JUDYTH VARY BAKER:
Extraordinary claims required extraordinary evidence, and Baker's tale is about as extraordinary as they come. I am not vouching for the complete veracity of her story, however I find it extremely compelling because not only does she offer considerable evidence to support her claims, but I've concluded that some things just ring true about what she's trying to say. Like Colbert, I don't underestimate the power of the "gut", and my gut is telling me that this woman is important.
Fortunately, she has put together an affordable book which is available on Amazon, with the provocative title: Me & Lee: How I Came to Know, Love and Lose Lee Harvey Oswald.
A quick glance at the comments and ratings indicates that this isn't your typical conspiracy theorist fodder: 78 5-star reviews to 5 1-star reviews. For those who have actually taken the time to read Judyth's book, the evidence seems to speak for itself. For those who lack the time and/or attention span to watch the entire video I linked, I'll do my best to summarize this story here, a daunting task in itself.
To get some context behind her story, it's first necessary to discuss another giant work in the conspiracy world, one that should be familiar to many of you already, namely Edward Haslam's fantastic book (with a similarly provocative title): Dr. Mary's Monkey: How the Unsolved Murder of a Doctor, a Secret Laboratory in New Orleans and Cancer-Causing Monkey Viruses are Linked to Lee Harvey Oswald, the JFK Assassination and Emerging Global Epidemics.
A quick glance at the Amazon ratings and comments indicates that this science-fictiony conspiratorial romp offers much more than at first meets the eye. For those who are unaware of this story, Haslam tells a riveting detective-like tale that spans numerous decades, resulting in the publishing of his first book on the subject, "Mary, Ferrie and the Monkey Virus". After Judyth went public in 1999, Haslam rewrote the book (as he finally had the witness for his theories that he had been lacking) and released it as "Dr. Mary's Monkey".
In a nutshell (if that's possible), Haslam discusses the curious and unsolved murder of prominent orthopedic surgeon and cancer researcher Dr. Mary Stults Sherman. Sherman's body was discovered in 1964 in her apartment in New Orleans. However, the precise nature of her death was not released to the public for over 30 years! It was prematurely concluded that the killing was the work of a bizarre sex-crazed lesbian who conveniently was never found. However, it was never released to the public that Dr. Sherman's entire arm and right side were missing, exposing her insides. A superficial mattress fire in the apartment was blamed for her missing parts, even though temperatures of thousands of degrees would be necessary to literally disintegrate flesh and bone while leaving the rest of her body intact.
The poor woman's heart and liver were stabbed, and the heart wound was inflicted while she was still alive. Someone wanted her dead, and they didn't want to tell the public that one side of her body had literally disintegrated. Strangley enough, her death occurred on the same morning that the Warren Commission first began taking witness testimony.
Haslam's connections to Sherman are personal, as his father was her colleague and she even came to dinner at the Haslam residence one evening.
To jump ahead to his striking conclusions, Haslam argues that Dr. Sherman was engaged in a top secret project, ostensibly run by the well-known researcher and surgeon Alton Ochsner. Ochsner, who was fiercely anti-Communist, had ties to the CIA, FBI, and even the Mafia, and was part of the very real effort at the time to remove Castro from power, by any means necessary. In the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis and at the height of the Cold War, Castro's Cuba was the main bogeyman, along with their ally the Soviets.
It is no longer a conspiracy "theory" that elements of the CIA and Mafia were actively engaged in trying to kill Castro. Their main concern was that a violent death could ultimately be traced to US intelligent agencies and World War III could potentially erupt as a result. So a more stealthy approach was attempted: perfect a cancer-causing bio-weapon to take out Castro...although cancer-causing viruses can been discovered a decade earlier, the public was still mostly in the dark about these discoveries, so "inducing" cancer in an individual was still considered to be in the realm of science fiction.
Dr. Sherman was actively involved with this project, as well as the one of the most enigmatic figures in JFK assassination lore, David Ferrie. Ferrie is perhaps most known today as being the first suspect of Jim Garrison's infamous investigation into Kennedy's death (about which Oliver Stone made a film called JFK).
