Researcher Greg Doudna proposes a different look on Oswald's involvement in the General Walker murder attempt
Greg Doudna (pronounced "Dowd-na") has recently received publicity on his new article on the General Walker shooting. You can read his new theory here: https://www.scrollery.com/?p=1497
Greg discussed this theory on the Chuck Ochelli Podcast with researcher Larry Hancock.
https://ochelli.com/banks-plus-walker-shooting-revisited/ (start at the 1:00:00 mark)
Jefferson Morley mentions Greg's work with his legal advisor Larry Schnapf here: https://twitter.com/jeffersonmorley/status/1643357984456691713?s=20.
Background
For a few months now, this author has been corresponding with Greg Doudna on various topics in the JFK assassination. I found him to be respectful and civil and is open to different viewpoints in order to establish his own opinion. In no way would I label him a conspiracy theorist, rather someone who wants to explore the truth behind certain topics of interest for JFK researchers. When some wild-eyed conspiracy theorists tried to attack Ruth Paine, Greg (who knows Ruth personally), defended her reputation admirably. Ruth Paine is a long-time target of the knuckle-dragging conspiracy loons such as DiEugenio and his followers, who have been trying for years trying to paint her as a sinister figure with the CIA and/or framing Oswald. It's only fair to mention there are conspiracy believers who do not engage in the Ruth Paine bashing such as the aforementioned highly vocal fringe types.
Recently Greg has been in friendly contact with me regarding my research concerning General Walker. Most of the questions dealt with my chapter in the Gayle Nix Jackson book, Pieces of the Puzzle: An Anthology. Greg informed me that he would be writing an article on the Walker shooting that will be contrary to the long-held position of the Warren Commission findings and of the conspiracy advocates that hold the belief Oswald never took that shot at Walker. Greg is a well-educated man and considered to be a scholar of the Dead Sea Scrolls which gets into the religious aspects of interpretation of what they meant. That is a subject I know very little about, but with his theology educational background, it would be interesting to see how he applied his respected research capabilities to an entirely different subject as the Kennedy assassination. This of course would require a careful study of the primary documentation of the Walker shooting including the FBI investigation, the Dallas Police case reports, Warren Commission testimony and other associated documents.
Greg Doudna's Walker Shooting Summation
Greg informed me of his final article was completed and provided the link (above www. scrollery). Although he and I knew there would be disagreements, it's only fair to read it in its entirety, see the arguments made and judge for yourself. When I first clicked the link, I was not expecting an 85-page dissertation (PDF version). Right away, I knew the sheer length of his article would immediately turn off a large portion of those that didn't want to invest their time reading and studying. Nevertheless, it's there for all to see his arguments.
Greg summarizes his theory here, from the Education Forum, December 3, 2022.
(18) Conclusion
Until now there has been a basic schematic in which prior to Nov 22, 1963 the law enforcement view of the unsolved Walker shot seems to have focused overtly on it having been an inside job, if it was real, but with strong suspicions that it was a staged shot. Following the Kennedy assassination and killing of Oswald in November 1963, Oswald’s widow, Marina, confessed what she knew of the Walker shot. She told how Lee had told her he took the shot, told her how he did it, in agreement with other evidence which came to light (photos among Lee’s belongings; the Walker Note).
But Marina’s story did more than that: it was also regarded as taking off the table the idea that the shot may have been staged. As Marina told it from what Lee had told her, Lee had been serious about killing Walker. That became the settled narrative: Lee shot at Walker with intent to kill but missed, acting alone. But does what Oswald told Marina establish that the shot was attempted murder, as opposed to participation in the staged shot suspected all along in which Lee was a participant?
The information brought forth in the present study concerning Robert Surrey suggests a different possibility: that Oswald took the shot in coordination with Robert Surrey overseeing the planning of the shot on behalf of Walker. The shot was intended to look like an attempt on Walker’s life but at no time was Walker in actual danger; it was a staged shot. Part of staging a shot is pretending that it was real, and what Lee told Marina was part of pretending it was real, part of the staged shot. The central point is that both seemingly disparate lines of evidence become true: it was a staged shot by Walker, and Oswald fired the shot that Walker staged.
