Busted again: Tex Italia

In Harvey & Lee, Armstrong writes:

Following the murder of her husband Marina was taken by the Secret Service to the Inn of the Six Flags in Arlington, Texas. The manager of the Inn, James Herbert Martin, became friendly with Marina and invited her to move into his home (with his wife and children) on November 29. A week later Marina authorized Martin to handle her personal and business affairs and in February, 1964 he accompanied Marina to Washington, DC. Marina told the FBI that she had a brief sexual encounter with Martin, but the affair soon ended. When Martin told the Commission about his affair with Marina, Chief Justice Earl Warren ordered that portion of his testimony be stricken from the record. [italics Armstrong's]

While Marina was in Washington, DC, an unknown entity named Onajet Productions rented a small office in the Samuel Goldwyn Studios in Hollywood, CA on February 8. The company, also known as Tex-Italia Films and Cinema International Productions, was headed by Charles Lasater, George V. Douglas, and Wesley B. Blankenship, but never made a single film. [bold mine]

On February 10, Marina moved out of Martin's house and into Robert Oswald's house in Denton, Texas. The following day she moved to the Declan Ford residence at 14057 Brookcrest in Dallas and signed a contract with Tex-Italia films. The unknown company agreed to pay Marina $75,000 for worldwide movie and TV rights, $7500 for each film appearance, and $1500 for each personal appearance. Within a few months Marina had received $132, 350 from the unknown company, and her willingness to provide testimony to the Warren Commission that implicated her dead husband in the assassination became obvious....

....Shortly after signing the contract with Marina, Tex-Italia films was asked to leave Samuel Goldwyn Studios for failure to pay rent on their small office. On April 24, 1964 SA Leslie Warren completed an investigation into Tex-Italia films and wrote, "Indices of the Los Angeles office reflect no other pertinent information that could be identified with the names Charles Lasater, George V. Douglas, or Wesley B. Blankenship. In other words, these men were probably not using their real names and monies paid to Marina by the unknown Tex-India films company came from unknown sources. [Italics Armstrong's]

On June 5, 1964 Hoover wrote a letter to J. Lee Rankin of the Warren Commission and advised:

"For your information, this Bureau is conducting no investigation regarding the commercial ventures or contract negotiations of Marina Oswald in connection with our investigation of Lee Harvey Oswald."
-----------------------------
Three times that I count, Armstrong calls Tex Italia Films an "unknown company" which is obviously not true on it's face. The names behind it were known and the office space it occupied was known. Armstrong's reinforcement of this non-fact however, allows him to go on and claim that the source of the money paid to Marina was therefore "unknown" and for good measure, he claims that the company directors were "probably not using their real names".

This, from the man who traveled the world interviewing witnesses and criss-crossed the country building his case for two Oswalds and even more absurdly, two Marguerites. Yet he couldn't be arsed checking to see what he could find on those gentlemen? Bullshit. Whenever Armstrong makes qualified accusations that he does not pursue to verify, you know why. It's because he knows or suspects that his vague allegations will fall apart.

So here are the names again:

Charles Laseter  
Lasater was an actor/producer
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2913915/

George V Douglas
Have not nailed Douglas yet, but there are a number of possibilities.

Wesley B Blankenship
An electrical engineer (Edwin Ekdahl's profession), businessman and investor. He was also involved in his parents company, Wallace Theater Inc. which owned and operated 25 movie theaters. His other interests included the movie business in Hollywood and Mexico. In addition he was active in the oil business and in banking. Resident of Austin and Lubbock.  Note that Laseter's one movie credit at IMDB was filmed in Austin.
http://lubbockonline.com/stories/092905/obi_092905063.shtml#.WK94i_k2vIU

And so ends another Armstrong "mystery"...

From Blankenhip's obit:

Dub (Wesley) had a lifelong interest in photography, and some of his photographs taken on an African safari were exhibited at the West Texas Museum.
Dub is survived by his children, Terry Blankenship and wife Shay of Austin, Steve Blankenship and wife Deanna of Edmund, Okla., and Bruce Blankenship and wife Cheryl of Boulder, Colo.; a brother, Royce Blankenship and wife Jan of Dallas; grandchildren, Trey, Colin, Brian and Kevin; and a great-grandson, Aidan.

