HAMLET
O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else?
And shall I couple hell? Oh, fie! Hold, hold, my heart,
And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,
But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee!
Ay, thou poor ghost, whiles memory holds a seat
In this distracted globe. Remember thee!
Yea, from the table of my memory
I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past
That youth and observation copied there,
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain,
Unmixed with baser matter. Yes, by heaven!
O most pernicious woman!
O villain, villain, smiling, damnèd villain!
My tables!—Meet it is I set it down
That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain.
At least I’m sure it may be so in Denmark. (writes)
So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word.
HAMLET/Translation
Ah, all you up in heaven! And earth! What else? Shall I include hell as well? Damn it! Keep beating, my heart, and muscles, don’t grow old yet—keep me standing. Remember you! Yes, you poor ghost, as long as I have any power of memory in this distracted head. Remember you! Yes, I’ll wipe my mind clean of all trivial facts and memories and preserve only your commandment there. Yes, by God! Oh, you evil woman! Oh, you villain, villain, you damned, smiling villain! Where’s my notebook?—It’s a good idea for me to write down that one can smile and smile, and be a villain. At least it’s possible in Denmark. (he writes) So, uncle, there you are. Now it’s time to deal with the vow I made to my father.
O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else?
And shall I couple hell? Oh, fie! Hold, hold, my heart,
And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,
But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee!
Ay, thou poor ghost, whiles memory holds a seat
In this distracted globe. Remember thee!
Yea, from the table of my memory
I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past
That youth and observation copied there,
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain,
Unmixed with baser matter. Yes, by heaven!
O most pernicious woman!
O villain, villain, smiling, damnèd villain!
My tables!—Meet it is I set it down
That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain.
At least I’m sure it may be so in Denmark. (writes)
So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word.
HAMLET/Translation
Ah, all you up in heaven! And earth! What else? Shall I include hell as well? Damn it! Keep beating, my heart, and muscles, don’t grow old yet—keep me standing. Remember you! Yes, you poor ghost, as long as I have any power of memory in this distracted head. Remember you! Yes, I’ll wipe my mind clean of all trivial facts and memories and preserve only your commandment there. Yes, by God! Oh, you evil woman! Oh, you villain, villain, you damned, smiling villain! Where’s my notebook?—It’s a good idea for me to write down that one can smile and smile, and be a villain. At least it’s possible in Denmark. (he writes) So, uncle, there you are. Now it’s time to deal with the vow I made to my father.
Cuban Project From Wikipedia
"Operation Mongoose" redirects here. For the Once Upon a Time TV series episode, see Operation Mongoose (Once Upon a Time).
Operation Mongoose
The Cuban Project
Operation Mongoose Memorandum
October 4, 1962
First page of a meeting reportThe Cuban Project, also known as Operation Mongoose, was a covert operation of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that was commissioned in March 1960 during the final year of President Dwight Eisenhower's administration. On November 30, 1961, covert operations against Fidel Castro's government in Cuba were officially authorized by President Kennedy and after being given the name Operation Mongoose at a prior White House meeting on November 4, 1961. The operation was led by United States Air Force General Edward Lansdale and went into effect after the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion.
"Operation Mongoose" redirects here. For the Once Upon a Time TV series episode, see Operation Mongoose (Once Upon a Time).
Operation Mongoose
The Cuban Project
Operation Mongoose Memorandum
October 4, 1962
First page of a meeting reportThe Cuban Project, also known as Operation Mongoose, was a covert operation of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that was commissioned in March 1960 during the final year of President Dwight Eisenhower's administration. On November 30, 1961, covert operations against Fidel Castro's government in Cuba were officially authorized by President Kennedy and after being given the name Operation Mongoose at a prior White House meeting on November 4, 1961. The operation was led by United States Air Force General Edward Lansdale and went into effect after the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion.
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The JFK assassination, Cuba policy and Operation MongooseBy Youssef El-Gingihy | 3
Long read: 4 minutes
5076
under a Creative Commons LicenceEvery aspect of the assassination of John F Kennedy on 22 November 1963 has been pored over, scrutinized, dissected and analysed. There is a sizeable literature on the subject, ranging from the erudite to the certifiably insane. That six short seconds should have generated so much speculation is unprecedented. In this Whodunit saga, pretty much everyone has been implicated: the Mafia, the CIA, the FBI, the military-industrial complex, Lyndon B Johnson, Fidel Castro, the KGB… An objective purchase on the event, lost in the mists of time, appears to be unrecoverable. Instead, we are left with a matrix of subjectivity and perspective. The JFK assassination has become the ultimate postmodern riddle.
The Warren Commission kicked off this process when it published its 26 volumes. Publicly, Bobby Kennedy did not question the lone assassin theory, but privately he shared his doubts with confidantes. It has always been puzzling why, as Attorney-General, he did not go to greater lengths to investigate the murder of his brother. On the afternoon of the assassination, he called up a prominent anti-Castro Cuban leader and, his voice not betraying any emotion, coolly told him, ‘One of your guys did it.’ It is likely Bobby Kennedy realized he was up against powerful forces and the reputation of the Kennedys was at stake. He may even have later resolved that running for the Presidency might be the only way the truth would be disclosed.
This period of US history proved to be toxic, with a poisonous legacy that is still felt today. The assassinations of Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X followed. Race riots and the Vietnam War would lead to such civil unrest and turmoil that political leaders accelerated the passing of civil rights legislation and wound down the war. The era culminated in Watergate. The Church Committee, named after Senator Frank Church, would eventually be set up in order to investigate the actions of intelligence agencies and how events had spiralled so out of control. The revelations that followed of the FBI’s mass surveillance and wiretapping programme CountelPro and the CIA’s Executive Action programme (code-named ZR/RIFLE) were incendiary. The latter was the CIA’s assassination apparatus, which employed a strategy of plausible deniability in order that the executive could disavow responsibility in the event of exposure. It was directed against various foreign leaders. The Church Committee not only meticulously details the CIA’s failed plots on Castro’s life but also documents the involvement of the CIA with the Mafia in this common aim. The US public would never see their government institutions in the same way again. Faith in government began to crumble the moment those shots rang out in Dealey Plaza.
Malcolm X was probably closer to the mark than he realized when he commented on the assassination that ‘the chickens had come home to roost’. He was referring to the climate of hate in the US at the time. Actually, it is Kennedy policy in Cuba which is most pertinent. Kennedy inherited the Cuban Project from the Eisenhower-Nixon administration. The young and inexperienced President only agreed reluctantly, at the last minute, to go ahead with the Bay of Pigs fiasco, which ended in the failed coup to overthrow Castro. Publicly, Kennedy accepted responsibility but privately blamed the CIA for misleading him. The CIA conversely blamed JFK for withholding air cover critical to the success of the operation.
Many of the same CIA operatives – among them David Attlee Phillips, E Howard Hunt and David Sanchez Morales – had successfully instituted regime change elsewhere. The trio were all veterans of the Guatemala campaign of 1954. This saw a CIA-backed operation remove the democratically elected leftist leader Jacobo Árbenz, leading to 40 years of brutal military dictatorship and the estimated deaths of 200,000 Guatemalans. Similarly, in Iran, Mohammad Mosaddegh was overthrown with the aid of US and British intelligence after he had nationalized Iranian oil.
As the dust settled on the Bay of Pigs, JFK set out to make sure the CIA never embarrassed him again by returning it to its original remit of intelligence-gathering rather than covert operations. Kennedy had vowed to splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and he was now making good on this promise. In the shake-up which ensued, JFK fired Allen Dulles, the director of the CIA, Charles Cabell, deputy director, and Richard Bissell. Intriguingly, Cabell’s brother Earle was mayor of Dallas at the time of the assassination.
Operation Mongoose emerged out of the ashes of the Bay of Pigs. This was the redesigned Cuban operation, which was officially under Edward Lansdale but really under the helm of Bobby Kennedy. It eventually grew into a monster under the guise of which thousands of Cuban exiles were recruited and trained up at US bases. Cuban exiles and CIA personnel worked alongside each other day and night to topple Castro.
The Eisenhower-Kennedy strategy in Cuba centred on fomenting internal and external strife through anti-Castro groups, subverting and undermining the regime through acts of terrorism, industrial sabotage and the works. A pipeline of arms and gun-running ran from Dallas, Texas, through New Orleans – at the time a hive of intelligence activity – down to the JM/WAVE CIA station based on the campus of Miami University. JM/WAVE was run by the psychotic and alcoholic William ‘Bill’ Harvey and employed hundreds of CIA staffers. It used Zenith Technical Enterprises as a front company to disguise covert ops. In Texas, the Zapata Oil company was another CIA front company co-owned by one George Herbert Walker Bush.
Secretary of State Dean Rusk would later comment: ‘The Kennedys were playing with fire.’ The Kennedys may have fallen out with the CIA over Cuba, but this was more a question of methodology than ideology. For both parties, the ultimate prize remained the overthrow of the Castro regime. Of course, the Bay of Pigs earned JFK the enmity of the affiliated hardcore exiles and CIA operatives. During the missile crisis, JFK refused to invade Cuba. The secret deal negotiated with Khrushchev pledged that the US would not invade again, in exchange for the removal of Soviet missiles.
However, as Richard Helms, Director of the CIA from 1966-73, later testified at the Church Committee, the Kennedy brothers were very aggressive in their pursuit of Castro. Post the missile crisis, in spite of the Khrushchev deal, JFK authorized multiple CIA ops against Cuba in 1963. True, Operation Mongoose had been disbanded and they ordered the FBI to clamp down on the more extreme groups such as Alpha 66. However, the Kennedys were merely transferring the Cuban project under their aegis. Remarkably, in the autumn of 1963 when JFK had begun exploring secret talks with Castro, Desmond Fitzgerald – a Kennedy confidante put in charge of operations in 1963 – was meeting up with AM/LASH (the cryptonym given by the CIA to the senior Cuban official, thought to be Rolando Cubela), whom it had recruited to kill Castro. It is likely that the more extreme CIA-Cuban exile elements misinterpreted JFK’s ambivalent Cuba policy as betrayal of their cause.
Long read: 4 minutes
5076
under a Creative Commons LicenceEvery aspect of the assassination of John F Kennedy on 22 November 1963 has been pored over, scrutinized, dissected and analysed. There is a sizeable literature on the subject, ranging from the erudite to the certifiably insane. That six short seconds should have generated so much speculation is unprecedented. In this Whodunit saga, pretty much everyone has been implicated: the Mafia, the CIA, the FBI, the military-industrial complex, Lyndon B Johnson, Fidel Castro, the KGB… An objective purchase on the event, lost in the mists of time, appears to be unrecoverable. Instead, we are left with a matrix of subjectivity and perspective. The JFK assassination has become the ultimate postmodern riddle.
The Warren Commission kicked off this process when it published its 26 volumes. Publicly, Bobby Kennedy did not question the lone assassin theory, but privately he shared his doubts with confidantes. It has always been puzzling why, as Attorney-General, he did not go to greater lengths to investigate the murder of his brother. On the afternoon of the assassination, he called up a prominent anti-Castro Cuban leader and, his voice not betraying any emotion, coolly told him, ‘One of your guys did it.’ It is likely Bobby Kennedy realized he was up against powerful forces and the reputation of the Kennedys was at stake. He may even have later resolved that running for the Presidency might be the only way the truth would be disclosed.
This period of US history proved to be toxic, with a poisonous legacy that is still felt today. The assassinations of Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X followed. Race riots and the Vietnam War would lead to such civil unrest and turmoil that political leaders accelerated the passing of civil rights legislation and wound down the war. The era culminated in Watergate. The Church Committee, named after Senator Frank Church, would eventually be set up in order to investigate the actions of intelligence agencies and how events had spiralled so out of control. The revelations that followed of the FBI’s mass surveillance and wiretapping programme CountelPro and the CIA’s Executive Action programme (code-named ZR/RIFLE) were incendiary. The latter was the CIA’s assassination apparatus, which employed a strategy of plausible deniability in order that the executive could disavow responsibility in the event of exposure. It was directed against various foreign leaders. The Church Committee not only meticulously details the CIA’s failed plots on Castro’s life but also documents the involvement of the CIA with the Mafia in this common aim. The US public would never see their government institutions in the same way again. Faith in government began to crumble the moment those shots rang out in Dealey Plaza.
Malcolm X was probably closer to the mark than he realized when he commented on the assassination that ‘the chickens had come home to roost’. He was referring to the climate of hate in the US at the time. Actually, it is Kennedy policy in Cuba which is most pertinent. Kennedy inherited the Cuban Project from the Eisenhower-Nixon administration. The young and inexperienced President only agreed reluctantly, at the last minute, to go ahead with the Bay of Pigs fiasco, which ended in the failed coup to overthrow Castro. Publicly, Kennedy accepted responsibility but privately blamed the CIA for misleading him. The CIA conversely blamed JFK for withholding air cover critical to the success of the operation.
