Bioweapons | The Silent War

A Critically Important Lesson on Microbe Sex, Vaccine technologies, and Power
Human sex, as interesting and as pleasurable as it can be, in action is not as fascinating in biology as microbe sex. Microbe porn is far more fascinating genetically. We can be very thankful to our beautiful sun that lights our world because it is directly responsible for the biological invention of sex.
âBesides protective filtering, there was another excellent strategy for surviving the damaging rays of the ancient sun. The development of mechanisms for repairing sun-damaged DNA turned out to be a most powerful tool for the building of the microcosm as well as the rest of the biosphere that arose from it. For example, a common mode of destruction of bacterial DNA by ultraviolet light is the production of âthymine dimers.â Thymine, instead of pairing with its complement, adenine, becomes chemically confused and pairs with itself, entangling the DNA molecule to the point of uselessness. Death will ensue unless repair enzymes fix up the mess. Such repair enzymes remove the disabled portionâthe thymine dimerâand copy new, healthy DNA to replace it. In other words, bacteria threatened by ultraviolet radiation had just developed DNA splicing, the mechanism that is exploited today in the laboratory under the rubric of genetic engineering. Nearly all organisms today still have repair enzymes, even though life has been shielded from harmful ultraviolet rays by an atmospheric ozone layer for 2,000 million years. In many bacteria to this day, repair enzymes must be activated by light.
The pressure to patch up damaged DNA or die induced the development of DNA repair systems. Sometimes instead of using healthy copies of their own genetic material, crowded bacteria borrowed DNA from their neighbors. In modern bacteria, bits of genetic information in the form of various DNA fragments are passed among different strains of bacteria. Although exchange is easiest between bacteria that are metabolically similar, any strain can potentially receive genes from any other through a succession of intermediaries. This allows genetic information to be distributed in the microcosm with an ease and speed approaching that of modern telecommunicationsâif the complexity and biological value of the information being transferred is factored in. By trading genes, bacterial populations are kept primed for their role in their particular environment and individual bacteria pass on their genetic heritage.
By adapting to life under harsh light, the microcosm had invented sex. Though this first sex was different from the kind of sex animals are involved in, it was sex all the same. Sex, as recognized by biologists, is the mixing or union of genes from separate sources. It is not to be equated with reproduction, since an old organism can receive new genes and thereby have sex without reproducing itself. Sex always involves at least one live organism, but the second source of genes does not have to be alive; it can be a virus or even DNA in a test tube.
On the early earth there came a time when a bacterium replaced some of its sun-damaged genes with fresh ones from a virus, a live bacterium, or even the old, discarded DNA of a dead cell. That bacterium had sex. More fluid and more frequent than the meiotic âsperm-and-eggâ sex of animals, which is locked into process of reproduction, bacterial sex immeasurably intensified the complexity of the microcosm. Because bacteria may mix genes at any time and are not confined to doing so only during reproduction, they are far more genetically promiscuous than animals.
Since bacterial gene-transfer does not depend on reproduction, it takes a little explaining to get used to. At the beginning of the bacterial sex act there are two partners. At the end there usually is only one sexually produced offspring; the parent itselfâthe recombinant bacterium that now carries genes from two sources. The bacterium, without even reproducing, may now carry 90 percent new genes. More casual and more immediately required for survival in otherwise hostile environments, this first kind of sex is really quite different from animal and plant sex which is tied to reproduction. Bacterial sex preceded animal sex by at least 2,000 million years and, like a trump card, it permitted all sorts of microbes to stay in the evolutionary game.â â Microcosmos: Four Billion Years of Microbial Evolution by Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan
Pages 81 â 83
Very few working class citizens understand the science of vaccination technologies. Rule number 1, biology is not a belief system. You would never say that you believe in computer systems. You either understand them or you do not. Biology explains the complex building and construction processes of our anatomy as well as functionality of the internal systems of living things. Many even confuse science and technology and âbelieveâ they equate each other. Science and technology are not the same thing so please donât confuse the two.
For example, biological scientific research can explain the specific biological mechanisms of how phenols destroy our biological machines from their monkey wrench actions that disrupt cellular processes to sabotaging entire organ system functionality. Phenols are a technology utilized to build synthetics for making many consumer products. Phenols are unfortunately quite similar to computer viruses in most living species.
Understanding important biological truths helps you understand implications of manufacturing processes and the impacts of these technologies.
One of the most significant studies that provided much âscientific understandingâ about the nature of microbes occurred during the creation and development of vaccine âtechnologies.â An experiment in 1928 by Frederick Griffith, an English physician trying to find a vaccine for Streptococcus pneumonae (a bacteria that causes pneumonia), provided the first insights into the chemical nature of genetic information.
Griffith worked with two strains of the bacteria, one virulent (S strain) and one benign (the R strain). Virulence is an inherited trait, or lack of it, must be genetically coded.
Griffith found that heat-killed S-strain bacteria did not cause immunity in mice. He next injected a mix of dead S-strain and live R-strain bacteria into a mouse. Unexpectedly, this mouse died, and Griffith found living S-strain bacteria in it.
Griffith concluded correctly that the living bacteria had incorporated something from the dead bacteria that transformed them into live S-strain bacteria. Griffith later showed that this could even be done in a beaker. The substance responsible for this transformation must be genetic material, although Griffithâs work could only isolate this âtransforming principleâ (as he called it), not identify it.
Microbes are the most promiscuous life forms because they have rapid and unique abilities to share genes with one another. This is why scientists were so alarmed when they discovered that monkey kidneys contained viruses that we human species did not evolve with. The implications of utilizing virus contaminated monkey kidney cells in vaccine production was exceptionally sobering because of the nature of introducing viruses into our species that we did not evolve with as well as their interactions with the other weak or dead microbes utilized in vaccines.
Another experiment by Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase in 1952 provided definitive evidence that DNA was the genetic material and this should help you understand the implications of utilizing virus contaminated cells in vaccine manufacturing. SV-50, SIV, and more were discovered in monkey and chimpanzee kidney cells. The human species did not evolve to contain these specific viruses.
Viruses are non-cellular entities made of DNA with an outer layer of protein. Viruses cannot reproduce on their own; instead, they typically attach themselves to cells and inject material that causes the cells to produce viruses until they explode.
Hershey and Chase worked with a bacteriophage (bacteria-eating virus) and used radioactive isotopes to label and independently track the movement of proteins and DNA. They demonstrated conclusively that the material injected into the bacteria cell by the virus was DNA, not protein; they reasoned that the substance injected into the cell must be genetic material if it could take over control of the cell.
With all the knowledge youâve acquired above then think of the implications that scientists discovered that the primate kidney cells utilized in vaccine production were contaminated with over 40 viruses. (Viruses we humans did not evolve with.) This fact has been carefully concealed from the working class people for decades.
The Spanish Flu was not caused by a virus. That is an important fact.
For those of you who watched American Experience on PBS, you came to learn that the first cases of âSpanish Fluâ occurred at Fort Riley, Kansas in 1918. Then you should ask how is it possible this historically important event could be so badly misnamed 100 years ago and never corrected? Why was it then not called the Fort Riley Military Epidemic?
âThe 1918-19 bacterial vaccine experiment at Fort Riley, Kansas may have killed 50-100 million people worldwide.
In the late 19th century through the early 20th century, New York became the home of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now Rockefeller University). The Institute is where the modern pharmaceutical industry was born. The Institute pioneered many of the approaches the pharmaceutical industry uses today, including the preparation of vaccine serums. The vaccine used in the Fort Riley experiment on soldiers was made in horses.
If the origin of the pandemic involved a vaccine experiment on US soldiers, then the US may prefer calling it Spanish Flu instead of The Fort Riley Bacteria of 1918, or something similar. The Spanish Flu started at the location this experimental bacterial vaccine was given making it the prime suspect as the source of the bacterial infections which killed so many.
It would be much more difficult to maintain the marketing mantra of âvaccines save livesâ if a vaccine experiment originating in the United States during the years of primitive manufacturing caused the deaths of 50-100 million people.
According to a 2008 National Institute of Health paper, bacterial pneumonia was the killer in a minimum of 92.7% of the 1918-19 autopsies reviewed. It is likely higher than 92.7%.
The researchers looked at more than 9000 autopsies, and âthere were no negative (bacterial) lung culture results.â
â⊠In the 68 higher-quality autopsy series, in which the possibility of unreported negative cultures could be excluded, 92.7% of autopsy lung cultures were positive for â„1 bacterium. ⊠in one study of approximately 9000 subjects who were followed from clinical presentation with influenza to resolution or autopsy, researchers obtained, with sterile technique, cultures of either pneumococci or streptococci from 164 of 167 lung tissue samples.
