Trump not the first MAGA Republican to Try and Get Files Opened
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In my trawling of various sites for information on subjects of interest, I often find something unexpected.
This is one example.
This was a story from 1968. The petition was started by a William Gillen, who in turn, may or may not be related to Edward Gillen, an assistant DA who claims to have had an inquiry from a person he believed was Oswald, regarding hallucinogenic drugs.
In searching for more information on William Gillen, I can across his obituary. He passed away last year at the age of 94. Following is part of that obit. Highlights are mine.
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William F. Gillen, Jr.
July 26, 1930 — September 23, 2024
Waveland
On Monday, September 23, 2024, God called home one of his Chosin Few, William F. Gillen Jr., at the age of 94.
“Bill” was born to William F. Gillen Sr. and Mildred Prosperie on July 26, 1930. He was a resident of New Orleans for most of his life, but resided in Waveland, MS at the time of his passing. He fought in the Chosin Reservoir in Korea with the United States Marine Corps and there was no greater part of his identity, until the day he passed, than that of being a proud Marine. Patriotic to the core, he was as MAGA as MAGA gets. He was a carpenter by trade, a remodeling perfectionist, and a man with an entrepreneurial spirit and an uncanny level of genius and bravado. He flew planes, built bomb shelters in the New Orleans area during the Cold War, organized the non-profit We the People Speak of America to try and open the Kennedy Assassination files. His many business adventures included Aquabita Water Company, which bottled spring water before anyone had even thought to do it, French Quarter Restoration & Development and the invention of the S-Pile: the concrete screw piling for which he held a world-wide patent for 17 years. He was an inventor at heart and his mind was always at work on his next big innovation. There are people who go their whole lives wondering if they made a difference. Bill Gillen was not one of them.
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It is a pity someone never found and talked to Mr. Gillen before his passing. As a Marine and Korean War vet, he would have had insights into Oswald’s time in the Marines. And as someone involved in the restoration of the French Quarter, it is likely he knew Clay Shaw and maybe others of interest.
Another missed opportunity. RIP Mr. Gillen.
before my head explodes from dangerous caffeine deficiency!
Another ROKC before yours? I wonder how many others were trying to crack them open?
Probably many people have complained to news editors or their congress critter that all the files should be opened, but I doubt many ever went to the lengths that William Gillen did, gathering by hand about 8,000 signatures at the time of the story, and growing. His stated aim was to make it the largest petition in history. He probably fell well short of that, but you have to admire the fact that he gave it a shot.
I love the stories I find by accident. Just made a song about a story I found from 1941 which had the glorious headline THE MAD PIANO TUNER OF MISSOULA.
For unstated reasons, or maybe none at all, except being a piano tuner in Missoula, he went mad, “barricaded” himself in a field and held off a posse of police and sheriffs for four hours before they used gas (presumably nerve gas from the Army) to flush him out, with a plane dive bombing and spraying him. You couldn’t make this stuff up. He then allegedly committed suicide. In the song of course, after he is flushed out, I have the cops shooting him instead (and setting it up to look like suicide). Another fun fact. MIssoula’s original name was Devilsgate Trading Post.
I feel like starting a petition to have a statue of William Rehmer (that was his name) commissioned and put in Missoula Town Square as a tribute to mad piano tuners everywhere.
great article Greg!