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| Reeve Whitson - Junior Year of High School |
Part One Introduction
This is a quick section. Just a little fact check on O'Neill's version of Whitson's early years and we'll be out the door.
Whenever I decide I've discovered the most interesting person in this study, a new rabbit hole opens in front of my fingertips, and down I go. Without fail, I search every time for a starting point long before the subject enters our realm. I need to see them as people.
I look for the usual stuff. Hopes. Dreams. Were they loved?
Truth be told, love isn't something I always find on these dark roads. Imagine if some connection existed between unloved children and bad outcomes. Talk about possibilities.
I'll stop there. Bootstraps arguments are pointless. We've already had them and it's not like monsters and heroes appear fully formed the first time they emerge from the shadows anyway. That stuff only happens in movies. In real life, monsters and heroes walk beside us every step of the way.
Online, I followed Tom O'Neill's research team to Reeve Whitson's relatives. Figuring out who's who isn't super hard. Crime dogs always stop when they discover someone they can call. Paper trails only need to stretch that far.
Here are the things I found while attempting to confirm O'Neill's backstory on Whitson. Thankfully, my ride through history was easy this time. None of the snow was unplowed.
Reeve's father was a circus performer in a successful family business. He had representation in the Big Apple.
Reeve's mother took him to London while she worked. I thought she was an actress but O'Neill says she's a dancer. He's probably correct.
Whitson took part in school activities you might expect from the son of performers. Drama. Singing. Instruments. He also stayed fit. All in all, Reeve was a handsome overachiever. I found an honest smile in almost every photo.
Basketball team manager.
This one will make Tobias happy. Whitson ran Track!
O'Neill tells us in Chaos that Whitson went to Indiana University after high school but I couldn't find anything. Someone has locked down several Whitson photos online. That cruelty knows no bounds.
Buntline, where for art thou? An ROTC type photo would be fantastic right about now.
My research into Whitson's backstory made me feel like O'Neill didn't fudge anything. I didn't expect any funny business but found myself pleasantly surprised nevertheless. I'll be back with more screen caps from Whitson's public life in subsequent sections. For now, let's leave Whitson in the stands of an early 1950's Hoosier basketball game and jump to 1969.
At least this time, the person actually exists. See you in Part Three.
24 comments:
I really liked the writing here...a bit of whimsy but also succinct. If you've been down the JFK rabbit hole there are fifty of these characters.
What's up Leary! Long time, dude. You're always nice to my about my writing and I appreciate it. I followed your comments across the Manson realm for years.
"Basketball team manager"
loser
LOL! That blurb next to his name made ME feel emasculated.
When I saw your name pop up in my email I knew I'd find some funny here. I'm decently infatuated with Reeve today even if I'm not sure about his role or if he had one in this thing.
You see those manly lats in Whitson's "hippie" photo in O'Neill's book? Beast.
It was Van Dyke Parks who showed up to Cielo looking for Melcher and it was on the night of the murder around 7 or 8. Bugliosi took his story and applied it to Charlie.
Polanski booted Hatami from his life not long after the trial.
Thanks. Any idea why Reeve Whitson would have his friends under surveillance?
I read a while ago (can't remember where) that van dyke parks actually showed up at cielo drive at approximately 3 or 3:30pm friday afternoon. Not during the evening hours.
Unknown said:
It was Van Dyke Parks who showed up to Cielo looking for Melcher
SixtiesRockRules! said:
I read a while ago (can't remember where) that van dyke parks actually showed up at cielo drive at approximately 3 or 3:30pm friday afternoon. Not during the evening hours
Has Van Dyke Parks ever said this ? 🧐 😖
And did he ever decide when he turned up ?
Unknown said more:
and it was on the night of the murder around 7 or 8
Did Dennis Hearst give him a lift on Abigail's new bike ? 🚴🏻♀️
Bugliosi took his story and applied it to Charlie
Had you said that this visit took place in March, you might have had a point worth thinking about.
Leary, JFK led me here, actually. I met a lady who worked on her photocopied (1990) JFK magazine, fanzine really, when a friend worked the night shift at the campus Kinko's and allowed to make copies and use their computers for free.
She was a total trip. Thought the police had a special car that drove past her house because she knew the truth etc etc. I hope she's still with us.
Did you ever read the Judith Vary books about Oswald? She had me making sure my doors were locked lol.
Greene, some nice sleuthing here. Thanks for this. I only took a real look at Whitson after I read O'Neill, and remain unclear as to the "surveillance". Was it about drugs, Polish expatriates, counterculture musicians? Of course none of this is spelled out. Are we to believe Whitson was shadowing 2774 Woodstock as well?