All that needs to be supposed is the reasonable proposition that Lee did not tell Marina everything. What Marina told the Secret Service and FBI post-Nov 22 becomes interpreted as reflecting only what Lee told her, one valuable but incomplete spotlight into what happened the night of April 10, 1963. The stories of Kirk Coleman and David Surrey represent second and third spotlights on a fuller understanding of the same events. What Marina told of Lee related to the Walker shot is best understood as essentially true and incomplete rather than fabricated.
That Oswald was working with others and not by himself in the runup to the Walker shot may come to be seen as making better sense of certain things that have long been puzzling. To begin with there is the sustained period of time Oswald, supposedly entirely on his own, worked on and planned the Walker shot, at least two months according to Marina. There are the logistical and practical matters of Lee without a car, getting back and forth on multiple occasions, how the rifle practice worked.
Witness testimony not previously known and appreciated has been cited of Robert Surrey and Oswald in relationship, as the back story to the Walker shot. It may be that when Oswald took the shot into the Walker house on April 10, 1963, Oswald was participating in a staged shot in cooperation with Robert Surrey working for Walker.
This has not been an attempt to answer all questions, but an attempt to establish a framework for asking some right questions.
[END]
Edited December 3, 2022, by Greg Doudna
To sum it up, Greg theorizes Oswald was involved with Robert Surrey in staging a fake shot into an empty room of the Walker home as a publicity stunt. Greg relies heavily on two videos of the Robert Surrey sons, David and William (Bill). From there he builds a scenario where Robert Surrey and his son David were in the Walker home at the time of the "fake" shot, then getting into Robert Surrey's 1961 Ford Sunliner convertible, parked in the adjacent LDS church parking lot (along the fence line of the Walker home) and take off and 14-year-old Kirk Coleman witnesses that Surrey car.
Whew!
Here are the two Robert Surrey sons' videos:
David Surrey (the older brother)
Bill Surrey, the younger brother.
For the record, I viewed these videos years ago before they were posted on You Tube by Allen Trent. Allen was a friend of David Surrey in Dallas. I too was very interested in what these Surrey brothers had to say about their father and General Walker. When I first made contact with Allen Trent, he hinted around that this was an untold major story that was significant as it relates to the General Walker shooting. Allen was understandably guarded with these personal accounts in which he captured on video. Getting nowhere, Gayle Nix Jackson then pursued it. When Gayle sets her sights on digging in on a story, she is persistent to the end. I had strong confidence in Gayle that she would eventually bring this story to light. She did, and published it in her book, Pieces of the Puzzle: An Anthology.
When I eventually viewed both of these videos, I was not impressed with David Surrey's story of Oswald hanging out with his father and General Walker. Frankly I thought it was a made-up B.S. story. Otherwise, Bill Surrey was more grounded in his recollections and in my opinion more believable. I learned later that David Surrey had some personal health problems and eventually died in 2013 of COPD related illness. You can see David on oxygen in the Bill Surrey interview. However, there are some good excerpts in those videos that bring to light Robert Surrey's involvement with George Lincoln Rockwell's Nazi party. That I found interesting from their view as kids.
Needless to say, Greg relied heavily on these videos, and it served as the foundation to his thesis in regard to the General Walker shooting.
Major Cracks in Greg's Story
Before I get into the itemized list of contrary evidence, I should point out what Greg does not buy into the crazy steel-jacketed bullet controversy. He most certainly believes that Oswald used his Mannlicher Carcano in the shooting (see page 39 on Scrollery link). This is entirely correct and well founded as the bullet slug was copper jacketed, not a steel jacketed bullet. Lots of evidence to back that up. There's some silly Education Forum discussion that either the Dallas Police or the FBI substituted the bullet (CE573) to frame Oswald. These are crackpot theories and Greg doesn't make that assertion at all, to his credit.
1 - Robert Surrey's 1961 Ford Sunliner convertible parked in the LDS parking lot?
