211 Jim Koethe's notes for JFK assassination bookCompare:11 Page 17 from Oswald's address book116 Gary Underhill's JFK Assassination notes126 Dorothy Kilgallen's folder of JFK-assassination files127 JFK Chapter intended for Murder One
The body of the young Dallas reporter was found swathed in a blanket on the floor of his bachelor apartment
on September 21, 1964. Police said the cause of death was asphyxiation from a broken bone at the base of
the neck - apparently the result of a karate chop.
Robbery appeared to be the motive, although Koethe's parents believe he was killed for other reasons. Whoever
ransacked his apartment, they point out, was careful to remove his notes for a book he was preparing, in
collaboration with two other journalists, on the Kennedy assassination.
(David Welsh, Ramparts November, 1966)
KOETHE, JAMES F., suspicious death; staff writer, Dallas Times
Herald. Along with two other reporters, Koethe attended a meeting in
Ruby's apartment with Ruby roommate George Senator during the evening
of November 24. All three of the journalists died soon after the meeting.
Koethe was murdered in his Dallas apartment on September 21, 1964,
reportedly just as he had stepped out of the shower. According to A. L.
Goodhart in the Law Quarterly Review (January 1967), " ... Koethe was a
beer-drinking bully who liked to hang out with thugs; he had been
strangled, not 'karate chopped,' (as some reports have said) and police
suggested that homosexuality may have been a motive."
(
Who's who in the JFK assassination)
There is another strange coincidence. Ruby's roommate, George Senator, when he heard Ruby had shot Oswald,
immediately went to see an attorney friend, James Martin. Martin turns up again as Marina Oswald's manager,
chosen for her by the Secret Service. In a city of one million people, we are to believe that a friend of Ruby is
accidentally picked by the Secret Service to aid the wife of Ruby's victim*. Martin didn't act as Ruby's lawyer.
The first man who took that job was Constine Alfred Droby, President of the Criminal Bar Association of Dallas
who was interviewed by Jean Campbell for the London Evening Standard of October 7, 1964:
"I said I would defend Jack," he told me . . . "but I had to
give it up before I really started, as my wife's life was
threatened by anonymous phone calls and we were told our
house was to be blown up by dynamite." However Droby
told me that as Ruby's attorney he had rushed around to
Ruby's apartment soon after the shooting with Jim Koethe,
a Dallas news reporter.
"The place was in chaos. I think we were the first people
to see it."
"You remember anything especially?" I said.
"No, just chaos and newspapers," Droby answered. "I wonder
if Jim Koethe saw anything?" I asked.
Mr. Droby folded his hands and leaned forward: "Koethe's
murdered," he said. "He was choked to death the Monday
before last."
(Joachim Joesten,
Oswald, Assassin or Fall Guy, 1964)
* Joesten here mixes up two different James / Jim Martin's.
The lawyer is Wilford James Martin. The Marina-manager is James Herbert Martin.
(Thank you Gerald Campeau for clearing this up.) Both of them are not to be confused
with Guy Banister-associate Jack Martin or General Walker-associate John 'Jack' Martin.
(More on John Martin: click HERE)Waldo told the Warren Commission that he had an important informant in the Dallas Police. His name was
Lieutenant George Butler. According to Michael Benson, Butler was an associate of Haroldson L. Hunt. Butler
was also the man in charge of Oswald's transfer when he was killed by Jack Ruby.
(Spartacus Education)
Also since Vol. I, we have discovered that Jim Koethe, a Dallas Times Herald reporter, was working
on a book about the assassination in conjunction with two other writers. In view of what happened
to his two associates, we now feel that his specific assignment on the book was at the root of his
murder. Koethe's associates on the book were Thayer Waldo and Ed Johnson, both men working
for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram at that time. All three men covered the Presidential visit for their
papers, and all three covered the assassination and the Ruby trial.
Koethe's task for the book was an in depth study of the leaders in Dallas. This, in our opinion,
was what caused his murder. Thayer Waldo, a newsman o f 23 years experience, was the first of the three
to find himself in trouble. Although he was not fired by the StarTelegram, it was convenient for him to seek
employment elsewhere after his big scoop turned out to be false.
At the request of Mark Lane, Waldo had accompanied Mrs. Marguerite Oswald and two
officers, Pat and Mike Howard, to Love Field. Mrs. Oswald had requested of Lane that she have
someone in addition to the officers escort her to the airport. Mrs. Oswald was going to Washington
to testify before the Warren Commission, and of course, to say that her son was innocent.
Mike Howard was a Secret Service Agent, while his brother was a Tarrant County Deputy Sheriff.
After the trio saw Mrs. Oswald on her plane, the two officers and the reporter went for a cup of coffee.
Both officers told newsman Waldo that they felt pity for Mrs. Oswald, but said there was a
prisoner in jail who saw her son kill President Kennedy. If such was the case and the story was
printed, Mrs. Oswald's testimony w o u I d be completely buried by the new development.
At the conclusion of their story, however, the lawmen added: "But we are not supposed to talk
about the prisoner." On the way back to Fort Worth, the lawmen repeated their report of the
prisoner, but again added the information was top secret. Waldo begged to be allowed to use the
news without giving the source of the information.
This was agreed to by the brothers Howard. Why repeat such a tale to a newsman twice,
if you do not want him to use it?
Waldo reported the news to his editor and the circumstances surrounding it. The editors and the
top brass of the Star-Telegram had a conference and decided to run the news which became an 8
column banner on page one. Next day, however, things were different. The Dallas District Attorney
denied the story. The Sheriff and Police Chief and the FBI denied that there was such a prisoner.
Only the Secret Service remained quiet - of course they had not been involved. In print, anyway.
The pressure on Thayer Waldo for his false lead continued and he soon found a job with the
University of the Americas in Mexico City.
Ed Johnson also left the Fort Worth paper for a better position with the Carpenter News Agency
of Washington, D.C. which is owned by Leslie Carpenter of Texas-the husband of Elizabeth
Carpenter, who is Press Secretary to Mrs. Lyndon Johnson.
(Penn Jones,
Forgive my Grief II)
Within a week a 22-year-old ex-con from Alabama named Larry Earl Reno was picked up selling Koethe's
personal effects and held on suspicion of murder.
Reno's lawyers were Mike Barclay and the ubiquitous Jim Martin, both friends of Ruby roomie George
Senator. Martin and Senator, one recalls, were with Koethe at that enigmatic meeting on November 24,
1963. When the Reno case came before the grand jury, District Attorney Henry Wade secretly
instructed the jurors not to indict - an extraordinary move for a chief prosecuting officer with as
strong a case as he had. The grand jury returned a no-bill.
Reno, however, remained in jail on a previous charge. When they finally sprang him, in January 1965, he was
re-arrested within a month for the robbery of a hotel. This time the prosecution, led by a one-time law
partner of Martin's had no qualms about getting an indictment, and a conviction. Reno was sentenced to life
for the hotel robbery. At the trial his lawyers called no witnesses in his defense.
(David Welsh,
Ramparts, November, 1966)