From the March-April 2000 issue (Vol. 7 No. 3)

From the Chairman's Desk

In our last two issues, we noted both the media blackout and the consequent cover-up of what happened in Memphis at the trial of Loyd Jowers who once confessed to a role in the conspiracy to murder Martin Luther King. In this issue of Probe we bring you the first of two articles in which we will actually cover what happened at the trial so at least our readers can become among the only citizens in America to know why the jury decided what it did. Mike Vinson is responsible for the first part of this article which focuses on the early testimony at that trial. Next issue, Jim Douglass will conclude our coverage by focusing on the second part of the proceedings.

As our readers know, Steve Jones—along with Barbara LaMonica, and Carol Hewett—have written the definitive series on Ruth and Michael Paine. Steve now has read and analyzed the testimony of Marina Oswald before the grand jury in New Orleans which was investigating the Kennedy assassination in conjunction with Jim Garrison’s investigation. Jones focuses on several issues of importance to this case including the status of the Paines, the curious acquaintances of White Russian leader George Bouhe, and the weird work habits at Reilly Coffee Company of Lee Harvey Oswald. Again, he shows that what the Garrison investigation dug up at that early date is very relevant to what we are pursing today. Too bad most researchers have forgotten or dismissed it.

Two issues ago, our cover story analyzed the Playboy interview with Jesse Ventura. We also detailed Ventura’s subsequent clashes with the Washington media as a result of the notoriety gained from that interview. Some of the clashes came out of the controversial comments Ventura made on the JFK case, a case he is riveted by. Recently, Playboy printed excerpts that were cut from the original interview. It turns out that some of these pertained to the Kennedy case again. In the more recent installment, interviewer Larry Grobel asked questions about what Ventura thought about Kennedy the man and the possibility of a changed America if he had lived, Gerald Posner, and the probability of a large, high-level plot. Ventura was honest, open, and incisive again. Its good to have such a politician around.

The Assassination Records and Review Board declassified some important documents on the Vietnam War pertinent to the Kennedy years. One of the most important was the entire record of the Eighth SECDEF meeting in Hawaii in May of 1963. If there is any lingering phony debate about what Kennedy’s intent was involving Vietnam, this record ends it. And it shows there shuold have been no such debate in the first place. It also raises some serious and troubling questions about the conspicuous silence of Defense Secretary Robert McNamara. We show why that silence was unmerited and what McNamara had to have known.

In this issue we conclude the historic two-part interview done with Richard A Sprague by Professor John Williams. Sprague was the first Chief Counsel to the ill-fated House Select Committee on Assassinations. He was forced to resign in March of 1977 due to political pressure. Most commentators, including myself, believe that Sprague’s resignation was the end of the last hope of getting to the bottom of the JFK case. Sprague comments on his resignation, where he was headed in his probe, and the poor media coverage of it. He also reveals more information on where his Mexico City inquiry was headed and why that may have derailed him.

Finally, we begin here a multi-level installment on the history of the dreaded CIA mind control experiments begun under future CIA Director Richard Helms. We have always tried to further our readers’ horizons about crimes of state. It shows that not just presidents, candidates, or civil rights leaders are targeted by the intelligence community. Other targets are average citizens themselves in the furtherance of "national security". It’s high time this was exposed and stopped in its tracks. We are making our contribution to that cause through Arlene Tyner.

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