السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحَمْةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ Assalamu'alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Peace, mercy and blessings of Allah be upon you. Salam sejahtera ke atas kamu dan semoga Allah merahmati dan memberkati mu.
Bioweapons | The Silent War
A Critically Important Lesson on Microbe Sex, Vaccine technologies, and Power
Human sex, as interesting and as pleasurable as it can be, in action is not as fascinating in biology as microbe sex. Microbe porn is far more fascinating genetically. We can be very thankful to our beautiful sun that lights our world because it is directly responsible for the biological invention of sex.
“Besides protective filtering, there was another excellent strategy for surviving the damaging rays of the ancient sun. The development of mechanisms for repairing sun-damaged DNA turned out to be a most powerful tool for the building of the microcosm as well as the rest of the biosphere that arose from it. For example, a common mode of destruction of bacterial DNA by ultraviolet light is the production of “thymine dimers.” Thymine, instead of pairing with its complement, adenine, becomes chemically confused and pairs with itself, entangling the DNA molecule to the point of uselessness. Death will ensue unless repair enzymes fix up the mess. Such repair enzymes remove the disabled portion–the thymine dimer–and copy new, healthy DNA to replace it. In other words, bacteria threatened by ultraviolet radiation had just developed DNA splicing, the mechanism that is exploited today in the laboratory under the rubric of genetic engineering. Nearly all organisms today still have repair enzymes, even though life has been shielded from harmful ultraviolet rays by an atmospheric ozone layer for 2,000 million years. In many bacteria to this day, repair enzymes must be activated by light.
The pressure to patch up damaged DNA or die induced the development of DNA repair systems. Sometimes instead of using healthy copies of their own genetic material, crowded bacteria borrowed DNA from their neighbors. In modern bacteria, bits of genetic information in the form of various DNA fragments are passed among different strains of bacteria. Although exchange is easiest between bacteria that are metabolically similar, any strain can potentially receive genes from any other through a succession of intermediaries. This allows genetic information to be distributed in the microcosm with an ease and speed approaching that of modern telecommunications–if the complexity and biological value of the information being transferred is factored in. By trading genes, bacterial populations are kept primed for their role in their particular environment and individual bacteria pass on their genetic heritage.
By adapting to life under harsh light, the microcosm had invented sex. Though this first sex was different from the kind of sex animals are involved in, it was sex all the same. Sex, as recognized by biologists, is the mixing or union of genes from separate sources. It is not to be equated with reproduction, since an old organism can receive new genes and thereby have sex without reproducing itself. Sex always involves at least one live organism, but the second source of genes does not have to be alive; it can be a virus or even DNA in a test tube.
On the early earth there came a time when a bacterium replaced some of its sun-damaged genes with fresh ones from a virus, a live bacterium, or even the old, discarded DNA of a dead cell. That bacterium had sex. More fluid and more frequent than the meiotic “sperm-and-egg” sex of animals, which is locked into process of reproduction, bacterial sex immeasurably intensified the complexity of the microcosm. Because bacteria may mix genes at any time and are not confined to doing so only during reproduction, they are far more genetically promiscuous than animals.
Since bacterial gene-transfer does not depend on reproduction, it takes a little explaining to get used to. At the beginning of the bacterial sex act there are two partners. At the end there usually is only one sexually produced offspring; the parent itself–the recombinant bacterium that now carries genes from two sources. The bacterium, without even reproducing, may now carry 90 percent new genes. More casual and more immediately required for survival in otherwise hostile environments, this first kind of sex is really quite different from animal and plant sex which is tied to reproduction. Bacterial sex preceded animal sex by at least 2,000 million years and, like a trump card, it permitted all sorts of microbes to stay in the evolutionary game.” – Microcosmos: Four Billion Years of Microbial Evolution by Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan
Pages 81 – 83
Very few working class citizens understand the science of vaccination technologies. Rule number 1, biology is not a belief system. You would never say that you believe in computer systems. You either understand them or you do not. Biology explains the complex building and construction processes of our anatomy as well as functionality of the internal systems of living things. Many even confuse science and technology and “believe” they equate each other. Science and technology are not the same thing so please don’t confuse the two.
For example, biological scientific research can explain the specific biological mechanisms of how phenols destroy our biological machines from their monkey wrench actions that disrupt cellular processes to sabotaging entire organ system functionality. Phenols are a technology utilized to build synthetics for making many consumer products. Phenols are unfortunately quite similar to computer viruses in most living species.
Understanding important biological truths helps you understand implications of manufacturing processes and the impacts of these technologies.
One of the most significant studies that provided much “scientific understanding” about the nature of microbes occurred during the creation and development of vaccine “technologies.” An experiment in 1928 by Frederick Griffith, an English physician trying to find a vaccine for Streptococcus pneumonae (a bacteria that causes pneumonia), provided the first insights into the chemical nature of genetic information.
Griffith worked with two strains of the bacteria, one virulent (S strain) and one benign (the R strain). Virulence is an inherited trait, or lack of it, must be genetically coded.
Griffith found that heat-killed S-strain bacteria did not cause immunity in mice. He next injected a mix of dead S-strain and live R-strain bacteria into a mouse. Unexpectedly, this mouse died, and Griffith found living S-strain bacteria in it.
Griffith concluded correctly that the living bacteria had incorporated something from the dead bacteria that transformed them into live S-strain bacteria. Griffith later showed that this could even be done in a beaker. The substance responsible for this transformation must be genetic material, although Griffith’s work could only isolate this “transforming principle” (as he called it), not identify it.
Microbes are the most promiscuous life forms because they have rapid and unique abilities to share genes with one another. This is why scientists were so alarmed when they discovered that monkey kidneys contained viruses that we human species did not evolve with. The implications of utilizing virus contaminated monkey kidney cells in vaccine production was exceptionally sobering because of the nature of introducing viruses into our species that we did not evolve with as well as their interactions with the other weak or dead microbes utilized in vaccines.
Another experiment by Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase in 1952 provided definitive evidence that DNA was the genetic material and this should help you understand the implications of utilizing virus contaminated cells in vaccine manufacturing. SV-50, SIV, and more were discovered in monkey and chimpanzee kidney cells. The human species did not evolve to contain these specific viruses.
Viruses are non-cellular entities made of DNA with an outer layer of protein. Viruses cannot reproduce on their own; instead, they typically attach themselves to cells and inject material that causes the cells to produce viruses until they explode.
Hershey and Chase worked with a bacteriophage (bacteria-eating virus) and used radioactive isotopes to label and independently track the movement of proteins and DNA. They demonstrated conclusively that the material injected into the bacteria cell by the virus was DNA, not protein; they reasoned that the substance injected into the cell must be genetic material if it could take over control of the cell.
With all the knowledge you’ve acquired above then think of the implications that scientists discovered that the primate kidney cells utilized in vaccine production were contaminated with over 40 viruses. (Viruses we humans did not evolve with.) This fact has been carefully concealed from the working class people for decades.
The Spanish Flu was not caused by a virus. That is an important fact.
For those of you who watched American Experience on PBS, you came to learn that the first cases of “Spanish Flu” occurred at Fort Riley, Kansas in 1918. Then you should ask how is it possible this historically important event could be so badly misnamed 100 years ago and never corrected? Why was it then not called the Fort Riley Military Epidemic?
“The 1918-19 bacterial vaccine experiment at Fort Riley, Kansas may have killed 50-100 million people worldwide.
In the late 19th century through the early 20th century, New York became the home of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now Rockefeller University). The Institute is where the modern pharmaceutical industry was born. The Institute pioneered many of the approaches the pharmaceutical industry uses today, including the preparation of vaccine serums. The vaccine used in the Fort Riley experiment on soldiers was made in horses.
If the origin of the pandemic involved a vaccine experiment on US soldiers, then the US may prefer calling it Spanish Flu instead of The Fort Riley Bacteria of 1918, or something similar. The Spanish Flu started at the location this experimental bacterial vaccine was given making it the prime suspect as the source of the bacterial infections which killed so many.
It would be much more difficult to maintain the marketing mantra of “vaccines save lives” if a vaccine experiment originating in the United States during the years of primitive manufacturing caused the deaths of 50-100 million people.
According to a 2008 National Institute of Health paper, bacterial pneumonia was the killer in a minimum of 92.7% of the 1918-19 autopsies reviewed. It is likely higher than 92.7%.
The researchers looked at more than 9000 autopsies, and “there were no negative (bacterial) lung culture results.”
