Crime doesn't pay

On the path to truth

By JANICE HARRIS

GREG Parker was only five years old when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, but he remembers the impact even as a young child.

Now, decades on, the first volume of the Orange shopkeeper’s three-part online book on the alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald has hit the number two spot on Amazon.com.

In the first chapter Mr Parker gives an account of a similar assassination in Columbia in 1948 and what he believes were the triggers for the start of the Korean War – both he says went on to impact on Kennedy’s assassination. In the second part of his first volume he recounts the life and influences on a young Lee Harvey Oswald until age 13.

As a teenager, Mr Parker began to take a deep interest in the assassination of Kennedy and in particular Oswald, the man accused of shooting the president as he drove in his motorcade along the streets of Dallas with his young wife beside him.

That interest bubbled along as he became a young man. Fourteen years ago, Mr Parker, who operates a corner store in Orange with his wife, began to seriously research the event which changed the course of American history, putting every spare minute into research.

“I became fascinated – he was always portrayed as a nut and a loser, but through my research I wanted to humanise him,” he said.

He expects the full three volumes of his research work to be published by later this year – to coincide with the release of the Warren Commission report on the assassination, which he and other critics say contained major flaws including selective interviewing of witnesses.

Mr Parker has amassed a body of work on the subject and is now named as a major expert on the topic, with his research referenced in many books published overseas.

Mr Parker has a higher profile in the United States, where he has been interviewed on radio networks and been invited to lecture on his theories about Oswald.

“I honestly have come to believe through my research he [Oswald] was an undiagnosed sufferer of Asperger’s syndrome which accounted for some of his behaviour,” he said.

Mr Parker said he believes Oswald was an innocent set up as the assassin, and says a photograph of a man he believes was Oswald taken on the front steps of the Texas Book Depository building proves Oswald was on his lunch break as the accused originally told police.

“There is an FBI document which consists of statements taken from every single book depository employee except Oswald accounting for their whereabouts at the time of the assassination. Using that document as well as other photos, films and

testimony, every other employee is ruled out of being the person circled,” Mr Parker said. “The bottom line, if we are right, is that this is photographic proof of his innocence – this was taken seconds after the shot rang out.”

Mr Parker said the sensational reporting around the assassination, Oswald and Jack Ruby, the man who shot Oswald while he was escorted by police, needs to be set aside.

“I say forget what you’ve seen on TV.”

Following his extensive research into Jack Ruby, Mr Parker said he was a man high on drugs and seeking fame when he shot Oswald.

“I think he was under immense pressure as a member of the Jewish community – he was in debt to the tune of $40,000 to the tax office and was full of methamphetamines at the time,” he said.

He says the haunting look of Oswald when he was arrested by police and paraded before the media with a cut over his eye continues to linger in his mind.

“The look on his face was the look of a man who was totally bewildered,” he said.

He also says his research will reveal Oswald could not have shot the police officer JD Tippet who died in a Dallas street 45 minutes after Kennedy was shot.

“I believe it was a totally unrelated random attack by someone else the authorities conveniently linked to Oswald,” he said.

Mr Parker says all the evidence emanating from the post mortem on Kennedy cannot be validated.

“That whole scene where the post-mortem took place was so contaminated it didn’t give any indication who did it,” he said.

Mr Parker says the driver for his countless hours of research over many years has been with one aim.

“It is about justice and setting the record straight,” he said.

He says he thinks the public will be surprised when they find out the truth behind the assassination of Kennedy.

“I have proof that a major political figure related by marriage to one of the main witnesses in the Kennedy administration set Oswald up,” he said.

Police turn to Al Capone method to trap gangsters

Police revealed they will be using the "Al Capone approach" in a major crackdown against criminals in Coventry.

West Midlands Police have sent out a warning to crooks that if they cannot catch them for serious offences then officers will be after them for more minor crimes.

The force intends to catch the city's villains by any means they can, even for crimes such as non-payment of Council Tax or not having a TV licence.

Police are referring to the crackdown as using the 'Al Capone approach' after the way the infamous Chicago gangster was jailed after being convicted of tax evasion in 1931.

Now police in Coventry feel they have already made an impact on a number of gangs in the city using the same method.

In the last 12 months leading members of one Coventry gang were jailed for their roles in a drugs conspiracy.

Superintendent Nick Walton said: "We'll be working with the Department of Work and Pensions, probation, educators, HMRC and others. We want to explore every way possible at reducing criminality.

"It's the Al Capone approach. A gang member may think they're untouchable from traditional policing methods but does the tax man know about their income? Is their TV licence up to date?

"It's a sideways look at it. It might be non-payment of Council Tax or even mortgage fraud. For some people there is no other option but to put them behind bars.

"We know there are people who are close to families involved in criminality - they might only be 12 or 13 at the moment - who might be propelled into that world.

"What we want to show people is these people trying to drive youngsters from urban street gangs into organised criminal gangs are negative role models."

"Maybe there's a person on your street who is living a lavish lifestyle and they're not doing anything to justify that."

Reputed mob associate faces sentencing

A man convicted in the attempted murder of a man who later became the boss of the New England Mafia is set to learn how long he will spend behind bars. Enrico Ponzo, who spent 16 years on the run, including a decade as a cattle rancher in Idaho under an alias, is scheduled to be sentenced Monday in US District Court in Boston. Prosecutors have recommended a 40-year-sentence, saying that Ponzo, 45, is a ‘‘vicious, violent, cold-blooded criminal.’’ Ponzo, representing himself, requested 15 years or less. He says he lived a ‘‘hard-working, selfless life in Idaho . . . as a stay-at-home dad’’ and community volunteer. He was convicted in November of several crimes, including the attempted murder in 1989 of Francis ‘‘Cadillac Frank’’ Salemme.

(Jack McGurn's) Green Mill

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