Josiah Thompson at the COPA Awards Dinner, Oct. 21
Looking out over a banquet room crowded with hundreds of well-fed assassination researchers, it was difficult to picture the humble beginnings of what we know today as the assassination research community. Difficult, that is, for those of us who were either kids or not yet born during the months following the release of the Warren Report.
For those who lived it, of course, it was often painfully real. An intimate acquaintence of one researcher has written, "The days after the assassination were tough. Most of us felt grief, and anger, and a terrible feeling of helplessness."
Speaking at the 1995 COPA conference, author Josiah Thompson recalled those early days when the fallacies of the Warren Commission were just starting to be understood. "Scattered around the country were isolated individuals working pretty much on their own...who gradually put together a kind of network." Their work began exposing the transparencies of the Warren Report for all to see, and finally resulted in the re-opening of the case by the House Select Committee on Assassinations.
Four of those early Warren critics were honored this past October 21 with an award named for a fifth. The Sylvia Meagher Lifetime Achievement Award was bestowed on Mary Ferrell, Penn Jones, Harold Weisberg, and Thompson himself.
One point: I was unable to find out how these honorees were selected---and that, I'm afraid, is my fault. I can only blame it on the tremendous hustle and bustle of a busy weekend. Still, it would be nice to know how they were selected, because it seems to me there were some omissions. Why were the contributions of, for example, Mark Lane or Mae Brussell---regardless of what one may think of them---not acknowledged?
The first to be honored at the COPA banquet was Mary Ferrell. Ferrell was a Dallas resident at the time of the assassination. Immediately, she began collecting every available scrap of literature related to the case; over the years she amassed what may be the most comprehensive private archive of JFK assassination material.
Her award was presented by attorney Jim Lesar of the Assassination Archives Research Center. "I cannot think of anyone who has given more of herself---more time, more energy, more resources---to try to find out the facts and circumstances regarding the assassination of President Kennedy," Lesar told the gathering. "She was one of the few women---Sylvia Meagher being the other particularly outstanding example---who involved themself as deeply in the case as men have done...Mary was motivated by a kind of patriotism. She was deeply disturbed by the events in Dallas. She felt that not only had the Presidency of the United States been seriously wounded, but the political system of the United States had suffered a great injury. She wanted to do all she could to set the record straight, and find the truth."
Penn Jones Jr., who single-handedly owned and operated the now-defunct Midlothian Mirror in Midlothian, Texas, was described by COPA's John Judge as "an honest journalist who was on the spot on November 22, 1963---and would that we had been blessed with a few more." Jones wrote extensively on the assassination over the years in a series of hard-hitting editorials. As Maxwell Geismar wrote, Jones was "simply an old-fashioned country editor, in a now almost vanished tradition of personal integrity, independent thinking and concern for the truth---in the deepest sense, concern for his country."
His award was presented by Judge. "Penn likes to relate a little joke about a loser in a fight who defends his shortcoming by claiming, 'Yeah, but I made the other guy holler.' Penn made them all holler---from the local John Birch Society to the KKK, to the Dallas Police Department to the nation's media, and the government officials who crafted that lie called the Warren Commission investigation. And in the end, though he feels we've lost for now, he says, 'They took the country, and they aren't about to give it back without a fight.' And that's the fight he hopes to enlist us in now."
Neither Ferrell nor Jones were at the Awards dinner in person, and their plaques are to be delivered to them by COPA. Harold Weisberg, the next honoree, wasn't there either. But COPA's Dr. Gary Aguilar said, "Harold Weisberg was informed of the award and was actually rather touched by it." Weisberg is regarded as the dean of assassination critics. The author of eight books on the case---most recently Never Again!, published by Carroll and Graf earlier this year---Weisberg has the reputation of being a no-nonsense researcher who can be difficult to get along with. "So we sent our emissaries out to talk to him," Aguilar continued, "with some trepidation, wondering whether we should actually report back what he said." But in spite of this trepidation, Dr. Aguilar held a small tape recorder up to his microphone and played a short message from Mr. Weisberg.
"Of course, this is a surprise, and of course it is very pleasant," Weisberg said. "I had no idea about any of this because as you know, I don't travel. I knew there was a COPA meeting, but I didn't pay much attention to what they have up there. But I'd like to suggest perhaps others will think of continuing, and not being discouraged, and trying to do what they can, and do it accurately, because I think it's important that we not deceive or mislead the people. We ought to let the government have a monopoly on that---the government, and the Posners and the few who are like them. But I do appreciate this very much---very much---and I thank you all for it."
