Loran "Skip" Hall
Interview December 20, 1974
KMPC/710
5858 Sunset Boulevard
Hollywood, California 90028
(213) 469-5341
9-25-76
Dear Mrs. Burke:
Excuse the brief delay in getting these materials to you, but some were difficult to locate.
All of the individuals cited are known to me. Loran "Skip" Hall
is a soldier-of-fortune and was indeed deeply involved in covert
operations in connection with the Bay of Pigs. He is also
mentioned in the Warren report.
Harry Dean has indeed been involved in many of the groups and areas he
claims, but I have not been able to tie down his alleged FBI informant
status with complete certainty. Paul Schrage on the other hand is
a quality profile of a retired LAPD officer.
The whereabouts of all are known to me and all have assured me that they will divulge all to an official body.
Best regards,
Art Kevin - Investigative Reporter, KMPC
--
TRANSCRIPT
Skip hall interview with KMPC investigative reporter Art Kevin: (Hall
claims this incident occurred in Dallas, six months before the
assassination of President Kennedy)
"I had a meeting set up with (name). Well, when I walked into the
meeting, there was 4 other people in there besides (name) and
myself. There was someone introduced to me as a representative of
(name), another was working for (name) and two other men (names) who
were involved in a big trucking firm in Dallas, Texas. It's my
belief that it was the (name) trucking company. Well, we were
thinking about getting $50,000 together...that the 5 people, (name) and
these other 4 would come up with $10,000 each and put the money into a
pot and we'd use this money for the raids into Cuba and to try to get a
fishing fleet going, so that we could use the fishing fleet as a line
of communication and a line of logistics and the one stated; ‘Well
hell, you can afford to finance it all yourself because you just bought
another trucking outfit that makes you one of the largest trucking
companies in the United States.' And then he jumped up and
stated; I'll put up $50,000 right now if all the rest of you will and
we'll have Kennedy's god-damned head blowed off because with Johnson as
President we know exactly where he stands because he's a Texan and will
take care of Texans'."
—
In another part of the same interview, Hall admits to having been
involved in at least one CIA-Mob meeting, wherein the mob was contacted
to kill Fidel Castro. He provided names of those involved to me.
-30-
Another man of interest is a Harry Dean. Dean claims he was an
FBI informant for a time, and in pursuance of duties for the agency,
headed the "fair play for Cuba" committee, Chicago chapter.
Annually, he sends flowers to Lee Harvey Oswald's grave and says in
essence, "There but for the grace of God Go I". Dean claims to
have knowledge of a former Cuban (Batista) intelligence officer who,
prior to November 22, 1963, was recruiting a group to kill JFK.
He has transmitted the name and location of this individual to me.
ART KEVIN, KMPC RADIO, LOS ANGELES, DECEMBER 20, 1974 – WITH PAUL SHARAGA
KEVIN: "Interview with Paul Sharoga – 12/20/74, 7:00pm...Paul Sharage,
you were a man who had a situation occur in the performance of your
duty on the night that Robert Kennedy was murdered here in Los
Angeles. So, in your own words tell me what happened, roughly
what time, and how it all came to pass.
SHARAGA: "Well, at the evening or the night of the occurrence, I was a
sergeant assigned to Rampart Division...in the city of Los
Angeles...and I was just adjacent to the rear driveway of the
Ambassador Hotel parking lot, the rear parking lot, when the call come
out, ah. ‘Ambulance shooting,' at-ah, the address on Wilshire
Boulevard of the Ambassador. I think it's thirty-seven hundred or
thirty-four hundred. I don't recall at this time. Ah, I
immediate made a right turn up on to the parking lot, and-ah, I would
estimate that at the scene and parked in less than three minutes from
the incident of the shooting itself...less than thirty seconds from the
time the call came out.
KEVIN: "Would this be at the front of rear of –"
SHARAGE: "No, this was on the upper level rear parking lot, which would
be the rear of the hotel that exits out on to 8th Street.
The-ah...first thing that came to my attention, of course, was
the-ah...mass confusion...ah...people running in all
directions...Ah...An older couple...probably in their fifties...fifties
to sixties...ah, came running toward me and I stopped them and asked
what what had happened...and-ah they related that they were outside one
of ____ to the Embassy Room, when a young couple in their early
twenties...came running out...This couple seemed to be in a state of
glee, shouting, ‘We shot him!...shot him! We killed him!'