There were 89 pure cultures of pneumococci; 19 cultures from which only streptococci were recovered; 34 that yielded mixtures of pneumococci and/or streptococci; 22 that yielded a mixture of pneumococci, streptococci, and other organisms (prominently pneumococci and nonhemolytic streptococci); and 3 that yielded nonhemolytic streptococci alone. There were no negative lung culture results.â (3)
Pneumococci or streptococci were found in â164 of (the) 167 lung tissue samplesâ autopsied. That is 98.2%. Bacteria was the killer.
WHERE DID THE SPANISH FLU BACTERIAL PNEUMONIA OF 1918-19 ORIGINATE?
When the United States declared war in April 1917, the fledgling Pharmaceutical industry had something they had never had before â a large supply of human test subjects in the form of the US militaryâs first draft.
Pre-war in 1917, the US Army was 286,000 men. Post-war in 1920, the US army disbanded, and had 296,000 men.
During the war years 1918-19, the US Army ballooned to 6,000,000 men, with 2,000,000 men being sent overseas. The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research took advantage of this new pool of human guinea pigs to conduct vaccine experiments.
(Please read the Fort Riley paper in its entirety so you can appreciate the carelessness of the experiments conducted on these troops.) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2126288/pdf/449.pdf
Between January 21st and June 4th of 1918, Dr. Gates reports on an experiment where soldiers were given 3 doses of a bacterial meningitis vaccine. Those conducting the experiment on the soldiers were just spitballing dosages of a vaccine serum made in horses. The vaccination regime was designed to be 3 doses. 4,792 men received the first dose, but only 4,257 got the 2nd dose (down 11%), and only 3702 received all three doses (down 22.7%).
A total of 1,090 men were not there for the 3rd dose. What happened to these soldiers? Were they shipped East by train from Kansas to board a ship to Europe? Were they in the Fort Riley hospital? Dr. Gatesâ report doesnât tell us.
An article accompanying the American Experience broadcast I watched sheds some light on where these 1,090 men might be. Gates began his experiments in January 1918.
By March of that year, â100 men a dayâ were entering the infirmary at Fort Riley.
Are some of these the men missing from Dr. Gatesâ report â the ones who did not get the 2nd or 3rd dose?
â⊠Shortly before breakfast on Monday, March 11, the first domino would fall signaling the commencement of the first wave of the 1918 influenza.
Company cook Albert Gitchell reported to the camp infirmary with complaints of a âbad cold.â Right behind him came Corporal Lee W. Drake voicing similar complaints.
By noon, camp surgeon Edward R. Schreiner had over 100 sick men on his hands, all apparently suffering from the same maladyâŠâ (5)
Gates does report that several of the men in the experiment had flu-like symptoms: coughs, vomiting and diarrhea after receiving the vaccine.
These symptoms are a disaster for men living in barracks, traveling on trains to the Atlantic coast, sailing to Europe, and living and fighting in trenches.
The unsanitary conditions at each step of the journey are an ideal environment for a contagious disease like bacterial pneumonia to spread.
From Dr. Gatesâ report:
âReactions.â ⊠Several cases of looseness of the bowels or transient diarrhea were noted. This symptom had not been encountered before. Careful inquiry in individual cases often elicited the information that men who complained of the effects of vaccination were suffering from mild coryza, bronchitis, etc., at the time of injection.â
âSometimes the reaction was initiated by a chill or chilly sensation, and a number of men complained of fever or feverish sensations during the following night.
Next in frequency came nausea (occasionally vomiting), dizziness, and general âaches and painsâ in the joints and muscles, which in a few instances were especially localized in the neck or lumbar region, causing stiff neck or stiff back. A few injections were followed by diarrhea.
The reactions, therefore, occasionally simulated the onset of epidemic meningitis and several vaccinated men were sent as suspects to the Base Hospital for diagnosis.â(4)
According to Gates, they injected random dosages of an experimental bacterial meningitis vaccine into soldiers. Afterwards, some of the soldiers had symptoms which âsimulatedâ meningitis, but Dr. Gates advances the fantastical claim that it wasnât actual meningitis. The soldiers developed flu-like symptoms. Bacterial meningitis, then and now, is known to mimic flu-like symptoms. (6)
Perhaps the similarity of early symptoms of bacterial meningitis and bacterial pneumonia to symptoms of flu is why the vaccine experiments at Fort Riley have been able to escape scrutiny as a potential cause of the Spanish Flu for 100 years and counting.
HOW DID THE âSPANISH FLUâ SPREAD SO WIDELY SO QUICKLY?
There is an element of a perfect storm in how the Gates bacteria spread. WWI ended only 10 months after the first injections. Unfortunately for the 50-100 million who died, those soldiers injected with horse-infused bacteria moved quickly during those 10 months.
An article from 2008 on the CDCâs website describes how sick WWI soldiers could pass along the bacteria to others by becoming âcloud adults.â
âFinally, for brief periods and to varying degrees, affected hosts became âcloud adultsâ who increased the aerosolization of colonizing strains of bacteria, particularly pneumococci, hemolytic streptococci, H. influenzae, and S. aureus.
For several days during local epidemicsâparticularly in crowded settings such as hospital wards, military camps, troop ships, and mines (and trenches)âsome persons were immunologically susceptible to, infected with, or recovering from infections with influenza virus. Persons with active infections were aerosolizing the bacteria that colonized their noses and throats, while othersâoften, in the same âbreathing spacesââwere profoundly susceptible to invasion of and rapid spread through their lungs by their own or othersâ colonizing bacteria.â (1) Three times in his report on the Fort Riley vaccine experiment, Dr. Gates states that some soldiers had a âsevere reactionâ indicating âan unusual individual susceptibility to the vaccineâ.
While the vaccine made many sick, it only killed those who were susceptible to it. Those who became sick and survived became âcloud adultsâ who spread the bacteria to others, which created more cloud adults, spreading to others where it killed the susceptible, repeating the cycle until there were no longer wartime unsanitary conditions, and there were no longer millions of soldiers to experiment on. The toll on US troops was enormous and it is well documented. Dr. Carol Byerly describes how the âinfluenzaâ traveled like wildfire through the US military. (substitute âbacteriaâ for Dr. Byerlyâs âinfluenzaâ or âvirusâ):
â⊠Fourteen of the largest training camps had reported influenza outbreaks in March, April, or May, and some of the infected troops carried the virus with them aboard ships to France âŠ
As soldiers in the trenches became sick, the military evacuated them from the front lines and replaced them with healthy men.
This process continuously brought the virus into contact with new hostsâyoung, healthy soldiers in which it could adapt, reproduce, and become extremely virulent without danger of burning out.
⊠Before any travel ban could be imposed, a contingent of replacement troops departed Camp Devens (outside of Boston) for Camp Upton, Long Island, the Armyâs debarkation point for France, and took influenza with them.
Medical officers at Upton said it arrived âabruptlyâ on September 13, 1918, with 38 hospital admissions, followed by 86 the next day, and 193 the next.
Hospital admissions peaked on October 4 with 483, and within 40 days, Camp Upton sent 6,131 men to the hospital for influenza. Some developed pneumonia so quickly that physicians diagnosed it simply by observing the patient rather than listening to the lungsâŠâ (7)
The United States was not the only country in possession of the Rockefeller Instituteâs experimental bacterial vaccine.
A 1919 report from the Institute states: âReference should be made that before the United States entered the war (in April 1917) the Institute had resumed the preparation of antimeningococcic serum, in order to meet the requests of England, France, Belgium Italy and other countries.â
The same report states: âIn order to meet the suddenly increased demand for the curative serums worked out at the Institute, a special stable for horses was quickly erected âŠâ (8)
An experimental antimeningoccic serum made in horses and injected into soldiers who would be entering the cramped and unsanitary living conditions of war ⊠what could possibly go wrong?
Is the bacterial serum made in horses at the Rockefeller Institute which was injected into US soldiers and distributed to numerous other countries responsible for the 50-100 million people killed by bacterial lung infections in 1918-19?
The Institute says it distributed the bacterial serum to England, France, Belgium, Italy and other countries during WWI. Not enough is known about how these countries experimented on their soldiers.â
https://vaccineimpact.com/2018/did-military-experimental-vaccine-in-1918-kill-50-100-million-people-blamed-as-spanish-flu/?fbclid=IwAR2M48lWRrmaDIzntDctJUcVDjwyNHzCIUJDhdn2E6PRb6Kv4nazuNjdcgw
Another important fact to be made aware of is who designed our bioweapons program.
