Comments submitted to newsgroups after the conference
From Tony Marsh to alt.conspiracy.jfk the evening after the conference
ended.
Message directed to John Hunt, another attendee.
Anthony Marsh
The Puzzle Palace http://www.boston.quik.com/amarshMessage-ID:
Date: Sun, 18 Apr 1999 18:11:08 -0400
From: AnthonyMarsh amarsh@quik.com
Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy.jfk
Subject: I am not a Zombie (I survived the Providence conference)
John,
I enjoyed meeting you at the Providence conference. I think you can confirm
for the naysayers that I was not converted into a Zombie by Ken Rahn. I thought
the students' presentations and interest in the case were good. They were the
most charming "zombies" I have seen. What few errors they made were
largely due to a lack of access to the primary documents. I hope to rectify that
by scanning in some documents and uploading them here and e-mailing them to Ken.
If you think of any documents which I mentioned that I fail to upload, just
remind me.
Anthony Marsh The Puzzle Palace http://www.boston.quik.com/amarsh
*******************************
John Hunt's reply, same evening
Anthony Marsh wrote:
John,
I enjoyed meeting you at the Providence conference. I think you can
confirm for the naysayers that I was not converted into a Zombie by Ken Rahn. I
thought the students' presentations and interest in the case were good. They
were the most charming "zombies" I have seen. What few errors they
made were largely due to a lack of access to the primary documents. I hope to
rectify that by scanning in some documents and uploading them here and e-mailing
them to Ken.
If you think of any documents which I mentioned that I fail to upload,
just remind me.
Anthony Marsh
The Puzzle Palace http://www.boston.quik.com/amarsh
I'm not Ken Rahn's Zombie......I'm not Ken Rahn's Zombie......I'm not Ken
Rahn's Zombie.......I'm not Ken Rahn's Zombie......I'm not Ken Rahn's
Zombie......I'm not Ken Rahn's Zombie......I'm not Ken Rahn's Zombie....I'm
not.......
Whoa....... Where am I....
Tony, I enjoyed our discussions as well. I can confirm that not only were you
not "Zombified," but also that you were the catalyst for many of the
most interesting challenges to the non-conspiracy folks. Kudos on your Zapruder
film presentation. IMHO, one of the best of the conference.
Ken Rahn's students obviously did their homework. Their presentations were
well thought out and reasoned. They have every right to feel proud today. Ken
Rahn is to be commended not only for teaching his students well, but for giving
them a crucial advantage should they continue to look into JFK's assassination.
That advantage is one that I developed on my own after having been misled by one
too many conspiracy authors. The advantage....Critical thinking.
JMH
**********************************
From John Hunt
To alt.conspiracy.jfk, 22 April 1999
I recently had the pleasure of attending the Providence JFK Conference. Being
my first JFK conference, I was unsure exactly what to expect. What I found was
the JFK assassination puzzle in a nutshell. I enjoyed myself immensely. More
importantly, I enjoyed face to face conversations with everyone I encountered.
The debates were lively and informative. I hope this conference is not my last.
Charles Drago's presentation was thorough. He laid forth indications of
conspiracy and cover-up. Said it was "war." Charles speech was a call
to action.
Ken Rahn's epistemology presentation was a scientific approach to evaluating
the evidence in the case. His method provided a means of assigning weight to
evidence. Belief vs. Proof. Ken used only the evidence known to be true in this
evaluation. His presentation was effective. I have but one complaint about Ken's
method. Eye and earwitness testimony carried no weight. Admittedly, deciding
which to include and exclude is difficult. Ken applied this method to the SBT
and concluded that it was valid. As you can imagine a lively debate ensued.
Next came Stewart Galanor, whose presentation was a synthesis of his new book
*Cover Up.* Stewart's visual presentation was excellent. Stewart detailed how
the medical evidence had been misrepresented by the WC.
Rex Bradford reviewed the documents relating to the medical evidence which
were release under the JFK Records Act. He talked about the possibility of two
brain examinations, the disparity between the various descriptions of JFK's head
wounds and the autopsy photos. Rex also discussed the differences in the
interpretation by the Clark Panel of the autopsy photographs as compared to
Humes, Boswell, and Finck's findings. Rex is currently producing a CD-ROM
archive of documents relating to the medical evidence in the JFK assassination.
I'll be looking for this one.
Tony Marsh raised the bar a few more notches for the Alterationists with his
excellent presentation on the authenticity of the Zapruder film. Tony detailed
the inner workings of the Bell & Howell camera that Zapruder used that day.
He explained exactly how the inter-sprocket ghost images were created and how
those images make it even less likely that the film was altered. Tony's work can
be found at The Puzzle Palace. Tony's command of the facts and issues involved
is astronomical and I particularly enjoyed our lenghty conversations.
Martin Kelly discussed the incoherence of the many conspiracy theories. He
presented his case for the authenticity of the back yard photos. His position on
Robert Groden's photo interpretation of the "face" in the sixth floor
west end window of the TSBD as seen in the Dillard photo matches my own. :-) Mr.
Kelly spoke with assurance and authority. While I don't personally agree with
some of the things he said, I respect his methodology and his forthrightness.
Ken Rahn' students presentations were all very well done. He, and they,
deserve very high marks. For those close-minded people who trashed the
conference, I say this; you were very wrong.
While all the student presentations were well done, one student in particular
gave a presentation that, IMHO, stood apart . Jean-Paul Dujardin's "Is the
Single Bullet Theory Possible?" was thorough, on point, concise, and
visually interesting. Mr. Dujardin had his facts down cold. He was very
effective. He fielded questions from the crowd with confidence.
Ken patiently gave me a crash course in NAA over dinner. Thanks Ken for the
crash course and the many informative side discussions. I enjoyed them very
much.
The high point for me personally was an impromptu "Bunch"
demontsration by yours truly. Tony Marsh was kind enough to bring a quality
slide of Croft #3. We put it on the wall in the conference room. It was about
3/4 life-size. Stewart Galanor and I hashed out the different ways the coat
could've been raised. Our heated discussion culminated with me marking his
jacket with chalk(with a ruler I brought for just that eventuality) and proving
to myself once just what Croft tells us. Then he put the jacket on me. Suffice
it to say Stewart has a very slim build while I'm a little more "big
boned." It was farcical and fun. Thank you Stewart for the copy of your
book.
Kudos to Ken Rahn and Charlie Drago and Gerry Tyler, of U.R.I., for an
excellent job. I hope this Conference leads to more.
There are people who presented that I have not mentioned because I'm running
out of time. I make the omission due to lack of time and no other reason.
Perhaps another participant can pick up the ball.
Time is running short at the moment so I gotta wrap it up.
Ooh...I forgot to mention the NAA presentation by Ken. :-)
JMH