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Speaker 1: These and opinions expressing this podcast are satirical and slowly.

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Speaker 1: Those are the podcast author or and visuals participating in

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Speaker 1: the podcast. Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. Hey, guys,

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Speaker 1: this is a special episode. Like you, I've had too

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Speaker 1: much time on my hands lately, and too much time

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Speaker 1: to spend borrowing down into Internet wormholes, especially when prompted

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Speaker 1: by Google alerts indicating movement in the Freedom of Information

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Speaker 1: Act court case hinting at the coming release of more facts,

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Speaker 1: perhaps incredibly incriminating facts on the jfk assassination. No doubt,

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Speaker 1: time to go relatively unnoticed amidst the blanketing COVID nineteen

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Speaker 1: media coverage. Fortunately, I know how to read between the lines.

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Speaker 1: So I'm going to tell you a story, A wild story,

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Speaker 1: A story about a folk singer, a sniper, subversive pop music,

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Speaker 1: a maniacal rock and roll manager, the Mafia, the CIA,

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Speaker 1: and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. All right, hit

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Speaker 1: that melotron, a musician I'm going to tell you about,

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Speaker 1: and the crime he has long been rumored to have

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Speaker 1: committed is so insane that I barely even know where

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Speaker 1: to begin with this episode. His vibe his personality, his

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Speaker 1: music is so the opposite of anything violent that this

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Speaker 1: story makes no sense, not until you look at the

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Speaker 1: actual facts. Facts that have long been held secret, redacted

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Speaker 1: in buried government files, and at the center of numerous

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Speaker 1: court challenges that cite the Freedom of Information Act. Facts

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Speaker 1: that were once believed to be vicious hearsay, but if

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Speaker 1: you were to squint hard enough, revealed truths that were

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Speaker 1: near impossible to dismiss, truths that are about to go public.

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Speaker 1: These facts were known by those closest to him, ex. Wives, lovers, handlers,

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Speaker 1: and managers, whose loose lips let slip the unthinkable and

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Speaker 1: are responsible for giving rise to one of the music

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Speaker 1: industry's most salacious rumors that John Denver, one of the

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Speaker 1: biggest mainstream stars of the nineteen seventies, a man known

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Speaker 1: for his peaceful, docile nature, his easygoing personality, and his

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Speaker 1: easy listening chart topping music, was in fact one of

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Speaker 1: the American military's most prolific snipers, a veritable kill machine,

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Speaker 1: and quite possibly at the center of one of our

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Speaker 1: country's darkest days. I know what you're saying. These rumors

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Speaker 1: have long been disputed, maybe so I'm sure swear that

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Speaker 1: they're false, but others, some who knew John personally, have

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Speaker 1: vouged for their authenticity. But regardless, one thing is indisputable.

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Speaker 1: John Denver made great music. And that music I played

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Speaker 1: for you at the top of the show that wasn't

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Speaker 1: great music. That was a preset loop from my melotron

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Speaker 1: called single Engine Sadness mk IE. I played you that

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Speaker 1: loop because I can't afford the rights to Candle in

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Speaker 1: the Wind nineteen ninety seven by my buddy Elton John.

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Speaker 1: And why would I play you that specific side of

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Speaker 1: Princess Die Gold? Could I afford it? Because that was

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Speaker 1: the number one song in America on October twelfth, nineteen

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Speaker 1: ninety seven, And that was the day John Denver fired

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Speaker 1: up his plane, took to the sky, cut the engine himself,

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Speaker 1: and drifted off into infamy. On this episode a Fatal

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Speaker 1: Flight the Sweet Sounds of the Seventies, John Denver in

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Speaker 1: America's Darkest Day. I'm Jake Brennan and this is Disgraceland.

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Speaker 1: Henry John Deutsch and doorf Junior was making his way

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Speaker 1: peacefully through the din of Leadbetters nineteen sixty four, Los Angeles.

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Speaker 1: The folk scene was blooming on the West Coast UCLA

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Speaker 1: college kids filled the small club with their optimism and

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Speaker 1: cigarette smoke. Whatever citizism there was, it was imported by

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Speaker 1: way of the East Coast Greenwich Village. Out Here, jagged

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Speaker 1: street smirts and socialist ideals left over from the earlier

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Speaker 1: part of the century, characteristics that in part define New

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Speaker 1: York City's folk scene seemed to touch too serious, a

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Speaker 1: smidge too real la in nineteen sixty four, that peaceful,

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Speaker 1: easy feeling. It flowed down from the canyons through the

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Speaker 1: honeysuckles slicked maulholland permeated the streets of Hollywood and coursed

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Speaker 1: through the hippy counterculture, taking root at places like Leadbetters

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Speaker 1: in dug West East Troubadour, Leadbetter's back Room aka the

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Speaker 1: back Porch, swinging doors, peanut shells on the floor, beer

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Speaker 1: and only beer behind the bar, in a stage that

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Speaker 1: welcomed the aspiring folk singers as a basic training of

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Speaker 1: sorts before graduating to the main stage. In the main room,

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Speaker 1: This was where John, as his friends called him Henry

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Speaker 1: John Deutschendorff Junior, the man who would take the stage

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Speaker 1: name John Denver and eventually become one of the biggest

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Speaker 1: pop stars of the nineteen seventies worked out his craft.

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Speaker 1: He sang well, had a knack for melody, He could

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Speaker 1: play well enough. He wasn't special, but still you couldn't

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Speaker 1: take your eyes off of him. There was something so appealing,

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Speaker 1: so safe about him. He wanted to put him in

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Speaker 1: your pocket and take him home with you. Sandy bowl

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Speaker 1: cut kind of long, not really. He'd recently replaced his

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Speaker 1: black buddy Holly frames with the more focish round granny glasses.

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Speaker 1: He sang about, well, nothing all that interesting, but he

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Speaker 1: hit all the right notes, literally and figuratively. He had

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Speaker 1: the requisite amount of folk songs down leadbelly phil oakes,

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Speaker 1: and he did his best with the occasional Dylan cover,

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Speaker 1: but mostly he found Dylan songs too edgy for him

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Speaker 1: to get across with any real conm Lately, he, like

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Speaker 1: every other aspiring folk rock pop musician on the planet,

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Speaker 1: was taken by the Beatles, and John had been prepping

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Speaker 1: a version of Paul McCartney's and a Lover to take

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Speaker 1: to the stage. The Beatles were all the rage, the

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Speaker 1: first quote unquote pop group to dominate the charts, and

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Speaker 1: America was obsessed, including most everyone in LA's early folk scene,

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Speaker 1: a couple of Ledbetter's regular folk singers were making noise

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Speaker 1: about teaming up and starting their own folk group, LA's

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Speaker 1: answer to the Beatles. They're going to call themselves the Birds,

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Speaker 1: and they had their sights on John Denver to join

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Speaker 1: their ranks. Well all but one of them, anyway. One

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Speaker 1: future member of the Birds had his doubts. David Crosby

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Speaker 1: did not share Roger mcgwinn's or Gene Clark's enthusiasm for

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Speaker 1: John Denver, and they were sitting at one of the

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Speaker 1: back tables at Ledbetter's after John's short set earlier in

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Speaker 1: the night, Crosby, mcgwinn, Clark, John, and a couple of

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Speaker 1: co eds from UCLA. Crosby was on a tear drinking,

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Speaker 1: smoking reefer, also getting up to god knows what else.

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Speaker 1: In between. He had one eye on the co eds

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Speaker 1: and the other on John, and John was playing it cool,

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Speaker 1: trying to impress what he hoped were as soon to

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Speaker 1: be bandmates with his knowledge of the Beatles, the way

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Speaker 1: they wrote songs, how they work their craft, and dingy

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Speaker 1: clubs just like this one, slinging covers before bringing their

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Speaker 1: original songs into the studio, sort of like what he

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Speaker 1: himself was doing. Crosby wasn't buying it. Fuck that we're

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Speaker 1: ready now, slamming his hand down on the table. John

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Speaker 1: didn't agree, but said nothing. He was too nervous, too polite,

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Speaker 1: too insecure. Crosby went on, songs are in the air, man,

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Speaker 1: doesn't make no difference if you write them or not.

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Speaker 1: I could go in the studio tomorrow and knock out

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Speaker 1: to hit as big as anything the Beatles have done

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Speaker 1: in America, and it don't matter if I write it

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Speaker 1: or the mailman does. Roger McGuinn shifted uncomfortably in his chair.

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Speaker 1: Geene Clark pulled on his cigarette. Nonchalant, John smiled awkwardly

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Speaker 1: summoned the courage to protest. Ah, come on, David, you

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Speaker 1: don't really mean that, do you? The fuck I don't,

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Speaker 1: Crosby snapped back at him. The girls were shocked, and

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Speaker 1: so was John. He recoiled and just stared at Crosbie.

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Speaker 1: The fuck are you looking at you? Doubt me? It's

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Speaker 1: your boy again. John said nothing, and Gwynn leaned over

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Speaker 1: to David and whispered something and tried to calm him down.

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Speaker 1: John suddenly felt dizzy, felt the cigarette smoke hanging in

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Speaker 1: the air start to thicken. Heard the stringed instruments from

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Speaker 1: the main stage in the adjacent room morph. Crosby just

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Speaker 1: stared at John. John couldn't take his eyes off of him.

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Speaker 1: The ko z next to him suddenly radiated intense heat.

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Speaker 1: There was a fucking sauna in there. All of a sudden.

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Speaker 1: John swore he could hear the peanut shells on the

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Speaker 1: floor sizzling under his feet. Crosbie stared, but Gwynn whispered.

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Speaker 1: Clark dragged deeper on his cigarette. A long single ash

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Speaker 1: protruded from its tip, bending slightly at its edge, dipping

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Speaker 1: down toward the round table they crammed around. John felt

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Speaker 1: a slight trembled to the table. He heard the hoot

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Speaker 1: nanny in the next room warped some more, and then

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Speaker 1: big bad bangs clanging violently in succession. It filled up

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Speaker 1: his senses. Shotgun blasts or discharged was from the rifle.

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Speaker 1: John couldn't be sure. He tried to shake it off.

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Speaker 1: Crosby stared some more. John couldn't look away. Crosby's chin

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Speaker 1: began to quiver, his eyes hardened, the edges of his

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Speaker 1: face quaked, His whole head started to shake. The hoot

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Speaker 1: Nanny turned to hell fire, more shots flass, John swore

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Speaker 1: on the corner of his eye. Those weren't peanut shells.

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Speaker 1: They were shotgun shells. The sound they made when they

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Speaker 1: hit the floor unmistakable. They sizzled from the emanating heat,

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Speaker 1: and John was sweating. The co eds were now panting,

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Speaker 1: the sweat dripping on their tropicana skin, dripping like the

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Speaker 1: honeysuckle dripping down maholland sticky Sweet. Crosby deadlocked John's eyes.

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Speaker 1: John wanted nothing more than to look away, and the

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Speaker 1: room closed in. It was just the two of them

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Speaker 1: around the table now and fellowed by intense heat, darkness,

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Speaker 1: and the throbbing sounds of the hoot Nny hellfire from

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Speaker 1: the other room, now intermixed with the sounds of a

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Speaker 1: John Phillips SUSA liked marching band all cacopany and chaos

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Speaker 1: soundtracking the room. Crosby's chin started to quiver more, his

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Speaker 1: cheeks began to shake with even more ferocity. His eyes

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Speaker 1: rolled back into his sockets with pure blackness. His head

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Speaker 1: them began rattling back and forth, side to side, and

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Speaker 1: the most violent horrific inhuman motion. You could imagine Crosby

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Speaker 1: wasn't possessed, He wasn't human, He wasn't of this world.

