It’s Friday, and you know what that means—time for another installment of The Warren Commission Decided. We’re calling this week’s episode “Doing the Work” because in it, we take  a deep look at the nitty-gritty of legal investigations. 

Donning our lawyer hats, in the first part of this episode we give a short primer on the grind behind the scenes that makes investigations come together. We break down the real "work" of the Warren Commission. At its core, the Commission was basically a law firm—the staff was almost entirely lawyers, and J. Lee Rankin, the Commission’s Chief Counsel, was the one steering the ship.

For the second part of this episode, we explore the life and times of Rankin, including how and why he was picked for the position. A native Nebraskan,  Rankin served as the administrative head of the Commission, handling all the logistical and organizational work that the seven commissioners were too busy and too important to take on. Rankin was responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations, from coordinating evidence collection to working with the investigators who obtained witness testimony. Late in his life, Rankin came out swinging against the FBI and CIA for their manipulative tactics with respect to the Commission. We play a good deal of his testimony from the House Select Committee on Assassinations; it is sure to elucidate and enlighten! Seriously insane audio we had never fully appreciated before this episode.

So, whether you’re powering through a work shift or wrapping up your classes for the week, hit play and give your brain a well-deserved snack—this episode is definitely worth it!

Happy New Year! We’re back with another installment of The Warren Commission Decided to round out our excavation into the backgrounds and baggage of the seven commissioners LBJ appointed to seal up the narrative of the JFK assassination in the wake of the murder of Lee Oswald. And we’ve saved the worst for last: God’s own monster, Allen Welsh Dulles.

Oceans of ink have been spilled, and miles of vocal cords chafed recounting the genocidal legacy of Allen Dulles. You know we’re averse to trodding familiar ground, so this episode delves into some areas we hope will be fresher. It wouldn’t be 4RA without a healthy dose of Oedipal psychology, so we dig into the Foster-Lansing-Dulles klan to consider what makes these freaks tick. Then, we touch on Allen’s career of evil from his jumpstart in espionage (and Aryo-philia) during WWI, to his participation in the Versailles conference, to his law practice at Sullivan & Cromwell, to his peak as longtime CIA director under presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy.

Again, we gloss over a lot of the greatest hits to give you the deeper cuts, all while focusing on Dulles’s deep-seated racism and how it informed his tolerance - or even admiration - for Nazism. We also highlight his absolute mastery of the art of deception. 

Finally, we end up where we always do: with his relationship with JFK, their breakup after the Bay of Pigs debacle, and his selection as commissioner. Perhaps when JFK fired the old silver fox, he should have been more “careful with that axe.” It’s another banger: dig in!

We are back to finish off our excavation into the life, times, and legacy of Reichsman extraordinaire, John J. McCloy. We last left off with McCloy’s service in WWII under Henry L. Stimson. We heard some of the real audio from the Nuremberg tribunal to get a sense of the theft, murder, kidnapping, and enslavement that the German industrialists committed during the Third Reich, well, John J. McCloy was about to undo a lot of the justice meted out unto those bastards.

We pick up post-war with McCloy’s incredible career, leading up to his selection on the Warren Commission. We cover his exploits as World Bank President, High Commissioner for Germany during the US occupation, Chairman of Chase Bank, and Chairman of the Ford Foundation. We look beneath the titles to get a read on the man and his character. He left an indelible mark on each of the institutions he touched, and in turn, on the broader economy and society in which those institutions carried so much sway.

Finally, it’s back to 1963, Kennedy’s dead, and McCloy springs into action as the “fixer,” cutting deals and mediating between opposing factions on the Warren Commission in the quest for unanimity.

This week we take a brief hiatus from our series within a series “the Warren Commission Decided,” and travel back to the present day to weigh in on a topic of much discussion these last few weeks: the killing of United Healthcare's former CEO, Brian Thompson, and the spectacle that has ensued ever since.

To be clear, this episode won't have any conspiracy theories. Nor will there be any debates about "who done it" or even whether the assassination was justified. No, here at Fourth Reich Archaeology we know full well that you can get that sort of thing just about anywhere these days. So, instead, we offer you a tutorial on how to apply the tools we’ve sharpened (and the artifacts we’ve uncovered) over the last five months to the spectacle that has come to bear since the early morning hours of December 4, 2024. 