“… In the 68 higher-quality autopsy series, in which the possibility of unreported negative cultures could be excluded, 92.7% of autopsy lung cultures were positive for ≥1 bacterium. … in one study of approximately 9000 subjects who were followed from clinical presentation with influenza to resolution or autopsy, researchers obtained, with sterile technique, cultures of either pneumococci or streptococci from 164 of 167 lung tissue samples.
There were 89 pure cultures of pneumococci; 19 cultures from which only streptococci were recovered; 34 that yielded mixtures of pneumococci and/or streptococci; 22 that yielded a mixture of pneumococci, streptococci, and other organisms (prominently pneumococci and nonhemolytic streptococci); and 3 that yielded nonhemolytic streptococci alone. There were no negative lung culture results.” (3)
Pneumococci or streptococci were found in “164 of (the) 167 lung tissue samples” autopsied. That is 98.2%. Bacteria was the killer.
WHERE DID THE SPANISH FLU BACTERIAL PNEUMONIA OF 1918-19 ORIGINATE?
When the United States declared war in April 1917, the fledgling Pharmaceutical industry had something they had never had before – a large supply of human test subjects in the form of the US military’s first draft.
Pre-war in 1917, the US Army was 286,000 men. Post-war in 1920, the US army disbanded, and had 296,000 men.
During the war years 1918-19, the US Army ballooned to 6,000,000 men, with 2,000,000 men being sent overseas. The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research took advantage of this new pool of human guinea pigs to conduct vaccine experiments.
(Please read the Fort Riley paper in its entirety so you can appreciate the carelessness of the experiments conducted on these troops.) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2126288/pdf/449.pdf
Between January 21st and June 4th of 1918, Dr. Gates reports on an experiment where soldiers were given 3 doses of a bacterial meningitis vaccine. Those conducting the experiment on the soldiers were just spitballing dosages of a vaccine serum made in horses. The vaccination regime was designed to be 3 doses. 4,792 men received the first dose, but only 4,257 got the 2nd dose (down 11%), and only 3702 received all three doses (down 22.7%).
A total of 1,090 men were not there for the 3rd dose. What happened to these soldiers? Were they shipped East by train from Kansas to board a ship to Europe? Were they in the Fort Riley hospital? Dr. Gates’ report doesn’t tell us.
An article accompanying the American Experience broadcast I watched sheds some light on where these 1,090 men might be. Gates began his experiments in January 1918.
By March of that year, “100 men a day” were entering the infirmary at Fort Riley.
Are some of these the men missing from Dr. Gates’ report – the ones who did not get the 2nd or 3rd dose?
“… Shortly before breakfast on Monday, March 11, the first domino would fall signaling the commencement of the first wave of the 1918 influenza.
Company cook Albert Gitchell reported to the camp infirmary with complaints of a “bad cold.” Right behind him came Corporal Lee W. Drake voicing similar complaints.
By noon, camp surgeon Edward R. Schreiner had over 100 sick men on his hands, all apparently suffering from the same malady…” (5)
Gates does report that several of the men in the experiment had flu-like symptoms: coughs, vomiting and diarrhea after receiving the vaccine.
These symptoms are a disaster for men living in barracks, traveling on trains to the Atlantic coast, sailing to Europe, and living and fighting in trenches.
The unsanitary conditions at each step of the journey are an ideal environment for a contagious disease like bacterial pneumonia to spread.
From Dr. Gates’ report:
“Reactions.– … Several cases of looseness of the bowels or transient diarrhea were noted. This symptom had not been encountered before. Careful inquiry in individual cases often elicited the information that men who complained of the effects of vaccination were suffering from mild coryza, bronchitis, etc., at the time of injection.”
“Sometimes the reaction was initiated by a chill or chilly sensation, and a number of men complained of fever or feverish sensations during the following night.
Next in frequency came nausea (occasionally vomiting), dizziness, and general “aches and pains” in the joints and muscles, which in a few instances were especially localized in the neck or lumbar region, causing stiff neck or stiff back. A few injections were followed by diarrhea.
The reactions, therefore, occasionally simulated the onset of epidemic meningitis and several vaccinated men were sent as suspects to the Base Hospital for diagnosis.”(4)
According to Gates, they injected random dosages of an experimental bacterial meningitis vaccine into soldiers. Afterwards, some of the soldiers had symptoms which “simulated” meningitis, but Dr. Gates advances the fantastical claim that it wasn’t actual meningitis. The soldiers developed flu-like symptoms. Bacterial meningitis, then and now, is known to mimic flu-like symptoms. (6)
Perhaps the similarity of early symptoms of bacterial meningitis and bacterial pneumonia to symptoms of flu is why the vaccine experiments at Fort Riley have been able to escape scrutiny as a potential cause of the Spanish Flu for 100 years and counting.
HOW DID THE “SPANISH FLU” SPREAD SO WIDELY SO QUICKLY?
There is an element of a perfect storm in how the Gates bacteria spread. WWI ended only 10 months after the first injections. Unfortunately for the 50-100 million who died, those soldiers injected with horse-infused bacteria moved quickly during those 10 months.
An article from 2008 on the CDC’s website describes how sick WWI soldiers could pass along the bacteria to others by becoming “cloud adults.”
“Finally, for brief periods and to varying degrees, affected hosts became “cloud adults” who increased the aerosolization of colonizing strains of bacteria, particularly pneumococci, hemolytic streptococci, H. influenzae, and S. aureus.
For several days during local epidemics—particularly in crowded settings such as hospital wards, military camps, troop ships, and mines (and trenches)—some persons were immunologically susceptible to, infected with, or recovering from infections with influenza virus. Persons with active infections were aerosolizing the bacteria that colonized their noses and throats, while others—often, in the same “breathing spaces”—were profoundly susceptible to invasion of and rapid spread through their lungs by their own or others’ colonizing bacteria.” (1) Three times in his report on the Fort Riley vaccine experiment, Dr. Gates states that some soldiers had a “severe reaction” indicating “an unusual individual susceptibility to the vaccine”.
While the vaccine made many sick, it only killed those who were susceptible to it. Those who became sick and survived became “cloud adults” who spread the bacteria to others, which created more cloud adults, spreading to others where it killed the susceptible, repeating the cycle until there were no longer wartime unsanitary conditions, and there were no longer millions of soldiers to experiment on. The toll on US troops was enormous and it is well documented. Dr. Carol Byerly describes how the “influenza” traveled like wildfire through the US military. (substitute “bacteria” for Dr. Byerly’s “influenza” or “virus”):
“… Fourteen of the largest training camps had reported influenza outbreaks in March, April, or May, and some of the infected troops carried the virus with them aboard ships to France …
As soldiers in the trenches became sick, the military evacuated them from the front lines and replaced them with healthy men.
This process continuously brought the virus into contact with new hosts—young, healthy soldiers in which it could adapt, reproduce, and become extremely virulent without danger of burning out.
… Before any travel ban could be imposed, a contingent of replacement troops departed Camp Devens (outside of Boston) for Camp Upton, Long Island, the Army’s debarkation point for France, and took influenza with them.
Medical officers at Upton said it arrived “abruptly” on September 13, 1918, with 38 hospital admissions, followed by 86 the next day, and 193 the next.
Hospital admissions peaked on October 4 with 483, and within 40 days, Camp Upton sent 6,131 men to the hospital for influenza. Some developed pneumonia so quickly that physicians diagnosed it simply by observing the patient rather than listening to the lungs…” (7)
The United States was not the only country in possession of the Rockefeller Institute’s experimental bacterial vaccine.
A 1919 report from the Institute states: “Reference should be made that before the United States entered the war (in April 1917) the Institute had resumed the preparation of antimeningococcic serum, in order to meet the requests of England, France, Belgium Italy and other countries.”
The same report states: “In order to meet the suddenly increased demand for the curative serums worked out at the Institute, a special stable for horses was quickly erected …” (8)
An experimental antimeningoccic serum made in horses and injected into soldiers who would be entering the cramped and unsanitary living conditions of war … what could possibly go wrong?
Is the bacterial serum made in horses at the Rockefeller Institute which was injected into US soldiers and distributed to numerous other countries responsible for the 50-100 million people killed by bacterial lung infections in 1918-19?
