This years COPA regional conference will take place at the Lawrence Hotel from the 19th-22nd of November. The keynote speech will be given at the Adolphus Hotel.

The Fifth Decade: New Evidence on Political Assassinations

50 years after the election of President Kennedy, his murder

remains officially solved and historically unsolved. However new

evidence continues to surface and be evaluated from the release of

files and the independent research of ballistic, forensic and

medical experts, historians and authors and a national network of

concerned citizens who have kept the case open and the issue

alive. Similar work continues to be done into the major political

assassinations of the 60s, MLK, RFK, Malcolm X and others, and

their impact on our democracy, as evidence surfaces.

COPA has a special room rate agreement with the Lawrence Hotel so book early to avail of it.

http://www.hotellawrence.com

http://www.hoteladolphus.com

Confirmed speakers in clude: Robert Groden, Dr Cyril Wecht (via remote feed), T Carter, Randy Benson, Chris Pike, St. John Hunt, Ed Haslam, Clayborne Carson, Robert Blair Kaiser, Donald Byron Thomas, Paul Schrade, William Turner, William Pepper, Ronnie Dugger, Peter Dale Scott, Rusty Rhodes, Don Adams and Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. More to be confirmed.

Speaker biographies:

Walt Brown, PhD

is the author of Master Analytic Chronology: The Death of President . Kennedy. This Chronology reports data from a handful of historical events prior, even, to the birth of John Kennedy. It was 2½ years in the making — 5,800 pages — 50,000 paragraphs — 2.2 million words. Brown has a Ph.D. in history from the University of Notre Dame, and teaches history at Ramapo College in New Jersey. Brown, a former special agent of the Justice Department, is a longtime researcher of the Warren Commission and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He is also the editor of JFK/Deep Politics and the author of several books on the subject including: The People V. Lee Harvey Oswald (1992), Treachery in Dallas (1995), Referenced Index Guide to the Warren Commission (1995), JFK Assassination Quizbook (1995) and the The Warren Omission (1996). Brown’s most ambitious previous project was The Global Index to the JFK Assassination, a CD-ROM of 2400 pages, which indexed not just the WC, but also the HSCA, and 100+ of the best-known JFK books. There are 17,185 names and over 4 million references, and it is cross-referenced by 175 categories. See http://www.manuscriptservice.com/DPQ/

Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney

was the first African-American woman elected to the Georgia Assembly and to Congress. She served six terms in the House of Representatives, ending with the 109^th session in 2007. She was the presidential candidate for the Green Party in 2008. Since then she has continued to work for human and civil rights here and around the world, and was recently arrested at sea illegally by the Israeli Defense Force while bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza and was part of a nationwide Bike4Peace ride that ended in Washington DC in September, 2010. She is working on her doctorate on the topic of political assassinations. She is an expert on COINTELPRO and introduced the first Articles of Impeachment against President George Bush and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Records Act, recently revived in Congress by Senator John Kerry and Rep. John Lewis.

Prof. Peter Dale Scott

has been a Canadian diplomat, an academic professor of English at University of California Berkeley and a profound researcher into what he calls “deep politics”. He is an acknowledged poet, and the author of many key research books into the assassination of John F. Kennedy – Deep Politics in the Murder of President John F. Kennedy, the Watergate scandal –“Crime and Cover-Up”, and more recently the covert historical framework that led up to 9/11 – “The Road to 9/11”. He is currently investigating secret plans for Continuity of Government and martial law in the United States.

Rusty Rhodes

traveled across America in the 1970s with a slide show on the assassination of John F. Kennedy and gathered tens of thousands of signatures calling for a new investigation, giving momentum to the formation of the House Select Committee on Assassinations.



Robert Groden

is the author of JFK:The Case for Conspiracy, High Treason, The Killing of a President, The Search for Lee Harvey Oswald, JFK:Absolute Proof, and parts

of Government By Gunplay. He has researched the photographic and medical evidence in the JFK assassination for 46 years. Groden released the Zapruder and many other films and the vast majority of the photographic evidence to the public through the years, including the color autopsy photographs. See http://www.jfkmurder.com/

