no one would have challenged Hank... says Sharp...

HP

p.s John and Francois were NOT related at all... and did not know one another...








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HP

Because I interviewed someone who knew JMS well, and the names are spelled differently, and I also talked with JMS's sister in LA... and, big and, JMS used S as an alias until after he left Cuba by the skin of his teeth.








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HP

I don't think you do your credibility any good by claiming there was another LSD attack at same time as PSE attack in France. There was not. I've studied this event for over 15 years as has Dr. David Healy, a ture expert in Europe. I hope your not repeating the typo that appears in several books.








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HP

you should have verified those reports








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HP

simply not true-- you go off on certain subjects without all the facts... I urge you to research deeper before making wild claims... this sincerely








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HP

you're wrong, but don't say I didn't try... best of luck to you...








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HP

Maybe best to ask if I need any help first, but that's nice. Best of luck.








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HP

The issue is that you are mistaken by these other reports. Investigate my claims? you'd have to first understand those claims and you made no effort to inquire of me about anything... that is not how a good researcher conducts business. There is no doubt about what I claim in my book and I'm surprised you would attempt to verify without asking to look at the specific CIA documents that verify the incident.








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HP

p.s. I don't wish to engage a pissing match with you over this subject; my only point is the distinct difference between our means and manner of conducting objective, evidence-based research. My only point; best of luck with your book.








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HP

That it will. And for the record my comments on your research skills stand, and also: it was you who first challenged me over a minor piece of research. That set the tone and made me well aware of your lack of decorum and style.








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HP

Best of luck with your book. I would guess you find yourself surprised a lot.








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HP

cool








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HP

p.s. I find myself surprised often and quite enjoy it... sincerely.








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HP

what's that? next book wise? I've been contracted 2 months ago to do another book on assassination; out of the blue offer...








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HP

they have; hopefully I have a bit of help with them; fucking footnotes proper are not easy to do.

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BL

1.0 out of 5 stars A lot of information that goes nowhere
Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2019
Verified Purchase
The author has dug up a trove of information that doesn't really go anywhere or tie anything together. He goes far into the weeds and really stretches. I have read numerous books on the assassination, some great, some mediocre and some poor. There was some interesting information here, but there are much better works out there. This was a very tedious read.

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John M.

1.0 out of 5 stars A book that doesn't deliver on its promise.
Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2014
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Disappointing. I've read hundreds of books on the JFK assassination in the past 50 years. I found this to be one of the least believable and most irrelevant. Sad, because when I saw the title, I thought FINALLY...... It is also sloppy in the research end. He has one person's lawyer submitting a FOIA request in 1964, when the Freedom of Information Act wasn't passed into law until 1966.

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Kindle Customer

1.0 out of 5 stars Do not waste your money . PLenty of great fact checked books out there on the tragic events of Nov 22nd 1963.
Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2013
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Thought this book would provide some much needed new & fresh perspective on the murder of President Kennedy. Instead it's a mishmash of badly presented non sensical badly written nothings.

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kathy sennott

1.0 out of 5 stars Did not care for this book
Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2014
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Difficult to follow. Unclear how some of the people presented are connected to JFK. Did not care for this book.

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John W. Chuckman

1.0 out of 5 stars REVIEW OF H.P. ALBARELLI JR's A SECRET ORDER BY JOHN CHUCKMAN
Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2013

Well, the fiftieth anniversary of President Kennedy's assassination is almost here, and loads of new books on this yet not-fully-understood subject are being published.

Always having been interested in the subject, I will be reading some of the new or updated books. This is necessarily a risky task because the Kennedy assassination literature has consisted of about five-percent genuine books, with the rest an ugly swamp of disinformation, quick-buck products, and just plain stupidities.

I know that we can never fully understand the event while so many vital documents remain buried in classified government files, especially those of the CIA and FBI, but clever researchers do sometimes manage to piece together interesting new conclusions in sorting through the mounds of public evidence.

You try the best you can to not trail again into the swamp, but unless you can actually page through a book in a store, sampling its logic and writing quality - and who does that now very often with the convenience of Amazon? - you are bound to land in the muck a few times. Amazon's reviews provide a helpful device, but experienced readers know they are larded with meaningless praises from relatives, friends, colleagues, or unscrupulous publishers trying to gin up sales. Humans do have a tendency to abuse every good thing. You really must read a number of any set of reviews with a critical eye, but then information has never been free.

