The JFK Facts Podcast

We return with a live show from earlier this month. Co-host Jefferson Morley spoke with listeners in a freewheeling discussion about The Oswald File, a new course that begins Wednesday, Oct 23rd. The group also discussed Dr. Jolly West and his strange place in the JFK assassination story.If you would like to join the live call-in show, it is recorded each Thursday at 8 p.m. EST. JFK Facts emails a weekly reminder and the link to join the live call every Thursday afternoon.The recorded version usually posts the following Tuesday.If you want more information on The Oswald File course, please visit https://www.morleycourses.com/ This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jfkfacts.substack.com/subscribe

Steven Grant, creator of critically acclaimed comic books like Whisper, joins the JFK Facts Podcast to talk about “Badlands,” his fictionalized comic book series centered around the JFK assassination and its aftermath. Grant has many intriguing things to say about the mileu in which JFK was killed and the power of fiction to tell the truth. You can read Grant’s insightful Afterword to the “Badlands” series here.JFK Facts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jfkfacts.substack.com/subscribe

[note: the original audio posted stated the date of LBJ and Hoover’s phone call incorrectly, this audio has been corrected. The correct date of the conversation was November 23rd, 1963.]On today’s podcast, we play the entire 14-minute erased phone conversation between President Lyndon Johnson and FBI Director J Edgar Hoover, while host Jefferson Morley puts the deleted recording in context. This phone conversation was almost certainly deliberately erased, but more than 60 years after JFK’s death, we can still learn something from the eerie hiss of this destroyed historical record. JFK Facts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jfkfacts.substack.com/subscribe

JFK Facts and the Mary Ferrell Foundation are currently exploring ways in which Artificial Intelligence (AI) might be deployed to search, sort, and analyze the vast record of President Kennedy’s assassination. With its incredible capacity to synthesize information, AI chatbots seem to have great potential for historical research, especially in the JFK story where many questions remain about how a popular American president was shot dead in broad daylight and no one was ever brought to justice for the crime.AI’s potential, alas, is not a deliverable. The AI video firm Synthesia is offering a snippet of a virtual talking head (circulating on Twitter) who declaims about JFK’s assassination. Is she a real person or a CGI robot? The latter I think but who knows. She starts by saying, cryptically, “The future is overrated,” adding “Trust me I should know,” which sure sounds like the prelude to a scam, especially when followed up with a reference to Gerald Posner’s outdated book “Case Closed,” and concluding with this ungrammatical pensee: “The future knows it is Oswald alone.” Come again, my little avatar? The future isn’t a person or a being so how can it know something? And, if this future-with-a-consciousness is “overrated,” then maybe its knowledge of the JFK story may be overrated too. Or maybe just non-existent. In this case, AI is merely AI: Authenticated Ignorance.JFK Facts and the Mary Ferrell Foundation will continue to explore how Large Language Models can assist in understanding the clandestine events culminated publicly on November 22 and the CIA coverup than followed. In recent years, JFK researchers have made a great strides in understanding the role of certain CIA officers in monitoring and manipulating Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin who denied killing the president. There is more work to do and perhaps AI technologists can help.The Mary Ferrell Foundation hosts an large, up-to-date, OCR’ed, and clean data set. We have useful prompts derived from years of JFK research. We have a vast international audience eager for JFK news and insights. We’re asking ourselves, “What can AI help us achieve?”JFK Facts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jfkfacts.substack.com/subscribe

[Note: An earlier version of this post mistakenly contained a different group discussion, which will be re-published at a later date]Each set of circumstances surrounding the destruction of JFK assassination-related records — whether by a government agency or an individual — tells its own story. Taken together, these stories (as told in Chad Nagle’s ongoing series “Trail of Destruction") illuminate the extraordinary and disturbing lengths the U.S. government is prepared to go to advance the official narrative of the “lone gunman” in President Kennedy’s murder.This week’s story comes from Hunter Leake, the CIA’s number two man in New Orleans, who disclosed he used Oswald for intelligence purposes.Thank you for reading JFK Facts. This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jfkfacts.substack.com/subscribe

Fingeroth, the biographer of Marvel Comics mastermind Stan Lee, excavates the life and times and troubled mind of the man who committed murder on national television.JFK Facts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jfkfacts.substack.com/subscribe

JFK Facts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jfkfacts.substack.com/subscribe

On this week’s episode, I talk with James DiEugenio, author of five books on John F. Kennedy’s assassination, about a lesser-known aspect of the JFK story: Kennedy’s principled support for nationalist movements that threw off colonial rule after World War II. From Vietnam to Laos to Algeria to Congo to Cuba, Kennedy spoke eloquently for a new approach that supported the aspirations of colonized people to escape the old colonial powers, especially in Africa. It’s not a well-known story, so listen up. JFK Facts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jfkfacts.substack.com/subscribe

