ROD SERLING AND THE JFK ASSASSINATION
Peter Falk (aka Columbo) plays Ramos Clemente (aka Fidel Castro) in Rod Serling's "The Mirror."
October 20, 1961
"This is the face of Ramos Clemente, a year ago a beardless, nameless worker of the dirt who plodded behind a mule, furrowing someone else's land. And he looked up at a hot Central American sun and he pledged the impossible. he made a vow that he would lead an avenging army against the tyranny that put the ache in his back and the anguish in his eyes, and now one year later the dream of the impossible has become a fact. In just a moment we will look deep into this mirror and see the aftermath of a rebellion....in the Twilight Zone."
"After seizing power, Clemente is told by General DeCruz, the deposed tyrant, that a magic mirror in his office reveals the faces of one's assassins."
"Looking into it, Clemente sees his compatriots advancing on him with machine gun, knives and poison. He kills them all but this brings him no sense of security. When a priest tells him that the people are appalled by the round-the-clock executions he has ordered, Clemente replies that the people are not his concern, that he sees assassins everywhere and is constantly afraid. The priest tells him that tyrants have only one real enemy, 'the one they never recognize - until its too late.'"
"All alone, Clemente spies his own reflection in the mirror, shatters it, then shoots himself. The priest rushes in. 'The last assassin,' he says. 'And they never learn. They never seem to learn.'"
"The 'tyrants living or dead' invoked at the end of 'The Mirror' was clearly a reference to Fidel Castro, whom Falk, as Clemente, is made up to resemble."
"'The Mirror' holds up an imperfect mirror to the real world and in doing so presents more distortions than reflection."
- Marc Scott Zicree - From The Twilight Zone Companion (Bantam Books, 1982)
According to John Simkin at the
Education Forum:
“Gordon F. Sander's book ‘Serling:
The Rise and Twilight of Television's Last Angry Man’. Sander says that within
days of the assassination the United States Information Agency (an organisation
very much under the control of the CIA) commissioned Serling to produce a
documentary for international distribution about LBJ. Serling accepted the
contract and afterwards LBJ sent him his "profound thanks" for his
work.”
[ BK Notes: Has anyone seen this documentary? Can someone try to find it and report back? ]
http://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=58973&relPageId=126
ROD SERLING IMPERSONATOR WRITES FAKE LETTER TO NEWSWEEK:
ROD SERLING IMPERSONATOR WRITES FAKE LETTER TO NEWSWEEK:
January 24, 1964, the Los Angeles
Office advised that on January 24, 1964, ROD SERLING, 1490 Monaco Drive,
Pacific Palisades, California, advised SA PETER J MEANEY JR, that he had
recently received a letter from Newsweek Magazine, New York City, referring to a
letter allegedly written by SERLING to that magazine concerning the
assassination of President Kennedy. SERLING telephonically contacted Newsweek
Magazine advising he had not written any such letter. The following quoted
typewritten letter was recently forwarded to SERLING by Newsweek Magazine.
December 26, 1964
Newsweek 444 Madison Ave., New York,
New York, 10022
Dear Sirs:
From what I have read, the world
will not even begin to consider the validity of the ‘one man’ theory --- or the
‘facts’ and ‘evidence’ that seem to support such a theory notwithstanding ---
until it is demonstrably proved (by a bona fide demonstration) that one man ---
with such remarkable, devastating effect --- could have fired the unreliable
Carcano rife three times, at a moving target, within six seconds. So, please,
for the time being, clumsy, heavy-handed F.B.I. ‘leaks’ that seem to answer (or
should I say cover) everything but the most important question of all --- the
matter of how Lee Oswald did the reputedly impossible, alone.
It shocks me to see how faithfully
most of the ‘press’ has represented that it tends to corroborate Oswald’s guilt
as prime facto evidence, and that it seems to cast doubt on the man’s guilt as
‘wild rumors.’ Let’s isolate this messy thing to one disturbed individual.
Let’s not rock our undemocratic, political ‘ship of state.’ Perish the thought!
There’s nothing like the
assassination of a president and the murder of his assassin to reveal how
economic control and singularly ‘unfree’ our speech (the press) really is.
