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JFK Book Reviews - Bond Of Secrecy · The Lone Gunman Podcast : JFK Assassination

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Speaker 1: What's up, everybody? Welcome in to another edition of JFK
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Speaker 1: Book Reviews, a division of the Lone Gummin' Podcast. I'm
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Speaker 1: your host, Big Bad Bob. As you can see right
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Speaker 1: behind me, Big Bad Bob. That's me, Rob Clark, from
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Speaker 1: the Lone Gumman Podcast, here for another exciting edition of
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Speaker 1: the show. This time, we shall be talking about Bond
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Speaker 1: of Secrecy by St. John Hunt. This is a very
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Speaker 1: skinny book. Skinny book. Not much meat on the bones.
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Speaker 1: Definitely no thickness. Probably devour that in one bite. Bond
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Speaker 1: of Secrecy was published in 2012 by Trine Day. It
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Speaker 1: has an introduction by Douglas Caddy, a foreword by Jesse Ventura.
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Speaker 1: It consists of 20 chapters and 192 pages. Now the
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Speaker 1: meat of the book is literally 100 pages divided into
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Speaker 1: 20 chapters. So these chapters are very short. Obviously St.
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Speaker 1: John Hunt did not inherit the writer's DNA that his
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Speaker 1: father had. E. Howard Hunt was authored over 70 novels books,
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Speaker 1: if you will. A couple autobiographies, but mostly fiction. Mostly fiction.
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Speaker 1: So imagine, if you will, that your father is outed
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Speaker 1: as a CIA spy, a Watergate burglar, I mean, this
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Speaker 1: is worldwide news. And at the time, St. John Hunt
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Speaker 1: is 18 years old. The same year your father gets
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Speaker 1: busted for the Watergate burglary, your mother dies. So after
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Speaker 1: the Watergate burglary, E. Howard Hunt is sentenced to 33
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Speaker 1: months in prison. Your mother has recently passed away. And
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Speaker 1: the family home you grew up in, in Potomac, Maryland,
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Speaker 1: they have to sell to pay for his father's legal bills.
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Speaker 1: So suddenly you find yourself going from a really nice,
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Speaker 1: comfortable life to essentially penniless and homeless overnight. It's not
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Speaker 1: a good story. And you can imagine... the toll that
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Speaker 1: this all took on a young St. John Hunt. In fact,
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Speaker 1: he goes into some detail in the book about his
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Speaker 1: own past and his struggles and his legal troubles and
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Speaker 1: things of that nature. And you can imagine the kind
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Speaker 1: of chasms That would open between a father and his children.
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Speaker 1: As he is sitting in jail. And their mother passes away.
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Speaker 1: There's going to be some resentment. There's going to be
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Speaker 1: a lot of confusion. So this... kind of is where
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Speaker 1: the story starts in Bond of Secrecy. And St. John
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Speaker 1: kind of goes into the family dynamics around that time
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Speaker 1: and how things all shook out. Now, of course, nobody
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Speaker 1: really cares about all that. What they really want to
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Speaker 1: know is, was E. Howard Hunt... a part of the
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Speaker 1: JFK assassination. Now, it's very hard to answer that question.
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Speaker 1: Because in several instances, starting in the 70s, E. Howard
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Speaker 1: Hunt was given an opportunity to come clean about a
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Speaker 1: lot of this stuff. And this is during the time
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Speaker 1: of the House Select Committee on Assassinations. And he was
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Speaker 1: given immunized testimony, meaning no matter what he said, he
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Speaker 1: couldn't be prosecuted for it. And this is hot on
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Speaker 1: the heels of him just getting out of prison for
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Speaker 1: the whole Watergate burglary. Now, officially, E. Howard Hunt retired
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Speaker 1: from the CIA in 1970. one could believe or choose
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Speaker 1: not to believe that his employment continued on after that,
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Speaker 1: off the books, if you will, and doing some jobs
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Speaker 1: when needed for the CIA. Now, of course, if you
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Speaker 1: were a man who had done pretty great things, for
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Speaker 1: the CIA. Um, you know, he was, he was part
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Speaker 1: of designing the plan that overthrew our bends in Guatemala,
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Speaker 1: the coup. And, uh, that worked out good, uh, for
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Speaker 1: the United States and the CIA, the Bay of pigs,
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Speaker 1: not so much. Okay. Um, But in 1964, of course
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Speaker 1: this is the year after the JFK assassination, he was
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Speaker 1: tasked by John McComb and sent to Spain and tasked
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Speaker 1: with creating an American answer to Ian Fleming's James Bond
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Speaker 1: novel series. So again, this is propaganda, folks. Right? You know,
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Speaker 1: the CIA has an image. And James Bond being the dashing, suave, debonair, kick-ass,
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Speaker 1: cool British spy that everybody was loving in the novels
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Speaker 1: and the movies, the Americans wanted their own version of
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Speaker 1: James Bond. Their own hero, spy hero, if you will, who...
