OK, I'm sick of this thread, too, and apparently no gung-ho CTer is going to defend Orr.
Final word from me:
I have now forced myself to watch the entire Orr video I posted. This is clearly Orr as influenced by Larry Schnapf - who, I must admit, has revealed himself at the Ed Forum to be somewhat more in the wacky vein than I had previously appreciated. I reject what Orr says in the video almost in its entirety.
The posited conspiracy is so elaborate, convoluted, insanely risky and un-Mafia-like that we’re once again back in the land of the Three Stooges. I can accept a four-shot, Mafia-organized conspiracy with Oswald believing he was participating in a pro-Castro operation, but I cannot accept this as being even in the ballpark of plausibility.
Stay with me here: Oswald, via family connections with the Marcello operation (Marguerite and the Murrets), was a knowing recruit in February of 1963, likely promised wads of cash. He may not have been an enthusiastic recruit, but he knew he could not refuse Marcello and live. Everything after February was a sham to make Oswald the perfect patsy – the rifle purchase, the Backyard Photos, the attempt on Walker, and all the faux pro-Cuba activities including the trip to Mexico City. The assassination was planned by Bannister, Ferrie and the usual Cubans. Marcello owned the Carousel Club and Ruby was his point man in Dallas, heavily involved in the planning and responsible for making sure the plan was implemented. All the wads of cash Ruby used to flash were actually Marcello’s money. Marcello caught Ruby skimming from the till and pulled him into the JFKA on the basis of this leverage. He and Oswald may have met in Oak Cliff Park as needed. The plan was for both Oswald and the pro in the County Records Building to escape. Everything went awry when Oswald killed Tippit and was apprehended. When Oswald said he was a patsy, he meant a patsy of the DPD but Marcello thought it meant Oswald was going to squawk and Ruby thus was assigned to silence him.
Oh, Jesus, I can’t even keep it all straight or describe it with a straight face. Am I the only person who gives the Mafia more credit for professionalism than this? Do people of the intelligence level of Schnapf and Orr seriously think Marcello, Trafficante and Giancana would place their lives in the hands of erratic, low-level clowns like Ferrie, Oswald and Ruby, not to mention Bannister and others? Are you kidding me? This is ad hoc, after-the-fact speculation to the max, so full of holes and obvious “What sense would that have made?” red flags that I am simply agog.
I thus remain to be convinced of a Mafia-organized conspiracy, but it’s going to have to be a tight, professional, minimal-risk operation in which Curly, Larry and Moe played no role. Pretty much a garden variety Mafia hit, with Oswald as a patsy who posed no risk even if caught.
FWIW, Orr stands by his 1995 analysis, “which no one has ever refuted.”