More late-breaking RFK news

Since this blog usually ignores '60s-era controversies -- readers seem more interested in today than in yesterday -- few seemed to care very much about my previous RFK post. Nevertheless, this is one assassination story which deserves wider attention, due to the thin -- but genuine -- possibility that hard evidence may yet surface.

That evidence took or takes the form of a clandestine tape recording allegedly made in 1968 by a lawyer named Ronald Buck, who co-owned a Los Angeles night spot named The Factory. On this tape -- allegedly -- were the voices of military bigwigs and H.L. Hunt, who bragged about engineering the deaths of JFK and Martin Luther King, and who announced a determination to do likewise to Robert Kennedy. This gathering occurred at a private party at The Factory.

Allegedly.

Alas, we must emphasize the word "allegedly" so heavily because we have this tale at second hand. It comes to us by way of a woman named Lisa Hurtado, secretary to one William Huntington, friend to Ronald Buck and "earwitness" to the tape. According to Hurtado, Huntington later claimed that he had received death threats because he had knowledge of this damning piece of evidence. He died of a heart attack in the first half of 1971. Unnerved, Hurtado told her story to an FBI agent, who wrote it all up in a nice document which you can find here.

Obviously, this tape -- if ever it came to light -- could change our view of history. Even if it was destroyed, I would like to know if more than one person can confirm that it did once exist. To that end, I noted that the "Lea Perwin" identified by Hurtado as Buck's legal secretary may, in fact, be Lea Purwin D'Agostino, now a well-known Deputy D.A. in Los Angeles.

Quite a few other noted individuals may also have direct knowledge of this tape recorded evidence. If Buck allowed Huntington to hear it, he probably would have also shared it with his business associates.

Buck was not the sole owner of The Factory. He had celebrated partners: Paul Newman, Jerry Ohrbach, Pierre Salinger, Peter Lawford, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Bren and Richard Donner.

The most famous name on this list is, of course, that of Paul Newman. Few members of the general public know that he has long had an interest in the JFK assassination. Whenever Newman visited New Orleans, he would ask for one specific cab driver -- Perry Russo, the key witness in Jim Garrison's case.

Pierre Salinger, JFK's Press Secretary, had befriended Mary Pinchot Meyer, the wife of Cord Meyer of the CIA. Her mysterious death has been tied, by some theorists, to that of JFK. As far as I know, Salinger never endorsed a conspiracy theory of the JFK murder, although he did encounter some turbulence (so to speak) when he lent his name to the "missile" theory of the downing of TWA 800 in 1996.

A couple of the people on this list of owners were not so well-known in 1968 as they later would become. Director Richard Donner, for example, broke into big-league feature film-making in 1975, with The Omen. In 1968, he was a television director.

Lawford, Ohrbach, Salinger and Davis are no longer with us. I am ashamed to admit that I do not know who Peter Bren was or is.

Paul Newman, however, is still alive and making a damn fine salad dressing, and he still occasionally shows up onscreen to teach the youngsters a few lessons. (I consider his work in 2002's A Road to Perdition a career best.) Richard Donner, in his 70s, still produces films. If you know how to get in contact with these two men, or with family members, perhaps you could ask about a lawyer named Ronald Buck.

You may also want to ask about the current whereabouts of a certain piece of oxide.

Forgive my occasional weakness for romantic scenarios, but I can't help wondering: What if these individuals had shared copies of this tape? Perhaps they engaged in a sort of tontine -- an agreement to release the evidence of conspiracy after the last member of the "club" dies, or when death seems so close as to make any threat of retaliation seem superfluous.

Just a thought.