Many of the same CIA operatives – among them David Attlee Phillips, E Howard Hunt and David Sanchez Morales – had successfully instituted regime change elsewhere. The trio were all veterans of the Guatemala campaign of 1954. This saw a CIA-backed operation remove the democratically elected leftist leader Jacobo Árbenz, leading to 40 years of brutal military dictatorship and the estimated deaths of 200,000 Guatemalans. Similarly, in Iran, Mohammad Mosaddegh was overthrown with the aid of US and British intelligence after he had nationalized Iranian oil.
As the dust settled on the Bay of Pigs, JFK set out to make sure the CIA never embarrassed him again by returning it to its original remit of intelligence-gathering rather than covert operations. Kennedy had vowed to splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and he was now making good on this promise. In the shake-up which ensued, JFK fired Allen Dulles, the director of the CIA, Charles Cabell, deputy director, and Richard Bissell. Intriguingly, Cabell’s brother Earle was mayor of Dallas at the time of the assassination.
Operation Mongoose emerged out of the ashes of the Bay of Pigs. This was the redesigned Cuban operation, which was officially under Edward Lansdale but really under the helm of Bobby Kennedy. It eventually grew into a monster under the guise of which thousands of Cuban exiles were recruited and trained up at US bases. Cuban exiles and CIA personnel worked alongside each other day and night to topple Castro.
The Eisenhower-Kennedy strategy in Cuba centred on fomenting internal and external strife through anti-Castro groups, subverting and undermining the regime through acts of terrorism, industrial sabotage and the works. A pipeline of arms and gun-running ran from Dallas, Texas, through New Orleans – at the time a hive of intelligence activity – down to the JM/WAVE CIA station based on the campus of Miami University. JM/WAVE was run by the psychotic and alcoholic William ‘Bill’ Harvey and employed hundreds of CIA staffers. It used Zenith Technical Enterprises as a front company to disguise covert ops. In Texas, the Zapata Oil company was another CIA front company co-owned by one George Herbert Walker Bush.
Secretary of State Dean Rusk would later comment: ‘The Kennedys were playing with fire.’ The Kennedys may have fallen out with the CIA over Cuba, but this was more a question of methodology than ideology. For both parties, the ultimate prize remained the overthrow of the Castro regime. Of course, the Bay of Pigs earned JFK the enmity of the affiliated hardcore exiles and CIA operatives. During the missile crisis, JFK refused to invade Cuba. The secret deal negotiated with Khrushchev pledged that the US would not invade again, in exchange for the removal of Soviet missiles.
However, as Richard Helms, Director of the CIA from 1966-73, later testified at the Church Committee, the Kennedy brothers were very aggressive in their pursuit of Castro. Post the missile crisis, in spite of the Khrushchev deal, JFK authorized multiple CIA ops against Cuba in 1963. True, Operation Mongoose had been disbanded and they ordered the FBI to clamp down on the more extreme groups such as Alpha 66. However, the Kennedys were merely transferring the Cuban project under their aegis. Remarkably, in the autumn of 1963 when JFK had begun exploring secret talks with Castro, Desmond Fitzgerald – a Kennedy confidante put in charge of operations in 1963 – was meeting up with AM/LASH (the cryptonym given by the CIA to the senior Cuban official, thought to be Rolando Cubela), whom it had recruited to kill Castro. It is likely that the more extreme CIA-Cuban exile elements misinterpreted JFK’s ambivalent Cuba policy as betrayal of their cause.
Scenes From the Movie "JFK"
It's inherent in propaganda to tell people things that aren't true. And director Oliver Stone (right) most certainly tells his audience untruth after untruth in his very long and very didactic movie "JFK."But if you are a talented director, and if you have a huge budget, you'll also try to persuade your audience with compelling visual images. The most famous example of this is Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," but all good movies, whether done in a noble cause or a bad one, will exploit visual imagery. That, after all, is part of the definition of a good movie.
This page presents some of the visual images of "JFK," and explains how Stone had to mislead, finagle, and withhold information from his audience in order persuade them that there was a conspiracy to kill John Kennedy. Stone doubtless felt that convincing people of this was a "good cause." But truth usually favors good causes. What does it say when, in order to promote your agenda, the truth doesn't suffice?
The Inside SourceA key sequence of the movie has "Garrison" meeting "Mr. X" on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. "X" then gives "Garrison" the inside "scoop" on how the worlds of intelligence, the Pentagon, and defense contractors arranged the murder of JFK. No such "inside source" talked to the real Jim Garrison during the Clay Shaw prosecution, but "Mr. X" is based on a real person: the late Col. L. Fletcher Prouty, a former Pentagon staffer. Someone with Prouty's background ought to know how government works, but Prouty has a long history of making wacky statements. For example, he believed that "The Umbrella Man" in Dealey Plaza was shooting a poison dart at JFK. He claimed that Korean airlines Flight 007 was downed by "an explosive device" planted aboard by the CIA — this in spite of the fact that the Soviets admitted to shooting down the plane! Where his statements aren't obviously wacky, they often diverge from the historical record, as when he discusses the origins of the Vietnam war. And he had a history of associations with unsavory political groups and crackpot cults. None of this prevents Stone from portraying "X" as a fount of truth.
Italian CIA ConnectionAs evidence that Clay Shaw worked for the CIA, Stone has Garrison brandish a clipping from an "Italian newspaper" which links Shaw to a Rome-based trade organization, the Centro Mondiale Commerciale (CMC, or "World Trade Center" in English). This clipping also alleges that both the CMC and its Swiss-based parent corporation, Permindex, were CIA fronts.The clipping shown is not an authentic reproduction of an Italian news story. Rather, it shows an Italian translation of a headline that appeared in the French newspaper l'Humanité. It does correctly summarize charges made by two Roman newspapers, (l'Unita and Paese Sera). What Stone does not tell his viewers is that l'Unita was the official organ of the Italian Communist Party, and Paese Sera was a Communist-sponsored paper which consistently sided with Moscow against the West. And l'Humanité was the premier French-language Communist newspaper.
Shaw was indeed on the CMC's board in the early 1960s, because the company wanted to establish a trade exhibition center in Rome very similar to the New Orleans Trade Mart, which Shaw managed. But Shaw was never secretive about his connection, listing it in his entry in Who's Who in the Southeast. Shaw, in fact, never travelled to Rome to attend any of the board meetings, due to the press of business in New Orleans. The article in question presented no evidence of a CIA connection with Permindex, and none has surfaced in the thirty-plus years since.
Stone, who prides himself on not accepting the "official story," has simply accepted Communist propaganda as true.
Smoke on the Knoll
In most cases, scenes in "JFK" are well-crafted and stand up under close scrutiny. But the frame at right is a frame that Stone doesn't want you to scrutinize carefully. Stone has been pushing the notion that "smoke on the Grassy Knoll" shows that there was a shooter on the Knoll. And indeed, Stone shows his viewers the shooter.The problem came with the scene that was to show viewers smoke billowing out from under the trees on the Knoll as Kennedy was shot. Stone's staff searched high and low, but they could not find a rifle that would emit the required puff of smoke. Modern rifles, after all, use "smokeless" powder — which is not literally smokeless, but which doesn't send up big billows.
So Stone had a special effects man blow smoke from a bellows, as can be seen in the still at right, above. This seems an appropriate metaphor for the entire movie.
Garrison's SummationIt must have been intended as the emotional high point of the film. Costner, as Garrison, sums up the case for the jury. He explains that:
President Kennedy was killed by a conspiracy that was planned in advance at the highest levels of our government and it was carried out by fanatical and disciplined cold warriors in the Pentagon and CIA's covert apparatus, among them Clay Shaw here before you. It was a public execution.
Has Stone failed to name anybody? Yes he has, but he immediately remedies that defect:
And it was covered up by like-minded individuals in the Dallas Police Department, the Secret Service, the FBI, and the White House, all the way up, including J. Edgar Hoover and Lyndon Johnson, whom I consider accomplices after the fact.
Where Oliver Stone usually sanitizes Garrison, in this particular case he has Costner mouth a crackpot theory that involves a virtual cast of thousands in the murder of JFK. Although Garrison had indeed charged all those groups with involvement, his actual closing summation to the jury was more subtle and more effective. He vaguely blamed an assassination coverup on "the government" and urged the jurors to use their power to stand up to "authority."But the Garrison summation, like the Costner-Garrison summation, said essentially nothing about the case against Clay Shaw. Stone, like Garrison before him, resorted to making a case against "the government" and trying to use it to convict Shaw.
Garrison the Family ManIn the final scene of the movie a gracious, beaten, but unbowed Jim Garrison walks slowly out of the courthouse with his wife and young son. Garrison may have lost, Stone seems to be saying, but he retains the dignity of a Great American Hero, husband, and father.The real Jim Garrison was not even in the courtroom when the verdict was announced. In spite of his later claims to have been at home, he was in his office, and went into a roaring tirade when he got the news from aides. The "American people don't want to know the truth about the assassination," he bellowed (Milton Brener, The Garrison Case, p. 269).
Presenting Garrison as an heroic but flawed human being would itself be a travesty, but Stone cannot concede even this much to historical reality. His Garrison is a paragon whose only minor flaw is being so consumed with a passion for justice in the JFK murder that he sometimes neglects his family. Heros like this can be the basis of great movies when presented as frankly fictional characters in the hands of a great director like the late Frank Capra. But when the real-world Jim Garrison is given this treatment, the result is a sordid, grotesque parody of movie heroism.
It's inherent in propaganda to tell people things that aren't true. And director Oliver Stone (right) most certainly tells his audience untruth after untruth in his very long and very didactic movie "JFK."But if you are a talented director, and if you have a huge budget, you'll also try to persuade your audience with compelling visual images. The most famous example of this is Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," but all good movies, whether done in a noble cause or a bad one, will exploit visual imagery. That, after all, is part of the definition of a good movie.
This page presents some of the visual images of "JFK," and explains how Stone had to mislead, finagle, and withhold information from his audience in order persuade them that there was a conspiracy to kill John Kennedy. Stone doubtless felt that convincing people of this was a "good cause." But truth usually favors good causes. What does it say when, in order to promote your agenda, the truth doesn't suffice?
The Inside SourceA key sequence of the movie has "Garrison" meeting "Mr. X" on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. "X" then gives "Garrison" the inside "scoop" on how the worlds of intelligence, the Pentagon, and defense contractors arranged the murder of JFK. No such "inside source" talked to the real Jim Garrison during the Clay Shaw prosecution, but "Mr. X" is based on a real person: the late Col. L. Fletcher Prouty, a former Pentagon staffer. Someone with Prouty's background ought to know how government works, but Prouty has a long history of making wacky statements. For example, he believed that "The Umbrella Man" in Dealey Plaza was shooting a poison dart at JFK. He claimed that Korean airlines Flight 007 was downed by "an explosive device" planted aboard by the CIA — this in spite of the fact that the Soviets admitted to shooting down the plane! Where his statements aren't obviously wacky, they often diverge from the historical record, as when he discusses the origins of the Vietnam war. And he had a history of associations with unsavory political groups and crackpot cults. None of this prevents Stone from portraying "X" as a fount of truth.
Italian CIA ConnectionAs evidence that Clay Shaw worked for the CIA, Stone has Garrison brandish a clipping from an "Italian newspaper" which links Shaw to a Rome-based trade organization, the Centro Mondiale Commerciale (CMC, or "World Trade Center" in English). This clipping also alleges that both the CMC and its Swiss-based parent corporation, Permindex, were CIA fronts.The clipping shown is not an authentic reproduction of an Italian news story. Rather, it shows an Italian translation of a headline that appeared in the French newspaper l'Humanité. It does correctly summarize charges made by two Roman newspapers, (l'Unita and Paese Sera). What Stone does not tell his viewers is that l'Unita was the official organ of the Italian Communist Party, and Paese Sera was a Communist-sponsored paper which consistently sided with Moscow against the West. And l'Humanité was the premier French-language Communist newspaper.
Shaw was indeed on the CMC's board in the early 1960s, because the company wanted to establish a trade exhibition center in Rome very similar to the New Orleans Trade Mart, which Shaw managed. But Shaw was never secretive about his connection, listing it in his entry in Who's Who in the Southeast. Shaw, in fact, never travelled to Rome to attend any of the board meetings, due to the press of business in New Orleans. The article in question presented no evidence of a CIA connection with Permindex, and none has surfaced in the thirty-plus years since.
Stone, who prides himself on not accepting the "official story," has simply accepted Communist propaganda as true.
Smoke on the Knoll
In most cases, scenes in "JFK" are well-crafted and stand up under close scrutiny. But the frame at right is a frame that Stone doesn't want you to scrutinize carefully. Stone has been pushing the notion that "smoke on the Grassy Knoll" shows that there was a shooter on the Knoll. And indeed, Stone shows his viewers the shooter.The problem came with the scene that was to show viewers smoke billowing out from under the trees on the Knoll as Kennedy was shot. Stone's staff searched high and low, but they could not find a rifle that would emit the required puff of smoke. Modern rifles, after all, use "smokeless" powder — which is not literally smokeless, but which doesn't send up big billows.
So Stone had a special effects man blow smoke from a bellows, as can be seen in the still at right, above. This seems an appropriate metaphor for the entire movie.