The Institute says it distributed the bacterial serum to England, France, Belgium, Italy and other countries during WWI. Not enough is known about how these countries experimented on their soldiers.”
https://vaccineimpact.com/2018/did-military-experimental-vaccine-in-1918-kill-50-100-million-people-blamed-as-spanish-flu/?fbclid=IwAR2M48lWRrmaDIzntDctJUcVDjwyNHzCIUJDhdn2E6PRb6Kv4nazuNjdcgw
Another important fact to be made aware of is who designed our bioweapons program.
Lab 257: The Disturbing Story of the Government’s Secret Plum Island Germ Laboratory by Michael Christopher Carroll
Nazi Erich Traub ran Hitler’s “Cancer Research Program” the cover name for their biological warfare program. He designed US Plum Island’s Lab 257.
“Traub spent his prewar period of his scientific career on a fellowship at the Rockefeller Institute in Princeton, New Jersey, perfecting his skills in viruses and bacteria. Traub also spent time at the USDA laboratories in Beltsville, Maryland, where he isolated a new weapons-grade virus strain in the USDA Lab. “Studying a virulent strain of a new virus that caused human infections, Traub showed how it adapted “neurotropically” in human by voraciously attacking nerve and brain tissues. This was the same potent virus that infected a human in Plum Island’s first-ever germ experiment one year later.”
Dr. Richard Shope was Traub’s Rockefeller Institute boss and friend. The author of Lab 257 unearthed three USDA files from the vault of the National Archives—two were labeled TICK RESEARCH and a third E. TRAUB. All three folders were empty. “The caked-on dust confirms the file boxes hadn’t been open since the moment before they were taped shut in the 1950s…. Dr. Traub’s World War II handiwork consisted of aerial virus sprays developed on Insel Reims and tested over occupied Russia, and of field work for Heinrich Himmler in Turkey.” Traub was instrumental in the development of weaponized foot-and-mouth disease virus. (It was dispersed from a Luftwaffe bomber onto cattle and reindeer in occupied Russia.)
“As lab chief of Insel Reims—a secret Nazi biological warfare laboratory on a crescent-shaped island nestled in the Baltic Sea—Traub worked directly for Adolph Hitler’s second-in-charge, SS Reichsfuher Heinrich Himmler, on live germ trials.”
Also, Old Lyme, Connecticut was the location of the 39 children and 12 adults misdiagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, a condition they initially called Lyme arthritis. Fun fact, white tail deer can swim up to four miles.
“Traub might have monitored the tests. A source who worked on a Plum Island in the 1950s recalls that animal handlers and a scientist released ticks outdoors on the island. “They called him the Nazi scientist, when they came in, in 1951–they were inoculating these ticks..
They wrapped up research, put the viruses back in the freezers, and dumped the ticks into the autoclave, which steamed them at over 100 degrees centrigrade…. Dr. Endris went to work for Merck Pharmaceutical.. page 25
– Lab 257 (Chapter 1: The Lyme Connection.)
A lot of Americans believe big pharma are good guys. Know that the same people who control the technologies that treat the biological impacts are also the same people who control the bioweapons and chemical weapons that cause the harm in the first place. They know how to maximize their profits off of the scientifically illiterate working class. The ruling class always protects their best employees….
The US Bioweapons program has never had any public transparency.
There was one whistleblower who was deeply involved in Tulane University’s bioweapons program and she wrote about the program she was involved with in her book, Me and Lee: How I Came to Know, Love and Lose Lee Harvey Oswald by Judyth Very Baker.
Important book excerpts from Me and Lee: How I Came to Know, Love and Lose Lee Harvey Oswald by Judyth Very Baker
“I spent the rest of the day with these scientists and military officers, who took a group of us kids to the headquarters of Eli Lilly Company where we were introduced to other scientists and questioned about our science exhibits. I soon learned that Eli Lilly was a major pharmaceutical company with tens of thousands of employees marketing products in over 100 countries around the globe. Its 130-year history is studded with scientific breakthroughs and medical marketing success stories. It was very “big league” business with billions of dollars of annual revenue and impressive marble office buildings with all the trimmings of corporate success.”
“When the seminar ended at noon that day, Dr. Ochsner, Dr. Diehl, a third gentleman and myself climbed in a car and drove back to Bradenton. All three were in their late-60s or 70s. The third man was Dr. Urey, whom I had not met previously. He was some type of chemist and had done something with radiation at the University of Chicago…
The three great men told Col Doyle that I was invited to come to Roswell Park Memorial Institute in Buffalo, New York for a summer of fast track training. The National Science Foundation would fund my work in Dr. Moore’s own lab, where I would receive world class instruction on a project of my choice. I would also join the other students—already assigned to other labs—in scheduled seminars, and could choose an additional project, if I liked, which would be supervised by either Dr. Edwin Miranda or Dr. James T. Grace. These two scientists often worked together, and their cancer research was world-famous. –
It would be appropriate to mention here that Dr. Mirand co-authored an important medical article published in 1963, entitled “Human Susceptibility to a Simian Tumor Virus.” “Simian” refers to apes and monkeys, and “Tumor,” of course, refers to a cancerous growth. So “simian tumor virus” really means “cancer-causing monkey virus.” An important question! If you recall the Science Writer’s Seminar earlier that year, Dr. Ludwig Gross discussed cancer-causing viruses, such as SV40 (Simian Virus #40). SV40 had been traced to the Rhesus monkey. And the kidneys of the Rhesus monkey had been used to grow hundreds of millions of doses of the polio vaccines distributed in the late-1950s.
After releasing tens of millions of doses of the polio vaccine, the scientific establishment found that the cancerous SV40 had contaminated that same vaccine! The public knew little about these matters at the time, but the cancer researchers of the day were well-informed about potential dangers… and consequences. They all knew there was at least one cancer-causing monkey virus in the polio vaccine, possibly more. The critical question was: Did SV40 cause cancer in humans?
The coauthor of the article was Dr. James T. Grace, also from the staff of the Roswell Park…. Dr. Grace was a warm and personable man whose primary role in the program was to teach the students to handle cancer-causing viruses safely. He taught me to propagate and handle the “Friend Virus” (an unfriendly retrovirus that caused leukemia in mice) and SV40 (the DNA monkey virus that contaminated the polio vaccine and caused cancer in a variety of mammals.)…
Dr. Moore and Dr. Diehl discussed my proposal and evaluated how it might impact the funding they had envisioned for my research. After some deliberation, they suggested that I could spend a year or two at St. Francis, before moving on to the University of Chicago. After all, St. Francis did have a fine medical technology department. They could arrange for grants, they said, to support a laboratory there for my use, so I could continue in my present course of research. I had just begun working with monkey viruses and radiation, under Dr. Grace, and was anxious to merge the new knowledge with my present work—facilitating the most rapid growth possible of human-based melanomas, in variants of our new, ground-breaking RPMI mediums. Dr. Diehl suggested that I could compare the growth rates of human melanomas infected with SV40 with that of uninfected human melanomas to determine what would make these fast-growing cancers even more deadly.
I was taken aback. Wasn’t that just the opposite of what we were supposed to be doing?
“The key to defeating cancer is to understand it,” Dr. Diehl reminded me…..“Then Dr. Ferrie explained that their cancer project was getting results faster than typical research projects, because they did not have to do all the paperwork, and all this was under the direction of the great man himself, Dr. Alton Ochsner.
Dr. Ochsner again. So he was involved in this, too. Dr. Ferrie said Dr. Ochsner knew how to get things done.
He had access to anything needed and avoided red tape by bringing in some materials himself from Latin America. Ferrie described Ochsner’s Latin American connections in more detail, saying that he was the on-call physician for many Latin American leaders. He kept their secrets and got rewarded in return, including big donations to his Clinic. As a result, Ochsner had his own unregulated flow of funds and supplies for every possible kind of cancer research, with no oversight. “We’re using various chemicals, in combination with radiation, to see what happens with fast-growing cancers,” Ferrie said. “We’re using it to mutate monkey viruses too.”
Mutating monkey viruses! Radiation! Fast growing cancers!
“That’s exactly what I’ve been trained to handle,” I commented, noting how conveniently my skill set just happened to match their research.
“I was told you were,” Dr. Ferrie said, without explaining how he came by that particular piece of information, but I figured it had to be Dr. Ochsner…The configuration of these labs was basically a circular process which repeated itself over and over. With each lap around the loop of laboratories, the cancer-causing viruses would become more aggressive, and more deadly. Originally, these viruses came from monkeys, but they had been enhanced with radiation. The virus we were most concerned with was SV40, the infamous carcinogenic virus that had contaminated the polio vaccines of the 1950s. But the science of the day was not terribly precise, and cross-infection between species was common in monkey labs. So it was impossible to know if we were working with SV40 only, or a collection of viruses.