Lab 257: The Disturbing Story of the Governmentâs Secret Plum Island Germ Laboratory by Michael Christopher Carroll
Nazi Erich Traub ran Hitlerâs âCancer Research Programâ the cover name for their biological warfare program. He designed US Plum Islandâs Lab 257.
âTraub spent his prewar period of his scientific career on a fellowship at the Rockefeller Institute in Princeton, New Jersey, perfecting his skills in viruses and bacteria. Traub also spent time at the USDA laboratories in Beltsville, Maryland, where he isolated a new weapons-grade virus strain in the USDA Lab. âStudying a virulent strain of a new virus that caused human infections, Traub showed how it adapted âneurotropicallyâ in human by voraciously attacking nerve and brain tissues. This was the same potent virus that infected a human in Plum Islandâs first-ever germ experiment one year later.â
Dr. Richard Shope was Traubâs Rockefeller Institute boss and friend. The author of Lab 257 unearthed three USDA files from the vault of the National Archivesâtwo were labeled TICK RESEARCH and a third E. TRAUB. All three folders were empty. âThe caked-on dust confirms the file boxes hadnât been open since the moment before they were taped shut in the 1950sâŠ. Dr. Traubâs World War II handiwork consisted of aerial virus sprays developed on Insel Reims and tested over occupied Russia, and of field work for Heinrich Himmler in Turkey.â Traub was instrumental in the development of weaponized foot-and-mouth disease virus. (It was dispersed from a Luftwaffe bomber onto cattle and reindeer in occupied Russia.)
âAs lab chief of Insel Reimsâa secret Nazi biological warfare laboratory on a crescent-shaped island nestled in the Baltic SeaâTraub worked directly for Adolph Hitlerâs second-in-charge, SS Reichsfuher Heinrich Himmler, on live germ trials.â
Also, Old Lyme, Connecticut was the location of the 39 children and 12 adults misdiagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, a condition they initially called Lyme arthritis. Fun fact, white tail deer can swim up to four miles.
âTraub might have monitored the tests. A source who worked on a Plum Island in the 1950s recalls that animal handlers and a scientist released ticks outdoors on the island. âThey called him the Nazi scientist, when they came in, in 1951âthey were inoculating these ticks..
They wrapped up research, put the viruses back in the freezers, and dumped the ticks into the autoclave, which steamed them at over 100 degrees centrigradeâŠ. Dr. Endris went to work for Merck Pharmaceutical.. page 25
â Lab 257 (Chapter 1: The Lyme Connection.)
A lot of Americans believe big pharma are good guys. Know that the same people who control the technologies that treat the biological impacts are also the same people who control the bioweapons and chemical weapons that cause the harm in the first place. They know how to maximize their profits off of the scientifically illiterate working class. The ruling class always protects their best employeesâŠ.
The US Bioweapons program has never had any public transparency.
There was one whistleblower who was deeply involved in Tulane Universityâs bioweapons program and she wrote about the program she was involved with in her book, Me and Lee: How I Came to Know, Love and Lose Lee Harvey Oswald by Judyth Very Baker.
Important book excerpts from Me and Lee: How I Came to Know, Love and Lose Lee Harvey Oswald by Judyth Very Baker
âI spent the rest of the day with these scientists and military officers, who took a group of us kids to the headquarters of Eli Lilly Company where we were introduced to other scientists and questioned about our science exhibits. I soon learned that Eli Lilly was a major pharmaceutical company with tens of thousands of employees marketing products in over 100 countries around the globe. Its 130-year history is studded with scientific breakthroughs and medical marketing success stories. It was very âbig leagueâ business with billions of dollars of annual revenue and impressive marble office buildings with all the trimmings of corporate success.â
âWhen the seminar ended at noon that day, Dr. Ochsner, Dr. Diehl, a third gentleman and myself climbed in a car and drove back to Bradenton. All three were in their late-60s or 70s. The third man was Dr. Urey, whom I had not met previously. He was some type of chemist and had done something with radiation at the University of ChicagoâŠ
The three great men told Col Doyle that I was invited to come to Roswell Park Memorial Institute in Buffalo, New York for a summer of fast track training. The National Science Foundation would fund my work in Dr. Mooreâs own lab, where I would receive world class instruction on a project of my choice. I would also join the other studentsâalready assigned to other labsâin scheduled seminars, and could choose an additional project, if I liked, which would be supervised by either Dr. Edwin Miranda or Dr. James T. Grace. These two scientists often worked together, and their cancer research was world-famous. â
It would be appropriate to mention here that Dr. Mirand co-authored an important medical article published in 1963, entitled âHuman Susceptibility to a Simian Tumor Virus.â âSimianâ refers to apes and monkeys, and âTumor,â of course, refers to a cancerous growth. So âsimian tumor virusâ really means âcancer-causing monkey virus.â An important question! If you recall the Science Writerâs Seminar earlier that year, Dr. Ludwig Gross discussed cancer-causing viruses, such as SV40 (Simian Virus #40). SV40 had been traced to the Rhesus monkey. And the kidneys of the Rhesus monkey had been used to grow hundreds of millions of doses of the polio vaccines distributed in the late-1950s.
After releasing tens of millions of doses of the polio vaccine, the scientific establishment found that the cancerous SV40 had contaminated that same vaccine! The public knew little about these matters at the time, but the cancer researchers of the day were well-informed about potential dangers⊠and consequences. They all knew there was at least one cancer-causing monkey virus in the polio vaccine, possibly more. The critical question was: Did SV40 cause cancer in humans?
The coauthor of the article was Dr. James T. Grace, also from the staff of the Roswell ParkâŠ. Dr. Grace was a warm and personable man whose primary role in the program was to teach the students to handle cancer-causing viruses safely. He taught me to propagate and handle the âFriend Virusâ (an unfriendly retrovirus that caused leukemia in mice) and SV40 (the DNA monkey virus that contaminated the polio vaccine and caused cancer in a variety of mammals.)âŠ
Dr. Moore and Dr. Diehl discussed my proposal and evaluated how it might impact the funding they had envisioned for my research. After some deliberation, they suggested that I could spend a year or two at St. Francis, before moving on to the University of Chicago. After all, St. Francis did have a fine medical technology department. They could arrange for grants, they said, to support a laboratory there for my use, so I could continue in my present course of research. I had just begun working with monkey viruses and radiation, under Dr. Grace, and was anxious to merge the new knowledge with my present workâfacilitating the most rapid growth possible of human-based melanomas, in variants of our new, ground-breaking RPMI mediums. Dr. Diehl suggested that I could compare the growth rates of human melanomas infected with SV40 with that of uninfected human melanomas to determine what would make these fast-growing cancers even more deadly.
I was taken aback. Wasnât that just the opposite of what we were supposed to be doing?
âThe key to defeating cancer is to understand it,â Dr. Diehl reminded meâŠ..âThen Dr. Ferrie explained that their cancer project was getting results faster than typical research projects, because they did not have to do all the paperwork, and all this was under the direction of the great man himself, Dr. Alton Ochsner.
Dr. Ochsner again. So he was involved in this, too. Dr. Ferrie said Dr. Ochsner knew how to get things done.
He had access to anything needed and avoided red tape by bringing in some materials himself from Latin America. Ferrie described Ochsnerâs Latin American connections in more detail, saying that he was the on-call physician for many Latin American leaders. He kept their secrets and got rewarded in return, including big donations to his Clinic. As a result, Ochsner had his own unregulated flow of funds and supplies for every possible kind of cancer research, with no oversight. âWeâre using various chemicals, in combination with radiation, to see what happens with fast-growing cancers,â Ferrie said. âWeâre using it to mutate monkey viruses too.â
Mutating monkey viruses! Radiation! Fast growing cancers!
âThatâs exactly what Iâve been trained to handle,â I commented, noting how conveniently my skill set just happened to match their research.
âI was told you were,â Dr. Ferrie said, without explaining how he came by that particular piece of information, but I figured it had to be Dr. OchsnerâŠThe configuration of these labs was basically a circular process which repeated itself over and over. With each lap around the loop of laboratories, the cancer-causing viruses would become more aggressive, and more deadly. Originally, these viruses came from monkeys, but they had been enhanced with radiation. The virus we were most concerned with was SV40, the infamous carcinogenic virus that had contaminated the polio vaccines of the 1950s. But the science of the day was not terribly precise, and cross-infection between species was common in monkey labs. So it was impossible to know if we were working with SV40 only, or a collection of viruses.