The woman then stated that she asked the young ____ "Who-who did you
shoot?!' Or ‘Who was shot?! And the young lady replied, "Kennedy!
We shot him! We killed him!' – The only description I could get of this
couple were that they were in their early twenties...The woman was with
a polka-dot dress...Ah, neither of the older couple could furnish any
additional information, ah, in that they were quite hysterical at the
time, and it was difficult for them to talk."
KEVIN: "Did you take this information down on your notepad then, or just hear it and retain it for later notes?
SHAGARA: "I...immediately took it down on my notepad – ah, which was a
little-ah notebook that I kept in my pocket...and immediately,
broadcast...out over the air, what had happened...I informed
communications that I was setting up command post in the area,
requested they broadcast the description of the suspects as given to
me..."
KEVIN: "Would the suspects have crossed your path then prior to your getting to the scene and bumping into this elderly couple?"
SHARAGA: "I have no way of knowing...The-ah hotel exits-ah on Wilshire
Boulevard and on 8th Street and...I have no idea of what way...the
suspects went. The old couple didn't indicate which direction
they took."
KEVIN: "Did you get their name?"
SHAGARA: "I did at the time...ah, for the life of me I can't recall it
now, but I recorded it and gave the name to...ah, the investigating
detectives, Rampar
Page 2
SHAGARA: detectives, Sergeant Bill Jordon. As best I can recall,
it was a name like Bernstein...but I...Sorry I can't recall any more.
KEVIN: "They, you indicated, were somewhat hysterical as they retold that story to you.
SHARAGE: "Quite hysterical. Quite hysterical."
KEVIN: "You don't think that they mistook the words that they relayed
to yu they heard that is to say in their hysteria, thought they heard,
two people, a man and a woman in t heir early twenties shouting "We've
shot him!' but rather ‘He's been shot!' You know, ‘He-we've' -
that sort of things."
SHARAGE: "In my evaluation of the situation, based upon the experience
of twenty years as a peace officer in this city...I would say, that
because of the spontaniety of their answers...that-ah...there's no
question in my mind that as to the veracity of it."
KEVIN: "Just in case notes are lost, as sometimes they do become lost,
mislaid, misplaced, that sort of thing, to the best of your
recollection, Paul, can you describe this elderly couple – what you
thing their name is, in the hopes they are listening and if they hear
this, they'll know it was they."
SHARAGA: "The couple, as best I can describe them, appeared to be an
elderly Jewish couple, the woman about five-foot-two...and
stocky. Not extremely heavy, but just-just stocky...The man about
the same height, maybe an inch or two taller and as I recall, thin hair
to balding...but I can't recall any further."
KEVIN: "Did they have accents – Jewish accents?"
SHARAGA: "I can't recall. I can't recall. I don't believe so."
KEVIN: "In the event they are listening, we would obviously want them
to contact us here, and just further corroborate your own recollections
of that night. I say corroborate, Paul, because interestingly, as
you and I had discussed prior to actually taping this interview, there
is no record to indicate anywhere in SUS or in the trial of Sirhan,
himself, that this report did eminate from you at the time of the
incident itself. Now, again, we don't know why at this point that
has come to pass, but did you file a formal report, and what has
happened to your notes?"
SHAGARA: "I filed...an initial report after the-ah...command post
closed down, or after I closed the command post down, secured the
area...left a detail of security personnel to guard the floor of the
hotel the Kennedy family had taken over...or was using...better
expression...ah...I then proceeded to Ramparts Station, where I
dictated verbally to the Captain's secretary...ah-the report...and this
report was dictated immediately after the-the-ah command post. I
believe it lasted about thirteen hours, and the dictation roughly off
and on for about eight or nine hours."
KEVIN: "Do you remember her name, the Captain's secretary? First name, even?"
SHARAGA: "No, I don't."
KEVIN: "And the Captain was who at that time?"
SHARAGA: "Floyd Phillips. F-yes, Floyd Phillips."
End of Page
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