We assumed there were probably other viruses traveling with it, but whether it was SV40 or SV37 or SIV did not really matter to us. What mattered was whether it produced cancer quickly. For our project, these cancer causing viruses had been transferred to mice because they were more economical than monkeys, and the viruses thrived just as easily, which is why mice are so widely used in medical research.
This loop included a large colony of thousands of mice kept in a house near Dave Ferrie’s apartment. I called it “the mouse house.” People connected to the Project handled the daily care and feeding of the mice, bred them to replace the population which was constantly being consumed. Several times each week, fifty or so live mice would be selected based upon apparent size of their tumors. These mice had tumors so large that they were visible to the naked eye. They would be placed in a cardboard box and quietly brought through he back door of Dave’s house for processing. Once in Dave’s kitchen, we would kill the mice with ether and harvest their tumors. Harvesting meant cutting their bodies open and excising the largest tumors. The tumors were then weighed, and their weights recorded in a journal. The odor was terrible The largest of the harvested tumors had a destiny. We first cut very thin slices from these tumors and examined them under a microscope. We had to be sure what kind of tumor we had, in each case. Bits of the “best” tumors were selected for individual treatment: each specimen was macerated, stained, mixed with RPMI medium, then poured into a carefully labeled test-tube. These were placed in Dave’s table centrifuge, and spun. Most cancer cells went to the bottom. The liquid on top was poured into a big flask, then more RPMI medium, with fetal calf serum, ad sometimes other materials, was added to each test tube. These were the beginnings of tissue cultures, to be grown elsewhere…
“Your presence there will cut out two girls who could present problems for Mr. Monaghan,” Ochsner explained. “He has to have someone there every morning, and he needs you to cover for Mr. Oswald’s absences.”
Ochsner then explained that Lee would also be working on the Project by transporting chemicals, equipment and specimens to several locations. Nobody would suspect that Lee had anything to do with a project involving cancer research, he pointed out. Ochsner said Lee’s offer to work at Reily and to courier materials had already been accepted, but that he would also be involved in another aspect of the project, slated for later in the year.
My position at Reily would be salaried, so that my time out of the office would not be recorded and Reily would, in effect, be paying for my hours spent on cancer work. The same was true for Lee’s position…
… Both Dave and Dr. Mary (Dr. Mary Sherman) began describing chilling experiments on human brains being conducted at Tulane by Dr. Robert Health…Dave said, “Listen to this, J. ‘Dr. Health Tells New Technique. Electrical Impulses Sent Deep Into Brain… [a patient]… had tiny wires implanted into precise spots in his brain. The wires were attached to a self-stimulator box, which was equipped at a push button to deliver a tiny, electrical impulse to the brain…” Dave paused to let what he read sink in. “I wonder how many brains Health went through before he had success with these two. How long did it take to find those ‘precise spots’ in their brains with his hot little wires?”…
“I doubt John Q. Public will ever have a clue,” Dr. Mary replied. “They certainly have no idea they were getting cancer-causing monkey viruses in their polio vaccines,” she added bitterly. Seeing my expression of shock, Dr. Mary went on to explain that she and a few others had privately protested the marketing of the SV40-contaminated polio vaccine, but to no avail. The government continued to allow the distribution of millions of doses of the contaminated vaccine in America and abroad.
She said she was told that the new batches of the vaccine would be free of the cancerous virus, but privately she doubted it, noting that the huge stockpile of vaccines she knew were contaminated had not been recalled. To recall them would damage the public’s confidence, she explained.
I was speechless. Were they telling me that a new wave of cancer was about to wash over the world?
“The government is hiding these facts from the people,” Dave said, “so they won’t panic and refuse to take vaccines. But is it right? Don’t people have the right to be told the contaminant causes cancer in a variety of animals? Instead, they show you pictures in the newspaper of fashion models sipping the stuff, to make people feel safe.”
My mind raced. It was 1963. They had been distributing contaminated polio vaccines since 1955. For eight years! Over a hundred million doses! Even I had received it! A blood-curdling chill came over me….…”He is soft on Communism. He refuses to go to war. He lets his baby brother go after the Mob, and errant generals. He plans to retire Hoover and wants to tax “Big Oil.” He thinks he can get away with it, because he’s the Commander-in-Chief.”
I caught my breath, and glanced at Dr. Sherman as she began taking dishes from the table. The frown on her face told me they were deadly serious. Dave cleared his throat and coughed. “They’ll execute him,” Dave said, “reminding future Presidents who really controls this country… those who rise to the top will gain everything they ever hoped and look the other way.”
Dave’s hands trembled as he spoke. His nerves were as raw as his voice.
“If Castro dies first, we think the man’s life might be spared.”
“How?” I asked, as the weight of his comments began to sink in.
“If Castro dies, they’ll start jockeying for power over Cuba,” Dave said, “It will divide the coalition that is forming. It may save the man’s life.”
“Where… how did you get this information?” I pursued.
“You’re very young,” Dr. Sherman said. “But you have to trust us, just as we have to trust you. If we were really with them, you wouldn’t be privy to this information. These people have motive, the means, and the opportunity. They will seem as innocent as doves. But they’re deadly as vipers.”
“What about Dr. Ochsner?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Dr. Sherman said. “I can’t tell, Perhaps…”
“He’s an unknown element,” Dave broke in. “But we know he’s friends with the moneybags. He thinks Mary and I hate ‘the man,’ just as he does.”
“I think he might aid the others,” Dr. Sherman said. “Perhaps without even knowing it. He functions as a go-between. His interest was originally to bring down Castro, because he’s anti-Communist to the core. But he’s remarkably naive.”
Dr. Sherman explained that in the past, Cuban medical students came to the Ochsner Clinic to train. Now Castro was sending Cuba’s medical students to Russia. Ochsner resented this rejection. Some of those medical students realized that studying with Ochsner had made them rich and famous, so they were bitter about Castro’s denying them that right. Some of them were bitter enough to help kill Castro. Dr. Sherman’s comments called to mind Tony’s similar degree of hatred.
“The clock is ticking,” Dave said. “It’s going to require a lot of hard work if we’re going to succeed where all the others failed.”
“We believe we have something,” Dr. Sherman said. “But we want to see what you make of it,” soliciting my opinion and gently stroking my ego with her words. “Dr. Ochsner says you have serendipity.”
“Yes,” I replied. “He told me that.”
“It’s a rare compliment,” Dr. Sherman went on. “You induced lung cancer in mice faster than had ever been done before, under miserable lab conditions. Dr. Sherman reached over and took my hand, squeezing it warmly. “That’s what Ochsner likes about you. Your serendipity. And we know you’re a patriot. That’s why you’re here.”
“This is lung cancer we’re talking about,” Dave said as he began smoking his third cigarette in five minutes. “Your specialty.”
“That’s what they wanted me to work with, ever since Roswell Park,” I admitted.
“You’re untraceable,” Dave continued. “With no degree, nobody will suspect you, because you’re working at Reily’s, and you’re practically a kid.
“We have only until October,” Dr. Sherman said.
“Maybe the end of October,” Dave amended, as he snubbed out his half-smoked cigarette.
“You can choose not to participate,” Dr. Sherman told me.
“Yeah, we’ll just send you over to Tulane to see Dr. Heath. A few days in his tender care, and you’ll never even remember this conversation took place,” Dave said.
“You’re not funny! Sherman snapped at Dave, seeing my face. “Of course, nothing will happen to you, Judy. Dr. Ferrie and I are the visible ones, not you.
“Hell, I was joking,” Dave said.
“She is so young,” Dr. Sherman said reproachfully. “You frightened her.”
“I’m sorry, J.” He said. “What are you, nineteen?”
“I will be twenty, on the 15th,” I said softly.
Dr. Mary saw that I was trembling. She poured me a little glass of cordial and offered it to me, saying that it would relax me, but I declined to drink it.
“All I came here for was to have an internship with you, Dr. Sherman,” I said, adding that I still wanted to go to Tulane Medical School in the fall.