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Speaker 2: John was petrified, shocked dead, still catatonic.

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Speaker 1: She blacked out. When John opened his eyes, he was

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Speaker 1: back home Fort Worth, Texas. He was a boy again,

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Speaker 1: outdoors where he was most comfortable with his dad, a

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Speaker 1: military man enjoying a rare day off. Ever since the

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Speaker 1: incident in Roswell, the one John's dad never spoke of

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Speaker 1: to anyone. Ever, the military had made much use of

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Speaker 1: his unique talent. He made lieutenant colonel, and the Air

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Speaker 1: Force kept him busy. He was a test pilot, one

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Speaker 1: of the best. He not only knew his way around

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Speaker 1: a cockpit, he also knew his way around a rifle.

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Speaker 1: But when it came to shooting, Dutch Deutschendorff was nothing

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Speaker 1: next to his fourteen year old son John, who seemed

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Speaker 1: preternaturally designed to shoot. He could hit anything. He could

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Speaker 1: shoot a straw off a camel's back at a thousand yards.

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Speaker 1: He could shoot a gnat at the end of a

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Speaker 1: country mile. When it came to scope math, he could

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Speaker 1: judge distance and crunch a sniper trajectory formula in his

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Speaker 1: head like a human calculator. The formula solution was always

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Speaker 1: the same dead center. John Denver was as sure a

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Speaker 1: shot as there was for him. When his eye hit

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Speaker 1: the scope, there was nothing else. It wasn't even like

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Speaker 1: he had to concentrate. The whole world just fell away.

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Speaker 1: It was more feeling than anything else. There was form

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Speaker 1: of course, lock on target, load the chamber, a just

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Speaker 1: rifle up from line of sight in proportional arc to

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Speaker 1: distance from target, Relock on target, take the shot, and

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Speaker 1: when he pulled the trigger, he knew, he absolutely knew

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Speaker 1: he was going to hit his mark. He never missed,

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Speaker 1: he couldn't miss. John Denver opened his eyes again, and

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Speaker 1: the bright lights of the backstage dressing room jarred him,

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Speaker 1: jerked him away from his blackout dream. Rapidly he snapped too,

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Speaker 1: and it was a show to do, not just any show,

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Speaker 1: a television show. His own television show, John Denver's Rocky

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Speaker 1: Mountain Christmas, a variety special with guests Steve Martin and

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Speaker 1: Olivia Newton, John Cozy as a mountainside fireplace in winter,

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Speaker 1: and the ABC Network's highest rated program of nineteen seventy five,

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Speaker 1: sixty million viewers, roughly one in every four Americans would

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Speaker 1: watch a downright astounding audience size, and it was a

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Speaker 1: surprise to pretty much no one, because that's how famous

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Speaker 1: John Denver was at the time. Long gone were the

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Speaker 1: days of Leadbetters and David Crosby. By nineteen seventy five,

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Speaker 1: a mere ten years later, John Denver had taken his

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Speaker 1: safe middle American environ mentally conscious crossover folk and turned

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Speaker 1: himself into one of the biggest stars on the planet,

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Speaker 1: selling more records in that year and having more hit

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Speaker 1: records than any other artists. Billboard magazine named him best

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Speaker 1: Top Singles Artist, Best Overall Pop Artist, Best Easy Listening Artist,

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Speaker 1: and crowned his album Win Song Best Country Album. News

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Speaker 1: Day in nineteen seventy five said of John Denver what

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Speaker 1: Frank Sinatra was to the forties, Elvis Presley to the fifties,

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Speaker 1: and the Beatles to the sixties, John Denver is to

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Speaker 1: the seventies a phenomenon. John took to the stage and

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Speaker 1: the bank of Fresno lights gave off a familiar heat.

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Speaker 1: He gazed out, it is made for TV studio. Audience smiled,

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Speaker 1: slightly clutched his acoustic guitar and launched into his song

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Speaker 1: Aspen Glow. In between the tender strums of his acoustic,

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Speaker 1: the subtle root notes of the bass and high fills

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Speaker 1: of the piano, John could hear another sound, a sound

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Speaker 1: that was available only to him. It sounded like fear

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00:14:06,040 --> 00:14:10,119
Speaker 1: and guilt and shame all rolled into one. It sounded familiar.

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Speaker 1: It sounded like the crackle and roll of spent bullets

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Speaker 1: hitting the ground. John woke up in a state. It

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00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:38,960
Speaker 1: was like he was possessed. He ignored as soon to

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Speaker 1: be ex wife and be lined through their sprawling seventy

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Speaker 1: five hundred square foot Aspen mansion, custom built with seven

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Speaker 1: bathrooms and three webbars. John passed all of it on

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Speaker 1: his way out to the garage. The dream he had

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Speaker 1: just suffered was a familiar one. It was so intense,

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Speaker 1: so painful. He would do anything to erase it from

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Speaker 1: his memory, to cut it out. Just the tool grabbed

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Speaker 1: the fucking Jean saw the dream, the sucking, the fucking.

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00:15:08,600 --> 00:15:11,720
Speaker 1: It was so wrong, but started as an innocent night

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Speaker 1: under the stars. He his wife, some friends gathered on

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Speaker 1: his Aspen property to view the Persia meteor showers was

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Speaker 1: supposed to be a fire out communion with Mother Nature

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Speaker 1: on one of her most miraculous nights. The meteor showers

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Speaker 1: wear an annual late summer visit from the Cosmos, when

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Speaker 1: Earth passes through the debris field from a distant comet

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Speaker 1: and the skylights up like God's own kaleidoscope. At a

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Speaker 1: little past midnight, after most of the drink and smoke

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Speaker 1: had been ingested by his guests, the first meteor blasted

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Speaker 1: through the sky, better late than ever, and then the second,

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Speaker 1: the third, fourth, fifth, giant fiery swishes exploding into Colorado night.

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Speaker 1: The sky was on fire, and the spirit of the

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Speaker 1: natural beauty lifted John's guests into song, singing and dancing

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Speaker 1: around their camps at its fire was inspired and the

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00:16:02,040 --> 00:16:06,520
Speaker 1: singing grew more spirited. The dancing grew more intense. Counting John,

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Speaker 1: there were about six others, including his wife. A tight

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Speaker 1: circle of dancing wound itself around John's wife, and John

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Speaker 1: was on the outside of the circle. He tried to

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00:16:15,480 --> 00:16:18,920
Speaker 1: see in. He caught glimpses of his wife's hair flailing about,

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00:16:19,120 --> 00:16:21,800
Speaker 1: a flash of flesh here, a dash of sweat there.

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00:16:22,120 --> 00:16:24,440
Speaker 1: With every explosion in the sky, he caught a better

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00:16:24,480 --> 00:16:29,680
Speaker 1: glimpse inside the dance circle, his wife writhes. His wife undulated, sweated, panted.

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Speaker 1: The rhythm of it all was suddenly very sexual. In

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Speaker 1: John's guests, the dancers were chanting and locked into some

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Speaker 1: sort of unheard beat, a rhythm that it seemed to

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Speaker 1: John only they could hear. The meteors flashed above. John

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00:16:43,520 --> 00:16:46,560
Speaker 1: saw his wife's near naked body inside the circle. He

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00:16:46,640 --> 00:16:49,000
Speaker 1: tried to push through, but the dancers were too tight.

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Speaker 1: The circle would not be broken, and John tried to

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00:16:52,080 --> 00:16:54,920
Speaker 1: break through again, caught another glimpse of his wife dancing,

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Speaker 1: pounding away to the beat. It was all sex now.

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Speaker 1: It was like she was in the throes of passion

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Speaker 1: with some unseen adonnis. It was the most sexual thing

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00:17:03,080 --> 00:17:05,080
Speaker 1: John had ever witnessed, and he was on the outs,

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00:17:05,359 --> 00:17:08,399
Speaker 1: way out. He wanted in, he was denied. His wife

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00:17:08,440 --> 00:17:11,800
Speaker 1: continued to ride to grind. She moaned, her eyes rolled back.

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00:17:12,040 --> 00:17:15,200
Speaker 1: Another meteor flashed. John saw it the black and her

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00:17:15,240 --> 00:17:18,359
Speaker 1: eyes solid black. His wife moaned some more. In the

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00:17:18,359 --> 00:17:21,160
Speaker 1: midst of her dance, she opened her mouth again to moan,

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00:17:21,200 --> 00:17:21,840
Speaker 1: and there it was.

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00:17:21,880 --> 00:17:24,840
Speaker 2: In a quick flash, John saw it, He swore he did.

284
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Speaker 2: His wife impaled through the mouth by the horn of

285
00:17:27,760 --> 00:17:28,960
Speaker 2: Satan mid Orgas.

286
00:17:29,040 --> 00:17:33,840
Speaker 1: And then he woke up, soaked and sweat the same

287
00:17:33,840 --> 00:17:35,520
Speaker 1: as he was the last time he had the dream.

288
00:17:36,040 --> 00:17:40,920
Speaker 1: But this was it. The chainsaw would solve the problem.

289
00:17:41,160 --> 00:17:43,560
Speaker 1: John fired it up outside and stormed back into the

290
00:17:43,600 --> 00:17:46,199
Speaker 1: house with the motor and full gral. He passed the

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00:17:46,240 --> 00:17:48,800
Speaker 1: papers on the kitchen counter, the ones from his lawyer,

292
00:17:48,800 --> 00:17:51,000
Speaker 1: the ones he couldn't bring himself to sign, the ones

293
00:17:51,040 --> 00:17:54,040
Speaker 1: that said his wife got half half of everything, half

294
00:17:54,080 --> 00:17:56,960
Speaker 1: of this insanely large house, half of the cars and

295
00:17:57,040 --> 00:18:00,080
Speaker 1: the garage, half of his guitars, and half of his royalty.

296
00:18:00,520 --> 00:18:03,080
Speaker 2: Why stop there. If she wanted half of everything, then

297
00:18:03,080 --> 00:18:05,680
Speaker 2: she should truly get half of everything. How About half

298
00:18:05,680 --> 00:18:07,800
Speaker 2: the pain in the assid was to keep the money flowing.

299
00:18:08,240 --> 00:18:10,240
Speaker 2: How about half the shitty had the swallow for those

300
00:18:10,320 --> 00:18:14,560
Speaker 2: bullshit television and movie appearances, the one episode guest spot on.

301
00:18:14,600 --> 00:18:18,120
Speaker 1: Alan Marshall Counselor at Lawn, the role of Deputy Dewey

302
00:18:18,160 --> 00:18:22,400
Speaker 1: Cobb in the McLoud episode, and the goddamn Muppets. How

303
00:18:22,400 --> 00:18:24,359
Speaker 1: about she jump up on stage and slung it with

304
00:18:24,480 --> 00:18:27,080
Speaker 1: his fucking piggy and then he'd half the Shamepi. He

305
00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:29,879
Speaker 1: had a swallow from doing the gig with the pig half.

306
00:18:31,240 --> 00:18:34,080
Speaker 2: John stormed through the house with the chainsaw, motoring away,

307
00:18:34,200 --> 00:18:36,240
Speaker 2: scaring the shit out of the help and the process,

308
00:18:36,560 --> 00:18:40,160
Speaker 2: ranting like a schizophrenic in a trance. Take half the guilt,

309
00:18:40,240 --> 00:18:42,679
Speaker 2: Take half the nightmares, Take half the bed. I have

310
00:18:42,720 --> 00:18:44,320
Speaker 2: half the goddamn nightmares in.

