This essay is about what I am trying to do writing my novel/screenplay. The key was given to me by Adam Pachter, another relative of Michael Paine’s and a produced screenwriter of great talent. It is the word “drama”.
This is a dangerous word in the world of the JFK assassination. Oliver Stone caught all kinds of criticism, especially from those seeking to unravel the facts of the conspiracy, by dramatizing a set of the known facts, and, almost necessarily, getting parts of the story wrong. He has been accused of poisoning the well for future research and understanding.
I don’t agree with that criticism, but I’ve already received it myself. Preemptively. In a conversation with Daniel Sheehan he told me “ why don’t you do a nice personal note from the perspective of a relative of the Paines and stay away from a drama about the assassination . You’ll just mess it up for everyone.”
Sobering advice, but I’m not going to take it. I think there’s a valid track for memo by memo extraction of documentation from unwilling archives and gatekeepers and there is a valid track for responsible storytelling.
Right brain left brain anyone? At the level of the collective consciousness.
So, I’m going to go down the road of telling a story that is an interpretation of known facts. I grant, that in this world of mirrored deception, it is an open question as to what is a fact. Even a precious memorandum is a “fact” open to question when we have notes from William Harvey to the effect that any good assassination plot needs a fall guy and a trail of fake memos in the files to set that patsy up. Sound familiar? And Harvey was talking about ANY assassination, of which his CIA did many.
(As I’ve been writing this I have dived into Mary Haverstick, “A Woman I Know” an exploration of a new set of two-sided facts, which includes a deep analysis of the William Harvey notes I refer to above, the action plan for ZRRIFLE.)
So as I publish the current version of The White Gloves, Legend, I will proceed down two tracks. One will be segments of the story, published to paying subscribers, and the other will be the continuation of my journey, which will be published to everyone, here, as it always has been. It will discuss the facts on which the story is based.
As an example of what I intend, let’s look at the facts underlying the opening scene that I published last week. Inferno.
Obviously a bow to Dante Alighieri and his guided tour through Hell at the side of the Roman poet Virgil. One of the living Dante’s great fun moves was to decide how deeply in Hell to place various contemporaries he didn’t like. The circles of Hell.
The factual basis for a phone call from James Angleton to a Warren Commission investigator is documented by Jefferson Morley in his superb biography of the same, the Ghost. It was 1975, Angleton was alive, and he called one David Slawson, an investigative attorney for the Warren Commission who had spoken out in favor of reopening investigations that became the Church Committee of the US Senate. Angleton was calling to tell Slawson that he Angleton and by implication the Agency expected friendly treatment in the hearings. A threat was implied (page 249).
Other words in my story out of Angleton’s mouth, “a mansion has many rooms, I am not privy to who struck John” were spoken by Angleton to Seymour Hersh and are quoted in Morley’s book (page 250). The words “ ….but I know who did not….” and following have been added by yours truly.
Finally a word about Slawson. You may note a resemblance to the character Dawson. Both are professors, both are retired in California, and both have written textbooks. Slawson was a professor of Law at USC and lived in Pasadena, Dawson is in Petaluma and does Accounting, so there the resemblance ends. Let me be clear that I consider Slawson to have been derelict in his duty and worthy of any criticism implied of the accountant Dawson.
(David Slawson passed away in August, 2023)
Attorney Slawson, with another Commission attorney, was sent to Mexico City to investigate the famous and unclear visit by Lee Oswald to the Soviet and Cuban embassies. He was offered a chance to listen to the tapes of a fake Oswald calling in to the embassy during the real Oswald’s visit. He declined.
(Philip Shenon, A Cruel and Shocking Act, page 295 …. “I don’t think I need to”, Slawson said, “I don’t think I’d learn anything.”)
As my poster says, J Edgar Hoover bore witness that “ the voice on the tapes is not that of the man in custody“. Slawson declined the chance to bear very crucial witness.
More important because of course the tapes were soon destroyed. Routinely of course.
There are many in this story who deserve assignment to a circle in Hell.
Angleton is not the only one. And yes, in his decline, the ailing Angleton did muse that he was going to join a lot of people he had worked with, in Hell. (Morley, The Ghost, page 270)
Fortunately Dawson is still with us, and will be there to take the wrap-up of the call from Angleton at the end of the story.
To make sure it all balances.
So my story is born of fact, and I hope is entertaining and truth-telling fiction. A drama. Or as we might garble it today, fact-based fiction.
Next Week: who was June Cobb?