Question for Richard Gilbride.

Hi Richard.
I was just reading on the Lancer Forums your post about going to the NARA and making copies of Frazier's HSCA audio cassette interview for transcribing.
In another one of the posts someone mentions Frazier's midnight DPD polygraph records, also held at NARA.
I was wondering if you got a copy or got to hear it while you were there?
Also, I am going to order a copy, or ask if I can anyway. Will they just mail me the tapes?
Thanks!
(Greg, sorry if this is in the wrong part of the forum..)

Hi Frankie,

The 4 hours of Frazier tapes were far and away the most difficult material I recorded while at the Archives. Extremely poor quality, laden with extraneous noise and almost indecipherable. These cassettes had been sitting, apparently untouched, for years in one of several shoeboxes that house the Archives' JFK sound collection.

These cassettes were copied from the Arcives' master collection, stored in a staff-only room at the sound & motion picture library. I was informed that I'd need to give 2 weeks' notice and obtain permission in order to access this master collection.

I'd be greatly surprised if you were able to get a personal copy mailed to you. The person to contact, who was very helpful to me during my visit, would be Rob Thompson, Archives Specialist, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740 at phone 301-837-0530. He was on the sound library staff at the time. But your best bet might be to ask Greg to "rip" you a copy of Hours 1 & 2. I had sent him CDs of my original recordings, as well as CDs that I'd doctored with some sound-editing software.

I, unfortunately, have lost my own CDs- much to my disbelief- but still have the digital recorder w/ Frazier-interview material on it. I've recently obtained a fresh computer and need, eventually, to incorporate appropriate software for listening & transcribing Frazier material.

Hours 1 & 2 need professional assistance as far as sound editing- there may be material on there still salvageable. Hours 3 & 4 were an absolute bear to transcribe- 3 minutes' worth comprising a day's work- but those transcripts are 99+% accurate.

The first 8 minutes of Hour 2 are on the second page of the topic "This May Shock and Amaze Ya" here at ReopenKennedyCase, The HSCA interview at that point was downright explosive.

In what I garnered from the transcripts, there wasn't anything directly pertaining to the midnight polygraph. And there wasn't anything I could rationally discern, while listening to all that static. The likelihood is very strong that this issue was covered somewhere in Hours 1 & 2.

You might look over "Shock and Amaze Ya", as I brought up what seemed to be the most striking points from the HSCA interview- particularly Frazier's mention of a "briefcase" that Oswald had carried in (my opinion today is that this was a fabrication), and a line-up Frazier attended with Oswald.

Frazier touched on his experience with the police at III-5 to III-7 (Hour 3). I'm not entirely sure whether or not Hour 3 happened previous to Hour 4, whether there was some basic sloppiness when the Archives first made the cassette copy off of the master.

Especially in Hour 3, the interview seems to bounce around, almost in nonsequitor fashion, between disrelated topics. Partly this was due to Moriarty & Day having already discussed these topics with Frazier in Hours 1 & 2, partly this was due to Frazier's disjointed way of expressing himself, and partly I think due to regions of the tape getting mixed in out-of-sequence.

One item that has puzzled me is how Frazier originally obtained his Enfield. He says at IV-8 that he won it in a sale contest held by Future Farmers of America (he wore that FFA jacket while at DPD HQ), but seems to suggest at III-7 that he got it from some rough characters from Houston he'd met at a train depot.

One thing I hope to put together in the next few months is a list of questions for Gary Mack to ask Frazier, as I understand they'll be conducting an interview this year for the 50th. I don't know when.

Things such as Shields' statement that Frazier had dropped his rider off at the building, why did the elevator power go off while he was in the basement, the police search that afternoon at the Randle home, the midnight polygraph, & standing in a line-up with Oswald.

Maybe you'd be interested in helping to formulate some specific questions? My aging brain has no guarantee of a Peter Snellian finishing kick.