Randy Benson

is a graduate of Wake Forest University and the North Carolina School of the Arts’ School of Filmmaking, and is an adjunct professor of film and video at Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies. His films have garnered numerous awards, most notably the Oscar™ for Best Student Documentary at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Academy Awards™. Benson was invited to the Eastman Kodak “Emerging Filmmaker Showcase” at the Cannes International Film Festival where he was awarded an Excellence in Filmmaking Award. He was also selected as one of fifteen directors worldwide to the First Appearance Program for New Directors at the International Documentary Film Festival – Amsterdam. His work has been featured on the Bravo Network, the Independent Film Channel (Split Screen), WTTW-Chicago, UNC-TV (NC Visions), Canal Plus – France, Telewizja Polska S.A.- Poland and MTV-2. Production is wrapping on Benson’s most recent documentary, The Searchers, a film profiling the assassination of John F. Kennedy. See http://www.rbensonfilm.com/Welcome.html

John Judge

is an independent researcher, lecturer and author of Judge for Yourself. He was the co-founder of both the Committee for an Open Archives and the Coalition on Political Assassinations. He has studied all the major political assassinations of the last century and helped to draft both the JFK Assassination Records Act and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Records Act currently in Congress. Judge also co-founded 9/11 Research Project, the McGehee Intelligence Library, and is working to create a Museum of Hidden History in Washington, DC. See www.politicalassassinations.com and www.judgeforyourself.us

Chris Pike

has contributed materials to the JFK Materials Collection at Baylor University’s Poague Library. He is an independent researcher into early critic Penn Jones, Jr. and Operation Northwoods. Presentation on Penn Jones with emphasis on his deep concerns for the corporate media takeover, consolidation of military industrial corporations, the marginalization of the chief executive’s role in the federal government etc. As well how the research community evolved from his contributions, which are being ignored by history.

Ben Rogers

, curator of the Penn Jones collection, is Director of the W. R. Poage Legislative Library. He has been archivist at Baylor University for twenty years. The papers of Penn Jones, Jr. form the foundation for a growing collection of JFK materials including papers from Jack White, Gary Shaw and others. The archive provides a depository for personal JFK papers in a private institution. The collection contains over 800 newsletters and hundreds of magazines and newspapers. In addition to the Jones papers, all of the JFK correspondence of Jack White has been added in the last two years. Visit the web site for the collection: www.baylor.edu/lib/poage/jfk/

Clayborne Carson, PhD



is a Professor of History, Stanford University, Director, Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute Dr. Carson has devoted his professional life to the study of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the movements King inspired. Since receiving his doctorate from UCLA in 1975, Dr. Carson has taught at Stanford University, where he is now professor of history and founding director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute. Until the end of 2009, he also served as Martin Luther King, Jr. Distinguished Professor at Morehouse College in Atlanta and as Executive Director of that institution’s Morehouse King Collection. Among his published works are:

The Martin Luther King, Jr., Enclycopedia, African American Lives: The Struggle for Freedom, A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., The Autobiography of Martin Luther King. Jr., The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Volume 1: Called to Serve, January 1929-June 1951, Malcolm X: The FBI File, and The Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader.

T Carter

has played a key role in keeping COPA alive, and is an accomplished historian, researcher and archivist with expertise in the areas of political assassinations, social justice and Native American history. She holds a Master’s Degree in American History from George Mason University and a bachelor’s degree from Minnesota State University, Mankato. She assisted John Armstrong in his research on Harvey and Lee and helped Lyndon Barsten research Truth at Last on Dr. King’s murder. She also worked closely with Judge Joe Brown and Dr. William Pepper, the lawyer for James Earl Ray and the King family. She is also the author an upcoming book Jerry Ray: A Memoir of Injustice (TrineDay Books)

Ed Haslam

last spoke to COPA in 1994 (or was is 1995) shortly before the publication of his first book MARY, FERRIE & THE MONKEY VIRUS. In 2007 he expanded that investigation into a new book entitled DR. MARY’S MONKEY. Ed is from New Orleans and lived there during the JFK assassination and the Garrison Investigation. He is a graduate of Tulane University and later moved to Detroit where he spent most of his professional career managing advertising campaigns for some of the largest corporations in America, such as Chrysler Motors and Rockwell International. Today he lives in Florida. See http://trineday.com/paypal_store/product_pages/Dr_Mary.html

Dr. Cyril Wecht, M.D.,J.D.

is a nationally renowned forensic pathologist, attorney and medical-legal consultant. Dr. Wecht received his medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh, and his law degree from the University of Maryland, and is also a Fellow of the College of American Pathologists and the American Society of Clinical Pathologists.