Garrison's SummationIt must have been intended as the emotional high point of the film. Costner, as Garrison, sums up the case for the jury. He explains that:
President Kennedy was killed by a conspiracy that was planned in advance at the highest levels of our government and it was carried out by fanatical and disciplined cold warriors in the Pentagon and CIA's covert apparatus, among them Clay Shaw here before you. It was a public execution.
Has Stone failed to name anybody? Yes he has, but he immediately remedies that defect:
And it was covered up by like-minded individuals in the Dallas Police Department, the Secret Service, the FBI, and the White House, all the way up, including J. Edgar Hoover and Lyndon Johnson, whom I consider accomplices after the fact.
Where Oliver Stone usually sanitizes Garrison, in this particular case he has Costner mouth a crackpot theory that involves a virtual cast of thousands in the murder of JFK. Although Garrison had indeed charged all those groups with involvement, his actual closing summation to the jury was more subtle and more effective. He vaguely blamed an assassination coverup on "the government" and urged the jurors to use their power to stand up to "authority."But the Garrison summation, like the Costner-Garrison summation, said essentially nothing about the case against Clay Shaw. Stone, like Garrison before him, resorted to making a case against "the government" and trying to use it to convict Shaw.
Garrison the Family ManIn the final scene of the movie a gracious, beaten, but unbowed Jim Garrison walks slowly out of the courthouse with his wife and young son. Garrison may have lost, Stone seems to be saying, but he retains the dignity of a Great American Hero, husband, and father.The real Jim Garrison was not even in the courtroom when the verdict was announced. In spite of his later claims to have been at home, he was in his office, and went into a roaring tirade when he got the news from aides. The "American people don't want to know the truth about the assassination," he bellowed (Milton Brener, The Garrison Case, p. 269).
Presenting Garrison as an heroic but flawed human being would itself be a travesty, but Stone cannot concede even this much to historical reality. His Garrison is a paragon whose only minor flaw is being so consumed with a passion for justice in the JFK murder that he sometimes neglects his family. Heros like this can be the basis of great movies when presented as frankly fictional characters in the hands of a great director like the late Frank Capra. But when the real-world Jim Garrison is given this treatment, the result is a sordid, grotesque parody of movie heroism.
A LOOK AT THE DEATHS OF THOSE INVOLVED*
Jim Marrs and Ralph Schuster
[Editor's Note: The claim that many persons who had
personal knowledge of the assassination of JFK have met
untimely deaths is reviewed by the authors, who provide
a overview of the evidence. It appears that many who
had personal knowledge of the assassination of JFK
have indeed met untimely deaths.]
In the three-year period which followed the murder of President Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald, 18 material witnesses died - six by gunfire, three in motor accidents, two by suicide, one from a cut throat, one from a karate chop to the neck, three from heart attacks and two from natural causes.
An actuary, engaged by the "London Sunday Times," concluded that on November 22, 1963, the odds against these witnesses being dead by February 1967, were one hundred thousand trillion to one. The above comment on the deaths of assassination witnesses was published in a tabloid companion piece to the movie "Executive Action," released in 1973. By that time, part of the mythology of the Kennedy assassination included the mysterious deaths of people who were connected with it. By the mid-1960s, people in Dallas already were whispering about the number of persons who died under strange or questionable circumstances.
Well into the 1980s, witnesses and others were hesitant to come forward with information because of the stories of strange and sudden death which seemed visit anyone with information about the assassination.
Finally, in the late 1970s, the House Select Committee on Assassinations felt compelled to look into the matter. But aside from discrediting the "London Sunday Times" actuarial study, the Committee was unable to come to any conclusion regarding the growing number of deaths. The Committee said it could not make a valid actuarial study due to the broad number and types of persons which had to be included in such a study.
In response to a letter from the Committee, "London Sunday Times" Legal Manager Anthony Whitaker stated:
Our piece about the odds against the deaths of the Kennedy witnesses was, I regret to say, based on a careless journalistic mistake and should not have been published. This was realized by The Sunday Times editorial staff after the first edition - the one which goes to the United States...- had gone out, and later editions were amended. There was no question of our actuary having got his answer wrong: it was simply that we asked him the wrong question. He was asked what were the odds against 15 named people out of the population of the United States dying within a short period of time, to which he replied -correctly - that they were very high. However, if one asks what are the odds against 15 of those included in the Warren Commission Index dying within a given period, the answer is, of course, that they are much lower. Our mistake was to treat the reply to the former question as if it dealt with the latter - hence the fundamental error in our first edition report, for which we apologize.
This settled the matter for the House Committee, which apparently made little or no attempt to seriously study the number of deaths which followed the JFK assassination.
Jacqueline Hess, the Committee's chief of research for the JFK investigation, reported:
Our final conclusion on the issue is that the available evidence does not establish anything about the nature of these deaths which would indicate that the deaths were in some manner, either direct or peripheral, caused by the assassination of President Kennedy or by any aspect of the subsequent investigation.
However, an objective look at both the number and the causes of death balanced against the importance of the person's connection to the case, still causes raised eyebrows among those who study such a list.
In this section, people who were connected - no matter how tenuously - with the assassination and who are now dead are listed according to date of death. This is dealing only with deaths, not with the numerous persons - such as Warren Reynolds, Roger Craig, Richard Carr or Richard Case Nagell - who claim to have been shot at or attacked.
This section has been entitled "Convenient Deaths" because these deaths certainly would have been convenient for anyone not wishing the truth of the JFK assassination to become public. Of course, it is impossible to state with any certainty which of these deaths resulted from natural causes and which did not.
Because so many of the these deaths involve persons either working with or connected with the CIA or other domestic intelligence services, the Agency has gone to some lengths to discredit the idea of mysterious deaths plaguing assassination witnesses.
A 1967 memo from CIA headquarters to station chiefs advised:
Such vague accusations as that "more than 10 people have died mysteriously" can always be explained in some rational way: e.g., the individuals concerned have for the most part died of natural causes; the (Warren) Commission staff questioned 418 witnesses - the FBI interviewed far more people, conducting 25,000 interviews and reinterviews - and in such a large group, a certain number of deaths are to be expected.
Yet it is now well established that the CIA was developing a wide-range of lethal techniques for disposing of people dating back to the early 1950s.
Testifying before the Church Committee in 1975, CIA technicians told of a variety of TWEP technology - Termination With Extreme Prejudice - including liquid botulinum toxins and a pulmonary-embolism-causing pill which cannot be detected in a post-mortem examination.
One recently-declassified CIA document, a letter from an Agency consultant to a CIA officer, states:
You will recall that I mentioned that the local circumstances under which a given means might be used might suggest the technique to be used in that case. I think the gross divisions in presenting this subject might be:
There are two techniques which I believe should be mentioned since they require no special equipment besides a strong arm and the will to do such a job. These would be either to smother the victim with a pillow or to strangle him with a wide piece of cloth such as a bath towel. In such cases, there is no specific anatomic changes to indicate the cause of death...
While is obvious that the CIA - and hence the mob through operatives who work for both - has the capability of killing, it is less well-known that the Agency has developed drugs to induce cancer. Recall that Jack Ruby died of sudden lung cancer just as he had been granted a new trial.
A 1952 CIA memo reported on the cancer-causing effects of beryllium:
This is certainly the most toxic inorganic element and it produces a peculiar fibrotic tumor at the site of local application. The amount necessary to produce these tumors is a few micrograms.
Local law enforcement officers and coroners are simply not equipped, either by training or by inclination, to detect deaths induced by such sophisticated means. They look for signs of a struggle, evidence of a break-in, bruises or marks on the victim. With no evidence to the contrary, many deaths simply are ruled suicide or accident. Others are ruled due to natural causes, such as heart attack.
It is interesting to note how the deaths are grouped. Many of the earliest deaths came during the time of the Warren Commission investigation or just afterwards. Some significant deaths also took place in the late 1960s as New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison was launching his own investigation. Other suspicious deaths occurred during the mid-1970s, as the Senate Intelligence Committee was looking into assassinations by U.S. intelligence agencies. And finally, another spate of deaths came around 1977, just as the House Select Committee on Assassinations was gearing up its investigations.
These deaths are listed in chronological order. An asterisk (*) means the death is a particularly suspicious one. They also are grouped according to which investigation was being conducted at the time.
The area of convenient deaths leads one into a well of paranoia, yet the long list of deaths cannot be summarily dismissed.
Obviously, many of these deaths - particularly in recent years - can be ascribed to the passage of time. But others cannot - especially when viewed in context of the assassination inquiries taking place at the time.
Read for yourself and consider...When does coincidence end and conspiracy begin?
List of Deaths
DateNameConnection with caseCause of death
11/63Karyn KupicinetTv host's daughter who was overheard telling of JFK's death prior to 11/22/63Murdered
12/63Jack ZangrettiExpressed foreknowledge of Ruby shooting OswaldGunshot Victim
2/64Eddy BenavidesLookalike brother to Tippit shooting witness, Domingo BenavidesGunshot to head
2/64Betty MacDonald*Former Ruby employee who alibied Warren Reynolds shooting suspect.Suicide byhanging in Dallas Jail
3/64Bill ChesherThought to have information linking Oswald and RubyHeart attack
3/64Hank Killam*Husband of Ruby employee, knew Oswald acquaintanceThroat cut
4/64Bill Hunter*Reporter who was in Ruby's apartment on 11/24/63Accidental shooting by policeman
5/64Gary Underhill*CIA agent who claimed Agency was involvedGunshot in head ruled suicide
5/64Hugh Ward*Private investigator working with Guy Banister and David FerriePlane crash in Mexico
5/64DeLesseps Morrison*New Orleans MayorPassenger in Ward's plane
8/64Teresa Norton*Ruby employeeFatally shot
6/64Guy Banister*x-FBI agent in New Orleans connected to Ferrie, CIA, Carlos Marcello & OswaldHeart attack
9/64Jim Koethe*Reporter who was in Ruby's apartment on 11/24/63Blow to neck
9/64C.D. Jackson"Life" magazine senior Vicepresident who bought Zapruderfilm and locked it awayUnknown
10/64Mary PinchotJFK "special" friend whose diary was taken by CIA chief James Angleton after her deathMurdered
1/65Paul Mandal"Life" writer who told of JFK turning to rear when shot in throatCancer
3/65Tom Howard*Ruby's first lawyer, was in Ruby's apartment on 11/24/63Heart attack
5/65Maurice Gatlin*Pilot for Guy BanisterFatal fall
8/65Mona B. Saenz*Texas Employment clerk who interviewed OswaldHit by Dallas bus
?/65David GoldsteinDallasite who helped FBI trace Oswald's pistolNatural causes
9/65Rose Cheramie*Knew of assassination in advance, told of riding to Dallas with CubansHit/run victim
11/65Dorothy Kilgallen*Columnist who had private interview with Ruby, pledged to "break" JFK caseDrug overdose
11/65Mrs. Earl Smith*Close friend to Dorothy Kilgallen, died two daysafter columnist, may have kept Kilgallen's notesCause unknown
12/65William Whaley*Cab driver who reportedly drove Oswald to Oak Cliff (The only Dallas taxi driver to die on duty)Motor collision
1966Judge Joe BrownPresided over Ruby's trialHeart attack
1966Karen "Little Lynn" Carlin*Ruby employee who last talked with Ruby before Oswald shootingGunshot victim
1/66Earlene RobertsOswald's landladyHeart attack
2/66Albert Bogard*Car salesman who said Oswald test drove new carSuicide
6/66Capt. Frank MartinDallas policeman who witnessed Oswald slaying, told Warren Commission "there's a lot to be said but probably be better if I don't say it"Sudden cancer
8/66Lee Bowers Jr.*Witnessed men behind picket fence on Grassy KnollMotor accident
9/66Marilyn "Delila Walle*Ruby dancerShot by husband after 1 month of marriage
10/66Lt. William Pitzer*JFK autopsy photographer who described his duty as "horrifying experience"Gunshot rule suicided
11/66Jimmy LevensFort Worth nightclub owner who hired Ruby employeesNatural causes
11/66James Worrell Jr.*Saw man flee rear of Texas School Book DepositoryMotor accident
1966Clarence OliverDist. Atty. Investigator who worked Ruby caseUnknown
12/66Hank SuydamLife magazine official in charge of JFK storiesHeart attack
1967Leonard PullinCivilian Navy employee who helped film "Last Two Days" about assassinationOne-car crash
1/67Jack Ruby*Oswald's slayerLung cancer (he told family he was injected with cancer cells)
2/67Harold Russell*Saw escape of Tippit killerkilled by cop in bar brawl
2/67David Ferrie*Acquaintance of Oswald, Garrison suspect and employee of Guy BanisterBlow to neck (ruled accidental)
2/67Eladio Del Valle*Anti-Castro Cuban associate of David Ferrie being sought by GarrisonGunshot wound, ax wound tohead
3/67Dr. Mary Sherman*Ferrie associate working on cancer researchDied in fire (possibly shot)
1/68A. D. BowieAsst. Dallas District Attorney prosecuting RubyCancer
4/68Hiram IngramDallas Deputy Sheriff, close friend to Roger CraigSudden cancer
5/68Dr. Nicholas ChettaNew Orleans coroner who on death of FerrieHeart attack
8/68Philip Geraci*Friend of Perry Russo, told of Oswald/Shaw conversationElectrocution
1/69Henry Delaune*Brother-in-law to coroner ChettaMurdered
1/69E.R. Walthers*Dallas Deputy Sheriff who was involved in Depository search, claimed to have found .45-cal. slugShot by felon
1969Charles MentesanaFilmed rifle other than Mannlicher-Carcano being taken from DepositoryHeart attack
4/69Mary BledsoeNeighbor to Oswald, also knew David FerrieNatural causes
4/69John Crawford*Close friend to both Ruby and Wesley Frazier, who gave ride to Oswald on 11/22/63Crash of private plane
7/69Rev. Clyde Johnson*Scheduled to testify about Clay Shaw/Oswald connectionFatally shot
1970George McGann*Underworld figure connected to Ruby friends, wife, Beverly, took film in Dealey PlazaMurdered
1/70Darrell W. GarnerArrested for shooting Warren Reynolds, released after alibi from Betty MacDonaldDrug overdose
8/70Bill DeckerDallas Sheriff who saw bullet hit street in front of JFKNatural causes
8/70Abraham ZapruderTook famous film of JFK assassinationNatural causes
12/70Salvatore Granello*Mobster linked to both Hoffa,Trafficante, and Castro assassination plotsMurdered
1971James Plumeri*Mobster tied to mob-CIA assassination plotsMurdered
3/71Clayton FowlerRuby's chief defense attorneyUknown
4/71Gen. Charles Cabell*CIA deputy director connected to anti-Castro CubansCollapsed and died afterphysical at Fort Myers
1972Hale Boggs*House Majority Leader, member of Warren Commission who began to publicly express doubts about findingsDisappeared on Alaskan plane flight
5/72J. Edgar Hoover*FBI director who pushed "lone assassin" theory in JFK assassinationHeart attack (no autopsy)
9/73Thomas E. Davis*Gunrunner connected to both Ruby and CIAElectrocuted trying to steal wire
2/74J.A. Milteer*Miami right-winger who predicted JFK's death and capture of scapegoatHeater explosion
1974Dave Yaras*Close friend to both Hoffa and Jack RubyMurdered
7/74Earl WarrenChief Justice who reluctantly chaired Warren CommissionHeart failure
8/74Clay Shaw*Prime suspect in Garrison case, reportedly a CIA contact with Ferrie and E. Howard HuntPossible cancer
1974Earle CabellMayor of Dallas on 11/22/63, whose brother, Gen. Charles Cabell was fired from CIA by JFKNatural causes
6/75Sam Giancana*Chicago Mafia boss slated to tell about CIA-mob death plots to Senate CommitteeMurdered
7/75Clyde TolsonJ. Edgar Hoover's assistant and roommateNatural causes
1975Allen SweattDallas Deputy Sheriff involved in investigationNatural causes
12/75Gen. Earle WheelerContact between JFK and CIAUnknown
1976Ralph PaulRuby's business partner connected with crime figuresHeart attack
4/76James ChaneyDallas motorcycle officer riding to JFK's right rear who said JFK "struck in the face" with bulletHeart attack
4/76Dr. Charles GregoryGovernor John Connally's physicianHeart attack
6/76William Harvey*CIA coordinator for CIA-mob assassination plans against CastroComplications from heart surgery
7/76John Roselli*Mobster who testified to Senate Committee and was to appear againStabbed and stuffed in metal drum
1977 - A Terrible Year For ManyThe year 1977 produced a bumper crop of candidates for listing under convenient deaths connected to the JFK assassination - including the deaths of six top FBI officials all of whom were scheduled to testify before the House Select Committee on Assassinations.
