use the walk-through route there. We then went around
the front, and discussed Crescent Garage's original office again which was
different from what Howard had got from Ron Lewis (a man Lee NEVER, by the way,
mentioned EVER to me) ---who said the office had been rebuilt in another
section. It was obvious that nothing had changed for many years.The narrow
corridor i had remembered, we were able to spot also (I had gone in there once
and Lee kissed me almost in front of
Adrian Alba, at least we are pretty sure he probably saw us---which I do hope
he remembers). All this time,
Shackelford is filming. Debra? She will
soon go back to motel and collapse..
Howard (who has fibromyalgia and was weak and tired--HE hung on, God
bless him!)--is forced to sit in back of _____'s pickup truck for lack of
room . In this fashion, out we head to see the routes and apartments as explained
above, but Debra drives back to the motel at this time and sees none of
it. In other words, she missed almost
everything on the tour. Of all of them, she was therefore weakest in obtaining
the information I offered, including many insights as they could see how
efficiently we laid out our routines and routes.DEBRA MISSES REVEREND
JIM'S Shack still filming, we left
where Banister's office and the building used to be, all conveniently torn
down, to undertake a five block walk, I think, though it was a straight shot
down, to where Lee and i 'worked" a few times ---to give me an excuse to
have some money to show Robert, after i got fired (forced to resign, actually)
as secretary to Vice Pres. Monaghan at Reily's. This was my excuse to get into the
same area once more when necessary for some meetings. back in 1963,
Lee and I would meet at Thompson's Restaurant -- i would swing in on
streetcar from Dr. Mary's---and there David Lewis and his wife, Anna, and Lee
and I ate snacks together, and then i would go on down to reily's and check
out. It wasn;t dark yet, so a few
times, I would return to Thompson's (Robert almost always gone) and we began
dating a little together, too, going various places such as O'Brien's, Five
hundred Club, and Old Preservation Hall---until Lee and I became intimate and
wanted privacy for ourselves in the very limited opportunities that we could
get. OUR WANTING PRIVACY HURT THE LEWIS' FEELINGS, AND DAVE FERRIE KEEPING
LEWIS AND MARTIN AWAY FROM THE PROJECT (LEE AND I WERE NOW OFTEN THERE AND
FERRIE DIDN'T WANT PEOPLE TO SEE ME, SO THEY WERE NOT WELCOME). THIS SECRECY --AND A SEX PARTNER ARGUMENT
THAT CAME UP--- APPARENTLY MADE MARTIN THINK HE WAS BEING LEFT OUT OF A BIG
MONEY DEAL, AND HE BECAME VICIOUS ABOUT IT. DAVE LEWIS SOON WAS FIRMLY ON HIS
SIDE IN THE MATTER. THAT WAS THE END OF HAVING ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE
LEWISES, AND I WAS EVEN AFRAID TO ASK ANNA TO TESTIFY, BUT SHE HAS, EVEN
THOUGH SHE REALLY DOESN'T EVEN LIKE ME VERY MUCH. Thus the situation, and the sex problems we
were all having, and rumors about big money deals, caused a break between Dave
Lewis and Ferrie, and, because Jack S. Martin thought this was a big
money-funded deal, and he was also excluded, there was quite a blow-up that
finally ended in Dave Lewis and Jack Martin going off to lick their grievances,
and in the end Lewis left his pregnant wife to live with jack martin in a
homosexual relationship that had been going on for some time but now
intensified. Martin was saying he'd
fix Dave Ferrie for keeping him out of the deal, and because of the two cuban
boys he wanted Dave to share with him.
It was all ugly and sordid. What lee and i had seemed so clean and
right, as we were both being treated badly by our marriage partners and saw no
future with them.LEE HELPED MORE THAN ORIGINALLY PLANNED OVER AT FERRIE'S
BECAUSE OF ME Anyway, Lee and I had
fallen in love and found this excuse to be able to meet at Reverend Jim's, on
Rampart St. Lee also "volunteered" at Dave's to "help" with
the animals and handling some of that while supposedly "job
hunting"-- ...<snip>. He
began with learning how to get tumors out of sacrificed mice, and finally, he
was learning how to do some sophisticated sterile procedures. He then became very valuable helping dave
when i could not be there. Lee learned
to handle most of the medical materials, and then became involved in learning
how to keep the materials alive, safety factors, everything...
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