We assumed there were probably other viruses traveling with it, but whether it was SV40 or SV37 or SIV did not really matter to us. What mattered was whether it produced cancer quickly. For our project, these cancer causing viruses had been transferred to mice because they were more economical than monkeys, and the viruses thrived just as easily, which is why mice are so widely used in medical research.
This loop included a large colony of thousands of mice kept in a house near Dave Ferrieâs apartment. I called it âthe mouse house.â People connected to the Project handled the daily care and feeding of the mice, bred them to replace the population which was constantly being consumed. Several times each week, fifty or so live mice would be selected based upon apparent size of their tumors. These mice had tumors so large that they were visible to the naked eye. They would be placed in a cardboard box and quietly brought through he back door of Daveâs house for processing. Once in Daveâs kitchen, we would kill the mice with ether and harvest their tumors. Harvesting meant cutting their bodies open and excising the largest tumors. The tumors were then weighed, and their weights recorded in a journal. The odor was terrible The largest of the harvested tumors had a destiny. We first cut very thin slices from these tumors and examined them under a microscope. We had to be sure what kind of tumor we had, in each case. Bits of the âbestâ tumors were selected for individual treatment: each specimen was macerated, stained, mixed with RPMI medium, then poured into a carefully labeled test-tube. These were placed in Daveâs table centrifuge, and spun. Most cancer cells went to the bottom. The liquid on top was poured into a big flask, then more RPMI medium, with fetal calf serum, ad sometimes other materials, was added to each test tube. These were the beginnings of tissue cultures, to be grown elsewhereâŠ
âYour presence there will cut out two girls who could present problems for Mr. Monaghan,â Ochsner explained. âHe has to have someone there every morning, and he needs you to cover for Mr. Oswaldâs absences.â
Ochsner then explained that Lee would also be working on the Project by transporting chemicals, equipment and specimens to several locations. Nobody would suspect that Lee had anything to do with a project involving cancer research, he pointed out. Ochsner said Leeâs offer to work at Reily and to courier materials had already been accepted, but that he would also be involved in another aspect of the project, slated for later in the year.
My position at Reily would be salaried, so that my time out of the office would not be recorded and Reily would, in effect, be paying for my hours spent on cancer work. The same was true for Leeâs positionâŠ
⊠Both Dave and Dr. Mary (Dr. Mary Sherman) began describing chilling experiments on human brains being conducted at Tulane by Dr. Robert HealthâŠDave said, âListen to this, J. âDr. Health Tells New Technique. Electrical Impulses Sent Deep Into Brain⊠[a patient]⊠had tiny wires implanted into precise spots in his brain. The wires were attached to a self-stimulator box, which was equipped at a push button to deliver a tiny, electrical impulse to the brainâŠâ Dave paused to let what he read sink in. âI wonder how many brains Health went through before he had success with these two. How long did it take to find those âprecise spotsâ in their brains with his hot little wires?ââŠ
âI doubt John Q. Public will ever have a clue,â Dr. Mary replied. âThey certainly have no idea they were getting cancer-causing monkey viruses in their polio vaccines,â she added bitterly. Seeing my expression of shock, Dr. Mary went on to explain that she and a few others had privately protested the marketing of the SV40-contaminated polio vaccine, but to no avail. The government continued to allow the distribution of millions of doses of the contaminated vaccine in America and abroad.
She said she was told that the new batches of the vaccine would be free of the cancerous virus, but privately she doubted it, noting that the huge stockpile of vaccines she knew were contaminated had not been recalled. To recall them would damage the publicâs confidence, she explained.
I was speechless. Were they telling me that a new wave of cancer was about to wash over the world?
âThe government is hiding these facts from the people,â Dave said, âso they wonât panic and refuse to take vaccines. But is it right? Donât people have the right to be told the contaminant causes cancer in a variety of animals? Instead, they show you pictures in the newspaper of fashion models sipping the stuff, to make people feel safe.â
My mind raced. It was 1963. They had been distributing contaminated polio vaccines since 1955. For eight years! Over a hundred million doses! Even I had received it! A blood-curdling chill came over meâŠ.âŠâHe is soft on Communism. He refuses to go to war. He lets his baby brother go after the Mob, and errant generals. He plans to retire Hoover and wants to tax âBig Oil.â He thinks he can get away with it, because heâs the Commander-in-Chief.â
I caught my breath, and glanced at Dr. Sherman as she began taking dishes from the table. The frown on her face told me they were deadly serious. Dave cleared his throat and coughed. âTheyâll execute him,â Dave said, âreminding future Presidents who really controls this country⊠those who rise to the top will gain everything they ever hoped and look the other way.â
Daveâs hands trembled as he spoke. His nerves were as raw as his voice.
âIf Castro dies first, we think the manâs life might be spared.â
âHow?â I asked, as the weight of his comments began to sink in.
âIf Castro dies, theyâll start jockeying for power over Cuba,â Dave said, âIt will divide the coalition that is forming. It may save the manâs life.â
âWhere⊠how did you get this information?â I pursued.
âYouâre very young,â Dr. Sherman said. âBut you have to trust us, just as we have to trust you. If we were really with them, you wouldnât be privy to this information. These people have motive, the means, and the opportunity. They will seem as innocent as doves. But theyâre deadly as vipers.â
âWhat about Dr. Ochsner?â I asked.
âI donât know,â Dr. Sherman said. âI canât tell, PerhapsâŠâ
âHeâs an unknown element,â Dave broke in. âBut we know heâs friends with the moneybags. He thinks Mary and I hate âthe man,â just as he does.â
âI think he might aid the others,â Dr. Sherman said. âPerhaps without even knowing it. He functions as a go-between. His interest was originally to bring down Castro, because heâs anti-Communist to the core. But heâs remarkably naive.â
Dr. Sherman explained that in the past, Cuban medical students came to the Ochsner Clinic to train. Now Castro was sending Cubaâs medical students to Russia. Ochsner resented this rejection. Some of those medical students realized that studying with Ochsner had made them rich and famous, so they were bitter about Castroâs denying them that right. Some of them were bitter enough to help kill Castro. Dr. Shermanâs comments called to mind Tonyâs similar degree of hatred.
âThe clock is ticking,â Dave said. âItâs going to require a lot of hard work if weâre going to succeed where all the others failed.â
âWe believe we have something,â Dr. Sherman said. âBut we want to see what you make of it,â soliciting my opinion and gently stroking my ego with her words. âDr. Ochsner says you have serendipity.â
âYes,â I replied. âHe told me that.â
âItâs a rare compliment,â Dr. Sherman went on. âYou induced lung cancer in mice faster than had ever been done before, under miserable lab conditions. Dr. Sherman reached over and took my hand, squeezing it warmly. âThatâs what Ochsner likes about you. Your serendipity. And we know youâre a patriot. Thatâs why youâre here.â
âThis is lung cancer weâre talking about,â Dave said as he began smoking his third cigarette in five minutes. âYour specialty.â
âThatâs what they wanted me to work with, ever since Roswell Park,â I admitted.
âYouâre untraceable,â Dave continued. âWith no degree, nobody will suspect you, because youâre working at Reilyâs, and youâre practically a kid.
âWe have only until October,â Dr. Sherman said.
âMaybe the end of October,â Dave amended, as he snubbed out his half-smoked cigarette.
âYou can choose not to participate,â Dr. Sherman told me.
âYeah, weâll just send you over to Tulane to see Dr. Heath. A few days in his tender care, and youâll never even remember this conversation took place,â Dave said.
âYouâre not funny! Sherman snapped at Dave, seeing my face. âOf course, nothing will happen to you, Judy. Dr. Ferrie and I are the visible ones, not you.
âHell, I was joking,â Dave said.
âShe is so young,â Dr. Sherman said reproachfully. âYou frightened her.â
âIâm sorry, J.â He said. âWhat are you, nineteen?â
âI will be twenty, on the 15th,â I said softly.
Dr. Mary saw that I was trembling. She poured me a little glass of cordial and offered it to me, saying that it would relax me, but I declined to drink it.
âAll I came here for was to have an internship with you, Dr. Sherman,â I said, adding that I still wanted to go to Tulane Medical School in the fall.
