One person who is rarely mentioned in the history of the case is Lawrence Schiller. We know he works with Norman Mailer and has been mentioned in files as a chronic FBI informer. What is the full story about this man in the history of this case? Why would Schiller tell on the FBI a lot?

Without having met the man, what ever side he's on, count me on the other.

BK

I seem to recall that in the mid 1970's, Esquire Magazine was planning a publication that allegedly named a second gunman in the JFK assassination.

Schiller came out with all guns blazing trying to derail the story with information supposedly from the FBI which said this man had been interviewed and that he had an air-tight alibi.

Does anyone know anything about this story?

A piece on Schiller below.

James

In his book A Citizen's Dissent, Mark Lane describes how he was approached by two representatives from Capitol Records, Richard Lewis and Lawrence Schiller. They told Lane that they were producing a documentary record that would "not take sides and permit the critics and defenders to present their views." They asked Lane if he would be willing to donate his portion of the royalties to the John F Kennedy Memorial Library. Lane wanted assurance that the Library would accept the offer.

Lane goes on to recount how the record, entitled "The Controversy," was nothing more than a defense brief for the Warren Report. It was adapted into a long article called simply "The Scavengers" in the World Journal Tribune. Less than three months later, Dell published The Scavengers and Critics of the Warren Report. Lane goes into detail about the inaccuracies and deficiencies of Lewis and Schiller's work and offers his take on the whole affair. He writes:

"...Schiller never disclosed the fact that he was Jack Ruby's business agent and that he had kept a substantial portion of the income derived from the sale of Ruby's final story to the press. Under the circumstances, one might have thought that the word "scavenger" might have been more sparingly employed by Schiller and Lewis."

James,

I'm flying by the seat of my pants here, but didn't Robert Sam Anson write for Esquire? So perhaps it was an excerpt from They've Killed the President that was spiked.

Anything else to add about Schiller? He sounds like a scavenger and a good old-fashioned opportunist.

Wikipedia:

Lawrence Schiller was born in 1936 in Brooklyn, and grew up outside of San Diego, California. After graduating from Pepperdine College, he went to work for Life Magazine and the Saturday Evening
Post as a photojournalist. He published his first book, LSD, in 1966. Since then he has published eleven books, including W. Eugene Smith's Minamata and Norman Mailer's Marilyn. He collaborated with
Albert Goldman on Ladies and Gentleman, Lenny Bruce and with Norman Mailer on The Executioner's Song and Oswald's Tale. He had directed seven motion pictures and miniseries for television; The
Executioner's Song and Peter the Great won five Emmys.

Mr. Schiller is a consultant to NBC news and has recently written for The New Yorker and George magazine.

From 1996 through 2002, Mr. Schiller published four books that became national bestsellers: American Tragedy, October 1996; Perfect Murder, Perfect Town, February, 1999; Into the Mirror, April 2002
and Cape May Court House, September, 2002, all made the New York Times Bestseller list. American Tragedy, Perfect Murder, Perfect Town and Into the Mirror were made into television mini-series for
CBS. Mr. Schiller produced and directed each of the motion pictures.

His previous motion pictures are: Double Jeopardy (Producer/Director); The Plot to Kill Hitler (Director); Margaret Bourke-White (Producer/Director); The Executioner's Song, 2 Emmy Awards, (Producer
Director); Peter the Great, 3 Emmy Awards, (Executive Producer/Director); Murder: By Reason of Insanity (Producer); Her Life As a Man (Producer); The Patricia Neal Story, 1 Emmy Award, (Producer);
Child Bride of Short Creek (Co-Producer); Marilyn, The Untold Story, 1 Emmy Award, (Producer/Co-Director); The Winds of Kitty Hawk (Producer); Hey, I'm Alive (Producer/Director); The Trial of Lee
Harvey Oswald (Producer); The Man Who Skied Down Everest, (USA Director).

Previous books as author or in collaboration with: Oswald's Tale, An American Mystery by Norman Mailer; I Want to Tell You by O.J. Simpson; The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer; Ladies and
Gentlemen, Lenny Bruce by Albert Goldman and Lawrence Schiller; LSD by Richard Albert, Sidney Cohen and Lawrence Schiller.

Previous books produced: Marilyn by Norman Mailer; Sunshine by Norma Klein; Minamata by W. Eugene Smith; Muhammad Ali by Wilfrid Sheed; The Faith of Graffiti by Norman Mailer; Masters of
Contemporary Photography book series.

