illG Frlet FlAttSay Gar!/ Atluif.r, U.D.

'lfu gJost of Joewest antitues to linger. Westwds the HorLston pirote eye who, in 1990,brcught forth Rosae White as the guttman on thegrassy knoll Little noted in the Roscoe Whitecontroversy was the fact thtt, jttst s few monthsbefore, West htd rumed a different grassy kt:r:llasswsin: Chingohitmarcha es Nicoletti. Now,this earlier I oe West claim hw been resuneded inthe form of a vidco entitled The Murd.er of JFK:Confession of an Assassin. It seems that JoeWest had. a follower, Bob Vernon, a Louisianamusic oromoter. He isitdWest's widow andwhile perusing the ldte investigator's collec-tion of I FK mdteiah, he found notes on con-ttict lames Files. Vemonmet Files in prisonwhere Files spilled the bears on the entireDealey Plaza operation, And sweral otfurmatters. ln addition to Nicoletti ( s per-vised. by lohn Roselli), Files has encoun-ters with Daid Phillips, Sam Giancana,Frant Sturgis (abo on the hnoll), ondDavid Ferrie (re claims to hnow the realstory about his death).

This new video presentation is qslimmed down version of what Vemonshowed rcsearchers earlier, There areot leost 3 chararters ,nissing. But wehope there arc no plans to incorpo-rate the leftoverc into a sequel. Thelwt thingwe who are seious need isanother shepherd cryng "WoIf!".For, as in the pfiable, we run theisk rhtt whn, and il the tuthever emerges, rc one wiII be lis-tening. -Eds.

That Mr. Robert Vemonfinally put out for sale his in-terview of a Mafia-con-nected man, James Files,confessing to the murder ofJFK was no surprise to thefew of us who had heardof the controversial Vemon. In

I a way, the relatively meager manner of itsI appearance as a "for-sale" video item is tes-I tament to the good judgment ofwary andI lnowledgeable Warren critics.I lf Vemon had had his way, the storyI would have showcased in a Pay-per-view| "television program ofthe century" to bor-

row from Vemon's understated aspiradon,

iIIIt-

featuring luminaries such as Cyril Wecht,MD, JD, Peter Dale Scott, Ph.D., DavidScheim, Ph.D.,John Stockwell, David Man-tik, MD, Ph.D,J. Gary Shaw, yours truly, andperhaps others sitting like "Gong Show"contestants awaiting public humiliation.

Even the Pay-per-view idea was appar-ently a step down for Vemon, for he had con-racted Dick Clark producrions at one rime,

with the goal ofa putting on a $2 mil-lion deal with NBC-

a

show that wasnixed after NBC consultedother assassination experts, according tojoumalist Michael Hytha who wrote perhapsthe most withering appraisal of Vernon'sproject for the Contra Costa Times on 2/20/96. Finally, Vemon had to settle for putting

avideo out for sale, and crossing his fingers.The story itselfis rather simple, but it is

not one Vemon discovered. It was unearthedby another controversial "investigato!" JoeWest, who died in 1993. Files, who is doing50 years in an Illinois prison for attemptedmurder, claims he was mobster CharlesNicoletti's driver. Nicoletti invited Files tobe JFK's backup assassin, despite the factFiles was then just 21 years old, not himselfin the Mafia, but merely an appremice. Filesclaims the other shooters missedJFK's skull,

and so Files delivered the final, fatalhead shot from his po-

sit ion behind thegrassy knoll. Filesthen claims that afterfiring, he idioticallytook the .22 caliberbullet casing from theweapon, bit down on it,and left it atop the fenceon the grassy knoll, asthough leaving such in-cdminating evidence atthe scene of the crimewasn't risky. As the storygoes, it wasn't; the dentedbullet casing wasn't founduntil 1987, and by a manwho found another identi-cal bullet casing, sans teethmarks, 150 feet away.

There are other problemswith Files, as well as with hisstory The archeological reportthat indicated rhe bullet cas-ing could have been left therein 1963 was written by a manwith an undergraduate degreein anthropology, not archeology.Files alleged military record is indoubt-the military serial num-berthat Vemon said is Files'-be-longed to a James Edward Fileswho served in World War II whenFiles was a toddler. The only re-poner who has spoken with Files is

Associated Press's Mike Cochran, whoopined, "The chances ofthis guy telling thetruth are about one in a billion." Files did

continued on page 28

geptemDer-oatob€r, 1996 FlOilE

Files Fiascocontirwed ftom page 27not respond to lequests from Contra CostaTines joumalist, Mike Hytha. for an inrer-view.

Hltha reported, 'As for his place in his-toryas the man who, he claims, fired at leastone of the shots that killed Kennedv. Filessaid he wants no part of it. ' l don;t evenwant to be remembered in history I'm no-bodv.'Files stated in his interviewwith Ver-non, suggesting he never chose to targetKennedy or anybody else. 'I just followedthe orders. To me it was like taking out thegarbage."'

Vemon is not like Files at all-he wantsvery much to be remembered, if perhapsonly financially, for solving the cdme ofthecentury My first contact with him occurredwhen Vernon called me, apparently on therecommendation of Gary Shaw, to appearwith him on his live Pay-per-view show ButI'd first heard of Vemon before that fromClril Wecht who asked me if I knew any-thing about him, for Vemon lived not farfrom me in the Bay area. At that time I didnot, but with my curiosity peaked, bothWecht and I agreed on the value of my"checking him out" before either of usagreed to appear publiclywith him. The ex-perience, and its aftermath, would prove il-luminating to say the least.