Topping this list was former number three man in the FBI William C. Sullivan, who had already had a preliminary meeting the investigators for the House Committee. Sullivan was shot with a high-powered rifle near his New Hampshire home by a man who claimed to have mistaken him for a deer. The man was charged with a misdemeanor - "shooting a human being by accident" - and released into the custody of his father, a state policeman. There was no further investigation of Sullivan's death.
Louis Nichols was a special assistant to J. Edgar Hoover as well as Hoover's liaison with the Warren Commission. Alan H. Belmont also was a special assistant to Hoover. James Cadigan was a document expert with access to many classified assassination documents, while J.M. English headed the FBI laboratory where Oswald rifle and pistol were tested. Donald Kaylor was the FBI fingerprint expert who examined prints found at the assassination scene. None of these six Bureau officials lived to tell what they knew to the House Committee.
Other key assassination witnesses, such as George DeMohrenschildt and former Cuban President Carlos Prio Soccaras, died within weeks of each other in 1977, just as they too were being sought by the House Committee.
The ranks of both organized crime and U.S. intelligence agencies were thinned by deaths beginning in 1975, the time of the Senate Intelligence Hearings, and 1978, the closing months of the House Committee. Charles Nicoletti, a mobster connected with the CIA-Mafia assassination plots, was murdered in Chicago, while William Pawley, a former diplomat connected with both organized crime and CIA figures, reportedly committed suicide.
Adding official confirmation to rumors that "hit teams" may have been at work was a "Time" magazine report that federal agents had initiated a nationwide investigation into more than 20 gangland assassinations constituting what agents believed was an "open underworld challenge to governmental infiltration of Mafia activities."
One FBI source was quoted as saying:
Our main concern is that we may be facing a revival of the old "Murder, Inc." days.
A "New York News" story concerning this official fear of roving assassination squads even mentions the death of Sam Giancana, who was killed one day before he was to testify about MOB-CIA connections and while under government protection.
Just as the House Committee was gearing up its investigation into the JFK assassination, the news media reported the following deaths:
DateNameConnection with caseCause of Death
1/77William Pawley*Former Brazilian Ambassador connected to Anti-Castro Cubans, crime figuresGunshot ruled suicide
3/77George DeMohrenschildt*Close friend to both Oswald and Bouvier family (Jackie Kennedy's parents), CIA contract agentGunshot wound ruled suicide
3/77Carlos Prio Soccaras*Former Cuban President, money man for anti-Castro CubansGunshot wound ruled suicide
3/77Paul RaigorodskyBusiness friend of George DeMohrenschildt and wealthy oilmenNatural causes
5/77Lou Staples*Dallas radio Talk Show host who told friends he would break assassination caseGunshot to head,ruled suicide
6/77Louis NicholsFormer No. 3 man in FBI, worked on JFK investigationHeart attack
8/77Alan BelmontFBI official who testified to Warren Commission"Long illness"
8/77James CadiganFBI document expert who testified to Warren CommissionFall in home
8/77Joseph C. Ayres*Chief steward on JFK's Air Force OneShooting accident
8/77Francis G. Powers*U-2 pilot downed over Russia in 1960Helicopter crash (He reportedly ran out of fuel)
9/77Kenneth O'DonnellJFK's closest aideNatural causes
10/77Donald KaylorFBI fingerprint chemistHeart attack
10/77J.M. EnglishFormer head of FBI Forensic Sciences LaboratoryHeart attack
11/77William Sullivan*Former No. 3 man in FBI, headed Division 5, counter- espionage and domestic intelligenceHunting accident
1978C.L. "Lummie" LewisDallas Deputy Sheriff who arrested Mafia man Braden in Dealey PlazaNatural causes
9/78Garland SlackMan who said Oswald fired at his target at rifle rangeUnknown
1/79Billy LoveladyDepository employee said to be the man in the doorway in AP photographComplications from heart attack
6/80Jesse CurryDallas Police Chief at time of assassinationHeart attack
6/80Dr. John HolbrookPsychiatrist who testified Ruby was not insaneHeart attack but pills, notes found,
1/81Marguerite OswaldMother of accused assassinCancer
10/81Frank WattsChief felony prosecutor for Dallas D.A.Natural causes
1/82Peter GregoryOriginal translator for Marina Oswald and Secret ServiceNatural causes
5/82Dr. James WestonPathologist allowed to see JFK autopsy material for HSCADied while jogging, ruled natural causes
8/82Will H. GriffinFBI agent who reportedly said Oswald was "definitely" an FBI informantCancer
10/82W. Marvin GheeslingFBI official who helped supervise JFK investigation"Long illness"
3/84Roy KellermanSecret Service agent in charge of JFK limousineUnknown
Following names are the recently known deaths, almost all died of natural causes:
DateNameConnection with caseCause of Death
10/92Jim GarrisonFormer District Attorney of New Orleans, only one who sued in the JFK assassination caseNatural causes
?/94Perry Russowitness who told he had seen Shaw, Oswald and Ferrie talking about the killing of JFKUnknown
01/95Rose KennedyMother of John F. Kennedynatural causes
01/95L.C. Graveswrested Ruby's revolver away from him after shooting Oswaldnatural causes
2/95Irving L. GoldbergJudge who advised L. B. Johnson on transition of powernatural causes
3/95Philip L. WillisDealey Plaza Witness, photographerLeukemia
5/95Evelyn Norton LincolnJFK's personal secretarynatural causes
5/95Phil L. BarlesonDefender of RubyHeart attack
11/95Richard Case NagellCIA agent who claimed he uncovered a "large operation" aimed at killing JFKheart disease
12/95James W. AltgensDealey Plaza Witness, press photographernatural causes
1/96Ralph W. YarboroughDealey Plaza witness, rode in motorcadenatural causes
7/96Melvin BelliLawyer of Jack RubySuffering stroke and pneumonia
8/96Charles BrehmDealey Plaza WitnessUnknown
9/96McGeorge BundyTop aide to JFK and LBJHeart attack
10/96Rufus YoungbloodAgent who shielded LBJ during the JFK murderCancer
10/96Larry Ray HarrisResearcherCar accident
10/96Lawrence BrantleySold Jack Ruby the gun used to kill OswaldComplications from surgery
Text by Jim Marrs
Jim Marrs and Ralph Schuster
[Editor's Note: The claim that many persons who had
personal knowledge of the assassination of JFK have met
untimely deaths is reviewed by the authors, who provide
a overview of the evidence. It appears that many who
had personal knowledge of the assassination of JFK
have indeed met untimely deaths.]
In the three-year period which followed the murder of President Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald, 18 material witnesses died - six by gunfire, three in motor accidents, two by suicide, one from a cut throat, one from a karate chop to the neck, three from heart attacks and two from natural causes.
An actuary, engaged by the "London Sunday Times," concluded that on November 22, 1963, the odds against these witnesses being dead by February 1967, were one hundred thousand trillion to one. The above comment on the deaths of assassination witnesses was published in a tabloid companion piece to the movie "Executive Action," released in 1973. By that time, part of the mythology of the Kennedy assassination included the mysterious deaths of people who were connected with it. By the mid-1960s, people in Dallas already were whispering about the number of persons who died under strange or questionable circumstances.
Well into the 1980s, witnesses and others were hesitant to come forward with information because of the stories of strange and sudden death which seemed visit anyone with information about the assassination.
Finally, in the late 1970s, the House Select Committee on Assassinations felt compelled to look into the matter. But aside from discrediting the "London Sunday Times" actuarial study, the Committee was unable to come to any conclusion regarding the growing number of deaths. The Committee said it could not make a valid actuarial study due to the broad number and types of persons which had to be included in such a study.
In response to a letter from the Committee, "London Sunday Times" Legal Manager Anthony Whitaker stated:
Our piece about the odds against the deaths of the Kennedy witnesses was, I regret to say, based on a careless journalistic mistake and should not have been published. This was realized by The Sunday Times editorial staff after the first edition - the one which goes to the United States...- had gone out, and later editions were amended. There was no question of our actuary having got his answer wrong: it was simply that we asked him the wrong question. He was asked what were the odds against 15 named people out of the population of the United States dying within a short period of time, to which he replied -correctly - that they were very high. However, if one asks what are the odds against 15 of those included in the Warren Commission Index dying within a given period, the answer is, of course, that they are much lower. Our mistake was to treat the reply to the former question as if it dealt with the latter - hence the fundamental error in our first edition report, for which we apologize.
This settled the matter for the House Committee, which apparently made little or no attempt to seriously study the number of deaths which followed the JFK assassination.
Jacqueline Hess, the Committee's chief of research for the JFK investigation, reported:
Our final conclusion on the issue is that the available evidence does not establish anything about the nature of these deaths which would indicate that the deaths were in some manner, either direct or peripheral, caused by the assassination of President Kennedy or by any aspect of the subsequent investigation.
However, an objective look at both the number and the causes of death balanced against the importance of the person's connection to the case, still causes raised eyebrows among those who study such a list.
In this section, people who were connected - no matter how tenuously - with the assassination and who are now dead are listed according to date of death. This is dealing only with deaths, not with the numerous persons - such as Warren Reynolds, Roger Craig, Richard Carr or Richard Case Nagell - who claim to have been shot at or attacked.
This section has been entitled "Convenient Deaths" because these deaths certainly would have been convenient for anyone not wishing the truth of the JFK assassination to become public. Of course, it is impossible to state with any certainty which of these deaths resulted from natural causes and which did not.
