The Raleigh Call

I'm most of the way through Bart Kamp's useful and fascinating Prayer Man, up to and including the section on the Raleigh phone call of late 23 Nov 63. I know the call was 'debunked' by John Hurt's widow a few years back. It seemed like a slam-dunk at the time. But was it? Anthony Summers initially thought so, but was persuaded otherwise by Robert Blakey, whose own investigation confirmed to his satisfaction that the attempted call was outgoing. Certainly, if the call was incoming and presumably unsolicited, why would two agents have been in place waiting to listen in? Unless an allegedly very drunk John Hurt had phoned beforehand to warn the DPD that he was about to make a mad phone call, and there's no indication that he did.

As for the two numbers for Hurt on the telephone slip, surely an incoming call would have come from just one number? Very odd. Worth noting, perhaps, that there was more than one John Hurt in Raleigh at the time. Not sure how widely known this is, but the Raleigh phone directory, published December 1963, has listings for a John D. Hurt at 834-7430 and a John W. Hurt at 833-1253. Where did LHO obtain these numbers, when and why? Apparently, they were not in his phone book or anywhere else. Had he memorised them? And who was John W.? As a conjecture, was LHO verbally advised at some point, 'if things start to get hairy, call John Hurt in Raleigh, Virginia'. Has anyone ever followed up on John W.? 

Finally, the HSCA report of a 1978 interview with Hurt concludes with the line, 'Mr Hurt did not know what the notation "A" stood for' in his Social Security number (107-05-5470-A). I checked into this. Apparently the 'A' means that he was a primary wage earner in receipt of social security benefit. There might be an entirely innocent explanation for this. But you have to wonder what kind employment he was in that would give him primary earner status, giving the extent of his disabilities (missing most of his fingers, etc). The kind of employment that would involve little physical and mental effort in return for a modest or even generous fee? Receiving and passing on messages for a government agency, for example? Hurt's tax records for the period might make for interesting reading.

orangebicycle wrote:I'm most of the way through Bart Kamp's useful and fascinating Prayer Man, up to and including the section on the Raleigh phone call of late 23 Nov 63. I know the call was 'debunked' by John Hurt's widow a few years back. It seemed like a slam-dunk at the time. But was it? Anthony Summers initially thought so, but was persuaded otherwise by Robert Blakey, whose own investigation confirmed to his satisfaction that the attempted call was outgoing. Certainly, if the call was incoming and presumably unsolicited, why would two agents have been in place waiting to listen in? Unless an allegedly very drunk John Hurt had phoned beforehand to warn the DPD that he was about to make a mad phone call, and there's no indication that he did.

As for the two numbers for Hurt on the telephone slip, surely an incoming call would have come from just one number? Very odd. Worth noting, perhaps, that there was more than one John Hurt in Raleigh at the time. Not sure how widely known this is, but the Raleigh phone directory, published December 1963, has listings for a John D. Hurt at 834-7430 and a John W. Hurt at 833-1253. Where did LHO obtain these numbers, when and why? Apparently, they were not in his phone book or anywhere else. Had he memorised them? And who was John W.? As a conjecture, was LHO verbally advised at some point, 'if things start to get hairy, call John Hurt in Raleigh, Virginia'. Has anyone ever followed up on John W.? 

Finally, the HSCA report of a 1978 interview with Hurt concludes with the line, 'Mr Hurt did not know what the notation "A" stood for' in his Social Security number (107-05-5470-A). I checked into this. Apparently the 'A' means that he was a primary wage earner in receipt of social security benefit. There might be an entirely innocent explanation for this. But you have to wonder what kind employment he was in that would give him primary earner status, giving the extent of his disabilities (missing most of his fingers, etc). The kind of employment that would involve little physical and mental effort in return for a modest or even generous fee? Receiving and passing on messages for a government agency, for example? Hurt's tax records for the period might make for interesting reading.

Anthony Summers being persuaded by Robert Blakey is akin to Von Pein being persuaded by McAdams or Brian Doyle being persuaded by John Armstrong. 

Meaningless, imo.

John W. Was a mechanic. Either Lee was wanting to know when his getaway car would be ready or or he was a mechanic in the Charles Bronson sense and Lee was looking for advice from an assassin. 

Seriously, the stories by Swinney, Treon and daughter are all over the shop. I see no reason to believe the story as given by John D's widow. 

My own opinion as to why the two numbers... Treon heard that a John Hurt of Raleigh had tried to call Oswald and used directory assistance to obtain the number so she could forge the call sheet as a keepsake, or maybe as something she could one day sell for a tidy profit. Unfortunately she found out there were two John Hurt's in Raleigh... so since she had no way of knowing which was the right one, she wrote up the form like it was Oswald who had the two numbers and was trying to contact Hurt - not the other way around. 

The story she ended up giving was pure CYA to avoid admitting what she had really done. 

But she forgot to coordinate stories because her daughter told an even bigger whopper to explain it all.

From Proctor's website
Ms. Kovac recalls that when Oswald attempted to place his call, her mother was on the line.29 Ms. Kovac said that she cannot recall if anyone else was present at the switchboard.30 She said she saw her mother write the details of the call as she listened on the line.31 


Absolute bullshit.

I hear what you're saying, Greg, but I'm not wholly convinced that a phone operator would have had the time and the foresight, given all that was going on, to forge an incoming call as an outgoing call. I mean, why not just log it as an incoming call? Surely the slip would have had similar cachet, and no hassle with the two-number scenario.

http://www.prayer-man.com/the-alleged-raleigh-call/