The Paracast Newsletter
March 23, 2025
www.theparacast.com
Academic and Conspiracy Theorist John Koerner Explores the Hidden Details Behind the Deaths of Presidents Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley and, of course, John F. Kennedy, on The Paracast!
The Paracast is released every Sunday and available from our site, https://www.theparacast.com, your favorite podcast app, and the IRN Internet Radio Network. All episodes from 2022 and later now feature better audio and fewer ads. We are also re-releasing some of our most popular classic episodes.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T SIGNED UP FOR THE PARACAST+ YET? PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO THE PARACAST+ SO YOU CAN SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE ULTIMATE PARACAST EXPERIENCE AT A SPECIAL LOW PRICE! We have another radio show and we’d love for you listen to it. So for a low subscription fee, you will receive access to an exclusive bonus podcast, After The Paracast, plus a special version of The Paracast with all the ads removed, when you join The Paracast+. We also offer a special RSS feed for easy updates of the latest episodes on your device. Episodes for subscribers to The Paracast+ are now released 24 hours earlier. Flash! Take advantage of our lowest rates ever! Act now! It's easier than ever to susbcribe! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: https://www.theparacast.plus
This Week's Episode: Gene and cohost Tim Swartz explore some of the most compelling conspiracy theories of all with John Koerner, author of The Four Guns: The Stolen History of the Assassinated Presidents, which focuses on the lost or hidden details of the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley and, of course, John F. Kennedy. He’ll also talk about how history was changed due to these tragedies. Koerner is a professor of Social Sciences at SUNY Erie Community College in Buffalo, New York. He has previously appeared on America’s Book of Secrets, William Shatner’s Weird or What, and Coast to Coast AM. John’s other books include Why The CIA Killed JFK and Malcolm X: The Secret Drug Trade in Laos, and Exploding the Truth: The JFK, Jr. Assassination. He is also the founder and operator of Paranormal Walks, a ghost walk tour company in Western New York, and lives with his family and his two frustrating cats in Buffalo, N.Y. John’s website: Experience Paranormal Walks in Western New York.
After The Paracast — Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers on March 22: The ongoing revelations of the facts behind the JFK assassination are explored by conspiracy theorist John Koerner, author The Four Guns: The Stolen History of the Assassinated Presidents, which focuses on the lost or hidden details of the assassinations of JFK and, also, Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield and William McKinley. Speaking with Gene and cohost Tim Swartz, John talks about the possible involvement or the CIA and/or organized crime in the November 22, 1963 tragedy. Also explored is the controversial investigation of the case by New Orleans District Attorney James Garrison, which resulted in the 1969 arrest and trial of businessman Clay Shaw, who as acquitted by a jury in an hour. Gene and Tim bring up the possible involvement of one Fred Lee Crisman, also notorious as one of the key figures in the 1947 Maury Island UFO case. And was the 1968 assassination of JFK’s brother and a candidate for President, Robert F. Kennedy, somehow connected? John is a professor of Social Sciences at SUNY Erie Community College in Buffalo, New York. His website: Experience Paranormal Walks in Western New York.
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: The Paracast Community Forums. And look for @theparacast on Bluesky Social, Facebook, Threads and X.
Thousands of Files and Thousands of Pieces
By John Koerner
The JFK assassination files and have released and…Yawn. Amazingly in the 63,000 or so pages it does not say, “we killed JFK, and are damn proud of it!” Or maybe it would say, “we (redacted) are proud (redacted).”
A quick scan of the mainstream media accounts always comes with the disclaimer that nothing will challenge the long-accepted notion that Oswald acted alone as established by the Warren Commission. This despite the fact that House Assassinations Committee issued a report on March 29, 1979, that two gunmen fired at the President. I guarantee this will not be mentioned in any article of the coverage of the document dump.
These files have long since been held under wraps beginning with CIA Director George H. W. Bush sealing them in the 1970s. A further travesty took place in May 2013 when President Barack Obama released 175 batches, but kept sealed an additional 1,100 pages. Then President Trump in his first term, and President Biden, both issued partial document releases in their administrations, prompting the final release this month.
This all goes back to pressure created to release remaining documents that was created by Oliver Stone’s movie, “JFK,” which led to the passage of the Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, signed by President Clinton, resulting in the creation of the Assassination Records and Review Board, which required all records be released by 2017.