“Don’t worry, you’ll be there,” Dr. Sherman said. “Dr. Ochsner said he’ll sponsor you. That’s set in stone. …With the early-week crunch over, I took myself over to Dave’s lab and Mary Sherman’s apartment on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to continue our work on the Project. When I finished, as per instructions from Dr. Mary, I wrapped the specimens in newspaper to insulate them and dropped them in a car parked near Eli Lilly on my way back to Reily’s. That was usually Lee’s job, but this week I did it. Once the product was dropped off a driver would get into the car and whisk it away for another round of radiation, presumable at the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital. – page 315
Dr. Ochsner wanted to speed up the Project. He called me at Reily’s several times to ask for ideas. I offered him several. One recommendation was that we try to transfer from mice to monkeys again, but this time the monkeys should be exposed to radiation beforehand to suppress their immune systems. Ochsner liked the idea and noted that they had concentrated their radiation efforts on tissue cultures, not living hosts. I was surprised they had not done this earlier, since I had told them back in 1961 that I had used this method to develop cancer in mice more rapidly. So I recommended irradiating the monkeys to expedite things, and Dr. Ochsner agreed….
As an Executive Director at the International Trade Mart, Clay Shaw was at the center of the international trade community in New Orleans. Shaw’s mentors, Ted Brent and Lloyd Cobb, had deep connections to both Dr. Ochsner and the CIA. Connections between Dr. Ochsner and Ted Brent were so strong that Brent left the fortune he had amassed during his lifetime to Ochsner Clinic upon his death. The hotel on campus of Ochsner Clinic is named Brent House, in his honor….
That afternoon, Mr. Monaghan agreed to clock me and Lee out, so we could meet at 4:30 near Eli Lilly..
“Nobody should be denied medical care,” he said. “It’s a basic human right! Just as the right to own a house. The people in this country are serfs and slaves… And hell, if they get sick and are new in town, they can drop dead. Nobody cares. We’re living in a world as barbaric as ancient Rome!”
“Maybe Rome had some things better,” I offered, noting Rome had heated floors and trained doctors two thousand years ago. That led to Lee’s taking out the book, Everyday life in Ancient Rome, from the library for us to study.
About the same time, Lee created a fake health card for himself so he’d have vaccination ‘proof’— necessary for travel to backward countries. His vaccinations were up-to-date, thanks to Dr. Ochsner, but he couldn’t put that name on his health card. Instead he used the fake name “Dr. A.J. Hideel.” There was that name again! I’d seen it on the third floor at Banister’s, and a variation on a fake FPCC membership card Lee carried. “Hidell,” Lee told me, was a ‘project name’ used on fake ID’s to access certain funds. Further, he said he was not the only person using the name….
When the courts began ordering the integration of school systems and universities, the new laws were met with stiff resistance. The situation was so volatile that President Kennedy called the National Guard to occupy and forcibly integrate the University of Alabama. Lee applauded Kennedy’s courage for doing so: though I’d been prejudiced against JFK by my anti-Castro friends, Lee was making me a believer…
“Dr. Mary noticed me staring at the equipment.
“The marmosets are dying,” she told me somberly. “All of them, including our control group.”
I pondered the implications. Our bioweapon had migrated between the two groups of monkeys, presenting the terrifying possibility that our mutated cancer was not only transferable, but actually contagious. We both knew that from this moment on we needed to be concerned about being exposed to a contagious, cancer-causing virus.
For the next hour, I worked with the microscopes, until Dave showed up. As my eyes were tired, I decided to help Lee, whose hands were now thrust inside the clean box’s gloves, and leave the microscope work to Dr. Mary. I bent down and kissed his perspiring forehead.
“You shouldn’t touch me,” he said, through his face mask.
“I’m going to help,” I told him, putting on my lab coat. I could see a book in Lee’s pocket through the clear plastic apron. “I see you brought along Profiles of Courage,” I said to Lee, hoping he was finished with it, and I could borrow it from him.
“I’m trying to get my hands on everything I can about ‘The Chief,’” Lee answered…
Wednesday, July 10, 1963
I received an important call at Reily’s from Dr. Bowers, who told me Dr. Ochsner had asked him to relay the good news to me. He said that cells isolated from two of the lymphoma strains from the mice had produced dramatic results in the marmoset monkeys. They suffered from not one, but two variations of a galloping cancer. We had broken the barrier between mouse and monkey. Now we could move on to specific types of lung cancers, but would need to keep the mouse cancers going, in case a failure occurred, when we moved from marmoset monkeys to African Green monkeys….
“All right,” I said. “What agency do you really work for, and who is your most important handler?”
“You little spy!” he said, smiling. “Here’s the answer: I’m loaned to the CIA, and must sometimes help the FBI; but who my main handler is, not even God knows the answer to that. Certainly, I don’t. I call him “Mr. B.”
“As for me,” I told him, “I’m just a pair of hands belonging to Ochsner.”
“They don’t belong to Ochsner anymore,” Lee said. “They’re mine now.”
I asked him if I had a “handler.” Lee said, smiling, “Of course you do. It’s me.” He said I was a lucky woman. “I shall be your protector,” he said. “I won’t let any of them hurt you.”
I asked why would anybody want to hurt me? I was on the ‘good’ side. Lee explained: if you’re no longer useful, you could be thrown out, unless you were educated.
“You’re safer than I am,” he told me. “Officially, you were supposedly an unwitting asset. A good position to be in…
Lee asked if there was anything he still didn’t know about the cancer research project. “Well, you should know about the etiology of the cancer,” I told him. “I’ve never discussed it with you.”
“Etiology? What’s that mean?”
“Etiology means origins. This is no ordinary cancer, as you know,” I reminded him He agreed.“It’s probably contagious,” I went on. That startled him, since Dr. Mary and I had not really discussed this point explicitly in front of him. I told him that the monkey virus, now altered by radiation, had moved spontaneously from the deliberately infected marmoset monkeys to the control animals. With it came cancer and all the marmoset monkeys were now dying. That’s why there were suddenly all the extra precautions in Dave’s lab.
“Remind me not to eat or drink anything over at Dave’s,” Lee said soberly as he pondered the idea of working around a contagious cancer virus…
“We’ve created a galloping cancer,” I went on. “I think a bacteriophage could be altered to take out even these cancer cells. But nobody’s going down that road. We’re developing this weapon to eliminate a head of state. But what if we get Castro? Will they really just throw this stuff away? I asked, shivering at the thought.“It could be used as a weapon of mass destruction,” Lee answered simply…
Lee asked how many people understood the science behind the Project. I told him Ochsner, Sherman, Dave and I surely knew how it was made and that I knew there were some other doctors involved, but once the bioweapon was created, it could be kept frozen for years and used by anyone who had access to it at some point in the future. We sank into deep silence as we contemplated the dimensions of what we had just said. How had my dream to cure cancer gone so wrong?…
July 19, 1963 Friday
That morning, Lee was on the Magazine Street bus with me in time to arrive at Reily’s before 8:00 A.M…. I clocked in shortly before 8:00 A.M., but I needed Lee to run an errand to Eli Lilly’s for the Project, so despite his efforts to be on time, he clocked in late again and got chewed out. For the rest of the day, Lee’s supervisors were all over him.
Lee advised Dave to keep an eye on me, but not to say a word—unless I got up to leave— until he got there. I gave Dave Lewis a grateful hug, then followed Lee to an old car that he had access to for the day, due to his training film project. This was an unusual car called a Kaiser-Frazer, which was discontinued in 1951. It was a roomy and surprisingly luxurious dark green 4-door sedan. I had seen it parked near the Eli Lilly office several times.
“You might want to take me to take you straight home,” Lee said, “if you’re too tired. But if you come along with me, you’ll get to see Carlos Marcello’s plantation.”…
This meeting was necessary, because it was time to test the Project’s biological weapon on primates. It had worked on the Marmoset monkeys, so it was time to try it on African green monkeys, which were closer to humans but considerably more expensive. These next steps involved the precise work that needed to be done in the monkey laboratory, so others would do that.
I had to discuss the details with Dr. Ochsner. After much of this technical talk, Ochsner said, “By the way, your boy Oswald is going to be a movie star.”
“I know he’s working on a film,” I said cautiously, not knowing how much Ochsner was privy to.
“I don’t mean out there,” Ochsner said suggesting that he knew about the training camp. “I mean here in New Orleans, on TV. Do you have a TV set?”…
“Sir,” I said proudly, “he doesn’t spend a dollar of the Project’s money unless he has to. He’s a patriot of the first order.”
