Dead Wrong: Straight Facts on the Country's Most Controversial Cover-Ups by
Richard Belzer
My rating:
0 of 5 stars
* FRANK OLSON - Fell from the thirteenth-story window of his hotel in New York City. CIA admitted doping Olson with LSD. Olson’s death was a clear-cut case of “National Security homicide.” As head of CIA bio-weapons research, he had extensive access to “state secrets.” One of those secrets was that bombs with the anthrax virus had apparently been dropped on North Korea. He’d become increasingly outraged and vocal by what he saw as an immoral use of his research. He told colleagues he was disturbed about evidence of CIA torture-to-death interrogations in Germany and bacteriological warfare on North Korea. He was deemed a security risk. Olson’s family had the body exhumed and reautopsied in the 1990s and forensic experts concluded that Olson was murdered. The second autopsy demanded by relatives confirmed ’blunt force trauma’ and that the victim was rendered
unconscious prior to his fall. Contrary to the first autopsy report, no lacerations were found upon the victim, even though he had supposedly crashed through and out of a plate glass window. The hotel room was so small that it would have been impossible for the victim to build up sufficient running
speed, then catapult over the twin beds that intersected the room and crash through a plate glass window upon impact, especially one that was not very high. See
Frank Olson Project.
* HENRY MARSHALL - Five gunshots from a bolt action rifle. This investigator for U.S. Department of Agriculture uncovered vast financial scam being run by Billie Sol Estes and linked to Lyndon Johnson in Texas. Estes later testified that Johnson had ordered Marshall killed, using hit man Mac Wallace. Initial death ruling never even addressed the impossibility of a person shooting himself five separate times with a bolt-action rifle. A Grand Jury later ruled that Marshall's body be exhumed and an autopsy revealed that he had suffered a severe blow to the head prior to his death and that his body contained a carbon monoxide concentration of fifteen percent. The doctor performing the autopsy estimated that the carbon monoxide concentration at the time of death was as high as thirty percent.
* GEORGE KRUTILEK - The accountant for the financial scam being run by Billie Sol Estes and linked to Lyndon Johnson in Texas. Estes later testified that Johnson had personally ordered that
Krutilek be killed, using hit man Mac Wallace. A large bruise on Krutilek’s head indicated that he had been bludgeoned unconscious prior to inhaling the carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide poisoning was the modus operandi of hit man, Mac Wallace.
* MARILYN MONROE - Marilyn Monroe had an affair with President Kennedy and also a brief relationship with his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy. L.A. Police Chief Tom Reddin stated: “The Kennedy connection was a matter of common knowledge at the Police Department
level I was at. The Kennedy—I should say Kennedys’—relationship with Marilyn Monroe was pretty generally accepted.” Marilyn considered both relationships serious, not at all frivolous. Previously, she reportedly had an affair with Mob-linked Frank Sinatra and was good friends with Chicago Mafia boss Sam Giancana, Johnny Roselli (also Chicago Mob), and others, amid what one writer has
called “an astonishing array of indiscretions.” But what set off alarm bells in U.S. intelligence was her friendship with Frederick Field and other known Soviet intelligence agents. Her phones were tapped and her home had listening devices, with eavesdropping conducted by the government and (independently) by the Mob. Her home was “sanitized,” i.e., swept of bugs and sensitive materials
in the hours after her death, accounting for the “missing six hours” before anyone finally called the police. No trace of tablets were found in her stomach or intestines, even though she had enough Nembutal and Chloral Hydrate in her bloodstream to kill an elephant. Computer analysis that compiled all the pharmaceutical data concluded that, to reach those levels, Marilyn would have had to swallow a total of 77 to 88 pills (60 to -70 Nembutal and 17 -to 18 Chloral Hydrate).33 Digestion stops at death, therefore, victims who swallowed pills always have undigested tablets and refractive crystals (the active ingredient of any drug) in their stomach. So there should have been substantial residue, and there are always refractive crystals in an oral overdose. But none were found, even
using a polarized microscope. Medical Examiner Thomas Noguchi: “I found absolutely no visual evidence of pills in the stomach or the small intestine. No residue. No refractile crystals.” Dr. Noguchi also stated that her stomach was almost completely empty. She had not eaten on her last day. Her body was found lying face down, however, secondary lividity marks on her back and posterior aspects of the arms and legs indicate that at some point during the first four hours after death (when lividity occurs) her body was moved onto its back for a considerable period of time (evidenced by strong secondary lividity marks) and then placed back in the face down position before police arrived. The first officer at the death scene (LAPD Watch Commander Jack Clemmons) concluded that the death scene had been cleaned up and staged and that Monroe had actually been murdered. He said there was a major cover-up at LAPD and publicly disputed the official findings:
“It was the most obviously staged death scene I have ever seen.” Mafia sending the Kennedys a message, but they and supporters on the scene got their soon enough to remove evidence of connections between them and Monroe.
* JFK, MLK, RFK - Ballistics and other forensic evidence disproving identified single shooter and blatant cover-up evidence. (On RFK, I don't recall before hearing of the suggested Aristotle Onassis involvement.)
* FRED HAMPTON - I had recently read of the informant and political assassination of Black Panther leader Hampton in
Beyond Bullets: The Suppression of Dissent in the United States.
* VINCE FOSTER - Clinton WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL found in public park on a Tuesday afternoon after the body was apparently moved. The evidence indicates he was murdered with a low-velocity weapon such as a .22, producing no exit wound. Evidence is not consistent with the official version which purports that he shot himself with a Colt .38 at point-blank range (directly into his own mouth) with high-velocity ammunition. Missing crime scene photos and magically appearing keys and a note add to a suggested coverup. (I used to think Foster was just an unusual suicide. This and other investigation has me convinced otherwise.)
* DAVID KELLY - David Kelly. Kelly was a British scientist and authority on biological warfare, employed by the Ministry of Defence and formerly a United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq. He had an off-record discussion with a BBC journalist concerning a British government dossier about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which was cited by the journalist. Kelly's name became subsequently known and he was aggressively questioned by a Parliamentary committee. He was found dead two days later, attributed to suicide. In the book
The Strange Death of David Kelly
, British politician Norman Baker disputes this version of events and suggests Kelly was murdered: 'I am convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that this could not be suicide. The medical evidence does not support it and David Kelly's state of mind and personality suggests otherwise. It was not an accident so I am left with the conclusion that it is murder.' (This one was new to me)
It's great that in the cast of narrators here is
Ice-T. This audiobook is narrated by Richard Belzer, Scott Brick, Kelli Giddish, Laurie Anderson, Stefan Rudnicki, Andre Braugher, Judy Collins, Ice-T, Danny Pino, John Lee, Tom Stechschulte, and Steve Zirnkilton.
Jesse Ventura delivers an epilogue.
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