Hit List: An In-Depth Investigation Into the Mysterious Deaths of Witnesses to the JFK Assassination
Page 15
Our thanks go to writer Gary Richard Schoener, who summed up the whole sordid story very succinctly in his article for Fair Play Magazine:
Mr. Warren Reynolds, who was employed in a car lot one block from the scene of the shooting of police officer Tippit, told the FBI on January 21, 1964 that he had seen a man carrying a pistol fleeing from the scene of the killing. He also told them that he could not identify the man as
Oswald, despite the fact that he had followed the man for a block and seen him at close range. Two days after this FBI interview, he was shot through the head in the basement of his office. Since nothing was stolen, there was no obvious motive.
Reynolds was hospitalized and miraculously recovered from his head wound. He had been out of the hospital for about three weeks when, late in February of 1964, an attempt was allegedly made to kidnap his ten-year-old daughter. He and his family received telephone threats.
Reynolds’ growing fear brought about major changes in his everyday life including continuous worry, the end to night walks, and the presence of a friend at the car lot after dark. He owned a watchdog and surrounded his house with floodlights which could be instantly turned on. . . .
But the story is not over. Darrell Wayne Garner, the “prime suspect”
arrested after the shooting of Reynolds, was released on the strength of an alibi provided by his girlfriend, Nancy Jane Mooney, a.k.a. Betty McDonald. Ms. Mooney had worked as a stripper at Jack Ruby’s Carousel Club. Eight days after providing an alibi for Garner, Ms. Mooney was herself arrested. The charge was “disturbing the peace.” She had allegedly been fighting with her roommate on a street corner, although the roommate was not arrested. Two hours later she was dead, allegedly having hung herself in her jail cell.
As with many of the cases in this book, we will never know what information
Ms. McDonald may have provided, because she didn’t live long enough to tell us.
Had she lived, Mooney might have rescinded her previous alibi testimony. As a former employee of the Carousel Club, she could also affirm—as did others—that both Tippit and Oswald patronized the establishment.1
Conclusions Based On Evidentiary Indications
• Although the case relates to the JFK assassination, its linkage is via Warren Reynolds, which was a very clear case of the “Powers That Be” intimidating and harassing a key witness into involuntarily changing his testimony to fit the official version of events.
• As far as Betty McDonald, her death appears to either have actually been suicide, or murder for reasons unknown, by persons unknown.
• It does not appear that her death had anything to do with her “knowing too much” or any other apparent linkage to the JFK assassination.
Conclusion
Suicide or murder, but her death does not appear to have been a “professional” job or linked to JFK assassination.
Her story reveals, however, a clear case of witness intimidation regarding Warren Reynolds.
1 The X Spot, “More Death by JFK Assassination, Pt. II,” November 22, 2009: http://xdell.blogspot.com/2009/11/more-death-by-jfk-assassination-pt-ii.html
Victim
Eddy Benavides
Cause of Death
Gunshot
Official Verdict
Unsolved Murder
Actual Circumstances
In another odd series of events, the brother of an eyewitness was murdered (shot in the back of the head in a bar in Dallas) and, since the two looked a lot alike, it has been suggested that the murder was actually a case of mistaken identity.
Domingo “Dom” Benavides witnessed the escape of the actual killer of Officer J. D. Tippit. He got a very close look at the man and he explained to police very clearly that he could simply not identify that man as Lee Harvey Oswald.
Dom Benavides was an intelligent, well-versed, and thoughtful young man who was very confident in what he had and had not seen. He can be viewed online in interviews which convey his intelligence and presence of mind.1
Benavides testified that he “really got a good view of the slayer”2 and was highly specific in his descriptions of how the killer differed from Oswald:
1 An excellent video interview of the witness can be seen at: “JFK assassination JD Tippit murder witness interviews,” accessed 11 Oct 2012: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbcnV9cPL_w
2 David Welsh, “In the Shadow of Dallas: The Legacy of Penn Jones, Jr.,” Ramparts Magazine, November 1966,
pp 39-50: http://www.unz.org/Pub/Ramparts-1966nov-00039
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Eddy Benavides,
February, 1964
I remember the back of his head seemed like his hairline went square instead of tapered off . . . it kind of went down and squared off and made his head look flat in back.1
Then things got very tricky in Dom’s life. He was “repeatedly threatened by police, and advised not to talk about what he saw.”2
No one sums up his story more clearly and concisely than author Monty Cook:
Domingo Benavides said that the killer did not resemble Oswald. Soon afterward, Benavides received death threats, his look-alike brother was killed in a bar fight. Suddenly, he reversed his testimony and agreed that the killer was Oswald. The death threats stopped.3
So there it is! Another case of: “Who can really blame him?”
Whatever we and other people who came along, after the fact, may think of the matter, it’s very important to consider what Dom Benavides himself thought:
1 Ibid.
2 Ibid.
3 Monty Cook, The Skeptic’s Guide to Conspiracies: From the Knights Templar to the JFK Assassination: Uncovering the (Real) Truth Behind the World’s Most Controversial Conspiracy Theories (Adams Media: 2009), citing Doug Moench, The Big Book of Conspiracies (Paradox Press: 1995).