âDonât worry, youâll be there,â Dr. Sherman said. âDr. Ochsner said heâll sponsor you. Thatâs set in stone. âŠWith the early-week crunch over, I took myself over to Daveâs lab and Mary Shermanâs apartment on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to continue our work on the Project. When I finished, as per instructions from Dr. Mary, I wrapped the specimens in newspaper to insulate them and dropped them in a car parked near Eli Lilly on my way back to Reilyâs. That was usually Leeâs job, but this week I did it. Once the product was dropped off a driver would get into the car and whisk it away for another round of radiation, presumable at the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital. â page 315
Dr. Ochsner wanted to speed up the Project. He called me at Reilyâs several times to ask for ideas. I offered him several. One recommendation was that we try to transfer from mice to monkeys again, but this time the monkeys should be exposed to radiation beforehand to suppress their immune systems. Ochsner liked the idea and noted that they had concentrated their radiation efforts on tissue cultures, not living hosts. I was surprised they had not done this earlier, since I had told them back in 1961 that I had used this method to develop cancer in mice more rapidly. So I recommended irradiating the monkeys to expedite things, and Dr. Ochsner agreedâŠ.
As an Executive Director at the International Trade Mart, Clay Shaw was at the center of the international trade community in New Orleans. Shawâs mentors, Ted Brent and Lloyd Cobb, had deep connections to both Dr. Ochsner and the CIA. Connections between Dr. Ochsner and Ted Brent were so strong that Brent left the fortune he had amassed during his lifetime to Ochsner Clinic upon his death. The hotel on campus of Ochsner Clinic is named Brent House, in his honorâŠ.
That afternoon, Mr. Monaghan agreed to clock me and Lee out, so we could meet at 4:30 near Eli Lilly..
âNobody should be denied medical care,â he said. âItâs a basic human right! Just as the right to own a house. The people in this country are serfs and slaves⊠And hell, if they get sick and are new in town, they can drop dead. Nobody cares. Weâre living in a world as barbaric as ancient Rome!â
âMaybe Rome had some things better,â I offered, noting Rome had heated floors and trained doctors two thousand years ago. That led to Leeâs taking out the book, Everyday life in Ancient Rome, from the library for us to study.
About the same time, Lee created a fake health card for himself so heâd have vaccination âproofââ necessary for travel to backward countries. His vaccinations were up-to-date, thanks to Dr. Ochsner, but he couldnât put that name on his health card. Instead he used the fake name âDr. A.J. Hideel.â There was that name again! Iâd seen it on the third floor at Banisterâs, and a variation on a fake FPCC membership card Lee carried. âHidell,â Lee told me, was a âproject nameâ used on fake IDâs to access certain funds. Further, he said he was not the only person using the nameâŠ.
When the courts began ordering the integration of school systems and universities, the new laws were met with stiff resistance. The situation was so volatile that President Kennedy called the National Guard to occupy and forcibly integrate the University of Alabama. Lee applauded Kennedyâs courage for doing so: though Iâd been prejudiced against JFK by my anti-Castro friends, Lee was making me a believerâŠ
âDr. Mary noticed me staring at the equipment.
âThe marmosets are dying,â she told me somberly. âAll of them, including our control group.â
I pondered the implications. Our bioweapon had migrated between the two groups of monkeys, presenting the terrifying possibility that our mutated cancer was not only transferable, but actually contagious. We both knew that from this moment on we needed to be concerned about being exposed to a contagious, cancer-causing virus.
For the next hour, I worked with the microscopes, until Dave showed up. As my eyes were tired, I decided to help Lee, whose hands were now thrust inside the clean boxâs gloves, and leave the microscope work to Dr. Mary. I bent down and kissed his perspiring forehead.
âYou shouldnât touch me,â he said, through his face mask.
âIâm going to help,â I told him, putting on my lab coat. I could see a book in Leeâs pocket through the clear plastic apron. âI see you brought along Profiles of Courage,â I said to Lee, hoping he was finished with it, and I could borrow it from him.
âIâm trying to get my hands on everything I can about âThe Chief,ââ Lee answeredâŠ
Wednesday, July 10, 1963
I received an important call at Reilyâs from Dr. Bowers, who told me Dr. Ochsner had asked him to relay the good news to me. He said that cells isolated from two of the lymphoma strains from the mice had produced dramatic results in the marmoset monkeys. They suffered from not one, but two variations of a galloping cancer. We had broken the barrier between mouse and monkey. Now we could move on to specific types of lung cancers, but would need to keep the mouse cancers going, in case a failure occurred, when we moved from marmoset monkeys to African Green monkeysâŠ.
âAll right,â I said. âWhat agency do you really work for, and who is your most important handler?â
âYou little spy!â he said, smiling. âHereâs the answer: Iâm loaned to the CIA, and must sometimes help the FBI; but who my main handler is, not even God knows the answer to that. Certainly, I donât. I call him âMr. B.â
âAs for me,â I told him, âIâm just a pair of hands belonging to Ochsner.â
âThey donât belong to Ochsner anymore,â Lee said. âTheyâre mine now.â
I asked him if I had a âhandler.â Lee said, smiling, âOf course you do. Itâs me.â He said I was a lucky woman. âI shall be your protector,â he said. âI wonât let any of them hurt you.â
I asked why would anybody want to hurt me? I was on the âgoodâ side. Lee explained: if youâre no longer useful, you could be thrown out, unless you were educated.
âYouâre safer than I am,â he told me. âOfficially, you were supposedly an unwitting asset. A good position to be inâŠ
Lee asked if there was anything he still didnât know about the cancer research project. âWell, you should know about the etiology of the cancer,â I told him. âIâve never discussed it with you.â
âEtiology? Whatâs that mean?â
âEtiology means origins. This is no ordinary cancer, as you know,â I reminded him He agreed.âItâs probably contagious,â I went on. That startled him, since Dr. Mary and I had not really discussed this point explicitly in front of him. I told him that the monkey virus, now altered by radiation, had moved spontaneously from the deliberately infected marmoset monkeys to the control animals. With it came cancer and all the marmoset monkeys were now dying. Thatâs why there were suddenly all the extra precautions in Daveâs lab.
âRemind me not to eat or drink anything over at Daveâs,â Lee said soberly as he pondered the idea of working around a contagious cancer virusâŠ
âWeâve created a galloping cancer,â I went on. âI think a bacteriophage could be altered to take out even these cancer cells. But nobodyâs going down that road. Weâre developing this weapon to eliminate a head of state. But what if we get Castro? Will they really just throw this stuff away? I asked, shivering at the thought.âIt could be used as a weapon of mass destruction,â Lee answered simplyâŠ
Lee asked how many people understood the science behind the Project. I told him Ochsner, Sherman, Dave and I surely knew how it was made and that I knew there were some other doctors involved, but once the bioweapon was created, it could be kept frozen for years and used by anyone who had access to it at some point in the future. We sank into deep silence as we contemplated the dimensions of what we had just said. How had my dream to cure cancer gone so wrong?âŠ
July 19, 1963 Friday
That morning, Lee was on the Magazine Street bus with me in time to arrive at Reilyâs before 8:00 A.MâŠ. I clocked in shortly before 8:00 A.M., but I needed Lee to run an errand to Eli Lillyâs for the Project, so despite his efforts to be on time, he clocked in late again and got chewed out. For the rest of the day, Leeâs supervisors were all over him.
Lee advised Dave to keep an eye on me, but not to say a wordâunless I got up to leaveâ until he got there. I gave Dave Lewis a grateful hug, then followed Lee to an old car that he had access to for the day, due to his training film project. This was an unusual car called a Kaiser-Frazer, which was discontinued in 1951. It was a roomy and surprisingly luxurious dark green 4-door sedan. I had seen it parked near the Eli Lilly office several times.
âYou might want to take me to take you straight home,â Lee said, âif youâre too tired. But if you come along with me, youâll get to see Carlos Marcelloâs plantation.ââŠ
This meeting was necessary, because it was time to test the Projectâs biological weapon on primates. It had worked on the Marmoset monkeys, so it was time to try it on African green monkeys, which were closer to humans but considerably more expensive. These next steps involved the precise work that needed to be done in the monkey laboratory, so others would do that.
I had to discuss the details with Dr. Ochsner. After much of this technical talk, Ochsner said, âBy the way, your boy Oswald is going to be a movie star.â
âI know heâs working on a film,â I said cautiously, not knowing how much Ochsner was privy to.
âI donât mean out there,â Ochsner said suggesting that he knew about the training camp. âI mean here in New Orleans, on TV. Do you have a TV set?ââŠ
âSir,â I said proudly, âhe doesnât spend a dollar of the Projectâs money unless he has to. Heâs a patriot of the first order.â
âWell, heâs all of that,â Ochsner agreed. âI donât deny it. Iâve taken the trouble to look into his records. And Iâm thinking about better ways to use his talents.â
âHe wants to go to college, sir,â I said. âCan you help him?â
âYoung lady, we want him to stay put a while, where heâs most useful.â Realizing that he was clearly talking about using Lee as a spy, I realized that Ochsner thought of himself as part of the management of that operation, not just a technical resource working for Leeâs spymasters.