Sincerely,
R. Serling
Culver City, California
P.S. As a result of the Dallas tragedy-fiasco,
I fully expect an unusual waive of popular cynicism; lawlessness; a general
disrespect for law (which we may as well regard as quasi or ‘do-it-yourself’
revolutionary activity), until government comes to more truly reflect the will
– in the false consciousness created by the ‘popular press’ – of all the
people.
The airmail envelop forwarded by
Newsweek, postmarked Los Angeles, California, December 28, 1963, addressed
“Letters to the Editor” Newsweek, 444 Madison Avenue, New York, New York, 10022,
contains the return address of “R.S., MGM Studios, Culver City, California.”
The Los Angeles Office pointed out
that ROD SERLING is a well-known television and motion-picture writer and
producer currently producing the television program “Twilight Zone” with
offices at MGM Studios, Culver City, California. Mr. SERLING also advised he
had recently received a letter from Senator THOMAS KUCHEL, Washington, D.C.
dated, December 31, 1963, referring to SERLING’S recent letter urging complete
inquiry regarding the KENNEDY assassination.
SERLING stated he has not written
any such letter to KUCHEL or any other person or magazine and has no suspects
at this time.
Under date of February 10, 1964, the
FBI Laboratory furnished the following information concerning a document
examination requested by the Los Angeles Office on February 3, 1964:
Specimens received 2-5-64
Q486 Envelop postmarked “LOS
ANGELES, CALIF. 28 DEC 1963 – AM” bearing typewritten address “Letters to the
Editor’ NEWSWEEK 444 MADISON AVENUE NEW YORK, N.Y. 10022, “ and accompanying
one-page typewritten letter dated December 26, 1963, with heading “Newsweek 444
Madison Avenue New York, N.Y. 10022,” beginning “Dear Sir” From what I have
read…” and ending “…of all the people.” Signed “R. SERLING”
Available in Bureau
Q487 Two-page typewritten letter
dated December 19, 1963, with heading “Senator Thomas H. Kuchel California
United States Senate Washington D.C.” beginning “Dear Mr. Kuchel: From what I
have read…” and ending on second page “…the Press, television, etc.” Signed “R.
SERLING”
Result of examination:
It was concluded that the
typewriting on Q 486 and Q487 was prepared on the same typewriter equipped with
Corona pica type, spaced ten letters per inch.
It was further concluded that the
Serling signatures on Q486 and Q487 were written by one individual.
The typewriting on Q486 and Q487 was
not identified in the Anonymous Letter File. Appropriate photographs will be
added to the file.
CD 46 FBI Estep Report
- http://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10447&relPageId=16
THE REAL ROD SERLING WRITES HIS THOUGHTS ABOUT NOVEMBER 22, 1963
THE REAL ROD SERLING WRITES HIS THOUGHTS ABOUT NOVEMBER 22, 1963
Leave it to Rod Serling to put it
into perspective for us. As his daughter Anne once noted on her blog:
“After President Kennedy’s
assassination, my father wrote something perhaps intended as a letter to a
newspaper or magazine editor. It was written on his letterhead and clearly
typed by him, not his secretary.”
Rod Serling’s Real Comments after
the assassination.
It read:
More than a man has died. More than
a gallant young President has been put to death. More than a high office of a
land has been assaulted. What is to be mourned now is an ideal. What has been
assassinated is a faith in ourselves. What has been murdered is a belief in our
own decency, our capacity to love, our sense of order and logic and civilized
decorum.
To the Leftists and the Rightists,
to the Absolutists, to the men of little faith but strong hate, and to
all of us who have helped plant this ugly and loathsome seed that blossomed
forth on a street in Dallas on last Friday — this is the only dictum we can
heed now. For civilization to survive, it must remain civilized.
And if there is to be any hope for
our children and theirs, we must never again allow violence to offer itself as
an excuse for our own insecurities, our weaknesses and our own fears. This is
not an arguable doctrine for simply a better life. It is a condition for our
continued existence.