Happy holidays to all!

We are back for another round of excavation into the life, times, and legacy of Reichsman extraordinaire, John J. McCloy. We last left off with McCloy’s service in WWI, during which he spent the bulk of his time as aide-de-camp to Brigadier General Guy H. Preston. Preston was not only a soldier in the settler colonial army of the Western frontier, he was a participant in the Wounded Knee Massacre who was charged with taking possession of the Indian prisoners of war. What a mark that left on John McCloy.

We pick up post-war with McCloy’s Harvard Law graduation and departure from his native Philadelphia off to the big apple, New York City, where he’d set down his roots as a Wall Street lawyer. His legal practice fit seamlessly into the transition between America’s imperial conquest of the Western frontier–he spent a lot of time helping investment banks build railroad monopolies and consolidate financial control over industry–and America’s entry into the global stage of intercontinental imperialism. Just like the Dulles brothers’ over at Sullivan and Cromwell, McCloy’s work at the firms Cadwalader, Wickersham, and Taft–and later at Cravath–saw him greasing the wheels for that great interwar collaboration between US financiers and industrialists, and the German industrialists who spent the 1930s working overtime to remilitarize. 

During WWII, McCloy is brought under the wing of friend of the pod Henry L. Stimson. We stack up both sides of his moral ledger: on one hand, advocating the internment of Japanese Americans in concentration camps while fighting efforts to bomb the German concentration camps and curb the Holocaust; but on the other hand, he opposed dropping nukes on Japan and helped integrate the US Army. We make sense of his mixed record through our patented Fourth Reich Lens.

We hope you like Krautrock, because this is our most German episode yet. 

On our free feed, that’s where this episode ends. If you want the full 2-hour extravaganza, head on over to Patreon and sign up today! If not, you’ll need to wait a while for side 2…

Meanwhile, enjoy, and happy holidays to all!

If anyone has a resumé befitting a Horseman of the Fourth Reich, it’s the subject of this episode–John J. McCloy. Just look at some of these highlights:

And, the reason why he’s got his own series-within-a-series-within-a-series: 

Without further examination, McCloy’s curriculum vitae makes his service on the Warren Commission seem like a foregone conclusion. Remember, McCloy was one of the Commission’s two “private citizen” members, the other being Dulles, so it would be easy to assume without more than the above info that McCloy was just another cleanup man. But this is Fourth Reich Archaeology, and you already know that we had to dig deeper on the guy. Donning (and dicking) our patented 4RA lenses, hard-hats, and shovels, we introduce you to the real McCloy. The man was so much more than what initially meets the eye. 

We start our McCloy excavation in 1963 and learn that in fact, he was the driving force behind transforming the Warren Commision from a toothless review committee meant to rubber-stamp the FBI’s report into a real investigative body. For example, McCloy is the reason the Warren Commission was given subpoena powers, and with it, the authority to conduct its own investigation. He also lobbied to hire a staff of lawyers to work under the Commissioners. Now, to be clear, we aren’t saying that the Commission used that power effectively; we’re just pointing out that–at least at the outset–McCloy was more of a squeaky wheel than a rubber stamp. But that changes sometime in Spring 1964, and we’ll discuss why we think that is. Not for nothing did McCloy enjoy a sterling relation among the power elite as a master strategist, a straight shooter, and THE man to call in a national crisis. 

We then turn back the clocks to McCloy’s childhood and early years, and follow him as he goes from “the wrong side of the tracks” in North Philadelphia, to Amherst college, where he spent his free time as any young patriot would, participating in voluntary military preparedness drills as tensions in Europe flared in the lead-up to WWI. He spent two summers in a Teddy Roosevelt-endorsed summer bootcamp in Plattsburgh, NY, where he learned lessons from Teddy’s rough riders and met other members of the patriotic elite at what became known as the “millionaire’s camp.” Throughout all of these educational experiences, McCloy is rubbing elbows with the rich kids, not because he is one himself, but because his mom is their mom’s hairdresser. 