Amazingly, Garrison revealed one time in an interview with Playboy that he suspected David Ferrie and Dr. Sherman were somehow involved in a secret cancer project, however that little tidbit has largely been forgotten, for I don't think Garrison himself realized the implications of this connection.
Why would a notorious homosexual (he had a thing for very young boys), a defrocked priest, a pilot for the CIA and Carlos Marcello (the Mafia king of New Orleans), be involved with one of the most prestigious female scientists in the country? Ferrie, who was found dead only days after Garrison first accused him, was not your ordinary sexual deviant: David Ferrie had a rather curious hobby in addition to his study of cartridge trajectories: cancer research. He filled his apartment with white mice--at one point he had almost 2000, and neighbors complained--wrote a medical treatise on the subject and worked with a number of New Orleans doctors on means of inducing cancer in mice.
Ferrie had lost all of his hair, and in light of his curious hobbies, some have suggested that this may have been the result of his dabbling with toxic chemicals.
Eventually the bio-weapon was more or less perfected, and then it was subsequently successfully tested on (at least) one inmate at a nearby facility. The subject died in 28 days. However, it seems that their efforts were too little and too late, for the coalescence of interests that wanted to off Castro had completely changed their directive and focused their sights on Kennedy instead. As Judyth later claimed, she, Ferrie and Dr. Sherman were under the impression that they needed to hurry and created the weapon before their superiors got impatient and killed Kennedy instead. Perhaps Kennedy was already a marked man and they were simply being used to create this weapon anyway to be used in other capacities (such as the death of Jack Ruby which I'll get to).
Haslam's first book, "Mary, Ferrie and the Monkey Virus", details all of these theories, but the one thing he didn't have was a witness. Enter Judyth Vary Baker.
For those who are curious as to why Baker took so long to come forward with her story (in 1999), it must be remembered that an unreal amount of people associated with the JFK assassination have been offed or met with untimely deaths over the years, and as someone who literally was in the thick of things, her situation was no different. She was also married and had to raise 5 children--her husband had been with her during the time she was having an affair with Oswald...not exactly the best revelation to come forward with while still being married. However, She and her husband divorced and literally the day after her youngest daughter went to college, leaving her alone for the first time in decades, Judy actually sat down and watched JFK for the first time. The experience changed her dramatically and she decided to go public with her story.
Incredibly, 60 Minutes was one of the first investigative teams to tackle her behemoth of a tale.
Essentially, Judyth claimed to have been a lab technician working with David Ferrie and Dr. Mary Sherman on a project to develop a bio-weapon to kill Castro. Oswald was involved, but more in the capacity of running errands and doing some of the dirty work, as he killed and dissected the cancerous tumors on the experimental mice on several occasions. The team at 60 Minutes discovered Haslam's first book, as it essentially was telling the same story, and they contacted Haslam.
Haslam, initially suspicious (had she just read his book and crafted her story around it?), eventually met Judyth and corresponded with her for many years. Haslam, who is considered by almost everyone to be a sober and well-respected researcher, shortly became convinced that Judyth was the real deal.
In fact, he subsequently rewrote his book and added Judyth in at the end, renaming it "Dr. Mary's Monkey".
Unfortunately, the 60 Minutes team was told to immediately stop production on her segment and it was never completed. According to Haslam himself, he was told by the frustrated 60 Minutes team that they spent more money and time on this story than any in the history of the program. While some attribute this to the ultimate failings of her claims, others are not so sure.
Unfortunately for her and her case, she has nothing to prove she knew Oswald, no love letters, no pictures, nothing.
However, what she does have is an intimidating amount of circumstantial evidence to support her claims.
Here is a brief bio of her.
There is no doubt, even among the skeptics and debunkers, that Judyth was a rising star in the cancer research field. Apparently with one of the highest IQ's in the state of Florida and while still in high school, Judyth induced cancer in mice faster than any public research being done at the time (one week). She attracted the attention of numerous prominent people, including Dr. Oschner, and she soon found herself being trained at the Roswell Park Memorial Institute in 1961, perhaps the most prestigious cancer-research facility at the time.