âSo, who am I really working for?â I asked Ochsner bluntly. He shook his head from side to side in dismay and said that I was asking a lot of questions today, as if talking to a wall.
Then, he turned to me and said: âYouâre working for the foes of Communism.â After a short pause, he smiled and added, âIâm not ashamed to say that I would spill every drop of blood I have for my country. And I have always known that you feel the same way.â
Ochsner then glanced at his watch, cut me off with a wave of his hand, and handed me a stack of new material to read. âRead these for us, and give us your input as soon as possible. The final step will be with our human volunteer.â
âHave you already found one?â I queried.
âYou would be surprised,â Dr. Ochsner replied, standing up and learning me to the door. âThere are many unsung heroes who have bravely stepped forward to accomplish the impossible.â Then he added, a little sadly. âThere are risks that must be taken for great causes.â
âAm I doing alright, sir?â I asked meekly. âIt feels strange, not preparing for Tulane yet. I mean, all Iâve looked at for months now are cancer cells.â
âOnly two months, and youâll be marching through the doors of Tulane Medical School,â Ochsner said confidently. âAre you using Mr. Ferrieâs medical library pass?â
âYes, about once a week.â
âGood. Go twice a week, and study there. After you leave Reilyâs, go every day.â
âWhat will I do for money when Reilyâs ends,â I asked
âIf you have a problem, ask Mary. Sheâll send you money to tide you over,â he added tersely.
As I reached Monaghanâs desk, he simply said, âYou were seen with him,â in a deep vibrating voice that hissed with anger. Then he held up a crumpled yellow âHands of Cubaâ flyer: âAnd you left this in the wastebasket. What the hell were you thinking?
âBy the end of the century, they say the average American worker will only have to be on the job thirty hours a week.â
âI hope so,â Lee said. âIf we keep men like Kennedy in office, who donât owe their souls to cartels and corporations, and will keep us from blowing ourselves to hell.â
Lee had been trying to make me care about President Kennedy as much as he did. He now brought up Kennedyâs July 26 speech on a treaty with Moscow to ban nuclear tests in the air, water, and space. The speech had influenced ultra-conservatives who thought Kennedy was displaying weakness in the face of Communism. But Lee praised the President for his foresight. We have forgotten how brave Kennedy was.
As for Lee and me, we wanted to abandon the rat race to others. âWeâll leave their money and corruption behind,â Lee said. âWeâll be like Lord and Lady Blakeney. Weâll play the old part⊠âMaybe I could talk to Dr. Diehl,â I said hopefully. Dr. Harold Diehl had been fond of me, and I knew I could talk to him in private. He had concerns for safety in cancer research. I found his card in my black purse.
But Lee pointed out that Diehl, the Senior Vice President for Research for the American Cancer Society and Ochsner the former ACS President, had been pals for years. Their friend, âWild Billâ Donovan (who died of cancer despite Ochsnerâs efforts) had been a leading ACS official, too, and was the founding father of the CIA. Diehl would probably do nothing.
I personally trained Lee and Dave to handle the materials and prepared the bioweapon for safe transport to the mental hospital, but I did not accompany them on this first trip, so what I report here is what Lee and Dave told meâŠ
Lee and Dave were both qualified to instruct other technicians as to how to handle and work with the bioweapon. At Jackson, Dave gave the injections and explained to those involved how further injections should be given, and when. Lee watched and listened, so he would be able to deliver similar instructions when he handed off the Product in Mexico City or Cuba. Lee left after viewing the first round of injections, and one saw one prisoner, because he needed to go to the Personnel office. There, Lee filled out an employment application to establish a motive for his planned return to the hospital in about 72 hours, when he would have to drive me there to check on the progress of the experiment. Afterwards, Shaw drove Lee and Dave home.
But here was the problem: I was originally told that the prisoner was terminally ill and had âvolunteeredâ to be injected with cancerous cells, knowing his days were numbered. But, a simple fact remained: in order to do my blood test, I had to know what kind of cancer the volunteer had so I could distinguish between âhis cancerâ and âour cancer.â Right before the Team left for Jackson, I asked Dave to find out what kind of cancer the prisoner had.
âOh, donât worry about that,â Dave said matter-of-factly. âHe doesnât have cancer. Heâs a Cuban who is about the same age and weight as Castro, and heâs healthy.â
I felt a chill sweep through my body. My heart turned over. This revelation was sickening to me. We would be giving cancer to a healthy human with the intention of killing him. This was not medicine, it was murder. It was wrong, morally, ethically, and legally. They had gone too farâŠ.
My note to Dr. Ochsner simply stated: Injecting disease-causing materials into an unwitting subject who does not have a disease is unethical. I signed it with my initials, J.A., and hand delivered it to Dr. Ochsnerâs office at his ClinicâŠ
âIâm so sorry,â she told me. âHeâs making a mountain out of a molehill.â This was a hint that Dr. Mary was still on my side, which was a huge relief to me. I hoped she would give me good references to a medical school in Latin America, which was one of the plans Lee and I considered. The only positive note she had to offer was that Dr. Ochsner had agreed to a civil exit interviewâŠ
When Dr. Ochsner entered the room, the look on his face was unforgiving. Without a word, he handed me some important blood work code sheets, with which to make my reports. Then, rising to his feet, he exploded into a flurry of unrestrained verbal abuses. It was unlike anything I had ever encounteredâŠ
âWhen you finish your assignment at Jackson,â he said, âGive us the results and consider your work with us over. After his ruse burned a little further, he said, âConsider yourself lucky youâre walking out with your teeth still in your head. Now get out.ââŠ
âThis was the same old Kaiser-Frazer that Lee had used to drive me to Churchill Farms for Marcelloâs gathering. I thought of it as the Eli Lilly car, because I had seen in parked near their building several times. Lee said it was more reliable than Daveâs car and it had no known mechanical problems.ââŠ.
The plan to kill Castro depended on two to three people: First, a doctor to influence diagnostics for the required x-rays, then an x-ray technician to rig the machine to temporarily deliver a dangerous dose, (creating symptoms of an infection and pulling down the immune system) and someone to contaminate the penicillin shots given to overcome the presumed âpneumoniaâ or âinfectionâ, with the deadly cancer cocktail. Reactions to the foreign material would bring on fever, with more x-rays to check for âpneumoniaâ âand more penicillin or similar shots. Only one shot had to reach a vein, and it was over, if the X-rays had been used. For this was a galloping cancer: Castroâs chances, if it worked in humans as it did in monkeys, were zero. It had killed the African green monkeys in only two weeks. Castroâs death by cancer would be ascribed to ânatural causes.â
Lee told me that after the cancer cells were removed from their glass container, he then observed the volunteer being x-rayed and injected. After that, Dave asked him to leave. Why? This made Lee suspiciousâŠ
I checked the blood work data while a centrifuge spun down the rest of the freshly-drawn blood samples to pellets, inspecting slides and the blood counts already prepared for me. My task was to match the recorded data with the slides, and to look for any cancer cells there. A few were presentâan excellent sign that the bioweapon worked. The original cancer cells had been tagged with a radioactive tracer. If any of those were also found in the pellets, the volunteer was surely doomed. But there were too many blood samples for just one client. âŠ
Having done that, I insisted that I needed to observe the prisonerâs current condition to see how he was physically reacting. The orderly reluctantly took me to the door of the prisonerâs room, but said that I was not allowed past the door. The room was barred, but basically clean. Several storage boxes sat on the floor and some flowers sat on a stand next to the bed. The patient was tied to the bed and was thrashing around in an obvious fever. It was very sad and I felt sorry for what I had done, but I played my part and pretended to be pleased with his status.
We had spent no more than forty-five minutes at the hospital, and once back in the car, Lee and I discussed what I had seen. I told him that I was almost sure there was more than one âvolunteer.â Lee asked me to describe the patient to him, which I did. Lee then pointed out that the hairline and nose were different from the patient that he had seen injected. Between Leeâs comments and the number of variety of blood samples, I became convinced. More than one âvolunteerâ had been injected to test the effectiveness of the bioweaponâŠ.