Then WWI breaks out, and McCloy answers the call. And, like any true ascending Reichsman, McCloy was on that grindset tip, and caught the eye of his commander, Brigadier General Guy H. Preston, who picked McCloy to be his aide de camp. And this is where we will leave off, but not without painting what may well be one of the funniest factual vignettes to date. 

Sit back, relax, and put on that PPE–because this dig qualifies for hazard pay. McCloy’s story is a long one, and so it is going to be a two parter - STAY TUNED FOR PART 2!!

Our long time listeners will know that we at Fourth Reich Archaeology are big fans of a love story. Whether it's a romance (like between Jerry and Betty Ford), or a bromance (like between Jerry and Richard Nixon), or a platonic love story about the paternal bond between mentor and mentee (like between LBJ and Dick Russell), we love it all. That’s why we can hardly contain ourselves this week, as we explore what may well be the most unexplored love story between two people who are eternally tethered by the events of November 22, 1963: John F. Kennedy and John Sherman Cooper. And the best part is that this love story comes complete with a fall from grace and a grand betrayal. 

In this episode, we take you back to the night of President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration ball. In the wee hours after the event, Kennedy heads over to Joe Alsop’s place and links up with his friend and beloved mentor, John Sherman Cooper. The two spend hours talking about the future and Kennedy’s vision for his presidency. Indeed, Cooper and Kennedy were long time friends and as close as any two politicians could be. They came up on the Georgetown scene around the same time, and were both seen as very eligible bachelors. They even went on double dates with the women who eventually became their wives. Kennedy, the young, charismatic president, admired Cooper, the elder statesman, for his integrity and his unwavering commitment to principles. We tell the inspiring come-up story of Cooper’s life from Somerset, Kentucky, to Georgetown, to India, and back to the upper echelon of the power elite in Washington. Yet he never gave up the Kentucky Gentleman sincerity that made him so trustworthy and beloved.

The close bond between these two is perhaps the very reason why LBJ picked Cooper to be on the Warren Commission. Much like with Hale Boggs, LBJ likely saw Cooper as a threat and felt that he needed to bring Cooper in the fold in order to keep him quiet. We can only speculate on Cooper’s state of mind, but to us, what began as a sense of duty to the country soon became an unbearable tension between Cooper’s commitment to the truth and the political pressures that sought to suppress it. Cooper, despite his own reservations, reluctantly agreed to participate in the whitewashed version of events ultimately reduced to writing. It was a decision that we can't help but think would forever haunt him, as he knew he had allowed the forces of power to rewrite history at the expense of the man he once called a dear friend.

Grab your tissue box. This one’s a tear jerker. 

Credit: the author who reported former Cooper aide Morris Wolff’s recounting of Cooper’s confidential Warren Commission critiques is Mark Shaw, and you can find more here: https://markshawbooks.com/assets/docs/New-Evidence-Proving-Warren-Commission-Corruption_Oct-26-2023-1.pdf

His full talk at the Commonwealth Club is here: https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/archive/video/mark-shaw-60th-anniversary-jfks-assassination-retrospective

Are you heading into Thanksgiving weekend wondering WTF you will talk about with family and friends? Fear not, dear listener; Fourth Reich Archaeology has got you covered. We dropped this exclusively pre-Thanksgiving for our Patreon subscribers (sign up to get more such treats!), but you know we won't hold out on our listeners, so here it is for free. We offer some fodder to break the ice on a subject that we’re sure you’ll agree is dinner conversation appropriate–the sad true fact that we are currently living in the Fourth Reich, and the latest election results are a painful reminder that that's true.

In the third installment of our 2024 election coverage, we do a post-mortem of the spectacle and add our patented Fourth Reich Archaeology view to the discourse. We offer a verbal carving-knife to help you cut through the liberal doomerism weighing down so many of our friends and families in the wake of Trump’s win and share some thoughts on why we’re hopeful about the next four years. It’s not that we’re excited about Trump’s Killer Krony Krew; it’s that the mask of American fascism is slipping more and more, making the Fourth Reich Archaeology message resonate more than ever. You’ll want to listen to the very end of this one to catch the instructions for Fourth Reich Archaeology’s very first parlor game, which will be the perfect way to have some fun with your normie loved ones this holiday season. 