If I were doing the digging into these files, I would be looking at the names listed by CIA spook E. Howard Hunt (a notorious Watergate figure) as the men in the CIA who conspired to kill the President. He gave a series of deathbed confessions to his son St. John in 2006. Named were David Morales, Frank Sturgis, Antonia Veciana, David Atlee Phillips, William K. Harvey, and Cord Meyer, whose wife was JFK’s mistress, and died mysteriously in 1964.
Is it improbable that the CIA could assassinate an American political figure? Well just ask the families of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. After 50 years of false imprisonment for the murder of Malcolm X, Muhammed Aziz and Khalil Islam were exonerated in November 2021. The family of Malcolm X, including his daughters, are currently suing the CIA and New York City Police Department for conspiring to kill their father.
Also, Coretta Scott King spent decades researching the death of her late husband. In a mock trial in 1999 televised live, over 70 witnesses implicated the CIA, and the Memphis Mafia in the assassination of Dr. King. The mock trial also acquitted accused assassin James Earl Ray.
A brief look at why the CIA would want to kill thePresident goes back to the Bay of Pigs Invasion in April 1962. This effort to remove Fidel Castro failed, and JFK refused to provide air support, or stage an invasion to save the plan. After this, the President fired CIA Director Allen Dulles, and Director of Operations Richard Bissell. He also moved to shift covert operations from the CIA to the Department of Defense with NSAM 55, 56, and 57 issued in June 1961.
In retaliation, the CIA attempted to destroy JFK’s pet program, the Peace Corps, by having agents secretly join the Corps to destroy it. On April 2, 1963, the President brought this to the attention of Peace Corps Director Sargent Shriver, who said this plot could discredit the entire Corps.
To this day, if you visit the website for the Peace Corps it says, “if you have ever worked for the CIA you are permanently ineligible for employment at the Peace Corps.”
In March 1963, JFK shut down Operation Northwoods. This was a false flag operation planned by the CIA to stage fake acts of terrorism blamed at Castro to trick the American people into supporting a war with Cuba. JFK was also aggressively pursuing peace in Vietnam and Laos. The first 1,000 of 16,000 troops were to be withdrawn by December 1963 and the remaining by 1965. This was all contained in NSAM 263.
As I lay out in my book, “Why The CIA Killed JFK and Malcolm X: The Secret Drug Trade in Laos," the President was at odds the agency’s burgeoning trade in opium and heroin production in Laos and Vietnam. This put him in the crosshairs, literally, of the agency. No wonder he once told an administration official he would break the CIA into a thousand pieces “and scatter them to the winds.”
Even Attorney General Robert Kennedy angrily confronted CIA Director John McCone on the day of the assassination, asking if the agency had planned it. RFK later met with conspiracy researchers Penn Jones and Walter Sheridan, seeking information about CIA involvement.
In my book “The Four Guns: The History of the Assassinated Presidents” (the subject of my March 23, 2025 interview on The Paracast), Robert Kennedy plays a key role in bringing the conspirators to justice. If JFK had survived the assassination with some better reaction time from the Secret Service, the second term would have been spent dismantling the CIA, and bringing the plotters to justice. This would make sense, otherwise the President would not feel safe in the White House.
The second term would also bring about the signing of the Civil Rights Act, peace in Vietnam, and a joint Russian-American Moon landing. And perhaps more importantly with the agency denuded, they would be unable to assassinate Malcolm X and Dr. King.
So as we reflect on the meaning of the release of these files, let us not focus on what is in the files, or what is left out. Let us instead remember one of our greatest presidents who brought us back from the brink of nuclear destruction, got us to the moon, pushed relentlessly for peace, brought the Civil Rights Act, and dared us to dream of a New Frontier.
John Koerner is an adjunct professor of Social Sciences at Erie Community College in Buffalo, New York, and the founder of Paranormal Walks. In addition to The Paracast, he has appeared on Coast to Coast AM, "America's Book of Secrets" on the History Channel and William Shatner's "Weird or What" on the Discovery Channel. Koerner has an MA in American History from the State University of New York, College at Brockport, and a BA in Communications/Journalism from St. John Fisher College, Summa Cum Laude, Honors Program. His books include “Why the CIA Killed JFK.” “Malcolm X: The Secret Drug Trade in Laos,” “Exploding the Truth: The JFK Jr., Assassination,” and “The Four Guns: The Stolen History of the Assassinated Presidents.” He lives with his family in Buffalo, New York.
Copyright 1999-2025 The Paracast Company. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!