A car and driver was waiting outside of International House to take Lee and Hugh Ward to an airport in Houma, Louisiana (about an hour southwest of New Orleans). But first, they had to pick up a package from the nearby offices of Eli Lilly that needed to be delivered to someone in Austin. After getting the package from Eli Lilly, the trio headed to the Huoma-Terre-bonne Airport, known to locals as âthe blimp station.â Lee said they reached the blimp station without undue delayâŠ.
It said that Alex Rorke had ârun into some trouble,â and he and his pilot might be âmissing.â
This was instantly a concern to Lee because, not only was Alex Rorke one of his trusted friends from his nefarious anti-Castro world, he was also the man who was going to fly me from Florida to Mexico when it was time for Lee and me to disappear, which might be this week.. The Latinos, meanwhile were eating lunch with some anti-Castro friends and had promised to seek news about Alex Rorke. When they returned, they dropped Lee at the Trek Cafe on South Congress Avenue, where he waited for about forty-five minutes while they dropped off the package from Eli Lilly in the biology building at St. Edwardâs UniversityâŠ
He deposited one of his two suitcases in a locker in the bus station, so he would have some clothes to wear when he returned to Mexico. It was now obvious to Lee that he had been betrayed, and his actions at the consulate would further stain him as a pro-Castro fanatic, making him an even more convincing patsy in Kennedyâs murder.
âThey think Iâm a blind fool!â Lee told me soon after. âIf they donât want me for Cuba anymore, Iâm better off dead than alive to them.ââŠ.
âYouâll be working a lot of hours,â Dave warned me.
âSo what?â I mused, thinking Iâd be happy creating exotic chemicals for esoteric scientific projects. Dave had told me that some of these would be sent to New Orleans via such routes as the Mound Park Hospital in St. Petersburg, Eastman Kodak, and our familiar chemical supplier, Eli Lilly, including materials similar to antifreeze, which could be used to safely deep-freeze the deadly cancer cell lines, keeping alive virtually foreverâŠ
When I heard his strained voice, I realized that something sinister was blowing in the windâŠâI wonât live to see another birthday cake,â he said quietly, âunless I can get out of here. And if I donât do it right, weâll all get killed.â
To my gasp of horror, he added, âIâm sorry. You have to hear it.â I now learned that upon his return to Dallas, Lee had been invited to be an actual participant in the assassination plans against JFK.
âYou know what that means,â he warned me. I did.
âSo, youâre going to go through with it?â
âIâm going to have to go through with it. Who else is in position to penetrate this, and stop it?â
I started to cry, feeling both hopeless and helpless.
âDonât cry,â he said. âItâs killing me! I canât stand your crying like that.â
I suddenly felt faint, and accidentally dropped the phone. When I picked up the phone again, we tried to comfort each other. But then Lee revealed that he had decided to send on any information he could about the assassination ring. He was convinced that his information could make a huge difference.
Lee was spending evenings with men who were plotting the death of the President of the United Statesâ men who would stop at nothing to gain more power. They might even be able to blame it on Castro, impelling Americans to war against Cuba, and thus killing two big birds with one big stone. Lee and I both believed that an invasion of Cuba could trigger WWIII, if Russia moved in to defend her Communist ally in the Caribbean.
âI know you think Iâm a good shot,â he told me. âTruth is, Iâm not that good. So why would they recruit me?â
Lee made a bitter laugh. âTheyâll set me up. You see how they hung me out to dry in Mexico City?â he went on. âNow theyâve put off my return to Mexico until after Christmas. Iâm going to be snuffed, just as I told you, way back.â
But he felt he had to stay on, with so much as stake. There was now no way to persuade Lee to save himself. In fact, he would have thought it immoral of me to suggest it at the expense of President Kennedy.
The plot against President Kennedy thickened in November. By now, Lee had convinced me that Kennedy was a great president who sought peace, and I shared Leeâs fear that his life would soon end. Lee had been recruited in the Baton Rouge meetings into the Dallas plot. He had penetrated the ring. Now, he was meeting with one or more plotters on a regular basis. âBut Iâm meeting too many people,â he told meâŠ
Lee said the motorcade would turn at the 3600 block âbecause the plotters want to show their power⊠that they are in charge of their trophy. They would also be taking trophy photos of the assassination.
At this time, Lee believed the kill site would probably be the Dallas Trade Martâif Kennedy wasnât terminated earlier in Chicago or Miami. Sickening to me and Lee was their plan to circulate a photo of JFKâs head, âdead, with his eyes left open.ââŠ
Saturday, November 16, 1963
Lee met with an FBI contact at a location unknown to me, revealing that a right-wing group was planning to assassinate President Kennedy during his visit to Dallas on November 22nd. Someone in the FBI took the information seriously and sent out a teletype message to field offices that night. William Walter, a clerk in the FBI office in New Orleans, saw this telex the following morning and later affirmed he had seen this document to Jim Garrison when he investigated the JFK assassination in the late 1960s. The FBI claimed it could find no copies of such a document, but that hardly surprises meâŠ.
âWhy donât you make yourself sick, by taking a laxative or something? I suggested, as if escaping the plot to murder the President would be like playing hooky from school! We had a grim laugh over the absurdity of that one. âJuduffki!â he said, then âMinnie-Mouse!â
Hearing those pet names he loved to call me, I wanted to die with him.
âI want to come!â I begged. âI want to be withâyou!â
âNo!â he replied. âYouâll have to wait a call from Dave.â
âI want you to call me!â I told him. âI donât trust anybody anymore. And from all youâre saying, itâs too late to help Kennedy any more than you have. So just go!â I urged him.
âEven if I wanted to, which I do not,â Lee said, his voice trembling, âI couldnât. Weâve talked about this before Juduff. Theyâd not only do me in, theyâd come after my family. Theyâd find you. Youâd all dieâŠâ
What could I say? Lee was up against ruthless professional killers who followed the code of vendetta. If they were prepared to kill the President of the United States, anyone who got in their way would die, and if they couldnât kill Lee, theyâd kill everyone he cared aboutâŠ.
âKnow how we wondered who my handler was?â Lee whispered. âMr. B? Benson, Benton, or Bishop? Well, heâs from Fort Worth, so it has to be Phillips. His is the traitor. Phillips is behind this. I need you to remember that name,â Lee said, repeating it with cold anger. âDavid Atlee Phillips.â
Lee then said there were two other names I needed to remember: Bobby Baker and Billy Sol Estes. He said the assassination itself was not their doing, but it was because of them, and I was never to forget their namesâŠ
âTheyâd just get another gun to take my place,â Lee said. âIf I stay, that will be one less bullet aimed at Kennedy.ââŠ
âMaybe I can still do something,â he added, grasping at a straw, âbut what bothers me the most is that theyâre going to say I did it. Theyâre going to pin it on me. And what will my babies think of me, when they grow up?ââŠ
I went to work at PenChem, as Iâd done every day for the previous six weeksâŠ.
Shortly after 1:30 P.M. Florida time (12:30 P.M. Dallas time), the television erupted with an announcement that the President had been seriously wounded by gunfire in Dallas. Soon, the network cut away from its regular programming. I canât remember the words; I only remember my horror. About a half-hour later, we heard news that a priest had given his last rites. The news was greeted with cheers and whistles of approval in the lab. Tears started running down my cheeks, despite my efforts to hide themâŠ
Mr. Mays noticed. âAre you a God-damned Communist?ââŠ.
The phone rang as soon as I reached it. Dave was as nervous as I was and apologized for calling a few minutes early. I told him I was glad he did. Then I heard Dave make a sound as though he were choking. I realized he was swallowing back his tears. âOh, my God, J,â he said to me. âI wonât hide it from you.â
Dave was crying. I started crying, too. I didnât think I had any tears left, but there they were, stinging my eyes. I was so anxious to hear what he had to say.
âItâs hopeless. If you want to stay alive,â Dave warned me, with a strained voice, âitâs time to go into the catacombs. Promise me you will keep your mouth shut!â he added. âI donât want to lose you, too,â he said, his voice choking on his words. I felt weak all over. âIf there is any chance to save him, weâll get him out of there, I swear to you. So play the dumb broad, and save yourself. Remember, Mr. T will watch every step you make.
Dave meant I was being watched by âSantosâ Trafficante, the Godfather of Tampa and Miami. He was also a good friend and ally of Carlos Marcello. Fortunately, Marcello liked me, which is why I believed that I had a chance to survive any threats from that direction.
âIâll call you one more time. After that, I canât call anymore,â Dave said âAnd now I have other calls to make. So, Vale, Sororâ (âBe strong, sister.â)âŠ.