Actually, if anyone could pry Schiller's JFK assassination investigatory materials from him, it would probably be quite revealing. For all his anti-conspiracism, his behind-the-scenes work on the Garrison case, from what little has been revealed, apparently supported aspects of Garrison's case. He apparently did not share that information with Garrison but Schiller's FBI reports seem to substantiate, among other things, that Shaw was Bertrand.

Someone want to try and attempt to run him down?

-Stu

Schiller was one of the earliest to shoot "reconstruction" photos of the
backyard photos. I have a copy somewhere in my files.

His participation in the OJ affair is also interesting. As I recall, he gained
OJ's confidence with false promises, then wrote a book against him. My
opinion...he is a scavenger, looking for SENSATION FOR PROFIT, not the
truth.

Jack

Well said, Jack. Just a good old-fashioned scavenger and opportunist.
What did Schiller know about the assasination and why would he want to engage in such questionable practices such as informing the FBI and lying to people and ripping them off?

Speaking of O.J., Donald Freed's Killing Time is a must-read analysis of the case.

Did Schiller turn in any of his files to the ARRB in the 1990s?
I think it also would be tough trying to obtain them from him.

Agreed. But William Dear's "OJ Is Guilty But Not of Murder" is likely closer to the
truth. Having followed the case in extreme detail, I believe OJ is covering for
son Jason...the only logical suspect.

I once had the opportunity to talk to Alan Dershowitz about the trial and told him
my theory. He replied, "Interesting. You know he is the only suspect without an alibi."

Jack

They should put Schiller's photo alongside the dictionary definition of "sensationalist." From his despicable work on the "Scavengers" book, to Gary Gilmore, Jon Benet Ramsey and O.J., this parasite has managed to inject himself into most of the sensational murder cases in modern history. Imho, he's the print version of Geraldo. As was mentioned in an earlier post, it's a good rule of thumb to consider what Schiller's view is on any given issue, and then take the opposite position.

I recall hearing that Schiller was supposedly the intellectual author of the Warren Report. Let me try to confirm where I heard this from. Also, his name rings a bell with something to do with Operation Paperclip.

Don't mean to leave you all hanging. I'll get sources.

John

How could Schiller be involved in the writing of the WR given his reputation as a scavenger-parasite- chronic FBI informer?

How could Allen Dulles sit on the Warren Commission given the fact that he was fired by JFK?

RFK recommended his appointment to the Commission.

Tim,
I've forgotten the source or document on this, can you elucidate?

Thanks very much,
John

John, I do not have the book with me but I will post it tomorrow.

Apparently RFK and Dulles got along quite well. When LBJ wanted Dulles to undertake some mission concerning school desegregation, he enlisted the assistance of RFK and I have read the transcript of a three way call between LBJ, RFK and Dulles.

No doubt RFK wanted some of the secrets of the JFK administration's efforts against Cuba kept secret (even if JFK/RFK were not privy to the assassination attempts they certainly authorized acts of war against Cuba). RFK may have wanted Dulles on the WC specifically to keep those secrets. That, of course, is only surmise on my part.

It should also be remembered that when RN criticized JFK in his book "Six Crises" Allen Dulles publicly defended JFK.

Thanks Tim.

My apologies, it was not Schiller that I was thinking of that was the intellectual author of the Warren Report. The person I am thinking of also has a germanic name.

I am told that Schiller was the only journalist allowed to interview the Manson family.

John

John,

As to the author of the Warren Report, are you thinking of Otto Winnaker?

James

Thanks James, he's the man. Can you remember anything of his past? Wasn't he somehow tied up with the nazis?
John

Forgive the comic relief:

Gilbert Gottfried: "I was interviewing Charlie Manson in the prison cafeteria and he said to me, 'Is it hot in here or am I crazy?'"

And from the same, well, odd perspective: "I was introduced to Jackie Kennedy and I just had to ask her, 'Do you remember where you were when you heard that ... '"

And of course, LBJ dutifully complied with all RFK's recommendations, despite the personal animosity which existed between them, right?

Like when RFK 'recommended' LBJ's immediate swearing in on AF1, for example.

I don't know who Otto Winnaker is, but if anyone was the intellectual father of the WC, it was Eugene Rostow, imo. Rostow was Dean of Yale Law School at the time.

Apart from being the first to suggest the establishment of the WC to LBJ, he also wrote this piece of purple prose about the Warren Report in the Washington Post on the first anniversary of JFK's death:

The Report is a masterly and convincing state paper. It has the high polish of legal writing at its best, carefully composed, terse, restrained and meticulous. In a detached and judicious tone, it deals with every feature of the case, discussing and evaluating the basis for the conclusions the Commission reached, and their rejection of the various contrary theories which had been advanced.