Who else do we know that liked going on African Safaris, hmm?

Meanwhile Trey likes wrestling:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm5723402/?ref_=nv_sr_4

Tex Italia agreed to pay Marina $75,000 for worldwide movie and TV rights, $7500 for each film appearance, and $1500 for each personal appearance. After a few months, she accrued a total of $132, 350.

On that basis, she must have racked up a few paid appearances and had a powerful reason to start toeing the official line at those times.

Dark Continent Safaris,... like some old Byrd.

Well if Blankenship lived in Austin the state capital then this is his wife,

https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth821933/m1/4/zoom/?q=McAllen&resolution=6&lat=6826&lon=3236

Yorktown Ranch House story lists her as Texas Historical Commission Chairman

And also she lived in ....Lubbock
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth599727/m1/80/

Yep its Maxine,
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth599727/m1/42/

"Maxine Wiese Blankenship was born in Petersburg, Texas and was an active supporter of many ..."

See the whole family history here
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/ttusw/00291/tsw-00291.html

Cheers, Ed

Thanks Ed.

Whilst the following document has been referenced in the past, it has been quite deliberately skewed and misrepresented. Nor has it ever been cited as the source of the claims. With good reason.

Armstrong and others (perhaps innocently following Armstrong's lead) have tried hard to give the impression that the film company was set up specifically to target Marina and then folded once the money was paid to her. That is not the case.

Facts are that Lasater and Douglas set up at Samuel Goldwyn Studios along with German actor Horst Buchholtz in about April 1963 with the intent of editing and distributing a German circus film. In doing so, they were representing Cinema International Pictures. The financial backer they had for this venture was Dub Blankenship.
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=58983&relPageId=31

The deal on the German film fell through, but they hung on for a while trying to find a good story as a basis for another film. Enter the assassination and Marina. And the payments to her of rights to her story and appearance fees. It was a lot of money. 1.05 mil in today's dollars. But had it come off, the return was potentially much bigger.

The underlying theme that the money was paid to Marina specifically to get her to support the government version is ostensibly weakened by the actual facts. But it is still very much on the table despite them.  Blankenship had the kind of background that smells like it would attract intelligence agencies. The three of them no doubt all had government ties of one sort or another and would almost certainly be anti-communist patriots who could be government assets if the right buttons were pressed. It would certainly aid plausible denial to have Marina paid at arms length by genuine Hollywood hangers-on.

The misrepresentations, skewing and cherry-picking by Armstrong are disgusting.

German Circus can only mean one name...

http://www.circopedia.org/Circus_Williams

The Last Years

Circo Americano's elephants in Italy (1963)
In 1963, news spread across Europe that John Ringling North was sending a touring unit of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus to Europe. Seeing an obvious and dangerous competition, Arturo Castilla signed a contract with Ferdinando Togni, whose huge Circo Heros was Italy’s (and one of Europe’s) largest circus. Since the Ringling show was scheduled to play sport arenas, Castilla and Togni booked a winter tour of Castilla’s Circo Americano (which means, in Italian as in Spanish, "American Circus"), reinforced with the animals and casts of Circo Heros and Circus Williams, in major Italian sport arenas. (Chances that an American circus such as Ringling would visit Franco’s Spain were rather slim!)
The combination of Togni’s and Williams’s talented troupes and vast animal collections, along with Castilla’s flair for production and marketing, generated a show that was far better than what Ringling had planned for its European visit. The Circo Americano’s star-studded show ended with a spectacular display of twenty-six elephants working together in the vast hippodrome, under the guidance of Erwin Bauer, Henry Strassburger, Bruno Togni, and Gunther Gebel-Williams—an image against which Ringling’s hastily gathered herd of eleven elephants performing in three separate groups couldn’t match. Eventually, Ringling’s poorly planned tour proved a disaster, and it was quickly aborted.