“Well, he’s all of that,” Ochsner agreed. “I don’t deny it. I’ve taken the trouble to look into his records. And I’m thinking about better ways to use his talents.”
“He wants to go to college, sir,” I said. “Can you help him?”
“Young lady, we want him to stay put a while, where he’s most useful.” Realizing that he was clearly talking about using Lee as a spy, I realized that Ochsner thought of himself as part of the management of that operation, not just a technical resource working for Lee’s spymasters.
“So, who am I really working for?” I asked Ochsner bluntly. He shook his head from side to side in dismay and said that I was asking a lot of questions today, as if talking to a wall.
Then, he turned to me and said: “You’re working for the foes of Communism.” After a short pause, he smiled and added, “I’m not ashamed to say that I would spill every drop of blood I have for my country. And I have always known that you feel the same way.”
Ochsner then glanced at his watch, cut me off with a wave of his hand, and handed me a stack of new material to read. “Read these for us, and give us your input as soon as possible. The final step will be with our human volunteer.”
“Have you already found one?” I queried.
“You would be surprised,” Dr. Ochsner replied, standing up and learning me to the door. “There are many unsung heroes who have bravely stepped forward to accomplish the impossible.” Then he added, a little sadly. “There are risks that must be taken for great causes.”
“Am I doing alright, sir?” I asked meekly. “It feels strange, not preparing for Tulane yet. I mean, all I’ve looked at for months now are cancer cells.”
“Only two months, and you’ll be marching through the doors of Tulane Medical School,” Ochsner said confidently. “Are you using Mr. Ferrie’s medical library pass?”
“Yes, about once a week.”
“Good. Go twice a week, and study there. After you leave Reily’s, go every day.”
“What will I do for money when Reily’s ends,” I asked
“If you have a problem, ask Mary. She’ll send you money to tide you over,” he added tersely.
As I reached Monaghan’s desk, he simply said, “You were seen with him,” in a deep vibrating voice that hissed with anger. Then he held up a crumpled yellow “Hands of Cuba” flyer: “And you left this in the wastebasket. What the hell were you thinking?
“By the end of the century, they say the average American worker will only have to be on the job thirty hours a week.”
“I hope so,” Lee said. “If we keep men like Kennedy in office, who don’t owe their souls to cartels and corporations, and will keep us from blowing ourselves to hell.”
Lee had been trying to make me care about President Kennedy as much as he did. He now brought up Kennedy’s July 26 speech on a treaty with Moscow to ban nuclear tests in the air, water, and space. The speech had influenced ultra-conservatives who thought Kennedy was displaying weakness in the face of Communism. But Lee praised the President for his foresight. We have forgotten how brave Kennedy was.
As for Lee and me, we wanted to abandon the rat race to others. “We’ll leave their money and corruption behind,” Lee said. “We’ll be like Lord and Lady Blakeney. We’ll play the old part… “Maybe I could talk to Dr. Diehl,” I said hopefully. Dr. Harold Diehl had been fond of me, and I knew I could talk to him in private. He had concerns for safety in cancer research. I found his card in my black purse.
But Lee pointed out that Diehl, the Senior Vice President for Research for the American Cancer Society and Ochsner the former ACS President, had been pals for years. Their friend, “Wild Bill” Donovan (who died of cancer despite Ochsner’s efforts) had been a leading ACS official, too, and was the founding father of the CIA. Diehl would probably do nothing.
I personally trained Lee and Dave to handle the materials and prepared the bioweapon for safe transport to the mental hospital, but I did not accompany them on this first trip, so what I report here is what Lee and Dave told me…
Lee and Dave were both qualified to instruct other technicians as to how to handle and work with the bioweapon. At Jackson, Dave gave the injections and explained to those involved how further injections should be given, and when. Lee watched and listened, so he would be able to deliver similar instructions when he handed off the Product in Mexico City or Cuba. Lee left after viewing the first round of injections, and one saw one prisoner, because he needed to go to the Personnel office. There, Lee filled out an employment application to establish a motive for his planned return to the hospital in about 72 hours, when he would have to drive me there to check on the progress of the experiment. Afterwards, Shaw drove Lee and Dave home.
But here was the problem: I was originally told that the prisoner was terminally ill and had “volunteered” to be injected with cancerous cells, knowing his days were numbered. But, a simple fact remained: in order to do my blood test, I had to know what kind of cancer the volunteer had so I could distinguish between “his cancer” and “our cancer.” Right before the Team left for Jackson, I asked Dave to find out what kind of cancer the prisoner had.
“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Dave said matter-of-factly. “He doesn’t have cancer. He’s a Cuban who is about the same age and weight as Castro, and he’s healthy.”
I felt a chill sweep through my body. My heart turned over. This revelation was sickening to me. We would be giving cancer to a healthy human with the intention of killing him. This was not medicine, it was murder. It was wrong, morally, ethically, and legally. They had gone too far….
My note to Dr. Ochsner simply stated: Injecting disease-causing materials into an unwitting subject who does not have a disease is unethical. I signed it with my initials, J.A., and hand delivered it to Dr. Ochsner’s office at his Clinic…
“I’m so sorry,” she told me. “He’s making a mountain out of a molehill.” This was a hint that Dr. Mary was still on my side, which was a huge relief to me. I hoped she would give me good references to a medical school in Latin America, which was one of the plans Lee and I considered. The only positive note she had to offer was that Dr. Ochsner had agreed to a civil exit interview…
When Dr. Ochsner entered the room, the look on his face was unforgiving. Without a word, he handed me some important blood work code sheets, with which to make my reports. Then, rising to his feet, he exploded into a flurry of unrestrained verbal abuses. It was unlike anything I had ever encountered…
“When you finish your assignment at Jackson,” he said, “Give us the results and consider your work with us over. After his ruse burned a little further, he said, “Consider yourself lucky you’re walking out with your teeth still in your head. Now get out.”…
“This was the same old Kaiser-Frazer that Lee had used to drive me to Churchill Farms for Marcello’s gathering. I thought of it as the Eli Lilly car, because I had seen in parked near their building several times. Lee said it was more reliable than Dave’s car and it had no known mechanical problems.”….
The plan to kill Castro depended on two to three people: First, a doctor to influence diagnostics for the required x-rays, then an x-ray technician to rig the machine to temporarily deliver a dangerous dose, (creating symptoms of an infection and pulling down the immune system) and someone to contaminate the penicillin shots given to overcome the presumed ‘pneumonia’ or ‘infection’, with the deadly cancer cocktail. Reactions to the foreign material would bring on fever, with more x-rays to check for ‘pneumonia’ —and more penicillin or similar shots. Only one shot had to reach a vein, and it was over, if the X-rays had been used. For this was a galloping cancer: Castro’s chances, if it worked in humans as it did in monkeys, were zero. It had killed the African green monkeys in only two weeks. Castro’s death by cancer would be ascribed to “natural causes.”
Lee told me that after the cancer cells were removed from their glass container, he then observed the volunteer being x-rayed and injected. After that, Dave asked him to leave. Why? This made Lee suspicious…
I checked the blood work data while a centrifuge spun down the rest of the freshly-drawn blood samples to pellets, inspecting slides and the blood counts already prepared for me. My task was to match the recorded data with the slides, and to look for any cancer cells there. A few were present—an excellent sign that the bioweapon worked. The original cancer cells had been tagged with a radioactive tracer. If any of those were also found in the pellets, the volunteer was surely doomed. But there were too many blood samples for just one client. …
Having done that, I insisted that I needed to observe the prisoner’s current condition to see how he was physically reacting. The orderly reluctantly took me to the door of the prisoner’s room, but said that I was not allowed past the door. The room was barred, but basically clean. Several storage boxes sat on the floor and some flowers sat on a stand next to the bed. The patient was tied to the bed and was thrashing around in an obvious fever. It was very sad and I felt sorry for what I had done, but I played my part and pretended to be pleased with his status.
We had spent no more than forty-five minutes at the hospital, and once back in the car, Lee and I discussed what I had seen. I told him that I was almost sure there was more than one “volunteer.” Lee asked me to describe the patient to him, which I did. Lee then pointed out that the hairline and nose were different from the patient that he had seen injected. Between Lee’s comments and the number of variety of blood samples, I became convinced. More than one “volunteer” had been injected to test the effectiveness of the bioweapon….
