Why CAPA is Kaput.

 Why CAPA is KAPUT

And why I am not in Pittsburgh

When John Judge died, and the Coalition On Political Assassinations (COPA) was wrongfully dissolved after 20 years as the most effective active group, I initiated a conference call among serious researchers to form a new organization that became CAPA.

I suggested the name Citizens Against Political Assassinations because I thought a group of like minded individuals could work together towards common goals. Boy was I wrong.

I nomined Dr. Wecht to be chairman, as he was for COPA, and I served as its first secretary for the first four years, preparing agendas, writing minutes and editing two 20 page news letters. The newsletters were discontinued when Gerry Policof decided social media platforms were superior, so I began a CAPA Facebook group. 

At my request, Glenda replaced me as CAPA secretary, so I could devote more time to research and headed the Research Committee.

No one in the JFK community had heard of Glenda DeVaney before. She wrote a letter to her California senator asking her to support the release of the JFK records, and shared the letter with Dr. Wecht, who asked her to join the CAPA Executive Board, saying that we were a group of men, needed a women on board, and I agreed. She said she lived in San Diego, and was somehow affiliated with the Navy, then denied the Navy connection. 

Policoff and Larry Schnapf left the board after a "falling out" with Dr. Wecht, and Policoff died in a traffic accident after complaining of being poisoned. Schnapf and Bill Simpuch, who headed the CAPA Legal Committee, both left and filed their suit against Biden and NARA under the Mary Ferrell banner instead of CAPA.

Simpich told me he left because Secretary Glenda had insulted him and his conference contacts he had faithfully provided her when requested. Glenda took over as conference chair. It was a successful conference at the Dallas Marriott, and those I had requested made  presentations - Dr. Newman, Jeff Morley, and former CIA officer Rolf Mowett Larrson, all of whom made significant contrabutions. I also spoke on the release of the records. 

Unfortunately my debit card was rejected at the desk, and when I told Dr. Wecht, he had CAPA pay for my room with the understanding I would pay it back, which I did to the tune of $500 over a period of a few months. Of those dozen whose flights and hotel bills were paid by CAPA, all doctors, lawyers and producers (Oliver Stone included), who earn six figures a year, I was the only one to reemburse CAPA. 

With the arrival of COVID, Glenda chaired the 2021 virtual conference, and strongly objected to my video presentation on 2 taped interviews with Gene Wheaton and Lee Shephards interview with Carl Jenkins, but she was unamously over ruled by the rest of the CAPA Board. 

While my presentation ran, Glenda added a disclaimer on the program of her disapproval, though I believe it was one of the most important presentations in that conference, researach that is actually panning out, and others, besides myself, - Dan Storper, Larry Hancock, Matt Ehling and Dan Alcorn, are following up on those leads today. 

It was also the first indication to me that there was a serious problem with Glenda, a rare name that she shares with the Good Witch of the East in the Merry old land of Oz. Sometimes I feel that is where CAPA is.  

Glenda chaired the organization of the in-person November 2022 conference in Dallas, but didn't bother asking the Research Committee for any advice as to the state of the research. And I didn't attend as I was recovering from a serious illness that required a blood transfusion, and was in a COVID lockdown with two members of my household testing positive. 

I did however, write a blogpost promoting the conference a month before hand, and went on Len Osanic's Black Op Radio and promoted it, and arranged for Dr. Wecht and Glenda to appear on the show to promote the conference.  I also made arrangements for someone to pick up Dr. Wecht at the Dallas Airport and take him to his hotel and return him to the airport when the conference was over.

When Michael Nurko, a former COPA member, could no longer be treasurer, Glenda made arrangements for her accountant to be the paid treasurer, so now she was conference chair, secretary and controlled the bank account, that because of a few generous doners, was now five figures. 

The largest expenditure of late was to give thousands of dollars to a guy to make a digital survey of Dealey Plaza, even though Larry Schnapf and John Orr spent $30,000 of their own money to so a more detailed survey two years earlier, and reported on it at a CAPA conference. The two surveys should be compared, but Schnapf and Orr are no longer with CAPA. 

She also hired a Facebook "analytics" guy for $700 to build a social media campaign but he learned that I had already started a CAPA Facebook group seven years earlier that had over 3,000 followers. So Glenda asked me to make him a co-administrator, which I did, and the first thing he did was to remove me as an administrator. The notice from Facebook that this occurred was another indication that something was seriously wrong, and that Glenda was behind it.

When I complained, Glenda sent me a letter that she had wrote saying that the CAPA Board had voted to remove me for "not supporting CAPA," an outrageous claim since I have done more to promote CAPA than anyone other that Dr. Wecht. She said Dr. Wecht had signed off on the dismissal, and shortlhy there after I received a form letter complete with letterhead from Dr. Wecht saying the Board voted to remove me, but the letter was returned to him as it had a wrong address, so it was emailed to me. 