In tonight’s episode, host Jefferson Morley chats with Dick Russell, the prolific author and maverick political activist who is leading and shaping the public conversation about JFK’s assassination in 2024. Russell’s book, “The Man Who Knew Too Much” was among the first JFK books to document the CIA’s hand in events leading to JFK’s assassination in clear and convincing detail. His research and commentary are central to Rob Reiner and Soledad O’Brien’s popular “Who Killed JFK?” podcast. He is a friend of Marina Oswald Porter. And his recent biography (and film) makes the case for his friend Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the next president of the United States.Russell is a maverick with impact, so you will want to hear what he has to say.JFK Facts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jfkfacts.substack.com/subscribe

As co-host of the “Who Killed JFK?” podcast with Rob Reiner, former TV anchor Soledad O’Brien is now at the forefront of the assassination story. How’d she get there? Have a listen above.JFK Facts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jfkfacts.substack.com/subscribe

Marina Oswald Porter, the widow of Lee Harvey Oswald, believes that her husband did not kill the president of the United States. She is one of the most important witnesses in the JFK saga.Yet her story is largely unknown.For reasons that will become clear, Marina has not given an interview in three decades. But soon, you will be able to listen to an in-depth conversation that has not previously been heard.Tune in to the JFK Facts Podcast at 8 tonight (Tuesday, Feb. 13) for a world-exclusive interview: Marina Oswald Porter Has One Last Thing to Say.After that time, you can download the Marina Oswald episode here. It also will be posted on the JFK Facts YouTube Channel on Feb. 13. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jfkfacts.substack.com/subscribe

Join JFK Facts Live hosts, Jefferson Morley and Larry Schnapf, for a discussion of the latest developments related to the JFK assassination story.If you can’t do that, click on the player at the top of this post to listen to last week’s conversation above.JFK Live is held every Thursday night at 8 pm ET.JFK Live is really just a big Zoom call, open to all. Comments and questions from people who are new to the JFK story are welcome.Click here to join the call. (Meeting ID: 884 9319 4600.)You can also listen at your convenience. The JFK Live podcast is posted on the site on week after it takes place. Click on the “Podcast” in the navigation of the JFK Facts home page.And, if you like what you hear and want more high-quality, fact-checked JFK content, visit the JFK Facts YouTube channel.JFK Facts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jfkfacts.substack.com/subscribe

Eric Hamburg is an old friend who has been involved in the JFK assassination story since forever.In the 1980s he was a Capitol Hill aide who helped put together the legislation that became the JFK Records Act. In the 1990s he was a movie prodcuer who helped Oliver Stone put together the movie “Nixon.” Eric was friends with Howard Hunt, the Watergate burglar with JFK secrets. He is pals with John Dean, the Watergate whistleblower. And he’s still making movies with Oliver Stone, most recently a pro-nuclear power documentary. I thought, who better to talk to about where we are now in the JFK story than Eric?JFK Facts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jfkfacts.substack.com/subscribe

Join JFK Facts Live hosts, Jefferson Morley and Larry Schnapf, for a discussion of the latest developments related to the JFK assassination story.If you can’t do that, listen to last week’s conversation above.JFK Live is held every Thursday night at 8 pm ET.The JFK Live podcast is really just a big Zoom call, open to all. Comments and questions from people who are new to the JFK story are welcome.Click here to join the call. (Meeting ID: 884 9319 4600.)You can also listen at your convenience. The JFK Live podcast is posted on the site on week after it takes place. Click on the “Podcast” in the navigation of the JFK Facts home page.Please enjoy last week’s meeting in the player above.And, you like what year, do a deep dive on the JFK Facts YouTube channel.JFK Facts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jfkfacts.substack.com/subscribe

JFK Facts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jfkfacts.substack.com/subscribe

See also: “The Labyrinth of the Woman I Know,” by Peter Voskamp (JFK Facts, Dec. 18, 2023)JFK Facts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jfkfacts.substack.com/subscribe

Join JFK Facts Live hosts, Jefferson Morley and Larry Schnapf, or a discussion of the latest developments related to the JFK assassination story. If you can’t do that, listen to last’s week’s conversation above. JFK Live is held every Thursday night at 8 pm ET.The JFK Live podcast is really just a big Zoom call, open to all. Comments and questions from people who are new to the JFK story are welcome.Click here to join the call. (Meeting ID: 884 9319 4600.)You can also listen at your convenience. The JFK Live podcast is posted on the site on week after it takes place. Click on the “Podcast” in the navigation of the JFK Facts home page.Please enjoy last week’s meeting in the player above. JFK Facts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jfkfacts.substack.com/subscribe

JFK Facts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jfkfacts.substack.com/subscribe

JFK Facts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jfkfacts.substack.com/subscribe

Larry and I talk with Barbara Shearer, director of the Paramount + documentary about the doctors of Parkland Hospital in Dallas who tried to save JFK's life. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jfkfacts.substack.com/subscribe