March 23, 2025
www.theparacast.com
Academic and Conspiracy Theorist John Koerner Explores the Hidden Details Behind the Deaths of Presidents Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley and, of course, John F. Kennedy, on The Paracast!
The Paracast is released every Sunday and available from our site, https://www.theparacast.com, your favorite podcast app, and the IRN Internet Radio Network. All episodes from 2022 and later now feature better audio and fewer ads. We are also re-releasing some of our most popular classic episodes.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T SIGNED UP FOR THE PARACAST+ YET? PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO THE PARACAST+ SO YOU CAN SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE ULTIMATE PARACAST EXPERIENCE AT A SPECIAL LOW PRICE! We have another radio show and we’d love for you listen to it. So for a low subscription fee, you will receive access to an exclusive bonus podcast, After The Paracast, plus a special version of The Paracast with all the ads removed, when you join The Paracast+. We also offer a special RSS feed for easy updates of the latest episodes on your device. Episodes for subscribers to The Paracast+ are now released 24 hours earlier. Flash! Take advantage of our lowest rates ever! Act now! It's easier than ever to susbcribe! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: https://www.theparacast.plus
This Week's Episode: Gene and cohost Tim Swartz explore some of the most compelling conspiracy theories of all with John Koerner, author of The Four Guns: The Stolen History of the Assassinated Presidents, which focuses on the lost or hidden details of the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley and, of course, John F. Kennedy. He’ll also talk about how history was changed due to these tragedies. Koerner is a professor of Social Sciences at SUNY Erie Community College in Buffalo, New York. He has previously appeared on America’s Book of Secrets, William Shatner’s Weird or What, and Coast to Coast AM. John’s other books include Why The CIA Killed JFK and Malcolm X: The Secret Drug Trade in Laos, and Exploding the Truth: The JFK, Jr. Assassination. He is also the founder and operator of Paranormal Walks, a ghost walk tour company in Western New York, and lives with his family and his two frustrating cats in Buffalo, N.Y. John’s website: Experience Paranormal Walks in Western New York.
After The Paracast — Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers on March 22: The ongoing revelations of the facts behind the JFK assassination are explored by conspiracy theorist John Koerner, author The Four Guns: The Stolen History of the Assassinated Presidents, which focuses on the lost or hidden details of the assassinations of JFK and, also, Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield and William McKinley. Speaking with Gene and cohost Tim Swartz, John talks about the possible involvement or the CIA and/or organized crime in the November 22, 1963 tragedy. Also explored is the controversial investigation of the case by New Orleans District Attorney James Garrison, which resulted in the 1969 arrest and trial of businessman Clay Shaw, who as acquitted by a jury in an hour. Gene and Tim bring up the possible involvement of one Fred Lee Crisman, also notorious as one of the key figures in the 1947 Maury Island UFO case. And was the 1968 assassination of JFK’s brother and a candidate for President, Robert F. Kennedy, somehow connected? John is a professor of Social Sciences at SUNY Erie Community College in Buffalo, New York. His website: Experience Paranormal Walks in Western New York.
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: The Paracast Community Forums. And look for @theparacast on Bluesky Social, Facebook, Threads and X.
Thousands of Files and Thousands of Pieces
By John Koerner
The JFK assassination files and have released and…Yawn. Amazingly in the 63,000 or so pages it does not say, “we killed JFK, and are damn proud of it!” Or maybe it would say, “we (redacted) are proud (redacted).”
A quick scan of the mainstream media accounts always comes with the disclaimer that nothing will challenge the long-accepted notion that Oswald acted alone as established by the Warren Commission. This despite the fact that House Assassinations Committee issued a report on March 29, 1979, that two gunmen fired at the President. I guarantee this will not be mentioned in any article of the coverage of the document dump.
These files have long since been held under wraps beginning with CIA Director George H. W. Bush sealing them in the 1970s. A further travesty took place in May 2013 when President Barack Obama released 175 batches, but kept sealed an additional 1,100 pages. Then President Trump in his first term, and President Biden, both issued partial document releases in their administrations, prompting the final release this month.
This all goes back to pressure created to release remaining documents that was created by Oliver Stone’s movie, “JFK,” which led to the passage of the Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, signed by President Clinton, resulting in the creation of the Assassination Records and Review Board, which required all records be released by 2017.