311
00:18:45,200 --> 00:18:47,760
Speaker 1: John busted into the master suite and took the chainsaw

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00:18:47,840 --> 00:18:50,720
Speaker 1: to the California king he shared with his wife, splitting

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00:18:50,760 --> 00:18:53,760
Speaker 1: it down the middle, falling feathers and spring spit into

314
00:18:53,800 --> 00:18:55,920
Speaker 1: the air for the teeth of the chainsaw, ribbing through

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00:18:55,920 --> 00:18:59,240
Speaker 1: the mattress. When he was done, he dropped his tool,

316
00:18:59,640 --> 00:19:02,520
Speaker 1: stumble back to the wall, and slumped down to the floor.

317
00:19:03,080 --> 00:19:06,080
Speaker 1: The smell of gas filled his nostrils. He could hear

318
00:19:06,080 --> 00:19:09,640
Speaker 1: the nuthatches and the pines outside singing, and their melodies

319
00:19:09,680 --> 00:19:12,879
Speaker 1: were accented with the oh too familiar random click clack

320
00:19:12,920 --> 00:19:17,200
Speaker 1: who spent shellcasings hitting the ground. John closed his eyes,

321
00:19:17,320 --> 00:19:20,400
Speaker 1: exhausted and let his subconscious check him into the dreaded

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00:19:20,440 --> 00:19:29,119
Speaker 1: memory motel. We'll be right back after this word word

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00:19:29,359 --> 00:19:36,560
Speaker 1: word e. Howard Hunt was too old for this shit.

324
00:19:37,200 --> 00:19:39,920
Speaker 1: If the director himself hadn't asked them to fly out

325
00:19:39,920 --> 00:19:42,840
Speaker 1: to god forsaken Fort Worth, Texas, then he sure his

326
00:19:42,920 --> 00:19:45,520
Speaker 1: shit would have told whatever pencil neck analyst who gave

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00:19:45,600 --> 00:19:47,359
Speaker 1: him the memo to stick it where the good Lord

328
00:19:47,440 --> 00:19:50,680
Speaker 1: split it, Texas. The kid better have been what they said.

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00:19:50,720 --> 00:19:55,719
Speaker 1: He was a sure shot and better than that afflicted

330
00:19:56,040 --> 00:19:59,640
Speaker 1: in the best way. With catatonia, it was a strange

331
00:19:59,640 --> 00:20:05,359
Speaker 1: and very valuable to the agency anyway. Combination catatonia is

332
00:20:05,400 --> 00:20:09,359
Speaker 1: a rare type of psychiatric disorder that manifests in multiple ways.

333
00:20:09,720 --> 00:20:12,680
Speaker 1: It can make those who are afflicted immobile and speechless,

334
00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:17,280
Speaker 1: catatonic and stuporous. Catatonia can cause those who have it

335
00:20:17,359 --> 00:20:21,440
Speaker 1: to basically black out while repeating their physical movements their

336
00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:25,439
Speaker 1: motions over and over and over again. Their brains are

337
00:20:25,560 --> 00:20:30,800
Speaker 1: essentially blotto, but their bodies continue to move. And what

338
00:20:30,880 --> 00:20:33,719
Speaker 1: the big brains back at E. Howard Haunt's shop, the

339
00:20:33,760 --> 00:20:37,200
Speaker 1: Central Intelligence Agency figured out was that if you gave

340
00:20:37,280 --> 00:20:41,879
Speaker 1: blacked out catatonics the controlled dosage of lysergic acid diethylamide,

341
00:20:42,119 --> 00:20:46,040
Speaker 1: the new drug the agency was experimenting with LSD, then

342
00:20:46,040 --> 00:20:50,520
Speaker 1: the catatonics repetitive motions could be controlled by another party's command.

343
00:20:51,480 --> 00:20:54,439
Speaker 1: Now what if that motion wasn't random, What if it

344
00:20:54,520 --> 00:20:57,600
Speaker 1: was a precise action, like the shooting of a gun

345
00:20:57,880 --> 00:21:01,160
Speaker 1: by a highly skilled sure shot. Now imagine what kind

346
00:21:01,200 --> 00:21:03,720
Speaker 1: of shit a slick outfit like the CIA could stir

347
00:21:03,880 --> 00:21:07,160
Speaker 1: up with that kind of asset. Hunt knew the director

348
00:21:07,240 --> 00:21:09,639
Speaker 1: was onto something, so he hopped the first flight he

349
00:21:09,680 --> 00:21:15,959
Speaker 1: could from DC to Texas, and the kid didn't disappoint.

350
00:21:16,280 --> 00:21:19,520
Speaker 1: Hunt had never seen anything like it. The kid could

351
00:21:19,560 --> 00:21:22,199
Speaker 1: hit milk bottles off logs at five hundred yards. He

352
00:21:22,200 --> 00:21:25,480
Speaker 1: could account for wind, air, temperature, humidity, and gravity with

353
00:21:25,520 --> 00:21:27,560
Speaker 1: a shrug of his shoulder like it was the most

354
00:21:27,560 --> 00:21:30,440
Speaker 1: intuitive thing in the world. His minute of angle, the

355
00:21:30,480 --> 00:21:33,840
Speaker 1: standard measurement of relative sniper accuracy, was in the ninetieth

356
00:21:33,880 --> 00:21:37,480
Speaker 1: percentile as an amateur, and the Koude Grau was the blindfold.

357
00:21:37,800 --> 00:21:39,960
Speaker 1: They moved the kid back to six hundred yards, set

358
00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:42,000
Speaker 1: up a target on a bale of hey far across

359
00:21:42,040 --> 00:21:45,040
Speaker 1: the range, and the kid took a stance, adjusted his

360
00:21:45,119 --> 00:21:47,600
Speaker 1: scope in the angle of his barrel. They dropped the

361
00:21:47,640 --> 00:21:50,120
Speaker 1: blindfold on him. He swore he saw the kid's breast

362
00:21:50,160 --> 00:21:54,160
Speaker 1: stop and his body achieved total stillness. Then he pulled

363
00:21:54,160 --> 00:21:59,119
Speaker 1: the trigger and sure as shit, the shot was true, bullseye,

364
00:21:59,359 --> 00:22:03,760
Speaker 1: dead center. The kid looked up sheepishly, as if he'd

365
00:22:03,800 --> 00:22:06,439
Speaker 1: just done something as simple as pouring a glass of milk.

366
00:22:06,960 --> 00:22:11,040
Speaker 1: Hunt caught his eye. Insecure, vulnerable, a bit scared, eager

367
00:22:11,040 --> 00:22:14,000
Speaker 1: to please Hunt redim in an instant. This is going

368
00:22:14,080 --> 00:22:16,520
Speaker 1: to be easier than he thought, provided the old man

369
00:22:16,560 --> 00:22:23,280
Speaker 1: would play a ball. Dutch and Irma's Fort Worth, Texas home.

370
00:22:23,640 --> 00:22:28,119
Speaker 1: It read postwar suburban military modest ranch house, maybe a

371
00:22:28,200 --> 00:22:31,840
Speaker 1: thousand square feet parachevies in the driveway, American flag in

372
00:22:31,880 --> 00:22:35,480
Speaker 1: the front yard, white picket fence, and well manicured hedges,

373
00:22:35,760 --> 00:22:40,520
Speaker 1: regulation height, of course, milk cookies, a nineteen inch magnavox

374
00:22:40,600 --> 00:22:43,600
Speaker 1: to watch the Lawrence Welk Show on right now. Though

375
00:22:43,720 --> 00:22:46,960
Speaker 1: the magnavox was showing Jack the haircut eating Dick Nixon's

376
00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:50,800
Speaker 1: lunch on the televised debate stage. The kid said nothing,

377
00:22:51,119 --> 00:22:54,399
Speaker 1: sat on the sofa and knees locked, hands clasped, staring

378
00:22:54,400 --> 00:22:56,720
Speaker 1: out at the television, but at the acoustic guitar leaning

379
00:22:56,840 --> 00:22:59,720
Speaker 1: up against the wall aside him. His old man cursed

380
00:22:59,720 --> 00:23:02,600
Speaker 1: the caw Athletics, He cursed the Commies. He cursed the Jews,

381
00:23:02,640 --> 00:23:05,639
Speaker 1: the Pinkos, and the pencil necks. No group was safe.

382
00:23:07,640 --> 00:23:10,280
Speaker 1: Hunt sipped his milk and tried to suppress a smile.

383
00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:13,000
Speaker 1: The old man would play ball, all right, This is

384
00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:16,159
Speaker 1: gonna be easier than he thought. Hunt swapped the natural

385
00:23:16,200 --> 00:23:20,040
Speaker 1: waspy eloquence in his voice for Near Blue Barracks, Bravado.

386
00:23:20,240 --> 00:23:22,560
Speaker 1: You see your son as a gift, sir. I've never

387
00:23:22,600 --> 00:23:25,360
Speaker 1: seen anyone shoot like that, And like you, I did

388
00:23:25,359 --> 00:23:28,360
Speaker 1: my time for uncle, Navy man, then the Air Corps,

389
00:23:28,440 --> 00:23:32,280
Speaker 1: like you a wingman, then unlike you, the Oss. I've

390
00:23:32,320 --> 00:23:34,560
Speaker 1: seen men shoot, is what I'm saying. And maybe in

391
00:23:34,600 --> 00:23:36,120
Speaker 1: the Air Force you don't get to see as many

392
00:23:36,160 --> 00:23:38,200
Speaker 1: men work their way around a rifle. But your son,

393
00:23:38,400 --> 00:23:41,600
Speaker 1: he ain't like anything anyone has ever seen anywhere, at

394
00:23:41,640 --> 00:23:45,160
Speaker 1: least when it comes to firing a gun. The old

395
00:23:45,160 --> 00:23:48,359
Speaker 1: man was listening in the background, Kennedy's good looks, his

396
00:23:48,440 --> 00:23:51,800
Speaker 1: toothy smile, that fucking East Coast entitlement, all of it

397
00:23:51,960 --> 00:23:54,960
Speaker 1: stoked a raging inferno of insecurity in the old man.

398
00:23:55,240 --> 00:23:58,160
Speaker 1: It was thick palpable. To the kid, it was genetic.

399
00:23:58,520 --> 00:24:04,399
Speaker 1: He was fucked, you see. Hunt nodded to the television now,

400
00:24:04,600 --> 00:24:07,080
Speaker 1: right now, more than ever now, we need boys like

401
00:24:07,080 --> 00:24:10,199
Speaker 1: your son, sir, capable boys. The world ain't what it

402
00:24:10,240 --> 00:24:12,879
Speaker 1: was when we were his age. Times are changing and

403
00:24:12,920 --> 00:24:14,560
Speaker 1: we need all the help we can get keeping things

404
00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:17,119
Speaker 1: the way they should be, keeping the country pure, keeping

405
00:24:17,200 --> 00:24:20,560
Speaker 1: our ideals in place. There are enemies among us, sir,

406
00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:22,440
Speaker 1: Some of them even have designs on the White House

407
00:24:22,520 --> 00:24:25,120
Speaker 1: right there. And there are conflicts springing up all over

408
00:24:25,119 --> 00:24:28,480
Speaker 1: the place. Cuba, French, Indonesia. That came me, Genie, that

409
00:24:28,560 --> 00:24:31,360
Speaker 1: fdr led out of the bottle. It ain't going back in, no, sir,

410
00:24:31,440 --> 00:24:34,480
Speaker 1: ree Bobcat, not without a concerted effort for men like me,

411
00:24:34,880 --> 00:24:38,199
Speaker 1: like you, and like your son. The old man was

412
00:24:38,240 --> 00:24:42,400
Speaker 1: wrapped hunt went in for the clothes, his gift, his ability.

