May
19
Greetings all!
It has been a while since I posted as I did not have much to share and I needed a much needed break from it all. And now I have a few things to share with you. But before I start I wish to thank everyone who bought my book and also took the effort of reviewing it and heaping it with such praise. I am completely chuffed by the overal large postive feedback to it.
A new job, which I started in Jan. this year, was the perfect escape from it all. In early Dec. 2023 I was approached for it and after a trip to Germany I was offered the job within 15 minutes and the first 10 was just about my book. So after all it was good for something!
Although I did look at some things, the work I did is so demanding from a time perspective that pro-activeness wasn’t on the cards at all and it will take some time before I get back into the ring.
But (there is always one) I have started to collect some bits that will be used in an update to the book. But it will be quite a while before I even attempt to do that. I am planning to release a hardback version then and will also insert more photographic media. The print quality of photographs prevented me from doing this last year. Hopefully things will have improved by the time the updated version will be released. Watch this space for further announcements.
Instead I started to work on some technicalities of the Malcolm Blunt archive and I can tel you that in the past month I have been busy using OCR on about 15,000 PDFs to increase ease of searching through the entire set of records. This was the easy part as I could let it do its job in the background.
Next comes grouping the records, renaming and catagorising and rehousing it on a new Google Drive depository which I hope to have completed by the 61st anniversary. It will have a few thousand extra PDFs which have not been shared before. I shall announce its completion of course. I know this is a thankless task, but I wish to complete the whole thing there and then before I can move on. The beauty of doing this huge undertaking is that I end up reveiwing previously scanned documents again and this ‘break’ from all that documentation has enabled me to see further bits that I can use, also for books 2 & 3. Whenever that may be.
Oh yes!!!!!!
Dec
27
The Bottle
During my Lancer 2023 presentation (at 51:21) I brought up the find of a bottle that stood closely to where Prayer Man (aka Lee Harvey Oswald) was standing. This bit gets very little mention in my book Prayer Man More Than a Fuzzy Picture. It is something I had started to look into years ago already while studying the Prayer Man footage in the Darnell and Wiegman films.
I based my initial find of a bottle on some still and moving frames of the Dave Wiegman film where we can see Prayer Man is moving an object that is partially illuminated, with his right hand only, closer to his face. Not many objects can be illuminated like that, but I know one thing that does and that is glass. For those that are not too familiar about this whole matter; Oswald got a coke for his lunch!
Wiegman close-up frames of Prayer Man drinking in slow motion by Stan Dane.
After the assassination there is a find of a bottle that stood in the westerly corner of the TSBD steps and that was captured by William Allen of the Dallas Times Herald in a few of his photos of the front of the TSBD as shown below. To the best of my estimation these pix were taken between 13:00 and 14:30 that day. The DPD did not cordon the building off until 20-25 minutes after the assassination.
In the William Allen contact strips below in the green sectioned area it shows that frames nos 11-13 show many people standing on and in front of the TSBD front steps, these people are gone in the subsequent image, with the very first frame (no 14) showing the sighting of the bottle. This is the first photograph of the gallery of four images above.
William Allen photos. Click to enlarge.
In the photos below the front of the TSBD is managed by the DPD and TSBD employees can only be seen behind the glass front inside or when leaving the building. All photos by William Allen – Dallas Times Herald. These images come from The Portal to Texas History.
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- Shortly after cordoning off the TSBD front entrance
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- Will Fritz & Elmer Boyd depart TSBD
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- Third floor employees leaving TSBD
At the Education Forum Chris Scally jumped on to this specific bit of my presentation and posted a William Allen photograph of Herbert Sawyer of the DPD, holding a Dr. Pepper bottle while standing on the Texas School Book Depository’s steps. Sawyer had setup his command post right there and was seen interviewing Howard Brennan inside a patrol car right in front of the Texas School Book Depository’s front steps shortly before. Scally did not base his ‘find’ on anything substantial other than to assume that Sawyer had littered his bottle on those steps. Something for me hard to accept for being plausible in those days.
Herbert Sawyer on the left, Marvin Wise to the right. Photo: William Allen/DTH. From The Portal to Texas History. Click pic. to enlarge.
I managed to pinpoint roughly when the image was taken (just before 13:00 hrs) by getting hold of some of Allen’s contact sheets with thanks to Dennis Morissette. Check out the green marked image and you can see that the tramps, escorted by Marvin Wise are his next shots. Then in the following frames on the strip below we can see Gerald Hill shouting from the sixth floor before his departure to the Tippit murder and Oswald’s subsequent arrest at the Texas Theatre. Finally at the end of the bottom strip is Larry Florer’s arrest. That arrest of Larry Florer (image 17), whose arrest happened at about 12:50 – 13:00.
The decisive part for me is that Oswald’s lunch bag rolled up and jammed between the bottle and the step from a close-up seen below. The bottle that Sawyer is holding has Dr Pepper stamped on, it is not a label of some sort.
If only they had tested that bottle and sack for fingerprints………
Dec
10
A Closer Look at Bart Kamp’s Prayer Man
I had not noticed this Dec 4th article at KennedysandKing.com until yesterday, and I know only now about it thanks to Vinny at ROKC. In this article Jake Fernandez has reviewed Prayer Man: More Than A Fuzzy Picture at Kennedysandking.
Here is a quote from his review: “As we navigate through Kamp’s exploration, encountering historical figures, overlooked sketches, and clandestine meetings, we are prompted to view the “Prayer Man” not as a static element in a photograph but as a key to unlocking the best-kept secrets regarding the Kennedy assassination.”
Nov
20
JFK Lancer 2023 Conference
Below some pictures of the crowd at the JFK Lancer Conference while my presentation was on in Dallas on Nov 19th 2023.
With thanks to Peter Antill for the photographs.
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- JFK Lancer 2023 Conference
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- JFK Lancer 2023 Conference
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- JFK Lancer 2023 Conference
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- JFK Lancer 2023 Conference
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- JFK Lancer 2023 Conference
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- JFK Lancer 2023 Conference
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- JFK Lancer 2023 Conference
And here is the video of it, added Nov 24th.
Nov
12
The Lone Gunman Podcast – More Than a Fuzzy Picture.
I had the pleasure speaking again with Rob Clark of the Lone Gunman Podcast. And as always great fun to do and had a very relaxed and mostly unscripted chat.
Listen to it HERE.
Thank you Rob!!!
Nov
04
The Opperman Report
I spoke with Ed Opperman on Sept 25th about Prayer Man.
You can listen to it on Spreaker HERE.
Enjoy!
Oct
23
Prayer Man More Than a Fuzzy Picture reviews
Since its early September release the book Prayer Man More Than a Fuzzy Picture has been received very well. It is hovering at an average 4.5 mark on Amazon for which I am very grateful. So thanks to those who purchased it and also left a high rating and a few kind words.
And earlier today Jim DiEugenio posted a comprehensive book review at his Kennedysandking website. It is a ten minute read, but it is well worth the time spent on it as it gets to some of the core matters of my research.
Sep
19
Thanks to Robbie Robertson for featuring me again on his out of the Blank podcast.
Also my book Prayer Man More Than A Fuzzy Picture is now also available through Barnes & Noble.
