star wars trilogy at the barbers

James K. Olmstead wrote:Greg:  Interesting material and will look over my student movement files.  I have some of interest coming out of
Ohio from my Kent State files, but I think they are in a
storage device, not on this computer. I have some anti-communist school program info from New Orleans and I
believe Morris ran another anti-com school program in
Dallas...all yours if I can help....jko

Jake Sykes wrote:I like this one for being a dead ringer for the barber's description:



Dark blond hair, almost brown, not just a round face, but broad, and so on. Eyes not blue but blue can turn darker after age 14, I checked. With the darker hair, he was a prime candidate for eye color change.

So, that's a bingo. Perfect fit. The barber's credibility is every bit as good as a neighborhood cop walking his beat. They know who's local just by a glance and they know how to note a good description. Plus a barber's eye could well be superior to that of the average beat cop when noting specific facial characteristics.

But the FBI didn't see what they didn't want to see, and they didn't want to see ambiguous activity percolating around Oswald before the assassination. They had their man and lone nuts don't do stuff that make people ask more questions. Lone nuts do stuff that simply make people hate them for being commies.

Amazing research Greg. Learning much from it.

James K. Olmstead wrote:Greg: Jerry had access to a great deal of newspaper
articles of interest. This is one that I had saved, dealing with the 1958-59 period.  I keep things in odd
places and files, not sure how far back you want to go.


From: Jerry Shinley
Subject: New Orleans and the 1959 World Youth Festival in Vienna
Date: Tuesday, May 07, 2002 12:05 PM

In 1959, a New Orleans man, Richard C. Bell, in conjunction
with a Chicago group, organized a group of students to attend
the 1959 World Youth Conference in Vienna. His plans attracted
opposition from the local American Legion, especially Kent Courtney,
Festus Brown and James Pfister. The Legion organized a Free
Enterprise Seminar "to alert local college students to the dangers
involved in attending the communist-sponsored World Youth Festival
in Vienna." Speakers at the seminar include Guy Banister, Medford
Evans and Douglas Caddy. Bell and his group did make it to Vienna.


New Orleans Times-Picayune  March 5, 1958  P41

Soviet Students Draft Exempt

   Richard C. Bell, speech before Exchange Club

   Bell visited 6th World Youth Festival in Moscow last
August as a state dept. observer

   says best method of relieving tensions is further interchange
of travel and students

[Re: Moscow festival, see Morris and Mollie Block in HSCA
defector study:
http://www.geocities.com/jfkinfo4/jfk12/defector.htm#block ]


May 7, 1958  P22

Foreign Policy [Association] Leaders Named
Mellin Chosen Head of N.O. Association

  some FPA board members: Eberhard Deutsch, Richard Bell, Clay Shaw,
Rabbi Feibelman


[time passes...]


May 7, 1959  P38

N.O. Delegation Going to Vienna
Group Will Attend World Youth Festival

   Richard C. Bell, southern director American Youth Festival
Organization

   jazz band "The Last Straws"


May 9, 1959  P35

Plan to Attend Festival is Hit
To Be Use for Propaganda Aims - [American] Legion

   Kent Courtney vs. Richard Bell


May 14, 1959  S2-P19

Foreign Policy Group Elects

  FPA, Robert D. Hess, pres.

  Richard Bell, Jesse Core, Clay Shaw


May 21, 1959  S1-P26

Legion to Warn of Red Festival
Louisiana Youths to Get Facts on Event

   Festus J. Brown, Kent Courtney


May 31, 1959  S1-P24

'Free Enterprise Seminar' Nears

  June 6

  Festus Brown
  Kent Courtney
  W. Guy Banister
  Medford Evans
  George Schulz
  Douglas Caddy, "Human Events"

  want all young people planning to go to Vienna Festival to attend


June 5, 1959  S1-P11

Youth Seminar Speaker Named

   Medford Evans

   "to alert local college students to the dangers involved in
attending the communist-sponsored World Youth Festival in Vienna."


June 7, 1959  S1-P12

Hope Incentive Hailed by Evans
Free Enterprise Seminar Hears Professor

  Dr. Medford Evans

  Guy Banister on "Aesopian Language"

  Douglas Caddy


June 18, 1959  S2-P6

Vienna Festival Motion Passed
YMBC Favors Individual Students Attending

   Festus Brown opposed

   Ivor Trapolin supported


June 21 1959  S2-P4

Views of Readers - Seminar Results
by James H. Pfister

   Free Enterprise Seminar

   100 attendees Vienna Youth Festival

   some Tulane students changed mind about attending


July 19, 1959  S3-P13

Vienna Youth Rally Seen as Red Sounding Board

Vienna (AP)

  Gloria Steinem, Leonard Bebchick

  Independent Service for Information on the Vienna Youth Fest.