Again, this is all very well documented and substantiated.
If anyone had the credentials to work on this project it was Judyth...plus her youth, her relative anonymity, and her lack of a degree made her the perfect candidate for covert research, so she was recruited in her naivete.
There's more.
Here is Judyth's own response to a JFK skeptic who had dismissed her story completely on his website.
Judyth and Lee Harvey Oswald were hired on the same day at Standard Coffee, and then one week later they both were moved to Reilly. Their jobs at Reilly Coffee were covers for their actual activities (their boss at Reilly's knew this, but the extent of his knowledge about what exactly they were engaged in is unknown). Judyth, as the secretary, was responsible for clocking Lee out to cover up his extended absences, and sure enough, she still has numerous time cards for Lee with her initial "J" on the front.
Although none have the name "Judyth" on it, these records and the "J's" have been proven to be authentic.
The day Lee was arrested on August 9th during a staged fight between himself and supposed anti-Castro ruffians, Judyth was fired.
Anna Lewis, who was married to David Lewis, another well-known figure in the JFK assassination, is perhaps the last living person who has gone on record saying she saw Judyth and Lee together and believed they were lovers. Here is a video of Anna Lewis.
Judyth has kept an impressive portfolio of newspaper clippings, employment records and bank statements that correspond exactly with the timing and location of her story. Her lack of a picture with Lee can possibly be attributed to their clandestine work, the fact that they were both married and having an affair, and that their relationship only lasted for a few months in 1963.
As for when things went wrong, Judyth claims that a letter she passionately wrote to Dr. Ochsner doomed her future career in the medical world. Judyth had been extremely upset when she discovered that the "volunteer" the weapon was tested on was not a terminally ill inmate as she had been told, but a perfectly healthy young man. This violated her ethics so she committed the "sin" of writing down something regarding the "Project", something forbidden by Dr. Ochsner. To make matters worse, Judyth gave the letter to Ochsner's secretary, who proceeded to read it. This infuriated Ochsner and he abruptly terminated his relationship with her. According to Judyth, her promising career was destroyed forever.
After the project unraveled, Judyth says that Lee knew he was being set up as a patsy for Kennedy's death, but that he believed himself to be part of a team that was going to try and "prevent" the assassination in Dallas. According to Judyth, Lee said that his presence in Dallas meant that one less bullet would be fired at Kennedy. If this is true, then the irony of his conviction (without a trial!) for Kennedy's death is monumental indeed.
Judyth also claims to have met Jack Ruby, though he was introduced to her as "Sparky Rubinstein" and she was unaware until decades later that Sparky was the one who killed Oswald. Ruby was actually friends with Oswald who had known him since Oswald was a kid. Oswald's mother, who was adament that her son was a government agent and also framed for Kennedy's death, dated numerous Mafia men, including Carlos Marcello's personal driver, so Lee had ties to the Mafia from a young age, ostensibly how he became acquainted with Ruby.
It seems that Ruby's actions may have been a mercy killing, and that he probably didn't want to kill his friend. There is even evidence that Ruby called the police station where Oswald would be killed and warned them that an attempt would be made on his life!
Ruby's fate, however, was anything but merciless, as he died of an extremely aggressive form of lung cancer shortly after his incarceration. To make matters even more bizarre, Ruby actually claimed to have been injected with cancer while in prison to silence him! Remember, this was during a time when such a notion was considered ludicrous by the general population, but it fits perfectly into Haslam's and Judyth's narrative.
Ruby surely knew of Dr. Sherman's project, and was perfectly aware of exactly how they induced the cancer: the subject would be submitted to high doses of radiation with an X-ray machine to compromise the immune system. Then a series of painful shots would be administered to begin the process. Ruby received this X-ray treatment in jail and then received several shots from a mysterious doctor who was from out of town. It's no wonder that when Ruby's cancer was examined after his death, it was observed to be an unusual extremely aggressive and galloping lung cancer. Combine this with Ruby's desparate claims and Haslam's research and a terrifying picture emerges.
