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The Truth? You Can't Handle the Truth! Jack Nicholson as Colonel Nathan R. Jessep in A Few Good Men (Columbia/Tristar Studios 1992) |
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"Whoever has even once become notorious by base fraud, even if he speaks the truth, gains no belief." Phaedrus (fl.1st cent. A.D.) |
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From the JFK Lancer Forum ~ Posting # 38955, RE: THE TRUTH ABOUT BOB VERNON
There are some oversights in Mr. Dankbaar's statements: Don Ervin may be a "criminal attorney of Houston" but the fact that he is "renowned" is purely conjectural. Texas State Bar Card Number 06650500 shows Ervin graduated from Houston's South Texas College of Law in December of 1973. He was licensed to practice law in Texas on December 19, 1974 . His primary practice is in criminal law. I find it curious that for "a renowned criminal attorney" the Texas State Bar has "no profile data on file for the Texas Board of Legal Specialization Certification." Mr. Dankbaar apparently is unaware that this was not Don Ervin's first brush with attempting to get a client immunity and Ervin in the early 1990s certainly wasn't shy about publicity. When the Roscoe White story was still a hot topic, Joe West and Ervin appeared February 17, 1992 on both the Houston and Dallas FOX-TV affiliates. They were interviewed by KDFW-TV reporter Richard Ray. West claimed he had a taped confession from a shadowy figure he called "Hugh." Attorney Ervin was seeking immunity for Hugh because he had identified two of the three assassins. Ray indicated Hugh named "Charles Nicoletti, an enforcer with the Giancana mob who was himself murdered in 1977, and Roscoe White, a former Dallas policeman who died mysteriously in a 1971 fire and explosion. The third assassin, the story goes, is still alive and living in Texas. And if authorities are willing to deal, attorney Ervin says his client will name him.so he could testify about Roscoe White's involvement in the assassination along with organized crime figures John Roselli and Charles Nicoletti." As an aside, with respect to what would later become the James Files' story, when reading the above quote note that the ONLY OTHER assassin "IS STILL ALIVE AND LIVING IN TEXAS." When Ray asked Ervin if he believed Hugh's story, Ervin responded "My reputation as a lawyer, I think, depends more on whether or not I can get him in a position to talk without getting into trouble.Yeah I, I personally believe him." The KDFW-TV transcript appears here. In September of 1990 West claimed that after the assassination Roscoe White hid at a "safe house" in Dripping Springs, TX. At a later date I discovered West professed the safe house was the property of Hugh Urdy a.k.a. "the Black Ace." (Correction - I have sinced rechecked my notes an find the "safe house" was actually owned by a friend of Urdy named Earl Albecht.) West asserted Urdy was an African American hit man who "left the Ace of Spades as his calling card." A somewhat similar story would surface years later with James Files leaving an empty shell casing as his calling card. Very dramatic but I really doubt any hit man's handlers would approve of something better left to crime novels and the movie screen. Also on February 17, 1992 the Houston Post reported West and "noted lawyer Don Ervin are trying to persuade the Dallas County district attorney to launch a criminal investigation into the death of Kennedy . . ." The story affirmed both West and Ervin were trying to gain immunity for "Hugh" a Mafia hitman. Reviewing that same Houston Post article one discovers that "Both Ervin and West had talked to associates of filmmaker Oliver Stone about using Hugh's story as part of the script for the movie JFK, but after seeing the movie both men are glad they weren't part of it." This shows both Ervin and West we trying to "shop" the Hugh story both in newspapers and on television. And contrary to Mr. Dankbaar's interpretation, I think it does show Attorney Ervin as an individual amenable to publicity. Eventually the FBI discredited Urdy and his tale. Joe West let the Black Ace story drop, repudiated his August 6, 1990 vociferous allegation that:
and replaced Roscoe White with James Files as the "grassy knoll assassin." In my opinion, if Ervin received phone calls from the media it was probably because media outlets in Houston and Dallas saw him as a source for more bizarre Kennedy assassination stories. More than likely it was the earlier TV appearances with West pumping Urdy's story and Ervin's urgent need for the FBI to give Urdy immunity that caused the FBI to drop the Files' story and not anything Mr. Vernon did. Mr. Dankbaar is unclear with the statement that Ervin "represented Harrelson once." Does he mean a single time for a single event? That he represented Charles Harrelson is important only if we know if he was the sole counsel and what sort of case he handled for Harrelson. As a point of information Ervin also represented televangelist Jim Bakker (Source: The Houston Post of 02/17/92 on page A-3) but as the record shows he was not the lead attorney but one of several attorneys representing Bakker. See http://www.geocities.com/trgaf/US_v_BAKKER.html There is, however, an interesting twist with respect to the Ervin/Harrelson connection. The late Bud Fensterwald was Co-Founder of the Assassination Archives and Research Center located in Washington, D.C. and Co-Founder of the JFK Assassination Information Center in Dallas, TX. In related postings on the JFK Lancer forum (#38957) J. Gary Shaw's name appears. Shaw was a co-director of that now defunct JFK Assassination Information Center. Both Fensterwald and Shaw appeared at the JFK Assassination Information Center's August 6, 1990 Ricky White press conference and both were resolute supporters, along with Joe West, of the Roscoe White story. See http://home.comcast.net/~dperry1943/ricky.html In March of 1990 Harrelson's wife Gina Harrelson asked Fensterwald, a senior partner in the firm of Fensterwald, Alcorn & Bowman, P.C., to see if he could get Charles out of prison. Fensterwald responded formally on March 27, 1990. He had visited Charles at the United States penitentiary located in Marion, Illinois on March 16, 1990. Fensterwald's typed notes of that meeting show he came away believing Harrelson was innocent of the 1979 murder for hire killing of Judge Joe Wood in San Antonio, TX. However, Bud firmly believed Harrelson was involved in the Kennedy assassination. He reached this conclusion even though to quote from his March 27, 1990 letter to Gina, "Understandably, Charles was not enthusiastic about talking about the Kennedy assassination. He did, however, flatly deny that he was in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963." In my view, Fensterwald, Shaw and as late as February 17, 1992 West and Ervin were advancing the Roscoe White story. West and Ervin wanted immunity for Urdy but then only FIVE DAYS later on or about March 22, 1992 West would hear about James Files through FBI Agent Zack Shelton. (Source: the Beaumont Enterprise of 04/11/94 on page 1B) Shelton had contacted West after seeing him February 17, 1992 on TV claiming that Hugh had been involved in the assassination. Shelton was interested in determining if there was anything of value in Hugh's allegations. I am convinced and think I have shown West and Ervin tried to advance the James Files' story using the very same tactics including a ludicrous "calling card", videotaped confession, and a debatable appeal for immunity that they employed unsuccessfully in the Hugh as the Black Ace affair. One can only wonder if Bob Vernon was aware of Ervin and West's February 17, 1992 newspaper statements and televison appearances. Was Vernon aware that both Ervin and West believed Hugh's claim that Roscoe White was one assassin and the last assassin was "still alive and living in Texas" rather than being incarcerated in prison in Illinois? Was Bob Vernon cognizant of the West and Ervin's change of heart based upon Shelton's claim to West that if there was more to the Kennedy assassination the one individual who might know was in prison in Joliet, Illinois? Dave Perry 07/29/04 |