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Speaker 1: you know, can be compared to the British version of
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Speaker 1: James Bond. And it's all about propaganda. E. Howard Hunt
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Speaker 1: being a writer and having published a variety of books
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Speaker 1: under pseudonyms and being able to pull from his own
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Speaker 1: experiences as a spy could inject a sort of realism
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Speaker 1: into much like Ian Fleming did into James Bond, into
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Speaker 1: the heroes of his own novels. So him writing books
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Speaker 1: was not just an E. Howard Hunt thing. It was
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Speaker 1: a CIA-sponsored thing as well. So very interesting. Now... When
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Speaker 1: a book... That I just talked about not too long ago.
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Speaker 1: Coup d'etat in America. Right. The A.J. Webberman. Michael Canfield
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Speaker 1: book came out. It had. A very specific. Allegation in it.
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Speaker 1: With E. Howard Hunt being one of the tramps. Now
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Speaker 1: the story. Of the tramps. Jim Garrison brought forward. As
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Speaker 1: being suspicious. Hey. Hey. He was on Johnny Carson. He said, hey,
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Speaker 1: you see this photo here? These three men were arrested
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Speaker 1: in Dealey Plaza after the assassination, but you never heard
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Speaker 1: of them. You don't know who they are. It's got
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Speaker 1: to be a cover-up. So within a couple years, of course, A.J.
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Speaker 1: Webberman and Michael Canfield wrap this idea into their book,
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Speaker 1: and they try to implicate E. Howard Hunt as being
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Speaker 1: one of the tramps and Frank Sturgis being the other.
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Speaker 1: Unfortunately for them two, They were busted together during the
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Speaker 1: whole Watergate fiasco. Now, both denied that they'd ever met
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Speaker 1: each other beforehand. before the whole Watergate deal right the
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Speaker 1: CIA tried to disavow any knowledge of Frank Sturgis ever
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Speaker 1: being on the payroll if you will which he wasn't
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Speaker 1: officially but there are two CIA documents that have since
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Speaker 1: come out that prove that he was at least an
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Speaker 1: asset paid asset Frank Sturgis so there was an article
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Speaker 1: that came out in Rolling Stone magazine and it was
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Speaker 1: alleged to be the last confession of E. Howard Hunt
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Speaker 1: And E. Howard Hunt passes away in 2007. So it
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Speaker 1: really wasn't a deathbed confession. He wasn't on his deathbed yet.
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Speaker 1: But he wasn't doing well health-wise. He had had a
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Speaker 1: series of problems. He had a leg amputated at that point.
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Speaker 1: But he was still alive and still coherent in all
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Speaker 1: of this. so after the success of the, or interest
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Speaker 1: in the Rolling Stone article, um, St. John, his son
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Speaker 1: started spending a lot of time with the old man,
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Speaker 1: the old warrior who used to be a cold warrior,
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Speaker 1: the old warrior, as he called him. and, he started
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Speaker 1: to get out of his father somewhat of a confession
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Speaker 1: pertaining to the JFK assassination. Now, we've all heard of
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Speaker 1: this before. Now, E. Howard Hunt had published his own memoir,
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Speaker 1: which came out in 2007. the same year that he died,
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Speaker 1: called American Spy, My Secret History in the CIA, Watergate,
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Speaker 1: and Beyond. He hinted in that book that LBJ might
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Speaker 1: have had a hand in the plot to assassinate Kennedy,
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Speaker 1: but it didn't really go into anything more specific than that.