Williams vs Ringling in 1963 Germany

Hi Greg,

I'm currently researching Texitalia. I found this FBI document (FBI 44-24016) in the Ruby HQ file, in the Mary Ferrell database. The FBI interviewed a man identified as Clint Stephens, Executive Producer for Texitalia Films, on 10 December 1963 about whether he had information on Ruby and Oswald having gone to Mexico City together in the summer. Stephens is said to have no permanent address, and can "be found at any time at the Cabana Hotel". In researching Texitalia, I have encountered the names Blankenship and Laseter, but never Stephens.

Do you happen to know anything about this "Clint Stephens" character? Why was the FBI questioning this guy 2 and a half weeks after the assassination about Ruby and Oswald going to Mexico City together? I find it very strange that someone from Texitalia would be so involved and in a position to be questioned by the FBI so soon after the assassination. What are your thoughts?

Didn’t Marina also have an affair with Robert Oswald?

lanceman wrote:Didn’t Marina also have an affair with Robert Oswald?

Unconfirmed but rumoured. Marina stayed with Robert sometime in Late Feb or March '64. Some suggest this may have been to give her lessons in the workings of the Imperial reflex camera - which was handed over by Robert not long after her week long visit.

Feather93 wrote:Hi Greg,

I'm currently researching Texitalia. I found this FBI document (FBI 44-24016) in the Ruby HQ file, in the Mary Ferrell database. The FBI interviewed a man identified as Clint Stephens, Executive Producer for Texitalia Films, on 10 December 1963 about whether he had information on Ruby and Oswald having gone to Mexico City together in the summer. Stephens is said to have no permanent address, and can "be found at any time at the Cabana Hotel". In researching Texitalia, I have encountered the names Blankenship and Laseter, but never Stephens.

Do you happen to know anything about this "Clint Stephens" character? Why was the FBI questioning this guy 2 and a half weeks after the assassination about Ruby and Oswald going to Mexico City together? I find it very strange that someone from Texitalia would be so involved and in a position to be questioned by the FBI so soon after the assassination. What are your thoughts?

Not much info out there about him.

But checking under alternative spellings, I found this:
www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10489#relPageId=610

Here is the link to the document you mention:
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=57014#relPageId=145

In essence then, it appears Adrian [sic] Holt contacted the FBI to tell them that while staying at the Cabana, he had overheard Stevens/Stephens tell someone by phone that Ruby and Oswald had gone to Mexico together.

When the FBI interviewed Stevens/Stephens about it, he said he did not specifically recall, but it was possible he was repeating a story from a Dallas newspaper that had said both had been to Mexico (my insertion here: I do not think the story said they went together - that was incorrectly inferred by either Stephens/Stevens or by Holt]

I think Stephens/Stevens' explanation is entirely plausible. 

On names - they also misspelt Holt's first name. An Australian of Dutch heritage, the correct spelling was "Adriaan". 

His story about why he was staying at the Cabana also rings true. There was indeed a company called Dix Enterprises of which he himself was Secretary and Treasurer. President was Robert Dix, VP was Brian Murphy. They are in fact the stage names used by Holt's roommates... Robert Brimmer (Dix), James A Sweet (Murphy).

Dix was also interviewed by the FBI
www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=11253

Dix Enterprises was looking at producing a TV special on the assassination for "American Forum".

@Steve Thomas this might be of interest to you, as well.

Robert Dix
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Dix

Hi All,

I just posted some fresh research on Texitalia on my blog. Greg is absolutely right that Armstrong made some bogus statements about Texitalia Films and the people involved with it. Other researchers have simply parroted the nonsense without doing any independent inquiry. I tried to unravel assassination lore nonsense from what exists in actual documents. I am not sure what to make of Texitalia, but based on what I've found so far, I honestly feel like there is enough there to warrant further research.

If you've never heard the name Aldo Vidali in connection with Texitalia films, you might be interested in checking out this article. 

https://jfktodaynews.blogspot.com/2023/12/spaghetti-westerns-cold-war-intrigue.html

Armstrong has bigger problems than not having a membership to newspapers dot com.

