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Series V: Private investigations into the case, 1968 - 2002

 Series
Identifier: V

Scope and Contents

Includes research subject files, photographs, videotapes, notebooks and audiotapes donated by private citizens and journalists who investigated the case. Donors include members of The Kennedy Assassination Truth Committee (the Floyd B. Nelson and Lillian Castellano collection), Robert Blair Kaiser, author of R.F.K. must die!, Philip Melanson, Dan Moldea, and Greg Stone. Their research files were combined to form the “Personal Name Subject files” and “Subject files” (Boxes 125-136); other materials from their files and articles written by them are found in the “General files” (boxes 105-107) arranged alphabetically by private investigator’s name. Their collected magazine and newsclippings were also combined to form one chronological grouping (Boxes 133-146). All of the audiotapes are in boxes 127-132. These files are considered an open series and may be added to periodically.

Dates

  • 1968 - 2002

Conditions Governing Access

no known restrictions.

Biographical / Historical

The Kennedy Assassination Truth Committee Members of the committee included Mike Farrell, chairman, John R. Clemente, Lillian Castellano, Fred T. Newcomb and Floyd B. Nelson. The bulk of the collection consists of the investigative work of Lillian Castellano, who gathered photographic evidence of three additional bullet holes that the police did not account for in the pantry of the Ambassador Hotel. Castellano testified before the Los Angeles Grand Jury in 1971 in an attempt to have the case reopened.

Robert Blair Kaiser Writer, columnist, editor, magazine and newspaper correspondent, and journalism professor. Author of the book R.F.K. Must Die! A history of the Robert F. Kennedy Assassination and its aftermath (1970), correspondent for the New York Times and Time Magazine and Professor of Journalism at the University of Nevada at Reno.

Kaiser’s donation includes seven spiral bound notebooks, compiled between June 1968 and June 1969, of interviews and notes taken during the research conducted for his book R.F.K. Must Die! ..Collection also includes photocopies of articles written by Kaiser about the assassination, for various newspapers and magazines, as well as copies of outgoing correspondence and copies of handwritten and typescript notes not included in the notebooks, an undated draft of Kaiser’s article in Life Magazine, published 1972, and materials on the 1993 seminar at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, to which Kaiser was invited to speak.

Related material: Signed copy of R.F.K. Must Die! in Special Collections includes a photograph of Kaiser attached to the title page.

Philip Melanson Political science professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (formerly Southeastern Massachusetts University), 1971 to the present, author and expert on political assassinations, member of the governing board of the Coalition on Political Assassinations. Collection consists of correspondence, copies of magazine and newspaper articles by and about Melanson, transcriptions of talks and depositions, as well as audiotapes. Melanson’s books on the assassination, The Robert F. Kennedy assassination: new revelations on the conspiracy and cover-up (E840.8.K4 M46 1991) New York: Shapolsky Publishers, 1991 and Who Killed Robert Kennedy? Berkeley, CA: Odonian Press, 1993 (E840.8.K4 M45 1993) are catalogued for Special Collections.

Dan Moldea Investigative journalist and author. Collection includes copies of interviews and a copy of Moldea’s article on the assassination in the June 1987 issue of Regardie’s.

Gregory Stone and Allard K. Lowenstein, Allard K. Lowenstein was a congressman from New York State who died in 1980. He was one of the first individuals to question the handling of the assassination investigation and wrote articles on the subject for Saturday Review. Gregory Stone was Mr. Lowenstein’s assistant and continued the congressman’s efforts by attempting, with Philip Melanson, to have the case reopened. The collection includes correspondence, memos to Allard Lowenstein, copies of court documents, and an analysis of the “Kranz Report”. 9 folders.

Extent

From the Collection: 64.7 Linear Feet (155 boxes)

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Creator

Repository Details

Part of the Claire T. Carney Library Archives and Special Collections, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Repository

Contact:
285 Old Westport Rd.
N. Dartmouth MA 02747 USA