413
00:24:42,640 --> 00:24:47,040
Speaker 1: It deserves special attention, special cultivation. We have an elite

414
00:24:47,080 --> 00:24:50,080
Speaker 1: snipers school affiliated with the agency that is ACES, and

415
00:24:50,119 --> 00:24:52,439
Speaker 1: we think your son would be well utilized there and

416
00:24:52,480 --> 00:24:56,439
Speaker 1: he'd be making his country proud. Nixon sweated on the

417
00:24:56,480 --> 00:24:59,639
Speaker 1: screen with indecision. The old man did not share Nixon's

418
00:24:59,640 --> 00:25:02,480
Speaker 1: in a bilg to make up his mind. His decision

419
00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:06,040
Speaker 1: was easy, get me the papers, I'll sign him. The

420
00:25:06,119 --> 00:25:08,320
Speaker 1: boy will report for duty Monday morning at oh five

421
00:25:08,400 --> 00:25:27,679
Speaker 1: hundred hours with nothing but a gym bag full of

422
00:25:27,720 --> 00:25:31,200
Speaker 1: clothes and an acoustic guitar. Seventeen year old Henry John

423
00:25:31,240 --> 00:25:34,880
Speaker 1: Deutschendorf reported for duty to the newly formed United States

424
00:25:34,920 --> 00:25:38,800
Speaker 1: Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in September of

425
00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:42,320
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty. The elite academy was so new that it

426
00:25:42,359 --> 00:25:45,399
Speaker 1: had just graduated its first class a year earlier in

427
00:25:45,520 --> 00:25:49,560
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty nine. John was ushered through basic training like

428
00:25:49,640 --> 00:25:52,200
Speaker 1: all of the other students, but by the time November

429
00:25:52,280 --> 00:25:55,440
Speaker 1: rolled around, John had been reassigned to a smaller group

430
00:25:55,480 --> 00:25:59,520
Speaker 1: of students in a different type of training. Academics fitness

431
00:25:59,640 --> 00:26:02,960
Speaker 1: air ship were all sidelined for the moment. In place

432
00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:07,959
Speaker 1: of one thing, and one thing only, shooting, John, along

433
00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:11,400
Speaker 1: with two other highly adept shooters students like himself, were

434
00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:13,399
Speaker 1: moved out of the dorms and into their own living

435
00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:17,080
Speaker 1: facility on the outskirts of campus. Every morning at oh

436
00:26:17,200 --> 00:26:19,840
Speaker 1: five hundred hours, they were awakened and guided through their

437
00:26:19,920 --> 00:26:22,879
Speaker 1: day by their professor, a man by the name of Doc.

438
00:26:23,760 --> 00:26:26,639
Speaker 1: Doc was effectively the only person in other than themselves

439
00:26:26,640 --> 00:26:30,160
Speaker 1: that the cadets now saw, and Doc took care of everything,

440
00:26:30,680 --> 00:26:34,480
Speaker 1: ushering John and his classmates through their morning routine, transporting

441
00:26:34,520 --> 00:26:38,160
Speaker 1: them out to the shooting range. Through daily maneuvers including marksmanship,

442
00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:43,720
Speaker 1: battlefield intelligence, stocking, and other sniper related skills. Doc's primary

443
00:26:43,760 --> 00:26:46,920
Speaker 1: mission was to impart upon his student's long range precision

444
00:26:46,960 --> 00:26:51,879
Speaker 1: fire sniping skills. To this end, everything was perfectly calibrated.

445
00:26:51,960 --> 00:26:55,800
Speaker 1: During John's and his fellow students' days. Their meals, their study,

446
00:26:55,800 --> 00:26:58,760
Speaker 1: and even their free time. Meals were prepared by Doc.

447
00:26:58,920 --> 00:27:02,680
Speaker 1: Quote unquote. Academic consisted of Doc literally reading to his students,

448
00:27:03,040 --> 00:27:06,359
Speaker 1: usually military history and almost always something from either Roman

449
00:27:06,440 --> 00:27:11,000
Speaker 1: history or US Revolutionary war history, and free time consisted

450
00:27:11,000 --> 00:27:13,280
Speaker 1: of Doc sitting in the middle of the small sniper's

451
00:27:13,280 --> 00:27:16,720
Speaker 1: student living facility and regaling his students with stories of

452
00:27:16,760 --> 00:27:19,199
Speaker 1: his days in the European theater of war during the

453
00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:23,840
Speaker 1: Big One hunting Nazis for Uncle. It was a highly structured,

454
00:27:23,920 --> 00:27:29,040
Speaker 1: highly sheltered time of constance for young John. Patriotism dedication

455
00:27:29,160 --> 00:27:32,360
Speaker 1: to country above all else, along with marksmanship training where

456
00:27:32,440 --> 00:27:35,240
Speaker 1: all that John was exposed to every minute of every day,

457
00:27:35,720 --> 00:27:38,560
Speaker 1: and everything else was the same as well. The routine,

458
00:27:38,640 --> 00:27:40,800
Speaker 1: the time, the place, It was as if everything in

459
00:27:40,880 --> 00:27:44,040
Speaker 1: John's life were wrote right down to his daily meals.

460
00:27:44,320 --> 00:27:47,479
Speaker 1: Everything was a repetitive motion of the time before. Always

461
00:27:47,560 --> 00:27:51,560
Speaker 1: the same breakfast oatmeal and hard boiled eggs every morning,

462
00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:55,080
Speaker 1: lunch tune a sandwich with cheese and butter on white bread.

463
00:27:55,200 --> 00:27:59,560
Speaker 1: Every afternoon, dinner mystery meat, mashed potatoes and boiled carrots

464
00:27:59,560 --> 00:28:02,760
Speaker 1: with a white bread roll. Water, milk, juice where all

465
00:28:02,800 --> 00:28:05,560
Speaker 1: they were allowed to drink, ever, and of course, dessert

466
00:28:05,720 --> 00:28:09,200
Speaker 1: was always followed up with a shot of mandatory fluoride,

467
00:28:09,320 --> 00:28:12,320
Speaker 1: a small shot glass sized poll of tasteless warm water

468
00:28:12,640 --> 00:28:16,560
Speaker 1: that Doc insisted they swallow every last drop of. He'd

469
00:28:16,560 --> 00:28:18,720
Speaker 1: watch each of them intently to make sure it was

470
00:28:18,800 --> 00:28:22,199
Speaker 1: all swallowed, and inspect their paper cups afterward to be

471
00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:26,080
Speaker 1: sure they were empty. John and his classmates would pass

472
00:28:26,119 --> 00:28:30,280
Speaker 1: out Soon after. John would dream intensely, usually about shooting,

473
00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:34,000
Speaker 1: sniping some scenario, mixing the training he'd endured that day

474
00:28:34,040 --> 00:28:37,439
Speaker 1: with one of Doc's war stories, and often involving music.

475
00:28:38,160 --> 00:28:41,280
Speaker 1: John playing his acoustic in the bombed out streets of Dresden,

476
00:28:41,560 --> 00:28:45,000
Speaker 1: playing his acoustic side Washington and his men at Valley Forge,

477
00:28:45,080 --> 00:28:48,240
Speaker 1: playing his acoustic with the centurions at Carthage are often

478
00:28:48,400 --> 00:28:51,240
Speaker 1: back home in his living room, serenading a sweaty former

479
00:28:51,320 --> 00:28:54,160
Speaker 1: Vice President Nixon to the approval of his father and

480
00:28:54,160 --> 00:28:57,040
Speaker 1: to the disapproval of the now President John F. Kennedy.

481
00:28:57,760 --> 00:29:01,040
Speaker 1: When it came to music, to playing music is John's

482
00:29:01,080 --> 00:29:04,960
Speaker 1: dreams were all he had. His acoustic guitar was confiscated

483
00:29:04,960 --> 00:29:07,200
Speaker 1: when he showed up at school, and along with everything

484
00:29:07,240 --> 00:29:09,880
Speaker 1: else going on in the outside world, music was not

485
00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:12,880
Speaker 1: allowed in any way, shape or form at the Academy,

486
00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:15,320
Speaker 1: at least not at the part of the academy where

487
00:29:15,360 --> 00:29:19,880
Speaker 1: John was stashed away. Years later. By the time John

488
00:29:19,920 --> 00:29:23,080
Speaker 1: had become a singing sensation, these days at the Academy

489
00:29:23,120 --> 00:29:26,600
Speaker 1: were barely even there in his memory anymore. His time

490
00:29:26,640 --> 00:29:29,680
Speaker 1: there was merely a decade removed, and still trying to

491
00:29:29,720 --> 00:29:33,280
Speaker 1: conjure images of this time was next to impossible. Even

492
00:29:33,320 --> 00:29:36,800
Speaker 1: more difficult to remember were the years following a black

493
00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:39,920
Speaker 1: spot in his memory. Bank John did his time in

494
00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:43,640
Speaker 1: the academy, He remembered nothing of his classmates. Doc his

495
00:29:43,760 --> 00:29:46,880
Speaker 1: teacher was basically all he could recall him, and the

496
00:29:46,920 --> 00:29:50,240
Speaker 1: mysterious mister Hunt, who visited every couple months or so.

497
00:29:50,560 --> 00:29:54,760
Speaker 1: Observed his training and said, little Hunt, with his big, black,

498
00:29:54,880 --> 00:29:58,120
Speaker 1: soulless eyes and giant dumbo years was hard to miss,

499
00:29:58,200 --> 00:30:02,200
Speaker 1: never mind forget. When John would try to remember those

500
00:30:02,280 --> 00:30:05,440
Speaker 1: days and come up short, the feeling of frustration would

501
00:30:05,520 --> 00:30:08,600
Speaker 1: quickly turn to shame to Gil, and John had no

502
00:30:08,680 --> 00:30:11,640
Speaker 1: idea why. Perhaps it was due to his time in

503
00:30:11,680 --> 00:30:15,600
Speaker 1: the war after the Academy, the goddamn Vietnam War. It

504
00:30:15,680 --> 00:30:18,520
Speaker 1: had torn the country apart, and John was not only

505
00:30:18,560 --> 00:30:22,120
Speaker 1: ashamed of his personal participation, but also, like most men

506
00:30:22,200 --> 00:30:24,920
Speaker 1: his age in the nineteen seventies, John was ashamed of

507
00:30:24,920 --> 00:30:28,560
Speaker 1: his country's participation as well. It seemed so long ago,

508
00:30:28,680 --> 00:30:31,600
Speaker 1: and like his days at the Academy, John could remember little.

509
00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:40,360
Speaker 1: Last season, he lay back in bed, sipped on his

510
00:30:40,440 --> 00:30:43,600
Speaker 1: red wine, and tried telling the very sexy, half naked,

511
00:30:43,640 --> 00:30:46,000
Speaker 1: career minded gall at his side what it was like

512
00:30:46,120 --> 00:30:50,280
Speaker 1: to kill a man. You know, I can't remember hardly anything.

513
00:30:50,720 --> 00:30:54,040
Speaker 1: I'd just sit and wait, wait and wait some more,

514
00:30:54,600 --> 00:30:56,880
Speaker 1: and by the time the enemy would cross into my sight,

515
00:30:57,120 --> 00:30:59,520
Speaker 1: I'd pull the trigger. It was as if all the

516
00:30:59,600 --> 00:31:03,080
Speaker 1: humanity he had already been drained from the situation. I

517
00:31:03,160 --> 00:31:06,040
Speaker 1: did it so many times that it was all routine,

518
00:31:06,160 --> 00:31:09,640
Speaker 1: but now the guilt's heavy, heavier than it should be.

