Episode 186 Richard Case Nagell Part 4 Bonus Episode 2

Episode 186 is the fourth  in a  multi-part series covering Richard Case Nagell.  This is our second bonus episode and it addresses the perspective that Nagell's trial lawyer Joe Calamia  had on his legal proceedings...and the strategy for  a defense at the second trial. Nagell's lawyers settled on a temporary insanity plea, after unsuccessfully arguing to both their client and to the court, that Nagell was insane...and thus, should be hospitalized and not prosecuted  and incarcerated. The legal machinations by his lawyers to free him from prison using these tactics, served to muddy the water about Nagell's true psychiatric state.  Today, we hear the story  of Joe Calamia in the case and his perspective,  which may provide additional insight into  Nagell's mental state around that time in 1963.  Richard Case Nagell  was a highly decorated United  States Army veteran, counterintelligence officer,  and former CIA Double Agent for a brief period  with ties to Russia. Nagell was arrested on September 20, 1963 after he entered the State National Bank in El Paso, Texas and fired two shots into  a wall at the bank. After firing the 45 calibre pistol, Nagel  allowed himself to be taken into custody at the bank. Nagell had  observed and then penetrated a group that included Lee Harvey Oswald and learned that they were planning the assassination of President Kennedy. Working as a double agent, he refused to execute the orders given by his Russian handler which was  to foil the assassination plot by convincing Oswald that he was being set up as a patsy or, in the event he was not successful in doing that, to kill Oswald instead. Shortly before the bank incident, Nagell sent a letter to J. Edgar Hoover exposing the plot. Not surprisingly, the letter was never acknowledged by the FBI.  Nagell met twice with New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison who at the time was investigating Clay Shaw's  possible complicity in the assassination.  The famous character Mr. X in Oliver Stone’s movie JFK is modeled after Richard Case Nagell.  Nagell, like so many other characters in the JFK story, had a fascinating life and he first crossed paths with Oswald while Oswald was stationed in Japan at Atsugi Air Force Base. He would survive two military airplane crashes but the injuries sustained in the most serious of the two crashes were later hypothesized to have possibly impacted his mental health and they were the subject of an intense examination during his criminal trial related to the bank charges.  Nagell died at the age of 65 in Los Angeles, California...one day after receiving his subpoena to appear before the Assassination Records Review Board. It would have been his first ever appearance under oath to discuss what he knew about the assassination. Previously, he had not testified or given statements about it to any government arm that was officially investigating the assassination. Although he officially died of a heart attack, he had no previous history of heart problems and is included in that dubious category of mysterious deaths that occurred amongst witnesses in the aftermath of the assassination.

 Richard Case Nagell may be the single  most fascinating character in the JFK story, and  Nagell's story is yet  another moment where fact is stranger than fiction in the case of the JFK assassination. Come join us for  this multi-part series covering one of the most  interesting story tells contained in our podcast series.

Even as early as 1964, rumors and serious concerns over  the lone gunman theory and the evidence that might contravene it,  were becoming a major concern for the government and the commission. Conspiracy theories were contrary to the government's stated narrative from the very beginning. This  real-life story is more fascinating than fiction. No matt