Because so many of the these deaths involve persons either working with or connected with the CIA or other domestic intelligence services, the Agency has gone to some lengths to discredit the idea of mysterious deaths plaguing assassination witnesses.
A 1967 memo from CIA headquarters to station chiefs advised:
Such vague accusations as that "more than 10 people have died mysteriously" can always be explained in some rational way: e.g., the individuals concerned have for the most part died of natural causes; the (Warren) Commission staff questioned 418 witnesses - the FBI interviewed far more people, conducting 25,000 interviews and reinterviews - and in such a large group, a certain number of deaths are to be expected.
Yet it is now well established that the CIA was developing a wide-range of lethal techniques for disposing of people dating back to the early 1950s.
Testifying before the Church Committee in 1975, CIA technicians told of a variety of TWEP technology - Termination With Extreme Prejudice - including liquid botulinum toxins and a pulmonary-embolism-causing pill which cannot be detected in a post-mortem examination.
One recently-declassified CIA document, a letter from an Agency consultant to a CIA officer, states:
You will recall that I mentioned that the local circumstances under which a given means might be used might suggest the technique to be used in that case. I think the gross divisions in presenting this subject might be:
- bodies left with no hope of the cause of death being determined by the most complete autopsy and chemical examinations
- bodies left in such circumstances as to simulate accidental death
- bodies left in such circumstances as to simulate suicidal death
- bodies left with residue that simulate those caused by natural diseases.
There are two techniques which I believe should be mentioned since they require no special equipment besides a strong arm and the will to do such a job. These would be either to smother the victim with a pillow or to strangle him with a wide piece of cloth such as a bath towel. In such cases, there is no specific anatomic changes to indicate the cause of death...
While is obvious that the CIA - and hence the mob through operatives who work for both - has the capability of killing, it is less well-known that the Agency has developed drugs to induce cancer. Recall that Jack Ruby died of sudden lung cancer just as he had been granted a new trial.
A 1952 CIA memo reported on the cancer-causing effects of beryllium:
This is certainly the most toxic inorganic element and it produces a peculiar fibrotic tumor at the site of local application. The amount necessary to produce these tumors is a few micrograms.
Local law enforcement officers and coroners are simply not equipped, either by training or by inclination, to detect deaths induced by such sophisticated means. They look for signs of a struggle, evidence of a break-in, bruises or marks on the victim. With no evidence to the contrary, many deaths simply are ruled suicide or accident. Others are ruled due to natural causes, such as heart attack.
It is interesting to note how the deaths are grouped. Many of the earliest deaths came during the time of the Warren Commission investigation or just afterwards. Some significant deaths also took place in the late 1960s as New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison was launching his own investigation. Other suspicious deaths occurred during the mid-1970s, as the Senate Intelligence Committee was looking into assassinations by U.S. intelligence agencies. And finally, another spate of deaths came around 1977, just as the House Select Committee on Assassinations was gearing up its investigations.
These deaths are listed in chronological order. An asterisk (*) means the death is a particularly suspicious one. They also are grouped according to which investigation was being conducted at the time.
The area of convenient deaths leads one into a well of paranoia, yet the long list of deaths cannot be summarily dismissed.
Obviously, many of these deaths - particularly in recent years - can be ascribed to the passage of time. But others cannot - especially when viewed in context of the assassination inquiries taking place at the time.
Read for yourself and consider...When does coincidence end and conspiracy begin?
List of Deaths
DateNameConnection with caseCause of death
11/63Karyn KupicinetTv host's daughter who was overheard telling of JFK's death prior to 11/22/63Murdered
12/63Jack ZangrettiExpressed foreknowledge of Ruby shooting OswaldGunshot Victim
2/64Eddy BenavidesLookalike brother to Tippit shooting witness, Domingo BenavidesGunshot to head
2/64Betty MacDonald*Former Ruby employee who alibied Warren Reynolds shooting suspect.Suicide byhanging in Dallas Jail
3/64Bill ChesherThought to have information linking Oswald and RubyHeart attack
3/64Hank Killam*Husband of Ruby employee, knew Oswald acquaintanceThroat cut
4/64Bill Hunter*Reporter who was in Ruby's apartment on 11/24/63Accidental shooting by policeman
5/64Gary Underhill*CIA agent who claimed Agency was involvedGunshot in head ruled suicide
5/64Hugh Ward*Private investigator working with Guy Banister and David FerriePlane crash in Mexico
5/64DeLesseps Morrison*New Orleans MayorPassenger in Ward's plane
8/64Teresa Norton*Ruby employeeFatally shot
6/64Guy Banister*x-FBI agent in New Orleans connected to Ferrie, CIA, Carlos Marcello & OswaldHeart attack
9/64Jim Koethe*Reporter who was in Ruby's apartment on 11/24/63Blow to neck
9/64C.D. Jackson"Life" magazine senior Vicepresident who bought Zapruderfilm and locked it awayUnknown
10/64Mary PinchotJFK "special" friend whose diary was taken by CIA chief James Angleton after her deathMurdered
1/65Paul Mandal"Life" writer who told of JFK turning to rear when shot in throatCancer
3/65Tom Howard*Ruby's first lawyer, was in Ruby's apartment on 11/24/63Heart attack
5/65Maurice Gatlin*Pilot for Guy BanisterFatal fall
8/65Mona B. Saenz*Texas Employment clerk who interviewed OswaldHit by Dallas bus
?/65David GoldsteinDallasite who helped FBI trace Oswald's pistolNatural causes
9/65Rose Cheramie*Knew of assassination in advance, told of riding to Dallas with CubansHit/run victim
11/65Dorothy Kilgallen*Columnist who had private interview with Ruby, pledged to "break" JFK caseDrug overdose
11/65Mrs. Earl Smith*Close friend to Dorothy Kilgallen, died two daysafter columnist, may have kept Kilgallen's notesCause unknown
12/65William Whaley*Cab driver who reportedly drove Oswald to Oak Cliff (The only Dallas taxi driver to die on duty)Motor collision
1966Judge Joe BrownPresided over Ruby's trialHeart attack
1966Karen "Little Lynn" Carlin*Ruby employee who last talked with Ruby before Oswald shootingGunshot victim
1/66Earlene RobertsOswald's landladyHeart attack
2/66Albert Bogard*Car salesman who said Oswald test drove new carSuicide
6/66Capt. Frank MartinDallas policeman who witnessed Oswald slaying, told Warren Commission "there's a lot to be said but probably be better if I don't say it"Sudden cancer
8/66Lee Bowers Jr.*Witnessed men behind picket fence on Grassy KnollMotor accident
9/66Marilyn "Delila Walle*Ruby dancerShot by husband after 1 month of marriage
10/66Lt. William Pitzer*JFK autopsy photographer who described his duty as "horrifying experience"Gunshot rule suicided
11/66Jimmy LevensFort Worth nightclub owner who hired Ruby employeesNatural causes
11/66James Worrell Jr.*Saw man flee rear of Texas School Book DepositoryMotor accident
1966Clarence OliverDist. Atty. Investigator who worked Ruby caseUnknown
12/66Hank SuydamLife magazine official in charge of JFK storiesHeart attack
1967Leonard PullinCivilian Navy employee who helped film "Last Two Days" about assassinationOne-car crash
1/67Jack Ruby*Oswald's slayerLung cancer (he told family he was injected with cancer cells)
2/67Harold Russell*Saw escape of Tippit killerkilled by cop in bar brawl
2/67David Ferrie*Acquaintance of Oswald, Garrison suspect and employee of Guy BanisterBlow to neck (ruled accidental)
2/67Eladio Del Valle*Anti-Castro Cuban associate of David Ferrie being sought by GarrisonGunshot wound, ax wound tohead
3/67Dr. Mary Sherman*Ferrie associate working on cancer researchDied in fire (possibly shot)
1/68A. D. BowieAsst. Dallas District Attorney prosecuting RubyCancer
4/68Hiram IngramDallas Deputy Sheriff, close friend to Roger CraigSudden cancer
5/68Dr. Nicholas ChettaNew Orleans coroner who on death of FerrieHeart attack
8/68Philip Geraci*Friend of Perry Russo, told of Oswald/Shaw conversationElectrocution
1/69Henry Delaune*Brother-in-law to coroner ChettaMurdered
1/69E.R. Walthers*Dallas Deputy Sheriff who was involved in Depository search, claimed to have found .45-cal. slugShot by felon
1969Charles MentesanaFilmed rifle other than Mannlicher-Carcano being taken from DepositoryHeart attack
4/69Mary BledsoeNeighbor to Oswald, also knew David FerrieNatural causes
4/69John Crawford*Close friend to both Ruby and Wesley Frazier, who gave ride to Oswald on 11/22/63Crash of private plane
7/69Rev. Clyde Johnson*Scheduled to testify about Clay Shaw/Oswald connectionFatally shot
1970George McGann*Underworld figure connected to Ruby friends, wife, Beverly, took film in Dealey PlazaMurdered
1/70Darrell W. GarnerArrested for shooting Warren Reynolds, released after alibi from Betty MacDonaldDrug overdose
8/70Bill DeckerDallas Sheriff who saw bullet hit street in front of JFKNatural causes
8/70Abraham ZapruderTook famous film of JFK assassinationNatural causes
12/70Salvatore Granello*Mobster linked to both Hoffa,Trafficante, and Castro assassination plotsMurdered
1971James Plumeri*Mobster tied to mob-CIA assassination plotsMurdered
3/71Clayton FowlerRuby's chief defense attorneyUknown
4/71Gen. Charles Cabell*CIA deputy director connected to anti-Castro CubansCollapsed and died afterphysical at Fort Myers
1972Hale Boggs*House Majority Leader, member of Warren Commission who began to publicly express doubts about findingsDisappeared on Alaskan plane flight
5/72J. Edgar Hoover*FBI director who pushed "lone assassin" theory in JFK assassinationHeart attack (no autopsy)
9/73Thomas E. Davis*Gunrunner connected to both Ruby and CIAElectrocuted trying to steal wire
2/74J.A. Milteer*Miami right-winger who predicted JFK's death and capture of scapegoatHeater explosion
1974Dave Yaras*Close friend to both Hoffa and Jack RubyMurdered
7/74Earl WarrenChief Justice who reluctantly chaired Warren CommissionHeart failure
8/74Clay Shaw*Prime suspect in Garrison case, reportedly a CIA contact with Ferrie and E. Howard HuntPossible cancer
1974Earle CabellMayor of Dallas on 11/22/63, whose brother, Gen. Charles Cabell was fired from CIA by JFKNatural causes
6/75Sam Giancana*Chicago Mafia boss slated to tell about CIA-mob death plots to Senate CommitteeMurdered
7/75Clyde TolsonJ. Edgar Hoover's assistant and roommateNatural causes
1975Allen SweattDallas Deputy Sheriff involved in investigationNatural causes
12/75Gen. Earle WheelerContact between JFK and CIAUnknown
1976Ralph PaulRuby's business partner connected with crime figuresHeart attack
4/76James ChaneyDallas motorcycle officer riding to JFK's right rear who said JFK "struck in the face" with bulletHeart attack
4/76Dr. Charles GregoryGovernor John Connally's physicianHeart attack
6/76William Harvey*CIA coordinator for CIA-mob assassination plans against CastroComplications from heart surgery
7/76John Roselli*Mobster who testified to Senate Committee and was to appear againStabbed and stuffed in metal drum
1977 - A Terrible Year For ManyThe year 1977 produced a bumper crop of candidates for listing under convenient deaths connected to the JFK assassination - including the deaths of six top FBI officials all of whom were scheduled to testify before the House Select Committee on Assassinations.
Topping this list was former number three man in the FBI William C. Sullivan, who had already had a preliminary meeting the investigators for the House Committee. Sullivan was shot with a high-powered rifle near his New Hampshire home by a man who claimed to have mistaken him for a deer. The man was charged with a misdemeanor - "shooting a human being by accident" - and released into the custody of his father, a state policeman. There was no further investigation of Sullivan's death.
Louis Nichols was a special assistant to J. Edgar Hoover as well as Hoover's liaison with the Warren Commission. Alan H. Belmont also was a special assistant to Hoover. James Cadigan was a document expert with access to many classified assassination documents, while J.M. English headed the FBI laboratory where Oswald rifle and pistol were tested. Donald Kaylor was the FBI fingerprint expert who examined prints found at the assassination scene. None of these six Bureau officials lived to tell what they knew to the House Committee.
Other key assassination witnesses, such as George DeMohrenschildt and former Cuban President Carlos Prio Soccaras, died within weeks of each other in 1977, just as they too were being sought by the House Committee.
The ranks of both organized crime and U.S. intelligence agencies were thinned by deaths beginning in 1975, the time of the Senate Intelligence Hearings, and 1978, the closing months of the House Committee. Charles Nicoletti, a mobster connected with the CIA-Mafia assassination plots, was murdered in Chicago, while William Pawley, a former diplomat connected with both organized crime and CIA figures, reportedly committed suicide.
Adding official confirmation to rumors that "hit teams" may have been at work was a "Time" magazine report that federal agents had initiated a nationwide investigation into more than 20 gangland assassinations constituting what agents believed was an "open underworld challenge to governmental infiltration of Mafia activities."