519
00:31:09,680 --> 00:31:11,800
Speaker 1: I mean, we were at war for a reason. They

520
00:31:11,800 --> 00:31:14,080
Speaker 1: were the enemy. It was killed or be killed. You now,

521
00:31:15,200 --> 00:31:18,960
Speaker 1: she nodded, shocked, barely able to process. With John Denver,

522
00:31:19,200 --> 00:31:21,960
Speaker 1: one of the country's biggest pop stars, a man known

523
00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:25,320
Speaker 1: for his peaceful, kind demeanor, was telling her that he

524
00:31:25,440 --> 00:31:28,480
Speaker 1: was a secret assassin in the Vietnam War before forging

525
00:31:28,520 --> 00:31:32,800
Speaker 1: his way in the music industry. John went on, I

526
00:31:32,840 --> 00:31:34,920
Speaker 1: appreciate you letting me tell you this, even though we

527
00:31:35,040 --> 00:31:37,560
Speaker 1: just met. I feel like I could share this with you.

528
00:31:38,200 --> 00:31:40,680
Speaker 1: If Jerry ever found out, though, that I was telling

529
00:31:40,720 --> 00:31:45,360
Speaker 1: you this, he'd kill me. Thank God for Jerry. Jerry

530
00:31:45,440 --> 00:31:48,640
Speaker 1: was John's manager, and John was an absolute sap when

531
00:31:48,680 --> 00:31:50,920
Speaker 1: it came to sexy women. And the one in the

532
00:31:50,960 --> 00:31:53,600
Speaker 1: bed next to him at the moment was Jerry's new secretary.

533
00:31:53,920 --> 00:31:56,480
Speaker 1: She'd be Jerry's ex secretary as soon as Jerry found

534
00:31:56,520 --> 00:32:00,000
Speaker 1: out she was stooping. The talent Jerry was Jerry Wintrot,

535
00:32:00,280 --> 00:32:04,000
Speaker 1: the ubiquitous concert producer and talent manager of the nineteen seventies.

536
00:32:04,520 --> 00:32:07,240
Speaker 1: He took Sinatra out of retirement. He put Elvis on

537
00:32:07,280 --> 00:32:10,360
Speaker 1: the road. He introduced led Zeppelin to pube dowbed teenagers

538
00:32:10,400 --> 00:32:14,640
Speaker 1: all over America in nineteen seventy. He was an immensely

539
00:32:14,720 --> 00:32:19,000
Speaker 1: powerful manager and John Denver was his charge. Jerry was

540
00:32:19,040 --> 00:32:21,880
Speaker 1: all street. He kept buy on, charm and grit. He

541
00:32:21,960 --> 00:32:25,600
Speaker 1: took no shit. He read more Bronx gangster than Colonel Tom,

542
00:32:25,640 --> 00:32:28,560
Speaker 1: and no one questioned it. He saw John Denver as

543
00:32:28,600 --> 00:32:33,160
Speaker 1: the precious resource he was. He deserves special attention, special cultivation,

544
00:32:33,560 --> 00:32:35,960
Speaker 1: and from the moment he was first exposed to his act,

545
00:32:36,240 --> 00:32:39,440
Speaker 1: Jerry wintrob knew that John Denver was a special type

546
00:32:39,440 --> 00:32:43,120
Speaker 1: of performer. He appealed to the younger hippie generation, but

547
00:32:43,240 --> 00:32:47,160
Speaker 1: could also appeal to their parents. In short, America would

548
00:32:47,200 --> 00:32:49,920
Speaker 1: welcome John into their living rooms through their televisions in

549
00:32:49,960 --> 00:32:53,880
Speaker 1: a way they wouldn't other rock stars. So Jerry went

550
00:32:53,920 --> 00:32:56,280
Speaker 1: to work. He twisted arms to get John on the

551
00:32:56,320 --> 00:32:59,160
Speaker 1: MERV Griffin Show. He took out full page spreads in

552
00:32:59,200 --> 00:33:02,280
Speaker 1: the trades with touched up photos showing John performing to

553
00:33:02,520 --> 00:33:05,680
Speaker 1: enormous crowds, and by the time he was done, John's

554
00:33:05,720 --> 00:33:09,320
Speaker 1: television appearances poured the requisite fuel needed onto the fire

555
00:33:09,440 --> 00:33:12,320
Speaker 1: set by his singles. Leaving on a jet plane and

556
00:33:12,400 --> 00:33:15,920
Speaker 1: take me home country road, and in the process, John

557
00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:20,320
Speaker 1: Denver burned up the charts. By nineteen seventy five. His

558
00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:23,240
Speaker 1: music was ubiquitous and he was every bit the household

559
00:33:23,320 --> 00:33:26,880
Speaker 1: name is Sinatra or Presley, and none of it would

560
00:33:26,880 --> 00:33:29,960
Speaker 1: have happened without Jerry Wintrop and not just because of

561
00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:34,000
Speaker 1: his music management skills either. Jerry could make things happen, sure,

562
00:33:34,360 --> 00:33:37,080
Speaker 1: but he could also make things go away, like John's

563
00:33:37,120 --> 00:33:41,400
Speaker 1: military record. Years later, Matt Damon and his dad went

564
00:33:41,440 --> 00:33:44,920
Speaker 1: golfing with Jerry Wintrop. Damon's dad gave him shit for

565
00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:49,320
Speaker 1: not finishing school at Harvard and graduating, and Jerry Wintrop interjected,

566
00:33:49,400 --> 00:33:52,479
Speaker 1: ever the problem solver. You want a diploma. I can

567
00:33:52,520 --> 00:33:55,560
Speaker 1: get you a diploma. Damon looked up from his teeth.

568
00:33:55,720 --> 00:33:58,160
Speaker 1: How are you going to give me a diploma? Jerry?

569
00:33:58,440 --> 00:34:01,040
Speaker 1: I know a guy. Damon, You know a guy? What

570
00:34:01,120 --> 00:34:04,000
Speaker 1: the fuck does that mean? Jerry? There is always a guy.

571
00:34:05,560 --> 00:34:10,120
Speaker 1: Wintrob's street smarts informed his worldview. There was indeed always

572
00:34:10,160 --> 00:34:12,520
Speaker 1: a guy, and when it came to John Denver in

573
00:34:12,560 --> 00:34:15,720
Speaker 1: his time in the Vietnam War, Jerry Wintraub most certainly

574
00:34:15,800 --> 00:34:22,719
Speaker 1: knew a guy. He had John's record completely expunged, concocting

575
00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:25,520
Speaker 1: some fugazy story and records to back it up that

576
00:34:25,680 --> 00:34:28,040
Speaker 1: John was marked fore f due to his flat feet,

577
00:34:28,080 --> 00:34:30,399
Speaker 1: so John was able to avoid the draft and thus

578
00:34:30,480 --> 00:34:33,200
Speaker 1: the military at a time when he most certainly would

579
00:34:33,200 --> 00:34:36,520
Speaker 1: have been shipped off to Vietnam. But that was all bullshit.

580
00:34:36,840 --> 00:34:40,200
Speaker 1: John Denver definitely served in the military by the time

581
00:34:40,239 --> 00:34:43,360
Speaker 1: he'd become a pop star under the making and guidance

582
00:34:43,400 --> 00:34:46,760
Speaker 1: of Jerry Weintrout, having a military record wasn't an option.

583
00:34:47,239 --> 00:34:50,160
Speaker 1: It would not have played with the peaceful pacifist image

584
00:34:50,160 --> 00:34:53,160
Speaker 1: that John in congruently radiated and that America was so

585
00:34:53,239 --> 00:34:57,520
Speaker 1: attracted to. Furthermore, Jerry Wintrop cooked up another for cocta

586
00:34:57,600 --> 00:35:00,880
Speaker 1: story to completely account for John Denver's time in the military,

587
00:35:00,920 --> 00:35:03,480
Speaker 1: including his time in sniper's school at the Air Force

588
00:35:03,520 --> 00:35:07,040
Speaker 1: Academy prior. The story went that John ran away from

589
00:35:07,120 --> 00:35:09,880
Speaker 1: college to change his name and explore the emerging folk

590
00:35:09,920 --> 00:35:13,279
Speaker 1: scene sing for his supper Air Force Academy. What Air

591
00:35:13,320 --> 00:35:18,240
Speaker 1: Force Academy, Vietnam? What Vietnam? John was lost in scores

592
00:35:18,280 --> 00:35:20,640
Speaker 1: of other wannabe folk musicians in La at the time.

593
00:35:20,840 --> 00:35:23,120
Speaker 1: How could he possibly be serving Uncle Sam like the

594
00:35:23,160 --> 00:35:26,480
Speaker 1: rest of America's unfortunate sons. Not at that time, no

595
00:35:26,560 --> 00:35:31,880
Speaker 1: way ise this story had the benefit of being partially true.

596
00:35:32,080 --> 00:35:35,120
Speaker 1: John wasn't in the actual Vietnam War, but he was

597
00:35:35,160 --> 00:35:38,680
Speaker 1: in Vietnam. It's just that America wasn't at war yet

598
00:35:38,960 --> 00:35:41,360
Speaker 1: and the conflict hadn't yet been given the name of

599
00:35:41,360 --> 00:35:44,960
Speaker 1: the Vietnam War. Not yet. But John was one of

600
00:35:45,040 --> 00:35:48,120
Speaker 1: the first quote unquote military advisors in Saigon at the

601
00:35:48,120 --> 00:35:51,160
Speaker 1: turn of the decade, whereupon he became the most prolific

602
00:35:51,160 --> 00:35:54,359
Speaker 1: sniper in military history, recording a total of one hundred

603
00:35:54,360 --> 00:35:57,280
Speaker 1: and five kills in just one quick tour, a record

604
00:35:57,280 --> 00:35:59,640
Speaker 1: that stood until the War in Afghanistan, where it was

605
00:35:59,680 --> 00:36:03,680
Speaker 1: broken by Chris Kyle aka Clint Eastwood and Bradley Cooper's

606
00:36:03,719 --> 00:36:07,239
Speaker 1: American Sniper. John had shipped out of San Diego and

607
00:36:07,320 --> 00:36:09,279
Speaker 1: landed back on the West Coast when his tour in

608
00:36:09,400 --> 00:36:12,480
Speaker 1: Vietnam was through to begin his music career in earnest

609
00:36:12,480 --> 00:36:15,480
Speaker 1: that Ledbetters before we moved east to sling his acoustic

610
00:36:15,520 --> 00:36:18,600
Speaker 1: in Greenwich Village's folk scene, where he would ultimately meet

611
00:36:18,680 --> 00:36:21,720
Speaker 1: Jerry Weintraub and begin his career in the music industry

612
00:36:21,760 --> 00:36:24,440
Speaker 1: in earnest But there was an in between time that

613
00:36:24,520 --> 00:36:28,000
Speaker 1: neither John nor Jerry could account for. Time between the

614
00:36:28,040 --> 00:36:32,400
Speaker 1: Air Force Academy Sniper Academy, and the war. John couldn't

615
00:36:32,440 --> 00:36:34,920
Speaker 1: call it up in his memory. The closest he got

616
00:36:34,920 --> 00:36:37,760
Speaker 1: to any type of recollection of that lost in between

617
00:36:37,880 --> 00:36:42,520
Speaker 1: time was just a nebulous feeling, a feeling of intense guilt.

618
00:36:42,840 --> 00:36:46,279
Speaker 1: What happened to him between Sniper Academy and the war? Why?

619
00:36:46,400 --> 00:36:49,400
Speaker 1: He wondered? Could he not remember that in between time?