A car and driver was waiting outside of International House to take Lee and Hugh Ward to an airport in Houma, Louisiana (about an hour southwest of New Orleans). But first, they had to pick up a package from the nearby offices of Eli Lilly that needed to be delivered to someone in Austin. After getting the package from Eli Lilly, the trio headed to the Huoma-Terre-bonne Airport, known to locals as “the blimp station.” Lee said they reached the blimp station without undue delay….
It said that Alex Rorke had “run into some trouble,” and he and his pilot might be “missing.”
This was instantly a concern to Lee because, not only was Alex Rorke one of his trusted friends from his nefarious anti-Castro world, he was also the man who was going to fly me from Florida to Mexico when it was time for Lee and me to disappear, which might be this week.. The Latinos, meanwhile were eating lunch with some anti-Castro friends and had promised to seek news about Alex Rorke. When they returned, they dropped Lee at the Trek Cafe on South Congress Avenue, where he waited for about forty-five minutes while they dropped off the package from Eli Lilly in the biology building at St. Edward’s University…
He deposited one of his two suitcases in a locker in the bus station, so he would have some clothes to wear when he returned to Mexico. It was now obvious to Lee that he had been betrayed, and his actions at the consulate would further stain him as a pro-Castro fanatic, making him an even more convincing patsy in Kennedy’s murder.
“They think I’m a blind fool!” Lee told me soon after. “If they don’t want me for Cuba anymore, I’m better off dead than alive to them.”….
“You’ll be working a lot of hours,” Dave warned me.
“So what?” I mused, thinking I’d be happy creating exotic chemicals for esoteric scientific projects. Dave had told me that some of these would be sent to New Orleans via such routes as the Mound Park Hospital in St. Petersburg, Eastman Kodak, and our familiar chemical supplier, Eli Lilly, including materials similar to antifreeze, which could be used to safely deep-freeze the deadly cancer cell lines, keeping alive virtually forever…
When I heard his strained voice, I realized that something sinister was blowing in the wind…“I won’t live to see another birthday cake,” he said quietly, “unless I can get out of here. And if I don’t do it right, we’ll all get killed.”
To my gasp of horror, he added, “I’m sorry. You have to hear it.” I now learned that upon his return to Dallas, Lee had been invited to be an actual participant in the assassination plans against JFK.
“You know what that means,” he warned me. I did.
“So, you’re going to go through with it?”
“I’m going to have to go through with it. Who else is in position to penetrate this, and stop it?”
I started to cry, feeling both hopeless and helpless.
“Don’t cry,” he said. “It’s killing me! I can’t stand your crying like that.”
I suddenly felt faint, and accidentally dropped the phone. When I picked up the phone again, we tried to comfort each other. But then Lee revealed that he had decided to send on any information he could about the assassination ring. He was convinced that his information could make a huge difference.
Lee was spending evenings with men who were plotting the death of the President of the United States— men who would stop at nothing to gain more power. They might even be able to blame it on Castro, impelling Americans to war against Cuba, and thus killing two big birds with one big stone. Lee and I both believed that an invasion of Cuba could trigger WWIII, if Russia moved in to defend her Communist ally in the Caribbean.
“I know you think I’m a good shot,” he told me. “Truth is, I’m not that good. So why would they recruit me?”
Lee made a bitter laugh. “They’ll set me up. You see how they hung me out to dry in Mexico City?” he went on. “Now they’ve put off my return to Mexico until after Christmas. I’m going to be snuffed, just as I told you, way back.”
But he felt he had to stay on, with so much as stake. There was now no way to persuade Lee to save himself. In fact, he would have thought it immoral of me to suggest it at the expense of President Kennedy.
The plot against President Kennedy thickened in November. By now, Lee had convinced me that Kennedy was a great president who sought peace, and I shared Lee’s fear that his life would soon end. Lee had been recruited in the Baton Rouge meetings into the Dallas plot. He had penetrated the ring. Now, he was meeting with one or more plotters on a regular basis. “But I’m meeting too many people,” he told me…
Lee said the motorcade would turn at the 3600 block “because the plotters want to show their power… that they are in charge of their trophy. They would also be taking trophy photos of the assassination.
At this time, Lee believed the kill site would probably be the Dallas Trade Mart—if Kennedy wasn’t terminated earlier in Chicago or Miami. Sickening to me and Lee was their plan to circulate a photo of JFK’s head, “dead, with his eyes left open.”…
Saturday, November 16, 1963
Lee met with an FBI contact at a location unknown to me, revealing that a right-wing group was planning to assassinate President Kennedy during his visit to Dallas on November 22nd. Someone in the FBI took the information seriously and sent out a teletype message to field offices that night. William Walter, a clerk in the FBI office in New Orleans, saw this telex the following morning and later affirmed he had seen this document to Jim Garrison when he investigated the JFK assassination in the late 1960s. The FBI claimed it could find no copies of such a document, but that hardly surprises me….
“Why don’t you make yourself sick, by taking a laxative or something? I suggested, as if escaping the plot to murder the President would be like playing hooky from school! We had a grim laugh over the absurdity of that one. “Juduffki!” he said, then “Minnie-Mouse!”
Hearing those pet names he loved to call me, I wanted to die with him.
“I want to come!” I begged. “I want to be with—you!”
“No!” he replied. “You’ll have to wait a call from Dave.”
“I want you to call me!” I told him. “I don’t trust anybody anymore. And from all you’re saying, it’s too late to help Kennedy any more than you have. So just go!” I urged him.
“Even if I wanted to, which I do not,” Lee said, his voice trembling, “I couldn’t. We’ve talked about this before Juduff. They’d not only do me in, they’d come after my family. They’d find you. You’d all die…”
What could I say? Lee was up against ruthless professional killers who followed the code of vendetta. If they were prepared to kill the President of the United States, anyone who got in their way would die, and if they couldn’t kill Lee, they’d kill everyone he cared about….
“Know how we wondered who my handler was?” Lee whispered. “Mr. B? Benson, Benton, or Bishop? Well, he’s from Fort Worth, so it has to be Phillips. His is the traitor. Phillips is behind this. I need you to remember that name,” Lee said, repeating it with cold anger. “David Atlee Phillips.”
Lee then said there were two other names I needed to remember: Bobby Baker and Billy Sol Estes. He said the assassination itself was not their doing, but it was because of them, and I was never to forget their names…
“They’d just get another gun to take my place,” Lee said. “If I stay, that will be one less bullet aimed at Kennedy.”…
“Maybe I can still do something,” he added, grasping at a straw, “but what bothers me the most is that they’re going to say I did it. They’re going to pin it on me. And what will my babies think of me, when they grow up?”…
I went to work at PenChem, as I’d done every day for the previous six weeks….
Shortly after 1:30 P.M. Florida time (12:30 P.M. Dallas time), the television erupted with an announcement that the President had been seriously wounded by gunfire in Dallas. Soon, the network cut away from its regular programming. I can’t remember the words; I only remember my horror. About a half-hour later, we heard news that a priest had given his last rites. The news was greeted with cheers and whistles of approval in the lab. Tears started running down my cheeks, despite my efforts to hide them…
Mr. Mays noticed. “Are you a God-damned Communist?”….
The phone rang as soon as I reached it. Dave was as nervous as I was and apologized for calling a few minutes early. I told him I was glad he did. Then I heard Dave make a sound as though he were choking. I realized he was swallowing back his tears. “Oh, my God, J,” he said to me. “I won’t hide it from you.”
Dave was crying. I started crying, too. I didn’t think I had any tears left, but there they were, stinging my eyes. I was so anxious to hear what he had to say.
“It’s hopeless. If you want to stay alive,” Dave warned me, with a strained voice, “it’s time to go into the catacombs. Promise me you will keep your mouth shut!” he added. “I don’t want to lose you, too,” he said, his voice choking on his words. I felt weak all over. “If there is any chance to save him, we’ll get him out of there, I swear to you. So play the dumb broad, and save yourself. Remember, Mr. T will watch every step you make.
Dave meant I was being watched by “Santos” Trafficante, the Godfather of Tampa and Miami. He was also a good friend and ally of Carlos Marcello. Fortunately, Marcello liked me, which is why I believed that I had a chance to survive any threats from that direction.
“I’ll call you one more time. After that, I can’t call anymore,” Dave said “And now I have other calls to make. So, Vale, Soror” (“Be strong, sister.”)….
