Chapter Text
Excerpt from an article written by Esther Gussman for an underground paper about conspiracy theories in 1967:
It was late October of 1966 when I arrived in Dallas, Texas.
Three years after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the city, seemed to me - a person who has spent the biggest part of her life in a rural town, writing for the local newspaper as the first woman reporter there - to be welcoming and busy.
It seemed that the horrible events of November 22nd 1963 could not have taken place in the same place, but of course I knew that they did.
Now, I want to reveal to the inclined reader who I am, what the reason for my visit to Dallas was and why I’m writing this.
So let’s start with this: My name is Esther Gussman, I’m the cousin of the late Elliott Gussman who was murdered only shortly before our president was assassinated.
Common assumption is that Elliott was the victim of a test drive of sorts, that my cousin’s involvement with the infamous group of people suspected to have played a part in the JFK assassination.
Going back to Dallas, the place my cousin found his violent end happened because of a letter I got from an unusual source. I was researching for years, trying to get information on my cousin’s death and especially the people he was involved with and so I wrote to multiple people I hoped would give me more information on those five people but most of the ones I knew were involved with them weren’t willing to give up much and many of them I was unable to find.
Raymond Chestnut, husband of Allison Chestnut wrote me a sympathetic letter, informing me that he was sorry for my loss but advised me not to look further into it because “it would only cause me more grief”, Mrs Sissy Cooper, the former friend and victim of suspected russian spy Vanya Hargreaves wasn’t willing to comment, stating that she and her family had gone through enough from the event and she wanted to focus on her son, now.
I also wrote a few letters addressed to the Burlesque Bar that belonged to Jack Ruby which I knew King Kong worked at and got a letter from a woman who worked there as a dancer.
And so that was where the search really started.
Autumn’s letter to Esther Gussman:
Dear Miss Gussman,
I know your letters were never meant for me but I still read through them because I recognized your last name from Luther’s friend.
Luther and I were colleagues of sorts when he worked with Mr Ruby and I did consider him my very good friend.
I understand your need for answers, Ma’am. I’ve been looking into things myself from time to time, as good as I could anyway. If you would be willing to meet up with me we might be able to compare our findings.
I understand if you don’t want to but it would make me very happy.
Sincerly yours Autumn
(Note: A phone number, last name and address were provided in the letter but for privaty reasons are not included here)
Audio recording of the first interview between Esther and Autumn (transcript made by Esther Gussman):
A.: “Oh this is so professional! With the recorder and all...”
E.G.: “Yes, well… I did tell you I was a reporter, didn't I?”
A.: “Yes, sorry. This is just a little exciting. I’m a little excited.”
E.G.: “I understand… Are you sure you want to go through with this?”
A.: “Absolutely! I really want to find out what Luther got up to… and the others too! People talk about him now and it’s…” (clearing her throat) “It’s not fair. Luther wasn’t at all like how they talk about him now. He wasn’t a violent bad person or some kind of rough brute who would be involved in the killing of the president. And I know for sure that he didn’t kidnap that kid.”
E.G.: “Really? But he was seen multiple times with that mysterious boy.”
A.: “Yes, of course but that was just because the boy came to the bar, I thought Luther would throw him out. You know the bar isn’t exactly a place for children but he talked to him… I think they knew each other actually. So they talked for a bit and I think the kid got angry at him. I did want to ask him about it but then I had to continue my shift and Luther… ah… Luther never liked sharing details about his personal life. But I do know that the boy and the Russian spy woman went to see Luther’s fight, the last one he threw. And the woman said she was his sister. Which is funny. Luther never said he was Russian, you know? I don't even think it's a russian name. Lu-ther, aren't russians orthodox? Can't imagine they'd call someone Luther.”
Excerpt from Autumn’s diary:
I like Esther, she seems nice and she wants to find out what actually happened. She's very business-like and serious and all that, I suppose because she's a reporter. She believed me when I told her that Luther wasn’t a bad person though which is nice! Even his former friends started to think he tricked us somehow. I thought about it sometimes
Which is ridiculous! He could never lie about even the smallest things, how would he be quiet about being in a terrorist organization? No. Simply impossible. Whatever happened it was something different and me and Esther are going to find out! Together! Isn’t that great? Me working with an actual reporter!
Esther wants to look into Mr Chestnut again but I don’t know… poor man’s been through enough. His wife’s gone now and people have said horrible, horrible things about her… and he even had to go to jail for questioning. Nobody else had to do that!
It’s really unfair.
No, I wanna leave the poor man alone but Esther's stubborn, well she has to do what she can I suppose.
I’m going to look into the asylum Diego the man with the many knives was held in though.
Esther showed me a newspaper clipping her cousin (the murdered one) had about how he predicted JFK’s assassination like months before it ever happened and he wanted to stop it.
(So how did people get it into their knobheads that they were the ones wanting to assassinate him?)
And I hope that maybe I can talk to one of the orderlies who were there back then? Maybe I’ll flirt a little and if that doesn’t help I’ll have a few dollars on me to convince him...