620
00:36:51,280 --> 00:36:56,520
Speaker 1: We'll be right back after this word word word. That

621
00:36:56,680 --> 00:37:00,319
Speaker 1: in between time, that forgotten time, that time of hence

622
00:37:00,360 --> 00:37:03,960
Speaker 1: guilt for John Denver. Only recently of music and history

623
00:37:03,960 --> 00:37:06,919
Speaker 1: scholars been able to piece together what happened and bring

624
00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:09,120
Speaker 1: light to the truth of what has been regarded as

625
00:37:09,160 --> 00:37:11,920
Speaker 1: one of the most disturbing and unbelievable rumors about one

626
00:37:11,960 --> 00:37:15,720
Speaker 1: of America's most beloved pop stars. We have the Freedom

627
00:37:15,719 --> 00:37:18,279
Speaker 1: of Information Act to thank for this. But before we

628
00:37:18,320 --> 00:37:21,759
Speaker 1: begin to unpack this recently leaked treasure trove of innuendo,

629
00:37:22,200 --> 00:37:25,000
Speaker 1: we must go back again to the early nineteen sixties

630
00:37:25,040 --> 00:37:30,080
Speaker 1: in America's place in the world. President John f Kennedy

631
00:37:30,160 --> 00:37:33,160
Speaker 1: had the establishment on edge. The Bay of Pigs was

632
00:37:33,200 --> 00:37:37,040
Speaker 1: the debacle. Kennedy, because he had believed he had been

633
00:37:37,120 --> 00:37:39,960
Speaker 1: hung out to dry by his own government, had threatened

634
00:37:40,000 --> 00:37:44,360
Speaker 1: to destroy the CIA e Howard Hunt's CIA by splintering

635
00:37:44,400 --> 00:37:48,759
Speaker 1: it into quote one thousand pieces. In Cuba, Fidel Castro's

636
00:37:48,800 --> 00:37:52,040
Speaker 1: revolution resulted in the loss of millions upon millions of

637
00:37:52,080 --> 00:37:55,400
Speaker 1: the American mafia's dollars due to their casinos and banks

638
00:37:55,440 --> 00:37:59,520
Speaker 1: being nationalized by Castro's new government. The mafia was out,

639
00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:03,560
Speaker 1: Cuba had gone commede. Cuba was closed for business, and

640
00:38:03,640 --> 00:38:07,080
Speaker 1: communism was spreading elsewhere too. But it wasn't all that bad.

641
00:38:07,600 --> 00:38:10,480
Speaker 1: In Vietnam, the Soviets had begun back into the oppressive

642
00:38:10,560 --> 00:38:13,719
Speaker 1: North Vietnamese government, who are on maneuvers to overtake the

643
00:38:13,719 --> 00:38:16,400
Speaker 1: rest of the country and establish a bigger comedy footprint

644
00:38:16,440 --> 00:38:19,520
Speaker 1: in Asia. And this sounded worse than it actually was.

645
00:38:20,080 --> 00:38:23,520
Speaker 1: To the American military industrial complex, this little flare up

646
00:38:23,560 --> 00:38:26,200
Speaker 1: far from home was more of an opportunity than a threat,

647
00:38:26,480 --> 00:38:29,719
Speaker 1: an opportunity to rouse support for democracy and in the

648
00:38:29,760 --> 00:38:33,400
Speaker 1: process built out gazillions of dollars in government contracts for

649
00:38:33,520 --> 00:38:40,320
Speaker 1: military hardware. Helicopters, explosives, artillery, etc. Vietnam was a goddamn

650
00:38:40,360 --> 00:38:44,320
Speaker 1: gold mine if played correctly. But the problem was John F.

651
00:38:44,440 --> 00:38:47,840
Speaker 1: Kennedy wasn't playing, not with Vietnam, not with Cuba, not

652
00:38:47,920 --> 00:38:51,400
Speaker 1: with the mafia. He resisted his military advisors on doubling

653
00:38:51,400 --> 00:38:54,759
Speaker 1: down support for the South Vietnamese saw the conflict as

654
00:38:54,760 --> 00:38:58,560
Speaker 1: a potential quagmire. It was someone else's problem and for

655
00:38:58,600 --> 00:39:01,600
Speaker 1: the foreseeable future. He had no interest in getting America's

656
00:39:01,640 --> 00:39:04,880
Speaker 1: ass kicked again in Cuba. So Castro wasn't going anywhere,

657
00:39:05,160 --> 00:39:08,200
Speaker 1: and JFK had turned his pit pull brother US Attorney

658
00:39:08,239 --> 00:39:11,920
Speaker 1: General Robert F. Kennedy loose on the mafia, effectively threatening

659
00:39:11,960 --> 00:39:14,520
Speaker 1: to destroy it, just as he had explicitly threatened to

660
00:39:14,560 --> 00:39:17,680
Speaker 1: destroy the CIA, who, by the way, were the one

661
00:39:17,719 --> 00:39:21,360
Speaker 1: American institution with deep interest in all of the above

662
00:39:21,719 --> 00:39:24,920
Speaker 1: in Vietnam, in Cuba, and in their unofficial partners, the

663
00:39:24,960 --> 00:39:30,080
Speaker 1: mafias e. Howard Hunt's CIA, that is, Haunt knew this

664
00:39:30,200 --> 00:39:33,040
Speaker 1: was coming, so did his boss, the Director, and so

665
00:39:33,120 --> 00:39:36,400
Speaker 1: did the American business tycoons and political leaders whose interests

666
00:39:36,480 --> 00:39:40,239
Speaker 1: the CIA actually served. Kennedy was a problem. He was

667
00:39:40,280 --> 00:39:43,680
Speaker 1: an explicit threat as if his unwillingness to play ball

668
00:39:43,719 --> 00:39:47,000
Speaker 1: in Vietnam and Cuba weren't enough. He was a fucking Catholic,

669
00:39:47,239 --> 00:39:49,959
Speaker 1: no doubt, taking orders from the Pope, and to add

670
00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:52,919
Speaker 1: insult to injury, Kennedy seemingly could give a fuck about

671
00:39:52,960 --> 00:39:56,640
Speaker 1: American social norms, sticking his dick brazenly in anything to

672
00:39:56,760 --> 00:40:00,400
Speaker 1: move while he was President of the United States, apparently

673
00:40:00,440 --> 00:40:02,680
Speaker 1: not caring at all who knew about it. It was

674
00:40:02,719 --> 00:40:06,200
Speaker 1: an affront to their natural conservatism, a blatant fuck you.

675
00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:09,839
Speaker 1: By the end of nineteen sixty three, with the shit

676
00:40:09,960 --> 00:40:13,360
Speaker 1: stores swirling around them, all, the CIA and the Mafia

677
00:40:13,600 --> 00:40:16,520
Speaker 1: put their collective assets together to stop or to become

678
00:40:16,560 --> 00:40:20,320
Speaker 1: an existential threat to their well established way of doing business.

679
00:40:21,200 --> 00:40:28,239
Speaker 1: John F. Kennedy Hunt was prepared. He didn't know for

680
00:40:28,320 --> 00:40:31,200
Speaker 1: sure which asset he would call into action on that day,

681
00:40:31,640 --> 00:40:36,000
Speaker 1: V Day, November twenty second, nineteen sixty three, code named

682
00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:41,160
Speaker 1: the Big Show Dallas, Daly Plaza, America's Revelation Day, but

683
00:40:41,280 --> 00:40:44,000
Speaker 1: he had an idea it would be the kid. He

684
00:40:44,040 --> 00:40:46,520
Speaker 1: was as sure a shot as he'd ever seen. He said,

685
00:40:46,520 --> 00:40:50,080
Speaker 1: little showed, little signs of individuality, had taken every single

686
00:40:50,160 --> 00:40:53,799
Speaker 1: drop of doc's LSD lace boot camp Digestif he was

687
00:40:53,880 --> 00:40:57,000
Speaker 1: ready and there were other assets as well run by

688
00:40:57,040 --> 00:41:00,279
Speaker 1: other agents, Hunt and know or care who was running

689
00:41:00,320 --> 00:41:02,520
Speaker 1: who or how many shooters would be placed in Dallas's

690
00:41:02,560 --> 00:41:05,280
Speaker 1: daily plaza that day. The less he knew the better.

691
00:41:05,480 --> 00:41:07,400
Speaker 1: The less other people knew the better as well, and

692
00:41:07,400 --> 00:41:09,120
Speaker 1: the less any of them talk to each other, the

693
00:41:09,200 --> 00:41:11,600
Speaker 1: less likely it would be for history to piece together

694
00:41:11,680 --> 00:41:15,680
Speaker 1: the conspiracy through its conspirators. All Hunt knew was that

695
00:41:15,760 --> 00:41:19,040
Speaker 1: the agency would provide a couple shooters, as would Trafficanti's

696
00:41:19,040 --> 00:41:22,200
Speaker 1: boys in New Orleans. Hunt had an inkling that Hoover's

697
00:41:22,200 --> 00:41:24,479
Speaker 1: men would be on clean up duty, and if either

698
00:41:24,480 --> 00:41:27,160
Speaker 1: of their outfits were worth the yardbird shit, there would

699
00:41:27,200 --> 00:41:29,680
Speaker 1: be some sort of homegrown Patsy on the scene for

700
00:41:29,760 --> 00:41:33,200
Speaker 1: the local unis and national press to devour. Post mortem,

701
00:41:33,680 --> 00:41:36,640
Speaker 1: mister Lee Harvey Oswald, They're ready for your close up.

702
00:41:38,239 --> 00:41:41,640
Speaker 1: Haunt's asset said nothing on that morning. He just sat

703
00:41:41,680 --> 00:41:44,319
Speaker 1: in Hunt's car, secure in the fact that, no matter

704
00:41:44,320 --> 00:41:46,840
Speaker 1: what he was being deployed to do down here in Dallas,

705
00:41:46,880 --> 00:41:49,600
Speaker 1: that his rifle was close by in the back seat,

706
00:41:49,880 --> 00:41:52,160
Speaker 1: and that whatever Hunted planned for him, that it was

707
00:41:52,200 --> 00:42:00,840
Speaker 1: God's work. John's mind was two screen rambled that morning.

708
00:42:01,280 --> 00:42:03,240
Speaker 1: John knew it now as he sat in the cockpit

709
00:42:03,280 --> 00:42:07,000
Speaker 1: of his Routan Long Easy, a small experimental plane with

710
00:42:07,080 --> 00:42:10,440
Speaker 1: an oversized wingspan he had long pined over some thirty

711
00:42:10,440 --> 00:42:14,359
Speaker 1: four years later. It was all coming back to him now.

712
00:42:14,640 --> 00:42:18,640
Speaker 1: The guilt was crystallizing into fully formed memories, prompted by

713
00:42:18,680 --> 00:42:22,680
Speaker 1: the news of late and the news was this. Sooner

714
00:42:22,800 --> 00:42:27,280
Speaker 1: or later, the truth was coming out. Who killed Kennedy?

715
00:42:27,520 --> 00:42:30,520
Speaker 1: The government knew they'd known all along, of course, as

716
00:42:30,560 --> 00:42:33,720
Speaker 1: far back as LBJ and then the Warrent commissioned. Despite

717
00:42:33,719 --> 00:42:37,120
Speaker 1: whatever bullshit findings they made public regarding Oswald as the

718
00:42:37,160 --> 00:42:41,040
Speaker 1: fall guy, the lone gunman, the truth was in those documents.