Greg tries to make a case that Surrey's black over white (black convertible top) was one of the cars that Kirk Coleman saw parked along the Walker fence line in the LDS parking lot. For those not familiar with the Walker shooting, a 14-year-old kid named Kirk Coleman heard the shot and quickly left the back porch of his God-Father's home on 4338 Newton Street, which was located behind the LDS church parking lot. Coleman traveled a short distance of 14 feet (porch to fence) and was there quickly, within seconds. He hopped up on a bicycle leaning on the stockade fence and observed two men in two separate cars in the parking lot. The #1 man was getting into a 1950 Ford (#1 car) parked directly in front of Coleman. This was the closest to Coleman. The #2 man observed by Coleman was in the parking lot going to his 1958 two door Chevrolet (tudor is the old description) vehicle (#2 car) parked along the Walker fence line. What should be noted from the various Dallas Police case reports and the FBI follow-up investigation a year later are the colors and description of both vehicles are somewhat different. But what is consistent is the year and the make of both vehicles, 1950 Ford and 1958 Chevrolet. Let's take a look where Greg thinks the black over white 1958 Chevrolet was mistaken for a black over white 1961 Ford Sunliner.
As you can see from this FBI photo from Kirk Coleman's vantage point, he could see the vehicle #2 parked clearly. Coleman would have a side view of the parked vehicle. Although Surrey's car was a black over white, how do you mistake a 2-door hardtop 1958 Chevrolet from a 1961 Ford Sunliner convertible? Here are some old car show room brochures to compare.
Granted, if it was Surrey's car, he would have had his convertible top on. What easily discounts this as Surrey's car is this from the original DPD case report.
The problem here is 1961 Ford Sunliner convertibles don't have dome lights. It most certainly was a hard top vehicle.
2 - Robert Surrey was staying at the Walker home when the shot rang out?
This assertion by Greg is from his reliance on the Surrey brother's videos, mainly David Surrey. Robert Surrey clearly stated in his Warren Commission testimony that he was at home when General Walker called him about the attempted shot. Sadly, Greg thinks Surrey was telling the Warren Commission a huge whopper. Surrey did take the fifth many times in his testimony, as he was reluctant to appear and for a good reason. Surrey was nailed for printing up those "Wanted for Treason" flyers that were scattered about in Dallas before Kennedy came to town. As a Bircher, he shared a burning hatred for Chief Justice Earl Warren. He repeatedly refused to answer questions regarding those flyers. However, Surrey did cooperate with the Warren Commission lawyers on answering questions regarding the General Walker shooting. He even drew diagrams of the layout of Walker's home and surrounding area. Here's one he drew of the Walker room or office where he was located. We will refer back to this diagram later.
CE1014, Surrey diagram of Walker's Office ("A" is the window the shot came through)
Therefore, what would be the reason Surrey lied about not being in the Walker home when the bullet came crashing through the window? Again, Greg poses it was in conjunction with the "staged or phony shot". As mentioned earlier, David Surrey claimed he was in the house with his father at the time. Is that true?
When news broke in Dallas that Robert Surrey was subpoenaed to appear before the Warren Commission for testimony, a Dallas Times Herald reporter interviewed his wife, Mary for information.
As you can see Mary Surrey clearly states, "the former general telephoned her husband immediately after the shooting and asked him to come over". Robert Surrey was at home as he testified to the Warren Commission. Was Mary Surrey in on this fake shooting plan? I seriously doubt that. There will be more on Walker staying home alone that night in an upcoming article.
3 - Walker's slight wounds in his right arm.
For some reason Greg ignored the obvious, Walker's visible wounds in his arm. He does mention Surrey getting some tweezers and digging out fragments of bullet casing and/or glass but he never reconciles it. If you look back up to Surrey's diagram of Walker's office, you can see where Walker was sitting at his desk working on his 1962 tax return. It is abundantly clear Walker's right arm was exposed to the window where the shot came through. Does anyone in their right mind think Surrey and Walker faked this wound? Of course, it's silly. Here's a Dallas Morning News blurb about that (article credit: Mark Ulrik, originally noticed by researcher Tim Brennan).