I had some reason to think there might be a new approach in this book, and indeed there is, a new approach to abusing readers. Not only is the author embarrassingly uninformed, but the publisher employs a new sales gimmick: this book is incomplete, virtually ending in midstream, and you must buy volume two (and who knows after that, volumes three or four depending on sales volume?) to let the author finish.

Well, I finished with the author before he finished with me. What can you say about a writer/researcher who doesn't know so basic a fact as that Oswald never renounced his American citizenship in Russia? The fact is that In front of State Department official (and ex-CIA employee), Richard Snyder, Oswald made a big show for possible witnesses about renouncing at the Embassy, even handing over a legally-meaningless, scribbled note. Snyder explained that the only method of renouncing citizenship involved a standard form to be sworn and witnessed. Oswald never pretended to do so. Further, Anthony Summers, in his second book on the assassination, tells us that Oswald at one point during this whole little stage play for any KGB watchers was admitted to a restricted area behind closed doors.

Yet Mr. Albarelli asserts twice that Oswald renounced his citizenship, contradicting the testimony of everyone involved including Richard Snyder, and contradicting plain logic, too, because had Oswald actually signed the papers and taken the oath he would certainly not have been entitled to return to the United States. Swearing off your citizenship is not a game, it comes with real consequences.

Albarelli pooh-poohs the idea of some highly-informed researchers that Oswald himself never did travel to Mexico City - an idea supported at least in part by the CIA's never supplying a photo of Oswald (the Cuban Embassy there being under constant photo-surveillance) and claiming telephone-recording tapes of calls Oswald supposedly made were routinely destroyed. No, Albarelli claims Oswald went to Mexico City three times, a bizarre claim I have never come across before.

Albarelli is immersed in notions about the use of drugs and hypnotism to interrogate people and to possibly set them up for carrying out ordered acts. While it is true that the CIA did a huge number of illegal and unethical studies on uninformed people and even hospital patients - killing some of them - it is difficult to see what application this has to the Kennedy assassination. A drugged and/or hypnotized Oswald would have been no more suitable a candidate for assassin than a not-drugged, not-hypnotized one. The man was certifiably a poor shot, and the rifle he supposedly used is a ridiculous piece of garbage.

We can surmise that many pro-Warren Report books on the assassination - Gerald Posner, Priscilla Johnson, or Edward Epstein in the last book of his trilogy come to mind - were generated (either wittingly or unwittingly on the part of authors) through CIA contacts and assets. After all, many who do work for CIA assets and cut-outs never even understand the truth behind their paychecks. But I suspect many of the more outlandish anti-Warren Report books also owe their genesis to CIA assets, it being an effective method of discrediting critics to publish silly or lurid stuff that supposedly represents their views - the precise method used to discredit Jim Garrison's investigation.

Avoid this book and its sequel or sequels because you will learn nothing worth knowing from it/them.

Readers interested in this reviewer's perspective on the assassination will find it set out in the essay, "Forty Years of Lies," found at Chuckman's Words on Wordpress and other places.

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From the United States

Hugh Murray

2.0 out of 5 stars The High Strangeness of this Book
Reviewed in the United States on October 1, 2013
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After reading this book, I can only rephrase Gurtrude Stein, "Is there a there there?" After concluding the book, I am still wondering, what did I read? I can understand why the author declined to write a concluding chapter - there is nothing to conclude.

I was angry after reading one chapter on "the bizarre diary of Eric Ritzek." The diary, found 9 months following the Kennedy killing in Dallas, was left at Trailways bus ticket office in Los Angeles. The diary describes the hypnotic abilities of two college students, Erik and his roommate Charles. These two master craftsmen use their powers of mind control to hypnotize Oswald to kill Pres. Kennedy, and then do the same to Jack Ruby so he can murder Oswald. At one point, Erik implies that his superiors are from another planet. (p. 336) So, the people behind the assassination in Dallas are from another planet! Seems I read that decades ago in headlines of the National Enquirer, or was it the Globe? That chapter was a total waste of my time.