Domingo Benavides was convinced that Eddy’s murder was a case
of mistaken identity and that he was the intended victim.1
Conclusions Based On Evidentiary Indications
Clear case of witness intimidation: The murder of Eddy Benavides may or may not have actually been related to the intimidation of Domingo Benavides.
1 John Simkin, “Domingo Benavides: Biography,” accessed 11 Oct 2012: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKbenavides.htm
Victim
Bill Chesher
Cause of Death
Heart attack
Official Verdict
Natural Causes
Inconsistencies
None apparent
Author and researcher, Sylvia Meagher, reported that Mr. Chesher was “believed to have information about a Ruby/Oswald link.”1 That seems highly plausible because, as has been established in the preceding chapters, there clearly were links between Oswald and Ruby—many reported having seen the two together.
Bill Chesher clearly did have information about an Oswald link to Ruby. Chesher was an auto mechanic who had worked on Jack Ruby’s car. He and another mechanic at the garage where he worked, Robert Roy, reported that they had seen Lee Harvey Oswald driving Jack Ruby’s car.2
However, little is also known about the death of Mr. Chesher and, thus far, there is nothing out of the ordinary that can be said about it.
Conclusions Based On Evidentiary Indications
Death, most probably, from natural causes. In this particular case, critics appear to be correct that there is nothing innately suspicious.
1 Sylvia Meagher, Accessories After the Fact: The Warren Commission, The Authorities & The Report (Vintage: 1992).
2 James DiEugenio, “JFK: The Ruby Connection, Gary Mack’s Follies – Part One,” CTKA (Citizens for Truth about the Kennedy Assassination), accessed 11 Oct 2012: http://www.ctka.net/2009/ruby_mack.html
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Bill Chesher,
March 31, 1964
Victim
Hank Killam
Cause of Death
Blood loss from severed throat; deep three-inch cut through jugular vein; carotid artery.
Official Verdict
The police made a determination of “Suicide.” The local medical authorities also initially concluded it as a suicide, but apparently later changed that finding to “Accident.”
Actual Circumstances
The police finding of suicide only makes sense if some extremely serious government people told police it was suicide. Otherwise, no sane person would conclude that a man intentionally jumped through a ground floor
plate-glass window for the purpose of committing suicide. No one commits suicide by jumping through a department store window at 4:30 in the morning. As we explain below, some serious dark forces were hot on Hank Killam’s trail, and no one knew that better than he.
It’s a highly pertinent observation that a suicide verdict precludes a serious murder investigation and, quite apparently, the “Powers That Be” didn’t want anyone investigating the murder of Hank Killam. But we did anyway.
Inconsistencies
Numerous; see text below.
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Hank Killam,
March 17, 1964
The following is a verbatim excerpt from an official Library of Congress investigation by the Congressional Research Service entitled “Analysis Of Reports And Data Bearing On Circumstances Of Death Of Twenty-One Individuals Connected With The Assassination Of President John F. Kennedy”:
Name:
Thomas Henry (Hank) Killam
Assassination Connection:
Hank Killam worked as a house painter in Dallas at the time of President Kennedy’s assassination. Penn Jones maintains, in Volume II of Forgive My Grief, that Killam was connected with both Lee Harvey Oswald and his murderer. First, his wife, Wanda Joyce Killam, worked for Jack Ruby as an exotic dancer in one of his clubs for two years prior to the assassination. Second, Killam was acquainted with and occasionally worked on painting assignments with a man named John Carter, who resided in a rooming house located at 1026 North Beckley, in Dallas, where Lee Harvey Oswald also lived.
Date of Death:
March 17, 1964
Circumstances of Death:
Penn Jones gives a detailed account of Killam’s death in Volume II of Forgive My Grief:
Hank had moved from town to town after the assassination and then from state to state in an effort to avoid the continual questioning of “federal agents.” According to Hank’s wife. . . . Hank was “hounded from job to job” by these federal agents.
Before his death in Florida, Hank told his brother, Earl Killam: “I am a dead man, but I have run as far as I am going to run.”
At 4:00 a.m. on March 17, 1974, while asleep in his mother’s home, Hank was called to the phone. He dressed and left the house. A car door was heard to slam, according to his mother, although Hank did not own a car.
A few hours later he was found dead on the street in Pensacola, Florida, with his throat cut. Since he was lying near a pile of broken glass, the papers said he either jumped or fell into a plate glass window.
The Pensacola police ruled the death suicide. The local coroner ruled the death accidental. Neither of these parties knew of the conflict in their rulings until early 1967 when his brother, Earl Killam, asked that the body be exhumed in an effort to determine the exact cause. 282
Believe it or not, the reasons stated by the Congressional Research Service for not being able to investigate the bizarre death of Hank Killam, were that “this death has proved difficult to pursue from Washington, due to the fact that the Library of Congress does not permanently retain issues of the Pensacola Journal.” We kid you not—that was really the reason stated. Wow—what a thorough and capable group of investigators our tax dollars fund at the Congressional Research Service.