One FBI source was quoted as saying:
Our main concern is that we may be facing a revival of the old "Murder, Inc." days.
A "New York News" story concerning this official fear of roving assassination squads even mentions the death of Sam Giancana, who was killed one day before he was to testify about MOB-CIA connections and while under government protection.
Just as the House Committee was gearing up its investigation into the JFK assassination, the news media reported the following deaths:
DateNameConnection with caseCause of Death
1/77William Pawley*Former Brazilian Ambassador connected to Anti-Castro Cubans, crime figuresGunshot ruled suicide
3/77George DeMohrenschildt*Close friend to both Oswald and Bouvier family (Jackie Kennedy's parents), CIA contract agentGunshot wound ruled suicide
3/77Carlos Prio Soccaras*Former Cuban President, money man for anti-Castro CubansGunshot wound ruled suicide
3/77Paul RaigorodskyBusiness friend of George DeMohrenschildt and wealthy oilmenNatural causes
5/77Lou Staples*Dallas radio Talk Show host who told friends he would break assassination caseGunshot to head,ruled suicide
6/77Louis NicholsFormer No. 3 man in FBI, worked on JFK investigationHeart attack
8/77Alan BelmontFBI official who testified to Warren Commission"Long illness"
8/77James CadiganFBI document expert who testified to Warren CommissionFall in home
8/77Joseph C. Ayres*Chief steward on JFK's Air Force OneShooting accident
8/77Francis G. Powers*U-2 pilot downed over Russia in 1960Helicopter crash (He reportedly ran out of fuel)
9/77Kenneth O'DonnellJFK's closest aideNatural causes
10/77Donald KaylorFBI fingerprint chemistHeart attack
10/77J.M. EnglishFormer head of FBI Forensic Sciences LaboratoryHeart attack
11/77William Sullivan*Former No. 3 man in FBI, headed Division 5, counter- espionage and domestic intelligenceHunting accident
1978C.L. "Lummie" LewisDallas Deputy Sheriff who arrested Mafia man Braden in Dealey PlazaNatural causes
9/78Garland SlackMan who said Oswald fired at his target at rifle rangeUnknown
1/79Billy LoveladyDepository employee said to be the man in the doorway in AP photographComplications from heart attack
6/80Jesse CurryDallas Police Chief at time of assassinationHeart attack
6/80Dr. John HolbrookPsychiatrist who testified Ruby was not insaneHeart attack but pills, notes found,
1/81Marguerite OswaldMother of accused assassinCancer
10/81Frank WattsChief felony prosecutor for Dallas D.A.Natural causes
1/82Peter GregoryOriginal translator for Marina Oswald and Secret ServiceNatural causes
5/82Dr. James WestonPathologist allowed to see JFK autopsy material for HSCADied while jogging, ruled natural causes
8/82Will H. GriffinFBI agent who reportedly said Oswald was "definitely" an FBI informantCancer
10/82W. Marvin GheeslingFBI official who helped supervise JFK investigation"Long illness"
3/84Roy KellermanSecret Service agent in charge of JFK limousineUnknown
Following names are the recently known deaths, almost all died of natural causes:
DateNameConnection with caseCause of Death
10/92Jim GarrisonFormer District Attorney of New Orleans, only one who sued in the JFK assassination caseNatural causes
?/94Perry Russowitness who told he had seen Shaw, Oswald and Ferrie talking about the killing of JFKUnknown
01/95Rose KennedyMother of John F. Kennedynatural causes
01/95L.C. Graveswrested Ruby's revolver away from him after shooting Oswaldnatural causes
2/95Irving L. GoldbergJudge who advised L. B. Johnson on transition of powernatural causes
3/95Philip L. WillisDealey Plaza Witness, photographerLeukemia
5/95Evelyn Norton LincolnJFK's personal secretarynatural causes
5/95Phil L. BarlesonDefender of RubyHeart attack
11/95Richard Case NagellCIA agent who claimed he uncovered a "large operation" aimed at killing JFKheart disease
12/95James W. AltgensDealey Plaza Witness, press photographernatural causes
1/96Ralph W. YarboroughDealey Plaza witness, rode in motorcadenatural causes
7/96Melvin BelliLawyer of Jack RubySuffering stroke and pneumonia
8/96Charles BrehmDealey Plaza WitnessUnknown
9/96McGeorge BundyTop aide to JFK and LBJHeart attack
10/96Rufus YoungbloodAgent who shielded LBJ during the JFK murderCancer
10/96Larry Ray HarrisResearcherCar accident
10/96Lawrence BrantleySold Jack Ruby the gun used to kill OswaldComplications from surgery
Text by Jim Marrs
16 Questions on the AssassinationBy Bertrand Russell[Originally published in: The Minority of One, 6 September 1964, pp.6–8.]
The official version of the assassination of President Kennedy has been so riddled with contradictions that it is been abandoned and rewritten no less than three times. Blatant fabrications have received very widespread coverage by the mass media, but denials of these same lies have gone unpublished. Photographs, evidence and affidavits have been doctored out of recognition. Some of the most important aspects of the case against Lee Harvey Oswald have been completely blacked out. Meanwhile, the F.B.I., the police and the Secret Service have tried to silence key witnesses or instruct them what evidence to give. Others involved have disappeared or died in extraordinary circumstances.
It is facts such as these that demand attention, and which the Warren Commission should have regarded as vital. Although I am writing before the publication of the Warren Commission’s report, leaks to the press have made much of its contents predictable. Because of the high office of its members and the fact of its establishment by President Johnson, the Commission has been widely regarded as a body of holy men appointed to pronounce the truth. An impartial examination of the composition and conduct of the Commission suggests quite otherwise.
1: Membership of the Warren Commission
The Warren Commission has been utterly unrepresentative of the American people. It consisted of:
2 and 3: Conduct and Official Secrecy
If the composition of the Commission was suspect, its conduct confirmed one’s worst fears. No counsel was permitted to act for Oswald, so that cross–examination was barred. Later, under pressure, the Commission appointed the President of the American Bar Association, Walter Craig, one of the supporters of the Goldwater movement in Arizona, to represent Oswald. To my knowledge, he did not attend hearings, but satisfied himself with representation by observers.
In the name of national security, the Commission’s hearings were held in secret, thereby continuing the policy which has marked the entire course of the case. This prompts my second question: If, as we are told, Oswald was the lone assassin, where is the issue of national security? Indeed, precisely the same question must be put here as was posed in France during the Dreyfus case: If the Government is so certain of its case, why has it conducted all its inquiries in the strictest secrecy?
4: The Crucial Question Was Not Asked
At the outset the Commission appointed six panels through which it would conduct its inquiry. They considered:
5: Challenging the Commission
All the evidence given to the Commission has been classified “Top Secret,” including even a request that hearings be held in public. Despite this the Commission itself leaked much of the evidence to the press, though only if the evidence tended to prove Oswald the lone assassin. Thus, Chief Justice Warren held a press conference after Oswald’s wife, Marina, had testified. He said that she believed her husband was the assassin. Before Oswald’s brother Robert testified, he gained the Commission’s agreement not to comment on what he said. After he had testified for two days, the newspapers were full of stories that “a member of the Commission” had told the press that Robert Oswald had just testified that he believed that his brother was an agent of the Soviet Union. Robert Oswald was outraged by this, and he said that he could not remain silent while lies were told about his testimony. He had never said this and he had never believed it. All that he had told the Commission was that he believed his brother was innocent and was in no way involved in the assassination.
The methods adopted by the Commission have indeed been deplorable, but it is important to challenge the entire role of the Warren Commission. It stated that it would not conduct its own investigation, but rely instead on the existing governmental agencies — the F.B.I., the Secret Service and the Dallas police. Confidence in the Warren Commission thus presupposes confidence in these three institutions. Why have so many liberals abandoned their own responsibility to a Commission whose circumstances they refuse to examine?
6: Oswald the Subversive
It is known that the strictest and most elaborate security precautions ever taken for a President of the United States were ordered for November 22 in Dallas. The city had a reputation for violence and was the home of some of the most extreme right–wing fanatics in America. Mr. and Mrs. Lyndon Johnson had been assailed there in 1960 when he was a candidate for the Vice–Presidency. Adlai Stevenson had been physically attacked when he spoke in the city only a month before Kennedy’s visit. On the morning of November 22, the Dallas Morning News carried a full–page advertisement associating the President with Communism. The city was covered with posters showing the President’s picture and headed “Wanted for Treason.” The Dallas list of subversives comprised 23 names, of which Oswald’s was the first. All of them were followed that day, except Oswald. Why did the authorities follow many persons as potential assassins and fail to observe Oswald’s entry into the book depository building while allegedly carrying a rifle over three feet long?
7: The Route of the Motorcade
The President’s route for his drive through Dallas was widely known and was printed in the Dallas Morning News on November 22. At the last minute the Secret Service changed a small part of their plans so that the President left Main Street and turned into Houston and Elm Streets. This alteration took the President past the book depository building from which it is alleged that Oswald shot him. How Oswald is supposed to have known of this change has never been explained. Why was the President’s route changed at the last minute to take him past Oswald’s place of work?
8: Changing the Evidence
After the assassination and Oswald’s arrest, judgment was pronounced swiftly: Oswald was the assassin, and he had acted alone. No attempt was made to arrest others, no road blocks were set up round the area, and every piece of evidence which tended to incriminate Oswald was announced to the press by the Dallas District Attorney, Mr. Wade. In such a way millions of people were prejudiced against Oswald before there was any opportunity for him to be brought to trial. The first theory announced by the authorities was that the President’s car was in Houston Street, approaching the book depository building, when Oswald opened fire. When available photographs and eyewitnesses had shown this to be quite untrue, the theory was abandoned and a new one formulated which placed the vehicle in its correct position. Meanwhile, however, D.A. Wade had announced that three days after Oswald’s room in Dallas had been searched, a map had been found there on which the book depository building had been circled and dotted lines drawn from the building to a vehicle on Houston Street, showing the alleged bullet trajectory had been planned in advance. After the first theory was proved false, the Associated Press put out the following story on November 27: “Dallas authorities announced today that there never was a map.”
The second theory correctly placed the President’s car on Elm Street, 50 to 75 yards past the book depository, but had to contend with the difficulty that the President was shot from the front, in the throat. How did Oswald manage to shoot the President in the front from behind? The F.B.I. held a series of background briefing sessions for Life magazine, which in its issue of December 6 explained that the President had turned completely round just at the time he was shot. This too, was soon shown to be entirely false. It was denied by several witnesses and films, and the previous issue of Life itself had shown the President looking forward as he was hit. Theory number two was abandoned.
In order to retain the basis of all official thinking, that Oswald was the lone assassin, it now became necessary to construct a third theory with the medical evidence altered to fit it. For the first month no Secret Service agent had ever spoken to the three doctors who had tried to save Kennedy’s life in the Parkland Memorial Hospital. Now two agents spent three hours with the doctors and persuaded them that they were all misinformed: the entrance wound in the President’s throat had been an exit wound, and the bullet had not ranged down towards the lungs. Asked by the press how they could have been so mistaken, Dr. McClelland advanced two reasons:
9: Shots From the Front and Behind
Although Oswald is alleged to have shot the President from behind, there are many witnesses who are confident that the shots came from the front. Among them are two reporters from the Forth Worth Star Telegram, four from the Dallas Morning News, and two people who were standing in front of the book depository building itself, the director of the book depository and the vice–president of the firm. It appears that only two people immediately entered the building: the director, Mr. Roy S. Truly, and a Dallas police officer, Seymour Weitzman. Both thought that the shots had come from in front of the President’s vehicle. On first running in that direction, Weitzman was informed by “someone” that he thought the shots had come from the building, so he rushed back there. Truly entered with him in order to assist with his knowledge of the building. Mr. Jesse Curry, the Chief of Police in Dallas, has stated that he was immediately convinced that the shots came from the building. If anyone else believes this, he has been reluctant to say so to date. It is also known that the first bulletin to go out on Dallas police radios stated that “the shots came from a triple overpass in front of the presidential automobile.” In addition, there is the consideration that after the first shot the vehicle was brought almost to a halt by the trained Secret Service driver, an unlikely response if the shots had indeed come from behind. Certainly Mr. Roy Kellerman, who was in charge of the Secret Service operation in Dallas that day, and traveled in the presidential car, looked to the front as the shots were fired. The Secret Service has had all the evidence removed from the car, so it is no longer possible to examine it. What is the evidence to substantiate the allegation that the President was shot from behind?
10: Withholding Photographs
Photographs taken at the scene of the crime could be most helpful. One young lady standing just to the left of the presidential car as the shots were fired took photographs of the vehicle just before and during the shooting, and was thus able to get into her picture the entire front of the book depository building. Two F.B.I. agents immediately took the film which she took. Why has the F.B.I. refused to publish what could be the most reliable piece of evidence in the whole case?
11: Fraudulent Evidence
In this connection it is noteworthy also that it is impossible to obtain the originals of photographs bearing upon the case. When Time magazine published a photograph of Oswald’s arrest —the only one ever seen — the entire background was blacked out for reasons which have never been explained. It is difficult to recall an occasion for so much falsification of photographs as has happened in the Oswald case.
