Ask the Scholar

{
    "localId": "7564934",
    "label": "Thornley, Kerry",
    "core": "doc",
    "dtoType": "document",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7564934"
}

{
    "id": "7564934",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7564934",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Thornley, Kerry",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7564934",
    "collections": [
        "John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection",
        "Papers of Jim Garrison"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/34/5649/7564934/content/arcmedia/dc-metro/jfkco/641323/jfk-garrison-159/jfk-garrison-159-0038.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/34/5649/7564934/content/arcmedia/dc-metro/jfkco/641323/jfk-garrison-159/jfk-garrison-159-0038.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/34/5649/7564934/content/arcmedia/dc-metro/jfkco/641323/jfk-garrison-159/jfk-garrison-159-0038.jpg",
    "imageCount": 160,
    "hasImages": true,
    "source": "import",
    "hasTranscription": false
}

{
    "url": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7564934",
    "naId": 7564934,
    "levelOfDescription": "fileUnit",
    "recordType": "description",
    "ocrSource": "nara-archive"
}

{
    "seq": 96,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/34/5649/7564934/content/arcmedia/dc-metro/jfkco/641323/jfk-garrison-159/jfk-garrison-159-0028.jpg",
    "mediaId": "1491ebe47f47ac0d",
    "ocrText": "During this year I made a final attempt to embrace wholeheartedly\nthe philosophy of Ayn Rand, on the theory that all my troubles\nresulted from an insufficient mastery of the \"principles of\nObjectivism.\" As a result I became an even more difficult in-\ndividual than I had been before. I wrote letters which expressed\nthis state of mind -- to Jessica Luck, Phil Boatright (a poet\nI had known in New Orleans), and others -- and I believe these\nletters came to the attention of Jim Garrison and other Warren\nReport critics in 1968 and cause me to appear more authoritarian\nand neurotic than I was previous to the year in Arlington, and\ncertainly more so than I have ever been since.\nI believe it was during this same period of time that Greg\nHill returned to New Orleans for another extended stay. Greg\nhas always been able to get around my dogmatic tendencies with\nhis keen humor and wit, and so we remained in fairly close contact\nby mail during 1964.\nGreg and I had invented a make-believe religion in the fifties\ncentered around the Greek goddess of confusion and disorder, Eris,\nand we called it the Discordian Society. Discordian doctrines\nand dogmas comprised the subject of much of our correspondence\nsince these have always been of high interest to Greg.\nMy reason for mentioning the Discordian Society is because\nSlim Brooks was an active participant in exchanging Discordian\ndeclarations and documents and Gary Kirstein would therefore have\nknown about this network and may have used it as cover at some\npoint or other. In 1968 Roger Lovin told me that Jim Garrison\nwas investigating the possibility that the Discordian Society was\nsome kind of CIA front -- which, at that time, I thought was very\nfunny and completely absurd of Garrison.\nRoger Lovin was another active Discordian in New Orleans, due\nI think to Greg Hill's 1964 efforts there. Roger was also a close\nfriend of Slim Brooks and in 1968 when he fell under suspicion\nwith Garrison's office much as I did, he began putting out an\nunderground paper in New Orleans called The Word.\nI have never known Roger very well. He has a reputation for\nbeing a charming con artist. He also has numerous artistic and\ntheatrical talents. During the autumn of 1963 Roger and I used\nto see each other in the Bourbon House from time to time and --\njust as a joke on anyone sitting around overhearing us -- we used\nto speak to each other in nonsense language, very similar to that\nproduced by a speeded-up tape recorder.\nI believe it is very possible that Roger was unwittingly or\nsomehow semi-wittingly involved in the assassination and that he\nshould be questioned specifically regarding his relationship with\nSlim and also regarding a possible relationship with Kirstein.\nMy understanding is that he is presently living in Cincinatti\nand I think I can obtain his address if necessary.\nin New Orleans was Bob MacElroy, about whom I know next to nothing,\nAnother Discordian who became active during Greg's second stay\nexcept that he lived in Monroe, Louisiana.\nDuring this same time period Greg also got to know Clint Bolton\nand became better acquainted with Slim Brooks. Greg later told\nme that he once saw Slim climb up the side of a building like a\nhuman fly or cat burglar."
}