In later chapters the author describes something, and then he repeats the same story as it was told to Congressional investigators, or the FBI, or other officials.(as on 336) This redundancy both lengthens and dullens the book. While Albarelli pads this volume to over 400 pages, he promises to detail certain items in the next volume. Had Alb removed the repetition and fluff, and added what might be interesting from the proposed volume 2, then he might have written one worthy book.

Despite my criticisms, the book is not worthless. On a very personal note, Albarelli answered one lingering question for me. I recall a pretty girl in my high school named Rose Cheramie. I have always wondered if she were the same person that warned of the impending assassination of Kennedy when deserted by two men on a road in rural Louisiana a few days before the killing in Dallas. As I attended the same high school (and junior high) as Lee Oswald, I have always wondered if he might have known the gal in school who years later predicted the assassination of the President. Well, Albarelli cleared it up. The Rose Cherami who was in the Louisiana State Hospital was some 15 years older than my high-schoolers. Moreover, she had been born Melba Youngblood in Houston. The older Rose also asserted that she knew Oswald, but more through Jack Ruby, whom she claimed was a lover of Oswald.(97) She was not the same Rose Cheramie from Easton High. Or, to echo Stein again, a rose is a rose is a rose, but in this case, they were two distinct roses.

Many years ago I attended as many sessions of the Clay Shaw trial as my schedule permitted - I was then teaching at university and could occasionally arrange time to see the trial. For a few sessions, I met a friend there, and we sat as spectators. After I left New Orleans, I maintained an annual contact with that friend, and usually asked, if there were new leads on the Kennedy case. Decades ago he told me about a woman, quite respectable, a scientist, who had a story of conspiracy. But she had no physical proof of her story. I was pleased to read that the experience of Adele Edisen is now a chapter in print in Albarelli's book.

Albarelli, who had previously written about CIA experiments on innocent Americans, one such that resulted in the death of a CIA agent, here elaborates on such experiments. Indeed, the chapter on Adele Edisen might be nothing more than a famous doctor, Dr. Jose Rivera, spiking her drink with LSD. But it might have been that, and considerably more, as asking her to telephone Oswald in New Orleans and giving him an order to kill the boss.

Albarelli is good at showing that government agencies were involved in medical experiments on Americans, in juvenile detention centers in New York, in Louisiana in this hospital and that. Perhaps, I have become more cynical concerning medicine, doctors, and their opportunism. Albarelli shows that some of David Ferrie's gay teen "friends" were treated with LSD in the hope of curing them of homosexuality. This was in the same Louisiana hospital in which Oswald later filed a job application, and in which Rose Cherami was treated in November 1963. It is also where doctors connected to the CIA conducted experiments. Albarelli spends many pages connecting doctors who were engaged in CIA medical inquiries. Perhaps, Albarelli should have gone the other way in his writing - asking, if the CIA requested them, were there any hospitals or facilities that would refuse unwarranted experiments upon patients?

That Dr. A knew Dr. B who knew Dr. C who was involved in CIA experiments with Dr. D is more reminiscent of the 6 degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon than proof that all were engaged in misconduct. Reading page after page, I am thinking, what does this prove? And to take a totally contrarian view, it was not that long ago historically, when doctors had to rely on grave robbers to gain access to a corpse upon which to perform medical teaching techniques and discoveries. And one might glance at my article on Nazi medicine to appreciate more the methods of Western medicine. Though one may readily criticize the arrogance of the American doctors working for federal agencies, I suspect they were quite minor when compared to the practices to end deviancy (especially the political varieties) as practiced contemporaneously under Communism in the Soviet Union.

In his first chapter Albarelli exposes the opportunism of a psychiatrist who had examined Lee Oswald for half an hour when the youth was truant, apprehended, and processed by NY Social Services. When Oswald was arrested and murdered years later in Dallas, the New York psychiatrist seized the moment to gain fame, prestige, and probably more money, by lying - pretending that he had predicted many of the problems Oswald was to encounter because of his distorted personality. So what if the doctor exaggerated, lied? He was simply stepping on the grave of one of the most hated men in America. The doctor was squeezing that half hour interview into 15 minutes of his own fame. Is such opportunism - a very human characteristic - a crime? Unfortunately, Albarelli devotes nearly 90 pages of a chapter to this psychiatrist.

