JFK's real assassins conspired in
Winnipeg Airport: theorist
by Lindor Reynolds, Winnipeg Free Press Columnist
Winnipeg Free Press, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
November 22, 2000
John Bevilaqua is a conspiracy theorist, a man
determined to unearth the real killer or killers of John F. Kennedy.
The Web site developer not only believes Lee Harvey Oswald was a fall guy, he
also believes the key to the conspiracy lies in Winnipeg.
It's a strange story that has tenuous roots in reality, anchored by countless
pages of supporting documents and computer files that Bevilaqua, 53, uses to
support his passionate argument that "The Winnipeg Airport Incident"
points to the real killer or killers. Express an interest in the topic and you will be bequeathed a
mountain of faxes, emails and relevant Web sites.
Kennedy was shot dead in Dallas 37 years ago today. Thousands of Kennedy buffs,
ranging from serious academic researchers to the sort of people who also want to
prove that Elvis lives, have spent time speculating on who killed him and why.
"I guess you could call me a mild obsessive-compulsive," says the
affable Bevilaqua from his Rhode Island office. "I guess for the past nine
years I've spent about 10 per cent of my waking hours on this."
His wife tolerates his obsession, he says.
"When she asks me to do the dishes, I'll say, "Honey, I'm on the trail
of the assassins," he laughs.
"The Winnipeg Airport Incident" is also known as "The Richard
Giesbrecht Incident." It is important to note that neither name appears in
the majority of the legions of books published on the Kennedy assassination. It reigns only on the Internet, safe haven for
conspiracy theorists of all stripes. But Bevilaqua is positive that an ordinary
Winnipeg accountant (sic), accidentally overheard a conversation
between the real killers—or at least the men who hired the killers.
On February 13, 1964, Richard Elvin Giesbrecht was having a drink in the Horizon
Room at the Winnipeg airport. Giesbrecht, then 35 and the father of four,
overheard three men discussing what appeared to be their involvement in Kennedy's assassination. In
his later report to the RCMP and the FBI, Giesbrecht said the men appeared
knowledgeable about the murder. He jotted notes while they talked,
carefully detailed their appearance and later told officials he felt threatened
by the presence of one of the man.
It could have been dismissed as the imagination of a mid afternoon drinker, but
wasn't. Giesbrecht was eventually asked to testify at the New Orleans conspiracy
trial of Clay Shaw, a businessman charged with conspiracy to murder Kennedy. In the end, the
Winnipeg man's story was rejected by authorities. His claims
received wide media attention.
Giesbrecht died in 1990. Today his widow, Nadia, refuses to talk about her
husband's brush with fame. "My husband has passed away and so has the
story.", she said this week.
Bevilaqua isn't about to let the story die.
"I think the killing was the work of The Pioneer Fund, a right-wing
organization," he says. "One hundred times, yes, I think they were
behind it."
He believes the three men in the airport bar were Rev. Gerald L. K. Smith, whom
he calls "a Nazi sympathizer"; Anastase "Annie" Vonsiatsky,
a German-American once sentenced to five years in prison for violation of The
Espionage Act; and either Ronald A. Gostick or Patrick J. Walsh, both allegedly
extreme right-wingers. They were in Winnipeg, Bevilaqua believes, to attend a meeting of the Canadian
Anti-Communist League.
"This story has unfortunately been relegated to a very, very small footnote
in history," he says. "There are a number of us who believe (the)
Richard Giesbrecht (Incident) holds the key."
As for Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who took the official blame for the murder,
Bevilaqua says he was likely a trained assassin who was selected to go down for
the murder. The conspiracy theorist says that if Oswald pulled the trigger, "he was acting under
hypnotic suggestion."
The Richard Giesbrecht Incident could be truth, fiction or, more likely, some
muddy combination. For John Bevilaqua, it's an historical fact he is determined
to prove. It's been 37 years but he's still trying.