Music:

• ​The Doors - “Five to One”
• ​John Lennon - “Working Class Hero”
• ​Blaze Foley - “Oval Room”
• ​Mick Gordon - “Nazi Punks, gtfo”
• ​Tom Waits - “Everything Goes to Hell”

Last week, we talked about how President Lyndon Johnson came to put together a top-flight blue ribbon commission to cover up the Kennedy assassination. For the next two episodes, we go around the table and introduce the listener to each of the seven members of that  commission. As we do, we also receive a masterclass on how to lie, manipulate, coerce, and outright strongarm to get your way. At the head of the class is LBJ. 

Along with its chairman, Earl Warren, the Warren Commission consisted of two members from each chamber of Congress: one Democrat and one Republican. The Commission also had “two members of the public.” This week we cover the Warren Commission’s chairman, its members who served in the House of Representatives, and its Democrat Senator. 

First, we introduce Chief Justice Earl Warren, who was the ringleader of the ragtag team of spooks, drunks, racists, and rats. Warren was the perfect man to lend his name to the cover-up. He had spent the last 10 years building the public’s trust by overseeing the most progressive shift in the history of Supreme Court jurisprudence, including classics like Brown v. Board of Education and Gideon v. Wainwright. 

For his Democratic Senator pick, LBJ chose Senator Richard “Dick” Russell of Georgia. Russell mentored LBJ in the Senate and was a logical pick to serve as LBJ’s “inside man.” There was just one problem. Russell was a Dixiecrat and staunch segregationist, which made him Earl Warren’s arch-nemesis. LBJ bullies him like a boy. We play the tapes. It’s incredible.

For the Democratic Congressman, LBJ picked Hale Boggs of Louisiana. Where Russell was an offensive pick, Boggs was a defensive one. In the days leading up to the announcement of the Warren Commission, Boggs - who had been a great admirer of the slain JFK - was vocal about the need to initiate an independent, unbiased investigation. To nip that in the bud, LBJ neutralized Boggs by bringing him in the fold. 

And you know we had to save the best for last. Our day one homie, Jerry Ford. Jerry was the Republican Congressman pick, and LBJ chose him for all the reasons we’ve discussed in Jerryworld. At this point Jerry was a national brand, with a reputation for being a team player, a hard worker, and a straight shooter. In fact, in LBJ’s eyes, Jerry looked like the perfect mark to be his bagman–after all Jerry was still a young up and comer. Little did LBJ know that Jerry was playing him for a fool and serving as mole to none other than J Edgar Hoover.

As promised, we are digging into the surprising story of the formation of the Warren Commission over the week succeeding Lee Oswald's murder by Jack Ruby on November 24, 1963. Most observers assume that the idea originated with President Lyndon Baines Johnson, whose name was on the Executive Order creating the Commission on November 29, but that is far from the case.

In fact, Johnson - and FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover - initially opposed the creation of a presidential commission, preferring to leave the investigation up to the FBI in collaboration with Texas state and local authorities. So what changed?

As it were, there was a plot of sorts. Indeed, a conspiracy. Individuals close to the CIA and the patrician Georgetown Set, with its swashbuckling imperialist cohort of OSS veterans, launched an intense pincer movement before Oswald's blood had stopped flowing. They swarmed LBJ and his closest aides and pressured them into creating a commission independent from Hoover's FBI. First, Eugene V. Debs Rostow - Yale Law dean and brother of JFK's hawkish advisor (and CIA asset) Walt Whitman Rostow - placed a flurry of calls to the trustworthy blue-blooded Deputy Attorney General, Nicholas Katzenbch, who promptly hit the phones in favor of a commission in turn. Rostow also connected with LBJ advisor Bill Moyers to ensure the message reached the new President. Meanwhile, CIA-linked American aristocrat Joe Alsop made the pitch to Johnson directly, issuing veiled threats about forthcoming Washington Post OpEds and promising that the media Mockingbird would sing for LBJ if he followed Alsop's lead.

The fix was in, and the coverup was underway. By November 25, Katzenbach submitted a now infamous memo calling for a report designed to achieve a very discrete goal, rather removed from solving the case of the Kennedy assassination: "The public must be satisfied that Oswald was the assassin; that he did not have confederates who are still at large; and that evidence was such that he would have been convicted at trial."

Buckle up!