Caro Carlousa, ritengo la favola della Baker un'ottima invenzione (infarcita di elementi reali, ovviamente. Come tutte le vere "bufale" ben costruite)per vendere libri e interviste (che in USA sono a pagamento).Non conosco il numero della rivista che mi dici. Ti sarei grato se tu volessi gentilmente sintetizzare ciò che dice sull'attentato. Ecco cosa ho trovato sulla Baker:
Lee Oswald's Girlfriend in New Orleans? Secret CIA Bioweapons Researcher?
Should We Believe Judyth Baker?If Judyth Vary Baker is telling the truth, it will change the way we think about the Kennedy assassination. Judyth offers an account that integrates much that has been written about the assassination into a more or less coherent whole, and puts myriad facts about the assassination in an entirely new light. She has recently been in the Netherlands, getting some attention in the Dutch media, and has opened a museum dedicated to telling her story. Her supporters have promised a book. She may turn into someone important on the JFK assassination scene.
But is she to be believed?
Star Science Student Recruited into Deadly Conspiracy
Sources on Judyth
Key sources on the “Judyth” story include:
– an essay sarcastically titled “My Boring Life,” a response to David Lifton’s claim that Judyth has fabricated her story to add some interest to her boring life.
– a biographical blurb written to her high school classmates and posted on the web page of Manatee High School.
– an outline, titled “Deadly Alliance,” sent to publishers and researchers. Carefully formatted and polished, this is the “official” version of her story -- at least it was when it was written. In this essay, “the Judyth account” or “Judyth’s account” refers to “Deadly Alliance.”
– a draft of the final chapter of her book, titled “Before the Silence Came: Lee’s Last Telephone Calls.”
Judyth’s saga begins when she was a student at Manatee High School in Bradenton, Florida. Among fellow students who remember her, opinion is about evenly split between remembering her as “intelligent” and remembering her as “weird,”
E-mail from Robert Johnson dated July 30, 2003. Johnson contacted several of her formerclassmates.
Close but she appears to have been an excellent science student who conducted “cancer research” with mice.
She received a fair amount of recognition for her academic prowess, and eventually went to a national workshop for science students. Her life then took a turn when she met Dr. Canute Michaelson. Michaelson (supposedly a “CIA asset” engaged in bioweapons research) drew Judyth into a plot that had the intention of killing Castro, but ended up killing JFK instead.
The “interesting” time in her life was the Summer of 1963, when she was in New Orleans. It was there that she began, she claims, a torrid sexual affair with Lee Harvey Oswald, in spite of having been recently married to Robert Baker, a petroleum engineer. What brought Judyth and Lee together was a plot, centered in New Orleans, to produce a bioweapon for the purpose of killing Fidel Castro. The plotters got them both “cover” jobs at the Reily Coffee Company while they were both carrying on an affair and trying to produce a “cocktail” to administer to Castro. The “cocktail” would include both a virus designed to knock out Castro’s immune system, and cancer cells that would infect him and cause his death.
Other participants in the plot included David Ferrie – every conspiracy author’s favorite suspect – and Dr. Mary Sherman, a physician at the Oschner Clinic. The research was done in the apartments of Ferrie and Sherman.
Oswald’s famous trip to Mexico City was, according to Baker, for the purpose of delivering the poison “cocktail” to an agent who would see to it that it got into Cuba and was administered to Castro.
Oswald made it to Mexico City, but unfortunately the agent never arrived to claim the materials, and the plotters decided to kill John Kennedy instead. Oswald, who liked Kennedy, was an unwilling participant in the plot, but never defected nor told the authorities about the plan. He was in Dealey Plaza as a shooter, but intentionally missed Kennedy, although other shooters, of course, killed the President.
Evaluation
Some readers may be tempted to stop reading right now, given the sheer implausibility of the plot.
That the CIA (or other plotters) would need to develop a bioweapon to kill Castro is farfetched, since they had a variety of poisons that would have killed him – including some that would do so without it being obvious he was in fact murdered.
Report on Plots to Assassinate Fidel Castro, [“Inspector General’s Report”], pp. 25-26, 46-49,75.
Close
Further, when the CIA wanted scientific research done, they were able to recruit top-notch Ph.D.-level university talent. Their research on toxins was headed by a renowned biologist. For the MK/ULTRA project (dealing with “mind control”) they recruited top university scientists.
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/e1950/mkultra/Hearing01.htm
Close Yet we are supposed to believe that this particular project was carried out by a high-school dropout (Oswald), a college student with no advanced science classes (Baker), a fellow who had a mail order doctor’s degree from an institution in Italy (Ferrie), and a reputable doctor (Sherman) who was in fact an orthopedic surgeon. Sherman did study tumors in bones, but it’s unclear that she would have had any expertise increating bioweapons – as opposed to treating people with bone cancer.