Naturally, response to Judyth's story has been all over the map, with the skeptics dismissing her outright to causing significant infighting among members of the conspiracy research community. Certain die-hard researchers said absolutely she was telling the truth, while others steadfastly maintained that she was a walking, talking disinformation machine.
James Fetzer has been one of her staunch supporters, discussing the methodical attempt at censoring Judyth on the internet, including the deletion of her Wikipedia page after it had been up for 5 years.
In Judyth's own words:
"References to me have been constantly disappearing on the Internet ever since the History Channel ran a documentary on me that was eventually banned due to pressure by special interests.
Last year, 15,000 references, which direct people to my books, paintings and writings, were erased. Over 250,000 newsgroup references were also erased.
Then my Wikipedia biography, which had been in Wikipedia over five years, was erased. One reason given was that I only had 1,700 references on google (48,000 had been erased overnight).
I was told by one person that the erasure was accomplished by a group with Usenet who had also erased over 250,000 newsgroup posts that I and my supporters had made after spurious and unfair attacks were made against me by these newsgroups, leaving mostly their pejorative and nasty posts about me. The 'nice' ones vanished."
The History channel documentary she was referring to was the video I linked, part 8 of the excellent series The Men Who Killed Kennedy. Anyone who hasn't seen it yet should watch it in its entirety!
Episodes 7, 8 and 9 were produced together, and unfortunately for Judyth and her account, all three were censored as a result of the conclusions made in the 9th episode, namely that LBJ was involved. Although an unbelievable amount of research has been done that essentially proves that he was complicit with what occurred, his wife, who was still alive at the time the special was aired, became furious and was able to get the episode censored. Although no complaints were brought against Judyth's segment, it too was censored as a result.
As for finding doubters of her story, a simple search online brings up numerous skeptical reviews and character assassinations, many stemming from Vincent Bugliosi's damning treatment of Judyth in his massive work 2007 work, "Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy."
However, many claim Bugliosi (who was the prosector for the Manson killings, see Peter Levenda's "Sinister Forces"), has ulterior motives with his work, which exhaustively argues that Oswald acted alone, end of story.
Here's an excerpt from Bugliosi's book.
Reading the comments on that page are telling, including JFK researcher Martin Shackelford's response:
"Bugliosi's footnote is a pathetic fiction.
She wrote the letters to her son detailing what happened to her BEFORE she saw "JFK" on video.
He has trouble even admitting that she worked at the Reily Co., saying only that she "may have" worked there.
The next paragraph is virtually a paraphrase of one of McAdams' summaries.
Nigel Turner wasn't the only one interested in her account; "60 Minutes" was working on a segment until they were told to stop; and the producer of the Lincoln documentary "Black Easter" was also working on a Judyth documentary for Discovery."
The "McAdams" he is referring to wrote this piece, perhaps the most definitive attempt to debunk Judyth's claims.
However, Judyth has a growing number of supporters from some unlikely individuals, including JFK-assassination giant Jim Marrs who wrote the afterword for Me and Lee.
Here is another article in support of her story.
Judyth's own website also offers significant evidence for her claims.
Here's an interview with her and Lew Rockwell..
And FWIW, Jessue Ventura has gone public endorsing her story.
Supposedly, after her association with Ventura, Alex Jones the big man himself expressed interest in interviewing her, but never followed through, which to some may actually add credibility to her claims.
So where does this leave us? We are approaching the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's death and we are no closer (publicly) to the truth of the events that day than we were 50 years ago. Judyth doesn't claim to know all the players in the assassination, but her story may provide a much-needed missing piece.
Me and Lee is an incredible book, regardless. I got the sense that either it was among the best non-fiction books I had ever read, or it was the best fiction book I had ever read. The book was thrilling, and it wasn't necessary to believe every one of her claims to enjoy it. However, anyone attempting to debunk her claims who hasn't read it, doesn't know the full side of her story and therefore, IMO, is not qualified to dismiss her outright.
I would love any thoughts and feedback, from those who have encountered Judyth before, to those that are hearing about her for the first time. Like every "conspiratorial" topic, this one should be approached with extreme skepticism, but also with a completely open mind, for if Judyth is telling the truth, then we need to drastically reconsider world history over the last half a century.