Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago
Date: Tuesday, 29 Dec 1992 23:38:36 CST
From: <U54778@uicvm.uic.edu>
Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy.jfk
Subject: RUBY, KUP'S DAUGHTER AND KUP


[POSTER'S COMMENTARY:  I submit this article to this newsgroup
in a light, holiday mood.  Even though, as you will discover,
there is a dark note to the story which the reader will find
at the end, the lightness I am talking about is centered on
Irv Kupcinet as an example of that list of print journalists
who see themselves as final arbiters of truth in the
understanding of the JFK controversy.
  Let me tell you about Kup, as he is affectionately known in
Chicago.  He is straight from the old days of cigar-chewing,
cashmere-coat-wearing brand of newspaper columnist who doesn't
even have to brag that he knows everyone worth knowing "in
this berg."  No one would dare question it.  In his hey day,
he had his own TV talk show, not unlike David Susskind's for
those who remember these things.  He generally swaggered
through the 50's, 60's and 70's as a big man in Chicago
circles.  I don't quibble with this, he was.  Let me add that,
though not talked about openly, to be a "big man who knows
everyone" in Chicago in those days, requires that one knew all
the Mafia figures who were one part of the machine that pulled
all the strings such as Vito Marzullo and Sam Giancana.  If
you keep this fact in mind, you will find this fact of
interest when you have finished reading this article.  I am
not providing this article as a thrust into what should be
believed nor facts to support any single theory.  Just take
it as it is.  I have judiciously refrained from peppering this
whole article with sniggering comments where I particularly
find inane statements.  You will have to supply them
yourselves.]

 An article found in the Reader on December 25, 1992, page 28,
by Jim Kielty, titled:

   KUP VS. JFK

  In an essay on the Oliver Stone film JFK, published a month
after his laudatory review in the Sun-Times, Roger Ebert
wrote: "Never in my years as a newspaperman have I seen one
subject pummeled so mercilessly and joylessly as this movie
that questions the official wisdom on the assassination of
John F. Kennedy."
  Ebert didn't have to look far to find the chief Chicago-area
pummeler: his Sun-Times colleague Irv Kupcinet has repeatedly
used his column to flail JFK, Oliver Stone, and anyone else
who has dared to challenge the findings of the Warren
Commission report.
  Between December 17 of last year, when he first reviewed JFK
as the lead item in his column, and May 22 of this year, when
the Sun-Times reviewed the home video version (and I stopped
counting), Kup ran more than two dozen items on Stone, his
film, and other Kennedy assassination subjects. He also called
for the opening of sealed government files on the
assassination, venturing that the information contained
therein will put an end to "far-fetched conspiracy theories,"
by which he seems to mean anything other than the Warren
Commission report.

  Let's run the highlights:

