|
But one conspiracy, the most compelling I have found, was the one seldom talked about and this makes it, well, all the more compelling. It is the story of CIA operative Richard Case Nagell told by author Dick Russell in his book: "The Man Who Knew too Much". Here is his story. In the book "The Man Who knew too Much" author Richard Russell discusses the name "Alek Hidell" which was used by Lee Harvey Oswald. This book is thoroughly documented and sourced. About Richard Case Nagell: "The late Bernard Fensterwald, Jr. a prominent Washington, D.C., Attorney and founder of the Assassination Archives Research Center, served for a time as Nagell's attorney. "Despite the fact that he was ignored by both the Warren Commission and the House Assassinations Committee," Fensterwald believed, "Nagell is probably the only vital individual who knew the details of the assassination and is still alive." Jim Garrison, the former New Orleans district attorney whose 1967 investigation was among the first to raise the specter of a conspiracy, said simply: "Richard Nagell is the most important witness there is." (pp.47) .
Here is an excerpt from the first few pages of Russell's book largely taken from police records of the incident. Photos of Nagells arrest and incarceration are in the book:
Late on the afternoon of Sept. 20th 1963, in the West Texas city of El Paso, a man parked his yellow and cream-colored Ford Fairlane in an alley between Oregon and El Paso streets. He opened his trunk and took out a .45 Colt automatic pistol, tucking it inside his belt. he was tall and rangy, well dressed in a blue suit, white shirt, and red tie. He walked over to a nearby post office and took five crisp hundred-dollar bills from his pocket. Folding them inside a piece of paper, he slipped the package into an envelope and mailed it to an address in Mexico City.
At the counter, he registered another letter to an official of the Central Intelligence Agency. He carefully placed the receipt in his wallet and momentarily scrutinizing the circular-shaped ceiling, placed his hand on the pistol. Then, fearing a ricochet that might injure one of the customers, he changed his mind.
It was a sweltering ninety-one degrees as the man walked across the street toward an old gray stone building with a facade of roman columns with eagles above the doors. His mind raced; he was being followed, of this he was certain. Inside the State National Bank, it was now a half hour before closing time. He observed a young police officer standing guard beside a Treasury Department currency display, chatting with a woman. The man approached a teller's window and politely asked for one hundred dollars in American Express traveler's checks.
But as the teller laid the traveler's checks on the counter, the man made no move to pick them up . Instead, he reached inside his suit jacked, drew the pistol, turned, and deliberately aimed two shots into a plaster wall just below the bank's ceiling. Then he returned the revolver to his belt and, as calmly as he had entered, he walked out onto the street.
He stopped at the corner, looking back to see a few bank employees staring at him from the doorway. He headed down the alley, got into his car, and, for a moment, simply sat there. As he finally pulled out halfway into the street, anoher driver was motioning for him to pass when the man saw the young policeman, with the gun in his hand, looking for him in the traffic. He backed his car up onto the sidewalk. When the policeman came over to his window, he said, "I guess you've got me, I surrender." and raised his hands.
Nervously officer Jim Bundren put on the handcuffs and marched him back to the bank. As he led his prisoner up some stairs toward a set of offices, the man suddenly turned his head and cried out: "Capitalist swine!" The policeman frisked him in the upstairs office, finding a mere twenty-seven cents remaining in his pocket.
Bundren examined the contents of his wallet: a California driver's license, some kind of U.S. military certificate. There was also a mimeographed newsletter. It was addressed to Richard Case Nagell from something called the Fair Play for Cuba Committee.
Bundren picked up a telephone. Because a firearm had been discharged inside a federally insured building, the FBI would have jurisdiction. Two El Paso special agents arrived at the bank within ten minutes. when they asked what his intentions had been, Richard Case Nagel refused to respond. Then, as he was being led to a waiting FBI car, he turned to Officer Bundren and said: "Why don't you check my car and get the machine gun out of there?"
On the way to the El Paso Federal Building for further questioning. Richard Case Nagell issued only one statement to the FBI: "I would rather be arrested than committ murder and treason." 1
Many years later, Jim Bundren, retired from the police force and while teaching a course in criminal justice at an El Paso college, would look back and remember: "I was sitting next to Nagell at one of his preliminary hearings. I don't remember the exact date, but I know it was before the Kennedy assassination. Nagell looked over at me and said. "You're a pretty good cop, arent' you? You know, if I didn't want you to, you'd never have caught me."
"I said. 'I saw the shots you fired in the bank. With your Army training and everything, I just felt like maybe it was some kind of diversionary tactic.'
"Nagell just smiled and said, 'Well, I'm glad you caught me. I really don't want to be in Dallas'
I said, 'What do you mean by that?'
'You'll see soon enough,' he said.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