The affidavit by Police Office Weitzman, who entered the book depository building, stated that he found the alleged murder rifle on the sixth floor. (It was first announced that the rifle had been found on the fifth floor, but this was soon altered.) It was a German 7.65 mm. Mauser. Late the following day, the F.B.I. issued its first proclamation. Oswald had purchased in March 1963 an Italian 6.5 mm. Mannlicher–Carcano. D.A. Wade immediately altered the nationality and size of the weapon to conform to the F.B.I. statement.
Several photographs have been published of the alleged murder weapon. On February 21, Life magazine carried on its cover a picture of “Lee Oswald with the weapons he used to kill President Kennedy and Officer Tippitt [sic].” On page 80, Life explained that the photograph was taken during March or April of 1963. According to the F.B.I., Oswald purchased his pistol in September 1963. The New York Times carried a picture of the alleged murder weapon being taken by police into the Dallas police station. The rifle is quite different. Experts have stated that no rifle resembling the one in the Life picture has even been manufactured. The New York Times also carried the same photograph as Life, but left out the telescopic sights. On March 2, Newsweek used the same photograph but painted in an entirely new rifle. Then on April 13 the Latin American edition of Life carried the same picture on its cover as the U.S. edition had on February 21, but in the same issue on page 18 it had the same picture with the rifle altered. How is it that millions of people have been misled by complete forgeries in the press?
The authorities interrogated Oswald for nearly 48 hours without allowing him to contact a lawyer, despite his repeated requests to do so. The director of the F.B.I. in Dallas was a man with considerable experience. American Civil Liberties Union lawyers were in Dallas requesting to see Oswald and were not allowed to do so. By interrogating Oswald for 48 hours without access to lawyers, the F.B.I. created conditions which made a trial of Oswald more difficult. A confession or evidence obtained from a man held 48 hours in custody is likely to be inadmissible in a U.S. court of law. The F.B.I. director conducted his interrogation in a manner which made the use of material secured in such a fashion worthless to him. This raises the question of whether he expected the trial to take place.
Another falsehood concerning the shooting was a story circulated by the Associated Press on November 23 from Los Angeles. This reported Oswald’s former superior officer in the Marine Corps as saying that Oswald was a crack shot and a hot–head. The story was published widely. Three hours later AP sent out a correction deleting the entire story from Los Angeles. The officer had checked his records and it had turned out that he was talking about another man. He had never known Oswald. To my knowledge the correction has yet to be published by a single major publication.
12: Distorting the Scientific Evidence
The Dallas police took a paraffin test on Oswald’s face and hands to try to establish that he had fired a weapon on November 22. The Chief of the Dallas Police, Jesse Curry, announced on November 23 that the result of the test “proves Oswald is the assassin.” The Director of the F.B.I. in the Dallas–Fort Worth area in charge of the investigation stated: “I have seen the paraffin test. The paraffin test proves that Oswald had nitrates and gunpowder on his hands and face. It proves he fired a rifle on November 22.” Not only does this unreliable test not prove any such thing, it was later discovered that the test on Oswald’s face was in fact negative, suggesting that it was unlikely he fired a rifle that day. Why was the result of the paraffin test altered before being announced by the authorities?
13: Description of Tippit’s Killer
Oswald, it will be recalled, was originally arrested and charged with the murder of Patrolman Tippitt. Tippitt was killed at 1:06 p.m. on November 22 by a man who first engaged him in conversation, then caused him to get out of the stationary police car in which he was sitting and shot him with a pistol. Miss Helen L. Markham, who states that she is the sole eye–witness to this crime, gave the Dallas police a description of the assailant. After signing her affidavit, she was instructed by the F.B.I., the Secret Service and many police officers that she was not permitted to discuss the case with anyone. The affidavit’s only description of the killer was that he was a “young white man.” Miss Markham later revealed that the killer had run right up to her and past her, brandishing the pistol, and she repeated the description of the murderer which she had given to the police. He was, she said, “short, a little heavy, and had somewhat bushy hair.” (The police description of Oswald was that he was of average height, or a little taller, was slim and had receding fair hair.) Miss Markham’s affidavit is the entire case against Oswald for the murder of Patrolman Tippitt, yet District Attorney Wade asserted: “We have more evidence to prove Oswald killed Tippit than we have to show he killed the President.” The case against Oswald for the murder of Tippitt, he continued, was an absolutely strong case. Why was the only description of Tippitt’s killer deliberately omitted by the police from the affidavit of the sole eye–witness?
14: Timing of the Police Broadcast
Oswald’s description was broadcast by the Dallas police only 12 minutes after the President was shot. This raises one of the most extraordinary questions ever posed in a murder case: Why was Oswald’s description in connection with the murder of Patrolman Tippitt broadcast over Dallas police radio at 12:43 p.m. on November 22, when Tippitt was not shot until 1:06 p.m.?
15: Treatment of Witnesses
According to Mr. Bob Considine, writing in the New York Journal American, there had been another person who had heard the shots that were fired at Tippitt. Warren Reynolds had heard shooting in the street from a nearby room and had rushed to the window to see the murderer run off. Reynolds himself was later shot through the head by a rifleman. A man was arrested for this crime but produced an alibi. His girl–friend, Betty Mooney McDonald, told the police she had been with him at the time Reynolds was shot, according to Mr. Considine. The Dallas police immediately dropped the charges, even before Reynolds had time to recover consciousness, and attempt to identify his assailant. The man at once disappeared, and two days later the police arrested Betty Mooney McDonald on a minor charge and it was announced that she had hanged herself in the police cell. She had been a striptease artist in Jack Ruby’s nightclub, according to Mr. Considine.
Another witness to receive extraordinary treatment in the Oswald case was his wife, Marina. She was taken to the jail while her husband was still alive and shown a rifle by Chief of Police Jesse Curry. Asked if it were Oswald’s, she replied that she believed Oswald had a rifle but that it didn’t look like that. She and her mother–in–law were in great danger following the assassination because of the threat of public revenge on them. At this time they were unable to obtain a single police officer to protect them. Immediately after Oswald was killed, however, the Secret service illegally held both women against their will. After three days they were separated and Marina has never again been accessible to the public. Held in custody for nine weeks and questioned almost daily by the F.B.I. and Secret Service, she finally testified to the Warren Commission and, according to Earl Warren, said that she believed her husband was the assassin. The Chief Justice added that the next day they intended to show Mrs. Oswald the murder weapon and the Commission was fairly confident that she would identify it as her husband’s. The following day it was announced that this had indeed happened. Mrs. Oswald, we are informed, is still in the custody of the Secret Service. To isolate a witness for nine weeks and to subject her to repeated questioning by the Secret Service in this manner is reminiscent of police behavior in other countries, where it is called brainwashing. The only witness produced to show that Oswald carried a rifle before the assassination stated that he saw a brown paper parcel about two feet long in the back seat of Oswald’s car. The rifle which the police “produced” was almost 3½ feet long. How was it possible for Earl Warren to forecast that Marina Oswald’s evidence would be exactly the reverse of what she had previously testified?
16: Altering the Evidence
After Ruby had killed Oswald, D.A. Wade made a statement about Oswald’s movements following the assassination. He explained that Oswald had taken a bus, but he described the point at which Oswald had entered the vehicle as seven blocks away from the point located by the bus driver in his affidavit. Oswald, Wade continued, then took a taxi driven by a Daryll Click, who had signed an affidavit. An inquiry at the City Transportation Company revealed that no such taxi driver had ever existed in Dallas. Presented with this evidence, Wade altered the driver’s name to William Whaley. The driver’s log book showed that a man answering Oswald’s description had been picked up at 12:30. The President was shot at 12:31. D.A. Wade made no mention of this. Wade has been D.A. in Dallas for 14 years and before that was an F.B.I. agent. How does a District Attorney of Wade’s great experience account for all the extraordinary changes in evidence and testimony which he has announced during the Oswald case?
These are only a few of the questions raised by the official versions of the assassination and by the way in which the entire case against Oswald has been conducted. Sixteen questions are no substitute for a full examination of all the factors in this case, but I hope that they indicate the importance of such an investigation. I am indebted to Mr. Mark Lane, the New York criminal lawyer who was appointed counsel for Oswald by his mother, for much of the information in this article. Mr. Lane’s enquiries, which are continuing, deserve widespread support. A Citizen’s Committee of Inquiry has been established in New York, at Room 422, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York. N.Y. (telephone YU9-6850) for such a purpose, and comparable committees are being set up in Europe.
The official version of the assassination of President Kennedy has been so riddled with contradictions that it is been abandoned and rewritten no less than three times. Blatant fabrications have received very widespread coverage by the mass media, but denials of these same lies have gone unpublished. Photographs, evidence and affidavits have been doctored out of recognition. Some of the most important aspects of the case against Lee Harvey Oswald have been completely blacked out. Meanwhile, the F.B.I., the police and the Secret Service have tried to silence key witnesses or instruct them what evidence to give. Others involved have disappeared or died in extraordinary circumstances.
It is facts such as these that demand attention, and which the Warren Commission should have regarded as vital. Although I am writing before the publication of the Warren Commission’s report, leaks to the press have made much of its contents predictable. Because of the high office of its members and the fact of its establishment by President Johnson, the Commission has been widely regarded as a body of holy men appointed to pronounce the truth. An impartial examination of the composition and conduct of the Commission suggests quite otherwise.
1: Membership of the Warren Commission
The Warren Commission has been utterly unrepresentative of the American people. It consisted of:
- two Democrats, Senator Russell of Georgia and Congressman Boggs of Louisiana, both of whose racist views have brought shame on the United States;
- two Republicans, Senator Cooper of Kentucky and Congressman Gerald R. Ford of Michigan, the latter of whom is a leader of his local Goldwater movement and an associate of the F.B.I.;
- Allen Dulles, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency,
- and Mr. McCloy, who has been referred to as the spokesman for the business community.
2 and 3: Conduct and Official Secrecy
If the composition of the Commission was suspect, its conduct confirmed one’s worst fears. No counsel was permitted to act for Oswald, so that cross–examination was barred. Later, under pressure, the Commission appointed the President of the American Bar Association, Walter Craig, one of the supporters of the Goldwater movement in Arizona, to represent Oswald. To my knowledge, he did not attend hearings, but satisfied himself with representation by observers.
In the name of national security, the Commission’s hearings were held in secret, thereby continuing the policy which has marked the entire course of the case. This prompts my second question: If, as we are told, Oswald was the lone assassin, where is the issue of national security? Indeed, precisely the same question must be put here as was posed in France during the Dreyfus case: If the Government is so certain of its case, why has it conducted all its inquiries in the strictest secrecy?
4: The Crucial Question Was Not Asked
At the outset the Commission appointed six panels through which it would conduct its inquiry. They considered:
- What did Oswald do on November 22, 1963?
- What was Oswald’s background?
- What did Oswald do in the U.S. Marine Corps, and in the Soviet Union?
- How did Ruby kill Oswald?
- What is Ruby’s background?
- What efforts were taken to protect the President on November 22?
5: Challenging the Commission
All the evidence given to the Commission has been classified “Top Secret,” including even a request that hearings be held in public. Despite this the Commission itself leaked much of the evidence to the press, though only if the evidence tended to prove Oswald the lone assassin. Thus, Chief Justice Warren held a press conference after Oswald’s wife, Marina, had testified. He said that she believed her husband was the assassin. Before Oswald’s brother Robert testified, he gained the Commission’s agreement not to comment on what he said. After he had testified for two days, the newspapers were full of stories that “a member of the Commission” had told the press that Robert Oswald had just testified that he believed that his brother was an agent of the Soviet Union. Robert Oswald was outraged by this, and he said that he could not remain silent while lies were told about his testimony. He had never said this and he had never believed it. All that he had told the Commission was that he believed his brother was innocent and was in no way involved in the assassination.
The methods adopted by the Commission have indeed been deplorable, but it is important to challenge the entire role of the Warren Commission. It stated that it would not conduct its own investigation, but rely instead on the existing governmental agencies — the F.B.I., the Secret Service and the Dallas police. Confidence in the Warren Commission thus presupposes confidence in these three institutions. Why have so many liberals abandoned their own responsibility to a Commission whose circumstances they refuse to examine?
6: Oswald the Subversive
It is known that the strictest and most elaborate security precautions ever taken for a President of the United States were ordered for November 22 in Dallas. The city had a reputation for violence and was the home of some of the most extreme right–wing fanatics in America. Mr. and Mrs. Lyndon Johnson had been assailed there in 1960 when he was a candidate for the Vice–Presidency. Adlai Stevenson had been physically attacked when he spoke in the city only a month before Kennedy’s visit. On the morning of November 22, the Dallas Morning News carried a full–page advertisement associating the President with Communism. The city was covered with posters showing the President’s picture and headed “Wanted for Treason.” The Dallas list of subversives comprised 23 names, of which Oswald’s was the first. All of them were followed that day, except Oswald. Why did the authorities follow many persons as potential assassins and fail to observe Oswald’s entry into the book depository building while allegedly carrying a rifle over three feet long?