  December 17, 1991: Kup says JFK may be "the most
controversial movie of our day." He reports that Oliver
Stone "has come under severe criticism for twisting the
story to fit his own theory." He faults Stone for making
former New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison the
hero of the movie and for claiming the assassinations of
Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were all linked
in some conspiracy. "Stone's movie probably will be a box
office hit," Kup predicts, "but in reaching a huge
audience he owes history some relevance to the Truth.''
  December 19: Kup mentions another assassination film
set for release, Ruby, calling it a 'powerful role' for
star Danny Aiello.
  December 22: Kup's Sunday column carries a photo of the
now-aged Governor John Connally of Texas with a caption
promoting his planned appearance the next day on CBS This
Morning, where, Kup says, Connally will "give his opinion
of the movie JFK."
  December 23 : "The new movie JFK was trashed on David
Brinkley's ABC Sunday show," Kup reports. "The various
theories of a conspiracy in the assassination of
President John F. Kennedy in the Oliver Stone production
were ridiculed by the panelists, as we previously did."
  December 24: Kup criticizes the syndicated Geraldo show
telecast in Chicago on Channel Nine the day before. The
guests on the show, including the supposed mistress of
President Lyndon B. Johnson, claimed that LBJ was the
"prime mover - in the assassination." Calling the show's
theme "the nadir of speculation," Kup asks, "wouldn't
Bobby Kennedy, then attorney general . . . have exposed
such a plot!"
  December 25 : On his Christmas wish list for assorted
celebrities Kup suggests the following: "Oliver
Stone-another theory for his collection of astounding
assumptions on the assassination of JFK: the butler did
it."
  Kup then took a vacation and resumed his column on
Sunday,January 5. It took him a week to return to the
topic of JFK.
  January 12: Kup reports that Oliver Stone is coming to
Chicago to tape an Oprah Winfrey show. "I trust Oprah
will press him on all the criticism of his convoluted
conspiracy theory for the assassination."
  January 19: In his lead item this Sunday Kup again
plays the Bobby card : "The major flaw in all the
theories about the JFK assassination, especially those
cited in the movie JFK, is failure to mention Bobby
Kennedy, then U.S. attorney general with tremendous
resources at his demand. Can anybody believe that Bobby,
a tenacious prosecutor, wouldn't have taken action to
pursue every conspiracy theory to determine if some
person(s) other than Lee Harvey Oswald had killed his
beloved brother! Doesn't make sense."
  January 23: Kup reports that former House speaker Tip
O'Neill "became infuriated" during an interview with
radio personality Eddie Schwartz when asked about LBJ's
alleged involvement in the assassination. "Meanwhile,"
Kup adds, "the pressure to open all the records,
including Warren Commission documents, is gaining
momentum. That would help clarify the confusion now
rampant."
  January 26: Again Kup leads his Sunday column with the
assassination: the nation is "going ballistic" over it,
he says. Comparing the current hysteria to public
reactions to the deaths of Abraham Lincoln, James
Garfield, and William McKinley, Kup quotes Chicago
historian Ralph Newman, who explains that the nation
"refuses to accept the logical explanation for the sudden
death of a hero."
  February 5: Kup plugs Oliver Stone's appearance on Dan
Rather's CBS show 48 Hours, which he seems to have
previewed. He identifies Rather as a "severe critic" of
the film and adds: "One more time: Stone makes one
admission in the interview. He did make up some points
in the movie. In doing so, he exercised his legitimate
license as an artist to tell a story. But Stone insists
that did not alter the movie's conclusion that there was
a conspiracy to kill JFK."
  February 6: A Chicago alderman has asked Mayor Daley
to have the Police Department release its files on Jack
Ruby, to determine if Ruby had any connection with the
assassination. "That, Your Honor, will be a waste of time
and money," Kup advises.
  Kup goes on in a second paragraph of this column to
quote his old pal Elmer Gertz, who worked as an attorney
for Jack Ruby and considers any effort to link him to a
conspiracy "sheer madness." According to Gertz, Kup
reports, Ruby's shooting of Oswald was a "moment of
madness . . . by a self-anointed avenger, and nothing
more." Kup concludes with a quick slap at Geraldo Rivera:
"The search of the Ruby files will be as fruitful as
Geraldo Rivera's opening of Al Capone's vault."
  February 14: Kup notes that Kevin Costner, who plays
Jim Garrison in JFK, portrayed a character in an earlier
film, Bull Durham, who "believes in the soul, hard liquor
and that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone." Kup asks:
"Cinema verite? " The column is illustrated by a stock
shot of Costner dressed as Eliot Ness in The
Untouchables. The caption reads : "Inconsistencies in
'character.' "
  February 28: Kup plugs an appearance by former
president Gerald Ford, the lone surviving member of the
Warren Commission, on the A&E cable show lnvestigative
Reports. Kup says the former president "minces no words
in describing the conspiracy theory in the movie 'JFK.'
He calls it 'hogwash.' Adds Ford, 'Not one credible piece
of evidence has surfaced to convince me that Lee Harvey
Oswald wasn't the lone assassin.' "
  March 15: The lead item in Kup's Sunday column reports
on an upcoming appearance in Chicago by Oliver Stone, who
is to receive an award as "Director of the Decade" from
the Chicago lnternational Film Festival. Kup adds that
Stone will join a "panel of authorities'' on the JFK
assassination.
  March 29: One day before the Oscars, Kup allows as how
JFK, which is up for a slew of awards, "helped get
Congress to pass legislation that would open the files
on the assassination." But he adds that "the movie had
a lot of help," pointing out that Warner Bros., producers
of the film, retained Hill & Knowlton's Frank Mankiewicz,
former press secretary to Robert F. Kennedy, "to lobby
Congress to take such action."
  March 30: Kup takes a pre-Oscar shot at JFKs director:
"If Oliver Stone doesn't win an award," he asks, "will
he charge conspiracy!"
  April 1: Kup's Oscar wrap-up says: "Worst Loser-Oliver
Stone, whose 'JFK' failed to score except for two
technical awards, was victim of a conspiracy, no doubt.
Stone was quoted as blaming the media and gays for
denouncing the film."
  April 3 : Kup reports that Motion Picture Association
president Jack Valenti, a former aide to LBJ, "denounced
'JFK' as a 'hoax, a smear and pure fiction.' "Kup
explains that Valenti waited until after the Academy
Awards to denounce the film so as not to influence the
voting. "He was especially upset," Kup claims, "because
of his loyalty to his former boss . . . who was
implicated in the movie as part of a conspiracy to kill
JFK."
  In the same column, Kup sneaks in another plug for old
friend Elmer Gertz. " 'Who Shot JFK?' will be Elmer
Gertz's topic at Congregation Kol Ami tonight," Kup
reports, adding, "Gertz wrote the definitive biography
of Jack Ruby."
  April 7: Kup again comes to the defense of the Warren
Commission, writing, "Dr. Charles Crenshaw, who waited
29 years to 'reveal' that President JFK was shot by
'bullets in front of his head' as described in his book,
JFK: Conspiracy of Silence, hereby is awarded the
procrastinator medal."
  April 15: Kup notes "overwhelming support" to have the
government open the files on the assassination of
President Kennedy. "But don't expect to see the files
shortly," he cautions. "The  House appointed a
five-member board to review and release all the
documents-but it has two years to complete its work."
  April 22: Kup again mentions that Oliver Stone is being
honored by the Chicago International Film Festival and
that Stone "also will join a pre-dinner panel on the JFK
assassination.''
  April 30: Kup criticizes the Justice Department's
"surprising opposition to releasing" the Kennedy
assassination files, writing that this plays "into the
hands of those who insist there was a conspiracy." He
then reports that U.S. Representative Henry Hyde wrote
to Attorney General William Barr to ask why the
government opposed disclosure of the files. Hyde's
letter, according to Kup, claims the government's refusal
"is supporting the paranoia of Oliver Stone and his
conspiracy comrades."
  May 21: After three weeks of silence on the issue, Kup
notes an article in the Journal of the American Medical
Association by the two pathologists who performed the
autopsy on the body of President Kennedy. They claim that
the bullets that killed the president came from the rear"
and confirm the Warren Commission report. That should
cause the government to speed up its release of the
official reports on the assassination," Kup continues,
"and put an end to all those far-fetched conspiracy
theories." Kup ends the item by stating: "Some doubters,
nevertheless, will continue to hold conspiracy theories,
largely because of the movie 'JFK'".
  May 22: Kup reports on Oliver Stone's reaction to the
JAMA report, quoting Hollywood columnist Army Archerd as
saying that Stone took a "so what?" position.
Nevertheless, Kup insists that the claim of the two
pathologists "deflates Stone's conspiracy theory that
another person was involved." Coincidentally, the home
video version of JFK is reviewed in the Sun-Times on this
day.  The thumbnail critique quotes Roger Ebert's
original review, which says the film "convincingly argues
the official version of JFK's death is flatly
impossible."