Dave Ferrie called me one last time, to deliver a message. He was adamant: we must never, ever, speak to each other again, for our own safety. He warned me that from now on, I must be “a vanilla girl.” My maiden name must never appear in the newspapers. I was to keep my head down, and forget about being a science star. Forever!… “I’ve stuck my neck out by calling you,” Dave said, at the end. “But Lee would have wanted me to.” Then he said “Goodbye, J.” ….The Texas Court of Appeals overturned Jack Ruby’s conviction and on December 7, 1966 ordered a new trial to be held outside of Dallas. Two days later, Ruby became ill and entered Parkland Hospital where doctors initially thought he had pneumonia, but quickly changed their diagnosis to lung cancer. Before the week was over, the Parkland doctors announced that Ruby’s lung cancer had advanced so far that it could not be treated (meaning it had spread to other parts of the body—Stage IV). The median survival time of a patient with Stage IV lung cancer is eight months, but twenty-seven days after the onset of his initial symptoms of cough and nausea, Jack Ruby was dead. Deputy Sheriff Al Maddox was Ruby’s jailer at the time. He later told researchers that Jack Ruby told him of being injected with cancer and handed him a note making that claim. Maddox also remembered what he described as a “phony doctor” had visited Ruby shortly before he became sick. A second law enforcement officer said Ruby had been placed in an x-ray room for about 15 minutes with the x-ray machine running constantly, an action that would have certainly compromised his immune system. The autopsy found the main concentration of cancer cells to be in Ruby’s right lung, but noted that cancer cells had spread throughout his body. These cells were sent to nearby Southwest Medical School for closer scrutiny using an electron microscope. Bruce McCarty, the electron microscope operator that examined Ruby’s cells had microvilli (tentacle-like extensions that grow out of the main cell), since microvilli were normally not seen in lung cancers. A decade later, however, cancer researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York noted that when cancer cells of various types and origins were suspended in specialized liquids they would form microvilli extensions “when settling on glass.” This is consistent with my description of the need to separate their suspended cancer cells from the sides of the glass thermos every couple days….
What became of one Dr. Mary Sherman who was an internationally famous cancer researcher after working on this bioweapons project?
Mary, Ferrie, and the Monkey Virus by Edward T. Haslam
Chapter 13: What’s Wrong With This Picture?
… What of this fire? What was the temperature inside her apartment? And just how badly burned was Mary Sherman’s body?
The newspapers were of no help on this question. Other than generally describing her body as “charred,” all the press ever said about the damage to Dr. Sherman’s body was one quote which appeared on the last day of the 1964 press coverage. It read:
The fire smoldered for some time – long enough to denude an innerspring and burn away the flesh from one of the doctor’s arms.
It is interesting to consider that this was the only detail the public heard about the actual damage done to the victim’s body until the police reports were released nearly thirty years later.
The Precinct Report said:
From further examination of the body, it was noted by the coroner that the right arm and a portion of the right side of the body extending from the right hip to the right shoulder was completely burned away exposing various vital organs.
The cause of death was…. 5. Extreme burns of right side of body with complete destruction of right upper extremity and right side of thorax (chest) and abdomen.
The Homicide Report summarized these same autopsy findings and added:
The right side of the body from the waist to where the right shoulder should be, including the whole right arm, was apparently disintegrated from the fire, yielding the inside organs of the body.
Further, it describes the clothes which were piled on top of her body, some of which had never even burned.
The body was nude; however, there was clothing which had apparently been placed on top of her body, mostly covering the body from just above the public area to the neck. Some of the mentioned clothes had been burned completely, while others were still intact, but scorched.
According to the Criminologist, the mentioned clothes were composed of synthetic material which would have to reach a temperature of about 500 F before it would ignite into a flame; however, prior to this, there would be a smoldering effect.
Just to be clear, let me state what I think this saying. If the temperature in the bedroom reached 500 degrees Fahrenheit (260 degrees C) the clothes piled on top of Mary would have ignited and burned. Yet they did not. Therefore, the temperature in the room did not reach 500 degrees. The police, however, attributed the massive destruction to her body, including the disintegration of her right arm and the right side of her torso, to this less-than-500 degree fire.
Whatever burned off Mary’s right arm and right torso had to be extremely hot! how hot? Who would know what temperature it took to burn a bone? Perhaps someone who cremated bodies for a living. Since I did not know anyone in that line of work, I reached for the yellow pages and looked under “F” for funerals. After several calls, I reached a very personable and articulate man whose job it was to prepare cremated remains for burial.
“What temperature does it take to completely burn a body?” I asked promptly, expecting a quick answer with the precise number of degrees.
“Including bones?” he queried immediately.
“Well, that gets straight to the heart of the matter. Yes, including bones. I am writing a book about someone whose arm was completely burned off in a fire, and I am trying to figure out what temperature would be needed to do that.”
“Burned their arm off?” he exclaimed. “How unusual! What happened to the rest of the body?”
“It was more or less still intact,” I answered cautiously, concerned that he was going to get us off track.
“That’s bizarre,” he said. “I can’t imagine that. Are you sure it wasn’t cut off somehow?”
While he still had not given me the temperature number, I was impressed with how fast he got to the heart of the matter. I had not said anything about the nature of the death. It could have been a car wreck as far as he knew. But I was determined to get a cremation temperature from him before discussing any circumstantial evidence which might somehow color his answer. So I politely asked him to tell me the temperature of a cremation oven.
He said, “Well, the cremation machines are automatic nowadays so you don’t have to set them, but an average cremation takes about two hours at about 1,600 degrees. But when you are finished, there are still bones! Depending on body size and fat content, some take longer. I have seen them as high as 2000 degrees and for as long as three hours. But when you are finished, you still have bones, or at least pieces of bones like joints, skull fragments, and knuckles.
I now had my cremation number, but I was busy thinking about his answers. In the lull, he offered to give me some background on cremations and explained some popular misconceptions. The common belief, he said, it that you put a body in the cremation machine and get back ashes. No, that’s not how it works. Yes, it’s true that there are some ashes produced by burning skin and soft tissue, but that’s a relatively small portion of what remains. Most of what is left after cremation is a box of dry bone parts. The next step is to grind up those remains so that they are unrecognizable. The final product is bone dust, a powdery substance that resembles ashes. Hence, the term and the misconception. What cremation technically does is rapidly dehydrate the bone material so that it splinters. Then it can be ground into a powder more easily. But bones do not burn. To emphasize his point he explained that even the skull cap, which is in the direct path of flame during cremation frequently survives.
While he was being very helpful and I was learning more about cremation than I anticipated, my goal was still to get a temperature figure which would explain Mary’s missing right arm, so I pressed on. “Can you estimate what temperature it would take to completely burn off an arm?”
“Knuckles and all?” he countered.
“Everything,” I confirmed.
“Well, it’s hard to say. Before I got in the business, I saw a lot of burns. Some were military pilots who crashed their jets and got drenched in jet fuel. I would have to get the bodies out of the wreckage. Jet fuel burns at thousands of degrees, but there were still bones left. I also saw people who had been covered with napalm and the like. But there were still bones left. I can’t imagine how hot or how long it would take to completely burn a bone to the point of disintegration, but it’s way up there.”
I was getting his point. If Mary’s entire apartment building had been burning out of control and had caved on top of her body, it could not have produced the type of damage described in the police report. The smokey mattress and the smoldering pile of clothes with their less-than-500 degree temperature were certainly not capable of destroying the bones in Mary’s right arm and rib cage. Then a critical point hit me: The crime scene did not match the crime. It is impossible to explain the damage to Mary’s arm and the right side of her body with the evidence found in her apartment. Or to put it even more bluntly, the damage to Mary’s right arm and thorax did not occur in her apartment. It had to happen somewhere else. Her body was then quietly brought back to her apartment and deposited so it could be found there. A second fire was set to create an explanation, however tenuous, for the burns suffered earlier. It’s no wonder nobody heard anything.
Something else had happened to Mary earlier that evening. It would require something more violent than a common house fire to disintegrate her entire arm and right rib cage. It would take something that could generate thousands, if not millions, of degrees of heat for a fraction of a second, vaporizing and destroying everything in its path. Something more on the scale of lightening or a fireball from an extremely high voltage electrical source which would destroy any tissue in its path, but leave the rest of the body which did not hit relatively intact. Perhaps it was even an extremely powerful beam of high-energy electro-magnetic radiation just like the one that disintegrated electrical engineer Jack Nygard when he accidentally got stuck in the path of his 5,000,000 watt linear particle accelerator near Seattle, Washington….
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