Dave Ferrie called me one last time, to deliver a message. He was adamant: we must never, ever, speak to each other again, for our own safety. He warned me that from now on, I must be âa vanilla girl.â My maiden name must never appear in the newspapers. I was to keep my head down, and forget about being a science star. Forever!⊠âIâve stuck my neck out by calling you,â Dave said, at the end. âBut Lee would have wanted me to.â Then he said âGoodbye, J.â âŠ.The Texas Court of Appeals overturned Jack Rubyâs conviction and on December 7, 1966 ordered a new trial to be held outside of Dallas. Two days later, Ruby became ill and entered Parkland Hospital where doctors initially thought he had pneumonia, but quickly changed their diagnosis to lung cancer. Before the week was over, the Parkland doctors announced that Rubyâs lung cancer had advanced so far that it could not be treated (meaning it had spread to other parts of the bodyâStage IV). The median survival time of a patient with Stage IV lung cancer is eight months, but twenty-seven days after the onset of his initial symptoms of cough and nausea, Jack Ruby was dead. Deputy Sheriff Al Maddox was Rubyâs jailer at the time. He later told researchers that Jack Ruby told him of being injected with cancer and handed him a note making that claim. Maddox also remembered what he described as a âphony doctorâ had visited Ruby shortly before he became sick. A second law enforcement officer said Ruby had been placed in an x-ray room for about 15 minutes with the x-ray machine running constantly, an action that would have certainly compromised his immune system. The autopsy found the main concentration of cancer cells to be in Rubyâs right lung, but noted that cancer cells had spread throughout his body. These cells were sent to nearby Southwest Medical School for closer scrutiny using an electron microscope. Bruce McCarty, the electron microscope operator that examined Rubyâs cells had microvilli (tentacle-like extensions that grow out of the main cell), since microvilli were normally not seen in lung cancers. A decade later, however, cancer researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York noted that when cancer cells of various types and origins were suspended in specialized liquids they would form microvilli extensions âwhen settling on glass.â This is consistent with my description of the need to separate their suspended cancer cells from the sides of the glass thermos every couple daysâŠ.
What became of one Dr. Mary Sherman who was an internationally famous cancer researcher after working on this bioweapons project?
Mary, Ferrie, and the Monkey Virus by Edward T. Haslam
Chapter 13: Whatâs Wrong With This Picture?
⊠What of this fire? What was the temperature inside her apartment? And just how badly burned was Mary Shermanâs body?
The newspapers were of no help on this question. Other than generally describing her body as âcharred,â all the press ever said about the damage to Dr. Shermanâs body was one quote which appeared on the last day of the 1964 press coverage. It read:
The fire smoldered for some time â long enough to denude an innerspring and burn away the flesh from one of the doctorâs arms.
It is interesting to consider that this was the only detail the public heard about the actual damage done to the victimâs body until the police reports were released nearly thirty years later.
The Precinct Report said:
From further examination of the body, it was noted by the coroner that the right arm and a portion of the right side of the body extending from the right hip to the right shoulder was completely burned away exposing various vital organs.
The cause of death wasâŠ. 5. Extreme burns of right side of body with complete destruction of right upper extremity and right side of thorax (chest) and abdomen.
The Homicide Report summarized these same autopsy findings and added:
The right side of the body from the waist to where the right shoulder should be, including the whole right arm, was apparently disintegrated from the fire, yielding the inside organs of the body.
Further, it describes the clothes which were piled on top of her body, some of which had never even burned.
The body was nude; however, there was clothing which had apparently been placed on top of her body, mostly covering the body from just above the public area to the neck. Some of the mentioned clothes had been burned completely, while others were still intact, but scorched.
According to the Criminologist, the mentioned clothes were composed of synthetic material which would have to reach a temperature of about 500 F before it would ignite into a flame; however, prior to this, there would be a smoldering effect.
Just to be clear, let me state what I think this saying. If the temperature in the bedroom reached 500 degrees Fahrenheit (260 degrees C) the clothes piled on top of Mary would have ignited and burned. Yet they did not. Therefore, the temperature in the room did not reach 500 degrees. The police, however, attributed the massive destruction to her body, including the disintegration of her right arm and the right side of her torso, to this less-than-500 degree fire.
Whatever burned off Maryâs right arm and right torso had to be extremely hot! how hot? Who would know what temperature it took to burn a bone? Perhaps someone who cremated bodies for a living. Since I did not know anyone in that line of work, I reached for the yellow pages and looked under âFâ for funerals. After several calls, I reached a very personable and articulate man whose job it was to prepare cremated remains for burial.
âWhat temperature does it take to completely burn a body?â I asked promptly, expecting a quick answer with the precise number of degrees.
âIncluding bones?â he queried immediately.
âWell, that gets straight to the heart of the matter. Yes, including bones. I am writing a book about someone whose arm was completely burned off in a fire, and I am trying to figure out what temperature would be needed to do that.â
âBurned their arm off?â he exclaimed. âHow unusual! What happened to the rest of the body?â
âIt was more or less still intact,â I answered cautiously, concerned that he was going to get us off track.
âThatâs bizarre,â he said. âI canât imagine that. Are you sure it wasnât cut off somehow?â
While he still had not given me the temperature number, I was impressed with how fast he got to the heart of the matter. I had not said anything about the nature of the death. It could have been a car wreck as far as he knew. But I was determined to get a cremation temperature from him before discussing any circumstantial evidence which might somehow color his answer. So I politely asked him to tell me the temperature of a cremation oven.
He said, âWell, the cremation machines are automatic nowadays so you donât have to set them, but an average cremation takes about two hours at about 1,600 degrees. But when you are finished, there are still bones! Depending on body size and fat content, some take longer. I have seen them as high as 2000 degrees and for as long as three hours. But when you are finished, you still have bones, or at least pieces of bones like joints, skull fragments, and knuckles.
I now had my cremation number, but I was busy thinking about his answers. In the lull, he offered to give me some background on cremations and explained some popular misconceptions. The common belief, he said, it that you put a body in the cremation machine and get back ashes. No, thatâs not how it works. Yes, itâs true that there are some ashes produced by burning skin and soft tissue, but thatâs a relatively small portion of what remains. Most of what is left after cremation is a box of dry bone parts. The next step is to grind up those remains so that they are unrecognizable. The final product is bone dust, a powdery substance that resembles ashes. Hence, the term and the misconception. What cremation technically does is rapidly dehydrate the bone material so that it splinters. Then it can be ground into a powder more easily. But bones do not burn. To emphasize his point he explained that even the skull cap, which is in the direct path of flame during cremation frequently survives.
While he was being very helpful and I was learning more about cremation than I anticipated, my goal was still to get a temperature figure which would explain Maryâs missing right arm, so I pressed on. âCan you estimate what temperature it would take to completely burn off an arm?â
âKnuckles and all?â he countered.
âEverything,â I confirmed.
âWell, itâs hard to say. Before I got in the business, I saw a lot of burns. Some were military pilots who crashed their jets and got drenched in jet fuel. I would have to get the bodies out of the wreckage. Jet fuel burns at thousands of degrees, but there were still bones left. I also saw people who had been covered with napalm and the like. But there were still bones left. I canât imagine how hot or how long it would take to completely burn a bone to the point of disintegration, but itâs way up there.â
I was getting his point. If Maryâs entire apartment building had been burning out of control and had caved on top of her body, it could not have produced the type of damage described in the police report. The smokey mattress and the smoldering pile of clothes with their less-than-500 degree temperature were certainly not capable of destroying the bones in Maryâs right arm and rib cage. Then a critical point hit me: The crime scene did not match the crime. It is impossible to explain the damage to Maryâs arm and the right side of her body with the evidence found in her apartment. Or to put it even more bluntly, the damage to Maryâs right arm and thorax did not occur in her apartment. It had to happen somewhere else. Her body was then quietly brought back to her apartment and deposited so it could be found there. A second fire was set to create an explanation, however tenuous, for the burns suffered earlier. Itâs no wonder nobody heard anything.
Something else had happened to Mary earlier that evening. It would require something more violent than a common house fire to disintegrate her entire arm and right rib cage. It would take something that could generate thousands, if not millions, of degrees of heat for a fraction of a second, vaporizing and destroying everything in its path. Something more on the scale of lightening or a fireball from an extremely high voltage electrical source which would destroy any tissue in its path, but leave the rest of the body which did not hit relatively intact. Perhaps it was even an extremely powerful beam of high-energy electro-magnetic radiation just like the one that disintegrated electrical engineer Jack Nygard when he accidentally got stuck in the path of his 5,000,000 watt linear particle accelerator near Seattle, WashingtonâŠ.
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