719
00:42:41,960 --> 00:42:45,680
Speaker 1: John got winned from Jerry Weintraup, John's old manager, who'd

720
00:42:45,680 --> 00:42:48,160
Speaker 1: helped him cover up his Vietnam War records so John

721
00:42:48,200 --> 00:42:51,360
Speaker 1: Denver could go on playing the part of America's most docile,

722
00:42:51,480 --> 00:42:57,879
Speaker 1: environmentally friendly, post hippie all American nature boy. John ran

723
00:42:57,920 --> 00:43:00,600
Speaker 1: into Jerry at a charity event in Hollywood. It had

724
00:43:00,640 --> 00:43:02,880
Speaker 1: been years since they'd been in the same room together,

725
00:43:03,160 --> 00:43:06,120
Speaker 1: since John fired him. It seemed that enough time had

726
00:43:06,120 --> 00:43:08,120
Speaker 1: passed for the wound to heal, and for Jerry to

727
00:43:08,200 --> 00:43:11,680
Speaker 1: let the warm fuzziness of nostalgia overcome his spite for John.

728
00:43:12,200 --> 00:43:15,360
Speaker 1: After an awkward hello followed by sincere smiles and an

729
00:43:15,400 --> 00:43:18,520
Speaker 1: even more awkward hug, the two men let their bygones

730
00:43:18,600 --> 00:43:22,040
Speaker 1: steal away under the din of clinking champagne glasses and

731
00:43:22,120 --> 00:43:25,359
Speaker 1: the murmur of the Hollywood elite and attendance dutted out

732
00:43:25,360 --> 00:43:28,600
Speaker 1: in Texas and the latest from Versace, Gucci and Prada.

733
00:43:29,560 --> 00:43:33,280
Speaker 1: Soon a familiar scene took shape. Jerry Wintrot was holding

734
00:43:33,320 --> 00:43:36,120
Speaker 1: court at the bar. A crowd had gathered, including John,

735
00:43:36,200 --> 00:43:38,680
Speaker 1: to hear Jerry wax poetic on his pre show biz

736
00:43:38,719 --> 00:43:42,080
Speaker 1: days in Brooklyn. He exaggerated his connection to the Bonano

737
00:43:42,160 --> 00:43:45,880
Speaker 1: family to gathered big screen socialites. Jerry's stories were a

738
00:43:45,920 --> 00:43:50,400
Speaker 1: typical Jerry body street, Jerry rap beefs, Jerry rap pussy,

739
00:43:50,480 --> 00:43:53,680
Speaker 1: Jerry rap politics. Sure he knew Trafficante met him in

740
00:43:53,719 --> 00:43:56,959
Speaker 1: Vegas way back in the day. The lawyer Waghano introduced him.

741
00:43:56,960 --> 00:43:59,279
Speaker 1: Sinatra knew him too, not too well, not as well

742
00:43:59,280 --> 00:44:02,000
Speaker 1: as Frank new More and Jerry knew Momo too. Shame

743
00:44:02,080 --> 00:44:05,200
Speaker 1: about Big Mo. He was a sweetheart despite his reputation.

744
00:44:05,400 --> 00:44:07,239
Speaker 1: He had a big heart. He'd love you if you

745
00:44:07,360 --> 00:44:09,440
Speaker 1: let him. But he was a vengeful son of a

746
00:44:09,480 --> 00:44:12,800
Speaker 1: bitch like most silience wouldn't let us like go any slight,

747
00:44:12,960 --> 00:44:16,040
Speaker 1: small or big. And that was Kennedy's problem. He went

748
00:44:16,080 --> 00:44:18,439
Speaker 1: back on his old man's word, and Momo made him pay.

749
00:44:18,840 --> 00:44:21,280
Speaker 1: Momo didn't shoot him, of course, No, that would be stupid.

750
00:44:21,360 --> 00:44:23,080
Speaker 1: But don't talk to me about Oswald. And no a

751
00:44:23,120 --> 00:44:25,920
Speaker 1: single bullet theory. And there were multiple shooters, of course.

752
00:44:26,200 --> 00:44:28,160
Speaker 1: In fact, Jerry had it on good authority that the

753
00:44:28,200 --> 00:44:30,920
Speaker 1: real shooter, the one stationed on top of the overpass,

754
00:44:31,080 --> 00:44:33,600
Speaker 1: that his identity was close to being leaked nationally to

755
00:44:33,640 --> 00:44:36,759
Speaker 1: the press, and the government had it. Jerry had a guy.

756
00:44:37,040 --> 00:44:39,960
Speaker 1: His guy let him know this if the Freedom of

757
00:44:40,000 --> 00:44:43,000
Speaker 1: Information Act was ever successful in compelling the government to

758
00:44:43,040 --> 00:44:46,120
Speaker 1: release its full findings on the Kennedy assassination, that there

759
00:44:46,160 --> 00:44:49,160
Speaker 1: was a name, the name of another shooter. Not Oswald,

760
00:44:49,200 --> 00:44:51,600
Speaker 1: not Woody Harrelson's old man with the two other tramps,

761
00:44:51,600 --> 00:44:54,120
Speaker 1: but the actual shooter, the one who fired the kill

762
00:44:54,200 --> 00:44:56,680
Speaker 1: shot from the top of the overpass at Daily Plaza,

763
00:44:56,960 --> 00:44:59,799
Speaker 1: the one that hit Kennedy's head straight on airing it

764
00:44:59,840 --> 00:45:02,359
Speaker 1: up the back. Jerry's guy even gave him the third

765
00:45:02,400 --> 00:45:05,000
Speaker 1: shooter's name. Why not it would be public knowledge any

766
00:45:05,040 --> 00:45:10,440
Speaker 1: day now. Deutschens Something, Deuschenfeld, Deutschenberg, Deutschenzell, Deuschenfeld, Deutschen Douschen,

767
00:45:12,280 --> 00:45:18,319
Speaker 1: deus Deutschendorf. John Denver nearly dropped his drink. What the

768
00:45:18,400 --> 00:45:22,560
Speaker 1: fuck was Jerry saying? John felt woozy? Why was Jerry

769
00:45:22,600 --> 00:45:25,839
Speaker 1: talking about this? Why had Jerry just publicly uttered that name?

770
00:45:26,080 --> 00:45:29,080
Speaker 1: Why did that name sound so familiar? Why did it sting?

771
00:45:29,760 --> 00:45:33,440
Speaker 1: It was vengeance, pure and simple. That's why payback from

772
00:45:33,520 --> 00:45:36,960
Speaker 1: Jerry for John firing him back in the day. John

773
00:45:37,040 --> 00:45:39,719
Speaker 1: was gonna puke or pass out or both. He felt

774
00:45:39,760 --> 00:45:43,160
Speaker 1: another blackout coming. On the sound of Jerry wrapping jfk

775
00:45:43,280 --> 00:45:45,880
Speaker 1: at to party revelers faded into the background. It was

776
00:45:45,920 --> 00:45:48,160
Speaker 1: replaced by the sound of some other sort of celebration,

777
00:45:48,719 --> 00:45:52,560
Speaker 1: and then that familiar clinking sound. John put it all

778
00:45:52,600 --> 00:45:55,319
Speaker 1: together before Jerry wintrob got the full name off of

779
00:45:55,360 --> 00:46:02,799
Speaker 1: his tongue, John Deutschendorff aka John Denver. John's memories flooded back,

780
00:46:03,040 --> 00:46:07,040
Speaker 1: recovered full streaming a torrent of guilt. He felt dizzy

781
00:46:07,080 --> 00:46:09,600
Speaker 1: even now thinking about it. Days later, and his plane

782
00:46:09,719 --> 00:46:14,200
Speaker 1: high above Monterey Bay. Of course, he thought Dallas, nineteen

783
00:46:14,320 --> 00:46:17,600
Speaker 1: sixty three. That was the place. That was the last

784
00:46:17,600 --> 00:46:20,480
Speaker 1: time he saw Hunt. That was the time between Sniper

785
00:46:20,520 --> 00:46:23,520
Speaker 1: Academy and the war. That was the in between time,

786
00:46:23,800 --> 00:46:27,200
Speaker 1: the source of all the guilt. He was remembering it all.

787
00:46:27,560 --> 00:46:31,080
Speaker 1: Hunt in the driver's seat, Hunt with his instructions, shoot

788
00:46:31,160 --> 00:46:34,040
Speaker 1: to kill. He's a commie. He's not what he appears.

789
00:46:34,239 --> 00:46:38,080
Speaker 1: He's a mole, a spy working internally to sink America.

790
00:46:38,120 --> 00:46:42,720
Speaker 1: Remember your training, you're the weapon. Aim fire, Aim fire,

791
00:46:43,080 --> 00:46:46,839
Speaker 1: aim fire. I'll be here when it's done. I'll take

792
00:46:46,880 --> 00:46:52,839
Speaker 1: you out. Hunt's words were succinct. They made sense. Hunt

793
00:46:52,880 --> 00:46:54,600
Speaker 1: dropped John on the side of the road and give

794
00:46:54,640 --> 00:46:57,280
Speaker 1: him a stick of gum for good luck. John remembered

795
00:46:57,360 --> 00:47:00,239
Speaker 1: taking it, remembered how chewing it made him feel like

796
00:47:00,280 --> 00:47:02,560
Speaker 1: the sides of his skull felt like they were collapsing

797
00:47:02,600 --> 00:47:05,480
Speaker 1: in on his brain, his stomach knotted up, and John,

798
00:47:05,560 --> 00:47:08,120
Speaker 1: carrying the feeling of repressed giggling with him off into

799
00:47:08,160 --> 00:47:10,799
Speaker 1: the crowd. All of it felt like a way more

800
00:47:10,800 --> 00:47:13,080
Speaker 1: intense version of the feeling John would get at night

801
00:47:13,120 --> 00:47:16,879
Speaker 1: at the Academy, the feeling Docs after dinner digestif gave

802
00:47:16,960 --> 00:47:19,320
Speaker 1: him the feeling you would have while listening to Doc's

803
00:47:19,440 --> 00:47:23,319
Speaker 1: kill stories, stories of assassins trained to do one thing,

804
00:47:23,840 --> 00:47:28,640
Speaker 1: kill on command, with honor, with purpose, God, country your

805
00:47:28,760 --> 00:47:31,800
Speaker 1: rifle in that order. It was all wrote to John.

806
00:47:32,080 --> 00:47:34,560
Speaker 1: John knew what to do. He focused on the task

807
00:47:34,640 --> 00:47:36,440
Speaker 1: at hand. Hunt's orders.

808
00:47:36,680 --> 00:47:45,560
Speaker 2: Aim fire, aim fire, aim fire, aim fire, aim fire.

809
00:47:47,600 --> 00:47:49,720
Speaker 1: He sprinted out of Hunt's car and up the hilt

810
00:47:49,760 --> 00:47:52,440
Speaker 1: of the overpass, rifle in hand. He could hear the

811
00:47:52,480 --> 00:47:55,640
Speaker 1: coming motorcade. It was seconds away. John took his spot

812
00:47:55,680 --> 00:47:58,640
Speaker 1: on the overpass. The motorcave turned off of Houston Street

813
00:47:58,680 --> 00:48:01,319
Speaker 1: and onto Elm headed straight toward John. On top of

814
00:48:01,320 --> 00:48:04,440
Speaker 1: the overpass, the book depository was on the mortorcade's right.

815
00:48:04,760 --> 00:48:07,240
Speaker 1: John lighted up, his body down the barrel of the scope.

816
00:48:07,360 --> 00:48:09,880
Speaker 1: John heard Hunt in his head. John said his trigger.

817
00:48:09,920 --> 00:48:13,520
Speaker 1: Figure a second pass. The car drove dead into john sights.