Thanks for your reply!
What I found labelled 'Frazier, Buell Wesley polygraph' is in box 8 of this collection http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/review-board/samoluk-files.html
For some reason I thought it would be on tape, but now I don't understand why I thought that. Such is the way of my mind.
I was reading through parts of your transcripts that were posted at Lancer I think and was astonished to hear Frazier agree that Lee Oswald was 'framed' and 'a patsy'! I fear Frazier is the type of character to answer first if he gets muddled and has let quite a few things slip through. I must admit that I do feel bad for him. What a life its been.
I watched a recently taped interview with Frazier recently and he closed with saying that he knows that there are people still alive who know what really happened in Dallas and that he wants no harm to come to his family (!!!). Seems like the sort of thing you would make sure you included in a taped interview if you were terrified of something...
I do plan on reading over/listening to your transcripts/recordings over the next week or so.
Thank you so much for making them available and all the work you must of done to get them. You must have the patients of a saint!
The theme tune I hum in my head while I read about our Frazier is Transformers - more than meets the eye.
Heres hoping he lets a little more slip with Mack (if we can trust Mack not to edit it) I will keep you posted on what NARA says and if I can think of any clever questions.
(Looks like I may have to re-read 'The Assassination Tapes).

Good find on the Frazier polygraph, Frankie.

I am a bit puzzled how it ended up in what looks like the private collection of Tom Samoluk - who was either Assistant Director of the AARB or it's chief of communications depending on your source. If you look at the rest of the collection held in his name, it is mostly on the internal workings and machinations of the board with a smattering of other material.

As I have doubts that there actually was a polygraph done - and as this item is not among the mainstream of the holdings, but in the collection of a board member, I wonder if it is maybe not a record of a polygraph at all, but possibly a record of attempts to find any trace of such a polygraph? Either way, I look forward to seeing how this pans out.

I'd be happy to rip the audio material for you, but unless you have, or know someone who has a lot of experience in cleaning up audio "noise", I'm, not sure it would be of any real purpose or use. As they are, nothing can be discerned - they really are just all "fuzz".

On the proposed Mack - Frazier interview, don't be surprised if it doesn't happen - or if it does, it is carefully scripted to avoid any contention or controversy. The "problem" is that Richard's terrific efforts in getting all the tapes and transcripts and making them available has opened up multiple cans of worms, and there has been a fair amount of discussion of said worms on various sites. I can tell you that Richard's dedicated pages www.reopenkennedycase.net/ are nearly always the most visited there month after month.

My aging brain has no guarantee of a Peter Snellian finishing kick.

Frankie, there'd be no harm in sending off a letter to Mary Kay Schmidt, Archivist, Special Access and FOIA Staff at the NARA address concerning what's in Box 8 in the Tom Samoluk collection, about the polygraph material. I think the charge is 25 cents per page, there is a minimum as I recall of about 10 dollars- but with my first contact Mary Kay had sent me photocopies of Eddie Piper for free- so you might also get a free response if there's only a few pages for her to photocopy.

In any case, she'd probably get a kick out of receiving a Kiwi-stamped letter, more so than an e-mail request. She's an extremely kind & professional woman and gave me her time while I visited, locating all of the HSCA paper interviews I was looking for. Any specific file numbers, doc #'s, etc. that you can provide her beforehand eases her task.

Richard Gilbride wrote:Frankie, there'd be no harm in sending off a letter to Mary Kay Schmidt, Archivist, Special Access and FOIA Staff at the NARA address concerning what's in Box 8 in the Tom Samoluk collection, about the polygraph material. I think the charge is 25 cents per page, there is a minimum as I recall of about 10 dollars- but with my first contact Mary Kay had sent me photocopies of Eddie Piper for free- so you might also get a free response if there's only a few pages for her to photocopy.

In any case, she'd probably get a kick out of receiving a Kiwi-stamped letter, more so than an e-mail request. She's an extremely kind & professional woman and gave me her time while I visited, locating all of the HSCA paper interviews I was looking for. Any specific file numbers, doc #'s, etc. that you can provide her beforehand eases her task.

Thank you so much, I shall write to her tomorrow and ask. I will add a bag of Pineapple Lumps (traditional kiwi food) to help ease her work day.

Greg, I was wondering the same thing about it being in the Thomas collection. Since he was Director of Communications I suppose it will be communications about the polygraph (or lack off). Interesting title for it though so I will ask for copies anyway.

I do suppose Mack will be very careful with the Frazier interview. Such a shame. Frazier could really answer some important questions about this case if he was given the right circumstances. Not surprisingly he never has.
I feel really bad for the guy, his whole life he has spent frightened for his family. Whatever they threatened him with has been enough to scare the man for 50 years. I don't like even thinking about living under such conditions.

Thanks for the links too!

Also, thank you for the offer of the disks. I would like them, but only to squirrel away in my collection and not for any good reason on this planet. I will take the easy way out and use the pre transcribed ones on this site. Thanks though, very much appreciated

Frankie hits the big 3- 0 !! Best birthday wishes from New Hampshire!!

Aww thanks! It was epic.