Thanks, Torque. I had a fun ride. When I tried to find things people are saying without saying something, I notice Paul Tate never mentions a friendship between Whitson and Abigail.
Bugliosi says Rudi told him about the encounters in March 1969. Bugs then sends the LAPD looking for Hatami. Hatami arrives for an interview with Whitson and not the LAPD. Bugs doesn't record it.
There's a newspaper article online, I have it for Part Three, where Whitson is a special advisor to the owner of the NBA Cleveland Cavs franchise in 1980 or right around that time. The following decade, Whitson dies penniless with no medical insurance, and according to O'Neill leaves a huge bill behind at the hospital. When Whitson's daughter goes to his apartment after the funeral, she finds a sparse, monk's quarters with nothing of value.
What govt. employee doesn't have medical insurance? Same for ex military. He didn't die at the VA I don't think.
On top of that, dude lived alone for decades. No savings?
Whitson's life screams secrets at me but they might be pretty well kept. I do not like that to accept Whitson as CIA super spook, we also have to believe he was part of their most secret arm and no records exist.
Hatami is of course dead. No peer review is possible, which means no duplication can take place in the research.
Sorry. I did not mean to imply Bugs met Rudi in March 1969. He obviously told him after the murders.
When I compare Whitson with Charles Tacot-another alleged intelligence asset-I see very similar circumstances. O'Neill writes about Tacot as well. Tacot was the one who drove over to Cielo to collect a very high Billy Doyle, and then returned Doyle to the backyard of Cass' house where he was chained to a tree until he sobered up.
Who needs enemies with friends like that?
Torque said:
Tacot was the one who drove over to Cielo to collect a very high Billy Doyle, and then returned Doyle to the backyard of Cass' house
Over at LSB, I've been having a long running tête-à-tête with this woman that says she was Tacot's girlfriend at the time of the murders and grilled by the cops and was actually a suspect.
She's now a sassy old lady. I quite like her.
@leary
"If you've been down the JFK rabbit hole there are fifty of these characters".
You're so right!
The TLB saga is a rabbit hole.
JFK is a rabbit quagmire!
Been researching it (and RFK,MLK,OKC,9/11etc. for
decades.
G/W, Saoirse....yeah, I fell ass backwards down the JFK rabbit hole by dating Oswald's daughter June in the early 80's. We both worked on the student newspaper at U of Texas. I had several up and down encounters with Marina. She was a trip and a half.
And of course I got to know most of the buff world. Some really fascinating cats dove down
that hole. Junie and I moved to my hometown Boston and were to be married but I crapped out the romance, but I did turn Junie into a Red Sox fan.
I will check out the Vary books. I quit the game after we split so all the stuff from the past few decades remains stacked on the porch. I got my first batch of gummies today so maybe a different mindset will spark a renewed interest.
Excellent research and questions you are posing regarding Reeve J. Whitson. I have an article dropping in the next few days that will offer some new details on Reeve Whitson's "missing" careers, beginning in Hollywood around 1954. I also have some new photos of Reeve from 1974 on, as well as timelines on several of his purposefully failed business ventures, handlers and sponsors. For those of you who ever doubted that the stories about Reeve Whitson were made up or too fantastic to be true, you should come away with a new appreciation of why he was called a "walk-in" by some, and why Captains, Colonels and Generals where always eager to take his call!
Below is a link to an article I wrote last year on William Weston's excellent website/articles about The Zodiac Killer (who by the way is correct about Robert Linkletter). This article details Whitson's incredible involvement from 1968-1977 in Auto-Racing (aero-dynamic breakthroughs sponsored perhaps by a program within the Department of Defense?) with Ford British racing research and Carroll Shelby, as well as Reeve's "cover story" and "corporate cover" as a global-licensor and builder of beautiful Mini 1/43rd scale models cars and slot car racing. His cars have few equals in precision in the kit industry, even today. as you read the article, you will quickly understand WHY WHITSON WAS NOT BLUFFING when he threatened to deport Hatami after the Tate contract/operation. Whitson employed and then hired out independent contractors to build and design an advance children's pedal car, and this was built by AAR's Phil Remington. Whitson also worked with James Garner's automotive race team, American International Racers (AIR), and they co-owned one of less than 15 street legal prototypes of the Ford GT40MkIII. The car sells for over $5 million dollars today, and another fun fact is that their car was used in the final racing scenes in George Lucas'1971 film "THX1138". A picture of the car and a picture of Reeve in slight disguise from 1975 at the Indianapolis Speedway, about to present a licensing idea for the Eagle Car that had just won the Indy 500.