The first order of business Vemon in-sisted upon was that I sign a confidentialityagreement before visiting his home to seehis "evidence" onJune 3, 1995. While I didso, the request seemed peculiar. Vemon hadalready publicly spilled his guts on Files tothe Assassinations Records Review Board on11118/94, and public, ofiicial transcripts ofhis remarks were circulating widely. More-over, Vemon had largely detailed the entirestoryon apublic Compuserve bulletin board.The story was, thus, not exactly a secret.

Being unfamiliar with the details of theMafia aspect of the JFK case, however, Iasked Vemon via phone message if I couldinvite two friends to act as consultants, HalVerb and Doug DeSalles, MD. Vemon faxedme, "You are welcome to bring your friendson Saturday. I will have confidentiality agree-ments for them when they arrive with you."

Neither DeSalles, Verb nor I foundVemon's "evidence" persuasive, and yet thefulIpicture of the man did not emerge untilwe were walking out the door Vemon said,"We could make a little money." The alarmbells went off. I called him a couple ofdayslater to advise him I was disinclined to ap-pear, and yet he still had the chutzpah to fax

me perhaps the most astounding, "CATTLECALL' solicitation I have ever seen. He waslooking for "qualified" investors willing toshell out $20,000.00 each to invest in hisprogram, with the promise of profits withits success.

I contacted Wecht to advise him nothinsabout the Files story, but to advise him abouiVemon personally. I also advised orhers, in-cluding Shaw, and the negative reaction wasunanimous. There were no takers. I alsocontacted John Stockwell, a Vemon lnves-tor, via Compuserve e-mail to express mydoubts about Vemon, Stockwell sent myprivate e-mail to Vemon, and Vemon andStockwell began a barrage ofattacks on mevia Compuserve whichculminated in a falsecharge that I'd been "powdering" my nosein Vernon's bathroom!

Though Vernon may have been a cow-ard, he was no fool-he refused my offer ofa $10,000.00 wager that I would rest nega-tive for all drugs in blood and urine tests I wouldimmediately undergo in his county of resi-dence-a test which I took anyway of my own

volition to put the rumor to rest, and which Ipassed with an entirely cleaa result. He fur-ther declined my offer to wager $20,000.00that I, Hal Verb and Doug DeSalles would allpass polygraph tests denying Vemon's pre-posterous smear. Vernon quickly disap-peared, and the last time I spoke with him,he declined to speak witl me when I asked ifI could record the call. Stockwell, mysteri-ously, kept up the attack, prompting DavidScheim, who admitted sympathy for some as-pects of Vemon's story, to publicly rebukeStockwell via multirecipient e-mail.

Stockwell's stout, electronic defense ofVemon seemed to lack conviction. He de-clined a.n open invitation fiom me and Scheimto a recorded discussion of the matter be-tween t}le three ofus. To me, Stockwell seemsto have lost what readers of his In Search ofEnemies believed was courage.

It is unlikelyVemon will be verysuccess-ful with his video, though he will certainlysell a few copies. His best hope is that P T.Barnum was right, and that a sucker is bornevery mmute. +

I

RFK Photoscontinued from pa4e 21myself and for whom I worked, she statedin no uncertain terms that during an ongo-ing trial, reponers could not conduct inter-views with the iurors nor speak to thembeyond a greeting. The implication was clearjury tampering. Miller was present duringthis exchange and when the judge asked himif he had anything to add, he implied hemight pursue the issue ofhaving me barredfrom the court. Miller and company hadgiven notice they already considered the con-tinuous presence of a news source an an-noyance. It appeared to make them nervous.

After that incident, the next week out inthe hallway, Skip came over and asked whyI did not come over to his group and asksome questions or ask to interview anymember ofthe defense team in the interestof "evenhanded ioumalism. "

The next encountet during the fourthweek of trial, proved to be the last straw forthe defense team's tolerance of reporters.ln an effort to supplement some anicies withphotographs of the principals in the trial,two friends of Probe took pictures of Millerand his associates as they stepped out intothe hallway ftom the courtroom. The defenseteam complained in a very loud and whin-ing fashion to the judge that they had been"ambushed" and that this was just intoler-able. Thejudge was left with no altemative

but to call the photographers into the courtand in much the same fashion as she hadadmonished myself, wamed them theywerenot to take any pictures of any ofthe jurors.She again had them identify for whom theywere taking the pictures and when the an-sweL " Ptobe magazine, " was uttercd, Millerwent ball istic. He exclaimed in loud, reso-nant tones that if his picture appeared inProbe he would pursue legal action and suethe magazine. Then he threw his hands upand looked toward the ceiling and whined,"That's all I need is to have my picture inProbel!"

These trial moments and related inci-dents areiust a bdef summaryof how thingswent along during five weeks of tesLimony.The case went to the jury on Tuesdat Au-gust 6th, 1996 at approximately 10:40 A.M.

Scott Enyart and his family have had tosuffer the financial burdens ofan eight year-long legal battle. He was prepared to acceptthat burden and proceeded despite these ob-stacles. What he was not prepared to en-dure was the massive assaulton his personaland professional reputation, put forth bythedefendants' lawyers, as the major part oftheir defense.

And this defense was really the only onenecessary to Put doubt in the minds of thejury. The defendants' strategy was not todemonstrate their innocence ofthe allegedmisdeed i.e. destruction ofevidence and lossof personal propefiy (see Probe May/lune

FfOfE septenber-octoDer, 1996