BILL KELLY NOTES: Rod Serling
attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where Ruth Paine, Coretta
Scott King and Max Holland also went to school. Ruth Paine’s brother lives in
Yellow Springs today. I attended the nearby University of Dayton, but took
classes at Antioch, including one in 1971 on this history of Vietnam taught by
a former CIA Siagon Station Chief. I also attended graduate school for one semester
at the Antioch Center for Social Research and Action in Baltimore. So it was a
bit surprising to learn that Oswald also tried to enroll there after he had
dropped out of high school and before he enlisted in the Marines, as detailed in the following documents.
When I read that Serling had
suffered a heart attack while giving a lecture in upstate New York, I wrote him
a short letter in care of the hospital, mentioning our mutual association with
Antioch and gave him a short poem by William Butler Yeats on the problems of
the heart and the mind. A few days later I read that he had died of second
massive heart attack. Then, the day after he died, I received a letter from
him, and could hear the Twilight Zone theme song as I read the short note
thanking me for the poem and saying his illness was worse than reported, and wishing
me well.
I also must mention that the real Rod Serling wrote the screenplay for Seven Days in May, a film that JFK encouraged to be made by making the White House available to the film crew when he was out of town.
OSWALD AT ANTIOCH
I also must mention that the real Rod Serling wrote the screenplay for Seven Days in May, a film that JFK encouraged to be made by making the White House available to the film crew when he was out of town.
OSWALD AT ANTIOCH
INFORMATION REGARDING OSWALD’S POSSIBLE
ATTENDANCE AT ANTIOCH COLLEGE, YELLOW SPRINGS, OHIO
Sgt. DONDALD SWARTZ, Intelligence
Unit, Columbus Police Department, advised on November 29, 1963, he had received
the following unverified information from a source he declined to identify:
LEE HARVEY OSWALD alleged attended
Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio, using his true name for a short period
of time in 1957 and was dismissed because he was unable to prove his graduation
from high school.
OSWALD had lived c/o MICHAEL PAINE
and wife, RUTH PAINE nee HYDE, Irving, Texas. RUTH HYDE is a graduate, Class of
1955, of Antioch College…
DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE DIVISION
4-6-64
Domestic Intelligence Division
concurs with the recommendation of the SAC of the Cincinnati Office that no
further action is necessary in this matter. Personnel of the Cincinnati Office
who were responsible for the poor wording in the report of SA Charles E.
Chapman dated 3-25-64 at Cincinnati, Ohio, in the Oswald case have been issued
sharp error slips by the SAC of the Cincinnati Office and have been issued
emphatic admonitions. The report in question has not been disseminated outside
the Bureau. The allegation that Oswald was receiving money orders through
the Miami Deposit Bank of Yellow Springs, Ohio, has been completely run out and
has proven to have no basis in fact. Amended pages forwarded by the
Cincinnati Office are being inserted in the instant report of SA Chapman and
the report will then be disseminated to the President’s Commission in our next
regular dissemination to the Commission.
FBI operation against New Left at
Antioch
Ruth Paine & Dr. Carl D. Hyde,
M.D. WC Vol. XXIII pg. 504
From the Yellow Springs News:
Yarn Registry BLOG – Rumor has it
Lee Harvey Oswald was in Yellow Springs
By Dylan Taylor-Lehman
Published: May 7, 2016
From Rod Serling to Hollywood stars,
Yellow Springs has its fair share of celebrity associations. But one of its
strangest connections is likely its most infamous. According to some theorists,
at one point Yellow Springs was said to host none other than Lee Harvey Oswald,
the man behind the Kennedy assassination. Was he really here? Why? How? Was it
all just part of a larger CIA-led plot?
In the 1960s, Antioch was a hotbed
of left wing activism and as such was frequently on the government’s radar. The
government kept files on students and student groups connected with the
College. When an Antioch grad named Ruth Paine was connected to Oswald, Oswald
was in turn connected to the College.
Ruth Paine graduated from Antioch in
1955 and eventually moved to Irving, Texas with her husband and their children.