Whitson knew EVERYONE that was someone in racing, and he sub-contracted workers to Parnelli Jones to work as design engineers for Vel’s Parnelli “Super Team” among whom were Joe Leonard, Al Unser, and Mario Andretti as drivers for advanced Indy cars. Whitson also employed and sub-contracted workers to Cox Hobbies in Santa Ana, California, and along this journey is where he became close with key individuals who collectively made up what I call "The Ties that Bind" in 1960's and 1970's that were the real decision-makers in and around Los Angeles, San Diego and Hollywood:
https://zodiackilleridentified.com/2021/07/29/reeve-whitson-builder-seller-and-driver-of-race-cars/
Thanks, RL. I will read it.
As I read all of these comments, it is clear to me that your audience does not fully realize the reason that Reeve Whitson was monitoring the Tate residence in the first place. If you do not know that fact, then everything else is just a circular argument that leads nowhere. I tried to share this with several researchers, but the challenge lies in the fact that everyone has their own theory, and thus cannot here the signal through the noise of old-fashioned intelligence tradecraft... Ask yourself what the name of the agency before it was called the DEA and read about the baggage handler airport thefts by mafia influenced individuals like Braniff Airlines baggage handler and Manson actor "Charles Tex Watson", a second story man for burglaries that is referenced in an FBI report regarding New Orleans Mafia linked to LA and Nevada mafia as "we have a man "Tex", a second story man and burglar who is currently in a holding cell in Texas late 1969". the story did not end well for bad actors like the hapless big-mouth Joel Rostau.
I mentioned in an earlier comment that William Weston was correct about Robert Linkletter involvement with the Zodiac Killer "Operation". Here is a podcast I appeared on a few months ago, that expands on that thought, and gives a preview of a Robert Linkletter "confession" of being "Jack the Ripper you see". Recorded at same studio as Charles Manson recordings at 4:00AM in 1966 (riverside zodiac event/murder timeframe, where the girl's throat was cut from "ear to ear", exactly as Robert Linkletter bellows out in the unreleased recording done at GoldStar studios. This is one of 162 pieces of circumstantial evidence that I have amassed regarding Robert Linkletter's possible involvement with 2 others in the Zodiac Killer intelligence operation, whose main purpose was to instill terror and fear into the California population specifically, and the entire world in general:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj7ai1EP1MM&t=53s
Best,
Peter Heitmann
Conspiracy analyst
San Jose, CA
Thanks, Peter. I'll give ya a watch. I'm a little slow today because I'm in the kitchen making various versions of heart disease for the high holiday. If you're in the 614, swing by that rascal Tobias' palace and bring him over. He owes me conspiracy tacos and I'd like to listen to Zodiac stories all day.
Shazbot. Just remembered you're in San Jose. I remember when I thought San Jose was in So Cal until a girl named Cindy Lou schooled me on it. I'm basically just a dumb hick though and things like that always happen.
Van Dyke Parks tweeted about the visit:
https://twitter.com/thevandykeparks/status/933019490165538816
grimtraveller had said:
Has Van Dyke Parks ever said this ?
Unknown had also said...
It was Van Dyke Parks who showed up to Cielo looking for Melcher and it was on the night of the murder around 7 or 8. Bugliosi took his story and applied it to Charlie
BlueJayWay said:
Van Dyke Parks tweeted about the visit:
Conversation
Van Dyke Parks
@thevandykeparks
On Aug. 9, '69, just after 3:00 p.m, I rapped on the door at 10050 Cielo Dr., to visit Terry Melcher at home. He'd moved. On that front lawn I'd 1st met Brian. Sharon met me, clued me in. Asked if I wanted to come join her & her guests. Decent! I declined
Aside from getting the date wrong, I'll make 2 observations about this.
Firstly, Bugliosi did not take this story and apply it to Charlie. That's patently inaccurate, because in Van Dyke Parks' story, there's no Hatami, no talk with Hatami, no going to the guest house. And Hatami was not at Cielo on the day leading into the murder {he was there on the Wednesday or Thursday}. Furthermore, there's no Rudi Altobelli. Altobelli didn't know about any confrontation with "the man" when he spoke with Bugliosi. It actually came as a surprise {and, one presumes, a disappointment} to Bugliosi, that Hatami spoke of an incident with a man that happened on the same day, but at a different time, to that of Altobelli's meeting with Manson and it is Bugliosi and Bugliosi alone that conflates the two.
Secondly, Van Dyke Parks didn't escape anything if he came in the afternoon. Mrs Chapman was still there. The gardeners were still there. Barbara Lewis and Joanna Pettit were still there. Along with Dennis Hearst, the bike guy, and the guy that delivered the steamer trunks, these people are never regarded as people that had an escape from murder. So why should Van Dyke Parks ?
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