There were a few facts I learned in this chapter. I was surprised to read that Guy Banister put up the bail for Nazi leader George Lincoln Rockwell when he was arrested in New Orleans for picketing the film "Exodus." (81) There were rumors in New Orleans at the time that the powerful political leader of Plaquemines Parish, Judge Leander Perez, had sponsored the trip to New Orleans of Rockwell's "hate bus." This was meant to counter the Freedom Rides of the Congress of Racial Equality that were also making headlines in the spring of 1961. (Strangely, the NOPD was not very sympathetic to the Rockwell group. Recall, in the 1950s Banister had been the acting Superintendent of the NOPD. Yet, not only were the Nazis arrested for merely picketing a movie, but they were required to cover the main sign on their hate bus - gas (or kill, I forget which) Jews, Queers, Commies, and perhaps, a 4th group to be terminated. We arrived too late to see the uniformed Nazis arrested, but did see police arrest picketers in civies.)) Perhaps, more pertinent to the events in Dallas, spring 1961 also witnessed the defeat of the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.

Much of Albarelli's work centers around US agencies and their efforts to use medical experiments to modify, control, interrogate, torture, etc. I shall now go off-topic in order to return to the topic of the book later. On 29 Sept. 2013 CBS TV's "60 Minutes" opened its new season with a segment on how the closing of mental institutions in the late 60s-early 70s has resulted in many insane people being warehoused in jails and prisons. Worse, because it is now much more difficult to commit someone to a hospital for treatment, many of the insane are on the streets. Some of them are quite dangerous. In a similar vein, Ann Coulter, in her column of 18 Sept. 2013 noted that with the closing of the old asylums, and the difficulty of having someone committed, America has seen the rise of the homeless, AND the shootings by crazies of large numbers of innocents in movie theaters, in schools, in universities, even in a naval facility. Before the reforms of the 1960s, both Coulter and "60 Minutes" asserted, one did not have the mass shootings by crazies that have occurred since. Now, it is even difficult for relatives to commit a son or daughter, unless the child is willing to be committed. They note the result is often disastrous.

Three films of the earlier era are related to this topic: 1) "The Snake Pit" (1948) depicting in a shocking and frightening way what may occur in the mental institutions, 2) "Street Car Named Desire," (1951) in which Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) is committed to the insane asylum after being raped by her brother-in-law (Marlon Brando), and 3) "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," (1975) in which inmate Jack Nicholson contends that those inside are just as sane as those on the outside (indeed, the inmates may be ever more sane). The latter film (and the book that preceded it) may well have persuaded public opinion to close down most of the older mental institutions and accept the newer notions making it very difficult to have someone committed against their will.

I was quite active in the civil rights movement in my native Louisiana. A friend in New Orleans CORE was a white college gal from Birmingham, Alabama. When she returned home, her parents were quite upset. Connie had to flee hidden in the floor of a car to get to the airport so she could fly out of town. Her parents had planned to have her committed to a mental institution and then lobotomized. One wonders, how many suffering from civilrightsophrenia might have suffered similar fates? (Blacks might have been diagnosed with uppityitis; gays with upthea__iatis, and so on., but whatever the scientific terminology, it was all determined to prevent deviance from the dominant society.) Albarelli mentions LSD (90) and electric shock (128) to cure homosexuality; and what about lobotomy for this disease too? The parents would have their children committed for their own good, of course. Unlike the Muslims, there was little need for "honor killings" when the state provided mental institutions and "cures.".

And so the promiscuous teenage girl might be committed. And what of the wealthy widower who was suddenly enamored of a pretty young stripper? Surely, his family might want to inherit the wealth and not see it squandered by the horny old man who must now be certified as mad? He should be committed. Or the poor man married to a rich woman; but he now wants to be with a poor beauty? His wife must now be certified as insane. If he knows the right lawyer, the right doctor, he may well have her committed. And the reverse - the poor wife with a rich husband. And so on. Indeed, some of the women's films of the era were explorations of this very theme - the husband seeking to drive the wife insane, such as "Gaslignt"(1944) with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer. To put it bluntly, family values were often imposed by brute force using the state via its mental institutions. It was probably allowed AND EXPECTED, that the family would prevent deviancy through these measures. Clearly, there were many abuses in these institutions that had nothing to do with the CIA.