There she befriend Marina Oswald, Lee Harvey’s wife, who had come to the United
States with Oswald following his years in Russia. Paine spoke Russian and met
Marina through a friend. When Lee Harvey moved around Texas looking for work,
Marina and their two children would stay with Paine. In October 1963, Lee
Harvey got a job at the Texas Book Depository. On November 21, 1963, he came to
retrieve some of his belongings from Paine’s garage, including the rifle he
would use to kill Kennedy the next day.
Paine was promptly questioned by the
FBI and later testified at the Warren Commission, the official government
inquiry into the assassination. Her testimony discusses her time at Antioch
where she admits having read The Communist Manifesto as part of a
class. She said she had no interest in it later, nor did she have any interest
in Das Kapital. (“I have seen the size of the book, and I certainly would
not want to read it,” she said in her testimony.)
Paine also discovered by accident
that Lee Harvey had attempted to assassinate another government official, who
was not wounded. But she was not considered to have any sort of involvement
with Oswald and was able to go about her life, eventually becoming a school
psychologist. The home where the rifle was concealed was eventually purchased
by the city of Irving, Texas and turned into a museum.
The rumors connecting Oswald to
Yellow Springs started a few weeks after the assassination. Every city probably
seized on the most tenuous Oswald connection.
The Columbus Dispatch wrote an
article about the Paine-Antioch connection, noting Paine learned Russian from
Marina Oswald, that she considers the Russian language a hobby, and that she is
a Quaker and a pacifist. The article published the addresses of Paine’s parents
and family, who lived in Columbus, in their entirety. In the same piece, the
Dispatch reported that Antioch students were among those involved in a “Fair
Play for Cuba” demonstration in front of the statehouse in Columbus.
In November 1963, a Columbus, Ohio
police officer received information from an anonymous source that Lee Harvey
Oswald had attempted to attend Antioch in 1957 but was not accepted because he
couldn’t prove he graduated high school. This has never been verified.
An intelligence agent issued a
report in early 1964 suggesting Oswald was receiving money orders through a
bank in Yellow Springs. But this allegation was “completely run out and has
proven to have no basis in fact,” and the report was not disseminated outside
of the office. In fact, a declassified document mentions that the people
responsible for this particular rumor were chastised: “Personnel of the
Cincinnati Office who were responsible for the poor wording in the report
[about] the Oswald case have been issued sharp error slips…and have been issued
emphatic admonitions.”
However, it is likely that
“official” accounts of his whereabouts will be distorted by the government, as
many believe that Oswald was a CIA operative who only appeared to be
a pro-Castro agitator. The story goes that when the government orchestrated
Kennedy’s assassination, they had the perfect person to blame it on, Oswald,
because he was already known as a vocal communist.
Following this logic, some say,
Oswald’s connection with Ruth Paine, who also spoke Russian, means that she too
was likely a CIA operative. And assuming for a moment that the discrediting of
the Oswald-Yellow Springs connection was really government disinformation,
Oswald’s connection to Antioch coupled with Paine’s connection to Antioch means
that Antioch was or still is connected to the CIA.
In addition to past Antioch
professors having connections to security agencies, author Bob Fitrakis writes
that a few former members of Antioch’s board of trustees have connections to
corporations that provide defense technology solutions to the Department of
Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, and other intelligence agencies.
Fitrakis also says that one shouldn’t fail to notice the college’s proximity to
Wright-Patt or The Ohio State University, who works very closely with the
“CIA’s favorite nonprofit Battelle,” a mysterious research company whose campus
is located right next to the university.
However, Antioch may not be a CIA
front in toto, it may just have been infiltrated. “If the CIA or U.S.
intelligence services were involved in the subversion of America’s most
pro-peace college, it wouldn’t be the first time that the progressive college
campuses have been infiltrated,” writes Fitrakis. “The CIA subverted the
National Student Association in the late 50s and early 60s. The agency also has
been accused of subverting everything from fraternities to Fullbright scholars
to Peace Corps workers.”
Was Antioch subverted? Was Oswald
actually in Yellow Springs? Did Ruth Paine know more than she let on? Maybe
we’ll know the answers to these and the infinite other questions about the
Kennedy assassination when the rest of associated records are released to the
public later this year.
STAY TUNED.