http://www.pir.org/steinem.html


July 25, 1959  S1-P7

Legion Opposes Youth Festival

   James Pfister, Festus Brown

   "anyone attending will aid the communist cause"


July 28, 1959  S1-P8

17 Orleanians at Youth Rally
Hope to 'Sell America,' Says Richard Bell

   American Youth Festival Organization, Chicago

   Ernest Kinchen


July 28, 1959  S1-P8

Austria Youth Ask Lama's Aid
Anti-Reds in Drive on Youth Festival

Vienna(UPI)

  Dalai Lama


July 30, 1959  S2-P2

Exhibit Taken to Festival by N.O. Group Refused
Red Officials at Vienna Claim Lack of Space

   Richard Bell, jazz band


Aug 2, 1959  S1-P1

Group from City Fights Communism with Jazz
Plays Dixieland Music at Youth Festival

Vienna(AP)

   Richard C. Bell, Ernest Kinchen, Charles Jones


Aug 3, 1959  S1-P8

Anti-Red Roughed up in Youth Festival Parade
Slogans Stirs Anger of Pro-Communists

Vienna(AP)


Aug 4, 1959  S1-P3

[Paul] Robeson Says Policy 'Fascist'
Singer Sees Good in Visit by Nixon

Vienna(AP)

  Richard Bell had quit festival in protest of beatings of
American delegates


Aug 5, 1959  S1-P11

Youth Festival in Vienna Ends
No Decisive Victory for Either East to West

Vienna(AP)


Aug 21, 1959  S2-P2

Youth Festival Activities Told
Bell Relates Orleanians' Part in 'Unsuccess'


Sept 10, 1959  S1-P19

Bell Says Reds Lost at Vienna
Dillard Students Praised for Work

  YMBC speech


March 12, 1960  S3-P2

Protest March's Leader Attended Festival -- [Leander H.] Perez

  protest at Dillard

  Ernest Kinchen attended Vienna Youth Festival

  Perez speaking as lawyer for the Citizens Council of Greater N.O.

 

Andrew, John A.
The other side of the sixties : young Americans for
freedom and the rise of conservative politics / John
A. Andrew III.
New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press, c1997.

p. 66

"Born March 23, 1938 in Long Beach, California, [Douglas] Caddy
attended high school first in Houston, Texas and then
in New Orleans, where he graduated in 1956. Caddy had
admired Senator Joseph McCarthy, circulated petitions
supporting McCarthy's efforts in New Orleans while a
sophomore in high school, and was an inveterate writer
of letters to the editor in support of such
conservative causes as the Bricker Amendment. He later
became a volunteer worker for Phoebe and Kent
Courtney's early publication, Free Men Speak, which
grew out of that petition drive."


Caddy, Hunt and Watergate:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/articles/062172-1.htm


There's a mention of Bell in the Davy book.

Jerry Shinley
·

Stan Dane wrote:Found William Hootkins in the St. Mark's School of Texas yearbook for 1963 when he was a freshman and 1966 when he was a senior.
 


 

greg_parker wrote:Star Wars Trilogy
Cliff Shasteen owned and operated an Irving barbershop. He employed two or three others; got to know all the locals, includes kids, if not by name then at least by sight or reputation. For example, he knew Ruth Paine by sight, and knew the car she drove.  Like all barbers, he had an opinion on everything, but tried to discourage talk on politics and religion as being bad for business.

Prior to cutting hair, Shasteen had, during the Korean War, been a security informant at Chance Vought when the company had a major military contract for the F4U Corsair Fighter plane.

If you wanted to stage a little vignette in Irving to help create a certain impression and ensure that this impression would be made known, Shasteen was your man.
And so it was, Shasteen claimed to have cut Oswald’s hair on a number of occasions in October and November 1963 and perhaps on one occasion earlier in the year. On two of those occasions Oswald was accompanied by a 14 or 15 year old boy who never got his hair cut or said anything. 

Then the boy appeared a few days before the assassination on his own, got a cut and began a dialogue on the benefits of one world government, and the plight of the “have nots” in society as it is. Shasteen blew a fuse. He found what was coming out of this kid’s mouth so surprising and disturbing that he asked how old he was (he would later tell one his barbers, Bert Glover that he recalled the kid said either 14 or 15). He later tried to find out who he was, without success. What he did know was the kid was not a local Irving kid.

The fact that this happened so close to the assassination, the fact that the boy never said anything until he was there on his own, the fact that he never returned and the fact that the FBI showed no more than token interest, all point to this being a play for an unsuspecting, but targeted audience.

And the boy’s identity only adds further fuel to that fire.

To discover his identity, I simply searched through the records looking for someone the right age who had known or at least possible access to Oswald in the time frame given.

Based on those parameters there was only one candidate and as it happens, he matched the description given by Shasteen perfectly.