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Speaker 1: So you would think that this man, E. Howard Hunt,
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Speaker 1: being the craftiest crafter of novels and fiction, would have
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Speaker 1: put this in his own memoir. Now, he didn't know
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Speaker 1: that St. John Hunt would intend to write a tell-all
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Speaker 1: book after he passed away. Now, are these confessions of E.
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Speaker 1: Howard Hunt the last dying ramblings of a senile, influenceable
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Speaker 1: old man? I mean, it'd be one thing. Well, I mean,
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Speaker 1: we do have the tapes. He's on video saying things,
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Speaker 1: but he also wrote some things down on paper. We
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Speaker 1: just don't know the backstory of St. John getting E.
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Speaker 1: Howard Hunt to say these things or to write these
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Speaker 1: things down. In the 80s, E. Howard Hunt tried to
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Speaker 1: sue the Liberty Lobby for libel. By saying he had
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Speaker 1: something to do with the assassination. And... Mark Lane... Successfully
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Speaker 1: defended the Liberty Lobby's... The Liberty Lobby's position... In court.
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Speaker 1: And in the course of that managed to... Cross-examine E.
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Speaker 1: Howard Hunt in a deposition. And a jury found... In
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Speaker 1: the Liberty Lobby. Shit. The Liberty Lobby. Damn it. The
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Speaker 1: Liberty Lobby's favor. Sorry folks. For those of you who
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Speaker 1: don't know. That is my. The thorn in my side.
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Speaker 1: To say those two words together. But I digress. So.
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Speaker 1: The point is that this man. Had a lot of.
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Speaker 1: to come forward with the truth. He could have said
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Speaker 1: it in his immunized testimony to the House Select Committee
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Speaker 1: on Assassinations, and he didn't. He could have came clean
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Speaker 1: in the lawsuit with Liberty Lobby, and he didn't. He
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Speaker 1: could have wrote it in his memoir, but he didn't.
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Speaker 1: He saves it until the end is nigh, if you will.
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Speaker 1: And St. John Hunt comes back into his life to
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Speaker 1: reconcile with his father. You could also see it from
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Speaker 1: the angle that this man, E. Howard Hunt, gave his
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Speaker 1: entire life over to the CIA. And even before it
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Speaker 1: was the CIA, the OSS. And even before he was
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Speaker 1: with the OSS, he was in the military. So he
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Speaker 1: had spent an entire life in service to the government
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Speaker 1: of our country. Only for them to turn their back
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Speaker 1: on him when he needed them the most. To die
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Speaker 1: in relative obscurity, relatively penniless, and forgotten like a discarded
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Speaker 1: piece of trash. Do you think somebody like that would
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Speaker 1: have a little resentment? Do you think somebody like that
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Speaker 1: might possibly make up a story to implicate his former boss,
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Speaker 1: the CIA, in a conspiracy to kill JFK? I don't know. Now, St.
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Speaker 1: John Hunt tells a story in the book about a
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Speaker 1: meeting with the star of JFK, the Oliver Stone movie,
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Speaker 1: Kevin Costner was interested in buying the rights to E.
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Speaker 1: Howard Hunt's life story to the tune of $ 5 million, allegedly. Allegedly,
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Speaker 1: the talks broke down when Costner only wanted to pay
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Speaker 1: Howard Hunt $ 100 a day and have him travel from
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Speaker 1: Miami to California To answer 50 questions. So. And they.
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Speaker 1: You know. So. The film itself. Never got off the ground. Rumor.
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Speaker 1: Has it. Costner. Asked. Bluntly. E. Howard Hunt. Who killed JFK.
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Speaker 1: Who shot him. And. That Hunt didn't answer. And. And
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Speaker 1: told him to get the hell out. So. things could
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Speaker 1: have ended a lot differently. But when you're a stubborn
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Speaker 1: old man, I mean, he could have told Costner a
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Speaker 1: story and spun a yarn and sold his story for
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Speaker 1: $ 5 million, set up his son and his other kids
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Speaker 1: for life, and he chose not to. But then at
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Speaker 1: the very end, we get this whole convoluted, of the
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Speaker 1: JFK assassination, you know, coming down from LBJ to Cord
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Speaker 1: Meyer to David Morales and, you know, the French gunman
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Speaker 1: on the grassy knoll and all of that. I was
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Speaker 1: just a benchwarmer. I sat on the sidelines. I was there.