Cyril Wecht presented the final award of the night, which went to Josiah Thompson, author of the landmark book Six Seconds in Dallas. Thompson was the only honoree to show up in the flesh, and perhaps because of that, and the lateness of the hour, things took on the atmosphere of a Friar's Club roast---for a few minutes, at least. "It kind of like was a mistake that he got this award," Wecht said. "When we decided we were going to do this, give these awards---there's going to be a banquet, we would all be tired, and so on---the last thing we needed was for the recipients of the awards to be there, right?" The room began breaking into laughter, which increased as Wecht continued. "We wanted people who were dead, too old, or sick. But he crossed us up. We had checked with his secretary and his wife, and were assured that he would be in either India or Colombia. But goddamit, here he is."
Thompson had no prepared remarks, but did speak off-the-cuff for about twenty minutes. "Thank you. I'm deeply honored with this award...but I'm also troubled by it. What flashed through my mind was those awful Oscar ceremonies, when the Lifetime Achievement Award is given to somebody who hasn't done squat in years."
Thompson said he was drawn into the JFK case after he found himself thrown in jail. "I'd been arrested in the Philadelphia area for littering---for passing out American Friends Service brochures on the War, on the Vietnam War. Ended up being busted by the Sheriff. So they called up the ACLU, and the ACLU sent Vince Salandria to get us out. And he bluffed our way right out of the police station. So I started talking to Vince as we were riding away from the police station, because I'd read his articles." One thing led to another, and the two were soon collaborating on new articles. That collaboration fell apart due to disagreement over details of the assassination, but Thompson was by this time far enough along in his research that he wound up producing Six Seconds.
"I went on the usual book tour," Thompson continued, "and in one major city, started being attacked as a CIA agent. And it became clear, within a day or so, that that charge was coming from Ray Marcus and Vince Salandria. Vince Salandria was the guy who started me in all this! And, so that left a very sour taste in my mouth. And very soon thereafter, the Garrison investigation crashed and burned, and Sylvia and I both felt that Garrison shouldn't be touched with a ten foot pole. And at that point everything really turned around.
"So my experiences, then, in the late sixties, was of the origins of a community of inquiry into the assassination. I've [since] glanced in from time to time at what was going on, but I never really felt at home in any community of inquiry like I had.
"Now, that brings me to us, tonight. And to the difference between a community of inquiry and a debating society. A debating society is where egos clash. Where the atmosphere is poisoned by the high testosterone level. Where people score points off each other, where they have to protect positions, where they have grudges from years ago or months ago or weeks ago...where the ego exists---not the community, but the ego.
"Now, it struck me in listening to what was going on today [at the COPA conference] that there was the opportunity for something very good to happen. It seems to me that there are researchers in this room, whose presentations I have seen, that are quite remarkable. They're detailed, they're rigorous---and they're new. Important stuff. It seems to me that in the history of this case, the House Select Committee and their work is enormously significant. It is a watershed of a whole lot of new information.
"And I had the happy opportunity to go and have a drink with Andy Purdy...and it was a quite amazing conversation to come out of that...
"And it struck me that that sort of thing could happen---that there are resources in the Select Committee, which, if brought together with resources in this group in the right way, could produce much more than was produced here today. Because I think the sessions today were sort of a mixture---of inquiry and debating society. There were too many positions taken, too many egos bumping into each other.
"Here's what I recommend: would it be possible to put together working groups around particular questions or issues? The questions could be, was the entry hole in the head? Was Oswald and intelligence agent?
"A small group would meet. Those people would be drawn from the veterans of the House Select Committee in that particular area, and the people, the experts, the researchers from this committee, who've been working on that. The rules would be: no points, folks. No tape recorders, no notes---you can't quote anybody---right? Nobody's at risk, because everybody in this working group is working toward a common end. And the hope would be that there might be some sort of working paper that would come out of that group. In fact, the discussions could advance the state of the art during that time...
"In other words, getting away from the [...] where people talk at each other and hold positions, and where their egos are involved, to put together a mechanism by virture of which, real progress could be made. Because I am convinced...that enormous benefit can come from [this].
"In any case...that's a proposal I wanted to throw out to see what all the rest of you thought about it. (Applause...) And I wanted to thank Cyril and this organization in particular---I've never been honored before! Thanks a million."
Mr. Thompson stepped down from the podium to enthusiastic applause.
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