818
00:48:13,760 --> 00:48:15,880
Speaker 2: John pulled the trigger when I heard a trifecta of

819
00:48:16,040 --> 00:48:17,319
Speaker 2: sonic blues ring.

820
00:48:17,320 --> 00:48:24,839
Speaker 1: Out first first split second, there was silence, followed by

821
00:48:24,840 --> 00:48:27,120
Speaker 1: the sound of a flock of birds flying off on

822
00:48:27,360 --> 00:48:37,040
Speaker 1: mass and then chaos all held broke loose. Immediately there

823
00:48:37,040 --> 00:48:41,600
Speaker 1: were screams, cries of terror from the crowd, confusion, sirens,

824
00:48:41,760 --> 00:48:45,080
Speaker 1: an epic fuck show. John ran straight into it. It

825
00:48:45,160 --> 00:48:47,520
Speaker 1: got swept up into the chaos, into the crowd, and

826
00:48:47,600 --> 00:48:49,960
Speaker 1: somehow made it out of Daily Plaza, out from the

827
00:48:50,000 --> 00:48:55,360
Speaker 1: clutches of history, unscathed, its done. Hunt was nowhere to

828
00:48:55,360 --> 00:48:58,799
Speaker 1: be found. John made it back to the Academy. It

829
00:48:58,920 --> 00:49:02,000
Speaker 1: was later learned that Hunt was arrested behind the Grassy

830
00:49:02,040 --> 00:49:06,040
Speaker 1: Kno with Charlie Harrelson, Woody Harrelson's father, and Frank Sturgis.

831
00:49:07,120 --> 00:49:09,439
Speaker 1: The two, along with E. Howard Hunt, are now known

832
00:49:09,480 --> 00:49:13,680
Speaker 1: by JFK conspiracy theorists as the Three Tramps. One or

833
00:49:13,800 --> 00:49:16,800
Speaker 1: all are theorized to have been part of a triangulating

834
00:49:16,840 --> 00:49:21,480
Speaker 1: shooting team set up strategically to assassinate the President Oswald

835
00:49:21,480 --> 00:49:24,680
Speaker 1: in the Book Depository, the three tramps behind the Grassy

836
00:49:24,719 --> 00:49:30,960
Speaker 1: Knole and a third shooter up on the overpass. Until now,

837
00:49:31,200 --> 00:49:34,000
Speaker 1: there have been no solid theories on who that third

838
00:49:34,040 --> 00:49:43,400
Speaker 1: shooter was. John was shell shocked flying high above the

839
00:49:43,400 --> 00:49:47,200
Speaker 1: Pacific West Coast. Jerry's words from the Other Night Peppering

840
00:49:47,280 --> 00:49:52,279
Speaker 1: his brain. Deutschendorf, Deutschendorf, Deutschendorf was the name, the name

841
00:49:52,360 --> 00:49:55,000
Speaker 1: that was about to be leaked, the name of the assassin,

842
00:49:55,719 --> 00:49:59,240
Speaker 1: and John knew it was also his real name, John

843
00:49:59,320 --> 00:50:02,480
Speaker 1: Denver's realn name. John Denver knew it then, knew it

844
00:50:02,520 --> 00:50:05,879
Speaker 1: for sure. Unlike before before Jerry spilled it at the bar,

845
00:50:06,560 --> 00:50:09,600
Speaker 1: there was no more unaccounted. In between time, John knew

846
00:50:09,680 --> 00:50:12,480
Speaker 1: exactly where he was and what he'd done, and who

847
00:50:12,520 --> 00:50:16,400
Speaker 1: he was. He was Henry John Deutschendorff. He was the

848
00:50:16,440 --> 00:50:22,680
Speaker 1: assassin John Denver killed John F. Kennedy. It said so

849
00:50:22,880 --> 00:50:25,560
Speaker 1: right there in those documents that Jerry was talking about,

850
00:50:25,760 --> 00:50:28,000
Speaker 1: the same documents that were about to be released to

851
00:50:28,040 --> 00:50:30,799
Speaker 1: the public. And that's what the guilt was about. The

852
00:50:30,840 --> 00:50:34,280
Speaker 1: shame that in between time, that's what John Denver's memory

853
00:50:34,320 --> 00:50:37,279
Speaker 1: blocked out, the time between the Air Force Academy and

854
00:50:37,360 --> 00:50:42,040
Speaker 1: Vietnam because PTSD memory triggers. They're like rubble from an explosion,

855
00:50:42,440 --> 00:50:45,640
Speaker 1: scattered pieces of what was once something whole, lying in

856
00:50:45,680 --> 00:50:50,080
Speaker 1: a pile, semi recognizable but still dangerous. As the name

857
00:50:50,160 --> 00:50:53,520
Speaker 1: Deutschendorf spiraled from Jerry's lips to John's ears. It was

858
00:50:53,640 --> 00:50:56,760
Speaker 1: like all the interior parts of a combination lock falling

859
00:50:56,800 --> 00:50:59,640
Speaker 1: into place what had for so long been a black hole.

860
00:50:59,680 --> 00:51:02,120
Speaker 1: And John's memory was now lit up to reveal his

861
00:51:02,160 --> 00:51:08,440
Speaker 1: own horror, and the guilt was stronger than ever. John

862
00:51:08,640 --> 00:51:11,960
Speaker 1: sailed on high above the water and his wide winged bruton.

863
00:51:12,680 --> 00:51:15,200
Speaker 1: He knew that when he landed he'd never be the same,

864
00:51:15,840 --> 00:51:18,440
Speaker 1: not with the knowledge he now had. He'd never be

865
00:51:18,480 --> 00:51:20,440
Speaker 1: able to look anyone in the eye again, knowing what

866
00:51:20,480 --> 00:51:24,440
Speaker 1: he'd done, how he'd affected history. And to think John

867
00:51:24,480 --> 00:51:28,480
Speaker 1: thought Jerry Weintrot was evil, he John Denver was the

868
00:51:28,520 --> 00:51:32,239
Speaker 1: evil one, the most efficient sniper in Vietnam history, and

869
00:51:32,320 --> 00:51:36,480
Speaker 1: a fucking political assassin to boot. John Denver couldn't let

870
00:51:36,520 --> 00:51:39,440
Speaker 1: himself hold on to the gilt anymore, so he let go,

871
00:51:39,960 --> 00:51:46,240
Speaker 1: let go of the plane's control column, and cut the engine.

872
00:51:48,680 --> 00:51:51,720
Speaker 1: When they found him, the wreckage from John Denver's plane

873
00:51:51,719 --> 00:51:54,920
Speaker 1: crash was so grisly it took fingerprints on the plane

874
00:51:54,960 --> 00:51:58,120
Speaker 1: to identify the body. Because dental records weren't going to

875
00:51:58,120 --> 00:52:01,520
Speaker 1: be an option to what would be John's relief, the

876
00:52:01,520 --> 00:52:05,120
Speaker 1: federal government stepped in, and John Denver's real name remains

877
00:52:05,200 --> 00:52:09,600
Speaker 1: cloaked behind courtroom debates over extended statutes of limitations on

878
00:52:09,719 --> 00:52:13,520
Speaker 1: remaining redacted parts of the Kennedy papers, and because of

879
00:52:13,560 --> 00:52:18,040
Speaker 1: that secrecy, John Denver's untarnished legacy lives on, thanks in

880
00:52:18,160 --> 00:52:21,840
Speaker 1: part recently to our current President Donald J. Trump, who

881
00:52:21,880 --> 00:52:26,200
Speaker 1: on April twenty six, twenty eighteen, upheld the redacted parts

882
00:52:26,200 --> 00:52:29,200
Speaker 1: of the Kennedy papers, presumably the part with the name

883
00:52:29,320 --> 00:52:33,960
Speaker 1: John Deutschendorff mentioned as the assassin, and so John Denver's

884
00:52:33,960 --> 00:52:40,080
Speaker 1: secret is safe for the moment. JFK conspiracy theorists know

885
00:52:40,160 --> 00:52:44,240
Speaker 1: the truth. Recently, the name Deutschendorff has been going around

886
00:52:44,239 --> 00:52:47,239
Speaker 1: the Internet in connection with the Kennedy papers, which is

887
00:52:47,239 --> 00:52:49,520
Speaker 1: how I came to know of it. It's only a

888
00:52:49,560 --> 00:52:53,080
Speaker 1: matter of time before some journalist's freedom of information request

889
00:52:53,160 --> 00:52:56,840
Speaker 1: wins in court and the papers get released. Currently, the

890
00:52:56,880 --> 00:53:00,120
Speaker 1: papers are scheduled for twenty twenty one release, and from

891
00:52:59,880 --> 00:53:03,560
Speaker 1: there once widely available to the public. It won't take

892
00:53:03,640 --> 00:53:07,440
Speaker 1: non music scholars too long to piece together John Deutschendorff

893
00:53:07,440 --> 00:53:10,760
Speaker 1: to John Denver, the man who killed John F. Kennedy.

894
00:53:11,920 --> 00:53:15,959
Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan, and this is an April Fools edition

895
00:53:16,040 --> 00:53:36,279
Speaker 1: of Disgraceland. Happy April Fool's Day, everyone, Thank you for

896
00:53:36,320 --> 00:53:39,000
Speaker 1: hanging out there with me on this episode. John Denver,

897
00:53:39,040 --> 00:53:41,400
Speaker 1: in the long totally false rumor that he was one

898
00:53:41,440 --> 00:53:44,440
Speaker 1: of Vietnam's most prolific snipers, has been amiss forever that

899
00:53:44,480 --> 00:53:46,560
Speaker 1: I've wanted to mess with, and I was happy to

900
00:53:46,560 --> 00:53:49,800
Speaker 1: do so in this episode. Of course, again totally not true,

901
00:53:49,880 --> 00:53:52,560
Speaker 1: and neither, obviously is his involvement of any kind in

902
00:53:52,600 --> 00:53:55,799
Speaker 1: the jfk assassination. It is all, as I said at

903
00:53:55,840 --> 00:53:59,040
Speaker 1: the introduction of this episode, satirical I hope it got

904
00:53:59,080 --> 00:54:02,400
Speaker 1: yet was created by yours truly and is produced in

905
00:54:02,480 --> 00:54:05,880
Speaker 1: partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be

906
00:54:05,880 --> 00:54:09,520
Speaker 1: found on the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com.

907
00:54:09,600 --> 00:54:12,680
Speaker 1: If you're listening as a Disgraceland All Access member, thank

908
00:54:12,719 --> 00:54:15,400
Speaker 1: you for supporting the show. We really appreciate it, and

909
00:54:15,480 --> 00:54:17,759
Speaker 1: if not, you can become a member right now by

910
00:54:17,760 --> 00:54:22,440
Speaker 1: going to disgracelampod dot com slash Membership members can listen

911
00:54:22,480 --> 00:54:26,239
Speaker 1: to every episode of disgracelan ad free, plus you'll get

912
00:54:26,280 --> 00:54:30,680
Speaker 1: one brand new exclusive episode every month weekly unscripted bonus

913
00:54:30,719 --> 00:54:35,040
Speaker 1: episode special audio collections and early access to merchandise and events.

914
00:54:35,600 --> 00:54:40,000
Speaker 1: Visit disgracelampod dot com slash membership for details, Rate and

915
00:54:40,040 --> 00:54:42,640
Speaker 1: review the show, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter,

916
00:54:42,680 --> 00:54:46,600
Speaker 1: and Facebook at disgracelampod and on YouTube at YouTube dot

917
00:54:46,640 --> 00:54:54,400
Speaker 1: com slash at Disgracelandpod, Rock a Rolla He the Banan