7: The Route of the Motorcade
The President’s route for his drive through Dallas was widely known and was printed in the Dallas Morning News on November 22. At the last minute the Secret Service changed a small part of their plans so that the President left Main Street and turned into Houston and Elm Streets. This alteration took the President past the book depository building from which it is alleged that Oswald shot him. How Oswald is supposed to have known of this change has never been explained. Why was the President’s route changed at the last minute to take him past Oswald’s place of work?
8: Changing the Evidence
After the assassination and Oswald’s arrest, judgment was pronounced swiftly: Oswald was the assassin, and he had acted alone. No attempt was made to arrest others, no road blocks were set up round the area, and every piece of evidence which tended to incriminate Oswald was announced to the press by the Dallas District Attorney, Mr. Wade. In such a way millions of people were prejudiced against Oswald before there was any opportunity for him to be brought to trial. The first theory announced by the authorities was that the President’s car was in Houston Street, approaching the book depository building, when Oswald opened fire. When available photographs and eyewitnesses had shown this to be quite untrue, the theory was abandoned and a new one formulated which placed the vehicle in its correct position. Meanwhile, however, D.A. Wade had announced that three days after Oswald’s room in Dallas had been searched, a map had been found there on which the book depository building had been circled and dotted lines drawn from the building to a vehicle on Houston Street, showing the alleged bullet trajectory had been planned in advance. After the first theory was proved false, the Associated Press put out the following story on November 27: “Dallas authorities announced today that there never was a map.”
The second theory correctly placed the President’s car on Elm Street, 50 to 75 yards past the book depository, but had to contend with the difficulty that the President was shot from the front, in the throat. How did Oswald manage to shoot the President in the front from behind? The F.B.I. held a series of background briefing sessions for Life magazine, which in its issue of December 6 explained that the President had turned completely round just at the time he was shot. This too, was soon shown to be entirely false. It was denied by several witnesses and films, and the previous issue of Life itself had shown the President looking forward as he was hit. Theory number two was abandoned.
In order to retain the basis of all official thinking, that Oswald was the lone assassin, it now became necessary to construct a third theory with the medical evidence altered to fit it. For the first month no Secret Service agent had ever spoken to the three doctors who had tried to save Kennedy’s life in the Parkland Memorial Hospital. Now two agents spent three hours with the doctors and persuaded them that they were all misinformed: the entrance wound in the President’s throat had been an exit wound, and the bullet had not ranged down towards the lungs. Asked by the press how they could have been so mistaken, Dr. McClelland advanced two reasons:
- they had not seen the autopsy report
- and they had not known that Oswald was behind the President!
9: Shots From the Front and Behind
Although Oswald is alleged to have shot the President from behind, there are many witnesses who are confident that the shots came from the front. Among them are two reporters from the Forth Worth Star Telegram, four from the Dallas Morning News, and two people who were standing in front of the book depository building itself, the director of the book depository and the vice–president of the firm. It appears that only two people immediately entered the building: the director, Mr. Roy S. Truly, and a Dallas police officer, Seymour Weitzman. Both thought that the shots had come from in front of the President’s vehicle. On first running in that direction, Weitzman was informed by “someone” that he thought the shots had come from the building, so he rushed back there. Truly entered with him in order to assist with his knowledge of the building. Mr. Jesse Curry, the Chief of Police in Dallas, has stated that he was immediately convinced that the shots came from the building. If anyone else believes this, he has been reluctant to say so to date. It is also known that the first bulletin to go out on Dallas police radios stated that “the shots came from a triple overpass in front of the presidential automobile.” In addition, there is the consideration that after the first shot the vehicle was brought almost to a halt by the trained Secret Service driver, an unlikely response if the shots had indeed come from behind. Certainly Mr. Roy Kellerman, who was in charge of the Secret Service operation in Dallas that day, and traveled in the presidential car, looked to the front as the shots were fired. The Secret Service has had all the evidence removed from the car, so it is no longer possible to examine it. What is the evidence to substantiate the allegation that the President was shot from behind?
10: Withholding Photographs
Photographs taken at the scene of the crime could be most helpful. One young lady standing just to the left of the presidential car as the shots were fired took photographs of the vehicle just before and during the shooting, and was thus able to get into her picture the entire front of the book depository building. Two F.B.I. agents immediately took the film which she took. Why has the F.B.I. refused to publish what could be the most reliable piece of evidence in the whole case?
11: Fraudulent Evidence
In this connection it is noteworthy also that it is impossible to obtain the originals of photographs bearing upon the case. When Time magazine published a photograph of Oswald’s arrest —the only one ever seen — the entire background was blacked out for reasons which have never been explained. It is difficult to recall an occasion for so much falsification of photographs as has happened in the Oswald case.
The affidavit by Police Office Weitzman, who entered the book depository building, stated that he found the alleged murder rifle on the sixth floor. (It was first announced that the rifle had been found on the fifth floor, but this was soon altered.) It was a German 7.65 mm. Mauser. Late the following day, the F.B.I. issued its first proclamation. Oswald had purchased in March 1963 an Italian 6.5 mm. Mannlicher–Carcano. D.A. Wade immediately altered the nationality and size of the weapon to conform to the F.B.I. statement.
Several photographs have been published of the alleged murder weapon. On February 21, Life magazine carried on its cover a picture of “Lee Oswald with the weapons he used to kill President Kennedy and Officer Tippitt [sic].” On page 80, Life explained that the photograph was taken during March or April of 1963. According to the F.B.I., Oswald purchased his pistol in September 1963. The New York Times carried a picture of the alleged murder weapon being taken by police into the Dallas police station. The rifle is quite different. Experts have stated that no rifle resembling the one in the Life picture has even been manufactured. The New York Times also carried the same photograph as Life, but left out the telescopic sights. On March 2, Newsweek used the same photograph but painted in an entirely new rifle. Then on April 13 the Latin American edition of Life carried the same picture on its cover as the U.S. edition had on February 21, but in the same issue on page 18 it had the same picture with the rifle altered. How is it that millions of people have been misled by complete forgeries in the press?
The authorities interrogated Oswald for nearly 48 hours without allowing him to contact a lawyer, despite his repeated requests to do so. The director of the F.B.I. in Dallas was a man with considerable experience. American Civil Liberties Union lawyers were in Dallas requesting to see Oswald and were not allowed to do so. By interrogating Oswald for 48 hours without access to lawyers, the F.B.I. created conditions which made a trial of Oswald more difficult. A confession or evidence obtained from a man held 48 hours in custody is likely to be inadmissible in a U.S. court of law. The F.B.I. director conducted his interrogation in a manner which made the use of material secured in such a fashion worthless to him. This raises the question of whether he expected the trial to take place.
Another falsehood concerning the shooting was a story circulated by the Associated Press on November 23 from Los Angeles. This reported Oswald’s former superior officer in the Marine Corps as saying that Oswald was a crack shot and a hot–head. The story was published widely. Three hours later AP sent out a correction deleting the entire story from Los Angeles. The officer had checked his records and it had turned out that he was talking about another man. He had never known Oswald. To my knowledge the correction has yet to be published by a single major publication.
12: Distorting the Scientific Evidence
The Dallas police took a paraffin test on Oswald’s face and hands to try to establish that he had fired a weapon on November 22. The Chief of the Dallas Police, Jesse Curry, announced on November 23 that the result of the test “proves Oswald is the assassin.” The Director of the F.B.I. in the Dallas–Fort Worth area in charge of the investigation stated: “I have seen the paraffin test. The paraffin test proves that Oswald had nitrates and gunpowder on his hands and face. It proves he fired a rifle on November 22.” Not only does this unreliable test not prove any such thing, it was later discovered that the test on Oswald’s face was in fact negative, suggesting that it was unlikely he fired a rifle that day. Why was the result of the paraffin test altered before being announced by the authorities?
13: Description of Tippit’s Killer
Oswald, it will be recalled, was originally arrested and charged with the murder of Patrolman Tippitt. Tippitt was killed at 1:06 p.m. on November 22 by a man who first engaged him in conversation, then caused him to get out of the stationary police car in which he was sitting and shot him with a pistol. Miss Helen L. Markham, who states that she is the sole eye–witness to this crime, gave the Dallas police a description of the assailant. After signing her affidavit, she was instructed by the F.B.I., the Secret Service and many police officers that she was not permitted to discuss the case with anyone. The affidavit’s only description of the killer was that he was a “young white man.” Miss Markham later revealed that the killer had run right up to her and past her, brandishing the pistol, and she repeated the description of the murderer which she had given to the police. He was, she said, “short, a little heavy, and had somewhat bushy hair.” (The police description of Oswald was that he was of average height, or a little taller, was slim and had receding fair hair.) Miss Markham’s affidavit is the entire case against Oswald for the murder of Patrolman Tippitt, yet District Attorney Wade asserted: “We have more evidence to prove Oswald killed Tippit than we have to show he killed the President.” The case against Oswald for the murder of Tippitt, he continued, was an absolutely strong case. Why was the only description of Tippitt’s killer deliberately omitted by the police from the affidavit of the sole eye–witness?
14: Timing of the Police Broadcast
Oswald’s description was broadcast by the Dallas police only 12 minutes after the President was shot. This raises one of the most extraordinary questions ever posed in a murder case: Why was Oswald’s description in connection with the murder of Patrolman Tippitt broadcast over Dallas police radio at 12:43 p.m. on November 22, when Tippitt was not shot until 1:06 p.m.?
15: Treatment of Witnesses
According to Mr. Bob Considine, writing in the New York Journal American, there had been another person who had heard the shots that were fired at Tippitt. Warren Reynolds had heard shooting in the street from a nearby room and had rushed to the window to see the murderer run off. Reynolds himself was later shot through the head by a rifleman. A man was arrested for this crime but produced an alibi. His girl–friend, Betty Mooney McDonald, told the police she had been with him at the time Reynolds was shot, according to Mr. Considine. The Dallas police immediately dropped the charges, even before Reynolds had time to recover consciousness, and attempt to identify his assailant. The man at once disappeared, and two days later the police arrested Betty Mooney McDonald on a minor charge and it was announced that she had hanged herself in the police cell. She had been a striptease artist in Jack Ruby’s nightclub, according to Mr. Considine.
Another witness to receive extraordinary treatment in the Oswald case was his wife, Marina. She was taken to the jail while her husband was still alive and shown a rifle by Chief of Police Jesse Curry. Asked if it were Oswald’s, she replied that she believed Oswald had a rifle but that it didn’t look like that. She and her mother–in–law were in great danger following the assassination because of the threat of public revenge on them. At this time they were unable to obtain a single police officer to protect them. Immediately after Oswald was killed, however, the Secret service illegally held both women against their will. After three days they were separated and Marina has never again been accessible to the public. Held in custody for nine weeks and questioned almost daily by the F.B.I. and Secret Service, she finally testified to the Warren Commission and, according to Earl Warren, said that she believed her husband was the assassin. The Chief Justice added that the next day they intended to show Mrs. Oswald the murder weapon and the Commission was fairly confident that she would identify it as her husband’s. The following day it was announced that this had indeed happened. Mrs. Oswald, we are informed, is still in the custody of the Secret Service. To isolate a witness for nine weeks and to subject her to repeated questioning by the Secret Service in this manner is reminiscent of police behavior in other countries, where it is called brainwashing. The only witness produced to show that Oswald carried a rifle before the assassination stated that he saw a brown paper parcel about two feet long in the back seat of Oswald’s car. The rifle which the police “produced” was almost 3½ feet long. How was it possible for Earl Warren to forecast that Marina Oswald’s evidence would be exactly the reverse of what she had previously testified?
16: Altering the Evidence
After Ruby had killed Oswald, D.A. Wade made a statement about Oswald’s movements following the assassination. He explained that Oswald had taken a bus, but he described the point at which Oswald had entered the vehicle as seven blocks away from the point located by the bus driver in his affidavit. Oswald, Wade continued, then took a taxi driven by a Daryll Click, who had signed an affidavit. An inquiry at the City Transportation Company revealed that no such taxi driver had ever existed in Dallas. Presented with this evidence, Wade altered the driver’s name to William Whaley. The driver’s log book showed that a man answering Oswald’s description had been picked up at 12:30. The President was shot at 12:31. D.A. Wade made no mention of this. Wade has been D.A. in Dallas for 14 years and before that was an F.B.I. agent. How does a District Attorney of Wade’s great experience account for all the extraordinary changes in evidence and testimony which he has announced during the Oswald case?
These are only a few of the questions raised by the official versions of the assassination and by the way in which the entire case against Oswald has been conducted. Sixteen questions are no substitute for a full examination of all the factors in this case, but I hope that they indicate the importance of such an investigation. I am indebted to Mr. Mark Lane, the New York criminal lawyer who was appointed counsel for Oswald by his mother, for much of the information in this article. Mr. Lane’s enquiries, which are continuing, deserve widespread support. A Citizen’s Committee of Inquiry has been established in New York, at Room 422, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York. N.Y. (telephone YU9-6850) for such a purpose, and comparable committees are being set up in Europe.