The wrong address was not the only thing wrong, as when I polled the Board, both Nurko and Dr. Aguilar said that they were never asked to vote on such a measure, and would not vote to remove me if they were asked. So it was only Glenda, who talks privately with Dr. Wecht on the phone, who convinced Dr. Wecht to remove me for "not supporting CAPA." It is a ruling that I am the only person ever to be charged with and probably the last. It is certainly not a rule on the books that can be applied, and was made up, by Glenda, just for me. 

When I contacted Dr. Wecht's son Ben and asked him what was going on - he replied, "You don't know what its like taking care of a 92 year old father," but I did, I informed him that I took care of my mother from when she was 85 until she passed at 92, so I do understand. And my mother kept her wits about her until the very end. 

And I give Dr. Wecht a bye and forgive him for his transgressions, but I sort of feel like the Kurt Douglas Colonel in Seven Days in May after learning his hero was a bookie and a traitor, and I feel by the man I admired most betrayed me.

In his autobiography "The JFK Assassination Dissected," Dr. Wecht wrote: "John Patrick Judge co-founded the Committee for an Open Archives in 1990 to push for full public disclosure of the JFK case. Prior to the JFK Records Act, Judge and his group had already been instrumental in getting many files declassified. Judge was also executive secretary of the Coalition on Political Assassinations (COPA), a group for which I served as first elected chairman....William Kelly, the other co-founder of the Committee for an Open Archives, was a journalist who wanted material released involving John Martino....After Judge's death, COPA disbanded, and Bill Kelly helped to form Citizens Against Politcial Assassinations (CAPA), of which I serve as chairman of its Executive Committee...." 

I didn't just help form CAPA, I instigated it, attened every meeting, and actively promoted CAPA on my blog dozesn of times, even after I was unofficially ousted by Glenda, with the approval of Dr. Wecht, for the outrageous and unsupportale charge of "not supporting CAPA." 

A lawyer associate asked me if I thought Glenda was assigned to infiltrate CAPA and minimilize me as a threat, as her opposition to my 2021 Presentation suggested, and I said no, she was just a mean, scorned and vindictive women who privately conBoard the now vulnerable Dr. Wecht to do her bidding and eliminate me from the CAPA board.

Unlike the Assassinations Archive and Research Center (AARC), where the longtime director Jim Lesar was recently replaced by the very capable Dan Alcorn when Lesar became ill, there is no one who can fill Dr. Wecht's shoes and assume chairmanship. Dr. Aguilar maybe. But he is too busy to attend meetings. And the game is almost over. Time is running out and there is no stopping it. 

Dr. Wecht was a great chairman, ran meetings according to the agenda and was fair and even in his decisions, other than to remove me from the Board. As he was once wrongfully charged for things he didn't commit, I know he understands how I feel. 

And Glenda is a mother, and she should understand that I feel like CAPA was my baby that she has stole. 

Dr. Wecht apparently is no longer capable of conducting the twice monthly conference call meetings as he used to, and I'm sorry for that. So it's over. CAPA is K-Caput.

In Pittsburgh Dr. Wecht was granted a well deserved Lifetime Achievement Award and his legacy is set and cannot be taken from him. 

The November 2923 Pittsburgh conference is, in Dr. Wecht's words, "The Last Hurrah," and indeed it is. 

The most important thing that has developed is the establishment of a permanent Wecht Collection at the Duquesne University Library, where Dr. Wecht's books and papers will be kept and others added to them. 

I was going to drive Michael Nurko's 300 books to Pittsburgh to add to that collection and may still do that but decided not to attend the conference for all of these reasons. 

But because a half-dozen people have inquired as to why I am not there, I decided to write this so everyone interested can know the truth. 

Like COPA and other similar organizations, CAPA didn't fail because of any attacks from those we acuse of being political assassins or conspirators against democracy, its demise can only be attributed to petty personal jealousies and power plays by mean, vindictive people. 

As Walt Kelly.s Pogo says: "We have met the enemy and he is us." 

All of this occured a year ago and I did nothing. 

Since I was not officially removed by a vote of the Board, I consider myself a CAPA founder and board member, and therefore offer the motion to fund the Wecht Collection with CAPA funds. Because there is a large among of money in the CAPA account, I suggest that it be turned over to Ben Wecht to hire an assitant librarian to catalogue the conents of the Wecht collection at the library and open it to researchers, something we have been talking about for decades. 

Since the CAPA Board never voted to remove me, I consider myself a Citizen Against Political Assassintaions and submit the motion to have the remaining CAPA funds transferred to Ben Wecht to hire an assistant librarian to catalogue the Wecht Collection and any additional items that will be added to it. 

Mike Nurko said he agreed with this idea, and thus seconds the motion that all CAPA members should weigh in on. 

At least something good will come out of all this. 

After organizing the Committee for an Open Archives, the Coalition on Political Assassinations and Citizens Against Political Assassinations, I am going to try to form a new, hopeully permanent institution - the Center for the Study of Political Assassinations (CSPA) - that will be based in DC and eventually have a brick and mortor base of operations. 

I will also be writing a full and complete history of both COPA and CAPA, from their beginnings to their demise, after I finish a few other projects I am working on. 

God Bless Dr. Wecht. 

Billkelly3@gmail.com