St. John Hunt

is the eldest son of “super-spy” E. Howard Hunt, a 27-year career C.I.A. covert agent and Foreign Station Chief, most well-known as the Leader / Director of the White House “plumbers” black bag team, who’s botched Watergate burglary and arrest led to the impeachment and resignation of then President Richard Nixon. E. Howard Hunt, who passed away in 2007 at the age of 88, was also involved in many of the C.I.A.’s most nefarious operations in Cuba and throughout Central & South America, including but not limited to the assassination of Che Guevara, assassination of Allende and coup in Chile, the coup in Guatemala, the orchestration of the Bay of Pigs, and plots to assassinate Fidel Castro. Following the Watergate debacle, E. Howard Hunt was sentenced to and served 33 months in Federal prison. Saint’s mother Dorothy was killed in an extremely suspicious airplane “accident”, while carrying a very large amount of cash to be distributed as hush money to co-conspirators and participants. Throughout his youth and into early adulthood, Saint John traveled worldwide, as his father pursued his duties as a covert C.I.A. operative. Saint John Hunt has been interviewed for a feature article on his father’s life in the April 5, 2007 edition of “Rolling Stone” magazine, and also by the Los Angeles Times newspaper. He has appeared as a guest on other broadcast, on-line and print media. Saint John Hunt’s new book Bond of Secrecy is ready for publishing and he has written a screenplay with Eric Hamburg (Screenwriter / Co-Producer with Oliver Stone on the feature film Nixon) and is in negotiations for production of a feature film about his father’s career, their life together and the dark secrets of the C.I.A.

Dr. William Pepper Esq.

is a Barrister in England and an attorney, admitted in a number of jurisdictions in the US, whose work has focused on International Human Rights. Dr. William Pepper was a close friend and colleague of Martin Luther King, Jr. during the last year of his life, following Dr. King’s reading of his article on the Viet Nam war when he was a young journalist who exposed the war crimes against the civilian population. At Dr. King’s request, he directed the National Conference For New Politics, an umbrella peace and freedom organization formed to oppose the war and continue the struggle to empower the poor. He became James Earl Ray’s attorney in 1988, after becoming convinced that he was an unknowing patsy. He represented James Earl Ray until he died, and then represented the King family at an historic trial in 1999, where a jury in Memphis found that a government conspiracy existed to kill Dr. King, and cleared Ray. Pepper investigated the King assassination for some 30 years, and is the author of Orders to Kill, Act of State, with a third book in preparation. He has been a visiting scholar and Fellow at Cambridge and Oxford Universities and convened the Seminar in International Human Rights for two years at Oxford University, and he was Robert F. Kennedy’s Citizen Chairman in Westchester County, when he ran for the Senate in the year before Malcolm was assassinated. He is now is lead Counsel for Sirhan Sirhan, who he has come to believe was yet another patsy in that assassination.

William Turner

is a former FBI agent and whistleblower on J. Edgar Hoover’s excesses. He has done groundbreaking investigative work on the John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy assassinations. His works include FBI: The Men and the Myth, Deadly Secrets, The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, with John Christian, The Fish is Red, with Warren Hinckle, and Rear View Mirror, his autobiography.

Paul Schrade

was a gunshot victim in the pantry of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on the night of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Schrade was Labor Chair of the RFK campaign for president and was directly behind Kennedy when the shooting occurred on June 5, 1968. He started working with Allard Lowenstein in 1974 for a new investigation and is now working with Dr. Robert Joling and Phillip von Praag (www.anopenandshutcase.com) to get public and legal action to solve the case. They are presenting conclusive scientific evidence to law enforcement that the second gunman fired all four shots into Kennedy including the fatal shot. Sirhan tried and failed but shot Schrade, among the others wounded.

Donald B. Thomas

, a scientist, published an article in Science and Justice in 2001 which re-ignited the debate on the “acoustics evidence” in the Kennedy assassination. “Study Backs Theory of ‘Grassy Knoll’: New Report Says Second Gunman Fired at Kennedy” wrote the Washington Post. Thomas refuted those who had claimed to debunk the work of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, whose acoustic scientists had found that a shot indeed did come from the “grassy knoll.” His new book, Hear No Evil: Social Constructivism and the Forensic Evidence in the Kennedy Assassination is a detailed walkthrough of the major scientific evidence in the JFK murder.

Robert Blair Kaiser

, author of “RFK Must Die!”