Dallas Morning News, April 14, 1963, note: 30.06 was incorrectly described in some newspapers' articles. The case report clearly states it was unknown caliber
4 - Was the #2 Man really Robert Surrey?
Recall the fact that Kirk Coleman saw two individuals that night in the LDS parking lot. The closest man to Coleman was getting into a 1949 or 1950 Ford (#1). The #2 man was also in the parking lot and was headed to his parked vehicle along the Walker fence line. Coleman described the #2 man as 6'1, about 200 lbs. Greg then uses this description of Surrey from Ernie Lazar's FOIA collection.
The above description of Robert Surrey of course would be the most accurate. Sadly, Ernie Lazar passed away recently but amassed an incredible collection of FOIA's, many of them were of known hate groups, such as the above document on Surrey's involvement with Rockwell's American Nazi party. A few years ago, I worked with Ernie on a few items when he was researching the accuracy of Dr. Jeffrey Caufield's book, General Walker and the Murder of President Kennedy.1
Greg then tries to make a case that the #2-man, 6'1, 200 lb individual was Robert Surrey. This appears to be a bit of "shoehorning" to me as you can make that case for any man in that height range.
Here is an old film clip of Robert Surrey talking to George Lincoln Rockwell about the nutty American Nazi Party (ANP) organization, just as both Surrey boys alluded to in their videos. I'm not sure of the date of this film, but if I had to guess the scenes with Rockwell and Surrey could be around 1965-1966, as Rockwell was assassinated in August 1967. Warning: this film has many highly racist slurs and language, which I do not condone in any shape or manner. Befitting of these toy soldier racists, it ends with the old Nazi anthem, the Horst Wessel Song. Surrey is first seen in the 11:40 mark and has more appearances throughout the film. Note: because of the extremist racial overtones of this film, You Tube has this age-restricted and will require logging into your YT account to view.
There is another film clip of Robert Surrey in this news film clip taken on both days, April 10th and 11th. Surrey is seen beginning at the 0.58 mark on April 11th.
Greg feels that the #2 man that Kirk Coleman saw in the LDS parking lot (not in the car yet) was Robert Surrey. If Surrey was in the Walker home at the time of the shot, then he would have to travel out the back door, walk the 35-40 feet out to the alley, then travel another 40 feet or so into the alley entrance of the parking lot and then walk some distance into the parking lot where Kirk Coleman saw him. As you recall, in the FBI reenactement of Coleman leaving his back porch to the fence line and hopping up on the bicycle, was only seconds. There is no way Surrey could get there that fast if he was inside the Walker home.
Another point, if this was a staged shot, then why did Oswald fire from the alley where the chipped piece was noticed on the lattice fence? That position risked exposure, and why not fire the fake shot inside the Walker backyard where he would be more concealed inside the fence. And naturally, why did he hit the window frame if it was a fake shot? This doesn't make sense.
5 - The foundation of this story falls apart
Directing your attention to the Jefferson Morley podcast on Greg's article, the story takes a significant downturn to Greg's theory. At roughly the 18:00 mark, Morley explained that he called Bill Surrey to confirm this story told by his brother David. Bill said David made up the story.
And there you have it; nothing more has been said about this Breakthrough. It did appear on the Mary Ferrell website here.
Conclusion
Unfortunately, Greg got duped. When someone tells you a story, the first natural reaction is to believe they are telling the truth. Unfortunately, in the JFK assassination, there's no shortage of false and exaggerated stories that mislead researchers. This is just another example, as Jefferson Morley did his due diligence and exposed the fake story as told by David Surrey. Greg is a good researcher and I'm sure he will be extra cautious next time.
1 - Having read Dr. Caufield's book years ago, I do not agree with his assertion that General Walker was involved in a plot to kill President Kennedy. His book however is a great reference book into the various hate groups and extreme right-wingers. He has done a lot of research over the years, and it's well sourced. His conclusions are flawed in my opinion.