On Stephen King's 11.22.63

Stephen King -- author -- 11.22.63

I mentioned last week that I appreciated Stephen King's treatment of George De Mohrenschildt in his fiction work, 11.22.63, which realistically recognized George as the man who encouraged Lee Harvey Oswald (hereafter LHO) to try to assassinate the resigned General Edwin Walker on April 10, 1963.

Anybody who has thoroughly read the final testament of George De Mohrenschildt as he evaded testifying for the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) in 1978 will recognize the truth of that portrayal. George's testament, entitled, "I'm a Patsy! I'm a Patsy!" admitted that he would call General Walker, "General Fokker" to LHO, to make him laugh.

Michael Paine, another friend of George De Mohrenschildt, also admitted to the Warren Commission that he disliked General Walker. Also, another friend of George and a former roommate of Michal Paine and Everett Glover in Dallas, namely, Volkmar Schmidt, admitted to PBS that he was the one who convinced LHO that General Walker was as bad as Hitler. These were the same words that LHO used to Marina when trying to explain to her why he tried to kill General Walker.

The evidence adds up. How Stephen King came about his intuition about George I don't know, but in my reading, Mr. King was spot on.

And just tonight I noticed something else I liked about King's series on Netflix, 11.22.63, namely, the Franco character's confrontation with Dallas FBI agent James Hosty on the evening of 11.22.63. That character exclaimed to Hosty, "You were supposed to stop Oswald from shooting Kennedy! Why didn't you?!"

That was one of the most insightful statements in the entire script. Hosty -- in my opinion -- was one of the key conspirators in the JFK Assassination. Not J. Edgar Hoover (I think) -- but James Hosty. As evidence I would present not only several witnesses from the Dallas Police, FBI, and Warren Commission volumes, but also Hosty's own book, "Assignment Oswald" (1996) which has gaps that tell on him. For example, his rant against the alleged Russian assassin, Valerie Kostikov, matched the blame-the-Reds narrative streaming out of Dallas for several years. That narrative was point blank rejected by J. Edgar Hoover himself.

In this vein, I propose for the next several months to repost my critique of James Hosty on this site.

All right, back to Stephen King. My main criticism of 11.22.63 was the weak portrait of Lee Oswald's motive for allegedly shooting at JFK. Why would he do that? The script did not make that clear. Yet Mr. King is not entirely to blame for that -- because that flaw is original with the Warren Commission itself.

The weakness is simply this -- why would the liberal who tried to assassinate the openly racist General Walker also try to assassinate the liberal JFK? It makes no sense! That point was even raised multiple times by Warren Commission witnesses! Actually, the opposite is the case -- the even that LHO tried to kill General Walker is solid evidence that LHO did not try to kill JFK! (Although admittedly LHO handed off his rifle to somebody he trusted that day).

So, that was the weakest point of the movie; but I'll end with more positive points. First, James Franco played the starring role brilliantly, I say. He was perfect for the role. So, great casting. Also the scenery and the costumes on set and on location were brilliantly designed to give the impression of the early 1960's. Since I grew up in those days, I loved that part a lot.

Anyway, watch this space in the weeks to come for my repost of my case against James Hosty -- which will also include additional insights I picked up over the years.

Thank you,

--Paul

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