Well, we don’t “permanently retain issues of the Pensacola Journal” either, but you know what?—we got off our duffs and researched it anyway! We thought old Hank deserved that much, at the very least. Here’s what we found out:
Hank was found dead, near a broken plate glass window, in Pensacola, Florida. His jugular vein was severely cut and he bled to death before they could get him to the hospital.
Police ruled the death a suicide. The local coroner ruled it an accident. Now take a look at what the research of authors Craig Roberts and John Armstrong revealed:
He was found dead, his throat cut wide open, his body thrown through a department store window in Pensacola, Florida, less than four months after the assassination.
Killam’s death aroused suspicions in County Solicitor Carl Harper’s mind, which in 1967, began a nationally publicized investigation. During the investigation, Harper discovered that Killam had fled Dallas, moved to Pensacola, then Tampa, and then back to Pensacola to escape “agents” that were after him.1
Hank Killam told his brother, Earl:
I’m a dead man. They’re going to get me—but I’ve run as far as I’m going to run.2
1 Roberts & Armstrong, The Dead Witnesses, 8.
2 Thomas Porter, “Officials Blast Theory of Suicide in Death of Man Who Claimed He Knew Too Much,” April 16, 1967, National Enquirer, cited in “The Death of Hank Killam – The Ultimate Cold Case,” The Education Forum: http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=9053
282 Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, ““Analysis Of Reports And Data Bearing On Circumstances Of Death Of Twenty-One Individuals Connected With The Assassination Of President John F. Kennedy,” June 5, 1978, Thomas H. Neale, Analyst, American National Government Division, citing Penn Jones, Jr., Forgive My Grief II (Midlothian Mirror: 1967): http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/crs.htm
Harper wasn’t the only one who questioned the finding:
Three key figures have ripped apart the police theory of “probable suicide” in the death of a man who claimed that he knew too much about the Kennedy assassination—and was afraid that he would be killed because
of it.1
The article then goes on to delineate a number of valid reasons why the evidence is actually indicative of murder, not suicide. Pay close attention to the findings in the report of insurance investigator, Jim Harper, who apparently did more “police work” on the case than the police actually did:
I was working the case as a claim against liability and didn’t think too much about the mystery aspects of it at the time. The window of the store was broken. Blood went way back inside—4 to 5 feet. To me, this means Killam went through the window with tremendous force. Because if he had slipped or had staggered into the glass, the blood would have been right at the window. And if he had fallen through he would have landed real close to the edge.2
Even County Coroner, Dr. A. H. Northup, was shocked at the determination made by authorities:
I didn’t know until now that police had listed the death as a probable suicide. In ten years as a medical examiner, I’ve never heard of a man trying to kill himself in that way.3
1 Ibid.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
Hank Killam, with wife, Wanda, who worked as a dancer in Jack Ruby’s nightclub.
It gets worse:
Hank Killam would also have had to jump up and over a two-foot high section of brick wall even to get into the plate-glass window. And the mystery is deepened by the fact that his body was discovered on the pavement—50 feet from the window.
“That is sure no way to commit suicide,” the insurance investigator theorized. “If he had been cut anywhere else except on the jugular vein, he would never have bled to death. There were no other marks, no bruises, in any way, shape or form, on Killam’s body.”1
His brother, Earl, recalled this event, shortly prior to the incident:
He remembered the weekend his brother died; how Hank had seen a strange man wearing the collar of a priest, several times near 316 West Romana Street, where Killam was staying with his mother, Mary. No Catholic priests or Episcopal clergymen ever visited the area.
Hank Killam was frightened of the stranger who seemed to be shadowing him and told his own Baptist
minister: “Be careful they don’t put a knife in your back after being seen talking to me.”
The minister, the Reverend George Blue, also said Killam hinted in those last days of his life that his special knowledge of “that thing in Dallas” would lead to his death.2
So Hank Killam was a man on the run. It is very clear that he knew of an Oswald connection to Jack Ruby, because he was apparently a key part of that connection. He was not just very worried, but was in constant and acute fear for his life, and those fears turned out to be very well founded.
According to his wife, Killam came home the night of the assassination “as white as a sheet.” She said he stayed up all night watching television reports. Later, Killam began to keep a file of newspaper clippings on the Kennedy and Oswald slayings.
After the assassination, agents—identified as “federal” by his wife and as “plotters” by Killam—began to hound her husband, Wanda said. They quizzed him about Ruby and Carter—and when one crew stopped, another began.
Finally Killam ran. “Then they browbeat me into telling them where he had gone,” Wanda said. And again the “agents” and “plotters” tracked him down in Tampa where he was working as a used car salesman. They chased him from one lot to another, then to his home and death.3