That description was
a husky kid, he wasn't what you call fat, but he was strong--broad-shouldered--he had a real full, and when I say full, I don't mean a round fat face, he was a wide-faced kid. You know, he was a nice-looking kid. I mean, if he had had the personality and the teaching and the understanding to go with his looks, he could have done anything he wanted to do, but his personality to me made him look terrible and what he thought, and naturally when somebody disagrees with you to the point you get angry with them, you don't think much of their looks, but if you bring it down to his looks, he was blue-eyed, blonde-headed--he was not a light blonde he was a dark blonde. In fact, a lot of. people might call him brown-headed. But he wasn't nobody's dummy because a 14-year-old boy can't spit out-

Or to shorten that, he was a nice-looking, wide-faced kid with broad shoulders, blue eyes and dark-blonde hair who was extremely intelligent and well-spoken.


Who potentially, had access to Oswald during this period and fit that description?

Ruth Paine’s sole private Russian language student, William Hootkins.  Note that Hootkins had turned 15 in July 1963.

William Hootkins as an adult. The round face, broad shoulders and hair color are all evident

Ruth had been a fill-in Russian language teacher at St Marks, a prestigious school for the elite of Dallas, after which she had come to an arrangement with the school to tutor students privately, but using the school facilities. Thus, Ruth was supposed to pick young Hootkins up at his home, drive him to St. Marks for the one-on-one lessons, then take him home.

It appears however, that Ruth was picking William up and taking him to Irving instead. 

Hootkins’ acting career began at St Marks, along with Tommy Lee Jones.  It was a career which took him all the way to a part in Star Wars during an illustrious career as a character actor.  It appears though that his star turn in the barber shop was his first public acting gig. Either William was practicing as a provocateur or infiltrator, or he was smearing Oswald as a communist by association.

Firstly, on the face of it, the then high school student had no need of paid private tuition from the likes of Ruth since he was of White Russian heritage and should have been able to access the help of native speakers.

Secondly, His father, Seymour Hootkins, was in the oil and gas business and was a financial contributor to Republican Party candidates such as Sam Johnson, Ray Farrell, David Hobbs, Paul Pilzer and Joe Barton. Looking at the backgrounds of these politicians, most were/are on the hard right and some attended St Marks and/or SMU. Seymour did not exactly bring young William up to be a Utopian Warrior.

St Mark’s may also hold a clue. The assistant head master at St Mark’s was Edward Oviatt. Prior to then he had worked at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

The Williams College newspaper ran a story in 1954 about a secretive anti-communist student organization known as Students for America

This story obviously does not disclose whether Williams College had a chapter, but Oviatt worked there at the time of this story, and the name Robert Munger (the name of the organization's founder) is a famous one in Dallas, though I have not found any connection between this Munger and the extremely wealthy Cotton Gin founder of the same name. Perhaps someone can look into it, or better still, find confirmation that the school was - or was not - one of Munger’s 120.
 
Munger’s organization was formed in 1951 and was originally known as Students for MacArthur. The 120 campuses claimed by Munger to have a chapter did include high schools.   

Though Students for America was virturally defunct by the end of the 1950s, there is every chance it was replaced by a similar group. 

The FBI knew all about Ruth's teaching. Hosty himself went to St Mark's pre and post-assassination, the former ostensibly to do a background checks on Ruth, the latter checking into the Hootkins’ lessons.  That no one in the FBI put Hootkins together with Shasteen’s worrisome kid, beggars belief.  In fact, it raises the question of whether the FBI itself was somehow involved in this affair.


Other bits and pieces:
Recall that Shasteen was very impressed by the kid’s intelligence. After leaving St Mark’s, young Bill studied astro-physics and Mandarin at Princeton.

Hootkins was good friends with Martin Sheen, despite serious differences over Israel and Palestine.

Hootkins played a role in a BBC radio play: Oswald in Russia.

In her Warren Commission testimony, Ruth Paine described the entry of Hootkins’ contact details in her address book as being of just “mild significance” before cutting Jenner off regarding the phone number and giving him the “move-on-to-the-next-name” treatment.

As alluded to earlier, the FBI investigation of the kid in the barbershop was token. It consisted of asking Ruth Paine if she had any idea about who it was. Her recorded response was classic Ruth. The FBI report reads “she has no child even as old as school age and knows of no boy of about 14 with whom Oswald was ever associated in the neighborhood. " A true but misleading statement indeed because Hootkins was not from that neighborhood. The document continues onto the next page where she again denies ever allowing Oswald to take her car by himself anywhere. In Ruth-speak this could have one of at least two alternative meanings (a) that she did allow him to take her car so long as he had another person with him, or (b) it was husband Michael who gave him the permission. The lesson is that in questioning a Quaker, you should leave no wiggle room for such misleading responses.

Talk with Alan Dale here https://www.jfkconversations.com


#Paine