Perhaps the most amazing example of what might happen in a family dispute occurred in Louisiana in 1959. Democratic Governor Earl Long, was brother of the more famous Huey Long who was assassinated in Baton Rouge in 1935 by a Dr. Carl Weiss. (Dr. Victor Weiss examined Rose Cherami in the Louisiana hospital in November 1963, but I have no idea if Weiss of one assassination was related to the Weiss of the other.)

Earl Long was Governor. He and his wife, Blanche, had a falling out, possibly about his friendship with stripper Blaze Starr. (A 1989 film starring Paul Newman, "Blaze" was a fictionalized version of their relationship.) Blanche then had her husband, the governor of the state, committed to the insane asylum. Earl Long, inside the hospital, was still governor. Earl then fired the state's head of the institution and appointed another doctor as chief administrator. The new health chief then determined that Earl was sane, and had him released. When Earl ran in the next election, he asserted that he was the only candidate who had been certified as sane. On one level, it is a funny, true story. But on another level, when even a governor could be committed against his will, for perhaps displeasing his wife, or perhaps for only on a political disagreement, one can see how reform was necessary. Yet today, many like Ann Coulter, "60 Minutes" and myself believe that the pendulum of reform has swung too far one way, and now America must make it easier to commit the crazies.

My purpose here is NOT to defend the CIA and its use of medicine to enhance torture or captivate minds. But actions by CIA doctors should be placed in the context of the times. This context is not simply the Cold War against Communism, in which case the Soviets and their allies were probably doing worse things. But the context of those times must include the "normal" cures and procedures inflicted by families and doctors upon patients.

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Stephen Courts

2.0 out of 5 stars Well Documented But Goes Nowhere
Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2013
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I have well over one hundred fifty books that I have read on the murder of President Kennedy. I found this book to be tedious and tiring to read. John Armstrong does a much better job with his tome Harvey & Lee, so the entire chapter on Oswald at the beginning was just rehashing what I already knew. Dick Russell and other researchers have done extensive writing about Morales, so I learned nothing new. All of the MK-Ultra and filthy CIA programs have been written by numerous authors. Naomi Klein wrote about it for me years ago in her outstanding book, The Shock Doctrine. I respect the author and his disgust with what once was a much more beautiful country. He is obviously a meticulous writer and researcher. I did not read his book on Frank Olsen, but read the outstanding book Dead Wrong, which dedicated a good number of pages to Olsen's murder and the confession by the government that they murdered him and paid his heirs a chunk of money for their loss. Richard Belzer and David Wayne have two excellent books, the aforementioned Dead Wrong and Hit List that are much more germane to the murder of President Kennedy. JFK & The Unspeakable is the gold standard of JFK research books. There are literally a thousand books plus on the murder of JFK and other than The Road To Dallas, all are superior to this book. It was like reading a dozen short stories that never came together to make a coherent conclusion. For the life of me I cannot understand why the author believes categorically that LHO was in Mexico. There is zero to believe in the CIA & FBI and all of their skullduggery and memos to believe the real LHO was in Mexico. There could be the pretender the intelligence agencies tried passing off as the real Oswald. I trust Mark Lane and James DiEugenio (Destiny Betrayed, second edition subtitled JFK, Cuba, And The Garrison Case). The bullfighter is in his early 80s according to the author and this is his "rock" for believing Oswald was in Mexico. I seldom ever give a book two stars, but you be the judge....but don't say you were not warned.

Stephen Courts
June 17, 2013

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William A. Mueller

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing
Reviewed in the United States on June 27, 2013
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been waiting for book for over 6 months and greatly disappointed. Poorly written,much guess work and poor sources to support authors ideas. Sorry I bought. wam39@aol.com

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P. A. Stefanelli

2.0 out of 5 stars Somewhat Interesting
Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2013
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This book was somewhat interesting, but I was expecting more. There didn't seem to be much to backup some of the hypotheses.

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Joseph A. Cammalleri

2.0 out of 5 stars Strange outreach.
Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2014
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Obtuse work. Unclear message.

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rog's stuff

2.0 out of 5 stars A secret order still secret.
Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2013

I kept reading this book hoping the author would at one point tie it all together.
That didn't happen. I learned more from Jim Marrs' 590 page book "Crossfire" than from this.
My advice on this book is: don't waste your money on it.