If I were doing the digging into these files, I would be looking at the names listed by CIA spook E. Howard Hunt (a notorious Watergate figure) as the men in the CIA who conspired to kill the President. He gave a series of deathbed confessions to his son St. John in 2006. Named were David Morales, Frank Sturgis, Antonia Veciana, David Atlee Phillips, William K. Harvey, and Cord Meyer, whose wife was JFK’s mistress, and died mysteriously in 1964.
Is it improbable that the CIA could assassinate an American political figure? Well just ask the families of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. After 50 years of false imprisonment for the murder of Malcolm X, Muhammed Aziz and Khalil Islam were exonerated in November 2021. The family of Malcolm X, including his daughters, are currently suing the CIA and New York City Police Department for conspiring to kill their father.
Also, Coretta Scott King spent decades researching the death of her late husband. In a mock trial in 1999 televised live, over 70 witnesses implicated the CIA, and the Memphis Mafia in the assassination of Dr. King. The mock trial also acquitted accused assassin James Earl Ray.
A brief look at why the CIA would want to kill thePresident goes back to the Bay of Pigs Invasion in April 1962. This effort to remove Fidel Castro failed, and JFK refused to provide air support, or stage an invasion to save the plan. After this, the President fired CIA Director Allen Dulles, and Director of Operations Richard Bissell. He also moved to shift covert operations from the CIA to the Department of Defense with NSAM 55, 56, and 57 issued in June 1961.
In retaliation, the CIA attempted to destroy JFK’s pet program, the Peace Corps, by having agents secretly join the Corps to destroy it. On April 2, 1963, the President brought this to the attention of Peace Corps Director Sargent Shriver, who said this plot could discredit the entire Corps.
To this day, if you visit the website for the Peace Corps it says, “if you have ever worked for the CIA you are permanently ineligible for employment at the Peace Corps.”
In March 1963, JFK shut down Operation Northwoods. This was a false flag operation planned by the CIA to stage fake acts of terrorism blamed at Castro to trick the American people into supporting a war with Cuba. JFK was also aggressively pursuing peace in Vietnam and Laos. The first 1,000 of 16,000 troops were to be withdrawn by December 1963 and the remaining by 1965. This was all contained in NSAM 263.
As I lay out in my book, “Why The CIA Killed JFK and Malcolm X: The Secret Drug Trade in Laos," the President was at odds the agency’s burgeoning trade in opium and heroin production in Laos and Vietnam. This put him in the crosshairs, literally, of the agency. No wonder he once told an administration official he would break the CIA into a thousand pieces “and scatter them to the winds.”
Even Attorney General Robert Kennedy angrily confronted CIA Director John McCone on the day of the assassination, asking if the agency had planned it. RFK later met with conspiracy researchers Penn Jones and Walter Sheridan, seeking information about CIA involvement.
In my book “The Four Guns: The History of the Assassinated Presidents” (the subject of my March 23, 2025 interview on The Paracast), Robert Kennedy plays a key role in bringing the conspirators to justice. If JFK had survived the assassination with some better reaction time from the Secret Service, the second term would have been spent dismantling the CIA, and bringing the plotters to justice. This would make sense, otherwise the President would not feel safe in the White House.
The second term would also bring about the signing of the Civil Rights Act, peace in Vietnam, and a joint Russian-American Moon landing. And perhaps more importantly with the agency denuded, they would be unable to assassinate Malcolm X and Dr. King.
So as we reflect on the meaning of the release of these files, let us not focus on what is in the files, or what is left out. Let us instead remember one of our greatest presidents who brought us back from the brink of nuclear destruction, got us to the moon, pushed relentlessly for peace, brought the Civil Rights Act, and dared us to dream of a New Frontier.
• • •
John Koerner is an adjunct professor of Social Sciences at Erie Community College in Buffalo, New York, and the founder of Paranormal Walks. In addition to The Paracast, he has appeared on Coast to Coast AM, "America's Book of Secrets" on the History Channel and William Shatner's "Weird or What" on the Discovery Channel. Koerner has an MA in American History from the State University of New York, College at Brockport, and a BA in Communications/Journalism from St. John Fisher College, Summa Cum Laude, Honors Program. His books include “Why the CIA Killed JFK.” “Malcolm X: The Secret Drug Trade in Laos,” “Exploding the Truth: The JFK Jr., Assassination,” and “The Four Guns: The Stolen History of the Assassinated Presidents.” He lives with his family in Buffalo, New York.
Copyright 1999-2025 The Paracast Company. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!