Great work by the way that's an awesome compilation of everything texitalia.
You've helped basically put this to bed ...for now.

A better understanding of why nothing surfaced. Where was made of these moviespecially when you look at all The Hype, all the Money, all the Different investors and peoples streams of Cash.
Aldo Vidali had no trouble with cash, with his buying
a oceanside topanga canyon property.
In 1968, Aldo landed in Topanga Canyon, California. “It’s the longest time I’ve spent in one place,” he remarks.

"The place Aldo now calls home, is nestled behind a row of trees approximately 200 yards from the ocean on Topanga Canyon Boulevard."

Not a cheap property, maybe slightly cheaper than Malibu at the time.
Book titled Feathered Snake - From the sublime to the ridiculous by Sum Ynona aka Aldo Vadali must have been a best seller!!

Hi Ed. Thanks! I agree that Vidali has conman written all over him. He was hustling those rich American southerners. No doubt about that. But he also came from Italian money. As far as the money to buy a place in Topanga Canyon back in the 60s....keep in mind his family's multi-generation stake in the Italian entertainment industry. Also his father was an advisor to the right-wing National Monarchist Party in Rome, not a poor man's job. 

I was totally ready to debunk the Texitalia-paying-off-Marina narrative, until I dug into Aldo Vidali and found him to be a sometime informant with an "impersonation" issue documented in FBI records.  Now I'm not as quick to completely dismiss the notion. Things get weird around Vidali.

Agreed Feather,
No doubt his Italian company was fleecing the best and brightest also.
I am poking fun at his projects, as none pay for the plumbing.
Yes that fbi doc can be construed to mean he was being impersonated (but no case file linked) or he was doing some acting aka impersonating someone (or suspected of)... and got a file opened.


on himself.

Being immersed in the entertainment industry I always got a big laugh at these films with "foreign market" sales looking for American investment... in other words no sales here.
Hey cant knock the guy for playing the game.

Maybe he struck gold...
"The book (A Good Day To Die) was written after the author's early adventures mining gold south of the U.S. border."
Or Vidali sold the mine giving new owners the shaft

Are we sure Marina got paid? Was a contract filed?
Of note 75k would buy a nice oceanside property in sixties Cali.
Cheers, Ed

Hi Ed. LOL on the mining pun.

Whether Marina was even paid that $75,000 at all is a question, isn't it. If she was, it would have been after she cut loose her initial manager and lawyer, James H. Martin, and John Martin Thorne. If so, it would have been a private contract directly with her, or her new reps. If all went smoothly with no disputes filed in court, nobody would ever know about the contract except the parties involved.  

Maybe there is nothing to the whole Texitalia thing. But I smell a whiff of Permindex on it, with nothing to back that up at this time other than a hunch. I'm always willing to be proven wrong.

Cheers!

Feather93 wrote:Hi Ed. LOL on the mining pun.

Whether Marina was even paid that $75,000 at all is a question, isn't it. If she was, it would have been after she cut loose her initial manager and lawyer, James H. Martin, and John Martin Thorne. If so, it would have been a private contract directly with her, or her new reps. If all went smoothly with no disputes filed in court, nobody would ever know about the contract except the parties involved.  

Maybe there is nothing to the whole Texitalia thing. But I smell a whiff of Permindex on it, with nothing to back that up at this time other than a hunch. I'm always willing to be proven wrong.

Cheers!

Agreed. Your hunch might have legs.  Hope you can tie up those loose ends.

Would investors want a product to show, or was there no investment made by investors (oil men)
This is the sticky point, if there is money invested by others they would make a stink if no contract materialized.
The oil rich can write it off as a dry well, but they have an empty hole to show for it.
Was money returned, reinvested, or writen off.
(if there ever was 75k ready to spend) or was 75k just a number attractive enough to get Marina's representations attention.

Vidali was sued so he was no virgin.
Contempt charge,



Here is the background on Michael Pollack, Sharlyn Romaine and Religious leader Frithjof Schuon involved in a "child sex cult" that turned out to be no such thing.






Case against Aldo is somehow connected to the Schuon one, where Romaine was indicted for perjury.

Pollack