Close
Ferrie, at one point, did own some rats, and told his friends he was engaged in “cancer research.” But then he also, at one point, had a large tank in his back yard which he claimed he was going to convert into a submarine to attack Castro’s Cuba.
According to Ferrie biographer David Blackburst:
One Ferrie idea that actually showed some promise was the mini submarine, asmall battery powered device that would stealthily transport two skin divers to theCuban shores to “sneak into the country” or “blow up some ships.” The mini-subswere constructed form the wing tip fuel tanks of a B-47 bomber, which Ferrie hadobtained through military surplus channels. He recruited several of the Falcons[Metairie Falcon Cadet Squadron] to assist in the fabrication of these devices,and actually constructed two prototypes in his basement. Mike Finney recallstesting the electric motor and gears. The biggest problem with the mini-subproject was that it never worked.
Close
And somehow the plotters couldn’t supply a proper facility, so the research was done in the apartments of two members of the team. Real CIA research was done in university labs, or at secure military installations.
Further, it simply isn’t possible to give people cancer by injecting them with cancer cells. Conspiracists want to believe that it is, because Jack Ruby believed that he had been given cancer this way, but it’s impossible. Finally, knocking out Castro’s immune system would have resulted in his death without any additional ingredient in the “cocktail.”
Does She Have Evidence?
Even if one considers Baker’s account implausible, one might reconsider if she has actual evidence to support her story. Indeed, she does have “evidence.” For example, she has employment records showing that she did work at the Reily Coffee Company at the same time Lee did. She has a green glass, of the sort that Reily gave to customers as a premium, that she says that Lee stole and gave to her, and which she treasures. How do we know that Lee gave it to her? She says he did.
She has a letter from Senator George Smathers commending her for her prowess in the sciences. She says this shows that people in high places had noticed her and were slating her for a covert mission.
There is at least one witness who confirms part of Judyth’s account. Anna Lewis, the former wife of one David Lewis, confirms Judyth’s claim that she and Lee went on several dates with Anna and David. This might seem like solid corroboration, but David Lewis was in New Orleans during the Garrison investigation, and was telling all kinds of stories – stories which even the Garrison people came to reject – about seeing Lee with Guy Banister, and with David Ferrie.
Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York, 1998), pp. 53-54.
Close So to believe Anna Lewis, we have to believe that her husband told the District Attorney’s office a bunch of implausible tales, but concealed one genuinely explosive thing that he knew.Anna Lewis’ credibility is further hurt by the fact that researchers working with Judyth promised her a share of the proceeds from a successful book.E-mail message from Louis Girdler dated July 24, 2003. The payment was admitted to Girdlerby Howard Platzman, perhaps the researcher closest to Judyth, and coauthor with her of anoutline (“Deadly Alliance”) of her story.Close
Interestingly, the dates with David and Anna Lewis don’t appear to have been in the earlier versions of her story.
Over time, the “Judyth” story seems to change, and as of this writing, Martin Shackelford – amember of “Team Judyth” – claims several witnesses. But none of these witnesses – not evenAnna Lewis – were mentioned in the early versions of her story.
Close For example, she told researcher Robert Harris that she and Lee double-dated with an old girlfriend of hers from high school and the girlfriend’s fiancé. The two got married in September of 1963. Harris grew suspicious of the story when Judyth could not recall the name of the high school girlfriend, in spite of their supposedly having been best friends in high school.
Judyth told Harris that Marina was constantly alone at night, due to the attention Lee was paying to her. But Marina told Ray and Mary La Fontaine that Lee never failed to come home after work and was almost never late.
Post by Robert Harris on alt.conspiracy.jfk, dated July 29, 2003.
Close Marina said the same thing in her testimony at the Clay Shaw trial. Marina Oswald, transcript, State of Louisiana v. Clay L. Shaw, February 21, 1969.
Close
It in fact is unlikely that Judyth or anybody else spent evenings out with Lee Oswald in the summer of 1963.
She also claims to have at least one handwriting sample from Lee, in the form of inscriptions written in the margins of a book.
Message posted by Judyth on the JFK Research Forum, dated December 28, 2002.
Close The inscriptions are, conveniently, written in pencil, which means they cannot be dated as ink inscriptions could be. Are they in Lee’s handwriting? Judyth says they are, but when Judyth’s supporters, known to critics as “Team Judyth,” are asked about the verdict questioned documents experts, they simply claim that “preliminary reports” are favorable.
Since it has been several years, one has to wonder why there isn’t a definitive assessment.
Interestingly, early on she wasn’t mentioning any handwriting samples from Lee. For example, in an e-mail she wrote in late July 2001 she claims:
1. Two sheets of stationery from the Reily coffee company.
2. Dated streetcar transfers
3. An ink bottle Lee supposedly used to fill his fountain pen
4. A W-2 form from Reily Coffee Company
She then claims to have “hundreds of documents and other items.”
E-mail dated July 30, 2001 to W. Tracy Parnell.