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Speaker 1: And it's with these deathbed confessions that that there's always
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Speaker 1: going to be a question of truthfulness. Are we finally
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Speaker 1: getting the truth? Are we getting a version of the truth?
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Speaker 1: Or are we simply getting another fictional story out of
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Speaker 1: a master of the genre? And that, my friends, is
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Speaker 1: the critical question. but I digress so with this book
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Speaker 1: Bond of Secrecy by St. John Hunt given what it
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Speaker 1: is I mean you can easily buy this and read
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Speaker 1: it in an afternoon which is what I did I
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Speaker 1: read it in about two hours Like I said, it's
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Speaker 1: not well-written. It's a very horrible style of writing. And
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Speaker 1: I've read some of E. Howard Hunt's books, and they're
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Speaker 1: very good, the writing style. But this, not so much.
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Speaker 1: I can see why it had to be published by
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Speaker 1: trying day and not... some reputable publishing house like Simon
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Speaker 1: and Schuster or, or something of that ilk and, uh, prestige.
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Speaker 1: I mean, you would think this, that the, the, the
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Speaker 1: deathbed confessions of America's greatest cold war spy or one
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Speaker 1: of America's greatest cold war spies would be worthy of
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Speaker 1: a giant publishing house, a book with a huge advance
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Speaker 1: and all of this stuff. But no, for some reason,
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Speaker 1: they chose to pass on this, and it had to
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Speaker 1: be published by old Chris Milligan and Trine Day, the
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Speaker 1: home that Judas Very Baker built, which kind of rubs
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Speaker 1: me the wrong way. In the end, I don't know
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Speaker 1: what the truth is with this book. I don't know
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Speaker 1: what St. John Hunt's and E. Howard Hunt's truths are.
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Speaker 1: So we're left with a narrative, a perspective that is
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Speaker 1: given to us, and you can do with it what
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Speaker 1: you will. If you already believe the fact that LBJ
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Speaker 1: was behind it, then of course this whole confession will
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Speaker 1: make sense to you. I am not from that camp.
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Speaker 1: I don't believe that LBJ was behind the assassination. So
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Speaker 1: I'm automatically disqualifying what E. Howard Hunt is saying as horseshit.
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Speaker 1: But if you're of that ilk where you're convinced of
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Speaker 1: the story of LBJ and Mack Wallace and you want
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Speaker 1: to run down the list of every suspect CIA guy
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Speaker 1: known to man who was in on the whole thing,
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Speaker 1: then by all means you will enjoy this book. I'm
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Speaker 1: going to have to give this book for what it
22:39
Speaker 1: is Which is a very short book. A very badly
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Speaker 1: written short book. And. I can't quantify the information contained therein.
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Speaker 1: And this is coming from somebody who's looked at the
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Speaker 1: case for 35 years. I just. I just don't know.
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Speaker 1: I don't know. Um. again, it's out there in the ether.
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Speaker 1: Take it for what it's worth. Do with it what
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Speaker 1: you will. Bond of Secrecy, St. John Hunt. You can
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Speaker 1: pick it up on Amazon. Uh, for somewhere around 24 bucks,
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Speaker 1: I think is the cheapest copy. Is it worth 24 bucks?
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Speaker 1: Hell no. Hell no. Uh, I wouldn't recommend buying it
23:38
Speaker 1: at that price. But if you can find it cheap
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Speaker 1: at a used bookstore for five bucks or whatever, pick
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Speaker 1: it up. See what he had to say and make
23:45
Speaker 1: up your own mind. You know, I'm not here to
23:48
Speaker 1: make up your mind for you. Like I said, it's
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Speaker 1: a quick, easy read. With that being said, I'm going
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Speaker 1: to give this book a three out of ten guns up.
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Speaker 1: That's all you get, St. John. Sorry. And that will
24:14
Speaker 1: be it for this week's JFK Book Reviews. If you
24:17
Speaker 1: enjoyed this show, then by golly, you'll love the podcast
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Speaker 1: YouTube at 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time with my buddy,
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Speaker 1: my co-host, Joe Borelli. We bring the heat in investigating
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25:02
Speaker 1: And until next time, folks, that's it for me, Big
25:05
Speaker 1: Bad Bob. This has been JFK Book Reviews will see
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Speaker 1: you next time, folks. Peace!