  What did Kup have against JFK! I asked him recently, and he
replied that he thought Stone "went overboard" in tying
government agencies to the assassination. He said Jim
Garrison, the prosecutor played in the film by Kevin Costner,
was "held in low esteem" in New Orleans for his prosecution
of Clay Shaw as part of the assassination conspiracy. He felt
that if Stone's film went unchallenged, it could give "the
wrong impression to young viewers" whose only knowledge of the
assassination might come from the film.
  But perhaps there's a more personal dimension to Kup's
animosity. A hint of it surfaces in his column of February 3,
which I've held aside from the foregoing chronology. In this
Sunday column Kup writes, "The NBC 'Today' show on Friday
carried a list of people who died violently in 1963 shortly
after the death of President John F. Kennedy and may have had
some link to the assassination. The first name on the list was
Karyn Kupcinet, my daughter."
  Calling the inclusion of his daughter "an atrocious
outrage," Kup goes on to acknowledge that his daughter died
violently in a still, unsolved Hollywood murder and that the
list including her name was published in a book several years
earlier. He denies his daughter had any knowledge of the
assassination and says that for the Today show "to repeat the
calumny is reprehensible." He concludes by asking the show to
"Rectify the error."
  What exactly had the Today show done? The week of February
3 through 7, Today carried a five-part series entitled "Who
Killed JFK?" The last segment included an interview with
Oliver Stone conducted by Bryant Gumbel. Immediately after the
Stone interview and concluding the five-part series, Gumbel
said: "As if JFK's murder weren't enough, consider this: in
the first 13 years following the assassination, 37 people with
some relation to the case died violently. The odds against
that, actuaries say, are higher than 1 in 10,000. We thought
showing you who they were, along with how they died, would
make an intriguing footnote to our series. They add further
mystery to one of the great puzzles of our time."  The first
name on the list was that of Karyn Kupcinet, preceded by the
description, "Murdered-November, l963."
  The book Kup referred to in his February 3 column is
Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy, by Jim Marrs. It
describes Karyn Kupcinet as a "TV host's daughter who was
overheard telling of JFK's death prior to 11/22/63."  A
similar "mysterious deaths list" was carried in another book
on the assassination, High Treason: The Assassination of
President John F. Kennedy and the New Evidence of Conspiracy
by Robert Groden and Harrison Livingstone. These authors refer
to Karyn as a "daughter of a childhood friend of Ruby". . .
. She was murdered two days after Kennedy. She had
foreknowledge of the assassination and was over-heard by a
telephone operator talking about it." (In his autobiography
Kup says he knew Ruby "when he was a one-time organizer for
the Waste and Material Handlers Union.")
  Asked if there might be some connection, conscious or
otherwise, between his attitude toward assassination
conspiracy theories and the fact that his daughter's name has
been dragged into them, Kup said the insinuations about his
daughter are as outlandish as the theories. He said there is
no connection whatsoever.